Chapter 69: Gamble

"Magic Bullet."

Ten Magic Bullets flew past Alea and Clone Theo as it hit all the monsters in its path.

Red fire rose from Alea's sword as she slashed them without hesitation, advancing through the forest.

"I can only kill five monsters before leveling up," Theo announced as he checked his status.

"Don't worry. There's not much of a distance left. If you see through the woods, you will be able to see a huge cliff. We only need to go around it and we will be safe." Alea shouted as she checked her own status. Her expression turned serious when she saw her level and EXP.

Theo nodded and followed her instruction. On his side, he found three monsters and used his Magic Bullets to hit some of them as he struck one to definitely kill it.

He then punched the second monster and sent it toward Alea, to which she killed without a problem and the third one was killed by the joint effort of him and his clone.

"Let's go!" Theo shouted as the path toward the cliff had been secured.

Alea nodded and killed the monsters near her before regrouping with Theo. "Be careful, there should be another group of monsters around the cliff because of this situation."

"I know." Theo nodded as Alea led him around the cliff.

When he saw that one-hundred-foot tall cliff still standing without any crack, there should be no problem of them staying underneath it. Besides, it was formed by a stronger stone than limestone, so the potential of a landslide was small.

"It's been ten minutes since the ground has stopped shaking."

"Yes. The aftershocks should have finished." Theo agreed with her before finding ten monsters next to the cliff, covering the cave entrance. "Should I level up right now?"

"Yes. Just kill them all. If you don't feel anything, that's good, but if you feel something, it means you need to hide in the cave. I can handle the rest of the monsters by myself."

"Understood." Theo nodded and said for the first time. "Be careful."

"Eh?" Alea widened her eyes as she stared at Theo with a dumbfounded expression. "What did you say? Let me hear it one more time. Louder."

Theo rolled his eyes. He only said it because Alea would be protecting his life in case something happened, so he thought he should say something nice to her from time to time as his thanks since he couldn't repay her kindness. "Shut up. Focus on the monsters."

"Come on, one more time please. I think I can release 120% of my power if I hear it one more time." Alea made a big smirk.

"I know that you are strong enough to win against them without that 120%." Theo shrugged and raised his spear. "Focused Charge."

The energy began to cover his spear as his clone emerged first to gather their attention.

Alea attacked them from a different direction and completely cut off seven of the monsters from Theo, allowing him to get the last three monsters which should be enough to fill the remaining EXP to level up.

Theo smiled and looked at the monsters. To put it simply, the three were a wolf and two orcs.

The first orc ran toward him only to be stopped by his clone.

Meanwhile, the second orc slammed its fist to Theo from above.

Theo leaped to the air to avoid it, letting the orc smash the ground instead. However, the wolf suddenly jumped to bite him.

Expecting something like this, Theo did a frontflip and hit the wolf with his spear's handle, using the energy from the Focused Charge to do this instead of killing it.

The wolf crashed to the orc, as the latter ended up falling down.

Theo summoned his Magic Bullet and suspended it in the air for two seconds.

The moment he landed not far away from them and took one more step to get away, the Magic Bullet rained the two monsters down, instantly killing them.

He then went around the other orc and stabbed its neck from behind.

"Pierce."

Seeing there was no notification that it died, Theo punched the orc's head, so it stumbled to the ground before his clone beheaded it.

[Killed an Orc (Elite)]

[EXP+98]

Name: Theodore Griffith

Status: Normal

Level: 50

EXP: 1110/1110

Blessing: God of Mischief

Skill: Pierce (F), Clone (E), Monkey Fist (F), Magic Bullet (E), Haste (E), Focused Charge (E), 4 Slots Remaining

Attributes: Strength 80, Endurance 37, Agility 47, Vitality 39, Magic Power 71

Free Attribute Points: 0

Suddenly, something struck his head from the inside as Theo couldn't help but scream in pain. "Aaaahhh!"

Theo clutched his head as pain filled his brain. Forcing his eyes to stay open, he gritted his teeth and leaped out of the way. "Kh. What's this?"

Due to the pain, the clone disappeared as he couldn't maintain it anymore, dropping both sword and shield.

"It seems you got the call. Hurry up and enter the cave. I will handle the rest. After killing them, the cave darkness should be enough to hide us," shouted Alea, knowing what Theo was experiencing.

Theo trusted her and entered the cave without hesitation. While in pain, he kept advancing until he met a dead-end one hundred feet away from the entrance. Just like she said, there shouldn't be a light that would give away their location in this place, so Theo sat down and finally closed his eyes.

However, their ordeal had yet to come to an end. They once felt it not long ago, and this time, another aftershock shook the ground again.

"Kh. How can this happen?" Alea stumbled on the ground, gritted her teeth as she slashed the last monster but could already foresee how many monsters actually would come out after this. "No, this was supposed to be the right choice since we need more than two hours to return to the training camp, so it's not possible with our current state. In that case…"

She crawled to where Clone Theo disappeared while maintaining her balance and grabbed the sword she lent to him earlier.

As soon as the aftershock stopped, she rose from the ground with a sword in each hand. The dark cloud had gathered around their area, ready to pour its rain.

"Haiz… If I were a normal person… I would have abandoned you already. After all, I don't have time to wash the blood smell away." Alea glanced at the cave with a small smile, feeling pretty pathetic. "I wonder if our situation is reversed, will you do the same for me… Theo?"

Roar.

Roar.

The roars filled her ears as she turned around and found many monsters coming out.

"Whatever the case, I shall gamble this life away."

Her expression turned serious as she smiled and jumped toward them, recalling what she saw earlier.

Name: Alea Eilric

Status: Elite

Level: 150

EXP: 29990/31171

Blessing: God of Fortitude