《The Rise Of A Porter》 Chapter 1 - Daily Life In A Dungeon "You! Give me some water!" One of Arnold''s employer barked at him. "Yes sir," Arnold replied rummaging through the gigantic brown bag he was carrying on his back.?? "Oye! Give me one too!" The Tank from the Employer''s guild shouted. "Yes Sir!" Arnold replied finally getting hold of two water bottles from his backpack and ran over to the guild''s tank and warrior, but he didn''t immediately back off after giving them the water bottles. He was thirsty as well but he wasn''t allowed to use the resources of the guild without the leader''s permission, so he just stood there and stared at the tank hoping he would be kind enough to give him some water without cutting his pay off. But till he was allowed to do so, he could only gulp down his saliva to quench his thirst. "You want something?" EL, the warrior asked him in an arrogant tone. "Kind sir, we have been roaming in the dungeon for a really long time, my supplies have been drained. Could you offer me some water, oh great sir?" Arnold replied in the humblest voice he could muster, bowing before the blonde warrior who was d in an expensive white coloured armour. "Is that so?" The warrior scratched his chin, "Here take this." Arnold was shocked that his request was approved and quickly looked up at the warrior, but instead of giving him water, the warrior spat on his face and everyone around him startedughing at him. "Oh, kind sir! Oh great sir... haha, this guy is too funny! He actually thought I was going to give him anything! Hrious... oh god my stomach is hurting fromughing so much! Haha." The warrior roared withughter. This was a daily urrence for Arnold but it didn''t make him feel any better. Day after day he had endured these humiliations and hope that one day everything would be better. Even though porters were official members of various guilds, their position was even worse than that of stray dogs. It had been the same ever since these mysterious dungeons started popping up out of nowhere. The strong grew stronger and the weak got weaker. There was no justice in this world, only power, and only the ones with power had the right to decide what was right and what was wrong. Arnold didn''t utter a word, he simply wiped his face on the tattered and oversized robe he was wearing and silently went to stand in the back. He couldn''t do anything to them with his skinny frame, so he did what he had learned, to curse his fate and cry on the inside. "Why are you just standing there you moron! Start gathering the beast crystals!" A female mage, who was wearing top tier armour shouted at him. "Yes ma''am!" Arnold shouted back and started hacking the dead monster''s bodies apart, one could say he was taking his frustration out on the dead beasts. You might be wondering, if his job is so miserable then why is he working as a porter? It was because of his sister, Nicole, who was in the government hospital, and even though by doing this job he didn''t earn much, there was a benefit from joining a first-tier guild and it was: free treatment of Nicole. For the sake of his sister, he had to endure it all, the low pay, the humiliation, everything. But it wasn''t always like this... Five years ago, before the dungeons started appearing out of nowhere, his family was really rich, his father was one of the most sessful business people in Asia and to say he was filthy rich wouldn''t be an overstatement at all. His family was a big happy family back then. But then one of the first dungeons appeared in the city of Shanghai, the city was destroyed and both his mother and father died during ''The Great Shanghai Disaster''. All of his father''s money,pany everything was taken away from him by his uncle, who refused to give them a single penny and kicked them out of their own home. Knowing that they don''t have a way to survive in the city anymore, the 17 years old, Arnold withdrew whatever little money he had in his bank ount and left China to go to America, thend of his mother, Alessa, initially everything was fine and Arnold was working as a receptionist in an MNC (Multinational corporationpany). But then the tragedy of Shanghai followed Arnold to Florida and everything was changed. Even though the American military was able to suppress the monsters, an unexpected epidemic spread throughout the continent, and Nicole got infected with the virus. The epidemic brought various reforms with itself, those who survived the epidemic got mysterious powers, powers that made the military useless. Some individuals got extraordinary abilities like shape-shifting, two lives, superhuman healing abilities, inhumane strength and agility, foresight and so much more. And as a result, the military was let go off and various private and governmental guilds took its ce. Everyone who wasn''t infected was scanned for abilities using PRSDs (Power registering systems and devices). No one knew How they worked as the government was tight-lipped about it all, but they could rank a person''s ability into various sses ranging from ''E'' to ''S'', but a few extraordinary individuals were known for surpassing these limits and achieve a grade of S+ and SS. While there were a dozen superhumans of S+ ability, so far, there were only 3 individuals ranked as SS superhumans, one was America''s John Miller, China''s Yu Zhung, andstly Brazil''s Nichs Fernandez. They were considered as weapons deadlier than nuclear missiles. But when Arnold was scanned his abilities barely registered as E level, and that''s when his life got even worse. No private guild would have hired him so he had to join a governmental guild which forced him to work as a porter. The only good thing that came out of this ordeal was the free treatment of his sister, and that was the most important thing, much more important than his pride. "Yo Porter, we''re going deeper inside the dungeon, light the way." Lance, the African American mage said and dragged Arnold in front of the team shoving him against a wall. "What are you doing?" The team''s healer said spiriting towards Arnold. "Don''t worry Alice... I mean ma''am, I''m used to this treatment." Arnold replied. He then took out half a dozen glow sticks and threw them one by one deeper into the dungeon. The path was covered with the broken stone, moss and animal remains. The torches allowed Arnold to see remnants of sacks, crates, and caskets, worn down and ravaged by time itself, scattered around the corridor. What happened in this ce? Arnold thought. He pressed onwards, the rest of the guild walked behind him, deeper into the dungeon''s darkness. There were various passages, some lead dead ends, while others seemed to have no end at all. They eventually made it to what looked like the final boss room however a huge metal door blocked their path preventing them from going further into the dungeon. There were countless odd symbols engraved all over it and were somehow untouched by time and the elements as if they have just been manufactured. The group leader stepped closer to inspect it and... "Wait.. did the door just change its appearance?" "You mean this dungeon is one of those dungeons which awards enchanted gears?" EL said his eyes shining with greed, he was almost drooling. Enchanted gears were extremely rare, with a drop rate of about 0.005%! It goes without saying they were highly valued by both the government as well as the private guilds, you could ask for any absurd price and they would happily pay it like a bunch of kids who had more money than they could count. Most of these dungeons didn''t have a dungeon boss but the few which did were deadly, and everyone knew that. "I think we should inform the guild leader and form a bigger party and then carry on with the raid, just in case there is a monster there." Arnold expressed his thoughts hoping that at least a few among the 12 person raid would agree with him. "What for? Looking at the level of monsters and beasts dungeon, there shouldn''t be any boss there. And why should we bother about what a useless porter says?" Lance snapped back. "He''s right! All the monsters here were low levelled and thus I don''t think even if there is a boss, it wouldn''t be highly levelled." Ashley, one of the tanks replied. "Mages, undo the enchantment, and open the door." Ricardo, the party leader said after pondering about the situation. The mages moved forward and started chanting their spells to open up the door. After continuously chanting spells for more than ten minutes the doors finally opened and everyone entered the chamber one after another. A dim bluish light suffused the square-shaped chamber, its source of light obvious at a nce. Blue-glowing lichen and violet-glowing moss clung to the ceiling and spread across the floor. It even creped up and down the walls, as if the colonies on the floor and ceiling are growing to meet each other. Arnold immediately took out a ss jar and scraped the different coloured moss and lichen, Nicole loved bright things, and since he didn''t have money to buy her presents, he usually made some on his own. The air in the room was fresh and damp but there was no other way to enter or exit the chamber. "Damn it where is the enchanted gear!" EL shouted like a spoiled brat. "There must be a special hidden room or something, check carefully," Lance replied. Just then a sound echoed inside the chamber as if someone was dragging something. Everyone was on their toes now preparing to attack whatever was making that sound. Suddenly the wall in front of them opened and a minotaur walked out of it. "Its just one minotaur, we can handle it, tanks take position! Warriors get ready, mages cast attribute increasing spells. Healer be ready!" The party leader Ricardo instructed his team. Arnold simply walked out of the chamber like he usually did, as a porter he had nothing to do once the fight began. As he walked out Arnold noticed a second door next to the main door. "What if the enchanted gear is inside this room!" Arnold''s eyes lit up if he was able to get the enchanted gear and sell it... all of his problems would be solved! He would finally be able to leave this crappy job and live a better life! He kept thinking about his ns after he got the gear as he entered the tiny room. Arnold could barely see what was inside the room as it was very dark. Although he wasn''t allowed to use the guild''s resources, turned on a glow stick, and walked inside the room. There was only one small cab inside the room, the cab was subdivided into five sections, each section had a couple of books and scrolls inside them. Arnold took one out and... "Tomes! And ability books!" Even though it wasn''t what he wanted, Arnold was on cloud nine! One tome went anywhere from 200 to 600 modern dors, depending on the rarity of the skill they contained and the starting price for ability books was at least 500 modern dors and went up to 2500 modern dors! 25 times his wage! Arnold counted there were 7 tomes and 9 ability books! He could earn a fortune from these. He then took every book and tome and put them in his backpack''s secret pocket so that no one would discover them. He had to do this because the guilds always checked the porter''s backpacks to retrieve their goods and check if something was missing. This was done solely to cut their pay even if nothing was missing. The life of a Porter has always been hellish. "Lady luck is on my side!" He murmured as he closed the backpack and waited for the raid to get over with. Chapter 2 - Blood Pact "Dang it! I thought there would be an enchanted gear in there, after all that trouble." EL said brushing his blonde hair with his right hand. "All because of this stupid Porter who jinxed it," Lance said kicking Arnold in the back, who couldn''t bnce himself and fell.?? "Don''t get mad... don''t get mad..." Arnold murmured and quietly got up and started caressing his back. Unfortunately, the dungeon didn''t have any enchanted item to offer, the guild members felt like they had been cheated on a lottery and were super pissed, so naturally, Arnold was subjected to all the anger and frustration they had. He didn''t talk back either because talking back would make them even more frustrated and if they told the guild manager that the porter had ''misbehaved'' inside the dungeon, his pay would be decreased permanently and he might not get any jobs either. All he could do was hope that the guild members wouldn''t me their mistakes on him. Not that the payment he received was a good amount either... he just got the basic pay of 100 modern dors per dungeon trip, and he could only take about 3 trips per day. But it didn''t mean he would get 300 modern dors per day, as the governmental guilds always deducted some amount of wage for totally absurd reasons, such as, not having proper work etiquette, not wearing guild approved gear, being poor, not taking proper care of guild''s equipment and whatnot. The party came out of the dungeon one by one and were immediately greeted by a swarm of reporters and guild''s supporters. "EL! EL! Just one quick question please!" Nancy Williams, A 25-year-old semi-professional reporter who had been working for CNN for 2 years now, rushed towards him. She was known for being entertaining and friendly, but could also be very sneaky and a bit greedy. She was the type of reporter who would go to any lengths to gain promotions and viewership. Physically, Nancy was in pretty good shape. She had an average height of 5''3" with fair skin, blonde hair and green eyes. All in all, she was a maiden in eyes of people like EL and Lance. "Why one? I''ll answer a thousand as long as it''s you who is asking them." "How cute. Coming back to the topic, our sources informed us that you might have gotten your hands on some enchanted gear. Is it true?" Nancy asked shoving the microphone back at EL. "Yourwork is fast, but unfortunately your information is wrong. No enchanted gear was found in the dungeon." EL shook his head. Arnold was walking past them, wanting to go to the guild manager and get checked as soon as possible so that he could head out to meet his sister and give her the jar filled with luminous moss, but he was suddenly pulled back and was now standing next to EL, facing the camera. "This gentleman is the reason I work so hard," EL barked, "you see, I always had a little urge to help the poor and defenceless and Be their shield and sword, I want to make this world a better ce, not for us! No! But for people like him. You worked really hard today, here have this." EL handed Arnold around twenty modern dors. This was also a daily urrence, you could call it as a publicity stunt. After all, both the guild and EL had an image to maintain, and even though most of the world knew about the mistreatment of guild workers like porters, this drama, about helping the poor was enough for the people to turn a blind eye on them. After handing the money to Arnold, EL pushed him aside and carried on with his interview. but then someone shouted at Arnold. "What an ungrateful piece of crap! EL gave him some money, and he didn''t even thank him." One guy from the crowd shouted. "I know right! No wonder people like him don''t get help more often. They just don''t deserve it." Another one joined in. "Fucking immigrants!" Yet another one shouted. Arnold looked at the money, even though it was a lot of money for him, he felt no attachment towards it whatsoever and threw the money at the ones shouting. "You think you know how it feels like right! HERE TAKE IT ALL YOU CHEAP PIECE OF CRAP!" Arnold snapped back. Everyone was stunned! No one expected him to do something like this. Even the camera was now focused on him. No one said a word while Arnold continued towards the ce the guild manager was waiting. **** "Seven glow torches are missing but ording to records, you only used six in front of the others. 15 dors would be deducted, furthermore, you caused quite a ruckus in front of the camera, the higher-ups had been lenient with you till now but not anymore. Your daily wage has been decreased to 80 modern dors per trip, and you have been suspended from the guild for a week. No marypensation would be provided to you for this duration." Martis, The guild manager smirked. "So the pay you''ll receive for today is... 65 modern dors minus 10 dors convenience fees, that makes it 55 modern dors. Take the money and don''t show us your stinking face for a week." Just one moment of heat caused him so much trouble but Arnold couldn''t do anything to make it up to the guild at this point. He bit his lips, quietly took the money and headed towards the hospital. At least no one discovered the tomes and ability books, that he hid in his backpack. Before he reached the hospital, he went into the alleyway and changed his tattered uniform into a clean ck formal shirt coupled with blue denim and cheap sports shoes. He did it because, in the eyes of his sister, he was one of the core members of Flying Swords, the guild he worked for. His sister was already in so much pain, he couldn''t bear the thought of inflicting more pain to her by making her sad. After changing his appearance, he deposited his backpack at the hospital counter and then went to meet Nicole. "Hi, Nicole. Miss me?" Arnold smiled. "Brother!" Nicole radiantly smiled back. Arnold pulled a chair and sat next to his sister''s bed, and sat down. He then narrated the entire story of what happened inside the dungeon from a warrior''s perspective. Nicole kept smiling throughout the narration gasping and smiling at all right ces. Soon after the story ended she fell asleep, the disease made it very difficult for her to stay awake for a long duration. The Andrea syndrome, syphoned the life force of the diseased, slowly killing them... so far there wasn''t any cure for it. Although they were some drugs that could slow the process, these drugs expensive and Arnold could only afford a minuscule amount of these. Even if the treatment was free, the drugs weren''t. He ced the jar of luminous moss on the side table kissed his sister''s forehead and walked out of the hospital room. He gathered his backpack and went on his way towards his shack of a home. **** Once Arnold was inside his room, he immediately drew the curtains took out all the books and tomes that were hidden safely inside his backpack. He rubbed his hands and proceeded to check the content of the books first as those were more valuable. "All of these are rted to elemental magic, and three of them are extremely rare!" He thought, looking at the books having the abilities of ice, light, and shadow inside them. But he couldn''t learn either of them because of two reasons, first, his level wasn''t high enough, and second, he didn''t have the affinity for any of the books. The ability books could only provide the reader with said ability if they had the ability or the level that was needed to master them, and even though Arnold didn''t know the level limit the books had, he guessed one would have to be at least a level C being, to be able to learn the basic books and to learn the three books which had the rare abilities in them, one would have to be of level A, to say the least. And since he was stuck being a level E porter, there was no hope for him to be able to learn these. "I was gonna sell them either way." He thought putting the books aside he then pulled the stack of tomes towards him. This was the part he was excited about. While the ability books granted someone the abilities, the tomes, however, could grant the user the affinity required to use those abilities. Arnold prayed to the god and opened up the first scroll. And it turned out to be empty. "What the hell!" He hurriedly opened the rest of the scrolls but they were all empty. "Damn it! I should''ve known my luck. Ouch! Paper cut? Really?" As he was rolling the scrolls back, he identally cut his thumb on the edge of the scroll, few drops of blood fell on the scroll and it started shining brightly. Arnold hastily covered his eyes with his forearm. After what felt like an eternity, he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. "WAIT! I''m floating in the air!" As soon as he uttered those words, he felt a force around him which slowly guided him back to his bed. ___ System Initialising... A sentient being found... Race: Human Affinity : Strength: Weak Power level: Weak Specialties : Rank: E WELCOME MASTER ___ "Blood pact? What does it mean? What are you?" He kept questioning but no this ''system'' didn''t answer any of his questions. ___ Configuring the system to suit the user. Learning boosted. You can now learn new affinities... ___ "What the hell is this... What''s this all!" he was bbergasted. "Learning boosted... wait does it mean..." He looked at the opened scrolls scattered around the room, they weren''t empty anymore. He picked up the scroll nearest to him and a message appeared in front of his eyes. ___ YOU''VE PICKED UP < Water > AFFINITY SCROLL. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN < Water > AFFINITY? ?YES or ?NO ___ "Wait! So does it mean it''s all for real! I can learn new affinities!" A malicious smile appeared on his face as he said, "YES!" ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Water > AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [ POSEIDON''S BLESSING ] : (Passive ability) Your HP will be increased by 100 points when you level up. [ Rank: B ] ? [ ESSENCE OF LIFE ] : (Active ability) After being used, you''ll instantly gain half of your HP back, Further, it''ll increase by 10 points/minute for the next five minutes. [ Rank: B ] [Mana cost: 80] ___ After the message ended, the scroll slowly disintegrated in Arnold''s hand. Tomes which contained hidden abilities could only be used once and after that, they''ll disappear without leaving any trace. So using these scrolls essentially meant that he was burning his money away, but as long as he had the affinities and skills he could always get the money back. With this thought, he grabbed another scroll and a familiar message appeared in front of him. ___ YOU''VE PICKED UP < Wind > AFFINITY SCROLL. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN < Wind > AFFINITY? ?YES or ?NO ___ "Yes." Arnold thought. ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Wind > AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [ STATIC RAGE ] : (Passive ability) After sessfully inflicting damage for 5 times in a row, the sixth attack would deal +35% of physical attack as additional true damage. [ Rank: B ] ? [ RAPID FLASH ] : (Active ability) After being used, you''ll instantly gain 10% of agility (AGI), hence increasing your movement as well as reaction speed to superhuman levels. The skillsts for two minutes and slowly decays over the next five minutes. [ Rank: C ] [Mana cost: 30] ___ "Two new affinities and four new skills! The day is finally getting better!" Arnold couldn''t hold his excitement anymore, but then another notification popped up. ___ TWO < Basic > ELEMENTAL AFFINITIES FOUND. WOULD YOU LIKE TO MERGE THE AFFINITIES TO LEARN AN < Advance > ELEMENTAL AFFINITY? YOU WOULDN''T LOSE ANY ABILITY YOU''VE LEARNT SO FAR AND YOU''D BE ABLE TO LEARN THEIR RESPECTIVE ABILITIES IN FUTURE AS WELL. PROCEED WITH ADVANCEMENT? ?Yes or ?No ___ "An advance level affinity! HELL YEAH, I WOULD!" ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. COMBINING... SUCCESSFUL. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Ice > AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ] : (Active ability) You can conjure a field of ice and can control it as you wish. It can be used to slow down your enemies, to make weapons, you can do anything you want. [ Rank: A ] [Mana cost: 60/per use] ? [ ICY VEIL ] : (Active ability) After being used, your surrounding is immediately covered in mist and fog, lowering the uracy (ACC) of your opponents while increasing your evade (EVD) by 10 points. The skillsts for ten minutes. [ Rank: C ] [Mana cost: 35] ___ But Arnold wasn''t paying any attention to notifications that were popping up. As soon as he saw he had gained the Ice affinity he immediately reached out for the ability book which contained ice abilities. Chapter 3 - The System Arnold picked up the ability book and sure enough, another message popped up in front of him. ___?? YOU''VE PICKED UP A LEVEL ''A'' < Ice > ABILITY BOOK. Scanning for abilities... Scanning for abilities... Scanning for abilities... THREE COMPATIBLE ABILITIES FOUND. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN THE ABOVE MENTIONED ABILITIES? ?YES or ?NO ___ "Stop asking these questions and do it already!" Arnold couldn''t contain his excitement anymore. For the first time in his life, he was feeling aplished and powerful, as if he was addicted to this feeling. Every time he learned an ability his body felt refreshed, like a weird but soothing aura had covered him. He continued learning new abilities for the night. ***** THE NEXT MORNING "It''ll be suspicious if I suddenly have various brand new affinities. If anyone discovered the truth who knows what the council would do to me. They''ll definitely take the ability books for a start. I should sell what I can, but I shouldn''t go to the official guild approved merchants that might cause some trouble for me, thankfully I know a couple of traders from the ck market who''ll be willing to help me out." Arnold thought. He then got up from the bed, grabbed 4 ability books including the one which had ice abilities and got ready to head outside. When he was about to open the door another message popped up. ___ DAILY QUESTS : ? GETTING STRONGER (1): [ INTRODUCTION ]: You are undernourished you need to consume more calories. [ TASK ]: Consume food items to gain: 3000 calories. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/3000 calories consumed. ? GETTING STRONGER (2): [ INTRODUCTION ]: Your body has low resistance towards abnormalities. Increase your physical and mental resistance. [ TASK ]: Exercise for 2 hours, run 3 km and stay in nk position for 5 minutes. [ PROGRESS ] : Exercise duration (in hours): 0/2 Running (in KM): 0/3 nk duration (in minutes) : 0/5 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 50 EXP ? 3 Attribute points ? 2 Potential points [ PENALTY FOR NOT COMPLETING THE QUESTS ] : ? -25 EXP ? -20% debuff on all stats (debuff would be active till tomorrow). ___ "This keeps getting weirder... whatever I''ll check it outter. First off I need to sell these books and then head to the hospital. Good thing I got suspended from the guild. Now I have lots of free time!" Arnold headed towards the ck market, the ce where the traders operated. Not a single ''respected'' person from the society ever entered the alley known as Everbury Avenue, which made it a perfect ce to do illegal deals. Everything was avable in this ce. From weapons and armours to bio enhancement and ves. One could buy anything they like as long as they have sufficient money and resources. It was the perfect ce to secretly sell ability books. "Hey, Jacob. How''s business?" Arnold asked the shopkeeper of the shop. "Hey yourself midget. What do you have for me today?" Jacob replied. Jacob looked like a pirate out of The Pirates of the Caribbean. He only had one brown eye the other was covered by an eye patch, He had a tannedplexion, he wore his curly light brown hair loosely about the shoulders. He always wore a pair of long trousers, a tunic with short sleeves, and a pair of sandals. He had quite a number of scars on his face and was especially known for his unusual beard. "A warm wee, as usual, I see... here take a look at these." Arnold dumped everything on the counter. "A couple of beast crystals and... ho ho ho, Christmas came early this year." Jacob''s eyes were shining with greed when he saw the ability books. "What type of abilities do they have?" "Earth, wind, water, and Ice." "Okay. I''ll pay, 30 dors each for the crystals, 800 for the Earth, Wind, and Water ability books and 3000 for the ice one." Jacob said stroking his beard. "50 for the crystals, 1100 each for the basic ability books and 4500 for the ice ability book. You can easily sell the ice ability book for 6000 or more." Given Jacob''s appearance, many people would think that it''ll be difficult to deal with someone like him. But in reality, all one had to do was to act tough and sooner orter, he''ll give up and agree to buy or sell it at your price, And Arnold knew all about it. "What do you think it is, a daylight robbery?" "That''s the price. Take it or leave it." Arnold said and started gathering the books one by one. "Damn it, alright I''ll take it, but for 4100 for the ability book. Even I have to earn some profit here!" "Deal!" With it 7500 modern dors in his pocket, Arnold headed towards the hospital. He could finally buy another dose of medicines and drugs for Nicole. He reached the hospital, paid 5000 for a small dose of Andrea drugs and headed towards his sister''s room. Seeing that Nicole was fast asleep, he caressed her head for a while. Soon the doctor and couple of nurses came to inject the medicine in her body. After it was done, Arnold headed back to his t. He usually took the bus to get to the bus stop near his home but this time he decides to run instead. The distance from the hospital to his t was more than three kilometres, this he could easilyplete one of the tasks but he wanted to get some food first, after all, he needed to have some calories to burn them, right? He went to a cheap roadside restaurant and ordered two doublerge patty hamburgers with extra cheese and fries which cost him around 13 dors. This was the reason why he picked a roadside restaurant, they were cheap and the food was full of calories. After he finished eating the hamburgers, a notification popped up. ___ ? GETTING STRONGER (1): [ INTRODUCTION ]: You are undernourished you need to consume more calories. [ TASK ]: Consume food items to gain: 3000 calories. [ PROGRESS ] : 1050/3000 calories consumed ___ "It actually works!" After seeing the notification, he wanted to eat more but he was doubtful if he''d be able to run 3 kilometres after that. In the end, he decided to pay for the food and leave. **** "I... never... thought running three... kilometres would be so... tiring." Arnold was standing having his hands on his knees and was breathing heavily. ___ ? GETTING STRONGER (2): [ INTRODUCTION ]: Your body has low resistance towards abnormalities. Increase your physical and mental resistance. [ TASK ]: Exercise for 2 hours, run 3 km and stay in nk position for 5 minutes. [ PROGRESS ] : Exercise duration (in hours ): 0/2 Running (in KM): 3.57/3 nk duration (in minutes) : 0/5 ___ "I should... check the stats... while in resting." He just thought and the main interface opened up in front of him. ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE: None LEVEL : 3 RANK: E SPECIAL SKILL: ??????? AFFINITY: Ice (Wind and Water), Earth HP: 130/130 MANA: 120/120 EXP: 0/100 STRENGTH (STR) : 10 STAMINA (STA) : 11 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 10 AGILITY (AGI) : 11 ACCURACY (ACC) : 9 EVADE (EVD) : 8 CHARISMA (CHA): 5 ABILITIES : ? [ESSENCE OF LIFE] (lvl: 1) ? [POSEIDON''S BLESSING] (lvl : 1) ? [STATIC RAGE] (lvl : 1) ? [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 1) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 1) ? [ICY VEIL] (lvl: 1) ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM] (lvl : 1) ? [FROZEN LANCE] (lvl: 1) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : EARTH] (lvl : 1) ? [WILL OF EARTH] (lvl: 1) ? [??????] (lvl : MAX) Status : locked ___ "Just 5 charisma? Ouch. Looks like I went overboard on learning abilities as well. I better be careful from now or else someone might get suspicious about it all." Arnold said studying the interface. "There are some hidden skills as well... I wonder what it''s about?" ___ YOU CAN UNLOCK THOSE SKILLS BY LEVELING UP OR BY ACHIEVING A SPECIFIC CONDITION/REQUIREMENT ___ "That solves one problem. I assume you''re not going to tell me what the conditions are, right?" Arnold asked the ''system'' and waited for a reply but nothing happened, so he carried on withpleting the daily quests. Chapter 4 - Worth ___ DAILY QUESTS :?? COMPLETED ? GETTING STRONGER (1): [ INTRODUCTION ]: You are undernourished you need to consume more calories. [ TASK ]: Consume food items to gain: 3000 calories. [ PROGRESS ]: 3109/3000 calories consumed. ? GETTING STRONGER (2): [ INTRODUCTION ]: Your body has low resistance towards abnormalities. Increase your physical and mental resistance. [ TASK ]: Exercise for 2 hours, run 2 km and stay in nk position for 5 minutes. [ PROGRESS ] : Exercise duration (in hours): 2/2 Running (in KM): 3.57/3 nk duration (in minutes): 5/5 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 50 EXP ? 3 Attribute points ? 2 Potential points ___ "im," Arnold said, grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat off him. ?You''ve gained 50 EXP. Current EXP: 50/100? ?You''ve gained 3 attributes points? ?You''ve gained 2 potential points? "I pretty much know what the attribute points are for but how do I use the ''potential'' points?" ___ ___ "I''ve got a passive that increases HP every time I level up so using potential points to increase HP, would be a waste. However... I don''t know whether the mana would increase as I level up as well..." Arnold was in deep thought about what to do with the potential points he had when another system message popped up. ___ Since no MOULDING ABILITIES are found which can increase your mana. The system will use the standard increasing rate. STANDARD MANA INCREASE: 100 per 5 levels gained. ___ "But that''s way too slow! I wouldn''t be able to use my skills freely this way." Heined, but none of his cries were heard. "I need to find one of these ''Moulding abilities'' which can increase the mana, but till then I''ll have to keep using potential points to increase the mana." Seeing no other way to increase the mana, Arnold decided to use a potential point to increase his mana. ?1 Potential point used on ? ?Mana increased by 100 points? ?Current Mana: 220? "I should level up some skills as well, but then I have so many skills that I want to level up..." He opened his skill list and analysed the listed skills. "So far the only S rank ability I have is [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FROST GOLEM], ording to the description when this ability is used it summons 4 Frost Golems and these can be used for a variety of uses. This looks good." He then used thest potential point he had, to level up the ability. ?1 Potential point used? ?The ability : [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FROST GOLEM] has been upgraded? ?[ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FROST GOLEM] is now at Level 2? "I''ve got a week to level up my abilities..." An evil smile appeared on his face. ***** A WEEK LATER... ___ You''ve levelled up! Current level: 11 Your rank has been increased to D You''ve achieved a new rank. Rewards : ALL STATS : + 10 ___ The reason he was able to level up so fast was because of the random side quests that the system kept on giving him. Mostly these missions were easy to aplish and gave a high amount of experience as rewards. "Open the interface." Although Arnold had alreadypleted the daily quest, he was still doing push-ups, because he had found a hidden function of the system which made his stats increase faster. He observed that if he carried on with the exercise, running and other stuff even after the limit was reached, he could gain additional attribute points which were automatically added to some specific stats. For example, for every additional kilometre he ran, he got 2 points of agility, for every additional hour he exercised, he gained 2 points of strength and he got an additional point of stamina for every extra minute he could nk for. Apart from these random gains, he also noticed at every time he levelled up, he gained 4 attribute points and 2 potential points, which he had saved till now and was nning to use them once he ranked up to D. ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE: None LEVEL: 11 RANK : D SPECIAL SKILL: ??????? AFFINITY: Ice (Wind and Water), Earth HP: 930/930 MANA: 420/420 EXP: 0/500 STRENGTH (STR) : 32 STAMINA (STA) : 30 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 20 AGILITY (AGI) : 35 ACCURACY (ACC) : 19 EVADE (EVD) : 18 CHARISMA (CHA): 15 ABILITIES : ? [ESSENCE OF LIFE] (lvl: 1) ? [POSEIDON''S BLESSING] (lvl : 1) ? [STATIC RAGE] (lvl : 1) ? [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 1) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 1) ? [ICY VEIL] (lvl: 1) ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM] (lvl : 2) ? [FROZEN LANCE] (lvl : 1) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : EARTH] (lvl : 1) ? [WILL OF EARTH] (lvl : 1) ? [??????] (lvl : MAX) Status : locked ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING: 53 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING: 30 ___ After pondering for some time, he decided to be a mage since he had so many spells that can cause a high amount of damage to his enemies. So he used 20 attribute points to increase his intelligence to 40 as intelligence was one of the core attributes for mages, he added another 11 points to improve his uracy to 30, 12 points to increase his evasion to 30 and the remaining 10 points to increase his charm to 25. To solve the issue of mana, he used 10 potential points to increase his mana by 1000 points and as for the abilities, he left it to the system. "Use the remaining potential points to level up the abilities. Prioritise ice abilities first, then the ones having a higher rank. Be sure to upgrade every ability at least one time." He ordered the system. ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. Calibrating... Calibrating... Calibrating... After the sessful allocation of points your abilities will be as follows: ? [ESSENCE OF LIFE] (lvl : 2) ? [POSEIDON''S BLESSING] (lvl : 3) ? [STATIC RAGE] (lvl : 3) ? [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 2) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 3) ? [ICY VEIL] (lvl : 3) ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM] (lvl : 4) ? [FROZEN LANCE] (lvl : 3) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : EARTH] (lvl : 3) ? [WILL OF EARTH] (lvl : 3) ? [??????] (lvl : MAX) Status : locked PROCEED WITH ALLOTMENT? ? Yes or ?No ___ "Do it," he answered and got up to go and shower. ___ Your abilities have been upgraded. ___ He proceeded towards the shower but then he got a phone call from the guild manager, who informed him about his disciplinary trial. "Why are they so stressed about it all? Wasn''t suspending me for a week enough?" Saying that he was annoyed would''ve been the understatement of the year. Anyway, he had to go to the guild so he took a quick shower, wore the same clothes he had when he went to meet Nicole, and headed towards the guild. ***** When he reached the guild, he saw the party he was a member of, entering the guild headquarters. Most probably they were returning after clearing a dungeon because they were all wearing their battle gear. EL saw Arnold and started berating him in front of everyone. Since EL was like a golden child for the guild, no one tried to stop him except Alice, who said something to EL and everyone quietly went inside the meeting room where Arnold''s disciplinary trial was about to take ce. Alice then walked towards him. She looked really beautiful in her white and ck maiden gear. Her red hairplimented her green eyes and her fairplexion. She was also one of the only people who knew about his sister and even offered to help him many times but Arnold always declined because he didn''t want to shove his burden onto someone else. "Hi Arnold!" she said cheerfully, "have you been working out recently?" "A little bit..." He replied scratching the back of his head, a tinge of red could be seen on his cheeks, "So you guys went to clear a dungeon?" "Yeah, nothing special just a green dungeon that popped up close by." "That''s cool..." "You guys areing inside or NOT!" The manager shouted from the gate of the meeting room, after that, they headed quietly into the room. It was very dark inside the room but several chairs could be seen being lined up next to each other. Several people were sitting on them and were waiting for Arnold to enter the room. The moment Arnold walked in, severalmps lit up. "Thank you foring on such short notice, Mr Ling," The man sitting in the middle chair spoke up, "I''m John Beckett, Vice president, of the Flying swords. Today you''ve been called here to discuss a couple of things. First of all, let''s talk about the little stunt you pulled a week ago, I personally think you should be ashamed of your behaviour and you should apologise to EL and the others. But James, the guild manager, told me that you''ve already been punished for it so I can''t really do anything about it, and you can consider the problem to be over, thus you can join the guild and work starting tomorrow "Secondly, and the main reason I''ve summoned you here is regarding your sister and her treatment. Miguel, a warrior from your party, needs the facilities that the government hospital can provide, but sadly they cannot take even one patient who is suffering from Andrea syndrome. So the higher-ups have decided that, since you''re not worthy or as important as Miguel for us, we''ll have to discharge your sister from the hospital so that Miguel''s father can avail the faculty and treatment instead. "We''re sorry for the sudden announcement, but we won''t be providing any kind of support to your sis-" "You want to know my worth..." Arnold interrupted the vice president. "Sorry? Could you repeat what you said?" "I said, you want to know my worth?" Arnold calmly repeated himself. All of a sudden, the temperature inside the room started to drop and slowly got covered in ice and snow. Everyone was confused about what was going on. Everyone was shivering due to the cold, but the only one who seemed unaffected by the cold was Arnold. "I''ll show you exactly what my worth is!" Chapter 5 - Duel A mysterious cold atmosphere spread throughout the room, and a group of ck shadows came out of the ice below Arnold''s feet. The height of the creatures kept increasing and by the time they stopped growing, they were already about 8 feet tall. They simply stood there as if waiting for someone to give amand. Arnold opened his mouth to say something but before he could, his face was pressed against the ground and the golems were already destroyed. It all happened in an instant. Arnold tried to look up and see who it was, but his head was firmly pressed against the floor so he couldn''t see who was holding him down.?? "DAD DON''T!" Alice shrieked spiriting towards Arnold. "Alice, don''t you dare interfere in this matter." The vice president replied. Then it hit him. The Vice President was one is the three S+ ranked warrior of Flying Swords. He was also known as John ''The Lightning Dragon'' Beckett. A 47-year-old, front line warrior. Most of his hobbies included watching theatre and ying chess. His powers were second only to the guild leader. He was strong and intelligent, to say the least, but could also be very standoffish and a bit violent. "Dad, please let him go!" Alice pleaded once again. "Fine, Fine. But if he pulls another trick like that I won''t spare a moment to crush him like the insect he is." John said finally letting Arnold go. Arnold got up and looked at the vice president. Physically, he was in pretty good shape. He is very tall with olive skin, golden hair and green eyes, the same colour as Alice''s but they didn''t have a bit of warmth that hers had. "Are you alright?" Alice asked while healing the bruises on his neck. "I''m fine." He smacked her hand away. "The only reason I was staying in this guild was for the treatment of my sister and since that''s not the case anymore, I''m leaving the guild." He said walking towards the exit, he had barely taken a step when the vice president spoke up. "About that, why don''t the two of you have the duel? The winner would get the slot for the treatment." He said, before taking out a cigarette. "What do you say?" Everyone was shocked about it. Why would the vice president even suggest something like that! Even though Miguel was only a D+ ranked warrior, he was still an important member of the team and his family''s well being was more important than that of a mere Porter! But John wasn''t thinking about it anymore, for him a mage having Ice affinity was very important, as there was not a single mage who excelled in using ice abilities in the guild. It had always been a sore point for the guild''s reputation as Ice abilities were always looked up to and were counted as one of the rarest elemental abilities. Thus even though Arnold''s abilities weren''t really great, he could still be an asset for the guild in the future and letting him leave like that would be a terrible mistake. And that''s why he suggested the duel. "You want me to have a duel with a pipsqueak like him?" Miguel shouted. Even if he wasn''t the strongest in his team, he was still way better than a Porter! How can the vice president even suggest something like this? It was an attack in his honour! "If he is a pipsqueak, you shouldn''t have a problem with showing him his ce right? Don''t tell me you''re afraid you''ll lose against him?" John mocked him while enjoying the cigarette in his mouth. "Of course not! Let''s do it then!" Miguel said mming his fists onto one another. Seeing that this was his only chance to save his sister, Arnold immediately agreed and everyone headed to the training room. The training room was especiallyrge and was made of special material do that the room could stand the battle against superhumans. It was purely made up of self-repairing white marbles and ceramic, such that even if the walls got cracked they could immediately repair themselves in an instant. Several tforms were surrounding the room which acted as seats for spectators. Both Arnold and Miguel were standing in them at different corners of the room while the others were watching from the tform. "Crush the arrogant idiot, Miguel!" EL shouted. Seeing him cheering on Miguel everyone else joined in. On the other hand, Alice could only hope that Arnold would win, although she seriously doubted that he''ll be able to. "Competitors ready?" The guild manager asked both of them, to which they nodded. "Fight!" Miguel didn''t waste a second to attack Arnold. Miguel was one of the fastest warriors the guild had, and since Arnold wasn''t wearing any armour everyone thought he was done for, but in reality, Miguel''s actions were extremely slow, it was as if something easy holding him back. Even Miguel was confused about it until he saw what had happened. The entire room was covered in ice just like it was back in the meeting room and hence his speed was slowed down. The others realised it soon as well, the pipsqueak mage had already activated his spell. They all looked at Arnold who was calm and collected, and the next moment, fivences made of ice appeared behind him out of nowhere. ***** MOMENTS EARLIER... ___ You''ve entered inbat with a superhuman. PROBABILITY OF WINNING: 38.54% REWARDS FOR WINNING : ? 1000 EXP ? HIDDEN REWARD ___ "I don''t care about the rewards. I''m doing this for my sister." He murmured and activated [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ], summoning a field of ice. With the amount of mana he had now, he could freely use his spells to suppress the enemy. ?CURRENT MANA: 1110/1370? [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ] had a variety of uses, but its primary function was to slow down the enemies. After going into countless dungeons with Miguel and the others, he knew their strengths and weaknesses by heart, that''s why he knew that if he wanted to win, he''ll have to do something about Miguel''s agility. Once this was aplished, Arnold used [ FROZEN LANCE ] to summon five frozennces to finish him off. He started throwing them towards Miguel one after another, but he managed to dodge them all even with his slowed agility. The others started cheering him on once again. Once he was close enough, Miguel leapt in the air, furiously mming down his on Arnold, who in return once again used [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ] and raised a wall of ice to protect him from the blow. Miguel''s sword managed to shatter the wall upon impact but to his surprise the was a second wall behind the first one, but it wasn''t made of ice... it was made of the earth! Everyone was as surprised as him. It was quite rare for a mage to be able to wield two types of elemental magic. "This is interesting." The vice president smiled, stroking his beard. Arnold predicted that Miguel might break through the wall and hence used [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: EARTH ] to conjure a second wall of earth behind the first one. ?CURRENT MANA: 920/1370? But Miguel wasn''t done yet and jumped over the wall of earth and managed to kick Arnold on his chest, who got off-bnced and fell. He tried to get up as fast as he could but Miguel was faster and kept attacking him with his sword and kicks, Arnold''s HP started decreasing. He had wounds and bruises all over his body. He was getting wrecked. EL and the others were happy seeing Arnold''s condition. Little did they know it was all ording to Arnold''s n. Since Miguel was able to dodge his ranged attacks he decided to lure him in instead and let him think that he was winning so that he would get overconfident and make some kind of mistake, and Miguel feel right in his trap, as soon as his health dropped below 20%, a message appeared in front of him. ___ Your HP has dropped below 20%. The ability [ WILL OF EARTH ] has been activated, increasing your defences and making you invincible for 5 seconds. ___ This was the thing he was waiting for. As soon as this message appeared, Arnold activated the ability [ ESSENCE OF LIFE ] to gain half of his HP back. ?CURRENT MANA: 860/1370? Miguel was shocked to see that the wounds he had given to Arnold were slowly healing back as if nothing had happened to him at all! He frantically started swinging his sword at him but then something grabbed his sword. He looked back and saw four giant-like creatures were standing behind him. He looked down at Arnold who spat some blood out of his mouth. ?CURRENT MANA: 460/1370? "Looks like its the hunter''s turn to be hunted now." Arnold nodded and the four golems immediately started plummeting Miguel down like he was a mosquito. Everyone was shocked to see the sheer power disyed by the golems. Miguel was trying his best to defend himself but he was failing miserably at it. The golems only stopped once Arnold ordered them to. Once their job waspleted they melted and became one with the ice around them. After the golems disappeared everyone could see the status Miguel was in. Large chunks of his armour were missing, even his sword was snapped in two parts, numerous wounds were visible on his body. He couldn''t even lift a finger. Everyone was silent. The silence was broken by the sounds of pping everyone turned around to see who dared to mock their ''fallen''rade, but they couldn''t do anything because it was the vice president who pping at Arnold''s performance. "The kid has some potential after all..." The vice president said. He nned on making Arnold the winner by secretly interfering in the duel so that the other won''t be able to question him and he''ll be able to make Arnold stay, but in the end, he didn''t need to anything. EL and the others rushed to check on Miguel''s condition. It wasn''t critical but he had two broken ribs, both of his arms were broken as well and his left shoulder was dislocated. Alice didn''t waste any time and started healing him. Everyone else was shooting dirty looks at Arnold but he didn''t care, he would neverpromise when it came to his sister''s well being. ___ You sessfully defeated a ranked warrior. REWARDS FOR WINNING : ? 1000 EXP ? HIDDEN REWARD ___ Chapter 6 - New Contract _____________________________ You sessfully defeated a ranked warrior.?? REWARDS FOR WINNING : ? 1000 EXP ? HIDDEN REWARD ___________________________ "im." ____________________________ You''ve levelled up! Current level: 12 Rewards : ? 4 Attribute points ? 2 Potential points You''ve levelled up! Current level: 13 Rewards : ? 4 Attribute points ? 2 Potential points Please choose one of the following as your hidden reward. Remember, the choice you make is irreversible and choosing a certain path will unlock the skill tree for that path which can be expanded by using potential points. Each path has some unique abilities and attributes hence make your choice carefully. ? [BLACK SHAMAN]: The ck shaman is a mage who practice magic which is offensive and dangerous. They also excel in the art of necromancy and ck magic. The ss also has the ability to wield non-magical weapons, like knife and daggers, and have various skills in the skill tree for this purpose. They are also called magic assassins. ? [COSMIC CREATIONIST]: They practice divination, which helps them predict future events or uncover hidden knowledge, which it often is. They also control magic creates faux life, including Golems, Simcrums and automatons. These ss of mages are unable to wield any non-magical weapons but have the ability to create magical weapons for themselves and can wield only these weapons. ? [BATTLEMAGE]: A wizard who specialises inbat magics, usually employed by an armed force. Some can masterrge-scale magics that epass the battlefield. These type magicians excel at head-on fights as well as standard mage tactics. They can also use non-magical weapons but the weapons need to be enchanted by an Artificer. ____________________________ Arnold took the system''s advice and decided to take some time before choosing a path. After all, it was the first time he had been offered to make such a choice, he couldn''t risk making a choice in haste and then regret about itter. He closed the interface, he saw the vice president walking towards him. "That was quite a wonderful fight." He said, "as promised, we''ll take care of your sister and there''s no need to move her out of the hospital." Arnold nodded in reply. "I''d like to discuss a few more things with you, but it looks like you''ll be needing some clothes first." Arnold looked down to see that his shirt was torn from the ces where Miguel had managed to hit him with his sword. Arnold cursed Miguel under his breath. This was the only shirt he owned and now it has been destroyed. What the hell is he supposed to wear next time when he meets Nicole. "Um... that would be a problem. I don''t have a second set of clothes." Arnold blurted out and the vice president startedughing. "Don''t worry kid, the guild has got it all covered. Alice, could you show him the way to the armoury?" He then turned towards Arnold and continued, "There are some sponsored clothes there, you can have them. I''ll be in my office,e there once you''re done and we''ll have a chat." The vice president then turned and left without saying another word to anyone else. After she was done with healing Miguel''s injuries, Alice approached Arnold. "Let''s go," she said. "Lead the way." He replied. ***** "So since when did you have ice affinity?" Alice asked casually. "For quite some time." "Then why were doing a porter''s job, if I may ask?" "Because my abilities weren''t strong enough..." "And suddenly they are strong?" "Not suddenly. I used to practice every day." After they had reached the guild''s armoury, Alice left Arnold inside so that he could change, and waited outside while he changed. She wanted to keep quiet and wait for Arnold but she couldn''t. Even if his abilities weren''t super strong, ice abilities were rare and this made him special. No wonder her dad gave him a second chance against Miguel. She wanted to know more about the abilities and hence kept asking questions and Arnold kept lying, to protect his secret. "Why did you-" She was about to ask yet another question but before she could finish, Arnold walked out of the armoury, sporting a full sleeve ck T-shirt having neon green stripes on the sleeves, the words ''Flying Swords'' were printed on the back with the same neon green stripes. The shirt was perfectly hugging his new muscles even though he didn''t have much. Arnold snapped his fingers in front of Alice''s eyes. "You there?" he asked. "Yeah, you look good." She replied, her cheeks had a reddish glow in them. "Thanks but that''s not what I asked." Arnold scratched the back of his head, "I asked if you could show me where the Vice President''s office was." Realising what just happened, she got even more flustered and quickly turned around. "Um... yeah, j-just follow me." Arnold did what he was told to and they soon reached John''s office. The door of the office opened, and Arnold saw the vice president sitting on the sofa with crossed legs, staring at him faintly. Arnold could not help but hold his breath. The room was filled with the vice president''s overwhelming aura. "Come, sit." John offered Arnold a seat, "Thank you, Alice, you can leave now. I''ll like to talk with Mr Ling alone if you don''t mind." "No problem sir, I''ll be on my way," Alice replied and walked out of the room, closing the doors behind her. "I won''t waste our time, so allow me to cut to the chase." He cleared his throat before speaking again, "I''m amazed by your performance, Mr Ling, and I''d like you to join our guild not as a porter but as a warrior. The terms and condition for it are written in this contract here. Feel free to read through it and ask any questions you have." He said, tossing a folder towards Arnold. Arnold picked up the contract and skimmed through it. It was a great contact, he would be paid around 8000 modern dors per week, he''ll be given a new ce to live and the guild will take care of his daily necessities as well! All he had to do was to participate in at least 4 dungeons runs in a week and practice to improve his abilities under the guidance of the vice president himself. In short, the vice president wanted to make him his prodigy and an asset to the guild! It was like a dreame true for someone like Arnold. "Is this for real?" He looked at John who smiled and nodded. "The pay and other benefits would increase as your level and rank increases. If you sign the contract, we''ll have to use the PRSD once again and determine your power levels before we can proceed with the training and other stuff. So do you ept the new contract?" Arnold got lost in his thoughts. ept the contract? Not like I have any other way to pay for Nicole treatment. I could try to join a new guild, with my abilities it wouldn''t be a problem. But the recruitment process of guilds could take many months and I don''t have the funds to carry on with Nicole''s treatment during this time... first I need to save money and once I have enough money I''ll leave this shi*ty guild and it''s shi*ty people once and for all but right now Nicole''s treatment is my priority, and the vice president knows it well, this Basta*d. I''ll teach you all a lesson soon enough, just you wait. "Thank you for the opportunity," Arnold said and signed the contract. ''Thanks my ass...'' "Wee aboard!" John extended his hand out and gave him a handshake not knowing what Arnold was nning. Chapter 7 - First Mission (1) Alice was waiting for Arnold outside John''s office. She was wondering whether her dad was able to make him stay or not, she was about to peep inside when the doors leading to her father''s office, opened up and both of them walked out. Arnold couldn''t look happier, just as he was about to leave he saw Alice and went ahead and told her about the good news, even she was happy for him as she knew about the hardships he had endured for the sake of his sister and from the money he''ll get now, Nicole''s treatment would be more effective. Just as they were happily chatting, the guildmunicator on their wrist started vibrating, indicating there was a notification. They both looked at themunicator, they were urgently called for a dungeon mission. No details were given, they were simply asked to report near the guild''s entrance.?? "Emergency mission?" Arnold looked at Alice, hoping that she''d know something about it. "I don''t know. But it should be something like that." She replied as they both rushed to the gate. When they reached near the gate, everyone else including the guild manager James, was already present there. Everyone was already wearing their gears, but no one paid any attention to Arnold, he was an outcast after all. Seeing that every one of the 12 man team was already there, James started speaking. "A blue dungeon gate has appeared near the Everdes. Since ites within our territory, the mayor has requested us to kill every monster in there, the detailed report has been sent to yourmunicators, you can refer to it if you want more information about it." He said sternly and looked at Arnold, "Since it is a new experience for you and we don''t have a spare porter right now, you''ll continue as a porter and only observe for today." Of course, the guild had spare porters but Arnold knew it very well that the guild master was forcing him to do the job so that he could humiliate him and make the others feel better by making him feel helpless. Everyone wasughing at him right now, especially EL and Miguel. "You just need someone to carry it right?" Arnold asked James. "Well that''s what a porter does," he replied smirking like the others. Even if the vice president had appointed Arnold as a warrior, they would never treat him like one. "Great then!" Arnold smiled. Everyone was confused at Arnold''s behaviour before they saw the creature standing behind him. It was a frost golem. "If carrying the bag is the only thing to do then he is perfect for the job," Arnold said patting the golem on his back, no was smirking anymore. Arnold sessfully outyed everyone else. He ordered to golem to take care of the bag and the items. Everyone got into the vehicles provided by the guild and headed towards the Everdes national park. Arnold was about to enter the park when a thought hit him. He hadn''t picked a ss yet. He quickly opened the tab, and after pondering for a while he decided to pick [COSMIC CREATIONIST] ss as it had the most useful abilities like foresight and weapon creation. _________________________ You''ve chosen [COSMIC CREATIONIST] ss. UPGRADING... UPGRADING... UPGRADING... Your ss has been sessfully upgraded! New functions unlocked! ? SHOP ? FORGE You have learned new abilities: ? [FORESIGHT] : (Active ability) After using this skill, you can immediately see some broken version of future however this future is not certain and can change. The duration of the skill is one minute, and you can only use this skill thrice a day. [ Rank: A+ ] [Mana cost: 200 per use] ? [PROBE] : (Active ability) This skill can be used on any target such as items, weapons, monsters, humans etc. When used, the user gains the ability to know about the level, rank, abilities and some other basic information of the target. The information provided will be decided by the difference in rank and level of the user and the target. [ Rank : D] ? [ENHANCEMENT] : (Active ability) This is a type of support spell which can temporarily or permanently enhance (depends on the user''s level and rank) weapon and gears. This buff can be used on both yourself and your allies. One item can only be boosted once in a day, and the duration of the buff varies from gear to gear. [ Rank: B ] [Mana cost: 100 per use] _________________________ "It''s a shame I don''t have any gear to use the [ENHANCEMENT] spell on..." He looked back and saw the golem taking out the bags and carrying the necessities. Arnold had an idea, he walked back towards the golem, ced his hands in its chest. _________________________ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! HP: 1400/1400 STRENGTH (STR) : 62 STAMINA (STA) : 50 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 20 AGILITY (AGI) : 30 ACCURACY (ACC) : 30 EVADE (EVD) : 50 BUFF: Level and rank of increased. LEVEL: 28 RANK: C STRENGTH (STR) increased to 70 Duration: Temporary buff. Lasts for 2 hours. _________________________ His guess was right! He could enhance the golems as well. He used the skill for the first time and the buff received by the golem was already overpowered. Even though Arnold pretty much knew that with his current level, the enhancement wouldn''t be a permanent one, seeing the stats of the golem made him crave for more. Golem had changed physically as well. He was taller and bulkier than before. But the most noticeable change was his two additional arms. Everyone who saw this only had one thing in their minds, "Who the hell is Arnold!?" Not only did he had ice and earth affinity, but he could also use support spells. The person who was shocked the most was Miguel, after losing the fight, the only closure he had was thinking that at least he was able to push Arnold to give it all he had, but seeing him using support spells took away the little bit of closure he had. As he was staring at Arnold, Arnold was staring back at him too, Miguel suddenly felt ufortable and quickly averted his gaze. Little did he know Arnold was using his [PROBE] skill on him. After using the skill, a system message was shown in front of him. _________________________ NAME: Miguel Garc¨ªa (Human) LEVEL: 21 RANK: D+ ROLE: Swordsman AFFINITY/ABILITIES: Basic sword skill HP: 1150/1150 STRENGTH (STR) : 48 STAMINA (STA) : 42 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 31 AGILITY (AGI) : 59 ACCURACY (ACC) : 40 EVADE (EVD) : 36 CHARISMA (CHA): 28 THREAT LEVEL: No threat REMARK: Nothing special about him. Handling people of his level is a piece of cake for you/your summon. _________________________ "We will now enter the dungeon! Make sure your gear is in proper condition and that you''re prepared both mentally and physically. This is just a blue dungeon, meaning most of the monsters inside, except the dungeon boss will be of rank C at most thus dealing with them won''t be a problem." Ricardo, the party leader roared at the top of his lungs, everyone nodded and checked their gears once again. after checking his gear Ricardo walked towards Arnold. "Here take this, it''s a video device which sends the video feed to the guild''s server. And good luck for your first dungeon trip as a warrior." "Thanks." Arnold took the small button like device and pinned it on his chest. As Ricardo had exined, this device was used to record an individual''s POV (Point Of View) inside the dungeon, this is how if a guild''s member discovers something, the guild would immediately inform the media houses about its discovery. Only warriors were given the device as it was quite expensive and who would want to see a porter''s POV anyway. After setting up everything they entered the dungeon. Chapter 8 - First Mission (2) The guild members entered the dungeon one after another with Ricardo and other tanks leading the charge. The dungeon itself wasn''t unique and had the standard structure that most of the dungeons had. The only odd thing was the crystals present in the walls which were illuminating the surroundings. As they moved further into the unknown, most of them were rxed because their rank was above dungeon grade. But for some like Arnold who was at D or D+ rank, it wasn''t that easy. However, Arnold could summon frost golems to save him if he needed so it wasn''t that tense for him. "Wolves!" Ashley, one of the four tanks whispered after seeing a pack of 14 wolves roaming around. These were no ordinary wolves either they could transform and when they used this ability their stats got a significant boost. But they got lucky because these wolves had ckish-brown fur signifying that they were weaker than normal wolves who had grey fur and were kind of tough to deal with, whereas the wolves having white fur were the most dangerous because apart from transforming, they had other hidden abilities as well.?? "Tanks take the position and aggravate the wolves, mages be ready to attack, EL prepare-" while Ricardo was still giving orders to others the wolf had already sensed them and were about to attack an unguarded mage who was standing further away from everyone else, Ricardo rushed to tackle down the wolf but his speed was too slow, he wouldn''t reach there in time. The mage also saw the wolf and was madly chanting defensive spells at herself, but the defence wasn''t her strong suit and everyone knew that. Just when the wolf was about to sh the mage with its w, suddenly a wall appeared in front of her. The wolf couldn''t lose its momentum and before it could do anything numerous spikes appeared on the wall. The wolf mmed hard into the spiky wall. The spikes prated the wolf''s body at various ces, the wolf whined in pain for a couple of moments before dying. Everyone turned around to look at the only person in their team who had the ability to manipte earth. "What are you looking at? Kill the rest of them!" Arnold barked at the others. Alice smiled and went to check on the mage while the others dealt with the rest of the wolves. Arnold managed to kill two more wolves, he then ordered the golem to collect the crystals from the carcass of the wolves. Killing one wolf gave him 150 EXP thus he was almost level 14. After the fight was over the mage rushed over to Arnold. "Thank you for saving me. I was wrong about you, I hope you can forgive me." She said, her gaze fixed at the ground. She knew that the wolf itself wasn''t high levelled and wouldn''t have been able to kill her but then again she didn''t want to test the theory. "I just got lucky... please be careful next time..." he replied and walked away. After resting for a minute or so, they decided to venture deeper inside the dungeon, soon they entered a clearing. It was arge room made of ck and blue rocks. In front of them, there were three different passages. They had stopped there to divide the party into three so that they could cover more ground. Arnold was to team up with Alice, Ricardo and EL. It was decided that the team which finds the boss room would immediately notify the others through themunicators and wait for the others to arrive. The boss was most probably of B rank, hence no one was to act on their own. With this the teams parted ways, Ashley''s team headed inside the passage on the right while the team which Miguel was a part of head into the passage in the middle. Arnold''s team went inside the left passage. ***** "Damn it! Themunicators aren''t working in here. Who knows what''s happening with the others." Ricardo loudly cursed the dungeon. So far they had to fight four groups of monsters each of them was either of E or D ranked monsters and hence were immediately dealt with. Arnold even managed to level up by two levels. But then all of a sudden the monsters stopped appearing, although it was suspicious, it wasn''t like they could do anything about it. Seeing that he had nothing else to do, Arnold decided to increase his attributes by using the saved up attribute points and opened up the main interface. _________________________ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE: None LEVEL: 15 RANK : D SPECIAL SKILL: ??????? AFFINITY: Ice (Wind and Water), Earth HP: 1330/1330 MANA: 1470/1470 EXP: 320/500 STRENGTH (STR) : 33 STAMINA (STA) : 35 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 40 AGILITY (AGI) : 35 ACCURACY (ACC) : 35 EVADE (EVD) : 35 CHARISMA (CHA): 25 ABILITIES : ? [ESSENCE OF LIFE] (lvl: 2) ? [POSEIDON''S BLESSING] (lvl : 3) ? [STATIC RAGE] (lvl : 3) ? [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 2) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 3) ? [ICY VEIL] (lvl : 3) ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FROST GOLEM] (lvl: 4) ? [FROZEN LANCE] (lvl : 3) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : EARTH] (lvl : 3) ? [WILL OF EARTH] (lvl : 3) ? [??????] (lvl : MAX) Status : locked ? [FORESIGHT] (lvl : 3) ? [PROBE] (lvl : 2) ? [ENHANCEMENT] (lvl: 2) ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 0 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 0 _________________________ He spent 5 attribute points each to increase his stamina, agility and evade to 35 to increase his base stats to 35 and then allotted the remaining point into strength. As for the potential point, he used 3 points to increase his mana by 300, he then used the remaining points to level up [FORESIGHT] to level 3 and [PROBE] and [ENHANCEMENT] to level 2. While he was ying around with the interface, a gust air blew inside the dungeon. He closed the interface and looked up, at the far end of the dungeon, a faint structure of a door could be seen. They carefully made their way to the end. Due to old habit, Arnold grabbed a glow stick from the bag the golem was carrying and threw it towards the end. The glow stick collided with the metal door. They had finally found the boss room of the dungeon. "Since themunicator isn''t working, I''ll go and inform the others. EL you''reing with me." Ricardo said and turned around, EL grabbed him by the shoulder and whispered in his ear. "I''m tired because of the walking. Take someone else." EL said loudly and waved his hand. "I can send my summons if you like." Arnold pitched in. "Can they speak?" EL asked sizing up the golem who was carrying their bag. "Um... can you?" Arnold asked the golem to which he shrugged and shook his head. "Then it''s of no use. Alice, do you minding with me?" Ricardo asked. "No, of course not but..." She looked at EL and then at Arnold, she knew EL didn''t like Arnold for some reason and wasn''t sure about leaving him alone with EL, but before she could say anything else Ricardo started marching at full speed to get the others, she had no choice but to follow him. ***** After a few minutes of waiting, out of boredom Arnold decided to try and use his [FORESIGHT] skill just to get familiar with the skill. A mysterious aura surrounded him, it felt like his soul was being guided away from his body and everything turned ck before it turned to normal. The only difference was that he was now looking at himself from a third-person perspective. He saw himself standing near the gate next to his summoned Golem when all of a sudden the door leading to the boss room opened and someone pushed him inside before hastily closing the door. The vision ended there and he couldn''t see who pushed him inside the dungeon, but it didn''t require Einstein''s brain to know who would''ve pushed him through the gate, the only person with him was EL. After a brief moment, he returned to his normal self. He felt like he was experiencing d¨¦j¨¤ vu, and sure enough, the gate suddenly opened and EL tried to push him inside, it was all happened too fast and Arnold couldn''t get out of the way in time, but he was prepared and managed to grab EL by his armour pulling him inside the room before the doors closed. Chapter 9 - First Mission (3) "What the hell is wrong with you!" Arnold yelled at EL pushing him off himself. "The hell you mean, what''s wrong with me? What''s wrong with you! I just saved you from a Direwolf damnit." EL snapped back at him, brushing the dust off his armour.?? "So you did it to... save me? But who opened the door then?" "How the f*ck am I suppose to know that. I thought you did it." "If you didn''t do it then who did it?" Before they could talk more about what had happened, they heard someone''s footsteps. They simultaneously looked at the far end. "You got to be kidding me!" ***** MEANWHILE OUTSIDE THE BOSS ROOM "I told those idiots to stand by, is it too much to ask!" Ricardo and the rest of the team just reached near the gate. All they could see was that the golem Arnold had summoned, was fighting against three direwolves at once. These were the wolves having grey fur and were tough to deal with. The lifeless body of one wolf was near the Golem''s feet while the three remaining wolves were ferociously attacking the Golem. Seeing no other way around them, the team members charged at the wolves. The wolves were outnumbered and soon sumbed to the innumerable wounds. But the members weren''t thinking about the wolves anymore, they were worried about the two idiots who were inside the boss room right now. They had all the right reasons to be worried as well because the direwolves were rank B creatures, meaning the boss of the dungeon would at least be a rank A monster. Most of them were worried about EL because even if he was strong, he was still a B+ ranked warrior. They had almost no hope that Arnold would be able to survive. Seeing this situation Ricardo ordered two of the fastest runners to go and inform the guild manager about the problem inside the dungeon as he doubted that the cameras were functioning anymore because if they were the guild should have already sent the reinforcements. "The gates aren''t opening!" the mages felt helpless. "Let''s hope they are okay inside the room." At this point, Ricardo could only hope and trust their strength. ***** INSIDE THE BOSS ROOM "Do something!" EL shouted at Arnold while dodging yet another blow from the monster''s scythe. "The hell you think I''m trying to do!" Arnold was frantically using his ice abilities at the monster. When he had used the [PROBE] skill on the 7 feet tall, ck-skinned, humanoid creature. the result was something like this. _________________________ CLASS: Undead Reaper LEVEL: ?? RANK: A ROLE: Soul Reaper AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Soul Grapple (active skill) ? Dark Vision (active skill) ? Demon Blitz (active skill) ? ???? ? ???? HP: 4870/5000 STRENGTH (STR): ?? DEFENSE (DEF) : ?? STAMINA (STA) : ?? INTELLIGENCE (INT): ?? AGILITY (AGI): ?? ACCURACY (ACC) : ?? EVADE (EVD) : ?? CHARISMA (CHA): ?? THREAT LEVEL: Dangerous REMARK: Run for your life, the reaper ising for you. _________________________ In short, fighting the [UNDEAD REAPER] head-on was like chasing after death itself. But they didn''t have a choice in the matter, they were locked inside the room and the only way to open the door was to somehow defeat the [UNDEAD REAPER], a task they were failing miserably. But the rewards for defeating the monster were very rich too. _________________________ QUESTS: The undead reaper ? [ INTRODUCTION ]: You are under attack by [UNDEAD REAPER], its kill or be killed. [ TASK ]: Kill the [UNDEAD REAPER], having more than 45% contribution (deal at least 2250 points of damage the reaper). [ PROGRESS ] : 80/2250 damage dealt. [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 10000 EXP ? Two random Items/abilities [ BONUS QUEST ]: Deal more than 60% damage to the reaper. (deal at least 3000 points of damage the reaper). [ BONUS REWARDS ] : ? Hidden reward _________________________ "I need time to activate and use my abilities. I CAN''T DO IT WHEN THIS UGLY IDIOT IS CHASING MY A$$!" EL shouted at the top of his lungs. "I need someone to tank for me!" "Just hold on for some time!" Arnold already had a n ready, he was waiting for the cooldown of his abilities to end so he could act on it. Just then the cooldown of his ability, [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FROST GOLEM] finished. He immediately summoned three Frost golems as he couldn''t summon 4 as long as the previous all the previously summoned golems died, but that wasn''t enough to tackle down the reaper, he had learnt his lesson after attacking the reaper using normal golems. He touched the golems one after another, using his [ENHANCEMENT] ability to enhance their power. _________________________ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! HP: 1600/1600 STRENGTH (STR) : 66 STAMINA (STA) : 52 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 28 AGILITY (AGI) : 34 ACCURACY (ACC) : 34 EVADE (EVD) : 38 BUFF: Level and rank of increased. LEVEL: 35 RANK: C STRENGTH (STR) increased to 78 Duration: Temporary buff. Lasts for 2 hours. _________________________ _________________________ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! HP: 1600/1600 STRENGTH (STR) : 66 STAMINA (STA) : 52 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 28 AGILITY (AGI) : 34 ACCURACY (ACC) : 34 EVADE (EVD) : 38 BUFF: Level and rank of increased. LEVEL: 35 RANK: C STRENGTH (STR) increased to 78 Duration: Temporary buff. Lasts for 2 hours. _________________________ _________________________ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! HP: 2400/2400 STRENGTH (STR) : 78 STAMINA (STA) : 61 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 45 AGILITY (AGI) : 37 ACCURACY (ACC) : 37 EVADE (EVD) : 45 BUFF: Level and rank of increased. LEVEL: 51 RANK: B STRENGTH (STR) increased to 86 Duration: Permanent. _________________________ The results of enhancement were better than Arnold had expected. But he had no time to celebrate. He immediately ordered the golems to attack and distract the reaper. ?Current Mana: 810/1470? "The golems will distract the reaper for a while. Use whatever ability and skill you want to!" "Got it!" EL replied sheathing his sword. _________________________ [ PROGRESS ] : 580/2250 damage dealt. _________________________ Suddenly the progress bar for the mission started increasing incredibly fast! He looked back at the towards where the reaper was. The golems were attacking the reaper in sync, they were nning and attacking their own without a single order from Arnold. The B ranked golem was leading the strike on the reaper. "We can do this!" Arnold could feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins. Chapter 10 - First Mission (4) BOOM! BOOM!?? BOOM! The room echoed with the sounds of shing fists. Only the B ranked golem was able to take direct hits from the reaper''s scythe, but even so, taking a hit from an A ranked boss was no joke and every time the golem took a hit, he lost arge part of his HP. _________________________ [ PROGRESS ] : 1680/2250 damage dealt. _________________________ "Just a little bit more..." Arnold gritted his teeth, he had been continuously casting spells at the reaper to support the golems. The strain of casting so many spells continuously soon started taking a toll on Arnold. His mana was depleting faster as well, mana regeneration couldn''t keep up with the depletion speed. He had hoped that after using his abilities, EL would somehow manage to get reaper''s attention so that Arnold would get some time to regenerate his mana. But sadly EL was still concentrating on activating his ability. "How long does it takes to activate one ability!" Arnold was frustrated by this point. "One... more... minute," EL mumbled behind him. "Let''s do this then. TRY TO RESTRICT HIS MOVEMENT!" Arnold ordered his golems, before using [ FROZEN LANCE ] ability and started throwing thences at the reaper, who effortlessly managed to dodge them all. "I said RESTRICT HIS MOVEMENT!" The next moment, one of the rank C golems rushed towards the reaper. The reaper sensed the danger approaching him, immediately swung his scythe at the golem destroying him in an instant. Arnold had pretty much expected this oue, but what happened next surprised him. _________________________ Your golem triggered [ULTIMATE SACRIFICE]. Dealing additional damage of 1050 (21% of target''s max HP). Damage dealt after reduction due to target''s defence: 588. The target is in a [FROZEN] state for 2 minutes. _________________________ _________________________ [ PROGRESS ] : 2268/2250 damage dealt.
[ BONUS QUEST PROGRESS] : 2268/3000 _________________________ Arnold couldn''t believe his luck! [ULTIMATE SACRIFICE], was a passive exclusive to the golems and only had a 10% chance of being triggered after a golem was destroyed. It was very useful passive because the ability could deal up to 30% of target''s maximum HP as physical damage. Furthermore, the target would be frozen for 2 minutes. enough time for him to throw the remainingnces at him as well as for EL to attack the reaper. But the next moment his luck vanished as another message popped open in front of him. _________________________ [UNDEAD REAPER] activated the skill [ILLUSION OF THE SPIRIT] nullifying all status effects. [UNDEAD REAPER] isn''t [FROZEN] anymore. _________________________ The reaper disappeared from Arnold''s sight only to reappear in front of him and was about to kick him, Arnold hastily raised various walls made of ice and earth in front of him. But it was all in vain as the reaper''s kick broke through the walls as if they were made of paper and managed to hit Arnold on his chest. BOOM! Arnold felt like he was run over by a double-decker bus, and was sent flying towards the wall behind him. Multiple of his ribs were broken, blood was gushing out of his mouth, bones in his right hand werepletely shattered. More messages shed in front of his eyes. _________________________ Current HP: 53/1330 Your HP is below 10%. Multiple fractures have been detected. Ability [ ESSENCE OF LIFE ] has been activated. Your HP is being restored. _________________________ Just one hit by the reaper almost killed him. If it wasn''t for the walls he had made at thest moment, he would''ve died for sure. His HP was being restored but he wasn''t being able to move. He opened his eyes, the reaper was standing over him. The reaper raised his scythe above his head and was about to m it down on him. Arnold averted his gaze from his certain doom and looked at the golems. The two remaining golems were running towards the reaper with all their might, but the distance was too much. They won''t be able to reach in time. Seeing this, Arnold closed his eyes, thinking about Nicole. "I''m sorry..." he mumbled. THUMP As the reaper was about to finish Arnold off, when a sh of red light appeared out of nowhere, severing the reaper''s arm and shing him in multiple ces. "Why don''t you fight me now!" EL roared in rage, his eyes were burning red as if his body was made of fire. He continued shing and stabbing the reaper in multiple ces, weakening him bit by bit. However even after losing an arm, the reaper was calm and wasn''t bothered at all. He tried to pick up his scythe with his remaining left arm but before he could, the B ranked Golem punched him in the face knocking him off bnce and picked up the scythe instead. EL wasn''t done either, he kept shing his sword at the monstrous boss. The battle came to an end when the golem finally managed to sever the reaper''s head with his own scythe. Arnold had his eyes opened by now, he saw how EL saved his life and how his golem finally killed the boss. He wanted to thank them but he lost consciousness before he could. Chapter 11 - First Mission (5) BACK AT THE GUILD "What''s the status?" John asked his assistant, Maya.?? "ording to thetest report both EL and... what was his name?" Maya responded, ruffling through a folder, as she tried to keep up with her boss. "Arnold." He replied. "Yes, him. Both of them were still inside the boss'' chamber." "How long has it been?" "Approximately 1 hour since they went inside." "Cancel my appointments for today. I''m going to the dungeon." "Yes sir-" Suddenly hermunicator rang, she tapped the surface of her wristwatch and guild manager''s holographic face could be seen floating above the watch. "The door finally opened, EL is unharmed but it seems the new kid wasn''t that lucky," he informed them. Hearing this John immediately seized Maya''s hand and ordered the manager to take him to the hospital. The manager nodded and cut the call. "Tell the doctors to take care of him and not to worry about the money for his treatment," John said got into his car and drove off, somewhere into the sunset. ***** MOMENTS EARLIER "Ricardo, the gate is opening!" Ashley shouted all of a sudden. "They did it?" Everyone was dumbstruck. One level B and level D warriors killed a level B+ or higher-level boss? Unbelievable! But Alice and Ricardo were concerned about the two and rushed into the room and saw the reaper''s headless body slumping down and disintegrating, leaving behind a red ruby-like crystal. Two, four-armed golems stood over at the far end of the room, EL motionlessly stood next to them. They immediately ran up to them, their heart sank, when they saw Arnold lying there. Alice immediately went to her knees and analysed the situation. "7 broken ribs, fractured skull, punctured lungs, bones in his right arm have been shattered..." She mumbled, "but he''s healing on his own?" The process was slow but his wounds were slowly themselves. Only his right arm wasn''t showing any signs of improvement, so she decided to use her abilities to fix it, without wasting even a second she immediately acted on it. Arnold''s body tightened immediately, andrge beads of sweat rolled down his body. He clenched his teeth, but a muted scream still came out between his teeth. The painsted for around ten minutes before Arnold finally gained consciousness. He still had a head-splitting pain but he was alive. A system notification was open on his interface. ___ [ QUEST ]: The Undead Reaper ? [ INTRODUCTION ]: You are under attack by [UNDEAD REAPER], its kill or be killed. [ TASK ]: Kill the [UNDEAD REAPER], having more than 45% contribution (deal at least 2250 points of damage the reaper). [ PROGRESS ] : 3059/2250 damage dealt. [ STATUS ] : Completed [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 10000 EXP ? Two random Items/abilities [ BONUS QUEST ]: Deal more than 60% damage to the reaper. (deal at least 3000 points of damage the reaper). [ PROGRESS ] : 3059/3000 damage dealt. [ STATUS ] : Completed [ BONUS REWARDS ] : ? Hidden reward ___ "What the hell happened here?" He tried to get up, but Alice pushed him down. "Don''t get up for a while. Your body is healing itself but it''ll take some time. The management has been informed, the help is on the way so just rest for a while." She was trying to process the fact that Arnold had the self-healing ability. "Ok... my head is spinning either way..." he repliedying back down, he looked at EL and continued. "Thanks for saving me." "If it wasn''t for you and your summons we''d be dead right about now." EL said pointing at the B ranked golem who was wielding the reaper''s scythe, standing next to him and continued, "He did most of the work. So the way I see it, I''m the one who should be thanking you." "Thank you... for your hard work." Arnold mumbled before recalling the summons. Soon the paramedics arrived at the scene and carefully carried Arnold outside. It seemed that the news about the dungeon room had leaked because a lot of people and reporters were waiting for them toe out. As soon as Arnold was rolled out of the dungeon on a stretcher, hundreds of cameras started clicking his pictures. Few people recognised him from the incident that happened a week ago and immediately started gossiping about him. "Hey isn''t that the porter guy fromst week''s coverage?" "Yeah, you''re right! But what was someone like him doing inside the boss room?" "Maybe fame got to his head. Hahahaha." "He thought he could take the boss himsel-" Before the man could finish his sentence, EL grabbed him by his cor and pulled him out of the crowd. "Be careful about what you say and where you say it," He let go of him and then looked at the others and shouted as loudly as he could, "HE SAVED MY LIFE! GIVE HIM THE RESPECT HE DESERVES." Everyone was shocked by this, a porter saved a warrior? How was that even possible? But no one dared to question an enraged warrior, especially under the given situation. No one knew that Arnold wasn''t a porter anymore as his power level wasn''t calcted yet and hence he wasn''t registered in the warrior index. Arnold was transported to the hospital asking with Alice and the guild manager, while the others weren''t back to the guild. ***** NEXT MORNING "How are you feeling today?" The doctor asked, flipping through Arnold''s medical records. "Your healing ability is one of a kind. Nearly all of your wounds are healed after resting for one night!" "It''s all thanks to the first aid expert Alice." Arnold smiled back at him. "Indeed. You''ll be discharged in the evening, so rest up till then." Arnold opened the mission tab and epted the rewards. "Let''s see what I got!" ___ [QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained 10000 EXP. You''ve levelled up! Current level: 30 Your rank has been increased to C You''ve achieved a new rank. Rewards : ALL STATS : + 10 HP : +1000 MANA : + 700 You''ve gained a new ability : ? [DEMON BLITZ] : (Active ability) (Only applicable when using artillery ss weapon) A type of enhancement spell. It can only be activated when your weapon has thest bullet left it. After using this ability, your weapon will be able to fire infinite bullets for a short period. Each bullet will cause additional true damage up to 2% of the target''s max HP. Duration of skill: 2 minutes (Can be increased by levelling up). [ Rank: S ] [Mana cost: 250] [HIDDEN QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained a new weapon blueprint : ? [VINDICATOR]: A heavy duel wielding gun having explosive damage upon hitting your target. Handling this gun isn''t child''s y. Grade: B Damage: 115-126 (physical) Overload : 3 minutes Cooldown: 15 seconds Range: 40 meter Ammo Type: Enchanted bullets Magazine Capacity: 30 (15 each) Weight : 2.3 kg Additional skill : [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] - Deals additional 60% damage when the target is closer than 10 meter. ___ Chapter 12 - The Vindicator "What''s this?" Arnold saw a new tab next to the tab. He selected the tab and it was called as . Inside the tab, there was a single blueprint called [SWIPE SHOT] but it was greyed out. No details were given either. When he tried to select it, a message popped up. ___ ?? Level and rank requirements not met. Please increase your level before using this modification on your weapon. Level requirement : 65+ (not achieved) Rank requirement : B+ or above (not achieved) ___ "Level 65! You got to be kidding me." He nearly got killed and could only level up to 30 and this modification required him to be 65, more than twice his current level! "So this was the second random reward for defeating the boss. But it looks like I won''t be able to use this modification for a while. Good thing I''ve got my enhancement skill, at least I will be able to do some improvements to the weapons by using it." He then opened the tab, and thankfully, [VINDICATOR] wasn''t greyed. A detailed description of it was given there as well. He selected the blueprint and the interface changed immediately, and was reced with a big blue circle with 3 ck squares hovering around it and below them was a list of different items. ___ Items required to construct a [VINDICATOR] : ? Steel (1.9kg) ? Aluminum (0.75 kg) ? 15 crystals ? 1 crystal Important information : Enchanted bullets are avable in the shop and can be bought after forging : [VINDICATOR] ___ "You never informed me I had an inventory!" he eximed, "I can find most of the materials like steel and aluminum easily in the guild''s storage. Looks like I can''t make the bullets myself for now, though there must be some kind of blueprint for it as well, the shop is the only way to obtain them for now. Basic beast crystals are easily avable too, I even have 6 of these in my personal storage and with the money I have, I can either buy the rest online or from the ck market. The only thing is... I don''t know where the hell I can find a crystal." ___ crystal can be obtained by ying monsters having Rank A or above. ___ Arnold''s face turned pale. He had defeated an A ranked monster, so it must have dropped one of these crystals. The only problem was that it must have been picked up by someone like the other crystals and most probably the person who picked it has already sold it to the guild or to someone else. As he was lost in the thought, Alice and EL entered his hospital room. Alice was wearing a ck tank top coupled with blue Jeans while EL was wearing a red jacket over his white T-shirt and ck ripped jeans. "Good morning Arnold." Alice said cheerfully, "How are you feeling today?" "Oh, I''m good. The doctor informed me that I can leave in the evening." Arnold smiled back at her. "That was quick, considering the situation you were in." EL said. "Guess I''m lucky after all. What are you carrying by the way?" Arnold asked EL. "Actually it''s something for you." he replied, handing Arnold the silver colored spherical container. "The monster dropped it after we defeated it, so I picked it up." Arnold opened the container and saw something red inside it. He immediately used his [PROBE] skill on it. ___ OBJECT : crystal TYPE : Beast crystal GRADE : A REMARK : Extremely rare beast crystal, can only be obtained by killing a beast/monster of rank A or above. Importantponent in many weapons and armours. ___ "Consider it a gift for saving my life, and don''t worry. The vice president has no issues with you having it. Crystals like this are quite rare you can earn quite a fortune if you auction it." EL continued, "So what are you nning to do with it?" "Um... I think I''ll keep it as a keepsake to remind me of my first dungeon experience as a warrior." Technically, Arnold wasn''t lying. He''ll use it to forge the [VINDICATOR] and nned on keeping it with him for a very long time. "A... keepsake huh?" EL''s mouth twitched, to him it felt like he wasted a rare treasure by giving it someone who didn''t care for the importance and the value of it but he kept this to himself and carried on, "If you ever change your mind just let me know, I know a guy who''ll pay hundreds of thousands of dors for it." Hundred thousand dors! what he wouldn''t be able to buy from that kind of money! He wouldn''t even need to worry about Nicole''s medication anymore either... but then he''ll be able to earn the money by clearing the dungeons and having a weapon would help him a lot. Both had their pros and cons. However after thinking for a while he decided he won''t sell the crystal and make the weapon. After chatting for a while, EL thanked him once again and left the room. "You''re not leaving?" Arnold asked Alice. She shook her head and replied, "Dad told me to help you get your stuff into your new apartment. A car is waiting for us outside, I''ll just go and ask the doctor if you can leave now." "Thanks but really, you should go. There''s not much stuff for me to carry either way." "No matter what you say, I''ming with you and that''s final." She said with a pouted face. "Alright alright, I''ll get ready." he smiled. ***** AN HOUR LATER "And that''s thest box." Arnold said putting thest box of his belongings into his new apartment. "And here''s the box of materials you wanted." Alice replied handing the materials to him. "I''m still confused why do you need these? If you want a weapon the guild can provide it to you." While he was collecting his things from his old shack, Arnold had asked Alice if she could get some steel and aluminum tes from the guild''s storage, to which she happily agreed and left. After arranging his belongings, he then went to Jacob and bought 9 basic beast crystals from him for 540 dors. After the purchase he headed towards the address Alice had given him. "Nothing special. Thanks for the help though!" "Don''t mention it. Since you''re all set, I''ll take your leave. See you tomorrow, bye!" "Bye." Arnold replied and closed the door and looked around. From the outside the apartment lookedvish. It was built with brown bricks and had brown stone decorations. Many tall, rounded windows added to the overall style of the apartment. The apartment was equipped with an old-fashioned kitchen and two bathrooms, a small living room, two bedrooms, and arge dining room. The building was shaped like an L. The extension extended into a covered patio reaching until the end of that side of the apartment. The high and rounded roof was covered with brown wood shingles. Onerge chimney sat at the side of the house. All in all, it looked like a mansion whenpared to his previous shack. He opened his inventory and ced the steel and aluminum inside the small ck circle. He had already added the beast crystals, his ability books and affinity scrolls to his inventory. After this he opened the tab, selected the [VINDICATOR] blueprint and added the materials in their respective blocks and started the forging process. ___ Proceed to forge : [VINDICATOR]? ? Yes or ? No ___ "Yes." ___ Forging has been started. Estimated time toplete forging : 5 hours. You''ll be notified once forging ispleted. The crafted items would be stored in your inventory. ___ After seeing the confirmation, Arnold went outside to finish his daily quest. Chapter 13 - Shop ___________________________ DAILY QUESTS : ?? ? GETTING STRONGER (1): [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are undernourished you need to consume more calories. [ TASK ] : Consume food items to gain : 3000 calories. [ PROGRESS ] : 3115/3000 calories consumed. ? GETTING STRONGER (2): [ INTRODUCTION ] : Your body has low resistance towards abnormalities. Increase your physical and mental resistance. [ TASK ] : Exercise for 2 hours, run 2 km and stay in nk position for 5 minutes. [ PROGRESS ] : Exercise duration (in hours) : 4/2 Running (in KM) : 4.52/3 nk duration (in minutes) : 6/5 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 50 EXP ? 3 Attribute points ? 2 Potential points ____________________________ "im." Arnold said breathing heavily. Arnold didn''t have anything else to do in the night, so he decided to go all out for the daily quest. He already had a lot of Attribute points as well as Potential points after defeating the dungeon boss,pleting the daily quest added more points for him to use, and he knew exactly what he''ll do with all the points he had gathered. He had 63 Attribute points and 32 Potential points afterpleting the daily quest. He immediately leveled up his intelligence to 50, strength to 40, agility, uracy and stamina to 45, his evade to 36 andstly he increased his charm to 30. He could use the Attribute points freely without worrying, but he cannot do the same with the Potential points. Thanks to the fight with the rank A boss of the dungeon, he knew exactly which abilities he had to upgrade. He decided to upgrade the abilities which were the most useful to him in his previous battle, like [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM], [POSEIDON''S BLESSING] and [ENHANCEMENT] were all upgraded to level 5. At this time, a new notification popped up on the interface. ____________________________ You''ve unlocked three bonus effects! ? [ ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM ] : All stats of summoned golems increased by 12%. ? [ POSEIDON''S BLESSING ] : Your HP will now increase by 250 points after leveling up. ? [ENHANCEMENT] : Probability of permanent enhancement increased by 7% ____________________________ "What. The. Hell." He was bbergasted, "What else are you hiding from me system-sama!" He wanted to level up more abilities and unlock more bonus effects but potential points were hard toe by and leveling up one ability from level 1 to level 5 required 10 potential points, while it required 4 potential points to upgrade a level 4 ability to level 5. Although he could gain some potential points by doing the daily quest, the amount of points gained by this was miniscule, the only efficient way to get potential points was to level up faster and that was a problem. After he ranked up to C, to level up by 1 level he need 1000 EXP, double the amount that was previously required. The only effective way to gain EXP was to clear a dungeon, but due to the incident in thest dungeon, his team was given some time off and that included him. It essentially meant that they weren''t allowed to enter any dungeon for sometime. There was a way to back to the dungeon, but he highly doubted that someone as new as him would be allowed to do so, thus he dropped the idea. As he was nning his next move, another system messaged popped open. ____________________________ [VINDICATOR] has been crafted sessfully. The item has been stored in your inventory. ____________________________ "Right on time!" he said as he opened the inventory and took out the vindicator. He then used his [PROBE] skill on it. _________________________ OBJECT : [VINDICATOR] TYPE : Weapon GRADE : B REMARK : These veryrge semi-automatic dual pistol is an extraordinary model amongst gunslingers who actively look for a little extra protection. Its fairly heavy weight makes it usable as a club too. It has a great amount of firepower with extraordinary precision. Important information : No suitable ammunition found in the inventory. Please proceed to buy some from the . _________________________ "I totally forgot about the bullets!" He opened the shop tab and started looking through it. The shop''s interface was huge and had innumerable items, gears, potions and different types of knowledge as well, although most of them were greyed out meaning he wasn''t able to purchase them. He looked at the potions, there were some general potions such as (graded into small, medium and high) and (Small, medium and high), there were another potions as well like, , , , and even a but apart from and , the rest of them were greyed out. There were various types of gears as well but sadly all of them were greyed. In the knowledge section, so far only a single item was present, named as [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL]. Arnold selected the skill knowledge. _________________________ [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL] : The basic knowledge required by to be able to use . Acquiring this knowledge would reduce the recoil caused by the guns. Buying this knowledge also unlocks the ability [QUICK SHOT]. [QUICK SHOT] : (Passive ability) Basic ability for ss. This ability increases the magazine capacity as well as shooting speed by 15%. [ Rank : B ] Price : 3 basic crystals. _________________________ After seeing the price Arnold immediately searched the shop for bullets for [VINDICATOR]. ording to the description, [VINDICATOR] needed to be used with , so he selected them. _________________________ Description : These are the basic tier bullets that are required to be used by . These are the cheapest set of bullets but will get the job done. Price : 10 bullets/ per basic beast crystal. _________________________ "I need beast crystals to purchase anything from the shop!" Arnold gritted his teeth. Although he could buy basic beast crystals from the guild or the ck market, he didn''t want to unnecessarily waste his money on something like beast crystals. "Tomorrow I''ll ask The vice president about it, and if he refused then I''ll go behind their backs and do it either way." It was gettingte so he headed towards the bed to get some sleep. Tomorrow was a big day after all. Chapter 14 - Mythril Cube NEXT MORNING, AT THE VICE PRESIDENT''S OFFICE "I''m sorry but the Vice President is in a meeting right now. I can''t allow you to go inside. You''ll have to wait if you want to talk to him." Maya said with her usual Robot like voice, "I have an even better idea. Why do you go to the PRSD department? Your abilities haven''t been registered, have they?" ?? "No. I haven''t." Arnold replied. "Perfect! I''ll book an appointment right now. You can return after you''ve been registered and the meeting would be over by then as well." "Thank you. I''ll go there now." The first thing Arnold wanted to do was to talk to John about the dungeon issue and see if he could help. But then he got his weekly pay check so he decided to head to the hospital and buy another dose of Andrea medicine for Nicole first. "I''ll just go and get graded first then. It''s not like John''s gonna run away from the guild." He left the guild and headed towards the west coast area. The West coast was a crowded civilian area, filled with buildings and all kinds of pollution pipes, forming theplex streets. Only the people who had lived there for more than an year could remember the roads. The usual people would lose their way after a few turns. Mostly they were considered corporate slums. The living conditions of people wasn''t good, there were frequent ckouts, the quality of water was really bad as well. When he first came to Florida, Arnold always wondered, if the western coast was so poor then why were most of thepanies located here? He got to know the answer as he started living here. The reason was because of cheapbour. As the living condition of people here was bad, thus they readily agreed to work for thesepanies even at wages less than the minimum amount. He felt a weird connection to this ce. Maybe it was because he too have been living the same life as them. "I''ll definitely make their lives better." He made a mental note of this as he was walking through the streets. After walking for another couple of minutes, he finally stopped in front of a ten-story tall building. The building looked impressive and was made with white bricks having blue stone decorations at regr intervals. Tall, rectangr windows brightened up the building. The building had fairly rounded shape and was surrounded by a well kept garden. Grass, flower patches and trees were ced all around the building in a stylish way. He entered the building and after filling the registration form, he was guided to the testing room. The room was entirely empty if not for a huge ck cube that was floating in the middle of it, couple ofputers were attached to this cube. Three technicians were operating theputers. "Just ce your hands on the cube, the cube will absorb your powers, and then theputers will analyse your level, rank and potential. You might feel weak when the process ispleted, but it''ll pass away after a while." One of the technicians exined it to Arnold, but he already knew about the process as he had already gone through all this once before. Arnold walked up to the the cube and ced his hands on it. ___________________________ You''re in contact with The cube is trying to measure your power. Please select the amount of power you want to allow the cube to measure. ___________________________ Then a meter popped up in front of his interface. "What do you mean ''select'' the amount of power? I always go all out!" Arnold thought and raised the meter to the maximum. A secondter the cube started vibrating. Arnold felt a couple jolts but it was bearable. Soon a small chunk of the cube broke off and fell near his feet and the power of the whole building went out. He picked up the fallen piece of cube and looked at the technicians who were bunched up together near one of theputers. "Lesson learnt. Never. Go. All. Out." Arnold murmured after realising what had happened there, but then a couple of more messages popped up. ___________________________ You''ve leveled up! Current level : 31 ___________________________ ___________________________ You''ve leveled up! Current level : 32 ___________________________ "What the hell? Did I just absorb the power that was inside this small piece of mythril cube?" He curiously looked at the cube. He then quickly looked around to check if someone was looking at him. After confirming that no one was, he quickly opened the inventory behind his back and ced the piece of cube inside it. At this moment one of the technicians cleared his throat and walked towards Arnold. "Ahm... We have sent your report to your guild. A car is waiting for you outside which will take you there. The vice president has sent his personal chauffeur to pick you up. You''ll be given your report there. Thank you for visiting us." "That''s weird. Aren''t you guys supposed to tell me the results." "That is what generally happens, but your case is special and thus we can''t do so." The technician replied. "What special case?" "I''m afraid we can''t tell you." Arnold finally gave up and headed towards the entrance, where a ck limousine was waiting for him. "I take you''re the one Mr Vice president sent to fetch me?" Arnold asked the smartly dressed man standing in front of the car. "Indeed I am. Please be seated." The chauffeur said and opened the gate. ***** SOMEWHERE ELSE... "Sir, we have finally found a match!" A man white robes ran inside a room. "The organs are 94%patible! We can proceed with the n now." "Who is it?" A voice came out of the darkness. "A Chinese immigrant named Nicole Ling. She has no backing from any of the 12 families. She''s affected with Andrea disease so it wouldn''t be difficult to harvest her organs." the man in robes replied. "Finally..." The man in shadow whispered, walking to a lifepod filled with some kind of blue liquid. "Finally you''ll live again my dear son." Chapter 15 - Freelancer As soon as Arnold got out of the car, he was immediately rushed to the Vice President''s office, where John was waiting for him along with three other people like the guild''s manager, Vice President''s assistant - Maya, and Jake sknder, the leader of the guild''s main team. "Come in and have a seat first, before we get into details." John said waving his hands. "Now that everyone has settled down, I assume you haven''t seen your test results right?" ?? "Yeah I haven''t. The technicians told me that it I was a special case and my guild would be the one to inform me about it." Arnold nodded. Hearing this, Maya handed him a file. Arnold opened the file and saw a tinum card was inside the file. He picked up the card and carefully read what was written on it. NAME : Arnold Ling GUILD : Flying Swords TEAM : C ROLE : Mage AFFINITY : Ice and earth RANK : C LEVEL : 30 POTENTIAL : This was his warrior''s registration card and had the PRSD insignia on it. The card stated that he was a level 30 because he leveled up by two levels after theputers had analysed his data. The PRSD department had sent the card directly to the guild. Everything was pretty much normal in it except the potential part. Generally the potential of a warrior informed the others about the highest rank the warrior in question would be able to achieve in his lifetime. The rating only went up to S rank. If the measured potential was above S rank, then the system issued an error message like the one shown on Arnold''s card. After seeing the card he immediately knew why he was called to the guild. "I guess you have an idea about why you were called here?" John asked. Arnold nodded. He knew that, with his powers he''d be able to get to this point sooner orter, but it all was happening way too soon. After a brief pause, John continued, "It''s my pleasure to inform you that you have been promoted to team A. Maya will inform you about your new privilegester. But first I want you to meet your new team leader and the guild''s ace : Jake sknder." John waved his arms towards the man standing behind him. Jake walked out first. He was wearing a white T-shirt, his hands were behind his back, and his eyes were flickering with a deep light that looked like the starry sky. A natural pressure emanated from his body that sent shivers down Arnold''s spines. This feeling became stronger as Jake walked closer. He stared at Arnold, and Arnold''s legs felt soft like he was being stared at by a monster that was about to devour him. Actually, Jake had only looked at him casually. The pressure came from his far superior level. Jake extended his hands towards Arnold and said, "Wee to the team." "Th-Thank you. I l-look forward to working with you." He quickly replied. After a brief interaction, Jake bowed to the vice captain and left the room. Arnold immediately realized the power difference they had. After all Jake was one of the few S+ warriors the guild had. He had been personally trained by the President himself! The President only showed himself to the ''A team'' and couple of others like the vice president. The ''A team''prised of the talents handpicked by the president himself, and this team worked directly under The President''s authority. Questioning them was like questioning The President himself. This team was considered to be one of the best in the United States of America. It was an honour to be a part of this team. Seeing Arnold all excited about the venture, John decided to break yet another news to Arnold, "Although I''d like to say that you can immediately join Jake''s team, you can''t. After all the ''A'' in the team''s name stands for rank A, but even if you have the potential to surpass the A, you''re still at rank C and the President won''t allow a rank C warrior to join his team. "No need to be disheartened by it. I have a proposal. In your new contract, it states that, you can work as a frencer. Meaning, you can pick any job, team up with any guilds, and clear as many dungeons as you like. Though you''ll have to pay amission of 15% of your overall pay. This will give you tons of opportunity to rank up. I know it will take sometime but this is the fastest way to increase your rank for now. "Unfortunately I have to leave now but Maya will tell you about your new privileges of being an ''unofficial'' member of team A." After saying this John took his blue suit and walked out of the office. The others followed his queue, leaving Arnold and Maya alone in the office. Arnold couldn''t believe the luck he had. He wanted to talk with John to see if he could be allowed to work as a frencer but he didn''t even have to say a word about it and he was already given the chance to work as a frencer- helping him to earn more money and get some beast crystals as well! "Shall we talk about the other privileges then?" Maya asked in her usual tone. Arnold smiled. "Yes please!" Chapter 16 - Privileges "As Mr vice president already informed you about the benefits of being a frencer, I''ll tell you about the other privileges. You''ll now get a discount of 15% on all items from the guild''s store, and you can now ce orders for customised gear there as well. Your pay will be increased to 10000 dors/week as well, I know it isn''t much but since you''re not an official member yet, this is the best we could do." Maya exined, "Furthermore, as a special thanks you''ve been given an additional benefit - the guild will provide you with some medical personnel as well as the necessary equipments to carry on your sister''s treatment from your home. However the guild will only pay around 60% of the cost. The rest would be deducted from your pay. After deducting the necessary ount, you''ll get about 6700 dors per week." "I don''t care about the money." After hearing this Arnold couldn''t stop smiling. "How long will it take to shift her from the hospital?" ?? "A couple of hours, if you sign the contract now." She handed him a new contract. Even though Arnold was ecstatic after getting the news, he still read the contract carefully. After all his sister''s well being depended on it. He signed the contract after confirming that Maya was actually telling the truth, then rushed towards the apartment. He had to prepare the apartment, after all Nicole wasing over there for the first time. ***** AROUND THREE HOURS LATER "Brother!" Nicole eximed as she wheeled in through the apartment doors on her wheelchair. She wasn''t wearing the robes that the hospital provided anymore, but a new white top coupled with brown leggings. "Wee home, Lil one." Arnold pinched her face andughed. "Thanks for bringing her over." "It wasn''t an issue." Alice replied, "You guys can go and set up the equipment." She ordered the medical personnel. Arnold showed them the way to Nicole''s room and returned to the hall, where Alice and Nicole were chatting. "Brother your girlfriend is so cool!" Nicole eximed once again. Followed by an awkward silence phase. Arnold walked up to her and pinched her cheeks once again. "Who put that thought inside your head?" He asked. "Shame. You''d make a great couple though!" Nicole replied. Alice burst intoughter. "She''s too cute." "I''m sorry about it." he said, scratching the back of his head. "I should leave, you guys have a lot to catch up on." Alice said and started gathering her things. "No stay please! Let''s have dinner together." Nicole suggested. "Lil one is right. You should have dinner with us." "Um... I don''t know." "Pleeeeaaaase!" Nicole requested. "Alright alright! I''ll stay. Happy now?" ***** AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION Tu, Tu, Tu. Alex, the chief security officer of Troy security agency, hastily walked towards his boss'' office. He was drenched in sweat because he knew that his boss wouldn''t like the news he was about to give to him, but he had no choice. He stopped outside the boss'' office, took a deep breath and walked. "Sir-" "You failed didn''t you?" A person walked out slowly from the back of the room facing the light. His front was dark, and his looks could not be seen. He stopped before Alex, who had just entered the room. The light behind the man stretched out his shadow, covering Alex and extending into a ck line on the corridor. "S-sir, I immediately dispatched the troops to kidnap the t-target, b-but she wasn''t in the hospital! It seems like someone leaked the n. They couldn''t do anything!" "Hm... who would''ve informed them if only a handful of people knew about the operation." The man in the dark mumbled. "Sir?" "Shut up you useless piece of sh*t! I''m thinking." Alex immediately went silent. He knew his boss'' anger was justified. Gary, Boss'' son was a soldier in the army when the first outbreak happened and his unit was deployed to take care of it, but things went south and his entire team was ughtered. Only Gary survived but, nearly all of his organs were destroyed. They tried transnting new organs many times but his body always rejected the new organs. All seemed lost, the boss got desperate and ordered the doctors to transnt the organs of a patient infected by Andrea syndrome, something he was strictly against as he wanted his son to have a perfectly healthy life. Everyone expected the organs to fail but to their surprise, Gary''s body epted the transnt... for a few days. Although the experiment itself resulted in failure but it gave a hope. Since then they were actively hunting other patients who had Andrea syndrome. After sacrificing countless patients they finally developed an algorithm to help them find a suitable organ ''donor''. Using the algorithm they were finally able to locate one such person but before they could anything the person disappeared into air. The hope was lost once again. "Find her. I don''t care what you do. FIND HER!" "But sir-" "Fine! If you ipetent fools can''t do it then, I''ll do it MYSELF." He exit the room, "No one will take my son away from me." Chapter 17 - First Job (1) Arnold looked down. He was floating above a pool ofva but as he stared at theva below him, the terrain changed and was reced by snow and ciers. A massive mountain stood in front of him. He thought about climbing it and the next moment, he was already at the top of the mountain. He looked around and saw a familiar figure sitting at the edge of a cliff. He walked over to her. She turned around and smiled at Arnold. "Nicole? What are you doing here?" Arnold reached out for her but someone else grabbed her, and slowly pulled her away.?? Arnold was horror-struck, his face was twisted in agony. He reached out with his hand, and screamed loudly. "NICOLE!" "NICOLE!", he screamed once again, he chased after her with all his might, but the distance grew wider. "LEAVE HER ALONE!" "NICOLE!" Arnold woke up with a start. The wooden ceiling of his apartment looked elegant in the flickeringmp-light. He got up in a sh and went straight to Nicole''s room. She looked really peaceful sleeping in her bed. "Did you need something, Mr Ling?" Nikki asked. She was a nurse in herte twenties, appointed by the guild to take care of Nicole. she was wearing a blue crop top and hot pants under her white cardigan. "No, it''s... nothing." Arnold shook his head. "I know it''s tough to see someone so full of life in such a pitiful state, but her body is finally responding to the treatment. So you don''t have to worry, she''ll be okay." Arnold nodded and kissed Nicole''s forehead. "I promise, I won''t let anything or anyone harm you. If someone tries to harm you, I''ll stop them. Whatever it takes." He went back to his room and opened the ability interface. He wanted to check if he had subconsciously activated [FORESIGHT] in his sleep. ___ [FORESIGHT] : Usage 0/3 ___ "It was just a nightmare after all." He felt relieved, "Since when did my nightmares got so... nightmarish? Or is someone really after Nicole?" Arnold shook his head, why would someone target his innocent sister? "I''m just overthinking things." ***** NEXT MORNING "Good morning, brother!" Nicole was as enthusiastic as ever, "Are you going somewhere?" "Yeah, I have to go to work." "Oh..." Nicole''s face dropped. "Don''t worry Lil one. I have a surprise for you!" he said and summoned out a couple of golems, "They will be your y buddies while I''m gone and here, take this." Arnold handed her a new mobile phone that he purchased yesterday. "You can call me anytime you want okay?" "Brother... what are these things?" she pointed at the golems standing behind Arnold. "They are my... partners, and they are made of ice and rock. Pretty cool right?" "You''re the best brother ever!" She eximed and hugged Arnold''s waist. He just smiled and caressed her head. Before leaving he called his summons towards the corner of the room and used [ENHANCEMENT] on both of them. He had hoped that with the increased probability, he''d at least be able to gain permanent enhancement on one of them but he couldn''t. Apparently his level was still too low and he wasn''t able to achieve what he wanted. Seeing no other way, he summoned Duke, the only rank B golem he had. Duke was at a level 54 so technically he was stronger than Arnold himself, on top of that, he also had the scythe of the [UNDEAD REAPER] with him, which made him even stronger and deadlier. "You''re much stronger than I am and that''s why I''m making you my sister''s personal bodyguard. Protect her at all costs. I''m leaving another golem to assist you in case you need him. I''m giving you the responsibility of protecting my sister, get it?" After hearing what his master had to say, Duke proudly banged his chest with one of his four arms as if he was saying, "Don''t worry, I''ll protect her with my life." Arnold then found Nikki and informed her about the golems so that she wouldn''t get startled by them. He kissed Nicole on her forehead and left to go andplete his first job as a frencing warrior. ***** Arnold had already uploaded his resume along with a rmendation letter for his guild on the website through which other guilds and other corporations could hire him. He got a job offer soon after the necessary files were uploaded. He hadn''t expected to get an offer so soon. He clicked at the job request and immediately another window popped up on his mobile''s screen. EMPLOYER : Nina ck EMPLOYER GUILD : ck Knights BACKING : Daughter of Sheldon ck, a low ranking officer and member of the ''ck Family'', one of the twelve elite families. JOB DETAILS : To clear out a D ranked dungeon that has appeared near Art Deco district. PAY : Would be discussed before entering the dungeon. DO YOU ACCEPT THE JOB? Helping a guild having one of the twelve elite families as its backer will definitely give me some benefits and Art Deco district isn''t far from here either. Arnold thought. Only a fool would decline this offer! He quickly epted the offer and went towards the meeting point. ***** "I assume you''re Arnold?" The blonde woman wearing a ck set of armour asked "Yes and you are?" Arnold replied. "I''m Nina ck, you can call me Nina. This is my team. Gabriel is the swordsman, Dan is the tank, Martha is the healer, and I''m the vanguard. As you can see we don''t have a mage with us, thus we sent you the job request." Her voice had an ''I don''t care about anything'' vibe in it. "Who''s the Porter?" "Who cares about a porter?" Dan said and they all startedughing. "I do. Even porters are team members and their role is very important in any team." Arnold replied coolly, "What''s your name Mr porter?" "I''m C-Coco s-sir." The Porter stuttered. "Coco, how old are you?" Arnold ced his hand on Coco''s shoulder. "19 sir." "First thing, don''t call me sir. Second thing, the bag you''re carrying looks heavy, would you like some help with it?" "N-No s-sir, I mean Arnold sir, I''ll-" "If you''ll carry the bag then who''ll fight? We want a mage not another porter!" Gabriel snapped. "I never said I''ll carry the bag. He will." Arnold summoned a golem out. "Now if that''s sorted, would you like to discuss about my fees?" "S-Sure," Nina stuttered, "We generally provide the hired help around 4500 dors but since I''ve already seen your ability, I''ll offer you 5500 dors. Fine?" "More than enough, but I have a request. I''d like to be paid in beast crystals instead. Will you be willing to pay me 1500 dors and around 80 basic crystals in ce of the remaining 4000 dors?" Arnold suggested Nina. "Um... sure. I can pay you the money right now and you can have your beast crystals after we clear the dungeon. Deal?" "Deal." Chapter 18 - First Job (2) "Dan, goblin at your 2." "Got it." ?? "Gabriel don''t ck off!" "Yes ma''am!" These guys were truly professionals. This was the difference between governmental guilds and private guilds. You can say governmental guilds took anyone in without any type of qualification tests or so whereas if someone wanted to join a private guild, the person had to go through dozens of tests and trainings, further the private guilds only ept applications of warriors having rank D or above. Now that Arnold was at rank C, even he wanted to try and enter a private guild. Joining a private guild would mean higher pay, better equipment and recognition. But the process would take forever. For starters he''ll have to fill up the application form, then he''ll be given a number and then he''ll have to wait for the guild to reach out to him which could take weeks, if not months. And it wasn''t over yet. After being called he''ll have to qualify at least 29 out of the 38 test that would be conducted for over a period of an year, only then he''d be able to be a part of the guild. This was the main reason why he didn''t want to leave his guild right now, because he didn''t have the necessary funds to carry on Nicole''s treatment during this period of time. Of course not everyone had to go through this tiring process. A selected few who had a backer were able to directly enter the private guilds. This was the reason Arnold readily epted the job when he saw that the employer had a backer. A mage having a rare affinity would definitely catch the backer''s attention. He wasn''t very hopeful about it, but hell it was worth a try. Soon they killed all the goblins inside the dungeon and headed towards the boss room. Arnold was surprised that they already knew where the boss room was until he saw the device Martha was carrying. It was a military grade scanner, but this wasn''t the thing what surprised Arnold. It was the fact that someone brought a scanner to clear a rank D dungeon. Generally these type of devices were used in high ranked dungeons. "These private guilds really liked to show off too much." Arnold shook his head. ***** FEW MOMENTS LATER. "You sure this guy is just a rank C?" Dan took yet another hit from the ck centaur. "Positive." Arnold replied. "How do you know that?" Nina asked. Large beads of sweat fell from her forehead. Everyone as their limit but the centaur just kept healing no matter what they did. "I have some talents." Arnold smirked, of course he had used his [PROBE] ability on the boss as well as on his teammates. All of his teammates were on either D+ or C. Even the monster, [BLACK CENTAUR] was at rank C. _________________________ CLASS : ck Centaur LEVEL : 45 RANK : C+ ROLE : Astral Being AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Healing Channel (active skill) ? Illusion of Spirit (active skill) ? ????? HP : 3870/3870 STRENGTH (STR) : 45 DEFENSE (DEF) : 40 STAMINA (STA) : 55 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 38 AGILITY (AGI) : 40 ACCURACY (ACC) : 60 EVADE (EVD) : 30 CHARISMA (CHA) : 19 THREAT LEVEL : Minimum REMARK : Technically you''re fighting a horse. Just get asso and a cowboy hat. Yeehaw! _________________________ Since the boss wasn''t really dangerous enough the rewards weren''t that lucrative either. _________________________ QUESTS : The Mystic Being ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are under attack by [BLACK CENTAUR]. The ck Centaur is an astral being most physical attacks do not work on it. [ TASK ] : Deal at least 2270 points of damage the centaur. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/2270 damage dealt. [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 2500 EXP ? one random ability [ BONUS QUEST ] : Kill the [BLACK CENTAUR]. [ BONUS REWARDS ] : ? Hidden reward ________________________ Arnold had yet to participate in the battle because he was nning toplete only the bonus quest and not the main quest, but looking at their situation he had no choice but to take care of things himself. "Huh... you can''t trust anyone these days." Arnold shook his head and called out the remaining golem. "Let''s do this." A trail of ice shot out of his feet and covered the entire room. The centaur immediately charged at Arnold, ignoring everyone else. Just as the centaur was about to m his sword down on Arnold, he activated his [ RAPID FLASH ] ability, increasing his agility. With help of the speed boost he easily dodged the centaur''s attack. But Arnold wasn''t done yet. He activated [FROZEN LANCE], and threw four consecutivences at him each dealing damage up to 10% of the centaur''s HP with every hit. The centaur''s HP plummeted by 40%. He was about to throw thestnce before the spell ended but he knew if the chain of attacks broke then the centaur would start healing once again, and he couldn''t let that happen. Further, the centaur was immune to physical attacks meaning the golems won''t be able to do much damage to it nor would he able able to use [VINDICATOR] as a club to attack the monster although he wouldn''t do it even he was forced to. Who would actually use the gun as a club? Situation was tense but Arnold had a n. He activated [DEMON BLITZ] and the next moment hundreds ofnces appeared behind him. "This ability is a little too strong, isn''t it!" Arnold clicked his tongue. "Who wants some centaur kebab?" Arnold grabbed twonces and started throwing at centaur. He only had two minutes before [DEMON BLITZ] ran out, so he didn''t care about his uracy and just focused on his attack speed. The centaur''s HP reduced really fast, but he couldn''t do anything, Arnold''s attacks were too fast. Even the golem yed his part and prevented the centaur from charging towards Arnold. Arnold managed to throw onestnce before the [DEMON BLITZ] ran out, and a notification appeared on his interface. _________________________ QUESTS : The Mystic Being ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are under attack by [BLACK CENTAUR]. The ck Centaur is an astral being most physical attacks do not work on it. [ TASK ] : Deal at least 2270 points of damage the centaur. [ PROGRESS ] : 3870/2270 damage dealt. [STATUS] : Complete [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 2500 EXP ? one random ability [ BONUS QUEST ] : Kill the [BLACK CENTAUR]. [STATUS] : Complete [ BONUS REWARDS ] : ? Hidden reward ________________________ "That was... fun, i guess?" Arnold murmured. "How did you do it? None of our attacks worked on it!" Nina was exhausted. "Yeah..." Dan joined in. "Physical attacks don''t work on astral beings. I thought you knew that?" Arnold said in a know-it-all tone. "O-Of course we did! We were just trying to test you out." Nina eximed. "Sure. Sure. Now if you don''t mind can we head out?" ***** OUTSIDE THE DUNGEON "The Chief would be here soon with 80 basic beast crystals to cover the rest of your payment." Nina informed Arnold. "Who''s chief?" Arnold asked. "You can say she is the director of the guild and my... mother." "You''ve got a nice mom, if she''sing here to see you." "Don''t get it wrong. My mom is nice, but she isn''ting here for me. Apparently she''sing here because she wants to talk with you about something." "With me? Am-" Arnold was interrupted by sounds of a convoy of cars that were headed their way. The cars stopped in front of them and a woman in her early forties, walked out of the car in the middle. She was wearing a solid ck dress and heels. Dozens of bodyguards surrounded her. "You''re Mr Ling, I suppose?" The woman asked. "Yes..." "I''m Natalia ck, here''s the rest of your payment of 100 beast crystals. I threw in a few more because I was impressed by your performance in the dungeon." "That''s very generous of you." "Now since we''re done with the formalities, I have something to ask you." "Go ahead." "I''d like you to join our guild." Chapter 19 - Silence Before The Storm "Sir we''ve found her. Turns out her brother got her out of the hospital about a day before wemenced our n." Alex informed his boss. "Where is she?" The boss replied. ?? "Still in Florida. She''s living with her brother in an apartment. Nikki has already disguised herself as a nurse and managed to infiltrate inside." "The hell is she waiting for then? TELL HER TO CAPTURE THE GIRL!" The leader yelled. "There''s a problem. The girl''s brother is a summoner, he used his power to summon two ''golems'' to guard his sister. Both of them are strong and never let the girl out of their sight. Nikki said she won''t be able to do it alone." "Hm... send Matthew there to help her out immediately." "Sir, he''s already on a different mission." "Then send Ang." "She isn''t avable either." "WHO THE F*CK IS AVAILABLE THEN?" "Bob." "Tsk. That B ranked basta*d." The leader massaged his temple, "Fine send him in and tell him, if he fails... he dies." "Yes sir!" "Dismissed." The leader then walked out of the room. Outside the room was a long corridor. He turned two corners, walked into an empty room, and pressed a disguised button on the wall. The wall silently slid open, and behind the door was a secret room. "Why does it keeps getting moreplex!" ***** "im." Arnold was on his way back home. He really wanted to join the ck Knight guild but before he answered Natalia, he exined his situation and the deal he had with his guild. She was still interested in having him in her guild so she said she''ll ask the high ranking officers and if they agree on his demands she''ll contact him again. He got so upied with Natalia and her questions that he couldn''t even im his rewards for killing the centaur. ___________________________ [QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained 2500 EXP. You''ve leveled up! Current level : 35 You''ve gained a new ability : ? [SACRED PROTECTION] : (Passive ability) A type of defense spell. The ability will automatically activate and will protect you from a lethal damage once. Even if you''re on the verge of death, this ability will help you survive as long as it is activated. However you''ll lose 20% of your health after the ability duration is finished. Number of usage and Cooldown can be decreased by leveling this skill. Duration of skill : 20 seconds [ Rank : S ] [Mana cost : 250] [COOLDOWN : 7 Days] [HIDDEN QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained a new ability : ? [SOUL GRAPPLE] : (Active ability) Using this ability allows the user to control the target for a short duration of time. The ability has a low rate of sess and depends on the difference between user''s and target''s level. This ability will use up all of user''s remaining mana, and the amount of mana consumed will decide the time limit the ability would have. [ Rank : S+ ] [Mana cost : Entire mana] [COOLDOWN : 10 days] __________________________ "Why do all the abilities I get, have some drawbacks to them too?" Arnold shook his head. [SACRED PROTECTION] was really useful if someone managed to ambush him or attack while he was unprepared. It would save him but then he''d lose 20% of his health. He wasn''t worried much about it, as he could use [ESSENCE OF LIFE] to gain his health back. He was more worried about [SOUL GRAPPLE] because using this ability wouldpletely drain his mana supply and so far he only knew one way to counter this problem, The . He made a mental note to stock up in his inventory. "Let''s buy the things first. I can think about it allter." Arnold said and opened the shop. He had already ced the beast crystals in his inventory, he was all set to buy the necessities. He opened the tab and bought the [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL] first. __________________________ YOU''VE SELECTED [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL] KNOWLEDGE. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL]? ?YES or ?NO __________________________ "Yes." __________________________ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED THE KNOWLEDGE [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL]. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [QUICK SHOT] : (Passive ability) Basic ability for ss. This ability increases the magazine capacity as well as shooting speed by 15%. [ Rank : B ] Congrattions! You''ve changed your subss to REWARDS: ACCURACY (ACC) : +10 __________________________ As this notification appeared, Arnold felt like he had been living with guns for his entire life. He then used 40 beast crystals to buy 5 and 3 and stored them in his inventory. He used another 30 beast crystals to buy 300 , and saved the rest beast crystals to use in case of emergency. ***** "When will brother return..." Nicole whined, "It''s already past 7." "I think he''ll be here soon." Nikki smiled at her. DING DONG The apartment''s bell rang. "Looks like he''s already here. I''ll go and check okay?" Nikki left the room to open the door. "Okay!" Nicole replied. But suddenly, the golems stood in front of Nicole and prepared to attack. Duke grabbed his scythe and pushed Nicole behind him. "Hello hello hello. Is this the way you wee a guest?" The man gave a weird smile to Nicole, "YOU''RE MINE NOW!" Chapter 20 - Soul Grapple (1) At the same time, Arnold walked into the apartment and wanted to give Nicole the gifts he bought for her. However, the ce was covered in darkness, and there was not a single person inside. Arnold was expressionless. Just when he was about to turn around to check the apartment, the lights lit up. ?? "Don''t leave now. I have been waiting for a long time." An unknown voice echoed through the halls. Arnold looked up at a camera in the corner and clenched his fists tightly. "Where is Nicole?" He gritted his teeth. "Don''t worry she''s still here. I couldn''t leave without toying with you now can I?" The voice replied. A door opened, and a man walked out with his gaze shing with Arnold. crumbled remains of his golems could be seen behind the man. "They were tough to deal with, but it was fun. Now show me what you got. Let''s tango!" The man''s gaze was fixed at Arnold as he clenched his fists. A bluish me began to flow down his arm as though it was a liquid. The next instant, a huge shockwave was sent out. The power of his first shot through the entire floor and arge hole appeared behind the wall where Arnold was standing. Arnold had activated [ RAPID FLASH ] just in time to dodge the man''s attack. Arnold took a moment to size up his foe, Standing 5'' 10" tall, this red-brown skinned man had a burn mark on his right hand which was most likely caused by his own ability. He had a long face, arge nose, angled lips, and small hazel eyes. He had shoulder-length, fine, light brown hair which was un-styled and an impressive beard. He also had toned arms, a wide torso, a well-defined waist, short legs, and wide feet were all developed to be a warrior having no boundaries. Arnold pretty much guessed his abilities by his ragged appearance but he used his [PROBE] skill on him either way. _________________________ NAME: Bob Marcel (Human) LEVEL: 59 RANK: B ROLE: Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ?????? ?????? ?????? HP : 4150/4150 Mana/Energy : 5000/5000 STRENGTH (STR) : 88 DEFENSE (DEF) : 75 STAMINA (STA) : 79 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 35 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 45 EVADE (EVD) : 47 CHARISMA (CHA): 58 THREAT LEVEL: High REMARK: Try not to enter in a head-on confrontation with him or he''ll snap your back in half like a twig. Maintain your distance and use rangedbat to overpower him. _________________________ "Hey hey hey. You actually dodged it. Pretty good. Show me what-" BAM! While Bob was busy running his mouth, Arnold reactivated [ ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FROST GOLEM ] thus the golems Bob had destroyed earlier got reformed. Duke took the initiative and punched Bob with so much force at he flew outside through the hole he made. Arnold took out the [BLACK VINDICATOR] from his inventory and used [ENHANCEMENT] on it before jumping out of the hole after Bob. The enhancement gained wasn''t permanent and his guns only gained 12% attack boost, but it was better than nothing. "If you want to live, tell me where''s Nicole?" Arnold shouted, but before Bob could reply he saw someone was trying to push Nicole inside a blue jeep. "Is that... Nikki?" Bob stood between Arnold and Nicole. Arnold knew he wouldn''t be able to reach her, so he did what he thought was for the best. He used the guns and shot Nikki''s right leg and the rear tires of the car. "SON OF A BI*CH!" Nikki cursed in pain and grabbed her right leg. Bob wasn''t prepared for Arnold''s attack because ording to the Intel, Arnold was supposed to be a summoner, not a damn gunslinger! Bob scanned his opponents. 4 golems. One carried a scythe while one wielded a sword1, two of the remaining golems didn''t have a weapon with them. Then there was their master, a gun-wielding summoner. Bob''s face fell. He knew very well that if he didn''t close the gap between them, he''ll be at a disadvantage. But then again if Arnold wanted to get his sister back he had no choice but to close the distance between them. "This is interesting..." Bob smacked his lips, "very interesting." "Bob helps me out, please... I''m losing too much blood!" Nikki gritted her teeth in pain. "SHUT UP BI*CH! Can''t you see I''m trying to have fun here?" Bob snapped back. "Don''t mind her. Let''s carry on with our fight." Arnold didn''t utter a word but Duke and Marshal1 charged at Bob, while Arnold used his elemental control abilities to control his surroundings, he then ordered the two remaining golems to go and retrieve Nicole from the jeep. Bob saw through Arnold''s n and ignored Duke and Marshal, and charged at the two other golems. Arnold had already foreseen this oue and was prepared. He raised a wall between Bob and the golems and started shooting at him. Every time a bullet sessfully managed to hit Bob, a notification appeared. _________________________ You''ve dealt 123(+15) points of damage to your target. Damage inflicted after damage reduction due to the target''s defence: 93. _________________________ "Damn it! Why does he have such a high defence stat!" Arnold snarled but kept shooting bullets at his opponent. Duke and Marshall weren''t doing much better either. Bob was a man who excelled in closebat, hence the golems weren''t much of a threat to him and managed to dodge most of their attacks while hitting them every once in a while. His main concern was the two golems who went to rescue the girl, but whenever he tried to go after them Arnold would start shooting at him and even though the bullets weren''t enough to kill him, getting shot was still very painful and he couldn''t use his energy shield at all times because it would take too much energy. ***** _________________________ You''ve killed a human. The first human killed : EXP: +300 First rank D human killed : EXP: +150 You''ve levelled up! Current level: 36 _________________________ "When did I kill someone?" Arnold nced over Bob''s shoulder and saw Nikki''s limp body lying there. Apparently, one of his bullets had bounced over Bob''s energy shield and managed to hit Nikki in the head, causing her death. Arnold thought killing someone would affect him emotionally, but he felt quite calm and relieved. He was going to kill her either way. Those who dare to hurt his sister deserved to die. Arnold shook his head. One of the golems had already picked Nicole in his arms and was running towards Arnold while the other golem guarded him. Seeing this Arnold used [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: ICE ] as well as [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: EARTH ] to trap Bob as well as Duke and Marshal inside a dome-like structure so that Bob won''t be able to try and attack Nicole. "Are you okay?" Arnold asked and checked his sister to see if she was injured. Nicole was still in shock and couldn''t reply, but she hugged her brother with tearful eyes and nodded. "You''re safe now... You''re safe now..." Arnold mumbled and patted Nicole''s head, "I''ll just deal with the other guy and then we can-" BANG!!! "ENOUGH!" Bob shouted, at this moment beams of bright light shot out from his body, causing an energy explosion in a range of a few meters. "I KILL YOU!" *************** NOTE : 1. The sword-wielding golem is the golem who helped Arnold to kill the centaur and took the centaur''s sword after Arnold defeated him. Arnold named him Marshal. Chapter 21 - Soul Grapple (2) "You''re safe now... You''re safe now..." Arnold mumbled and patted Nicole''s head, "I''ll just deal with the other guy and then we can-" BANG!!! ?? "ENOUGH!" Bob shouted, at this moment beams of bright light shot out from his body, causing an energy exploring in a range of a few meters. "I''LL KILL YOU!" A blinding electrical light suddenly raged through Bob''s body. The next moment, Bob waspletely surrounded by violent bolts of lightning, ready to wreck havoc. Arnold and his summons were like a group of annoying wasps to Bob, as not only did they hurt a lot, he could not get his hands on them and this irritated him a lot. He had only nned on grievously injuring Arnold, but fighting this persistent b*stard made him mad! Now all he could think of was to kill him. At this time, the system gave Arnold a new quest. _________________________ QUESTS : The Mad Brawler ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : The bruised and battered brawler has sworn to kill you and has unleashed his full power. You can no longer stall him. You have to kill Bob [ TASK ] : Kill Bob. [ PROGRESS ] : Kills 0/1 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 5000 EXP ? one random ability ? one random blueprint ? one special attribute _________________________ "This isn''t good..." Arnold could feel Bob''s murderous intent. No matter what happens, he had to protect Nicole. He grabbed a from his inventory and gave it to Nicole. "Nicole, drink this okay? You''ll feel better." He then turned towards the golems, "I''ll hold him back, you guys take her as far as you can. Understood?" The golems hesitated for a while but then they obeyed hismand, and started running way from the battlefield. Nicole kept shouting, begging them to turn back and help but their master had given them an order to fulfill. Nicole''s protection was their primary goal. ***** "Getting a bit cocky are we?" Bob gave a nasty smile to Arnold, "You could barely hold me back when you had your summons with you. What can you possibly do without them." "Do you know how to fight or you only know to run your smelly mouth?" Arnold taunted him, "Your breath is so bad, my sister couldn''t take it anymore and had to run away." "You... I''M GONNA MAKE YOU WISH THAT YOU WERE NEVER BORN!" Bob shouted and charged towards a defenseless Arnold. Arnold took out his guns and started shooting at him. Bob''s defense was better than before, which reduced the damage inflicted per bullet but as more bullets were hitting him, the damage output more or less remained the same. Arnold used [PROBE] to check his opponent''s HP. _________________________ Target''s remaining HP : 3106/4000 _________________________ "This is bad..." Arnold mumbled as he activated [ RAPID FLASH ] to dodge Bob''s iing attack while shooting him. Suddenly Bob shouted angrily and a message popped up on Arnold''s interface. _________________________ You''ve inflicted : 482 points of physical damage to your target. You''ve inflicted : 169 points of true damage to your target. Total damage dealt after reduction due to defense : 591 Target''s remaining HP : 2515/4000 _________________________ Arnold couldn''t believe his eyes! Two bullets continuously managed to trigger both of his damage enhancing passive skills [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] and [STATIC RAGE] this dealing such an explosive amount of damage to Bob. No wonder Bob was shouting in pain and anger. But a moment of excitement managed to distract Arnold. Bob took advantage of this situation and closed the distance between them, Arnold saw himing but it was toote. Bob rained a barrage of punches on Arnold, each punch was stronger than before. His 13th punch sent Arnold flying backwards. Bob called this move ''Seismic Dismantling'', had defeated countless A ranked warriors with this move, so you can forget about a C ranked warrior surviving this move. Bob heaved a sigh of relief and picked up Arnold by his hair. "Humph... Now you''ll see why you shouldn''t provoke someone of higher rank than yours." Bob proudly dered, "Now if you don''t mind, I have to capture your helpless sister." "Oh..yeah?" Arnold mumbled. BANG! BANG! BANG! Arnold immediately fired three shots at point nk range. Bob immediately let him go and stepped back. "HOW THE HELL ARE YOU ALIVE!" Bob bellowed. "You think your puny attacks will be able to kill me?" Arnold acted calm and collected on the outside, but inside he was scared shitless. Bob''s one attack was enough to kill him, if it wasn''t for [SACRED PROTECTION] that triggered at that time he would''ve been dead. Those three shots that Arnold fired managed to take another 900 HP from Bob while Arnold''s own HP was below 60% of its maximum value and his mana was at 35% of its maximum value. _________________________ Target''s remaining HP : 1615/4000 _________________________ "You... BAST*RD!" "Time to say goodbye." Arnold aimed his guns at Bob and fired! *CLICK* *CLICK* His guns were empty, but he wasn''t worried about it. He quickly activated [DEMON BLITZ] and... nothing happened. _________________________ You need to have at least one bullet/projectile to activate this skill. _________________________ Arnold''s face fell once again. He got so involved in the battle, hepletely lost count of the bullets he had left. Although He had beast crystals in his inventory but he didn''t have the time to purchase bullets from the shop... "Are you out of bullets or out of luck?" Bob smirked, "I had a lot of fun but it ends now." A formless wind pressure surrounded both of them. Bob got yet another energy boost. Wherever he stepped, a gray cloud of dust would be kicked up and a crater would form. He just surpassed the limit of rank B... he was a cmity now. Chapter 22 - Soul Grapple (3) SOMEWHERE AWAY FROM THE BATTLE... "Why do we need to go and check if something happens? What the hell is police for, if we''re forced to do their job?" Gabriel pouted. ?? Dan shook his head. "As far as I can remember, that mage guy, Arnold lives in the same locality. We should ask him for help!" "I already tried that, he isn''t picking up his phone." Ninained, unlike everyone else, she wasn''t wearing her armour and only carried her sword with her. "Madam director told us to check the surroundings and immediately call for help if needed." Martha, who was driving the car, replied. Suddenly a giant creature blocked their way, Martha hastily hit the brakes to prevent an ident. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE!" Martha shouted and everyone got out of the car. "Aren''t they...?" Gabriel looked at his teammates. "Arnold''s summons!" Nina eximed. These were definitely one of summons that Arnold used to fend off the centaur back in the dungeon. "Look! This one''s carrying a girl. Didn''t he said he has a sister? Maybe it''s her!" Martha eximed and took a step towards her but the other golem blocked her way. He wasn''t going to let anyone harm his master''s sister. "Rx! Rx! We''re here to help." Nina said and raised both of her hands in air. The others followed her lead. "Help?" a voice came out of one of the golems. Everyone was confused. "They can speak?" "No they can''t, but I can!" Nicole''s head popped out from behind the golem''s back. "Please help my brother, he''s fighting the bad breath person all by himself!" "Bad breath person? Now isn''t the time to focus on weird nicknames." Nina looked an the golem in front of her, "Can you take us there?" The golem looked at Nicole who nodded at him, he shrugged his shoulder and gestured the others to follow him. ***** MEANWHILE... "Regretting your decision yet?" Bob smirked as he broke another wall created by Arnold. Arnold remained silent and kept using his elemental abilities to defend himself. To Bob, it looked as if he was desperately trying to hold on to his life, but actually he was trying to make enchanted bullets using his ice affinity. Every time he tried to make a bullet he lost around 60 mana, thus every failure meant he had to use more mana. "Damn it! why won''t it work!" Arnold murmured. He tried once again but this time something unusual happened and his guns made a humming noise. _________________________ Congrattions! You''ve created a new blueprint. ? magazine. Grade : Red Damage : 150-189 (magical) Range : 37 meters Ammo Type : Enchanted bullets Magazine Capacity : 44 (22 each) Cost : 10 mana/magazine Additional skill : [ICE BURST] - Deals additional 45% damage when the target is closer than 10 meter, and temporarily numbs the target''s body upon sessful contact. _________________________ "Got you!" Bob eximed as he broke through thest barrier. "No. I got you." Arnold pointed his pistols at Bob and bombarded him with bullets. Now as long as he had mana, he had an endless supply of bullets. Right now he had over 800 mana left, and he intended to use everyst bit of it. Bob couldn''t handle the sudden barrage of bullets, stumbled and fell over but Arnold didn''t stop. He got on top of him and kept shooting at Bob''s face until the message of his victory popped up. _________________________ QUESTS : The Mad Brawler ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : The bruised and battered brawler has sworn to kill you and has unleashed his full power. You can no longer stall him. You have to kill Bob [ TASK ] : Kill Bob "The mad brawler" Marcel [ PROGRESS ] : Kills 1/1 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 5000 EXP ? one random ability ? one random blueprint ? one special attribute _________________________ "Finally... I did it." Arnold heaved a sigh of relief and got up from Bob''s corpse. "Now let''s get back to Nicole she''d be worrying about me." "Would she now?" Bob''s voice echoed behind him. He turned around and raised his guns to fire it again, the next moment Arnold got mmed into the road, which cracked. His head started bleeding. He had yet to recover from the attack when he suddenly felt a weight on his body. Bob pressed his hands against his back and locking it with Arnold''s knees, while his other hand pressed his face on the road and instantly subdued. Arnold tried with all his might but was unable to move. "Care to repeat what you said again?" Bobughed hysterically. "But you... died... how are you... alive." Arnold mumbled. "Haha... what do you think?" Bob replied. A realisation dawned upon Arnold. "Two... lives... " "Ding Ding Ding. Congrattions you''ve guessed it correctly before you die. You killed me once, it''s only fair that I kill you once too, don''t you think?" Bob smirked as he charged up his fist to deliver a killing blow. "You think only you have a trump card, do you?" Arnold said and activated [SOUL GRAPPLE]. The world before his eyes changed. Everything became foggy like he was looking at the world from a different dimension. Arnold wasn''t bonded to his body anymore, he was floating above everything. When he moved, the world below him was still, he saw Bob and rushed towards him. The next moment he was inside Bob''s body, Arnold knew he didn''t have much time so he controlled Bob''s arm and mmed it on Bob''s chest, who flew backwards slumped next to Nikki''s corpse. After the duration of [SOUL GRAPPLE] ended, Arnold was pulled out of Bob''s body and soon returned back to his own body. "Hisss... He broke my arm..." Arnold slowly got up and caressed his right arm. "WHY DON''T YOU DIE ALREADY!" Bob snapped. Arnold thought the same thing. His arm was broken and he had no mana remaining. Even if he used the which were in his inventory, he was in no condition to continue the fight. Bob started channeling his energy once again, but then Nina appeared out of nowhere and cleaved her de at Bob''s head. However, Bob easily managed to avoided it. This attacknded on the ground, and a small crater was created. The cracks on the ground then extended out a few meters. At that moment, around 12 or so warriors also appeared and surrounded Arnold to protect him, his golems and Nicole were right behind him. Bob pointed his finger at Arnold, who actually managed to ''kill'' him once and make him suffer a loss, and shouted, "I''ll remember you Arnold Ling! We''ll dance again some other time. Till then Adios!" Chapter 23 - Part Of The Family "Nancy Williams, reporting live from West Avenue, the location where the all out war between two warriors took ce about an hour ago. You can guess the power of the participating parties by the amount of destruction caused..." The journalists soon arrived at the ''crime scene'' like a moth to a me and were busy reciting their own version of what happened there. Police had also arrived there and were gathering evidence and statements from Arnold, Nicole and the members of ck knights however the police wasn''t able to uncover Nikki''s true identity. It was like she never existed in the world, so all they could do was to question Arnold and the others. Warriors fighting amongst themselves was a rare urrence and hence both police and the journalists were taking it quite seriously. ? ? From the statements of Arnold and Nicole, it was clear that Nikki was about to kidnap Nicole but before she could Arnold stopped her and then a fight between him and ''Bob''menced. Even though it was an act of self defense, Arnold was still a ''murderer'', they had to arrest him but ck knights were having none of it. In their eyes whatever Arnold did was right and just. It looked like another war was about to begin between the police force and the ck knights, a car broke through police''s barricade and stopped between the police force and the members of ck Knights guild. A lone person stepped out of the ck Lamborghini. Every member of ck Knights immediately kneeled before this guy. The guy however was uninterested in them and turned to face the chief of police who was in charge of the case. The ce which was bustling with noise, got silent real quick even the journalists and reporters who were shouting at the top of their lungs, stopped reporting and stood quietly in a corner. This was the power of a SS rank warrior, not to mention the only SS ranked warrior of America, John Miller, also known as Johnny ck... the ace of the ck Family. His powers were legendary and included shape-shifting, regeneration, and what not! He rarely left the mansion in which ck Family lived in and only worked under the orders from the leader or the director of ck Knights. Defeating someone like The A team of Flying Swords was child''s y for him. No wonder everyone got quite the moment he stepped out of the car. "What are you nning to do, Officer?" Johnny asked in his deep manly voice. The Chief of police cleared his throat. "I''m afraid Mr. Ling has murdered someone, even if it was for self-defense we''ll have to arrest him and the court ofw would decide the punishment for his crimes." "I agree." Johnny nodded, "But you see there''s an issue with that... I don''t see any Mr. Ling here." "He''s standing right there! Behind the members of your guild." "Oh You''re talking about him! Sorry but as far as I know, he isn''t Mr. Ling. His name is Mr. ck and he is part of my family." Everyone was shocked. The reporters who were quite a moment ago, started reporting the new turn of events. The members of ck Knights guild were also surprised by this announcement but couldn''t helpughing at the proud and just Chief of police, who''s face turned red with anger. Just by saying that Arnold was now a part of the ck Family, Johnny gave Arnold the same special rights that the government had given to the 12 elite families. One of them being that no member of any of the 12 families can be arrested for any crimes until it''s a crime against the nation and even in that case if someone had to be arrested, the President of the United States of America had to sign an arrest warrant only then the police and the military would get the authority to arrest them. "Chief what do we do?" Chief''s assistant asked him. "WHAT CAN WE DO FOOL! JUST PACK UP AND LEAVE!" The Chief bellowed, stomped off and left the scene. ***** "What do you mean the n FAILED! I even got the mayor to switch off the security scanners and what not! AND YOU''RE TELLING ME THE MISSION FAILED!" Everyone in the room was silent. Even the President of Flying Swords, Ming Fu was there. Although he was of S+ rank himself, the gap between his and the leader''s power was too much. If they were to fight, the leader would wipe him out and no one would even know about it. Ming Fu had always been a close subordinate of the mysterious leader, as soon as he got to know that the leader wanted to capture a family member of someone that worked for his guild, he immediately nned to help the leader. He even got out of his way and gave out many benefits to Arnold so that, he''s would manage to slowly get his way to his sister. But s! the n failed and now Arnold knew that someone was after his sister. He had to do it all in secrecy, because if anyone got a whiff of the situation... the results would''ve been catastrophic. The leader calmed down a bit and asked, "Where''s Bob?" "He''s... missing." "Find him..." "Yes sir!" "And bring him to me. I''ve been wanting to do some experiments on him." The leader snarled. Chapter 24 - Misunderstanding? Yeah Right! "Thanks for your help. I''m forever indebted to you." Arnold said in the most respectful manner. "No need to thank a fellow family member." Johnny replied in his emotionless voice. Even though his voicecked emotion, whatever he said felt intimidating to others because of his 6'' 3" tall, heavily built physique. ?? "Thanks to you guys as well... if it wasn''t for you who knows what would have happened. I owe you one." He thanked the members of ck Knights guild. "You don''t owe us anything. You helped us inside the dungeon we helped you outside the dungeon. We''re even now." Nina waved her hand, "I wanted to ask you something though. Why didn''t you properly check the nurse''s background before appointing her as Nicole''s caretaker?" "The thing is, I didn''t appoint her. My guild did. They even gave me this apartment which is... pretty useless now." Arnold replied. "Hate to say this but I think, someone from your previous guild was coborating with the one who attacked you." Dan interjected. "Looks like I need to go to the guild for ast time..." "I''ll go with you then." Johnny told Arnold, "Your arm is still healing and I don''t think it''ll be a good idea for you to be alone in case things go south. Moreover I have a car, we''ll be able to reach there soon." He nced at the others. "Nina take a few people with you and take Arnold''s sister to the mansion. The rest of you, go back to the guild and file the report. Got it?" "Yes sir!" ***** "You can stay here. I''ll call for help in case I need it." Arnold said as he hastily got out of Johnny''s car. "No I''ming with you, we''re a family now. Your problem is my problem." Johnny replied. Arnold nodded and both of them headed towards the John''s office. Arnold needed some answers. He knew he wasn''t powerful enough to take on the vice president, but if it was for his sister he''ll do anything and everything to punish those who mean harm to her. Most of his ''former'' team members were in the hall preparing to leave for Arnold''s apartment to check in on him. They didn''t know anything about the attack and only got to know about it from the news channels, but then they saw him rushing towards the elevator but it wasn''t all, a man having a tremendous amount of aura followed behind him. "Wasn''t that... John Miller." EL looked at the others who were also shocked. What was Arnold doing with someone like him? "You mean Johnny ck, that''s the name which was given to him when he joined the ck Family." Miguel corrected EL. "Shouldn''t he be stopped? I mean he is trespassing isn''t he?" "Can you stop him?" Everyone went silent. Who''d dare to go up against America''s top warrior? "Let''s follow them." Alice finally broke the silence. ***** "I''m sorry Arnold but I can''t allow you to meet John. He''s in a meeting." Maya shook her head. "I''m sorry Maya, but do you think he cares?" Arnold pointed his thumb towards Johnny, who red at Maya. The generally cool and collected Maya was scared out of her wits. "I-I can-" "Open the door or would you like ME to open it instead?" Johnny took a step towards her. Maya was sweating profusely when EL and the others entered the hall. "What the hell you think you''re doing?" EL shouted. Arnold turned towards his ex-teammates. "You. Stay. Out. Of. It." They had never seen Arnold like this before. his usual calm demeanor had been reced by pure rage. Arnold then pushed Maya aside and kicked open the door leading to John''s office. Three men in ck suits were sitting there talking with each other when the door opened and Arnold and Johnny walked in. "We need to talk." "Can''t you see I''m busy? Come tomorrow." John arrogantly replied. "You, You and you," Johnny pointed at the men in ck suits, "out now." Everyone knew who Johnny was and didn''t want to upset him in anyway, so they quietly got up and left. "MILLER STAY OUT OF IT!" John barked loudly at Johnny. "You got a death wish or something, oldie?" Johnny calmly replied, but at that moment everyone in the room could feel the killing intenting out from his body. "Just answer the kid and we''ll be out of here. Go ahead." "You wouldn''t know about what happened couple of hours ago would you?" Arnold asked. "You think I''m an oracle?" "Allow me to enlighten your ignorant self then. My sister was attacked by the nurse YOU appointed. I nearly got killed by a friend of hers and let me think what else... NONE OF YOU EVEN SHOWED UP TO HELP ME OUT!" "What are you trying to say?" "What I''m trying to say is, be d that I don''t have a proof that you or your guild were involved in it or else we wouldn''t be chatting right now." "Arnold, I think there''s been some kind of misunderstanding..." Alice ced her hand on his shoulder, but he pped it back. "No. It''s not a misunderstanding, it''s a mistake, my mistake to trust this guild and it''s shitty people but no more. I''m resigning from this guild, effective immediately." Arnold snapped his guildmunicator in front of them and walked out of the guild, ignoring everyone''s plea. After what happened, he would never trust them ever again. Chapter 25 - Upgrade Arnold was sitting alone in his new room inside the ck mansion. He had just returned from the headquarters of the Flying Swords guild. Just thinking about that guild made him angry, after all he did for them... He even gave them a chance to correct their mistakes but still they betrayed him. "I should''ve left the guild long ago..." Arnold shook his head, now wasn''t the time to waste regretting the past. ?? He thought about the nightmare he had the other day. At that time he had dismissed the thought that someone wanted to take his sister away from him but after today''s incident, he knew someone was after Nicole. The only problem was that, he didn''t know who was the person and why they wanted Nicole so desperately? He kept thinking but couldn''t think of a single reason why someone would want to harm an innocent girl like her. In the end he gave up and started thinking about what he had to do next. He considered himself lucky that he was able to ''defeat'' Bob, but he didn''t want him to be dependent on luck, he had to get stronger and he had two ways to do so... either clear more dungeons and gain more experience or learn new affinities and abilities. He chose to go with thetter. Earlier he didn''t wanted do it because he thought that others might get suspicious about his sudden abilities but now he was worried about only one thing - protecting Nicole. Just when he was about to pull an affinity scroll from his inventory, a message popped up. ___ There are unimed quest rewards. Please im them before they expire. ___ "Right, I didn''t im the rewards for ''killing'' Bob." He said and opened the tab. ___ QUESTS : The Mad Brawler ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : The bruised and battered brawler has sworn to kill you and has unleashed his full power. You can no longer stall him. You have to kill Bob [ TASK ] : Kill Bob. [ PROGRESS ] : Kills 1/1 [STATUS] : Completed [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 5000 EXP ? one random ability ? one random blueprint ? one special attribute ___ "im." ___ [QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained 5000 EXP. You''ve leveled up! Current level : 41 You''ve gained a new ability : ? [BERSERKER''S RAGE] : (Active ability) A type of offense spell. When activated, all of the user''s attributes will be boosted by 150%. Duration of skill : 20 seconds [ Rank : C ] [Mana cost : 100] [Cooldown : 1 Hour] You''ve gained a new attribute : ? MYSTIC (MYS) : Can be used to increase the number of summons generated by the user. For every 10 Attribute points added, one extra summon would be created. You''ve gained a new blueprint : ? [PHOENIX CLOAK] : A cloak made up of ashes left behind by thest of the Phoenix. Grade : B+ Defense : 56 (physical) Armour Type : Cloak Weight : 0.56 kg Additional effect : [TITAN''S BLESSING] - Reflects 15% of damage received as physical damage to the attacker. Additional effect : [BLAZING PHOENIX] - Boosts the effect of fire affinity by 25%. ___ "Mystic attribute is really nice. It has potential of bing my most useful attribute... I should level it up alongside my intelligence. [BERSERKER''S RAGE] is quite useful as well. If I use it while using the [VINDICATOR], my damage output would be explosive! As for [PHOENIX CLOAK], I better check out the materials needed to craft it before jumping with excitement... " He opened the tab and clicked on the [PHOENIX CLOAK] blueprint. ___ Items required to construct a [PHOENIX CLOAK] : ? 1 spindle (Only avable in the shop) ? 19 (Only avable in the shop) ? 20 crystals ? 1 crystal ___ "I knew it... There''s no way I''m going to challenge another rank A monster while I''m at rank C." Arnold still remembered what happened thest time he went up against a rank A boss. "It''s Better to give up on [PHOENIX CLOAK]... for now." He then opened the main interface to allocate the 44 attribute points he had. He immediately used 20 points increase his mystic stat, then used the remaining points to increase his intelligence to 60, agility to 50, evade to 40 and strength to 45. He didn''t used his potential points because he was nning on learning new affinities. He randomly took out an affinity scroll from his inventory. ___ YOU''VE PICKED UP AFFINITY SCROLL. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN AFFINITY? ?YES or ?NO ___ "This could be interesting... yes." ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Fire > AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [ARCANE FLAMES] : (Active ability) The user controls the power of hellfire and can guide a sea of mes to incinerate anything in its path. This skill is only effective on organic targets. Targets affected by the skill will get marked and receive 0.5% additional damage per second. [ Rank : A ] [Mana cost : 150] [COOLDOWN : 5 minutes] ? [PLASMA SHIELD] : (Active ability) When activated, the user gets surrounded by a thinyer of sma which absorbs 45% of the iing damage (Both Physical and Magical. Not effective against true damage). The shield would be able to withstand a damage equivalent to 1000 HP and it will shatter once the total damage exceeds this ount. [Duration : 10 seconds] [ Rank : C+ ] [Mana cost : 80] [COOLDOWN : 2 minutes] ___ Before Arnold couldment over the new abilities he just acquired another notification popped open in front of him. ___ TWO < Basic > ELEMENTAL AFFINITIES FOUND. WOULD YOU LIKE TO MERGE THE AFFINITIES TO LEARN AN < Advance > ELEMENTAL AFFINITY? YOU WOULDN''T LOSE ANY ABILITY YOU''VE LEARNT SO FAR AND YOU''D BE ABLE TO LEARN THEIR RESPECTIVE ABILITIES IN FUTURE AS WELL. PROCEED WITH ADVANCEMENT? ?Yes or ?No ___ Arnold didn''t hesitate even for a second and proceeded with the advancement. He was able to take on opponents of rank B, when he had only one advanced affinity, he couldn''t even imagine what he''d be able to do with two such advanced affinities! ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. COMBINING.... SUCCESSFUL. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Lava > AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [ ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : LAVA HOUNDS ] : (Active ability) Summons 5va hounds to do your bidding. Their attributes depend on the summoner''s level. When they are destroyed, they have 16% chance of splitting up and forming 2 smallerva hounds, and will have 80% of the original hound''s attributes. They have low health which usepensated by their high attack and agility. [ Rank : S ] [Mana cost : 120/Hound] [COOLDOWN : 8 minutes after all summons are destroyed once ] ___ "This is... not bad at ALL!" Arnold jumped with excitement. Chapter 26 - First Day In Black Estate NEXT MORNING... KNOCK ?? KNOCK KNOCK "Who is it?" "Mr Arnold, the head of the family wants an audience with you. I have brought the family attire for you to wear as well." "Just a second." Arnold got up from the bed and opened the door. "Good morning." "Good morning sir. You have a meeting with the head of the family at 12 pm. Please be ready by 11:45 am so that you could reach the lunch hall on time. And here''s your breakfast." "Got it." Arnold nodded. "I''ll take my leave then." The Butler quietly closed the door and left. "It''s 7 am, I''ve got lots of time to kill. Better finish the daily quest in the meantime." He finished his breakfast then took a shirt and went towards Nicole''s room. The ck estate was divided into 5 buildings which were spread across an area of 25 square kilometers. The mansion in the centre belonged to the main family and was the biggest among the other buildings, no one apart from the branched family and the servants was allowed inside until and unless they were invited by the head of the family. The building behind the main mansion belonged to the branch family members. Nina lived here with her dad and mom, the building had simr design like the main mansion, but it was smaller. No one was allowed to enter this building either. The armoury and the forge were located inside the building on the right of the main mansion. This building was essible to everyone. Servants, chefs, drivers and other personnel lived in the building on the left, which was the closest to the main mansion. The building in front of the main mansion was the ce were those who were ''adopted'' by the family stayed. Arnold and Nicole were given their rooms in this building. There were many guard stations built across the estate with 24¡Á7 security. Everything inside the estate was well connected with each other through various roads. "Nicole you up?" Arnold knocked on the door. "Brother is that you? Come on in!" Nicole was sitting on the bed, with the bedpost supporting her back and a woman was spoon feeding her. "Good morning brother! Meet Ms. Miranda, she''s the one taking care of me since yesterday." Arnold quietly used his [PROBE] skill on Ms. Miranda, he wouldn''t take any risk after what happened with Nikki. Ms. Miranda had a kind and caring persona and didn''t had any special abilities or powers... she was quite normal. After checking her info thoroughly, Arnold smiled at her and expressed his thanks for taking care of his sister. "Sorry for the trouble but you can leave now, I''ll make sure Nicole gets her fill of food." Arnold smiled at Ms. Miranda. "Oh it''s not an issue sir, but I''ll take my leave now. Eat well Ms Nicole, you need the energy." Ms. Miranda patted Nicole''s head and left. "I will!" Nicole smiled back as Ms. Miranda left the room. Arnold sat down where Miranda was sitting before and started spoon feeding Nicole. Back before all this happened, he used to feed her like this almost everyday. Both of them felt nostalgic and were happy that they could do it once again. "Now since that''s done, I''m heading out to exercise do you wanna join in?" "Of course! I''ll watch over you and protect you while you exercise." "I''m sure you will. Haha..." He lightly pinched her red cheeks. ***** OUTSIDE, THE SOUTHERN PART OF MANSION "Everything is so... BEAUTIFUL! Isn''t it brother?" "Yeah it is." Arnold and Nicole were strolling outside. Nicole was in her wheelchair and Arnold gently pushed it around. The entire area around them was covered with finely trimmed grass. Arnold left Nicole under the shadow of the building and started with his exercises. After three and a half hours, Arnold was done with his daily quests. He dumped all the attribute points he had into his newly acquired mystic stat. His intelligence was high enough, right now he needed to focus on increasing his battle prowess. Unknown to him, a lot of people had their eyes on the newest member of the family, and seeing him so disciplined confirmed that their decision about ''adopting'' him was right. Furthermore they knew about his unranked potential so they were looking forward to see him in action and hopefully they''ll get to see it soon enough. Arnold and Nicole chatted for a while before going back inside. After all, Arnold had a meeting to attend to. After showering, Arnold wore the ''attire'' that the butler had given him, the attire was nothing but a in ck tuxedo with ck pants and shoes. Even for Arnold who liked to wear ck clothing, the love which this ''family'' had for the colour was pretty extreme and disturbing. Most of the things inside the state were covered in ck, from cars to walls. Everything. Right at 11:45, someone knocked on his door. He opened the door and saw a Butler waiting for him outside. "Shall we proceed?" The Butler asked. "Lead the way." Chapter 27 - Fight! (1) It took around 10 minutes by car to reach the main mansion. There were many guards and warriors patrolling around, most of them carried weapons but those with higher levels didn''t. Even though they had different attires, the colour of the attire was the same... ck. Trees and few other decorations were the only exception to this ''all ck theme''. Under the guidance of the butler, Arnold soon arrived at the lunch hall where he was supposed to meet the mysterious head of the ck Family. The lunch hall felt more like a living room instead, who the hell puts a sofa near the dining table? And not just one sofa... the room was filled with sofas! ?? "Wee to the ck Family, Mr Arnold." A voice came from behind one of the sofas. Arnold looked on the direction from which the voice came. A man was sitting on the sofa in the middle of the room. The man was most probably 5''5"ish, had a dark skinned which gave off a distinctive feeling about him. A particrly notable feature of the man was his crooked smile. He had arge skin tag on his chest and had a lean face with a round chin, a stubby nose,rge ears andrge lips. His dark blue eyes are narrow, and he had well groomed eyebrows. He was naturally bald but had an impressive beard. "So you like my beard huh?" The man smiled. Is this guy a mind reader or what? Arnold thought. "Yes, it''s one of my powers, youngd." "Holy cow!" Arnold mumbled. "Mind yournguage in Father''s presence." A man appeared out of nowhere, and was standing behind the ''Head of the family''. "Oh! I''m sorry sir." "It''s not sir! Call him FATHER!" The man snapped back. This white skinned man had a small wound on his forehead, maybe his brain was damaged and that''s why he behaved like a jerk. He had a weird triangr face, a straight nose, and small lips. His light blue eyes were wide set. His shoulder length straight, red hair was neatly braided. He had long arms, a powerful torso, and strong legs. Father? What kind of weird fetish this man has? Arnold forgot about the Head''s mind reading capabilities. "I assure you that its just a gesture of respect and nothing else." The Head smiled, "I don''t think I''ve introduced myself yet, I''m Nathaniel ck, the head of this family and this is my adopted son, Nathan ck." "Pleased to meet you. Now if you don''t mind could you tell me why have you invited me here?" "Hahaha... straight to the point. I''ve already started to like you my boy. Since you asked nicely, I''m gonna tell you exactly why I invited you over - To test your skills inbat. You''ll be facing off against Nathan and if you manage to stay on your feet after ten minutes, I''ll adopt you as one of my sons. Don''t worry, I''ll adopt your sister as well, that is if you''d like me to." "What if I refuse?" "I don''t think you''d like to be thrown out of here, would you?" Nathan smirked. While Nathan was smiling, Arnold used the [PROBE] skill on him, and Arnold wasn''t a fan of the information that was in front of him. Nathan was a rank A brawler... in short Arnold''s chances of winning were next to nothing. He looked at Nathan. "I''m ready. Where do we fight?" "Right here." Nathaniel snapped his fingers and dozens of servants appeared and cleared the room. "This wasn''t the lunch hall after all..." Arnold mumbled and took out his guns from his inventory. "Even if I lose, I''m not backing down!" ***** AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION... "AAHHHHHHH!" Muffled screams of a man could be heard inside a dark room. The naked man was strapped to a metal chair electric shocks were being ''administered'' to him. The room smelled like roasted meat. The electric shocks were sufficient to kill an ordinary human being, but wouldn''t kill a rank B brawler like Bob. "I told you Bob... if you fail, you die." The masked leader spoke in a low sympathetic voice, "But not only you failed miserably, now my target knows someone is after them. It does calls for some kind of punishment right?" All of a sudden he turned the knob to full output and Bob shrieked in pain. "But you know I''m a generous and forgiving person right? And so I''m gonna give you another chance." He turned the knob once again. "AHHH!!!!!!" "But if I gave you the chance now... I know you''ll fail again and it''ll all be a waste but don''t worry I have a proposal for you - Why don''t you volunteer in our bionic enhancement project? You won''t be our first human test subject either, you do remember what happened to your teammates right? Some were lucky and just went mad, but the unlucky ones... not only they went mad, their bodies werepletely disfigured. One even got turned into human jam. But I have confidence that you''ll survive it, won''t you?" Bob violently shook his head, his eyes were pleading for mercy but his boss was heartless, and he knew it. "I''m sorry to see you don''t share the enthusiasm as I do... allow me to provide you some MOTIVATION!" The masked leader turned the knob with such a force that it broke and fell off. The room was filled with screams. Bob howled with pain and cursed Arnold again and again, it was because of that as*hole he failed the mission and now he was stuck in a situation far worse than death. Chapter 28 - Fight! (2) Nathaniel took out a small diamond watch from his pocket and signaled both of them to start. Nathan immediately went for the hit as he knew mages and gunslingers both had amon weakness - theck of defense. He also knew about Arnold''s summoning abilities, on the other hand Arnold didn''t had a clue about his abilities. Nathan was gonna win inevitably, the only thing left was to see whether Arnold would be able to survive for 10 minutes or not. ?? "Wait something is wrong..." Nathan suddenly stopped rushing towards his opponent. Before Nathan realized what was going on, Arnold''s aura gotpletely changed and his powers increased at an insane rate. The thick and strong force covered his body, as if a demon had taken over Arnold''s body. At this moment, Nathan realised he didn''t actually know much about his opponent''s ability. It was as if somehow Arnold ''evolved'' after hisst battle against that thug. "You think just because you''re a brawler you''ll easily win against me?" Arnold''s voice thundered inside the room, even Nathaniel was surprised a bit by the sudden increase of Arnold''s power. Unknown to them, Arnold had just activated his new ability [BERSERKER''S RAGE] and instantly his attributes got a big boost. Arnold could feel the new power raging inside him. Without wasting anytime, Arnold started shooting at Nathan, but most of the bullets just bounced off him and he was unaffected by them. "I don''t know how a mage like you acquired an ability that can only be used by brawlers like me but it wouldn''t save you. The moment I get close to you, you''ll lose." Nathan was all smiles as he slowly progressed towards Arnold. "You want to get close huh?" The corners of Arnold''s mouth rose, and the desire of battle appeared on his face. "How about this then?" He activated [ RAPID FLASH ] and the next moment was standing right in front of Nathan, but before Nathan could do anything, countless bullets rained upon him, but these were no ordinary bullets... these were the magical bullets that Arnold had learnt to craft during his fight with Bob. Although Nathan wasn''t troubled by the bullets as the energy shield generated by his aura was more than sufficient to protect him, still whenever a bullet managed to ''hit'' him, that part of his body immediately numbed. Arnold focused on Nathan''s joints and continuously fired ice bullets on them, soon Nathan''s legs gave out and he fell over. Arnold wanted to use this momentum, and keep firing at him but before he could... BAM! Blood spurted out from his mouth, but Arnold endured the pain. He thought that Nathan''s legs gave out due to the numbing passive of the bullets, but actually Nathan willing stepped out so that he could deliver a punch to Arnold. Just one punch from Nathan managed to reduce Arnold''s health by 700 points. "Tsk. I missed the mark." Nathan shook his head. He wanted to hit Arnold on his chest but as he was under heavy fire, he missed his target. You missed your target, broke through my sma shield and still took so much of my health? What type of monster are you? Arnold thought. "Can you get more serious now? Just bring out your summons already. I want to test their strength." Nathan taunted Arnold. "You want to fight my summons? Feel free to knock yourself out then." Arnold wiped the blood of his mouth and summoned everyone out. Nathan''s mouth twitched when he saw not only the number of golems around Arnold had increased but some reddish brown wolf like creatures were there as well! And that wasn''t all, including Arnold, now he had to face 14 opponents simultaneously! While Nathan was still in shock, Arnold proceeded to use [ENHANCEMENT] on each and every summons of his. Thanks to his mystic stat, he could now summon up to 6 Frost Golems and 7va hounds. But the surprises didn''t end here, after the enhancement, 4 out of his 6 golems were now enhanced to rank B and Marshal was permanently enhanced to rank B+! 2 of hisva hounds were permanently enhanced to rank B as well. A second head popped out of the 2 permanently enhancedva hounds and their stats went up significantly. Furthermore their passive changed and now when the enhancedva hounds were destroyed they won''t split into 2 hounds but into 3 smaller hounds! The results of his [ENHANCEMENT] skill were way better than he had expected. Before the fight Arnold knew he was going to be defeated, but now... if he y his cards right he might even win! "Now, tell me how many of my summons do you want to fight at once? 2, 3, 5, 10 or do you want to fight with them all together?" Arnold smirked, Nathan wasn''t the only one who knew about the benefits of taunting his enemy. Arnold was well versed in this art as well! "You... dare to mock ME!!!" Nathan shouted. Just like it happened with Arnold, Nathan''s power levels were suddenly increased as he charged towards to golems surrounding Arnold. BOOM BOOM BOOM Mini shockwaves were generated whenever Duke''s and other golems punches connected with the punches thrown out by Nathan. Nathan was clearly at an disadvantage, because not only he was facing two B+ ranked summons who had not one but two sets of arms and wielded strong weapons, another bunch of golems and hounds randomly joined to hurt him again and again. The hounds were specially annoying. Nathan had managed to crush one of the hounds but rather than decreasing his workload, it further increased it, as 3 smaller hounds emerged from the broken bits of the hound he had destroyed so easily. Arnold looked at the clock which was present at the far end of the hall. Only one minute was remaining for this test to end. One minute remaining... Duke and the others should be be able to stall Nathan till then. Arnold nodded and lowered his guns, why waste his mana on making bullets when his summons had everything in control? Chapter 29 - Fight! (3) One minute remaining... Duke and the others should be able to stall Nathan till then. Arnold nodded and lowered his guns, why waste his mana on making bullets when his summons had everything in control? Arnold was lost in his thoughts when something went flying past him, he turned around and saw that Duke, his proud warrior was shattered into pieces. Arnold hastily looked back towards Nathan who just with one shockwave st, destroyed nearly all of Arnold''s summons. Before Arnold could react and raise his guns, Nathan shot out like an arrow and grabbed Arnold by the neck, pushing him into a wall. The wall was dented, and Arnold was trapped inside, unable to move. ? ? "ytime is OVER!" Nathan roared in anger. Even though Arnold was pinned on the wall, he tried to aim his guns at Nathan but before he could fire upon Nathan, Nathan smacked the guns away from his hands. Seeing that there was no way out, Arnold paced his hands on Nathan''s head and activated [ARCANE FLAMES]. A cracking noise could be heard across the hall, before anyone could figure out what was happening... Nathan''s head was engulfed in blue coloured mes. Nathan immediately let go of Arnold. and stepped back. Arnold''s hand were burnt and he was shaking them like crazy before using his ice abilities to cover them up but surprisingly Nathan wasn''t screaming in pain like he was supposed to... "What the hell?" Arnold mumbled. The mes covering Nathan''s head, simply flowed down to the floor like molten iron. The mes only managed to burn away his energy shield, Nathan''s body waspletely unharmed from Arnold''s attack. "Just how many affinities do you have?" Nathan asked with a poker face. CLAP CLAP CLAP "You''ve done better than I imagined, Arnold." Nathaniel spoke up. "Although I had told Nathan to hold back against you, you still managed to provoke him. Impressive, really impressive." "He barely attacked me... " "Of course he didn''t. If he did, I highly doubt you''d be able to take 5 consecutive punches from him." Nathaniel replied, "Your abilities are impressive, but for C ranker only. I highly doubt you can take on a B+ or above ranked warriors with your current strength. "Thus before I allow you to participate in the family affairs, I rmend you to keep working with our guild for now and develop your abilities. Once you do that, I''d dly adopt you as my son but before then you''re just an ordinary member of the family. And you Nathan, I suggest you to do more meditation from now on because you really need to control your anger." "Yes, father." Nathan bowed his head towards Nathaniel and left. "I''ll take my leave as well sir." Arnold said and turned around to leave but Nathaniel stopped him. "Wait a minute, boy. I don''t think you have any proper gear on you other than your guns. You should go to the armoury and get yourself some equipment. I''d rmend that you get some defensive equipment, because you reallyck in defense, which is a problem. Don''t worry about the cost, consider it a gift." Nathaniel patted Arnold''s shoulders. "Thank you sir, I''m really grateful but if I could get some beast crystals instead, then I''d be able to make some gears myself." Arnold knew that he won''t be able to use any gear that wasn''t made by him or generated by the system, that''s why rather than buying some gears from the armoury Arnold tried to get some beast crystals instead. "Hm... so you''re one of the creationists huh?" Nathaniel stroked his beard. "Fine you can have some crystals. I''ll inform the armoury staff about it, they''ll deliver the beast crystals to your room." "Thank you sir." Nathaniel didn''t reply and left the hall. a butler escorted Arnold outside the mansion. ***** FEW HOURS LATER KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK "Who is it?" Arnold asked. "Mr. Arnold? You have a package from the armoury." A voice came from the outside. Arnold opened the door, the Butler handed him a metal box and left. "Let''s see what do we have here." Arnold locked the door and opened the box. There were 30 or so beast crystals inside the box, there were more than 20 crystals inside and the remaining crystals wereposed of a weird yellow substance. Arnold picked one of these and used the [PROBE] skill on it. _________________________ OBJECT : crystal TYPE : Beast crystal GRADE : C REMARK : An umon beast crystal, can only be obtained by killing a beast/monster of rank C or above. Importantponent in many weapons and armours. _________________________ After reading this, Arnold dumped all of the beast crystals into his inventory. Right now he had over 12 crystals and 47 crystals. "Let''s hope I''d be able to buy some defense equipments from the shop." Arnold rubbed his hands together and opened the tab on the interface. He immediately went to the armor section, although most of the high level gears were either locked or he didn''t have enough crystals to buy them, there were some decent gears avable there like [Cloak of Healing], [Cloak of Force], [Cloak of Spikes] etc, as well . He kept browsing through the gears until he finally found something he was looking for. "That''s it!" Arnold eximed. Chapter 30 - Gears ___________________________ ? [CLOAK OF PHASING] : A cloak made by a mysterious Arch Mage. Protects the wielder by phasing in and out of the material ne. ?? Grade : C+ Defense : 36 (physical) Armour Type : Cloak Weight : 0.46 kg Ability : ? [ASTRAL MAGIC] : (Active ability) A type of Defense ability. When activated, the user is allowed to ess the astral ne, making the user immune to all types of damage. Duration of skill : 10 seconds (Can be increased by leveling up). [ Rank : C ] [Mana cost : 95] [Cooldown : 6 minutes] Additional effect : [NIGHT OWL] - Adds 8% extra defense in dark ces. Price : 9 . ___________________________ "That''s it!" Arnold eximed. He finally found what he was looking for. He immediately bought the cloak from the shop. The stats of this cloak were more than sufficient to make up for his missing defense stat. The cloak got stored in his inventory, he brought the cloak out and wore it. The ck cloak extended to his ankles, it even had a hoodie attached to it. He stared at his reflection in a mirror, some would say he looked like an assassin from a particr game. Arnold still had few crystals remaining so he kept browsing through the shop hoping he''ll find something else. He finally found something eye-catching. ___________________________ ? [SPECTER] : Standard hand glove used by gunslingers, has weapon enhancing abilities. Grade : C+ Defense : 15 (physical) Armour Type : Glove Weight : 0.12 kg Additional effect : [FRIENDLY FIRE] - (Passive ability) A type of Defense ability. Nullifies the effects of self damaging spells. Additional effect : [WEAPON MASTER] - Adds 5 points of uracy and 10 points of extra strength. Price : 2 + 10 ___________________________ "This is perfect! Now my hands won''t get burnt when I use [ASTRAL FLAMES]." He could still feel a slight pain in his hands after using his fire ability. The price wasn''t too high either, thus he immediately wore them. They looked and felt like any standard leather gloves. He stretched his fingers and activated the [ARCANE FLAMES] ability once again. "This actually works, I can''t feel any pain at all!" ***** A WEEK LATER... KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK "Arnold are you in there?" a Nina''s voice came through the door. "Hey Nina, you needed something?" Arnold asked as he opened the door. "Yeah were about t- What the hell are you wearing? I didn''t knew you were interested in cosy stuff..." Arnold sized her up, she was wearing a ck sports bra and and ck yoga pants which tightly hugged her curves. "You look like an assassin and a hitman at the same time." "No no, this is my battle gear, I made them myself a week ago." Arnold said as he pulled his hoodie off. "So what do you think?" "Yeah looks kinda good on you. By the way we are heading off to a dungeon and you''re supposed toe with us. I came to tell you to get ready but since you''re already dressed up I''ll leave." "Dungeon? What rank?" "It''s a Red one. So most probably it''s a B rank dungeon, but don''t worry the two of us will be joining rank A and B warriors toplete the task." "Great I''ll just go and tell Nicole that I''m leaving for a bit." "Do whatever you want, just get to the main gate in an hour." She was about to say something but then changed her mind and left. ***** "You''re heading out again?" Nicole whined in a low voice. She looked much better than she had a week ago. Her once shriveled hair had turned smooth and silky ck, and her weak body had started to gain some weight. A positive and shiny aura surrounded her. It felt like he had awakened some type of healing ability which made her to look like a somewhat normal person again within a week, she could even run for a while now and rarely used her wheelchair anymore. But this raised another issue for Arnold because now Nicole was suffering from an acute case of ''attitude problem''. "Just for a bit." Arnold massaged his temple. "You always leave me alone!" She crossed her arms before her chest and pouted. "When have I ever left you alone? These guys are always here to y with you and protect you, though I highly doubt you''ll need them here, inside this ''fortress''." "I wanna go with you! Even Alice isn''t here-" "Don''t ever take her name again. Forget about her and the others. Got it?" "But-" "No buts." "I hate you... just get back soon okay?" "Yes your highness." Arnold yfully bowed before her and left 4 golems behind to take care of his sister. For thest week, Arnold didn''t skip the daily quests even for a day, and because of this he had gained 21 attribute points, he dumped all of these points to the mystic stat which increased the number of summons he couldmand. But he saved up the potential points because he couldn''t decide on which skills he wanted to upgrade, this was one of the problems with having too many abilities and skills. For the previous week he continually enhanced his gears and summons and he was quite pleased with the results. [VINDICATOR] was permanently enhanced and could now deal twice as much damage as before, his [CLOAK OF PHASING] was permanently enhanced as well and gave him about 50 defense points to him. But He wasn''t able to get that lucky with his [SPECTER] hand gloves. Now 6 out of his 8 golems were either rank C+ or B, with Duke and Marshal leading the charge as they were already at rank B+. The hounds were doing good as well, with 5 out of the 9 being permanently enhanced to rank C+. All in all hisbat ability was greatly increased. "Let''s level up more!" He couldn''t contain his excitement anymore. Chapter 31 - Awakening "Why does he thinks I''m so weak!" Nicole sighed heavily. "Maybe because you are." A feminine voice replied. ?? "Don''t take his side now." "I''m just stating the fact." "Urgh! I hate you, Donna." "We are one and the same." "No we''re not. We just share the same body." "Some will say otherwise." "You know what just SSHHH!" This was a daily urrence for the golems that were surrounding Nicole. Even their master did it sometimes and kept talking to himself but it was a bit different for their master''s sister. While the master only talked to himself every once in a while, Nicole kept talking with herself whenever she was alone. "Don''t you think we should tell him about our powers?" Donna continued. "NO!" Nicole shouted. "Why not? He might even take you with him to fight monsters. Isn''t that exciting!" "But I don''t know how to control my powers yet... you remember what happenedst time don''t you?" "Ohe on! Nikki died by your brother''s bullet not because you manipted the bullet to hit her head, and even if you did, you don''t have to feel sad about it. She tried to kidnap us after all." "I know but still..." "Maybe your brother can help us control our powers." "No! He''ll freak out and leave me." Nicole whined. "You don''t know him at all then. If he wanted to leave you he''d have already left you by now." "I... don''t know." "Alright alright stop whining and absorb the life force from the golems you''ll feel better." Donna suggested. "Yeah you''re right." Nicole replied and grabbed the hand of the golem who was standing nearest to her. "I need to practice more, once I''m able to control my powers I''ll ask brother to take me with him." "Do what you like... I''m feeling tired *yawn* I''m going to sleep. Just be careful not to turn the golems into dust. Last time that Bob guy did you a favour by destroying the golems and your brother didn''t get suspicious, however no one would be able to cover your tracks now that you''re inside this mansion, and he''ll definitely know that something is wrong." "Stop nagging me and sleep." "Yeah Yeah... wake me, if you need me." After the tragedy struck Florida, many people were affected by it. Some awakened superhuman abilities while a few were diseased for the entire span of their life. The disease called Andrea syndrome took many lives, having no cure, there was no way to counter this disease. When doctors first tested Nicole, her reports came just like the other patients who were affected by Andrea syndrome but the reality was different. Nicole wasn''t affected by the disease at all, instead she had awakened an ability, which made her one of a kind. She called this ability [VAMPIRISM], she named it like that because of the nature of the ability. Just like vampires needed the blood from others to survive, she needed the life force from others to survive. The Andrea medicine only worked on her because it somehow managed to quench her thirst, but her thirst grew bigger and bigger, which was troubling as the medicine was expensive and her brother couldn''t afford much of it. This was the reason why her health kept declining. This all change when she moved in with Arnold as there were plenty of people and staff near her to absorb the life force from. But she changed her ns when she discovered that even though her brother''s summons were technically ''lifeless'', they still had a lot life force in them and decided to absorb their life force instead. It may sound like it was all Nicole''s n but actually she was only doing what Donna, the mysterious voice in her head told her to do. Donna was also the one who told her about her new abilities. Nicole wanted to know more about Donna and why was she inside her head but wherever she asked about it, Donna went silent. After trying for many times Nicole finally gave up and decided to go along with it. She knew this wasn''t normal but Donna always helped her and never did anything to harm her, thus Nicole trusted her a bit. [VAMPIRISM] was just an ability not an affinity. Nicole had awakened an extremely rare affinity, the which was even more rare than Arnold''s ice affinity. The only problem Nicole had was that, the abilities associated with the shadow affinity were really hard to control and could easily overpower the will of the user. Under Donna''s guidance, Nicole had nned on slowly developing her skills but after she was attacked and saw her brother in a weak state, she decided to develop her skills as fast as she could. She''d never allow anyone to harm her brother. "Soon I''ll get stronger and I''ll be the one who''ll protect you brother." ***** MEANWHILE INSIDE THE DUNGEON... AACHU! "God bless." Nina smiled, "Looks like someone is thinking about you." "Focus on the monsters." Nathan snapped. "Yeah yeah let''s kill the monsters and leave already. I''m getting kind of bored now." Arnold said, shooting another white panther like monster in its head. Chapter 32 - Bone Berserker _________________________ CLASS : Skeleton ?? LEVEL : 86 RANK : B+ ROLE : Hell guard AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Elemental shadow (active skill) ? Dance of the dead (active skill) ? ????? ? ????? HP : 5170/5170 STRENGTH (STR) : 80 DEFENSE (DEF) : ?? STAMINA (STA) : ?? INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 23 AGILITY (AGI) : 35 ACCURACY (ACC) : 60 EVADE (EVD) : 30 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- THREAT LEVEL : Mediocre REMARK : Apart from the armour, he''s just a walking stack of bones. Let your hounds have a feast. _________________________ "So?" Nathan was getting impatient. "Nope, definitely not an A rank." Arnold replied. "Damn it. Either way gotta kill this guy." Arnold and the others were just standing outside the boss room, when this 10 feet tall, armored skeleton appeared inside the boss room. Since the team was aiming to y an A rank monster everyone was excited. Nina informed everyone that Arnold had great knowledge on monsters so he''d be able to guess the level and rank of the monster, as he was going to use his [PROBE] skill on it either way so he obliged and ''guessed'' the rank of the monster in front of them. "Nathan you''re a genius, I thought we''d just leave the giant skeleton to chill in his room." Everyone erupted inughter while Arnold took out his guns and created a bunch of . "I really like this new guy. He''s too good, haha..." Joshua ir, the 28 year old main tank of the group,ughed it out. Even though Arnold was meeting with Joshua for the first time, he knew Joshua was both a stable and a reliable person. "I''m sure you do. After all you''re both a pain in the-" ROOOOAAARRRR! The skeleton bellowed as if saying, "Are you idiotsing in or not? I don''t have my entire life to die by your hands." "We Shouldn''t keep our host waiting right?" The voice belonged to O Craig, the young and beautiful healer of the team. She was kind and well mannered like most of the healers were but hell, she was full of sass as well. "Just wait a bit before we go inside, I want to try something." Arnold said and activated his [FORESIGHT] ability. Arnold was familiar with the foresight ability. Even though it had lots of demerits it was still useful. While the ''prophecies'' were not all knowing, as he could only see bits and pieces of the future, plus the fact, that the future shown in the [FORESIGHT] would not be too far away in advance, it''ll still be able to show him if there''s a trap or something inside the boss room. Just like what happened thest time he used the skill, Arnold was only able to see what would happen after they enter the chamber, and nothing else. He sighed and told everyone to move inside. "What was that about? You wanted to take a nap?" Nina joked as the 10 man squad entered the boss room. "What do you want us to do?" Arnold asked Nathan as he was the team leader. "You sure that monster is not ranked A right?" Nathan asked once again. "Positive." "Then... All the A rankers, step back. Let the juniors take charge of this battle and Arnold will be their leader." Nathan barked his orders, "If anything goes south we''ll immediately take charge, you okay with this?" "Actually, all of you can be on stand by. I''ll take of Mr. Bones alone. Feel free to interject is anything goes wrong okay?" Arnold wanted to do this because it''ll increase his reputation in the family and he might even get some benefits out of it. Furthermore the monster was only ranked as B+, the same rank as Duke, Marshal and Cerberus1. He was pretty confident that he''ll be able to solo the [BONE BERSERKER]. "You''re at rank C right? I don''t think it''s a good idea..." O interrupted. "Don''t worry about it. Nathan can vouch for my skills." "He''s right, but if anything happens we''ll immediately charge in. Got it?" Nathan replied. Arnold nodded, pulled his hoodie up to his face, and summoned everyone out. If he was going to do it, why not look cool while doing it? _________________________ QUESTS : Berserker. ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are indulged inbat with [BONE BERSERKER], the creature has imprable defense and high stamina. [ TASK ] : Kill the [BONE BERSERKER] [ PROGRESS ] : 0/1 Kill [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 1500 EXP ? one random reward ________________________ "High defense huh?" Arnold shook his head, "Does it even matter against the amount of true damage I can deal? Cerberus, restrict its movement will you?" The two headed hound, howled and charged at the Berserker with the other hounds at his paws. This was Arnold''s go to tactic for now, he let the hounds lead the attack as they had higher attack stat than the golems, while he used the golems to either defend himself or to reinforce the hounds. The hounds and Berserker were soon locked inbat and various notifications started popping up. _________________________ Your summons inflicted : 482 points of physical damage to your target. Total damage dealt after reduction due to defense : 121 points. Target''s remaining HP : 5049/5170 _________________________ "That defense is truly disgusting..." Arnold looked at the golems standing by his side and continued, "Ready to throw somences?" Both Duke and Marshal nodded, while the remaining golem went to reinforce the hounds. Once the golems were ready, Arnold used the ability, [FROZEN LANCE]. He ordered Duke and Marshal to throw thences whenever they found the opportunity to do so. He trusted them with this responsibility as their strength was higher than his own, meaning they''d be able to deal more damage to the Berserker. While they were busy with thences, Arnold took out the [VINDICATOR] and added a single bullet in it, after all he only needed one bullet to activate [DEMON BLITZ]. To further increase his damage output, he even activated [BERSERKER''S RAGE] and fired upon the Bone Berserker. With the cumtive efforts of Arnold, his summons and his active and passive abilities, the health of the Bone Berserker fell below 50%. Arnold kept attacking the monster but now most of his skills were in cooldown, thus his damage wasn''t much. As soon as the Berserker''s health touched the mark of 49%, he stopped attacking the hounds and the golems, and furiously started stomping on the ground which so cracked open, dozens of skeletal warriors came out of it. The [DANCE OF THE DEAD2] had begun. ***** 1. Cerberus, is the name of the firstva hound that Arnold managed to permanently enhance. He was the strongest of theva hounds and acted as their leader. 2. [DANCE OF THE DEAD] is a special skill of the [BONE BERSERKER], who calls out a number of skeletal warriors from hell to aid him in a battle. The number of skeletal warriors called, depends on the amount of damage the [BONE BERSERKER] received. For every 2% of HP lost, one skeletal warrior would be created. Chapter 33 - Frost Flame "Are you mocking me?..." Arnold''s mouth twitched. "Using my trick against me, are you kidding me?" "Now you''ll know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of your trick." Nathan and the othersughed in the corner. No one was rmed because skeletal warriors were prettymon in the dungeons, specially because their level hardly ever went above the rank D. ?? Around 25 skeletal warriors, surrounded the [BONE BERSERKER]. Arnold knew the skeletal warriors would be weak and easy to handle, so he shot a bullet at one of them to test their strength. The bullet hit the skeleton who was standing nearest to him, in the head and the skeletal knight shattered upon impact. Arnold''s mouth twitched again. "I don''t know whether I should be happy or mad, about your weak as* summons." He then gave his summons themand to attack the skeletal warriors, and his summons immediately crushed their new and weak opponents, but before they could attack the Berserker, the bones of the fallen skeletal warriors started to vibrate. "What the hell?" Arnold mumbled. The bones of the fallen warriors soon started attaching themselves to the [BONE BERSERKER]. The Berserker started to heal itself and grew even bigger. Seeing this Arnold, started firing at him while his summons attacked the Berserker as well, in a hope to slow down the healing but it seemed like the Berserker was immune to all types of damage during the process. By the time the Berserker was done ''Evolving'', he had recovered about 25% of his health back. "This is so FRUSTRATING!" Arnold bellowed, "I really didn''t want to use this but hell, you''ve pissed me off now!" He conjured up two balls made of ice, one in each hand. Each of the balls were around twice the size of a basketball. A weird aura oozed out of them. Without anymand, all of Arnold''s summon stepped back. They fully knew the destructive power of Arnold''s new and self created ability, after all they were the ones who had to endure the pain while Arnold was perfecting this ability. Without any warning, Arnold threw both of the balls at the Berserker. Since the Berserker was more like a giant now, the chances for Arnold to miss were very small. The balls managed to hit the Berserker in the head and the chest of the Berserker. _________________________ Damage dealt after reduction due to target''s defense : 188. The target is in a [FROZEN] state for : 12 seconds. The target has been [BURNT]. Additional damage of 83 HP/ second would be inflicted on the target for : 10 seconds. _________________________ _________________________ Damage dealt after reduction due to target''s defense : 158. The target is in a [FROZEN] state for : 14 seconds. The target is in a [BURNT]. Additional damage of 108 HP/ second would be inflicted on the target for : 10 seconds. _________________________ The balls of ice shattered upon impact, immobilising the Berserker. But that wasn''t all, the moment the ice balls collided with the Berserker, mes erupted out of the icy balls. This was Arnold''s self created ability, [FROST FLAME]. _________________________ ? [FROST FLAME] : (Active ability) A self created ability, allows the user to conjure up a ball of ice containing hellfire, which can be thrown at a target. When the balls sessfully manages to hit the target, the target would get immobilised, and the hellfire would randomly inflict 1.5% - 2.0% of target''s HP as true damage per second, for the next 10 seconds. The effect of this skill can be stacked. The duration for which the target is immobilised would be random. [ Rank : --- ] [Mana cost : 400/per use] [COOLDOWN : None] _________________________ Arnold knew he could create new blueprints if he had enough knowledge about them, thus he tried to make a new ability bybining the immobilising effect of his ice affinity and the damage inflicting capacity of his fire affinity into a single spell. It wasn''t easy though, he had to perfectly bnce the ratio of both of his affinities. Thus hebined the two of the affinities and formed the Frost-me style. If the fire affinity dominated the ratio then the damage would be more but the target won''t get immobilised, on the other hand if the ice affinity dominated then the target would only get mobilised and no damage would be inflicted on the target. The only drawback this ability had, was the amount of mana consumed. At the moment Arnold could only use this skill for five times before his mana reserves got exhausted. "What the hell is that ability?" Joshua asked everyone else. "I don''t know..." Nina mumbled. Everyone was impressed as well as confused by the sudden appearance of Arnold''s new explosive ability. They knew he was special since the Head of the family had invited him into the family, but no one knew about this creationist abilities. "There''s actually no limit to this guy''s potential." Nathan smiled, "Looks like I''m not the only one who held back during our little fight." He used the [FROST FLAME] ability once again and conjured two more balls of ming ice, which emptied his mana gauge. But it was okay, as the Berserker health was dropping rapidly, thanks to the true damage of his new ability. He threw thest of the balls at the Berserker who was already immobilised. The Berserker was helpless, he couldn''t do anything to protect himself from the true damage of Arnold''s ability. It shrieked and howled in pain before sumbing to the mes, which kept burning even after his death. At this moment a notification popped on his interface. _________________________ QUESTS : Berserker. ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are indulged inbat with [BONE BERSERKER], the creature has imprable defense and high stamina. [ TASK ] : Kill the [BONE BERSERKER] [ PROGRESS ] : 1/1 Kill [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 1500 EXP ? one random reward ________________________ Chapter 34 - Celebration "Sir, shall we pursue the target?" Alex asked the leader. "We can''t. They are members of the ck Family now, we can''t just interfere with them like it''s a walk in a park..." The leader sighed heavily, the glimpse of hope he had was snatched away from him, all because of a fool. "They have way too many elites in their ranks. Even John Miller, i mean Johnny, joined their family." ?? "But sir, you can match up-" "And what after that? Who''ll take care of the others? No the risk is too high. I have to n something else. Just give up on that girl for now and look for a suitable recement, even if I can''t take her, I''ll make sure that they pay the price for messing with me." "Yes sir! I''ll immediately inform the research team about your decision." The leader nodded. "What''s the progress of the ''Inhuman'' project?" "His body is still intact sir. No failures have been detected so far." "Take appropriate security measures. I don''t want that Frankenstein to go rogue and betray me or the organisation ." "Yes sir!" Alex smartly saluted the leader and left the room. Soon the leader got lost in his thoughts about revenge when an idea came into his evil mind. "Looks like I wouldn''t be needing to attack the family myself." An evil smile appeared on his face. ***** MEANWHILE INSIDE THE DUNGEON... _________________________ QUESTS : Berserker. ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are indulged inbat with [BONE BERSERKER], the creature has imprable defense and high stamina. [ TASK ] : Kill the [BONE BERSERKER] [ PROGRESS ] : 1/1 Kill [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 1500 EXP ? one random reward ________________________ "im." ___________________________ [QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained 1500 EXP. You''ve leveled up! Current level : 43 Randomising your reward... You have obtained : Attribute enhancing potion ¡Á 1 Upon usage, randomly adds 20 to 30 attribute points to a selected attribute. ___________________________ "20 to 30 points? Not bad, not bad at all. Better use it on mystic-" "Nicely done Arnold." Nathan patted him on the back, "It''s good to have someone like you in our family." "Hey Arnold, what was that ability? I have seen ice ability users in action but it''s the first time I''ve seen that ability." Joshua was very intrigued by Arnold''s skill. "Oh hey guys." he hadpletely forgotten that he was still inside the dungeon with the others, "That ability was just an experiment, hehe." Arnold awkwardly smiled. He then used his ice abilities to extinguish the raging fire on the Berserker''s ''lifeless'' body, to im the spoils of the Battle. "Tsk. A crystal hmph... either way I''ll take-" "The corpse and whatever the it is wearing, all belongs to the ck Knights guild not the ck family and thest time I checked you weren''t a member of the guild." A warrior dressed in brown armour snatched the beast crystal from Arnold''s hands. Seeing that their master was threatened, all of the golems and hounds surrounded the warrior. This warrior had been silent this entire time so Arnold thought that he was mute or something. Arnold didn''t needed the crystal so he could let the matter go, but he didn''t liked the attitude of this warrior. He was sick of the people who looked down upon the others, since Arnold had experienced it first hand, he decided to teach this guy a lesson in human etiquette. "Technically, your guild didn''t do a thing. I did. So it''d be better if return the crystal to me." "So what? This was an operation that the guild was tasked with, so all the resources belong to the guil-" "Who''s this guy again?" Arnold''s ignored what the warrior was saying, and asked Nathan. "He... is the biological son of The Head." Nathan replied, even though he was technically Nathaniel''s own son, he was very weak his stats were barely enough fora an D ranker and thus he was never acknowledged as Nathaniel''s son. "Allen, can''t we discuss itter?" Nathan continued. "You stay out of it, you motherless bast-" BAM! Allen fell to the ground, shocked and furious, overwhelmed with disbelief. He had cursed Nathan but the one who attacked him wasn''t Nathan, but Arnold. "Listen here, you piece of entitled sh*t." Arnold moved beside Allen as if teleporting. Duke gripped Allen''s head lifted him up in the air. "I don''t care who you are or what your job is. But don''t you dare talk sh*t about someone''s mother, you get that punk?" "Arnold, leave him please. I know he''s an idiot, still he''s family too." Nathan shrugged his shoulders. Realising that acting on someone else''s behalf wasn''t good thing specially if the person in question is himself not bothered by the words said against him or his family, Arnold ordered Duke to let Allen down. "The crystal if you don''t mind." Allen gave Arnold the crystal and mumbled something, but Arnold couldn''t hear it properly so he let Allen go. "I apologise for his behaviour. He''s always been a... problem child, who wants to make a name for himself but often ends up causing trouble instead." Nathan exined, "Feel free to do whatever you want with skeleton and it''s gears, it''s not like we did anything to help you." "You don''t need to apologise. The way he behaved just triggered some bad memories..." "Speaking of memories, I actually don''t know much about you and I don''t think anyone else does either. How about we celebrate this victory tonight and exchange some tales?" Nathan looked at everyone else and shouted, "Hey guys! How about he celebrate today''s victory at a club or something?" "Oh hell yeah! I''m in!" Joshua eximed. "Me too." "Count me in." "I don''t have anything else to do either way." Nina said. "Well if everyone ising then sure I''lle, too." Arnold smiled. "Then it''s decided, we''ll meet at the ''Malibu'' club at 8 pm. Everyone good job today!" Chapter 35 - Malibu Club ""Well if everyone ising then sure I''lle, too." What the hell was I even thinking?" Arnold imitated his own voice, "I don''t even have proper clothes to wear apart from the ck suit, which the butler gave me a week ago. And I''m pretty sure no one would allow me into a club if I wore my ''assassin gear'', damn it!" KNOCK ?? KNOCK KNOCK "Brother are you in there?" Nicole''s voice came through the door. "Just a sec!" Arnold opened the door, "Hey Lil one, you need something?" "No I just wanted to check if you were back or not... what are you doing by the way? Your room is a bit messy." Nicole walked into his room. "Nothing in particr," He said and started picking up the things which were lying across the room, "we are just having a little celebration for our sess in the dungeon today." "And you didn''t invite me?" "Ohe on now, I totally would''ve invited you but the thing is, we are going to celebrate in a club and you know kids aren''t allowed inside those ces." Arnold exined, hoping Nicole wouldn''t be persistent about it. "Fine... but you''ll have to take me somewhere else this weekend. Promise?" "Promise." "Good because , you always leave me here while you go out to have fun. This ce is really good but I get bored sometimes you know." "Okay your highness, I''ll take you somewhere this weekend alright?" "Yeah, you better. By the way what are you gonna wear?" "That''s the thing I can''t decide." "I didn''t know you had so many outfits that you got confused." Nicole pped with exaggeration, and Arnold resigned to his fate. "Look if you''re not gonna help then leave..." "Aww, don''t worry your sister will help you get it sorted. Here, you should wear this ck shirt. Just roll up the sleeves and leave it unbuttoned. Not the whole shirt..." "Yeah yeah, I got it. Now go and rest." "Sure, no need to thank your most awesome sister." She shrugged her shoulders and left the room. "Drama queen..." ***** Upon Nicole''s suggestion, Arnold decided to go along with the ck shirt that came with the suit and left it unbuttoned at the top for a more casual look. He wore a blue ripped jeans which made an idealbination with his shoes. He was the first to reach the club and was waiting for the others. He got bored of walking around so he decided to open the interface and use his potential points to level up his abilities. After pondering for a while, he decided to level up [SACRED PROTECTION], [SOUL GRAPPLE], [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : LAVA HOUNDS] and [FROST FLAME] to level 5 which unlocked additional effects of these skills. He chose these skills because these were the skills that were suited the most for his currentbat technique. ___________________________ You''ve unlocked four bonus effects! ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : LAVA HOUNDS] : All stats of summoned hounds increased by 12%, strength and HP increased by 15%. ? [SACRED PROTECTION] : HP deducted after sessful activation of the skill is reduced to 17% of Max HP. ? [SOUL GRAPPLE] : Probability of sessful capture increased by 7% and the duration of the skill increased by 5% ? [FROST FLAME] : Continuous true damaged increased to 11%, the duration for which the target is [frozen] increased by 5 seconds ___________________________ He used the remaining potential point to level up [PLASMA SHIELD] to level 2. He then opened the tab and took out the Attribute enhancing potion , and drank the a blue coloured liquid in one gulp. It tasted spicy, while it slowly entered his stomach, he felt like a hundreds of ants were biting down his throat. The pain onlysted for a few seconds before a soothing feeling that spread throughout his body. He looked at the interface, there was a new notification waiting for him. ___________________________ You have consumed Attribute enhancing potion ¡Á 1. You have gained 26 attribute points by consuming the potion. ___________________________ Without wasting even a second, he dumped all of the points to his mystic stat which now had 71 points in it, meaning he could now generate a total 11 golems and 12 hounds. "Hey, you''re early here!" Joshua arrived in his car along with O. "I didn''t know you were so desperate to party. Haha." "Actually you guys arete. I arrived right on time." Arnold replied, hugging them both. "And I thought we''d be the first to reach." O smiled, she wore a short and shiny blue dress which barely covered her white thighs and matching heels. While Joshua was rocking a solid white T-shirt and ck jeans. "Don''t worry you''re the first ones to reach after me." Arnold smiled. They waited for a while and soon the others arrived there as well, so after a quick security check they went inside the club. The Club was designed with a beach theme, which was clear as all of the staff either wore a bikini or some other swimwear. There were fake palm trees scattered all around the club. The bartender was busy handling the clients, who were seated on the stools present in front of the counter and enjoyed the music. The dance floor was packed with people, some were requesting the DJ to y their favourite songs. Nothing was extraordinary in this club apart from the fact that most of the people present here were warriors from different guilds and agencies. While the others went straight to dance and have a good time, Arnold headed towards the bar where Nathan was chatting with the female bartender. Nathan saw Arnold walking towards him and introduced the bartender to him. "Michelle, this is Arnold, the newest addition to our family and Arnold this is Michelle, the caretaker/manager/bartender of the club." Michelle wore a neon green shirt over a red bikini bottom, her hair was styled as a mohawk and she had a weird tattoo on the right side of her face. "Pleasured to meet you." Arnold smiled. "Hey, you actually managed to find someone polite and gentlemanly this time around. Would you like a drink darling?" Michelle asked. "No thanks. I don''t drink." Arnold shook his head. Even though he said so, what he actually meant was that he never had enough money to spend on alcohol and stuff. "Well, I''ll have the usual with lots of ice." Nathan interjected. "We''re out of ice at the moment, Nishi had went to get some ice. She should be back any moment." "No ice?" Nathan looked at Arnold and continued, "Do you mind?" "Are you serious right now?" Arnold rolled his eyes. "100%" Nathan replied and passed his drink to Arnold, who sighed and ced his hands on top of the ss. Soon small cubes of ice were formed inside the ss. "There you go." He passed the drink back to Nathan. "Now if your little magic trick is over, would you like to dance?" Someone''s familiar and polite voice asked. Chapter 36 - Uneventful Encounter "Now if your little magic trick is over, would you like to dance?" Someone''s familiar and polite voice asked. Arnold turned around, to see Alice, EL and a few others were standing behind them. It was Alice who had invited him to dance. ?? "Sorry but I''m busy." Arnold replied and turned his back on them. "Arnold we just want to talk." EL spoke up. Arnold ignored them and continued chatting with Nathan like nothing happened. The others however kept standing there. Soon everyone in the club started noticing this which made Nathan ufortable. Nathan couldn''t take it anymore and blurted out. "Go an see what they want. I don''t want any drama here okay?" "Sorry for the trouble. I''ll be back soon." Arnold apologised and turned towards his former guild mates, "What do you guys want? Can''t a guy have a peaceful evening without you breathing down on his neck." "Look we know that you think that the guild or even us had something to do with the attack on your sister but I spoke to my dad, and he didn''t knew anything about it." Alice replied in her squeaky voice. Arnold smirked. "Yeah sure. Anything else?" "I''m serious, Arnold. My dad would never lie to me." Alice pressed on, "I genuinely think there has been some kind of misunderstanding." "Exactly! What would we gain by kidnapping your sick sister." Lance joined in. "What do you mean my ''sick'' sister? You think I''m the same guy who''d take sh*t from anyone?" Arnold took a step towards him but Alice came in between them. "Arnold he didn''t mean it like that-" "Let ''me'' tell you what exactly happened. Your sh*tty guild was responsible for hiring a legitimate nurse for Nicole''s treatment and the one they hired tried to kidnap her. And don''t you dare talk BS about that it was a mistake, because I know very well how much the guilds inquire about their potential employees and thoroughly check their background before appointing them. "And the only ones who had the power to neglect these rules were either The President or The Vice President. So if you still think that your ''innocent'' and ''just'' father didn''t knew anything about it, then open your eyes princess, this world isn''t some fairy tale fantasy where everything you think gets true. "Now if you''ll excuse me I have somepany tonight. Bye-bye and I hope I never get to see your shi*ty faces again." After saying what he had to, Arnold turned around once again hoping to cool down before hepletely lost it and ended up doing something that he''d regretter, but before he could take a single step away from them, someone grabbed his shoulder. "Who do you think you are to talk so arrogantly to my team huh, you low levelled worm!" Arnold looked at a man he had never seen before in his life. Most probably a new guy was an added to the team after he left the guild. He quickly used his [PROBE] skill on him, turns out the guy barely qualified as a B ranker, his strength and other attributes were more like someone who was ranked at C+. Most probably he was newly awakened. Even Arnold''s strength stats was higher than that of this guy. Arnold grabbed on to the new guy''s hand and forcefully pulled it off him, "Who are calling a worm, you f*cking MAGGOT!" Arnold shouted and the entire group of his former guild mates was surrounded by his golems andva hounds. The DJ stopped the music and everyone backed off. Seeing that the situation was going out of hand, Nathan, Joshua and the others stepped in. "What the hell happened here?" Nathan asked Arnold, who didn''t reply but kept staring at the guy who had called him a worm. "You! Tell me what the hell is going on here?" Joshua asked EL. "Sorry it''s our fault, one of our members didn''t liked the way Arnold addressed us so he went kind of overboard and said something he shouldn''t have. I apologise for themotion." Alice quickly realised that they were the members of the ck Family and tried to diffuse the situation before it got worse. "I''m sorry but you''re no longer weed here. This club is funded by the ck Family and if you have any problems with them, means you have a problem with us. I''m afraid I''d have to ask you and your friends to leave immediately." Michelle intervened, "Further you''ve been banned from ever entering this club again." "We''ll do so, I''m sorry for the trouble." Alice said and Arnold finally let go of the new guy''s hand. Just as they were about to exit the club, the new guy pointed his middle finger at Arnold which ticked him off, but Arnold knew Nathan wouldn''t let him do anything about it so he did what he thought would be the best thing to do at the moment. Arnold ordered one of his hounds to follow the new guy. No one noticed it as they were all busy discussing about what had happened there a couple of minutes ago. He then recalled every other summon. "Are you okay?" O asked Arnold. "Never been better." A sinister smile appeared on Arnold''s face. Chapter 37 - Prowler "Why are y''all taking sh*t from a nobody? He''s just a rank C warrior for God''s sake!" The new guy eximed. "Just shut the hell up, Chris. This has nothing to do with you." EL snapped back. ?? "Like hell it isn''t, how can he talk to Alice like that?" Chris snapped back at him. He had wanted to go to a club so that he can have fun with the others, which they were until Alice saw someone who was busy in his own world. But for some reason everyone stopped whatever they were doing and rushed straight towards that man. In the 10 days he had been with them, he had never seen Alice so happy and disturbed at the same time, which kind of made him jealous. He asked one of his guild mates about the identity of the person, Who informed him that this guy was Arnold, the same person everyone used to talk about everyday. The day he had joined the Flying Swords, he was informed that he had been recruited as a recement of someone else which was a huge blow to his ego but sadly this wasn''t the end. He found the file which had Arnold''s information in it but didn''t have a photo, that''s Chris didn''t knew what he looked like. The files regarding the warriors of the guild were pretty much avable to anyone who worked there, so he decided to go through it, after he saw that he was a ''recement'' of a C ranked warrior, HE. WAS. LIVID. But he couldn''t do anything about it so he swallowed his pride and ego. He thought that his teammates would soon forget about that guy once they saw what a B ranked warrior could do but to his surprise, they all talked about him all the time, it didn''t matter if they were inside a dungeon or at the guild, they''ll always talk about him. Chris had thought he''ll impress everyone else by showing off his skills inside the dungeon but no matter what he did, he was alwayspared to Arnold, which infuriated him even more. He was still lost in his thoughts when he heard something that triggered him. "...Bye-bye and I hope I never get to see your shi*ty faces again." I''ll show you who has a shi*ty face, Chris thought, this is my chance to show the others that I''m superior and better than him! Without wasting a moment, he grabbed Arnold''s shoulders to stop him from leaving. "Who do you think you are to talk so arrogantly to my team huh, you low levelled worm!" Chris bellowed. Arnold calmly turned around and stared right through him. Arnold''s gaze made his spine shiver. It felt like Arnold was inside his mind. After a brief moment, Arnold grabbed his arm and easily pulled it off his shoulder. How the hell is he doing that! Chris thought, he just a C ranked mage, how can he be so strong? "Who are calling a worm, you f*cking MAGGOT!" Before he could realise it, various tall and strong humanoid along with some reddish brown wolf like creatures appeared out of nowhere and surrounded them. The next thing he knew, they were escorted out of the club and banned from ever entering it again. ***** "Good move genius." EL mocked Chris, "I told you to stand down but no you just had to interfere." "I was just trying to help you guys." Chris mumbled. EL and Chris were having an argument on their way back. Everyone was upset, most of them felt down because they were kicked out of the club, they actually didn''t care about Arnold very much. For them he was just a good teammate who left them because of some kind of misunderstanding, but after what he said tonight few of them started to think that maybe someone was actually involved in the kidnapping of Arnold''s sister, but still why would The Vice President align himself with that someone? "Gee, thanks for your help man. We really needed it to get kicked out of the club." "Look I''m sorry okay? How the hell was I supposed to know that he was there with his ''family''?" "Exactly my point! If you don''t know sh*t about something then don''t go around poking your nose in it!" "STOP BICKERING WILL YOU!?" This was the first time Alice raised her voice in front of them. The two of them immediately went silent. "AND YOU," she pointed a finger at Chris, "STOP BEHAVING LIKE THE COMPLETE IDIOT THAT YOU ARE!" "But I-" "I don''t wanna hear it! Everyone just go home we''ll talkter." Alice said and stormed off. "Great, now she''s pissed. You are really on fire tonight, Chris." EL mocked him onest time before he left. "Yeah it''s all my fault, right?" Chris shouted back at EL, who simply ignored him and kept walking. Soon everyone else said their goodbyes left too, Chris was the only one left standing there. "I don''t know what the hell is their problem?" Chris shook his head and went on his way. But unknown to him he wasn''t alone. A pair of glowing red eyes had been following him since the moment he left the club. Chapter 38 - Youre Just A Nuisance "Arnold, we are heading back now. Youing with us?" Joshua asked. "Nah, I need to cool off a bit..." Arnold shook his head, "You guys head home, I''ll be back in a bit." ?? "You sure?" O asked. "Yeah. And I''m sorry, I ruined the celebration." He gave an apologetic smile to the others. "It''s not thest time we are celebrating, so rx young man!" Joshua patted Arnold''s back. "Don''t waste your youth worrying about such trivial things!" "I''ll try not to." "Everything is settled here, let''s leave." Nathan walked towards the others and ordered everyone, "You''re noting with us?" "I think it''ll be better if I go for a walk or something and cool off a bit." "Alright but don''t bete," Nathan said, "and here take this, yourmunicator, I''ve also added some money to your ount." "Thanks." Nathan nodded and and left with the others. "Now let''s see where has the maggot crawled to?" Arnold smirked. ***** CRACK "Who''s there?" Chris instantly turned around and stared into the darkness, but he couldn''t see anything. But soon a cold atmosphere spread everywhere. Chris was surrounded by a weird thick mist, and but he managed to see a single of ck shadow which flew out of the other side of the road. It was covered in ck and flew across the road a few meters above the ground. Chris quickly pulled out a short metal stick from his belt. He poured a bit of his energy into it, Its exterior cracked open and more parts extended from within, turning into a long, magical sword. The sides of the de were emitting white light, this was an energy weapon. Its hilt was engraved with enchantment runes to enhance its attacking capabilities. He was ready to fight whoever was there. "You really think that thing would be able to protect you from these?" A voice echoed through the mist. BANG! BANG! Two bullets were shot at his head but his he managed to dodge them with help of his energy shield. "You managed to save yourself, impressive. Not that I was actually trying to kill you either way." The voice said. "Who are you!?" Chris was perplexed. "You don''t need to know that, or do you?" The voice replied. BANG! Sound of a gunshot pierced the silence. Chris tried to block it again with his energy shield, but this time the shield couldn''t stop the bullet and it got shattered. BANG! Another bullet was shot at him, without his shield, he was defenseless but still he tried to stop the bullet with the help of his sword but his reflexes weren''t fast enough and the bullet managed to hit his right knee. "AAAHHHH!" Chris'' legs gave out and he slumped over to the side, holding his legs. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!?" At this moment a person walked out of the fog. He was wearing a ck cloak which had a hoodie attached to it that covered most of his face but the man was also wearing a ck mask as if he had just walked out of a masquerade party, his hands were behind his back, and his eyes were flickering with a deep light that looked like the aurora one could see from the north pole. A natural pressure emanated from his body that sent shivers down the Chris'' spine. "I''m here to teach you a lesson." The man behind the mask, whispered. ***** FEW MOMENTS EARLIER... "Where is he?" Arnold was running at full speed. Cerberus was running in front of him, chasing after one of the members of his pack. Arnold didn''t knew why but there was a weird connection between the hounds which allowed them to easily locate each other if they were within a radius of 2 km from each other. This was the reason why Arnold had sent one of his hounds to follow Chris because he knew, as long as he was within a distance of 2 km, Arnold would inevitably find him. After continuously running for five minutes or so, he could see Chris'' figure at the far end of the street. Once his objective wasplete he recalled both Cerberus and the otherva hound and equipped the [CLOAK OF PHASING] and the [VINDICATOR]. He felt like he was like a god of death hiding in the dark. He then took out and wore a ck mask that he had picked up earlier from the club. Arnold was trying to be as discreet and mysterious as possible because he didn''t want to cause any trouble to ''the family''. Even if he was about to attack a jerk, the jerk was a member of a guild and that might cause some issues. Arnold wasn''t afraid to use his guns though, because no one from the Flying swords had seen him using it. All they knew was that he was a gunslinger but gunslingers were prettymon so even if they doubt him, they won''t be able to me him. All he had to do was to be careful and not use any abilities that the guild knew he had, as long as he''d be able to do that no one would have any proof against him. For the first time in his life, Arnold was really grateful for the number of abilities he had obtained. He activated his [ICY VEIL] skill, he was instantly surrounded by a thick white mist, with him at the centre of it. Although he was surrounded by the mist, he was still able to see everything clearly. He Slowly made his way towards Chris. ***** BACK IN PRESENT... "I''m here to teach you a lesson." Arnold whispered. "What are you talking about?" Chris gritted his teeth. "Etiquette. That''s what I''m taking about." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and walked closer to Chris. "DON''T FORGET I''M A WARRIOR!" Chris used whatever little bit of strength he had left and shed his sword at Arnold. Arnold activated [RAPID FLASH] and easily dodged the attack. "A warrior?" Arnold smirked, "Don''t make meugh. You''re no warrior, you''re just a nuisance." Arnold grabbed one of his gun by its barrel and mmed its handle on Chris'' head rendering him unconscious. "Tsk. I never thought I''d actually use the gun as a club." Arnold shook his head. Chapter 39 - Rank Advancement Quest (1) _________________________ You''ve defeated a human. ?? First rank B human defeated : EXP : +350 _________________________ Arnold had his gaze fixed on Chris'' unconscious body. He was thinking about what he should do next, earlier he had nned on just breaking few of his bones and let him leave happily but in a moment of heat he had rendered him unconscious. In the back of his head he knew what he did way petty, but he didn''t cared about it. In his eyes it was Chris'' fault because he had poked his nose in a matter that didn''t concern him. But As much as Arnold wanted to, he knew he couldn''t just leave Chris lying in the middle of a road. Who knows what would happen to Chris if Arnold left him like that. "Damn it!" Arnold was annoyed with the oue of the fight, "He must have a guildmunicator on him, I''d use that." Arnold started checking Chris'' pockets one after another and found themunicator in one of his jeans'' pockets. He tried essing themunicator but it was password protected. "Let''s see... he doesn''t have much intelligence so the password could be... one-two-three-four." Arnold pressed the numbers present on the digital keypad. BEEP-BOOP "You kidding me?" He looked at Chris, "What are you? A boomer?" He shook his head and activated the emergency signal. This signal was used to contact the guild in case of emergency and to request back up if something unfortunate happened. Back when Arnold was fighting against Bob, he had used it to send such a signal to the guild many times but no one came to his aid. This was also one of the reasons why he suspected that the guild had something to do with the attack on him and Nicole. "My job is done. The guild would turn up and do whatever they''d like to do." Arnold got up and left the area as soon as he could. ***** THE NEXT MORNING. IN A HOSPITAL. "Do you have any idea who attacked you?" A Police officer asked Chris, who was bedridden. "No officer." Chris'' head was bandaged, his left shoulder was dislocated and the kneecap of his right leg had been shattered. All in all, if it wasn''t for the morphine, he''d be in a lot of pain right now. "Do you remember any special characteristic of the assant? Like anything that would help us in the investigation?" "He was wearing a ck overcoat and a ck mask. He was wielding two guns simultaneously so as far as I can guess, he must be a gunslinger. The thing is right before the assault began, some kind of a mist surrounded me and I couldn''t see what was going on that well." "Could it be someone from ''The ck Family''?" Lance said. EL and Alice were present in the hospital room as well as they were the ones who went to help Chris out when the emergency signal went off. "And why would they do that?" The officer sarcastically asked, as far as he knew, the ck Family wouldn''t attack a nobody like Chris unless he was hiding something. "Last night we kind of had an argument with them in the Malibu Club." EL answered. "If that''s the case then I don''t think it''s has anything to do with them." "How can... you be so sure?" Chris spoke up. "Two reasons. First the ck Family wouldn''t do something so petty for an absurd reason and second, if they did and that''s a big if, we''d be having this conversation at the morgue not in this well furnished room." "You mean..." Alice mumbled. "What I''m trying to say is - Don''t ever mess with The ck Family." The officer was dead serious, "If you''d like, I''ll inform them about what happened and give them the details of the assant, but I''ll rmend that you don''t. Their ego is bigger than the sun itself, who knows what they''d do after that." Chris gulped down his saliva. He now understood why no one dared to mess with the 12 families. They are way too scary and influential. "I-I d-don''t think I''ll be filling a r-report against t-them." Chris stuttered. "Good choice." The officer nodded and got up from his seat, "But here''s my card. If you change your mind feel free to contact me." "Will do." Alice took the card from him. ***** MEANWHILE AT THE BLACK ESTATE... Arnold took off his sweat-drenched shirt and looked down at his well-toned muscles. Following which, he changed into a set of clean clothes that had been delivered to him by one of the butlers. He then checked his ount bnce which showed that he had around twenty thousand dors under his name. "You call this ''some'' dors?" Arnold''s mouth twitched as he recalled what Nathan had told himst night. He was still wondering what to do with this much money when a notification popped open in his interface. _________________________ Daily questpleted. ? GETTING STRONGER (1) ? GETTING STRONGER (2) Have been finished. [QUEST REWARD] : You''ve gained 2000 EXP. You''ve leveled up! Current level : 45 You''ve unlocked the title : [Extraordinary figure] Bonus effects : + 10% Strength (STR) + 10% Agility (AGI) + 10% Stamina (STA) +10% HP +20% Recovery Rate Please rank up to unlock new series of Your level progress have been locked. Please proceed to finish the quest to unlock your level progress. _________________________ "THE HELL YOU MEAN MY PROGRESS HAVE BEEN LOCKED!!!" Arnold was confused and shocked at the same time, "AND WHAT IS THIS RANK ADVANCEMENT QUEST?" Another notification popped up on the interface as if the system was waiting for him to ask the question. _________________________ [RANK ADVANCEMENT QUEST] : ? VERSATILE : [ INTRODUCTION ] : To be the strongest you need to have various cards up you sleeves. [ TASK ] : Obtain three subss. [ PROGRESS ] : 1/3 subss obtained ? EXPERT PROFICIENCY : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Just obtaining those subsses won''t do you much good. Learn to use them. [ TASK ] : Level up three subsses five times each. Meaning a total of 15 level ups [ PROGRESS ] : 0/15 level ups ? CREATIONIST : [ INTRODUCTION ] : A good creationist is equivalent to an army! It''s a shame that someone had to spell it out for you. [ TASK ] : Make and forge 5 blueprints and use them in actualbat. [ PROGRESS ] : 1/5 blueprints forged _________________________ "What is this? An Amazon wishlist?" Arnold said, massaging his temple, "I was barely able to make one blueprint and this idiotic system wants me to make 4 more blueprints! I better check the tab at least I''d be able to get the subsses from there." Chapter 40 - Rank Advancement Quest (2) : Engineering Pioneer Arnold sighed and opened the tab. This was the only way he knew to obtain a new subss. There were around 4-5 new knowledges there but he wasn''t interested in them but soon Arnold''s eyes found something he was interested in. _________________________ ?? [BASIC ENGINEERING SKILL] : The basic knowledge required by to be able to craft an and various other gears and equipment having basic and limited functions which can be upgraded over time. Acquiring this knowledge would also reduce the cost of manufacture for various weapons/equipments. Buying this knowledge also unlocks the ability [QUICK ASSEMBLY]. [QUICK ASSEMBLY] : (Passive ability) Basic ability for ss. This ability decreases the duration required to forge an equipment/automaton/weapon as well as increases their durability by 15%. [ Rank : C ] Price : 5 crystals. _________________________ "Automatons would be pretty helpful in fighting as well as in creation as they''d necessarily act as my assistants. If I could get my hands on half a dozen of them, soon I''d be able create an army to help me out!" Arnold''s eyes were shining brighter than the stars themselves. "Then there is the problem of gathering ''funds''... wait a minute! With the help of these automatons, I''d be able to mass produce some weapons like the [VINDICATOR], it goes without saying that I''ll intentionally make these weapons have a lower grade so that I''d still have the upper hand in case of equipments. Furthermore the guns can only use and as far as I know, only I''m be able to buy those from the shop of my interface, meaning that I''d have a monopoly on the guns and the bullets! "This would indefinitely act as my main source of ie." Arnold nodded. Although his idea was perfect, he wouldn''t be able to execute it for now as the automatons would require some modifications before they are able to mass produce the blueprints that he had, but this didn''t bothered him a bit, as long as he can make and upgrade the automatons they''d be able to provide an endless supply of manpower. With this in mind he immediately bought the knowledge and a familiar message popped up on the interface. __________________________ YOU''VE SELECTED [BASIC ENGINEERING SKILL] KNOWLEDGE. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN [BASIC ENGINEERING SKILL]? ?YES or ?NO __________________________ "Yes." __________________________ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED THE KNOWLEDGE [BASIC ENGINEERING SKILL]. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [QUICK ASSEMBLY] : (Passive ability) Basic ability for ss. This ability decreases the duration required to forge an equipment/automaton/weapon as well as the cost by 15% (The cost can be further reduced by leveling up the skill) and also increase the durability by 15% (can be increased by leveling up the skill). Furthermore, you''ll be awarded EXP for every equipment/automaton/weapon you forge. The EXP awarded would depend upon the grade and durability of the equipment/automaton/weapon that you forge. [ Rank : C ] Congrattions! You''ve received a new subss : REWARDS : INTELLIGENCE (INT) : +15 You''ve gained a new utility blueprint : ? [AUTOMATON] : These are robots having a humanoid shape and can be used for a variety of purposes - from fighting to manufacturing. There only limitation is that their function is fully dependent on the imagination is their creator. Apart from this, they are essentially better than any standard human being. Grade : B __________________________ Just like it had happened when he learnt the [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL], Arnold felt like he knew all about machinery, their construction, their working, their pros and cons etc, like he had been working with them his entire life. Machines weren''t just simple ''things'' for him anymore, they were a piece of art and he was the artist. "Not to bad... let''s see what''s the cost of manufacturing one of these." _________________________ Items required to construct an [AUTOMATON] : ? Steel (20kg) ? Aluminum (26kg) ? 1 chip (Avable in shop) ? Machinery tool kit (One time requirement)(Avable in shop) ? 10 crystals ? 1 crystal (one time requirement) _________________________ "Most of the items are easily avable. Hmm... right now I''d only be able to forge one automaton, which would be perfect to test it''s abilities and upgrade the areas where it iscking." Arnold smiled, "Just look at me. Who''d have thought that one day, I''d be so happy about the technology and stuff?" He then ced an order at the shop, which was located inside the estate, to deliver the necessities like Steel and aluminum in his room. While he waited for them to be delivered, he decided to buy the other things like chip from the so that he couldplete at least one of the automaton and add some progress to his rank advancement quest. "Damn. These chips are costly." Arnold frowned after seeing that the price of 1 chip was 1 crystal. Although Arnold could buy it now and proceed with the construction of the automaton, if he wanted to build an army of automatons, the amount of crystals he''d need would be ridiculous. So far there were only two ways to obtain crystal. One, he could try to clear a lot of dungeons by himself and hope that the boss monsters would drop the crystal or he could buy them from the market in bulk. The problem with the first case was that it was time consuming and even if he was able to kill all of the bosses, there would be no guarantee that he''d be allowed to keep the crystal for himself. He could try to clear a dungeon himself but he doubted that he''d be given the permission to do so. And the issue with the second case was - theck of money. Even a single yellow crystal went anywhere from 11000-25000 dors in the market. If he wanted to build an army, he''d need to spend hundreds of thousands of dors just to be able to buy the intelligence chips. To get more money he''ll have to clear more and more dungeons or he could try to replicate the blueprint of weapons like the [VINDICATOR] so that he could produce a low quality handgun which wouldn''t require a crystal to be forged and sell it in the market. There were many ways to make money but the amount he needed was huge as well. All of a sudden the money in his ount seemed like water droplets. Arnold lightly pped his cheeks. "Now isn''t the time to worry about the future. I have to focus on the Rank advancement quest." KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK "There''s a delivery for Mr Arnold." one of the butlers knocked on the door. Arnold opened the doors and the butler rolled in the cart which was carrying the items Arnold had requested. "Do you require anything else sir?" The Butler politely asked. "No, thanks. That''ll be all." The Butler nodded and left, closing the door behind him. Arnold opened the boxes in which iron and aluminum bars were stacked neatly and one by one ced them in his inventory. He then bought the intelligence chip and the machinery tool kit which cost him 1 crystal and 10 crystals respectively, and ced them in his inventory as well. _________________________ Proceed to forge : [AUTOMATON]? ? Yes or ? No _________________________ "Yes." _________________________ Forging has been started. Estimated time toplete forging [AUTOMATON ASSEMBLY KIT] : 2 hours. You''ll be notified once forging ispleted. The crafted items would be stored in your inventory. _________________________ "Wait wait wait... what do you mean you''re forging [AUTOMATON ASSEMBLY KIT]? I thought you were going to forge aplete automaton!" _________________________ [AUTOMATON](s) are too sophisticated structure for the system to construct by itself. Hence it can only provide the user with an [AUTOMATON ASSEMBLY KIT]. The user will have to build the [AUTOMATON] by himself. A basic assembly guide will be added to the [AUTOMATON ASSEMBLY KIT]. _________________________ "DAMN IT!" Chapter 41 - Rank Advancement Quest (3) : Bloodmage "It will take two hours for the Assembly kit to get forged, it''ll be better if I buy another knowledge from the shop and gain a third subss for the advancement quest." Still lost in his thoughts, Arnold opened the and started going through the knowledges once again. He was looking for a ss that would help to upgrade his creationist abilities. But sadly the didn''t had any knowledge that would help him aplish this task. ?? "Tsk. Looks like creationist would be a money consuming ss for now." Arnold shook his head, "If I can''t find another subss to help my creationist abilities, I think I should get a subss that would enhance mybat capabilities. Having couple of more skills and abilities wouldn''t be a bad idea. Let''s see... how about the [BLOODMAGE]?" _________________________ [BLOODMAGE] : The basic knowledge required by who wish to enhance theirbat capabilities which can be upgraded over time. This subss of is known for its destructive and bloody nature. The power of this subss increases by spilling more and more blood of your enemies. Buying this knowledge also unlocks the abilities [BLOOD NECROMANCY] using this skill would also take a bit of your HP so use it in moderation. [BLOOD NECROMANCY] : (Active ability) Basic ability for subss. This ability allows the user to capture a target''s abilities by using the it''s blood. You''ll require a to extract an ability from the target''s blood. One can only be used once. The number of skills and abilities that would get extracted depends on the level of ability and the amount of target''s blood used. If you use this skill, You won''t be able to use any type of HP potion for the next 3 hours to recover your lost HP. REMARK : Only your summons and automatons can use the blood runes to permanently gain these abilities. Using the on yourself would not have any effect and the would get destroyed. [ Rank : S ] [HP cost : 300/Usage] Price : 10 crystals. _________________________ The subss was very useful indeed but then it was shrouded in mystery as well. Arnold really liked the [BLOOD NECROMANCY] skill, it essentially meant that if he had sufficient amount of blood, he could technically transform his summons and automatons into one of his enemies or allies but he''d have to do it secretly as he doubted anyone would be pleased know that he was going around copying their abilities, not to mention he would have to obtain their blood first. The other drawback was that it would cost him his own HP to use this ability but the cost wasn''t much. It should be alright if he used it in moderation as the system had told him to. "Would this work with a monsters and dungeon bosses though? It should, after all they have abilities as well as blood." Arnold thought about this for a little while longer and then decided to buy the knowledge. __________________________ YOU''VE SELECTED [BLOODMAGE] KNOWLEDGE. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN [BLOODMAGE]? ?YES or ?NO __________________________ "Yes." __________________________ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED THE KNOWLEDGE [BLOODMAGE]. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [BLOOD NECROMANCY] : (Active ability) Basic ability for subss. This ability allows the user to capture a target''s abilities by using the targets blood. You''ll require a to extract an ability from the target''s blood. One can only be used once. The number of skills and abilities that would get extracted depends on the level of ability and the amount of target''s blood used on the . If you use this skill, You won''t be able to use any type of HP potion for the next 3 hours to recover your lost HP. [ Rank : S ] [HP cost : 300/Usage] Congrattions! You''ve received a new subss : REWARDS : STRENGTH (STR) : +20 Mana : +20% You''ve gained a new utility blueprint : ? [BLOOD RUNE] : It is a type of crystal that has the ability to generate a number of skills by transforming the blood poured on it. REMARK : You don''t need any special items to make a . You just need some basic beast crystals and a part of your HP would be deducted upon starting the forging process. Grade : A __________________________ "Even making a will consume my HP, this subss is true to its name." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "At least one of the requirements for rank advancement has beenpleted." __________________________ QUESTS : COMPLETED ? VERSATILE : [ INTRODUCTION ] : To be the strongest you need to have various cards up you sleeves. [ TASK ] : Obtain three subss. [ PROGRESS ] : 3/3 subss obtained __________________________ "Since there''s still time for the Assembly kit to be forged, let''s see what a looks like, but can I simultaneously Forge two things?" __________________________ You can forge up to three items simultaneously. __________________________ "If you really want to help me system-sama, then could you get rid of the advancement quests for me?" Arnoldughed. There was no response from the system, but Arnold pretty much expected this. The system never responded to any of his weird requests because if it did, then Arnold would already be the world''s strongest warrior. Arnold opened the tab and selected the blueprint. _________________________ Items required to construct an [BLOOD RUNE] : ? 10 crystals ? 100 HP _________________________ "Man this subss is really hungry for my HP." Arnold massaged his temple, "Good thing, it isn''t much." _________________________ Proceed to forge : [BLOOD RUNE]? ? Yes or ? No _________________________ "Yes." _________________________ Forging has been started. Estimated time toplete forging [BLOOD RUNE] : 20 seconds. You''ll be notified once forging ispleted. The crafted items would be stored in your inventory. _________________________ "That''s pretty fast..." Arnold smiled. Twenty seconds passed in a sh and soon Arnold had a grey stone in his hands. The stone had blood red engravings on it that were written in a weirdnguage which Arnold didn''t knew. He used his [PROBE] skill on it. _________________________ OBJECT : TYPE : Blood crystal GRADE : A REMARK : An extremely rare crystal which can be used to generate an ability from blood monsters, humans and any other sentient beings. _________________________ As Arnold read through the description, a weird idea popped up in his mind. "I wonder what type of ability would be generated from my blood?" He mumbled. Chapter 42 - Automatons And Runes "I wonder what type of ability would be generated from my blood?" Arnold mumbled. He was intrigued, after all he had so many abilities, if the was able to generate an active ability from his blood then he could use it on one of his summons which would help to get some load of him during his battles. He took a small knife and grazed his forefinger, soon blood came rushing out of the ''cut''. Arnold took the and used the his blood on it. The moment the blood touched the surface of the rune, the red engravings on it started glowing. The colour of the engraving changed from red to blue, indicating that the process was sessful. Arnold once again used his [PROBE] skill on the stone. ?? _________________________ OBJECT : (Activated) TYPE : Blood crystal GRADE : A REMARK : An extremely rare crystal which can be used to generate an ability from blood monsters, humans and any other sentient beings. The rune contains [PLASMA SHIELD] ability. _________________________ "Not too shabby. The hounds could definitely use this as theyck in defense. I should probably give it to Cerberus." He summoned out the aggressive two headedva hound. When the hound looked at his surroundings, he got confused, why did his master summoned him if there were no enemies to fight? Arnold generally summoned the hounds only when he was in full in battle mode, but right now he was casually sitting on a chair and looking at Cerberus. He then signalled the hound toe forward and the hound obeyed and sat near his chair. Arnold then picked up the activated and tossed it at Cerberus but nothing happened. "You gonna tell me how this sh*t works?" _________________________ You need to ce the near the creatures chest. Once you do that, the creature would be able to absorb it. But if you''re using the on an automaton, you''ll have to construct a cavity to insert the in it. You can retrieve this rune stone anytime but if you do that, the particr automaton wouldn''t be able to use that ability again. In case when the automaton is destroyed you can retrieve the rune stone from its body. _________________________ Arnold sighed softly. "Next time, try to give me such information sooner, could you?" _________________________ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. _________________________ He rolled his eyes and picked up the rune stone from the ground. He did what the system had told him to and ced it near Cerberus'' chest. Suddenly sparks flew out of the rune stone, an intense light covered the entire room. When the light faded away, the stone in his hands disintegrated into dust. He looked at Cerberus, his chest now had a weird blue now engraving on it. At this moment a notification appeared on the interface. _________________________ Imntation sessful! Your summon Cerberus, type : , can now use the [PLASMA SHIELD] ability. _________________________ "Nice! I should craft a few mor-" _________________________ [AUTOMATON ASSEMBLY KIT] has been crafted sessfully. The item has been stored in your inventory. _________________________ "Or I could build the automaton first." Arnold smiled and opened his inventory to take out arge bronze box, putting it down on the floor, "Damn it is heavy. Phew..." He opened the box containing various mechanical parts and tools. He took them out one after another andid them across the room. A file was also inside the box which had the information about the different parts of the [AUTOMATON]. "Okay, so this is the voicemand module, the document says it''s been pre-programmed with basic functions," He said as he picked up a rectangr shaped chip, "and this is the power source, it''s quite small, I wonder how long will itst... let''s look at the document... "1 MONTH! You serious? I could make a fortune by selling these, that is if I''m able to figure out how it works. Well, that would be thest of the equipments, the rest are the mechanical parts like it''s head, hands, etc. Better get the instructions and start building the automaton." Arnold flipped through the pages of the file but it didn''t had any instruction whatsoever. "What the hell is this, SYSTEM? Why is there no instructions on building the automaton?" Arnold panicked. _________________________ The system can only guide you with the connections of internal modules. You''ll have build the physical frame of the [AUTOMATON] yourself. _________________________ Arnold was speechless and rubbed his temples, and thought, This is just the first time. It''s normal to meet a obstacle. It''s normal¡­ it''s normal¡­ LIKE HELL IT''S NORMAL! He was frustrated but there was nothing he could do about it, he took a deep breath and calmed down. "It''s just like an advanced puzzle... and I have no clue how to solve it... but I will solve it" ***** 6 HOURS LATER... CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE Arnold took off his welding helmet, his hair was damp from his sweat. He held his knees and panted. "This thing is way too tiring. I''m exhausted¡­ I''llplete the physical design tomorrow." He felt like a certain genius, billionaire, yboy, phnthropist, apart from the fact that he wasn''t a genius, or a billionaire, or a yboy, or a phnthropist. In fact he had terrible luck with women. He shook his head and looked at the fruit of hisbour. A headless ck armoured automaton was standing near his study table. The physical design of his first automaton was nearlypleted, he still had to upload the voicemand module as well as the artificial intelligence chip inside the ''brain'' of the automaton but this work was too tiring and after continuously working for six hours he was exhausted. "It''d be better if I made another and get an ability for the automaton." He stroked his chin, "The thing is I want them to have a variety of abilities, not just the ones I have. Maybe I could ask someone from the family for help? "Let''s see... who would be willing to spare 2-3 drops of blood... Nathan maybe? No, hell ask too many questions about the process and the runes and what not and I''m definitely not gonna ask Johnny, it''s too soon for me to join my parents in the afterlife." As if his parents were helping him from the afterlife, someone knocked on his door. "Arnold, you in there?" Nina''s voice came through the door. "I''ll have to lie... but maybe I can convince her..." Arnold said with an evil smile on his face. Chapter 43 - Talos Arnold opened the door and Nina spoke up, "Hey are you free tomor- You sure, you''re not into cosy and stuff? Because everytime I meet you, you''re wearing a different costume." She nced at the welding helmet and an apron, "What are you cosying as now? A mechanic? If you are then, you''re doing a great job." "It''s better than wearing the same sports bra and yoga pants everyday." Arnold smirked. ?? "I didn''t knew you were so interested in my outfits or I''d have organised a fashion show for you." She replied sarcastically. "Sure sure, why don''t youe inside?" He waved his hand and invited her in. "Your room is always this messy or today is some special asion?" Nina carefully stepped around the room filled with useless scrap. "What''s that?" Nina pointed at the iplete automaton. "That is... my new creation. An automaton, it''s still iplete." He replied. "So you''re building a robot in your bedroom. I''m not judging, but I think I know the type of functions this robot would have..." Arnold thought about it for a while, before he figured out what Nina was trying to say. "Oh God NO! It''s nothing like that!" "Surrrreeeee..." Nina wasn''t convinced at all, "Now that we are inside, are you free-" "Wait a bit and check this out." Arnold showed her the he had just made. "Where did you get a rune stone from, those are quite umon aren''t they?" "Yeah, but it''s nothing special, just an ordinary rune stone which I made from scratch." "You just MADE a rune stone?" Nina was surprised, "You can make thousands just by selling rune stones you know that right?" "Yeah I made it using my creationist abilities, but you see I can''t sell them before studying their effects." He lied he''d never sell something like this, "But you see, the rune has some issues with it." "What type of issues?" "I designed it in a way that It would activate only when ites into contact with someone''s blood, but when I tried to activate it using my blood, the stone disintegrated into dust," He lied once again but this time he had a ''proof''. He pointed at the small pile of dust that was generated by the he had used on Cerberus. " I wanted to use my blood once again but this is thest rune I was able to make sessfully and so I don''t want it to reduce into dust as well." He lied yet again but Nina didn''t had to know about it. "So..." Nina mumbled. "So I was thinking if you could help me out with the experiment?... " "Are... you... MAD!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, "I won''t allow you to use me as a pool of blood!" "Pool of blood? The heck are you taking about? I just need 2-3 drops to activate and study the rune." "I WON''T- wait... just a couple of drops?" She calmed down a bit. "Just a couple of drops..." Arnold nodded. "It''s still weird and ufortable, but I guess I should help you out, but only as a favour." She mumbled, "Just tell me what I need to do." I can''t show her the knife, she''s already so freaked out, who knows when she''ll do when she sees a knife, Arnold thought. I wonder how someone like her was a good warrior. "What are you waiting for?" Sheined, "I don''t have all day." "Yeah, here take this," Arnold handed her an ice pin which he made on the spot using his ice affinity, "Poke your finger or whatever you like and then make sure that your blood drops on the rune''s surface." Nina did what he told and poked her left arm''s little finger using the pin Arnold gave her. She then made sure to drop two drops of blood on the rune before putting her finger inside her mouth to suck out the excess blood. The moment Nina''s blood touched the surface of the rune, it started glowing and finally, the red engravings turned into blue. "Would you look at that, it''s a suck-cess!" Arnold sniggered. Nina immediately took the finger out of her mouth and gave Arnold an annoyed look. "So what does it do?" She pointed at the rune. "I''ll have to study it for a while first. Now tell me, what you wanted to talk about?" "I was saying that if you were free tomorrow, would you like to join us for a dungeon trip?" "Sure! But you know that I have a phone right?" "I did, but I didn''t have your number so... you can have mine." She took a piece was paper from Arnold''s study table and wrote her number on it. "Thanks!" Arnold said, as Nina handed him the piece of paper and left soon, thinking that he''d make some another weird request if she stayed there. Arnold closed the door after she left and looked at the activated . "Change of ns, I''m finishing the automaton tonight." ***** COUPLE OF HOURS LATER... _________________________ Connect the right lotive gear to the left side of the power source. _________________________ "English please!" _________________________ Connect the red wire to the ck one. _________________________ "THANK YOU!" _________________________ Now you need to connect the voice module to the neuralwork. Your voice is already registered in the module so you don''t need to redo it. _________________________ "Alright. What else?" _________________________ If you want, you can connect the to the provided socket. This is not a necessary step and can be der. _________________________ "Oh yeah, I totally forgot about it!" Arnold said and pulled out the from his inventory, "I haven''t checked what ability it has yet." Arnold and used his [PROBE] skill on the stone. _________________________ OBJECT : (Activated) TYPE : Blood crystal GRADE : A REMARK : An extremely rare crystal which can be used to generate an ability from blood monsters, humans and any other sentient beings. The rune contains [SWORD SLASH] ability. _________________________ "It just had to be a sword skill, I''ll have to get a sword for the automaton first. Marshal already has one but I don''t think the automaton would be able to handle a sword that big." Arnold was lost in his thoughts once again, "I think I should give it to Marshall. Either way I have a dungeon trip tomorrow so it''d be better if I make another and use it to get some abilities which would be more suitable for the automaton. "If I can get one ability from 2-3 drops, who knows how many abilities would I be able to get from a whole monster! That settles it then. I''ll give the sword skill to Marshal and I''ll worry about the abilities tomorrow. For now let''s just activate the automaton and get it over with." _________________________ Use the voicemand module to activate the automaton. _________________________ "Voicemand? What should I say? Wake up? System-sama please enlighten my knowled-" Before Arnold couldplete what he was saying, he heard a load humming noise and turned towards the ck armoured automaton, white lighting through its empty eye sockets. It had shiny metal alloy tes on the outside the armour which covered the automatons chest and the back and a little below the back of the neck was the power source which was emitting a faint white light. The lotive gears kicked into action as it slowly walked up to Arnold and kneeled down in front of him. "Yourmand, master?" An electronic voice came out of the mouth-less robot. Saying that Arnold was surprised would be the understatement of the decade. He happily looked at the automaton. It took Arnold around 12 hours to make this wonder, and now finally his hard work was paying off. He was still admiring the automaton when a notification popped up. _________________________ Assembly of [LIGHT ARMOURED AUTOMATON]pleted! FIRST TIME ASSEMBLY REWARDS : EXP +2500 GRADE REWARDS : EXP + 1000 SUCCESSFUL CONSTRUCTION REWARD : EXP + 1500 Would you like to rename your creation? ?Yes or ?No _________________________ "5000 exp! That''s way too much!" He jumped with excitement and renamed the automaton as - [TALOS1] before expanding the menu to see Talos'' stats. _________________________ [TALOS] TYPE: Combat Automaton GRADE: B BASIC STATS: DURABILITY2 (DUR) : 4800/4800 ENERGY2 (ENR) : 2500/2500 STRENGTH (STR) : 90 DEFENSE(DEF) : 137 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 50 AGILITY (AGI) : 70 ACCURACY (ACC) : 55 EVADE (EVD) : 50 HEIGHT: 1.72 meter WEIGHT: 50 KG CONTROL : chip POWER SOURCE: ¨C Sr/Thermal charging ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Idle mode): 4 Energy/min ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Combat mode): 16 Energy/min RECOVERY RATE : 10 Energy /min WEAPON MODULE : ABILITIES : _________________________ ************ 1. Talos : It''s not a Thanos reference by any means (lol). ording to Greek mythology, Talos (also pronounced as Talus) was a giantautomatonmade ofbronzeto protectEuropainCretefrom pirates and invaders. 2. Durability and Energy of an automaton acts as the HP and Mana for it. Chapter 44 - Assassination Plan "Master, yourmand?" Talos questioned once again. "How much do you know about this world? Don''t tell me that I''ll have to teach you everything as well." Arnold went to sit on the bed while Talos answered him. He wanted to know, how effective chip was, because he didn''t want to waste too much of his time on teaching basic things to Talos. ?? "I have all the knowledge that you possess, master." Talos replied in its electronic voice. "You mean, you have the ''all'' the knowledges that I possess, including [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL], [BASIC ENGINEERING SKILL] and [BLOODMAGE] skill?" Arnold calmly asked. If the automatons could use the blood skills, he wouldn''t need to use [BLOOD NECROMANCY] himself and he''d be able to mass produce this exponentially increasing the power of his summons but before he could dream anymore about it, Talos shattered his hope. "Yes, master. I have all those skills but since I''m not an organic being, I can''t use any skills thate with [BLOODMAGE] knowledge. The rest of the knowledges are locked in my database and can only be unlocked if you allow it." "At least you can use the shooting and engineering skills, so that''s something. Do you also know the blueprint of [VINDICATOR]?" "Yes, master." "Can you build it?" "Once I learn [BASIC ENGINEERING SKILL] then I can produce it. However since I can not ess the ''elder'' anymore, I won''t be able to obtain the items from the elder. So the items used to forge the weapon would be different. Thus, the grade of the weapon would be lower." "What do you mean Different items?" Arnold was intrigued by Talos'' response. "I can modify the blueprint and produce the weapon without the use of beast crystals but the grade and the damage output would be much lower." "PRODUCE THE WEAPON WITHOUT THE BEAST CRYSTALS!?" Arnold immediately stood up from the bed. "Yes, master." Talos replied in his usual voice, it wasn''t even slightly bothered by Arnold''s sudden outburst. Talos was clueless about what Arnold was thinking. Talos'' one statement had solved many of Arnold''s problem. First, he wouldn''t need to downgrade the blueprint himself and second, he was pretty sure that even if he downgraded the blueprint, it would still require some type of beast crystal to build the weapon, but Talos could build the weapon without needing the beast crystals. Not to mention that Talos didn''t need to rest so it could work day and night to forge a weapon or even another automaton as long as it is provided with the materials. "Hm... I want you to learn the [BASIC ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE] as well as the [BASIC SHOOTING KNOWLEDGE]. After that, try to downgrade the weapon blueprints and forge [VINDICATOR]. Got it?" Arnold ordered the automaton. "Yes, master. Learning both the skills would take 2 hours time... Downgrading and forging the weapon would take 7 hours... Total time taken would be 9 hours... Energy consumed would be 36 points... configurationpleted... Proceeding with the task." Arnold gave Talos the materials and the tools that he had left in his inventory. "Now since that''spleted, let''s sleep. I have an early start tomorrow." ***** EARLIER THAT DAY, AT THE FLYING SWORDS GUILD... "The pipsqueak, is getting troublesome." The President of Flying Swords sighed. "The leader might have forgiven us but he hasn''t forgotten about the disaster we pulled off." "You mean the kidnapping?" Jake asked. He knew all about the rtionship between the president and the leader as it was because of the leader that he and his team were able to significantly increase their powers, and they were extremely grateful towards both of them. "Yes," The President nodded, "The leader doesn''t trust me like before... I have to prove my worth once again." "We are awaiting your orders sir. We''ll happily sacrifice ourselves for your sake." Jake replied. To him and his team, order from the president was like the order of a God. After all it was the president and the leader who gave them the powers, they had. They didn''t care if they had to battle the entire ck Family, if the president ordered them to do so they won''t hesitate for a moment. "No need to do that. I don''t want the guild involved with the cks. Thanks to the pipsqueak, they already have their suspicion on us," The President said disapproving the idea, "Contact some rogue mercenaries, but do it anonymously. The pipsqueak barely managed to hold down Bob who was at rank B so be sure to hire at least 3 rank A''s to ensure that he dies this time. That should be sufficient for now. "Also check if they are venturing to a dungeon. If they are then have the mercenaries sneak in and kill them all. Make sure that it would look like the monsters got them. That way the probability that they''d figure out it was our doing would be much lesser. If the mercenaries have shape-shifting abilities then that would be even better. "Tell them to make sure they leave no witness. But don''t give them the true identities of the targets. They''ll definitely freak out if they got to know that their targets, were the members of the ck Family. Make sure to cover up any loopholes, I don''t want any disasters this time." "Anything else sir?" "No, you can leave." He waved his hand. "Yes sir." Jake nodded and left the President''s office. "Getting him out of the picture should please the leader and would also help me to get some recognition from the society." he nodded, "The boy has to die." Chapter 45 - Bloodbath (1) NEXT MORNING, AT BLACK ESTATE... ___ ?? An altered weapon blueprint has been created. REWARD(s) : EXP +500 New weapon created! REWARD(s) : EXP +300 FIRST TIME ASSEMBLY REWARD(s) : EXP +200 GRADE REWARD(s) : EXP + 500 Would you like to rename your creation? ?Yes or ?No ___ "Wh-what? *yawn* What is happening?" Arnold said in a sleepy voice. "Let me sleep will you?" Arnold closed his eyes once again and tried to sleep but... "Master, I''vepleted the task." Talos informed Arnold in its electronic voice. "Can''t a man- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Arnold opened his eyes again and saw that Talos was pointing a gun at him. He immediately jumped off the bed and took out the [VINDICATOR] from his and pointed his guns at Talos. "ording to the inte, stimuli such as fear is a great way to cause an adrenaline rush, which then fills the human body with energy. I found this to be a suitable method to wake you up." Talos replied and ced the gun in the holster he had made. "I''vepleted my task." "YOU SON OF A BI*CH, DON''T YOU DARE POINT A GUN AT ME AGAIN!" Arnold shouted not letting go of his guns, "GO TO STANDBY MODE AND STAY LIKE THAT TILL I ORDER YOU TO MOVE." "Request acknowledged... going into idle mode..." Talos replied as the white glow in its eyes vanished. "F*cking idiot. How the hell did he even managed to ess the inte?" Arnold shook his head and opened his interface, the notification popped open once again. ___ An altered weapon blueprint has been created. Would you like to rename your creation? ?Yes or ?No ___ "So Talos actually managed to replicate the blueprint." He mumbled and opened the stat window for the newly developed weapon. ___ ? [?????] : A light handgun which is derived from the [VINDICATOR] and can cause quite some damage. The recoil from the gun isn''t as much as the it''s predecessor. Grade : C Damage : 80-95 (physical) Overload : 4 minutes Cooldown : 10 seconds Range : 32 meter Ammo Type : Enchanted bullets/mechanically produced shells Magazine Capacity : 36 (18 each) Weight : 1.6 kg Additional skill : [PETTY SHOT] - Deals additional 8% damage when the target is closer than 15 meters. ___ Arnold carefully analysed the pros and cons of Talos'' creation. For starters it wasn''t half bad. It had decent damage, not much but decent. As the time taken for the gun to overload was longer, it could shoot more bullets than the [VINDICATOR] and the time for it to cooldown was also much smaller, thus making it even better. The weight was less, which reduced the recoil. That was about all of the pros the new blueprint had. As for the cons, the range and damage of the gun were lesser than that of the [VINDICATOR], even the skill effect would cause only 8% additional damage. But the pros overshadowed the cons, and the blueprint was definitely a sessful knockoff of the [VINDICATOR]. But what should he name it? He wasn''t going to name it vindicator junior... "How about... Detractor?" ___ Naming sessful. [DETRACTOR] blueprint has been added. ___ "I better get ready to leave now. Talos, wake up. We have to go." The automaton came to life and walked up to Arnold. "I''ll go and get ready, meanwhile you, my friend, clean the room and after you''re done with it, make some ammunition for your gun." "Master, I can''t ess the ''elder'' and request for supplies." Talos replied. "Just who is this elder you keep talking about?" Arnold asked. "The one who resides within you. You refer him as ''System'' and sometimes as ''System-sama''." "Okay okay, just clean the room. I''ll take care of the ammunition." Arnold was in a hurry, so he didn''t question him anymore but just when he was about to leave, another notification popped up on the interface. __________________________ You have additional EXP which can be used to level up your subsses. Stored EXP : 6500/10000 __________________________ "Right, I should probably upgrade my subsses while I can." Arnold said and opened the tab, to view his own stats. ________________________ NAME : Arnold Ling TITLE : [Extraordinary figure] LEVEL : 45 RANK : C SPECIAL SKILL : ??????? CLASS : STORED EXP : 6500/10000 SUBCLASS : ? (lvl 1) EXP : 0/3000 [QUICK SHOT] (lvl : 1) [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] (lvl : 2) ? (lvl 1) EXP : 0/3000 [QUICK ASSEMBLY] (lvl :1) ? (lvl 1) EXP : 0/3000 [BLOOD NECROMANCY] (lvl :1) AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire) HP : 6138/6138 MANA : 2387/2387 EXP : 0/1000 STATS : ABILITIES : ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 8 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 0 ________________________ "Three thousand EXP to level up one subss? You gotta be kidding me!" Arnold smacked his head, "And here I was thinking, I''d be able to upgrade a subss by at least 5 levels... if I have to choose a subss to upgrade, I think the choice is clear." Without any hesitation, Arnold dumped 6000 EXP to level up his subss twice. ________________________ Subss leveled up! (lvl 3) REWARDS : Mana +1000 INT +10 [BLOOD NECROMANCY] upgraded to level 3. Additional effect unlocked! [BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] : (Passive ability) Your intelligence will increase your mana. Conversion rate 1 INT : 10 Mana. Levelling up this ability would increase the conversation rate. This moulding ability can only be leveled up by, leveling subss. [Rank : B] ________________________ "A mana moulding ability! Finally, I can stop investing my precious potential points to increase the mana." Arnold was ecstatic, his mana was increased by 1850 points at once! He was feeling very lucky maybedy luck would continue to bless him inside the dungeon as well. He couldn''t contain his excitement and quickly got dressed and left along with Talos. ***** "You''rete." Ninained. Joshua, O and give other people were joining Arnold for the trip. "Is that the robot you were making?" "Sorry sorry, something came up all of a sudden and yes, this is Talos." Arnold said, scratching the back of his head. "So everybody ready? Great then let''s move out." T-TRING T-TRING T-TRING Just as Arnold was about to get into the car his phone went off. "Who is calling me now... Hello? Oh hi Nathan, you want something?" "Where are you?" Nathan''s voice came through the speaker. "I''m about to leave to clear a dungeon along with Nina and the others." he replied. "No you''re not. Father wants me to start your training today." Nathan said with a sense of authority in his voice. "Can''t we do it after we return?" "You want to train or not?" "Fine Fine, no need to increase your blood pressure. I''ming." Arnold said and disconnected the call. "Sorry guys, Nathan needs me for something so I''ll have to go." "What? But you already confirmed that you''de with us." Nina mumbled. "What can I say? You saw he just called me..." "It''s okay. You can leave, we''ll manage somehow." Joshua intervened. "You know what? Talos go along with them and here take some bullets with you." Arnold mumbled and handed Talos some pre-made icy bullets. "Alright then let''s go." Joshua said and drove off. Chapter 46 - Bloodbath (2) "Found anything yet?" Nina asked Talos, who was walking ahead of the group for now. "Nothing yet." Talos replied in its electronic voice. ?? "It''s strange. There are no monsters here. Are you sure we''re at the right ce?" O asked Joshua who nodded in reply. "That''s not the only weird thing either. Can''t you see, a frigging robot is leading the party. How sick is that!" Justin, was one of the new members of the ck Knights. "I''ll have to say, Arnold is a man of many talents." Nina nodded. "Although he behaves like a weirdo sometimes, he''s actually a good guy." "Which talents are you taking about exactly?" Gabriel winked at her. "Something you''ll never have." Nina replied without even bothering to look at him. "What?" "A brain." Everyone exploded withughter. "Savage! Haha..." Danughed but the fun was cut short by Talos. As usual. "Something is wrong... Scanning rted case files... fetching data... taskpleted." Talos mumbled, "ording to the PRSD''s research wing, empty dungeons are umon but they do exist. In such cases, the boss level creature somehow managed to break out of its confinement and ughters every being inside the dungeon till no one is left. Something simr happened during the ''Great Shanghai Disaster''. "When this happens, the boss level creature, in thirst for more destruction, tries to break through the dungeon. The natural barrier, which prevents the escape of the monsters, may or may the not be able to hold the boss level Monster back, as it only acts as a barrier for the normal grade monsters not for boss grade monsters. Thus to prevent this, the guilds are allotted regions of their own to take care of any and every dungeon that pops open in their territory such that if any dungeon breakouts happen, the guild could stop the monsters from causing much destruction. "But this dungeon is different. Although there are no monsters here, there''s no sign of a breakout either." "What are you trying to say?" Joshua was concerned about everyone else. "This is not a natural phenomenon." Talos informed the others. "That''s it. We''re out of here. Send the emergency signal for backup. Till the backup arrives we''ll guard the entrance and wait there." Joshua ordered the others are tried to send the signal to the guild but themunicator wasn''t working. "Damn it! We''re not that deep into the dungeon yet, Why isn''t it working?" Just then they heard low growl of a monster, who was rushing towards them. "EVERYONE OUT NOW!" O bellowed, and the others rushed towards the entrance. "THERE I CAN SEE THE ENTRANCE!" Dan shouted. "KEEP GOING!" Joshua shouted from behind. But before they could reach the entrance, they heard a blood curdling screaming from the outside. "No..." O gasped, when she saw two 7 feet tall panther like creatures walking through the entrance. One of them seemed to be dragging something with its mouth. "My... God..." Nina whispered in horror. The panther like monster was dragging the bloodied body of Coco, their porter, whom they had left outside because they thought it wouldn''t been unnecessary as Talos was going to carry the backpack. They thought by doing this they were keeping him safe but in the end they were the ones to put him in danger. "Look his hand moved a little, he''s alive but I don''t think he''ll survive for long. Hurry up and take the beasts down and then-" ROARRRRR! That growl immediately petrified everyone. Joshua turned around and saw arger creature having the resemnce of a lion, most probably the leader of the pack, came into full view. It was massive and it''s skin was as white as a pearl. It was evenrger than the other two creatures... It''s mane was so long that it touched the ground. While Joshua was busy examining the lion like beast, the panther who was dragging Coco, dropped him on the ground and bit his shoulder. Everyone thought they''d hear Coco''s scream but they didn''t. He simply didn''t have any strength left to do so. Maybe the this displeased their ''Lion King'', who growled at the panther. The panther immediately retreated but kept toying with Coco, as if it wanted the others to attack it. "YOU BAS*ARD!" Gabriel shouted at the panther and was about to charge at him but Joshua stopped him. "WAIT! can''t you see they are provoking us to do something harsh? EVERYONE! DEFENSE FORMATION! MAGES AND HEALERS STAY IN THE MIDDLE AND PROVIDE SUPPORT!" Joshua ordered his teammates. "Talos! When the opportunity arises, grab Coco and run outside. Once you''re out try to get help." "Request acknowledged." Talos mumbled. "...and pray that a miracle happens." O whispered. ***** BACK AT THE BLACK ESTATE... "Ohe on! You call this training? We''ve been sitting here and doing nothing for an hour now." Arnoldint, "I thought you''ll teach me somebat techniques or something." Arnold and Nathan were sitting in the garden and were meditating after doing yoga for a while. Nathan slowly opened his eyes and gave a sharp look to Arnold. "This is called meditation, not sitting around." Even though it looked like Nathan was angry, his voice was calm as ake. "And meditation is the best way for mages to increase their power." Not when you have a system to guide you, Duh! Arnold thought. "Alright, alright. I''ll meditate like a 60 year old virgin guru." He said and closed his eyes. He tried his best to ''meditate'' but his mind kept wandering. ording to him, this was nothing but a waste of his precious time, which he could have utilised to go to the dungeon and hopefully rank up. But yet here he was, busy meditating like a boomer. If I''m stuck maybe, I should have some fun, Arnold thought and activated his [FORESIGHT] ability, because why not? He couldn''t move when he used the skill either way, so this was best time to do it. He felt his consciousness detaching from his body and slowly opened his eyes, hoping to see himself being stuck in the garden and meditating. Instead, when he opened his eyes, he was inside a tunnel. "No, it looks like... a dungeon?" Arnold mumbled, in a moment the scenery was changed and he could faintly see Nina, Gabriel, Dan and Talos fending off some strong beasts while O was busy healing an injured Joshua. Arnold wanted to do something to help them but couldn''t. He started screaming and soon heard someone repeated calling his name as he was pulled back into his body. "Arnold? ARNOLD? You okay?" Nathan lightly smacked on his cheeks. "W-We have to hurry!" Arnold stood up in a sh, almost knocking Nathan down. "What''s wrong? You look like you''ve seen a ghost or something." Nathan replied. "We have to hurry! THE OTHERS ARE IN DANGER!" Chapter 47 - Bloodbath (3) "AAAHHH!" Justin cried in pain as one of the panther bit his leg. Nina saw the panther''s attack, and shed at it, but the panther managed to retreat in time. No harm was done to it. ?? "Damn it! They''re too fast!" Gabriel shouted. "None of my attacks are working!" Blood poured out of Justin''s leg. The panther had bit into a major vein. Nina raced towards him and pulled him back using one of her arms while she swung the sword with the other one. She dragged him to the middle of the circle they had formed, where Martha and O were already busy healing the Joshua and two others. "The injuries keep increasing... We got to do something!" BANG! BANG! BANG! Talos was continuously shooting at the creatures, but the bullets seemed to have a little effect. Talos'' shots were only effective when the creatures were closer to him, and the creatures understood it and maintained their distance from Talos and stopped attacking him and focused on the others. Who were more vulnerable. "DAMN IT!!!!" Nina cursed at top of her lungs. The creatures were like a pack of scavengers, their teamwork and strategy quickly managed to overwhelm and injure Joshua at the start of the fight. Joshua was an A ranked tank but still the creatures managed to manhandled him, he wasn''t the only tank in the team but he was the most capable one. Without his leadership the party members copsed one after another. Dan was trying to do his best, but if an A ranked tank couldn''t do much then what could a mere C ranked tank do? They werepletely trapped. They were hemmed in from one side by the white lion, while the other side was blocked off by the panthers, one of which was injured thanks to Talos'', Gabriel''s and Nina''s efforts. But the other two were unscathed. "No way out." Gabriel whispered, his sword drawn at the lion. "Yeah... " Nina nodded, trying to calm herself. Gabriel nodded towards the injured panther. "I don''t think he''ll try to attack us anymore. We just have to take care of the other two... let''s take down the lion first while Dan and the mage can focus on the other panther." The Lion started circling them while slowly moving in, as the uninjured panther nked them. The injured panther was lying near the entrance as to prevent their prey from escaping. Nina saw this as an opening. "Gabe, we can retreat," She whispered, "If We can take care of the injured panther we can escape the dungeon, contact the guild and hold the monsters inside till they arrive." "It''s pretty dangerous though." Gabriel whispered, not taking his eyes off the lion in front of him. "Half of the team is either injured or can''t fight. We don''t have another choice..." "Alright, pull back," Gabriel whispered, "but slowly..." "Talos grab Coco as soon as we get close to-" Nina whispered "He''s dead." Talos replied in his usual emotionless electronic voice. "It... it doesn''t matter... just do it." Even she knew that Coco was gone but she didn''t wanted to admit it. Suddenly Justin spoke up, "We won''tst long. You guys run I''ll distract him along with Talos." Nina didn''t turned towards him, her eyes were fixed on the panther, but her admiration for the injured guy shot up. After all he was willing to die for the others. Nina shook her head, "Not possible. Even if we wanted, we won''t be able to run that fast with so many injured people. The monsters will catch up sooner orter." They were moving towards the entrance slowly but surely... but then the unharmed panther charged at her. She held tightly to her sword, ready to strike, but to her surprise the panther suddenly stopped. Nina got agitated and was about to charge at the panther when she heard a blood curdling scream. She turned immediately towards the entrance. The injured panther used the distraction to attack the mage who was guarding their rear. The mage kept attacking the panther, as it bit into his shoulder, but it was all in vain, he kept screaming in agony as the panther dragged his body back and threw him next to Coco''s body. The panther kept biting and shing its ws on mage till he stopped moving. The mage was dead. Nina was about to charge at the injured panther but before she could, somethingnded right in front of her. It was Dan. His armour was shattered into pieces by a single blow of the lion. The Lion was standing on top of Gabriel''s head and roared loudly. The Lion and the panthers now slowly moved towards Nina. But before they could close in, Talos went supersonic and grabbed the injured panther''s head and rained all of the bullets in its head. The panther struggled to get out of the automaton''s hold but couldn''t. Seeing their fellow beast in danger, the Lion and the panther jumped at Talos,pletely ignoring Nina. "THIS IS IT! EVERYONE GRAB THE INJURED ONES AND RUN! THIS IS OUR ONLY CHANCE!" She shouted and grabbed Gabriel and Dan, while Martha took Justin and O dragged Joshua. Talos somehow managed to keep the beasts busy till Martha and O managed to escape, but the lion finally managed to destroy him, before Nina could escape the dungeon. Seeing that there was no hope for her to escape, she entrusted Gabriel and Dan to Martha and O before taking Jason''s sword from him. "Take them and go. Call for the guild or the family for help help. I''ll stall the beasts till then." Nina said in a calm and concentrated voice. "N...o..." Gabriel mumbled before copsing once again. "Don''t waste time! GO NOW!" she shouted and turned to face her inevitable death. Martha and O knew Nina wouldn''t be able survive to survive and they couldn''t do anything about it no matter. "Just hold on. We''ll be right back with some reinforcements!" O said in an attempt to boost Nina up. Nina just nodded in reply as Martha and O left the dungeon. Now Nina was alone with the beasts inside. "You''re not going anywhere while I''m alive." Nina pointed her swords at the beasts. Chapter 48 - Rise Of The Devil MEANWHILE... "I''m still not convinced. I''m justing along because the others aren''t responding." Nathan said. ?? "I''m not here to convince you. When we reach there you''ll see that I''m telling the truth. Now drive faster!" Arnold replied. Since Arnold was panicking so much, Nathan had little choice but to help him out. From how Arnold had described the scene after using his ''foresight'', it felt like there had been a dungeon breakout. Initially Nathan didn''t believed what Arnold was saying. Monsters in an B rank dungeon would never have enough power to break through the dungeon, moreover Joshua and O were already there. They were not new to the scene, even if there would''ve been a dungeon breakout, Nathan was pretty sure they would be able to handle it. But when Arnold didn''t stop bbering about the others, Nathan decided to contact them but something was wrong as he couldn''t contact them. Fearing for the worse both him and Arnold, took his mustang and drove to dungeon at top speed. "I just hope that you''re hallucinating and nothing more..." Nathan shook his head and stepped on the gas. ***** BACK IN THE DUNGEON... The Lion charged. Ninashed out with her right hand, but Justin''s sword was shorter than hers and didn''t have the reach but because of this she lost her bnce. The panther to the advantage and charged into her. Before she could react the panther bit hard into her right leg. She screamed in pain and swung hard with her longer sword at the panther but it dodged the attack. The rate at which she was losing blood was too much, her legs gave out. The beasts charged in once again, this time the Lion lead the attack. She knew one of them would try to distract her while the other one would attack. Even though she couldn''t stand, she won''t let them kill her teammates, not while she was breathing. She held her swords high enough to stop the Lion and the panther from charging in carelessly. "COME ON YOU FU*CKING P*SSIES!" She shouted with all her might thinking that they were scared of her and her swords. But in reality, they are only ying with their prey. They knew that the others won''t be able to go very far, and sooner orter, decide to abandon the injured ones, but the case as such seemed highly unlikely. The Lion jumped in, Nina jabbed her sword at it''s shoulder, but she wasn''t fast enough and the Lion managed to bit a part of her thigh away. Before she could recover from this wound, the panther charged in an bit hard at her torso. Her armour was like a sheet of paper for the panther to bit through. But it wasn''t in vain because Nina finally managed to cut a vein protruding through the panther''s left shoulder. The amount of blood she was losing, kept increasing with every wound, the adrenaline rushing through her veins was working against her as the blood was leaking through numerous wounds on her body. She vigorously shook her head, she had to buy the others some more time. But she was weak and helpless. She could barely hold he swords anymore. She looked at the panther. It was in pain but it wasn''t enough to stop it from attacking her again. The beasts looked at each other and nodded as if they had decided that the ytime was over, and prepared themselves for one final attack. Nina knew this was it, her final moment. She let go of the swords remembered the various people who were important to her, her parents, her guildmates, The family, Nicole whom she had grown to like a lot and of course, her brother Arnold, his mischievous smile, weird cosys and his creations... though they never talked much, it felt that she understood him better than the rest of the family. I''d... have never thought that a weirdo would grow up on me. She thought, in herst moments. She had a good and privileged life till now and was d about everything she ever did. She was prepared to die. At this moment she heard someone shout. "KILL THEM ALL!" The Lion was about to jump at her, when numerous wolf like creatures jumped over her and started attacking the panther while a man wearing a ck track suit was fighting with the Lion. Through her fading vision, she saw a figure dressed in ck robes, rushing towards her, with guns in his hands. Various creatures who were made of stone silently stood behind the man. The man said something to one of the stone creatures as it slowly lifted her off the ground and carried her out of the dungeon. "Be... careful..." Saying so, she copsed. ***** "I will." Arnold said and turned back to face the beasts. Nathan was upied fighting with the Lion-like creature while Cerberus was leading the attack against the panther. He stared at the blood soaked floor. Too many people lost their lives here... he saw the lifeless body of Coco, his eyes were still open. Arnold could feel the pain and agony the guy would''ve felt before dying. Anger and regret consumed Arnold. He felt like something flipped a switch in his mind. _________________________ Conditions met : [REMORSE FOR THE DEAD] Special skill unlocked! ? [DEVIL''S RAGE] : (Active ability) When activated, instantly boosts user''s attributes by 400% and resets the cooldown of every ability the user has. The damage taken is reduced by 80%. Furthermore the ability temporarily boosts the user''s rank. The number of ranks boosted ispletely arbitrary. [Rank : ] [Mana cost : none] [Cooldown : none] [Lifetime usage : 06] Additional effect : [DEVIL''S ADVOCATE] (Passive skill) : The user is immune to true damage. The effect of this skill is permanent. The skill has been automatically activated. The user won''t be charged for the activation cost. Rank has been temporarily boosted to : S Duration : 5 minutes _________________________ The dungeon was shrouded in a strong and dark aura. Everything inside the dungeon was overwhelmed by this sudden appearance of such a strong force. Cracks appeared on the walls of the dungeon. Everyone who was concentrated on fighting a moment ago, came to a halt, everyone''s attention, foes and friends alike, was fixated upon the source of the ominous aura. "A-Arnold... y-you okay?" Nathan stuttered for the third time in his life. The first two times when it happened, he was sparring against Johnny who was a SS ranked warrior and right now Arnold''s aura seemed just like Johnny''s yet it seemed different... it was way too dark. As if the devil himself was standing in front of his eyes. Arnold didn''t replied to Nathan''s question, and darted in the panther''s direction. The panther panicked but before it could figure out what was happening. Arnold appeared in front of him and grabbed the panther''s head before squashing it like a watermelon. The Lion saw this and only one thought ran through his mind - He had to escape. The lion shoved Nathan aside and ran with all his might. He was inches away from the entrance when something grabbed his tail. "Where do you think you''re going?" Arnold said in a calm voice, but his eyes were different. They were blood red, the pupils of his eyes were missing. With a single thrust, he threw the Lion deeper into the dungeon. "I know you''re no beast, because beasts would fight and die, running away isn''t their nature. They won''t run away like you. The question is why would someone attack us... was it for revenge or for money?" Arnold said as he slowly walked up to the beast. The Lion shed it''s ws at Arnold who easily dodged the attack and ripped off the lion''s leg with sheer strength. The Lion howled in pain as it stumbled down and fell. "You''re gonna talk now, or shall I rip your body into pieces?" Arnold grabbed the lion''s another leg and was about to yank it off when the body of the lion started to change its shape to that of a hairy naked man, he looked more like a werewolf than a lion. "P-Please d-don''t kill m-me! We were paid by an anonymous p-person to kill anyone who enters t-this dungeon." The naked man stuttered. "Not good enough." Arnold shrugged and ripped off the man''s remaining leg. "Come up with a better answer." The man howled in pain and tried to crawl away using his hands, but before he could get far, Arnold pinned the man''s right hand with his leg. "P-please have some m-mercy! I-I don''t know anything!" The man started crying, begging for mercy. "Did you show them any mercy?" Arnold nodded in the direction of Coco''s body, "Either way, since you don''t have any information... you''re better off being dead." "N-no... N-NO! P-PLEASE FORGIVE ME I''LL DO ANYTH-" Before the man could say anything, Arnold snapped his neck with just a finger. He then turned towards Nathan. "Could you leave me alone for a while?" Arnold asked politely. "S-sure. I''ll be waiting outside." Nathan stuttered and walked out of the entrance. Arnold looked at the blood around him. "Tsk. Only a fool would waste this opportunity." Chapter 49 - Aftermath _________________________ You''ve killed a human. ?? EXP : +200 First rank A human killed : EXP : +4000 You''ve killed a human. EXP : +200 An A rank human killed : EXP : +2000 _________________________ Without even giving it a thought, Arnold dumped all of the EXP to level up his subss by 2 levels. ________________________ Subss leveled up! (lvl 5) REWARDS : Mana +1000 INT +15 [BLOOD NECROMANCY] upgraded to level 5. [BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] : Upgraded to level 3! Conversion rate increased to 1 INT : 15 Mana. ________________________ "Evolution process? What''s that?" Arnold asked the system. ________________________ Once a ss/subss reaches a certain level, the user would have the option of / . Evolving your ss will increase your potential, power and will unlock a new set of abilities specific to that ss/subss. You also have a chance to unlock affinities. affinities are one of a kind and can only be unlocked after ________________________ "Looks like it''s gonna be a long journey." He smirked and closed the interface, he had more important matters to attend right now. He conjured up 5 , his HP went down by 2000 points but he didn''t care about that as it was only temporary. Right now he was only focused on the blood that was spilt around him. He dipped one of the runes into a puddle of blood. The rune started glowing but this time the enquiry didn''t turn blue, it turned golden. He used his [PROBE] skill on the rune stone and a notification popped open as usual. _________________________ OBJECT : (Activated) TYPE : Blood crystal GRADE : A REMARK : An extremely rare crystal which can be used to generate an ability from blood monsters, humans and any other sentient beings. The rune contains : ? [TORMENT] ability. ? [CHANT OF NEGATION] ability ? [BEAST''S HOWL] ability ? [SONIC BOLT] ability ? [TOTAL DEFENSE] ability _________________________ "So it means one stone can hold up to 5 abilities... and I, being the stupid-as* idiot kept using them after they extracted a single skill!" He smacked his head as he used another to extract the ability from the dead man''s body. Once it was done he used his [PROBE] skill on the golden rune. _________________________ Rare ability obtained! EXP +200 The rune contains : ? [TRANSFORMATION] ability. _________________________ "Looks like a can only hold one rare ability... I''ll figure out how to use thister." He nced at the body of the panthers, one which were apparently killed by Talos who was turned into scrap. He quickly used the three remaining on the blood of the panthers and the dead man to gain three more carrying [TRANSFORMATION] ability. Even though Arnold didn''t knew much about the mage, still he felt a bit sad for him but when he looked at Coco, he was hit on a different level. After all Coco was a porter, just like him. If it wasn''t for the system, even Arnold could''ve ended like this someday. "No point reminiscing now..." He shook his head, "I already have a vague idea of who is behind all of this... and I''ll make sure they pay for what they''ve done." He then ced all of the in his inventory and ordered three of this golems to take the dead bodies of Coco, the mage and Talos, and wait outside. He still needed to figure out what to do with the dead bodies of the assassins as the dungeon would soon close. Generally the dungeons remained open till six hours after the boss had been defeated but he didn''t know how long had it been since the boss was defeated. To know the urate duration, one would have to contact the PRSD research department to know the actual duration. He waspletely clueless, but the system immediately cleared his doubts. _________________________ The dungeon would remain open for 01:26 hour(s). _________________________ "And how do you know that?" Arnold asked the system. _________________________ The dungeons leak an ominous energy which continuously decreases as the time passes. This energy can be used to deduce the remaining duration of the dungeon. _________________________ "Your utility exceeds my expectations everytim-" "Arnold." Nathan interrupted, "Father has summoned you for a meeting with The Family. They are trying to figure out, who is the mastermind of this attack and they think you would be able to provide some information about it." "What about them?" Arnold pointed his head towards the body of the man and the panthers. "The police and ambnces are in their way. We should leave it to them." Nathan replied. "Do you trust them?" "What do you mean?" Nathan asked. "When I was attacked and Nicole nearly got kidnapped, the battlested for like 20-25 minutes. The police would''ve taken around 10-15 minutes to reach there as the police station wasn''t very far. But they reached at the scene after an hour. Moreover he usually patrolled the area every night but on that evening, not a single car was patrolling the neighborhood." All the attribute points he had been spending to increase his intelligence, was finally showing their effect. Arnold could now clearly connect the dots, which had been hidden before. "So you''re trying to say is, that they are involved in it?" "I''m not a hundred percent sure, but yes, most probably they are." "So what do you suggest we do?" "First let''s destroy everything, and take the bodies with us. I''m sure someone in the family would be able to extract some information from them." "And then?" "We head to the meeting. I think I''ve figured out who is behind this." Arnold''s voice was calm but on the inside, he was seething with rage. Chapter 50 - You Reap What You Sow [War Arc (1)] "I heard, it was a beast attack?" Todd ck, The head of the branched family asked. "Nathan and Arnold went to take care of the problem. They might be able to provide us some more information." Nathaniel replied. ?? They were currently seated in the meeting room, which was used to hold secretive meetings for the Family. The ck walls were sound proof and were made using beast crystals, thus the walls were super strong, even Johnny might break a sweat before destroying it. Furthermore various jammers were ced inside the room. This was done as a precaution, so that no one inside is able to leak any information about the ongoing meetings to the outside. Apart from the heads of the families, Steve, (the head of the security) Seville, (the leader of the ck Knights) and Johnny were also present inside the meeting room. "Arnold... doesn''t ring a bell." Todd replied. "A youngd I''m nning to adopt." Nathaniel replied. "He must be someth-" Before Todd could say anything else, the door leading to the meeting room was opened, as Nathan and Arnold appeared. Arnold was dragging a bag behind him. "Sorry we''rete." Nathan spoke as both of them took their seats. "So was it really a beast attack?" Nathaniel asked Nathan, who nodded towards Arnold. Arnold then opened the bag and threw it on the circr table. A foul smell immediately covered the room. Everyone ced a handkerchief on their nose. Nathaniel looked inside the bag. A dead body of man was inside it. It looked like he had died in a painful way because his face was twisted in agony. "Who is this?" Todd asked in a muffled voice. "One of the assassins." Arnold''s calmly replied, "A shape-shifter. I think he was around A rank." Everyone was impressed with Nathan, as he was the only A ranked warrior who could''ve done something like this. The respect they had for Nathan immediately shot up. Nathan knew what everyone was thinking and without any dy, cleared the confusion. "It wasn''t me who did this. It was him." Everyone was shocked. How the hell did a nobody managed to kill an A ranked shape-shifter... no kill would be the wrong term, butcher would''ve been the more suitable term for this situation. "Are you sure that this dead guy was an A ranked shape-shifter?" Seville asked Arnold. "Nathan can confirm it as he was the one fighting with him," Arnold pointed his thumb towards the body bag, "before I stepped in." Before I stepped in, just who does he thinks he is? Seville thought. He looked at Nathaniel and Johnny, who didn''t looked half as surprised as the others. Before the others could digress from the main objective of the meeting, Nathaniel stepped in. "How many assassins were there?" "Three." Nathan replied, "All had the same ability and rank." "Hm..." Nathaniel nodded his head, "Find out who they were and why did they attacked us." "We know already." Nathan said, "They were mercenaries, hired to kill anyone who entered the dungeon. They had already killed all of the monsters inside and ced jammers all around the dungeon so that the ones inside the dungeon won''t be able to contact anyone outside the dungeon. "After that they patiently waited for the team to show up and attack them. There were two casualties on our side, a mage named Rick, and a porter, Coco. Nina and Joshua were heavily injured, the others were also in danger but they''ll recover soon." "What about the others who were supposed to guard the dungeon?" Todd asked Seville, as it was one of his duties to appoint the security personnel who had to protect the dungeon and stop anyone else from entering the dungeon while the warriors were inside, trying to clear it. "If you don''t mind me asking, How many guards were there?" Arnold asked back. "Look kid I appreciate what you did but that doesn''t give you any authority to ask-" Seville spoke up, but Johnny stopped him. "Just answer the question." Seville was immediately taken aback by Johnny''s behaviour. He knew if he told the others, he''d have been done for but he didn''t have a choice, if he lied Nathaniel would immediately knew about it because of his mind reading powers. He could try to block him from his mind but then he''ll be tagged as a conspirator, which he was. "Three people in total, 2 girls and a guy." "Take a good look at the corpse, was this the guy?" Arnold asked. Damn this kid! Maybe he knows more than he''s letting us believe... I''m already done for. Seville thought. Everyone was staring at him. "My GOD!... IT IS HIM." Seville gasped, trying his best not to blow his cover, "It''s the one who was-" But before he could say anything else, Johnny grabbed him by his neck and lifted him off the ground. Seville was frantically trying to free himself from Johnny''s grasp but it was in vain. "How dare you betray the FAMILY!?" Johnny barked tightening his grip around Seville''s neck. "Johnny, let go of him." Nathaniel spoke in a calm demeanour and Johnny immediately let go off him. "Now Seville, I don''t know whether you''re involved in this or not. But till we figure it out you''ll be ced in custody." Nathaniel said. "But... BUT I DIDN''T DO ANYTHING!" Seville shouted as he fell hard on his butt. "Trying to block me from reading your feeble mind, and saying you don''t know anything? You couldn''t have done anything to prove that you''re guilty. Well if my mind can''t find the answers, then we''ll have to use other means right?" Nathaniel pressed a button under the table, and 20 guards entered the room and immediately surrounded Seville. Nathaniel''s mind reading capabilities, reminded Arnold of a bald white man, who used a wheelchair to move around, had a mansion full of superhumans, and insisted that everyone called him ''Professor X-something''. "Take care of the gentleman." Steve said and the guards immediately handcuffed Seville and escorted him out. "Who would''ve thought Seville would betray us..." Nathaniel sighed. "It might take some time to interrogate him. We''ll have to wait for the time being, before he reveals who he was working for. Good job Arnold, Nathan. The family is indebted to you." "Why wait when I already know who''s behind all this?" Arnold spoke up. "What do you mean?" Nathan was intrigued about what was Arnold going to say next. "It''s the same person or organisation that attacked me before." "Who?" "The President or The Vice President of Flying Swords guild." "And what makes you say that? Do you have any proof?" "Honestly, it''s a hunch. But it''s a hunch, I''m willing to act on." "Look Arnold, I know what you''re trying to say. But we can''t just attack a governmental guild based on a hunch. We need proof before we act. The best thing we can do is to wait till Seville reveals some information." "Wait and let them kill anyone they LIKE!?" Arnold lost his cool. "You always keep talking about family this, family that. But you''re hesitating to attack the ones who threaten your family''s safety? "Do you think they''ll stop now? Once they find out, their n failed, they''ll most probably try to attack us again! How many people are you willing to sacrifice just so you can get a proof? I''m not asking you to kill them all, no. But I''ll definitely kill anyone who threatens my family and that''s for sure. "You can throw me out of The Family if you like, but they crossed a line, and they''ll pay the price. I don''t care if I die fighting them alone. It would still be better than standing here and waiting for them to do as they please. I won''t let them kill anyone else. I''m going. You guys feel free to wait for the ''evidence''." After ranting for a while, Arnold got up from his seat and turned to leave. "No you won''t." Johnny''s voice echoed behind Arnold. "Johnny I owe you a lot but please don''t stop me now." Arnold said without turning to face him. "Who said anything about stopping you? I just wanted to say that you don''t have to fight alone. I''ming with you." Johnny replied getting up from his seat. "So am I." Nathan spoke up. Nathaniel saw this all happening in front is his eyes. It was the first time any of his ''children'' disobeyed his orders and worse thing was, he couldn''t do anything about it. Nathaniel gave up and smiled. "If you''re going to do this, then you''ll need help. Steve, Assemble everyone having B rank or above. If there''s going to be a war, then it''s going to be a proper one." Arnold, Nathan and Johnny looked at each other and smiled. "As the saying goes... you reap what you sow. Time for some long awaited payback." Arnold mumbled as he clenched his fists. Chapter 51 - Inhuman [War Arc (2)] "Why haven''t those idiots called yet!?" The President of the guild was getting more desperate as every moment passed. "You don''t need to worry sir, they are professionals." Jake replied in his calm and emotionless voice. ?? Jake''s reply didn''t calm the president, he was already imagining the worst case scenario. The assassins regrly called him to give the report of their n. Last time they called him when they were about to attack the targets. This report was given to him 5 hours ago and after that they wentpletely silent. Furthermore, they always called him with a different number thus he had no way of contacting them unless they contacted him first. He had already paid a substantial price to recruit them, so he knew they would fulfill his request. ording to Jake, they were a group of professional killers, who have yet to fail. But still he had a weird feeling that he couldn''t shake off. "What about the police? Have they uncovered something?" The President asked Jake. "They are on their way." Jake replied. "Something is wrong... I can feel it." The President mumbled and leaned back into his chair. "Something is definitely wrong. Call everyone to assemble at the guild. Every warrior, researcher, hell summon the porters too!" "Sir, rest assured. Nothing will be able to harm you, while you''re inside the guild." Jake tried his best to calm down his President, but he was having none of it. In the end then the President was just a mortal who feared for his life. Jake had never seen his boss in such a state. Even though the President was worried about the attack, Jake couldn''t think about a single scenario in which someone would figure out and link the dungeon incident to the guild. Even if the assassins failed to do the job, they wouldn''t be able to disclose any information because they knew nothing. As long as the pay was good, the assassins won''t even care if someone paid them to assassinate the world leaders themselves. The only loophole he could think of was, Seville, the Guild Master/President of the ck Knights. Seville informed them about the dungeon, the party members as well as the security detail they needed to know in order to make their n and execute it sessfully. Seville told him that the family would never be suspicious of his actions, but Jake had already known that Seville was just flexing. While they were out drinking and finalising the n, Jake had slipped the agency''s1 newest invention in Seville''s drink. It was nanomites, a small but powerful device which, when activated, can increase their size and block the arteries of the heart stopping the blood flow in the body, thus stimting an cardiac arrest and in case someone tried to perform autopsy on the dead body, the nanomites would explode. Furthermore, he just needed to press a button to do so. The range on this thing was pretty impressive too, he could activate it as long as the target was within a radius of 150 km. He had nned on activating it once the assassins report in and informed them about their sess, but since they were taking so long, he decided to activate it as a fail-safe. He pressed the button thinking, he had taken care of all the loopholes but what he didn''t know was, Seville was being held in cell made with a special beast crystal which bounced any iing signal. Seville was ced in the cell, because of a little odd chance that if the conspirators were tracking him, they won''t be able to know his location. But unknown to anyone, cing him in the cell ended up saying his life. "Just call everyone in!" The President ordered Jake again. "It''s already been taken care of sir. All 259 warriors affiliated with the guild have been summoned." Jake replied, "Right now we have 18 A ranked, 48 B ranked, 69 C ranked and 120 D ranked warriors among our ranks. Not to mention the 4 S and S+ ranked warriors including of you, the VP, myself and that guy." Jake pointed a finger at the man who was standing near the door. He was the first sessful specimen of the inhuman project... it was Bob. But his appearance hadpletely changed. He looked more like a monster than a human, most of his body parts had been reced by the body parts of various monsters and beasts, which increased his power and potential this making him a S ranked being. He was wearing a white robe to cover up his inhuman body. "Don''t worry Mr. President. As long as I''m alive no one would be able to touch you." Bob said in an unconcerned voice. All he could think of were ways to smash Arnold. "If that ba*tard shows up, I''ll personally take care of him." The President quickly nodded twice or thrice and immediately turned away. He should''ve been thankful to Bob, but whenever he looked at him, his face got filled with disgust. When he had asked the leader for help, he never thought he''d actually send someone S ranked. He thought that it was a gesture from the leader to appreciate his worth. However, in reality, the leader just wanted to test thebat efficiency of the new specimen and nothing else. If Bob was sessful in his mission then he could say that the inhuman project was sessful. If not then Bob will have to go through more modifications and pain until he gets sessful. Even after bing so much stronger, Bob couldn''t dare to move against the leader. Because his body was filled with nanomites and the leader had the trigger to activate it. The moment the leader thought something was up, all he needed to do was to press the button and that''ll be it for him. Till he figured out a way to take care of the nanomites inside his body, he had to remain as an ideal pet to the leader. The President got up from his seat and opened the safe which was hidden below the desk, and took out the two swords which were hidden inside it. "Yes. This should be enough." ***** 1. Here agency refers to the Troy industries, the fakepany ran by the mysterious leader. Chapter 52 - Transformation [War Arc (3)] "We''ll be leaving in 12 hours, that is at 03:00 am. Please finish your preparations by then." Steve informed Arnold. "Please tell everyone not to disturb me during this time." Arnold said as he pushed a trolley into his make shift workshop.?? "Don''t worry, no one will disturb you because everyone is busy preparing themselves." Steve replied and made way for Arnold''s summons who were busy moving the rest of the materials Arnold had asked for. Since they were going to war, he was allowed to use as many resources as he needed. Nathaniel was the one to give the order hence no one questioned Arnold as he took 35 crystals, kilos upon kilos of different types of metals, defensive gears and what not. While his golems were busy bringing the items he had acquired, Arnold took out the equipments and immediately started repairing the broken Talos. Even though it looked like Talos was trashed andpletely broken, most of his systems were still intact and thus Arnold was able to repair him in less than an hour. Once Talos was online and functioning, he immediately ordered him to learn the construction blueprint of [AUTOMATONS], to help him in constructing as many automatons as they could within 12 hours. Usually it would take Arnold 12 hours to make one automaton, but with the help of Talos, he was able to finish his second automaton in 4 hours, he didn''t have the time to name this new creation thus hezily named him ''T2''. Talos was like an assembly line himself, although the grade of the automatons constructed by him were lower than the ones system provided, the speed of construction was way more efficient thus Arnold decided to make use of Talos'' abilities instead. Right now Arnold needed quantity more than the quality, because he knew that most of the warriors affiliated by Flying Swords Guild were either of rank B or lower, just like his summons and automatons. He ordered T2 to learn [BASIC ENGINEERING KNOWLEDGE] and help Talos to create more automatons, while he took care of the that he had acquired in the dungeon. He called out Duke and Cerberus and gave both of them a having the [TRANSFORMATION] ability. He had already used the [PROBE] skill to get more information regarding the [TRANSFORMATION] ability. ___ [ TRANSFORMATION ] : (Active ability) After being used, the user gains the ability to transform into a being either in by the user or the user has a DNA sample of that being with him/her. The user also has the choice to transition between up to 4 different types of being. Once the user transforms into a being he/she has to retain that form for one day (24 hours). If the user needed to transition to another being while he/she had already activated this ability once, then they had to wait for 2 hours before they could do so.