BXBX NOVEL Chapter 174 Investiment
"Your friend completely disappeared from my radar… he is quite skilled," Nuvian said while they were watching the enemy\'s camp and confirmed that nothing had changed with their actions.
While he was waiting for Ian to return with the confirmation of the location of the portal, Ethan decided to check his skills… while his cloak would help with the weather, it wouldn\'t help him against direct elemental attacks. So, he decided to work with that.
Name: Ethan
Class: Omni Hero/ ????
Level: 90 (50.000 /1.9M)
Health: 1275 + 1590
Mana: 325 + 1050
Stamina: 700 + 2440
STR: 185
MAG: 60
PHY: 20
END: 50 + 21
RES: 05
SPE: 135
DEX: 05
EVA: 05 + 13
ACC: 05 + 5
Coins: 535.500
Status Points: 00
Skill Points: 00
Skill List
Physical:
Magic: Meditation Lv 25, Water Ball Lv 04, Mana Tracking Lv 31(+ 03 UP), Neutral Enchantment Lv 16, Synthesize Lv 18 (+ 04 UP), Ice Spear Lv 39(+ 09 UP), Ice Hand Lv 23, Ice Arrow Lv 33 (+ 05 UP), Aqua Blade Lv 04, Wind Arrow Lv 04,
Passive: Cold Resistance Lv 36(+ 16 UP), Wind Resistance Lv 22 (+ 08 UP), Earth Resistance Lv 19(+ 04 UP), Heat Resistance Lv 36 (+ 11 UP), Frenzy Lv 40, Axemanship Lv 02, Acid Resistance Lv 18(+ 05 UP), Pain Resistance Lv 48, Impact Resistance Lv 25, Eagle Eye Lv 25, Thunder Resistance Lv 18, Shock Resistance Lv 29(+ 04 UP), Freezing Resistance Lv 47(+16 UP),
After improving his Cold Resistance and Freezing Resistance with some skill points, Ethan also took out his cloak. He used some ice magic against his body. The others couldn\'t help but look at him with eyes filled with suspicion… self-harm wasn\'t one of the best ways to improve their skills, but Ethan was doing that like it was his second nature. In any case, that was just a straightforward countermeasure… Ethan had something else in case things got too nasty.
Ian was someone who worked fast, but he took his time returning… one hour had already passed when he suddenly appeared in the middle of the group with his arms crossed.
"It is there, but the portal is being guarded by one hundred soldiers that were a cut above the others," Ian declared. "They made me recall the generals that were leading the armies… their strength is probably on the high end of the B rank."
"They are being more careful than I suspected… B rank power level is also pretty troublesome," Nuvian scratched his chin thoughtfully while looking at Hana and Kei.
From his perspective, Nuvian imagined that those two were on the same level, while Ethan, Emily, and Ian were of rank C. Even if they had some tricks that could increase their potential, those wouldn\'t be of much help against one hundred enemies.
"Don\'t worry too much about it; if it is just to buy time, I can deal with those guys," Ethan declared. "No need to come up with a fancy plan either. If Emily watches my back while I fight, it will be enough to buy the time that you need to destroy the portal, right?"
"... If they are using a relic to keep the portal open, I will need at least five minutes to get rid of everything; that should delay their plans for months," Nuvian said after a short moment of silence.
"I take it that you won\'t have the chance to do anything else, so Ian, Hana, and Kei will cover for you," Ethan added. "The only issue is what will happen afterward… we will be surrounded afterward, and you will need some extra time to make us return, right?"
"I can help with that, with my trick," Emily said. "Helping you with some potions will be easy, and I will use that time to prepare for it."
Hana and Kei didn\'t know what Ethan and Emily could do fully, so they didn\'t feel that confident in the plan. Nuvian felt the same way, but their confidence didn\'t seem unfounded. Nevertheless, suppose the worst comes to the worst. In that case, Nuvian will have to teleport everyone back home with a few enemies alongside them. Still, it was better than letting that clandestine mission end in an absolute failure.
"We still will need a diversion to reach the cave, and starting to punch out way out of this won\'t be a good start," Kei declared. "I can use shadows for that, but they will be more effective if we wait until sunset."
It was one hour past noon, so they would have to wait a couple of hours. Moreover, once they do that, they will only have six hours left before the real start of the battle on Earth… they have to reach their goal and make the invaders hesitate in order to avoid thousands of deaths.
"We should rest a bit, we didn\'t stop moving a single hour, and the weather conditions are affecting everyone," Ethan said while looking at Nuvian.
"Right, we need to be in tip-top condition for when the fight starts," Nuvian said while looking at everyone. "This isn\'t much, but this will do."
Nuvian clapped his hands, and then he began to control the snow and the earth around to create a shelter behind some trees. Thanks to the snow covering the shelter, the hideout was basically perfect. Things only got better once Ethan took some sheets, beds, and other things from his inventory… they couldn\'t relax that much. Still, they needed to let the tension dissipate as well.
Although Ethan had a bed for himself as well, and the beds were naturally warm since they were magic items that improved the effects of Rest by fifty percent, he didn\'t lay down to rest. He didn\'t use the sheets either, so he endured the cold for five hours. That had been easy, thanks to his ability to control his emotions…
Still, Ethan decided to take a one-hour short nap to relax his body a bit. That one hour did wonders for him, and he basically jumped from the bed while stretching his body and feeling full of energy.
"It is quite cloudy tonight, so we will have the chance to invade the cave with relative ease… However, I won\'t be able to do anything since I will control twenty shadows," Kei declared. "After that, I will need at least one hour of rest before using them again."
"We will cover for you," Hana said while slapping Kei back.
"You will be able to fight without the shadows, right?" Ethan asked. "After that, like I said, you should focus on protecting Nuvian."
Kei nodded. In fact, Ethan wasn\'t going to let the enemies attack the others. They won\'t have any chance to worry about him since he will let loose… for a change, he was willing to go all out like he did in the past, even if it will cause problems in the long run.
"I didn\'t want to rely on that without making any progress on my other training, but it can\'t be helped," Ethan thought while he was storing his items away. "I can\'t have my cake and eat it as well… the enemies of Earth are becoming more active, and I am not recovering my strength as fast as I had planned… probably because I am improving my magic skills as well."
That wasn\'t a bad thing per se, but Ethan\'s magic skills were far from being top-notch as he was now… so he had to make his choice. The group went to observe the enemy\'s camp for a while longer. It confirmed that even at night, they kept moving and heading to the cave… the distraction would have to be really effective to create the opening that they wanted.
After thinking for a while, Ethan decided to spend some more coins and buy several sets of armor and weapons for the shadows. That would make the enemies think that they were different types of people instead of just clones.
"You can control them with different types of weapons, right?" Ethan asked.
"Yes, no problem… I won\'t have the chance to bring them back to you, though," Kei said while frowning since he had never thought of arming his shadows.
"It is just a small investment," Ethan shrugged. "Anyway, put them in position as fast as you can."
Kei nodded and made his clones move to the eastern side of the mountains. They moved as fast as the wind, even though they didn\'t make any sound. It took him half an hour for them to enter their positions; despite that, it was quite something that he could control them for so far away… when that happened, Kei looked at everyone and nodded.
"We won\'t be able to slow down and regroup if something happens, so we need to stick together no matter what until the end of the mission," Nuvian declared. "I know that the situation is a lot more complicated than any of us could have imagined, but don\'t try too hard… we will pull this off without causing more problems."