Emotional Control was a skill that combine very well with Rage and made someone get physically stronger at a fearsome level… It probably could make the skill also level up faster. Still, it was hard to imagine the user not getting exhausted from being angry.
With Transmutation, the user could turn everything into anything. It didn't even need a catalyst. The user could transform their mana into anything. It would just be a bit more costly.
With Avatar Creation, the user could use a medium to control that would have abilities similar to his. One could even use corpses or statues as an avatar… It was probably the closest thing Billy would find to a Shadow Clone.
Damage Control was a skill like no other. It somehow granted the user the chance to block damage and cause damage with mana alone. The only thing necessary for that was a single thought… Billy wondered how someone with the upgraded version of that skill could lose any battle. It didn't make any sense…
Limited Foresight was a pretty simple skill. It could do exactly that. It granted the user the power to see the future… but the user couldn't do anything aside from that while the skill was active. So, it was pretty risky to use it in battle.
Fear Manipulation was a pretty interesting one… the user could sense the fear in the people around him and use it to strengthen himself or to recover their own energy. It had a pretty good synergy with Billy's other skills. However, considering that he never did anything in the last few years to be feared, it wouldn't be that useful.
The best was saved for the last… Life Control was one heck of a skill. With that one, the user could control their health and even save it to create a state of over health, where they would have a reserve of the energy to heal themselves. It was like Billy's reserves of mana, but that one could give the user something like near immortality.
"How the heck someone can lose after having the chance to cultivate this skill for decades?" Billy asked. "Meryl said that the other reincarnated individuals died two years ago, so this guy should have two decades to cultivate their over health with an even better skill… was he high or something when he lost?"
Billy couldn't find any other explanation aside from that. He even thought about how the upgraded version of that skill would work. Nevertheless, he had to choose one of them and buy it. Although Life Control seemed to be the best, Billy was interested in the others… Speed Mode to enhance his speed and of the things that he wanted, it seemed nice. Truth to be told, from all the powers that he knew, Billy wanted Lucyna the most. Her ability would have a great synergy with his, but he wouldn't have the time to make it level up. It wasn't even a certain thing that it could evolve, after all.
In the end, Billy decided to learn Enhanced Thievery. He liked games with that kind of mechanic, so he thought that it would be fun to have that skill. In any case, the skill had some limitations, the level of the skill determined the value of the thing that he could steal and the chances of succeeding. So, he couldn't just try to kill a target using that skill at a low level… fortunately, he would have the chance to make that skill level up in two ways if he goes to the second dungeon since he could use some mana to steal the core of some monsters and kill them at the same time and recover even more mana.
"I should use the time before the attack to level it up as much as possible…" Billy thought.
As soon as he had the chance, Billy went to the dungeon to put the skill into action. The first few levels were easy to increase, so he focused on using it as much as possible instead of using his mana to make it level up. Since Billy brought Blitz with him and the stubborn bird went to fight by himself ahead of him, he was recovering more mana than usual. That gave Billy the idea to use his summoned monsters to recover even more mana… as long as they are in the same dungeon, Billy would get more mana, even if they are in different spots.
"I suppose this is one way of doing it… I wonder why I never thought of using more than one monster per dungeon," Billy frowned.
Billy's daily life got busy like that since he had so many things to do, but despite that, the days passed rather quickly. In the end, the day of the attack arrived, and the first ones to arrive in the area had been Icarus, Lucyna, and Meryl. The first two had been stationed in the area for the last few months, and they caused problems to the target whenever they had the chance. Still, the manipulator never bothered to show up.
"Usually, Billy would be the first to show up… and he has been strangely quiet as of late," Icarus said.
"Well, he must be busy moving his golems to this continent," Lucyna said. "The sun has just set, and the attack was planned for midnight, so we have some time. By the way, have we noticed any changes in the central part of the continent?"
"I keep some lookouts around the area and beyond the range that they can be detected, and I believe Billy had his own methods of doing so as well, but there are no signs of actions from that guy so far," Meryl replied. "It has been two years since he went on hiding… even though he had no reason to do so."
Regardless, the group had to wait for almost six hours… Billy showed up when they only had a couple of minutes left.