(Author''s note: This duration is to be considered as the ability''s cooldown.) [ Rank : S ] [Mana cost : --] [COOLDOWN : 2 hours] ___ The moment Arnold used the on Duke and Cerberus, their bodies started changing, their size got bigger and bigger. Soon their appearancepletely changed, the ones before him weren''t Cerberus and Duke that he knew anymore. Instead they looked like a giant white lion and a hooded reaper. Arnold got intimidated by the way reaper started at him. Lots of bad memories, that were pushed back in his head, came rushing forward. Arnold gulped down his saliva as the ''Undead Reaper'' once again stood in front of him. This was the first dungeon boss Arnold had ever fought and nearly got killed while doing so. Even though Arnold had survived the fight, he was still a little bit scared of the reaper. He used the probe skill on the reaper. ___ NAME : Duke FORM : Undead Reaper <1 more form(s) avable. 2 form(s) can be added> LEVEL : 74 RANK : A ROLE : Frost Golem AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Magic Hand (active skill) ? Dark Vision (active skill) ? Demon Blitz (active skill) ? Chant of negation (active skill) HP : 5000/5000 Mana : 3000/3000 STRENGTH (STR) : 96 DEFENSE (DEF) : 86 STAMINA (STA) : 88 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 65 AGILITY (AGI) : 70 ACCURACY (ACC) : 85 EVADE (EVD) : 54 CHARISMA (CHA) : 12 ___ Arnold was still analysing the reaper when all of a sudden, the reaper bowed down to him. Arnold who was afraid of the reaper a moment ago, was now smiling like he never had. After all, even if the reaper was the one bowing down to him, it was Duke who had transformed into the reaper. He looked at the giant lion, who was rubbing it''s head on Arnold''s hand. ___ NAME : Cerberus FORM : White Chimera <1 more form(s) avable. 3 form(s) can be added> LEVEL : 74 RANK : A ROLE : Lava Hound AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Hell''s guard (active skill) ? Beast''s howl (active skill) ? Chant of negation (active skill) HP : 5190/5190 Mana : 3680/3680 STRENGTH (STR) : 95 DEFENSE (DEF) : 82 STAMINA (STA) : 88 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 71 AGILITY (AGI) : 85 ACCURACY (ACC) : 70 EVADE (EVD) : 68 CHARISMA (CHA) : 48 ___ "This transformation ability is quite scary..." Even if it was scary, Arnold already knew what he had to do with the remaining having the [TRANSFORMATION] ability. He looked at Talos who was busy working with 02 to make another automaton. He gave the remaining rune to him and whispered something. After Arnold was done talking, Talos returned to finish the automaton, while Arnold opened up the to purchase the ability he had been eyeing for a while. The ability he wanted to buy was really expensive, and had a price of 10 crystal. But if he bought this skill, it would solve many problems he had. He selected the ability book and bought it. The next moment a notification popped up on the interface. ___ YOU''VE SELECTED [VOID DOMAIN] ABILITY. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN [VOID DOMAIN]? ?YES or ?NO ___ "Yes." ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED THE [VOID DOMAIN] ABILITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [VOID DOMAIN] : (Active ability) Advanced ability for ss. This ability helps the user to summon the void domain which is the domain in which users summons live in. The user can use this ability to enter the void domain or ce different items into it. Time flow inside the domain is thrice as fast as the regr world, meaning if you spend a day inside the domain only 8 hours would''ve passed in the real world. Unlike your inventory, there''s no limit to the number, size or type (organic/inorganic matter) of items that can be ced inside the void. [ Rank : A ] [Mana cost : --] [COOLDOWN : --] ___ From the moment he had obtained the subss, he was in a constant need of blood to unlock new abilities for his summons and there was only one source to obtain blood for his use - a human body. He had previously tried to add organic matter into his inventory but apparently he could only store inorganic matter in his inventory and there was a size restriction on it too. But his newly acquired [VOID DOMAIN] ability, didn''t had those restrictions, hell, he could store the moon inside it if he could find a way to do so. Moreover it also solved his problem of transportation the automatons. He could just put them inside the domain and call them out to battle wherever he wanted to, just like his summons. After learning the ability, he used 4 crystals to buy two Attribute enhancing potion. He quickly drank both of the potions and gained 48 attribute points. He now had 56 attribute points, he dumped 30 points into mystic stat, 10 to his intelligence, 6 to increase his strength and the remaining 10 points to increase his evasion. He then used the remaining beasts crystals to buy some weapons and gears for his summons and automatons. "Time is of the essence... let''s get back to work." Arnold said and started working on another automaton. Chapter 53 - Let The War Begin [War Arc (4)] 03:15 AM, NEAR THE FLYING SWORDS GUILD... SNOOOORE ?? "Dude stop snoring." Rick, a C ranked warrior who was affiliated with the Flying Swords guild, said. He was inside a dimly lit building, in the vicinity of the headquarters of their guild. They were the first wall of defense for the guild and were there to fulfill the purpose of an rm. Their main task was to alert the guild about any unknown and suspicious people that approached the guild and stall then for sometime until the backup arrived, they had been sitting here for 10 hours but nothing out of the ordinary happened. They had been paired up with someone of their team. It was Rick''s bad luck that he was paired up with Soong, one of theziest person he had ever met. No matter how much he tried this fatso kept snoring. SNOOOORE "You''re irritating me now!" Rick warned Soong for thest time. SNOOOORE "Alright that''s enough." Rick said as his fists started to glow, he then lightly punched Soong in the stomach. The punch didn''t had much force but it was sufficient to wake him up. Soong opened his eyes, the moment Rick''s punch hit him. He red at Rick as if he was going to break his bones but before he could do anything his eyes rolled backwards, the white of his eyes appeared, and Soong immediately copsed on the ground. "What''s wrong!?" Rick checked on Soong, thankfully the son of a b*tch was still breathing. "I don''t think it was because of my punch... it was barely enough to knock down a goblin! No way a tank like Soong would get knocked out by such a feeble punch." "You''re correct. Your punch didn''t do much, I did." A woman appeared out of the shadow. "You b*tch! I''ll kill you!" Rick charged his fists, they were glowing brighter than before. He had to alert the guild first but he didn''t have enough time to do so. "Nah, I don''t think so." She smiled as her eyes went ck. The next moment, Rick started feeling weird. He covered his mouth and began coughing. Blood came out of his mouth and seeped through the gap of his fingers. He coughed with so much force that his blood sshed on the wall in front of him. His eyes went nk and hisplexion looked pale. "W... what did y...you do to me..." Rick mumbled as he fell on his knees. "Nothing much. Pretty boys like you always have a weak mind. Generally it''s their nose that starts bleeding when they see my charm but I guess you''re something special. It''s only fair I gift you something special too." The woman lifted his head up and passionately kissed his bloody lips. Rick''s mind went nk as he felt electricity passing through his mouth and flowing into his body. His innards were fried within moments. After making sure that Rick had died, the woman dressed in ck jumpsuit finally let go of him. "Ahh... now that''s what I call a true kiss of death..." Her body was filled with pleasure... this was so much better than making love with someone. But before she could enjoy it further, hermunicator rang. She saw the caller''s name and let out a heavy sigh. "La, report in." "Yes Steve, what is it?" La replied. "First of all you have to address me as sir and second what''s the status at your end?" Steve was made the in-charge of the entire operation against The Flying Swords. "West wing has been cleared, but there has been a casualty." La licked her lips as she looked at Rick''s dead body. "...." "It was an ident sir. He charged at me and I had to protect myself." She lied. "I STRICTLY told you to be CAREFUL with your POWERS! It was one of our objectives to minimise the casualties!" Steve barked through themunicator. "I''ll try to refrain myself..." "You better do that! You''ve already killed 4 warriors for GOD''S SAKE!" After ranting for a while, Steve finally ended the feed. "Tsk. Why call me for the operation if I''m not even allowed to kill my enemies? I''m an assassin not a babysitter." La was a member of the ck Family''s assassins crew called the ''Guardians''. They were expert in stealth and their skills were best suited for assassinations. The Family had used their abilities to suppress countless enemies over many years. The influence of the family was huge and thus the Family had many enemies who wouldn''t hesitate for a second before destroying them. This was the reason why the family had formed the group called ''Guardians'' to protect them from danger and silence their opponents. Their stealth andbat proficiency were the reason why Steve had called upon them to scout out the area around the guild and suppress any danger before the Family''s main force dered an attack on the guild. "Looks like I can''t kill anyone anymore." La sighed and went to ''suppress'' another target. ***** BACK AT THE BLACK ESTATE... Steve was sitting in the control room along with Nathaniel and Todd, a team of 58 people were actively helping out the scout team to located and suppress the enemy lookouts. "So?" Nathaniel asked Steve. "Sir, with the increased security around the guild, it seems like the kid''s hunch was right on the mark. It''s like every single person who is affiliated by the guild is present to protect something or someone." Steve replied. Todd mmed his fists on the table. "These pests actually DARED TO ATTACK THE FAMILY?" "Calm down Todd. Your anger is justified but it wouldn''t help us to win this battle." Nathaniel said. "How long will it take the Guardians to clear the area?" "Around 40 minutes. We still haven''t found the position of many lookout teams." Steve replied. "Hm... Tell the guardians, that they have 10 minutes to suppress as many opponents as they can and after that send in Johnny''s team. It''s not like they''ll be able to stop an SS ranked warrior with a dozen A ranked warriors. Moreover, he isn''t alone, Nathan, Arnold and many more are there to back him up." "Please excuse my intrusion Brother, but don''t you think it would be a bit Rash? I mean what if the state police gets involved in it?" Todd said. "As far as I''m considered, those bast*rds are already involved in this and if they intervene then I guess we''ll have no choice to shut them up. After all, what''s the use of having special privileges that have been granted to us by thew, if we never abuse them?" Nathaniel said in a matter-of-fact tone. "We''ve been too lenient with the people in our jurisdiction. It''s time we reminded them who is the king of this jungle." Hearing this Steve, immediately gave new orders to the guardians as well as Johnny''s team. The war was about to begin. Chapter 54 - Engage [War Arc (5)] "Why is it so silent all of a sudden?" Jake asked the guild manager. "We don''t know... most of the teams aren''t responding." The manager replied. ?? Jake sighed heavily. He knew that the low ranked members wouldn''tst for a minute against a full frontal attack from The ck Family, that''s why he decided to spread everyone who was ranked C or lower, around the guild''s vicinity hoping that even if they couldn''t fight against the enemies, at least they''ll be able to alert the guild about them. But hell, his ''rms'' kept dropping like twigs from a tree, they were no match for the Family. He had underestimated his opponent''s strength. "Lock down the entire guild. Close all entrances and exits, tell everyone to be on guard and prepare for battle. No one enters or leaves until I say so." Jake barked his orders, "The A team will protect the President and the VP. You''re in-charge of the other warriors." "Yes sir." The guild manager said and went on with giving orders to the rest of the surveince team, as Jake walked out of the room. "They moved sooner than I expected, but it''s all ording to the n." A vicious smile appeared on his usually emotionless face. "I can feel it... I''m about to break the limit... just a few more kills and I''ll finally have enough power to..." "So I guess they are really attacking us?" a feminine voice came from behind. "Apparently they are, Ms. Maya. Is the VP inside?" "Yes he''s inside, along with Ms. Alice... he''s afraid that something might happen to her. After all she could be one is the targets. I just can''t think of any reason for one of the twelve families to attack us? Do you know something, Jake?" ''Stop annoying me and get out of my way before I kill you.'' That''s what Jake wanted to say but these weren''t the words that came out of his mouth. "I''m as clueless as you are... now if you don''t mind can I go inside?" Jake lied, of course he knew why the ck Family was attacking them but Maya didn''t had to know it. If the VP didn''t revealed anything to her, then why would he? Not like the VP knew about the attack the President had nned either. "Of course. The Vice President had been expecting you." Maya said and opened the door to the Vice President''s office. ***** "Look at those bast*rds. They think shutting their doors would protect them," Koltughed off, "Our n is ruined now... how will we enter into the building now... boohoo..." Everyone inside the chopper burst intoughter. Kolt was an ex marine and a member of the six man team that Johnny had assembled as the main force to attack the guild. The team included - Johnny, Kolt, Aydan, Azyriah, Nathan and Arnold. Kolt, Aydan and Azyriah, were all S ranked warriors and had been working under Johnny for a long time, in fact they joined the Family together. Their objective was simple, kidnap the President or the Vice President and eliminate anyone who stood in their way and after that, burn the entire ce down to cover their tracks. "Enough Kolt, we''re on a mission, not aedy show, although that was a good one." Johnny said, "Azyriah, how many people are in there?" "Around 75 people... I can feel 4 S+ ranked energy signals, a dozen or so A ranked and the rest are B ranked..." Azyriah replied, She was one of the best psychic mages of the country. When people heard she was a mage, they often thought that she would be physically weak and hence easy to deal with, but they were wrong. Azyriah was once a mix martial artist and had represented USA in many globalpetition. Of course this was before she awakened her powers as a psychic mage and gave up on her ambition to be the number one mix martial artist as warriors weren''t allowed topete in those events. "ording to the Intel, there should''ve been only 3 S ranked or above warriors. Not 4." Nathan spoke up. "Hey man, just chill... all we need to do is to kidnap a couple of guys, moreover, Johnny can take care of 2 S+ warriors himself." Aydan said as if he was rapping, "Don''t forget that around 150 guys are waiting around the guild to attack as soon as weunch the attack yo!" Aydan was once a world renowned rapper, who had worked with many artists around the globe. But he had to give up on his career when his voice became his secret weapon destruction. Due to his ability to manipte his voice to super human levels, he was nicknamed as the ''Howler monkey1''. Only earplugs made of a special monster materials were able to block his shrieking voice. Fortunately, all of them had a pair of earplugs with them. "Aydan''s right, one additional S rank would be able to do much in our presence." Johnny agreed, "But I''m afraid, I''ll have to forbid you and Arnold from intervening between our fights. Once we get inside, you guys will have to aid the reinforcements and take care of the A and B ranked warriors within enemies ranks. If you stay with us, you''ll only hold us back so it''ll be better if we take care of them while you defeat the low ranked bast*rds. "I know you want to do this yourself," He looked at Arnold who was busy staring at the guild through the opened doors of the helicopter, "but trust me on this. I''ll make them pay." "I know you would..." Arnold mumbled but didn''t look towards Johnny or the others. Johnny nodded and turned towards the pilot, who flew towards the top of the guild''s headquarters. ****** 1. Howler monkeys: Named for their distinct loud call, howler monkeys rely on their howls tomunicate through their dense rainforest homes. Their howls fall between 128 and 140 dB, and thishigh volumeis a result of howler monkeys having an erged hyoid¡ªa bone in the neck that enables tongue and throat movement. Chapter 55 - The Necromancer [War Arc (6)] ________________________ [FORESIGHT] : Usage 1/3 ?? ________________________ ''Looks like its going to be a long fight... even [FORESIGHT] didn''t show me much.'' Arnold thought and let out a heavy sigh. He had just used his foresight ability to see if he could get some information to help him counter his enemies, but he could only see himself fighting some A and B ranked warriors along with Nathan and few other warriors. ''At least I''ll get some EXP for defeating so many warriors. It''ll help me upgrade my subsses and maybe I''ll get some new abilities while I''m at it...'' [Author''s note : from now on I''ll use single quotes ( '' '' ) to show what a character is thinking, while the double quotes ( " " ) will have the usual meaning] Arnold was still lost in his thoughts when Johnny said something. "But trust me on this. I''ll make them pay." "I know you would..." Arnold mindlessly mumbled but didn''t look towards Johnny or the others. ''But something feels off... isn''t this all going too well for us? Feels like someone wants us to attack the guild right now...'' The pilot flew towards the top of the guild''s headquarters and kept hovering over it, as per Johnny''smand. "Remember, I''ll break through the roof, Aydan, Kolt and Azyriah will follow me and we''ll attack the high ranked officials. Nathan and Arnold, you guys will take care of the A ranked and B ranked warriors. Don''t worry about the enemy numbers, as soon as the attack begins, our warriors who have surrounded the building would simultaneously rush in and soon we''ll overwhelm the enemies. Any questions?" "I think it''s toote to have any questions. JUST JUMP OUT ALREADY!" Kolt shouted at Johnny, who shrugged and jumped out of the chopper, followed by everyone else. **** 03:49 AM, INSIDE THE GUILD... Tut-tut-tut The guild was in chaos. Everyone was running round making some final preparations before the attack began. All of them had a single question in their minds - Why would the ck Family attack them? Even after brain storming for hours, all they coulde up with was that it was somehow rted to the Malibu Club incident, but they themselves highly doubted it. After all, why would one of the 12 elite families attack them for such a petty reason? Moreover, hadn''t they already settled it by attacking Chris? They knew that, if the Family was really serious about the attack, then they had no chance of stopping their strong warriors, but they were being forced to do it. When they got the call from the guild, they weren''t informed who they were going to face. Had they known they were about to battle with one of the elite families, they''d never have responded to the call. They could always find work as long as they were alive, the guild was nothing special. "Damn those idiots! Why did they had to mess up with a goddamned FAMILY!" One of the warriors tasked with guarding the ground floor cursed the officials under his breath, "I''m sure the President or the Vice President did something to piss them off and we''ll have to pay the price for it... why are you guys staring at me like that?" His fellow guild members immediately went silent and pointed as if someone was standing behind him. He quickly turned around to unleash his sword skill, but before he could react, his head had already struck the ground. His sword slipped out of his hand. The man holding him down picked up his sword and stabbed his back. "So you have problem defending the ce and the people who gave you money and status to live in peace? The guild did so much for you and yet you dare to curse it and it''s people?" Jake questioned the warrior as he pushed the sword deeper into his body, "People like you disgust me the most. People like you just know how to reap benefits from others and as soon as you''re asked for something in return, you start running away with your tail between your legs. "But don''t worry, I''ll teach you the lesson of loyalty for a price... the price of YOUR LIFE!" Jake smiled and pushed sword into the warriors body with all his might. "DIE FOR ME!" His sickeningughter echoed in the hall, as the warrior''s teammates saw their teammate''s very, soon his eyes turned white as his soul left his body. After the deed was done, Jake slowly got up and looked at the others who were standing in front of him. "You might survive if you fight for the guild, but if you as much as speak ill about the guild or try to betray it or it''s people, I''ll kill you and then," Jake snapped his fingers and the dead warrior slowly raised his head, "...you''ll end up like him." The warriors standing in front of him immediately kneeled before him and said in unison. "W-we''ll n-never b-betray you or t-the g-guild. P-please forgive us..." "Make sure to defend the guild with yourst breath or else you know what will happen..." Jake kicked the warriors kneeling in front of him and walked away, as the zombified warrior from before, got up and silently followed him. The warriors stared in shock at the horror that was in front of their eyes... their teammate wasn''t the only one who was zombified... nearly everyone who has been sent out as scouts to alert the guild in case of invasion, had been killed and turned into a zombified soldier. Jake had sent out only a fraction of the warriors outside as per his n, while he had secretly killed the rest of the low ranked warriors. "Tsk, who need low ranked living warriors when I can kill them and increase their potential manifolds... this dual ss ability isn''t too bad, is it Madam System?" Jake asked as a notification appeared in front of his eyes... ________________________ It isn''t my lord. If you keep following my directions, you''ll soon be the proud vassal of ''THE DEAD ONE'' ________________________ "Vassal... indeed... the unimaginable power shall be MINE!" Chapter 56 - The Backstabbing Brother [War Arc (7)] "I''m t-telling you i-its dangerous! I''ll attack if you don''t retreat..." "Tsk. An A ranked swordsman should have more authority in his voice..." Kolt said, "Get out of the way kiddo is you don''t wanna die tonight. Don''t you know who I am?" ?? The warriors protecting the Vice president''s office, looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Why would they know someone like Kolt? Seeing their reaction, a vein popped up on his forehead. Even the warriors of his previous guild didn''t recognize him? It had been a few years but heck Johnny, Aydan and Azyriah had been members of the first batch of warriors the flying swords, along with him. If it wasn''t for the good for nothing ''President'' of their guild and that backstabber Jake, they''d still be working here. Taking revenge on them was one of the reasons that had agreed to destroy the guild once and for all. Annoyance washed over his face just by thinking about the incident that nearly destroyed their peaceful life. Anger suddenly blossomed in his chest. "Uh uh?" The warrior in front if Kolt hesitated for a moment before charging on him. But before they could do so, the warriors guarding the entrance and the other personnel standing to the side started to float up into the air at the same time. A mysterious force was moving them against their wish, they had no control over their body. Their startled eyes headed towards the person standing behind Kolt, who they guessed was the culprit... "Do you know who I am?" Azyriah whispered as she threw the warriors at the door leading to the vice president''s office. KA-BOOOOM!!!! "HEY! Don''t go on stealing my targets." Kolt gritted his teeth at Azyriah who walked into the office like nothing happened. One of the warriors, was still conscious and tried to attack Azyriah. Who effortlessly dodged all of his attacks and used her powers once again to throw him out of the window, the guy kept screaming as he fell towards his doom. ''''Stupid idiot! Why the hell do they keep attacking when they know they''ll fail? I didn''t think they''ll be this loyal to this guild.'''' Kolt shrugged his shoulders. "Hmm... looks like the guy died in vain, there''s no one here." Azyriah calmly spoke, "Bet Johnny and Aydan already found them." Once they were sessful in breaking into the building, the team got divided into three - Johnny and Aydan, went to look for the President while Azyriah and Kolt went to find the vice president. Arnold and Nathan were tasked with cleaning the lower floors, because that''s where the A and B ranked warriors were at. "Try using your sensory magic again?" Kolt suggested. "Because it seems that you''re calctions were wrong... there are way less enemies than you said before." Azyriah shook her head and replied, "I can''t. You know it takes me an hour to collect enough energy to use that ability again. But you''re right... the mission is sailing too smoothly. Let''s head towards Johnny and Aydan,plete the mission and head back." "Going already? But the fun is about to begin." A voice came from behind. Azyriah and Kolt simultaneously turned around to see a man leaning against the door leading to the vice president''s office. "Hey Jake, it''s been a while." Kolt smiled, "How''s the guild been treating the backstabber?" "Backstabber? I think you''re talking about my loyalty for the guild. After all my efforts saved the guild from copsing." Jake smiled back. "Save the guild? Oh please, just save your crap forter after we beat the sh*t out of you." Azyriah prepared to cast her ability. "Geez, is this the way you treat your ex?" Jake shrugged his shoulders, "Looks like I''ll have to teach you everything from the scratch, my dearest ve." Kolt''s gaze was solemn as he clenched his fists. A ck me began to flow down his arm, the veins popped up on his arms. The next instant, a shockwave was sent out in all directions, as leaped at the person who he once considered his brother. Jake barely dodged the punch, but the might of his fist shook the entire floor, the shockwave shattered the ss windows. The entire building began shaking like crazy. The intense killing intent from Kolt seemed to have frozen the space around him. But Kolt didn''t stop there and kept bombarding his cannon like fists at Jake who kept dodging them all. "Did you get slower, ''brother''?" Jake smirked as he dodged yet another punch. "Maybe I got faster? Either way it''s been fun but now I''ll-" Before Jake couldplete what he had to say, a mysterious force mmed him against the wall next to him, knocking him off-bnce. "I never thought you''d be foolish enough to attack two S ranked warriors alone." Azyriah said as she joined the fight. "Who said I''m alone? ...zydag nissha mak!" Jake started chanting in a weirdnguage, and all of a sudden, the entire floor turned dark as if they were all inside a ckhole filled with nothingness. Fearing the worse, Azyriah tried to subdue Jake with her powers but some kind of magic was protecting him from her attacks, as her attacks didn''t have any effect on him. Seeing this, Kolt powered up his fists once again and was about to charge at him when he felt like something was grabbing onto him. He looked down and saw many hand-like extensions were tightly grabbing onto his legs, restricting his movement. The same thing was happening with Azyriah, she was unable to move as well. "Your powers would be a great addition to my army..." Jakeughed hysterically. "Our powers? We''ll never joi-" Azyriah gasped as hundreds of creatures, monsters and humans alike, came out of Jake''s shadow and and slowly surrounded him... but something felt wrong, they were no ordinary summons, "OH MY GOD! HE... HE''S A NECROMANCER! The Jake, Kolt and Azyriah remembered, was an ordinary pyromancer1 and not a necromancer. Necromancers were a rare bunch, but they were not much of a threat as their summons were generally weak and they headcount was generally low, but something was different about Jake. Not only his summons were all ranked at B or above, the amount of summons he could control was insane! "KILL THEM!" Jake shouted, and immediately the monsters charged at them, but before they could do anything, the entire floor got covered in ice. ***** 1. Pyromancer : Someone who can manipte fire at will. You can call them a fire mage. Chapter 57 - Summoner Vs. Necromancer [War Arc (8)] MOMENTS EARLIER... BANG ?? BANG BANG Arnold kept shooting bullets at his opponents but he was careful not to unnecessarily kill anyone. He wouldn''t have had much problem with killing them as he''d get more EXP that way, but the orders from Nathaniel were absolute. They only had to refrain themselves from killing anyone until and unless it''s an absolute necessity. Arnold didn''t even required to bring out his summons, as the warriors from the family had already infiltrated the guild and were indulged inbat. Since his summons weren''t out, his strength was limited and wasn''t much better than a B ranked mage thus, he didn''t need to control himself very much and stuck to his gunslinger abilities. But sadly this wasn''t the case with Nathan. Nathan''s potential was the same as a S ranked warrior, but in order to maintain control over his powers he needed to concentrate. But it wasn''t a possibility in such a chaotic environment. Due to this reason, he had already killed 4 of the warriors and was desperately trying to avoid killing another ''Loyalist'' warrior. He had already broken the warrior''s dominant arm but rather than giving up, the warrior started headbutting him over and over. Nathan frustrated by his opponent, grabbed his head and bashed it on the ground, the warrior''s head got squished like a watermelon. As soon as he had taken care of his opponent, a swordsman charged at Nathan. The attack was sudden and thus Nathan couldn''t defend himself. The sword managed to graze his shoulder. Nathan was consumed by fury. Enraged, he snatched the sword away from the warrior and thrust it into the warrior''s exposed abdomen, killing him in an instant. "JUST SURRENDER ALREADY!" Nathan screamed and started swinging the sword like a madman. Arnold shrugged his shoulders and kept shooting at the enemies. He too had ''idently'' killed a couple of opponents for some extra EXP so what Nathan did was eptable to him. He kept his eyes on the warriors who had some useful abilities, so that he couldter use to give those abilities to his summons. This battle was like a goldmine for Arnold, as he was getting an insane amount of EXP. He wanted to use all of it at once when he reached the 10000 mark and hence kept storing them. He was happily shooting people in their limbs when, another notification a notification popped up on his interface. ________________________ Power signature of another detected. Initialising contact protocol. ... ... ... Unable to establish connection. seems to be in his own domain. ________________________ "What *bang* are you *bang* talking about?" Arnold asked the system as he shot couple of warrior''s legs. ________________________ are fighters who are picked by the higher entity to be their vassals and a proof of their existence. Each is granted a ''helpers'' like me, to guide them, and fulfill their destiny. ________________________ "Higher existence? Are they Gods? *bang*" He mumbled. ________________________ That information has been restricted. ________________________ "I don''t care that it''s restricted. You live in my body so think of it as your rent." ________________________ would soon have enough power to be a true vassal. If we don''t put an end to him, then it would have catastrophic effects on this. ________________________ "I''m *bang* not going *bang* anywhere until you answer *bang* my questions!" ________________________ If you don''tply with me, I''llpletely shutdown and then you''ll lose all of your power. You have : 10 minutes toply before the system shuts down. ________________________ At this moment a countdown appeared on Arnold''s interface. "We''re going to have a long conversation when we all of this is over!" Arnold sighed and raced towards the direction the system pointed him to. ***** "KILL THEM!" Jake shouted, and immediately the monsters charged at them, but before they could do anything, the entire floor got covered in ice. "*Pant*... looks like... I''m right on time..." Arnold took deep breaths as the counter on his interface froze. ________________________ You have : 00:15 seconds toply before the system shuts down. _______________________ "Arnold! What are you doing here!? Just leave, you don''t have a chance against him." Kolt shouted with all his might. "Says the man who can''t even move." Arnold snapped back. He then used [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE], once again to subdue the ''zombies'' by freezing their legs, before quickly firing couple of bullets at Jake. _______________________ You can''t harm another . _______________________ ''YOU FRIGGING KIDDING ME?'' Arnold thought, ''First you tell me to eliminate him, and then you tell me, I can''t even harm him?'' "You... you''re the pipsqueak who abandoned the guild aren''t you?" Jake asked in a low voice, "Don''t tell me, one of them chose to give you the powers as well? "Wait wait wait, you don''t need to answer that, since you managed to invade my domain, that must be true... but madam didn''t informed me about it... Hahaha, aren''t I lucky! Now I''ll be able to turn you one of my summons as well! But first, show me your abilitie-" Jake was still talking when ance made of ice prated his torso. He carefully extracted thence as a fountain of blood flew out of the hole in his torso, but the blood flow stopped after couple seconds as the wound started to heal. The healing wasn''t caused by an ordinary healing spell. "[ ESSENCE OF LIFE ]1 huh? Looks like some of our abilities are same." Arnold said as he called out one of his golems to throw the [ FROZEN LANCE ]. ''Even though, I can''t cause him any harm, it seems like that rule isn''t applied to my summons... cooldown of [ ESSENCE OF LIFE ] is about one day, so he wouldn''t be able to use it again, but that means he''ll be on guard from now. Looks like I''ll have to use him sooner than I expected.'' Arnold''s thought. "You dare to mock ME? You low-leveled SON OF A BIT*H!" Jake was enraged. "I''ll show you what truly means to be powerful!" The ''zombies'' who were frozen by Arnold''s ability, severed their legs and started crawling towards him. "Now this is going to be troublesome..." ****** 1. For more information on Arnold''s abilities, please read the auxiliary chapter. Chapter 58 - Summoner Vs. Necromancer (2) "Why won''t they DIE!" Frustration appeared on Arnold''s face. BANG ?? BANG BANG He kept shooting at the zombies, but they kept getting up. It didn''t mattered to them if they didn''t had an arm, or a leg, hell, they got up even after Arnold blew their heads off... they just kepting. ''He must have chosen the [BLACK SHAMAN] ss as his main ss... damn it! Why did he had to have a system as well? Looks like I''ll have to call him out after all... let''s hope he''ll be able to copy his abilities.'' He nced at the other side of the void where Jake was busy fighting with couple of Arnold''s golem along with Kolt, while Azyriah was helping him to take care of the zombies. Arnold had suggested this n so that Jake would lose control over the zombies as Kolt and the golems would distract him but so far, they were failing miserably. Moreover, this wasn''t the only problem that he had... ________________________ You''re inside someone else''s domain. The total power of your opponent and his summons exceeds the power of you and your allies. Your domain rights are being overridden by the who activated his domain first. ________________________ ''Damn it!'' The term ''overridden'' meant that he couldn''t call out his summons to aid him in battle and unlike Arnold''s summons, these zombies couldn''t be destroyed easily. The only way he could think of to kill them all in one go was to use the ''Hell fire'', but it lead to another issue. Although Arnold''s summons would be able to survive the mes, he couldn''t say the same about Azyriah and Kolt. Unless... "Azyriah, you can use magic to conjure a force field right?" Arnold asked without turning to face her. "Yeah, but how do you know that?" Azyriah was confused because no one except, Johnny, Aydan and Kolt, knew about this ability of hers. Not even Nathaniel. "Never mind that just get close to Kolt and wait for my signal and then use your magic to cover yourself up, along with Kolt." Arnold didn''t want to disclose any more of his abilities to them, they had already seen too much and hence, refrained himself from telling her about his [PROBE] ability. "But can you handle them on your own?" She pointed towards the zombies who were rising up once again. "Just do what I say for once, will you?" Arnold snapped at her. Generally if someone spoke to her in this manner she''d have broken every single bone in the person''s body, but since Arnold was the only one who had a vague idea about what the hell was going on in this weird ce, she let it slide this time and went to do what he told her to do. ________________________ [ARCANE FLAMES] : (Active ability) The user controls the power of hellfire and can guide a sea of mes to incinerate anything in its path. This skill is only effective on organic targets. ________________________ ''Organic targets... zombies maybe be dead, but they still have their bodies. Who knew watching Master Chief burn through the flood, would help me out someday like this.'' Arnold smiled remembering the game he used to y a lot. He tightened his grip on the [SPECTER] gloves. ''I hope the gloves would be able to hold on.'' "DO IT NOW!" Arnold shouted as blue mes gushed out of the palms of his hands. Like a tsunami, the zombies got drowned in the sea of mes. Arnold''s summons were immune to the mes as they were made of stone and ice, and Azyriah had covered herself and Kolt with her force field so they weren''t effected by the mes either. But Jake wasn''t affected by Arnold''s mes either. After all, one pdin couldn''t harm another pdin. "You think your mes can destroy my pawns? Don''t make meugh!" Jakeughed, "your system is nothing but a cheap copy of mine, I''ll show you the difference in our power!" Jake tried to use his domain''s authority to resurrect the dead zombies from their remains, but for some reason it didn''t work. "Why the hell it isn''t working!" "It isn''t because your time is up, Mr. not so cheap copy." Arnold smiled after he saw the notification which appeared on his interface. ________________________ The power of you and your allies is more than your opponent. Your domain rights have been restored. Opponent''s authority over the domain has been revoked. ________________________ When Arnold had used the arcane mes, he hadn''t expected this to happen, but he wasn''t going toin about this turn of events. No matter what ss or subsses Jake had, he wouldn''t be able to take down two S ranked warriors and so many others on his own, without his summons. Arnold on the other hand could now finally call his summons out. "[VOID] open!" Arnold gave themand, and numerous holes appeared around him and all of his summons emerged from within. Duke appeared on the battlefield to lead the 15 frost golems while Cerberus appeared along with his pack of 17va hounds, and Talos was leading the 12 newly built automatons. The summons quickly surrounded him but they weren''t the only ones to do so. ________________________ You have obtained a new type of summon : [THE DECEASED]. Total Headcount : 124 Rank A : 4 Rank B : 15 Rank C : 45 Rank D : 60 You can use [VOID] call, to call out your new summons. ________________________ ''Just how many people did this as*hole killed!'' Arnold thought as information about [THE DECREASED] popped up in his interface. ''Well it''s not like I''m any better than him. If I had picked the ck Shaman ss, I''d be doing the same thing. Moreover, does this means that I can absorb anyone''s summons as long as they are in my domain?'' While Arnold was rejoicing the fact that the number of his summons had increased exponentially, Jake''s face was filled with anger frustration as he saw all of his ''summons'' turning against him one after another. He knew it was impossible for him to win under these circumstances. ''DAMN IT!'' Chapter 59 - Summoner Vs. Necromancer (3) ''What rank is that guy!?'' Jake thought, ''How can he possess such destructive abilities?'' ________________________ ?? Providing you the essible information... ... ... ... NAME : Arnold Ling TITLE : [Extraordinary figure] LEVEL : 45 RANK : C SPECIAL SKILL : [Unknown] CLASS : ________________________ ''Like hell he is a rank C! Don''t mess with me! You told me one cannot control a summon that has a higher rank than the summoner himself, most of his summons are above B for sure... then how can he be a mere C ranked warrior?'' ________________________ The information is 100% urate. ________________________ Jake looked around himself. He was surrounded by hundreds of enemies, two of them were S ranked, and only God knows how many A ranked summons were around him. Furthermore, all of his zombies were now against him. He was having a hard time believing that Arnold was merely a C ranked warrior. All of his prized zombies were instantly turned against him, how much time has he spent, carefully picking targets, plotting ns, and killing them one after another and now it was all wasted, just because of this as*hole C ranked warrior. Without his summons, he only had the strength of a B ranked brawler, and his pyromancy abilities were only A ranked. This was because, the moment he got the ss from the system, he had solely focused on developing his necromancy abilities. ''Madam system'' had always suggested him to level up his other abilities too, but he never listened and as a result, most of his abilities strictly depended on his zombies. Thus he didn''t had enough individual strength to tackle even one S ranked warrior in this state. ''Damn it! I can''t even ess my domain anymore...'' Jake could''ve used his domain to call upon his elite summons but his domain was temporarily sealed. There was only one thing he could do. ''I have to escape, but how? That force field Azyriah used would''ve taken a lot of mana so she should be out of picture. The only problem is Kolt... those summons are troublesome too, I can''t think of anyway... Madam system, help me out.'' ________________________ I''M NOT HERE TO BABYSIT A WEAKLING LIKE YOU! If you can''t break through here, I''ll terminate our contract and look for a better vassal. You''re worthless. You have : 10 minutes toply before the system shuts down. ________________________ ''YOU BI*CH!'' There was no time for him to think of a n. He had to run! He had tasted the power of the system, he can''t let it go like this! He ran with all his might towards the deceased warriors, but before he could break through them, numerous icicles surrounded him. "Going somewhere?" Arnold smiled and mmed the icicles on him. Jake jumped backwards and managed to dodge the attack. "Your popsicles won''t cause me any damage!" "BET THIS WOULD CAUSE SOME DAMAGE!" Kolt bellowed as he delivered a powerful punch to Jake, who went flying towards the other side of the void and broke through the walls. Blood spurted out of his mouth, his face was filled with pain and agony. "Now, show me your abilities. Let''s see if it is useful." Arnold smirked as Duke and Cerberus, simultaneously changed their forms to [UNDEAD REAPER] and [WHITE CHIMERA]. ________________________ SYNC SKILL UNLOCKED! ? [CIRCLE OF DEATH] : (Passive skill, exclusive to summons) When the [UNDEAD REAPER] is called to the battlefield along with [THE DECEASED], attributes of all ''undead'' units increases by 15%. ? [BEAST''S HOWL] : (Passive skill, exclusive to summons) When the [WHITE CHIMERA] is called to the battlefield along with the beast ss beings, attributes of all ''beast'' units increases by 12%. ________________________ "Looks like you''re not getting out of here alive." With Arnold''s one signal, all of his summons rushed at Jake. Their murderous aura was very pressurizing. Jake did not even dare to breathe loudly. Even Kolt went silent when the summons released their aura, his spine shivered even though he wasn''t the one the summons were targeting. Jake was frozen in the spot, he wanted to move out of the way but couldn''t... his body wasn''t listening to him. he looked at the zombies he had made by killing so many people, but there was something different... they seemed to be happy. They were happy because now they would finally be able to take their revenge and kill the one who turned them into his miserable pets. The next moment, the entire ce was filled with cries and screams, as the summons to their sweet time to torture Jake. It wasn''t that Jake didn''t try to fight back, he even managed to destroy some of Arnold''s summons, but in the end, they were just too many of them for him to handle. Arnold allowed the deceased do whatever they felt like with Jake, not because he had sympathy for them, but because by allowing them to do so he''d gain their loyalty as for them he was the one who gave them a chance to take their revenge. It was all for power. Even Kolt was horrified and disgusted by the scene in front of his eyes. He too wanted to kill Jake but this wasn''t the way to do so. He looked at Arnold who was smiling while Jake was getting butchered in front of him. "What a sick bastard..." Kolt whispered, "It''s a good thing you''re unconscious Azyriah, I''m not sure if you''d like to see Jake dying like this, after all he was your lover once." "Void, close!" Arnold mumbled and immediately the endless void got absorbed by his shadow, they had returned to the guild building. After butchering Jake, all of the deceased slowly walked up to Arnold and kneeled before him, acknowledging his power over theirs, after all he had managed to destroy them all using a single spell. Arnold acknowledged their presence and gave them a slight nod before recalling all of his summons back except Talos. "Yourmand master?" Talos bowed before Arnold. "You remember what I told you right?" Arnold asked, looking at Jake''s mangled body. "Yes, master." "Use it on Jake''s body. Maybe you''ll gain a skill or two." "As you wish, master." Talos straightened himself and walked towards Jake''s body. Talos took out the which contained the transformation ability, and dipped it into Jake''s blood before inserting the back into the cavity Arnold had made in his armour. "What are you doing?" Kolt asked, "Isn''t butchering your enemies enough for you!" "Ssshhhhh! Just wait and watch." Arnold smirked. Chapter 60 - Impostor (1) ___ You''ve killed a human. ?? EXP : +200 First rank A+ human killed : EXP : +10000 ___ ''''Upgrade to Max level.'''' Arnold instructed the system. ___ Subss leveled up! (lvl 5) REWARDS : ACC +25 [QUICK SHOT] upgraded to level 5. Shooting speed increased to 18%. [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] upgraded to level 5. Special damage increased to 62%. ___ "Task has been sessfullypleted, master." Talos informed Arnold, "I''ve sessfully obtained a new transformation." "What are you waiting for then? Let''s check out the abilities you got." Arnold instructed Talos. "Yes master, activating transformation ability now." Talos replied as a loud humming sound echoed through the corridor. The body parts of Talos got reconfigured, and soon his appearancepletely changed. It was like Jake had came back to life. Kolt was bbergasted, he personally knew many warriors who had shape-shifting abilities but they could only change into monsters and not into other humans, moreover, the ''thing'' that transformed into Jake wasn''t even a living being, it was a damn robot! He looked at Arnold with mixed feelings. On one hand, they were alive thanks to him but on the other hand, he was a merciless demon, who would kill anyone who went against him. Moreover Arnold possessed way too many mysterious powers and abilities that he had never seen before. Kolt knew Arnold had creationist abilities as he wasn''t the only one that had such ability, but then he had never seen someone who could build such lifelike robots who had the ability to change into living beings. Even after seeing so many abilities of Arnold, Kolt felt like he had only seen the tip of an iceberg. ''No wonder he''s able to fight people who are way out of his league... what a monster'' "It''s better than I expected it to be." Arnold smiled. He was carefully inspecting Talos'' transformation for any discrepancies, but it was perfect. He definitely looked like Jake sknder, the transformation had managed to perfectly generate the clothes Jake was wearing. Now, only one question remained in Arnold''s mind. He used the [PROBE] skill on Talos. ___ NAME : Jake Sknder FORM : Human <1 more form(s) avable. 2 form(s) can be added> LEVEL : 82 RANK : A ROLE : Combat Automaton AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Deadman''s Curse (active skill) ? Dark Vision (active skill) ? Torment (active skill) ? Animate Dead (active skill) HP : 6530/6530 Mana/Energy : 3580/3580 STRENGTH (STR) : 76 DEFENSE (DEF) : 86 STAMINA (STA) : 88 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 85 AGILITY (AGI) : 70 ACCURACY (ACC) : 86 EVADE (EVD) : 68 CHARISMA (CHA) : 69 ___ "YES!" Arnold eximed happily when he saw the ability, [ANIMATE DEAD] and opened the skill tab to see more information about the skill. ___ [ANIMATE DEAD] : (Active ability) The user controls the power of death and guides the soul of a deceased to reanimate it to do the user''s bidding. However, the reanimated being will only be able to regain about 40%-70% of his/her original strength. This percentage is determined by the level and rank of the user and the deceased. This skill is only effective on organic targets. [Number of summons controlled : 20] [ Rank : S ] [Mana cost : 1000/use] [Cooldown : ] ___ "Only 20 huh... Do you wanna try it out?" Arnold asked Talos. "I''ll do as you please." Talos bowed down to him. Arnold wanted to try it out right now and see how the ability worked, but since the ability only had a capacity to reanimate 20 people or monsters, he had to be careful while choosing who he should reanimate. Furthermore the system didn''t provide him any information regarding how to increase the number is reanimated beings. He checked Talos'' stats once again, but unlike him, Talos didn''t had a mystic stat which would allow him to increase the number of the summons. "I didn''t know you had such strong creationist abilities, Arnold." Kolt gave a nervous smile to Arnold. ''Yeah, Kolt is still here. I better be careful not to let out too much information right now.'' Arnold thought and said, "How''s Azyriah?" "She''s just a bit tired I guess..." Kolt said, as he lifted Azyriah in his arms. "She used too much of her power." "Tired huh? Here. Make her drink this she''ll feel better, the battle isn''t over yet. She''ll need her strength." Arnold said, handing Kolt a small vial of recovery potion. It was a potion that recovered a small amount of mana as well as HP, since the amount recovered was quite small, the cost of this portion wasn''t very high and Arnold could spare these potions. "Wait... what is this?" Kolt asked because he had a feeling that he shouldn''t blindly trust Arnold anymore. "Think of it as an energy drink. Wait a minute, you think I''ll poison her?" "I never said that." "Alright, alright." Arnold took out another vial out of his pocket and drank it in one go, "See, all good. If you still doubt me, don''t give it to her, but at least take her out of here, she''s like a sitting duck here." "It''s fine, Arnold." Kolt said after a while andid her down before emptying the vial in her mouth. Soon the potion showed it''s effect and Azyriah regained her consciousness. "W...What happened? D..Did w...we win?" Azyriah mumbled, massaging her temple. "Yeah, all thanks to Kolt." Arnold replied before Kolt could have said anything, but Azyriah wasn''t listening to him anymore. She quickly got up to her feet and into battle stance. "WHO THE HELL IS STANDING BEHIND YOU!" Azyriah bellowed when she saw Talos standing behind Arnold. "Rx, Azyriah. I know it''s hard believe but that''s one of Arnold''s robots." Kolt tried to ease Azyriah''s mind. "But... it looks so real." Azyriah said. "I didn''t wanted you to look at it but, if still you don''t believe, just look there, his body is right th-" Kolt pointed in the direction where Jake''s mangled body was, but the body wasn''t there anymore, he looked at Arnold who simply shrugged his shoulders. of course, Arnold wouldn''t tell them that he took Jake''s body and stored it in the void so that he could use the body and blood at ater time. "Can we chat some other time? This isn''t over yet." Arnold said, "Do you know where the President and the others are?" "Johnny and Aydan might have located them, but we don''t really know. We went radio silent the moment this operation began." Kolt replied. "Permission to speak, master?" Talos interrupted them. "You know where they are, don''t you?" Arnold smirked as Talos nodded. "Then let''s give them a taste of their own medicine, shall we?" Chapter 61 - Impostor (2) The President''s face appeared on the Jake''smunicator, "Have you seeded? Have the targets been dealt with?" he said with a frown on his face. The man was clear under a lot of stress. Jake nodded his head and exined what had happened near the Vice President''s office. "Two of the S ranked warriors have been dealt with, but I think you already know they aren''t the only ones who came through the roof. The surveince cameras have been destroyed so it''ll be a little difficult for us to track their movement." ?? "That''s a great news! Even Johnny wouldn''t be able to handle all of us together. You''ve done a great job." The President''s eyes lit up, and the stress on his facepletely disappeared. He had been anxious and worried about the attack but now, his mind was at peace. Upon thinking about the possibility of defeating the ck Family, his mood was instantly lifted. "I''ll head up to the surveince room right now and inspect the area." Jake said. "No! Come back here at once. As long as we are able to upy that SS ranked bast*rd''s a*s here, our forces would soon overpower them and then the ck Family would be finished, once and for all." The President smirked, "Those bast*rds thought they can do whatever they want to us, it''s time to make them regret their actions. After we''re done with them here, we''ll mobilise our forces and attack the ck Family head on." "You''ve surprised me Jake," The vice president interrupted the conversation, "I''m d my daughter chose someone of your caliber to be her lover, and not that good for nothing Porter. I''ll never know why Noah was so dead set on helping that Porter, I mean, sure his abilities were rare but there was no need to give him so many privileges. Hell, he even made me, force my daughter to try and entice him. "When all of this is wrapped up, let''s have a family dinner together. I''ll have to announce your engagement soon! Haha, just finish everything up ande on up. We''re waiting near the chamber behind Noah''s office." "Yes, Mr vice president. It''ll be an honour for me." Jake smiled and disconnected the call. Talos, who had transformed into Jake looked at Arnold. He had listened the entire conversation and was seething with unadulterated rage. His eyes had a tinge of red glow in them. He was like a volcano, which could explode at any moment. "Change of ns. We kill EVERYONE who is in that ROOM." Arnold bellowed. "Hey hey hey, we need the President alive. We him or the Vice President so that we can get to know why they attacked Nina and the others." Azyriah tried to calm him down. "She''s right Arnold. I know you''re pissed but don''t let it cloud your judgement. We have toplete the mission." Kolt joined in, but it felt like their words were bouncing off, off his ears. "Fine... I''ll kill the vice president instead." Azyriah wanted to protest, but Kolt her back. He knew exactly what Arnold was capable to do. After all he had ughtered Jake on his own. There was a little that they could do if Arnold had made up his mind. ***** AN HOUR LATER, INSIDE THE PRESIDENT''S SECRET ROOM. "Jake! Where the hell have you been all this time." The president spoke up, as Jake entered the secret chamber that was hidden behind The President''s office. "Nothing Mr President, I just had to sort out a couple of things downstairs." Jake replied, as he threw Arnold into the room, "A rat was snooping around." "Oh, wee back to the guild Mr Ling, please excuse our improper hospitality, after all, this battle wouldn''t have taken ce in the first ce if it wasn''t for you." Noah, the President, smiled brightly. "But soon this battle will end and so will the ck Family. And it''s all thanks to you. Haha!" "I hope you''re not nning on keeping him alive as a trophy." John asked Noah, "This guy is troublesome, it''ll better just to kill him off." Arnold looked around the room, Noah, John, Alice, EL, Maya, and a few others were inside the room, looking down on Arnold. "I think I''ll kill him once we get hold of his sister. He should at least see his sister onest time." Noah smirked, "Or should I kill you right away. Ugh, I can''t decide what to do." Noah then grabbed Arnold''s neck and lifted him up in the air and threw him near John. Arnold was like a ball they were ying around with. ''Just wait a bit more... they''ll be here soon. It''s not the right time...'' Arnold thought. "You could''ve attained a lot only if you sacrificed your worthless sister... tsk. What can we do now? You had your chance but you blew it. You''d have been quite a good addition to our team." John said and looked at EL, "EL, would you like to do the honours and get rid of him?" Without any remorse in his eyes, EL took out his sword and walked up to Arnold. "Thank you for helping me back in the dungeon, I wouldn''t have made it out without you. I''d have apologised for what I''m about to do but what can I do? I don''t have a family backing me up, so I can''t just walk out of the guild like you did. But Rest in peace, if you can find it." EL got in position and lifted his sword to end Arnold''s life once and for all, but right before he was about to do it, a bullet pierced his hand. Arnold moved like lightning, picked up the sword and stabbed it into EL''s chest. "Good thing you cleared it out, otherwise I''d have felt a little bit ufortable killing you." Arnold smirked kicking EL aside. "You thought you could kill me? Don''t make meugh!" Everyone inside the room was shocked by the sudden change in Arnold''s aura, but that wasn''t the only thing that had caught their attention, as they looked at the one who fired the bullet at EL. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING JAKE!" Noah bellowed in disbelief. Why would his most loyal soldier betray him? But before they could ask him anything, the doors were ripped open as Johnny, Aydan, Azyriah and Kolt entered the room. "You see, you''re the ones who are about to get hunted down." Arnold smirked in disgust as he summoned all of his summons, "I''ve been waiting for a long time to do this." Chapter 62 - Bad Breath Bob "YOU BAST*RD! YOU BETRAYED ME!" Noah bellowed and pointed his fingers at Jake. "The guild as well as the organisation spent an enormous amount of money and resources on you and raised you to be a strong warrior, and yet you BETRAYED US!" ''What''s up with this loyaltyplex? I guess he really has some psychological issues.'' Arnold thought, ''These idiots keep stabbing each other in the back and yet they expect others to be loyal? Feels like we''re doing a favor to the world by getting rid of them and their guild.'' ?? At this moment a man standing behind the President walked in front if them. He had a wide face, a small nose, and puffy lips. His hazel eyes were almond-shaped and had thick eyebrows. His curly, dark brown hair was neatly tied in a bun. He had broad shoulders, long arms, a slender torso with well defined muscles, wide hips, and short legs, he kind of looked like a dwarf on steroids. He was Cole, and had known Jake from his first day in the guild as he was a reserve member of the A team, meaning he was at rank B. His loyalty to the guild and Jake was absolute as he had made it up to the guild because of Jake. He knew it was impossible that Jake would ever betray the guild or the President. "I''m sure captain wouldn''t do that!" Started to speak, "His loyalty to the guilt is absolute! Captain please-" Bang! A bloody hole appeared on the man''s forehead his eyes were opened wide in hatred for fraction of a second, then they turned lifeless as he copsed on the floor. "You guys are really dense aren''t you?" Arnold sighed, white smoke came out of his gun, "Well, since you''re gonna die either way, should I tell you why Jake is on our side? Nah, you should die in suspense." "Don''t get cocky YOU BRAT! We aren''t going down so easily!" Noah roared as a blinding red light suddenly appeared behind him and flowed into his body. The next moment, Noah waspletely surrounded by violent bolts of lightning. "If nothing else I''m taking you DOWN WITH ME." Noah knew there was no escape for them anymore, it was either kill or be killed, thus he decided to at least take down the person who was responsible for blunder, along with him, and charged at Arnold, ignoring everyone else present in the room. The red electrical force flowed into his arms, he was a moment away from mming down Arnold when Johnny appeared between them and stopped Noah''s attack with a punch if his own. "Why don''t you fight me instead?" Johnny smiled as he let go of Noah''s arm and the fight between the brawlers began. Thunderous fists were flying left and right, Noah was desperately trying his best to match-up to Johnny''s agility but it was clear that Johnny was out of Noah''s league, after all Johnny was a SS ranked warrior while Noah was a S+ ranked warrior. They were moving and attacking each other at such a high speed that their afterimage started to form and follow them. Arnold was barely able to see what was happening in front is his eyes. John tried to jump over them and aid Noah in his fight with Johnny, but Kolt intervened and stopped him from doing so. Soon they were engaged inbat as well. An all out fight broke out between the two parties. Aydan didn''t need to hold back his ear piercing voice as members of the ck Family were equipped with special noise cancetion ear buds. So he shrieked loudly but it looked like the enemies were prepared for his attack as only 5-6 people were affected by his attack. There were only 20 or so enemies inside the room, while there were five of them along with 24 or so Arnold''s summons, but the room was already crowded and Arnold couldn''t call out anymore of his summons. Since the space inside the room was limited, Arnold decided to use his domain again. _________________________ [VOID DOMAIN] ability is in cooldown. Please wait for : 01:26:58 hours before reactivating the ability. _________________________ ''You kidding me? I thought there was no cooldown for this skill?'' _________________________ The user can use the ability to enter or exit your domain at anytime, but there is a cooldown period of 02:00 hours, if the user wants to summon his surroundings into the [VOID DOMAIN]. _________________________ ''How many times do I have to tell you... DO NOT skip these important details whenever I get a new skill or ability! You''re gonna get me killed someday, FOR GOD''S SAKE!'' _________________________ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. _________________________ ''Tsk, sometimes you''re really a pain in the-'' "What are you spacing out for? We''re not here to some get together. Just hurry up and do something!" Azyriah shouted as she used her abilities to attack couple of A team members. "Weren''t you the one who wanted to kill them, in the first ce? What did you said?... oh yes, ''I''m gonna kill everyone in the room!'' If so then why are you just standing there for?" "You talk too much, you know that right?" Arnold said in annoyed tone. He prepared to attack the enemies in front of him, but someone attacked him before he could do that. With two heavy blows, Arnold was sent flying. His legs hit the ground with a loud thud, and the metal flooring was actually dented by him. _________________________ You''ve received : 558 points of damage. Damage have been reduced by : 198 points. Total damage received : 360 points. Current HP : 5778/6138 _________________________ As the message shed in front of Arnold''s eyes, he angrily looked at the one who attacked him. "What kind of monstrosity is this thing?" Arnold mumbled when he saw the half human half beast that was standing in front of him. The ''man-beast'' had legs of a cheetah-like beast, his arms were like that of a minotaur, he had a tail of a reptilian monster while his face human face was filled with scars and burn marks. Even though the man had changed so much, Arnold could never forget the aura which was oozing out of the man-beast. "It''s you, isn''t it?" Arnold asked as he got up in his feet. "Oh so you remember me after all. I thought I''ll have to reintroduce myself." The man-beast smiled. "Of course, how can i forget your bad breath. Gosh, it even got worse with time." Arnold exaggerated and covered his nose, "What the hell happened to you, I never thought your breath could get any worse. Do me a favor and don''t talk while we fight okay, Mr bad breath Bob?" "Y...You F*CKING BAST*RD." Bob roared and charged at Arnold. Chapter 63 - System Protocol "Where were you hiding all this time? I''m pretty sure you were not inside this room when I entered." Arnold asked Bob, while stretching his neck. "Don''t tell me! Did they kick you out because you smell so bad? I mean I can''t me them for it, because your smell is almost unbearable." "Why don''t you STAY STILL SO THAT I CAN CLEAR YOUR DOUBTS?" Bob was irritated, because none of his attacks were working. "STOP SQUIRMING!" ?? Bob tried to use his tail to get a hold of him, but Arnold used [ASTRAL MAGIC] to phase out of the real ne and into the astral ne, at thest moment to avoid getting caught by his tail and used the [PROBE] skill on him. _________________________ NAME : Bob Marcel (Unknown) LEVEL : 82 RANK : A ROLE : Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ?????? ?????? ?????? HP : 6050/6050 Mana/Energy : 5000/5000 STRENGTH (STR) : 84 DEFENSE (DEF) : 65 STAMINA (STA) : 79 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 45 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 45 EVADE (EVD) : 57 CHARISMA (CHA) : 1 THREAT LEVEL : Moderate REMARK : He''s definitely not getting a girl looking like that and whatever little chance he had of getting pity-s*x is destroyed by the weird breath of his. But you should still be careful. _________________________ "All those enhancements... tsk, it''s nothing but a wastage. If they really wanted to improve your abilities they should have imnted a new brain and an inbuilt mouth freshener instead." Arnold kept taunting Bob. "SHUT UP!" Bob bellowed and once again whipped his tail at Arnold who effortlessly dodged the attack but sadly the guild warrior standing behind him couldn''t. CRACK! ''Unlucky guy, just one shot broke his leg. At least it''s going ording to n.'' Arnold was intentionally provoking Bob, hoping that he''ll lose control of his attacks and maybe hit the guild members instead. And for the first time in his life, his n was actually working. The only thing troubling him was the fact that his bullets weren''t able to prate through Bob''s beast-like skin. "By the way, do you mind telling me who gave you such enhancements? It''s the first time I''ve seen something like this." Arnold smirked. "I''LL TELL YOU, WHEN I''LL KILL YOU!" "Geez dude stop shouting, you''ll make me all stinky. None of the zoo''s will ever take you in if you don''t do something about your breath." "YOU...." All of a sudden, the air surrounding Bob started vibrating vigorously. His aura started getting darker and darker, it felt like he was increasing his power level. His aura kept getting darker and more ominous with every second. _________________________ NAME : Bob Marcel (Unknown) LEVEL : 92 RANK : S ROLE : Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ?????? ?????? ?????? HP : 7150/7150 Mana/Energy : 5000/5000 STRENGTH (STR) : 94 DEFENSE (DEF) : 85 STAMINA (STA) : 99 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 45 AGILITY (AGI) : 78 ACCURACY (ACC) : 55 EVADE (EVD) : 57 CHARISMA (CHA) : 1 THREAT LEVEL : High REMARK : If it would''ve been a bachelorette show then you could''ve won easily against him, not sure if you can beat him inbat though. If worsees to worse, then you''ll get your a*s kicked. Nothing you''re not used to. ________________________ ''How the hell did he get such a boost in a small time. Don''t tell me, he has a special ability like I do!'' "Not badmouthing my enhancements now. Haha. I''ve been going way too easy on you until now." Bob was really calm now, it was like someone had hit a reset button to switch his mood, "Last time, when I lost against you. The leader tortured me for so long... he dismembered my body parts one after another and exchanged them with body parts of various monsters... He did all of this without giving me any anesthesia, the pain was unbearable. It got to the point where my receptors stopped responding to the pain and I lost all sense of it... "But that''s not the only side effect, my appetite is gone, I can''t even eat food anymore. I lost everyone I knew, my family, my friends, my love... EVERYTHING! In order to make my body to ept these changes they did numerous experiments on me... they did whatever they liked to me as if I was their toy. You destroyed my life, and NOW I''LL DESTROY YOURS!" Bobunched himself at Arnold, who barely managed to dodge in time, but it wasn''t over yet. Bob''s reaction time had improved significantly after powering up to S rank. He quickly turned around and threw a punch at Arnold, hitting him in the chest. _________________________ You''ve received : 1035 points of damage. Damage have been reduced by : 259 points. Total damage received : 776 points. Current HP : 5002/6138 STATUS DEBUFF ACQUIRED : [BLEED] : You''ll lose 25 HP per second for the next 15 seconds _________________________ Skinning pain came like an earthquake as Arnold was thrown out of the room and into the corridor. He clenched his teeth tightly, veins bulged on his face. His eyes were filled with pain as the bones in his left arm which he used to block Bob''s attack, had been shattered. Blood came out through his opened mouth. Since he had acquired the [BLEED] status effect, the pain this timested longer than before. Arnold was still trying to recover from Bob''s attack when Bob appeared in front of him as if he was teleporting. Without any warning, Bob grabbed Arnold''s head and the him out threw him with such a tremendous force that he broke through the window and fell 17 floors down to the ground. Bob followed Arnold and jumped down from the broken window. "Oh not dead yet huh? You keep surprising me, any warrior below the rank of A would''ve died from the fall. Well looks like, I''ll have to do it the old way." Bobughed as he kicked over Arnold. Even though Arnold was alive because of the the [SACRED PROTECTION] ability, it wasn''t like he was unscathed from the fall. He suffered multiple fractures throughout his body, and was losing a lot of blood. He had even lost his consciousness due to the excessive blood loss. Things were looking really bad for him when... _________________________ The host has is unconscious and is unable to respond to the systemsmands. Immediate attention to host''s body is required. Failing to do so might cost the host to his life. Following the system protocol... Temporarily taking control over the host''s body. _________________________ Chapter 64 - A Game? "What happened here..." Arnold mumbled once he regained consciousness. The first thing he saw was the massive crater in front of him, all of his summons were standing around the crater looking at him with utmost respect. Arnold slowly made his way to the edge of the crater and saw a blood mangled body of the once proud and strong Bob. His body was scattered into pieces around the crater. As Arnold looked down into the crater, his arms started shaking like crazy. His hands and robe were covered in blood. ?? Even though Arnold, had already killed quite a few people and had seen many gruesome things, the aftermath of the battle, he was looking at was something no human could''ve ever achieved... Thest thing he remembered was getting thrown out of building... and hit the ground, then his memories were hazy. He tried to recall anything but it was all in vain. "SYSTEM! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!?" Arnold shouted with mixed emotions. He was happy that he was alive, but not having any memory of the fight definitely agitated him. When the system failed to reply, Arnold quickly turned towards the Talos who was still transformed as Jake. "What the hell happened here, Talos?" The automaton raised his head when he heard his masters voice. "You defeated the inhuman, master." "Inhuman?" "Yes master, that''s what the man said he was before you killed him." "What do you mean I killed him? If I killed him why don''t I have any memory of it?" "Sorry master, but I don''t know the answer to your question." Talos said in his electronic voice. "However since I too found the incident to be bit odd, I recorded everything I could." "That''s good, at least I would be clueless about it after I watch the video. You did well Talos I-" "I''m d to see you''re back to normal now." Johnny''s voice came from behind him. Arnold turned around to face him but what he sawpletely shocked him... all the members of the family as well as few of the guild members that had participated in the battle and were alive, had aimed their skills and abilities at him. They were ready to fire at him onmand. "W...What is going on here?" Arnold asked Johnny who seemed to be the only one who was acting normally. "Don''t mind them, they are only doing what I told them to." Johnny smiled and touched Arnold''s shoulders. "I can''t be too careless after what I saw. Of course it wouldn''t be a life threatening situation for me if you lost control again, but sadly, I can''t say the same about the others..." ''Just what the hell happened HERE!? Why is everyone so scared of me all of a sudden? And why can''t I remember anything?'' Many questions were raised in Arnold''s mind. Everyone except Johnny, were scared sh*tless, even though their number was well over 300 and a he and his summons were only half of that amount. "What about the mission? Where''s the President and everyone else?" Arnold asked, still confused about everything. He felt like his brain would explode if he kept thinking about what happened there. "The vice president is in our custody, sadly his daughter and a few others were able to escape. As for the President..." He nodded at Nathan who came forward carrying a body bag with him, "He died while fighting me, I''m pretty sure, it wasn''t due to the fight. Something else might have happened... maybe a heart attack? We won''t know for sure until the postmortem ispleted." Arnold silently nodded. The others were still pointing ready to unleash their skill on him, which made him feel ufortable. "Could you tell them it''s alright now? I feel like I''m being interrogated right now..." "Hahaha... of course." Johnnyughed and signaled everyone to rx. Everyone sighed in relief but didn''t dare to move from their spot. "Again, I''m sorry for the cold atmosphere." "It''s alright." "Nathan and the others can handle the clean up. Kolt, Aydan what was the chief''s response?" "The police will overlook the incident, not that they had much choice. As far as they are considered, the members of ck Family were never here." Aydan replied, " ''A fire broke out, and consumed the guild in its entirety. It is suspected that the guild had been storing a highly inmmable monster material which caused the incident.'' How does this story sounds?" "Pretty good, I must say." Johnny replied, "Well that settles it, we should head back now." "Could you wait for a second? I think I dropped something in the crater... I''ll be back soon." Arnold said and jumped into the crater. ''Bob''s body would still be of use... I can try to resurrect him using Jake''s skill and if that fails I can still use his blood to get new skills and if he''s resurrected, maybe he can tell me about those weird enhancements. It''ll be problematic if enemies like him kept popping up again and again... and after that''s been taken care of, I can watch the video that Talos recorded. It''s important for me to know exactly what happened here tonight after I lost consciousness.'' With this in his mind, Arnold stored the bits and pieces of Bob''s body into the void and cancelled his summoning. Just when he was about to leave, something felt weird, as if someone or something was intently staring at him. ***** AT THE ROOFTOP OF A BUILDING, NEAR THE FLYING SWORDS GUILD... "You think it''s him?" A woman wearing a blue hood asked the person next to her. "After the scale of destruction he caused, I''ll be disappointed if he isn''t." A crimson skinned woman replied. She had a lean face with an oval jaw, a thin nose, small ears, bony cheeks and small lips. Her pale and seductive blue eyes were puffy, and had thin eyebrows. The way she maintained her image, showed off how sensitive she was about her looks. Her elbow-length, straight, bright pink hair was neatly braided. She had toned arms and hands with long fingers, a long torso with modest breasts, plump hips, long legs, and proportionate feet. There were multiple rings on her right hand. "I never thought we''d meet him so soon..." "Were not. At least not yet, Immortal one wouldn''t be pleased if we attacked his vassal directly, it''ll be against the rules." "So what do you suggest?" "Make our pawns stronger... I''m not giving up on this world. I won''t let the Immortal one steal another world from me-" "By me, you mean us right?" A ck skinned man interrupted the crimson woman. The man had an authoritative feel about him, because the moment he spoke up, the other woman instantly bowed down to him. "...of course." The crimson skinned women replied. "But stopping the Immortal one wouldn''t be sufficient, we''ll have to stop the other five as well." The woman wearing the hood intervened. "Hehehe... I''ve really started to like this game, but I''m tried of losing to the Immortal one." The man waved his hand as his eyes located Arnold. "The feeling''s mutual, that''s why the three of us must unite." The hooded woman replied. "Indeed." The man smiled. "Unite and rule." Chapter 65 - Off To Rio (1) 06:13 AM, AT THE BLACK ESTATE... IN ARNOLD''S ROOM ''Should I go and wake Nicole up? No, I should take care of the things I have to do first.'' Arnold thought as he opened the void and called Talos out. Talos was back to his normal form as he came out of the void.?? "Master, you summoned me?" Talos asked as the void closed behind him. "You said you''ve recorded everything that I did right?" "Yes master." "Show me." "Yes master." Talos'' eyes started glowing as he turned toward the wall in front of Arnold, his eyes were like a projector, projecting a movie on a curtain. Arnold saw everything that led up to the moment where Bob the him out of the window, whatever he saw was from Talos'' point of view. He could see that Talos was about to rush in to protect Arnold but he was stopped by one of the guild warriors. "Sir, why are you doing this!?" The warrior asked Talos, who had been mistaken for Jake. "Cut this crap and show me what happened after I fell down." Arnold said as he massaged his temples, his head was throbbing like it would explode any moment. "My apologies, master." Talos quickly changed the scene to when Arnold was already up and fighting. "So by the time you returned to me, I was already engaged inbat with him?" Arnold inquired. "Yes master, I couldn''t arrive earlier as the enemies kepting bac-" "Just carry on with the video." Talos didn''t reply and turned back to face the wall. ''Thest thing I remember, was the activation of [SACRED PROTECTION] just before I was about to hit the ground, I wanted to know what happened right after that but looks like it won''t be possible.'' Arnold thought, and continued to watch the video. Bob still had the upper hand and kept pushing Arnold back, but it seemed like his attacks got weaker and weaker with every punch, and Arnold wasn''t getting injured by any of his attacks. ''No it''s not that I''m not getting injured... I''M HEALING CONTINUOUSLY!'' He thought, ''But I don''t have any abilities that can grant me such strong regeneration...'' Talos ran ahead to help him out but, Arnold raised his arms, instructing him to stop and not interfere in the fight... but something was off, his eyes were closed. ''But... how am I being able to fight with my eyes closed...'' But it wasn''t the only think that had changed. Arnold was moving and fighting a way he had never before. Whenever he had tried to fight an enemy stronger than him, he had always prioritise his safety and used the [VINDICATOR] and the overwhelming number of his summons to suppress the enemy. But this time he was facing the enemy head on, matching punch with a with and kick with a kick... Arnold wasn''t the only one shocked by this change of fighting styles, Bob seemed confused by this sudden change as well. The monstrous brawler let loose with a cry of savage wildness, andunched himself at his Arnold who was dressed in midnight ck. Even as Bob let loose a torrent of blows at Arnold, unlike before Arnold''sposure remained calm, but this led to a smug smile ying on his face as he effortlessly manages to deflect all the brawler''s attacks. With every unsessful strike, a look of uncertainty and anxiety creeps into the Bob''s face. All of a sudden, a demonic voice came out of Arnold''s mouth, he was speaking anguage he himself haven''t heard before but somehow Arnold could understand whatever he was saying. "YOU DARE MOCK THE PALADIN CHOSEN BY THE IMMORTAL ONE HIMSELF!?" The demonic voice bellowed, "I''LL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER BEING BORN INTO THIS WORLD!" At this moment a weird and spine chilling sound was heard around the area, like it came from a void. A jet ck gate filled with darkness rose from the ground before Arnold. The endless dark space was a couple of meters tall, Bob was still sizing up the portal when a leg came out of the portal followed by rest of the body of a demon, but he wasn''t the only one who came out of the portal. Half a dozen demonic warriors that were been 1.5 to 2 meters tall, walked out from the gate one after another. They wore armor made of a weird material Arnold had never seen before. Two of them held a two-handed sword, another two had a club in their hands, while at the front of them stood a frost giant who had a halberd1 in his hands and rode on a bear-like beast... ***** AT THE SAME TIME, INSIDE THE MAIN MANSION... "...the demon-like summons seemed to have some kind of rtionship with Arnold, because as soon as they saw him, they immediately threw themselves at his feet like they were preaching their God." Johnny, was giving a rough description to Nathaniel and Todd about what had happened during the battle. They were sitting in Nathaniel''s private chamber. "Isn''t itmon for a summon to behave like that, I mean the summons exist because of the summoner right? So to them, the summoner''s existence is equivalent to that of Gods." Todd sincerely asked. "That''s true but I''ve never seen any of Arnold other summons behave like that before. Arnold seemed different as well, I mean at one moment he nearly died, and the next moment he''s up and wrecking the person who nearly killed him? It''s suspicious to say the least." Nathaniel was lost in thought. He knew Arnold''s potential was immeasurable, but he had never thought that Arnold would''ve as unknown power within him. Many Questions were simultaneously racing through his mind. Who was the artificially engineered being? Who would have the technology and resources to invest in such a project? How was Arnold able to physically subdue a being who had been artificially engineered? Howe Arnold always ovees and defeats his enemies in the end? Who were those mysterious summons? Nathaniel had always had a clear mental image of everyone he ever met, but the more he got to know about Arnold, the more blurry Arnold''s image became in his mind. The story wasn''t over yet so he had to hold back the questions. "What happened next?" he asked Johnny. "He again spoke in the same weird manner as the summons in front of him sprung back to their foot and mercilessly attacked the enhanced being, who somehow managed to defeat them all. But that wasn''t the end of it, as for every summon he defeated, two more came through the ck portal-" (Author''s note : Enhanced being = Bob.) "What kind of terrifying power is that?" Todd interrupted once again. "Todd, don''t interrupt him." Nathaniel told Todd to keep quite, and turned towards Johnny once again, "Continue." "Ahm... as I was saying, for every summon he defeated, two more came through the ck portal. Soon the enhanced being got tired and that was the moment ''it'' appeared." Just thinking about the monster made johnny''s skin crawl. "What appeared?" Despite Nathaniel''s nagging, Todd couldn''t refrain himself from asking questions again and again. "A Wyvern2." Johnny replied, "Just it''s appearance caused a havoc. But it wasn''t a normal one... an ominous aura surrounded it as if it was made of the darkness itself. The thing which surprised me the most was the fact that Arnold''s body absorbed the wyvern''s aura along with the monsters that came out of the portal. His aura was like a supernova. The next moment, he jumped in the air and mmed his hands on his target. The enhanced being was crushed like an ant, the mysterious summons disappeared once Arnold had won." "And you think Arnold can''t control this power?" Nathaniel asked. "It would seem so, as he admitted he had no recollection of the incident whatsoever." Nathaniel sighed heavily. "We have to do something about him, if he loses control here, it would be devastating to say the least. We can''t endanger the safety of the family..." "I have a n." Johnny gave a rare smile to Nathaniel, "We can send Arnold to Rio de Janeiro, and let him train under ''his'' guidance." "Really? Him of all people?" "Of course, Fernandez, is the only SS ranked psychic mage and the only one in the world who has better mind control capabilities than you. Furthermore, he''s an experienced SS ranked warrior, so even if Arnold activates his ''berserk'' mode again, he''ll be able to suppress him." Johnny replied. "You think he''ll agree?" Todd asked. "Even if we haven''t talked in years, he still owes me a couple of favours." Johnny smiled, "Don''t worry, I''ll take care of it." ***** 1. Halberd : A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The word halberd is most likely equivalent to the German word Hellebarde, deriving from Middle High German halm and barte joint to helmbarte. Troops that used the weapon were called halberdiers. Chapter 66 - Off To Rio (2) Arnold could barely sleep after what he saw. His mind was clouded with questions that he knew, no one could answer. He had tried to seek these answers from the system which had not been responsive ever since he regained consciousness after his fight with Bob, as of now Arnold was only able to ess the interface and all of the other functions but he couldn''t do anything apart from that. There were no reminders for tasks or the updates usually he got about his missions and stuff. Furthermore, he wasn''t awarded any EXP for defeating Bob, but he wrote it off, thinking that technically it wasn''t him who defeated Bob so he wasn''t given any rewards or EXP. Just as he was thinking about Bob, he got an idea. He had a lot of questions that Bob could''ve answered, the only issue was that Bob was already dead. He could let anyone among, Duke, Cerberus, or Talos to use their transformation ability to transform into Bob and use his appearance to fool the vice president who was secretly under the family''s custody and get some information from him, but Arnold highly doubted that John would fall for the trick, and even if he did, most likely he wouldn''t have much to share either way. ?? Furthermore, even if his summons could take Bob''s form. They wouldn''t have his memories with them as the transformation ability could only give them his physical form and not his mentality or memories, thus making it useless for Arnold to get answers to the questions which even John didn''t know. ''Wait! I can still try that...'' Arnold thought of a n and quickly entered the void to carry his ns out. The dark and endless void was as calm as before. He could see his summons doing a variety of things, while the automatons he had made along with Talos, we''re stacked up in a corner and we''re waiting for hismand in standby mode. The Undeads were busy in their own world while the golems were testing each others strength as they always did. Panzer1 was showing off the armour Arnold had given him after they sessfully defeated the [Bone Berserker] while Duke and Marshal were busy honing their skills. Theva hounds were happily chasing each other while Cerberus was quietlyying down, observing everyone else. The ''endless'' void was slowly filling up with Arnold''s summons. The moment Arnold stepped into the void, all of his summons stopped whatever they were doing and quickly rushed up to him. They were confused about their master''s sudden appearance as Arnold always called them out wherever he needed anything from them and had no reason whatsoever to do otherwise. Arnold acknowledged their presence with a nod and moved towards the automatons. "Talos, we got work to do." As soon as the words escaped from Arnold''s mouth, Talos immediately bowed down to him like he usually did. "Yourmand, master?" "Transform into Jake and follow me." "Yes master." Talos replied and immediately changed his form to look like Jake once again. Arnold headed towards the corner where remains of both Jake and Bob were scattered, while all of his summons followed him around. Arnold had stored both of their remains here because, even though the time inside the void was faster than the real world, the bodies won''t decay inside the void as there were no microorganisms to do so, also using the void for this purpose was Arnold''s intention since the beginning when he had bought the [VOID DOMAIN] skill from the shop. "Who should I try to resurrect first?" Arnold mumbled as he tried to decide who he should resurrect first, as the number of beings that could be resurrected using [ANIMATE DEAD] ability was limited and he didn''t want to waste any of the 20 precious slots provided to him. After pondering for a while Arnold decided to resurrect Bob for now, because no one else could provide the answers that Arnold wanted. He had also wanted to resurrect Jake, wanting him to question about the origin of the systems and the ones they referred to as ''Higher existence'' but then decided not to as he didn''t felt a need to seek answers to those questions right now. Arnold also thought that he got always ask the system once again when it is back online, and decided to resurrect Jake in the worst case when the system neveres online, though he doubted that even Jake would know much about these ''higher existence''. In the end he gave themand to Talos who proceeded to do as he was told to. The moment Talos activated the ability, the darkness of the void covered up Bob''s mangled corpse. Soon the body started to take form as the head got reattached to the body it was once a part of. Soon his monstrous limbs got adjusted to the body as well. Within a few moments the body of the monstrous Bob was standing before him. Bob slowly opened his eyes, and saw Arnold in front of him, anger filled him once again. Without wasting a single moment, he jumped towards Arnold wanting to kill him once and for all, right before his attack was about to connect with Arnold''s face, his body froze as if an unknown power was stopping him from doing so. Bob furiously looked around but nothing was holding him back. He tried to attack Arnold again but it yielded the same result. "AHHHH! LET... ME... KILL YOU!" Bob shouted in agony. "You haven''t learned the lesson even after dying, have you?" Arnold smirked because he knew exactly why Bob wasn''t able to harm him as numerous notifications kept informing him about what was happening, "I''ve turned you into one of my summons. You''ll never be able to hurt me or disobey my orders anymore." "I''LL NEVER GIVE UP...!" Bob shouted and tried once again to punch Arnold but the result remained unchanged. Arnold massaged his head as it had started to pain once more and said, "Look it''s really fun and all, seeing you desperately trying to do something you''ll never be able to, but I can''t waste my time trying to reconcile with you. So how about you yield to me and acknowledge me as your master, and in return, I''ll try not to mistreat you. How does it sound?" "NEVER!" "I was hoping you''d say that. Now BOW DOWN TO ME!" Arnold yelled at the top of his voice. "Humph, you think I''ll do-" Before Bob could evenplete what he was trying to say, the mysterious power, forced him to kneel in front of Arnold. Bob tried with all his might to repel the force but in the end he couldn''t do it and had to give in to the power. "You actually thought, you, a lowly summon, could challenge my authority inside my domain? How foolish are you?" Arnold said with a sense of authority in his voice and ced his foot on top of Bob''s kneeling figure. "Let me tell you this. You will obey me no matter what. If you do it willingly you''ll be awarded and if you don''t, I''ll just kill you and resurrect you again and again till you do. Understand?" "Y...Yes." "I couldn''t hear you." "I said, YES MASTER." "Good boy." Arnold had bluffed a lot, when he said that he''d kill him and resurrect him again and again because if he resurrected him again using the [ANIMATE DEAD] ability, it would take another one of the limited 20 slots. He also lied that he could force Bob into submission if he desired to do so, as the power he had over his summons only remain inside the void and the void''s authority couldn''t be used outside into the real world until and unless a summon have into his authority and epted him as his master. In order to achieve this, Arnold could only try to bait Bob, and hope he would take it, which he did. The notification which just popped up on Arnold''s interface confirmed that. ___ You''ve sessfully obtained a new summon. You''ve created 1/30 elite summons. NAME : Bob Marcel TYPE : unknown LEVEL : 82 RANK : A ROLE : Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? ABSORB ELEMENTS ? SHATTER ? HIDDEN STEP ? BURNING HANDS HP : 6050/6050 Mana/Energy : 5000/5000 STRENGTH (STR) : 84 DEFENSE (DEF) : 65 STAMINA (STA) : 79 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 45 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 45 EVADE (EVD) : 57 CHARISMA (CHA) : 1 Would you like to rename your summon? ?Yes or ?No ___ "Yes." An evil smile appeared on his face yet again as he renamed Bob. "Bad-Breath..." Bad-breath''s mouth twitched as he stood up to protest against his ''master''. "You got a problem with that?" Arnold gave Bad-Breath, a soul piercing look and Bad-Breath immediately bowed down to him in fear and frustration. "No... master." He mumbled, after all how could a mere summon go against his master? "Now since that''s been taken care of, I want you to answer my questions." ***** 1. Arnold gave the name (Panzer) to one of his frost golems, whom he had given the armour that he took from the [BONE BERSERKER] after he defeated it. Chapter 67 - Off To Rio (3) [War Arc : Final Part] "At least I got something out of him, after smacking that idiot once or twice. Still, there are a lot of question that I need answers to, but at least I''m notpletely clueless. I need to find out more about this organisation and the ''leader''" Arnold had just gotten out of his domain after interrogating Bad-Breath when he heard someone knock on the door.?? "Mr Arnold, are you in there?" Voice of one of the butlers came through the door, the Butler continued what he had to say once Arnold opened the door, "Master Nathaniel had requested an audience with you, immediately." "Umm... sure I''ll just freshen up and then I''ll head down to the main mansion," Arnold replied. He too wanted to talk with Nathaniel about the things he had learnt from Bad-Breath. "As you please sir. I''ll arrange for someone to take you there." "Thanks." Arnold said as he closed the door. and freshen up before heading to Nicole''s room, after all, he hadn''t seen her for two days. ***** ''Nicole is really mad at me this time, or maybe it''s because if puberty?'' Arnold thought, ''I gotta spend more time with her, I guess.'' Nicole didn''t even speak to him when Arnold entered her room. He felt like something was bothering her. He asked her about it but she didn''t give him a proper answer, so he hugged her and left for the mansion. Arnold got out of the car, in front of the mansion gate when a man suddenly came running to him and gave him a bear hug. "Woah!" Arnold mumbled and pushed the man away from him. "Do I even know you?" "I apologise from my husband''s behaviour. He''s a very emotional man, you see." a woman said, slowly walking towards them, "And when he heard that you were the one who saved our daughter, he just couldn''t control himself." "Director Natalia, it''s good to see you again." Arnold smiled and shook hands with her and her husband. "And you don''t need to thank me for anything... because they were put in danger because of me in the first ce." "Mr Ling- no, Arnold, we don''t know nor care about what you''re saying. The only thing that we do care about is that you saved our daughter and that''s it." Natalia said, "I know we''ll never be able to repay you for what you''ve done, but if you ever need our help with anything, don''t hesitate to ask. We''ll try our best to help you out." "Thanks for the offer. I''ll keep it in my mind." Arnold said, "By the way, how''s Nina doing?" "Better than before. she''s still bedridden though. Maybe you should go and meet her sometime?" "I''ll try to do that. But for now, I think I should pay a visit to Nathaniel first." "Of course, sorry for taking your time." Sheldon, Natalia''s husband spoke up for the first time. Arnold just nodded at them and went inside to meet Nathaniel. ***** Arnold was escorted to the same hall he had been to before when he was invited by Nathaniel for the first time. But this time, the lunch hall actually looked like one. Nathaniel and Johnny were already sitting at the table, apparently waiting for Arnold. "Ahh, Arnold,e and sit with us will you?" Nathaniel smiled and gestured to the chair next to him. Arnold did what he was told and sat down next to Nathaniel, facing towards Johnny. "So you guys wanted to talk about something?" Arnold asked, looking at the other two. "Straight to the point, as always. He reminds me of you Johnny, don''t you agree?" Nathaniel looked at Johnny and smiled. "You''re right, he does." Johnny replied, before turning towards Arnold and continuing, "Arnold, before we go into the details, I''d like to ask you a question." "Sure." "That power you used during the fight with that guy, you can''t control it, can you?" Johnny asked. "No, I can''t... for now." "Do you remember about what happened afterwards?" "No, I don''t remember anything, but I know what happened there." "Do you?" "Yes, one if my automatons recorded everything that happened." "So now you know, what kind of destructive power is dormant within you." Nathaniel intervened into the conversation, "The more destructive the power is, the more is the need to control it, but till you can control it, you''re a danger to yourself and everyone around you." Arnold bit his lip and cursed his luck. He could figure out where this conversation was heading to, and he was more or less prepared for the worst. He didn''t have any issues with being ''disowned'' by the family, after all, no one in their right mind would endanger the safety of an entire family because of one person. The only thing which troubled him was, what would happen to Nicole after he''s gone. He had to make sure that she''ll be allowed to live as a member of the family. "I don''t have any problems with you people kicking me out of the Family, but please don''t do the same to Nicole, she has got nothing to do with my powers. She''s still weak and-" Both Nathaniel and Johnny burst withughter after hearing what Arnold was saying. Arnold was super confused about what was going on. "Haha... good lord, this was the funniest things I''ve heard in a long time," Nathaniel spoke up afterughing to his heart''s content. "Who said anything about kicking you out?" "Huh... so that''s not what you guys wanted to talk to me about?" Arnold said, with a confused face. "You know about Nichs Fernandez, don''t you?" Johnny asked Arnold, wiping his tears. "Yes, I do..." "He has agreed to train you so that you''ll be able to control your powers." Johnny continued, "You have a flight for Rio De Janeiro in 4 hours." "Wait I''m leaving today?" "Why? you don''t want to?" Nathaniel asked. "I do, it''s just too sudden..." "If you''re thinking about your sister, then don''t worry. We''ll take good care of her." Nathaniel smiled and patted Arnold''s shoulders. "Thanks. I too wanted to tell you guys about something I''vee to know." ***** It took Arnold more than an hour to tell Nathaniel and Johnny about whatever he knew about the ''inhuman'' project, the mysterious organisation that wanted to kidnap Nicole for unknown reasons and about their masked leader. Essentially, he told them everything that Bad-Breath had told him. "Hm... thanks for all the information Arnold. It''ll help us a lot to uncover the secrets of the people behind this." Nathaniel said, stroking his beard. "But how did you get all this information, if you don''t mind me asking?" "Just an informant..." "Could you give us the contact information of this informant?" Johnny asked. "He''s dead." Technically, Arnold wasn''t lying as ''Bob'' was already dead. "Look, if you don''t want to tell us, it''s okay we understand. After all, the informant''s life might get in danger if an unknown party contacted him all of a sudden and he might cut every contact with you too." Even though Nathaniel said so, he didn''t believe that Arnold actually had an informant inside the ''organisation'' as it was impossible to aplish so much in such a short duration. He decided not to cross-question Arnold, as he might get upset with all the questioning and decided to let go of the matter for now. "I''ll take my leave then. I hope that the training won''t be long." "So do we. Have a safe trip and don''t worry about Nicole, we''ll take care of her." Nathaniel said as Arnold got up to pack his stuff and leave for Rio. Chapter 68 - New Beginning [Second Volume - Prologue (1)] A YEAR LATER, RIO DE JANEIRO... *Beep Beep*?? *Beep Beep* *Beep Beep* "It''s... morning already?" Arnold yawned, trying to disable the rm, "Why won''t it STOP ALREADY!" He mmed his fist down on the rm, sessfully shattering it into pieces. ''Tsk. I really need to control my strength... I can''t keep recing the rm clocks forever.'' Arnold thought and started stretching his muscles once he got up from the bed. ''How long has it been now?... little over a year maybe?'' Arnold thought and brewed some coffee for himself, before leaving to shower. He looked at his reflection which was being cast on the mirror present in the bathroom. His appearance had changed a lot in an year. He had grown 5 to 6 inches taller, and now stood 6''5" tall. But that wasn''t all, his looks had changed drastically, he looked pretty... handsome now which definitely made his life easier in Brazil and it was all thanks to his increased charisma. His body had gone through a lot of changes as well and was more durable, more agile, and stronger. He undid his elbow length hair and took off his clothes as he stepped into the shower. Previously he hadn''t been interested in tattoos because it didn''t suit his skinny body, but it was a different story now. His body was buffed a bit more after investing dozens upon dozen points to increase his strength and stamina. ''Open interface'' Arnold thought and a system window immediately popped up in front of him. ___ NAME : Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure] LEVEL : 62 RANK : B SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL''S RAGE] CLASS : SUBCLASS : ? (lvl 10) EXP : --/-- [QUICK SHOT] (lvl : 10) [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] (lvl : 10) ? (lvl 7) EXP : 0/3000 [QUICK ASSEMBLY] (lvl :7) [EFFICIENT RECYCLING] (lvl : 6) ? (lvl 14) EXP : 4785/15000 [BLOOD NECROMANCY] (lvl 14) [BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] (lvl 12) AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire) Personal details and stats : HP : 10138/10138 MANA : 7837/7837 EXP : 5800/15000 STRENGTH (STR) : 96 DEFENSE (DEF) : 75 (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 149 AGILITY (AGI) : 83 ACCURACY (ACC) : 94 EVADE (EVD) : 78 CHARISMA (CHA) : 86 MYSTIC (MYS) : 155 Summons details : NUMBER OF ELITE SUMMONS : 6/30 TOTAL NUMBER OF SUMMONS : 204 ABILITIES : ? [ESSENCE OF LIFE] (lvl : 5) ? [POSEIDON''S BLESSING] (lvl : 5) ? [STATIC RAGE] (lvl : 5) ? [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 5) ? [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 7) ? [ICY VEIL] (lvl : 5) ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING : FROST GOLEM] (lvl : 8) ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 55 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 14 ___ "Tsk, I don''t know why does this system insists on calling me a B ranked warrior, my level is low ording to the system, but my stats are way better than most of the A ranked bastards..." Arnold mumbled, turning off the shower, he thought so because on an average A ranked warrior''s stats rarely above 80-90 points, while most of his attributes were more than that. "Dump all attribute points into intelligence. I already have too many summons and for the potential points... nah, leave them be I''ll decide what to do with themter." ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. ___ Although Arnold''s stats were sky high and he was progressing at an insane pace, it had led some unforeseenplications. One of the first problems he encountered was the inability to learn any more skills or affinities. For the past six months, whenever he had tried to learn a new ability or affinity, the system had always refused and didn''t allow him to learn either of them, until and unless he reced them. Yes, he had to rece his old abilities to learn new ones, Arnold wouldn''t have had any problem with recing his abilities if the reced abilities were of the same level as the abilities they were being reced with but it wasn''t like that. If he reced an old ability with a new one, the new ability would be of lvl 1, thus it was useless for Arnold to invest more and more potential points to upgrade the skills. Furthermore, the skills once reced are lost forever. The only way to get rid of this problem was by increasing the intelligence stat, as it allowed him to increase the number of abilities and affinities he could use. But it led to another issue. Arnold discovered that once his stats crossed the limit is 120 points it became a pain in the butt to increase it again as it required not 1 but 5 attribute points to increase it once, meaning if he used 50 points to increase his intelligence, it would only increase by 10 points and not 50 points. The same thing happened with the mystic stat. The only solution to this problem was to clear more and more dungeons. It would''ve been easier for Arnold to if he was in USA as the jurisdiction of every guild was well defined and no other guild could attempt to clear a dungeon which fell under some other guild''s jurisdiction until and unless they get a permission from the guild which controlled that dungeon. But this wasn''t the case in Brazil. There were no jurisdictions, neither an independent proper body to decide which guild would get to attempt a dungeon. It was done on a firste first serve basis. Furthermore the guild had to pay to the government to be able to use the dungeon. Which, of course, led to corruption as few guilds would pay the government officials beforehand and thus would gain monopoly over a certain region for a certain time. Arnold was still thinking about his abilities and skills when hismunicator started ringing. Arnold picked it up and a familiar face popped up in front of his eyes. "Arnold irm?o, I''ve got a good news for you! A dungeon popped up in your vicinity." the man smiled. (Author''s note: Irm?o means brother in Portuguese.) "Send me the address, I''ll be there shortly." Arnold smiled back as the desire to battle filled his heart. Chapter 69 - New Beginning [Second Volume - Prologue (2)] AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION... "Don''t be afraid, I only want you to give me some intelligence." Nathan took out a photograph and asked, "You know him, right?" ?? It was a photograph of ''Bad-Breath'' that Arnold had provided them from Talos'' memories. The scientist felt waves in his heart rising and shook his head vigorously. If he leaked any information the leader would kill his entire family. "I put him through a lie detector; he is lying," one of the interrogators interjected. "Moreover his heart rate is increasing like crazy. He''s scared. Which is understandable." "Since you are so afraid, you are probably aware of what went on behind the scenes. Let me ask you directly. Are you rted to the Inhuman project?" Nathan raised his brows and knew that he might have caught a link to the mastermind after a year of continuous investigation. "No! I have never heard of inhuman project before! You guys caught the wrong person!" the scientist''s lips were sealed. However, none of them believed him. "Tsk, I really hoped it woulde to this... call Johnny." Nathaniel ordered the others and turned around to leave the room. The scientist''s face turned pale when he heard Johnny''s name. He knew exactly who Johnny was and what he was capable to do. "Now that''s more like it!" Nathan bellowed and sat in front of the scientist who was shaking so bad that the chair he was tied to made a creaking noise. "Tell me whatever you know. Don''t skip a single detail or else who knows what will happen to you." *** AT THE SAME TIME, IPANEMA BEACH, RIO DE JANEIRO... "Arnold irm?o! Here!" The man who had called Arnold rushed to wee him near the dungeon. The name of this man was Gabriel Oliveira, Standing at 6'' 2" tall, this brown skinned man had a very distinctive feeling about him unlike his bubbly personality. He had an angr face, a small nose, puffy lips. His hazel eyes were bulging and had neat eyebrows. He had short, straight, blonde hair which is worn in a spiky style. There was nothing special about his physique. He had a short neck, broad shoulders, short arms andrge hands. a long torso with defined muscles, a narrow waist, short legs, and wide feet. His whole body was a canvas for numerous floral, watercolour, illustrative and simple tattoos. This was expected, after all he was the one who encouraged Arnold to get a tattoo. He wore the simr type of clothes like he always did, ripped, traditional clothes that were mostly light-coloured and loose. "Arnold irm?o, everything has been prepared." Gabriel informed Arnold as he made his way through the crowd. "It''s a rank A dungeon, just like you wanted it to be!" "How the heck did you managed to get hold of such a dungeon? It must have cost a lot of money." Arnold said, sizing up the portal in front of him. He had wanted to clear as many dungeons as he possibly could because of the rank up quest that was given to him by the system. ___ [RANK ADVANCEMENT QUEST] : ? VERSATILE (2): [ INTRODUCTION ] : To be the strongest you need to have various cards up you sleeves. [ TASK ] : Max out your existing subsses and gain 2 more subss. [ PROGRESS ] : 1/3 subsses maxed out. 0/2 subss obtained. ? WEAPON MASTER : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Build and use weapons of different sses to learn the pros and cons of each type of weapon. [ TASK ] : Forge 4 weapons belonging to different sses and use them in actualbat. (Weapon used by your allies and summons can contribute to this task as long as they use weapons which were forged by you.) [ PROGRESS ] : 4/4 weapons crafted and used inbat. ? UNBEATABLE : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Your current powers won''t be enough to face the trials of the immortal one. [ TASK ] : Clear at least 10 A ranked dungeons, 15 B ranked dungeons and 20 C ranked dungeons. (You have to clear the B and C ranked dungeons on your own. Using your summons is allowed, but no one else should interfere in your battle. The same restrictions are applied on the A ranked dungeons but they can be waived under special circumstances). [ PROGRESS ] : 1/10 A ranked dungeons cleared. 12/15 B ranked dungeons cleared. 20/20 C ranked dungeons cleared. COMPLETION REWARDS : ? An exclusive ss upgrade. ? Unlock Evolutionary Path. ___ Arnold wasn''t typically interested in the rank advancement quest that was given to him as it was long and tiring. But it rewards are good and he didn''t had anything else to do, but still his rewards didn''t made the tasks any less tiring. For starters, he''d have to upgrade his existing subsses to maximum level as well as learn two new subsses and level them up as well. The issue here was the unavability of good subss knowledges in the shop. The knowledges present in the shop had nothing to do with his present abilities and skill set, making Arnold reluctant to invest his time and beast crystals into buying them as he wasn''t certain if he''d be able to gain abilities after learning about the subsses like he did previously. Not to mention the insane amount of dungeons he''d have to clear to meet the conditions of the ''UNBEATABLE'' subquest. Soloing a C or B ranked dungeon wasn''t a big deal for him nowadays as most of his summons were already ranked at C or above. The issue was with clearing A ranked dungeons alone as it was time taking to do so and A ranked dungeons had a possibility of having a S ranked boss inside them. Although Arnold had 6 A ranked summons under hismand, he highly doubted they''ll be able to kill a S ranked boss by themselves. "Arnold irm?o..." Gabriel pointed at something behind Arnold, who turned around to see that the most annoying person he had met in Rio, was making her way towards him. Cameras immediately started shing once she made an appearance, after all she was one of the most popr actress of Brazil as well as his teacher''s stepsister. "Arnold, meu amor, where have you been? I was so worried about you..." Cristina said while seductively looking at Arnold, "Even Nico irm?o didn''t knew you''d whereabouts!" (Author''s note : Meu Amor means ''my love'' in Portuguese) "What are you doing here Christina? I thought you were busy shooting a movie or something?" Arnold had saved her life once, along with her stepbrother, Nichs Fernandez and it was the biggest mistake he ever made because ever since then, she had been trying to get into his pants and wouldn''t take no for an answer no matter how many times Arnold declined her advances. Arnold even went to Nichs to sort out this mess, but to his dismay, even Nichs wanted them to get together. The only way to get rid of the problem was to ghost them and only Gabriel was allowed to contact him. "Gabriel, did you-" Arnold was interrupted by a government official, "Do you n to enter the dungeon or should I send in someone else?" "Yeah, I''m going in." Arnold stepped forward. The official had a malicious smile on his face as he continued, "I''m sorry, but ording to the rating of the dungeon, a team of at least 5 rank A warriors is allowed to enter the dungeon... unfortunately, I can''t allow you to enter the dungeon and would have to revoke your authority over the dungeon." The official turned around to let the other guild step into the dungeon, as they had ''paid'' him to gain the rights to the dungeon, but before the official could do anything, Arnold stopped him. "You need just 5 right?" He said. "...yes." the official replied. "That''s feasible," Arnold smiled. Chapter 70 - Trans-Dimensional Portal (1) "You need just 5 right?" Arnold said. "...yes." The official replied. ?? "That''s doable," Arnold smirked, "Come forth." A secondter, the government official was surrounded by 4 out of Arnold''s 6 elite summons, Duke, Cerberus, Talos, and Bad-Breath. Chills went down his spine when all of the summons simultaneously released their murderous aura, the government official waspletely overwhelmed by them and could barely speak. "I suppose this should be enough?" Arnold smirked after seeing the official''s reaction. "I-I suppose it s-should be okay..." the employee managed to spurt out what he wanted to say before his legs gave out and he stumbled and fell in front of Arnold. "And Gabriel... well have a talk when I return, till then guard the portal and make sure no one gets in." Arnold gave a sharp look to the men who were prepared to enter the dungeon instead of him. All of them were equipped with a weird, white coloured battle armour that looked like it was made of bones from various monsters. On each of their chests was an insignia of the guild they belonged to, ''White Wolves''. The ck colored stars were visible one of the their shoulders, this was the ranking system used by their guild. Under this system, having 2 stars meant the warrior was of rank C, 3 stars meant that the person was at rank B, 4 stars meant rank A, and 5 stars meant rank S. However, as far as Arnold knew, not a single members of their guild was of rank S so all Arnold could see was warriors having 3 or 4 stars. Even though they didn''t have a single S ranked warrior in their guild, they were still one of the most sessful guild of Brazil. Why you ask? Because this guild was a private guild which was owned by the son of the current President of Brazil. ''Nepotism and corruption, always go hand in hand...'' Arnold let sighed heavily as he entered the purple coloured portal1. To everyone''s surprise, the moment Arnold walked into the dungeon, 7 warriors of the White Wolves guild simultaneous jumped in as well, while the rest of them blocked the path of everyone else. Hence blocking Gabriel and Christina from entering the portal as well. All of this happened while national news channels were covering this incident, but both Gabriel and Christina doubted that any action would be taken against the White Wolves as the President had most of the media outlets as well as the security agencies in his pockets. "I''m calling brother... this time these idiots went too far." Christina was fuming, Gabriel was trying his best to calm her down, but even he was slightly worried about Arnold. "Please be okay, Arnold irm?o." He mumbled. *** "Now this is something new..." Arnold blew a whistle as he entered the dungeon, but unlike what he was expecting, the interior of this dungeon was like a dense rainforest. The forest was tremendously huge, murky, and budding. Its canopy was monopolized by cypress, fir, and dogwood trees, and rays of light bursting through their crowns allowed for a motley of nts to spread in the fertile soils below. Thick branches hung from many trees, and a hodgepodge of flowers, which were scattered sporadically, looked almost out of ce in the otherwise dark greenndscape. A mor of beastly sounds, most of which were foraging beasts, filled the air, and overpowered the asional sounds of birds of prey gliding in the air. It was like an ecosystem of monsters and beasts. Arnold had never seen such a beautiful yet dangerous ce in his life. "Is this a trans-dimensional portal?" Arnold mumbled. Unlike the other dungeons he had been to, this type of dungeon was called a trans-dimensional dungeon. These type of dungeons were extremely rare but had been discovered before in various countries. Essentially these portals acted as a gateway between two different realms. The only problem with these dungeons was that unlike the other dungeons which had a single entrance and exit, this dungeon had different entry and exit portals and in order to activate the exit portal, one had to defeat all the monsters present inside the dungeon... including the boss level monster. There was another issue with this type of dungeon. Since this dungeon wasn''t in the ''human world'', none of the human technology would function inside these dungeons. Meaning hismunicator and surveince devices were useless. But clearing a trans-dimensional dungeon was highly rewarding as most of these dungeons had enchanted gears hidden inside them, and even though Arnold couldn''t use these weapons due to his ss, he could always give them to his summons to indirectly increase hisbat power. "Is it possible that those white bast*rds already knew that this dungeon was a trans-dimensional dungeon?" Arnold thought as he carefully looked around the forest he was in, "As far as I know, there''s no way they could have known it..." Arnold was still thinking about what he should do next when a couple of mammoth like beasts surrounded him and prepared to attack him at any moment. ''Behemoths2? Let''s see if they are strong enough to be resurrectedter on...'' Arnold smiled as he called upon his newest summon, Asterios3, a brown skinned minotaur whose strength even exceeded the strength of Duke when he was in his reaper form. Right now Asterios was his strongest summon in terms of strength but he wasn''t very sharp... one could call him pea brain. "Asterios, think you can handle one of them?" Arnold asked the 12 feet tall minotaur, who huffed loudly and mindlessly charged at the behemoth in front of him. "At least his energy and spirit make up for his mindlessness... Now let''s handle the other guy." **** 1. The colours of the portal signifies the rank of it, you can understand it by looking at the table below: Rank ----- Colour E ------ WHITE D ------ GREEN C ------ BLUE B ------ RED A ------ PURPLE S ------ BLACK 2. Behemoth''s name likely refers to the Biblical use, where the "Behemoth" is a giantnd animal often interpreted as a mammoth, created by God as a demonstration of power - the counterpart to theLeviathan. It may also be referring to the primary definition of "behemoth", a huge and monstrous creature. The word itself derives from Behemah, the Hebrew word for "beast". 3. In Crete, theMinotaurwas known by thenameAsterion, anameshared with Minos'' foster-father. So I changed the name a bit, from Asterion to Asterios. Chapter 71 - Trans-Dimensional Portal (2) "Oh Look, it''s angry." Arnold stretched his neck and chuckled, when he saw the 16 feet behemoth in front of him was huffing angrily as it prepared to run him over. (Author''s note : height of the actual behemoth was around 70 m or 229 ft, in case anyone is wondering about it.) Asterios was having a good time as well. After all, the minotaurs were race born to fight and Asterios was one of the biggest and the strongest minotaur Arnold had ever fought with. He was ferocious even though he only had about 65% of his strength when he was alive. No wonder he was a dungeon boss before he was resurrected as one of Arnold''s summons. Asterios looked really happy as it was the first time Arnold had called him out and was fighting along his side. ?? Arnold was using his good old [VINDICATOR] and quickly shot a couple of bullets at the behemoth in front of him. The [VINDICATOR] had undergone many upgrades as well and was now an A ranked weapon which had the ability to simultaneously shoot different types of bullets. Thanks to Arnold''s maxed out abilities, The damage dealt by the weapon had also increased a lot. ___ You''ve dealt 598(+84) points of damage to your target. Damage inflicted after damage reduction due to target''s defense : 122. Your bullets triggered the exclusive skill : [DOUBLE EDGE]. Damage dealt was multiplied by a factor of : 2 Total damage dealt : 244 Target''s remaining HP : 8756/9000 ___ "Not much effective huh? Well we can always change that. Can''t we?" Arnold shrugged his shoulders before dodging the behemoth''s attack. The behemoth ran past him and slowly turned around to face him once again. All of a sudden, Arnold''s hands started glowing and his guns made a clicking sound as if a new magazine was inserted in them. "I know you have a tough skin, but let''s see if you can tolerate THIS!" Arnold yelled as he prepared for the recoil that was about to hit him. Arnold''s shot pierced the odd noise of the forest as fiery bullets were shot from his gun sessfully managed to hit their mark. ___ You''ve dealt 778(+84) points of damage to your target. Damage inflicted after damage reduction due to target''s defense : 212. Your bullets triggered the exclusive skill : [DOUBLE EDGE]. Damage dealt was multiplied by a factor of : 2 Your bullets triggered the exclusive skill : [LUCKY SHOT]. True Damage of : 300 HP has been dealt to the target. The target is [BURNT] and would suffer additional damage of 1.5% of its max HP for 3 seconds. Total damage dealt : 1129 Target''s remaining HP : 7627/9000 ___ Although his shot managed to trigger so many exclusive skills, the damage was much less than what Arnold had expected. ''It''s got a high defense stat, it''s skin is thicker than Asterios'' skull and it''s huge... do these qualities make the behemoth special enough to be resurrected as an elite summon?'' Arnold thought as he kept firing more of his ''fiery bullets'' at the behemoth. At most Arnold could use this bullets for 4-5 times before his guns got overloaded. But he already had a solution to end this fight in the next 3 to 4 shots. Before he fired his next shot, Arnold activated his [BERSERKER''S RAGE] ability and his attributes as well as the damage causing skills got a temporary buff off 150%. "Let''s dance, shall we?" Arnold smiled and emptied his gun on the behemoth. *** AFTER FIGHTING AND SLAYING COUPLE OF MORE BEHEMOTHS... Arnold was sweating heavily, even his hair was damp from his sweat. He held his knees and panted, d that the battle finally came to an end. "Their skin is way thicker than I thought. I''m exhausted¡­" He kicked the body of the behemoth that he and his summons had in, before storing it in his void. "5 behemoths, that should give me more than enough material to forge new armours for everyone." Arnold wiped the sweat on his forehead, before telling Cerberus to use his and obtain the behemoth''s form as a transformation. Arnold was actually enjoying all the monster hunting in this new ce, but it was taking a lot more time than he could afford. He still had to look for all the monsters in this area and hope that he finds the ''boss'' soon. He was ying with his guns when an idea hit him. "OF COURSE! WHY DIDN''T I DO IT EARLIER?" He eximed loudly. Even his summons got startled a bit by his sudden scream, "The forest is full of organic things after all!" He tightened his grip on his gloves and ordered his summons to stay behind him as he prepared to unleash the arcane mes to burn down the entire forest. Once the forest was on fire, the monsters would only have two choices, either run out of the forest and into the ambush prepared by him or stay inside the forest and burn to a crisp. After sessfully igniting the fire, he instructed his non-organic summons, like frost golems, automatons, andva hounds, to help in spreading the fire throughout the forest while the others prepared to engage the monsters that would soon be rushing towards them. "This is going to be a lot of fun." He smiled as the sea of mes spread through the forest, and consumed everything in its path. Arnold then used his [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : EARTH] ability to raise many tforms and stationed his summons on them while he waited for the chaos to begin. Soon there was some movement on in front of him. He was expecting a sh*tload of monsters to be running at them, but instead of monsters... half a dozen men walked out of the forest. They were all adorned in a white armour. They seemed to be dragging something behind them. It was one of Arnold''s automaton that had been shattered into pieces, only it''s main body was intact. "You thought you could simply steal our dungeon and walk out of here like nothing happened? Really?" One of the menughed and threw the destroyed automaton at Arnold''s feet. "What are youughing at jerk?" "Nothing, I was just imagining how your sad faces would look like once I''m done with you lot." Arnold smirked and jumped down from the tform he was standing on. Chapter 72 - Trans-Dimensional Portal (3) "Do you even know how much time and resources it takes to build one of these?" Arnold mindlessly asked the people who were in front of him, after sending the broken automaton back into the void. Actually, Arnold didn''t really cared about the broken automaton much. With his current abilities, the cost of constructing an automaton wasn''t very high. He just wanted to buy some time for what he was nning to do. ?? "Don''t worry about that. You''ll be joining your robot soon enough." The guy who had thrown the broken automaton at Arnold, responded and stretched his neck. "No wonder you''re able to clear dungeons in your own. How many of those suckers can you control?" "Not that many to be honest." Arnold shrugged his shoulders. "I thought I made it clear that this dungeon was mine too use, didn''t I?" "So what my guy? Listen, we''re not here to instigate an unnecessary rivalry between your master and our guild. So how about you step aside and let us handle this dungeon?" (Author''s note: By master he''s referring to Nichs.) "You think you can handle this dungeon by yourself? What are you, an A ranked warrior with a few others?" Arnold waved his hands around, "Tell you what... I''ll step aside and let you do whatever you like with this dungeon if you answer one of my questions." "Since, we''re trying to avoid any bloodshed, I think it''ll be alright." The man replied and took his helmet off to face Arnold. "If that''s the case then I won''t take much of your time. Did you guys already know that, this was a trans-dimensional dungeon?" "What do you think?" The guy smirked. "I think I''ve answered your question. Now get lost." "Tsk. Why don''t you guys just listen to me for once..." Arnold mumbled and quickly used his probe skill on the guy. Just like his other skills, even the probe skill had undergone various changes and now showed more information about his target''s than just their attributes and abilities. __ NAME : Samuel Jacobson AGE: 44 LEVEL : 82 RANK : A ROLE : Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Ultra Tough Skin ? Bone Maniption ? Enhanced Sight HP : 6000/6000 Mana/Energy : 5430/5690 STRENGTH (STR) : 84 DEFENSE (DEF) : 85 STAMINA (STA) : 79 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 55 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 75 EVADE (EVD) : 57 CHARISMA (CHA) : 87 THREAT LEVEL : Low PERSONALITY: Rogue, Unfaithful, Motivated and Malicious. JOB: Guild Agent - 49% satisfied. PHYSICAL/HEALTH: No notable issues. AFRAID OF: Death, Pain, and Getting lost. FITNESS LEVEL: 51% - Increasing. MOTIVATION: A thirst for adventure. __ ''Now that''s an odd man... he''s afraid of death and yet he''s walking around in the dungeon like he owns the ce.'' Arnold thought. ''If he''s afraid of death then... let''s get rid of it." "I told you to GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Samuel shouted and threw something that looked like an bone spear at Arnold, who didn''t moved an inch from where he was standing and effortlessly grabbed the spear. "I guess this is your so called ''Bone Maniption'' ability?" Arnold smiled as the spear disintegrated in his hands. This was the drawback of his ''Cosmic Creationist'' ss. Any and every type of weapon that he touched would be turned into dust. This was to ensure that he wouldn''t be able to use a weapon until and unless it was either made by him or bought from the system''s shop. Although, in first nce it may seem like this ''drawback'' was a pain in the butt, but actually this was a hidden bonus for Arnold, because this way all he had to do was to touch the weapons of his enemies and theirbat efficiency was drastically reduced. He had often used this strategy to y numerous monsters inside the dungeons. The only ones who were immune to this effect were brawler and tank type monsters and human, as they utilised their physical abilities to fight an enemy. The expression on Samuel''s face changed in an instant when the spear made of his bones got turned into dust right in front of his eyes. His teammates probably had a simr reaction, no couldn''t be sure of it as they were still wearing their helmets. "Hm... the spear was made up from your bones right? I wonder what will happen when I touch you..." Arnold said as he brushed the bone dust off himself. "Thanks for the chitchat, I was starting to get bored by all the hunting and so were they..." "Friend? You think your summons could actually-" One of the other warriors started speaking but he froze when suddenly the ground started vibrating. All of his teammates simultaneously turned around and saw the swarm of monsters that were racing towards them. Arnold''s n had worked. Each and every monster residing in the forest was headed towards him and his summons. Arnold was pretty confident that his army of summons could easily handle these many monsters, but it wasn''t the case for the ones who had invaded this dungeon after him. There was no doubt that the six of them were strong enough to handle the dungeon on their own, but they could only do that if they had lots of time and the monsters were scattered all over the dungeon, but due to Arnold''s n, it wasn''t possible anymore. As much as they hated it, they didn''t have any other choice than to beg for Arnold''s help. "P-Please... help us! We won''t be able to survive if you don''t!" Samuel threw himself on his knees and begged for Arnold''s help. Samuel looked into Arnold''s emotionless eyes, hoping that he''d help them but instead Arnold turned his back on them and used his earth elemental abilities to make another tform which was only big enough for one man to upy. But Samuel wasn''t ready to die in a dungeon and grabbed the edge of the tform as it slowly rose up into the air. Samuel''s teammates also tried doing the same but were unsessful. "CAPTAIN! HELP ME!" One of them shrieked and grabbed Samuel''s left leg which almost made him lose his grip on the tform. "LET GO OF ME YOU FOOL! YOU''LL MAKE ME FALL AS WELL!" Samuel shouted back in a panic and started kicking the face of the person hanging on to his leg. The man couldn''t take it anymore, lost his grip and fell down to be stomped to death by the monsters, just like his teammates. "I survived... I survived..." Samuel was smiling d that he was alive, even after seeing all of his teammates die in such a terrible manner. He finally looked up and his gaze met Arnold''s, who was looking at him with the same emotionless eyes. "Please help... me get up..." To his surprise, Arnold actually offered him a hand and started pulling him up, but stopped all of sudden. "W-What are you d-doing?" Samuel stuttered, "Why d-did you s-stop?" "I didn''t stop your dang arm just fell off." Arnold replied. "W-What do you mean!?" Samuel looked at the hand that Arnold had grabbed... it disintegrated just like the spear. He was so intoxicated with adrenaline that he hadn''t even noticed that his arm was missing. "Don''t resent me... it''s your fault." Arnold smiled and watched Samuel getting crushed by the monsters, just like his teammates. "What are you all cking off for? Start killing those disgusting monsters already!" With that, another battle began between Arnold''s summons and the monsters of the forest. Chapter 73 - Crouching Tiger (1) INSIDE THE DUNGEON, AFTER A FEW HOURS... The forest, in its entirety, had been burned down to the ground by Arnold and his summons. Most of the monsters living there were either killed by the ferocious mes or his summons, but still he couldn''t find a monster that could be graded as ''boss of the dungeon''. Arnold had scattered his summons throughout the dungeon once again to look for the remaining monsters that they might''ve missed, although Arnold hatred to admit it but they were roaming around the dungeon aimlessly. It was his first time in such a dungeon, and even though he had read a lot about these dungeons, he wasn''t certain that there was a way to find the exit portal without killing the boss first. ?? He knew that human technology wouldn''t work inside the dungeon, but since his automatons were functioning like usual so he thought that maybe they could still use their connection with the outside world and find more about this dungeon. His automatons tried again and again but it was useless. ''There has to be some way to get out of here...'' Arnold was getting desperate to clear this dungeon. He opened his missions tab to check whether the task about clearing dungeons waspleted or not. ___ ? UNBEATABLE : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Your current powers won''t be enough to face the trials of the immortal one. [ TASK ] : Clear at least 10 A ranked dungeons, 15 B ranked dungeons and 20 C ranked dungeons. (You have to clear the B and C ranked dungeons on your own. Using your summons is allowed, but no one else should interfere in your battle. The same restrictions are applied on the A ranked dungeons but they can be waived under special circumstances). [ PROGRESS ] : 1/10 A ranked dungeons cleared. 12/15 B ranked dungeons cleared. 20/20 C ranked dungeons cleared. ___ ''The counter hasn''t gone up, It''s still showing only one rank A dungeon has been cleared by me. That means there''s at least one monster inside this dungeon... but where is it hiding?'' Arnold kept moving in hopes of finding and killing the monster, so he could finally return to his world. ''I don''t even know anything about the time limit to clear the dungeon... it''s already getting dark here...'' "Yo System-sama, think you could give me some help?" He said it out loud even though he knew that the system would respond to him if he just thought about it. Maybe he did it to cope with the loneliness he had been feeling ever since he came to Brazil, but it made him feel a little closer to the system. He knew it was weird and at times he thought that he was going mad talking to ''himself'' like that but he knew that the system was real as not only it had helped him whenever he needed it, but it had also saved his life a couple of times now, like when he was fighting with Bad-Breath. The system, or the System-sama as Arnold used to call it, was initially tight lipped about the incident that took ce on that fateful night, but 4 months aftering to Rio, the system finally responded to his call and just told him one thing when Arnold asked about what had happened that night... "It was a favour from the immortal one." Arnold tried asking the system what he meant? And who was the immortal one? But he never got an answer, which he had expected to happen. Arnold knew that nothing good wille off it if he kept pestering the system so he let go off the matter... for now. ___ Not every enemy you see can be killed... but it doesn''t mean, it can''t be defeated. ___ "There you go with your motivational crap... if that was true then why do you keep giving me quests for killing people that I barely know?" Arnold snapped back with a smug look on his face. ___ For character development. ___ "Character... development..." Corner of Arnold''s mouth twitched when he read those lines, "This isn''t a novel or an anime that I''d need you to build my character!" ___ That''s what you think. Take rest and don''t overexert yourself. ___ "Rest in a burnt forest, is this for character development too?" The system didn''t reply. Arnold got up from the trunk of a burnt tree that he wasying on and recalled his summons and watched the most beautiful sunset he had ever seen. "When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, as my soul expands in the worship of the creator." Arnold mumbled the phrase, his teacher, Nichs once told him while they were training to increase Arnold''s resistance to psychic attacks. "Gifted people often have weird imaginations..." (Author''s note : The quote about isn''t written by me. It is one of the famous quotes of Mahatma Gandhi that my dad often tells me wherever we are stargazing together, he''s a space freak just like me lol.) After the sun went down he expected the jungle to go dark, but instead two luminous blue full moons took over the sky and lighted up the surface. Arnold couldn''t believe his eyes, the beauty of this ce was astounding. He quickly took out his phone and tried to click pictures of the beautiful scenery in front of his eyes and send them to Nicole as he had been feeling a little distant from her, only to realise that the phone wasn''t working, just like his other gadgets. But he didn''t gave up, and summoned Talos out. "Could you use your sensors and take couple of pictures of the night sky, for me?" Arnold ordered the automaton, oblivious to the fact that someone was watching his every move. This man was Rion Tameron: A Male Mercenary who swore loyalty to the white wolves guild after they saved him on a dungeon trip. Rion was short, had golden hair and dark white eyes, a special mutation which made it possible for him to know the weakness of his opponents, and carried twin machine pistols, just like Arnold. He was the seventh person who had entered the dungeon with his guildmates but unlike them, he didn''t wore a white armour, instead he was covered with a special clothes that had abnormal camouging properties, that even covered his smell. "Enjoy the peace while itsts... there''s no way you''ll be able to defeat ''it'' and get out of this dungeon..." Chapter 74 - Crouching Tiger (2) "This is Rico Garcia, reporting live from Rio De Janeiro. Behind my back you can see the dungeon portal in which elites from the White Wolves guild and a warrior from USA went in." The news reporter went on, "After digging up some information all we were able to find out was, that the warrior had been a student of Master Fernandez. "It has been 8 hours since they went inside and- wait a minute, we''ve just got some information from the studio... the President has released an official statement about the incident, I''ll tell you what written in there, and I quote, "What has happened in Rio, this morning is utterly disrespectful. The White Wolves guild had already reserved the rights to the dungeon and the man who went in first had no legal authority to do so. If anything went wrong inside the dungeon, he wouldn''t go unpunished."" ?? Nearly every news channel was broadcasting the same thing over and over again. Branding Arnold as the one who ''sabotaged'' the raid and not the White Wolves. The things were taking a turn for the worse, and this paid media wasn''t helping at all. "Senhora Christina, you should leave. The situation would only get worse and you''re reputation might get tarnished because of it." Gabriel suggested, as the crowd was getting more and more agitated. It had been 8 hours since Arnold and the others weren''t into the dungeon. (Author''s note : In Portuguese-speaking countries, ''Senhora'' is often used as a title or polite form of address a woman) "I don''t care about my REPUTATION! Why is he taking so long to return!? It has never taken him this long to clear a dungeon before... did... something happened to hi-?" Christina gasped when someone tapped on her shoulder. "My student isn''t that weak you know." Nichs smiled as his stepsister hugged him. He was dressed in all whites. No one had even noticed his presence until now. The chaotic atmosphere near the portal quickly changed into a calm and peaceful one, as Nichs'' aura spread throughout the crowd. "You came!" "I had to. I wouldn''t let anyone frame my student or family, no matter who it is." Nichs said finally breaking off the hug, "And as for you media people, I believe you''re ready to get sued for your biased coverage of this incident and if you prevent any such thing then keep your cameras rolling and focus them on me." All of a sudden, the phones of the media personnel started ringing. They were being called by their respective studios and instructed the reporters and cameramen to do whatever Nichs was telling them. Seeing that his n was taking effect, Nichs then turned towards the crowd, who were still overwhelmed by his sudden appearance and continued, "People of Brasilia! You all are being misguided by this corrupt government and their paid media. They''ve always been fooling you, thinking you the masses, are nothing but dust that they scrape off their shoes..." Nichs kept speaking about the injustice the people had been facing all these years, under the current government''s regime. After seeing Nichs draped in his white clothes, one might think he was a Messiah sent by the Gods, who was there to guide them towards the right path, but in truth he was no saint. He had his own agenda for doing all this and the people were simply the ''pawn'' in his game. Nics had grown tired from his ''superhero'' role and wanted to do something new. Then one day while watching a video of the current President of Brazil, he came up with the idea of overthrowing the government and rule over Brazil himself, because he thought ruling over a country would be interesting. He had been bidding his time for the right opportunity to move his ns into action but he knew that trying to sway the minds of the masses wouldn''t be an easy task, and hence he decided to use his secret ability to provoke the crowd. He had named this ability of his as ''Incite'', because of what it did. When he used this ability, he could essentially look into someone''s mind and force their best or worst memories to resurface again to manipte their feelings ording to his will. His ability seemed to be working on the crowd as the silent crowd got agitated once again and started cursing the government as well as the media personnel, who were present there. But Nics didn''t wanted them to cause a scene right then and there, so he stepped in once again. "They are the enemy, but it''s not the time for us to retaliate right now!" He said, "it''s been 8 hours since those souls entered that dungeon. Who knows what happened to them inside? Someone has to do something, and even if our government doesn''t cares about them, I DO! I WILL PUT MY LIFE ON THE LINE TO RESCUE THEM! JUST PUT YOUR FAITH IN ME PEOPLE AND I''LL NEVER DISAPPOINT YOU!" Nichs bellowed as the people pushed away the members of the White Wolves guild and cleared a path for him to enter the dungeon. He acknowledged everyone''s presence with a nod, and kept walking towards the portal which led to the dungeon, but right before he was about to step into the portal, it disappeared. Everyone got confused. Just what the hell was going in there? People started murmuring and whispering among themselves. When suddenly someone shouted and pointed towards the other side of the road. Another portal had been opened there, but it wasn''t a violet portal, it was a white portal. Nichs was quick to react and ran towards the portal. "The sudden disappearance of the violet portal, and the simultaneous appearance of this portal could only mean that it was a trans-dimensional portal," Nichs mumbled as the people quietly stood behind him, "that son of a gun, actually cleared a trans-dimensional dungeon!" Although it kind of disrupted his ns, but still he was happy that Arnold was able to clear the dungeon by himself. There were a dozen ways Nics could still use this situation for his benefit. "Look someone''sing out of the portal!" A woman eximed. "Indeed, it must be my prized student. He has a talent for-" Nichs stopped as soon as a man walked out of the portal. "Who are you?" "Me? I''m Rion Tameron, and if you were waiting for someone else... then I''m sorry to inform you that he''s no more." Rion said with a smug look on his face as the portal closed behind him. Chapter 75 - Crouching Tiger (3) EARLIER INSIDE THE DUNGEON... Arnold woke up by sudden noises around him, but he was not rming because he had ordered his summons to be on guard as they didn''t need to sleep. Thanks to them, he slept like a log... on a log. Even though he had taken care of most of the monsters who lived in the forest, one couldn''t get careless because of it hence, this was his precaution. ?? When he opened his eyes, sun was already up and shining brightly and his summons were waiting for him to get up so that they could continue to search the area to find the potential, ''boss'' of the dungeon. Although sun was already above their heads, barely a couple of hours had been passed since Arnold went to sleep. His eyes were heavy but he couldn''t afford to rest any longer. he sent his summons in every direction and told them to report any ''peculiar'' sighting while he went to look for hidden artifacts that would be helpful for him. After wandering for sometime he heard a loud explosion and simultaneously got a notification that he had never seen before. ___ YOUR SUMMON(S) : Duke has been destroyed by [DREADNOUGHT]. Hiddenbyrinth found! Additional quest activated! QUESTS : Monstrosity. ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You have been informed about a hiddenbyrinth. Kill [DREADNOUGHT], the guardian of thebyrinth toplete the trial and return to your realm. [ TASK ] : Kill the [DREADNOUGHT] [ PROGRESS ] : 0/1 Kill [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 8000 EXP ? one random reward ___ "What the hell just happened there?" Arnold mumbled as he looked towards direction were the clouds of dust rose up in the air, he should''ve been pissed that one of his elite summons was destroyed by a monster but instead, he felt excited. "It''s been a long time since one of my elite summons got destroyed. Since Duke is at rank A right now, this [DREADNOUGHT] must at least be at A+ or S ranked monster... perfect to be converted into an elite summon." Arnold rushed towards the direction where the sound of explosion came from. Since all of his summons, were connected to the him by the void, he quickly undid the summoning so that they could return to the void and he''d be able to call them out after he reached thebyrinth. He kept running but there was no byrinth'' in his sights, just a burnt down forest. It was then he heard a scream that pierced his soul. He kept walking slowly and then he saw it - The Dreadnought. It was roughly the same height as the behemoths but it was clearly stronger than them. It had a gigantic club in one of his hands while his other hand was shaped like a w of a crab. Without wasting anytime, Arnold quickly used the probe skill on the monstrosity, while he hid behind a cluster of burnt trees. ___ CLASS : Leviathan (Astral being) LEVEL : 101 RANK : S+ ROLE : The Guardian AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Elemental shadow (active skill) ? Dance of the dead (active skill) ? Psychic Projection (active skill) HP : 11570/11700 STRENGTH (STR) : 135 DEFENSE (DEF) : 78 STAMINA (STA) : 99 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 68 AGILITY (AGI) : 71 ACCURACY (ACC) : 60 EVADE (EVD) : 68 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances : Piercing, and shing from nonmagical attacks. Condition Immunities :Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Stunned. THREAT LEVEL : High REMARK : Don''t think that this fellow is a weakling like you. Just one hit by that gigantic club and you''re gonna for good... or maybe it''ll take two hits. Good thing is, that thing can''t destroy me, unlike you. If you want to live then your only hope is to sever it''s spinal cord but it won''t be easy. ___ "Sever it''s spinal cord, have you even seen how gigantic that thing is?" Arnold mumbled, careful as to not let the dreadnought hear his voice, "Piercing and shing won''t work either meaning my summons wouldn''t be able to do much against it. No wonder Duke got thrashed by it, I''ll have to find some other way to deal with it." Arnold read the information in front if his eyes again and again, until he found something useful - Dreadnought was an astral being. "It''ll be tough but I could work with that, at least my elemental attacks would work on it, but then again, it has a lot of immunities, passive effects from most of my abilities won''t be effective against it... Why did it had to be such a tough opponent?" The moment Arnold had stepped into the portal, he knew it wouldn''t be easy to clear the dungeon but he had thought it would be doable with his summons to back him up. He would''ve never imagined that he''ll encounter a monster who''ll make most of his summons useless, as their primary weapons were swords and simr weapons, which could only sh and pierce their targets, but it wasn''t possible to do so anymore. Still all hope wasn''t lost, Arnold could always summon his sixth elite grade summon, but calling her out would''ve led to a different problem entirely. "I''ll think about it when I''ll cross that bridge. Right now I need to focus on the blob in front of me." Arnold finally walked in front of the Dreadnought and called out his elite summons only, for two reasons. Firstly, since Duke was destroyed by the dreadnought, Arnold doubted that his usual summons wouldst even for a second in front of it, and secondly, he still needed some cannon fodder so that he would be able to focus on killing the Dreadnought. Talos, Cerberus, Bad-Breath, and Asterios, walked out of the pitch ck void and stood in front of Arnold, Duke couldn''t be summoned at the moment due to the cooldown of two hours. Talos and Cerberus, who had the transformation ability, immediately changed into the forms that they were familiar with. Talos turned into Jake while Cerberus turned into his form, who was an astral being itself. While all of this was happening, the Dreadnought calmly stood there, as if wasn''t even bothered by Arnold and the others. "See that thing over there," Arnold pointed at the Dreadnought, "None of us stand a chance against it, at least not the way we are right now but we can always change that, can''t we?" The others quietly listened to his words. "I haven''t used this ability of mine for quite sometime because I never felt a need to, but this time we won''t be able to pull this off without it." Arnold ced his hands in Talos'' shoulders, "I really hope this skill hasn''t gone rusty... ENHANCEMENT!" Chapter 76 - Crouching Tiger (4) ___ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on lv. 85 Undead ?? ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! HP : 7500/7500 STRENGTH (STR) : 92 STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 35 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 78 EVADE (EVD) : 82 BUFF : Level and rank of increased. LEVEL : 89 RANK : A+ Bonus effect : DEFENSE (DEF) increased by : 10% HP increased by : 15% Duration : Temporary buff. Lasts for 1 hour. ___ "Tsk. I Couldn''t even increase the rank of a single summon. At least they are all at A+ for now." Arnold turned around to face everyone, "This is going to be a tough battle, so don''t hold yourselves back at all. Do what you do best and let''s y this walking blob of fat together!" Arnold had thought that maybe after using [ENHANCEMENT] on his summons at least a few of them would be able to reach S rank which would''ve evened up the ground a bit, but unknown to him the system had already ced some restrictions on the ability which indirectly told Arnold to level up his rank or else his summons won''t be able to reach a higher rank. At least the bonus effects granted by the enhancement were a bit useful. Asterios, being a tank and a brawler got a defense and HP boost, Bad-Breath got a bonus which increased his strength and other physical abilities, while Talos who was transformed as Jake, got an intelligence and mana boost, andstly, Cerberus'' strength and agility were significantly enhanced. Arnold took out his battle gears and quickly equipped them. His equipped gear was still the same except his new, [Phoenix cloak]. ___ ? [PHOENIX CLOAK] : A cloak made up of ashes left behind by thest Phoenix as a blessing to all beings. Grade : A+ Defense : 69 (Physical and Magical) Armour Type : Cloak Weight : 0.56 kg Additional effect : [TITAN''S BLESSING] - Reflects 15% of damage received as physical damage to the attacker. Additional effect : [BLAZING PHOENIX] - Boosts the effect of fire affinity by 25%. ___ It was the same cloak that Arnold wasn''t able to afford due to unavability of crystal, which wasn''t easy to obtain as it was dropped by rank A monsters only. He had obtained it after ying Asterios. Needless to say even this ''Phoenix cloak'' had undergone a lot of upgrades which were both done magically as well as physically by Arnold and Talos. Thanks to these upgrades, Arnold was able to increase the grade of the cloak from B+ to A+. "START NOW!" Arnold yelled and his summons immediately went into action. ___ Your summon has used the skill [DANCE OF THE DEAD] lvl. 5. ___ A horde of skeletal warriors rose from within the earth. They were equipped with various weapons made of bones and upon Talos''mand, charged at the Dreadnought who had finally noticed his new opponents and prepared to engage them. But something else was waiting for him instead. ___ Your summon has used the skill [BATTLE CRY] lvl. 3. The skill was sessful. The target has been aggravated at for the 35 seconds. ___ ___ Your summon has used the skill [THUNDER PUNCH] lvl. 4. ___ Bad-Breath went ahead and started raining thunderous punches on the Dreadnought, while it was fixated on Asterios. The skeletons and Bad-Breath kept attacking it relentlessly and to no one''s surprise, it only had minimal effect on the the Dreadnought. All of them had been working with each other like this for an year. They knew very well about each others strengths and weaknesses, they''re teamwork was wless. Arnold didn''t need to give them a singlemand after the battle began, everyone knew exactly what they had to do and yed their part well. In fifteen seconds they managed to chip off a good amount of Dreadnought''s HP, even though their attacks weren''t having their maximum effect due to the Dreadnought''s immunities and resistances. ___ Dreadnought''s remaining HP : 10170/11700 ___ ''Since, Piercing type weapons aren''t effective against it, so using vindicator is out of question.'' Arnold thought, ''It''s a good thing, I know just the spell that would work against you.'' "Don''t have much time left... Gotta make this count." Arnold mumbled as he got on Cerberus'' back and raised a ramp in front of him, using his earth elemental control ability, "Climb this ramp as fast as you can and try to jump over that thing''s back with all your might, got it?" Cerberus, who was in the form, nodded and began climbing the makeshift ramp in front of it. ___ Your summon has used the skill [SONIC BOLT] lvl. 4. Movement speed increased by 25% ___ Arnold held tightly onto Cerberus, as he raced towards the ramp, rising higher and higher. "NOW CERBERUS!" Arnold yelled as Cerberus jumped off the ramp. Arnold used his momentum and jumped off Cerberus'' back, and aimed his spell right on Dreadnought''s back. "No matter how tough your skin is or how much defense you''ve got, even you''re not immune to true damage... FROST FLAME!" Arnold bellowed and threw the balls of ice at the Dreadnought''s back. _________________________ Damage dealt after reduction due to target''s defense : 88. The target is in a [FROZEN] state for : 14 seconds. The target is immune to the effect, [FROZEN] effect has been cancelled. The target is in a [BURNT] state. Additional damage of 79 HP/ second would be inflicted on the target for : 10 seconds. _________________________ The damage wasn''t much, just like Arnold had suspected, but this wasn''t the only effect this skill had. The ball of ice contained the power Arcane mes within them. The mes wouldn''t have managed to burn away the beasts skin on its own, but thanks to Phoenix cloak, the skin on Dreadnought''s back was melted away, exposing it''s spine. This was Arnold''s one and only chance to take down the Dreadnought. ___ YOUR SUMMON(S) : and have been destroyed by [DREADNOUGHT]. Time to resurrect : 1 hour. ___ With the corner of his eyes, Arnold saw his summons getting one-shotted by the Dreadnought''s club, just like the system had warned him. "No time to waste. ASTERIOS!" Arnold shouted and pointed towards the monster''s exposed spine. Even the thick brained Asterios knew what he had to do and used the ramp to climb over the Dreadnought''s back with lightning speed. Arnold''s n was simple, if he couldn''t use any weapon to break the Dreadnought''s spine, he''ll just have to smash it into bits, thanks to the effects of his new title, he and Asterios were capable of doing that. ___ Title bonus activated : [Crouching Figure] Please select a summon whose attribute you would like obtain temporarily : ? [Duke] : uracy (ACC) +85 ? [Talos] : Intelligence (INT) +80 ? [CERBERUS] : Agility (AGI) + 70 ? [Bad-Breath] : Stamina (STA) +60 ? [Asterios] : Strength (STR) +100 ? [Natasha] : Mystic (MYS) +?? ___ ''Asterios!'' Arnold selected the attribute in his mind and felt like a jolt of electricity ran through his body, his strength had increased a lot but he wasn''t done yet. ___ You''ve used the skill [BERSERKER''S RAGE] lvl. 5. All attributes have been boosted by +150% ___ Arnold formed a fist with both of his hands and mmed them down on Dreadnought''s spine with all his might. Asterios followed his master and did the same. Arnold heard a loud cracking noise as the monstrosity, who destroyed 3 of his elite summons, fell on his knees and took it''sst breath. Chapter 77 - Hidden Dragon Arnold heard a loud cracking noise as the monstrosity, who destroyed 3 of his elite summons, fell on his knees and took it''sst breath. Or so he thought. "Don''t f*cking tell me this guy is still alive after all that!" Arnold panted and so did Asterios. Even though it wasn''t possible for Talos to get ''tired'' even he looked exhausted after summoning an endless horde of skeletons.?? "The vitals of the monsters suggest otherwise, master." Talos replied to Arnold''s query. "Dang it let''s just finish it then. You ready Asterios?" Arnold looked at the minotaur, who had raised his hands in air and started bashing the Dreadnought''s skull, while Arnold and Talos tried to rip out it''s spine. "Keep... at it... it''s working!" Arnold''s face had turned red as he tried to pull out the monster''s spine. To elerate the process he summoned all of his golems to help but it was still taking a lot of time to do so. The more they pulled on to the spinal cord, the faster Dreadnought''s remaining HP decreased. "Just... 10 HP... left!" Arnold gritted his teeth but right before he was about to yank it off, a gunshot was heard and a momentter the the spinal cord was cut off from the beasts body. Arnold was shocked and looked towards the source of the gunshot. A man dressed in ragged cloak was standing behind the golems. He held two semiautomatic pistols in his hands and was looking at Arnold with a smug look on his face. But that wasn''t all. The man had five ck stars attached to his right shoulder, symbolising that he was an S ranked warrior from the White Wolves guild, the same guild whose members were killed in the stampede that Arnold had orchestrated. He used the probe skill just to confirm that his opponent was actually that strong. ___ NAME : Rion Tameron (Human) LEVEL : 95 RANK : S ROLE : Elite Gunslinger AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Blessed Shot ? Quick Equip ? Paralysing Shot HP : 5150/5150 Mana/Energy : 3154/4500 STRENGTH (STR) : 64 DEFENSE (DEF) : 85(+12) STAMINA (STA) : 72 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 95 AGILITY (AGI) : 99 ACCURACY (ACC) : 112 EVADE (EVD) : 101 CHARISMA (CHA) : 83 THREAT LEVEL : Moderate PERSONALITY: Willing, Loner, Unforgiving, Motivated and Revengeful. JOB: Guild protector - 99% satisfied. PHYSICAL/HEALTH: No notable issues. AFRAID OF: Death, Pain, and Getting lost. FITNESS LEVEL: 82% - Increasing. MOTIVATION: A thirst for revenge for his fallenrades. REMARK : Well now you know what an actual gunslinger looks like, not a half-as*ed one like yourself. Better stay away from that gun, a bullet for from that thing would pierce more than your body, if you know what I mean. ___ It was a bad situation for Arnold. He was exhausted, most of his elite summons had been destroyed, Talos and Asterios were both down for the count as well... and for his lower ss summons, they won''t stand a chance against this guy. His stats were strictly centered to his ss which was troubling. Arnold was still reading the the Rion''s information when another notification appeared on his interface. ___ The dungeon protector had been in by : Rion Tameron (Contribution : 0.667%) Helpers : Arnold Ling (Contribution : 56.37%) Undead minotaur (Contribution : 29.55%) and few more. The yer would receive the item : Please use the the dungeon along with the yer, Rion Tameron. ___ A white crystal appeared out of thin air near Rion who immediately pocketed it while still aiming one of his guns at Arnold and his summons. ''SON OF A BITCH!'' Arnold cursed Rion under his breath, not only did he steal the kill he also got the which was the only way out of the dungeon and would allow them to return to Earth. ''Where the hell did this guy appeared from? I am pretty sure no one was here when the fight began... he''s definitely one of those White Wolves people but they didn''t have a S ranked warrior in their ranks.'' Arnold thought. "Thinking about me?" Rion smirked as he continued, "Who am I? What the hell is going on? What should I do? h h h. I''m going to tell you what will happen next, I''ll use the crystal and get back to our world while you''ll be stuck in this dungeon and repent for killing my teammates." "Killing your teammates? They attacked me first! And I didn''t even do anything, they were killed by the monsters!" Technically he wasn''t wrong, they did die by the hands of the monsters. Well not by their hands but by their legs. "I know very well about what you did to them, I was there at the time, hiding in shadows bidding my time to strike you down." "So you were there and didn''t help them out? Some teammate you are. No wonder you''re a loner." Arnold shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah you''re right, I am a loner," Rion''s mouth twitched, "But don''t you worry, you''ll be one soon enough as well." Rion shot a bullet at Arnold''s legs. Arnold used the [sma shield] to stop the bullet, but the shield shattered the second, when the bullet made contact with it and managed to hit Arnold. "Don''t look so surprised dude. That bullet was nothing special. I just used a couple of my skills while taking the shot, which made your low grade barrier useless." Rion smirked as Arnold winced in pain. Arnold cursed Rion in pain, who proceeded to shoot down his summons at lightning speed, all of his summons were obliterated in moments, all except Asterios who was heavily injured and was unable to move. "I''d have loved to stay with you and y a little bit longer but you see I''ll have to leave now," Rion continued, "But I''d like to thank you for all the trouble you went through. I honestly thought you''d die by that monster''s hands but you did better than I could and defeated it. It''s thanks to you, I''ll be able to leave this dungeon without breaking a sweat." Arnold stayed quite and tried to use his ability but he couldn''t even move, it was that moment he realised, he had been paralysed, he looked at his status and the system confirmed that. "The paralysis effect is quite strong don''t you think?" Rion smiled once again and used the return crystal to activate the portal right in front of Arnold. "As a reward for helping me, I''ll let you in on a secret, killing this beast isn''t the only way to get out of the dungeon, but it was the easiest one. Haha. Adeus patife." (Author''s note : Adeus patife means goodbye rascal in Portuguese.) Arnold tried with all his might to drag his body towards the portal but it was all in vain. He couldn''t move nor could he use his spells to help him out. He could only watch Rion leave as the portal in front of him closed. "NO! NO! NO!" Chapter 78 - The Guide Between The Worlds The forest was shrouded in silence. Not that there was anything there that could make any noise, apart from Arnold, who hadn''t moved an inch from his position since his battle with the Dreadnought. It was gettingte, the sunset wasn''t half as beautiful as it had been previously, the twin blue moons which calmed his soul were now symbols of Arnold''s lost hope.?? ___ The Dungeon has been closed. Looking for alternative ways to return to the human realm. The system will remain unresponsive until the task ispleted. Please wait patiently... ___ He had been stuck in the dungeon for 2 days now, he knew that at least two days had passed inside the dungeon since his collision with the Dreadnought. He had resurrected the Dreadnought with Talos'' help, thinking maybe the Dreadnought would be able to tell him about the ''other'' way to exit the dungeon, but that piece of crap couldn''t even talk! As a result, He had sent his summons all around the forest to look for clues but so far it was all in vain. Even the burnt down forest had started rejuvenating, green patches of trees and grass could be seen here and there. Arnold was filled with rage and remorse, but this rage wasn''t directed at Rion. He felt enraged on his own ipetence. He was defeated because of his own stupidity, like always, but this time he actually had to pay the price for it. He heard someone walking towards him and sat up straight. "Anything?" Arnold asked his summons who shook their heads in dismay, "Looks like there wont be anything to eat today. Thanks for the effort though, I appreciate it." Arnold smiled wanly as his summons stared at their feet. They didn''t need to sleep or eat, but that wasn''t the case for Arnold, he had to eat and sleep regrly or else his stats might get affected because of it. It had been 4 days since he entered this dungeon, initially the meat obtained from monster carcass was enough for him to satisfy his stomach, but most of the carcasses had already decayed and were inedible, moreover his summons couldn''t find a single monster who was remaining in the dungeon, thus obtaining meat was impossible. "Looks like it''ll be the end of me after all." Arnold smirked andid down once again. He had already checked the shop. No food items were avable there. He recalled what Rion had said before leaving the dungeon. "As a reward for helping me, I''ll let you in on a secret, killing this beast isn''t the only way to get out of the dungeon, but it was the easiest one." ''Did he actually knew about something that even the system didn''t know, or was that rascal bluffing? But if what he said was true then how did he knew about it? Moreover, the those other guys from his guild knew something about this dungeon beforehand... is someone helping them out secretly?'' An endless wave of questions ran through his mind but he couldn''te up with anything useful. He had tried to use his foresight to see if it would be of any help, but it was marked ''Inessible'' for some reason and since the system had gone silent once again, Arnold was clueless about what he could do at this moment. "Finding those answers wouldn''t let me get out of this mess... I need to control my emotions..." Arnold mumbled and sat up once again and started meditating. Meditating would help him to rx a bit and maybe help him figure out a solution to the problem as well. Nichs'' words echoed in his ears, "Anger is your enemy. Control it, and it''ll be your greatest ally." Arnold took quick, but deep breaths and tried to calm his furiously beating heart. Nichs'' voice rang loudly in his head once again, "Anger is your enemy..." After what seemed an eternity, his heart finally calmed down and he slowly opened his eyes. His summons were still surrounding him, waiting for him to give an order. "That''s right. It''s too soon for me to be defeated. No mere dungeon can ever stop me!" With this Arnold got up and was greeted by a notification. ___ Conditions met : Will of Iron. You''ve didn''t lose sight of your future and hence you''ve proven your worth. [The Guide Between The Worlds] has acknowledged your presence and revealed her location. You''ve triggered a HIDDEN QUEST! [ TASK ] : Pass the trial of the [The Guide Between The Worlds]. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/6 Trials passed. [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? one ___ "The guide between the worlds? Is she some kind of Dungeon Master?" Arnold asked the system, who didn''t reply, "I''m having a bad feeling about this... but I don''t have a choice now do I?" Arnold recalled his summons back and stepped into the portal, only to be greeted by another notification. ___ You''ve entered the domain of a . All your skills have been temporarily reset. You won''t be able to use them until you sessfully pass the trial of [The Guide Between The Worlds]. Your inventory ess has been revoked. You won''t be allowed to consume mana for any purpose. All of your attributes have been temporarily reset as well. As a provision, you''re allowed to keep one of your attributes intact. Please select an attribute you''d like to keep : ? STRENGTH (STR) : 96 ? DEFENSE (DEF) : 75 (due to the gears) ? STAMINA (STA) : 78 ? INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 160 ? AGILITY (AGI) : 83 ? ACCURACY (ACC) : 94 ? EVADE (EVD) : 78 ? CHARISMA (CHA) : 86 ? MYSTIC (MYS) : 155 ___ "I F*CKING KNEW IT WAS A TRAP!" Arnold bellowed, "... and still feel right into it." He had expected something like this to happen but this waspletely absurd! How was he supposed toplete a trial with just a single attribute! He was bewildered. He was still thinking about what type of tasks he''ll have toplete. Selecting Evade, Charisma, Agility, Stamina or Defense was out of picture as, one, their level wasn''t high enough and two, Arnold won''t be able to achieve anything by using these attributes. He had simr issues with, uracy and Mystic, as even though they were high leveled attributes, he couldn''t use spells to call his summons or his weapons anymore as they had been sealed by the authority of [The Guide Between The Worlds]. Strength was a good option but then again, he wasn''t sure if the trial would require physical strength or not. ___ You have 15 seconds to choose an option. ___ "I''ve decided." Arnold said. His voice was filled with confidence. ___ You have selected . The trial will now begin. ___ Chapter 79 - Press Conference (1) BACK IN RIO... A press conference was being held by the White Wolves guild. It was to address what had happened inside the dungeon. It had been a long time since someone had gotten killed inside a portal and thus every news channel wanted the TRP associated with this situation and thus were busy asking questions to the ''Sole Survivor'' of what they were referring as the ''Disaster of the Year''. Even Nichs had been invited to this press conference as one of his disciple had ''supposedly'' died inside the dungeon. ? ? Rion was sitting in the middle of a long rectangr shaped table, his right and left seats were upied by the guild master and the guild manager respectively. Nichs was sitting next to the guild master, along with his other disciple, Gabriel. He had sent Christina home before things escted, ording to him, she was already troubled and he didn''t want to trouble her anymore, besides he already had his hands full because of the guild master of the White Wolves who was also the son of the President. Nichs had a bad feeling that after what he did to incite the poption of Brazil, the father - son duo would definitely cause some trouble for him. He was prepared to defend his honour and use his abilities on them if he felt the necessity to do so. Soon the questionnaire between the two parties began. "Guild master Mali, how long have you been hiding the ''Sole Survivor'' of this incident in your ranks? I mean as far as everyone knew you''re guild didn''t have any S ranked warrior before?" The man who asked this question was the same reporter who had been berating Arnold and branding him as the one who sabotaged the dungeon trip. Nichs knew in an instant that each and every single one of the reporters had been already bought by the government. There was no way Nichs'' was getting out of here with his reputation unscathed. He let out a small sigh and turned towards Mali. "Why would we hide a presence of an S ranked member? This trip was officially Rion''s first dungeon trip after bing a member of our guild and we had nned to hold a press conference to officially wee him to our guild after he hadpleted the trip." Mali recited what he had practiced, word to word, this was definitely a staged conference. "Any other questions?" "I''m sorry to ask such a question, but you just lost six of your elite warriors in that dungeon. How do you feel right now?" "Terrible... I still can''t process the fact that such elite warriors couldn''t make it back to us, I can''t help but wonder, if it was all fault of a certain man..." Mali covered his eyes as tears rolled down his cheeks, after a minute or so he finally stopped and continued, "but at least we have Rion with us who can tell us what happened inside the dungeon." ''Cut your theatrics as well as your crocodile tears, you were the ones who did this.'' Nichs thought and looked towards Mali who slyly smiled at him. The cameras were focused on Rion and hence no one saw this Nics have Mali a sharp look and Rion spoke up for the first time since the conference begun. "It is really unfortunate that I couldn''t save my teammates but I''ll definitely try to honour their memories by telling you the truth about what happened inside the dungeon." He stopped for a brief moment, took a deep breath and continued, "Master Fernandez''s disciple killed them all." The conference hall immediately burst into chaos. Cameras were shing everywhere, the reporters got up from their chairs and started spewing toxic things and questioning whether Nichs'' made a deal with Arnold, and knew about his ns etc. Mali turned towards Nichs, smiled like a sly dog and whispered so that only Nichs could hear what he was about to say, "Tit for tat, my friend. You tried to hamper father''s reputation, so I''ll destroy yours.'' Nichs didn''t reply to him, instead he raised his hand signaling the reporters to calm down, before continuing, "So Mr Rion, what were you doing when my disciple ''supposedly'' killed your team members?" Rion, turned towards Nichs and said, "I was scouting out the area when I heard someone''s cry for help and then immediately ran towards them only to see my teammates getting killed by your disciple''s summons. And before you ask how do I know whether they were his summons or not, I saw most of them when he had called them out before entering the dungeon." "Okay, then what did you do next? I''m sure you''d have liked to take revenge for your fallenrades?" Nichs asked another question, smiling in his mind as he knew Rion would slowly but surely fall into his trap. "I won''t lie, that thought did cross my mind but I didn''t knew the actual strength of him or his summons so I decided it was better to wait it out." He took a sip from his drink after waited for another question from Nichs. He was confident enough that he''d be able to handle his questions. "So you''re telling me that his summons fought right before your eyes and you couldn''t figure out their strength? I mean, you''re an S ranked warrior, I''m pretty sure you would have had a fair share of experience inbat? Moreover you''re saying that summons of B ranked warrior managed to kill one of the most elite forces of your guild?" Nichs barraged Rion with questions but it was just a beginning, he was yet to reveal his ace, and after that he could you guys incite skill once again to shift the momentum in his favour. He had to wait it out because of the limitation of his incite skill. It would only work if his targets had some kind if mental connection with him, which required time to be formed. Nichs has to bid his time out before destroying his opponents. Once and for all. "You have an answer for that? After all it''smon knowledge that a summoner can''t summon beings that are stronger than him or her." Nichs has forced Rion into a corner. "But... but, the government official confirmed that the summons were of A rank at least, before allowing him to enter the dungeon." Rion replied beads of sweat rolled down from his head. "Oh, but why would the official do that?" Nichs smiled once again. The hunter was about to get hunted by his prey, even after trying all the underhanded tricks, the President and his son were about to get pped in their faces as Nichs started unfolding his ns. Chapter 80 - Press Conference (2) "Oh, but why would the official do that? Guild master Mali and the President themselves said that Arnold didn''t have any right to enter that dungeon, then could you exin to me why would the official take a scan of his summons?" Nichs stroked his chin and continued. "Not only that, if the official did scanned them, then shouldn''t there be a record of it anywhere? And if there is a record then could you show it to us so that we could believe you? "Because these are some serious allegation and if you don''t have a proof then I could sue you for spreading false information about me and my disciple and also for making up fake stories to hide your crimes." ?? "W-What d-do you mean h-hide my crimes? I barely made out of the dungeon myself!" Rion lost his cool. "Okay then tell us what happened next?" Nichs still had ast card to y before revealing his ace. "Then sometimeter, I heard some mysterious noises s-so I-I went to investigate and saw that the murderer was fighting with the boss along with his summons. But the boss one-shotted his summons and killed him. A-After that I-I attacked the boss and managed to kill it. I g-got the r-return crystal and walked out of the portal as soon as I could." "That''s bulls*it!" Nichs roared and got up from his seat, "You''re telling me, a guy whose summons were ''supposedly'' all ranked at A, by an official who didn''t even scanned them, got one-shotted by the boss and you managed to kill the boss without getting a single scratch on your body? You think we are all idiots?" Mali looked shocked by this turn of events panicked just like the others. He yelled at the reporters to edit the footage but they couldn''t do it because they were broadcasting it live without any dy, it was impossible for them to do anything! They could switch off the cameras but the public had already seen what Mali had said about the matter, and if they still did what Mali wanted them to, it would hamper the ''credibility'' of their respective channels and they might lose their audience. No matter whether they were paid for this staged conference or not, they couldn''t risk to destroy their own image by trying to protect someone else. All of them were yed by a single man. It was no wonder why Nichs was nicknamed as the supreme mage, his influence and intelligence were way too high for them to evenprehend. But Nichs wasn''t done yet, he still had his ace. In the chaos, most of the cameras were still focused on Nichs, who ripped off the right sleeve of his attire revealing 11 white dots on them. The dots are rapidly blinking. The reporters were confused as to what was happening, but before they could ask anything, Nichs spoke up once again. "These eleven blinking dots signify each of my disciples. As long as these dots are blinking, it means that they are alive!" He tore the left part of the attire as well, there were a couple of ck dots on them, "These dots represent the number of friends and allies who are no more in the realm of the living." Nichs pointed on a white blinking dot before speaking again, "This dot signifies that Arnold, my disciple is still alive! What the guild and the President had been telling this whole time is nothing but lies! "This ''Sole Survivor'' is the one who killed his own team members and staged it all so that they could get some sympathy from the people after they sabotaged the dungeon trip! It''s because of them, people having innocent souls like my beloved disciple get punished for the crimes that they nevermitted! Wake up people! We cannot trust them anymore! They are all liars who only know how to manipte the innocent. We won''t take it anymore! IT''S TIME TO FREE BRAZIL FROM THE GRASP OF THESE MANIPULATIVE BAST*RDS!" Under normal circumstances people wouldn''t have actually believed what Nics was saying as he didn''t actually had any proof to backup what he was saying but thanks to the ''incite'' skill, his n had worked. He had sessfully managed to incite the people against the government. No one could save them now... No one! The looks on the faces of the reporters changed, Nichs'' ability had worked. Instead of badmouthing Nichs they started questioning Mali and the others. Mali gave a strange look to Nichs who smiles and leaned towards him before saying, "If you try to destroy my reputation, I''ll obliterate yours in its entirety." Mali knew he had lost the battle and all he could do now was run... run away from all this, but the question was how far would he be able to run? *** SOMEWHERE ELSE... Arnold was roaming inside the castle he was summoned to, looking for [The Guide Between The Worlds]. The castle was huge and was spread across an area of 15 to 20 square kilometers, so searching for a ''person'' here was no ordinary task. Generally Arnold''s would have used his summons to locate a target but this wasn''t possible for him to do so anymore as his summons had been sealed into his domain the moment he stepped into this castle. "Here goes the hundred and thirteenth chamber..." He mumbled and pushed open the door that was twice of his size. He looked inside the room, and was surprised after he saw what was inside. It was unlike any room he had been to so far, it looked as if it was a throne hall. The moment Arnold stepped into the room, massive braziers epassing each of the six limestone columns lit up the lower levels of the throne hall and coat everything in an orange glimmer. The rtively simple stonework on the domed ceiling dance in the flickering light while marble icons look down upon the marble floor of this magnificent hall. A teal rug ran down from the throne, while rounded banners hung down from the walls. Between each banner stood arge candlestick, some of them had been lit and in turn illuminated the statues of divine beings below them. Massive, stained ss windows were contoured by drapes which were colored as the banners. The curtains had been adorned with fancy tassels and gold leaves. A noble throne of porcin sat in front of a giant painting of some king and was adjoined by three simr, but less ornate seats for probably the direct family of the owner of the castle. The throne was surrounded by sculptures of a ruby winged angel. But it wasn''t the thing that attracted Arnold''s attention... because Arnold was staring at the one sitting on the throne. Chapter 81 - Hall Of Pain : Trial (1) ___ You have entered the scenario for your first trial. ?? [Scenario Name] : The Hall of Pain. [Task] : y the Orc chieftain within the time limit. [Time limit] : 10:00 minutes [Rewards] : Strength +20, Unlocks 2 random spells for you to use. [Failure] : Intelligence -30, HP -1000. ___ Multiple messages were shing before Arnold''s eyes but he didn''t paid any attention to them as he was busy looking at the Orc who was upying the throne. Even the C ranked Orc chieftain was much stronger than him right now. This guy was nothing but trouble, and Arnold remembered him very well. The Orc chieftain was one of the first dungeon bosses that Arnold had killed aftering to Brazil. The chieftain wasn''t strong himself but the skills and the club he wielded made him somewhat special. He still remembered the effect of the Orc''s [Cry of Madness] ability which was so frightening that even his undead summons couldn''t get anywhere near him. [Cry of Madness] was an AOE skill that summoned a miniature thunder storm around the orc. Anyone who got within the range of the storm was shot down by lightning strike. No matter how many people or summons tried to attack the orc, his defense was absolute. Even though Arnold knew how to handle the Orc, the solution was a very painful one and didn''t want to go down that road. "I know how to defeat this bastard, but would I be able to survive it?" Arnold questioned himself, all of his skills and attributes were sealed thus he wasn''t sure whether he should try moving ahead with the reckless idea he had or not. Although Arnold was pretty sure what [The Guide between the Worlds] wanted him to do. Since the scenario was named as , so the obvious conclusion was ''the guide'' wanted Arnold to feel the pain. What was the painful way of subduing the Orc? It was pretty simple actually, all one had to do was to let the lightning strike him or her for three times in a row and then the person would gain temporarily gain a buff which would make him/her immune from the lightning strikes for 5 seconds. All the person had to do was to end the battle in those five seconds. But without his abilities, weapons and defense equipment Arnold wasn''t sure that he''ll be able tost for three lightning strikes and even if he could, he didn''t have any weapons to kill the Orc with. "RAAAWWWRRR!" The Orc bellowed and started smashing the support pirs of the hall. The banners that hung on the pir got burnt away as they caught fire from the torches that had been dropped on the ground. Arnold was hiding behind one of these pirs and was nning how to move forward with the scenario, but it looked like he was out of luck... he had to do something now! He looked around the room hoping to find something that would be useful to defeat the Orc. ''Damn it! If only I had chosen my strength instead!'' Arnold knew he made the best possible decision by choosing intelligence over strength but in that moment, he couldn''t help but doubt his judgement. ''Calm down... let''s see what I can remember about Orcs.. they are easily agitated, they are clumsy AF, even though they are idiots they don''t have a thick skull, and are weak to stealth attacks.'' Arnold calmed himself and opened his eyes, he saw a broken torchying near his feet. Something was shining on its handle, Arnold carefully picked up the broken torch as he didn''t wanted to make any noise. ''Metal sps! I can work with these!'' Arnold smiled internally as he pulled off the metal sp from the wooden torch. He finally had a shot at defeating the Orc without endangering himself, but only one sp wasn''t enough for him to execute his n, he would need at least a few more, thankfully there was an abundance of torches in the throne room. At this moment another notification appeared on his interface. ___ Time left for the scenario to end : 5:00 minutes. ___ He dashed towards the other pirs. The Orc saw this and charged towards him, knocking every pir in his way. Even after sensing the danger that was chasing after him, Arnold couldn''t help but smile. ''Yup, chase me like the idiot you are!'' He thought. After the Orc knocked down the tenth pir with its club, Arnold took a u-turn and rolled between the Orc''s feet to dodge the Orc''s club, changed his direction and began sprinting again. The Orc however, wasn''t lucky enough to turn around in time due to his momentum and got mmed against the wall that was in front of him. Arnold took this opportunity and picked up as many broken torches as he could while the Orc was down and hid behind a pir once again. He needed to buy some time to extract the metal sps from the torches. "Come on... just a few more seconds." Arnold mumbled when he saw that the Orc was slowly getting up. "Done!" Arnold eximed when he pulled out thest metal sp from the torch and ran towards the Orc, who hadn''t gotten up yet. Arnold quickly jumped on to the back of the Orc and grabbed his neck, he then took out the of sps from his pockets and stabbed them into the Orc''s head, it was an easy task because if the pointed ends of the sp. The Orc winced in pain and pushed off Arnold from his back and turned towards him. To say that the Orc was angry would''ve been an understatement. The Orc was seething with pure, unadulterated rage. He let go of his club and a message appeared on Arnold''s interface. ___ WARNING ? : THE ENEMY IS ABOUT TO CAST A LETHAL SPELL! BACK AWAY AS FAR AS POSSIBLE. ___ ''This is it.'' Arnold smiled as ck clouds appeared all around the Orc, some faint crackling sounds could be hearding from the clouds. Without wasting a moment, Arnold ran back to his hiding ce behind a pir. The Orc roared loudly as a clouds got darker and a wave of thunder ran through the clouds. It was aimed towards Arnold, but even before it could prate through the clouds, the lightning wave turned it''s direction towards the Orc and struck him instead! The lightning might not have targeted the Orc, but in presence of so many metal conductors nearby, the wave had to change its direction and target the metal ps instead. ''That''s science b*tch!'' The throne room was filled with ear piercing noise of lightning strikes that continued for a few minutes. Even though one could gain an immunity from the thunder strikes for five seconds, it wasn''t much effective when they were subjected to continuous lightning strikes. Soon the clouds dissipated and Arnold came out of hiding only to see a roasted body of the Orc,ying in the middle of the room. The Orc''s burnt face was filled with agony and disbelief. But before Arnold could celebrate his victory over the fallen Orc, the door behind the throne opened up and a notification appeared on his interface. ___ [The Guide between the Worlds] was satisfied by your performance. You have managed to clear the scenario within the time limit. Please im your rewards before the second scenario starts. [Rewards] : Strength +20, Unlocks 2 random spells for you to use. ___ Arnold let out a sigh of relief and imed his rewards before heading into the next room to face another trial. Chapter 82 - Confront The Unknown : Trial (2) ___ You''ve cleared the scenario and earned the following rewards : ?? ? Strength (STR) +20 ? Two random spells have been unlocked : ¡ã [ELEMENTAL CONTROL : ICE] (lvl : 7) ¡ã [SOUL GRAPPLE] (lvl : 5) ___ "Okay, at least I won''t be helpless anymore. I''m well acquainted with ''ice control'' so it''s good that I got it back." Arnold smiled, "Let''s see what''s inside the next chamber." Arnold cautiously walked into the chamber as the doors closed behind him. The chamber was specially dark and Arnold could barely see a thing inside. He was thankful that he was finally allowed to use some skills but then he couldn''t help thinking about the kind of scenario he was about to face this time, after fighting the Orc, alone, even though it was dangerous to do so, Arnold couldn''t get rid of the exhrating feeling that he felt during the fight. So far Arnold''s answer to every situation was to call his summons. He needed a ride? Let''s call Cerberus out, or if he needed a ''meat'' shield... he''ll call out the golems to help him and what not. But right now he was experiencing the joys of fighting alone, even if it was risky. "Maybe this trial isn''t that bad after all?" Arnold mumbled, and the next moment the second scenario began. ___ You have entered the scenario for your second trial. [Scenario Name] : Confront The Unknown. [Task] : Identify the ''unknown'' attacker. [Time limit] : 10:00 minutes [Rewards] : The next monster you y, would be your summon. [Failure] : Poison effect that wouldst till youplete thest trial. ___ Arnold waited a few moments before closing the tab on his interface, no matter how many times he reread the description of second scenario, he couldn''t get past the weird objective is the mission. "All I have to do is to identify the attacker?" Something was definitely off but Arnold was confident that he''ll manage to take care of it, after all how difficult could it be? After all it was just like a puzzle, that he needed to figure out. "Yes... it wouldn''t be difficult..." A voice echoed through the dark chamber, "if I couldn''t hear your thoughts..." At that moment two arrows flew towards him. Although Arnold could see the arrows, he instinctively raised an ice wall around himself to save himself from them. ''That was close.'' Arnold sighed in relief as the arrowheads managed to prate through the wall. "Not bad... not bad at all." The voice resonated once again. As Arnold heard the voice once again, he felt a weird sense of familiarity with it, he knew he had heard this voice somewhere before but no matter how hard he tried to remember, nothing popped up in his head. "Don''t bother pressuring your brain to remember something that it can''t. You''d require a lot more than just my voice to decipher my origins..." The arrows kept oning, the wall had multiple cracks on it now. But Arnold didn''t bother to raise another one, right now he needed to focus on the voice that was distracting him. "Oh... you''re not gonna y by the rules, are you?" The voice sniggered. "Well... let''s increase the level of difficulty then!" The voice said those words and the wall that Arnold had constructed, started disintegrating. ___ You''ve received a debuff : The constructs that you build would be weaker and would only stand for five seconds before disintegrating into dust. ___ "Damn it!" Arnold cursed under his breath as he hastily raised another wall of ice behind the first one. "I won''t be able to focus like this!" "That''s the n, but since you''re ''intelligent''... I''m sure you''d... figure something out..." The voice continued as more arrows were shot in Arnold''s direction, this time the wall didn''t had the strength like it did before andpletely shattered upon impact from the arrows. Arnold couldn''t dodge the arrow in time and the arrow managed to find its mark on his right shoulder. "AARGH!" Arnold eximed in pain. "Tsk... tsk... tsk. I didn''t thought you''d be this weak! You won''t be able toplete the trial if you don''t go past me... Hahaha!" "Shut up." Arnold gritted his teeth and broke the shaft of the arrow that was stuck to his right shoulder. Normally he would''ve used a healing spell to pull out the arrow and get rid of the woundpletely but he didn''t have that ability for now. "No wonder you''re so pitiful... always depending on your summons to do everything... do you even make them wipe your a*s clean?" "I said shut up." Arnold replied as he made some spears using his elemental abilities, while constructing more walls as well. "Maybe you like that feeling when someone else does your bidding don''t you?" "Stop talking like you know sh*t about me." Arnold blurted out and grabbed a spear in his hands. "Oh? But I do know who you are!" The voice replied. "And so do I!" Arnold yelled as the wall in front of him disintegrated and threw the spear into a dark corner of the chamber. *** BACK IN FLORIDA... The city was littered with blood, weapons and carnage. Red, blue and ck were the new colors of what was once a spirited city, which has now be the stage of a full-blown invasion of monsters. The air which would normally had been loud and bustling with sounds of the city was now deafening with loud cries of pain, the sound of explosions and battle drowned any other sound in the area, hell had descended upon this area. Two armies were fighting each other, one to defend the people they wanted to protect while the other army consisting of monsters, was their to kill them all, but even after fighting for hours, it wasn''t clear who was winning. The dead and wounded of the human side were abundant and wereying in heaps around the city and the faces of the fighters are grim with horror and despair, but they refuse to give up. With the thought of victory in their minds the the monsters fought with a sense of destruction, believing it would all be over soon. Some of them had sumbed to exhaustion and were sleeping amidst debris, rubble and their wounded, while others longed for the end of this battle. The toll on both nature and humanity was heavy. It''s clear rubble, blood and broken siege engines had taken the ce of buildings, gardens and schools. All seemed hopeless until the 12 elite families decided to join their hands together to defend their country from an S rank dungeon break. Chapter 83 - The Angel Of Death: Trial (3) "How long can west against these monsters?" Elena White, leader of the White Family spoke first. The heads of the twelve elite families were discussing the matter of the S ranked dungeon break that happened a couple of days before. It was a matter of national emergency and thus even the President of United States of America was in attendance, not that he was given much importance as the family heads already had their hands full with current crisis. ? ? Every warrior who was active in the States had been summoned to take a part in the all out war that was happening right now, not that all of them were useful as their ranks were low and it was not a low ranked dungeon break, but an S ranked one but still they could provide help in one way or the other. "We should ask for help from the ''Mage of conscience'' and the ''Eternal Warrior''. Together with Johnny ck, they would be able to utilise their strengths in a better way...'' Madam Roosevelt, leader is the Roosevelt Family suggested to call, Brazil''s Nics Fernandez, the ''Mage of conscience'' and China''s Yu Zhung, the ''Eternal Warrior'', to help them in the moment of crisis. "Our forces are sufficiently strong to fend off the monsters! We don''t need to depend on the Chinese for help, not like those bastards would help us for free either way." Andrex Lash, another family leader spoke up. He had a special grudge against the Chinese as his wife, who was Chinese, had cheated on him with another man. It was a petty reason to hate the entire nation because of his wife''s infidelity but as the saying goes, ''It was, what it was.'' "Just because your partner cheated on you didn''t mean that the entire nation is damned. But you''re right they wouldn''t do it for free but we''re no different than them in that case don''t you think?" Alicia Marcelo, the leader of Marcelo family asked the others. Nathaniel was about reply when the President of the USA spoke up for the first time since the meeting began. "I think asking Chinese for help is a sensitive subject so I will not give a permission to do so." The ginger headed person smacked his lips and raised a finger, "America is, has, and always will be a global leader. Even in this moment of crisis! God bless America!" All the others present in the meeting room mentally smacked their heads after hearing the words which came out of Dobald Tramp''s mouth. (Author''s note : I guess we all know who this is). Nathaniel ignored the president''sments and turned his face towards Alicia before continuing, "We already contacted both China and Brazil. Apparently there was a dungeon break in China as well thus Yu Zhang is busy dealing with it at the moment while Brazil is going through a ''civil war'' themselves, so it''s a waste of time to think that they will be of any help but-" "The thing that worries me is the fact that we know very little about the ''boss'' of the dungeon. The warriors who went inside the dungeon were killed in an instan-" Andrex got interrupted by Alicia. "Not only that, this outbreak is particrly weird. Generally it''s the dungeon ''boss'' who leads the outbreak but so far no one even knows who or what the boss even is." Alicia said. "So it''s a lost cause?" Elena asked, but no one had an answer to her question. "Not at all. As I wanted to say before Sir Andrex interrupted me, we still have a ray of hope. We have her, after all Johnny is no longer America''s only defender." Nathaniel''s confident reply gave some relief to the others. But still all they could do was to sit in their bunker and hope that the warriors would be able to handle the situation. *** Johnny, Kolt, Aydan and the rest of the members of twelve families were busy fending the monsters off. They were killing beasts left and right but their overall numbers were sorge that even after going all out against the monsters. Moreover their numbers only dwindled for moment before more monsters got poured out of the dungeon and status quo was restored. Johnny had once seen such a scenario before, when Arnold lost his cool and summoned a portal while he was fighting with the ''inhuman'' known as Bob, and he knew it that no matter what they do, their situation wasn''t going to improve just like it didn''t improve for Bob. ''I bet he''d do something reckless is he was here.'' Johnny remembered Arnold and smiled. "Quit spacing out big guy!" Kolt yelled as he smashed the giant scorpion that was about to use it''s stinger on Johnny''s back. "Thanks. I owe you one." Johnny mindlessly thanked him. "Yeah you will. Now FOCUS YOU MOTHERFU*KER!" Kolt bellowed once again, but didn''t push it as he understood what Johnny was going through. After all, all of them had been fighting on the front lines ever since this outbreak happened. It was obvious that they were exhausted and unlike the monsters, they didn''t have an endless supply of warriors that could help them fend off the attack. The only way they could put an end to this was to defeat and kill the boss but unfortunately no one was able to reach near the dungeon portal. The monsters were concentrated near the portal and it wasn''t easy to get rid of that many monsters, even Johnny had failed when he tried to push through the monsters. "Damn they just keeping!" Aydan panicked after he saw goblins, ogres, and orcs that were making their way towards them through the army of monsters. "Just how many asshol*s are inside that thing!" Someone from Roosevelt family gritted her teeth. Just as it looked like all was lost, Johnny got a message from the intelligence unit through his earpiece, "She''s awake now. Fall back before she arrives there." "Copy that. We''re moving out now. Tell her no matter what happens, she doesn''t need to hold back." Johnny replied and ordered his team to fall back. "Is she the one everyone''s been talking abouttely?" The same girl from Roosevelt family asked, "The fourth SS ranked warrior in the history?" "Actually she might be stronger than the rest of us SS ranked warriors. Last time when I sparred with her, I ended up in hospital, even though it was a hand to handbat session and I''m a brawler." Johnny smiled as he boasted about his defeat. "You''re really weird you know that right? I mean most of the people would feel ufortable after being beaten by a girl, but here you are all smiles about someone who could potentially take your spot as ''America''s defender''." the girl replied, "by the way-" The girl wanted to say something else but the loud noiseing from a helicopter interrupted her thoughts, as she saw a teenager, dressed in a ckbat suit stepped out of it and fearlessly started walking towards the horde of monsters. "You''re not going to say that ''she''s'' the fourth warrior now, are you? She''s just a teenager for GOD''S SAKE!" The girl eximed, and she wasn''t the only one to feel that way. Everyone one except those from the ck Family were both surprised and confused by this teenager''s appearance on the battlefield. Even the monsters were confused by the daring of this young girl. The ogre who looked like he was the in-charge of the battle force of monsters, sniggered and said something to the goblins in monster tongue after which five goblins rushed towards the girl with daggers and clubs in their hands, ready to maw down the teenager, but even before they could touch her... they got disintegrated into dust. Nothing was left behind... now even their bones. The monsters were shocked by what they saw and instinctively backed down. Even Johnny was surprised at the behavior of the monsters. Soon a few more monsters came out of the dungeon. Even so, after appearance of the teenager on the battlefield, things such as status quo were no longer valid and wouldn''t get restored even if a hundred monsters came out of the dungeon, because the moment their gaze met the teenager''s, they got turned into dust. This was the power of the world''s fourth SS ranked, who was nicknamed as ''The angel of death'' by the ck Family, and was none other than Nicole Ling. Chapter 84 - Youre Me? : Trial (4) BACK IN THE DOMAIN OF [GUIDE BETWEEN THE WORLDS] Arnold kept throwing the spears he made using his elemental abilities in what seemed like arbitrary directions but whenever he threw a spear, they shed against something and these shes were followed by a noise as if something broke. ?? It wasn''t like everytime Arnold threw a spear it met its target, since the room was pitch ck and he had to actually force his hearing ability to the point that he was able to recognise even the faintest sounds. This exceptional hearing wasn''t a resultant of one of his abilities or subsses, but it was the result of the mental training he had been going through for the past year. Thanks to this hearing ability he was able to deduce the fact that the arrows that were being shot at him, were shot by some type of ''machinery'' and not some kind of being, as one, he always heard a weird clicking sound right before an arrow was shot towards him and two, the arrows were shot at him in regr intervals. In retaliation he kept throwing the spears one after another and soon the numbers of arrows that were shot towards him, reduced. What little strength he had, also paid an important role in the destruction of the arrow shooting machines, because without his strength, no matter how much force he''d put into throwing the spears, he would not have been able to destroy the those machines in a single throw. With the decrease in the threat of arrows, He could finally start concentrating on figuring the identity of his unknown enemy. ___ Time remaining before the trial ends : 04:53 minutes. ___ ''Almost half of the time is gone. I have to figure something out!'' Arnold thought and he mindlessly stared in the dark room. "I would''vemended you on sessfully wasting two-thirds of your time by destroying the useless artillery inside the room which had nothing to do with your trial." The voice taunted Arnold. "Ah... you''ve always been like this... always." Arnold felt a strange after hearing what the voice said. All the while that he had been throwing spears left and right, the voice had never spoken once, but know when he was trying to concentrate once again on the task at hand, the voice suddenly reappeared to distract him from doing so. ''Is this thing somehow linked to my mind or something?'' Just as Arnold thought about it, the voice gasped like a thief who had been caught red-handed. Arnold could almost ''visualise'' the owner of the voice panicking, he was definitely a step closer to solving this mystery. He was about to blurt something out when another notification appeared on Arnold''s interface. ___ Rules of this scenario have been altered by the [GUIDE BETWEEN THE WORLDS] : You only have one chance to guess the identity of the enemy. If your guess is wrong you''ll automatically fail the trial, even if there was time remaining. Be careful while making your choice. ___ ''Dammit!'' Arnold didn''t know whether he should curse his fate or not. Initially he thought that since he had some time left he''d make some calcted guesses from the information he had obtained till now and hopefully he''ll be able to solve this ''puzzle'' and end the scenario, but he took too much time toe with this idea, and now the rules had been changed. He. Was. Pissed. But even after that, he couldn''t allow his anger to take over him. Anger won''t do him any good in this situation either way, instead it would make his mind hazy and he wouldn''t be able to make a rational decision which could potentially lead him to a difficult path. With some effort, Arnold was finally able to calm himself and thought about what he had to do next. ''All I need is a couple of more clues or something.'' But the more he thought about it, noisier the voice got. The voice started blurting out about anything and everything that Arnold found hurtful, but instead of triggering him, the words spoken by the voice, had a totally different effect on Arnold because it helped him narrow down the choices he initially had. As Arnold never spoke freely about the things that triggered or angered him, only a mind reader would be able to know these things. After this, Arnold was pretty sure that it was the case and was about to make his choice when the voice said something that even Arnold himself had forgotten about... "YOU''RE JUST A PATHETIC WEAKLING WHO COULDN''T EVEN PROVE HIS COUSIN WRONG!" The voice bellowed, "HE USED TO TOUCH YOUR SISTER IN INAPPROPRIATE PLACES! YOU KNEW ABOUT IT AND STILL DIDN''T DO ANYTHING TO STOP HIM!" At that moment Arnold went silent. It was indeed true that he once saw his ''cousin'', his uncle''s son, do weird things with his sister but his sister wasn''t the only victim as he did simr stuff with other girls who were in the family as well, but unlike what the voice was saying, Arnold didn''t ignored this incident and did try to help his sister and the others by informing his parents about it. His mom and dad believed him because he had never lied to them before. They were furious at their uncle and his son, who was 12 at that time. His dad went to confront him. Arnold had already talked about this to his cousins and the others, who assured him that when the time came they''ll definitely support him. But they didn''t. For some reason, no one said a word against their cousin. But his uncle started belittling Arnold and his father, even when Nicole tried to exin what the cousin in question used to do her, no one believed her and everyone med Arnold for ''Corrupting'' Nicole''s innocent mind with teaching her vulgar things. Even when no one believed what Arnold was saying, his father stood by his side and cut all contact with his family. Arnold''s father even divided their family business. Everyone thought he had gone mad but it was this gesture that made Arnold love his father even more... But it was all long ago, that Arnold himself had forgotten about it all as he had been seven years old back then. But Arnold became furious when he remembered how useless he had been in the past but before he could let the anger consume him, a realisation hit him. No one knew about this incident... not even Nathaniel or Nichs were the world''s most experienced mind readers, who had often looked into his mind, in order to help him with his ''issues''. It was due to the reason that Arnold himself had forgotten about that incident, thus no one got to know about it, even after looking through his mind. But if even mind readers weren''t able to know about this incident, how could someone else know about it? Moreover the voice seemed to be personally attached to this subject as well, could it be that... "...you''re me?" Arnold mumbled. The moment Arnold uttered those words a familiar notification popped up in front of his eyes. Chapter 85 - Wyvern : Trial (5) "...you''re me?" Arnold mumbled. The moment Arnold uttered those words a familiar notification popped up in front of his eyes.?? ___ It takes courage to acknowledge your own mistakes and work to set your life on the right part. You''ve cleared the scenario and earned the following reward(s) : ? A special reward has been added to your inventory. ___ With these words, the darkness of the room slowly dissipated and a neon blue hue covered the room. The room was made up of mirrors in its entirety, the walls, support pirs and it''s structure were simr to the throne room, in which he had defeated the Orc chieftain. The mirrors were reflecting the light that was generated by the luminous blue moss, that covered the entire ceiling of the room. It reminded Arnold of the day he had found the skill books and affinity scrolls, back when he was still a porter, since that dungeon was covered with simr moss as well. "A lot has changed since then... hasn''t it?" Arnold smiled wanly as he saw his reflection in the mirror in front of him. "I was hopeless back then... maybe I still am. But one thing is for sure, I''m not powerless anymore, and those who was wronged me will pay the price for doing so..." Arnold''s right hand got covered with a thickyer of ice, as he punched the mirror in front of him with all his might, "It doesn''t matter whether they are family or not." "Are you sure you can do that?" The voice asked Arnold. Arnold thought that since the scenario was over, the voice would''ve disappeared as well, but he was wrong. His reflection in the mirrors was reced by that of a kid, that looked a lot like Arnold did in his initial years... "Are you sure, when the timees you''ll be able to do what''s necessary?" Arnold''s younger self squeaked. "I''m sorry that I forgot about the worst thing that happened to Nicole... but thanks to you- I mean thanks to me... I now remember it again." It was really weird and awkward for Arnold to talk with ''himself'' but there were a lot of weirder things in this world that he had witnessed so he quickly got over it and had a heart felt conversation with his younger self, that ended with him promising that he''ll never forgive the uncle and his family who had wronged them on numerous asion, only after that did the voice and the boy disappearpletely. After the conversation, Arnold stretched his neck and he stepped through the door that would''ve led him to the next scenario, not knowing the fact that [The Guide between the worlds] was watching his every move. "interesting... very interesting..." The Guide spoke for the first time in a century, "He might actually be the one to take your ce and be your heir, my lord..." *** Arnold stepped into next room which was surprisingly huge, right before Arnold coulde up with reasons, why it was like that, his questions were quickly answered when the information about the scenario popped up on his interface. ___ You have entered the scenario for your third trial. [Scenario Name] : Lesser dragon, bigger pain. [Task] : y the Wyvern, the lesser dragon. [Time limit] : No time limit [Rewards] : The rewards will vary upon the time taken to y the Wyvern. [Failure] : Failure is not an option. You won''t be able to proceed to the next scenario until and unless you y the beast. ___ "Great. y a Wyvern. ARE YOU F*CKING KIDDING ME?" Arnold was surprised but wasn''t shocked, instead he was... angry? So much for meditation... But he had no choice in the matter. If he wanted to go back he had to ovee the tasks and scenarios that were given to him, no matter what. As if his thoughts were being read by someone, a momentter a Wyvern appeared in front of his eyes. "Tsk... Let''s get this over with!" Arnold made some makeshift spears using his elemental abilities and fearlessly charged at the Wyvern. *** AT AN UNKNOWN PLACE... "Your vassal is very... interesting this time... my love." A feminine voice said before caressing the muscr shoulder of someone who was sitting on a throne. "You think so too, huh?" The man spoke with an indifferent tone. "Do you think our mission would be a sessful, after all this time?" "Of course it''ll be sessful... I''m sure your vassal has everything that would allow him to be called as your heir." The man nodded and looked around the ce he was currently residing in. The ce was weird and nothing could be seen for miles and miles. The ce was just covered with ''cold sand'', mountains, and a single throne that were under the protection of the stars. The body of the man, who was sitting on the throne, was at the peak of it''s physical condition. The buffed up body was covered with scars, caused by godly weapons, during the times he fought with demons, fallen angels and what not. The man was draped in a cloth made up of monster skin, which only covered his waist and thighs, a three headed spear, the ''Trident'', rested next to his throne. This was the same trident that he had used to y various Gods and demons, who dared to rise against him, disturbed the bnce of the universe and challenge his authority as the protector of the universe. The throne he was sitting on was nothing but a gigantic ck stone. The god like being wore his hair in a tight bun, wore a snake around his blue throat as an ornamental piece, his entire body was covered with the ''cold sand'' but that wasn''t what it actually was... it was ashes... the ashes that remained after he incinerated his enemies, who tried to disturb the bnce of the universe and use their powers to cause harm to the others. For his enemies he was the God of Destruction, For his preachers he was The Destroyer of Evil, for his fellow Gods he was the Supreme Being... he was Shiva, the immortal one. [Author''s note : If you''d really like to know about Shiva (A God preached by the Hindus, and one of my favorite Gods) then I''ll include the wikipedia link below and you can read about him there! Link : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva ] Chapter 86 - Lesser Dragon, Bigger Pain : Trial (6) "I thought since the Wyvern won''t be able to fly inside the room... I''ll have a better shot at killing it but have my life ever been that easy?" Arnoldint and ced his hands on his knees, panting from exhaustion due to running around a lot. He wasn''t running around the room because of some absurd reason, actually... he was running for his life! ?? The room he was inside was vast but it wasn''t very high, the height of the room was about 10 feet and hence, despite having wings, the Wyvern couldn''t fly inside the room. Initially Arnold thought this was a blessing in disguise, but little did he know that this blessing would turn into a curse, as the Wyvern was enraged as his ability to fly was restricted and the Wyvern, due to its low intelligence, could only me the person in front of her for it. Arnold initially decided to retaliate and started throwing icy cold spears towards the lesser Dragon, but to his surprise, his spears broke like icicles upon contact with the Wyvern''s thick ck skin. Basically, making his only way of offense useless. The only positive thing in this entire scenario was the presence of numerous pirs that were spread across the entirety of the room at regr intervals, and for some reason, these pirs weren''t affected by the mes that the bastard reptile was spewing right and left. ___ Time passed since beginning of trial : 2:49 minutes. Clearance rewards (Divided into ranks) : SS : Scenario cleared under 02 minutes [?] S : Scenario cleared under 05 minutes [--] A : Scenario cleared under 20 minutes [--] B : Scenario cleared under 30 minutes [--] C: Scenario cleared under 40 minutes [--] D : Scenario cleared under 50 minutes [--] E : Scenario cleared under 60 minutes [--] ___ "Tsk." Arnold clicked his tongue, although he knew that he would not have been able to get the SS ranked reward for ying the Wyvern, but seeing the opportunity get wasted away was still a bit painful. He shook his head and reminded himself that survival was more important than some ''measly'' reward. After all, the was a limit to mindlessly charging towards his enemies. ''It''s gone quite all of sudden...'' Arnold thought and peeked towards the Wyvern while hiding behind the pir. To his surprise, the dragon was gazing right towards him. The Wyvern''s calm pearly eyes sat well within the creature''s rounded, horned skull, which gave the creature a very ominous looking appearance. There were several horns atop its head, just above its wide, warped ears. Rows after rows of crystal growths ran down the sides of each of its jaw lines. It had a thick snout with two tiny, warped nostrils and there''s a crystal-like growth on its chin. Several huge teeth poke out from the side of its mouth and give a preview of the terror hiding inside. Its huge neck ran down from its head and into the humongous body. The top was covered in massive scales and a row of armor ting ran down its spine. Its bottom was covered in thick skin and is colored darker than the rest of its body.Four massive limbs carry its body and allow the creature to stand graceful and arrogantly. Each w had 6 ''fingers'', each of which end in narrow nails seemingly made of bone. Slender wings grew starting from just below its shoulders and ended at its hips. The wings were almost angel-like, a specializedyer of seemingly color-changing skin made up most of the wing and each bone structures ended in a curved, yet blunt tip. Its massive tail ended in a sword-like edge and was covered in the same massive scales as its body. All in all it looked like a living nightmare, a nightmare that Arnold had to ovee and y. As the Wyvern prepared to unleash another wave of fire, Arnold used his elemental abilities and covered the entire floor with a thickyer of ice. The Wyvern, who didn''t expect Arnold to use such a trick, lost its bnce and shot his deadly mes towards the ceiling instead. Arnold expected that nothing would happen to the ceiling as it was made up of simr material that the pirs were made of but unlike his expectations, the seemingly ''indestructible'' ceiling, crumbled and crashed upon the Wyvern itself. To Arnold''s surprise, no damage was inflicted on the Wyvern, as he rose from within the rubble and shook his gigantic head to get rid of the dust that covered it. "Even the roof couldn''t stop it... not even for a moment." Arnold mumbled. He was astonished by the power of this demonic being, he wondered how he was supposed to defeat something like this. When he was about to lose the little bit of hope that he had, a surprising notification appeared on his interface. ___ A yer''s weapon had appeared. ___ "yer''s weapon?" Arnold mumbled as the words were reflected from his retina. Something shed in his eyes as his gaze fell on the yer''s weapon that fell from the broken roof of the chamber. "VINDICATOR!" It was none other than Arnold''s old and trusty pair of guns. Arnold didn''t cared why his guns had been branded as ''yer''s weapon'', he was simply excited about seeing his weapon and hopefully, ''a way'' to put an end to the Wyvern itself. But this joy was short lived as the guns fell hear the Wyvern''s right foot and were rolling around the lesser dragon''s legs. It was a location where no one could''ve easily pick them up, Arnold was troubled once again. On one hand it was absolutely necessary for him to obtain the Vindicator if he wanted to y the Wyvern, but on the other hand, he was 100% sure that if he made even a minor mistake while he tried to retrieve the guns, it would lead to his death... ''Even if I don''t do anything, I''ll die. The Wyvern will get me sooner orter.'' Arnold mentally prepared himself, to face the Wyvern. Chapter 87 - Death? : Trial (7) ''No way out of this.'' Arnold thought. He took a few quick breaths and fearlessly charged towards the Wyvern, he was focused on his goal - obtaining the Vindicator. No matter what, obtaining the vindicator was essential if he wanted to defeat the Wyvern. ?? Even the Wyvern had got a wind of the situation when it saw Arnold, who had been hiding for so long, charging right towards itself and prepared to confront him by spewing an endless stream of fire at him. Arnold had already seen through this and was well prepared to defend himself by using the pirs to his advantage. He would hide behind one of the pirs and wait for the Wyvern''s attack to end and after that he''d rush towards the Wyvern again. The n was simple but executing it was no joke as it was not an easy task to predict when the Wyvern would unleash it''s attack. It was easier for Arnold to dodge the Wyvern''s attacks when there was some distance between them, and it took some time for the mes to reach him, giving him an ample amount of time to hide behind a pir. But this wasn''t possible as he began to get closer towards the Wyvern, because he could no longer take the distance advantage to himself. He kept dodging and running but the closer he got to his goal, the riskier it became. Now not only did he had to be careful about the mes, but he had be weary of the sharp ws and the sword-like tail of the Wyvern as well. Just one hit by one of those things and he would get turned into minced meat, a thought he was not fond of. The Wyvern might have been thinking the same thing as it started swinging it''s tail around like a mad titan. Of course it didn''t knew what the thing fell from the sky was, but all it cared about was that it''s enemy needed the thing that was near its legs and it had to ensure that the human couldn''ty his hands on it. This was the reason why the Wyvern had gone berserk and wasshing out in such a manner. While the Wyvern was analysing Arnold''s moves, Arnold was busy doing the same. ''It takes about 30 seconds for the brat to use it''s fire attack... so if I rush out after its attack ends I''ll have about 30 seconds to grab the guns, that is, if I''m able to dodge it''s ws and tail...'' Arnold was constantly revising his ns based on the situation, ''If only I had the foresight now... tsk. If I make it alive through this trial I''ll use that skill all the f*cking time!'' The Wyvern finally used the it''s fire attack on Arnold, who had been waiting for the Wyvern to do so. The attack didn''tst long and Arnold immediately broke into sprint, while counting down to thirty in his head. Even though his agility attribute was sealed, the adrenaline coursing through his veins, ended up giving him an insane boost. This was proved a secondter when the Wyvern swung it''s left paw right at him, but Arnold somersaulted over the giant paw and rolled a couple of times under the Wyvern''s armoured belly, before getting up. But he didn''t had the time to celebrate as the moment he stood up, another paw was thrown at him which he managed to dodge, by the skin between his teeth. All of this happened in mere eight seconds, Arnold still had twenty two seconds before the Wyvern could unleash the fire attack again. Even though he managed to dodge the attack, he lost his bnce and fell over a small pile of rubble. The Wyvern, not wanting to lose this opportunity, used it''s tail to attack him once again. Arnold rolled out of the way and escaped. The next second, the Wyvern''s sword-like tail mmed down on to the rubble, it''s tail had broken through the part where Arnold''s crotch was a moment ago. "THAT WAS LITERALLY A DICK MOVE DUDE! NOT COOL! NOT COOL AT ALL!" Arnold shouted as he moved towards the vindicator. Fifteen seconds have been passed, he had to hurry, but it was harder than pronouncing pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis in one try! (Author''s note: Yup. This is genuine word, in fact it is the longest word in literature. It is a wordthat refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhtion of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.) The Wyvern once again threw his tail towards him. Arnold felt his luck running out as his left cheek got grazed by the tail. Even though it was a small cut, it felt like someone had poured moltenva on his wound after rubbing a kilogram of salt and pepper on it. Arnold''s eyes teared up a little bit, but he kept pushing through. Things only got worse after that. He became a lot slower and hence he couldn''t defend himself well enough. He got five more wound after his cheek was grazed, thankfully he wasn''t critically injured but the pain he was feeling was like nothing before. He didn''t allow the pain to stop him frompleting his task though and was still adamant on getting his hands on the weapon, what had been pushed back towards the Wyvern''s hind legs in all of themotion. Arnold forgot the count when he was hit for the first time. So he had no clue, how much time he had left before the Wyvern would use it''s attack once again. "Damn it... this pain isn''t allowing me to think clearly!" Arnold gritted his teeth as he slowly made his way towards the guns while barely dodging the Wyvern''s attacks. To his clouded mind, it felt like he was dodging the Wyvern''s attacks when in reality the Wyvern was simply ying with his prey but it soon got bored with it and decided to cut short it''s ying time. Arnold''s vision had gotten a bit blurry due to the pain but he roughly saw the Wyvern''s tailing towards him but he wasn''t afraid of it like before. "Looks like... it''s time use that..." Arnold mumbled. He had been saving this skill to use it in the final trial but it looked like he would have to use it now. Arnold calmly closed his eyes and muttered two words, "Soul Grapple." Arnold hadn''t used this skill in a while so he had forgotten how it felt to have his soul ripped apart from his body. Since he knew the time restriction of his skill Arnold didn''t waste a single moment and entered the Wyvern''s body. That''s when multiple texts appeared on his interface. (Author''s note : technically, it''s his conscience, not his soul) ___ You have upied a cosmic being. Total duration of the skill after deduction : 2 seconds. ___ Two seconds might not have been much, but for Arnold, it was just enough as he just needed to divert the Wyvern''s attack in order to save his body, before he was pulled out of the Wyvern''s body. Just as Arnold regained the control of his body, he saw the sword-like tail suddenly change its direction and hit the pir next to him instead. He used this time to leap at the guns but just as he did... he saw a faint glow of light that wasing from behind... thirty seconds were over. Before Arnold could do anything... his body was surrounded with mes. Chapter 88 - You Cant Kill Me! : Trial (8) Arnold raised his arms to protect himself from the mes, he never believed his hands would be able to stop the mes but his actions were totally based on instinct and reflex. He knew he messed up. BIG TIME. When he saw the sea of mesing towards him. Arnold expect he''ll get burnt or at the very least, he''ll feel some of pain, but instead he just felt... warm, as if he was sitting next to a firece. ?? ''That''s weird.'' Arnold thought and slowly opened his eyes and witnessed that a transparent and colourless jelly like substance hadpletely covered his body. Thisyer of mysterious substance was protecting him, but sadly this wasn''t the case for his clothes that got vaporised the moment the mes touched them. Before Arnold could think what was going on, a text appeared on his interface. ___ passive skill : [Devil''s Advocate] has been activated. Your immune to true damage causing abilities. You''re immune to Vritra''s [HELLFIRE] attack. ___ "LOOKS LIKE, I''M A LUCKY SON OF A GUN, AFTER ALL!!!" Arnold screamed his lungs out and then his eyes fell on his body, "...my clothes..." Arnold waspletely naked in front of the fire breathing Wyvern. Talk about disrespecting your opponent! When the Wyvern finally stopped spewing fire, even it looked confused. No one would ever be able know why the Wyvern was confused. Maybe it was confused after seeing that Arnold was unscathed from its attack or maybe it was confused after seeing Arnold''s own ''baby Wyvern''? But for whatever reason, the Wyvern was pissed and it was ready to vent its anger out on Arnold. After letting out a high pitched roar, the Wyvern turned around to confront Arnold, who was still surrounded with the jelly-like substance. ___ Vritra1 is about to use [HELLFIRE] lvl 9. ___ Arnold was once again surrounded in mes but the end result remained the same. Vritra''s hellfire attack was simr to Arnold''s arcane mes ability and was simply it''s evolved form. Hellfire was superior to arcane mes in every factor, the only problem was that the Wyvern''s skill had evolved to be true to its name - Hellfire, a fire that could devour anything. Essentially it meant that the Hellfire could only cause true damage... something Arnold had immunity to. The Wyvern, no matter how hard it tried, could not cause Arnold any harm using its most lethal and effective skill. Seeing it''s attacks fail again and again, the Wyvern finally gave up on using fire attacks and went back to attack Arnold using it''s ws and tail. But to the Wyvern''s surprise, even though it''s attacks were hitting their intended target, Arnold wasn''t getting hurt by the attacks at all! It was because... ___ Passive skill : [WILL OF EARTH] has been activated! The user HP is below 20%. The user has entered the state for a duration of 20 second. ___ The Wyvern looked at Arnold in confusion while Arnold burst intoughter. He finally figured out why his some of his abilities were still functioning. Although the system had informed him that all of his abilities had been sealed, in reality only his ''active'' abilities had been sealed while his ''passive'' abilities were still active and working as usual. "It''s been quite a while since thest time [Will Of Earth] had activated." Arnold smiled, "Twenty seconds of immunity against the Wyvern''s attacks? I''ll take it." Arnold hurriedly grabbed the vindicator and used his ice elemental abilities to quickly refill the empty magazine of the gun. "You had thirty seconds to end me... but you couldn''t. Now I have twenty seconds to end you and I''m sure I will." Arnold was still smiling as he pointed the guns towards the Wyvern''s tail first, and without wasting a second, barraged it with bullets. Arnold wasn''t sure whether it would cause any decent damage to the Wyvern or not but the results were surprising to say the least as not only the bullets shot out of his guns managed to prate through the Wyvern''s skin but also managed to trigger various passive of his gunslinger subss. ___ You''ve dealt 598(+0) points of damage to your target. Damage inflicted after damage reduction due to target''s defense : 120 HP Your bullets triggered the exclusive skill : ? [EXPLOSIVE SHOT]. Additional Damage dealt : 72 HP ? [LUCKY SHOT]. Additional true damage dealt : 39 HP ? [DOUBLE EDGE]. Damage dealt was multiplied by a factor of : 2 Total damage dealt : 461 HP Target''s remaining HP : 20396/25000 ___ "Looks like you weren''t anything special after all..." Arnold didn''t know why but he was a little bit disappointed by the results, he had only fired 10 bullets and not only the Wyvern''s tail got severed, it also lost about a fifth of its health! The Wyvern that was just moments away from killing him, turned out to be pretty weak and yet Arnold was having such a hard time trying to stay alive from the Wyvern''s attacks in the first ce! Arnold was now pissed at his own ''weakness'', wondering if he was actually nothing without his weapon and spells? The Wyvern was clearly in pain, since it''s body was huge, none of the bullets missed their mark. The Wyvern started smashing his paws left and right but it had no effect on Arnold who kept shooting at the lesser dragon, and each of the bullets triggered two if not more passive effects but every sixth bullet that hit the Wyvern was incredibly more painful. It was because, every sixth bullet that escaped Arnold''s weapon had a special effect. ___ ? [ STATIC RAGE ] : (Passive ability) After sessfully inflicting damage for 5 times in a row, the sixth attack would deal +35% of physical attack as additional true damage. ___ "It''s over for you." Arnold mumbled as the Wyvern finally sumbed to the innumerable wounds on its body. ___ You''ve killed a cosmic being. EXP : +10000 First rank C Cosmic being killed : EXP : +12000 First Wyvern killed. EXP : +8000 ___ Although the experience he got was quite huge, his eyes were fixed at one thing, "That Wyvern was a rank C being?" ***** 1. Vritra, also known as "Ahi", is aserpent, wyvern ordragonand is a majorasura (demon) inVedic religion. He is the personification ofdrought, and adversary ofIndrathe thunder god (in hinduism) and king of heaven. He appears as a dragon blocking the course of theriversand is heroically in byIndra. The term ahi iscognatewith the ZoroastrianAzi Dahaka. Chapter 89 - Riddles : Trial (9) ___ You''ve cleared the scenario and earned the tier reward : ?? PLEASE WAIT WHILE A REWARD IS SELECTED... You''ve performed exceptionally well and hence you have been granted : ? ck Wyvern''s egg. [You are required to take care of this egg and bath it using blood. The egg will absorb the characteristic of monsters from their blood. Use different type of monster bloods to achieve better results. The egg will open after 120 days. ] ___ "So essentially you''re giving me Toothless?" Arnold smirked, "But on a serious note, I''ll have to bath it using blood, that''s a bit extreme. Not like that''s the weirdest thing I have heard in my entire life." (Author''s note : you all know what Toothless refers to.) Just as Arnold uttered those words, a hidden door opened up as usual but Arnold didn''t took a single step towards the door, instead his eyes were fixed on the lifeless body of the Wyvern in front of him. "If only my domain was a passive skill... I''d have stored it''s body there... tsk. Such a waste." Arnold shook his head and gave up on the idea of resurrecting the Wyvern as one of his summons. Although he was given a Wyvern''s egg, that would eventually give him a Wyvern as his ''pet'' but for that he''d have to wait and nurture the egg for 120 days and only god knew how long it would take the Wyvern to grow up into an adult. Unlike the Wyvern that was right in front of his eyes. He wanted to at least dismantle the beasts body for its bones, hide, and maybe it''s muscles as well, but sadly he didn''t have the tools nor the storage to do something like that. After looking at the Wyvern for one more time, Arnold finally walked through the door to face his new challenge. ___ You have entered the scenario for your final trial. [Scenario Name] : . [Task] : Correctly answer to [The Guide Between the worlds]''s riddles. [Time limit] : Unknown. [Rewards] : Ascendance. [Failure] : Death. ___ The moment he stepped into the room,nterns lit up to illuminate the chamber. This chamber was an exact replica of the first throne room except the fact that it was more ornated andvish. The stone walls were painted with liquid silver whichplemented the golden curtains that hugged the walls. The floor was studded with glittering gems and diamonds which gave off a feeling as if they were mimicking the stars. Unlike the other rooms, there weren''t any pirs in this room. As Arnold walked into the room slowly, he saw a single throne ced inside the room and a women was currently upying it. The entire room was filled with armours, some were golden, some were ck, some were short, some were high. Although they were just armours, Arnold felt as if they were keeping an eye on him. He cautiously walked towards the throne where the dark skinned woman was sitting while she was looking at him seductively. The way she looked at him made him feel... desirable. The women was wearing a dress that was loosely held by her shoulders. The dress had a low neckline which almostpletely showed off her ample and voluptuous chest, something which made Arnold extremely ufortable. The women twirled a strand of her hair, while she looked at the man in front of her, not at the man but at his crotch, "Oh my, you''re so... endowed. But don''t you think it''s highly inappropriate and disrespectful to show your manhood to a Goddess?" "Are you the Guide between the worlds?" Arnold''s body was burning from the temptation but he didn''t allowed it to cloud his thoughts, "And if you are-" "You''re too arrogant. Just like my lord." The woman snapped her fingers and all of a sudden he felt an enormous amount force on his shoulders which was forcing him to bow down to the woman. "Oh... you''re resisting my authority? No wonder, my lord chose you to be his vassal." Arnold was struggling with all his might to repel the force but the moment the woman snapped her fingers again, the force became too much for him to handle. In the end, he had to give in. "That''s much better... " The woman''s seductive voice echoed throughout the room, "What I wouldn''t give to y with your body... but if I do anything inappropriate with you, my lord wouldpletely erase my existence... " She continued after upying the throne once again, "Let me make it clear again. I''M the one who would be asking you the questions, not the other way around. "As for the rules... There''s a distance of approximately ten steps between you and me. I''ll ask you 10 riddles to solve, for every riddle that you answer correctly, you''ll take a step and if you''re able to reach me... then you''ll gain your freedom as well as a little something else. But remember... if you even answer one riddle incorrectly... you''ll die in an instant. All clear?" After hearing the words, Arnold once again tried to get up but then the woman snapped her fingers once again and he was forced to nod his head. "Great! Then let us begin... mortal. And yes, I am the guide between the worlds... even though I''mmonly known as Satina." Satina snapped her fingers again and the force that was holding Arnold down dissipated. Arnold he felt like he had been humiliated, but there was nothing he could do at that point as his guns had disappeared the moment Satina used her powers to subdue him. He was just a man in front of a ''Goddess''. "Oh... that fiery look of defiance in your eyes..." Satina ufortably squirmed in her throne, "But it isn''t your looks that would save you. Since you chose your intelligence to stay with you, I thought it was only eptable to give you a scenario that''s highly depended on it... and that''s riddles. It''s something I enjoy as well. So try not to disappoint me will you? Let''s move on! "Here''s your first riddle - It dances and skips, it''s read in the eyes but it cheats with the lips. If it meets its match it''s easily caught, but it''s worth nothing if it is bought. What is it?" Satina licked her lips as finished reciting the riddle. "It dances... and skips... could be human-" "You don''t have a lot of time..." Satina smirked. Chapter 90 - Riddling Pain : Trial (10) "It''s Heart!" Arnold eximed when he heard Satina''s riddle. "Very well... you did good and for your reward..." Satina gave off an ominous smile and snapped her fingers once again. ?? The next moment, Arnold saw a couple of empty ck armours moving towards him. One of them had a sword in his hand while the other had a spear. Arnold, who had been in countless battles till now immediately understood what they were going to do next and prepared to dodge their attacks. But at thest moment, his body refused to move! "Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I won''t allow you to not receive your reward. After all you''ve earned it." Satina smacked her lips again as she used her powers to bind Arnold to his ce. "You can''t do this!" Arnold eximed. "Oh my dear boy, this is MY domain, I can do whatever I want here." She said, "You have no idea how ''bored'' I''ve been after staying trapped here... all alone with no one to talk to or in your case, with no one to torment. So be a good boy and make me happy!" "You bitch!" Arnold eximed as the armours moved closer to him. "Your out of your mind! This wasn''t mentioned in the rules!" "True, I never mentioned what would happen if your answer is correct now did I? Well now you know." Arnold was now finally in the armours'' weapons reach. They quickly unsheathed their weapons, aimed for Arnold''s defenseless back and quickly shed it twice. Blood erupted from where the weapons prated his skin, his wounds were like a broken water hose... the blood kepting out of them. Arnold was in a lot of pain. He was quickly reminded of the pain he felt during his fight with the Wyvern. This skinning pain was a lot simr to that. He tightly gritted his teeth as the armours stepped back to their original position. The floor which resembled the night sky, got tainted by his blood. He saw Satina with the corner of his eyes. "Oh this pleasure!!!" Satina was moaning with pleasure after seeing Arnold in pain, "If it still isn''t clear then I''ll make it clearer for you. For every right answer, I''ll get ''pleasure'' while you''ll be subjected to pain, but seeing you in tatters after answering just one riddle... I doubt if you''d even make it to the 10th riddle, huhuhu!" "Are... you just... going to talk or... are you going to give... me the next riddle?" Arnold panted heavily and straightened his back to face Satina once again. "Commendable...mendable indeed..." Satina murmured, "As you wish, here''s your second riddle - Glittering points that downward thrust, sparkling spears that never rust. What are they?" "I thought... this was... a trial... not some joke." Arnold smiled weakly and taunted Satina, "I use them... all the time... the answer is Icicles." "You a puny little mortal, dare to mock me! Guess I need to discipline you a bit more." Corners of Satina''s mouth twitched as she snapped her fingers again. This time not two but three armours came forward to sh and stab Arnold. Arnold who was already expecting it, barely flinched and after the armours were done, he quickly sealed the wounds with ice. Thinking it would at least slow down the blood loss. "NEXT!" He roared loudly. Satina was a bit surprised at what she was seeing... even after losing that much blood, Arnold was still walking towards her. "Lives without a body, hears without ears, speaks without a mouth, to which the air alone gives birth." Satina gave him the next riddle to solve. "A simple one... yet again... the answer is... an Echo." Arnold mindlessly mumbled and kept walking. Unknown to Arnold, Satina was intentionally giving him riddles that were easy to solve so that he wouldn''t be able to recover from his previous wounds. She did so because, because even though the condition for failure was death, Satina couldn''t do such a thing because her master, Shiva who was also looking at the trial from his own domain, had strictly prohibited her from taking Arnold''s life, that is, unless she wanted to lose hers as well. At the surface, it looked as if it was a trial of intelligence but in reality it was a trial of will power. Shiva wanted to know whether Arnold would be able to ensure hellish pain and still manage push through the limits of a mortal being, which was an essential condition for ''ascendance'' and so far Arnold''s performance was up to Shiva''s expectations. Everytime Arnold answered a riddle correctly, the number of armours that attacked him increased by one and as a result he was getting more and more wounds. He had also tried to use his elemental abilities to make a barrier to protect himself but the armour''s attacks ignored his barriers and manage to hurt him. So in the Arnold decided to not create anymore barrier and use his abilities to seal his wounds instead. "NEXT!" "What kind of monster are you..." Satina whispered. "I said NEXT!" Arnold looked up at her and gave her a smile that sent shivers down her spine. "Ninth riddle - A cloud was my mother, the wind is my father, my son is the cool stream, and my daughter is the fruit of thend. A rainbow is my bed, the earth my final resting ce, what am I?" "Try... not... to... make it obvious next time..." Arnold said in a weak voice as he forced himself to get up, "Rain... the answer... is rain." He knew that the answer was right when he saw ten armours rushing towards him, the armours stabbed him everywhere... his naked body was covered with ice that he used to temporary seal the wounds. But after enduring so much, his legs gave up. He fell face first on the floor, Satina thought it was over, but it wasn''t. Arnold was crawling towards her using his hands. There was only one thing on his mind... all he wanted was... to get home. "What a mad..." Satina mumbled, "The Last riddle! It brings back the lost as though never gone, shinesughter and tears with light long since shone; a moment to make, a lifetime to shed; valued then but lost when your dead. What Is It?" Arnold was panting harder than ever, he wanted to forget about everything and rest... his eyes were getting heavy. He couldn''t feel his legs anymore. His entire body was getting numb, slowly, very slowly. He was losing consciousness but he had to push through it all... for Nicole... he had to get back. He slowly lifted his head. The throne was just a step away... but wasn''t it enough? Hadn''t he done enough already? ''NO! It isn''t enough... I have to find a cure for Nicole... I have to reim what I lost... IT ISN''T ENOUGH YET!'' "Looks like you lost..." Satina said in an emotionless voice. "Failure means-" "You think you can kill me?" Arnold mumbled to himself. "You dare to think I''ll die?" To Satina''s surprise, the bloody and battered Arnold slowly forced himself to back on his feet, refusing to let the pain stop him. "The answer is... memories... you can''t Kill me anymore..." As he uttered these words, darkness shrouded his vision but in thest moments, he saw a faint light glittering in front of his eyes. ___ You''ve sessfullypleted the trial. Ascendance process will now begin. ___ Chapter 91 - Ascension FEW DAYS LATER... "You kidding me right?" A man wearing some sort of uniform asked another person who too was wearing the same uniform as him. Both the men were inside medical facility on guard duty. ?? "No! This guy actually fell from the sky... naked!" Said the other person. "And his fall made the crater outside alpha gate?" "That''s what I''m trying to say!" "What you''re trying to saying makes no sense, Niel! You''re telling me this guy''s a freaking terminator!?" "Something like that..." Niel mumbled. "You should seriously stop drinking." The first man spoke, "Or visit a doctor or something. Good for you were already in the medicalbs, I''ll get a doctor for you." "Look I know what I saw okay? And if you don''t believe me then how would you exin this guy''s sudden appearance?" Niel got irritated by thements of his ally, "You do know that it''s a wastnd filled with monsters out there, don''t you Jack?!" "Well..." "See? Mr. Sherlock Holmes, even you''re speechless." Niel mocked Jack before looking at the man who wasying unconscious on the nursing bed. "At least it''s good that he''s been handcuffed... Just look at his body... he''s nothing less than a monster..." Jack said when he saw Niel looking at the man. Niel just nodded and continued to stare at the person, "Maybe we should get another handcuff." "You''re right, here." Jack handed him another set of handcuffs and continued, "You go and do it." "W-Why m-me?" Niel backed away, there was no way in hell he was going anywhere near someone who was found outside the ''safe zone'', let alone a naked man... well it would''ve been a different case if it would''ve been a woman instead. "Because you''re the one who found him, aren''t you?" Jack spoke as he shoved the handcuffs into Niel''s hands, "Go and cuff him, that''s an order." "Our ranks are one and the same!" Niel eximed, "You cannot order me around!" "I''m ordering you as your big brother. Now fucking do it!" Niel gulped down his saliva and slowly made his way towards the unconscious man, but he had barely touched his arm when something happened. The man was up in a sh. He effortlessly snapped the handcuff that was holding him down before grabbing Niel''s arm and jumping over him. The man held Niel as a hostage and a human shield. The agility and strength of the man were off the charts. Jack who saw it all happening was speechless and clueless about what was happening in front of his eyes. After a momentarypse due to the shock, Jack quickly pulled out his sword, "Let him g-" "You think that sword of yours could hurt me?" The man said with a smile and pulled out the sword that Niel had. Jack thought that the man would put up a fight and try to injure Niel and try to run away, but to his surprise as soon as the man touched the sword made of steel and imbued with magic, it immediately disintegrated into dust. "Still gonna fight me?" The man smirked. "Just who... who are you..." Jake barely managed to mumble due to the shock. "The name''s Arnold Ling. Now lose the sword will you?" *** ''Can''t believe I''m actually back...'' Arnold thought. Arnold was surprised because thest thing he could remember was the face of Satina who was about to kill him... maybe? His memories were hazy so he wasn''t even sure if the things he saw were real or not... ''I should''ve got lot of rewards for the trials and if what happened was real then the rewards should be in my inventory... the only problem is...'' Arnold looked around the room he was currently residing in. It was an interrogation room, fully equipped with turrets, cameras and of course, the ssic one way mirror. There were 2 ''soldier'' inside the room as well, he had already used [Probe] on both of them, and both of them were ranked at B rank. Since he was in an interrogation room, he was most probably being monitored, thus he was a bit hesitant to use his inventory or any other skill in that matter. He was told to wait while since came to ''interrogate'' him. He only agreed to it because he too wanted to get some information about them, becausest time he remembered the was no military in any country of the world. He was curious as to what happened while he was gone/missing. Bored to death... he finally opened his status and realised something was wrong... ___ Unable to ess the requested information. Pleaseplete the process of [ASCENSION] to restore the system. ___ "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!" Arnold eximed when he read the contents of the message that was in front of his eyes. "Sir please wait patiently! One of the higher-ups would soon meet you in person. Till then please try to calm yourself down." One of the two soldiers said while the other soldier was pointed his staff towards Arnold, ready to attack any second. "It''s not- you know what? Nevermind, it''s nothing." Arnold calmed himself down and sat down once again in his seat. He was about to open and check the requirements for this ''Ascension'' process, but before he could do that the door was opened and a woman walked in. Arnold gave her a nce. Standing 6'' 2" tall, this tan skinned woman had a authoritative aura around her, maybe that''s why the two soldiers were saluting her. A particrly notable feature of her was her winning smile, just her smile made Arnold feelfortable as if he had no worries in his life... which was obviously, the effect of her charisma. Arnold was well versed in the effects of that attribute as well, so no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn''t be able to fool him. She had a beautiful face, which was again an effect of her charisma, a small nose, and filled pinkish lips. Her brown eyes were heavy-lidded and had angr eyebrows. Her short, straight, ck hair was well groomed. She was wearing a simr uniform as the other soldiers, the only difference being, her white uniformplemented herplexion. "Sorry for the dy Mr..." The women quickly ruffled through a folder which she had brought with her, "Ling." "It''s alright." Arnold replied looking straight into her eyes and used [Probe] on her as well. As Arnold expected, Amanda White, the woman in front of him, was a mind reader as well but Arnold didn''t flinched, as he was used to mind readers who were superior than Amanda who was just at rank C. He was confident that he would be able to block her from invading his mind. "It might seem weird but I''m gonna ask you something. Could you guess what''s today''s date?" Amanda asked and ced her chin on her hand. Arnold thought that the question was weird but still went along with it. The day he entered the dungeon in Brazil so maybe a little over a month would''ve been passed since then? "It should be September 2021, right?" Arnold replied. "Hmm... and where do you think you are right now?" Amanda continued to ask weird questions. "An interrogation room?" "I meant which country do you think you''re in?" "Last I remember... I was in Brazil... why are you asking such idiotic questions?" Arnold gave her a confused look. "It''s because neither this is Brazil, nor it''s the year 2021." Amanda replied, "It''s the year 2025, and you''re in East America." Chapter 92 - An Abandoned Country "...you''re kidding right?" Arnoldughed, "We''re in 2025 and this is East America? When did this even happened?" "I know it is a lot for your to take in but what I''m saying is true." Amanda said in her emotionless voice, "As for your question, not long after the failed attempt to close down an SS ranked dungeon break... the United States of America for divided into two parts, namely : West America and East America. ?? "East America, where we are now, is the ce where the dungeon break happened... It happened in Florida to be exact. The state was destroyed in a couple of weeks and the neighboring states soon consumed by the monsters within the following months. Millions died, including Warriors as well as civilians, during the failed attempts to close the dungeon. The nation pulled any and every resources that we had in order to put an end to the war but it was in vain. Even when the twelve elite families came together, they still couldn''t do much. Following which, the then president, Dobald Tramp, authorised a nuclear attack to be done, the families and warriors were against it but the ex-president did it anyways thinking that they were hatching a n to take away his position of power, and saying he was wrong would be the biggest understatement in the history of humanity." "Why? What happened?" Arnold asked hoping to get some more details about the ck Family in the process. Amanda continued, "Initially, the attack seemed to have worked, the satellites didn''t picked up any monster activities for the next month, thus we thought it worked. However in order to verify it group of warriors and researchers were sent into the ''Dead zone'' or wastnds, as we call it, to check things out. Sadly they couldn''t make it back but they did manage to send us some information. The radiation that spread due to the nuclear bombing on arge scale helped the monsters to mutate and evolve into stronger beings. 4 yearster, we don''t know why it happened but somehow normal ''low ssed'' monster''s such as goblins evolved into a different species which was a bit like Orcs while the Orcs evolved into more savage avg dangerous species like giants... you can figure out the rest on yourself. But it wasn''t only the monsters who mutated following these event, humans and animals too got mutated into monsters that were never seen before, they are even more vicious than the monsters themselves. "Following this, the government was overthrown and reced by the ones who people trusted more than themselves... the warriors. A governing body was formed by the remnants of the elite families, who decided to divide the States into two parts, namely, East and West America. The West America stayed the way it was four years ago, but the East America couldn''t. Even though no one says this, East America is just an enormous military base now and acts as West America''sst line of defense. Most of the low ranked warriors are stationed here as members of the newly formed army. The only task of the army is to prevent any further expansion of the monsters and find a way to put an end to the them." Amanda stopped for a brief moment and drank some water before continuing, "The radiation from the nuke, destroyed the remaining typography of Florida, Washington DC, New York etc, and turned those ces into wastnds, ''The desserts that are filled with radiation'', no life is possible in those ces anymore. You were the first person we found out there who was neither mutated nor dead due to the radiation, we thought you might be able to answer a few of our questions but now... it isn''t possible since you don''t have any recollection of what happened four years ago." "Although I''m d that you''re walking me down the memoryne... but even if what you''re saying is true, I''m having a hard time believing that the UN or the other countries didn''t stepped in to help us out?" Arnold said once Amanda was finished with her exnation. "They didn''t because they deemed our country to be a ''lost cause''." A little bitterness could be felt in Amanda''s words, "To keep it simple, I''ll say that our country isn''t the world leader anymore all because the people overthrew an incapable government who would''ve damned us to hell. ording to them, they don''t want to be associated with a country that''s no longer run by a ''democratic'' government." Arnold simply nodded after hearing her words. It was unfortunate yet it seemed to be the case... America had been abandoned by the world, so much for being the global leader. Arnold could feel that the ''Non-democratic rule'' that the United Nations and the other countries were citing to cut ties with America was bullshit and nothing else. He could already imagine the smug look on the faces of the leaders from Russia, China and North Korea. But something else was bothering Arnold as well. "What you''re telling me might be true, but why are you giving such ''potentially confidential intel'' to aplete stranger?" Arnold ced his hands on the table, before continuing, "Shouldn''t there be some kind of punishment for ''leaking'' such information?" "Well it''s not like there''s much to hide about our current situation, now it''s there?" Amanda smiled, "Of course, you''d be sentenced to treason or to death, if you''re unlucky, for leaking this intel. But you don''t need to worry about that, because apparently, few of the higher-ups back in West America, are generous enough to let you in on the info as they think you''d be willing to help us to deal with our problem, after all you''re a creationist right?" "Who the hell told you that?" Arnold gave Amanda a charming smile. "We might be going through so shit," She waved the folder that was in her hands while smiling back at Arnold, "but our intelligencework is as strong as ever. So what do you say, would you join the army?" "I could but first, I need to contact my family." "Your family? It''s stated that you''re an orphan in the files." "Looks like your intelligence isn''t that strong after all." Arnold smirked and pointed his right arm towards the One way mirror before continuing, "Don''t you think so to, Nathan?" Just then a voice broke through the speaker that was present inside the interrogation room, "To think you identified my aura the moment I walked in. You''re as sharp as ever after all. It''s been long, but it''s good to see you alive. Let''s get you out of here and then we can chat." "Sure. Whatever you say." Arnold replied. Chapter 93 - Supreme Creationist (1) Right now, Arnold was in a workshop, which had been already equipped with the stuff he wanted. But he didn''t cared about that as he finally had the time to process what he was told about the ''new world''. Arnold had been maintaining a calm demeanor throughout the interrogation and his meeting with Nathanter on, but actually he was surprised that everything changed so much and to so soon. ?? Arnold pulled a chair from the corner of the room and sat down before thinking about what he had to do next. He recalled parts of his conversation with Nathan... ABOUT AN HOUR AGO... "Huh, you really got that old in four years?" Arnold asked Nathan once he got the clearance to leave the base of the army but they were still inside the base. Nathan looked a bit older than before, he now had a tinge of greyness in his hair as well as his beard. Even his beard was longer than Arnold could remember. He could also see the fine wrinkles that Nathan had near the corner of his eyes and cheeks. Arnold was genuinely surprised to see him age so much in such a small interval of time. But it all made sense when he said that Nathaniel had vacated his seat as the head of the family and Nathan now had to fulfill that post, and it was stressing him out. Arnold just smiled and took his hand for a handshake. "And you look like you haven''t aged a day." Nathan replied back with a smile on his face. "Well I''m sorry to disappoint you then." Arnold said as he let go off Nathan''s hand, "The briefing helped me out a bit but I still need to know somethings." "The way I see it, it''d be weird if you didn''t had any." Nathan withdrew his hand back. "How''s Nicole?" "She''s better than ever! She has been cured from Andrea syndromepletely but still she gets a bit tired after moving around too much." While he was on his way to the East American military facility, Nathan had nned to tell Arnold the truth about Nicole''s powers but when Nicole discovered that her brother was alive and that Nathan was going to meet him, she had forced him to promise not to tell her brother anything about her powers. It seemed a bit odd for her to request such a thing but Nathan knew better than to argue with someone who was stronger than Johnny himself. "That girl... she never listens does she?" Arnold shook his head before before continuing, "I thought she would''ve matured a little bit to know better... guess I was wrong after all." Although Arnold was relieved to hear that she was now cured, he couldn''t help but feel a bit anxious to meet his sister after over a year, nope, after over five years. He told Nathan about his wish but to his surprise, Nathan had prepared a request for him beforehand. "It''s really low of me to ask a favour from you the moment you came back... but could you stay here for a bit and help the army to take care of the monsters as well as make some weapons for them to use?" Nathan bowed his head down in front of Arnold. The military officials who saw this couldn''t believe their eyes. One of the most powerful and influential person of their country was bowing down to this man? In this age, after taking over the reigns of the ck Family, Nathan was known to be a ferocious leader, someone whose words were absolute, but right now he was humbly requesting something from someone else. The officials quickly looked at Arnold whose face was totally expressionless. Just who the hell was this guy!? "What?" Arnold blurted out after a brief pause, Nathan slowly straightened his back and stared at Arnold''s expressionless face. Nathan was intently looking at Arnold, hoping to see his reaction, but to his surprise, Arnold waspletely normal. Apart from his initial reaction there was nothing else that Nathan could see. "You see, the weapon industry as well as our resources rted industries suffered a lot due to the fall out of the nuclear attacks and we desperately need someone who can manufacture quality weapons like you do..." Nathan continued to try and persuade Arnold, when Arnold didn''t said anything he continued, "I know that you want to see your sister first, but there are some rules that one had to follow in order to gain ess to and step a foot into West America, one if those rules stated that one had to show exceptional performance in their military career in order to get ''invited'' into the western part of the country... it''s apulsion like the way it is in South Korea and even I can''t give you a free ride through it." (Author''s note: I''m referring to the military training and service that ispulsory for men in South Korea.) What Nathan had told Arnold was... half true. He was right about the exceptional military service part, but what he said after that was aplete lie. He knew it was low for him to do so but he had to take care of an entire country so he had no other way around it. But Arnold wasn''t someone who could be fooled that easily... not anymore at least, and he quickly caught on to Nathan''s false words. "Seriously dude? If you''re actually gonna lie to someone try to sound more convincing. You''re a top level personnel of this new country and you actually want me to believe that you can''t help me get past such a tiny obstacle?" Arnold said as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, "But I guess you''re actually are desperate if you''re lying so tantly about it all just to convince me." "You... got that right." Nathanughed nervously before Arnold cut him off. "You do remember who I am, don''t you? You think you can force me to do something that I don''t want to?" Arnold released all of his aura, that he had been suppressing since he woke up in the medical facility of the military base. "You do remember this, right?" Even though Arnold only released his aura for a couple of seconds, the walls of the military base started shaking, it was too intense that even an rm rang through the entirety of the building. Even the officials who were standing next to Nathan were frozen with fear, they wanted to reach out for their weapons but they were afraid to do anything that would piss off the man in front of them. Nathan on the other hand couldn''t even move anymore. He was quickly reminded of the incident that happened inside the dungeon, all those years ago when Arnold saved Nina and the others from an ambush, only this time it was far worse. "..." "Looks like you do remember." Arnold said after suppressing his aura once again. "But since we''re part of the ''family'', I suppose I should help you a bit. So let''s get down to business shall we?" "...business?" Nathan was confused about Arnold''s reply, after all, who does business within a family? "Don''t tell me... did you expect me to do it for free?" Arnold scoffed at Nathan. "..." "If you''re going to force me into doing something, you better be prepared to pay the price as well." Arnold smirked. Chapter 94 - Supreme Creationist (2) After a brief moment of silence, Arnold burst intoughter, which confused Nathan and the others even more. ''Did this guy lose a couple of his screws while he was missing?'' Nathan thought. ?? "Man, the look on your face... hahaha..." Arnold ced his hands on Nathan''s shoulder and continued, "You really thought I''d actually do something like that? The family has helped me a lot in the past and this is the least I can do to repay a bit of my debt. I''m actually d that you asked me to do it." "You son of a gun!" Nathan sighed heavily, "You actually made a fool out of me. Don''t you have any respect for the head of the family?" "For me, you''re still more like a brother than the ''Family Head''." Arnold replied back. "So when do I begin?" At this time one of the officials that had been observing the exchange between the two stepped up, "If you''d like you can start now. Everything has already been taken care of and a workshop with the best told and resources has already been constructed." "You guys are... quite efficient, I must say." Arnold nodded, "So I guess this is it then?" "I''m afraid so," Nathan replied, "But don''t worry I''ll get the ball rolling, and soon you''ll be back with us." "Don''t worry about. By the way, I assume Nicole already knows about my arrival?" Nathan nodded, "Yes, she does." "Just tell her it wasn''t me who you found. I want it to be a surprise when I meet her." "You siblings really confuse me a lot, you know that right?" "Maybe." The two of them chatted for a while, and Nathan gave him some valuable information regarding a few different matters as well. After that Nathan bid farewell and Arnold was escorted to the workshop, where he was sitting as of now. The requirement of the military was simple. For starters they needed a medium to long ranged weapon containing ''explosive'' power, which could be used against the low to middle ss monsters while keeping the personnel safe. They also needed some defensive equipment as well. Army targeted the low to middle ss (F to B rank) monsters because if two reasons, one, these monsters constituted over 80% of the monster poption and hence were troublesome to deal with, and second, the highest ranking officer in the army had a rank of S (why they didn''t get the other S ranks on board was a mystery for Arnold) and there were only a couple of them, hence taking on high ranked/ssed monsters was not a good idea for them. "It looks like I already have something that meets their demands... but before I start making weapons, I should to check my inventory first. After all, I got a few interesting items from the trial." Even though system itself was on ''standby'' mode, the inventory and his domain were still functioning. Arnold quickly opened his inventory and found a quite a few interesting things in there waiting for him. Firstly, his eyes went towards the a pitch ck egg, it was the Wyvern egg, he was notified about during his trial. ___ ? ck Wyvern''s egg. [You are required to take care of this egg and bath it using blood. The egg will absorb the characteristic of monsters from their blood. Use different type of monster bloods to achieve better results. ] The egg will open after 119:23:58:12 days. ___ "Gotta find some blood for this little sucker." Arnold mumbled, "The countdown has already started as well I see... what if I..." A thought struck Arnold''s mind as he took a knife from the cupboard that contained all of the tools that he would require for making weapons, and sterilised it before making a little cut on his elbow. He let the drop of blood fall on the ck egg and waited for something to happen. ___ The egg has absorbed the nutrients... it grows hungrier. ___ "That''s one hungry baby... Looks like I have to go out for some monster hunting soon." he mumbled and started looking at other things in his inventory. What he saw next,pletely took him off-guard. There were bones, hide, and half a dozen vials that contained the thick ck blood of the Wyvern he had yed during his trial. Arnold was not expecting this at all! He thought he had lost the valuable resources back then but he didn''t know he would get the things that he had wanted. He took out a vial containing the Wyvern''s blood and used the [Probe] skill on it. ___ OBJECT : Wyvern Queen''s blood TYPE : Beast Blood GRADE : C (cosmic scale) REMARK : Extremely rare items. It is so rare that it can be called an artifact in it''s own. Can only be obtained after ying the Wyvern Queen. Importantponent to make different types of potions and can increase the life force of a being, that is... if someone is able to get rid of its deadly side effects before consumption. ___ "Cosmic scale... it''s the second time I''ve seen something like this." Arnold mumbled as he closed the tab in front of his eyes. "I wonder what it is all about. I know the Wyvern was tougher to kill than even the Dreadnought so does it mean that the ''Cosmic'' scale is something that''s above that regr ss of monsters?" If a C ranked, cosmic grade monster was so strong, Arnold couldn''t even imagine what a higher ranked monster would''ve been capable of. Just the thought of it gave Arnold goosebumps. He pondered about it for sometime before giving up. The information he had was way too limited, he needed to find more about the cosmic grade first. The system could''ve obviously helped him but then there was the fact that system always went offline before Arnold needed some answers. ''It won''t do me much good to ponder about something that I have no control over.'' He thought, ''But I can do something with the blood right now...'' Arnold gripped the vial of Wyvern blood that was in his arms, and looked at the egg in his other arm. To some It might have seemed monstrous for Arnold to even think of bathing/feeding the egg with the blood if it''s kin, but to Arnold it wasn''t anything special, blood was blood after all. With this thought in his mind, Arnold ced the egg back on the table, opened up the vial and poured its content all over on the egg. "Let''s see what happens now... shall we?" Arnold said while rubbing his hands together. Chapter 95 - Supreme Creationist (3) ___ The egg has absorbed the nutrients... it grows hungrier. ? ? ___ Arnold waited and waited but nothing else popped up on his interface. After waiting for around five minutes, he finally decided it was enough and right when he was about to ce the egg back in his inventory, the egg started vibrating vigorously. He hurriedly ced the egg back on the table. ___ The Wyvern grew stronger due to absorbing the blood of a cosmic being. It''s hunger has been satisfied for now. ___ "Why do I feel like something weird is going to pop out of this egg?" Arnold mumbled and looked at the egg. The size of the egg had slightly increased as well, "Eh... I''ll think about itter... don''t wanna get anxiety issues now." He finally ced the egg in the inventory once again. He was about to call out his automatons and start making the weapons but then he remembered about the [Ascension] quest. "Better check it out first before doing anything. I already have a feeling that the tasks would be a pain in the butt toplete... as usual." ___ ___ "Yes." ___ Generating a list of taskspatible to your ss and subsses... List of tasks has been generated... Disying the tasks now. [FIRST ASCENSION QUEST] : ? SUPREME CREATIONIST : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Your arsenal of weapons might be enough for now, but in future they''ll be useless and so will you. [ TASK ] : Upgrade your existing weapons and build new ones and arm your helpers. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/3 Gears repaired. 0/1 S ranked weapon created. 0/1 Relics created. 0/250 Gear made. ? HEADHUNTER : [ INTRODUCTION ] : You''ve proven your worth to the ''Immortal One'' and now your true training begins. [ TASK ] : Hunt down 300 monsters as an offering to the Immortal one. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/300 monsters hunted. ? MASTER OF BLOOD : [ INTRODUCTION ] : You might be a creationist who can create anything he desires, but the thirst for blood is ever growing. [ TASK ] : Upgrade the subss to its maximum level. [ PROGRESS ] : Current level 14/30. ? UNSTOPPABLE : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Make use of your gunslinger abilities to y a variety of monsters. [ TASK ] : y the following ranked monsters. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/1 S ranked monsters in. 0/10 A ranked monsters in. 0/ 50 B ranked monsters in. 0/100 C ranked monsters in. COMPLETION REWARDS : ? Unlocks evolution process. ? An exclusive second ss. ? Permanent rank upgrade. ? Chance to obtain a affinity. ___ "..." The more Arnold looked through the list of quests, the more and more tasks popped up. It was like someone had given him their bucketlist and Arnold had toplete it in their stead. He''d had the system for so long but not once had the system given him such a long list of tasks for him toplete. Obviously, since the quest were so long and difficult, the rewards were better as well. Actually in all the time he had the system, he couldn''t remember even a single scenario where the rewards were so... exciting. Arnold scanned the rewards list too, evolution, a second ss, rank upgrade, and even a chance to unlock a mythical affinity! But weirdly enough, the more he thought about the task... the more doable they seemed. For example, monsters were freely roaming around arge part of America so killing a small amount of 300 monsters wasn''t a difficult task at all, moreover he was already nning to do something simr as the blood from these monsters could be used to feed the Wyvern''s egg! It was like killing two birds with one stone for him. As far as making and upgrading weapons was concerned, he was already about to do so, but sadly he had no idea on how he was supposed to build a S ranked weapon or what a ''relic'' was, still he was quite confident in his skills and thought he would be able to so. Upgrading his subss was by far the easiest among the task he had been given toplete. It took an astounding amount of 15000 EXP needed to level up that particr subss by one level so in that way he had to obtain around 240,000 EXP to fully upgrade the subss andplete this part of quest. Under normal circumstances it would take months for him to obtain this much EXP. But this didn''t bothered Arnold in the slightest. Since he had to make so many weapons and kill so many monsters, getting a gigantic amount of EXP wouldn''t be an issue for him. All in all the tasks were long and tiring indeed but the quest itself was doable. Arnold was also d that he decided to view the quest before doing anything else, as if he had started working on making weapons before, then the weapons he''d have made wouldn''t count as ''progress'' made during the quest. "The sooner I start, the easier the tasks would be toplete." Arnold mumbled before stretching his muscles for a bit and opened his void. More than a hundred small glowing lights appeared inside the void as Talos led the other automatons out of the void. "Rise and shine boys, we got a lot of work to do." **** AT AN UNKNOWN LOCATION... "That damned ck Family!" The masked leader eximed, "The nation is in such a troubling situation but these annoying bastards, rather than solving the crisis at hand, they are still chasing me." "Don''t worry sir. They''ll never know that it was us behind the disaster. Your concerns about it are... unwanted." Alex assured his boss, "The scientists that they caught and interrogated by them, knew nothing about our ns to release the mutagene virus to mutate the monsters and make them deadlier." Alex was talking about the series of ''nuclear'' attacks that President Tramp authorised. Although it was a nuclear attack, but the warheads also carried a virus that they had developed in theirbs and of course, the President knew all about it and still went through with it. The leader had nned to use this moment and introduce his ''Inhumans'' as an effective way to counter these ''mutated'' beings, but s, his ns were destroyed once the government was overthrown. "I went through all that to make the Inhuman project a sess and still failed. Damn that good for nothing, President Tramp. That fool couldn''t even help me out." In a moment of rage, the leader mmed his right fist on the wall behind him. Completely shattering it in a mere moment. "SIR! YOUR UPGRADES!" Alex eximed. "They are not that fragile." The leader raised his fists, "How is Gary doing?" "The transnt was sessful. Even though the organs weren''t a perfect match, young master has been ''resurrected''." "At least he''ll live... even if I don''t." Chapter 96 - Isle Of Avalon The workshop inside the Alpha base was constructed nearly an three years ago, but due to unavability of a creationist with exceptional abilities, the production inside the workshop never flourished. Any and every creationists to ever step into the workshop could neverpletely even a minuscule task. Although no creationist ever mentioned the reason as to why they couldn''t work there, a rumour soon spread around the base regarding the workshop. ?? ording to the rumour, since the walls of the forge were made of concrete containing bones and flesh of monsters, the walls emanated a ridiculous amount of negative aura inside the workshop, making it too stressful to work inside and whenever a creationist tried to work there, this auratched itself to their bodies suddenly making them feel unwell and in the end the creationist had to give up and couldn''t do a thing. Due to this reason, the upants of the Alpha base named the workshop as Isle of Avalon, they named it after Avalon, the ce where King Arthur''s legendary sword, The Excalibur was forged. They said that just like the Excalibur, the forge was waiting for its true owner to show up and conquer it''s hammer and anvil. This was the reason, when Arnold lit up the forge for the first time in over a year, a crowd of soldiers soon gathered around the workshop to witness the new challenger. They, who thought the rumours about the workshop was true, peeked through the windows. They were expecting Arnold to give up like the others did. But to their surprise, a shirtless person was hammering a bright red sheet of metal, slowly shaping it up. "Was it all actually a rumour?" One of the male privates mumbled after he saw how easily Arnold was working inside the workshop. "I don''t think so. If it actually was a rumour, why would the others, who came before him quit then?" Another male private replied. "One things for sure. That guy actually knows what he''s doing." Even though many were now doubting the legitimacy of the rumours, the rumours were actually true. A mysterious aura did surround the workshop, making it nearly impossible for any ordinary creationist to work there. But Arnold wasn''t an ordinary creationist. This aura was nothing in front of the aura of Satina. Her aura was at least a thousand, no, a hundred thousand time worse than the aura present inside the workshop. To Arnold, who had experienced the power of Satina''s aura first hand, this weird aura was even less bothersome that the heat generated from the forge. "What the heck are those things?" One of the male Privates mumbled, "Are those robots?" "That guy has his own workforce! I''ve seen a lot of robots but I''ve never seen anything like those before!" "Damn that man is really a professional... and well built and he has long hairs!!! Oh god he''s just my type!" A female private eximed. "Don''t get a nosebleed here, princess. Huhu." One of the other female privates mocked her colleague. While they were all admiring the scene in front of them, Talos informed Arnold about the presence of the strangers. "Leave them be. It''s not like they are bothering me anyways." Arnold said and ced therge hammer on the side before continuing, "Alright everyone, listen up. Early preparations for manufacturing of the guns has beenpleted. Everyone, check whether you have the blueprint of the [DETRACTOR] in your database or not. If you don''t have it, then link up with Talos he''ll provide it to you." While Arnold was in Brazil, together with Talos he had made a way for the automatons tomunicate with each other and transfer data amount themselves. He did it to ensure that no one would be able to hack into them... even if it was possible. This mode ofmunication was exclusive to the automatons, hence providing further security. After all of them had the blueprint, Arnold spoke up once again, "Everyone has the blueprint? Good. Now T2 to T15 you guys are in-charge of making the differentponents of the guns, magazines, barrels, triggers, everything." "Yes, master!" The above mentioned automatons went straight to work. "T16 to T35, you guys are on Assembling duty." "As your wish, master!" "Guns without bullets won''t do us any good. Talos, you''ll lead the others and make a variety of bullets. I don''t care what material you use but it should be cost efficient as well as effective against the monsters. Got it?" "Yes, master. I won''t disappoint you." Talos replied and went to work. All the fireces in the forge simultaneously lit up once again and Arnold''s automatons got busy with the works that had been assigned to them. "Now that, that''s been taken care of, I can finally try to upgrade my gear. But first..." He nced towards the privates who were watching the automatons like five year old kids through the narrow ss windows. Arnold felt like he shouldn''t reveal or upgrade his gears in front of them. He had to get rid of them, which was something he could do easily. While the privates were fixated upon the automatons, Arnold quickly slipped out of the workshop and moved towards the crowd. "Ahm." Arnold loudly cleared his throat once he reached them. The privates got startled by Arnold''s sudden appearance in front of them. "Enjoying the show, soldiers?" Arnold looked at the faces of all of the fifteen to twenty soldiers. Few of the female soldiers looked like they were a little flustered while the male soldiers were full of admiration towards him. "N-No... I meant... Yes s-sir. The way you work is very... unique." The female private from earlier answered Arnold. She was clearly under the influence of Arnold''s charm stat, just like the others. "I don''t think I''ve been given a rank yet, so y''all don''t need to address me as sir and stuff. The name''s Arnold. You can use that." Arnold smiled at the soldiers before continuing, "As much as I''d like yourpany, I''m afraid it''ll be a problem for me to let you guys in on the blueprint of my weapons. After all, if someone leaks it or tries to replicate it, then the results could be... bad. So unfortunately, I''ll have to ask you guys to leave." "Don''t worry sir- I meant, Arnold. We won''t be bothering you anymore." A guy standing in the back answered for the rest of his team as they lined up as a file before marching forward. ''I don''t know why, but that guy seems troublesome...'' Arnold thought, ''I hope I''m wrong, but considering that my hunches are almost always on the mark, I wouldn''t be surprised if that guy messes up sometime. Well, I didn''t want to but looks like I''ll have to do some digging around.'' Chapter 97 - Disappearance (1) ''It would be better if I try snooping around at night. The people here are way too active during the day.'' Arnold thought and reconsidered about digging around for since info about the suspicious guy, ''I could ask Nathan for some help regarding this but that guy already has too much to deal and I don''t wanna burden him more with such small matters. In the end, if things gets serious, then I will reach out to him but for now... I should fix my gear first.'' As soon as the toon of soldiers disappeared from his sight, he turned around and went inside the workshop. He felt like someone might try to snoop around the workshop again, and thus with the help of his golems, he covered the windows with the nkets that were used to cover the equipment inside the workshop. ?? Once the windows were totally covered up, he proceeded to take out his gears from his inventory, which consisted of, The Vindicator, his Phoenix cloak and the Specter gloves. The gloves were in the worst condition among other gears. It was due to the reason that, Arnold had been using them for the longest amount of time. Well technically he had been using his guns, the Vindicators, for the longest duration, but as he regrly maintained and enhanced them they were in a great condition. Sadly, he couldn''t say the same thing for his gloves. ''I should use a bit of Wyvern''s hide to make a new pair of gloves. Specter gloves had served me well but it''s time to move on...'' After thinking about it for sometime, Arnold decided, since his summons couldn''t use any elemental abilities giving them the gloves would be useless. He then considered handing them down to someone else, only to realise that he had no one else he could hand over his equipments to, this with a little bit of regret, he threw the gloves into the zing me of the forge. "Well now let''s focus on the guns first." Arnold mumbled and lifted one of the dual handguns, "Their power is off the charts, but they''re only a viable option for closebat scenarios... their range isn''t very long, I should do something about that first." He thought of many ways to do so, like extending the barrel of the guns, but he quickly let go of that idea, as extending the barrels of the guns would make them heavy which could end up with hindering his movements, which was not at all desirable. Agility and Evasion, were two things he couldn''tpromise with. The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became. "Argh! Rather than trying to upgrade their range, it''ll be easier to make a long ranged weapon from the scratch!" In the end he decided not to upgrade the vindicator and focused on his cloak, as he already had a vision on what he was going to do with it. Arnold quickly took out the Wyvern''s hide and bones from his inventory before taking a diamond cutter from the equipment shelf and started cutting the hide, which had toughness of a diamond. He roughly shaped a part of the hide into the shape of his already existing cloak. His idea was simple. He would reinforce the cloak with the Wyvern''s hide to increase its defense, but that wasn''t all, he was nning to use Wyvern''s bones in it as well because not only it would further increase his defense, it would also help him to increase the strength of his physical attacks, just in case, he ever needed to use his hand to handbat skills. This essentially made him tankier while giving him enough strength to engage in hand to handbat without worrying about his defense. With this he started working on the cloak. First he carefully made a frame out of the bones, thenid them over the Phoenix cloak and then he proceeded to do something very unusual. Since he knew that the bones, Wyvern''s hide as well as the Phoenix cloak were all immune to the effects of fire, he thought rather than sewing all of the threeponents together, he used molten iron to fix the bones and the Wyvern''s hide together. Once it cooled down, he proceeded to chip away the excess part of the iron, then he repeated the same process again to permanently fix the Wyvern''s hide over the Phoenix cloak. Arnold thought that adding all of these upgrades would make the cloak bulkier but it didn''t. The cloak was surprisingly light, it felt like it was still the same cloak, apart from the fact that it was shining more than before. He quickly checked the stats on his new cloak. ___ ? [ENHANCED COSMIC PHOENIX CLOAK] : A cloak made up of ashes left behind by thest of the Phoenix which was enhanced by reinforced it with the remains of the Queen of Wyverns. Grade : S Defense (DEF) : +106 (physical) Strength (STR) : + 30 Armour Type : Cloak Weight : 0.60 kg Additional effect : [TITAN''S BLESSING] - Reflects 15% of damage received as physical damage to the attacker. Additional effect : [BLAZING PHOENIX] - Boosts the effect of fire affinity by 25%. Additional effect : [WYVERN QUEEN''S BLESSING] - Damage dealt to beast type monsters permanently increases by 10%. ___ "..." Arnold was dumbstruck... he couldn''t believe what he was reading. Not only that he sessfully managed to upgrade his cloak''s stats by a huge margin, he sessfully made his first S grade gear as well! The good news didn''t end there, he now had one more additional effect attached to his cloak. Like a lightning bolt Arnold quickly started working on making a set of gloves, as he didn''t want his luck to run out on him. He used a simr process for making the gloves as well, the only difference being that he used twoyers of Wyvern''s hide to make them. But the creativity inside Arnold''s brain didn''t stop there. He used Wyvern''s bones to make a couple of ws and inserted them between theyers of Wyvern''s hide. He also made two triggers and connected them with the ws and sealed it up. He wore them and quickly checked the stats as well. ___ ? [?????] : A glove made using the bones and hide of the Wyvern Queen. A specific trigger has been ced inside the gloves, which when pressed, pops out a vicious w made of Wyvern''s bones. Grade : A+ Defense (DEF) : 25 (physical) Strength (STR) : 35 Armour Type : Glove Weight : 0.15 kg Additional effect : [WYVERN''S CLAW] - When a target gets scratched by the ws of the glove, the target enters a poisoned state, making the target numb and limiting their visibility while making them lose 5% of their total health per minute. The duration can be extended by continually inflicting damage to the target. Additional effect : [WYVERN QUEEN''S BLESSING] - Damage dealt to beast type monsters permanently increases by 10%. ___ Arnold was feeling ecstatic! He was happy with the results of his crafting even though the gloves weren''t graded as S, like his cloak, he was specially happy that his weird idea of making a w had worked! Now he could finally fulfill his childhood dream... of being the Wolverine! But before he got too excited, he wanted to test it out first. So he summoned Panzer, the golem which had the highest defense among his summons apart from the Dreadnought. That thing was in a different league of its own. Chapter 98 - Disappearance (2) A lone armored golem stood in the middle of the workshop, while around 50 or so automatons that were previously working on different assignments, were on stand by and stood in neat rows around the perimeter the room. Arnold was standing in front of the golem, wearing the full set of his gears. During his time in Brazil, he had learnt various forms of martial arts, like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Luta Livre, Huka-huka, Kombato and Tarrac¨¢1. He was by no means an expert in any of these forms, as it was impossible for anyone to master such a variety of martial arts forms in just a year or two. ?? It didn''t mattered whether one was a normal human being or a high leveled warrior, no one could ever learn so many forms in a single year, even so, he was confident about his skills. He was a warrior and in no way, was he a weak one at that specially now that his physical abilities were further enhanced due to the effect of his new gears. He doubted that even Nathan would be able to win against him in a test of strength anymore. But right now, it wasn''t Nathan who was in front of him, it was Panzer. "I''m going all out. You don''t have to do anything, it''s just a... little heads up." Arnold told Panzer and took his stance. He let out a couple of breaths before kicking off the ground and aimed for Panzer''s chest te. As the full force of his body entered his hands, he mmed his right fist into Panzer''s rocky chest. KA-BOOM! Sound of a single explosive fist echoed inside the workshop as Panzer went flying towards the opposite wall of the workshop. Thankfully, Arnold already expected such oue and thus had instructed his automatons in advance to move everything from there. But still the output of his equipments was just... too much. As the dust settled down inside the room, Arnold quickly made his way over to the fallen golem, he was relieved to see that the Berserker''s armor, only had a big dent in the center of it but overall it was still in a good condition, sadly the same couldn''t be said for the golem, as it was now reced by a pile of rubble. ___ Your summon(s) : Panzer has been destroyed. TIME TO RESURRECT : 2 Hours. ___ "This thing is... AWESOME!" Arnold jumped up after paying respect to his fallen summon. Then a message shed before his eyes. ___ Would you like to name your creation? ___ "Yes." Arnold already had a name in his mind which would be perfect for the gloves, he softly mumbled the name of his new weapon. ___ Naming sessful. [VRITRA''S FURY] blueprint has been added. ___ Arnold decided to name the gloves after the being, whose hide and bones were used to make it, he also named it so because, Vritra, the Wyvern was the greatest foe he had ever faced and overcame. He thought of it as a homage to the Queen of Wyverns. Pretty ironic. After all that, he quickly returned Panzer''s armour back to the void and ordered the automatons to clean the room before going back to work. While the automatons were working, Arnold opened up the quest tab to check the process of his creationist sub quest. ___ ? SUPREME CREATIONIST : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Your arsenal of weapons might be enough for now, but in future they''ll be useless and so will you. [ TASK ] : Upgrade your existing weapons and build new ones and arm your helpers. [ PROGRESS ] : 1/3 Gears repaired. 0/1 S grade weapon created. 0/1 Relics created. 1/250 Gear made. ___ "As I thought. Since I didn''t make the cloak from the scratch, it''s still showing that I haven''t made a S grade gear yet..." Arnold had hoped that maybe the repaired equipment would count as ''created'' equipments but sadly that wasn''t the case. It looked like the system wanted him to actually had to make a weapon or a piece of equipment from the start, without using any base equipment. "Time for the second experiment then." With a single snap of his fingers, he had the attention of the automatons, "Start assembling the guns." "Yes, master!" The automatons replied in their usual emotionless voice and started working furiously, while Arnold concentrated on the quest counter that was in front of him. When it came to efficient teamwork, no one could beat his force of automatons. That''s the reason, Arnold always entrusted them with the jobs that required perfection and so far not even once had Arnold been disappointed by their work. They were fast and efficient, and that''s exactly what Arnold needed right now. The automatons lined up against arge table, in which the different gun parts wereid out. One of the automatons started the process by attaching the rear sight and front sight of the gun, to the barrel passing it to the automaton next to it, the second automaton installed the slide, hammer and the safety trigger on the barrel and passed it on. The same process continued till the gun was handed over to the automaton that wasst in the line. It was Talos. Talos'' job was the simplest yet it was the most important one. That was, to check whether the guns were functioning properly or not and while he was at it, he had to ensure that the quality of the weapon was up to the mark. Although this was a tedious task for humans and consumed a lot of time, for Arnold''s automatons it was a piece of cake to do so. While the average time taken by a human to assemble a semiautomatic pistol was around 10 to 20 minutes, Arnold''s automatons could assemble a simr type of handgun in about 4 to 5 minutes. It wasn''t Arnold, who had taught them how to do it, they learnt it themselves from, you guessed it right, watching YouTube videos. Ah... the golden age of inte, one could learn anything and everything from the inte if he or she knew exactly where to look for it. But Arnold wasn''t interested in their assembling speed, his eyes were focused on the counter of his objective. ___ 1/250 Gear made. ___ "..." Arnold patiently waited for his automatons to finish assembling the first gun. As soon as the clock hit the five minute mark, Talos, after thoroughly checking the gun, ced the weapon in front of his master. But Arnold didn''t even bother to look at it as he was looking at something else. ___ 2/250 Gear made ___ "YES!" Arnold threw a punch in the air, "It worked! It f*cking worked!" Today was indeed his lucky day. After all, he found it something very useful. It was none other than the fact that as long as he yed a part during making the weapon, regardless of how small his part was, even if he didn''t finish making the weapon himself, It still counted towards his goal, as long as his automatons sessfully made a functioning weapon. He immediately ordered the automatons to work faster and soon the counter of the quest started increasing at an incredible rate. This saved a lot of Arnold''s time. The time he could use to focus on increasing his own battle prowess. "I wonder what I should make next?" Arnold mumbled, "Maybe a long ranged weapon. Something that can take out a group of monsters in a single blow... a shotgun would have that power to do so but it''ll be a short ranged weapon... no. Making a shotgun would be a waste of time. I could try make a sniper instead but then again it would be troublesome to use inside a dungeon and I wouldn''t be able to take out multiple targets by using it either... wait a minute. I could make something which I can throw at my target, like a grenade or something. That way I''ll have the range as well as the ability to take down several targets at once!" With this thought, his mind was filled with different ideas, such as freezing grenades something that would freeze it''s surroundings upon explosion and maybe something like fiery grenade that would fry his enemies like french fries and just like his other weapons, making these grenades would also serve a secondary purpose as well, and that would be to save his mana. Since he would be preparing the grenades in advance, mana that would be used to create them would slowly regenerate on its own and hence his mana reserves won''t get effected by using them during a battle. "Yes, that''s the only thing I can do for now." **** 1. A brief description about the martial arts forms that were mentioned above : ? Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a martial art,bat sport, and a self-defense system that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting. ?Vale tudo(English: anything goes) are full-contact unarmedbat events, with a limited number of rules, that became popr in Brazil during the 20th century,ter begin an influence to the development of mix martial arts. ?Luta Livre, a self-defense martial-art mixture of Catch Wrestling and Judo, divided betweenEsportivo(Sports) andVale Tudo(Anything goes) styles. ?Huka-huka, a form of indigenous folk wrestling practiced by the Yawpiti people. ?Kombato, a self-defense Military Martial Art created for theBrazilian Armed Forces(Mainly used by the Brazilian Navy and Brazilian Marine Corps) and for bodyguards. ?Tarrac¨¢, a form offolk wrestlingfrom theBrazilian northeast region. Chapter 99 - Disappearance (3) AFTER THREE HOURS... A single message shed in front of Arnold. ?? ___ 101/250 Gear made. ___ "Looks like they are done." Arnold mumbled as he read the message. Once Arnold knew that his automatons would be able to do the job without his assistance, he ordered them to go back inside the domain and finish assembling the remaining guns inside since the flow of time inside his domain was thrice as fast as the outside world, For Arnold, only three hours had passed while inside his domain, nine hours had already been over. His automatons were quick, yet they took that much time to assemble a hundred semiautomatic pistol as well as its ammunition. While the automatons were busy assembling the guns, Arnold had his hands filled as he tried to figure out, how was he supposed to test the grenades that he made. He could have used it inside the workshop but then he had no idea about their damage and their range, also, he didn''t want to cause unnecessary damage to the equipment present there. As he opened up the void for the automatons toe out and deliver the assembled guns, he got an idea. He told Talos and others to continue doing their work in the workshop, while he went inside his domain. Once inside he was greeted by someone who, he didn''t want to see right now. It was one of Arnold''s elite summons, someone whom he never ever summoned into the real world. It was Natasha, a ''high ranking'' subus, who was once a boss of a B ranked dungeon and was killed by him. But it wasn''t an easy feat at all. In fact, Natasha charmed him using her subi magic, and had nearly managed to trick him into shooting himself with his guns. If it wasn''t for Talos, who was immune to her charm as he didn''t had ''feelings'', Arnold would''ve been dead by now. Once she was dead, Arnold resurrected her, hoping she wouldn''t be as strong as her past self so that he''ll be able to control her. It had always been this case everytime Talos resurrected someone. When someone was resurrected using Talos'' [Animate Dead] skill, they leveled down quite a bit, but sadly, in Natasha''s case she only leveled down by 3 levels which decreased her rank from A+ to A. Afraid that she''d again pull a stunt like before, he swore he wouldn''t call her out of the domain until and unless it was absolutely necessary. As his domain was the only ce where he could control her. Arnold nced at her once... and his heart went nuts, but he was able to get a hold of his unfounded desires, before things got out of his hands. It wasn''t like Arnold had some kind of love or lust for the subus, rather than that, it was just an effect of her medical aura. The good news for him was that his summons were immune to the effects of her aura while they were inside the void, but that didn''t stopped her from seductively swaying her body around. The moment she saw Arnold entering the domain, she immediately walked towards him, swaying her body more than she usually did. (Author''s note : Void and the domain are one and the same things.) ''Oh crap!'' That''s the first thought he had when he saw her walking towards him. Everytime she swung her hips, the magenta coloured wings attached to her back fluttered around a bit while her tail moved like an ocean wave. She was practically naked, apart from her choice of clothes which consisted only of two thin ck colored strip of fur, which barely managed to contain her chest. Arnold hated to admit it but her ck clothes and lips, certainly looked good on her reddish skin. She stopped in front of Arnold and purposefully bowed down to him in such a manner that gave Arnold a clear view of her ample cleavage. Arnold quickly looked away before saying, "Your filthy tricks won''t work on me. Not inside the domain at the very least." "I would never try to trick you... master." Natasha gave him a sensuous smile, "After all, I exist to serve you... and your body." "Cut it out. I''ve got some work to do." "Or you could do me first... M-a-s-t-e-r." "Don''t try to piss me off or-" "Or what? Will master discipline me? Maybe take me out of here and I''ll let you do whatever you want. I''ll make your deepest and darkest desirese true..." As usual, Arnold''s patience ran out. He didn''t had the time nor the intention to indulge himself with this perverted masochist anymore. Furthermore he had a task to do but maybe... this situation was a blessing in disguise. "You... seriously want my desires toe true right?" Arnold tried his best to act as if he had given into his lust as he stepped towards the subus. "Yes... master." Natasha smiled as if she finally got what she was waiting for. "Then you won''t mind whatever I do next?" Arnold leaned in for a kiss. "You can do a-n-y-thing you want..." Natasha could feel Arnold''s breath on her face. "Then... close your eyes..." "Why do you..." "Just do it..." Arnold mumbled and signaled his other summons to step back with one of his hands while he took something out from his inventory using his other hand. "If master wishes so..." Natasha closed her eyes and waited for Arnold to kiss her. ''Just one kiss and you''ll be a ve to the pleasure that only I can give you and then... I''ll be free.'' She thought, but to her surprise nothing happened. She waited and waited... but still nothing. She hastily opened her eyes, only to see that Arnold was no longer there... neither was anyone else. Just as she was about to take a step, she felt something next her feet. "You wanted me to punish you right?" Arnold shouted from her behind, "Consider this a favour from me to your perverted self." "YOU TRICKED M-" Natasha yelled, but before she couldplete what she was saying, the grenades below her feet exploded. The first grenade that exploded froze her on the spot while the other one burnt her away. "The range on these is sufficient... actually it''s more than sufficient." Arnold mumbled as the mes from the second explosion nearly managed to reach his feet. ___ Your summon(s) : has been destroyed. TIME TO RESURRECT : 2 Hours ___ "I seriously need to stop destroying my summons... but, can''t say she didn''t deserve it, she''s always a pain in the ass. At least now I know that the grenades are strong enough to one-shot an A ranked monster." Arnold couldn''t help but smile after the pervert got annihted. "Since I''m already here, might as well... revive the Dreadnought." Chapter 100 - Disappearance (4) "This is going to be troublesome." Arnold mumbled as his summons surrounded the body of the Dreadnought. He was seriously reconsidering whether he should resurrect it or not. Through his past experience of resurrecting monsters, he knew exactly how much of a hassle gaining control over them was. Firstly, when a dead being was forcefully dragged back to the living world, it felt uncontroble rage, think of it as if you were having the best dream of your life, it''s peaceful and rxing, but then out of nowhere someone poured a bucket of icy cold water on you and woke you up, of course you''d be furious. That''s exactly what a resurrected being felt at the moment its resurrection, only it was a hundred time worse than the bucket of cold water. ?? Secondly, this rage made the being go berserk. Meaning the stronger the monster was during his life, the angrier it became after being resurrected and Arnold could only imagine what kind of power, something like the Dreadnought would disy. This was the only reason why Arnold always performed resurrection inside his domain, because his domain granted him some authority over the resurrected being and even if he couldn''t totally control the resurrected being, he could at least still force them to live inside his domain so that they don''t cause any trouble to someone else, like what he was doing with Natasha. Arnold had already seen what kind of havoc an A ranked monster could cause when he resurrected Asterios, and he didn''t wanted to take any chances with the dreadnought who was way more deadlier than Asterios. Before doing anything else, Arnold instructed Asterios and Duke to remove the Dreadnought''s club from its vicinity. As the size is the club was huge, it required the two of them to move it as far as they could muster to. All of his other summons were surrounding the Dreadnought, ready to strike it down if things went south. Arnold himself prepared a few grenades to deal with the situation if he needed to, though he doubted that it would get out of hand. "Alright Talos, you can begin now." Arnold nodded and Talos immediately went to work. Arge magical circle surrounded the body of the dreadnought and soon his wounds slowly got healed up like nothing had ever happened to it. Then slowly the Dreadnought raised itself once again. The summons stepped back a little as the gigantic Dreadnought got back to its feet. Arnold thought the dreadnought would go berserk and ughter his summons, but to his surprise the dreadnought actually bowed down to him as if it had already acknowledged Arnold as his master. This was the first time Arnold was experiencing such type of reaction from a resurrected monster. Even his other summons got a bitfortable around the leviathan ss monster. At this moment Asterios came back and proudly patted the back of the kneeling dreadnought, who was still taller than Asterios, even though the Minotaur was standing next to it. But before Arnold let his guard down around the dreadnought, he quickly checked its stats. ___ TYPE : Dreadnought CLASS : Leviathan (Astral being) LEVEL : 96 RANK : S ROLE : The Guardian AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Elemental shadow (active skill) ? Dance of the dead (active skill) ? Psychic Projection (active skill) HP : 11570/11570 STRENGTH (STR) : 125 DEFENSE (DEF) : 78 STAMINA (STA) : 83 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 68 AGILITY (AGI) : 69 ACCURACY (ACC) : 59 EVADE (EVD) : 68 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances : Piercing, and shing from nonmagical attacks. Condition Immunities :Charmed, Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, Stunned. REMARK : The Dreadnought is grateful to the one who brought him back to the world of living. As, when astral beings die, their souls keep wandering around the astral ne, never attaining peace. The one who resurrected the monster, finally gave it peace, thus the Dreadnought, feels a sense of loyalty towards the person and has acknowledged him as its master. ___ "No wonder it''s not going berserk that I forcefully pulled it out of the realm of ''peace'', as it simply never was at peace to begin with." Arnold stepped towards the dreadnought and ced his hands on the Dreadnought''s gigantic head. "I had no idea even monsters went through so much..." ___ Would you like to rename your summon? ?Yes or ?No ___ "Hmm... I guess I should. After all it''s a new beginning for you, isn''t it?" Arnold smiled, "Let''s see... what should I call you... Dread? It''s good enough I guess." Dread the dreadnought... yeah, it was something that only Arnold could think of, with the help of his 160+ intelligence. Anyways, Arnold was quite relieved that the resurrection happened so smoothly, and with that his work inside the domain was done, and he stepped out, which was lucky as someone knocked on the doors such as he did so. ''Right on time.'' Arnold thought as he opened the door. Three men were standing in front of him, all of them were wearing an army uniform, just like the one Amanda was wearing, except that their dress waspletely blue which indicated that they were from the R&D wing of the army. He knew this because, one is these people had led him to the workshop for the first time and briefed him about the requirements that the guns should have. "Excuse us sir, we know it''s very early and you''ve only started working on the weapons, but we''d be grateful if you could show us a prototype or something." The man standing in the middle said breathlessly. "A prototype?" Arnold asked, "How many do you people need?" "Around 3-4 should be sufficient for now." The guy standing on Arnold''s left, spoke up. "Sure! Why don''t you guyse in and check them out." "Wait so you''ve already made that many guns?" This time the guy on Arnold''s right said as they walked into the workshop. Arnold pointed at the table in front of them and said, "The boxes on the left contain the guns, the ammo is on the right." Arnold was expecting them to be shocked or surprised as he had alreadypleted the task that he was asked toplete in 2 days, but instead the three of them quickly started examining the guns and after a while grabbed a couple of them and started walking out. "Um, excuse me, I should have ask this in the beginning but could you guys show me an ID or something? Just so that I know who is taking the weapons." Arnold stopped them before they left. "An ID you say, sure, HERE''S THE ID!" One of them shouted as he dropped the guns and pulled out a dagger that was hidden inside his shirt and threw himself at Arnold. As soon as the man attacked Arnold, the remaining two impostors ran towards the exit. "Seriously?" Arnold smirked and grabbed the hands of his attacker and mmed him down. Once the man was down, he quickly used his ice abilities to freeze his legs to the ground. It only took him a couple of seconds to get rid of the man. The remaining two impostors, looked back for a moment and saw their fallenrade. "I THOUGHT THE GUY WAS A CREATIONIST!" One of them shouted. "THAT''S WHAT THE INFORMANT TOLD US!" The other guy replied. "Oh please. Even I don''t know what I am these days." Arnold shrugged his shoulders as he walked towards the impostors. "How did you-" KA-BOOM! Chapter 101 - Disappearance (5) "Looks like your department of security is just like your intelligence wing, Amanda." Arnold chuckled as Amanda who was apanied by a few soldiers, came to the workshop. "..." ?? Amanda wanted to smack thatugh out of Arnold''s face but then she realised that it was indeed a fault on the army''s part that the impostors were able to enter the premises, so she decided to keep quite about it, "Where are they?" "They are Inside. Come on." Arnold led them inside the workshop where the had ''imprisoned'' the impostors. "...you froze them to the ground- Why the hell are they in their underwear!?" Amanda looked at Arnold and shook her head. "For your first question, usually I don''t need to tie up the people that I fight with, so I did what I could and for your second question, one of them had a weapon concealed inside his clothes so I had to make sure that the others weren''t carrying an explosive or some shit." