Chapter 428 - A Damsel Not In Distress (Anymore)
Before thinking about other things, Theo used his clone to turn the monsters into cards while asking Ava to make sure no monsters approached them again.
After that, he began to recall what happened during the fight. "Ten to twenty levels won't bring that much difference, so the quantity indeed made the battle far harder than I expected.
"Ava helped me this time, making the whole workload easier. If I were with my clone… I could probably fight eight of them at the same time." Theo still remembered that he was once chased by fourteen people at once. "Now that I think about it, I was lucky that Daemon Group killed them.
"Unlike monsters, they could employ strategy one after another, making the situation hard for him. Of course, I couldn't expect my enemies to have a dumb leader all the time. In other words, I should be able to fight four of them without a clone and other assistance.
"If my enemies were more than that, I should avoid getting surrounded and start exhausting them first before engaging them…" Theo's expression turned serious. "Luckily, I learned all this when fighting these monsters, not those who almost assassinated me.
"And the future will surely become harder… After all, the enemies, whether they were humans or monsters, will become even stronger. They also have more experiences under their belts, making their movement refined.
"Of course, I am not planning to slack off, but my advantage will gradually become less and less. The only way to widen the gap is through the Five Aspects. God of Mischief has created a foundation for my Control to get all the help from Awareness, Breathing, Technique, and Endurance.
"I really need to speed up my training, so I can start learning Awareness." Theo thought for a moment. "Then, should I go to Italy? I can't really decide, considering I may be able to do something better with Breathing, Technique, or Endurance."
After thinking for a moment, Theo just shrugged while saying, "I will make the decision when I face it, I guess."
Theo soon lowered his head, finding Ava looking at him with an apologetic expression.
Her rabbit ears were lowered as she tried to glance at Theo but kept turning back to the ground.
"Kyu…" Ava wanted to apologize to Theo.
However, Theo soon bent down his knees and extended his hand for Ava to come up.
Ava was a little hesitant but still hopped onto his palm. She heard Theo saying, "I'm not blaming you."
Listening to his words, Ava couldn't help but raise her head, staring at him in disbelief.
"Haha, mistakes can happen. Even I can't escape from making mistakes." Theo smiled and continued, "All we can do is to learn from it. That's why I'm actually thankful to you. The mistake you made earlier gave me something far more important."
"Kyu?!" Ava still couldn't believe it, but Theo didn't seem to be lying.
"Yep. I will tell you what I realized earlier after taking a bath." Theo pointed at the sky. "It's going to be dark soon. And these wolves live near the river… We can go there to wash our bodies before camping near the river. Of course, I will be counting on you to locate any wolves around there."
"Kyu!" She nodded furiously, not wanting to mess up again.
The two then headed to the river, which turned out to be a mile away from them.
After making sure there were no monsters in the surrounding area, Theo put down his luggage and took off his clothes, wearing only his trunk. He started cleaning the dirt on his clothes while Ava jumped into the water.
"Ava! Check whether there is a monster or not in the river!" Theo shouted while washing the mud off his clothes.
"Kyu!" Ava came out of the water, raised her hand as if acknowledging his order, and submerged again.
Theo shook his head helplessly and finished washing his clothes. After that, he hung them near the tree, where he put his bag down before dipping into the water.
It was a few minutes of bliss as the cold water cooled down his mind.
However, Theo soon found himself in another problem when Ava suddenly picked up noises coming toward them.
"Kyu, Kyu!" Ava panicked for a second because of the speed of the incoming people. She recognized them not to be monsters from their footsteps and hurriedly warned Theo. "Kyu!"
Seeing Ava in such a panicked state, Theo asked one immediate question. "Their speed is slow?"
Ava shook her head instantly, prompting Theo that this was another emergency. After all, the sky was already this dark. The people were not supposed to advance with that kind of speed, so he understood something must be going on.
Because he didn't know what would happen, he saved his Blink first and returned to the surface with his Telekinesis, grabbing Ava on the way.
Ava kept urging him, so he at least wanted to grab his mask and a coat to cover his body from the chilling wind and hide his bag to avoid getting found out.
Unfortunately, before he managed to grab his bag and clothes, Theo saw a blue-haired woman running away from a group of twelve. He knew it wasn't possible for him to put on his clothes, so he used his Illusion to make others believe he was wearing something while utilizing the Metamorphosis to turn himself into a red-haired man.
The woman had many wounds on her body as her eyes quickly intertwined with Theo.
"Hel—" Before she even finished, an arrow pierced through her heart as she dropped to the ground because of the momentum.
Even so, she still raised her head and extended her hand as if asking for his help, albeit the group that chased her didn't let it slide.
They severed the woman's head as they looked at Theo, who had grabbed all his stuff.
"Ehm…" Theo obviously had no words to say. Never in his wildest dream would he witness a murder scene like this. Luckily, he had grabbed everything and used his Blink that he had kept until now. "I… didn't see anything, I guess."
Right after saying those words, Theo disappeared into the nearby woods with all his stuff.
