Chapter 43: CH. 43 | Attack from The Future

He turned to the side and asked Thalia about it. She explained that she’d successfully learned her new skill. Lily and Aya had both managed it too.

Out of the four of them, only Theo had failed to add his class skill.

Still, he didn’t let it get to him. He’d already prepared himself for that possibility, so the disappointment stung a lot less.

Theo asked everyone to be patient while he tried adding his other skill, the one from the common skill set.

He pulled up the skill card, labeled swift pace, its tier still unknown. Still, he figured he’d find out exactly what rank it was once he integrated it into his personal system.

[Please wait! New skill is being added]

[Synchronization process starting]

[Congratulations! Skill successfully synchronized with host]

[Name: Swift Pace (C-Rank)]

[Desc: The ability to accelerate movement speed beyond a normal pace]

Theo’s body glowed blue, and he watched his skill card fade away, dissolving into scattered magical particles. He turned to Thalia, and she broke into a wide smile.

"At least that skill actually worked for you," Thalia said, "So, ready to start training?"

Theo got up and walked over to stand beside Thalia. He drew his sword and answered with a simple nod. He was ready to train alongside them, testing out the new skills they’d just bought.

"You two should go first, since you’re both ranged combat classes."

"All right," Thalia said.

She and Aya moved ahead of Theo. Thalia raised her wand forward, conjuring a red magic rune.

From within the rune, three fire blades shot out simultaneously, targeting the cluster of rabbit monsters ahead of them.

Theo watched it closely, this skill was clearly different from the fireball spell Thalia usually relied on.

The fire blades sped forward and struck the rabbit monsters’ location. Several of them were sent flying, their bodies engulfed in blazing flames.

Even so, Theo flinched, noticing more rabbit monsters appearing right after Thalia’s attack. Their numbers surged dramatically, true to how rabbits typically multiply.

"I won’t let you get any closer!" Thalia declared.

She slammed her wand into the ground, summoning a magic rune beneath her that targeted the very ground the rabbit monsters stood on.

The rune blazed brighter and brighter, unleashing a burst of flames that seemed to erupt straight from the earth itself.

Thalia managed to kill off a few more rabbit monsters, but it wasn’t enough to hold back the full onslaught. She turned toward Aya.

"Your turn, Aya," Thalia said.

"O-Okay."

Aya nocked an arrow to her bow and aimed it forward. As she released it, five phantom arrows split off from the real one, spreading out and striking the bodies of several rabbit monsters.

Some died instantly, while others held on.

Panic was written clearly across Aya’s face, as if she couldn’t keep up with the sheer force of the attack once she realized the swarm of rabbit monsters had turned their focus toward her.

"Fall back, Aya!" Thalia shouted, "I’ll hold them off again."

Thalia raised her wand forward once more, summoning another magic rune and unleashing a fireball attack. The strike managed to push them back, but it wasn’t enough to stop the assault entirely.

The woman suddenly dropped to her knees, gasping for breath, exhausted, leaning heavily on her wand just to stay upright.

"Turns out they’re actually tougher than watery slimes," Thalia said.

Theo realized his party was in real danger. He shot forward past Thalia and Aya, and both women immediately turned their attention toward him.

[Swift Pace Skill Activated!]

He activated his new skill, moving in to strike the rabbit monsters. He slashed and stabbed at them, drawing their attention away from Thalia and Aya’s position.

Theo watched their attack pattern closely, leaping and biting, their sharp fangs designed to tear through their prey’s flesh.

Theo knew he needed to stay especially careful of that.

But right in the middle of his fight against them, he felt the ring on his finger growing noticeably warmer. Theo leapt back a good distance, his focus locking onto the ring.

What’s happening?

A golden light seeped from the ring into Theo’s hand, triggering a sharp, pounding headache right in the middle of his fight against the rabbit monsters.

"Ugh!"

"My head... it hurts so much!"

"Get out of there, Theo!" Thalia shouted from another direction.