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "It was all to protect your base. Something that should''ve been your responsibility." "Alright alright I get it, you don''t have to rub it in my face for the rest of my life." Amanda massaged her temple as she continued, "So did they gave you any information about who are they and how they got in here?" "It wasn''t easy but I did, manage get a few things out of them. They said they are the members of the church, The church of Chaos, if I remember it correctly and no, chaos isn''t a symbol. ording to them, Chaos is the name of their goddess." Arnold replied, "And, someone on the inside the base, helped them to sneak in." "God! It''s that bunch again... anyways, did they mention who the person was?" Amanda asked, her eyes still on the intruders. "Nope. I was just about to ask them that when you called. By the way, would you mind telling me, what do you mean by ''It''s that bunch again''?" "Let''s take care of them first." She looked at the officers standing next to her, "Take them to the holding cells, I''ll deal with themter." The officers obediently followed the order, and with Arnold''s help took them out. "So... You wanna talk now?" "Alright... It''s gonna be a long story so buckle up." She said and both of them sat on the chairs, "The Church Of Chaos, COC, for short, is a terrorist organisation that''s led by the one whom they refer to as ''The Priestess''. Identity of this priestess, is still unknown. As for their goal, it is... to annihte the remaining American populous, so that the monsters could have a free reign over America. I know I know, it sounds crazy that these bastards want to do something like that but it''s the truth." "So if it''s a terrorist organisation, then why hasn''t the army or the government or whatever the heck runs this country now, do something about it?" "Don''t be stupid. Of course we took action against them when we first found out about them. We sent out our best warriors to put an end to the church, but it wasn''t an easy task, as they keep changing their locations frequently, while staying outside the boundaries, in the wastnds. The warriors, who we sent out to track and destroy the church ended up getting MIA." (Author''s note : MIA means ''missing in action''. This term is used to refer to a member of the armed forces who is missing in action.) "And that''s why you stopped sending people to chase after them." Arnold stroked his beard. "Look it might seem that we gave up, but we didn''t had a choice! We were already short on manpower and we couldn''t just keep sending our soldiers out in the wastnd to investigate random locations while we waited for them to disappear just like the others." The usual cool and collected persona of hers disappeared and sheshed out on Arnold. "I understand what you''re saying, and I''m not ming you or anyone else for the choice that y''all made. It was your call and you did the right thing. I''m just saying is that, you don''t need to worry about them as I might know where their base is." "Say WHAT!" Amanda got up from the chair she was sitting on as if suddenly thorns popped out of them, "YOU KNOW WHERE THEIR BASE IS!?" "Woah! Woah! Calm down a bit. All I''m saying is that their base has to be nearby." "And what makes you say that?" Amanda intently looked at Arnold, her happiness disappeared in a moment. "You really aren''t a bright one are you?" Arnold smirked, "For someone having ''The best intelligencework'' you''re quite... dense." "I''m still waiting for your answer." "Ok but first tell me, how long has it been since you guys found me?" Arnold asked Amanda as if he was asking something to a 10 year old. "Three days ago..." "And how long has it been since you found out about me being a creationist?" "Maybe like... 12-13 hours. Of course only the higher-ups knew about it back then and the others got to know about it like 5 hours ago?" "Did anyone else here, knew about me before that?" "Of course not." "So it''s been 13 hours at the maximum before people in here knew about me, and still those f*ckers appeared out of nowhere to get their hands on the weapons that I created and no matter how fast the news travels-" "They had to be around the base to formte a n and act so soon!" Amanda linked the dots in her mind and looked at Arnold with disbelief. "See? Was it too hard to deduce the result from the facts?" Arnold smirked. "I see that you''re a bit more intelligent than me but don''t get so full of yourself." Amanda turned around to leave. "Where are you going?" Arnold asked. "To inform the higher-ups and form a task force to search and destroy the church once and for all!" Amanda eximed. Arnold could swear that her eyes were shining. "You really are dense aren''t you?" Arnold sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "...what do you mean?" Amanda asked him, confused about his remark. "I said, that we should assume the Church knew about me right after the ''higher-ups'' got to know about me. Which means, maybe one of these higher-ups you keep talking about, is actually a member of the church." "I... see, that might be the case. But we''ll still need at least a hundred or so people to search the surrounding area and we can''t do that without the permission of the higher-ups." "Just leave that to me. Will you?" Chapter 102 - Church Of Chaos (1) "How can I leave it to you?" Amanda demanded, "I know you''re strong and intelligent but even you must have a limit. You can''t do everything by yourself, you''re a human after all. It''ll be better if we worked together." ''Yeah work together and lose my chance to kill some monsters and gain EXP while doing so? Nope. Not happening. Furthermore, I work better, when I''m alone. My summons are enough for me... gosh, that sounds so wrong!'' Arnold thought before saying anything. ?? "You seriously don''t know about me do you?" Arnold gave her an annoyed look before continuing, "I thought you said, you knew ''all'' about me?" "I would''ve if General Nathan, hadn''t restricted us from essing information regarding you or your past. Maybe he already knew that the Church woulde after you if the information regarding your abilities somehow got leaked." "Damn! That guy is a General now? No wonder you guys are in a f*cked up situation." Arnold sarcastically replied. "He''s the General of the Armies of the United States, you will take his name with respect!" Amanda snapped. "Yeah yeah, he might be that for you, but for me, he''s family." Arnold calmly replied back. ''Is this how I used to behave as well? snapping at others because of irrelevant things?'' a realisation hit him, ''Nah, back even then I was a bit now reasonable than her. At least that''s what I''d like to believe.'' "Whatever it might be, I still can''t allow you to do such a dangerous task alon-" "Excuse me, but who did the church attacked?" Arnold asked. "It was you but they did so inside an army-" "So who has the right to punish them?" "I get what you''re trying to-" "I''m thankful that you understood what I was trying to say. That''s all." "I could-" "If you wanna help then try not to include anyone else in this matter." "Would you stop cutting me of-" "I think I should probably head out." Arnold smirked and got up from his chair, "The weapons you requested for have already beenpleted by the way, they are in the back. So as I''ve finished my task I''ll be leaving for two days, in the meantime I hope you can handle the things here. Adios." Arnold up and left the workshop even before Amanda could try to stop him. Not that he''d have listened to her anyway. "That prick! His audacity! I''ll set him straight one of these days! How dare he ignored me!" Amanda kept cursing Arnold under her breath. Her cool and collected personapletely vanished. "He''s right though... someone powerful must on the church''s side. I should try to look into it." **** "Sir, it''s not rmended to leave the base without protective gear! The radiation is dangerous!" The private stationed at one of the rarely used exits of the alpha base, eximed. "Don''t worry, I''ll be fine. I already have my protective gear." Even though Arnold said that, after a few more warnings from the private''s side, Arnold finally relented and wore abat enabled hazmat suit before heading out. "Are you nning on walking?" The private asked looking confused, "We do have vehicles that you can borrow if you want..." Arnold knew there were a lot of vehicles around the base, but the thing was... he never learned how to drive a car... So he decided he''d ride over something else. "Don''t worry about that soldier. Just open the gate." "...if you say so. By the way sir... do you even have the permission to leave the base?" "Ask Amanda." Arnold mumbled as he stepped into the wastnd. **** SOMETIME LATER... "This should be enough." Arnold looked back to see whether the base was still visible or not. He had been walking through the barren wastnd this entire time as he wanted to make sure that no one from the base got to know about his summons. He already knew that they knew about his automatons by now but he didn''t wanted to risk it anymore. He was being extra cautious because he knew that at least one of his enemies was hiding inside the base. "After I''ve dealt with the church, I''d have to do something about that person as well." After he was sure, that it was safe to call out his summons, Arnold opened a portal for his domain and summoned everyone out. "First of all, automatons, everyone of you link yourselves to mymunicator." Arnold instructed, "There''s about 200 of us that should be enough... okay, form four groups having fifty summons each among yourselves, and make sure there are at least 5 automatons in each group as they will essentially act as amunication ry between me as well as the others. Talos, Duke, Asterios, and Bad-Breath you guys will be the group leaders. Your task is to search the area near the Alpha base and look for some kind of a hideout. But be discreet and if you find something, DO NOT engage until it''s absolutely necessary to do so and inform me and the others as soon as you find anything. Cerberus, you''ll stay with me. All clear?" "YES MASTER!" All of his summons yelled simultaneously. "I TOLD YOU TO BE DISCREET IDIOTS! DON''T SHOUT!" Even though Arnold told them to be discreet, he himself was yelling at the top of his voice, "Now off you go and try not to get destroyed." "Yes... master." his summons whispered. While his summons slowly got out of his sight, he opened the interface. Right now, there were only two tabs avable on his interface, as the rest of the system was ''offline'', one was the quest tab while the other was the tab that contained information about his subsses. He quickly selected the tab containing his subsses as he intended to use all of his experience to level up a particr subss. ___ SUBCLASS : ? (lvl 10) EXP : --/-- [QUICK SHOT] (lvl : 10) [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] (lvl : 10) [LUCKY SHOT] (lvl : 10) [CRITICAL SHOT] (lvl : 10) ? (lvl 7) EXP : 0/3000 [QUICK ASSEMBLY] (lvl :7) [EFFICIENT RECYCLING] (lvl : 7) [NOVICE PROGRAMMER] (lvl : 6) [QUICK DISMANTLING] (lvl : 5) ? (lvl 14) EXP : 4785/15000 [BLOOD NECROMANCY] (lvl 14) [BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] (lvl 12) [BLOODLUST] (lvl : 10) [BLOOD BOND] (lvl : 10) AVAILABLE EXPERIENCE : 105,598 ___ Without giving it another thought he dumped all of the EXP to level up his subss as he had a quest rted to it, that he had toplete. ___ Subss leveled up! (lvl 21) REWARDS : Mana +5000 INT +70 [BLOOD NECROMANCY] upgraded to level 21. Additional effect upgraded! [BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] upgraded to level19. Additional effect upgraded! [BLOOD BOND] upgraded to level 17. Additional effect upgraded! [BLOODLUST] upgraded to level 17. Additional effect upgraded! ___ (Author''s note: don''t worry about the new skills that you are seeing, he obtained them during the timeskip at the beginning of this volume. The affect of these skills would be disclosed soon.) "Now since that''s taken care of, It''s time to go and hunt some monsters." Arnold mounted on the back of Cerberus, who transformed into a chimera, and sprinted deeper into the wastnds. Chapter 103 - Church Of Chaos (2) "These guys definitely got bigger!" Arnold mumbled while dodging the attack from a mutated goblin, "Amanda was right, these goblins are more like ogres..." Arnold remembered facing goblins that were usually 4 to 5 feet tall, had a skinny frame and a funny smell that always surrounded them. Their bodies were almost always dark skinned and they were fairly weak inparison to a regr D ranked warrior. Even though they didn''t have much strength, their agility made up for it, they also specialised in stealth attacks. As most of the time they were outmatched in terms of strength, hence they always traveled around in groups of 4 or 5 and carefully selected their prey before attacking them. ?? But the goblins who Arnold was fighting right now, didn''t resembled the regr goblins at all. Their height had increased by more than a foot, and now they were almost 6 feet tall and looked well built, their weapon of choice had changed as well. Arnold could faintly remember that the goblins only used blunt weapons such as clubs etc, but now they were using swords and shields to attack their opponent. Even though they had gained individual strength, they still traveled around in groups, which definitely made it difficult for low ranking warriors to win against them. But sadly for the goblins, growing bigger necessarily didn''t mean that they were stronger, and Arnold was right there to rub salt on their wounds. Out of the group of five goblins mutants that attacked Arnold, he had already killed two of them. In fact they died from a single blow from Arnold''s fists. But after killing them, Arnold suddenly went on defensive mode. To the goblins it felt like Arnold had ran out of stamina, but in reality, Arnold was simply analysing the behaviors of these mutants. If he had wanted, he''d have finished this fight even before it started. Had he wanted to get rid of them, he could''ve simply blew their brain out by using the vindicator, or order Cerberus to kill them, but he didn''t do that, because, firstly, he wanted to test out his gear in a realbat and secondly, to judge the what the mutants were truly capable of. "It''s getting boring now..." Arnold again dodged the attack from one of the goblins, "They just keep doing the same thing over and over again. Let''s finish this and move on, I can only hope to find the real ''ogres'' soon." The next time, one of the goblins tried to sh Arnold with sword. Arnold simply rolled to his right side, dodge the strike, and delivered a punch to the goblin''s chest, which got squashed like a watermelon and his fist got covered by a slimy liquid. "Gross... good thing I''m wearing a hazmat suit otherwise my gloves would''ve started smelling like animal poop." Arnold shook his hand to get rid of the slimy blue liquid that was oozing out of the goblins body. After seeing their thirdrade fall by Arnold''s hands, the remaining two goblins started running for their lives thinking they would manage to outrun Arnold but before they could get far... BANG BANG Arnold, didn''t wanted to chase after the goblins and waste his time unnecessarily, so he quickly took out the guns from his inventory and killed them with a single shot for each of them. ___ You''ve killed a mutated being. EXP : +1000 First rank C mutant killed : EXP : +850 First mutated goblin killed. EXP : +1000 Total number of Mutated goblins killed : 5. EXP awarded : 5 ¡Á 600 = 3000 ___ After he was done, he stored one of the dead goblin''s bodies into his domain, "I can use the blood from the monsters I hunt to feed the egg. Gotta make sure to raise it to be strong and healthy!" ___ ? HEADHUNTER : [ INTRODUCTION ] : You''ve proven your worth to the ''Immortal One'' and now your true training begins. [ TASK ] : Hunt down 300 monsters as an offering to the Immortal one. [ PROGRESS ] : 9/300 monsters hunted. ___ "First Hyenas then goblins... these new monsters are certainly interesting." Arnold mumbled, "Cerberus, are anymore monsters around us?" Cerberus, furiously nodded it''s head to answer Arnold''s question and then pointed towards its left to indicate there were more monsters around that area. This was the reason why Arnold wanted Cerberus to apany him. Cerberus was like a detection dog and could locate the monsters just by the smell, and it acted as a bonus for Arnold that Cerberus was one of his fastest summons, thus making traveling a lot faster. It wasn''t muchfortable, but it was faster. "Alright, but before that let''s check on the others first." Arnold said as he brought his left hand closer to his mouth, "Talos, Asterios, Duke, Bad-Breath, any news?" Talos'' voice came up first, "No master. Nothing apart from a few encounters with mutated monsters." The answers from the others was simr, no one had found anything yet. "Keep looking, and report at once if any of you find anything." Arnold sighed and disconnected the call before mounting on Cerberus once again, "Let''s go Cerberus, let''s kill some more mutants-" Just as Cerberus was about to move, something suddenly popped out of the sand below their feet and ended up tossing both of them in the air. Luckily, they both managed to safelynd on their feet. "What the f*ck is that thing!?" Arnold asked as the creature overshadowed both him and Cerberus. All Arnold could see was a massive reptile that had it''s head which looked like a dome, and was covered with very long horns. It had no eyes, no visible ears and no nose, but had a shark-like jaw. It also had a thick neck. Under its body were innumerable legs that made it look like a massive mutated centipede. As usual, Arnold was quick to use his probe skill on it. ___ CLASS : Leviathan (Mutated being) NAME : LEVEL : 92 RANK : S ROLE : ???? AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Elemental shadow (active skill) ? Deathbite (active skill) ? Shadow seeker (active skill) HP : 10000/10000 STRENGTH (STR) : 120 DEFENSE (DEF) : 68 STAMINA (STA) : 85 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 65 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 60 EVADE (EVD) : 68 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances : Condition Immunities : Exhaustion, Frightened, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Stunned. THREAT LEVEL : Mediocre REMARK : . Proceed with utmost caution. ___ "Now this is interesting... another leviathan ss monster. Well well well! Looks like its time to make your debut." Arnold smiled and opened up a massive portal that led to his void and soon a gigantic monstrosity walked out of it welding a club. Once the portal closed, Dread looked at Arnold as if he was waiting for Arnold''smand. "Just squash this insect would you?" Having heard his master''s wish, Dread immediately swung his club with all his might and aimed at his opponent''s head. Chapter 104 - Church Of Chaos (3) Dread swung the club with all his might and yet the creature was barely effected by it. It''s exoskeleton was strong enough to deflect the strike. Dread was surprised by this, but kept attacking, soon enough there were a few cracks on the exoskeleton. The centipede also tried to fight back with the only way it could, by using its shark-like teeth, but whenever it tried to pounce on Dread, he simply stepped aside and again mmed his club on the giant centipedes head as if he was hammering an iron nail. While the Titans were fighting amongst themselves, Arnold was busy analysing their battle while making remarks on the fight every once in a while. He wondered who''d win the fight, whether it would be Dread or the centipede. Whatever might''ve been the case he was happy just because he was getting to watch thetest movie of Pacific Rim, right in front of his eyes. ?? "I know Dread is doing great and beating the living crap out of the insect, but I think the insect is just waiting for him to get tried and then it''ll attack him." Arnold said as Dread delivered yet another blow to the insect''s head, which cracked it more. Cerberus let out a small growl as is he wanted to say, "If you are so desperate to know the oue of the match then how about using your foresight ability and get it over with it already!" As the farce between the leviathan ssed beasts dragged on, Dread''s strength started fading away and his blows became weaker. He was exhausted after continuously swinging his massive club around, but the centipede showed no signs of exhaustion, it was still as active as before. The centipede clearly had the upper hand now. Without wasting a single second, it immediately went for Dread''s unguarded chest and bit hard on it, ck colored blood gushed out of the ce where the centipede managed to bite Dread, but little did it knew, Dread wasn''t an ordinary monster either. Even though, the centipede''s razor sharp teeth managed to prate through Dread''s skin, they failed to do much harm to him, but it did managed to enrage him further. All of a sudden, Dread let go of his club which he was wielding and wrapped his left arm around the centipede, it looked like he was trying to give a one armed bear hug to the insect. The centipede already regretted it''s decision of biting his opponent and tried to wiggle it''s way out of the hold, but it was all in vain as the more it struggled, tighter the grip got around it''s body. The next moment, Dread suddenly, grabbed the dome-shaped head of the centipede with his free hand and pushed his fingers deep into the cracks which had appeared on the exoskeleton of his foe after continuously clobbering it down with his club. Even Arnold couldn''t have guessed what was about to happen next. With a sudden thrust, Dread ripped apart half of the tough exoskeleton, exposing a part of the centipede''s brain. Dread didn''t stop there, and started pounding the exposed part of centipede''s head with his colossal fists. SCREEEEEECCHH For the first time in its life, the centipede got to know what real pain felt like. It started wiggling and squirming more and more, desperate to get away from Dread, but no matter how hard it tried, it just couldn''t break out of the hold, as Dread kept punching it''s exposed head. While all of this was happening, Arnold was staring at Dread, his eyes filled with admiration for the beast. The moment he saw the centipede broke through Dread''s defenses and managed to bite him in the chest, Arnold thought Dread was done for, but to his surprise, not only Dread managed to turn the tables around, he was also beating the living crap out of the insect. "If only he had a sword instead of the club, this fight would''ve been over a long time ago." Arnold mumbled, "I should to make a sword for him when we get back in the workshop... but how the heck would I even get a forge that''s big enough to make a weapon for this colossal giant!" At the time of Dread''s resurrection, Arnold had thought that Dread''s own weapon was sufficient for him as he had already seen the deadly power of it when Dread one-shotted his summons but right now the club was useless to Dread; there wasn''t enough space for him to freely swing the club and thus it wouldn''t be able to inflict much damage, even if he tried to use the club. That''s why Dread had abandoned his club and was using his fist to mow the insect instead. After treating the the centipede like a punching bag, straight for a minute, Dread finally let go of the leviathan ss insect. Soon enough, a notification popped up on Arnold''s interface. ___ Your summon has killed a mutated being. EXP : +1000 First rank S mutant killed : EXP : +6000 First mutated leviathan killed. EXP : +8000 ___ "Actually, even 30% is a bit generous, considering that I didn''t lift a f*cking finger to do anything." Arnold said and walked up to check the dead remains of the dead centipede, "I''m definitely not resurrecting this piece of crap. It''s simply not worth it, after all, the only thing special about it, was it''s exoskeleton. Let''s just store it''s body in the void for now and I''ll process itter, maybe I''ll even make a sword or something else, out of the exoskeleton." He then stored the body of the insect inside the void before turning around to face Dread, "You did exceptionally good! Go and rest now, you deserve it." Upon hearing his master''smand, Dread lifted his club and nodded before disappearing into the void at once. "Now, Let''s get goin-" Before Arnold could do anything, a multitude of notifications popped up on his. The content of the message was bad... really bad. He immediately contacted Talos, but before he could say anything, the automaton''s voice cut him off. "Master! Asterios'' squad isn''t responding to our-" "I know..." Arnold mumbled. "How do you-" Talos didn''t want to admit what was obvious. Even a blind person could tell what have, had happened to his Asterios and his group. "They have been... wiped out." Arnold replied in a monotonous voice, as a stream of text was imprinted on his eyes... ___ Your Summon(s) : ? Asterios ? T3 ? T9 ? Rank B Ice golem ? Rank B Lava hound ? Rank C undead warrior Have been destroyed. The other summons would resurrect in : 2 Hours. ___ Chapter 105 - Church Of Chaos (4) Arnold quickly arrived at thest known location of Asterios'' group, and sure enough the area was covered with blood and lifeless bodies of his undead summons as well as broken parts of his automatons. Arnold wasn''t concerned about the loss of the automatons as he could always salvage and repair them, the thing he was actually worried about was the lost of his undead summons which formed the majority of hisbat force. Even though most of them were ranked at C, they were still an important resource that could be used to intimidate his opponents. ?? Arnold''s first thought was that someone or something might have used some kind of explosive or some simr abilities to destroy all of his summons simultaneously, but the more and more he investigated, lesser the chances of such a thing happening got, as for starters, if they had been obliterated by an explosion, then there should''ve been at least some kind of a mark around the area to indicate so, but all of the old buildings which surrounded the area were still intact which wouldn''t have been possible in case of an explosion, thus Arnold had to let go of that theory. Right now Arnold was sure about one thing... the one who did this knew that Arnold wasing after them, maybe they even did this to aggravate him, which they failed to do. Even though Arnold was definitely upset about the loss of thirty or so undead summons, but something like that wasn''t enough for him lose his focus. But he knew one thing for sure, he couldn''t allow his summons to move around freely anymore as they might get targeted next and thus he had already instructed all of them to assemble at his current location, which they soon did. "Found anything?" Arnold absentmindedly asked while he checked up on one of his destroyed automatons. "There''s no sign of anyone around master. Maybe it was arge group of mutant that attacked them." Talos replied. All of his remaining summons have already been assembled near the wreckage. "No. This isn''t the job of a few mutants. I highly doubt any creature would have enough strength to simultaneously wipe out so many summons at once, and so far I haven''t seen any monsters fighting as a group, apart from goblins that is, but I don''t think something like goblins would be able to pull off something on scale, not unless someone was helping them. Not to mention, Asterios wasn''t someone who''d to go down so easily." Arnold said and opened a portal to his domain, "Take the broken automatons and go inside, I can''t risk losing anymore of you guys. I''ll summon you out when the time is right." "As you wish, master." Talos replied and acknowledged his master''s request. Soon Arnold was left alone in the vast wastnd. "I know you''re looking at me... juste out already..." Arnold whispered and started walking towards the base, "If I can''t find you, I''ll force you to find me instead." **** From top of a run down building, two people were silently observing their prey. But unlike Arnold they weren''t wearing any protective gear, instead their bodies were covered with a weird white clothing, which seemingly protected them from the radiation. It had been more than an hour since they managed to annihte around 50 or so of Arnold''s summons, however just as they were about to leave, Arnold suddenly appeared at the scene, with a force that was thrice as big as before. They could easily deal with 60 or maybe even a hundred monsters, but the right now the force in front of them was too much for them to handle. They couldn''t do anything what than to wait for them to leave first. "Is he the one?" One of the men asked. "How would I know? The priestess simply informed us about an intruder. She didn''t gave us any description of what the person actually looked like." The other guy replied while looking at the man through his binocrs. "Something''s happening... those monsters are going inside some kind of a portal. Is he retreating?" "Looks like it. He''s headed towards the army base." At this moment, a voice came through theirmunicators, "Capture him... alive... bring him here..." It was oddly satisfying to hear the feminine voice. It felt as if a guardian angel was talking to her subjects. Even though the order was too cautious someone, the voice was full of motherly love and care. "It will be done, your holiness." Both the men simultaneously got to their knees and bowed their head down as if they were paying respect to... the air? There wasn''t anything else in front of them, so that must have been the case. After a momentary silence they got back on their feet, "You got your answer. Now let''s capture the bastard." "You''re a fool. You just saw the army he has right? Let''s just wait for him to get exhausted first. We''ll pounce on him once he''s out of mana to summon them anymore." The person slyly smiled and turned around, "And once he''s out of breath... we''ll overwhelm him with the strength of these tamed monsters." "Just like we handled that minotaur." The other guy approved the n of his subordinate. **** A COUPLE OF HOURS LATER... Arnold was fighting against the seventh group of goblins by himself. But rather than finishing them off with one hit, he was only defending himself while attacking the goblins every once in a while. ''These idiots don''t even know how to hide their aura.'' Arnold thought and ''identally'' got hit by a goblin''s punch. His new armour was holding up pretty well, even though he had been hit numerous times his HP barely went down by 50 points. He had been acting like this ever since he felt the strange aura that followed him. This entire time he was trying to force the ones who had been following him, out of hiding. He knew that they were looking for an opportunity to jump him, and so the ever generous Arnold was giving them every opportunity to do so. ''Maybe they''re not sure whether I can still use my summons or not... well, I can easily take care of that can''t I?'' "Damn it! Why does my summoning skill has such a huge Cooldown! I can''t summon anyone to help me out." Arnold cursed himself again and again, his voice was barely loud enough so that his pursuers could hear him. He knew his n was childish but it was the only thing he could do for now. He could have easily attacked them along with his summons and torture them until they have him the information he wanted, but he was 90% sure the church would''ve ced some failsafe measures to keep that from happening, thus he didn''t wanted to risk it all. The only thing he could do right now was to let them capture him and hope they''ll take him to the church themselves, and maybe, just maybe, he''d be able to find this bogus priestess there as well. Chapter 106 - Once An Enemy, Always An Enemy (1) "Die!!!" Arnold yelled loudly as he finished off thest goblin and it fell with a thud on the ground, "Finally... I should run towards the base... It was a wrong decision toe out here alone, specially now that I can''t even summon the monsters to help me out..." He had his hands on his knees and was panting real hard, ''Come on out now... how long do you n to keep me waiting.'' ?? Arnold was still pretending to be weak and useless without his summons, hoping that his pursuers would soon reveal themselves and attack him. ''Maybe they''re waiting for me to be fully spent first, those sly basta*ds.'' Arnold thought and stretched for a bit before moving onwards. But just as he was about to take a step he saw a group of ten or so green skinned monsters heading his way. These huge creatures were nearly 8 feet tall, on top of that, they an extra set of arms protruding from their shoulders. They wielded a different type weapon in each of their hands, that ranged from proper weapons to sticks and stones. They had a multitude of scars and wounds all over their muscled body, they were still bleeding from a few ces maybe they had gotten into a skirmish or something not long ago. Few of them even had a weird red coloured tattoo that covered half of their faces, but the thing that got most of Arnold''s attention was the weird cor which every single one of them was wearing. It made them look as if they were someone''s ves and were doing their master''s bidding. Whatever might''ve been the case Arnold instantly knew what the monsters were... "Ogres..." Arnold mumbled. He was conflicted. On one hand, he finally got what he was looking for - a chance to Fight against mutated ogres while on the other hand he couldn''t possibly fight them at his full strength as he was trying to fool his pursuers into thinking that he was actually super weak without his summons. He knew that doing thetter was more important than killing some monsters, thus he decided to continue acting like he was weak AF and started stepping backwards only to realise that he had already been surrounded by around hundred of them. Meanwhile his pursuers (members of the church), had something different on their minds. After seeing Arnold desperately trying to hold on, they finally decided step out of their hiding ce and ordered their tamed ogres to surround their target as well as to take him hostage. After seeing Arnold''s reaction, the members of the church could confirm that he won''t be able to a fight even a simple force consisting ten ogres at his current strength. This gave them the confidence to force Arnold into submission. Before anyone could do anything, two menpletely dressed in white, stepped forward through the rows of ogres and stood in front of Arnold. Arnold quickly analysed their figures, one of them was around 5''10", had a narrow face, a well-formed nose, and thin lips. His brown eyes were shaped like an almond and had angr eyebrows. He had shoulder-length, frizzy, strawberry blonde hair which honestly made him look like a child molester. He had toned arms, a stocky torso with lightly defined muscles, while the other guy was a bit taller than hisrade and was well built. He had arge mark on the left side of his face which extended from his chins to his temple. The scar also divided his left eyebrow into two parts. His soulless eyes were focused on Arnold. He had a long face, a hooked nose, and greasy ck hair oddly reminded Arnold of a wizard from a particr novel and movie. (Author''s note : if you got that reference then you are allowed to pat your back and hats off to you!) "Who are you?" Arnold asked, still acting as if he was intimidated and confused about what was happening. "Don''t worry. You won''t be harmed if you willingly surrender yourself to us..." The shorter guy said, "and if you don''t then, that''ll be unfortunate for your health. Take a good look around yourself, see these ogres? They do whatever we tell them to, so it''ll better for you to surrender and juste with us." "Look man... I don''t want any trouble. Just let me go and no one would get to know about this." Arnold raised his hands in air. "Trouble? I think you''re mistaken. You don''t have a choice in the matter. Can''t you see, you''re surrounded?" "I-" THUD! Just as Arnold was about to say something, one of the ogres standing behind him mmed his club on the back of Arnold''s head and he fell down. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!" The shorter guy yelled at the taller guy, as it was him who gave the signal to the ogre to attack Arnold. "He was taking too much." The taller guy said as the shorter guy quickly ran towards Arnold to check up on him. "Thank god he''s just unconscious and not dead. The priestess would have exiled us from the church is something happened to him. She told us to bring him alive, remember!" "He''s alive. So stop yelling and get back to church before something else happens." The taller guy then instructed one of the ogres to carry Arnold and follow him. "Still you''re too careless." "You''re too loud. Maybe I should knock you out as well." *** ''These guys are truly idiots...'' Arnold thought as his ''unconscious'' body dangled along the ogres shoulder, ''They really thought something like that would knock me out? At least I got a free lift, so that''s good.'' In the distance, he could hear the two men chatting amongst themselves, but sadly he couldn''t make out what they talking about. So, instead of thinking about them, he wondered about the the weird cors of the ogres... as it was the only thing that was shared by the ogres. ''I have to get my hands on one of these. Maybe I''ll be able to replicate them and if I am sessful, I''d be able to control any monster without killing it... but first I''ve gotta put an end to this church.'' Arnold thought, ''I think it''s going to take a while before we reach the church, and since I''m already *unconscious* I should use the foresight and see what I''m up against.'' Chapter 107 - Once An Enemy, Always An Enemy (2) The world in front of him changed. Everything became foggy as his consciousness was pulled apart from his body that was still dangling like a ragdoll on the ogres shoulders. Arnold quickly scanned the area around him. ''Just broken buildings and abandoned roads. Looks like I''ll have to move further ahead...'' Arnold''s conscience ran past them like a ghost. ?? It was one of the benefits of upgrading the [Foresight] ability. Not only the duration of the skill has increased by six times, its initial value, now could also choose a ce or a person that he knew to view the future happenings rted to the person or the ce. However there was a downside of this additional effect. The particr ce or the person in question, had to be within a hundred kilometers radius of him at the moment of activation of the skill. Regardless of it, if he still forced himself and used the skill on someone or somece that wasn''t within the above said range, his ability wouldn''t work and he''d experience a head splitting pain that wouldst for four to six hours, and no healing ability would be able to stop the pain. This was the reason he always used the foresight ability when his mind was calm and rxed, so that his mind doesn''t wander off to somewhere else and ended up causing him pain. Arnold kept moving forward in the direction the ogres were headed to. But no matter how fast he went, all he could see were old, abandoned, and rundown buildings that were on the verge of copsing, and few broken cars that were buried deep under the patches of vegetation. It felt strange that this particr area had trees and vegetation unlike the other parts of the ''wastnd'' he had been to. Thework of roads that led to the centre of city was now indistinguishable from the surroundingndscape. Fallen trees blocked some of the paths while others continue to grow, their branches no longer prevented from growing into broken houses. Some doorways seemed in rtive decent condition while others werepletely destroyed and were indistinguishable from other copsed walls and piles of rubble. Many roofs had copsed and in some cases had taken the entire building with it. Other buildings looked in crappy shape and were filled with dirt. Once, it had been a growing town on the rise to a better future but now, it was just an eerie shell of its former self. An eerie silence had taken over and was only interrupted by the cracking of wood in the wind and the asional monster cries who had made their home under one of the many copsed roofs. Arnold came across the train station that too had copsed and the tracks were covered in shrubs and fallen branches. Nobody was waiting for the next train anymore, no longer eagerly going to the next destination or waiting for thoseing home. Despite the many small mutated mammals like rats and squirrels, that inhabit this town it was still a very unsettling sight to behold. Nature had taken its toll on the vast majority of town. But even though many buildings had found a new purpose there was just no way this town''s former self could ever be restored. Even if the monsters were gone for good. As he moved forward something caught his eyes... a dozen of men wearing hazmat suits, simr to the one he was wearing, were standing in front of a building. Not only that, inside the hazmat suit they were wearing the military uniforms that was exactly the same as Amanda''s and the others, but something was wrong... their eyes were lifeless. Like the eyes of someone who had lost everything in his life and was waiting for death to knock on his doors, and take them away from this hell. ''Are these the soldiers who had disappeared while searching for the church?'' They were carrying swords and guns and were stationed outside a particr building as if they were tasked with guarding it. Arnold knew he had found exactly what he had been looking for. From the outside Arnold could tell that the building that were guarding was in a better condition than any other buildings he had seen since leaving the base, but still few of the people were busy in restoring and repairing whatever they could. The two storey building was built with tan stones and had walnut wood decorations, Arnold didn''t knew why they were decorating the image if they were actually trying to hide themselves. Large, octagon windowless frames added to the overall ''beauty'' of the building in an asymmetric way. He could see a few more guards stationed near the windows as well. Next to the building was some sort of garage, and about ten to fifteen vehicles were parked inside it. Most of them were military vehicles while a few of them had been salvaged and repaired to function once again. The mechanic wasn''t able to do a great job but the vehicles were all in working condition. The building itself was shaped like a T. The two extensions extend into a garden path reaching until the end of that side of the building and was surrounded by an electric fence. The roof was actually pretty high like a chapel should have been and was covered with grey wood shingles. One small chimney poked out the center of the roof. Several long, thin windows let in plenty of light to the rooms below the roof and acted as guard outposts. ''This has to be their base of operations! I have to hurry and get inside. Time is of the essence!'' Arnold eximed and pushed inside the building, ''But there are too many guards stationed here... Once I get here *physically*, I''ll have to y my cards defensively till I''m able to get close to the priestess and put an end to everything.'' It was true, he had to hurry because the duration of his ability could end anytime now. He hurriedly went inside. The interior of the building was better than the exterior, Arnold actually felt like he was inside a posh hotel of some sorts, fully equipped with candles and a massive chandelier that hung down from the ceiling. Innumerable people were leisurely walking around the building, all of them wearing the same type of clothing as the men who came to capture him. Unlike the people stationed on the outside, these people looked lively. That wasn''t all, Arnold could feel a weird aura surrounded nearly all of them. Arnold moved on as he wanted to locate the priestess as soon as possible, but he was clueless about her location and he didn''t had the time to leisurely move around and check each and every room inside the building. All he could do for now was to follow the trail of guards as he knew they had to protect the priestess, as she was the most important figure for them. So without wasting his precious time anymore he started floating down the path that was guarded the heaviest. The fact that no one, not even the other ''members'' were allowed to go through the, further strengthened Arnold''s decision. He kept floating along the corridor that waspletely empty apart from the guards that were stationed there. ''I feel like the Canterville1 ghost right now...'' Arnold mumbled as he got deeper and deeper inside the building. After following the corridor for a few seconds, it abruptly came to an end in front of a gigantic door. Arnold thought he had finally located the priestess and phased through the door and into the room... but instead a sickening scenario waited for him inside. On one side of the room, dozens of men and women had tied up to the beds that were inside the room, there mouths had been forcefully opened through metal hooks, as if they were in middle of some kind dental treatment. They were furiously trying to free themselves from the chains that were holding them down. While people on the other side of the room were tied up as well but they weren''t struggling to free themselves... they were just lying on their bed, their eyes just like the ones Arnold saw at the entrance on the building. As he got closer to one of them he saw a redish ck liquiding out of the mouth of one of the quiet people. ''Is this... blood?'' Arnold looked around the room and noticed something he had missed initially... limp and decapitated bodies of various types of monsters were being held upside down at one corner of the room, their blood was being collected into a vessel. A few people were busy collecting the blood from the vessel and were forcefully feeding it to the ones who were trying their best to resist but it was all in vain as they were forced to gulp it down. Arnold noticed that the moment the blood touched their lips they immediately went silent just like the others. Arnold was sickened by this and looked away... only to see the a woman dressed in ck clothing enter the room. He couldn''t see her face as it was covered with a ck hood. The people inside seemed to know exactly who the woman was as they immediately went on their knees and simultaneously praised the one dressed in ck, "Long live the Priestess!" The woman slowly pulled her hood back and smiled at the ones kneeling before her. At this moment Arnold felt his conscience returning back to his body as the duration of his skill had ran out, but it didn''t mattered anymore, he had already seen the face of the ''Priestess''. ''So, we meet again... Alice.'' Arnold thought as his conscience returned back to his ''unconscious'' body. **** Author''s note: Canterville ghost is a short story that was written by : Oscar Wilde and was published in 1887 for the first time. So far it has had about 4 movie adaptions so far (I think). I had to study it as a part of my academics back in 2016-2017 but man it was a great story, so if anyone of you likeical stories, I think you''ll definitely like it as well! Chapter 108 - Once An Enemy, Always An Enemy (3) After walking for ten more minutes, the ogres finally came to a halt. Arnold still seemed to be unconscious, as the men entered the ''church'', followed by the ogre who was carrying Arnold on his shoulders. "Inform the priestess, the hunt was sessful. We have captured the man she requested us to." The guy having shorter height informed one of the church people while the taller guy instructed the ogre to put Arnold down and leave. ?? Upon getting the order, the ogre, grabbed Arnold''s hazmat suit and mmed him down with his monstrous strength before walking out of the church. Arnold seemed to have regained his consciousness due to the sudden shock caused by being thrown on the floor. He tried to getting up but the two men were quick on their feet and pushed him down once again. While his head was forced to the ground, Arnold heard a lot of footsteps racing towards him. He slightly raised his head to see who all were in his wee party and as fate would have, had it, the great priestess herself with her entourage of escorts, was headed his way. "Put him on his knees! And take off his helmet! I want to see his face." Alice roared. The men hurriedly did what they were told. Everyone around them was confused by the sudden change in the behavior of their priestess, she had always been a calm and collected person, but right now, she was the opposite of it. She was anxious and... angry. none of them had ever seen her like this before. Once Arnold was forced on his knees and had his helmet removed, Alice leaned in to see his face, she was all beautiful as ever, but the moment Arnold saw her face he couldn''t help but feel disgusted. If he wanted, he could''ve just up and killed her right away but right now there were too many variables in the y, he didn''t wanted to take unnecessary risk, moreover he was also interested in something other than the priestess. He wanted to know what that blood ritual was, that he saw when he used his foresight. "Your hair has grown quite a bit... your body and face has changed as well, but those eyes are still the same... it is you isn''t it? Quite a surprise. I never thought I''d be able to see you ever again and return the pain you generously bestowed upon me and my father." She mumbled and forced Arnold to look up. "It''s been a while Alice!" Arnold enthusiastically said, "How''s your fiance- oh I''m sorry, I killed him didn''t I? How forgetful of me-" SMACK! The moment Arnold mentioned Jake, Alicepletely lost it and smacked him hard across his face, but to be honest, he couldn''t even feel anything. After all it was a p from a pathetic person, there was no way in hell he''d feel any pain by getting hit by such a person. "Still a loser... like always. But don''t worry I''ll help you get rid of that misced attitude. Don''t worry, I won''t kill you... no, killing your would be too easy. See those ves over there?" She pointed towards one of the living zombies that just came out of the room where the ''ritual'' was taking ce, "I''ll turn you into one of those and abuse you for the rest of your miserable life." "Aww, you still want me to be close to you? I knew you had a thing for me, but sorry I''m not a perverted masochist like you. So I''ll have to decline your offer." Arnold replied with a smug look on his face. SMACK! "Take him inside and immediately begin the process to turn him!" Alice yelled and stormed off. The other people were silently watching the two, and were surprised to see how little did they know about their priestess... the fact this beautiful maiden once had a fiance who was killed by this strange man, broke their hearts. "You heard her." The shorter guy finally broke the silence and he pulled Arnold back to his feet while some other guy tied his hands together before pushing him inside the room where the ''soul washing'' ritual took ce. "By Gods, it smells so bad in here! You guys sure this is a church? Shouldn''t you clean this ce a bit more?" Arnold smirked, "Oh God, please forgive thee assholes and cleanse thy soul with vodka martini." The men ignored his witty remarks and tied him up to an empty bed. The room itself was mostly empty, only a couple of people were inside. Perfect! This was exactly what Arnold was hoping for. Furthermore, the idiots decided to tie him up without taking his hazmat suit off... which meant, Arnold still had his overpowered gears on him. "Not gonna lie, this chain thingy it''s kinda kinky, but I''m not sure it''s my thing... could you remove these?" Arnold said. "You sure we can''t kill him instead?" The taller guy asked his counterpart. "You heard the priestess, she has special ns for him. Either way our work here, is don-" Before the man could evenplete what he was saying, ws popped out of Arnold''s suited hands and he stabbed them into the short guy''s throat. With his current strength, breaking iron chains was no longer an impossibility, and so was killing an unprepared opponent. As the short guy fell on his knees, desperately gasping for air while holding his throat. Arnold didn''t waste anytime and jumped at the tall guy before he could process what was happening, grabbed his head, and mmed him down with all of his strength squashing his head like a rotten watermelon. "Tsk. You were actually nothing without your ogres... how disappointing." Arnold shook his head, and stared right through the ones who were busy preparing for the ritual, "Alright, I only need one of you to be alive, so the one who tells me how the f*ck this ritual works. would live, the other would die. If you waste my time, both of you die. Your choice." "Like we''d ever betray our-" One of the men started barking, but before he could even finish, Arnold stabbed his ws into his head. Killing him in an instant. "Wanna join him?" Arnold asked as he looked into the other man''s eyes. "P-Please they''ll kill me if I t-tell you!" The man went on his knees and started begging Arnold for mercy. "Tsk. I don''t know why I waste my time talking to the living. Getting information out of the undead is much easier and efficient." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "Well I at least I tried..." "N-NO P-PLEASE! I HAVE A W-WIFE TO TAKE CARE OF!" The man panicked and started groveling at Arnold''s feet. "Does she works here as well?" Arnold sympathetically asked and gently pulled the man back up to his feet. After hearing Arnold''s sympathy filled voice, the man stopped crying, thinking he had been forgiven, "Y-Yes! She works in this ward as well!" "Then don''t worry, she''ll be joining you soon." Arnold nodded and shed the man''s throat. As the man feel on his knees, he desperately tried to stop the bleeding and tightly grabbed his neck but it was all in vain. The blood kepting out of his wounds. In hisst moments he red at Arnold as if he was cursing him, he opened his mouth to say something, but only blood came out of the mouth. "Hey! Don''t look at me like that... you just got what you deserved. Think of it as salvation for your sins." Arnold kicked the man and turned around to leave. Chapter 109 - Once An Enemy, Always An Enemy (4) "Please have mercy! Don''t kill me!" The guard stationed outside the room eximed. "The people all of you tormented here had a families, friends, and loved ones they cared for. If you didn''t showed any mercy to them, then how the hell could you even expect someone else to forgive you and let you live?" Arnold mumbled as he killed yet another guard outside the room he had just been in. ?? ___ You''ve killed a human. EXP : +200 Rank A human killed : EXP : +2000 Total number of humans killed : 9 Total EXP obtained : 9¡Á2200 = 19,800 ___ ''The experience I''m getting isn''t half bad'' Arnold thought and as usual, dumped it all to increase the level of his subss, ''Tsk. Too bad, killing humans doesn''t add to my Headhunter sub quest. At least I''ve got the blood concoction from them... baby Wyvern would be happy to have such a diverse meal.'' He thought killing humans might contribute towards his headhunter sub quest but it didn''t as it was clearly mentioned that he needed to kill 300 ''monsters'' and even though the humans he was killing were no less than monsters, still they technically didn''t count as monsters. ''They are even worse than monsters. Maybe the system to that in ount.'' Not to mention, he didn''t forget to take the vessel filled with monster blood either, and stored it in his inventory while he stored the bodies of the monsters in his domain for... research purposes, after all if he could solve the mystery behind the weird concoction of blood then he could effectively use it in numerous ways, such as, he could use them to increase his *army* or his workforce or maybe he could even use them as spies. But he was sure about one thing, Alice couldn''t have aplished this all by herself... someone was definitely backing her and he had to know who that person exactly was, and for that he had to capture Alice. No matter the cost. Apart from all that, something else was bothering him as well. Ever since he killed the ones inside the treatment room, he expected arge group of guards it warriors to surround him and attack him, but nothing of that sort happened. "Why haven''t someone noticed anything yet?" Arnold mumbled and quickly checked his surroundings, there were no cameras present there but still there was no way Alice would''ve forgotten about him after all the crap she spewed about making him, her ve. Moreover the number of guards stationed along the corridor was much lesser than he had seen when he used his foresight, speaking of foresight, he thought about using it once again, right then and there but doing that would''ve caused him some trouble. Whenever he was used the foresight ability, his body went into a defenseless state, which was a big no no. Thus he decided to continue the search for Alice on his own. As he got closer to the gate that separated the treatment wing from the main building, Arnold heard some noises as if there was a skirmish between two groups. He slightly opened the door and saw the chaos that was going on. The hundred ogres that had been peacefully standing outside had gone berserk and were killing anything and everything that got in their sight, and the human guards were busy handling them though obviously they were failing miserably at it. The magicians of the church were busy casting random spells aimed towards the ogres while the brawlers, tanks, and swordsmen were busy attacking and defending at the same time. It looked like they''ve managed to kill a couple of ogres but the cost was high as well. More than a dozen humans have already been either killed or severely injured. Things weren''t looking good for the humans. ''So that''s why no one was paying attention to what was happening inside the treatment wing. They were already busy having their as*ess kicked by the ogres.'' Arnold silently nodded. "WHY THE HELL ARE THE OGRES ATTACKING US!" One of the mages yelled as he used wind type magic to push back a couple of ogres. "I DON''T KNOW! SOMEONE CONTACT ZUUKA!" Another mage yelled. ''You don''t but I know why.'' Arnold thought. He had expected something like this to happen, after he killed that tall guy who seemingly controlled the ogres. It was all a theory that Arnold had made. ording to Arnold, once the one who controlled the monsters died, there had to be some kind of change in the behaviour of the monsters. Honestly, Arnold thought that the ogres would go intoatose and remain unresponsive to anyone else''smands which would''ve made his fight with the church a lot easier. But that clearly didn''t happen. Even so he was more than happy with the oue of his actions as now he didn''t have to worry about the guards or the church people anymore. "I don''t like to be left out of a party though..." Arnold smiled, "Guess, I''ll have to invite myself then." He opened his void and called out his army of summons to join the fray. Even though their numbers had decreased a bit, they were still more than enough to handle the humans and the ogres. "Looks like its payback time." Arnold smirked when he saw, Asterios huffing like a crazy bull, "I''m gonna give you guys one instruction - kill anyone and anything you see, except Alice. I don''t care whether she''s missing a limb or two, but you won''t kill her. I''m the one who''ll do it. Alright then, GO!" With a singlemand, his troops tore the door down, and charged at the humans in front of them. The defenseless magicians who were at the rear, were the first ones to die from the sudden and unexpected attack of his summons. The unfortunate ones who managed to survive the initial attack, were soon stomped to death by the golems. Only a single word was repeating in the minds of his summons, ''Kill... Kill... Kill!'' "Where the hell these things appeared fro-" Asterios crushed the head of the swordsman before he could say anything else. With the mages out of the picture, the rest of human forces was sandwiched between the ogres and Arnold''s summons. They knew they couldn''t fight both of them simultaneously as they were outnumbered, nor could they escape from there. They were about to die and they couldn''t do anything to save themselves. It was inevitable. Soon the ughter resumed and the humans were killed one after another, but they didn''t go down without putting up a fight either. Every now and then either one of Arnold''s summons or one of the ogres fell by their hands but there were clearly more casualties on the human side. They were fighting a losing battle and Arnold wasn''t interested in them, and this he started searching for Alice. "Were are you hiding, priestess?" Arnold mumbled as he went upstairs to look for Alice, "Luck was on your sidest time, and you managed to run away... but it ain''t happening this time." Chapter 110 - Once An Enemy, Always An Enemy (5) VROOM! VROOM! ?? As Arnold was looking for Alice on the first floor of the building, he heard a loud noise of starting a car and immediately rushed downstairs, towards the garage. Hepletely ignored the three-way battle that was going on between humans, ogres and his summons, and kept running towards the garage. On his way there, he ripped off a piece of cloth from a dead mage and wrapped it around his head to protect him from the radiation as the garage was located outside the main building hence there was a chance he could get affected by it. Since he already knew that the clothes these church members wore, granted then immunity to the radiation, he felt safe to step outside. By the time he reached the entrance of the garage, Alice along with a few others was already seating in a military hummer and they were about to leave the building. "Oh, you''re not getting away so easily this time!" Arnold eximed, as took out his guns and began shooting at the tires, as they tried to get away. The driver, however, didn''t stop, and elerated, even more, only to lose the bnce of the car and crashed into an old building, a huge part of the building fell on the top of the car andpletely trapping the car. Since, now the car out of the question, the four of them had no choice but to step out of it, but even as they got out, rather than running away, three of them charged straight at Arnold, while Alice started running away from the scene. "I''ve got two guns in my hands and these idiots are still charging towards me?" Arnold shook his head in disappointment, and aimed his guns at his targets, "Did she promised to give them a kiss in hell or something?" BANG BANG BANG The three people fell like dominoes in front of him, he then aimed his guns at Alice, "Looks like I''ll have to resurrect you after I''m done with you... tsk, what a way to waste a precious slot for elite summons..." But right when he was about to take the shot, half a dozen military vehicles surrounded her, while more were en route towards his current location. People immediately stepped out of their vehicles and handcuffed Alice while the remaining people made their way towards the area where the sh between ogres, humans and his summons was taking ce. Not that there was much for them to do either way as his summons already had the situation under control. Amon factor among these people? All of them were wearing exactly the same hazmat suits as Arnold, indicating they were the members of the army. His doubts vanished once he saw the familiar face of the woman who was headed his way. "I thought, I told you to stay away," Arnold said. "I thought you''d like to see me for once!" Amanda replied, "I know what you said, and I was going to let you handle it all alone, but then I kinda lost your signal and then... I panic- I meant then, I decided to move out in case you were in trouble, however, you weren''t in any type of trouble so that''s good right?" "Lost my signal? We did I-" "Hehehe, for lecturing me on my intelligence, you''re not the brightest yourself are you?" Amanda smirked as if she finally got a much needed and well-deserved payback. Arnold smacked his head when the realisation dawned upon him, "Of course there would''ve been a tracker or something inside the hazmat suit." "Ding Ding Ding! You''re correct and you''ve won some stone-cold embarrassment!" Amanda chirped, "Well... when our soldiers started disappearing we had to do something about it, so we decided to equip the suits with trackers so that we could track them in case they went MIA, but we never got to test them on the field as the soldiers were rarely sent outside after the new suits were manufactured." "You wish. I''m not someone who gets embarrassed from such minuscule things." Arnold replied, "So what are you going to do with her?" "Interrogate her, what else? Hey! Don''t tell me they seriously damaged your brain!" Amanda messed up with him a bit more. Before Arnold could reply, a voice came out of Amanda''smunicator, "Ma''am the ogres have been taken care of and the remaining humans have been arrested but... there are some weird monsters here as well. They are not attacking us but they look intimidating... we''re not sure what to do." Arnold knew exactly what the guy was talking about, thus he seized Amanda''s hand and brought it closer to his mouth before speaking, "You do anything to them and I''ll personally rip your hands of your sockets." And then hurried off to the main hall to cancel him summoning before anyone tried to pull off a stunt. *** LATER THAT NIGHT, THE ALPHA BASE, INSIDE AN INTERROGATION ROOM... "What were the drugs you were using to brainwash our men into doing your bidding?" An intelligence officer who liked like the hulk was trying his best to intimidate Alice and force some information out of her, but so far he couldn''t get a single answer out of her. "It wasn''t a drug." That''s all Alice kept repeating. "Then what was it?" "Sorry, I don''t know what you''re talking about." "Then tell me who are you working for?" "I''m a priestess. Take your guess." Arnold, Amanda, and a few high ranking officers, including the Brigadier General himself, were witnessing this whole ordeal from behind the one-way mirror. While the others looked desperate to get some information out of Alice, Arnold remained calm and quiet while he patiently waited for his turn to interrogate that bitch. He had wanted to interrogate her as soon as they reached the Alpha base, but the higher-ups rejected the idea saying it was their job to do so, but when Arnold ''persuaded'' them for a bit, they finally gave in and agreed to allow him to interrogate her after 3 hours, and it was already about that time. ''Just a couple of minutes more...'' Arnold thought. But then suddenly the atmosphere inside the room changed. "What the hell is he doing!?" Amanda eximed, "Someone stop that man!" Arnold immediately got up from the chair he was sitting on, to see that the man who was interrogating Alice, had pulled out his gun, and was a moment away from pulling the trigger. The soldiers rushed inside to stop him but before they could''ve stopped him and the man pulled the trigger. BANG! Alice''s blood sttered all over the one-way mirror and in all of the chaos, the man took out a small sk from his pockets and emptied it in his mouth. It was poison. Soon the man started hyperventting and fell on the ground, and spat out some blood before dying. While the others were still processing what had just happened in front of them, Arnold was busy analysing everyone''s faces. All of them looked genuinely shocked. All, apart from the one man. ''I thought it might have been you.'' Chapter 111 - Guardian Syndicate "Tsk. The information she had could''ve been useful for us." Brigadier General said, "It''s a pity, but dead men tell no tales..." "Actually, they do talk sometimes," Arnold smirked at the brigadier''s remarks. ?? "What crap are you spewing out?" The brigadier questioned Arnold, "I think you require some medical assistance first and foremost, maybe you''ve hit your head or something during the fight." "You''ll see what I''m talking about, soon enough," Arnold said as he opened the door to the interrogation room, "but I think you won''t like what''s going to happen next..." It seemed like thestment Arnold had made got through the Brigadier''s mind, as he was barking orders at the privates like a madman. "Levinsky that man is trying to tamper with the evidence! shoot him! Arrest him before he gets away with it!" The brigadier screamed. One of the two privates immediately followed the order of his superior and aimed his gun at Arnold. It was one of the guns that Arnold had made himself, moreover, he knew exactly who the private was. "I knew you were a bit suspicious from the moment I saw you outside the workshop. So let me guess, you''re the brigadier general''s pet, and you informed him about the weapons I was making. Simrly, the brigadier general informed about it to his partner in crime, the priestess, who then sent her men to ''infiltrate'' the base and get their hands on the weapons. I bet one of you gave the free pass to the frauds himself. Sounds familiar doesn''t it?" Arnold narrated the entire story while having an I know it all look on his face. The others who were present inside the room were strangely looking at their superior, the brigadier tried to remain calm after hearing the allegations. "I don''t know what you''re talking about." the Brigadier General replied, "As far as I''m concerned, you''re a threat to this facility and its people. Thus I''m ordering you to stand down and surrender yourself before something terrible happens." The private from earlier gulped down his saliva while the brigadier was busy arguing with Arnold. "Ordering me? Do you think it''ll be a good decision to do that? I thought we could be cordial about it all but you didn''t leave me any choice." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and called out a few of his summons, "and if you''re not wrong then why are you so hell-bent on stopping me from revealing the truth?" Asterios, Duke, Talos, Cerberus, and a couple of more summons surrounded Arnold, "Bet you didn''t saw this happening, did you? Now stay quiet and let me do my thing or... what did you say? Oh, right. Something terrible would happen. Talos, do your thing." *** SOMETIME LATER... IN WEST AMERICAN REGION, HEADQUARTERS OF GUARDIAN SYNDICATE1... "I actually wanted to meet that idiot for once..." Nina sighed and unlocked her phone. She had a picture of a group of people as her lock screen. She was intently looking at one particr person, it was the same person who had saved her and her team from a sneak attack from a group of mercenaries, about 7 years ago. It always pained her heart when she remembered the scene where she thought it was all over until he arrived. Even though she couldn''t remember his face, she knew exactly who her saviour was. Remembering that person always calmed her heart, it was odd, because she never felt like this towards anyone else... it was as if she knew, that person would always save her no matter what. Her only regret was not being able to tell him how much she was grateful to him and wanted to thank him but sadly she couldn''t, as she was still in the hospital when that person left Florida and went to train in Brazil. She thought, she''d thank him once he returned from his training but then... the person went missing inside a dungeon trip. When there were no signs of him even after an entire year, he was dered dead. Her heart was torn apart, howe sometimes like him be dead? She just couldn''t ept it. But then, the dungeon break happened and apart from a few people, everyone forgot about him, as they got busy with taking care of the monsters while failing miserably at doing so. The entire country changed after that. The government, the society, the world everything changed. Still, she never forgot about him. And then like a miracle, the person suddenly came back like a mystery. She wanted to meet that man, but as luck would have it, she had to go and clear a dungeon instead. When she returned from the dungeon, she asked the ever-busy Nathan, if the person was actually him? "It''s Arnold alright, but I couldn''t bring him with me as the syndicate might''ve tried to me us for partial treatment. Although he''s a guy who deserves it, still he was understanding and wants to work his way to West America." Nathan had replied. She was ECSTATIC, to hear that her saviour was alive, but then she was understandably upset she won''t be able to see him for a while, and that''s why she had a bottle of wine in one hand while she was looking at the picture she clicked during their night at Malibu Club around 7 years ago. "Wow, you''re still looking at my brother''s photograph?" Nicole said as she helped herself with a little wine and next to Nina. "What can I say, your brother has a special effect on me." Nina smiled wanly and ced the phone back inside her pocket, "So how was your A rank dungeon trip?" "Meh, it was nd. I''d rather be in the eastern region and kill the monsters than stay here and take care of useless monsters...'' Nicole waved her hand around as she sipped the wine. "I''m sure you''d like that!" Nina chuckled. They were inside Nathan''s office, waiting for him to report about their individual responsibilities as they used to do it every evening. That''s why they were so casually drinking and talking about random things until Nathan arrived. "Maybe we should-" Nicole was about to say something when thendline phone present in the office ringing and Nina unhesitatingly picked it up. "You''ve reached Nathan ck''s office, how can I help you?" "Hey, Nathan... wait who''s this again? Amanda, I think the number is wrong." A man''s voice came through the other side, "Um... whoever you are, could you hand the phone over to Nathan. I have something important to discuss with him." Nina immediately knew whose voice it, and rather than doing what was requested by the man instead she screamed, "Arnold!?" *** 1. Guardians syndicate: It is the name of the new ruling body of America. I wanted toe up with something cool, but couldn''t think of anything so... if you have any idea or thoughts about a name then, pleasement them ? Chapter 112 - The Unknown Variable (1) EARLIER IN THE ALPHA BASE... "What. The. Hell. Is. Happening. Here!" One of the men inside the interrogation room eximed as the priestess'' corpse slowly recovered from its wounds and got back up to her feet. ?? "I don''t know... It''s the first time I''ve seen something like this..." Amanda mumbled. Even the Brigadier General, who was continuously throwing usations left and right was stunned into silence. No one said a word until Alice fully recovered, and stared hard at Arnold. ''Please don''t give me much trouble...'' Arnold thought. He needed Alice to remain calm once she was resurrected. He was worried because most of the resurrected beings threw a tantrum once they were fully resurrected and Arnold had to use the authority of his domain to force them into submission, but he didn''t want to do anything like that now for the time being. Since by asking Talos to resurrect Alice in front of everyone, he already had revealed one of his biggest trump cards, he knew it would cause him some issues but he didn''t want them to know more about his abilities and hence didn''t want to reveal the existence and the potential of his domain in front of them as well. Right now he could only hope, that due to the betrayal from her ''partner'', she''d be willing to rat him out. "So you even got his ability huh?" Alice asked in a sad and defeated voice once she was resurrected, "Jake had a simr ability himself..." Arnold was genuinely surprised by the reversal in Alice''s behaviour. He thought she''d explode and maybe do something to harm him. Not only she wasn''t throwing a tantrum and causing trouble for him, she was behaving like a gentle soul. But Arnold didn''t let his guard down. for all he cared she could''ve been faking it all so that he would let his guard down and then do something to hurt him or the others. He then suddenly remembered about Natasha, as she also pulled regr stunts like the one she did Arnold went inside to resurrect Dread. No matter how hard he imagined about Natasha and Alice together, not a single positive oue came to his mind... ''What crap have I gotten myself into... Eh, I''ll cross that bridge when I get to it, right now I need to focus on the task at hand.'' he thought. "So you knew about Jake''s ability to resurrect the dead? I thought he was keeping it a secret from everyone..." Arnold asked Alice, just to make sure her mind was in the right ce. "I don''t think you resurrected me to talk about that, did you? You want to know who I was working with, don''t you, fine I''ll tell you because as much as I hate to admit it, I was given a chance to take me revenge on him by being resurrected by you." Alice kept speaking in a usually warm tone, I''m not going to waste your time... It''s him." Arnold expected her to point her fingers at the Brigadier General, but instead, she pointed at the private, who darted out of the room the moment, Alice pointed at him. Talos was quick to respond and even before the private could even reach the handle of the door, he got shot in his legs by Talos'' gun. "Argh!" He tried to crawl out of the room but Arnold grabbed his injured leg and dragged him back to the centre of the room and froze his hands and legs on a chair. Everyone else was stunned, even the Brigadier General. "Start talking," Arnold ordered. "What... do you want... me to talk about... huh? You and that son of a bitch Nathan?" The private cursed both of them loudly, "You f*ckers took everything from me! Everything!" "Do I even know you- wait I thought I''ve seen your face before... don''t tell me... it''s you!" Arnold finally remembered who the private actually was... "Yes, it is, Allen. Nathaniel''s biological son." Alice answered in Arnold''s ce, "He had been working with us for a long time..." "Why the hell would you do something like this!? It doesn''t make any sense! Why would you betray your own family!" Arnold was not expecting something like this to happen. He had forgotten about Allen as he never saw him since they went to clear a dungeon together and Arnold soloed it, defeating the Bone Berserker by himself and Allen had tried to gaslight him into giving up on the loot that Arnold earned. (For more info reread the chapter named: Celebration.) "Because of people like you... my father took away everything that was supposed to be mine! My father treated his own son like a piece of thrash while all of you yed a happy family... all because of that stupid, useless, ck Family. When the dungeon outbreak happened, instead of keeping me safe my fcking father threatened to disown me and forced me to enlist in the army saying I had to prove my worth, while nearly everyone in the so-called family got a free pass to live in West America! It''s all because of people like Nathan and you, that my father never acknowledged my existence." Allen blurted out with nothing but rage with himself, "But then I found someone who acknowledged me... someone who understood how I felt after my father alienated me... he gave me the power to control people.... to make them obey mymands. He gave me the technology to gain power! But he had a condition... just one." "What condition?" Amanda asked. "Use it all to destroy the ck Family... and I happily agreed! After all, that''s was the only thing I had been nning on doing for a long long time." Allen smiled like a maniac, "But I knew I couldn''t have done it all by myself, but the guy had already figured it all out and helped me meet up with the ''priestess'' who had the same goal as I did, and so our n to take down the family began. "My job was pretty easy. All I had to do was to mislead a group of army troops to where the priestess had already set up an ambush and let them get captured. You won''t know how easy it was to fool these ''superiors''. All I needed to do was to hack into the servers and change the location as to where the troops were headed and wait for the priestess to sessfully capture them, guess my brain still counts for something right? We then nned on keep increasing our manpower while reducing the manpower of the army at the same time and once it was done, all we had to do was to attack and take over the base then allow the monsters to invade the safe haven of the people!" Allen''s vision was clouded by his hatred for the Family, and that''s why he couldn''t see something that Arnold could. Allen was just a pawn for the one who had nned it all out... he was nothing but a resource that the unknown person was using up to get rid of the ck Family and it was this person who Arnold had to take care of because if he didn''t then something simr would again and again, with receable pawns. For the sake of family, Arnold had to know who the identity of the person. "Who was it, Allen? Who was the one who had been helping you?" Arnold calmly asked him. "It was the same person who attacked your sister!" Allen happily eximed, "You''ve messed up too many ns of him, he''ll get you soon enough!" Chapter 113 - The Unknown Variable (2) "Tell me his name, and I''ll ensure that you''re shown some leniency during the trial." Arnold tried to persuade Allen into giving up the information regarding the unknown mastermind. "Leniency? Nice try but I already knew that I f*cked up royally when the n was set into motion. Not you, nor anyone else can help me now. So stop trying to bait me and kill me already!" Allenughed yet again, he was officially out of his mind now. ?? "Oh, you think I don''t have a way to uncover the leader''s true identity, without your help? Or do you think that I don''t wanna kill you? You make me sick to my stomach!" Arnold spat on the floor in disgust, "I just wanted to give you a chance to clear your name... or the family''s name at least, but you''re rotten to your core. It''s true no one can save you, not because it''s impossible, no, but because you''re a lost cause. I could kill you as easily as I kill the monsters because you''re no different than them. But I won''t." Arnold carried on, "I won''t kill you because I don''t want to cause any grief to the man who gave me shelter and hope when I was at my lowest. Hurting that man is thest thing I''ll ever do. Whatever happens to you from now on is solely because of your choices and no one else. I''ve had enough of your daddy issues. Amanda, I assume you have the contact details of Nathan, could you get them for me? He''s the family head, so I think he should take care of the things here... before I do something that I''ll regret for the rest of my life." "I''m on it," Amanda replied as rushed off to somewhere. Soon Allen was taken into custody by the Brigadier General''s orders. Everyone left the room except, Arnold, the Brigadier General, Alice and the rest of Arnold''s summons. After calming down, Arnold turned towards the Brigadier General. He still had his doubts about the general''s weird behaviour towards him, but before he could say anything, the General cut him off. "I know you don''t trust me, and I''m fine with it, but if you still need anything from me, I''ll dly help you. After all, you''ve aplished the herculean task of taking down the church by yourself, and for that, I''m truly grateful to you... also, I''m sorry for my cold behaviour towards you earlier. I might be stepping out of the line here, but what was that ability which you used earlier? I''m positive that woman was dead but you... resurrected her?" "I''d appreciate it if this matter stays within these walls and I apologise for the rudeness but I don''t think it''s a good idea for me to tell you about the ability..." The Brigadier General was visibly taken aback by Arnold''s remarks, but he knew he couldn''t force anything out of his mouth even if he tried to do so. His only choice was to let the matter go and hope he and Arnold were on the same page. Otherwise, the results would''ve been terrifying. Not wanting to risk his life, the Brigadier General left without saying another word to Arnold. "He definitely knows more than he''s showing about all this. Gotta keep an eye on him as well." "Arnold, if you''d like, I can give you the identity of the leader..." Alice said once she was sure that the Brigadier General had left the room. "And why do you want to tell me that?" Arnold asked her back. Although it surprised him as to why was Alice so eager to help him, but then since everything was going well he didn''t bother to ask her about it then and now that they had the entire room to themselves, he didn''t waste any time and asked her about this change in her character. "Frankly? I never wanted any of this. I didn''t want to lie and lure you but my father, the president and Jake all persuaded me to go along with the n as, if they helped the leader, it would''ve helped them gain them some recognition and power, and in a moment of weakness, I finally agreed. But then everything went wrong... you killed Jake... and my father was arrested and charged for crimes he never did. All I could think about was run and then find a way to take my revenge in you and your family but before I could do anything to harm the family... the dungeon incident happened. "I was defeated. I felt miserable all I could think about was either ways to end myself or to kill your entire family... and then the leader contacted me, and soon I was at the facility that was built under the guise of an abandoned factory. At first, I was angry at him as all of this was his fault but he fueled my anger and pushed me on the same path as my father and the president. But I wasn''t the only one he had contacted... there were a lot of people who were part of his secret ns. Soon, I was assigned to lead about a quarter of themselves. He helped us by giving us advance technology to tame both monsters and humans... both of which you have already seen..." Alice kept telling him her tale, and Arnold kept listening to her. He had no doubt that what Alice did was wrong but for some reason, he just couldn''t bring himself to punish her and patiently waited for her to reveal the identity of the leader. But as usual, his patience was running out. "But then as more and more people were converted to serve me and our cause, I started having second thoughts about it all. Wherever I saw those soulless people, I cursed myself for being so cold-hearted. Soon I was tired because of it... All I wanted was to end it all but whenever I remembered about my father and Jake, I got filled with unadulterated rage against you and your family and the cycle continued. In the end, I carried on with our n. I know you won''t believe me even if I told you how happy I was when I saw that man pointing a gun at me. I thought finally this misery would end and I made sure that the bullet managed to hit me. I was so d to die... finally, I was at peace but then you resurrected me-" "Alice... I need a name." Although Arnold sympathised with her, his patience was running out. Alice smiled wanly and continued, "I''m sorry I got carried away... I don''t know whether you know him or not but he is quite famous so-" "Who is it?" Arnold said as he massaged his temple. "Devon M. Troy. The CEO of Troy Industries, financially speaking, he''s the world''s richest and thus a dangerous man." Chapter 114 - The Unknown Variable (3) "Wait you mean... THE TROY INDUSTRIES?" The way Arnold screamed thepany''s name, startled his summons a little bit. "So you know him?" Alice asked with a perplexed look on her face. ?? "I was employed at their office in Florida before all this dungeon crap happened!" "You used to work with hispany? Well, that''s something new..." Alice mumbled. "But why would he try to kidnap Nicole and do all of this crap? It doesn''t make any sense-" "Arnold, I''ve got General Nathan''s contact details as you asked." Amanda came running into the interrogation room. "That was quick. Are you rted to Usain Bolt or something?" Arnold smirked as she sent him the details and then proceeded to call a few men to clean up the interrogation room as it had started to smell a little bit. But for Arnold had gotten used to being around Bad-Breath, who smelt worse than a skunk. The smell was nothing special thus he paid no heed to it and proceeded to call Nathan. ''I should have taken his contact details when we first met after I came back. The number how, however different. I guess technology does moves ahead whether you walk along with it or not. Well, at least it''s ringing.'' Soon someone on the other side picked the phone up, "You''ve reached Nathan ck''s office, how can I help you?" "Hey, Nathan... wait who''s this again? Amanda, I think the number is wrong." Arnold felt like he heard a familiar voice, he tried and tried but couldn''t ce a face on it. "Arnold!? Is that you?" The feminine voice asked. Arnold was sure now that he had reached the right ce, after all, who else could''ve guessed him just by listening to his voice. It was a shame though that he couldn''t remember the face of the person he was talking to. "It is me alright... but could you get Nathan please,? It''s something urgent that I wanted to talk to him about." In the end, Arnold didn''t want to offend someone by not guessing their name so he tried to quickly change the topic and got right to the point. He expected a response from the other side but all he could hear was... silence? "I guess you don''t remember my voice? It''s alright, after all, it has been seven years since youst saw me. It''s Nina, you creationist weirdo!" Nina''s voice came through the other side, "But on a serious note, what''s the emergency? It would take a few minutes for Nathan to get here, meanwhile, if you want to you can talk to me about it." "Yup, that''s you alright. No one else would call me something like that, it''s good to see that you''re doing good! I thought you''d... nevermind that, now''s not the time to talk about all that." Arnold''s hesitated a bit before speaking again as he was internally debating whether he should tell Nina about Allen or not. A few seconds passed, but Arnold decided to tell her about the incident, as she belonged to the same family had the right to know about the matters that concerned the family. Not to mention, she potentially was the next head of the branch family after her dad, if she wasn''t already, either way, she should know about these matters. Thus Arnold began telling her everything that he had got to know. Everything apart from what Alice had told him about the masked leader, who was the mastermind behind it all as he was nning on letting Nathan know about it first. By the time he was done, Nathan was already there and thus he repeated the entire thing for Nathan. "The balls on that kid!" Nathan lost it, "I know father was harsh on him but honestly, I never thought he would go to this extent! Where is he now?" "Imprisoned. I thought you should deal with it without involving Nathaniel. The old man has already seen too much." Arnold replied. "You''re right... Father must never know about this, it would be too much for him to bear alone. You made the right decision. When you said Allen was working with the church that had been bothering us for so long, I honestly thought you already killed him and were calling to inform me about it, but I''m d you didn''t. I''m not saying that he doesn''t deserve to but even with his ws he''s still... family." "I understand. But still, he has to be punished..." Arnold reminded Nathan as he thought Nathan might get soft on Allen''s mistake and forgive him. Arnold had to push the matter. "I know... I''ll be heading there shortly. We''ll talk about it when I get there. Till then keep an eye on him. And Arnold... thank you for helping us." "No need to thank me, I''m just helping the family that''s all." With that, they ended the call and Arnold turned towards Amanda, "I''m sorry but I''ll have to leave the rest of the things to you... I think I should take some rest before Nathan gets here." "I understand. Don''t worry about anything Arnold, thank you for your hard work. We owe you a lot." Amanda saluted Arnold and left without waiting for Arnold''s reply. "That woman is way too focused on her job. Not that I can do anything to help Her." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and opened up a portal to his domain. All of his summons including Alice stepped one after another into the portal, right when Talos was about to step in Arnold pulled him aside. "Talos, I have an important task for you." Arnold whispered, "I can''t fully trust Alice. Not yet anyway, so would you keep an eye on Alice and make sure that she doesn''t get into touch with Natasha?" "Consider it done master. I''ll make sure she stays away from Natasha. I''ll inform the others about it as well." Talos replied. "I''d appreciate it." Arnold nodded and closed the portal as Talos went inside, "It was a long day! I better go and sleep now, after all, tomorrow''s going to be a tough day as well." He stretched a bit before heading out to the workshop where his sleeping arrangement had been set up, thinking his day was over. Little did he know, it was going to be a very, very long night for him. Chapter 115 - Dharma The workshop was considerably darker since Arnold had fallen asleep, but on the outside, the moon was shining in all its glory, a cool breeze was flowing around, everything was peaceful... everything, except Arnold''s mind as he constantly flipped and squirmed on his bed while sleeping. He was having a nightmare, like one he had long back when Bob (Bad-Breath) and Nikki, tried to capture his sister. But this time, it was a bit different... He was stranded on a barren snowy mountain. There was not even a single living soul in his sights, just rock and snow all around. He felt a bit cold as he wasn''t wearing anything apart from a worn-out shirt and a torn pants that barely covered his knees and was climbing the mountain barefoot, but still, the cold was bearable, it wasn''t like someone who had ice affinity would freeze to death either way. ?? Arnold knew it was him but something felt different as he couldn''t control his own body. Suddenly his body started paining a lot. It was then he noticed that his body was covered with wounds, there wasn''t a single part of his body that wasn''t drenched in blood... taking a single step was proving to be a herculean task, but he kept moving forward. With every step he took more blood spurted out of his wounds... it was as if he was possessed... all he cared about was reaching the summit of the mountain. His bloodshot eyes were filled with rage, remorse and sadness. He wanted to give up, but he kept moving forward. His stamina was running low as the weight of his body was pulling him down. From time to time, he heard the bloodcurdling cries of multiple people... most of whom were cursing him to death and desperately trying to shake his focus but he just smiled and kept moving forward towards the summit of the mountain... The ce of his salvation. But before he could reach there, a man gently grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back. Arnold turned around but lost his bnce and fell over. He tried to look up to the one who made him fall but his vision was cked out and he couldn''t see a thing... he could only hear a man''s voice ringing in his ears... "Being my vassal is a curse... a curse to lose everything you ever loved... a curse to make the sacrifices for the greater good... a curse of creation and destruction..." The voice whispered, "But you''re not ready yet... for you don''t know what true meaning of sacrifice is. Go back now... be a true vassal... defeat the trials and when you''ve experienced the true pain...e and find me... only then you''d be worthy of bing my sessor. No matter what happens you must never lose hope in yourself, and never forget your dharma." (Author''s note: ''Dharma'' essentially trantes to religion but in Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as Jainism it has a much deeper meaning than that. The word itself epasses, the eternal and inherent nature of reality, regarded as a cosmicw underlying right behaviour and social order, or in other words, it is the ''Law of Life''. Which guides a soul on the right path.) **** Arnold woke up with a start, his whole body was drenched in his sweat. His heart was beating madly, ready toe out of his mouth at any second. He ced his right hand on his chest, tried to calm his heart and his breath. "What the hell was that all about..." Once he regained hisposure, he looked around himself to confirm whether it was a dream or not... he was still inside the room next to the workshop. ''So it was a nightmare...'' He then tried to remember what he was dreaming about but nothing much came into his mind... and all he remembered clearly was a strange feeling... as if his life was slowly being torn apart. Slowly he began to vaguely remember a bit more about his ''nightmare''. He remembered the voice of the man who was standing in front of him. Arnold didn''t know who the man was but his voice sounded divine and almighty... The man was telling him something about Dharma or something but he couldn''t remember what. He was still tired so he tried to sleep once again but he just couldn''t. Whenever he closed his eyes, the image of his bloodied and battered self shed before his eyes. "Damn it! I can''t sleep like this. Nor can I ignore the nightmare...st time I ignored it Nicole almost got kidnapped." He said as he massaged his temple, "The only good thing this time was that it only involved me and nobody else... I guess I got all the sleep I could, so much for having a peaceful night." He hastily got up from his bed, drank some water and went inside the workshop, as it was the only ce that would distract his mind intro doing something fruitful. Once he was inside the workshop, he poured all of the materials that he had gained after hunting a few monsters earlier, on the floor and then proceeded to fire up the forge. He didn''t spare a single thought on what he was going to make as he already had a clear picture in his head about it. "I don''t wanna ignore that nightmare... in any case, it''s about time to rearm my summons with deadlier weapons." Arnold nodded his head, "They are my first line of defence as well as offence, if they have better weapons, it''ll increase their battle prowess significantly." With that being said, he picked up thergest scale he had gained after processing the leviathan grade insect and started beating on the scales slowly shaping it up. He also summoned Talos and the other automatons to help him out. **** "Finally all done..." Arnold yawned as The sun came out and kissed the surface of the earth. Arnold silently admired his new creations... a huge sledgehammer for Asterios and a katana like sword for Dread. ___ ? [STORM CRUSHER]: A Warhammer made up of scales of a leviathan grade monster which was enhanced by its creator. Grade: A Strength (STR) : + 75 Weapon Type: Warhammer Weight : 18 kg Additional effect : [THE BARBARIAN FROM HELL] - Each sessful strike by this hammer increases the chances to insta-kill an enemy if the enemy has the same rank as the one welding the Warhammer. Additional effect : [PLEASED TO KILL] - Killing enemies strengthens the hammer. (STR increases by 2 points for every 10 monsters in.) ___ ___ ? [FUTUSUNOMITAMA-NO-TSURUGI1]: A katana made up of scales of a leviathan grade monster which was enhanced by its creator. The sharpness of this sword allows it to slice through the enemies like a hot knife through butter. Grade: A Strength (STR) : + 80 Weapon Type: Sword (Katana) Weight : 12 kg Additional effect : [LEVIATHAN''S FURY] - Deals additional 12% damage to monsters. Additional effect : [UNTAMED DEATH] - When fighting alongside undead soldiers, adds a buff of +18 defence to the soldiers as well as the wielder of the sword. ___ (note: Generally weight of a katana is 1.5 kg but since this katana was made for Dread, thus it''s bigger and heavier.) He had already used Enhancement on both of these weapons as well as on his already overpowered cloak and gloves but sadly he could only achieve permanent enhancement on the Sledgehammer and the katana, but he wasn''t sad or anything as his gears were already great and would remain so for a long time. But that wasn''t all, he was now making ns to make a variety of weapons to rearm all of his summons. Moreover, he still needed to figure out the secret behind the monster taming cors and the brainwashing blood concoction as well as meet with Nathan to think about what they were going to do with Allen. "Tsk. It''s gonna be a hell of a busy day for me." *** 1. Futsunomitama-no-Tsurugi: Is the name of the Sword ofShinto,Thunder God. You guys might''ve heard the name ''Futsunomitama'' is you have seen ''Danmachi''. Chapter 116 - Blood Bond (1) At that moment, someone knocked on the door so thinking it was Amanda or maybe Nathan, and since the gate was already opened he just told them toe in. "Hey Amanda, is Nathan here already?" Arnold asked without even looking towards the gate as he was busy tweaking his gears a bit and he also heard someone walking in heels so he was sure it wasn''t Nathan... until and unless Nathan had developed a weird personality.?? "Who''s Amanda?" A familiar feminine voice echoed in his ears. it was a voice he hadn''t heard in years. "Nicole!?" He was both shocked and surprised to see his little sister standing next to him. "Hello, brother..." Nicole tried to give him a cheerful smile like she always did when she was a teenager, "It''s been long hasn''t it?" Before Arnold could react, another voice came from next to Nicole, "Ahm... before you both do something weird, just remember I''m here as well?" But he paid no attention whatsoever to Nina who was standing behind Nicole and hugged his not so little sister, but after remembering that he was shirtless and drenched in sweat he quickly let go of her before he soiled her attire... which was the ck Family''s traditionalbat suit, thus it wasn''t soiled. Nina was wearing a simr suit herself, both of them looked beautiful yet deadly in those suits. "It''s good to see you too brother... but next time you leave without informing me I''ll kill you." Nicole finally gave up on pretending and genuinely smiled but then tears welled up in her eyes, "I thought I''d never see you again..." "You''re not gonna get rid off me that easily..." Arnoldughed and patted her back, "You''ve grown quite a bit from thest time I saw you!" "Of course... I have... after all I''m not 15 anymore..." "You sure? Because you''re behaving like one now..." Arnold smiled but then he realised something... why the hell was Nicole wearing abat suit? He turned towards the person who could''ve answered him. "Good to know you''re still the same witty as*hole like before." Nina said, waving her hands around as if she had already read what was on his mind, "Do you wanna tell him?" "Guess I should... I think it''ll better if you sit down first, brother." Nicole said as Nina pulled a chair for Arnold to sit. "What''s going on?" Arnold said after Nina forced him to sit down... she didn''t have enough strength to do so, but Arnold didn''t bother and went with the flow. "Look... there''s something no one has told you about me." Nicole took a deep breath and blurted it out, "I''m a SS ranked warrior..." "Hhuhuu.... hahaha!" Arnold startedughing hysterically, "Good one guys... good one, I almost fell for it. I think I deserved it for leaving for such a long duration but seriously guys... if you wanna pull something like this off then next time try to tone it down a bit. SS ranked warrior... haha... I''m a SSS ranked warrior by the way... haha." "Arnold, she isn''t joking..." Nina mumbled. "Sure she isn''t." Arnold smirked, but when he saw the seriousness on Nicole''s face, the smirk disappeared, "Are you serious?" "Yes... it''ll be better if I show you instead." Nicole whispered and pointed her arm towards a table which immediately turned into sawdust. "What. The. Actual. F*CK! What kind of power is THAT!?" Arnold jumped up and instinctively assumed a battle stance... that power Nicole just released was a bit much for him to handle. "That''s the part we don''t know." Nina grabbed Arnold''s shoulder, which pulled him back to reality, "All we know it''s that she''s the only of her kind." "Why didn''t anyone told me about it!?" "I made them swear not to... because I wanted to tell you about it in person." Nicole averted her gaze from the sawdust and stared at her brother''s face. After the initial shock of the revtion dissipated, Arnold snapped. He had left his sister under the family''s care because he wanted to her to stay safe as she was ill, but instead, the family turned her into a warrior! He didn''t know whether he should be thankful to them for making Nicole independent or he should get pissed at them for hiding something about his sister from him... nheless he was conflicted over the entire scenario but he didn''t want to upset his sister on the day they met after so long, so he swallowed his thoughts up and smiled at Nicole. "Sorry for overreacting... it''s just... It was a bit too much for me to take in but I''m happy for you!" Arnold smiled, "I guess it would be me who''ll be getting protected now, and not the other way around?" "You can count on me for that!" Nicole smiled. "Since you people are here, I guess Nathan is here as well?" Arnold asked Nina. "He is. Actually, he''s waiting for you in the Brigadier General''s office. We should probably get going." *** While Arnold and Nina were walking side by side, discussing something, Nicole decided to hang back and have a chat of her own. ''So what do you think?'' Nicole thought. ''They''d make a good couple that''s for sure!'' Dona''s voice echoed inside Nicole''s mind. ''That might be true, but you know that''s not what I''m talking about...'' Nicole replied. ''Geez, you''re no fun! I miss the old, sweet and innocent version of yours. She was much fun to talk to!'' ''Dona, don''t try to-'' ''I know, I know. We share the same mind space so I know what you''re thinking.'' ''And...'' ''You''re wrong. Your brother isn''t a vassal-'' ''I thought he already killed-'' ''Will you hear me out first?'' Dona squealed, ''He''s not a vassal, not yet, but he''ll be one soon enough.'' ''He got his powers after I got mine so that''s expected but still his progress is too slow. Will he be ready in time for-'' Nicole wanted to say something but Dona cut her off. ''And that''s where you''re wrong, love... his progress isn''t slow. It''s just that his trials are longer and tougher than the ones I give you. Looks like The Immortal one isn''t taking any chances on grooming his potential heir, just what I''d expect from him, he''s too hard on his pdins. Right now, I''d say, your brother''s progress is more than what I expected and the way he''s progressing, he''ll surpass you and the others in no time, and be the first person to cross even the cosmic boundary and be a true deity.'' ''That''s not gonna happen. He has already endured enough because of me, now it''s my turn to protect him... by the way you haven''t given me today''s daily quest.'' ''Oh my, I forgot! Either way, it''s the usual soul reaper one.'' ''How many?'' ''10 should suffice.'' ''Monsters or humans?'' ''10 each.'' ''You''re too demanding, you know?'' Nicole smirked. ''I''m demanding? You''re the one who wanted to level up and be a B ranked cosmic being.'' Dona replied. ''Yeah yeah, I know. Don''t worry you''ll get your souls.'' "Hey, Nicole! What are you cking off for? You''re the SS ranked warrior, not us!" Nina shouted, "Come on! Move faster you slowpoke!" "Coming!" Chapter 117 - Blood Bond (2) "... and so, I conclude that Devon Troy is the true culprit behind all of this." Arnold finished exining about the person, who was the actual source of the problem and not Allen. Nathan and delegates representing the syndicate were present inside the conference room, intently listening to what Arnold had to say. "I understand what you''re trying to say," Elena white, one of the two delegates, was the first to speak after Arnold was done, "but I think you''re forgetting who Devon is... he''s the sole weapons manufacturer who is still operating in America, and It''s because of his weapons and gears that we can still defend ourselves from the monster''s and you''re throwing usations at him as if he''s a regr civilian. You should at least give us some proof that could back your usation-" ?? "Throwing usations?" Arnold gave a sarcastic smile to Elena and then proceed to point towards his ears, "Didn''t you heard what I was yapping about for the past hour? He wants you to engage in ''wars'' so that the syndicate, or whatever your name is, would buy more and more weapons and gears from him. He''s just leeching off from your people, and as far as the proof is concerned, I have witnesses, I''ll give you the choice of who do you want to hear it from, Allen or her?" "Who are you talking about-" "The priestess. Who else?" Arnold grinned as a small portal opened up and Alice walked out of it... "Interesting... interesting indeed." These were the first words that escaped through Marrino Tempest, the other delegate''s mouth, "Is it her?" Nina and Nicole, who were also present in the room were shocked as well as especially, Nicole. The others were shocked as well because no one in that room knew about Talos'' resurrection ability. No one apart from those who were present inside the interrogation roomst night. Alice''splexion had changed after being resurrected but hair and other details were still the same. The shock on everyone''s faces disappeared once Alice started speaking. She confirmed what Arnold was saying was true and that she did what she did because Devon wanted her to. "Hm... I can''t say that I''m surprised." Nathan admitted, "We had been secretly investigating him for a long time for various reasons, and his background is a bit... shady if nothing else, but I never suspected him to have a hand in all of this as well. And before you ask, why were we doing business with him despite knowing what a shady guy he was? I''ll tell you exactly why. It''s because, (A) We didn''t have any other source to obtain high-end weapons from, and (B), We didn''t have enough proof to corner him. But now both of the problems have been taken care of... we have the proof and we have a very capable creationist among us as well. Maybe I''m getting ahead of myself when I say this, but I think skills are unparalleled." "Firstly, why the hell, was your family investigating someone without the syndicates'' knowledge! And secondly, what creationist are you talking about?" Elena blurted out, Marrino, however, remained calm and silently observing the situation. "Oh please, don''t think that I don''t know about what your family have been doing behind the syndicates'' back. We never asked you why you were collecting all those beast crystals, so I don''t you''re in any position to question us either. Also, just because your family has some kind of rtionship with him, it doesn''t mean that we''d let go of this matter so easily and for the sake of your family''s non-existent honour. But I urge you to cooperate with us in this matter." Elena''s face turned expressionless... it was true that they had a close rtionship with Troy industries and wanted to prosper alongside thepany, by giving him all the weapon and defence contracts, but they were all doing it in secret. Influencing the people under the table, and after knowing that the ck Family knew about it all along made her rethink about her ''trustworthy'' family members, but right now she didn''t want Nathan to mock her family anymore and thus decided to stay quiet and curse the traitor, within her family. "Ahm... and as for your second query," Nathan got up from his seat, walked next to Arnold, and put his arm around Arnold''s shoulder, "why don''t you talk with the creationist himself? I know what you''re thinking, but I''m not rmending him because he''s a part of my family. His skills are pretty good and if you still don''t believe me then feel free to test him out. I''m sure he''d be excited to prove his worth, won''t you?" Arnold turned towards Nathan and whispered, "You son of a gun, you know that I won''t back down from a challenge, and you used that fact." "Well it''s not like only you''d be benefited from this... directly or indirectly you''ll be helping the family to strengthen our position within the syndicate as well." Nathan whispered back, "It''s not like I''m taking advantage of you or anything, you''re an exceptional creationist and I''m simply pointing it out..." "Fine... I''ll do it." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and told the delegates, "Feel free to test me out whenever you like." "Perfect. So I guess, that concludes the meeting." Nathan said and pped his hands, "Thank you for joining us, today Lady Elena, and Sir Marrino, I-" "What about the other culprit?" Elena spoke once again. "What about him?" Nathan smiled at her, knowing all too well that she was nning something. "As far as I can remember, the council of twelve leaders of the syndicate sent us here to ensure that we''ve punished the culprit for his crime... and so far I haven''t heard anyone talk about him or his punishment." Seeing Nathan smile, Elena smiled as well. "Excuse me if I''m going out of line here, but considering the lengths he went tomit a crime, which I think is nothing less than heresy, he should be punished publicly at the very least." Since Nathan verbally pped her earlier by disclosing her family''s ns, she decided to deal a blow to the ck Family''s pride. As everyone knew how much prideful the cks were about their family''s unity and loyalty, and publicly punishing one of their own would leave a huge dent to their pride. What she didn''t know was the fact that she was ying with fire. A fire that could potentially burn her entire family down. "I''m fully aware of what the orders were and if you want I can recite its content, word by word to you. Sir Marrino, please correct me if I''m wrong, but I don''t remember about anything about ''publicly punishing the culprit'', all I can remember is that, ''The head of the family has the right to penalize their kin in any way they like, and the delegates'' job is only to oversee the proceedings and confirm that the punishment has been dealt to the culprit''. Sir Marrino, I guess that was it?" Marrino grinned and nodded his head, agreeing with every word that came out of Nathan''s mouth. Now it was Nathan''s turn to y games with Elena, "I was nning to ignore the connection between your family and Devon Troy, but since you''re being all righteous and want justice, I think you''ll be pleased know that once I''m done handling the current situation, I''ll be informing the council of twelve, about your family''s connection with the actual culprit of this incident." Elena had sessfully managed to dig her own grave, and the moment she realised it, her expressions were priceless. Even Nicole couldn''t help but snicker at this new development. "Y-You can''t!" Elena lost it. "I will if you don''t leave the base, this instant." Nathan calmly looked at her, his grin was getting bigger every moment as he knew he had Elena in the palm of his hand. Seeing no other way around, Elena stormed out of the room and left, saying she won''t forget it. Soon Marrino followed her example and let himself out, but not before Nathan properly thanked him. Once only the members of the family were left inside the room, Nathan ordered the soldiers to bring in Allen. After all, family or not, they still had to penalise him for his crimes. Chapter 118 - Blood Bond (3) Soon the guards returned with Allen, who had chains on his wrists and ankles. The chains made a nking sound whenever he took a step. He kept his vacuous stare at the floor as the soldiers escorted him to the conference room, where Arnold and the others were waiting for his arrival, but Allen didn''t know that he thought only military personnel would be present there to give him his sentence. But instead, when he walked into the conference room, he saw the person he hated with all his heart. A plethora of thoughts flooded his mind that very instant. Since he had been behaving well, the soldier had been lightly holding on to his chains, thus allowing Allen to free himself from the guards and jump towards Nathan, all while cursing him like a maniac, but before he could reach Nathan, Arnold stepped in and the next thing he knew, he got mmed into the wall on the opposite side, which shattered into pieces. ?? His head got bruised but it wasn''t bleeding. While he still tried to recover from the dizziness of the unexpected attack, Arnold grabbed the chains on his wrists and mmed him on the ground. Arnold''s hand were pressed against his back, while his legs locked Allen''s knees, and his other hand pressed his face on the floor. No matter how much Allen squirmed he wouldn''t have been able to free himself unless he decided to break his legs to free himself. "Just calm down, will you? We''re not your enemies... we want to help you out." Arnold whispered in Allen''s ears, but Allen wasn''t listening anymore. His bloodshot eyes were fixated on Nathan, while he huffed loudly like a wild elephant. He felt like a pyschopath, an animal and the tight grip of the chains around his wrist was added to that feeling... how dare they, the borrowed kids of his father, treat him like this? Arnold repeated his words while adding more weight to his hand that was holding his face down, "Just calm down Allen, listen to us..." "Uneptable! I won''t listen to sh*t thates out of the mouth of this B*STARD SON OF MY FATHER!" He said in a muffled voice and then tried to spit on Nathan''s face, but couldn''t as Arnold was holding him down. "Just... 5 minutes after that, we''ll do whatever you want from us. Alright?" Arnold tried to reason with him, knowing all too well, that he won''t listen to him but Allen''s response caught Arnold off guard. "...just five minutes?" "Just five minutes." "..." Arnold slowly released Allen and helped him to his feet, but he still held onto his chains as a precaution. Once everything was taken care of, Nathan ordered the soldiers to leave the conference room and only he, Arnold, Nicole, Nina, and Allen were left inside, Arnold ced two of his golems to guard the gate and make sure no one disturbed them during their ''talk''. Nathan was the first to break the silence. "Allen... I know you hate me from the bottom of your heart. The reason for your hatred is not unfounded and honestly... I know you''ll keep hating me no matter what I say or do today, and I''m okay with that, but the way you''re trying to hurt our family and the people of this nation is unforgivable. Hundreds of people lost there lives because of you... and yet, all of us, who are present here as well as those who are not, including our father, want to give you a chance to mend our rtionship." Of course, Nathan was lying. Their father, Nathaniel had no idea about the shenanigans of his biological son. Right now he was enjoying the peace after his retirement at a farmhouse, near California, but Allen didn''t know that nor was anyone going to tell him that. Nathan tried to use this to his advantage and y an emotional card to somehow get Allen on his side. "Yes, Allen." Nina chimed in, "Uncle was deeply hurt when he got to know about your involvement with the church, and he understands that it was his fault that he let it happen, and now he wants to correct his mistakes, and give you what was rightfully yours... including his love and name you as the rightful head of the family. All he wants from you is your love, and it''ll all be yours." "Y-You people are lying... ALL OF YOU ARE LIARS!" Allen screamed and pulled the chains, but Arnold was tightly holding on to it, prevented Allen from taking a single step. "I knew you wouldn''t believe me so that''s why..." Nathan nodded towards Nicole, who took a piece of paper out of her breast pocket and handed it to Allen''s chained hands, "I got an official letter from father, which states that, from the moment you''d like to take on the responsibility as the head of the family, I''ll have to vacate my position and will have to help you to the best on my abilities. Now does that looks like we''re trying to trap you or something?" "B-But why would you do something like this for me? So many people lost their lives because of me..." Allen mumbled as he read through the content of the document, his voice started shaking. "Why I''m doing it? It''s simple, you''re my brother and I just want us to be on the same side." Nathan stood up from his chair, and put his hands on Allen''s shoulders, "So what do you think?" "I-I need some time to think about it..." "Sure. Take as much time as you want." Nathan smiled and called the guards to escort Allen out, "Lose those chains and allot the mostvish room for him to stay in for as long as he wants." Once Allen and the guards were out of the sight, Arnold shook his head in amusement. "So you noticed huh?" Nathan snickered. "You kidding me? Even a blind person would be able to see through the ton of bullsh*t you guys just dumped on him. Be the head of the family... father is repenting... here''s a letter from the father... damn guys, you just pulled off an Oscar-worthy performance." "I knew I should''ve gone to drama school... tsk, it''s toote now." Nina smiled, "anyways, since Nathan wanted to confirm whether Allen had gone nuts, like you said, so we joined in and went along with the n, and it looks like he''s actually out of his mind." "Ahem, at least now we can be sure that he won''t be doing something rash now. Not while he''s in the illusion of bing the head of the family, but still we can''t let him go free." Nathan informed them, "So for his punishment-" "Hold up." Arnold raised his hand to interrupt Nathan, "It might sound absurd, especially since I''m the one suggesting it... but can''t we go a bit... easy on him?" "WHAT!?" Everyone shrieked at the same time. Chapter 119 - Blood Bond (4) "Looks like Allen isn''t the only one who has gone nuts." Nina shook her head, disagreeing with Arnold''sment, "You were the one who caught him. You know it better than anyone of us about the horrors of his crimes, and yet you want us to go ''easy'' on him? What the heck are you thinking?" "I agree with Nina," Nicole chimed in, "His crimes are too serious and are not something we can just let go of. Actual people lost their lives because of his foolishness." ?? While the other two were calling Arnold out on his crappy idea of going easy on Allen, Nathan just quietly stood there and looked at Arnold''s calm expression. Honestly, he had faith in whatever Arnold was nning to do, but neither he nor the girls could see any possible reason behind Arnold''s weird suggestion, thus Nathan decided to ask Arnold about his intentions directly. "Girls, hold up for a bit, let''s see what Arnold has to say." Nathan raised his hand to stop the girls from speaking, "Go on Arnold. Let''s hear what''s on your mind first." Arnold sighed heavily and massaged his temples before speaking, "Come on people, could you not go around branding me as a psycho or something? Honestly! I thought you guys would be pleased after listening to my n. Let me rify somethings first. firstly, ''going easy on him'' does not mean that I''m telling y''all to forgive his crimes and secondly, allow me to rephrase my words... what I wanted to say was that maybe we shouldn''t give him capital punishment or send him to jail or something, that''ll be going too easy him and not worthy of the seriousness of the crime." "Next time try to say what you want to instead of saying something thepletely throws others off-guard." Nina smacked her face and sighed, "So what do you n on doing now?" Arnold didn''t immediate replied to her question, instead he walked up to the single gigantic window that was present inside the conference room. Feeling the heat of the sun permeating through the window, outside the window he saw the shadows of the possible and the probable... Outside the window, beyond the far reaches of morality, Arnold had finally made up his mind, knew what he needs to do. He had never used this skill of his before as it only worked on humans and he wasn''t willing to use it as he felt using it on someone else was immoral... a line which he didn''t want to cross, but still he was curious about the results of using this skill and this was a great way to use the skill and take care of Allen. It was a bit selfish and immoral for him to think of Allen as a test subject but Arnold didn''t care, Allen hadn''t done a moral thing either by deciding to "Brother?" Nicole reached out Arnold and grabbed his shoulder, "What are you thinking?" "I''m thinking about giving Allen a taste of his own medicine." Arnold said with a poker face and looked at Nathan, "But I want to ask all of for approval." "Approval for what?" Nathan asked, confused about Arnold''s remarks. "Approval to turn him into... a ve." Arnold spoke in a low voice. "Say what now!?" As usual, Nina was the first one to react, "How are you even going to aplish that?" "Hm... I see. Your idea doesn''t sound that bad..." Nathan stroked his whitish beard. "Nathan..." Nina tried to object but Nathan immediately stopped her. "I was about to exile him either way and tell our father he went on a mission or something, and Arnold''s n is better than that. But before I approve it, I''d like to know a few things." "I''d have wondered if you didn''t ask some question. So shoot." Arnold replied, still maintaining his poker face as the QnA session between them began. "Are you nning to turn him into soulless human-like ones you found in the church?" "No. I''m not. He''ll still have his soul and mind intact. It''s just he''ll have to do whatever I tell him to." "I see. Have you ever used this ''power'' of yours in anyone before? I mean have you manipted someone into doing something against his or her will?" "No." Nathan stared long and hard at Arnold''s face, trying to decide whether Arnold was telling the truth or not as for Nathan, it was hard to believe that someone, having an ability like this wouldn''t have used it to influence others. The problem was he couldn''t read the minds of the others like Nathaniel used to. He had no way to be certain about it. All he could do right now was to trust what Arnold was saying and move ahead with the n. "I never was good at this intimidation stuff..." Nathan smiled weakly before looking at Arnold, "Ast question though... will there be any long term side effects of using this skill?" "As far as I know, there won''t. Other than the fact that my way of thinking would be imprinted on his mind. Essentially making the two of us think alike." Arnold didn''t know about it himself as he had never used the ability before and was only reciting what he could decipher from the description of the skill. "I see," Nathan mumbled, "Thanks for answering my queries. Feel free to proceed whenever you like." "Wait. If your way of thinking gets imprinted on Allen''s mind... won''t it stabilise his mind as well?" Nicole suddenly blurted out. "That''s exactly the point. He won''t be a mindless ve, but instead, he''ll be able to realise his mistakes and try to redeem himself. That way, he''ll be given a punishment that would be sufficient to please the ''syndicate'' while he''ll be able to correct his mistakes." "And here I was thinking that your perverted self was nning on doing something weird." Nina joked in an attempt to lighten up the mood. "Why is it that you keep branding me as a pervert? Don''t tell me you''re one of those... what were they called again? Oh right! Tsundere. You''re not a Tsundere who has a crush on me, are you?" Nina''s checks turn pinkish at Arnold''s remark while everyone else was busyughing at her panicked self. "Why are you guys looking at me like that? It''s not like that dammit!" Nina shrieked in panic. "Yup. She is one!" Nicole joined the fray as well. The clouds of dullness that surrounded them disappeared within a moment and got reced by the ones of hope and happiness. Chapter 120 - Blood Bond (5) ___ ? [BLOOD BOND] : (Active ability) ?? A type of control spell, allowing the user to permanently form a bond with the target whichst till either the user or the target dies. If the user of this ability dies before the target, the target would perish alongside its master. The target bes depended on the user and will dly sacrifice his/her life in order to protect its master without a second thought. The target (ve) bes acquainted with its master''s way of thinking and rapidly adapts to it. In rare cases, the ve and master gain the ability of telepathy and can use it to talk between themselves. The sess rate of the ability depends on the intelligence of the target. Lower intelligence the target has, the higher the probability of sess bes. [ Rank: S ] [Mana cost: 2000] [ HP cost: 0.1% of max HP of the target] (Lost amount of HP can be recovered using a potion or other healing skills.) [Cooldown: 1 Week] ___ ''Blood Bond, an ability which is unique and one of its kind... the potential of this skill is endless, but nothing in this worldes without a price...'' Arnold thought and scrolled down below to reveal the dangers of using this skill... ___ WARNING ? If for some reason the bond wasn''t able to form, it might lead the target to lose all his/her sense and may or may not go berserk. if during this time the target harms someone else, the user of this skill would be penalised for the target''s actions. ___ This was the information Arnold had kept to himself and refused to tell anyone about it. This was also the reason, why he was so persistent on being alone with Allen while he tried to form the bond with him. The system only informed him that there would be a penalty for failure but didn''t inform him about the nature of the penalty. Would it be a temporary debuff? Or maybe a permanent one? Maybe he''d lose a fraction of his health or maybe something else. He wasn''t sure about it and had no intention of trying to know about it either. Thus it was better for him if he was alone with Allen during the procedure. "I still don''t get why are you so adamant about going in alone?" Nathan questioned Arnold, "But seeing that you''re going out of your way to help him, I think you should be allowed to do whatever you like." Nathan looked at Nina and Nicole, who nodded their heads in agreement, "It''s settled then... by the way how long would it take for the process toplete?" "A couple of minutes should be enough, but considering that it''s my first time using this ability, it might take up to five minutes or so." Arnold answered back. "I see. Well not that I can help you out regarding this matter, so all the best. We''ll be waiting for you to deliver the news." Nathan said as Arnold left the room. Duke and marshal, who were guarding the room joined him as he passed through the door. While they were exiting the building, Arnold came across one of the privates who had escorted Allen towards his new quarters and asked him for the directions. At first, the private was stunned when he saw two enormous ice golems that were standing behind Arnold like his bodyguards but was snapped back to reality once Arnold started speaking. "He''s been a-allotted the private g-guestroom 117 in the barracks... f-first r-room on the r-right of the first f-floor." The private stuttered and stepped aside, once Arnold thanked him and left with the golems at his toe. (Author''s note: I guess y''all know why it''s 117.) Soon he was standing in front of the guestroom that the private had told him about. ''117... the Chief wouldn''t like this...'' Arnold thought and smirked before knocking on the door. Allen soon opened the door. "I told you to not disturb- oh it''s you. What do you want now? I have no business with you." Allen asked while eyeing the golems who were standing behind Arnold, "Oh... I see you''ve been tasked to be my bodyguard. Hm, I''m quite disappointed, I hoped they''d send your sister to do the job, not because she''s a SS ranked warrior, but because she''s cute, just my type." "Don''t worry sir, it''s just a temporary arrangement. You''ll soon get someone else as your bodyguard." Arnold barely managed to keep his temper in check and yed along with Allen. "They better do. I can''t even bear the thought of seeing your face every day, from when I wake up till when I sleep." Allen smirked and let them in, oblivious to their intention, "So are these boulders supposed to protect me?" Arnold waited till he and the golems were inside the room before answering back. "Sadly, no. They are not here to protect you." Arnold smiled and snapped his fingers, "They are here to restrain you." The golems pounced on Allen like a pair of hyenas and grabbed his hands and legs while lifting him in the air. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I''m the head of the family! YOU WON''T GET AWAY WITH THI- mmhmhmmmmm!" Allen shrieked with all his might before Arnold plug his mouth with a tablecloth lying nearby. "Yeah yeah... You should have thought about it before talking shit about my sister. Hold him tightly, I don''t want him to start squirming like a pig before its ughter." Arnold said before he activated the ability. As he activated the ability, weird sensation spread across his right hand. He couldn''t feel his hands anymore, and before he knew it, his forearm turned ck as if it waspletely drained of blood, but that wasn''t all... the nails of his fingers turned blood red and got longer and longer. By the time the transformation stopped, his nails were four inches long and he felt like his hand would fall off any moment. Allen, who was witnessing the entire thing, was scared shitless. He wanted Arnold to stay as far as it was possible, sadly he couldn''t escape even if he wanted to. Arnold didn''t know what he was supposed to do next, but his instinct was telling him to do something... all of a sudden, Arnold sped Allen''s neck and stuck his nails into it. A momentter the ckness of his hand started fading away, his natural colour gradually returned. Even though Arnold had punctured Allen''s neck, surprisingly no blood came out of it. Soon Allen''s eyes turned white and his pupils were nowhere to be found. Only one thought crossed Arnold''s mind... ''Don''t you dare die from something like this!'' *** FIVE MINUTES LATER... Allen''s was lying on the floor, while Arnold kept pacing around the room they were in. "Since he isn''t going *berserk*. The only possible oue is that the ability was sessful and the bond has been formed..." Arnold mumbled, "But then why the hell he isn''t getting up!" Arnold pped Allen hard across the face and a message popped up on his interface. ___ Bond formation... SUCCESS! Transformationplete! You''ve earned a new Ally! [ALLY TYPE] : : A unique type of Ally, who would fight till hisst breath to honour hisrade who specialises in close rangebat techniques. [SYNERGY EFFECT]: : (When attacking the same target) Strength (STR) boosted by: 15% Agility (AGI) boosted by: 12% You''ve gained your first Loyal Ally to aid you in your battles. EXP: +4500 ___ "... I wanted a servant. NOT A FCKING BROTHER!" Chapter 121 - What Went Wrong? Arnold was absentmindedly scrolling through the catalogue of messages in front of his eyes when, on spur of moment, Allen sat up straight and started scratching his neck. "Damn! Why does it sting so much? My head is killing me too! Did I pass out drunk or something?" Allen let out a grunt as he got back to his feet. ?? Arnold instantly closed the interface and stared long and hard at Allen. The moment their eyes met, Allen immediately bowed down in front of Arnold. "I apologise for the pain and hurt I''ve caused to you and the others over time. I''m fully aware of the severity of my actions, and the aftermath of it. Blinded by my rage, I couldn''t foresee the oue of this dispute and foolishly followed the teachings of that corrupt bast*rd. Rather than following the family''s example..." Allen kept saying meaningless things to Arnold and constantly begged for his forgiveness while Arnold simply stood there like a statue, dumbfounded by the change in Allen''s behaviour towards him. ''His... mindset has changed but... he isn''t behaving like me..'' Arnold thought, ''I''m clueless. I don''t even know what I''m supposed to do next... is he even a human anymore or is something wrong with him?'' "...I know my mistakes are unforgivable, but if you desire I''ll dly sacrifice myself out on the battlefield to repent for my sins-" "And what good would that do to me? If I wanted you to die, I''d have simply killed you and brushed my hands off of you. Value the life I''ve spared, work hard and prove that you''re worth keeping alive, but if you fail then... you know what will happen next. And stop bowing down for god''s sake! Straighten your back and behave like a man!" Since Arnold didn''t know what to do next, he thought it was better to treat Allen like he was someone close to him and observe his reaction. "Yes, brother!" "What even..." Arnold smacked his head, "Don''t call me that." "... alright... sir?" ''I''m already regretting my decision...'' Arnold massaged his temples, "Just... call me Arnold." "Got it." ''He''s able to recognise me I guess? So I think he still has his memories somewhat in ce, and he regrets what he did, so that''s a good sign as well... but looks like he doesn''t have to ability tomunicate with me using telepathy. Is there a special criterion for attaining it?'' Arnold contemted his situation, everything looked well but this wasn''t the reason why Arnold formed a Blood Bond with Allen. Allen was just his test subject to know more about the ability and clear out the clouds of uncertainties, and there were so many of them that Arnold needed to eliminate them one after another, after all, it was his first time forming a ''forceful'' bond with someone. But Allen wasn''t the only one he was curious about. The newly found properties of the skills such as and had also caught his attention. What were the other synergy effects he could get by forming bonds with more people? How many types of allies were there? Why was Allen chosen as a ''brother'' instead of ''servant''? Were there special criteria for people to be ssed as different types of allies? But most importantly, would the bonded ones, mindlessly follow hismand? Arnold could''ve easily got the answer for hisst question, and he was about to test that... "Allen, jump down through that window right now." Arnold pointed at a random window and waited. If Allen, really tried to jump through the window, obviously Arnold would stop him after all Allen was his precious test subject, he couldn''t lose him... at least not now. Allen first looked at the window, then at Arnold, then at the window again, before speaking, "Do you expect me to do that? I mean I won''t mind doing that but I don''t have a reason to..." Arnold didn''t reply as he was lost in his thoughts but kept moving in circles around Allen and keenly observing him, ''Looks like he still has his own will... shame he didn''t turn into a mindless ve, that would''ve been fun... dammit! It sounds so wrong when I thought about it like that!'' He was still trying to get a gist of the situation between him and ''the newborn'' Allen when someone knocked on the door. Arnold told Duke to get the door while he instructed Allen to behave as *usual*. RIIIPPP!!! A loud noise came from the doorway, Arnold and Allen ran towards the doors to thinking that someone attacked Duke, but the sight he witnessed was unexpected, to say the least... It looked like Duke was unable to open the door so he did what he could and ripped the door off its hinges instead, and in front of the door Nathan, Nina and Nicole were standing, confused about what Duke was doing. "What is going on here?" Nathan barked, he was still holding his knuckle in the air as if he was about to knock on the door, which sadly, wasn''t at its ce anymore. Before Arnold could say a word, Allen rushed towards Nathan, who, mistook it as Allen trying to attack him and pinned him down to the floor. "Looks like your little trick failed you this time around Arnold. He''s still the same sneaky bast*rd after all!" Nathan said as he pushed Allen''s head further into the cracked floor. "Brother Nathan! What are you doing?" Allen shouted in a muffled voice, "Is this how you greet your younger brother." "Say what now?" Nathan grabbed the back of Allen''s cor and lifted him in the air, "Howe this bast*rd is addressing me as his brother?" "Believe me... I''m trying to figure out the same thing." Arnold shook his head and let out a heavy sigh. "Hey! You told me to behave normally... and I don''t why but I can''t remember how I behaved before! So I thought a hug would be appropriate." Allen shouted, still suspended in the air, "Now could you let me down?" Nathan let go of Allen''s cor, and he fell hard on his butt. Once Allen got up immediately started caressing his butt with a pained expression, "Slowly He-man... my ass isn''t as strong as yours." Nina, Nicole and Arnold burst intoughter as soon as those words escaped out of Allen''s mouth, Nathan, however, wasn''t pleased... at all. "THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HIM!?" "Like I said I''m still trying to figure it out... hahahaha." Chapter 122 - New Chief Of The Base (1) Nathan and Allen sat down together and were busy conversing about various topics, while Nina, Nicole and Arnold were busy having a conversation of their own. Even though Arnold was apanying thedies, his mind kept wandering towards Nathan and Allen, because all of a sudden Allen''s expressions had changed, and he was looking more serious. Since he didn''t know much about the effects of blood bond, he was worried that Allen might go out of control and try to attack the others, and then wind up dead. Something he didn''t want to happen... at least not now. "You know Nicole, your brother is the only man alive who rather than focusing on us, the lovelydies, is busy worrying about the conversation between an oldie and his brother." Nina and Nicole chuckled while Arnold just stood there and shook his head. ? ? " I don''t think there''s any need to keep reminding someone about something they already know." Arnold turned his gaze towards Nina, "You''re beautiful and you know it so why bother about seeking validation from someone else?" Arnold''s time in Brazil taught him one thing. If you want to stop a woman from bothering you... then just flirt back, but overdo it. It wasn''t like he found Nina attractive or anything, but right now he wanted to focus on the conversation the other two were having... which soon ended. "Wha..." Nina couldn''t evenplete what she was trying to say as her eyebrows arched upwards while her jaw hung ck. Out of everything she had expected, Arnold would say, she was not expecting him to so bluntly ''flirt'' with him. Even Nicole was surprised by Arnold''s reply, "Hold your horses brother-" "What? I''m just telling the truth. I''m still surprised that both of you are still single. I can understand why Nicole is single though... who in his right mind would date a-" "Looks like we''re done here." Nathan said as the two of them got up from their seats, "The good news is, Allen remembers the location of the facilities they were trained at... the bad news is... we can''t go there, not now anyway." "May I ask, why can''t we go to wherever they are? I mean technically you''re the leader of this nation so-" Arnold asked in his confused "Because the location is not in our nation anymore." Nathan replied in a sorrowful voice, "It''s in Florida... it''s near the ce where the dungeon break happened and going there is suicide. That ce is the that was hit worse than the other ces. It got transformed into a deadly swamp. No one in their right mind would ever think about stepping into such a ce." "Is it that dangerous out there?" "Yes. The ce has turned into something out of the Jurassic Park, where no human had ever stepped foot into." Nathan then proceeded to inform Arnold about the multitude of reasons as to why the swamps were so dangerous. one of reason prominent reason was the deadly nature of the swamp itself. In swamps, due to the viscosity of the marshy water that the entire swamp was covered with, it was much harder to fight and even harder to run away. If a battle didn''t go as nned, the entire situation quickly turned from bad to worse, and a single mistake could take your life away. For this reason, tank-type warriors, who had to wear heavy armour and carry gigantic shields, were much more prone to death or getting injured in the swamps, and without the tank no matter what the others did, they were doomed to follow the same fate as the tank. Another reason being that most of the machinery and vehicles didn''t work effectively either as they were swallowed up by the swamp even before they could transport reinforcements and other essential items into the battlefield, thus making it much more difficult for them tounch a full-fledged attack. Not to mention, the mutated monsters were deadly. When Florida was nuked and the radiation sitter across the entire eastern coast of America, the alligators, snakes and whatnot, started mutating and soon they changed so much that they were indistinguishable among themselves and evolved into... the lizardmen, the nagas and the mermonsters. These three weren''t the only species in the swamp, but they were the prime example of mutated monsters, but that wasn''t all they evolved rapidly and continuously to adapt to the new topographical changes that urred in the swamp, which made them faster than cheetahs, stronger than Lions, and had skin like concrete, which to them was a blessing as it made it easier for them to hunt for prey. They were the apex predators of that region. While the lizardmen and Nagas fought among themselves over thend, the mermonsters were unrivalled ruler of the marshy water below swamp. Fauna wasn''t the only part of nature that changed either. The nts and trees themselves evolved into carnivorous beings, swallowing anything and everything that dared toe close to them. The swamps itself was alive, ready to consume anyone who dared to step a foot in it. "I don''t even know how the hell, someone even managed to establish a facility in a ce like that. Going there is an absolute no-no, it''ll be Better is we look for another one of their base or something and prepare ourselves for war." "I see..." Arnold was lost in his thought and scratched his unkempt beard, "If the situation is as bad as you''re saying then it''s better to prepare ourselves rather than trying to attack a hidden enemy, and I think, they would be prepared to attack as well because they would usually have to fend off the monsters on a regr basis... so their defences have to be undeniably strong as well, but I''m sure Allen or Alice would be able to confirm that for us as they''ve been there." "I agree. By the way, wouldn''t ''Alice'' have some information about some other base as well?" Nina joined the conversation. Arnold shook his head and sighed, "Alice and Allen were trained in the same facility, she already told me thatst night, what she forgot to mention was the swamps..." Everyone in the room felt distraught. They were so close and yet so far from putting an end to Devon Troy. As they were still trying toe up with a solution, Arnold got an idea. But first, he needed to know something else. "By the way Nathan, how do you know so much about the swamps? You talk about it as if you''ve personally been there..." "I have been there... I was a part of the force that was tasked to get rid of the creatures there... but rather than getting rid of them, about a quarter of our force got wiped out with moments of starting the operation. Most out of whom were tanks. It was horrible. Ever since then we''ve kept an eye on the region with the help of drones instead." Nathan responded, "And so it''s even more surprising that someone managed to build some type facility there while we had our eyes on the region." "So it''s safe to assume that the monsters can''t attack aerial units..." the edges of Arnold''s mouth curled up, "Nathan, you don''t worry about the swamps anymore. I think I have a n, just try not to disclose anything to anyone till I tell you to." Chapter 123 - New Chief Of The Base (2) AT THE SAME TIME, AT THE LANDING ZONE OF THE ALPHA BASE... Elena had just got inside the helicopter that had been waiting for her arrival. ?? "Good morning ma''am, I hope your business here was sessful as always?" The pilot humbly asked as Elena stepped inside the chopper. "Sessful, my ass! Stop asking stupid questions and get moving!" She yelled at the pilot and furiously started dialling someone''s number on her old and rarely usedmunicator, that only a few people knew about. Within seconds the holographic face of a masked man appeared before hers, "What is it? If it''s another one if your requests to get you a ck beast crystal then you can forget about it. I''m not going to throw away the life of my men, just because your family is my business partner." "Good morning to you too a*shole, and no, this isn''t rted to that matter, but it''s something you should be worried about," Elena informed him and then proceeded to retell the entire tale of what happened in the conference room. "Ah... I knew the cks were after me but to think they were so close to me is certainly worrying or I should say it *was* worrying." Devon boasted, "They would never even dare to try and capture me..." "What do you mean?" Elena retorted. "Let''s just say I''m somewhere in the old America. They''ll have to go through hell to reach to me and by then, they would be so exhausted, they''ll barely be able to move let alone fight. Everything is under my control here." "Where exactly are you?" "You''re a fool. A capable woman, but a fool." You seriously expect me to give you that vital information when you''re most probablypromised?" Devon retorted, "You''ll get your next consignment of beast crystals, and that''s it. No more beast crystals, no more partnership. If you want some then go and collect them the old way. It''s too risky for me to carry on our partnership anymore. This will be thest time you contact me. Understood?" "Wait! You can''t do- HEY! GET BACK HERE! DAMN IT ALL!" Elena yelled and threw themunicator out of the helicopter. "That son of a b*tch! Curse the ck Family! I''m going to end them..." While Elena was busy ranting and cursing the ck Family, her pilot, Rnd, calmly made the helicopter hover and fly towards their destination while smiling now and then. ''A b*tch like you deserves every bit of crap that gets thrown in your way.'' He thought, after all, he hated her from the bottom of his heart. *** A FEW HOURS LATER... Arnold watched the retreating helicopter with an unwavering gaze, as the fiery red orb of light slowly sank beneath the horizon, and threads of light lingered in the sky, mingling with the rolling clouds, dyeing the sky first in orange, and then red, until all that was left of the sunset was a chalky mauve, and then that melted away in turn as stygian darkness slowly tried to take over the sky. Sequin-silver stars like the glowing embers of a dying fire winked down at him as the helicopter carrying his sister and friends disappear out of his sight as he was facing over the dipping sun, two smartly dressed Major ranked officers made their way to him. "What are your orders, sir?" Both of them simultaneously saluted him. "Carry on with your usual duties and notify the Bravo, Charlie, and Delta bases that they should expect a visit from me soon." Arnold ordered the Majors who immediately left after receiving the orders and Arnold went back to gazing at the sleeping sun. ''That crazy bastard outdid himself this time... what was he even thinking when he named me the Section Chief of Zone 4...'' Arnold sighed heavily but then smiled. After the dungeon break, The United States of America was divided into two parts, namely East America and West America. West America retained its former glory while East America was established as the first wall of defence for it, but it wasn''t all. To increase the efficiency of the defensive measures, East America was further divided into 13 smaller parts. These were named as Zone 1 to Zone 13. Each of these zones had multiple bases in them and a Section Chief was appointed to oversee the Zones. Each of the Section Chiefs had to prove themselves to be worthy of the position by aplishing a troublesome task, like Arnold who got rid of the Church of Chaos and thus was named to be the section chief of Zone 4, thus cing himself even above the Brigadier General, whose authority was limited to the base itself. So far only 5 out of the 13 Zone had been allotted a Section Chief, the rest were controlled by the Syndicate, Zone 4, was one of the zones without a Section Chief but now Arnold had been appointed as its Chief and it wasn''t a sole decision of Nathan either, the syndicate itself had appointed Arnold for the position, stating, he was more than worthy of being a Section Chief. Nathan even told him that out of the twelve heads of the syndicate, ten voted for him while the White and the Lash family voted against him. While the White family voted against him because of their rivalry and bitterness towards the ck Family, while Andrex Lash, simply did so because of Arnold''s racial origins, a petty reason but Arnold didn''t care. (Author''s note: Visit chapter 83 if you don''t remember who Andrex is and why he''s a racist.) Nathan also informed him that out of the 5 Section Chiefs, Arnold was the second person from the ck Family to be rewarded that rank, Azyriah, being the first one. She was the Section Chief of Zone 1, which was nearest to Florida. Knowing this put Arnold''s mind at ease because Zone 1''s role would be crucial, once theyunch an attack on the swamps. As such, Arnold felt an ominous foreboding before he felt happiness, "This duty would be tiresome. On top of that, I already have a long and tiring quest toplete... monsters to hunt, weapons to make, got people to train, technologies to analyse including that weird monster controlling cor, and I''ll have to raise a Wyvern soon... which I assume would be troublesome as well. Damn, I have to feed it soon too. Too many tasks and so little time! If only there were more hours in a day...'' It then hit him, he indeed had a way to increase the time. ''Wait! I can use the void to save some time and my summons can help me out as well!'' With a n in his mind, Arnold opened a portal to the void and quickly stepped into it, before someone came looking for him again. Chapter 124 - Monster Attack (1) Arnold stepped inside his domain and saw a sight simr to the other times he has been inside the domain. The only thing different from the others was the increase in the amount of chaos inside the domain. Asterios was wrestling with Panzer, who was holding up the there better than Arnold expected, even Bad-Breath was exchanging friendly blows with Duke, while the remaining undead summons of Arnold cheered them on. Even the automatons active inside the domain and were discussing weapons modifications, technology and the usual stuff, which was a rare sight as they almost always aimed to conserve their energy. Dread was intently watching the hounds y among themselves. Natasha was sulking around a corner, as usual, while Talos and Alice were chatting among themselves. ?? ''I wonder what they are talking about?'' But before he could inquire about that, his summons noticed his presence and immediately stopped whatever they were doing and rushed towards him. This happened every time he stepped foot in the domain, and it always made Arnold smile. It was weird but He kinda felt like a father who came to visit his children, he knew it was absurd but he didn''t care. "Alright guys, as usual, I need your help." Arnold began his speech, "You might be knowing about the recent developments, and now it''s too much work for me to handle alone that''s why I''ll like you guys to ease a bit of burden from on me." "We''ll do as you please, master." As usual, Talos was the one to speak first, after all, he was their unsaid leader. The others happily joined in. At their reaction, Arnold smiled and nodded, "Alright then listen up! I''ll make different teams to aplish a variety of tasks based on their specialisation. Firstly, I need a few of you to continue making the weapons and gears. Talos, you and the automatons would be in-charge of it, but don''t forget to repair the destroyed automatons before you do that, it''ll increase your productivity as a team." "We''re on it!" Talos said and left with the automatons to repair theirrades, who were destroyed by the ogres yesterday. "Secondly, we need to form an assault team whose task would be to go out and hunt monsters regrly, but be vignt as we still don''t know what might be hiding out there. Asterios, you''ll be leading the assault team. Take the golems and the undead with you and a couple of automatons as well so that if you find anything suspicious or anything weeks that you''d want me to look at, you can contact me anytime." Asterios huffed loudly in agreement. After all, battles were one thing he loved doing. "Alice, you''ll be apanying the assault team as well. Even though most of them can resurrect, it''s a pain in the butt to wait for hours for that to happen and with your healing abilities to back them up, they''ll be able to battle recklessly without worrying about getting destroyed." "I''ll do my best." Alice acknowledged Arnold''s ''request''. "The hounds will keep an eye on the base, Cerberus, you''ll be leading them as usual." Arnold continued. The hound barked to confirm his master''smand. "And finally, Bad-Breath, will help the new friend of ours, Allen, to train and grow stronger. Everything clear?" Since they were given their tasks they nodded at Arnold''s question and went about to prepare themselves. The crowd soon dispersed, but Arnold still had things to take care of. "Now since that''s out of the way, Asterios, Dread,e over here for a moment. I''ve got something for the two of you." Dread and Asterios exchanged confused looks while Arnold fetched something from his inventory. A moment passes and he pulls out the weapons he had made for them. "I present to you, Storm crusher, a Warhammer handmade by yours truly, for the Minotaur whose aid has been crucial to me," although Arnold exaggerated about the help a bit still it was true, "and Futusunumitama-no-Tsurugi, a ssic katana, made by the ingredients of the monster you slew, it''s light, fast, and destructive. Something only someone of your calibre can wield." The minotaur and dreadnought were dumbstruck for a moment and continued to stare at the weapons, then at Arnold and then at each other. Arnold wasn''t sure whether they liked their weapons or not. "Um... you guys didn''t like-" But before Arnold could evenplete what he was saying, the minotaur immediately went to his knees. It was something Asterios rarely did because despite being monsters, Minotaurs were a prideful group and thus they rarely kneeled before anyone. They''d rather die than getting disrespected but at that moment Asterios was kneeling right in front of Arnold while everyone else silently watched them. Soon Dread followed Asterios'' example and kneeled as well. Arnold was deeply moved by their gesture, but he thought they were overdoing it. In the end, he had to order them to raise themselves as otherwise, they weren''t going to stop anytime soon. After that Asterios went towards the others and visually boasted about his new Warhammer while Dread immediately started swinging the katana, trying to get used to it. However the moment Arnold turned around, he was met with the ominous gaze of his other summons, even those not single word was exchanged between them but Arnold knew exactly what they were thinking. "Fine, fine, I get it. I''ll make more weapons and gears for all of you... but, you guys would have to bring your own material for that and I''ll make whatever you want, good enough?" Arnold smiled and shook his head. He was already nning on making a specialised weapon for everyone but he never expected them to so freely express their desires but he was happy that they did so. After sorting out everything, he returned to the normal world and saw a few soldiers were looking for him, most probably wanting to meet him, and then he heard Amanda''s voice. "You said the Section Chief was here?" She barked at the nearest soldier. "Y-Yes ma''am!" The soldier immediately answered back. "Well I can''t see him, can you?" Amanda asked the soldier in a sarcastic tone, but she seemed to be bothered and concerned about something. This time the soldier didn''t reply and silently stood there, his eyes fixed on the ground as if Arnold would''ve burst through the earth and present himself in front of them. "And honestly! What type of Section Chief is he when he isn''t avable in the time such a crisis?" Amanda spat out, but just as she did that, Arnold waited next to her. "Seesh, give a man some break will you?" Arnold yelled once he was right behind her, "After all, it''s only been a few hours before I''ve been given that rank." Amanda got startled and jumped back when she heard Arnold''s voice but quickly managed to regain herposure before speaking again. "Sir! there have been sightings of monsters that are gearing straight towards the alpha base." "That''s weird... why would they do that?" "We have no idea..." "How many of them are there?" Arnold inquired about the enemies headcount. "Around a hundred mutated ogres and goblins... maybe more," Amanda answered back with a solemn expression in her face. "A hundred you say... well then, I''ll wee them here myself then." Arnold''s lip curled up. Chapter 125 - Monster Attack (2) An hour ago the sunset had radiated across the clouds, turning it molten orange with bands of pink, but now it was gone and the base was covered by the starless, moonless sky. There was no twilight, only darkness. Arnold felt ustrophobic like he was inside a cave. The low sky had be a ceiling of grey-ck rock above. Only the cool soothing winds and the first drops of rain let him know that he was out in the open. Arnold was standing in the top of the wall which served as the first line of defence for the base. He wasn''t wearing any protective suit as the radiation near the base was non-existent. The sun was already down so it was difficult for everyone to see clearly and thus they were making use of night vision goggles and binocrs to keep an eye out for enemy movement, the cloudy night and rain weren''t making their job any easier. Arnold was busy fiddling around with his gloves when the first drop off rain fell on his calm and concentrated face. When he was young, he always liked to y in the rain... he could still faintly remember how angry his mom used to get because of it but then made hot chocte for him and Nicole, but as he grew older, the rain wasn''t fun anymore... instead it only brought pain to him. ?? Amanda was apanying him and was trying her best to persuade him to not engage the enemies alone, but Arnold was adamant because he had his own reasons for doing so. He urged that the others to let him handle the horde alone as he knew most of the people at the Alpha base weren''t happy about his sudden appointment as the Section Chief. The Brigadier General was one of them, as for him, Arnold was someone who took his authority over the base from him and Arnold knew the Brigadier General wouldn''t remain quiet about it all. Arnold thought his rtionship with the general would improve over time but it looked like things were not destined to be like that. ''Tsk, can''t I ever get any rest?'' He thought. There was also another reason why Arnold wanted to fought alone was that he suspected that someone might still have some kind of a connection with the monsters and maybe they were trying to attack the base under some kind n to show how ''ipetent'' Arnold truly was, and then get rid of him? Although it was a longshot Arnold couldn''t throw this thought out of his mind yet. That''s why he wanted to handle the horde alone... to show the others why exactly he was chosen to be the Section Chief and shut their mouths once and for all. But to mention the progress he''ll be able to make on his headhunter quest. "Tell all units to retreat but to keep an eye out for other targets as well. If the monsters are coborating between themselves then I think they''ll attack us from more than one direction." Arnold ordered Amanda, who immediately ryed his orders to the concerned soldiers. "Arnold... I meant sir, are you sure you want to handle them all on your own?" Amanda asked as she put hermunicator down, "It''s yourst chance... we can still assemble the army and take care of it together." "I thought there wouldn''t be a need for that, but since you really want to involve your recruits, so... tell them to guard the other three sides of the base instead and keep a lookout for anything peculiar." Arnold then pointed his thumb downwards, "And as for your question, no I''m not going to fight them alone. Why would I fight alone, when I have them?" Amanda was confused so she bent down to see what Arnold was pointing at. "Oh My God! Are they all-" Amanda eximed as she saw an army of monsters, humans and robots were already positioned down below and were ready for the battle tomence. "Yup, All of my summons, well not all, but most of them anyway." Arnold smirked when he saw Amanda''s shocked expression, "It''ll be better if you step back a bit as well." "R-Right!" After ast gaze at Arnold''s summons, Amanda stepped down from the wall as Arnold equipped his gears and took out his old and trusted weapon, the vindicator. He soon received the confirmation about the sighting of the monsters. They wereing from the front. "Let''s light up the night sky boys!" He shouted and jumped down, it was time to y some monsters. ***** ___ You''ve killed a mutated Ogre. EXP: +800 Total number of Mutated Ogres killed: 4 EXP awarded : 4 ¡Á 800 = 3200 A total number of Mutated goblins killed: 6. EXP awarded : 6 ¡Á 600 = 3600 ___ ___ Your summon has killed a mutated being. EXP: +1000 First mutated rank B Cougar killed. EXP: +1200 ___ ___ You''ve killed a mutated goblin. EXP: +600 ... ___ The pleasant sound of system alerts filled his ears. ''No time to waste. Gotta push through it all.'' However, the moment Arnold saw the notification for the experience he earned, he frowned instead of having a happy smile on his face, once again he threw his body towards the battlefield in front of his eyes. Arnold ran towards a battlefield that held not a hundred or two hundred monsters but more than a thousand! The Intel he had received waspletely of the mark. Still, Arnold and his summons were winning the fight and gaining a tremendous amount of EXP at the same time, he wasn''t happy because he felt like someone was trying very hard to get at his bad side. Still, it wasn''t the only thing he had been worried about, because he thought killing the monsters here would help him progress through his ''Headhunter'' sub quest, but for whatever reason no matter how many monsters he or his summons killed, the counter of the killed monsters remained unchanged. It didn''t increase in the slightest. ''Is this happening because they are mutated beings? No that can''t be right, the counter did increase when I killed the goblins yesterday while I was looking for the church''s hideout... It has to be something else.'' Arnold thought as he threw yet anotherva grenade in a random direction, ''At least Asterios is happy. Just look at him swinging his Warhammer like a madman!'' It was truly an amazing sight to see the raging minotaur mming the Storm Breaker, on the heads of his opponents and smashing their heads into pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. Right now, Asterios'' kill count was the highest among Arnold''s summons. Of course, Arnold was killing most of the monsters thanks to his grenades and other gears, but Asterios wasn''t very far behind either, the explosive abilities of his Warhammer wreaked the monsters one after another, sometimes he even one-shoting his target. It was only a matter of time before the battle ended, or Arnold believed that to be the case. Unknown to Arnold, he was busy fighting a horde of monsters that were used as a diversion. The true attack was yet to begin. Chapter 126 - The Ones Hidden In Shadows (1) The lightning shed and pushed its inverted limbs down to the battlefield. In one, two, three seconds, the loud boom of the thunderstruck. Light and docile raindrops soon turned heavy and violent. Momentster there came the rumbling thunder and right on cue, the rain began to fall even more haphazardly from the sky as if it wasn''t entirelymitted to the idea ofrain. "Damn! Just look at that explosion!" Miko, One of the soldiers stationed at the west wing of the Alpha base, said in awe, "I wish I would''ve been stationed near at the north or south wing, the view from there would''ve been more exciting, don''t you think?"?? "Oh just shut up and focus on the task we have been given, understand?" The Noel retorted as he took another drag from his cigarette. Raindrops began getting heavier and heavier as the clouds raged through the heavens. "Huh, say whatever you want but isn''t our Section Chief the best? He''s even taking on the entire monster armada by himself!" "Yeah yeah, he''s great and all. But he''s still a new fly here." "I heard he was in aa for five long years but threw himself right at work the moment he woke up. He''s so admirable!" The first soldier continued. "He is. Unlike the twinkie roll between your legs. Now shut the fck up and focus- wait... did something moved there?" The guy threw his cigarette and grabbed a night vision enabled binocr, but still, he was having trouble differentiating the figures in the dark as it was already pitch ck and the rain was only making it worse. Then suddenly a bolt of white-hot lightning broke the utter ckness, cleaving the night in parts, and lit up the surface but only for the briefest of moments, and in that violent but short period of illumination, Noel saw something their enemy did not want him to.Miko who was still busy gazing towards the direction in which Arnold was fighting in, waspletely oblivious to what his partner saw. "Aww... you never told me how much you hate my ''twinkie''!" He mindlesslyughed at his partner. "Q-Quick inform the others we havepany! We have to- uckk!" The binocrs slipped from his hands, and he fell backwards with a loud thud... he died almost instantly. "Your cheap pranks won''t work on me anymore, bast*rd haha!" Miko thought Noel was trying to pull off a prank of some sorts as usual and paid no attention to it, but when he didn''t reply to anything Miko was saying, Miko instantly turned to the other side... only to see that Noel''s lifeless body near him... his head had been reced by a giant wooden arrow and the pool of blood that was subsequently formed as a result of that, but before he could even realise what how it all happened on an arrow hit him too, and he fell beside the person who was his partner in the military as well as in life. It was so dark that even their fellow soldier would not have been able to discover their lifeless bodies until it was toote. Another streak of lightning traced the path of its predecessor and unveiled the ones who attacked the soldiers. A creature wasying there, blended with the darkness. it''s te grey powdery skin helped in camouging him within the darkness, the creature was 15 feet tall, had a bumpy body like a sack of rocks, incongruously small head with scrubby sparsenk hair, an effluvium of rancidrd, legs like tree trunks, great warty feet with hairy toes. He was carrying a crossbow with him, the weapon which took the lives of two humans. He slowly got back to his knees from his prone position and signalled behind his back and soon, one after another, five more of his kin stepped out of hiding and joined him. These creatures were known as ''ck Trolls''. Their speciality? They could curl up like small mountains and their furry skin turned rocky and which enabled them to absorb the radar waves and hence they didn''t show up on radars. That''s how they were able to reach the base without being seen. The looked like a pack of wild King Kong-like goris. Three of them were carrying clubs, Two of them were equipped with some sort of a makeshift Battering Ram, while the remaining ck troll was carrying a crossbow with him. Despite looking like goris, the behaviour of the monsters was more like a group of cats who instead of killing their prey fast, they preferred to toy with them first.But the situation was different right then because they had to destroy the base once and for all, and expand their territory. They had enough of humans interfering with their business. They nned to simultaneously attack the base from all four directions and destroy it, not allowing the time to humans so that they won''t be able to reinforce every side, thus stretching their defences to its limit. Of course, the trolls couldn''t have done it all by themselves. They were huge and powerful creatures but they weren''t invincible and unlike other monsters were limited in numbers, moreover, a concentrated cannon fire would''ve killed them in an hour or so. That''s why they needed to the ogres, goblins and other species of monsters to be the cannon fodder instead, but instead of attacking the base from different directions, it looked like those fools decided to band up together and attack the base from a single direction, but even after that the base was still guarded somewhat heavily. "What should we do now?" One of the trolls carrying the ram asked their leader, in the monster tongue. "We need to attack now... it looks like the humans don''t know about us yet, maybe because of the heavenly waterfall, their vision is limited. We can sniff them out but they can''t. We need to use it in our favour and strike them down while we can." A club-wielding troll chimed in. Their leader, the one wielding the crossbow nodded in agreement and proceeded to shoot down as many humans as he could before they got to know about their existence and counterattack. While he was shooting down the humans one after another, the rest of his group cautiously proceeded to break through the walls using battering ram and clubs. All the leader had to do was to keep the attention of the humans on himself and keep them busy till the others burst open the wall. After that, the humans were like sitting ducks waiting to be hunted down. Chapter 127 - The Ones Hidden In Shadows (2) The ngour of the swords had died away, the shouting of the ughter was hushed; silencey on the blood-stained sand. The battlefieldy quiet, for it was now a graveyard of the unburied. Their corpsesy among the barren wastnds. The clouds were still pouring down rain and the wind still blew as harshly as before. Among the victors, a single man stood out, covered in the blood of his enemies with dual guns tightly gripped in his hands. He looked up to let the rain cleanse his bloodied face, it was Arnold. After fighting for hours, he finally had some peace. Although he had won the battle, he had to pay a price, most of his summons were destroyed and Alice was among them. Since the healer was gone he had to put extra effort to end the battle, because of which he ended up drying his mana almostpletely, but regardless of that, it was finally over.?? "Look for survivors and kill them also try to retrieve the broken automatons if you manage to find some." He instructed his undead summons, "Duke and Cerberus extract the beast crystals-" KA-BOOM!!! ...there was an enormous explosion. It was as though a fist of orange me had decided to punch its way out of the mainplex. Windows of various buildings were shattered. Smoke and fire rushed out. Thousands of pieces of ss and steel mixed with a deadly rainfall showered down. rms - shrill and deafening- erupted. A huge bite had been taken out of the side and the roof of the base. Suddenly series cannon-shot resounded, desperately firing at something to kill it. "Don''t tell me there are more of these GODDAMM MONSTERS!" Arnold cursed the monsters and rushed towards the direction where the explosion happened, with his elite summons at his toes. ***** "Keep firing the cannons! Mages prepare to unleash your strongest magic! We have to end it. Tanks, brawlers and swordsmen, establish a secure parameter without getting closer to the trolls!" Amandamanded a group of C rank warriors but even so, she knew it was just a matter of time when they get overwhelmed by the strength of the trolls. The bombardiers (people who operate cannons) and a handful of mages obeyed hermand and did what they could to dy the inevitable. ''Dammit! How did we never picked them up on radar?'' Amanda thought. The fact that she wasn''t much help in the battle simply made her feel worse. Despite being a psychic mage, it wasn''t possible for her to use psychic attacks and get rid of the trolls as she wasn''t that strong enough. Right now the best thing she could do was to hope that someone arrived at the right time to deal with the trolls, right then and there. ''The noise from the east stopped, that must mean he''s done with the monsters on that side. We just need to hold out for a few more minutes.'' Amanda gave them the signal and the bombardiers open fired at the troll who just walked in through the hole in the wall they had made, and as usual, the troll hardened itself. All the cannonballs could do was to make another crack on the trolls hardened body. While all this was happening, one of the trolls shot out an arrow which ended up destroying the cannon in a single hit! ''These monsters work very well together. There is no way they are doing this on their own...'' In Amanda''s opinion, the armed trolls in front of her were beingmanded. They were too much in sync. As if they exactly knew when the other was in danger and immediately went to support a fellow troll if it needed. They worked in close cooperation. This was the reason why the group of soldiers had been instantly surrounded by the group of trolls, despite throwing everything they could at them. They couldn''t be reckless... one mistake could be the end of them. This was why they had to bide their time for an opportunity. If a new group of soldiers showed up, the group of trolls would most probably move too and surround the new group as well. The problem was that the other soldiers were still far away... reluctant to help them out. Thus it was difficult for Amanda to pin her hopes on them. ''If someone would just show up here...'' She thought. Just then she saw something like a ball flew over her head andnded between the troll''s legs. The ball-like thingy caught the troll off guard, a momentter the ball exploded. mes poured out of the grenade but not much damage was done to the troll as it managed to step back in time, yet one could see it was in pain. But all of a sudden Amanda wasn''t interested in the troll''s condition anymore, rather than she turned around to see who their saviour was... "It''s really nice to see you. I never thought I would be this happy to see you." Amanda sighed in relief... they were saved! THEY WERE SAVED! "Stop smirking like an idiot and get your men out of here!" Arnold yelled as he charged through the crowd, but then he heard a voice telling others to do the opposite. It was the Brigadier General. "My soldiers! We can do this on our own! Keep firing at the trolls don''t stop!" The Brigadier''s voice boomed through the loudspeakers that were present throughout the base. The brigadier was nuts about stealing glory, that much Arnold had expected, but what made Arnold''s blood boil was the fact that a few of them were actually listening to the Brigadier''s absurdmand, and decided to stay there while Amanda and her soldiers slowly backed away. Even Allen was with her despite knowing that he wasn''t very useful against the trolls. Arnold yelled at the soldiers once again but they simply refused to obey him. These soldiers were the first to die at the hands of the trolls. Arnold furiously looked at the intelligence building where the Brigadier General was currently broadcasting from. "This bastard... I''m gonna kill him after I''m done with the trolls!" Arnold knew it would be a waste of time to go and argue with the Brigadier, and only God knows what the trolls would do during that time. Right now he had to take care of the trolls first. The Brigadier would be the next, "Just you wait as*hole!" Chapter 128 - The Ones Hidden In Shadows (3) ___ CLASS: Giant (Mutated being) ?? NAME: ck Troll LEVEL: 95 RANK: S ROLE: Tank AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Uproot (active skill) ? Fury Stomp (active skill) ? Hardening (active skill) HP : 10000/10000 STRENGTH (STR) : 102 DEFENSE (DEF) : 91 STAMINA (STA) : 85 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 65 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 60 EVADE (EVD) : 28 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances: Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Poisoned. THREAT LEVEL: Mediocre REMARK: Yes, they look like King Kong, and no a woman won''t be able to calm them down. Their ugliness is a scar on the face of this. You''re alone sufficient enough to scar the earth, now that being said, we don''t need them anymore, do we? So do your a favour and kill them now? ___ Men screamed in pain clutching their grievous wounds as arrow after arrow kept destroying the cannons and soldiers stationed near as well. The arrows were like snakes of deaths that kept biting the courageous but foolish army. The walls of the base initially stood defiantly but in face of such ferocious siege weapon, it''s pride shattered. "Fire!" The Brigadier General ordered from the safety of his chamber while suddenly as cannons unleashed waves of fire, in hopes of destroying the trolls who were carrying the siege weapons but it was all in vain, soon the walls of the haven were shattered. The trolls started killing the soldier like ants. "Get back you idiots!" Arnold''s voice reached the ears of the soldiers, but they simply ignored him. They were the soldiers who were loyal to the Brigadier General, and no matter what would never disobey him. Not even in the face of death. They loaded the cannons once again and aimed at the trolls. "Get back now!" Arnold once again yelled at the top of his lungs while he barraged the trolls with bullets while his mana slowly regenerated, but unfortunately, his icy bullets didn''t have any effect on the trolls the only thing which seemed to be working on the trolls was fire orva, that too if Arnold''s attacks managed to prate through their hardened skin. Sadly he didn''t have enough mana to use frost me or any other ability that would cause true damage in that matter, he only had enough mana to make a couple of dozens of fiery bullets and after that, he was done for. Moreover, since he couldn''t ess the shop as it was offline as well, there was no way for him to quickly replenish his mana and after the way, he went overboard to kill the ogres, goblins, and other monsters... he was dead tired. But right now his safety didn''t matter, he was more concerned about the foolish soldiers who were dying now and then by the hands of the trolls. ''Just why don''t they listen! They are getting squashed like mosquitoes but still... Why are they so desperate to die!'' Arnold cursed the brigadier under his breath, ''I have to distract the trolls away from them if I want to save them. Luckily I know exactly how to do that!'' He might not have enough mana to get the trolls aggro on himself but he did have his summons to help him do that. "Asterios NOW!" Arnold yelled and the minotaur who had been evacuating the injured soldiers till now charged at the troll nearest to him like a raging bull. The troll was slow to react hence couldn''t dodge in time and was thrown out through the same hole in the cemented wall, that they had made using the battered ram, but Asterios wasn''t the only one under the spotlight. Arnold opened up a portal to his domain and through it walked out the dreadnought, brandishing his new katana, he immediately charged at one of the club-wielding trolls. ''It was a good decision to not summon Dread during the first battle with goblins and ogres. At least he''s he isn''t exhausted like I am.'' Together, Asterios and Dread were able to take the aggro of the trolls on themselves. Arnold''s n had worked but he knew that the two of them wouldn''t be able to take care of six trolls by themselves. Cerberus and Marshal tried to help out but ended up getting destroyed by a single blow of the trolls hence Arnold had to order his summons to let Asterios and Dread take care of the trolls while they focused on helping out with the evacuation. "Looks like its about time the troll tried to shoot something... let''s see who or what will the troll target, the cannons, Asterios or Dread?" Arnold mumbled as he had noticed that the arrows were shot at regr intervals, Arnold had already read through his enemy''s attack patterns and sure enough, the crossbow-wielding troll shot an arrow towards Dread, who didn''t even bother to dodge the attack and took it head-on. The arrow travelled at the speed of a bullet train, but the moment it came in contact with Dread''s skin, all of its momentum was gone. The arrow barely managed to put a scratch on his skin. Arnold had pretty much expected this oue because unknown to the trolls, Dread was immune to... "Piercing damage." Arnold smirked, "The only way to destroy him is to bludgeon him to death. Something I doubt these trolls can do. Not while Asterios is still on the battlefield." Under normal circumstances, the club-wielding trolls would''ve been a perfect counter for Dread but this wasn''t a normal circumstance, as Dread was no longer wielding his old club but a brand new katana. With the help of his katana, he was easily able to overwhelm his opponents with his quick movement. Moreover, when the trolls tried to make their way towards Dread, the hyperactive minotaur jumped between them and stopped them in their tracks. One of the trolls got frustrated after Dread managed to chop off his club in half with his katana, and charged at Dread like a mad titan while the others upied Asterios. As the troll closed the distance, the Dread raised its de high. He was positioning itself to cut down the enemy in a swift manner. Right when they were about to collide, Dread, gracefully sidestepped to avoid the tackle and then stabbed his katana in the back of the troll. Dread''s attack was so quick that the katana managed to prate through the back of the troll before it could harden its skin to protect itself. As Dread extracted his sword, and an arc of blood fountained into the air. The troll first fell on his knees and then fell over a destroyed building. The troll had been in. "I think it''s time for me to try and take care of that crossbow wielder. Otherwise, he''ll just keep killing the soldiers." Arnold nodded as he recovered a bit more mana from idling. Chapter 129 - Strike Back (1) Upon seeing the formation that the trolls had assumed, even a newbie would be able to say, that they weren''t ferrying well in the battle as they were forced to assume a defensive position. Four of the remaining trolls had formed a semicircle around the one wielding the crossbow, with their backs against him. As he was the only one who could have taken care of the cannons for them, the other trolls wanted to protect the arbalist at all cost. (An Arbalist, pronounced as arbelist, is someone proficient in using a crossbow) ?? After seeing how easily Dread managed to kill one of them, the trolls became rightfully reluctant to face him, and would only try to attack him if he got closer to them. Otherwise, they maintained a safe distance from him. But Dread wasn''t the only one they were wary of, Asterios wasn''t going to let Dread steal all of the glory for himself either. Asterios certainlycked the ability to swiftly kill his enemies like dread but his raw strength and unchecked rage were more than enough to make up for it. Asterios was only an A ranked summon while the trolls were S ranked. It was given that the trolls were stronger than him, But the Warhammer he was wielding, was the thing which gave him an edge over the trolls. With a single swing of his hammer, he was able to destroy the hardened skin of the trolls. A feat even a concentrated barrage of cannonballs couldn''t achieve. Together Asterios and Dread were a pair of shinigami for the trolls. (Author''s note: To those of you who haven''t seen ''Death Note'' or simply don''t know, Shinigami are gods or supernatural spirits that invite humans toward death in certain aspects of Japanese religion and culture. Shinigami have been described as monsters, helpers, and creatures of darkness.) Even though Arnold was winning the battle, he was in a sore mood, because even though his summons had managed to put a hold to the active ughtering of humans, the arbalist was still busy shooting arrows at the few cannons that were still operating. Each of his arrows at least took one life along with it. Much to Arnold''s relief, the Brigadier General finally gave the order to the others to retreat. Out of the one hundred and fifty soldiers that stayed to fight the trolls, only 19 were able to survive without a scratch, 23 got out having minor wounds while around 42 were critically wounded. Most of them were the people who Arnold''s summons had managed to save. Arnold desperately wanted to end the arbalist troll, but wherever he tried to use an ability to take the troll or at least his crossbow down, one of the other trolls came in between and take the blow on itself. "Three arcane grenades and a couple of ice burst grenades... that''s all I''ve left. If I don''t use them now..." Arnold mumbled to himself and shook his head, "I have to find a way through, make sure to freeze the arbalist troll''s legs and finish it off by arcane grenades and fire-based attacks. No... it''ll take too much time. If I use them instead, it''ll take less time but before that, I''d have to figure a way to get rid of their hardening skill first, otherwise, it won''t be able to pierce through their skin. Then there''s another problem I have to deal with before attacking the arbalist. The other trolls have to die or they''ll just keep taking blows for him." As if Asterios and Dread were reading their master''s thoughts, they simultaneous charge towards the trolls in front of them. The moment he saw it''s enemies charging towards hisrades, the arbalist troll aimed for Asterios, but before it could take the shot at him, the ground beneath his feet suddenly became uneven, courtesy of Arnold''s Elementalist abilities, which resulted in the troll losing his bnce and instead of shooting Asterios, he shot one his fellow trolls whom he was trying to protect. The arrow managed to hit the troll in the back of his head, killing him in an instant. Even though Asterios'' target had already died, he didn''t slow down. Instead, he quickly altered his direction and charged at the troll nearest to him. The troll, however, was prepared for the attack and quickly hardened his body. After all, no matter how strong Asterios'' attack was, he wouldn''t manage to one-shot the troll if he had hardened itself right? Wrong. In his hastiness, the troll forgot to harden its head. But it should be alright because the trolls were taller than Asterios, so even if Asterios tried to aim for the troll''s head, the troll would have easily managed to block the hammer with his hands, right? Wrong. But then everyone on the battlefield knew that the Asterios'' hammer was heavy and that added to his own weight, there was no way he''d be able to jump high enough to attack the troll''s unprotected head, right? Wrong. "Wow..." A single word escaped from Arnold''s mouth as he saw the minotaur jump in the air an Olympic high jumper, brandishing his Warhammer over his head. It felt like Arnold was watching it all in slow motion. The troll was quick to react and crossed his arms over his head to protect itself from the minotaur''s strike. A good but futile move. Even though the troll''s skin had already hardened on its hands, Asterios'' momentum was too much for just his hands to bear as it was clear the moment when Asterios sessfully mmed his hammer on the troll''s hands, which broke them in half, and then managed to hit it''s head, shattering it into pieces. Dread wasn''t ying around while all of this was happening either. He too managed to catch a troll off guard and quickly got rid of him by cleanly cutting his head off his shoulders. As the troll''s headless body fell on the ground, Arnold noticed something unsettling... the only area that wasn''t covered after being hardened was... his crotch. As gross as this weakness was, Arnold wasn''t going to ignore this weakness if his enemies. "Everything is fair in love and war, right?" Arnold sighed and grabbed something out of his inventory. At first nce, it looked like a spear, on which a cylindrical container had been attached to. But in reality, it was the prototype of a weapon that Arnold had made for himself while he was making the katana and the Warhammer for Asterios and Dread. It was single-use, handheld harpoon. "Looks like its time to finally test it out." Chapter 130 - Strike Back (2) "That''s a creationist? If he is a creationist then I''m the true Casanova of this world!" A soldier''s excited voice echoed through the surveince room. "Is that the best thing you coulde up with?" The female soldier behind him smirked, "But I agree, our Section Chief is no ordinary man... I mean just look at his monsters or summons or whatever they are! Just two of them managed to kill four of the six trolls. And he didn''t even have to lift a finger to do so." ?? They were watching the live feed of the battle that was going on in the courtyard of their base. The Brigadier General was also present inside the room when everyone started praising Arnold and his summons. "No wonder he wanted to take on the horde of monsters on his own. With an army of monsters like that it, it''ll be much easier to battle alone rather than team up with someone else and which might cause unforeseen problems." Yet another soldier chimed in. Every word spoken in favour of Arnold was like a wound to the Brigadier''s self-respect. He. was. fuming. But he had no other choice but to keep his cool as deep inside, he knew what the soldiers were saying was 100% true. Arnold was no ordinary man, and he knew it very well. But he just couldn''t get past it. He was supposed to be their leader! All of them had worked under his authority every since this base was established! He treated them like a family, and they turned on him the moment another man appeared? Is this the way his family appreciated his existence? After all, he has done for them? Uneptable! He''ll be the one to lead this base no matter the cost. No one can threaten his authority over his soldiers, his family! But what could he do to save his honour? Nothing. All he could do was to stand there in silence as one by one, his soldiers slowly turn against him. **** BACK IN THE BATTLEFIELD... The tables had turned on the trolls as they no longer had their numbers advantage over Arnold''s summons. Not like that would''ve mattered either way. Seeing that, both of the remaining trolls were upied by his summons, Arnold quietly, put on the hoodie of his robes. With a harpoon held tightly in his hands, he was ready to charge towards the arbalist. ''Come on shoot at someone already!'' Arnold was ready, but still, he had to wait till the troll shot the arrow. Once the troll shot an arrow, he needed at least ten seconds before he could shoot again. Arnold was nning on taking him down within this time frame. As the time came nearer, Arnold became impatient mostly because of the fatigue he had. ''I''ve waited for enough.'' Arnold took a deep breath, and was about to charge when the troll finally took his shot at Asterios, as usual, Dead came in between and blocked the attack while Asterios jumped at the other troll. ___ Your summon has used the skill [BATTLE CRY] lvl. 3. ___ ''Well done Asterios!'' Arnold''s smile widened as the notification appeared in front of his eyes. The battle cry was a skill, exclusive to Asterios. This ability had two independent effects. One, it boosted Asterios strength temporarily by 15%, and two, Asterios took all the aggro from the monsters on himself. The only issue with this skill was its duration, which was roughly about 5 seconds, but right now it was enough for Arnold to get closer to the arbalist troll and get it over with. Without wasting a single second, Arnold activated his RAPID FLASH ability that boosted his ability, even more, a few long stridester the troll was within Arnold''s attack range, but it was true the other way around as well. Right as Arnold was about to throw the harpoon, the bast*rd troll realised what was Arnold''s intentions and attacked him first. But the troll didn''t use his crossbow to do so, instead, he attacked Arnold with his foot, maybe intending to kill Arnold like an ant. STOMP!!! Dust and rubble were rose in the air and a crater small was formed at the ce where the troll mmed his foot, but surprisingly Arnold wasn''t inside it. Thanks to the residual effect of Rapid sh, Arnold easily managed to dodge the attack and slip between the troll''s legs. The troll quickly turned around to attack Arnold once again, but as he turned around, it''s crotch erupted into mes. The pain was too much for the troll to handle and he fell on his knees while tightly holding on to his crotch. Arnold wasn''t proud of what he did, but it was necessary to do so. While Arnold quietly slid between the troll''s legs he threw the harpoon into the beast''s crotch and pulled the 10-metre long cable that was attached to the bottom of the cylindrical container. As soon as the cable came off the container, the mixture of sodium, potassium, caesium, and rubidium, instantly reacted with the oxygen present in the air and caught fire. This fire then lit up the gunpowder inside the container, which exploded and resulted in troll''s crotch getting mutted. Arnold''s inspiration behind making this weapon was pretty simple. It was his first attempt at replicating the effects of frozennce but with a twist, as he wanted to add the fire element in it. The weapon was still in its early stages but Arnold was already impressed with its effect. It required some alterations but his experimental weapon was sessful. Due to the intense pain in his crotch, the troll lost control over his hardening ability and luckily, a small part of the back of his neck revered back to its furry nature. Initially, Arnold had nned on dealing low blow after low blow to the troll until it died out of pain or humiliation, but if the troll was offering him a better solution then he wasn''t going to refuse it. After all, He was a man of honour. Thus Arnold started climbing on the back of the troll-like a professional rock climber. While this was happening, the remaining troll was being taken cared of by Asterios and Dread. Together, they managed to quickly dispatch him. As soon as he was dealt with, they rushed to help Arnold but Arnold declined. "I GOT THIS!" Arnold yelled at them. His summons diligently obeyed hismand and stepped back, but they were alert, ready to help him if the need arises. Sadly they were waiting in vain as Arnold took out two more harpoons from his inventory and proceeded to stab them deep into the troll''s exposed neck. ''Will two be enough to kill him? Nah, I should add one more, just in case.'' With that Arnold took out one more of the harpoons and stabbed it into the troll''s neck as well, before grabbing the cables that were attached to the cylindrical container, and jumped down. Gravity did it''s work and elerated Arnold''s descend, making it easier for him to tug at the cables in his hands. Just like thest time, as soon as the cables came off, cylindrical containers simultaneously exploded aftering into contact with air, but something was different this time as instead of an explosion, hotva poured out of those containers. The rain wasn''t enough to stop the troll''s neck from melting and soon theva severed his head off his shoulders. Thest troll was dead. Chapter 131 - Get Out After the ckness of night, Sun rose from its sleep, on the horizon, spreading its gold in every direction. It came in a way that natural forces do, not needing an invitation yet feeling weed and radiating hope, a new beginning. Another chance to live. The start of a brand new day. Only an hour ago the ckness was absolute, but now the silver mist was visible. Through the mist, there came a startling band of colours hung in the sky. The rainbow was as vibrant as anyone would''ve ever seen. But seeing the rainbow only brought sadness for the most.?? The ground that had been baked so hard yesterday was now soft due to the heavy rain, Arnold''s every step making a temporary puddle of murky water behind, which was made of rain along with blood and sweat of both, the living and the dead. With it, came the scene of a ravaged base. As Arnold retraced his steps back to the base after storing the bodies of the trolls in his domain, all he could see was silent chaos. Soldiers of all ranks were running around. Some were looking for survivors, some were counting the dead while retrieving their dogtags, while the rest had already started with the repairs. The bodies on the field, typically still in fullbat suit, were scattered around more or less evenly, or sometimes in little clumped groups, most of them had a few missing limbs and in some cases a missing head... A few soldiers saw Arnold and saluted him when they noticed him, while the others just smiled wanly at him. He was drenched in rain and blood and dust, his overall appearance was simr to someone who hadn''t slept for months. Although Arnold had defeated the monsters, he felt like he wasn''t a winner. The happiness of killing the trolls was long gone. He should''ve felt like a hero, after all, he had saved hundreds of lives. But all he could think about were the dozens who lost their lives. ''Feel like a hero... Yeah right. I''m no hero. A hero is someone who saves everyone''s life. Someone that isn''t me. I never was and never will be... A hero.'' Arnold kept walking aimlessly, often stopping to help if someone needed. He had already sent a few of his summons to help around and to keep a watch out for monsters. He was afraid that another wave of monsters might try to attack them at their vulnerable state. He was about to leave and go towards the workshop, but then he heard someone''s voice from behind. "You know, whenever I felt low or was at my weakest, my mom used to tell me something that instantly filled me with so much energy that I could conquer the world." Amanda smiled and walked next to him. Allen was with her and took the spot next to Amanda. "Do you mind sharing that wisdom?" Arnold tried tough but couldn''t. "That''s what I''m here for!" She cleared her throat like a professional singer and continued, "Let''s see if I remember it correctly. Alright here it goes... ''You may think this is a nightmare, and in some ways you''re right, but when you wake up, you''ll find the day is a little warmer and brighter than the one before. The sun carries the burden of the entire Sr system on his shoulders, never asking for anything back. You know why? Because he knows he''s a true hero... Just like you are the hero you''ve been looking for. You are the only one who can take down the walls that are stopping you from obtaining what you want. You are the only one who knows the answers to your questions, and no one else. So get up, take your crown and show the world that it can depend on you when the timees.''That''s what she used to say, and you, my friend, deserve nothing less than our sincere thanks for saving us. Yes, you couldn''t save everyone... But not even Gods can do that, can they? So be proud of what you did because we''re alive because of you. Moreover, we don''t need a sulking Section Chief for us so either be happy or leave. The choice is yours." Arnold opened his mouth to reply and express his gratitude to Amanda when suddenly the Brigadier General walked towards him, with his charade of soldiers behind him and started spitting crap about Arnold. "Look here. Our beloved Section Chief is busy leisurely chatting around as if he''s on a pic! While all of us are trying to help each other and recover from this crisis." He said then stared hard at Arnold who quietly turned towards Amanda. "Thanks for the talk. I needed to hear something like that. My summons will try to help you for as long as you want and I''mtemporarily assigning you to lead the ongoing operations of the base." "Yes sir! I''ll try to do my best." "I know you will. Now if you''ll excuse me, I''ll like toy down for a while. Allen, be with her and help her, I''ll be in the workshop if you need me." After giving the orders to his subordinates, Arnold turned around, intending to leave before he did something regretful, but the Brigadier had other ns. "Is that all you''re going to do, Section Chief? Don''t you think you should at least apologise to me and the soldiers? After all, dozens of lives were lost due to your ipetent leadership. If you''d have been more vignt then all of this could''ve been avoided." "Sir, with all due respect. What are you talking about? He did the best he could do to avoid the incident and as far as I''m aware most of the deaths happened because of your conflictingmands!" Amanda jumped in between to avoid a sh between Arnold and the Brigadier General. "Looks like you''ve forgotten thatIam still your senior. I think I should make an example out of you first." Brigadier General snapped his fingers, and the soldiers quickly stepped forward, trying to surround Amanda. Even a blind man could''ve told, their intentions weren''t pure. But before they could take another step towards her... BANG! Arnold fired a bullet near the foot of the soldiers, "I''ve already lost some soldiers... losing a few more wouldn''t matter much to me." "Are you trying to threaten us?" The Brigadier General asked Arnold, clearly trying to provoke him. "No. I''m just implying what would happen if you don''t stand down now. I''m not in the mood so just leave and we''ll talk about your actionster." "My actions? The nerve-" Arnold rushed towards the Brigadier General, grabbed the cor of his uniform and lifted him off the ground. Like a Dragon, ws popped out of his gloves. Ready to rip the Brigadier''s throat at any moment. The soldiers tried to help their General but Allen jumped in between. "What part of, I''m not in the mood,you don''t understand? Ithought I''d give you a chance but seems like you don''t want it." Arnold said in a calm and cold voice, "Don''t me me for what''s going to happen next." Realising that things were about to get out of hands, Amanda rushed towards Arnold''s side and tugged hard at his arm that was holding the Brigadier up in the air. "Arnold DON''T DO IT! It''s not worth it!" She yelled, hoping that her voice would make Arnold snap out of it. But it was all in vain... Arnold didn''t even bother to look at the one who was desperately trying to pull his hands away. All he could see was the face of the man because of whom dozens of people lost their lives. But then he got lost in his thoughts. ''Do I really want to kill him? I don''t think I''m not in the mood for something like that... *Sigh* this bast*rd is so lucky. But still, I''ll have to punish him and his pack of hyenas.'' After thinking for a moment, Arnold let''s go of the Brigadier General, who fell on his butt and then, "If you want to live, then leave this ce as well as zone 4. I don''t need ipetent people who end up making others lose their life because of their foolish and ego-driven decisions. I don''t care where you and your a*s licking dogs go, just get out of my sights. I won''t be generous enough to let you off that easily if I see you or your b*tches around here ever again. That was your final warning." "You... You can''t do this!" The Brigadier or the ex-brigadier yelled. "I already did. Amanda, please take care of it?" "It''ll be my pleasure, sir!" Amanda saluted Arnold ashe left to rest his exhausted body. **** Author''s Note: As you guys might have noticed, my novel went premium today. It''s early than I expected but I hope you guys can continue supporting me. Thank you so much! Chapter 132 - Trust (1) Arnold stepped into the shower, his toes flinched as they touched the chilled ceramic floor. His appeared to be calm but his mind was restless, thinking about a single thing. ''I killed so many monsters, still, the counter didn''t even move up by a single point?''?? He turned the old and metallic dial, releasing thousands of lukewarm drops on his dirty and darkening hair which slowly trickled down his back. His opened and closed over and over, as he thought about various reasons and scenarios as to why the hell, the system didn''t count the monsters that he killed over the night... He could''vepleted a sub quest of his ascension quest and gained a new title and other bonuses. Maybe the monsters were truly monsters? No that was just absurd. Maybe he had to kill some specific type of monsters? But the counter increased for every mutated goblin and ogre he had killed a couple of days ago, but when he massacred so many goblins and ogresst night, the counter didn''t increase so that wasn''t a possibility either. Was it because of a certain condition? Like he had to kill them in their own, without using his summons? ''That could be a possibility. After all, I was alone when I was hunting the mutated goblins before... I''ll have to check it outter. However, the good thing is, now I have more than the amount of EXP I need to max out the Blood Maniac subss.'' More water poured down on his well-built body, slowly washing the sweat, blood, and dirt off his body. As the water dripped by his side, his mind slowly faded into dullness and everything seemed like a foggy illusion as the warm water slowly calmed him, making it easier for him to take his mind off things. All the things he honestly didn''t care about. He turned the dial back to its former position and took a towel to wipe off the excess water from his body, He was about to step out of the shower when he heard someone knocking on the door. Without thinking about it he told the person toe in as he wrapped the towel around his waist. By the time he stepped out of the shower he was greeted by Amanda and Allen. At the sight of Arnold, Amanda''s lips parted, she wanted to say something but stopped midway, once she saw the drops of water dripped down his hair wet hair softly and slowly made their way down to his body and the perfect abs he had. The water defined his well, organized and obviously worked out body. Seeing Amanda go into potato mode, Arnold turned his attention towards Allen instead, who immediately informed him about what Amanda wanted to talk about. "The Brigadier General, I mean, Ex-Brigadier General of zone 4 and about a dozen soldiers have left the Alpha base and went towards the north of zone 6. I think he has a friend or someone who could help him out there. It''s safe to assume they are gone for good, don''t you think so too, First Lieutenant Amanda?" Allen spoke more loudly than usual, maybe in a hope that Amanda would snap back to reality. It looked like he was sessful in doing so as Amanda started showing some signs of activity once again and immediately agreed with Allen without knowing what she was agreed on. "Thanks for the info, Colonel Allen ck and Brigadier General Amanda White." Arnold smiled when he saw their confused faces. "Wha... What did you say?" Amanda and Allen asked at the same time. "Well, these posts have been recently vacated so I thought why not promote some hardworking and worthy people to show them how much I trust them. Of course, I won''t force you two to ept the promotion if you don''t-" "We ept!" Arnold''s smile widened a bit more, "I hope you understand the weight of responsibility you''re being given. So try not to make me regret appointing y''all, okay?" "You won''t be disappointed about your decision sir!" They both simultaneously saluted Arnold, who simply shook his head. "Try not to go overboard with the salutes and all. Just be casual if it''s just three of us. Now, Amanda, I believe as the new General, you have a lot of things to do around the base so-" "Oh right! And thanks once again for putting your trust in me." She said and retreated out of the workshop, Allen was about to follow her too, but Arnold stopped him. "Not you Allen. I wanted to ask a few things if you don''t mind?" Arnold said as he took out a new shirt from his wardrobe. "Not at all, ask away." Allen replied and made himselffortable on Arnold''s bed, as much as it weirded Arnold out, he allowed Allen to do whatever he liked, for now. "Back when the soldiers tried to attack me... Why did you jump in between? I mean, I didn''t need your help. In the worst-case scenario, I''d have to kill them and get it over with. After all, you aren''t strong enough to handle so a dozen soldiers on yourself. Why put yourself in unnecessary danger?" Allen sighed heavily and stared at the undecorated ceiling of Arnold''s room for a brief moment before replying, "Honestly, I... I don''t know. It was like something inside me told me to do that... to protect you, even if I ended up losing my own life. I know it''s weird, cringy and possibly unbelievable but that''s what happened. At that moment, I felt like your life was more important than mine. And I''m positive it''ll happen again if the need ever arises." ''Looks like the description of the skill was on the point then...'' Arnold recalled what the description of the skill said, ''The target bes dependent on the user and will dly sacrifice his/her life to protect its master without a second thought... It''s truly a monstrous ability.'' Blood Bond... Arnold had finally started to grasp a little about the true power of this ability, it could potentially turn his greatest adversary into his mightiestrade within minutes. This ability much like his other abilities was overpowered like hell. ''I have so many unique and overpowered skills... Still why the heck I''m so weak?'' It was a thought that always confused the heck out of him, but now want the time for him to worry about that. He already had his hands full. Despite showing that he fully trusted Amanda, Arnold knew that the only ones he could trust were Allen and his summons, and no one else. Why was it like that, you ask? It was pretty simple actually. Amanda belonged to the White Family... The same family who had deep connections with Devon Troy, someone who Arnold had sworn to put an end to. So it was obvious that he was wary of her. Chapter 133 - Trust (2) "One more thing, Allen, would you mind keeping an eye on Amanda for me?" Arnold said in his deep voice. "Did I hear you right? Do you want me to spy on her?" Allen asked Arnold in a surprised tone.?? "Yes. As much as I hate telling you to do this... It''s necessary. I just hope whatever I''m thinking is wrong, but this is the only way to know that. So please, try to help me." "So you''re telling me, that you don''t trust her?" He asked again. "I''ve been betrayed countless times by the ones I ce my trust into. So is it wrong for me to be on my toes around people? My heart is telling me that she''s in the clear, but it''s the same heart which has gotten me into trouble countless times. Right now, I should trust my brain and go through with it rather than trust my heart and get betrayed once again." "I somewhat get it, and I know if it wasn''t important for you, you''d never requested me to do anything like this... But why me? Isn''t it better to make one of your summons do it?" Arnold thought about it for a while before speaking again, "Let''s assume that she''s plotting something, do you think she''d be careless enough to expose her ns in front of my summons? I don''t think so. You, on the other hand, my friend, have already worked for the man, Amanda could hypothetically be working for. So if you manage to get close enough to her then she''s bound to slip up. Another reason I chose you was of the fact that you are suited for these types of missions. After all, you managed to fool a lot of people while you were working with the church, so fooling a single person wouldn''t be that hard for you now would it?" "I didn''t think you''d put so much thought into it and I- wait a minute... did you promote her so that she''d think she''s clear and you don''t have suspicion on her?" "Correct. And I promoted you for the same reason so that she won''t get suspicious about the impromptu promotions." Arnold smiled wanly. "You''re one hell of a cunning guy... I''m d I''m working for you and not against you. Well, that solved all the questions I had. I''ll leave now or else she might think something is up..." Allen got up from Arnold''s bed and excused himself while immediately went to sleep. **** NEAR THE OUTSKIRTS OF ZONE 4... A convoy of three military vehicles was speeding through the wastnds, leaving a trail of dust behind. A total of thirteen people were inside those hummers, and the Ex-Brigadier General was among them, sitting in the back seat of the hummer that was in the middle of the convoy. "That bastard kicked me out of my own base..." He mumbled in a low voice. His knuckles had turned white from clenching his fists too hard, he had been gritting his teeth in an effort to remain silent which was effective but scary, his hunched form exuded an animosity that was like a snake. His face was red with suppressed rage, ready to snap at any moment. The soldiers knew he was in a foul mood and hence kept a safe distance from him. They knew him very well, and also the fact that right now he was like a volcano that could explode at any time. Thus they wanted their journey to be as smooth as possible, but fate had something else in store for them. CREEK! The convoy of vehicles suddenly stopped with a loud creaking noise. The General immediately snapped and started cussing the driver and his soldiers. "THE HELL ARE YOU PEOPLE DOING!? CAN''T A MAN HAVE SOME PEACE FOR A MOMENT!?" He bellowed, grabbing the cor of the soldier next to him, "Tell me what''s happening outside! GO!" Just as the soldier was about to step out, another soldier radioed in, "Sir, a woman is standing in our path... what shall we do?" The general snatched themunicator from the soldier next to him and started barking orders at the soldiers. "So you stopped your vehicle because of such a minor inconvenience? KEEP MOVING FORWARD! If she doesn''t move then run her over!" "Roger that! Let''s move!" A voice came from the other side and soon the cars started their engines once again, but even before the driver leading the convoy could step on the gas, the roof of the vehicle copsed out of nowhere. The same thing happened with the hummer that was at thest. All of the eight soldiers inside those vehicles were crushed in an instant. Afraid that the same thing would happen to them, the general and the remaining soldiers quickly jumped out of the car and the next moment their vehicle was crushed as well... All of them were panicking hard, but soon got a hold over themselves and rushed towards the General to protect him, their swords were drawn and ready to strike down the only one who could''ve done this... The woman in front of them. Sadly their bodies simultaneously exploded even before they could swing their sword. The General was covered in the blood of his protectors when he finally saw the attacker who killed a dozen people in a matter of seconds... It was a crimson skinned woman, wearing nothing but a torn robe.She had a lean face with an oval jaw, a thin nose, small ears, bony cheeks and small ck lips. Her pale and seductive blue eyes were puffy and had thin eyebrows. The way she covered her scars on her face, showed off how sensitive she was about her looks. Her elbow-length, straight, bright pink hair was neatly braided. She had toned arms and hands with long fingers, a long torso with modest breasts, plump hips, long legs. Another fact that the General noticed was the presence of multiple rings on her right hand. The General closed his eyes, expecting to be executed like his fellow soldiers, but to his surprise... Nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes to see that the woman was standing right in front of him. She ced her long and slender fingers under his chin and slowly pulled him back to his feet. "You''ll be suitable to be my pdin..." The woman said in her hypnotic voice and forced her lips on his while he stood there, frozen, from both fear and excitement. He knew the woman was nothing but trouble, he wanted to pull away before helost himself to the pleasure but no matter how hard he tried he wasn''t able to¡­ In that moment of pleasure, his senses had been seduced and he could no longer think straight. Desperate for more he leaned in a little closer, their foreheads touching. He couldn''t fight against his primal urges that were going through his body. Her very smell was like an aphrodisiac, flooding his sense of judgement. He felt as if he had achieved everything he ever desired to have... but all this onlysted for a moment. The very next moment, when the woman parted away from the kiss, the General''s face fell faster than a corpse in cement boots. In that instant his skin became greyed, his mouth hung with his lips slightly parted and his eyes turned ck and were stretched as wide as they could. Chapter 134 - Perfectionist Arnold woke up as if there was an emergency, it felt as if sleeping had became a dangerous activity for him. His heart was beating faster than ever and there was a constant buzzing sound in his brain and together they were a cause of distress for him. The forced exertion from the previous night finally got to him. He thought being tired would help him get peaceful sleep but no, his weird nightmares just had to chase him. It was the same nightmare like thest time... Only this time it was even more intense. The thing which troubled him the most was the presence of the unknown man who kept pushing him back to hell. He wanted to see the man''s face but couldn''t... The only he could see was that the man hand a trident in his hands, his weirdly blue throat, but the thing which caught his attention was the snake that was coiled up on the man''s neck as if it was some sort of an ornament.?? He instinctively looked out of the window, the sun was still up. Despite being tired, he barely managed to sleep for a couple of hours. He shut his eyes once again and covered them with his elbow and forearm, but the moment he did so, the images from his nightmare once again started shing in front if his eyes. ''Just who was that man!? What does he wants from me!'' Arnold thought as he got up from the bed, he was still tired but he didn''t want to have anymore nightmares so getting up was the only option for him,''I guess this day will pass as if I am hungover, not from drinks, but from the nightmares that demand solutions and sadly I don''t have any.'' It''s not like he was going sulk around in a corner for not getting enough sleep. He had work to do, in fact a lot of work. He quickly opened his interface to check the amount of EXP he had gained after killing the monstersst night. A smile slowly found its way to Arnold''s lips. He had expected to earn ton of EXP but when he actually saw the six figure amount all his tiredness vanished. He had earned an astounding amount of 490,526 exp in a single night! ''At least something good came out of that ordeal. Finally I can level up my blood maniac subss. Hell I can even upgrade Engineering Pioneer subss while I''m at it!'' His day had taken a turn for the better. Upgrading the subss took around 200,000 EXP out of his earned EXP, he also spent 10,000 EXP to max out the subss. He was left with about 280,000 surplus EXP that he couldn''t do anything with. Upgrading his subsses also max out the skills rted to them, unlocking new perks and upgrading the existing ones. His mana pool was also increased substantially, thanks to the mana moulding ability, he now had over 20,000 mana and the blood runes could now store upto 8 different abilities instead of 5! The sess rate of Blood Bond had also increased. But the detailed information of the BLOODLUST ability were still hidden. He tried to ess it but a notification popped up stating that he had to evolve the present subss to use the ability. Sadly he didn''t have a way to do that as of that moment so he had to let go of it. But wasn''t the only ss he upgraded. Upgrading the subss also unlocked various effects, the most prominent one being the new effect under ability, it was called, which essentially enabled his automatons to automatically repair upto 30% of damage on their own, while they were indulged inbat. There were also a few other upgrades as well which reduces the cost of repairing and making automatons. Arnold was happy with all the upgrades he received, unknown to the fact that his happiness was about to get doubled. The moment he closed his interface, various notifications popped up on his interface, most of them were regarding his upgrades, he scrolled through those and selected the notification that he wanted to check out first. ___ ? MASTER OF BLOOD : [ INTRODUCTION ] : You might be a creationist who can create anything he desires, but the thirst for blood is ever growing. [ TASK ] : Upgrade the subss to its maximum level. [ PROGRESS ] : COMPLETED! ___ "Finally! One of the sub quests is over!" He let out a sigh of relief. It would take a while before hepleted the entire quest, but at least he took his first step towards it. But the system had more in store for him, because yet another notification popped up on his interface. It wasn''t a usual notification but he knew what this notification was all about because he had already seen this type of notification twice before... "Did I receive a new title?" He mumbled and hurriedly opened the notification to read it''s contents. ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Perfectionist] Effect: Increases the effect of ss specific abilities by 6% ___ "ss specific abilities? What are those?" ___ ss specific abilities are the abilities that you get after earning a ss/subss. In other words these are the abilities that are exclusive to a certain ss/subss. ___ "This day keeps getting better and better!" He eximed happily, "I better hurry andplete the other things that I wanted to, before my luck runs out." He recalled all the things he had to do, which included his ns to analyse the beast cor and blood concoction that the Church used to control monsters and humans, and then he had to make weapons and gears for his summons from the materials he gainedst night after killing the horde of monsters. But before all that, he had to feed the Wyvern egg first, after all, it had been a couple of days since hest fed something to it and now, was the opportunity to do so since, he had blood from a variety of monsters which he could use to feed the egg, let it be human blood, or blood of monsters like goblins, ogres, and trolls. While he internally debated on whose blood should he feed to the egg, he opened a portal to void and stepped through it. All the corpses of the monsters, he and his summons had killedst night were waiting for him inside. "It''s awfully quiet here..." Arnold mumbled when he saw the were only a few of his summons inside the void, "Oh right, I sent most of them away to scout out the areas around the base for presence of monsters... I wonder if they managed to found anything." Chapter 135 - Monster Lair (1) "I guess they are doing fine. After all, I already told them to contact me if they find something." Arnold shook his head and started walking towards the pile of dead monsters, "They are more than capable of handling themselves. Right now, I should be focusing on other important matters. For starters, Let''s see which monster would be suitable to feed to the egg... If I want the Wyvern to grow stronger than Vritra, I should feed it with the blood of rarest and strongest monsters, like the trolls." he mumbled pulled the wyvern egg out of his inventory and ced it on the ground. A single notification popped up on his interface.?? ___ Creature''s hunger grows. The creature is learning to control its hunger. Control increased! The creature is still hungry. If not fed within 20:00 minutes, the creatures HP will start decreasing at a rate of 10HP/minute. Current HP: 3500/3500 Time remaining to hatch: 115:01:35:23 (Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds) ___ "Looks like remaining hungry for a while has some effects other effects as well... Interesting. However, it''s better not to wait any longer. I don''t want it to die before I get the chance to ride it." He went ahead and grabbed the severed head of the troll chieftain and held it over the egg. The blood slowly flowed out of the head and fell on top of the egg. ___ The creature is absorbing the nutrients from the blood... Hunger diminishes... The creature has sessfully absorbed the nutrients from the blood of S ranked mutated monster. Attributes Increased! HP: +300 Strength (STR): +25 Defense (DEF): +30 The blood of the monsters contains twopatible abilities. The creature can learn two new abilities! ? Yes or ?No ___ "This is something new... I didn''t get a notification like thisst time. Did it happen because of the Wyvern blood I fed itst time? It could be possible." Arnold stroked his chin, lost in his thoughts, "This egg is like a living blood rune on its own! Looks like I''m going to have a lot of fun feeding the egg now. But first, let''s see what ability it can learn. Yes." ___ The creature is learning the abilities... Ability learnt sessfully! ? [ HARDENING ] : (Active ability) When activated, the user''s defence increases greatly and user''s hide hardens allowing him/her to take tolerate more damage than usual. It takes more mana if the user tries to harden his/her entire body at once. [ Rank: A ] [Mana cost: 200/per use, Full body hardening cost: 1000/per use] [COOLDOWN: None] ? [ FURY STOMP ] : (Active ability) The user gains herculean strength and furiously starts stomping the ground which open ups a crack inside the ground that grows wider and wider until the user stops stomping the ground. Creatures who fall in this crack are trapped inside it. [ Rank: S ] [Mana cost: 5000/per use] [COOLDOWN: 1:30 hours] ___ "You bast*rds had a skill like this but didn''t use it? What the f*ck was wrong with you!?" Arnold smiled in disbelief, "I don''t even want to imagine what would''ve happened if you had used it on us... forget about the others, even me and my summons would''ve been in grave danger. Why didn''t you use it? Was it because of the high mana cost? I doubt it, when faced with death nobody would be foolish enough to even think about saving mana. Maybe this skill had some drawback that the system isn''t aware of? Who am I kidding, the system knows everything." if you haven''t guessed it yet... Yup. Arnold was conversing with a severed head. Half expecting it to answer back. It was a side effect offorcing his overworked brain to work more. He then realised something. As far as he was aware, the trolls didn''t activate a single skill of theirs while facing Dread and Asterios, other than the hardening skill. Maybe they didn''t know how to use any skill other than hardening? It could''ve been the case but he doubted it. "it''s a shame I can''t resurrect you. I should have told Dread and Asterios to go easy on you... Damn it! You could''ve answered so many of my questions." One of the most important conditions for Talos to perform resurrection on someone was that the corpse of the being should''ve been intact. He could still resurrect someone who didn''t have hands or legs, but Talos couldn''t resurrect a headless being. Sadly both Asterios and Dread had only aimed for their heads. During the fight, the body of the only troll who still had his head in its designated ce got crushed under a building, it''s entire torso looked like mashed potatoes so Arnold didn''t have much hope of sessfully resurrecting it either. He let go of the severed head and kicked it like a professional football yer. It flew towards Dread who immediately sliced the head in half with his katana. Arnold couldn''t help but smile at his reaction afterwards. After slicing the head, Dread held the katana over his shoulders as if it was a baseball bat, expecting Arnold to throw more heads his way. Asterios also imitated Dread and pulled the Warhammer over his shoulder, ready to hit a home run. "Are you guys for real?" He shook his head and picked up the egg which once again had grown in size, "If it keeps growing every time I feed it, then it''ll be troublesome to store it in my inventory." He carefully ced the egg in his inventory and then walked out of the void. "I think it''s time to make some gears for the summons or should I analyse-" ___ Your summon has killed a mutated being. EXP: +1000 Total number of Mutated Ogres killed: 4 EXP awarded : 6 ¡Á 800 = 4800 A total number of Mutated goblins killed: 6. EXP awarded : 5 ¡Á 600 = 3000 ___ Without wasting a moment, Arnold immediately contacted Talos. "What the hell is happening out there?" Arnold asked Talos as soon as the connection established. "Master looks like we found a monsterir! It seems they have captured a few humans as well. We''re currently trying to fend then off..." Talos replied in his emotionless electronic voice. But Arnold wasn''t listening, he was already sprinting towards the garage. Chapter 136 - Monster Lair (2) The cruel sun beat down the barren wastnds, it''s one malevolent eye unblinking, and the sky was its co-conspirator, there wasn''t even a wisp of cloud to soften the harsh rays. No one would''ve believed this region was hit by a rainstorm just a few hours ago. The small lizard-like monsters took shelter in the shadows of the rocks where the sand was not hot enough to roast them. The air was thick and hazy, taking a breath seemed like drowning inva, and among all this noise of a single car, engine tore the silence andziness of the wastnd, in all its might. The noise of the car attracted the monsters but the man driving the humvee didn''t care about anything else, other than quickly reaching his destination.?? He just had to reach and help his summons, no he didn''t need to help his summons, they were already sufficient to handle the monsters. What he truly wanted, was to verify one of his theories. ''I''ll cancel my summoning as soon as I reach there. I can''t miss this chance to test whether the monsters I kill myself without the help of my summons would count towards the headhunter quest or not...'' Arnold thought and stepped on the gas, ''At least I ordered Allen to keep Amanda busy otherwise she would''ve sent an entire armada with me. Tsk, that would''ve been too much work.'' The moment Arnold had stepped into the hummer, Talos had shared his location with him. Being the Section Chief, no one asked him any questions like where he was going etc. In truth, they were just scared that Arnold might kick them out if they pissed him off, just like the Ex-Brigadier General, that''s why most of them kept to themselves and simply saluted him if he crossed by. However, there were a few curious souls who still approached Arnold and asked where was he headed to, like the security stationed at the gate. Honestly, Arnold didn''t have any issues with them prying about him as long as they didn''t go out of their way to cause him trouble. Also, he already had an answer ready to shut them up, "I''m just going out for a ride to clear my mind, I have to leave now if you don''t mind." And that was it, no one having even a single brain cell, asked him anything after that. "Come on! Can''t you move any faster!" He still had to cover a distance of 22 kilometres and top speed of the vehicle was 100 kilometres per hour but since he was driving offroad hence the speed had reduced significantly, it was about 92 kmph. "Of course! I could just enhance it myself! All the points I invested to increase my intelligence and I''m still an idiot..." He mumbled and ced one of his hands on the dashboard of the car. ___ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle [HMMMWV (humvee)]. Due to the effect of [Perfectionist] title, the probability of permanent enhancement is increased by: 6% Total probability of permanent enhancement: 22% ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! Horsepower increased by: 15 Current Horse Power: 165 Max Speed: 121 kmph eleration improved! BUFF: Horsepower, speed and sturdiness of the vehicle increased. Bonus effect : Sturdiness increased by: 10% Off-road control increased by: 15% Duration: Permanent buff. ___ "Tsk. If it was still the normal world, I''d haveunched my own range of sports cars by now, hehe." Arnold smiled and stepped on the gas. The Humvee roared even louder after Arnold''s sessful enhancement. *** The floor of the cave was littered with blood and corpses. Red, ck and blue were the new colours of what was once a maroon coloured, heavenly adobe, a radiation-free zone in the middle of the wastnds. It was a location no one knew about not even monsters or the military. That''s why the nomads decided to live there. Existence of nomads in the wastnds was not unheard of. Obviously, the military had tried their best to persuade them to stay near the military bases so that they can offer them safety but the nomads simply refused, saying this was their way to repent for the sins of humanity, however that made sense. After some time the military stopped trying to persuade them and leave them be, as they had more important matters to take care of. The nomads happily lived inside the cave until one month ago when a group orcs stumbled upon the cave and decided to take shelter inside. The nomads were weak, and despite the best of their efforts couldn''t fend off the orcs. The cave which was once referred as ''Heaven''s blessing'' by its upants, had now be the stage of a terrible battle. After the orcs won and killed all the males including the children, a few of them left to contact their leader while the others remained and feasted upon the women... forcing themselves on them and having their way with them till they were sexually satisfied. It only got worse from there on... as the entire tribe of Orcs soon for back to the cave and established it as their base. The women were exploited again and again by them until they impregnated them and then killed them. The air which would have normally carried the delicate scents of flowers and fruits was now heavy and thick with the scent of smoke and blood, the mere whiff of the smell would''ve made you want to run away. The women continued to be ythings for orcs until out of nowhere another group of monsters appeared. But this group was peculiar... the new group of monsters consisted of an odd bunch of robots, humans and whatnot. The army of Orcs and the army of mixed warriors and monsters soon began fighting with each other without any sense of reason, but it was yet to be determined which side had the winning hand. The dead among the orcs were scattered across the floor while the faces of the ones who were still fighting had adrenaline rushing through their bodies. Some have sumbed to bloodlust and are carelessly charging any enemy without a care for their own safety, endlessly swinging their weapons desperately trying to kill each other while others long for the end of this battle. With the uncertainty of battle coursing through their minds, the other side courageously fights their enemies with the hope of being the stronger side. Needless to say, the second army was the army of Arnold''s summons, with Talos leading them, they were continuously trying to subdue the orcs but they had to hold back a bit as none of them wanted to injure the humans, even by ident. Most of the orcs were easily dealt with however it was their leader and a few other orcs close to him, that were causing the most trouble. "If I transform into the human form I might be able to subdue them for a while. Until master arrived." Talos mumbled and then transformed into Jake, the necromancer. The next moment dead skeletons raised out of the bowels of gel to aid him in his battle against the Orc king. Chapter 137 - Talos Vs Orc King (1) "It''s too quiet here..." Arnold mumbled as he stopped the vehicle in front of a cave. It was the very same cave Talos had informed him about. However, the eerieness around the cave made him ufortable. It was difficult to exin how he felt but it was unpleasant. Arnold shook his head and stepped out of the car.?? "Time to kill some monsters I guess but first..." Arnold quickly equipped his gears and then wore the hazmat suit over it, "Now let''s get going." **** A FEW MINUTES EARLIER... "What kind of servant am I if I can''t even let my master have proper rest?" Talos mumbled, "Master, is already overworked and yet I''m always causing more trouble for him. Can''t I even handle a few enemies on my own?" Talos felt conflicted. He knew Arnold was overworked after hisst battle and wanted him to recover first, thus he didn''t inform him about the discovery of the cave and the orcs, but to his disappointment, Arnold called him first, right after Talos had killed his first target. ''As I thought... even if the elder is in deep sleep, Master still has control over a few of elder''s function.'' "Kyaaaa!" Bang! A goblin tried to jump over Talos and attack him while there were fewer skeletons around him, but Talos immediately shot him down before the goblin could get close to him. ''Orcs working together with goblins and ogres... how peculiar.'' Talos already knew all about the species of his enemies that''s why he thought it was peculiar for all of them to band together. Although Talos had already witnessed goblins working under ogres, it was his first time seeing ogres working under orcs. After all, the two creatures are known to be bloodthirsty for each other, you could say they were like two princes fighting for a single throne. While there wasn''t much difference between their physique, orcs were superior to ogres because of their superior intellect, and thus were at the top of the hierarchy. They were also the ones who were benefited the most after the radiation spread throughout the region and had changed a lot. The ogres were next in line because of their beastly physique. All they do was fight and fight. If they can''t find enemies, they don''t hesitate to kill their own kin for stupidest reasons and were not afraid of doing the same to the others. The ogres that Arnold encountered during his search for the church, were much more civil than this lot. All in all, you could say ogres were ''Orcs without any brains'', but they were more fierce as well. Like every other species, they too were affected by the radiation however it didn''t change their behaviour. Atst, came the goblins, they were the handyman for the ogres as well as the orcs. Usually, they were a tad bit smaller than an average human, but due to their mutation, they had grown significantly. Their characteristic traits included green skin, pointy-eared and often foul temper. Either they belong to the cunning of the bunch or with those who were dumb as sh*t, there was no in-between for them. The cunning ones usually either focused on hunting or enhancing their battle prowess. The dumb ones however focused solely on one thing, mating. They bred rapidly and constitute thergest percentage of the goblins. A few of them who managed to evolve further was called hobgoblins they were also referred to as ''Tamers'' because they were known to tame vicious beasts and use them as cavalry. Some among the hobgoblins were even deadlier than the ogres and were especially vicious, they showed no mercy to their enemies and had various ways to kill their enemies, most of them being so horrifying, even Jack the reaper would''ve been afraid of them. Thankfully there weren''t any hobgoblins among the enemy forces or Talos and others were in for trouble. ''Looks like the Orc ''King'' is the one who is holding everyone together, otherwise, all hell would break loose within their ranks...'' An Orc King was an orc that had undergone various mutations and slowly gained the power of controlling other orcs as well. It was a rare mutation and thus not much was known about them. However Talos was sure if he managed to kill the Orc King, the other orcs would attack the ogres and during that time, he and the others would rescue the humans and retreat. Once the humans were safe, they won''t need to be careful anymore. But they had to get the human out, first. Unfortunately, this was no easy task. It seemed that the Orc King himself seemed to be aware of the situation, because he along with six orcs and four ogres, was standing in front of the women. ''I need to think of something...'' Talos thought and more skeleton warriors ripped open the ground and joined the fight. Talos and his team certainly had numbers advantage over their enemies but the average strength of the monsters was much more than theirs because Talos only had undead soldiers, a couple of dozen of golems, automatons andva hounds apart from the skeletons. The skeletons were doing what they could and were ferrying well against the goblins but they couldn''t do much against the orcs and the ogres and shattered into pieces after receiving just one hit from them. The skeletons couldn''t regenerate themselves and thus Talos had to summon more of them, which used up his energy which was consumed as mana. The Lava hounds and skeletons were handling the goblins which were the causing the most trouble for them as they were small and agile hence it was difficult to kill them, thankfully the hounds were able to counter them as they were more agile than anyone else on the battlefield. The automatons were trying their best to defeat the ogres, while, the golems were busy fighting the orcs. But it wasn''t like the monsters were sitting idly doing nothing. They were continuously attacking and destroying their enemies as well. Soon the number of warriors on both side started dwindling. AFTER A WHILE... The battle was still raging on. None of the sides were backing out. Everyone was adamant about fighting till the end. Thanks to the hounds, most of the goblins had already been taken care of. The number of ogres had also decreased by half. However, all wasn''t good for Talos andpany, as not a single Orc was dead, thanks to the leadership of the Orc King. On the contrary, the orcs had managed to destroy most of the golems who had been tanking for the hounds and the automatons. Without them, they were like sitting ducks waiting to be shot down. ''If we lose they''ll definitely kill the females and get away... no matter what we have to defeat them right here and now.'' Talos thought after analysing the situation and stopped summoning the skeletons, ''The Orc King needs to die.'' Chapter 138 - Talos Vs Orc King (2) 15 Orcs against 26 of Arnold''s summons. Maybe the orcs wanted to mock them before destroying them for good as a sole warrior came forward to attack the remaining golem... Marshal.?? The orc rained blows onto Marshal, as if he meant to smash him into the very earth he was made of and Marshal did the same, he knew if he went down easily Talos and the others might get into trouble. Each of them fought like they didn''t just want the other dead, they wanted him smashed, obliterated, nothing left behind. Surprisingly, Marshal was doing well against the orc but not for long. The orcs intended to act high and mighty, not weak, the next moment they attacked as a mob, with their King leading in front. There was stillness on both sides. If hatred was visible the air would have been blood red. In that frozen second between standoff and fighting, Talos could see the eyes of the orcs flicker from him to the Orc King. Their faces are unreadable, no fear, no invitational smirk. Then with a sudden movement, so much force in every step of the orcs. In that moment of hatred, there was no feigning honour. Everyone wanted what they wanted and force was the epted method. It was better to be a dog in a big group than a lone Lion. Talos didn''t back down from the challenge and soon the all-out war began once again. The battle had be a no holes barred situation when Talos went in for the attack. When it came to war with monsters, there was no honour, no code. All that mattered was the win and take nothing for granted. They had the exits covered, there was nowhere for the orcs to run, and Talos wasn''t going to tell his teammates to run either. They would fight till they die. Screams broke out. The summons rushed forward, Talos shouting orders. Swords shed. Guns fired. More shouting. More screaming. More dodging. More shooting. The attack was fierce, efficient and deadly. More skeletons popped out of nowhere, but it was different. Rather mindlessly charging towards them, they stood their ground. They weren''t equipped with swords and shields either but wore a robe instead, and upon Talos''mand started firing random spell at them. They were the skeleton mages. Dance of the dead wasn''t a spell that was strictly used to summon skeleton warriors, but it granted the user to summon whatever type of troop the user wanted. It all depended upon the user''s imagination. But there was a cost to pay for that too. Summoning new type of troops or troops having higher battle prowess used up far more mana than summoning basic skeleton warriors. Thus the number of skeleton mages was limited as Talos couldn''t afford to use up all of his energy/mana. Talos wanted to superior skeleton maybe something like Asterios but he was not sure if he''d be able to do that, hence he stuck with what he knew would work. The Orcs were surprised by the appearance of a new enemy but they quickly adapted to the change and got closer to their enemies so that the skeletons wouldn''t attack them. Talos had already expected this to happen and had a n to counter them- Curse magic. Curse magic was a branch of dark magic thatallowed the user to include additionalsting negative effects to spells, The effects can range from dulled sensesto debilitating sickness, and even hallucination. There were a variety of different types of spell that could do so. And right now, the orcs were their targets. Talos'' n was somewhat sessful, and the performance of the orcs had reduced over time, their agility, strength, evasion, and defence all went down but not by much. The skeleton mages were simply too low levelled and hence couldn''t do much. Talos and the others did their best to take advantage of the situation and charged at their enemies. Rage fueling their actions. The Orcs were temporarily forced to step back, but the moment they did that, the skeleton mages open fired at them without any mercy. But rather than aiming their spells at the entire enemy force, they concentrated their fire on a single orc. It took a while but it was safe to assume that the orc was dead. 14 Orcs remained. Angered by their action, the Orc King roared like an injured bull and unsheathed his sword, swinging it through the air, but as he did so something came out of it something came rushing out of it like a bullet made up of wind, it was the special ability of the Orc King called the [Silent Kill]. Talos thought it was aimed at him and dodged the ''aerial bullet''. But the Orc King''s vicious smile suggested something else. All of a sudden, Talos'' energy consumption decreased sharply which could mean only one thing... He quickly turned towards, where the skeleton mages were standing, and sure enough... they were broken into pieces, but they weren''t the only ones who got caught in Orc King''s attack. It looked like Marshal and a couple of automatons had tried to protect the skeletons from the attack as the skeletonscked the agility to dodge the attack by themselves, but it seemed like they weren''t sessful. 14 Orcs against 23 summons. Even though the odds aren''t affected much it was crystal clear that the orcs had the upper hand in the battle. ''Such a strong attack... they were ying with us all this time?'' Talos thought as he turned back to face the Orc King. Amid the chaos a single thought why through the mind of the Orc King, ''Perhaps it isn''t a fair fight, but isn''t that a strange concept anyway? I always leant toward short and brutal to curb the fatalities, maximize the fear and thus my power base. After all, what''s the point of winning if there''s no one left to subjugate? But this group of enemies is different... they don''t know what fear is. I thought they''d run away once they see our true power but they didn''t. Interesting... very interesting as ast honour I shall personally y their leader.'' Chapter 139 - Talos VS Orc King (3) "GET DOWN!" Talos roared as the Orc King swung his sword once again. The aerial bullet generated by the Orc King''s [Silent kill] ability, once again found its mark and destroyed a couple of hounds in an instant. Talos and his team were at the tip of their toes against the orcs. Although they had managed to y a couple of orcs, the damage they had incurred in the process was tremendous. Talos had lost ten of Arnold''s summons in an attempt of taking two orcs down. Sadly things got worse from thereon.?? It seemed like the Orc King''s power was affected by the orcs around him, because whenever they killed an orc, the deadlier the Orc King''s blows got. Talos was afraid if they liked one more orc, the Orc King would gain enough power to obliterate all of them. This the only option Talos had was to kill the King first... but it wasn''t possible. The orcs were in full-on offensive mode. They barely, if ever slipped up, but even if they did the Orc King had their backs, and the end result remained the same... Although Arnold''s summons weren''t afraid of getting injured or destroyed, they knew they had to be careful so that the battle could be dragged out till Arnold could arrived to help them, as they couldn''t defeat all of the orcs by themselves. ''Situation is getting worse... Probability of winning with our current strength is 0.5%. If I use the grenades master had given me then the probability would increase by 6%.'' Talos was busy doing calctions in his man-made mind, but no matter what scenario he thought of, their maximum winning probability didn''t exceed 8%, it was their upper limit. But in that scenario, the women behind the orcs would inevitably die as well, but then the entire purpose of fighting against the orcs would be destroyed. The orcs seemed to be aware of the situation as well, or at least they thought, Talos andpany still had some card up their sleeves and they stepped back, closer to the women, even though they didn''t need to. ''They are too close to the humans. I can''t use the grenades until and unless I lure them out or... yes, I could do that too.'' All of a sudden, Talos'' eyes were shining brighter than the stars. Although his n was dangerous, the reward was high as well. He quickly summoned a single skeleton warrior, who had a giant bone hammer in its hands. Talos extended his hand towards the skeleton. "Give me that." he said, and the skeleton quickly handed him the weapon it was carrying, Talos epted the weapon and turned towards the others, "As soon as they break their formation, charge in and attack them with everything you got. It doesn''t matter whether your attacks with on them or not, but till then stay put and don''t move. Understood?" Members of Talos'' team acknowledged hismand. Talos quickly ced the hammer on his back and charged at the Orc which was nearest to him, his guns in his hands. The Orc King saw himing and instructed the orcs to get rid of him. Orc King''s [Silent kill] ability was still under cooldown, he couldn''t take care of Talos on his own. The orcs prepared themselves to face the lone enemy who was running with all his might towards them. ''Ready to strike are you?'' Talos thought and further increased his speed, ''Then give me your best shot!'' The Orc mmed down his sword on Talos as soon as he was within his attack range, Talos quickly dropped on his knees and retrieved the hammer from his back, his momentum not only saved him from the orc''s attack but also made him slide over the ground. Before anyone could notice what happened, Talos swung his hammer at the orc''s knee with all his might, shattering hid kneecap in an instant. The Orc let out a cry of pain and copsed on the grabbing his knee, but Talos wasn''t done yet. He quickly grabbed something out of the pouch which was tightly tied around his waist, and threw it inside the orc''s mouth before kneeing his mouth shut and kicking the Orc towards the other orcs and ran away to the other side to do the same thing there as well. The Orcs were confused, not knowing what Talos had done until the next moment, when the heads of the orcs, whom Talos had attacked, exploded, killing them while also injuring a few who were near them. Talos was sure that killing the orcs would enrage the Orc King, but he was prepared for the consequences, because... "The master has arrived at our location." Talos shouted at the others, "Now all we have to do is reduce their numbers as much as we can!" He knew Arnold had arrived as both of them could view each others location thanks to theirmunicators. Talos expected the Orc King to do something but he he never expected that he''d do anything like what Talos was witnessing right now... he looked up to see that the Orc King had killed the remaining Orcs and was busy devouring them, one after another. "You sick monster! They were trying to protect you and this is how you thank them?" Talos yelled and gripped his guns tightly in his arms. "Being killed by a lowly creature like you would''ve been much more disgraceful than being devoured by me." Much to Talos'' shock, The Orc King spoke in human tongue while he wiped off the Orc blood from his mouth. The moment he finished speaking, his body began to change. The Orc King grew bigger, his skin turned jet-ck, and two more arms popped out of his sides... bones protruded out of his back like spikes of a hedgehog. Two huge ck horns burst out of his head as if he was a demon. The Orc King had ascended to a whole different level... he was no longer the Orc King... he was a Demon Orc. Talos and the others were incapable of experiencing fear, but the women who were forced to stay behind the Orc weren''t that lucky. Adrenaline flooded their bodies, their hearts pumping and beating as if it was trying to escape out of their bodies. It felt like their hearts could explode at any moment, their eyes were wide with fear. Their body was begging them to either run out of the cave or dig another one for safety but instead, they remained where they were. Frozen. It didn''t matter what they wanted to do because, in the end, they could do only one thing- Pray that the demon didn''t kill them. All of a sudden a woman got up and started sprinting towards the exit. "NO COMEBACK! DON''T RUN! HE''LL KILL YOU!" Another woman shrieked at top of her lungs, but the woman didn''t listen, she was just a few steps away from her freedom... but she wasn''t able to take her freedom. A spike flew out of the orc''s back and hit the woman at the back of her head... she was dead even before she realised it. Her body fell next to Talos'' feet. The Orc turned towards the women, and said slowly and clearly, "All of you will get the honour of bearing my children. Don''t even dare to think you can leave this ce until then..." The Orc''s words poured gasoline onto the spark of fear in their belly. Few of them even wet themselves because of the fear. They weren''t going anywhere. For them, death was the only way to gain freedom... The demon then pointed a finger towards Talos, and asked in his hoarse voice, "Are you the leader?" "What if I am?" Talos replied in his usual emotionless voice, unafraid of the monster in front of him. "You get to diest." The demon smirked and got on all fours. The spikes on his back shot out like missiles out of a missileunching system. Spikes rained on Talos'' team like rain in a thunderstorm. All of them were annihted even before they could blink their eyes. A few spikesnded in front of Talos who was knocked off bnce, one of the spikes embedded in his left shoulder. After staggering for a brief moment, Talos managed to get his bnce again, but it was toote... the Orc was standing in front of him, his eyes were fixed at the Talos'' left shoulder, which was already half-broken, thanks to the spike. Without any hesitation, the Orc swung its sword at him, his three hands grabbing the remaining limbs of the automaton. CRACK! The Orc cleanly sliced Talos'' left arm. But Instead of blood, oil and sparks spewed out from where the arm was cut off. "Oh... this is something new! Maybe I should eat you too. Who knows what kind of powers would you have?" The Orc said licking his lips. "Nah I don''t think you will." A man''s voice echoed through the cave. "Who are you?" The Orc let go of Talos and stepped forward. "Me? Let''s just say... I''m the one who''ll kill you." Arnold replied and stepped out of the shadows, into the battlefield. Chapter 140 - Demon Orc ___ CLASS: Orc (Ascended Mutant)?? NAME: Demon Orc LEVEL: 109 COSMIC RANK: D ROLE: Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Silent Kill (Active skill) ? Eternal Rage (Passive skill) ? Hardening (Passive skill) HP: 19000/19000 STRENGTH (STR) : 138 DEFENSE (DEF) : 91 STAMINA (STA) : 65 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 95 AGILITY (AGI) : 98 ACCURACY (ACC) : 60 EVADE (EVD) : 88 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances: None Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Poisoned, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Fire-based attacks. THREAT LEVEL: High REMARK: *Sigh* You really have a death wish don''t you? Why do you always go up against difficult enemies? Eh, whatever, I''ll do what I do best- Roast you along with your enemy. See those spikes on his back? Those are poisonous and cause true damage upon being hit, not that you have to worry about that. What you need to be careful of, is the skill [Silent Kill] because it''ll silently whoop your a*s. Although It''s back is its weakest area, but try not to get too close to it either, otherwise, he might give up on the women and take you as his bride instead. ___ ''If you want to roast me then try harder.'' Arnold smirked. "Laugh while you can human. You''ll be dead in a minute." The Demon Orc kicked Talos away. "A talking monster... interesting. No one would believe me if I told them about you. I don''t think I''ve ever had a chat with someone like you, before either. Too bad, you''ll be dying by my hands, right here and now." Arnold said and took off his hazmat suit after confirming there was no radiation inside the cave through the broken Talos, "Talos use the [Self Repairing] and wait outside, will you? Meanwhile, I''ll have a chat with this abomination even among the monsters..." "Yes, Master." Talos obeyed and quickly went outside after grabbing his broken left hand, before staring at the Orc, "You''re as good as dead." "Leave now human. I have no ill feelings towards you." The Orc gave Arnold a chance to leave, but Arnold wasn''t going to, not after he had destroyed so many of his summons. "Sorry to disappoint you but I''m going nowhere until and unless those womene with me." Arnold replied, "So be a gentleman and step aside will ya? I don''t want to kill you unless I absolutely have to." "You, a mere human dares to threaten me? These females are mine. I''ll repopte my kind through their wombs, and build a strong army for myself, but don''t worry, I''ll put you in your ce before I do that." The demon roared and dropped on all six of his limbs just like before. Spikes were about to fly out of his back. "Give me the best you''ve got but before that let''s make sure the women are safe right?" Arnold mumbled and used his elemental abilities to cover the women under an earthly dome, "You don''t want to harm them do you?" But the Orc didn''t reply to Arnold''sment and proceeded to attack him. Arnold, however, stood there, folding both arms over his chest, not caring about the Orc. He wasn''t afraid of the Orc in the least. Why would he, someone who had fought and defeated a rank C cosmic being despite being at a disadvantage, be afraid of a D ranked cosmic being? Since the orc was a D rank cosmic being, it also meant that he was a rank S or S+ monster at best, nothing Arnold hadn''t faced before. Moreover, the spikes won''t be able to do much damage to him, thanks to his immunity to true damage. The only question running through his mind being, ''How the hell did this Orc be a cosmic being? He wouldn''t answer me even if I forced him to. Why do I always have to kill someone before I can interrogate them... *sigh*'' Hundreds of spikes flew towards him, the Orc smirked at him, ''It''s over for you, cocky human.'' Clouds of dust shot up in the air as the spikes rained down upon Arnold. "Was talking the only thing you were good at?" The Orc snorted and walked towards the Dome-like structure which Arnold had constructed to keep the women safe from the battle The Orc raised his hands over his head and mmed them down on the dome. One blow was all it took for the Orc to destroy it. The rubble fell over the women who were inside it... shivering with fear. "Let''s celebrate my victory over those rascals and-" BANG! A bullet pierced through the orc''s hand that was about to grab the legs of the woman. The Orc flinched in pain and stepped back. "No, bad orc, bad orc! Leave women alone." Arnold smirked, smokeing out of the barrel of one of the vindicators. "How are you alive!?" The Orc roared and turned to face the ''cocky human'' once again, but this time he was even more aggressive. It wasn''t because Arnold had injured him, but because Arnold himself was unaffected by the orc''s attack. In truth, even though Arnold was immune to true damage, [Devil''s Advocate] would''ve only protected him from the true damage caused by the poison that the spikes carried, and not the physical damage that the spikes would''ve dealt. Thus to protect himselfpletely, he used the [sma shield] ability to deflect the spikes, that was going to hit him. "Let''s just say, things don''t always go as nned." Arnold smiled aimed both of his guns at the monster, "Don''t get angry though, I have to protect myself, don''t I?" "RAAWWRRRRR!" The Orc bellowed like a mad titan and charged at him, his sword in one of his hand. The Orc swung the sword even before he reached him, something which perplexed Arnold. ''Why the hell is he swinging his sword even before I''m in his attack range?'' Arnold''s questions were answered a momentter when a gust of wind, rushed towards him. The attack was fast, but not fast enough, Arnold managed to dodge the attack with minimum effort, but as a result, he lost sight of the Orc. That was all the Orc needed to simultaneously punch Arnold across the face. The force of the attack was unlike he had ever felt before, his body flew backwards like the hulk had punched him into oblivion. Thud! His flying body finally came to a halt as he got mmed on the wall of the cave, with his arms and legs stretched out. The wall was imprinted by Arnold''s body as if he was making a snow fairy on the wall. It was perfect. For a second Arnold felt like he had just been visited by truck-kun. The force behind orc''s attack was terrifying. If it wasn''t for Arnold''s enhanced and upgraded gears, he would''ve been squatted out of there like a fly. The orc''s attack had knocked any sense of fun out of Arnold''s brain, now all he wanted was to kill the Orc in the most gruesome and painful way possible. Arnold stepped out of the dent made by him in the wall and spat a tooth out of his mouth. Along with the tooth, a couple of blood droplets fell on the ground. The Orc couldn''t believe his eyes... a human managed to take his attack head-on? Impossible! The Orc didn''t want Arnold to recover even a bit, thus he charged at him once again. But this time Arnold was ready for him. As soon as the Orc gained momentum Arnold activated [Rapid sh], and managed to sidestep the Orc at thest minute. Arnold tilted his body to the side slightly and allowed the Demon Orc''s sword brush past him, a fatal mistake for the Orc. The Orc struggled to turn around, but his ''agile'' movements were far too slow. Arnold''s right shot out and he jumped over the Orc like a panther,nded behind him. Arnold was free to do as he pleased while the Orc head his back turned against him. ''Don''t get close to him, MY ASS!'' Arnold was beyond pissed at the Orc and hence didn''t show any mercy to the Orc. He quickly conjured a ball of [Frost me] in his had and quickly threw it at the orc''s exposed back. Arnold knew that the Orc had immunity and hence wouldn''t get [Frozen] debuff, but it''s was alright. The spikes present on the Orc''s back shattered the hard shell of the ball of [Frost me], but couldn''t stop the fire contained within it from hurting the Orc. The arcane mes melted a chunk of the orc''s spikes away, further reducing his defence. He was now at Arnold''s mercy, sadly Arnold didn''t have mercy inside of him. Arnold wasn''t going to let the Orc recover either. He took out a bunch of fire grenades from his inventory and threw them towards the spike-less back of the Orc one after another, while simultaneously shooting fiery bullets at him as well. The cave was filled with the sound is sizzling flesh. The Orc was being burned to death by the human, he underestimated. Hurt and angry, the Orc furiously started swinging his sword around in hopes of injuring his attacker, but Arnold''s agility was much more than the rate at which the Orc was swinging his sword at him. "Save your strength and go to HELL!" Arnold yelled and threw ast grenade at the Orc which exploded right next to his face. Chapter 141 - Master Tamer In this world, the definition of ''normal'' had changed beyond imagination. Once a ''normal'' world meant a world which was free from monsters. The only ways to find these monsters was through movies or games, but then, one fateful day, the ''normal'' world changed. ''Dungeons'' started popping up on the surface of earth out of nowhere. Few people wanted to explore these dungeons, while the rest were xenophobic1, they had all the right in the world to think so, not many people had the guts to step into the unknown,pletely aware of the fact that they could die inside those dungeons, but for some, the thrill was too much and they couldn''t resist going inside the dungeon.?? Ignoring the orders and guidelines from the government, a group of soldiers who were stationed to prevent others from entering, themselves defied the rules and vited a directmand from their superiors and stepped inside the portal. It was this foolishness that activated the countdown of the time left to clear the dungeon. A countdown that would inevitably lead to the first-ever dungeon break on Earth. Not to mention that those soldiers couldn''t clear the dungeon without weapons, but they died a horrible death by the hands of the monsters inside... Even after the incident, the was no way for the government to know about the countdown, as far as they could tell, the dungeon was still the same. Nothing had changed, at least that''s what the greatest minds of Earth had concluded based on a ''rigorous'' analysis of the dungeon. The conclusion of this ''rigorous'' analysis was strictly based on the outside appearance of the dungeon. The only thing the scientist could say with proof was the fact that the dungeon was surrounded by a new type of radiation or energy that no one had ever witnessed before, sadly there wasn''t a way for them to measure this ''energy''. If they could, they''d have known that it was dissipating exponentially, and the moment it disappeared, the monsters it had been holding back would be released upon the unprepared world and the definition of ''normal'' was changed forever. Out of the dungeon, came low ranked monsters like goblins, but since humanity didn''t know how to defeat them, it took a lot of time to do so. During this time countless humans lost their lives but everything was forgotten after the world witnessed the true horrors of the ces that were called ''dungeons''. Monsters, beasts, magic... anything and everything that could''ve only been found in movies, games and fictional stories, were now a part of the reality. They were real. The mysterious energy/radiation around the dungeons was given a name, Xenoic radiation. The radiation which kept the monsters trapped inside the dungeon was the same as the radiation which granted humans the superpowers to face monsters inside the dungeon. It was like the Earth was trying to find an equilibrium within the chaos. People rapidly adapted to these new changes, and soon the dungeons became a new source of business. A business with millions of dors. Slowly but surely, everything began to settle in, but then the world changed once again. And this time the change was neither smooth nor easy to adapt to. Along with the change, came mutation, which was thanks to the curiosity of humans. This mutation evolved the already deadly monsters into even deadlier species. One of such monstersid lifeless near the feet of the man who had burned him to death. ___ You''ve killed a cosmic being. EXP: +10000 First rank D Cosmic being killed : EXP: +8000 First Demon Orc killed. EXP: +6000 ___ A minute ago, the cave had resonated with desperate screams of the Orc but now it was shrouded in silence, as the smell of burning flesh defiled the cave. The, once proud Demon Orc had been burnt to a crisp, his flesh on his back had melted away, only the bony spikes of the orc were left behind. Talos silently stood behind his master, his left arm back in its ce. "So you can''t revive him?" Arnold asked Talos, without turning back to face him. "No master... unfortunately, almost half of the monster''s body has been burnt away. My abilities won''t be able to resurrect him." Talos informed him. Arnold took a deep breath and in an attempt to calm himself down, ''I got carried away...'' "Alright. Then let''s do the next best thing..." Arnold said and grabbed a fist full of gooey flesh of the dead orc and smeared it on Talos'' chest. Within a moment, the blood rune present in the centre of his chest started giving off a neon blue light, confirming that Arnold''s n was sessful. "Transform." Arnold mumbled. Talos'' metallic body started changing as Arnold uttered the word. His body grew bigger, a tough ck skin materialised out of thin air and covered him up. Spikes popped out of his back, as time passed he started looking more and more like the Demon Orc. ___ NAME: Talos ROLE: Battle Automaton FORM: Demon Orc <1 more form(s) avable. 2 form(s) can be added> LEVEL: 92 RANK: S FORM ROLE: Brawler/Berserker AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Silent Kill (Active skill) ? Eternal Rage (Passive skill) ? Hardening (Passive skill) ? Demon''s Will (Controlling skill) HP: 12000/12000 STRENGTH (STR) : 118 DEFENSE (DEF) : 88 STAMINA (STA) : 60 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 90 AGILITY (AGI) : 86 ACCURACY (ACC) : 58 EVADE (EVD) : 85 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances: None Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Poisoned, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Fire-based attacks. ___ Arnold was pleased with the results of the transformation. He had finally obtained an S ranked summon, but more than that he was happy about the next two notifications that he received. ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Master Tamer] Effect: Increases the effect of synchronization effects of your summons and allies by 4% ___ ___ ? HEADHUNTER : [ INTRODUCTION ]: You''ve proven your worth to the ''Immortal One'' and now your true training begins. [ TASK ]: Hunt down 300 monsters as an offering to the Immortal one. [ PROGRESS ] : 30/300 monsters hunted. ___ ''Looks like I was right... the Headhunter quest only counts the monsters that I y without the help of my summons. Not only that, ying cosmic beings seem to give more points as the counter went up by not one but ten points. At least now I know what I have to do toplete the headhunter quest, also... what''s that controlling spell Talos has gained? If it is what I''m thinking, then, ho ho ho, I''m in for a treat!'' "It is an ability that will allow me to control any orc or any ''green-skinned monster2'' within a range of 2 kilometres from my location." Talos answered as if he read his Master''s mind. "Talos, inform Allen about the situation and ask him to send a small force to rescue these women. After they are done, you and I are going on a hunt." Arnold said with a smile on his face. His good day had just turned into a great day! ***** Author''s note: 1. Xenophobia is the psychological term forfear of the unknown, and people who suffer from it are called xenophobic. 2. I grouped up the goblins, ogres and Orcs together and referred them as green-skinned monsters. These are the only monsters that the ability [Demon''s Will] can control and not all the monsters who have green skin. Chapter 142 - New Addition To The Army (1) By the time Allen and his troops reached the cave, it was way past noon. It took them about one and a half hour to reach the destination, but when they did they were both amazed and disturbed at the same time. They were amazed to know that Arnold had managed to kill a type of Orc who had never been seen before but were disturbed after seeing the burnt remains of the Orc. A few weak-hearted soldiers even puked over the walls after seeing the gruesome sight.?? "You don''t know anything about mercy kill do you, brother?" Allen said as he kicked the head of the dead orc. "The damned bastard broke my tooth and I got a bit carried away." Arnold smiled turned towards the women who were how dressed in hazmat suits which covered their weak and naked bodies. "So what do you want us to do with them?" Allen nodded at their direction. "I... don''t know. Maybe feed them and once they are strong enough then they could do small chores around the base?" "I was thinking the same thing. Should I ask Amanda to help with this?" "Sure, do as you please. By the way, I''m noting with you guys, there''s something I need to take care of." "Do you need any help? Should Ie along with you?" "Thanks for the concern, but there''s no need, Allen. If you have free time then you should practice and perfect your skills first. The way you are now you''ll only hold me back." Arnold replied. Suddenly, a woman parted ways with her group and headed towards Arnold, but before she got too close, Allen drew his sword and jumped between them. "It''s alright Allen, she won''t do anything." Arnold grabbed Allen''s arm, telling him to put his sword down, "How can I help you?" In the half-lit cave, the woman approached him. She was very young, perhaps still a teenager. Allen hesitated but allowed her to step towards Arnold, who looked at her through the visor of the hazmat suit. Her hair was long like it was never been cut, hanging in dusty clusters. Her face was gaunt, a sign of malnutrition, her brown skin appeared as if grey and her eyesck the light that shoulde with her youth. Despite her legs being thin, her middle was oddly lumpy... she was pregnant with a baby... most likely it belongs to a monster. If it had been the old country, like it once was, she''d be rushed into a hospital, and showered with medical attention and love, as well she would''ve been given whatever her child needed. But this wasn''t that world anymore. This world was cruel and uncertain. No one knew what would be of the fetus she was carrying within her womb. Allen was giving him a weird look, as if saying, they had to kill her, but Arnold shook his head. He can''t make rushed decisions. Before Arnold could think about it anymore, the woman spoke. "Thank... you... f-for helping u-us. There would''ve been a l-lot more women like m-me if you hadn''t arrived and saved us. It''s toote for me but p-please take care o-of the others." Arnold could see that the woman was desperately fighting to keep her tears back. Maybe she knew what was going to happen to her next. She could''ve decided not to tell them anything about it, but she did it on her own. Allen nodded, he too understood what the woman was trying to say, and raised his sword... ready to take her down with one a clean strike but Arnold stopped him once again. "You can''t be serious!" Allen burst out, "Being kind is a great and all but what you''re doing now is just in stupid!" Arnold didn''t reply but his re was enough to silence Allen. Deep down, he knew Allen was right. They shouldn''t take the risk, but he needed more time to think about the situation because his [Probe] ability didn''t help him much. The only thing it made clear was that the fetus inside the woman''s body was no human, it belonged to . Maybe if Arnold allowed the fetus to develop more, then the system would be able to recognise what the fetus was and whether it was safe to keep them around or not. "You''ll stay with us, but our scientists might want to do some experiments on you to make sure it''s safe to keep you and your baby around us. If you agree with this condition then, you cane with us otherwise we''ll have to leave you here." Arnold dered, "But if things go out of hand, then I won''t hesitate to kill you. Is that okay with you, Allen?" "Yes sir." Allen replied, but he wasn''t satisfied. Upon hearing Arnold''s words, the woman bent forward and sank down holding Arnold''s legs with tears in her eyes, "Thank you! Thank you so much!" The young woman kept crying inconsbly until the soldiers gently pulled her back and took her away. "You think you made the right decision?" Allen asked, still upset about Arnold''s decision. "I do." **** AT THE SAME TIME, IN THE HEADQUARTERS OF THE GUARDIAN SYNDICATE... The darkroom was like a ce out of time, a ce to where the wrong had to face the consequences of their mistakes. The darkness in the room signified that justice is blind, it didn''t see nor care about who was being trialled, in a way, the room was a sanctuary of truth, a ce to serve justice. This ce was known as the home of the Council of Twelve Heads. This time they were in the middle of reading the sentence that had been given to one of their own, to the one who was known as Elena White, a former member of the council of twelve heads. "With all the proof provided to the council by the ck Family, it''s clear that the White Family, misguided the Guardian Syndicate and misused their power for their personal gain," the Chief of justice, Livan Tempest, spoke with a determined tone, "the council holds them guilty and as a punishment, strips away all of the special authority and provisions that were bestowed upon them until further notice. Further, the council suggests the Syndicate to terminate all active and inactive contracts that were signed with Troy Industries, and deeply investigate the matter. The council is adjourned." Elena couldn''t believe her ears... the punishment essentially meant everyone that belonged to her family would be deported to East America to serve in the military, and she couldn''t ept it. She turned to face her ''loyal'' family members for some support, but to her shock, no one was in their allotted seats... Unknown to her, most of the people from her family had already joined other families in secret, and those who didn''t were ''missing''. To add salt to her injured heart, most of them joined the ck Family. At that moment she was alone. Her family chose safety over loyalty. Suddenly she started crying and yelling hysterically, cursing the ck Family, especially Nathan. But no one gave their attention to her as she was dragged out of the room. Justice was served. Chapter 143 - New Addition To The Army (2) "Do you think you''ve made a good choice, choosing that human to be your pdin?" a ck skinned man, draped in a majestic robe, asked the crimson skinned women, who was hiding half of her burnt and ''dead'' face with the hoodie attached to her robes, "You do remember that he annihted yourst pdin even with overwhelming odds... Immortal one''s pdin should not be taken lightly under any circumstance." "You worry too much, Surtr2." The woman replied, her eyes fixed upon the man who was now her pdin, the Ex-Brigadier General of zone 4, the one who will enforce her will upon the residents of this, that is, if he lives long enough to be her vassal. Right now, He was busy fighting a couple of ogres with just his fists, as a part of his training.?? "We, the lesser Gods, are rarely allowed to participate in the Game of Gods, for such a lively. We cannot let them take this world away from us, we have to win this ''game'' or else we might not live long enough. And it''s only possible if all five of the lesser Gods join their hands together... maybe then we can defeat the higher Gods, for the first time in millions of years." "Yes. We shall be the ones to rule over humans. But what about him, Hel1? He hasn''t joined us yet... four of us can''t confront the higher Gods. The immortal one will destroy us all! Just like he destroyed, The Forgotten..." Surtr expressed his worries to Hel, who was also known as the Goddess of death. She hated Shiva, from the bottom of her soul, because Shiva had killed the love of her life and forbid anyone from ever taking his name again. As usual, no one dared to question Shiva, an entity who was respected like a divine deity even among the higher Gods. It all happened millions of years ago, in the realm of Gods, when her husband, who was now referred as ''The Forgotten'', started questioning the Higher Gods about their unfair treatment of the lesser Gods in regards of the ''prayers'' they receive from various worlds across the universe, which was like a power source which gave them the divine powers that they had, essentially meaning the more prayers a God received, the stronger the God will be. Sadly the lesser Gods couldn''t directly receive the prayers from the mortal species as they were considered to be the ''servants'' of the higher Gods and had to live off of whatever the Higher Gods threw their way. The Forgotten pointed out that it was them, the lesser Gods, who did all the work around the universe and were ''True Gods'' of the universe as they were the ones taking care of variouss. Hence, they should receive a greater share of the ''prayers'' but the higher Godsughed it off and ignored him or gave him vague replies, he simply wasn''t important enough for them to waste their time. The Forgotten, then in a fit of rage, demanded the higher Gods to give them the respect and prayers that they deserved or else the lesser Gods would revolt against them. Hel tried to talk some sense into her husband but sadly... he didn''t listen. The lesser God threatened the Higher Gods... many Gods didn''t take it well and began plotting a way to suppress the Lesser Gods once and for all. The Forgotten knew that a war between Gods would disturb the bnce of the universe that they had sacrificed their blood and sweat to achieve, and that the higher Gods would do anything to prevent that because they won''t be able to receive the prayers from the mortals. Due to these facts, The Forgotten expected his demands would be fulfilled in no time, but to his surprise, nothing happened, the higher Gods stopped giving them the little bit of power that they have been so far. The Forgotten saw this as an act of war and assembled an army of the Lesser Gods and prepared for a Godly war that would''ve inevitably ended the reign of the Higher Gods. Little did he know he was doing exactly what the Higher Gods wanted him to do, by assembling an army he had dug his own grave. The Higher Gods knew they would have a hard time defeating the Lesser Gods on their own and thus had nned to do something horrible. This is where Shiva, the sworn protector of the universe had to step in. Shiva had always been ascetic and hence would often spend months even years at times to meditate inside the darkest and deepest mountain caves,pletely cut off from the rest of the universe. No one was allowed to disturb him while he was in that state, no one except Nandi3, The War God of the Minotaurs and Shiva''s most loyal and trusted follower. Even so, Nandi would only disturb Shiva if and only if the hard-earned peace of the universe was threatened by someone. Shiva didn''t care about the political matters between the Gods and wouldn''t help the Higher Gods for their own gain, Shiva only brandished his weapon if the universe itself was in danger, and the higher Gods knew about it, so after The Forgotten had assembled an army, they tried and convinced Nandi that the universe was danger and The Forgotten was the one threatening to destroy the universe. Nandi, then hesitantly awoke the supreme being from his slumber and walked him through the recent happenings. Enraged by the insolence of a Lesser God, Shiva took his Trident and left his domain to y the heretic. No one knew what happened next but right before the war was about to break out, Shiva reappeared with The Forgotten''s severed head fixed on his Trident. Thanks to Shiva, the war ended before it started. The Higher Gods were happy with the oue but deep down they were scared of him as well. If somehow Shiva got to know about the lies they had told him and manipte him into killing The Forgotten and save their sorry assess in the process, no one would be able to save them from the rage of the Immortal one. Thankfully, they didn''t have to worry about it. The only ones who could''ve informed him were The Lesser Gods, but the strength and rage of Shiva had silenced the Lesser Gods for good. None of them knew about the true rtionship between the Higher Gods and Shiva and thought since Shiva was a Higher God himself thus he had sided with the Higher Gods and was helping them. Furthermore, they were already scared out of wits and didn''t want to die themselves. So they kept to themselves and refused to talk against with Shiva or any other Higher God in that matter. After this conflict, The Higher Gods gave another nickname to Shiva, ''Bholenath'', meaning the one who is easily fooled and trusts everyone. Hel, Surtr and the other Lesser Gods didn''t know that Shiva, himself had been tricked into killing The Forgotten and silently started ming him for their misery. But the revolt had opened the eyes of the Higher Gods. Now they knew that the Lesser Gods were dangerous enemies, thus to keep them under control, the Higher Gods decided to include a selected few among the lesser Gods to apany them in the ''Game of Gods''. A ''Game'' which the higher Gods used to y among themselves to battle for the worlds that offered them the highest amount of Prayers. The winner of this ''game'' won the world and would have the royalty over the prayers from that world. This way they could give the Lesser Gods the ''opportunity'' to defeat them and earn ''prayers'' for themselves. It was because of this ''Game of Gods'' that the dungeons started popping up on the surface of Earth, the thinking behind it was pretty simple... in face of danger, mortals start offering more and more prayers to the Gods and fear of death and destruction was the best way to force someone to pray. But it was all a scam. No matter what the Lesser Gods tried to do, they had never won a single world. The Higher Gods were simply too powerful. Thus the lesser Gods hatched a new n. ''If we killed off all the Pdins of the Higher Gods then they would be disqualified from the Game, and since the Higher Gods are forbidden from entering the realm of the mortals, it won''t be easy for them to make a new pdin and start over.'' Hel thought and smiled, ''This time, we won''t be the ones losing this battle. Even if it means going against the immortal one.'' The Xenoic energy emitted by the Higher Gods was too much for the mortal realm to handle and thus the Higher Gods weren''t able to visit the mortal realm. This was also the reason behind the existence of the Lesser Gods. As they didn''t have much Xenoic energy, they could freely roam around the mortal realm and take care of the mortals. The mortals then offered prayers to the Higher Gods who then paid a small fraction of these prayers to the Lesser Gods, but if a Lesser God became greedy they killed him or her without any hesitation... That was the truth behind the Gods, Earth, and monsters. **** Author''s note: 1. Hel: In thePoetic Edda,Prose Edda, andHeimskrin, Hel is referred to as a daughter ofLoki. Hel is described as having been appointed by the godOdinas ruler of a realm of the same name, located inNiflheim, and is the Goddess of Death in Norse mythology. Actually it''s said that she''s a Giant, but I didn''t want her to look like that in my novel so please don''t imagine her like that. 2. Surtr: Surtr (or Surt) is the King of Fire in Norse mythology, the Lord of the Fire-Giants of the realm of Muspellheim. In the beginning, there was only the ckness of Ginnungagap, and then Surt appeared out of the ckness with his ming sword and touchednd, and it lit up and became the Realm of Fire. I''ve tried to depict him here as if his fire had burnt out and he''s a weak version of the actual Surtr. 3. Nandi: Nandi is thegate-guardiandeity ofKasa, the abode of LordShiva. He is usually depicted as abull. That''s why, I decided to depict him as a minotaur, because that''s the only mythical creature (as far as I know) which resembles a bull. Atst I hope I didn''t offend anyone or any religion, and I''m terribly sorry if I did. This is a work of fiction so I hope you understand that. Thank you for reading! Chapter 144 - Void Travel (1) Outside the cave, Arnold stood with Talos intently watching the trail of dust left behind by Allen and his small group of soldiers as they retreated towards the Alpha base, and immediately headed inside the cave once they were out of sight. He still had a way to use the corpse of the Demon Orc... as a source of food for the Wyvern egg. Once inside he quickly opened a portal to his domain and threw the corpse inside it, before stepping inside it himself. ''The mountain of corpses is growing exponentially, even though my summons don''t have a problem living along with a ton of corpse, I think I should do something about their living arrangement...'' Arnold thought while scratching his beard, ''Hm... maybe I should go and visit the church once again. It should be big enough to house a couple of monsters right? I should ask Alice about it when I''m done with other things here.''?? "Duke,e here a sec." Arnold called the golem who had been with him for the longest and moved towards the mountain of corpses, Arnold then, pointed at the corpse of the ck Troll chieftain, "You still have a transformation slot left right?" Since golems couldn''t speak, Duke nodded in agreement with his master. "Good, then absorb and transform into the troll chieftain and practice shooting with his crossbow, the crossbow is next to his corpse. I''ll make you a better crossbow and arrows from the spikes of the dead orcter, okay?" The golem happily nodded once again and used his blood rune to absorb the monster. So far Duke had already acquired two forms, first one being the Undead Reaper, and the second one being one of the behemoths that Arnold had encountered during their time in the Trans-dimensional dungeon. Absorbing the troll''s form would fill all the slots of Duke''s transformation blood rune because unlike the blood runes attached to Talos and Cerberus, who could absorb and take up to 4 forms, Duke''s Blood rune allowed him to absorb only three forms. If Arnold wanted Duke to transform into a monster apart from these three monsters, he''d have to make Duke delete one of the preexisting forms to do so, but Arnold doubted he''ll need to do something like that for some time. After sessfully absorbing the form of the troll, Duke immediately transformed into his newly acquired form. ___ NAME: Duke ROLE: Frost Golem FORM: ck Troll (Mutated being) <2 more form(s) avable. 0 form(s) can be added> LEVEL: 88 RANK: A+ FORM ROLE: Tank/Marksman AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Uproot (active skill) ? Fury Stomp (active skill) ? Hardening (active skill) HP: 9000/9000 STRENGTH (STR) : 91 DEFENSE (DEF) : 85 STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 60 AGILITY (AGI) : 63 ACCURACY (ACC) : 55 EVADE (EVD) : 24 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances: Ice based attacks Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Poisoned. Weak Against: Bludgeoning attacks, Fire, and Piercing attacks ___ ''It''s good. Now I have someone who can deal long-range damage to my enemies. However, I''ll have to make a crossbow and arrows for him to use because I can''t modify the trolls crossbow. The moment I''ll touch it, it''ll disintegrate. Luckily I have both the time as well as resources to do so.'' Arnold thought and turned around, "You can change back now or you could do a target practice and get yourself acquainted with the weapon, while I''m out." The golem nodded and picked up the crossbow, he wasn''t going to waste a single moment and went to master the of shooting with whatever crude arrows the troll carried with him. Arnold then went to Alice to inquire about the building that the Church had used as its headquarters. "I see, it''s very noble of you to think about your summons and yes, we did remodel the building so that it could amodate around 500 people but it would be difficult for Dread and Asterios to settle inside that building as they are quite huge..." Alice replied. She was right and even Arnold knew that. Dread and Asterios were especially big and hence Arnold would need to think about some other way tofortably amodate them in the void. After attending to a few other matters, Arnold stepped out of the portal, Talos at his toes. "Time to tame some beasts!" *** "No no no! You''re doing it wrong. Control your strength! You don''t always have to kill your enemies, sometimes you need to capture them alive so you need control your strength!" Arnold stood back as Asterios fought with a small group of ogres that they stumbled upon while they were on their way to the ''Church''. Behind Arnold stood eight ogres and two goblins, silently witnessing Asterios ughtering their kin. Initially, the group had eight ogres and twelve goblins and mindlessly charged at Arnold and Talos, Arnold could''ve easily dispatched then on his own but he decided it was a good opportunity to try to train his summons, especially the strong ones like Asterios who had the ability to one-shot their enemies. Arnold didn''t want to lose the ogres that''s why he already instructed Talos to control them and a couple of goblins before he summoned Asterios out. Arnold decided to train his summons as he knew in future he was going to battle stronger and stronger enemies like the Demon orc, who could be added as his summons, which would then indirectly increase Arnold''s battle power. But the way hisst couple of fights ended, he doubted if he''d be able to do what he was nning to. He couldn''t resurrect either the Demon Orc or the ck troll chieftain because they were damaged beyond recovery. Yes, he had the transformation blood rune but their slots are limited, although he could reset them, it was still a pain to do so frequently and one could never know when and where would he a specific type of summon to do a task. That''s why it was necessary for him and his summons to control their strength. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. Asterios was like a Minotaur on steroids, it was very difficult for him to control his strength and having an overpowered weapon didn''t help him either. "Don''t go for their heads until and unless you want to kill them. If you want to capture them, then you should preferably go for their lower body or legs." Arnold instructed Asterios after he smashed a goblin''s head with his hammer. Asterios looked back momentarily and gave Arnold a thumbs up, before viciously swinging his abnormallyrge hammer towards a goblin''s stomach. His single attack sted the goblin into the air like a baseball, the goblin kept flying until he was mmed into the wall of an abandoned building. The goblin''s blood and flesh got sttered all over the wall. "This guy... I teach him one thing and he forgets everything else I taught him before," Arnold smacked his head and let out a heavy sigh, "You know what? Just drop the hammer." Asterios looked at Arnold as if he was telling him, "But I don''t want to..." Asterios finally let it go once he saw the annoyed look on Arnold''s face. The hammer, nearly as tall as the one who had been using it, dropped to the ground and unexpectedly made a small pit around the hammer''s head. Asterios then started fighting against the goblins using his limbs and head. Asterios'' strength was still a bit overwhelming for the goblins but he managed to hold back a bit, and not one-shotting the goblins until one of the retarded goblins decided to use the hammer against the Minotaur. Arnold saw this but didn''t do anything. Why? Because he knew, it would take the goblin a hundred years before he''d be able to wield it. The hammer was simply too big for the goblin to use, but it didn''t matter to Asterios whether the goblin could wield it or not. He. Was. Pissed. How did the heck a goblin dare to touch his weapon!? He released all the strength that he had been holding within himself upon a lone and pitiful goblin... The goblin died a quick and painless death. The moment Asterios'' fist touched the goblin''s head, it sttered into bits and pieces. ''Overkill much?'' This was the only thing which crossed Arnold''s mind. "Alright alright, I''ll give you that one, no need to get pissed about it now... try not to one-shot the others though." Arnold tried to calm down the raging minotaur who now refused to let go of his prized weapon, "Looks like this will take some time..." Arnold then turned towards the monsters that were standing behind him like his bodyguards and pointed at the two goblins and one of the ogres, "You, you and you. Go and check out whether there are any more monsters around the church or not." However, the monsters didn''t budge from their spot, like the couldn''t hear what Arnold was instructing them to do. "Oh right. I forgot they don''t listen or obey my orders... Talos, could you?" Arnold looked at Talos who was in his newly obtained Demon Orc form. Unlike Talos'' [Animate Dead] ability under which every resurrected being could be controlled by Arnold, [Demon''s Will] didn''t work like that. The green-skinned monsters under the influence of the ability would only obey their ''master'' who was Talos. "Yes, master." Talos then said something to the monsters in the orcish tongue and the monsters immediately departed towards the church. Chapter 145 - Void Travel (2) The air that had been flowing violently on the previous day had lost all of its momentum and was still as if it had obtained eternal peace and calmness, yet was content enough to meander at its own pace. The soothing winds weed the amber glow of the sky with open arms, the sun, slowly but surely, sank through the surface of Earth. During this time, a man was standing in front of a building. He was surrounded by a horde of hundreds of different types of monsters, beasts, humans, and robots. The horde contained from monsters as tall and strong as a titan, to as small as a wolf. If someone saw this scene they would''ve immediately run away from there, screaming for help. But the monsters weren''t going to do any harm to anyone until and unless it was their Master''s will.?? It was none other than Arnold and his army of summons, standing in front of the building that was once the headquarters of The Church Of Chaos. "Is everyone out of the void?" Arnold asked Talos who was still in his Demon Orc form. "Yes, master. Everyone apart from Natasha as per your request." Talos replied. Arnold had called his summons out of the void because he didn''t want the building to copse on them, and destroy them, as it was his first time doing something like this, he took all the precautions that he could. Everyone and everything inside the void had been brought outside, apart from two things, Natasha, the perverted subus and the pile of corpses, for obvious reasons. If Natasha got out of the void Arnold would''ve lost the power to control that was granted to him by his domain, and he''d have to kill her inevitably which would then lead to him wasting his time which was an obvious no go. Plus, even if she got destroyed while Arnold sent the building inside his domain, it wouldn''t have affected him much, as he never actually used her in battle. Not till he figured out of a way to control her outside the domain. Secondly, if he brought the pile of corpses outside of the void they would''ve immediately started to rot and Arnold didn''t know how long it would take him to transfer the building inside his void and he didn''t want the precious corpses to rot even a bit, hence, he thought it was better if the corpses stayed inside the domain throughout the procedure. However, as a precaution he did order his summons to make a smaller group of corpses out of the huge pile and scatter them around the void so that the probability of all of the corpses getting crushed was reduced, then he called everyone out of the void. After confirming that everyone was out of the void, Arnold set his n into motion. Arnold activated his skill and within a blink of an eye, arge ck circle appeared at his feet, which continuously expanded until it covered the building in its entirety. Although Arnold had opened a lot of portals before in his life, he had never even tried to open a portal having such a massive size, the sheer size of the portal was overwhelming everyone around it. But all was not well, soon heavy beads of sweat rolled down his face. A trickle of blood ran down his nose... the pressure he felt on his body due to activating such a huge portal was beyond Arnold''s imagination. But he didn''t give up and kept going at it, refusing to stop until the task was done, and slowly his efforts started showing their colours. The building slowly started sinking into the enormous dark hole. "Come... on... move... faster!" Arnold gritted his teeth, his face was as red as the sun was barely over the horizon as if even the sun wanted to see the spectacle of Arnold''smitment to the task. The trees surrounding the church were the first things to fall inside the portal, while the garage was the first part of the building that was consumed by the void. Slowly, the two-storeyed building was swallowed up by the void in its entirety, as if the building never existed there. The portal copsed as soon as the terrace of the church went into the void. Arnold was lying on his back, panting heavily, thick beads of sweat continuously drenching him, blooding out of his nose had dried up, it felt as if his strength had been thrust out of his body. Alice immediately ran towards him and started utilizing spells to restore his stamina and strength. "Thanks, Alice." Arnold mumbled as Duke helped him back on his legs, "Let''s go and see whether the building is alrig-" The sudden appearance of a notification on his interface interrupted Arnold. ''I levelled up a skill? But I didn''t even use my Potential points, and even if I had it wouldn''t be enough to level up any skill of mine...'' Arnold thought and opened the interface. "Holy mother of Jesus! I didn''t know this ability could''ve been levelled up as well!" The words escaped from Arnold''s mouth even before he could realise it. ___ You''ve upgraded the ability [Void Domain]. You''ve unlocked a bonus effect! ? [Void Travel]: An additional effect gained after upgrading the ability [Void Domain] for the first time. This bonus effect allows you to open a portal which can be used to travel to somewhere within a moment, no matter how far the location is, as long as you or your summons or you allies have travelled to that ce and stayed there for more than six hours. [ Rank : S] [Mana cost : 3000/use] [Cooldown: 1 hour] ___ Arnold was speechless, he didn''t why or how it happened but he wasn''t going toin about it. In fact, his mind was tingling to use it, and he soon got the opportunity to do so. Allen contacted him through hismunicator, Arnold quickly received the call, "Yeah?" "Ananda is looking for you. You said you''ll be back in a few hours but the sun is about to go down and you''re still not here." "Geez, dude. What are you? My girlfriend? I''m already back." Arnold barely managed to hold his grin. "What? Where are you?" "In my room, where else?" "I see... maybe I should''ve checked there first. I went to the garage the Humvee wasn''t there so I thought you weren''t back." "Yeah the car broke down after I got back, so I told Talos and the others to repair it." "Alright see you in a while." Allen disconnected the call. "Alright guys, let''s move." Arnold said a opened a portal to his domain which was as big as the one he had used to devour the building, but surprisingly, this time, he didn''t feel stress over his body like he has felt before, "You guys go and check everything in the inside, and T2, take the Humvee with you as well." "Yes, Master." T2 replied and drove the humvee inside the portal, while the others followed him. Once everyone was inside, Arnold closed the portal and opened another one, but this time the portal was much smaller than the previous one and rather than being ck, it was surprisingly, crimson in colour. This was the ''Travel Portal'', while the ck one was called the ''Domain Portal''. Arnold unhesitatingly walked through the portal, as the redness of the Sun disappeared from the sky. Chapter 146 - Into The Swamps (1) "Ah... home sweet home." Arnold mumbled as the travel portal copsed behind him. He arrived inside his room, inside the workshop! He quickly took off his hazmat suit and went inside to shower, "This shit actually works! I can only wonder what kind of possibilities, this ability has brought with itself, and the best thing about it..." ___?? Void Travel is in cooldown. You can use this skill again in: 59:46 minutes. ___ "It''s low cooldown! I can freely travel to anywhere around the world, as long as I''ve been there before... the only downside is its mana cost, but it doesn''t matter much, I already have more mana than what I can use." He turned the knob of the shower and started washing his hair and face, he didn''t have the time to go for his full routine as Amanda and Allen were waiting for him, and the way Allen talked over themunicator felt like they wanted to talk about something important. Still, he felt like a kid on Christmas! There were so many things he could do with this additional effect of the void domain. He could now freely travel across the wastnds, or he could visit Nichs in Brazil, he still had some unfinished business with the White Wolves but then he was sure Nichs would''ve already taken care of that as he was now the President of Brazil and not the father of the guild master of that guild, also, Nichs wouldn''t forgive anyone who dared to F around him or his students. Regardless, Arnold was nning to go to Brazil and meet Nichs again someday. He could only imagine how Nichs would react after seeing him, or if he would react at all. Nichs was someone no one could know what he was thinking about. He once again turned the knob of the shower and the water stopped flowing at once, he wiped the remaining water off his body using a towel and stepped out of the shower, still thinking about his new ability. The more he thought about it, the more diverse its applications became. It was clearly more than just a travelling ability and Arnold could think of various tactical uses of [Void Travel] as well, for example, If he was losing in a fight he could use the portal to retreat to somewhere and recover while waiting for the cooldown to get over, or he could use the skill for an element of surprise and sneak up on his enemies, or he could also attack an enemy when they expected the least. As he had already said, the possibilities were endless with this ability, and he couldn''t wait to try the ability in those scenarios. He quickly put on a ck T-shirt and blows dried his hair before tying it up in half-up style by tying the hairs on top and back of his head as a man bun and left the sides as they were. This was the style he generally preferred, it looked ssy yet stopped the hairs from interfering with his day to day activities. (Author''s note: If you''re confused about the hairstyle, it''s the same as the one Chris Hemsworth hadin his turn as Thor and Thor: The Dark World.) As he was dreaming about the things he could do with his ability, Allen came knocking on his door. "Brother, you in there?" Allen asked through the door. "For thest time, I''m not your brother!" Arnold replied as he opened the door. "There you are! Come on we got- Woah, dude, you sure you''re Chinese?" Allen asked, desperately trying to hold back hisugh. "What are you getting at?" Arnold didn''t want to indulge in Allen''s weird games, nor did he have to the time for that. Allen only chuckled and pointed towards Arnold''s crotch with his eyes, it was then Arnold realised what was wrong... In his excitement of thinking of ways to use [Void Travel], he had forgotten to wear anything to cover his below... he did warp a towel around his waist but it had slipped away and Arnold hadn''t noticed it until Allen pointed it out. However Arnold wasn''t embarrassed in the least... he had been naked in front of a fire breathing Wyvern, and a lesser God after that during his trial, so he couldn''t care less about Allen seeing his junk, still he quickly squatted down, grabbed the towel, and warped it around his waist once again. "Way to embarrass yourself, brother!" Allen finally gave up and startedughing like a maniac. "Embarrassed? For what? You''re not the first man who has seen this- wait I didn''t mean it like that!" What Arnold had wanted to say, was that people and a few other beings have already seen him naked so he wasn''t embarrassed, but instead what he said, had a whole another meaning. Allen startedughing even harder than before Arnold realised what he had just said, "So.. do you mean you''re interested in guys! Well, I''ve never seen you with a girl either so that would make sense... good for you brother and congrattions! You''re finally out of the closet! I''m just thinking what would''ve happened in Amanda came to fetch you instead of me... Hahaha..." "I''ll kill you, if I hear another sounding out of your mouth, I''ll kill you." Arnold flipped him off and turned around, embarrassment finally got through his thick skin, "Wait here till I get changed into something." As promised, not a sound came out of Allen''s mouth. **** "I''m telling you... not a word about it to else, or..." Arnold reminded Allen once again. "Don''t worry brother, your secret is safe with me. My lips are sealed until your towel betrays you again." Allen said and tried his hardest to control himself but he couldn''t and startedughing once again... but he was about to regret that. Arnold smacked the back of his head so hard that he almost fell on the ground. "Ouch! What was that for?" Allenined, caressing his head. "For not keeping your mouth shut." It was Arnold''s turn tough now, "By the way, what was it that you guys wanted to talk to me about?" "It still hurts... what did you ask?" "What was it that you guys wanted to talk to me about? And stop your drama, I didn''t even hit you hard enough..." "Uh... it was something about a conference or something which is going to be held next month in California, and Nathan invited you for that as a representative of Zone 4. He also wanted to personally talk with you and since we don''t have a secure and verifiedmunication channel in the workshop, hence you''ll have to use the one in Amanda''s office." "He could''ve just called me on mymunicator..." "Information rted to the military are not allowed to be done on personal channels. I thought you know that?" "I didn''t... apart from that, is this a regr thing? The conference?" "Yes... happens every year. Usually, the Brigadier General went to these ''conferences'' but since you''re here now, you''ll have to go. However this time they have scheduled the meeting earlier than usual." "What do you mean by, ''earlier than usual''? Did something happen?" "Usually the conference room ce in November, but the Syndicate has preponed out this year to September... so yeah, I think something''s wrong." "Interesting, by the way, have you ever been to West America after all this happened?" Arnold asked Allen out of the blue. "Yeah, when the outbreak happened, all of us had to move. If I remember correctly, we were living near the building which is now the headquarters of the Syndicate." "And for how long were you there?" "I''d say a couple of months before, until that Tramp, ordered me and most of the others to be thrown away back to East America to defend them. That man was a genius! Forced a bunch C rankers to protect the people who were mostly B rank or above. Big brain move. But why are you asking all this now?" "It''s nothing just curious..." Arnold gave a half-hearted reply. "You don''t sound much curious... either way we''re here." Allen informed Arnold, but he didn''t reply, a single text revolved inside his mind... ''Void travel... can be used to travel to somewhere within a moment ... as long as you or your summons or you allies have travelled to that ce and stayed there for more than six hours.'' "What are you saying? I''m super curious about it..." Arnold smiled and entered the room. Inside the dimly lit room, Amanda was talking with someone through a huge screen. As Arnold stepped closer, he recognized the owner of the voice which wasing through speakers, it was Nathan. "I''m here." Arnold informed the gossiping duo, "Heard you wanted to talk to me?" "Ah yes," Nathan said as Arnold entered in his view, "Brigadier General could you give us a moment?" "Of course, Sir!" Amanda saluted the two of them and left immediately, Allen followed her suit. Nathan started speaking again once they had left the room. "So Arnold or I should say Section Chief Arnold Ling, it is my pleasure to invite you for the fifth annual conference against crisis... h h h, you get the gist. I can''t do this official crap for so long. This tie is too tight, let me just..." Arnold silently watched Nathan, while he proceeded to rip off the tie from his suit. "Ah, much better... Mind telling me where the hell you''ve been this entire day? You know what, don''t tell me. I have to many questions to ask you either way and the time is limited so let''s get straight to business. We have some info regarding the swamps but I can''t share it with you through this ''securedmunications channel'' for obvious reasons." "So what do you want me to do? I can''t enter West America until-" "I know, I know. That''s why the Syndicate has granted you special permission to enter West America. I''m sending a chopper, it should reach there by tomorrow and then by the evening you''ll be here. We''ll be able to talk freely then-" "Forget about the chopper. Are you free tonight?" "Yes I am but-" "Then send me the address and end themunication, I''ll see you in a couple of hours." "But how will you get here so fast?". "I have my ways." Chapter 147 - Into The Swamps (2) Now there shouldn''t be any problem for you." Nathan sent his address to Arnold along with a copy of the digitally signed document which permitted Arnold to enter West America, "Alright then, we''ll see you in a bit." "See you in a bit." Arnold smiled and disconnected the call, the dimly lit room got bright immediately.?? Arnold walked out of the room to see Amanda and Allen, waiting for him outside, eager to know what their Section Chief and the General of the Armies, had been talking about. Well, truth be told Amanda was eager, and Allen didn''t give a shit, because he knew if Arnold thought there was a need to tell him something, he will. "What did you guys talk about?" Amanda asked Arnold as soon as he walked out of the room. ''I knew you''d be interested in it.'' Arnold thought, ''I may not be a mind reader, but I do know how to read someone''s face.'' Obviously, Arnold didn''t want to tell her about anything, because he still didn''t trust her much so he told her what he had already prepared for her, "Oh, nothing much. He just wanted to officially invite me to the conference and after that, we talked about some stupid old things that we did before all this happened. As it was all so embarrassing, that''s why he asked both of you to leave. You know, he needs to take care of his public image right?" "Oh yes, it''s very important. Especially during these times." Amanda waved her hand in the air, "So what are you nning to do?" "I''m thinking I''ll go to sleep-" "I think she meant, what are you nning to do with those women I brought here?" Allen interjected, clearly still upset about Arnold''s decision to not kill that pregnant woman right then and there. "Hm... just give them some space to sleep and some food, get them checked for diseases, oh I almost forgot, keep that pregnant girl in solitary confinement until we know what inside her. Clear?" "Crystal." Both of them simultaneously replied. "Alright then, I''m off to bed. Goodnight and don''t overwork yourselves." Arnold said and left for his room inside the workshop. **** In his dark bedroom, he silentlyid on his bed, curiously looking at the nd ceiling. The sun had already gone to sleep, and the moon had conquered the sky, along with an army of a billion stars. It was a perfect night to go for a walk but Arnold had to patiently wait for something inside his room. ___ Void Travel is in cooldown. You can use this skill again in: 39:27 minutes. ___ He had to wait for the cooldown to hit 0 so that he could leave for West America. ''What should I do to pass the time? Eh, let''s just go inside my domain, nothings happening here, either way, also time flows faster there so that''s a plus point and I also want to check up on how things are inside...'' "Alright, it''s decided then!" Arnold jumped off his bed and went inside his domain, but what he saw there, took him by surprise! The building was alright, it hadn''t been destroyed or damaged from any angle. Maybe everyone was already inside as no one was to be seen apart from the pile of corpses that had once again been grouped together to form a mountain, only this time it was thrown at the far end of his domain. Even Asterios and dread were missing, maybe they somehow managed to get inside the building? But this wasn''t the thing that surprised him, it was the presence of electricity inside the building which took him by surprise. "How the hell is there power inside here?" Arnold asked the undead warrior who was standing next to the door, but he didn''t reply, "Oh right, you guys can''t speak. My bad. Mind telling me where Talos, Alice and others are?" The undead warrior immediately pointed up, so Arnold went further inside the building, to go to the upper floors using the stairs. The building itself was huge, Arnold felt like the building had grown a bit since thest time he saw it and was even bigger than before. However, It was just his imagination, but he felt like that because the building was a lot less crowded than before. Anyways, Arnold went upstairs, his summons was scattered everywhere around the building and greeted him when the saw him, with their help, it wasn''t much difficult to find someone to answer his questions. "Mind telling me what''s going on here?" Arnold''s voice echoed through the almost empty corridor, where Talos, Bad-Breath and Alice were chatting among themselves, "And where are Dread and Asterios?" "Allow me to exin!" Alice chirped around them before anyone else could''ve said anything, "With Talos'' help, we were able to convert Xenoic energy generated from beast crystals into electrical energy. It was a tiring process, but we did it and now we have electricity, Awesome right?" "You guys used the beast crystals without my permission?" Corners of Arnold''s mouth twitched as he heard Alice utter those words. "Don''t worry, Master." Talos stepped in on the conversation and reassured Arnold, "I didn''t use a single rare beast crystal. In fact, the only beast crystals I used were the white and green ones, which we got after ying low-rank beastsst night, the rare crystals are still safe and sound within the ''armoury'' that this building had. We also stored all of our necessary pieces of equipment there as well so that we could be battle-ready at all times." "You guys are a bit too much," Arnold smiled, "But do tell me more about the crystals and energy?" (Author''s note: I know some of you will get confused about the ranking based on the colours of Beast Crystals so I''m including a table here for your convenience:- Type of Monster ------> Colour of beast crystal E ranked monster ------> White D ranked monster ------> Green C ranked monster ------> Blue B ranked monster ------> Yellow A ranked monster ------> Red S ranked monster ------> Purple SS ranked monster ------> ck Please note that it doesn''t necessarily mean that an SS rank monster will always give ck Beast crystal, they might also give any of the other lower-ranking crystals as well. The table only shows that the probability of getting ck beast crystal is highest in SS ranked beast. This is simr for the other ranks as well as an S ranked monster can give a Red beast crystal as well, and won''t always give a Purple one. Also, this table is only valid for normal monsters and not cosmic beings. So please don''t get confused about it, I hope this was helpful.) Chapter 148 - Into The Swamps (3) "You used the lowest quality crystals to generate enough energy to power up a building this big? I don''t even think anyone knows about this even in theory, I''ve never heard about it anywhere either so I think this knowledge is exclusive to us." Arnold was amazed by Talos'' intelligence and utility. He felt a proud father whose son won the Nobel Prize in Physics or Chemistry or whatever. He was just happy. "The answer is yes and no." Talos replied.?? "What do you mean, by ''yes and no''?" "While I indeed used white and green beast crystals to power up this building, they don''t much energy in their raw form and can''t be used to generate enough electricity to power up this entire building." Talos exined it to Arnold and the others, however, only Arnold and Alice were listening to him intently. Bad-Breath tried to involve himself in the conversation but he simplycked the intelligence to understand much about it, more like he didn''t care about it, he was just happy that they now had electricity inside the dark void. "I see, so what did you do?" Arnold asked yet another question, he was invested too much in this, this idea had the potential to take them into a different ce entirely! Although he was just informed about it and didn''t know much, he could still inform Nathan about Talos'' findings so that this could be implemented on arger scale. Arnold knew the true worth of the discovery Talos had made, and it was just the type of thing which would ce America back on the world map! A new pollution-free source of energy! Happy hippies! "I simply fused them together to increase their rarity along with their Xenoic energy." Talos answered back. "You did what!?" Arnold was a bit confused about it now. "Yes. Dread and I, in my Demon Orc form, poured all of our strength into forcing the beast crystals together, with Alice''s strength and stamina boosting support spells and Bad-Breath''s lightning, we managed to superheat the crystals and they ended up fusing together, as Alice already said it was a tiring process but in the end, it was worth it. After achieving sess for the first time, we kept repeating the process again and again till we formed a bunch of red beast crystals. We did not stop there and kept trying again and again but sadly couldn''t fuse the red beast crystals into a Purple one, so in the end, we used a hand full red crystals to power up the generator, that the other automatons made while we were busy fusing the best crystals. It''s still a prototype but as you can see, it works well." Upon the mention of his name, Bad-Breath smirked as if he was the only one who could''ve done so, while Alice remained as calm as always, she was just d that she could help in any way or form possible. however, Talos'' exnation raised further questions about his discovery. "Are the crystal you fused together, the same as the ones found naturally, I mean inside the monsters or there''s some difference between them? Also, how did youe to know that the crystals could be fused together and used in such a manner, I don''t think you just had an arbitrary thought about it all?" Arnold kepting up with questions, he was just invested too much to care about the time anymore, for something that would greatly benefit America, Nathan could wait for some more time. "Obviously it isn''t simr to the beast crystals found inside the body of the monsters. It might be impossible for an artificially made thing to bepared with a natural resource. I''d say that, at best the crystals we made contained only about 80% energy that''s found in a natural red Crystal." Talos exined everything as if he was teaching to a group of primary school students, "As for your second question, Master, the Demon Orc you battled wasn''t that strong when the battle between them and us began, he was just a mutated Orc King having powerful abilities but that was it, and then suddenly he did something that made him evolve even further." Upon hearing the word ''evolve'', even Bad-Breath, who hadn''t been serious about the conversation, instantly became interested in it. "What did he do?" Arnold asked. "Do you remember the dead Orcs that were concentrated in a particr area? With their necks been ripped apart?" "Yes, I thought it was a bit weird since you guys wouldn''t have done something like that even to a monster." "The Orc King, bit on to their necks killing them instantly and swallowed a part of their neck. I think you are aware of the fact that, the neck of humanoid monsters is the ce where-" "Their beast crystal is located..." Arnoldpleted Talos'' statement, "So you''re saying that he evolved after eating beast crystals of his own kind?" "Yes, Master. But not only did he evolved physically, but he also evolved mentally and hence gained the ability tomunicate through humannguage." "But howe he got so strong in such a small timeframe, whereas you people took so much time to fuse them together, at least I think it took a while for you people, right?" "Yes, it took time for us to fuse the crystals together, I think it depends upon the metabolism of the monsters. Stronger the metabolism is, the quicker it will absorb the beast crystal and hence stronger will it be, at least this is what I think. Thankfully we have acquired some living specimen whom I can experiment on and see whether what I''m thinking is correct or not, and if all went well then maybe we could even use the same method to make ourselves evolve as well." Talos presented his hypothesis in front of Arnold and the others. "Will it work on humans as well?" "It could but considering how different the metabolism and physique of monsters and humans are, it might not be effective and in the worst-case scenario, could even kill someone." Talos replied. "What about a human who has a monster inside her?" "Master, you''re not trying to suggest-" "Talos, you may think my intentions aren''t pure, but they are. You said that eating beast crystals evolved the monster mentally, so maybe if the fetus absorbs enough crystals and gains some sort of intelligence and other values, then maybe, just maybe we could raise the monster kid as a human being. Don''t you think we should at least try to do something to help the mother as well as research more about the beast crystals at the same time? Just imagine a beast having the intelligence as well as the moral values of a human, the possibilities could be endless" Arnold didn''t need to persuade Talos into doing anything, all he needed to do was to give just onemand and Talos would have to do whatever Arnold said, but it didn''t feel right to Arnold that''s why he decided to persuade Talos instead of ordering him to do so. "You do have a point. It could be a revolutionary step if it worked, and if it didn''t... well, then we already know what we have to do." Alice reassured Talos, who looked at Bad-Breath and he too agreed with Alice and Arnold. After seeing everyone''s reactions Talos finally gave in, "Then I shall do as the Master wishes." "Thank you, Talos. And now you guys have fun, I have to go somewhere and I''m alreadyte." Arnold said and left the domain. Chapter 149 - Meet-up: Into The Swamps Arc (4) In the silent evening of the day, there was no one on the rooftop of one of the oldest and most glorious buildings in California, apart from an old security guard who appeared to be smoking while reading a newspaper. All of his youth had been wasted away either by doing odd jobs or chasing after women. Although he had been sessful in doing thetter, he couldn''t maintain a rtionship with any of his escapades and in his old age, he had no one who could take care of him, no children, no wife, no family... but still he was happy with who he was. However, there was something he wanted more than anything else... ast adventure before he retired, tomorrow. Nothing has him the thrill like chasing after a thief or protecting someone''s life.?? "*sigh*, What am I even thinking about? Nothing exciting has happened here in almost half a decade, and I''m wishing to get some action a few hours before my retirement?" The watchman mumbled to himself, still hoping to get ast dose of excitement before his retirement. Ever since America got divided into East America and West America, the crime rate of West America had declined sharply. Crimes like theft, mugging, sexual assaults etc became kind of nonexistent. This decline too was a product of the partition and happened due to the following reasons, one, only respectable and honoured people were allowed to live in West America and hence there weren''t many people left tomit crimes in the first ce. And two, there was a single punishment for anyone who dared tomit a crime and that was banishment. Many considered it to be a harsh punishment, but it was necessary, and it was given regardless of how big or small the crime was. Most of the people living there had to work hard to get where they were right now and hence didn''t wanted to do something that would get them thrown out of the safety of the western region, not even by mistake. Thisw was also implemented because The Syndicate already had their hands filled with dealing monsters, they simply didn''t have the time to handle petty criminals as well. So this ''banishment'' rule was set up after debating for some time. Sadly even with the strictws, no one could stop the few from trying and these people ended up getting ''banished'' now and then. "Just let me witness something exciting for thest time-" The watchman sighed heavily. Just then the air in front of his eyes started warping in weird shapes and soon a weird human-sized, crimson-coloured circle appeared out of nowhere. Thinking that it might be a monster attack, the watchman quickly reached for his trusted sword, only to realise he had left it downstairs. He wanted to warn the others but the portal in front of him for bigger and bigger... something was about toe out of that thing and he couldn''t risk the lives of the others. The old man cursed himself, and mmed the terrace door shut, while he grabbed his torch in his hands like a baton, ready to charge at whatever or whoever came out of that thing, it wasn''t clear but the guard was willing to bet it was a monster, after all, what else coulde out of a portal? Something finally appeared out of the portal, and the old man fearlessly charged at the creature, wildly swinging his 12 inches long shlight at his unknown target. ''Finally! Onest adventure!'' The rooftop was dark, and not only the old man missed the only change to knock out his enemy, but he also couldn''t even control his momentum and went racing towards the railing of the roof. He was about to knock himself off the roof, to his certain death, when suddenly someone grabbed the cor of his uniform and pulled him back, saving his life. The watchman fell on the ground with a thud, his shlight rolled off his hands and lit up. He hesitantly turned around, hoping to see a horrifying monster but instead, he saw the face of a man who was standing behind him, as the crimson portal slowly disappearing behind him. The man had walked out of the portal, wearing a ck, neatly pressed, three-piece suit, the kind you only see on high pricedwyers or The people who worked for the Syndicate. The man pulled the watchman back onto the terrace with a single sweep, his eyes settling on nothing. He just kept looking around his surroundings. The watchman was about to ask him who he was but the stranger was quicker than him. "Would you be kind enough to tell me which city are we in right now?" Arnold smiled as he helped the watchman back to his feet. "L-Los Angeles!" The guard blurted out after some effort. *** ''Looks like I''ve arrived in the right ce,'' Arnold thought as he gazed over the City of Angels, from up there, Arnold felt like he was looking down at the world. He could see everything, from the trees and the flowers to the sea and the many busy people going on about the night. He could even see the famous Griffith observatory in the distance, as well as the world-famous Hollywood sign. The city was the pr opposite of what he had seen in the wastnds... it was like nothing had happened there at all! Nighttime is when the city reveals its essence, it was something Arnold had always believed in. But there was an edge to the nights here also, a weird loneliness ¡ª or perhaps it was more urate to call it a dispersion, a quality of letting go. He wasn''t talking about the nightlife, but rather about the life of the night. A weird sense of fulfilment filled Arnold''s body... until he looked at the watchman and the police officers who were talking about him. ''Looks like I startled a poor old man. He nearly died because of me although it was him who charged at me, and I only did what anyone would''ve done to dodge someone''s attack.'' Arnold sighed heavily, ''I didn''t think I''d find someone as soon as I got here. Well, it''s good that he called an officer here, it saved me a lot of trouble.'' Once the watchman regained his demeanour, he immediately called the police emergency helpline and reported everything to them, it seemed to Arnold that the watchman was a man of character as he didn''t hide anything from them and informed the police about how Arnold saved his life as well. Arnold could have just disappeared from there and the watchman couldn''t have done anything but he wanted all of this to be processed legally so that he could be on his way in no time, thus once the police arrived, he immediately showed them the letter Nathan and sent him and right now they were in the middle of verifying it while Arnold gazed around the lively city. "Looks like its all good here. But next time try to use a verified means of transport." The officer handed Arnold''smunicator watch back to him, "A car is waiting for you downstairs that would drive you to the HQ of The Guardian syndicate." "Sure officer. Sorry for the trouble." Arnold shook their hands and together took the lift with them. *** Arnold walked out of the lobby of the building along with the officers and the old watchman, and just like the officers had informed him, a car was waiting for him outside the building. But it wasn''t just any car, it was a ck 2021 Dodge Challenger. Its gates were flung open as Arnold took a step towards it, and out of it came, Nina. "I''ll take over from here officers." She said. "As your wish ma''am!" The officers saluted her and immediately went away, once they were earshot, Nina spoke once again. "Nice suit. It''s good to see you in decent clothes and not your cosy stuff, for once." She sniggered and got inside the car. "Well, it was the only suit other I could wear other than this one was a hazmat suit so yeah, no more cosying. Although it''s quite disappointing that you''re not wearing your yoga pants anymore." Arnold joked and made himselffortable on the passenger seat, "Nice ride by the way." "You''re really infatuated by my yoga pants aren''t you?" Nina smiled and revved up the engine a bit, "And yes, she''s a nice ride. Sadly she ain''t mine." "Then whose- wait let me guess, Johnny?" "Ding Ding Ding. You''re right and you''ve won nothing." Nina smiled as the car drove off. "So he''s here as well?" "Nah, he had to go away on a mission along with Kolt and a few others, so I''m taking care of his car for a while. But enough chit chat about the car," Nina said, "mind telling me, how the hell did you end up on the rooftop of that building? Nathan told us you won''t be arriving until the day after tomorrow, and the next thing I know, I''m told to pick you up from a random building?" "Well, let''s just say I got an ability to travel around faster." He slyly smiled, because he knew what Nina was about to say. "Damn! Another ability? Are you kidding me? How many abilities do you have now?" "I don''t know... maybe a dozen or maybe more?" "You, brother and sister duo just never cease to amaze me. On average, a human only has about 6-7 abilities but both of you are on a different scale. Even Johnny doesn''t have more than 12 abilities, I think. But Nicole has more than abilities than him so-" "Woah Nicole has more abilities than Johnny?" "Yeah, or that''s what I assume because the stronger you are, the more abilities you have right? And she''s stronger than him" "If that would''ve been true, then I''ll be the king of the world..." Arnold mumbled. "Did you say something?" "No, I just wondering how did Nicole get so strong in so little time..." Arnold replied and got lost in his thoughts. "I don''t have any idea, but the doctors said she already had some powers but they were in a dormant state and awoke due to a trigger or something..." ''I do have an idea how she got so strong in so little time... she might have a system too, that could solve the mystery behind her having so many abilities and her sudden power-up. But nah, she wouldn''t have one, it''s not possible, right? Yes, it''s quite absurd to think that, but then Jake had one as well. But if she had a system, my system would''ve informed me if there was another pdin around me when she visited me at the alpha base,'' Arnold''s mind was racing faster than a horse, ''damn I forgot my system is offline and is only using the basic functions. Damn it! Does it mean in future the system will force me to fight her as well...'' Arnold was silent for the rest of their way. Chapter 150 - Sword Fight: Into The Swamps Arc (5) The cityscape was unapologetically urban, which was to be expected. Unlike the area around the building Arnold had just been inside, there were no trees or city nted blooms next to the roads, just monoliths of concrete soaring out of the sidewalk in an exact grid pattern. At night it was beautiful in its own way, so many lights and people. But everyone relied on the sky to let them know that it wasn''t a monochromatic world, just one in which the people were too busy to appreciate the art that the world was trying them to show. For over a couple of generations progress had meant the teaching of specific skill sets to the children of the metropolis to let them live in the beautiful yet often misunderstood, city of Angels. In this city people only work and eat, there was no time to sweep fall leaves or nt spring flowers, hardly even enough to notice the starry sky above. A group of people were desperately trying to be a part of the ''elite'' society. While there was another group of people with designer clothes and a variety of sports cars, these people were living busy and yet fulfilling life... Arnold didn''t know why, but it filled him with pain to see these people going about their lives as if nothing was wrong with their country, while for the people on the eastern counterpart, death coulde and knock on your door at any time. Why were they, the ones who had to sacrifice their lives so that these people can have ''fun''? The fact that Arnold knew the reason only disgusted him more but he couldn''t do anything about it. All he could do was to try and rebuild the ce once again.?? All of this added to the fact that Nicole too could also have a system made Arnold''s mood go down dramatically. For the first time, he was thankful that his system wasn''t fully operational or otherwise who knew what Arnold would have to do. ''Wait a minute! If she too has a system, she probably knows that I have one as well. If my system can inform me about the others then they must have the same ability as well, and it''s my system that''s offline and not hers, so it could very well be possible or at least that''s what I think... it all keeps getting confusing. No! I''ve got to get a hold of myself! Right now let''s just focus on the task at hand.'' Arnold thought and lightly pped himself on the cheeks, but he forgot he wasn''t alone in the car. "Don''t tell me... you''re not having a panic attack, are you?" Nina asked as she took another turn with a smug look on her face, "Are you being overwhelmed by seeing the city after so long?" "I-Its nothing. Living around the monsters can be tiring. And being around you is even worse." Arnold tried to dodge the question, "It''s just that the people here at tensed and rxed at the same time, unlike the eastern side, where one can only have fun if they enjoyed killing the monsters." Nina nodded in agreement, "You''re right, it''s not all fun and games out there. Even I was stationed at Zone 1 as Azyriah''s assistant for about a year, so I know how harsh things can get there, especially for the zones which don''t have a Section Chief, because then the Brigadier Generals of different bases often end up arguing with each other rather than working together. But it''s not like all is well on the west side either. More and more dungeons have started popping up around different parts of the country, so we''ve all been busy as well." Arnold nodded, agreeing with herments yet the sense of envy and anger lingered on. "I thought Inded near the HQ of the Syndicate, so are we taking a detour or something?" Arnold asked Nina. ording to Allen, the ce Arnoldnded was close to the HQ, yet they have been driving around the city for a while now and it didn''t look like Nina was nning on stopping the car anytime soon. "Yeah we were near the HQ, but we aren''t going there, not for now at least. Instead, we are headed towards the ck estate. All of the members of our family stay there and that''s where everyone lives, just like the old times." Nina replied and drove off, "By the way, who told you about the HQ?" "I have my sources." "Yeah, and when did you make those ''sources''? When you were in aa?" **** "Here we are!" Nina eximed as she slowly drove the car through the main entrance as the gates automatically opened up. The estate was a replica of the previous one, almost as if the old estate had been uprooted and shifted here in its entirety. Nostalgia was hitting him hard, he was home after a long time. Nina quickly drove towards the main mansion of the estate, the one where the head of the family resided. Once they reached the mansion, the duo got out of the car and headed into the mansion. As they reached the main hall, they heard the loud noise of shing steel. Arnold narrowed his eyes. "Someone is practising sword fighting at this time?" Arnold asked Nina, who just smiled. "Let''s go and see." Nina led the way towards the training hall. The closer they got to the sound the more Arnold was impressed, ''These swords are not supposed to be used for practice, as they are enchanted with magic. Only aplished swordsmen could be duelling there.'' Arnold was immersed, however, his face fell when he saw who were the ones fighting among themselves. It was Nicole and some other guy Arnold didn''t know. He was about to take a step towards them but Nina grabbed his shoulder. "Just watch." Arnold did what she told and analysed the duel. Although Nicole was drastically smaller in size than her opponent, her agility was much more than what her opponent could handle. The man was swinging hard with his sword, showing his strength, but Nicole was using her size as well as her agility to her advantage. She was already smaller than her opponent yet she bent down a bit more, forcing her opponent to Fight in an ufortable position. It looked like the man had enough of it and he raised his sword above his head and violently swung it towards Nicole. A big mistake. Even a blind man would''ve been able to see that attacking, Nicole, gracefully turned sideways to dodge the attack and ced her sword lightly on the man''s neck, indicating she had won. Watching her move was like watching a river flowing through a river. Nic dealt her strike with speed and precision, us she hadn''t stopped, it would''ve been the end of the man. "Wow..." Arnold mumbled. "She''s been practising daily since we discover her powers, and you can see the results yourself." Amanda exined, but Arnold wasn''t listening, this duel made him realise something. ''I''m sure she has a system, there''s no denying it.'' Chapter 151 - Breakout Inside The City: Into The Swamps Arc (6) Somewhere in a forest around Los Angeles... "We shouldn''t be here! This ce is haunted!" A man cried in his squeaky voice.?? "Shut up Trevor, there''s nothing here!" Rob, the group''s leader yelled back at him. "And just in case, there''s something here, I brought this to take care of it." Lenny, the group''s rich brat showed off his weapon in front of his friends, it was a weapon which was more expensive than what most of the people made in a year. It was a silvery sword, known to be made with the remains of the first-ever S ranked boss monster that appeared in California. It was a beast that shared a resemnce with the sabertooth tiger, with the difference being in its size and the colour of its hide. The blue-skinned cat was nicknamed as, ''King of all Beasts'', due to its majestic mane, and had an astonishing weight of 600kg and height of 211cm. Not to mention, it''s razor-sharp canine had killed countless warriors who had tried to challenge it. But no one was able to kill it, but eventually, the king of all beasts sumbed to the countless wounds that covered its majestic body. The beast''s body was retrieved by the warriors who then sold it to the highest bidder, in an online auction. Unlike the warriors who didn''t know the true worth of their possession, the buyer, however, knew exactly what he was buying. He bought the dead monster for 1.5 million modern dors and dismantled it to make various types of equipment from its bones, canines, skin etc. The reason why the price of the monster went so high was because it was an S ranked monster and also because the body of the monster was still intact. Had the warriors waited to gather up a crowd for the auction, they could''ve easily got more money for it. But since they were doing this behind their guild''s back, they needed to be quick, because as far as the guild was concerned they weren''t even able to retrieve the body of their allies, forget about retrieving the body of a monster. The bidder then sold each of the gear separately and the total worth of the gears and weapons was estimated to be over 5 million dors, and the sword in Lenny''s hand was the most expensive one among the set. It had the power which, Lenny - an inexperienced B ranked warrior, couldn''t even use. He was just a bratty son of another rich brat who had more money than what he could think to do with. "For thest time, It''s not a haunted forest dude! It''s all a rumour." Lenny poked Trevor''s butt with the tip-off his sword, which made Trevor jump in fear. He consciously looked around his surroundings. Avid hikers would''ve recognized this spot as the Sam Merrill trailhead, ''a peaceful refuge from people and wildlife forever''¡ª that''s what the dedication on the cobblestone gate of the Cobb Estate, read. But to the ghost hunters, it was called ''the Haunted Forest''. The sparse forest didn''t seem so haunted until the 1950s when the Marx Brothers purchased thend and temporarily saved the dpidated mansion from destruction and in the process turning it into a favourite haunt for squatters and ne''er-do-wells. (Author''s note: ne''er-do-wells is used to refer to a person who iszy and irresponsible.) The ce, however, was soon forgotten, but once the dungeons started popping up out of nowhere, a few conspiracy theorists linked the dungeons with the supernatural and imed dungeon was created only at the ces where someone was killed or a ce which led to someone''s death. Yearster, the forest became a great spot for the believers of the supernatural. Still, one was more likely to find curious teens at night wandering around what''s left of the house''s foundation than actual ''ghostbusters'', this group of teenagers was one among the various groups who wandered around the forest in hopes of encountering something supernatural like ghost sightings which were non-specific, many reports suggest of ghostly encounters with weird noises on few of the surviving staircases of the building, while a few said they felt as if they were being watched by someone in the dimly lit forest. "We''ve been roaming around for hours now but nothing happened... let''s go ande back tomorrow," Rob ordered his party of three members. "Yes, let''s leave!" Trevor jumped with joy, finally, he would be able to go home and sleep peacefully, until his two ''friends'' dragged him back into the forest along with them. "Yeah, let''s go, even I''m a bit tired after carrying around this sword." Lenny replied, but knowing about what was going to happen next. While Trevor was happy about leaving, a giant hand grabbed him by his head, lifted him off the ground and crushed it into pulp, right in front of his friends. In the face of the thrill they had been seeking for so long, the teenagers were scared beyond their limits, the almighty sword had already slipped away from Lenny''s hands. Although he had been trained to fight monsters, this was Lenny''s first-ever encounter with a monster without his trainers, who had always helped him, when things went wrong. It was the same for Rob as well, none of them knew what they were going so to next. **** Back in the newly relocated ck estate, Nathan, Arnold, Nina and Nicole were discussing the various things Arnold had just informed them about. "So you think the ck troll''s nned on attacking the base?" Nathan asked him. "Looking at how the monsters attacked the base simultaneously, I''m fairly certain it was no mere coincidence, they had to have nned it all beforehand." Arnold exined, "I don''t have many leads regarding that so let''s talk about the other issue-" "Monster evolution." Nicole interjected. "Correct. If monsters started to evolve by eating beast crystals then two things might happen," Arnold continued, "One, the monsters will start killing each other to evolve faster and get stronger, which would lead to a decline of their overall poption, which might be a good thing but this leads me to think, whether the monsters know about this or not, and if they do, then why don''t they do so more actively? Is there some kind of rule orw among the monsters that prohibited them from killing your own kind or is it that only a few suitable monsters are able to do so? and two, would we be able to handle the monstrosity that would emerge from the ughter? I highly doubt that. But-" The gates leading to the meeting room were flung open and a man dressed in all ck, came rushing in. "Deacan, I told no one should interrupt us while-" Nathan started barking at the man. "I-I am so... sorry sir, b-but this is important..." The guy was panting as if he just finished a triathlon, "There''s been a breakout!" Chapter 152 - Hunt: Into The Swamps Arc (7) "I''m sorry... I''m sorry..." Rob mumbled while running away in random directions, "I''m sorry Lenny, I just did what I had to..." When the monster had just killed Trevor, it was standing in between Rob and Lenny, and the monster, whom none of them had seen or heard of before, was eyeing for Rob next.?? At that moment, Rob just wanted to save his butt, and no one else. So he grabbed a fairly big rock from the ground and threw it at Lenny''s head. Lenny, who was fixated at the monster, couldn''t fight the rock and fell on the ground with a thud. The blood gushed out of his wound on his head and attracted the monster. The monster ignored Rob and jumped onto a defenceless Lenny. What happened next was nothing less than a scene from a horror movie. Lenny''s death wasn''t painless or quick like Trevor''s. The monster took his time to kill him. It first tore his legs apart from his body, because Lenny had been desperately kicking the 12 feet tall humanoid monster, in ast effort to save himself, but this annoyed the monster even more, but this also the monster want to ''y'' more with Lenny. With his razor-sharp nails, It ripped through his stomach and started eating his intestines like instant noodles... all this time Lenny was still alive, barely, but alive. The monster then pushed the nails through Lenny''s eyes, at this point, Lenny didn''t even have the energy to scream or resist. He just wanted to die, so heid there, allowing the monster to do whatever it wanted until he finally died. Rob didn''t stay there and watch it all happen but kept running tirelessly. He did not dare to stop. He was afraid that the monster would catch up to him and do what it did to Lenny and Trevor, or maybe do something even worse. Even thinking about it made him run even faster. He ran for what seemed like hours, but there was no end to the forest because clueless to him, he had been running in circles. The monster has already caught up to him and was sitting on a tree branch, Lenny''s corpse still on its shoulders. It was amused to see the human''s reaction and decided to have more fun. The monster threw the gutless corpse of Lenny in front Rob, who stumbled over Lenny''s body... his eyeless face gazing through his soul, almost cursing at him for doing what he did to him. Right as he was about to get up and run, something grabbed his legs and lifted him off the ground. The monster turned him upside down and... smiled to Rob''s face, it was no ordinary smile... it was filled with murderous intent. Rob''s fears overwhelmed him and he ended up wetting himself. This pleased the monster even more and he startedughing hysterically while touching his wet crotch, his ear-piercingughter echoed through the forest. Monster''sughter helped Rob regain his senses. He knew it was a do or die scenario for him right now, adrenaline once again rushed through his body, he wasn''t going to go down like Trevor or Lenny, not without a fight. He gathered whatever strength he had left in his body and used the only magic spell he knew, [Fireball]. As the monster opened its mouth, Rob barraged him with fireball after fireball, it didn''t do much damage but it temporarily blinded the monster and he dropped Rob on the ground. Rob ran away once again, and this time he was sessful in getting out of the forest, where he found a forest ranger and told him everything. The ranger knew the situation was dangerous and immediately contacted the police who then informed the ck Family about it. **** A couple of hourster, inside the forest. Arnold, Nathan, Nicole and Nina were examining the corpses of the two victims who were killed by an unknown monster. One of the corpses wascking its head, but they didn''t have to waste their time looking for it, because it was already scattered around them. It looked like his death was rtively quick and painless inparison to the other corpse which was mutted beyond recognition. His bodyid there like a ghoulish mannequin, the oesophagus and arteries sticking out like so much corrugated and rubber tubing, even his eyes were gouged out. It looked as if a special effects team had worked overtime for some Friday the thirteenth movie set, but that smell... That smell could onlye from the recently ughtered animal. In this case, the animal was a human and his corpses was still warm, the blood had started thickening but not yet dried. Some cases took a while to decide if foul y was involved, but this was murder all the way. A murdermitted by a monster of unknown species. "I''ve never seen anything like this..." Nicole mumbled, "It almost as if the monster wasn''t interested in eating them but was rather-" "ying with them." Arnold squatted down to closely inspect their wounds, "Is the survivor ready to talk yet?" "No. He''s still in the trauma centre." Nina replied, "But from what he told to the ranger, we can conclude that the monster is working alone." "I don''t like this..." Arnold mumbled, "A couple of years ago, I''d have been happy to know if a single monster came out of a dungeon outbreak, but after what I witnessed earlier in the wastnds, it only worries me more." "So you''re saying that the monster killed his kind inside the dungeon, to evolve?" Nathan asked Arnold, while his men were looking out for the monster. "That''s what happened, most probably. Otherwise, it wouldn''t make much sense if a single monster caused an outbreak." Arnold exined to the others while analysing Lenny''s corpse, "This guy''s abdomen was cut in one swoop, so I think that the monster has got pretty sharp ws or nails or something along the lines. Looking at how deep the wound is we have to be wary about his strength as well... how far has your group managed to search through the forest?" Deacon immediately ran through the list of ces that could''ve been perfect hiding ces for the monster, checking off the ones they had already searched, "We might not be able to look through the entire forest tonight. But we''ll finish up the search till the day after tomorrow." As Arnold gazed around the forest, the ineffectiveness of Nathan''s people bothered him a bit, but he wasn''t in the position to correct them, even though Nathan and the others knew him, he was still just a ''guest'' there. Still, he needed to point it out to Nathan without causing unnecessary drama. "That''s too long. Who knows what that monster would do in the next two days. Also, your men would be in danger if they end up encountering the monster, because the way I see it, the monster is already at least S ranked." Arnold then turned towards Nathan, "Do you mind, if I take care of this?" "What are you nning to do?" Nathan asked him, the time wasn''t the same as before, Nathan couldn''t have Arnold running around doing senseless things anymore. "I''ll just speed up the search a bit. Tell your men to retreat, I''ll find the monster for you." Arnold smiled, even Nathan knew the limitations of his soldiers so he agreed in the end. But someone wasn''t happy about it. "What could a single man possibly do that our forces can''t?" Deacon remarked as he handed the list of ces over to Arnold. Nathan thought Arnold would be pissed, but instead, he was smiling, "Excuse me, but do you know anything about me?" "I don''t." Deacon confidently replied. "Then I''ll suggest you start taking notes because you''re about to." Arnold smiled got wider as a portal opened up in front of the others. Soon Arnold''s summons started pouring out of the portal. One after another, his undead summons, automatons, andva hounds all came out of the portal. Deacon''s overconfident mouth was wide open, he immediately realised his mistake in his remark. ''He''s not a single man... what''s the point of even staying here anymore? This guy can do everything by himself.'' Arnold didn''t summon everyone out, yet the people around him were overwhelmed, of course, this didn''t include Nathan, Nina it Nicole for that matter as they already knew about his abilities. Arnold only summoned the ones who were capable of tracing a target as soon as possible, still, the number of his summons was way over 150. Once everyone was out of the portal, Talos walked out of the crowd, towards his master. "Yourmand, master?" He asked. Arnold tossed the list of ces towards him, "Search these ces and look for the monster who killed these men. Cerberus and the hounds would lead the search and would go through the forest in its entirety as they are the best at tracking something down, while you along with the automatons and the undead would look for the monsters strictly at the locations I''ve specified." "Consider it done." Talos replied, "What shall we do upon contact with the beast?" "Just report back and do not engage. I want to see that beast with my own eyes." Arnold replied to the automaton. "Yes, master." Talos divided his troops into eight groups, each of the group was tasked with searching at a specific location, while Cerberus and the other hounds sniffed around the corpses to get a whiff of the monster''s scent. After Talos gave them their instruction his group immediately departed to search for the monster, while Cerberus and his fellow hounds got the monster''s scent and began following the scent. "What now?" Nina asked Arnold once the summons had disappeared from their sights. "Now, the hunt begins." Chapter 153 - One Shot, One Kill: Into The Swamps Arc (8) "Talos, report." "None of the eight teams have found anything yet, master."