Chapter 320: Turning point (13)
Herculean Strength: Passively increases your Strength by ten points and an additional of one point per level of the skill.
Cost: 3.000.000 gold coins.
Iron Skin: Passively increases your Endurance by ten points and an additional of one point per level of the skill.
Cost: 3.000.000 gold coins.
Mind Power: Passively increases your Intelligence by ten points and an additional of one point per level of the skill.
Cost: 3.000.000 gold coins.
Mentality: Passively increases your Resistance by ten points and an additional of one point per level of the skill.
Cost: 3.000.000 gold coins.
Recovery: Passively increases your Focus by ten points and an additional of one point per level of the skill.
Cost: 3.000.000 gold coins.
It hurt quite a bit on Luke’s wallet, but he bought those in the end. It was a good investment considering how Light Steps improved his speed at that time. Besides, with constant training, those would easily level up by themselves. Luke had to prepare the upgrade crystals to help just in case ahead of time.
"It seems things worked here a lot faster than expected," Mark said when Luke went to pick up his group.
"That is because things escalated quickly due to the attack that destroyed the biggest settlement of this world," Luke said. "The overlords decided that they couldn’t take their time, but they had to be more cautious than before."
The fact that only group was targeting that world was also an important factor. It was hard to say why that was the case... Luck didn’t seem to be the right word. Regardless, it was time to return to Earth, but Luke would return to that world pretty often in order to get the coins and experience granted by his subordinates.
At that point in time, everyone was pretty much used to teleportation, so they didn’t even frown when they returned to Earth in the blink of an eye. It had been a while since Luke had checked his home country, so he decided to take a look around while flying way above the clouds...
Although they were used to Teleport, the crew of the flying fortress still left their mouths hanging open when they saw the mana shield being activated and then saw themselves in space. Some even passed out due to the shock.
"Show off..." Richter said.
"You had enough coins to make one of these, why didn’t you do it?" Luke asked.
"I thought it would be cheaper if I used yours as a taxi," Richter said.
"While you are shameless enough to say that outloud, you at least have the balls to be sincere," Luke said. "In any case, everyone should prepare themselves since we don’t know when we will have to fight Frank and his men."
"He forced a lot of people to become his followers... What are you going to do with them?" Richter asked.
"I am not willing to die while trying to save those who want to kill me, what about you?" Luke asked.
"I am not willing to do it as well," Richter said. "Believe me, I have quite on my plate with the shadow whispering weird things in my ears, so I can imagine what kind of things are bothering you, but killing innocent people won’t help."
"Then let’s do this: I will face Frank alone and you will try to stop his underlings if they come for me," Luke said. "That way, you can literally stop them from getting on my way and get killed. If you fail and I don’t have any other option, then we will share the blame."
"That isn’t like things work..." Rachel said while frowning. She wasn’t trying to hide her displeasure, which was rare. "I understand the need to fight other humans in situations like these and sometimes kill them when they truly want you dead, but that isn’t the case right now."
It seemed that Mark and Julia wanted to say some things as well, but they realized that insisting on that reckless plan of trying to fight others, even though they are being controlled by someone else, while trying not to kill them might be a shot in their foot. They will end up risking the lives of the people that were on their side already.
Luke truly didn’t want to waste energy on a debate about the importance of living in a situation like that where billions of people had already been killed. He knew well enough that they had to preserve all human life as much as possible, but in the end, risking their necks for the others in a battle where the opponent probably already had enough manpower to defeat them in a direct fight was madness.
"Nambra and eye can focus on healing them afterward... If you hurt them enough not to cause problems during the confrontation," Rina said.
"And what if Luke needs help?" Shalia asked. "You don’t have a crazy amount of mana where you can heal so many people at once."
"No, let’s go with that," Luke said. "Shalia should also help the group that will deal with Frank followers. She has ice magic and it is a good options to stop people without killing them."
Luke’s choice surprised everyone. While he would get some benefits for getting more allies, few of them would become his followers after enduring what Frank made them endure. However, Rina, Shalia, and Nambra knew that it was just an excuse for him to give him the chance to fight alone. Rina couldn’t help but sigh once she realized that. Unfortunately, his plan was probably the best possible.
"But on Earth, we will be in our smaller form, so we won’t be able to stay behind," Rina said, a bit embarrassed for some reason.
"Good point, do you know a way to solve this Aivern?" Luke asked.
"There is, but you won’t like to hear me say this right now..." Aivern said.
