Billy never tried to create a spell that could only counter another, but that was essentially what he wanted… So, he began to concentrate after enveloping his body in mana. Appraisal worked by relying on the eyes of the caster, so Billy thought of making his mana react when it felt being accessed by some outside source. After some attempts, Billy learned the final trick… He had to let his mana overflow outside his body to form the Aura that would be thin but powerful enough due to the amounts of mana to react to any unnatural use of mana on the surroundings.
Mental Armor: it grants you the power to counter the effects of identification spells. The cost will be the same as the level of the enemy identifying spell minus the level of your Mental Armor.
"What a redundant way to learn a spell… This was more mentally tiring than absorbing the armor," Billy thought.
As expected, Billy was bad at learning things like that… It was so easy to learn how to transform his mana or make it influence his body…
"Is that marble useful in any way?" Lucyna asked.
"I will learn once I get some more of them," Billy replied.
It didn't take long for another salamander to emerge from another lava pool, and Icarus prepared to face it. Since Billy had to level up Gravity Manipulation, he decided to give him a hand. Even at level one, thanks to his high magic, Billy could make the monster have a hard time moving. Still, his goal was a lot more impressive than that.
You obtained 800 experience points.
The skill Gravity Manipulation obtained 400 experience points.
The skill Gravity Manipulation had leveled up.
The skill Gravity Manipulation had leveled up.
The skill Gravity Manipulation had leveled up.
…
Billy nodded to himself in satisfaction. With each level up, the power of the skill increased by ten percent. So, at that rate…
After helping the others a little bit as well, Billy's turn came again. As soon as the monster emerged, Billy decreased his weight and then used Flash, but in the next moment, he increased his own weight. In the end, he approached and hit the salamander-like a truck. His spear pierced the head of the monster and still sent the creature flying in the other direction. Half of the head of the monster was destroyed, and the monster lost sixty percent of its health.
"Not bad…" Billy thought.
Billy enhanced his spear with ice magic and then threw it toward the monster. After the weapon pierced the head of the creature, he used Gravity Manipulation to make it much harder and pierce it even more while pushing the enemy down. Eventually, the head of the monster suffered too much damage, and then the creature died.
"These methods aren't half bad, but I am sure there are better ways to use gravity," Billy thought as he stepped up to get to the core of the monster.
Since experimenting with would make his skill level up, Billy felt inclined to try many things. Once the skill reached a certain level, he tried to crush the salamanders by turning the center of their own bodies into something like a giant magnet. Naturally, there wasn't much around that could be attracted to them, but their bodies began to shrink and bend thanks to the gravity. However, it wasn't powerful enough to make the monster get crushed by its own body.
After that, Billy enhanced the tip of his glaive with gravity as well. Nothing nearby was attached to it, but once the salamanders were hit by it, they began to have their bodies and their organs being pulled by it with a fearsome force… Any normal monster probably would have died to death with that kind of strategy.
"Gravity magic is truly fearsome…" Icarus said.
With gravity in their favor, the fights on that floor had become quite easy, but things got a bit mods complicated on the next one since the enemies appeared in front and on their back. Both of them used lava Cannon, so everyone froze on the spot… Blocking that was impossible with their skills.
However, by altering the gravity field around and by using Telekinesis, Billy stopped both attacks at the same time… Billy realized that as long as he had those skills, mana, and has could reach on time, he could block almost all types of attacks…
"This is… Quite… Something," Billy thought.
While Billy stopped the monsters, the others quickly attacked the two others and finished them as soon as possible. In any case, while Billy's defense has improved, it was better to prevent the attacks altogether… In a few levels, he will be able to do that with brute strength alone, but Billy felt like he should look for better solutions instead of relying solely on that.
"I suppose I can obtain some results if I manage to create Constructs out of gravity magic, but that is impossible for now…" Billy thought.
As they moved, Billy tried to experiment with gravity Manipulation. The basics for direct attacks would be to create Bullets out of the element. Still, when Billy tried that, he only created a small magnetic field that pulled everything to it… its goal was to make one in which its effects would only take place once it hit the enemy… That would be something hard to accomplish, but if he does that, Billy's deck will increase tremendously.
"It seems that Billy is getting ahead of us as usual… Even faster than before," Icarus said.
"I never thought that while ignoring the ways to get stronger by using the system, someone could become that good at exploiting it…" Lucyna said.
"... They truly are alike," Meryl said. "When it comes at becoming stronger and learning new skills, they are unrivalled."
Everyone knew that Meryl was talking about the maker, but they couldn't quite grasp his skills based on Billy. In the first place, Billy had a family, and he wasn't power hungry.