?? "Alright, keep looking and immediately inform me if you find anything." Arnold recited his orders and ended the call, "On second thought, widen the search range and look for the missing people as well." "As you wish, master." It had been an hour since Arnold send his summons to look for the anonymous monster, but they didn''t have any sess. Arnold then tried to raise a tform using his Earth elemental control ability and look for the monster that way, but the forest had a dense canopy which didn''t allow him to do so, Even if that wasn''t so, the fact that the sun was long gone, would''ve made it nearly impossible for him to locate the monster in that manner. As he had requested, Nathan''s men had also been evacuated from the forest for their safety, but as Arnold had thought, a couple of them were missing, most probably they had fallen prey to the monster''s hands, even if that was the case, they had to look for their bodies and that''s why Arnold told Talos and the others to do so. ''If only this was a trans-dimensional dungeon and not the real world, I''d have burned the entire forest down and force the monster toe at me... Just like thest time.'' Arnold wanted this to get over as soon as possible but it looked like the monster had decided to y hide and seek with him instead. If this had happened inside a trans-dimensional dungeon Arnold would''ve already found the monster and be done with it, but he couldn''t do much here because Nathan had stopped him from doing anything reckless like burning or freezing the forest. unlike the wastnds, he couldn''t do as he pleased to. His hands were tied, Cerberus and the hounds were his only hope right now. ording to whatever Rob managed to mumble out while panicking, the group of teenagers wasn''t the ones who had attacked or provoked the monster, it was the other way around. So the question remained, how did the monster found them? It could''ve been a coincidence or maybe not? Well, he didn''t have the time to figure that out, but he did have the time to use his ace. The [Foresight]. "Nicole, mind keeping a lookout for a minute?" Arnold requested Nicole to do so as he won''t be able to do anything while he was using the foresight, he requested her to do so because she was stronger than his summons. "Sure, but where are you going?" Nicole asked her brother. "Nowhere, I''m just going to meditate while my summons search for the monster." Without wasting a second Arnold sat down on the forest floor, surrounded by people with confused looks in their faces and a single thought running through their minds. ''Who the fck starts meditating in between a mission?'' They all looked at Nathan, who just shook his head. Even though he could request him not to, Nathan felt like it wasn''t his ce to stop him. Arnold''s conscience left his body, as everything went quiet around him. Once the skill was in effect, he immediately rushed towards Cerberus, as he was certain they''d have a lead in finding the monster. Instead what he saw waspletely different from what he had thought. Cerberus and the other hounds were chasing after each other in a track shaped like a number ''8''. It looked like the monster had managed to confuse hounds by continuously running in the shape of ''8'' and leaving its scent there. Since the scent was concentrated at that ce, they got stuck there and didn''t move ahead. ''... at least now I know what I have to teach them next.'' Arnold thought, ''Looks like I''ll have to search for the monster myself.'' Arnold decided to return to where his body was and resume the search from there. Once he was back and was about to leave to look for the monster, something shiny above a tree caught his eyes. Something or someone was sitting on the branch of a tree, it''s small eyes fixated at Arnold''s body. A silvery sword in its hands, ready to jump and kill his target. ''This bastard was here all along and we were looking for him in the forest! And that Cerberus couldn''t even find him?'' Arnold couldn''t control his mouth but he felt like it was twitching because of what Arnold was thinking. The monster was gazing at Arnold looking pleased but, little did it know, his target was looking right at him too. Rather than going back inside his body, Arnold went towards the monster. Just like what the survivor had told them, even Arnold had never seen or heard about such a monster before. Arnold looked at Its face which was frozen in time, its two thin eyes were examining the surroundings from their broad sockets. A small nose rested below, but it was the long mouth below that took all of the attention of its spectator. It''s wide smile, which extended from one ear to the other, revealed rows of eerie looking teeth and a long tongue that were hidden inside. Thin ppy ears sat on each side of its massive, angr head, which itself was covered in rows of small horns. Its long hefty body was hunched over while he sat on the tree branch. Two lean arms dangle at its sides and in the end were webbed hands with thick fingers which were useful for climbing, knife-like nails extended from each of his fingers. He wielded a sword in one of its arms. Its legs were long and straight, each ending in crooked feet. Its body was covered with bruises from unknown origin, Arnold guessed it was probably from a monster, and its shoulders were narrower than its pelvis. But something was weird, the monster''s overall appearance and body shape weren''t like a monster but more like a human, maybe he was an inhuman just like Bad-Breath, experimented and turned into a monster by someone. (Author''s note: In case you''re having trouble imagining what the monster looks like, it looks simr to Ryuk from death note.) ''Is it a human?'' Arnold mumbled and quickly used the probe skill on it. ___ CLASS: Human (Mutant) NAME: LEVEL: 89 RANK: A+ ROLE: AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Death Swipe (Active skill) ? Silence cloak (Passive skill) ? Camouge (Passive skill) HP: 12000/12000 STRENGTH (STR) : 93 DEFENSE (DEF) : 89 STAMINA (STA) : 65 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 78 AGILITY (AGI) : 98 ACCURACY (ACC) : 65 EVADE (EVD) : 75 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances: Magical attacks deal only 80% of total damage. Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Burnt, Poisoned. Weak Against: Physical attacks. THREAT LEVEL: Mediocre REMARK: It seems like a human was foolish enough to have consumed a lot of beast crystals and their body couldn''t adapt to the rapid changes that urred due to the consumption, hence ended up bing a monster as well. An interesting observation to say the least. The Good thing is, at least now you know what happens when a human consumes beast crystals. ___ Before he couldment upon his findings, the duration of [Foresight] ended and Arnold was pulled back to his body. Just when he was about to open his eyes, the monster leapt from his hiding ce and dived towards Arnold, the silver sword came rushing towards him like a javelin. Nathan and the others rushed towards Arnold but they were quite far away and weren''t prepared for a sneak attack. Arnold, however, had been waiting for the humanoid monster to do something like this. Just as the humanoid was about to m his sword onto Arnold''s head, a portal appeared in between them, and through it, came a giant hammer. The monster didn''t expect something like this to happen, thus wasn''t either prepared for it nor was there anything it could''ve done to dodge the hammer while he was suspended midair. A momentter, the hammerhead mmed the humanoid''s head and a notification appeared on Arnold''s interface. ___ Your summon has activated the weapon skill [The Barbarian from hell]. The skill was sessful. Target was killed in one blow. [Storm Crusher] has gained +2 strength (STR) due to the effect of weapon passive [Pleased to kill] ___ Chapter 154 - A Boon Or A Curse: Into The Swamps Arc (9) ___ Your summon has killed a mutated being.?? EXP: +1000 First Mutated Human killed. EXP: +3500 EXP awarded: 4500 ___ Asterios huffed loudly and ced his foot over the humanoid monster''s chest while his hammer rested on his shoulder. Everyone except Arnold was shocked, to say the least, none of them had seen the Minotaur before so they were surprised to see him. "How many times do I need to tell you to control your strength?" Arnold let out a heavy sigh, "I''ll let it slide this time since you triggered Storm crusher''s ability, but try to control yourself could you?" The minotaur''s glorious smile vanished almost instantly, his head sunk down along with its hammer. Arnold was not expecting Asterios to react this way, since he never had acted like this before. "Ahem, you did well. Thanks for your help." Arnold said and pat Asterios'' broad back in an attempt to cheer him up, "Now go and rest up a bit." Arnold''s praise made Asterios feel slightly better, his head held high again as he disappeared inside the void. "Who. Was. That?" Nicole rushed at Arnold before he could examine what was left of the mutated humanoid. "That was one of my strongest summons. however as you can see, he tends to get a bit overexcited during the fights and he often ends up in destroying his target beyond recognition." Arnold answered back and brought hismunicator watch close to his mouth, "Talos, the monster has been killed. Have you found the missing people yet?" "Yes master, we have found their corpses." Talos'' voice came through themunicator. "I see. Gather up everyone and return along with the bodies." "Yes, master." Talos replied and disconnected the call while Arnold squatted down to analyse the corpse of the monster. The monster''s head was looked like a bowl of mashed potatoes mixed along with tomato ketchup, but the rest of the body remained unharmed. "You did a good job making that hammer. Itplemented the minotaur''s brutish strength quite well." Ninaplimented Arnold''s creationist skills as she pulled the silvery sword out of the monster''s hand. "Who said I made that?" Arnold smiled, his eyes still fixed on the corpse. "I had a hunch but that smile of yours just confirmed that I was right." She said and squatted down next to him, "So what are you looking at?" "Looking at the effects that beast crystals can have on a human." Arnold mumbled. "Wait what?" She turned towards Arnold faster than lightning, "You mean this monster was a-" "A human, who consumed a lot of beast crystals." Arnold got up and kicked over the body of the monster, "So this is what happens when someone consumes an uncontroble amount of beast crystals and-" The moment he kicked over the body of the humanoid, a notification appeared in front of his eyes. ___ You''ve triggered an emergency quest! ? A BOON OR A CURSE: [ INTRODUCTION ] : You''ve discovered a corpse which shows the signs of forced mutations due to consumption of beast crystals. However, it doesn''t necessarily mean that the beast crystals cannot be used to evolve a being beyond the limitations ced upon them by the nature. [ TASK ] : Study the effects that consuming beast crystals can have on humans along with monsters and find whether it is possible to evolve a being using the beast crystals. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/10 attempts to evolve a being. 0/5 monsters sessfully evolved. 0/1 humans sessfully evolved. COMPLETION REWARDS : ? Intelligence (INT): +100 ? Mystic (MYS): +100 ? A hidden reward. ___ ''I already had a long ass pending quest and you just had to add another one on top of it, thank you System-sama!'' "Arnold, you okay?" Nina ced her hand on his shoulder, "You went silent all of a sudden." Nina''s touched brought him back to reality, "Oh yeah, I''m good just something popped up in my mind." "So you''re thinking the same thing as me?" Nathan asked Arnold. "Uh... what are you thinking about again?" Arnold asked back,pletely unaware of what Nathan was talking about. Nathan bent down over the monster, grabbed something from around the humanoid''s neck and pulled it off. It was a locket with a weird looking insignia on it. Something that Arnold had missed. "This is what I''m referring to." He held up the locket in front of everyone, Arnold felt like he had seen the locket somewhere but couldn''t pinpoint where. "That''s the insignia of White Family!" Deacon eximed and took the locket from Nathan''s hands, "Every family has a trademark that shows which family do they belong to, like our family exclusively wears ck clothing, this locket is the what differentiates the White Family members from the others!" It was then Arnold recalled where he had seen the locket before, Amanda used to wear one around her neck as well. "If it''s true, then..." Nicole mumbled. "Then we finally know why the White Family needed crates filled with different types of beast crystals." Nathanpleted what Nicole was saying, "I knew they were a despicable lot, but never in a hundred years I''d have thought they''d do something like this to their family members. Deacon track down any and every former member of the White Family who are in California right now, and send them all a summon. Also, contact the other heads and inform them about tonight''s happenings." "Will do sir." Deacon saluted him and left at once. Nathan then turned towards Arnold, "I know it''s your summon who killed but monster but could you allow us to confiscate the corpse of the monster? The council would want to take a look at it." "Sure, it''s all yours. As long as you share your findings with me." Arnold replied. Nathan agreed and left. Soon Talos and all of Arnold''s summons returned along with the corpse of the men who were killed by the monster. Once all of the bodies were loaded up in a couple of ambnces and everyone left the haunted forest. Since everything had wrapped up, Arnold decided to leave as well, but before he could leave, Nina pulled him sideways. "Are you leaving?" She asked. "Since everything has been taken care of and seeing that Nathan would be busy for a while, I think it''ll be better if I leave for now." Arnold replied. "Um... could you... like maybe stay here tonight?" Chapter 155 - White Queen: Into The Swamps Arc (10) Back at the Alpha base in zone 4... In the darkness of her chamber, Amanda was standing in front of a brightly lit screen, the same which Arnold had used a few hours ago, wearing nothing but a nightgown which couldn''t hold her ample beauty. She was talking to someone, someone under her authority. The person on the other side of the screen was walking her through what happened to Elena and the White Family during the trial.?? "As a result, most of us had to move to other families to lower their suspicion on us as well as to carry on our experiments in secret. We''re ashamed to have to abandon the family which your highness made, but we had no other choice. To fulfil your will, we''ll do whatever they''d necessary." The man, known as Ashen w finished exining Amanda about everything that happened in her absence. "No need to apologise Ashen. I know you only did what was necessary to protect our future. If there''s anyone who should be ashamed of anything, it''s Elena. That fcking idiot!" Amanda cursed under her breath, "She had one job, ONE JOB! But she just had to ruin it. All I wanted her to do was to keep the ck Family off our backs but instead, she led them right to us, she even involved Devon in it and now he''s refusing to help us anymore. Does anyone else knows about what we are doing with the beast crystals?" "Apart from the scientists and a few others, no one knows anything." Ashen replied. "Good... and what''s the progress with the experimentation? Have there been any breakthroughs?" Amanda asked back, before pulling a chair to sit, crossing her legs one over the other. "..." "Didn''t I ask you something?" Amanda repeated herself, "Have you made any progress at sessfully duplicating the monster gene to make inhumans that we could use?" "We-we did, but-" "What happened now? Another failure?" She said, her impatience growing even more. "No... it was a sess. We managed to turn the test subject into a fully functional beast as well but then-" "Don''t trickle truth me, Ashen." Amanda shook her head in disappointment, "Tell me whatever happened there and tell me right now. You already know what will happen if you don''t." Ashen gulped down his saliva, his mistress wanted to know the truth, something he couldn''t tell her, but he also knew what happened to those who went against her. He was stuck between a rock and a hard ce, he felt like a pig raised to be ughtered, and no matter what he did that was his destiny. "...we underestimated him, and failed to restrain him... in short, he got away after injuring more than a dozen guards and researchers while killing five people as well. He probably killed someone or maybe killed a few people after escaping into the forest because the cks were actively searching the area around ourb. Thankfully they couldn''t find anything but we can that assume the test subject was killed and confiscated by them because they left soon afterwards. People still think this is a haunted ce and theboratory wasn''t discovered by the ck Family, so we can still carry on with the experiments." The room was shrouded in silence afterwards, none of them said anything. Ashen knew he screwed up by allowing the test subject to run away as well as he allowed them to take his corpse along with them. Amanda wasn''t someone who was known for forgiving those who made mistakes. Even though he wasn''t in the same room as her, he could almost feel her anger. Her anger woulde like steam, burning her on the way out, while also burning the one on the receiving end. There was only one rule for the people under hermand, ''Those who mess up, have to die'' and Ashen knew it all too well, but never in a hundred years had he thought he''d be on the receiving end of her rage. "I see... you did well. At least they still don''t know about thebs so that''s good. However, don''t take any risks and carry out the experiments with as little interference as you can." Despite her demeanour, Amanda replied in a calm voice. "I would disappoint you, your highness." Ashen immediately bowed down, unable to believe his luck, someone like his mistress forgave him! "Focus on making as many Inhumans as you can. Once that''s done, we''ll put an end to the pain in the butt called the ck Family." She continued, "But until then, maintain your cover and try not to gain unnecessary attention from anyone." "You don''t-" "Don''t worry about it, your highness, it will be done." Another man''s voice echoed through the room. Ashen sharply looked at the person who had been serving him as his right-hand man. His younger brother, named Dave w. ''Just what is he trying to do! He''ll make her lose her shit!'' Ashen thought and turned his head towards him. "What are you doing? Do you want us all to get killed?" He whispered, but w simply ignored him and kept looking towards the screen. This confused the heck out of Ashen. Just what was going on there? "I know you wouldn''t, Mr?" Amanda asked. "Dave w, ma''am." w replied, "My brother, Ashen w, was the head of your security as well as in-charge of the RnD division before he had to unexpectedly retire." "Wait! What are you talking about? I haven''t retired, I''m still here to serve her highness-" Ashen tried to interject but Amanda continued her conversation with his brother as if she didn''t even hear him. "Ah, yes. Now I remember. He was a good guy, he even put his life on the line to protect me quite a few times, not that it matters but, what is he doing nowadays?" "Eating beast crystals." w replied, without a hint of remorse in his voice. "I''m saddened to hear that, guess he wasn''t ready to adapt to myw, but you do remember thew don''t you, w?" She asked in her sweet yet menacing voice. "Those who mess up, have to die." w replied. It wasn''t until then did Ashen realise, his fate had already been sealed. He was the next test subject for them, and nothing else. Once someone was set to be a test subject, they lost their identity. No one was allowed to acknowledge their presence as humans, they were just test subjects, nothing more, nothing less. That''s why w and everyone else present in the room was ignoring Ashen no matter how loud he yelled. He simply didn''t exist for them anymore. This was the authority of the one referred to as the White Queen, had. But he wasn''t going to allow her or anyone else to do as they pleased with him. He was alive, he existed, and no one would take that away from him. "I won''t allow you to do this to me!" He yelled and charged at his brother who didn''t even turn to face him and kept looking at the screen in front of him. ''Please don''t turn towards me w... or your end would be the same as mine.'' Ashen drew his energy sword and charged at him, seemingly ready to kill if necessary. He barely took a step in w''s direction before the locket around his neck started glowing and he froze on his spot. Something was restricting his movement. His energy sword dropped from his grasp, he was forcefully turned to face the Amanda, before being mmed into the wall. His hands stretched wide to the sides. "Can''t you see people are talking here?" Amanda mumbled, her eyes were glowing white, "Can''t you see, *I''m* the one talking here? You''re nothing and no one cares about ''nothing''. Know your ce, and stop thinking about yourself as a human or else..." All of a sudden, the locket having the family insignia on it, started contracting around his neck. Getting tighter and tighter by the moment. He started suffocating but he couldn''t do anything about it, he was pinned down on a wall, he couldn''t move his body, he couldn''t shout, he couldn''t even struggle to free himself from the White Queen''s grasp. A few secondster the pupil of his eyes started to disappear along with the light in front of his eyes and his mouth wide open, hoping to get some air through it. But it was all in vain. Although he was in the brink of death, and panicking on the outside. On the inside, he was happy. Dying like this was much better than being forced to turn into a man-made monster. ''It all went ording to n, I guess...'' He wasn''t foolish enough to attack his brother and everyone that head-on. It was all an act in hopes of dying at the hands of his men, while he was still human rather than dying as a monster. He also knew his brother was crying on the inside but he dare not show it to anyone else, otherwise, his fate would be the same as Ashen''s. ''One day you''ll die an even more gruesome death than me... White Queen... just you wait.'' A smile left Ashen''s mouth in hisst moments, ''Just... you... wait...'' Chapter 156 - A Warrior Princess And A Clueless Porter: Into The Swamps Arc (11) (Trigger warning: This might be a cheesy chapter for some. Proceed with caution.) Back in Los Angeles, California...?? "So... where are we heading to?" Arnold asked Nina. "I thought you''d be hungry and since you probably don''t get tasty food around your base, I thought you''d like to eat something while you can?" Nina replied having an awkward smile on her face. "That''s... very thoughtful of you. Thank you. But couldn''t have we brought the others along with us, like Nicole for example?" ''God! Why is he so dense? How could I invite the one who suggested this in the first ce? F*ck his brains... wait I take that back.'' Nina thought while aimlessly driving her car around the city, ''I did not think this through... ugh! Come on, you can do this... he''s clueless, but you can do this!'' Unknown to Nina, her expressions were as clear as the starry sky above them. Even ''the ever clueless porter'' could read her face easily, but he didn''t want to ruin her night so he kept his mouth shut and gaze through the window, while Nina kept mumbling something to herself. **** "And we''re here!" Nina said with a ''ta-da'' expression on her face, "Thank god, they''re still open. You go on ahead, I''ll be right back!" "You do know... I don''t have any money on me, right?" Arnold gave her a weird look sideways. "Oh just get in, I''ll be right there." Nina said and literally kicked him out of the car and drove off. It was the third restaurant they had visited that night and the only one that was open still, something that confused Arnold. After all, people were still roaming on the streets and it made no sense at all why the restaurants would remain closed on a Saturday of all days? Anyways, He had nowhere to go so he, quickly made his way inside, half expecting it to be deserted as well, but his expectations were shattered as the attendant walked him inside, apparently, there was already a table reserved under his name. ''Weird... if Nina has already nned this all, then why didn''t she came here at once, rather than wasting our time driving around the city...'' Arnold thought, ''Women are weird. I think I understand monsters better women. I better not say it out loud though.'' The restaurant was full. Arnold looked around at the busy tables. An old couple was eating side by side, one ss of wine each studiously bent over their meals. A group of young women in their thirties copsing with helpless giggles as a stern woman dining alone nearby looked on and frowned. Businessmen in their grey suits lighting up cigars. Movie enthusiasts were busy talking about their favourite movies, actors and whatnot. A family was sitting nearby Arnold''s table along with their teenage children. The noise level was high, but it didn''t bother him. He was used to hearing monsters yelling all day long, and this was nothingpared to that. But he didn''t felt like he didn''t belong there... in his three-piece suit. The attendant soon returned with a menu and a bottle of red wine. "I didn''t order anything yet..." Arnold mumbled as the waiter slowly poured the wine into a ss. "I know sir. It''s on the house. Please enjoy your evening." The Attendant handed him the menu along with the ss of wine before leaving Arnold alone again. Over half an hour had passed but there was no news of Nina yet. "Don''t tell me, this was one of her pranks..." From his seat, he had a clear view of the entrance, but there was no sign of Nina, only a few couples came and left through there, "If ites to worse, I''m just yeet out of here using void travel..." He took another sip of his wine and as he did that, someone walked through the door. Her usually tied hair was straight, her green eyes were as beautiful as ever, and her figure was like a perfect hourss. When she stopped right in front of him, she was like a magazine cut-out dropped onto the Hollywood sidewalk. Her ck dress left her shoulders uncovered, instead, it was supported around her neck and flowed down into a graceful cowl neckline. It was a tight fit which gave the dress a ssy and polished look. "Hey Arnold, sorry for beingte." Nina said and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, intently looking at him. Arnold didn''t say a word, the thought to yeeting away fled faster than a gambler from a bookie. He got up, took her extended, manicured hand and pulled the chair back for her to sit down. "I didn''t know you were a gentleman." She teased Arnold and sat on the chair. "I didn''t know you''d look good in anything apart from your gym attire either." Arnold whispered in her ear and sat down across the table. The waiter came back to take their order and left immediately afterwards. They just kept talking about random things while having dinner. They were so indulged in the conversation, they forgot about anyone else who was there. Arnold knew Nina enjoyed hispany and so did he, but he never thought they''d hit it off so well. Between talking, eating and drinking, none of them realised they were the only ones left in the restaurant. Not until the manager of the ce came there to greet them, however, it turned out to be another surprise for Arnold, the manager of the restaurant was none other than, Michelle, which meant the restaurant was owned by the ck Family. (Author''s note: If you don''t remember, (which I''m sure you don''t.) Michelle was the manager of the Malibu Club as well.) "So that''s why there was a table reserved under my name." Arnold said and got up to greet Michelle, "It''s good to see you." "It''s good to see you too, Mr Ling. I see you''re as gentlemanly as ever." Michelle replied and hugged Nina, "I always have a table reserved for the people I care about, after all, we''re all a family." "Once we relocated here, Nathan decided to relocate the club as well but it ended up being a restaurant instead." Nina exined to Arnold. The night proceeded and the duo left the restaurant together, this time on foot. "So what''s next?" Arnold asked Nina, his hands tucked in his pockets. "What makes you think there''s a ''next''?" Nina teased him. "Well, if there isn''t, then I''d be leaving." It was his turn to tease her instead. "You''re such a jerk." "That''s what you get for making me wait for so long." "Aww, I''d have assumed you were telling truth if I didn''t know better." "You''re saying, I liked it?" "Oh please, I saw you drooling all over yourself when I entered through the doors." "What type of pills have you been taking these days?" Arnold smirked, "Because whatever you''re taking, isn''t helping." Nina didn''t reply, instead, she pushed him into the wall next to the sidewalk, pressing him down with her elbow and looked right into his eyes, "You might be the strongest mage I''ve ever met but I am a swordswoman and no matter how strong you are, I''m definitely stronger than you." Arnold didn''t mind being pinned on the wall by a beautiful woman but he had other ns in his head. He lightly grabbed her wrist and turned her around while warping his hands around her neck and waist, pulling her closer to him. He then leaned in and whispered into her ears, "You were saying?" But not a single word escaped through her luscious lips. Arnold, being the clueless idiot he was, immediately let go of her; thinking he did something wrong. Nina slowly turned to face him, she moved her head closer to Arnold. He stood there frozen, from both fear and excitement. She leaned in, so her foreheads rest against his. They close their eyes, both of their breaths were shaking. "Thank you," she says in barely more than a whisper. "For what?" He replies, his voice low and husky. "For being you." Her voice wavers, exhrated from the tension between them. Arnold gently leaned in further and kissed Nina''s warms lips. They slowly pulled apart to take shaky, shallow breaths. Unable to contain themselves anymore, Arnold held Nina''s head in his hands and pulled her into a long, fiery and passionate kiss while her hands work their way around his body, feeling each others love, each line along his perfect physique. He kissed her and the world fell away. It was slow and soft,forting in ways that he never thought he''d experience. His hand rested below her ear, his thumb caressing her cheek as their breaths mingled. She ran her fingers down his spine, pulling him closer until there was no space left between them and she could feel the beating of his heart against her chest. They pull apart and open their eyes and stared at each other, looking deep into each other''s eyes. Nina''s eyes were full of wonder and love, while Arnold''s eyes had curiosity and passion in them. No words are spoken but a story worthy of them ismunicated. They both knew they wanted each other more than anything else, and now they finally had what they wanted. The clueless porter finally found her warrior princess. Chapter 157 - A Night Of Passion: Into The Swamps Arc (12) (Warning: Potentially sexual content ahead, proceed with caution. And don''t worry it''s just for this chapter I''m not converting this story into a romantic si. It''s just that I''m not an author who would intentionally co*kblock the protagonist of their story and call it development.) ''Intimacy brings that special addiction to your one love, your true life partner. If you aren''t careful it bes an addiction to the physical act and the fantasy rather than the person. And so, be good to yourself, love yourself by being sure that you''ve met your life partner before you go be intimate with them, then the rtionship bes all the deeper for both of the partners. That''s why humans are bonded for life instead of entering the carousel of pain that has be so normal in this toxic society. Lovers are mes that breathe all the more deeply for being closer together; it is then they shine brighter, both within and upon one another, bing a source of light and love in the world, showering sparks of positive chaos into the dark. So find yourself someone like that.''?? It was something Arnold''s dad told him as he was about to enter into adulthood and after his first breakup, he also gave Arnold a lot of other useful advice but sadly he wasn''t able to see either her son or his daughter as responsible adults, but right now Arnold couldn''t care any less about his dad''s advice, all he wanted at that moment was the woman who was standing in front of him, her eyes filled with unadulterated desire for love and attention. In the room that was shrouded in twilight and shadow, Arnold stood close enough for Nina to breathe in his scent. His arms wrap around her back and in one gentle pull their skin touched, exchanging their body heat with each other. Nina felt his hand in her hair, how he loved the softness, watching it tumble as he releases it. Then his hand moved down to her cheekbones and to her lips, the ones he could never get enough of. That''s when the kissing resumed and they start to move like partners in a dance that was written deep within their cores. With one kiss her ambivalence shifted to enthusiasm. She felt like he was the only man on earth for her, the only one who can breathe fire into her soul even when she was desperate and cold. Their bodies fit together as if they were made just for this, to fall into one another, to feel this natural rhythm. Nina bit her lips as Arnold, with augh lifted her right off her feet, carrying her toward the bed, then letting her fall with a soft bounce on the mattress. They lock eyes for just a moment, just enough for them to feel safe with one another. From that moment on their clothes were just a hindrance, but Arnold solved the problem in under a minute, kissing her toes and moving upwards, slowly with love, his hands on her legs, always just a little higher than the kisses. Nina felt her back arch in anticipation, knowing where his fingers will soon reach. Her head rocked back against the pillow as he does, the first moan escaping through her lips. The night was still young and they had all the time they''d ever need to explore each other''s bodies. *** Next Morning, At Nina''s home... Arnold still had his arms warped around Nina as she let her head rest upon his naked chest. All his thoughts that weren''t about her stopped as if his heart had taken over his head when they were close. The next moment he squeezed her body as if he needed to check she was there with him, really there, to see if it was all real and not a dream... and it was, Nina was lying next to him, in body and soul. He doubted anyone else ever felt the way he did keeping her in his arms. He brushed the blond hair off her face to get a clear look of her, sleeping like a baby in his arms. "By God, I''m one hell of a lucky man, ain''t I?" He mumbled after making sure Nina was asleep, but she wasn''t. "Damn right you are." Nina slowly opened her eyes, revealing his reflection in her deep green eyes, as she leaned in to give him a morning kiss, "Good morning!" "I wish all of my mornings were this good." Arnold mumbled and kissed her back. He then stood up, silhouetted against the open doorway, not wearing anything. He gave another look to her delivered a cheesy pick-up line that ended up making herugh, and pointed towards the shower. "May I?" "Are you serious? Why the heck do you even need permission for that after all the things we didst night?" Nina couldn''t hold herself back and startedughing as Arnold entered the bathroom to shower. There was something a little happy inside him, which was clear from the way he moved to how he gazed at his long hair and fine beard through the mirror. He looked at the world in a different light like he had never seen it before while walking to his own beat, literally, like there was music ying in his head.But he knew it wasn''t the time to feel good about anything, especially after encountering the humanoid monster. If incidents like this kept happening in the ''safe zone'' of West America, things won''t remain as they are for long. "There''s a rtionship between Devon and the White Family, and it was most likely that they were the ones conducting these experiments as, ording to Nathan, they have been secretly hoarding arge amount beast crystals for themselves... I don''t even have to ce two and two together to know who is behind all this." Arnold mumbled as warm droplets fell on his skull, slowly cleaning him up, "It''s that same bast*rd who is always giving me troubles in one way or the other... first he tried to kidnap Nicole, then coborated with that shitty guild, set up the church of chaos, and now this... I have to get rid of him as soon as I can, or else who knows what will happen next if that man is left to do as he pleased." Chapter 158 - Beast Collar: Into The Swamps Arc (13) "Leaving already?" Nina asked Arnold as soon as she stepped out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her body. "I have to even if I don''t want to..." he replied while tying his shoces up.?? "I see... well are you going to show me your vanishing trick or not?" she sat right next to him, her body and hair still wet. "There''s not much of a trick, you see." Arnold said and got up from the bed, "All you gotta do is... open sesame!" Arnold uselessly waved his hands around to add a grand effect to his nonexistent spell and a crimson portal opened up in front of Nina. "Open sesame... that''s the best you coulde up with?" She said with a sarcastic look on her face, "Is it toote to forget aboutst night?" Arnold grabbed her wrist pulled her towards him, "I think so." "Oh, my Romeo... get your a*s outta here already." She gently pushed him away, "I don''t like guys who ck off." "Alright alright, I''m leaving." He turned to face the portal, "Just tell Nathan to call me in case he finds something, and tell him to do so on mymunicator. Themunication channels on the base aren''t safe to use." "What do you mean,munication channels aren''t safe? Want us to do something about it?" "Let''s just say, walls have ears as well and no need to bother yourself with such menial tasks, I''ll see youter, madame. Feel free to call me as you please." Arnold smiled and jumped inside the portal. *** Once Arnold was back inside his room, he quickly changed into his uniform and headed inside the workshop. He needed to prepare for war, he also needed to decipher how the beast cors and the monster blood were used to control monsters and humans and he knew the perfect people who could help him with it. But first, he wanted to use his [Probe] skill on both of the items. ___ OBJECT: Beast Cor TYPE: Control device GRADE: A REMARK: A rare device developed by the human race to tame monsters gain control over them. A controlling rune is ced on the inside side of it which essentially binds the monster to its master, delivering an electric shock wherever the monster disobeys the master. ___ ___ OBJECT: Coaxing Blood TYPE : Controlling Liquid GRADE : A REMARK : A blood concoction that is yet another creation of the twisted fantasies of the human mind. Unlike monsters, this blood concoction is used to tame human beings into doing someone''s bidding. A dose as small as a vodka shot is enough to control a human''s action for some time (depends on the intelligence of the target). However, if arge enough dose is given, it would force the target into submission and permanently reduce the intelligence of the target, thus, making it easier to control the target after the next dosage. ___ "So that''s why the church was pouring so much blood into the mouths of the people they had captured. They wanted to ensure that the others submit to them." Arnold mumbled and a portal popped up behind him and Talos and Alice walked out of it, "Also, regardless of what the notification says... there''s no way in hell anyone made these from scratch." He called Talos because he had known things which Arnold didn''t and was more efficient in identifying various types of gears, and Alice because she was the one who was the person using both of these things also because he thought she could provide him with more Intel. Once they were outside, Arnold immediately handled them both of the things and asked them to tell him whatever they knew about them. "I don''t know... we just followed the instructions Devon gave us to make the blood concoction." Alice mumbled, "I don''t know whether he made it or if someone helped him-" "I see... well thanks for your help, you can go back inside." Arnold waved his hands and took the sk of blood from Alice''s hands. "But I do know how to make it." She replied. "Alright, I''ll keep that in mind. You can go now." Alice nodded and went back inside his domain. The blood concoction wasn''t of much use to him either, because it could only be used to control human beings and if he needed to control someone he could simply use [Blood Bond] to do so. Since he was already familiar with it, he''d feel morefortable while using it. It was Talos'' turn next. "So what do you think?" Arnold asked, folding his arms before his chest, "Could we replicate it?" "It is... fascinating and unique. This cor can be used to enve any monster there would some restrictions to that and nothing is perfect in this world. Now that being said, there is a drawback to this cor as well." Talos replied, "The cors require regr maintenance as the rune inside it frequently wears off and once the cor is off of the monster, there''s a risk that the monster would go berserk and cause a scene, however in Master''s case, he doesn''t need to worry about such trivial things because-" "I have my domain to restrict the monsters inside." Arnoldpleted what Talos was about to say. "Yes, Master." Talos replied in his electronic voice, "Also, yes we can replicate it but it would require a specific type of rune which I''m afraid the master doesn''t possess yet." "What type of rune do I need?" "A Control rune. Its appearance is simr to the blood rune, the only difference is its size and the colour of engravings on it." "So till I can get a hold of these ''control runes'' I can not use the beast cor?" Arnold asked Talos. "Of course, Master can use it as he pleases. After all, one control runests for the duration of three months, and I''m sure the elder would soon provide you with some different things in the shop once ites back online after you''vepleted your quests." Talos responded. "Three months huh..." Arnold mumbled, "If that''s so then I know exactly who I''d like to tame." "It''s her, is it?" Talos replied after seeing the evil smile on Arnold''s face. "You guessed it right, my greatest creation." His smile widened, "She has given me enough troubles till now, it''s only fair for me to return the favour. She''s been a pain in my butt for so long so it''s about time she started listening to me. After all, I did make her one of my elite summon, didn''t I? It''s time to tame that ungrateful subus." Chapter 159 - Impossible Task: Into The Swamps Arc (14) Look... I''m sorry for I didst time. I should not have thrown the grenades at you. It was a petty move on my part, and I want to make up for it, so I''ve decided that I''m going to let you out of here for a while." Arnold apologised to Natasha who was still angry with him as he had killed her thest time they met. She might''ve been angry but as Arnold mentioned the word ''outside'' she immediately did a 180 and forgot about it all finally gave in to his pretence.?? "A-Alright. Apology epted. Just let me out already!" Natasha wailed while swinging her luscious body. "Alright! But you''ll have to wear this cor first." Arnold said and handed the beast cor, to the confused looking subus. "What''s this?" she asked, carefully scanning the metallic cor from every direction. "Just something to make you invisible. If the humans there saw someone practically naked like you, only God knows what will happen afterwards." Arnold replied with a weird smile on his face. He had already nned it all. Talos was supposed to be hiding inside Arnold''s room and analyse the situation. In case the cor didn''t work or Natasha tried to pull a stunt, he was instructed to immediately deal with her as he was immune to her charisma. Arnold initially wanted to try it out inside the portal but then Talos pointed out that Arnold might not be able to know whether Natasha was abiding by hismand due to the effect of the cor or as a result of his authority over the domain, another reason was that, as he was nning to use Natasha forbat for the first time, he needed to make sure that the cor would work as it was supposed to in the real world. Thus Talos rmended him to call her out to clear his doubts and assured Arnold, he''ll take care of her, if things went south. ''For now, I''ll do as you please human. Hiding my presence won''t hide my charisma. I''ll make sure you''re dead as soon as I''m out of here, but I won''t make it easy nor would I use any weapons, I''ll let you feel pleasure for onest time while I drain your soul out of your body!'' Natasha was still inside Arnold''s domain yet she had already plotting to kill him. With both the sides ready to kill each other should the need arise, Natasha wore the metallic cor which suited very well with her brazen wild look. As much as Arnold hated to admit it, she looked kinda cool, but then again it was supposed to be like that as she was a subus, that too a high tier subus. Her charisma was over 400, while the other stats were mediocre, she was still stronger than his normal summons. She could easily fend off her enemies on her own and if she couldn''t then she''d make them fall for her and force them to kill themselves. Once someone was charmed by her, it was nearly impossible for them to defy her. Arnold himself had almost fallen into this trap along with almost all of his summons. If it wasn''t for Talos and his group of automatons, Arnold would''ve certainly been dead right now. Even when he was inside his domain, he was only being able to resist her charm because of his authority over the domain. Before they left the portal Arnold made sure to check if Natasha had properly worn the cor or not and sure enough she had not fastened the lock behind her neck. This almost made Arnold want to stuff her up with the grenades once again but he remained calm and locked it the way it was supposed to. But the moment he did that, the cor started glowing in blue light. Natasha''s eyes were giving off the same coloured hue as well. ''Did it work?'' It was the first thought that crossed his mind as the blue light slowly faded away. ''Nothing seems to be different though...'' Arnold thought while he circled around the subus, ''I should take her out now, wait, on a second thought, let''s test it out here first I don''t see any harm doing that but to make sure the cor is working, let''s make her do something she wouldn''t do otherwise not even if use my authority on her...'' "Hey, Natasha?" The evil smile reappeared in his face, "Go and p Asterios." "Yes, master," Natasha mumbled and turned around, swaying her body around like a prostitute. "Wait! Don''t do it." Arnold stopped her as she was about to enter the building inside the domain, "If you p him, he''ll definitely kill you, and then I''ll have to wait for an hour to test the effects of the cor outside the domain... instead why don''t you go and kiss Bad-Breath? He''ll be so happy, um... yes please do that instead." Arnold had made sure hismand was loud and clear, still, Natasha didn''t take a single step towards the building... she was resisting hismand. "This woman... she was willing to p someone who would''ve definitely kill her but she wouldn''t go ahead to kiss someone else? What is she, an honourable subus?" Arnold mumbled while scratching his beard, "Well... I don''t me her for that, after all, there''s a reason why I named him Bad-Breath, I think he has a special secret ability that makes his breath smell so bad, but that''s the reason why I ordered her to kiss him because no one in their right mind would do something as crazy as that. Also, her disobedience calls for some punishment doesn''t it?'' He gave her the samemand again, but once again she refused to do so, leaving Arnold no choice but to ''punish'' her. He snapped his fingers and the cor once again started glowing but this time it turned red, and a momentter the red glow turned into red lightning and surged through the body. Her screams filled the void. Even someone like Arnold, who hated her from bottom of his heart couldn''t bear to watch the sight or so he''d like to think, but in reality, he turned around because the lighting was too bright for him to see. By the time the cor stopped electrocuting Natasha, she had already started walking towards the doors... despite her horrifying screams, her appearance remained unchanged. "Weird... I thought she''d look like a roasted chicken after all that lightning." Arnold mumbled and followed her inside the building. Chapter 160 - Secret Revealed: Into The Swamps Arc (15) "Be grateful I stopped him before things got out of hands." Arnold said as both of them stepped out of the void and into his room, "I did not expect him to pull a stunt like that though...." Thingspletely went out of hands as soon as Natasha went ahead ced her gloved hands on Bad-Breath''s cheeks and reluctantly leaned in to kiss him, who started kissing her back like a true caveman,pletely given in to his lust. It was given Natasha would have an effect like that on anyone, she wouldn''t have been much of a subus if she didn''t. But what happened next shocked Arnold, well it made himugh too but let''s not mention that here.?? The second her lips touched Bad-Breath, he went hysterical. Immediately started groping her chest and started feeling her body. It was borderline inappropriate but Arnold thought Natasha could handle herself and would throw him off herself on her own ord but it turned out Bad-Breath had a lot of ''pent-up'' energy (he was dead, how the fck was he pent-up only confused Arnold), and he wanted to smash so immediately started undressing her. This was when Arnold had to step in and knock him out to stop him... that was the power of 400+ charisma. When he asked Natasha why didn''t stop him, she just said, "Master didn''t tell me to..." It was indeed a true ''smh'' moment for him. "Yes... master. I''m grateful for what you did." Natasha bowed low before him, exposing the valley in the middle of her chest. "Stop doing that! There are other ways to thank a man." "Oh... I didn''t know master wanted me to do ''that'', but don''t worry master, I can do whatever you desire for... just say the word and I''ll make ite true!" Natasha said and smacked her lips together like a predator who just found its prey. Arnold opened his mouth again to verbally p that bimbo but as he did, Allen''s voice entered his ears. Arnold turned around and saw Allen was standing next to Talos. It seemed like they were in the middle of discussing something when Arnold and Natasha stepped out of the void. "What are you doing here?" Arnold asked him. "I have some news." **** "Does she know, that you know about it?" Arnold asked Allen, his voice was calm but on the inside, he was seething with rage. "No. I''m sure she didn''t." Allen replied, "I never went there but heard it through the hidden microphone I ced there." Last evening, Allen had set up a small-sized hidden mic inside Amanda''s room when he went there along with Arnold and had nned on using it to spy on her. ording to him, nothing happened until three a.m., right when he was about to sleep when she received a call from someone. The person had called her to inform her about some kind of experiment where a monster has escaped from confinement and caused a scene. He then proceeded to y the recording in which Amanda admitted that she was the actual culprit behind the monster attack that happened yesterday in Los Angeles, as well as the fact that theboratory was hidden inside that very forest. Arnold couldn''t believe what he was listening to... it was all the confession that he would need to put her behind the bars. Justst night, Nathan wasining how it would be difficult to prove that the White Family had been secretly manufacturing monsters with so little evidence but with this, it would be a piece of cake to do so. However Arnold didn''t want to arrest her... he wanted her dead, no, allowing her to die would be a lie doing her a favour. Someone who could do something so sickening to her own people deserved a fate much worse than death, and Arnold knew exactly what he had to do. He needed to take care of the hiddenboratory as well and with Nathan''s help, it could be dealt with easily. So he decided to send the audio to him but requested him to wait till tomorrow and just keep an eye on the forest, to which Nathan hesitantly agreed, but pressed on the fact that he won''t wait any longer than tomorrow evening, exactly the amount of time he''d need to assemble everyone. Arnold thanked him and disconnected the call. "Damn that bitch... guess my hunch was as good as ever." Arnold mumbled, "Who knew she was the one controlling her family without even being there in the first ce." "I don''t think she''s a mind reader either... she''s been hiding her true powers all along." Allen chimed in. "Yes... that is if she actually managed to kill that guy in Los Angeles, all the way from here." Since they only had the audio, they couldn''t know how she managed to kill someone who was thousands of kilometres away from her, "If I had a power like that then I''d have killed that humanoid monster from far off rather than waiting for it to charge at us... I could have saved so many lives..." "What monster are you talking about?" Allen inquired. "The same monster Amanda was talking about." "Wait a minute... that monster was in Los Angeles and you were here, in Zone 4... so how the hell did you even manage to get there!" "I guess I could tell you..." Arnold smiled and proceeded to tell him about [Void Travel]. "Now that''s a hell of a skill!" Allen eximed excitedly, "So that''s why you wanted to know if I had been to Los Angeles or not so you could use void travel to go and meet up with Nathan and the others." "You are quick to catch on as usual." Arnold smiled and patted his shoulder, "You did great work!" Talos and Natasha had been silently watching the humans converse among themselves until Arnold stood up and turned around to face them. "I''ll need your help, but we need to be discreet about it." Arnold looked at Natasha, "It''s about time you started pulling your weight." "I''ll do whatever master wants me too." Natasha said and bowed once again revealing the valley of lust, and Allen bent towards her to take a quick peek into the abyss, only to get smacked in the head by Arnold. "Sorry... sorry..." Allen mumbled and stepped back, "Old habit... don''t worry I''ll try to rectify myself, but you can''t me me for trying... I mean just look at her!" "Whatever," Arnold adjusted the sleeve of his shirt and continued, "Ahem, so here''s what we''re going to do..." Chapter 161 - S Rank Weapon: Into The Swamps Arc (16) Later that night... Arnold stood alone in the dimly lit workshop, only half of the shadow was visible as every muscle on his torso was moving from the light into the dark. He was busy making a work of art, his light skin gave a hint of the strength his body contained, despite his calm looks, his eyes were locked onto the sword he was forging for someone special.?? Tomorrow was going to be a long day for him and he needed to calm his nerves. The only way he knew to do so was to make weapons and gears like he felt he was destined to do so. Why was he making weapons when he was stressed? It was because whenever he made something while he was under stress, not only did it calmed him, the fruits of hisbours were also better and the sword in front of his eyes was a product of suchbour. ___ ? [BLACK WIDOW]: A broadsword made up of the bones of The demon Orc. Upon the creation of this sword, it was further enhanced by its creator. This sword is a true work of art having skills and abilities that no one had ever seen before. Grade: S Strength (STR) : + 105 Weapon Type: Broadsword Weight : 1.8 kg Additional effect : [Defender] - Each sessful strike by this sword temporarily (effective for 10 seconds) increases the user''s defence by 2 points. Continuously killing three enemies give a bonus of 5 defence points. This skill has a cooldown of 3 seconds. Additional effect : [Chain Reaction] - Actively striking the enemies for 5 times in a row would permanently boost the agility and evasion of the user by 2 points. Additional effect : [Copy Cat] - Killing enemies having the same rank or lower rank than that of the user, would allow the user to copy a skill of the dead target and store it inside the sword whichter on can be used freely by the one wielding the sword (At maximum only 3 skills can be stored). ___ He had just finished making his first-ever S rank weapon. The sword had a unique skill attached to it called [Copy Cat], which allowed the one wielding the sword to freely be able to steal the skills of a dead enemy. It was because of this skill that the sword managed to achieve the S rank, and it all happened just because Arnold of the chaotic mind of Arnold decided to use a blood rune as one of the core materials for making the sword and gave it everything he had got. Making his first S rank weapon also meant that... ___ ? SUPREME CREATIONIST : [ INTRODUCTION ] : Your arsenal of weapons might be enough for now, but in future, they''ll be useless and so will you. [ TASK ] : Upgrade your existing weapons and build new ones and arm your helpers. [ PROGRESS ] : 3/3 Gears repaired. 1/1 S ranked weapon created. 0/1 Relics created. 189/250 Gear made. ___ "I''ve made some progress through the quest..." Arnold mumbled, "The automatons are regrly producing more and more gears every day so I don''t need to worry about making 250 gears... but I do need to think what a ''relic'' is..." Arnold continued, "Literal definition of ''relic'' means... something old, like an artefact. But then how am I supposed to make something old? That doesn''t even make any sense. Maybe I need to make a replica of a historical weapon? That would make a little sense. *sigh* I need to focus on tomorrow instead of getting worried about something I can revisitter." He yawned and stretched a bit before cing the hammer on top of the anvil. He stored the ck sword in his inventory as he hadn''t made it for his summons, but for Nina. Nicole had told him that Nina always wanted to ask him to make a weapon for her but as he left for Brazil before she recovered, she never got the opportunity to do so and now that he was back, she didn''t want to bother him with such a request when he was already so busy being the Section Chief of zone 4. "Nicole is really trying to bind the two of us together... that girl. I''m grateful to her for what she did but the fact that she might have a system troubles me a lot." Arnold shook his head and calmed his raging nerves down, "Overthinking won''t help me either." He pulled a chair and sat down on it while drinking water. Soon Allen entered the workshop and sat down in front of Arnold. "So?" Arnold put down the bottle and asked him. "Everything has been taken care of. Tomorrow morning the soldier would leave to destroy the nearby monsterirs and gather resources, so you don''t have to worry about them getting in between your fight and can go berserk on her if needed." Allen replied ying with the knife Arnold had made for him. "What about those women that we rescued?" "We''ve shifted them in the lower levels... not even a nuke can touch them." Allen proudly mmed a fist on his chest, clearly proud of himself but the moment he saw the look on Arnold''s face he doubled down, "I admit it was an overstatement... Ahem, allow me to rephrase my statement. A couple of kilos of explosive would be enough to do the trick, but, but! Talos is looking after them so you can rest assured that nothing will happen to them and even I''m going to be there, so don''t worry about them and focus on dealing with Amanda. After all, we still don''t know what type of ability she has." "Don''t worry, I''ve already nned it all. No matter what skill she has, nothing can save her tomorrow... nothing." Arnold got up from his seat and turned towards his bedroom, "I''m going to bed, I''d suggest you do the same." "Got it Chief!" Allen saluted him and walked himself out. "Now what are you doing in my bed?" Arnold''s mouth twitched and a vein popped out of his head. "I thought, the master would like to release some stress after working for so long. You must be tired right, master?" Natasha gave him a luscious smile and rolled over the bed to make some space for him, "Would you like me to massage your tense body or would like to release your stress inside me, huh?" "You want me to release my stress right?" "Yes, master..." "Then how about," Arnold pulled out the vindicator from his inventory and pointed it towards her, "I do so by killing you?" "Eeek!" Natasha shrieked and jumped out of the bed, "I''m sorry! I''m sorry!" Arnold sighed heavily and lowered his weapon, "Just tell me whether you got ''sexual'' energy to do what I asked?" "Of course I did! After all, I''m the Queen of seduction, the true-" "Yeah yeah whatever, just go back inside the void, for now, I have to sleep." "Are you sure, you wanna s-l-e-e-p?" Natasha smacked her lips together. Arnold immediately pointed his guns at her once again. That was all to he needed to make her obey him. "You''re no fun at all, hmph!" Natasha said as she stormed off. "Just stay away from Bad-Breath." Arnold smirked andid on the bed, slowly drifting away into a deep sleep. *** The next morning... Arnold was standing on the roof of the workshop. Watching the soldiers slowly leaving through the various gates of the base while the repairs were going on around the walls that the ck trolls had destroyed. He peered out over the terrace, his eyes taking in the bright colours squeezing through clouds. ''It was chilly today,'' he thought, but it wasn''t enough to bother someone like him who could produce ice just by waving his hands. It had rained the entire night, the scent of rain still hung in the air as he watched the darkened sky slowly takeover the morning sky. The hue of Pinks, yellows, and reds disappeared first. Blue soon followed, overtaken by the greyness climbing over the mountain tops. But as the mist thickened and the unmistakable role of thunder growled threateningly, one colour hung on, it was orange but even it was rapidly fading. It didn''t take long until the husky colour faded. Rain sttered the deck, and he went inside. "Is it necessary to rain every time I decide to fight someone?" He mumbled and equipped his gears underneath his clothes. "You guys ready?" He asked the others once he was prepared to move. "I''m ready but we should wait a bit more. Thest squad is still at gate-2." Allen replied. "You, Natasha? All set?" "Yes, master." Her body shaking with excitement. "Good then let''s move out once thest squad has left." Arnold wanted to make sure that there was no one in the base because he didn''t want Amanda to take someone hostage using her powers, which were still unknown. That''s why he told Allen to give an emergency mission to the soldiers, so that all of them would leave and the base would be deserted, thus not giving her an opportunity to get away. Also after listening to the recording that Allen had provided them with, Arnold and Talos, together determined that Amanda''s powers were most probably a type of mental attack, simply based on the fact that it was almost impossible to physically attack someone who was thousands of kilometres away from her and since Amanda''s powers were most probably rted to mental attacks, Talos and the other automatons, golems and hounds were the best option to protect the women that he had saved after killing the Demon Orc. But if all went ording to n then there wouldn''t be a need for them to do anything. "Okay... alright." Allen disconnected the call and turned towards Arnold, "They have left, we can start now." "Alright then, move it!" Chapter 162 - Defeated: Into The Swamps Arc (17) It was still raining like cats and dogs, as Arnold walked into her room alone, his shoes drenched in muddy rainwater but his clothes were surprisingly dry. "I knew you''de." Amanda was slumped at her desk, her brows creased and face tense. She asked him in her calm and collected voice, "What''s up?"?? "Nothing much," Arnold smiled and sat across the table, "There''s something I wanted to talk to you about." "Yeah?" She replied and sat up straight to look him in the eye. "I think you might have heard about that happened a couple of nights before in Los Angeles?" "Yes... I did. I didn''t know someone would do something so harsh to one of my family members. I was informedst night about it... the man whose locket was recovered was my brother... my blood..." Her head sank into her hands as she uttered those words, sniffing at irregr intervals. ''And the Oscar goes to... miss bitch!'' Arnold thought and barely managed to swallow his disgust back, ''It''s true he was your brother, and that''s what makes it, even more, f*cked up.'' Nathan had already informed Arnold that the locket around the beast''s neck indeed belonged to her brother who was an aplished A rank swordsman who specialised in executing sneak attacks and was often referred to as an assassin rather than a swordsman. But this is what made Arnold feel more disgusted. How could she do it to get her own brother? "I''m so sorry to hear that," Arnold mumbled, his voice as apologetic as it possibly could get given the circumstances, "Nathan didn''t inform anything about that to me he just told me that there had been some type of a monster attack in a forest around Los Angeles and that the White Family was somewhat involved in it, but he didn''t give me much detail and ordered me to ask if you had any information about the attack or how a person got converted into a monster." Amanda sniffed for thest time and looked back at him, there was aseriousnessabout her that unnerved Arnold as if she already knew about Arnold''s ns or maybe it was something else... his mind was getting hazy... he couldn''t think properly. ___ You''re under the influence of lvl 6. You''re in a state of . Your intelligence is above 200. You can break through the skill. Do you want to nullify the status effect? ___ ___ You''re under the influence of lvl 6. You''re in a state of . You can break through the skill if the eye contact with the caster is broken. ___ Fear and confusion were a deadlybination of status effects. Even though Arnold had enough intelligence to nullify the effect of , he couldn''t do so because of the he was suffering through. His confused self couldn''t even focus on the notification that had popped up in front of his eyes let alone decide whether or not he wanted to nullify or not, and because of the fear status effect, he could move from his spot neither could he avert his gaze away which was essential for nullifying the effects of confusion. It was a perfect trap against someone like him. "Don''t know anything my ass!" Amanda bellowed and kicked the table over to protect herself in case Arnold somehow managed to get rid of the status effects. But in the process of doing so she ended up knocking him down, "I saw the way he treated you whenever he was here and there''s no way he is going to hide any information from you!" Her knocking Arnold down was a blessing in disguise. The moment their eyes contact was broken, Arnold got free from the confusion status effect. Without wasting a second he immediately cancelled the effect of and quickly took out the vindicators, and another notification popped up on his interface. ___ EMERGENCY QUEST : Save yourself ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are under attack by Amanda White. She''s out for your blood, it''s time you return the favour. [ TASK ] : Kill or subdue your attacker. [ PROGRESS ] : Target killed: 0/1 or Target captured: 0/1 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 1000 EXP ? Random reward. ___ ''I wasn''t going to kill her either way, but I''m definitely going to make her pay!'' Arnold backflipped and got back on his feet and barraged Amanda with countless bullets. But the bullets stopped midway... it was like the scene from the Matrix where Keanu Reeves froze the bullets midair, but only this time Amanda was in the role of Neo instead of Reeves... "Telekinesis?" Arnold mumbled, referring to the ability to manipte and control any object at will. Arnold didn''t look at her, afraid that he might cast another skill that would give him an unwanted status effect, but the nearby window did show him faint glow that wasing through Amanda''s body, and the next moment the same bullets he had fired on her, had switched allegiance and rained upon him instead. He barely managed to avoid the bullets and hid behind a pir. "Don''t tell me, a Section Chief is scared of a mere Brigadier General? Haha!" She let out a hystericalugh and started walking towards him. The situation was bad... Arnold couldn''t use the weapons had to take care of her, neither could he indulge in hand to handbat with her because, if he got too close to her she might even be able to take a hold of his body or she could apply other status effects on him to ensure his defeat. "Who would have thought she would have the light affinity among everything..." Arnold mumbled while he tried to formte a n. There was only one way for someone to obtain telekinesis, and that was if that person had the affinity. It was by far one of the strongest affinities someone could have and it was also one of the rarest ones. Arnold''s ice affinity was also a rare affinity but Amanda''s affinity was on another level. One could say that the Light affinity along with the shadow affinity, was the progenitor of all the other affinities. Telekinesis was only one of the many deadly and utility-based skill among the many other skills like the one which allowed the user to manipte their strength, it essentially meant that could lower or increase their rank and level as per their will. Arnold was sure that she had utilised this skill to fool everyone and lowered her rank to get herself stationed in East America but what truly surprised him was the fact that she managed to fool the system as well! However but there was a drawback for having the light affinity as well. One had to work thrice as hard as the others to level up their skills and rank, it was for this reason that Arnold hadn''t learnt that affinity in the beginning. But this wasn''t the end, one of the only known sessful ways to counter the light signify was to have the shadow affinity, which he sadly, did not have. No matter how hard he thought, he couldn''te up with a way to defeat her... he couldn''t use his ranged weapons nor could he engage with her in closebat. Seeing no other way around he called out his summons to help him out. He opened a portal leading to the void right in front of her, Asterios immediately came out charging towards her, his Warhammer in his hands. However the moment he stepped out of the portal... ___ Your Summon(s) : ? Asterios Have been destroyed and would summons would resurrect in : 1 Hour. ___ ...He got torn into pieces. Right in front of his Master''s eyes. The same thing happened over and over again, even Dread was no match for her and in the end, Arnold had to close the void. "You really thought your summons could''ve helped you against someone like me?" Amandaughed and with a wave of her hands, destroyed the pir Arnold was hiding behind, "Looks like its the end for you..." "Are you serious? Do you think you can kill me and get away with it?" "Serious? You call me serious? Well I guess that''s okay, because at times like this I''d be branded as an insane person if I in a situation like this, but I''m not here to appease you or pretend that you can''t see the damage being inflicted by the syndicate on the populous of our nation. If the things continue to be the way they are right now there will be nothing left to save. You are on the wrong path, my friend, at your feet swirls negative energy, your aura is dark. Cold logic alone brings cruel choices." Amanda announced and used her telekinesis ability to take control over his body and pulled him towards her, "I might seem like the viin here but all I want is to save this country of ours... and I would''ve liked it if someone like you joined my goal." "N-Never in a... hundred years..." Arnold mumbled, struggling to gain control over his body and failing miserably. "Well, too bad then... Goodbye, Section Chief Arnold Ling." She gave him a quick peck on the cheeks and turned around. Something shed in front of his eyes and his expression hardened, he hurriedly tried to move away with a sudden shift but It was toote. The emotions from his face disappeared before anyone could identify it hits soul was being scratched from his body while he felt like he was desperately trying to catch an escaped balloon; the string dangling so tantalizingly close but the wind pushed it away and it''s lost forever. To describe his facial expression would be like describing a nk sheet of paper. From the look on his face, it looked like he could have been in aa for all the life. And then there was a hint of the victor in the smile surrounded by stiff cheeks on Amanda''s, not the supple grin of a friend, but the joy of the enemy after the battle is won, but just as she did, another voice echoed through her mind. "Alright, next question." It was Arnold''s voice. Everything in front of her eyes returned to how it was when Arnold had entered her chamber. Chapter 163 - Blood Concoction(1): Into The Swamps Arc (18) There was a hint of the victor in the smile surrounded by stiff cheeks on Amanda''s, not the supple grin of a friend, but the joy of the enemy after the battle is won, but just as she did, another voice echoed through her mind. "Alright, next question."?? It was Arnold''s voice. Everything in front of her eyes returned to how it was when Arnold had entered her chamber. Amanda was once again slumped at her desk and Arnold entered into her room wearing wet boots. The same conversation followed but Amanda''s replies changed, she once again captured Arnold and killed him, but then everything started all over again and again... she was hallucinating, or to be precise, she was under Natasha''s illusion. In reality, Instead of sitting in the chair, Amanda was slumped on the floor, with Natasha''s hands-on each the side of her head and her legs around her neck while Arnold stood in front of them questioning Amanda, and she truthfully replied to him regardless of what he asked. Amanda''s eyes were glowing blue, while Natasha''s eyes had turned ck... when darker than darkness itself. Arnold recalled how everything went down once he entered her chamber. Everything happened the same way as the scene that was continuously repeating inside Amanda''s mind. Arnold walked up to the table and sat down across her, they talked, Amanda used her abilities and gave Arnold the fear and confusion status effects. She then flipped the table and knocked him down. He shot bullets at her, she stopped them and fired them back at Arnold and Arnold hid behind a pir to save himself. But the reality was different from that point onwards. Unlike Amanda''s illusion where Arnold called upon all of his summons and she destroyed them one after the other, actually, Arnold didn''t summon anyone in front of her but instead, he converted the entire room into his domain just like he did while fighting against Jake. But unlike Jake who had a system to help him and not allowing Arnold couldn''t take control over his body, Amanda wasn''t immune to it and thus Arnold used his authority over his newly formed donation to temporarily subdue her and called Natasha who took hold over the situation. But controlling over someone who wasn''t his summon,pletely drained Arnold of his strength, which wasn''t all that unexpected. Out of all of his summons, Natasha was the only one who had the affinity and was the perfect monster to counter Amanda''s affinity, which she did by putting Amanda under her illusion. In her illusion, she had defeated Arnold countless times, but in reality, she was at his mercy. Arnold squatted down on her level and asked her the next question, "What is your actual rank?" Arnold needed to know this because she had already fooled his [Probe] ability once, and because of the power she had disyed today Arnold was sure she was either S rank or above, it would be wastage to kill someone like her... or maybe not. "I''m an S ranked warrior, you puny bitch!" Amanda smiled like she had been possessed by a ghost or something. She just confirmed what Arnold was thinking, she had used her abilities to mask her true rank... at this moment Arnold wasn''t even sure that her actual name was Amanda but it didn''t matter to him either way. Amanda or not, she was the one who had been leading the White Family to experiment with their kin, hell she even sacrificed her brother for her ''noble'' deeds. She had already spilt the beans that she was only conducting the experiments to gain enough humanoid soldiers to overthrow the current regime and rule over America for her own selfish desires, and the first step towards that goal was destroying the ck Family along with anyone and everyone who stood against her. "How long can you hold her like this?" Arnold asked Natasha. "About... twenty... minutes... more..." Natasha mumbled. "I need to think about what to do with her in the meantime, but first... Amanda, were you involved with the affairs of the church in any way?" Arnold asked her once again. The moment she was put under Natasha''s illusion, Arnold demanded Amanda tell him about each of her abilities, and one of them was mind control... at this point, Arnold had a hunch that Allen might not have been the only one who was involved with the affairs of the church and what she told him next made him almost kill her. "Involved? You piece of crap, I was their true priestess! I had ced everyone in there under my mind-controlling ability," Sheughed once again, "and you know what''s the best part about it? All of these people who were under my control thought whatever they were doing, they were doing because of their own free will! But in truth, I was the one forcing them to do so. Like you beloved Alice and Allen, they still think they were the ones responsible for doing what they did, but instead, all of their memories are wed. A pretty strong effect, don''t you agree?" She continued, "It''s true Alice was working with Devon, way before I put her under my control but when she got to knew about his ns about killing off hundreds of thousands of innocent people and ruling over America, she got cold feet and tried to run away to inform the others about Devon''s ruthless ns, but before she could do it, I ced her under my control and made her the dummy Priestess!" Arnold''s body went cold, but then all of a sudden the whites in his eyes turned a pure ck, and as his iris glowered teal. Symbols, lines and dots formed in the iris, ced in a sort of manner. His nails dug deep into the palm of his hands, blooding out of them. The [Devil''s Rage] almost got activated by itself but Arnold managed to control his emotions in thest minute. Only the devil himself knew what Arnold would''ve done if somehow his most deadly ability had activated by itself. Arnold closed his eyes and slowly calmed himself down, but Amanda wasn''t done yet. "And what do I tell about Allen... his mind was already poisoned against his family, I thought it would''ve been sufficient to make him work for me but when I exined my ns to him and tried to get him to my side, he flipped out and tried to kill me, so I had to take him under my control as well, then I falsified the memories of Alice and Allen such that they believed that they had been working together for a long time and that they had been trained by Devon to destroy everything the syndicate has built over the years." Her face turned expressionless. She wasn''tughing anymore but Arnold could feel her smiling on the inside, "Having Allen work with a terrorist organisation was beneficial to me in more ways than one. He was like a well-ced pawn, whom I intended to make use of to defame the ck Family and cause them to lose their face in front of the world, but then you appeared and I was forced to move forward with the next part of the n which was still in its premature state... it was time to get rid of your pretty little family." Arnold was fuming... he was barely able to calm himself down. His stare was sharp as a knife, he didn''t blink but kept staring at Amanda''s face, thinking about even littlest of reasons to not kill her... not yet or maybe he should, he didn''t care about it anymore. His eyes were filled with rage, anger boiling out his blood. Ufortable with the void in his eyes, he had filled it with an emotion he was more at ease with - raw anger. The unmoving gaze was apanied by deliberate slow breathing like he was fighting something back and loosing. He was trying to fight back the urge of killing her. He could''ve killed her with ease if he wanted to, but it would give rise to who another set of issues. Once he killed her, he could resurrect her back, but then he would have to do the same thing that he did with Natasha before giving her the cor. He would have to force Amanda to live inside his domain because there her abilities won''t work on him or his summons, but he wanted her to atone for her crimes and get rid of her family and for that, he would have to make her confess in front of everyone else, which meant he would have to take her out of the void to do so as he didn''t want the entire country to know about his ability. However, he knew that the moment he did so all hell would break loose. She was stronger than all of his summons, the syndicate might be able to find a way to control her but at that moment Arnold didn''t give a flying fck about it. He wanted to deal with her himself. He thought about using [Blood Bond] that way she wouldn''t be able to do anything that Arnold forbid her from doing, but the problem was... the ability was still in cooldown. It hadn''t even been a week since Arnoldst used it on Allen. But... he had something to take care of the situation right now. Chapter 164 - Blood Concoction(2): Into The Swamps Arc (19) He had something to take care of the situation right now. While he thought about what he was going to do next, Amanda kept bbering like a mindless robot who only knew one thing... answer her owner.?? "I wanted your family to destroy themselves by their own hands. That''s why I readily agreed when you said you wanted to go and hunt down the church on your own and it saved me a lot of trouble, else I''d have to bring in the fake priestess by myself. But I couldn''t leave everything to chance, so I tried to take over your mind as well but for some reason, it didn''t work... that''s when I decided I needed to y along with you for a bit more... Once you captured Alice and the interrogation started, I used my powers once again to take control over one of the guards inside the room and instructed him to shoot Alice in the head, before you used any skill to make her talk. I didn''t know whether you have an ability to do that or not, but I didn''t want to take any chances." Amanda stopped for a brief moment, the throat was dried up, she gulped her saliva before starting once again, but Arnold wasn''t listening to her, instead, he was grabbing something from his inventory. "What I didn''t know was that you could resurrect someone upon your will and at that moment I panicked, thinking that if you resurrect her, she might regain her memories... and would out my secret. That''s when I decided to put everyone present in the room under my control and tried to stop you, but you didn''t listen and went ahead with it despite the protest from the others..." "Five... minutes... more," Natasha mumbled, her expression changed. She was doing the best she could to maintain her control over Amanda, but there was a limit to what one could do and Natasha was already at her limit. "It''s alright." Arnold replied, "Just remind me when you have about a minute left... it''ll then let''s see what this b*tch has to say for herself..." "You can imagine how surprised and relieved I was, when she couldn''t remember anything about me... maybe that bullet inside her head did something or maybe it was something else. I was safe and it was all that mattered. After that, all I needed to do was to make Allen act like he had been caught red-handed and all you immediately decided he was the real culprit." Amanda chuckled excitedly, "But I can''t believe no one ever asked why that man suddenly decided to kill Alice, not even you, Mr self-proimed Holmes, and all of you automatically assumed Allen made the man do something like that through ckmailing or something." Then she stopped again. Her mouth waspletely dry, she couldn''t even drink her saliva anymore, but Natasha forced her to speak regardless of her dry mouth. "Everything was going ording to n to now. The next day the delegates arrived to interrogate him. I had already informed Elena about the situation and told her to prepare ordingly. I was sure the ck Family was going to end soon but then everything fell apart..." Arnold knew exactly why Amanda said that. It was because she hadn''t expected Nathan to know about the beast crystals they had been hoarding away to experiment on their ''test subjects''. "Not only did he knew about the crystals, but he also had his suspicions on what we were doing with it... that damned bitch Elena couldn''t even hide a simple thing from him." She wanted to spit her disgust out but she couldn''t, "It would''ve been alright if he only knew that much but he knew more... he knew about our rtionship with Devon and how both of us were getting benefited by the monster outbreaks and evolution. As much as I hate to admit it... I underestimated the ck Family. I needed to take control over him too but I had already reached the limit for my mind-controlling ability when I decided to control everyone during Alice''s interrogation so I couldn''t do it and what was supposed to be an easy victory turned into a gut-wrenching defeat. Not only Nathan managed to save his family from getting disgraced and being outcasted, but he also managed to turn the tables on us." "One... minute... left..." "Keep going," Arnold replied and fetched a sk from his inventory, he knew exactly what he was going to do with Amanda once she was done spewing crap about everything. "...I ended up destroying my own family..." Amanda mumbled as the blue glow within her eyes started to fade. The same thing happened with Natasha, but it was much worse for her. She waspletely drained of mana, she fell backwards as Amanda slowly regained her consciousness. She half-heartedly opened her eyes, as if she didn''t want that illusion to stop, but once her eyes were open, she saw the smiling face of the man whom she had already killed numerous times and in numerous ways... but there he was... standing tall and proud, not even a single scratch on his body. She leapt in the air as if a firecracker had gone off, gave out a hideous shriek. Wild-eyed, bewildered, her nostrils were ring but blood had drained from her face, mouth opening and shutting like a goldfish with no sounding out because her mouth was too dry to do anything, she stood still as a statue, her face stuck in an incredulous expression, unblinkingly staring at Arnold in disbelief... how was he alive!? Then she turned around to see the feminine winged creature was lying unconscious on the table. She immediately knew it was a subus, after that it took her a moment to figure out what had happened... she, the master of mind control, had been tricked by a mere monster. There was no worse way than that to get humiliated by someone... She felt like she was cheated on by her spouse, only it was much worse. What she was feeling was hate. Due to ack of better words, hate was oftenpared to anger and betrayal. ''Hate'' is a word that people use lightly. "Oh, I hate it when..." "I hate that..." but hate; hate is truly indescribable. But at that moment hate had been personified in Amanda. Her eyes started glowing once again, she was going to kill him this time for sure, but even in the face of the danger, Arnold was as calm as a monk, his smile never left his face. For a moment she felt something other than hate and anger within herself... it was fear. She was afraid because she knew unlike her, he already had a n in his head, because if he didn''t then he would already kill her while she was trapped in the illusion... or maybe this was an illusion as well? Although he had regained her senses, she was still having a hard timeprehending what was real and what was an illusion. At that moment she recalled something that her brother, the same brother whom she sacrificed for her ambitions, had told her regarding how he felt while confronting the monsters. "I''m scared, ready to run away at any moment. But I can''t show it to everyone else around me, because if their leader was afraid of the monsters, then who would lead them to victory?" He said, "But being afraid or scared has its pros as well, for it is fear that brings rage, that hot burning anger that seeks to harm. Some say it is a biological switch inside the human brain that''s better left alone, but I digress. When we see something that frightens us, a primitive part of the brain is activated to produce aggression and it is that aggression which if used can lead you to victory!" ''Even in death, you''re just a nuisance.'' Amanda thought and got ready to erase Arnold''s very existence, but before she could do anything, he disappeared from her sight. "Am I still trapped in that monster''s illusion?" she mumbled while trying to trace Arnold. "No, you''re not," Arnold''s voice echoed through the room, "You''re just slow." While Amanda was under Natasha''s illusion, Arnold had already asked about her weakness, one of them was agility. She had informed him that, in order to harm or control someone, she had to maintain eye contact with them for about five to ten seconds. And it was enough for Arnold to gain an upper-hand on his opponent. While Amanda was clueless staring at him, he had already prepared a n to get rid of which he put into action the moment Amanda''s eyes started glowing. ___ Title bonus activated : [Crouching Figure] Please select a summon whose attribute you would like to obtain temporarily : ? [Duke] : uracy (ACC) +85 ? [Talos] : Intelligence (INT) +80 ? [CERBERUS] : Agility (AGI) + 80 ? [Bad-Breath] : Stamina (STA) +60 ? [Asterios] : Strength (STR) +100 ? [Dread] : Strength (STR) +135 ? [Natasha] : Mystic (MYS) +20 ___ Without any hesitation, he quickly selected Cerberus'' agility to help him out but due to his low level, he only gained 40 points of agility instead of 80 but thatbined with his existing 91 agility, his agility was raised over 130 points! The moment he gained the boost, he started circling around Amanda. With this much speed, she could barely make out where his body was, let alone focus on his eyes for five seconds. Before Amanda could n her next move, Arnold knocked her down and reappeared before her eyes for a brief moment. "I think you already know what this is?" Arnold showed her the sk containing the blood concoction before covering her eyes, "A little something to quench your thirst." "No... anything but that... NO!" She desperately struggled to get free from Arnold''s grasp but Natasha helped him to hold her in her ce and forced her mouth open while Arnold emptied the sk inside her mouth. Amanda kicked and wailed, she did everything she could to make herself not drink it, but he thirst overpowered her resolve to not drink the liquid in her mouth, and he ended up drinking the spicy and sticky liquid. Arnold knew the blood concoction had worked because a notification appeared on his interface the moment Amanda stopped struggling. ___ EMERGENCY QUEST : Save yourself ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are under attack by Amanda White. She''s out for your blood, it''s time you return the favour. [ TASK ] : Kill or subdue your attacker. [ PROGRESS ] : Target killed: 0/1 or Target subdued: 1/1 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 1000 EXP ? Random reward. ___ "A fate worse than death..." Arnold mumbled when he saw Amanda''s expressionless face. Chapter 165 - Open Sesame: Into The Swamps Arc (20) The former headquarters of the Church was the best-suited building for Arnold and his summons. It had the housing space that could fit over five hundred people in it, there was a constant power supply for them as well (not that they had a need for it), and one of the main attractions were the prison cells that were located at the basement of the building. They were once used to hold the people whom the church captured, but now most of them were empty. Right now Arnold was inside one of these cells. The prison cell was barely six feet by four. The walls were the same thick grey stone as the lower floor of the building, but instead of a wide window with a flower box, there was a mean barred opening with thick metal bars and no ss. It was no brighter inside than the gathering gloom of dusk, mainly because there was no light source outside the building. The bed was a nk of wood on legs, there was no mattress, no cushioning and only one thin nket. There was nothing else to do inside but to stare at stone walls. To look at the paint that had started to chip off as time passed, or gouged by other prisoners - anything to pass time, slowly going mad, theorizing absurd meanings from the wall''s nk stare.?? Amanda was sitting in the middle of the cell, her face was more expressionless than that of a corpse. Arnold had told Allen to take care of the base while he handled the issue at hand, he had also left about 50 of his summons to help him out, just in case there was an emergency. Arnold had brought Amanda inside his domain because he wanted to further interrogate her, as he was afraid that since Alice''s memories had been altered, the ce she had informed him to be as Devon''s base, might not have been the actual location of the base and sure enough, Arnold''s guess was right. "The base is still in Florida..." Amanda''s emotionless voice echoed through the jail cell, "but it is deeper inside the swamp... somewhere inside the Everdes national park..." Arnold looked at her nk eyes which were fixed towards the floor, she no longer could lie to his face or manipte someone until and unless Arnold told her to do so, thus he was sure, she was telling the truth. He turned towards Talos who handed him a marker and a map of Florida. Arnold handled them to Amanda and said, "Mark the location where his base is, I don''t care if it isn''t 100% correct but try to be as urate as possible." Amanda took the map in her hands and silently analysed it, a couple of minutes passed then she took the marker and marked a small circle on the map before handing the map and marker back to him. Arnold went through the area she had marked and nodded his head before instructing Talos to cast a hologram of the same location that Amanda had marked on the map. He did so, hoping that he''d be able to some clue which might help him to locate the exact location of the secret base of Devon, but sadly he couldn''t. The location he was seeing was no de. There was no sign of humanity there only Ancient Cypress trees loomed out of the murky water and on them were the vines that twisted beautifully around their infected trunks of decay and bright moss, the scenery looked oddly satisfying. As if two pictures joined one above the other, the moon painted in just added to the mood while the colours disappearing into the night slowly cascading away as the sun finished setting. But something was off... at first look, anyone would''ve ignored the almost symmetrical cement of trees and other smaller nts which looked like they had been ced there by someone and didn''t grow on their own... He asked Amanda to verify the location and after closely looking at the holograph of the area she nodded like an obedient dog. Arnold breathed a sigh of relief. At least now he knew where his enemy was hiding. He opened a portal which led back to the base, then grabbed Amanda''s hand and dragged her out of the portal, with Talos at his toes. Arnold needed to inform Nathan about his findings and hopefully, Nathan would have some news for him as well. **** "So that''s why we couldn''t find Devon''s base no matter how hard we tried..." Nathan mumbled and stroked his freshly shaven chin, "That''s a useful piece of information there. Now that we do know where the bastard had been hiding, we can mount an attack on him." Arnold had just informed him about whatever he knew regarding Devon''s secret base, through the newmunication channel that Talos had made from scratch so that Arnold could have a securedmunication with anyone at any time. Talos, Allen, and Amanda were present inside the room along with Arnold, while Nathan and Nina were present on the other side of the screen. "We could, but let''s not make any hurried decision..." Arnold advised Nathan, "Knowing his location won''t do us any could until and unless we get rid of the monsters that are freely roaming around the swamps. You told me about what happened there when you went there for thest time. Do you want history to repeat itself? Even with my elemental abilities, I won''t be able to raise a bridge that would be strong enough for the troops to travel through the swamp. Thus we need to carefully n our way through the swamp first and focus on fightingter." Nathan immediately went silent, he knew what Arnold was saying was correct, just knowing Devon''s location won''t do them much good, until and unless they are able to get rid of the monsters who upied the swamps. The excitement had gotten the best of him and he couldn''t think straight for a moment. "You''re right. We need to prepare ourselves first." He mumbled after realising his mistake, "But what can we do? The moment we enter the swamps, our movement gets restricted and we are like sitting ducks waiting to be killed by mermen, lizardmen and whatnot..." "Just leave it to me. I''ll take care of the problem." Arnold smiled and waved his hand around. "But didn''t you just say your abilities won''t be enough to help us out?" Nathan inquired once again, thinking he heard him wrong the first time. "My elemental abilities aren''t the only set of abilities I have, now do I?" Arnold look confused at Nathan''s ridiculous remarks. ''Is something troubling him? Maybe I should ask him about itter...'' "Oh right... right... sorry, my bad. I forgot that you were a creationist as well. Looks like I''m overworking myself a lot more these days, haha." Nathan let out a forcedugh and quickly changed the topic, "But still, you''ll need to visit the swamp first in order to make some gears that would help us, or else the gears that you make might not bepatible for the actual operation." "Yeah, I know that that''s why I''ll be going there tomorrow morning," Arnold replied. "Are you out of your mind?" Nathan shrieked and stood up, "It''s too dangerous for you to go alone! And as far as I know, most of your summons are bulky so they wouldst long in the swamps either." "Hmm... you do have a point," Arnold mumbled. Nathan was correct, apart from his zombified warriors and automatons, almost all of his summons were bulky and heavy including Dread and Asterios, which meant they wouldn''t be able to run or charge at the enemies as freely as they used to. Talos was the lightest among Arnold''s summons, so he could be of some use, but without his transformation, he might not be able to deal much damage to creatures of the swamp and if he transformed into the Orc demon, then he wouldn''t be able to move around because of the weight problem. Although he could help as long as there were enough monsters or summons to take hits for him. Theva hounds definitely had the agility to move freely in the swamp but it''ll take time for them to adjust to the new environment, and their defence was low as well so they wouldn''t be much of a meat shield and might not be able to protect him. Although Arnold was sure his automatons and zombies should be enough to deal with the swamp monsters for an hour while [Void travel] was in cooldown, still he wanted to hear what Nathan had to suggest, as he wouldn''t have stopped Arnold from leaving if he didn''t have a n prepared. "So what do you suggest I do? After all, I need to visit the ce once." Arnold crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Why don''t you take Nina with you? She''s a swordswoman and has light equipment on her so I don''t think her movement would get restricted and if it came to worse, I''m sure you''d be able to escape from the danger." "No!" Arnold eximed, "I''m not putting her in any danger, you get that?" "Arnold, I can take care of myself." Nina intervened in her defence, "I''m not the same girl whom you rescued from death five years back." "I have no doubts that you can, but still it''s too risky-" "Well, I''m not letting you go there alone either." "Alright alright, stop fighting like a couple." Nathan tried to solve their argument, "Let''s do this then, if Nina wants to go she can, but she''ll have to obey yourmands, no matter how absurd they might be, is that okay with you Arnold?" "Well... yeah it is." He mumbled ''if things went wrong, we can go and hide inside my domain so it''ll be fine.'' "And with you Nina?" Nathan turned towards her. "Yes, it''s alright." Nina replied. Nathan let out a long sigh and smiled, "See problem solved! Just get here and you can n your next move afterwards." But none of them were listening to him anymore. They were busy having their own coded conversation. "Open sesame?" Nina looked at Arnold through the screen and smiled, referring to Arnold''s [Void Travel] ability. "Open sesame." Arnold nodded in reply, "See you at your apartment?" "Sure, I''ll be there as soon as I can." She replied and left in haste. "Guys... am I missing something here?" Nathan looked at Nina then at Arnold then back at Nina like he was watching a tennis match. Chapter 166 - DO NOT SPEND COINS ON THIS CHAPTER!!! ****PLEASE IGNORE THIS CHAPTER. DO NOT SPEND COINS TO UNLOCK THIS CHAPTER!!! It was supposed to be a part of the third volume. Due to some bug it got published in the second volume and now I can''t delete it. If you don''t want to get spoiled, then please do not read this chapter!**** "Did you invite someone over?" Arnold looked at Nina who was still in his arms.?? Nina shook her head and smiled, "I don''t remember, why don''t you check who it is while I get dressed." Arnold looked at her. He knew she was nning something, the look on her face gave her away. But if she wanted to y, he''d y along with her. He dropped her on the bed and threw a bathing robe over her. Then he jumped out of the bed and opened the door. ''Oh, you sly devil.'' Arnold thought after he saw Nicole standing in there. Nicole was shocked to see a shirtless Arnold standing there too. But the shock soon dissipated and she turned around to leave. She was confused as to why Nina would call her when Arnold was over? Didn''t she remember Arnold didn''t want to see her? Now he''ll get even more pissed at her than he initially was. Various thoughts kept running through her mind as she walked away. But as she was about to enter the elevator, something happened. "Um... Nicole, don''t you wannae in?" Arnold asked her. She turned around to see Arnold standing there while scratching his overgrown hair. She tried to calm herself down but couldn''t. Her eyes welled up, waterworks happened and all it took was Arnold to say her name. She rushed over to him wanting to hug him but then Donna said something, ''Be careful. He has ascended to the level of a cosmic being. He''s ranked above you... You''re stuck at C and he''s at cosmic rank B. Remain vignt around him for now. Although I can''t sense any bad intention towards you, you never know what he could be thinking.'' Donna''s words were clear. But Nicole didn''t give a crap. She knew the man in front of him wasn''t the one everyone else knew, but the brother who had previously refused to acknowledge her after she lost her cool and attacked him. Yet now, he had called her by her name... For the first time in ages! She wasn''t going to stop because her stupid ''personality'' wanted her to. She hugged him with tremendous force, knocking Arnold over. Still, she didn''t let go. She held him tightly thinking she was having a dream and Arnold would disappear any moment. "I''m sorry. I''m sorry. I''m sorry..." She kept mumbling while Arnold looked at her crying a river on his chest. At that moment a message popped up in front of him. ___ Power signature of another < Pdin > detected. Initialising contact protocol. ... ... ... Connection established. < Pdin of the Mischievous One > doesn''t seem to have any ill will towards you. The system will continue monitoring the situation for now. ___ ''So she was a pdin all along.'' Arnold smiled weakly, as she wept on his chest. He knew the trials and tribtions of being a pdin and knowing that his sister too went through something simr, turned his heart back to loving her. But not unconditionally like he used to. That love was gone but he could still develop a new rtionship with his sister. Nina stayed next to her bed. Tears of joy welling up in her eyes. Finally, the two people she cared about the most were back together. Still, she knew it would take some time for them to make up for the lost time but Arnold not pushing Nicole away or shouting at her was a good start. Last night when Arnold visited her, she insisted on him to get a shower and while he was inside the shower, she called Nicole and asked her toe over the next morning. At that moment she thought she was ying with fire but after seeing their reaction, she knew she made the right choice. Arnold gently patted Nicole''s head. They both had caused each other pain, but at the end of the day, he was her big brother. He needed to understand that family makes mistakes. He needed to learn and forgive Nicole and she needed to do the same thing. It''s what their parents would''ve wanted. Nicole continued to cry while Arnold hugged her tightly, "Shh... Shh... It''s all good, little one. I''m not going anywhere and I''m at fault too. So how about we sit down first and then talk about it, huh? The floor might not be asfortable as you think." Nicole nodded in reply and wiped the tears off her face and ignored his bad joke. Yet she didn''t let go of him. With his current strength, Arnold could easily throw her off him but he didn''t. Arnold helplessly looked at Nina who came rushing and slowly managed to pull Nicole off him along with his help. Yet the moment he was up, Nicole tightly hugged his arm while they sat down. She was still afraid that it was all happening in her head and Arnold would soon disappear into thin air. They sat down on the sofa while Nina brought them some coffee to drink. Nicole thought she was adept at hiding her broken feelings, yet when she was shown the hope of reconciliation, she started bawling like a baby. She wasn''t like this. Or at least she thought she wasn''t when in reality she was still a teenage girl at her core. The same girl whom Arnold had left to go to Brazil. With the coffee in their bowels, they started talking. But first Arnold needed to hear his sister out. Nina sat on his left side, while Nicole tightly hung onto his right. Still refusing to let it go. Arnold just smiled at told her to talk. He also told her, he needed to hear how she truly felt. No matter how harsh it was. He needed her to be a 100% truthful. That was his only condition. Nicole readily agreed and started her tale. She started talking about how Arnold left her alone. He practically abandoned her for a year. She thought Arnold was tired of taking care of her and that''s why he left. Why else would her brother leave her with a bunch of strangers? The cks were kind people but still to her they weren''t more than strangers to her. She now know why he had to leave but back then, she couldn''t help but me herself because of it. Then she recalled how wrong she was for not responding to his messages as she ''hated'' him. For a year, Arnold kept sending her texts and emails, he kept calling her but she didn''t respond. And then one day... It all stopped. She thought Arnold had finally given up trying to maintain a rtionship with her. She was angry that Arnold had stopped texting her. Although she never responded, she still read his texts. But now that the messages weren''ting in, she got upset. Not knowing that he was stuck inside a transdimensional portal. They after a week, Nichs called Johnny to deliver the worst news of Nicole''s life. He told Johnny that Arnold got stuck inside a transdimensional portal and was most probably dead. Nicole overheard the conversation between Johnny, Nathaniel and Nathan and that''s when she swore to eradicate the monsters off this. All for him. But then the tragedy struck at them. And they lost arge part of America to the monsters. But one day... Arnold reappeared. She was ecstatic to meet him, but Donna interrupted her telling her that pdins often end up killing each other. She now knew it was all lies but back then, she didn''t want to harm her brother that''s why she stayed away. Fast forward to the day Nina and Nicole visited him at the Alpha base. As fate would have it, she ended up assuming that Arnold wanted to hurt her and that''s why she attacked him. She emphasized on the fact that she didn''t want to kill him as Arnold thought but she only wanted to disable him. She said she wasn''t trying to justify what she did because she knew what she didn''t was wrong and she wasn''t thinking straight. But by the time it dawned upon her, it was already toote. She had done something she couldn''t undo. That''s why she hastily left the base and came back to the estate. "On my way back, I kept telling myself I was a good person." Nicole mumbled, once again on the verge of tears, "I kept telling myself everything will be alright. I kept reminding myself that I am a good person, I do good things, I have a heart full of love and the world is full of good people out there. People like my brother who would forgive me for my mistakes." Nicole continued, "However all of my hopes were destroyed when you were found unconscious on at the base... I-I..." Nicole grabbed his arms and broke down once again. She couldn''t continue anymore. By now Nina way on the verge of tears too. Everyone was silent. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Arnold sighed heavily and pulled Nicole closer to his chest. "It takes two hands to p. Not one. I''m equally responsible for this mess." He said and kissed Nicole''s forehead. "Do you remember what dad used to tell us about regret?" Nicole shook her head. She was quite young when they lost their parents so she didn''t remember much about them. Arnold smiled, "He used to say: ''Regret is a learning tool. We let it educate us so that we can move on into a better future.'' You''re regretful and so am I. I failed myself, and you too. But we can rebuild our rtionship. After all two of the strongest warriors in America can''t always keep bickering can they?" "So... Does it mean..." Nicole finally had a tinge of happiness on her face. "Mm-hmm. I forgive you, Nicole. I can''t stay angry at you forever now can I?" Both Nina and Nicole were happiest that they had been in a while. But little did they know, reconciliation wasn''tthe only goal Arnold had. He needed her to trust him and be at his side. For he still didn''t know who the other ascended person was. And he might need her help sooner orter. Chapter 167 - The Strange Trapdoor Lizardmen were known to be a ruthless species among the monsters of swamps. They were like humanoids with scaled skin andsnake-like heads and were nature-bred predators, evolved due to the human interference in the region. They didn''t need armour to protect themselves, their skin alone was sufficient to block the sharpest of swords and knives. Their ws as sharp as the obsidian knife, just one hit by them could tear through the armours and shields of any human warrior. Although they were physically the strongest among the other species, they couldn''t use magic but their sheer poption, agility and battle prowess were more than sufficient to make up for it. Only a fool would take them lightly.?? Despite their introduction, not every lizardman among them was like that. Some act tactfully and in a nned manner, while some just attack whatever they could. Some bare-handedly attacked their target while some fought with weapons and protective gears that either they made for themselves or stole from the humans who were foolish enough to think they could win against them on their own. This was a weird phenomenon as most of the monsters never used human weapons to protect themselves. All in all, even though they belonged to the same ss of monsters they had a lot of individualistic qualities. They had different shapes, sizes and colours. Most of them had greenish scales which covered their entire body and tail, while a selected few had grey scales. It was evident that the grey scaled lizardmen were stronger than the others, as they were the ones who generally wore the armours and wielded weapons and were often seen ordering the green-scaled ones. If the swamp was a yground, then the lizardmen were its bullies anyone else had to run for their lives, but right now the roles were reversed for a particr lizardman. It was still middle of the day, but under the canopy of the thick trees, it looked like the sun had already set. Through the deadly silence of the swamps, a bruised and battered grey scaled lizardman was running like it''s life depended on it and chasing after it was two humans. One of them was wearing a robe, carrying two guns in his hands while the woman in front of him was wearing an armour made up of the tough scales of a grey scaled lizardmen, with a ck sword in her hands. They were Arnold and Nina. Nina had equipped the gear Arnold made for her over the days that they had spent in the swamps, hunting the lizardmen. Nina was helping Arnold with testing the gears he made using the skin and bones of the monsters that they killed. He had just made the essentials for her such as a set ofbat boots for Nina along with the chainmail she was wearing. ___ ? [Lizard Scale Mail]: A chainmail made from the scales of a grey scaled lizardman, could be considered a necessity for the people who want to wander around the swamps. The armour grants special abilities to the user for survival in the swamps. Grade: A Defense (DEF) : + 65 Armour Type: Chainmail Weight : 9 kg (6 kg while [Weightlifter] is active) Additional effect : [Weightlifter] - Reduces the overall weight of the armour by 30% allowing the user to move freely while chasing towards or retreating from a target. This effect slowly wears off when the user stops moving. Additional effect : [Protector] - When facing a lizardman or a group of lizardmen, the armour grants a bonus of 5% increase in defence and a 12% chance of reflecting 60% of the damage inflicted to the attacker. ___ ___ ? [Lizard Scale boots]: A necessity for free movement in swamps. If you don''t have these then be prepared for trouble, because you won''t be able to outrun your enemies and get hunted down faster than you could spell ''death''. Grade: A Agility (AGI) : + 30 Armour Type: boots Weight : 0.3 kg Additional effect : [Slithering] - When moving in a swampy environment boosts agility by 6%. As the user gets acquainted with the environment (spends 24 hours running through the swamps) grants another bonus of 3% extra increase in agility. Additional effect : [Webbed feet] - Allows you to stand over murky water when in a swampy region, preventing you from sinking into the depth of the swamp, where ruthless mermen reside. ___ Nina was wearing both of these equipments, so definitely she was moving way faster than the lizardman they were chasing after. This was the power of a good creationist. No matter what situation they get thrown into, they are able to bounce back better than ever. It took someone like Arnold two days, just two days toe up with the idea for the gears as well as to make a fully functioning model of them as well. Arnold had alreadypleted his mission, he needed to make the equipments that were suited for the warriors and could give them a chance to win against the swamp, which he did. But it was way too soon for him to leave the swamps as he wanted to gather as many resources from the swamp as he could because he needed to make the equipments for the others as well and make a rough map of the region while he was at it, he also intended to make a base of operations there, but he required arger workforce to do so, thus he put that idea on hold. Arnold and Nina were on their usual schedule to make a map of the swamps while gathering more resources, when suddenly a group of fifteen lizardmen led by the grey scaled lizardman, ambushed them, thinking they could easily defeat a couple of humans as swamp was their ying field and they had an advantage over the humans, but to their shock, Arnold and Nina quickly dispatched them even before they could do anything. With Arnold''s newly improved grenades and Nina''s [ck Widow] sword, they quickly and efficiently got rid of them. The leader of the squad, the grey lizardman, started running away from the scene, thinking there was no way for the humans to catch up to him, little did he know, he was dead the moment he decided to attack them. Arnold kept randomly shooting at the trees that were around them, Nina also did the same and shed at as many trees as she could while chasing after the lizardman, who too was doing the same thing. They were doing this because the monsters weren''t the only ones they needed to be wary of... the swamp itself was attacking them. Just like Nathan had informed him, the trees in the swamp had mutated into carnivorous beings who swallowed anything that they could, in their eyes, monsters and humans were one and the same... food. Arnold knew their strength very well because he had witnessed them in action the very first day they had arrived in the swamp. These trees weren''t the same as the ones people often took shelter under, instead of whenever someone cluelessly wandered too close to them, the trees slowly spread their poisonous vines around them and trap their prey. Once the prey was paralyzed due to the poison and couldn''t move, they revealed their true self and open their woody mouth to swallow the prey. You could say the trees had turned into a giant Venus flytrap and everyone else into mere insects. "This ce is deadlier than I thought..." Arnold mumbled and shot down yet another tree, "But I''m notining." ___ You''ve killed a Unique being. EXP: +3000 You''ve killed a Unique being. EXP: +3000 You''ve killed a Unique being. EXP: +3000 ___ He was getting an insane amount of EXP for killing the trees who were ssed as . Arnold didn''t know why it was like that but he had a hunch about it. This was the only ce where he had encountered these carnivorous trees despite the radiation being spread throughout the Eastern America, thus this made these monster trees ''unique'' to this particr location and that''s why he was getting the mind-boggling amount is EXP for killing them. Hell, whenever he killed a green-scaled lizardman, he got only got 1000 EXP and 2000 EXP for killing the grey scaled one. Thus killing the trees were more beneficial for him. But even so, he didn''t want to destroy all the trees in the swamps and there was a simple reason behind it. The way he saw, the swamp was the perfect levelling ground for him, or to put it into other words, it was a golden goose for him. Unlike the monsters who needed to mate in order to reproduce, these trees were not bonded by such boundaries and could reproduce on their own. Meaning as long as there were enough carnivorous trees in the forest, he could alwayse back here and gain a lot of EXP. Which was exactly what he needed, as the system always gave him quests which required him to level up his subsses or get new ones, so the more EXP he got, the easier it would be for him to do that. "Was this bastard trained by Usain Bolt or something?" Nina cursed as Arnold caught up to her. "Calm down tigress. You''re the one scaring it away." Arnoldughed, but his eyes were focused on his target, he wanted to shoot that bastard lizardman but it was too quick and the dense swamp always saved it from getting hit, "You are right though. It''s about time to kill it." Arnold threw his guns back in his inventory, to get room to run faster, then ws popped out of his hands and he boosted his speed using [Rapid sh]. Nina trying to keep a constant pace to his left, but failed. Like lightning, Arnold dashed to the lizardman''s right with a renewed burst of speed, the lizardman was shocked to see this and quickly raised his shield to protect itself, but Arnold''s ws tore through the shield and pierced the monster''s skull, killing it instantly. Nina soon caught up to him and saw something that Arnold missed... "Is that a trapdoor there?" Chapter 168 - Nagas Nina walked up-to-the hinged door looking structure which was barely visible because of the duskiness of the swamp, but Nina''s sharp eyes caught whatever little light the metallic handle of the trapdoor was reflecting. The trapdoor was surrounded by the roots of the nearby trees which prevented anyone from opening the hatch, but with her sword, Nina easily sliced through them to release the door from nature''s grasp. "What even is that..." Nina whispered to Arnold who was standing next to her looking intently at the old wooden door.?? A short pair of worn-out sculptures were engraved on the entrance which was covered in murky swamp marks. Nina leaned in to open the door but Arnold gently pulled Nina back and call forth an automaton to pull open the trapdoor instead. ''One can never trust these doors, they could either have contents to grant you enormous powers or be a deathly trap and in this case, I think it''s thetter. One careless mistake and you''re dead.'' Arnold thought and nodded at the automaton who immediately pulled on to the circr rusted handle of the trapdoor. The moment the automaton tried to pull the door open, a cloud of yellow smoke shot out of the door handle and entirely covered the robot. Arnold and Nina instinctively backed away before the smoke could reach them. The smoke dissipated just the way it had appeared, leaving a destroyed automaton behind. After making sure that the smoke hadpletely dissipated, Arnold approached the robot, with Nina behind him. Both of them were forced to cover their mouths and noses due to the extremely pungent smell left behind by the smoke. "The more we stay here, the weirder this ce gets..." Nina mumbled as Arnold squatted down to analyse the automaton which looked like it was thrown into a pool ofva. Most of the automaton''s tinum alloy armour had melted away, but its silver wiring was untouched. The colour of the smoke, the pungent smellbined with its reaction with metal were sufficient for Arnold to deduce what the smoke was. "It was gaseous aqua regia, and is also known as ''royal water'' due to its ability to dissolve noble metals," Arnold said and stored the automaton into his domain for repairs before standing up to face Nina, "It''s a highly corrosive acid that can melt any metal except silver and iridium." "Wowie didn''t know I was dating a nerd." Nina smirked, "Guessing by the old looking door, It must have been quite an old trap, don''t you think?" "That''s not possible." Arnold continued, "Aqua Regia, is prepared by mixingnitric acidandhydrochloric acid, usually in a ratio of one part ofnitric acidto three or four parts ofhydrochloric acid-" "Hey hey, professor, no need to give an entire speech about the acid, just tell the moral of the story." "Kids these days have no patience at all, you''ll fail my ss this way, Ms ck." Arnold fake sighed which made mind punch him on the shoulder, "Okay okay... the thing with aqua regia is a highly unstable mixture of two acids and rapidly loses its potency after forming, that''s why the trap can''t be old because aqua regia needs to be freshly prepared to be used in any form." "Damn those lizardmen, bastards, I''m sure it is their doing! I''ll kill each and every one of them, you just wait." Nina was almost ready to jump inside the trapdoor but Arnold once again stopped her. "Calm down Nina... there''s no need to overexert ourselves on such a matter." Arnold said, "And I don''t think it was the work of the lizardmen either, if they wanted to harm us that way then they would''ve simply attacked us using it the moment they saw us, rather than allowing us to defend ourselves but they didn''t. Also, there was no guarantee that we would''ve found the trapdoor by ourselves in the first ce and to me, it didn''t look as if the lizardman we were following was intentionally trying to lead us here." "I think it''s more than a coincidence that we ended up finding the trapdoor, Mr creationist," Nina murmured and threw a stone inside the opened trapdoor. "Coincidence or not, I''m not letting you enter inside the trapdoor, who knows if there are more traps like that in there?" "Yeah, you''re right." Nina knew it was dangerous for them to enter an unknown location without preparing beforehand, "Either way, it''s getting dark. We should probably head back to LA now." Arnold agreed, their hunt was sessful and there wasn''t a need to force themselves to carry on with fighting the lizardmen anymore, not today at least. So Arnold quickly opened the travel portal. Nina jumped in first, followed by Arnold. Not knowing the fact that they were closely being watched, not by lizardmen but by something much worse. *** Inside a deep cave within the swamps "Have the humans left?" A snakelike monster asked one of her soldier''s, who too had the lower body of snake-like her mistress, their size and colour were the only things differentiating them. These monster girls had the upper torso of a human woman and the lower half of a snake. Known for living with their own kind in small viges that were spread across the swamp, unlike the lizardmen they were extremely intelligent and individualistic. The only issue was, they were only capable of conceiving females, not a single male naga had ever been born from their womb. "Yes, mistress. Unfortunately, we had underestimated the male''s wisdom... he saved his femalepanion from our trap." The armoured Naga held her head down in shame. The mistress was at least twice as big as her servant, her half woman upper body was all a man could desire for, her dark skin and luscious body were more than sufficient to entice any male, human or monster, into willingly being her ve, but so far she hadn''t met a human male it was one of her desires to mate with a man but sadly she couldn''t fulfil her wishes in the swamp where only the ugly lizardmen dwell. Mermen were said to be a handsome lot but they hated anything that didn''t belong to the waters, so there wasn''t any hope there either. She had given up on her desires to have a human male as her husband but it looked like, fate had decided on something else as her scouts reported that they had found what looked like a human male in the swamps, bravely hunting the lizardmen down one after another. Alleiah, the queen of Nagas, was infatuated with the man her scouts had so vividly described to her, but there was a slight problem... a human female was apanying the male. ''I have to get rid of the woman... maybe let the lizardmen enjoy her first.'' These were Alleiah''s first thoughts when she heard about the man''s femalepanion, but she didn''t want to have a confrontation with the man. She had to make a friendly rtionship with the man if she wanted to mate with him, that''s why they were secretly installing various traps around the swamp to kill the female and then trick the male into mating with her. Alleiah was sure that the man won''t be able to resist her charms and give in to his desires. The acid trap was one such attempt but sadly, the male was had more wisdom than they had thought. This was also the reason why Arnold had not countered a single Naga in the swamp despite actively hunting the monsters there, the Naga Queen had forbidden them from attacking him or appearing before him, she wanted to be the first Naga that whom he saw, and if someone dared to disobey hermand, she would personally deal with that Naga. ''Courageous with a lot of wisdom... there''s no doubt, the heavens have made that man just for me.'' Alleiah got lost in her thoughts, fantasising about the male. "No matter what... you have to kill the female as soon as you can and make sure the human doesn''t suspect us of doing it." "Yes, mistress." The servant humbly bowed down to her and slithered out of her chambers. "One day you''ll be mine, human!" She tightly hugged her tail and licked the tip, which was their most sensitive body part and also gave them the most pleasure. *** Back in Nina''s apartment... "Today was tiring..." Nina mumbled and took off her armour while Arnold was busy tending to this guns, "I don''t know how you have so much energy left." "It''s not about energy. creating and maintaining things, helps me focus better." He said and pointed an empty gun at her, "By the way, how''s the sword holding up?" "Not a single scratch on this bad bitch," Nina replied, swinging the sword around, "It''s the best sword I''ve ever used! Sometimes I feel like it has a connection with me and the fact that it allows me to use the abilities of my enemies makes it even better. I always knew your hands have some kind of magic!" Arnoldughed loudly, got up from his chair and pulled her close, "No, you didn''t. You always thought I was some kind of cosying pervert." Nina got to her toes and nted a kiss on Arnold''s lips, "Oh you''re still a cosying pervert." "Wha-" She ced her index finger on his lips, "Shhh. You''re still a cosying pervert, but you''re my cosying pervert." At her cringy words, Arnold''s face lit up, having a smile that was reserved only for her. He then lifted her, his lips pressed against hers. Nina had her arms around his shoulders, her fingers ying with his long hair. "Ahem..." They were so upied with each other, they had forgotten about the guest they had called over. "I hope I''m not disturbing you guys?" Nicole smirked, "Seriously, get a hold of yourselves." Chapter 169 - Forging Material Box "That''s exactly what we''re doing, Nicole." Arnold smiled, still holding Nina up in his arms, her feet dangling midair, "I''m holding her and she''s holding me, so technically, we have a hold over ourselves." Ever since starting the hunt, Arnold had been practically living with Nina for all sense and purposes. Now he only went to the base to check over things while leaving Allen and Talos, along with a third of his summons to deal with the problems shall there arise some.?? He either spent the rest of his time hunting monsters in the swamp along with Nina or spend whatever time he had with her and Nicole like he was doing now. He was subconsciously trying his best to make up for the time he had lost while he was in a a'' and having his summons was a big help for him. Not only were they helping him to keep things under control at the Alpha base, but they had also boosted the manufacturing speed for weapons and other gears while simultaneously dismantling the monster corpses that Arnold had been storing in his domain. The automatons were also making an inventory for different materials while doing so. It was all thanks to theirbined efforts on different fronts, that Arnold''s ascension quest was almostplete. ___ [FIRST ASCENSION QUEST] : ? SUPREME CREATIONIST : [ INTRODUCTION ]: Your arsenal of weapons might be enough for now, but in future, they''ll be useless and so will you. [ TASK ]: Upgrade your existing weapons and build new ones and arm your helpers. [ PROGRESS ] : 3/3 Gears repaired. 1/1 S ranked weapon created. 0/1 Relics created. 250/250 Gear made. ? HEADHUNTER : [ INTRODUCTION ]: You''ve proven your worth to the ''Immortal One'' and now your true training begins. [ TASK ]: Hunt down 300 monsters as an offering to the Immortal one. [ PROGRESS ] : 219/300 monsters hunted. ? MASTER OF BLOOD : [ INTRODUCTION ]: You might be a creationist who can create anything he desires, but the thirst for blood is ever-growing. [ TASK ] : Upgrade the subss to its maximum level. [ PROGRESS ] : Current level 30/30. ? UNSTOPPABLE : [ INTRODUCTION ]: Make use of your gunslinger abilities to y a variety of monsters. [ TASK ]: y the following ranked monsters with the help of [VINDICATOR] [ PROGRESS ] : 1/1 S ranked monsters in. 10/10 A ranked monsters in. 50/ 50 B ranked monsters in. 100/100 C ranked monsters in. COMPLETION REWARDS : ? Unlocks evolution process. ? An exclusive second ss. ? Permanent rank upgrade. ? Chance to obtain an affinity. 1. First Ascension Quest 2. A Boon Or A Curse (research quest) ___ ''I''vepleted nearly all of the quests. Now all I need to do is to hunt the monsters and create a relic,'' Arnold thought as he let go of Nina and ced her back on bare feet, ''I don''t care about hunting the monsters, it''s the easiest quest the system has ever offered to me, but this relic... it has me running around in circles.'' Create a relic. It was one of the hardest quests Arnold had ever encountered. He was sure it wasn''t that tough to make a relic, but the task was difficult because he had no clue how to take the first step to achieve so. Initially, he thought all he''ll have to do was to make a replica of an ancient weapon, he tried countless times to do something along those lines but it didn''t work. Then, he got another idea. Since he knew about the existence of Gods, thanks to his trial, he thought rather than making a replica of an ancient weapon, maybe the system wanted him to make a replica of a godly weapon? But with that came with another issue. Most of the Gods that he knew of, didn''t use a conventional weapon that could be created by a human. For example, how the hell was a supposed to make Zeus'' lightning bolt. Even the weapons that were craftable required special materials to do so, like the ''Uru'' metal from which Mjolnir, the famous weapon of Thor, was made. All in all, he was standing at a dead end looking for ways to move ahead. "Arnold? Arnold!" Nina shook him back to his senses, "Everything alright? You spaced out for a moment there..." "Y-Yeah, everything is good." Arnold smiled awkwardly, "I was just thinking about what happened in the swamps today." "By the way, Michelle sends her regards." Nicole shook the food packets she had in her hands and made herselffortable in the room after cing the food next to Arnold''s dismantled weapon, "Also, stop thinking about work 24¡Á7, while you''re here just try to enjoy yourself." "I couldn''t agree more." Nina handed everyone a can of beer, "You think too much about everything." "It''s my overthinking that saved your life today," Arnold said before chugging down the beer in one go. He didn''t use to drink before, but Nina had her influence on him. "Wait, what happened?" Nicole asked the two of them, Nina then gave her a small exnation about what happened there "Some monster hadid a trap and I, being the idiot I am, fell for it." Nina gave them a cheeky smile, "And this idiot had a big brain moment and thankfully stopped me at thest second." "Damn... you guys are putting your lives on the line to explore the swamps," Nicole let out a heavy sigh, "I wish I coulde along with you... but here I am, swinging swords day in and day out ." "You need to focus on your training first." Arnold replied, "Your training is more important than a scouting mission and the bright side is, you''ll soon be a swordswoman like Nina, and then I''ll make a brand new sword for you as well." "I don''t even know why Nathan wants me to learn sword fighting when I can turn any enemy into dust whenever I pleased," Nicole said with a smug look on her face. "Ahem. If you''re so strong, then mind telling me why the heck you couldn''t stop the dungeon break by yourself?" Arnold''s question wiped the smug look off her face. "..." Even Nina was shocked how tantly Arnold decided to point it out. "There is a serious drawback of your power," Arnold continued, "You can''t use it continuously or for a longer duration or else you''ll get knock yourself out." "Who told you about it?" Nicole shot a sharp look at Nina, who immediately shook her head, she hadn''t told him anything about it. "Don''t look at her, Nicole. Listen to what I have to say first." Arnold''s words were like knives, "I admit your ability is unique and you can take on any enemy regardless of its rank, but then what can you do against a horde of monsters? You''ll just overexert yourself and then end up being helpless against the remaining monsters, and that''s the reason you need a secondary skill to help you ovee these kinds of scenarios." Silence shrouded over the room as Arnold exined the situation to Nicole. Whether or not she would turn into one of his enemies remained to be seen but the fact that she was his sister whom he loved more than himself was indisputable and he would do anything and everything he could to help her. "Yes, brother. Ipletely understand what you''re saying." Nicole put aside the beer can she was holding and apologised to him, her voice slightly shaking, "I''ll put even more effort into mastering my de." After that, she then stood up and left. "You had to rub it in her face, didn''t you?" Nina shook her head in disappointment and chased after Nicole leaving a very confused looking Arnold behind. "Now, what exactly did I do?" Arnold stood up as well and was about to chase after the two of them when a notification appeared on his interface. ___ You have unimed rewards that would expire in: 05:00 minutes. Please visit the tab to im your rewards before they expire. ___ "Right, I never imed the rewards for defeating Amanda... it''s not a great time but might as well im it first." Arnold shrugged, and opened his interface and navigated through it, before opening the rewards tab. Rewards for a single quest shed before his eyes. Arnold quickly selected it. ___ EMERGENCY QUEST : Save yourself ? [ INTRODUCTION ] : You are under attack by Amanda White. She''s out for your blood, it''s time you return the favour. [ TASK ] : Kill or subdue your attacker. [ PROGRESS ] : Target killed: 0/1 or Target subdued: 1/1 [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? 1000 EXP ? Random reward. ___ ''im.'' ___ You''ve received: ? 1000 EXP ? Random reward Please wait while the system randomises your reward... Randomizationplete! You''ve received a ___ "Forging material box? That''s the first time I''ve heard about it and I don''t remember seeing anything like this in the shop as well..." Arnold mumbled as a small box materialised in his hand. He quickly used his probe skill on it. ___ OBJECT: Rank A forging material box TYPE: Quest reward GRADE: A REMARK: A rare reward which can be gained only through random rewards. This box contains a rare material which can be used to as a forging material to make a weapon of the lesser gods. When opened one of the following materials can be gained: ? Adamantine (2% chance) ? Celestial tinum (8% chance) ? Celestial Gold (20% chance) ? Celestial Silver (30% chance) ? Celestial Copper (40% chance) ___ Chapter 170 - Overreaction A single paragraph kept shing in front of Arnold''s eyes. ___?? REMARK: A rare reward which can be gained only through random rewards. This box contains a rare material which can be used to as a forging material to make a weapon of the lesser gods. When opened one of the following materials can be gained: ? Adamantine (2% chance) ? Celestial tinum (8% chance) ? Celestial Gold (20% chance) ? Celestial Silver (30% chance) ? Celestial Copper (40% chance) ___ "Is there a secret luck stat hidden within the other stats?" His awestricken eyes were fixated on the small container, that seemed nothing less than a mini treasure chest, "All these metals... it''s the first time I''ve read about them..." He had heard about Adamantine somewhere in his Greek mythology1 ss back when he was in high school, but he had never heard anything about celestial elements, but going by their names, they did seem to be unique. Moreover, the brackets next to their names probably suggested the probability of obtaining those materials from the box. Going by the probability of the materials, obtaining Adamantine was the most difficult one, while the probability of increasing celestial copper was the highest. (Author''s note: InGreek mythology, Cronus castrated his father Uranus usinganadamantine sickle given to him by his mother Gaia.An adamantinesickle or sword was also used by the hero Perseus to decapitate Medusa while she slept.) "It''s like a lucky box event from some MMORPG games..." Arnold murmured. Back when he was in China and living a stress-free life he used to y a lot of such games hell, he even spent thousands of dors on them in hopes of getting a ''rare'' weapon or material, but his luck was absolutely terrible. He was never able to obtain any rare items from those boxes, but whatever that was happening right now wasn''t a game, it was reality. He couldn''t spend his money to increase his chances of winning. His eyes once again fell on the box. The only thing which had been stopping him from making a potential ''relic'', was now in his hands. He kept looking at the ck wooden box that was no bigger than a ring jewellery box, as he kept ring at the box, another notification popped up on his interface. ___ Would you like to open the Yes/No? ___ At this point, he was thinking about a lot of things simultaneously. Considering the size of the box, the amount of material it contained was next to nothing; could he make a weapon with so little material. No, could anyone make a fully functional weapon from a material that was about the size of a sugar cube? Let''s say he was sessful in making a weapon but would it even be ssified as a relic? What if the material could be used only once and couldn''t be recycled? Was there anything that he could do to prevent that scenario? Was he even eligible to use a material that he earned through a rare source? "What am I even thinking about," Arnold shook his head, "I''m a creationist who had sessfully made a variety of weapons and gears using weirdest materials. And opening the box would give me a type of metal, for god''s sake, it is by far the easiest material to work on!" But there were some doubts still in his mind despite the reassurance he gave himself, no matter what he thought, the small quantity of the material did bother him somewhat, in the end, he decided not to open the box at the moment and kept it in his inventory, as much as he would like to open the box up right now he had other important matter to attend, like apologising to Nicole for trying to make her realise her weakness. After closing the interface, he ran out of the room as fast as he could do that he could catch up to them which he soon did, they weren''t far. Nina and Nicole were chatting with each other in a secluded corner of the corridor. He slowly approached them, as he didn''t want to startle them, not knowing what hurtful thing he was about to hear. "Sometimes I wish he never came back..." Nicole murmured, her voice was heavy like she had been crying, "He left me all alone, and now when I... try to talk to him, he just lectures me? I''m stronger than him and I''m not a kid anymore who has to seek validation from him for whatever I do. I''m a SS ranked warrior and he''s only a Section Chief that no one even knows about!" "Nicole... I know you''re upset but you don''t need to say such harsh things about him-" Nina tried to defend Arnold and his words but Nicole wasn''t having any of it. "See! Even you''re supporting him!" "I''m not supporting him, Nicole, I''m just trying to-" "No need to defend anyone, anymore Nina." This time Arnold was the one who interrupted her. He quietly approached Nicole, who was shocked and embarrassed about what she had just said, his hands behind his back. He had never thought Nicole, someone for whom he wasted years of his life to take care of, put his life on the line for more times than he could remember and tolerated all the humiliation for being a Porter, would think so lowly of him. At that moment, Nina knew the situation was about to get out of hands and tried to diffuse it but Arnold stopped her. He was hurt by what Nicole said, he would''ve forgiven her if she wasn''t an adult, but as she had said, she wasn''t a kid anymore and adults have to face the consequences of whates out of their mouths. "Is there anything else an SS ranked warrior would like to say to a useless Section Chief of one of the many zones?" All thoughts about apologising to Nicole were thrown out of his mind. If that''s how she felt about him then he simply didn''t care about her feelings anymore. "..." Arnold''s words pierced Nicole''s heart, she had blurted out a lot of things she didn''t mean but it was toote to apologise for her mistake now. "You''re awfully quiet for a SS ranked warrior, don''t you think?" "Arnold, that''s enough. Both of you are overreacting-" Nina once again tried to intervene but Arnold''s mind was set. "I think my work here is done. Please inform Nathan that I will make the gears he had requested for." He turned his back towards Nicole who was on the verge of tears, "I don''t think I have any reason to continue the hunt in the swamps anymore, but still if he or you wants to see me, you''re more than wee to visit me at the Alpha base as it is clear that my visits are not appreciated here." He took the pass which allowed him to freely enter or leave the regions of West America, from his inventory and gave it to Nina. He knew he was overreacting but he needed to cool himself off and being there wouldn''t have helped him in the slightest. "In the meantime, I''ll try to make as many gears as I can from the materials I have now, thank you and good night." After saying that, Arnold opened up a Travel Portal and jumped through it before anyone could stop him. Chapter 171 - Alone In The Swamps (1) Arnold stepped out of the portal thinking, how quickly sometimes love can be turned to hate. How easy it is to let the negative emotions swallow you and pour acid into your soul. How easy it was to give in to hatred. He thought about how he fought for the good memories, fought against an entire guild just because they dared toy a finger on his sister. How he fought to keep himself empathic even as every terrible thing he had predicted came true. All his struggles and pain came back to hit him in the face. He kept thinking about the reasons to be kind to Nicole or anyone in that regard, but this time he couldn''t find any, he felt hurt in a way he had never been hurt before, not even a Wyvern''s attack hurt as close as Nicole''s words did to him.?? All this negativity bothered him in a way nothing ever had, ''I need to calm myself down.'' A single thought was going through his mind as he stepped into the bathroom and began washing his face rigorously, he looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes that were once filled with so much purpose and determination was now reced with bitterness and hate. ''This is not who I am... I need to focus...'' At that moment hismunicator started blowing up with text and messages for Nicole and Nina, he read one of the texts from Nina. Arnold kept staring nkly at themunicator as if it was the weirdest thing he had ever seen. He calmly picked up themunicator and quickly typed a message before sending it to Nina. A reply came almost instantly but he wasn''t going to indulge her anymore. He knew she wasn''t at fault but he didn''t care, he had already said what he wanted to say there was nothing left for him to say to anyone. ''Looks like living in luxury and gaining so much power got to her head... just like it did with me.'' He gave an awkward smile looking at his reflection, thinking about the time at the Malibu Club when he took an act of petty revenge on one of the guys from his former guild because he was acting cocky around him. ''Man, was I stupid.'' He was slowly calming down but the constant ringing of hismunicator was pissing him off, so he switched it off and left it in the washroom. He wiped his face and got out of the bathroom, only to be greeted by Alice. Ever since the incident with Amanda, Arnold had given a selected few of his summons a free reign to move around the base so that they could help him in maintaining order and worry less about the base in his absence. Alice was one of them along with Talos, Duke, Cerberus, and around 50 other summons while the rest of them still lived inside his domain to provide help and assistance during his shenanigans in the swamps if he needed them to. Arnold looked at her sitting innocently on his bed. His fight with Nicole and Amanda made him self-reflect on his own actions, making him realise that he wasn''t much different than Amanda. While she used the mental powers to manipte everyone, Arnold used the powers given to him by his domain to do more or less the same thing. So he decided to do something, something which he should''ve done a long time ago. He bowed down to her and apologised. He apologised for the way he had treated her. He apologised for unnecessary hate he poured over her. He apologised for the hardships she had to go through, all because of Amanda and Devon. He knew it wasn''t his fault but somehow he felt obliged to do so after all, it was because of him and his family that she had to associate herself with Devon and in the end his perception about her was wrong. Yes, she was wrong for doing what he did, but it was because of her father and fiance and for that he would never forgive her, but she was indeed innocent in the recent affairs with the church and everything, as Amanda herself admitted that she had been controlling her throughout the duration of the n, just like Allen. He forgave Allen... well not exactly, but still, Allen''s willingness to give his life for him was a step in that direction. He was his ''blood brother'' after all. Now Arnold thought, it was his turn to settle his differences with Alice. The moment Arnold started blurting out his apologies, Alice started apologising as well. Her eyes were filled with tears, something Arnold thought wasn''t possible for his ''summons'' to do. Alice admitted that she too had misunderstood Arnold, of course, he had killed her fiance, but it wasn''t his fault. Jake attacked him first and all Arnold did was to save his family, just like she was trying to protect hers. After all the apologising, they say down and talked about the old times. "You were more troublesome than anyone among us!" Alice smirked. "Not gonna lie, I was. But it was because of how everyone treated me back then!" They chatted like friends who met each other after being apart for decades. The room was filled withughter and Arnold finally got some peace of mind after talking with Alice. He felt like he was slowly turning back to his usual self, but not entirely... he still didn''t want to talk to anyone else especially not to Nicole. Wherever he remembered what she said it made his mood go down in an instant, he needed time to let him heal himself but in the meanwhile, he decided to cut contact with Nicole and focus on developing the Alpha Base along with zone 4. Allen and Talos came in moments after Alice left, as usual, to give him the report about the day. "You''re right on time guys." Arnold greeted them with a smile. "What wrong? You look weird..." Allen looked sideways at Talos who shrugged his shoulders, subconsciously imitating Arnold. Arnold never smiled like this to greet them. "Nothing''s wrong just some family drama," Arnold sighed, "Anyways you two, I''ve got a job for you." Chapter 172 - Alone In The Swamps (2) "I want you to visit the Bravo base as my representative," Arnold informed Allen. "Is there some emergency?" Allen asked back "It''s kinda weird for you to ask something like that out of the blue."?? Arnold proceeded to tell them how he had never gone to the other bases inside zone 4, after being promoted as a Section Chief like he was required to. He also told them he had nned to visit the bases himself but a lot of things happened and in the end, he got so upied with dealing with different situations that he forgot about his ns to visit the bases. "...and as you know, I''m still busy dealing with the swamps and stuff, and might not be able to visit the bases. So I thought, it would be better if you could visit the bases in my stead. I don''t want to dy it as maybe they are in danger or some problem that they might need help with." "If it''s your wish then I''ll oblige with your request!" Allen proudly banged his chest with his fist, "I''ll leave tomorrow morning." "Take a few soldiers and a dozen of my summons with you. You never know what will happen on your way to the bases." "Aye, sir!" Arnold nodded and then turned towards Talos who was now working as his advisor to form a vision for the bases and zone 4, also he was helping Arnold to lead on that path and so far his suggestion has been nothing but good for him and the base. He was also supervising the development and instation of new types of defence mechanisms which were being developed by Arnold''s automatons. Also, the size of the robotic workforce had significantly increased with around 150 automatons added to Arnold''s arsenal. This was also done with the uing strike on the swamp monsters. Arnold, with the help of Talos and other automatons, sessfully manufactured a new range of automatons: The Strike Troops. ___ [ST-1] TYPE: Ultralight Combat Automaton GRADE: A+ BASIC STATS: DURABILITY (DUR) : 3500/3500 ENERGY (ENR) : 2500/2500 STRENGTH (STR) : 100 DEFENSE(DEF) : 70 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 88 AGILITY (AGI) : 79 ACCURACY (ACC) : 65 EVADE (EVD) : 60 HEIGHT: 1.62 meter WEIGHT: 40 KG CONTROL : chip POWER SOURCE: ¨C Sr/Thermal charging ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Idle mode): 3 Energy/min ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Combat mode): 16 Energy/min RECOVERY RATE : 9 Energy /min WEAPON MODULE : Sword, Spear, and Shield ABILITIES : ___ This new series of automatons were lighter, faster and deadlier than their previous counterparts. It was so as they were made to kill monsters as swiftly as possible. But the new series had a huge disadvantage over other automatons. While the strike troop series was a marvel of their own, theycked the defensive capabilities and high durability unlike the other set of automatons who had an average of 100+ defence and 4000+ durability while the new series only had 70 defence and 3500 durability on average. The good thing was that it was intentionally done so, after all, one can''t have everything that they wish for right? Arnold had to make a trade-off between strength, defence and agility/evasion. The choice was obvious. Strength and agility were the only things that mattered in the swamp, the defence was also important but not half as important as the other factors as long as one didn''t get hit, so Arnold didn''t hesitate while making the choice as far as durability was concerned, one way to increase durability was by making their armour thicker, which would have increased the weight of the automatons hence Arnold had to limit that as well. The result of all the upgrades was the creation of his primary strike force got the swamps. However it wouldn''t have been possible for his automatons to build so many strike troops in a couple of days, neither did he have enough materials to make and maintain more than 20 STs. That''s where Nathan stepped in. He provided Arnold with whatever materials he needed and in his words, "Once the war starts, I want you to show off your powers as a creationist to gain the support of other families. You and your creations would be the centre of attraction and I''ll do whatever I can to help you." That was all the confirmation Arnold needed. within the next 5-6 hours, he was delivered everything he wanted and the automatons started working day and night in his domain to make as many automatons as they could and they were still at it. "Talos, would you mind looking at this?" Arnold showed him the . Talus carefully picked it up and thoroughly analysed it, while Allen watched the two of them talking like some scientists. ''It looks like a normal box to me... what''s so special about it?'' Allen thought before shrugging his shoulders. "This is intriguing," Talos said while analysing the box, "I''ve never seen a material box before and had no idea that the elder could grant such items. However, I do know a little about the celestial materials that master had mentioned about." "Tell me about them could you?" Arnold wanted to know whatever details he could get about the materials. Talos nodded and began narrating what he knew about the materials, their origins, their properties, as well as their uses. Since Arnold already knew about adamantine, Arnold asked Talos to skip it and start exining about the materials. ording to Talos, all of the celestial materials were said to have been made in the godly forge of Avalon, the same ce where Excalibur was forged along with hundreds of other weapons. Even though celestial tinum was the rarest among celestial metals, it wasn''t a material that was suitable for making weapons. Rather it was suitable for essories that could grant godly abilities to the user. While Celestial gold and silver were used to make the Brahmastra1 and Pashupatastra2, respectively, and Celestial copper was used for making defensive gears that could hold up against the attacks from a lesser god. "Interesting..." Arnold mumbled. His mind already filled with very creative ideas for making weapons and gears. **** 1. Brahmastra: A weapon of mass destruction in Hindu mythology. Described in a number of the Puranas (Hindu holy text), it was considered the deadliest weapon. It was said that when the Brahmastra was discharged, there was neither a counterattack nor a defence that could stop it. It is said to have nuclear properties, ording to a description on the inte: ''When it strikes an area it will causeplete destruction and nothing will grow not even a de of grass, for the next 3-5 years. It will not rain for 3-5 years in that area, and everything including metal and earth be poisoned. 2. Pashupatastra: An irresistible and most destructive personal weapon ofShivaandKali, discharged by the mind, the eyes, words, or a bow. It too has simr properties to that of Brahmastra, but its destructive powers could be controlled by the will of the user, something that can''t be done using Brahmastra. Chapter 173 - Alone In The Swamps (3) "Wait! You''re talking about the ''Brahmastra''? Do you even know how dangerous that thing is supposed to be!" Allen shrieked at the top of his lungs, "It''s like a pocket-sized nuke!" Allen''s response took Arnold but surprise. He didn''t know Allen was interested in Hindu mythology that much but yeah the weapons from the mythology were quite famous as even Arnold knew that the Brahmastra was supposedly one of the most powerful weapons that were mentioned in almost every Hindu mythological texts, but he wasn''t aware of the effects of it so he turned to Talos once again to check whether what Allen was saying was true or not.?? "...it''s true master. It''s often said that the use of Brahmastra or any other ''daivi astra'', is strictly forbidden on the battlefield until and unless you''re facing someone who is consumed by evil. Whatever that''s supposed to mean." Talos narrated everything he could find on the inte as well as what a little bit of recollections he had from being a part of the elder (Arnold''s system) before getting ejected to be an automaton instead, "But in my opinion, it''s just a way to exaggerate the deadlines of a weapon as there are no authentic records of any event like that happening." (Author''s note: ''Daivi'' means godly and ''Astra'' means weapon, so ''Daivi Astra'' means ''Godly weapon''.) "It''s highly possible that what the texts say is true..." Arnold mumbled, and got lost in his thought, "I would''ve never believed that monsters or Gods exist in the real world before all this happened, but now we all know it''s the truth. They do exist. So even if the information about these ''godly weapons'' is a bit exaggerated, I''m sure these are deadlier than anything anyone has ever witnessed, apart from the nuclear weapons I think. Either way, it''s not certain whether I''d get the material to make the Brahmastra. After all, I could get anything out of the five materials." "Yes, that''s true." Allen chimed in, "But rest assured, you''ll get something awesome from the box and even if you don''t, I''m sure you''ll make a good use of the material, you''re a creationist after all." "I hope so, but why are you still here? Don''t you have any job to do?" Arnold barked at Allen, "Get moving already, I''m not going to work today so you''re in charge." "Aww, man... I thought you''d allow me to rest and prepare myself for tomorrow-" Allen protested but was interrupted by Arnold. "Alright alright... You got two options-" "You''re really the best stepbro-" "Hear me out first!" Arnold barked once again but this time he had a smug look on his face, "You got two options. Either you walk your ass outta here, or I''ll throw your ass outta here. You''ve got ten seconds to decide." Allen looked at Talos, who raised his hands in the air. He wasn''t going to step in front of his master, but if his master needed help to throw Allen out, he would dly do so, after all, he did need to serve his master faithfully. "You guys..." Allen mumbled and turned around, "Why I''m the one who keeps getting bullied by everyone..." Arnold smirked briefly for a moment before turning back towards Talos, "Do I need to know anything else?" "That''s all I know, master," Talos said and handed the material box back to him. "Don''t worry, you''ve helped me more than what I was expecting. At least I''m not clueless anymore." Arnold replied to his ''advisor'', "I think I should open it up as well... at least that way I would know which material I would be working on. Don''t you think?" Arnold was a bit excited, but Talos was unphased by his Master''s emotions. Although he was continuously learning and growing mentally, he couldn''t yet grasp the concept of emotions, not yet anyway. "Strategically speaking, it would be helpful to filter ideas about making something if the master decides to open the box." Talos replied in his emotionless voice. Arnold thanked him and Talos turned to leave, but right then Arnold remembered he wanted to ask something else too. "By the way, I forgot to ask you about the experiments," Arnold said, referring to experiments that Talos was conducting on the Orcs and ogres to study the effects of consuming beast crystals as a part of Arnold''s quest. "Analysing essential data..." After saying this, Talos went silent for a minute, "Analysisplete. Would master like to hear the detailed report or an abstract?" "The abstract please." He knew Talos wouldn''t have gained much information about the weird evolution of monsters as it had been only two days since Talos began the experiments on the monsters, that''s why he opted to hear the abstract, instead of the full report. "Yes, master. As you know I started the experimentation two days ago. The first test subject was an ogre, in the beginning, I gave it a small dose of three white beast crystals but nothing happened." Talos began narrating everything to Arnold as he took out the Wyvern egg from his inventory and gently ced it on the floor. "Thus I decided to increase the dosage and rarity of the beast crystal, but the result was the same, so the dosage and rarity of the beast crystal were increased once again. I kept repeating this process but I wasn''t much hopeful that anything would happen. However this time, something did happen." "What happened exactly?" Arnold asked while tending to the giant egg which was now reaching almost to the level of his chest, ''hmm... looks like its about time I shifted the egg into the void. After I feed it this time, it''ll grow up to my size.'' "The ogre grew in size and its skin turned reddish, a clear indication of sessful evolution. I decided to test whether it''s attributes to see if there was any change there as well and it was confirmed, the ogre had evolved to the level of an ogre captain. I stopped the trial there because I was afraid it might go berserk if I fed him any more crystals and decided to wait out for a few days before continuing the experimentation. In the meantime, I''ll be remotely observing the ogre." Arnold nodded and took out a vial from his inventory before pouring its content all over the Wyvern egg. The vial contained thick ck blood of the grey lizardman whom he had hunted earlier in the swamps. "Would you like to know anything else, Master?" "No, that''s all, for now, Talos, but keep me updated with the progress, also I hope you''re keeping the ogres locked up in individual cells as I told you? I don''t want a couple of monsters going berserk in my base." "Yes, master they have been chained and locked up." "Great then, you can leave now." Talos quietly bowed and left, leaving Arnold alone with the Wyvern egg in the workshop. Chapter 174 - Alone In The Swamps(4) ___ Creature''s hunger grows.?? The creature is learning to control its hunger. Control increased! The creature is still hungry. If not fed within 20:00 minutes, the creatures HP will start decreasing at a rate of 13HP/minute. Current HP: 5800/5800 Time remaining to hatch: 108:01:30:03 (Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds) ___ Arnold let out a sigh when he saw the notification. The reason for his heavy sigh was simple. ''This appetite...'' He was worried about the egg''s seemingly ever-growing appetite. The more Arnold fed the egg, the more it''s appetite increased. Initially, Arnold only needed to feed him once or twice a week but now he needed to feed it at least twice a day or else the creatures HP will start decreasing. Although feeding the egg was aparatively easy task due to the abundance of monsters around the base, Arnold was very selective about the type of monster blood he wanted to feed to the egg. He was selective because if he fed the egg blood from a rare monster, not only it would quench the eggs hunger, it would also increase its stats. Furthermore, the was also a chance that the creature inside the egg would learn new abilities, in case the abilities werepatible with it. So the more rare blood of the monster was, the stronger the creature inside the egg became. Also feeding the creature more had another effect, it reduced the time required for the creature to hatch out of the egg. ''I fed it so much but still it wasn''t enough.'' he thought, ''The creature hasn''t even born yet, and I''m required to feed it so much... what would happen when it came out of the egg? I just hope that the monsters around the base would be enough to feed it...'' Arnold took out another vial of monster blood and poured it all over the egg, he repeated the process two more times, he fed the egg whatever he had and soon another notification appeared in front of him. ___ The creature is absorbing the nutrients from the blood... Hunger diminishes... The creature has sessfully absorbed the nutrients from the blood of A ranked mutated monster. You''ve fed the creature thrice today, maximum limit reached! Hatching period reduced! The creature would hatch in: 100:00:00:00 (Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds) Attributes Increased! HP: +200 Strength (STR): +12 Defense (DEF): +15 Agility (AGI): +8 The blood of the monster contains twopatible abilities. The creature can learn two new abilities from ''lizardmen blood''! ? Yes or ?No ___ ''Two more huh...'' Arnold thought, ''The more the merrier right?'' So far the creature had learnt about seven abilities, including the two it was about to learn. ___ The creature is learning the abilities... Ability learnt sessfully! ? [Armament] : (Passive ability) When attacked by a creature from same species as the user, the user''s attack and effects of abilities rted to offence increases greatly (by 50%) but the defence drastically decreases (by 30%). The effect of this skill temporarily reduces if the skill is used within 2 hours of the first activation. [ Rank: A ] [Mana cost: 500/per use] [Duration of skill: 2 minutes] [Duration of defence debuff: 5 minutes] [COOLDOWN: 1:00 hour] ? [Armour Maniption] : (Active ability) Grants the user the ability to create an exoskeleton using magic or outside sources to construct armour around there bodies. The toughness and durability of the armour are dependent on the level of the user. This ability can be used alongside another ability as well. [ Rank: A+] [Mana cost: 1000/per use] [Duration of skill: 3 minutes] [COOLDOWN: 24 hours] ___ ''The armament skill is not super useful, but armour maniption ability is one heck of an ability. Moreover, they can be used simultaneously nullifying the drawbacks of the armament ability.'' Arnold''s reasoning was simple, with the strong exoskeleton armour on top of the creature''s already strong hide, it''ll have an incredible defence, as well as the armour, being extremely strong it could not only withstand powerful attacks and resilience to many types of damage but also due to the extra hard mass, amplifies of the exoskeleton, the strength of the creatures attacks, durability and chances of survivability would also increase, making the creature an absolute nightmare in battle. Exactly what Arnold wanted... a monstrosity which could defeat even Dread. This was also a reason why Arnold was dead set on feeding the Wyvern egg only the best blood quality that he could find out there. After the feeding was done, Arnold tried to ce the egg back in his inventory but there was an issue... ___ Size limit crossed! The item can no longer be stored inside the inventory as it exceeds the size limit of it. Please store try storing the item in your domain instead. ___ The thing he had been afraid for a while had finally happened. The egg had grown in size once again and was now even bigger than Arnold expected. With the inventory''s refusal to ept the egg inside, Arnold had no choice but to store it in the void but then again it would lead to another problem... ''The time flow inside the domain is thrice as fast as the normal time... so it would mean the egg would hatch in about 33-34 days instead of 100 days and that''s not even the main issue!'' The actual issue was that Arnold didn''t think he was even nearly prepared to raise a half-dragon or whatever came out of the egg. The uncertainty was too much for him to handle at the moment but there was no other way either, he couldn''t keep the egg here or someone might tamper with it. He could order his summons to the egg but it would be a hassle. ''Man... it''s too much work!'' In the end, he decided to keep the egg in his domain for a couple of days and would think what to do with itter. In the meantime, he wanted to focus on one thing alone - making a relic andpleting the ascension quest before the conference with the heads of the 11 remaining heads of the different families which was also scheduled for the next month... unfortunately he was forced to attend it even if he didn''t want to, because of... Nicole. ''Let''s focus on the important things first.'' Chapter 175 - Alone In The Swamps (5) "I should open it first..." Arnold mumbled, thinking about the material he would get from opening the small box, "I''ll take anything apart from the celestial copper. Getting that would be useless." Talos had already mentioned about the properties of the listed materials. So Arnold had his mindset on the materials that he wanted to get out of the material box.?? He thought it would be good if he got celestial gold or silver as they were the essential materials for making God ying weapons like Brahmastra, something which was much needed by him as thest time he met a ''lesser god'' she tried her best to kill him and was almost sessful in doing so. He couldn''t help but think if he had a god ying weapon back then, [The Guide Between the Worlds] wouldn''t have been to bully him so easily. He also needed to be wary of the god referred as the ''dead one'', because he had already killed their pdin once and he was pretty sure that the this ''dead one'' person would seek revenge on him for doing so. That''s why he desperately needed a god ying weapon as the sh between him and the Gods seemed inevitable thus he just wanted to be prepared for it. Secondly, although Adamantine was a much better option for making weapons, Arnold was 90% sure that he wouldn''t get it after looking at the drop rates of the materials. His luck wasn''t that good. Thirdly, although Celestial tinum was a great option, Arnold wasn''t too sure about it. The reason behind it being that it was used make essories that could potentially give him godly abilities, but he was sure there would be some kind of drawback rted to these abilities, just like one of the godly abilities that he had... the [Devil''s Rage]. 6-time usage was definitely a drawback of the ability, but whenpared to the effect of the ability, it was nothing but a minor inconvenience. Still he was hoping that he doesn''t get celestial tinum, but he wouldn''t be sad if he got that. Andst but not the least, Celestial copper. It was nice to hear that an armour made of Celestial copper would be able to withstand the attacks of a god, but Arnold would require to make a full body armour to achieve that which would then lead to two problems. One, Arnold was sure he would only get a small quantity of the material from the box so he won''t be about to make a full body armour or even a chainmail for that matter and two, a full body armour or a shield would be super heavy and thus would restrict his movement, something that he couldn''t afford to ignore. Another reason was that... he was eager to make a weapon, and not an armour as protecting himself wouldn''t be of any use if he couldn''t kill his godly enemies. Defending would inevitably get him tired and at one point, this enemy would get the advantage of it. In his eyes, it was better to kill the enemy in one blow rather than defend oneself from certain destruction. For these reasons, Arnold didn''t want to get anything apart from celestial gold or silver, from the material box. But how was he going to know which material he''ll get after opening the material box? Was it even remotely possible to change the material that he would get after he opened the box? The obvious answer to the question was no. It wasn''t possible to change the contents of the box once he opened it, however, it was possible for him to look into the future and see what he would get after opening the material box. If it was one of the materials that he desired, then he would proceed to open the box in real-time and if he didn''t then he would change the future by opening the box again and again until he got what he wanted. His foresight was like a perfect cheat for the gacha system of the box and he was about to abuse it to get exactly like he wanted and needed. You could call it a new type of re-rolling technique that was exclusive to him. With the box in his hands, he used the foresight and slowly his conscious separated from his body. He carefully observed himself, detached from his body as he slowly opened the box. The moment he lifted the lid of the box, the entire room was swallowed with a blinding light. By the time the light faded away, the box was reced by a ck coloured cube having a size equal to that of the material box. Arnold quickly used [Probe] on the metallic block, before the duration of [Foresight] was over. ___ OBJECT: Celestial Copper TYPE: Forging Material GRADE: Cosmic B REMARK: A rare metal which was created by the efforts of 5 generations of dwarves of Avalon. It is well known for its use in Goddess Athena''s shield. It is said that even direct attacks from the Gods can''t make a dent on an armour made from this material, however, it''s true only for the lesser Gods. Still, it''s a rare material and it''s a dream for many to touch this metal once in their lifetime. ___ The thing he feared hade true... ''...It would''ve been a miracle if I got what I wanted in my first attempt.'' Arnold thought as his conscious returned to his body, "Time to repeat the experiment!" He did the same thing again. He opened the box, the bright light covered the dimly lit room, the same block of ck metal came out of the box as the light faded. He once again used [Probe] to check whether it was celestial copper or not... and it was. He once again returned to his body and repeated the process, but the end result remained unchanged. It seemed like the Gacha (lucky box) was still as annoying as before even with his cheat... ___ [FORESIGHT] : Usage 5/5 ___ "Damn it!" Arnold stomped his feet on the ground and threw the material box into his inventory, "Why did I think it was going to be easier than before just because I had foresight? The only good thing is that I still have the box with me so maybe someday I''ll get what I want from it, but till then, I''ll keep trying every day. It''s the first time I''m using foresight for such a purpose... it''s so frustrating but still, it is a bit exciting I guess?" Chapter 176 - Alone In The Swamps (6) Back in Los Angeles, Headquarters of the Guardian Syndicate... More than a dozen people were sitting inside a room which was dimly lit because of the lighting through the various screens inside the room. Each person has at least five monitors or screens in front of them, with their eyes glued to the screens. They didn''t nce anywhere else, just at the screens which disyed a variety of scenery in front of them. From deserts to wends, from populous cities to rarely inhabited jungles. Some were shot from a traffic camera, while a few screens disyed an infrared image.?? This was the surveince room of the Syndicate, and the people working there all had special skill rted to surveince and together they were known as Guardian''s eye. Every member of the Guardian''s eye had been allotted a particr area that they were required to monitor. They only had one duty, continuously analyze the various data which made its way to them and if there was any peculiarity, they had to immediately inform their superiors about it while continuing to analyse the situation. As of now, they were watching the live broadcast of various regions of America, including the eastern region. They also had a bunch of drones that helped them in monitoring the areas that were once the part of United States of America, but now monster''s ruled over thosends. Kellie Monroe, a youngdy in her early twenties and the newest addition to the guardian''s eye, was watching one such drone that was hovering over the ce that was once known as Florida, but now it was referred to as The Lizard''s nest. Nothing much ever happened in that region apart from skirmishes between the Lizardmen and the Nagas and it was easy pay for her but it was also tremendously boring. But that all changed a few days ago when Kellie was informed that she was required to monitor and assist a couple of people that were making their way into the swamps for research purposes. She was eager to know who these people were so she did as she was asked to and started monitoring the man-woman duo while being their tactical support, providing them with information whenever it was requested. Sadly, she was never required to do so even so she silently kept observing the duo. Due to the dense canopy of the swamps, Kellie wasn''t able to see the faces of the duo and had to use infrared vision to see what was going on, but to her surprise, the duo soon appeared out of the swamp, a dozen lizardmen chasing after them. It was at that moment when she saw the duo for the first time. She immediately recognised the woman who had been effortlessly killing lizardmen left and right with her ck sword as if they were made of butter. It was Nina and with her was a man who exhibited a variety of talents. Kellie was having a hard time figuring out who the man was. He was wearing a ck robe and had a pair of guns in his hands. Right, when she thought the man had to be a gunslinger, the man exhibited the powers simr to that of an elementalist, but it didn''t stop there. The man then proceeded to summoned a variety of creatures to aid the duo in battle while they leisurely chatted around waiting for the summons to destroy the lizardmen. After seeing them only one thought crossed her mind, ''Is this really the lizard''s nest? It''s supposed to be the most dangerous hunting grounds for warriors but these two are moving around as if they were visiting an amusement park and not a monster-infested region.'' She had never seen anything like them before, or more like the man. She didn''t have much idea aboutbat, after all, she was new in the surveince team but then again she had seen a couple of fights but they were nothing like what the man was doing. She had heard about people having different talents and affinities, she also knew that the guy wasn''t as strong as the S or SS ranked warriors but he was... different. It was like the limitations and strength of ranks didn''t bother him in the slightest. Watching the duo''s escapades in the swamps was a great escape from her boring life for Kellie. She was mesmerized by their strength, the way they kept killing monsters one after another without any break was just fabulous. Initially, she thought it was just some extra work, but now she knew watching them was both a source of entertainment and inspiration. She had never truly respected the ones fighting on the front lines, as they failed miserably to contain or stop the breakout that eventually led to the division of her country. However, she now knew how dangerous the situation was for them and how regardless of that they kept pushing forward and clear one obstacle one after another. All this excitement, made her forget about her duties as the tactical support and she felt more like she was watching a gamer''s stream online, her carelessness eventually got the duo in trouble as they were soon ambushed by a group of lizardmen but thankfully they were able to handle the situation themselves. Little did she knew that the man in robes had no idea about the existence of ''tactical support'', that he was supposed to be getting because no one had informed him about it. But now it was all over. Her supervisor had just called her into his office. She thought that the duo had reported her to the superiors, for her ipetence and that she was going to get fired for it but instead she was informed that the project has been put on hold and that she was no longer required to continue to monitor the swamps exclusively as no one would be entering or leaving the swamps for a while since the project that had been put on hold. She let out a heavy sigh once she was back on her work station, monitoring six different locations simultaneously. The order essentially meant that the fun time was over for her and she had to return to her old surveince job and watch the monsters fight with each other rather than watching the mysterious man and the right-hand person of the General of The Armies, Nina ck, ughtering them. ''At least, I got to have some fun right?'' Kellie thought and switched the monitor to infrared mode before momentarily focusing on the screen when she realised that she didn''t want to monitor the swamps at that moment and decided to switch screens but before she could do anything, she saw something weird. In the middle of the swamp was the heat signature of a single human which was indicated by a yellowish-orange glow, Kellie thought it was weird as her supervisor had just informed her that no one was supposed to enter or leave the swamps, but then she was saw something weirder. The orange heat signature of the human was surrounded by over 200 hundred heat signatures simr to that of the lizardmen. They were going to ambush the human! "Oh no!" Kellie eximed and jumped out of her seat, "Call the superiors! We have a situation here!" Chapter 177 - An Unknown Lizard (1) A few hours ago... Fire doesn''t care if it burns wood, pig fat or the flesh from a human body, just like bullets that didn''t care whether they were going to hit a concrete wall, a human or a monster. It had no preference at all, it was just a messenger of death for its target, a perfect instrument to kill someone whom it''s owner didn''t like and this time the owner of the bullet was Arnold, and his target was a regr lizardman.?? His aim was as good as ever as the bullet hit the fleeing lizardman at the back of its head and the monster copsed on the marshy floor. Thick ck blood flowed out of the limp body of the monster and got sttered onto the ground. A bullet was all it took to y the proud beast, but something was bothering Arnold a lot. ''Something''s wrong here...'' He thought, ''In the past whenever I''ve been here, I''ve always found a swarm of monsters ready to butcher anything that moved but now, although I''ve been here for over an hour this was only the fourth lizardman that I encountered and killed here.'' This wasn''t the only peculiarity that he had observed either. During his previous trips to the swamps, lizardmen never moved around alone but in groups just like the goblins even though they had individualistic mindset, but this time around, Arnold had only encountered one lizardman at a time, not more. Also, instead of running towards him to attack, strangely enough, whenever a lizardman saw him it started running away immediately. He had decided to visit the swamps to gain some progress for his Headhunter sub quest, but if the monsters kept running away from him then it wouldn''t have been possible for him to do it. At first, Arnold thought it was just a coincidence that he encountered a single lizardman, but he was proved wrong when he met another lizardman who was hiding behind a tall bush and appeared in front of him as soon as he killed the who appeared first. The second lizardman did the same thing and started running towards the direction in which the first lizardman was and Arnold killed it too. But the hunch he had, had turned out to be true when a third lizardman appeared in front of him the moment he killed the second lizardman. This cycle repeated itself once again and the result was the same. ''They are certainly trying to lead me somewhere... maybe another ambush?'' Arnold thought and tried to find an answer behind the sudden change in the behaviour of the lizardmen. It was highly unlikely that the once aggressive and ruthless species turn into a cowardly one, in a matter of a few hours. It didn''t make any sense at all. ''Let''s just wait and see what happens next,'' He thought as he stored the body of the monster in his void, ''I''m sure the next lizardman would pop up soon and this time, I''ll not kill it, but rather follow it and see where the hell these lizardmen are trying to run to.'' However this time Arnold waited and waited, but not a single lizardman ''suddenly'' appeared in front of him like before and Arnold began cursing himself for being a fool for wasting all of his daily quota of foresight for a stupid little box. If he had the left even a single chance to use his foresight then he wouldn''t need to stand like a fool in the middle of the dusky swamp. Seeing no other way, he decided to call forth his newly made strike force of ultralight automatons to help him out. Once every single one of them was out of his domain, he gave them a singlemand. "Look for any peculiarities in the region and immediately report in if you find something." Arnold was murmuring, yet his voice was loud and clear, "Also do not kill any monster, regardless of the situation. You''re free to disable them in any way y''all seem fit but aim to injure, not to kill. I want them alive." The automatons nodded simultaneously and without saying a word, immediately disappeared throughout the swamps to look for anything peculiar in thend of monsters. Arnold didn''t want his automatons to kill any monster for a single reason: The Headhunter sub-quest. He wanted toplete that particr sub quest as soon as possible so that he would be able to focus on making a relic afterwards toplete the ascension quest altogether. If his summons killed a monster then the counter of the Headhunter quest might not increase, just like what happened when thousands of monsters attacked the alpha base and Arnold didn''t get the credit for killing a single one of those. While Arnold was plotting his next move, It didn''t take very long for the automatons to find something ''peculiar'', as Arnold was almost immediately notified by the group of automatons who went in the same direction as the one the lizardmen were running towards. The automatons had informed him that they found a few lizardmen, so Arnold immediately darted towards in that direction, going to get some clues from them, but when he arrived at the location, he saw half a dozen dead lizardmen, piled up together. He was furious as he thought the automatons had killed them, but when he asked them about it they said the lizardmen were already like this when they arrived there. Although Arnold didn''t want to believe them, he knew they were telling the truth as they couldn''t lie to him. Arnold squatted down next to the bodies and turned their bodies around, after seeing the condition their bodies were in, all of his doubts were rified. The throats of the monsters had been cut cleanly in one swipe of some kind of de and Arnold knew that although the swords of his automatons were sharper than a normal sword, it still wasn''t possible for them to prate their swords so deep into the thick hide on the lizardmen in one go, which was a clear indication that someone else was present inside the swamp apart from him. The monstersid there like butchered animals in a pool of thick blood. While Arnold was carefully analysing the situation, one of the corpses slipped from the top of the pile andy staring up at him, it''s mouth was open, the head almost cleft from the body. He saw again the severed vessels, sticking like corrugated pipes through the clotted blood. Another body was propped as a rag doll against the tree in front of him. The monster''s head had drooped forward and over his chest, a great mat of blood had spread like a bib. As Arnold moved closer to him, the monster''s big yet lifeless eyes reflected his image and through those eyes, Arnold saw something move behind his back. Without waiting for a fraction of a second, Arnold jumped sideways like a cheetah to dodge the attack from the unknown enemy. He looked at the ce he was standing a second before and saw a battleaxe had split the head of the dead lizardman into two parts. The axe had almost managed to sever the tree in its entirety. "Such destructive force..." Arnold mumbled in admiration and looked at the owner of the battleaxe... a red lizardman he had never seen before. Chapter 178 - An Unknown Lizard (2) The red lizardman was bigger than any other type of lizardman he had encountered so far in the swamps. This lizardman was as tall as his golems but it was considerably more muscled than them and looked like a crazed crocodile running on drugs. ''Comparing it to the golems wouldn''t do him justice...'' Arnold thought as the giant lizard nkly stared at him with its majestic eyes, ''After all, he resembles a miniature Godzi more than an ice golem.''?? Just by looking at the lizardman, Arnold was sure about one thing. The Lizardmen race was not a single race but rather consist of a collection of vastly different species, specialising in a variety ofbat. Though they were gically rted to other reptiles that inhabit the swamps before the radiation and stuff, their hierarchy was something Arnold didn''t know much about till now. While Arnold was wondering about the lizard in front of him, the bunch of automatons that were present there, simultaneously jumped at the unarmed monster hoping to quickly put him down, but they couldn''t even get near him. With one swoop of his tail, the red lizardman destroyed three out of the seven automatons and with his hands, he crushed the remaining automatons like they were made of soda cans and aluminium foil. Arnold''s automatons which were made specifically to kill the lizardmen, couldn''t evenst for a second in front of the monster. What intimidated him more wasn''t the fact that the lizardman managed to destroy seven of his automatons almost instantly, but the fact that the lizardman didn''t even turn around to look at his enemies... his eyes were fixed on the man in front of him. ''This guy is on a whole another level...'' Arnold designed his new range of automatons to fight the lizardmen whom he had found and fought against during his earlier visits in the swamp, and that''s why they weren''t able tost against the red lizard. Arnold had now a vague analogy to ssify the lizardmen into different groups. If lizardmen were like an army as a whole, then the green-skinned ones could be ssed as Privates as they were the weakest among their species and were the mostmon type of lizards one would find in the swamps. They mostly fought barehanded, with their teeth, limbs, and tails consisting of their primary way of offence. You could say their IQ was low but that meant they were unpredictable and hence dangerous. Then came the grey-skinned lizardmen whom Arnold would give the rank of a sergeant, were likerge crocodiles whose entire body seemed to have evolved forbat and warfare. They were taller and stronger looking than themon lizardman but stood a bit shorter than an average man and were around 5''5"-5''8" feet tall, with their bony crest protecting their heads and neck, and tough scales that run down their backs, arms and spines. They usually carried a weapon with them but rarely wore any armour. Even when unarmed, they were perfectly capable of ying their enemies just like the mostmon type of lizardmen. Their tails and limbs are equipped with all manner of naturally hard spurs and talons, and their jaws are powerful enough to crush even the bones into dust. And atst, came the red lizardman. So far it was the strongest among the different types of lizardmen Arnold had encountered in the swamps. The lizardman in front of him was also thergest among the other Lizardmen he had seen in the swamps so far. You could essentially call them giant cousins of the regr lizardmen, clearly bred for their brute strength and power. Just by looking at one of them, Arnold was fairly sure that every single one of these red lizards was exceptionallyrge and powerful creatures, and maybe their intellect was higher as well because the red lizardman didn''t only have a weapon but also a thick metallic armour on top of his already imprable skin which was encased within almost stone-hard scales of powerful reptilian armour. Since it was Arnold''s first time encountering this beast, he had no idea about which rank he should ce the new lizardman in his analogy as Arnold was fairly certain that there might be stronger lizardmen than this one. So since it was stronger than the grey ones, he decided to give the lizardman the rank of a corporal. He then proceeded to use [Probe] on the lizardman. ___ CLASS: Lizardman (Ascended Mutant) NAME: Elite Lizardman Warrior LEVEL: 110 COSMIC RANK: D ROLE: Dragonkin AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Dragon Bite (Active skill) ? Tail Whip (Active skill) ? Dragon''s Disciple (Passive skill) HP: 17000/17000 STRENGTH (STR) : 138 (+25 due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF) : 101 (+20 due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 85 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 55 AGILITY (AGI) : 58 ACCURACY (ACC) : 70 EVADE (EVD) : 71 CHARISMA (CHA) : 04 Damage Resistances: None Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Fire-based attacks, Explosions. THREAT LEVEL: High REMARK: I''m going to be brutally honest with you... I don''t have much information about the beast you''re looking at but since it''s a part of the same race as previous monsters you''ve encountered so it might not be that hard for you to y this beast, or you could just run away. Your choice... ___ ''Tsk, another ascended Mutant, but it''s stronger than the demon Orc... It would be a problem is there are more lizards like him in the swamps. Also, the system is right... If things go wrong, I could just to hide in my domain and then just use the void travel to get back to the base.'' Arnold thought as he slowly got back to his feet, staring right into the monster''s eyes, ''But it''ll be a shame to run away without testing the lizardman''s abilities first, especially when most of them have the dragon associated with them.'' Arnold was intrigued by the name of the abilities the lizardman had as well as the unique role it had. It was his first time that he had encountered a monster having the role of a ''Dragonkin'' and the ability that was called [Dragon''s Disciple] which was a passive skill. ''I wonder who the egg would react if I feed it the blood of this ''dragonkin''.'' Arnold thought and quickly equipped his guns while the lizardman moved forward to pick up his battleaxe before turning towards his opponent. Both of them were ready to fight each other, till the other was incapacitated. ''You may be stronger than the rest of your race, but you certainly can''t move freely while wearing a heavy armour, I might end up being the perfect enemy for the lizard, hehe.'' Chapter 179 - Dragonkin (1) A minuteter... ''Agility is the key to my victory.'' Arnold kept repeating the thought in his mind as he ran around the lizardman like an NFL yer who was on steroids.?? So far it was his thoughts that had kept him alive in the fight and as he had predicted earlier, the armour of the lizardman was not allowing it to attack Arnold while he was running around in circles, but not all was in favour of Arnold. With each attack, the lizardman got closer and closer to him. It was only a matter of time before he would get struck down the battleaxe which could''ve put Arnold in a troublesome position. And that wasn''t all. The lizardman''s armour was like a sword with a double edge. On one hand, it tremendously restricted the movement of the one wearing it and on the other hand, it was nothing less than an absolute defence against its enemies. After using his probe skill on the lizardman, Arnold knew that it was weak against fire-based attacks and explosions. Which was very fortunate for him. Arnold could easily use both types of attacks by using the grenades and his elemental abilities to get rid of the lizardman, but using explosives in the swamps waspletely out of the question, as an explosion might attract unnecessary attention from other monsters and if that happened, then the lizardman would have been the least of his concerns. He also didn''t know whether there were other dragonkin in the swamps or not, and if there were more then Arnold certainly wouldn''t have been able to defend himself in that situation. So he decided to go for fire-based attacks instead. Without wasting a second, he immediately started firing fiery bullets at the lizard while circling around him. ___ You''ve dealt 654(+23) points of damage to your target. Damage inflicted after damage reduction due to target''s defence: 50 HP Your bullets triggered the exclusive skill : ? [EXPLOSIVE SHOT]. Additional Damage dealt: 72 HP ? [LUCKY SHOT]. Additional true damage dealt: 39 HP ? [DOUBLE EDGE]. Damage dealt was multiplied by a factor of : 2 Total damage dealt: 178 HP Target''s remaining HP : 16822/17000 ___ Unfortunately, even after triggering nearly all of the effects, he could by using the vindicators, the armour still sessfully protected the lizard from most of the damage and only suffered minor burns on his back, which only brought down the lizard''s HP by 178 points. Arnold then tried to use the [Arcane mes] at the lizard, hoping to deal continuous damage to the lizard but instead he got to know about the effect of [Dragon''s disciple] ability - Damage reduction from fire-based attacks. ___ Creature''s Passive ability, [Dragon''s disciple] , is in effect now. The creature gained 80% damage reduction from fire-based attacks for the next 60 seconds. ___ ''Why stop at 80%? Go all out and make it 100% instead!'' Things were getting bad. Now, not only would the damage inflicted on the monster would get reduced by 80%, the remaining 20% of the damage would then get further reduced due to his armour''s defence. Essentially, making the lizard immune to fire damage, something that should''ve been his weakness. But Arnold wasn''t going to give up so easily and then thought up a weird idea. He wanted to change the battlefield into something more favourable to him, like turning the swamp into his domain as he did during his fight against Jake, and then he could bombard the lizard with all types of grenades he had. Unfortunately, he wasn''t allowed to use his domain in the way he wanted to. ___ You can only call out your domain in presence of other or or . ___ Although he was frustrated at this point he didn''t show it. Finding a way to kill the lizard took the priority right now, rather than thinking about pdins, vassals or gods. He then tried to open up a portal beneath the lizard which would lead to his domain and then he could do the same thing as before, but instead he would do it inside the void. Easy right? Well, no. The system wasn''t having that either. ___ The object/creature you''re trying to store within the void is not associated with you in any way, shape or form. The process will be stopped now. ___ Arnold wasn''t frustrated when the text appeared in front of his eyes, he was pissed. It was as if he was ying a game of chess with the system in his mind, where no matter what he did, the system always found a way to say ''check'' to him. Seeing that there was no other way to defeat the lizardman without the explosives, Arnold thought of a dangerous yet effective n. He had been thinking about this for some time and it had been a while since he has wanted to put his n into action, also he felt like this was the perfect opportunity to do so. But before getting cocky, he quicklypared his stats to that of the lizardman. ___ HP : 10138/10138 MANA : 20037/20837 STRENGTH (STR) : 161[+65] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF) : 161 (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 210 AGILITY (AGI) : 91 ACCURACY (ACC) : 94 EVADE (EVD) : 78 CHARISMA (CHA) : 86 MYSTIC (MYS) : 155 ___ ''Bruh... the fck am I even worried about?'' A smile crept it''s way to his face, ''The only field I''mcking in is my HP... but it''ll be fine until and unless I don''t get hit by the lizard but then again, with the amount of defence I have getting hit once or twice wouldn''t be an issue either.'' He then quietly stored the vindicator in his inventory and steeled himself to face the lizardman in hand to handbat, but while he was at it a realisation dawned upon him. It was something he never thought before, but now he felt like he should''ve. ''If this lizard is a cosmic being while having much lower stats than mine, so does that means I too have achieved a cosmic rank as well?'' He wondered whether this ''sudden'' progress was linked to his progress through the ascension quest or was it something that was happening with the other pdins as well? Maybe this was the reason how his weak and frail sister got so powerful all of a sudden and maybe, just maybe, she had alreadypleted her ascension quest or some other equivalent of it? If that was the case then everything was clear now. While Arnold was lost in his thoughts, the lizardman charged at him for the first time in their fight, roaring. His battleaxe in his hands, ready to ughter his target. Chapter 180 - Dragonkin (2) Like a hulking monster, the lizardman darted towards Arnold. Arnold calmly stood there and watched the monster get closer to him bit by bit, but before he got too close, that part of swamp got covered with icy mist forcing the lizard to stop in his tracks, it''s prey had disappeared right before his eyes. ___?? You''ve used [ICY VEIL] (lvl : 5). The uracy (ACC) of enemy units within the range of skill have been reduced by 10% for 5 minutes. Your Evasion (EVD) has increased by 10% for 5 minutes. Special effect: [You can''t see me] is in effect. Your presence will be hidden from enemy units if you don''t inflict damage to any target for 3 seconds. You can trigger this effect once in every 5 seconds The effect will be broken if you''re attacked. ___ The lizardman, instinctively waved his hands around to get rid of the mist but nothing happened, the mist was still there and made the lizard angrier than before. Irritated by the sudden appearance of the mist, the angry lizardman started swinging his battleaxe like an enraged alligator who thrashed his tail around, in hopes of that his attacks get connected to the human. Arnold felt a bit sad by looking at the confused monster so he went ahead and punched it hard across the face. The moment his fist connected with lizardman''s face, ws popped up from his gloves. He didn''t punch the lizard in his face by choice, but because it was the only ce that wasn''t covered by thick armour. The ws managed to scratch the monster deep across his face, it looked like its tough hide was no match against a Wyvern''s bone. Of course, he had already activated a couple of skills beforehand to further enhance his attack. ___ You''ve activated [BERSERKER''S RAGE] (lvl : 5) Strength (STR) boosted by 150% for 20 seconds. You''ve activated [RAPID FLASH] (lvl : 5) Agility (AGI) boosted by 10% for 120 seconds. ___ Furthermore, attacking the lizardman also triggered the additional effects of his gears. ___ You''ve triggered the effect: [WYVERN''S CLAW]- When a target gets scratched by the ws of the glove, the target enters a poisoned state, making the target numb and limiting their visibility while making them lose 5% of their total health per minute. The duration can be extended by continually inflicting damage to the target. You''ve triggered the effect : [WYVERN QUEEN''S BLESSING] - Damage dealt to beast type monsters permanently increases by 10%. You''ve triggered the effect : [WYVERN QUEEN''S BLESSING] - Damage dealt to beast type monsters permanently increases by 10%. ___ The effect, [Queen''s blessing] was triggered twice as both his cloak as well as the gloves shared the same additional effect. ''I didn''t know the effect of the gears could ovep with one another. Either way, it''s good news!'' Arnold thought and once again disappeared in the mist. Although it seemed like Arnold had disappeared in the mist, the reality was different as it would require him to remain undetected for 3 seconds and after that, he needed to wait for additional 5 seconds to fully erase his existence while he was inside the mist. This was supposed to be the drawback of the skill but Arnold had already figured a loophole to exploit it. The key was to use his domain during the attacks. After sessfully hitting his enemy once, Arnold quickly opened up a portal to his void and slipped inside it. Once he was inside, all he needed to do was to wait for the effect to be reset and then pop out of the same ce to hit his target once again. This way he could ensure two things. One, this continuous chain of attack ensured that the poisoning effect of [Wyvern''s w] did continuous damage, up to 5% of the targets max HP. And two, the cooldown period of [You can''t see me] got refused to a third of its original amount as time passed faster inside the void. This essentially meant that rather than waiting for 8 seconds to trigger ''invisibility'' he now had to wait only for a little over 2 seconds to trigger it, but to keep a safe side he waited in the void for 3 seconds instead. ___ You''ve dealt 340 (+83) points of damage to your target. Damage inflicted after damage reduction due to target''s defence: 329 HP Your attacks also triggered the following effects: ? [Wyvern Queen''s Blessing]. Additional Damage dealt: 33 HP ? [Wyvern Queen''s Blessing]. Additional Damage dealt: 33 HP ? [Wyvern''s w]: The target has been [poisoned] and would gradually lose 850 HP over one minute. Total damage dealt: 395 HP (+850 poison damage) Target''s remaining HP : 16427/17000 ___ He had been expecting this result. He knew his punches wouldn''t have been able to do much damage to the mini Godzi, and neither he was hoping for it to happen. Rather than directly inflicting damage to the monster, he had been relying upon the continuous poison damage dealt to the lizard to finish him off. It was a slow but steady process. He already knew it was going to be an awfully long fight as soon as he got to know fire attacks didn''t work on the lizard due to the type of armour and passive ability he had, but he didn''t mind it. Unless more monsters showed up there, he could take care of the lone lizardman. But in case the monsters did end up appearing during the fight, then he wouldn''t hesitate to go all out regardless of how loud noise he made in the process. But till then, the red lizardman would have Arnold''s undivided attention. ''Times up.'' Arnold thought and jumped out of the void and attacked the lizardman once again. The lizardman hadpletely given up on offence as he couldn''t move, thanks to the poison status and solely focused on defending himself, but with a body asrge as his, the lizardman found it next to impossible to defend himself against Arnold who was jumping around like a rabbit wielding a knife. With each attack, the lizardman''s eyesight degraded a bit more and the numbness took over his body, which was also thanks to the additional effect of his gloves. This made Arnold''s life a lot easier as now he could continuously attack the lizardman without worrying about his defence. Thanks to the continuous attacks, he ended up stacking the poison effect on top of one another. Within six to seven minutes the lizardman''s HP started decreasing at an rming rate and went from 15000 to 12800 then 8550, and so on. But as soon as the monster''s HP got below 2000, all of a sudden he started howling, but it wasn''t a howl of pain rather it was a plea to his kin for help. "Damn it!" By the time Arnold realised what was going on and managed to kill the lizardman, he was already surrounded by an army of lizardmen... there was over 200 lizardman spread all around him. Arnold quickly scanned through his enemies and although there were around a dozen red lizardmen within the army, thankfully none of them was wearing armour like the one he had been fighting a few minutes ago. Under normal conditions, he would''ve been worried about his well-being and escape from there, but in his eyes, this was a golden opportunity to finish his Headhunter sub-quest once and for all, and he wasn''t going to waste it by running away. Chapter 181 - Killer Of The Masses (1) Back in present, Los Angeles...?? The surveince room had a record of heat signatures in their database of all of the soldiers who had been assigned a field mission by the syndicate, Kellie quickly performed a scan on Nathan''s order and within a minute it was obvious that the man in the swamps was indeed Arnold. "That fcking idiot!" Nina cursed loudly and mmed her fists on the table in front of her, shaking the entire screen on which the live feed of the swamps was being broadcasted, "Why isn''t he calling out his summons to help him!" Nathan, Nicole, Nina and over two dozen people were present inside the surveince room at that moment, all of these people were the ones Nathan and the family deeply trusted excluding Kellie who was a new recruit. Nathan was asking questions to Kellie but she didn''t have any answers. While all this was happening Nicole was silently watching the feed ming herself for this situation and Nina... was aplete mess. She was on the verge of tears but quickly got a hold over herself, she wanted to help the guy who had became so important to her but at the same, she knew she couldn''t do anything to help him other than pray for his safety. She had never felt so useless in her entire life like she was at the moment, but she knew Nicole was feeling a lot worse. After Nathan was done asking questions to Kellie, he stepped out of the surveince room. He was clueless as to why Arnold would do something so careless and irresponsible, he wasn''t a kid anymore! He was sure that Arnold knew it very well that the swamps were even more dangerous once the sun went down because he was the one who provided that information to them and yet he went ahead and did exactly what he had strictly rmended the others not to. But it wasn''t the time to think why Arnold did what he did. Right now Nathan needed to make sure that Arnold was not in danger. If something happened to him it would break Nina. But there was no legal way of doing so. The syndicate had prohibited anyone from entering the swamps and only gave permission to Arnold and Nina go there to ''investigate'', but even in that case, they had to inform the syndicate first. The syndicate only agreed to the arrangement after Nathan reminded them of the favours the ck Family had done for them and now he didn''t have any card to influence their decision. He could''ve hosted a meeting with the remaining heads of the syndicate and try to persuade them into sending an armada to save one man, but it was unlikely that they''d agree to that. Yes, Arnold''s creationist abilities were important for them but it wasn''t like he was thest remaining creationist in the country and thus could be considered ''expendable'' rather than sending in a force in danger for the sake of one irresponsible man and if Nathan was in their shoes, he knew, he would''ve done the same thing, but he wasn''t. Even in the rare case that they agreed to save him, the decision-making process would be long and could even take days for them toe to an agreement but by then it might be toote for him. Seeing no other way around, he called the Section Chief of zone 1, the zone nearest to the swamps and the only zone (apart from zone 4) that was led by a member of the ck Family, Azyriah. "Yes sir!" Azyriah''s voice came from the other side of themunicator. "I''m sorry for troubling you at this hour," Nathan continued, "but the family needs your help." "Tell me what to do and it''ll be done." Nathan took a deep breath before saying anything as he knew what he was going to ask her to do could potentially lose her position, "It''s an off the record rescue mission. Your task is to rescue Arnold from the swamps. I''ll se-" "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?" Azyriah roared so loudly that even the ones inside the surveince room could faintly hear her. "Try not to be loud and hear me out first." Nathan calmly replied, "Arnold went there for some field research for something important but there he got ambushed by apany of lizardmen while he was there and since you''re the one nearest to him, I''m asking for your help." "Okay, but if he was on an official mission then shouldn''t the syndicate organise a rescue mission and not an off the record one?" "The syndicate had decided that he''s... expendable, but I don''t agree." Nathan lied right at her face but it didn''t take Azyriah much time to figure it out Nathan was never a good liar in her eyes. "It''s fine if you don''t wanna tell me, and I''m not gonna pry about it either," Azyriah shook her head, "Send me his urate location and I''ll see what I can do, after all, it''s the least I can do for him after he saved my life all those years ago." "I''m in your debt-" "Don''t get too happy." she cut Nathan off, "I won''t be putting my men in danger for my sake, but even if ites to worse... I won''t back out of saving him. Rest assured, either we both woulde back from the swamp together... or we both would die there saving each other''s asses." Nathan had been expecting Azyriah to say something like that. She was one of those who didn''t like to be indebted to anyone regardless of who it was but also wouldn''t endanger the safety of the others for that. Right when Nathan was going to say something, a loud gasping noise came from the inside the surveince room, followed by loud cheering. "I''ll provide you with the necessary information soon!" Nathan quickly disconnected the call and rushed inside the room, "What the hell are you all cheering for?" Everyone looked at Nathan with a smile on their faces but no one says anything, only Nina pointed towards the big screen, her eyes filled with tears. Fearing the worst Nathan made his way towards the screen and stood next to her, looking carefully at the screen. "That son of a gun..." That was all Nathan managed to mumble when he saw the heat signatures of the monsters around Arnold were disappearing one after another. Within a minute he had already killed around 30 to 40 monsters and the number kept increasing rapidly, everyone was shocked and confused... ''How is it even possible...'' Chapter 182 - Killer Of The Masses (2) An hourter in the swamps... The trees which had been sheltering the swamp with their thick canopy of greenery and provided a perfect environment forest-dwelling monsters for so long were now turned into lifeless sticks of charcoal, no more vibrant than the old woodenmp-posts of an old city.?? The unfettered light of the burning trees illuminated the scorched ground while the smell of burning wood and flesh lingered in the air. Fire tainted the earth with grey ash, stripping the trees of the virescent beauty, leaving their gaunt, skeletal remains rooted to the now barren, lifeless soil. They seemed to reach out to the sky like gnarled hands as if desperately begging the cloudless sky to rain so that they could be whole again, but even the sky refused to aid them and the ground was cursed to remain barren and dead. The toll on both nature and the human who was responsible for all this destruction was heavy, very heavy. The part of swamps the man was standing in looked as if it had been torched withva or something simr. Parts of trees and ground were still ame as if trying to mimic the burning rage inside the human''s heart. Hundreds of burnt bodies of humanoid lizards of all shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the area, some were torn into pieces while some only had their bones left behind as the fire melted their bodies away and the man was limply walking around scanning the area for surviving monsters but there were none, all of their souls had been consumed by the fire. All of the 254 lizardmen who attacked the man now looked like roasted alligators,ying on the ground. But it wasn''t like the man was unscathed either. Blood trickled down from everywhere on his body, his head, thighs, chest, forearms everywhere. His clothes and gears were soaked with a mixture of his blood and sweat along with the blood of the monsters that he brutally killed. There were at least a dozen broken bones in his body, but the wounds as well as the broken bones were rapidly recovering and sealing themselves up without any outside interference. The man was Arnold, standing in the middle of the scorched swamp with no one left to challenge him. The system was continuously buzzing with notifications but he couldn''t even focus on the texts that kept popping up in front of his eyes, his body was on the verge of copsing still he couldn''t feel anything maybe it was the effect of adrenaline that was still coursing through his blood. ''It''s finally over...'' He thought after checking thest lizardman corpse that was in his sights, ''No more monsters...'' One of his legs gave out and he slumped down to the burnt ground. His body was finally taking a hit from all the continuous fights he fought within thest hour. He wanted to store the bodies of the dead lizardmen in his domain but he barely had enough strength left to lift a finger, forget about opening arge enough void to do anything else. His eyes were also getting heavier and heavier as every moment passed. He was tired but he still had work to do. The smell of burning flesh would certainly attract other monsters and he wasn''t in a state to fight anymore... for another hour or so at the very least, so he needed to do something about it as soon as he had regained enough strength to do so. He tried to get up but it was of no use, he felt like his legs had a mind of their own. He tried once again but the result remained unchanged. In the end, he gave up on it andid back, looking at the night sky which was now clearly visible as all of the trees around him had been burnt down by the mes he generated both through his abilities as well as his weapons. "Not bad... not bad at all..." He mumbled, but even talking seemed like a herculean task right now and took tremendous efforts to do so. By now, nearly all of his external wounds werepletely sealed and the bleeding was stopped, but the internal damage he incurred during the fight, including the broken bones, still needed to be fixed. ''Looks like I''ll have to stay here for another hour or so...'' he smirked but even doing that was painful, ''I greatly underestimated them, especially those goofballs. Just one hit at the right ce and I could''ve die fighting those sneaky little bastards...'' Among the army of the lizardmen, the lizardmen that Arnold had encountered earlier weren''t the only ones he had to fight against, as soon after the fight began, the fourth type of lizardmen also showed up. These monsters could barely qualify as lizardmen if someone looked at them as they were exceptionally small and had toad-like features rather than those of a lizard or an alligator, also they were only a couple of feet tall. Arnold underestimated them because of their small size and he realised it soon, as within their bloated sluggish bodies they contained an over half a meter long tongue, having a razor-sharp poison tip at the end which was their only yet effective source of offence. What made it scarier was the speed at which they couldunch the attack using their tongue. These unearthly creatures were quite unlike anything else Arnold had seen within the world. Their heads were bigger than a volleyball, most probably to allow their gigantic tongue to be stored inside, and their eyes were like a pair of golf balls. This helped them to focus on their target as well as to see better in the dark. Even though they had all these abilities, theycked in one department... the brain. They weren''t the smartest creatures among the lot as at times they didn''t haveplete control over their tongues and often ended up hitting their kin instead. Still, their small size and the range of their attacks made it very difficult for their target to dodge their attack and once their target was hit by the poisoned tip of their tongue, that part was numbed for a couple of seconds while the wound caused by the attack took more time to clot and get sealed. Most of the external wounds that Arnold had were thanks to those little bastards, and in frustration, Arnold ended up giving them the nickname, ''Little bastards'' while their name ording to the system was - Stinging Toadzards. Thebined attacks of all of the lizardmen were too much for Arnold to handle and in the end, Arnold decided to put his guns aside and deal with them using skills and weapons and deal AOE damage. Which was the best thing he could do. Chapter 183 - Killer Of The Masses (3) ''I should''ve been more careful with my mana,'' Arnold thought, still gazing at the cloudless sky... trying to remember what happened an hour ago. The minute he was overwhelmed by the swarm of lizardmen, Arnold gave up the idea of being ''discrete'' and went all out on his enemies.?? First, he froze the entire region around him using the ice control. Doing this restricted the movement of the bigger lizardmen while itpletely stopped the attacks from the little Tozards as the thickyer of ice covered them up. With the Tozards temporarily out of his way, Arnold''s attention shifted towards the 10 remaining dragonkins who simultaneously charged at him. He then started shooting fiery bullets at them as fire was one of their weaknesses. The bullets instantly killed 4 of them while the remaining 6 jumped backwards while taking out something like a small ck ball from the folds of their robe and threw it towards him. Arnold instinctively dodged the attack but the lizardmen behind him weren''t so lucky. As soon as the ball hit the marshy ground it exploded,unching metal shards in his direction although mist of his body remained unscathed, he wasn''t quick enough and some of the shards got buried in his left foot while the rest killed the lizardmen behind him. This was the reason why Arnold had been limping after the fight as these shards weren''t ordinary pieces of metal but the tip of Tozard tongues which poisoned his bloodstream. Taking advantage of this moment a grey lizardman, who had been injured by the metal shards, stabbed its dagger on Arnold''s right shoulder but Arnold''s sturdy robes saved him from any fatal damage, the grey lizardman, however, wasn''t that lucky. ___ You''ve triggered the effect: [TITAN''S BLESSING] - Reflects 15% of damage received as physical damage to the attacker. ___ As soon as the dagger touched Arnold''s robe, a sword made up of wind popped behind the lizardman and shed it twice on its back, draining the lizardman of it''s remaining HP. Some lizardmen were carrying bows and crossbows attacked him, either hiding behind the trees or other lizardmen. At this time all of the remaining 6 lizardmen bombarded him with the ck grenades. Arnold soon realised the danger he was in and quickly raised a mud wall to protect himself. Angered by their nuisance, Arnold responded with his own grenades and harpoons. Looking at Arnold was like looking at the devil. His mes coupled with the grenades, harpoons and his bullets soon the area around him was covered in mes andva. All of his enemies had been burnt to a crisp, including the Tozards. At this time his automatons had arrived at the scene and were fighting delightfully against their master. Once the fight was over, Arnold instructed them to go and look around for enemies that might be lurking in the shadows waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of his weakened state. ''Gotta admit it though, it was fun... hehe.'' Heughed but as he did, his felt a sharp pain in his chest most likely source of the pain being his broken ribs, ''I''ve healed enough now... let''s open up the void and get inside and then I would check the interface for rewards.'' Rewards were the most important thing after he almost died trying to gain them. He opened up a portal but he soon realised he couldn''t move on his own, a few shards were still stuck in his legs and the poison was still in effect making it impossible for him to move on his own. The poison within the shards also slowed his healing process, thus his broken bones were taking this long to heal. So he summoned a few of the automatons back. "Go and fetch... oww... a stretcher or something... from inside." He instructed two of the automatons who immediately went inside the void and soon came back with the stretcher, followed by Natasha at their toes. ''Looks like she was worried about me... cute, ow ow ow!'' Arnold tried his best not tough but failed, and hisugh was briefly followed by wincing in pain. Natasha was the first to reach to him and quickly went to work, that is... started smothering her helpless master within her endless cleavage. "Stof thish instuntly!" Arnold''s muffled voice echoed through her cleavage. (TL: Stop this instantly!) (Author''s note: I thought I''d write it like that to show that he was being smothered hard, lel.) "I absolutely will not do that, the master can punish meter for my ignorance!" Subus replied and forced her Master''s head even deeper into her cleavage, "If I let you go, then how would I heal you up?" "Whach?" (TL: What?) ___ Your summon is using ''Dispel'' (lvl 6) on you. All of your negative status effects have been removed. Your summon is using ''Life Restore'' (lvl 5) on you. A new life-force fills your body: Healing boosted! Recovery rate: 30 HP/second. ___ Arnold then realised that his chest wasn''t hurting as bad as before. His wounds had almost disappeared, not even the scars remained... it was as if nothing had happened to him before. He was as good as new! ''I didn''t know, Natasha could do something like this. Nheless, I''m thankful for it... apart from the smothering part... that''s a bit weird.'' After constant smothering for five minutes, Arnold was finally able to stand on his feet. He still felt a bit wobbly but it wasn''t troublesome. He thanked Natasha, and her face got flushed with redness. He then called his automatons back. Once everyone had been assembled there, Arnold and his summons returned to the void, leaving the scorched swamp behind. **** At The Naga Queen''s chamber... "What do you mean you couldn''t locate him!" The Queen roared, thrashing her tail all around her chamber. She was already enraged by the actions of those filthy lizardmen, but the failure of her soldiers to locate the man she imed to be their king, enraged her even more. "He was alone wasn''t he?" She murmured, yet her domineering voice sent shivers through the spines of her subjects. "Y-Yes, m-my Queen..." Vija, the femalemander of her army replied. "And he was injured?" "W-We cannot confirm it at the m-moment b-but that''s the most likely oue of t-their battle..." "And yet you slithering idiots couldn''t FIND HIM?" The Queen thrashed her tail again and killed one of her soldiers in an instant. "W-We tried our best to track him down and bring the human with us but-" "What did you call him?" "I apologise for my arrogance, your Slitheriness. I meant to say, our king..." Vija profusely apologised. "Don''t ever disrespect him, or it would be thest mistake of your useless life." The Queen gave a re to Vija before speaking again, "Now leave me alone for a while..." "As you wish, my queen." Everyone immediately rushed out of the chamber. ''No matter what... one day, I''ll make you mine my love.'' Chapter 184 - Killer Of The Masses (4) Arnold peered at the windows from the bed before letting his heavy head fall on the pillow. He felt like he was in a hospital ward during visiting time. Usually, in hospitals, the family and friends of a patient visited to check up on their loved once bringing nice food, fruits and flowers. But it wasn''t the same for him. ''These guys are so loud...''?? Inside Arnold''s room at the Alpha Base, all of his elite summons had crowded in to check up on their master. They didn''t have food or flowers with them, but they did were worried about his well-being more than anyone else. Natasha had forced him toy down and to Arnold''s surprise, Talos was inplete agreement with her. In his words, "Master has been overlooking his health while overworking, and because of that an oue like this was expected." Arnold felt a bit weird when Talos said those words. Talos'' voice was still emotionless but Arnold felt as if Talos was actually pretty upset with him, so upset that he even agreed to Natasha''s insane demand of tying Arnold to the bed! Fortunately, Cerberus jumped in between and stopped them from doing anything stupid. While everyone was arguing within themselves, Arnold wasying on crisp but thin bedsheets. A curtain hung limply on the chrome railing and looked like it had been washed thousand times over. ''Weird, I never did anyundry then howe the sheets and curtain are so clean?" His eyes then fell on the polystyrene tiles above, when he heard the door leading to his time open and in came Allen followed by Alice. Everyone immediately stepped aside to make way for Alice, who was the ''only'' healer among them. (Author''s note: Although Natasha has healing power, it''s not her major strength, that''s why I''m referring to Alice as the only healer among them. Also, the healing powers of Natasha are subject to how much life force she has, but I''ll exin more on thatter.) "What do you want me to tell the others?" Alice whispered in his ears while pretending to check the back of his neck, "I know they''ve been pestering a lot since you came back, huhuhu." "It''s that obvious huh?" Arnold whispered back at the giggling Alice, "But before I answer that, am Ipletely fine?" Arnold''s wounds were healed and he couldn''t feel any pain, but he thought it could be due to Natasha''s weird healing technique. Thus he asked for an expert''s advice on the matter. "You look as good as new to me, but I''d rmend you to take rest for today," Alice replied after thoroughly checking him up and turned towards his summons, "Master is fine but he needs to rest for the day. So everyone who doesn''t have any duty to do at the base can return to the domain right now." The room was filled with huffing sounds when Alice ended her speech. All of them wanted to stay by his side. Although Arnold appreciated the sentiment, he needed to ''rest'' first and foremost. Still, he didn''t want to force hours summons to listen to him, so rather than forcing them to leave, he decided to open a portal to his domain beneath their feet and vi! All of theints ceased immediately. Only Allen, Talos and Alice were the only ones left inside the room. "Easy peasy, lemon squeezy." Arnold smiled gestured at the others to leave. Talos hesitantly left the room, followed by Alice but Allen decided to stay behind. He had some news for him. "Nathan and the contacted me while you were gone." He said with a smile. "What do they want?" Arnold was still a bit hurt about Nicole''sments and also the fact that Nina didn''t even try to correct her, but still, he was a part of the family so there wasn''t anything he could do if Nathan wanted to contact him. "He just wanted me to inform you that Nina and Nicole might be visiting us tomorrow-" "What part of ''I don''t want to talk'' do they don''t understand!?" Arnold sat up straight on the bed, "When are they going to show up?" "In the morning." "..." "Is something wrong?" Allen asked, worried about his *brother''s* reaction to the news. "Nothing. It''s fine." Arnold replied and got off his bed, "Is that all?" "Yes," Allen replied. "Then, you can leave now." Allen knew Arnold was in a bad mood so he did as he was told. He also knew it was better to leave Arnold alone once he turned into an angryd. Still, he couldn''t help but wonder what could''ve possibly happened between them that turned Arnold''s mood sour as soon as he heard about theming here? ''It''s not like he''s going to tell me about it either way,'' Allen thought as he left the workshop, ''I think I should give Nina a little heads-up about his mood...'' **** A few minutester, Inside the workshop... "All I wanted was to rest for a bit but no," Arnold mumbled as he got dressed up to work. His mind had been racing ever since Allen informed him about Nina''s and Nicole''s ''Surprise visit'', and the only way he knew to calm his racing mind, was to make something... anything. But before he could do so he needed to take care of two things. One, im his rewards for the headhunter quest and two, feed the giant egg. So, he opened up his interface to im the rewards first. ___ ? HEADHUNTER : [ INTRODUCTION ]: You''ve proven your worth to the ''Immortal One'' and now your true training begins. [ TASK ]: Hunt down 300 monsters as an offering to the Immortal one. [ PROGRESS ] : 454/300 monsters hunted. [COMPLETION GRADE]: S ___ ''im.'' ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Killer Of The Masses] Effect: ? Permanently increases the level of all of your abilities (regardless of their rarity) by 5 levels. You offered 154 more monsters as an offering to the Immortal One. The lord is impressed by your valiant efforts and has decided to reward you. You''ve earned 154 attribute points! ___ "I... can''t... believe... this..." Chapter 185 - Creationist At Work "154 attribute points..." Arnold mumbled, "I''m such an idiot!" The reality of the situation hit him hard. The number of attribute points he got was amazing and Arnold wasn''t pissed about getting those. He was pissed because he realised the true purpose of the headhunter quest.?? ording to him, the quest had a hidden purpose as well. It was supposed to work aspensation. Since Arnold wasn''t able to level up after he got the ''Ascension'' quest, there was no easy way for him to earn the attribute points and level up his attributes as the main source to gain attribute points was through levelling up. Thuspleting this quest served as a way for him to gain some attribute points. Thus it wasn''t a simple quest either, and Arnold realised it as soon as the notification popped up in front of his eyes. "If only I had waited a bit longer before iming the rewards..." he shook his head. The number of attribute points he got as an ''extra reward'' was equal to the number of the extra monsters he killed after the counter reached its maximum value. So it meant that more monsters he killed before iming the rewards the more attribute points he could''ve gained. If he had known about this earlier, then he would''ve never imed the reward until it reached a threshold value and couldn''t increase anymore! He could''ve been swimming through a sea of attribute points yet now he would have to be content with the water well he got. "I hate these ''hidden'' quests! They gave generous rewards but argh...pleting them perfectly is a pain in the butt!" He cursed out loud for onest time before heading back into the forge. Although he wanted to invest the attribute points to increase his attributes at once, he had decided against it. His mind wasn''t in the right ce at the moment. If he wanted to make most out of the opportunity, then he needed to have a clear conscience first and to do that he''d need to throw himself in work. Once in the forge, he called out a bunch of his T-range automatons who specialised in weapon development. He didn''t bother to call Talos to help him because one, he was already busy with installing defences in the base or he would throw a tantrum after seeing that Arnold wasn''t nning to rest up like he was supposed to and two, most of the defences that the base had been equipped with were the creation of electronic minds of these automatons as well. Thus Arnold wanted them to assist him in the next step of his ''one-man army'' n, making the self-aware sentry guns. The thought of making these weapons crossed him when he was being overwhelmed by the attacks of lizardmen. He couldn''t use his summons to assist him back then and he was put in a life-threatening situation because of that. So he decided to make weapons that wouldn''t be counted as his summons and yet assist him during fights. Thus now he wanted to focus on making a sentry gun which could differentiate between his enemies and eliminate them while protecting his allies. For this purpose, Arnold thought it would be better to program the sentry guns by himself using his [Novice Programmer] ability. Doing so would have its benefits. One, it would greatly reduce theplexity of the sentry guns. Two, it would make it cost-effective for Arnold as he would save a lot of beast crystals by programming them himself and three, programming the sentries himself would allow him to increase the flexibility of operation for the sentries. It was a win-win situation for him. Hurray to cheap, yet deadly weapons. "So that''s my n. Any questions?" Arnold finished exining his automatons about what he desired to do next. All of the automatons shook their heads. It was well within their technological limits to make sentry guns. But Arnold had another n rted to sentries as well and it was the main reason why he needed their help, and he knew with the help of his automatons he''ll be able to seed in making what he had in his mind. "Also," Arnold stopped the automatons who were getting ready to work, "if possible, I''ll like you to make a mountable variation of the sentry gun as well." For the first time, his automatons were clueless about what their master was trying to say. Arnold understood why the automatons were confused and immediately exined what he wanted them to do. "What I meant was that I''d like to make a lightweight version of the sentries as well." The corners of his mouth edged up a bit, "They should be light enough for hounds to carry on their shoulders. We also need to take care that the sentry gun doesn''t restrict their movement speed, that''s a must." The automatons understood what Arnold wanted them to pull off but it was easier said than done. There were a lot of issues they needed to take care of first. Theva hounds were agile creatures and one their major strength was their sudden and unpredictable pattern to attack. So the automatons would have to take special care while designing the lightweight sentry so that they don''t end up trading their agility with firepower. What they needed to do was to ensure that the agility of hounds and the firepower of the sentryplement each other well, only then would Arnold''s n seed. Another issue was the aiming mechanism of the sentry. Sentry guns were weapons that were supposed to work from a stable or stationary tform and not from the shoulders of a creature. When the hounds run, their shoulders are constantly osciting up and down, and this movement would make the sentry fire in random directions and may hit one of the allies as well. Thus it wasn''t much reliable. But even before any of this, they would need to research on the hounds to understand how their movement pattern vary under different scenarios and make the sentry gun ording to that. And only after that Arnold and his automatons needed to figure out a way to prevent these problems and it was going to be a challenging task. "I wouldn''t even try to do it if it wasn''t a challenge." Arnold mumbled with a smug look on his face, "Nor would I need the help of the automatons either." His automatons were silently observing him mumbling to himself. After a while, their master finally broke the silence. "We''ll figure about the lightweight sentry gunster. Right now, we should probably focus on making the stationary ones first. Come on guys, get to work. We don''t have much time to waste!" Chapter 186 - Dragon Bite An hour after midnight, Inside Arnold''s workshop.?? The workshop was filled with sounds of hammering and quenching metal sheets. A file of automatons was furiously beating a thick sheet of metal with all their might, trying to shape it up. But the noise because of their hammering was could not even bepared to the noiseing from the opposite corner of the workshop where Arnold was doing the same task as the automatons were but he was way faster and the quality of work was better as well, but only by a bit. If it had been Talos, he could''ve possibly increased the quality of the work to almost the same quality as him, but right now Arnold wanted to be fast and didn''t bother much about the quality. He just wanted a prototype of the gun that he could test as soon as possible. After finishing shaping up thest sheet of metal, Arnold ced the hammer back on the anvil and wiped the sweat off his body. He then turned to check up on the automatons before doing anything else. "Not bad guys!" Arnold eximed after examining their work. It was their first ''almostpleted'' sentry gun. The gun was about four feet tall and was supported by a three-legged stand. The triple barrel of the minigun shone brightly under the crimson light of the burning forge. This barrel enabled the sentry gunfire at an insane rate of 10 rounds per second! Well, at least that''s what it should do in theory. The sentry wasn''tplete yet so there was no way for Arnold to test and confirm it, but the gun itself looked promising. "Alright guys," Arnold said, his eyes still fixed on the sentry gun, "Try to finish it by tomorrow morning, no. Be sure to finish it by tomorrow. Pull an all-nighter if you have to, but this sentry should bepleted by the time I wake up." "Yes, master!" The automatons eximed together like their minds were linked to one another through some hivemind. "Alright guys, I''m off." Arnold waved and headed towards his bedroom, "I''ve shaped up few extra metal sheets for your convenience, so feel free to use those if you need to." Saying that Arnold shut the door behind him and was about to jump on his bed, ready to snore all night when he remembered there was a thing he still needed to do - Feed the dragonkin''s blood to the egg. "Kudos to my great memory..." He let out a long sigh and jumped into his domain instead. Once inside the domain, he went into the old church building which he had renamed to, ''Avalon''. He didn''t want to get stuck there so he quickly made his way to the vaults where the egg was kept for its safety. He didn''t Asterios or Dread to identally make scrambled eggs out of it. The vault was located on the same floor as the mortuary where the bodies monsters hunted by him, were kept. He had nned it so that it wouldn''t be a hassle for him to feed the egg every time he wanted to. Fortunately, Arnold was able to reach the vaults without anyone noticing him. It wasn''t like they could force him to do to something against his will while he was inside the domain, but after the sh*tshow his summons pulled off when he got back from the swamps was essentially the reason why Arnold didn''t want to encounter any one of them while he was there. ''Just imagine sneaking into your personal space like a thief... tsk tsk tsk what have I reduced myself too...'' He went to the mortuary, filled a sk with the red lizardman''s blood and then proceeded to open the vault using his Biometric scans, or in other words, by scanning his fingerprints along with his heartbeat. Talos was the one to install all these ''security measures'' on his own. Well, he needed to get it approved by Arnold so he knew all about it. The moment the doors opened Arnold was met with a familiar message. ___ Creature''s hunger grows. The creature is learning to control its hunger. Control increased! The creature is still hungry. Hunger is less than the maximum value. If not fed within 06:00 hours, the creatures HP will start decreasing at a rate of 15HP/minute. Current HP: 6000/6000 Time remaining to hatch: 98:12:30:03 (Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds) ___ "Eh, I thought it''d have already lost a bit of its HP as it''s been almost ''two days'' since I fed itst time." Arnold mumbled, "Whatever, it''s good that it hasn''t but since I''m already here and have the blood with me, it would be better to feed the egg anyways." ___ The creature is absorbing the nutrients from the blood... Hunger diminishes... The creature isn''t hungry anymore. The creature has sessfully absorbed the nutrients from the blood of Cosmic C ranked mutated monster. Attributes Increased! HP: +500 Strength (STR): +24 Defense (DEF): +16 Agility (AGI): -2 Intelligence (INT): +9 The blood of the monster contains onepatible ability. The creature can learn a new ability from ''Dragonkin''s blood''! ? Yes or ?No ___ "The hell!" Arnold couldn''t believe it, "How the heck the agility went down instead of going up as usual!" So far whenever he had fed the egg blood of any monster, it''s stats have gone up but now it looked like the creature within the egg had now reached to some kind of ''Limit''. Arnold then realised that the agility of the red lizardman he faced first wasn''t very high and maybe the creature''s agility was decreased because of that. "Looks like I can''t feed the egg whatever I want anymore." He mumbled scratching his beard, "I think it''s about time to check it''s overall stats and then starts feeding it to bnce its attributes in the most effective way, but before that..." ___ ? Yes or ?No ___ "Yes." ___ The creature is learning the ability... Ability learnt sessfully! ? [Dragon Bite] : (Active ability) This attack doestrue damage (up to 15% of Max HP) to the target bitten by the user and has a 20% chance of permanent lowering the target''s Defense stat by 10 points. The true damage dealt can be increased if the HP of the target is more than 30% of the user''s HP (maximum up to 20% of the target''s max HP). Every time the user kills a target using this ability, the Cooldown of the skill gets permanently reduced by 5 seconds. [ Rank: S ] [Mana cost: 600/per use] [Cooldown: 50 minutes] ___ "Losing two points of agility to gain an S rank skill?" Arnold''s smile widened, "Worth it!" Chapter 187 - Necromancer Reborn Somewhere around the northern border of Zone 4... The night had swallowed the sky and brought a cloak ofdespair-ck with it. The stars appeared, beautiful and scattered. Their shining brilliance was like mockery to the man walking through the seemingly endless wastnds. With defeat is thest taste on his pte. Nothing was appetizing enough in the wastnds that could remove that taste of defeat from his mouth.?? Nor was there nothingmouth-wateringas there was no water to drink either. Despite all that, his unkempt hair and beard were soaked with a liquid. It wasn''t water, but the blood of the dead goblin he had just feasted upon. His torn military uniform reminded him of his past life. A life in which he had everything. Power, influence, followers... everything! But then that man came and took everything from him. He was a Brigadier General, happily living his life but now he had been reduced to a nomad who had to survive eating monster flesh and quenches his thirst by drinking their filthy blood. There were only two things in his mind, one was survival and the other was revenge, it was the fuel that kept him going ahead. Revenge is what he lived for and revenge was what he craved the most. The man looked up at the stars. They were a condescending reminder that for him there was no hope, no sour to be found. His sanity had been long lost, yet his mind was functioning better than ever. Web even though he was practically naked in the wastnds, for some reason, he was protected from the ''radiation'', maybe it that woman''s doing as well? The same woman who gave him the power to survive in the wastnd, the woman who gave him the opportunity to seek revenge. He could almost hear what the twinkling stars were saying behind his back, "You are alone, abandoned and doomed." He knew the man who was the owner of that voice. He knew that man was the reason for his misery. He knew he wouldn''t get peace until he drank that man''s fresh blood! But he needed to wait. He knew the difference between his power and his enemy''s. If he wanted to defeat that man, then he needed to get stronger. This was the reason why he had been strengthening himself by forcing to live through the wastnds in his own with only a bone mace in his hands. "Arnold Ling... I''m your doom and your misery..." Reaper, the former Brigadier General of Alpha base, roared. ''Stop shouting, you barbarian and get to work.'' Voice of his ''Goddess'' echoed in Reaper''s mind, ''Remember, the more you kill, the more powerful you''ll get. So stop wasting your time and start killing! If I''m pleased with your performance, then I might please you as well, my loyal servant.'' ''With pleasure, my Goddess.'' Reaper thought and headed inside the cave which was upied by over fifty nomadic humans, with his bone mace on his shoulder. Five minutester, the cave was filled with screams of helpless men, women and children. A few tried to escape from there, but as soon as they stepped out of the cave, a swarm of over 200 undead monsters captured them and threw them back inside the cave and closed off the entrance. Nothing was permitted to leave the ce until and unless their master wished for it. A new necromancer had entered the fray. **** Back inside the Avalon... Arnold was intently looking at the giant egg that now towered over him, "Man, this egg is sure growing bigger and bigger. Let''s check whether it''s only getting bigger or is it getting stronger as well!" He used his probe skill on egg and the following information popped up in front of him. ___ CLASS: Monster egg NAME: Unknown LEVEL: 80 RANK: A ROLE: Unknown AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Dragon Bite (Active skill) ? Armament (Active skill) ? Armour Maniption (Active skill) ? Hardening (Active skill) ? Fury Stomp (Active skill) ? Hellfire (Active skill) HP: 6000/6000 MANA: 5000/5000 STRENGTH (STR) : 98 DEFENSE (DEF) : 91 STAMINA (STA) : 81 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 50 AGILITY (AGI) : 77 ACCURACY (ACC) : 65 EVADE (EVD) : 58 CHARISMA (CHA) : 55 Damage Resistances: Ice Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Fire, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Piercing attacks. THREAT LEVEL: Non Existent... for now. REMARK: Don''t let these stats fool you. The creature inside the egg might not seem to be very strong right now, but once it bursts out of its confinement nothing apart from you would be able to control it. For you are it''s Master and the only one it''ll recognise is you. Also, there would be a drastic change in its stats as soon as it breaks through the shell. It would be your loyal servant or your greatest ally on the battlefield, so be a responsible parent and make grow strong. But looking at yourid-back demeanour, I wouldn''t be surprised in the least if you mess it all up and miss out on obtaining the ultimate beast as your ally. To show how confident I am about you messing it all up, if you manage to pull it off correctly, I''d stop roasting you right there and then. ___ "How much I''ll miss this feeling of getting roasted by the one and only System-sama." Arnold smirked and closed the interface, "But the system is right, I need to make the creature within this egg stronger and for that, I need to feed it the blood of stronger monster''s." He sat down beside the egg white thinking what to do next. Right now the creature within the egg was ranked at A, but ording to the system, its not the real rank and the actual rank would be revealed once the creature breaks through the egg. ''The rank would increase but how much would it increase? Also, considering the time flow in the domain, I only have a month to make it stronger...'' He got lost in his thoughts. He needed to make the monster stronger in a short span of time, and the only solution to the problem was- "Feeding it the blood of my elite summons," He then got up and out a small surgical knife from his inventory, "Or I could feed it my blood instead." But there was one issue. The creature wasn''t hungry anymore. Even if Arnold tried to feed it now, the creature won''t absorb the blood and his ''precious'' blood would go to waste. So he put the knife back in his inventory, and sneaked out of the vault, locking the door behind him. He then opened a portal and went back to his room in the workshop. He wanted to check on his automatons once again but he was too tired to do anything and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Chapter 188 - Nightmare At the same time, Inside the workshop.?? The rhythmic sound of hammering finally ceased momentarily, before it was reced by loud crackling noise followed by sparks that flew out all over the workshop. The automatons were in the final steps ofpleting the sentry gun. They had already finished making the bullets and had also installed the ''receiver'' neatly on the back of the gun to hold the bullets within. ( Author''s Note: Receiver is a container which stores bullets for the sentry/machine gun to use.) The receiver was big enough to hold up to fifteen thousand rounds but right now it only contained around a thousand bullets. Which were more than sufficient for their master to test the sentry. About half an hour passed and the sentry gun was finallypleted but it looked like it could use some upgrades. The automatons thought long and hard on the areas that required improvements and they could easily do. In the end, they decided to make the three barreled head of the sentry into a four barreled one. This not only improved the firing rate of the gun but also helped to improve uracy. They also changed the weapon stand of the sentry, as it was unlikely that the thin three-legged stand would be able to support the bulky weapon head along with the receiver. Also, they made a small shield and installed it in front of the barrel. The shield further increased the durability of the gun while also adding to its defence. They used the metal sheets that Arnold had shaped for all of these purposes and by the time they were done, it was already way past four in the morning. After carefully inspecting the sentry for any other unforeseen ws, they decided it was time to wake their master up. One of them went ahead and knocked on the door of Arnold''s bedroom but there was no reply. He tried again. The result was the same. "Looks like Master is a deep sleep." One of the automatons informed the others, "I think, it''ll be better to let Master rest. He is tired." "I agree." "Affirmative." The other automatons chimed in. "What should we do now? We have alreadypleted the task given to us by the Master." All of them went silent. They were not programmed like Talos who had the free will to decide his next action as long as it didn''t involve cing dangers way. These automatons instead solely depended on themands of their master. Once they hadpleted the assigned task they could do one of two things. One, ask Arnold for another task and two, go to idle mode and wait for Arnold''s nextmand. "Following the protocol, if the master can''t assign a task to us then we have to go into idle state and wait for his nextmand." The automaton who had knocked on Arnold''s bedroom door said. The other automatons nodded in agreement. Their glowing white eyes soon turned yellow as they activated the idle mode, right next to their master''s bedroom door. Not knowing their master wasn''t sleeping as soundly as they thought. **** "I am back in my personal hell." Arnold let out a sarcasticment. There was no doubt in his mind that he was in a nightmare and was smirking through it all. He had lived through this exact nightmare a while ago, a week or so specifically. But he didn''t have a nightmare ever since he slept with Nina, and now all of a sudden he was having a nightmare again. In his nightmare, he was trapped inside a dark cave. He couldn''t move his hands and legs without feeling the restriction of the vines that bind him to a circr pir. His head was as clear, as ever. The only problem was, he couldn''t use his abilities inside the dream which wasn''t unusual. As he was nning his next move, his back started to hurt from the first vertebrae of my spine to the tail bone. He had to get out of there. He knew the way to free himself, but he didn''t want to. "It''s gonna pain like hell, isn''t it?" He mumbled, his eyes scan left and right for signs of life. There were none. Only a couple of skeletons were tied next to him in a simr fashion as he was, "Hey, Larry and Barry! Long time no see? Not gonna lie, I rather not see you guys if I could. You''re cool and all but, meh. I need to break my arm whenever I see you so I hope you understand." Break his arm. That was the only way to get out of the situation he was in. Even though it was a nightmare, Arnold could feel pain like it was all happening in real life. That''s why he was hesitant to break his arm. Once, He had tried to wait inside the cave and do nothing but the pain which followed the stay was much worse than the pain he''d feel from a broken arm. If he didn''t leave the cave soon, a forest troll would appear out of nowhere licking his rubbery green lips, all the while staring at him like he was a delicate morsel. And the next second, Arnold would be squashed by the troll so yeah... breaking an arm was a much better option. He took quick deep breaths and gritted his teeth together. He didn''t want to get the troll''s attention by screaming in pain. Then he turned his right wrist inwards and kept folding it in as t as possible while pulling at the same time. And soon... his wrist snapped but his handes right out of the sp. The pain was unbearable but his job wasn''t finished yet. He still needed to do the with the left but this time a muffled scream escaped through his mouth and soon the troll came running in. "Oh shi-" Before he could do anything, the troll swung its hammer at him, but it never hit him. Arnold slowly opened his eyes and saw the troll knocked out on the floor, a spear pierced through its hairy chest. Next to him stood a tall and beautiful woman, wearing a magical armour. She was the one who stopped the troll. But something was different about the woman... only her upper body was like a human-like while the lower half resembled a red serpent. "A naga?" Arnold mumbled, still chained to the pir. "Why refuse me?" The naga replied, "You''re wee to stay with me in-" Before she couldplete what she was saying, darkness surrounded him. It was time for him to wake up. Chapter 189 - SG-69 Wakingup was no longer the pleasure like it was a few days ago. Nina''s smiling face wasn''t next to him to drive his nightmares away. There was a fleeting moment when he felt like everything was okay but it evaporated faster than water off the scorched earth of the swamp he burned. The window next to his bed was wide open. Cool, soothing winds weed him into the monstrous world of the living.?? "What was the nightmare I had-" Suddenly, his head throbbed. The pain felt like someone had taken a knife to his skull. It didn''t stop there, it felt like he was getting stabbed by multiple knives at once. He leant his head against the metallic bedpost, still sitting on the bed. He squeezed his eyes shut. With his nails dug deep into his palms, he willed the pain to go away. Soon the rest of the world became detached, all he could concentrate on was the pain rooted deep in his head. This was the first time something like this was happening to him. He couldn''t think straight. The headache came along with a constant buzzing sound in his ears. If his brain was aputer, then constant buzzing sound upying the headache was the noise made by its exhaust fan. But it was a hundred times louder. He let go of his head and grabbed the bedpost instead. His grip on the bedpost got tighter and tighter and eventually it snapped in half, and arge piece of it got stuck in his palm. Coupled with the headache, now his hand was bleeding as well. All he felt, all he knew was the pain of that moment. The pain started to subside as suddenly as it came. "What... the... hell." He managed to mumble while [Essence of life] healed the wound on his hand. As he tried getting back to normal, he realised he was on his feet, his eyes wide. He tried remembering about the nightmare he had, but he couldn''t. The nightmare was not just forgotten butpletely erased. Aside from his noisy breath, there was nothing to be heard, which wasn''t all that umon considering how isted the workshop was from the rest of the base. Still, this silence made him a bit ufortable. He stood next to the open window and stood there while his nerves calmed down a bit. The morning was as assured as the tides and just as unstoppable. It was beautiful. Life was beautiful, or so Arnold would''ve liked to say. But to him, it felt as he needed a few more hours of ckness. Not to sleep, but to prepare, to pour his thoughts out onto a page, reorganize, prioritize and pack them back in again. Barely five minutes had passed since he woke up and he already felt like he was on a rollercoaster. He tore his eyes away from the scarlet morning sky and headed into the washroom to wash his face. He didn''t care whether his day was bad or not, he still had tasks to do. The world wouldn''t stop to check on his well-being, hell it would surprise him if anyone apart from his summons actually cared about him at this point. Once out of the shower, he unlocked his bedroom door and went out to be greeted by the sight of an almost unrealistic creation of his automaton''s minds. Apleted sentry gun, a weapon tag already printed on it. "SG-69? Really? Of all the numbers they could choose, they chose this?" Arnold shook his head but he regretted doing so, as his headache came rushing back to him, "Ouch! Dunno when the fck, this pain wouldpletely go away... sigh, rise and shine boys, we got some work to do!" One after another, the automatons came back to life and stood in front of him. Ready formand. "Alright, guys. I see you finished it up and upgraded it as well. Good job and thank you." Arnold said, "You''re free to do whatever you like now, but ask Talos first, he might need some assistance." "Yes, Master!" The automatons roared in unison as left Arnold alone inside the workshop with the sentry. "Let''s see what you''re made up, shall we?" He smiled and used [Probe] on the sentry. ___ Module iplete. Pleaseplete the setup by inserting an AI chip in the required slot. ___ "Right. This weird headachepletely made me forget about the AI chip. I should probably get checked by Alice." Arnold mumbled and took out a blue-chip from his inventory, "Thankfully, I still have a few remaining chips after making the specialised automaton strike force. Oh right, I should probably modify the strike force as well. Can''t have them failing against the lizardmen..." He rambled on for a while about how he''d like to upgrade the automatons while he altered a fraction of the AI''s programming to suit the sentry''s operations. He didn''t require aputer or any device for this purpose as his [Novice Programmer] ability provided him with a virtual machine which was integrated into his system. All he needed to do was to insert the chip in a certain slot of his inventory and the virtual machine would pop up on his interface. This concluded the easier step and from there onwards it was all ''Python'' programming. (Author''s Note: I think most of you know what ''Python'' is, but I''ll briefly describe it for those who don''t. Python is a programmingnguage like Java and C++ but it''s more programmer-friendly and much easier to understand and work upon than its counterparts. In my opinion, it''s the best programmingnguage and thus I decided to mention it here.) "It''s getting boring... can we have some music please?" Arnold said and his virtual machine which was linked to the inte (only God knows how) immediately followed through with his request. [Request acknowledged. Now ying: Ba*k in the *k, by A*/D*] A message shed on his interface and the music filled his ears. (Author''s note: Looking at your way, Deadpool_ou_pas.) "Now that''s more like it!" After an hour of solid programming, he seeded in altering the AI and inserted the chip into the designated slot and once again used [Probe] on it. ___ [SG-69] TYPE: Reinforced sentry gun AI type: Self-programmed for automatic enemy verification and termination. GRADE: A+ BASIC STATS: DURABILITY (DUR) : 2500/2500 ENERGY (ENR) : 1500/1500 FIRING RATE: 1002 bullets per minute. DAMAGE: 22 per bullet (physical damage) DEFENSE(DEF) : 137 ACCURACY (ACC) : 89 HEIGHT: 1.62 meter WEIGHT: 160 KG POWER SOURCE: ¨C chemical/electrical charging ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Idle mode): 7 Energy/min ENERGY CONSUMPTION (Combat mode): 20 Energy/min RECOVERY RATE : 9 Energy /min WEAPON MODULE : ? Four barreled long-range miniguns. ? Steel-Titanium alloy shield for superior defence. ABILITIES : ? [Damage Reflection]: The thick shield on the barrel allows the shield to reflect up to 40% of the ranged damage received. This ability has a 10% chance of activation and increases by 0.5% of every hit the enemynds sessfully. ? [Self Destruct]: Once the durability of the sentry hits 0, it''ll explode causing 200-350 physical damage in a 20-meter radius. Remark: A deadly weapon for anyone to have. Try not to stand in its way for too long or you might not be able to stand for the rest of your pathetic and miserable life. Not like it''s going to be blissful either way. Just saying. ___ Chapter 190 - First Line Of Defence Back in the swamps, Apany of 200 armoured soldiers was investigating the site where Arnold had fought with an overwhelming amount of lizardmen and defeated them all. Aside from the 200 soldiers, there were researchers and forensic experts who were trying to unravel the cause of the destruction of such a scale.?? "You nerds. Have you found anything?" One of the armoured soldiers kicked a researcher in the butt. The man was known as Matthew Zilong. Officially he was an S+ ranked swordsman as well as the right-hand man of Devon Troy. He was also the man Devon trusted the most aside from Alex. It goes without saying, he too had been subjected to weird experimentation from Devon Troy and it was thanks to those experiments his strength had far surpassed the ''rankings'' that his former nation had imposed on him. Yes, he was a sessful product of the mutation process. The same mutation process which the White Family had been desperately trying to replicate to increase their strength. But that wasn''t all. He was an inhuman as well, much like Bad-Breath but unlike him, Matthew''s physique remained the same and only his internal structure changed. His organs weren''t the same anymore, and his abilities and skills were more explosive. So much so, that he could easily take on over 300 lizardmen on his own, with only his sword and nothing else, not even an armour. "Y-Yes, sir!" The researcher immediately jumped back to his feet and faced Matthew, "It is clear that this is work of a fire Elementalist-" Matthew grabbed the researcher''s hazmat suit and lifted him off the ground, bringing his face closer to him. "You don''t say, Einstein!" Matthew let out an exaggerated gasp, "I swear I thought it was a water user! You dumbfckinga*s! If you can only state the obvious facts which are clear to even a blind man, then I think you''re more useful to us in death rather than being alive!" "N-No! I-I can figure it all out!" The man panicked and struggled to free himself from Matthew''s anaconda-like grip. "You had 2 hours. Two fcking hours to do that and you pathetic excuse of a man couldn''t do sh*t. Yet you say you can figure it out?" Matthew asked, not letting him down, "You know what will happen to you next, don''t you?" "F-Forgive m-me sir! I''ll do anything you want!" The researcher started screaming and crying endlessly for he knew what was going to happen to him, "I HAVE A WIFE AND CHILDREN TO TAKE CARE OF!!!" Matthew took pleasure in seeing others panicking. He loved it when people begged in front of him to forgive them. He loved the feeling he got when they grovel at his feet, but more than that, he loved to hear their screams when they were eaten alive by his mutated pet werewolves who always followed him no matter where he went. After thinking about it for a while, he realised he hadn''t treated his pets with their favourite food, human flesh, in a long time and since he was feeling bored today, he decided to have some fun while he was at it. He also thought the other researchers could use some motivation with their work so why the hell not? "You know, you don''t need to worry about them anymore." Matthew let out a sly smile which no one could see since his face was hidden behind the visor of his armour but the wicked smile was there, "I''ll take care of your wife and my docile pets could y with your young children. Sounds like a n, don''t you think?" "Leave them alone! You... YOU SICK FCK!!!" Panicked beyond reasoning, the researcher dropped his equipment box, quickly pulled out a 9 mm Baretta pistol from his back pocket and emptied the entire magazine, point-nk at Matthew''s face. He soon realised how big of a mistake he just made. Other researchers were dumbstruck with what they were seeing. "Oye, oye, oye. I thought we were talking like two civil people here. Why did you have to pull a stunt like that?" The researcher shot 21 bullets at point-nk range, but there wasn''t a single scratch on the visor of his helmet. All of the two hundred soldiers simultaneously startedughing. It wasn''t a normalugh either. They wereughing and smiling like madmen. The gravity of the situation finally dawned upon the researcher. He had just signed on his death certificate by himself. There was no way he could make it alive now... not anymore. The gun slipped from his loosened grip. The researcher could already feel his soul leaving his body. He wasn''t dead yet, but it was only a matter of time before he died. ''I''m sorry Maria... Nick... Michelle...'' He thought about his family for thest time. "Did he pissed in his pants?" One of the soldiersughed. "Nah, I bet 3 beast crystals. He shat his pants." Another one chimed in. "Even better. I bet 5 crystals, he shat first and then pissed his a*s clean. Hahaha!" The jokes kept popping up, the researchers, however, stayed silent and carried on with their work. This scene was way toomon for them. On every field mission, they went to along with Matthew and his handpicked squad of maniacs just like him, it wasmon for the low ssed researchers to die under ''mysterious circumstances''. Everyone was well aware of what these ''circumstances'' were but no one gave a crap about them anyways. Almost all of these researchers were either hostage or were on America''s wanted list so there was nowhere for them to run either. All of these low levelled researchers were the former, this no one gave a flying fck about them. The researchers who were on the wanted list however weren''t expendable and hence lived a luxurious life even in the swamps. Matthew let out a heavy sigh before continuing, "Looks like I''ll have to teach you a lesson." He then threw the researcher in front of him and whistled. It was a signal to let his pets know, the lunch was ready. Within a fraction of a second, three gigantic werewolves came running out of nowhere and started eating the man alive. The bloodcurdling screams of the researcher were enough to drive anyone insane but there wasn''t a sane person, to begin with. "You should rather hand your kin over to us if you''re so desperate to get rid of them, Demon." A voice resembling the crackling sound of thunder asked Matthew. At this moment everyone, even the soldiers who had beenughing a second ago, shut their mouths and backed off. It was better for them to shut their mouths if they wanted to live. "I see you''re here, Grock." Matthew turned around to face the being that had just appeared there, "The leader sends his sympathies for the loss of the soldiers of your proud species." "Tell your leader, I don''t need nor do I want his sympathies," The ck, seven-foot-tall, muscr and well-armoured lizardman replied, "But what I do want is to know who did this to my soldiers." "Rx, Grock. My men are currently working on finding who the bastard was. You''ll get to know about him before sunset." Matthew approached the ck lizardman, "And if my men are not able to do so, well... in that case, consider all of these researchers to be apensation for not delivering our promise." "Very well then." Grock turned around to face his personal security force of over 500 red lizardmen, "I''ll be waiting to hear from you." "Sure, big guy," Matthew mumbled as the lizardman disappeared into the swamps. "Boss, don''t you think that guy is a bit too much?" One of the soldiers asked once he was sure that the lizardmen were gone. "That might be the case, but we both need each other for survival." Matthew mumbled, "After all, his army is our first line of defence. As long as we keep scratching his back, he''ll protect ours." Chapter 191 - Bang Bang (1) Back in the workshop... Arnold was still tinkering around the sentry, giving it final touches before he began testing it. After debating for a while, he installed a ''heat sensor'' in the sentry, enabling the AI to automatically assess the situation and counterattack on its own without any outside interference.?? The AI itself was performing well despite being only a low levelled one. Arnold had quite high hopes for the sentry. He had achieved his goal of making an affordable yet deadly weapon. "Alright," He stood up and brushed the dust off his pants, "time to test it out... Light up, SG-69" Voicemand was one of the ways to activate it along with manual activation. Arnold installed the manual activation so that if there was any need, even his summons or others like Allen could also activate it in Arnold''s absence. '' I need to think of a different way for the others to activate it as well. Manual activation can backfire on us as well.'' Arnold thought as the barrels of the sentry lit up, ''For now, I should take their voice samples and incorporate them with mine so that all of us would be able to activate these using our voice. OK, I''ll do itter, right now, let''s test this boy out.'' The sentry activated and started osciting sideways in a periodic fashion. As of now, it could cover up to 220¡ã area in front of it, the other side, however, waspletely unguarded. You could say it was a ''blindspot'' that too quite a big one. But since Arnold was nning on using them for defence more than offence, it wasn''t much of an issue. Also, he was going to use them like a pack of wolves, not like a lone wolf. So it was all good for now. Arnold went ahead and ced a dozen tin canisters all around the workshop and used his fire ability to heat them up so that they could be registered by the sentry''s AI. Once done, he stood behind the sentry wearing a pair of protective sses. (Gotta protect them mystique eyes.) "Alright, light ''em up!" The slowly rotating barrel of the sentry picked pace all of a sudden. A loud buzzing sound came out of it and the next second it started firing bullets like a dragon, endlessly spewing fire. The workshop was filled with loud sounds of gunfire. Arnold felt like he was standing in the middle of a warzone. The sounding from the sentry wasn''t very loud but the noise increased by tenfold because of the constant echoes being generated by therge hall. "Alright, that''s enough!" Arnold shouted but his voice got shut down by the reverberation, "I SAID, THAT''S ENOUGH!" Finally, the firing came to a halt. The workshop was filled with dust and smoke which soon started settling down. The barrel of the gun was overheated but apart from that, the sentry was fine. The workshop, however, wasn''t in the condition Arnold had expected it to be. Sentry shot down the tin canisters one after another like it was supposed to. The problem arose when the canisters were out of the way. After the canisters were obliterated into pieces, sentry''s Al, started looking for its next target which was, (you guessed it right) the warm firece of the forge. That was the source of dust and dirt that had enveloped the workshop. Out of the four fireces, three had been destroyed but were reparable. Most of the workbenches that were there had also been destroyed. "It''s explosive, that''s for sure." The corners of his mouth twitched as he massaged his forehead, "Gotta tell someone to clean this mess up... fck it, I''ll take a shower first." Arnold turned around and left to shower, forgetting to switch the AI off. With the AI still being active, it was now in the fail-safe mode Arnold had put in ce. What was the fail-safe mode? Shoot and kill anything that entered in the sentry''s range. Anything. **** Ten minutester... Arnold hadpleted his workout routine and just stepped into the shower. The water slowly washing away the tiredness of his muscles. "Living in the wastnds ain''t that bad if your summons take care of your duties, hehe." Suddenly hismunicator started blowing up. After seeing that Talos was calling him, Arnold picked it up. "What''s up?" "Master, Lady Nina and Lady Nicole have arrived. Where shall I escort them to?" Talos'' electronic voice ruined through Arnold''s ears. "I was hoping they wouldn''te." Arnold mumbled, "Either way, tell Allen to take care of them while I get ready." "I''m afraid he won''t be able to do so." "Why? Did something happen?" "The master told him to visit the other bases, remember?" "Well, in that case, have them wait I''m the workshop and also, send someone to clean the mess up-" "What do you mean, Master? You have been resting, haven''t you?" Arnold sensed a bit of anger in Talos'' voice but... it wasn''t possible for an automaton to be angry right? "Ahem. Yeah, I''ve been resting. Dunno why I said what I said. Hehe." "So should I tell them to head towards the workshop?" Talos confirmed it once again. "Yup. I''ll be out in a few minutes." "As you wish, master," Talos replied and ended the call. "Man, this day is getting... what do you call it? oh right, a pain in the fcking a*s!" He grabbed the towel and ran out of the shower. *** Near the helipad at the same time... "Is Arnold alright?" Nina asked Talos as soon she stepped out of the helicopter. "Of course he is. A puny force of monsters won''t be able to harm him." Talos bowed before thedies and replied, "Although, it was a reckless move. Even for him. I don''t wanna pry deeper into the matter but I assume, you two had something to do with it?" "It was my fault-" Nicole mumbled but Talos cut her off. "No worries mydy. No one can change what happened, but we could work on making it better right?" Talos said and turned around, "Master is waiting for you in the workshop. This way please." "The base is getting better day by day, I see." Nina appraised Talos as she looked at the newly installed defences of the base from the Humvee they were sitting in, "Everyone here seems to be happy as well. It was a good decision to make Arnold a Section Chief. Don''t you agree, Nicole?" "Yes..." Nicole replied but seemed to be out of the ce. "Stop overthinking things, will you?! No matter what, he''s your brother right? So just apologise to him and it''ll be fine." Nina tried to cheer her friend up but to no vail, "You siblings are way too sensitive, you know that?" Nicole opened her mouth but before she could say anything, Talos stopped the car. "We''re here." Chapter 192 - Bang Bang (2) The trio got out of the car and headed towards the gates of the workshop. Nervousness was dripping off of Nicole''s face. She, America''s strongest warrior, was feeling so agitated just by the thought of meeting her brother. Nina wrapped her arm around Nicole. She felt the same way. Both of them knew about his anger, the anger which drove him to confront an entire armada of lizardmen all by himself. unlike Nicole, Nina was more worried about her boyfriend''s well-being than the resentment he must''ve been feeling.?? "Talos here." Talos received a call from someone just as they were about to enter the workshop, "I see. No, hold them there. I''m on my way." He ended the call and continued, "I''m sorry Lady Nina, Lady Nicole. An emergency came up which requires my immediate attention. You see the ogres we have been keeping captive have caused a scene so I''ll have to leave now. But please go inside, Master would be there soon." "Wait wait wait, you have been keeping ogres as captives? What was Arnold even thinking!?" Nina immediately snapped back. "The rules of the wastnds are much different than the ones on the other side. Survival is the only thing that matters here. Both for humans as well as the monsters." Saying that Talos jumped into the Humvee wasn''t zoomed towards the prison cells where the ogres were being kept. Leaving Nicole and Nina behind in a trail of dust. "Well he has a point... anyways let''s go in." Nina pushed the doors and stepped in. Not expecting to get attacked. The moment she stepped inside, the sentry''s AI detected her presence and executed the action like it was supposed to. Eliminate the target. "Target confirmed. Initializing attack to eliminate the threat." All of a sudden, the barrels of the sentry started rotating, faster than before. Soon the workshop was lit up by the barrage of bullets. "Oh, Shit!" Nina pushed Nicole backwards and jumped sideways to dodge the bullets. Unfortunately, she got hit in the abdomen. The bullet brought hellish pain with it. The bullet was stuck in her guts. Her blood was draining all over her shirt, running warm through her battle-hardened skin. Her stomach lurched with pain. "GODDAMMIT! ARRGH!!!" Nina gritted her teeth so hard she could even shatter a diamond in between them. The bullet wound looked nothing like one would have expected from frequently watching the dramas and TV shows. Instead of a neat reddened hole, it was oozing with dark congealing blood and the putrid smell was enough to initiate a gag reflex. She raised her hand to her face and wiped one sweat off her head. The entry wound was small the exit was a gaping mess as if he''d been hit with two different kinds of weapon at once. There was the usual dark red hole that oozed thickly, but also hundreds of different tiny wounds ¨C like shrapnel. She had been hit by a fifty calibre bullet. It wasn''t an ordinary bullet either. It was Arnold''s special fiery bullets which exploded upon contact with someone or something. Even the lizardman''s thick skin was no match for this bullet, Nina''s skin was... more delicate than that. She had taken cover under a workbench but it was already filled with holes because of Arnold''s early experiments. The Sentry didn''t stop shooting either. A concentrated barrage of bullets rained upon her. The concrete wall in front of her was shattered into bits and pieces. "I swear I''m gonna kill that idiot!" She roared in pain and just then the doors of the workshop turned into dust. Nicole entered the room, gave a nce over her friend. Her eyes filled with rage. "How. Dare. YOU!" Nicole screamed in rage and at that moment everything around her turned into dust. The forge, the workbenches, everything in that area was destroyed in an instant. The sentry immediately recognized the new threat and targeted Nicole. But Nicole wasn''t as weak as Nina. The bullets disintegrated into fine powder upon reaching a certain distance from her. She was about to destroy the sentry when someone kicked it over and destroyed it in a few punches. "What the hell happened here!?" Arnold asked Nicole after confirming that the sentry was destroyed for good. "..." Nicole didn''t reply so Arnold didn''t force her. He looked around the wrecked workshop. It was nearly empty, if not for a few obsolete pieces of destroyed equipment thatid here and there. Just as it had been outside, the inside looked like something out of a movie''s apocalyptic scene. The strong walls of the workshop had turned into something as useless as the equipment they now housed. Beams stretched high overhead and sunlight shone brightly through cracks in the ceiling. The workshop in which Arnold had made so many memories was utterly destroyed in a matter of a few seconds. "Arggh..." Nina groaned in pain. She tried to pull herself up but couldn''t. She had lost too much blood. "NINA!" Arnold rushed towards her, only to be stopped by Nicole. "Don''t you dare go near her!" Nicole pushed him back. Arnold was confused and shocked by his sister''s behaviour, but before he could say or do anything Nicole pointed her arms in his direction. "You wanted to kill me, didn''t you?" Nicole mumbled, "You did this all because I''m a pdin too, didn''t you?" "I don''t give a crap about you being a pdin or not. Now get out of the way!" He tried to push him aside but... ___ passive skill : [Devil''s Advocate] has been activated. You''re immune to true damage-causing abilities. You''re immune to Shadow Pdin''s [Ghoul''s Stare] attack. ___ "... are you kidding me?" Arnold stared at the woman who was supposed to be his sister, "Did you just try to kill me?" "It... didn''t work... how is it even possible!" Nicole stared at him as if she had seen a ghost. "Whatever, I don''t have the time to deal with you or your childish delusions." Arnold pushed her aside and went ahead to check on Nina, "This is bad." Chapter 193 - Im No Brother Of Yours "Stop acting like this isn''t your fault!" Nicole''s voice got heavier by the second but Arnold didn''t give a flying fck about her anymore. His focus was solely on Nina and nothing else, but only if his luck was that good. "Stop acting like a fcking bitch!" Arnold ultimately snapped, "If you can''t help me then shut the fck up or get lost!"?? "Ar...nol..." Nina struggled to speak, to couldn''t even say his name properly. "Shh... don''t talk." Arnold looked into Nina''s eyes and smiled at her wanly as she copsed in his arms. Her breathing was getting heavier by every passing moment. Arnold then quickly ripped off his shirt and held it over the wound, trying to put pressure on it. While he was desperately trying to stop the bleeding, Nicole stood there, intently looking at Arnold''s every move. "Shit, the bleeding won''t stop!" Arnold quickly contacted Talos for help, "Get Alice ande to the workshop right now!" "But master, the ogres-" Talos tried to exin the situation in his end. The ogres had gone Berserker due to heavy consumption of beast crystals. The automatons and humans were trying to get a hold on them off but the ogres were having none of it. "I don''t give a fck about the ogres! Take her and get here RIGHT FCKING NOW DAMMIT!" "Master, I won''t be able to bring her there even if I wanted to." Talos calmly replied, "She isn''t inside the base at the moment." "Dammit, all!" Arnold lifted Nina in his arms and headed towards his room, the only part of the building that was still intact. "I think you''ve caused enough damage." Nicole stepped in between once again, "She''s my friend, and I can take care of her." "Can you heal her?" "I can''t." "Then get the fck out of my may, or you''ll regret it for the rest of your life." His cold fury burnt with dangerous intensity. He never worried about Nicole''s behaviour up till now but her frequent verbal fireworks and showers of red hot sparks were enough for Arnold to make a decision. Sister or not, it didn''t change the fact that she had tried to kill him a few moments ago. It was these bitterly cold, slow-burning hateful feelings that threatened to engulf their rtionship, once and for all. If it wasn''t for Nina''s condition, Arnold wouldn''t have hesitated to deal with her right then and there. But for now, Nina''s well-being took the priority over everything else. "We have a lot to talk about," Nicole mumbled and stepped aside but turn decided to enter his room along with them. ''You were right. I can''t trust him anymore... not after the stunt he pulled today.'' Nicole thought. ''It is unfortunate but... not surprising in the least.'' Donna replied, ''After all, the pdins are known for attacking and killing each other. Although it isn''t necessary to do that but... sometimes it''s for the better. Maybe that''s why he set the turret thingy to kill you.'' ''You may be correct, but why the fck did you attack him!'' Nicole was furious. ''Hey hey hey! It''s not like I like controlling your body or anything, I just did what you didn''t have the guts to do!'' ''Fck off. You''re not convincing anyone by saying that.'' Nicole replied while she watched Arnold summon a monster. The creature had a luscious body for which any man or woman regardless of their sexual preference, would immediately lust after. Nicole, despite being America''s strongest warrior, couldn''t resist the creature''s tempting body. Two sharp horns adorned the luscious beast''s bowed head, who herself looked to be in a state of permanent smirking. The creature was barely wearing anything, unting her body to the spectators. Her oundish armour only covered her weak spots leaving very little to Nicole''s imagination. A serrated tail snakes behind it, chains dangle alongside it. Two cramped wings extend themselves fully. ''When did he tamed a subus?'' Nicole shook her head, trying to snap out of her charm. ''She ain''t an ordinary subus either.'' Donna intervened, ''It''s one of the three Queens. I''m telling you, your brother is nothing but trouble for us now.'' ''Agreed... but you didn''t try to mortally wound him right?'' ''Yeah... kinda. I wanted to make his arms disappear that''s all.'' Donna replied. ''YOU WHAT!'' "Chill! It didn''t work, did it?'' ''I suppose... but next time you better inform me before doing anything.'' Nicole''s train of thought was interrupted by Arnold''smands to the subus, ''Heal her up, Natasha." "As you wish, master," Natasha said and hugged Nina tightly. They were awkwardly close. So close not even an electron couldn''t pass through them. ___ Your summon is using ''Life Restore'' (lvl 5) ___ Within the next minute, Nina waspletely healed up but hadn''t regained consciousness. Arnold was still worried about her but Natasha reassured him that Nina was fine. "Don''t worry master, she is safe." She winked at Arnold, "She''s just tired because of the blood loss." "Thank you, Natasha... I don''t even know how to thank you." "No need to thank me, master. I know this human is important to you." "If you''re done here," Nicole pulled Arnold''s arm, "can we talk?" "There''s nothing to talk about," Arnold replied, his back turned towards her. "Denying the truth won''t make you less guilty." "Truth? Guilt? Listen here, you power monger. The only truth here is that you tried to kill me." "I-I didn''t try to kill you!" "Yeah right. We''re both pdins remember?" Arnold smirked off. "Yeah? Well, you tried to kill me first!" "What even..." Arnold shrugged his shoulders while massaging his temple, "It was all a simple mistake for god''s sake!" It was Nicole''s turn to smirk now, "Yeah, a mistake that you didn''t came to receive us at the gate like you were supposed to or was it a mistake that Talos suddenly got a call out of nowhere and had to leave us? Or maybe it was the fact that once you saw your n didn''t work you decided to act like a hero and save the day? Oh, brother, not everyone is as dumb as you-" "NICOLE!" Arnold pped her across the face... something he had never done before. He tried to reach out and apologise for it but then Nicole said something which removed all the thoughts of apologising from his mind. Nicole''s gaze was fixed at the ground, but her voice was loud and clear, "I wish you''d have died along with our parents on that day- No I-I didn''t mean to say that!" Words flew from her mouth that she never thought she''d even think, let alone say out loud. She knew instantly from the look in his eyes that they''d hit their mark. In that instant, their rtionship was shattered into ssy shards. Nothing would ever be the same again. He rarely ever argued without using his fists but his words packed a powerful punch. Carefully spoken, without drama, his words had an air of finality to them and no matter how hard she railed against them, nothing would change his mind now. "Get out." Arnold''s voice was as calm as summer winds yet it couldn''t hide the anger within him. "Brother I... didn''t-" "I said get out of here." "Brother... please..." "You''re no sister of mine. GET OUT OF HERE AND DON''T EVER SHOW ME YOUR FACE AGAIN." Chapter 194 - What Could Be Yours Sun sank lower in the sky. The light of day slowly drained away and entered the velvety darkness of night. The air became cooler in the eveningndscape. The faintest of light barely made it through the sky and soon it grew dark. A close silence followed the evening light. The Alpha base was the only source of light for kilometres in the wastnds. Arnold was staring at a tiny dot which slowly faded away. He sat on a tall steel tform. It gave him a panoramic view of the wastnds. As the helicopter carrying Nicole finally disappeared, his gaze fell on the cruel wastnds. Originally this was a scout post, but now it had been converted into a ce where Arnold went to gather his thoughts. Something he did quite a lot these days. Soon Talos came to visit him there, Alice closely followed him.?? "How is she?" Arnold asked, his gaze still fixated on the wastnds as if he was looking at a mine filled with diamonds. "She''s recovering well." Alice replied, "Though it''ll take a few hours before she''s recoveredpletely." "Hmm..." Arnold sighed at finally got up, turning towards them, "Talos, station the automatons around the workshop or whatever that remains of it now." "It''s already done, master." Talos replied, bowing his head down, "Master, I apologise for my-" "No need to apologise for anything." Arnold patted him on his shoulder, "It was all a big misunderstanding that evolved into something else." "Master, you should rest too..." Alice chipped in, "I know it must be tough for you... And I can''t even imagine what you''re going through right now. But regardless of that, you should rest. At least it''ll clear your head for a while." "It''s not like I have much to do either way." Arnold smiled, turning towards her, "With the workshop destroyed, I can''t make anything even if I wanted to and that means I''ll have to put the n of making a relic on hold as well." On the surface, Arnold tried to remain calm and act like everything was fine, but it wasn''t. He was shattered on the inside. Nina''s blood was still on his hands and shirt, it was enough to break his heart but Nichole''s reaction to the situation made it a lot worse. He had never even dreamed of raising his voice in front of her let alone raising his hands. But there he was. The moment he pped her, something broke inside of him. What made it worse was Nicole''s wish for him to die along with their parents. He wanted to throw himself to work. All he wanted was to distract his mind but it wasn''t possible anymore. The only alternative he could think of was to hunt the monsters but even Arnold knew he didn''t have the mental strength to do so. In his current state of mind, he would only put himself in unnecessary danger. "You''re right. I should sleep it off." Arnold said and walked into the elevator, "In the meantime, Talos you carry-on with the experiments and inform me about everything. And Alice, you stay by Nina''s side and focus on her recovery. Inform me as soon as she gets up. I''ll be sleeping in the domain for now." "Will do," Talos replied as the elevator doors closed. **** A few hourster... Arnold''s gaze was transfixed by the scene of a battlefield. If someone wanted to know what true devastation looked like, then this was it. It was a hilly region alongside which was flowing a bloodied river. Everywhere he looked he could only see bloated carcasses of humans, horses, and elephants along with broken carts and weaponry. Crows and vultures were viciously fighting over the corpses of the dead even though there were enough to satisfy their bowels for their lifetime. The gawking scene of the scavengers made the entire scenario even more macabre. "Here we go again. Another stupid nightmare... *sigh* I''m not even surprised about it anymore." Arnold mumbled absent-mindedly, "I''m not time travelling now am I?" Indeed it looked like a battlefield from medieval times. Maybe even hundreds of thousands of years before ''his'' time. But before he could pry deeper into the matter he heard a voice. "Lord Neelkanth!" A white Minotaur even bigger than Asterios carrying a battleaxe kneeled behind him. (Author''s note: ''Neelkanth'' means blue throat, it is often used to refer to Shiva) ''Is he calling out to me?'' Arnold thought and slowly turned around. What he saw next sent shivers down his spine. An army of innumerable monsters, humans, undead beings and demons stood behind him, bowing down in front of him to show the utmost respect. Arnold could hardlyprehend what was going on in front of him when the majestic Minotaur spoke again. His voice carrying a sense of authority within. Arnold didn''t open his mouth yet a voice came from within. "What happened?" The voice was calming and yet intimidating. "Total decimation, my lord. Everything went just as you wished." The Minotaur said, his eyes boring a deep hole in the ground. "What about that bastard? Where is he?" "Went into hiding with a handful of his imbecile followers. Our scouts are looking for him as we speak. He won''t be able to hide forever." The man in control of his body nodded, "No matter what, don''t kill him. The council wants to deal with him." "Yes, my Lord." The Minotaur stood up and left, followed by the army of the monsters. The next moment, he was pulled away from his body. Much like when he used [Soul Grapple]. But instead of going anywhere else, he was now stranded in a dark space which looked like someone''s domain. The fact that it was a domain made it clear he wasn''t alone in there. "I know you''re here. Show yourself!" Arnold shouted at top of his lungs. "You have keen senses, I''ll give you that." The man''s voice echoed through the dark space yet no one appeared in front of him, "Still, it''s not the time for me to show myself. Instead, I wanted to show you a glimpse of what could be yours. Men, monsters, demons you can control them all. But it alles at a price-" "Look. I''m not really in the mood for this alright? How about you wake me up and we''ll discuss this next time?" Arnold was sure it was all a nightmare, but that didn''t stop him from acting cocky. He expected the voice to shut him down instead it startedughing! "You are amusing. The guide wasn''t wrong about that at least." The voice replied, "Very well then, we shall continue this soon. Until then, rest well my pdin." Chapter 195 - Spar Following the nightmare, Arnold woke up with a start. There was no sun to greet him inside his void, but the electricity generated from the beast crystals was enough to light up the room. He tried to remember the dream, and unlike thest time, his head was clear as day. Still, a plethora of thoughts rushing in his brain didn''t make it easy for him to recall everything. However, he could vividly remember the scene of the battlefield. The blood and corpses had left their mark in his head but weirdly enough he couldn''t feel anything. He had in innumerable monsters and humans too so it wasn''t that weird for him to not feel anything. Killing was like second nature to him.?? ''Was it same for Nicole as well?'' Arnold thought about it for a while then furiously shook his head, ''Second nature or not... She tried to kill me. Pdins, Gods and what the fck not... Everything is screwing me up.'' He slid out of the bed. Took his shirt off and started working out right then and there. Previously, he thought sleeping would help him clear his mind which it did, momentarily. But now he was back at square one. With the destroyed forge, working out was the only thing he could do. But he wouldn''t get to have that either as his head was filled with the words of the one he thought to be the immortal one. After all, who else would generously offer to give him more powers? ''I have to get stronger that''s certain.'' He mumbled as he rigorously performed pushups, ''I also need to talk with Nicole on this matter but not now. Anything I''d do now would end up adding more fuel in the fire.'' Arnold considered himself to be lucky. If it wasn''t for his [Devil''s Advocate] passive, he would be gone for good. Despite that, he was still worried. Even though he was immune to true damage-causing abilities, it wasn''t the same for his summons. With her powers, Nicole could easily destroy his summons and weapons on a whim. Which would then deplete her of her mana. Thus one could say they were at a stalemate right now. Arnold wouldn''t be able to cause her any harm, nor would Nicole be able to do anything to him. They were each other''s perfect counters. Thinking about his sibling, broke a smile on his face. It was a joyous smile but a sad one. ''Who would''ve thought in a hundred years that my sister would end up bing my adversary. But here we are.'' He wanted to make up with her after all no matter what, she was still his sister. The one he had loved more than himself. This was what he wanted to believe, that they would put everything behind and start over once again but deep down he knew, it was all jackshit. The trust he had for her waspletely shattered today. No matter what happened next, he was doubtful he''d ever been able to trust her like before. Even in case he miraculously managed to trust her, he would always be on edge around her. He''d feel like walking over eggshells. No matter how many scenarios he yed in his head, he couldn''t think of a positive oue for it. "I wonder what would mom do in this situation." Arnold mumbled as he got up and swiped the sweat using his shirt, "Maybe she''ll lock us up in a room and force us to make up, haha. But I doubt it''ll work now. I''m pretty sure only one of us might walk out of that room alive." He had rested for well over eight hours, however, since the time flew faster in his domain, not even three hours had been passed in the real world. If Arnold when outside now the darkness would be as prominent as ever. So he decided to go for his run inside the void instead. He was about to step out when he heard a loud cheer followed by sounds of shing steel. "Looks like someone is training in the backyard. Might as well join them." He said and hurried off to the backyard of the building. Following the sounds. "Should''ve known it would be them." Arnold let a smile escape from his mouth as he leaned on the wall next to him. In some distance, Asterios and Dread were practising their moves on each other. Sparks flew out in all directions when the unadulterated strength of Asterios'' Warhammer and the Dread''s sleek and calcted katana met each other. It was truly a sight to behold. Even his other summons had gathered around them to enjoy the show. Asterios and Dread practised a lot with each other, as they were the only ones who could take each other''s attacks, still, they rarely went all out on each other. Both Arnold and his summons knew this very well and hence were watching the duel with immense interest. Arnold didn''t know, but watching the duel somehow managed to put his mind at ease. All of his worries about Nicole, Nina and his nightmares had vanished. He had finally found something else to upy his head, for now at least. He soon started analysing their battle techniques. He was used to doing this after all the battles he had fought ever since gaining the system. "Dread has better technique, as well as his attacks, are calcted and efficient. Whereas Asterios... He just has a lot of strength but then his-" Arnold interrupted but Asterios'' roar. The Minotaur charged at the Dreadnought like a bull addicted to Redbull. It looked like Dread already knew his opponent''s next move and had already nned a counter move. Right before the collision, Asterios leapt in the air, his hammer over his head. One could say it was his signature move. Dread immediately threw a punch at the flying Minotaur while preparing his katana to attack Asterios at the same time. At that moment Arnold knew who was going to be the winner of the duel, ''Well done, Asterios.'' The Highflying Minotaur suddenly threw his hammer at Dread as if it was a javelin. Dread was surprised by this weird manoeuvre and couldn''t respond in time. The hammer took out the katana in his other arm, while Asterios dropkicked dread in the face. It was Dread''s turn to fly now, and boy did he fly. Few of Arnold''s unlucky summons got in Dread''s way and were crushed like rotten tomatoes. All of a sudden, the cheering stopped. The summons were dumbstruck. Everyone present during this battle would''ve bet that Dread was going to win the duel no matter what. After all, it was the most obvious conclusion. Dread was better than Asterios in almost every way. But Arnold knew of a factor which everyone overlooked: Unpredictability. Asterios didn''t have a particr fighting style, and this was the secret of his victory. Asterios in a way was much simr to Arnold. Defying the odds wasn''t something that everyone could pull off and Arnold respected anyone capable of doing it. Arnold''s ps broke the silent atmosphere. Everyone''s eyes were now transfixed on him. He spoke up once he had their attention, "Alright, this fight got me fired up. Anyone up for a sparring session with me?" Silence once again swallowed the atmosphere, until a hand shot up in the air. "How about a rematch, boss?" Bad-breath eximed, smiling like an idiot. "Just be sure to close your mouth." Arnold smiled, "I don''t want to stink." Chapter 196 - Mythical Affinity (1) "Who''s next?" Arnold roared inside his domain. Bad-breath, Marshal, Duke, and even Asterios were copsed next to him. The beatdown was unintentional but the aftermath was something everyone had expected to see. It wasn''t as if Arnold was unaffected by participating in the fight club. He had been punched and kicked a few times by his summons but that was the extent of it. Mostly he was suffering from exhaustion after fighting so many of his summons one after the other. He was panting like never before, especially after fighting with Asterios.?? Initially, he fought Bad-Breath without his gears. His bare hands were enough to handle him, but as the opponents got stronger Arnold decided it would be wise to battle once he had his equipment on. The fight with Bad-Breath was exciting but was over once Arnold suplexed him into oblivion. For Bad-Breath, the fight was over but after watching Bad-Breath fight with his master. The others were inspired to fight as well. Dread, however, refused to raise his sword against his master and stood far away, watching his fellow summons get their ass handed to them by their master. Once Bad-Breath had given up, Duke charged at Arnold. To Arnold''s surprise, he had brought his scythe with him and began using it to attack him. Arnold thought Duke was going out of the line but hell he was enjoying it all. The thrill had consumed his head. Worries about Nicole were long forgotten now and the only thing going through his mind was to defeat his opponent. Despite using the scythe, Duke wasn''t able to put a scratch on Arnold. So he decided to take it a step further and transform into the [Undead Reaper], mid-battle. Maybe it was Duke''s way to wage a psychological battle with Arnold as the reaper was the first dungeon boss who nearly killed him. When Arnold saw the reaper in front of him, he went... Silent. Duke thought his n worked and once again charged at Arnold, but as he got nearer to his master, Duke realised something. Arnold was affected by the reaper alright, but not in the way Duke had expected. Instead of being tensed after seeing the reaper, Arnold was smiling like he had won a million dors from a lottery! "Boy, have I been dying to have this rematch! I''ll finally get to kick your ass." Those were the first words that escape from his mouth. At that moment, Arnold was no longer fighting with Duke but with the Reaper. However, Duke wasn''t alone. ___ Passive sync skill: [Circle of Death] activated! All attributes of the undead units have been increased by 15%. ___ The sync skill of the undead had activated and enhanced the attributes of his summons. But a 15% increase in attributes was nothing in Arnold''s eyes. Had he wanted, he could''ve easily increased his strength by 150%. But he didn''t, because he wanted to fight his summons using his own strength and a few gears. He wanted to whoop the reaper''s a*s and boy, a*swhopping he did. Arnold wasn''t serious in the fights which followed afterwards. Marshal was pretty easy to deal with but Arnold identally touched his sword and well... Let''s just say Marshal won''t have a sword for a while. Arnold promised to make him one once the workshop was up and running, that managed to calm Marshal down a bit. The only one he went all out against was, Asterios and Asterios did the same with him. Arnold didn''t use the Vindicator but he did use both his [Enhanced Phoenix cloak] and [Vritra''s Wrath] to even the grounds a bit. Still, the battle was even more intense than earlier battles. But in the end, Arnold managed to overwhelm the Minotaur and deal a decisive blow on the Minotaur''s head. After watching this fight, no one dared to fight him anymore. No one but... "Ohh... Is it my turn now?" Natasha happily squeaked and rushed towards him. Her chest swinging left and right in symphony with her butt. "Nope, it isn''t." Arnold froze the ground around him. She inevitably slipped on the thinyer of ice and fell hard on her butt. ''Did wearing the beast cor made her stupid?'' Arnold thought while Natasha rubbed her bubble butt to ease the pain, ''For God''s sake, use your wings, you bimbo in the heat!'' "This is not how I expected you to make my butt sore..." She mumbled, still rubbing her butt. Asterios thought she was done for now, but to his and all of the summons surprise, Arnold agreed to the duel! "Fine, I''ll do it." