"Slightly harder, but still took around 17 minutes or so," Elias attributed his slightly slower learning rate of Earth Magic to his lower understanding of it. And it being his second Inborn Affinity.
"Still, that still leave me quite some time to learn other Weapon Skills," he couldn't help but feel excited. At the rate he was going, Elias could finish all the Skill Books before the timer hit zero.
-x-
"I was too excited." He grumbled. He thought he could deepen his understanding of the Weapon Skills in his arsenal when he finished Sword Manual II. Unfortunately, that was proven wrong when he could only reach the middle of the book before his Sword Mastery was shown to be inadequate to progress further.
"I probably need Sword Manual III and my Sword Mastery being above 70 to finish the Sword Skill Books," he estimated.
Unfortunately with him unable to progress in finishing the Skill Books, he didn't have anything productive to do. He could practice his Weapon Skills but the improvement would be minor. The same holds true for his Magic Skill.
"Seriously, what else can I do?" other than hitting the Iron-Wood Training Puppet would not do much other than beating up the poor thing.
After giving it some thought, Elias decided to test something,
"System, can I face the challenge now?" he didn't know if it would do an-
[Continue challenge?
Reminder: There is still time left to practice.
YES/NO]
Elias smiled. He believed the current him will not take long to finish the new Human Puppet. Pressing yes, he watched as it came into existence.
As he predicted, the new Human Puppet has 8 arms, each holding different weapons as it faced him. Elias wondered if it possessed other tricks when he sensed something familiar.
"Magic," he uttered, his eyes gazing on one of the Weapon being engulfed in red Aura.
"So, the new Human Puppet will have abilities I learned from the previous one." He exclaimed. It's a pattern now. The first Human Puppet being unarmed, the second holding weapon and the third finally using Weapon Skills. It is not hard to guess.
"The next one will be able to use Magic Skill," he guessed before eying Human Puppet Ver.4. Like the previous one, the Human Puppet did not move unless he took five steps.
He tilted his head, trying to see if there is anything different about the Human Puppet, anything he can take advantage of. Seeing nothing of that sort, Elias charged towards the Human Puppet.
Not bothering to hold back, Elias unleashed several Water Bolt, the water rushing towards the joints on the arms. The multiple weapons it was holding allowed the Human Puppet to block. It also helped that all weapons were covered in Magic Aura, blocking his attack further.
Yet, it could only block. The impact still pushed the Human Puppet back, its hands barely keeping hold of the weapons.
Elias smiled as he got close and used consecutive Earth Walls. The first one slamming to the lowermost arms, pushing it upwards and hitting the second lowermost arms. He then circled the Human Puppet, the Earth Walls he created surrounding it, stopping it from moving as it was trapped from all sides. Except for its back.
"Now you are trapped." Elias had a wicked smile. The Human Puppet had been trapped in a way that prevented it from being able to move its arm freely. Even if it can move it, the Human Puppet would find it difficult to break free.
Well, it can move backwards and step out from the encircling Earth Walls, but that's the reason why Elias was behind it. To stop that from happening.
"Let's start with Water Ball." It's a Magic Skill that is more of a tool than an active Skill. While Water Bolt is clearly an attack and Water Shield being a defense, Water Ball can be used for both. If he throws the Water Ball, it can do some serious damage, especially if he empowers it.
He can even put a Water Ball in front of him like a shield. While not as effective as Water Shield, or God forbids, Earth Wall, it can still block any incoming attack. An arrow would not even pass through half of the Water Ball before its momentum was killed.
Elias threw the Water Ball, the orb of water hitting the back of the Human Puppet and exploded, pushing it further into the Earth Wall while creating cracks on its back. He didn't stop with one. He threw two more, each dealing more damage than the previous ones as the cracks grew larger.
He then used Stone Shards, sending sharp stones towards the Human Puppet. Each Shards drilled deep into the Human Puppet's back, enlarging the crack, though Elias could see it was healing at a speed that can be seen by the naked eyes.
The only reason he was not frustrated by the healing was the fact the Human Puppet likely consumed its Vitality to not be shattered into thousand pieces. Plus, causing a high amount of damage to one part of its body would make its limbs regrow at a slower rate. And yes, as per tradition, he cut off the limbs of the Human Puppet.
"Earth Gauntlet," with the Human Puppet helpless like those that came before it, Elias formed the 'utility' Magic Skill in his possession. He can use Earth Gauntlet not just for offense, but for defense, though at the moment, it's used would be purely offensive ones.
He punched the back of the Human Puppet, slamming it into the Earth Wall as he treated it like a very human-like punching bag. Each punch sends a small shard of stones flying, plus some shards of wood coming from the Human Puppet.
After 10 minutes of punching the Human Puppet, Elias changed to using his sword, planning on using Heavy Slash empowered by Earth Aura. Wanting to see how strong his attack would be.
"Let's see if I can cut you into two or not!" Elias swung in a large arch, slamming his sword into the back of the Human Puppet.
It seemed it couldn't handle the attack, or the previous ones already did tremendous damage to it, but the Human Puppet shattered into pieces, signaling Elias had finished the fourth challenge.