Theo clenched his hand and let out a loud scream. He felt a powerful burst of energy surging outward from within himself.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the world had shifted into gray, everything frozen in place, as if time itself had stopped.

He looked ahead and saw Thalia and the others frozen solid, trapped within a suspended dimension of time.

As he studied them, his attention shifted to a panel that appeared before him.

[Congratulations! Host has successfully activated the buff ability of the Eye of Eternity Ring]

[Desc: The Eye of Eternity Ring’s buff is capable of enhancing the strength and ability of the Mystic Eyes Authority]

[Foresight Skill with Eternity Ring:]

[Desc: Host is able to strike enemies’ future shadow images while in future observation mode]

[Using the Mystic Eyes Authority Skill with the Eternity Ring carries a specific limit.]

[Temporal Status: 0%]

[Warning!]

[If Temporal Status reaches 100%, the host risks becoming trapped within the temporal flow of time and may never be able to return!]

Theo read through it all carefully. He’d already guessed that this mysterious ring held some connection to the Mystic Eyes Authority, one whose full power could only be unlocked by someone who carried that same Authority.

What really caught his attention was this new Foresight Skill with the Eternity Ring.

Before, he could only predict incoming attacks without ever being able to strike the future shadow images themselves. Now, everything had changed.

If I attack their shadow images existing in the future, does that mean my body is actually traveling into the future for a brief moment?

Now I understand what Temporal Status actually means. That percentage limit is there to stop me from overusing this power.

To test it, Theo activated the ability.

[Foresight Skill Activated]

[Buff Eye of The Eternity Ring Activated]

[Future Observation Duration: 00:00:00:10]

Theo’s eyes looked ahead and watched ten rabbit monsters charging toward him, their future shadow images visible before his eyes.

He swung his sword and slashed through the shadow image, something that before would have only had his blade pass through harmlessly, but now looked entirely different.

Theo’s sword managed to cleave straight through the bodies of the rabbit monsters’ future shadow images.

It worked?

Does that mean once I deactivate the skill, their real bodies will end up split apart too?

Not wanting to waste time speculating, Theo attacked again, slashing, cutting, and stabbing precisely at their vital points.

All ten rabbit monster shadow images were defeated. Now, it was time for the moment of truth.

He deactivated his foresight skill, returning the world to its actual flow of time. Theo looked ahead and saw all ten rabbit monsters back in their original positions, about to charge straight at him, exactly matching the timeline he’d just witnessed.

"THEO?!" Thalia screamed.

A few seconds later, Theo froze in shock, watching one of the rabbit monsters drop dead, its body split cleanly in two.

It actually worked... the attack matched exactly what I did back there.

It wasn’t just that one rabbit either, all the others died too, struck down by the timeline attack Theo had carried out, even though right now, in the present, Theo hadn’t moved an inch, just standing there frozen in place.

All ten rabbit monsters collapsed dead, their blood pooling into the grass. Theo studied them closely, even checking his own blade, which showed no trace of blood from the attack at all.

I didn’t get a class skill, but I ended up with something incredibly powerful.

Maybe too powerful, seeing as I can kill enemies straight from the future.

From another direction, Thalia came running over with Aya and Lily, their faces frozen in shock.

"Are you okay? What was that?" Thalia asked, "I watched those rabbit monsters die out of nowhere, and you never even attacked them."

"Was that some kind of secret skill? Was that the common skill from earlier?"

Theo went quiet for a moment, his gaze turning serious as he looked at them. They were his party members, sure, but it wasn’t the right time for them to know the full extent of his power just yet.

"You could say that," Theo said, "What matters most is that we’re all safe, and the training worked out."

"True."

A system notification panel appeared in front of Theo, not about his kill count this time, but about his Temporal Status.

[Warning! Temporal Status percentage has increased]

[Temporal Status: 1%]

Ten seconds added 1%, but I’m sure this isn’t just about the duration of the future observation alone.