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "But not because I''m a sick pervert, but because you saved Nina''s life as well as mine. If that''s what you wish for, then I''m obligated to do it." "Damnit! If I knew about this earlier, I''d have wished for something else!" She replied, her wings pping intensely behind her back, "Um... Master. Since I saved two lives, shouldn''t I get two wishes!?" Arnold was slowly getting frustrated, but he kept his calm, "You want to do this or not? "Of course master. My body and dead soul are yours to vite..." She said and started removing her armour, "But I won''t battle with you like a bunch of savages. Instead, we''ll fight like proud and honourable Cubus do. A battle of pleasure." The summons who was on the verge of death from exhaustion were suddenly back on their feet, smiling like idiots. Even Arnold was stunned by Natasha''s vulgarity and before he could get a hold of the situation, she was already naked. Arnold hated to admit it but he was quite... har- Excited. Yeah. Excited. Natasha slowly walked towards him. Swinging her stark naked body around. However, Arnold''s senses soon kicked him in the balls before it was toote. He wanted to distract himself from his thoughts but this wasn''t what he wanted to do. Regardless of how grateful he was for everything Natasha had done for him this was way out of line. Even for her. "W-We''ll carry-on with this some other time. I just remembered I have some task toplete tonight so... See ya." He said and jumped into a portal, carrying him out of his domain. Chapter 197 - Mythical Affinity (2) As a child, Arnold used to wake up in the night and wish for the sun to rise. The darkness used to worry him. He was scared of demons and monsters, but his imagination fueled his fear even more by conjuring many beasts with beastly jaws which, apparently, lurked beyond the range of his vision. Waiting for him to slip up and strike him down. But now he embraced it. The darkness was an ally of him as the night provided cover from the flesh and blood monsters of the day, humans and monsters alike. Even on the most moonlit of nights, he was used to seeking shadows to blend in with. Staying clear of those pools of yellow light that flow from the streetmps. The wastnds didn''t have the neon and white lights that used to flood from the bars and restaurants. It was weird but he felt at ease while he was in the wastnds. In here he only needed to worry about monsters, and not the ones hiding within human skin.?? The only reason for him to venture out at night was to gather his thoughts and... to calm down his little dragon after the ''prank'' Natasha pulled off on him. He was strolling around the base. There was still a couple of hours for the sun to rise again. In the meantime, the moon was enjoying the glory to bathe thend in its bright and calming light. The moonlight spilt onto his chest and shoulders. As much as Arnold loved the darkness, he didn''t want to be consumed by it. Hence the moonlight was special to him. If someone were to ask him about he felt about the night and the moonlight, he would describe the moonlight as his onlypanion in the night''s darkness. The soft shimmering glow of the moon held a special purpose, it gave him a direction in what would otherwise be a maze of imprable darkness. His footsteps echoed sharply around the deserted base, apart from his summons, no human could be seen around. He was calm and collected, but his heartbeat sounded awkwardly loud in his own ears, like the booming heartbeat of a condemned prisoner. ''Should I start running, instead of walking? It might take a while before Nina woke up so, I''d be able to pass my time while keeping myself fit.'' Arnold thought about it for a while and then decided to do it anyway since this had been his n early on. Without any intention of notplying with his thoughts, he suddenly zoomed past a couple of automatons who were patrolling around the base, leaving them covered in a trail of dust. As he ran, his feet kissing thend. Perhaps a few years ago, he would haveughed at the idea of running so far and fast, and now all he could do was to cherish the prospect of doing so. His agility wasn''t over the roof like a few individuals, still, it was more than enough to make him feel like he was flying out of in air rather than running on the ground. His feet were made to travel at speed and as light as the paws of a lion. Yet it wasn''t enough. He was about to use [Rapid sh] to increase his speed even more. But before he could, a notification popped up in front of him. ___ You have 159 unallocated attribute points to use. ___ He went from the speed of a raging Lamborghini to that of a Bullock cart within a fraction of a second. "I can''t believe I forgot about this." He said, shaking his head, "The confrontation with Nicole screwed up my memory. Haha." His smile wasn''t genuine but he could''ve fooled anyone around him. Even himself. The sad part was, he knew he was trying to fool himself. He shook his head onest time before opening his status te. ___ NAME : Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses] LEVEL : RANK : (Finish the ascension question to unlock your new level and rank) SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL''S RAGE] CLASS : SUBCLASS : ? (lvl 10) EXP : --/-- [QUICK SHOT] (lvl : 15) [EXPLOSIVE SHOT] (lvl : 15) [LUCKY SHOT] (lvl : 15) [CRITICAL SHOT] (lvl : 15) ? (lvl 10) EXP :--/-- [QUICK ASSEMBLY] (lvl :15) [EFFICIENT RECYCLING] (lvl : 15) [NOVICE PROGRAMMER] (lvl : 15) [QUICK DISMANTLING] (lvl : 15) ? (lvl 30) EXP : --/-- [BLOOD NECROMANCY] (lvl 30) [BLOOD BOURNE INTELLIGENCE] (lvl 25) [BLOODLUST] (lvl : 25) [BLOOD BOND] (lvl : 25) AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire) Personal details and stats : HP : 10138/10138 MANA : 20837/20837 EXP : 0/15000 STRENGTH (STR) : 161[+65] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF) : 161 (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 210 AGILITY (AGI) : 91 ACCURACY (ACC) : 94 EVADE (EVD) : 78 CHARISMA (CHA) : 86 MYSTIC (MYS) : 155 ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 159 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 14 Excess EXP : 694,596 ___ One line on his status te caught his eyes... ''I think it''s about time to learn something new, right?'' A smile crept on his face. Until his ascension quest wasplete, the number of ways for him to be stronger were limited. One of the ways was to create more automatons, for which he''d require an endless amount of supplies. Which sadly, he didn''t have. Another way was to increase the strength of his existing summons. This is what he had been doing till then. But now he had a way to increase his strength directly- to learn a new affinity by increasing his intelligence. Without hesitating for another moment he quickly dumped all the attribute points to increase his intelligence. However, since it now required him to invest 5 points in his intelligence to see an increase by 1 point. Thus even after spending 155 attribute points his intelligence only increased by 31 points and was now 241 points, just enough for him to learn a new affinity. He kept the remaining 4 points forter and waited. Soon enough, another notification popped up on his interface. ___ You can learn a new affinity! Searching of affinity scrolls in the inventory, please wait... ... ... Found two affinity scrolls in the inventory. Please select the one you would like to learn now: ? Light ? Shadow ___ "I already knew something like this would happen. But this won''t change my mind a bit. I''ll choose-" Chapter 198 - Mythical Affinity (3) Arnold stood in the middle of the deserted grounds. His eyes seemed to be looking at something. Yet there was nothing in front of them. At least nothing that the automatons observing him, could see with their electronic eyes. But in reality, Arnold was trying to make a life-changing decision. He had been confident about his choice. He might''ve liked darkness but he secretly despised it as well. Moreover, darkness can not defeat darkness. Since Nicole most probably had shadow affinity choosing shadow affinity for him was pointless. If he wanted to just increase his strength, then he would''ve gone for Shadow affinity. But right now, he needed to be powerful in hopes of defeating Nicole but not kill her, and light affinity was where Arnold would like to ce his bet right now.?? Technically, he already had the shadow affinity for himself. Natasha had shadow affinity, and she was under hismand meaning he could pretty much use it as he pleased. But then again, he also had Amanda working under him as well, so he had both, the light as well as the shadow affinity. However, Natasha was a summon and could be resurrected multiple times even if Nicole destroyed her. Whereas Amanda on the other hand was a human. If Arnold was to fight Nicole with her alongside, Nicole would eliminate Amanda out of the equation first, because firstly, Arnold was immune to her skills. And secondly, he was pretty sure Nicole''s system would alert her about Amanda and her affinity. Once Nicole turned Amanda into dust, and then not even Talos'' resurrection ability would be able to resurrect her and he would be pretty much screwed at that point. Thus he needed to have the Light affinity with him. He was also sure that learning light affinity might trigger some unique quest or shit, as it was a super rare affinity. The varied applications of this affinity made it even more useful. However, he knew levelling it up would be a difficult task. If he follows his ns and learns light affinity, then he''d have to solely focus on levelling the skills he would earn by learning it. A low-level light skill might not be enough to defeat Nicole''s high levelled skills. Yet his hands were tied. Thus he decided he''ll burn that bridge when he crosses it. Choosing light was the most logical option at this time. That''s all he cared about right now. ''It seems I''m going to be busy for a while.'' Arnold mumbled. The message still shing on his interface. ___ Found two affinity scrolls in the inventory. Please select the one you would like to learn now: ? Light ? Shadow ___ He took a deep breath and chose, ''Light.'' ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. LEARNING... LEARNING... LEARNING... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Light > AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked newpatible ability(s): ? [ Guardian Angel ] : (Active ability) Summons a Guardian Angel from heaven. The Guardian is indestructible and will only disappear once the duration of this skill runs out. As long as the Guardian Angel is alive, no harm can be done upon the user but summoning the Guardian has its demerits. Every hit the Guardian takes would drain the summoner''s mana by half of the amount of damage taken. Moreover, The guardian cannot generate mana on its own and hence the mana required by the Guardian to use its skills are consumed from the summoner''s mana. [ Rank: S] [Mana cost: 2000] [Duration of summoning: 5 minutes] [COOLDOWN: 1 month] ? [ Heavenly Blessing ] : (Active Ability) When Guardian Angel appears on the battlefield, nearby allied units (Up to 10) receive the Heaven''s blessings which immediately restores their mana and HP by 50%, while allied units having Light affinity gain 80% of their respective maximum values. When this skill is activated, all units (Allied or not) having shadow affinity receive a debuff and their Mana and HP are reduced by half and the cooldown for all their skills in doubled (this effect never fails). The more mana is consumed for activation of this skill, the prolonged its effect is. After sessful activation of this skill, the Guardian Angel receives special buff and it''s HP doubles. The user is prompted before activation of the skill. This skill will level up ording to the level of the Guardian Angel. [ Rank: SS ] [Mana cost: minimum mana required 10000 or more] (80% of max mana is recovered immediately after activation as per the effect of the skill). [Maximum Duration: 2 minutes (mana consumed: 20000)] [Cooldown: 3 months] Due to the effect of the title [Killer Of The Masses] the skill(s) have been upgraded to level 5. ___ Arnold let out a sigh of relief as he read the description of the second ability he had obtained. Like the way he thought, the summoning ability was nothing but a pit for endless consumption of his mana. He would supposedly lose mana every time the Guardian was attacked, he thought this was ridiculous but there was nothing he could do. The abilities he gained were without a doubt, overpowered. Hell, even calling them overpowered would be an understatement. The drawback, however, was pretty serious. Yet, the problem itself offered a solution as well. He could recover the mana by using [Heavenly Blessing]. Still, Arnold was going to stock up on extrarge mana potions once the shop was essible again. He wasn''t going to take any chances. Not anymore. The skill, [Heavenly Blessing] had also been automatically upgraded to level 5 so that was also a relief. At least he wouldn''t need to start levelling up the skills from the scratch. He wasn''t sure how high Nicole''s skills were, but he thought they would''ve been between level 10-15 at maximum. Right now, he regretted not using the [Probe] skill on his sister. If he had done that while he could, he wouldn''t need to be worried about her skills. But for now, he could only assume what her skills were. ''I need to finish the ascension quest as soon as I can.'' He thought, ''Once I finish it, I would be able to use the surplus exp I have to level up instantly and gain a few potential points which I could then use to level up my new skills.'' His resolve to finish the ascension quest was greater than ever. But before he could put his resolve into practice, another message shed before his eyes. ___ You canbine your existing affinities to learn an affinity. ___ "Say what!?" Chapter 199 - A Bad Decision ___ You canbine 3 affinities and an affinity to learn a new affinity.?? Would you like to merge the affinities to learn an affinity? You wouldn''t lose any ability you''ve learnt so far and you''d be able to learn their respective abilities in future as well. PROCEED WITH ADVANCEMENT? ?Yes or ?No ___ "Wait... Wasn''t I supposed to get a Mythical affinity as a reward forpleting the ascension quest?" Arnold mumbled. He quickly checked the mission tab and there it was, written in golden letters. He was supposed to earn his first mythical affinity uponpletion of the ascension quest. He was surprised to learn, he could unlock a mythical affinity right then and there, but he wasn''t going toin about it. He didn''t know what this new affinity would be but he was super excited to learn it! He was certain the light affinity would bebined in it, as it got triggered after he learned that. As for the basic affinities, he wasn''t sure. He wanted to know what he was getting into but there was no way for him to so apart from using foresight, which he had already wasted on the material box... Once again. "Guess, there''s only one way to know it." He took a sighed and continued, "Yes." ___ REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED. Combining , , and affinities... Thebination was sessful. Learning... Learning... Learning... YOU''VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED < Nature (Phase 1)> AFFINITY. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [ELEMENTAL SUMMONING: FOREST GOLEM ] : (Active ability) Summons 4 forest golems to do your bidding. Their HP and abilities depend on the summoner''s level. When they are destroyed, they have a 15% chance of exploding and at the ce of the explosion, a life tree grows up. This explosion can cause damage up to 30% of target''s HP. The fruit of the tree can restore an ally''s health by 50% and also give them 80% damage reduction for the next 2 minutes. The objects affected by the explosion are temporarily covered by vines of the life tree and are unable to move for 3 minutes. Each life tree produces only one fruit. (Beware: this fruit can also be consumed by your foes and will heal them as well). [ Rank: S ] [Mana cost: 1000/Golem] [Cooldown: 3 hours] ? [ ELEMENTAL CONTROL: Nature (phase 1 of 5)] : (Active ability) Upon being activated, you can the ability to manipte the existing flora within a radius of 1 kilometre around you. Essentially, turning the nts and trees into your trustworthy allies. You can make them move, attack or defend yourself or someone/something else, as per your will. Tree of life (or life tree) can also be manipted using this skill. [ Rank: Cosmic A] [Mana cost: --] [Cooldown: --] Due to the effect of the title [Killer Of The Masses] the skill(s) have been upgraded to level 5. EXP required to unlock the next phase: 1,000,000. Current EXP: 694,596 ___ He had earned a mythical affinity for the first time in his life, yet it didn''t seem to be much of an achievement. Moreover, he felt like he had been cheated. It obtained an affinity, but he hadn''t unlocked its true potential yet. The true power of the affinity was still hidden behind the walls known as, ''phases''. Apparently, Arnold was required to feed it EXP in order to unlock new ''phases''. And it required him a million exp to unlock the next phase. All of a sudden, the gargantuan amount of excess exp he had, didn''t seem much. He couldn''t even upgrade the affinity into ''phase 2'' with his current reserves of EXP. He did not doubt that the abilities he gained were useful, especially in regions like the swamp. He now was practically invincible in the swamps or any type of forest for that matter. The ''Unique'' trees he once had to be conscious of during his visits in the swamps were now his prime protectors. He was fairly sure he could eradicate the remaining lizardmen from the surface of the earth if he wanted to. ''Those fckers would never dare to pull another ambush on me again.'' He thought while slyly smiling, ''At least, gaining these abilities would help me while taking down Devon.'' But before he could rejoice anymore, he suddenly felt weak. It felt like his head was being torn into pieces. But when another notification popped up on his interface, he immediately stared at it. He had earned yet another title. ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [The First] Effect: ? If you''re threatened by the presence of another Pdin in your vicinity, the level of your ss-specific skills is increased by 5 levels while the skill level of the other pdin reduces by the same amount of levels. ? If a Pdin forms an alliance with you, then they too enjoy the effects of this skill, however, their skills only increase by 2 levels. Please note: Effects of this title are nullified in presence of a God. It doesn''t matter if it is a Demigod, Lesser God, or a Higher God, as long as it is a godlike entity, you won''t be able to enjoy the title''s effects. ___ "Give me a break!" Arnold closed the interface in frustration. The system was giving him positive information, but it was too much information to take in at once, even for him... But it wasn''t that. Something else was going on. Something much worse. He didn''t knew but learning a mythical affinity before he was supposed to, took a toll on his unprepared mind. It felt his brain could burst at any moment and the constant buzzing sound of system notifications didn''t help him at all. His legs lost their strength, his body went numb all of a sudden. His consciousness was slowly fading away... Darkness was all he could see. ___ Warning!!! Your mind is unable to handle the sudden insertion of multiple affinities! ALERT! The nervous system is failing! Heartbeat is slowing down! The brain has ceased its functions! Multiple organs are failing! Emergency reconfiguration of the host''s body initiated! Configurationpleted! Resuscitation is being performed! Please wait! No response from the host! Repeating the process! . . . ___ This was thest text Arnold saw before copsing on the ground. He did what no one could... He put an end to himself. Chapter 200 - Slumber Arnold thought he''d feel unbearable pain, but he couldn''t. Maybe his mind wasn''t registering any pain at the moment. He slowly opened his eyes and couldn''t see very well. However, he could distinguish a female figure tending to him. It was Alice, trying whatever she could to save him. Arnold couldn''t hear very well either but thought he heard something. He looked sideways, Talos was standing there. His usually emotionless eyes seemed to be weird. Behind him was someone who looked to be Allen, hugging Nina as she cried her eyes out. A sight that devastated him. A woman who had always been strong was crying like a newborn baby, all because of him. Even Allen looked cried out at this point.?? He wanted to reassure her. He wanted to say, "Don''t cry! Can''t you see I''m fine?" But no words came out of his mouth. It weirded him out. He then gazed over his body and was horrified... There were all kinds of pipes and instruments connected to his body. It then dawned upon him. Most of his organs had failed and it was these instruments that were keeping him alive. His lungs nor his heart were functioning on their own. He was surprised that he could actually move his head a bit or that his brain was still functional. It was bad. He could feel it. Instead of being afraid, internally, he was all smiling. It was a sad smile but still a smile. ''I don''t stand a chance...'' Even in this state, he knew he wasn''t going to live for long. It was all thanks to Alice that he even made it till now. But he knew even she had her limits. Right now, the only regret in his life was his sister. He wanted a chance to end up on the right terms with her. To lecture her for onest time, but deep down he knew it wasn''t possible anymore. He wanted to stay awake for a while more. Cherishing what could possibly be hisst moments with his loved ones but his body was too weak for that as he fell into a deep slumber. *** He felt a hand caressing his chest. But the hand immediately moved away. He wanted to feel the warm touch again. ''At least I can feel again. I''m going to live, right?'' The warm hand soon returned. This time caressing his head. He felt great. He slowly opened his eyes. The room was bright but he couldn''t recognise the room, but then again his head wasn''t in the right ce. ''A hospital? When did I get here?'' His gaze fell on the one sitting next to him. It was Nina, her puffy eyes were red. Not a drop of tear present in them. ''Whaddup bitch?'' Arnold called her, wanting to kiss her but she didn''t respond. Maybe because no words came out of his mouth. He then realised she wasn''t alone, Nathan and Johnny were there too, chatting with Alice and what seemed to be a doctor. But Nicole wasn''t there. ''Looks like there''s still bad blood between us. Can''t do anything about that while lying in this bed now can I?'' He also noticed that there weren''t as many pipes or instruments on him this time around. Which he thought to be a great thing. Before he could get all excited, he slipped into sleep once again. *** Arnold felt another touch on his hand, he once again opened his eyes a little bit. Thinking he would be at the hospital, but he wasn''t. He was in a bigger room this time. It reminded him of a hotel luxurious hotel, not just in the space but in the artwork too. Theck of colours on the walls apart from ck confirmed what he was thinking. He realised where he was, a mansion in the ck estate. As for the touch he felt on his arm, it was Nicole, applying some kind of ointment on his arm. He was surprised. ''First, you try to kill me and now you''re applying medicine on me? You''re a weird one you know that?'' He weakly smiled, but it was enough for Nicole to notice he was awake. Her hands froze. She looked him in the eyes, her eyes were as red and sleepless as Nina''s. She looked at him happily but then just up and left. Arnold didn''t stop her. He just didn''t have the energy to do anything. His slumber snatched him once again. **** The next time he opened his eyes, it was night time. There were no equipments around him, just afortable bed and silky nket. He felt more energetic and even managed to sit up. As he sat up, his sheets made a light sound. It was enough to wake Nina up who had been sleeping on the sofa next to his bed. She saw him sitting and rubbed her swollen eyes. She couldn''t register what was happening, but the moment she realised Arnold was safe and sound, tears started gushing out of her eyes. She ran up to him and started hugging and kissing him. Arnold patiently sat there and savouring the moment. "Y-You fcker! What did you do to yourself!?" Nina eximed. She sounded like a female lead from a teenage drama or something, "Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused us?" She once again broke down crying, wetting his shoulders in the process, but Arnold didn''t mind. He pulled her closer to him. "I''m sorry for what happened in the workshop," Arnold said, his voice barely louder than a whisper, "it wasn''t my intention to hurt you or anyone else." Upon hearing his voice, Nina ended upughing for the first time in a while. She kissed him onest time before pulling away. Her face was red like a strawberry. "You a*shole... First thing you say after waking up is an apology. How typical of you." She wiped her tears away, "I should probably call someone to check up on you-" "No. Stay please." "Arnold..." Before they could argue, Talos and Alice walked in on them. Seeing him awake Talos went on full mom mode and so did Alice. Both of them started performing random checks on him and in the end, were sure of his well being. He was still weak, but that would pass over the next few days. Once they were done they left Nina and their master alone. It was obvious they wanted to talk about many things. "So how long..." Arnold tried to ask in his weak voice. "How long have you been unconscious?" Nina asked, caressing his face. Arnold nodded. "10 days. We still don''t know what happened to you though. Just that a few robots found you copsed at the base and brought you into the Infirmary where ''Alice'' did what she could to save you..." She tried her best to hold back her tears but couldn''t. Arnold slowly wiped away her tears and kissed her forehead, "I''m so sorry for worrying you. I didn''t know what happened either. One moment I was fine and the next moment I copsed on the-" At that moment a notification popped up in front of him. ___ Reconfigurationplete! You can now freely use your mythical affinity. ___ Chapter 201 - Deal With The Devil The morning wasn''t grey but covered with soothingvender and brilliant amber. The sun rose as usual, but the day was something special. The curtains added an orange glow to the morning lighting through the windows. Just like every morning in the city, today was also a perfect sunrise. The light was closely followed by a chorus of birds breaking the drone of the city traffic. There were birds in wastnds, but there were never this happy. It was everything Arnold had ever missed while living in the wastnds. Nicole was next to him, cutting fruits that constituted most of his diet at the moment. "I wonder why you''re so bad with a knife when you have such excellent swordsmanship..." Arnold sniggered while chomping down an apple slice.?? He was still feeling weak and hence was on the bed, but he was recovering faster than he thought. Arnold was well acquainted with near-death experiences, but this time, even felt he got way too close to it than he would ever want to go. Technically, he had already died as his heart ceased to function. Doctors, including Alice, were still wondering how the hell did he manage to survive multiple organ failure. It wasn''t unusual to have organ failure, but his case was special as all of his organs, except the brain, had failed simultaneously. Nina threw a piece of apple at Arnold. Consider it a little payback for his snide remark. "You''re one to talk ''Mr I can take care of myself''." She smiled and ced the knife down, "Looks like all the talk about ''Medical Miracle'' has gotten to your head." It felt good to see her smiling andughing. He had unintentionally caused her a lot of pain. But now that was all history. As for being the ''Medical Miracle'', it was something the medical experts were calling him, but Arnold knew it was no miracle. His survival was more like a debt. A debt he needed to pay within 14 days. ''I hope Talos is taking care of everything while I''m recovering...'' He thought. The memories fromst night were still clear in his mind. Especially, what the system informed him. ___ Reconfigurationpleted! You can now freely use your mythical affinity. Emergency quest has been triggered! EMERGENCY QUEST: Deal with the Devil ? [ INTRODUCTION ]: The system signed a deal with the devil to keep you from dying. Although you managed to survive, there is a cost to pay. Only cosmic creatures are allowed to wield mythical affinities and even then, only a few can use them without causing self-harm. You, however, tried to learn something that was beyond your limits and hence you were on the verge of dying. The reconfigurations that were done to your body are what keeps you alive, but it''s only temporary. Complete your ascension quest and live but if you''re not able to do so... You''ll die. [ TASK ]:plete the Ascension quest and evolve into a ascended being within 14 days, or else the reconfigurations applied to your body would be reversed and you will inevitably die. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/1 Ascension Questpleted [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? Live your life. ___ Deal with the devil. It was pretty simple actually. His survival was the deal and the system was the devil. Arnold knew this time the system meant business. No more fooling around. He also knew no one else was to be med for it and he was here because of his own greed. He should''ve known better but the lust for power got the best of him. The emergency quest was a bit difficult toplete even with a forge, but now that it was gone It was impossible to do it without rebuilding the forge. Even then, it would take at least two to three weeks to rebuild the forge, forget about making a Relic. Luckily, Arnold had already figured a solution to this problem: Make the forge inside his domain. By doing so he would be able to save the time in rebuilding the forge as well as it would be more secure in the void. He wouldn''t allow anyone to destroy the forge again. It was too troublesome for him to build a new one himself, considering his health, thus he had sent Talos inside the void that morning. Talos was already at work. He was rebuilding the forge inside the domain with the rest of the summons. While Arnold tried to recover as soon as he could. ''ording to Talos, the construction would beplete in five days.'' Arnold was lost in his thoughts, everything else was sidelined, ''That means I have five days to heal and gain what I want from the material box... No rest for a dying man. *sigh*'' "You listening, Arnold? Arnold! ARNOLD!" Nina yelled at him, "Look, I know you don''t like fruits but that''s what you''re supposed to be eating for now." Nina then handed him the te which Arnold absentmindedly epted. His eyes were fixed on her. As if he was gazing into her soul or something. "Are you high or something?" Nina chuckled but when Arnold didn''t reply she got worried, "Arnold... Are you okay? You''re scaring me now..." "Who are you? Do I know you..." Arnold mumbled, his eyes nk. "Stop screwing around, will ya?" She said an ced her hand on his shoulder but he backed away. Looking scared, "No... No. No. No!" Nina looked like she was on the verge of tears. It was a nightmare. Her love had lost his memories! But before she could call anyone in, Arnold gave her a quick peck on the lips. "Gotcha bitch." He said and smiled. Nina couldn''t believe it! He just messed with her and now he was smiling? The tears held at bay were now freefalling from her eyes. She. Was. Pissed. "You. Fcking. Bastard. You. Dare. To. Pull. A. Stunt. Like. That. On. Me!" She started yelling, hitting him as each word escaped her mouth. "Ow ow ow! Calm down tigress! I''m a patient, remember?" "Patient? My ass!" And the beat down mercilessly continued. Chapter 202 - Assassination Plan "What a day it has been..." Allen mumbled to himself. Carrying a bottle of wine, he was sitting on the terrace of the building Arnold was currently residing in, "I didn''t know my brother was so famous. Haha." The news of Arnold''s wellbeing soon reached the others. Ever since then, there had been various meetings from friends, family and members from the council of Guardian Syndicate. Most of them knew about his position as a Section Chief but after hearing about his valour from the others, they formed a deep respect for him.?? Allen had travelled back to LA with Nina, Talos and Alice. Although he didn''t need to be there, he felt shitty because he left his brother to visit other bases in zone 4 and soon after that he was informed that Arnold was in a critical condition. Allen didn''t know what happened with Arnold, but that didn''t stop him from ming himself. While they were gone, the base was being taken care of by the automatons and the human soldiers. They were strictly prohibited to move out of the base, thus they only had one job- to protect the base. Allen was also one of the first people to visit Arnold. He wanted to inform him about the situation of there bases of zone 4 but upon seeing his condition, Allen decided to hold his horses. His ''blood brother'' had almost died. Right now, Arnold needed to live a tension free life for a while. So he just went in and chatted like usual. This happened in the afternoon, almost six hours ago. Now the moon was keeping Allenpany. For some reason, Allen was stressed. There was a reason as to why he was sitting on the terrace of the building. He needed to protect his brother. Although everyone seemed happy to see Arnold well, Allen couldn''t help but sense some kind of hostility hidden behind their smiles. He had always been quick to catch on to these things. ''I need to find out who is so resentful that they would foolishly try and attack this fortress of a home.'' Allen thought, sipping on his wine, "Friend, family, or foe. No one would even get close to him as long as I''m alive." "Ohh... Then I''ll just have to kill you first." Someone whispered but not loud enough for Allen to hear. The next moment, an arrow went hurtling towards his head. Allen sat there, still as a statue as the arrows sped towards him. Then at thest possible second, his hands moved in a blur. The half-empty bottle of wine got shattered into a dozen pieces. But managed to deflect the arrow, which crashed into the railing next to him. Being bonded with Arnold came with its perk. Heightened senses, higher evasion and strength etc. These were just a few to name them. While all this was happening, Allen had his back turned towards the assant, "You can''t even kill me. How do you think you''re gotta kill him?'' He slowly turned around to face his opponent. He was honestly relieved to see someone so weak had attacked him. But he was sure, this person was just a pawn and not the main boss. He needed to be careful. "Just so you know, if you touch him, I''ll kill you.'' Allen warned the assant in an eerily casual tone. The assant soon emerged from the darkness. A weird mask covered the face but the robe couldn''t hide the feminine body behind. Her emerald green robes and crossbow give an underwhelming feeling to Allen. That''s right. Underwhelming. Allen barely felt threatened by his opponent''s presence. Yet if she had managed to get past the defences of the ck Estate, she might be hiding something or someone from the inside might be helping her. There was only one way to know for sure though. He needed to capture her alive. Allen had his sword by his side. The assant, however, had her crossbow ready. Within a moment, Allen quickly jumped sideways. The assant rained arrows on him but it was toote, her target had grabbed his weapon. She stopped the barrage but continued to keep her eyes fixed on her target. For a moment their eyes met. The next moment, the barrage continued. Allen deflected most of the arrows with the help of his sword but a few managed to scratch him here and there. At first, he thought the arrows might have been poisoned. He waited for something to happen. Nothing. ''Good. I''m not poisoned. Well, that''s what I''ll like to believe. Either way, I''ll get checked by Aliceter, gotta deal with this idiot first.'' Allen thought and then reached out to themunicator hidden in the back pocket of his jeans. He had called Nina. She was head of security around here, and it was time to get back to work. An intruder in the ck estate? She wouldn''t believe it until she saw it herself. Now that it had been taken care of, he could focus back on his opponent who had seemingly run out of arrows to use. "Out of arrows or out of luck?" Allen smirked. Getting ready to strike. The assant threw the crossbow aside, shrugging her shoulders, "I wasn''t really fond of using it, to be honest." To Allen''s surprise, the woman took out a sword from her back. A blue sword, simmering in the radiance of the moon. Allen let out a whistle and smiled, ''This is going to be interesting.'' He knew exactly what type of sword it was. There were only two of those in existence. Well, at least there were supposed to be two. One of which was in the possession of the Morrino family who had forged the swords and the other one with his biological father, Nathaniel ck, who had been given one when both the families agreed to repel the monsters once and for all from the surface of the Earth. It was no ordinary sword either. It was also called ''The sword of emission'' and had the ability to teleport people over small distances. But this ability of the sword couldn''t be used continuously. Whenever this ability was used, the sword lost its shininess, which could only be recovered by absorbing the moonlight and this absorption could take anywhere from 10 seconds to five minutes depending on the distance the user teleported to. The only downside of this ability was, that the sword must be allowed to recharge even if it had only lost a per cent of its shine. The teleportation skill could not be used until and unless it was back at 100%. Now Allen knew how she got inside the estate, but his mind was now clouded with a new set of questions. How the hell did she manage to get her hands on the sword? Did Morrino betrayed them or did Nathaniel lost the sword? ''No matter what. I must capture this woman.'' Chapter 203 - Under Attack! "Cat got your tongue?" The assassin blurted out. Her face might have been hidden behind the crimson cat mask, but Allen could feel her smirking behind it. She was full of herself. He was contemting ways to capture her. But he knew he would need help to do so because of the sword she was wielding. And the only help he could get was from Nina.?? While he was thinking all this, his heart went crazy. It was a simr feeling as he felt whenever Arnold was in danger. He desperately wanted to reach out to him, but he knew it wouldn''t be wise to ignore the one in front of him. But he knew that the assassin in front of him wasn''t the only one there. She had brought her friends as well. "How many of you are there?" Allen finally called her out, pulling the sword at his shoulders length, "Tell me now, and you shall live." "You shall live? Hahaha..." The woman broke downughing as if her life depended on it, "that''s pretty impressiveing from a man who couldn''t even stay in his own family." Her insult opened a closed wound. One which had been very close to his heart. He was about tosh out when he remembered what Arnold had told him. "Anger is your enemy. Control it and it''ll be your greatest ally." Of course, these were the exact words, Nichs had told Arnold. Allen gulped down his anger. His blood was boiling but he was in control of the situation. He couldn''t let a coward who hid behind a mask, get into his head. Never. "Why are you so interested in my daddy issues?" Allen smirked, "but thanks to you now I know this, isn''t an outside job anymore. I might not have been here much, but I know on whose door I''ll have to knock on once you''re dead." He was bluffing. Although he was fairly sure someone on the inside was helping these assassins. Still, he had no idea who it was. "How... Never mind. It doesn''t matter what you think. You''ll be dead soon. Don''t worry, your brother will follow you soon enough." "Trust me, he''s been through worse. He''d kill you a thousand times over before you even manage to put a scratch on him. Even in his current situation." Hearing this the assassin went silent and readied her sword. Soon the moon got covered with clouds and the fight began. The assassin charged at him like an enraged bull. In ce of horns, she held her de. It was a weird way of attacking someone but Allen wasn''t going the risk it. He waited for her toe close, then he neatly sidestepped her, leaving his opponent''s attack go worthless. Once Allen was out of ''danger'', he kicked the assassin hard on her back. He could''ve killed her by using his sword but he wanted to capture her alive. ''The hell? Is she even serious?'' Allen was seriously thinking it was some kind of joke. But the next second, the woman disappeared. She had used the power of the sword. A secondter, she was standing behind his back. She drew the sword rapidly and shed at Allen. Allen, however, had been expecting the shortdy to do a sneak attack. He swayed backwards, allowing the de to whistle past his head harmlessly. Although thedy was skilled, the sword was clearly too much for her to wield. As her strike cresented in front of his eyes, Allen leant in and stabbed the hilt if his sword into the woman''s chest. He didn''t attack her there because of some perverted reason, but because it was the safest ce to strike at. Anyways, thanks to his strike, the woman lost bnce once again. But as she fell backwards, she kicked his sword out of his hands. But Allen didn''t mind it at all. He had been training along with Bad-Breath for a while now. So he was kinda confident in his brawling skills as well. With his now free hands, Allen punched the woman twice near the ears. Cracking the mask. The woman crumpled on the ground. The woman was surprised by this move, he wasn''t supposed to be good at hand to handbat... At least that''s what her report said. And her reports were rarely wrong, if ever. "You''re better than I expected." The woman broke the lower half of her mask to spit some blood out, "At this rate, I might not be able to take you down by myself... Not without this either way." The woman then proceeded to take out a syringe from a hidden pocket. It had some weird ck liquid in it. Allen knew instantly he needed to stop her from using whatever it was. He was happy with the way the things were up till now. Not wanting to lose his advantage, he lunged forward, arms outstretched. But before he could reach her some appeared right next to his opponent out of nowhere and kicked him across the jaw. The kick was packed with raw strength. Allen went tumbling down and stopped right next to his sword. He looked up to check his new opponent out. The man wasn''t wearing anything to cover his herculean body. But the face had been tightly warped by a piece of clothing... And he wasn''t alone. Two more people appeared right next to the man. Their swords were drawn. Waiting for Allen to make a move. ''Just how the hell are they getting in! The security here is much worse than the Alpha base. FML.'' After kicking him, the man turned his attention towards thedy. The real-life hulk pulled the woman back to her feet and effortlessly took the syringe from her hands, before shattering it. "What are you doing here!?" The woman gasped in shock. Her cool demeanour had evaporated. "Your father is disappointed by your antics. Now we are leading this mission and you''re going back." The man spoke in a hoarse yet muffled voice "Like hell I am!" The woman went nuclear, "This is my mission and I''mpleting it!" But her protests weren''t heard of. One of the smaller guys grabbed her hand and puff! They were gone. The hulk now turned his attention towards Allen. He pointed at the sword next to Allen and said, "If you wish to fight, then pick up your sword. Or else step down. We won''t attack an unarmed enemy." "Ethical assassins are you? Well, that''s unheard of." Allen smiled. He picked up the sword and swung it twice. It wasn''t a sword anymore, but an extension of his arm. Although Allen was smiling, he knew the difference between his strength and that of the hulking man. Just one of the man''s kick managed to knock a couple of his teeth out. In short... He wouldn''t go near the man, not with his second-tierbat tricks. And he didn''t know a thing about the other guy either. For the sake of simplicity, it was safe to say Allen was screwed. Even then he smiled. Remembering what Arnold had told him after defeating the trolls, "If you don''t like the odds, then just ovee them." ''Ovee them, eh? No harm in trying right?'' Chapter 204 - A Helping Hand In the face of danger, Allen quickly remembered the instructions which had been drilled into his mind and soul while training swordsmanship. ''Check your breathing. Slow and calm. Yup, it''s good. The stance? Nope, gotta spread the legs a bit more. Good. ce the sword at an arm''s length. Push your leg forward. That''ll do. When fighting multiple enemies, put more strength into the shoulders and biceps. It''ll enable you to fight longer. When you think you would be overwhelmed by your opponents, then each blow you deal should matter. Swing the sword with the desire to kill. If you hit your mark, the target should either die or at least he should get immobilised. If you do this much, the victory is yours. But if you fail... There''s no option to fail. You fight and live. Either in your physical form or in the thoughts of your friends and family.''?? Allen went through all this in a matter of seconds. He didn''t have any time to waste away. The moment he picked up the sword, his opponents had made him their target. ''Nina must be on her way... I just have to hold out until then.'' He thought, steeling himself for the confrontation ahead. The bigger man started cracking his knuckles. The shorter one also had some kind of a weird weapon in his hands. But due to the darkness, Allen couldn''t make out kind of weapon it was. All he knew was to stay clear of his reach. Once prepared, he raced towards the men. He had fought his multiple enemies before. But they were all mindless monsters. He could predict their next move before they made one, but now, he was facing against two skilled men. Both of which knew exactly what they needed to do. Allen rapidly closed in on his enemies. His target? The assassin with the tinier frame. Once he was out of the equation, Allen could focus on defeating the hulk, or at least stalling until help arrived. Once he was in their reach, Allen flung himself off the ground and swing his sword viciously at the same time. He wanted to decapitate the guy in one clean swoop. But wasn''t that lucky, however. Before his sword could even reach the man''s neck, the hulk kicked him down. Allen was hoping he would stay out of it or that if he interfered, he would at least have some advantage over the duo due to the hulk''s size, but it didn''t. The man could also teleport, just like the woman he was fighting before. Not only that, the man was pretty skilled at it too. Unlike thedy. Allennded on his side and rolled over back to his feet. He was hurting. The kick knocked the wind out of his chest. But he could still fight. It was his opponent''s turn to attack now and they didn''t waste any time. The hooded assassin came onto him first. He leapt at Allen like a panther. Darkness giving him a much-expected advantage. These people were assassins, unlike Allen, darkness was their most powerful ally and weapon. As the assassin got closer to him, Allen got a clear look of his weapon. It was a curved de. Almost resembling a Panther''s w. The assassin swung his w at him from a high angle. Allen instinctively raised his sword to protect him. A fatal mistake. By lifting the sword, he had left his torso unprotected. Something, the shirtless man-beast took notice of and quickly charged in. Before Allen could realise what was happening, the giant had already closed in on him. Allen''s quick reflex brought his hands down in an attempt to save his vital organs, at thest moment. He was sessful. The giant''s fist connected with Allen''s forearm with full force. Allen got flung back with vicious force and got mmed against the wall. Blood was flowing out of his mouth like a broken faucet. The wall had stopped his momentum, but the sudden stop broke a few of his bones along with hismunicator. His sword arm was pretty much useless now. It was clear to him, the hulk wasn''t joking around. He was out to kill. The hulk gave a nod to his underling. He immediately folded his hands in namaste. The ws pointing outwards. He proceeded to close his eyes and started mumbling something in Portuguese. ''The fck is he praying for... I''m the one who is getting his ass kicked, so I should be the one praying right now.'' Allen thought and tried to get up, but his legs gave out. The big guy seemed to have taken notice of Allen''s gaze. He stepped closer to him and pointed his thumb towards his underling. "Just so you know he''s praying." He spoke in his hoarse voice. "No shit Sherlock." Allen smirked and spat a mouthful of blood on the man''s foot, "You should be either be praying or pissing your pants because you are going to die soon enough." "Haha," The man turned around and mumbled something to the other guy in Portuguese. "Come on, man up and talk in English you mongrels." "We can''t deny a dying man''s wish, now can we? I was telling my ally that you are a funny guy. One who will keep God entertained in the afterlife." "Sorry to disappoint, but I have no intention of dying just yet." Allen quickly grabbed his sword with his left hand and threw it like a javelin towards the other guy. It was a desperate move, but a calcted one. He threw the sword at him, hoping that the big man would teleport next to his ally to save him. While he was at it Allen would give them a slip and regroup with the others. As Allen had predicted, the praying man didn''t open his eyes. Forcing the hulking man to protect his ally. ''This is it.'' Allen thought. His heart was in agreement with the mind but his body wasn''t. He tried to run, but his legs weren''t able to support the weight of his body anymore. ''Damn it!'' Allen cursed himself for his weakness. His n was perfect, but his own weakness had failed him. ng! Allen heard a noise and turned around. The hulking man had snapped his sword like a twig. His eyes zing with rage. "You''re one coy bastard..." He calmly said, slowly moving towards his prey. Each of his steps sent chills down Allen''s spine. He wanted tosh out. w his way through him, but the man''s gaze kept him at his ce like an obedient pet. The man was now towering over him when the other guy said, "It''s done." "Very well then. Time to end it, once and for all." He drew back his fist. Sparks flew out of the closed fists. His murderous aura froze time around Allen. Before Allen could even think of anything, the man unleashed his fists on him. ''Fck man, what an anticlimactic way to die...'' Allen closed his eyes. Waiting for his imminent death. But nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes. Hoping for the best, and best it was! A split second before the punch was rammed into his face, someone had blocked the strike with an opened palm. And the palm belonged to... "Johnny!" Allen eximed in joy. He had never been so happy to see him before. "Stop screaming like a BTS fangirl, will ya?" Johnny scoffed and turned towards the hulking beast, "I leave for a walk and all hell breaks loose. The fck you think you are, bullying my family member like that eh?" The man opened his mouth to reply. But before he could even utter a word, Johnny grabbed the man''s arm with one hand and proceeded to punch him in the face using the other. The sound if the impact resounded through the courtyard. The hulk went flying out of the terrace, just like Allen did. The other assassin quickly jumped at Johnny, but in front of the SS ranked brawler, he was nothing more than a mosquito. One kick was all it took to rip his chest open. "Why bother attacking us when you can''t even take me down?" Johnny shrugged his shoulders before turning towards Allen, "Go and treat your wounds while I knock some sense into the other guy." Chapter 205 - There Aint No Battle Without Me (1) At another corner of the estate... Kolt, Steve and the rest of the guardians were locked inbat with a multitude of attackers. All them covered in White armour or simr clothes. Although their talents were varied, they onlymunicated with each other in Portuguese. At times they also spoke in English. But even so, they only asked one thing, "Where is Arnold ling?"?? Kolt and Steve refused to answer. So did the assassin force of the ck family, and the fight continued. (Author''s Note: Steve was the security in charge of the ck estate and was introduced into the story in the first season, right before the war arc. I''m putting this down so you don''t have much trouble remembering him. Peace.) Along with Kolt and steve, 5 other people were forced to fight against overwhelming odds. 25 people had surrounded them and were fighting tooth and nail against their enemies. They had been fighting for a while now, but there was no sign of backup. Steve had started to think they were unnecessarily dragging on the fight. Yet, he wasn''t going to back down or give up on his family member. He knew Arnold was in a weak state. If these people rushed in to simultaneously attack him, he might not survive, or worse, he could involuntarily activate the power he had used during the raid against the Flying Swords guild. If Arnold did that, no one would survive. That''s why they had to prevent the attackers from reaching to him. At all cost. One of the assassins jumped at Steve. As Steve had been solely focusing on the front, he was blindsided by the attack from left. Thankfully, Kolt was there to save him. With one overpowered strike, Kolt managed to immobilise yet another assassin. Kolt was an S+ ranked brawler. Stamina was his strong suit. Sadly this wasn''t true for the rest of his force. They were mainly assassins and mages. They weren''t used to having prolonged battles. But their sneak attacks wouldn''t work in a head to head confrontation. So most of the burden was on Kolt''s shoulders as he had been acting as both a brawler and a tank. Steve, too had been overexerting himself. Continuous use of spells had nearly drained him of his mana. "Where the hell is everyone!?" Kolt finally snapped. They were one of the elite families and it bewildered him that there weren''t enough capable men to defend their turf. "Most of them are away clearing dungeons." Steve said, wiping a bead of sweat off his head, "You were supposed to go on one too, remember?" "Fck that shit! How many of us are here right now?" Kolt yelled back. Clearing losing his crap. "For God''s sake, your yelling isn''t going to scare them away!" Steve replied, equally loud, "as to answer your question, there are around 50-55 of us here. Most of them being A rank." "Themunicators aren''t working. We can even contact the syndicate for help." "These suckers must have done something-" Their bickering annoyed the attacker closest to them. He snarled and attacked a couple of times. Missing his target over and over again. His fight skills were so bad, it made Kolt almost puke. Yet their strength wasn''t their skill but numbers. If all of the remaining 24 people attacked then simultaneously, Kolt doubted the others would survive. Especially, not in their worn-out condition. Kolt''s p knocked the attacker out cold. He then turned his attention towards the remaining attackers. Hoping to incite more of them to attack. "I won''t go down if youe one at a time, you coward basta*ds!" Kolt roared in fury. But no one came. They kept their distance. They were going to risk their safety. But kept feigning attacks, only to pull back at thest moment. He thought they were scared, but when he looked up to their face, he saw those basta*ds smiling. It then dawned upon him. The attackers weren''t fighting with them... These basta*ds were ying with them. They were pleasuring themselves by toying with them. ''These bastards...'' Kolt spat down in disgust. "That''s enough!" An authoritative voice cut through theirughter. A next second, a tall man arose from the crowd, he was wearing a much more decorated armour than the rest, "if these infidels don''t know anything just kill them and get over with it. As much as I''d like to see them being tortured to death we don''t have time to leisure around." The horde silently agreed with the authoritative figure and prepared to attack kolt simultaneously. With the man now in lead, they charged at them but before they could do much, a wooden arrow as big as an average human ripped the authoritative man to shreds The attackers were in disbelief. Their feeble minds unable to process what happened, until they saw who fired the arrow at them... At some distance from them, stood a giant ape-like creature. In his hands was a crossbow. The same crossbow whose arrow tore through the man. Upon closer inspection, both the party knew exactly what the king Kong-like creature was. It was a troll. Even Kolt and the others were shocked. But soon the initial shock got reced by joy. Because unlike his opponents, Kolt knew exactly what was going on. As things stood now, there were only two possibilities for the sudden emergence of this monster. One, a dungeon break and two, a summoning. There was no way a dungeon break happened in the middle of their property. This left Kolt with only one possibility. The beast was a summon and the only one he knew was capable of summoning something like it was Arnold. Kolt''s thoughts, however, were cut short as the men in white armours started freaking out. "H-Hey... h-hey, wasn''t that guy supposed to be in aa or some shit!?" One of the men yelled in a panic-stricken voice. "The fck do I know!? Use your gears and retreat!" One of the guys roared and all of them immediately started fidgeting with their armours but before they could do anything, they got trapped inside a transparent magical barrier. They fanatically tried to break the barrier. But whenever they attacked the barrier using their weapons, the weapons phased through the barrier like it was made up of air. However, when they tried to phase through the barrier, they couldn''t. It clearly, was no ordinary barrier. It was Steve''s special barrier. One that allowed only the Nonliving things to pass through it while all living mass was confined within until the caster of the barrier was defeated or killed. Steve hadn''t used it before as, one, it would''ve drained his mana dry. And two, had he used this ability before, all of his enemies would''ve targetted him. Although Kolt had been acting like a tank throughout the fight, even he might not have been able to take a full-blown concentrated attack from them. Using this barrier now was an ideal thing to do. As most of the men trapped inside were solely focused on getting out through any means possible. In their panicked state, they won''t even think once about taking down the caster. In the meantime, the troll was once again aiming at his target. But before he could shoot the arrow, the moonlit sky got overshadowed by a volley of ck spears raining down upon the surviving group of attackers from a different source. By the time the volley stopped, all of the men were cut down like turkey on Christmas. "Such fearsome power..." Kolt mumbled, "That man can turn the tide of any battle. No matter the odds." "Who are you talking about?" Steve panted. He was exhausted now that the battle was over. "Our Mr Section Chief, who else do you think can summon andmand such fearsome monsters?" Kolt smiled and then started walking off. "Now where are you going!?" "To find the rest of the enemies. Don''t tell me, you honestly thought this was the end of them?" "Not gonna say I did. But I was kinda hoping for it..." Chapter 206 - There Aint No Battle Without Me (2) A few minutes ago... Arnold wasying on the bed while Nina''smunicator kept buzzing non-stop. Usually, she would pick them as soon as it rang. But now, whenever her phone rang, she took it and ran outside. Not to say, the sudden change in her behaviour was rming. It was as if she was trying to hide something from him.?? She walked in the room after attending one such call. Her facial expression told Arnold that she was worried about something. And the fact, she was now carrying her sword, the one he had made for her, more or less confirmed the fact. "What''s wrong?" Arnold asked, worried about her. "It''s nothing. Don''t worry." She somehow managed to reply, all the while cautiously looking through the window. Arnold rightly didn''t believe her. He pushed her further as she drew the curtains over the windows, "You''re carrying a sword in the middle of the estate, ain''t nothing? Just... Please will you tell me what the heck is going on?" "It''s nothing... Much..." She wanted to tell him more but she knew the rash decisions he had made previously, and how those decisions have affected him. She wasn''t going to let him put himself in danger anymore. Not while he was still in his weak state. "Fine. I''ll check it out myself." Arnold had a fit and threw the nket off him, but before he could get out of the bed Nina came rushing and pushed him back on it. "You won''t go anywhere! Do you understand?" Her voice had strictness of a dictator, yet the loving persona of a nun. Arnold gently pushed her off himself, grabbing her shoulders. He knew she was concerned about him but why? Although he was weaker than before, he could still take care of himself. Just why was Nina acting so overprotective of him now? He pulled her face up. There were no tears in her eyes, but Arnold knew she was tensed about something. "Fine. If you want me to stay here. I will, but at least tell me what''s going on?" "We... First, promise me you wouldn''t do something rash." "I promise." Although he promised her, if he thought there was a need for him to act, then he would. He no longer wanted others to risk their lives to protect his a*s anymore. If there was ever a need for that, his summons were more than enough. After Arnold''s assurance, Nina took a deep breath and continued, "We''re under attack by an unknown group of assants. The only thing we know is that... They are after you. Even with our countermeasures in ce, they have blocked ourmunication channels. Between most of our forces being out and us not being able to contact the Syndicate, we are trapped. But it seems only the calls going outside are being blocked. The calls within the estate operate on a separate channel thus they are still functioning. At least that''s what I think." She proceeded to tell him whatever she knew. As much as Nina hated to admit it, the family had been so full of themselves they never really cared to prepare for the current scenario. If the family had been under Nathaniel''s authority, they would be prepared for the smallest of threats. But Nathan had been too absorbed looking after the country, he had forgotten about the family. She didn''t me him for that because she was at fault herself. They had been dealing with monsters for so long, they had forgotten about their enemies who lurked around as humans. She also knew, as the head of security, she was equally responsible for their failure if not more. Even now the members of the family who were inside the estate were fighting tooth and nail with the enemies and there she was, hiding. She should''ve been out there, fighting with herrades but her heart couldn''t obey the brain. Not after knowing that the attackers were after Arnold. After Nina told him whatever she knew about the situation, Arnold was lost in his thoughts. He didn''t have many enemies as whenever he made one, he also made it sure to end them. The longer he thought, a name kept popping up in his mind. ''Is it Devon?'' He thought. Devon had already messed up with him on several asions. So even if this attack was one of his twisted ns, it wouldn''t surprise him in the least. However, one thing did bother him. Whenever Devon had attacked him previously, he had always been cautious. Arnold doubted if someone as calctive as him would go as far as to attack the family head-on just to get to him... ''It ain''t him.'' The longer he thought about it, the unlikelier it seemed, ''if he wanted to attack me, he would''ve done so while he was at the base or somewhere in the wastnd. Not in the middle of a city. But if it''s not him then who is it...'' He went through his mind once again. No one else came in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more his head throbbed in pain. It was clear he wasn''t in his best shape yet. In the end, he gave up on thinking and asked Nina something... "Do you have any footage or pic of the attackers? It might help me to identify them." "Wait let me check. There must be something..." Nina mumbled as she dove headfirst into hermunicator. After going through hermunicator, she yed a short recording that Kolt had sent to her. In that video, Kolt and a few others were surrounded by a crowd of people who were wearing white armours. Arnold thought he had seen this kind of armours before. "Could you zoom in on them?" He asked. "Sure." Nina gave a quick reply and zoomed in on the nearest man she could. "These basta*ds! I should''ve known it was them!" Arnold yelled as soon as the image got a bit clearer. There was no mistake. He was certain these people belonged to that basta*dised guild, "The White Wolves!" "You know them?" Nina mumbled, but Arnold wasn''t listening to her anymore. The next second, he was on his feet. All thoughts of weakness and fatigue disappeared from his mind. Those fckers dared to mess up his life again? Wasn''t taking five years of his life from him enough? Although he was angry, in his heart he felt relieved. Atst, he''d be able to take his revenge on those as*holes. ''Time to teach you another lesson.'' He thought. No matter how many of them there were. They wouldn''t be able to stop him. Not after all the powers, he had gained. Arnold was consumed with bloodlust. He wanted his revenge, but there was a problem. Nina knew exactly what he was going to do next. But she couldn''t allow it. She couldn''t give the attackers what they wanted. Hence, before Arnold could take a step, she threw herself in front of him. Her sword drawn. She would stop him, whatever the means. "Arnold, you promised me you''ll let us handle this." She pleaded with the man she loved more than herself. "Nina, you guys are outnumbered. You won''t be able to take them down in time! I won''t allow others to die because of me. Not again." Arnold tried to reason with her misced love, but she didn''t budge. When it came to him, she was just as stubborn as he was. But Arnold had another n. He held his hands up. His palms facing her. "Fine. You don''t want me to leave, then I won''t. But you guys need help, and I will provide it to you." He sighed and opened a portal leading to his void right outside the room. Out of the portal walked out his elite summons. They were more than enough to tten an entire state, with them in the fight, the White Wolves were done for. Judging by the info Nina gave him, there were around a hundred of the White Wolves, while there were only 60 of the family members to defend him. But now with his summons being added in the equation, it was safe to say, ''The hunters have be the hunted.'' He looked at them. No words were exchanged but they had been given their instruction. No mercy. Talos quickly scanned the area to know where the enemies were. Soon the summons parted their ways to capture or kill the enemies. Chapter 207 - Night Of Brawlers Back in present... Two warriors were fighting it out. Dealing blows after blows on each other. Every blow carrying enough strength to knock an elephant out, yet they kept going. Each blow stronger than before. Both of them stood upon that hallowed ground, the defender and attacker were more or less in the same situation. As soon as one of them had the advantage over the other, the other person came up with a counter. Each fighting for survival each in their own way. Time ticked by as time does, neither elerating nor flinching, one wanted to protect his family, while the other wanted to destroy it.?? ''The way he talks in Portuguese and primarily uses his legs to fight, it''s clear this guy''s from Brazil or somewhere around the country...'' Johnny thought, assuming his battle stance, ''And as far as I can remember, Nichs informed me about his enmity with a distinguished guild called the white wolves or something... They were also the ones who sabotaged Arnold''s dungeon run. But what are these bastards doing here?'' The big man wasn''t as big nor as strong as Johnny. Yet his technique of fighting was very unique. Not to mention the way he repeatedly appeared and disappeared was a pain for Johnny to handle alone. This ability was solely the reason he hadn''t been able to take the man down even after fighting with him for over five minutes. It was longer than he had ever fought against any human without knocking him out. Apart from Nicole. Deep down Johnny had respect for the mysterious man, but he knew he had to get rid of this man fast. The others needed him. He knew so because hismunicator kept buzzing ceaselessly. He was still thinking of different ways to overpower his target when he spoke up. "A bit amusing, won''t you say the same?" The man grinned. Slowly removing the cloth draped around his head, "I don''t think there''s any need to hide from anyone, anymore. It wouldn''t take you much time to put one and one together and figure out who we are." "I had figured it out even before you should me that disgusting face of yours," Johnny replied without taking his eyes off the man. He wasn''t exaggerating anything. The man''s face was truly a work of art. Just like Picasso''sst self-portrait. In short... If a kid saw the man, they''d be scarred for the rest of their lives. He had a wide face, an extremely small nose even a particr dark wizard''s snake-like nose was bigger than his, and narrow lips. His grey eyes were droopy and had thin eyebrows. His ck hair or whatever remained of it was closely shaved. All in all his dishevelled appearance made him look like an orc more than a human. But something made it all secondary. It was the burn marks on the right side of his face that attracted Johnny''s attention. These were normal burn mark either. These were caused by an elementalist... A pyromancer to be precise. The left side of his head had beenpletely incinerated. Not a single strand of hair was on the mentioned side of his head. At that moment, Johnny couldn''t help but wonder what could the man have possibly done to incur such wrath from someone. Then he remembered someone with a short fuse who could''ve done this... "Arnold?" Johnny mumbled but it was loud enough for the man to hear him. "If not him then who else?" The man gave a sad smile but soon got a hold over himself. He didn''t have the time to reimburse into memories, not when he was so close to taking his revenge on the man who was the source of his pain and misery. Johnny wanted to know more about him. That''s why he needed to take him into custody. He felt no sympathy for his enemy. No matter what happened to his enemy, an enemy was still an enemy. And he also trusted Arnold. He wouldn''t do something like this until he was threatened or provoked. Still, he was a worthy opponent. One Johnny will remember for a long time. "May I-" "Sebastian Jean. That''s my name." The man interrupted Johnny, "Enough chit chat, now let''s get this over with." (Author''s Note: I hope you''re happy Mr CEO. Lol.) Sebastian charged at him. Johnny remained calm waiting for the man to do the obvious. A momentter, Sebastian disappeared from his sight. Exactly what Johnny had anticipated. Sebastian simultaneously reappeared on Johnny''s left and threw a right hook at him. Sebastian had nned to follow it up by a left jab, but before he could do it, Johnny slipped backwards. Giving him more time to execute his move. ck lightning surrounded Johnny. His agility increased manifolds. With this newfound agility and Sebastian''s momentum, he quickly grabbed the remaining hairs of Sebastian''s left side and mmed his knee on his head with all his strength. Shattering the non-existing nose of his opponent. Sebastian doubled down, wincing in pain. Blood started pouring out of his nose like a faucet. His eyes started tearing up. Sebastian now realised that Johnny had been just ying with him before. Had he been serious from the get-go then the fight might''ve already been over. Yet, if Sebastian knew about his opponent''s strength, he wouldn''t have charged at him like an idiot in the first ce. He finally knew what was Johnny''s n all along. He had been luring him in like an experienced fisherman rather than ying with him like a bratty kid. But Johnny wasn''t done yet. He quickly slipped his arms around the man''s torso. Put his entire weight on his shoulders, lifted him off the ground before mming him headfirst back in the ground. Sebastian grunted, slowly pushing himself back to his feet. Johnny was surprised by this. He thought Sebastian would''ve most certainly knocked out by his move. But there he was... limping towards him for another bout. Despite his admiration for the man, he knew he needed to put him out. This time it was Johnny''s turn to charge at his opponent and charge he did. He rushed towards Sebastian, who had nowhere to run. He couldn''t use his teleportation ability right now as it was still absorbing moonlight and couldn''t be used until it was fully charged. He knew it was over for him. Yet he stood tall, to face the mad titan charging at him. The moment Johnny reached him, he threw an elbow which hit Sebastian at the side of his head, the soft part right on top of the temple. Sebastian finally couldn''t take it anymore. He fell on his knees before copsing on the ground, his mouth open, blooding out of it. Johnny quickly checked on him. His heart was still beating. He was just unconscious. "Just how thick is his skull?" Johnny huffed and tied the man up to the nearest tree before leaving the area. There were things he needed to do. Like kicking someone''s arse. Chapter 208 - Talos Rises (1) In an isted corner of the estate. Three youngsters, in theirte teens, were hiding from their pursuers. Anna, the only girl in the group, was busy working on some kind of device. While the boys, Josh and An were standing next to her, on guard. Their weapons consisted of a bloodied baseball bat and a nail gun. All of them were at their wit''s end. This wasn''t how they imagined their lives would be after joining the ck Family. These people had joined the family just a week prior to this incident. But they weren''t epted into the family because of their fighting skills, but due to their minds, at least Anna and An were. Josh was selected due to his physique as well as quick thinking, something only Anna was able to use as of now.?? "How long will it take?" Josh whispered, his voice was calm but he was shaken up a bit. The bat in his hands was shaking uncontrobly. He had killed someone for the first time in his life and although he didn''t show it, he was aplete mess on the inside. Growing up he had liked ying baseball, but he would''ve never thought he''ll use his skills to kill someone. He had to help his friends and for their sake, he tried hard to keep hisposure. An on the other hand wasn''t having a great time. He hadn''t even killed anyone and yet he was in the worst shape among the three of them. ''I have to do it! I have to do it!'' He kept repeating to himself, thinking he was the one to kill the man and not Josh. "I''m trying damnit!" Anna cursed out, throwing a dirty look towards Josh. But then she remembered he was the one to save her from an attacker who would''ve most certainly sexually abused her. She wanted to say something but decided against it. This wasn''t the time for confessions. She needed to focus on reestablishing themunication channels. Then they could contact the others for help. Josh was about to say something but was cut off by an exploding sound which resounded throughout the estate. An lost it. He threw the nail gun and grabbed his knees. Shouting hysterically. Josh wrestled his friend down to the ground and stuffed his mouth with a sock. Then, he proceeded to bitch p him several times. An had always been a coward, unlike his name suggested, but right now he was just acting weird. He even tried to bite Josh''s hand but couldn''t. Slowly An regained hisposure, or so Josh thought. The moment Josh eased the grip on him, An kicked him in the balls and made a break for it. All the while shouting obscenities at the duo. "If you fckers want to die then go ahead! I''m not dying here acting like a hero who I''m not!" An yelled and disappeared. Josh grunted in pain. The baseball bat slipped out of his hands. Despite the pain he was suffering through, he managed to get on his feet and was about to case after his ''friend'' but Anna stopped him. "He had always been jealous of you. It''s more likely heshed out because of it. Either way, looking at the state he was in, he wasn''t going to be of much help. We are better off without the burden of saving his a*s." Her words were cold but true. Josh knew that and decided against it. He already had a close encounter with death tonight and it was enough for him. As much as he hated to admit it, the fewer people he had to look after, the better it was. He let go of his paining crotch and grabbed the baseball bat in his hands while kicking the nailgun towards Anna. "I hope you know how to aim." He mumbled, while looking out of the window, "Damn that bast*rd is fast, I can''t see him anywhere." "With all that adrenaline coursing through our bodies, I''d be surprised if he wasn''t," Anna smirked, adjusted her sses and then continued her work. Silence shrouded the room after that. But on the outside, the battle continued. Among all the shouting, Josh heard something. It was a faint sound but was close. He closed his eyes and cupped his ears, only then he heard it. ''Footsteps! At least 5 different people. Could be more...'' He looked at Anna. She too had heard it. She left her work and reached out for the nail gun, but Josh pulled it away. "What are you doing?" She whispered but she got no reply. Instead, she felt Josh''s hand at the back of her neck. She realised what he was nning to do but it was toote. The next moment she was unconscious. She was the one who taught him this move back when they were in high school. He was supposed to use this move against the bullies but he never got the chance to. And now he had used it on the person who had taught it to him. "It''s what''s best for you, Anna. I know you wouldn''t allow me to do what I''m about to... But it''s necessary." Josh mumbled as he locked her up in the nearest cupboard along with his baseball bat. He just couldn''t leave her defenceless. Phase one of his n had beenpleted. Now it was time for phase two. He steeled himself. As the footsteps got closer and closer. He could even faintly hear the men talking. They had a weird ent but he could make it out what they were saying. "Where are they?" A man roared. Josh heard someone crying, but couldn''t make out what the person said. ''Looks like they have a hostage...'' Josh thought and prepared to rush out. He had to make sure that Anna was safe. And for that, he needed to lure the men as far as he could from there. As soon as he was done, another man shouted. "How many times are you going to wet yourself?" Cueughter. They slowly got closer. He could now hear what the hostage was saying... "I did what you asked... Now let me go. Please!" Josh immediately recognised the squeaky voice. It belonged to his friend. One who was there with them not long ago. ''Damn you, An! Fcking basta*d.'' Chapter 209 - Talos Rises (2) Not only did An abandoned them, he even sold them out to the enemy? How low can a piece of crap fall to? As much as Josh would''ve liked to deliver some colourful words to his ''friend'', now wasn''t the time to do so. He double-checked the locks on the cupboard. After confirming that everything was in ce, he took the nail gun and readied himself. Before he could put his n into action, he heard the attackersughing loudly.?? "What did I tell you? These cks are nothing but cowards. Wetting themselves in the slightest face of danger... Pfft- pathetic fools." Another man stepped in the conversation, "Are you certain there are people inside?" "Yes, s-sir!" An blurted out. "Well then, we don''t have any use of you anymore. Do we?" Then they all startedughing like maniacs. "N-NO! Y-You said you''ll let me go if I lead you to the others!" An started crying like a newborn. But none of his pleas was heard. "Yes, and we are letting you go... to hell! Rip him off!" The next moment, the area was filled with screams. Josh didn''t know what happened with him, but he knew An was gone. Although he had betrayed him, Josh couldn''t help but feel sad for An. But he didn''t have the time to mourn. He still needed to save Anna. "Let''s go in and see if there are any survivors or not. ording to the guy, there should be a girl too... Hehehe. If there''s a girl inside, I''ll have the go first." "It ain''t fair boss. You always go first and after you''re done, there''s nothing left!" One of the guy contested but he was soon silenced. Not by his boss or hisrades. But by a nail, which pierced through his skull, killing him in an instant. Before they could realise what happened, a man broke through the window next to them and rushed out of the small room. Randomly firing nails at them. "Puta Porra!!!" Their leader cursed in Portuguese while pulling the man nearest to him to act as a shield, "Get that bastard!" (Author''s note: Ahem. ''Puta Porra'' means... Fcking bitch in Portuguese. ording to Google. Don''t roast me if it''s wrong. Lol.) Josh turned around and started sprinting in the opposite direction of the building. What he thought to be five men were actually seven, excluding An and the guy Josh had just killed. While outside, he saw the mangled body of An... His eyes were plucked out. His body shed in half. His blood mixed with other bodily fluids. His abdomen had been opened for disy like a corpse in a med school. No matter what he had done... No one should have to go like this. ''These monsters! How did they even manage to do all this in a matter of seconds...'' Despite all that, Josh knew he had to keep running. If he got caught, his fate would be worse than An''s. ''Yes, follow me you basta*ds!'' He thought and kept running while firing nails in their direction. They were following him alright... But something was off... One man hadn''t moved from near the entrance of the building. He was the one whom they referred to as the boss. ''Shit!'' Josh cursed himself, ''I can''t let that guy go inside the building...'' There was no time to think. He needed to act immediately... And the only thing that came to his mind was... to get caught and hope they wouldn''t go inside the building. But he wasn''t just going to surrender. He will take at least a few with him. Without any further ado, he turned around and charged at his pursers. Rapidly firing nails at them. But the nails couldn''t find their mark as they kept bouncing off their armours. The attackers were wary enough to protect their heads. As they got closer, Josh ran out of nails but was able to kill another careless guy before colliding with his enemies. Even then he didn''t stop. He took the sword of the fallen man and started swinging it as if it was a baseball bat. His posture wasn''t even remotely perfect and hecked technique, but his stamina proved to be troublesome for his enemies. They were being cautious while approaching him as he was acting like a feral dog. "What happened jacka*ses? Can you only fight against unarmed and defenceless fellows?" Joshshed out. Provoking them again and again. He knew it was suicidal, but he didn''t care as long as Anna was safe, "And what about that coward ''boss'' of yours? I see he''s hiding his tail between his legs. HEY, A*SHOLE! MAN UP AND FIGHT ME WILL YA? OR ARE YOU GOING TO KEEP HIDING TILL I''M DONE KILLING YOUR MEN?" The provocation seemed to have worked as the man slowly started walking towards them. ''Nice... Come after me, you c*nt.'' He thought and kept swinging the sword all around him. The attackers slowly started backing off. Josh thought everyone was retreating before him, thus he became more reckless. He swung the sword at the man in front of himpletely forgetting about the warriors who were behind him. Waiting for him to do something stupid like he had done now. Before Josh could even realise his mistake, someone kicked him. He was knocked off his feet and fell before his enemies, who were looking at him like a hungry pack of hyenas. At that moment, Josh realised his death wasn''t going to be a painless one. But he was yet to fulfil his promise of taking down as many of his opponents as he could before it was his turn to die. The sword was still in his hands but before he could even get up and use it, an arm swung around his neck and pulled him off the ground. His feet dangled in the air. He wed at the arm of his attacker with his free arm. Desperately trying to relieve the pressure on his throat. It was all fruitless. Soon a man stepped in front of him. He held his sword upwards and licked An''s blood of the tip before aiming for Josh''s eyes. Momentster, a scream resounded through the courtyard. It wasn''t Josh who was screaming, but the man who was about to pluck his eyes out. Josh, as hisst attempt, had rammed his sword through the man''s throat before he could do anything. ''Guess this is it.'' Josh smiled as of the remaining men shed off his fingers holding the sword. The sword slipped away and fell on the bloodied ground. Josh was feeling pain like never before, and sadly this was just the start. Soon the boss arrived at the location, picked up the dagger of his fallen ally and looked at Josh. "One piece of sh*t... And he got my entire band cowering. You deserve to die by my hands and after that, I''ll vite that girlfriend of yours you''ve been so desperately trying to protect." The man the let out a feral cry and stabbed at Josh''s chest. Despite the throbbing pain due to the loss of his fingers, Josh grabbed the man''s wrist, stopping the dagger mid-thrust. "One... More... Man..." Josh mumbled, redirecting the dagger towards the throat of the man who was holding him. The boss couldn''t handle this sudden manoeuvre and ended up sliting his ally''s throat. The man immediately let go of Josh and grabbed his throat. Trying to stop the bleeding through the gaping hole... But couldn''t. It was toote. They were shocked, but the shock soon turned into anger. Josh on the other hand couldn''t help but smile in what he knew were hisst moments. The boss kicked him down before mounting on him, his dagger tightly held in his hand. "Fcking twerp! You''ll pay for what you did!" The boss roared and prepared to stab Josh in the stomach. Then a look of shock appeared on his face. His gaze fell at the gaping hole in his stomach. A ck spear-like thing protruding from it. Silence covered the area. Even Josh couldn''t process what was going on... Then they saw it. A ck ogre was standing in front of them. Numerous spears were stuck on its back. Before the remaining intruders could even think what the hell was going on. The ogre charged at them. Effortlessly killing them in an instant. By the time the ogre stopped, most of the men either looked like mashed potatoes or as porcupines. Josh thought it was his turn next. But to his surprise, the ogre stopped moving and slowly started melting away. Then out of the ogres remains rose a... Robot? The robot looked at him and the next thing Josh knew, the robot was tending to his fingerless right hand. Curious by the stranger''s behaviour, Josh asked, "Who are you?" "The name''s Talos. Now if you don''t mind, I need to take you to a safe ce." Talos replied in his emotionless electronic voice. Chapter 210 - A True Leader (1) The night of battles wasn''t over yet. It felt like the sun itself didn''t want to show it''s face to the earth. What would''ve been a few hours, felt like aeons. But finally, the attackers were losing the fight. Their gueri war tactics were only so much effective against their enemies. Once Arnold''s summons took over the battleground, it was an all-out massacre. The?? Brazilian''s ns were full of holes. First, they had assumed there won''t be any warriors above the S rank, which proved out to be wrong. Johnny was still there. More than willing to kick their crap out of their bodies. Secondly, they failed to retrieve a proper map of the estate. There were a lot of ces for people to hide and thus even though a few of the people died, most of the nonbatants were safe. Something the attackers were only realising now. And thirdly, the enemy forces split up too soon. They wanted to quickly find Arnold''s location and deal with him so they split into smaller groups when they should have stayed together and deal with their enemies first. This was a grave mistake since Arnold''s summons picked them off like fruits on a tree one after another. The few of the enemies who could teleport, we''re now rushing towards safety while those who couldn''t, perished. Even so, the battle wasn''t over yet. The tides had turned but notpletely. Despite Nina''s protests, Arnold took over the makeshift battle centre in the building next to the one he was being kept in. This centre also acted as a safe haven for the injured soldiers. Alice and Natasha were busy saving whoever they could. Natasha was initially on the battlefield But Arnold called her back once more and more people started making their way through the battle, into the safe haven. But even with their extraordinary abilities, not everyone could be saved. The dead kept piling up with every passing moment. Infuriating Arnold even more. At one point he even snapped and pulled out his guns to deal with them once and for all, then he realised something... His hands were shaking uncontrobly. At first, he thought it was due to the anger he had been feeling but the reality of the situation soon dawned upon him. It wasn''t anger. He was just... weak. Suddenly he felt so... vulnerable. His body seemed to be utterly delicate. This sudden weakness disgusted him even more. People were dying in front of him and he couldn''t do a thing. ''If only I had ess to the shop!'' He gritted his teeth with all his strength. It was true. If only he had a bunch of HP and Dispel potions, he could''ve saved many lives. Nina understood what he was going through and tried to calm him down. But he wasn''t going to calm down. Not until he killed each and every one of those sick bastards. At this time, Johnny and Kolt returned with more survivors. Thankfully all of them only had minor injuries which were soon taken care of. It was the first time Kolt had seen Arnold''s pale face since Arnold wasn''t there when Kolt arrived in the building for the first time. He immediately rushed over to Arnold''s side. Looking worried he asked, "Don''t overdo it, Arnold. We''ll take care of everything now. You''ve done more than enough, just go and rest now." Nina saw a ray of hope in Kolt''s words and was about to press on but Arnold shrugged their concerns off. "As much as I appreciate that your concern about my safety, now is not the time for it." Nina was about to protest but Johnny shut her down. "He''s right." Johnny joined in, "The enemies might be retreating, but they are still here. Lurking around. Without Arnold''s summons, it would be impossible for us to handle them on our own. As much as I hate to admit it... It''s the truth. Even I can go against 30+ S rankers on my own. Not when I got this just by fighting with seven." Johnny pointed at his broken arm that Alice had patched up. It had been a deadly fight. Had it not been for the sudden appearance of Bad-Breath and Asterios, he doubted he would''ve gotten away with just a broken arm. The enemies might not have looked like it, but they knew exactly what they were doing. At least when they were fighting against him. They knew all about Johnny''s weak points and didn''t hesitate even once before taking him on. These were the weakness not even his most trusted friends knew and yet the enemy knew about it. It was clear they had done their research on him and most likely on the others as well. As of now, both Bad-Breath and Asterios were guarding the building everyone was residing in. Arnold initially wanted to use the sentry guns Talos had made to check them out but ultimately decided against it. He was already having trouble with everyone present there he couldn''t take the risk of using the sentry. What if it lost control once again? The losses would be too much for Alice and Natasha to handle on their own. Just then, Arnold''smunicator started ringing. It was Talos. He picked it up, wondering what his most loyal soldiers wanted to talk about. "Go ahead," Arnold mumbled as Talos'' face appeared in front of him. "Master, I have found a couple of survivors who im that they can restore themunication channels." "I thought I sent you there to do it yourself. Anyways just do it quickly." Arnold said, his voice ufortably loud. Only then did he realised what Talos was asking for, "Don''t worry. I''ll send Asterois over to protect the people. You should focus on reestablishing themunication channels." "Will do, master." Talos slightly bowed and headed inside the building with Josh. Arnold, on the other side of the estate, immediately notified Asterios about his new orders. When Arnold asked him to leave, Asterois'' eyes lit up. He had been getting bored with staying on guard and was more than happy to do what his master wanted him too. Once that was out of the way, Arnold, Johnny, Kolt, and Nina proceeded to do what he wanted to. Interrogate the brawler whom Johnny had defeated earlier. Chapter 211 - True Leader (2) The band walked into the room in which Sebastian was being held in. He had been tightly bound to a chair with numerous steel chains. These chains were enough to even bind Johnny, so it was safe to assume that Sebastian wasn''t going anywhere unless his enemies miraculously decide to let him go. The moment Sebastian saw Arnold walking into the room, he went nuts. He wanted to get rid of the chains holding him down and tear Arnold down. One limb at a time but he didn''t. He knew he was in trouble and he also knew the man he hated the most would severely torture him until he spilt his gut. Those American movies where the hero was captured and never reveal secrets was just a joke in the real world. Under extreme torture, anyone was going to break and talk, even if they were mute. His fate was sealed and he knew it, yet he wasn''t going to just surrender and answer their questions. Not until the contingency n was activated.?? Furthermore, his sadist traits made him almost scoff when he saw Arnold''s condition. Just by looking at him, Sebastian could tell Arnold was nowhere near his perfect health. His skin had turned pale. It was almost as white as snow. So at least their information about Arnold''s encounter with death was true. But then he realised something. Arnold even in his weak condition managed to turn the tide of the battle. At that moment his eyes had admiration in them. Itsted only for a moment though. But at that moment he knew they never stood a chance against him. Had he beenatose then yes, they would''ve won but as long as Arnold was awake and in control of his summons, nothing could ever touch him without his permission. His attention then turned towards the man next to him. It was the man who had defeated him with just a few strikes. A man of such calibre was hanging on to every word that came out of Arnold''s mouth. Honestly, Sebastian had nothing but respect for Johnny. Especially, after he was manhandled by him. Besides them, there was a woman and another man approaching him. He recognised them from the files the members of the White Wolves had been given prior to the operation. The woman''s beauty was out worldly. Too bad his men couldn''t get their hands on her. If they did, she would''ve been a source for their entertainment for weeks if not months. Kolt, however, looked much like an ape. All the sweat and blood covering his body didn''t help his case much either. The next moment, everything went dark. He was still conscious but he couldn''t see anything nor could he feel anything... all he could do was think. But think about what? ''Your mistakes...'' A voice echoed in his head. ''My... mistakes? I don''t understand...'' ''You''re responsible...'' The same feminine voice echoed once again. ''Responsible... For what?'' ''For deaths...'' ''...'' ''The blood of everyone who died here is on your hands... Blood of innocent nonbatants...'' ''They were enemies... I did what was needed. I don''t have any regrets.'' ''Lies...'' The voice in his head got louder. All of a sudden he could see light. He could see himself. He could see his body... he wasn''t inside it anymore. But was viewing it through a third-person perspective. He was still chained. But he was lying on the ground. Naked. Then all of a sudden, hundreds of mice appeared around him. Slowly making their way towards him. He wanted to kick them away. He wanted to run. But he wasn''t in control of his body! The mice surrounded him. They looked innocent, as if they were clueless, not knowing what they were supposed to do next. They were all looking at him. Then the worst thought hit him. ''They aren''t going to devour me... Are they?'' Sebastian regretted that thought almost instantly as the mice did exactly what he thought. Unknown to him they were going to do whatever he thought. He thought he''d be fine because he wasn''t inside the body. But he was wrong. A momentter he started screaming like never before. Pleading for someone to help. But no one did. Simply because none of it was real. It all had been going inside his head. *** Meanwhile in the real world... "It was another search and terminate mission. At least it was supposed to be one." Sebastian answered after spitting a mouthful of blood, which had been clogging his mouth for a while, unaware of Natasha''s ck magic. "I must agree. This way of obtaining information is much more reliable and hassle-free." Kolt remarked. "Especially because there is no bloodshed in it. The only downside of this technique is... it just doesn''t feel like torture. I''m not a sadist but this bastard deserves to be in pain. In agony." Nina cursed the man in front of her. She felt like this because she heard what Sebastian and his men would''ve done to her if they, ''got their hands on her''. "I can assure you, he''s feeling pain in the worst possible way," Arnold smirked after all his summons had a special talent of making anyone''s life a living hell. Natasha being the worst of them had her own twisted humour of torturing others. "What do you mean?" Nina asked. Intrigued by Arnold''s response. "Think of it this way. If you were to cut his arm off, surely he''d feel pain and agony. But would it be permanent? No. The wounds will heal sooner orter. Moreover one can have physical resistance or abilities to regte the pain. Their fragile mind, however, is a different story altogether." Johnny smiled. He knew where Arnold was heading. "Imagine if you could attack someone where it would hurt the most. Not physically but mentally. One can neverpletely heal from a mental wound. It''s not something everyone''s brain can handle. Fortunately, Natasha here," Arnold pointed at the subus who was busy tormenting the man, "is an expert in doing so. Her magic is so strong, I doubt anyone of us would survive if she were to go nuts. Believe me. I have experienced it first hand. Let''s just say, she''s doing a better job than even H. H. Holmes1 could''ve done." Slowly but surely, Sebastian unknowingly told them everything he knew about their n. Even the contingency n. A n which shook everyone present there to their core. A n which ording to him was only moments away from activation. *** Special note! 1. Herman W. Mudgett, the notorious serial killer poprly known as H.H. Holmes, built what he referred to as his "castle"¡ªa three-story inn that he secretly turned into a macabre torture chamber. Some rooms were equipped with hidden peepholes, gas lines, trap doors and soundproofed padding, while others featured secret passages,dders and hallways that led to dead ends. There was also a greased chute that led to the basement, where Holmes had installed a surgical table, a furnace and even a medieval rack. Both before and during the World''s Fair, Holmes led many victims¡ªmostly young women¡ªto hisir only to asphyxiate them with poisoned gas and take them to his basement for horrific experiments. He then either disposed of the bodies in his furnace or skinned them and sold the skeletons to medical schools. Holmes was eventually convicted of the murders of four people, but he confessed to at least 27 more killings before being hanged in 1896. "Holmes'' Horror Castle" waster turned into a grotesque museum, but the building burned down before it could be opened. He is quite famous for his sadist escapades, but I thought I should include a brief description of him so that those who don''t know about him could get a rough idea of what an inhumane monster he was. Chapter 212 - Contingency Plan Kolt lost his cool. He rushed at Sebastian and pulled his face towards him. The news they received was too much for him to handle. Johnny and Nina together managed to pull him off Sebastian who was still under Natasha''s spell. Meanwhile, Arnold was stunned into silence. He couldn''t believe how much hatred these bastards had inside them. ''They would do all this... Just to get rid of me?'' He thought, ''They are willing to kill over four million people just to get rid of me?''?? There was no way they were doing this because he killed a few of them back in the transdimensional dungeon. This was something more than that. Arnold needed a lot of answers but first and foremost he had to stop their contingency n before it was toote. Adrenaline filled his weak body. We walked up to Sebastian and kicked him with surprising strength. Sebastian momentarily snapped out of Natasha''s spell due to the sudden shock, but Natasha quickly used the spell on him once again. Arnold wasn''t done yet. He pulled him back up and asked, "Where is it?" "Where''s... What?" Sebastian mumbled like a drunk monk. "TELL ME WHERE THE FCK IS THAT DUNGEON!" "I... don''t... know..." "WHEN WILL THE BREAK HAPPEN?" "Any... moment... now..." Arnold didn''t believe it but deep down he knew no one could lie while under Natasha''s influence. Sebastian just knew about the n. Nothing more. Arnold let him go and rushed out of the room. There was no time to waste. "Where the fck do I look for a dungeon in 1300 km square area of Los Angeles!?" (Author''s Note: 1300 km2 = approx 502 square miles) He had never been so desperate before for anything. His mind couldn''t focus on the task at hand. The longer he thought about it, the fuzzier his head became. Yet needed to think. To focus. ''Is it even possible to intentionally cause a dungeon break?'' The obvious answer was no. But when he thought about it... there was a possibility. The monsters inside a dungeon were forced to remain inside due to the presence of a barrier. This barrier was fuelled by the Xenoic energy present inside the dungeon. The energy is slowly consumed by the barrier and once there was no Xenoic energy remaining inside the dungeon, the barrier copses allowing the monsters to escape from their prison and kill everything in sight. This situation is referred to as the dungeon break. The consumption of Xenoic energy was a slow process which allowed the humans to prepare for the worst but, theoretically, if someone could somehow manage to hasten the process of consumption then they could potentially cause a dungeon break as they please. But so far humanity had only managed to build a device to read xenoic energy and not a device which could extract the energy from a dungeon itself. This was the same device which was used to measure the rank of a dungeon. And as far as Arnold was aware, Talos was the only one who had been sessful in developing an instrument to extract energy from beast crystals. This was the most probable method anyone would use to cause a dungeon break. However, this wasn''t the only way. In most cases, the dungeon boss itself was bounded inside the ''boss room''. However, if it somehow managed to break through that room, it was certain that the boss would kill the rest on the monsters inside. Upon killing them, the boss might proceed to eat their corpses or their beast crystals to be specific and as a result, mutate. If this happened then in most of the cases the boss would gain enough strength to break through the Xenoic energy barrier and cause a dungeon break. This incident was umon but not unheard of. However, Arnold doubted this was the case right now. He had various reasons to believe so. First, it was impossible to get to the boss room without killing the monsters inside the dungeon. However, someone could debate on this saying, "What if they killed the monsters and leave the beast crystals inside the boss room?" The answer to this was simple. The boss would be more interested in the humans who brought the beast crystals rather than the crystals themselves as the boss would like to ''hunt'' rather than be ''served'' by someone else. Second, even if someone managed to reach to the boss room without killing the other monsters, the boss would, then again, be more interested in the ones who managed to get to it rather than the rest of monsters. Andstly, the third reason. Even if they managed to cause a dungeon break this way, it wouldn''t be much of a disaster. Why? Because if this happened, only the boss monster would be able to get out of the dungeon and no matter how strong it may be, it would fall under the concentrated attacks of numerous warriors. Surely a few would die by the boss''s hands but the casualties wouldn''t be nearly as high as they would have been if all of the monsters had broken out of the dungeon by themselves. Since the Wolves wanted to cause as much death and destruction as they could, thus they wouldn''t opt to go for this way. Thinking all this calmed Arnold down a bit. But he wasn''t going to do nothing and sit idly. The others soon came rushing out of the room. "That bastard?" He asked them. "Back to sleep." Nina replied, "Natasha is taking care of him." "Okay. Now listen up." He had a n. But first, they would need to locate this dungeon. He was 90% sure the said dungeon was within the city. Actually, he was 100% sure of it. It was the only way for the Wolves to cause most destruction and death. If only he knew the exact location, the wolves would be done for. But First things first. If he wanted to locate the dungeon, he would need Syndicate''s help as they were the only ones to possess a geoscanner powerful enough to scan the entire city in a matter of a few seconds. But for that, he would have to make them aware of the situation first. He could use void travel to do so. Sadly, neither he nor his summons had spent much time there hence it wasn''t possible to use void travel to travel there. However, he had Cerberus. He quickly summoned Cerberus along with the rest of theva hounds out. Once he was done he instructed Cerberus to transform into his chimera form, which the fastest among all of his summons. Hell, he could even outrun a Lamborghini at its max speed. After that, he turned his attention towards Nina. "Nina, I need you to ride along with Cerberus to the HQ and make them scan the city as well as the outskirts for any anomalies. I''m asking you to do this because you are the most flexib- I mean athletic person among us so it wouldn''t be much of an issue." Arnold said, "Although Talos is already trying to reestablish contact, I''m not sure how long it will take. Either way, I need him to do something else for me." "Got it." Nina jumped onto Cerberus without wasting a moment and rode off in the darkness. Arnold then instructed the remaining hounds to look around the city for the same, as they were the best at tracking something down. Once all of it was taken care of, he called Talos. "Yes, master?" His voice echoed on the other side. "Leave whatever you are doing to humans ande back now. I have a special task for you." Chapter 213 - All Hell Breaks Loose (1) "Can you do it?" Arnold had finished exining his n to Talos, waiting for his reply. "It''s not a matter whether I can, master." The automaton replied, "It''s a matter of time. Even if I try to make the equipment inside the domain, it still might not be enough. However, I believe I can do it. We already have the generators and the crystals to store the energy, now we only need to make a device which could pour the stored energy in the barrier."?? Arnold agreed with him. There wasn''t much time left. They needed to act now if they were to save the millions of people inhabiting the city of angles. "Time is of the essence, we can''t waste any more time. Take as many automatons as you need. Hell, I don''t care if you need my blood to make it, just do it." Arnold once again opened a portal leading to his domain, but this time it much bigger than before. For he needed his army. Now. One after another, monsters of different shapes, sizes and species walked out of the endless portal. The monsters stood in neat files as if they had undergone strict military training. Their eyes fixed at their master. Awaiting their orders. But they weren''t the only ones that came out of the portal. The entire armoury was also emptied. This sheer disy of power rendered everyone speechless. Most of them had one thought, ''Johnny ck who? This guy is stronger than him!'' Even those who had been on the verge of dying moments ago were stunned. But their surprise quickly turned into anger. "If you had an army at yourmand why didn''t you use it earlier!?" One of the injured ones barked at him. "Yes! You could''ve saved everyone with your powers. So many of us died yet you didn''t do anything!" "We risked it all to save your a*s, and this is how you thank us? Do our lives mean nothing to you?" "Hey, he did save your lives, didn''t he? Look that those two who are endlessly looking after you!" One guy came to defend Arnold. "So what? We are in this trouble because of him in the first ce!" Kolt lost it, "Do you mongrels even know what he has been through? The man almost died for God''s sake! Not to mention if you''re alive, it''s because of him. Do you think if it wasn''t for his summons all of you would''ve perished long before!" Everyone, except a few, joined in to berate Arnold. But they got their answers even before Arnold could say anything. As soon as the portal closed, Arnold copsed on his knees, sweating as his life depended on it. His already weakened body couldn''t handle the stress of opening the portals in quick session. Much to his dismay. "Huh... What a p in the face it is..." Arnold mumbled struggling to get back on his feet, "Earlier it used to be as easy as breathing for me to open and close the portal as many times as I pleased, and look at me now. Just opening it twice brought me to my knees." "Arnold, there''s no need to overdo it..." Johnny helped him back to his feet. "Nah, it''s okay Johnny. I deserve it." Arnold smiled wanly. But even in that smile, pain dwelled within. What the others said deeply hurt him but he knew they were going through a lot. Most of these people weren''t warriors, yet they put their lives on the line to protect him. Had he been like he was eight years ago, he would''ve said simr things. He knew exactly how they felt because he had pretty much lived his entire life in constant fear. Fear of losing his sister. Fear of losing the people he had grown close to. Fear of losing control over himself. Fear of going astray from the righteous path. Fear that the burden on his shoulders would be too much for him to handle on his own. Yes. Despite been given such powers, deep down he was still the same porter he had been all those years ago. Clueless and angry. Yet he never cursed the powers he had been given by the immortal one. Not once had he regretted doing what was needed to be done. But now was the time to demand more from his ''family''. Under normal circumstances, he would''ve handled it on his own, but these weren''t normal circumstances. He was weaker than ever before and he needed help. "My fellow family members!" Arnold finally turned to face the ones badmouthing him, "An unknown threat approaches us. A threat that can wipe us all out. You were correct. I''m nothing without your help. I''m weak. I''m pathetic. The ones who attacked us killed our people think no different about me either. But they are cowards. Bastards who don''t have the guts to end what they started themselves. Rather than epting defeat with dignity, they chose to be remembered as cowards. Cowards who are willing to unleash a horde of monsters in hopes of ''making us pay''." He carried on, "Yet we were almost defeated by those cowards. They have lost many among their ranks, but so have we. But no more! Here we will stand and fight! No more hiding. No more running away. The path ahead of us isn''t easy. But it''s our responsibility to protect the innocent civilians. Even at the cost of our lives. If you don''t want this, I''ll understand. You are free to escape." "The enemies were after me, to begin with. Thus I''m not running away, because those innocent people are in danger because of me and I''ll save them. I''ll save them if it''s thest thing I do. I don''t care how many enemies there are, for my honour dignity, and family I''ll crush them all! I repeat it again, If you don''t want this, I understand. You are free to walk away. But to those who want revenge, to those who have a thirst to prove themselves, to those who are not cowards... Lend me your strength. Lend me your strength to end this fight once and for all. If those bastards want a war, they''ll get one. Let my soldiers guide you. Let me, guide you. I won''t lie and say it''s going to be easy. I won''t lie and say every one of us would make it back alive. But for every soldier that dies, we shall kill a hundred more!" Arnold''s words acted like gasoline for their already aze hearts. They had cursed him and yet he was willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of others. Most of them still saw him as an outsider because he belonged to the ''other side''. Yet his resolve to avenge the fallen as well as to protect the innocent was enough for them to fight for. No. They couldn''t allow it. It was their job to defend their city. No matter the odds. Those who could still fight and chose to do so, went ahead and grabbed a weapon from the pile and stood next to the monsters. Not everyone joined, as Arnold had expected. But their numbers were more than he thought. "Looks like your little speech worked, Mr Section Chief." Johnnyplimented him and stood next to the armada, "Gotta say, you''re way better than the old man at this." Chapter 214 - All Hell Breaks Loose (2) Ten minutester... Mere minutes had passed, yet it felt like a lifetime. Arnold was restless, and rightfully so. There was nothing more he could do for now. He felt if one could sit in a manner that transmitted a sense of grace and intelligent poise, he had mastered it. So had Johnny, who''s broken hand waspletely healed now. Alice did an excellent job. If there was going to be a war, Johnny was an inevitable part of it. So were Kolt and Steve.?? The family members too were getting ready, equipping top tier gears which Arnold provided to them. Some were excited, some nervous, hell, some were scared shitless yet they decided to answer Arnold''s call and fight side by side. All to protect the citizens. There was only one problem Arnold was facing now: theck of intel. He didn''t know where the enemies were, nor did he know how many of them they''d have to fight. All he knew was, they were Los Angeles'' first andst line of defence. If they couldn''t stop the enemies in time, all hell would break loose and then they wouldn''t be able to bear the guilt of not doing anything while they had the chance to. Moments ago, the room had been bustling with noise but now a creepy silence surrounded it. Arnold had sent all of the summons to find as many of the white wolves as they could and bring them back alive. Even if Sebastian didn''t know everything, they someone else had to. He had finished interrogating a couple of them a while ago and they were clueless about the entire ordeal. He had to be pretty rough with them, but he didn''t care. It was something that was needed to be done. No matter how strong they were, theck of intel was worrying and needed his immediate and undivided attention. "Nina should''ve reached the headquarters by now..." Arnold mumbled to himself, "let''s say it''ll take around 10 minutes for her to exin the situation to them. Then, 5 more minutes should be more than enough to scan the entire city. The only problem was, she wouldn''t be able to provide any of us with any information until themunication is re-established from our side." But he also knew he had done whatever he could at this point. Now he could just sit in a corner and hope everything would work out in the end. ''Hope. The never-ending source of courage. The members of the family needed it more than me right now.'' Every Johnny was gloomy. This all brought back memories from years ago when they failed to control the dungeon break in Florida. The country barely managed to survive that incident and was divided into two parts as a result. He was certain they won''t be able to handle it once again. He was supposed to be the world''s strongest brawler, yet he couldn''t help but feel pathetic at that moment. If enemies were in front of him, he could fight them tooth and nail, but his enemies were hidden away. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Before long, the golems returned with a couple of more attackers. Arnold sighed and pointed his head towards the room that had be his ''pce of pain''. He needed information. He couldn''t afford to waste time in thinking whether his methods were correct or not. This time, however, it was different. There was a young woman among the captives. She was probably in her mid-twenties, just like Arnold. As much as he detested torturing women, in the end, he didn''t mind doing it, if it meant he could save millions of lives. Call it a sin. But it was a sin he was more than willing to bear for the rest of his cursed life. Before he could do anything to her though, Allen who had been resting nearby recognised the mask the woman was wearing. "It''s her!" He said, "It''s the one who attacked me at the beginning of all this. The one who was told to retreat by that hulk!" "Told to retreat eh? Then you must be someone really important." A smile formed on Arnold''s former tensed face, "Someone important enough to know about the contingency n." "I''m not telling you anything, you pig!" She then proceeded to spit on Arnold''s face, "My brother is dead because of you. But not to worry, you''ll join him soon enough-" "I don''t care about a brat''s brother. If what you''re saying is true, then I did the world a favour by getting rid of someone like you people." Arnold cut her off. His depressed demeanour was long gone, "As for dying, sorry to disappoint. But I have no intention of dying anytime soon. I''m not sure whether the same goes for you or not though." He then turned towards Natasha, "Do as you see fit with her. I just need answers, got it?" "Yes, master. Consider it done." She lusciously smacked her lips and dragged thedy in a different room. "Give her back! I''ll-" One of the other captives went off but couldn''t evenplete whatever he wanted to say. Arnold had put a bullet in his knees. Arnold was back to being a ruthless leader. As far as he was concerned, these people were no less than monsters, if not worse. And as such, they should be treated like one too. "You... monster!" The man copsed on the ground, yet his eyes were fixed on Arnold''s. There was only one emotion he could feel. Rage. Yet rage alone couldn''t help him in this situation, not against the man in front of him. "You''re the ones who don''t hesitate before defiling a corpse and yet I''m the monster? Don''t make meugh." Arnold crouch down to face the man, "But before I torture you to death, I''d like to know why you all are so deadly serious about getting rid of me? Hell, I forgot about you guys a long time ago but here you are still stuck up on me." "You..." The man tried to spit on Arnold''s face again, but before he could Arnold pped the man across the face. A couple of teeth came jumping out of the man''s mouth. That p seemed to have calmed him down a bit. As now, he knew the difference between their strength. The man finally gave in and started narrating everything he knew, "It all started when you were locked inside the transdimensional dungeon. After it was confirmed that you were trapped inside the dungeon, Nichs, managed to overthrow the government. The president was captured. While Rion and the others managed to escape in the confusion. After waiting for weeks for you toe back... Nichs finally dered you dead. As there was no possible way for anyone to return from a closed dungeon. No way that we knew of. That same night, the former president was executed for his ''crimes against the nation''." Everyone was intently listening to what the man had to say. Especially Arnold. As he didn''t know much about those five years he was missing from the. "Although we were shocked, we thought it was enough. Maybe killing the president would satisfy Nichs. But we were wrong. He targetted us next... Everyone even remotely rted to the guild was captured, tortured and then thrown in the prison. We were continuously on the run." "But then, he and his army eventually caught up to us. We thought we all were gonna die. But Nichs was only after two people... Rion, the one who came out of the dungeon when you went missing and Mali, our guild master. When we refused to surrender, we were attacked by all sides. Most of us were killed that day. When I think back, we should''ve simply surrendered. The killings only stopped when Rion and Mali surrendered." "We thought we would be killed too. But we were allowed to live. Years passed and our wounds started to heal. Then we heard the news of your return. All of us remaining warriors were enraged. We had to endure so much pain, death and sadness. And for what? You were alive and well! We had already been secretly mobilising to fight the new president when you appeared and then we realised something important." "Fighting against Nichs meant certain death, but we didn''t want to fight with him anymore. After all, you were the reason for our misery, our downfall. Not him. You were the reason all of this happened, not him. You were already presumed dead, and now was the time to make that presumption a reality. Only then would Rion and Mali would rest in peace. Hence we decided to direct our attack on you. But we had to wait. No one could''ve entered East America without getting permission from the West. So we had to wait for you toe to West America so that we could attack you. Someone with a lot of influence from your country made contact with us. Helped us mobilise and secretly brought us to West America. Once here, we patiently waited for our time to strike and when we found out you were weakened and in aa, we figured it was time to make our move-" "All that nning, and yet you spectacrly fell on your a*s." Arnold sniggered, "I knew Nichs would deal with you people but I never thought he would go scorched earth on you. Although, I''m fairly sure Christina would''ve pushed him for it. That woman didn''t know how to ept rejection in the first ce. Either way, I think I''ll have to thank him soon. Apart from that though... Who was the one who helped you? If you don''t mind me asking, that is." "I don''t know..." The man mumbled. "Okay, onto the next question. Who is that woman, whom you were trying to protect eh?" "She''s... no one." "Doesn''t matter. I''ll figure it out, though it would be painful. Not for me, but her." "No... Please, I''ll tell you." The man started sobbing like a newborn, "S-She''s the half-sister of Mali." "Oh... She''ll definitely know who is behind all this then. Thanks for your time. As a reward, you''ll be kept alive a little longer. But not unscathed though." Arnold snapped his fingers and the golems ripped one of the man''s hands off. Screams, cries, and curses were the only things one could hear after that as slowly... all of the attackers were ripped apart by the golems. Was it necessary? No. Did it increase the morale of his soldiers? Yup. This was enough reasoning for Arnold to deal punishment to them. Chapter 215 - All Hell Breaks Loose (3) At the sight of men being ripped to shreds, many flinched. Some weak-hearted ones even fainted. But those ready to fight and die to protect their loved ones were thrilled beyond anything. These people had caused them pain and now karma had delivered itself on a silver tter and they got the front row seats to witness it. What more could they ask for? Johnny didn''t care if it was extreme. He rarely ever killed humans, but when he did, it was always to protect the family so he understood why Arnold did what he did. He recalled what Nathaniel had told him before the dungeon break of Florida, "If you want to live in fear, quaking in your own shadow, then nothing I can say or do will draw you out - a self-made prison is the most secure of all. You are not the ones who can decide your fate, but you are the ones who can decide the fate of your nation. Whether the nation lives or dies, it depends on you and no one else. This is your call to arms, my proud family members, and I hope you''ll heed it."?? Nathaniel was truly a leader of the masses. Yet he wasn''t there now. "When those I love are under threat, murder transitions into self-defence." Johnny mumbled, got back to his feet and walked up to Arnold, "You think that girl knows anything?" "Believe me, she does. And if she doesn''t then... Oh well, it''s toote to stop Natasha now." Arnold shrugged his shoulders before he sat down, tending to his gears. Loud lustful screams could be heard from the room Natasha had locked herself in. Even Johnny was a bit flustered at this point. "You have a variety of summons, don''t you?" Johnny asked him since he didn''t have much to do himself. "Well, I''m just good at utilising their skills. That''s all. For example, Alice is a kind-hearted person or was one, either way, that wouldn''t stop her from attacking someone if it came to worst. Talos is nearly good at everything that I can do, if not better than me. You can say he has my soul or he''s my doppelganger." "Asterios and Dread, they are my swords. Just one word and they''ll be ready to kill anyone or anything. Duke and Cerberus, are the ones who have been with me the longest and hence somewhat understand me so they can be my heart, haha. Bad-breath is like... My legs? Well, we ain''t that close but he gets his job done. Natasha is just a sadist bitch so... I''m not gonna associate her with anything but yeah, she''s an integral part of my force. We know our strengths and weaknesses so we try our best toplement each other, that''s all." "Ah, so you have a family of your own I see." Johnny smiled, "No wonder you can manage an entire zone by yourself. Azyriah told me how stressful the job is, mind you she''s a psychic mage and yet she feels stressed. If-" Johnny was interrupted by Arnold''smunicator. The buzzer of themunicator went off like an annoyed rattlesnake. The call was from an unknown number. Arnold scooped it up, spoke into it, "Hello, who''s this?" "Is this Arnold..." A woman''s squeaky voice came through the other side. "Yes, it is. Who am I speaking to?" "It''s Anna sir, Anna fright. I''m the one whom your robot, Talos, saved a while ago." "And..." Arnold didn''t know what the fck was she trying to say. "He told me to inform you once thems were fixed... So yeah they''ve been fixed, that''s all." "Aah, I see. Thanks for your help." Finally, he got some good news, "Is there a giant Minotaur around you? Could you put him on the speaker?" "Sure... Here you go." Arnold waited for a while before speaking again, "Yo, Red Bull, mind guiding the humans back to me?" Asterios huffed loudly as if saying, "Finally!" Arnold knew every well he had been bored to death by now, so he told him something Asterios would love to hear. "I know, I know. But get here ASAP. We have a war to win." The sole mention of the word ''war'' was more than sufficient to raise Asterios'' spirit back to 100%. Arnold disconnected the call and continued to work on his gears. But was soon interrupted once again. This time it was Natasha. "Master," Her cheeks were red like strawberries, "I have some good news." Arnold''s ears perked up. She had his undivided attention. "What is it?" "I know the dungeon''s location." She smacked her lips, clearly proud of herself. "Are you sure, it''s the correct info?" "Does the master thinks, someone in that state is capable of lying?" She pointed towards the room she had dragged thatdy into, with her tail. Arnold peeked inside the room just to see exactly what her ''condition'' was. The woman was tied to a chair, stark naked. A small puddle of suspicious fluid had formed at her feet, which were shaking uncontrobly. Her mouth was open like a venus fly trap. Not to mention, she was sweating profusely. Her breathing was heavy and she looked exhausted yet not a single wound was visible on her curvy body. Everyone in the Hall was gawking at her as well as the subus. Even they could tell exactly what had happened there. "Did you... You know..." Arnold kinda knew what Natasha had done yet the words never came out of his mouth. But it would also solve the answer to why Natasha was so happy. "Why use pain, when you can use pleasure." She licked her fingers, "Although she was a bit inexperienced. I think I made her first time memorable." ''Of course. Who wouldn''t want to be exploited by a subus, right? Bad-breath would jump at the chance.'' Arnold thought, ''At least she''s alive so there''s that.'' Arnold cleared his throat and closed the door before speaking again, "Anyways... What did she tell you?" "Everything, master." Natasha replied, "The supposed portal is located in Angeles National Forest. She didn''t know the exact location inside the forest but that should narrow down your search a bit." "Anything else?" "She said there might be two dungeons, not one. But once again she had no idea about where the second one was. She didn''t know much because she wasn''t supposed to know about it. Yet she overheard bits and pieces." Arnold sighed in relief. This information was enough for him to act. He recalled all of his troops back before opening a portal to his domain. Now that everything was done, he needed to know whether Talos seeded in making the required equipment or not. To his surprise, as soon as the portal opened, Talos came running out of it, followed by the remaining automatons. All of them carrying some kind of equipment with them. Then Talos uttered the words Arnold was waiting to hear. "The job is done, Master." Chapter 216 - All Hell Breaks Loose (4) ___ OBJECT: Xeno Emitter core (Disassembled)?? TYPE: Energy Emitter GRADE: A REMARK: A one of a kind device developed by the first of automatons. After being assembled and coupled with a generator, this emitter can emit xenoic energy generated by the beast crystals in a certain direction in form of an invisible energy beam. The beam could be lethal to the general masses hence should be used with extreme caution. The flow of energy can be regted by regting the source, that is, the number of beast crystals used. Higher the grade of the crystals used, more would be the energy output. ___ The wave of positive news didn''t stop there. Talos had sessfully created an emitter which when coupled with the generators, can produce Xenoic energy from beast crystals as well as eject it as an invisible beam towards a certain direction. Thankfully he had made two of them. So Arnold could take care of both portals at the same time. The only problem was... they had no way to test it. Xenoic energy needed a medium to travel. Think of it like electricity, which required wires to travel from one ce to another. But unlike electricity, Xenoic energy needed a ma. A portal could readily absorb any and every bit of xenoic energy around it and hence acted as a ma. The Emitter could only convert and direct it towards a general direction but it had some issues. The beam of energy was invisible, hence they couldn''t see immediate effects after using it. Moreover, xenoic energy wasn''t something to be trifled with. In Talos'' words, "If used carelessly, one can end up mutating everyone and everything around them." Remember Xenoic energy needed a ma? Turns out, humans and monsters were excellent mas as in way all of the warriors obtained their abilities aftering into contact with xenoic energy. However, it was refined by nature. Non-lethal. The Xenoic energy Talos was producing using beast crystal wasn''t refined. Not even a tiny bit. He simply didn''t know how to do that. Even with all his intelligence, there was no way for him to know nature''s secrets. Anyways, the point was, if the used the emitter then and there, they would expose the warriors to its effects which could lead to either of the cases, increasing their strength or turning them into unrecognisable monsters. Something Arnold had already witnessed during his first visit to the city of Angels. When he discovered the other use of the beast crystals. Arnold thought of a n. He wanted to use void travel and go to the Alpha base, and test the emitter on the ogres he was keeping as captives for Talos to research the effects of consuming beast crystals. The only problem was... he couldn''t. His weakness hadn''t disappeared yet and if essing the domain was causing him so much trouble, one could only imagine what would happen if tried using void travel. This was also the reason why he wasn''t using it to travel there along with his troops to the forest. Thus he decided to test the emitter once they reached the portal itself. None of Talos'' creations had failed before so Arnold was fairly sure that it''ll all work just fine. By this time, Asterios returned with Anna and Josh. They were surprised to see everyone all equipped up and battle-ready. It was expected as they didn''t know about the newest development. Only after one of the family members was done exining the situation to them, they realised how dire the situation was. Josh didn''t hesitate for a moment and after being treated by Alice, immediately took a sword to join Arnold''s makeshift army. Anna, however, had no experience whatsoever so she decided to stay behind but not before giving a quick peck to Josh. This incident finally gave her the courage to do what she couldn''t for all the years she had known him. Talos and the automatons were also carrying bags filled with beast crystals of all grades. They had nearly emptied the vault, in which the crystals were kept in. This was most of the beast crystals Arnold had collected so far. They were worth millions yet Arnold was totally willing to use them all up if it meant saving millions of lives. But he couldn''t do it alone. Thus needed the army. In front of him stood more than four hundred proud soldiers. Both monsters and humans stood side by side, looking at their leader with admiration in their hearts. "Alright everyone, it''s time to-" Arnold''smunicator started buzzing once again. This time it was Nina. ''Right, I forgot to inform her about the dungeons.'' He proceeded to pick the call. Nina was the first one to speak. "Arnold! Thank god the call went through. We know the locations now. The geoscan revealed two locations with abnormal xenoic energy levels. One of them is at Griffith observatory and the other one-" "Is at Angeles National Forest." "Correct. Looks like one of them finally talked, huh. Either way, Syndicate is assembling a task force to investigate both the ces." Nina exined the situation on her side. "No. There''s no need to divide the forces. Just focus on locating the portal at Griffin observatory, I''ll send Talos with a device that can stop the breakout or at least slow it down. The rest of us would take care of the one in the forest. Just send me the approximate location of the weird activity." "No, you won''t-" "Nina, there''s no time to argue. Please just do as I said." "..." "Okay okay, I promise I won''t put myself in unnecessary danger. Moreover, Johnny, Kolt, Steve and my summons are there to ensure my safety. And considering I''m their target, I''ll be safer with them rather than staying behind by myself." Nina let out a heavy sigh. Arnold was making pretty good arguments here. It was either that or he knew exactly which switches he needed to click to meet his demands. Nina hoped it was the former but she knew both of the cases were true. Either way, she finally caved in but she had her own condition: she wasing with him. Arnold knew better than to argue with her, so they agreed to meet at the entrance of the forest. She sent him the location. Once the call was over, Arnold spoke up once again. "Well, you heard thedy. Let''s go!" Everyone went out of the room. Hurrying towards the garage, but Arnold''s summons didn''t move. They knew their master had something else in mind. Most of Arnold''s summons wouldn''t fit into regr vehicles, and he knew it. Also, an army of monsters running around the streets of LA would throw the city in chaos. Thus he once again, begrudgingly open a portal to the void and the soldiers walked back inside. ''Why did I call them out in the first ce...'' He thought as thest of the undead went inside the portal. He wasn''t going to leave the people who stayed behind defenceless either, hence he left a dozen automatons to protect them along with Natasha. He didn''t leave Alice behind as they might need a healer with them. Also, in the event Arnold was forced to use his newly obtained light affinity, Natasha, having Shadow affinity might be at risk. Especially if Arnold ended up summoning the Guardian Angel. Steve and Talos went towards the HQ, as promised. Once everything was taken care of, he rushed towards the vehicles along with Johnny and Kolt. It was time to kick some a*s. Chapter 217 - All Hell Breaks Loose (5) The forest was far-reaching, shadowy, and prospering for animals. There was a reason why it was called a National Forest. Its canopy was ruled by sequoia, hawthorn, and por, who gave just enough light a chance to descent for dispersed sprouts to use the fertile soils below. Yet in the darkness, none of it mattered. There wasn''t enough natural light to guide Forest''s visitors to their destination. It was only 4 a.m., the sun wasn''t going to rise for the next three hours, at the very least. Thick branches grasped every tree, and a range of flowers, which imed quiet corners, looked almost out of ce in the otherwise brown and greenndscape. A mixture of beastly sounds, which were caused by a variety of mischievous animals brightened up the forest. Drowning out the sounds of several nocturnal birds in the distance.?? One could say it was a perfect spot for campers. But none of them were here to camp. Arnold and his team had just entered the forest, and the moment they did so, they were met with death. They had tried contacting the forest department as soon as they could, however, there was no response. Everyone knew what had happened there, and when Arnold and the others went inside, their suspicions were confirmed. All of the rangers of the forest had been killed. Blood on their bodies had already dried, to them, it was certain that they were killed a while ago. Maybe, the were killed at the same time when the wolves attacked the estate. These people were all of C rank or below. They never stood a chance against their enemies. Sadly, their corpses were so mangled, it was difficult to say which limb belonged to whom. But the corpses confirmed one thing. The enemies were there. No one else could possibly have stooped low to such bestiality. Yet they couldn''t find a single one of them. Arnold''s forces were being secretive about their arrival. They didn''t want the adversaries to be alerted but still... Arnold could tell something was off. It felt like someone was keeping tabs on them. Nina and Johnny too felt as much. Still, they had to keep moving forward. Each step leaves a fresh, crisp footprint on the forest floor. Then, they saw it. Cerberus looked upwards, growling as he had never before. He had found the perpetrators. The next second, a loud voice was heard. "Shoot at will!" Innumerable arrows were shot down on them like a hailstorm. "TAKE COVER!" Arnold roared in fury. He had been yed yet again, ''Those bastards are camouged in trees! They were here all along! Motherfu*kers! Arnold knew they couldn''t afford to be discrete anymore. Either way, he was sure the others would''ve been alerted by now. Even with their defence, few arrows managed to find their marks. Many bodies were pierced. Most of the family members had been injured. Thankfully none of them were killed. Maybe the darkness was protecting them. Cerberus, along with other hounds immediately charged at the foes. But they were hiding on higher branches, thus the hounds couldn''t deal with them by themselves. Johnny and Kolt rose to the asion and started knocking trees down. By the amount of noise they were making, it was certain the enemies were alerted now. One of the arrows managed to graze Nina''s cheek. Arnold saw a drop of blood trickling down her cheeks. He. Was. Bewildered. "Alice, give me some kind of mana boost." Arnold mumbled, his voice cold with fury, "I''m gonna deal with those bastards in my way." Alice nodded and did as her master requested. ___ Your summon is using, [Mana Regen] lvl 6 on you. Mana regeneration rate has increased by 50% Your summon is using, [Sorcerer''s Bluff] lvl 4, on you. Your tiredness disappears. Your agility has increased by 5%. Damage reduction increased by 3% ___ Alice knew Arnold was about to call out the rest of his summons, thus she gave him another buff which would temporarily get rid of his tiredness. Arnold never mentioned about his tiredness to her but Alice was as observant as ever. She knew opening a portal to his domain would exhaust him and thus took precautions to prevent it from happening. Arnold thanked her, then quickly summoned the most ferocious of his summons, Dread and Asterios. So far no monster had been able to stop this deadly duo, what possibly could measly humans to them. Within the next few seconds, every single tree in their vicinity had been uprooted. The archers had lost their only advantage and fell on the ground like pinecones. Asterios was about to crush them all but Arnold had other ns. He ordered the automatons to assemble the emitter. Once they were done, despite protests from a few, Arnold set the archers free. "Run." He mumbled pointing his guns at them, "Or else." The archers didn''t need a second warning. All of them darted in the same direction. Everyone was sure they were headed towards the others. Towards the portal. They thought that''s why Arnold decided to let them go. However, they were confused. If Arnold wanted to know the location of the portal, only one of the archers was enough to do that. Why did he let them all go? But that wasn''t Arnold''s n. He wouldn''t just let them go only to discover a location he was already bound to find out. He wanted to kill two birds with a single stone. People like them didn''t deserve to live, and he was going to make sure they get the most gruesome death one could imagine. He told the others to stay there while he, Cerberus, and a few automatons chased after them. This led to more confusion. But they agreed. Either way, the injured needed to be treated first. Since Nina was one of the ''injured'', she had to stay behind as well. The emitter was strapped tightly onto Cerberus and off they went chasing behind the archers. After chasing them for a while, he saw it. A wide area had been cleared. In the distance, several beams of light were visible. The archers were approaching the camp. Up close the sound of heavy machinery shing together overpowered all other sounds. The creaking of metal of the rapidly working engines and supply generators could be heard faintly. In some distance, a faint light could be seen as well. It was the light being emitted from the dungeon. Arnold''s mouth twisted to let out a sinister smile. It was time to test the emitter. Cerberus halted and Arnold immediately calibrated the beam. But his aim wasn''t on the dungeon. But in the opposite direction. "Humans are excellent Xenoic energy mas, right? Let''s see it for ourselves, shall we?" After saying that, Arnold backed down. He couldn''t risk it. After all, he too was a ''ma''. The automatons took charge and without any further ado, fired the beam at the archers who were desperately running towards theirrades. However, by the time they got out of the forest they weren''t humans anymore. Somewhere in between, their joy had been reced by murderous screams. Screams loud enough for the others to hear. Their bodies changed into unrecognizable biomass. Not every one of them survived. But the few who did turn into gruesome monsters. Creatures Arnold had never seen before. Members of the White Wolves guild were prepared for an attack, but not something like this. They saw the people they knew turn into monsters. A fight ensued. But the monsters were more troublesome than they expected. But they managed to kill the ''monsters'', even though most of the humans died during the confrontation. By the time it was all over, Arnold didn''t need to do much. Cerberus and the automatons were enough to take care of them. The portal was saved. But it was only a temporary solution. There was only one permanent solution to the problem: Someone had to clear the dungeon. Nina and the others caught up to him now but before they could decide their next step, Nina''smunicator buzzed... The others couldn''t secure the remaining portal... A dungeon break had urred. A single monster hade out of the dungeon. However, it was no normal monster... It was a polycephalic monster. One having the form of a dragon. The observatory was already aze. Most of the team had been wiped out. (Author''s note: Polycephaly is the condition of having more than one head.) Chapter 218 - Tiamut (1) "My Lord... This is the end..." The warrior next to Talos copsed on his knees. Weeping uncontrobly. So did a few who were still conscious after the initial attack. Well, it wasn''t an ''attack'' per se.?? When the monster came out of the dungeon, it roared once. Just one roar and more than 80% of the warriors present there to ''take care'' of the monster, were blown away like dried leaves. Blood came gushing out of every single orifice known in human anatomy. Only those ranking at A or above were left standing... on the verge of mental breakdown. Even Talos, who was incapable of feeling such emotions was shaken. This was the strength of the monstrosity standing in front of him... The air smelt of burning, acrid, chemical infused and choking - no wonder the humans could barely speak. Talos'' digital eyes moved from face to face in the gathering crowd. The entire za was aze. It looked like a scene out of a Hollywood movie. ''That''s assuring, at least we are in Hollywood. What even I am thinking right now...'' He scratched his metallic head. The observatory was ttened the moment this, four-headed dragon appeared. The ever-confident Talos was now clueless about everything. He needed to save the humans but could he even save himself, in the first ce? No. He could be repaired by his master but the human... cannot. He grabbed the cor of the man next to him, lifting him off the ground. "Get everyone and get out. Start the evacuation procedure and wait for the reinforcements-" Talos noticed the man''s gaze was fixated on the dragon. The man was scared sh*tless by this point, he couldn''t even register what Talos was bbering about, "LOOK AT ME, GOOD SIR! THE DRAGON WON''T GET SCARED BY YOUR PITIFUL STARES! GRAB WHO YOU CAN AND LEAVE! I''LL DISTRACT THE MONSTER IN THE MEANTIME." All the shouting seemed to have snapped the human out of the trance. He looked up at Talos who still had him suspended midair and asked, "How can you be so calm..." ''This man is no good. He has lost all sense of reasoning. His brain can''t evenpute than I, an artificial being, am insusceptible to fear or other emotions as a matter of fact...'' He threw the man towards the exit and said, "Run!" His thinking was simple. That man, in his current state, was incapable of doing anything else. It was the same case for other A rankers. Only the S rankers there had some sense of reasoning left in them. "This aura..." Talos mumbled, "This aura renders anyone below A-rank lose their consciousness, while the A rankers be useless. So only S rankers can even try to confront this monster... This is going to be a pain. At least master is stronger than S rankers, if not SS rankers, so he should be fine. But the others are a different story altogether." He looked that the cause of all this destruction, the four-headed dragon. All of its four heads were identical. Tranquil sapphire eyes sat delicately within the creature''s angr long skulls, which gave the creature a well deserved vicious-looking appearance. Several tendrils sat atop its head, just above its thick, horn-like ears. Several small fan-like skin and bone structures ran down the sides of each of its jawlines. Its nose wasrge and had two thick, rounded nostrils. A small horn extended from each of its chin. Several rows of sharp teeth poke out from the side of its mouth and show a glimpse of the terror hiding inside. A thin neck ran down from its heads and into a long body. The top of which, was covered in rounded scales and a row of tendrils runs down its spine. Its bottom was covered in small scales and is coloured darker than the rest of its body. Four long limbs carried its body and allow the creature to stand poised and arrogantly. Each limb has 6 fingers which the creature used to crush the observatory in one sweep. Furthermore, each of the fingers ended in sharp ws seemingly made of some metal. Horrendous wings grew from just below its shoulders and end at the lower end of its back. Yet Talos doubted the dragon was capable of flight due to its massive size. The wings were ded in structure, the edges of the skin inside the wings looked tattered and damaged while armour-like scales grew on top of the wing''s primary bones. Its graceful tail ended in a curved talon and was covered in the same rounded scales as its body. All in all, even if the dragon was a beast, it looked like a king of some sort. The crown-like bone structure one the top of each of its head further supported his thoughts. The most impactful aspect of the dragon, however, wasn''t it''s appearance, but the ability to use a different type of attack from each of its heads. So far Talos had witnessed the ability of two of the heads. The head at the extreme right had the traditional ability, the ability to spew fire. The ability almost every dragon-type monster had. While the one on the extreme rightplemented the previous by using ice. The dragon had used these abilities but not on the warriors from the syndicate. But on the ones who freed it from the dungeon. How the hell did this monstrosity came out of a low ranking dungeon was a mystery to Talos. The dragon was deadly. There was no doubt about it. But something was not right. After the initial ''attack'' and destroying the observatory, it remained still like a monk during meditation. It was almost like it wasn''t interested in anything. It was either that or it was waiting for a worthy opponent to show up. ''It''s a good thing. At least I assume it is. It''ll give us more time to evacuate everyone and once that''s done we could attack it.'' Talos was relieved. Well, he wasn''t capable of feelings yet his thoughts suggested otherwise. He turned to face the humans, "We should prioritise evacuating the civilians first. Once that''s done and reinforcement arrives, we can deal with it." The warriors nearest to him nodded and slowly backed away from the scene. The dragon saw them leaving, however, it stayed indifferent. Once again disying its peculiar behaviour. "Just what the hell is it thinking..." Chapter 219 - Tiamut (2) "We have to fight... THAT!?" Josh eximed as soon as the dragon came in view. Everyone felt the same way yet only Josh could voice their unanimous opinion. Upon hearing that a single monster came out of the dungeon, most of Arnold''s party were over the moon. It would be pretty easy, right? But as soon as they saw the dragon, all colours drained from their faces. A majority of these people weren''t even strong enough to take on the lizardmen, how the hell were they supposed to go against a freaking dragon? Before they could discuss further, Talos came running towards them.?? He went on his knee, his eye transfixed on the ground. How could he look at his master now? His master trusted him to do something and he failed spectacrly, and because of his failure, the people they swore to protect were now in danger. Arnold knew it wasn''t Talos'' fault. The result would''ve been the same even if Arnold had decided to go to the observatory, and not the forest. He patted the robot''s shoulders. Trying to lift it''s ''spirit'', well, not that he had any but you get the gist. "Don''t worry about it," Arnold said, "We''ve been through much worse than this. I''m surprised that so many of you survived till now. It must have been due to your leadership-" "It''s not that master," Talos replied. "What do you mean?" "The people aren''t alive because of my leadership or strength. They are alive because the monster hasn''t moved from its spot ever since it came out of the dungeon. Apart from killing the unfortunate ones who were near the portal." "What!?" Johnny eximed, "That''s the first I''ve ever heard of such behaviour." "I agree... It''s peculiar, to say the least." Nina joined in. Arnold looked around the za. He immediately noticed something. If the monster hadn''t killed anyone, then why were there only S rankers there? He asked the same to Talos and the reply he received made the situation even worse. "It seems the monster has some kind of ability which prevents anyone having a rank lower than A to remain conscious. Moreover, only S rankers or above can supposedly remain conscious so we still have a fighting chance." Arnold got lost in the deep thought. Most of the party members were ranked at either A or B. So technically, they were more like dead weight now. They had lost their number advantage. But it wasn''t the only thing... Before the system deactivated, Arnold was stuck at rank B. Right now, however, he was ''unranked''. He wasn''t sure whether the dragon''s peculiar ability affect him or not and the only way to check it out was head inside and see it for himself. Josh had been listening to them and decided to intrude once again, "Whatever might be the case. But we still need to take that thing down, right?" "You don''t." Arnold calmly replied, "You heard the man. No one below rank S is allowed to fight the dragon. You guys should focus on helping with the evacuation so that the S rankers who are busy with it cane and help us." Upon hearing Arnold, most of the low rankers let out a sigh of relief. They were willing to do anything but fight that monstrosity. However, a few like Nina were also disappointed. "You don''t mean all of us have to leave right?" She asked, knowing fully well what Arnold''s response was going to be. "Obviously, I meant no warriors below S rank. And it goes for every one of you. I''m not gonna unnecessarily risk anyone''s life." She asked Arnold to reconsider, but he didn''t budge. She might have ranked up to A but that didn''t mean he would throw her in unnecessary danger. Johnny and Kolt fully supported Arnold. "Fine..." In the end, Nina had to give up. There was nothing she could do to change their minds on the matter. She wasn''t alone though. Most of Arnold''s summons were useless against the dragon as well. By most, he meant all except the elite summons. Thus the regr summons were also sent to help with the evacuation. So that the process could hasten if even by a bit. The quicker they got the civilians out of there, the sooner they could deal with the monster in front. It was mutually decided by the remaining warriors that they''d wait before attacking the dragon. Once everyone had been evacuated from the surrounding area, only then they would start their attack on the dragon. That way, they could go all out against the monster without worrying about the safety of the civilians. It wasn''t like the dragon was going anywhere either. In fact, just like Talos said, it hadn''t budged from its position. It was peculiar but fine. "If only Nicole was here, she could''ve blown that monster''s head away!" Johnny joked trying to lighten up the mood. "You''re right, but where is she?" Arnold inquired. "There was some issue in zone 1 so Azyriah called her for help," Kolt informed him. An hourter, the evacuation waspleted and the warriors went in to confront the monster. But before that Arnold quickly used his probe skill on the monster. ___ CLASS: Dragon NAME: Tiamut LEVEL: ??? COSMIC RANK: A ROLE: Demigod (God of Dragons) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Hellfire (Active skill) ? Arctic Rage (Active skill) ? Corrosive Breath (active skill) HP: 170000/170000 STRENGTH (STR) : 200 DEFENSE (DEF) : 267 STAMINA (STA) : 180 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 199 AGILITY (AGI) : 70 ACCURACY (ACC) : 100 EVADE (EVD) : 188 CHARISMA (CHA): 99 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (30% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, ranged attacks. Weak Against: ??? THREAT LEVEL: Catastrophic REMARK: You can defeat it but not in your current state. Run. Save yourself. This is not an opponent to be trifled with. RUN! Or you could stay and fight... I don''t generally do this but as our lives are linked so, here''s a protip. If you''re not running away, then force it to fight on your terms. Use your domain. It''s your only hope. One more thing. Even if you use the domain, the probability of your winning is 0.1%. ___ "Everyone... fall back," Arnold mumbled. "Arnold, is everything okay?" Johnny walked back to him, "You looks weird..." "I SAID RUN-" "I''m afraid it''s toote for that, human." A hoarse godlike voice resounded through the area, "I''ve been waiting for you." "The d-dragon s-spoke!" One of the warriors shrieked... He wasn''t the only one to hear the dragon''s voice. Everyone had, but none of them couldprehend what was about to happen next. **** Author''s Note: I created Tiamut, with Tiamat in my mind. For those who don''t know about her, Tiamat originates from the Babylonian mythology. She was first mentioned in writer Berossus'' first volume of universal history. The gist of her story is that the gods killed her lover so she went out seeking revenge on them. Spawning an army of monster, in which dragons were predominant. But she was eventually in by a storm God and her body was used as a foundation for the earth. (Please feel free to correct me if I''m wrong because my knowledge regarding Babylonian mythology isn''t all that great.) Chapter 220 - God Of Dragons "I had been waiting for you... Pdin of the Immortal One." All four of the dragon''s heads spoke simultaneously. Just the voice was more than sufficient to send chills down their spine. Yet at that moment, all of them thought the same thing. "Who is he talking to?"?? It was clear that the dragon had been waiting for someone''s arrival and now that the one had arrived, it wasn''t wasting any time. Also, the only new people to have arrived there were Johnny, Kolt and Arnold. But the strongest among them was... All of them instinctively turned towards Johnny. After all, he had to be the strongest among them right? But why was the dragon referring to him as ''pdin''? Even Kolt was confused. For the first time in his life, he had heard a monster talking in humannguage. Yet he was more concerned about this ''parading rather than the dragon itself. "J, you know this dragon?" He asked Johnny who shook his head in reply. "Silence! You mongrels. I''m trying to have a conversation here..." The dragonshed out on them. On the surface, they remained calm. Their training didn''t allow them to show any emotion to the enemy. Yet on the inside, even they were terrified. It felt almost impossible to defeat the dragon. Just it''s aura was overwhelming, and it hadn''t even made its first move yet. The best among the country were overwhelmed by a single monster, no wonder the low rankers had to run away. If the monster could intimidate them so much, one could only imagine what would''ve happened if the low rankers had stayed to fight. A few brave souls, however, dared into the dragon''s eyes. "Wait... It isn''t looking at Johnny. But," Kolt mumbled and turned around to see what the dragon was looking at, "Arnold?" Kolt then remembered the night they fought against Flying Swords guild. Jake was referring to Arnold as a ''Pdin''! So the dragon was actually there for Arnold? While the others were cowering away, Arnold gaze pierced the dragon''s snake-like eyes. He was afraid of the dragon, yet despite the system''s warnings, he had decided what he had to do. Abandoning the people wasn''t something Arnold could do. It wasn''t his nature. Even with the odds stacked up against him, his desire to fight was visible in his zing eyes. The demigod seemed to have noticed it and at that moment a smile broke on its face. Arnold slowly stepped forward. His eyes drilling a hole in the dragon''s soul. Although he was ready to fight, he would prefer not to. If talking could solve the issue, then he was more than willing to do so. As he was sure even if he could survive the battle, he was pretty sure the rest would inevitably die. Something he didn''t want to happen. "Who are you?" Arnold confidently asked. A tinge of fear could be heard in his voice. "You amuse me, mortal. So, I shall entertain your request." One of the dragon''s heads spoke, "I am Tiamut, the Goddess of dragons. And I''m here to put an end to you." "Well, it isn''t my first time hearing those words." "I must say, when I heard you killed Vritra, I imagined you would be something else. Thus, I was keen to meet you. After all, I wanted to meet the one who killed my daughter." The dragon continued, "Thus, when the mortals of this realm summoned me, I readily agreed. But not to do their bidding. No. But to see your strength with my own eyes." The next second, an evil, murderous aura surrounded them all. Arnold jumped back, summoning the elites while he was at it. Talos, Asterios, Dread, Bad-Breath, Alice, Duke and Cerberus, all instinctively rushed at their master''s side. The skies were immediately clouded in with the darkness. She might''ve been a goddess, but Arnold wasn''t backing down from a fight. So were the rest of the warriors. "I''m not going ask how did you manage to piss that damn thing off, but I hope you have a n?" Johnny asked Arnold while being shrouded in a thunderous aura. It looked like he was nning to go all out from the get-go. "Kinda..." Arnold mumbled, and turned around to face the rest, "Ranged attacks won''t work on this monster, so if you can only use those type of attacks I suggest you back down and focus on protecting the healers and support." "Fight against that thing at close proximity is likemitting suicide!" one of the mages yelled at him, "How do you know our attacks-" "Just listen to what he''s saying, you blithering moron!" Kolt cut the mage off, "His strategies have never been wrong before. So if he''s saying something, then your only choice is to follow him. Understand!?" "..." Everyone went silent after that. There were no more protests, but their hearts began pounding like never before. Arnold hurriedly analysed the situation. All in all, there were 10 S ranked warriors around him, and seven of his summons. Out of the seventeen of them, 3 were healers including Alice and 2 mages. None of the five could cause any harm to the dragon as they were proficient with ranged attacks only. Thus only the remaining twelve were even qualified to attack the dragon head-on. Still, without the support from healers, they wouldn''tst for more than a minute against the dragon. After analysing Tiamut''s stats once again, Arnold was sure of one thing. One direct hit could severely injure him and even destroy his summons, which would inevitably lead to his death. This was a battle which required Arnold to depend on his summons. But the summon he needed the most was- "Alice, our victory depends on you." Arnold mumbled while equipping his gears, "No matter what, keep everyone in their top shape. I can''t afford to lose anyone in this battle." "Hey Arnold, you''re a mage too, remember?" Johnny chuckled, trying to lighten up the mood once again. He knew it better than anyone what Arnold was capable of. Yes, not being able to use ranged attacks were a pain in the butt for him, but it wasn''t like that''s all he was good for. "Maybe you too should stand back and let us handle this guy?" "First of all, that ain''t a guy. That''s a ''she'' And second," Arnold tightly gripped the gloves made from Vritra''s remains while wrapping Phoenix cloak around his neck, "this isn''t my first rodeo against a dragon." Yes... He had killed a dragon before. But not a God. For the first time after gaining the system, Arnold felt... Scared of a monster. Yet, for the sake of others, he had to act like everything was under his control. Strangely, the fear made him realise something. ''I''m still a human after all...'' He might''ve been stronger than ever, but he was still human. The weakest creature to ever exist in the universe. But humans had a strange power within them. The power to take dumba*s decisions to ovee dumba*s situations. And he, being the biggest dumbass to have ever walked on the surface of the earth, was sure he was the only one who could kick the godly a*s of Tiamut. He looked around his summons. They were ready to follow him till the judgement day and so wereJohnny and the others. But first, he needed to give them the absolute best chance at ying the godly beast. He used enhancement on everyone. Not just his summons but on their weapons and gears as well. None of his summons were S rankers anymore... All of them were now SS. "I wonder, does dragon meat taste simr to alligator meat? Hm... Well, there''s only one way to find out! ATTACK!" Chapter 221 - Guardian Angel "It''s worse than I thought..." Arnold mumbled as Tiamut sent Dread flying over him, thankfully Dread''s exceptional defence saved him from getting destroyed. But things were not looking good for the humans.?? ''We can''t even get close to it, those fcking eyes are always staring at us! Ranged attacks don''t even work so that''s whole different sh*t show... Even with the support, the healers are giving us, we haven''t made much progress... What do I do?'' Right then, Asterios and Johnny simultaneously charged at the giant dragon. Asterios had the hammer over his shoulder, ready to yeet Tiamut out of the. The oue, however, was the pr opposite. Asterios soon joined Dread in his flying expedition to defeat. "That sucker is still ying with us?" Kolt yelled in frustration. Even he knew, had Tiamut wished for it, she could annihte everyone and everything in front. Yet, she was ying with them. Slowly pushing them in a downward spiral to despair. They had been fighting this monstrosity for a while now. And all of the S rankers together couldn''t even put a scratch Tiamut''s thick skin. The even worse thing was, a few of them had already given up all hopes for defeating the monster. It was too much for them! Arnold felt disgusted. These warriors were supposed to be the best of the best, and yet they were willing to give up so easily? Hell, even the D ranked soldiers at the Alpha base were braver than these chickens. But now the only ones fighting Tiamut were him, his summons, Johnny and kolt. The mages were doing what they could but they couldn''t do much with their ranged attacks other than providing buffs to the main attack force Even Duke couldn''t use his strongest transformation, as the troll was known to be sharpshooters which again meant, ''no ranged attacks please''. Talos wasn''t having a great day either, despite transforming into Demon Orc, a cosmic creature itself, he couldn''t do much. As the spikes on his back were pretty much useless against the one he was facing at the moment. It was the same for the rest of them. Rush in, get kicked, go flying. Even though Asterios went flying away, Johnny somehow managed to dodge the attack. Then he did something unexpected. He grabbed a sword. It was the sword of one of the S rankers who now refused to fight and had thrown the sword away. With a massive effort, Johnny swung the sword at Tiamut''s w. Despite his tiredness, the battle-honed skills didn''tck a bit. The sword met its target. Thick ck blood droplets came oozing out of the scratch. The sword, originally, wouldn''t even have managed to put a dent on Tiamut''s thick skin. But since Arnold had enhanced all of their weapons along with his summons, it at least managed to get past the skin and made a cut. However, no measly sword could take her down. Johnny was now her new target. The dragon used her massive foot to kick Johnny hard on the jaw, knocking him down. "How dare you!" Tiamut roared in rage, "I will doom your soul to eternal hell!" Johnny slowly tried to get up. But by the time he managed to get into a kneeling position, Tiamut was about to crush him like an ant. "NO!" Arnold and Kolt yelled at the same time, rushing to the brawler''s aid. But they were too far away... ''I won''t make it in time!'' Arnold thought and activated his [Rapid Dash] ability. Still, it wasn''t enough. Tiamut''s w came crashing down on Johnny... An instant kill. "NOOOO!!!" Arnold was ready to make sacrifices to y Tiamut. But this wasn''t how he imagined it would end for Johnny. Johnny who always had his back no matter what idiotic decisions he made. Johnny, who weed him into the family and made his life go from hell to heaven in one night. And he? He couldn''t even protect the one ''brother'' he admired more than anyone in the family. That brother was no more... While he was still processing the loss of a brother. A notification popped up on his interface. ___ Your summon, Cerberus, has been destroyed. Time for the resurrection: 1 hour. ___ "Wha-" "The heck are you jackas*es moping for?" Johnny''s voice echoed in their ears, "Rather than crying yourself, try to make that ugly basta*d cry!" "How did you..." Now it made sense to Arnold. Cerberus was the fastest among them, thus he took it upon himself to save Johnny. That too, right before Tiamut mmed her foot on him. "Your dog pushed me out at thest second and saved my a*s. That''s how. Now, let''s focus on the dog killer, shall we?" Johnny was right. Their job wasn''t done yet. But Cerberus'' sacrifice made Arnold rethink his strategy. Clearly, just enhancing the summons and weapons weren''t enough to stop Tiamut''s charge. He needed to do something more. Something that not only boosts the strength of him, his summons and allies but also shields him from Tiamut''s ruthless attacks. And he knew exactly what that thing was. "Alice! Is the mana boost cool down over yet?" Arnold turned backwards where the healers and mages were clumped together, breathlessly reciting assorted spells. "Yup! I can use it now!" She replied. "Alright! Do it now then. I have a n." ___ Your summon is using, [Mana Regen] lvl 6 on you. Mana regeneration rate has increased by 50% Your summon is using, [Mana Increase] lvl 6 on you. Maximum mana temporarily increased by 20% (for the next 10 minutes) Current mana: 16990/22920 ___ "It''s more than enough to summon it." Arnold mumbled, "Come forth... Guardian Angel!" A rainbow beam and growth of nature shot around Arnold, marking theing of an angel. Within the blink of an eye, a mighty being with eyes of light stood over him. Engulfing him from all sides. Then it looked at Arnold. It''s golden eyes fixated on him through its helm. For some reason, Arnold felt incredibly happy. As if he had achieved something no could... Like he had found the fountain of youth... Two massive, feathered wings made the angel look far more imposing. Its elongated body glided with determination. It''s white and gold armour made it look like the supreme being. The angel carried a single two-handed sword, a gentle, humming sound can be heard from it. Arnold looked toward the angel a final time. The next moment it kneeled before him for a moment. "Yourmand, my liege?" *** Author''s note: if you are having trouble imagining what the angel looks like, then think of Sasuke''s Susanoo. Lol. Chapter 222 - Dragon Overlord (Tiamuts Backstory) Arnold wasn''t the only one feeling the effects of the Angel''s presence. The ones who had previously given up on fighting had once again taken up the arms to fight till their death. They felt invincible. Their foe was a godly monster, but so what? They won''t allow a mere monster to trample over them. At that moment they felt like gods... They were gods. Even Tiamut was concerned about the appearance of a new foe. Yet it wasn''t her first and only time seeing the Angel until now. The memory of the angels she had wasn''t a pleasant one, to say the least. Why do you ask??? Because on a fateful day, she was cursed to live her life in her form of a dragon. And the one who cursed her was none other than the Immortal One, Shiva. She remembered how full of herself she had been, millions of years in the past. She had defeated the lesser gods by her wit and made their lives a living hell. All for killing her lover, Apsa. Back then, only her name was enough to strike fear in the hearts of those filthy lesser gods. Yes, Apsa was the one who dered a war on the lesser gods to dethrone their ipetent leader, Aeetes and rule over them. By killing Apsa, the lesser gods did what they had to for the sake of their souls. To protect themselves. But love knows no reasons. At the time she heard the news of her lover''s demise, she had been recovering from a wound given to her by a lesser God. Hence she couldn''t participate in the war, alongside her lover. Back then, she wasn''t known as the Goddess of Dragons as she was only a low ranking God even among the lesser gods. After Apsa''s death, most of his army consisting of monsters surrendered and turned against her. Only a few who had sworn loyalty for her didn''t infect to the enemies side. They died defending her from the ones they once called theirrades. There was no other option for her other than to run away. But to where? The ones who betrayed her already knew about all the ces she could hide in. Her heart was enraged. All she could think of were ways to make the lesser gods pay for their mistake. For the next millennia, she spent her days running and hiding from the lesser gods as they knew very well, she would eventually seek revenge on them. But s, no matter how hard they tried they just couldn''t find her. It was like she had disappeared. The lesser gods were annoyed but decided to let go of the matter as the tension between lesser gods and higher gods began rising to new heights. It took the lesser gods a few centuries to reconcile with the higher gods. But they did manage to stop a war from breaking out. All of this happened long before the unfortunate war, which ended in favour of the higher gods and lesser gods led by the Forgotten, were defeated by Shiva. The lesser gods foolishly thought it was all over with Tiamut. While they were busy licking the a*ses of the higher gods, Tiamut was busy gathering an army. But it wasn''t an easy task. Who in their right minds would go against the gods? She had her answer to that question... Those who had been wronged by them. The only beings, other than higher gods, that were strong enough to take the lesser gods in an all-out war were the army of the Dragon Overlord. But the dragons were peaceful creatures and rarely intervened between the matter of the gods. If she were to directly request their help, not only would she be turned down there was also a chance they''d turn her over to the lesser gods. However, the current Dragon Overlord was known to be malicious and a sick pervert. Getting sent back to the lesser gods wasn''t a risk she was willing to take, hence she decided to disguise herself as a consort and win the overlord''s heart over. As she knew he had a terrible reputation when it came to women. The Overlord had been a dragon but once a dragon gained the power of the overlord, they also gained the ability to transform into a human. And the then, Overlord was known to abduct women and have intercourse with them as he wasn''t interested in mating with dragons anymore. In his lust, he had also abducted a few lesser gods before. Thus Tiamut knew, if they found out her true identity, the Overlord might give her away to the lesser gods as a way to get them to forget about the abductions. She would be sacrificed for a treaty among them. That''s why she transformed into Hecate, a goddess she knew the Overlord fancied. She then aimlessly roamed around the part of the universe where the dragons reside. Just like she had nned, a couple of dragons mistook her for Hecate and abducted her. They then presented their Overlord with a ''gift''. Gift of a woman they knew the Overlord wouldn''t decline. Once she had infiltrated the domain of the dragons, she seduced the Overlord, yet it wasn''t enough for him to get persuaded to attack the lesser gods. She then yed another card. One to make the Overlord jealous and grow overprotective of her. she told him that her (Hecate''s) husband, Aeetes, would find her sooner orter and then force the Overlord to hand her over. The Overlord seemed to get affected by this yet once again decided not to attack the gods. Tiamut, under the guise of Hecate, kept trying for years to raise some kind of a conflict between them but nothing ever came out of her effort. However, during her escapades with the Overlord, she became pregnant which eventually led to the birth of Vritra. Vritra was the only thing Tiamut adored more than anything. Yet the love she had for Vritra couldn''t extinguish the rage within her. After all this time, Tiamut grew fed up with the Overlord. Hence she decided to be the new Overlord herself. On one fateful night, she killed the then Overlord, and framed Aeetes, for doing so. Saying he was jealous of the Overlord as she, Hecate chose and loved the Overlord more than him. With the Overlord gone and his offspring still young, the elder dragons decided to convert Tiamut into a dragon by performing forbidden rituals. Once this was done, Tiamut became the four-headed goddess of the dragons. After all that, she patiently waiting in the secluded corner of the universe for the perfect opportunity to strike the lesser gods down and make them pay for their crimes. And that moment arrived soon after the dust had settled between the higher gods and the lesser gods. Tiamut returned to avenge her lover. But this time, she wasn''t alone. She came with her were a hundred thousand dragons. Each powerful enough to y a lesser God all by itself. The lesser gods were ridiculously overpowered and didn''t stand a chance against the vengeful Goddess of Dragons. But before the battle ended, Tiamut located and killed the real Hecate to avoid any unwantedplications in her n. If the dragons saw Hecate, they''d know they had been tricked into killing the gods. Something, Tiamut couldn''t afford. Soon the lesser gods were defeated and the headless corpse of Aeetes was paraded through the realms. Just like Apsa''s was. The higher gods didn''t interfere in the matter because Tiamut had indirectly resolved the issue they had been facing and they didn''t even need to get their hands dirty because of it. Soon Tiamut was crowned to be the queen of lesser gods as well. Now she could finally turn back into her true form. Everything was great. Apart from one thing. The newly crowned dragon goddess wasn''t doing great at her job of strictly maintaining the bnce of the universe. She had thoughtlessly killed a few important lesser gods which were responsible for maintaining the universal bnce. And her dragon underlings weren''t doing their jobs properly either. Essentially, they had been neglecting their duties for centuries which led to almost destroying the universe. This is where Shiva and his army interfered. Whenever the universe was threatened, Shiva took up his legendary trident to restore the order. This time, Tiamut was on the receiving end of Shiva''s godly rage. The dragons fought bravely against the Immortal''s army but were way out of their league. Shiva''s army was much stronger than the lesser gods they had defeated and proved to be too much for them to handle on their own. Technically, Shiva never used the Trident against them. He didn''t need to. The Angels in his army were his sword and killed most of the dragons by themselves. Tiamut finally had to surrender but it wasn''t enough for Shiva. He put a curse on her which forced her to live the rest of her immortal life as a dragon and serve for the wellbeing of the universe. The remaining dragons were cursed simrly and were now essentially the guard dogs for the lesser gods. That''s why Vritra was ced under the control of The Guide Between the Worlds until she was in by Arnold. After that, the Forgotten was crowned as the new king and the rest is history. This was the reason why Tiamut was taken aback by the appearance of the Guardian Angel. But the Guardian Angel''s appearance on the battlefield ended up firming her resolve to kill Arnold, Shiva''s pdin as a way to get back at Shiva as well as for avenging her daughter at the same time. "I shall be the one to end your life!" She roared once again. Chapter 223 - Dragon Slayer (1) Natalie''s fingers be entwined in the woollen nket, gripping it as if it were more substantial than a square of multicoloured yarn. Holding on to it like a shield to protect her from fire. "Mommy..." The ten-year-old mumbled, seeking help from the mother she never met. Her father had gone out a few hours ago to get some supplies but hadn''t returned yet. She was worried, and the sight in front of her made herpletely break down in tears.?? Through her window, a giant draconic monster could be seen at a distance. Natalie''s home was quite far away from the observatory and hence the dragon looked no bigger than a caterpir to her. Yet the continuous stream of blue mesing out of its mouth made her feel as if she was living through a nightmare. The mes engulfed everything in sight. It didn''t differentiate between trees and humans. Whatever touched it, was burnt to ashes. The earth was scorched beyond repairs. Yet unbeknownst to the little child, more than a dozen warriors were putting their lives on the line to protect innumerable children like her. "RAAWWRRR!" A monstrous cry resounded through the air. Natalie instinctively threw her nket over herself, crying non-stop. She was just a kid. She wasn''t capable of handling such situations by herself. She needed someone''s help, someone''s guidance. Then from thene outside her apartmentplex, came the sound of sirens and tires screeching on thene. The cavalry was there to save the civilians. Natalie looked down at the nket and release her hold of it. The once perfectly knitted nket now had multiple finger holes in it and was stretched out of shape. She heard people running out in the corridors. Upon hearing themotion, she gathered whatever strength she had, threw the nket aside and rushed to open the door The moment she opened the door, she felt a gloved hand on her shoulder. Strangely, the hand contained more warmth than the nket could provide. She heard a tender voice but couldn''t focus on the words. Only then did she realise she had been crying this entire time. *** Nina hugged Natalie tightly before lifting the kid in her arms. Natalie tightly wrapped her little hands around Nina''s neck. All while crying on her shoulder. Nina wanted to console the weeping kid, but she was too focused on someone else. ''You better not die, Arnold...'' She thought, ''I''d never forgive you if you do!'' "Nina, we''ve received new orders." Allen reminded Nina, "We have to evacuate the entire city... The Higherups at the syndicate has already sent a notification to all of the S and above ranking members to immediately rush back to LA." "I know that!" Nina snapped back, scaring the little girl in her arms, ''I know that but... by the time they reach Arnold and the others- No! He wille back to us. He always does!'' She pulled Natalie closer to her chest, tears now overflowing from her mystical eyes. Much like Natalie, Nina too needed some form of love and constion. For, the city of Angels had been dered to be a lost cause, just the way it had been for Florida all those years ago... At the moment, the city-wide evacuation was taking ce. All of the S or above ranked warriors had been summoned back from all of their mission. But even so, it might take a couple of days for the Syndicate to counterattack with all their might. And by then, it would be toote for Arnold and the others... after all, even superhumans were mortal. Allen gently ced his hands on Nina''s shoulder, "Don''t worry, he''lle back. I know he would. But for now, let''s do our job and help evacuate the civilians. Once that''s done we can rush in to help them. The sooner we''re done here, the better it would be for all of us." Nina nodded and quickly wiped the tears off her face. What would Arnold say if he saw her crying all over herself? He''d never let it go and tease her thoroughly for the rest of her life. Either way, Allen was right. Worrying about them wouldn''t help them fight against the Dragon. Then she heard it. The bloodcurdling cry of the dragon. The roar of the beast struck her ears like a wall of pain. All of them instinctively clutched their ears. She wanted it to stop, but it didn''t. She felt a sharp pain in their heads but the cry didn''t stop. All air left her lungs, her heart trembled like a dried branch of a tree in the middle of a storm. Next, her knees weakened. The wailing slowly stopped. The onught of the sound was now over. But Nina noticed something... unlike before, the cry they just heard was filled with pain and agony. She handed Natalie to Josh and rushed outside, "What''s going on!?" Nina asked the mage who had the ability to view things at a longer distance. The mage called it the ''Sniper vision''. Nina asked him once again, but it looked like the mage couldn''t register what Nina had just asked him. But she was desperate to know what was happening there. She shook the mage hard and he finally snapped out of his trance. He looked at Nina and... Smiled, and pointed in the dragon''s direction. "Words! Just speak damnit!" Nina grew more and more irritated with every passing moment. "They just severed one of its heads..." The mage mumbled. Even he couldn''t believe what he was seeing but it was true! "There was a golden sh and the next thing I know, one of the dragon''s heads fell off its nape. "What!?" Nina couldn''t believe her ears, "Who did it?" "Um... I''m not sure. It all happened so suddenly, I barely had the chance to blink! But one of the dragon''s head is missing. I can bet my life on it!" ''It''s him... I''m sure! Arnold was the one to do it. I''m sure it was him! YES!'' She threw a fist in the air, ''That''s my boyfriend for y''all! Suck it, you dragon pus*y!'' *** Moments ago at the observatory... "That hellfire is troublesome. Not for me but the others..." Arnold mumbled while the angel slowly transformed itself into Arnold''s imprable armour, "but first...'' ___ Your skill, [Berserker''s Rage] has been activated. All of the user''s attributes have been boosted by 150%. You have used [Heavenly Blessing], lvl 5. Your summons have been granted attribute boost. Mana increased by 80% HP increased by 80% [Heaven''s Penalty] debuff has been applied to your foe as they bear [Shadow Affinity]. Foe''s mana decreased by 50% Foe''s HP decreased by 50% You have activated, [Rapid sh], your agility has increased by 10% ___ "Let''s do this," Arnold mumbled, tightening his grip over the Guardian Angel''s Mana sword. "Yes, my liege." Abdiel, Arnold''s guardian angel replied and began pping his wings. Summoning Abdiel not only gave Arnold the immunity to Tiamut''s attacks but also gave him the ability to fly and wield a mana sword bybining with the angel. Bybining, it meant that Abdiel had transformed himself into Arnold''s armour and sword. While the armour protected him from any damage Tiamut could do on him, the mana sword could cut through anything in the whole world. But as the name suggested, using the mana sword consumed Arnold''s mana. Each time he swung it, it consumed 4900 mana. Moreover, simultaneously activating so many skills had already taken about 50% of his mana, but it was all worth it. Initially, Arnold was saving up his skills for the uing raid on the swamps, but he got stuck in this dire situation. He couldn''t afford to hold back against a demigod. Thus he had pulled all the stops. He was going to defeat this self-proimed God, and live through it. With his temporary ability to fly and all the boosts applied he had applied to himself, he was already a deadly opponent. Yet all thisbined with the mana sword gave him enough strength to cut through Tiamut''s Hellfire spewing head like a hot knife through butter. "One down... Three to go." Arnold smiled, wiping the beast''s gross blue blood off his face. Tiamut let out a beastly cry, for one of her head had been sliced on half. Yet for her, the pain was only momentary. Unfortunately, for humans, it would be eternal... Arnold thought he was winning, but in reality, he just doomed everyone around him. ___ WARNING? The Goddess of Dragons, Tiamut, is about to use a lethal ability. ___ Chapter 224 - Dragon Slayer (2) Death isn''t kind. It never was and never will be. Yet death can be peaceful. However, there wasn''t a sliver of peace in a world born from chaos. For chaos consumes everything, and Tiamut was the harbinger of chaos. Those who dared to attack the dragon now knew, they were out of their wits to do so. What was supposed to be a quick and decisive battle had turned into an all-out war. They were afraid, but unlike thest time, they didn''t give up. Well most of them didn''t. They still had their weapons in hand but they couldn''t move. It was as if their feet had grown attached to the ground, refusing to move. But in reality, it was all due to the murderous intent Tiamut was letting out.?? In the end, most of them thought about abandoning the city along with the mission and escape once the evacuations were done with. They were right in their ce. It was better to retreat and regroup with the rest of the forces than to fight only to get a meaningless death. The only problem was... There was no escape. Tiamut wouldn''t let her prey get away after they dared to attack her. Arnold''s attack had infuriated her to no limits. And he solely had her attention now. While the monster was focusing on him, a few of the warriors finally snapped out of their fears and made a break for it. They had willingly abandoned theirrades and rushed out to save their lives. While those who stayed were doomed to be merciless ughtered. Arnold''s summons too were witnessing all of this firsthand. Since they were animated beings, usually they were immune to their foe''s psychological attacks. But to their horror, even they were being affected by Tiamut''s aura. The only ones who still had a grip over themselves were Arnold and Johnny, but even they were speechless. Then it happened... ___ WARNING? The Goddess of Dragons, Tiamut, is about to use a lethal ability [Hh] ___ (Author''s Note: ording to Hindu mythology, Hh, was the most potent and dangerous poison to ever exist and was created during the dire attempt for the gods and demons to obtain, ''amrit'', the nectar of immortality. But before the nectar could be obtained, a poison was secreted out by a serpent. All of the gods and demons were dying and that''s when Shiva came to their rescue. I won''t spoil it anymore because there''s a little surprise towards the end of the chapter.) The moment the text appeared in front of his eyes, a thick fog started umting around them. But it was no ordinary fog. It was a poison that one of Tiamut''s heads were leaking out. "EVERYONE COVER YOUR NOS-" Arnold yelled but was interrupted by none other than Tiamut. "Covering your orifices wouldn''t do you much good," She said whileughing hysterically, "The poison I secrete is somewhat special, mortal. I''ll let you in on a secret since you''re all going to die either way. You needn''t breathe the poison in, the poison would do it by itself. It''ll seep through your skin and kill you from the inside. Furthermore, the poison would keep spreading throughout this realm of mortals even if you were to sever the head until... Well, I don''t think I should inform you about the sole weakness of my ability, now can I?" Arnold opened his mouth to give Tiamut a piece of his mind, but he was interrupted by one of the warrior''s frantic gasps. The man had been nearest to Tiamut and hence was the first one to get affected by the deadly poison. Arnold thoughtlessly rushed towards the man, while Tiamut let out a maniacalugh. She was sure she was going to destroy them all. Especially, the pdin. By the time Arnold reached the warrior, he had already copsed on the ground, trying hard to breathe. But no matter how hard he tried to breathe, the air just wouldn''t go in. He felt like his lungs had been tied in a knot. Between the gasps, the man begged Arnold to save him. The proud warrior wept like a child, saying he didn''t want to leave his family alone. Arnold just stayed silent. He didn''t know what to do. He was... Defeated. Slowly the man''s conscious faded away. Even in death, his eyes begged Arnold to save his soul, and Arnold just stayed there. The man''s dead body in his hands. He was so consumed by guilt, he didn''t even notice something Tiamut and the others did. "Interesting... It seems your armour is protecting you from my poison. Even so, your armour would fade away sooner orter and once it does it''ll be over for you." Tiamut blurted out, "But the same couldn''t be said about your allies. They are not special, like you. They are simple mortals and they would die like the one in your arms. That''s the price you''ll pay for inciting my fury! Hahaha..." Arnold didn''t reply. He gently closed the warrior''s eyes and carried him back to where Alice and the others were. Heid him on the ground and turned around. "Master..." Talos wanted tofort his master but Arnold told him to shut it. He wasn''t in the mood to talk. He then looked around. Most of the humans were still to react from the poison. Since his summons were already dead or didn''t have life in them, Tiamut''s ability did not affect them. But the poison was slowly but surely spreading throughout the city, and if it did then no one would be safe. No one. He had to contain the poison before it was toote. Thankfully, he already had his answer. His domain. "Johnny, and everyone else. Leave. I''ll stop this monster by myself." He said. Johnny protested, "You want to fight that thing alone? Are you out of your fcking mind?" But Arnold was having none of it. He had already made up his mind. Reluctantly Johnny and everyone backed off, while Arnold''s summons surrounded him. The minute Johnny and the others were out of his reach, he summoned his domain into the real world, just like he had done while fighting with Jake. Pitch ck darkness surrounded Tiamut, his summons and himself while the others were locked out of the space. Doing this took a toll on him but it was necessary. This way the poisonous gas would stay locked up in his domain till he figured out a way to deal with it or till he died. Both of these scenarios had an equal possibility of urrence. For now, he had dealt with the problem at hand. But now he needed to figure something else out... He had literally locked himself up with the deadliest monster to have ever stepped foot on the. A bold move but not a wise one. Even with his summons, he wouldn''t be able to kill Tiamut. ''Hell... Why do I have to clean up after the mess of a God? Fck my life.'' Unbeknownst to him, the God he had cursed was intently watching over him as the events unfold. *** "Why are you smiling, my love?" Lady Parvati, Shiva''s eternal love asked him, "Your precious mortal could potentially die and yet you''re smiling?" Shiva didn''t immediately reply, keeping his eyes on the one who was destined to be his Vassal. Finally, he tore his eyes from Arnold and looked at his love. "Tell me Parvati, doesn''t this scene seem familiar?" Lady Parvati finally realised what Shiva was talking about, and so did Nandi, who had been watching the entire thing while staying at his Lord''s side. She remembered what was Shiva referring to. *** It happened very long ago. Long before the existence of the lesser gods. It was the time when the higher gods decided to hold a test to select candidates to fill up the ce of lesser gods in theing millenials. But before that, the young candidates had to prove themselves. For the task, the candidates had to churn out the hidden ''Amrit'', the nectar of immortality, from the cosmic ocean. Upon consuming the nectar, they would be gods. But all was not well. Under the guise of gods, few demons snuck in and corrupted the holy Land. They too wanted immortality and hence devised the n to rain on their parade. But because of their presence, the universe let out a deadly poison to cleanse itself. But the poison killed everyone demon or not, around itself and proceeded to destroy the universe itself. The God of creation, Brahma, saw this and cried for someone to help. Many higher gods rushed to his aid but they all ended up dying from the poison. "Everything... All of my creations are getting destroyed... Someone. Please, help me! Save the universe!" Brahma wailed and wailed but no one responded to his call. They all were afraid of their lives... Until one man did. "I will cleanse the universe. I will bear the burden of all of its sin." Everyone turned to see who was foolish enough to do something like that. It was Shiva. Both Parvati and Nandi had tried to stop him from doing so. But Shiva didn''t listen. Whenever the universe was threatened, it was his duty to help maintain the equilibrium. Parvati had asked him why? And Shiva''s reply resounded throughout the universe. "Being with you made me realise that my anger isn''t something the universe needs. But it''s mypassion. Mypassion for the universe is forcing me to do this. This is my ''Dharma'', my selfw." Stating this, Shiva entered the ocean and opened his mouth. He sucked in all of the poison. The dark poison slowly faded away and as it did, everything that had lost their lives to it came back to life. Even consuming a small amount of this poison could kill any divine being. But Shiva didn''t even flinch after consuming the entirety of it. It was now clear,even to the ''Higher Gods'' that Shiva, was no mere God. From that day onwards, he was worshipped as a Supreme Being and while he was not always interacting with the universe, he was there to protect it when it really mattered. Still, consuming the poison had its effects on him. Shiva''s fair skin turned blue and more than that, his throat, where the poison had been stored turned into a deeper shade of blue. For his brave efforts, Brahma gave Shiva a new name, ''Neelkanth''. (Author''s note: As usual, this is my own interpretation of the mythological texts. If you want to know what happened as it''s written in Hindu holy texts, you can search and read about, ''Samudra Manthan''. Which trantes into ''Churning of the ocean''. And before I forget it, ''Neelkanth'' means ''Blue Throat''.) *** "So is this another test?" Parvati asked. Shiva silently shook his head, "It isn''t. This wasn''t a trial I nned, but a hand of destiny." "Then shouldn''t you stop it?" Shiva once again shook his head. If he kept helping him, then Arnold would never be able to achieve what he was destined to have. He had helped him once during Arnold''s fight with Vritra, by letting him use his weapon. But this time, he had to forge a path on his own. A path worthy of a God. Chapter 225 - Dragon Slayer (3) "The hell is going on here..." The camera operator mumbled. "Focus on me, will you!?" Nancy Williams, the reporter from CNN was hovering above the ce that was once known as Griffith Observatory. But now it was nothing more than a huge mass of rumble.?? "Y-Yeah..." The cameraman focused the camera back on the once beautiful and charming reporter but even though she had aged quite a bit, she still had her charm and a zeal to get whatever she wanted. They were the first to arrive at the location to cover the story, but they weren''t the only ones. At least half a dozen helicopters were hovering above the ck sphere, inside of which was the deadliest monster to ever step foot on earth. The syndicate had advised them not to get close to the location. But have these people ever listened to anything before? The moment the government prohibits them from doing anything, they immediately start specting about the ''World ending ns'' Or numerous other reasons on how the government would go through with some kind of genocide. This time, just like every other time, they were wrong. The information about the appearance of a deadly monster was true. The worse thing was, they couldn''t even get a glimpse of the monster and by the time they arrived at the location, the monster had already been sealed into a gigantic ck sphere. In all of the years, they had beenmitted to journalism, none of them had ever seen or heard about such a sealing skill. "We''ve been informed that the nation''s top warriors are rushing back to save Los Angeles, the new capital." Nancy continued, "We can see a few warriors standing next to the mysterious sphere. Even Johnny ck is down there and looks like they are busy devising a n to deal with the monster." "Regretfully, we don''t have footage of the monster at the moment. But our sources tell us that it is a dragon type monster with multiple heads." Upon mention of the dragon, the cameraman swallowed his saliva and continued filming the scene. ''If so many high ranking warriors couldn''t stop him then who could...'' He thought. Unbeknownst to them, the one who could defeat the dragon was already in the middle of doing so. However, not everything was going as smoothly as the reporting on the outside. *** Tiamut swung her gigantic paw and smashed Duke and Bad-Breath into pieces. Now, only four of Arnold''s elite summons were remaining and all they had managed was to get rid of its tail. Well, not all of them, but Asterios and Dread. Since they got rid of the tail, Arnold thought they could take a limb or two as well. Man was he wrong. Not only did they fail to deal severe damage on Tiamut''s legs, but Arnold also lost Duke and Bad-Breath in the process. But the bad news didn''t end there. "My liege, my strength is fading away..." Abdiel reminded Arnold, "You have only one strike left." Arnold gritted his teeth. He knew time was running out but Tiamut wasn''t concerned with it. She wasn''t ying around anymore. The bit*h wanted him dead alright, but he wasn''t going to let it happen so easily. "I must say, I can''t remember thest time I had this much fun." Tiamutmended Arnold and his summons, "However, it would be more fun to torture you and once that''s done, I''ll kill everything in sight. Don''t worry, I''ll make sure you get to enjoy the show as much as I do." "You sure talk a lot more now that one of your head is gone." Arnold gave a snarky reply, "I wonder if you''ll talk even more when I slice another one of your heads." "..." ''If it had been a debatepetition, I''d have won three times already. Sadly, it isn''t.'' Arnold thought as Tiamut went quiet, ''Either way, I have to deal with that poison spewing head of hers. It won''t matter if I sever the head, the poison would keep leaking out and the moment the domain copses the poison would spread out in all directions...'' Tiamut had admitted herself that her ability had a weakness. He just had to figure it out. Yet, it was easier said than done. He had been thinking for quite a while but couldn''t find a solution. "Talos, can you decode theposition of the poisonous gases that overgrown lizard is secreting?" Arnold turned towards Talos who was standing next to him. His thinking was simple. If he couldn''t find a weakness on the outside, then the weakness must be hidden inside the gas itself. "As you wish, master." The automaton replied. He immediately took a sample of the gas in his metal body and began analysing it right then and there. Meanwhile, Dread and Asterios were keeping Tiamut busy. Dread was being straight forward and attacking the dragon whenever there was an opportunity while Asterios was... showing off in front of the dragon. His actions were very suggestive but Arnold hadn''t thought Asterios was capable of doing something like that, that too in between of a fight. Arnold was doubtful whether the minotaur''s intentions were real or fake. But humping Tiamut''s severed tail in front of her certainly got her attention only on the raging bull. "Master, it''s done," Talos replied and proceeded to inform Arnold about his findings. The more Talos spoke, the happier Arnold became. He now knew what the poison''s weakness was. "So that''s why that bit*h didn''t use the ability while her other head was intact." Arnold was all smiles now. "It would seem so." Talos joined in, "The poison is so potent, no know whoes in contact would be able to survive, thus the dragon could overlook the w. But since your armour protects you from any harm and you possess the required affinity, I can say you''re the perfect counter to her poison ability." Arnold nodded and turned towards his summons, "Thanks for your assistance boys, but you should probably back down. Cuz things are about to get heated." Saying so Arnold let go of his mana sword. The following moment his hands burst into mes. Seeing the glow in Arnold''s hands, all of the colours visibly drained from Tiamut''s poison spewing head. She tried closing her mouth, but couldn''t. Something was stuck in her mouth. She didn''t recognise but it was one of Talos'' spike that he threw in her mouth the moment Arnold ignited the mes. She had been so focused on the fire, she didn''t even notice when it happened. The entire domain had already been shrouded by the poisonous gas. So, even if she managed to close her mouth now, it wouldn''t save the source of the gas, her head, from blowing up. Arnold kept increasing the temperature of the mes. Abdiel, protected him from any damage hence no matter how hot the mes got, Arnold, won''t feel any pain. The brighter the me got, the more agitated Tiamut became. There was no saving her now. Arnold threw a continuous barrage of fireballs towards her mouth. The next moment, there was a deafening explosion. The explosion rang the air as if it was hell-bent on shattering the universe by ripping apart every atom. Following the explosion, came the agonising cry of the demigod. As the smoke cleared, Arnold saw the state his domain was in. No matter where he looked, there was only stinking bloodied mass. Tiamut had copsed on the ground. Only the ice spewing head was remaining at its ce. The explosion took not one but two heads along with it. Arnold didn''t waste any time. He quickly grabbed the mana sword and charged at the dragon. Tiamut saw himing but didn''t have the energy to fight or move anymore. The explosion had taken too much out of her. With one clean sweep, Arnold decapitated the remaining head as Abdiel along with the armour and the sword faded away into nothingness. The duration of the skill was over. His summons came rushing towards him. Everyone apart from Talos was confused about what happened there and Arnold was more thanhappy to tell them about it. "Talos, do you mind repeating what the poisonous gas was made of?" Arnold smiled while kicking the corpse of the arrogant dragon. "Hydrogen sulphide, Carbon monoxide, and a few otherpounds." "And even high schoolers know that all of thesepounds are not only highly toxic but mmable too. The gas burns rapidly uponing in contact with fire." Arnold exined while he cancelled the domain expansion, "Since, the dragon''s throat was the source of it all, once the me reached the throat... there was an explosion." Slowly the domain copsed and they came back to the real world. Everyone saw the corpse of the dragon and... couldn''t say anything. They were expecting Arnold to die but he didn''t. Even the reporters nor the people watching the broadcast could believe it. Multiple questions were racing through their minds. The monster was dead? A single man managed to kill the dragon? Was this guy even human? Johnny was the first one to regain hisposure and rushed to check up Arnold. But instead of asking, "are you hurt?", what he asked was... "How did you..." Arnold smiled and waved his hand, "It''s a long story. I''ll tell youter. First I need to check something..." He wanted to see how much EXP he got from killing a godly beast. ___ Current EXP: 694,596 ___ ''Wait. This isn''t right... I already had this much EXP before the fight. Is the system still calcting the amount of EXP I got? That could be it. Or...'' Then it dawned upon him. "EVERYONE! GET BACK!" He yelled at top of his lungs as he pushed Johnny away. Bur before he could save himself... A w pierced through his abdomen. He looked down at the gaping hole. A ck w was seared with his blood and flesh. He immediately recognised the w. It was much smaller than it had been previously. Now it almost looked like a human hand. "You infidel... You actually managed to defeat me." The formerly hoarse voice was now surprisingly feminine, yet the hatred in it was as strong as ever, "I should thank you for freeing me from that wretched body, but ept my apologies for killing you first!" The dragon goddess was still alive... Chapter 226 - Stunned Arnold''s life shed in front of his eyes. All the pain, guilt, and whatnot he had buried in the back of his head came rushing forward. He saw many faces. Some he recognised, some he didn''t. Some he hated, some he didn''t. But in that moment, he couldn''t care about anything. ''It hurts...'' He wanted to say, but only blood came out of his opened mouth.?? As blood trickled down from his mouth, he could only feel unwanted pain. His body was on the verge of copsing, yet his mind didn''t give a shit. The moment he saw Tiamut''s hand piercing through his body, everything went silent. It felt like he had been living in slow motion. All of a sudden, the pain that once burned like afire slowly faded away to an icy numbness. ck filled the edges of his vision and the only thing he could hear was his heartbeat. His breath had be ragged. He couldn''t take anything but shallow gasps. Seconds passed as his legs grew powerless. He simply stood there with a cavity in his chest. Then, he heard a voice. "You''re here..." He heard a familiar voice, yet couldn''t see anything. Only darkness was in front of his eyes. ''I know that voice...'' He hasn''t heard this voice in a long time. It belonged to his mother. The mother who got killed by a low ranking monster, right in front of his eyes. ''How ironic, we both died at the hands of a monster...'' "I''m happy, my son..." His mother''s, Alessa''s voice echoed in his mind. ''What are you happy for... I''ve done nothing for you to be proud of...'' "You''re wrong. You''ve grown so strong and never gave up on your sister... Even today, you faced the threat to protect the others. How can a mother not be happy to give birth to a valiant son like you." For the first time in a while, Arnold was speechless. For all this time he had felt worthless, but now he felt like a burden had been lifted off his shoulders. "You''ve lived your live revolving around others. But it''s time to start living for yourself. You don''t need to punish yourself for what a 17-year-old child couldn''t do. You don''t need to me yourself for our demise... Not anymore. Live for yourself..." ''Isn''t it toote... I''m already dead. That''s why you''re here right?'' Arnold asked his mother. "That''s where you''re wrong. We never left you. We were always here. Your father and me, together." He felt a touch over his chest. The same ce that had been ripped open. He thought it would hurt... But the touch was so soothing. He had never felt so happy before. Then the darkness suddenly dissipated and he heard his mother''s voice onest time... ''Live your life once again son... Make us more proud, take care of your sister as well as the one you love..." ___ Passive Skill: [Sacred Protection] had activated. The user is protected by lethal damage once. The skill is now in cooldown. Cooldown: 06:23:59:59 (Days : Hours : Minutes : Seconds) ___ **** "MASTER!" Talos and the rest of the summons charged at the enemy. But it was toote. Tiamut''s ws had already dug through Arnold''s flesh. Everyone was stunned. Out of nowhere, this woman came and killed one of the warriors. There were many questions and no answers. Why would someone attack the one who saved them? This was the thought racing through their minds. Talos and the other summons knew exactly who the woman was but the rest didn''t. To them, she was just... human. A human whom Arnold had saved like them. They didn''t know it was the same dragon in disguise. It wasn''t until she released her aura that they realised who the woman was. It wasn''t their fault either. Anyone who saw her would say she was a human. The only thing which gave her away was the colour of her skin. It was reddish-brown, unlike anything they had seen before. Her 6''2" tall and muscr frame was also unique. She had a long face, a turned-up nose, thin lips, and her brown eyes were thin. The weirdest thing was her elbow-length, curly, ck and un-styled hair. It looked as if the hair hadn''t been brushed or maintained for years. Tiamut went for a second strike but before she could, Talos, Dread and Asterios attacked her from behind while Alice pulled Arnold''s body away from her. She immediately began treating his wound. Although there wasn''t much to treat anyway... yet she refused to give up. The rest of the healers tried to tell her that her master was done for, but she didn''t listen. "I won''t give up until he stops breathing!" She yelled back at them, "So, you can either help me or get lost!" There was so much emotion in her voice, the healers refused to believe that Alice was just a summon. But it wasn''t the time to debate and ultimately, Alice was right. There was a chance As long as Arnold was breathing. They too joined the efforts to save him. It was the least they could do, after all, it was Arnold who saved them. By this time, the evacuations were alreadypleted and Nina had made her way there, only to see her beloved in such a vulnerable state. All she could see was the gaping hole in his chest. But something else was happening. "Wait... What''s happening?" Alice stopped the others, "The flesh... it''s growing back!" The cavity in Arnold''s chest was getting filled on its own! His body was repairing itself... He was alive! Soon the cavity was filledpletely but Arnold didn''t wake up. Johnny had gone silent. He was still too shocked to process what happened there. Arnold''s blood had also been sttered on him, back when he pushed him back. All he could think was... ''His blood is on my hands... I... he died because of me.'' Guilt consumed him. His body was itching to recklessly charge at the woman who was already dealing with three of Arnold''s summons. But before he could, the minotaur''s decapitated head flew right by his face. "That''s what you get for disrespecting me, you levelled piece of cow dung." Tiamut spat out in disgust, "But your weapon is mighty fine. I''ll keep this gigantic hammer for myself!" After Asterios, Dread and Talos soon followed his suit. However, Talos turned into the Demon orc form and as a result, wasn''t destroyed but it was safe to assume he won''t be able to fight anymore. Arnold was still down, the healers had surrounded him but Johnny knew it was of no use. Arnold was more or less gone now... "Everyone, retreat. Take Arnold''s body and leave. I''ll try to buy you as much time as I can." "... Got it," Kolt replied and told everyone to run, something all of them were more than willing to do. Before he could retrieve Arnold''s ''corpse'' though, Tiamut let out an insane amount of murderous aura. Everyone just froze wherever they were. Johnny had bravely told them, he would buy them some time yet at that moment he couldn''t even take a step forwards. The aura she had released was too much for anyone to bear. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU''RE GOING?" Tiamut roared swinging Asterios'' Warhammer over her shoulder, "Didn''t I tell you, you''re all dying here? Let''s see who I will kill first... Ah... That mortal next to the cocky bastard would be a good start." Saying so, Tiamut casually started walking towards Nina. She walked right past Johnny and he couldn''t do anything... For the first time after gaining his strength, he was scared to move. He wanted to kill that damn woman, but he couldn''t move. He felt so useless and humiliated. He couldn''t even turn to look at what was happening behind his back. He was mortified. Finally, his legs gave out and he copsed on the ground. He looked around himself and everyone was already unconscious. ''We are doomed...'' He thought before losing consciousness himself. Tiamut, unphased by her surroundings, grabbed Nina''s neck and lifted her up. She then proceeded to p Nina twice to wake her up. As soon as Nina regained consciousness she tried to get out Tiamut''s grasp using her sword but couldn''t. Alice then threw herself at Tiamut, biting hard on her thighs. She kicked Alice down before crushing her skull. "Why are you so Hellbent on serving your dead master? Do you want to join him?" Tiamut smirked, "It doesn''t matter even if your answer is no. Your fate had already been decided." She then threw Nina down and intending to use Asterios'' Warhammer to crush her head before killing everyone else. She slowly raised the hammer over her head and mmed it down on her. But nothing happened. She tried again, but it looked like the hammer had a heart of his own... It just wouldn''te down. Then she felt it... An overwhelming aura, darker than her own. Stronger than her own. The hammer in her hands was pulled away by someone standing behind her. She reluctantly turned around... "Y-You... How are you still alive?" She asked the man standing in front of her. "I''m not in the mood for chit chat anymore." Arnold''s voice echoed throughout the ce, as his aura grew darker and stronger with every passing moment. ___ You''ve activated [DEVIL''S RAGE]. All attributes have been boosted by 400% The damage taken is reduced by 80% Rank has been temporarily boosted to Cosmic: A Duration : 5 minutes Lifetime usage remaining: 05 ___ He looked over Tiamut''s shoulder. Nina was staring back at him. "Are you hurt?" He asked. "N-No..." Even though she denied it, Arnold''s bloodshot eyes saw the finger marks around her neck and cheeks. "Do you mind holding on for a while? This won''t take long." "S-Sure, I think-" "Don''t you dare ignore me mortal!" Tiamut yelled and tried to scratch Arnold''s face but he grabbed her hand before she could do anything. "You dare put your hands on my woman and then interrupt us..." Arnold''s voice was calm, yet full of fury, "I hope you''ve said your prayers, cuz your death won''t be a quick one." The next moment, he ripped her arm apart. The same one she had pped Nina with. Tiamut screamed in agony but she couldn''t do much after that. As Arnold proceeded pped her into oblivion. Once he was done, he sent Tiamut flying upwards. "Be right back." Arnold told Nina and went after Tiamut, thinking of the most painful ways to kill her. Chapter 227 - God Killer The reporters filming the incident couldn''t believe their eyes! The tide of the battle was in their favour now. They were excitedly chattering among themselves as well as the audience who was witnessing it all through the inte and the TV. "As you can see, the mysterious female who took so many lives is now being manhandled by a single warrior!" Nancy earnestly reported the incident in her own words, "Although the rtionship between the dragon and the female is not clear yet, but it''s certain that both of them are rted in some manner. I''d request Keith to zoom in at ground zero while our pilot tries his best to keep us afloat. You can not see it, but the aura released by the lone warrior haspletely thrown us off. It''s too much for us to handle, but we will continue monitoring the situation. It''s getting more and more difficult to maintain a level head during this encounter. All I can say at this point is... This guy is not human. Looks like America has found yet another SS ranked warrior. That''s all for now. We''ll keep you updated as the battle unfolds."?? Everyone onboard the helicopter was sweating profusely. They were so far above where the real action was taking ce yet it felt like they were trekking over an active volcano. One which could burst at any moment. "Man... That''s brutal." Keith, the cameraman mumbled as he zoomed in on the battling warrior, "He''s out for blood, isn''t he." "Just be happy that someone like him is on our side. If he wasn''t, I don''t know who would be able to handle him..." Nancy mumble while gazing at the battle herself. ''Brutal doesn''t evene close to describing the scene in front of us. It''s... barbaric. That''s what it is.'' She thought. **** The term "murderer" was now reserved for psychopaths. If the killing was done for means of survival no one thought less of you. Or else they would be the next in line. There were those who took life and crumpled under the weight of guilt, even if they''d no choice. There were some who killed when necessary and never lost a wink of sleep over it. Arnold belonged to thetter category. Killing to protect him and his loved ones was like second nature to him. He didn''t care what the others thought about him, no one was a saint in this world. At least he had the guts to stand tall and face his demons while the rest cowered away. Right now, a god was his prey. Well, technically a demigod but still, a higher being than humans. Her one remaining foot was 3 inches off the ground, as blood trickled down her neck and dripped on the ground. The only thing stopping her from plummeting face down on the ground was his hand which grabbed her hair. Forcing Tiamut to look him in the eyes. ws had popped out of his bloodied hands. Around the tip of the w, the blood was dry and hard, but still, the red liquid drizzled down the girl''s face like a raindrop on a window. The cold look reflected on his face were enough to give anyone shudders. On the outside, he was calm and collected, yet on the inside, he felt like a sadist bastard. He had plummeted the proud ''Goddess of Dragons'' till she was no longer able to open her puffy eyes nor the bloodied lips. Hatred had consumed him. He seemed to have no sense of humanity left in his soul. His heart seemed to be made of stone, the way he had brutally thrashed Tiamut all over the ce to the point she stopped resisting him, was the proof of it. Apart from the news reporters, Nina was the sole witness of his barbaric actions. Even though Arnold was continuously emitting strangely dark aura, Nina felt no hostility in it. At least not for her, yet would never forget the evil and bloodlust filled glint in his eyes. Tiamut''s blood was sttered all over him. Even she could smell the blood from such a distance. All of a sudden she was reminded Of the incident in the dungeon where Arnold and Nathan had saved her. She wasn''t sure but she knew... Arnold did hold back when it came to the family. What surprised her more was that... Tiamut was still alive. Even after all that beating, she was alive. Arnold had done something she never saw him doing... He had ripped her limbs apart one after another. He continued doing it until the blood stopped flowing out of her body. "Kill... me... And be done... with it..." Tiamut''s voice now resembled a mouse, unlike the mammoth she had been before fighting with Arnold. She had admitted defeat, yet it wasn''t enough for Arnold. He wasn''t going to make it easy for her. Not one bit. But rather than saying anything, he justughed. But it wasn''t a funny one. More like pure evil, maniacalugh. Augh which sent chills down through everyone''s spine who heard it. "You still think you have some authority over me?" He threw her onto the ground before turning away. "Don''t... Leave me alive... Mortal, or else... I''ll hunt you down." Tiamut said, her voice weaker than it ever was. "You don''t need to tell me that. But killing you right away would be a waste. You destroyed my defence gear so it''s only right that I make one out of you." He replied before taking Nina''s sword from her. He then walked back to her and mounted over her body. He raised the sword to sever her ''fifth'' head, but she still had something to say to him. "Remember mortal... The moment you kill me... The rest of the demigods would hunt you down... They won''t stop... Till you''re dead-" "Cut the crap and just die already you overgrown lizard!" He swung the de at Tiamut''s neck. Decapitating her in one strong blow. Her severed head rolled to the side. When it stopped, her eyes met his for thest time. Arnold could still feel the disgust and the rage in those eyes. Her gaze, however, was interrupted by the message that popped up in front of Arnold. Confirmation that he had killed Tiamut. Once and for all. ___ You''ve killed a cosmic being. EXP: +10000 First rank B Cosmic being killed : EXP: +40000 First Demigod killed. EXP: +100,000 Bonus for defying the overwhelming odds. EXP: +70000 Threerge healing potions have been added to your inventory. Threerge Mana potions have been added to your inventory. You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [God Killer] Yes/No? ___ "Yes." The next moment, the room was filled with a blinding light. Arnold hastily covered his eyes and by the time the light subsided, the box in hands was reced by a perfect cube of shiny blue metal. Arnold quickly used the probe skill on it. ___ OBJECT: Celestial Silver TYPE: Forging Material GRADE: A REMARK: A rare metal made by the dwarfs containing God ying powers (ineffective against higher gods but even they can be mortally wounded by using a weapon forged with this material). However, this material should be handled with extreme care. Mishandling the material could lead to genocide. Also, it is said that the famed weapon ''Pashupatastra'' was made using this material. ___ Arnold was prepared to receive celestial copper from the material box as he was sure he would get that. But it looked like his luck stat was as strong as ever. He got one of the materials that he wanted from the beginning! All he needed to do was to make a weapon out of the material... "But what should I make?" He remembered Talos had told him about pashupatastra. Essentially, it was an arrowhead. But this wasn''t an era to use arrows. Yet, he could make something simr out of it. Bullets. But these wouldn''t be ordinary bullets. He might not be able to use the Vindicator to fire them. This he would need a special gun too. Luckily, he had an abundance of materials to make a weapon as he had just killed a Dragon. Not just any dragon either, he had killed their damned goddess. He wouldn''t run out of material even if he made a full set of armour from those materials. The creationist within him was burning with inspiration. He hadn''t felt like it for a long time and now he was back in business. Chapter 230 - The Egg Hatches Back in the domain... "At least you''re functioning as usual." Arnold smiled.?? ___ The creature is absorbing the nutrients from the blood... Hunger diminishes... The creature isn''t hungry anymore. The creature has sessfully absorbed the nutrients from the blood of Cosmic A ranked mutated monster. Attributes Increased! HP: +5000 Strength (STR): +60 Defense (DEF): +45 Agility (AGI): +48 Intelligence (INT): +33 The blood of the monster contains 4patible ability. The creature can learn a new ability from ''Tiamut''s blood''! ? Yes or ?No ___ "Just four? I thought there would be more... Either way, let''s do this." Arnold mumbled, "Yes." ___ The creature is learning the abilities... Abilities learnt sessfully! ? [Corrosive Breath] : (Active ability) upon use, shrouds the area in thick mist having corrosive properties. This skill is especially effective while fighting against heavily armoured opponents. Its corrosive nature can destroy any armour apart from the ss armours. Can affect friends and foes alike. [ Rank: Cosmic C ] [Mana cost: 1000/per use] [Cooldown: 1 day] ? [Arctic Breath]: (Active ability) Summons the power of Jotunheim and releases a cold burst of ice. Uponing in contact, the target''s lose their mobility and agility is reduced by up to 50%. Can affect multiple targets at once. [ Rank: A ] [Mana cost: 100/per use] [Cooldown: 10 minutes] ? [Dragon''s Will]: (Passive ability) When the HP is down to 30%, the skin of the user hardens, gaining 50% damage reduction and 45% increase in defence. Lasts for 2 minutes. [ Rank: Cosmic D ] [Mana cost: 200/per use] [Cooldown: 7 minutes] ? [Hh]: (Active ability) Unleashed the most potent and venomous poison in the universe. Upon contact, paralyses the target. If the target is not detoxified within 5 seconds, their insides get burnt beyond repair. Once the five seconds pass, not even the goddess of healing can bring back their doomed souls. Due to prior consumption, the Higher God''s have some resistance to this poison, but even they are not immune to its effects. [ Rank: Cosmic A] [Mana cost: 10000/per use] [Cooldown: 6 months] ___ "At least, the egg got one of the abilities I wanted it to have." Arnold sighed in relief, "Those overpowered abilities are a pain in the butt. Still, it sucks Talos can''t resurrect the self-proimed goddess. She would''ve been a great addition to my army. Well, I think he can try it again, once I''ve ascended." A few minutes ago... The moment Arnold got back into, he had wanted to start working on making a relic. But there were some issues. One, the construction of the new forge inside his void (inside the Avalon to be precise) wasn''tplete yet. Talos and the other automatons were diligently working on it now as they had been interrupted due to themotion at the ck estate. So it might take a couple of more days to finish it up. Second, Arnold wanted to resurrect Tiamut and have her as his summon. She was stronger than anyone on earth at the moment and Arnold didn''t want to waste the opportunity. Thus he and Talos went to resurrect Tiamut''s human body. Arnold didn''t want to resurrect the dragon''s body as he was nning on using that body to upgrade and build new weapons and gear. The fight with the demigod had proved that although his gears could be considered the best of the best, they weren''t enough to take down higher beings. Arnold was fairly sure more higher beings would start popping up soon. At least, that''s the pattern had been so far. Tiamut''s dying words also backed up what Arnold was thinking. She had warned him that the demigods would target him now and if their powers were anywhere near Tiamut''s power, Arnold didn''t know how he would be able to handle them alone because the others, including his summons, have proved to be useless against them. At least for now. That''s why he needed stronger gears. Arnold was also thinking about upgrading Talos. He wasn''t nning on doing anything extraordinary, but something simple enough to let him have a fighting chance on his own. So far all of his transformations have long ranged damaging abilities. Even though the Demon Orc form has a pretty sturdy defence, it can''t deal much damage if Talos isn''t able to use the spikes on its back. Another point that came out in the open while fighting against Tiamut. Either way, back to Tiamut. Talos and Arnold tried resurrecting the Goddess but couldn''t do it. Initially, Arnold thought Talos couldn''t do it because the corpse wasn''t ''intact'', as Arnold had beheaded her. The reality, however, was far from that. Earlier whenever Talos had tried resurrecting someone who had been mutted or whose body wasn''t intact, his system notified him about the issue. However, now that the system was on standby till hepleted the ascension quest, he had no way of knowing what was happening wrong. Arnold thought it was happening because the body wasn''t intact. Thus he wanted to use that corpse as material to forge as well. But Talos expressed his doubts, stating, "It doesn''t feel to be that case..." "What do you mean?" Arnold asked the automaton, he was intrigued by how Talos used the word ''feel''. After all, he wasn''t capable of feeling anything. Talos then proceeded to exin what he thought was happening. As unlike Arnold, Talos didn''t have a system but he had a theory. "It could be that the rules for resurrection applied to mortal beings not higher ones. I think the elder mentioned it once but I could be wrong. I know it sounds absurd, but what isn''t absurd in this world?" "It is an interesting theory. But even if it''s true, we can''t wait to see if it''s right or not. Remember we still need to prepare ourselves for the swamps. And believe me when I tell you, it will be one hell of a war." Arnold smiled, squatting next to Tiamut''s corpse, "Even if we can''t resurrect her, we can still use her." Saying so, Arnold took some of her blood and smeared it on Talos'' transformation rune. But unlike before, nothing happened. Talos looked kind of confusedand so did Arnold until... ___ Caution! A lesser being cannot take the form of a higher being. For transformation to beplete, the being should be either of the same categories as the one transforming or lower. Your summon, cannot take the form of a Demigod until you have ascended to the same level and upgrade your summons. ___ "What happened, master?" Talos inquired. "Looks like your theory might be correct." Arnold scratched the back of his head, "It''s all rted to my ascension quest. But I could try to feed the blood to the egg. I just hope it works. After that, just store the bodies. It''s good that bodies don''t decay in the domain." Back to now... Arnold turned around to leave. The golems were busy disassembling the dragon''s corpse outside so he needed to head back and supervise them. But as he turned around, he heard something crack. ''No freaking way... It still had a week left before hatching. Then why?'' Arnold thought and slowly turned back to face the egg and as he did, another message popped up in front of his eyes. ___ The wyvern egg has reached its maximum potential. The egg will hatch now. ___ "DUKE, TALOS, EVERYONE! DROP WHATEVER YOU''RE DOING AND GET YOUR ASS IN HERE BEFORE THE EGG HATCHES!" Arnold roared through the radio. Chapter 231 - Scylla (1) "Carefully, don''t drop the egg before it hatches, will you?" Arnoldmanded Talos, Bad-Breath and duke who were helping him carrying the egg outside. The egg was heavy and more than he could handle by himself. It would''ve been easier and quicker if Dread or Asterios could get in the building, but sadly their size made it impossible for them to enter the building. Arnold swore he would do something about it as soon as he got free from the ascension quest as well as the swamps.?? All this time the cracking sound kepting from the egg. It was just a moment before the egg would pop up and who knows what woulde crawling out of it. Most probably it would be a wyvern or something closely rted to it. At least that''s what he thought. ''Just don''t open now... Just don''t open now...'' Arnold kept thinking as the trio rushed out the Avalon, with everyone else rushing behind them. The four of them soon managed to get the egg out of the building and then Dread helped them carry the egg further away from the building. Arnold didn''t want to take any chances. More like, he didn''t want Avalon to get destroyed. Not anytime soon. Once the egg was ced down, everyone moved further away. As they were inside Arnold''s domain, even if things went south the summons wouldn''t need to get involved and use their weapons. However, they were ready to subdue the beast in case their master wanted or needed them to. Arnold couldn''t say they were overreacting either. After all the different types of blood he had fed the egg, it wouldn''t surprise him even a bit if the beast went berserk. With his protective gears gone, he too had the vindicators out to help him out. Just in case. "What do you think Talos, what woulde out of the egg?" Arnold asked his most trusted and valued creation, who had his digital eyes fixated on the giant egg. "There is a 21% chance it will be a Dragon. 39% chance it would be an evolved wyvern. And 40% chance it would be a normal wyvern. But I don''t think that''ll be the case considering all the blood the master has fed it along with the creature''s lineage." "As calctive as ever, I see." Arnold mumbled, "You''ve had your eyes on the egg for some time, haven''t you?" "I won''t say it hasn''t intrigued my interest. Oh, there''s another crack on it." "What''s up with this drama and crap." Bad-Breath yawned. He felt out of ce there and the creature was taking too much time toe out, "Should punch it once or twice? It would help the egg break right?" Bad-Breath took a step towards the egg, only to meet with sharp gazes from Arnold. "Who knows, maybe it doesn''t want toe out because it smelt you from a distance. You know wyvern and dragons have a strong sense of smell and you... Well, when was thest time you smelt good?" Arnold sniggered and so did the rest of them. "I''m sorry, BB, it was a bad attempt at humour but please stay where you were. The creature would make its way out of the egg on its own. You don''t need to worry about that." For the first time, even Bad-Breath smiled at the joke made on himself. Whether he was finally realising how bad he smelled or he had resigned on his fate was a different matter altogether. Still, he was changing and Arnold appreciated it. The way Arnold had ushered them out along with the egg, they thought it was only a matter of time before the egg hatched at a new member was added to the family- ahem, added to the army. But it had been a while since then and except a few cracks here and there, nothing much had changed. A few minutester... The cracks were appearing more frequently now, but that was it. Nothing came out of the eggshell. Everyone had circled around the egg and had made themselvesfortable on the floor. "Come on dude... Come out already." Arnold mumbled. Talos and a few of the automatons left to continue building the forge while the rest happily chatted among themselves. Also, Dread and Asterios had left to spar with each other as usual. Alice and Natasha along with Cerberus were keeping himpany while Duke had transformed into the troll chieftain and was practising his shooting skill. Bad-Breath was surprisingly teaching the undead basics of brawling. Something Arnold had seen for the first time and Bad-Breath was surprisingly good at teaching too. Everyone was busy doing their stuff and all of a sudden Arnold felt tremorsing from the egg. ___ The creature woulde out of its shell any moment now. Please step back. ___ The moment this text appeared in front of him. He told everyone to back away and the next minute a stream of steam covered them up followed by an explosive sound. By the time the steam condensed, the egg had already shattered in half and in front of it stood the most majestic creature Arnold had ever seen. This creature had an elegant, long body with a slender tail and neck. Its scales were the colour resembling fine jade. It had short limbs with four syed digits on each foot that end in short ws. It had frill-like ck wings ran from its shoulders to the middle of its tail. A row of bony knobs also ran from the base of its skull to its shoulders. The creature''s head was elongated and its had a tiny mouth had a pronounced overbite. It had tiny nostrils located unusually far back on its snout and its hooded eyes that were bronze. The back of the creature''s head and neck was protected by a thickyer bone. While tendrils surrounded its mouth. A bony ridge separated its nostrils from the face. Two short horns just like Tiamut''s extend straight up from its forehead. Most weirdly... The creature''s chest was glowing blue like it had swallowed the sun or something. But Arnold immediately recognised the colour. It was the same colour as Vritra''s hellfire. ''It''s Vritra''s offspring alright... But how the heck is he bigger than her. Hell, it''s even bigger than Dread!'' The dragon-like creature saw Arnold and immediately charged at him. Arnold hastily pulled the guns out but the creature was in front of his face before he could do anything. Cerberus rushed in, however, the creature remained unphased by it, the creature opened it''s mouth and proceeded to lick Arnold''s face! ___ Due to the time spent with the creature, it has recognised you as his master. Congrattions on obtaining your first mystical four-legged friend! ___ "Talk about weird..." Arnold let out a sigh of relief before petting his new ''friend''. Chapter 232 - Scylla (2) ___ CLASS: Dragon?? NAME: ??? LEVEL: 129 COSMIC RANK: B ROLE: Tank/Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Hellfire (Active skill) ? Arctic Rage (Active skill) ? Corrosive Breath (active skill) HP: 50000/50000 STRENGTH (STR) : 189 DEFENSE (DEF) : 200 STAMINA (STA) : 210 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 89 AGILITY (AGI) : 90 ACCURACY (ACC) : 100 EVADE (EVD) : 67 CHARISMA (CHA): 88 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (30% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, ranged attacks, Bludgeoning Weak Against: Scorching THREAT LEVEL: none. Remark: You''re really thinking about the threat level? Why would you feel threatened by your pet? You seriously need to go and get yourself checked out, your brain isn''t in the right ce. That is if you have one. And before you ask, yes, it''s a she. Capish? ___ Arnold ignored the system''s illogical remarks and proceeded reread about the dragon''s stats and abilities. ''Feeding her Tiamut''s blood paid off. Her stats just skyrocketed!'' Arnold thought while Gently patting the dragon''s enormous head. Initially, Arnold was being conscious about the dragon and thought she wouldn''t get along with the rest. But boy was he wrong. He had expected the dragon tosh out and go berserk but here she was wagging her tail like a lost puppy. The others were having fun with her too. However when Bad-Breath tried approaching her... The dragon kinda threw up on him... It was safe to say, that she (the dragon) didn''t like his smell but Arnold could say that the feelings were mutual. Bad-Breath didn''t like her either and Arnold couldn''t me him. After all, he wouldn''t like someone who threw up on him either. ___ Would you like to name the dragon? YesorNo? ___ "Name her, huh?" Arnold mumbled. He had previously thought about various badass names as he was sure he would be asked to name the whatever creature came out of the egg but now that he got to meet the dragon, he wasn''t sure those names suited her personality anymore. She just wasn''t like what he was expecting, at all. "How about... Scy?" (Author''s note: Scy means ''Dragon monster''s in Greek and yes, I changed the dragon''s name as well as the title of the chapter. Sorry for any inconvenience.) ___ Request Acknowledged. The Dragon has been renamed as Scy. ___ While Arnold was naming her, he realised a big problem. His summons living in the domain were either dead, made by him or created by his abilities. All in all, no one inside was alive and hence they didn''t need to eat for survival. Unlike Scy. Arnold wasn''t even sure what even did the dragons feed upon, to begin with. ___ Dragons are carnivorous being. ___ ''That should''ve been obvious... Sigh, what wrong with me?'' That meant he would have to feed her monster meat. He wasn''t going to feed her human flesh. No sir. And luckily, he had an abundance of corpses to feed Scy. Now since that was taken care of he started thinking about the next thing, Amodation. Although Scy was huge, she wouldn''t have any problems with living inside the domain for now. Arnold didn''t want anyone to know about his monster pet. Enough rumours were travelling about him, thrashing his image, and he didn''t want to add fuel to the fire. Only God knows how everyone would react once they discovered he had befriended a dragon. Moreover, the domain was huge. Scy could even fly whenever she wanted. There were no restrictions or anything. Also, he wanted Scy to be his secret weapon and so he decided it was best for her to stay in the domain. For now at the very least. Scy soon got busy ''ying'' with his summons, especially Asterios. It wasn''t much of ''ying'' because Asterios was get thrashed all over the ce. It was then Talos approached Arnold. Arnold had handed the Celestial silver cube to Talos so that he could analyse it before Arnold started working on the metal. "So what do you think?" Arnold asked Talos while he analysed the celestial silver cube onest time. "Master can forge bullets out of it if he pleases to but," Talos replied, "It might not be a good idea to use generic guns to fire those." "I thought the same thing." Arnold stroked her bearded chin, "The guns might get destroyed when I use them. Although Vindicator is tough and can be used as a ''club''. I don''t think it''ll be enough to handle firing a God ying bullet." Talos handed the cube back to his master before replying, "That''s one of the issues master, but the bigger issue is the range of the explosion." "Range of explosion?" "Yes, master. Essentially, this cube is a handheld nuke. Actually, it''s way worse than that. But that being said, the range of explosion varies with the amount of material used. Yet if we use too little material, then it might not be enough to kill something like Tiamut. Yet if we used too much it can destroy half of the continent. Not to mention, master, you might not be immune to the effects of the weapon either. If you fire the weapon at a close range, chances are you could perish along with your target." "Okay, so what do you suggest? A should use a sniper rifle or something?" "A sniper would be perfect." Talos replied looking at Scy yfully bitting Asterios'' tail, "I can''t believe that, that thing is a monster. No offence." "Haha, don''t worry about it. She might be yful but she is deadlier than anyone of you. So please try not to let anyone piss her off in my absence, will you? I don''t want toe here and see that Avalon has been destroyed or never mind, you get the gist." Arnold waved his hand around and stored the cube in his inventory. "I''ll try my best not to disappoint you." Talos gave Arnold a quick bow. Both of them went back to observing the Dragon. Tiamut''s body had been disassembled. He now knows exactly what he wanted to make out of the material block. The forge was about to bepleted and with Scy''s addition to his private army, he was ready to take down the swamp. Life was going good. Well as good as one could expect it to be. The only thing bugging him now was the unidentified individual or organisation which helped the Brazilians attack him. Devon was his only suspect till now and once they had taken care of the swamps he could interrogate him to know the truth. But he couldn''t help thinking, what if it was someone else? An enemy he didn''t know existed? These were the questions he couldn''t get the answer to. Not for now at least. But he could enjoy the moment he was having now and hopefully, everything would go as nned. Chapter 233 - Stranger After taking care of everything, Arnold stepped out of the domain. It was afternoon now, but he felt like an entire day had passed, but he was gone for only a few hours. Staying inside the domain for extended periods might not be a good idea. But he needed to escape reality. He walked up to the man-sized window in his room and poked his head out to get some fresh air. The day was picture perfect. Just the way it was depicted in movies. Even the birds were having the time of their lives. The skyscrapers shone silver in the sun and the sky was an unbroken backdrop of blue. The family members were roaming around still repairing the damage done by the White Wolves. Had Arnold used the automatons the process would''ve been quicker but he needed them to make the forge as soon as possible. He couldn''t spare a single one of them. But the men there were also doing amendable job. A few of them were training themselves. Maybe Tiamut had knocked some sense into them. Allen had also joined them. ?? "At least now they''ll be in a better shape than before. Everything happens for good, I think?" Arnold mumbled as his gaze then fell on the sky above. It was one of those baby-blue skies, not the candy-blue nor the greyish sky he had been watching for a few days. The clouds were as puffs of radiant joy, ready to disperse into the wind, to travel our Earth. He closed his eyes as the sun embraced his skin. Arnold felt himself getting lost in the beauty of the nature. It was so pure, so surreal. Maybe he felt this way because of his Light affinity. Regardless, he wanted to enjoy it more, but unbeknownst to him, his luck had run out. Soon the reporters standing far entrance saw him smiling at the window through their cameras. By the time Arnold noticed them, he knew it was toote. The shit storm was about to hit him hard. He briefly panicked a bit but then Nathaniel''s words of encouragement eventually found their way through his head. "That''s right. I''ve put up with this enough. Time to show them who they are messing with." Arnold closed the window and went toy on the bed. He was tired after all that work in the domain and needed to shut his eyes for a bit. Also, the evening was going to be hectic. After all, it was the day the syndicate was going to reveal its n to take back the swamps in the foreseeable future. It was also the ce where he was going to address the nation and the world about the attack on them. He was sure some media houses would try their best to drag him through mud, but he already had a n in ce. He had put up with them for days but now things were getting out of hand. He had been understanding and patient with them, but if they don''t want to understand why he did what he did, then he didn''t need to considerate about what they''ll think or do either. They didn''t have the guts to question Johnny as they did to him and the only reason being he didn''t take crap from anyone. By remaining quiet, Arnold had been unintentionally enabling the ones to get away with whatever they wanted to call or say about him. But he was at his breaking point. In the end, he couldn''t sleep. Not while his brain was rushing wildly. And it was good he didn''t because he had a visitor. It was Nicole. He no longer viewed her as his sister. Not after what she tried to do to him back at the Alpha base. There was no forgiving that. Thus she was nothing more than a visitor. Still, he couldn''tpletely avoid her, sister or not, they were still part of the same family. Maybe, she had now realised he wasn''t just a weak section chief like she thought he was. After all, not every human can take down a God on their own. And now Arnold was sure that even with his system was functioning at the bare minimum, he could easily take her down since her strongest ability doesn''t work on him. Nicole silently entered the room when Arnold told her too. But she wasn''t alone. Nina was there too. Maybe to smooth things over, but Arnold wasn''t going to head that way. The way he saw it, if Nicole hadn''t done what she did, he wouldn''t have been so desperate to gain power at force himself to learn a mythical affinity which in the end, almost cost him his life. Nicole wasn''t at fault but he didn''t give a crap about it. "I-I wanted to apologize for all the pain and trouble I''ve cost to you. I know things got out of hand but I want to let you know if you ever need my help I''ll be ready to do so." To her credit, Nicole seemed remorseful or at least she was acting her part. "It''s all fine. I''m not upset. Not even a bit." Arnold replied. Nina ced her hand on Nicole''s shoulder, who tightly held on it. ''Finally, things are getting better.'' Nina thought, happy that they could finally forget about the past and move forward like a family. But Arnold wasn''t done yet. "I mean, I can''t get upset about everything a stranger said or do to me, right?" He shrugged his shoulders and continued, "People will keep badmouthing you, but you have to move ahead. That''s life." "What do you mean a stranger? She''s your sister, Arnold!" Nina eximed. She was horrified with what Arnold was trying to say... Well, she knew exactly what he wanted to say but her mind was in denial. Even Nicole who had momentarily cheered up was now back at feeling how she was before. "What do you mean? Really?" Arnoldughed sarcastically, "She should be thankful that I''m even willing to treat her like a stranger after the crap she has done. She''s an adult and it''s time she learnt choice have consequences. She made hers and now I''m making mine." "Brother... Please..." Tears started rolling off Nicole''s redden cheeks "Don''t call me that. I''m not your brother. Having a sister means you can trust her but after what you did thest time, there''s no way I''ll be trusting you anytime soon." Arnold made his stance clear, "Don''t get me wrong. Someday, maybe someday, I''ll be able to trust you again and we''ll move on and forget about it all. But I don''t see that happening anytime soon. So please, don''t try to force an unwanted rtionship on him. As far as I''m concerned, I don''t have a sister anymore." "I... Understand." Nicole mumbled and ran out of the room. Nina was in disbelief! Whenever she tried to smooth things over, they end up bing messier. But this time she wasn''t letting it go. "Why do you always have to be such a-" "Jerk? That''s what you''re calling me now?" Arnold cut Nina off. "Yes! Why are you behaving like you don''t care about her anymore?" "Let me ask you this, would you care about someone who tried to kill you?" "How''s that even rted to this?" "Just answer me." "No, of course not." "Well, there you have your answer," Arnold said and rolled over pretending to be sleepy. Only then it dawned upon her what Arnold was trying to tell her but Nicole would never do such a thing! Why would she ever try to harm him, her own brother? Surely she wouldn''t... "She would never do that..." She mumbled awkwardly staring at Arnold''s back. "That''s what I thought as well. Now if you will, please let me sleep. I''m already tired." Chapter 234 - Enough (1) As evening cast her dusky gown, and the air became fresh and restful, the time for the press conference had arrived and so was the crowd of reporters, syndicate official, and a selected few slowly gathered inside the estate. The conference was set to start within the hour. There Nathan would disclose the syndicate''s idea of retaking the swamps within the next month. For obvious reasons, he wasn''t going into the depth and was supposed to only state the purpose of the sudden attack, not the reasons behind it. Nor was he going to disclose their ns on how they were nning on confronting lethal monsters at the disadvantageous swampy grounds. It was all to be treated as top secret as Devon might be listening intently to the broadcast and they can not let him be aware that the n to retake swamp was only to either take him in custody or kill him then and there.?? Once Nathan was done, it would be Arnold''s turn to address the nation about the recent affairs regarding Tiamut and maybe his abnormal strength. Talos was helping his master prepare a ''speech'' while Alice had taken it upon herself to make Arnold look his best. He never intended to use his summons for this purpose but now he was d he had people to help him out unconditionally. Especially after what happened in the afternoon. He wasn''t proud of himself for what he did. But he knew it was necessary. He can''t just let everyone walk over him as they pleased. He wasn''t always going to be a ''nice guy'', and if they can''t ept him the way he was then he wasn''t even sure why the heck do they ever bother talking to him. All he could do at this point was to try to be civil and cordial with Nicole. It was either that or he''d have to cut her from his life entirely. Which he knew wasn''t possible. "You know, you can always talk to us if something''s bothering you." Alice smiled as she helped him wear his tuxedo, "After all, we''re a team and if you''re not at your 100% neither would we." "It''s... Nothing much. Just some family drama." Arnold mumbled as Talos walked him through his speech for the third time. "Nicole?" Alice asked. Arnold silently nodded while looking over the speech Talos had prepared for him. He had asked both Talos and Alice to apany him to the conference as hispanions. Thus he had got them a couple of outfits to choose from. Talos decided to wear a tuxedo, identical to the one Arnold was wearing. At first, he was hesitant. His reasoning was simple, "I don''t have any genitalia why should I on covering my metal body?" Arnold had a hard time exining it to him. But atst, Talos relented and agreed to follow the etiquettes of the asion. Alice, however, wasn''t any trouble at all and decided to go for an elegant ck off-shoulder dress. Arnold wasn''t afraid of admitting it that she looked alluring. Now he knew why the guys at Flying Swords were always ogling at her. She was stunning, even though when her beauty had scaled down a bit due to being converted into his summon, still she looked prettier than ever before. Yet at that moment he couldn''t help but feel sad for her too. After all, for all intent and purposes, she was dead. ''I need to focus on the task at hand...'' Arnold shook his head and went back to reading the speech. Soon one of the butlers came to fetch him. Apparently, the function had been preponed and was starting immediately. Arnold politely told him he would be there shortly and the butler left. He took a moment for himself. He was ready for both calm and chaos. But he knew the moment he stepped on the stage the reporters would go haywire, especially after the announcement he was going to make afterwards. After that, the trio left the room and headed towards the Hall which had been converted to amodate the guests for the asion. The moment Nathan walked onto the stage, everyone hastily took their respective seats and waited for him to start the proceedings. "First of all, I''d like to wee you all to my family''s humble abode and thank you for taking time off your busy schedules to join us tonight." Nathan spoke through the podium, "Now with the pleasantries aside, let''s dive headfirst into what you all are here for. As you all know on this day, four years ago, we lost a battle against humanity''s worst enemies. We know them by various names, monsters, beasts, demons and whatnot. But their goals are one and the same: humanity''s extinction." "Four years ago, we lost some of our finest warriors against the unforeseen enemies and poor leadership. But they weren''t the only ones to die either. We lost millions of soul that fateful day and we still do. We have been gettingfortable in our lives forgetting that the danger is still lingering around. The incident a few days ago was the biggest example of it." Nathan continued as everyone sat there in utter silence, "Honestly, I feel all of us are nothing but a pathetic excuse for human beings... I''m sure those who lost their lives trying to save us all areughing at us. They didn''t deserve to die. They deserve to be here with us and raise a toast with us, instead, here we are mourning for their deaths but still refusing to do the right thing. For thest 4 years." "We couldn''t even avenge them. We let our enemies conquer ournds and do as they pleased with us and all we did was to step back and keep doing so until most of ournd was overrun with monsters. The same monsters who killed our friends and family, the same monsters who defiled ournds, the same monsters who we looked down upon. But not anymore. Tonight,I pledge to avenge the fallen soul till I have drop blood coursing through my veins. Tonight, I pledge to reim what was lost. Tonight, I dere war against the swamps!" Cheers rose into the air as the greatest of celebratory firework explosions. Everyone was cheering at the top of their lungs. So much so, that the reporters couldn''t even get a word in. The swamps had always been an eyesore for everyone. Reminding them of their failure, even among the privileged crowd. But now that the syndicate had announced about the remation of the forgottennds, everyone was emotional and relieved at the same time. It took quite a while for the crowd of warriors to calm down before the reporters could ask questions. Chapter 235 - Enough (2) Everyone eventually calmed down. Soon the reporters were asking questions after questions to Nathan who refused to give away any information regarding their ns. Mostly because there was no n. Still, the reporters kept scratching the surface in hopes of something out of him. But couldn''t. His lips were sealed shut. The reporters eventually got the clue and started asking different questions which Nathan happily answered. The first question to be asked was an obvious one, "The former government of United States of America, had already tried to retake the swamps which ended up as beingbelled as ''Thedeliberate massacre''. So what makes you think this time would be any different?"?? Nathan smiled. He had been expecting this question and he was more than prepared to answer it too. "We have been preparing for it since the failure of our first attack. He has more or less upgraded our pieces of equipment and gears to provide us with an advantage over the dwelling reptilians on the swamps." "What type of gears are you talking about? Could you please rify on that?" Another reporter chimed in. "I''m afraid I cannot. But I assure you, the gears have been tested and have proven to be highly efficient against the monsters." Nathan rified. "Can you give us any information about where did you conduct these experiments?" Nancy asked. "I''m afraid that''s ssified information." Nathan cut her off and went further with the next reporter in line. "Sir, with all due respect, you''re behaving like the monsters are watching this conference." Nancy smirked while the other reporters joined in with her, "I can assure you, no monsters have asubscription to any of our media houses." Almost all of the reporters simultaneously let out a chuckle. Even Nathan joined them. "That''s a good one ma''am. But I''d like to tell you, monsters aren''t the ones we are concerned with right now." Nathan smiled as the others were confused about what he meant to say. He had unintentionally hinted at Devon. Luckily the reporters had no way of knowing about him. Before the things got out of hand, Nathan rushed to clear the confusion. "Ahem. I''m sure all of you know about the recent incident at the Griffith observatory. So I''ll keep this short. If you think that, that incident was caused naturally, then you''re wrong." Once again he had all the attention on himself, "That situation arose because of a group of people who call themselves, ''The White Wolves'', decided to screw us over." "We are still interrogating them but so far we have been able to get only a little information from them. One of the detainees informed that someone within our country helped them. The unknown individual or organization not only helped them get here undetected but unleash hell over Los Angeles. We are still trying to find their identity. That''s the reason why we are trying to protect the information about the uing raid as we don''t want anyone to meddle in national affairs." As soon as Nathan ended his little speech, multiple reporters immediately shot their hands up. They wanted to ask many questions regarding the matter but to their dismay, Nathan signalled them to sit back. "I know all of you have various questions about it. But since I wasn''t present there it wouldn''t be fair if I end up watering things down, even a bit. Thus I would like to call upon someone who not only witnessed it all happen right before his eyes but was also the reason why we all are still alive and kicking. The American hero, Mr Arnold ck." The Hall erupted with apuse as Nathan left the centre stage and Arnold walked up to the podium. Under the spotlights, upon that stage, Arnold stood to answer the reporters, half of them were looking at him like starved hyenas. They didn''t even wait for him toplete what he was saying and immediately jumped at him with ufortable questions. "Mr Arnold, how do feel with innocent blood on your hands?" "Did you intentionally withhold your powers to gain fame after ''defending''LA?" "If you could kill the monster from the get-go, why didn''t you?" There was a multitude of questions which deliberately portrayed him in a bad light. These questions were framed to drag him deeper in the mud. The only reporter who hadn''t joined in was Nancy, as she had witnessed the scene with her eyes. The rest of the reporters, however, were hovering over him like a bunch of scavengers. Waiting for him to lose his cool. Nathan had expected something like this but they were going too far. He signalled the officials to end the conference but just when he was about to escort Arnold out of there, Arnold stopped him. "I now understand," Arnold mumbled in the mic and everyone got silent. His voice was cold and hostile, "I now understand how ungrateful y''all can be. You want to know why I didn''t use my powers?" No one had the guts to speak anymore. Not after feeling the aura leaking through his body. "I didn''t use it because I cannot control it. Notpletely. Had I gone out of control, would you take the responsibility for it? Ask Johnny what happens when I go berserk. He had witnessed it first hand." Arnold continued, "Moreover if I had used the powers and the dragon would''ve grown cautious of me, then how was I supposed to kill it? Do anyone of you have answers to my questions?" He scanned through the crowd, yet no one could answer him. "ming someone is very easy. But it isn''t so easy when you have to put yourself in their shoe, now, is it? I know no matter what I say or do, people would keep ming me for your shorings, and now I''ve had enough. As some of you have said, you deserve better than me. You''re right. I''m not capable of defending you and that''s why I''ve decided to retire once the issue with the swamps has been dealt with. Thank you for your time." Arnold dropped the bombshell on them and walked off the stage. Chapter 236 - Decision Stars shone as sugar spilt over ck marble, glistening in the sun. The night sky was such a wee sight, appearing like magic at each sunset, promising to return as she faded in dawn''s first light. There were times in the daytime, under skies of blue, Nina would think of those faraway stars and how they''d return after the shadows blended into the dark. This was one of such moments. The press conference had been over some time ago. Yet there she was, sipping vintage wine alone under the light of the millions of stars. She was thinking about the man she thought she apparently knew the more than anyone else, yet no matter how hard she tried to look for hidden desire behind his actions, she just couldn''t find any. First, it was Nicole and now the sudden announcement for retirement. She was confused more than ever.?? She knew the people who had been ming Arnold were going to get silenced by his actions. The best part? Arnold gave them exactly what they wanted yet they were the ones who couldn''t ept his decision. Why? Because they knew if in future another simr situation arose like a monster even deadlier than Tiamut, they would''ve next to no chance of making it alive. Not with how the Warriors have been dealing with monsters until now. Besides, having Arnold around was like having a walking life insurance, like having a giant, green hulking monster as your bodyguard. But with him out of the picture, there was no way for them to reassure themselves for their safety. Arnold was something special and she wasn''t afraid to admit that. Soon after Arnold''s announcement, all hell broke loose. As expected. It took the people a few minutes to realize what had just happened. By the time, they came to their senses, Arnold had already walked off the stage and disappeared in thin air. Nathan''s surprised face told them that even he didn''t have any idea about his n. All of them there, from the members of the family to the reporters had facial expression resembling surprised Pikachu face. Shock can be good, can be bad, yet it is always a signal that a change in the game is required. But Arnold changed the entire game with one statement. Now most of the nation which had either silently supported him or tried to remain neutral, immediately turned against Arnold''s haters. Soon the hatements were drowned into words of encouragement. But words were not enough to express themselves and with Arnold nowhere to be seen, it was way more difficult to calm everyone down. The thick-skinned reporters were still trying to me him for ''not owning up to the standards of a national hero''. Nathan wasn''t going to let them say whatever they liked anymore. Not while they were busy doing that on his front porch. Nathan took to the stage and let it all out. He said how the ones Arnold saved were the ones to let him down the most. Including him. "I am shocked by what he said," Nathan continued, "but I''m not surprised. Every man has a breaking point and with what all of you have been saying about him on his face and behind his back was more than sufficient to force him to make this decision. I''ve seen how passionate he is about saving everyone he can no matter the cost and what did you do? You called him an opportunist, a coward, even a psychotic nuisance and still believe he''ll go through all that to endanger his life saving you two-faced ungrateful pieces of sh*ts?" Everyone silently saw Nathan burn the haters down. And he was pissed. "Not once I heard you call him a hero before you pounced on him like a bunch of hyenas and now that he left he suddenly became ''the nation''s hero''? Do you have no boundaries? No limits?" One of the reporters signalled the cameraman to cut off the feed. A couple of them followed his example. "Don''t you dare." Johnny roared from the back and the camera crew instantly froze on their spot. Afraid of even moving a finger. The country needed to know Arnold''s side as well. It was the reason why Nathan had called him on the stage in the first ce. Sadly, these people didn''t even let him talk properly. While all of this was happening, Nathan continued making the nation realise it''s faults but seeing that his words were falling on dead ears, he finally relented and officially ended the conference. It was then all hell broke loose over the inte. People were taking sides, ming each other, yet most of the people refused to understand what their fault was in all of this mess. But they did realise if Arnold did what he said he would, then only God knows what they''ll do if another dragon or something worse came out of a dungeon. But it didn''t matter anymore because Arnold had already left West America and went to the Alpha base. He needed a ce where he wasn''t judged based on assumptions. As much as he didn''t want to think about it, someone like him was supposed to be in the wastnd not in some judgemental ''higher society''. He needed to be around people who he could trust. Also, he needed to do something. Something he had been wanting to do for a long time. Once he was there, he went to visit Amanda. The effect of coaxing blood could be over at any time now. Luckily, the cooldown of his Blood Bond skill had reset a while ago so he didn''t have much to worry about. He went inside her room. She quickly greeted him and went about exining the progress at the base in detail. Once she was done, Arnold grappled her as she willingly let him do as he pleased. ''Good looks like she''s still under the influence of the blood.'' Arnold thought, ''At least it made my life a bit easier.'' But soon, the tantrum began with her breath turning from quiet and regr to a panting gasp. Arnold''s nails grew in size and turned blood red. His right hand turned pitch ck, exactly like the way it had when he had used the ability on Allen. As usual, a warning shed before his eyes. ___ WARNING ? If for some reason the bond isn''t able to form, it might lead the target to lose all his/her sense and may or may not go berserk. if during this time the target harms someone else, the user of this skill would be penalised for the target''s actions. Do you still want to continue? Yes or No ___ "Just do it already!" Arnold gritted his teeth as his nails prated through Amanda''s soft skin but not a drop of blood came out it. Amanda started struggling frantically. She sucked at the air like it had suddenly be thick and was now almost too difficult to draw into her lungs. In her attempts, she managed to grab his arms but by then it was irreversible. The process had already begun. Her vision soon started to fade away. She felt like her strength was being taken away. Yet she kept struggling. Until the pupils of her eyes could no longer be seen. Slowly the ckness on his hands was absorbed by Amanda, notifying Arnold that the process was a sess. However, it took much longer than it did when he blooded Allen. After around ten minutes, a notification popped up in front of his eyes. ___ Bond formation... SUCCESS! Transformationplete! You''ve gained a new ally! [ALLY TYPE] : : A unique type of Ally, who would go to hell and beyond to fulfil their master''s wishes till theirst breath. This type of ally excels at following orders unconditionally. Once you give them an order to do something, they will do it, no matter the cost. These are most loyal among the other types of ally and are often called a necessity when fighting against strong enemies in rangedbat. [SYNERGY EFFECTS]: : (When attacking the same target) HP boosted by 10% Agility (AGI) boosted by 15% uracy (ACC) : 10% : (Unlocks when you have blooded two or more beings) All blooded gain: +5% Mana +3% Strength (STR) +5% Defense (DEF) You''ve gained your first Loyal servant to aid you in your battles. EXP: +4500 ___ "A servant, atst." He got off Amanda as sheidthere, unconscious. He then went ahead to analyse the synergy effects. And they were better than he had expected. Mana, strength, HP, defence, agility all of them had been boosted. Sadly, the effects of would only activate when Allen was there and Arnold had left him behind in LA... "He can find his way back... I think." He mumbled and left to stroll around the base. Chapter 237 - A Messenger Somewhere far away from the Alpha base... Under the scorching sun, cracks grew deep in the barren, parched soil like a wizened old face, baked hard, no more hospitable to the delicate seeds than a scorched rock. The leafless tree gavepany to the dusty weather. The earth grew wan and weird, unfertilized, dehumanized... It looked like nature had sided itself with the monsters. The once tall skyscrapers were now nothing more than a reminder of how civilization had once prospered on those same ground. A ground now ruled by the monsters.?? In the harsh weather, two human-like beings were walking behind a horde of monsters. As they walked, a trail of sand was left behind they moved as if choreographed by the wind, in perfect time with one another. Goblins, ogres, and orcs all moving together but something was off... They were different. They weren''t alive and yet walking and running as if they were... Leading them was a man. The man whose birth name had been long forgotten. The man who felt ''betrayed'' by his soldiers. The man who was once known as the Brigadier General of the Alpha base and now he was a soulless servant of an honourless God. The two people following him and his army of monsters were his masters. Hel, his mistress who gave him his supernatural powers of controlling the dead while Surtr, was his master who taught him techniques and tricks to help him in warfare as well as gave him his bone axe to y their enemies. Generally, they would only observe him after giving him a mission toplete. However, there was a stiption attached to his missions. If he failed to do as they pleased, his life would be forfeited and his soul would rot in hell for a hundred years. Way to give motivation right? But these days, however, something had changed. His masters were participating more and more in his training and were focused on increasing his strength. At first, he was happy that his masters had given him a new name, Ros, and were putting in more effort into training him but it soon turned out to be hell. He was pushed beyond his limits every day. Forced to do an impossible task whenever they wished so. Every time he was pushed to the verge of dying before his mistress pulled him back into the world of the living. He was a ''necromancer'' yet the only thing he was afraid of was death. But even if he was pulled away from death''s grasp, he felt a part of him was left behind to die... but it felt good. A feeling he had never felt before! Soon he got addicted to the feeling andtched onto it whenever he could. He didn''t care if he was forced to fight a deathw with his bare hands if he could get a mere second of the rush he craved for. Things were going in his favour. Yet for a few days, his masters have been tensed and whenever he would ask about it, they''d just punish him more. He couldn''t understand what was going on but after getting punished so many times, he finally gave up and sealed his mouth shut. If his masters didn''t want him to be involved in their affairs then he wouldn''t do it. After all, he didn''t have a death wish... even though he would get to feel a rush like never before. Just like always, they were busy having a private conversation. "He has gotten a lot stronger than before..." Surtr asked Hel, hispanion, "I gave up on my pdin when she died and helped you raise a new and stronger vassal, but I''m afraid to even with our powersbined, we might not be able to defeat him..." "Surtr, stop whining. Your voice is hurting my ears." Hel snapped back as she pulled her hoodie to cover half of her dead face, "You used to be a God whom the mortals feared to death and now look at you! Whining like a little bitch!" "Is... Is it true?" Surtr ignored her snidement and kept ''whining'' into her ear, "She came to earth!?" "You felt it when she arrived here, didn''t you?" Snapped back at him. She already had enough on her te. She didn''t want to babysit another crybaby. But Surtr wasn''t backing down. He kept asking her questions he knew answers to but wasn''t ready to believe it. "I... d-did," Surtr replied with a tensed look on his face. "And do you feel her presence now?" Hel asked him another question. "Not anymore... " "Then you know she''s dead. End of discussion." "You know it very well I''m not talking about her. I''m talking about immortal one''s pdin! The one who killed the Goddess we all cower before! He, a mortal, killed her! Something we could never even get close to!" Surtr roared in fury. "What are you being so paranoid about?" Hel finally lost it with him, "She was just a demigod for Odin''s sake!" "Just a demigod? She massacred our bravest and proudest fellow gods. Hell, she even managed to sever one of my arms and you tell me to rx? Even in her weaker form, Tiamut was stronger than we are right now and you think your vassal is anywhere near ready to take on the man who killed someone like her?" It was Surtr''s turn to snap now. People who hate getting off on the brain chemicals of hate. They were addicts. They find groups to hate and encourage others to do the same, and Hel was one of such being. She had been actively trying to harm Shiva indirectly as she never had the guts or the strength to face off against the supreme being on her own. If someone like her lover and Tiamut couldn''t do anything to him, how was she supposed to defeat him? She thought going for his pdin would be an easier way to piss him off but even that was proving to be a herculean task now. That damned bastard was just too lucky whereas she was not. Her knuckles turned white from clenching her fist too hard, as she gritted her teeth in efforts to remain silent, her hunched form exuded an animosity that was like acid - burning and slicing everything. Holding a grudge required way too much effort. The effort, which Hel was willing to put in yet the universe wasn''t making it any easier on her. She knew her pdin was nowhere as strong as her enemy. She was running out of time, no matter how hard she pushed Ros, there was a limit to even what a pdin can take. She was afraid if she pushed him too far, he could die and then she''d have to start all over again giving Arnold more time to gain more powers. Just like he did after killing Jake. ''At this rate that bastard would ascend and I''ll never have my revenge!'' Hel spat on the ground in fury. She had to stop him from bing powerful but she couldn''t. It looked like Immortal one''s pdin had limitless growth potential. The longer she waited, the stronger he became. "What if we send the monsters to attack the ce he dwells in once again?" Surtr suggested her. "Do you not remember what happened thest time?" Hel snapped at him once again. Some time ago she managed to persuade the mountain trolls to attack the ce known as Alpha Base. The ce of Arnold''s residence. Her n was wless. It was supposed to put an end to him and other infidel humans. She was hoping to hear some good news, but s, her perfect n turned out to be blunderous. Not only did the trolls and other monsters failed to eliminate him, but she also ended up providing him more fodder to gain strength. And now Surtr wanted her to repeat the same mistake again? "Then... How about we create trouble elsewhere? But make sure that he is the one who has to deal with it?" Surtr mumbled, "That way we''ll be able to dy his progress by a bit." She realised something from Surtr''s words. She didn''t need to defeat him... She only needed to create trouble for him. And she knew the biggest troublemaker in the cosmos. Her brother, Loki. Even though Loki was a higher God, everyone knew how much he loved his younger sister even when the other higher gods ostracized him for it. Unlike Thor, her other brother, they had always shared a strong bond. Also, adding the fact that Loki too had a pdin somewhere on the wretched, Hel was sure Loki could help her. There was one problem though. ording to the rules, the Higher gods weren''t allowed to interfere or interact with the lesser gods or even the other higher gods participating in the same round of the games. This rule had been made to ensure fair y as well as the lesser God''s safety. If a higher god went against this rule it might end up in banishment. Something she didn''t want her brother to endure for her sake. However, she knew of a loophole in the rule. The rule didn''t forbid the lesser gods from interacting with each other. All she needed to do was to contact a lesser God who wasn''t participating in this round of the games and persuade them to act as her messenger and deliver her message to her brother. If she managed to pull it off, then Arnold was certainly done for. Thankfully, she knew where to find one such god. Ymir, the goddess of giants and Loki''s loyal follower. **** Author''s note: (a little info about Ymir.) Ymir, also called Aurgelmir, in Norse mythology, the first being, a giant who was created from the drops of water that formed when the ice of Niflheim met the heat of Muspelheim. (P.s. Att*ck *n T*tans who? Lol. I love that anime btw.) Chapter 238 - Servant Mind control has long been thought of as a form of magic, or a thing that may need a device or technology. It is none of those things. It was just an ability granted to a selected few. Normally people''s brains naturallymunicate with each other, a simple form of this was cohabitation. Or one couldpare it like one device contacting another. Some can use their output brain waves to talk to other brains much as whales send signals long-distance, and if that person is kind and benevolent then that gift will only do good. Yet for those who want to control others, it has been weaponised.?? Sadly, it was mostly used to terrorise others. What Amanda used to do was not different from it. She abused her powers to get what she desired. No matter the means or the cost. If she could have the power she wouldn''t hesitate for a second to obtain it. Until Arnold managed to outsmart and defeat her. Amanda didn''t remember what happened after Arnold defeated her. But she vaguely remembered Arnold fed something to her and from the next moment she was as loyal to him as a puppy. She didn''t want to do what Arnold ordered her to, but her body was no longer in her control. She felt like she was trapped inside her own body. As if she was in the ''passenger'' seat while someone else controlled her body. She waited and waited. Hoping that one day she''d be back in the driver''s seat and make Arnold pay for what he did to her. Days passed and slowly she was reiming her body bit by bit. She still couldn''t refuse to Arnold if he asked her something, however, she was free toplete the requested task as she pleased. And unlike before, she no longer had the urge toplete the tasks as soon as possible. She knew it was only a matter of time before she was freed from very. But she had to wait patiently for that time to arrive. She couldn''t allow herself to slip up now that she was so close to freedom. Yet all of her thoughts about revenge were shattered once Arnold entered into her chamber after his long absence. As soon as Arnold appeared in front of him, her body was back in control. She jumped out of her seat and kneeled before him like the obedient pet she was. ''No slip-ups.'' She thought but the next second Arnold grabbed her neck and lifted her in the air. She wanted to struggle, she wanted to attack him. But her body refused to harm him. Soon the things took a turn for worse. Arnold''s arm turned ck while the nails dug deeper into her skin. It was painful yet her body refused to react. She couldn''t even scream. All of a sudden, she regained control over her body. Now she could defend herself! She got defiant and began attacking Arnold with all her might. For some reason, she couldn''t use her abilities. Still, she wasn''t going to back down. Soon she started punching and scratching him but the strugglested only for a few seconds. After that everything went ck. She lost consciousness. **** Meanwhile... "I can''t do anything, for now, can I?" Arnold sighed heavily, thinking about what to do next. In the far corner of the room, was a bed currently upied by Amanda. She was yet to regain consciousness after being bonded with him. And as he didn''t have anything else to do, Arnold decided to stay and think about his next move. He made a big decision of retiring once the problem with Devon and the swamps had been handled and was going to stay true to that. However, it wasn''t the kind of retirement like everyone was thinking. When he said he''d retire, he meant he''d stop providing services to West America. He''d continue fighting against the monsters in the wastnds. He was done with the people there yet he wasn''t so cold-hearted as to leave it all behind... Actually he was cold-hearted enough to not give a damn about them. Hell, he had even cut off his sister from his life for whom he was ready to face everything nature could throw at him. If he could do that, then leaving millions of strangers to rot away wasn''t a big deal for him. But now since he was getting targeted by not only humans and monsters but by the gods too, he felt he needed to get stronger. And the only way he knew to do so was to level up and keep ascending. For which he needed exp which he could get by either killing monsters or by making weapons. However, the former was the way he preferred to obtain exp. Why? Because not only fighting against monsters gave him exp, they also provide him with resources that he required for creation purposes and increase his battle prowess while battling improved his battle intelligence. In short fighting with monsters was a total win-win situation for him. Also, the monsters in the wastnds were stronger than the ones found in the cities. So he wouldn''t lose out on exp even if he decided not to help them. Thus he had decided he would not let anyone get in his way and would only focus on defending the wastnds while gaining exp to level up and get stronger rather than helping the city dwellers who didn''t appreciate their helper. In case someone like Tiamut appeared in the cities, they were on their own. He wouldn''t interfere in their business even if they begged him to. But if someone he knew and cares about was in danger then and only then, he would help them out. It was a pretty weird kind of retirement n but he was sure Nathan could make the necessary arrangements for him. But for now, he was stuck. The forge hadn''t beenpleted yet so he couldn''t even focus on making and upgrading new gears nor could he finish the ascension quest. He wanted to leave the base and go for a hunt but he couldn''t leave the base unattended either. With Talos working with the automatons toplete the forge, he couldn''t disturb him, he had left Allen back in LA so he couldn''t take his ce either and since Amanda was still out, he was the only one present there to take care of unwanted visitors. Thus he had to wait for Amanda to regain consciousness before he could go out. But it was taking too long. It had been hours and yet she hadn''t regained consciousness. Arnold wasn''t sure how much longer it was going to take so all he could do was wait. Thankfully, he didn''t have to wait much longer afterwards. Amanda soon woke up and once again went back to her knees. This time, however, Arnold could feel her sincerity behind that bow. Her eyes were fixated on the ground as Arnold walked up to her. "Good to have you back," Arnold mumbled as Amanda got to her feet, her eyes still fixed on the ground. "I apologize for all the trouble I''ve caused, master." She said. "Don''t worry about it." Arnold waved his hand, "I''m afraid I have to leave now. I hope you can take care of everything while I''m gone?" "I won''t disappoint you, master." "Great! But try not to overwork yourself." Arnold smiled and left. He liked this new version of Amanda. It was like a switch flipped in her head or maybe her brain got reprogrammed or something along those lines and Arnold didn''t mind any of it. He was happy as long as the results were good and Amanda was a great warrior with excellent management skills. She was just like Talos, but not up to his level. Still, having someone like her was beneficial to him. "Let''s see... I should get out to hunt. It''s not like I have anything else to do either way." Arnold mumbled and headed towards to garage to pull out a Humvee and leave. But on his way there he realised something, "It''s a great opportunity to test out Scy''s battle readiness. After all, she could y an important role in retaking the swamps. It''ll be better if I know what she''s capable of." Thus, he headed towards the exit alone. He got under the hazmat suit and left. Leaving behind a perplexed soldier. ''Section Chief knows how to drive right?'' He thought as the gates closed behind Arnold. He ran endlessly before summoning Scy out. She didn''t want anyone else to know about her thus, he didn''t summon her out while he was inside the base. The ground trembled as the dragon walked out of the endless void. Each step left a small crater behind. Scy''s greenish-jade scales shone brightly as she embraced the sun for the first time. She then stretched her wings to their limit. She looked majestic. Like a queen. Well, technically she was the queen of dragons as she could be considered the offspring of Vritra, the former queen whom Arnold had killed during the trial of the . "Wow..." Arnold couldn''t restrain himself from blurting out. Scy looked at him and gave him a quick lick beforeying in front of him. Up close she looked evenrger than before. Or maybe she was still growing? Arnold didn''t have the answer yet but having a pet dragon was pretty badass! "You want me to climb over?" Arnold asked scratching the back of the dragon''s head. To his surprise, Scy nodded. "Um... Sure why not." Arnold smiled and climbed over. They were ready to y some monsters! Chapter 239 - He Knows Back at the swamps... The masked leader, Devon, was deeply focused on the news. Thoughts were racing up and down his mind. Even though he was disturbed, his demeanour was as calm as ever. He was nning his next moves just like Nathan was... Unless there was a mastermind hidden behind him, working from the shadows just like he had been doing this entire time.?? No one urately knew about his location. Not even the swamp-dwelling retards. Yet he had suspicions that the syndicate knew more than they were letting out. And Nathan''s statement that monsters weren''t the only ones the syndicate was focusing on, made it obvious. "They are onto me... I''m sure of it." He mumbled while the recorded video of the conference kept repeating itself, "This n of theirs isn''t as sudden as they would like the others to believe. They have already nned it out... but when? They shouldn''t have much information about the swamps and after the massacre of thest time, they shouldn''t even be considering tounch an attack on the swamp. Yet here we are..." Alex, Devon''s most loyal pupil, silently stood there while Devon kept mumbling to himself. He didn''t know what to do. On one side they had a strong army of enhanced soldiers and lizardmen to back them up and on the other side, the Nagas have grown hostile to them without any reason. They already had their hands full at the moment and now they would have to prepare for yet another war. One, ording to him, they could easily win, but a war nheless. Why was he so confident about winning? Because they knew the swamps inside out and had a strong ally in form of the lizardmen. Moreover, they had proper gears required to manoeuvre freely around the terrain. Something he doubts the syndicate had despite their ims. The Inhumans they had ''manufactured'' were top tier and the ace up their sleeve. Their opponent, however, didn''t have the ways to get much information about the swamps nor did they have strong allies who had evolved as apex predators by nature itself. Under no circumstances could he see them losing to an overconfident and ill-prepared army. No matter how many or how strong they were, once they enter the swamps, they were nothing more than sitting ducks. But he couldn''t understand why was his leader so tensed about the situation. ''Who knows what goes through his mind? Understanding him is more difficult than befriending the monsters.'' Alex sighed and went back to watching the press conference for the tenth time. "They are not going to attack just to eradicate the monsters." Devon said as he finally switched the screen off, "It''s just a convenient excuse for them to do something else..." "Like attack us?" Alex chimed in. Devon silently nodded. It was the only reason he coulde up with. "Pardon me sir, but don''t you think it''s all a bit... Absurd?" Alex asked, "I mean, I don''t think they can obtain proper gears without stepping a foot in the swamps. Also, I doubt they have any information regarding our whereabouts. So even if they decide to attack us, the only thing they''ll gain is another humiliating defeat." ording to Alex, there was no way the syndicate could''ve known about them hiding in the swamps. So they must genuinely want to kill off the monsters and then leave as they came. However, he wasn''t a bright person either. He was smart and calcting but only when it came to fighting. Otherwise, he was just a usual muscle brained warrior. Thinking deeply wasn''t his strong suit and Devon would dly call Alex out on his arrogance. "Oh... So ording to you, they would be willing to sacrifice hundreds of their own just to regain a piece ofnd which would take them years to rehabilitate to do anything on it?" Devon sarcasticallymented, "Sure they were foolish enough to do that before but this time... It''s different. The Tramp isn''t leading them anymore. This time they have proper leadership or advisors. Their every move has been thought of long and hard. They have the strength and maybe the ways to nullify our advantage over the swamps. More than that, they have 3 SS ranked warrior and that''s a whole another shitshow." Alex looked perplexed, "3 SS ranked warriors? I think you''re mistaken, sir. America only has 2 SS ranked warriors apart from the ones you''ve artificially created." At this point, Devon couldn''t make whether Alex was always this stupid or he was doing this to spite him... Or was he acting up once again? Ever since consuming high tier beast crystals, Alex had been acting weird. His stupidity was getting almost unbearable. It was safe to say that the beast crystals had messed with his brain.Regardless of it, Devon was getting frustrated. "Did you seriously think a low ranker could''ve taken down a dragon all by himself? Also doesn''t that guy reminds you of someone?" Devon reyed the recording where Arnold was addressing the nation. Alex''s dormant brain cells were kicked into overdrive. Soon he got his answers. "He is the same guy!" Alex eximed, finally getting what Devon was trying to tell him, "The one who killed Bob." ''There''s no need to be happy about that, you idiot.'' Devon shook his head in frustration. One thing that was bothering him was Nathan''s im that they have sessfully made gears that were effective against the swamp dwellers. He was thinking about it because he knew exactly what was needed to make those type of gears: Lizardmen. Or their corpse at least. One would require lizardmen hide, foot and a few other things to make useful gears. But lizardmen could only be found in the swamps and nowhere else. As far as Devon was aware, no human had stepped foot into the swamps for a while. Unless... "There''s no way... It was them!" Devon finally realised who was behind the recent massacre of the lizardmen. Initially, he thought maybe it was the doing of the Nagas. After all, the Nagas and the lizardmen have hated each other for a long long time, so it was the only possible conclusion he could draw at the time despite the Lizardmen ims that it was a human''s doing. But now it all made sense. The syndicate must have arrived at the swamps in secret and killed the lizardmen. After that, they took all the corpses they could while they left the rest there. However, there were a few issues with this theory of his. First, how did they even managed to enter the swamps undetected? He already had the swamps under surveince so it was next to impossible for anyone to sneak in. Second, even if they managed to invade the swamps and bypass the security. How did they even manage to fight hundreds of lizardmen simultaneously? Not that it was impossible, his soldiers could do it too but only when they had special gears on them, something he doubted the syndicate had. "They were right under my nose and I didn''t know!" Devon''s anger grew exponentially. He couldn''t believe he was yed by someone in his own game, "Whoever the perpetrator is, he isn''t normal. Could it be him?" Devon had had his eyes on Arnold for a long time. At times he had tried to screw him over thinking he was too weak to do anything to him. But looking at him now, sent shivers down to his spine. He couldn''t believe Arnold was the same gullible person he had wanted to destroy on more than one asion. He... had changed a lot, to say the least.He was no longer a pushover like before and now Devon knew exactly what he was capable of. After all, he killed the monster named ''Humanity''s worst nightmare'' all by himself. If Arnold had figured it out that it was Devon who had been ying with him from the shadows and even tried kidnapping his sister, he couldn''t even imagine to what extent Arnold will go to make him pay. It also solidified what Devon had been suspecting all along. They knew about him. They knew he was hiding in the swamps. That''s why Arnold was so interested ining to swamps before he retires. ''He wants to deal with me. He''sing after me, that''s the only exnation to it! He''s not here for the monsters but me!'' He refused to believe Arnold was the same man. The amount of growth he had had in such a short duration of time was abnormal. It was unheard of. Howe an E ranked warrior gain so much power to kill a fcking dragon all by himself!? Nothing was making sense. Devon had always been able to look through his enemy''s mind. It was a blessing and a weapon against his enemies. He always knew what his enemy would do even before the enemy could think about it themselves. But when he tried to do the same with Arnold, all he could see was despair. He was his natural enemy and he wasing for him. Devon turned around to face hurts guards. "Assemble everyone! We have to prepare for war." He eximed and hurried out of the room. Chapter 240 - Time To Forge With the setting sun came a sky of fire. As red as the sand below it. Dozens upon dozens of dead monstersid there on the sand, after a day-long battle they were finally at peace. Not many moments ago, these creatures stood in defiance to a man and his... Pet, and now they were one with the dirt that was once below their feet. It was a sight to behold. The moment the master released his monstrosity of a pet upon the monsters, it was uncontrolled chaos.?? With a swing of its tail, the pet took out tens of monsters. Numerous more of them fell against the pet''s sharp ws. Those left behind were consumed by the blue mes of hellfire. Still, to their credit, they didn''t back down. Nor do they flinched in the face of death. All the while the master wasn''t even required to lift a finger or say a word to guide his pet. The pet was more than sufficient to take care of those wastnd dwelling monsters on its own. After all, it was no ordinary pet. By the time the pet stopped, corpses were scattered all around like they were pieces of a giant puzzle. A puzzle made with blood. Once the job was done, the master allowed his pet to feed on the remains of the monsters. It was the pet''s reward for being such a good girl and not giving it''s master any trouble. The master was d he didn''t have to do much, still, the guns in his arms were twitching to kill someone, something, anything. But there was nothing left to kill. The entire monsterir had been emptied. The pet dragon had done a great job. Not a single living soul was around them. Thus the master had to put his guns away, for now. The dragon ate almost everything it could find. Orcs, goblins, direwolves, anything one could find in the wastnds had been feasted upon by the dragon. All the while, her master watched her in awe. The dragon''s appetite amazed him. They had been hunting for an entire day, without any breaks and not once was Arnold required to use any weapons or skills to help Scy. She was unstoppable. It was rightful to call her the new queen of dragons. Maybe she was the strongest creature on the. He was d that Scy was docile from the beginning, otherwise, it would''ve been a lot of trouble to get her under control. Especially after he had seen how... wild and vicious the dragon could be. Yet there was a side of her which amused him even more. Her yful side... She was more like an overgrown and overpowered dog than a mighty dragon. "You like the dead orc that much?" Arnold shook his head while opening a portal to his domain, "I''ll make a ragdoll for you if you''d like, but please stop swinging around the poor headless fellow, will ya? It''s quite disturbing." Scy looked at her master and quickly gulped down the dead orc in one go, before licking the blood off her face. "I didn''t think it would be so easy. Anyways, are you done for today, or do you wanna hunt some more?" Scy shook her massive head. She already had her fill. Now she felt tired and just wanted to sleep. Arnold understood what Scy wanted as the next moment she walked into the portal, and to the void. "Tired? Yeah, me too." Arnold yawned and walked into the closing portal. After quickly stretching his back. Arnold thought he''d rest up inside his domain for a while and then head back towards the base but when he got back. His ns took a turn for better. Talos and hispany of automatons were eagerly waiting for Arnold''s arrival. Arnold immediately knew what it was all about, yet he wanted to hear it from his trusted summon, fellow creationist, loyal advisor, general of his army, and friend: Talos. "What is it? Tell me." Arnold asked Talos, his eyes shining brighter than the brightest evening star. "It''s done." Talos replied, "The aisle of Avalon is ready to once again breathe fire to the creationist''s soul held within you. Huh... It doesn''t sound as cool as I thought it would. Anyways, the forge awaits your return, forge master." Arnold couldn''t help tough. Talos'' introduction was a bit... dramatic and cheesy. But, he had done his job sooner than Arnold had expected so it was all worth it in the end. The forge was ready and now nothing could stop him from ascending anymore. Nothing. "What are we waiting for then? Lead the way!" Arnold eximed. **** The room to which Talos lead his master was lit in amp-light glow, electric rays spread as petals upon the walls, illuminating the entire forge. It was all the magic of Xenoic energy and Talos'' efforts. The new forge was much bigger than the workshop Arnold had in the Alpha base and was better equipped too. The best thing about the new forge was that Arnold wouldn''t need to waste his time trying to take out the materials inside the domain and forge them somewhere else. It simply wasted too much of his precious time. The vault containing the materials was right next to the new forge and thus Arnold wouldn''t be required to waste much time on gathering essential materials. Another reason why the forge was built inside his domain was the flow of time. Arnold could now forge at a much faster rate than before and had more time to do so. Moreover, it was his personal space so he didn''t need to worry about someone destroying it. Just like what Nicole did. It was unintentional, yet it caused him so much trouble. But not anymore. He could work for as long as he wanted without anyone disturbing him. All in all, it was the perfect ce for him to focus on making a relic and finishing his ascension quest. After a quick tour of the forge, Arnold turned to have a chat with Talos. Arnold was about to disclose the next phase of his n to him. "Talos, you''re in charge of everything for the time I''ll be staying in the void." Arnold told him, "You''re the only one I can trustpletely and have full confidence on. Take care of the zone while I work on creating a relic. I don''t know how long it will take but hopefully, it won''t take long. Maybe a week or so inside the domain?" "Don''t worry master. I''ll take care of the things on the outside for as long as you want." Talos replied. "Thank you. And a few more things before you leave. Take as many summons as you''d like, but only focus on defending the base. No aggressive tactics. I don''t want to cause unnecessary bloodshed. If someone or somethinges close to the base without clearance, then deal with them as you please. But be careful. Try not to overdo it. Also, I''ve blooded Amanda. She''s my servant now, so feel free to ask her for help if you need. Though I highly doubt you''d need her help." Arnold continued, "Call Allen back to base. He needs to train. He''s still weak, the battle with the Wolves proved how neglectful I''ve been regarding his training. And atst but not the least, DO NOT tell anyone about my whereabouts. And I mean, anyone." "Understood, master. I''ll take care of it all." Talos quickly bowed before him and turned around to leave but Arnold stopped him once again. "Ah... I''m not done yet." Arnold said and pulled something out of his inventory. "I thought you said that was ''thest but not the least'' thing, master." "Yeah it was but I thought I''d give you a little something," Arnold mumbled and handed something over to Talos. Talos curiously looked at what his master had given him. Soon the curiousness on his face was reced by surprise. Well, technically his expression remained indifferent but let''s just say he was confused. After all, it was not everyday Arnold gave his summons his personal weapons, especially the vindicators. "Why are you giving me the vindicators, master?" Talos asked. "Don''t worry about it. Just keep them for now." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "I don''t have much use of it in here, do I? I don''t want them to gather dust or rust while I''m inside, so keep it and use it. I''ll take it back when I''m done down here, or maybe not. Depends on what I end up making while I''m here. I have too many materials and time. I''m sure I''ll end up making something new for me. Don''t get too attached to it though, I don''t want you to cry if I take them back, okay?" "I''m not capable of making tears, but I''ll dly ept your gift, master." Talos bowed to him once again but this time, he held it for longer. Making sure that his master got to know he appreciated his gesture. "Don''t get all sentimental on me T." Arnold awkwardly scratched his beard, "Now off you trot, I need to start working." Chapter 241 - Road To Ascension (1) On the day of the announcement to retake the swamps, Nathan and Arnold discussed and decided they wouldmence the attack after thirty days. Arnold had told him he had some prior ''issues'' that required his immediate attention. Nathan wanted to know what the said issues were, Arnold had his lips sealed. He wouldn''t talk about it so Nathan let it go. But now Arnold had been missing for over three days... Nathan could be patient and understanding but the syndicate was a whole another story. And after the bombshell Arnold dropped on the people, many were thinking he might''ve already dropped out of the picture. Even within the syndicate, there were a few people who thought Arnold was being immature with his decision to retire early and his disappearance gave them another opportunity to talk shit about him, behind his back.?? ording to them he should just man up, ept his ''mistake'' and move forward. Most of them were the once who lost their family members at the hands of that wretched dragon. While Nathan sympathized with them, he couldn''t ignore the wellbeing of one of his family members either. Arnold had been through a lot as it was, he just requested them not to add more burden on him. Most of them backed down... but a few were adamant. But decided to keep their mouths shut. ''Arnold... I''m afraid your disappearance isn''t doing you any good.'' Nathan thought as the 12 remaining heads of the syndicate kept talking among themselves. "So you''re telling me, this n revolves all around that soldier of yours?" Madame Roosevelt, leader of the Roosevelt family smirked, "Oh! I couldn''t feel any safer in the hands of someone who is nowhere to be found." "I agree. A battle shouldn''t be dependent on one man only. No matter who they are." Andrex joined in. "Oh shut up. You just don''t want Arnold to lead the attack because he''s Chinese." Nathan finally snapped, "And as far as you''re concerned, Madame Roosevelt, I''m sure thest time I remember, we were called warriors, not soldiers. Also, the man in question had saved all of your sorry lives including mine. If it wasn''t for him then we wouldn''t be here nning our next move, but hiding somewhere underground waiting for the realisation of defeat to dawn upon us. So even if you can''t show him some respect in front of him, try not to trash talk behind his back." Andrex opened his mouth to argue but Nathan cut him off by waving his hand. Right now he had more authority than anyone else in the room. The reason? He was themander of the army of warriors and it was wartime. A time when his words were to be considered absolute until the courts decided otherwise. He was intentionally abusing his powers and he didn''t care. If they could talk shit about their saviour behind his back, he doubted they wouldn''t do so behind his back either. "Do I need to remind you who is the bloody sister of that man? I believe I don''t. She had made an impression on you, hasn''t she, Andrex?" Andrex immediately clutched her hands and put them in the pockets of his tuxedo. Of course, he remembered what happened back then... his missing middle finger was kind enough to remind him about the ''angel of death'' as most of them like to referred Nicole. Andrex always had a thing for beautiful women having powers and Nicole more than qualified the criterion to be his consort. But rather than asking someone face to face, Andrex had his fun with them in a different way. He would abuse his family''s name and try to touch them at inappropriate ces without their consent and get off of the despair on their faces. Nicole was supposed to be his next conquest but he didn''t know he was ying with fire. As usual, Andrex requested a meeting with Nicole under the guise of making a new n for the defence of LA. Nicole thought it was odd as she wasn''t involved in matters regarding defence but since the order wasing from one of the heads, she had to oblige to his request. Once she was there all the ''defence'' ns were thrown aside and Andrex got ufortably close to her. Something Nicole didn''t like at all. But it was only the beginning of his ns. He soon went ahead to grab her but the next second he was on the ground bawling like a kid while grabbing his hand. Nicole had turned his middle finger into dust before kicking him in the testicles. With whatever strength he had left, he warned her he would make her life hell. Little did he knew, Nicole had already recorded everything and showed the recording to him. "Sure... Go ahead and destroy my life. I''d like to see how that''ll work for you." That one line still kept Andrex on a leash. Even Nathan knew about the recording that''s why he was being extra nasty to Andrex. And Andrex knew it very when if the recording got ''leaked'' it''ll all be over for him. He would be emunicated and thrown into prison or worse, he''d be sent away to serve as a soldier in the wastnds. Moreover, he was more upset about another thing: A Chinese had screwed him over. He had hated the Chinese ever since his ex-wife cheated on him with one but this incident pushed that hate to new heights. So much so, that he was plotting of ways to divide the cks and cause them to lose their authority and seat in the syndicate, however, it was all in his mind till now. Andrex wasn''t a fool to go to a full-fledged war with the most powerful family of the country. Not after knowing they had not two but three SS ranked warriors as Arnold was now ssified as one as well. He needed to do something else... But he was holding his horses for a while. His revenge will have to wait. "Ahem... As much as I''d love to hear your banter, I think we have more important matters to discuss." Alicia, another one of the heads spoke up, "Nathan, me and my family trust youpletely. But for the sake of keeping the peace, can you tell us where Arnold is?" "He''s at the Alpha base in zone 4. And before you ask it, yes, he is preparing for the war." Nathan replied, "As much as some would like to think of him as a backstabber, I assure you he isn''t like that. However, he too is human and I''d like if you respect some boundaries. Now if you''re done asking irrelevant questions, shall we go ahead and n the rest of the attack?" Nathan lied to everyone, brilliantly so. Even he didn''t know where Arnold was. Thest time he tried to contact the base, he was told by Talos that Arnold wasn''t there. He thought Talos would tell him about Arnold''s whereabouts but even he refused. But the heads didn''t need to know that. For them, Arnold was preparing for war while he was at the Alpha base. Everyone nodded in agreement and went back to nning. The gears Arnold had provided them was a blessing to his reputation. They now know, he was a man of word and an excellent creationist. He had done his job, now it was time for them to do theirs. **** It had been ten days since Arnold walked inside the void... Although it might not seem like much, it was more than enough for Arnold to forge. However, he was wrong. The one week he thought to be enough to make a relic had passed long ago. He was now in his second week inside the void. Tirelessly working to finish the ascension quest as soon as he could but the road wasn''t as smooth as he thought. He remembered a saying in the modern world, "A warrior is not built of ease but suffering, and that is why they chose to build themselves to ease the suffering of others and themselves." He, who not only was a warrior but also a creationist, understood it more than anyone else. When he first started forging with celestial silver, he didn''t know much about it but the first step to start forging was to change the metal''s state and convert the solid cube into a molten state. There was a slight problem though... he didn''t know what it''s melting point was. He kept raising the temperature of the forge in hopes it would melt soon. But the block of metal remained unchanged. It was a celestial material, obviously, it won''t melt under the earthly mes he had been using to forge so far. The first couple of days inside the void were wasted away because he couldn''t figure out how to melt the metal. On the third day, however... "I need to find something that burns anything... THAT''S IT!" Arnold eximed as a light bulb got switched on in his head. He did have a me that could burn anything: hellfire! Even though Arnold could conjure ''hellfire'', his mes didn''t affect inorganic targets. But... He wasn''t the only one who could use hellfire. Scy could help him out and unlike him, her mes were absolute and didn''t differentiate between organic and inorganic targets. He used Scy''s mes and wouldn''t you know it, the block soon started melting like an ice cube. But the process was slow, very slow. While he was thinking of ways to further increase the temperature of hellfire, he discovered another thing. The beast crystals could be used to increase the temperature of the hellfire. So he tossed a shit load of high tier beast crystals into the me to hasten the process. Still, he ended up losing five more days topletely melt the metal cube. He thought he''d need a week to make a relic but after wasting a week, all he managed was to melt the cube. Three dayster, things were looking better yet he was falling behind his schedule. "It''s going to a tough road ahead... Isn''t it?" Arnold sighed and started shaping up the molten metal. Chapter 242 - Road To Ascension (2) The next day, inside the void... The ice in Arnold''s hands started melting away. Just enough for his fingers and palm to be wet and lessen the burning pain. There was a small cut on his wrist too. It didn''t look much but It was deep. The pain from such a small wound was quite unbearable. It all happened so suddenly that his hands almost got burned from the hellfire. But thanks to his [Devil''s Advocate] skill, no harm was done to him by the fire. Yet the wound on his left wrist was enough to knock some sense into him.?? ''There''s no way I can get through it that way.'' Arnold thought, after sealing of the wound with ice. The skin around the wound, already felt as chilled as it would if you put your hands inside the freezer and leave it there for an hour. However, it didn''t bother him much, he was used to the cold. The bleeding finally stopped as he open and close his hands to get rid of the cold and stick it back in his pocket to warm up. He stared at the little thing that caused such a mess, such a small piece of metal... maybe a third of a millimetre long, a metallic splinter. "I need to be more careful... If a splinter can cause such a mess, then God knows what''ll happen if a bigger piece of it falls on my legs..." Arnold shook his head and went back to work. He simply didn''t have the time to clear his mess. He had separated the molten metal to make three ''bullets'' from it. But shaping them up was yet another herculean task. He had to put all of his strength to make a small dent on the cold metal. And during one of these hammer strikes, a small part of the metal flew up and got stuck to his wrist. The next thing he felt was pain. His face got twisted with agony as the small part of celestial silver burned it''s way deeper into his arm. Blood came out of the wound like a fountain show. Thanks to Arnold''s quick thinking not much damage was done while the burning pain was eased by the ice. "Damn these radiation burns-" ___ Resistance to radiation increased due to prolonged exposure to celestial radiation. Resistance increased by +0.5% Current resistance: 0.5% Warning! Be careful. Exposure to radiation inrger quantities might lead to healthplications. It is rmended to limit contact with radioactive material to prevent unnecessary problems. Rmended limit:600 grains (39gms) ___ "Huh... I''m definitely exposed to way more than just 39 grams." Arnold mumbled as he looked around the forge to find himself surrounded with three bullets, each weighing around 43 grams or 660 grains. (Author''s Note: The bullet grain or "gr" is the basic weight of the bullet. One grain is equal to 0.064 gram (or 1/7,000th of a pound). The grain does not refer to the amount of gunpowder in each bullet, it is the weight of the projectile that fires from the barrel aka the bullet.) He quickly gathered the rest of the material and threw them back in his inventory. Radiation was not a fire that he could y with... Well, fire isn''t a thing one should y with either for that matter. Anyways, it was better to be safe than sorry. At that moment the daily reminder of his emergency question went off. ___ EMERGENCY QUEST: Deal with the Devil ? [ INTRODUCTION ]: The system signed a deal with the devil to keep you from dying. Although you managed to survive, there is a cost to pay. Only cosmic creatures are allowed to wield mythical affinities and even then, only a few can use them without causing self-harm. You, however, tried to learn something that was beyond your limits and hence you were on the verge of dying. The reconfigurations that were done to your body are what keeps you alive, but it''s only temporary. Complete your ascension quest and live but if you''re not able to do so... You''ll die. [ TASK ]:plete the Ascension quest and evolve into a ascended being within 14 days, or else the reconfigurations applied to your body would be reversed and you will inevitably die. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/1 Ascension Questpleted [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? Live your life. Days remaining: 05/14 ___ "Five days remain huh... I can do this. Thankfully, the system is counting the actual number of days not the days I''ve spent inside the void." When the system informed him that he had five days toplete the ascension quest. It meant 5 days of the outside world, not of the void. It was simply because Arnold had received the emergency quest while he was bedridden in the ck estate. Essentially it meant he received the quest while he was in the outside world, thus the countdown of the quest had been calibrated ording to the time of the real world. Hence when the system informed him he had 5 days toplete the quest, it meant Arnold had 15 days inside the void toplete it. Without his void, he''d have been screwed monumentally and would most probably be six feet under the ground by now. But it was an essential lesson for him to learn: when you receive a quest, drop everything andplete it first. Especially the ones who had a penalty like death! Luck wouldn''t always be by his to help him out. If he kept screwing up, he would go down the drain in no time. ''Enough thinking. Time to work!'' He lightly pped himself to retain his focus and once again started hammering the metal with all his might. *** 12 (void) dayster... Arnold''s unkempt, overgrown beard was drenched in sweat, just like the rest of his body. The nerves in his hands were popping out. His biceps had increased significantly as if he was running on drugs. His sleepless, bloodshot eyes were tearless. He hadn''t slept in God knows how long yet he didn''t felt tired. Instead, he was ted! Adrenaline was rushing through his body like never before. Working on the bullets proved to be worse than anything. But now it was done... He had created a relic. He had finished the ascension quest! But before he could use the probe skill to look at histest creation. His interface was lit up with multiple messages. He could barely keep up with them as they kept popping up before he could even close them. ___ You''ve created a Relic. EXP: +50,000 First cosmic ranked Relic created: EXP: +100,000 The first Relic created: EXP: +50,000 The first human to create a relic: EXP: +70000 You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Forgemaster] Effect(s): ? When working with new material for the first time, a special knowledge rted to the material is unlocked in the shop which can be obtained for free. ? Gain 10% more EXP from forging. ___ "Free knowledge? I''ll take it! But I haven''t-" He was cut off with the appearance of yet another message. ___ Congrattions! You''ve sessfullypleted the ascension quest. It might be painful but everythinges at a price. Please remain calm during the process. It is rmended you go in your domain to prevent unnecessaryplications. You''ll be notified once the process isplete. Do not panic till the notification appears on your interface. The ascension will now begin. ___ "I''m having second thoughts about- AAAARRGGGHHHH!" The void resounded with bloodcurdling screams. His mouth, lungs, heart and soul were all being crushed simultaneously. He thought it was painful when the system intervened and saved his life after he forcefully learned the mythical affinity, now he stood corrected. This was hell. The insides of his body were continuously being ripped apart and then sewn back together. Whenever he opened his mouth, a stream of blood and guts rushed out. His eyes, nose, ears were all bleeding profusely. The pain only grew more and more unbearable. He gritted his teeth together to muffle the screams but couldn''t. The pain was too much. He fell on his knees, begging for the pain to stop. But there was no one to help him out. Alice, Bad-breath and a few others rushed into the forge after hearing his screams but there was some kind of a forcefield around Arnold that separated him from the rest of them. Bad-breath tried to break through the forcefield, but couldn''t. They could only stand there was watch Arnold puke his guts out and bleed in misery. Alice kept banging her hands on the forcefield to break it, but what could a mere healer do to against a forcefield that not even Bad-Breath could put a dent on. Arnold kept screaming in agony. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, the pain gradually reduced and the forcefield dissipated. ___ Ascensionplete! Checking vital signs... Complete. Checking for abnormalities... Complete. User''s health is in perfect condition. You''re the third human to ascend to a cosmic being. Please wait while the system converts gained EXP into levels... ? You''ve gained 100 levels. ? 400 attribute points have been added. ? 200 potential points have been added. ? Rank boosted to Cosmic B. ? The shop is now open with new items. ? The system is back online. Once again, congrattions. The road will only get worse from here on out. Be prepared. ___ Arnold spat out a mouthful of blood and looked at the interface with anger and disgust. "Fck... You..." He weakly mumbled before once again copsing on the ground. Chapter 243 - Advanced Sniping Knowledge As soon as the forcefield dissipated, Arnold''s summons rushed towards him. Wanting to help him but he waved them to stop and got up by himself. He then nced down at himself. He smelled weird, he hadn''t had a proper shower in days and now he was drenched in a mixture of his blood, sweat and guts. It was weird but his body seemed light maybe puking his stomach out made him feel lightweight? < I assure you, that''s not the case. >?? A weirdly electronic and masculine voice echoed in his head. A voice he was sure he had never heard, yet it felt like he had known this voice for ages. ''System-sama?'' Arnold thought as a smile broke on his face. < Although I''m a nameless entity, there''s no denying that it is I. You''ve done well in my absence. > ''Yeah... Did you get an update or something?'' < I believe you can say that. Either way, let''s check your status te. There have been some changes. > ''Oh right! Totally forgot about that.'' Arnold stretched his neck while the status te popped up in front of his iris. ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses], [God Killer], [Forgemaster] LEVEL: 162 RANK: Cosmic B SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL''S RAGE] CLASS : SUBCLASSES: HP: 10138/10138 MANA: 20837/20837 EXP: 0/15000 STRENGTH (STR) : 161[+65] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF): 161 (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 241 AGILITY (AGI) : 91 ACCURACY (ACC) : 94 EVADE (EVD) : 78 CHARISMA (CHA): 86 MYSTIC (MYS): 155 Summons details : NUMBER OF ELITE SUMMONS: 8/30 TOTAL NUMBER OF SUMMONS: 354 ABILITIES: ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING: 404 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING: 214 Excess EXP: 000 (Stored EXP was converted into levels. You''ll now have a choice to store gained EXP or use it to level up as usual.) ___ "That''s... Interesting." Arnold mumbled, "I have a choice whether I want to level up or not. It''ll be handy. Not to mention the points I got." < The status only reflects the changes in your stats and not the physical changes. > "What do you mean?" Arnold mumbled. He was feeling weird the entire time but he didn''t know the reason behind it. After all, he had puked his guts out and was standing in a pool of his blood. Yet he had never felt so ted, so lively. < Let''s just say, your body went through some... changes. It''s no longer the body of a human but a cosmic being. The insides of your body have been altered in a way for you to survive various hardships ahead of you. > "So... You''re saying I''m not a human anymore?" < Correct. You''re now what is referred to as a cosmic being. A being who''s no longer bond to a mere. As you can feel, your body has been changed a lot, for the better. You can now do things that are impossible for others to do. > "Things like?" < You can breathe in space. Technically, you don''t need to breathe in outer space. Your body will take care of itself. However, I rmend that you don''t try to prove me wrong. It might lead to some... Complications. > "That''s... A lot to take in... Wait what about-" < Don''t worry. Your genitalia was left untouched. You can still mate and reproduce as much as you please. > "That''s reassuring." He mumbled with an awkward smile on his face. Nina wouldn''t be pleased if something went wrong with him in that department. But he had a more important matter to discuss now. Matters like why he was the ''third'' one to ascend and who were the other two. Unfortunately, system-sama refused to answer thetter question. Stating, he wasn''t allowed to disclose the information. The former part of Arnold''s question, however, was something he could answer and it was pretty much what was shown to him. Two humans had alreadypleted their respective ascension quest before he did. And hence he was the third one. Even though system-sama refused to borate any further, Arnold could guess one of the two ascended individuals. It was someone who used to be pretty close to him. Someone very important. His sister, Nicole. This could exin her sudden awakening to the power she had now and now that he knew exactly what kind of boostpleting the ascension quest can give, he was sure of it. However, he decided to use his probe skill to confirm his suspicions the next time he meets her. Nicole wasn''t stronger than him despite her ascension. No, that wasn''t the case. She was strong. And since she could probably oneshot Tiamut, she might even be stronger than him. He was just lucky that he was immune to her trump card of an ability. That''s all. Still, he had no idea as to who the other individual could be. Heck, he wasn''t even sure if they were on the same continent or not. All he knew was, there might be someone stronger than him out there. If his suspicions were true and that guy turned out to be stronger than him, he might need someone to handle them. Someone like Nicole. "Looks like I''ll have to hear her out after all. Well, I''ll do thatter. I think I was being harsh on her... Maybe it was too much. I should at least give her a chance to speak her mind out, that way she''ll know she can still trust me. Then, we can take care of the other person..." He mumbled before getting lost in his thoughts once again. Soon he snapped back into reality. He had created a relic, yet he hadn''t made a weapon to fire the bullets. And by bullets, he remembered he had intended to see what were they exactly capable of doing, before making new weapons and gears. ___ Name: God''s Executioner Type: Highlypressed nuclear bullet Rank: Relic Damage: 30000-40000 true damage Requirements to use: Above lvl 150/ A cosmic being. Length: 50 mm Weight: 43 grams Ability: [Poison Touch] Upon contact, unleashes the concentrated radiation equivalent to a dozen nuclear explosions within a fraction of a second. The radiation expands rapidly up to 5 kilometres radius, poisoning any living thing within the radius and doom them to slow and painful death if they, unfortunately, survive the first attack. Deals 1000-2300 physical damage/second for a minute. Additional Effect: [God''s nightmare] ¡ª Deals additional 20% damage to godly beings (Demigods, Lesser gods and Higher gods) Additional Effect: [Hell''s Gate] ¡ª Upon contact with the target, scorches everything within the radius of 200 meters. The temperature rises sharply and anything within this radius vaporises. (Lesser gods and higher gods are not affected by this ability.) Remarks: An excellent weapon crafted by Earth''s greatest forgemaster. If there''s something the gods fear, it''s death and this bullet is not only their worst nightmare but also the harbinger of their death. A perfect tool for an executioner who is willing to go beyond rules and regtions to achieve their goal. ___ "..." Arnold was speechless. He thought he was making a God killing bullet, not a God overkilling bullet. Talos was right. If Arnold hadn''t used a small amount of celestial silver, he might as well have made a bullet strong enough to wipe out an entire continent. Just one bullet at bam! Entire civilisations could disappear without leaving a trace behind. The bullet was everything he had expected it to be. To be honest, it was beyond anything he had expected. It was just a handheld nuke. But now Arnold, not only had to make a gun strong enough to utilise the bullet''s abilities to the fullest but he also needed a weapon to shoot from a distance as being withing 5 kilometres of the target was more or less like a suicidal move. "Power and range... I think the choice is obvious." Arnold stroked his beard and opened the shop, "Since I have the gunslinger subss, there should be a knowledge rted to... There it is!" ___ [Advanced Sniping Knowledge]: The advance knowledge required by to unlock branch of gunslinger subss. Acquiring this knowledge also increases uracy by 10% when using snipers, bows, and crossbow. Buying this knowledge also unlocks the ability [Paralyzing Shot]. [Paralyzing Shot] : (Active ability) Basic ability for branch. This ability paralyzes the target for 3 seconds and reduces their movement speed by 60% for the next minute. [ Rank: A ] Price : 10 crystals. Would you like to make a purchase? Yes or no. ___ This was exactly what he was looking for. Usually, the price would be a factor he would consider before buying something from the shop but right now, he was pretty loaded with high tier beast crystals. More like he had enough crystals to wildly go on a shopping spree. All thanks to his hunting trips in the swamps and the wastnds. "Yes." Arnold smiled as the crystals disappeared from his inventory, "Damn, I missed the shop so much!" ___ Request acknowledged. Learning... Learning... Learning... You''ve sessfully acquired the knowledge [Advanced Sniping Knowledge]. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [Paralyzing Shot] : (Active ability) Basic ability for branch. This ability paralyzes the target for 3 seconds and reduces their movement speed by 60% for the next minute. [ Rank: A ] [Cooldown: 20 seconds] Congrattions! You''ve received a new subss: REWARDS : uracy (ACC) : +30 ___ Arnold let out a deep sigh of relief as the message ended. He was about to close the interface when another message popped up. ___ You have unimed rewards. ___ Chapter 244 - Newfound Strength ___ Would you like to im the rewards??? Yes or No ___ "Yes." ___ You''ve received: A new ss! ? [Destroyer]: A godly ss that grants users a single ability: destruction. The more destruction you cause, the stronger you be. Unlike your other ss and subsses, this ss is exclusive to you as proof of your alliance with the immortal one. It is also an exclusive ss that only immortal one had, but now his strength is yours. Be careful not to abuse it or... The immortal one might not be pleased. ___ "What a vague description... I don''t even know what it does? Cause destruction to gain strength. Sounds easy to do at first but thest statement kinda gives me bad vibes." Arnold mumbled and reread the entire thing, yet he remained confused, "System-sama, can you exin what is this?" < You''ll get to know about it soon enough. Right now is not the time. > "Should''ve expected that." Arnold shook his head and left the forge with his summons. He desperately needed a shower. Being drenched in ones own blood wasn''t a great feeling. But before that, he remembered something else. "Wasn''t I supposes to get a mythical affinity too?" < Don''t you already have one? > "Well... Yeah but-" < I don''t think that''s how you spell ''thanks for saving my life because I was stupid enough do something I shouldn''t have unnecessarily and endangered my life''. > "... Technically, you were the one who gave me the option to unlock affinity. I just answered when you asked ''Yes or no''." Arnold smirked, "I won''t be the only one getting roasted here, my dearest system-sama." < Never mind, the reward only stated that you''ll have a ''chance'' to unlock a mythical affinity. It wasn''t a guarantee. > The system had a point. Also, Arnold was grateful to the system although he never showed it. Not only he was grateful to it for saving his life again and again, but also for giving it a meaning, and whatnot. But he wasn''t going to show it. Or the system might end up roasting him again. Finally, with the death threat off his head, his mind was clearer than ever. Now he only had one goal in his mind: to show Devon how much he appreciated him messing around with him and his family. **** Arnold let his wet hair go wild and the hot droplets of water slowly rinsed the blood away. All the tensed thoughts were washed away along with the blood as well. After a while, he stepped out of the futuristic shower as a warm dry towel present itself in front of him. "Talos never cease to amaze me," Arnold mumbled while using the towel to dry himself. While Arnold generally used his creationist abilities to make weapons of war, Talos often used his knowledge to make other''s lives easier. Especially Arnold''s. This newly installed shower was a prime example of his abilities. He was no ordinary robot, but more like a man with extraordinary talent. Arnold quickly warped the towel around his waist and stepped out, only to be greeted by the luscious subus, Natasha, who was lustfully gawking at her master''s wet body. "I believe it''s done?" Arnold asked without paying any attention to her. "Y-Yes master! She''s been dealt with." Natasha replied before going back to gawking at him again. Arnold had asked her to deal with Mali''s half-sister and she finally did it after tormenting her soul in the most sadistic ways. Something not even Arnold would want to hear despite his tough-love attitude. But now... None of it mattered. She didn''t know why but Arnold seemed weirdly attractive to her. Whenever she was around him she felt... Like ady rather than a monster. Especially ever since he gave her the cor she wore around her neck. Arnold didn''t know, but the magic of the beast cor had dissipated a long time ago. Despite knowing she was free to do as she pleased, Natasha felt a weird sense of aplishment whenever shepleted a task given to her by Arnold. She was a subus. A creature known to control their target using the powers of seduction. Yet, she was the one being seduced by her uncaring master. Whenever she was around her master, she didn''t want to harm him anymore. While she was under the spell of the cor, she noticed his good side. A side Arnold only showed to those who were special to him. Unknowingly, Natasha had be a part of that group too and thus the way Arnold treated her had improved significantly. She felt he trusted her, and she would go to any lengths to preserve his trust in her. He had turned her into a woman and now she wanted to be ''his'' woman. But she knew it was just wishful thinking and nothing more. "You did well Nat. Thanks for helping me out. I owe you one... Well, technically I don''t because you''re my summon but you get the gist." "Nat..." Natasha mumbled as she saw Arnold smiling at her through the mirror. "You don''t like it? I won''t call you that if you don''t want." He turned around to face her, "I thought you''d like a nickname because others have it too." "N-No master, I like that name." She jumped up and down while Arnold shook his head and asked her to leave if there''s nothing more. She did leave but not before getting onest nce at him, slowly stripping his towel away. *** After the shower and a quick lunch, Arnold once again entered the forge. Only this time, Duke and few of the other golems were following him. Each of them had a different type of material in their arms. But they all had one thing inmon. All of the materials were once a part of the Dragon Goddess, Tiamut. It was time to upgrade his gears and weapons for the uing battle. Not to mention, his cloak was torn to shreds during his fight with Tiamut. Also, his gloves were in rough shape from all the fights he had been in. Soon the forge was lit up once again. Apanied by the loud banging noise of his hammer. It took him another day to forge apletely new set of gears and weapons. Once it was over, Arnold ced the hammer back on the anvil and admired the products of his hard work. A new cloak, pair of new gloves as well as the new addition to his arsenal: A sniper capable of killing a God. ___ ? [Cloak of Absolute Strength]: A cloak made up of the hide of the Dragon Goddess, Tiamut, containing unparalleled abilities. Grade: Cosmic B Defense (DEF) : +206 (physical) Strength (STR) : +50 Armour Type: Cloak Weight : 0.40 kg Additional effect : [TITAN''S BLESSING] - Reflects 15% of damage received as physical damage to the attacker. Additional effect : [Antidote] - Upon dawning the cloak, the user will gain total immunity from any poison of the universe. Additional effect : [ Dragon Goddess'' Blessing] - Damage dealt to reptilian monsters permanently increases by 30%. ? [Dragon''s Hand]: A glove made using the bones and hide of the Dragon goddess, Tiamut. A specific trigger has been ced inside the gloves, which when pressed, pops out a vicious w made of Dragon''s bones coated with poison. Grade: Cosmic C Defense (DEF) : +40 (physical) Strength (STR) : +60 Armour Type: Glove Weight : 0.15 kg Additional effect : [Dragon''s w] - When a target gets scratched by the ws of the glove, the target enters a poisoned state, making the target numb and limiting their visibility while making them lose 10% of their total health per minute. The duration can be extended by continually inflicting damage to the target. Additional effect : [Dragon Goddess'' Blessing] ? [Dragon Bone Sniper]: A sniper carved off of the bones of The dragon Goddess, Tiamut. Upon the creation of this sniper, it was further enhanced by its creator. This sniper is a true work of art having skills and abilities that no one had ever seen before. A perfect weapon designed to kill low ranking godly beings with precision and ease. Grade: Cosmic B Strength (STR) : + 350 Weapon Type: Gun Weight : 13 kg Range: 5km (effectiveness decreases as distance increases. The weapon would be no longer effective if shot from a distance of more than 6km. Moreover, the damage dealt will be decreased.) Additional effect : [Bull''s Eye] - Every second bullet fired from the sniper will hit the target without fail. Headshotting the enemy will increase the range of your vision along with your perception. Additional effect : [Chain shot] - Firing rate increases with every sessful hit on a target. Each sessful hit also increases the damage dealt to the next target by 0.2x for the next 3 seconds. Can be increased up to 2x (twice the base value). Additional effect : [Preacher of Death] - Killing enemies having a higher rank than that of the user, will permanently increase the user''s strength by 5%. If a high ranking godly being is killed then the strength will increase by 8%. Additional effect: [Headhunter] - whenever a new type of enemy (monster or god) is killed, the user gains a ''soul''. The soul is stored inside the sniper itself. Once the threshold value is reached, the sniper will evolve. ___ With gears like these, he no longer had to worry about the measly lizards of the swamp. He was ready to walk out of his domain and face the lizards a final time. Chapter 245 - Devils Oath "Thanks foring here on such short notice." Andrex smiled sinisterly as he weed the guest he had been waiting for so long. "It''s fine as long as you pay up." The man remained indifferent to Andrex''s attempts to please him.?? Andrex was obviously licking his ass because he was the only one who could help him solve his... little problem. But he wasn''t going to anything about it. He just came to hear him out. "Haha, you''re as ambitious as ever I see..." Andrex let out the fakestugh in the history of mankind. But upon seeing that his guest wasn''t pleased by him he quickly calmed himself down and invited the guest to sit down. While Andrex got a bottle of liquor which he only brought out on special asions. It was a 21 years old premium scotch. Something his father gave him on his wedding day... The day he married the vile woman who ended up betraying his trust along with her marital vows. ''This is not time to think about that witch. I need to focus!'' Andrex thought and poured the liquor in two sses before handing one to the guest. Both of them merrily drank the liquid before talking about Andrex''s request. "Mister Luke, please you''re the only person that can help me now!" Andrex tongue was no longer in his control... Just after one drink. "That''s why I''m here, but first, you need to tell me what do you want me to do?" Luke replied while pouring himself another drink. "I want you to destroy that fcking ck family!" Andrex yelled out loud. Luke was stunned. This idiot was going to get him killed! Destroy the most influential and strong family in America? Was this guy out of his mind? Luke had his suspicions that this idiot would ask something like that and that''s why he was fully prepared to decline Andrex''s request. He had flown over from Mexico just to decline his request in person and make a few bucks along the way. Andrex was rich, very rich, No matter how much money Andrex was willing to give him, nothing was more important to Luke than his life! "I''m sorry mister Andrex, but I''m afraid this is a job I can''t ept. No matter how much you''re willing topensate me." Saying that Luke got up to leave. Andrex had a pained expression on his face. Words came out of Luke''s mouth like daggers. Initially, Andrex thought since Luke had enmity with the cks, he''d be willing to help him out for money. But s! He couldn''t be more wrong. Luke didn''t want to invoke the cks wrath on him again. Last time they were willing to leave him alive on one condition: Not to evere back to America. He had already vited the ''treaty'' by visiting him in America Without Luke''s help, his n wouldn''t even make it out of its first phase! He has to get Luke onboard with the n no matter what. Fortunately, he knew exactly which buttons he required to push. "Don''t tell me... Even after what they did, you''re still scared of those filthy bastards?" Andrex sniggered. He could still use his head despite being intoxicated. "What did you say?" Luke red at Andrex with murderous intent yet Andrex was unphased by it. He knew now was the time to keep pushing. Remembering a saying of the old, ''Hammer the iron while it''s hot.'' "You tried to take revenge for your fallen brother and what did you get? Humiliation, furthermore you were deported! Was it fair to you? I thought you were cunning but looks like you''re just another scaredy-cat." Andrex shook his head in disappointment while pouring another drink, "Your brother would be so disappointed in you. Tsk tsk tsk." "You got a death wish, you filth?" Luke knocked the liquor out of Andrex''s hands and grabbed him by the cor pulling him up, "No pot-bellied needle dick prick, would dishonour my brother." Despite the dangerous aura Luke had been emanating, Andrex kept smiling. He knew Luke would relent at any moment now. ''A little more. Just a little bit more.'' Andrex thought and smiled internally. "I''m dishonouring your brother? Don''t make meugh! You''re the one who couldn''t avenge him and yet I''m the dishonourable one? How deluded can you be, Luke?" "Stop... I''m telling you. If you want to remain alive, then STOP!" Luke''s hands were shaking with rage. He didn''t want to unearth his buried feelings. Yet he knew whatever Andrex was saying was true. He had failed his brother. He had failed his brother''s guildmates. He had failed himself. "I WILL NOT STOP! EL DESERVED A BETTER END AND YOU KNOW IT!" Andrex bellowed, pushing Luke off him, "They killed EL, no... They murdered him. Murdered hundreds in cold blood and you say I''m dishonouring them and their memories? Listen to me, Luke. Fate is giving you another chance through me. Last time you weren''t prepared. You didn''t have anyone to back you up or support you. But this time, I''m here to help you. Together, we can take them down once and for all! Just think, Luke. Think about EL." Luke finally broke down. The guilt he had been suppressing for years came rushing back. He went through a multitude of emotions - denial, sadness, hate and then rage. He wasn''t going to run anymore. He couldn''t take revenge on the cks alone but with Andrex backing him up, he could finally serve justice to the filthy cks... "Tell me." Luke mumbled, "What''s your n?" Sometimes Andrex''s wit scared himself. He was definitely going to hell for what he was nning but going through with his n would make the rest of his days on earth peaceful. Once the cks were out of the picture, he''d rule over America. But before all that, he needed to ensure that Luke''s allegiance was with him. "Oh, I will do that, Luke. But first..." Andrex pulled out a small knife from his back. The knife was beautifully ornamented. Its golden handle was studded with a giant ruby while some ancient scriptures were written all over the de. Luke could tell exactly what the knife was. ''Devil''s knife...'' He thought. It was a special magical knife and was said to have been originated from Egypt. Amenhotep 1, had had this knife forged to ensure that his court stayed loyal to him. He made them take the devil''s oath, which was also known as the blood oath. While taking the oath, both parties had to cut their palms with the knife and shake hands while swearing loyalty to each other or amon goal. Failing to fulfil the oath meant certain death. Once both the parties had taken the oath, their lives were bounded with each other until their goal was met. The look on Luke''s face told Andrex that he knew about the legend. He could no longer trick him into very. Still, he could use him to get rid of the cks nheless. "I assume you know what I''m trying to do." Andrex mumbled, "Going against the cks is suicidal and I don''t want either of us to snap under the pressure and snitch. I hope you understand." Luke nodded and took the knife from Andrex. He knew what he had to do. It was the only way to avenge EL, to gain allies and strike hard. Without a moment''s hesitation, Luke stabbed his hand and blood gushed out of the wound. The knife absorbed the blood. Soon the ruby on the handle started glowing like the evening star. Andrex took the knife next and did the same thing. The ruby started glowing again. The next step was to forge the pact. Andrex extended his bloodied hand to Luke, who graciously shook it. At that moment, the ruby started glowing for thest time as both Andrex and Luke simultaneously mumbled something. "May my blood flow through yours," Andrex muttered. "And mine in yours." Lukepleted the phrase. "Till we destroy the demons," "Who have been tormenting us for so long." "Turn the days dark," "And fire to ice." "Till we fulfil the oath," "Under devil''s guise." The next moment, the ruby inside the knife cracked. A blood oath had been formed. A new disaster waited for the cks. One they''ll never recover from. **** Back at Nina''s apartment... Arnold pushed aside the curtains and the sun, kissed the most beautiful women he had known in his life. Nina was still asleep and Arnold didn''t me her for it. Last night was pretty wild, especially after he told her he wanted to talk to Nicole and sort things out. After spending days inside his domain, Arnold had an urge to meet Nina. That''s why he was back at her ce as soon as he was done working. Arnold pulled a chair and sat right next to her. Admiring her beauty. She was the best thing that ever happened to him, ever. Yet he always ended up unintentionally hurting her. Initially, Arnold only wanted to meet with Nicole to confirm what he knew and ask a few things while hearing her out. But after seeing how happy Nina was with his decision, he made his decision to seriously try and work things through. His sister made a mistake and as her brother, he should try to get her side of the story as well. "What are... You doing... Arnold. Comey with me for a while..." Nina mutter as she pulled him in her arms and nted a kiss on his lips. Arnold dly reciprocated and kissed her back. "You know... I''ve been thinking," Arnold mumbled as they broke the kiss. "Thinking what?" She mumbled sheepishly. "How a jackass like me ended with someone like you?" "Ahh... You''re just a pleasant distraction. Nothing more." She replied yfully. "Oh yeah?" Arnold asked at lifted her in arms. "Mm-hmm." Nina nodded and kissed him once again. At that moment someone was knocking at the door. Chapter 246 - I Forgive You "Did you invite someone over?" Arnold looked at Nina who was still in his arms. Nina shook her head and smiled, "I don''t remember, why don''t you check who it is while I get dressed."?? Arnold looked at her. He knew she was nning something, the look on her face gave her away. But if she wanted to y, he''d y along with her. He dropped her on the bed and threw a bathing robe over her. Then he jumped out of the bed and opened the door. ''Oh, you sly devil.'' Arnold thought after he saw Nicole standing in there. Nicole was shocked to see a shirtless Arnold standing there too. But the shock soon dissipated and she turned around to leave. She was confused as to why Nina would call her when Arnold was over? Didn''t she remember Arnold didn''t want to see her? Now he''ll get even more pissed at her than he initially was. Various thoughts kept running through her mind as she walked away. But as she was about to enter the elevator, something happened. "Um... Nicole, don''t you wannae in?" Arnold asked her. She turned around to see Arnold standing there while scratching his overgrown hair. She tried to calm herself down but couldn''t. Her eyes welled up, waterworks happened and all it took was Arnold to say her name. She rushed over to him wanting to hug him but then Donna said something, ''Be careful. He has ascended to the level of a cosmic being. He''s ranked above you... You''re stuck at C and he''s at cosmic rank B. Remain vignt around him for now. Although I can''t sense any bad intention towards you, you never know what he could be thinking.'' Donna''s words were clear. But Nicole didn''t give a crap. She knew the man in front of him wasn''t the one everyone else knew, but the brother who had previously refused to acknowledge her after she lost her cool and attacked him. Yet now, he had called her by her name... For the first time in ages! She wasn''t going to stop because her stupid ''personality'' wanted her to. She hugged him with tremendous force, knocking Arnold over. Still, she didn''t let go. She held him tightly thinking she was having a dream and Arnold would disappear any moment. "I''m sorry. I''m sorry. I''m sorry..." She kept mumbling while Arnold looked at her crying a river on his chest. At that moment a message popped up in front of him. ___ Power signature of another < Pdin > detected. Initialising contact protocol. ... ... ... Connection established. < Pdin of the Mischievous One > doesn''t seem to have any ill will towards you. The system will continue monitoring the situation for now. ___ ''So she was a pdin all along.'' Arnold smiled weakly, as she wept on his chest. He knew the trials and tribtions of being a pdin and knowing that his sister too went through something simr, turned his heart back to loving her. But not unconditionally like he used to. That love was gone but he could still develop a new rtionship with his sister. Nina stayed next to her bed. Tears of joy welling up in her eyes. Finally, the two people she cared about the most were back together. Still, she knew it would take some time for them to make up for the lost time but Arnold not pushing Nicole away or shouting at her was a good start. Last night when Arnold visited her, she insisted on him to get a shower and while he was inside the shower, she called Nicole and asked her toe over the next morning. At that moment she thought she was ying with fire but after seeing their reaction, she knew she made the right choice. Arnold gently patted Nicole''s head. They both had caused each other pain, but at the end of the day, he was her big brother. He needed to understand that family makes mistakes. He needed to learn and forgive Nicole and she needed to do the same thing. It''s what their parents would''ve wanted. Nicole continued to cry while Arnold hugged her tightly, "Shh... Shh... It''s all good, little one. I''m not going anywhere and I''m at fault too. So how about we sit down first and then talk about it, huh? The floor might not be asfortable as you think." Nicole nodded in reply and wiped the tears off her face and ignored his bad joke. Yet she didn''t let go of him. With his current strength, Arnold could easily throw her off him but he didn''t. Arnold helplessly looked at Nina who came rushing and slowly managed to pull Nicole off him along with his help. Yet the moment he was up, Nicole tightly hugged his arm while they sat down. She was still afraid that it was all happening in her head and Arnold would soon disappear into thin air. They sat down on the sofa while Nina brought them some coffee to drink. Nicole thought she was adept at hiding her broken feelings, yet when she was shown the hope of reconciliation, she started bawling like a baby. She wasn''t like this. Or at least she thought she wasn''t when in reality she was still a teenage girl at her core. The same girl whom Arnold had left to go to Brazil. With the coffee in their bowels, they started talking. But first Arnold needed to hear his sister out. Nina sat on his left side, while Nicole tightly hung onto his right. Still refusing to let it go. Arnold just smiled at told her to talk. He also told her, he needed to hear how she truly felt. No matter how harsh it was. He needed her to be a 100% truthful. That was his only condition. Nicole readily agreed and started her tale. She started talking about how Arnold left her alone. He practically abandoned her for a year. She thought Arnold was tired of taking care of her and that''s why he left. Why else would her brother leave her with a bunch of strangers? The cks were kind people but still to her they weren''t more than strangers to her. She now know why he had to leave but back then, she couldn''t help but me herself because of it. Then she recalled how wrong she was for not responding to his messages as she ''hated'' him. For a year, Arnold kept sending her texts and emails, he kept calling her but she didn''t respond. And then one day... It all stopped. She thought Arnold had finally given up trying to maintain a rtionship with her. She was angry that Arnold had stopped texting her. Although she never responded, she still read his texts. But now that the messages weren''ting in, she got upset. Not knowing that he was stuck inside a transdimensional portal. They after a week, Nichs called Johnny to deliver the worst news of Nicole''s life. He told Johnny that Arnold got stuck inside a transdimensional portal and was most probably dead. Nicole overheard the conversation between Johnny, Nathaniel and Nathan and that''s when she swore to eradicate the monsters off this. All for him. But then the tragedy struck at them. And they lost arge part of America to the monsters. But one day... Arnold reappeared. She was ecstatic to meet him, but Donna interrupted her telling her that pdins often end up killing each other. She now knew it was all lies but back then, she didn''t want to harm her brother that''s why she stayed away. Fast forward to the day Nina and Nicole visited him at the Alpha base. As fate would have it, she ended up assuming that Arnold wanted to hurt her and that''s why she attacked him. She emphasized on the fact that she didn''t want to kill him as Arnold thought but she only wanted to disable him. She said she wasn''t trying to justify what she did because she knew what she didn''t was wrong and she wasn''t thinking straight. But by the time it dawned upon her, it was already toote. She had done something she couldn''t undo. That''s why she hastily left the base and came back to the estate. "On my way back, I kept telling myself I was a good person." Nicole mumbled, once again on the verge of tears, "I kept telling myself everything will be alright. I kept reminding myself that I am a good person, I do good things, I have a heart full of love and the world is full of good people out there. People like my brother who would forgive me for my mistakes." Nicole continued, "However all of my hopes were destroyed when you were found unconscious on at the base... I-I..." Nicole grabbed his arms and broke down once again. She couldn''t continue anymore. By now Nina way on the verge of tears too. Everyone was silent. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Arnold sighed heavily and pulled Nicole closer to his chest. "It takes two hands to p. Not one. I''m equally responsible for this mess." He said and kissed Nicole''s forehead. "Do you remember what dad used to tell us about regret?" Nicole shook her head. She was quite young when they lost their parents so she didn''t remember much about them. Arnold smiled, "He used to say: ''Regret is a learning tool. We let it educate us so that we can move on into a better future.'' You''re regretful and so am I. I failed myself, and you too. But we can rebuild our rtionship. After all two of the strongest warriors in America can''t always keep bickering can they?" "So... Does it mean..." Nicole finally had a tinge of happiness on her face. "Mm-hmm. I forgive you, Nicole. I can''t stay angry at you forever now can I?" Both Nina and Nicole were happiest that they had been in a while. But little did they know, reconciliation wasn''tthe only goal Arnold had. He needed her to trust him and be at his side. For he still didn''t know who the other ascended person was. And he might need her help sooner orter. Chapter 247 - Time To Strike (1) The three of them slowly broke the hug off. But Arnold wasn''t done yet. After Nicole mentioned the transdimensional portal, he suddenly remembered something. Something he had forgotten a long time back. He excused himself from thedies and walked into the washroom, then he immediately called Talos who was taking care of the base in Arnold''s absence. Themunicator rang once before Talos picked it up.?? "Yes, master?" He asked. "Talos do you still have the file which I told you to take while we were stuck inside the dimensional portal?" Arnold asked. He didn''t specify what he was asking for as it would rule the surprise for Nicole. After all, he told Talos to save it because she liked the sky and shiny things. "Are you referring to the photographs, master? I''ve kept them safe on the local server." Talos confirmed once again but kept his voice low because Arnold was kind of whispering to him as well. "Yup. That''s what I''m talking about." Arnold replied while he made a man bun out of his overgrown hairs, ''I need to cut em short soon...'' "I''ve sent you the images, master. You should receive them at any moment now. Would there be anything else?" "No. Nothing else for now. It''s all good." Arnold smiled as the pictures shed upon hismunicator. As Arnold looked at the photos, forgotten memories came rushing back to him. He remembered how he had burned the entire forest down and after the sun went down he had expected the jungle to get covered in pitch-ck darkness, but instead, two luminous blue full moons took over the sky and lit up the surface. The beauty of that ce was astonishing. ''If this doesn''t please her, I don''t know what will.'' Arnold thought as he stepped out of the washroom at headed back to thedies. He sneaked up behind them and projected the images in front of them. The sneaking didn''t work though. Nicole could feel him sneaking up, thanks to Donna, who thought Arnold was going to attack them. While Nina was as perceptive as ever. Still, the out worldly images managed to surprise them. "It looks so beautiful..." They mumbled while Arnold smiled at them. It was true. The scene was majestic. It''s not every day one got to see not one but two different moons in a starry sky. "Where did you-" Nicole mumbled. "I was stuck inside a dimensional portal remember?" Arnold winked at her, "Since modern devices don''t function inside transdimensional portals, I told Talos to take a photograph of the sky because I knew how much you liked it." He then exined to her that he wanted to send her the image as soon as he got out of the portal but things happened and he ended up forgetting about it till now. "Even now I only remembered about it because of you, as you''re the one who kind of reminded me about it." Silence shrouded the room as the three of them were stargazing at dawn. "So, do you like it?" Arnold asked her. "I wanna live there." She smiled back, as her eyes reflected the image of the moons. **** A couple of hourster... Arnold and Nina were on their way to the syndicate headquarters. The heads wanted them to attend the meeting as Arnold and Nina were the only ones who were sent to explore the swamps. And now that the forces have been gathered and the expedition was about to begin, they needed intel which the two of them had. "By the way," Nina asked while driving the car, "What was this pdin thing Nicole and you were talking about, huh?" Arnold was hoping that Nina would''ve forgotten about it since she didn''t ask any questions about it while Nicole was over her apartment. But he was wrong. She had heard it all and now she wanted to know more. But Arnold couldn''t possibly tell her about it. Not because he didn''t trust her but because knowing about pdins might put her in danger. He was afraid that if the fact got leaked that she knew not one but two pdins, her life would be in danger as the other pdins might attack her to obtain some information about them. Although Nina was fairly strong, he doubted she''d be able to defeat a pdin on her own. Nor could he keep her near him all the time. The best he could do was to appoint a few of his summons to be her bodyguard. But then again, doing so would also arouse suspicion. In the end, Arnold decided. The little Nina knew about the pdins, Gods and whatnot, the safer she would be. "Earth to mister creationist, hello!?" Nina snapped her fingers, "Where are you lost, mister? Although I''m beautiful, I doubt you''d get lost in it now after being inside me." "You''re a barbaric woman, you know that?" Arnold replied. "Says the one who keeps beheading his enemies the first chance he gets." She sniggered, "So you wanna tell about the magical word? About the pdins I mean." "It''s nothing important. Just a nickname we used to call each other." < That''s the best you coulde up with? You disappointed me human. And here I was thinking after investing so many points to increase your intelligence, you''d have gained at least a bit... Well never mind that. I think you''re immune to intelligence itself. > ''Oh shut it, like you could''ve done any better.'' Arnold snapped back at the system while half-heartedly wishing for the system to nevere online. "Oh really?" She gave him a look that pierced through his body. "Y-Yeah." "Look, if you don''t want to tell me then don''t. But at least try toe up with better lies next time." ''Shut up please, system-sama!'' Arnold shook his head and replied, "Look, Nina. I don''t want to hide anything from you. But I can''t tell you about it. Not now, but I promise, I''ll tell you about everything soon. Till then, just do me a favour and forget about it. Could you do that for me?" Nina looked at him. It was the first time Arnold was refusing to tell her about something she directly asked about. But she also knew that Arnold wouldn''t lie to her about anything, until and unless it was to protect her. Thus she relented and dropped the topic. After all, he wasn''t the only one who knew about these ''pdins'', whatever they were. Nicole too knew about it and Nina knew, of she asked her nicely enough, Nicole would tell her all she could. **** At the Syndicate headquarters... The 12 heads of the syndicate were patiently waiting for Arnold and Nina to arrive. "So Nathan, why didn''t you told us about your ns to send a couple of soldiers to gather information about the swamps?" Andrex asked for the third time. "We had to be discreet for the sess of the mission." Nathan gave him the same answer once again. "You do know that by unterally deciding to do something which could potentiallypromise the safety of the nation, you have broken innumerablews right?" Andrex pressed on while the other heads silently observed the two argue. "I did what I did for the welfare of the nation. And since we already knew that there were spies within this very same hall, working against us, I only did what I thought was the best thing to do." Nathan calmly replied hinting at the incident with the white family. Andrex mmed his hands on the table and stood up, ring at Nathan with fury, "You''re trying to say there''s a traitor between us?" "I''m only pointing out the possibility," Nathan replied, staring at the nuisance of one of the 12 leaders. At this point one of the other members, Madame Roosevelt intervened between them. "Sir Nathan, with all due respect. Those are some serious allegations you''re throwing around at every one of us." Nathan averted his gaze from the ape-like man known as Andrex, and focus on the beautifuldy Roosevelt. She wasn''t much tall just 5''4", but her beauty could outshine even much youngerdies. She didn''t look like it but she was approximately of the same age as Nathaniel. So she was pretty aged, yet she looked as if she was in her mid-thirties. "I''m not throwing any allegations, Madame Roosevelt. I''m simply pointing at the obvious." Nathan crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Because the recent attack on LA and my family was staged by one of the people present inside the room." All of the head who had been previously silent were now filled with rage. How dare Nathan say something like that without proof? "Are you trying to say one of us wants the death of this nation?" Andrex yelled over everyone else. "Who said the wolves were here to destroy our country?" Nathan smiled as everyone immediately went silent. It was true. The wolves never wanted to attack and destroy the entire nation. They were there only to end the ck Family. This much was clear after rigorous interrogation of the captives. They never wanted to unleash something like Tiamut on the nation. They only wanted to destroy the cks, and when they weren''t able to do it, they released that monstrosity over Los Angeles to get back at them. "They said someone within this country helped them stage the attack and to the best of my knowledge, only the ones inside this room are capable of doing something like that. The only question is who?" Andrex was about to say something, but just then the doors were flung open and Arnold walked into the room along with Nina. Upon seeing them, everyone got silent once again. All of them were well aware of Arnold''s anger and didn''t want to identally piss him off. They were the leaders of this country, the roots binding the broken country together, but in front of Arnold, they were nothing more than a tried up tree, waiting to fall over. Chapter 248 - Time To Strike (2) Everyone sealed their mouth shut as soon as Arnold entered the room. If Nathan had warned them about one thing, it was to not piss Arnold off under any circumstances. And if they did, not Nathan or the cks would be responsible for the oue. This was Nathan''s move to keep everyone under check. As if all 12 of them were to lead an army into the swamp, they would end up crashing on each other''smands. The troops would get confused and history would repeat itself.?? That was the goal of this meeting. They not only wanted information but they were also there to crown a leader who would lead the army to the swamps. Once the leader was appointed, the rest 11 were expected to unquestionably follow the leader''s orders. But if the appointed leader can''t do their job well, they could call for another meeting at any time. However, there had to be at least eight of the heads against the leader to use that power. This was to ensure that the appointed leader does not abuse their power over others. You can say this was a leash to keep the appointed leader in check. By having Arnold, namely the strongest warrior in American history, at his side, Nathan had more or less solidified his position as the leader of the syndicate. He doubted anyone would even dare to challenge him for a seat. He wasn''t nning this because he wanted to rule over the rest, but he was doing so to save his family. Right now, everyone at the table was a potential enemy of him. After all, one of them helped the wolves to try and take them down. He was just being cautious and rightfully so. He couldn''t afford to be stabbed in the back while fighting against monsters as vicious as lizardmen. "Why is everyone so gloomy?" Arnold whispered into Nina''s ears. "You really are clueless, aren''t you?" Nina sniggered, "You can single-handedly destroy anyone of their families if you wish. Of course, they''d be cautious in your presence." Arnold who wasn''t used to being feared by humans, couldn''t help but smile awkwardly. These were the type of people who treated people having low social status as him like crap, and now they were afraid of him? Too scared to talk in his presence? He kinda liked it. He knew he shouldn''t but he did. "Now that everyone is here, let''s begin shall we?" Nathan snapped his fingers and the table in front of them lit up with hologram of a map hovering above the surface of the table. Arnold gave it a look and immediately realised what it was. A map of the swamps. The same map he had, had Talos make when Nathan requested Arnold to get him one. "In front of you is a map of the swamps that Arnold had generously made for our goal of eradication of the swamp dwellers." Nathan looked at Arnold before continuing, "Let''s hear it from Arnold about the dangers of the swamps which we don''t know of." Everyone''s attention immediately shifted from Nathan to Arnold who immediately went off exining to them about the situation up to the best of his knowledge. "This is the part of the swamps which I consider to be the safest. Although most of the swamps are ruled over by lizardmen, the nagas too have some territory in the swamps and this," Arnold pointed at the small area, "is more or less no man''snd. You''ll rarely find any monsters, Lizardmen or naga here. Thus it''s the safest ce for us tnd and camp beforeunching the final attack." "The nagas so far seem to be peaceful creatures as through my multiple visits, they were nowhere to be found. Never once did they attack me but we have to be wary of them. No one can predict their behaviour. They are monsters after all. Thus I rmend we to set up camps here." "What about the Lizardmen? How strong are they?" Madame Roosevelt asked. "I think the weakest among them would be approximately ranked at C or B. Not lower." "Any weaknesses we should be aware of?" She asked again. "When their skin is as tough as it gets. So we have to aim for their soft spot- eyes and crotch. We''ll need weapons like heavy axes to do more damage to them because the usual weapons don''t work well against them. Their skin can easily deflect bullets if not shot from close range." Arnold exined it to them as if they were kindergarten students and he was the ck hole of knowledge, "Moreover, they seem to have a societal hierarchy among them. The ones on the lower end can''t wield weapons and don''t have armour on. Theyck the intelligence to use weapons and hence depend on their ws and skins to fend off against the enemies." Every one started murmuring at this point. Monsters having a hierarchy? That''s just absurd! They believed all monsters were brainless beings driven by their lust to kill but what Arnold was saying,pletely shattered their beliefs. Andrex took it as an opportunity to swing a had at Nathan, "Oh,e on! Just because we haven''t been able to research about the swamps dwellers, doesn''t mean your family member can feed us whatever crap he wants." A couple of leaders nod their heads in agreement but most of them remained indifferent and were a bit annoyed at the interruption. Andrex thought Arnold would get pissed, but to his surprise, he was smiling as nothing happened. "I can''t think of any reason why would you think that I''m lying." Arnold said, "You are going to be at the swamps with me. So it''s my job to tell you whatever I know for the sake of your safety. After all, if something was to happen to you or anyone else during the assault, it would only increase my burden. And no matter how strong I am, even I won''t be able to take care of it all by myself." "Still, if you think you can''t trust me, please feel free to get out. This is not a yground. The moment you set foot into that hell-hole, you''ll realise what I''m trying to say." Arnold continued, "Trust is the most important thing. If anyone of you thinks you can''t trust me, please walk out now or you might be endangering yourself and your family in the swamps." Everyone stared at each other while Nina and Nathan couldn''t help but smile. Arnold was asserting dominance there and by the look on everyone''s faces, it was obvious that the message had been delivered loud and clear. "I agree with the youngd." A man dressed in a green suit smiled. It took Arnold a second to recognize who the person was. It was Marrino Tempest. One of Nathan''s closest friends. "I do too." Madame Roosevelt replied, "Andrex, I think we should let the manplete what he is saying before jumping to conclusions, shall we?" Andrex and his couple of supporters were soon hushed by the others and Arnold continued. "As I was saying, there seem to be some kind of hierarchy within the Lizardmen. As we move up the hierarchy, the deadlier they be. I don''t think anyone below A or S rank can deal with the ones on the upper level. So we would have to be careful around them... But that''s not all. Nature itself would be against us. You do know that the trees inside the swamp are alive and don''t hesitate to kill anything thates close to them?" The leaders nodded their heads in unison. How could they forget? After all, during the first attempt to take back the swamps they fell hard on their ass because of the trees. The trees they thought would help them by covering their tracks and shelter them were the ones who took the most lives. "Good. I don''t need to exin about them. Also, as far as I can recall, you were having a hard time fighting against the Mermen too, right?" Arnold smiled as he asked them. It was true. The mermen were merciless to whoever had the audacity to enter their territory. Sadly their territory pretty much included every drop of water in the swamps. The syndicate lost quite a few men at their hands too. "Well, you don''t have to be afraid of them anymore." Arnold smiled looking at their tensed faces, "I''ve got them covered." With his abilities, he could simply freeze a fair bit of the swamps to exclude the mermen''s involvement in the battle while his Nature affinity would give him the power to control any tree within the range of a kilometre to him. Thus as long as the soldiers were around him, the mutated trees nor the mermen would be able to harm them. The heads didn''t know about this so they were worried but didn''t question Arnold about it. But it didn''t stop them from whispering among themselves. "Now the most important thing," Arnold said as he raised his hand to get everyone''s attention. Everyone looked at what Arnold wanted to say next, "Vegans and vegetarians will not be allowed to participate in the assault." "What!?" Everyone simultaneously blurted out, "What kind of twisted logic is that?" Even Nathan and Nina had a simr reaction. "Calm down and listen to me first." Arnold yelled over everyone''s voice, "The reason I said that was because the only edible thing the swamps can provide us are the monsters that we''ll kill. Anything else is poisonous. The berries, grass, hell even the consuming the water is dangerous." "We can bring our own food. Can''t we?" Someone asked. "You can, but I doubt it''llst for more than a couple of days. The food you take would end up getting soiled sooner than you think." Arnold replied, "Monsters would be our only replenishable source of fresh food, that''s why I''m asking for only non-vegetarians to participate in the attack." "If the environment is as humid as you say, then how will we cook monster meat?" Andrex regretted asking that question as soon as he blurted the words out. Everyone looked at him with a disappointed look on their face. He was supposed to be a leader of one of the twelve elite families and yet he couldn''t even deduce such a simple thing on his own? But Arnold summarised everyone''s view while with a snap of his fingers created fire and said, "Really?" Chapter 249 - Time To Strike (3) To say that Andrex was embarrassed after Arnold produced mes by his fingers would be an understatement. As a result, he made his presence scarce during the rest of the meeting. It was a blessing in disguise as, without his continuous bickering, the rest of the meeting went smoothly. Now it was time to select the one who''ll lead the forces into the swamps. Arnold was sure Nathan would be the crowd favourite. To ensure that there wasn''t any pressure on the council members and also that Arnold wouldn''t try to ''influence'' them, they all decided to vote for the leader while maintaining anonymity. Arnold and Nina weren''t allowed to vote as each family could cast only one vote.?? However, Nathan, Nina, and Arnold were all shocked when the results were disclosed. Nathan wasn''t the one who was selected by the council to lead the force... It was Arnold! All of them voted for him except Nathan and maybe Andrex who had voted in favour of Marrino as no one could vote for themselves. Arnold wasn''t even in the ''race''. He was there to ensure Nathan was selected by the council to do the right thing and yet they all voted for him! Arnold couldn''t express how he was feeling at the time, so he just blurted out, "Can you guys even do this? I mean, I wasn''t supposed to even be considered as a candidate so it should be wrong right?" "Who do you think decided the rules here, kid?" Marrino smiled. Indeed the council could do as they pleased but this was... A bit extreme. Why would they even think about him making him the leader? Had they lost it? It felt as if Marrino had read his mind because as soon as the thought about getting selected crossed Arnold''s head, as he told Arnold exactly why he was picked to lead the forces into the swamp. "Among the people present inside this room, you''re the one who has the most knowledge about the swamps." Marrino exined, "You have experience of leading troops to battle and managing them efficiently as you''ve been doing so as a part of your role as Section Chief. The third reason, you''re the strongest man alive as of now. Andstly, you leading the forces into battle would be a massive morale boost for the soldiers as well as the citizens. Something we desperately need right now." The other members of the council nodded their heads in response. To them, Arnold was the most capable and qualified person for the role. Thus they ignored the minor detail that he wasn''t a candidate. While Nathan was more than capable of leading them too, hecked the charm, appeal and individuality that Arnold had. All of them knew about Nathan because he was associated with the cks. Arnold on the other hand, despite being a member of the same family, was individualistic. He had achieved a lot of things on his own. One could''ve argued to appoint Nicole the leader instead of Arnold, after all, she too was a powerful individual. But she was still young nor did she had enough experience to lead the forces to battle. And as far as Johnny was concerned, it was clear that both Nicole and Arnold were stronger than America''s first SS ranked warrior. So he didn''t even pop up in most of their minds. They needed a leader whom the soldiers could look up to, feel safe, and have an urge to follow the man on their own. Considering these factors, it was clear that Arnold was more suited for the job than anyone else. Thus he got the position. Arnold could understand what they were trying to do, and he appreciated the gesture. He wanted to thank them for trusting him with such a huge responsibility but he couldn''t. That thankfulness, that emotion that he was feeling, wasn''t something that he could express in words. For there were not enough words invented to trante how he was feeling at that moment. The meeting quickly concluded afterwards. However, not all was well. Arnold couldn''t help but notice that Nathan was feeling a bit down. It didn''t require a nuclear scientist to see through Nathan''s fake smile or the reason behind it. He didn''t get to be the leader thus he was upset. Arnold thought it was childish. As long as one of the family members got to hold the position, it was a win for the family but it seemed like Nathan didn''t think about it like that. Also, Nathan hadn''t even congratted him for getting selected! Either way, Arnold decided to be the bigger man and cast any misunderstanding aside before it got bigger. He wanted to ''nip the bud'' while he could. "Hey..." Nina pulled Arnold aside, "Don''t you think Nathan is behaving weirdly? I thought he''d be happy that you were selected, but that doesn''t seem to be the case." "Even you noticed that huh..." Arnold mumbled and kissed her forehead, "Don''t worry, I''ll take care of it." He slowly approached Nathan and waited till he got free before striking up a conversation. "Hey!" Arnold smiled at him, "I guess your nned worked!" "What n?" Nathan looked at him confused. "Ohe on. You nned all of this, didn''t you? You wanted me to be the leader and that''s why you called in favours from the rest of the council members right? I just wanted to thank you for doing something like that for me. And even if you didn''t do it, none of it would''ve been possible without the family''s standing in the society which all happened because of you, and I greatly appreciate it." Arnold gave a quick pat on Nathan''s shoulder. In Arnold''s eyes, Nathan just wanted some... Credit. Which Arnold just gave to him. But Nathan soon realised what a brat he was being by not congratting the one he referred to as his brother. Arnold was a better choice for the task and he knew it as well. Despite that, he was behaving like a child. All of a sudden Nathan burst outughing. Arnold soon joined in and in no time all the eyes were fixed on the two of themughing hysterically. "Thanks for knocking some sense into your bratty brother! And congrattions on achieving the leader''s position." Nathan said and he wiped a tear from the corner of his eyes before shaking Arnold''s hands. "No need to thank anyone. As your brother, it''s my job to be on your side forever. As your champion regardless of if you fucked up or not. To be there to guard you and fend off the scavengers, set you back on your feet and facing the right direction with a nap sack and good footwear. And maybe sometimes smack some sense into you using those footwears." Arnold smiled, "That''s what we are for one another, and also, you are appreciated more than words can express. Everything clear between us now?" "More than clear." "That''s good to hear. Now if you don''t mind, I''ll be heading back. I think I should start making ns about the assault." Arnold mumbled, "Could you tell everyone to assemble the force ording to what I''ve said earlier and be ready in three days? I''ll be back by then to share my ns." "Leave that to me. You go and get yourself prepared. We''ll handle the rest." Nathan responded while Nina and Arnold headed back to Nina''s apartment. Arnold called Nicole and told her to be there. He was nning to travel back to the Alpha base and continue nning his next moves along with Talos, Nina and Nicole. They were going to y major roles in the uing battle. *** Meanwhile in naga territory of the swamps... "My queen," A naga messenger bowed before Alleiah, the queen of nagas, "Grock has sent his approval to your peace treaty." "Haha, I knew that spineless lizard will agree to her highness'' terms." Kira, Alleiah''s right-hand naga eximed with excitement. The nagas and lizardmen had been at war ever since the swamps came into existence. Back when Alleiah''s mother was the queen, the nagas were the overlords of the swamps. Even the mighty mermen were reluctant to fight with the nagas. Their victory against the lizardmen was assured. But then the tides of the battle changed for the worst. The lizardmen, who were used to fighting barehanded, now had weapons which the nagas had never seen before. With these new weapons and armours, they overwhelmed the nagas, despite their small numbers. The nagas had no counter for their weapons. Nagas only used magic and weapons that the swamps could provide them with. Weapons like spears, stone sword, stone axes and knives. But the weapons lizardmen had, were way too modern. Unlike anything, the nagas had seen. Even today the only proper weapons the nagas had were stolen away from the few lizardmen elite that they managed to kill now and then. Needless to say, nagas brutally lost the battle. Alleiah''s mother was med for their ipetence and burned to death by heretics. They tried to do the same with Alleiah but couldn''t bring themselves to kill a child. Strike one. The heretic thought they could tame an orphaned Alleiah and taught her everything. Frombat to politics. Strike two. Once she was ''trained'', she was crowned as the new queen. Giving her the power to do as she pleased. Strike three. The first order she gave after ascending the throne was to burn the heretics alive. Just like they burned her mother. Ever since that day, whoever stood against her was eliminated without mercy. Only Kira was allowed to criticise her as they were like sisters. Later it was discovered that a few humans were working with the lizardmen and providing them with weapons in exchange for protection. Alleiah raised her hand, signalling everyone to calm down. The messenger wasn''t done yet. "What else did he say?" Alleiah asked as the messenger went back on his knees. She knew Grock wouldn''t agree to the treaty so easily. "He... He..." The messenger''s voice started cracking up, "He said he''ll agree to the terms as long as the queen agrees to be his... I can''t... I can''t say what he next..." "What. Did. He. Say?" The messenger was shaken to his core. The Queen''s anger was legendary. But he was stuck between rock and a hard ce. No matter what he says, he''ll die. In the end, he decided to tell Alleiah the truth. That way maybe just maybe his queen wouldn''t kill him. "He said he''ll abide by the terms if the queen agrees to be his... Personal prostitute." The next second a loud whip-like sound was heard in the courtroom, as the messenger''s head fell off his shoulders. "Prepare for battle!" Alleiah roared and left the room. Chapter 250 - Cardinals Sin Three dayster, in Los Angeles, California... It was raining and Arnold loved the rain. Everything about the rain. The whispering hum as sheets of precipitation plummeted to the water-forsaken ground, the often unanticipated shes of lightning or the rolls of ominous thunder. He loved it all.?? The rain was falling steadily without let up since before he woke up. Outside the summer flowers and leaves dropped under the weight of the water droplets. He had spent so much time inside the voidtely that he''d almost forgotten this feeling, the cool freshness in the breeze. But it wasn''t the breezeing from outside. But by the fan in the apartment. Arnold stirred behind his closed eyelids, his mind ceasing dream-mode to bring him back to reality. At first, he was slightly confused. He heard the fan rotating at full speed, yet he knew he didn''t turn it on before bed. Instead of confusion, a slow smile crept over his face as he turned around. Nina was sleeping like a baby in his arms. Smiling peacefully in her dreams. He brushed a strand of hair off her face and tucked it behind her ear, all while smiling himself. They arrived backtest night. It took Arnold lesser time than he thought he''d need to settle the important matters in the base and make a n. He needed to make sure the residents under his refuge were safe while he took care of things in the swamp. Various defence mechanisms had been installed across all of the three bases in zone 4. Sentry guns were the primary defence but Arnold also made around 200 automatons along with the soldiers to defend the zone in his absence. After the affairs were settled, he set out to make ns with Talos, Nina and Nicole. Well, he only needed Talos for the purpose but since Nina and Nicole were to y important roles in the assault, Arnold decided it would be better if Talos exined them the n by himself. The nning etc took a day and a half, and the rest of the day Arnold spent in the domain. Making a new weapon. He gave the vindicator to Talos and he never intended to take it back from him. Also, he had god-tier materials in his vault. It''d be a waste not to forge a new weapon with them. It took him the rest of the day to make something simr to the vindicators but only more powerful. Arnold was even biased to im that this new weapon of his was his greatest creation ever (After Talos, of course). What was the result of hours ofbour? This: ___ ? [?????]: A divine handgun carved off of the bones of The dragon Goddess, Tiamut. Upon the creation of this handgun, it was further enhanced by its creator. This Handgun is a true work of art having skills and abilities that no one had ever seen before. A perfect weapon designed to kill any being with ease. Grade: Cosmic A Strength (STR) : + 200 Weapon Type: Dual Handguns Weight : 1.3 kg Range:100 m (User''s uracy can increase the range up to 500 m.) Additional effect : [Gun-Fu] - Since these dual handguns were forged from the hand bones of dragon goddess, they are robust and it''s impossible to break them using any means known to the mortals. Thus these guns are not only effective in fighting mid-range battles, they can also be used as excellent weapons for closebat. (Strength increases by 5% when indulged in closebat.) Additional effect : [Expel] - Firing the bullet has one in three chance of knocking the enemy''s weapon out of their hand. Once the weapon is knocked out of their hands, the target goes into a state of confusion for 2 seconds. Dealing damage to the enemy while they''re confused would deal additional damage of 2% of their max HP. Destroyer ss sync abilities unlocked! Additional effect : [Karma] - When facing off against enemies deemed *Evil* by the system, the user gains the ability to one-shot the target. The only condition being that the target must be at least 10 levels above the user. The ability is useless if the target if 20 levels above the user. Killing the target would give the user one of the following: ? Random increase in stats. ? Random increase in attributes. ? Forging Material Box. ? Hidden Rewards. Additional effect: [Will of a Pdin] - Killing something would fill the destroyer gauge. Once full, the destroyer ss would upgrade and a new feature would unlock: [Body Modifications]. ___ Not only did the gun itself had awesome abilities, for some reason it unlocked something called, "Destroyer ss sync abilities". To be honest, Arnold couldn''t make the head and the tail of the abilities but he knew, if the system marked someone to be evil, he needed to kill them. The rewards were too hard to pass on. Then there was the second ability, [Will of the pdin], he didn''t know what kind of body modifications the system was talking about. But Arnold was hopeful they were something he''d need to fight the godly enemies that were already on to him. All thanks to Tiamut... On the positive side, the more godly enemies he had to face and kill, the more exp and materials he''d get for making even stronger weapons and gears. Hell, he could even equip his summons and eventually make a God killing army. He liked the sound of it. But he had an issue that required his immediate attention. An issue appeared as soon as he created the new handguns. Even now the issue was right in front of his eyes. ___ Please name your new creation. ___ He had no idea what should he name the guns! He wanted to give them a name that''d strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. A name more badass than the Vindicator. He thought and thought... But nothing came to his mind. < May I suggest a name? > "Sure... Nothing can be weirder than the names I''ve been thinking of." < Since the handguns could be considered to be a... Device, for punishing the sinners. Would you like to name it "The priest"? > "Thanks... For proving me wrong that nothing could be weirder than the names I was thinking." Arnold waved his hand around in disapproval, "We aren''t living in the ''80s anymore. Moreover, priests don''t punish anyone. They forgive them. I need something modern... Wait... Sin... I can do something with that word... How about, ''Cardinal''s Sin''?" System-sama remained silent. There was no point arguing with the user anymore. Once he wants to do something, he''ll do it regardless of how absurd or illogical it might be. Certainly, the name Arnold suggested didn''t belong to the 80s. It belonged to 1500s. All those points invest to increase his intelligence... Wasted. **** ___ Confirmed. [Cardinal''s Sin] blueprint added in the database. ___ Arnold nodded, clearly proud of himself. Now that his woes were taken care of, he needed to head out to the syndicate headquarters along with Nina. Today was the day they move out to the swamps and tomorrow they''llmence their attack. He woke Nina up with a kiss as she mumbled, "I could get used to waking up like this." "I won''t mind if you do." Arnold smiled and headed towards the shower. Twenty minutester, they were all set to head out to the HQ. To say that Arnold was surprised by what he saw would be an understatement. More than ten thousand warriors had been assembled outside the headquarters. These were all the people who met Arnold''s criteria. They all were above Rank C. All were professionals and could defend themselves against stronger foes. Andst but not the least, none of them were vegans or vegetarians. He was d that so many people were trusted his leadership but it would be a pain in the ass to transport so many people at once, but he was positive he could pull it off. There were a lot of familiar faces there, Nicole, Johnny, Kolt, Azyriah and many more. Everyone was already in gears Arnold provided to the syndicate. The ground trembled as the army of 10,000 simultaneously performed a salute to wee their leader, Arnold Ling. The sheer size of this army was enough to make any enemy tremble in fear. Yet they were all afraid of one person... Their leader himself. The news channels had already portrayed Arnold in a bad light and it was enough for the soldiers to be cautious around him, much to Arnold''s dismay. At a nce Arnold knew, the armycked unity, but despite their differences, they do share the same goal: To crush the enemy, enjoy doing it while itsts and make it out alive of the hell hole known as the swamp. But themon goal wasn''t enough to ensure discipline within the army itself. He had only been there for a few minutes and there were quite a few ominous looks on him. Especially from Andrex and his family members. He needed to do something to establish authority over them and it didn''t take long for him to do so. Chapter 251 - Distrust Distrust It was their only enemy there, but for Arnold, it was something he lived along with. People always doubted him when it came to decision making. His ns, decisions, advice, were urate most of the time yet people who didn''t know him well always distrusted him. Right now, in front of him was a man just like that. A man who wanted to challenge Arnold to show him ''his ce''.?? A man who believed Arnold was just lucky bastard to be able to defeat Tiamut and wasn''t stronger than any S ranked warrior. Not many believed Arnold to be the SS ranked warrior as the cks imed that he was. Why? Because his true strength had never been tested before. A man Arnold had never seen before walked out of the crowd and stood right in front of him. On his face were sunsses, not the cool kind like something Tom Cruise would wear, but like what Granddads used to wear when they want to look cool in his old fly-boy jacket. And the man was wearing a leather jacket... In Los Angeles... Right after the rain had stopped... Yup Arnold got a rough idea of who the man really was... An idiot. Or he was trying to look like one. The sunsses simply wrapped around the man''s face from one side to another, perfect for someone to conceal their identity and like all sunsses, they hid the part Arnold always found easiest to read. Well, even if the face was covered Arnold could get to know what he wanted, thanks to the system. He quickly used probe on the man and the result was nothing like he was expecting. ___ NAME: Luke (Human) LEVEL: 81 RANK: A ROLE: Brawler/Illusionist AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Incite ? Trash Talk ? Thunder Punch ? Transformation HP: 5000/5000 Mana/Energy: 5000/5000 STRENGTH (STR) : 90 DEFENSE (DEF) : 75 STAMINA (STA) : 82 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 67 AGILITY (AGI) : 68 ACCURACY (ACC) : 50 EVADE (EVD) : 50 CHARISMA (CHA): 78 THREAT LEVEL: Nonexistent REMARK: I see, your reputation has taken a hit. Now even an A-ranked human shit dare to talk thrash about you and that too in front of you. A twig-like him is challenging you. You have the permission to snap the twig in half. Show no mercy. ___ ''I thought you''d never ask.'' Arnold smiled as he schemed through the stats of the man, ''Nothing special... Just why is he so hellbent on getting his ass kicked by me then?'' Everyone was looking at Arnold. He had been challenged to a duel right before he was about the address the warriors. But... Would he ept the challenge? He doesn''t have to, but would he? These were the thoughts racing through everyone''s minds. Nina sensed something was off and decided to take matters into her own hands. "What do you think you''re doing? He''s the elected leader so you should give him the respect he deserves." Nina calmly told the man. "Respect? As far as I know, this man had done nothing to earn my respect." Luke replied with a smug smile on his face, "And the way a woman has to defend him doesn''t seem very... Macho, in my opinion." "You..." Nina unsheathed her sword and was ready to charge at the man when Arnold put his arm in front of her. He needed to take care of his matter himself. He turned towards Luke and smiled. "I see... You''re correct." Arnold replied as he slowly stepped down the stairs, "Also, I should thank you for providing me with an excuse to kick your butt and not be sorry about it. So? How do you want to do it?" Luke gulped his saliva down, Arnold released a bit of his concealed aura and he was already about to pass out. Even so, he got what he wanted now he only needed to get closer to his target. He couldn''t back down now. He looked towards Andrex through the sunsses, who gave him the signal. If things were to go South, Andrex would intervene but not before Luke could get what he wanted from Arnold. Luke was confident in his abilities... But when Arnold stared at him, it felt like he was being dragged into the pits of hell... Like he was already dead. He could barely keep his emotions in check while the stare down continued for a few more seconds. "Yo, we going to do this or not?" Arnold snapped his fingers, "You know what? To make it fair, I won''t use my hands to fight. That''s should be okay I think, after all, you''re an A ranker right, Mr Luke?" Luke was shocked! How could Arnold possibly know about his true identity? He had disguised himself as someone else and still, Arnold knew about his rank? Just what kind of monster had he angered to face him? The fight hadn''t even begun and he was already panicking. Was it toote to back down now? What was he even thinking!? Of course, he can''t back down now, he was doing all this to avenge EL. His brother! He might not be as strong as his opponent, but he was a master of disguise, an illusionist! He could do it. Without any warning, Luke jumped over Arnold drawing a small hidden de. Luke immediately went for Arnold''s nape. But before he could even swing the de, Arnold turned around, lifted his leg high in the air and executed an improvised version of a downwards roundhouse kick. The kick connected to Luke''s jaw, mming him against the ground. Cracks appeared on the concrete floor where Luke copsed... Even though Arnold didn''t put much strength in the kick, he ended up dislocating his opponent''s lower jaw. At least, he wouldn''t be trash-talking to anyone for a long time. "Tsk. I went overboard. My apologies." Arnold gave a quick pat to the fallen man on the shoulder before walking away to the podium as if nothing happened, "So, I think that was enough to wipe out any doubt that you may or may not have?" Everyone remained silent. No one wanted to get their ass kicked in front of thousands of people. They knew Arnold was strong and didn''t want to be the one on whom the strength was tested on... In short, no one wanted to be Arnold''s punching bag. "Good then! Let''s proceed with the n. We are already behind schedule. And please, someone get a healer for the man. On second thought, he won''t be able to participate in the attack anymore. So send him to the hospital instead." Two men hurriedly took Luke away. Arnold smiled as people scrambled to enter into vehicles as Arnold opened a gigantic portal for them to travel directly into the swamps. Even though Luke was in pain, he couldn''t stop smiling. Arnold didn''t know but Luke got what he came for. A strand of his hair. Or his DNA to be precise. Arnold thought the issue with Luke was over when in reality it was just the start of another crisis. Chapter 252 - An Unexpected Ally (1) "Just a kick?" "He must''ve been a low ranking warrior."?? "Yeah..." "But why would a low ranking warrior risk angering an SS ranked warrior?" "How the fck would I know that?" "Damn... Our leader is strong." Arnold''s hearing had improved by a lot ever since ascending to a cosmic being. The system might not have given him much details about the aftereffects of the evolution he had had but Arnold was slowly exploring his new self. Even after shutting down the challenger who rose to defeat him, there were still a few people who had their doubts on his ''capabilities''. But he couldn''t be bothered anymore. When they''ll face off against the lizardmen, they''ll know exactly where they stood in terms of power and dedication to the task. In the early stages, when dungeons had be a part of daily lives of the people, most of the people only became warriors because it paid well as well as they gained immense fame even by clearing a C ranked dungeon. In the eyes of general populous they were heroes! But when the time changed and more and more people started dying or disappearing inside the dungeons, a lot of warriors just up and resigned. They were no heroes. They were just a greedy bunch of cowards who only wanted to have their cake and eat it too. And when they couldn''t do that anymore, they simply stopped being a ''hero''. Even those who stayed weren''t much different. But after the dungeon break happened in Florida, everything changed. The government and syndicate realised they could no longer allow warriors to quit on their own ord. Thus everyone who had quit their job as warriors, were called back. Well... More like they were forced toe back... And the terms for their ''freedom'' was decided. Anyone who wished to retire early had to clear 10 dungeons that were at least two ranks above the rank of their own. Since the S and SS ranked warriors couldn''t ovee these conditions, there were special conditions for them. They had to help clearing 5 S ranked dungeons. Once done, you were free to do as you pleased. However, no one could ovee these absurd condition, hence no one could leave. These caused an outbrust of emotions between the warriors. Their nation might be in the need for help, but that didn''t mean they were going to needlessly sacrifice themselves to regain their freedom. They went to the masses, hoping to persuade them to join hands with them and pressure the then government to change thews. But no one helped them. The people had willingly surrendered much of their freedom for security. Moreover, these were the ''heroes'' who had abandoned them. Why would they help those who had betrayed them? The warriors hopelessly fought against the Elite families and were defeated. It was a short yet lively battle. The warriors who still denied coperation, were banished into the wastnds. While the rest reluctantly became the syndicate''s ves. Those were hard times but the condition of most of them had improved a lotter. Most of the restrictions were lifted as well and soon... They became arrogant once again. The syndicate however tried to put them on a leash but as Arnold saw with his own eyes, it didn''t help much at all. But he''d make sure that they get back on the right path. They don''t have another choice. If they don''t listen to hismands, they''d perish in the swamps. Something Arnold was a bit bothered about. He didn''t mind losing incapable assholes every now and then, but losing them would put strain on the others. In the end, it''ll be bad for him and his allies. Moreover, most of his summons were pretty much useless in the swamps. Apart from Talos, Natasha, Alice, Cerberus and Bad-Breath, most of them were pretty much useless because of their weight. Dread, Asterios, and Duke wouldn''t be able to move freely around the swamps and in the end won''t be able to do much. However, Arnold also had a secret weapon- Scy. With Scy''s help, he''d be able tounch an aerial assault on the lizardmen if he needed to. He had also prepared hundreds of elemental grenades specifically for that purpose. But he hoped he wouldn''t need to use them. After all, the swamp was a precious resource for his personal use... Call it an EXP farm, if you want. Also, he had already nned to save the swamps for another special purpose. You can say, the swamp was a personal project for him. One he deliberately wanted to make his own. This swamp had been upied by Devon and his forces for a long time. Obviously there was reason why Devon decided to camp here of all ces and Arnold wanted to discover that reason and if possible, use it for his own advantage. He needed anything and everything he could get his hands upon. He couldn''t afford to take the gods lightly. Also, he wanted to test his strength after ascending and what better ce for it than the deadly swamp and it''s monsters. Just thinking about all the monster materials he would gain after killing the swamp dwellers made his skin crawl, but in a good way. ''I''m such a sadist...'' He thought and gave the order to everyone to enter into vehicles, and if they didn''t couldn''t then they were supposed to line up in front of the giant travel portal he had just called forth. Everyone''s mouth fell open. They had heard about teleportation ability but this was on a different scale! The portal Arnold had just made was bigger than the 777 tower. Arnold could hear a few gulping noises. Everyone apart from Nina and Nicole, who had already seen the wonders of the travel portal, were shocked. Just when they thought they have a grasp over Arnold''s strength and abilities, he''d pull another trick from his bag. The few who had doubts about Arnold''s strength bit their lips while those who supported him couldn''t contain their happiness within themselves. (Author''s note: Just so you know how big the portal was, LA based 777 tower is about 221 meters tall.) "This power... ITS OVER 9000!" One of the supporters yelled with joy. (Author''s note: get this reference please...) "Tsk, another weeb." The man next to him spat out in disgust. "Ah, I see. You''re not a man of culture. You poor normie." The first guy said and walked into the portal with his head held high, "Just so you know, the other guy with over 9000 power is not to be taken lightly either. But I guess you know what your strength is." Chapter 253 - An Unexpected Ally (2) "Stop." Arnold''s voice echoed through themunication channel. The team of ten people and summons alike immediately came to a halt. All of them were handpicked by Arnold and were tasked with securing a perimeter for everyone else. If all ten thousands of them were to enter the swamp at once, it would cause amotion and alert the lizardmen along with Devon. Something Arnold couldn''t afford to let happen.?? That''s why Arnold had selected nine of them other than himself and led them to kill the nearby monsters while also prepare a camouge to hide their presence if possible. While they did what was needed, the others were left at zone 1. Which was the zone nearest to the swamp, as well as the zone Azyriah was the Section Chief of. The ones Arnold had selected, consisted of humans and his summons- Nina, Nicole, Johnny, Kolt, Azyriah, Talos, Natasha, Bad-Breath, and Alice. He had brought Alice along just in case they needed a healer. Although he doubted there would be a need for one right now, it was better to be safe now than be sorryter. Arnold was walking in front of the group. Using the Nature affinity to take control of the trees around them to act like a sword and a shield at the same time. In hindsight, he was now thinking he could''vee alone and dealt with the monsters discreetly on his own. With the help of mutated trees at hismand, he could easily kill the monsters without worrying that a monster would take note of anything odd. After all, monsters being eaten by the ''Devil trees'' was amon urrence in the swamps. This way he would''ve been more discreet. But he couldn''t send them away now. Also, he had discovered a new use of his Nature affinity. He could be one with the trees he controlled if he desired to do so. Meaning, he could sense if someone or something was around the tree he was controlling without even needing to reveal his location. The ce he always found to be troublesome, had suddenly turned into the best battlefield he could have asked to fight on. While he found the swamp to be a strategical fort, the others couldn''t help but curse the humid and gloomy weather shrouding the swamps. Especially the girls who were wearing tightbat attire. Nicole was the one feeling the most ufortable as Nina had already been to the swamps numerous time along with Arnold while Azyriah was used to this climate as zone 1 was closer to the swamps and hence the weather there was also a bit humid. "What is it?" Nina whispered over thems. "Elite Lizardmen. Three of them, 2''O clock." Arnold replied. This was the type of lizardmen Arnold had told them to be more careful of. His instructions while facing this ss of lizardmen were short and clear. Anyone having a lower rank than S was not supposed to indulge inbat with them at all. If they were to encounter one of them, the warriors were instructed to run away as fast as they could. As speed was the only thing these monsterscked in. Even the S ranked warriors who were allowed to engage them were not supposed to do so alone. Only Johnny, Nicole and Arnold, including his summons, were allowed to take that group of lizardmen on their own. Nina had heard about these monsters from Arnold. But thought he was exaggerating things a bit when he told her that even he was pushed to his limits while facing them. But now that she had seen them with her own eyes, she knew Arnold wasn''t exaggerating things... He was downying them. "Three of them, and three of us. Wanna take them down?" Johnny hissed. He was getting bored after sitting around for hours without any action. Thus Johnny suggested that he, Arnold and Nicole should take them down on their own. But Arnold shook his head. Something was wrong. Elite Lizardmen never travelled around in a group. Never. After all, they were individualistic creatures. ''Unless...'' Arnold got lost in his thoughts, ''Unless, they are waiting for something. It''s either that or they know about our arrival.'' Arnold was sceptical about thetter theory. They couldn''t know about the time and date of Arnold''s nned attack. No one apart from him and Nathan knew about it and he was sure Nathan wasn''t going to stab him in the back. That left him with two choices. Either they were nning something or they were at war with someone or something else. They were wearing full body armour which strengthened Arnold''s believe that they were indeed battle ready. Although he could be wrong. But he wasn''t. They were at war. Not with them, but the nagas. Arnold was about to give the signal to attack the lizardmen when a dozen of nagas popped out of the ground. It was like the ground itself was giving birth to the fully grown nagas. Lizardmen fought bravely and tried their best to expel the surprise attack but in the end, the numbers worked in the favour of the nagas. The lizardmen were quickly dispatched off and were quickly stripped out of their armour and weapons. Arnold was pretty impressed with the gueri war tactic of the nagas. After looking closer Arnold realised that numerous traps doors were lying around the area the lizardmen were at. They were concealed such that no one would be able to tell that there were hidden trap doors around the swamps. However, he soon realised that these were the same trap door Arnold and Nina had encountered while visiting the swamps a couple of months back. ''So that was their doing?'' Arnold was enraged as he remembered what happened when an automaton tried to open the trap door and was destroyed. Initially, Nina was about to open the trap door and had she opened it, she''d have melted down like butter on a hot frying pan. Most probably these traps were set to eliminate the lizardmen who were apparently the enemy of the Nagas. But Arnold didn''t care. One of these traps could''ve taken Nina''s life and for that, the nagas had to pay with their blood. Just as Arnold was about to jump down one of these trap doors and give the nagas a piece of his mind, three nagas d in golden armour appeared in front of them. Arnold and his party didn''t notice but they too were standing next to a trap door themselves. Everyone was quick to draw their weapons and strike their new foe down. But before they could do anything, the nagas respectfully bowed before them. Everyone was taken by surprise. Just what the hell was going on!? The next moment, the nagas turned towards Arnold. Their hands up in the air, showing that they weren''t there to cause them any harm or trouble. Arnold had been around monsters ever since the dungeons started popping up everywhere but not once had he heard about or seen such a peculiar behaviour before. "O great human, please heed our call!" The elderly looking half male serpent said out loud, "We desire no war, only peace with your kind. We have amon goal- the eradication of those filthy lizards and the great queen of the proud nagas has requested your assistance. O great human Lord, pleasee with us and visit her majesty Alleiah. Together we shall defeat the demons of the swamp and you shall have what you want." "What do you know about what we want?" Arnold asked back. Everyone else was shocked that a monster could converse in English so fluently. Everyone except Arnold as it wasn''t the first time he had heard a monster converse in human tongue thus nor he or his summons were surprised by the fact that they have encountered yet another speaking monster. They were, however, more interested in what they wanted with them. "If you help us, the queen would tell you about the whereabouts of the human you are seeking." The naga politely replied. "Interesting..." Arnold couldn''t help but smile, ''looks like I won''t have to go through much trouble to get a hold over Devon. But let''s see where things will go first. If worsees to worst, I''d kill them all.'' Chapter 254 - An Unexpected Ally (3) Arnold wanted to visit this ''queen'' these humanoid monsters were talking about, but he wasn''t there alone. He couldn''t act without the consent of the others as he was there as their leader, not some vignte. Moreover, if he agreed to an alliance without thinking of the consequences and things end up going south then not only his reputation but also his family''s reputation would be torn apart. This he couldn''t ept. The cks had helped him and Nicole when no one else did. He couldn''t let their hard-earned reputation go to waste because of his mistake.?? The nagas were still expecting an answer from him, but he had to discuss things with the others first. So, Arnold asked the nagas to wait for some time, while they decide on how to proceed with their request. No one expected the nagas to oblige with their request but they did. "What do you guys think?" Arnold asked the others once the nagas were out of earshot. "What is there to think? They are monsters. We are humans. How the hell are we even supposed to work together?" Kolt was the first to speak. Johnny nodded in agreement but he was the only one to do so. Even Azyriah didn''t support her long time friend. She had her own opinion. "The warriors on our side are strong. There''s no doubt in that but most of them are inexperienced. They might not be as efficient as we think they are against the lizardmen. The nagas, however, know their opponent better than us. The way they handled the three elite lizardmen is proof that they have better tactics to fight against the lizards than us." Arnold smiled as he too was thinking along those same lines. The inexperience of human warriors would sooner ortere to bite them in the ass. But by siding with the nagas, Arnold could minimise the loss on their side while getting the valuable information regarding Devon at the same time. "Okay... So tell me how will you tell the others that the monsters whose hands have been soaked in human blood will now be fighting alongside us?" Kolt retorted, "Humans and monsters cannot coexist. End of discussion!" "I agree with Kolt. The others would never agree on fighting alongside monsters. Especially, against the ones who mercilessly killed hundreds of our men thest time we tried retaking the swamps." Johnny reiterated, "Moreover, these nagas are essentially snakes. What makes you think they wouldn''t betray us?" Complete silence. Both sides were making equally valid points. It doesn''t matter what Arnold thought, no one would agree with fighting alongside monsters. No matter what the reason was. Arnold knew fighting alongside monsters was possible. After all, most of his elite summons were technically monsters themselves. But Arnold still thought there was a chance to convince Johnny and Kolt as they were the only ones protesting against the idea right now. "Why won''t they betray us... Good question." Arnold finally broke the silence, "Technically speaking. We''re standing in the middle of the territory owned by the nagas and God knows how many of them might have already surrounded us. There are trap doors everywhere so if they wanted to attack us, they could''ve already done so. Just imagine, what would happen if hundreds if not thousands of nagas suddenly jumped us. Do you think we''d manage to get out of that mess unscathed? I''m not saying we should blindly trust them, but still, the enemy of an enemy is a friend." "You''re right that no one would trust fighting alongside monsters and they don''t need to. Hell, they won''t even know that we have an ally in the swamps. All they need to do is, to not attack the nagas and I have a perfect excuse for that." "What excuse?" Johnny asked. Just like Kolt he too was getting a bit irritated. Just the idea of working together with monsters made his skin crawl. "An excuse that will allow us not to act against any monster other than the lizards." Arnold smiled, "You do know we''ll already have our hands full with them so it would be wise not to unnecessarily attack other swamp dwellers like the Nagas. Also, the mermen won''t be able to harm us so that''ll only leave the nagas who will secretly be our ally. Good enough for an excuse don''t you think?" Both Kolt and Johnny went silent because Arnold was right... The excuse could work. And with that, the argument came to an end. Arnold called for a vote just to make sure everyone was on the same page. Everyone except Kolt and Johnny agreed to hear out the naga queen. Arnold shook his head but was understanding. He couldn''t force his views on others. **** Arnold talked with the nagas and agreed to their request. Since Johnny and Kolt had already expressed their strong views against working together with the nagas, Arnold decided to not bring them along with him. So he gave them the task to guard the trapdoor until Arnold and others came back. Talos and Bad-Breath were also ordered to stay behind and help the two. While Arnold, Nina, Nicole and Azyriah jumped through the trapdoor. The concealed trap door in the eerie swamps marked the entrance to the naga''s underground abode. Beyond the door was a series of ramps beyond which was arge, damp room. Arnold half expected it to be covered inrge bones, rat droppings and dirt, but to his surprise, it was squeaky clean but not in its entirety. The halls were lit up with the help of a series of ming torches. The nagas quickly handed torches to their guests. Arnold''s torch allowed him to see quite a distance where various triggered traps had imed a few lives. As they kept moving forward they found multiple skeletal remains of lizardmen, battered and imed by time itself. "What is this ce?" Nina mumbled. "These traps are the only reason why the Lizardmen don''t dare to attack us. Without these traps, we are quite vulnerable while were outside the city." The elderly naga exined to the humans. Arnold nodded and they continued onwards as the two remaining nagas walked behind them. Further ahead was a single path. Its twisted trail led passed piged rooms and soon they entered a ghostly area where the path ahead of them forked into five different paths. The nagas unhesitatingly started walking towards the rightmost path. Soon another simr clearing appeared in front of them. This time they took the middle path. Simrly, they crossed 6 more of such clearings. It might not have seemed like it, but this catb structure was yet another trap. Each of the five paths led to a different clearing, which again led to another clearing. This pattern was ced to trap the invaders inside and inevitably lead them to their death. Out of the 390,625 paths only one lead to the naga capital. Arnold couldn''t help but think... Just who had the brains toe up with something like this. They eventually made it to what was likely the entrance to naga city. An enormous wooden door stood in their path. Dried blood stters are all over it, somehow untouched by time and the elements. Arnold step closer to inspect it and as he did, the elderly naga pulled him back. "The door has been embued with a curse. If anyone apart from a naga were to touch the door, they would die in the most horrible way. You might want to step back a bit." The naga said and performed some kind of magic and soon the doors to the hidden capital of nagas parted to let the visitors gain ess. Chapter 255 - Just A Worm (1) Constructed in the lowest point of the swamps, the city of nagas, also known as ''Serpentine'' was home to thousands of nagas lead by the naga queen, Alleiah. This city wasn''t built under the swamps by ident but had been slowly nned out over the four years that the lizardmen have existed. Even though the buildings inside were mostly built by wood, mud and stone-like houses of the old, they were quite stable. The nagas had learned to utilise the properties of basic materials to their maximum potential. Something which Arnold also used to aim for while making gears or any other thing for that matter.?? The city had nearly everything one could see in a modern city. Nagas dressed in light armour made of wood and stone were patrolling the streets. They were kind of the local police force. There was also a sanatorium and most surprisingly, a City Hall as well. Dozens upon dozen of nagalets (infant nagas) were ying around the streets. The main attraction, however, was the market. The elderly naga informed the guests that this market was the first thing to be made in the city and was designed by the humans who were living here before the nagas ''upied'' the ce. Azyriah couldn''t help but feel a bit disgusted by the old naga''s remarks but kept her cool. Nina and Nicole remained calm and indifferent like Arnold had told them to. But Arnold was having a hard time to do so himself. The only thing that felt relieved about was not forcing Kolt and Johnny toe with him. If he had done so, all hell would''ve broken right then and there and Arnold would''ve most probably joined them in destroying this abode which was currently ''upied'' by the nagas. Nina could sense something was off with Arnold, so she put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down a bit. Arnold turned around and smiled at her, reassuring her that he wasn''t going to do anything rash. His eyes, however, told a different story altogether. He was slowly but surely getting pissed. The nagas oblivious to the fact that their ''guests'' were nning something, led them straight to the pce. The castle''s mouth was so big it engulfed everyone who entered. The windows were like the eyes of the devil. Multiple turrets were lined up over the walls like teeth the teeth, while the doors were like the devil''s nose, smelling everyone who entered the pce. The group slowly made their way towards the entrance. There they were thoroughly checked for weapons but the naga soldier couldn''t find anything on them. Arnold wasn''t a fool who''ll blindly trust the monsters. Thus, he had already put all of their weapons in his subspace, while Nicole put her sword in her own inventory. Arnold was surprised that she was using the power granted to her by the system so freely in front of him. Nicole met her brother''s gaze and whispered in his ears, "We both know who we are so what''s the point in hiding our abilities, don''t you think? Either, it wasn''t like you even try to hide the fact to you too have an inventory of your own. So... I''m just revealing what I can do too." After checking the humans for weapons again, they gave up and let them inside. Still, in their minds, they couldn''t help but think of them as fools. Why the heck would someone so blindly trust the ones they had just met? Were the humans just fools or did they really trusted the nagas so much? Either way, they were about to be judged by their Queen, and theypletely trusted her decision. If she decided they were going to fight alongside humans, the nagas would honour her wish. Reluctantly so, but they would. The castle was totally different from the rest of the buildings and structures of the city. They weren''t made of mud or wood but with shiny tiles. The building also resembled the ones made by humans and not like the ones made by the nagas. Arnold knew almost immediately. This was the building used by the humans who lived there before the ce was ''upied'' by the nagas. But rather than losing his shit over the matter, Arnold remained calm. ''This ce would make a great base for us. Or maybe just for me...'' Arnold smiled. The nagas who saw his smile, foolishly thought he was admiring the beauty of the castle. They gave the humans a quick tour before stopping in front of a huge metallic door. "The queen and her council will meet you inside. We shall wait for your return here." The elderly naga bowed to Arnold as the doors were flung open, revealing the throne room filled with nagas weighed in golden ornaments. Arnold couldn''t help but notice numerous nagas ring at him with hate and anger. While Arnold and Nicole had concealed their aura, the nagas were letting it all out. Maybe it was their way to intimidate their guests and show who was in charge there. It was a good intimidation technique but even so, Arnold couldn''t help but chuckle. Their collective aura wasn''t even a fifth of Arnold''s aura. Nicole felt the same and shook her head in disappointment. She had initially thought that there would be at least a few strong members among the nagas, but she had been disappointed. At this moment, she didn''t even think that an alliance with the nagas was worth the cost anymore. But she trusted Arnold to make the right decision in the end and hence decided to stick with whatever decision her brother made. At the centre of the torch-lit room, was a throne and on it sat a coaxing beauty. She wasn''t as beautiful as Nina neither was she full of lust like Natasha, yet there was something different about the naga queen. Something that would''ve drawn any man to her feet but not Arnold. Being surrounded by Natasha had paid well. If Arnold could keep himself in check in front of the Queen of Subuses, being in control in Alleiah''s presence was like child''s y to him. "Wee humans. I, Alleiah, the queen of nagas, wee you to our city on behalf of the naga populous." Chapter 256 - Just A Worm (2) "It''s a... pleasure to meet you too, Queen Alleiah." Arnold replied to the naga queen, "And thank you for such... Warm wee, considering that your council members can''t take their eyes off us." Arnold found it unpleasant that a bunch of worms were staring at him so intently. It didn''t anger him in the slightest but he did felt a bit displeased. Yet he had to remain calm. After all, he was intending to sacrifice these worms for the sake of the war instead of humans. But to do so, he had to make the queen believe that he was on her side. Even if it meant to tolerate the nuisance these serpents had nned next.?? Alleiah immediately whipped her tail on the ground and the gazes of those staring at Arnold andpany fell. Even if they didn''t agree with the naga queen, they were still afraid of her. Her anger was legendary. For them, it was best not to upset her. "Please ept my sincerest apologies... Um... Human." "Arnold. Arnold Ling, representative of the humans. And these are my subordinates, Nina, Nicole and Azyriah. Once again, thank you for inviting us over. I''ve been waiting for the opportunity to meet the queen of the nagas for a while now." Alleiah couldn''t help but smile at Arnold''s remarks. She wondered if he even knew about the existence of the naga society before being invited by her? But then Arnold was no ordinary man. If he was, she wouldn''t have fallen for him. He could''ve had ways to know about her existence. ''He is... Worth the trouble.'' Alleiah thought and licked her lips. Arnold could feel the lust oozing out of her body. Making everyone a bit... Ufortable. But it was the perfect moment to use probe on her. ___ CLASS: Naga NAME: Alleiah LEVEL: 111 COSMIC RANK: D ROLE: Hive Queen (Queen of Nagas) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Fire spirit summoning (lvl 1) (Active skill) ? Latent Poison (lvl 3) (Active skill) ? Corrosive Breath (lvl 1) (active skill) HP: 3500/3500 STRENGTH (STR) : 67 DEFENSE (DEF) : 101 STAMINA (STA) : 88 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 77 AGILITY (AGI) : 90 ACCURACY (ACC) : 70 EVADE (EVD) : 65 CHARISMA (CHA): 99 Damage Resistances: Poison (50% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, ranged attacks. Weak Against: Fire, Bludgeoning THREAT LEVEL: Extremely Low REMARK: You got any weird fetishes that I don''t know of? ''Cause, that''s the only thing this creature is useful for- to fulfil your sickening desires. Other than that, she isn''t of much use for anything to you. But she doesn''t have the power to control her kind so she could be used as a pawn at best. One who''ll sacrifice anything for the one she lusts upon. All in all, she''s a good tool for someone like you. Use her well. ___ ''She''s... Weak. Even weaker than I expected. The system is right, she can just be a tool at best, made to be used and exploited.'' Arnold thought while analysing Alleiah''s status in front of his eyes, ''But isn''t a tool subjected to how it''s used? I could use her and her people. If nothing else, I could use them as meat shields. I like these odds.'' After carefully analysing whatever he could, Arnold spoke up. "So, what did you want to talk about?" "THE NERVE OF THIS HUMAN! Addressing the queen in such a casual manner. Just who do you think you are? Stay in your limit-" "That''s enough, Kira!" Alleiah once again whipped her tail to silence everyone, "They don''t know our customs and you can''t force them to acknowledge something they despise. We are monsters. They are humans. We should be grateful they even decided to hear us out." ''Looks like she isn''t brain dead after all.'' Nicole''s voice echoed in Arnold''s head. ''Wait, how did you?'' Arnold asked back. ''Just one of my abilities. Don''t worry I can''t read your mind like the old man Nathaniel. The ability only allows me to converse with someone I feel close to.'' Nina replied, ''Forget about that, what''s your n here?'' ''Nothing particr. I was thinking about just hearing what they had to say and decide the next move from there on.'' ''I see. Keep me posted in case things go South.'' ''Sure. But we definitely need to talk about this ability of yours.'' Arnold reminded Nicole and once again turned his attention towards the queen. The bickering was still going on but Arnold had enough. He didn''t have any time to waste and went straight to no BS mode. "As much as I''d love to see how nagas settle their differences, I don''t have any time to spare anymore." Arnold eximed, "I''m gonna ask you once again.For what purpose have you called us here?" For some reason, his words immediately calmed everyone down. It was like the nagas had forgotten something that Arnold reminded them about. "My apologies, human." Alleiah said after she regained herposure, "I won''t waste any more of your precious time then... I wanted to meet you to form an alliance... Temporarily. Only till we defeat the lizardmen." "Tell me something we don''t already know. What do you want from us?" Azyriah stepped in. "I''ming to that. As you can see... We don''t possess many weapons that are capable of dealing with the lizardmen. They on the other hand have weapons that could annihte us as they please. The only thing protecting us are these walls. But even they can''t hold the lizards back indefinitely." Alleiah continued, "Thus we hope you could lend us some weapons and in return, the nagas would be yours tomand till the lizardmen are taken care of. Also, we''ll tell inform you about the location of the man you''ve been searching for. Of course, you''re free to reject the offer." "There won''t be a need for that." Arnold had a poker face on the outside but on the inside, he was all smiling. Things were going just as he nned, "How many weapons would you require?" Alleiah let out a sigh of relief. Her n was going to work out now. Once they get the weapons and lizardmen were taken care of, she nned on turning the humans into her ve. Especially the one who was standing in front of her now. The one who called himself, Arnold Ling. She wanted him. No matter what lengths she had to go for him. He would be hers. Chapter 257 - Just A Worm (3) After going back and forth for about an hour, both parties finally came to an agreement. Arnold was going to provide the necessary equipment and gears to the nagas. While the nagas would abide by his orders till the lizardmen are either annihted or captured. After that, Alleiah will give Arnold the information he desired and both the parties would go their separate ways from then onwards. The agreement was somewhat in the favour of the nagas but Arnold didn''t mind it at all. After all, the moment he was done taking care of Devon, he wasing for the nagas. Only he could realise the potential of conquering a precious and resourceful ce like the swamps. He was nning on converting the swamps into both an imprable fortress as well as an EXP farm for him to level up as per his convenience.?? He wanted to do something like that because he had realised something important. The more he levelled up, the harder it got for him to level up any further. Killing the same monsters at a higher level gave him a lesser amount of EXP. However, the mutated tree of the swamps was an exception to this rule. As they were what the system termed as ''unique'' creatures, the more mutated trees Arnold destroyed, the more exp he got. Also thanks to his nature affinity, he could easily destroy as many trees as he liked in a blink of an eye duration. That''s why he had to im the swamps for himself. Especially with the threat of fighting against the gods was dangling over his head. Although he was sure he would be able to take them down in a one on one fight, he knew the ''gods'' will also be aware of the fact as well and would most probably attack him in a pack. Thus, he had to prepare himself for war. A war on his terms. Once again the swamp was an ideal ce to do so, and if he could control the monsters here, it would add another arrow in his quiver. Alleiah was thinking along the same lines. She too wanted the swamps for herself. But it wasn''t the only thing she wanted... She wanted Arnold as well. Thus, she had already nned her next move. She had already been informed that the humans weren''t carrying any weapons with them. At first, she didn''t believe it but now that she had seen them with her own eyes, she couldn''t help but rejoice. Strong or not, without their weapons, the humans were like birds in a cage waiting to be struck down by the queen cobra. ''The human, no... Arnold would have no other choice than surrender to me.'' The slyness of the naga queen was a weapon no one was safe from, monster or human, ''I''ll use this moment to separate that woman from his side and have myself in her ce instead. Ahh... Finally, my dream wille true!'' The naga queen could barely contain her excitement within herself as the deal was being finalised. "Alright then," Arnold mumbled as both the parties were more than happy with the deal, "Now that it''s been taken care of, I think we should leave for now. I''ll soon be back with the requested weapons and gears. Till then, we''ll bid our farewells." The four humans promptly turned around to leave only to be stopped by the guards. The queen wasn''t done talking to them yet. Red gs immediately popped in their heads. But Arnold and his party were as calm as a Buddhist monk. Arnold had foolishly expected it all to go as he had nned. Well too bad now he would have to show them their ce but before that... ''Herees the trouble...'' Nicole''s voice echoed in his head. ''Weren''t you hoping for something to happen?'' Arnold replied while smiling inwardly, ''These fools really think we''re on equal footing. I don''t know if I should get angry at them orugh my ass off.'' ''Why not both? Kick their ass in anger and thenugh while watching them die.'' ''Since when did you be a... Sadist?'' Arnold was a bit surprised by the tone of his sister''s voice but then realised he was more or less the same. Earlier it would have sent him into shock if his dear sister talked so happily about killing someone or something, but not anymore. None of them was the same person that they used to be. Arnold had to ept the reality and move forward. The powers that were given to them had already changed their destiny forever. All they could do now was to make sure that they forge a happy life with the tools they were given by the ''gods''. ''I... Never really gave a thought about it. Either way, let''s just force the information regarding Devon out of them and then torment them to death. I have a quest toplete.'' Nicole smiled at Arnold. ''A monster-hunting quest huh? You should''ve told me earlier. I''d have let you finish off the lizardmen rather than feeding them to the trees.'' Arnold gave it a thought, ''I know you''ve been bored sitting idly and not killing people off, but let''s hear these idiots first. Who knows, they just might be able to make usugh even more.'' ''Alright alright. I''ll do as you say.'' Nicole replied the ended the telepathicmunication. Arnold turned around to face Alleiah, who now had a sadistic smile on her face. Arnold could smell something was fishy but didn''t act on his intuition. It was a perfect opportunity to judge their fighting prowess as well as their battle strategies. But it doesn''t look like there would be much of a fight. "In order to make sure that you abide by the pact and deliver the requested goods on time," Alleiah smiled freakishly, "That woman would have to stay here. As a... Guest, of course." That moment, numerous hidden doors were flung open and hundreds of armoured nagas came rushing forward, brandishing their weapons. The next thing Arnold know, the nagas had surrounded the four of them. "The fck?" Azyriah cursed the nagas under her breath and turned towards Arnold, "What do we do now?" But Arnold didn''t reply. His gaze was fixed on the ground. "Don''t think of it as a threat, human." Alleiah sniggered, "It''s all just a precaution to ensure cooperation." Even though Alleiah said so, it was all a guise to capture and kill Nina. She thought after being surrounded Arnold would be forced to surrender his woman to them. He didn''t have any weapon on him either, which further reassured her that Arnold won''t rebel against her. Also, Arnold''s silence only solidified her assumptions. The humans weren''t going to fight back. "Guards! Please escort the human female into the quarters. I think Arnold, agrees with the decision." Alleiah smiled... But not for long. It had seemed like Arnold was silenced due to his defeat, but in reality, he had been conversing with Nicole. Conversing about their action. The moment the guards took a step to take Nina away, Arnold and Nicole both simultaneously released theirpressed aura! Aura was stronger than anything the nagas had ever experienced... The murderous intent leaking out from the two individuals was enough to knock out most of the nagas present in the room. The soldiers who were proudly equipped with battle gears fell over each other like a bunch of dominoes. The rest of the nagas were knocked out as soon as the aura was released. The only monster awake in the throne room was Alleiah, even then she was barely holding onto consciousness. Arnold then walked right towards Alleiah. His face inches away from the powerless monster''s. "You thought, just because I''m not carrying a weapon I''m vulnerable?" His voice was cold yet filled with rage. He was pissed. More than he had been ever since the fight against Tiamut. He continued, "You are nothing more than a worm. And no worm would touch my girl. I''m the one in charge here. Not you. I don''t need you or your people to fight the lizards and look for Devon. I only agreed to work together just because it will save my precious time, because it was convenient, so don''t get ahead of yourself. Is that clear? The next time you pull off shit like this, you''ll die and so will the rest of your puny worms. Get this through that useless skull of yours." Alleiah wanted to say something, but she couldn''t. She couldn''t think straight but Arnold was expecting a reply. She tried and tried but only managed to nod her head in the end. "As a chance to repent and to make sure that you keep on being my obedient pet, I''ll leave my trusted soldiers here. You better take good care of them and if you didn''t, then... You know what''ll happen, don''t you?" Alleiah nodded once again like a trained dog. Arnold then turned around at left with the others. But as they left, Alleiah couldn''t help but feel her heart racing. For the first time in her life, she was overwhelmed by someone''s presence and... She loved the experience. Arnold didn''t know, but he had just made Alleiah go crazy about him. Chapter 258 - Just Trust Me ''Why didn''t you kill her!?'' Nicole yelled inside Arnold''s head. ''She has important information with her. Moreover killing her would be a waste.'' Arnold calmly replied but Nicole wasn''t buying it.?? They could''ve just killed her and the rest of her slithering force. Then resurrect her as a summon to do his bidding. All the information she had would be easily obtainable once Alleiah submitted herself to Arnold. Nicole knew Arnold was capable of doing that yet he refused to do so. This made no sense at all! But Arnold had his reasons. In his eyes, Alleiah was a weak monster. Although she had a cosmic rank, her stats weren''t impressive at all. He didn''t want to waste one of the precious 30 slots just to get some information out of a monster. He needed to save the slots to resurrect stronger beings. Beings who could aid him in his war against the demigods. But Alleiah didn''t have any of those qualities and Arnold wasn''t going to waste his time or energy resurrecting the monster for something that fear alone could manage to do. But Nicole, Nina or Azyriah didn''t know about it. Thus as soon as they were back in the open, Nicole once again used her telepathy to have a quick chat with her brother. ''What do we do now?'' She asked. ''Now we call our forces here and have them stationed inside the naga city.'' Arnold smiled as Azyriah filled Johnny and Kolt in, on what happened while they were visiting the Queen Naga. Once she was done telling them the entire tale, Kolt came rushing towards Arnold with an ''I told you so'' look on his face. But before he could say anything, Johnny interrupted him. "What are you nning to do next? We still need to fortify this ce before calling the rest of the force to join us." He asked Arnold. "Don''t worry about it. I already have a well-fortified ce in mind." Arnold smiled once again in almost a sadist manner. Azyriah was the first to pick up what Arnold was trying to imply, apart from Nicole who already knew what Arnold''s ns were. "Isn''t fighting alongside those disgusting monsters enough? I mean I''m not against fighting with them but living with them would be too much. Even for me." Azyriah expressed her concerns, "We don''t have a problem with the monsters you summon because we know they follow your each and everymand. But not everyone within the syndicate approves your methods... I meant, even though you control them, they are still monsters." "I know what they think and I don''t care." Arnold was getting a bit frustrated at this point. They didn''t even listen to what he was saying and now they are piling up on him for answers. "The ones they refer to as monsters, have saved my life more times than any human has. I don''t care what they think about me or my methods but if anyone... Even you were to disrespect my summons, things might not end up on good terms for either of us." Arnold looked at all of them indifferently. But the more he looked at them the more he realised he was acting more like a dictator than a leader, "I''m sorry... I didn''t mean to let my emotions get the best of me." His summons felt good that their master took their side and defend them, but even they were a bit surprised at how quickly he got defensive about them. Nina approached him and ced a hand on his shoulder, "We know you didn''t mean to. But the others might not so try to be more careful around the others, could you?" "Of course." Arnold apologised to them once again before continuing to exin his n to his fellow humans. "When I suggested that we camp in the naga city, I didn''t mean to make others ''live'' with them. Even I wouldn''t force anyone to do so. What I really wanted to say was that we upy their city and make it our base of operations." Everyone immediately realised what Arnold actually wanted to do. And now they felt bad for jumping to conclusions. "That old naga seemed really proud talking about how they ''upied'' the city and made it their own. I think it''s time to make them realise how it feels getting ''upied'' by some other force." Arnold said. "Okay... But what about arming them? Wouldn''t it cause a problem?" Kolt asked. "The way I see it, their poption is around 3500. About a third of our forces and all they can fight with are stones and sticks. There are a few who can use deadly magic, but my summons can take care of them. But keeping them aside, they just don''t have the resources to fend of an army of ten thousand." "But from what I realise, only a naga can open the magical gates leading to the city. Don''t we?" Johnny asked, "No matter how big of an army we have, we won''t be able to do much until we find a way in." "Also, weren''t there deadly traps lying around here and there? Not to mention all those weird paths... Do you remember the paths we need to take?" Kolt joined in. While Kolt and Johnny were asking him questions, Arnold''s summons stayed quiet. They knew their master had already figured it all out because otherwise, he wouldn''t be smiling while the humans expressed their concerns. "I do remember the paths one would be required to take but we don''t need to." Arnold smiled got bigger with every passing moment, "We just need to wait for a few more hours and after that, I''ll transport everyone directly inside the city." "Okay... Do you mind telling us how?" Azyriah asked him. "Just trust me. Now we can either stay here and hunt some lizardmen for fun or we can head back and wait with the others, your call." Arnold looked at everyone who shrugged their shoulders and decided it was better to get some practice while they were waiting for whatever Arnold wanted to do. Chapter 259 - Surrender Or Die (1) ''Ok, time''s up.'' Arnold thought, ''We should probably head back now, prepare for battle and strike the nagas down.'' He turned around to call the others. But he didn''t need to. They had already finished dealing with a small group of lizardmen that was being led by a couple of elite lizardmen. He looked around himself. The marshy ground had turned a shade of blue from the blood of the lizards. The others didn''t just kill the lizardmen, they annihted them. Even their hands were bloodied and resembled a surgeon''s hands. But instead of red blood, they were covered in blue blood.?? Arnold felt like he was being overcautious. The Elite lizardmen were strong but Nicole easy one-shot them all using her ability of disintegration. Well, she could do that until the lizardmen piled on her. Once the elites were down, the remaining lizards were more like flies for the group as they were easily killed by the humans without much trouble. The amount of bloodshed caused by them was a bit too much. Even Arnold thought that the bloodshed was as barbaric as it was stupid, but he didn''t care about the former part and focused on thetter. Why was he suddenly thinking that allowing Nina and others to kill the monsters, was stupid? He had two reasons for this. First, the lizardmen had a sharp nose. They could pick up scents from over a kilometre and by the looks of it, the lizardmen they just killed were probably a part of some patrolling group. They didn''t have many weapons on them which further solidified Arnold''s thinking. Secondly, he had to keep their arrival a secret. Arnold assumed that the Lizardmen would know their enemies quite well and hence a thorough ''autopsy'' of the corpse of the lizards they killed could potentially throw them off as they wounds they left were a lot different from the wounds given to them by the nagas. If the lizardmen got to know about them, so would Devon. How did Arnold know about it? It was all thanks to the overused mouth of the Nagas. While Arnold was discussing terms of cooperation with them, the Queen, Alleiah informed Arnold that the lizardmen had advanced technology with them. Technology which only one person could provide to them: Devon. All the facts pointed towards Devon. After all, who else would be mad enough to not only set up a base in an area teeming with monsters but also help them by providing modern tech and weapons. But then he realised something that made Arnold feel a bit ufortable. Also, when Arnold said that the lizardmen could perform an autopsy on their fellow fallen lizardmen, he meant that Devon would perform that. ''Wasn''t I doing the same thing? Trying to establish a base in the swamp and wage a war against monsters using monsters?'' But he quickly shrugged it off. He would dly sacrifice the monsters rather than getting humans killed for his greed. He wouldn''t mind it too much but then again, he would quite enjoy the scene of monsters fighting it out on their own. So... He could save human lives while all while entertaining himself. "Hey Einstein, where are you lost?" Nina smirked as she wiped the blue blood off her beautiful face, "I thought I''d be praised for taking care of half a dozen lizardmen by myself, but no. My boyfriend is busy dreaming about that half-naked slithering b*tch." Everyone startedughing. "Damn, I got caught." Arnold lifted his hands and smiled back at them, "Alice, could you heal them up quick? While she''s doing that, Talos and Bad-Breath, gather the corpses. Don''t leave anything behind." "Yes, master!" Saying so, all three of them went off to do what was requested of them. Alice was done first because none of them was injured badly. Mostly, they had a few scratches. Otherwise, they were all good. Within the next minute, Talos and Bad-Breath were done collecting the corpses too. Once they were done, Arnold opened a portal leading to his domain. The corpses were thrown inside it along with the summons. Once that was handled, Arnold opened a travel portal back to Azyriah''s base inside zone 1 and the next second, they were gone. ''Looks like everything went as nned.'' Arnold smiled as he reappeared on the other side of the portal, ''Those nagas could never find the hounds I left inside their city.'' Theva hounds could shrink or grow their size, or speaking inyman terms, they had the ability to alter their bodies. So Arnold thought of utilising this ability of theirs and made them alter their size to the minimum before setting 6 of the hounds to hide inside the city while walking out of there. He used more than one hound because he was worried that it might get caught and destroyed, soiling his ns. Thus he left 6 hounds inside just in case if a few of them got caught. Their task was simple. They had to survive for six hours without getting destroyed. Why six hours? Because that was the time needed by Arnold to mark the naga city as a ce which he could reach there along with the human forces at his toes, using the travel portal. Now, a little over six hours had passed and none of the hounds had been destroyed. Perfect. He had also left behind a useless automaton. The automaton was barely the size of an infant and could only do two thing- count time and self destruct. It was the responsibility of this automaton to notify the hounds of the time. You can say it was more like a time bomb than an automaton. ''Looks like they didn''t recover from the shock of seeing our full strength soon enough...'' Arnold recalled the moment both he and Nicole simultaneously released their concealed aura at the nagas, ''Maybe they are weaker than I initially thought... I wonder if they would be useful at all in theing war. Guess, time would reveal that. For now, I should focus on conquering their city and converting it into my base of operations.'' Once back in zone 1, everyone was ordered to mobilise in two hours. As the travel portal skill was in cooldown. While this was going on, on the human side, another sh*tshow was unfolding on the naga city. You see, Arnold gave the hounds a secondarymand as well. It was a pretty simplemand though. Once they had survived for six hours, the automaton he had left with them would explode signalling the activation of the second phase of the n... A phase named ''Yeet!'' It was exactly what it sounded like. Once the six hours were up, the hounds were to set themselves loose on the city and cause as much destruction and chaos as they could till they were destroyed or Arnold arrived there with the warriors. Arnold wasn''t going to let the nagas think straight even for a moment. But he did n to give them an option. An option to surrender or die. Chapter 260 - Surrender Or Die (2) What takes positive cultures centuries to evolve can be savaged in moments. Let it monuments or knowledge. Anything can be destroyed. The children a species raises with love can be murdered in an instant. What war ravages takes so very long to heal from, longer than multiple lifetimes. That''s what the nagas did to the people who lived in the city that was taken over by the monsters. They were all high and mighty but never thought that karma would somedaye and bite them in the butt. This time karma came in form of Arnold and his army.?? Through a mystical portal, Arnold emerged like an angel of war. Behind him was his army of thousands of soldiers, ready to kill or be killed. But they didn''t need to do much. The hounds Arnold had left behind had already thrown the monsters in disarray. But his sudden appearance along with his army made the nagas question reality. They didn''t know about the blinded their queen hadmitted and were surprised to see the humans attacking them. That too when they barely managed to kill the mysterious dog-like creatures, death itself came knocking on their door. Still, they refused to give up. They were courageous. Wanting to defend theirnd from the invaders till theirst breath. A foolish attempt but an attempt none the less. Courage was a trait Arnold respected a lot. No matter whether it came from a friend or a foe. Sadly, naga''s courage was misced. Initially, there were 3500 nagas in the city but Arnold''s hounds managed to render a couple of hundred of them useless by either killing them or tearing their limbs apart. On Arnold''smands, the hounds minimised the killings as their master had nned on turning the nagas into meat shield for the human warriors. Thus, it was 3300 of the nagas against ten thousand human warriors. The odds for the nagas to win were non-existent. Arnold gave them a warning to surrender but nagas being the prideful race that they were, refused to do so. The warriors were itching for Arnold to give them themand to kill the slithering bastards. But no order came out of Arnold''s mouth. Instead, he summoned his most war-crazed summons: Dread, Asterios and Bad-Breath. All three of them were as strong as Kolt if not stronger. Even so, only three of them wouldn''t be enough to take down 3300 nagas. They were strong but as strong as Scy. She was the only one who could''ve taken on the entire naga poption by herself. But Arnold wasn''t going to summon his pet for such a trivial task. "Dread, Asterios, and BB. Come here." He ordered the summons to line in front of him, "Consider this a test. You have to minimize bloodshed but crush their will power to fight back. In short, crush them mentally, not physically. I know this might be a bit difficult for you to aplish. Thus, I''m giving you a hand." Saying so Arnold ced his hands over them one after another. The soldiers who had never seen Arnold''s ability to enhance his summons and weapons didn''t know what was going on but Nicole, Nina, and Johnny knew exactly what Arnold was doing. ___ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on lv. 98 Undead ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased! HP : 15000/15000 STRENGTH (STR) : 156 STAMINA (STA) : 140 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 88 AGILITY (AGI) : 99 ACCURACY (ACC) : 99 EVADE (EVD) : 102 BUFF : Level and rank of increased. LEVEL : 121 RANK : Cosmic C Bonus effect : DEFENSE (DEF) increased by : 10% HP increased by : 15% Duration : Temporary buff. Lasts for 1 hour. ___ The effect of enhancement on Dread and Bad-Breath was more or less the same. Dread too got to Cosmic Rank C while Bad-Breath only achieved the cosmic Rank D. Sadly none of their effects was permanent but Arnold understood it. The more his rank would increase, the harder it was getting to obtain permanent enhancement of his summons. If not, even he thought that would be kind of overpowered. ''Imagine having demigod like summons... Who knows what on earth would they be able to do?'' Arnold mumbled and unleashed the three on the nagas while sending in some reinforcements in form of golems and hounds to help them a bit. The nagas fought bravely. Alleiah even managed to destroy Bad-Breath with help of a few others, but the rest wrecked hell on them. By the time Arnold ordered the summons to stop, around two-thirds of the city was in shambles. Dread and Asterios had trampled over the city like it was made by origami. Only enough buildings were left for human upation. The nagas fought and were defeated and humiliated. The nagas never imagined that someone like Arnold could summon monstrous beings like Asterios and Dread. Nor had they thought that anyone would attack them from within the city itself and had focused solely on protecting the perimeter outside the city by setting up traps to help them in time of crisis. Yet, their imprable fortress ended up being an imagination, as not only did Arnold prate the city, but he also defeated the upants. "O great one!" Alleiah called out to Arnold, all smugness of her tone was long gone, "Take my head if I have displeased you in any way, but please forgive the rest of my people. They are innocent. It is I who angered you. Not them. Kill me but please have mercy on the rest." Alleiah being the queen of the nagas, offered her head to Arnold as pensation'' for the way the nagas in her court behaved with the humans. But Arnold refused. The nagas thought they were all gonna die but to their surprise, Arnold called his summons back. "I won''t be taking anyone''s head." Arnold''s firm voice boomed through the naga city, "I came here in peace, yet you despicable beings betrayed my trust. It a naive mistake on my part. A mistake that I would fix now." He continued, "At every level society, from the personal to the international scale, treaties are a falsehood where a power imbnce exists. The meeting with you taught me this. I don''t need to make a treaty with weaklings like you. Thus, because of monsters like you true peace cannot exist, only more and less violent forms of wars. You took me as a fool. But you were wrong and I''m going to make sure that you atone for your crimes against me." Arnold then looked towards the scared monsters who were cautiously looking back at him. Their eyes filled reflecting the defeat they were feeling now. They now knew they had put their hands in a Ho''s nest. that they yed a gamble and lost. None of them said a word but kept staring at Arnold. Waiting for his verdict. "Starting now, you''re all my ves. I don''t care whether you are willing or not. You don''t have an option. Either you turn into a ve or die. The choice is yours." Saying so, Arnold sat on a chair and waited for the queen''s reply. "We''ll do as you please, master." Alleiah replied in a low voice. Chapter 261 - Why? On the opposite side of the swamps... Devon was busy having lunch with a man who reminded him of his youth. But the man was weak. He couldn''t even lift his finger or eat by himself. Not a shred of muscle could be seen on his body. He was like a framework of bones wearing human skin. His eyes were red and puffy like he hadn''t slept in years and had bald spots all over his head. All in all, he wasn''t one Devon lost all those years ago.?? This man was Devon''s son, Gary, who had finally been revived but not to his fullest. The Gary who was sitting in front of his father couldn''t do anything. He was just a shell of the bubbly, kind and helpful person he once was. But Devon was going to make it all work in the end. He had to. After all, all he had done was done solely for one purpose- reviving his son and restoring him to his former self. From the creation of Inhumans to testing with beast crystals. It all was done for his son. Devon knew he was going to rot in hell for the lives he had taken and the shit he had done to countless people, but he didn''t care. As long as he could get his son back he wouldn''t mind being the devil''s ything. He had abandoned his soul to hell, the day he enacted the n to resurrect his otherwise dead son. But finally, after sacrificing hundreds of souls, he had been sessful in resurrecting Gary. But he was weak and his organs could fail at any moment. Even after being resurrected his son was, for all intent and purposes, dead. But Gary''s condition was getting better every day. Devon had been feeding his son a concoction made carefully from the beast crystals that the lizardmen had been providing him in exchange for weapons. He never asked where they got the crystals from, nor did he care. As long as the crystals were up to a standard, he was happy to keep doing business with them. The quality of the crystals produced by the swamp monsters was better than anything Devon had seen. This was the reason why he chose to hide in the swamps- to gather high-quality beast crystals and feed them to Gary in regted dosage. Also, he had altered Gary''s DNA. He was now considered part lizardmen. The scales on Gary''s back were proof of the sess of the experiment. Still, Devon kept worrying about his son more than himself. "Gary?" Devon called out to his son. At first, it seemed that Gary didn''t respond to his father. But the next moment, he slowly lifted his head to look at his father and opened his mouth to say something but before he could utter a word, blood came gushing out of his mouth as he fell off the wheelchair. Devon and the maids at his side immediately rushed towards Gary. While the maids helped Gary back to the wheelchair, he red at his father. His eyes were full of rage and sadness. As Devon got closer to his son, Gary barely managed to whisper something in his ears. But Devon couldn''t make heads or tails of what his son was trying to say to him until Gary finally managed to say something meaningful. "W...hy...?" "She, could you take him away please," Devon asked one of the maids. Almost on the verge of tears. The aged maid didn''t utter a word. She just nodded and took Gary away. This woman always had a special rtionship with Gary. She was his nanny and also the one who had taken care of him ever since his mother passed away when he was 3. And now, she was doing it all over again. But she loathed Devon. Why? Because he snatched the peace away from Gary''s grasp by reviving him for his selfish desires. Devon knew how she felt. He also knew that his son would''ve never wanted to be brought back. Not if it felt like killing so many people and bringing sadness to even more. Gary was the person who willingly gave his life to protect his country, his people and his fellow soldiers. He knew what he was doing and knew he would die trying to hold back the monsters by himself but in the end, it didn''t matter to him as long as his family and friends were safe. The moment he ''died'' was the moment he was at peace. He was happy. He felt fulfilled. In the afterlife, he met his mother for the first time in over two decades. They were happy being dead. He had given away his life for something beautiful. But, the happiness was short-lived. His father brought him back to thend of pain and suffering. Not only that, his body was made from the flesh and bones of the people he had died saving. This wasn''t the ce he belonged to or wanted to be a part of anymore. He simply couldn''tprehend why his father would do something he knew he (Gary) would never approve of. Hence he asked the question, "Why?" "You''d never understand even if I told you..." Devon mumbled as Gary was wheeled away by the maids, "You''re just as stubborn as your mom. Both of you could''ve saved yourself... But you didn''t. Did either of you even consider what kind of pain I had to go through? Of course, you didn''t. Yet, I''m the selfish one?" For the first time in a long time, Devon Troy, a man known for his ruthless personality was shedding tears like any ordinary man. He knew what he did was wrong. He knew his son would''ve never approved of his methods. He knew it all, yet he refused to let his son go, to let thest part of his beloved wife go. The wife he lost years ago... To a fire that broke out in the restaurant they were dining in... Just remembering the mes that devoured the love of his life filled him with rage. She could''ve lived a long and happy life. Yet she chose to rush into the mes to save a little girl. The girl''s own parents didn''t move a muscle to help their kid yet, Angelina Troy, his wife jumped into the mes to help the child. The girl managed to escape, but Angelina wasn''t that lucky... As she was rushing to get out the entire building came crashing down on her. Killing her instantly. "Sir? SIR?" Alex''s voice snapped Devon back to reality. "What is it?" Devon replied after quickly regaining hisposure. "The Lizardmen have some valuable information," Alex replied. "Bring them in." "Right away, sir." Chapter 262 - War Begins (1) "DAMN THOSE BASTARDS!" Devon shattered the ss of wine he had in his hand. Devon rarely had any outburst of anger. Even when he did, he simply channelled that energy to do something constructive. ording to him, self-control should be treated as a finite resource because if not, then the part of the brain exerting control gets tired - it requires energy and that gets depleted, leaving the person drained. So, the repressing of anger required careful thinking. ?? Whenever he lost his cool, Devon immediately started thinking about is anger in rational terms by asking himself questions like- If the anger is boiling up, how will it be cooled? If it explodes, whom does it burns? How will it affect his surrounding? Will it cause pain to the ones he cared about? What are its benefits? Usually, by thinking about these questions, he could repress his anger. But this time it was different. The information he was given by the Lizardmen was beyond his expectations. At first, the Lizardmen thanked him for his contribution to their war against the nagas. And then they dropped a bombshell on him. Someone had been secretly hunting the Lizardmen for a couple of days. Ordinarily, Devon wouldn''t give it a second nce over such a situation. The Lizardmen kept dying because of their own foolishness, there was nothing new in that. But what the Lizardmen told next immediately caught his attention. First, the killings took ce outside the nagas region and the nagas never ever went out of their region to kill the Lizardmen. Thus this incident was peculiar. And second, whenever the nagas killed the Lizardmen, they stripped them of their weapons and armours leaving the corpses behind, intact. But not this time. Nothing was left behind their fallen kin. Not even a finger. Nothing. Just the bloodstains. This was one thing the nagas would never do. For the nagas were prideful creatures, who respected the dead even if someone was their mortal enemy they would never act like savage beasts. Unlike the Lizardmen. Thus, Devon quickly deduced that this was done by a third party. But the only ones who could do something like this were either the mermen or Devon. But neither would ever do such a thing. For Devon, the Lizardmen were like dairy animals that gave him the gift of beast crystals he needed to make his soldiers and son strong. He would never do anything rash to sabotage his rtionship with the monsters. Simrly, the mermen would never interfere in the business of thend-dwelling monsters. Not unless they were provoked but the Lizardmen knew very well not to put their hands inside the ho''s nest thus the mermen wouldn''t attack them either. This left him with only one possibility. The syndicate was here. But Devon had his eyes and ears all over the swamp... Well at most of it. And so far he hadn''t received any reports stating that the syndicate had arrived there. But how was it even possible? The syndicate would''ve mobilised inrge numbers. Maybe in a few thousand. So how the hell were they able to hide such arge mass of people and make their way into the swamps? Also, his scouts didn''t report sightings of any vehicles or dropships. Devon was sure that he''d know about their arrival even before they stepped a foot in the swamps, yet all the clues were leading him to believe that the syndicate had already arrived there and was striking down the Lizardmen one after another. All in all, the attacks were way too sudden and well-choreographed. Sometimes he doubted the leaders of the syndicate were capable of pulling something like this off. In his eyes, the syndicateprised of brutes who only knew how to smash something rather than making rational decisions. In short, they were in constant "Hulk smash" mode. But then again, if it wasn''t the syndicate then he couldn''t think of anyone else who''d attack the lizardmen. Devon let out a few heavy sighs in quick session. Trying to gain control over his emotions. He needed to remain calm and think of ways to get out of the situation and take care of the syndicate once and for all. "Anger is a thing I channel into my passions, I make it my rocket fuel to create a better world. A better world for my son." Devon mumbled while Alex wiped the wine off the table. "Sir, you''re still not used to your strength. Please be careful." Alex politely asked his master to keep his rage in check. He too was shocked by the possibility of a potential attack on them. Despite that, he knew what he had to do - kill anyone who threatens his master or die trying. But Devon had other ns for him. Devon knew he had forfeited his life the moment he started meddling with syndicate''s affairs. He also knew the Lizardmen were the only hope of his survival, but he wasn''t too hopeful. The syndicate wasn''t as big of a fool as he had anticipated. They wouldn''t dare to invade the swamps if they didn''t have a way to take care of the Lizardmen. So if the Lizardmen couldn''t help him... No one could. Even the countermeasures he had ced around his base won''t be able to hold out the warriors indefinitely. Logically speaking, he was 95% sure that he was going to die in the uing battle. But he didn''t care. Karma was onto him, but he needed to make sure of something. He needed to protect Gary at all cost and the only man he trusted to do so was Alex. "Alex, I have a final request for you." Devon wiped the wine off his hand, "In case a war breaks out... Promise me you''ll leave me and take care of Gary. I have already made the arrangements. You guys can leave for Mexico. There Alejandro will give you your new identities. Also, I''ve included a stack of beast crystals that are to be fed to him at regr intervals. Selene knows about it." "Sir, with all due respect, I''m not leaving you to die." For the first time ever Alex refused to acknowledge Devon''smand, "I know your methods were wrong. I know you were wrong. But to me, you''re also the one who saved my life and gave me strength. I''m not leav-" "You will abandon me. And THAT''S AN ORDER!" Devon was touched by Alex''s loyalty to him, but he didn''t deserve it. Not one bit. Alex immediately went silent. Even he knew that fighting against the syndicate was suicidal. He knew he won''t be able to convince his master to leave along with his son. His master had already resigned himself to fate and he highly suspected that Devon actually wanted to die... The struggle for living had been too much for the man and it was time he got some rest. Chapter 263 - War Begins (2) Back within the territory of the Nagas... Snap!?? Snap! Snap! A series of crisp, breaking noises rang out in the room as Arnold broke a bunch of fingers of the lizardman the nagas had just caught, on his orders obviously, and with it was a blood-curdling screech that echoed throughout the dense forest. From his fingers to even the lizardman''s soul, an intense current of pain swept across his entire body. The lizardman struggled violently, but in vain as Arnold clutched his neck tightly, lifting him like he weighed nothing. The tremendous power made his face purple and he almost fainted. "Master." Talos'' electronic voice echoed in Arnold''s ears and he immediately let go of the lizardman. This lizardman was special. He could speak in human tongue also the lizardman was albino and had white skin. They needed to extract more information from him, thus Arnold has called out Talos to assist him. But Arnold didn''t summoned Talos to help him interrogate the captive, no. He could''ve done it by himself. But he had called him out to keep an eye on him, his master instead as Arnold had a tendency of getting carried away and often ended up killing the captive. He had already killed more than a dozen lizardmen like it and couldn''t afford to do it again. Especially if the lizardman could actually talk and not screech. In other words, the lizardman was too precious to kill. Why did call for Talos and not someone else? The answer was pretty simple actually. Arnold was continuously releasing his deadly aura to pressurize the lizardman. And not everyone could handle to take his intense unadulterated aura head-on. Thus, he chose Talos as he could simply turn off his ability to detect aura and be immune to the effects of Arnold''s deadly aura. Also, Arnold held Talos in high regards. He was Arnold''s second inmand for a reason. Among everyone he knew, including his summons, Arnold trusted him the most as Arnold knew Talos would never butter him up and would speak whateveres in his mind, whether Arnold like it or not and without a tinge of fear. Something he doubted anyone else would even dare to do. He gave a look to Talos but didn''t say a word. Talos was only doing what Arnold had asked him to do earlier. His instructions were simple- Intervene whenever he thought Arnold was overstepping the boundaries or was about to kill the captive, otherwise, he had to remain silent and observe from afar. Arnold let out a sigh and let the lizardman fall back to the ground. Arnold was slowly bing a sadist for all intent and purposes. He had never enjoyed torturing anyone or anything before all this happened, but now it was a source of entertainment for him. Even Nina and Nicole were getting concerned for him. But Arnold didn''t agree with them... Until he ended up killing dozens of monsters while ''Interrogating'' them for information and had fun while doing so. Right now, Arnold wanted information about their bases, their strengths, their weaknesses, the whole nine yards. His n was simple. Once he managed to get any information from them, Arnold would make a task forceprising mostly of the nagas and send them on suicidal missions. This way, he took care of both the lizardmen as well as the nagas while minimising the human loss of life. A win-win situation for him. "If you continue to struggle, I''ll break hundreds of bones then heal you and repeat the putting you through pain worse than you can imagine!" Arnold''s icy and stern voice resounded in the lizardman''s ears, who had almost given up on any hope for his survival. If the lizardman spoke up, he''d end up being the reason destruction of his kin. That was the only reason why he hadn''t opened his mouth till now. But his resolve to do so was slowly fading away under Arnold''s continuous torture. The lizard suppressed the terror and pain with the sheer force of will and stopped struggling. But this enraged Arnold even more. Because Arnold knew, that the lizardman was on the verge of breaking. ''Just one more push...'' Arnold thought as the lizardman slowly got back to its knees only to be kicked by Arnold once again. Why was he doing this when he could just kill them and resurrect the deadter with Talos'' help? Again the answer was pretty simple- where was the fun in that? Arnold wasn''t only interrogating them to get information but to please the sadist hiding inside him. In reality, he didn''t give a flying fuck about the lizardmen at all. He already knew where Devon was hiding and he was nning to take care of him on his own. But he needed to distract the rest of the syndicate or else he wouldn''t be able to exact revenge on Devon as he pleased. The Syndicate would definitely try to stop him from killing Devon at all costs which in turn would cause unnecessary drama for him. Thus, he was gathering enough information to throw the syndicate off his back and deal with Devon as he seemed fit. So, inyman terms, Arnold was just having fun while torturing the monsters to get information about his enemies so that he could deal with Devon on his terms. After all, Devon had caused him a lot of pain and trouble. Doesn''t matter whether it was intentional or not. The lizardman once again raised his head. Arnold once again went for a kick but before he could do it, the lizardman pushed his head in front of Arnold''s foot. A sadistic smile broke out on Arnold''s face. He finally cracked the lizardman''s hard shell. Now he could get enough information from the lizard while also kicking his ass all over again. The first words the lizardman spoke after receiving the harsh beating were, "Wh... What kind of... Monster... Are you?" The lizardman''s voice trembled a little. The man''s skill waspletely beyond his realm ofprehension orparison. Even their king wasn''t as strong as the man who was standing in front of him. No,paring him to any earthly being was a disrespect to the man... He was as strong as a god, but he was also a cruel, evil god. Even Satan wouldn''t hold a torch against the antics of this human. He didn''t even blink when he broke his fingers. That was enough for him to tell what a ruthless and vicious heart the man interrogating him possessed. It was better to give the man what he wanted rather than to warrant his rage. But it looked like the lizardman''s question had already pissed the man off. Because the next moment, the beating continued without any mercy or hesitation. Chapter 264 - War Begins (3) After thoroughly beating the crap out of the lizardman, Arnold finally stopped. He had the information he needed. So... He decided to put an end to the monster''s misery and killed it without any hesitation, just like the ones he had killed before. Only Talos had witnessed him doing so but the pleading cries of the lizardman were heard by a lot of people standing outside the room, including Nina. She had intended to have a talk with Arnold regarding a lot of issues, like just how afraid of him the warriors were because of his temperament. But most importantly, to tell him that she was getting concerned about him and his erratic behaviour.?? But Arnold didn''te out of the room for a long time. Instead, he called Alleiah inside the interrogation room for some reason. From then on, everything went silent for a couple of hours or so. No one knew what was going inside the room. Most of them thought Arnold was torturing her too. But their thoughts came crashing down when the doors opened once again and Arnold walked outside of the room along with Alleiah, who was wagging her tail behind him like an obedient dog. The moment Nina saw Arnold, she felt like something was off... As if the Arnold standing in front of them wasn''t the Arnold that went inside the room. Something had changed. But there possibly couldn''t have been a reason for it, right? After all, there was no one else inside the room apart from a few lizardman corpses. While Nina was absorbed staring at Arnold like a paranoid person, Arnold called Nathan and the rest of the leaders of the syndicate for an emergency meeting. Out of the remaining heads, only five of them had apanied the warriors to lead the battle while the rest of them chose to stay behind to maintain order in West America. They reasoned that they shouldn''t throw everything they have on one matter as that would lead to a disaster in case the n to retake the swamps failed again. It was a bullshit reason, everyone knew it. But it was enough reason for Arnold to not bring them along as they would only cause issues andplicate an alreadyplicated situation. He didn''t need people who''ll cause trouble for him. Either way, the meeting started once everyone was there. And Arnold notified them that he finally had a solid lock on the location of the main lizardman base. It''s wasn''t that far away. It was almost so close to the naga city, that no one would''ve expected them to have a base there. It wouldn''t be incorrect to say that the two cities were like neighbours to each other. So yeah... Really close. Still, Arnold hadn''t seen it with his own eyes so there was a possibility that the lizardman had fooled him in his dying moments. So as usual, Arnold suggested forming a task forceprising mostly of the nagas and send them on a quick recon mission to confirm the facts. They all quickly decided that it was the right path to go forward. But no one could notice something that Nina did. Usually, Alleiah would throw a fit by now on how the lives of her people mattered too but this time she didn''t protest. Instead, she volunteered to lead the reconnaissance mission herself! She was willing to lead her soldiers towards their certain doom. Also, the way Arnold was speaking was nothing like him. For as long as she could remember, Arnold had been using unfiltered terms and rarely bothered to control his mouth. But now, he seemed to be more reserved. Moreover, he seemed to be... Emotionless as if a robot was impersonating him. Something was wrong. Really wrong. But she couldn''t point on why or how. In the end, she decided to let go of the matter but keep observing the happenings from the sidelines. Still, she wanted to have a chat with her boyfriend but whenever she tried to do so, she was either ignored or something important would pop up and Arnold would have to leave. By this time, Nina was really suspicious. Especially after the 180¡ã flip in Alleiah''s behaviour. She discussed it with Nicole who said that although she too found it a bit weird as well, she wasn''t much worried about anything. Nicole also said that Arnold often has mood swings that could put even the girls to shame and that it was probably just one of those times, and not to think too much about it. Talking with Nicole put Nina at ease. Just a little bit though. She was still having second thoughts but after thinking about it for a few more minutes, she chalked it up to her stress. Little did she know all of her doubts were spot on. There was a reason why Alleiah was following Arnold and turned from a fearsome lioness to a lost puppy. She was under Arnold''s influence now. Or to borate, she had been turned into his ''Blood Pet''. ___ Bond formation... SUCCESS! Transformationplete! You''ve earned a new Ally! [ALLY TYPE] : : A unique type of Ally, who would fight till theirst breath to honour their master''s wishes and specialises in mid to short-rangebat techniques. Also, they are known to have deadly magical abilities. If a bond is formed with a ''monster'' possessing magical abilities, they are most likely to end up being a pet. [SYNERGY EFFECT]: : (When ordered to attack someone by the master.) Strength (STR) increases by: 10% Agility (AGI) increases by: 11% Mana increases by: 5% : (While defending the master.) Strength (STR) increases by: 15% Defence (DEF) increases by: 11% Mana increases by: 6% Magical strength increases by: 2% You''ve gained a new ally to aid you in your battles. EXP: +2000 ___ The sole purpose for calling Alleiah inside the torture chamber was to turn her into an ally. Arnold had been thinking about it for a while and ultimately decided to go for it as in future he would require someone to take care of the swamps in his absence and what better way to do so than to forcefully turn someone into his loyal subject? Meanwhile, Nicole was wondering why Arnold didn''t share his ns with her? After all, she had the skills to know what had happened inside the room or more precisely to know what happened with Alleiah but she didn''t know why was ''Arnold'' acting weird. Donna had already informed her about the former part. Also, if Arnold didn''t tell Nina about Alleiah, there must''ve been a reason for it. Hence, she didn''t tell her either. Whatever her brother was nning to do, she had to make sure no one interfered in his business. That''s the least she could do for now. Chapter 265 - War Begins (4) "Looks like the time is finally here!" One of the warriors chirped happily, "I''ll finally get to avenge my brother. Just wait up you lizard bastards we''ll kill you all!" The man being overexcited about the war was ntor Connors. A newly recruited A ranked tank. As someone who had never been defeated by a monster, he was fairly confident in his skills. Still, he was nothing more than new meat there. Also, Lizardmen weren''t anything like the mindless monsters he had been fighting till now and he didn''t know what to expect. After all, fighting off a goblin was totally different from fighting a lizardman in its own habitat.?? He only knew that God had given him an opportunity to avenge his brother who had fallen at the hands of the lizards during the previous attempt of capturing the swamps. It was an opportunity he wasn''t going to waste. His brother might have been only a rank C mage, but he was someone whom ntor looked up to and respected. His loss had turned him into a different man. Fortunately, his battle cry was met with equally enthusiastic cheers. Most of the warriors there had lost someone precious to them in the swamps before and for them, it was time for them to deal some well-deserved payback. Also, having not one or two but three SS ranked behind them gave them enough morale boost that they would happily fight a silverback gori barehanded and win. Still, some people were worried about the uing war. They couldn''t help it. After all, they all had heard about the great massacre that happenedst time. Thousands of capable warriors had died on that day... And they couldn''t help but wonder if this was going to be another one of such massacres. Their fears weren''t uncalled for as the lizardmen were known for their treatment towards their captives. For obvious reasons, it was never confirmed but everyone kind of had an idea what happened with the human prisoners, more or less. The males were often used as live targets to be hunted down and practised shooting upon them or were tortured for fun. There were two main ways they tortured the captives. In one of such methods, Their limbs were most ruthlessly sliced off and then they were forced to run for their lives. Only to be hunted down by the rest of the humans. The second method was much simpler but way more painful... They were skinned alive. The females were better as the matter of physical abuse but were used as... Vessels to subdue lizardman''s lust and to repopte their lost numbers. The torment they went through wasn''t physical but mental. They were treated so badly that they desperately tried to anger the lizardmen into killing them. Neither of these fates was right or eptable. This whenpared to living their lives in West America and hiding from the monsters was a much worse fate. Yet here they were, preparing to fight for something they thought was useless. "It''s odd, don''t you think?" said Ka, one of the healers who spoke in disgust. "What?" Nisha, Ka''s childhood friend and also a healer herself, asked her. "That they are so keen to socialise the funding of war and not health," Ka replied shooting a disgusting look towards the room where the five syndicate heads were residing in. You can say Ka was deeply attached to her roots. Her family primarily belonged to the torn battlezone of Syria. That''s why she detested wars. After all, she had lost her parents to war. While she, on the other hand, was saved by an American volunteer couple who adopted her 16-year-old self and flew back to the USA. It was then her name was changed to Ka from Kashmira. Life went well after that until oneday Dungeons started popping up everywhere and she had to go and tested for Xenoic energy reading like everyone else. Her results came positive. But unlike the others around her, she could use not one but two types of magic- Healing magic and curse magic. Her power while using curse magic was explosive whilepared to her healing magic but since she detested wars and killings she dedicated herself to improving her healing magic first rather than focusing on her stronger curse magic. Till now she had upheld her oath of not killing anyone, even the monsters but this time it might not be possible for her to do so. "What did you say?" A man''s grumpy voice echoed in the girl''s ears. Ka was sure that no one could''ve heard her talking with Nisha just now. But she was mistaken. Someone had heard her bickering about her personal values in life. She slowly turned around to see who the person standing behind her was. She was expecting the man to be one of the adrenaline-driven junkies but she was wrong yet again. Instead of a young raging junkie, she saw a man with white, shaggy hair that clumsily hung over his menacing face. The man''s small grey eyes were set threateningly within their sockets, delicately analysing the young woman in front of him. But his eyes weren''t normal... Those were the eyes of someone who had forgotten about mercy long ago. That wasn''t all. The man also had a fire mark reaching from the right side of his forehead, running across the nose and ending on his left cheekbone leaving a grievous memory of one of the man''s unfortunate adventures. This was the face of Caiden Jenkins, a true warrior among the warriors and also the right-hand man of one of the heads of the Syndicate and belonged to the Morrino family. He might have stood among themon populous, despite his subtle fame of being known as the ''Dragon''s w'', but in no way was he amon warrior like the rest of them. For this man was also the one who had trained America''s first SS ranked warrior, Johnny ck. His poprity and strength were the reasons why people tend to brag about knowing him while helping him out in any way they can. He was a man of calibre. One even his own family members were afraid of. And now, Ka had pissed him off. "Youngdy, could you repeat your statement please?" Caiden asked Ka once again, only this time he had politely phrased his question. Still, his eyes remained indifferent, his smile was deceptive because he was still pissed and Ka knew it. Nisha being the loyal friend she was, immediately jumped in to defend Ka, "I apologize on her behalf, sir! She has a bad habit of spewing whatever crap thates in her mouth. I assure you she-" "Youngdy," Caiden cut Nisha off without turning his gaze towards her, "I think your friend is capable of speaking in her defence, considering that she has a bigger mouth than anyone I''ve met in my life." "I-I a-apologise for my m-mistake." Ka barely managed to mumble an apology. But it wasn''t sufficient for Caiden. "Youngdy, I''m sorry to say but someone without the resolve to kill has no ce in an army. After all, an army without killers is no army at all." Caiden was still smiling at her but his words pierced through her soul like bullets, "Since you''re not willing to kill and also criticise the ones who are willing to do the necessary, I think you''d be better off being grouped up with those slithering nagas and used as a meat shield. Don''t you agree?" A look of sheer horror shed on Ka''s face, ''This man wouldn''t do something like that right? He doesn''t have the right to do so... No, he can''t do this to me!'' Caiden quickly grabbed her arm and began dragging her towards the cells where nagas were being held. But before he could go far, someone pulled him back. Caiden turned around to see who dared to stop him. He was already in a sour mood and now every passing moment was pissing him off even more. He wanted to beat the living crap out of the man who dared to stop him but he soon realised he couldn''t. As the one to stop him was none other than, Johnny himself. Chapter 266 - War Begins (5) While the nagas formed a task force to verify the location of the lizardmen main base, Johnny was silently observing the warriors from a distance. Actually, he wasn''t observing the warriors, he was keeping an eye on the man who was once his teacher. Johnny knew exactly how troublesome his former teacher was, given his past. Caiden had been a part of the Vietnam War and the war had taught him things, no one should''ve learned about. Not even the monster hunters.?? "I''m overthinking things. The old man wouldn''t do something rash here." Johnny mumbled shrugging his shoulders. Right, when he was about to leave he heard amotion, and his fears came true. Caiden, just couldn''t keep silent even for a minute. He just had to lecture someone about character and integrity... Something Caiden himself knew a little about. "Can''t you keep your thing in your pants for once?" Johnny shook his head and rushed towards the scene where two girls were petrified with fear, "I wonder what Arnold will do if he sees all this ruckus... Damn! Leave her alone old man!" Johnny shouted at Caiden to let the girl go when he saw him putting his hands on one of them. But Caiden couldn''t hear his former disciple''s voice in the overcrowded za. Johnny increased his speed. The thunderous noise of his footsteps causing the warriors to back away instantly. Still, Caiden couldn''t hear him, or at least he was pretending he couldn''t as he started walking away, pulling the girl with him. But before he could get far, Johnny caught up to him and grabbed at his hands. Caiden turned around to see his student rising up to face him. His fists clenched, giving off lightning sparks. Everyone around them immediately backed away. No one knew what the heck was going on exactly but they now better than getting involved in it. Johnny quickly nced at the girl before forcing his teacher''s hand open, freeing the girl. Ka immediately rushed towards Nisha who held her tightly while the former''s eyes were flooded with tears. "The hell you think you''re doing, Old man?" Johnny barked at the elderly man. His voice echoed through the area making everyone back away a little further. "I''m doing what any war veteran would do. Teach the recruits some discipline." Caiden crackled. He wasn''t remorseful for his actions. "With all due respect, this isn''t Vietnam nor it is your ce to correct your fellow warriors. You don''t have the authority to do something like this." Johnny tried to exin to Caiden that he too was just a warrior there. Nothing more. But it didn''t seem like whatever Johnny was telling his teacher, was going through that thick skull of his. "I have to teach them about order and discipline, as their senior and a veteran. If they keep on behaving like a bunch of spoiled brats, they''d end up dying likest time-" It onlysted for a moment but Caiden''s voice cracked a little after mentioning thest war with the swamp dwellers. And Johnny knew why. Almost everyone present there had lost someone. That included Caiden. But his loss was bigger than most. After all, he had lost a lot more than the rest... His entire biological family. His 3 kids and wife... Everyone was dead. While Johnny understood how Caiden felt, it doesn''t give him a free pass to do as he pleased. Right now, he was just a foot soldier like the rest of them and didn''t have the authority to punish anyone. Johnny shook his head and went to check on Ka instead, "You okay?" Ka didn''t reply but nodded her head. Johnny let out a sigh of relief before patting her head, "I know you don''t have to forgive the old man, but for whatever its worth, I apologize on his behalf." He then turned around to face the rest of the warriors, "I''d appreciate it if y''all could keep this a secret from Commander Arnold. He... Doesn''t take things like this lightly. So... Yeah, seal your lips." Unlike while he was apologizing to Ka, his voice wasn''t kind and had a threatening tone. No one wanted to cross one of America''s strongest warriors so they all agreed to keep it a secret. "Come on old man, let''s get you drink first. Then we can talk about what happened here-" "And what exactly happened here?" A familiar voice cut Johnny off, and Johnny knew exactly whose voice it was. Arnold. He looked sideways and there he was, apanied by Nicole and Nina. Johnny tried deflecting Arnold''s queries but how was he supposed to exin about the crying girl in front of him? Soon the truth came out and as Johnny had said, Arnold wasn''t pleased at all. You see, before joining the ck family, Arnold had been oppressed by countless people who thought they were superior to him. And on this moment he kind of felt the same. Only he was reced by the girl and the oppressors were by Caiden. Johnny knew about this and was worried about Caiden. He also knew Arnold was stronger than him so there was no way he''d be able to stop him if things go south. Right now, he could just hope that Arnold doesn''t do something rash... "Don''t bother yourself with the details." Arnold mumbled at the end and went over to check on Ka, "Whatever happened, happened. Can''t change it now, can we?" Johnny momentarily let out a sigh of relief. Maybe, just maybe, Arnold was going to forgive Caiden. But his wishful thoughts came crashing down when Arnold threateningly took a step towards Caiden as if a switch was flipped in his head. Before anyone could react, Arnold kicked the old man in front of everyone. Caiden tried to defend against the kick by crossing his arms to protect his chest, yet he went flying in the air and smashed into the pir at the far end with a loud bang. The next moment the entire pir came crashing to the ground. Buring the man alive. The guests gasped in horror. How the heck did he managed to kick someone ten to eleven meters away with a half-assed kick? What kind of monstrous strength was that? "There. That evens the odds for now." Arnold mumbled and brushed the dust off his pants, "Listen up. I''m in charge of this war. I''m the Commander and the chief. Anyone who causes unnecessary trouble here would be personally taken care of by me. That''s all, as you were." Saying that he walked off as if nothing happened... Chapter 267 - Doppelganger (1) A starry night loomed above, pretty enough to ignite the heart of any being, monster or human. Yet not one of them had any intention to cast their eyes upward to see it. All they cared about was moving their heavy boots or tails over the slick mud and no amount of starlight could render the path visible. Soon they arrived at their destination. A gigantic park of the old times, of a time when humans were on the pinnacle of their supremacy. A time when the monsters hadn''t destroyed entire cities for their amusement. A ce that was once known to be a famous tourist attraction and a theme park. But now, this ce was overrun by awful creatures. "I can''t see much movement..." Azyriah whispered to Alleiah who was right next to her while using her binocrs to search for any lizardmen, "Can your people smell anything?"?? Alleiah kept wiggling her extraordinary tongue for a couple of minutes before nodding her head. The nagas had a keen sense of smell just like the lizardmen. The only difference was that while the lizardmen depended on their nose to smell, the nagas used to do the same with her elongated tongue. As for their nostrils, it had one purpose online to help them breathe. Nothing more. "There are at least a few hundred lizardmen inside. Most of them might be asleep. That might be the reason why you can''t see them in a nce." Alleiah replied while sticking her tongue out once again, "It was a good idea to do the reconnaissance after between dusk and dawn. Try looking in the Southwest." "What can I say? Arnold always has the right answers to any problem." Azyriah replied with turning to face the naga before using the binocrs once again. Arnold had decided to send Azyriah with the naga force along with a few other soldiers for recon purposes because he was sure only Azyriah would be able to work with the nagas without causing any ruckus. His reasons for choosing her were obvious. First, she didn''t despise the nagas as everyone else did... Well, she did but she could put her feelings aside for the sake of the mission. And second, she understood the monsters better than most as she was the section chief of zone 1. This meant she more or less knew all about these monsters and their behaviours better than the monsters themselves. As for their recon operations being conducted in the night, there was an obvious reason for that too. Azyriah recalled what Arnold had told them when the warriors protested against performing a recon mission at night. "Have you ever seen an alligator up close? Do you have any clue about their behaviour or routine? Anyone?" He had asked them but no one could give him an answer. Arnold''s voice remained emotionless as he exined the facts to them, "Alligators areziest after dusk and before dawn. You can almost consider them dead. That is until you either agitate them or they are starving. Even if the lizardmen have evolved from such beings and are now far above the usual alligators, I highly doubt even they can change nature''sws. My ims are not baseless. The nagas have confirmed that the lizardmen have never attacked them after sunset or before sunrise. Thus, I think it''s best if we conduct our operations at night time." ''Its frightening how calcting that man can be...'' Azyriah thought while scanning the area for any lizardmen on guard and soon she found many. Most of them were concentrated around a specific building. And to her surprise, all of them were wearing top tier gears and wielding weapons that Devon used to supply to the syndicate. Now Arnold''s other hunch was proven to be true as well... The lizardmen and Devon were conspiring together or they at least had some sort of rtionship between them. That was the only way to exin why the Lizardmen were so well equipped. "I think we have gathered enough information. This is the main base or at least one of those." Azyriah whispered pocketing her binocrs, "We got what we came for. Let''s head back at once." Alleiah nodded like the most obedient child in kindergarten before ordering everyone to head towards the tunnels. The warriors did as they were asked to by Azyriah, but the nagas refused to take a step back. They had decided, enough was enough. For the sake of their queen, they had been enduring the humiliation but no more. It was clear that their queen had abandoned all sense of reason. The queen they remember was no more, for the queen they served was not an as*-kisser. They knew acting out before would be like forfeiting their lives and they might not be able to finish the humans as well as their queen. But now the circumstances had changed. If they cause a ruckus there, they would surely alert the lizardmen and in that way even if they ended up dying the lizardmen would make sure to kill the rest of the humans themselves. It was a win-win situation for them. They quickly drew their weapons and charged at their queen as well as the humans. They will dly sacrifice their lives to preserve the naga name. Seeing the nagas charging towards them, the warriors steeled themselves to take on the slithering rats. But to their astonishment, they didn''t even need to lift a finger to take care of them as a momentter, their heads burst open like a water balloon sshing blood and brains all over the warriors. A look of confusion and terror was stered over the warrior''s bloodied faces. However, Azyriah remained calm for she knew exactly what had happened there. Her suspicions were soon confirmed when she saw Nicole walking towards them. A maniacal smile had consumed her beautiful nature. "Looks like brother was right as usual." Nicole whispered and kicked one of the headless corpses, "Petting a snake would onlye to bite you in the butt. No offence." She said looking at the naga queen. "Anyways, we better get out of here soon. The lizards might''ve heard themotion." Azyriah reminded them and they all immediately left the ce. *** In an unknown part of the swamp... Arnold was sitting inside the makeshift treehouse he made using his nature affinity. "So it''s true! Alligator meat indeed tastes like chicken." Arnold mumbled while he was munching on some lizardmen meat, "Although, I have to chew it for a while. But the taste is spot on." While he was filling the empty void in his stomach, hismunicator went off. Talos was contacting him. Arnold quickly put the meat aside and epted the call. "What is it?" He asked. "Permission to deliver the daily report." Although it was Talos who had called him, the voice that came from the other side didn''t belong to him... But to Arnold! It was like Arnold was talking to himself! Chapter 268 - Doppelganger (2) Arnold took a suspicious green liquid by his side and washed his hands using it. The liquid masked his smell covering him in the scent of the swamps. But covering his smell wasn''t enough. The smell of the dead lurked around him. Next to him were two inhuman corpses... Both of which had deformed beyond recognition. If Arnold hadn''t killed them himself, he would''ve refused to believe these corpses were once human. ''Devon is out of his head...'' Arnold thought remembering that the people he had killed weren''t pure humans, but Inhumans who had their body and DNA fused with that of monsters. Especially with those of lizardmen and nagas.?? "Master?" A voice simr to Arnold''s echoed through Arnold''s makeshift hideout. "I''m here. Finish up the report first, Talos." Arnold replied, "By the way, does anyone suspects anything?" "No. No one suspects a thing other than Lady Nicole and maybe Lady Nina. But Lady Nicole already knew about what you did from the minute I stepped in front of her. Everyone else is oblivious. Lady Nina suspects something wrong but she can''t point it out." Arnold chuckled, "I''d be worried if Nicole couldn''t differentiate between you and me. After all, she too has a system. Maybe that''s the one who informed her. Anyways, you said you had to take action against someone? Let''s see if I remember correctly, it was Caiden. Wasn''t it?" "Yes, master. It was Caiden who caused the ruckus. So I had to step in as you instructed. But I''m afraid I might have overdone it." "Don''t sweat it. People like him deserve it." Arnold smirked as he squatted down to study the corpses, "If there isn''t anything else then I think we''re done here." "Apart from the incident with Caiden, there was another issue as well," Talos informed his master. "The nagas?" Arnold asked without paying much attention to Talos. "Yes," Talos replied. "Can you handle it by yourself?" "I can. But I wanted to get your opinion on the matter as well." "Cut their tails off. Or apart of it at least." Arnold instructed Talos as a vile smirk crept up to his face, "Those fckers take pride in being a naga so losing a bit of their tail should teach them a lesson. But don''t overdo it." "Understood," Talos mumbled and disconnected the call. Finally, alone, Arnold let out a sigh of relief before looking through his ''Treehouse''. It was empty, apart from the little Sentry guns that were ced at equal intervals facing outwards. Just a little precaution to defend himself. Then there was the corpse of two Inhumans in front of him. "I told Talos not to overdo things when I end up doing the same..." Arnold shook his head, "Well, how the hell was I supposed to know they were so weak?" While fighting against the Inhumans, Arnold felt like a certain bald guy who can knock out anyone with a single punch. All he had to do was to kick them and bam! The proud Inhumans turned into mashed potatoes. Arnold chuckled while remembering how one of the Inhumans was mocking him as he assumed his fighting stance. He imed himself to be a Tank turned into a brawler and told Arnold to not hold back, because they wouldn''t give him another chance to attack them. Thankfully, Arnold was in a yful mood so he flipped him off instead. This angered the Inhumans more than anything else. They were members of Devon''s elite corp, developed especially to deal with arrogant rascals like Arnold. They weren''t the best, but the best among the best and he, a fcking nobody, dared to disrespect them? One of the Inhumans flexed his muscles ripping his shirt apart and charged at Arnold like a raging bull. The scene almost reminded Arnold of Asterios. As soon as Arnold was in his attack range, the inhuman drew a knife from his back and thrust the pointed tip of the de to his throat in one swift motion. As the de was about to pierce Arnold''s neck, a hand shed in front of his eyes. Out of nowhere, Arnold''s hand gripped his opponent''s hand above the thumb. The next moment, the Inhuman''s hand was crushed like an empty milk carton. Thankfully, the inhuman could not feel pain anymore. So even as his left hand was being crushed, he used his right arm upwards, going in for a deadly strike. But Arnold was quicker. He brought his right arm grabbing his face. The other inhuman charged in to save his partner but it was toote. His partner was already dead. Blood oozed out from his nostrils and mouth. His cheekbones were shattered. His left eyeball was dangling out from his eye socket, swinging from side to side against his cheek like a pendulum as he remained suspended in the air. True to his name, he didn''t look human anymore. The second inhuman foolishly charged into his doom as well. As soon as thest inhuman entered Arnold''s reach, Arnold threw the corpse of the inhuman down, before kicking the inhuman''s chest. The blow hit like a sledgehammer as it pummeled into the inhuman''s chest. Several of his ribs popped out of his chest like wolverine''s ws. His heart, lungs and stomach were all ruptured. *** Back to the present... ''Open status te.'' Arnold thought after disposing of the Inhumans. ___ NAME : Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses], [God Killer], [Forgemaster] LEVEL : 162 RANK : Cosmic B SPECIAL SKILL : Devil''s Rage AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava (Earth and Fire), Nature (Earth, Water, Wind and Light) Personal details and stats : HP : 35138/35138 MANA : 20837/20837 EXP : 1250/15000 STRENGTH (STR) : 161[+65] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF) : 161 (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 241 AGILITY (AGI) : 91 ACCURACY (ACC) : 94 EVADE (EVD) : 78 CHARISMA (CHA) : 86 MYSTIC (MYS) : 155 ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 404 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 214 ___ "I should use the points..." Arnold mumbled before getting lost in his thoughts like always. Arnold wanted to dump a lot of points to increase his intelligence and the number of his summons but when he remembered that after crossing the 120 point mark on any stat, levelling up that stat required 5 attribute points to level up by one point. And after 240 points, the requirement was increased to 10 points, he thought using all of his points to increase his intelligence and Mystic stat would be a waste. So he used a hundred points to increase his strength. After that, he used 50 points each on Charisma, Evasion, and stamina and 25 points on Agility and uracy. He left the remaining 100 points as they were. As for the potential points... He thought it was better to save them and use themter to level up his abilities as and when required. Chapter 269 - Hunter (1) "Something is wrong," Alex mumbled. He was surveying the area where two Inhumans had disappeared along with a dozen or so lizardmen. They were supposed to be on a routine patrol when all of a sudden allmunications with them came to an abrupt end. Thus, Alex gathered up a few of his best men to go and investigate the area around which the members disappeared. But so far, they couldn''t uncover a thing.?? "I agree," Ajek, one of Alex''s loyal followers chimed in, "Just look at this ce... No sign of a skirmish or anything. It''s odd." Alex turned to Ajek, waving his hands dismissing his theory, "It''s not the skirmish that bothers me. But the fact that someone managed to make a fool out of our security measures and take down two of our elites along with a dozen lizardmen. That too without making a mess. Whoever did this... No. It not them who''s out of their heads. It''s us who think we can stop them." To Alex''s remarks, Ajek thought it was best to stay out of it, ''I''m way out of my depth here... It''s better to keep my mouth shut and let Alex do his job.'' "Moreover," Alex continued, "The two who are missing weren''t just any inhuman either. They were highly trained assassins. Even Johnny ck would''ve had trouble taking care of them on his own. Not to mention they had elite lizardmen with them as well. Not even the SS ranked hunters would''ve managed to take care of them so swiftly." "Maybe it was the nagas?" Despite his resolve, Ajek couldn''t keep his mouth shut for long. Alex shook his head, dismissing Ajek once again. "Nagas would never dare to pull such a stunt. Not this deep into the lizardmen territory. They have a hard time protecting their own asses, why would they take such unnecessary risk?" "Then what about the syndicate? They are here right? They can do something like this." Ajek countered but only to realise that he had been spewing nonsense. "They could but there are two issues with this theory of yours." Alex replied while scanning the marshy forest floor to see if anything was out of ce, "but first answer my question. How many people do you think it''ll take to take on 2 S ranked Inhumans and 12 S or maybe A ranked monsters?" Ajek couldn''t give Alex an answer. Which was expected. He had enough muscle on his body but sadly his brain was... As smooth as a yboy''s sweet talk. "I''d say it''d take more than 25 warriors just to subjugate the lizards. Now, do you think, the lizardmen wouldn''t know if more than 20 humans just randomly decided to take a walk in their territory? They would know it sooner than you expect." "..." "But just for the sake of it let''s say they somehow managed to fool the lizardmen and sneak past them. Don''t you think if a group of over fifty people and monsters alike were to fight to the death, all hell would break loose? Now, look around you. Does it looks like there has been a skirmish here?" "It doesn''t." Ajek bluntly replied while the other looked for clues. "Exactly. That''s why I''m saying it was the work of someone formidable. Someone who could cleanly strike his enemies down with batting an eye. But no one is perfect. That''s why we''re looking for clues to find out more info about them." "Right. But-" Ajek wanted to exin his reasons but Alex was having none of it. "Whatever it is, just shut it and tell everyone to keep looking for clues. There has to be something to tell us what happened to those two. In the meantime, I''ll inform the leader about the situation here." Alex mumbled as the rest started walking deeper into the woods, hunting for clues. *** Somewhere in a distance, Arnold was sitting over a tree monitoring the situation in front of him. He had already disposed of the corpses inside his void and thanks to his nature affinity, he was able to hide his tracks. Well... Apart from one thing which he left for the soldiers to find- The treehouse. "At least one of them has some brain cells left with him." Arnold whispered while staring intently at Alex, "Too bad. That''s going to be the reason for their downfall." The nagas gave him the location where they thought Devon was hiding with his people. Sadly that information was incorrect. There was nothing there. No humans or man-made structures. Just nothing. Arnold thought he had been tricked but then he realised it wasn''t possible. Since he had blooded Alleiah, she couldn''t lie to him. Thus, the only possibility was... That the nagas didn''t know the urate location of Devon''s hideout. Arnold had been wondering what to do next when the Inhumans and the lizardmen appeared. They were patrolling the area and found Arnold. Earlier it might have been a difficult task for Arnold to take care of them as quickly and quietly as possible. But since his ascension, these creatures were like flies to him and he easily dispatched the lot with minimal effort. However, he couldn''t get any information out of them because... Dead men tell no tales. No matter how clean and swift he was, he ended up killing them with nothing more than a punch or a kick. But then again, he quickly thought of a n. The fact that they were on a patrol meant one thing: Devon was closer than Arnold thought. Which meant sooner orter, there would be more people who''lle looking for their missingrades and when they did, Arnold would just have to follow them back to their base. But Arnold also knew that these soldiers wouldn''t return until they finally find something. Thus he left a little surprise in the treehouse for them to discover. So far everything had been going ording to his n and it seemed unlikely for the things to go south. All he had to do was to wait patiently while all hell breaks loose and then rain more hell upon them. "The prey has taken the bait. Now, the hunt begins." Chapter 270 - Hunter (2) "Any sign of them?" Devon asked Alex over themunicator. "Not yet sir. I have my men searching throughout the swamp-"?? "I don''t want excuses, Alex. I want answers." Devon cut him off, "It''s not the loss of Inhumans that bothers me, but the circumstances. We are in a dire situation. A sword is hanging above our necks. We cannot afford to make any mistakes now or it would be thest mistake we ever make. I don''t care about what happens to me, but Gary is innocent in all this and I have to ensure his safety before anything else." Alex couldn''t muster a reply. He knew Devon had already given up on himself but he wasn''t going to give up on his son. Especially after dragging him back from the afterlife. Still, this wasn''t the leader he wanted to serve. The leader he knew would never give up on himself and give his attackers a run for his blood, but now... It seemed as if Devon was only waiting for someone to arrive and kill him. "Understood sir. I will find the culprit behind-" "Sir!" Ajek''s voice roared behind Alex, once again cutting him off. But this time Alex wasn''t pleased with it at all. He never liked getting interrupted but now things were getting on his nerves. "WHAT IS IT!?" Alex roared back, viciously looking at the rest of his toon. "W-We found something..." Ajek mumbled but his half-assed reply only made Alex madder. "I KNOW YOU FOUND SOMETHING, YOU FCKING MORON! I''M ASKING WHAT DID YOU FIND?" Alex''s mood got progressively worse and worse. All of the soldiers there were stunned. In all the years they had known Alex, they had never seen him so enraged. They couldn''t recognize Alex anymore. Just like Alex couldn''t recognize Devon. With every passing moment, things were getting worse. Alex realised what was going on and immediately calmed himself down. The life in the swamp coupled with the stress of being attacked was getting on his nerves and it wasn''t a good sign. He had always been calm and collected but now... He was just a mess. At that moment Devon''s voice echoed from themunicator. "It''s not you." He mumbled, "It seems your mind is adapting to the personality of the lizardmen. Alwaysshing out at the littlest things. I suggest you leave the rest to your soldiers ande back and I''ll run some tests on you." "Understood sir." Alex ended the call and went ahead to see what Ajek had found, "A treehouse? Here in the middle of the swamps?" The others were as confused as him. A few thought that since the soldiers frequently patrolled this area, they might have made it to rest there briefly. But this theory was quickly debunked. Because Ajek was on one of the patrol teams as well and this was his first time seeing the treehouse. Moreover, no one could''ve possibly bent the trees in such weird shapes. As insane as it sounds, he felt as if the trees had changed their shape on their own free will. But he didn''t call Alex toy his eyes on the treehouse, but on what they found inside. Something he thought was more disturbing than watching lizardmen go all rumpy-pumpy with each other. Alex walked in through the doors then he stopped. Stunned. The floor of the treehouse had been painted red by blood. There were numerous corpses inside. Two of which belonged to the people they had been looking for. It was a vigorous task to recognise their bodies from the pile. Especially after seeing the condition, they were in. They weren''t murdered... They were annihted. It felt like their killer wanted to erase them from existence. While they were still in shock after seeing the condition of the corpses, a drop of something fell on to Alex''s forehead. He looked up... only to be shocked once again. Something was written on the ceiling... With blood. ''You''re next.'' That was all. Those two words sent shivers down the soldier''s spines. Cold sweat began dripping down their heads. Alex and Ajek were the only ones who managed to keep their cool. It was clear that whoever attacked them wanted to get in their heads and mess it up. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have left the bodies there along with the message. Alex''s soldiers started mumbling among themselves. But the mumbling soon turned into full panic mode. Some were abnormally silent while some couldn''t help but puke their guts out, mixing it with blood. "That''s enough." Alex''s voice snapped most of them back to reality, but still, the nauseating image was printed within their minds. "What kind of sick f*ck would do this?" Ajek mumbled while squatting down next to Alex. "The one who doesn''t give a crap who he''s going up against." Alex replied, "Get the body bags. We''re bringing the two with us." As instructed, two people immediately pulled out the body bags cing the corpses inside. Or whatever resembled human anatomy. Alex might have said the sight was disgusting but it was far from the worst he had witnessed. You see, he had been by Devon''s side for the longest and thus he had seen lots of inhumane things that the so-called leader did. Including massacring his own men to make the ultimate soldiers. Even going as far as resurrecting his son while sacrificing hundreds if not thousands of innocent. He thought being in Devon''spany had made him... Heartless. Then why was his heart so viciously pounding against his chest as if it wanted to get out of his body? He had no idea who wasing after them but he seriously doubted that they''ll be able to stop them. Forget about them, even the lizardmen wouldn''t be able to stop the person who had marked them as their enemy. Once the men were done packing the dead, Alex signalled them to head out. Unbeknownst to them, they weren''t alone as they thought they were. Someone was following them like their shadow, the shadow of death. Chapter 271 - Hunter (3) "Finally... Here we are." Arnold mumbled as he took his hood off his face. He was well concealed by the trees. His presence was almost undetectable. Alex and hispany had failed to notice the predator behind them and led him straight to their hiding ce. The ce that has been serving as their safe haven for years, but now it was just a mousetrap and they were the mice. Arnold thought it would be difficult for him to stalk them. However, it proved to be an extremely easy task. The trees helped him track the bastards and finally, he was there.?? From the outside, the secret base appeared to be an abandoned storage barn, overrun by the forces of nature. Various kinds of vines and trees had surrounded it, making it almost impossible to find it out unless one knew exactly where the building was. Moreover, the building was also surrounded by carnivorous trees. Which Arnold thought to be only one of the many defence Devon might''ve installed. "No wonder the drones couldn''t find the base. It would be difficult to look through the thick canopy itself but the building had also been covered with flora." Arnold mumbled. He also found something... Interesting. There were several rusty barrels of presumably noxious chemicals littered around the entrance, eachbelled with a skull and crossbones. Maybe it was a defence tactic to keep out the monsters? Who knows? It''s no secret that Devon is out of his mind. He might as well nuke himself for all Arnold know. Tall weeds had grown between the stones and the fence was almost falling over, there was hardly any security. Arnold could see why nobody would care about what was above ground, especially because there was nobody else to question Devon. The lizardmen wouldn''t care about Devon as long as he kept supplying them with weapons and there were no humans to cause him trouble either. That was what Arnold could see above the ground. But the underground was entirely a different story. Unbeknownst to him, there was a maze of titanium rooms, each either buzzing withputers or loaded with thetest in weaponry. Every inch of the ce was recorded by security cameras and the staff wore electronic chips under their skin. These chips were used to track the people residing inside the base, but it wasn''t it''s only purpose. At every entrance to the building, multiple weaponry were installed. Each operated by a dedicated AI. If anyone without a chip tried to force their way through, they''ll be annihted. The two Inhumans he killed, had these chips as well but Arnold unintentionally destroyed them while fighting them. The only way in or out of the base was through the tunnel that led into the farther end of the lizardman territory. It was the only way out in case of an assault. The entrance was further guarded by hundreds of guards and monsters. It was as if Devon had thrown all of his cards at once. This ce had better security than the damn Fort Knox and Area 51bined. Also, the warehouse above might''ve looked like it could fall apart from the slightest blow of wind, but it too had been reinforced with titanium. No wonder why Devon was still hiding inside and not running away. Why would he run out of the most secure ce he had built? If the syndicate was to storm the building, Arnold doubted more than 10-12% would be able to make it to the warehouse alive. Hell, even his summons would have a hard time getting through the building. Despite those facts, the more Arnold looked at the hideout the more excited he became. Why? Because this famed hideout was going to be his soon. "They have to have some sort of surveince devices installed throughout the area... That''s no brainer." Arnold mumbled while looking for a camera and whatnot, "But, that''s not an issue to me. I don''t need to get in... Rather, I''ll smoke them out. I didn''t want to do this but it seems there''s no choice." Saying that he jumped down from the tree,nding with a loud thud. The next moment, a ck portal appeared in front of the abandoned warehouse. Arnold didn''t intend to hide anymore. He was there to kill the bastards who had caused nothing but trouble for him. He didn''t care if they found him out or attack him, he was more than confident in his abilities to take care of anything and everything thates charging out of the building. But nothing in that building could be frightening than the creature which came out of his void of darkness... *** Inside the hideout... Devon was standing in the surveince room. It was a huge chamber, the walls - half rock, half polished steel - lined withputer equipment, electronic meters, machines that blinked and flickered with a life of their own. It was staffed by forty or fifty people, some in white coats, others were in overalls, all wearing I-cards of different colours: red, yellow, blue, and green. Each of the colours marked their designation. Red was the lowest ranking operator while the ones wearing Greed I-cards over their neck represented the people whom Devon trusted the most. Devon was overseeing the defence preparation when there was a loud thud followed by a shockwave. Everyone quickly grabbed on to whatever was closest to them. Those who failed to do so fell over like a bunch of dominoes. "What''s going on!?" Devon shrieked, looking at the operator closest to him, who looked as clueless as everyone else. The operator quickly looked through his monitor. Changing the view from camera to camera until he finally found something. "Sir, I''m not sure what it is but it appears to be some kind of monster has discovered the entrance." "Then find out what the fck is that creature!" The operators furiously began typing at their respective consoles. And soon they found out what was the cause of the shockwave. But they were about to wish they hadn''t. In front of them stood the biggest creature they had ever seen... A jaded dragon. The one whom her master called, Scy. Chapter 272 - Youre Already Dead (1) Scy came stomping out of the portal that been holding her for a while. She had never felt the sun above her head, nor the marshynds below her feet, yet it all felt awkwardly familiar. The moment she pped her boundless wings, it felt like the swamp was hit by a cyclone. Every step she took sent tremors down the earth. When she stretched her neck, the trees overseeing the swamps were ripped apart. The sight was destructive yet majestic at the same time. She truly deserved the title of a queen, the queen of all dragons. Right next to her stood a man, wearing a cloak made from the scales of the strongest dragon to have ever lived. His hands were deep in his pockets. His expression was as calm as a meditating monk. It felt like the man wasn''t worried at all about the giant creature that stood right beside him. And he had a reason not to be intimidated by the dragon, after all, the dragon was one of his pets. One he had nurtured ever since the dragon was still bounded by its unbreakable eggshell.?? He was the master of the dragon. He was the one who effortlessly killed opponents whom no one could defeat. He was the man no one should ever anger. He was Arnold Ling, and right now he wanted to y a game. A game of death. "Reinforcing the building with titanium and installing defences were all good moves," Arnold yelled at the top of his lungs. He wanted to make sure his enemies knew who exactly was going to kill them, "You might''ve been able to stop your ordinary monsters or humans. But as you can see, neither this dragon is ordinary nor is her master." He continued, "Devon! I know you''re in there. There''s no need to cause a massacre here. If you care about your workers or whatever the fck you call them, then walk out now. I''ll just kill you and it''ll be all over. If not, well... Then I guess y''all are going to die tonight." Arnold had be somewhat of an expert in engaging his enemies with psychological warfare. He wasn''t intending on leaving anyone alive. In his eyes all of them deserved death for what they did to him, Alice, Allen and countless innocents. Don''t get him wrong, he wasn''t ying hero by exacting justice upon his enemy. He was doing it all because they crossed his path time and time again. Also, he didn''t mean a word of what he said. He only said those things because he wanted to spark distrust between Devon and his soldiers. No matter how strong his army was, no one in their right mind would walk out and fight against a dragon. Arnold knew this after his fight with Tiamut. If someone like Johnny could freeze from fear in front of a dragon, the useless soldiers would be crapping their pants just by thinking about fighting off a dragon. However, if Devon actually walked out of the base, which Arnold doubted a selfish piece of sh*t like him would do, it would save Arnold some trouble. You see, Arnold wanted to get a hold of the swamp as well as Devon''s hideout for his future ns. Thus, letting Scy loose on them would definitely stir up some undesired trouble for him. It would be a set back for Arnold but it wouldn''t affect his ns in the long run. So either way, it was a win-win for him. He waited and waited. No reply came from the inside. Right when he was about to give them ast warning, a horde of Inhumans, Lizardmen and humans in mech suits came charging out of the building. From a distance, they appeared to be courageous. But the reality couldn''t be more distinct. With no other choice, Arnold gave Scy amand, "Hunt." *** A few minutes ago, inside Devon''s hideout... The appearance of Scy had thrown everyone out of their heads. It was utter chaos. The panic grew stronger into the day as their mental faculties gave way to emotions. All of them have lost their minds. The only one who looked to be calm was Devon. But even he was shocked beyond anything. He had seen the amount of chaos a single dragon could cause after Tiamut appeared. He wasn''t stronger than the syndicate, neither did he had the sources to deal with a dragon himself. Most of his strengthid with his alliance with the Lizardmen but he doubted even they could handle a dragon on their own. He was confident enough in his traps and soldiers to take care of the syndicate. But just the thought of dealing with a dragon threw everything out of the equation. When all seemed lost, a man''s voice echoed through the entirety of the hideout. "Devon! I know you''re in there. There''s no need to cause a massacre here. If you care about your workers or whatever the fck you call them, then walk out now. I''ll just kill you and it''ll be all over. If not, well... Then I guess y''all are going to die tonight." The next moment, everyone calmed down. They had a way out! All of them could be saved if their leader was willing to sacrifice himself for their sake. He should do it, right? After all, they all had been serving him for so long. Shouldn''t he repay their kindness in death? They hadmitted countless crimes to please him and now it was his turn to save their lives. He should go out... No, he will go out there and die. If he doesn''t, they''ll throw him out with brute force! That''s what was going through the head of everyone. Devon instantly understood what their gazes meant. But didn''t make a move other than shaking his head at their stupidity. For starters, he knew Arnold was baiting them by dangling the carrot of letting them live. He knew a lot about Arnold. Maybe more than anyone else. He had done his research on him, his erratic behaviour and everything else that he could. He was positive that Arnold was nning on killing them all. He wasn''t a guy to forgive and forget. Sadly, his subordinates and followers were too blind to see the truth. "Leader! You will save us right?" One of the girls shrieked. "Yes yes, the leader is kind. He''ll dly die if it meant helping us out." Yet another man chimed in. Slowly everyone started to surround him. "There''s no point arguing with anyone," Devon mumbled before pulling his tab out and tap it twice. The next moment, there was a loud buzzing sound in the far corner of the room. Everyone turned around to see what was going on. To their horror, the man who was secretly trying to open the gates got electrocuted in front of their eyes. Unbeknownst to them, the chip inside their bodies had a hidden function. A function no one knew of apart from Devon. Not even Devon''s most trusted man Alex. It was a fail-safe Devon ced inside their bodies to ensure their continued ''support'' to himself. He had foreseen something like this to happen and that''s why he used the chips. Before anyone couldpletely process what the hell was going on, Devon electrocuted a dozen men and women. "You want me to die? Have you not learned a single fcking thing about me after spending all these years with me?" Devon smiled like a maniac, "Oh, I''ll die today. That''s certain. But not before all of you! Now pick up the weapons and charge out or else, I''ll kill you before that asshole does." They were doomed. They''ll die no matter the choice they made. But Devon was thinking about a different thing entirely. He might''ve resigned to his fate, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t going to put up a fight. For him, Gary''s survival was the only thing that mattered and he needed time to ensure his son''s safety. If Arnold was to storm the building right now, Gary would inevitably get caught in the mess and Devon had to prevent that from happening at all costs. Even if it meant killing everyone off, including himself. Chapter 273 - Youre Already Dead (2) It wasplete pandemonium in front of Arnold. The ce was consumed by fire, chocking with thick, pungent smoke rising to the sky. Scy''s mes had already killed many of the soldiers and lizardmen. A multitude of charred corpses was littered the swampy floor. The air reeked of blood. There were still many severely wounded people crawling to safety, screaming out for help. But there was no hope for a rescue for them. Only death awaited them. This was Arnold''s revenge. Some believed revenge was a dish served cold. However, ording to Arnold, each dish required it''s own unique preparation. And this time, the dish was to be served while it was fiery hot. Hotter than hellfire.?? While Arnold stood rooted on the spot he was standing, Scy was having the best time of her life. She was a terrifying beast, that was no secret to anyone. However, they didn''t know how much she enjoyed killing and causing destruction. To her doing so was like maternal instinct. Also, creating chaos was the only reason Arnold summoned her out of his void. Thus, Scy enjoyed it very much whenever Arnold would let her loose. In fact, it was the only thing she looked forward to. Pleasing her master while having fun of her own. However, the people who were getting gnawed on weren''t having fun. At first, they thought rebelling against Devon would ensure their death. Thus, they agreed on his term to go out and face the dragon. Quite a few lizardmen were with them so they thought with the help of their mech suits and they could run away from the battle, while the lizardmen distracted the dragon. After all, no matter how strong a beast was, it couldn''t possibly handle hundreds of lizardmen by itself, right? Wrong. The moment they started pouring out of the base like a horde of zombies, Scy unleashed hell upon them. In an instant, all of their ns were shattered and the gravity of the situation hit them. Before they could do anything, blue mes engulfed them. Most of them died instantly. Those who didn''t were praying to God, not knowing a fate worse than being burned alive waited for them. With ws sharper than an obsidian de, Scy went chopping them down to pieces. While all of this was happening, a few of Devon''s people managed to sneak past Scy. After all, she was a gigantic creature. She couldn''t notice each and every ant''s position, could she? But Arnold could and he wasn''t going to let anyone escape. In his eyes, everyone inside the building was equally guilty as Devon himself. After all, they had enjoyed their peace with him, now they''ll join him in hell. He immediately used his nature affinity and sealed off every path. They were now trapped within the swamp with a raging dragon. The only way to escape was death. And death they would receive. Seeing no other choice, the people and monsters rallied themselves to fight. But not against Scy, they were instead nning on attacking the one who imed to be the dragon''s master. Scy, still in her yful mood, swung her ws and tails once again but Arnold stopped her. She had, had her fun. Now it was time for him to flex his muscles. He instructed Scy to block the entrance to the building, to ensure no one would disturb them. Once that was done, he pointed a finger at his opponents, informing them that he was ready to send them on a free one way trip to the afterlife. His opponents, however, thought it was an excellent move for their survival. There were around three hundred of them, and Arnold was alone. Their morale suddenly shot through the sky. Facing one man was way better than facing an unbeatable dragon. Little did they know, Arnold was the biggest threat on the. Well, two others were as strong as him if not stronger but they didn''t need to know that. After all, they were about to die. Arnold just stood there in his cloak. Initially, he thought he would need to use Cardinal''s sin against these pricks. But he decided against it. It wasn''t a sensible thing to do. He wasn''t going to reveal his tricks from the get-go. Instead, he just popped the ws out of his gloves and he was good to go. But before further bloodshed, he wanted to y with their minds one more time. "I''m telling you for thest time. My fight is not against you. But against the man who is still hiding behind you." His voice thundered over his opponents, "Just bring him to me, and I''ll let you leave. If not, then you know what will happen to you, don''t you?" As soon as he finished speaking, a voice from the horde yelled back, "The moment we turn around, that psycho would kill us all. You all saw what he did to the rest inside, didn''t you? I say we fight against the man instead! He''s alone! He wouldn''t be able to take us all on. Once he dies, maybe the dragon would disappear too!" The man''s cries were heard by his peers. To them it made sense. Since Arnold was the one to summon the dragon, if they managed to defeat Arnold, technically Scy should disappear as well. They were all going to fight him to death. That''s all there was to it. Arnold could only shake his head in disappointment. Well, if the fools were so eager to die then who was he to deny them that? He was just the means to kill, not the perpetrator. All of them, men and monsters, turned to meet the threat standing in front of them. Their faces were grim, and their fighting spirit stirred. Every one of them was fanatically breathing as if they had run a marathon. There they stood, each having the intent on ughtering Arnold in front of them. Arnold didn''t reply to them. Instead, he unleashed his intense aura. An aura that sent shivers down the spine of the dragon goddess. What could mere humans and lizards do against him? The next moment, he raised his ws and pointed them at the crowd, then he roared, "DIE!" Chapter 274 - Youre Already Dead (3) Meanwhile, Devon was still holed up inside the base. He was intently watching the intense battle raging outside. He had hoped to discover a weakness by watching Arnold fight. Sadly, Arnold wasn''t anything like he had expected. Devon thought he knew Arnold but the person in front of him was not at all like he thought. Arnold was simply way too strong for them to handle on their own. At the moment Devon wasn''t even sure if they were fighting against a human at all! No matter what his ''loyal'' soldiers did, Arnold would immediately tear them apart. Devon had thought even if they couldn''t defeat Arnold, at least they''ll be able to tire him out. But Arnold was wrecking even that train of thought as they fought on. The worst part of it all? Arnold was smiling like a maniac while ripping his enemies apart.?? "What kind of monster... Is he?" Devon mumbled and immediately ran towards his son''s room, "We can''t dy it any longer. He has to leave now!" Loud metallic noises could be heard everywhere. People were equipping themselves with mech suits. Devon didn''t care whether they were trying to leave or to go out and fight. He just had to reach his son. Devon himself was wearing one such suit but it was better than everyone else''s. Devon wasn''t a warrior, his intelligence was the most frightening weapon he had. Even so, with his armour, he could easily deal with up to three hundred lizardmen on his own. Initially, he had thought his armour alone would be sufficient to take care of the syndicate or at least stall them till Gary was safe. But after seeing the bloodlust on Arnold''s face, he was sure of one thing: no one can stop him. If Devon was asked to name the world''s most dangerous man then, without a doubt he''d choose Arnold. Before all this, he had already resigned himself to death but now when death was knocking on his door, he wasn''t so sure about dying. He thought when the time woulde, he would embrace death like an old friend but now, embracing death was thest thought on his mind. Despite all this, he wasn''t a bit remorseful of his actions. Why would he repent for something that brought his son back to life? He did what any father would do, given the means to do so. The only thing he was repenting on was ever crossing Arnold''s path. If he could turn back time, he wouldn''t change a thing apart from one thing... Never setting his eyes on Arnold''s sister, Nicole. That''s where all the trouble began for him. That''s where everything went wrong. Had he known what woulde to haunt him years after doing a certain deed, he wouldn''t have done that. But how was he to know that a nobody would gain such strength out of nowhere? Had he known about Arnold''s true strength, he would''ve recruited him. Hell, he would even help in the treatment of Nicole. But, s, it was toote to think about such trivial ''what ifs'' now. The least he could do now was to ensure Gary''s safety. After that, he would die happily and join the rest of his people in hell. Devon soon arrived at Gary''s room. Thankfully he was okay. Next to him were the two people he had been looking for: Gary''s caretaker and Alex. They were already finished the necessary preparation to leave and were waiting for Devon to give his final instructions to them. Gary was fast asleep in his wheelchair, as usual. Just looking at his sleepy face, made the fear of death leave Devon''s mind. At that moment he knew he had made the right decision. Alex saw his leader and gave him a courteous salute like he always did. But deep down he knew, it was thest time he''ll salute his leader. Whether Alex wanted to admit it or not, it was true that anyone who stayed behind would be killed mercilessly. And Devon had set his mind on dying that day because if he didn''t, then Arnold would keep looking for him. He wouldn''t rest till Devon''s head was six feet below the ground. If Devon ran away with them, he would only cause trouble for Gary and he wanted his son to live his second life in peace. Without any worries. Thus, Alex had given up on persuading Devon to do otherwise. Instead, he wanted to focus on the final orders given to him by Devon: to protect his son and live a happy life on his own. Alex wasn''t sure about fulfilling thetter part of Devon''s orders but he was dead set on protecting Gary till hisst breath. "Looks like this is it." Devon broke the awkward silence while squatting in front of Gary, "I hope I could have had a peaceful sleep like that in thest ten years." Devon set his helmet aside and nted a kiss on his son''s forehead, "I now know what I did was selfish. But even so, I don''t regret my choices. In the end, I''ll get to die before you. Like it should''ve been. Who knows maybe in the afterlife, I''ll get to meet your lovely mother too? But I''m not hopeful. Someone as kind as her belongs in the heavens... A ce someone like me could only dream about." Alex and the caretaker stood in silence. They knew it was thest time a father was going to have a chat with his son and wanted to respect that. Even Gary''s caretaker, who despised Devon for his poor choices couldn''t help but feel pity for him. As someone who had seen both, Devon''s rise to greatness as well as his fall, she in some way had a bit of respect for him too. After all, he was giving his life away to give his son a second chance. She knew her prayers wouldn''t be heard by the gods but she hoped Devon would get onest chance to see the madame for thest time. After a heart filled talk with his sleeping son, Devon stood up. His helmet once again covering his face. He turned towards the two who were going to take care of his son from then onwards and giving them his thanks and unexpectedly apologising to them for everything he had done. It felt as if Devon was trying to do as much good as he could in the short time he had left with him. Maybe he was trying to bnce out some karma, maybe he could finally feel the weight of his wrongdoings on his shoulder... No one will ever know what was going inside his head. But they all knew one thing, his love for his son was unwavering. Chapter 275 - Youre Already Dead (4) "Alright. It''s time for you to leave." Devon informed the two, handing them a map, "Take the back exit drive for a couple of miles. Follow the map. There you''ll find an abandoned helipad. I''ve set up everything there. Inside the chopper, you''ll find another map and details of all my illegal bank ounts. There should be a couple of billions of dors in those ounts. I''ve also set a trust fund in your names for all the trouble. Get on the chopper and leave for the ce I''ve marked on the map. From there you''ll board on a private jet that''ll take you to Cuba." Devon continued as the four of them hurried to the exit, "Let me think if I am forgetting anything... Right, take thismunicator. Don''t fire up the chopper until I give you the signal. I have to stall that monster otherwise he''ll think I''m the one who''s escaping and shoot the chopper down. Understood?"?? "Clear," Alex replied as they arrived at the exit. Devon helped them load the necessary things in the jeep. Everyone got seatedfortably and then headed out into the wilderness. As the gates closed behind him, Devon rubbed his shivering hands together intensely. Staring at the disappearing jeep for thest time. His heart palpitated as he impatiently ran back towards the control room. All the while thinking a single thing, ''Will they make it in time?'' The base was deserted. Not a single soul was in sight. Papers, furniture everything was scattered all over the ce. If someone was to see the scenario, they''ll think that the ce was a site of a catastrophe or a zombie outbreak. Devon soon reached the control room and scanned the outside surroundings. Apart from Arnold, only 30-40 people were left standing. Apart from that... The scene in front of his eyes, almost made him throw up. Devon had witnessed his fair share of gory stuff while experimenting with Inhumans. Yet, it was unlike anything he had imagined in his darkest nightmares. When he saw the scene outside, he was stunned. He stood and in absolute shock. The next moment, the dozen or so men who were standing closest to Arnold began to scream and fell to the ground. Their bodies were almost cut into two, and bright red bloodied water flooded the surface of the ground. The ground had be a field strewn with the remains of corpses, in heaps of flesh and blood. No mere human could''ve made such a mess out of what once were humans. Devon was in disbelief and only hoped that what he was seeing was an illusion. He couldn''t even imagine what had happened there in his absence. Broken arms and legs, scattered entrails, headless bodies, and severed heads¡­ that''s all he could see. He had thought that the dragon was a monster but he was wrong... In Arnold''sparison, the jade dragon was nothing more than a docile puppy. Arnold was the only monster there. No one else. The situation was getting out of hand. If things were left as they were, Gary wouldn''t make it out in time. Devon was hesitant but he had no choice left. It was sooner than he expected but it was the only way to buy time for Gary. He pulled a chair, sat in front of aputer and started furiously typing something. Immediately after he was done, the doors leading to the control were sealed shut. Devon had just unleashed the horrors of his countless failed experiments on Arnold. He had been experimenting with beast crystals for quite a while now. Numerically speaking, he had conducted well over a thousand experiments to research the effects of consumption of beast crystals. Both on humans and monsters. It went without saying, that not all of these experiments were sessful. Only about 1% of the specimens yielded desirable oues. Which meant that the rest of the experiments ended up in failure. These failed specimens were put into either chemically induceda or in cryostasis. The sessful specimen had already been sold to various warlords and dictators. But Devon had kept the failed specimens with himself. This was his endgame. Thus, he had a force of about 990+ uncontroble monstrosities as the ace up his sleeve. But as said, these 990+ or 993 beings to be exact, were uncontroble. That meant releasing them from their respective pods was ast resort for Devon. This was also the reason why he had shut himself up in the control room. Otherwise, he would''ve been the first one to die by their hands. Momentster he could feel the true monsters wreaking havoc in the base while most of them instinctively headed outside as Devon had nned. But even with the new force he had with him, he was sure that Arnold could easily take care ofthem with the dragon''s aide. Hence, he decided to call for more reinforcements. He once again got busy on theputer and type a message. It was an SOS message to the Chieftain of Lizardmen, Grock. Devon knew no one was a match for Arnold and his dragon but calling Grock in might help him distract Arnold for enough time for Gary and the other''s to escape safely. But by the time Arnold would be done taking care of the crystal bred monstrosities, the Lizardmen and Devon, Gary would''ve gone far away. But it seemed that fate had different ns. The moment Devon send the message to Grock, there was a huge explosion on the outside. However, the explosion urred far away from the hideout. Devon immediately started looking around in hopes of finding out what the hell was going on. It didn''t take him long enough to do that either. The aftermath of the explosion could be seen clearly. A huge mushroom-shaped cloud of mes appeared in the middle of the swamp. Which was immediately followed by a thick ck cloud of smoke. The shockwave generated by the explosion had uprooted anything within 2 kilometres radius of the explosion. Despite being kilometres away from the explosion, even Devon could feel the aftershock. He didn''t know what the hell was going on but it soon dawned upon him. "No... no... NO!" Devon eximed, thrashing everything in his vicinity. The area where the explosion took ce was right around the lizardmanir, or the one Devon referred to as the main base of Lizardmen. It was bad news for him. Since Arnold was here, it meant that the rest of the syndicate had already made their move against the lizardmen. Which meant... There was no reinforcementing to aide him. Not anymore. He was on his own. Chapter 276 - Youre Already Dead (5) As the explosion went up, Arnold''s eyes lit up simultaneously. He had been waiting for this to happen and it finally did. The syndicate had begun its attack on the Lizardmen. "Well done, Talos," Arnold mumbled while slicing off yet another one of Devon''s pawns in half. Arnold knew it was Talos and the syndicate as the explosion was the signal Arnold had wanted Talos to use. He had also given him a ton of fiery grenades for the same purpose.?? The so-called elite guards were frightened out of their wits. They had no idea someone as monstrous as Arnold could even exist in their world. That realisation coupled with the explosion was enough to make them crap themselves. However, they quickly regained theirposure. They were trained to be the best of the best, and they would not back down. Not until theirst breath. Immediately, another line of fighters dashed in to confront Arnold, yelling and thrashing with their swords and weapons to get enough courage to face him. The yelling didn''t die down, in contrast, it increased. But the yells were no longer giving them courage instead, now their yells were instilling more fear in them. Because these yells weren''ting from courage, instead the yells were from the despair and pain they were going through. As the soldiers came charging at him all together, Arnold remained still, he had an icy smile on his face, and his fierce eyes tracked every fighter closing in on him. In a split second, he had sidestepped the man leading the strike. The next moments, slicing open his torso. Arnold''s strike not only pierced through the mech suit but managed to make his internal organs poured out, dropping to the ground. The smell of the blood reeked in the air. Still, the elites did not let up and continued the assault. Their numbers dwindling with every passing moment. In a sh, he swung his ws at the next man, cleanly taking his head off. The headless body stumbled for a few steps, as blood gushed out like a fountain from his open neck. Then the body slumped into a pool of blood, with his headying not far away. It looked like a scene from a gory movie or game, but it was happening all before their eyes. Whenever Arnold swing his ws, he took a life without failing once. His next target was a woman. But instead of ripping her apart, he kicked her abdomen forcing the woman to squat in front of him. Instead, of caressing her wound to ease the pain, she looked up at Arnold. Her eyes begging him for mercy. "Please..." She mumbled while crying her eyes out. Even as she pleaded, she knew she didn''t have long to live, "let me... Live... Please." Arnold, however, had an indifferent expression on his face. But he lowered his blood-soaked ws. For a moment the woman thought Arnold would let her leave. But her hopes were shattered the very next moment. "I told you, if I don''t get Devon, everyone would die. Yet you came brandishing a sword in my face. Forcing One man to fight against hundreds. Now you''re begging for mercy?" Arnold''s indifferent expression suddenly changed for the worst, "You think I''m someone who bluffs about killing people? Do you think you can have your cake and eat it too? Do you think I''m like other warriors? Sorry to disappoint you but I enjoy killing and idiots like you keep giving me the reason to do so." Upon hearing those words, the woman''s face went through a hundred emotional changes. She was cursing herself for ever joining Devon and aid him. But now was toote for having any regrets. Now was the time to drag someone to hell with her! Seeing no other way out, she lunged at Arnold. With a hidden de in front, she went for Arnold''s neck, "If I''m dying, then I''ll drag you to hell with me!" She was hopeful, she''d at least get to wound the man who had killed hundreds of her allies. But it was just wishful thinking because the next moment she felt her head topple down from her shoulder. Arnold was so quick with his attack, that the woman didn''t realise, she was already dead. In herst moments, she heard Arnold chuckle, "I''m sorry sweetie. But I don''t go on dates in hell or with headless people." "Who''s next?" Arnold roared with ferocity. And dashed up against the line of fighters at a rapid speed, preparing to sh his next victim. But before he could, the man standing in front of him was killed by something... Something abnormal. It looked like a monster but Arnold immediately recognised exactly what the creature was. ''Devon and his filthy experiments.'' Arnold thought, stopping a few steps away from the new horde of humanoid monsters. He didn''t need to kill the rest of the humans. The humanoids did the job for him. But Arnold was confused. How the heck did the humanoids made their way out of the base? Scy should''ve finished them off, right? After all, he told her to cover the gates. Arnold looked past the humanoids, looking for Scy. He found her pretty soon. But not where he had expected her to be. Not only she wasn''t guarding the door like she was supposed to, but she was ying with the trees!!! Arnold didn''t know whether he shouldugh or cry. Scy had never been to the swamps before, thus everything fascinated her and it was to be expected. Still, he didn''t think her curious nature would make her neglect his orders. But now, he couldn''t do much about it. He had his hands full. "I think I should take her training a bit seriously... Or I''ll get killed soon." Arnold smiled shook his head again. A dog would never be held responsible for its action. But the owner will, as it''s their job to train the dog. Arnold''s case wasn''t any different from that, the only difference being, he had a pet dragon instead of a dog. While Arnold was thinking about Scy''s training, a humanoid monster jumped towards him. Arnold didn''t even turn to face the humanoid and simply kicked it. Since he wasn''t paying attention, he went overboard with the kick and instead of just killing the humanoid, it was thrown back as if he were hit by a running train. The force had killed the humanoid instantly, but his body flew back, crashing against half a dozen more of its kind before it finally came to a rest. All of them were knocked down andid still on the ground in a heap. Either dead or crippled enough, to not move. "Damn! That was some Shaolin Ser shit right there." Arnold praised the kick and went ahead kicking the rest of them as well. It was as clear as day, this was Devon''s final trick. Not to mention, the Lizardmen won''t being to his aid anymore. With this, his fate was sealed. He was already dead. Chapter 277 - Reclaiming The Swamps (1) At the centre of the swamps, another battle was raging on. Steel was shing against steel. Magic against magic. Monster against a monster. It was a scene worthy of being called an all-out war. The constant ringing of explosions only contributed to add more adrenaline to their bodies. Warriors of the syndicate held back as their magicians rained hell upon the lizardman and Nagas alike. They were following the orders of their elected leader, Arnold. But little did they know, even though they were following Arnold''s orders, it wasn''t Arnold who was leading them. It was Talos.?? Back when Arnold and Talos were interrogating the albino lizardman, Arnold willingly poured a few drops of his blood into Talos'' transformation rune. Yup. Talos could now transform into his maker. This, coupled with the fact that he was using Arnold''s old equipment, including the Vindicator, hepletely looked like Arnold. Moreover, Talos was acting his part quite well. Although he didn''t manage to inherit Arnold''s most powerful abilities. He did get a hold of Ice control ability. Which meant, he could stop the mermen from jumping in the mix. Also, Talos already had gunslinger abilities so in the eyes of the warriors, he was pretty much the same Arnold whom they have been following. So far, only Nicole had caught the impostor. That too was thanks to Donna. Although, Talos couldn''tpletely fool Nina and she thought something was off with Arnold. She eventually chalked it up to the stress of the battle. As for the battle, it was going as good as expected. As Arnold had nned, they were killing two birds with one stone. Under the guise of misfiring, they were constantly eliminating nagas as well as the lizardmen. Although the lizardmen were more in numbers and had superior fighting skills, they weren''t a match against the high-level magic casters. But there was something no one had noticed till now. Their magic was only effective against the low-level lizardmen. Hell, their magic hadn''t killed a single elite lizardman. Nagas were the ones to kill the few elites but Talos wasn''t concerned about it at all. Everything was going as per his and Arnold''s predictions. Under the constant fire from the syndicate and lizardmen, the nagas were soon eradicated. The lizardmen marked their next target: the humans who had been hiding behind the nagas. Without taking a moments rest, the lizardmen charged at their new opponents. They couldn''t wait to taste human meat after all of this was over. But came to a halt soon. Between them and the humans, was a long field. A field with no trees to provide them cover. They were thinking about where all of the trees went? How could hundreds of trees have disappeared overnight? It was thanks to Arnold, but the lizardmen had no way of knowing that. Without the cover of the trees, many of them were reluctant to continue fighting. Knowing that there must be traps to take care of them. "I never thought my brothers were a bunch of yellow-bellied weaklings." A loud growl echoed behind them, followed by loud thumping footsteps. The lizardmen immediately bowed their heads down. They knew who the voice belonged to and it was someone they all had the utmost respect for. He was the lizardman, they all followed. The strongest among their kind. Their king, Grock, the ck lizardman. *** Talos, under Arnold''s guise, instructed the mages to stop. They had already thinned the crowd down to as much as they could. Now it was time for the rest to shine. Within a moment, Tanks, Brawlers and swordsman were in formation. Awaiting orders. But they weren''t the first line of defence. In front of them, stood over a thousand automatons and sentry guns. ''These soldiers are valorous, I''d give them that.'' Talos thought, ''However, most of them will die here if not all. Master''s words were clear: if things didn''t go as nned, I have to focus on saving the ck family only. Once they are safe I can make the call to save the rest or run. But it''s unlikely anything would go south now.'' Talos waited for the lizardmen to make their move first. But seeing as there was no movement from the enemy, he signalled the automatons. The next minute the sentry guns open fired on their enemies. But the bullets weren''t your run of the mill bullets either. They were incendiary rounds. An upgraded version of the fiery bullets which Arnold used. These newly improved bullets coupled with the power and rate of fire of the sentry guns was enough to melt any lizardman''s tough hide like butter. "Let them burn," Talos mumbled. *** Back at Arnold''s position... Fighting against the humanoids was a lot easier than expected. They had explosive strength but their moves weren''t refined. Half of the time they didn''t know what they were doing. All they knew was to ughter anything in front of them. Some of them even went to try their luck against Scy. Which turned out to be a big mistake. Not only did they mess with Scy while she was having fun, they even managed to piss her off. As a result, Arnold didn''t have to do much. Had this been the scenario before his ascension, he might not have made out of it all in a single piece. He was sure of it. "I think I should make a cemetery here. After all, it more or less looks like the same. Just add a few headstones, bury the corpses and there you have a premium quality graveyard right here!" "I killed more than a thousand people and it''s still at 52%?" Arnold was confused, but the system was there to cure his confusion. "Yeah you did and that''s why-" "System-sama, with all due respect, what''s the fcking difference between them?" "..." Arnold was speechless. He had never heard such a crappy excuse from anyone! He felt like he was cheated over in a lottery. But there wasn''t anything he could do about it now. Thus, he went to do what he went there for, to kill Devon. Chapter 278 - Reclaiming The Swamps (2) Thud... Thud... Thud... Arnold''s steps echoed through Devon''s abandoned hideout. Behind him came the sunshine into the freshly abandoned building. He looked and looked, but there wasn''t a single soul in sight. Arnold wasn''t surprised, after all, he had yed a significant role in the upant''s extinction from the face of the earth. Still, the fact he wasn''t able to find Devon yet stroked his anger.?? "If only I didn''t want to save this building..." Arnold felt a bit conflicted now. He could either destroy the building and turn it into Devon''s grave and then live in the doubt that Devon had somehow managed to escape, for the rest of his life. Or he could partially destroy the building, forcing the rat toe out in the open and then hunt him down. These were the two options at the top of his head, but even though he had these options, he had opted to go with the third option: hunt him down in a game of hide and seek. He never thought Devon woulde out and face him like a man, but neither did he think Devon would turn out to be such a coward. Regardless of how Arnold felt about Devon''s crimes, he had a weird kind of respect for him. The two of them were simr in many aspects. One of them was that they both were creationists. Each of them was capable of creating weapons strong enough to topple the world''s bnce. Another simrity being, both of them were lone wolves and preferred to do their work alone. Once they had a goal in mind, none of them would stop before achieving it. No matter the cost. "Maybe I have overestimated my foe." Arnold shook his head. Although Devon was a capable man, he didn''t have the edge over Arnold because as far as Arnold knew, Devon was in the end just an ordinary man. A man without a ''system''. But Devon had the potential and knowledge to subdue any crisis at hand. The methrowers, machine guns and the rest of the defence mechanism Arnold encountered till now, were enough to prove that. Had it been anyone apart from him to cluelessly walk through the doors, they would''ve visited the afterlife more than once. Even Johnny wouldn''t be able to resist all the attacks. "WHY DON''T YOU COME OUT AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!?" At his wit''s end, Arnold yelled at the top of his lungs. "Only a fool woulde out to face a monster, thinking he''s a man." Devon''s voice echoes through the speakers ced in the metallic corridors. Despite facing death, his voice was pretty calm, "And as you know, Mister Ling, I ain''t no fool." "Hahahaha..." Arnoldughed like a maniac to Devon''sments, "Nice recording, Devon. You could''ve easily fooled me if it wasn''t for the constant beeping sound of the recorder. It''s faint. Normally no human can hear it but it''s always there. But as you said, I''m not a human. So stop the charade ande out to y." It was true. Since his ascension, all of his sense had been reconditioned. As for the part where he said, he wasn''t human, that was true as well. As his organs too had been reformed to give him a better metabolism. Essentially, Arnold was no longer a human being and he didn''t care about disclosing it to Devon as he was going to kill him soon either way. p...p... p... "Aa expected from someone like you," Devon''s voice once again echoed through the speakers, "I knew you would eventually catch up to the trick but I never thought you''d do it the moment I speak. Well done. You, sir, have my respect-" "Sorry to interrupt, but I don''t need your respect. I''d rather have your head if that''s not much to ask." Arnold stopped Devon in his tracks, "So, I think it''s enough of side and seek now, don''t you think so?" Inside the control room... Devon didn''t reply to Arnold anymore. Instead, he enacted his n. It wasn''t a n to kill Arnold. It was impossible for Devon to do so. Rather it was a n to cripple Arnold even if it meant dying in the process. He might''ve been ready to die, but he doubted his death would be a painless one. Arnold might even shred him into pieces just to satisfy his sadistic self. The creepy part about it? Devon knew he deserved it all. Devon shook his head. It wasn''t right to be getting lost in his thoughts. He had to think two steps ahead of his opponent now. If his n worked, he''ll die. Even if his n didn''t work, he''ll still die. No matter what, he would die at the end of the day. It would appear like he was hiding from Arnold, but in reality, he was simply buying time. Time for Gary to escape. Just then, hismunicator rang. Devon picked it up, briefly nced at the caller ID before crushing themunicator. The call was from Alex. In the instructions Devon left for him in the helicopter, he had instructed him to call him once the helicopter had pulled-out of the swamps. "It''s time..." He briefly shed a tear or two before waking out of the room, to court his death. **** A few minutester... Arnold on the other hand was getting agitated. He was on his toes, waiting for Devon to spring his next trap. But when nothing happened, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He summoned all of the undead he had along withva hounds to look for Devon. But as he did, he felt something approaching him from behind. Arnold instinctively ducked. Momentster, a missile whistled past his head. It wasn''t like the missile would''ve killed him, thanks to his gears, but still had he not dodge it in time, he wouldn''t be unscathed. After all, even the titanium walls couldn''t contain the following explosion within themselves. Rather than losing his calm to anger, Arnold remained quiet. He felt strange because he was relieved as his enemy had finally shown up. "My apologies for keeping you waiting." Devon''s voice boomed through his armour, "I had some final preparations to take care of. Either way, let''s get this over with, shall we, Mr Ling?" Chapter 279 - Courting Death (1) ''That mech suit... It''s different from the rest.'' Arnold thought as the dust settled down. Just moments ago, Arnold and Devon shed against each other for the first time. Their punch connected mid-air, and the next moment, both of them were blown away. Arnold managed to stop himself in a couple of steps, Devon however went flying to the opposite side of the corridor. Although Arnold didn''t put all of his strength in his punch, it was more than what Devon had anticipated.?? He went flying like a baseball and was caught by an excellent glove in the form of a titanium wall. Devon shrugged himself out of therge dent formed after the collision. A quick check on his mech suit revealed no significant issues... Other than the fact that his dominant right arm had been crippled. Pieces of his mech suit had already made their way through his skin and stuck to the bones. Thanks to the adrenaline in his bloodstream, he didn''t feel much pain. Still, blood was flowing through his wound like Niagara Falls. But Arnold wasn''t unscathed either. There was a rtively clean cut on his right forearm. He didn''t know how or when he got cut, but it was Devon''s doing. And sure enough, the next moment, Devon pulled out a shiny short sword from underneath his arm guard. "The hell was I expecting? Of course that as*hole would use any dirty trick he can to win," Arnold mumbled, he was beyond agitated because of his own mistake, "I''ll end you real soon, Devon! That''s for sure!" Arnold wasn''t going to take any chances anymore. He had always thought underestimating one''s opponent was the shortest route to the afterlife. And just now, he had done the same with his opponent. But not anymore. His bloodshot eyes were now filled with hatred. "Haha..." Out of nowhere, Devon burst outughing, "it''s really fun to piss you off, you know." As he had stated before, Devon had done his research well and knew exactly how to agitate Arnold. He also knew Arnold won''t think straight when he was angry. It was just the state Devon wanted Arnold to be in because as long as Arnold did see through his n, it wouldn''t matter if he died. Devon saw Arnold''s pissed-off look. Just looking at his face put Devon under stress. He realised he was ying with a double edge sword. Getting Arnold all riled up was fruitful but it was dangerous too. Just one wrong move and Arnold wouldn''t mind slicing his head off the shoulders. It was true Arnold was pissed, but he was still in control. His conscience was as clear as the Blueke1. He was agitated, but his aggression wasn''t needed now. Not on a despicable piece of trash like Devon. (Author''s Note: Blue Lake, which is situated in New Zend''s South Ind, is the clearestke in the world. It is fed by water from Lake Constance. The water is so clear that it almost looks like the boats are floating mid-air.) Arnold might''ve felt like he was in control, but his aura was all over the ce. Even Devon could sense it,rge beads of cold sweet kept rolling down his face. In Devon''s eyes, Arnold''s eyes had turned into the eyes of a beast, bloodshot with madness, and he did not resemble a human anymore. All human emotions had left him. He had be blood-thirsty and murderous! The aura was overwhelming, but Devon quickly took hold of his emotions. His grip on the sword got tighter and then the de started growing. All the while making loud buzzing noise as if it was made from Zeus''s lightning bolts. Then he braced himself to go up against Arnold. "Mr Ling, I hope you''ve not turned into a mindless beast!" Devon mumbled, before using the sword to slice his left arm off. Arnold was a little shocked. In his mind was a single thought, ''Who the fck just slices off their arm like that?'' Before Arnold could express his thoughts, Devon spoke up, "Don''t worry about that useless arm of mine. Thanks to you, it was just causing me trouble and would eventually get in the way of our fight. So I got rid of it, just like I''ll get rid of you!" "..." Arnold didn''t reply. He just stood there waiting for Devon to make his move first. Since he knew the de could harm him, he thought it would be better to dodge the sword and striketer. Within a fraction of a second, the sword grew from being a meter long to ten meters! It felt like the long sh could even cut through the sky like a rainbow of light. And now, the strike was directed at Arnold. The shing of his sword blew a massive st of energy on the corridors and Arnold could feel an invisible force raging towards him like a volcanic explosion. Devon was pretty confident, if the energy sword managed to hit Arnold, he wouldn''t be unscathed. The strike was too quick, and Arnold didn''t move. Devon was certain the strike would hit him right at his neck. A mere cloak won''t be able to protect him. But he also knew Arnold was a man full of surprises and it looked like he had pulled one such surprise now. The sh had met with the cloak, resulting in a tremendous explosion. The explosion sent shockwaves across the surrounding. The ground started to crumble, and even the tall titanium walls couldn''t hold the ce together and shook as countless metallic pieces rolled off its side. The ce had already been in a mess, but the explosion made it worse. As the dust settled once again, a visible rift was gouged around the spot where he was standing with cracks extending like a spider''s web. Despite the explosion, Arnold was still unharmed and started walking towards Devon. Devon was stunned. Although he had expected such a situation to arise, he couldn''t believe it. Moreover, Arnold did not even make an effort to defend himself from the blow and took it head-on, yet he seemed unaffected. It was unbelievable. "Don''t be surprised, As*hole." Arnold said, "Your weapons may be good, but they are no match against the gear I''m equipped with. After all, the hide from which the cloak is made of once belonged to the monster nicknamed the worst cmity to ever walk on earth." It didn''t take long for Devon to ce two and two together. Arnold was referring to Tiamut when he said the worst cmity to walk on earth. Knowing he had no other choice, Devon quickly activated hisst n, codename: Courting Death. Chapter 280 - Courting Death (2) Devon attacked Arnold a hundred times. A hundred times the former was sent flying back. Arnold was enjoying himself as if he was ying tennis with the titanium walls. Devon''s mech suit was thrashed beyond limits. It couldn''t even protect him anymore, still, he was persistently throwing punches and swinging des at Arnold. It had already been a minute since Devon activated his n. He just needed to stall for a few more minutes before all hell would break loose in the swamps. But with the condition of his mech, he doubted he''ll be able to hold out for that long.?? Thinking so, Devon threw another punch at Arnold. As much as Arnold was having fun, it was time to stop this one-sided beat down. So, he carefully nned his next strike to destroy the mech, while minimising the damage to Devon. Power slowly gathered to his right arm and then concentrated on his fist. With arge portion of his strength concentrated in his fist, he threw a punch at the charging mech. Devon only heard a loud noise, then he was thrown out of the mech. With a single punch, Arnold shattered the mech into a hundred pieces. The instruments and numerous buttons inside the mech finally came into view. Arnold only nced at it and he was already impressed. A lot of thought and work was put into the mech in front of him. It was a work of art. "This mighte in handyter on. I should keep it in my inventory for now and study when I get the time to." Arnold mumbled before throwing the destroyed mech in his inventory. Suddenly Arnold heard a noise. He turned around to see a bloodied Devon smile at him. He simply sat there, his back supported by the walls and started to smile, looking straight into Arnold''s eyes. A momentter the smile turned into a maniacalugh. The room suddenly felt cold, and a sudden smooth breeze caressed the exposed skin of the back of Arnold''s face, as an omen of death. Coupled with thatughter, Arnold didn''t know what made his skin crawl more. Arnold immediately knew something was amiss. He slowly approached Devon, but hisugh didn''t stop. Arnold squatted down to Devon''s level and stared him in the eye, before asking him what has he done. But Devon didn''t reply. He just keptughing like a fool. For a moment Arnold thought Devon had lost it. He smacked the back of his hand on Devon''s checks. Within a moment, Devon''s mouth was flooded with his own blood. But even then theugh didn''t stop. Seeing confusion written all over Arnold''s face, Devon stoppedughing and turn to face thetter. He knew that even if Arnold tried, he won''t be able to save his allies. Thus, Devon decided to tell Arnold about his n: courting death. A n to nuke the swamp in its entirety. Killing every single organism in it. Maybe the lizardmen would be able to survive thanks to their tough armour but everything else would be blown away. And the centre of the explosion was the base they were currently inside. After hearing Devon''s ultimate n, Arnold couldn''t help but chuckle. Arnold tried to hold it in, but couldn''t. As long as he had his cloak around him, he would be safe. Out of nowhere, the smile evaporated off his mouth as Devon''s true n dawned upon him. Devon had already guessed that Arnold would have measures in ce to survive a nuclear attack. Thus, he went for the syndicate instead. After all, they didn''t have a cloak to shield them, as he had. Without waiting for a second, Arnold grabbed Devon by the neck and told him to stop it. But Devonughed again, saying there''s no stopping the bombs now. Even if Arnold ripped his limbs off and torture him to death, everyone would still blow up. There was no fail-safe mechanism to save anyone. "I already made my peace with death long ago. But your friends on the other hand, tsk tsk tsk, they''ll die as coteral between our battle. Just five minutes and it''s over!" Devon cackled once again. Arnold had enough of Devon''s crap. Agitated, he mmed Devon''s head on the floor, right next to his feet. The strike rendered Devon unconscious. "Made peace with death, my foot!" Arnold snarled in anger, his eyes filled with rage, "Even death would be scared to take you by the time I''m done with you." He quickly opened a portal to his void and threw Devon inside. Before rushing towards the exit. He had to save the others before it was toote. At the exit, Scy was patiently waiting for him to return. But the moment she saw him racing towards her, she got in the position to fly away as if they had some kind of previous agreement. Arnold jumped on her back as she spread her boundless wings and kicked off the ground. It took him around 15 seconds to reach where everyone was shing against the lizardmen. He didn''t have any time to waste so he jumped off Scy''s back while ordering her to finish off the remaining lizardmen. The moment his feet touched the ground, he instructed everyone to stop and opened a gigantic travel portal behind them. Arnold''s summons were the first to back away and the next moment, Scy''s hellfire rained upon the lizardmen turning most of them into crispy lizardy bacon. Everyone was shocked and confused. Why were there two Arnold''s in front of them and where the hell did a dragon appeared from? The Arnold they had been following till now quickly made his way through the crowd and bowed before the second one. The rest of Arnold''s monsters did the same thing and the momentter, the first Arnold transformed to reveal his true identity. "Wait... Is that Talos!?" Nathan, Allen and Nina blurted out at the same time. All of the soldiers had a lot of questions but before they could ask a single thing, Arnold started grabbing and throwing people inside the portal. "Are you all deaf? I SAID, LEAVE NOW!" Arnold roared with all his might. The soldiers as confused as they were, immediately rushed towards the portal. They trusted Arnold, not a lot but enough to do as he said. Nina, Allen, Nicole and Nathan however decided to rush towards Arnold and asked him just what the hell was going on? "It''s Devon. That son of a psycho bitch, nted a nuclear bomb that''ll explode within four minutes or so. You guys should leave, I''ll be right behind you." Arnold gave them a short version of what happened with Devon and started pushing them towards the portal. They took the hint and rushed towards the portal. Only Nina stayed behind and nted a kiss on his lips. "I''m staying with you. Let''s leave together." Nina knew Arnold would do something reckless if he stayed behind alone thus, she tried to persuade him to leave with her. She expected him to turn her down but he didn''t. Instead, he simply smiled at her. "Fine by me. I was nning on leaving either way." Chapter 281 - Destiny (1) Some conflicts are worth dying for if you are protecting those you love from a determined foe. Yet most of the people are driven away by the thought of death, so retreat bes the only option. And that''s exactly what Arnold was making the soldiers do. While Arnold was exining the situation to his trustedpanions, someone overheard him. The news of a possible nuclear explosion spread like a wildfire. Everyone grew restless and even though the portal Arnold had generated was gigantic, there was a rush to escape.?? The swamp was thrown into an uproar. Some soldiers were carefully falling back into the travel portal while Arnold''s summons protected them from the onught of the lizardmen. While the rest had abandoned all sense of reason and were getting more and more restless by the moment. Grock and his lizards were a bit confused with the abrupt retreat of the enemy forces. But he knew one thing, a retreating enemy is weak and thus easy to kill. That''s why he had given the lizardmen an order to kill the invaders. Sadly, it was easier said than done. The moment the new guy appeared on the battlefield, Grock''s n to kill the humans was torn to shreds. Not only that, that dragon he had brought along with him, was mercilessly killing his bidders almost made him feel like they were its ythings. "That demon is the cause of all this." Grock gritted his shark-like teeth together, "I have to deal with him first. As soon as he''s out... The situation should return as it was before." But to kill Arnold, he would have to sneak past dozens of his soldiers first. Thankfully, he had an ability to help him through situations like these. He gave his trusted warriors a look and they understood what they had to do. While Grock erased any signs of his existence, his lizardmen diverted Scy''s attention towards them. His n came not to save their own lives, yet to preserve their standing in swamps as the ''kingsmen''. It distraction didn''tst for long because Scy burned them alive immediately. But it was enough for Grock to sneak past Scy and the rest of the elite summons. He had turned into a silent assassin with a single goal in his mind... To kill the man responsible for the destruction of his n. *** Everything was moving more or less the way Arnold had expected. But now it was time to save his summons too, namely only two of them, Talos and Scy. Since most of Arnold''s summons consisted of dead monsters and humans, no matter how many times they perished, they would resurrect sooner orter. However, the same wasn''t true for Scy or Talos. No matter how strong Talos was, at the end of the day he was just a huge chunk of metal. In a sense, he was strong but perishable. Arnold had doubts whether he''ll be able to survive a nuclear explosion or not thus he didn''t want to take any chances. After all, if Talos got trashed beyond repairs, it would be a huge loss for Arnold. Then there was Scy. The strongest and most fearsome among his soldiers. But in the end, she was a living being, unlike his summons. Thus the probability of her dying by radiation was quite high. Arnold knew he had to ensure their safety first before his own. Without wasting a moment, Arnold opened another portal leading to the domain. Next, he instructed both, Scy and Talos to get inside. Scy was a bit hesitant to do so as she was having so much fun but what could''ve she done against her master? Talos, on the other hand, immediately realise why Arnold was making such a request all of a sudden. As Talos was leaving, Arnold pulled him back for a moment, "T, there''s guest inside. Would you mind giving him a house tour? Also, let him have a taste of our hospitality but do not kill him." Arnold''s voice was extremely cold as he said those words, obviously referring to Devon whom he had thrown inside the domain. Talos told his master to rest assured and he''ll do whatever was needed of him before disappearing inside the darkness of the void. As soon as the portal closed, Arnold quickly turned around and threw a punch... Hitting no one? It looked as if he was practising some form of martial arts. But the following moment, his fist got covered with some blue coloured liquid which awfully resembled lizardmen blood. Nina who had been standing behind him was shocked. The air in front of her began distorting and the next thing she knew, a huge ck scaled lizardman was standing between her and Arnold. "What the hell..." She mumbled, immediately drawing her sword out. Ready to stab the lizard to death. But before she could do as she intended, Arnold''s voice came from the other side. "Don''t bother staining your de with his blood unnecessarily." Arnold said, his voice colder than before, "He''ll be dying shortly either way." *** Grock had beenpletely blindsided by Arnold''s sudden action. He thought the his camouge ability totally erased his presence from the mortal ne by transfer into his soul into the astral ne. One moment he was ready to strike Arnold down with his gigantic axe, but the next moment, his life was turned upside down. It should''ve been impossible for Arnold''s attack to hit him, yet, he remembered the moment vividly. The lizardman had never experienced such unbelievable power before and waspletely stunned by Arnold''s strength. Right before striking at Arnold, he felt a chill around his chests, and before he could even react, an excruciating pain emanated from his heart and shot through the nerves right into his brain. All of this happened in a sh. Grock looked down and froze in horror. His already huge eyes widened even more, and pupils contracted. Arnold''s hand had pierced into his armoured chest, with all five fingers plunged deep into the body. His heart was literally in Arnold''s hand now. It was over yet Grock''s mind was filled with questions... How could his armour and scales be pierced through by a mere hand? Just how!? Not even bullets could prate through his thick hide yet... It was absurd... The strength of the human was disgusting. No, he wasn''t a human at all... No human could''ve done it. He looked into Arnold''s eyes... They were filled with rage yet calm like a monk. With a mouth full of blood, he asked Arnold, "How..." Arnold, however, did not say a word before he ripped out the monsters throbbing heart. Blood spurted out from his chests, sttering everywhere. Grock wanted to scream in agony but it seemed his body had other ns. As a thick stream of blood poured from his mouth instead. Weirdly enough, he could still see his heart throbbing in Arnold''s hands. "Just die already!" Arnold yelled as he squeezed and crushed his hearts without any hesitation. Chapter 282 - Destiny (2) "What happened here?" Nina mumbled. Even though she was the one standing closest to Arnold, things happened rather quickly, she could barely register anything. Arnold had randomly punched the air and the next thing she knew... The ck lizardman, the foe not even the strongest of Arnold''s summons could destroy, was dead. And all it took was a punch.?? Nina loved this guy with all her heart. But at times like these, she couldn''t help but feel a little anxious. Just what kind of monster did she give her heart to? Arnold only got like this once in a while, but she was growing increasingly concerned about him. Somehow she felt he wasn''t the same weird and happy guy he once was. "I killed a sneaky bastard. That''s all." Arnold mumbled, kicking Grock''s corpse in the void before closing it, "Nearly everyone has evacuated. We should leave as wel-" Before Arnold couldplete what he was saying, a blinding burst of light erupted out of nowhere, followed by a deafening explosion. The confused mob looked at each other. To their horror... They could see right through each other. As if all of them were wearing some kind of x-ray goggles. Some could even see the blood flowing inside them, as well as their organs. Arnold and Nina were no exception. It seemed only Arnold knew what was happening. Devon had tricked him. Even when he was defeated... He tricked Arnold. It was true there was a countdown of five minutes before the nuclear bomb would go off. Arnold thought it would take five minutes from when Devon confessed about his doomsday n. When in reality, Devon had already activated it a couple of minutes prior to confessing to Arnold. ''That son of a bitch Devon!'' Arnold thought before quickly undoing his cloak and wrapping it tightly around Nina. He wouldn''t let the woman he loved get caught in his mess. Nina knew exactly what Arnold was doing, and started to resist. They both loved each other, and so were ready to die to protect each other. But Arnold was firm about it. He was stronger. He could survive things she couldn''t. Thus, rather than starting a debate, he quickly knocked her out before throwing her over his shoulder. "This is no ce for you to die..." He mumbled. He was quite confident in his survival, thanks to his passive ability, ''sacred protection''. The ability which would protect him from certain death once. But had a cooldown period of a week. As for dealing with the radiation... He hadn''t thought about that yet. Then he quickly closed the travel portal. He felt sorry for the ones standing in front of the travel portal, but he couldn''t risk millions of lives on the other side of the portal. They were doomed... Or so they thought. The next second, he opened another portal leading to his domain and let everyone fall in. His secret wasn''t as important as their lives. Moreover, he could alter their memories with Amanda''s help once everything was stable. So it was all good. Next, he made a run for the void himself. With an unconscious Nina slung over his shoulder. He instructed his summons to jump in as well, although they weren''t his priority at the moment. They could resurrect, he couldn''t. Asterios was closer to the portal than him, so with all his might, Arnold threw Nina towards him. Asterios, reluctantly jumped into the portal while holding Nina in his arms. Asterios, despite being a warmonger, was aware of his master''s love for the human female. Thus, he jumped in to save thedy first. As powerful as the void domain ability was, like every other skill, it too had a drawback. And in this case, the drawback was that Arnold could only open one portal leading to his void at one time. And the portal he had opened to save the people was quite a distance from where he was. He activated ''Rapid sh'', and closed the distance pretty much in an instant. However, even though the portal was within his reach, it hadn''t felt so far away before... He was a second toote. The st had hit him. Immediately after, bursts of hellish fire descended upon the swamps. The mes... The explosion... The heat... Tore the swamps down like it had a personal vendetta against it. Following it, a huge cloud of smoke and dust shrouded the sky. The sky had turned colourless and shapeless. The next moment, the smoke came crashing down on Arnold as his ears kept buzzing continuously. His HP plummeted down like never before. Notifications kept popping up in front but Arnold didn''t care. Arnold knew what wasing next. Even in his pained state, the safety of the rest took priority to him. Thus he closed the portal, which was way out of his reach now. He left his life at the mercy of destiny. If he was supposed to live on, he would. And if he wasn''t, he wouldn''t. It was for destiny to decide, not him. ''Maybe I should have saved myself first...'' Arnold smiled wanly, while his body kept spouting blood at an rming rate. Just as he had predicted... The neutron st hit him again. There was no way for him to prepare for the impact as he couldn''t see what wasing for him. His body was lifted high by the neutron st wave. For a moment he felt weightless, and then the wave propelled him back brutally. mming down so hard, he felt all of the bones in his body crack simultaneously. His mouth had turned into a broken faucet, spewing blood everywhere. Arnold couldn''t keep his eyes open anymore. Everything went blurry, as he was thrown into a dream-like state. **** Meanwhile in Shiva''s domain... "Things were supposed to be... Different." Shiva mumbled. A frown was clearly visible on his face. Lady Parvati was by his side, like a devoted wife. To her, Shiva had always been a happy man. Seeing him frown like that, immediately made her rush tofort the life of her life. "What''s wrong, my love?" She asked, gently caressing Shiva''s broad shoulders. "He was supposed to lose her... To lose everyone there." Suddenly, his frown was reced by genuine happiness, "But that stubborn mortal changed his destiny." Shiva didn''t mention it, but Arnold''spassion for Nina and the rest of the humans made quite an impression on him. It was a weird feeling, even for a Godly being like him, but Arnold somehow reminded him of his early days as a higher God. The times where he was carefree and madly in love. If Shiva had been a mortal like Arnold, as well as trapped in the same situation, he too would''ve saved the others first. Or at least tried to. "I refuse to believe he''s as stubborn as you are." Lady Parvatichuckled while Shiva simply shrugged his shoulders, "What would happen to him now?" "He changed the oue that I had in my mind. In other words... He changed destiny, no matter how small and insignificant that change might''ve been. Consider it the butterfly effect. No matter how small the change is, it could affect the future in innumerable ways." Shiva smiled once again, "From this moment on, whatever happens to him will happen as a consequence of his choices. No more shall he be bounded to his destiny." "But, if he does as he pleases, wouldn''t it affect your ns?" "I''ve grown quite fond of this mortal. He reminds me of myself in a weird manner. But that doesn''t mean he wouldn''t face hardships just because he changed destiny. Who knows, maybe his future would be more painful to him than the one I had in mind?" Chapter 283 - Sacrifice For some, hallucinations were the same as being tortured for real. When suddenly all of the emotions, all of the trauma, and none of the empathy that woulde rushing towards you with such a real-life ordeal it was to be expected. But for Arnold, hallucinations were just like any other dream or nightmare. Right now, he was in one such sequence, after a long time. He was walking around a dark and empty space. There was nothing in sight, just him and darkness. Still, the ce looked oddly familiar to him. It was like he was stranded in his domain, only Avalon and his summons were missing.?? "Anyone here!?" Arnold yelled at the top of his lungs. He knew he was hit by a nuke. He also knew his life was in danger, that''s why he needed to get back to the real world as fast as he could but sadly he couldn''t a way out. No matter what he tried, nothing seemed to work. He was still stuck in the void of darkness. "It''s weird," A voice echoed, "you weren''t in a hurry to save yourself mere moments ago, but now you want to rush to save yourself?" "It''s you, isn''t it?" Arnold let out a sarcastic smile, as he now knew who was behind it all. The one who gave him his abilities, the man whom he kept chasing in his dreams. The man with the Trident, Shiva. "Who else do you think would waste their time on you?" Shiva replied. His words were harsh yet had a weird kindness hidden in them, "I don''t think anyone else would. But I''m not here to discuss your worth but to give you a choice. A choice to live, or to die." "And... What''s the catch?" Arnold was aware nothing in the world was free of cost. Especially, before taking a chance like this, thus he wanted to gain as much information as he could before engaging in negotiations with a God who would likely screw him over. "Nothing. I can''t control your fate anymore. Shall you choose to live, your life would bepletely in your hands." Shiva''s voice echoed in the void, but he was nowhere to be seen, "However, having your fate in your own hands might not be an ideal choice. Only a few mortals are granted such freedom. And out of them, only a handful of them go ahead to achieve great things. The rest get drowned in an ocean of choices and end up living a cursed life." Shiva continued, "Despite what you mortals think, having your fate in your hands more or less leads to a path of destruction. So beware of the choice you make, my vassal. Carefully think it over before making any decision." "No matter what the future has in store for me," Arnold smiled, "I still have some business to take care of and dying is not an option. Thanks for the head''s up, but I think I''ll choose to live. No matter the cost." "I should''ve known. Either way, your wish shall be granted." Shiva happily granted Arnold''s wish, "But remember, the future ahead of you might not be to your liking and you will have no choice but to live through it. I wish you achieve the greatness you desire, or maybe you won''t..." As soon as Shiva uttered those words, Arnold''s vision began distorting. After moments that felt like an eternity, he slowly forced his drowsy eyes open. He was greeted by a gruesome sight. The greeny swamp had been turned into a grey marsnd. The entire ce was either burning or had been obliterated. Arnold could barely move his head, for it felt like his head would fall off the shoulders if he forced himself too much. He was covered in a mixture of his blood and radioactive ash and rain. The sky had turned ck with a weird greenish thunderstorm raging over his head. ck droplets of God knows what were raining over him. Each drop burned like a bullet on his skin, but slowly the pain faded away. Or to be precise... Arnold couldn''t feel the pain anymore. The pain he felt earlier was so severe, his pain receptors had already stopped responding. ''I don''t feel pain anymore... At least something good came out of this shit...'' Arnold thought. He wanted to smile but his broken jaw didn''t allow it. As Arnold thought, ''Sacred protection'' saved his life from the initial explosion. But his unconscious body remained vulnerable to the after-effects of the nuclear explosion. ''Essence of life'' ability was trying the best to heal Arnold''s wounds but its effect was slow and the damage done was severe. The system went berserk trying its best to save its host. But Arnold wasn''t much hopeful. After all, even the all-powerful system had to have its limits. He may as well be doomed. Maybe he got too cocky about his strength. Having a nuke burst over his head was quite a wake-up call. He was a littlete but that was fine. Arnold didn''t notice but slowly his left hand started turning ck, while the rest of his body began healing. Until now, Arnold was more or less able to feel his limbs. But now, all of a sudden he lost all feeling in his left arm but regained some control over his remaining body. Slowly but surely his body began recovering. His pale skin turned lively again. His wounds started recovering faster. Soon enough, Arnold regained control over his body. He couldn''t feel pain anymore but he knew he was hurt. After all, his body was still covered in innumerable wounds. Happy, that the system once again saved his life, he tried getting up. Only to notice his left hand had turned into the darkest shade of ck he had ever noticed. Also... He couldn''t feel the arm anymore. He tried moving it but nothing happened. Before he could grasp what was happening, system-sama notified him about his condition... "Sever... My arm?" Arnold mumbled involuntarily as his jaw was fixed. Arnold knew the system was serious. The arm was indeed useless to him now. He had no choice. Arnold took a deep breath, steeling his resolve. He had sliced the limbs of countless people, yet now he wasn''t so sure in his skill. He quietly took his glove off his left arm and began carefully heating the hidden de on it using hellfire. He had to make sure the cut was quick and clean. Otherwise, the radiation would find another way into his body. He curled up his left hand. Taking quick breaths. The next moment, He reached out with his right hand and picked up the glove, raising it high. He took onest breath, the de hummed through the air as it swung down sharply. It sliced through perfectly, cutting the hand clean, right from the shoulder. Arnold thought he would feel some kind of pain. But he didn''t. No blood came gushing out of the wound as Arnold quickly sealed the wound shut by smearing a bit ofva over it before quickly freezing it. He gave onest look to his severed arm. ck and ashen... The arm which had taken countless lives of both humans and monstersid there as dead as the rest of the swamp. Arnold''s job was done there. It was time to return to his void and do something about his missing hand. He wouldn''t be much of a creationist if he didn''t have both of his hands. Chapter 284 - What Now? Nina woke up in cold sweat. Her head was continuously aching in pain. She looked around the well-furnished room, hearing the soft sounds of people trotting outside. She didn''t know where she was but gazing around the room made her realise something. From the bedsheet to the paint on the walls, everything was up to Arnold''s liking. She tried to get up but her head felt heavy. Very heavy, like a bomb had exploded over her head. It was only then she broke free from her mental trance and remembered what happened and threw the nket off of her. Arnold''s cloak was still wrapped around her... It was all real...?? "Where... Where''s he!?" Nina eximed, rushing towards the door. She needed to find someone to answer her questions. Fortunately, Talos was making rounds around the Avalon to make sure everyone wasfortable. Especially, his master''s precious guest, Devon, who had been shacked up inside the prison cells down in the basement. Everyone apart from Nina was being kept under strict surveince as he didn''t know what Arnold had nned on doing with them. In the meantime, Alice and Natasha were helping anyone they could. Just as Nina stepped out, her head banged against Talos'' metallic chest te. She fell hard on her butt. Talos quickly helped her up. "Madam, you shouldn''t be running around in your condition." Talos reminded her, "If you need anything, you should''ve simply called one of us-" "Talos, where is he?" Nina cut the automaton off mid-sentence. Talos immediately knew who Nina was talking about. Sadly, he was as clueless as thedy. He had no idea where his master was or if he was even safe. But he also knew telling Nina about it wouldn''t yield any positive result, so he decided toe up with a lie instead. "Master is back safe and sound. He''s handling some matters right now. I''ll inform him that you want to see him." Then he proceeded to fake a call between one of the other automaton, to make his lie a little bit believable. "And it''s done. He''ll be here shortly. In the meantime please rest as much as you can, it''ll be good for your health an-" "You''re a terrible liar, has anyone told you that before?" Nina scowled, "I guess you''re not the one to me. That idiot is no good at lying either. Just tell me where he is for God''s sake!" "..." "Fine. I''ll look for him myself then!" Nina pushed him aside and walked out of the corridor. Talos was right behind her. As Nina starting walking around theplex, she realised something... Every single of Arnold''s summons was living under the same roof. The more she looked around, the more confused she became. Just what was this ce? Why did Arnold throw everyone in here? Where was he? Was he safe? With too many questions simultaneously coursing through her mind, her head started pounding even more. She rushed out of what seemed to be the entrance hoping to get some rity on the situation. Instead, she got even more perplexed. She initially thought she was inside Arnold''s base in zone 4... But she wasn''t there. She was... Nowhere. The building was the only thing inside the ck space... Nothing else. Scy, Dread, and Asterios were the only ones outside. "Where are we...?" Nina turned around to face Talos who was patiently waiting behind her. "This is our master''s domain. His private space. A ce where he and the ones who serve him live harmoniously together. No one can ess this ce except for master." Talos tried to exin her to the best of his ability. "But why are we here then? Did Arnold send us here to protect us from the explosion?" Nina shot the next question. "Mm-hmm." Talos nodded, "I can only assume that master didn''t want to leave anyone behind. Thus, he did what he thought was the ideal solution. He saved everyone important to him. Moreover, I think he''ll like to keep this ce a secret, so-" "But where is he? He isn''t here is he?" Talos remained silent, before shaking his head. He didn''t know where Arnold was, neither was he going to lie about it anymore. He might''ve been a metallic shell from the outside but on the inside, he understood Arnold better than any of his summons. Thus, he knew there was no point in lying to her anymore. Either way, sooner orter, she would have discovered it on her own. Which would lead to moreplications. But he didn''t expect her to have a breakdown right then and there. The realisation soon dawned upon her. He was out there alone... In the middle of a nuclear attack... He was there... Alone... No one was there to help him out. Did it have to be him? Why didn''t he just let the rest of them die? Why did he have to be a hero every fcking time!? Why couldn''t he save himself first for fcks sake!? Why... JUST WHY!? "''WHAT WERE YOU DOING?" She burst into tears, "WHY ARE YOU SO USELESS!?" Nina had lost it. She was crying and pping herself continuously. Talos rushed to console her. He might not have known where his master was but he knew he was alive. If he wasn''t, then most probably, the domain would''ve copse altogether. But before he could reach thedy, a hand reached her first. A portal had opened right behind her and a momentter someone walked out of it. Nina immediately turned around. Her face had turned red from crying and pping herself. Her eyes too had turned red but her eyes weren''t filled with pain or grief anymore. She had found the one she had been waiting for. "You know... Crying doesn''t suit you, at all." Arnold''s weak voice echoed through her ears. The voice might''ve been weak, but the underlying love reached his lover''s heart. She jumped up and hugged him tightly and refused to let go, her face was buried deep in his chest. In no time Arnold''s shirt or whatever remained of it got soaked with her tears and snot. Arnold gave her a weak smile before kissing her forehead. He didn''t know why, but seeing her crying made his heart twist with pain. After what felt like eternity, she finally let him go. The next moment she gasped in horror... "Your... Arm..." Nina mumbled and covered her mouth. "It was getting in the way so I got rid of it. Looks cool doesn''t it?" Arnold tried tough it off but no one found it funny. Not even Talos, "T, tell Alive and Nat I might need their help with... You know what." Chapter 285 - Enough To Kill You (1) Natasha only excelled in spiritual healing. Meaning she couldn''t perform surgeries or even use band-aids, let alone helping during a surgery. Although she had spells that could take care of mortal wounds, neither she nor Alice could regenerate an arm. It wasn''t that they weren''t capable of doing so, but such a regenerative spell didn''t exist in the world. At least with the people who haven''t received the powers of a system. While Arnold contemted his next move, Alice had her undivided attention on Arnold. However, the best Alice could do was to properly clean the wound and help Arnold ease the pain. While Alice was tending to Arnold''s wound, Nina waited by his side. Alice had to cauterise the wound once again to prevent any chance of infection. Arnold''s makeshift solution wouldn''t have held the infection out forever either way. But there was an issue.?? "Okay... There''s a problem." Alice told the couple after analysing the wound. "What is it?" Arnold asked while casually sipping his beer like he was there for nothing more than a regr check-up. "Your makeshift elemental ''band aid'' has been kinda welded onto the wound." "So?" "So... If I try to rip it off... It''ll be extremely painful. Pulling it off might also tear some muscle fibres. And lead to tremendous blood loss. But I can take care of the blood loss so that''s not the issue. The issue is the pain. I''ll use a sedative inducing spell to-" Alice tried her best to exin the situation to Arnold. Who in return simply chuckled as he couldn''t feel any kind of pain anymore. But neither Alice nor Nina knew about it. "Why are you so dense!?" Nina just couldn''t hold it anymore, "YOUR ARM IS MISSING, for God''s sake! Do you have any idea how any of us feel right now? Especially me? DO YOU? How can you be so carefree right now? Just what is wrong with you!?" "Why I''m carefree? It''s because I know, sooner orter I''ll figure something out. Like always." He replied after putting the beer bottle down, "You of all people should know, I wouldn''t do something so harsh like chopping my arm off without thinking it through." Arnold ced his right hand on her chin while stroking her cheek with his thumb, "I know I made you worried. Every one of you. I made a choice, and now I have to live with the consequences. But I don''t regret it. I don''t regret anything. If given the choice I might do it again." He was telling the truth. While Alice was analysing the wound, he had already searched the system shop for a suitable solution, but there was none. Not a single ability or subss there could regenerate a severed arm. The only thing he could do was to buy a shit ton ofrge healing potions to get his HP back to the maximum. Magic might not have a solution for him. But where magic fails, technology clears the way. He had already made his mind. As he was quite an expert in making automatons, so he was more than confident in his skills to make a prosthetic arm for both daily uses as well asbat. However, it would be difficult to make one with just one arm. But Arnold already had a solution in mind. Talos was quite good at creation just like him and so was Devon. With Devon''s brain and Talos'' skills, they could easily make the prosthetic for him and then with the help of the prosthetic arm, he could also make a better one for a variety of purposes. But before that, he had a few matters to take care of. Like dealing with Devon. He might not have had a system to aid him but he was the first one to truly enrage Arnold and even indirectly sever his arm. Killing him now would be a mercy and Arnold wasn''t a merciful guy. "I... Get it. But why does it have to be you? When the dragon attacked, you were the one to defend us. And even now, you were the one to save us all. Both of the times you nearly died! For how long will your luck will save you?" Nina tried her best to keep her emotions in check, but at times like these, it was impossible. Especially when her boyfriend kept endangering his life every fcking week. "You do know I''m retired now, right?" Arnold replied. The fact hadn''t crossed her mind yet. Arnold did inform them about it. The mission to retake the swamps would be hisst mission. She always thought Arnold was saying it just to get the media off his back. But hearing those words now made her realise that Arnold had been serious the entire time. "You''re serious?" "Hundred per cent." Arnold smiled, "However, I''ll still train a bit. But I''ll only fight to protect the family and you. Moreover, Nicole is more than capable of taking care of everything else so there''s no need for a disabled man like me to keep pushing. Don''t you think so?" "You''re such a jerk." Nina finally broke a smile for the first time that day, "You''ll throw your sister and my best friend to clear up the world''s mess while you enjoy retirement? Are you even her biological brother?" "I''m a jerk you love. And don''t worry, everything will be fine, eventually." "Ahem, now if you live birds are done, shall I proceed with the treatment?" Alice reprimanded them yfully, "You ready? I won''t lie, this will hurt a lot." "I doubt that." Arnold gave her a wink. "What do you mean?" Alice''s finally curiosity got the best of her. She knew Arnold was a man with a lot of talents, so even if she was curious, she wasn''t surprised. Not even a bit. "Let''s just say the st did something to my body and now I don''t feel any pain. Not anymore. How do you think I managed to cut my arm off? I didn''t feel any pain so... Yeah. That''s something new." "There are people who end up passing away from the shock of thinking they got hit by a truck. Then there''s you, not only you survived a nuclear st, you gained a little something from it as well!" Alice lightened up everyone''s mood, "So... You should be okay if I-" (Author''s note: Just your run of the mill, hidden reference to make y''all flex your brain cells.) "Just get it over with, I have a guest to visit." "Sure." Chapter 286 - Enough To Kill You (2) "And... Done." Alice mumbled, "I did what I could. The wound has been cleaned and sealed." "Thanks for the help," Arnold replied while Alice began gathering the bandages soaked in his blood.?? He thought the loss of an arm wouldn''t bother him too much but he was wrong. He felt like shit. The only good thing about the entire ordeal was... Well, he''ll get a new and better arm... Maybe? He wasn''t too hopeful. After all, how could a mechanized arm rece one made by nature? His main concern at the moment was regarding his abilities. You see, even if he gets a prosthetic arm, Arnold wouldn''t be able to cast any of his abilities using that arm. Which was his biggest concern among everything. However, it wasn''t all gloom and doom for him. He was a creationist. So having a mechanical arm was a blessing as well. Maybe, if his luck favours him, he''ll be able to use blood runes on himself making him stronger. As usual, his imagination was the only limit he had. "Alice, if you don''t mind, please keep the bandages in the vault. I might need themter." Arnold stopped her from discarding the bandages. Both Alice and Nina gave him a weird look but obeyed him. Alice knew Arnold wouldn''t unnecessarily ask her to do something, thus she obliged his request. ''Since I already have the blood avable, why waste any more blood for blood runes?'' He thought, ''The HP potions have already topped my health to the top too. It''s the ideal time to quickly make some blood runes, but first I should pay a little visit to my guest. It''ll be... Impolite to not do so, right?'' Thinking so, Arnold quickly got up andzily pulled a shirt over himself, before walking out. Nina didn''t know what else to do so she apanied him. Outside, Talos was patiently waiting for his master. "Talos, where is he?" Arnold asked. "In cell number B2, master." "Ok. Get Natasha and follow me there." "As your wish," Talos replied and left to fetch Natasha immediately. "What do you need her for?" Nina was a bit confused, "And who are you talking about?" "Devon. I knocked him out and threw him in... Just like you." Arnold mumbled, "And as for calling Natasha over... You know what she''s capable of better than the rest of the family." Nina recalled the infamous incident once again. How couldn''t she remember that? Back when the white wolves attacked the family, Arnold put Natasha in charge of interrogating the captives. Nina had volunteered for the same and she regretted making that choice ever since. The screams she heard that day send a chill down her spine every time she sees her. "So you''re going to interrogate him?" Nina asked. "Um... Something along those lines." Arnold wasn''t even sure if what he was nning would be sessful or not. But he had to give it a try at the very least. Killing Devon was out of the question. No matter how much Arnold wanted to kill him, the immense knowledge he had about monsters and various technologies forced Arnold to calm his mind. Killing Devon would be the worst mistake to make, for now. So why not use him as a ve? Use him for his knowledge. Once he had nothing left well... Then Arnold would hand him over to the syndicate. Until then, Devon was presumed to be dead in the nuclear explosion. It was possible as Arnold only told them about Devon''s n, not of what he was nning on doing with him. Talos was back in a sh along with Natasha, who was unting her voluptuous body as usual. Wearing next to nothing. However, unlike earlier, she was extremely respectful towards Arnold and even Nina. She did so because she knew, her master''s heart belonged to thedy in front of them. Which indirectly meant, she was supposed to serve Nina as well. You could say it was a part of her professionalmitment. It was a bit weird, but what wasn''t weird in their world? Arnold acknowledged her bow with a short nod before turning to Talos, "By the way, where''s that snake queen? What was her name again?" "Alleiah." "Right, where is she?" "I don''t think she made it through the explosion, master," Talos replied. Back when Arnold had opened the portal leading to his domain, not all of the monsters under hismand made it through. And Alleiah was one of the few who didn''t. She got obliterated when the first neutron st hit her. "Did you have any use of her?" Talos asked Arnold, curious as to why his master was inquiring about a useless monster. "Nothing. I was about to tell you to kill her, had she made it through the explosion." Arnold replied without any hesitation, "The only use I had of her and her weak nagas was to act as cannon fodder during the battle. Now that her loyal nagas were gone, she wasn''t of any use to me either. So it was better to get rid of her. Well, now I think I need to thank Devon for reducing your workload." Arnold continued, "Also, I wanted to ask you about the progress with the ogres. It''s been a while since you''ve been feeding them beast crystals, am I correct?" Talos nodded before responding, "The experiments, so far, have been sessful. However, I''m trying not to force them or something as we know what happens when a being gets overdosed on crystal cocktail." "Right, right. If everything goes well then Devon can also help you with that. But before that, you gotta make an arm for me. I can''t live the rest of my life like Shanks." At that moment, the four of them arrived at the location. The prison cell was barely six feet by four. The walls were the same thick grey stone as the rest of the basement. All in all, it was a hollow cube of concrete, one way in, no window. Thanks to the darkness of the void, In there one could have no idea how much time had passed or even if it was night or day. The istion was absolute and the stimtion was zero. No sound to hear, no light to see. Nothing. The only piece of furniture the cell had was a chair on which Devon had been chained. There were numerous wounds on his body. Wounds which Arnold didn''t give him. But he knew the one who did. He looked at Natasha who immediately apologized to him. Saying she became enraged after she saw Arnold missing an arm. Although Arnold understood the sentiment behind her actions, he reminded her, that she was not allowed to do as she pleased with anyone. Until he told her otherwise. She was about to apologize again but Arnold stopped her. "Don''t sweat it. He more or less deserved it. But next time ask me before doing anything like this." Arnold sighed, "Alright let''s do this." Chapter 287 - Enough To Kill You (3) "Lose the cuffs." "But master-"?? "Talos, he has no intention of running. And even if he did, do you think he''d make it out of my domain?" Arnold dismissed Talos'' unwarranted concerns, "C''mon T, your processor is getting slow or what?" "You''re the one who made the processor, master." Talos replied in his emotionless voice before entering the cell to do what he was told. Both Nina and Natasha couldn''t hold back theirugh. Talos rarely used backhanded sarcasm, but now it looked like he had been learning quite a few things from his master. A momentter, Talos freed Devon from his shackles. Devon rubbed his wrists to ease the blood flow in his arms but otherwise remained quiet. Initially, he didn''t seem interested in Arnold, not even a bit. But when he nced at him once, he burst into cold and hystericalughter. All the while he was pointing at Arnold''s missing arm. Before activating the nuclear strike, Devon hadmented on taking a couple of Arnold''s limbs with him to hell. Even though he failed to die like he was supposed to, he ended up taking an arm from his enemy. An enemy who was either respected or feared by the general populous of America. Not even the dragon was able to cause any permanent damage to Arnold, yet he did it. He, a man without any powers, did it... Seeing Devonugh at his master made Natasha angry. But she wasn''t the only one, Talos too was thinking about putting the useless human in his ce. Both of them simultaneously took a step in Devon''s direction but Arnold stopped them. "Let the man have his moment." He told them. But Devon didn''t stop. Heughed andughed like there was no tomorrow. Even Nina thought hisugh was getting unbearable but Arnold on the other hand kept smiling. "Haha... How does it feel to lose an arm, oh great warrior?" Devon said between his hystericalughter, "From America''s strongest to having an amputated arm, what a journey! Do you even have enough strength to kill someone? Haha..." "96... 97..." Arnold mumbled something. He had started this practice to keep his temper in check. He would generally count till 100, if his enemy stopped during his period, all was forgiven. But if they didn''t... Well, then that''s another story altogether. "Did you said anything?" Nina asked him. But Arnold didn''t reply to Devon or her. "98... 99... 100!" Without a warning, Arnoldunched himself towards Devon. Kneeing his chest. Theughing genius was sent flying back with a loud thud. He was no warrior. Just a kick with one-tenth of Arnold''s strength was enough to send him flying across the cell. Afternding heavily on the floor, not only did Devon throw up whatever was in his stomach but also quite some quantity of blood along with it. Everyone was shocked. Arnold''s mood swings were way too unpredictable and extreme. One moment he had been smiling like a doting parent, the next moment he was the devil incarnate. No one noticed, Devon wasn''tughing anymore. He was on the floor, squirming like a worm. Arnold kicked him over before cing his foot on Devon''s palm, crushing it without a moment''s hesitation. The bones in Devon''s palm got bent out of shape. Some even managed to prate through his skin. Arnold proceeded and did the same to his other hands. Devon''sugh was now reced with his desperate cries. Talos and Natasha who had already witnessed Arnold''s cold demeanour before were unphased. However, Nina couldn''t help but wonder, when did Arnold be so cold-hearted. At times she felt she didn''t know him. There were times she stared at him with fear, and in her eyes, he was no different from a demon. Then there were times when he was the same weird and loving partner she had loved for quite some time. Seeing his summons do the dirty work for him was a different matter, but seeing him torturing someone and enjoying it was different. She couldn''t take it anymore and left the basement. She couldn''t see this side of Arnold anymore. "Master-" "Leave her be." Arnold cut Talos off, "Nat, heal him up." "As you wish, master." She bowed and proceeded to heal Devon''s crushed arm. Arnold then forced Devon up to his feet and looked him in the eyes. Just his look was enough to break Devon in sweat. "I know what you were trying to do back then." Arnold smiled, "Believe me Devon, no matter how hard you try to piss me off, I won''t kill you. Your trick might''ve worked on my summons, my soldiers, but I can see right through your petty tricks." Arnold grabbed Devon by his neck and lifted him off the ground, slowly tightening his grip around his neck, "As for answering your question, I''m still enough to kill you, don''t you think so?" Arnold didn''t even intend to kill the man, but as he tightened his grip around his neck, he started to ckout. Arnold immediately let go of him and Devon started coughing and wheezing. "Why are you so weak?" Arnold sniggered, "Let cut to the chase, shall we? I want you to work for me. Starting today." "What if I don''t? You''ll kill me?" Devon smiled at him before spitting out some phlegm. ''What is he even thinking, asking for his enemy to work for him? Is he really out of his mind?" "No, no. I''ll never kill you. You''re way too precious for me." Arnold smiled, "However, I can''t say the same for him." Arnold nodded and Talos projected a video from his eyes for them to see. Arnold didn''t turn around to see the video, he was just noticing the change in Devon''s expression. How it changed from shock to anger to sadness to defeat. It was a video showing Alex, Gary and his caretaker being taken prisoners by Arnold''s summons. There was no doubt. Arnold was using Gary as a bargaining chip to ensure Devon''s services. "You seriously thought none of us would notice a helicopter flying over our heads? Well, it doesn''t matter what you thought." Arnold let out a sadistic smile, "Now let me ask you again, will you work for me or not?" "... I will," Devon mumbled like an obedient dog. If his son was in danger he had no choice but to do as Arnold wanted him to. "Good boy. I''ll see you again real soon, Mr Devon. Talos chain him up." After saying that, Arnold turned around and left. Chapter 288 - New Arm, New Knowledge (1) The room was dark, very dark. Arnold made sure his eyes were open, they were. Yet he couldn''t see his only remaining hand, even though it was literally an inch from his face. No, he wasn''t locked up in a cell. He satfortably on his bedroom floor. "This is annoying." He mumbled, "So very much annoying."?? Blood trickled out of his mouth. His knuckles might''ve had turned red from all the punches he threw at himself. He couldn''t confirm his injuries because he had switched off the lights. But he knew he was hurt. Yet he couldn''t feel a thing. No pain, no wetness from the sweat on his forehead or the blood from his mouth... Nothing. It was as if he was living in an empty world... A world of nothingness. "I could literally bleed out in battle or get attacked in my sleep and I wouldn''t know a thing." He finally got up to switch the lights on, "Oh I''m injured alright. Can''t feel shit though." Arnold thought as being in dark tends to improve a human''s other senses, he could just try and see if he really could feel anything. Sadly, he couldn''t. No matter what he did to himself, he couldn''t feel anything. He broke a finger, ruthlessly punched himself but couldn''t feel a thing. And it frustrated him like never before. What he thought to be a blessing, turned out to be a curse (as usual). And he only realised it after nearly choking Devon to death. Back when he lifted Devon by his neck, he couldn''t get a feeling like he was grabbing something. So he tightened his grip more and more. Almost to the point where Devon''s eyeballs were ready to pop out of their sockets. It scared him. He thought he had lost the sense of pain when in reality he had lost the sense of touch. It was troublesome and annoying, to say the least. "I have to do something about it... Damn it. Can''t a single thing go in my favour for once?" He went ahead to wash his face, the water must have been cold, but he for one, didn''t know if it was. That was the final straw. He had made up his mind. The system store must have something to cure him. He quickly opened the shop and went through it all. From potions and essories to knowledge. But he couldn''t find a thing, until, system-sama came to the rescue. ''Yeah. Actually anything!'' ''... Okay, I totally deserved that. But don''t you have anything to give my sensory abilities back to me?'' ''I looked through the shop but couldn''t find anything useful.'' ''There is a search function!?'' ''... Quite a few.'' ''...'' ''...'' <...> ''Okay, drama king, enough chit chat. You gonna tell me where I can find this search feature?'' ''Thank you for your help.'' ''Just get lost already, you fckingzy roasting bastardized son-'' ___ These are the results of your search for: ''Sensory'' 1. Pill of sensory immunity (Avable under Shop > essories > Premade pills) Cost: 15 Rank B beast crystals. Type: Consumable (Can be used once every 10 minutes) Effect: upon consumption, protects the user from sensory attacks for 1 minute. 2. Scroll of sensory boost (Avable under Shop > Spells > Scrolls) Cost: 5 Rank E beast crystals. Type: Usable (Vanish after a single use. Can be bought an infinite number of times and used one after another) Effect: upon usage, increases your sense of touch, smell and hearing for 5 minutes per scroll. These items might also be up to your liking: 1. Second Skin (Avable under Shop > Skill > Sensory enhancement) Cost: 1 rank S ck beast crystal Type: one-off skill (Can be bought to learn a new ability. After purchase, the skill gets removed from the shop.) Effect: After sessfully learning the skill, ''Second Skin'', allows the user to envelop their body in a thinyer of mana and links their minds directly with the mana shield. This allows the user to heighten their sensory touch while also improving overall mana control. *Warning: This skill doesn''t provide the user with a second set of skin. But allows the user to imitate one by mana maniption.* ___ "Second skin... That''s exactly what I''m looking for!" Arnold''s excitement had no bounds, "But damn, it is expensive. ck beast crystal... Even among the S ranked monster those crystals are rare. Not every S ranked monster drops them. Thankfully, I do have a few ck beast crystals lying around." ___ You''ve selected [Second Skin] ability. Do you want to learn [Second Skin]? ?Yes or ?No ___ ''Yes.'' ___ Request Acknowledged. Learning... Learning... Learning... You''ve sessfully acquired the ability [Second Skin]. You''ve unlocked new ability(s): ? [Second Skin] : (Passive ability) Envelopes the user in a thinyer made of mana. Thisyer acts both as a shield as well as a secondary sensory organ (skin) time the user and enhances the sense of touch. Also provides a ''Danger sense'' to the user to further enhance their battle capabilities. [ Rank : A ] [Mana cost : 10000 once in a lifetime] ___ Chapter 289 - New Arm, New Knowledge (2) A long time ago... A time when the universe was still in chaos. A time when the universe was still in its childhood. A world loved by the gods was created. A world that would never require saving. A world made to value peace and prosperity. That was until man arrived to im the for his selfish needs. Yet, the world amodated her golden child, sacrificing countless others to save them. But there''s a limit for everything. One day the mother earth couldn''t take it anymore and all hell broke loose.?? God''s had to save the... By destroying it, partially. For after destructiones creation. Without the former, thetter can not exist, and vice versa. But who would do so? No God was ready to destroy their most prized possession. Like always, whenever the gods got into trouble, they rushed towards Mount Kash, Shiva''s domain. They needed a destroyer and a destroyer they got. As per their request, the one who was under oath to be a protector had turned into the executioner. Using the powers of his mysterious third eye, Shiva eradicated the ones he saw as ''Evil''. Leaving only a few righteous ones to thrive on the. He did all this without harming the as a whole... A feat no other God had the confidence to achieve. Such a disy of strength shook all the God''s to their core. Some became devoted to Shiva while the rest grew to despise him. The Greek pantheon was among thetter ones. For before Shiva''s ascendancy to the Supreme Being, they ruled over the realms as they pleased. But they needed allies to take on Shiva and his army of undead. They wanted to attack the God who came into existence even before the universe. The true primordial, Shiva. But no one supported them. They tried to influence everyone to fight against Shiva. But even the lesser gods refuted their absurd ims that Shiva wanted to be a dictator among the gods. Zeus desperately needed allies and the only ones strong enough to rise to the task were the Asgardians. Zeus was certain. With the help of Asgardians, they could get rid of Shiva for good. But Odin refused to cause Shiva any harm. Odin had nothing but respect for Shiva as they had fought alongside each other while fighting against the Titans and the rulers of the dark. They had a brotherly bond, a bond no promise of power or treasure could break. So, Zeus hatched a n. A n to give Asgard a new ruler. With the help of Loki, Olympusunched a surprise attack on an unprepared enemy. Thor faced off against Zeus, but thetter had strength and wisdom which Thor could only dream of obtaining. Soon Asgard was defeated and Loki was crowned the new king. Zeus wanted Loki to kill Thor but Thor escaped before they could do anything. This entire ordeal blindsided everyone. Now with Olympus and Asgard allied together, their strength had increased tenfolds. They had be beings with supreme strength. But there was one thing even they couldn''t challenge, Karma. Thor fled into Shiva''s protection and told him everything. From Zeus'' offer to Loki''s betrayal as well as the death of Odin and their n to attack Kash. On that day, the universe quivered under Shiva''s rage. Before the united force of Olympus and Asgard could make their move on Kash, Shiva brought the fight to them. Just like they had ambushed Asgard, he ambushed Olympus. In the following years, the ckness of the universe was no more. It had turned red... Red from all Shiva''s bloodlust. Shiva destroyed Olympus but left Asgard fairly intact on Thor''s request. But nothing could save Loki. Shiva killed him But higher gods are no ordinary beings. Unlike the lesser gods, the higher gods are beings purely made of energy. And as you know energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It takes time... Millions of years In fact, but the fallen Gods rise once again. Memories of their triumph and demise still engraved within their souls. Olympus and Loki were alive once again. But this time, they weren''t as high and mighty as thest time... This time not only the memories of their triumph and demise were engraved within themselves, but there was also fear as well. Fear of dying. Fear of Shiva''s rage. They now know, in front of Shiva''s unrivalled strength, their powers were nothing but cheap tricks. They were Gods... But only in name. In reality, they were punks who now know their limits. Still, the bitterness they carried wasn''t going to leave their souls so easily. To this day, they seek revenge against Shiva... Or someone rted to him. But, Zeus had already sown a seed of doubt within the minds of the rest. If Shiva could destroy Olympus and Asgard without blinking an eye, then he could do whatever he wanted to do with the rest of them as well. A simr train of thought was going through the head of every warrior in the USA after seeing Arnold return alive. It had been three days since Nathan and the others returned from the swamps and were in the middle of preparing for a funeral for those who died during the battle. There was a coffin for both Nina and Arnold... But right before the ceremony, all of the ''presumed'' dead people were back. Arnold exined the situation to them. How he survived the nuclear attack and saved everyone else. Thanks to him, not a single soul perished because of Devon''s final attack the only casualty of the nuke was his arm... Those who believed Arnold was nothing, were now silenced. Not only the Americans but the entire world now had their eyes set up on the warrior who was now nicknamed as, ''Deathless''. Everyone was talking about him. ''#Deathless'' and ''#Strongest_warrior_ever?'' was trending all over the world. Some old acquaintances were sending their best wishes to Arnold including various get well soon messages. But one of these messages stuck out from the rest. "I think now''s the time for us to talk again, don''t you think?" The person whom Arnold had been wanting to meet, had texted him first. Arnold had to reply to him, "Of course it is, Nichs." **** ''He''s not human... No way he''s a human...'' Andrex thought when he saw the news of Arnold''s return. "Getting cold feet, are we?" Luke mumbled from the back, "Remember our oath, Andrex. You break it, you die." "I know what the oath was damn it!" "Then focus on the task. He might be deathless, but the ones around him aren''t. If we can''t break him, just break the ones around him." Luke let out a malevolent smile, "I can''t wait to send the cks in a frenzy." Chapter 290 - New Arm, New Knowledge (3) Inside the void workshop... There were four people in the room, Arnold, Talos, Alice and... Devon. Devon and Talos had just finished working on Arnold''s prosthetic arm now and were waiting for his approval.?? ___ ? [Arm of living death]: A prosthetic arm made up from the remains of Grock, the king of the swamps and an alloy made from the strongest metals found in the mortal world. The arm is the personification of the words, ''loathe'' and ''hatred'' as the creature who serves as the core material still hates the one who killed him, even in death. Also, one of its creators harbours incredible hatred as he was subjected to endless horrors until he agreed to do as his captor pleased. Grade: SS Defense (DEF) : +20 (physical) Strength (STR): Dependent on user''s existing STR Type: Weaponised Arm Weight : 21 kg Power source: Twin Star shard Additional effect : [Automata] - Able to perform actions like a human arm, does not restrict the user''s arm movements. Also, the user won''t feel the weight of the arm once it syncs with their brain and be a part of their body. Additional effect : [Iron Fist] - Upon the user''s will, the arm goes into overdrive, increasing the power output by 50% and raising the user''s strength (up to 100 STR) for 3 seconds. Additional effect : [Swift] - The weight of the arm reduces hence significantly increasing the attack speed of the user. Additional effect : [Swamp king''s mandate] - When fighting against reptilian creatures, STR increases by 5% ___ "I''m surprised you managed to pull it off, Talos." Arnoldmended the automaton on making his first-ever SS ranked gear. "I could not have done it on my own. The prisoner''s help was vital to creating this ck marvel." Talos replied while presenting the arm to his master. Arnold silently nodded but ignored Devon otherwise. In the end, Arnold forced Devon to tirelessly work on the arm for over a week. Unlike Talos, he was a human and needed regr breaks to be at his best. But just having proper rest wasn''t enough. Devon had to be motivated. And this motivation came in the form of Gary, his son. For each day worth of work Devonpleted, he got to spend an hour with his son. As if it wasn''t enough to motivate him, Arnold also promised to help improve Gary''s condition if Devon did a praiseworthy job. With these carrots hanging in front of him, even the captive worked day in and day out to deliver the best gear he ever made. And the results of his struggles and pain soon manifested themselves in form of the prosthetic arm. Arnold was quite pleased with what the system showed him. He then went ahead to get a feel of the arm. The semi-metallic arm, was the darkest shade of ck Arnold had ever seen with silvery wires running all over the arm. As per his instructions, various slots were also carved into the arm itself. The blood runes Arnold would create in future will be going into these slots. Arnold wasn''t able to use the blood runes for himself, but since the arm essentially wasn''t a part of his body, he should be able to use blood runes without any problems now. In case he was sessful, his already insane strength would only increase further. Considering, his enemies would only get stronger and stronger, his new arm was the perfect weapon to face them with. Arnold''s n was simple, kill the gods whoe after him then steal their abilities if he can''t revive them or make them into his servants. This way, his strength will keep increasing. Andstly, the arm looked... BADASS! The arm furtherplemented his all-ck look. Although losing an arm wasn''t a pleasant moment for him, he still loved the way his prosthetic arm looked now. "Okay then, let''s just get this attached to my shoulder and test if there are any anomalies." Arnold took his shirt off and sat on the chair next to him. Talos, Devon and Alice immediately went to work. Talos began drilling multiple holes in Arnold''s left shoulder de and cor bone along with a few in his muscle fibres to strengthen the bond between the prosthetic and the rest of the body. Alice was busy helping Talos so that he doesn''t cause any unnecessary damage to Arnold''s body. While all of this was happening, Devon was giving the arm some final touches, like increasing its power output etc. The thin silvery wires from before were connected to the nerve cells so that Arnold could easilymand the arm and control its movement without any effort from him. Arnold dissolved the mana shield he had around him, to let them freely operate on him. Thankfully, there were noplications and the entire procedure only took about two hours to bepleted. Once everything was set and done, Arnold''s interface immediately lit up with multiple notifications, mostly informing him that the body had epted the arm and that the augmentation was sessful. As soon as those messages appeared on his interface, Arnold decided to test the arm out. At first, it was quite difficult. His movements were rigid but after some practice, he finally got a hang of it and soon the prosthetic became as good as his lost natural hand. But it wasn''t all... ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Cybeic being] Effect: ? Your understanding of machinery and its creation has been greatly increased. You now have a 10% chance of upgrading the rarity of your creations while performing enhancement on them. ? You are now more proficient in using weapons build by you. All weapon-rted skills have been levelled up by 1 level(s). The lesser gods are now more interested in your uing battles. The higher gods are amused with your journey. BEWARE! 