Chapter 141: ’Hm? Those clothes... Is she-’
Once Evan finished checking his clones’ stats, he immediately went back to grinding.
It had already become his routine. Not that there was anything better to do in this godforsaken place.
That said, unlike before, he no longer limited himself to hunting weaker prey just to satisfy his clones’ advancement requirements. Instead, he went straight for the stronger ones, starting with those at the peak of C-rank, then moving directly on to B-rank targets.
[Ding! Your clone has slain a C-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +30,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone has slain a C-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +30,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone has slain a C-Rank (Advanced-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +30,000 ESS!]
...
[Ding! Your clone has slain a B-Rank (Early-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +300,000 ESS!]
Thanks to his two clones’ upgrades, their combined strength was devastating enough that even B-rank Early-Stage Forsaken couldn’t hold up against them.
They took down a dozen in under thirty minutes, setting a new personal record for Evan.
Sure, if it had been him alone, he could’ve moved faster, but that would’ve slowed things down overall, since his clones needed the ESS more than he did in order to grow stronger, whereas he didn’t.
This went on for a while, taking down even more B-ranks in the process. At a certain point, Evan increased the amount of mana he released, ensuring that only B-rank Forsaken at Early-Stage and above would show up.
That inevitably led to encounters with Mid-Stage ones as well, which, surprisingly, turned out to be just as easy to eliminate, even for his clones.
Evan realized his clones’ strength was more than enough that he no longer needed to step in and help every time, which led him to his next decision:
Splitting them up.
He’d noticed that with their latest advancements, both clones now packed a serious amount of destructive force, which was starting to limit what they could do together, given the risk of hitting their own teammate. Shadow in particular, with his ever-growing army, risked losing subordinates every time Ash unleashed one of his devastating attacks.
Evan quickly concluded it’d be better for everyone to hunt separately. He figured this wouldn’t just give them more freedom of movement, but also significantly boost the amount of ESS they’d earn overall, and sure enough, the decision was the right one.
[Ding! Your clone has slain a B-Rank (Early-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +300,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone has slain a B-Rank (Early-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +300,000 ESS!]
[Ding! Your clone has slain a B-Rank (Mid-Stage) Forsaken.]
[You have earned +1,500,000 ESS!]
’Looks like Shadow isn’t holding back at all,’ he thought, watching the notifications pile up while he sat comfortably in a sheltered spot, training his affinity with the law of space.
---
[Name: Evan]
[Age: 15]
[Rank: D]
[ESS: 100%] (!)
[Bloodline: God of Life (5%)]
[Divine Clone]
> [God Of Death]: 30%
> [God Of War]: 25%
[Affinities]
> [Void Energy]: 26%
> [Poisons]: 10%
> [Life Energy]: 11%
> [Law of Space]: 9%
> [Law of Time]: 0.11%
[Skills]: 4
[Storage]
---
His affinity with the law of space had grown considerably, and so had his understanding of it. He now had much better control over it — enough that he could finally avoid ending up like the last time, when he’d nearly gotten himself killed using it.
Not bad, considering it had only been two days since then.
The same couldn’t quite be said for the law of time. He now had a vague sense of it now, though not nearly enough to define anything about it.
That pitiful 0.11% spoke for itself.
He’d already confirmed it was tied to killing Forsaken, though he still wasn’t sure exactly how or why. That said, given how low the percentage was, it might as well not exist yet.
He wanted to work on it eventually, but for now, he decided to focus on space first, since it was growing faster, much like his clones’ growth, which had been explosive, to put it mildly.
Evan pulled up his two clones’ status screens and confirmed, still somewhat stunned, just how fast their progress had been.
---
[Name: Shadow]
[Rank: C]
[ESS: 20% → 96.5%]
[Title: Soul Reaper]
---
[Name: Ash]
[Rank: C]
[ESS: 20% → 66.9%]
[Title: Battle Igniter]
---
In what could only be described as half a day’s worth of hunting, his two clones had massacred dozens, if not hundreds, of Forsaken, nearly all of them at the peak of C-Rank or in the early stages of B-Rank.
Shadow had gone on to kill several B-rank Mid-Stage ones along the way, giving him a clear lead over Ash, who was still lagging behind quite a bit.
Even so, considering how little time had passed, Ash’s progress was far from slow.
If anything...
It was unnaturally fast.
Looking at those numbers, Evan finally felt confident that facing an Advanced-Stage B-Rank Forsaken would no longer be a hopeless battle.
The mere thought of it was enough to excite him.
It meant he could finally break through the bottleneck that had been holding him back and advance to the next rank.
He couldn’t wait to advance, so he stood up, ready to call his clones back. But right at that moment, he received feedback from Shadow, and with a mix of confusion and curiosity, he immediately connected to his clone’s field of vision.
The first thing he saw was a rather unusual scene unfolding before him, one that immediately made him narrow his eyes.
Dozens upon dozens of Forsaken.
From D-Rank all the way up to C-Rank.
Under normal circumstances, neither their numbers nor their strength would’ve caught his attention anymore. His own strength, along with that of his clones, was more than enough to deal with all of them.
But that wasn’t what caught Evan’s attention.
What did was the fact that these creatures seemed to have surrounded a figure.
A girl.
’Hm? Those clothes... Is she a student from the Awakener Academy?’