2 out of 8 remaining demigods have made you their target. ___ ''What the hell... System sama, these things never happened before. So why now? Why is it that the gods are now interested in me?'' Chapter 291 - Troubles Never Cease ''What a load of crap...'' Arnold shook his head in dismay. Arnold''s joyful mood had turned sour once again, ''I guess it''s fine that the lesser gods aren''t joining the fray yet. Also, I thought Tiamut said all of the demigods would chase me to hell. So howe there are only two who want me dead?'' ?? ''So, I guess since I killed one of the demigods before ascension, thus this time they are sending two of them to gauge my strength?'' ''That solves one of my questions... Ok then, what''s the deal with the pdins and us then?'' ''As if they''ll be able to kill ascended beings-'' ''What do you mean?'' Arnold sighed heavily before sitting on the chair once again. Just when everything was going right, a random notification made Arnold''s mood do a 180. He felt his head getting heavy from all the thinking, thus decided to ce his head on his hands and closed his eyes before once again going into thinking mode. "Master, are you okay?" Talos asked Arnold after seeing his mood go from the happiest to the crappiest. "I''m fine Talos. Thank you for your efforts. Now if you don''t mind, I''ll like to be left alone for a while." Arnold said without even looking at anyone. "As you wish." Both Talos and Alice knew not to disturb Arnold whenever he asked to be left alone. But Devon was desperate for help and had clung on to Arnold''s promise of helping his son. He wasn''t going to let Arnold back down now that he had helped him. "Oye! I won''t let you go back on your word now! You said you''ll help heal Gary once I was done with the arm-" Arnold had been trying to ignore everything around him but Devon''s constant squeaking only put him in a worse mood. Arnold raised his head, ring at Devon. Suddenly the air in the room felt heavier. For a second, Devon even forgot to breathe. The pressure he felt chilled him to his core. The next second, he was on his knees, blood trickling down from his nose and mouth. "I don''t think you require hearing aids, Are you?" Arnold didn''t leave the chair he was sitting on but his gaze... His eyes filled with bloodlust. Like a mad beast who hadn''t eaten a proper meal in a long time. "I know what I had promised to you, Devon. I''ll help you when the timees. Don''t try to push your luck any more than you already have. Now... leave before you regret it. We''ll talk when the timees." Devon wanted to move. He really did, but he was petrified. He, a powerless human, was just exposed to the unfiltered aura of a man who was known as one of America''s strongest warrior. His body was in a state of shock. Arnold hadn''t used his aura to threaten Devon back during their fight, thus it was the first time Devon had felt Arnold''s merciless aura... And Arnold wasn''t holding back anymore. Talos being a machine was not affected by Arnold''s disy of strength and dragged Devon out of the workshop before he pissed Arnold off even more. Once everyone was out, Arnold resumed his discussions with system-sama. "You''re right. I shouldn''t get cocky. Especially after knowing that the demigods are out for my blood. The threat of demigods along with the pdins is more than what I want to have on my te." "What do you mean?" "... I guess not. Wait did you say, 4 pdins? I had killed Jake off, remember? Pdin of the dead one?" "I see... Now, what were you telling about the pdins?" "Let me guess. The vassals would have to hunt down the pdins?" "Fine. I can wait. But do you mind telling me how will these pdins find the vassals?" "So essentially, I''ll have to be on my toes at all times. That''s just great. What about us? Since it''s ''half'' of our quest to kill pdins, how will we be able to know who''s who? I can just go on killing everyone around me, can I?" "That''s convenient. Killing people and hope they are the ones I had to kill. What could go wrong?" Arnold shook his head, "With greater poweres a bigger headache." Arnold ignore the system''sment and proceeded to test his new arm more. He couldn''t waste any time. There were too many threats around him, he had to get ready to face whatever enemy shows up first, a pdin or a demigod. Chapter 292 - Just A Tool "Things have started to pick up. Let''s just see what the future has in store for me." Arnold mumbled as he headed towards the room allotted to Devon''s son, Gary. He had a few things to do, and he was sure Devon would''ve rushed over to his son as soon as his task was over. Sadly, only disappointment waited for Devon in that room as his son wasn''t there. He hadn''t been there for a day now, but Devon didn''t know that.?? Arnold didn''t inform anyone about it, the only exception being Talos. Both of them had been visiting Gary for a couple of days. Arnold could see the difference between the father and the son. Devon was nothing but a cruel and pathetic excuse of a man. His son on the other hand was theplete opposite. Gary didn''t care about his life, not one bit. After all, he had already sacrificed himself to save his marine team when the first dungeon popped in the USA. Sadly Gary didn''t have any memory of what happened that fateful day. Even now, being alive was more like a burden to him than a pleasure. Gary had told this to Arnold himself. But after chatting with Arnold, Gary got to know one thing, whether he liked it or not, he was given another life for a reason. And by not epting it he was disappointing everyone he sacrificed his life for. Within the days he had met Arnold, he had gone from a pale, malnourished, ghoul looking creature to quite a humane lookingd. For the first time, Arnold got to see what Gary truly looked like before his resurrection. Within two days, Gary went from being a hunchback goblin to a Disney Prince. He was still hairless and had scales over most of his body, but his sapphire blue eyes took the attention of everyone away from his hairless head. Now standing at 6''1", he could even walk around for about a minute as well. No, Arnold''s charismatic personality wasn''t the reason for Gary''s glow up. But a result of the beast research Talos had been doing on the ogres. Arnold hated to admit it, but Gary was just a test subject for him at first. But now, he wouldn''t think about Gary that way anymore. "At least his body readily epted the augmentation," Arnold mumbled. As he turned the corner to where Gary''s previous room was, only to hear Devon yelling and cursing at him. "This is gonna be fun." Arnold put on the nastiest smiled he could muster and entered the room, preparing to screw Devon over one more time. "What''s with all the shouting?" Devon immediately knew it was Arnold and grabbed him by his cor, "YOU SAID YOU WOULDN''T LAY A FINGER ON HIM!" Arnold didn''t utter a word and kept smiling. "WHERE''S MY SON, DAMNIT!? WHERE IS HE!?" Devon threw punches at Arnold. Arnold smiled while blocking Devon''s weak punches. Suddenly, the punches stoppeding. Devon broke down and fell on his knees. "Looks like I went overboard with my pranks again... Tsk. Stop weeping, you man-child. Gary''s safe. He wanted to surprise you, that''s why we shifted his room yesterday." "You mean he''s alive!?" "Of course he is. My name isn''t Devon Troy and I don''t kill innocent people. If I had to kill someone it''d have been you. Now if you wanna see your son then stop crying under your mask and follow me." "..." Devon didn''t say a thing. He quickly gathered himself and left along with Arnold to visit Gary. **** "How... How did you do it?" Devon mumbled in a weird and emotional voice as Gary hugged him, "I''ve been trying to months no, years, to heal himpletely. Yet you did it in just a couple of days?" "You''re not the only one who had been experimenting with the beast crystals, Dad," Gary told Devon, while Arnold chose to let the father and son have a moment to themselves and stood quietly in the corner. Even though Devon didn''t deserve it. Also with the threat of demigods and pdins hanging over his head, he didn''t have time to resolve his issues with a human. "You mean?" Devon asked as they finally let go of each other. "Yes, dad, Arnold and his robot... I think his name was Talos, they are the ones who helped me get better!" Devon turned towards Arnold. His movement was so sudden, his mask fell off. Although this wasn''t the first time Arnold was seeing Devon''s face, it was his first time when Devon''s face wasn''t bloodied or bruised beyond recognition. He had the same oval face cut as his son. His long ash grey hair ran down his tired yet charismatic face. His eyes weren''t blue like Gary''s but hazel. He had no facial hair either (apart from eyebrows). All in all, Gary had inherited most of his features from his father. "Why would you...? After everything, I did to you and countless others... Even after I took your arm away... Why?" "You''ve answered your question yourself." Arnold finally broke his silence, "You''re the one this world has a problem with, not Gary. You''re the one who essentially destroyed our country, not Gary. He was innocent in all of this crap. He shouldn''t have been brought back to this shitshow of a world, but since he had been resurrected, I wasn''t going to let him suffer either. As for my arm..." Arnold began flexing his prosthetic/bionic arm, "I think you''ve given me another one so let''s just say we''re almost even. Almost. Also, I''m not sure whether you''ve noticed it or not, but your mask fell off." "I know." Devon slowly picked up the mask again, "I''ve always wanted to protect Gary from monsters. And didn''t want him to see one either. But by the time I had realised what I was doing, I had already be one such monster. I didn''t want Gary to see me and hate me for what I had done. That''s the only reason I kept wearing a mask so that I could do what was necessary without hating myself for it. But now, I don''t have any use of it." He threw the mask towards Arnold, "I don''t think I''ll ever need it again. But you might." "No need to give souvenir to your enemy." Arnold smiled but kept the mask inside his inventory, "I still need your help Devon, or should I say, your son and I both do." "What do you mean?" Devon asked respectfully. "We did whatever we could to heal Gary, but as you can see, it wasn''t enough. That''s the limit to our knowledge about beast crystals. But with your help, we can help Gary go back to his former glory... To his prime." "And how will it help you? Are you nning on selling the research work or-" "Money doesn''t matter to me, Devon. Strength does." "But you''re already one of the strongest people on earth!" "It''s not enough. Even being the strongest on earth isn''t enough." "What-" "Let me ask you something Devon, do you believe in Gods?" "I don''t... Never had. But why are you asking this?" "Because... We''re not the only ones involved in the business of dungeons and monsters. Enjoy the rest of your day with Gary, Devon. Starting tomorrow, you have a lot to do." Arnold waved Gary goodbye and left the room. **** Outside the room... "Was it necessary to forgive him, master?" Talos asked Arnold as soon as he got out of Gary''s new room, "After all, he tried to kidnapdy Nicole." "Who said anything about forgiving him?" Arnold said with an expressionless face that put even Talos to shame. "Then?" "He''s just a tool. A tool when used correctly could enhance our strength manifolds. But that doesn''t mean I don''t understand why he did, what he did." Arnold gave Devon and Gary ast nce, "If something like that was to happen to Nicole or Nina, I wouldn''t hesitate for a second before burning the world to ashes." Chapter 293 - New Law (1) While Arnold was handling things on his end, the syndicate was having their own troubles to take care of. The source of trouble was the swamp, or the area now known as ''Barrends''. The pitch-ck atmosphere of the room currently being upied by the leaders of the families was cold. Very cold. The only source of light in the room was an overhead LED, but no... It didn''t require electricity to operate. Mere presence on mana was sufficient to light it up. Under the light was arge, round tablepletely made of ck wood also known as Ebony. Around the table were the remaining heads of the family, behind each of them was a bodyguard/assistant. Nicole was currently upying the role of Nathan''s bodyguard.?? Right now, there were two issues they needed to address. One, the task to retake the swamp was a failure. Why? Because there was no swamp to retake. Everything was obliterated because of the nuke. This was the main issue that the families wanted to discuss. The discussion was going well. Although the end wasn''t the one they had in mind, the primary result they wanted to achieve had been achieved, extinction of the swamp dwellers. The public was happy with it. However, their ns of rehabilitation would have to wait for quite a few decades. But they weren''t worried about those ns in the near future. There was enoughnd to sustain their poption till then. The next topic was, Devon. Among those present in the room, only Nathan and Nicole knew that the bastard was still alive. When Arnold had informed Nathan about Devon''s capture, Nathan foolishly thought Arnold captured him so that they could hold a public trial and punish him, as nned. But what he thought didn''t matter as Arnold straight up refused to hand Devon over to him. This in the end put a small strain on their rtionship, but Nathan couldn''t do anything about it. Either way, to the rest of them Devon was as good as dead. They would''ve killed him either way. But holding a public trial would''ve provided a little closure to the families who lost their loved ones in the attempts to retake the swamp. "It''s because of his family member that we''re in this mess." Andrex said as matter-of-fact, "The cks should shoulder the responsibility on this one." Complete silence shrouded the room. "Andrex," Nathan calmly replied, "Could you borate a bit more as to what do you mean, my family is responsible for Devon''s death?" "I would dly do so." Andrex got up and started walking around the table. Both he and his bodyguard were wearing aical emerald tuxedo. Which fairlyplimented his uselessness, "You see, ording to our- I''m sorry, your family member, Arnold Ling''s n, all of the soldiers were to simultaneously attack Devon''s hidden base. That is if we survived after fighting against those brutish creatures known as lizardman." "However," He continued, "The great Arnold ling, took it upon himself to single-handedly capture Devon. Screwing over the n he had devised himself. Leaving us to fight the lizardman alone, and not only that, he failed miserably to aplish the task as well. Also, as a result of his actions, we lost the resource-rich swamp as well. Thus, it is Nathan''s responsibility as the head of his family to face the consequences of this family member''s action. That''s all." Saying that he gave a gentle bow to others and went back to his seat. He had gathered the fuel for the fire, now all he needed was a spark. And got the spark soon... "I think Andrex is correct." "Maybe Devon knew something about Arnold, which thetter wanted to hide?" "Why would he do that? He''s our saviour, right?" "I heard before joining the cks, he was just a porter. Then how did he get so strong?" "I hope cks are not doing what the Whites did..." "The Inhumans?" "He''s got a point." "Yeah. Maybe that guy was head deep in his own crap." People started murmuring soon. Saying things about Arnold they wouldn''t dare to say in front of him. Nathan tried diffusing the situation as he knew... Nicole had her brother''s temper. No... Even worse than Arnold''s fuse. One wrong word and Nicole wouldn''t have thought twice before reducing them to ashes. But his attempts were failing. Andrex had already nted the seed of doubt in their minds. "You sure talk big for someone who shat their pants just with the thought of entering the swamps." A chilling voice echoed through the room. The chatter immediately died down. Everyone''s head turned towards the beautifuldy standing behind Nathan. Nicole''s words were like icy daggers. Each word she let out, sent shivers down their spines. For a moment they had be ignorant. Ignorant enough to forget about the sister of the person they were talking shit about. Even the so-called bodyguards of the other family members were shocked and rooted on the spot. However, as soon as they regained their senses, they jumped in front of their respective family leaders. Their weapons drawn, ready to kill at a moment''s notice. But the moment Nicole showed her killing intent, they fell over like a bunch of dominoes. "Nicole, stop it." Nathan calmly ordered her. But she wasn''t in the mood toply with the request. "Nicole, you''ll make things worse than they already are." Nathan once again tried to reason with her, and this time sheplied, "Phew. Things got a bit heated here didn''t they?" Nathan tried to joke about it but the damage was already done. Andrex didn''t waste this opportunity to put the final nail in the coffin. "Y-You see! THAT''S WHAT I''M TALKING ABOUT!" Andrex shrieked like an overpaid actor, "That Nathan has no control over his members. They just do whatever they want, whenever they want, with whomever they want. For the sake of keeping the syndicate from such a dictatorship, I would like to offer a proposal.". "Ladies and gentlemen, I think-" Nathan once again tried to diffuse the situation, but nothing was in his favour anymore. "I don''t think you''re in a position to say anything, Nathan. Not now at least." Andrex cut him off before presenting his idea to the syndicate, "I propose a neww. Aw to forbade any member of the ck family to go against any of the other families. In the unfortunate event, that thisw is broken or attempted to be broken, the rest of the families would have the permission to respond adequately. That''s all." Saying so, he sat down with a grin on his face. Nathan''s mood however dwindled. For the first time since joining the syndicate, he didn''t have anything to counter someone else. Chapter 294 - New Law (2) "I think, everyone here is forgetting something. Something very important." A voice echoed to pull Nathan out of the mess which Andrex purposefully made. Everyone turned around towards Morrino. The secret ally of the ck family, the leader of the Morrino family as well as the head of the decision making body regarding legal affairs of the syndicate. Andrex who had been grinning breathlessly now cursed Morrino under his breath. He knew Morrino had a somewhat special rtionship with the cks, but he had never thought Morrino would jump into the fray like this. With all of the families being against the cks.?? Also, Morrino was known to be a man of a few words. He rarely ever spoke, but when he did, all the attention was immediately on him. Something, Nathan couldn''t do despite being the leader of the strongest family. Everyone immediately ceased their bickering, listening intently to what Morrino had to say on the matter. "Young Andrex, have made some pretty good points. But one thing all of you forgot is... The cks have always been stronger than any other family." Morrino said while smiling, "If they wanted to rule over our country, I suspect with a force like fearsome Johnny, this beautiful youngdy Nicole and the ever-mysterious Arnold, any one of us would be able to stop them-" "That''s exactly what I''m saying-" Andrex tried interjecting his opinions in between but was quickly shut down by others. "Andrex, don''t be disrespectful and let Mr Morrino speak." Tasha Gray, the 32-year-old woman representing the house of Gray, quickly shot Andrex down. As herst name, her hair was gically gray. Her icy demeanour coupled with her stone-cold face was enough to intimidate anyone. Andrex gave Tasha a dirty look, but Tasha''s coffee coloured eyes shut him down for good. "Thank you, Ms Gray." Morrino said before smiling in her direction, "As I was saying, had Nathan wanted to rule over us, none of us could''ve stopped him from doing so. That itself is a proof of his and his family''s goodwill." "Also, it was Arnold, a member of his family who saved our lives again and again while putting himself in grave danger. Let it be facing a dragon all alone or saving everyone from a nuclear explosion, without him none of this would still be here. He could''ve easily escaped along with the rest of his family and no one would''ve questioned his morals. But he stayed and helped everyone escape, regardless of which family they belonged to. In the end, he had to lose an arm, he could have med every one of us for it but he didn''t, because he knows, he did what any of you would''ve done for his family. Now, instead of showing our gratitude to him and his family, you want to disgrace them?" Morrino''s voice was as calm as ever, but his words had made a rift in the hearts of everyone. How could they be so self-centred? At this point, no one, except Nathan and Nicole could look Morrino in the eyes. They finally realised what Morrino was implying. If it hadn''t been for Arnold and his summons, America would''ve been a lost cause by now. Many of them even felt ashamed that someone had to remind them of the sacrifices the cks have made so far. Sacrifices that ensured their safety. Andrex saw the momentum shifting against him, he had to do something and fast, ''If only that Morrino had kept quiet for few more seconds, my n would''ve been a sess. Damn it all!'' "What about the girl!? She turned hostile a moment ago!" Andrex roared, unable to get hold of his emotions. Morrino just smiled and said, "How''s J, Mr Andrex?" Everyone present in the room gasped. No one ever mentioned that name before Andrex. Not because they were afraid of him, but as a general courtesy. Morrino was the one to encourage them to not speak of that name and yet he did so himself!? Just what was going through his mind!? Everyone''s gaze shifted towards Andrex. He was no longer sitting on his chair, but standing in front of it. His hands clenched on the table as if he was ready to punch someone. Veins popped out of his forehead. No one could see his facial expressions, as he was staring at the ground, as if he had found something amazing lying there. "What... Did you say?" Andrex sneered. Just listening to him speak made everyone ufortable, but Morrino kept smiling all the while. "Oh, I didn''t know you were having hearing problems. No matter, I shall repeat myself," Morrino said, still smiling like a Buddhist monk, "I simply asked how was your wife doing these days? Oh my apologies, I meant your ex-wife." By this time everyone knew what Morrino trying to do. But they weren''t sure this was the best way to go about it. Even Nathan who had a grave expression before now joined Morrino and smiled. ''Well yed sir... Well yed indeed.'' He thought. "You... OLD FART!" Yelling so, Andrex jumped on the table and rushed towards Morrino. His fist covered with electricity, ready to smash Morrino''s head. But before he could do anything, he was on his back, his hands chained. It was Morrino''s bodyguard who had disabled the threat to her master. Andrex kept struggling for a few seconds before it dawned upon him what he had done. He allowed a moment of rage to destroy all the ns he had made till now... Everything. "Lia, the man has calmed down. Let him go." Morrino asked his green-haired, Caucasian, gent, to let Andrex go. (Author''s Note: Here gent means someone who wields a whip.) "I apologize for making a scenedies and gentlemen, but it was a necessary demonstration." Morrino resumed from where he had left off, "Mr Andrex, inquired about Young Nicole losing her cool for a bit, which she did. There''s no debating that. But let''s analyse why she did so first. While Mr Andrex lost his cool just by the mention of a certain person and chose violence over everything else, Nicole got angry when she saw a room filled with people she respects talking ill of her brother who had saved our lives countless times." He continued, "If I imagine myself in that situation, I''ll admit even I might not be able to handle all that negativity. But even then, she didn''t harm anyone. She just released her pent up energy and that was enough to make us feel weak. She didn''t take a single step against anyone of us. That''s the level of control she has on actions." Everyone silently nodded as Andrex bit his tongue and got back to his seat. He was so close to winning and yet... He lost. He lost all because of his foolishness and anger. "That being said, the neww Mr Andrex proposed was... Worth implementing. But not solely against the ck family. But all the families. In case one family decides to use violence against other families, then we all shall unite and fend off that problem child. This shall be the neww. That''s all I wanted to say." Chapter 295 - A Good News They say anger is a protector. One tasked with protecting sadness. And when anger fails, tears take the job instead. But what if, anger and sadness merge together? What happens next? What reces anger? Chaos. Utter chaos. Whether the chaos stays within the angered one or flows freely around him, is a different matter altogether. The strong-minded force the chaos to hide within themselves, while the weak, the desperate, let it all out for the world to see. You see, Nicole was the example of a strong being, Andrex, however, was not. It was apparent to everyone, that''s why their eyes... Their stare burned a scar of humiliation deep in his heart.?? At first, all Andrex wanted was to make the cks lose their credibility, their influence. But after the shitshow of a meeting today, he wanted them to feel like what he was... Humiliated. He wanted Nathan to grovel at his feet. Begging for forgiveness. But he knew it was just a pipe dream of his. Unless... "Just my fcking luck..." He mumbled while sitting in his private bar, fixing himself drink after drink. "Well if you think long and hard, anything can work." The man sitting next to him spoke while sipping his drink. "At least you look like that bastard," Andrex scoffed while eyeing the man next to him, "but your voice is nothing like him. Either way, your n of disguising yourself as Arnold Ling and attacking me wouldn''t do us any good now, Luke." Luke, sat there andughed wholeheartedly. He most definitely looked like Arnold, however, his demeanour gave him away. Anyone who knew Arnold would be able to distinguish between the two almost instantly. But Luke was a master of disguise and had the ability to alter his appearance to look like anyone he liked. All he needed was to eat a strand of hair of the man, woman or child. The next moment, his body would change ordingly, upon will. Thus Andrex and Luke had nned for Andrex to try and pass aw against the cks. Once that was done Luke was to turn into Arnold''s body double and attack Andrex leaving him ''wounded''. Then Andrex was to frame the attack as a ''grunge filled crime'' due to the ''unfairness'' of the above-mentionedw. Then all the families would''ve mobilised against the cks, ensuring their demise. But the n had failed in its first phase itself, much to their dismay. Yet Andrex refused to give up. Not after how he was humiliated in front of all the leaders. "At least it wasn''t aplete failure, Andrex." Luke chimed in, "Our ambition got the best of us, that''s all. But we got what we wanted nheless." "What do you mean? Thew we wanted didn''t pass." Andrex turned to face Luke, who was now back as his real self. "In the unfortunate case of, attack from one family to other. The rest of the families can take action as they see fit to ease the tension." Luke cited the newly createdw, "So... We got what we wanted." "... I don''t quite get you. We don''t have a logical reason for the cks or Arnold to attack us. That grudge factor is gone." Andrex mumbled. "Then we''ll give them another reason. Like by harming someone close to him." Luke smiled viciously, "Like a family member or love interest." Andrex finally understood what Luke was trying to imply, "Attacking Nicole is out of the question. I''ll rather kill myself than go up against her. But... I think our boy does have a pretty bird he hangs around with." "Then we aim for her." Luke lifted his liquor-filled ss high in the air, "To our next prey." "To our next prey. Cheers!" **** Somewhere far away, the nightlife of LA was in full swing. People were on and about enjoying the night under the skyden with the beautiful skyline of the city. A couple dressed inplete ck roamed around the city. Thedy was dressed in a beautiful ck cocktail dress, tightly hugging her hourss figure. Her headying on her partner''s broad shoulder. The man, on the other hand, was wearing a soft and smooth ck shirt, with the upper buttons left undone to show off his well-built chest. Over the shirt, he wore an elegant ck tuxedo. He didn''t like to wear fancy clothing but since they were going for a date after a long time, he put hisfort aside. He was happy as long as his woman was happy. "So, did you enjoy the night?" Arnold asked nting a kiss on Nina''s glossy lips. "The night has just begun, senor." Nina chuckled as she kissed him back, "How''s your arm? Does it hurt?" Arnold took his left metallic arm out of his pocket and flexed it, "I think it''s as good as the real one. Talos outdid himself with this one." Nina didn''t reply, but kept her head on Arnold''s shoulder, leaning against him, "There''s something I have been wanting to talk about..." "And what''s that?" Arnold asked as he waved at one of his newfound fans. Ever since returning from the swamps, Arnold''s poprity had skyrocketed. And while he didn''t crave for all the attention, he wasn''t going to reject it either. After all, it boosted his influence on the people. He had been called for interviews, talk shows and whatnot, but he declined them. Too much attention would only invite trouble for him. Especially, when pdins had been given the task to eliminate the vassals. "I''m pregnant." Nina dropped the bombshell, "I did the testst night and it came back as positive." Arnold momentarily stopped in his tracks, before turning around to face Nina, "Are you sure? Like sure-sure?" Nina couldn''t get a read on Arnold''s face, but she had taken the test three times already, so she was fairly certain. "Mm-hmm." Nina nodded, not expecting how Arnold would react to the news, ''Will he be happy? Or will he think it''s too soon... God, I should''ve consulted Nicole first... It was an idental pregnancy, I don''t know what to do now...'' All of her worries however were unfounded as Arnold took her by her waist and started swinging her around, rotating like the earth around the sun. Finally, after what seemed ages, Arnold put Nina down and kissed her passionately before asking... "Who else knows?" Arnold asked, excited like he had never been before. "You''re the first person I''ve told." She said kissing him once again. "We have to tell Nicole. SHE''S GOING TO BE AN AUNT FOR GOD''S SAKE!" Arnold screamed at top of his lungs. He had genuinely never been so happy before. Lucky for them, everyone was too busy to listen to what the man was yelling about. Chapter 296 - Hercules The next morning... "Oh my god! I''m so happy for you, for both of you!" Nicole eximed as she rushed in to hug her brother and best friend, "I didn''t know you were nning for kids!"?? "We weren''t. It''s just a happy coincidence." Nina replied to her, while Arnold just embraced them a little tighter, hoping to live the best moment of his life a little longer, "Okay. You two siblings talk while I decide what to cook for breakfast." "I''m so happy! I can''t imagine I''m gonna be an aunt soon!" Nicole said once Nina had left, "Who else knows?" "For now, it''s just the three of us. And I don''t wanna make a big announcement about it either. The lesser people know about, the better." Arnold mumbled while ncing towards the kitchen. "Why so? Oh, wait... I see." Nicole finally understood why Arnold wanted to keep his unborn child a secret. "Yeah. It''s regarding the next phase. With our enemies hiding in in sight, who knows what they''ll do to get to a vassal. And putting Nina in between all of this crap is thest thing I want to do." There was an awkward moment of silence between the two. Both the brother and the sister were granted unimaginable power thanks to these Gods. With the free will to use the power as they feel fit, as long as theypleted the quests given to them. They were so simr, and yet they hadn''t talked about the origin of their powers before. It was the first time, they had acknowledged something regarding their systems in front of each other. "It been a long time, hasn''t it?" Arnold smiled wanly, trying to remember his pipsqueak of a sister, Nicole was all those years ago. "It has, and we''vee so far. Who would''ve thought someone like us would be the strongest warriors of the nation? I wouldn''t." Nicole smiled as well, "I still hate you for leaving me here alone and going off to Rio. It''s one of my dream locations to visit." Arnold lifted his brows beforeughing, "I didn''t have much of a choice, you know. Not like going there did me much good, I just learned a few things about mental peace and shit, that''s about it. Also, I might have to go there soon." "Is it regarding the attack from the wolves?" Arnold nodded, "We may have been able to take care of them, but they weren''t our only enemy. Someone helped them stage the attack. Someone financially strong enough to traffic so many immigrants to America and hide them. Until we get them, we''re still under threat of another attack. That''s why I need to find out just who the fck dared to mess with us." Rage spewed out along with Arnold''s words. He hated how helpless the ck family was under the surprise attack. Had he been in aa for one more day then God knows what would''ve be of his family along with the city of angels. Nicole ced her hand on top of her brother''s clenched fist, "You weren''t alone then, and you''re not alone now. Don''t worry about Nina while you''re gone. I''ll be sure to drop in to check on her every now and then. Thankfully, the dungeon activity has slowed down so it''s not like I''m super busy either. So, go and find the answers you want. I''ll be here to protect my best friend." Arnold felt like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He was nning on leaving a bunch of automatons and hounds under Talos''mand to protect Nina while he''s gone but with Nicole''s suggestion, his mind was at peace. He had been wanting to ask Nicole but he couldn''t ask his sister to risk her life. After all, deep down Arnold was still the same overprotective brother he had always been. Nicole understood her brother very well. She knew Arnold wanted that but he wouldn''t ask so much from her. Thus she took the reins in her hands. Arnold might have been a protective brother, but she wasn''t the same fragile sister anymore. She was a warrior and a damn good one. One of the strongest to have ever walked on the. And that made her the baddest bitch no one should cross paths with. Whenever she looked at her brother, she wondered if badassery ran in their blood? If it was true, she could only imagine how badass her nephew would turn out to be? "You don''t have to stay here all the time." Arnold said after clearing his throat, "I''ll be back every night. I''ll also leave my summons to protect her in my absence but having you here would put my mind to ease." "Breakfast is ready!" Nina''s voice echoed from the kitchen as the siblings left to have some much-needed food. **** In a dark ce... A realm no mortal had ever stepped foot in, rung rhythmic earth-shattering sound. The floor shook with every punch the man threw at the wall in front of him. Heavy beads of sweat poured down his head, but the man didn''t stop, he kept punching. Fighting was his only religion, fighting is what he lived for. In his days as a mortal, he had in hundreds of beasts, took down dozens of kingdoms, killed a handful of godly beings, yet it wasn''t enough. It wasn''t enough for him to enter the Pantheon of Gods. Boom Boom Boom He kept throwing punch after punch. Training for his next task, his next kill, when someone ced a hand on his broad brown shoulder. The dark cer illuminated, showing details that weren''t visible before. The room was made up of strong grey rocks. Sturdy enough to take on inhumane beating without showing a crack. In the corner of the roomy a helmet made of the skin of a lion, one of the beasts the man had in in his era. Numerous weaponsy at his feet, enough weapons to kill a god. There was nothing else worth noticing in the room. Except for the two men. One of which had blue electricity running through his shoulder-length white curly hair and bushy beard. His gargantuan body would even make the tallest and strongest of men quiver with fear. His face was covered in wrinkles, but his body was the epitome of fitness. His eyes were blue, carrying thunder within them. His skin was as white as milk itself. On the other hand, the well-built man in front of the man with thunderous eyes was not short in any way, shape or form. He too had long hair but it was ck, and an equally bushy beard. His brown skin had scars all over. Some of them were caused by mortals while the others by mystical beasts he had killed. "Why are you here, father?" The bronze-skinned man asked. His back still turned towards his visitor. "To present you with an opportunity... An opportunity to enter the Pantheon." The man with lightning running through his veins replied. "What do I have to do?" "Kill Shiva''s vassal. You do that and I''ll make sure no one raises their voice while you take what''s yours." "I''ll do it. I''ve been waiting for the opportunity toe, and now that it has... I''ll finish him for ying a demigod." "I knew you wouldn''t disappoint me, Hercules." Zeus smiled before disappearing into nothingness. Chapter 297 - Back To Rio (1) Love is a drug. To those who never have tasted it, they don''t know the strength of it. The overwhelming feeling of ecstasy. And those who have tasted it, want more of it, more than they can handle. More than they can give back. Yet it''s the craving to hold someone, the craving to not be alone, that craving gives a man strength. You see, even if a man has nothing, he''ll still fight to protect his loved ones. Be that a friend, family, lover or an unborn child. This love fuels the man to give it all he has to protect the ones important to him. But what if someone takes the love away from him? Does the man stop then? The answer is no. Instead, the man would be unstoppable, unreasonable. The only thing that would matter now would be the head of the one who took his loved one away.?? Love is a two-edged sword, something a human should stay away from. Love is nothing to be meddled with. You either stay away from it, or you let yourself sink in it. But whatever you do, do not disturb the other''s peace. If you do, the results would be catastrophic. To those ignorant of the strength of love, only pain awaits... The pain of the worst kind. Pain that''d make you beg for your death. But death won''te to you so easily. Because death has its own twisted sense of justice. But Andrex didn''t know this, but he would soon feel it once his paths cross with the Deathless. Till then... Ignorance is bliss. The next morning, it was a normal day for everyone in America. Until they heard the news of the retirement of a certain someone. Someone, they had named Deathless. Until now, the general public thought Arnold had been joking about his early retirement but now, it had turned into reality. It was official. He had be the first SS ranked warrior in history to ''retire'' from this business. The news hit the world like a storm. Some like Andrex let out a sigh of relief, thinking it made their job easier. While the rest felt like their only source of security had been stripped away from them. There was an outrage. Some people understood his choice, while some didn''t think it was necessary to abandon them like this. The only ones who didn''t say a word were the members of the ck family. As Arnold had already informed Nathan and the few leading figures about his departure from the life of being a warrior. Although it saddened them, it was a personal choice of Arnold. He assured them that if the family required him, he''ll be there for them in a heartbeat. He then broke the news to them... To a selected few only. "Today, a new phase of life begins for me. A phase no one prepared me for. A phase I never thought I''d have to live through. But I''m excited about it. I''m excited to see what the future holds for me, not as a man, no. But as a father." Those who heard Arnold stared at him for an ufortably long time. This wasn''t the reaction he was expecting from them. But he couldn''t do anything except scratching the back of his head and smiling like an idiot. At this moment, Nina hurriedly came to join him, as the room was thrown in an uproar! Everyone rushed in to congratte the couple. Nathaniel, who hade back to help Nathan learn more about being an adept leader sat in his chair. Smiling. It truly was the happiest moment for the ck family in quite some time. People were hugging each other, smiling andughing. Some were telling Nina stories about their own pregnancy. Some were happily chattering among themselves. Arnold felt like his life wasplete. He had everything he ever wanted. A beautiful partner to spend his days with, a baby on the way to help him grow as a father, a loving sister and a caring family to have his back, no matter the situation. Yet he knew better than to drop his guard down. He had already learned his lesson... When the man was happiest, that''s when the snakes hiding in in sight strike. He had to make sure to crush every head that rise to take away his happiness and to do that he''d have to head to Brazil. The only ce he''d the find answers he wants. Arnold pulled Nathan aside to inform him of his decision. Although Nathan, at first tried to dissuade Arnold, after listening to his reasons he finally relented. "How many days are you leaving for?" Nathan asked. "A week, maybe two." Arnold replied, "But I''ll be visiting every night. If I have an ability might as well abuse it." "Right. I forgot about your travelling ability. There''s no problem then. I''ll suggest Nina shift into the family manor while you''re gone, that way she''ll have better security. I assume there would be no issues regarding that?" Nathan inquired. "That''s an excellent idea. I was thinking of leaving her with some of my summons to protect her, but that might not be necessary. There''s enough security in the manor to rid me of my worries." "You should inform Nichs that you''re going there. Mind you he''s a president now so don''t do anything rash." Nathan ced his wrinkling hand on Arnold''s shoulder, "Also, let me tell you one thing, Arnold. No matter what, we''re a family. And family always has each other''s back. Nina is like a cousin to me. So don''t worry about her safety. Go with a free mind and do what you have to. But till then, here''s a drink and a wish to have a strong and healthy baby. Cheers!" Arnold just smiled and replied, "Cheers!" Thus, the day filled with shocks and surprises slowly came to an end. Laughter and happiness drowned all the pain and sorrow. Drinks came flowing in and food worth dying for, made it a night no one would soon forget. Everything was just the way Arnold wanted them to be... Or was it? Chapter 298 - Back To Rio (2) "Arnold, I''ve had enough!" Nina smiled with a mouthful of food. He smiled, "You''re eating for two, I''m caring for two. So let me do the cooking before I leave today. And no, you have to eat a bit more now, Madame. I''m not letting you starve our daughter."?? "Okay, Mr chef. May I ask why do you want a daughter?" Nina asked him, swallowing a mouthful of pasta Arnold had made for her. "I have my reasons. For one, if it''s a boy, then there are high chances that he''ll turn out to be a brat like me. And I don''t think either you or the world is ready for that. So I was thinking, a beautiful little princess like you would be better and lighten up the world." Arnold smiled while serving Nina some more pasta. "You think I can''t handle another brat?" Nina scoffed, pulling Arnold closer to her face, "Think again pretty boy, I''m a warrior. You''ll be surprised about the things I can do." "Yeah, like an unnned pregnancy." They bothughed before kissing one another. While they were at it, Arnold pulled out a small but beautifully warped package from his inventory. He presented her with the box. Arnold never bought her something grand but this time he did. It was a tinum bracelet, studded with diamonds, and was divided into numerous rhombuses, each joined with two other through the edges. It was a simple yet elegant bracelet. One not everyone could possess. Nina stared at Arnold in disbelief. She didn''t know what to say. Arnold was someone who would cringe just by the thought of doing something like that, but now he had gifted her something more expensive than her car. Nina felt pretty bad because she never bought him a gift... "I-I don''t know what to say..." She mumbled. "Generally people say thank you when they receive a gift." Arnold had a smug look on his face. "Oh, do they now?" Nina faked being surprised by the fact, "Well, I guess I could thank you. But what brought about this spending spree, eh?" "Nothing particr. Just thought my girlfriend deserved something to feel appreciated, you know? Go on, put it on." Although Arnold tried to give the bracelet to Nina like it was an ordinary gift. In reality, it was something more. Arnold had Talos modify the bracelet to act as a tracker coupled with a device to monitor Nina''s mana usage. The bracelet was then connected to his bionic arm. You could say that the bracelet was one of Arnold''s ways to ensure that nothing wrong would happen to her or if something did happen, he''d be there to help her. Arnold, however, knew that if he told Nina about the real purpose of the bracelet, she might not wear it. And he''lle as paranoid. After all, she didn''t know what the future had in store for her, with Arnold getting threats from the demigods as well as the pdins. So he decided to hide the fact from her and let her have a tension-free pregnancy. ''It''s not a lie if you don''t don''t admit to it, is it?'' Arnold smiled as he remembered what happened earlier in his domain. *** A few hours ago, inside Arnold''s domain... Arnold had just gathered his elite summons to inform them of one thing, "Nina''s pregnant." Arnold knew Duke, Cerberus, Asterios, and Dread wouldn''t care much about the news since they were essentially beings devoid of feelings such as love, but their reactions confirmed otherwise. Duke and Dread started slowly pping while Cerberus started making rounds around them. Asterios, however, was by far the most excited and was huffing loudly with all his might as if he was the one bing a father. Bad-Breath''s reaction was as Arnold had expected. He didn''t care about anything but fights. But regardless of that, he did congratte Arnold just like the others. Alice looked genuinely happy for him and Nina as she expressed so by hugging him. Natasha, however, looked somewhat upset but kept it to herself. Scy was busy napping, so Arnold left her alone. Talos was as sarcastic as ever, which was evident from his reply, "ording to the inte, this is a moment where I should congratte you. Who would''ve guessed that you, a man who was a virgin not long ago, would someday experience the joy of fatherhood? Benefits of having unprotected sexual intercourse, I guess. Either way, congrattions and best of luck with your new adventures. Also, Cheers to the broken condoms!" Arnold shook his head at Talos''ment. He didn''t know whether he shouldugh or cry. He did know, however, to keep Talos away from his child. God knows what he''ll teach the kid. In the end, however, it was a happy asion. And he let his summons know that. Apart from Nina and Nicole, his summons were the closest thing he had to a family. The ck family was his family too, but to be honest, he didn''t even know half of the family members as well as he did his summons. His summons were the ones to protect him and his loved ones day in and day out, and he felt they were the ones who truly cared about him. He thanked each and every one of them. He made a mental note to forge something for each of them when he had the time to show how much he appreciated them but first, he had to collect something. "Talos, is the bracelet ready?" Arnold asked the automaton. "Yes, master. I assume it''s for the mistress?" Talos asked while one of the other automatons went to fetch the bracelet from the forge. "You got that right." Arnold smiled as he looked around. The ce looked livelier than usual. And Arnold noticed exactly why, "Looks like you''ve been busy, Talos." "Ah yes, there isn''t much to do here so I thought of utilising the time and made a bunch of automatons. That''s however not all. I performed little upgrades on myself as well as the others with the help of Devon." Talos was telling the truth as Arnold could see himself. Talos'' exoskeleton was more rigid than before. Even his joints were reinforced. His power core, shone brighter than before as he was now running on twin cores. One powered with the star shard while the other ran on beast crystals. Energy from the star shard was now only used duringbat. The remaining times the automatons now ran on the power from the beast crystals. Simr upgrades were done to the other automatons as well. "Impressive. Just how many automatons are there now?" Arnold asked because no matter where he looked, he found automatons... Everywhere. "Master, including myself, you now have 2500 automatons under yourmand." Chapter 299 - Back To Rio (3) Around noon, Gale?o international airport, Rio de Janeiro...?? "Tsk... Why is the security here tighter than usual?" A man asked the security personnel. "I''m sorry sir, but a very important guest is arriving here today. That''s why the airport is at maximum security." The security guard replied while checking the man''s luggage. "Important, my foot! People who abuse their privilege like this are the worst of scum." The man replied in his angry snotty voice. He was wanted to take his fiance to Europe as an engagement present. But now not only his fiance was in a bad mood their flight had also been dyed due to this ''special guest''. "You''re done. Move." The security guard hurriedly told the man to leave. Because if the president''s guards who were waiting there had heard what the midget of a man, had just said... All hell would break loose. The man wanted to argue further, but decided otherwise and left huffing and puffing. The security guard looked over to the other side. The line for security check-in kept growing bigger and bigger. "God I hope the flight from California arrives on time. I can''t handle this intense security protocol." He let out a sigh. "They don''t pay us enough for this. Don''t you think so, Miki?" Another guard asked the former one. "Of course they don''t, Sebas. But it''s better than being penniless in some fav." Miki replied with a tired smile, "But the condition of the nation has been better than before. President Nichs did deliver on hismitments. That''s why I don''t mind getting overworked today... That is if we get paid more. Haha." At that moment, an announcement was made. Flight number 4D 55664 had just arrived from California. As soon as the announcement was made, the soldiers smartly dressed in ck went into action. These soldiers were the members of the private security force employed by President Nichs and were known as the ''ck horses''. All procedures of checking out were stopped in that particr terminal. Cars moved in around the flight as soon as it came to a halt. Arnold was the first one to get off the flight. Seeing the way the ck horses were carrying themselves, the few people who didn''t know Arnold thought he was some kind of kingpin. Arnold''s all-ck attire only made their thoughts wilder. Arnold gazed around the airport, which looked like a cocoon of steel, the walls so elegantly curved and wrapping around to create this inner space. And the beams supported so many windows, let in so much light, that in the daytime it is as bright as any summers day. The ce was filled with people, yet none of them were moving. Their eyes were fixated on him. ''This is why I wanted to use void travel instead of normal modes of transportation. Why the heck did Nichs wanted me to get here by flight?'' Arnold thought as they made their way to the exit. Arnold thought what they did inside the airport was unnecessary then he was wrong. As he stepped out he was surprised to see a convoy made up of a total of 21 vehicles waiting for him. From humvees to military trucks. Among these vehicles, one vehicle stood out the most, a Rolls-Royce 2022 Ghost. As soon as Arnold approach the vehicle while being guided by the ck horse officers, a man stepped out. Smiling like the biggest idiot in the whole world. Arnold had known this man for over a year. He couldn''t even remember how many dungeons they had cleared together. And seeing him again made Arnold smile as well. "It''s weird seeing you without your backpack, Gabriel." Arnold smiled as he shook the man''s hand. "Haha, Arnold irmao, the Vice President of Brazil doesn''t carry that bag anymore," Gabriel smiled, "However, if you want to do another dungeon run I''ll dly get my bag. I''ve been keeping it safe in case you ever returned." "You''re the Brazilian Vice President? I wonder how the hell is Brazil still functioning." Arnold let out an exaggerated gasp, following which both of them burst intoughter. "Master Nichs is waiting for you. Shall we proceed then?" Gabriel asked. "Lead the way!" *** Arnold might have been feeling a bit carefree in Brazil, but back in California Andrex and Luke were busy plotting their next move. "I can''t believe how I''ll destroy the cks from thefort of my home." Andrexughed while sipping his wine, "You should drink too Luke. After all, it''s a celebration!" Luke was right next to him. He wasn''t drinking though. He needed to prepare for what was toe tomorrow. Even if their n went on without a hitch there was going to be a bloody skirmish. A skirmish where he too would lose soldiers. But it was just a little price they''ll have to pay. After all, he had allies to do his dirty work. "I''m not the kind of man to take things for granted, Andrex." Luke gave him an annoyed look, "I''ll celebrate when I''ll win." "Hmph, it''s not like you''ll be doing the killings. We hired these bastards to do that for us! I still don''t know why these idiots are ready to take this suicidal mission when everyone else in the field on assassins refused to attack the cks?" "It''s because... They too have a score to settle with them." "What score?" Andrex asked, finally putting down his wine. "They are the remaining members of the group Arnold killed a few years ago. You know, before they attacked the Flying Swords. They know fighting Arnold head first would bemitting suicide, but they don''t have any issue taking on the others. That is if both Nicole and Johnny are out of the way." Luke replied. "Pfft- HAHAHA!!!" Andrex burst outughing, spitting wine all over Luke. "Those cks sure do have a lot of enemies! Tell your men not to worry about Nicole or Johnny. I made sure they get sent to the east to take care of a ''dungeon break''. They won''t be returning for a few days, maybe even a week." "Then it''s settled. Tomorrow we''ll paint the earth with the flesh and blood of those ck fools!" Chapter 300 - Secrets Revealed (1) Inside ck''s mansion... "Mistress Nina, the lunch is served. Sorry to keep you waiting."?? "Talos, you don''t need to cook my meals... We have chefs to take care of that." Nina smiled as Talos pulled a chair for her to sit. "No can do ma''am. Master gave me explicit orders to take care of all your needs in his absence. That includes your meals." Talos responded before checking in with the other automatons Arnold had left under Talos''mand to protect Nina. Everything was fine. Their mistress was safe. Nina shook her head and took a look at the dishes prepared by Talos. Mushroom soup, bitter greens with tomatoes the size of peas, rare roast beef slices as thin as paper, noodles in a green sauce and cheese that melts on your tongue served with sweet blue grapes. There was no wine as Arnold had told Nina to reduce her alcohol intake while she''s carrying their baby. "Looks like you went all out, Talos!" Nina eximed, she was surprised at how much food Talos managed to prepare in just a little over an hour. "Of course, mistress. Your health is of extreme importance. Also, I don''t want master to unload his crap on me, with all due respect." Nina smiled in response and proceeded to dig into the food. She might have been silent but her mind was racing. The number of automatons Arnold had left behind was quite... Excessive, in her opinion. While she couldprehend why Arnold would leave behind a few soldiers to protect her, but leaving over two hundred battle-ready automatons? That was way too much. More than that, the ck''s mansion was looking more like a military base than a home. Constant patrols and heavy artillery were amon thing now. ''Maybe he got worried because of my pregnancy? No that can''t be it.'' She thought, ''It''s something else... But what exactly was Arnold worried about?'' She thought and thought but nothing came to her mind. If Arnold just wanted her to be safe, then the ck family manor would provide more than enough protection for her. But then again, they failed to defend themselves once, they could fail again. Maybe that''s why Arnold was taking such excessive measures. That made sense. Unless... "Uhh... Talos, do you mind if I ask you something?" Nina asked the automaton standing next to her. "Sure, mistress. Anything." Talos replied. "I''ve noticed a weird change in Arnold. It''s like he''s always on his toes. Almost as if he knows someone is going to attack him or us. It''s the same with Nicole. So, I was hoping you''d have some information regarding that." "My apologies, but I don''t know anything of substance on the matter." Talos'' quick reply seemed unusually cold to Nina which made her worry even more. Something Talos immediately took notice of and tried toe up with a suitable excuse for Arnold''s behaviour. "However, it''s no secret that when you be stronger than everyone else around you, you have a target painted on your back. Master Arnold and Mistress Nicole, are in a different league of their own. So that could be a factor." He said. He continued, "Furthermore, the recent happenings in the swamps have dealt quite a psychological blow on master. He is too prideful to admit it, but he worries a lot about you and his future child. But it''s something a lot of fathers go through. They can''t bear a child on their own but their minds continuously think about their unborn child. This fact coupled with the responsibility of being one of the nation''s strongest warriors might''ve put him under stress, don''t you think so? At the mention of being under stress, I don''t think it good for you either, mistress." "You''re right. Maybe I''m thinking too much. Also, you''re a great speaker, Talos." "Of course I am. After all, I''ve learned from the best." Talos replied banging his metallic chest. "Who? Arnold?" "No. Google." "Pfft- hahaha!" *** A few hours ago... Over at Rio, the sun was slowly sinking. The evening sun cast long shadows on the ground. The nting rays of the setting sun gave a warm orange tinge to the sky while the thin clouds circling the dipping sun made the atmosphere joyful. Such was the view from the President''s office in Pal¨¢cio da Alvorada, where Arnold was waiting for his former teacher and now President, Nichs. Unfortunately, Arnold''s wait kept dragging on as Nichs was preupied in a meeting. But Arnold didn''t mind it. After all, The sunset was beautiful and so was the view from the balcony. He stepped through the sliding ss door to go out. The beautiful Parano¨¢ Lake was bathed in gold by the sun. An icy breeze brushed Arnold''s overgrown beard. Though the wind was cold, Arnold didn''t mind. The mana shield covering his body was essential in a battle for him now that he had lost his sense of touch and pain, but it was enough to shield him from the cold as well. He quickly snapped a picture of the sunset and sent it to Nina with the caption ''Missing you.'' It didn''t take long for Nina to reply either, "Focus on your work, you hopeless romantic. Missing you too." Her text made Arnold almost forget about everything. Let it be the impending battle against the demigods or the situation that he was in Rio to handle. But this only made him steel his resolve to protect the life he had now. "I must say, the air around you has changed a lot." A familiar voice reached Arnold, "But that could be because you have opened up the door, freezing me." Arnold smiled and turned around, "A lot can change in six years, Master Nichs." "Sure it can," Nichs replied, smiling brightly than ever. Dressed in his trademark white clothing, surrounded by dozens of ck horses, "Also, just call me Nichs. It feels weird when someone stronger than oneself refers to the other as master." "You give me too much credit." Arnoldughed. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I don''t see myself surviving a nuclear attack." "Guess I was just lucky." "Like always." The two of them chattered for a while. Catching up on the events that unfolded after Arnold''s disappearance inside the transdimensional portal. A few momentster, Christina, Nichs'' sister and Gabriel also joined them. To Arnold''s surprise, it was revealed Christina and Gabriel were now married for two years. Arnold congratted the couple. Especially, Gabriel who was the closest thing to a brother he had in Brazil. "Sorry to disappoint you Arnold, but I think your visit might be cut short," Nichs said in between their chattering. "Is something wrong?" Arnold was a bit confused by Nichs'' statement. "Nothing at all." Nichs reassured his former disciple, "I have just the man who can give answers to your questions. Bring him in." Four ck horse soldiers immediately bowed and left. Barely a few seconds had passed when Arnold could hear the sound of chains being dragged on the marbled floor. Soon after, a man appeared in front of them. He was chained from head to toe, looking no more than a shadow of his former confident self. Still, it was enough for Arnold to recognise the man... A man whom Arnold thought to be dead... The man because of whom he was stuck inside the transdimensional portal. "Rion!" Chapter 301 - Secrets Revealed (2) "I thought he was dead! You had a public execution and all for him!" Arnold jumped from his seat. "It was all a n. A n to break the rebels. Also, he''s not the only one alive. But he''s the only one capable of giving you some answers." Nichs waved his hand and the soldiers forced Rion to his knees. ?? In his torn baggy clothes, Rion looked at Arnold with his ghoulish eyes. His body malnourished beyond limits Arnold known. Yet Arnold didn''t felt sorry for him. But Nichs'' remarks made Arnold lose his cool a bit. "So you''re saying Mali is alive too?" Arnold closed his eyes. Hoping Nichs would say no. "Yes. Though unfortunately he''s gone mad. So he might not be of any help to you." Nichs stated as a matter-of-fact. However, Arnold wasn''t listening anymore. The room they were in, had been reinforced to withstand even an airstrike. But as soon as Arnold released a small fraction of his aura, the walls began to crack. ck horses rushed in to protect Nichs, along with Gabriel but Arnold was faster. Using his bionic arm, he grabbed Nichs by his neck and lifted him in the air. Christina couldn''t understand what happened. Everything was fine a minute ago and now they were pointing guns at each other? Gabriel couldn''t process it all either, but all he knew was that they had to calm Arnold down. Pointing guns at him were only going to make things worse. On one side was his brother-inw and on the other was the man who he called his brother And had been saved countless times by him. He was torn between them. The soldiers, however, had no such dilemma. The moment Arnold turned against their President, he had to be neutralised. But before they could pull the trigger, Nichs yelled at them to stand down. "But sir-" "I said, STAND DOWN, YOU BELLIGERENT MORONS!" Nichs yelled again while dangling in air, "Arnold. I know I messed up. It was a genuine mistake, but I thought by keeping the information that they were alive would make the remaining rebels lose their will to fight. I never thought they''d go and try to attack you for that." Arnold didn''t say a word and kept holding him up air. The whole reason for the White Wolves attack was to avenge Mali and Rion. Had they known that the bastards were alive, they might not have attacked the cks. So many people died... Just because Nichs didn''t reveal the truth in time. Arnold''s anger issues were resurfacing again, that too at the worst moment. His head was throbbing continuously. All he could think was to kill all of them. ''Breathe... Breathe... It''s all fine.'' Arnold thought but suddenly he started having shbacks of the night he had ordered Natasha to kill Mali''s sister. The only reason he told Natasha to kill Mali''s sister was because they had killed so many people. But now he felt all of them died for nothing. And Nichs was the one responsible for it all. Yet Arnold couldn''t bring himself to do any harm to Nichs. He wanted to, but couldn''t. "You''re dead to me." Arnold mumbled before letting his former teacher free and turning towards Gabriel, "I assume, you knew about it too?" Gabriel couldn''t look Arnold in the eyes. Of course, he knew about it. He was the one who was tasked to fake their deaths. He was also the one in charge of the prisoners. He knew it. All of it. "Brother, my ass." Arnold smirked kicking the soldier in front of him who went tumbling down through the room, "I''m taking Rion with me. I don''t care how important he is to you. He owes me some answers and till I get them, he''ll stay with me." "Irmao, you can''t take a political prisoner-" Gabriel tried to intervene, but Arnold''s re shot him down. Nichs, however, wasn''t someone who liked being bossed around. He too was a SS ranked warrior and president of a country on top of that. He just couldn''t let Arnold do as he pleased. He knew he screwed up, and he was willing to pay for it but not like this. The attack on cks was technically his fault and he was sorry for it. But Arnold''s behaviour waspletely inexcusable. It wasn''t the kind of reunion he was hoping to have with his ''disciple'' but he won''t have another man emascte him in front of his people. Not again. But he also knew Arnold was out of his league. If he wanted to take him out then he''ll have to do it quickly and in one strike. If he couldn''t... Well, then Arnold would kick his ass. ''This wasn''t how I wanted to end my day, but I guess I''ll have to.'' Nichs thought and went into battle mode. He quietly started gathering as much energy as he could to deliver a deadly blow. But before he could as much as lift a finger in Arnold''s direction, he felt a sharp pain across his cheek. It was only then he noticed the smokeing out of Arnold''s gun. A bullet had grazed his cheek. That''s the pain he felt a moment ago. "The next one won''t graze through your skin. But blow through your head." Arnold gave them a final warning before picking Rion up by his chains. ''Flight, fight or freeze'' was a famous adrenaline quote. Nichs had always chosen the option to fight when it came to it. But he had never thought a day woulde when he''ll have to use one of the other two options as well. ''Fear is natural and there to keep you alive and happy, yet once it has been weaponised and fashioned into a cage, one is honour bound to break free.'' Nichs had always thought of fear in a different light, one of the privileges of being a world-renowned warrior. But right now, he was nothing more than a weakling in front of Arnold... It was the first time he had a taste of what true fear felt like. Arnold''s re, his words, his aura everything had changed. He was no longer a man they knew. He was in a league of his own and no matter how much they trained, they''ll never be able to catch up to him. But there was something Nichs was invincible in - a battle of words. "Arnold. Your actions are hostile-" Nichs started speaking but Arnold wasn''t in the mood to take his crap anymore. "Right now, we''re all heated and can''t make a proper decision. So please don''t take my actions personally. I apologize for the nuisance I caused unintentionally, but this man ising with me and that''s final." Arnold mumbled a sort of apology as the darkness of his domain swallowed both of them. Chapter 302 - Requesting Support (1) "How is everything there?" Arnold asked Talos. "Everything is fine, master. No issues here. Mistress Nina is asleep at the moment." Talos'' voice echoed through Arnold''smunicator.?? "That''s good..." Arnold mumbled before letting out a heavy sigh. After the altercation with Nichs and co in Rio, Arnold fled back to the alpha base in zone 4. He wanted to get the truth out of Rion but the moment Rion saw Arnold in front of him, he lost it. He began struggling with all his might to swing a punch at Arnold. And Arnold being the kind man he was, gave him a shot. He told the automaton guards to let him go, and as soon as they did Rion lunged at Arnold like an injured leopard. Rion was desperate for Arnold''s blood and flesh to feed on. Arnold just sidestepped and deliver a kick to Rion''s face which ended up breaking his jaw. Rion howled in pain. But refused to give up. Arnold''s ''death'' was the reason for white wolves to be treated the way they were. Everything they had, power, money, respect... Nichs took everything away from them just because Arnold was supposedly dead. But it was all a lie. Arnold was alive. His guild was punished for something that didn''t happen. The rage Rion felt was beyond his control. He once again lunged at Arnold. This time Arnold allowed Rion to hit him, but the moment Rion''s fist connected with Arnold''s face, his wrist snapped like a twig. Arnold didn''t even lift a finger to defend himself, the mana shield he had was enough to defend him. But even Arnold hadn''t imagined that the shield would end up breaking the man''s wrist. Rion grabbed his broken arm before falling on his knees and bawling like a kid. He knew Arnold was stronger than him. He knew there was nothing he could do to avenge the people he had lost. But what else was he supposed to do? Sit quietly on the floor like a trained bitch? Arnold signalled the automatons to get Rion treated by the base''s medic. He felt sorry for the man, even after what he had done to him inside the transdimensional portal. It was a long time ago, thus he had almost forgotten about how Rion screwed him over. But even after remembering the pain he had to go through, Arnold couldn''t bring himself to hate Rion. He had already been punished enough for what he did to Arnold and Arnold didn''t want to punish the poor guy anymore. Also, Arnold initially wanted to return home for the night and spend some time with Nina. But decided against it at thest moment. He was going to interrogate Rion along with Amanda, his loyal ve, and Natasha as both of them were experts in digging out well-hidden secrets from someone''s mind. That''s why he called Talos to tell him he won''t being back tonight and also to have him report if anything weird happened there. While Arnold was away, Talos was his eyes and ears inside the ck Mansion. The family was too big for Arnold to know about all of them and thus Talos was digging up everyone''s information while protecting Nina. It wasn''t like Arnold didn''t trust the family, he would trust them with his life. But he had to be cautious as well. If his enemies got to know about his unborn child, he was certain someone would make their move against Nina. Also, he still didn''t know who helped the wolves infiltrate and attack the family. Thus, he was suspicious that this hidden enemy might make a move on them as well. That''s the reason why he employed such a big force of automatons along with Talos to protect Nina. "Alright. Keep me updated if anything happens." Arnold instructed Talos before disconnecting. "Master, the man wants to talk with you." Natasha had been patiently waiting for Arnold to get off the call before saying anything. "Did he say what he wants to talk about?" Arnold asked the subus. "He didn''t." Natasha said with a sly smile, "But I peeked into his mind, either way. He wants to talk about the same thing you do." "That''s good. Saves me the trouble of torturing him for hours. Good work." Arnold patted Natasha''s head, before heading towards the infirmary. *** "I heard you wanted to have a chat with me?" Arnold asked Rion as the medic left the room. Rion had a ster around the arm he had punched Arnold with, while his mouth had been fixed using healing magic so that he could talkfortably. He was also given a clean set of clothes to wear instead of the rag he had been wearing for God knows how long. His unstered handcuffed to the bedframe. However, Arnold deemed it to be unnecessary and told the guards to remove the cuffs immediately. Rion was a bit surprised by the way Arnold was treating him. He was about to say something about the cuffs when Arnold cut him off. "I didn''t get the cuffs removed because of yourfort. I did it as it was disrespectful to me. After all, why would I need to cuff someone weaker than me in my presence?" Arnold turned around to face the guards, "That doesn''t make any sense, does it?" "No sir!" The guard tried to sound confident but their squeaky voice revealed their hidden fears. Arnold shook his head and turned his attention back to Rion, "So, you were saying?" "You want to know who aided us in attacking your family, don''t you?" Rion mumbled, his gaze fixed at the ceiling. "That is the reason I brought you here from that ce." Arnold hesitated for a moment before speaking again, "Look, Rion. I just want you to know whatever Nichs did to you and the wolves were his personal decision. If I had made it out of that dungeon, then sure, I would''ve hunted you down, but I''d never go after your guild unless they attacked me. I''m not that kind of man. I don''t kill innocents, unlike Nichs. I only killed your teammates in the dungeon because they attacked me first. And I''m not going to apologize for something I''m not responsible for." Rion didn''t say a word but nodded as a stray tear traced the path down his face as Arnold kept talking. "It might not seem sincere, given the circumstances, but I want to apologize to you for everything your allies suffered through. Now with that being said, you are still my prisoner." Arnold mumbled, "But I don''t want to cause you any more pain than what you have already gone through. Thus, I promise that you''ll be treated well if you give me want I want." Rion looked Arnold in the face. Almost as if he was trying to figure him out. One moment Arnold turned into a ruthless beast and the next he was like a caring brother. The mood swings this man had were way too extreme. After five minutes, Rion finally gave a name to Arnold. "Andrex." Chapter 303 - Requesting Support (2) "Andrex was the one who approached Mali and made a deal with him." Rion was telling Arnold whatever he could remember from the brief conversation he and Mali had years ago, "It was a pretty straightforward deal. As long as we managed to take the cks down, he''d help us get revenge on Nichs. I told Mali that it was a bad idea, but he didn''t listen as you belonged to that family as well. But even before he had a chance to make a move against your family, Nichs got us for good." Arnold patiently recorded the conversation as he knew the syndicate would request him to present evidence to back up his usations. But even though he had a straight face on, on the inside, Arnold was burning with rage and Rion''s words were acting like fuel to it.?? Since the syndicate might not trust the man''s words, thus Arnold had Amanda by his side. She was acting as a living lie detector for him and so far she had confirmed that Rion was indeed telling the truth. "I don''t know what happened after that. But judging from the way you''re trying to suppress your anger, I think the rest of the wolves did end up attacking y''all." Rion mumbled in a sad voice, "That''s all I know." As soon as Rion said those words, Arnold got up, took the recording and left the infirmary. His eyes were aze with rage. He immediately called Nathan and informed him about his findings. "Arnold, I know Andrex hates us but even I doubt he''d do something as reckless as this." Nathan said in an attempt to calm Arnold down, "That man is the personification of cowardice, after all. Also, are you sure we can trust the guy who told you this?" "I had a personnel with lie-detecting abilities present in the room while interrogating him. But if you don''t believe me, then fine. I''ll take care of the mess like I always do." Arnold replied. "Arnold, there''s awful way to do this," Nathan told Arnold. His voice shaking a bit, "Don''t forget about thew, we can''t attack another family just like that-" But Arnold wasn''t in the mood to listen to Nathan about political and ethical crap. Andrex had wronged them and now he was going to pay Arnold back with his blood. That was all to it. But first, Arnold needed to make sure that Nina was safe. So he called Talos. "Yes, master?" Talos'' voice echoed through the speakers. "T, where''s Nina?" "She''s here with me. The family got an emergency call from the Andrex, requesting back up to clear a dungeon." Talos responded, "Then master Nathan sent mistress Nina to aid them so I, along with 30 automatons went with her-" "Where are you? I''ll get over there right away. Just make sure Nina is safe till I get there!" "Master is something wrong?" "Just answer the damn question! WHERE ARE YOU!? I can''t get a signal from Nina''s locator." "In the dungeon under the Griffith observatory. Master is everything alright?" "TAKE NINA AND GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Arnold yelled overms, "I don''t care if you have to kill the people around you. Just get Nina to-" Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, following which, the call disconnected. Arnold frantically tried to connect with the other automatons but none of the automatons that went along with Nina were responding. "Talos!? Anyone!? ANDREX, YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I SWEAR I''LL DESTROY YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY IF THERE''S AS MUCH AS A SCRATCH ON NINA." Arnold yelled in rage before disappearing into a travel portal. *** Moments ago, in Los Angeles... "Talos? Who are you talking to right now?" Nina asked the automaton before shing a ghoulish creature''s throat with her sword. "Mistress, we have to leave. This all may have been a set up-" Talos began speaking but even before he couldplete a sentence, he was blown into the wall next to them. Nina rushed over, kneeling next to him while looking at the one who did it. It was Adrian, the man who was the leader of the party and the one who had specifically requested for her assistance to clear the dungeon. Standing 5'' 9" tall, this fair-skinned man has a very aggressive feel about him and it was evident by the way he had been bashing the monsters with his fist till now. A particrly notable feature of him were his strangely dark freckles. He had a square face with a round chin, big nose, thin lips, and his hazel eyes were narrow making him look a bit intimidating. His long ck hair had been dip-dyed halfway with shades of dark blonde and looked very messy. In his party were 12 other people, 6 of whom were mages, 3 brawlers and the remaining were tanks. And right now, all of them were smiling at Nina. "Are your eyes so narrow that you can''t even recognise who is your ally and who''s the enemy?" Ninashed out at him while pointing her sword at the man''s throat. Adrian was the one who had punched Talos and sent him flying. His strike was too precise to be a misfire and his smirk also gave his intentions away. "Have you suddenly gone deaf or dumb?" Nina asked the man once more, "Why did you do it?" Adrian didn''t respond to her and threw a fit ofughter. His teammates joined in. Nina knew something was off ever since they entered the dungeon, but she couldn''t make any rash decisions because of that stupidw forbidding the families from shing amongst themselves. "Why did I do it? Well, it''s clear, isn''t it? He was here to protect you that''s why he had to go first." Adrian smiled before stretching his fingers. As soon as he uttered those words,the remaining automatons jumped on his party. Ready to kill them if necessary. But before the automatons could eveny their fingers on his party, Adrian snapped his fingers and the automatons fell one after another. Nina couldn''t understand what was going on, and Adrian was more than willing to rify her doubts. "Concentrated electromaic pulse bomb. Always works like a charm." He smiled, "I wasn''t so sure it''d work on these robots, but looks like it did! And don''t even try to contact anyone, yourmunicator won''t work now either-" Bang! Just as Adrian and hispany of assassins were all smiles, a bullet made a hole in the head of the man standing next to Adrian. None of them wasughing anymore as Talos shot once again, killing yet another one of the enemies. "I think you overestimated your capabilities." Talos said as he transformed into the ogre king, "You''re the one''s who''ll meet their end tonight." Chapter 304 - Rage Of The Deathless (1) "Talos... What''s going on here?" Nina whispered, holding her sword tighter than before. Nina couldn''t understand what was happening. Moments ago they were busy killing monsters and suddenly, for no apparent reason, the members from Andrex''s family had turned their weapons on them? She knew Andrex had had issues with the ck family, but why would he iste her from the rest of the family and attack her like this? But if he wanted to attack someone, Andrex would have gone for Nathan, not her.?? She might''ve been important to the family in recent years, but she couldn''t think of one instance where she did anything to upset Andrex... Unless it wasn''t about her at all. "I don''t know, mistress." Talos replied in the ogre''s voice, "All I know is that master wants you to get out of the dungeon. No matter the cost." Nina''s guess was right. Andrex did it all to get back at Arnold for humiliating him in front of the other heads, back when Arnold was made themander to lead the syndicate into the swamp. Andrex had made it clear that he''d never acknowledge or support Arnold but she never thought he''d fall this far to get under Arnold''s skin. ''What does that frivolous bastard thinks of me? S ranked assholes couldn''t take me down when I was C ranked. Now that I''m an A-ranker, and they think they can take me down so easily?'' Nina thought as she took a step forward and stood next to Talos, but he pushed her back. "Mistress, your safety is of the utmost importance right now." Talos told her, "God forbid, but if anything happened to you, the master would burn this world down in his blind rage. I cannot allow that to happen. So please make a run for it as soon as you see an opening. I''ll hold these suckers till then." "Wasn''t that mechanized bastard destroyed?" Adrian gritted his teeth together, "He even survived the EMP attack and now he''s turned into a wall between us and our revenge." "That ogre or whatever that thing is, looks strong," Decker, the smallest guy among the crowd as well as Adrian''s second inmand voiced his opinions, "What should we do now? Use another EMP?" Adrian turned to face the dwarf-like man next to him, before smiling, "You should be grateful. If you had been any taller, that disgusting robot would''ve blown your head off." "I''m serious Adrian." "I know you are... But we can''t do much now. We have to take down that vile creature first and foremost. After that, we''ll drag the girl to Luke. What he does with her, doesn''t concern us." "Right." Decker nodded before getting into his battle stance. Decker might''ve been the shortest member in the group, but he was also the strongest and the most agile among them. And the only one Adrian ever listened to. They had been friends for as long as they could remember. Hell, at one point in time, Decker was the one who kept saving Adrian''s butt during their missions. No matter how outrageous the mission was, they always made the impossible, possible. "It''s better if we do what we did in Budapest? Hit and run?" Decker asked the boss man. "Don''t mind if we do." Adrian turned to face the magicians, "Prepare some healing magic for me, will ya?" "Yes sir!" The three mages replied in unison. Seeing that Talos was distracted, Adrian charged at him along with Decker. A fatal mistake. Talos swung his gigantic arms around. Decker easily dodged the attack but it wasn''t the same for Adrian as he crashed hard to the wall on the opposite side. His skull was split open from the impact. Decker, however, managed to get close to Talos. Closer than he wasfortable with, so he tried to kick the man as well. But Decker was faster than him. He quickly dodged the iing attack and threw something at Talos. Talos covered his face with his right arm while holding Nina back with his left. Nheless, it wasn''t an ideal position for him to battle. But he couldn''t do a thing about it, not while protecting someone. The next second, the mysterious ball exploded right in front of his face. Shrouding him in smoke. "Smoke grenade?You think that would work against me?" Talos roared in rage and charged at the crowd like a rhino. If he could get them before they could react, Nina would be able to get out of there. He hit the unsuspecting crowd of enemies. The tankers heard the ogre''s footsteps and hurriedly pulled their shields up. However, it was all in vain, mere A-rankers won''t be able to stop Talos. The explosive impact shook the dungeon to its core. The tankers were killed in an instant. But those unfortunate ones who didn''t die instantly were on the ground howling in pain with their limbs twisted in weird angles. Soon the dusty floor was drenched with crimson blood. Just when Talos thought it was all over he heard a voice. "It wasn''t my intention to target you." Decker smiled through his gas mask as the cloud of ck smoke finally dissipated, "It was her. Always had been." Nina''s unconscious body dangled on Decker''s shoulder. Talos then realised what the bomb was... It wasn''t a smoke bomb but knockout gas. He wasn''t affected by it because he was a robot, but Nina was. "You don''t know who you''re messing with..." Talos mumbled slowly, "Thousands of lives would be in danger because of your foolishness!" "Oh... Just shut the fck up!" Adrian yelled as he speared Talos down to the ground, his head bleeding like a fountain, "Decker, take that bitch out of here. I''ll hold this box of tin down. Go!" "You got it!" Decker nodded and rushed out of the dungeon. Once he was outside, he saw a man casually smoking a cigarette next to a car. "There you go, Luke." Decker said cing Nina on the ground in front, "You should probably get going. We had some trouble within- ahh!" Luke smiled as Decker slowly fell on his knees, blood gushing out of his mouth and nose, "I''m sorry about this, Decker. But we gotta take care of the loose ends. Don''t hold a grudge against me." "You... Bastard..." Those were Decker''sst words as his mind went nk. "Now, what should I do with you?" Luke smiled like some feral beast before he started kicking Nina in her face, her abdomen, everywhere. "I... Don''t... Think... Andrex... Would... Mind... If... I... y... With... You... For... A... While!" He said kicking her before each word came out of his filthy mouth. After he was tired of kicking her, he grabbed her by her hair and started bashing her head on the hood of his car. By the time he stooped, Nina was a mess. Her clothes were torn, her face was swollen, bruised and battered. Sheid there in the pool of her blood. Unable to feel anything due to the knockout gas while Luke wasughing like a madman. Luke''s maniacalughter was the only thing Nina could hear as she slowly regained consciousness. In her mind she was apologizing to Arnold, if only she had stayed inside the mansion like he had told her to, none of this would''ve happened. She knew it was the end, but then she saw somethinging towards her from the skies... A winged creature, camouged within the stars... A jade dragon... And on top of it was a man... A man whom she loved more than herself... "Arnold..." She mumbled before darkness snatched her away. Chapter 305 - Rage Of The Deathless (2) The sky roared with thunder as Scynded on the ground. Luke was too shocked to do anything. Too scared to move. It was the first time he had seen a dragon so closely. Everything about the dragon, its jade scales, its horns and its zing eyes scared him crapless. His heart fell deeper and deeper into his bowel the more he stared at Scy. He felt cold... Ice cold. So much so that his hands were started shivering uncontrobly. His intuition, his body, his mind and everything around him was begging him to run. Everything apart from his legs that had rebelled against him, unwilling to budge from the ce.?? In hindsight, He wasn''t scared of the dragon. No. He was more scared of the one standing on its back. The man was smartly dressed in ck clothes, looking like devil''s personal hitman. Just looking at the man, made his spine shiver uncontrobly. Before Luke knew it, Arnold began walking towards him. His heart sank with each step he took. Luke couldn''t get a read on Arnold''s face. It waspletely... Expressionless, emotionless. He thought Arnold would be enraged, ready to kill him on the spot. After all, he had bashed his girlfriend like a ragdoll. But Arnold didn''t do anything. He just kept walking towards Nina, his firm steps sending shockwaves throughout the area. While Luke was boring a hole into Arnold''s soul, thetter opened a portal and out of it walked his summons. "Alice, Natasha, check on Nina''s condition." Arnold mumbled after kneeling next to his lover, "Asterios, BB, go inside that dungeon. Drag everyone who''s inside. Don''t kill anyone, I''ll kill them myself. I don''t care if they don''t have a limb or not, they should be breathing. And Dread make sure no one disturbs us." With his words, his summons went into action. Alice and Natasha fused their magic to heal Nina faster. They had barely started when Arnold took Nina''s bloody hand into his. He was continuously mumbling something but no one heard him. Alice and Natasha were too absorbed into saving Nina and Luke... Well, he was too scared to even breathe. Before attacking Nina, he thought he was ready to die. After he got his revenge, he had nothing to live for. Yet now that he had done the unforgivable, he was scared for his life... At first, he thought the dragon was the one he was scared of, but no, he now knew, he was scared of the man. Always had been. They were fools to anger someone like him... Someone with enough strength to rule over the world if he wanted to. The atmosphere grew deadly silent. Even the winds which had been soaring just moments ago had stoppedpletely. The roaring sky went silent. Even the clouds were stationary as if even they were scared to move in Arnold''s presence. Alice was the one who broke the eerie silence, "They''re safe. Both of them!" "Thank god... Thank god... Thank god..." Arnold kept mumbling incoherently before looking at Alice with his bloodshot eyes, "Take her to the hospital. Take Scy with you, you''ll get there faster." Arnold then lifted the unconscious Nina in his arms and walked back to Scy with Alice in toe. Alice got on top of the dragon and Arnold handed Nina over to her after kissing her forehead. Scy pped her ginormous wings, carefully lifting the injured woman before disappearing into the night. Right at that moment, Talos, Bad-Breath and Asterios walked out of the portal. Talos was missing an arm but he was okay otherwise. Bad-Breath was dragging a man behind him while Asterios walked with a dozen broken automatons. "Master, I-" Talos wanted to apologize for his failure but Arnold wasn''t in the mood for it and raised his hand telling the automaton to stop. "I don''t wanna hear it. Take the automatons, get back inside the domain and get yourself fixed. I''ll talk to you when I''ve calmed down." Arnold''s instructions were as clear as day, "Till then don''t say a word." Talos knew he had failed to do one thing his master asked for. He deserved to be punished. As Talos began walking into the portal, Asterios patted him on his shoulder. Even the usually emotionless minotaur could understand what Talos was going through. "Both of you, go with him and prepare for battle." Arnold instructed Asterios and Bad-Breath who followed hismand without any questions, "Leave the man here. I''ll take care of him." All of his summons knew Arnold wasn''t calm. His anger had gone beyond the limits. There was no saving the ones responsible for this anymore. The only thing they could now hope for was to get a painless dead. Which, given the circumstances, was unlikely to happen. Bad-Breath dumped Adrian near Arnold''s foot before walking inside the portal. Now there were only three people left there apart from Arnold''s summons, Arnold, Luke and Adrian. However, Adrian was barely alive. Most of the bones in his body were shattered and Arnold could almost see his bones all messed up even through the skin. "Fix him up," Arnold ordered Natasha to heal Adrian. Natasha was a bit confused, why would her master want to heal the one who conspired against the mistress? However, just as the rest of the summons, she knew better than to question Arnold when he was mad and did what he told her to. Adrian had been knocked unconscious by Bad-Breath and didn''t know what was happening outside. But as soon as he saw Arnold he knew he had to run. He tried crawling back inside the dungeon but something hadtched onto his legs, pulling him back. Adrian turned around, almost on the verge of breaking down, to see that a tree had wrapped its roots and branches around his limbs and neck. Arnold then snapped his fingers and the tree went into action, forcing its branches inside every orifice it could find. Adrian''s eyes swelled in pain as his mouth had been stuffed with mud, dirt and timber. He frantically looked at Arnold, his eyes pleading for mercy but Arnold didn''t even look at him and snapped his fingers again. The next second Adrian was ripped to shreds from the inside. The remains of his body flew everywhere. It felt like it was raining... A rain of blood, bones and flesh. Arnold then turned his attention towards Luke, who suddenly found the strength to run away. But the same thing happened to him. The trees stopped him in his track, forcing him to kneel before Arnold. "Where is Andrex?" Arnold asked the man, witnessing Luke wet himself the moment Arnold emitted his concealed aura. "In... His mansion." Luke barely managed to mumble in despair when Arnold kicked him unconscious. Arnold then turned towards Natasha, "Do your worst but keep him alive. When I return I want him begging me to kill him. Understood?" "It''ll be my pleasure, master," Natasha said, smiling like a depraved creature as Arnold made his way towards Andrex''s mansion. Chapter 306 - Rage Of The Deathless (3) The cityscape of Los Angeles told the story of its residents in colours, from the neon rainbow lights to golden kitchen glows. Like a constetion of architecture, as calm and peaceful as heaven for its residents. The usual vibrant sky oftenplimented the city and added to its beauty. But not tonight. No longer did the sky made the city look lovelier. No longer was the sky vibrant. No longer was Los Angeles, the city of angels. Because a devil had been forced to awaken from his slumber. All because of the foolishness of a few.?? Even nature couldn''t help but falter under the influence of one man- no, he wasn''t a man anymore. He hadn''t been one for a long, long time. The night was darker than ever before, crying for the innocent souls that''ll be lost tonight. Earth cowered under his feet with every step he took. The wind careful not to touch the man, should his rage befall on it. Rain poured down from the heavens, trying to take his rage, his pain away from him. The rain had always been the man''s favourite part of nature. The rain has always consoled him like the mother he lost. The rain once again wanted to touch him, console him and beg him not to punish the innocent for the mistakes of a few. But in vain, as the droplets evaporated even before they could touch the man. The rain became more intense, soaking everything inside the city. Everything except the one person it wanted to. Arnold was blinded by unadulterated rage. He kept walking... And walking... Until he reached the ce he wanted to be in. He was standing at the edge of a cliff and below him was the most beautiful and serene sight. A mansion, so colossal it would make even the gods jealous, a true piece of art. Yet all Arnold could see was a ce to destroy... A ce to eradicate... a ce to consume. He opened a portal leading to his domain. The biggest one he had ever made, and out of it came a flood of his summons. In the blink of an eye, the cliff was overcrowded by his summons. There wasn''t enough space for even an ant to stand there anymore. Arnold turned around to be greeted by over 2500 automatons, ogres, and undead as they bowed before their master, ready to burn the world on hismand, ready to exact his rage upon his enemies. Everyone was there. Everyone apart from Scy, Alice, Natasha and Talos, who felt like a failure that he couldn''t even protect his mistress. But there was someone else as well. Someone stronger than all of his summons. The only ones who would''ve been able to defeat the creature were Arnold and Scy. The creature was once known as the King of the Lizardmen, the strongest being to rule over the swamps and know he was Arnold''s sword, Grock! "What''s yourmand, my Lord," Grock asked his master in the humblest of tones. "Destroy everything. Kill everyone who stands in your way. Everyone except," He showed them a picture of Andrex on hismunicator, "this man. Bring him to me. Alive." A few of his summons were surprised. Arnold had always told them to be careful and not to unnecessarily take an innocent life and yet he had given them an order to kill everyone? Their master was willing to kill hundreds of innocents... All to punish one man? However, none of them voiced their opinion. Their master was enraged and rightfully so. "Your wish is ourmand!" The summons roared in unison before jumping off the cliff with Grock leading the charge in Talos'' absence. Ready to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting enemy. *** "Where the heck is that bastard!" Andrex mmed his ss of whiskey on the table, "Luke was supposed to be here an hour ago. He''s not even picking up his damnedmunicator!" Just minutes ago he had been in a jolly mood. Waiting for Luke to bring Nina there. Although they had nned to kill her, Andrex had a different n. He wanted to have some fun with that curvaceous beauty before sending her to the purgatory. After all, he always had a thing for her and it was almost sickening. He had even bought some exotic aphrodisiac to make the night more memorable and yet there he was, waiting for the news from Luke. "If all went ording to n, Luke should''ve gotten rid of those assassins first." He mumbled while refilling his ss with whiskey, "That is if all went ording to n. But what could go wrong? All of the SS ranked warriors had already left the country to take care of their business. There shouldn''t have been anyone to stop him." As he poured the drink into his body he heard some noise. Not a noise, but a scream. "Just what are the morons of my family doing now..." Andrex said and made his way towards the window, pushing the curtains aside. He was expecting the guards to be fooling around like usual, but he saw somethingpletely different. The ss slipped out of his hands and fell on the floor, shattering on impact. He couldn''t believe what he was seeing. Right before his eyes, mes as high as the mountains around them, rose higher and higher into the night as if they were challenging the heavenly rain. The downpour couldn''t even put a dent on the fire as it consumed everything in its way. The smoke emanating from the fire shrouded the entire mansion. Andrex couldn''t fathom the reason behind this sudden attack. But then he saw them... The automatons... The undead monsters everything he wished to never see again. "How... How... How..." He fell to his knees. His eyes wide in terror as he covered his ears to stop the deafening screams of his family members as they were ughter like pigs one after another. Andrex was shaking uncontrobly. His worst fears wereing true. He was curled up like a ball when a few of his elite guards came rushing inside. "Sir, you have to leave now!" One of them yelled as they barged into his room, "Sir! SIR!" "Huh? Hahahahahaha!" All of sudden, something snapped inside Andrex. He couldn''t take it anymore. The fear... Was too much for him to handle. The fear of the most torturous death humanity had ever known, made him lose his mind... Chapter 307 - Rage Of The Deathless (4) "What should we do now? We don''t even know why the cks are attacking us all of a sudden-" The shorter guy among the elite guards panicked after seeing their leader in such a pitiful state. "Migg, could you just SHUT THE HELL UP FOR A SECOND!" Dio, the leader of the elite guard yelled at the top of his lungs. It was enough to silence the elite warrior but Andrex remained unphased by it and kept giggling like a child.?? "The cks would never attack us unprovoked..." Dio mumbled to himself, "and even if they did, they won''t go as far as massacring us in such an inhumane manner. Master must have done an exceptional job at pissing them off." "That''s all good, but what do we do now? While we''re chattering here, our people are being ughtered like pigs!" Migg''s eyes had gone all haywire. His heart was beating so fast that he wasn''t even sure if the heart was in its ce anymore. Dio didn''t answer his subordinate and quietly walked to the window. The carnage he saw below may him rethink whether he was on earth or in hell. Dio was no stranger to such sights as he was a war veteran who had served in Iran prior to the appearance of dungeons and monsters. Yet, none of it even came close to the level of destruction before his eyes. The forest around the mansion was littered with gore. The scenery that was once cluttered in green was now reced in the redness of fire and blood. The air which was usually calming and cool was now filled with deafening sounds of explosions and screams. The toll on the forest as well as its upants was unimaginable, it''ll take years if not decades for the forest to recover on its own. Dio could sense it... Hell had descended upon them. It was a battle... No. They could never ''battle'' against the enemies they were facing. Not only were they outnumbered 4 to 1, but they were also outmatched in skill. The enemy worked as one unit while everyone on their side was worried about saving their own asses. Dio shook his head in disappointment. "Ipetent leaders lead to an ipetent future..." Dio mumbled before quickly kicking Andrex who was giggling beside him, "What did you do this time!?" Dio''s behaviour shocked Migg. He had never seen Dio so enraged before. But then again, it was no public secret that Dio hated Andrex. And he had sufficient reasons to hate him as well. After all, Andrex was the man who almost destroyed their family in his pursuit of power and influence. Nobody knew exactly what had conspired between the two, but rumour had it, that Dio was the one who helped Andrex''s wife to escape with her lover and Andrex retaliated, taking out his frustrations on the family. Obviously, it was just a rumour and had no proof to back it up. The point is, that their family didn''t have a pinch of faith in their own. But troubles within the family didn''t stop Andrex from looking for trouble outside and now because of him, they were all going to die. While Migg was lost in his thoughts, Dio noticed something weird. As he had apanied Arnold and the rest of the syndicate to the swamps, he already knew a little bit about Arnold and his summons. A quick nce below, revealed that not a single person included in the one-sided massacre were from the cks side. All of the attackers were Arnold''s summon. That meant he was the one attacking them, was Arnold, not the ck family altogether. "We might have a way to save ourselves..." He smiled, but it was a defeated smile, not a joyous one, "Andrex did something to trigger Arnold and when Arnold attacked, he realised he screwed up big time. I''m sure of it, otherwise, someone as brazen as Andrex, wouldn''t have lost his mind and turn into a hybrid of a weeping child and a yapping dog." "And..." Migg couldn''t get what Dio wanted to tell him. "What I''m saying is that Arnold is most probably here because of this piece of crap. If we hand Andrex over to him, his rage should subside and hence we''ll be saved." "How can you even suggest that?" Migg couldn''t believe what Dio was saying, "I know Master has his faults but that doesn''t mean we should hand him over to a lion! Moreover, Arnold was the one to attack us, if anything, he should be the one who gets punished and not us!" "Is that so... Then why don''t you head out and show that courage of yours to the Deathless?" Dio mocked his subordinate. Migg opened his mouth to say something but quickly closed it. Going against Arnold was synonymous withmitting suicide. "I thought so. However... If the cks most probably oblivious about this attack, then maybe just maybe, we can find a way to stop this madness without handing Andrex over to him." Dio mumbled to himself while scratching his chin, "Inform the cks about the attack. If anyone can calm Arnold down, it''s them. But if that doesn''t work... We''ll have no other way but to hand this bastard over to him. Got it?" "I''ll get to it immediately." Migg saluted Dio before leaving him alone with Andrex. Once Migg was gone, Dio grabbed Andrex by the cor and lifted him off the ground. His face was awkwardly close to Andrex''s. Andrex, who now had the mental intelligence of a three-year-old, covered his eyes with his hands because the expression on Dio''s face scared him. "That bastard Migg wouldn''t let me take you away if he was here. So I had to send him away first." Dio smiled, "That kid''s loyal to you. Something a bastard like you doesn''t deserve. Just like you didn''t deserve my sister, J. Tonight, I''ll make sure you pay for what you put her through until she ran away. Tonight, I''ll make sure you die a dog''s death as you deserve." A minuteter he threw Andrex out of the window, right in front of Asterios. The Minotaur was about to swing his bloodstained Warhammer through his new target''s head when he realised who the man was. His Master wanted this man to be delivered to him, unscathed. He huffed loudly and two automatons immediately came rushing to him. They picked the scared Andrex and were about to retreat when Dio called for them. He was kneeling in front of them. His eyes fixated on the ground below, "If possible, I''d like to hand that bastard over to your Master myself." Asterios didn''t know what the man was saying, neither did he care about him. His Master''s instructions were clear: bring that man and kill everyone else. And Asterios was going to fulfil his Master''s desire. Right when Asterios was about to send Dio to the afterlife, Arnold''s voice echoed through one of the automatons. "Bring him too." Chapter 308 - Disowned (1) Arnold was still standing on the cliff, admiring the carnage his summons were causing. The forest was aze, the mansion had been utterly destroyed, the ground was littered with mangled corpses and blood. Screams from the humans slowly began to die out. It wasn''t because he told his troops to retreat, but because there were many people left to kill now. It was hell... No, even worse than hell. This wasn''t how Arnold wanted his day to end, but it was the only way to calm him down. The more death and destruction his summons caused, the calmer he got. He didn''t know why he felt like that, but as usual, system-sama was there to answer his doubts.?? ___ Destroyer meter filled up to: 89.86% ___ ''Still not enough huh...'' Arnold thought. If this amount of destruction wasn''t enough for his destroyer ss to evolve, then Arnold didn''t know what else could. He even went as far as ordering his summons to kill innocents... Something he had been refraining to do until now. ''''No. They weren''t innocent. None of them was." Arnold mumbled, before shifting his gaze at the night sky. The rain had finally given up on consoling Arnold and stopped their heavenly barrage as if they detested Arnold''s existence now. However, the dark clouds were still looming over him, still hoping Arnold would control his bloodlust. Just then Alice called him, "Arnold, they''re safe. Both Nina and the child are stable now. She had lost a lot of blood but thankfully the healers were able to stop the bleeding in time." "That''s good... Thank you. I''ll be there soon." Arnold let out a sigh of relief. "Alright. I''ll be here till then." Arnold then connected himself to the rest of the automatons, "Everyone gather the destroyed automatons and fall back. We got what we came here for." His voice boomed throughout the forest. And his summons, like the obedient pets they were, left a lucky few alive and retreated from the ce. Few minutes passed and then he heard a giggling voice. He turned around to see Andrex walking on all fours like a dog. Next to him was the man who had surrendered Andrex to him. He too had been restrained with the help of chains like Andrex. Behind the two were thousands of his summons. It had been aplete one-sided massacre where Arnold only lost about a dozen automatons. It was an overwhelming victory for him yet Arnold wasn''t satisfied. "What happened to him?" Arnold asked Dio who was standing next to Andrex. "We don''t know sir Deathless..." Dio immediately went on his knees in front of Arnold. His eyes pointed at Arnold''s feet, "When we entered his chambers, he wasughing and crying like an entric fool. I''m afraid... Your disy of strength might''ve been a bit too much for his feeble mind to take in." "And who are you?" "The leader of the elite guards, sir." Arnold didn''t reply and walked up to Andrex. As soon as Andrex saw him, he ran and try to hide behind Dio. Andrex was shivering while his eyes failed to stop producing an endless stream of tears. "Pfft- HAHAHAHAHA!" All of a sudden Arnold startedughing hysterically, "I didn''t know the bastard was so afraid of me. Hahahaha! He lost his mind because I came to return the favour?" "Y-Yes my Lord..." Dio mumbled but as soon as he did, Arnold pushed him aside, grabbed Andrex by his cor and dragged him to the edge of the cliff they were standing on. The next moment, Andrex was dangling from the cliff, upside down. Andrex started crying hysterically. Even in his lunatic state, he was well afraid of dying. Andrex kept struggling to get freed but he couldn''t do anything apart from drenching himself in his piss. "You''re pathetic..." Arnold shook his head and mmed Andrex on the ground like a ragdoll, "It almost makes me doubt if you''re the same man who tried to get my family killed... You should have lots of guys to go against me and yet... *sigh*" "My Lord... You should kill that bastard for enraging you!" Dio tried to fan the mes of hatred within Arnold so that he would be able to get his revenge on Andrex for what he did to his sister. Little did he knew, he should''ve kept his mouth shut. "And why would I do that?" Arnold looked at Dio, who immediately bowed his head once again, "Are you trying to tell me what to do?" "I-I didn''t mean to question you, my L-Lord..." Arnold''s overflowing killing intent almost made him pass out, he couldn''t think straight at all, "But that bastard deserves to die-" The next moment, a bullet passed through Duo''s head. Arnold didn''t want to kill the guy but his whining was pissing him off so he shut Dio down for good. "Grock, lock his bastard up in the basement." Arnold pointed at Andrex before opening a portal to his domain. "The rest of you, get inside as well. We''re done for the day." Just then, Arnold heard footsteps behind him. He instinctively turned around, his guns still in his hands. He was ready to fire when he realised Nathan was standing behind him along with a hundred family members as well syndicate members. None of them was looking at him though, their eyes were fixated on the burning forest below. Their feet rooted to the ground in horror as their eyes fell on the bloodstained ground. Nathan was the first to collect his thoughts and he was enraged. Arnold had annihted one of the most important families and for what? Because they attacked the family? He was at the Syndicate HQ along with other leaders discussing about the action they needed to take against Andrex when his assistant came rushing in to inform them about what Arnold had done. Nathan grabbed all of the people that were avable and rushed there as soon as he could but they were toote. "Do you even realise what have you done?" Nathan yelled at Arnold, but Arnold didn''t respond to him. Instead, he yelled at Grock and his summons to enter the portal. Seeing Arnold hadpletely ignored him, Nathan grabbed Arnold''s shoulder and the next moment, Nathan found himself on the ground. "I hate it when someone grabs my shoulder." Chapter 309 - Disowned (2) "What''s wrong with you? Tell us so that we can fix it, damnit!" Nathan asked Arnold before caressing his broken wrist. "You don''t know what happened? YOU DON''T KNOW?" Arnold lost his cool again and grabbed Nathan by his cor, "This bastard and his family nearly killed Nina and my child THAT''S WHAT HAPPENED! Some leader you are who doesn''t even know what happens to his family members. Allen was right, you''re nothing but a failure. A FCKING JOKE!"?? Everyone was stunned. Andrex really did it this time. Going after Nina was way too low of a blow. But right now, the people there were more scared about their own lives than someone else''s. Arnold''s rage could swallow them up at any moment. They were so frightened, all thoughts of stopping Deathless and arresting him went right out of their heads and into a drain. Everyone except Nathan subconsciously stepped back, not wanting to be anywhere around Arnold in his current state. "Nina was attacked..." Nathan mumbled as his feet struggled to find the ground below them, "But she was supposed to stay in the mansion. I never permitted her to leave the mansion... But even so, you should not have taken it upon yourself to avenge her. We should have detained Andrex and question his reason for-" "Nathan..." Arnold hissed at him, "I''m this close to losing my shit again. And if that happens, it won''t end well for either of us. So for your sake, keep your damn mouth SHUT! Because of your ipetence, the family suffers time and time again and now I''m done taking care of your mess. I don''t give a crap about you or your syndicate." Arnold then threw Nathan aside like a rag doll before turning towards the rest of the people there, "I''m done ying the good guy. I''m done ying by the rules and I''m done sucking up to you. I don''t give a shit about you, yourws, your rules or even your country. If anyone and I mean anyone, dare to put their measly finger on someone I care about, I wouldn''t think twice before annihting your entire council and the country. Burn my words in your feeble minds." If the people there weren''t scared of Arnold yet, then they were now. Arnold wasn''t someone who used words like annihtion lightly. If he said he would destroy them, then that''s exactly what he''ll do. The look on Arnold''s face meant one thing... He was dead serious about everything he said. Behind him, the forest and Andrex''s mansion were the proof of what Arnold could do to someone who goes against him. Nathan quietly got back to his feet, while trying his best to hide the pain he was feeling. Both Arnold''s words and actions had deeply hurt him, but he knew he was more or less responsible for it. All of it was his fault. Thus, Arnold was free to do whatever he wanted to him, but he would not allow the syndicate to bear the consequences of his foolishness. "Arnold, you''re really forcing me to do something I don''t want to..." Nathan said with harshness in his voice, "I''m still the leader of the family you belong to." "You''re really pissing me off now Nathan." Arnold gritted his teeth, trying his best to control the overflowing rage inside him, "Stop throwing your position around as if being a leader in name made you invincible. I''ve never told you this before, but even with me aside there are dozens of members who are more capable of leading the family than a weakling like you." Arnold wasn''t scared of Nathan, and it was about time he got to know about it too, "Hell, I think even Allen has enough brain cells to notice who are his allies and who are his enemies. Yet you... Leave it. There''s no point talking to a daddy''s prince about the harsh reality of the world. You should be d Nathaniel helped me when I needed it, and the fact that I have immense respect for him, otherwise I wouldn''t waste a moment of my life talking with you. I''m done here." "Arnold you''ll have toe with us for questioning." Nathanpletely ignored what Arnold said and kept pushing him, "I know we all are heated right now, so let''s just calm down for a bit and then- Hey, are you even listening to me!" Arnold didn''t even bother to turn around and face Nathan. He had more important things to take care of rather than arguing with a manchild. The others quickly backed away and cleared a path for him to leave. They all knew it very well that Arnold was just tolerating Nathan because they belonged to the same family. Had it been anyone else in Nathan''s shoes, they were sure their heads wouldn''t be above their shoulders anymore. "Arnold, don''t make me do this..." Nathan squealed. No response. "The other families can turn against us because of your actions tonight. Is that what you want?" No response yet again. "ARNOLD DON''T MAKE ME DISOWN YOU!" Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs and this time Arnold stopped walking. "Disown me?" Arnold mumbled as he turned around. His eyes were void of any kind of emotion, "Pfft- hahaha! Let me ask you something, oh great leader of the cks, do you think I give a fck about your y house with your ''family''?" Nathan was stunned. Out of all the responses he expected Arnold to give, this was by far the most unexpected one. "If someone crosses my path, I''ll burn the world down if I see fit. And nothing you say or do will stop me." Arnold continued while staring at his so-called family leader. "Arnold you should calm down for a-" Nathan tried to reason with him but Arnold''s cold stare sent shivers down his spine. Without giving Nathan to even breathe Arnold uttered, "Stay out of my business from now on." Nathan didn''t want to do it but in order to keep his family safe and to preserve his integrity, he had to something... "Arnold Ling... You are no longer a part of the ck family. I hereby disown you!" And just like that, he disowned Arnold. Arnold was amoner now. Everyone was stunned. After everything Arnold had done for the family, for Nathan, this was his thanks to him? Arnold felt like he had been pped right on the face but he didn''t care anymore. He tore the ck family''s insignia off his shirt and threw it at Nathan''s feet. "A family that doesn''t care about its members is doomed to rot in hell." Arnold mumbled and opened a travel void before he turned around to say, "No matter what you do, I will annihte the bastards who cross my path and anyone who stands in between. I won''t stop, not even for you. Mark my words." Chapter 310 - Family Divided (1) The hospital hallway was like something out of a science fiction movie. Everything that could shine, was shining. From the floor to the walls to the equipment, everything. There was stainless steel benches as well asfortable chairs for the people to sit while waiting in the hallway. Sleek floors and the art on the walls had natural images disying the happiness one could feel by leading a healthy life. Unlike the stench hospitals usually had, the air inside had a pure fragrance, much to people''s surprise. The reception was hustling and bustling with people but as soon as Arnold entered the building, everybody went silent as if it had been nned beforehand. Most of them knew who Arnold was, while the few who didn''t stay quite regardless. The look on his face told everyone to get out of his way. Arnold ignored everyone else and headed straight towards the receptionist. His eyes were surprisingly calm as he asked her to tell him in which room Nina was being treated in. ?? Standing 5'' 3" tall, the receptionist looked fragile with her olive skin. But she had a sweet and innocent feel about her. Her big brown eyes were alert as a mouse and her mid-back length, curly, light brown hair was properly groomed. As Arnold uttered Nina''s name, she checked the data on her. "I''m s-sorry sir. But her c-condition was pretty b-bad so we''ve been told to r-refrain from giving out any information about her..." The receptionist barely managed to utter those words before looking at Arnold''s face. He didn''t reply. Rather he raised his eyebrows in an intimidating manner. This was more than enough to scare the receptionist and make her teary-eyed. Arnold wasn''t in the mood to tolerate much BS. He was trying really hard to keep his temper in check but these idiots kept checking the limits of his patience. First, it was Nathan and now this receptionist. Had it not been a hospital, even he didn''t know what he would''ve done to these foolish people. "I''m her boyfriend, so I was hoping you could make an exception for me?" Seeing the woman finally breaking down, Arnold sighed heavily and tried to persuade her. While this was happening, a nurse got behind the reception desk and consoled the receptionist who was now hyperventting because of the aura Arnold had unintentionally let out. "What did you do to her? Guards! Guards! Please escort this man out." She called for the guards but Arnold had enough of their crap. Soon, around ten guards came rushing into the reception, their electric batons in hand. They were all righteous and confident until they saw the man they were called to remove from the property. The nurse was new there, most probably an immigrant, thus she didn''t know who Arnold was, but the guards knew very well who the man was. Rather than taking any rash actions, the guards did the sensible thing and requested Arnold to wait there while they contacted the director of the facility. Arnold, however, didn''t wait. He called Alice and told her to get to the reception. He had to make sure Nina was okay and he didn''t give a crap about what others would do. Alice came running inside the reception, as soon as she got the call. She knew despite his calm appearance, Arnold was in no condition to reason with anyone. She was even surprised that he didn''te bursting through the doors right then and there. "Arnold,e. I''ll show you where Nina is." She said, grabbing Arnold by his arm and dragging him into the halls before anyone could piss him off anymore. "Ma''am, you can''t do as you please here. This is a hospital and there are rules to be followed-" The nurse tried to intervene again but Alice cut her off. "If you don''t shut your mouth now, then there will be no hospital left to follow your damn rules!" Alice snarled at the nurse before dragging Arnold away. *** As Arnold entered the hospital room, he notices it looked more like a garden than anything else. There were half a dozen nts scattered around Nina''s bed, all of which were emanating strange luminescent pores at regr intervals. Arnold had seen them somewhere before but couldn''t point it out. He wanted to make sure Nina was fine with all the funny looking nts around her so he turned around to ask Alice and she happily informed him why those nts were important for Nina. "Those are herbalia nts. They are generally found in high ranking dungeons such as A ranked or above. The pores they are emanating elerates the regeneration rate for those around them. As I informed you before, she had lost a lot of blood and her wounds weren''t healing fast enough, I asked the surgeon to use the nts." "I see... Thanks for your help... I don''t know what I''d do without you-" Arnold couldn''t evenplete what he wanted to say before he broke down crying like he had never before. The rage in his mind hadn''t allowed him to shed tears before but now when he saw Nina, he couldn''t hold the tears back. She had always been so strong and hardy but seeing herying on the bed unconscious was too much for his heart to take. Alice wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Pulling him in for a hug. Able men like Arnold often had a lot of bottled up feelings inside them. Feelings that the world could never see. She knew how much Arnold loved and cared about Nina, and seeing her like this must have hit him hard. She let Arnold get rid of his emotions while she held him, not saying a word but making him feel that he wasn''t alone in all this. After all, he had friends he could count on. Friends like her. After a while, Arnold finally calmed down a bit and sat next to Nina''s bed, carefully holding her hands between his. Alice went to fetch some water for him, and when she returned he was fast asleep in the chair. His hands still holding Nina. Alice let out a sad smile before covering him up with a nket. "Only if the world knew about this side of yours..." Alice mumbled before checking on Nina. Chapter 311 - Family Divided (2) Nina thought she''d feel pain when she slowly opened her eyes. But there was nothing. Her body felt weirdly numb. Her vision was a bit hazy and the room she was in, was shrouded in darkness. All she could see were illuminated little particles hovering above her face. ''I''m in a hospital... Again?'' She thought, ''How did I get here?''?? She slowly shifted her gaze towards her body. She couldn''t see much because of the nket, but through the slits, she saw someone sitting next to her bed, his head was next to her feet. It didn''t take her more than a second to recognise who it was... ''Arnold...'' Nina tried to speak but her lips and face were still swollen from all the bashing she had received thus nothing came out of her mouth, ''I''m so sorry... I''ve caused you a lot of pain, haven''t I?'' She wanted to tell him how happy she was to see him. She wanted to stroke his hairs. She wanted to embrace him and tease him but she couldn''t even get up. Her body was in shambles and couldn''t support her, so sheid there awake, thinking what would''ve happened if Arnold didn''t show up in time. Even thinking about it made her teary-eyed. In the end, she justid there awake until her eyelids got heavy and she fell asleep again. *** The next time Nina opened her eyes, it was bright outside. She could feel the freshness in the breeze that came through the window. Her vision had gotten better than before, and she didn''t feel nearly as weak asst night as she could now freely move her fingers. It would seem like the nts around her were doing a great job in boosting her healing. She looked towards the window and saw a man leaning against it. He was the strongest and silliest man she had known in the entirety of her life. But he no longer had his kind and mischievous eyes as now, his eyes were swollen, red from all the crying he did yesterday. Arnold seemed to be lost in his thoughts, as he stared into the clouds. Nina turned her head, even more, to get a good look at the love of her life without disturbing him. In her head, she had already troubled him enough. But, her n didn''t work. Just the slight turn of her head was enough to snap Arnold back into reality. He looked at Nina and rushed over to her. He was so happy, he didn''t even bother to pull a chair to sit. Instead, he squatted down next to her, before tenderly kissing her hand. Nina couldn''t hold back her tears anymore and allowed them to fall freely. Arnold gently wiped away her tears, careful not to touch and reopen a wound. If he wasn''t already cried out, he wouldn''t have been able to hold his tears back now. Right now, he needed to remain strong for both of their sakes. He did what Alice had told him to, be brave and give Nina the support she desperately needed. After crying for well over ten minutes, Nina finally stopped. Arnold had been holding her hands as if he had sworn to never allowing her to feel alone again. "How''s... the baby...?" Nina barely managed to mumble the words out. "It''s safe. Just like you are..." Arnold wanted to say more but he felt a knot in his throat and stopped. He wasn''t going to cry in front of Nina... Not yet. Nina raised her hand, resting it on Arnold''s face, "I''ve caused you... a lot of... pain. Haven''t I?" "I wouldn''t have fallen for you if you weren''t a little pain in the butt." He smiled before once again kissing her hand. "Smartass..." She wanly smiled at him. Right then, the doors to the room were flung open and half a dozen people walked in. Nina''s parents were leading the group followed by Nathaniel, Nicole, Johnny and the man whom Arnold didn''t want to see, Nathan. As soon as Arnold saw Nathan''s face, his rage went sky high. He had told Nathan about Nina and that bastard still took a day before showing up to even check on her? If it hadn''t been for Nina''s condition and Nathaniel''s presence, Arnold didn''t know what he would''ve done to him. Nina noticed Arnold''s gaze and wanted to ask him about it, but she knew it wasn''t the right time to ask him questions. Arnold got up and greeted her parents first, Sheldon and Natalia ck. He hadn''t seen them in a while but even then he could say they had been crying too. While Natalia hugged him tightly, thanking him for saving her yet again daughter, Sheldon just sympathetically patted his back before checking in on their daughter. Nathaniel didn''t talk much but shook Arnold''s hands as he always did. He gave Johnny a side hug andpletely ignored Nathan. It was obvious why he did so, after all, Nathaniel was there specifically to clear up his mess and Nicole and Johnny already know what an absolute mess Nathan had made. Especially by disowning Arnold. Nicole didn''t wait for Arnold to greet her, instead, she jumped and hugged him tightly. Besides Nina, only she knew what kind of pain Arnold would''ve gone through. But what mattered the most was that Nina was safe and no long term damage was done to her. After that, Arnold just quietly stood in a corner. Not talking with anyone, when Nathaniel approached him. "Arnold, can I talk to you for a second?" He asked. Arnold noticed that the old man looked even older now. But unlike Nathaniel''s aged appearance, his voice was still as calm as ever. Arnold respected him a lot, so even though he wasn''t in the mood to talk, he agreed and the two of them went outside the room. "I''m d Nina is safe." "Me too," Arnold replied, trying his best not to sound cold or rude. "I heard what happenedst night. And even though I don''t wholeheartedly agree with your methods or how you handled the situation, I want to tell you that you did the right thing." Nathaniel ce his wrinkly hand on Arnold''s shoulder. "Well, your son doesn''t seem to think so," Arnold replied. "What can I say? Maybe the pressure of handling the family and the country made him a dumbass." Nathaniel chuckled, "Back to the important matters. I''m truly disappointed in the way he behavedst night and so, I wanted to invite you again into the-" "Not interested." Arnold quickly cut Nathaniel off, "I''m sorry, but I''m no longer going to be part of a family whose leader has proven his ipetence time and time again. And this is my final decision. I''m better off alone than working under him again." Nathaniel didn''t argue anymore and nodded. He knew his family had lost a treasure, but he also knew what Arnold said was correct. So he made him a second offer. "Would you like to be the new leader of the cks?" Chapter 312 - Family Divided (3) Arnold just stood there in disbelief. Not because Nathaniel offered him the head''s position, but because he had failed to understand what Arnold was trying to say to him. "I don''t think you understand what I''m saying, sir." Arnold respectfully replied without any hesitation, "First I was part of the flying swords. I got into mess and, next, I got invited to your family, which I''m grateful for. It changed my life in ways I never thought were possible. But now I think it''s time for me to be alone. I mean no disrespect but frankly, I''ve had enough of the family as well as the syndicate and their senseless rules. Someone like me is better off in the Eastern part of the country than here. That''s why I don''t think I can work with them anymore. Also, I don''t think I can trust the other families after the stunt Andrex pulled off."?? Nathaniel was a bit disappointed but he quickly gathered his thought. He was fairly sure that Arnold would ept his offer. After all, it was a prestigious position to be, even after the smear campaign Nathan hadunched against it ever since epting the position. Nathaniel was now wondering whether he made a rushed decision by choosing Nathan to be his heir instead of someone else. Never in a hundred years had Nathaniel thought Arnold would reject his offer so boldly. But Nathaniel wasn''t upset about this turn of events, rather the respect he had for Arnold increased immensely. ''If only I could adopt you to be my heir...'' Nathaniel smiled as the thought popped up in his head, ''Or if Nathan had a fraction of your talents and character, I wouldn''t have toe here time and time again to clear his mess. *sigh* I guess it''s toote for these hopeful thoughts.'' The two of them went outside for a walk. Nathaniel didn''t make any more attempts to make Arnold stay in the family. It was true, Arnold sometimes made rushed decisions like anyone else. But this time Nathaniel could feel there was something different about Arnold now. It almost felt as if he had been nning to leave the family long before all this mess happened. "So, what''s next?" Nathaniel asked. "I''m thinking about leaving for some days to handle an unfinished business in China," Arnold mumbled while looking at the bright sky. The weather had improved considerably than yesterday, or maybe Arnold felt like that because he had a clear insight on what he was going to do next. And he chose to do something that he should''ve done a long time ago. "Sudden n?" "Nah, I''ve been thinking about it for a long time. But there were always other things I had to take care of. I doubt I have to take care of anything else here, but in case anythinges up, don''t hesitate to call me. Even if I''ve decided to leave the family, I''ll never abandon the people I care about." Nathaniel smiled gently while nodding his head. He was thankful to Arnold for saying those words. It wasn''t the oue that he had expected, but still, it was more than enough for everyone to live peacefully. After all, Arnold was just a call away. "What about Nina and Nicole?" Nathaniel asked him again, "You should talk to them about leaving before you leave, unlike when you left for Rio. I still remember the fuss the two of them caused after she realised you were gone, haha. Maybe it''s because they feel safest when you''re around. Well, not only them, everyone does." "Yeah, I''m nning to do that once everyone is done inside. The room is crowded as it is." "If you don''t mind, there was another matter I wanted to discuss with you." Nathaniel''s voice turned serious, "Who do you think would be most suited to rece Nathan as the head?" Arnold turned his head sideways to look at the man he respected the most after his father. Arnold was... Confused. He was leaving the family so he didn''t want to do anything with their internal matters, he thought he had made it clear beforehand. "Don''t give me that look, Arnold. I know what you''re thinking." Nathaniel smiled once again but this time his face was shrouded with sadness, "Nathan failed all of us and he''ll have to repent for it. I didn''t ask you to be the leader to make it up for the troubles Nathan caused you or to force you to stay. No, because I know no matter what we do it won''t do you any good. And at this point, I''m not even sure if we can do something either." He continued, "In my opinion, you''re the first person I''d want to lead the family in my absence. But since that''s not possible, I wanted to know who do you think is the next best choice? I''m asking you because now you''re an outsider and as an outsider, you can give me your honest opinion on the matter." "Well... That makes sense. Just a little bit but it does." Arnold replied while massaging his forehead. He wasn''tpletely buying what Nathaniel was telling him but Arnold respected Nathaniel so he couldn''t outright refuse to offer his two cents. Still, he had quite a few people in mind who could be the right fit for the job. But he wanted a leader whom he could trust and not just anybody. Especially after what happened to Nina. Suddenly a name popped up in his head. "How about, Allen? He might not be an S ranker but believe me with your guidance he''ll be a better leader than Nathan and maybe even you." It was Nathaniel''s turn to think now. It was no secret Allen was his son and his attitude towards both the family and his work had changed considerably since he started working for Arnold and for the better. Arnold was the one responsible for the change Allen had undergone. Nathaniel didn''t know how Arnold managed to do it but he wasn''tining. "Now that I think about it, I''ve been unfair to him for quite a while. This would be a good opportunity to mend our rtionship and also, no one will question about it if the current head was reced by his brother." Nathaniel smiled, "Since they''re both my sons, we can say Nathan did his part as the head of the family and now it was Allen''s turn. Brilliant idea, Arnold." "You''re reading between the lines, sir. I didn''t think all about that. It''s just that I trust Allen with my life, so obviously he was a prime candidate to be the next head. In my opinion." Chapter 313 - Family Divided (4) It had been a week since the day Andrex''s family was annihted. And the week had been a rollercoaster ride for everyone including Arnold. The moment the syndicate had gone public with what happened to Andrex''s family and why they were no longer members of the syndicate, all hell broke loose. Following the revtion, the citizens were in disarray. Most of them thought Andrex''s family got what they deserved. While a few agreed that even though Arnold''s actions were justifiable, it would''ve been better if violence was minimized or if he had taken a different approach. After all, it was the first time when someone singlehandedly obliterated one of the 13 elite families. The rest of the crowd were extremists who didn''t agree with Arnold''s action at all and demanded Arnold be punished for killing innocents.?? Sadly, this group was made up of people that were important for the country to function as a whole. Hence, the syndicate couldn''t take their requests lightly. However, they didn''t want to upset Arnold either... It was more like they didn''t want to be on the receiving end of Arnold''s rage. Now that they know what a beast he truly was. Thus Arnold was invited to the headquarters. Arnold wasn''t going to ept the invitation, but he did so when Nathaniel practically begged him to. Originally, Arnold was to face a public ''trial'', But the ns changed when Nathaniel berated the syndicate for even thinking that it was okay to do so. He had to lecture them on how disrespectful they were being by putting Arnold in the shoes of a criminal while he only did what he did because he was pushed beyond his limits. The syndicate had no right to piss him off even more. Within five minutes the ns were changed and the trial turned out to be the syndicate trying to butter Arnold up into staying with them but working as an undercover. Arnold didn''t want to deal with that crap and got up to leave. Thankfully they realised their mistake and the family heads all apologized to Arnold. Their voice and actions were as if they have had previous lessons on ''how to remain polite in an awkward situation''. Arnold nced in Nathaniel''s direction. Nathaniel nodded his head and Arnold sat back down. Hearing them out wouldn''t force him to join their syndicate again. Things, however, weren''t as he had expected them to go. They were better. Morrino with help of Nathaniel began exining to Arnold why he was called there. To say Arnold was a bit confused would be an understatement. Morrino told him they were being forced to deal some kind of punishment to him, and thus the syndicate, with all due respect, wanted Arnold toe up with a punishment for himself. After what Arnold did to Andrex and his family, they won''t ever dare to punish him by themselves. Arnold thought they were pulling a prank on him. And no one could me him for thinking like that. It was the first time in the history of West America that someone was given the privilege of punishing themselves. Everyone patiently waited as Arnold began pacing through the room. Arnold thought and thought, and finally broke the silence after half an hour. He stated his demands and the syndicate happily epted his terms. His first term was that from now on he wanted to be left alone. He wasn''t going to work for the syndicate but he still wanted to remain the in charge of zone 4 like he had been till now. No one had any problem with this demand. All they needed to do was to add him to the country''s lower spectrum of wanted people. He was ced on the lower levels so that he wouldn''t have any troubles while travelling to or from any other country. This would also make the people, who had called for Arnold to be punished, happy. As for being the section chief, well the syndicate could say that Arnold was being forced to work for his, during his ''exile''. Arnold''s second and final condition was that he was to be allowed to visit his family, namely, Nicole, Nina and his future child whenever he wanted. This wasn''t an issue either. As the syndicate looked at it, no one could''ve stopped him from doing so either. No one on the entire continent had the guts to make a move against Arnold anymore. They just requested Arnold to try not to frequently appear in public ces. Arnold epted this stiption. With this, the meeting came to an end and the next day Syndicate went public with the news. The bacsh was huge. People were enraged. So much so, that Arnold had to hold a press conference in attempts to calm the civilians who were ready to revolt against the syndicate. "My punishment is just. It stands to show us that no matter who you are, you''re not bigger than thew. I wholeheartedly ept my punishment because I made some hasty decisions." Arnold spoke without a tinge of anger in his voice, "Do I regret doing what I did? Absolutely not. If I could go back in time and change the way I handled the situation, then would I? Maybe. But in the end, I respect this country and itsws. So please my fellow citizens, don''t raise your arms against the country we''re so proud to belong to!" By the time Arnold''s speech ended, the civilians who were nning to revolt were either in tears or ashamed of themselves. Little did they know what Arnold said was utter nonsense. He didn''t respect the syndicate, not one bit. He couldn''t care less if the crowd would tie them up and leave them to die. He did what he did for his unborn child. He wanted his child to grow up in a safe and loving environment, not somewhere, where the people were ready to jump on each other like thirsty animals. Either way, he did what he did and that brings us to the present. Nina was in a wheelchair while Arnold gently moved the chair around the garden within the hospital''s boundaries. Nicole was by his side. He was finally going to inform them about his ns of visiting China. But before that, he had something he had been wanting to give to Nicole for quite some time. He took the shadow ability book from his inventory and handed it to her. She looked surprised because even after years have passed and the world had changed drastically, shadow ability books were still a rarity. Actually, they were rarer now. This book was also something she had been looking for ages and to think Arnold had it all that time made her smile. "So, you''re just going to give it to me. Just like that?" Nicole asked her brother, "I mean it''s quite a raremodity you know..." "Just keep it. It was just gathering dirt inside my inventory, it''s better to put it to use, don''t you agree?" Arnold said before ruffling her hairs. Just like he used to when she was a teen. Nicole didn''t reply, she just hugged him tightly. Nina who had been witnessing it all got a bit emotional, maybe it was her hormones acting up. But she was happy either way. Sensing the mood to be right, he dropped the bombshell, "I''m going to China. It''s been long but I''m taking back what is ours. I''m sure our uncle would be pleased to see his nephew all grown up and ready to take over what his dad left to him. Do you?" Chapter 314 - Induction (1) Nina was annoyed by her slow recovery. The pain had almost left her body for good. But she still had moments where she couldn''t hold back the urge to cry in pain. Especially when the doctors checked her internal wounds. From the outside, she waspletely healed. Not a single scar was visible on her body, but her internal wounds were still vulnerable. Despite that, she could now stand without any support and even walk, though it was only for a short time. For a warrior like her, being bedridden was nothing less than a p on the face. But when she thought about the life thriving inside her, she relented and took Alice''s advice to rest. Yesterday, Arnold had informed both her and Nicole about his decision to leave for China after Nina had recovered enough to take care of herself.?? The news was a shock to both of them. Nicole wanted Arnold to forget about what their uncle and his family did to them. But Arnold had already made up his mind, no matter how much Nicole persuaded him to forget. Atst, Nicole only told him to be careful out there and left as she was scheduled to clear a dungeon. After she left, Nina asked Arnold why he was dead set on leaving the family. No one had informed Nina about the annihtion of Andrex''s family yet, because of her condition. She only knew that Andrex was responsible for attacking her and Arnold took care of him, that''s it. No details regarding the destruction of the body count were given to her. At first, Arnold tried to dodge the question. Trying his best to divert the attention somewhere else because he didn''t want to stress over something that can''t be undone. But Nina could be as stubborn as him if she made up her mind to know something. Atst, Arnold relented and told her the vani version of the story. Essentially, he informed her about Andrex''s n to screw them over in his absence and what not. He was hesitant to tell her about the massacre, but he knew Nina wouldn''t believe him if he told her Nathan disowned him because he took care of Andrex. Nathan was stubborn but even he wouldn''t have disowned Arnold if Arnold hadn''t killed hundreds of people. So, he told her the truth. Nina went numb for a second. Just imagining the carnage was more than she could bear. But then she saw the look on Arnold''s face. It was an expression only those who despised themselves had. Nina used her hands to push herself off the wheelchair and hugged him tightly. She knew Arnold wouldn''t have done something as inhumane as that if his hands weren''t tied. "It doesn''t matter what you did," She remembered whispering into his ears, "what matters is, why you did it. If our roles were reversed, then believe me I''d have done something far worse to them, than what you did." Arnold smiled before replying, "Well, then it''s good that no one would even dare to go against me for a while now." "That''s true, Mr Deathless." That was thest conversation they had before they received an invite. It was an invitation to Allen''s induction ceremony as the new head of the family and Arnold was named the guest of honour. "Seriously... Nathaniel, why are you so dead set on including me in everything even though I''ve left the family..." Arnold sighed heavily when Nina handed him the invitation card. "Maybe it wasn''t Nathaniel but Allen? You know that he''s closer to you than anyone else. Of course, he''d want his ''brother'' to be by his side when he achieves something he had been desiring for so long." Nina chuckled, "I don''t care if you won''t attend the ceremony for Allen, at least attend to keep me somepany." "Fine... It''ll be nice to see everyone onest time before I left for China." *** The next evening... For the first time ever, Arnold had seen the ck mansion elegantly decorated. It felt as if Christmas hade early for the cks. The sun had left the skies but it seemed like the cks wanted to make a sun of their own. Everything was perfect. After all, it was the first party ever since the swamps were taken care of. People were excited to attend as they have been waiting for something like this to happen. Arnold almost felt ufortable because it felt as if none of them had any recollection of what happened to Andrex and his family. The guests were arriving one after another, forming an endless stream of vehicles in front of the main mansion. Although there was no mention of a dress code within invitations or a request to wear special attire, most of the people were wearing extravagant clothes. The women wore evening gowns and precious jewels and most of the men were dressed in formal articles of clothing like tuxedos. Those who got off the vehicles, casually walked in to be greeted by the hosts. Thus quite a few people were surrounding the gates, busy chattering among themselves. But it all came to a halt as soon as Arnold stepped out of the vehicle. The ce that had been hustling and bustling just a moment ago went eerily silent. Arnold didn''t even need to turn around to feel the countless eyes on him. Regardless of that, he ignored them and helped Nina with her wheelchair before wheeling her inside. Arnold wasn''t much of a fashion enthusiast. Still, he had a decent taste when it came to clothing. He was wearing a standard formal ck shirt and had buttoned it up halfway to the top, showing off his chest like an alpha wolf. Over the shirt, he was wearing a in ck tuxedo whichplemented the ck trousers he was wearing. He might''ve left the ck family, but his love for ck clothing wasn''t going to fade away anytime soon. However, inparison to his partner, all of his efforts were pale. Nina was wearing a ck gown. The dress barely covered her shoulders with two spaghetti straps on the side while the dress flowed down into a beautiful round neckline. It''s a close fit which gives the dress a ssy and polished look. All in all, the two looked like a power couple that everyone strived to be. Everything was fine until Arnold saw Nathan standing in front of him. Nathan no longer resembled the confident guy Arnold had known him to be, but rather a drunkard. It looked like he wanted to say something but before he could, Arnold walked inside,pletely ignoring the man whom he once called his brother. Chapter 315 - Induction (2) Nina wanted to greet Nathan, for the old times'' sake. But then she changed her mind. Even she didn''t want to ruin the mood for tonight''s celebration like everyone else. Arnold remained as emotionless as ever, but he got a bad vibe from Nathan, almost as if he was nning something. Unlike before Arnold, didn''t trust him anymore. He had learned to follow his gut becausetely, his hunches have been spot on. ''Better be safe than sorry, I guess.'' He thought while wheeling Nina inside. As soon as the duo went inside, Allen rushed to greet the two of them. He too was wearing a ck tuxedo like most of them. His eyes were beaming with admiration for Arnold. After all, if it hadn''t been for Arnold''s rmendation, Allen would''ve never achieved his dream. This was also the reason why Arnold was made the guest of honour for the ceremony. "Brother, you''re finally here! And so is sweet my cousin. You two look fabulous, as usual." Allen eximed, requesting the waiters to serve them some drinks. "Do you even realise how bad you sounded right now?" Arnold shook his head in disappointment while Nina couldn''t help but giggle. "What... What did I say?" Allen was genuinely confused which made Arnold and Ninaugh even harder. "Your brother," Arnold pointed at himself before pointing at Nina, "Your cousin. In a rtionship... Do you realise now?" "I-I didn''t mean it that way! I swear! Dang, it!" Allen''s face turned reddish, "Maybe I should call you brother-inw from now on." "Just call me by my name..." "Right, you''re not married yet." The three of them were chatting merrily, when a man whom Arnold didn''t recognise, approached them. He was clearly drunker than his body could handle, yet he had another bottle of liquor in his hands. "Seriously... Allen. It''s your first day... And you''re already... An embarrassment. I don''t know how your father could rece thepetent son with an... Ipetent one." The man growled covering them in a stench of alcohol. The man then pulled back his Chestnut, dreadlocks to reveal an awful, time-worn face. The man''s woeful brown eyes were weirdly sunken within their sockets. Discreetly watching over the people around him. Several moles were spread around his nose. Despite his aged appearance, he stood out from the rest because of his muscled frame. This is the face of Bruno ck, somewhat of a warden for the family and a hardcore supporter of Nathan. So it was obvious that this man was here to cause trouble if nothing else. Arnold didn''t like the way this man was talking to Allen. However, he wasn''t going to intervene in the matter. After all, everyone''s eyes were on them. It was the perfect opportunity for Allen to shut down all the criticisms once and for all. People might not admit it freely, but most of them had their doubts regarding Allen''s leadership skills. Especially after the scenario regarding the church of chaos. "At least I''m not the fool who goes around wearing his ego on his sleeve and cause a mess. Am I?" Allen turned to face Bruno, before smiling, "Nor I am the guy who has to call father to sort out the smallest of problems. But don''t worry, I know my words won''t convince you or anyone else here. So I''ll prove it to you by my actions. Until then, please be careful with drinking. I wouldn''t want you to pass out before the moment I make you shut your mouths." Total silence. Arnold had expected Allen tosh out, but damn, he was just downright savage. For a second he thought Allen might go a bit overboard, but he didn''t need to. His words were precisely what was needed to shut down all of the criticisms. The old man couldn''t believe his ears. He felt humiliated but hey, y stupid games, win stupid prizes! If you''re trying to humiliate someone, you should be prepared to get humiliated as well. But it looked like the old man wasn''t taking it too well. "I''m disappointed in you, Allen. Don''t you have even the basic manners on how you should talk with an elder?" Nathan pushed through the crowd before standing face to face with Allen. "I think you''re misunderstanding something-" Arnold thought it was the time to step up but was quickly shot down by Nathan. "Outsiders don''t have the authority to speak within family matters. So, please stay out of it." Nathan smiled. It was true that outsiders were allowed to speak within the family matters. And since Arnold had left the family, he had lost the privilege to publicly interfere in the family matters. Seeing themotion Nathaniel, Johnny, Nicole and the rest of the members came rushing to the main hall. "I demand you to apologize to Bruno, Allen," Nathan smirked once again, this time he was staring at Arnold as he said those words. It was clearly visible, even to the blindest person, that Nathan was trying to provoke Arnold. "I don''t think you''re in any position to demand anything from the head of the family, Nathan." Allen snarled. "What kind of family is this? Can''t the family members even object or question the leadership?" Someone yelled among the crowd. "I don''t even know what Nathaniel was thinking before appointing such an immature man as the head of the family." Yet another voice popped up. Soon the crowd began murmuring nonsensical things about Nathaniel and Allen. Some even going as far as say Nathaniel had gone mad. Johnny and the others tried to calm the situation but in vain. However, once their ring leader, Nathan raised his hand all of them went quiet. Arnold was pissed off inside, but he knew better than to cause a scene. It wasn''t his battle to fight, as not once was his name mentioned while ndering Allen and even Nathaniel. Nathan had been careful not to give Arnold any ammo tosh out at him. ''Fine, you wanna y the game then let''s y.'' Arnold thought, his eyes were with rage. "Ahem. I know I shouldn''t speak in family matters but as the guest of honour, I have to help you resolve the issue that has been raised during the celebrations." Arnold smiled as Nathan''s face turned colourless. Arnold might not have been a family member but he was still the guest of honour so even Nathan couldn''t ignore himpletely, "I have already thought of a solution. A duel. If Nathan won, Allen will step down as the head of the family. But in case Allen won, Nathan, will have to leave the family for good. How''s that?" Chapter 316 - Prideful Duel (1) "So what do you think, Nathan?" Arnold smiled, his face was just an inch away from Nathan''s, "Do you ept my proposal? I mean, Allen is only rank A swordsman and you''re a rank S brawler, so it shouldn''t be difficult for you to win against him right? Just win this duel and you''ll be the head of the family once again. If I''m correct, that''s what you want, isn''t it?" Nathan smiled back as best as he could. Arnold was right, it should be an easy task for him to dispose of Allen. And once if he sessfully defeated Allen, it would also deal a huge blow to Arnold''s self-esteem as well his reputation. But for some reason, Arnold''s wicked smile was getting on his nerves. The oue of the duel was pretty much already decided... So why the hell was Arnold so confident for? Even Arnold would know better than to trick him in front of the entire family... Right? Nathan wasn''t the only one contemting Arnold''s words. Nathaniel, Nina, Nicole and Johnny were all equally perplexed, not knowing what Arnold was trying to achieve by putting the two of them against each other. If it had been a duel to settle the small matter, they would''ve been fine but Arnold had raised the stakes quite high. It was pretty clear that Nathan, who had been giving Johnny a run for his money during their sparring session, would easily win against Allen under normal circumstances... "Just what is Arnold thinking..." Johnny whispered in Nicole''s ears, "Does he wants to give Nathan a second chance at leading the family or something?" Nicole shook her head. She was equally clueless as everyone else, "I... I don''t know why he''s doing this, but I know for sure he would rather die than give Nathan what he wants at this point in time." Nathaniel who was seeing his family being torn apart, couldn''t take it anymore. Arnold might have a n to make everything peaceful, but right now Nathan wasn''t in the right ce of mind. Nathan had lost too much, due to his own ipetence but still, a man who has very little to lose and everything to gain will inevitably turn hostile. With every passing moment. He had to put a stop to this madness. "I ept." Before Nathaniel could step up, Nathan agreed to the duel. "So do I." Allen too ept the proposition and took his zer off before rolling up his shirt''s sleeves. Nathan followed his suit and soon both of thepetitors were ready to engage. Johnny was named the judge of the duel while Nathaniel Nicole became the overseer to ensure The fairness of thepetition. The crowd immediately stepped back, because they know Nathan was gonna go all out. Both of the duelists assumed their stance. But right before Johnny gave them the signal to engage, Arnold interrupted them. "Now that I think about it, this duel doesn''t seem fair to me, at all. " Arnold said while scratching his chin. "It toote to take back your words, Deathless!" Someone yelled from the crowd. "Oh no, please don''t misinterpret my words." Arnold smiled before continuing, "I didn''t mean to stop the duel. No, the duel will still take ce between the two gentlemen. I''m just saying that Nathan is using a weapon whereas, Allen has no weapon on him." The Hall was filled with murmuring. Does Nathan have a weapon on him? What a load of bull crap! He wasn''t carrying any weapons on him. Arnold didn''t want to admit it, but he was enjoying every moment of the night. He intentionally didn''t set any specific rules for the duel before both Allen and Nathan epted the challenge. He did so, to give Allen a hidden advantage over Nathan. But before the situation got out of hands, Arnold quickly rephrased his opinion. "Let me ask you one thing, what type of warrior is Nathan?" Arnold randomly asked someone from the crowd. "A brawler?" "Right." Arnold nodded before asking another gentleman from the crowd, "And what is a brawler''s weapon?" "Their fists. Or their body to be precise." "And what type of warrior, is Allen?" Arnold asked once again. "A swordsman." "And what weapon do swordsmen use?" "What is the meaning of this crappy questionnaire?" Nathan barked from the centre of the hall. "Just answer the question." Arnoldpletely ignored Nathan''s remarks and carried on as if nothing had happened. "A sword, of course." "Now, myst question. I can''t see Allen carrying his weapon of choice. But Nathan is. Isn''t it unfair that only one of them gets to weaponise himself while the other doesn''t?" ''Way to go, Arnold.'' Nina smiled. She knew Arnold was ying with them from the start but even she hadn''t thought that Arnold would pull off something like this. "Ahem, please correct me if I''m wrong but doesn''t the basic rules state that the duel can only take ce if both the participants are either equally equipped or not equipped at all." Arnold now showed his fangs to everyone. He wasn''t someone who was going to push a friend in a dragon''s mouth, "So... Either Allen gets a weapon and starts the duel, or Nathan will get disqualified for using a ''weapon'' against an unarmed participant." People who had been murmuring till now went quiet. Then couldn''t rebukemon logic. The rule Arnold stated was one of the few rules that can''t be changed or messed with under any circumstances. Nathan''s anger was boiling up now. He had fallen into Arnold''s trap. Nathan thought it would be an easy task to defeat all and be done with it. s, that wasn''t the case. Arnold still had a card up his sleeve. "Don''t worry people, I''m going to make sure a fair duel happens here." Arnold calmed everyone down before taking a huge ck sword, out from his inventory, "I made this greatsword for Allen, as a gift for his induction as the family head. So if he likes, he can use this sword." Pin drop silence. No one knew what to say. Arnold had yed them all, but he had yed them off by ying by the rules... No one could say anything. But soon a voice appeared from with the crowd. "How is this fair? You''re giving a sword that does not belong to him!" "Doesn''t belong to him?" Arnold scoffed at the man who asked him such an illogical question, "This sword belongs to Allen. It is my gift to him for bing the head of the family. And since it is a gift, Allen''s free to use it as he pleases. It''s none of your business if he uses the sword to fight or to scratch his balls." Chapter 317 - Prideful Duel (2) Arnold had a script ready in his head. No matter what the people said or do to counter his arguments, it ended up firing right back at them. The discussion had turned into one-sided verbal mugging in favour of Arnold. Some of Nathan''s supporters went as far as saying since Allen was their leader, he should prove his strength without using the sword. At that point, Arnold didn''t know whether he shouldugh at that man''s stupidity or not. In the end, one coulde up with a single reason to not allow Allen to use a sword. Arnold walked over to Allen and handed him the twin-ded ck Greatsword. Nathan didn''t like this shift in momentum. But he couldn''t say a thing now or else he woulde off as the weak contender. Something he would rather not do. ''Do what you want, Arnold. But I won''t stop until I defeat your proud and good-for-nothing brother.'' Nathan gritted his teeth. The change in Nathan''s behaviour worried Nathaniel, he could tell that Nathan wasn''t being himself. It was as if, someone was controlling him and poisoning his mind against Arnold and Allen. Despite being desperate to stop this sudden change in Nathan''s behaviour, Nathaniel couldn''t do anything. Nathan wasn''t letting him inside his head, which worried Nathaniel even more. Nathan never stopped Nathaniel from looking inside his mind so it was weird that he suddenly stopped doing so. The only thing Nathaniel could be to put his faith in Arnold and Allen. "Competitors ready?" Johnny asked both of them, to which they nodded. "Fight!" Nathanunched himself at Allen like a missile. His fists ready to bury Allen with a single strike. Allen, however, stayed calm. His eyes were solely focused on Nathan''s movements. The next moment, Allen side-stepped, avoiding Nathan''s attack before Shoving the abnormallyrge de towards Nathan, grazing his left shoulder. "Augh!" Nathan squealed in pain before jumping back. Everyone watching the fight was stunned. Everyone except Arnold. Nathan has covered himself in a concentrated manayer which acted as a shield for him. It was Nathan''s unique ability, but an overpowered one. This shield almost made Nathan invincible for a couple of minutes, even Johnny had a hard time getting rid of the shield and yet Allen effortlessly managed to pierce through the shield and hit Nathan? Everyone in the family knew about Nathan''s shield and how difficult it was to get past it, this came as a surprise to them. Even Allen was a bit surprised but quickly recovered himself. ''Thanks for the gift brother!'' Allen smirked. His eyes were glowing with newfound courage. Seeing the awe on everyone''s faces, Arnold couldn''t help but smile. After all, he made the sword specifically to deal with heavily armoured opponents like Grock and Dread. The sword, however, was only a prototype for Arnold''s future experiments but still, it was more than enough to take care of someone on Nathan''s level. ___ ? [BLACK BRAWN SWORD]: A greatsword made from the bones of Grock, the king of lizardmen. Upon the creation of this sword, it was further enhanced by its creator. This sword is a true work of art having skills and abilities that no one had ever seen before. Grade: SS Strength (STR) : + 115 Weapon Type: Greatsword Weight : 3.2 kg Additional effect : [Defender] - Each sessful strike by this sword temporarily (effective for 10 seconds) increases the user''s defence by 2 points. Continuously killing three enemies give a bonus of 5 defence points. This skill has a cooldown of 3 seconds. Additional effect : [Duellist] - Continuously striking the opponent improves the user''s ability to handle the sword. The longer the fight drags on the stronger the user gets. The user''s strength, agility, stamina and uracy are increased by 3 points for every 30 seconds the user is engaged inbat. (Maximum up to 30 points) Additional effect : [Defiance] - When facing opponents above the rank of the user, the sword gains the ability to ignore a target''s defence. This ability has a 70% chance of being triggered if the opponent has a difference of more than 100 defence points inparison to the user. (Has a cool-down period of 10 seconds) ___ "You''re hiding something, aren''t you?" Nina asked when she noticed Arnold''s smile. "Well... Let''s just say that I''m not foolish enough to send Allen to battle someone superior to him without a little advantage." Arnold whispered into her ear, "Either way, someone needs to knock some sense into Nathan''s head. And Allen would be the perfect choice for it." Arnold continued, "Even if Nathan doesn''t admit it, he had always viewed Allen to be inferior to him. He hides it well, but I can see it in his eyes. Now, what do you think will happen when Nathan loses to someone, whom he could usually beat in while sleepwalking?" "It will... break his spirit?" Nina replied. "You''re close, but no. It won''t be enough to break him, but it''ll certainly make Nathan think about his choices."Arnold told her as Allennded yet another strike on Nathan, "Nathan won''tst long if he keeps charging at Allen in a blind rage. Let''s hope Nicole would call off the duel before any serious damage is dealt to either one of them. As much as I want Nathan to lose, even I don''t want him to get seriously injured." Nathan and Allen were engaged in a furious duel. None of them was going to back down and admit defeat before the other. There were only two ways to end a duel. Firstly, the Duel coulde to an end if one of thepetitors epted their defeat. Secondly, if one of thepetitors could demonstrate a killer strike, but ording to the rules, they had to stop before the blownded. Allen was fairly smaller than Nathan when it came to size, and now, he was using it to his advantage. He did his best to stick close to Nathan and not give him enough room to n his next move or to strike him freely. Although Nathan was a brawler, he specialised in mid-rangebat, hence it was quite troublesome for him to deal with Allen. And Allen was thus also preventing Nathan from going all out on him. Everyone stood in awe at Allen''s skill. All of them remembered Allen as a good-for-nothing burden like he once was. Little did they know that ever since Arnold made him his brother, Allen had been relentlessly improving his skills by sparring against Arnold''s summons. Even though Allen was still an A ranker, his skills were of those that rivalled even the S rankers. Arnold knew about it very well, thus he also knew if anyone could use the Brawn Sword to its maximum potential, it was Allen. Chapter 318 - Mindbender (1) As the duel progressed, it became clear who the winner was going to be. Allen had countered every move Nathan had thrown at him. Even with the sword, Allen was being careful not to cause anysting harm to Nathan. But on the other hand, Nathan had gone berserk. He had lost all semnce ofmon sense and was throwing every strike to critical injure Allen, if not kill him. This made everyone getting worried about him, including Arnold. He couldn''t point it out earlier but it was clear that Nathan was behaving out of his character. Hell, even his fighting style had changed a bit. Arnold quietly used the probe skill on Nathan to check if everything was fine or not. __ NAME : Nathan ck AGE: 32 LEVEL : 93 RANK : S ROLE : Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Ultra Tough Skin ? Aura Maniption ? Thunderstruck ? Enhanced Sight HP : 5700/9000 Mana/Energy : 5430/5690 STRENGTH (STR) : 94 DEFENSE (DEF) : 105 STAMINA (STA) : 99 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 88 AGILITY (AGI) : 78 ACCURACY (ACC) : 67 EVADE (EVD) : 57 CHARISMA (CHA) : 54 THREAT LEVEL : Nonexistent PERSONALITY: Rogue, Faithful, Motivated and Malicious (The creature has imbued with this personality due to outside interference). JOB: Family Member - 10% satisfied. PHYSICAL and MENTAL HEALTH: An outside source has interfered with this human''s mind. Unable to detect the reason for erratic behaviour. AFRAID OF:Getting lost, Betraying his family and Losing. (There''s a huge conflict going on in his mind.) FITNESS LEVEL: 89% - Increasing. MOTIVATION: A thirst for adventure and Peace __ ''What do you mean an outside interference?'' Arnold asked the system to borate on the findings. ''But he''s an S ranked warrior. There won''t be many capable people who could influence his mind. Especially after all the training, Nathaniel gave him to block someone out of his head.'' Arnold got lost in his thoughts,pletely forgetting about the duel, ''Even if someone was capable enough to do so, it''ll be tough to find an important person like himself, alone. After all, he''s always surrounded by guards. Unless someone influenced his security personnel and used the opportunity to infect Nathan as well. '' Arnold continued to think about the situation and the more he thought about it, the more it made sense... ''How long has he been under the influence.'' ''Around the time we were nning to raid the swamps then... Tsk, it was the perfect opportunity to do something like that as well.'' Arnold sighed deeply. He was disappointed in himself for not even trying to identify the cause for Nathan''s erratic behaviour before. Previously, Arnold thought it was hard to catch Nathan off guard or alone to cast a spell on him. But now, he knew that it wasn''t the case at all. The one manipting Nathan didn''t catch him alone, instead, they did it while hiding in the crowd. ''It was the perfect time for someone to interfere with his mind as there were way too many people engaged in the operation... Damnit!'' Anger surged within Arnold''s body, ''But it wouldn''t have been an easy task unless-" "Something is wrong with Nathan..." Nina mumbled, "I mean, I''ve been thinking about it for a while but now it''s evident. Nathan isn''t being himself. He was always a bit standoffish but he would never go as far as hurting someone from the family just to get the seat of the head back." Arnold heard her concerns, but she wasn''t paying attention to what she said. He was busy scanning the crowd with his probe skill. Everyone was clear, except the ones who were supporting Nathan. All of them had the same line in their bio... *An outside source has interfered with this human''s mind*. And what was weirder that these people were ''infected'' for more than a couple of months. ''Just who the hell is this person.'' Arnold shook his head before calling Natasha out from his domain. Everyone''s eyes fell on the luscious beast standing next to Arnold like a faithful partner. The guys and girls were equally ogling at her beauty. Such was the influence of a subus. Also, her thread-like clothing was doing a pretty bad job at concealing her. The next moment she went on her knees, her soul-tearing eyes were fixated on Arnold''s feet. However, once the initial shock dissipated, Nathan''s supporters started questioning Arnold what was the reason to call his summon out in the middle of a duel? Everyone else was confused too, but Allen and Nathan were still going at it, unphased by the interruption. Arnold didn''t reply to anyone, instead, he pointed at the ones who were supporting Nathan. People drew their weapons out, expecting Arnold to go berserk on them. However, as soon as Arnold pointed at the supporters, they began fainting one after another. "Arnold, what are you doing!" Nathaniel shrieked in before running up to Arnold. A few others did the same. Arnold raised his hands, signalling everyone to stop, before politely asking Nathaniel "Can you see inside that man''s head?" Arnold then pointed at thest of Nathan supporters. "What do you mean?" Nathaniel asked him once again. "Just answer me please." Nathaniel did what Arnold requested him to do, and tried to look through the man''s brain. But just like what happened with Nathan. Nathaniel couldn''t get inside their heads no matter how hard he tried. Another snapped his fingers and the man fell on the ground like the others. "Now try it once again." Arnold requested Nathaniel once again. "Arnold, it doesn''t matter if the man''s sleeping or not, if I can''t ess his mind once, I most probably won''t be able to do it even while they''re asleep." "Please. Could you try it again for my sake?" Nathaniel shook his head but proceeded with Arnold''s request. To his surprise, this time he was able to get inside the man''s head without any issue. It was a well-known fact among mind readers like Nathaniel, that if they aren''t able to look into someone''s mind while they are awake, they won''t be able to get inside even if they are asleep or unconscious. "How... Is it even possible!?" "Someone had been interfering with their minds." Arnold exined to the confused crowd, "I called out Natasha to confirm the fact and sever their link with the one controlling their minds." "So that means-" Nina mumbled "Someone has been controlling Nathan as well." Chapter 319 - Mindbender (2) While Arnold and the others were contemting their next move, Nathan finally managed to strike Allen down. Allen''s face turned red. Veins popped out on his forehead. His sword also fell to the ground with a loud ng. He was subdued by Nathan, with no room for resistance and struggle. Nathan''s arms were tightly gripped around Allen''s neck, while his legs were wrapped around his waist. Allen had been locked in a rear-naked choke, with no hopes of escape. He was desperately trying to free himself but couldn''t. Nathan was simply too strong. Allen couldn''t me anyone but his overconfidence that he got into this mess. He was winning with his sword then why the hell did he had to stop using it. No matter how many times he tried escaping, Nathan didn''t allow it. He had turned into an anaconda who wouldn''t let its enemy escape no matter what. If anything, the more Allen struggled, the tighter Nathan''s grip got. Allen tapped out, but Nathan didn''t stop. ordingly, he was disqualified from the duel. Soon enough light started to fade before Allen''s eyes. He was on the verge of copsing for good. This wasn''t a duel anymore, Nathan was out for his blood. Johnny and Nina simultaneously rushed to free Allen out of Nathan''s grip, however, the next moment, Nathan went flying in the opposite direction like a missile. Both, Nina and Johnny barely avoided colliding with the flying Nathan. Call it intuition or a dumb guess, both of them turned to look where Arnold had been standing a moment ago. But he wasn''t there. Instead, he was standing over Allen, who was desperately gasping for air. Arnold was the first to notice the change in Nathan''s eyes... They were filled with bloodlust. At that moment Arnold decided to act swiftly. He appeared over Nathan like a sh, grabbed him by his neck, and ripped him off of Allen''s back before throwing him away like a trash bag. "Arnold... please don''t do anything rash. I''m sure there''s something wrong with Nathan. He would never do something like this." Johnny mumbled when he saw Arnold walking towards an unconscious Nathan. Arnold didn''t reply, he kept walking in Nathan''s direction while Natasha followed him like a faithful servant. Johnny was about to throw himself between Nathan and Arnold but Nina stopped him. She knew Arnold wasn''t angry at Nathan. The look on his face was more of disappointment if anything. The next moment, Nathan woke up and immediately lunged towards Arnold. Arnold saw the maning and proceeded to deliver a right hook to his face. Once again Nathan went flying but this time Arnold grabbed his feet midair and began smashing him into the ground. Everyone silently watched Arnold brutally thrashed Nathan. After 10 seconds, Arnold had sessfully knocked Nathan out. The following moment, Natasha went to work. Thankfully, Nathan wasn''t harmed badly. Even as he was thrashing Nathan, Arnold ha made sure no severe orsting damage was done to him. Arnold had tried helping Nathan get rid of the foreign influence in his mind like he had helped the others. But for some reason, Natasha''s powers couldn''t knock Nathan out. Thus Arnold decided to do it the old fashioned way. His method was brutal but his heart was in the right ce. Nathan woke up soon after Natasha was done treating him. He was still in a daze. His face was covered in his blood but no wounds were visible beneath. Natasha had done a pretty good job at healing him. "What''s... going on here?" Nathan mumbled before taking Arnold''s hand to force himself up, "Why are you all looking at me like this? Wait!!! Why are we here? We''re supposed to be in the swamps! I-" "Rx, Nathan." Arnold ced his hand on Nathan''s shoulder, "You have been under someone''s spell. That''s why your memory is was fizzled up. But thanks to Natasha, you''re all good now." While trying to calm Nathan, Arnold once again used probe on him to see if Natasha''s spell worked or was Nathan still under someone''s control. __ NAME: Nathan ck AGE: 32 LEVEL: 93 RANK: S ROLE: Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Ultra Tough Skin ? Aura Maniption ? Thunderstruck ? Enhanced Sight HP : 9000/9000 Mana/Energy : 5690/5690 STRENGTH (STR) : 94 DEFENSE (DEF) : 105 STAMINA (STA) : 99 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 88 AGILITY (AGI) : 78 ACCURACY (ACC) : 67 EVADE (EVD) : 57 CHARISMA (CHA) : 54 THREAT LEVEL : Nonexistent PERSONALITY: Rogue, Faithful, Motivated and Malicious (The human is no longer under a foreign influence). JOB: Family Member - 10% satisfied. PHYSICAL and MENTAL HEALTH: An outside source has interfered with this human''s mind. Unable to detect the reason for erratic behaviour. AFRAID OF: Getting lost, Betraying his family and Losing. (The user has been freed of foreign influence). FITNESS LEVEL: 89% - Increasing. MOTIVATION: A thirst for adventure and Peace __ ''Thank god it worked on him. I was worried for a second when it didn''t work the first time.'' Arnold sighed in relief. "But... how?" Nathan asked Arnold. His hands were shaking and he didn''t know why. Arnold wanted to inquire whether Nathan had any memories of who did this to him. But it didn''t look like Nathan was in any condition to answer any questions. He was still confused as to what was happening. But before he could ask anything,Nathaniel rushed to hug both his sons. The old man never wanted them to fight again. Arnold stood there, smiling but his mind was already racing thinking about who else could be affected by this nuisance of a Mindbender. ''I''ll have to protect Nicole and Nina from whoever this person is, and I have to do it before I leave for China...'' ''Right...'' Arnold thought, ''But I''ll still have to take care ofthe person sooner orter.'' ''Hmm... Looks like I''ll have to hunt them down first then.'' ''Of course, I do. But I didn''t know you''re a rulebreaker.'' ''So you''re gonna stop roasting me now?'' Chapter 320 - Next Move A couple of hourster... "As Nathan hase back to his senses, I think we should reinstate him as the head of the family." "I agree, but what about Allen? He was made the new leader. Only the formalities were left toplete. One can say he''s already been made the leader." The cks were busy debating what they had to do next. As of now they essentially had two candidates for being the leader. Nathaniel was absent from the meeting as he believed he had retired for a reason and didn''t want to indulge himself in family politics anymore. Thus, the decision making was left to the others. Johnny and Nicole were also a part of the meeting. "But Deathless himself rmended Allen. I don''t think we should disregard his views-" Nina''s father, Sheldon put his views forward. "Deathless is not a part of this family anymore. Nor is he a part of the syndicate. So why should we worry about what he said or did?" A man whom Nicole had never seen before kept berating Arnold again and again. He was Hickel ck, second cousin of Nathaniel and one of Nathan''s biggest supporters. Standing 5'' 2" tall, this olive-skinned man has a very passive-aggressive feel about him, which was evident from the way he had been behaving. Still, he didn''t have much standing in the family and he was only allowed into the meeting because he was a rtive of Nathaniel. He had a lean face with a cleft chin, a small nose, small ears, smooth cheeks and small lips. His light brown eyes were a bitrge and had thin brown eyebrows hovering over his eyes. "Nicole. Keep your calm." Arnold''s voice echoed in her ear. "That''s pretty tough to do brother..." Nicole whispered back. Arnold wasn''t present in the room. In fact, he had left the mansion the moment Nathan came back to his usual self. Arnold didn''t want to overstay his wee and hence left with Nina as she too wasn''t in the mood to stay there any longer. A few people took this as a chance to undermine thest of Arnold''s influence in the family in one sweep. Little did they knew Arnold had nned it all beforehand. He was someone who didn''t require to be physically present there to sway the crowd in his favour or in this case Allen''s favour. He might''ve left the family, but Arnold knew how resourceful the family was. Hence, he''d be a fool topletely sever all ties with them. However, he could no longer trust the family as he used to and hence he wanted a trustworthy man to lead the family. A man whom he could influence from outside. He didn''t want to do this but it was necessary for the sake of his future child along with Nina and Nicole. Nathan, even with no fault of his, had lost pretty much all the trust Arnold had for him. If he got influenced once, he could also get influenced once again. And Arnold didn''t want to take the risk. That''s why he slipped a mini transmitter into Nicole''s hand and informed her about his n. She was the family''s biggest trump card after Arnold left them. So it was obvious that no one would stop Nicole from attending such an important meeting if she wanted to attend it. Now all she had to do was to sit there and enjoy her coffee, while Arnold nned his cards to y. "Why are you souring your mood because of such an insignificant basta*d?" Arnoldughed on the other side, "People like him aren''t worthy enough for you to waste a moment on. I doubt that idiot would even dare to open his mouth in my presence. So just chill. Wait till I tell you to take action." "Of course..." The debate continued for a few more minutes. It didn''t look like people were going to change the leaders. Nathan had once again be a crowd favourite. Allen was on the verge of losing when Nicole spoke up for the first time since the meeting started, and when she did, all the attention immediately went to her. "I heard everything you all have to say. But before we make a decision, I''d like to clear a few things." Nicole''s voice echoed in the small meeting room, "I agree Nathan was leading the family for a long time, and he had done things only a few people could even dream of doing. But that doesn''t excuse the fact that he almost destroyed the family along with the nation-" "I disagree with you youngdy." Heckel intervened before Nicole couldplete giving her two cents to the family. "He''s doomed..." Johnny mumbled while shaking his head. Nicole was essentially Arnold''s female version. And just like her brother, had quite a bit of temperament. And when she lost it, she didn''t think twice before attacking the one to wrong her. Everyone in the family knew better than to interrupt her while she was talking. Sadly, Heckel wasn''t aware of this as he had been living in France until recently and took Nicole to be a timid Asian woman. Everyone slowly backed up a bit as no one knew what Nicole would do next. Maybe she''d throw the table at the poor man''s face. Or maybe she''d use her abilities to rip Heckle''s eyes off... Despite what the others thought, Nicole gave an innocent smile to Heckel. All because Arnold requested her to. However, Arnold couldn''t stop his sister from releasing an overwhelming amount of killing intent. the following moment, heavy beads of sweat started flowing from Heckle''s head. Soon enough, his tuxedo was drenched in his sweat. "With no due respect, zip up your mouth while I''m talking. Could you do me this favour?" Nicole altered Arnold''s words a bit to suit her style before replying to that idiot, "So as I was saying, we still haven''t fully analysed to what extent Nathan''s mind was tempered with. We know now, that he is okay, but what if he gets influenced again? This time Arnold managed to stop Nathan and the others, but as I see it, it was aplete coincidence that Arnold was here today to help us out. He wouldn''t be here to help us always." "Also, not only are you peoplepletely disregarding the efforts he made to save Nathan and the others, but you''re also failing to realise everything he has done for the family and the nation. The least we can do is to take his suggestion into consideration." With every passing moment, Nicole weaved mana into her words to help her persuade the others easily. It was also one of her skills and right now, she was using it relentlessly on the others to convince them. Arnold didn''t know she was doing that, nor did he know she had a skill like that as she had only obtained it recently. "Thus, I suggest That Allen should be appointed as the temporary leader of the family while Nathan and the others should be ced under observation. Once it''s been confirmed that Nathan does not have any longsting effects from the foreign influence, then we can once again name him the leader. This way, both the parties can be satisfied without any friction." Several minutes had passed after she was done speaking, yet no one dared to spoke after her. They were either overwhelmed by her words or they didn''t want to go against her. But in the end, Allen was named to be the temporary leader of the cks. Chapter 321 - True Form (1) A few hourster, inside Arnold''s domain... It was the day... A day for humanity to remember, that is if they knew about the things that were going on inside Arnold''s domain. Talos coupled with Devon''s knowledge made the impossible, possible. The hidden potential of the beast crystals was finally unlocked. Arnold''s long-awaited mission could now finallye to an end. "Maybe I was too harsh towards Talos back then... I think I should apologise to him first." Arnold mumble as he walked towards theb he had, had set up for Devon and Talos to work in. Back when Nina had been attacked, Arnold''s mind got clouded with rage. After making sure that Nina was fine, the only thing he could think about was to rip everyone and anyone to shreds. Sadly, in that rage, he failed to acknowledge Talos'' efforts in saving Nina. Even though Talos couldn''t do much, Arnold was sure that Talos would''ve given it his all to protect Nina. Back then Arnold was a bit disappointed by Talos and maybe that disappointment was what pushed Talos toplete the task he was assigned by Arnold. Talos just wanted to make amends for his catastrophic failure and now he had done it. Thanks to his efforts, Arnold could now evolve his summons beyond the limits ced upon them. They finally had the knowledge, but the task wasn''tpleted yet. __ ? A BOON OR A CURSE: [ INTRODUCTION ]: You''ve discovered a corpse that shows the signs of forced mutations due to the consumption of beast crystals. However, it doesn''t necessarily mean that the beast crystals cannot be used to evolve a being beyond the limitations ced upon them by the nature. [ TASK ]: Study the effects that consuming beast crystals can have on humans along with monsters and find whether it is possible to evolve a being using the beast crystals. [ PROGRESS ] : 0/10 attempts to evolve a being. 0/5 monsters sessfully evolved. 0/1 humans sessfully evolved. COMPLETION REWARDS : ? Intelligence (INT): +100 ? Mystic (MYS): +100 ? A hidden reward. ___ Now was the time to evolve his summons... and himself. But before that, he had to know more about the procedure and assess whether it was safe enough to go through with it or not. As soon as Arnold entered theboratory, the first thing he saw was the ogres. about a dozen ogres were standing in neat rows. While Talos was busy collecting their blood samples in his Ogre form, Devon was working on a device Arnold hadn''t seen before. The device looked more like a surgeon table. A dozen or so needles hung over the table to which an ogre was bound. As a precaution, Grock and Asterios were also present there to control the ogres in case they went out of control. His summons quickly noticed their master and greeted him. Arnold simply nodded to acknowledge them before heading straight towards Talos. Unlike before, Talos kept his gaze locked at Arnold''s feet. He didn''t know what to expect next but one thing was clear... the guilt of not protecting his mistress had overwhelmed him. Arnold knew exactly what was going inside the automaton''s head. Not because he was the one who made him, but because both of them understood each other better than anyone else present inside the domain. "T, look at me." Arnold mumbled as he ced his bionic arm on Talos'' shoulder, "Thank you for your efforts." "No need to thank me, master, I just did what I was told to. After all, using the beast crystals for power was your idea-" "Thank you for giving it your all to protect Nina." Arnold rephrased his words with a smile, "And my apologies, for the way I behaved with you. I hope you can find it in you to forgive me." "Master, no!" Talos grabbed Arnold by his shoulders to stop his master from bowing before a servant. "I''ve been unreasonable but still you guys never fail me. So, I wanted to thank you all." Arnold gave a nod to everyone to express his gratitude, "Now, with that out of the way, what you got for me eh?" "Sure, master." With Talos'' approval, Devon proceeded to activate the machine. The next moment all the needles simultaneously stabbed through the ogre''s hardened skin and began injecting it with a variety of different coloured fluids. The ogre was tied to the table with thick rope made from lizardmen leather, but that didn''t stop it from struggling. An ear-splitting scream followed the ogre''s desperate struggle as its skin started to turn from Sacramento green to Denim blue. As time passed, the shade turned darker and the ogre''s struggle also stopped. Instead, the ogre was now panting heavily while its vitals stabilised. Arnold quickly checked the mission tab, and sure enough, the experiment was a sess. __ [ PROGRESS ] : 1/10 attempts to evolve a being. 1/5 monsters sessfully evolved. 0/1 humans sessfully evolved. __ Talos quickly went to check on the ogre onest time, while Arnold used Probe on the ogre to see its stats. ___ CLASS: Ogre (Mutant) NAME: Ascended Ogre LEVEL: 109 RANK: S+ ROLE: Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Silent Kill (Active skill) ? Eternal Rage (Passive skill) ? Hardening (Passive skill) ? Chieftain (Active skill) HP: 19000/19000 STRENGTH (STR) : 138 DEFENSE (DEF) : 95 STAMINA (STA) : 78 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 75 AGILITY (AGI) : 98 ACCURACY (ACC) : 79 EVADE (EVD) : 88 CHARISMA (CHA) : 34 Damage Resistances: Ice damage and Ranged damage Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Poisoned, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Fire-based attacks. THREAT LEVEL: Negligible. REMARK: Thanks to the newly developed technology to enhance mortal beings, the natural limits ced upon the creatures by the gods, is no longer absolute. With the help of secret techniques, even the low-ranking beings can now feel what having absolute strength feels like. This Ogre is an example of one such technique and has been pushed to its limits to unlock its hidden potential. ___ "The ogre went from B rank to S+..." Arnold uttered in shock, "Is that even possible?" "Everything is possible in the world of science, my friend." Devon smiled before taking off his safety sses, "Allow me to exin. The crystals one obtains from the monsters is the source of their strength. Thus it can be said that these crystals are what define the capabilities of a monster. A simr core can be found in humans as well, though, unlike the beast crystals, that core disintegrates once the humanpletely manifests their first ability. And in monsters, even when the core/crystal is still present, itys in a dormant state after they''ve crossed adolescence." Devon continued, "However, the beast crystals from other beasts can be used to forcefully activate the dormant crystal and hence we can forcefully evolve the beast to what I call their ''True form''." "Interesting..." Arnold murmured, "But if the ''core'' dissipates inside a human, how can the same process be used to activate the human''s ''true form''?" "I was hoping you''d ask that. After all, that''s where the interesting stuff happens." Devon replied with a sinister smile on his face, "I had been researching on humans and how to improve their abilities and unlock their true potential for about a decade now. And I daresay, I''m an expert in this field." Chapter 322 - True Form (2) "Interesting..." Arnold murmured, "But if the ''core'' dissipates inside a human, how can the same process be used to activate the human''s ''true form''?" "I''m d that you asked. Even when the core within the humans ''dissipates'', it never leaves the host''s body. That is, it only changes its form. After all, the core is the thing which provides the warriors with their abilities, hence if the core was to disappearpletely from the body of the host, the host would never be able to use their abilities." Devon exined. "It just shifts from being a solid core to a simpler form. Inyman terms, it can be said that the core imprints itself on the DNA of the warriors. Which exins why humans can use their abilities even though they don''t have a core in them. Thus injecting the crystal solution in humans enhances or reprograms their DNA which in turn leads to the manifestation of their ''True form''. But like any other doping process, there are a few risks associated with the procedure in humans as altering DNA isn''t easy nor is it safe. The tiniest of mistakes can lead to a disaster." "Disasters like inhumane transformations," Arnold concluded Devon''s thesis with his words, "Unstable physical outgrowths and other mental disorders." "You''re correct. There''s a reason why all of my test subjectscked in one thing or the other. The augmentation process is no joke, but those fools treated them as one." "It was the same with your son as well?" "No..." Devon smiled wryly, "I''d be ecstatic if that had been the case. But sadly, his case is different." "Different, you say. Do you mind me asking how?" Arnold asked Devon. "For starters, this process can only be used on people who have achieved a certain level of vitality or those lucky enough to have two lives." Devon mumbled, "But as you know, my son had none of them so I couldn''t reprogram my son''s DNA like the others. His body was too fragile to tolerate or adapt to the rapid changes of the procedure." "Then what about those lizard scales on his back? Weren''t they a product of this... evolution process?" "No. As I said, this process can only be used on people who have achieved a certain level of vitality. And to achieve that, I fused Gary''s cells with that of the lizardman as thinking that their regenerative properties that could help Gary to slowly build up the required vitality. Which it did but at the cost of his appearance. It was all thanks to Talos'' research that we could finally get rid of the unnecessaryplications regarding the process andpletely heal Gary." Devon responded before showing something to Arnold on hisputer. "The process is still somewhat dangerous," He continued, "But the sess rate of the new procedure is way better than the old one. Before we had a 69% sess/survival rate and now, it has been increased to about 94%. Quite an interesting feat if you ask me." Arnold''s mind was filled with questions. Devon''s exnation about the human cores was believable, but if that was true, then how were Talos, Duke and Cerberus able to use abilities and skills? Arnold was confused as they were technically made of rocks and metal and did not have DNA like them or the monsters. "I know what you''re thinking." Devon smiled, "However, the answer to your question is simpler than anything you''re thinking." "Is it?" "Of course it is. But first, let me ask you one thing, you didn''t make Talos from the scratch did you?" Arnold shook his head, "You could say that all I did was to assemble him." "I thought so." Devon closed his eyes, "I just wanted to confirm whether my hunch was correct or not. You see, Talos isn''t someone who is bounded by human logic. His creation is not something a human can aplish on their own, no matter how great of a genius they are." "I think you''re underestimating master a bit-" Talos intervened but Arnold waved his hand, telling Talos to remain silent. Devon once saw himself as superior to Arnold. But his perception of him had shattered when they met face to face for the first time. He no longer saw himself to be Arnold''s equal let alone being superior to him. However, they had formed a bond of mutual understanding and respect. Thus Arnold had given Devon the privilege only a handful of people had: He was free to speak his mind in Arnold''s presence. Even Arnold found it a bit weird that two people who had been thirsty for each other''s blood, had now formed such a bond within a small timeframe. "I don''t mean any disrespect, but the technology used to create Talos simply doesn''t exist... yet." "Hm... but I have created other automatons simr to Talos. What do you have to say about that?" Arnold threw another question at Devon. "I refuse to believe that someone as perceptive as you haven''t noticed the crystal clear differences between Talos and the other automatons." Arnold didn''t reply to him, he just smiled. Of course, he had noticed the difference between Talos and the rest of the Automatons. The automatons were made from the same source and materials was just for the saying. What made Talos different from the rest was his emotional intelligence. None of the other automatons had it. They were like tools that''ll do whatever was asked of them and nothing more. while Talos would the same things in a different way. He would ask questions and make a calcted judgement based on the scenario. But maybe that wasn''t all. "So you''re saying Talos can undergo the procedure?" Arnold asked a final question. "Yes, he can. And so can your ice golem Duke andva hound Cerberus among your inanimate summons because they already have a core within them. Otherwise, none of them would have been able to use a variety of abilities. Obviously, your undead summons can also undergo the process." ''Already have a core within them... is he referring to the transformation blood rhat they have?'' Arnold smiled, ''I just might have given them the greatest gift I possibly could and I wasn''t even aware of it.'' "Then what are we waiting for? Let''s get on with unlocking the true forms, shall we?" Arnold hadn''t felt this excited in a long time and now, he was back to being his former self. Chapter 323 - Evolved Summons (1) ___ CLASS: Automaton NAME: Talos LEVEL: 139 RANK: Cosmic C ROLE: Gunslinger, Mage, Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Silent Kill (Active skill) ? Reanimate (Passive skill) ? Hardening (Passive skill) ? One shot, two kills (Active skill) DURABILITY (DUR) : 15000/15000 ENERGY (ENR) : 9000/9000 STRENGTH (STR) : 138 DEFENSE (DEF) : 143 STAMINA (STA) : 89 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 100 AGILITY (AGI) : 98 ACCURACY (ACC) : 89 EVADE (EVD) : 88 CHARISMA (CHA) : -- Damage Resistances: Ice damage and Ranged damage Conditional Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Poisoned, piercing attacks. Weak Against: Heavy attacks THREAT LEVEL: Why would your summon pose a threat to you, eh? REMARK: Thanks to the newly developed technology to enhance mortal beings, the natural limits ced upon the creatures by the gods, is no longer absolute. With the help of secret techniques, even the low-ranking beings can now feel what having absolute strength feels like. This loyal automaton is an example of one such technique and has been pushed to its limits to unlock its hidden potential. ___ ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Cosmic Summoner] Effect: ? Allows the holder to transform cosmic beings into their summon. ? Increase the sess rate of acquiring new summons by 20%. ___ ''Cosmic C again!?'' Arnold was in disbelief. All of his summons had undergone the procedure as he didn''t have to worry about the beast crystals but dang, he never thought he''d turn out to be so lucky. Finally, Arnold had an army that could not only dominate the elite families but entire countries had he wished for it to happen. If people thought he was dangerous before, then he was on an entirely different level now, and he was yet to undergo the procedure himself which was also thest leg of the emergency quest. __ [ PROGRESS ] : 10/10 attempts to evolve a being. 5/5 monsters sessfully evolved. 0/1 humans sessfully evolved. __ But before that, he turned around to look at his summons, and they looked like a work of art. There wasn''t any change in Talos'' appearance as he had undergone a different procedure than the rest of his summons in which his core was evolved and not his body, but the others looked entirely different. Cerberus finally looked like the guardian of hell and had not two but three identical heads. It had also grown a lot in size. The hue of its skin had also darkened to almost being charcoal ck. It was simr for Duke. He too had a growth spurt and had grown another head as a result. His icy body looked more buffed than ever. But the most mind-boggling thing was the increase in his intelligence and thus his efficiency to use weapons had increased as well. Bad-Breath now sported the body of a true diator. Hell, he was even more buffed than Johnny which was obvious since he was much stronger than him now. Sadly, he was still true to his name. It looked like nothing in the world could get rid of his signature breath... It was the same with Dread. His skin had turned to a deep tinge of Prussian blue. While the other''s body was getting buffed, his body contracted quite a bit. He was still the tallest among the rest of the summons and to be honest, he looked more intimidating than before. Alice did not have any major physical changes. Her hair was longer than before and she looked a bit younger than before. Also, the tinge of the corpse that she disappeared entirely and she looked just like any other living human. Arnold felt it a bit odd to call her one of his summon because now she didn''t look like one at all. Ahem, well... Arnold was still contemting whether it was a bad decision to evolve Natasha or not. She had definitely ''evolved'' in the righ- wrong ces. Her skin had gotten fairer and her body which was already enough to bend both heads of any man in her direction had be even more luscious. If she was the Queen of the subi before, she was now their goddess. The problematic thing was... she knew her appeal had increased quite a bit and didn''t waste the opportunity to make her master ufortable. Sadly even Arnold was having a hard time keeping his eyes focused on her face. Now was the turn for Arnold''s swords, Asterios and Grock. Both of them were no less than a powerhouse in their own ways. Just like the others, Grock had a change in his appearance. It was nothing prominent but as his scales had already been the darkest shade of ck, but now they had a different shine in them. He had also grown quite a bit and was almost as tall as Dread. However, the one who had changed the most was Asterios. The ck minotaur was no longer ck. Instead, his hide had turned pearl white. He no longer had his prized battle scars either. All in all, he looked like an angelic being. Someone that belonged to the higher realm. His majestic aura was gentle and so was his temperament. But if someone was to take advantage of his new gentle nature, he won''t hesitate for a moment before sending them to the afterlife with his prized Warhammer. You could say that Asterios had finally ''matured'' but he still had his goofy side. The best part of his evolution? Asterios could finally talk. "Thank you, master," Asterios said in his heavy and brutish voice as he kneeled before Arnold. The others followed his suit, "Thanks to your love and care we have evolved into something... more." All of them were looking towards their master with nothing but utmost loyalty and respect in their eyes. It was thanks to Arnold that they were able to achieve the impossible and were ready to show their gratitude to him. "I didn''t do a thing, Asterios." Arnold patted the minotaur''s gigantic shoulder, "If you want to thank someone, it''s Talos and Devon. Not me. If you guys still want to repay me either way, then you better start farming for the beast crystals it cost me to evolve you, haha." "You will not be disappointed, Master!" Everyone roared in unison. "Very well then." Arnold smiled before taking his vest off, "Looks like it''s my turn now." Chapter 324 - Evolved Summons (2) Arnold stripped out of everything apart from his shorts. With his body on disy, both Natasha and Alice could feel something tingling within their body, while the rest of the summons were busyparing Arnold''s body with their own. Arnold wasn''t aware of what was going on, but the only functioning people in the room were Devon and Arnold. "Here, hold this between your teeth." Devon handed Arnold a mouthguard made of lizardman scales. The tough hide was difficult for anyone to break, even for someone of Arnold''s calibre, "The procedure will be painful and this will help you cope with the pain." "No need for that, Devon." Arnold smiled, gently pushing away Devon''s hands, "Thanks to your nuke, I don''t feel pain anymore. It has its demerits, but when ites to these things, feeling no pain is... convenient." Devon didn''t argue with the boss and went ahead to carry out the task. The needles slowly moved toward Arnold''s body. Eventually piercing through his skin and entering the veins within his limbs, chest and forehead. "Injecting core stimuli in three... two... one. Stimuli injection started." Devon announced, "Waiting for host''s response... The body has epted the foreign stimuli. Proceeding with increasing the rate of delivery..." Devon kept mumbling something, but soon everything before Arnold turned hazy. He couldn''t focus on Devon''s words anymore. His eyelids had turned droopy. Soon he couldn''t move a muscle in his body as if his body had started to shut down without his permission. Talos'' eyes were fixed on the vital signs of his master. Since Arnold couldn''t feel any pain, monitoring the vitals was the only way for them to notice the slightest changes within Arnold''s body and confirm the body''s response to the foreign material. The following moment, Arnold slipped into a deep slumber. No one knew but his organs had started rearranging themselves underneath his skin. Well, rearranging wouldn''t be the urate term for what was undergoing within his body. The organs were evolving, once again. But this time it wasn''t as smooth as before. The evolution of the host was one of the important tasks assigned to the systems of the Vassals. However, Arnold''s body wasn''t ready to naturally evolve yet, but since Arnold had already decided to go with the flow, the system decided on its own to try and make the procedure as smooth as possible. The system was closely monitoring the absorption and the alteration rate of Arnold''s DNA. It was all thanks to the system, the procedure continued to go on without any hups. Even when it all came to halt when Arnold t-lined. During the evolution of his heart, the system deemed it necessary to recreate Arnold''s heart from scratch. His human heart was no longer sufficient enough to sustain his evolved body. The 4 valves within his heart were destroyed and simultaneously a 12 valve heart was created. The creation of his new heart merely took a couple of seconds, but in that second, everyone in the room panicked. Devon had almost forcefully yanked the needles out of Arnold''s body, but Talos stopped him. "Whatever you do, DO NOT disturb the master until the procedure has beenpleted." Talos stood between Arnold and Devon, "Stopping the procedure now would do more harm than good." "But Talos, his vitals-" "Just trust me on this. Nothing will happen to the master." Devon shook his head in disagreement, but he couldn''t do anything about it. Also, Arnold''s vitals were stable once again so there was no reason for Devon to interrupt the process now. Since Talos somewhat knew about the ''system'', unlike the rest of them, he was sure the Elder wouldn''t let its host die so easily. In the worst case, it would take control over their master''s body, but the Elder would ensure Arnold''s survival first and foremost. One after another, Arnold''s organs were being destroyed and recreated and all of this was happening at an insane speed. Soon enough, the changes within Arnold''s body became evident. His jet ck hairs turned whitish on the edges. His skin turned pearl white, while his muscles tightened around his chest and limbs. All the muscles he had cultivated over the years, disappeared in an instant giving him a lean body. However, theck of muscles did not refer to the loss of strength. In fact, it could be said that his body contraction symbolised a new beginning for Arnold as a Demigod. While it took around 30 minutes for the procedure to end in case of the summons, it took 5 hours before Arnold finally opened his eyes again, and the first thing he saw was his status te shing right before his eyes. ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses], [God Killer], [Forgemaster], [Cosmic Summoner] LEVEL: 201 RANK: Cosmic S SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL''S RAGE] CLASS : SUBCLASS : ? (Max level) ? (Max level) ? (Max level) ? (Max level) AFFINITY: Ice (Wind and Water), Lava(Earth and Fire), Nature (Earth, Water, Wind and Light) Personal details and stats : HP: 30138/30138 MANA: 36837/36837 EXP: 0/1,500,000 STRENGTH (STR) : 261[+85] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF): 226 (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 198 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 276 AGILITY (AGI) : 156 ACCURACY (ACC) : 145 EVADE (EVD) : 167 CHARISMA (CHA): MYSTIC (MYS): 255 Summons details : BELOVED PET: Scy (Uncrowned Queen of Dragons) NUMBER OF ELITE SUMMONS: 9/30 TOTAL NUMBER OF SUMMONS: 3054 ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING: 404 POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING: 100 ___ Arnold ignored the shy text hovering above him. He could always visit the status tab whenever he pleased. Right now he wanted to figure out the important stuff first, likepletion of the quest. "How are you feeling?" Devon rushed over to his side, "Are there any side effects or can you feel anything weird at all? like nausea-" "Nothing... it''s all good." Arnold said while clenching his fist, "Although I feel a bit lightheaded." "It''s normal for you to feel that way... although you had us a bit worried there." "Why?" "Your pulse t-lined three times in five hours. One of which we couldn''t find a pulse for over half an hour!" "I see-" Arnold stopped midsentence when he noticed a second tab opened behind his status te. He hadpleted the quest, which meant he had earned a hidden reward. Chapter 325 - Resurrection Of A God (1) ___ ? A BOON OR A CURSE: [ INTRODUCTION ]: You''ve discovered a corpse that shows the signs of forced mutations due to the consumption of beast crystals. However, it doesn''t necessarily mean that the beast crystals cannot be used to evolve a being beyond the limitations ced upon them by the nature. [ TASK ]: Study the effects that consuming beast crystals can have on humans along with monsters and find whether it is possible to evolve a being using the beast crystals. [ PROGRESS ] : 10/10 attempts to evolve a being. 5/5 monsters sessfully evolved. 1/1 humans sessfully evolved. COMPLETION REWARDS : ? Intelligence (INT): +100 ? Mystic (MYS): +100 ? A hidden reward. YES or NO? ___ ''Yes.'' ___ You have obtained: ? Intelligence (INT): +100 ? Mystic (MYS): +100 ? A hidden reward. Would you like to open the hidden reward? ___ ''Yes.'' ___ Randomising rewards, please wait... Procedureplete. Please ept your reward: ? Dungeon crystal ___ ''What even is this thing?'' Arnold thought as the crystal got stored in his inventory. He quickly took the emerald crystal out of his inventory before using his probe skill on it. ___ OBJECT: Rare Dungeon crystal TYPE: Summoning crystal GRADE: Cosmic C REMARK: Extremely rare crystal, that can be used to summon a Cosmic dungeon. The dungeon will contain high ranking monsters from throughout the universe and the user will gain 2x experience points by hunting inside the generated dungeon. This crystal can only be obtained as a hidden reward. Importantly, only the user and the ones affiliated with them are only allowed to enter the dungeon. Once the dungeon has been cleared it doesn''t disappear, instead, it goes into a cooldown period. When that period is over, the user can reenter the dungeon to collect rewards again. No breakout happens even if the dungeon is not cleared within the set time limit. One crystal can generate only one type of dungeon. ___ "My luck stat really went berserk this time, didn''t it?" Arnold smile before storing the crystal back in his inventory. "What was that thing?" Devon''s eyes were sharper than ever. He knew a rare item as soon as he saw one. Although it was his first time seeing a dungeon crystal, he knew it wasn''t amon crystal. "Something we desperately needed and yet I never thought a thing like it existed," Arnold replied as he slipped back into his clothes, "Everyone go and get ready, we''re about to go hunting. I''m excited to test our newfound strength." "Yes, master!" With Arnold''smand, everyone went into action. While Arnold equipped his gears, Devon kept hovering around him like a housefly. He kept on insisting Arnold to rest for a while but Arnold shut him down for good. "Devon, what do you think about having our own private dungeon?" Arnold asked him absentmindedly in an attempt to divert the topic. "Are you going to buy one? I mean if that''s the case then we''ll have to check up with the syndicate or buy one illegally from someone who already has one." "I''m not talking about that." Arnold smiled. "What if I told you we can have our own dungeon, inside this ce? A dungeon that never disappears. A dungeon no one will ever know about. A dungeon filled with monsters you''ve never seen before." Devon went silent for a while. What Arnold was saying was way too good to be true. Regardless of it, Devon knew Arnold wasn''t a man who''d joke about such things. If Arnold was telling this to him, then he must be true and then it hi him. "Wait... so that crystal-" "Yup. The crystal can be used to summon a dungeon. A dungeon that defies our knowledge of the regr dungeons." "And you''re gonna make such a dungeon inside this... domain of yours?" "Mm-hmm." Arnold nodded. Arnold''s mind was already set on using the crystal to summon a dungeon inside the void. He had a plethora of reasons for doing so. Firstly, if he were to summon a dungeon that regenerates on its own, he''d be inviting trouble right to his doorstep. While he''d be able to deny ess to the country with his current strength, handling the vassals and the pdins would be a different matter entirely. Secondly, how would he exin the existence of an item that could spawn an entire dungeon to the world? He wanted to keep strength a secret from the keen eyes of those basta*d pdins. Otherwise, they won''t attack him directly and try to use underhanded methods to get to him as Andrex did. Although he was suspicious that anyone in their right minds would pull such a stunt. Thirdly, he wanted the dungeon to act as his private hunting ground. A ce where all of the dungeon''s resources solely belonged to him. Also, setting up the Dungeon inside his domain would decrease the cooldown period required for it to reset. Andstly, his summons could freely use the dungeon to train themselves, rather than justzing around, even in his absence. These reasons were more than enough for Arnold to make up his mind. "But what if you''re unable to clear the dungeon? The monsters will destroy everything in here." Devon inquired with genuine concern. "I guess I haven''t told you about it yet. Well, better bete than never." Arnold put his guns away and turned to face Devon, "Pick up this gun." "Why would I- wait! How is my hand moving on its own!?" Devon tried to stop himself but couldn''t. It was as if his hand had a mind of its own. No matter what he tried, his body did as Arnold told him to. "ce the muzzle on your forehead." Arnold smiled while Devon desperately tried to push the gun away. "ARNOLD... Stop it please!!!" Devon yelled. His futile attempts couldn''t do a thing against Arnold''smand. "And... shoot!" Devon tightly shut his eyes as his fingers pulled on the trigger and waited. But nothing happened. He slowly opened his eyes again, the pistol was still in his hands. "There weren''t any bullets in the gun, right?" Devon mumbled as Arnold finally let go of his control over him. "Nope. I just wanted to demonstrate one of the abilities associated with the domain." Arnold took his gun back, "I call it absolute authority. I can control anything within my domain, so even if the monsters got out of the dungeon, which won''t be happening, I''ll easily deal with them." Chapter 326 - Resurrection Of A God (2) "T-That makes sense..." Devon mumbled briefly after clearing his throat, "But you know, you could have just told me about it... Rather than having me point a gun at myself." "Where''s the fun in that?" Arnoldughed, "You guys ready?" "Yes, Master!" "Let''s head out then." But instead of heading out, Arnold headed into the vault along with Talos, while the rest of them assembled outside. "Is it time, master?" "I think so. After all, the system informed me that you''ll have to be a cosmic being before trying to resurrect one. And thanks to you and Devon, we have achieved that so it''s time to resurrect ''her''." Arnold smiled as he pushed open the doors leading to the room where Tiamut''s mangled corpse was waiting for them in her human form. There sheid in the far corner of the room. However, she was barely recognisable with her missing limbs. Not only that, Arnold had thrashed her pretty bad after he saw Tiamutying her hands on Nina. "I did a number on her back then, didn''t I?" "With all due respect, master. It''d seem that you do have some anger issues," Talos replied in his static voice. His words were filled with sarcasm but thanks to his emotionless voice, no one would ever know about it. Arnold just smiled in reply. He was just happy to have the joking Talos back by his side. It felt like the trying times were finally over and Arnold could enjoy his life for a bit. But before that, he had a task toplete. "Do you think we''ll require more hands to tame her?" Arnold inquired. It had been quite a while since Talos had resurrected someone but Arnold still remembered the tantrums most of his summon threw as soon as they were resurrected and thus didn''t want Tiamut to thrash the ce as well. "Master, you''re grade is above her. Moreover, her rank should drop to around mine once she''s resurrected so I don''t think calling for help would be necessary." Talos replied, "Even if she tried to pull a stunt in here, she''d be in for a surprise as we have already reinforced these walls with her bones. So I don''t think it''ll be a problem." "Alright then, let''s get started!" Talos quickly transformed into Jake, the necromancer. He didn''t waste their time and immediately got to work. Resurrecting the dead seemed like a quick process, but it was a taxing one at that. But it was to be expected as it was one of the most dangerous types of abilities to ever appear in their world. Thankfully for Talos, he couldn''t feel the tiredness after using the spell because... well, automatons don''t get tired. But it did use a lot of his energy to use the spell. Momentster, a gigantic ck magic circle formed underneath Tiamut''s corpse. It looked like the old resurrection spell had evolved as well, which was what Arnold had expected to happen. If they could resurrect higher level beings, then the spell had to have evolved in some way as well. It took a few seconds for the spell to getpleted and the following that Tiamut rose back from her slumber for the first time in months. Her body slowly reformed. The limbs he had mercilessly ripped off its socket slowly regenerated by themselves. The gaping holes in her body got rapidly fixed. Within moments, she was resurrectedpletely. She still had her reddish skin, just the way it was when she died. Although she got a bit taller as well and was about as tall as Arnold, which was about 6''4". Her ws were as intimidating as Arnold remembered. After all, those were the same ws that nearly killed him. However, her jet ck hair was no longer curly and unkempt, but smooth and straight. She had been restored to her primal form, back when she was hailed as a goddess. At first, she thought it was the work of her fellow demigods. But the realisation hit her hard a momentter when she saw the human she despised the most standing right in front of her. She failed to notice the change in his aura and took him as a mere mortal. At that moment, she couldn''t hold back the rage welling within her body. She couldn''t bear to see her killer smirking while looking at her naked body. Without a second thought, she charged towards Arnold only to get smacked in the face by him. The p sent her flying away even faster than Hermes. Before she knew it, she wasying on her back in the far end of the chamber. Luckily the wall was sturdy enough to stop her momentum for good. The collision between her and the wall shook the entire building, but no harm was done to anyone except Tiamut. However, before she could engage inbat again, Arnold moved towards her as if he had teleported over to her. His left foot rested on her face. It was clear what Arnold was trying to aplish there, he was going to humiliate her while solidifying his authority over her existence. It was his statement to tell her, she was no longer a god, but his ve. A ve who would lick his boot if he wished for it. Tiamut struggled in vain to free herself from such a humiliating situation, but Arnold had her pinned to the wall with nothing but his foot. "You''ll pay for humiliating me... the demigods won''t stay idle while you do this to one of their kind." She cursed at him with her half-opened mouth, "Your death would be a gruesome one, mortal. I swear-" "Oh... is that so? Well, if that''s the case then you won''t have to worry about serving me all alone. Isn''t that great? You''ll serve me with your half-a*s godly mates!" Arnold smiled at her before kicking her face, "Do you think I give a sh*t about you and your kind?" Tiamut, however, couldn''t respond. Arnold''s one kick had shattered her lower jaw. Arnold still had to test his new strength out hence he unintentionally went overboard with the kick. Even if it had been unintentional, even Arnold couldn''t heal someone on his own. "T, go and get Alice here, will you?" Arnold asked the automaton, "I don''t want to ruin my new possession on her first day." "Right away, master." With that, Arnold and Tiamut were the only ones left in the room. Tiamut was raging on the inside, but Arnold''s kick brought her back to her senses. How did the mortal get so strong? That was the only thought running in her head now. The next moment, Tiamut''s wound started healing by itself. She too had an ability to heal herself from these kinds of wounds, just like any other godly entity. "Oh, looks like I send him away in vain. Well, a least it gives us ample time to chat among us. But first, wear these." Arnold took out some clothes from his inventory before throwing them at her, "I''m not a perv who''d drool over your body but still, even a bit*h like you deserves to cover up herself." Chapter 327 - Resurrection Of A God (3) "How... did you get so strong?" Tiamut mumbled while she slowly slipped into clothes Arnold gave her. I.e. a pair of ck shorts and a hoodie. For the first time, she wasn''t being arrogant but respectful towards Arnold. Well, since Arnold didn''t have her measurements, the clothes he gave her ended up tightly hugging her figure. She might have been billions of years old, but in her current attire, she looked no older than any 26-year-old. ''Is she a masochist or what? One kick and she went from being a lioness to a bit*h?'' Arnold thought to himself before replying, "Looks like you''ll have to ask your God- wait a sec, that''s me now." Tiamut looked at him with rage but otherwise kept her thoughts to herself. She knew that this mortal wasn''t someone to y with, not anymore at the very least. She had to keep her hostility within her. As things stood now, she couldn''t even touch a strand of his hair, let alone harm him. She also knew that she was within his domain, and since she died, she couldn''t use her own domain to subdue him. But even if she had her domain with her, she wasn''t confident whether she''ll be able to overpower Arnold''s domain. "Listen. I don''t have time to leisure around, so I''ll get straight to the point. Starting today you are now my ve whether you like it or not. So it''d be in the best of your interest to be a good bit*h and serve me, or else... well let''s just I''ll have to do something to you that I''d regretter on." "All I hear are empty words from a mortal basta*d." Tiamut spat out a mouthful of blood on his feet, "Do your worst mortal!" Despite her outer defiance, Tiamut was shaking with fear on the inside. But she could never submit to a mortal. She was a goddess! She wouldn''t serve a mortal no matter what. Even if she was afraid that her words might end up enraging the human... But the next moment, Arnold broke downughing. Hisugh wasn''t ordinary either... it was anything, but ordinary. He then quietly grabbed her by the upper arm and dragged her outside. He met with both Tiamut and Alice in the corridor and they started following them. Tiamut froze when she saw the army Arnold had umted. Her reaction wasn''t due to their numbers, she had seen godly armies and this army wasn''t muchpared to them. But something about their utmost dedication and loyalty to their leader impressed her more than any army ever did. There was a saying that every army has a traitor, but she knew there was none in the mortal''s army. All of Arnold''s 3000+ summons had already gathered there. Each one of them had their eyes fixated on him, but Arnold''s eyes were busy looking for... "Scy!" A momentter the mystical being came flying towards its owner. Arnold let go of Tiamut as soon as Scynded in front of them. He was nning on torturing Tiamut into submission, but he wasn''t in the mood for doing something like that, not in the traditional sense at least. It was a pleasant day for him and he didn''t want to ruin it because of an old grandma... It took a moment for Tiamut to connect the dots, but there was no mistaking it. The dragon standing in front of her was shrouded in her daughter''s aura. Scy was one of her own. "Is this..." Tiamut''s eyes got blurry with tears. She might have been a goddess but she was still a mother and now... a grandmother. "Kind of, yeah." Arnold shrugged his shoulders. He wasn''t going to admit that Scy wasn''t directly linked to her, "You could say that she is your granddaughter, in a way I suppose." "But how is this even possible..." "I''m just a mortal remember? Reproduction in you godly beings works in weird ways, and I''m not interested in knowing those methods. The one I know of works just fine for me." Tiamut gave him a disgusted look before embracing Scy. But not for long as Arnoldmanded Scy to step back and Scy being the obedient pet she was, immediately jumped back and began growling. "What are you doing!?" Tiamut was enraged for real this time. She was happy to be reunited with her kin but this mortal was trying to keep her away from her granddaughter? "Let''s talk business first, shall we?" "What... do you mean?" "It''s nothing mindboggling. I''ll give you two choices to decide your fate within this domain of mine." "What choices?" "Be patient please, I''m getting there. Option one, You could either pledge loyalty to me, serve me as my other summons do and in return, you can stay with your granddaughter." Arnold gave tiamut the most sadistic smile he ever had, "Or I''ll have Talos cancel his spell and have you return to the afterlife forever. I''ll find others like you inevitably, so I don''t necessarily need you anyways. The choice is yours." Arnold''s thinking was simple. Why waste energy on physically torturing someone when he could do it with mere words. Tiamut knew she had no other choice. Arnold had already demonstrated that her Granddaughter would do whatever he told her to. And after seeing the sadist smile on his face, she knew Arnold meant to do exactly as he said he would. She already lost her daughter once, she couldn''t lose her granddaughter as well. With no other choice, she kneeled before Arnold. Her head almost touching his feet. She didn''t do this in front of anyone, not even the immortal one and yet... she was disgracing herself to please a mere mortal. Who would''ve thought such a day would evere in her life- no, not in her life, but her afterlife. "I, Tiamut, former goddess of dragons, pledge utmost loyalty to you and to be of your service no matter what you desire," she mumbled, "...Master." ___ Congrattions for taming your first Demigod summon. Mystic (MYS) +150 You can check her profile from within the information tab or by using the skill on her. ___ Arnold did just that. After all, he wanted to know more about his new summon. ___ CLASS: Dragon Overlord NAME: Tiamut LEVEL: 189 COSMIC RANK: A ROLE: Demigod (Former Goddess of Dragons) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Hellfire (Active skill) ? Arctic Rage (Active skill) ? Corrosive Breath (Active skill) ? Death w (Active skill) ? Draconic transformation (Active skill) HP: 170000/170000 STRENGTH (STR) : 200 DEFENSE (DEF) : 267 STAMINA (STA) : 180 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 199 AGILITY (AGI) : 167 ACCURACY (ACC) : EVADE (EVD) : 188 CHARISMA (CHA): 399 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (30% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, ranged attacks. Weak Against: Her master. THREAT LEVEL: Negligible REMARK: We taming gods now, eh? Either way, congrattions on developing a new fetish. To be honest, I was getting tired of your old fetishes so it was long overdue to develop a new one... still I didn''t know you were into G.I.L.Fs. That caught me by surprise, not gonna lie. However, on a serious note, the demigods are going to furious at you now so watch your back. ___ ''Enraging them was my motive in the first ce, system-sama.'' Arnold smiled and closed the interface. The more gods he angered, the more gods will attack him and the more godly summons he''ll end up obtaining. Everything was going well within his expectations. Chapter 328 - Jotunheim (1) "Do we need to unlock her true potential as well?" Talos asked after transforming back to his robotic self, "I don''t think we have enough beast crystals left to do so." "Nah. She''s already stronger than all of you. No need to evolve her any further, for now." Arnold replied, "Either way, as you said, we don''t have a lot of beast crystals remaining so I don''t think it is feasible for me to evolve her. Then there''s also the trust issues between us. She might have submitted to me now, but if given the chance she could betray me as well. We''ll evolve her once she had gained my trust, till then the only thing bounding her to me is Scy." "Is she really rted to Scy?" Talos asked him. "Well... I got the egg as a reward for killing Tiamut''s so-called daughter so it might be true." "I have a question as well... How is she still stronger than any one of us? I mean she''s even stronger than Grock." Alice joined in on the conversation, "I thought beings tend to lose a couple of ranks after the resurrection, right?" "That''s what I''m confused about as well." Arnold nodded in agreement, "But there are too many variables for me to pinpoint a reason. It could be because she''s a Godly being thus she retained her true strength even after being resurrected, or maybe it happened because Talos'' reanimation skill got a facelift." Talos and Alice both nodded. There were multiple reasons for it to happen, so what could they do? They couldn''t go on blindly resurrecting godly beings like this or else it would end up biting them in the butt. This time they got lucky just because Arnold still had a higher rank than Tiamut. But it may not be the case the next time. "The only way to solve this mystery is to use the skill on a variety of monsters and study what happens to them." Arnold proposed a solution to them, "And thankfully we have the best opportunity to do so now." The duo gave their master a confused look. Where were they going to find beings like Tiamut? It wasn''t as if someone had opened a supermarket to go in and start shopping. Arnold knew what they were thinking. But rather than clearing their doubts, he took out the dungeon crystal and threw it towards Talos. "This... I see. So this is what you meant master. It could work. With this, we can replenish our reserves of Beast crystals while simultaneously capturing other beasts." Talos said before handing the crystal back to Arnold. "Um, guys... English please?" Alice "You''ll get to know in a while. But first, tell everyone to check their gears for thest time and to step back a bit. God knows what''ll happen after I use this crystal." "Yes, Master." **** A few minutester... "Alright listen up!" Arnold yelled at the top of his lungs, "The dungeon we''re about to enter is unlike anything we have been to before. So be vignt at all times. Pay utmost attention to your surroundings and if you think you cannot take care of a monster by yourself, then do not hesitate and ask for help." "Divide yourselves into groups of 10. The elite summons will be leading these groups and head into different directions so that everyone can make the best of this opportunity and level up as much as they can." Arnold continued, "Also if you find the boss of the dungeon, do not engage and inform me immediately. And keep an eye on the boss monster while I get there. Is that understood?" "Yes, Master!" His army roared in unison. "Tiamut and Scy will apany me. The rest of you feel free to form a group as you please. I''ll open the dungeon in two minutes. So form the groups within that time." "Your summons are quite well-behaved." Tiamut said as she walked over to him in her ancient battle armour. The set of crimson armour had a squared helm with a faceguard which had been shaped like the face of her dragon form. Attached to its side were two small horns, one of which was partially broken. Maybe it broke during a previous altercation. The shoulder tes were fairly squared, wide and quite big. And was decorated with a small pointed tip, which is curved towards the back. Arnold guessed it was probably made to hold her weapon. Her upper arms were protected by pointed,yered metal rerebraces which sat nicely under the shoulder tes. Her lower arms were covered by vambraces with a skull-shaped metal ornament piece on each outer side. The breastte was made from manyyers of squared metal sheets. It covered the entire front and backside, but the attachment straps left her underarms exposed. Meanwhile, her upper legs were covered by a skirt of manyyers of metal-like sheets that barely reached below her groin. The lower legs were protected by greaves which had severalyers of some mystical metal sheets on the outer sides, while the rest of her feet was left unprotected, it was done to ensure that the armour didn''t hamper her agility. All in all, the armour looked quite intimidating. "Woah, what''s up with the insane armour?" Arnold asked her, "And where did you get it from?" "It''s my true form. Yours truly, the Immortal one, sealed it away when he defeated me as a punishment for dering war against the higher gods." Tiamut exined it to Arnold, "But since you killed me, the seal came off and now I can use it again." "Damn, godly punishments work in weird ways..." Arnold sighed, "I know of a few punishments as well, like killing, maiming, torturing, you get the gist. I wonder if he was truly infuriated by you or not. If he was why didn''t he simply kill you? It would''ve been the easiest way to punish someone, right?" "You mortals will never understand the humiliation a sealed armour cause to us gods. It''s worse than death for us." "I see, I see. You do have a weapon on you, don''t you?" Arnold asked her. "My ws are enough for me." Chapter 329 - Jotunheim (2) "Right." Arnold nodded before turning away, "Now step back a bit..." His summons had evenly divided themselves into groups of approximately 300 each.Since Arnold army was mostly made up of automatons, they were the prominent force among the rest. Arnold didn''t know what to expect from the dungeon, hence he decided to go all out. After all, he''ll get to put Cardinal''s sin in action for the first time since creating it, along with his other gears. His summons were no different either. They too had equipped themselves with armours, which they never did. Their weapon had been the only source of their strength but now things were getting different. However, their armours weren''t anything extravagant like Tiamut. Even so, it represented their seriousness regarding the dungeon hunt. "Let''s see how this works..." Arnold mumbled before crushing the dungeon crystal in his hands. The domain began trembling as soon as the crystal disappeared from Arnold''s hand as if they were hit by an earthquake. The only issue was... the domain wasn''t a ce any type of natural disaster could even touch as it didn''t exist in the physical realm. Arnold''s doubt got cleared when he saw something shining in front of him. It first appeared as a red dot, but it got bigger and bigger. By the time the earthquake halted its rampage, there was a full-fledged portal in front of him. ''A transdimensional portal...'' Arnold thought. "Master, this is-" "I know, Talos. A freaking transdimensional portal of all the things this crystal could spawn," Arnold sighed before waving his summons to enter the portal. Ever since the incident regarding the transdimensional portal in Brazil, Arnold made it point no to enter such a portal if it wasn''t an absolute necessity. But now he didn''t have a choice but to do so. Thankfully, no one would try to screw him over since the entrance to the portal was within his domain. After all of his summons had gone in, Arnold followed them inside. [Wee to Jotunheim, Thend of the Frost Giants.] Jotunheim... Was there someone who hadn''t heard of this ce? The home of the frost giants had many tales associated with itself. The Norse mythology was filled with the stories of their deeds against the Gods. Especially, about the war between the gods and the frost giants which ended in the defeat of the giants... Since then the frost giants bore deep hatred for their overlords. This was the story Arnold knew about. The realm could be described as the dwelling-ces of the giants, camouged by deep, dark forests, and mountain peaks where winter never eases its grip on nature. The cold weather there felt infuriating, to say the least and so were the inhospitable and grimndscapes. Right now, Arnold and his summons were standing in a clearing within a forest. ording to the mythological text, thend of frost giants wasn''t meant to be as grim as it looked now.It was to be the sanctuary of the Frost Giants, a home where they could grow and prosper. But Odin couldn''t see the giants as anything but a threat to Asgard and himself. Thus, began the execution of the giants... until one day Odin just stopped chasing after them. No one knew why he did that but that was the story of how the ughter of the giants came to an end. Arnold wasn''t an expert when it came to Norse mythology, but he knew enough to consider the giants a threat. Arnold''s summons didn''t get affected with cold. But even with his mana shield on, he could somewhat feel the chilling atmosphere of the ce pierce right through his skin and into his bones. He quickly bought some freeze-resistant clothes from the shop and wore them over his gears. He did not want his butt to freeze in between battles. That would be the worst-case scenario for him. [This is a special level-up dungeon. Excess Exp, rewards and Attribute points will be provided for every monster in.] [This is not the true realm of Giants, but a replica made to train newbie gods.] [The Boss monster would appear after a certain number of monsters have been in.] [Good luck with your adventure.] ''This is weird...'' Arnold thought as he read the shy text, ''But it''s worth spending time here.'' Arnold was thirsty to test his strength and so were his summons. And this was the perfect dungeon to do so. He casually looked around the forestden with snow. Branches of tall trees bravely struggled to withstand the load of snow. The short gushes of icy wind swooped the branches up and down making piles of snow, fall from the branches making a small snowfall. A thick carpet of snow entirely covered the ground. Even though the ce was unbearably cold, Arnold found it to be somewhat soothing. However, there wasn''t much life in the forest to enjoy the weather. But little did they know, even in the frosty winter nights, the hidden life in the forest continued. Soon they could hear a loud thumping noise of a giant foot approaching them. Arnold didn''t need to look around to find the source of the periodic thumping sound. After all, a 20 feet tall giant was charging right towards them. The giant looked like a humanoid creature being made of ice and rock, simr to his Frost golems. But Arnold could tell that these basta*ds were in a league of their own. The bald giant in front of them was sporting a bluish beard that was matted with frost, forming icicles within it. The Giant would''ve beenpletely naked if not for the loincloth covering his crotch. On one hand, the giant carried an axe while his other arm was equipped with a ginormous shield. "You guys stand by. I''ll take care of this one." Arnold waved his hands to stop Asterios and Grock from charging in. It was the first prey to show up, of course, Arnold would want to get a taste of the giant''s strength first. Chapter 330 - Jotunheim (3) ___ CLASS: Mythical Beast NAME: Warrior Frost Giant LEVEL: 169 COSMIC RANK: C ROLE: Cosmic Beast / Brawler AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Guillotine Swing (Active skill) ? Arctic Stomp (Active skill) ? Frozen Breath (Active skill) ? Hardening (Active skill) ? Massacre master (Passive skill) [Expand to view 7 more] HP: 100,000/100,000 STRENGTH (STR) : 390 DEFENSE (DEF) : 399 STAMINA (STA) : 180 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 79 AGILITY (AGI) : 88 ACCURACY (ACC) : 100 EVADE (EVD) : 60 CHARISMA (CHA): 19 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (20% damage reduction), Acidic attack (10% damage reduction), shing (10% damage reduction). Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Close attacks, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Piercing damage, Lightning. THREAT LEVEL: Low REMARK: One of the few high levelled beings that are rumoured to have existed even before the gods. But through the billions of years, their strength dwindled and now their current strength is no longer a match for even the Demigods. Only the Immortal one knows how these beasts came into existence as he too once belonged to one such tribe of giants, however, he wasn''t anything like the rest of his tribe and hence was ousted from their n. It is said that the Immortal one made sure that the giants regret to have ever being born. P.S. Try not to get trampled below their feet. Unless you have developed yet another fetish. If you know what I mean. *wink* ___ "Aye Aye, System-sama. But they are weaker than I expected them to be..." Arnold shook his head in disappointment. He was looking for a challenge inside the dungeon but it seemed he wouldn''t get any until the Dungeon boss appeared. Moments ago Arnold had constructed a tform bybining his Ice and Nature affinity to get a better view of the giant before shing with it. However, what he saw left him disappointed. He thought these giants would be at least around Tiamut''s level and hence would be fun to y around with, but sadly that wasn''t the case. These so-called mythical beasts were not even stronger than his summons... the only thing they had intrigued him was the giant''s high strength and defence stat. "What a letdown..." Arnold mumbled and pulled the Cardinal''s sin of his inventory, "Still this is the best levelling ground for me at the moment. As long as I get additional Experience points and bonus stat points, I don''t need anything else." [Cardinal''s Sin special effect activated: Expel.] [Target has lost his weapon and is confused. Attacking the target will now deal 2x damage.] Arnold once again open fired at the giant. The loud resounding sound of the gunshots shook the entire forest. The axe slipped away from the giant''s grasp and he fell t on his back. Crushing a huge part of the forest underneath him. His blood gushed out of his body turning the whitendscape into sapphire. ___ You''ve killed a mythical being. EXP: +500,000 First Mythical beast killed: EXP: +1,000,000 First Warrior Frost Giant killed. EXP: +600,000 Dungeon EXP multiplier activated. Total EXP gained: 4,200,000. [Current EXP in storage: 6,304,596] [EXP required to level up: 1,500,000] [You can use the EXP to level up your main ss] [Your subsses have already been maxed out.] Dungeon Stat bonus activated. The stat points you''ll gain while inside the dungeon would directly influence your growth. While inside the dungeon, all previous rules rted to stat increase are revoked. You''ve earned 10 Strength points by killing the Warrior Giant. Current STRENGTH (STR) : 271[+85] Kill 499 more Giants to awaken the boss. ___ "Isn''t this a bit... too easy?" Just by killing one Frost Giant Arnold almost earned enough EXP to level up by quite a few levels. This dungeon, even though it didn''t look the part, was a goldmine for him and his summons. Moreover, the system indirectly confirmed there were at least 499 more such giants in the dungeon for him to kill. "Jackpot!" The number of giants coupled with the amount of stat bonus he''ll gain from killing them was going to be a massive win-win for him. Even though he was a bit disappointed initially, the prospects were now looking better than ever for him as well as his summons. This was the perfect opportunity for him to level up his stats like he had never before. Moreover, this was a repetitive dungeon, meaning he could clear it again and again and continue to level up without any restrictions. So yeah... a goldmine. "Fck the pdins. By the time I''m done with the dungeon, even the demigods wouldn''t be able to do anything against me." Arnold''s ambition wasn''t just to grow strong anymore. Rather he wanted to be the strongest even amongst the Demigods. He quickly stored the giant''s corpse inside his void before destroying the tform he had created. He then looked at his summons with greedy eyes, "I think it''s time for you to go haywire." Their eyes looked as greedy as his did. They too wanted a taste of their new strength. *** A couple of dayster, in Jotunheim... ___ Your summon [Talos] has killed a Mythical being. EXP: +500,000 Dungeon EXP multiplier activated. Total EXP gained: 1,000,000. Since you''re the owner of the dungeon, 75% of the exp will be additionally provided to you. EXP earned: +750,000 [Current EXP in storage: 72,554,596] [EXP required to level up: 1,500,000] [You can use the EXP to level up your main ss] [Your subsses have already been maxed out.] Dungeon Stat bonus activated. Since you''re the owner of the dungeon, 50% of the earned stats will be additionally provided to you. You''ve earned 5 Strength points by killing the Warrior Giant. Current STRENGTH (STR) : 401[+85] Kill 419 more Giants to awaken the boss. ___ "Damn those summons, they are killing more beasts than I can!" Arnold smirked as yet another Frost Giant fell by his summons'' hands, "Well, since I can repeat the dungeon again so there''s no point holding them back from levelling up. As of now, they need to level up more than I do." Surviving inside Jotunheim proved to be easier than expected. Even though Jotunheim was basically a snowy barrennd, thanks to his nature affinity, he could easily gather fruits and herbs to consume and survive and finding water wasn''t an issue either. As for Scy, she was busy devouring the giant''s carcasses. It would seem she had taken quite a liking to their flesh. Moreover, unlike his summons Arnold still needed to rest every once in a while. The Summons could go on endlessly killing the giants there without any problem and since Arnold already told them to go haywire, they weren''t holding back either. "I wonder if it''s your luck or is the immortal one really abusing his powers to ensure you be stronger than anyone else," Tiamut asked Arnold. Her face was as expressionless as Talos, but Arnold could tell she was warming up to him. "Who knows? But it would seem I''m a bit lucky either way." "Do you mind if I take care of the next one?" "Knock yourself out. Meanwhile, I think I''ll rest up a bit. As I haven''t slept in over 30 hours." "Thank you!" Tiamut murmured before sprinting away. "I don''t need to work much... the EXP in getting while resting is already absurd as it is." As Arnold said, the influx of EXP and stats made Arnold''s life heaven. It was as if Arnold had entered a candy shop where everything belonged to him. He decided to keep storing his EXP till he can and then simultaneously level up. He nned so because the only thing levelling up did was to give him attribute points which he was continuously gaining by killing the giants. So there was no reason for him to use the experience points yet. Another interesting that kept Arnold happy was the different types of enemies that could be found inside the dungeon. First were the Warrior Giants that provided him with Strength points upon being killed. Second were the Defender Giants that gave him some much needed Defense and Stamina points. Thanks to these points, he no longer needed to depend on his items to defend him. The third was the Mages who provided him with either intelligence points or Mystic points depending on whether they used summoning magic or not andst but not least were the assassins, who provided him with Agility, uracy and Evade points. So far, he had managed to kill 25 giants, while his summons had killed a total of 55 giants together. Among the giants he killed were 5 warrior giants, 6 defender giants, 9 mage giants and 5 assassin giants. While his summons had killed 16 warriors, 12 defenders, 12 mages and 15 assassins in total. The Warrior and Defender Giants more or less looked identical to each other, while the mages looked a bit malnourished inparison to the others, but wore a bunch of essories and were mostly females. The Assassins, however, were the most peculiar among the group. They were even half as tall as their other counterparts, but due to their small size had an abnormal speed which they used to attack and run away. Also, they were a pain to handle as they were used to using trees to their advantage and could easily hide within the branches to protect them from much harm. That''s the reason Arnold found these types of giants to be the most irritating ones among the others to handle. However, he was happy. For now, his stats were unlike any being he had met before. "Open info tab." ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses], [God Killer], [Forgemaster], [Cosmic Summoner] LEVEL : 201 RANK : Cosmic S Personal details and stats : HP: 30138/30138 MANA: 45337/50337 EXP: 0/1,500,000 STRENGTH (STR) : 411[+85] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF): 276[+226] (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 268 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 441 AGILITY (AGI) : 201 ACCURACY (ACC) : 175 EVADE (EVD) : 217 CHARISMA (CHA): [Maximum value reached] MYSTIC (MYS): 535 ___ "I wonder what my stats will look like by the time the dungeon boss makes his appearance." Chapter 331 - Trip To China (1) ___ You''ve killed a mythical being. EXP: +500,000 First Mythical King killed: EXP: +10,000,000 First Chieftain giant killed. EXP: +6,000,000 Dungeon EXP multiplier activated. Total EXP gained: 33,000,000. Dungeon Stat bonus activated. The stat points you''ll gain while inside the dungeon would directly influence your growth. While inside the dungeon, all previous rules rted to stat increase are revoked. You''ve earned 50 stat points for all your stats by killing the Chieftain Giant. Current STRENGTH (STR) : 1201[+85] (due to the gears) Current DEFENSE (DEF):626[+226] (due to the gears) Current STAMINA (STA) : 693 Current INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 944 Current AGILITY (AGI) : 506 Current ACCURACY (ACC) : 485 Current EVADE (EVD) : 527 Current MYSTIC (MYS): 837 ___ Arnold was standing over the corpse of the so-called dungeon boss, The Chieftain Giant. It took him a little over a minute to y the B-rank cosmic being. It took him that long not because it was difficult to kill the boss but because the chieftain started running for his life the moment Arnold severed 2 of his 4 arms with a single shot. Arnold wanted a challenge to test his strength out. But even the dungeon boss catastrophically failed to be a challenge for him. The only thing about the dungeon that surprised him was the astronomical increase in his stats. He didn''t know what was wrong with the insane amount of stats he had gained but he was pretty sure that he was the strongest being on the. No one even came close to being his level before all this happened and now the gap between him and the other Vassals or Pdins was like heaven and hell. "If I can clear this dungeon on my own a couple of times, I don''t think even the gods would pose a big threat to me any longer..." Arnold mumbled as he and his summons were teleported back to his domain. ___ Stat bonus limit reached. The user has reached the limit to absorb stat points. The user won''t be able to gain more stats points even after repeating the dungeon. However, Exp gain will remain the same. Stat gain will resume inside the dungeon after the owner of the dungeon ascends. The dungeon will now be closed till reset. Time for reset: 3 months. Hope you enjoyed your time training. See you again after reset! ___ "Of course, you just had to impose a limit on my growth, didn''t you?" Arnold sighed as the red portal turned grey. Arnold wanted to see if the dungeon was genuinely closed or not. He reached out and touched the portal with his bionic arm and the next moment he got zapped, hard. He did not feel a thing but it was enough to confirm that the dungeon was closed and wouldn''t allow entry to anyone, let alone him. With the dungeon being closed. Arnold called his elite summons for a meeting. He wanted to assess their levels after the dungeon run. To his surprise, Talos and Grock had already managed to break through Cosmic C rank and were now ranked Cosmic B. The rest of them, however, were still stuck in their previous ranks. Tiamut had also gained some experience but it wasn''t even 5% of the total EXP she needed for her rank breakthrough. In fact, she needed a humongous amount of 5 million exp to level up once. It was a simr case with his other summons as well. Even though they were quite a few ranks below him, they still required more exp than him to level up. At Cosmic C, they required 2 million exp to level up once while Arnold only required 1.5 million exp to level up once even though he was a Cosmic S ranker. ''Do I have a cheat or something? Why is there such a drastic difference between the amount of EXP I and my summons need to level up?'' Arnold wasn''tining that he got to enjoy these perks. He just wanted to know the reason behind it because he was feeling uneasy... or to be precise he was a bit worried about his excessive strength. Especially with his volcano-like rage. Even before unlocking his true potential with the help of beast crystals, his strength was enough to cause nationwide destruction... but now he was afraid he could blow up entire continents if he desired, or if he was enraged beyond reasoning. The more concerning thing was System-sama''s silence on the matter. No matter how many times Arnold asked the system about the EXP issue, System-sama remained silent. Before Arnold could brainstorm about the reasons himself, his train of thoughts was interrupted by Talos. "Master, can I have a moment with you?" Talos requested. "Sure. Is something wrong?" "You can say that. Around 1200 automatons got destroyed during the dungeon run." "That''s... quite a number. We''ll have to improve them somehow." "Yes, master. But that''s not what I wanted to talk with you about. The thing is, we don''t have enough resources to repair all of them." Talos finally dropped the bombshell on Arnold, "Even if we were topletely exhaust our reserved resources, we''ll only be able to fix about half of them." "Now that is... a problem," Arnold mumbled while scratching his chin. Arnold had gained arge number of Mystic points while clearing the dungeon, thus the number of his summons like the hounds and golem had increased by 500. Thus it wouldn''t affect him much even if all of the automatons weren''t repaired. However, he was worried about theck of resources he was facing now. Previously Arnold didn''t have to worry about these things as he had a contract with the syndicate to provide him with the materials he required in exchange for the beast crystals. But now since he no longer had an affiliation with them, he could no longer enjoy those benefits. Well, technically he could, since they were afraid of him, but he didn''t want to abuse them with an iron fist. He could still trade resources at the trade centre in exchange for beast crystals they earned from the dungeon run theypleted just now. But these crystals were needed by Devon and Talos to keep the domain running as the electricity and the types of equipment they were producing were all dependent on the beast crystals. He could also sell a couple of frost giant corpses to get some money and then use that money to buy the resources to repair the automatons. But then he''ll have to divulge the information about where he got those from. On the other hand, he could try and sell them in the ck market with a different identity... but he didn''t want the world to know about the frost giants yet, especially since they could be used to make illegal weapons which would then most likely be used to spill innocent blood. Moreover, he wanted to use the corpses to make better gears for his summons as a reward for their hard work within the dungeon. Atst, he could also ask the cks for help. Arnold had no doubts that his former family would help him if he asked for it. Even if they refused, he could ask Nicole or Nina to help him out but his self-respect wouldn''t allow him to do that. In his mind, there were only two things he could do now. First, go berserk and clear as many dungeons as he could and slowly replenish his reserve. Or he could take back what was rightfully his from his beloved uncle. Without thinking for a moment, he decided to do the second thing. Why? Because it was easier to take over his father''s business and be a billionaire in one sweep rather than endlessly clearing dungeons for a couple of weeks. Talos noticed his master''s sadist smile and knew something was going inside his head. "Master, something''s in your head. Isn''t it?" He asked Arnold. "Oh, there is..." Arnold replied, while his grin grew into a smile that stretched from ear to ear, "A while ago, I wanted to visit my homnd to repay my uncle''s kindness by teaching him some manners. But now I think I should go a step further. Pack your bags people, we''re going to wreck a filthy basta*d." Chapter 332 - Trip To China (2) The first thing Arnold did aftering out of the portal was to visit Nina. It had been a while since he saw her and to be honest, he didn''t like the thought of leaving her and Nicole without any protection in his absence. Nicole was more than enough to protect Nina but still, as strong as she was, even she couldn''t notice that Nathan was possessed by someone. And Arnold didn''t want to take the chance again. He was worried the Pdin or Vassal who attacked Nathan could also harm others thus he did what the system rmended him to do. He essed the shop from his interface and bought two items, a ne and a ring. He got the ring for Nina while the ne was meant to be given to Nicole. ___ OBJECT: Crimson Witch''s Ring TYPE: essory GRADE: Cosmic B EFFECT: INT +150, Providesplete protection from mental invasions. REMARK: A powerful ring that once belonged to the first Consort of the king of hell, Hades. The ring was supposed to be the symbol of their union but when he caught her conspiring against him with her siblings to kill him, Hades annihted her entire family while feeding her to the corrupt punishers of hell. One of the punishers ended up swallowing her ring which was then recovered by a hero whose identity has been lost in the records of Apollo, the God of knowledge. The ring provides its bearerplete protection against mental attacks and further improves the bearer''s intelligence. The effects are applied once someone tries to mentally invade the bearer''s mind. ___ ___ OBJECT: Ne of Hecate TYPE: essory GRADE: Cosmic B EFFECT: INT +250, Providesplete protection from mental invasions, Enhances spell effectiveness of those possessing Shadow affinity by 40%. REMARK: The prized ne made by the Goddess of witchcraft and magic, Hecate. It is said she made this ne with a handful of ck opals and then sew them together using an olive branch before embuing it with her magic. She made the ne for her daughter, Circe, who threw away the ne because of its bizarre appearance. The ne had since been floating around the boundless universe in search of its owner. The effects are applied once someone tries to mentally invade the bearer''s mind. Special condition: The ne can only be equipped by someone possessing Shadow affinity. ___ While the ne was just another gift he bought for his little sister, the ring had more significance than that. Arnold being the madd he was, had nned to propose to Nina before leaving for Chinna and the ring ended up being the one he used to propose to her. It was the day before he was going to leave for Shanghai. Thus, he took Nina out for a dinner and after that, they went to do her favourite thing: Stargazing. The night was young, yet not a soul was around them. Maybe they were too busy to enjoy the beauty of the night sky. Nina gazed at those twinkling bright friends of the moon. She had failed to notice their happiness before. Maybe she felt so because she was happy herself. Without her noticing, Arnold pulled out the crimson ring from his pocket. He might''ve been the strongest man on Earth, but at that moment he was as nervous as any other boyfriend would''ve been. Under a sky of perfect midnight velvet, he finally gathered the courage and went down on one knee. Nina saw him, holding the ring in his hands. The crimson stone on the ring reflected clearly the stars above. She ended up saying yes even before Arnold could utter a single word. It wasn''t the world''s most happening proposal, but Arnold it was the best moment of his life. That was also the case for a certain someone in Shanghai. A man gazed at the city before his eyes, Shanghai, the Paris of the east. It had been a long night for the man. After all, satisfying three barely adult girls wasn''t an easy job to do. Especially at the age of 69. ''Huhuhu looks like my dragon can still tame any hare...'' The man thought while patting his potbelly. Standing 6'' 0" tall, this brown-skinned man had a greedy feel about him. A particrly notable feature was his missing tooth. The same tooth his younger brother had knocked out when he found out that the pot-bellied''s son had been sexually mistreating his daughter. Every time he thought about how he was humiliated, made his round face got red as if he had consumed a bowl of hot chilly powder. But that only made the moment when he kicked his nephew and niece out of their home even more satisfying. It had been more than a decade since Chiang Ling forcefully took over his younger brother''s business which was supposed to go to his niece and nephew. Ever since then he has had all thefort he ever dreamed to have. Thanks to his ''brother'' he owned hundreds of properties around the world. He has had about half a century or so illicit rtionships with politicians, their wives and even their daughters. He basically had dirt on everyone who could pose a threat to the underworld empire he had created for himself and his equally rotten son, from scratch. Even in the age of dungeons and warriors, he was the King of China''s underworld. No one dared to raise their voice against him. After all, he had backing from China''s strongest Swordsman, the Sword God, Yu Zhung. It was the same Yu Zhung who was Asia''s only SS ranked warrior. With someone like Yu Zhung backing him, Chiang had no one to be afraid of. Because Yu Zhung, he was able to do whatever he wanted to, whomever he wanted without facing any consequences. Thanks to Chiang''s illegal businesses, the Ling group of industries which was once a respectful organisation was now frowned upon by the general masses. But Chiang didn''t care about his public image at all. All he cared about was money and power. As long as he got what he wanted, he didn''t care whom he had to screw over. Little did he know his puny Sword god won''t be able to protect him from the catastrophic rage of the Deathless, who also happened to be his nephew, Arnold Ling. Chapter 333 - Taking Back Whats Mine (1) A couple of dayster... Shanghai''s nightlife had magic weaved in the air. No matter how much someone hated the city life, no one could hate this ce, especially if that person had spent 17 years of their life there. Being the country''s most popted city, Shanghai never slept. People were always on the streets. Some enjoyed themselves while others tried hard to earn a living while fighting against the crowd that was ready to swallow them alive on their first mistake. It was a kill or be killed situation for the people. But no one was ready to give up theirfort for someone else. Yet, the atmosphere of the city even made this grim scenario seem lively. "This ce has changed so much..." Arnold murmured while watching the city he spent his childhood in. He was standing on top of Shanghai Tower, the tallest building in the city. He had warped into the city just a few hours ago and within the first two minutes, he had already totalled someone''s brand new Te. Well, technically it wasn''t his fault. Instead of following legal procedures and taking a flight to get to Shanghai, Arnold decided to use void travel to get to his birthce and his home. Little did he know his house was no longer where it was supposed to be. Instead, he ended up warping in the middle of a street and within seconds a speeding crashed into him. Their collision was inevitable as there was no time for Arnold to dodge the iing vehicle. The result of their collision was simr to the crash testing of the high-end vehicles. The te was thrashed beyond recognition. But Arnold managed to grab the driver by his neck as he flew out of the windshield. He knew how his countrymen behaved in these situations. So Arnold quickly knocked the man out, dragged his broken te and ced it under a street light before bending the street light over to make it look like the man had been driving irresponsibly (which was true) and ended up colliding with the street light. When he was done, he left the ce and headed towards the crowd to ask them about Ling industries, since the city had changed a lot in about a decade. He was wondering whether he''d be able to find the main office building again, and was surprised to know that technically Ling industries owned more than half of the city. However, it wasn''t a pleasant surprise for him. The amount of disgust the locals had for the something his father built with the intention to help them made Arnold sick to his stomach. All the reputation his father had to build over the years was nowhere to be found. It was like everything has changed... He then kept digging for more information regarding the matter and it was then he found about his uncle''s new criminal background. "Just when I thought that basta*d won''t fall further, you always manage to prove me wrong," Arnold gritted his teeth in hopes of suppressing the rage dwelling within him. Frankly, he did not give a sh*t about what his uncle did with his useless life. But the fact that he had been smearing sh*t all over his father''spany''s reputation was something entirely different. He walked to the Tower as a way to try and cool himself down. After spending 4 hours standing on the roof of the tower, Arnold decided it was time to visit his uncle. Thankfully, the headquarters of the business hadn''t changed so it didn''t take long for him to get there. But before he could enter the building, he heard a familiar voice call his name. He hadn''t heard that voice in a long time. However, it belonged to someone special to him. The owner of the voice was his high school friend, Zing Long. Standing at 5'' 6" tall, Zing looked as tanned as Arnold remembered him seeing over a decade ago. However, his triangr face had changed quite a bit and now he had a softly shaped jaw along with his awkwardlyrge nose, puffy lips, and hisrge brown eyes, which almost made him look like an alien. He had also dyed his long natural brown hair in a deep purple shade that matched the Wisteria tattoo on his left forearm. He was wearing a ck ripped jeans under his in white shirt with the sleeves rolled over. "Excuse my rude behaviour, but you''re Arnold aren''t you?" Zing asked Arnold in his squeaky voice. "I see you haven''t grown an inch, you tanned goblin." Arnold smiled at his long lost friend. "Oh my god, it is you! But damn... how the hell did you get so handsome? You''ll disclose your secret to your little brother, won''t you?" Zing asked as he epted the offer to shake Arnold''s extended hand, "Oh... what happened to your arm? Don''t tell me you''re a warrior as well!?" Arnold was a bit surprised that Zing didn''t know who he was but then he remembered that the Chinese had their own social media and news houses that only telecasted what was beneficial to them. In other words, people werepletely cut off from most of the global affairs. But rather than clearing Zing''s doubts, Arnold decided to y along with his old friend. "Yeah, you can say something like that." Arnold smiled as the friends let go of each other''s hands. "Keeping that aside, why did you leave the country without even saying goodbye, huh? Your uncle told us you ran away and hence he had to take care of the family business. But no one ever believed him. Not even his old and trusty employees." "It was nothing serious. I just had to take care of a few things and I''m back now." "Ah... that makes sense now. You''ve awakened and thus you''re here for your evaluation, right? I guess even you want to work for your uncle like everyone else." Zing asked once again, "Come on, let''s go in." "Wait, you work here?" "Of course, I do. After all, I''m the manager of this ce." Zing replied with a cocky smile. Chapter 334 - Taking Back Whats Mine (2) "You''re a manager here?" "Of course, I am." Zing answered, "Your uncle saw potential in me and made me the manager of his warrior guild, The Golden Dragon." "I see." "Hey! Don''t look so grim. I''m sure your uncle will dly give you a job as well. He has an eye for talented people and since you''re his nephew, I wonder if he''ll make you his left-hand man. I say left because of your cousin, as he''s his right-hand man. And in case he doesn''t, for the old time''s sake, I''ll give you a job here-" Zing replied puffing his chest up a bit but he was soon interrupted by a woman. "Mr Long, please save my son... he''s my only child who has to carry our family name. You can''t just send him into the dungeon of death with his rundown equipment! I''ll do anything... anything you want, just bring my son back..." The woman appeared to be in herte forties and seemingly had been waiting for Zing for a long time. but even for her age, she had maintained her body. She wasn''t wearing a wedding ring so Arnold couldn''t tell whether she was married or not. "Tsk... this bitch." Zing mumbled in anger, "Listen you pig, your son signed a contract with me. I can do whatever I want with him, you understand? If I want to make him dance naked on the streets he''ll have to do that. Get that into your thick skull. However, if you really want to do anything then maybe you should send Ruyi here. I''m sure we''ll manage to work something out eh?" Arnold couldn''t believe his eyes. This man wasn''t like the Zing he knew and grew up with. The Zing he knew would die but would never disrespect anyone in such a perverse manner... ''Seems that a bit of money can change even the timidest men...'' Arnold thought while he tried his best to keep his emotions in check. No matter how much he wanted to cave Zing''s head into his body in the heat of the moment, he had to be careful till he can get some information about his uncle from him. The woman was a bit taken aback by Zing''s statement. Ruyi was herte sister''s daughter whom she had taken care of as her own ever since her sister''s along with her husband''s untimely demise over a decade ago during the ''Great Shanghai Disaster''. She had been strong for the sake of her children and had even kicked her husband out of their marital home once she found out that he had been mistreated, the then 12-year-old Ruyi. She had sworn to protect Ruyi at all cost. But now her resolve was wavering. Her son was in danger and she couldn''t do anything. She was ready to dly offer herself to a demonic basta*d like Zing, but even that was of no use. He only wanted Ruyi and no one else. She knew the type of Zing was and the kind of men he worked for. So she didn''t have any choice but to do as he told her to. She was pretty sure that Zing had sent her son on an impossible dungeon hunt because he wanted to have a physical rtionship with Ruyi and was ready to sink to such a low level to get what he wanted. "I''ll send her over as soon as I can." The teary-eyed woman barely managed to mumbled before rushing out of the building. "Fcking pig, she actually thought I''ll use her to satisfy my thirst." Zing spat in disgust, "What did she think? I''ll settle down for a hand-me-down? After all, my dragon has a status to maintain. I''m not a desperate or h*rny basta*d. I can''t just keep poking it in any hole I find. Don''t you agree with me, Arnold? I''m sure lots of women would hit over you as well. Don''t you find it a bit... annoying?" Arnold didn''t want to associate with people of Zing''s kind. So he didn''t reply and instead quickly changed the topic. "What was that all about?" "Oh, it''s nothing. I just fancy the pretty girl but despite my advances, she rejected me every-fucking-time. I tried giving her expensive gifts, everything any girl would kill to have but that bit*h pped me here right in this lobby." Zing said with a devilish smile on his face as he continued exining his disgusting n to Arnold. "So I hatched a n. I knew his cousin was a warrior so I bribed him into joining my group of warriors and sent him to the deadliest dungeon in Shanghai with next to nothing for his ''protective gear''. Now, my men are proficient enough to clear the dungeon but instead, I gave them the order to keep that idiot as a hostage until I popped Ruyi''s cherry. You know what? For the old time''s sake, I''ll let you enjoy her after I''m done with her, what do you say?" It took Arnold quite an effort to keep his anger in check. He couldn''t believe what a disgusting basta*d Zing had be. But for now, he had to focus on reaching his uncle and after he was done taking care of that greedy basta*d, He would personally teach this foul a*shole of a man a lesson he''ll remember till the day he dies. "I''ll have to pass. I don''t wanna have intercourse with a stranger." Arnold said in a barely calm voice, "By the way, is my uncle in? It would be rude on my part if I didn''t greet him." "Man, you should just trust me, Ruyi is fine as an exotic wine. But I guess you''re free to make your choices." Zing replied while scratching the back of his head, "As for uncle Chiang, he doesn''t visit this office anymore. You''ll most probably have to give him a visit in his vi. Here, I''ll give you his address." Arnold thanked Zing before rushing out to catch the woman from earlier. He had waited for over a decade to deal with his uncle, Arnold didn''t mind if he had to wait for a bit more. "Excuse me, ma''am!" Arnold called for the woman who was about to get into a taxi, "Can I talk with you about your son for a second?" "Aren''t you the man who was with that basta*d Long?" The woman cursed loudly, "What do you want?" "I just want to help you." "Help you say?" The woman scoffed, "But all I can hear is, ''I want to nail your niece after I''ve saved your son.'' That''s your n isn''t it?" Arnold was already pissed and this woman wasn''t helping anyone with that tone of hers. But even after listening to her, he still wanted to help her out. However, now he wasn''t going to remain as gentle as he had been with her. He released a minuscule amount of his aura to make the woman understand that while he was concerned about her son''s well-being, he wasn''t going to be her verbal punching bag. The moment Arnold released his aura, the taxi driver bolted and the woman fell on her knees. she was too frightened to even look Arnold in the eyes. "Now will you tell me where this Dungeon of Death is?" Chapter 335 - Taking Back Whats Mine (3) "Mr Long has told us to keep him ''alive''. But he didn''t refrain us from torturing him, did he now?" The leader of the merc group, Jin Rong, smirked as he once again plunged his sword deep within his prey''s knees, "Since Boss Long will get to have fun with your bombshell of a sister, so it''s only fair that we get to have some fun as well. Don''t worry, our sense of having fun is different than what Boss Zing has." Jin was a very creepy looking guy. That was the only way to describe him. He had a wide face, a hooked nose, very thin lips, and had greedy dark brown eyes. He also had arge scar on his neck which he never failed to tell the story about. The stories kept changing ording to the crowd he was narrating the story to, but the mostmon tale mentioned how an ogre sneaked up on him and stabbed him in the neck.?? However, this was far from true. Because for starters, if an ogre sneaked attack anyone especially on their neck, no matter how weak the attack ended up being, it would do more damage than just grazing the skin. Moreover, Ogres were proud monsters. They never sneaked up on their target but always faced them head-on. Not to mention, there was not a single ogre in the dungeon Jin had gotten the scar from. It was a dungeon filled with goblins and that was about it. It was a basic dungeon, now which had a low-tier Hobgoblin as its boss. But the funny thing was, even the goblins were too much for him to handle back then and had to be taken care of by the team he had been a member of in his early days as a warrior. Jin was just clumsy and that''s how he got the scar. While he was collecting fallen loot, he slipped and fell on a goblin carcass. Unluckily, the dead goblin was still holding onto its stone dagger which grazed through his neck leaving the scar on his neck. It was so embarrassing that he had to pay a huge amount of money to the people who went in the dungeon with him in order to keep their mouths shut about the incident. Ever since then Jin had been boasting about how he managed to fend off an ogre or dragon newt or even an ice golem, in his vulnerable state. Sadly, people were foolish enough to readily epted his exnation without a shred of doubt. The woman''s son, Bai Tao, was one such individual who believed in Jin''s false tales and was dragged into the dungeon with them without proper gears. Bai Tao was a brawler who started learning martial arts from a very young age. But never got to implement his learned skills. Under normal circumstances, he was more than capable of defending himself. But these basta*ds had drugged him, rendering him motionless and without his gears, he couldn''t do much. Right now, he was their toy. It had been an hour since he was drugged and since then, the six bandits had already stabbed him more than a dozen times. But the bandits were skilful and knew exactly what they were doing. They had stabbed him a dozen times but not once did they caused any vital injury to him. The drug just made Bai Tao lose his ability to move, but he could still feel the pain caused by the stabs. Bai Tao had been tied to a tree trunk. The bandits had already cleared the dungeon apart from the dungeon boss. Numerous elf corpses were scattered around the floor. Their precious blood oozed out of their body, mixing with Bai Tao''s blood. ''It''s hopeless...'' Bai Tao thought to himself, ''I should have listened to what mother was trying to tell me. I thought I could easily make money from being a warrior and this is where it ended up bringing me.'' "Hey, Jin. This basta*d isn''t reacting to being stabbed anymore... and it''s no fun if he doesn''t scream you know." Ming, Jin''s right-hand man, repeatedly stabbed him but after Bai Tao had resigned to his fate he didn''t care about the pain anymore. "Huh... is that so? Then I guess it''s time to change our methods. Lu¨®! Get the acid!" Jin''s voice echoed through the empty dungeon. The group''s porter, 5''4" tall, fair-skinned man, Lu¨® Liang quickly took out half a dozen vials from his backpack and handed each of them a vial. Jin broke the sealed vial the reveal the foul-smelling liquid viridian coloured liquid inside. Bai Tao''s eyes opened wide in terror. He immediately recognised what the liquid was. It was Arachanid''s acid. It was among one of the most corrosive acids to ever been found within a monster. Just one drop of the liquid was enough to bore a hole into the thickest surfaces. No matter whether it was steel or diamond, nothing stood a chance against the acid. As a result, this acid was used by the warriors to take care of heavily armoured enemies. "Let''s see whether you scream now or not..." Jin''s ears eagerly waited to hear Bai Tao''s incoherent screams. His hands were shaking from the excitement of seeing Bai Tao beg for his life. At that moment, Jin hadpletely forgotten about what Zing had told them to do. All they cared about was to see Bai Tao struggle in pain as they slowly poured the acid over him. "Kids shouldn''t y with Arachnid''s acid. Didn''t your mothers teach you that?" In their excitement to torture Bai Tao, they failed to notice that an unknown person had joined them. The bandits quickly turned around, only to be knocked out before they could even react against the intruder. Everyone except Jin and Bai Tao was on the floor. "Looks like I went overboard yet again... *sigh*. I need to get used to this strength as soon as possible..." The man with a prosthetic arm mumbled before crushing Lu¨®''s hand along with the acidic vial, "Now, what should I do with you?" Arnold threateningly took a step towards Jin, while leaking his hidden aura. Jin was petrified with fear. Just who was this man? And why was he doing this to them? But before he could muster the courage to ask these questions to him, Arnold ignored him and walked over to Bai Tao, setting him free. "Can you walk?" Arnold asked Bai Tao in Mandarin. Bai Tao''s body was still numb but he managed to shake his head in reply. "You can''t? Oh well." Arnold quickly summoned Alice who immediately began treating the poor man. "W-What do your think you''re doing by i-interfering in p-private matters." Jin finally mustered the courage to speak, "We have bought the rights to this dungeon. And if you don''t leave n-now, we''ll have to take strict-" "shhh." Arnold put a finger on his lips before getting back up, "Since you bought this dungeon, that means you can clear it right?" "What are you even-" "Just answer the dam* question." "Yes, but-" "Very well then." After saying that, Arnold grabbed Jin by his cor and dragged him into the boss room before throwing him inside and locking the room. After that, he dragged the rest of the bandits and threw them inside as well. "What... is... he... doing... they were... Yu Zhung''s men..." Bai Tao mumbled in mandarin but Alice couldn''t understand him so she gestured for him to stay quiet in hopes that he would not piss off Arnold. Chapter 336 - Taking Back Whats Mine (4) "Alice take the kid out. I''ll have to get rid of the dungeon boss before leaving or else it''ll end up causing an outbreak." Arnold repeated the same thing in Mandarin so that Bai Tao could understand what Arnold wanted him to do before turning around to enter the boss room. "Wait... what about the subjugators... outside?" Bai Tao tried to force himself back on his feet but couldn''t. There were still traces of the drug in his body. Furthermore, the excessive blood loss had made him even weaker than before.?? "How do you think I got in here, Einstein? Now get going. Your mother must be worried about you." "Big bro, you must not! No one can solo that boss monster..." Bai Tao tried onest time to change Arnold''s mind but he just shook his head and opened the boss room''s door once again. ''Why can''t these people just mind their own business?'' Arnold waved his hand and told Alice to get out before he entered the room. "Sister, you must stop him... if the sword god got to know about this, no one would survive his rage!" "Just keep walking. If you don''t you won''t survive my master''s rage." Alice mumbled as she dragged the man out of the dungeon by force. Arnold had given her hismunicator so she could understand whatever the man was blurting out. She might have been a Healer by profession, but the dungeon trip to Jotunheim had drastically changed her stats. Thanks to the numerous warrior giants she slew inside that dungeon, she now had more strength than her mana. She was still the weakest among Arnold''s summons in terms of strength, but her strength was still much more than what 99% of the warriors yearned to have. And the way she dragged Bai Tao, a brawler, out of the dungeon with only one of her hands, was the proof of her new strength. "Good... lord..." These were the only two words that escaped from Bai Tao''s mouth when he saw the carnage Arnold had caused outside the dungeon. Thanks to Chiang Ling''s illegal activities, The Golden dragon guild had made a lot of enemies. But due to their ''generous'' nature, the enemies had always stayed away from them. But Chiang didn''t trust them not to attack his warriors as they were always on the lookout for a chance to royally screw the Golden Dragon''s over. Thus the guild always sent a subjugation squad along with the main attack team in order to protect the main attacking squad from outside danger. While the attacking team was busy taking care of the monsters inside the dungeon, the subjugation squad were stationed outside to ensure the attacking team''s safety from their fellow humans. For that reason, each of the subjugation squads was made up of at least 50 warriors. These were special warriors who were ruthlessly trained to take care of humans rather than monsters or in other words... they were groomed to be psycho killers who were trained to kill anyone in their sight. But thanks to Yu Zhung, not even the police or the politicians gave a crap about who they were. That''s why, Bai Tao was worried about going outside because, in his eyes, no mere human could take care of the savage beasts known as the subjugation squad by themselves. When he saw Arnold, his first guess was that Arnold was a master of stealth and had somehow managed to sneak past the subjugation squad in order to save him from a gruesome death. But he was wrong. Arnold wasn''t someone who would need to sneak past those weaklings. He faced them head-on and as a result, he ended up killing most of them since he was still having trouble adjusting to his new monstrous strength. However, death only came to those who were lucky enough. But those who weren''t... were left to struggle to try and get a hold over their brutally disfigured body. Among the dead, some had a huge chunk of their chest missing. Some of them had their limbs torn apart. While some of them had their entire lower body missing but most of them were left to atone for their sins. However, in the blood-soaked ground that glistened under the carmine sun, there was no salvation for them. Bai Tao couldn''t take it anymore and proceeded to puke his guts out. Alice would''ve been a bit disturbed by this sight as well if she hadn''t heard of what Arnold did to Andrex and his family a couple of weeks ago. But after that knowing what Arnold did to them, this didn''te as a surprise for her. The only thing she was surprised about what the fact that a few miserable souls were still alive in the field of death. Under Arnold''s wing, she too had be indifferent towards such pieces of trash. People like them were better off dead than being alive. What she previously saw as a crime, she now considered as a way to purge their corrupt souls while shielding the while protecting the innocent. "We''re dead... we''re all dead..." Bai Tao kept mumbling the same thing incoherently, "Yu Zhung will kill us all..." Alice gently lifted his face up. His eyes were close to hers... so much so that Bai Tao could see his reflection in them. Alice kept leaning in, Bai Tao closed his eyes as his lips got closer and closer to the beautiful maiden''s. He didn''t know why the foreigner was doing it, and neither did he bothered to know. He thought that maybe the fair maiden had taken a liking to him. Why else would someone lean in to kiss him? But the next moment all of his immature dreams were shattered when Alice pped him so hard about half a dozen of his teeth went flying out of his mouth. Whether she was dead or not, Alice still hated crybabies. That was the reason she had previously taken a liking to Arnold, but seeing someone who started crying like a baby at the littlest of things was a total turn off for her. ''Come on Arnold... how long are you nning to take to y one monster? Just get back already!'' Chapter 337 - Taking Back Whats Mine (5) At that time, inside the boss room... Arnold knew what that ce was. He had been to such a dungeon before. The American warriors used to refer to these dungeons as the Lair of death. It wasn''t nicknamed as such because it was difficult to clear the dungeon. Rather it was called so because of the monster residing within the ce, the Archliches, who were also known as the magicians of death.?? "That Bai Tao guy was worried about this?" Arnold smiled. He was smiling because he was used to handling Archliches even before he unlocked his potential and now it was nothing more than a joke for him to take care of these monsters. The Archlich wasn''t someone who would pose a threat to him, not in a million years. Though it was someone whom Arnold had been wanting to turn into his summon for a long time. The Archlich had a lot of strategic importance as it could resurrect low to mid-grade monsters that can serve as cannon fodder and workers in his army. Also, since Arnold had been thinking to do some base building in his domain, the appearance of the Archlich was weed with open arms by him. After all, it saved the time he''d have to waste while looking for one before resurrecting him. So far Arnold had refrained from resurrecting Liches because their level was generally around rank A which was quite low in his mind, and it was a pain to get them levelled up. This was the reason why Arnold tend to resurrect only those monsters who were already high level rather than training them from scratch. But that had been the case when he didn''t have Devon''s knowledge. Thanks to his newly attained knowledge, Arnold could now freely tame any monster as his summon without having to worry about the levels. But even then, Arnold wasn''t going to resurrect anything that was below cosmic grade. At least not until he was forced to or someone with a unique ability showed up. Luckily, the boss of the dungeon wasn''t as lower-ranked as its counterparts and had a unique ability not many people knew about. "I''ve heard about Elven Lich monsters, but it''s my first time seeing one by myself. No wonder it''s has a higher level than other Liches." ___ CLASS: Undead Beast NAME: Elf Archlich LEVEL: 149 COSMIC RANK: D ROLE: Mage/ Necromancer/ summoner AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? 1st tier Reanimation (Active skill) ? Blood de (Active skill) ? Horde of Hades (Active skill) ? Undead Tremor (Active skill) ? Rejuvenation (Passive skill) ? Domain of Death (Passive skill) HP: 20,000/20,000 STRENGTH (STR) : 110 DEFENSE (DEF) : 50 STAMINA (STA) : 99 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 129 AGILITY (AGI) : 56 ACCURACY (ACC) : 100 EVADE (EVD) : 60 CHARISMA (CHA): 01 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (20% damage reduction), Acidic attack (10% damage reduction), shing (10% damage reduction). Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Close attacks, Necromancy spells. Weak Against: Blunt attacks, Light affinity, Holy magic. THREAT LEVEL: Negligible REMARK: Liches are said to be insane magicians who in their thirst for knowledge and eternal life embraced death as a means to prolong their natural life span. Only those who only thought about themselves and no worldly matters were able toplete the ritual to be an Archlich. The process of bing a lich is a well-guarded secret. But one of the final steps on the ritual was known to mankind. As whoever became a lich had one thing inmon... all of their blood rtives are found dead soon after their ascension. Thus it is said that the final step to bing a Lich requires one to sacrifice anyone rted to the wannabe Lich by blood. The ritual only became sessful once the being had sacrificed everyone even minutely rted to them, and consuming their blood. Once they were sessful in doing so, they shed their skin and turn into a gaunt and skeletal being with withered flesh stered tight across its bones. They are usually seen garbed in clothes from their past life. ___ There were about half a dozen types of liches. Each one had its own speciality. For example, Orc Archliches had higher defence stats than the rest. The Goblin Lich was more agile. The Ogre lich had insane strength, while Humanoid lich, which was also the mostmon form of a lich, had the highest stamina. The dwarven lich took pride in the uracy of its spells and finally, Elven Lich which was the rarest form of a lich, had superior intelligence and mana control. This was also the reason that the Elf Archliches were the deadliest and can summon an endless horde of undead to defend themselves. "Looks like even the Archlich has low defence and HP... Well, I can fix thatter with a little help from the Defender Frost giants." One of the most important benefits Arnold now had over his summons was the ability to use his private dungeon and groom them into whatever he wanted them to be. For example, if one of his summons had a low defence, he could simply put them against the Defender Frost Giants and for every kill, their defence stat would steadily increase over time. That''s why he was over the moon when he first got to know about what his private dungeon had to offer him. If things kept moving as they were, then maybe, just maybe, Arnold could even defeat the gods. But that was something he''ll have to think aboutter. "First gotta take care of this dungeon and take back what was supposed to be mine," Arnold mumbled before heading inside the chamber. Arnold walked into the chamber and was soon greeted by the corpses of the ones he had thrown inside the room. he felt no remorse whatsoever for what he did. He just did what he felt was the right thing to do at that moment. Or you could say that since he couldn''t take care of Zing, he took his frustration out on the bandits. "This is just the beginning... By the time I leave China, there will be many more like them." He saw the special vials the bandits were carrying and stored them in his inventory, wondering why they didn''t use the acid on the lich... Back when he started throwing them into the chamber, he didn''t know who the dungeon boss was. But he was sure no matter who the boss was, those idiots won''t be able to defend the monster without their equipment. And even if they somehow miraculously managed to defeat the boss ande out alive, he would silence them forever. As Arnold continued walking through the field littered with endless corpses, the Archlich left whatever it was doing and turned to face his new enemy. Despite the fact that Arnold was intentionally leaking his aura, the lich did not react and waited patiently for Arnold to make his move first. Arnold, however, knew exactly what the Lich was waiting for him to do. From what he knew, the Elven Lich were unlike any other lich. While the others depended on their undead soldiers to subdue their prey, the Elven Liches had a hidden dagger with their sleeves. A dagger in the shape of inumerable trapsid across the boss room. Even at that moment, Arnold was sure that he was surrounded by a plethora of traps. Even though the traps should not be able to injure him, thanks to his defence stat, Arnold didn''t want to take the chance. So he did what he does best, and shot the Lich in its head. Chapter 338 - Conspiracy (1) "Just my fcking luck!" Arnold yelled while the horde of undead kept chasing him, "Fck! All the traps will get triggered if I don''t put a stop to their rampage soon." Arnold severely underestimated the intelligence of the Elven Lich. He thought he would simply kill the lich with a bullet and be done with that. Easy peasy. Sadly, he did exactly what the Undead Elf wanted him to.?? Arnold''s bullet blew the lich''s head off as he had desired, but the bullet wasn''t able to finish the lich off. Because the lich''s ''soul'' wasn''t in his body, but somewhere else... or in other words, inside one of his undead minions. At least that was what System-sama told him. Even if Arnold was to used his deadliest of abilities on the lich, the lich simply regenerated back to all its glory. Also, the more times Arnold tried to kill the lich, the more undead rose around him. It was a peculiar behaviour of the Lich that Arnold had noticed for the first time. Regardless of it, Arnold kept trying to kill the Lich and as a result of his actions, more than a thousand undead were now chasing after him like bloodthirsty zombies. But that was fine, Arnold could take care of them without much trouble by using arge area AOE ability. But he was afraid that he wouldn''t be able to take them all out. Also, if even one of them were left alive that Lich would regenerate once again. the problem arose when those slow-motion undead started triggering traps which Arnold had been desperately avoiding till now. Thrice he has had his head nearly chopped off because of those reta*ded undead minions. If it had not been for his increased defence, he would''ve been a goner for sure. It was now clear to Arnold, why much information wasn''t avable when it came to the Elven liches. ''I got to find and kill the one having the Lich''s soul first or else I''ll get swamped pretty soon.'' He thought while actively distancing him from the horde, ''Or I could kill them all at once.'' The number of undead might have surpassed the thousand mark, but Arnold had managed to create some distance between them as their speed was equivalent to that of a three-toed sloth. ''Get nice and clumped together for the barbeque...'' Arnold had a n to take care of all of the undead in a single, but brilliant move. The Undead were chasing after him with the Elven Lich in the lead. The Lich was not afraid of his opponents, because the more they try to kill him, the more undead he ended up summoning. Meaning the more he died, the stronger he got and leading his army was the quickest way for him to die. ''Just a bit more... alright that should do it...'' Saying so, Arnold jumped towards the ceiling with all his might. The moment his foot touched the ceiling, he unleashed Hellfire on the unsuspecting undead horde. They tried to dodge the iing mes, but couldn''t as all of them have already been clumped together by their enemy. "It wouldn''t matter whether you die or not. If I can kill the one carrying your soul, it''ll be enough to kill you." Arnold''s smiled stretched from ear to ear, "In short, game over for you basta*d." ___ You''ve killed a Cosmic being. EXP: +100,000 First Elven Lich killed. EXP: +600,000 You''ve killed 1008 Elf''s undead minions. EXP: +100,800 ___ "Let''s add you to my collection, shall we? But first..." Arnold summoned a hundred of his automatons, "Collect all the beast crystals in the dungeon and assemble the corpses as well. Also, bring the boss''s crystal to me I have something in my mind that I need it for." The automatons went to work as soon as Arnold was done speaking. However, unlike what Arnold thought, the Lich did not have a rare crystal to offer. Just a red beast crystal. In fact, Arnold already had a bunch of it. All in all, the lich''s beast crystal wasn''t needed by him, but it was needed by someone else. So, Arnold generously decided to give it to the man that needed it the most for free... well he would give it to Bai Tao for free for now, till Arnold can think of a way to use him for his benefit. "You guys done already?" The automatons nodded and after their work was done, stood in front of Arnold. While their master was left amazed at how quick and efficient his automatons had be. Just as Arnold had instructed them, they had gathered the monster corpses from both inside and outside of the boss room as well as the beast crystals in two different neat piles. Arnold quickly stored the crystals, corpses as well as the automatons in his void before heading out again. And since the boss had been defeated, the dungeon gradually started copsing as well. *** "Do you really not know who Yu Zhung is, or are you messing around with me?" Bai Tao yelled at top of his lungs, yet Alice could only hear his muffled voice, "Also, can you let me go now, please? You already broke a bunch of my teeth and now you wanna break my arm as well?" "Stop changing the topic, you sick pervert. But to answer your question. I''m well aware of who the Sword God Yu Zhung is, and I don''t give a monkey''s poop about him."Alice replied while twisting Bai Tao''s arm even more, "As for the matter of letting you go, that''s not gonna happen unless you apologize for what you did." Alice had Bai Tao pinned down on his stomach. While his arms were interlocked amongst themselves and her knee rested on his neck, forcing him to look down and eat dirt whenever he tried to say something. "Hey! It''s not my fault! You''re wearing such a short skirt and when the wind blew it over, your panti... I mean your undergarment got exposed! I swear on my unborn child''s life I only saw it by ident!" p! "Like hell you did!" "What''s going on here?" Arnold asked the duo. Moreover, he was puzzled to see calm and level headed Alice showing such an intense level of aggression towards someone she had barely known for a few minutes. "I don''t like this man!" Alice jumped at the sight of Arnold, "He''s a peeping pervert." "Is that so?" Arnold asked Bai Tao while bursting his knuckles, "We decide to help you out of this mess and that''s how you repay us?" Bai Tao jumped back to his feet and rushed over to Arnold, "Big brother, I''m being falsely used ofmitting such a grave and disgusting crime. I swear on the name of my family, I would never intentionally do such a thing! If you want to me someone, me Lord Fengbo for using his godly powers at the wrong time!" "What does the Chinese deity of wind has anything to do with you being a pervert?" Arnold asked Bai Tao. His tone was a bit threatening but Arnold was only messing with him. After all, he doesn''t get to meet such an interesting fe every day. "Let me exin brother." Chapter 339 - Conspiracy (2) "Just to make sure that I understood what you said, you''re telling me, that you saw what you because of the winds, right?" Arnold asked Bai Tao a final time because it was possible for that to happen as absurd as his story was. "Yes, big brother. That''s what I''ve been trying to exin to this fair woman but she just doesn''t want to-"?? "Even if that is the case you should apologies to her because it is the gentlemanly thing to do, don''t you think?" Arnold said in a serious tone, after all, as funny as this man was, it did not dismiss the fact that he should apologise to Alice. "I-I''ll do that right away b-brother." Bai Tao turned around to face Alice before bowing his head in front of her, "Please sister, can you find it in your heart to forgive this naive creature?" ''Bruh... what''s with the cringe? Is this a Chinese novel or something?'' Arnold thought before massaging his temple. He did not want to say it, but in the decade he had been living in the United States, he didn''t miss China for the major part. Mostly because he didn''t have the time to do so as he was busy busting his bu*t off to provide for Nicole''s treatment while working as a porter. But now that he was back, he knew he did not miss the ce in the least. Simply because there wasn''t anything for him to miss about it. The ce was nothing more than a sad memory for him and if hadn''t been for his hatred and disgust towards his uncle and his family, he would nevere back to this ce. "It''s alright. I apologise as well for overreacting a bit." Alice apologised back to Bai Tao before sticking back to Arnold''s side. "Alright then, with that out of the way," Arnold fetched the beast crystal from his pocket and handed it to Bai Tao, "Take this. It''s the crystal left behind by the boss. Go and sell it and leave the city with your mother and cousin for a while or leave the country altogether if feasible. I can tell without a shred of doubt that, once Yu Zhung finds out what happened here, he''ll being after you and your family. So you better get away before that happens." "Brother I can''t take this. It belongs to you." Bai Tao quickly handed it back to Arnold and prepared to leave, however, Arnold stopped him. "You''re correct. The crystal belongs to me and that''s why I''m giving it to you. But I''m not giving it to you for your sake, but for your mother''s and sister''s." Arnold patted the man on his shoulders before cing the crystals in Bai Tao''s hands, "Also, give me your contact details so that I can contact you once everything is over and you guys can move back to your ce." Bai Tao''s eyes got all watery. He couldn''t believe such a selfless man existed in such a cruel world. Not only the man saved him from the bandits but he was also gaving him the best treasure that one could get from a dungeon all so he and his family could stay safe. And funnily, he didn''t even know who the man was. Little did he know Arnold was only letting him go because he was still thinking about how he would use him afterwards. He wasn''t doing a charity as Bai Tao thought, but an investment that would give him rewardster. "But what about you? Yu Zhung mighte after you as well!" "Don''t worry about me. I''m more than capable of handling myself. After all, Yu Zhung would not be the first SS ranked warrior I''ve encountered." Arnold smiled before turning around to leave. "Brother I-" "Don''t you dare throw something cringe at me!" Arnold warned the guy beforeughing when he saw the guy''s sad expression. "Hehe, alright I won''t do it, since big brother has helped me so much." Bai Tao wiped away his tears and gave Arnold his contact information as he had requested, "But at least tell me your name so I can remember who my benefactor was and maybe someday repay your kindness." "The name''s Arnold Ling. I hope we can meet again some other day and under better circumstances." "That name sounds familiar... are you famous or something? After witnessing your strength, it won''t be a surprise even if you are." "Who knows? I''d like to think myself as just your run of the mill warrior." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "Now leave before it''s toote." "Yes and thank you once again." Alice and Arnold kept looking at Bai Tao till he slowly faded away from their vision. "What do we do now?" Alice asked Arnold once they were left alone. "Now we lure the hyenas out." Arnold had just the n to put a final nail into his uncle''s coffin. *** A couple of hourster... Zing was pis*ed. For reasons only gods know, he did not get to y with Ruyi as she never came to his office and when he tried to contact his guild members to kill off that basta*d Bai Tao, even they weren''t responding to him anymore. He was confused, frustrated and enraged. Nothing he had nned for the day came to fruition. It was then his phone suddenly rang. He checked the caller ID and sure enough, it was the team leader Jin Rong. "About time you called suckers!" Zing picked up the phone and was about to give Jin the scolding of his lifetime but was interrupted before he could even say a word. "They are dead." That''s all the person on the other side of the call said before disconnecting from the call. "Hello? HELLO! JIN RONG!?" Zing yelled in desperation. He tried to call Jin Rong again, only to be told that the number was no longer operational, "This is bad... Yu Zhung will kill everyone if something happened to his brother-inw... what do I do... what do I do... what do I do..." Zing copsed on his chair. His arms covering his head. He was screwed... badly. If he thought his day going was bad till now, it just got a whole lot worse. Chapter 340 - Conspiracy (3) "They are dead." Bad-Breath channelled the inner gangsterying dormant within him and did the best mafia boss impression he could before destroying themunicator in a sh. Before Arnold left the dungeon, he had quickly grabbed themunicator of the one who he thought to be the leader of the bandits. When he checked the contacts he found that it belonged to a man named Jin Rong and Zing had been desperately trying to contact the man, but obviously, Jin couldn''t respond because dead people don''t say a word nor do they tell tales.?? Moreover, Zing''s number was saved as ''Zing bro''s bit*h'', which meant that either the guy was rted to someone important or he just hated Zing. If Arnold had seen it before meeting Zing, he would''ve said without a doubt that the man had a bad rtionship with his friend. But now that he had met Zing, Arnold knew he was no better than the people he hates. Still, the man whosemunicator Arnold had brought out with himself might have been rted to someone important. After all, Zing was trash and so was Jin and trash always ends up together. And if even one of the men who died in the dungeon were rted to someone important, then Zing was done for. As he was the one who sent the men that dungeon in exchange for a personal favour. "You actually sounded like some underworld boss. I knew if someone could pull it off it was you." Arnold was impressed with Bad-Breath after a long time, "Good job." "Hehe, I used to do it a lot back when I was alive, like making calls for ransom and protection money etcetera. I can do it anytime you want me to... huhu." Bad-Breath smiled while scratching the back of his head. "Of course you did. With that out of the way," Arnold mumbled, "Talos, you''re done with the preparations, right?" "Yes, Master. Whatever you requested have been handled ordingly." Talos replied. "If that''s done, then all I can do is wait for the idiots to show up." Arnold and his summons were concealed within the dense forest surrounding the area where the dungeon was located. And have been waiting ever since the dungeon had closed for good. Arnold had waited for the dungeon to close before making the call to Zing, as he had to make sure that no one could enter a dungeon once it closedpletely. His reason for doing so was simple, as the people whose corpses were left inside could no longer be recovered once the dungeon was closed. And Arnold made sure that Zing couldn''t recover a single corpse from there. The Chinese people took pride in doing their people justice even after their death, which in hindsight, is something worth taking pride in and Arnold loved that aspect of his old culture. However, they can be easily exploited because of it as well. Just like Arnold was about to do. Another reason for waiting for the dungeon to close was because he wasn''t aware of the Golden Dragon''s response time and hence he didn''t want them to reach there before his preparations wereplete. "But rather than wasting my time waiting for them, it''s better to utilise it for something good, don''t you agree?" Arnold had a light bulb moment and went inside his domain along with Talos, "The rest of you, be vignt and do not engage with them until I''m back. It''s not like we have to kill them or anything either way. Just observe them while being concealed from them." "As you wish, Master." *** Inside the domain... "We''re here to resurrect the Lich, aren''t we master?" Talos asked Arnold. "You know me well, T." Arnold smiled as the two of them headed towards the vaults, "But that''s not the only reason. You''ll see once the Lich is back to being... undead, I think." After a quick walk inside the domain, they arrived at their destination. But unlike before, the vault was entirely filled with dead beasts. First off, there was the lich and his minions and then there were a few frost giants whom Arnold had been holding back from resurrecting for now. And what minuscule amount of space was left had been upied by the beast crystals Arnold had obtained from the Lich''sDungeon. "Let''s get started then." With Arnold''s approval, Talos went into action. Within moments the lich was back to enjoy his undead life. Arnold thought there would be some hostility between the Lich and him. But to his surprise, the Lich submitted to him as soon as it was back on his feet. "Yourmand, master?" The Lich spoke in his hollow voice as he kneeled before Arnold, acknowledging him as his master. ''Why is this happening? Is this basta*d plotting something against me?'' < It''s a good thing that you''re using your intelligence for once but no, that lich is not plotting against you.> ''Then why is he being so submissive?'' ''That''s some crazy thinking, not gonna lie. but first, I should check what I wanted to.'' Arnold quickly viewed the Archliches stats to confirm his suspicions regarding Talos'' evolved resurrection spell. ___ CLASS: Undead Beast NAME: Elf Archlich (Unnamed) LEVEL: 149 COSMIC RANK: D ROLE: Mage/ Necromancer/ Summoner HP: 20,000/20,000 STRENGTH (STR) : 110 DEFENSE (DEF) : 50 STAMINA (STA) : 99 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 129 AGILITY (AGI) : 56 ACCURACY (ACC) : 100 EVADE (EVD) : 60 CHARISMA (CHA): 01 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (20% damage reduction), Acidic attack (10% damage reduction), shing (10% damage reduction). Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Close attacks, Necromancy spells. Weak Against: Blunt attacks, Light affinity, Holy magic. THREAT LEVEL: Negligible ___ "Just like I thought... Talos looks like your resurrection ability no longer nerfs the resurrected beings'' levels." "That''s good news then, master," Talos mumbled as he reverted back to his original form, "That is, as long as they are willing to submit to you without causing a ruckus." "Hmm..." "Master... please give me a name..." The Lich mumbled. "Woah... I didn''t know you could speak mynguage. Also, don''t you already have one? I mean to say, you had a name back when you were alive, right?" "In my thirst for knowledge... I have learned a lot of things, master... and yes, I used to have a name given to me by the people I ended up killing with my own hands..." The lich hissed slowly, "However, I have long forgotten that name, my lord..." ''This guy can learn a foreignnguage and not forget it but forgot his name? What the fck is wrong with him?'' Arnold shook his head, but in the end, decided to give him a name since he did not cause a mess for him after being resurrected. "Fine, fine. I''ll give you a name..." Arnold sighed before he started pondering about the name, "When since we''re in China, how about... Yan? From Yanluo who is known as the master of death and overseer of the ten Kings of hell." "Thank you, master, for showing your generosity to a lowly creature like myself." Yan bowed his head even deeper as if he wanted to reflect the sincerity of his words. Chapter 341 - Conspiracy (4) "What do youmand, my liege? I, the one named as Yan, shall serve you for all eternity." Yan said with nothing but utmost respect in his voice. "I won''t be wandering here for eternity. Nor am I interested in doing that." Arnold shrugged his shoulder, "Either way, I do have a task for you."?? Arnold pointed towards the pile of corpses next to Yan. He didn''t say a word but Yan heard his master''smand loud and clear. Yan got back to his feet and started mumbling to himself. It sounded like some ancient gibberishnguage when in fact it was a spell, the reanimation spell that was created by Yan over the centuries during which he had spent his life as an elf. He finished his spell and within moments, thousands of corpses rose from the pile. The minions did not have a special stat of anything that could differentiate them from any other undead being. They didn''t even retain the skills they might have had from when they were alive. However, their sheer numbers more than made up for it. Also, it wasn''t like Arnold wanted to use Yan''s undead inbat. The only reason they were there was to help in the expansion of his domain and to serve as cannon fodder whenever the need arises. After all, they were the only expendable creatures in his arsenal. But after seeing them, Arnold thought about using them for a tertiary reason as well: Intimidation. Only a few steel-hearted individuals would be able to take in the sight of over a thousand bloodthirsty undead chasing after them. The rest would be shocked and might even submit to him in fear. As for the civilians, they were scared of seeing goblins, let alone the undead. Strangely enough... unlike the beings Talos resurrected, the ones resurrected by Yan were not associated with Arnold directly. Instead, he had to ask Yan to make them do even the meagre tasks like walking around and picking up things, basically the things the undead would have to do once Arnold got enough money to start expanding the facilities inside his domain. Still, Yan assured him that he can make his undead do whatever his master wished from them. Arnold decided to leave it at that for the moment. After he had thoroughly analysed the undead, it was time to move towards the next and the most important task. "I''m somewhat sure it would be a dud... but let''s see whether you can resurrect beings who were stronger than you before they were in by me." This was Arnold''s true purpose behind resurrecting Yan. If Yan managed to not only resurrect thebours for him, but the giants as well, it would drastically improve his battle prowess. Arnold thought so as he was sure with the given state of the warriors'' power levels, none of them would be able to kill even a single Frost Giant. That is, with the exception of Nicole, but even she would eventually get exhausted if she used her abilities continuously. So yeah... even though Arnold was already unbeatable, with the giants backing him up, even the demigods would hesitate before making a move against him. "As master wishes..." Yan said and immediately started mumbling those same ancient words which he had before resurrecting the minions. However, it was a dud just like Arnold had expected. But Yan did not give up. His Master had asked something from him and he wasn''t going to give up so easily. Yan kept using a variety of spells but nothing worked. Eventually, Arnold had to order Yan to stop. Arnold already knew why Yan couldn''t resurrect the giants on his own. With the demonstration fromst time, it was clear as a cloudless night that Yan could only resurrect the beings who were weaker than him. Unlike Talos who could resurrect beings that were stronger than him as long as there wasn''t a drastic difference between their levels. Whereas, Yan couldn''t resurrect a single giant because the giants had been stronger than him back when they were alive, unlike the rest of his minions. Thankfully Arnold already had a solution for the problem. "Talos, take Yan along with the needed amount of beast crystals to Devon and tell him to unlock Yan''s true potential. We''ll try once again after that and then I''ll think about what do I need to do next." Arnold instructed the two of them before walking out of the vault, "And if I don''t return before the procedure ispleted, then try to assess the undead''s potential inbat. In the meantime, I''ll go and wee our guests outside. I don''t feelfortable with just leaving everything to Bad-Breath." "Rest assured, it will be done, Master. I''ll make sure of it." Talos replied as Arnold disappeared. *** Meanwhile, on the outside, a group of over a hundred top-ranked warriors had gathered where the dungeon entrance was supposed to be. It was reported that there was going to be a dungeon break in the area as the attack team A of the Golden Dragons had unfortunately met their demise and thus failed to close the dungeon on time. However, when they got there, the dungeon had already been taken care of. The one leading the group was none other than Yu Zhung. Standing 6'' 1" tall, Yu Zhung was a white skinned man who had an attention-seeking vibe around him, and he has a small red scar on his left cheek, right below the left eye which resembled the shape of a serpent or a dragon. He had a lean face, a well-formed nose, and thin lips. His brown eyes were unusually thin and he had angr eyebrows. His elbow-length, straight, jet-ck hair worn in a top knot. Basically, he looked like everything a girl would die to have in her man. Yet his dreadful expression clouded over his beauty. He was d in golden armour that reeked of blood. It was his special set of armour, one he wore when he was raging from within. The armour itself wasn''t anything extraordinary, but it looked intimidating. On his back were 4 swords along with the two swords which he held in his hands. All in all, he had brought everything he had with him to rescue his fiance''s beloved brother. But now that the dungeon was closed, no matter how many weapons or men he brought with himself. Not even the gods would be able to rescue him now. "Bring Zing over to me now..." Yu growled when he saw the dungeon was closed. Zing in his fear of life contacted Yu Zhung after he received the call from someone he did not know. But he couldn''t tell him the truth behind why he sent Yu Zhung''s brother-inw into a dungeon without his permission. So Zing made up a lie and told Yu Zhung that Jin Rong went into the dungeon on his own and only informed him about it once he was already inside. He also lied and told them that Jin had called to tell him that something went wrong inside, not long after and that''s when hismunicator went silent for good. One of the warriors dragged Zing by his cor before Yu, who did not even bother looking at him and pointed towards the closed dungeon. "Care to exin what bullsh*t is this?" But before he could answer, Chiang Ling appeared on the scene. He had gotten the news that Yu Zhung was on the move along with his personally trained warriors. Something that didn''t happen usually but whenever it did, it ended up in a mess. Thest time something like this happened, Yu Zhung ended up taking the entire parliament as his hostage just because one of them made a snarkyment about his now fiance. It was a scandal yet the world did not know about it. All thanks to the control of the government over the press. So Chiang wanted to see for himself and make sure that nothing of that sorts happened ever again. "What''s going on here?" Chiang asked the two of them. "You should ask your pet about that." Yu replied, "I''m thissssss close from killing this basta*d." "Zing, you motherfcker, what did you do this time?" Chiang rushed over to Zing and pped him hard across the face, "I made you the manager so I don''t have to clear your mess and live peacefully and yet all you do is make my life miserable!" "I-I swear Master Chiang, this time I''m not at fault. Jin Rong ran into the dungeon without my permission!" Zing pleaded before breaking down in tears. "Oh... my... god..." One of the members of the group found something, but that something wasn''t good for any of them, "Master Zhung... there''s blood all over the ground here!" Chapter 342 - Conspiracy (5) Yu Zhung pushed his way through the crowd. Chiang and Zing were right behind him followed by the others. But blood wasn''t the only thing they saw... the forest floor was littered with carnage, broken weapons and dismembered parts of numerous human bodies. The air which was normally filled with the fresh smell of greenery and wet soil was now covered with a thick scent of death and misery. It was a scene none of them had witnessed before even though they were seasoned warriors who had grown used to the blood and gore. But this... was a bit excessive even for their taste.?? But there was a far more sickening thing than that. The organs and other body parts they had found were not scattered around randomly, but they were ced in a pattern as if someone wanted to convey a message or something. However, they couldn''t make it out from their point of view. Yu Zhung ordered one of the warriors to get on top of a nearby tree and see if he can make anything out with the pattern. The man immediately got on top of the tree and what he saw next troubled him shook him. "What is it?" Chiang asked the man who was standing on the edge of the branch, looking down at the with his eyes filled with surprise, "Can you make anything out?" It wasn''t a random pattern but a series of Chinese alphabets. "Wo huile" The man absentmindedly replied to him. "I''m back? What do you mean, I''m back?" Chiang asked the man once again. "That''s what''s written on the ground... Wo huile, meaning I''m back." The man was as confused as the rest of them. He was pretty sure the Golden Dragons had no enemy. It wasn''t because they were friendly or something, but because they had already eliminated anyone who could pose a threat to them. However, unlike the rest of them, it only took a second for Zing to connect the dots. He knew exactly who hade back to Shanghai. After all, he had already met him. But he refused to believe that Arnold was capable of doing something like this. Even if he had be stronger, eliminating an entire squad consisting of over 55 top ss warriors was just too much for him to believe. But rather than informing Chiang and Zhung about what he knew, Zing decided to bail out. Zhung was already mad at him and if he found out that Zing had met the man before, Zhung would behead him without a moment''s hesitation. Zhung had a bad reputation of taking action first and then thinking about itter. However, luck was not on his side. Before he could slip by the crowd, Zhung noticed something familiar on the ground... it was a severed arm having Jin Rong''s watch on it. It was the same watch Zhung''s fiance had gifted to her brother as his 25th birthday gift a few days prior. That wasn''t the only thing he found though. Next to the severed arm was a ck card soaked in mud and blood. The card had the logo of Golden Dragons and the name printed on the card was none other than... Zing. Zhung did not waste a minute in pulling his swords out of their sheath and pinned Zing down before plunging them through his limbs. It all happened so quick that Zing couldn''t even realise what had happened before he felt the pain and began screaming his heart out. He was pinned to the ground with his belly facing the ground. He was unable to move himself and the only thing he could see with the corner of his eyes was Yu Zhung''s scary face looking down on him. Two of his remaining swords were in his hands ready to slice Zing''s throat at the slightest provocation. "Yu Zhung! What do you think you''re-" Chiang tried to save Zing but it was toote for that. Yu Zhung had gone mad. "You shut the fck up!" Zhung yelled back at Chiang, silencing everyone who would dare to oppose him, "Interrupt me again and I''ll turn you into a dongless child-abusing basta*d!" With those words, Zhung shut him up for good. Chiang always thought no one knew about his... private life. And he was careful not to divulge any information or hints to anyone about it either.After all, it was his job to gather dirt on everyone else. But it seemed Zhung knew about the type of fun he had been having with underage escorts. In which case, it was better to keep his silence than to allow his character assassination in broad daylight. "Listen here you piece of goat sh*t." Zhung growled in rage, "I have had enough of you now. Either you tell me what you know truthfully or else..." Zhung chopped off a couple of Zing''s fingers without any warning. And when Zing was about to scream in pain, Yu Zhung pushed his other sword into Zing''s mouth before continuing where he left off. "I''ll give you the most gruesome death one could even think of. Think about it carefully... very carefully... and tell me everything you know." Zing began sweating profusely. His mouth was filled with saliva yet he couldn''t gulp it down. For a minute he even stopped breathing. His mind couldn''t even contemte what happened to that mad swordsman and why he attacked him out of nowhere. until he saw his business card in Zhung''s hand. Now he knew was that he needed toe clean. If he didn''t no one would be able to save him. Seeing no other way, Zing nodded with the sword still in his mouth. Zhung took the sword out of his mouth and Zing began telling Zhung that it was indeed him who sent Jin in the dungeon along with his team of elite. He also told him that they were supposed to take one of the guys as a hostage for a while and then return. No harm done to anyone. However, nothing went the way he had thought. He could not get his fun time with Ruyi and then he received a call from Jin Rong''smunicator where the guy on the other side told him that all of them had been killed. Yu Zhung stopped him in the middle of his tale and asked Zing if he knew where Ruyi and her aunt lived. Zing didn''t want Ruyi to die but if it was either his life or hers, he would throw her under the bus to save himself. And that''s what he did. Zhung sent a couple of men to bring the women, however, by the time they reached there, the residents of the apartment had already left the ce. After questioning the neighbours about them, they found out that the man Jin Rong was supposed to keep captive had left the ce with along them. "That basta*d! He thinks he can kill Jin and run away so easily!? Search for him everywhere! I want that basta*d captured alive!" Yu Zhung had gonepletely berserk. It wasn''t because he liked his brother-inw or anything but because Jin was the only living rtive his fiance had and hence they were pretty close. "I-I don''t think he''s the one responsible for the massacre..." Zing mumbled. "What did you say?" Chiang finally found his voice again, "If it isn''t him then who is it?" "Arnold... your nephew." Chapter 343 - Conspiracy (6) "Looks like I got back right on time," Arnold mumbled as he came out of his domain and hid along with his summons. "What should we do now?" Bad-Breath asked Arnold, "Kill them?"?? "Close your mouth for now. That should be enough for now." Arnold shook his head before focusing back on what his uncle was yelling. "Stop spouting nonsense you useless basta*d!" It was Chiang''s turn to lose his cool now, "Why are you suddenly talking about him? He hasn''t been seen in more than a decade and now you''re making things up just to frame me?" Chiang was no Yu Zhung, Zing did not need to hold back his anger on him. Zhung noticed a tension between the two and decided to act on it and fish for more information. Blood rushed through his wounds when Zhung finally pulled his swords out, freeing him. Zing used what little healing abilities he had to heal himself up before raising his voice. "I''m not spouting nonsense you fat baldy! I saw him enter the office with my own eyes and I even gave him my card as he said he was looking for a job! I believe it was the same card that Master Zhung found. How else would Rong get my card? He already had my number, for god''s sake!" "Lies!" Chiang refused to believe a word Zing was saying, "Why would a weakling like hime back here? Why would Arnold be back after a decade? Why now? It just doesn''t make any sense." "How the hell would I know that? He''s your blood, not mine!" "My blood? His father was adopted into the family! Who knows what filthy blood that ran through his veins?" "Go and watch the CCTV footage from the office if you still don''t believe me. You''ll see that I''m telling the truth!" Zing turned to face Yu Zhung, "Master Zhung, I urge you to send someone and bring the recordings over, or I can make a call to get someone to send it here. Moreover, if it''s Arnold, then it''s clear why ''I''m back'' was written on the ground. He''s back to take what was supposed to be his, that''s all." "No need, I''ll send someone to bring the recordings here." Yu Zhung nodded towards his lieutenant, who immediately rushed to the Golden Dragon''s Shanghai head office to check the recordings to confirm whether what Zing was telling them was true or not. "Though I warn you, Zing, if you''re proven wrong then you''re a dead man for wasting my time." "Sure, master. I''ll keep my neck on the line as well because I know I''m not lying." Zing wasn''t afraid in the slightest this time because he knew he was telling the truth. But he didn''t know that Arnold had already gotten rid of any evidence of his presence from Shanghai. In other words, he hadpletely erased everything from everywhere he had been to ever sinceing to Shanghai, which included the video feed of the Golden Dragon''s HQ with a bit of Talos'' help. He did so, not only to hide his presence but to also punish Zing without getting his hands dirty. He wanted their little crime syndicate to fight among themselves so he could keep his hands as clean as possible. That''s why he intentionally left clues all over the ce so that they''ll start doubting each other and a fight would break out among themselves. Sure enough, after a while, Zhung received a call from his lieutenant. And thanks to Arnold, all records from thest month were erased, but there was a twist. Data removal could be done only by a password. A password that only Zing had. But everything was possible when Talos had his mind, set on doing something. "Your neck, here. Now!" Zhung drew his sword once more. "Wait... Wait!!! Chiang must have done something! Why would I delete the only evidence I had to prove my innocence?" Zing pleaded to Yu Zhung who wasn''t in a mood to give him any mercy. "The reason is pretty obvious in my eyes," Chiangughed while waving his hands, "Zhung, this bastard had been lying to us from the start. He just made up a tale and he realised he had no evidence so he erased the so-called ''evidence'' and tried to frame me instead. Just kill him and get it over with." "Shut your trap oldie! Am I mad to go after someone like Master Zhung?" "Enough!" Yu Zhung threw a fit of rage, "Zou! Gaze into these basta*ds minds and verify which of these bastards is telling the truth." "Dang it! Why didn''t I thought about it first!?" Arnold whispered in anger. He realised he had made a mistake. He did erase his digital footprint with Talos'' crucial help. But he didn''t think about a possibility of a mindreader being present among the warriors there. As a mindreader should be easily able to see into Zing''s mind and confirm whether what he was saying was true or not. Arnold had destroyed all the physical evidence he could get his hands on. But even someone like him couldn''t erase his presence from someone''s mind. Natasha could''ve done it easily, but Arnold didn''t think that Yu Zhung would go this far and thus hadn''t prepared for it. Within moments, the truth was out. "Both of them are telling the truth on their part. I can see that Zing indeed met the man who is Master Chiang''s nephew." Zou mumbled through his monster mask. "How is this even possible...?" Chiang mumbled. "See! I''m telling you, Master Zhung, this fatso is after you and he''s using his nephew to eliminate the both of us so he can rule over the country-" "Shut up, you dimwits!" Zhung roared once again. Unlike the two of them, he finally noticed what was their enemy trying to aplish, "Can''t you see that the one behind this attack is trying to divide us?" "This guy is good..." Arnold smiled, "But even if he knows what I was trying to aplish, it no longer matters." "Shall we kill them now?" Bad-Breath was itching for some action but Arnold stopped him. "Not yet. The ball is in their court for now. We''re heading back to the void." Chapter 344 - Know Your Place (1) "Divide us?" Chiang mumbled while Zing stared at him with a surprised pikach* face. Both of them were too upied ndering each other that they forgot that both of them were the victim of someone else''s trickery. All of them were made to fight each other like fools while Arnoldughed at their foolishness.?? Both Zing and Chiang saw Arnold as someone below them and the fact they were made fools by someone like him enraged them beyond any limit. But the most important thing to think about was why was he doing all this? Chiang and Zing both had a reason to be worried because both of them had screwed Arnold over. Chiang did so by making false papers of transfer of ownership of Arnold''s and Nicole''s majority shares in thepany. While Zing helped Chiang by getting those papers signed by Arnold under the false pretence that his uncle wanted to hand him and Nicole the remainder of his father''s estate. Arnold was still grieving at that time and he trusted his friend more than himself back then. So he did not even bother reading the document and signed away. Nicole followed her brother''s lead and did the same. An hourter they were kicked out of their homes and the rest was history. Chiang and Zing both looked towards each other. Not a single word was exchanged but they already said what they wanted to. "He''s here for us..." Yu Zhung was unaware of the drama from a decade ago, and honestly, he didn''t even care about it. What happened in the past was not his fault. He and his family should not have been harmed because of a lunatic''s revenge and that''s all he cared about. His brother-inw was innocent in all this and yet he was killed in such a gruesome manner. He would not stop until he got his revenge on that sick lunatic for killing his brother-inw. His fiance, Liu Rong, would be devastated to know that her brother died and she wouldn''t even be able to say her goodbyes to him as her brother was forever lost inside the dungeon. Just thinking about her pained expression broke Zhung''s, granite-like heart. But before taking action, he had to know more about his enemy first. Chiang was of no help in that regard as he had not seen his nephew in well over a decade and a decade was enough time for someone to change. His only hope was Zing. "Is this Arnold guy strong?" Yu Zhung asked Zing as he was the only man who had met with Arnold after his return. "I don''t think so... his aura wasn''t all that strong. I think it''s safe to assume that he was an A ranker at best?" Zing replied. "That cocky bastard is not even an S ranker and yet he dared to mess with us? Does he take us for fools?" Chiang stomped his foot in irritation, "We should take care of him as soon as possible. Master Zhung... we- you seem to be lost in something else?" Zhung nodded, "It doesn''t make any sense..." "What doesn''t?" "What A ranker can clear an S ranked dungeon by himself?" Zhung walked over to the ce where the dungeon''s entrance was, "The answer is that he couldn''t. Unless we''re missing an important event or that..." "He attacked a weakened Attack team once they had defeated the dungeon boss." Zingpleted Zhung''s words. Zhung nodded but otherwise, remained silent. "That might be true but did you say, Jin was supposedly keeping a captive... why would he try to clear the dungeon? It''spletely out of his character." Chiang raised his doubt, "And even if Arnold attacked the weakened team, it doesn''t exin how he was able to get past the subjugation squad and enter the dungeon in the first ce?" "Hmm..." Yu Zhung hummed a prayer for the dead souls to find peace. While he was doing that, his mind was continuouslying up with scenarios of how one man managed to aplish such a tiresome task with absolute perfection. However, the more Yu Zhung thought about it, the more it seemed impossible for an A ranker to do it all on his own. Slipping past the subjugation squad wasn''t an easy feat either as there were quite a few sensory warriors among them. They would notice someone even if they try to conceal their aura. But even if he somehow did manage to slip past them, it wouldn''t exin why the subjugation squad was dead as well. Killing more than 55 people in such a short time wasn''t something an A ranker could aplish. Especially when most of those 55 warriors were A and B rankers. Something was wrong, Yu Zhung knew it but he couldn''t point it out. "Zing... are you sure that man was not higher than A rank?" Yu Zhung asked Zing once the prayers were over. "Positive," Zing replied, "Even if he was hiding his aura it wouldn''t have been possible for him to be of higher rank... However, now that I think about it, he had a prosthetic arm." "What?" Both Chiang and Zhung yelled at the same time. "Y-Yeah... it was a bit awkward. But maybe that arm holds the secret of his abnormal strength? Like it was a secret weapon or something? It looked quite expensive as well if I might add that." There was an awkward silence. Now it all made sense. If Arnold had a secret weapon, then he could have easily decimated everyone. Only if his arm was some sort of a secret weapon, it would clear all of the doubts Zhung had. "It makes sense. He wasing to dere war, so it was obvious he woulde prepared." Zhung smirked, "But no matter what weapon he uses, he would not be a match for someone like me. An SS ranked warrior would never be defeated by a mere A ranker. Not in a million years." "Yes! That''s the spirit, Master Zhung! That basta*d has no chance against you at all." Chiang was relieved to have Yu Zhung back him up. With him, by his side, not even Deathless could harm him, let alone his nephew. Funnily enough, Yu Zhung had seen Deathless'' face before but he wasn''t aware of his real identity as the American syndicate treated it like a top-secret. While Chiang only knew that Deathless was America''s greatest warrior but had never seen him, nor were they aware that Deathless too had a prosthetic arm like the one Zing mentioned. The clues were all over the ce, yet their arrogance did not allow them to see the naked truth. "Zing, you said he was here to meet Chiang, didn''t you?" Zhung inquired. "Yes, Master Zhung. I even gave him the address of the Imperial Mansion. Also, when he left, he sent me his contact information and said to give it to Uncle Chiang." "Very well then." Zhung smirked before turning towards Chiang, "Let''s invite him over for dinner. What do you think?" "Sounds like a n." Chiang had the most disgusting smile on his face, "Too bad he did not bring his sister with him... I would''ve liked to have a taste of her again, it''s been quite a while after all." Chapter 345 - Know Your Place (2) In Shanghai, the night sky was aglow with bright city lights. The pale crescent moon hung over the skies like a dragon''s w. Even the stars were afraid toe close to it, yet Arnold found it to be one of the most beautiful moonlit skies he had ever seen. His only regret was enjoying the beauty all alone. Thankfully, it was already midnight, and the city was as lively as ever. Arnold was enjoying the local brew of tea while absorbing the beauty of the nightlife of Shanghai whilefortably sitting on his armchair on the balcony of his hotel room, waiting for a special person to call him. And just then, Arnold''s newly boughtmunicator went off.?? "Just like a script..." Arnold smiled after seeing whose call it was. Even though the caller ID was hidden, he already knew who would be calling him at that hour. Things were going as Arnold had predicted... well not predicted as he had used his foresight beforehand and he already knew that his uncle had nned quite a big feast to wee him. After all, every single warrior in Shanghai was there waiting for him to show up. So that they could slice him to pieces. Since his uncle had put so much effort into weing him, Arnold thought it would be rude if he didn''t show up. Thus, Arnold obliged and received the call. "Hello?" Arnold could barely refrain fromughing as soon as he answered themunicator, "Who''s this?" "Oh, my dearest nephew! It''s me, Uncle Chiang. You remember me, don''t you?" Chiang''s corky voice echoed in Arnold''s ear. "Uncle Chiang! What a pleasant surprise! I mean I was hoping to get in contact with you but I did not think you''ll be the one to contact me first." Just behaving all goody-goody with him made Arnold want to puke his throat out, but he had to do it for now, "How have you been uncle, I hope your health is good? And what is cousin Gui doing these days?" "Haha! see, didn''t I tell you my nephew would be worrying about his uncle?" It appeared Chiang wasn''t alone on the call. Arnold already found it to be obvious that Chiang wasn''t alone. If he had to guess, who Chiang was speaking with, Arnold was pretty sure it was Yu Zhung. Who else would be so interested in knowing about the man who killed his brother-inw? "Don''t worry, dearest nephew. Your uncle is still as fit as a bull! But I''m afraid your cousin has bloated into an elephant. It''s no surprise though. After all, he''s from a wealthy family! Haha!" ''Of course, he is.'' Arnold thought to himself, ''Gotta hide your stolen wealth somewhere, don''t you?'' "Either way, Zing told me you were looking for a job?" "Yes, uncle. Sadly Nicole isn''t as strong as yourself and isn''t doing well physically..." Arnold mumbled in a sad voice. He wasn''t happy about making up that lie but well, he had toe up with a reason to be back. "Oh dear... what happened to my niece?" "Andrea syndrome." "Oh my... did she apany you here?" Chiang tried his best to hide his disgusting nature while asking the question. But failed miserably. "She didn''t. She is too weak to do anything, to be honest. That''s why I''m here to make some money for her treatment." "It''s a shame. You should have brought her here. I could have provided the best treatment to her." Chiang sounded a bit disappointed. It wasn''t because he couldn''t help Nicole, but because he couldn''t feel her up with those vile ws of his. ''If she had been here, this entire city would have been reduced to dust all because of you, you sick basta*d!'' Arnold wanted to tell him these exact words but controlled himself at thest moment. "It''s a shame indeed..." Arnold agreed with Chiang''s statement beforepleting the rest of it in his mind, ''It''s a shame that we were once forced to call someone like you as their uncle.'' "Listen, Arnold, since you''re here. Why don''t youe over to our house? We can continue our little chat over drinks, what do you say?" "I would love to!" "Great then! I believe Zing had already given you my address?" "Yeah, he has. I''ll be there soon." Arnold replied before disconnecting the call, "This is going to be fun. Talos, is everything ready?" Arnold turned around to see a room filled with his summons. Everyone except Grock, Dread and Yan was present there, while the three of them were already on their way to Chiang''s mansion. No, Arnold did not send them on their way without taking precautions. As it would''ve been troublesome if the civilians saw three monsters walking around as if it was Halloween. But thanks to Natasha, no one will notice them walking around the streets. She had ced a spell on them why allowed them to mingle between the crowd. Thus even if someone saw them, they would just see three human beings walking the streets. Sadly, her ability only worked on monsters and not humans hence Arnold could not alter his appearance, which would''ve been helpful. While the three of them were on their way, the rest of his summons would travel with him inside the domain. But first Arnold wanted Talos to exin his ns to them. "Yes, master. Everything is ready." "Just remember that I don''t want unnecessary attention on me. Not this time. Unlike when we raged a war against Andrex, I want you guys to be as discreet as possible. Also, I don''t want you to massacre those idiotic warriors." Arnold gave the summons some final instructions, "Despite whoever they are or what they do, they are the protectors of this city. Without them, the monsters would invade this ce like crazy and civilians would be put in danger." He continued, "That''s one thing I don''t want to happen. So refrain from killing and engage to only knock them out, nothing else. Is that clear?" "Yes, Master!" Arnold might have given them the instructions to not kill the enemies, but he was feeling like the world''s biggest hypocrite. After all, he was the one who killed all those people today. They were warriors as well, but Arnold didn''t realise their use untilter. That''s why he did not want any other warrior to die during their skirmish. "Alright, then let''s move, shall we?" Chapter 346 - Know Your Place (3) "Wee, my boy, wee!" Chiang put on a fake smile on his face to greet the man who had be the soreness of his eyes. Just like his father had been over a decade ago. "Thanks for having me over, Uncle. This really is a nice ce to live in." Arnold replied equally enthusiastically before hugging the man as much as he despised doing so.?? "Haha! Don''t worry you''ll live within these walls from now on." Chiang patted Arnold''s shoulder, ''As a corpse, that is.'' "You''re too kind uncle. It isn''t good for your health, you know. Also, I hope you don''t mind me asking, but the security here is awfully tight." Arnold scratched his cheek nervously. "Oh don''t mind them. Your uncle has made a few enemies that''s all. It''s just like your father used to say something along the lines of, ''Everyone is your enemy when you achieve something they can''t.''" Chiang made up a lie and even went as far as to quote histe brother''s words to make it sound more believable. What else was he going to say, that they were there to kill him? Chiang and Yu Zhung had prepared everything so Arnold would not be leaving his mansion alive. Think of it as Arnold''sst supper. In their eyes, there was no way Arnold would be able to walk out of there alive, especially with the thousand-plus warriors hiding around the mansion waiting to jump on him any moment. And even if he did manage to somehow miraculously defeat them, Yu Zhung''s sword would inevitably be guiding Arnold''s soul to the afterlife. There was also another n that Chiang had kept a secret. The perfect and ssic n to assassinate someone. But for now, Chiang wanted Arnold to rx and get his guard down. That was crucial for the sess of their ns. "Oh my, what happened to your arm, my nephew?" Chiang let out an overexaggerated gasp when he saw Arnold''s bionic arm. "Uh... upational hazard. I went into a high ranking dungeon and things got a bit, what''s the word for it, ah yes... messy." Arnold smiled while flexing his arm, "Let''s just say, it was either me or my arm, so I got rid of the thing holding me back." Arnold did not divulge the true story because he didn''t want his uncle to connect the dots between his identities. Not yet anyway. Arnold wanted it to be a surprise for him. "Well, what happened, happened. Can''t change the fate now, can we?" Chiangughed once again, "Come on, I''ll show you around the ce. It isn''t much but I''m proud of it." "It would be a pleasure." From the outside, the mansion looked asvish as it did from the inside. It had been built with fir wood and has expensive wooden decorations all over the ce. There were hundreds of small rounded windows on each side of the main mansion, giving it a medieval look. While on the inside, the house was equipped with thetest technologies along with a modern kitchen and multiple modern bathrooms. It also had a huge living room, around twenty fancy bedrooms, arge dining room, a game room and a ginormous basement. Not to mention the pool along with a spa. Someone could easily get lost within the jungle of a mansion. Even ck''s mansion was pale inparison to Chiang''s mansion. Maybe this was the power of an underworld boss. Arnold took a lot of interest in the building and was asking a lot of questions to Chiang every now and then, which he ''happily'' answered. "It seems you have taken a liking to the ce, my boy!" Chiang eximed with fake cheerfulness. "Of course, I have. After all, Uncle was generous enough to let me live in this ce, so I thought I should probably get acquainted with everything as soon as I can to not cause you any more troubles." Arnold replied with a smile. But what he failed to mention to his lovely uncle, was that he was thinking about shifting the mansion into his domain. Not right then, but when he was done with dealing with their crap. "Sure, sure. Feel free to call this your home. Let''s head towards the bar shall we?" "Sure." Arnold replied, "By the way uncle, where is Cousin Gui? I haven''t seen him since I got here." "Ah, he must be busy ying games... again. That''s the only thing he does these days. I''m surprised if I find him on the dinner table sometimes." Chiang shook his head. Usually, he didn''t like to show how disappointed Chiang was with his son especially in front of someone like Arnold. But since Arnold was already as good as dead, he thought it would be the best opportunity to vent out his frustrations for a while and so began the tale of how Gui had turned out to be a failure and an entitled piece of garbage who did not think twice before harassing the maids. As well as, taking his sexual frustrations out on them... that too quite brutally. By the time, Chiang was done bit*hing about his only son, Arnold could only think of one saying, ''Like father, like son.'' "I just wish he could have been more like you." Chiang sighed before gulping down yet another drink. "Haha... uncle you might have been underestimating your son''s capabilities," Arnold replied after sipping down his drink as well, "Streaming is quite a popr field these days. If one has a talent in gaming, they can earn even more than what most of the warriors do." "True, true... but you haven''t seen him. He has no decency at all. The only time he talks with someone is when he wants to shout at them. It''s quite tiring to hear his yelling at people for most random things, to be honest." Arnold opened his mouth to reply but the next moment he found himself on the wooden floor. Something was wrong with him. He immediately grabbed his throat while gasping for air. He had been poisoned with a cocktail of the most dangerous poisons of the world and his insides were getting destroyed by the minute. In the meantime, Chiang calmly finished his drink before he startedughing hysterically. "You fcker! Did you really think I''d let you live after the crap you pulled earlier today?" Chiang kicked Arnold in his face while he rolled all over the floor in pain. As he did so, three men walked into the room, Zing, Gui and finally Yu Zhung''s lieutenant. Yu Zhung had stepped out of the mansion to smoke, leaving his lieutenant in charge of the operation. All of them wereughing after seeing him struggling at their feet. Meanwhile, the Lieutenant made the call for the warriors toe inside. After all, their target had been already subdued there was no need for them to keep a lookout. However... he did not get a reply from them. All of theirmunicators had gone silent. Only the static noise could be heard through thems. Everyone noticed the lieutenant''s grave expression and immediately went silent. It was then they heard a maniacalugh. Or to be precise, they heard Arnold''sugh. Chapter 347 - Know Your Place (4) A few minutes earlier... ___?? OBJECT: Wine (Poisoned) TYPE: Earthling''s Liquor GRADE: C THREAT: Negligible REMARK: A locally brewed liquor variant of Earth. Enjoyable liquor that can be drunk to have a temporary feeling of novelty. Is one of the best varieties of liquor found on earth, however, better quality liquors can be found across the universe. No god will ever touch such a vile mockery of a liquor. However, a strong stench seems to being out of the liquid. The Stench of poison. A master Alchemist had brewed a special kind of poison by using multiple ingredients from poisonous nts and venomous monsters. It''s a drink one would only give to someone they detest from the bottom of their hearts. The drink has enough poison to kill an entire city''s poption. Sadly for the people who made this concoction, it won''t have any effect on you, since you''re no longer a human being but something between a full-fledged demigod and a human. ___ ''Oh... I knew the oldie hated me but even I didn''t think he would go to such lengths.'' Arnold thought after silently using the probe skill on the drink Chiang had offered him. Arnold had a hunch that Chiang would definitely try to do something to him. Like maybe the drink was secretly a potion that would apply some kind of a debuff on him or something. But he did not imagine Chiang would try and poison him. He wasn''t aware of this because he hadn''t seen this happen with his foresight. Thankfully, Arnold''s internal body had evolved into something that had long surpassed the limits ced on him by nature. He no longer had to worry about earthly poisons. Yet the cheap trick kind of pissed him off a bit. ''You wanna y this game? Then let''s y the game.'' That was when Arnold fell on the floor and acted as if the poison was taking effect on him. He did so for two reasons. Firstly, it would give his summons additional time to take care of the warriors in case they missed someone and secondly, Arnold would get to know who all were behind this assassination n because he knew these idiots woulde rushing out once they think he was done for. And that''s what happened. Soon all of the main conspirators had surrounded him. Their faces were gleaming with happiness and overconfidence. He quickly registered the faces of all those basta*ds before secretly giving Talos themand to knock all of the warriors out. Everyone except those within the mansion was immediately taken care of. While Chiang and co. were celebrating his ''defeat'', Arnold''s summons wiped out any kind of backup they had. That''s when Yu Zhung''s Lieutenant tried to contact everyone who was stationed outside, only to discover none of them was responding. How would they respond once they were knocked out cold? The fools had made their bed and now it was time for Arnold to reveal his hand. *** Back to the present... Arnold''sugh echoed throughout the silent mansion. Chiang, Zing, Gui and the Yu Zhung''s lieutenant, He Yanyu, had turned pale as if they had seen a ghost standing in front of them. Their dumbfounded expression made Arnoldugh even more. In his mind, their shocked faces would give pikach* a run for his money. "Don''t tell me you really thought some poison would be enough to kill me?" Arnold asked Chiang when he finally stoppedughing, "Come on man, give me some respect. I killed 55 of your warriors by myself. That has to mean something, right?" "But that poison-" "Yeah yeah, it was the deadliest poison ever made. So what?" Arnold cut Chiang mid-sentence, "Also, what kind of idiot are you? You should know that I hate you for what you did to me and Nicole. And I know that you hate me too. So what was with the warm wee and stuff? Your very first move made me suspicious of everything. Gosh... are you really some underworld boss? Even the pickpocketers have more brain cells than all of you possess collectively." Arnold wasn''t going to take action, yet. First, he wanted them to know exactly why he was there to do. "Chiang and Gui... You filthy basta*ds.. You enjoy forcing yourselves on younger girls, do you?" Arnold snarled in rage, "Don''t think even for a second that I forgot about what you did to Nicole. She was just a kid, you sick perverts. If I wanted I could''ve dealt with you long ago, but I didn''t. In a hope that you would correct your ways... but I was wrong." He continued, "However, I''m happy that you are still the same waste of human beings that you always were. It gave me an excuse to do what I should''ve done long back-" "Shut your trap, as*hole! Don''t talk so high and mighty when you killed dozen of innocents yourself. It doesn''t matter why the poison didn''t work on you. Actually, I''m d it didn''t because now, I''ll get a chance to avenge my fallen brethren." He Yanyu pointed his sword at Arnold, "You will not leave this ce alive. I will make sure of it." Arnold gave the 6'' 2" tall, solidly-built, brown-skinned man a pitiful look. He had a hooked nose and his shoulder-length ck hair was neatly oiled and tied in a ponytail. He was an S ranked swordsman, however, he did not possess many abilities either. In fact, theck of abilities was almost concerning, so much so, that Arnold wondered where the hell did that man was getting so much confidence from? "Oh? Is that so?" Arnoldughed before throwing a middle finger right at He Yanyu''s face. Arnold''s disrespectful actions enraged the swordsman beyond the limit. He charged at Arnold with full speed. His sword was a centimetre away from Arnold''s chest. "Game over, you coc*y basta*d" He Yanyu eximed in rage. Little did he know, it was he who was going to be defeated that night, not Arnold. Chapter 348 - Know Your Place (5) "There''s no way you can dodge this!" He Yanyu eximed. He was confident that Arnold was a dead man. "Who said anything about dodging such a weak attack?" Arnold mumbled before he snapped He Yanyu''s arm in half with a half-as*ed flick of his pinky finger. ?? Everyone was stunned when they saw He Yanyu falling down on his knees. Moreover, unlike what they had been expecting, Arnold did not even use his bionic arm on the swordsman. He used his own strength to decapitated He Yanyu, in one blow. Even though the fight ended in a sh. All of them present in the hall clearly saw what happened, yet none of them was ready to believe it. It waspletely absurd. How can someone snap an S ranked warrior''s arm with a flick? No one would ever believe it, even with evidence. "I''m telling you for the first and the final time. I have no ill-feeling towards anyone except Chiang and Gui Ling. So stay out of it."Arnold roared with fury in his voice, "I will be killing them tonight, that''s for certain. Along with anyone who will stand in my way. So if you want to live a long and healthy life, leave now. Or you can continue your friendship with them in the afterlife. The choice is yours." "You basta-" He Yanyu grabbed his sword with his remaining good arm and once again lunged towards Arnold. This time, however, Arnold wasn''t in the mood to forgive the man regardless of who he was. Arnold did not even bother looking at the man and with a backhand p, he ended up snapping He Yanyu''s neck in half. It all happened so quickly, that it took five seconds for He Yanyu''s corpse to finally fall on the floor. He was dead, just like Arnold told them he would be. "What part of I''ll kill you if you interfere, you idiots didn''t understand?" Arnold shook his head, before wiping his bloodied hands on He Yanyu''s clothes, "I''m tired of people not taking my words seriously. Like,e on! If I say I''ll kill you, means I''ll kill you. Is it that tough to understand such a simple thing? *Sigh*" Zing now saw Arnold in a different light. He no longer was the same teenager who ran away with his sister when Chiang threatened him. If back then he had been a goat, he had now returned as a dragon. He was happy that Chiang and Giu were his only targets and not him, even though he was equally guilty for taking Arnold''s wealth away from him. Chiang, however, wasn''t so lucky. He was so scared of Arnold, he could wet himself at any moment. Never in a million years had he thought the nephew he used to abuse his entire life would be the one he would be scared to death of. Maybe it was the divine punishment for all his wrongdoings... no. It was no divine punishment, it was Arnold''s stone-cold retribution. in and simple. The anger and frustrations he had been keeping under him for over a decade were now about to explode like a volcano. And Chiang and everything he had built for himself was going to drown in Arnold''s rage. "But how is this even possible? Didn''t Zing said Arnold was only an A ranker?" Arnold''s chubby cousin Gui mumbled into his father''s ears. He was as scared as his father yet, he was somehow calmer than him. Chiang, on the other hand, was too shocked to even give a proper reply to his son. ''I have to leave... or else...'' Zing thought to himself. Zing did not want to stay there anymore. Not after what he had just seen. He had to run if he wanted to live. A momentter, he bolted towards the door at top speed. But before he could reach the door he saw something walking towards him. He thought it was either Yu Zhung or one of the other warriors and rushed out to be in their protection. However, he realised his mistake as soon as he stepped out. From a distance, it looked as if a man was standing in the shadows. But as Zing got closer to the ''person'' he froze with fear. That thing outside was no human, not be a longshot. No human had a tail tucked behind themselves. It was a Lizardman, a ck lizardman carrying a broadsword over his shoulder. Not to mention, it was the biggest Lizardman Zing had ever seen at that. But he wasn''t alone. Before Zing could even get a clear view of the monsters walking behind the Lizardman, he was kicked back into the room by the Lizardman. The kick hit Zing like a maglev train. He could also feel his organs burst due to the impact. Chiang and Gui immediately turned to face the doors leading to the gardens outside. They were hopeful that someone hade to save them. However, their hopes were shattered a secondter when through the doors entered Grock, followed by the rest of Arnold''s summons. The tides had turned against Chiang and his son. They thought with the help of the warriors they would trap Arnold within the mansion while now it was them who had been trapped inside their own mansion. "A-Arnold... y-you should h-honour your words," Zing mumbled with a mouthful of blood, "You said... you won''t kill anyone who doesn''t get in your way..." "Yeah, and I''m sticking by those words. After all, I won''t be the one to kill you." Arnold nodded and Grock crushed Zing''s head like a water balloon. Arnold had tried his very best to forgive Zing for what he did a decade ago. He genuinely thought Chiang had forced him to betray his best friend. But when Arnold returned and saw how evil his ''best friend'' had be, he decided to end him for good. "Now... how should I take care of you two-" "What''s going on here? Why is no one answering their goddamnmunicators-" Yu Zhung just came back from his smoke break on the terrace and the first thing he saw after entering the hall, were Arnold''s elite summons standing at the far end of the room. The next thing that caught his eyes was Zing''s headless corpse lying next to the foot of a gigantic lizardman before his eyes eventually fell on the lifeless body of He Yanyu... and finally, he saw the man who was intently looking at him from the corner of his eyes. "Deathless..." "Finally, someone who knows who I am!" Arnold gave Yu Zhung a smile before turning away, "As a reward for that, I won''t be killing you. You can leave if you want." Yu Zhung was shocked, angry and confused to see the Deathless there. It was then he was finally able to recall that Deathless had a prosthetic arm as well. "Master Zhung... help us..." Chiang was almost on the verge of crying when Yu Zhung drew his sword and rushed towards Arnold who had his back turned towards him. Right when Zhung was about to plunge his sword deep into Arnold''s back, Arnold stopped his sword''s de with a single finger of his right hand... without even bothering to turn around. All of Zhung''s speed, his momentum, disappeared the moment Arnold grabbed the sword. "Now you''re just courting death..." Arnold mumbled as Yu Zhung''s sword disintegrated in his hand. Chapter 349 - Know Your Place (6) "How..." Yu Zhung couldn''t take his eyes off of his sword that Arnold effortlessly turned into dust right in front of his eyes. Arnold smirked and turned to face Yu Zhung, "I thought you were special but as it turns out, you''re just another typical SS ranked warrior who thinks he is invincible. Also, why are you so surprised that your sword disappeared? I thought you knew about me and yet jumped in headfirst into a fight?"?? "You killed my brother-inw... what else do you expect me to do?" Zhung roared in fury and swung his second sword at Arnold. "I expected you to stay quiet till I was done dealing with ''family matters''. After all, dogs like you should wait for their master to throw a bone at them." "You basta*d!" Yu Zhung gave it his all, but even then, the end result remained the same. Swords kept changing, the situation, however, didn''t. No matter how much he tried, his swords kept disappearing into thin air the moment Arnold touched them. Yet, it wasn''t that his swords kept disappearing on him that infuriated him, but the fact that Arnold was countering him so effortlessly. Yu Zhung tried his best, and yet he couldn''t even make Arnold budge from his ce at all. Not only that, Arnold was continuously disrespecting him by parrying all of Yu''s moves by using his forefinger alone. And Arnold wasn''t even using his bionic arm for that purpose, which infuriated Yu Zhung even more. ''What''s with this crazy power difference? Wasn''t he supposed to be an SS ranked warrior like me?'' Yu Zhung was clearly struggling against Arnold and he knew he had been outssed. Yet his pride didn''t allow him to step down and ept his inevitable defeat. He was the greatest warrior in China, no... the greatest warrior in Asia. He will die but not ept defeat. His country''s honour was on the line. "This is getting boring." Arnold mumbled while yawning, "Shall we end this farce now? I have some other matters I''d like to deal with, if you don''t mind?." "Why you-" Arnold did not wait for Yu Zhung to respond and gestured with his hand to cut him off. Arnold had been entertaining Yu Zhung till now because he thought He Zhung would be the challenge Arnold had been looking for. But once Yu Zhung''s swords were out of the equation, he turned into nothing more than a kid trying to fight with an adult. Even Arnold didn''t want to toy with him anymore as he had no personal grudge against the man. Arnold knew why Yu Zhung attacked him. It wasn''t to show his superiority over Arnold but to avenge his brother-inw. But his pride and ego had turned him into an unreasonable brat. The moment Arnold was done speaking to Zhung, Zhung used his secret ability. One he had used only once to clear an S ranked dungeon all by himself. The legendary technique, Qian ren: a thousand crimson des. Once activated, the ability boosted the users'' mana to abnormal levels. This excessive mana was then moulded into any shape the user desired, in Yu Zhung''s case, the mana was turned into a thousand crimson des. Each of these des was enough to slice through the thickest armours and monster skins with ease. This ability was Yu Zhung''s trump card. No one in the world was aware of this ability, it was a closely kept secret of Zhung. The only people who ever saw this ability in action were mercilessly killed by Zhung. That was the limit he was willing to go to hide his abilities. ''This is interesting...'' Arnold finally thought it was time to get serious as well. His summons stepped forward to aid him, but Arnold waved them back. If Yu Zhung was willing to go so far just to engage him in a battle, it would be disrespectful to not reciprocate his will to fight. That was someone ''cool'' would''ve said in that situation, but not Arnold. He didn''t care about Yu Zhung''s will to fight. Arnold was more interested in knowing how Yu Zhung could achieve such an increment in mana, that too, in an instant. ''I guess I''ll ask himter. Let''s end this mockery of a battle for now.'' ___ [Arm of living death]''s effect activated: [Iron Fist] - Upon the user''s will, the arm goes into overdrive, increasing the power output by 50% and raising the user''s strength (up to 100 STR) for 3 seconds. ___ When Arnold first got the bionic arm, he thought the increase of 100 STR was a game-changer for him, but now that his stats had increased beyond imagination, the increase of stat due to the effect did not seem much to him. But since he wanted to test the arm out, he decided to use the item effect on one of the strongest warriors on earth. Yu Zhung shouldn''t mind him doing so, after all, Arnold had indulged him in his petty game till now. It was only fair that Arnold got to have some fun as well. Arnold grabbed Yu Zhung''s head with his bionic arm and mmed him down on the polished floor. The impact was so strong, a number of cracks appeared out of the floor and reached the ceiling. Every piece of expensive furniture in the room had overturned and destroyed. With one strike, Arnold had thrown the entire mansion in disarray. As for Yu Zhung, his head split open. He was drenched in a pool of blood as his mouth kept spewing more and more blood like a broken faucet. The situation looked bad. Arnold immediately instructed Alice and Natasha to patch the guy up. It wasn''t Arnold''s intention to kill Yu Zhung when he used the arm''s ability. But Arnold thought Yu Zhung would have been able to tolerate his one strike. However, Yu Zhung turned out to be as fragile as the others for that matter. "Don''t... y...ou... dare... walk-off... our... battle... is...n''t... over... y...et..." Much to Arnold''s surprise, Yu Zhung was still conscious and ready to fight, even though his body had been utterly crushed. Arnold was... impressed. "We''ll fight some other day. Till then, know your ce and try not to get yourself killed. Or shall I say... do yourself a favour," Arnold shook his head before smiling, "don''t get up." Chapter 350 - Death Isnt Enough (1) Chiang and Gui had no hope of survival now. Not after knowing that the Deathless no one in the world wanted to go up against was none other than Arnold. They had a bit of hope when Yu Zhung entered the room. But even the mighty Sword god couldn''t put as much as a scratch on Arnold. Both of them stood there like a pair of undead. They knew what wasing next and had already resigned to their fate. They knew if Yu Zhung couldn''t defeat Arnold then no one could.?? Arnoldughed when he saw their expressions. Actually, Arnold was surprised that Chiang didn''t have a heart attack the minute Yu Zhung was defeated. After all, he was theirst hope of survival and now he was at Arnold''s mercy. If only Arnold hadn''t thought of a way to use Yu Zhung for his profit at thest moment, Arnold might''ve just ended up killing him as well. Sadly, he didn''t have any use for his uncle or his spoiled cousin. And maybe they knew about it as well. But seeing them having resigned to their fate made Arnold''s sadistic side wonder about something. ''What will happen if I give them a sliver of hope to survive?'' He smiled, ''How far are they willing to go for the sake of their survival, I wonder?'' He didn''t know why such sadist thought keeping to his mind but for once he wanted to go through with the n. If anyone deserved to be treated that way it was the two of them. He took out two daggers from his inventory and threw the daggers in their direction. Both Chiang and Gui were a bit confused by Arnold''s actions. They were waiting for Arnold to kill them, not give them weapons. "D-Do you want u-us to fight with you?" Gui somehow mustered the courage to look Arnold in the eyes while asking the question, "We''re not trained warriors and even if we were-" "Don''t you think I know that? Or are you really that big of an idiot?" Arnold shook his head beforeughing hysterically, "You''ll be fighting each other. Not me." His uncle and cousin both looked at Arnold with disgust. There was no way they would entertain Arnold''s sick sense of justice. They will ept death but won''t ept being treated like a bunch of toys for someone else''s pleasure. "You''re sick Arnold! That''s what you are!" Gui was shaking madly with rage. "Pretty bold of you to say that after sexually abusing your younger cousin." But in Arnold''s eyes, his anger was nothing more than a brat''s tantrum. And like the responsible adult, that Arnold was, it was important to show the brat his ce. "You will be fighting each other whether you wish it or not. But I''m not as heartless as the two of you, so here''s the deal... the one who wins the duel gets to walk out of this building alive." Arnold shrugged his shoulder, "And for obvious reason, it''ll be a duel to the death. That is, if you can find it in your hearts kill each other." Gui and Chiang both look at each other. One of them could survive this if the other was willing to sacrifice his life. But Chiang couldn''t bring himself to do it. He just couldn''t. Despite all his ws, Gui was still his beloved son. However, it looked like Gui did not share the same thinking as his father. For him, his survival was a must. After all, his father had lived his life and now was the time for Gui to live his. Even if it meant he had to kill his father. So he took the dagger in his hands without a shred of remorse in his eyes. "Gui... you''ll put that dagger down this instant!" Chiang couldn''t believe his son would be willing to indulge in Arnold''s games even after calling him a sick basta*d. "Shut your trap old man!" Gui yelled at his father, "Just because you have lived your life doesn''t mean I have to sacrifice mine! Just be a good father and give up on your life so I can live mine!" Arnold did not interfere. He just kept watching the father-son duo fight amongst themselves. In the end, Gui had grown so entitled that he was even willing to murder his father as long as he got to live his life. Not only that, Gui was almost demanding that Chiang give his life up for him. Tears welled up in Chiang''s eyes. After everything he had done for his son, and yet it all came to this... he couldn''t help but wonder where he went wrong in raising him. Only to realise he never went in the right direction in the first ce. All he did was to spoil him and raise him to be like him: An entitled piece of crap. "Fine... consider it ast gift from your father." Chiang spread his arms, ready to be stabbed by his son''s hands. "Just... shut up already!" Gui raised his arm and charge in to kill his father, but at thest moment Chiang grabbed his hands, "What are you doing, you jerk?" "I-It''s not me! I can''t control my body!" Chiang uttered in confusion before kicking Gui away. He had already made up his mind. He really wanted to die by his son''s hands rather than Arnold''s. But it looked like his body had different ns for him. He couldn''t understand why it was happening. Not until he heard Arnold''sugh. "Did you really think, I''ll let you off so easily? Come on where''s the fun in that?" Arnold snapped his finger and Natasha used her magic to take control of Chaing''s body, "I said there had to be a duel, and it''s not a duel unless both of the contestants are armed, right?" Under Natasha''s influence, Chiang was forced to pick up the other dagger, even though he didn''t want to. Natasha''s control was absolute. Ever since evolving, even the most seasoned warriors would have a hard time resisting her control, let alone amoner like Chiang. "Leave me alone! I''m begging you... please... just let me die..." Chiang yelled at the top of his lungs. Sadly, there was no one who could listen to his pleas. Chapter 351 - Death Isnt Enough (2) "ARGH!" Gui''s blood-curdling scream resonated throughout the mansion. However, it wasn''t the first time it happened. Chiang had stabbed his son for the seventh time under Natasha''s control. ?? Both the father and the son were in tears and in pain. Their pain was entirely different and yet was the same. While Gui''s pain was purely physical, Chiang'' mental pain was pushing him on the verge of a breakdown. He couldn''t bear how Natasha was forcing him to slowly torture his son, while she savoured every second of it. However, their suffering was far from over yet. Gui slowly grabbed his dagger again. Even though he was drenched in blood from the numerous wounds on his body, he was still willing to fight for his life. Sadly for him though, the more he fought back, the sooner he would end up dying. Out of the seven blows Chiang had dealt to his son, none of them was deep or fatal enough to kill him immediately. But the blood loss through those wounds was rming. The Adrenaline that had been fuelling Gui''s body to fight till now eventually started working against him. The more adrenaline that got secreted into his bloodstream, the faster his heart pumped the blood which increased the already dangerous blood loss even further. On the other hand, thanks to Natasha''s proficient control over Chiang''s body, there wasn''t even a scratch on Chiang''s body. The only pain he felt was mental. Every time Natasha forced him to stab his son, Chiang''s heart shattered into a thousand pieces. He didn''t want any of this to happen. Especially not to his son. At this point, he was just cursing himself for not picking up the dagger of his own will. That way, at least he would have been able to quickly kill Gui and not cause him so much pain. Had he known Arnold would take his revenge on him in this way, he would have killed the brother and sister back when he had power over them. But he didn''t, he thought he had done enough. He now realised how wrong he had been. But his rage soon faded away. He knew it was his greed that had brought him there while he felt regretful for everything he did to enrage Arnold. He only wished if he could turn the time back, he would leave everything to Arnold and run away with his son. But it was toote to dream about what-ifs. At that moment he only wished, that Arnold would find it in his heart to kill them off soon. "I''m sorry... my son..." Chiang managed to mumble before he broke down crying. Arnold remained indifferent to the sick disy. In his mind, he was justified in doing so, but a small part in his mind was questioning his methods. Will his parents be proud of what he was doing to his family? Will they be able to forgive me if they saw who cruel he had be? ''It doesn''t matter.'' Arnold shook his head, ''Ends justify the means... right?'' The one-sided duel carried on without a hitch. By this time Chiang was emotionally dead. He wasn''t even reacting to Gui''s screams anymore nor was he fighting against Natasha''s control over him. He was already dead insidepletely broken. He was no different than the automatons Arnold made. "Enough!" Arnold stopped Natasha, "Enough... ying around, just finish it already." "As your wish, master..." Natasha gave Arnold a quick bow before pping twice. As soon as she did that, Chiang did an acrobatic jump over Gui, shing his throat in the process. Gui no longer had the strength to even try and stop the bleeding. The dagger slipped from his hands as he just fell on his knees, before copsing in the pool of his blood. All the while his eyes were fixated on Arnold. He opened his mouth to most likely curse at him, but only blood gushed out of his mouth, nothing else. But his eyes told the entire tale. Arnold could clearly hear the things Gui wasn''t able to say, "Someday, you''ll die a worse death than me... mark my words!" After that, Gui took his final breath before his eyes turned white. Natasha revoked her control over Chiang and the weight of his actions finally dawned on him. He fell on his knees right next to his son, begging for forgiveness. At that moment Arnold nodded towards Yan. Yan understood his master''s intention and resurrected Gui as a normal undead. "My son..." Chiang mumbled before turning towards Arnold, "Thank you! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" Chiang thought Arnold had forgiven them and thus decided to resurrect Gui to show his kindness. Little did he know Arnold''s sick revenge was far from over yet. While Chiang was screaming his thank yous to Arnold, the undead Gui slowly got back to his feet and grabbed the dagger that his father had used to kill him. "Death isn''t enough for people like you." Arnold gave his reply to Chiang''s parade of thank yous, without a tinge of emotion on his face. Chiang was confused as to what was Arnold trying to say. Just what did he mean by death wasn''t enough? What worse could he do with them now? Arnold did not make him wait much longer to find the answer. A momentter, Gui pushed the dagger through Chiang''s skull, killing him in an instant. Chiang''s eyes were wide in horror. He genuinely thought that Arnold had forgiven them, but in hisst moments, he knew Arnold wasn''t someone who''d forgive those who had wronged him. There was only death waiting for his enemies. After Chiang was dead, Yan added him to his army of undead. That''s what Arnold meant when he said that their death wasn''t enough to pay their debts. He intended to make them work as his lowly servants for the rest of his life. Only then he might be able to finally forgive them for what they did to him and Nicole. But something felt wrong. Arnold finally had the revenge he had been waiting for, for more than a decade. He thought he would be ted and happy when it was all set and done. He wanted to feel good but strangely enough... he didn''t. Was his revenge even worth it? He didn''t have an answer to that question. "Clean this ce up." Arnold instructed his summons before walking towards Yu Zhung. It was time to get Yu Zhung on his side. Chapter 352 - Council Of Gods (1) ___ Bond formation... SUCCESS!?? Transformationplete! You''ve earned a new Ally! [ALLY TYPE] : : A unique type of Ally, who would fight till hisst breath to honour hisrades and master. Protector is an ally who specialises in close rangebat techniques, especially with one involving a sword. [SYNERGY EFFECT]: ---- (When attacking the same target) Strength (STR) boosted by: 20% Agility (AGI) boosted by: 17% -- -- You can assign the Blood Protector to protect a target of your choice. While protecting the target, the Protector can use to connect with its master. This skill can be used to give new instructions to the Protector and receive regr reports from them. This Synergy effect is exclusive between the Protector and their master. ---- The Protector would go beyond any lengths to help its Master, even if it meant dying. This synergy effect is applied to only one of the allies at any time. Strength (STR) boosted by: 15% Defence (DEF) boosted by: 20% ___ "This is interesting," Arnold mumbled as his hand slowly went back to normal after using Blood Bond on Yu Zhung. Arnold was not expecting to get a new kind of blood rtion to get establish with Yu Zhung, but he was pleased that it happened. After all, it ended up increasing the synergy effects of his allies by 5%. Although Arnold didn''t need his allies as much as before, now that his summons had transcended the limits ced on them. Still, it was good to have some allies like Yu Zhung around his loved ones. Yu Zhung might havee short against Arnold. But there was no doubt in Arnold''s mind that Yu Zhung still was one of the strongest warriors on earth. His swords skills were no joke either. Moreover, Arnold wanted to learn Yu Zhung''s special skill: Qian Ren. If Arnold could learn to expand his mana just like Yu Zhung did, it would further increase his chances of defeating the Demigods who will be inevitablying after him sooner thanter. After he had learned the ability he could simply assign Yu Zhung as Nina''s bodyguard so that he could prevent a repeat telecast of what Andrex did to Nina while also protecting his child in his absence. Or he could use Yu Zhung as a dummy king of China and rule over the country himself. "Better yet, I can use him to take over Chiang''s business." Arnold mumbled to himself, while his summons were cleaning the ce up, "Considering this is China, there could be problems if someone unknown takes over the business that Chiang and Yu Zhung built together. However, if Yu Zhung takes over the business himself, no one will question him and readily ept him as well." "That would be happening... sir." Yu Zhung said immediately after regaining consciousness once the bond was formed between him and Arnold. "Do you mind borating, why it won''t work?" Arnold asked his newly appointed bodyguard. "There are 10 guild masters within China, excluding me, of course. They are referred to as the Emperors because the Chinese government has assigned each one of them arge portion of China''s total geographical area." Yu Zhung began exining the scenario to Arnold, "Each of them is responsible for taking care of any dungeon that pops up within their respective areas. No other Emperor has the right to intervene in the area belonging to others. And since I was the strongest among them, the Golden Dragons were given thergest and the most important area to take care of." "However, this only happened in theory. In reality, the emperors were always on the lookout to capture other''snds either by hook or by crook. The government officials know all about it and yet they can''t do anything to prevent it, they are the leaders of this country only in name. The true body that rules over the country is the Emperors. And as I''m sure you would have already assumed, for obvious reasons, all of the emperors had their eyes always focussed on us." Yu Zhung continued, "Chiang had his ws, there''s no denying that, but when it came to politics, he knew how to handle them. Even though he was no warrior like the emperors, they still feared him more than me. He was a sly basta*d who had a secret folder on each and every one of the emperors. The folder containedpromising evidence against the emperors as well as the government officials. Or in other words, Chiang was the one keeping the enemies at bay. Not me. Sadly, only he knew the location of the hidden files and now he''s dead." "So you''re saying, the moment you get in control, they''ll know that something unfortunate has happened to Chiang and these so-called emperors would then make their move against us," Arnold stated what Yu Zhung wanted to say. "Precisely." "Hm..." Arnold hade to China for two reasons. The first one was to deal with his uncle and cousin, which he finished just a few moments ago. The second was to take over his uncles business and secure a permanent and stable source of ie. He had thought it would be easy to take care of both of these reasons. But now another problem had arisen because of his actions. Still in his eyes, there was still a way to take care of the situation. But for his n to seed he had to ask a question to one of his summons first. "Yan, I have a question." "Yes, master?" Yan humbly asked Arnold. "Do your resurrected being have knowledge or any recollection from their previous lives?" "Sadly, they don''t, master." Yan shook his head, "The moment my spell touches their souls, they be a new entity entirely." "Alright, get back to work." Arnold had hoped that those who were resurrected by Yan would have some sort of memory back from when they were alive. That way all Arnold had to do was to ask the undead Chiang where he had hidden all of the evidence. And then Arnold would use the evidence to force the other Emperors to submit to him. However, it did not look like it was going to be that easy. "Looks like there''s no other way. We''ll just have to take over the other areas before the emperors can take over ours." Chapter 353 - Council Of Gods (2) Arnold didn''t want to attract unnecessary attention and hence wanted to do things as quietly as possible. He wasn''t aware of it but his actions on earth had already got him a different kind of attention altogether. Not from humans, nope. But from the gods themselves. Till now the gods were enjoying their little game. Even the lesser gods were excited as it was the first time in millions of years they were being allowed to participate in it. However, they were now worried about their wellbeing, and it was all because of one insignificant mortal who happened to be the Vassal of the Immortal one.?? It was no surprise that the lesser gods concerned. However, they were not worried about the safety of Earth. Their concern was far from it. After all, the higher gods could rebuild the from scratch even if something were to happen to it. Rather they were scared for their own well being. Unlike his fellow Vassals and Pdins, Arnold had shown exponential growth. Something that none of them had witnessed during any of the games held on the others. They could always predict how much someone will grow with the help of their borrowed powers, but in the case of Arnold, they did not know a thing. In their eyes, the more time Arnold spent on the Earth, the stronger he became. If it kept happening without some sort of a leash, it wouldn''t take him much longer to challenge the authority of the lesser gods. After all, Arnold had already managed to even kill a Demigod. A feat no other Vassal from the other worlds could even dare to dream about, let alone executing it. If they did not do something about him now, they would be the next on his assassination list. When they looked at Arnold, they saw a threat. A threat that would gobble them up if they didn''t stop it in time. If Arnold was allowed to grow as he was, nothing would be able to stop him from going against them. Thus he had to be handled immediately or it would have been toote. More than that, they did not want another Shiva to rise from a mortal realm. One was enough. they did not want Arnold to gain unparalleled powers like Shiva, which seemed inevitable at this point. However, if they wanted to stop Arnold, they had to n it all carefully. If the higher gods or worse, if Shiva got a wind of what they were nning to do, no one would be able to save them from his legendary rage. On the other hand, most of the higher gods were pleased with Arnold''s sheer ruthlessness. He had turned into something they didn''t know they needed. That is a source of entertainment. For the first time in millions of years, a mortal vassal had managed to intrigue the higher gods. They were so into his adventures that they had started cing bets against each other. For obvious reasons, these bets weren''t ordinary bets either. They put entire civilizations,s and gxies on the table as rewards. The Greek Gods were the ones who indulged in this practice the most as most of the Vassals and Pdins were formed under their blessings. This meant they had the most worlds to spend on such ridiculously hopeless bets. It was safe to assume, that whatever Arnold did or did not do, defined the destinies of these civilisations who weren''t even aware that their fate rested on someone who had no knowledge of their existence, whatsoever. For all they know, if Arnold ended up killing or forgiving someone, their world would end up blowing into a gazillion pieces. Because that was the way most of the higher gods gained strength. There were other things the gods could do with thes to harness powers from them. But these methods were time-consuming and required a lot of patience. Which most of the gods did not have, so they end up destroying thes and gxies to get stronger quickly. Arnold was the only one to have such an effect on them during this round of the games and they fancied more entertainment from him. It didn''t matter to the Gods if they had to destroy half of the universe for the sake of their entertainment. That is if the Immortal one allowed them to cause such havoc. But now, they were getting bored. They wanted to test Arnold''s limits. Just like the time they sent Tiamut after him. But sadly, there was nothing on earth that could challenge him anymore and they weren''t going to unnecessarily harass the Immortal one''s Vassal. They wanted more entertainment. But the way Arnold handled a supposedly ''strong'' human from his home, it was clear that no one on the posed a challenge to him anymore. Also, if Arnold kept on defeating his foes effortlessly, they''ll lose their interest in him and his adventures and it was something they didn''t want to. While Arnold was handling his business in China, Gods of the Greek pantheon were busy counting their profits and losses from the recent bet they had ced on him. The greek gods lived on Mount Olympus, their domain, which also happened to be one of the most serene and beautiful ces in the entire universe. Fromvish gardens to exotic waterfalls, they had everything to live a peaceful life. And right now, a few of the gods had assembled in the middle of the Olympus Gardens. "Hermes, Hermes, Hermes..." Apollo mocked his brother while he destroyed the world he had just won from him, "Why don''t you settle your differences with the mortal? You keep betting against him and lose in the end." The God of the Sun had skin as bright as the entity he was the God of. If Apollo liked anything, he liked to look as good as possible, no matter the time or ce. He usually wore a white robe that barely covered his masculine upper body, while a long piece of angelic fabric was wrapped around his waist to cover his lower body. All in all, he looked like a yb*y, however, his nature waspletely opposite of his appearance. "I''m not in the mood Apollo," Hermes replied before making himselffortable in his winged shoes, "You know I hate that human. He''s just so... arrogant. And all he has is his borrowed power from the Immortal One. Yet he acts as if he owns his homeworld." Like his brother, Hermes too had a charming personality. However, unlike his siblings, he had a go-getter attitude. He always wore his signature beret on his head and had his winged staff in his hands. He looked more like a wannabe warlord than a messenger of gods. He also had a cunning mind. A quality that made him one of Zeus'' favourite children. Since Zeus appreciated his mind, Hermes was also the one Zeus often came seeking advice. Thus it was no surprise that Hermes knew what Zeus had been nning to do for quite a while. It was also the reason why Hermes was intentionally losing the bets even after knowing he would. Before Arnold''s appearance, Hermes rarely lost any bets and even when he did, it was to get rid of a few rotten worlds. In other words, he was undefeated when it came to gambling. Even Zeus had to learn his lesson the hard way when h almost lost Mount Olympus to Hermes in a bet and stopped cing his bets against the God of thieves. But it was also a thing that made Zeus trust Hermes'' capabilities even more. The only one who seemed to win against Hermes was, Tyche, the Goddess of Luck and Fortune. However, now Hermes was intentionally giving away a few of thes from his collection while he waited patiently to recover all of his losses when Arnold would inevitably face off against Hercules. Because till then, everyone would get used to Arnold winning and would bet for his win as usual. However, this time Zeus and he would ensure that Arnold not only loses his fight but his life as well. "Eh? How else are the Vassals supposed to get their powers from then?" Apollo asked his ''loser'' brother. "Does it even matter? Either way, let''s go, father has called for the council." "Right. Race to the hall?" Apolloughed as he got on the chariot. "Oh, you''re on!" Chapter 354 - One Emperor (1) "Okay... So we got to take over the territory of the other emperors. But how?" Yu Zhung asked Arnold. Arnold, Yu Zhung, Talos, and Devon were inside a makeshift meeting room within the mansion Arnold had acquired from his generous uncle. Who for the rest of the world was a trip around the globe along with his son. When in reality they were the ones doing household stuff around the mansion under Yan''smands.?? It had been a week since Arnold took his revenge on his uncle and cousin. However, not much had happened during the week. Except for the fact that Arnold and his summons were clearing every single dungeon that popped up within their territory like crazy. So far they had cleared more than 50 dungeons among which were 4 S ranked, 13 A ranked, 21 B ranked and 17 C ranked dungeons. Surprisingly, Arnold wasn''t doing it all just to replenish the Beast Crystals used to evolve his summons. Instead, he was busy collecting monster corpses along with their crystals for an entirely different purpose. With the help of Yu Zhung, he had been selling half of those corpses to international buyers in the ck market. While the rest of them were kept in the vault to be Yan''s undead soldiers. Then he spent the money on buying essential resources that he and Devon required to make something to cause havoc all over China. Except for Shanghai and its surrounding area. Moreover, The crystal he earned from the dungeons were used for a variety of purposes. One of which was to evolve Yan and Ogur, the chieftain of the Frost Giants he had killed back in Jotunheim or whatever that ce was. While there wasn''t a significant increase in Yan''s stats after his evolution, he still managed to evolve to Cosmic C rank from Cosmic D. Sadly, it still wasn''t enough to raise the Giants as his undead. So Arnold asked Talos to just resurrect only the dungeon boss while leaving the remaining giants untouched. Arnold wasn''t going to waste his precious slots on making elite summons out of 5 giants, apart from Ogur. After being resurrected, Ogur went crazy like most of the resurrected beings did. Thankfully, Arnold managed to tame the beast in no time. the then erratic giant was now as docile as Cerberus. However, unlike Yan, Ogur showed a significant increase in his stats just by evolving once. He was by far stronger than Talos and Grock, who shared the same rank with Ogur. The only summon stronger than Ogur was Tiamut. But evolving Ogur proved to be more demanding than all of his summonsbined. After all, he used up more than half of Arnold''s beast crystal reserves to evolve. ___ CLASS: Mythical Beast NAME: Ogur, Chieftain of the Frost Giant LEVEL: 183 COSMIC RANK: B ROLE: Cosmic Beast / Brawler / Elite Axe Swinger / Tank AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Call of the Chieftain (Active skill) ? Guillotine Swing (Active skill) ? Arctic Stomp (Active skill) ? Frozen Breath (Active skill) ? Hardening (Active skill) ? Massacre master (Passive skill) HP: 150,000/150,000 STRENGTH (STR) : 490 DEFENSE (DEF) : 419 STAMINA (STA) : 290 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 100 AGILITY (AGI) : 95 ACCURACY (ACC) : 100 EVADE (EVD) : 60 CHARISMA (CHA): 19 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (Ice, Wind, Water) (20% damage reduction), Acidic attack (10% damage reduction), shing (10% damage reduction), . Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, Close attacks, Blunt attacks. Weak Against: Piercing damage, Lightning. THREAT: Negligible ___ But the results were good hence Arnold wasn''t going toin about it. He could always replenish his stock of crystals. After all, there was no scarcity of dungeons in China and most of them had anywhere from 200 to 1500 beast crystals to offer. That considering the rate at which they were clearing dungeons, was already more than sufficient for Arnold to earn a ridiculous amount of crystals. "Well, let''s just say Devon and I are preparing a special gift for each of the emperors," Arnold replied to Yu Zhung, "But preparation for the gift is taking longer than predicted because even though we want to cause havoc to make the emperors submit, I don''t want the innocents to lose their lives in the process." "You people keep saying you''ll use chaos and havoc to make the Emperors submit." Yu Zhung let out a heavy sigh, "But how are you nning to do that? All of the Emperors have absolute control over their territory. It won''t be easy for anyone to cause unnecessary drama there." "Who said I''ll be the one to cause drama there?" Arnold smiled and so did Devon. On the other hand, Yu Zhung was confused, "What do you mean? You''ll have to be there to subdue them by force, won''t you? But then I guess you could send your summons out as well." "Well you''re notpletely wrong," Devon answered, "The summons would be going to the different regions, but they won''t be the ones to cause havoc there. They''ll only carry the key that would open the path to pandemonium." Arnold could see that Zhung was getting a bit frustrated by then, so he decided to borate on what Devon said by a bit. "What he''s trying to say is, my summons won''t even lift a finger against the Emperors. Instead, they''ll cause a dungeon break. The monstersing out of the dungeon would do the rest for us." Yu Zhung was in disbelief. He had heard a fair amount of absurd ims, but this was way more absurd than anything else. It was the first time in his life Yu Zhung had heard about someone intentionally causing a dungeon break. He didn''t even know it was possible in the first ce. "Is that even... possible?" Yu Zhung mumbled to himself. "Believe me, if I had not seen it myself, I won''t believe it either," Arnold assured the swordsman that what he was telling him was the truth, "You see, Tiamut came out from one such dungeon herself." "Master is correct. It ispletely possible to intentionally cause a dungeon break if you have the right tools for it." Even if Yu Zhung had doubts over Arnold''s words, he couldpletely trust Talos, because he simply never lied. Although at that moment, Yu Zhung had his doubts even on Talos. "But... how?" "Please allow me to exin," Devon said with a smile on his face, "I assume you are aware of what Xenoic energy is?" From then on, it took Devon an hour to exin the working of the device he was creating along with Arnold and Talos. But Yu Zhung didn''t understand a word that came out of Devon''s scientific mouth, as usual. Chapter 355 - One Emperor (2) "And that''s how you can cause a dungeon break on your will." Devon proudly dered after exining everything about Xenoic energy and other rted but controble factors to Yu Zhung. Little did he know that Yu Zhung had the brain of a shrimp when it came to anything unrted to monsters and fighting. Thankfully, Yu Zhung was able to grasp a few basic things like the fact that they needed to make some kind of equipment that feeds off of the Xenoic energy trapped inside the beast crystals. The energy gained from the crystals was then used to overload the dungeon and forcefully destroy the barrier stopping the monsters from rushing right outside. ?? Once the barrier was destroyed, the monsters woulde out like water overflowing from a water tank. Hence, would lead to a dungeon breakout. However, he still had his doubts regarding the n. "Ok, I roughly have the idea of what you guys have nned. But don''t you think it would be obvious that we or particrly I would have some involvement in these, mysterious and unpredictable dungeon breakouts. That is, in case the breakouts only happened in the other regions and not in my- I mean your territory?" Yu Zhung overworked his brain cells toe up with the first problem he could think of regarding Arnold''s n. "I mean, people of China and especially the emperors are no fools, they''ll manage to put two and two together without much effort you know. And then your n would backfire on us. We''ll face criticism and although nothing woulde of it, people''s unwavering trust in us would get destroyed." "You''re correct." Arnold smirked, "The Chinese are no fool, I wholeheartedly agree on that. And that''s why the first dungeon break would happen in Shanghai." "Ah... that could work. No one would doubt the first victims of a premature dungeon breakout. Good thinking." Yu Zhung nodded in agreement before asking his next question, "But do me a favour and tell me about the dungeon break beforehand so that I can prepare me and my soldiers to tackle the monsters before they overwhelm us." Arnold looked at Yu Zhung with a nk expression on his face. He had been hoping that Yu Zhung wouldn''t ask him that, because the answer to that question would be kind of a shocker to him. But since he had already asked about it, Arnold had to give an answer to him. "What do you mean when? It could happen any moment now." As soon as Yu Zhung heard Arnold''s reply, he broke into a fit ofughter. The joke was too good for Yu Zhung to notugh. It was only when he saw that no one else wasughing with him, he realised Arnold wasn''t joking. He meant what he just said. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FCKING MIND?" Yu Zhung lost his crap and banged his fist on the table in front, shattering it in an instant, "Do you have no empathy for the civilians of this country? You are a fcking crazy son of a-" "Be very, very careful of what you say next." Arnold interrupted Yu Zhung in a calm but hostile voice, "Or else I''ll make sure no one can stop the monsters thate pouring out of that goddam*ed dungeon, understood?" "Son of a good, humble and gentle soul... I meant to say that..." Yu Zhung immediately switched his words before he said some vile things about his master''s mother. He might''ve be Arnold''s protector, but he still vividly remembered the beating Arnold gave him and did not want the same fate to befall his countrymen. "But didn''t you said that you were still in the middle of making the first dungeon breaker?" Yu Zhung politely asked Devon, because he couldn''t look into Arnold''s cold eyes without breaking a sweat. "We happened to have a prototype from before so we thought to test it out first," Devon replied in an emotionless manner. Devon did not want to show it but at that moment, even he was scared to say too much. Arnold''s aura was leaking like crazy and even though Devon knew that the hostile aura wasn''t directed towards him, he had a hard time speaking his mind. Just like Yu Zhung, Devon did not want to offend Arnold. His aura was too much for even the SS ranked warrior to handle, so how could an unpowered man like Devon not feel ufortable in that situation. After what seemed like a millennium, Arnold realised his aura was all over the ce and took control over it. Once that was done, he noticed everyone''s faces and realised that he couldn''t make his allies submit to him by fear. He had to be a role model for them to gain their trust, not force his will upon them. If he did that, they''d eventually stop expressing their opinions to him and he would be some kind of a dictator and he didn''t want that. ''I got to learn to control my anger...'' Arnold thought and took a deep breath to calm down his raging emotions. "If you don''t mind Arnold, can I ask why you did not inform me about the dungeon break beforehand? If you did then we could have made some preparations for it, that''s all I wanted to say..." Yu Zhung spoke after Arnold had visibly calmed down a bit. "Rather than handing you the answer, let me ask you a question first." Arnold crossed his arms in front of his chest, "If you guys would''ve prepared to handle an outbreak that wasn''t predicted to happen for a week or maybe even 10 days, how do you think it would look like to the world? Forget about the world. How do you think it would look like to those emperors?" "Pre-nned..." Yu Zhung now realised why Arnold did not give them time to prepare for the dungeon break. If they had prepared for the dungeon break beforehand, it wouldn''t look like the unpredicted or premature dungeon break. And hence, when the same thing happened in the other territories, people would doubt that it was Yu Zhung or his guild behind the attacks s they were the only ones prepared to handle the breakout. Hence, they''d lose the public''s trust even if they manage to subdue the other Emperors. "Exactly. But don''t worry, I''ve already had the ce evacuated." Arnold said before stretching his neck, "And before you ask me, no they are not aware of the dungeon break. All they know that they won mystery ''tickets'' to their favourite amusement parks or that there was a sale on their favourite brands or simr sh*t. Of course, the money for it was paid by your guild''s ount. After all, I''m helping you solidify your position in China and its people so I''m not gonna spend my money on it." Chapter 356 - One Emperor (3) At that time, in East America, things had taken a turn for the worse. The Syndicate had lost contact with 3 out of the 13 zones. However, that wasn''t all. Even the parties they had deployed to go and investigate the scene had gone missing in action. These strange and sudden urrences weren''t random and were following a pattern. The Zones were being taken over serially. And if the pattern continued to follow, Arnold''s zone would''ve been the next one the syndicate would lose contact with. They had tried contacting Arnold to notify him about the scenario but for some reason, they couldn''t connect with him. ?? In Arnold''s absence, the Syndicate was holding a meeting to decide their next n of action. They couldn''t just sit idly and not do anything. They had already lost a fairly big chunk of their army thanks to these disappearances and now they couldn''t afford to lose anything else. "We don''t have much time," Allen was the first to speak since the matter involved many of the people he knew from his days as a soldier, "If we don''t do anything now, we''d end up losing an important strategic location. I''m not speaking because-" "We are well aware of the importance of Zone 4, Mr ck," Adolfo De Luca, the newly-appointed head of the Luca family, interrupted Allen, "But is it reasonable to send in warriors from our side to fight against something we have no idea about? What if we end up losing even more soldiers? Who would be able to save us if an emergency arises here? Have you thought about that?" The room was filled with murmurs. Adolfo might have raised a few important and intriguing questions, but no one managed to notice the underlying objective of his words. Standing 5''9" and had a stocky bottom with brown skin, Adolfo had an authoritative feel about him and was verypetitive by his nature. Adolfo wanted to solidify his position in the Syndicate as soon as possible and that''s why he was targeting Allen who was also a new member of the Syndicate like him. It wasn''t like he was not knowledgeable of the influence the cks had over the Syndicate. After all, they were by far the strongest family even after Arnold had left them. It could be said that no one wanted to mess with them, but as long as Allen was the only one present in the room, the others had no difficulty in dominating his views. Allen was also aware of the fact. He was sure even in the Syndicate, there would be a few people who would see him as someone who only got his position just because he was closely rted to Arnold and was the only biological son of Nathaniel. Moreover, the fact that he almost got disowned by his father was no secret. These things would work heavily against him in the council meetings. But Allen had already been prepared by his father and his brothers, Arnold and Nathan, to handle such situations. "I''m well aware of that fact, Mr Luca." Allen spoke in a calm and friendly manner, "And your concern is well appreciated. However, I wasn''t asking for your opinion on the matter. I was merely stating a fact." Allen''s words were followed by absolute silence. Most of the leaders were intrigued by Allen''s sudden change in demeanour while the rest, like Adolfo, were taken aback by it. They thought it was the most suitable time to try and reduce the ck''s influence over the country. But it didn''t look like Allen was going to go down without a fight either. He was no longer a pup who required protection from others, but a grown-a*s American Pitbull. And unlike Nathan, Allen did not give a crap about his image in public, so he spoke his mind whenever he wanted to. His thinking was clear, If someone was going to try and rebuke him, then they better be prepared for something far worse themselves. "E-Excuse me?" Adolfo''s inted ego took a big hit from Allen''s simple and non-confrontational words, "This is supposed to be a meeting to decide on our next course of action. Not a forum to announce your ns!" "Well, the way I see it, the Zone we''re discussing about tonight, belong to a dear friend of mine. Someone whom I refer to as my brother." Allenpletely ignored Adolfo''s statement, "Also, I''ve spent a good chunk of my life in that Zone. So in a way, I think the cks have a duty to protect that ce." "I get what you''re trying to say, Allen. I really do." Morrino intervened after seeing that the meeting was getting out of hand, "But we can''t make decisions based on emotions. We have a country and its people to take care of and hasty decisions would inevitably lead to our demise." Everyone nodded in agreement with Morrino, as usual, he was the wisest among them. If someone could reason with raging youth, it was him. "I''m d, Mr Morrino could see my reasoning unlike few-" Adolfo started muttering about his reasoning but was quickly shot down by Morrino. "That being said," Morrino continued, "I don''t think it''s wise to ignore the possibility of Zone 4 slipping away from our hands. The Zone is simply too important for us to do that." Allen kept his smile to himself when he saw Adolfo all huffing and puffing. He knew Morrino would never go against his words ofradeship. After all, Morrino and his family had been allies of the cks ever since the dungeons started popping up in America. "I object!" Adolfo couldn''t take the tant disrespect anymore. He had worked his butt off to get to where he was now, unlike Allen who, in his eyes, got everything handed to him on a silver tter. He would not take disrespect from anyone. Not even Morrino. Sadly for him, the leaders trusted Morrino more than anyone in the room. Thus, if Morrino had a n in his mind then the least they could do was to hear him out and that''s exactly what happened. While Adolfo Luca was ignored for the rest of the meeting. "So it''s decided." Morrino proimed their collective decision, "The ck along with my family would undertake the task of protecting Zone 4 from the unknown enemy, any objections?" Adolfo was about to raise his hands, but his advisor stopped him. He wanted to solidify his position in this meeting, but he ended up making a mockery of himself instead. Chapter 357 - One Emperor (4) A few days after the sessful subjugation of a ''sudden'' dungeon breakout that happened in Shanghai, an unexpected visitor came on the doorsteps of Arnold''s mansion. However, this was no ordinary man, but one of the 11 emperors of China. The one who was known as Emperor of the Dragon Fist, due to his extreme grasp on the once lost form of martial arts: The Immortal Dragon Fist Style. He had achieved many great things in his life, yet there wasn''t a tinge of pride on his face or his voice. Because right now, he was nothing more than a beggar trying to persuade a ''king'' to help him out of a crisis. A crisis that had befallen on him and the civilians living within his territory.?? The man was known as, Emperor Kang You. Standing 6'' 10" tall, the dark-skinned man had a serious feel about him. His mannerisms and the noble aura around him, instantly made him fearsome to others. Even quite a few among the 10 emperors did not want to get on his bad side. Not to mention his well-built body that could send shivers down on anyone who stood in front of him. He had long, straight, brown hair which featured a central parting, and he had a long, slick, and well-maintained beard. Kang also had a burn mark on his right ear which he never talked about. Maybe it was because he was embarrassed, or maybe he did not want to brag about his battles scars. No one knew for sure. His godly demeanour was so scary that no one even dared to ask him about it. They just assumed it was something they shouldn''t be concerned with. That was if they wanted to live a long and healthy life. But right now, the roles have been reversed. He was no longer the scary one in the room but the one being scared. He was the type of man who was used to being bowed to, but not any longer. No more was he in control but the one being controlled by someone else. He tried his best to keep his face impassive. He wanted to make sure there was not a tinge of nervousness on his face. But how could he not? He was standing in front of the man who was undoubtedly the most powerful man on Earth, The Deathless. The man who survived a nuclear attack and managed to kill a dragon all on his own... how could someone not fear such a man? But as if that wasn''t enough to make him anxious, then there was the godly amount of aura leaking out of Deathless'' body which was directed right at him. Kang slowly lifted his gaze to look at the only man who could get him out of the unforeseen trouble he had encountered. Kang couldn''t see Arnold''s expression as he was wearing a masquerade mask. He could only see his eyes. But Arnold''s gaze was the only thing required to put the ''Emperor'' in his ce. Arnold''s emotionless eyes pierced through Kang''s soul, while the former left thetter to enjoy the ufortable silence. Kang continued to bow in front of Arnold. Not even daring to say a word, while he waited for Arnold to announce his decision. He could not afford to mess up the meeting. After all, the lives of his people were at stake. "Do you mind telling me what happened once more?" Although it sounded like Arnold was requesting Kang to repeat what he had just told him. In reality, it was more like amand than a request. "Yes, my lord." Kang did not want to upset Arnold in the slightest, thus he began addressing him as ''Lord'' and not by his name. Kang then proceeded to narrate what had happened in his territory. He told them, how one day a dungeon that wasn''t supposed to break for another 10 days suddenly broke. The next moment, thousands of minotaurs came pouring out of the dungeon. Had it been Goblins or Ogres, Kang and warriors could easily handle them. But a single minotaur was itself as dangerous as an A-ranked boss. With a thousand of them working together, it was next to impossible for Kang to take care of them. For these reasons, they weren''t prepared to handle the sudden breakout which led to the destruction of about 40% of his territory within 24 hours of the dungeon break. Thankfully, they were able to evacuate the civilians before any harm was done to them. But just evacuating the civilians did not solve the problem of rampaging minotaurs. They tried, again and again, to defeat the boss monster and seal the dungeon, only to fail more miserably than thest time. In the dozen attempts they made, not once did they manage to get even close to the boss: The ck Minotaur. Kang and his warriors were getting desperate to end the battle as soon as possible, or they were afraid that what happened in the country once known as the United States of America could happen in China as well. It was then he heard about how there was a simr dungeon break in Shanghai and was subjugated in merely 2 days. That''s when he contact Yu Zhug with a heavy heart. He had, had his differences with Yu Zhung previously, and asking him for help was humiliating to him. But for the sake of his people, he consumed the vial of shame and called him. It was then that Yu Zhung told him that he didn''t subjugate the dungeon break on his own. But that Deathless was the one who helped him. However, Yu Zhung also warned him that the price of asking the Deathless for help was quite high. Kang did not bother asking Yu Zhung about what the price was and just asked him for his help in setting up a meeting. Yu Zhung happilyplied with his request. Kang finally had a ray of hope and wanted to capitalise on it before it was toote. And now, here he was, bowing before the only man who could help him. "Hm..." Arnold nodded once the man had finished telling his tale, "So, you need my help in subjugating the monsters, right?" "Yes, my lord..." "I see... Tell me one thing then," Arnold got up from his throne of a sofa, slowly walking towards the man, "What would you do if I end up acquiring your territory for myself once I''m done taking care of the monsters? I don''t think you can stop me from doing it. After all, if you could do that, you wouldn''t be here begging for my help." "I''d rather serve under you, my lord, than allowing those monsters to dictate my fate." Arnold could feel that his words were sincere and had truth in them. Even though Kang did not like what he said, he still meant it. If losing his territory was the only way to save his people then, so be it. "Very well then." Arnold sympathetically patted the man''s shoulder, "I''ll help you subjugate those monsters. Just like I helped Yu Zhung. And in return, you''ll hand over your territory to me, just like Yu Zhung did. If it''s eptable to you, then we can proceed with the subjugation. If not, well, then I can protect my territory by myself." "I ept your condition, my lord..." Kang mumbled weakly, "You shall be the One Emperor, to rule over us..." Chapter 358 - Subjugation (1) "What do you think T?" Arnold smiled towards the automaton, "Tragic, isn''t it?" Arnold and hispany, that is, Talos and Yu Zhung were travelling to Wuhan, the territory that once belonged to Kang You. But now, it was a part of Arnold''s self-proimed kingdom. The disastrous after effect of the dungeon breakout just came in their view as their flight arrived in the airspace of Wuhan. It looked like no one has lived in the ce for decades. All of the buildings had either copsed or were on the verge of copsing. However, the situation on the ground was far worse than what they could view from the sky. Minotaurs were running amock in the city and surrounding areas. When Kang You, came there for help, he mentioned that 40% of the city had been obliterated at the hand of the minotaurs. But in reality, only 25% of the area was left intact and untouched. Kang You had given his all to protect the small area. It was also a safe haven for the people they had evacuated. "Saying that it''s tragic would be an understatement, master," Talos replied, "Especially when it all happened because of us in the first ce." Arnold nodded as their flight prepared tond on the makeshift runway. It might seem that Arnold was happy with the amount of destruction he indirectly caused, but on the inside, he was feeling guilty. Destroying a city was something he would have never done before but ever since the incident with Andrex, it felt as if something had snapped inside of him. He had be someone he never wanted to and no matter how hard he tried to suppress his evil side, he just couldn''t. It wasn''t as if he had been a non-confrontational person before that happened, but at least he knew to respect other''s lives and was evenpassionate to some. Yet now... he just felt like he didn''t give a crap about what others think of him or his actions. As long as he got what he wanted, nothing else mattered to him anymore. Now that he thought about it, he wasn''t even interested in being this ''One Emperor'' of China. He didn''t need to control the other regions to ensure a consistent influx of money. The ie from his Dad''spany was enough for him. Yet he went out of his way to look for an issue with the other emperors only to abuse them with his unparalleled strength and knowledge. And the most concerning thing was... he enjoyed doing it when he was not self-reflecting on his actions. He enjoyed showing arrogant people their ce while he himself was turning into one. He thought taking his revenge on his uncle and cousin would quell his rage. But it actually made it worse. It was also a reason why he decided to stay put in China for a while. He had to get rid of his unstable rage first before heading back to West America. ''No point crying over spilt milk.'' Arnold sighed before shaking his head as the ne came to a halt, ''I have to make my peace with the man I''ve be. That''s the only thing I can do.'' *** "Greeting, Lord Deathless and Master Zhung. I, Deng Xiaofan, will be your guide and assistant through the duration of your visit." Deng Xiaofan bowed and greeted Arnold along with Yu Zhung. "It''s good to see you as well, Ms Xiaofan." Yu Zhung courteously replied he knew what kind of woman Xiaofan was. She tried to act all innocent in front of the public eye, but was a nefarious beast on the inside, "After all, you don''t get to meet the mind behind the Dragon fist every day." Arnold did not say anything. He just stared at her through his mask, carefully analysing her every move and expression. Just like her name, Xiaofan was short when it came to the height department. She was just 5''1" and at first looked as timid as a meerkat, but ording to what Arnold''s probe skill revealed, she was as a sly fox if anything else. The system''s analysis also went ording to what Yu Zhung referred to her as; The Mind behind the Dragon fist. This 23-year-old had a long face with a cleft chin, a t nose, and very thin lips. Her mysterious ck eyes were angr. Her beautiful face was further beautified by the subtle blush and steel eyeliner she was wearing. Arnold could feel those eyes measuring him up. A particrly notable feature was the small beauty mark she had between her lower lip and left chin. She was wearing an executive tuxedo, symbolising that she was there on a duty. "You tter me with suchpliments, Master Zhung." Xiaofan humbly epted Yu Zhung''spliment while she was still eyeing Arnold. "Is there something wrong with my face?" Arnold blurted out in a stern tone which seemed to snap her out of whatever she was doing. "No, my lord. I''m just intrigued about your identity... that''s all." Xiaofan replied calmly, "Now if you''ll be kind enough to follow me to the car." Even though she did not admit to what she had been trying to do, the system made Arnold well aware that the little brat was in fact trying to use her mind controlling powers on him. The only thing he didn''t know was her motivation for such a hostile wee. After all, he hade to save them from the minotaurs, and this wasn''t how you wee a saviour. "Ms Xiaofan, do you mind telling us where Emperor Kang is?" Yu Zhung tried to indulge in a conversation with thedy because she hadn''t spoken a word to them after asking them to follow her. "He is waiting with our main attack force near the dungeon. And that''s where we are headed as well." Xiaofan replied without turning around to face them. In the meantime, Arnold looked at the makeshift survivor camp made for the evacuees. Everyone around them was looking at them with a weird sense of insecurity. It was almost as if they were afraid of him. There were more than a thousand tents in the area. Within these tents, anywhere from 10 to 15 people were cramped up together. They barely had enough utilities and resources for long term survival. Which was obvious given that all of them had lost what they had earned throughout their lives. Although those people were living their lives, they were more or less dead already. It was the first time Arnold had felt a sense of guilt as strong as in that moment. Never in his dreams, he had thought his actions would have such a severe effect on the people. But he wasn''t the only one at fault. The Chinese government should have also prepared for such incidents. After all, there were more than a hundred thousand underground survival camps in America made just to protect the people in an event of a breakout. There were a few such camps even in Shanghai and surrounding areas. But not in Wuhan? It was then Arnold realised something... Kang You had told them they already had a few underground camps as well. If what he said was true, then what were all these people doing there? ''Something''s off...'' Arnold could feel that not everything was right. Throughout the years, he had grown to trust his hunches no matter how absurd they were. So he did just that and quietly used to make sure that his hunch was correct... and sure enough, it was. Arnold quickly cancelled the ability and pushed Yu Zhung aside. The following moment, there was a small burning hole in that ce. Yu Zhung was shocked. Someone had just tried to blow his brains out. Talos immediately went in action and pulled out the good ole'' vindicator while Arnold grabbed the little minx by her throat. "How... did you... know..." Xiaofan mumbled as Arnold''s grip got tighter around her twig-like neck. "Just a hunch..." Arnold shrugged his shoulders before summoning his entire army there, "Don''t kill everyone but show no mercy to those who resist. Take away their weapons and Tiamut, bring me that man over there." "Yes, master." Tiamut replied before rushing to the location Arnold had pointed. Arnold had pointed at the sniper who tried to kill Yu Zhung without even looking in that man''s direction. His sole focus was on the midget in front of him. "You better start speaking now. That is, if you don''t want me to kill everyone here." Chapter 359 - Subjugation (2) Arnold''s grasp got tighter around Xiaofan''s neck. Soon all of the people in the area had been gathered around him by his summons. Tiamut had even got the men who fired a bullet at Yu Zhung. All of these people were forced to bow in front of Arnold while looking at him with fear in their eyes. Xiaofan helplessly looked at Arnold while desperately struggling to free herself from his grasp. She even tried to kick him in the weakest ce of the male anatomy. But her attempt at freedom only got her a light p that left a huge mark on her cheeks. It looked like nothing more than a friendly tap and yet her eyes were filled with tears the moment Arnold''s hand touched her face. But even through her tears, she could only think about her n. The n that had failed miserably. Not only did she not manage to kill Deathless and Yu Zhung but she also got innocents caught but Deathless, thanks to her n. And now all of them were on a lunatic''s mercy. But after seeing the wicked smile on Arnold''s face, it didn''t look like there was a shred of mercy in that man''s mind. This was the reason Xiaofan waspletely against asking help from a foreigner like Deathless to help resolve the matter at hand. She did not know much about him initially. But when the whole dungeon problem began, Xiaofan did an extensive research on the man whom the world had known as Deathless. She found whatever she could from the inte as well as private sources and things she found about Deathless got her on edge. She tried persuading Kang You to not seek help from the Deathless and instead ask the other emperors for help instead. But Kang You didn''t listen. He was sure that Deathless and Yu Zhung were the only ones who could help him out of the crisis as they were the ones who had handled such a situation before and thus had experience. Then there was also the issue of his pride. He had always taken pride in how his territory had the most sessful subjugation rate among the other emperors. He wasn''t the strongest among the other emperors but he was the most disciplined one. So much so, his students were known to pay their respects to any and every opponent they went against. Let it be monsters or humans, they paid respect to everyone before starting the fight and after ending it. People used toe to him for help and now how could he go and ask them for help? No matter what, his ego could not take such a big hit. In Kang You''s eyes, it was better to beg an outsider for help than bow his head in front of people he had once looked down upon. So he went ahead and asked Arnold for his help in the subjugation of minotaurs. But Xiaofan did not give up. She tried her best to persuade him to not go through with his n. She even informed Kang You about everything she had found regarding the Deathless. His unpredictable moves and temperament were enough reasons to not seek his help. But Kang You had already made up his mind and once he did that, no one could change his mind. Not even the ''mind'' behind his sess. That''s when Xiaofan decided to take matters into her own hands. She came up with a n to take down both Arnold and Yu Zhung in a swift manner. She even paid a hefty sum and hired Asia''s most skilled snipers to take them out. But it was all in vain. In the end, the snipers were captured and her n failed. She could get by if Arnold was going to kill her but he had warned her he would kill everyone there if she did not tell him why she did it. That was something she couldn''t allow to happen. After all, she was the one to bring them out of the overcrowded but safe underground camp to help her make the location look genuine and hence do not arouse suspicion. But in the end, she put them in danger of losing their lives. "I... did it on... my own ord..." She barely managed to mumble in a squeaky voice as Arnold began squeezing her throat even tighter. Even in her squeaking voice, Xiaofan spoke loud enough for everyone to hear her. But Arnold could not register her words. No one knew but there was a struggle going on in Arnold''s head. A struggle that would either give the people their lives or take them away. *** Arnold couldn''t see anything. It felt like darkness had swallowed him. But then he remembered where he was. He was in his domain. ''No... this pace isn''t my domain. Not by a longshot.'' Arnold thought, ''But how did I get here? Wasn''t I about to save Yu Zhung from a bullet? I used foresight... but that''s thest thing I remember... just what the hell is going on here?'' Suddenly the vision of him grabbing Xiaofan popped up out of nowhere. Thousands of people had bowed their heads around him. He had even summoned all of his summons out of the void, and yet he had no recollection of doing something like that, whatsoever. ''Kill... them...'' A feminine voice hissed in his head, ''They are ants who do not deserve to live... kill... them... now...'' "No!" Arnold yelled but no voice came out of his mouth, only the voice in his head could hear him. he didn''t even ask who the owner of the voice was. The only thing that came out of his mouth was the intent to not kill so many people. ''Why not? You have the powers to rule the world... why not do it? Kill them... burn the entire world down... no one would be able to stop you...'' "If no one can, then I will stop myself." Arnold yelled back, "I''m not a mindless creature who will kill anyone and everyone who defies me!" ''How disappointing...'' The voice hissed back, ''Sadly... I can''t do anything to you. Not yet. But soon, you''ll be forced to do my bidding... mortal...'' Arnold felt like he had heard this voice before. But he couldn''t remember where. All he knew was that he had heard the voice sometime before... or at least someone he knew had. A momentter his vision got cleared and he was back in control of his body. The first thing he did after ing back'' was to let Xiaofan go. Her face had turned red and his finger marks were clearly visible around her neck. But the worst part was that Arnold couldn''t believe what had happened there. For the first time in years, he was shaking in fear. Just thinking that someone else was in control of his body, sent shivers down his spine. No matter how short the duration had been, if he had not snapped back the moment he did, the results could''ve been catastrophic, to say the least. "Master, are you okay?" Talos was the first one to notice something wrong with Arnold as he was standing closest to him. "Talos, Natashae with me." Arnold yelled before storming off, "Alice take care of the woman and Asterios and Grock keep a watch over the snipers. The rest of you let the civilians go and protect them." Everyone was confused with Arnold''s sudden and contradictory remarks. Wasn''t he the one who told them to kill everyone a moment ago? "His mood swings are getting a bit extreme don''t you think?" Bad-Breath whispered int Alice''s ears. "Yeah..." Alice replied, "I just hope it''s only that, and nothing else." Chapter 360 - Subjugation (3) Arnold was pacing back and forth at the ce while Talos and Natasha patiently waited for him to say something. He had called them there and yet, he was lost in his thoughts. Although Talos wasn''t an expert when it came to human emotions, even he could feel that something was off with his master. He knew the situation was bad when even warmongers like Asterios, Grock and Bad-Breath were not being their usual selves. Even Dread realised something was seriously wrong when he saw their usually fearless master sweating buckets while shaking uncontrobly at the same time. At first, the summons thought Arnold was seething with rage, that''s why he was shaking. But then again, nothing of the sort happened that would''ve sent him in a fit of rage. Enough rage that he would order them to kill innocents. People like Xiaofan always tried to kill Arnold because they were intimidated by his existence. That was to be given. If someone who could destroy entire continents on a whim, would walk up to you, anyone would feel intimidated. Yet Arnold did not think of them as his enemies. For him, their existence or death didn''t matter. The summons knew that no one on the would be able to harm their master. Especially not after the crazy power spike all of them have had since clearing the dungeon. This was also a fact. Thus there was no reason for Arnold to kill anyone who went against him. It might sound wrong and harsh to say this. But to them, the people all around the globe were nothing more than a bunch of Kos. They were cute and all but their existence wasn''t crucial for the ecosystem. No predator feeds on them, nor do they do much to contribute to the ecosystem either, but they do exist. Here Arnold and his summons were the ecosystem who did not bother by their existence of Kos, that is, useless people. Some could say the people were allowed to live just because they were cute. That''s all. (Author''s note: before bashing me for using such an example, please read Author''s thought section at the end. Thank you.) It was also the reason why they were surprised when Arnold asked them to kill everyone there. It just wasn''t something Arnold would normally do. After all, Arnold himself had told Talos, after annihting the subjugation squads who were stationed in front of the Lich dungeon, that he was going to minimize the killing from then on and asked his elite summons to do the same. It was also primarily the reason while Arnold told them to subdue the soldiers and not kill them while invading Chiang''s mansion. However, the orders that Arnold gave them a few moments ago were in stark contrast with what he had been trying to do for a while. Thankfully, their master seemed to have changed his mind before they could put his words into action. Still, all of it was a bit... peculiar to say the least. "Master. you should sit down for a while. You''re showing signs of having a panic attack." Talos requested but Arnold did not listen to him and kept pacing back and forth. "Shall I use my powers to help master calm down a bit?" Natasha whispered but Talos immediately shot the idea down. He vividly remembered the time he used his guns to wake Arnold up once long time back and did not think it was a great idea for Natasha to use her powers on their master in his current state either. If Arnoldshed out there, no one would be safe. It was better to let him handle his problems by himself. But if he asked for help, they''ll readily do whatever they could to help him out. ''Wait... What happened to me again?'' Arnold asked the system once again. ''How is it even possible?'' Arnold couldn''t wrap his head around the fact, ''I was still alive and well, it was just like someone had pulled me away from my body and into an unknown domain...'' <...> ''So if my heart stopped beating, how the fck was my body moving on its own? I even gave my summons an order to kill thousands without even being aware of it! If I had note back to my senses in time, there would a river of blood flowing here right now!'' <...> For the first time, system-sama who apparently knew everything, could not give Arnold a proper answer. But it wasn''t like there was no exnation for it. But there was no way ''that'' could ever happen. ''What should I do?'' Arnold was desperate to get some answers out of system-sama, yet he couldn''t, ''I can''t live on like this... not knowing when will someone else take over my fcking body and do something I would never even think about doing!'' Arnold wasn''t panicking because of the people he almost got killed. But he was worried that he might be forced to do something he would never even dream about doing, like harming Nina or his unborn child. He wasn''t scared for his sake. He never was and never will be that selfish. But he would never take the slightest bit of risk when it came to his family. ''Yeah... you do that.'' ''Monsters or humans?'' ''Got it.'' System-sama did what it said it would, and Arnold finally calmed down enough to think properly and make rational decisions. Now that his mind was clear, Arnold needed to do something now. "Talos, listen very carefully to what I''m about to say." Arnold mumbled softly, "No matter what absurd order I give you guys, you will not kill any human until and unless I say this word..." Chapter 361 - Subjugation (4) "Did you get it?" Arnold asked once again to confirm whether Talos got his instructions clearly or not. The instructions Arnold had given them weren''t hard to remember. Executing them, however, was entirely a different matter. "Yes, master." Talos replied, "It''s not much big of a task. I just have to randomly ask for the safe word whenever I feel you''re behaving suspiciously. However, I''m not a fan of what we''ll have to do if you answer wrong. Do we really have to ex-" "I know you''re notfortable in doing what I asked. But it''s what we''ll have to do until System-sama finds the answers I''m looking for." Arnold sighed. Arnold knew that the request he had made was a bit painful for his summons to execute. But the situation demanded such strict measures to be enforced in ce. He did not like asking his summons to do something so extreme. But after seeing the consequences of what could happen first-hand, Arnold did not want to take any risks regarding the matter and had to ask his summons for help. However, he wasn''t done yet. There was another thing he had to take care of. "Natasha, in case I go berserk, you''ll have to be the one to knock me out or at least invade my mind and influence my decision before I do something catastrophic." Arnold requested the subus. Natasha didn''t say a word but nodded quietly. The instructions he had given them previously was already a bit too much for her to handle and now this. She didn''t know whether tough or cry. On one hand, it showed how much Arnold trusted them and on the other, she knew they would hate themselves for following their master''s orders. Furthermore, Arnold had already asked System-sama to seal his inventory so that he could not ess his weapons. He could, however, ess the non-lethal items from his storage. In case there was a need for him to do so. Arnold did so because he realised that just instructing his summons to not abide by his rules wasn''t enough. His weapons themselves were enough to destroy half of Asia. While Arnold was giving Talos and Natasha instructions on what to do, in case he lost control over his body, Kang You and his warriors rolled in where Arnold''s flight was supposed tond. They had grown concerned as they had lost all contact with Xiaofan and everyone else. And thus had no news whatsoever of what Xiaofan had done. He just assumed the worst and thought the Minotaurs had managed to get past them and attacked Xiaofan andpany. Their assumptions got even worse when they reached the location and saw a variety of monsters had gathered up a lot of civilians. Even though there were no minotaurs in sight, Kang You feared that maybe another dungeon breakout had urred there in his absence. They had already lost most of Wuhan to monsters and could not afford to lose any more area. Seeing no other way, his warriors prepared themselves forbat. The hundred of them were drastically outnumbered by more than four thousand enemies. Yet they steeled their resolve and charged in. But before Kang and his warriors could y even a single undead, Yu Zhung used his sword''s sh ability to stop them. "As usual, you don''t think before you act, Master You." Yu Zhung smiled before sheathing his sword. "Master Zhung! Fret not, you''re not alone anymore. We''ll fight till ourst breath!!!" Kang You roared and his warriors followed his example. Their voice was filled with misced courage. "Master You, before you do anything, just look around you. Do these monsters look like mindless beings to you?" Yu Zhung once again tried to make Kang You realise that the monsters there were no threat to him or his people. In fact, they were the ones protecting them. "What in the heavens name is going on here?" Kang You mumbled when he saw that the people were in no danger from the monsters. However, before anyone could answer Kang You, he realised what was going on by himself. He might not have recognised the monsters there, but he recognised the automatons. They were the same ones whom he had seen working in Deathless'' mansion when he first visited him. He then changed his question to Yu Zhung. "Are they all..." "Yeah, I know it''s unbelievable but all of these creatures do Deathless'' bidding. You can say that they are his summons." Yu Zhung replied proudly as if those summons were not Arnold''s but his. "Crazy..." One of Kang You''s trained warriors let out a nervous chuckle. Followed by a few others. They have heard about summoners who could summons up to fifty monsters. But even doing that oftenpletely dried them of mana. That was why summoners were often treated as support units rather than full fledged mages. And what they were seeing right nowpletely defied everything they had learned as warriors. It was a well-known fact that Deathless could summon beings to aid him in battle, but they had never thought even in their most thoughtless dreams that he could summon an entire army to help him out. Just by looking at the monsters, they could tell that the so-called warriors were weaker than most of them. Hell, even someone like Yu Zhung was weaker than quite a few of the summons. "Do we even need to support that guy to get rid of the minotaurs, now that we have seen this?" Kang You''s right-hand man asked him. It was true that they had gathered there in order to support Deathless and help him clear out the dungeon as soon as possible. But in front of his army, they were not much more important than a bunch of porters. On second thought, they were more qualified to be the porter''s assistant if anything. "I don''t think so..." Kang You whispered back. "But before making any decisions we should have a chat with Lord Deathless first- What the hell have you chained Xiaofan for!!!" Kang You pushed Yu Zhung aside and rushed to the ce where Xiaofan had been chained along with the assassins she had hired to kill Arnold and Yu Zhung, "What is the meaning of this, Master Zhung!? And who are these people next to her?" "That''s what I''d like to know as well." Arnold''s voice resounded in Kang You''s ears, "Also, I''m kind of experiencing mild headache so, could you keep your voice down a bit?" Chapter 362 - Subjugation (5) Kang You could not believe a single word that came out of Xiaofan''s mouth. She was supposed to be the most intelligent and responsible person standing behind him and yet she did something so inconceivable? Kang was baffled she even thought of doing something so silly just because she was ''trying to protect him from a monster''. After listening to her insane ns, Kang You didn''t know whether he shouldugh or cry. "Have you lost your fcking mind?" Kang You was on the verge of pping Xiaofan, "You''re supposed to be the intelligent one among us and yet you tried to kill Lord Deathless and Master Yu Zhung? Have you- Argh! Even though I know why you did what you did but I still can''t wrap my head around it." "I did it for the good of our people and you-" "Shut the hell up! You did not do this for me. Just what is wrong with you?" Kang You was not in the mood to hear any crap that she spewed, "You know what a nuke is, do you? You know, it''s a weapon that can obliterate entire countries in one blow? This man here survived that! And your brilliant n was to kill him with a bullet? A freaking bullet? That''s the best thing you coulde up with? Where the fck is logic in there?" "..." Xiaofan remained quiet but tears in her eyes were the indicators of how she was feeling. This was the first time she had disappointed Kang to such an extent that he was swearing up and down in front of her. Kang You had forbidden everyone from his n from swearing ever again as he considered it to be extremely disrespectful to everyone and yet now, he wasn''t holding back anymore. "Honestly, I don''t even know what should I fcking do with you!" Kang You was not only disappointed in her but he was also afraid for her life. He could forgive Xiaofan because she was a dear ally, but it wasn''t the case with deathless. "On one hand you were trying to look out for me, which I appreciate from the bottom of my heart. But on the other, you did somethingpletely absurd and fcking uneptable." Unlike what Xiaofan thought, Kang You had done his own research about Deathless before he went to ask for his help. Thus he knew it very well that Deathless wasn''t someone who would forget about the people who had wronged him in any way. If worsee to worse, Deathless would think this was all a n to get him killed. And as a punishment, Deathless could even back down from their agreement and not get rid of the minotaurs, which would definitely doom them for good. Kang could not let something like that happen, no matter what. Even if it meant he''d have to sacrifice Xiaofan. The worst thing about it all wasn''t even what Xiaofan did. But that Kang You couldn''t get a read on Arnold''s mood. For the moment Xiaofan finished telling her tale, Arnold had gone silent. It was almost as if he was waiting for Kang You to do something about the problem. Thanks to the mask he was wearing, Arnold''s expressions were perfectly hidden. Hence making it impossible for anyone to read his face. Kang was torn up. He knew he had to make a choice now. Either he could let Xiaofan stay alive and risk angering Deathless which would mean that the civilians would inevitably die at the hands of minotaurs. Or he could sacrifice Xiaofan, please Deathless and save the others. It wasn''t a choice Arnold had given him, but it was Kang''s personal decision. He needed to show Arnold that he sincerely did not know anything about the n and his people were innocent in all of it. Thus, Kang made his mind to do the ''right thing''. He knew he would curse himself till hisst days but Xiaofan made a mistake and she would have to pay for it as well. ''I don''t have a choice...'' Kang You drew his fist to punch Xiaofan into oblivion. But the moment before his mana imbued fists could even graze Xiaofan''s skin, someone grabbed his fist. "Lord Deathless!?" Kang was surprised to see Arnold was the one to stop his punch. He was even more surprised when he saw that Arnold did so with just a finger. "What are you doing?" Arnold asked the man. His eyes were boring a hole in Kang''s face. "Sir I have to punish her for wronging you... That''s the least I can do to quell your anger, right?" Kang asked before drawing his fist back. "There''s a difference between punishing someone and straight-up killing someone." Arnold shook his head in disbelief. While Arnold was saying that, he didn''t notice but everyone there was staring at him like he was a ghost or something. "What!?" Arnold asked his summons when they began sniggering because of his words. "Nothing at all, Master." Talos was the first one to reply, "But I think it''ll take us quite a while to get used to your new ''ideology''." "Whatever." Arnold smiled and waved his hands before stepping back. "So... I don''t need to-" Kang wanted to confirm that he was no longer required to kill Xiaofan but Arnold interrupted him before he could ask what he wanted. "Don''t get me wrong. I''m not going soft on anyone. But I don''t see the point in killing a dog just because it failed to do the trick it was trained to do." Arnold replied, "Moreover, I think she is quite important to you and as your so-called Lord, it means she is important for me as well. But it doesn''t mean I have forgiven her. Not at all. It''s just that her existence doesn''t bother me." Arnold continued, "However, I trust you can deal with the two assassins on your own?" "Yes, my lord. I assure you, none of us would give you another chance toin." Kang You and his warriors banged their fists on the chest before kneeling in front of Arnold. "It''s fine. Don''t worry about it. But shall we go and do what I''m here for?" Chapter 363 - Subjugation (6) It hadn''t been more than a week since the dungeon break of Wuhan. Yet after seeing the chaos and destruction, no one would be able to guess that. It looked as if the city had been abandoned for decades. From the buildings to the streets and the dust tinted windows, everything had been shattered into bits by the rampaging minotaurs. Arnold was standing on the top of one of the few buildings that were sturdy enough to withstand the monsters. His eyes running around the destroyed city. The ce that his summons were clearing, was supposed to be one of the major shopping districts of Wuhan. But now there was nothing left to buy in the broken shops nor was there anything else to do. The once noisy streets had now embraced absolute silence. No sound could be heard there apart from a bunch of rampaging Minotaurs roaming on the streets. Apart from them, not a single being could be found on the streets. Or so Arnold wanted the minotaurs to believe. "Is this ce even worth saving anymore?" Yu Zhung mumbled, "I mean all I can see is a pseudo-wastnd." "It doesn''t matter what it looks like now. I was nning to just rebuild the ce from scratch either way. So the way I see it, the minotaurs did me a favour by levelling most of the city." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and gave Yan the signal to engage. Within moments innumerable monsters surrounded the half a dozen minotaurs like a bunch of starving hyenas. His Summons did not give the minotaurs a mere second to realise what was going on before swallowing the minotaurs alive. The fight barelysted for 30 seconds and before Arnold knew it, Yan had revived the half of minotaurs to join his army of undead. Arnold had told Yan to leave half of the minotaur corpses untouched because he was nning on selling the monster carcasses. He would then use the money earned by the corpses to help rebuild the territory from scratch. After all, Wuhan was one of his territories now and he had the responsibility to look after it and its people while simultaneously making money from the city. Monsters or not, everything was a business for Arnold. "Sector clear." Arnold softly mumbled into hismunicator, "The main team will now be heading into deeper zones." "R-Roger that, sir!" Xiaofan''s horrified voice came from the other side. It hadn''t even been thirty minutes since Arnold started his operation to retake Wuhan from the monsters and yet he had sessfully recovered more than half of the area back from the minotaurs. The efficiency with which these monsters were working was exceptional and unparalleled. Even if Kang had more soldiers than Arnold, it would''ve taken them days if not weeks to clear half the area Arnold and his summons did in half an hour. At the start of the operation, Arnold carefully divided his summons into 10 groups. Then each of the groups was assigned a part of the territory to clear of the monsters. Arnold''s n was simple, rather than charging at the minotaurs and pushing them back, his summons would surround them and push the minotaurs towards the centre, where the dungeon boss was, while slowly reducing their numbers. And so far, his n had been going through without a hitch. Cerberus and Duke were together leading a groupposed of the hounds and golems. While Bad-Breath and Alice were leading another groupprised entirely of automatons and so was Talos. Tiamut and Ogur were Arnold''s strongest summons and hence were soloing but had a couple of automatons apanying them formunication purposes. Grock was leading the few resurrected lizardmen that Arnold had in his army while Dread and Natasha were each being backed up with Yan''s undead soldiers. Asterios was having the time of his life fighting alongside the evolved ogres and finally, there was Yan, being an absolute killing machine thanks to the resurrected Minotaurs and his swarm of undead monsters. With every win that Arnold''s summons got, Kang and his people, who had been left behind in their makeshift base became more and more impressed and scared at the same time. At this point, they had finally realised how foolish they had been to think Deathless would need their help to clear the city from minotaurs. "I hope now you realise the weight of what you had done." Kang lightly flicked Xiaofan''s head, "He''s no ordinary man and you ended right up in his wrong books. you should be d that you''re still alive after the little stunt you pulled off earlier." "Yes, master... I was a fool to think anyone could take him down... on my own." Xiaofan replied back. Kang didn''t need to remind her how lucky she had been that the merciless Deathless decided to let her live, despite the ''warm wee'' she gave to him. As for Kang You, he was just d that he surrendered himself and his authority over Wuhan to Deathless. With an army like that, no one could even touch him, let alone kill him. ''I was right... this guy would be the one to unite the emperors to do his bidding... hehe'' *** Three hourster... Arnold''s summons had finally gotten rid of almost every single minotaur in the region. Except for the ck minotaur who was the dungeon boss and a dozen of his closeckeys. "Master, how do you want to end it?" Talos humbly asked Arnold. Arnold turned to look at Yu Zhung, "Want to take a shot?" "If you want me to, then sure." Yu Zhung happily agreed to take the monsters down. After all, he still had to show his true strength to Arnold and one-shotting these monsters would be the best way to do so. With that, Yu Zhung jumped down from the copsed building they were standing on top of, before charging towards the minotaurs. Yu Zhung simultaneously used his swords to easily dispatch the regr Minotaurs. However, his kill streak came to an end soon after that. No matter how hard he tried, his swords couldn''t even graze the ck minotaur''s skin. Even his Thousand Swords skill could do any harm to the minotaur. ''This is bad...'' Yu Zhung thought when he realised what was happening there. The ck minotaur was not the usual type of minotaur. But it was one of the few who specialised in using magic. As for the reason, why Yu Zhung''s attacks were not having any effect on the minotaur, it was because the ck minotaur was using a special ability that turned the mana of his opponents into defence points for itself. "This is interesting." Arnold smiled before nodding towards Asterios, "Looks like you''re up." Chapter 364 - Asterios Vs. Minotaur Enchanter (1) Yu Zhung was pretty exhausted after using his secret ability on the minotaur, only for it to backfire on him. The minotaur absorbed Yu Zhung''s mana before he could materialise it in form of swords toplete his move. This only allowed the minotaur to further solidifying its already unprable defence. But the worst repercussion of his failed attack was still waiting for him. The Minotaur raised his arms like a pair of sledgehammers and mmed down them down on Yu Zhung. With thest bit of stamina Yu Zhung had, he jumped sideways and barely managed to avoid the Minotaur''s deadly strike. But that was it. He couldn''t move anymore, he just didn''t have the strength to do anything. His body was now suffering from a condition known as Mana exhaustion. As the name, mana exhaustion, suggested it was a scenario in which the warrior suffers from extreme mental and physical fatigue once their mana reserves werepletely dried out. The used mana could be easily recovered by using special items or potions. But during this time, the body gets so exhausted that even basic movement seemed like an undoable task. Hence if someone gets exhausted during a fight, it was like inviting death to your doorstep. Mana exhaustion was a condition every warrior was familiar with and tried their best to avoid it. Just like Brawlers and Tanks were known to suffer from physical or energy exhaustion from excessively using their energy-driven abilities. The remaining sses of warriors were prone to suffer from Mana Exhaustion. Although the Swordsmen were ssified as being a physical form of battle arts, they were most prone to suffer from Mana Exhaustion. This was because the few abilities they used required a high amount of mana consumption. Thus whenever the high ranking Swordsmen went inside a dungeon, they had a dedicated support mage to aid them in battle. However, mana exhaustion had some more unrealistic after-effects as well. If the person affected by mana exhaustion wasn''t treated within an hour, there was a high probability that the warrior would end up permanently losing the ability to use mana. Thus, It was also considered a disease because sometimes the lost mana can not be recovered even after using expensive potions and items. This rendered the warrior to lose all his abilities and turn back to being an unpowered human. If they were famous and lucky enough to have some fans or proper backing, they would be allowed to act as mentors to guide the new generation of warriors. Or if they were rich, they could set up a variety of businesses to reap the benefits in one way to the other. But if they were not lucky enough or had not already made ns in advance for such an event, then no one had a field-rted job for them. And they were forced to leave their past behind and start a new life in one way or another. That was the reason why most of the warriors thought twice before going all out in a battle. Yu Zhung, however, was not an ordinary person. He was no vassal or pdin by any means, but he had the power of cultivation. The world didn''t know much about the practices the Chinese warriors utilised to break through their potential using questionable and unknown means. It was also a reason why warriors from China had more physical type warriors than whenpared to warriors from other countries. While others gave importance to things like types of equipment and stats, the Chinese trained to convert their bodies into full-fledged weapons. Still, how was Yu Zhung able to use his ability so indiscriminately? The answer was simple. He knew of a way to extract mana from his surroundings and turn them into his own. He himself had told this to Arnold. That''s how he could use the ability as many times as he liked in his lifetime without being afraid of the long-term effects of Mana Exhaustion. But the process of extracting mana was really slow and it didn''t look like the Minotaur was going to wait for Yu Zhung to recover. Seeing Yu Zhung in his pitiful condition, the minotaur did not hold back and wanted to finish swordsman as soon as he could. He was a moment away from caving Yu Zhung''s skull into the ground below, when a gigantic Warhammer hit him in the head, flinging him in the sky. "I''ll be your opponent now." Asterios huffed loudly before pulling his prized Warhammer over his shoulder. A momentter, Yu Zhung was pulled out of the battleground by Arnold''s automatons and Alice took care of his exhaustion by applying a series of buffs on him. By the time she was done, Yu Zhung felt even better than he had before his fight with the minotaur. Arnold thought that Asterios'' attack wouldn''t do much damage to the Minotaur. After all, the minotaur was already buffed thanks to Yu Zhung''s amplified mana, however, he was wrong. The Minotaur was badly bleeding from his head. But the wound soon got healed by itself. This prompted Arnold to use Probe skill on the minotaur because as far as he knew, Minotaurs did not possess such type of regeneration abilities. ___ CLASS: Minotaur (Evolved Being) NAME: Minotaur Enchanter LEVEL: 121 RANK: Cosmic C ROLE: Mage AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Call of Protection (Active skill) ? Call of Offense (Passive skill) ? Hardening (Passive skill) ? Low-tier regeneration (Active skill) HP: 17000/17000 STRENGTH (STR) : 100 DEFENSE (DEF) : 267 [+350 due to the ability ] STAMINA (STA) : 120 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 139 AGILITY (AGI) : 101 ACCURACY (ACC) : 88 EVADE (EVD) : 88 CHARISMA (CHA): 11 Damage Resistances: Fire Attacks (30% damage reduction), Shadow attacks (10% damage reduction), Piercing attacks (80% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, frozen, ranged attacks, mana based attacks. Weak Against: Blunt / Crushing attacks, Physical Attacks, Astral damage THREAT LEVEL: Negligible REMARK: Something appears to be wrong. The minotaurs are not supposed to have more than 2 special conditional immunities nor are they intelligent enough to wield any type of magic. Especially high tier magic like Call of Protection which uses the mana of his enemies to increase their own defence. It appears that your interference in causing a dungeon break has somehow evolved the minotaur into something else. It is rmended that you do proper research before doing something like this again, or else it might lead to some kind of irreversible damage to humanity. ___ "The hell? The Xenoic energy from the crystals ended up evolving the dungeon boss?" Chapter 365 - Asterios Vs. Minotaur Enchanter (2) ''Sh*t...'' Arnold mmed his fist on the terrace wall, ''Fcking premature nning! Of course, it would be one of the possibilities.'' "Master, even if the Minotaur ended up evolving, we can easily dispatch it." Talos tried to calm his master down, "Considering the way the fight is going on, I''m willing to bet that Asterios is enough to handle the monster on his own." But it wasn''t that Arnold was worried about the minotaur. it was as Talos said, they could easily get rid of the monster. He was just disappointed with himself. He could''ve potentially jeopardised everyone''s life for a foolish desire. He wanted to bring China under his control but now his ns had been spoiled and thankfully he came back to his senses. He longer intended to cause intentional dungeon breaks in the remaining territories anymore. Especially, after he learned the truth about dungeon breaks. Having Yu Zhung and Kang You on his side was enough for him. And if he let it slip that these two territories belonged to him, it should be enough for the rest of the emperors to not interfere in his territories. However, if they still decided to interfere in his business, Arnold wouldn''t hold himself back from raining on their parade with his army. But for now, it was enough. No more dungeon breaks, because the way Arnold saw it, they were lucky that only Minotaurs spawned from the dungeon and not some S ranked monster. If the dungeon was to spawn high-level monsters then there was a chance that he would end up evolving them far beyond their limits. And then no matter what his intentions were, Arnold wouldn''t have been able to save innocents on his quest for unnecessary power and authority. ''What the hell was I even thinking before causing all this...'' Arnold sighed heavily before shifting his gaze towards Asterios and his ongoing battle, "Talos, be prepared to kill that nuisance of a minotaur, in case Asterios fails." "..." "What?" "You did not say the word, Master." Talos corrected Arnold, "As per your previousmand, we won''t lift a finger against someone till you say that word." "Oh right... I meant, be prepared to... ahem... gosh, why it is so weird to say? What was I even thinking back then?" "You chose the word precisely for this purpose, Master." Talos nodded while Natasha sniggered from behind. After all, it was her idea to use that word in such a manner, "Yout wanted a word that was embarrassing to say out loud and that''s why Natasha suggested an appropriate word for it. In a way, she did what you wanted her to." "Ohe on! Is it toote to change it?" Arnold pleaded to his summons but well, they weren''t going to listen to him. The word was already selected and there was no changing that now. However, Arnold was unaware that his summons were just messing up with him to lighten up the mood. "I''m afraid it''s way toote, master." Natasha smiled slyly while the summons waited for Arnold to say those glorious words. "Fine! Fine!" Arnold gave up and prepared himself to say those degenerate words. Thankfully, it was a temporary arrangement and after System-sama sorted everything out, he''ll make sure to make his summons pay for what they were doing to him. Especially Natasha. But then again, she might end up enjoying it. But before that, he remembered something. The code word was to be used only when he was ordering his summons to kill a human, not a monster. "You fcking pieces of walking crap!" Arnold gave a sinister smile to his summons while bursting his knuckles, "You dare to mess with me?" "M-Master... remember what you told us? No k-killing!" Natasha spread her wings and flew up in the air leaving the others to suffer through their Master''s anger. "Yeah. No killing. But I don''t think Undead and Automatons counts as living beings, do they?" RAWR! Before Arnold could teach a lesson to his summons, he heard the minotaur enchanter''s painful cry. He turned around to see that Asterios was smiling from ear to ear, while the minotaur whined in intolerable pain. Upon closer inspection, Arnold found out the reason for the minotaur''sment of pain and couldn''t help but smile himself. Asterios had snapped the Enchanter''s sturdy and beautiful horns in half with the help of his hammer. At first, it might not seem much, but a minotaur''s horns were their most prized possession. Not only were the horn a symbol of pride, but they were also the symbol of their strength and machoness. Something that helped them to find a suitable and desirable mate. But they weren''t important only because of a bunch of silly reasons. Their horns were stronger and sturdier than inparison to other monsters. Thus, They were often used as weapons by them. Which meant it was a particrly difficult task to break them. However, it was also a well known fact that, if someone managed to break a minotaur''s horn, not only will it lose the will to fight but will also suffer an unbearable amount of pain. It was because that the horns also acted as the firstyer of protection to their brain as well as the neuralwork. Without the horns, their brain is exposed to the atmosphere which could inevitably lead to their demise. It was also the method that Arnold used to kill Asterios when he first fought with him all those years ago. This was the reason behind Asterios'' and Arnold''s smiles. ___ Your summon has killed an Evolved being. EXP: +50,000 ___ Chapter 366 - A Godly Arrival (1) By the time Arnold and Yu Zhung returned to the makeshiftmand centre in Wuhan after killing all of the Minotaurs, they had a pleasant surprise waiting for them. Thanks to Xiaofan and Kang You, the tales of Arnold''s strength had spread all over China like wildfire. Apparently, the Emperors whose territories shared their boundary with Wuhan had been keeping a close eye on the situation in Wuhan. Since Yu Zhung was also participating in the same event, it also attracted the attention of the other emperor''s as well. They were afraid that in the event that, Yu Zhung and Kang You were to fail in subjugating the minotaurs, they would be ced in danger and hence would have to get involved in order to get rid of the minotaurs. If all of them united, it would''ve been possible for them to get rid of the minotaur, without incurring heavy losses. But none of them could help Kang You out unless he requested for their help. That was the rule and knowing Kang You, the emperors knew he would rather die than ask for their assistance. Thus they could not help him, even if they wanted to. The only thing they could do, however, was to start preparing for the potential minotaur invasion of theirnds. They were certain that Kang You and Yu Zhung would fail the task. Subduing over a thousand minotaur with only a couple thousand warriors was suicidal, to say the least. They were expecting to hear the news of their failure and demise. But they couldn''t believe what happened next. Especially because they had no idea that Yu Zhung was not trying to help Kang You alone. Arnold''s unknown presence on the battlefield changed the entire narrative. The task that would''ve taken a few months toplete, even if all of the emperors came together to assist Kang You, waspleted in mere hours. However, since the other emperors were unaware of Arnold and his summons, they didn''t know what happened exactly and thought Yu Zhung and Kang You were the ones who managed to take out the entire minonian army by themselves. They weren''t alone in thinking this either. Even the media and the government were thinking the same. It wasn''t muchter when the calls from media houses, government officials and other Emperors started flowing in that everyone got to know the truth. Even though the story where Kang You managed to defeat the minotaurs would inevitably lead to the glorification of him and his people, Kang You wanted no false glory under his name. Thus, when he was asked about the battle, he was brutally honest with the answers and told them about the person who was actually responsible for getting rid of the minotaurs, without his help. "It wasn''t me or Master Zhung who got rid of the rampaging minotaurs. There was no way in hell, we would''ve been able to do something like that by ourselves. Even thinking about it makes meugh." Kang You informed one of the reporters over video conference, "But it was a saviour, a messiah who helped us when all hope was lost." "Who is this great man you''re speaking about, master You? The nation is eager to know the person who saved millions of people as if it was not even a big issue for him? At least that''s what I can infer from the way you''re talking about this so-called messiah." The young female reporter urged the man to divulge the name of the warrior whom even the prideful Emperor, Kang You, had grown to respect and idealise, "He must be a man of greatness to have helped the citizens get out of such a cmity. That too without suffering any casualty as you said." "Huhuhu, I''m positive most of us already know his name. After all, he is a globally distinguished personality. Someone who is well known for his feats in America- Oh, there he is!" Kang You smiled before pointing his arms towards Arnold andpany who were returning after killing the Minotaur enchanter, "Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you, Wuhan''s messiah, Lord Deathless!" There wasplete silence as the camera panned out to show a manly figure walking towards them, along with Yu Zhung. Behind them was a ginormous dust cloud. Even though the crowd watching television could only see their silhouettes, Yu Zhung was immediately recognised by the crowd because... well he was the most famous personality in China. It took a while for the camera to focus on them but when it did everyone was shocked. The people watching the news at home began praying on impulse while the reporter was speechless. They saw the reason behind the dust clouds. Thousands of monsters were walking closely behind the two men. The crowd was unaware of Arnold''s summoning abilities and after seeing the horde of monsters walking behind him, everyone immediately assumed the worst. Especially since Asterios was a minotaur and immediately attracted unnecessary attention. The crowd thought the news was false and the minotaurs were not subjugated. Kang You on the other hand was confused with the reporter''s reaction. While the others saw monsters, he saw beings who saved everyone. Even the small crowd of civilians that had gathered there was cheering loudly for Arnold''s safe return, which further added to the confusion. "I know they look intimidating. When I saw them, I was scared to death myself." Xiaofan, unlike Kang You, was quick to assess the situation and went in to rify everything before things could get out of hand, "It would sound unbelievable when I say this, but they aren''t mindless monsters like those minotaurs who invaded us. Rather, they are Lord Deathless'' loyal summons who won''t even lift their fingers against someone unless the Lord wishes for it." "That does sound... unbelievable." the reporter finally gathered herself and mumbled a response as Arnold''s army came to a halt before disappearing into nothingness, proving that the monsters were in fact his summons and nothing else, "What a godly arrival." Chapter 367 - A Godly Arrival (2) After he was done answering the questions of the media, Arnold decided to sit down in a small meeting room along with Kang You. It wasn''y because Arnold wanted to talk to him, rather it was the other way around. During the virtual press conference, Kang You informed Arnold that he had something important to share. So they were now in a private ce to talk about something. The room wasn''t anything fancy and only had a sofa which was upied by Arnold, while his feet rested on the wooden table in front. Kang You preferred to keep standing so Arnold left him to do as he pleased. Maybe he was still cautious in Arnold''s presence. But Arnold wasn''t there to make Kang feelfortable around him. He just wanted to get it over with so that he could head back to West America. However, after listening to the shocking news that Kang You shared, Arnold ended up being surprised. "So you''re telling me that five other Emperors want to willingly give away their territories to me?" Arnold was a bit confused rather than being happy after the initial shock wore off. He wasn''t sure what could be the motive behind this wish of the emperors. Some would say Arnold was being overly cautious. But in his mind, people just didn''t do things like this without a decent motive. Especially, if that someone was a person who had control over a part of a country as their own territory. Would someone willingly give away such a power and authority to him, without a reason? Of course they won''t. Thus they had to have a motive behind their sudden docileness and Arnold wasn''t going to make a move until and unless he could figure out exactly what they wanted from him. "Yes, my lord." Kang You replied while keeping his head down, "Emperors of Shenyang, Kunming, Nanning, Xining and Beijing are willing to acknowledge you as their overlord. Essentially, the entire western half of China from Xining onwards will be under yourmand. That is, if you agree to do so." "borate on what do you mean by saying that they want to be under mymand." Arnold seemed to be disinterested in the conversation but in reality, he was busy thinking about the possibilities controlling half of what was supposedly one of the strongest countries on the eastern hemisphere, "I''m no good at decoding the sugarcoated words like you people tend to do, so it''ll be better if you be direct and tell me exactly what the emperors are seeking from me." Kang You didn''t hesitate and told Arnold exactly what the emperors intentions were aftering under hismand, "Primarily, they''re doing it because they don''t want to end up on your bad side and risk end up losing everything they had made for themselves over the years. Especially after everyone in China and maybe even the world got to know first hand what your true strength looks like. So its obvious that no one in their right state of mind would want to upset you in any way and the best way to do so, is to submit themselves before you." Kang You continued, "Also by doing this they are sending a message to the world that they support you with all their being. While they are also going to use this opportunity to send a clear message to their foes that they were now under your protection. So, if they continue to mess with the emperors having your support, the adversaries would end up messing with you as well and hence it would deter anyone who wants to harm them from doing so without much effort." "I see. So they want to kill two birds with one stone. I can''t me them for thinking that way. If I was in their shoes, I''d have done something simr or maybe try to im everything for myself." Arnold said before taking out his handguns and started cleaning them, like he usually did in his free time. Even though he knew he wasn''t going to be using them anytime soon, he wasn''t going to let his weapons gather dust, "It''s alright. They can join us. But first I''d like to know what will I obtain from doing so?" "I knew the lord wouldn''t make his choice without considering his benefits." Kang You smiled before handling a thick file of documents over to Arnold, "This is the list of ''benefits'' they are willing to give you in case you ept their plea to join you." Arnold kept the guns down before opening the file Kang You had provided to him, "This is... interesting." *** In the meantime, there was a storm brewing over West America and it was no meagre storm. But a hurricane enveloped inva, one that could shake up the entire continent. No one knew what happened apart from the fact that the world was now witnessing the biggest dungeon to have ever existed. A dungeon so enormous that it could be clearly seen from anywhere across the western boundary of North American continent. Even though the dungeon was formed in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. None of their technology could measure the absurd amount of Xenoic energy that was leaking from the dungeon in the form of a ck mist, that kept revolving around the dungeon. The immeasurable energy meant that the Syndicate had no idea concerning the difficulty of the dungeon. The only thing they knew was that they had no idea what they were up possibly up against. The closestparison they could make to this newly formed dungeon was with the information rted to the dungeon from which Tiamut came from. Butparing the two dungeons led to a disheartening revaltion. Even in the best scenario, Tiamut''s dungeon supposedly had only about 60% of the Xenoic energy this dungeon had. Entire country had turned gloomy, not because of the mist, but concerning the fact the Syndicate couldn''t even handle Tiamut on their own. How were they supposed to take care of something even worse than the multi-headed dragon? Their only hope was to hope that the dungeon was all bite and no bark. But deep down they knew they were doomed for good. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 368 - Enigmatic Island (1) It had been a couple of days since the mysterious dungeon opened up over the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The dungeon might''ve appeared on the international waters, but the gargantuan size of this dungeon threw every country of the world, no matter how big or small they were, in chaos. It no longer mattered whether the country was in a direct threat from the dungeon or not, everyone was worried. If the dungeon wasn''t subdued in time, all hell would break loose on the world and in that case, no one would be safe. Also, it was imprudent to think that the monstersing out of the dungeon would stop only after destroying and conquering the nations close to the dungeon''s proximity. Once the monsters spawned, there was no way in hell they would be satisfied after killing as few billion people either. Thankfully, the strongest of countries such as America, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, Mexico, Canada and many more were equally endangered by the immense threat that the dungeon posed. This forced these countries, which were powerful in terms of hunter''s strength and numbers, to temporarily set their differences aside and work together for the sake of the. It was essential for these countries to unify under one banner and fend off the monsters or else, the world as they knew would be doomed for good. If someone could stop the monsters froming through the dungeon, it was them. If they were to fail, nothing in this world would be able to stop those monsters. Representatives from 10 of these nations had gathered together on the neutral ground of Abu Dhabi to discuss and strategies on how to proceed on the matter. So far nine of these representatives had gathered there and were waiting for the Chinese representative, Yu Zhung, to show up before they could officially start the meeting. "Just because he is a SS ranked warrior, doesn''t mean he gets to disrespect us like this." dimir Orlov, the famous S ranking mage from Russia, expressed his difort for being forced to wait unnecessarily for a ''brat'' as he called him, "You got to hate that man''s guts." "Calm down, Orlov." Seomun Jee, the S ranked South Korean assassin princess, spoke first, "It''s not like you''re the most punctual guy yourself." "I agree with,dy Jee." Eto Hiroshi, the Japanese S ranked swordsman was quick to join the parade. Well, it wasn''t a secret that he had a crush on Seomun ever since she managed to defeat him in a duel, and his behaviour didn''t give anyone a chance to think otherwise. "Of course you do. It would be a surprise to none of us even if she said there is no sky and you immediately agree with her." Carlos Vilta, the Mexican representative mocked Eto in a friendly manner. While a couple of themughed to their heat''s content, the others could only afford to smile wanly. If this had been the case before the dungeon appeared, they wouldn''t need to hold back fromughing their heads off, but the situation was grim right now. None of them wanted to admit it, but deep down they knew this could very well be thest time they had gathered in a room. As even in the miraculous event, they did manage to get rid of the dungeon, not all of them would be able to make it back alive. "I can''t remember thest time we met like this." Someone whispered in Morrino''s ears. Morrino turned around to see Lady Eva Dullo. She was representing Australia in this meeting and was currently sitting next to him. She was a decade younger than Morrino, still, they had a beautiful bond of friendship between them. At one point there had been something more than friendship amongst them, but they soon realised it wasn''t meant to be. Surprisingly yet, none of them got married to anyone else even after 12 years. "Not since the first dungeons started popping up like wild mushrooms," Morrino replied with his usual smile. "I heard Deathless has left America for good?" Eva asked Morrino. However, he had already anticipated being asked about Arnold so he had prepared a response beforehand. "I see you''re still a gossip queen," Morrino replied, while still keeping the smile on his face, "and as for your question, I don''t know if he has. But even if he did, I don''t think he''s the kind of man to not help his friends and family in time of such need. I think this will also be sufficient to answer your next question as well?" "You always had a knack for reading between the lines." Eva smiled before changing the topic, "You know if we fail to do something about the dungeon, this would be thest time we''ll be seeing each other, right?" "I know. But I also have faith in the man who is about to walk through the doors right about now." Morrino smiled as the door was thrown open and in came two people wearing ck clothes from head to toe. The moment they walked in, everyone''s attention was on them. Both the man and the woman were the only ones who looked truly rxed in the room. And there was a reason for that, after all, both of them were SS ranked warriors who were undefeatable in their own way. Just like everyone else, Morrino had also been eagerly waiting for the representative of China to show up. Especially because of the recent adventures there had been in China. Everyone knew that Arnold had been crowned as the overlord of seven out of the eleven Chinese emperors and had about 65% of China under his authority mere 24 hours ago. Thus, even though it was stated that Yu Zhung would be representing China. Morrino knew he could expect a familiar face to show up. "I apologise for the dy," Arnold smiled as he lifted his mask, "I got stuck up clearing a dungeon on my way here. Thankfully, my sister was there to help me out. Enough chit-chat for now. Let''s get started with the meeting." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 369 - Enigmatic Island (2) "It''s Deathless!" Orlov jumped up from his seat in shock. All of them had heard about the man. In fact, he was quite a celebrity now after his so-called coronation in China. "Don''t mind me." Arnold smiled, "There are bigger things that could use some of your reaction, Mr Orlov." "You know... my name?" Orlov couldn''t make up his mind whether it was a good thing or bad that the world''s strongest warrior knew him by his name. "It would be rude of me to not know my allies, wouldn''t it?" Arnold sat on the other side of Morrino after greeting him while Nicole took a seat behind him, "Or you can say, I did my research on all of you beforeing here." "I would expect nothing less from someone of your calibre," Seomun said in a professional tone. They weren''t aware of it, but by research, Arnold meant that the moment he walked in, he had already used the Probe skill on everyone he didn''t know. No matter how big someone''s intelligencework was, Arnold''s skill was superior to them all. After all, all it took was a simple gaze from him and he could get any information about anyone he wanted to. The room went silent as soon as Arnold took his mask off and sat in his designated ce. All of them had expected Yu Zhung to show up, not Arnold. Either way, the initial surprise wore off quickly because as Arnold said, there were bigger things they needed to be concerned about right now. Things like how were they going to fight something on the water surface. "I don''t think any of the countries taking part in this meeting has any experience on fighting aloft water?" Seomun was the first to take the discussion in a meaningful direction. Everyone shook their heads to the question. It was the first time a dungeon had popped up in the middle of an ocean. Before this urrence, it was an unspoken naturalw that the dungeons would only spawn onnd. The only exception to thisw was the appearance of a few dungeons deep underground. But even then, the dungeons were approachable. "Hm... so not only do we have to face a formidable foe. We''ll have to do so on a terrain none of us had ever fought on-" "I wouldn''t be so sure about that, Ms Eva." Arnold politely expressed his thoughts. "You mean you have fought against monsters in the middle of an ocean?" Eto Hiroshi replied sarcastically, "I know you''re greatest among us all, but isn''t this taking it too far?" "Let the man speak first, brother Hiroshi." Seomun reprimanded the Japanese warrior before requesting Arnold to continue. Despite what everyone else thought, Arnold wasn''t upset by Eto''s remarks. Not in the least. People had a right to express their thoughts. Just like he had the right to ignore them... and their existence. "What I wanted to say was, that just because dungeons don''t spawn above water, doesn''t mean that we don''t have capable warriors who have experience in fighting monsters underwater," Arnold replied as a couple of them nodded their heads. They understood what Arnold was trying to imply. But Arnold continued on for the few who didn''t, "I''m sure most of you would have heard of situations where the warriors who went into a transdimensional portal and had to fight both above and below water bodies. If we can get those warriors to train the others, I''m fairly sure we would stand a better chance at fighting back." "Oh right! I do know a few warriors who had to go through the same." Carlos eximed in joy. He was finally able to contribute something to the cause, "But I''m afraid they have retired..." "I don''t see an issue with it." Morrino said out loud, "After all, we are not asking them to fight with us. We just want them to train us so that we can at least stand a chance against the monsters." "But is there enough time for us to train people?" Hiroshi remarked once again, "For all we know, the dungeon could break open any moment. Just like what has been happening in China recently." The room was filled with sounds of murmuring. If a sudden breakout happened in this dungeon like the ones in China, then they were doomed. But Arnold only smiled. He knew that the dungeon wouldn''t break on its own this time. But there was no way he could assure the others of that. Not without revealing the fact that he was the one who caused those breakouts. So he did the next best thing he could instead. "If that were to happen, then..." Arnold mumbled before freezing the ss of water in front of him, "I guess we''ll just trap them and deal with themter. We''ll just need to gather all Ice elementalists to help us." "Do you genuinely think that''ll work?" Hiroshi rolled his eyes and this time, most of the people were on his side. Arnold''s idea seemed pretty absurd this time. Arnold couldn''t help butugh at everyone''s reaction to his n. Obviously, he knew they wouldn''t be able to stop a horde of unknown monsters just by freezing them and it was impractical to think otherwise. But in his mind stopping the monsters by freezing them was the secondary, no, it was the tertiary purpose of his n. "Well, even if it doesn''t, it''ll still do two things. One it will at the very least slow them down, which would be enough for us to n our next move. And second, it will give the warriors the ''terrain'' to stand and fight on. I apologise for not making it clear beforehand." Arnold continued, "Also since the warriors wouldn''t have to worry about protecting civilians and property, they can freely unleash their powers to subdue the monsters for good. So the way I see it, the dungeon popping up in the middle of the ocean is the best thing about it as well." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 370 - Enigmatic Island (3) While the representatives were busy debating about their next move, Arnold had not forgotten about the problem in East America. After all, that was the reason why Nicole decided to meet up with Arnold before the meeting started. Before the dungeon appeared, America was already preparing to fight a war on the Eastern front. But now they were forced to defend the nation from two sides. The first was the dungeon and the second was the issue in the eastern wastnds. Due to their neglect, three zones have gone radio silent for quite a while now they were in danger of losing the fourth zone as well. Thus fearing the worst, the syndicate had started to prepare to defend Zone 4. But it seemed like destiny had nned for something else, hence they were thrown a curveball with the spawning a dungeon on top of their troubles. Although the American syndicate had enough warriors to wage a war on two fronts, it was only possible in theory. The logistics regarding the uing battles were a bit... troublesome. They would not have enough resources to drag either of the battles for long. Thus fighting on one front at a time was the best option for them. And objectively speaking, it was the best bet to put their efforts into stopping the dungeon first. There were three reasons for their choice. Firstly, there was the international pressure on every country to help in such dire times. America was one of the countries that could not ignore this call either as they too were at the risk of losing everything they had left. However, it was made clear that if they chose to ignore East America, it was highly probable that they''ll end up losing the abandoned part of the country. Nevertheless, if they were to ignore the dungeon, then they would surely lose the entire country to a bunch of monsters. Secondly, was that the issue regarding East America was considered to be a domestic issue, in other words, the other nations did not give a crap about it. Hence in case, the syndicate was to state that as the reason for their non-participation, the world would only think of their problems as excuses. Which would then add further to their troubles and would impact their international image or whatever was left of it. This also led to the third and final reason for participating in the raid. Every since the country was divided in half, thanks to the plethora of dungeon outbreaks, their international image and reputation had taken a drastic hit. America was no longer as influential as it had been in the past. It was still a strong nation, without a doubt, but everyone knew they weren''t even close to what they used to be. So this was an opportunity for them to reim their lost honour and mend broken ties with formally allied nations. Thus it was decided that fighting on two different fronts was a stupid decision. They were going to focus all of their efforts on teaming up with the other nations to clear the dungeon while they left East America to fend for itself. Overall, it was a good deal for them even if it meant that they had to sacrifice half of their nation for it. That was when Arnold finally came in contact with them. He got to know about the situation from Nina and Nicole and decided to lend his friends a hand. Technically it wasn''t a helping hand as he was only trying to protect the zone he was entrusted with but well, no one cared about that. He was going to take care of the threat in east America on his own and would also participate in the dungeon run along with the other countries. Although Arnold''s words wereforting to hear, everyone wanted to know exactly how was he going to do all that by himself. They knew he was strong but... fighting on the opposite ends of a continent was impossible to even for someone of his calibre. But Arnold wasn''t nning on fighting in both the ces by himself, in the first ce. He was going to let his summons and his new ally, Yu Zhung, solve the problem in East America, while he along with the rest of the countries, would focus on the dungeon situation. In fact, he had already sent everyone he could to his base back in Zone 4 through his travel portal, beforeing to join the meeting. It was also the reason Arnold was the one Attending the meeting and not Yu Zhung as they had nned earlier. But he couldn''t reveal that to everyone else simply because he didn''t trust them. So he came up with a lie that they were caught up clearing a dungeon. Natasha also used her powers on the concerned authorities to make sure what Arnold told the others was true. Talos, Asterios, Ogur, Yu Zhung along with Yan had already stationed themselves in the Alpha base and were already analysing everything they could with the help of Amanda. However, they weren''t the only ones there. About a thousand undead soldiers and minotaurs were also there to aid them in any way possible. Nicole thought Arnold was going overboard with the preparations, but ording to him, he wasn''t. The reason was pretty simple, everything was set into motion the moment he left America, which could mean only one thing. It was the work of someone who had been waiting for such an opportunity to arise. This was something no one in the Syndicate had given a thought to. Indeed it all started the moment Arnold had left America. But Arnold had yet another bomb to drop on Nicole. Both of them were aware that the Pdins were trying to eliminate as many vassals as they could to take their spot. Furthermore, in order to do so, the Pdins were given some sort of locator that showed them the location of each of the five Vassals. So it could be fairly possible that a Pdin was behind the attacks on the zones as a way to maybe reduce his military strength. Arnold wasn''t too sure about the reasons but he was more or less sure that someone having powers like them was behind these attacks. Nicole was the only one Arnold shared this information with, mainly because it also concerned her as she too was a vassal like him. Little did Nicole knew, her brother''s guess was right on spot as usual. A General was returning to reim what once belonged to him and there was nothing he wouldn''t do to make a certain someone repent for his ''wrongdoings''. Arnold had once humiliated this man unlike anyone ever had. He had then sworn to take his revenge on him and now it was finally time to enact his ns and destroy everything that floozy Section Chief Arnold had taken from him. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 371 - Enigmatic Island (4) In the meantime, at an unknown ce in East America... Winds gently yed around with sand, slowly urging it to leave its love for the earth ande fly in the sky instead. The sand eventually defied, but soon yed along with the request and joined the wind to soar through the skies. Sun gleamed over as the wind got stronger and stronger, lift up more and more sand to form an entourage. The following moment, the blue sky turned threateningly greyish-yellow as the sun rays found it harder and harder to prate through the thick foliage of sand. Soon the innocent dance of the wind and sand turned into a threateninglyrge sandstorm, threatening to devour everything in sight. It was the desert''s way to stop a demon from ruining the order of the wastnds. Yet the lone man dared to walk through the storm, one even the sun couldn''t shut down. It seemed the desert wanted to uproot itself to prevent a man from going any further. But nothing it did could stop the man from moving forward towards his destination. The Storm didn''t give up either and tried its hardest to stop the man from causing any more bloodshed than he already had, but as usual, nothing worked. It seemed as if the mightier the sandstorm got, the stronger the man''s resolve became to defy its authority. No matter how many pebbles, rocks, or even ginormous boulders got thrown in his way, the man simply didn''t quit. He was bleeding. But weirdly enough his wounds healed as soon as they were inflicted upon him. The man would never stop again. Not when he was moments away from quenching his thirst. He had been thirsty for years now, but it wasn''t a thirst that could be quenched with water or any other liquid for that matter. It was a thirst of vengeance that would only quench when once he got rid of the person he hated with all his being. Soon after, the desert stopped revolting against the man who could even make death halt in front of him. As the storm quietened down, it revealed who the man in question was. It was the former Brigadier General of Alpha base. He was no longer a man who would allow others to treat him as they saw fit. Let alone a non-sentient thing. He had survived for years in the harsh wastnd all on his own and the only thing that kept him going was the sweet satisfaction of taking revenge. He had a long piece of fabric tightly wrapped around his head while his eyes were being protected by a special pair of sunsses which was a gift from the goddess he served. His upper body was protected by a thin and tattered robe. He wasn''t wearing anything underneath the robe. As he came out of the storm, his buffed torso was revealed. His body waspletely engulfed in dust from the head to the toe as his blood mixed with sand, slowly closing the wound he received from walking through the storm. His trouser had worn out but they still did what they were meant to do and protect him from nature''s anger. In his hands were two axes. Each of them was smeared in blood. At first nce, it would''ve seemed that the axes were good for nothing as it would''ve been the case for ordinary des, but not for a weapon blessed by the Goddess of Death herself. In fact more blood he spilt with his weapon, the stronger he and his army became. Moments after the sandstorm died down, the General''s army revealed itself. An army so intimidating, it could strike fear even in the hearts of the great emperors of the past. An army made up of monsters and humans of every shape, form and size. The ground trembled as an army of more than 10,000 soldiers moved around as a single being. Despite being dead, every step of theirs was in perfect harmony with each other. The sound of their collective steps overpowered all the other sounds of the desert. The entire army had been unified as one. They shared one collective mind rather than using their own. A mind that had a single goal within itself: To defeat the enemy and honouring their master. But it wasn''t like this, since the beginning. The Brigadier General had to train the ones he killed to ensure that everyone was inplete sync. It was a pain to do so, but the Brigadier General wanted absolute order from his soldiers. For years he was forced to roam around the wastnds. Doing nothing except survive. Killing monster after monster, human after human. While with every kill, a new recruit joined his army. But he didn''t stop there. He wanted more... He wanted a bigger army, a better army, an army not even that basta*d Arnold could defeat. Slowly and with insurmountable patience, he had finally achieved what he wanted. But before facing Arnold he wanted to test his strength out. However, he did not want to get Arnold''s attention just yet, it would be like inviting death over for dinner. Hence he waited for him to leave the country before he made his move. As if it was destined, Arnold soon left the country. The voice that his goddess had left behind with him, was the one to inform him of the fact. And the voice never told any lies. Thus following the voice''s advice his n went into action. One by one he took over three zones. Things were going in his favour. But the syndicate soon realised that something was wrong and began sending more and more people to investigate the same. But he made sure that none of them returned. After all that he was finally ready to take on his next target: Zone 4. He wanted to make sure that the ones who kicked him out paid the price for doing so and repent even after their death. "Tick-Tock, Mr Ling... tick-tock..." Heughed like a maniac as he kept walking. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 372 - Enigmatic Island (5) A couple of dayster, at the Alpha base... "There''s not much to do here," Yu Zhung yawned, "Master said there would be a lot of monsters here to keep me preupied. But I haven''t seen any strong monsters around here. The only monsters I''ve seen so far are goblins who keep dancing around the base and they aren''t even hobgoblins... just simple goblins. *Sigh*, I don''t know why do I even have to be here? Talos and others are already here to protect the base. Also, Ogur is way stronger than I am! If only I could''ve stayed back home with my lovely fiancee..." "In case you didn''t know. We organise weekly hunts to track and kill the monsters and destroy their nests before they get a chance to spread around or grow big. Plus, if we don''t do this, they coulde back to bite our a*ses and cause us even more trouble than we already have to deal with," Amanda couldn''t take it any more and blurted out as she rolled her eyes, "It might seem that the people here, enjoy living surrounded by the monsters. But in reality, it''s a nightmare. There have been days where none of us were able to get more than an hours worth of sleep because the monsters kept trying to break through our defences and enter the base. Moreover, even if we somehow manage to get our hands on some rare resources to upgrade our weapons and stuff. Most of the times the Syndicate takes it away even before-" "Okay, Okay tigress. I got it. Calm down... Sheesh." Yu Zhung did not expect her to blow up at him, but he knew he shouldn''t have raised such a sensitive issue. Especially when Arnold had already told him not to, "I won''t ask about it again." Amanda''s reaction was more or less to be expected. After all, ever since Arnold and his summons left the zone, she had her hands full. Not only did she along with her team work their butts off to maintain the safe environment around the base, but she also had to maintain the other two bases of Zone 4 as well. Which was not an easy task to do, even though her master had left a few automatons to aid her in doing so. However, it was a pain to maintain the robots as they were quite fragile. Thus she treated those as precious resources and with the decrement in resources provided to them by the syndicate, she didn''t want the automatons to get destroyed unnecessarily and add even more burden on her. That''s why all of the Automatons were strictly kept on guard duty within the base and were only allowed to step outside in case of emergency. Such as when the base was under attack by a massive horde. But thanks to the hunts they organised regrly, there weren''t many monsters around. This was the reason why Yu Zhung''s remarks hurt her as she couldn''t just put everyone else in danger and risk getting the base destroyed, just because some royal brat wanted to hunt some monsters to pass his free time. No one could even imagine how relieved she was to see Arnold when he visit the base a couple of days ago. It wasn''t only because she was his ''pet'', thanks to his ability, but also because whenever Arnold came for a visit, he brought a copious amount of resources with him. And her master did not disappoint her this time either. With more than half of China at his disposal and considering the risk the Alpha base would''ve been in, Arnold did not take any chances this time and went all out. The defences all around the base were being upgraded. While the number of avable soldiers the base had to offer previously had quadrupled in an instant. And in case that wasn''t enough, Arnold also left quite a few of his elite summons to help her out. No matter how Amanda thought about the situation, it looked like overkill to her. Arnold on the other hand was worried he was doing too little to protect his Zone. The only problem she had was Yu Zhung. He seemingly had made a point toment about every little thing he didn''t like. Some of his usualints included things like: The food they served wasn''t good enough for him, How the weather was always so grim there, Why wasn''t he allowed to fire the turrets for fun in the middle of the night, and thetestint was regarding the absence of monsters in the zone. "I never thought someone of his calibre could be so annoying," Amanda mumbled while she and Talos were working hard to find any clues regarding the disappearances, "Why can''t he understand a simple thing? This ce is not a summer holiday resort, but an army base!" "As far as I can remember, master once said the same thing about you as well," Talos replied, without taking his eyes off of the screen, "Enough of that. Mr Zhung, I think it''ll be better if you go and spar against Asterios if you''re so bored. No one has chained you to be here. Also, then we would be able to focus on what we are doing here." "That... is a great idea, Talos!" Yu Zhung jumped off his chair and grabbed his sword, "Sparring against that minotaur always energizes me. I''ll see you at lunch!" Talos ignore whatever Yu Zhung said and kept doing what he could to resolve the mystery behind these disappearances. He might''ve been emotionless, but deep down he was worried. It had been two days since they started looking for clues, and yet they couldn''t find anything. They couldn''t recover anything even after using drones. The only thing they saw was endless wastnds. It felt like the bases in the first three zones never existed. Both Talos and Amanda wanted to go and investigate the zones themselves, however, Arnold strictly prohibited them from doing so. "If only the master was here..." Talos got a call from Arnold the moment he thought about him, "Yes, master?" "You guys found anything yet?" Arnold''s crackled voice reverberated in Talos'' head. "Not yet, master." "Then you guys might want to hurry because that dungeon... just opened up." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 373 - Delos (1) "How is it even possible?" Talos asked Arnold because he simply couldn''t believe it, "With the amount of Xenoic energy the portal had and the amount it was leaking, it should have been at least 10 days before the dungeon broke on its own." "I know. After all, we were the ones to estimate that. But it''s true T," Arnold shook his head before replying, "I better start preparing as well. It doesn''t seem like it is going to be an easy battle. It''s not necessary, but it''ll be good if you wrapped up things and get here as soon as you can. While the enemy hase prepared, we do not have the same luxury. We have to strike first and hard for us to have any hope at finishing the battle early and unscathed." "Master... you know more about the dungeon than you''re letting on, don''t you?" "In a way." "Got it, master. We''ll try to get there as soon as we''re done sorting things here." Even though the information Arnold had was reliable, he was having a hard time believing it. Howe a dungeon of that size break on its own without any outside interference? Moreover, the Xenoic energy in the area had spiked up beyond limits. If anything, the spike in the Xenoic energy after the dungeon disappeared only suggested one thing: Someone or something had interfered with the dungeon''s bnce. He was sure no one was crazy enough to do anything from their side. In case, even if someone wanted to stir sh*t, the Assembly of Nations had already been keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity around the dungeon ever since it grazed earth with its presence and they hadn''t found anything. Which meant, someone or something had interfered with the dungeon from the inside. The idea seemed absurd even for Arnold''s taste. But there was no point in denying that. The dungeon had opened and spawned... something. The newly made Assembly of nations was still trying to figure out the details as Arnold contacted Talos. Yet one fact was undisputed the dungeon had disappeared for sure as they had the satellite images to confirm that. Furthermore, in ce of the dungeon was a gigantic piece ofndmass. The dungeon had spawned an ind of some sort which immediately became a new source of their worries. Generally, it was the warriors who had to adventure into the unknown but for the first time since the dungeons started spawning all over the world, a dungeon had spawned an unexploredndmass. Most of them were panicking while some of them were relieved. They were panicking because well... the warriors would have to venture into an unknown ce. But her, they always did that! However, this time the enemy would most probably be expecting them to show up and hence might have already set up defences to counter the uninvited guests. The ones who were relieved were so because now the main problem of fighting over the water surface was resolved. They could just send the warriors in to deal with the issue and be done with it. And in the event of subjugation''s failure, they''ll be able to freely bombard the ce to their heart''s content without risking civilian lives. And it was something their hands kept itching to do. Thankfully, Arnold wasn''t as clueless as the others were regarding the matter. System-sama was keeping him updated with everything. Because everything that was going on was supposedly another ''trial'' for him to ovee. But to Arnold, it sounded more like a theatre performance for the gods. "Hmm..." Arnold mumbled before disconnecting the call, "So it''s really happening then?" "Not gonna lie, it''s a bit sooner than I expected." "You were estimating these things?" "Haha... you''re almost branding me as the bad guy here." "Ahem... jokes aside." Arnold cleared his throat, "I''m still not allowed to kill someone?" "Ain''t that a bit*h..." Arnold sighed before leaning over the railing of his hotel room''s balcony, "Do the other Vassals know about it too?" His room was on the top floor of the tallest building on the. Thus he had the perfect view of the clouds hovering below him, while Scy enjoyed her time flying over them without any restrictions. Arnold hadn''t allowed her outside for a long time, and she was getting feisty as a result. So he decided to let her move her wings for now, and Scy was happier than ever to be out again. "I think Nicole knows about it already. But I''m wondering what they are nning to do. Even if there is no need for us to fight within ourselves, it isn''t like we have a truce amongst ourselves either. I can''t say for sure whether they will be hostile towards us or not." "Right, you already told me this." Arnold smiled, "If Hercules really is here, then well... I think I have a n to use him and get rid of the other 3 vassals. Then, I''ll add him to my army as my elite summons." "Why''s that?" "Wait, what? Don''t gods have the ability to resurrect others?" "So you''re saying there''s a chance I can be a god?" Arnold''s ears perked up in anticipation of System-sama''s response. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 374 - Delos (2) "By the great Suijin1... What even is this thing?" Nakayama Toshiyuki, the regional reporter from Japan couldn''t help but mumble as the first images of the ''Ind'' started showing up on their screens. "Not an ordinary ind... that''s for sure." The cameraman and Nakayama''s lifelong friend, Hada Masashi replied before gulping his saliva down. They were horrified by what they were seeing. In front of them was the ind, that had supposedly spawned in ce of where the great dungeon once was. Well, people thought it was an ind, but in reality, it was a creature. A creature who had an ind on its back. Surprisingly, for some reason, the creature had ignored the bigger and closer continent of North America had started moving towards Japan. While this was good news for the Americans and Mexicans, it wasn''t a piece of good news for the major part of the Council. At this rate, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea would be the first ones to be in trouble. And they did not have a n in ce to fight back. Since it was an emergency situation, the first thing Japan did was to seal off the area around the creature. No one was allowed to enter the area where the creature had spawned. Not even reporters and most of the military officials. But Hada had his connections in the Japanese military as well as the Japanese warriors association. Hence after showering the right people with the right kind of gifts, he and Nakayama got the ''permission'' to enter the prohibited area for a short while. However, they were told to not record anything as it could get them as well as the Japanese officials in trouble. But they were reporters who did not like following the rulesid for them. Why would they bother sending them gifts if they weren''t even allowed to broadcast what they found in the region? However, their news channel wasn''t involved in this. They had explicitly told the duo not to do something foolish, which they obviously didn''t listen to. But with the news channel withdrawing their support, the duo had no choice but to use what they had at their disposal. As a result, they weren''t broadcasting the news on their affiliated channel but on their respective social media. Thankfully, they had quite a fan following as well, and as a result, over thirty thousand people were online watching the live feed as the two brave yet unwise souls ventured into the unknown. However, what they saw wasn''t something they had expected to see. They thought they''ll find the ind and explore it without going too deep inside. Even they had enough sense to not venture into the unknown for long without protection and proper gears. They still somewhat valued their life. But the moment the Ind came in view, their ns changed immediately. Or in other words, their n was no longer feasible. In ce of a stationary ind like they had been told in the reports provided to them by the officials, they found a massive creature instead. At first nce, the creature looked like an oversized whale having an approximate area of 2100 square kilometres. Almost twice as big as Okinawa. Hada instantly pulled out a drone from his backpack the used it to get the top view of the ind on the back of the whale-like creature. The ind covered the entire back of the creature and was enveloped in a dense foliage of trees and sand. But the most distinct thing about the ind was the strange ck mountain in the middle of it. "Can you push the drone towards that ck mountain?" Nakayama requested Hada, who did what he was asked to. Because of the density of the forest above, the drone wasn''t able to get any information about the ind at all. The only thing they knew was that the creature was on a collision course towards Japan''s main ind. At that moment, they no longer cared about the profit they would gain from the video. But they genuinely wanted to help their nation be aware of what wasing after them. Hada didn''t give up and kept pushing the drone towards the ck mountain. Then they saw something... weird. A bare-chested man was standing on top of the mountain. He had lions'' hide draped around his back like a cape while he wore its head like some sort of protective helmet. His ragged, bushy and unkempt beard was visible through the lion mask. They could also see the man''s physique which had been pushed to the limits as veins had protruded out of every inch of his body. The man was wearing ancient roman attire including a warrior''s skirt and had a massive wooden blood-soaked club in his hand. While the two of them were gawking at the mysterious man, thousands of people were busymenting in thement section of their live stream. Some people immediately guessed what the man looked like Hercules. Just like he has been depicted before. Everyone was going berserk after seeing the man standing on top of the mountain like some sort of sovereign. However, as the drone got closer to the man, he saw the drone zoning in on him... and he winked at it. "Somethings wrong... the drone is going out of control!" Hada yelled as he fought for control over the drone, but in vain. No matter how hard Hada tried, but the drone kept gliding towards the man wearing his weird clothing. Hercules caught the drone and threw it behind his back without even bothering to look into the camera again. Then... the world saw what Hercules wanted to show them. A godly army of Olympians like no one had ever seen before. The viewers once again went crazy over it. But not with an eased mind. They were thrown into a panic like they were crazed. None of them had ever seen anything like that before. No matter how many times they had seen monsters or warriors before, nothing came close to what they were seeing now. Not even Arnold''s battle against the minotaurs or the mighty dragon. Moreover... these soldiers weren''t monsters and looked as human as they did. Was it even possible for a dungeon to spawn humans instead of monsters? The next moment, the camera panned out once again and Hercules came into view once again, "Think you can defeat us, O vassal of the Immortal One?" Saying so, he crushed the titanium drone with his bare hands. "We have to do something!" Nakayama eximed with terror in her eyes, "We have to leave before it''s toote!" "And how will we do that?" Hada just sat there like a mad man while pointing at something behind Nakayama. Nakayama didn''t have to turn around to see what was happening as the shadow of the whale shrouded them. The following moment, the feed was cut off. Leaving the viewers to guess the duos fate. *** Author''s note: Suijin is the Shinto god of water in Japanese mythology. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 375 - Delos (3) Arnold was busy training his butt off when doors to his room were thrown open and in came Nicole rushing towards him. She had brought her tablet with her as she had something important to show to Arnold. As Nicole approached him, Arnold stopped doing his pushups and got up to see his sister''s distraught face. He knew something had happened and it was probably rted to Hercules. "What did you do this time!?" Nicole yelled as she mmed the tablet into his chest. Arnold was a bit confused by her question as well as her reaction. But rather than asking about it, he went ahead and looked at what was on that tablet of hers. It showed a monologue of two people who went out to investigate the ''ind'', which had been given the code name Delos, only to end up being swallowed by it. ''Is she referring to their deaths? How is it my fault that they were dead?'' The death of the two people didn''t bother him much, if at all. The council had already given strict and clear instructions to every country and they were told not to do such a foolish thing. The two idiots didn''t listen and hence had to pay the price for doing so. It was just as the saying went: y stupid games, win stupid prizes. "Why are you showing this to me?" Arnold said, scratching the back of his head, "It''s not my fault that these two idiots did what they were told not to-" "Watch the end of the video first!" Arnold sighed, continued ying the video, and then saw what Nicole had been trying to show him. A camera feed showing Hercules standing in front of his army. The following moment, the demigod was seen issuing a direct challenge to him, the Vassal of the Immortal one. Now Nicole''s question made some sense to him. "Just why is a Demigoding here after you? What did you even do for him to hate you so much that he brought an army just to get rid of you!?" Nicole said as she slowly began to calm down on her own. She realised yelling at her brother won''t solve anything, but the thought evaporated from her mind as soon as she heard Arnold''s reply. "Um... nothing much. I just happen to be the one to kill one of his friends... I guess?" Arnold replied with a goofy expression on his face. "You what!?" "Yeah. Remember that three-headed dragon I killed back in LA? Apparently, she was an ally of his and since I''m the one who killed her, I kind of painted a target on my back. So... you can say that in a way, all of the demigods want to kill me. That''s all. It''s nothing major." "It''s nothing major? Are you out of your fcking mind?" Nicole lost it again. But this time she wasn''t going to calm down by herself, "A whole bunch of demigods are after you and only now you''re telling me about it?" "It''s all under control. I know it seems weird but you don''t have to be worried about a thing. As far as I''m aware, it will be a bit challenging, but I''m sure I''ll be able to take care of Hercules as long as his army doesn''t intervene..." "Doesn''t intervene? Do you seriously expect them to cheer you on while you kick their leader''s butt? And how would you even manage to do that? This is Hercules we are talking about! A man who is told to have strength even greater than quite a few gods!" Nicole shook her head, "Please tell me that you have a n at least..." "He indeed has a lot of strength and I''m most likely to be inferior to him if we were to fight on his terms. But he doesn''t have one thing that I do." "And what is that?" "A brain filled with a dozen ideas to defeat him." "..." Nicole didn''t know whether she was supposed tough at his joke or cry because their was doomed, "You just had to use that cheeky line, didn''t you?" "I''m serious. You can either have the brawns or the brains. But not both. Furthermore, we have our secret weapons as well." "What you''re gonna say next? Family?" "No, for god''s sake." Arnold couldn''t help but remember an old movie, in which anything was possible for a certain bald guy racing in his 1970 Dodge charger. That is, as long as he had a family full of friends backing him up. Even flying a car in space was quite easy for him and his homies. And Arnold was fairly sure that even going up against Hercules was something that man could''ve easily aplished. After all, he had his family to help him out... But it wasn''t the time to fantasizing about some weird random sh*t. They were in real danger and no movie star was going to save their butts. Arnold had to do it by himself. If only he could still kill someone without facing any consequences, he would have already flown across the sea on Scy''s back and destroy the Ind creature along with Hercules and his army with a single bullet using Dragon Bone Sniper rifle. But he couldn''t. Not unless he wanted to risk the safety of the entire world. With one hasty decision or mistake, he could lose control over himself as well as everything and everyone around him. Nicole could''ve stopped him from going on a rampage, however, since her abilities don''t work on him, it was better to not take the risk. There was also another reason why he hadn''t told Nicole about his new no-kill condition. He trusted his sister more than he trusted his blood allies. But he didn''t trust the one getting a free ride inside her mind. Because System-sama had told him to beware of ''Donna''. In System-sama''s words, Donna was nothing but trouble. Regardless of that, he was sure he could defeat Hercules. Even if he won''t be able to kill him. "So? What else do we have that can not only defeat Hercules but also take care of his monster of a pet?" Nicole asked her brother once again. "We have our guardians You have Donna and I have a helped of my own. If anything, Hercules should be the one to be scared of us." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 376 - Two Wars, One Victor (1) "It looks kinda big from here." Arnold said before crossing his arms in front of his chest, "The photographs didn''t do justice to the gargantuan size of Delos, to say the least." "Well, it''ll look way bigger as we approach that ce. Not to mention, the photographs were taken from various satellites so it''s obvious there would be some kind of discrepancy between what was captured and what is in front of us." Nicole replied while fixing her sunsses, "Not to mention, since the enemy has a higher ground to fight on, I''m afraid we will lose most of our troops even before we can make it to the ind." "Don''t be so pessimistic, Nicole." Johnny smiled seeing the brother and sister chatting like handling their enemies was no big deal for them. But then again, if anyone could stop the crisis in front of him, then it was the two of them, "I''m sure Arnold''s n would work. The main issue wouldmence the battle immediately after that." "Nicole is right, Johnny." Arnold sighed, "Although I have confidence in my n, I don''t think all fifty thousand of us would be able to make it to the ind. If we are lucky, maybe forty thousand of us would reach the ind in a fighting condition. The rest would most probably be at the mercy of the sea and that gigantic whale." It had been a week since the video of Hercules dering war upon Arnold went viral around the globe. The video following the deration of war sent shockwaves throughout the. There was a single question in the mouths of the people: Just who was this Vassal of the Immortal one? No matter the race,munity and religion. Everyone wanted to know who was the man that had brought such a monstrosity into their world. However, despite trying their best to find any information regarding it, no one had any idea about who or what was the monstrous Hercules was referring to in his short speech. Except for the pdins and the vassals. They were the ones eager to see a demigod fighting against the man who was described as the strongest Vassal among them. The people got panicked more and more as the ind creature got closer to the Rikuchu Coast of Japan. The entire ind had been evacuated in fear of annihtion. But nothing happened. Delos had unexpectedly stopped before Japanese inds were put in any danger. After the incident, it seemed as if Hercules was waiting for Arnold''s reply. Thankfully, the Council of Nations was mindful and utilised this time to mobilise its joint army of about fifty thousand warriors against what was estimated to be fifteen thousand soldiers on the ind. Most of the warriors that were a part of the defending force were either S or A ranked warriors. And they were being led by 3 SS ranked warriors: Arnold, Nicole and Johnny. There were only 3 of them because Yu Zhung was stationed in East America to take care of things there and Nichs had refused to participate in the raid as he had to ''take care of a nation''. "Just wait till I kick that basta*d''s a*s." Johnny huffed in rage. Nichs was supposed to be a trusted friend of his. Yet he tantly refused to participate in the battle which could very well determine the future of the entire and that idiot was only worried for his country, "That moron doesn''t even realise that if things go south here, there won''t be a country to take care of in the first ce." Arnold didn''t respond because he knew very well why Nichs wasn''t willing to help them. He simply closed his eyes and enjoyed the soft touch of the sea breeze on his face. Despite the peaceful demeanour that Nichs showed to everyone else, at the end of the day, he was a bully and an arrogant basta*d, just like Arnold. Nichs''s inted ego was the reason why that idiot of a mage wasn''ting to help them. Arnold was sure that rather than helping, Nichs would be hoping for his former disciple to die during the fight. Ever since Arnold''s visit to Rio, things had not been the same between them. If only his former teacher would realise his mistake and try to reconcile, Arnold just might have forgiven him. But without an apology, there was no way they could reconcile. Arnold''s train of thought was interrupted by a massive sea wave, as it sshed against the rocky terrain of Jodogahama Beach. The usually calm waves had been agitated due to the emergence of Delos, around the beach. The crystal clear water around Delos had turned murky. Arnold suspected that the weird-looking substance was the creature''s first line of defence. "Let''s forget about someone insignificant." Arnold mumbled before turning around, "Hercules is waiting for a reply to his deration. If he doesn''t receive a response. Despite how it seems, if he hadn''t been waiting, then he would have allowed an army to assemble. He could simply trample them down and get it over with." "So... You''re saying he won''t attack us until the so-called vassal responds to him?" Johnny asked, his voice was a bit tensed. Which was to be expected, "Then we should make sure that the vassal never responds to him!" "Lol, Hercules won''t do that." Arnold smiled, "If the Vassal of the Immortal one, doesn''t reply to his deration of war, he would most probably take out his frustration on the." "Sh*t. It''s a problem that we still haven''t found anything about the vassal though. Even with the secret services throughout the world are looking for them." Johnny shrugged his shoulders, "At this point, I''m not even sure if such a man exists at all." Both Arnold and Nicole broke downughing at Johnny''s words. Johnny was perplexed. Why were these two siblingsughing so hard? He was being serious. They had no clues regarding who the person in question was. "I... I think it''s time the world got to know about it." Arnold wiped the corner of his eyes before facing Johnny, "I am the Vassal of the Immortal one. That barbaric moron is here for me." "Eh?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 377 - Two Wars, One Victor (2) Meanwhile, in East America Talos and the others were still busy trying to figure out the entire mess. So far, they have had little to no sess. However, it wasn''t surprising. After all, an investigation from a remote location with no ess to the crime site was a pain in the butt for starters. But Arnold had given them explicit instructions not to leave the base under any circumstances. So it wasn''t like they had a choice in the matter. Even though they were using drones and other automated means, they could not find much. Talos even deviated a bit from Arnold''s orders and sent a couple of automatons to investigate as much as they could. But their fate was just like everyone else before. However, they did not disappear like everyone before because Talos was able to get a clip from one of those automatons through the cloudwork that the automatons shared. From the clip, Talos could determine that the unsuspecting automatons were attacked by some kind of a horde. But it all happened very quickly. As a result, the cameras weren''t able to catch a lot of things. Not to mention the call he received from Arnold who wanted to know about how the Automatons got destroyed. Talos was about to blurt the truth as he wasn''t proficient in lying. But Amanda saved the day and made up a story about new weapons being tested, which was true, and how the automatons got destroyed in the process. Thankfully, Arnold already had too much on his te, thus he did not bother about getting the details, but told them to tone it down a bit. By his tone, it was clear that he did not like the fact that his automatons were being used as test dummies. Following this, Talos and Amanda doubled their efforts. They were trying to do whatever they could to find out more about this mysterious horde. However, no matter what they did, wasn''t efficient at all. They were standing at a dead end. They couldn''t do much anymore. They gave it all but there was a limit to even what Talos could do. In the end, they decided to drop it all and focus on defending the zone instead. After all, their main priority was to defend the zone in the first ce, but Talos decided to investigate because in Arnold''s words: It''s better to know who your enemy is before exchanging blows with them. Another reason for investigating was because Talos wanted to end the fight as quickly as possible. thus knowing the enemy would help in that. Also, the investigation could disclose not only the identity of the potential culprit but also their location. Which would allow Talos to bring the fight to the enemies rather than waiting to be attacked. He wanted to finish the fight as soon as possible so that he could go and aid Arnold in his fight against Hercules. Talos was worried about Arnold as he was not allowed to kill anyone. While the same did not apply to Hercules. However, it did not seem to be possible for him to investigate any further. So, Talos was forced to dive headfirst and fight anything that showed up, with all his might. That was his only option at this point. While the other elite summons were busy training along with Yu Zhung, Talos decided to give the base a facelift in terms of its defensive strength. Now all he had to do was to test the new defences while they wait for the culprit to show up at their doorsteps. It was something that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks or maybe even months. But they didn''t have a choice in the matter. "It doesn''t matter how soon they show up. We''ll just have to take them down quickly before anything could get out of hand." Amanda mumbled as the two were going through newly installed defences, "Theck of information is a bit concerning, I''m not a fool who would lie about it. However, I believe in master. He had sent all of you here because he thinks you can handle this on your own." "You''re giving us too much credit. We might be strong, but there''s always a bigger fish in the sea." Talos replied, "But these methrowers do reassure me that those fishes would end up bing our dinner if they show up." Saying so, Talos nodded and the next second, an automaton open fired on the bunch of monsters that had shown up just in time to test their new type of turret. A jet of blue mes spewed out of the turret as if it was not a weapon, but a part of a fountain show. The horde of goblins stood no chance against the mes and was soon reduced to ashes as their cries of pain drowned among the cheers of the soldiers. Talos was impressed by the sessful demonstration of the turret. In addition to this turret, he had also made and installed a couple of other turrets across the boundary of their base. Firstly he had reinforced the preexisting turrets while upgrading them. They could now fire elemental bullets alongside the usual ones. He had also made a couple of automatic grenadeunching turrets to deal damage over a wide area. He had done so toplement the pin-pointed attack of the turrets mentioned earlier. While the turrets were capable of handling hordes of monsters, these grenadeunchers were more efficient in doing so. Just like the turrets from before, theseunchers could also be used to throw elemental grenades alongside the usual ones. As for the question of how Talos was going to get so much supply of this elemental ammunition. Arnold had gone all out to support them in any way he could. As a result, he had opened the armoury inside his domain and told Talos to take whatever he needed. And that''s exactly what he did, even though it might''ve been a bit unnecessary. "As master would''ve said," Talos smiled, "Now, we wait for those basta*ds to show up." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 378 - Two Wars, One Victor (3) "Looks like you won''t need to wait for long though..." Amanda mumbled as she got a notification from hermunicator. Their radar had detected multiple unidentified targets entering the zone. At the same moment, Yan grew restless. He could feel the power of death advancing towards them. He, who proimed to be thest lord of death, could feel a chill down his spine and the same was true for his army of undead. He rushed towards Talos as he too was someone acquainted with the power to rule death. But Talos raised his hand to stop Yan even before he could say anything. "I know Yan. I can feel it too... I''m familiar with the power of a necromancer." Talos mumbled, "Way too familiar in my opinion. Though it shouldn''t be possible. Master had killed thest necromancer and I got his ability." Talos got quiet all of a sudden. There was no mistaking it. It was the same powers he had obtained after killing Jake about a decade ago. Still, it wasn''t the time for him to think about the past. He had to give everyone their orders. "Everyone, in position! We gotpany. Amanda, in the meantime you should take the humans into the shelter. Especially the woman who was impregnated by the Ogre king. She and her offspring are quite important for us." It had been a couple of years, but the woman was still as bloated as ever. Arnold was concerned about her as well, but he always seemed to be upied with one thing or the other. Thus, was unable to do anything about her. "On it!" Amanda eximed as she jumped off the tform. Following her departure, Yu Zhung and the rest of Arnold''s summons showed up there. "I guess those a*sholes finally decided to grace ourselves with their presence?" Yu Zhung asked while excitedly holding on to the unique rapier among his six longswords. It was a weapon that had been made by Arnold to rece the sword which he had destroyed during their confrontation in Shanghai and Yu Zhung couldn''t be any happier. If he could get a weapon made by Arnold every time he broke one, he would personally snap the des in half. ___ ? [ENCHANTER SWORD]: A broadsword made up of the remains of the Enchanter Minotaur. As the remains of an irregr monster were used while creating this sword, it has a unique translucent appearance that can change ording to the mana embued into it before striking a target. Upon the creation of this sword, it was further enhanced by its creator. This sword is a true work of art having skills and abilities that could overwhelm even the strongest of enemies in the blink of an eye. Grade: Cosmic B Strength (STR) : + 115 Weapon Type: Rapier Weight : 1.2 kg Additional effect : [Lightweight] - Each sessful strike by this sword temporarily increases the user''s agility by 2 points (effective for 10 seconds). Continuously stabbing multiple targets three times gives a bonus of 4 agility points. This skill has a cooldown of 5 seconds. This ability can raise agility by a maximum of 100 points (for 10 seconds). Additional effect : [Chain Reaction- V0.2] - Actively striking the enemies 5 times in a row would permanently boost the agility and evasion of the user by 2 points. The skill will only increase evasion after the user has gained 100 agility points through this ability. After gaining 100 points of agility, the ability bes ineffective, unless its creator reforges the equipment. Additional effect : [Call of Protection] - While fighting enemies having the same or higher rank than that of the user, this ability would allow the user to steal a portion of mana from the target and store it inside the sword whichter on can be used freely by the one wielding the sword to convert the mana into defence points. For every 50 mana absorbed, the user gains 2 defence points (At maximum only 5000 can be stolen and stored in the sword). ___ Not only was the Rapier made by Arnold was light to wield, but Yu Zhung was also able to use it better than his original swords. It almost felt like that sword was an extension to his body and not just another run of the mill weapon. Moreover, it provided him with abilities that Yu Zhung could never even dream to have. Mostly because he wasn''t sure abilities like those existed in the first ce. This new weapon of his made him even stronger than most of the summons Arnold had. By most, he meant stronger than Alice, Bad-Breath and Yan... maybe. "It''s good that you are excited, Yu Zhung." Talos replied before ordering the automatons to mount the turrets and take aim, "You''ll get lots of chances to get pushed to your limits. Considering the number of enemies it''s showing in the radar." "How many are there?" Asterios asked Talos. Asterios had matured a bit following his evolution, but he still had his rowdy side inside him which surfaced whenever he was excited. "Let''s say that they outmatch us 3 to 1," Talos said as he transformed into the evolved Demonic Ogre, who was a monster ughtering turret in his own right, "I think it''s going to be an even fight. Ogur, you ready?" Talos yelled as the Frost Titan rose from his slumber, and picked up his weapon of choice: A methrowing turret. Talos had customised one of the turrets, especially for the giant. The upgrades drastically improved its range while also allowing Ogur to move freely as he was stationed outside the boundary of the base. But that wasn''t the only weapon he had. He had his old battleaxe and shield to use in closebat while stomping the enemies to their doom. As soon as the enemies started popping up in their view, Yan got to work. He had already set up all of his traps inside and outside the base. Only the elite summons along with Amanda and Yu Zhung were aware of it. It was also why Talos had requested Amanda to take everyone else into the shelter. As they could identally trigger those traps and hence would most probably end up being a burden once the battle started. But making traps wasn''t Yan''s only speciality. He was also a master of curses and debuffs. Moreover, most of his spells were AOE, hence were perfect to wreck an unsuspecting army of monsters. With Yan''s spells in effect, they hadpleted their preparations. Now all they had to do was to ughter the enemies. "Wait... a minute..." Amanda huffed and puffed as she rushed back to the scene, "Isn''t... that... the brigadier general?" Talos looked at her in confusion as the man leading the army came into vision. His face had distorted a bit, and he had grown more muscr than thest time he had seen that arrogant basta*d. But it indeed looked like him. Talos still wasn''t sure enough, so he told another automaton to confirm it with the help of their in-built bio scanner and low-n-behold, it was indeed the former Brigadier General of Zone 4, who was kicked out by Arnold. "Things just got a bit interesting. I should inform master about it." Talos mumbled. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 379 - Two Wars, One Victor (4) "This is a bit... unnerving. You guys better be careful out there. I should have killed that basta*d back then. At least I''d have one less problem to worry about. To add on to the problems, we don''t know what cards he has up his sleeves this time around. If his abilities are simr to that of Jake, I''m sure you can handle him quite easily." Arnold replied to Talos. He further continued, "If he has became a necromancer, that can mean only one thing. He has be a Pdin or a vassal. Though I doubt he would have be a vassal in such a short time. Not without someone''s help at the very least. But I can never be sure until I use the probe skill on him. System-sama won''t be able to ensure anything until and unless I''m within a kilometres range of him." Arnold was still on the beach in front of the mysterious Ind. The ce had been crowded not more than an hour ago, but now it waspletely deserted. Not a single soul was there, apart from Scy and Arnold, who had his gaze fixed on Delos. He was excited for the uing battle, but at the same time, he was worried as well. After all, he had a good reason to feel that way. This battle was going to be his biggest challenge ever. He was prepared physically to take him on, but he also needed to be mentally prepared for any crap Hercules could possibly throw at him. However he was interrupted as, during this time, Talos called him to give him a somewhat disturbing update regarding the situation in East America. "Right, master." Talos'' static voice echoed through themunicator, "I''m nning to engage him with an all-out barrage of artillery. I''m sure he would find a way to survive that. However, even if he manages to survive that, we will still achieve our primary goal of dwindling down the monsters his army by quite a bit." "Hm... you do that and keep me posted. Although I might not be able to receive the calls once I reach the ind. So it''ll be better if you contact any automaton apanying me-" Arnold stopped abruptly as an idea struck into his head, "Better than that, tell Yu Zhung to use his ability and contact me. With the psychic link between him and I, we wouldn''t need to worry about conversing between battles." "That is a great idea, Master." "Alright then, good luck to you and the others. I should probably get going as well." Arnold was about to disconnect the call when Talos interrupted him. "Master, I want to apologise for not being able to finish the battle sooner. Because of my ipetence, you have been forced to face Hercules with an iplete army-" "T, you worry too much. Do you seriously think I''ll think of fighting against someone like with without a n?" "No, I don''t." "Then shut your trap and start worrying about yourself. You better not make me rush there to save you. Haha!" "Never again, master." Talos mumbled as he remembered the night Arnold had toe and save Nina and himself. Beep. Arnold might have acted all cool with Talos on the call. But he was worried about them. He had never expected to see the Brigadier General again. After he had banished the general from the base, he was sure that the general wouldn''tst for long in the harsh wastnds. But he was wrong. The General hade back from the verge of death and was stronger than before. "What a drag..." Arnold sighed heavily, "This guy just had to appear out of nowhere toplicate things. Welp, there''s no point in thinking about the past now. I got to focus on Hercules first. Scy! Time to go!" Scy responded to her master''s voice, leaving the sea creatures behind, hoping to feast on them some other day. With an explosive noise, shended in front of Arnold and licked his face, while he stroked her humongous head. She behaved more like a dog in a dragon''s body. But her demeanour immediately changed whenever Arnold was under threat, or in case she was told to do so. "Had fun in the sea?" Khuu~ "Good girl. This time, let''s have fun on that ind. Shall we?" She nodded as Arnold grabbed onto her neck and made himselffortable on her back. *** Meanwhile, on the ind, Hercules was getting impatient as his rage had slowly welled up to the brim. It had been a while since he had challenged the vassal, and yet he hadn''t received any response from the mortal. He could not tolerate the tant disrespect a mere mortal was showing to him. But due to his father''s advice, he was forced to sit quietly on one of Poseidon''s favourite creatures, known as Cetus. Hercules thought if he killed a few people on earth, it would sure agitate the vassal and he woulde looking for him. That''s why he had ordered Cetus, the world whale, to wait at one location so that the mortal would know exactly where to look for them. However, his n did not seem to be working. As Arnold was nowhere to be seen. "I don''t care what father has to say." Hercules fiercely mmed his club down, making a crater on the creature''s back, "If that imbecile doesn''t show up within the next hours, destroy thend in front of you." "Yes, my lor- Argh!" A plethora of the soldiers howled in pain a fire rained on them from the heavens. "Who in the heavens name-" "It''s me, Mario!" Arnold yelled as Scy raced towards Cetus, "Fcking retard. Who else will it be, if not me?" "You dare mock me, human?" "Do I really have to answer that?" Arnold jumped off of Scy andnded right in front of the demigod, "Mockery is a form of battle as well, right?" "It will be my pleasure to make you shut your mouth." "I mean, you can try if you want." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 380 - Two Wars, One Victor (5) "Your mouth sure is big for someone who showed up alone to face my army." Herculesughed his heart out, but his army did not. They were busy trying to block Scy''s attacks. However, they were not having a hard time against Scy unlike what Arnold had expected. They weren''tughing because they were preupied with her. The problematic thing was, her Hellfire wasn''t working on them anymore. It was one of Scy''s strongest attacks and it was as if the soldiers had gained some sort of immunity from the mes of hell. So Arnold used the probe skill on one of the soldiers. ___ CLASS: Ancient Humans (A being blessed by the gods) NAME: Roman Warrior LEVEL: 121 RANK: Cosmic D ROLE: Tank / Swordsman AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Athena''s Blessing (Active skill) ? Hercules'' Blessing (Passive skill) ? Army of the Gods (Synergy effect) ? Berserker (Active skill) ? Low-tier regeneration (Active skill) HP: 12000/12000 STRENGTH (STR) : 122 [+50 due to gears] DEFENSE (DEF) : 267 [+200 due to gears] STAMINA (STA) : 120 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 139 AGILITY (AGI) : 101 ACCURACY (ACC) : 88 EVADE (EVD) : 88 CHARISMA (CHA): 56 Damage Resistances: Poison Attacks (10% damage reduction), Shadow attacks (10% damage reduction), Piercing attacks (80% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Fire damage (Due to Athena''s blessing), Exhaustion (Due to Athena''s blessing), Frightened (Due to Hercules'' blessing), frozen, ranged attacks, mana based attacks. Weak Against: Blunt / Crushing attacks, shing Attacks, Physical Attacks, Astral damage THREAT LEVEL: Negligible REMARK: Proud member of a godly army, who have been blessed by the gods themselves. They would never cower away from a fight even after knowing their death was certain. Men of sheer fcking will and strength, that''s what they are. These are also the warriors selected by the Greek gods throughout thousands of years and were trained to be the first line of defence of their heavenly abode called Mount Olympus. Individually, they might not seem to be dangerous at all. But when they were together, no mortal army could evene close to them. Consider yourself lucky that your army isn''t made up of mortals. You''re still an exception to that exaggerated intro. Go and crush them. May the force be with you. ___ A smile formed on Arnold''s face as he read thest words of system-sama''s introduction to Romans 101. But this time, the system made a mistake. His army, no longer onlyprised of his summons. He had more than fifty thousand humans as well and they might get into trouble while facing the ancient army. He looked at every soldier he could, and their ranks varied from B to cosmic C. Meaning, if Arnold could keep the cosmic rankers away from the low rankers in his army, he should be able to handle them with ease. Moreover, each of the Ancient humans had onemon skill: Athena''s Blessing. ''Just what is this blessing?'' ''And Scy used Hellfire to kill a few of them which means-'' ''dang it-'' ''And that is?'' ''It''s time to use water and ice-based attacks.'' However, Arnold''s train of thought was soon interrupted by the gargantuan man in front of him. "Your pet is quite majestic, I must admit that." Hercules assented when he saw Arnold looking at the battle going behind his back, "A fierce creature worthy of being in by my glorious hands. It''s about time for me to let go of this lion skin either way. But more than that, I''m curious as to how its meat would taste. Dragon meat is supposed to be a delicacy, even among the gods, but ever since the truce between the Gods and the Dragons, I haven''t had a taste of it. But it''lle after I''m done with you." Arnold wanted a battle of mockery, so Hercules obliged. Little was he aware that saying petty things like these didn''t work on Arnold. and haven''t worked in a long time. He had to listen to things much worse than this even when he was a porter. Not to mention, System-sama''sments were a lot worse than anything the Demigod could''vee up with. It wasn''t that easy to troll Arnold. Even System-sama had a hard time doing so nowadays, so what could a half baked potato man say to him that''ll enrage him? Nothing. "It''s quite funny." Arnoldughed much to Hercules'' annoyance, "She was saying the same thing about you. I don''t me her, after all, she does not get to feast upon a demigod every day either." Hercules was easily ticked off by the mortal''sment. He was the son of Zeus! A being even the greek pantheon was forced to recognise. He was the one who aplished the 12 impossiblebours. The proof of thosebours were the scars covering his body. He was the one who had defeated the Nemean lion, The Hydra, and many more majestic and deadly creatures. And this mortal had the audacity to say that he will feed him, the great Hercules, to his pet? As Arnold had expected, Hercules went bat-sh*t crazy. There was no stopping him once he became enraged. It was true that Hercules was a great man. If he wasn''t, then no one would remember him even after thousands of years. But he was wrong about one thing. He had notpleted all of the 12bours by himself. He had allies to help him with most of the tasks. However, all those allies were long gone. He was all alone now. Unlike Arnold. "You asked if I''m a fool to take you on alone. Well, I admit I would have had a hard time against your army by myself," Arnold smiled as a ginormous portal opened behind him, and out walked all of his summons along with the fifty thousand warriors, "So I brought my own party. I hope you don''t mind?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 381 - Two Wars, One Victor (6) Momentster the ind became littered with blood and corpses. It was truly a gory sight. The world had not seen this kind of war in ages. The greenery of the ind had turned to a shade of brown, while the sand below their feet was no longer white but crimson. The Ind had now be a site of chaos. It had turned into a stage of a devastating war between the creators and the created. The air had a heavy stench of blood and gore in it. The warriors were trying their best to effectively wipe out the ancient human army. It was safe to say that, Hercules'' army had sumbed to bloodlust and are recklessly charging towards the warriors with only the aim to kill everyone. They had no concern for the carnage around them. As a result, even though the warriors outnumbered the ancient human, they were still losing more people. Most of the blood on the beach was of theirrades and not the enemies. Due to the exponential number of participants in the war, one battle had divided into several skirmishes. And the warriors were getting absolutely wrecked in most of these skirmishes. (Author''s note: From now, Hercules'' army would be mentioned as ''Soldiers'' while Arnold''s would be referred to as ''Warriors'' to avoid confusion.) Seeing no other way, Arnold''s summons were forced to lead the battle themselves. At first, they nned to limit the killing, as Arnold had not explicitly permitted them to kill. Thus, the best they could do was to push their enemies on the verge of death and allowed the warriors to deal the finishing blow. That way they could put a halt to the soldiers merciless attacks while not killing them directly. However, the n did not seem to work well. The warriors weren''t used to fighting without breaks, as even in the dungeon they would take regr breaks to replenish their lost stamina. But on this battlefield, there was no such thing as a break. Death was the only break they could get. Seeing no other way to save the humans, Arnold''s summons unanimously decided to break their vows and go all out against the godly army. Arnold had not given then anymands except, one. To do whatever they thought was necessary. And right now, it was necessary to take matters into their own hands. Grock and Tiamut steadied themselves as they were the strongest on the battlefield. Tiamut saw Scy fending off about five hundred soldiers by herself and rushed to aid her granddaughter. However, she didn''t need to do anything at all. The soldiers might have gained resistance to hellfire, but hellfire wasn''t the only ability Scy had. Hellfire was just her go-to ability, nothing more. The soldiers were desperately trying to pierce through her tough scales but had been extremely unlucky. Her scales were sturdier than their adamantine weapons. Their weapons snapped the moment they touched Scy''s body. So far the tanks had been able to defend against Scy''s attacks, but not anymore as the atmosphere around Scy suddenly got a lot colder. "You humans! Fall back now!" Tiamut yelled at the warrior when she realised what was Scy doing, "RUN!" The warriors knew better than to argue with Arnold''s summons and did as they were told. A few of Hercules'' soldiers got a wind of the situation and tried to run away as well, but they were stopped by Tiamut. Seeing Tiamut in front of them, the soldiers hesitated a bit, and that moment of hesitation was what cost them their lives. A momentter they were entrapped in an icy coffin. "That''s my granddaughter..." Tiamut smiled when she saw the amount of control Scy had on a legendary skill known as the [Arctic Breath], before yelling at the warriors, "What are you imbeciles waiting for? The ice won''t stop them forever. Get to work and destroy them while you can!" "Y-Yes, ma''am!" The warriors yelled and started destroying the popsicles. Meanwhile, on Natasha''s side, things were a bit less chaotic than the others. As soon as she arrived to help the warriors who had been on the verge of defeat, things took a turn for the better. The warriors were having mixed emotions about the unexpected change of events, even though it was good for them. In their eyes, Natasha took the phrase: Everything is fair in love and war; to a whole another level. The soldiers who were busy ughtering the warriors a moment ago were now doing the same to each other... that is if they were not busy kissing each other. It was a peculiar sight, to say the least. One that made their skin crawl. "What are you people standing here for? Do you like the show, or do you have nothing better to do?" The subus mumbled while giving the humans a good show of her goodies, "Go and aid the others or I''ll literally make you kiss their a*ses!" Duke and Cerberus were having a great time as well. With the golems and hounds together, the soldiers weren''t able to do much. The hounds were the most troublesome among the two, as no matter what they did, they always managed to put them in trouble. The Golems were busy tanking for the hounds while the hounds were fast and hence difficult to destroy. But even if they managed to destroy a hound, 5 more popped up in their ces adding more for the older to worry about. Bad-Breath and Alice were busy rescuing the injured warriors while Dread drew the attention of the enemies on him. Andstly, Grock had be crazed. Just like Asterios, he too craved war more than anything else, and now that he was a part of a full-fledge war, he couldn''t hold himself back and began ughtering anything that showed up in front of him. While this was happening throughout the ind, the real battle was taking ce on top of the mountain Hercules had been standing on before. "Hm... looks like your godly army was just a nuisance, and nothing more," Arnold mumbled before spitting out a mouthful of blood. "You took my punch head-on. I''m impressed" Hercules grinned, "Then maybe, you''re not fighting seriously because you''re not allowed to kill anyone?" "How do you know about that?" "Because I''m the one who made that happen!" Hercules swung his gigantic club, with the attention of caving Arnold''s head in. Instead, Arnold grabbed onto the club and it disappeared into thin air. "Is that so?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 382 - Wrong Opponent (1) ___ CLASS: Tank / Brawler / Archer NAME: Hercules LEVEL: 199 COSMIC RANK: S ROLE: Demigod (God of Strength, First Kin of the Gods) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Enrage (Active skill) ? Blessing of Zeus (Active skill) ? Champion of Olympus (Active skill) ? Hell Strike (Active skill) ? Severed Souls (Active skill) [Expand to view 9 more] HP: 56000/60000 STRENGTH (STR) : 1301 DEFENSE (DEF): 826[+226] (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 800 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 244 AGILITY (AGI) : 500 ACCURACY (ACC) : 465 EVADE (EVD) : 387 CHARISMA (CHA): 200 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (30% damage reduction), Physical attacks (40% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Ranged attacks. Weak Against: Magic spells (Must be used from a close range to take effect) THREAT LEVEL: Mediocre REMARK: His stats may look a bit shabby, but he is still the Son of Zeus. He had a lot of hidden tricks in his... can''t say sleeve as he doesn''t wear the fancy clothing of modern times but you get the gist. Furthermore, thanks to the immortality provided to him by Zeus, he had gained immunity to ranged attacks. Meaning your weapons are useless against him until and unless they are used from a close range. That, however, may not be a good idea as his defence is absolute. Furthermore, if you want to kill him using the relic, you would have to use it from a close distance, which can lead to your demise as well. That being said, it will be challenging, but you do have what it takes to defeat him. ___ ''His defence is quite troublesome, that''s for sure...'' Arnold thought as he helped himself back to his feet, ''Have to find a way to deal with him in an efficient manner.'' "How can this... no... it''s not possible..." Hercules immediately jumped back as his club disappeared into thin air, "You shouldn''t be able to wield his powers yet! You''re still mortal. It doesn''t make any sense! How can you wield the power that even the Almighty Zeus couldn''t!" Hercules had turned pale as if he had seen a ghost. It wasn''t the first time Arnold had used his curse of being a creationist on his opponents, but this was the first time anyone had shown him such an exaggerated reaction. Hercules, who had been acting so confident till now, was now stuttering like a madman. But Arnold wasn''tining. Hercules'' panic-stricken state gave him enough time to heal his injuries and get serious with the fight. Although, he had to be careful not to kill the demigod by himself. That would have been troublesome if it happened. Moreover, thest line Hercules said a few moments ago left Arnold thinking. "I''m the one who made that happen!" The words kept echoing in Arnold''s head. Hercules wasn''t proficient in using magic of any sort. As it was clear from after Arnold used his probe skill on him. Thus it was highly improbable that Hercules was the one who caused a rift inside his head and took control over his body back in China. Also, the voice Arnold had heard, in his head belonged to a female and did not resemble Hercules'' hoarse voice at all. These were enough reasons for Arnold to believe Hercules wasn''t the one to mess with his head. ''These damned gods are always plotting one thing or another...'' Someone must have helped Hercules by messing with Arnold''s head well in advance and hence giving Hercules an important advantage over Arnold. Hercules was free to kill Arnold while it was not true for thetter. Which forced Arnold to intentionally hold back from going all out against an already overpowered enemy. "Did father knew about it? If he did he would have told me about it. Was this the reason he wanted me to kill this mortal?" Hercules mumbled to himself while keeping his eyes pinned on Arnold, "I have to kill him. He is too much of a threat already. The gods can not afford this to happen again..." "Hey! Stop making decisions on my behalf." Arnold burst his knuckles after flexing his gloves, "Either way, you have to answer a lot of questions before either of us dies." "The decision regarding your death had already been made long before I stepped foot on this wretched." Hercules calmly informed Arnold of his fate. It seemed like he finally snapped out of his panicked state of mind, "There is no reason for me to be afraid of you... not yet either way. You might have Shiva''s ability but you''re still a mortal. A mortal whom I can kill with ease." "I''m as much of a mortal as you are, Hercules, and so was your army." "Was?" Hercules looked perplexed as he turned around to get a view of the battlefield. However, soon his confusion had turned into shock. The Olympian army, an army trained to battle against the gods, had been defeated by a bunch of mortals who did not even know how to wield cosmic weapons yet? How could this even be possible? Why was he, the champion of Olympus, facing setback after setback? It was supposed to be an easy win for him, but with every passing moment, victory seemed to be slipping away from his hands. He then saw what he had missed earlier, "Your summons... they are nothing like what I was told. What did you do to make them mightier than before?" "When someone like you filthy gods, wants to ask me a question they bow their head down FIRST!" Arnold yelled before grabbing onto Hercules'' head and mming it down with all his might. but his strength wasn''t the same as before. He wasn''t going to hold back anymore. Hercules'' absurd defence was enough to parry all of his blows. But not when Arnold reinforced his physical attacks with his equally absurd abilities. [Ability: Berserker''s Rage has been activated. All of the users'' attributes have been boosted by 150% for the next 20 seconds.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 383 - Wrong Opponent (2) By this time, world leaders from all over the world had all of their attention on the battle between Arnold and Hercules. But they weren''t alone. The battle between a god and a mortal was the only thing anyone was watching while holding on to their breaths. It was a battle that would inevitably define the future of their and everyone wanted to know the result of their battle as soon as possible. That''s why the S ranked warriors from around the globe were given a secondary task. A task to record the fearless duo battle it out after they were done taking care of the rest of the olympian army. While they failed to do the primary task as Arnold''s summons were the true heroes of the battle between the Olympian army and them, they could still fulfil the secondary request made by their respective leaders. "U-Unbelievable..." Seomun mumbled when she saw Arnold fearlessly bang Hercules head onto the ck mountain. The two of them were like two lions who were fighting to establish dominance over one another. At first, Hercules had been winning against Arnold, but now the warriors soon realised that Arnold had been intentionally taking a beating before. Arnold allowed Hercules to beat the hell out of him so that Hercules'' sole focus would have been on him and not on the ongoing battle below. With Hercules'' attention on him, Arnold''s summons along with the warriors easily managed to annihte Hercules'' soldiers while losing ten thousand or so warriors. The number wasrge, but still, it was much less than what had been estimated before the battlemenced. "Even when he was stuck between a duel to the death, he was careful enough to give us every advantage he could..." Orlov smiled wanly, "How can we ever measure up to someone like that?" "The answer is simple," Kang You said as he patted the Russian warrior on the back, "We can''t. the only thing we can do is to follow in his footsteps and hope to achieve a fraction of what he did." "Wonderfully said... just by feeling the absurd amount of aura those two are leaking. Even as an SS ranker, it''s safe to say that those two," Johnny pointed at the top of the mountain, "are already way out of our league." "..." Nicole didn''t reply and kept watching the two battle it out. She was preparing herself to interfere in the battle despite Arnold''s wishes. If things started going south, she would not hesitate no matter what Arnold told her. "He was supposed to be a summoner, right? How can he be so strong?" Carlos asked Johnny as he knew Johnny and Arnold had known each other for a long time. "Beats me. All I know is that every time I see him, he gets stronger than before. And I''m not talking about a meagre increase either. It''s more like exponential increase." "That''s just... crazy," Orlov mumbled. "There''s something even crazier. It''s the same for his sister, Nicole is the same. I suspect it might be true for his summons as well." Johnny sighed, but it was a sigh of relief rather than of distress, "I miss the time when I was the strongest amongst them. Thankfully, I''m not or else imagine me fighting against that monster. We wouldn''t stand a chance. Haha!" What johnny said was no exaggeration. Both Arnold and Hercules were leaking crazy amounts of aura that was sufficient to make the low ranked Warriors lose their consciousness. Even the S and SS rankers were having a hard time trying to stay on their feet. It looked like both of them had finally decided to go all-out. If they wanted to win, they couldn''t afford to hold back anymore. Hercules now knew that Arnold had yed him by letting him think he was nobody special. Hence Arnold sessfully managed to distract him from the main battle. Hercules was once again enraged. Not because he got yed by a mortal, but because he got so obsessed with thinking about ways to defeat his opponent that he couldn''t even listen to the cries of his soldiers. It was a horrendous mistake for amander of an army to ignore the well-being of his troops. Arnold didn''t fail to do this and as soon as he noticed his troops were having a hard time against the enemy, he immediately did whatever he could to help them. However, Hercules couldn''t help his soldiers in time. Even in Hercules'' eyes, what Arnold did wasmendable. Arnold had won quite a big chunk of respect from the demigod. And that meant Hercules was going to kill him. He was a demigod, and he could not allow a mortal like Arnold to live anymore as he would only cause unnecessary trouble for the gods of Olympuster on. But that didn''t mean he couldn''t have a friendly chat with him as they duelled to the death. "I must say you surprised me there. When you mmed my head on the ground and ripped my arm off. I didn''t expect you were capable of doing that." Herculesughed before wiping the sweat off of his forehead, "Be proud Arnold! You are stronger than any mortal I have faced till now." "Huh... I don''t have much experience fighting against demigods. But I must admit, it''s quite fun." Arnold smiled back before popping his dislocated shoulder back in its ce. Both of them were getting exhausted after every blow they parried. They both had injuries all over their bodies. Arnold''s shoulder was dislocated twice already, meanwhile, one of Hercules'' arms was missing and he had a fat, bloody lip and yet both of these crazy basta*ds were enjoying it all. "If only the circumstance were different, I would have invited you to join me and my fellow demigods at Olympus. A warrior like you is just wasting his time on this wretched. You should be around entities who know your worth." "You were once a resident of this wretched as well, remember?" Arnoldughed before throwing yet another punch and the Olympian demigod, "Sadly, I have too much going on in my life so I would have to decline your offer for now!" Arnold''s punch threw Hercules off-bnce as he fell off of the cliff with a loud bang. Arnold knew Hercules was on the verge of losing the fight. No, it was probably already over. Both of them were running on fumes and if he didn''t manage to defeat Hercules now, Arnold was afraid he would either have to use Devil''s rage to subdue the Demigod or use Dragon bone sniper rifle to end once and for all. And Arnold didn''t want either of these things to happen. Sadly, Hercules was nowhere near being defeated. He was just getting started as a lightning bolt struck his fallen body and he rose back up once again. "ytime is over, Arnold. Let''s end this duel." Hercules'' voice crackled like thunder as he decided to use his trump card against Arnold. It was an ability even Hermes couldn''t escape the wrath of. An ability given to Hercules by the king of Olympus, and his father, Zeus himself. An ability that turned him into a god for 10 seconds. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 384 - Wrong Opponent (3) While things were getting troublesome for Arnold, the same wasn''t true for his summons. Another war had been raging on the other side of the world, but so far Talos andpany had managed to survive without wasting much effort. Unlike what everyone had expected, the battle with the necromancer turned out like a joke. The resurrected monsters were unorganised and it almost seemed like none of them even know what they were doing at all. All they did was mindlessly try to storm the gates. But then they didn''t even care to dodge the iing attacks. They could see their doom slowly walk up to them. Yet they continued to walk on the same path only to be an offering to Ogur''s methrower. This also made it easier for the automatons to annihte the enemies with the turrets. Almost too easy. None of the foot soldiers on Talos'' side, even had to raise a finger against the monsters. Just because none of them even managed to reach within the proximity to do anything. All this time the few of the humans Talos had allowed to take part in the battle, were celebrating their ''unchallenged victory''. But Talos and the rest of Arnold''s summons knew better than to celebrate an unachieved victory. Things could change at any moment in battles like these. The way things were proceeding, it seemed highly doubtful that Talos was going to lose. Yet, the expression on the Brigadier''s face made him sceptical. Just by seeing the way the monsters were behaving, it seemed impossible that the other bases weren''t able to take care of the general''s army on their own as they were just a bunch of unorganised creeps. Talos was having a hard time epting that an army like that could conquer a well-fortified base. Even after considering the absurd number of soldiers the brigadier''s army had, it seemed highly improbable. At this point, Talos wasn''t even sure whether they were even winning or not because, in his mind, the real battle was yet to begin. Another reason for Talos to think like that was because of how the brigadier general was operating his army. When they first arrived there, the army of undead monsters had utmost discipline amongst themselves. So, it was was doubtful they had suddenly turned into a horde of mindless creatures without any reason. Moreover, the brigadier general still had two-thirds of his army on stand-by. He was only sent a third of his force first. Talos thought maybe it was a move to determine the defensive strength of the opponent. Or it was a tactic to force the enemy to use all of their artillery which would allow the rest of the monsters to invade the base without facing much resistance. If their goal was thetter thing, then the brigadier would''ve failed miserably. As Yan had already ced more than a thousand traps all around the base just for that purpose. But Talos had a feeling that the brigadier general was plotting something entirely different. He just needed to figure out what. However, that was easier said than done. "Something feels off, Talos," Asterios mumbled as he looked at the mindless monsters that kept dying at the hands of Ogur and the automatons, "It almost feels like they are doing this to distract us from something." "Yeah... it''s going too easy." Yu Zhung joined in, "Maybe we should charge in instead? The sooner we will end them, the faster we''ll be able to aid Lord Deathless." "That could be exactly what that sly basta*d wants." Amanda intervened, "Maybe he''s hesitating to attack us with everything he has because we have a better strategic position. And once we are out of the protection of the base, he could attack us ruthlessly. It''s better for us to stay here and thin his army out as much as we can before charging at him." Talos listened to everybody''s opinions but it all sounded unreasonable to him. Firstly what Yu Zhung said about charging out waspletely absurd. They couldn''t charge out with their entire army for two reasons. First, doing so would leave the humans in the base defenceless in case something happened to the summons. And this was thest thing Arnold would want them to do. Also, secondly, even if they were to charge out, roughly 30% to 40% of them wouldn''t even make it to face the brigadier''s army. The traps Yan had spread across and around the base would lead to their demise because even if the elite summons knew about the traps, it would have been impossible for everyone to avoid triggering the trap. Also, once these traps were triggered, it would start a chain reaction which would trigger most if not all of the traps. There were too many risks associated with it and Talos wasn''t willing to take unnecessary risks. As far as thinning the army was considered, they were already doing whatever they could to achieve that. But the brigadier was as sly as they came. He already figured out the range of the turrets when the automatons first started attacking his army and since then had made his army back up a bit so that the weapons couldn''t even touch them. "It''s a fact that we can''t stay inside these walls forever. Our artillery support willst only for the day at most and after that, we''ll be like sitting ducks for the brigadier to shoot. Also, the way everything has been going on the master''s side, I don''t think he''ll be able to aid us for a long time. Instead, I think we would have to be the ones to help him out and for that, we need to finish this battle as soon as we can." Talos stated as he made his decision, "That being said, it would be a foolish decision for all of us to storm out of the base like that. So here''s what we''re going to do." He continued, "Yan, Amanda and Yu Zhung. You people would be responsible for defending the base. I''ll leave the automatons behind to assist you. Yan, you''ll have to give me about half of your undead soldiers to us. They will act as our shield while I, Ogur and Asterios rush in deal with the brigadier once and for all." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 385 - Wrong Opponent (4) "Oi, Ogur! Be careful with that thing!" Talos yelled at the frost giant because he nearly stomped Yan''s undead. He got confused about which undead were on their side and which were against them, "You have to kill the monsters. THE MONSTERS! Not human-like zombies!" Ogur nodded and changed the aim of his methrower to the other side of the battlefield, from where the monsters kept charging at them. It had been about half an hour since Talos, Ogur and Asterios stormed out of the base to get rid of the Brigadier General and his army. And surprisingly things were going better than Talos had expected. Since they were having a good time, Talos thought it was the best opportunity to check how much they had evolved since theirst battle with the minotaurs. He told asterios and Ogur not to waste this golden opportunity and go all out. Talos told them this only after taking the rate at which they were getting stronger into ount. It was only a matter of time they would have to start holding their true strength back. Just like their master had been doing for quite a while. That''s why they should get to enjoy times like these while theysted. This was the reason why Talos had transformed back to his automaton form and was busy abusing The Vindicator against the undead monsters. Every time he used his master''s old and trusty weapon, it felt like he was undefeatable. Thanks to Arnold''s battle with Jake all those years ago, he knew the weakness of the undead and hence was using ming bullets rather than the usual one. Asterios, however, did not have the luxury to use fire-based weapons and thus had to depend on his Warhammer to squash the enemies into slime. But Talos had the Minotaur''s back. In case it felt that he was being overwhelmed by the horde of the undead, Talos had provided him with a bag full of fiery grenades which he could use to dispose of them with little to no effort. Asterios got so excited, he even tried throwing the grenades at the far end of the in where the Brigadier had stationed the rest of his army. Sadly they were still well out of reach, and the grenades exploded before they could reach them. But this didn''t stop the army to step back a bit further. While Asterios was doing this, Ogur, in order to enjoy himself, had abandoned the methrower and was now wielding his battle axe and shield. With each swing of his ginormous axe, hundreds of monsters were ughtered in a blink of an eye. However, slicing the undead wasn''t enough to stop them for good. Thus after the undead had been sliced and diced properly, he would stomp them to oblivion. The battle wasn''t much exciting, but it was enough for the three of them to enjoy themselves while wrecking that basta*d Brigadier''s army. However, while the three of them were wreaking havoc on the brigadier''s undead monsters, their opponents couldn''t even lift a finger to harm them in return. No matter how hard the Brigadier''s troops tried, the undead on Talos'' side always managed to protect the trio of summons. And even if the undead monsters managed to hit one of them, the damage their weapons caused them wasughable, to say the least. This allowed the trio to cause a rampage without worrying much about their safety. The former Brigadier General of the alpha base had expected them to fight back. However, even he had not expected to meet such strong resistance from just a few of Arnold''s summons. Or in other words, he had overestimated himself and his army of cheapskate morons. He thought just because he had gone through hardships the wastnd had to offer to him, he was undefeatable. Moreover, conquering the bases in three other zones further added to his overconfidence and it made him think he and his army were undefeatable. In his thirst for vengeance, he hadpletely forgotten that he wasn''t the only one with a guardian. What he had failed to realise was that Arnold wasn''t going to sit around idly and wait for him to gain unimaginable powers before showing up. He would''ve had gone through his own set of hardships. In fact, Arnold had faced hardships, the brigadier general couldn''t even think were possible. In the end, what the Brigadier had gone through in the wastnds was nothing inparison to what Arnold had to go through. But the Brigadier wasn''t aware of Arnold''s new strength. He still remembered Arnold as the man he had seen thest time and failed to take his exponential progress into ount when he decided to attack the bases spread across the 13 zones. In his mind, he was the only one allowed to gain strength by having a goddess'' blessing to back him up. But the moment the bullet of realisation pierced his head, he got enraged and frustrated with himself and his naive thinking. However, The Brigadier wasn''t only frustrated at himself. He was frustrated at Arnold''s summons as well as they seemed to have grown stronger than any monster within his army and probably even him. So far, just the sheer number of his army was enough to ensure his victory, but this time just the three of Arnold''s summons had pinned his entire army down. He hated to admit it, but he had realised that the number of soldiers in his army didn''t matter as long as Arnold''s summons could one shot them. The Brigadier was angry because none of it didn''t seem fair at all. He had worked hard to get where he was now. He couldn''t even remember how many months he had to spend being tormented at the hands of his goddess in order to get stronger. It didn''t seem fair at all that he was wronged time and time again and yet no matter how hard he tried, there was no redemption for him. But then again, nothing was fair in this ursed world, to begin with. He had the goddess'' blessing with him. With his Goddess backing him up, no one in the wastnd was supposed to be stronger than him. Then why!? Why was he always the one to be defeated by Arnold''s hands and not the other way around? The Goddess had told him he was destined to rule over the world, then how was he supposed to do that when he couldn''t even defeat one man? It almost felt like, the harder he trained to get his revenge, the wider the gap between him and Arnold''s strength became. At this rate, he would never be able to take his revenge on Arnold and all of those who betrayed him while he was still working for the Syndicate. Did the goddess lie to him to make him do her bidding? She would never do that, why would she? Was he nothing more than a pawn to her? Hundreds of questions flooded his mind. But, well, none of it mattered now. As he knew he wasn''t the one who was destined to rule the world, not until the true emperor was alive. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 386 - Wrong Opponent (5) "It''s toote to give up now." The Brigadier mumbled to himself, "I have already lost the element of surprise. And now that they know I''m alive, these basta*ds won''t stop hunting me down till they made it sure they had done their job well. My hastiness will lead to my demise." Unlike what Talos had thought, the Brigadier didn''t have a n to miraculously defeat them. He had beenpletely dependent on his army and had hoped to overwhelm them with their sheer numbers, just like he had done with all the other bases. But it looked like this time he made a wrong decision. He was so desperate to get his revenge, that he jumped at the first opportunity he was given. When the voice of Goddess in his head, informed him that Arnold wasn''t around the base or even the country for that matter, he thought it was the perfect time to put his ns into action. In his mind, with Arnold out of the way, he could easily destroy the base. Meanwhile, all Arnold would be able to do is sit and watch and won''t reach out to help his patrons on time. "It was supposed to be my win and yet here I am crying in misery. Damn that basta*d! Why does he have to always be two steps ahead of me!?" He had mobilised his forces to deal a devastating blow to both Arnold and the syndicate. He wanted to start a rampage and destroy everything that belonged to his enemies. He had hoped by trampling the base all around the wastnds, he could get some sort of revenge on Arnold, for kicking him out of the base and leaving him helpless in the wastnds to die. But what the Goddess'' voice had forgotten to mention was that even if Arnold wasn''t there, the Brigadier''s conquest to trample East America would still end up with his defeat. Or it was more like the Brigadier''s system had failed to predict possible scenarios and did not warn him in time. It was a typical case when the Guardian and the Pdin were ipatible with each other and yet had been forced to work together. ''I should have done some recon on them first. Intel is the most important thing in any battle and yet I disregarded the basic rules of warfare... the goddess'' voice didn''t help me either-'' ___ Stop pushing your ipetence on me, mortal. You were a useless pdin, to begin with. I had informed the goddess countless times, that if she wanted to defeat someone like that man, we needed apetent and cunning mortal. Not a power-driven excuse of a mortal like you. ___ "If you were so great, why couldn''t you predict this scenario, O great goddess of enlightenment?" The Brigadier couldn''t help but bark at her, "We''re both ipetent fools. But you''re a tad bit more than me." The voice stayed silent. She knew both of them were at fault. Still, in her opinion, it was hopeless to think this mortal was capable of doing anything other than whining like a bit*h. And that''s why she had already called for help from the Goddess. however, she wasn''t sure her pdin would live long enough to see her. In the meantime, the Brigadier General was busy self-reflecting on his choices. He was taken by surprise at how well prepared his opponents had been. Before engaging the enemy, he had been so confident in his army, that he didn''t even consider getting some intel on his opponents beforemencing an attack on them. Thanks to that, the newly installed defences along with the preparedness of Arnold''s summons had caught him off guard. So far he had made ns ording to theyouts he remembered. Since he had known that the bases didn''t get much funding from the syndicate that they could do any drastic changes to the base. Thus he was expecting the alpha base would use the same defences as the other bases. The normal turrets were useless against his undead army, as even if the bullets managed to hit the undead, the bullets would pierce right through the rotten flesh of the undead like a knife through butter. And as far as he could remember, these were the only turrets the base had in the name of defence. He wasn''t aware of the recent facelift Talos had given to the defences the moment he had arrived at the base. That''s why the brigadier had sent the weaker monsters in his army to test out the new defences. And what he saw the following moment did not look good. His undead monsters had no major weakness. One could freeze them, sh them, and even tear them in half. They would rise up again and continue causing havoc until their enemies were dead. This was the only reason his army could overwhelm the other bases. if one was going to burn them... then there was nothing he could do. However, Talos was already aware of it and hence didn''t gave them any chance. Brigadier General''s ipetence, coupled with his overconfidence andck of intel was what would make him lose this battle. He hadn''t realised it yet but he had already lost the battle even before it began. "No! This battle ain''t over till I''m breathing!" The brigadier yelled at the top of his lungs, "If this is the end, then I will take those basta*ds down with me!" "I''ll give you ten on ten for your determination," All of a sudden Talos'' voice echoed in the Brigadier''s ears, "as for having brain cells, I''ll be giving you minus ten." "What the-" Just then a grenade exploded, making a gigantic hole right behind the Brigadier and his army. It was a tunnel that linked to the base. Yan had made it as a trap to surround the enemies with their troops, and this trap could only be activated by Talos and no one else. "It''s about time when your army, met THE army!" Talos roared as thousands of undead and automatons jumped out of the tunnel, weapons in hand, "You chose to mess with the wrong opponent, basta*d!" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 387 - Rage Of A God (1) ___ CLASS: Tank / Brawler / Archer NAME: Hercules LEVEL: 230 COSMIC RANK: SS ROLE: Temporary Godhood (God of Strength, First Kin of the Gods) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Penance Burst (Active skill) ? God''s Favourite (Passive skill) (Grants boost in stats) ? Enrage (Active skill) ? Blessing of Zeus (Active skill) ? Champion of Olympus (Active skill) ? Hell Strike (Active skill) ? Severed Souls (Active skill) [Expand to view 9 more] HP: 50000/50000 STRENGTH (STR): 2301 [+1000] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) DEFENSE (DEF): 826[+226] (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 1000 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) INTELLIGENCE (INT): 444 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) AGILITY (AGI): 700 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) ACCURACY (ACC) : 665 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) EVADE (EVD) : 587 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) CHARISMA (CHA): 200 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (50% damage reduction), Physical attacks (70% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Ranged attacks, Attacks from a mob. Weak Against: ??? THREAT LEVEL: Extremely High REMARK: ... There''s no other option now. You have to kill him before he annihtes the entire world on a whim. There''s no time to worry about the consequences because if you don''t kill him now, there won''t be anything left for you to protect. Not even your partner, unborn child or sister would be safe from his godly carnage. DO IT NOW AND KILL HIM! ___ A storm cloud formed above the ind and swallowed up any and all light. Everyone was stunned in fear, watching the horror unfold in front of their eyes. A momentter, the storm cloud started crackling as no one had ever witnessed before. Lightning cracked the sky sending heaven''s light through the storms. The lightning wasn''t white like the warriors had seen before, but had turned crimson red as if the sky was bleeding itself. The storms kept growing vast with each passing moment. Soon the ck storm cloud could be seen even from the moon as a dark patch on the face of the earth. The storm had turned the ocean blue sky into a mixture of silver-ck. The winds and rain echoed so loud that the low-ranking warriors started bleeding from their ears due to the continuous pair-pressure fluctuations. It felt the storm wouldst for eternity. The trees on the back of the ind began shaking like crazy. While thousands upon thousands of warriors were thrown off of the ind, due to the heavenly winds. And those who fell off of the ind were immediately swallowed up by Cetus, who turned out to be their doom. The wind showed no mercy to anyone. Even the S ranked warriors were having a hard time keeping their foot on the ground. Arnold''s summons were the only ones who had some sort of resistance against the winds. Thus they immediately went into action. Tiamut transformed into her dragon form to guard the men from the heavy winds. Scy followed her suit and did the same. Duke and Cerberus also transformed into the biggest creatures they possibly could to provide some sort of cover for the warriors. Alice and Natasha used all of their magic to do something simr by raising a mana shield to protect whoever was around them. As much as he hated himself for it, Bad-Breath could only save a couple of warriors as he didn''t have any special skill like the others and could only manage to grab onto four people. Dread fared much better than the brawler due to his size. But even after their best efforts, they couldn''t save everyone. The winds and the storm did whatever they could to destroy the warriors and had turned the prideful army of about forty thousand warriors into an army of roughly fifteen thousand. The system''s instructions were clear as the skies on a summer day. Yet Arnold couldn''t even think about doing anything. He helplessly watched as the people who had fought alongside him were wiped away in the blink of an eye. The warriors knew what they were signing up for when they joined the attack force. But none of them thought that they would meet their end like this. They were sure Arnold was going to save them. After all, he was Deathless! The strongest man on the! And yet... even in his presence, about thirty-five thousand people had already died at the hands of Hercules. Arnold was still standing on top of the hill, while Hercules slowly hovered in the air with his new godly powers crackling behind him. "Oh... looks like I overestimated the strength of your troops." Herculesughed, however, it wasn''t the voice Arnold had heard before. His new voice seemed godly as it resonated with the howling winds and crackling thunder. Arnold didn''t say a word. If Hercules would have targeted him, it would''ve been enough. He had no business killing anyone other than Arnold at this point and yet he decided to annihte the warriors to show off his godly strength. It was uneptable. Truly uneptable. "Oh? Won''t an esteemed being like you give any distinctivements about how you feel?" Hercules kept mocking Arnold, seeing that he was now at an advantage against the mortal, "Maybe I should kill a few more people to get a reaction out of you... let''s see." Hercules looked over the mortals as they cowered in fear. They now know exactly what he was capable of doing and didn''t want a being like him to target them next. But more than the warriors, something else attracted Hercules. He saw someone who once used to be an ally of him. Tiamut had never shown her human form to Hercules or any of the other Demigods for the matter, hence Hercules couldn''t recognise her. When he didn''t see Tiamut on the battlefield, Hercules thought Arnold had stored her corpse at a ce where he couldn''t reach. And in order to resurrect her, it was necessary to get a hold of her corpse. That''s why he was nning on killing every one of them on the ind to force the information about her out of Arnold''s throat. But now that Tiamut had transformed back into her dragon form, he immediately recognised her. And he wasn''t happy with what he saw. A demigod, as fierce and ruthless as Tiamut, was protecting the mortals. Something she would have never done in her life as a demigod. "It would seem you have allied yourself with the mortal..." Hercules mumbled sadly, but his voice reached Tiamut loud and clear, "It''s a disgrace to even call you a Demigod anymore. But don''t worry, I shall make you pay for your sins..." Just as he uttered those words, Tiamut was struck by lightning. She didn''t even get a chance to protect herself and just like that Tiamut along with a couple of thousands of people she was protecting under herself, disappeared without a trace. Only a gigantic hole was left in their wake. ___ Your Summon(s) : [Tiamut] has been destroyed. The other summons would resurrect in 1 Hour(s). ___ "Then who''s next?" Herculesughed once again. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 388 - Rage Of A God (2) "YOU''RE NEXT!" Arnold roared in fury as he finally made up his mind to kill Hercules himself. The system was correct. Hercules had be way too dangerous now. If Arnold didn''t put a stop to him now, then it would be toote for anyone to do anything. He had to put an end to Hercules before he could take any more lives. With his mind finally made up, Arnold took out Cardinal''s sin from the inventory and a message popped up in front of him. ___ Destroyer ss sync abilities are in effect now. The Demigod has been marked as an evil entity. Caution! The target is ahead by more than twenty levels of the user. The user can not one-shot the entity using . Aspensation, If the user is able to kill the evil entity, one of the following rewards will be provided to them: ? Random increase in stats. ? Random increase in attributes. ? Forging Material Box. ? Hidden Rewards. ___ ''It''s fine. I wasn''t nning to end his misery so quickly either way.'' Arnold thought to himself and aimed to blow Hercules'' head away, ''I''ll make that basta*d beg for mercy even if it''s thest thing I do!'' Arnold fired the shots without any hesitation. The noise of the winds and thunder were nothing inparison to what was generated by the dual handguns. The bullets pierced through the air. Hercules'' end seemed near. However, things didn''t go ording to Arnold''s n. For some reason, the bullets didn''t hit Hercules in the head where Arnold had aimed for. Instead, the bullets got embedded in his shoulder. ''Damn it! The probe skill already told me to attack him from close range! How can I be so stupid!'' "Did you really think it would be so easy to defeat me, mortal?" The friendly demeanour that Hercules had while wrestling with Arnold had disappearedpletely. He had now be cold and calctive, "Still, I''m surprised that you even dared to lift a weapon against me. Even after you know what may happen to you if you kill someone. Especially if you kill someone like me." "What the hell..." Arnold mumbled in shock as Hercules pulled the bullet out of his shoulder. Not even a scar was left where the bullet had hit him. It was like Arnold''s attack didn''t have any effect on the God. Arnold quickly checked his HP and sure enough, his attack had only dealt 1 HP worth of damage. "This should make you realise how pathetic your kind is in front of us." Herculesughed as he crushed the bullets, turning them into dust, "You never stood a chance against me." "We''ll see about that soon enough..." Arnold didn''t have any other choice. If the Cardinal''s sin wasn''t able to do much damage to Hercules, none of his weapons will. Except for one. But before using the sniper rifle, Arnold had to get the warriors as far away from them as possible. He couldn''t risk opening his domain in front of Hercules and force the warriors inside either, as it would lead to another disaster. Arnold didn''t know whether Hercules had his own domain or not. But if he did, he could easily contest for the control over Arnold''s domain, just like Jake had done all those years ago. Also, after taking Hercules godly strength into ount, Arnold was most definitely going to lose if he didn''t activate his ability. This would mean that everyone inside Arnold''s domain would end up being at Hercules'' mercy and Arnold could not allow that to happen. Thus he turned towards, the only ones who could help him out of this situation: his summons. "Listen up-" "I''m not as big of a fool as you think, mortal!" Hercules yelled before raising his remaining hand over his head, "Feel the wrath of God!" Hercules already suspected that Arnold being the cunning basta*d he was, would have already prepared some kind of a contingency n well ahead in time. Despite having low intelligence, Hercules was not that big of a fool to allow Arnold to do whatever he was nning to. Thus he used his powers to do what he did to Tiamut, only this time his target was Arnold. However, Arnold wasn''t worried about Hercules'' attack in the least. In fact, he had expected him to try and electrocute him. The only problem was, he couldn''t actively do anything to prevent the attack altogether as the attack was much faster than he could possibly move. His only hope was to take the lightning bolt head-on and wish he could time his skill correctly. If he messed up the timing, he could get injured pretty bad. The lightning bolt hit Arnold right in the head. The force generated by the impact made half of the ck hill crumble. If a hill made of metal such as Adamantine, couldn''t take the lightning bolt, there was no way in hell Arnold would have survived either. People all over the world gasped in horror, as a red lightning bolt fell on top of their beloved Deathless. Hercules saw the reaction of everyone around him and startedughing like a maniac, as his godly aura finally dissipated and he was back to being a Demigod. Nicole saw him powering down and rushed in to confront the basta*d of a god and so did the rest of Arnold''s summons. However, for the first time since the battle started, they weren''t alone. Despite knowing that going against the godly being meant certain death. All of the fifteen thousand remaining warriors simultaneously charged at Hercules. They were scared of the god, someone would have to be out of their minds to say otherwise. But they were even more scared of what would happen if they didn''t stop the mad god now. Somehow, they had found a new kind of energy coursing within their bodies. This energy made them feel like they were invincible. Nothing could defeat them, no matter whether it was a god or the devil. This energy even made them happily embrace death if it meant they could save their families and countrymen. But even before they could collide with Hercules, the demigod realised something. Hercules was aware of how summoning abilities worked. Thus he found it odd that even after Arnold''s death, his summons were still alive. It took a while for his slow brain to process it, but he finally came to the right answer. "Impossible!" He screamed in rage when he saw a lighting from the top of whatever remained of the hill. Hercules now knew how these mortal dogs got the courage to face him all of a sudden. It wasn''t because of the guilt that they couldn''t save Arnold, but it was because of the skill Arnold had used. Hercules immediately recognised the glowing light that even expelled the thick storm clouds away. It was the light only a Guardian angel could generate. "Everyone back down." Arnold''s thunderous voice echoed throughout the ind, "The real battle is about to begin." Everyone thought Hercules deration of war was intimidating. But when they heard the Deathless dering war over the god, they realised that sh*t just got real. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 389 - Youre Nothing (1) When there is no light, only then can one feel the true despair of darkness. Just like the desperation the world had felt a few moments ago, when Arnold had seeming been put out of battle by the one enemy whom the world feared the most. The feeling of despair was strong, yet it did notst for long. For their fears were unfounded. The Deathless was still alive. Just seeing him walk to the edge of the mountain, felt like the world was witnessing the rise of a new sun. The luminous aura surrounding him took away all of the worries of warriors as well people across the globe. All was not lost. They still had a chance. The sacrifices of thousands won''t be in vain. Deathless will avenge all those who died at the hands of Hercules and his army. As the sun crept below the horizon, everyone felt more optimistic than ever before. It was the god of strength''s turn to taste what true despair felt like. Hercules had one chance to end Arnold, once and for all and had he tried harder, Arnold was fairly sure he wouldn''t have survived a barrage of heavenly lightning strikes. But Hercules being Hercules. He just had to boast about his greatness rather than putting an end to his enemy in whatever small frame of time he had. He messed up and as a result, things had taken a turn for the worst. At least for him. At that moment, there was only one thing pacing through Hercules'' mind. ''He will not kill me. He just can''t, Loki assured the father that if the mortal dared to kill a higher being he would lose control over himself...'' Hercules has realised his position. He would have barely managed to handle the fifteen thousand soldiers on top of Arnold''s summons. But now with Arnold being back into the fray, he couldn''t evade death anymore. He might have been a demigod, but he was suffering through the rebound after forcefully transforming into a god. He was breathless. All of his stats have been reduced by 30%. The way he was now, Arnold''s stats were much better than his and without his weapon and armour, Hercules was as vulnerable as a turtle without its shell. Things were not looking good for him. He had to escape. That was all he could do now. On the other hand, Arnold was sporting a brand new armour, in the shape of the guardian angel. Hercules knew how the angel functioned. In a way, it wouldn''t be wrong to say that the Guardian''s defence was absolute. As long as the guardian was alive, no matter how many times Arnold gets hit, he won''t take any damage and wouldn''t lose a single point of HP. Moreover, the guardian wouldn''t disappear until the duration of the skill was over or that the summoner ends up using all of his mana. The only plus side Hercules had was that whenever the guardian got hit, the summoner, Arnold in this case, would lose mana equivalent to half of the damage the guardian took. All Hercules had to do was to hit the guardian angel with blows after blows and hope to drain mana faster. There were, however, some unounted problems he would have to think of a way to deal with first and foremost. Hercules was well aware of the fact that Arnold had a ginormous mana pool. So it was foolish to think that the Guardian would disappear just after taking a couple of hits from him. Moreover, it wasn''t as if the guardian would stand still and not do anything while Hercules treated it like a punching bag. The same was true in Arnold''s case. While it was true that Hercules couldn''t directly harm Arnold while the guardian was still there. The same wasn''t true for Arnold. He could easily attack Hercules while being safe under the Guardian''s vision. For Hercules, fighting Arnold was equal to simultaneously taking on two overpowered opponents and in his weakened state, it was suicidal to do so. While Hercules was carefully nning his next move, Arnold was trying hard to not show what a wreck he was on the inside. In fact, even with the guardian angel activated he was in a crappier condition than he had been in a long time. While what Hercules thought was true, and summoning the guardian indeed saved his life. The guardian''s defence wasn''t as absolute as Hercules had thought. To its benefit, the guardian did protects the user from all types of physical damage. Let it be piercing attacks, shes or blunt attacks. Nothing like those attacks could harm Arnold while the guardian was active. But when it came to magic damage, all the guardian could do was provide the summoner with a teensy bit of resistance. Arnold was not even aware of this until he could hit by the lightning bolt. Since Hercules'' thunder attack had been a magical attack and not a physical one, Arnold was still got a nerve-wracking injury. But it was thanks to that 50% magic damaged resistance of the guardian that Arnold was able to survive even after taking the lightning bolt head-on. Arnold had taken a risk by using the guardian. He wasn''t sure if he had enough mana to sustain the Guardian due to the absurd amount of damage the lightning bolt could do. Still, he knew he wouldn''t die because he had a secondyer of defence ready in case the guardian failed to protect him. It was the skill because of which he had earned the title of Deathless. Sacred Protection. As long as wasn''t on cooldown, Arnold could freely go berserk on his enemies with the fear of death looming over his head. Thus even if the guardian was to fail, Arnold wasn''t going to die by Hercules'' hands. But thankfully, the skill hadn''t activated. The guardian had sessfully saved his bratty a*s. "I should end the battle while things are still in my favour..." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 390 - Youre Nothing (2) ''I''m sure my body is in terrible condition after that attack.'' Arnold thought to himself as he and Hercules locked eyes with each other, ''But since I can not feel any pain, it is easier for me to focus on the fight rather than my injuries.'' Arnold quickly checked his stats to make sure it was fine to continue fighting against that ape of a god. ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist] (+5) LEVEL: 201 Current EXP in storage: 469,864,596 EXP required to level up: 1,500,000 RANK: Cosmic S SPECIAL SKILL : [DEVIL''S RAGE] Personal details and stats : HP: 20132/30138 MANA: 23012/50337 ___ ''As I expected. My HP didn''t go down by much but my mana has been halved. But wait for a second... This could work!'' Arnold might have wanted to check his stats when he opened the status te. But he was soon hit with another idea to put an end to Hercules. An idea which no longer required him to waste any god ying bullets on Hercules. In fact, he wouldn''t even need to kill Hercules himself now. If his n worked, he would be able to kill two birds with one stone. Earlier he had intended to use the sniper rifle to kill Hercules while he was in his godly state. But that was no longer needed as Hercules had powered down by quite a few levels. Arnold used the probe skill on Hercules once again just to make sure that his hunch was right on point and it was. Hercules was back to being a demigod and had a lower level than Arnold which meant... ''The cardinal''s sin would be effective on him now!'' Things had finally started to look good for Arnold. The only problem was, he would have to say those dreadful words in front of the world. Only then will his summons kill the god as per hismand. But if he said those demeaning words in front of everyone, the image he has created for himself would be destroyed in mere moments. He can''t allow that to happen. No one shall know of his degenerate side! Arnold looked at the people who were still holding onto their cameras as if their life depended on them. "Switch those cameras off before I break them into pieces," Arnold warned the S rank warriors who were all pointing their cameras at him. The warriors started looking at each other with perplexed eyes. They were supposed to telecast the entire battle to the world as they were desperate to know about the end result of the battle. But now they were being told to switch them off. They didn''t want to anger Deathless nor did they want to upset the people watching the battle. They did not know what they should have done. Well, Arnold being the kind and gentle soul he was, got them out of their dilemma by shooting the cameras down. "Now, stay back- Nicole DON''T!" Arnold yelled at her to stop but Nicole was having none of it. While this drama was happening, Nicole decided to end the battle herself. Arnold might have been acting all heroic in front of them but she knew there was no way in hell, he could be unscathed from Hercules'' attack. Also, she didn''t want Arnold to burden himself more than he absolutely had to. But what she didn''t know was that because of the Guardian angel''s presence on the battlefield, everyone who had Shadow affinity had been nerfed. Her mana and HP both had been halved. As well as the cooldown of her skills had been increased by twice what they used to be. Hercules saw Arnold lose his crap over this woman and thus weed her with open arms. This woman was going to be his getaway n. Nicole used her ability to blow Hercules'' head off, but instead, she only managed to graze his shoulder. She wanted to try again but she got a notification stating that the skill was on cooldown. After realising what was going on, she tried to turn away. But it was toote as Hercules grabbed her by the neck and startedughing like the maniac he was. "HAHA! Listen up, Mortal!" Hercules bellowed, "You will now allow me a safe passage to Olympus or I shall snap her twig of a neck!" Nicole once again tried to sever his arm by using her ability, but all she could do was deal a shallow wound to him. This enraged Hercules and he mmed his head on hers, knocking her out. He then turned around to watch the look on Arnold''s face as his grip got tighter around Nicole''s neck. But as he did, his face turned pale. Arnold wasn''t standing on top of the hill anymore but was right in front of him. Arnold''s eyes were zing with unadulterated rage in them. Nicole''s head was bleeding profusely. This made Arnold even madder. Just the look in his eyes sent shiver''s down Hercules'' spine. Everyone around them slowly backed away. None of them wanted to be consumed with Arnold''s anger. Hercules wanted to stay fearless and face Arnold head-on. But his body had a n of its own and his legs began shaking. His hands became too weak to hold on to Nicole any longer. A moment passed and Nicole was on the ground, still unconscious but the mark of Hercules'' head had been imprinted on her. Hercules knew he messed up big time... Even Zeus'' anger was nothing in front of what he was seeing in Arnold''s eyes. "That... was thest mistake of your pathetic life," Arnold mumbled in cold fury, "On this day, I pronounce you dead!" Before Hercules could even do anything, Arnold swiftly ripped his remaining arm before throwing a right hook straight to his face. The following moment, Hercules, the god of strength and valour, was seen flying off to the far end of the ind. "Alice, treat her wounds. I''ll be back in a moment." Arnold mumbled before hopping on Scy''s back and chasing after Hercules. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 391 - Youre Nothing (3) Hercules was a being who had never known the true meaning of fear. Generally, he was the one being feared by the rest, hell, even most of the Olympian gods had a hard time battling against him and yet he was about to be defeated by a mortal. That too in a one-sided battle. His loss was even more painful because he knew Arnold was not even using his full strength against him. He was fighting against the all-mighty Hercules with a handicap and yet, he was going to win. Nothing was more embarrassing than that thought. Zeus and Loki had carefully nned and done everything to give Hercules an unfair advantage over the mortal. They had thrown everything they possibly could to aid him, without raising other''s suspicions. But even after all their nning and plotting, they were met with a miserable loss. However, they weren''t the only ones who had lost something. Hermes wasn''t very happy with the results either. Since he had known all about Zeus'' n, he had ced everything he had, all of thes he had cultivated over the years, all of his services, everything against Arnold. And now that the mortal''s victory was assured, there was no limit to his rage. He wasn''t alone either. Almost all of the Olympians had ced their bets on Arnold''s defeat, and now they were cursing themselves for doing so. Arnold had not only outsmarted Hercules, he had outsmarted almost the entire Greek Pantheon. Apollo, however, was one of the happiest gods alive. He was one of the few who had put their trust into the mortal and ced everything he had on his victory. And Arnold did not disappoint him. For a second even he thought Arnold was done for when he saw Hercules using Zeus'' lightning bolt. But it turned out that the mortal had a skin as thick as Gaia herself. Either way, it was all thanks to Arnold, that Apollo was now officially the next in line for the Olympian throne as he had the most number of gxies,s and stars under his control. ''I am indebted to you, mortal.'' Apollo thought with a smile as big as the sun itself, ''One of these days, I''ll make sure to repay your kindness.'' No one in Olympus or even in Asgard thought Arnold would be able to survive against the all-mighty Hercules. After all, Hercules was strong enough to give an unpowered Thor a run for his money, and yet Shiva''s vassal almost made Hercules defeat seem too easy. Now they were busy questioning themselves, why were they worried about Hercules so much? Had they overestimated him? No. Thetter question was wrong. The Asgardians would never in a million years underestimate an opponent, especially after they got their a*ses handed to them during Ragnarok. This could only mean one thing. Arnold was now stronger than most if not all of the demigods. When Arnold had first defeated Tiamut, everyone thought it was just a crazy stroke of luck. But now that he was going to do the same to Hercules, they realised what Arnold was truly capable of. He was no mere mortal anymore as no mortal can defeat two demigods and live to tell the tale. However, Zeus was seething with rage. He had used every underhanded trick he could think of in order to give Hercules an unfair advantage over Shiva''s vassal. And yet his barbaric moron of a son failed to do the one thing he had asked from him in over a million years. Arnold''s victory was a p to his face and he would not forget about it anytime soon. Zeus immediately left the garden where all of the gods had gathered to watch the epic battle between Hercules and the mortal. Judging by Zeus'' demeanour, Hera knew something was wrong with her husband. He had not even bet anything on that battle, as usual, thus there was no reason for him to be angry about something. ''Maybe it''s because his basta*d son lost the battle.'' Hera shrugged her shoulders and continued enjoying the Mortal''s victory. The queen of Olympus was a beautiful, mature woman with luminescent blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes that were enough to charm any mortal man in the universe. She wasn''t the goddess of marriage, women and fertility for nothing. But she was also something else. Hera was Arnold''s secret admirer. The way he always faced any challenge head-on even after knowing he was outssed and outmatched had... piqued her interest in the mortal. Arnold reminded him of Zeus in his youth, when he was still her man whom all of the gods feared and respected at the same time. However, all those feelings went to drain when Zeus got to have his affairs without facing any proper consequences. She has had the feeling to do something like that once before and wanted to give Zeus ''a taste of his own medicine''. Thus, she tried to have a baby on her own, but her child was born ugly. She was not impressed, to say the least. Especially since most of Zeus'' basta*d children had inherited one thing or the other from their father, but her affair child didn''t. So, like the heartless bit*h she was, she threw the child from the top of Olympus. This was how Hephaestus was born. But with Arnold, she felt like with a handsome man like Arnold as the father, birthing an ''ugly'' child was out of the question. However, she couldn''t act on these feelings. Not when the mortal had too many eyes on him. "Hermes, tell yourckeys to go and retrieve those corpses. Hercules might have been defeated by a mortal. But he''s still a part of this pantheon... as much as I dread it." Hera ordered Maia''s son who was still throwing a fit because of all thes and gxies he lost, "And cool yourself off. Those moronic expressions of yours are ruining the beauty of the garden." Hermes got up to leave. But before he could even take a step, Athena stopped them all. There was something weird going on in the mortal realm. "What is he doing now?" Athena asked the other gods before they could on their separate ways as they thought the battle had been pretty much over by now. "Oh ho," Hera smiled when she saw what Arnold was nning to do, "Looks like defeating Hercules wasn''t enough for our little guy." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 392 - Youre Nothing (4) "I AM HERCULES! THE SON OF ZEUS! THE CHAMPION OF OLYMPUS! NO MERE MORTAL CAN SLAY ME- ARRGH!" Hercules yelled in a fit of rage as his only remaining limb was swiftly ripped off from his body. Now he was a demigod only in name and nothing more. He couldn''t even move on his own, let alone fight against someone. But even after doing this, it wasn''t enough for Arnold. He wanted to teach all of the gods a lesson. A lesson to not mess with him or his. But if they still decided to invade earth, either way, he would being after them the next time, and the aftermath of their battle wouldn''t be a pretty sight. At least for the gods. "I... am... Hercules... Son of Zeus..." Hercules kept mumbling mindlessly. He had too much blood but Arnold made sure that he wouldn''t die of blood loss, even if it was a thing among the gods. He wanted Hercules to cry in misery, thus after Arnold was done dissecting his limbs, he immediately sealed the wounds usingva. "You''re nothing." Arnold mumbled in cold fury before grabbing Hercules by his long hair and slowly dragging him back to where all of the warriors were waiting for him, "I am this, I am that... you''re dogsh*t nothing more. Maybe even calling you that is a disgrace to the dogs." "You dare-" Before Hercules could even finish cursing him, Arnold mmed his head on the ground with all his might. Albeit, ''all his might'' didn''t mean much since Arnold barely had any strength left in him. Fighting against the demigod hadpletely drained him. He waspletely exhausted after subduing Hercules, but his exhaustion didn''t mean he would let Hercules go so easily. Judging from what Hercules had said before destroying Tiamut, Arnold was sure that these basta*ds, including the Olympian soldiers can be revived as long as the gods can get a hold of their bodies. This could end up being a pain in the butt for him because if the gods got their hands on Hercules or his soldiers, they could once again pull some crap like they did his time. Also, next time they woulde even well prepared, as they had seen what he was capable of, and Arnold wasn''t a fan of the idea, to say the least. Thankfully, Arnold knew of a way to take care of the situation. But in order to do so, he would need the help of both Talos and Yan. That''s why he wanted to take care of Hercules as soon as he could. Once that was done, he could travel back to Zone 4 along with all the corpses and revive them as his ownckeys. Arnold also didn''t want to waste an opportunity to add the Olympians to his army. As in his eyes adding the Olympian army to his ranks was not less than conquering Olympus itself. Not to mention the blow it would deal to the one responsible for this attack. Not only did their n to kill him failed spectacrly, but they would also end up losing a godly army. Arnold wanted to rub more and more salt on their wounds. He intended to humiliate those who wanted to go against him, let be a god or a mortal being. Furthermore, the army of ten thousand Olympians had already proved that they were the strongest army anyone had ever seen, so bymanding them, Arnold was looking to solidify his position as the world''s strongest. That way, he wouldn''t have to worry about the pdin''s anymore as even they won''t dare to go against him. But even if they were foolish enough to do so, he would kill them all without any hesitation. At this point, the duration of Guardian Angel was up and Arnold was left with a minuscule amount of mana with him. Still, it was enough to kill the demigod. However, as much as Arnold wanted to kill that filth of a demigod by himself. Hercules was not worth taking the risk of losing his sanity. More than that, Hercules didn''t deserve an easy death. Not after what he and his soldiers did to Earth''s warriors. He was responsible for the deaths of over thirty-five thousand people, and Arnold was going to make sure even in death, the fallen warriors receive justice, in the most gruesome way possible. Hercules had a lot of pride in being a demigod. Just like every other demigod who was nning to go against Arnold. Thus Arnold was nning to use Hercules as a medium to convey his message to those damned gods once and for all, and he wanted to make sure to do it in a fear instilling manner. ''What can be more fear instilling than to watch a god being stomped to death by a bunch of mortals?'' Arnold smiled like a true sadist as he arrived in front of the warriors. Everyone who saw Arnold, was filled with relief and fear at the same time. They were relieved because his return meant that Hercules had been dealt with. While they were afraid after seeing the particrly evil smirk, Arnold had on his face. The Warriors got even more confused when they saw what Arnold was dragging behind him. it was a crippled body of Hercules who seemed to be unconscious. They wanted to ask Arnold what it was about but decided to keep quiet as he dropped Hercules in front of them before heading to check on Nicole. "How is she doing?" Arnold asked Alice who was finally done treating Nicole. "Better than before. She copsed due to exhaustion. That''s all." Alice replied, "Do you want me to check you as well?" Arnold shook his head in response before turning to face thest of the warriors. "Warriors!" Arnold yelled at the top of his lungs, "This ''god'' and others like him, think of us as nothing more than mosquitoes. They think they cane to our world and rule do as they please. We might have won today, but is it even a victory? I say it''s not! Today we lost thousands of noble and brave souls and for what? All because a maniac god decided to bring terror upon our world all because they were feeling bored?" Everyone waspletely silent. What Arnold was saying was true. Why did a god pop out of a dungeon in ce of monsters? Was everything that had been happening in their world their fault? "We might have won today. But those basta*ds won''t stoping after us if we don''t teach them a lesson." Arnold continued enraging them with his words, "So I''m giving you a choice. A choice to show those gods, whom they are messing with. A choice to avenge our fallen brothers and sisters. A choice to kill Hercules. Are you with me?" "Yes!" Arnold heard various cheers from the crowd, but it wasn''t enough. "I said, Will you defeat the gods!" "YES!" "Will you avenge our allies!" "YES!" "Then what are you waiting for? KILL HIM!" As soon as Arnold gave them the green signal, the horde of warriors lunged at Hercules who had just opened his eyes after hearing the noise. But momentster, he was about to wish he had never woken up. The Warriors jumped at him like a pack of vicious wolves with only one thing in their minds... revenge for the fallen warriors. "GET AWAY FROM ME! NO! ARRRGH!!!" Hercules'' screams shook Olympus to its core. But Arnold was still not done as he turned towards his summons and uttered the words he was previously embarrassed to say. "It''s snu-snu time." And with that, even his summons jumped into the fray to stomp Hercules to death. While they were handling Hercules, Arnold decided to visit Zone 4 to check how things were going there. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 393 - Just Surrender (1) On the other side of the, another one-sided battle was now finallying to a close. The area around the alpha base had been thoroughly ssed by the methrowers and other turrets. Everything within a kilometres radius had turned ck due to the heavy shelling and unregted use of superhuman abilities. As if the wastnd itself wasn''t horrendous enough, the carnage left after the battle was even worse. At least before, one could enjoy the beautiful sight of dawn and dusk but now, even that sight had been tainted. Both parties had started their fight against an unprepared enemy. As Talos and other summons were aware of who they were up against. While the brigadier, although knew who his enemies were, had drastically underestimated them. However, in the end, it was the Brigadier''s overconfidence that led to his failure. By now, it was undeniable which side had won the battle as monster corpses were littered all over the battlefield, while not a single automaton had been destroyed. Talos and his army had taken the Brigadier by surprise. The Brigadier''s army might have outnumbered Talos and his army by a lot. But the brigadier had forgotten something. Rather than focusing on improving his undead summons, he had focused on their quantity and not quality. Arnold''s summons may have been less in number, but even Yan''s undead could easily take on ten of the Brigadier''s monsters without any aid from Yan. So one could only imagine what a carnage an entire battalion of Arnold''s summons would have caused once they were unleashed on the unsuspecting monsters. The Brigadier general had beenpletely outsmarted and outperformed by the trio of Arnold''s summons. As he had no measure against their collective thinking or their teamwork. He thought he alone was enough to take care of both Arnold and his summons, however, he had been wrong and he would have to pay the price for his immature mistake with his life. Although, his defeat had been assured a long time ago, yet, he still wasn''t ready to give up. The resilience that had kept him sane all those years in the vast wastnd, did not allow him to give up so easily without fighting. He was a conqueror! He was a Pdin! What were these puny creatures in front of him? Nothing! They were nothing more than a speck of dust. No way in hell was he going to surrender to these lower pieces of crap. Especially without fighting with Arnold. In his eyes, even Talos, Asterios and Ogur were frail creatures. It was a different thing that he wasn''t able to even fight against Yan, who was by far the weakest among Arnold''s summons. Moreover, whenever he asked his goddess'' voice to aid him, the brigadier received no response from her. All he wanted to know was the level of his opponents, but the voice never replied to his requests. Maybe the voice had malfunctioned? That could be the reason why the goddess he had devoted his entire life to, could not guide him anymore. Well, he would wish that was true, but the reality of the situation was... that his Goddess, Hel, had abandoned him. Earlier she had intended to aid him in his battle against Arnold''s summons. But when she got the news that Hercules had been defeated by Arnold. She along with Surtr immediately retreated from earth on Loki''s advice. As soon Arnold was going to gain something no mortal being ever had in a long, long time. Moreover, when Arnold obtains his new powers, the existence of lesser gods won''t be a secret to him anymore as he would be able to sense them. Furthermore, if he got to know that Hel had been the one messing with him behind the curtains, not even Loki would be able to save her. That''s why Hel had to run away after erasing any trace of her, including the Brigadier''s system because that was the only thing she could do now. It was the same for Surtr. Even he didn''t want to stick around when Arnold ascended for the second time. But even if Hel''s system had been there. It couldn''t have done much. But to inform the Brigadier of the misery that was in front of him. Talos'' level and stats were higher than his stats as he was still stuck at Cosmic C rank. Even if his gears were considered, he was no better than C+. "Just give it up already and surrender yourself for your crimes against the nation. Well, before that you should surrender for your crime against our master. Because he might not be as lenient as the courts." Talos yelled at the top of his lungs, "Especially not to an ugly basta*d like you." Although it looked like Arnold summons had surrounded the Brigadier and were bullying him. The reality was somewhat different. They weren''t bullying him, they were humiliating him. Talos already knew the brigadier was even more stubborn than their master, hence he would not give up so easily. So he thought why not let the summons have a bit of fun till theypletely broke him. Moreover, now that he had received a report stating that Hercules had been taken care of. Thus he and the rest of the summons were in no hurry to end the Brigadier''s misery and join their master anymore. Their master could enjoy his victory over a demigod, while they enjoyed their own victory in the wastnd. All of the summons had formed a circle around the Brigadier. One could say that it was a circle of death, which the brigadier could only leave once he was dead. The summons were taking turns to attack him and considering how things were going for the brigadier, it didn''t seem he was going tost for long either. His body was full of holes and shes which were no longer healing on their own as he no longer had a system to aid him in the battle. With the disappearance of the system, he had lost most of his battle-rted skills. Thus, he was nothing more than what he had been on the day Arnold had kicked him out of the alpha base. "It''s not that I''m not enjoying how you people are thrashing him," All of a sudden Arnold''s voice came from behind Talos, "Do you mind wrapping it up? I''d like to take Talos and Yan with me. We have things to do." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 394 - Just Surrender (2) "Master... You''re here..." Yan slowly mumbled in his low pitched, hissy voice. "Nah, I''m still on my way. It''ll take three business days for me to arrive here," Arnold shook his head before smiling. He could finally have some fun now that all of the problems have been taken care of. He didn''t realise it earlier, but he had been quite tensed in recent times because of all the problems that kept popping up in his life like mushrooms in rain. First, it was his intention for revenge, then the minotaurs, then conquering China, then Hercules and his army and finally this dumba*s brigadier. He didn''t get much if any, time to rx. But now he only needed to do one thing and rest for a long, long time. There was another reason why he was in such a hurry. Nina must''ve been watching the battle from the mansion. And well, since he broke all of the cameras, there was no way for her to know whether the battle was over or not. Until the Council of Nations made an announcement regarding their victory. So, in short, Nina would be worrying too much about him... or maybe she wasn''t worried at all. Arnold will never know what was actually going inside her head. "Of course I''m here. Now let''s get going, shall we? Talos you''reing with us too." Arnold instructed his summons, before turning around to leave, " And the rest of you, feel free to have fun with him but try not to kill him. I have some things nned for that idiot-" "ARNOLD LING!!!" The Brigadier roared in fury and charged towards him. The only thing he forgot was where he was standing at that moment. He was surrounded by Arnold''s summons. Summons, who were strong enough to kill him in one blow. So it wasn''t a good idea to yell at their master. But this didn''t stop him, not until Asterios grabbed him by his nape and lifted him off ground and started swinging him like a ragdoll. "Did you forget your ce?" Asterios smiled after seeing that Brigadier was about to throw up. "Right, I forgot about his powerplex," Arnold sighed in annoyance. He just wanted to get things done and get home, but they just piling up on him, "Dude... What part of ''I killed a demigod'', don''t you understand? Hercules stood no chance against me and you think you can kill me? That too when you couldn''t even take on my summons?" "Your summons are your strength," The brigadier snarled at him once asterios stopped swinging him, "Without them, you are nothing! They are stronger than you are and I can take you on. Even now, you''re only acting all high and mighty because of this fcking cow!" "Is that so? Well, we can easily get rid of your illusion, can''t we?" Arnold turned towards Asterios, "Let him go. I want to see how this idiot is nning to teach me a lesson. All of you, stand aside and don''t interfere." "But master... you don''t need to bother... yourself with filth-" Yan mumbled but Arnold waved him off. "It''s cool, Yan. It''ll be over in a sec." Arnold smiled, "Asterios, let him go, will ya?" Asterios nodded and let the brigadier go. All of the others stepped out of his way as well. ''Got you!'' The brigadier smiled like the sicko he was before charging towards Arnold, ''Once my axes graze your skin, it''s over for you!'' Both of the brigadier''s axes were coated with poison extracted from the most venomous creature of the wastnds. In fact, his goddess herself had blessed the weapon which made the weapon even deadlier. The only reason he was struggling against Arnold''s summons was due to the fact that most of them were undead. No matter how deadly his poison was, it couldn''t kill someone who was already dead. However, it was a different matter altogether when it came to Arnold. He was as lively as anyone could be. Thus there was no reason for the brigadier to believe that the poison won''t work on him. The brigadier thought he was being sneaky. When in reality, Arnold could read him like a book. The way he was fidgeting with his weapon, it was clear to Arnold that the weapon was the reason why the brigadier was boasting so much. So he used the probe skill on the weapon to see exactly why was the brigadier jumping so much. ___ OBJECT: Hel''s Axes (Poisoned) TYPE: Weapon GRADE: Cosmic C THREAT: Negligible REMARK: A weapon bestowed upon Hel by her loved one. However, the goddess herself had no use for such a trivial weapon. Thus after carrying the weapon with her for millions of years, she handed it down to her Pdin. The one who, in her eyes, would change the mortal realm for her gain. Upon receiving the weapon, the pdin further reinforced the axes by coating them with a special kind of poison brewed by using multiple ingredients from poisonous nts and venomous monsters. the weapon itself is extremely dangerous to mortal beings. Sadly for the people who put in so much effort in making the weapon, it won''t have any effect on you, since you''re no longer a human being but something between a full-fledged demigod and a human. ___ ''Poison? Again? Come on, get creative for once damn it!'' As soon as Arnold was done reading the stats, the brigadier lunged at him. However, Arnold already knew he would attack first. Hence, he easily grabbed the Brigadier by his neck, lifted him up and mmed him down onto the bloodied ground, in one swift move. "That must have hurt..." Talos mumbled, thinking if this wasn''t supposed to be manhandling, then Talos didn''t know what could be the true meaning of the word. "Listen, you piece of jacksh*t." Arnold red right through the brigadier''s soul and a momentter, all thoughts about revenge flew straight out of his head, "It''s been a really long day for me and I''m tired. Very tired. When I''m tired, I get easily irritated, and when I get irritated, people tend to lose their life. Now all I want is to have a nice, long and hot shower, put on some clean clothes and go and visit my fiance who most probably stressing herself out for no reason whatsoever. And that isn''t good for our baby. Is that too difficult for idiots like you to understand?" Brigadier General remained frozen on the ground in fear. Arnold may have been exhausted quite a bit after fighting with Hercules, but it didn''t require much of his energy to handle small flies like the Brigadier. If he wanted to, he could have put an end to brigadier right then and there. But Arnold had some questions he needed answers to and only the brigadier could''ve provided those answers to him. So Arnold had to keep him alive till he got Amanda and Natasha to use their magic on the Brigadier to get the answers to his questions. "Do yourself a favour. Be a goodd and just surrender," Arnold let out a heavy sigh, "If not, then I''ll have to kill you, resurrect you and then get those answers out of you." "I... give up." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 395 - Ascension, Again!? (1) "Just what happened here?" Talos asked Arnold as soon as they arrived on the Ind. "Battle... with a Demigod..." Yan replied before Arnold got the chance to. "Oh really? I thought it was a battle between two ant colonies." Talos shook his head before looking at the hell in front of him. Talos thought that the scene they had made in the wastnd was as bad as it could get. But Arnold proved him wrong, yet again. The ind was in far worse condition than the wastnd had ever been. No matter where Talos'' eyes went, all he saw was carnage and death. The entire ocean around Cetus was filled with corpses. Even, Yan, who was a master of death felt a bit out of ce with all the death around him. One could guess that things have gotten way out of hands, when a Lich starts freaking out after seeing death all around him. Upon, Arnold''s request, the warriors along with his summons were busy collecting the corpses of the Olympians in a heap, while the bodies of warriors were being organised in neat rows. The only thing was, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn''t find everyone''s corpses as most of them have been either tossed in the ocean ot have been eaten by the whale they were standing on. Out of the thirty-five thousand warriors who were missing, they could only manage to find the corpse of about a couple of thousand of them. While the two of Arnold''s summons were shocked after seeing the aftermath of the battle. The warriors who had seen it all happen right in front of them, felt something they had never before: A sense of guilt after winning the battle. They were used to celebrating even the smallest of victories. However, that wasn''t the case this time. Despite this victory was the biggest victory in the history of humanity, no one was happy with the end result of the battle. Even if the humans had won against the Demigod and his army, it didn''t felt like a victory to them. The sad thing was, they were right. There was no victor in this battle. Most of the warriors felt disgusted due to their inability to protect theirrades. And no one could me them for feeling that way. After all, they had won after sacrificing more than thirty-five thousand people. These people were just like them who had family and friends that they won''t ever get to see again. All because of a demigod who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to rain hell on them. They felt like they had no right to be happy. For the world, they were heroes, but in their eyes, they were just cowardly basta*ds who survived just because they decided to stick close to Arnold''s summons rather than go all out in the battle. They thought taking out their anger and frustrations on Hercules would have them feel better. But it didn''t. Their anger was gone but regret had taken its ce. It was clear from their faces how much of a toll this battle had taken on both their body and their soul. Prior to this fight, they thought of themselves as unrivalled stars. Only now they realised their strength didn''t mean sh*t in front of the vast universe. There was always someone better than them. They now realised that all they had was borrowed powers, and nothing more. If it hadn''t been for Arnold, all of them were as good as gone. The world was filled with better and worse versions of loss. And for them, this was the worse loss they could ever experience. Arnold had expected this much to happen, however, he had no idea how to console them. Thanks to his actions up to this point, he had became more or less emotionally dead by now. The only people he still had feelings for were his family and his enemies. To the rest of them, however, their existence did not matter to him. He had gotten angry at Hercules when those thirty-five thousand people lost their lives, not because he waspassionate about their existence. He onlyshed out because he felt like Hercules had disrespected him. Also, the only reason he let Hercules be killed by them was that he wanted to send a message to the gods. He didn''t do it because he had a sense of justice or something. However, before Arnold could further self assess his situation, the warriors interrupted him. His arrival on the ind had not gone unnoticed. "Arnold, we have collected as many corpses as we could but-" Nicole wanted to give her brother an update on the situation, but was cut off immediately. "Why are you working? I thought I told you to rest? Oh just forget it, we''ll chatter." Arnold waved his hands around, "Thanks to everyone for their work. My summons will handle the rest. I know you must be tired so for now, I''ll open up a portal that''ll teleport you to china. Amodations for your arrival have already been made there. So feel free to stay there for as long as you need to. Also, I''ll make sure everyone who lost their lives, receives a farewell they deserve." Saying so, Arnold opened a travel portal. He could open the travel portal more often now as he had dumped all of his residual potential points to level the skill up. As a result, the cooldown of the skill had been reduced to five minutes. Thus he could use the portal without much hassle. The warrior thanked Arnold for his efforts as they stepped into the portal one after another. Everyone except Arnold''s summons and the council members left the ind without causing any hassle. "What are you people waiting for?" Arnold asked them, "When i said you can leave, I meant all of you. Well, except nicole as I still need to have a talk with her." "We just wanted to check up on you if you were okay..." Seomun was the first to respond while the others nodded behind her. "Oh... um... yeah. I''m fine. Y''all should get some rest. I''ll be joining you people soon." Arnold gave them a half hearted smiled as they left and the portal closed behind them, "Alright you two, get to work. Yan, revive those Olympians and Talos, get ready to revive Hercules." "Wait! Arnold! Are you out of your mind?" Nicole intervened, "That guy can kill you if you give him the chance!" "You worry too much," Arnold flicked her forehead, "He''ll be my bit*h. Just wait and see." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 396 - Ascension, Again!? (2) The ground trembled as Yan raised the dead Olympians once again to conquer their enemies. Only this time, their enemies weren''t going to be humanity but the Gods. The sight of ten thousand armoured zombies didn''t look pretty, to say the least. But Arnold didn''t resurrect them to look good in the first ce. All he wanted was for them to retain their stats, and thankfully their stats were more or less remained the same. He had asked Yan to resurrect them only because of their strength. If their stats would have reduced upon resurrection, they wouldn''t be of much use to him other than beingbours or a meat shield. "Don''t you think your abilities are a bit... overpowered?" Nicole mumbled to Arnold who was standing next to her, "I mean, we all get stronger by defeating enemies, but you''re something else. Our growth pales in yourparison."?? "That ain''t my ability. Well, maybe it is... this sh*t is tooplicated anyways." Arnold didn''t want to give too many details about all the resurrection stuff because he still didn''t trust Donna. Anyways, Talos'' and Yan''s abilities were theirs, to begin with. Even now, it might seem that the Olympians were a part of his army, but in reality, Arnold had no control over them as they belonged to Yan and Yan alone. But since Yan belonged to him, this indirectly made the Olympians his army. But he didn''t need to exin all this to Nicole. Not until he found a way to subdue Donna without affecting Nicole. "Alright then, let''s keep things going. Talos you ready yet?" Arnold asked the automaton who kept hovering above Hercule''s corpse rather than resurrecting him. "Hm... I am ready master, but it seems our guest isn''t." Talos mumbled a response after squatting down next to Hercules. "What do you mean? Is the corpse in such a bad state that even you can''t resurrect him?" Arnold rushed over towards Talos to see what was wrong. "No master, that''s not a problem this time. With my evolved resurrection ability, I can resurrect someone even if they have be a mashed potato." Talos replied before drawing his guns out, "The problem here is... this basta*d isn''t dead yet." "What the hell? How is that even be possible?" "I know it seems strange but it''s true. Even after being thrashed so hard, he''s still alive. At least in the literal sense of the word. It''s faint, almost non-existent, but he has a pulse. It seems like he is some sort of hibernation or something." Arnold could believe what Talos was saying, but then he remembered that he never got the experience points after Hercules apparently ''died''. He had chalked it up thinking that technically the warriors were the ones to kill him. But then he was reminded that even if that was the case, he should have gotten a share of the EXP at least. "This... sneaky bastard. He was most probably thinking some god wille and save him." Arnold kicked whatever remained of Hercules'' corpse in rage, "Yan would you have been able to resurrect him?" "I... wouldn''t... have been... even if he... was dead..." Yan sincerely apologized for his ''ipetence''. "Then that was his intention. he thought I''ll try to resurrect him, fail and think he can''t be resurrected. So he faked being dead hoping I would leave him be and some as*hole god woulde to save his butt. Too bad he wasn''t aware that Talos had a superior resurrection ability." Arnold scratched his forehead, "If it wasn''t for Talos, he could have easily gotten away with this sh*t. Alice, Natasha, how could you miss such an important thing?" Alice and Natasha both were equally surprised when Talos told everyone that Hercules was still alive. To be honest, they hadn''t noticed it. But it wasn''t like it was their fault either. Even Talos was only able to determine that because he had decided to scan him for vitals on a whim. "Master... I think it happened because there was too much lifeforce concentrated around him so we missed his almost non-existent life signs..." Natasha managed to mumble a response before Alice, "But now that you and Madam Nicole are the only ones alive on this Ind... I can feel his diminutive heartbeats." "I agree with her Arnold," Alice chimed in, "We are not trying to make excuses because we know we''re in the wrong here. However, considering all the death and life that was simultaneously around us, it was easy for Hercules to hide among them..." "Keeping that aside, I think it was more of a self-defence mechanism than a prenned move. Because I don''t think he could have thought ofthis by himself." Talos informed Arnold about his theory, "You know, just like the Automatic lockdown system we have incorporated in the automatons. Maybe the pain of being stomped was too much even for him so his brain decided to cut off the pain by shutting everything down. Either way, it doesn''t matter. After all, I can easily kill him. Just give me the word, master. Those dreadful words." Just because it was a serious matter, it didn''t look like Talos would let a chance to embarrass Arnold get by him. But he forgot one thing, Arnold was the one who made him, not the other way around. He already had a response specifically prepared for this. "I already gave the others the word to kill. They are the ones who failed to do so." Arnold was really close to smacking Talos for his cheekiness, "So, I don''t think I need to give you morons themand once again to kill the same person. After all, you''re the ones responsible for this mess, not me." "Damn it." Talos rarely cursed out, but when he did, the others could help to snigger because he never used his voice to curse. Instead, he used one of Arnold''s clippings that he had gathered over the years, "I miss the time when I was the smart one between the two of us..." "Yeah, yeah get to work before I smack your head off your shoulders." Arnold shook his head before turning towards Nicole. "What word is he talking about?" Nicole asked him. "Believe me, you don''t wanna know." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 397 - Ascension, Again!? (3) ___ Your summon has killed a cosmic being.?? EXP: +100000 First rank S Cosmic being killed : EXP: +400000 Bonus for defying the odds. EXP: +100000 You''ll be awarded EXP ording to your participation in the battle. Calcting... Your participation is found to be: 99.95%. 99.95% of the total EXP will be awarded to you. Total EXP earned: 599,700. Threerge healing potions have been added to your inventory. Threerge Mana potions have been added to your inventory. Your title has been upgraded! Name: [God Killer] ---> [Godly Defiance] [This is a title exclusive to the human known as ¡ÁArnold Ling¡Á, which he achieved after sessfully ying, Hercules, the son of Zeus, despite the hardship and overwhelming odds.] Effect: ? When fighting against any kind of monsters, the damage dealt to the monsters is increased by 70% while the damage received is reduced by 60% ? When fighting against Godly beings, damage dealt is increased by 40%. ? Special effect: [Zeus'' Adversary]: Damage against Greek Gods increased by 50% ___ When Talos said Hercules was barely alive, he wasn''t joking. After all, just a flick on the head was all it took to make Hercules rest in pieces. Yeah, pieces because his body physically felt apart as soon as he was dead. But Talos was confident he could still resurrect him. "Now that he''s dead for sure, let''s get to the fun part." Arnold rubbed his hands together, "Oh right, but first, I should do this..." Arnold quickly took out arge mana and HP potion from his inventory, before gulping them down in one go. He wasn''t intending to fight Hercules, but he had to be prepared in case if that basta*d wanted to fight. However, Arnold wasn''t going to fight alone. An hour had already passed since Hercules killed Tiamut, so she was ready to be summoned again. Hercules might have one shot her in his godly state but he won''t be able to do that anymore. Even if he did, he would have to face the new resurrected Olympian army as well. Which Arnold doubted he would do. Hercules was many things and betrayer was not one of them, hence, he would most probably just surrender without much fuss. Without any further dy, Arnold hurriedly summoned Tiamut out, and boy was she pissed. Her anger was rightful, but still, her emotions were all over the ce. More than Arnold would have liked. "Where is that basta*d son of Zeus! I will tear him apart myself! I will-" "He''s already dead." Arnold told Tiamut before pointing at whatever was left of the demigod, "It has been an hour since he destroyed you. Do you think I''d carry on the battle for long after that?" "Eh? Dead already?" "Yup. But don''t worry, you''ll get your chance to punish him soon. So let me prepare you for what''s toe. After all, he was still stronger than you before he died and it''s better to be safe than sorry." Arnold mumbled before cing his hands on Tiamut''s chest te, "You are dangerous enough on your own, but with this, you''ll be more or less on his level. Enhance!" ___ You are using [ENHANCEMENT] on lvl. 191 Undead [Tiamut] ENHANCING... ENHANCING... ENHANCING... [ENHANCEMENT] SUCCESSFUL! All attributes have been increased by 200%! BUFF: Level and rank of [Tiamut] have been temporarily increased. LEVEL: 200 RANK: Cosmic S Bonus effect : STRENGTH (STR) increased by: 500% Duration: Temporary buff. Lasts for 1 hour. ___ "Hm... I was hoping to get a permanent increase, but oh well, beggars can''t be choosers right?" Arnold scratched his chin while looking at Tiamut''s temporary stats, "The buff, however, makes it better altogether-" "This strength... this power... what is this?" Tiamut smiled as she interrupted Arnold, "What is this godly power? How can you do this? Would you keep giving me this strength every time I fight for you?" "Not if you keep going batsh*t crazy after every time I do this..." Arnold stepped back as Tiamut was getting a bit too close for hisfort, much to Natasha''s dismay. In a span of seconds, Tiamut had turned from a cold-hearted bitc* to a power junky. Arnold had not expected this to happen because for most of the time Tiamut usually was a calm andposed... person or dragon or whatever the fck she was? But now, she was acting like a substance abuser who had found something more effective to calm their nerves. "My apologies for my erratic behaviour..." Tiamut finally regained herposure and stepped back, "I don''t know what came over me..." "Don''t worry, it''s fine. Just concentrate on the task at hand. Now let''s head back inside the domain-" "I would strongly suggest you not to do that, Master." Talos interrupted him, "Allowing Hercules inside the void before ''Taming'' him first, could be disastrous." Arnold was a bit confused as to what Talos was trying to say. So Talos carried on with the exnation. "We still don''t know whether Hercules has his own domain or not." Talos reminded him, "This means, he could freely challenge your authority over the domain. Also, in your absence, he would most likely take over without much issue." "Well... ain''t that a bit*h." Arnold had not thought about this. He assumed that Hercules would just be like Tiamut, as she was a demigod who didn''t have a domain, "Tia, do you know whether this a*shole had a domain or not?" "He is one of Zeus'' favourites so of course, he does." Tiamut sincerely replied. "Then I don''t think there''s a point in resurrecting him anymore. After all, I can''t keep him leashed to me at all times. One of these times, he would have to get in the void and then that''ll turn into a problem." "Well... I do have a n to tame him." Talos mumbled before turning towards Natasha. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 398 - Ascension, Again!? (4) Talos called Arnold and Natasha away from the rest of them because the n he had was so absurd that all of them would brand him as a pervert. However, once he was done exining his master n to the two of them, he got a reaction he had never expected. "Do you think it''ll work?" Arnold was doubtful such a cheap trick would work on a demigod. It was a different thing if they were to use it on humans. But on a demigod...?? "Of course it''ll work, master." Talos confidently replied, "Don''t forget who he is. The son of Zeus and you do know how he is. Fcking everything with a hole and even if something doesn''t have a hole, he''ll make one himself and do it either way." "That''s true... But-" "I ain''t doing that." Natasha revolted as soon as Talos exined his n to them, "Seducing someone is a different thing, but this is way out of line. Nope. Not gonna happen even in a million years." "Natasha, let master decided what''s-"Talos tried persuading Natasha but Arnold had already made up his mind. "No, it''s fine," Arnold mumbled before opening a doorway to his domain and stuffing Hercules'' mangled corpse inside, "I''m not in an immediate need of a new summon. I can always have him resurrected once I''ve be much stronger than him because as things stand now, if you were to resurrect him, your ability could potentially make him more powerful than I am. If that were to happen we would lose a lot of things either way." "But master, having him in our army would significantly boost our strategic strength!" No matter what Talos said to persuade his master, Arnold''s mind was already made up, "Also, if you are afraid of him getting stronger, you could just use that excess experience points of yours to level up and tame him that way." "Talos... I''m not going to force someone to do something they are notfortable with. Especially if that someone is one of you guys. Natasha has made it clear she doesn''t want to do that. So the answer is no. We''ll visit this topic again once I have grown a bit stronger. End of discussion. Got it?" Talos nodded his head but otherwise remained silent. He still couldn''t understand why it was such a big deal. He only wanted Natasha to use her powers of seduction to seduce Hercules and sleep with him. That way, he would be bonded with her and would have no choice but to obey hermands. Since Arnold would be the onemanding her, Hercules would have no choice but to obey Arnold''smand. As for Natasha, she was the Queen of subi for fck''s sake. What he had asked of her was practically written in her job description. He had never heard of a subus who didn''t jump on the chance of sexually abusing someone. Especially if that someone was a demigod! Her corporation would have led to what was the best-case scenario for them. But no, she just had to throw a fit. She would dly swing her hips around and smother idiots with her chest, but when she was asked to do the one thing Subi are famous for, she immediately backed out. "I''m sorry master," After Arnold ended the conversation with Talos, Natasha started profusely apologizing to him, "It''s just that I don''t-" "Don''t worry, I got you. You might be my summon, but you have the full right to express your views on something you''ll be involved in." He smiled at her before heading towards Nicole. It was about time for them to head home as well, after all, there was nothing more for him to do on the ind. But before he could take another step a notification popped up on his interface. ___ Since you have defeated her previous owner, Cetus, the world whale, now acknowledges you as her master. Congrattions! You have found a new pet. You can view stats from your information tab. ___ As soon as Arnold was done reading the pop-up, the whale let out a joyful sound and the following moment, the entire ind got cleansed of all the blood and gore along with any signs that indicated that there had been a godly war. However, that wasn''t all. Along with the ind, Arnold received a notification that he had obtained a new sync skill as well. ___ Your pet, Cetus, has given you the [Blessing of the world]. With this blessing, you can find the location of anyone in the world and can teleport to their location on will. However, you would need to know the name and the face of the person to do this. Also, you''ll be the only one who will be teleported there. You can not take apanion to apany you. However, these restrictions don''t affect the beings inside your domain. Once used, this skill will go under a cooldown period of a week. During this period, Cetus will not be able to move, nor would it be able to use any other skills/blessings. During this time, it''s on you to protect your pet as she''ll be vulnerable.Also, Cetus cannot be store in your domain. She is a free creature who will stay on the surface of the known as Earth. This cool-down period can be reduced as you grow closer to your pet. Current rtionship: [Master-ve] Rtionship points required to proceed to next stage: [10/500] You can gain rtionship points by turning the ind into a heavenly abode for the others. Meaning the more you construct on the ind and the more people visit the ind, the closer you''ll get to your pet. New perks and skills will also be unlocked as the two of you get closer. ___ "Nani the fck?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 399 - Ascension, Again!? (5) "What the hell has building sh*t on its back has anything to do with getting closer to it?" [First of all, Cetus is a ''her'' not an ''it''. Second of all, despite her monstrous appearance, she''s quite fond of humans. That''s why in order to get close to her, you''ll have to get other people close to her. As that''ll make her feel wanted and the fastest way to do gain traction would be to build things to attract people''s attention here. You know like an amusement part or maybe something entirely different. It doesn''t matter as long as people visit the ind with good intentions.]?? ''Oh, right. I know she is quite fond of people. After all, she ate half of the warriors who came with me to aid me in the battle against the Olympians.'' Arnold rebuked system sama, ''Who in their right minds would ever visit this ce in a million years? Can''t you see all the corpses here? This ce is a graveyard and you want me to turn it into an amusement park? For fck''s sake, even you know that won''t be possible even if the gods wanted it to happen! People have emotions. They''ll never agree to it.'' [So you''re only talking but the corpses on the beach?] ''... did I hit my head during the fight, or did yours do?'' [Ah... there goes your futile attempt to mock me, right into Cetus'' belly. If you are in a mood for jokes then I''d suggest you host a stand-upedy show here as well. It''ll be a great way to bring people around. It just might put your charisma stat to some use as well.] ''What?'' [Alright, I won''t beat around the bush anymore. You don''t seriously think Cetus ate those thousands of people. Do you?] ''... she did, right?'' [Huh... Maybe you should learn more about mythological beasts... Cetus is a herbivore being who loves humans. She''d rather starve than eat meat, especially humans.] ''But she swallowed them alive so...'' [That was only to save them from meeting their end at Hercules'' hands. If she hadn''t done that, that barbaric moron would''ve used another borrowed skill from Zeus or some other god to kill them all.] ''So you''re telling me that the ones she swallowed-'' [Yup. They''re still alive in her belly. The only unfortunate people who died, are the ones who stayed on the surface or those whom Cetus couldn''t swallow.] ''That doesn''t make any sense...'' [Tell me does any of this makes any sense to you? But just because it doesn''t make any sense, it doesn''t mean that it''s not true.] ''... fair enough. So how do I get them out?'' [She''s your pet. Try asking her nicely. And after you''re done with that, try checking her stats as well. Cetus strength and skills change as she switches owners so it''ll be better to get a read on it.] ''Switches owners? Does it mean she''s immortal or something? I mean, can someone kill her?'' [She''s the world whale. The first creature Earth gave birth to. She''s a bit special and would continue to exist till the end of time. Or I should say as long as Earth lives, she''ll live too.] ''That''s some OP stuff, not gonna lie.'' [Yeah, you might want to get the people outside now?] ''Right. Almost forgot about that.'' Arnold cleared his throat, "Cetus would you mind releasing the people whom you''ve been keeping inside you? I have a feeling they might want toe out now." "Um... Arnold, who''re you talking to?" Nicole mumbled before cing her hand on his shoulder, "Maybe you should rest a bit..." "Oh, I''m just talking to Cetus, the creature we''re standing on. It would seem that everyone who was swallowed by Cetus is in fact alive." Arnold''s matter-of-factly tone made everyone give him a weird look but Arnold didn''t pay any attention to it, "I know it sounds weird but it''s true. Just believe me." "Did Hercules hit Arnold in the head when he chased after him?" Bad-Breath asked Alice who was standing next to him, "Like there are some pretty nasty things in the world right now, but this is some another level of batsh*ttery..." "Who knows maybe what he''s saying is true. I mean, considering our upation, I don''t think there''s anything impossible." Alice replied, "Also, I trust him so let''s just wait and see what happens." Everyone who heard Arnold mumble such an absurd thing was surprised. This included Nicole. She knew Arnold was thinking something when he suddenly stopped talking to any of them. But it was just absurd to pretend that no one who was swallowed by the whale died. Moreover, they didn''t know that Cetus was now his pet and would do anything Arnold asked of her. They were even more surprised when Cetus actually obeyed Arnold''smand. However, the surprises didn''t stop here. Instead of spouting out corpses, as they had presumed, she spat out alive humans. In a blink of an eye, thousands of people whom they had assumed to be dead, were back. Most importantly, they were alive and well! "Holy cow! This madd was right!" Bad-Breath eximed and jumped into the waters to help the people get back on shore. "What are you people waiting for?" Arnold yelled at his other summons, there were way too many things they needed to do, "Alice, Natasha, you girls check them for injuries or anything that I should be concerned about. Cerberus, gather the hounds and light up fire in numerous ces so that they can dry off a bit." Orders came flowing out of Arnold''s tongue as if he was destined to be a rescue team leader, "Dread and Duke take the golems and automatons with you and gather drywood for fire. While you''re at it, there should be some fruit and berries that are safe to eat. So grab as much as you can becasue we''re going to need them. Yan send all of your undead to retrieve the people. Asterios and Tiamut you guys go with them. Scy, fly over the ind and make sure no one is missed. And you Nicole, rx for a bit. You need it." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 400 - Ascension, Again!? (6) "Master, We have contacted the Japanese government and they are on the way." Talos gave his usual timely report while the rest of his summons were busy handling the crowd that had gathered on the beach. While fighting against the Olympians, the ind didn''t seem to be so crowded, but now the ind looked like a colony of ants. Over fifteen thousand of Arnold''s summons were trying their best to help about twenty-five thousand warriors. It was taxing, but Arnold wanted to make sure that all of them were okay. As it was nothing less than a god''s gift to so many people who were thought to have been killed in action, turned out to be fine.?? Not only that, the two reporters who were the first to discover Hercules, were also alive and well. Nakayama quickly recovered from the incident and immediately went back to reporting the story of his ''miraculous survival'' as well as their saviours. He wanted to make sure that the world got to know who the true hero of this battle was as he was afraid the governments throughout the world would try to take advantage of the situation. Little did that he knew, no one in their right minds would try to go against Arnold. Thanks to Nakayama''s surprise new broadcast on his channel, the world got to know about the survival of the warriors. All of this happened mere moments after the council made an announcement that they lost thirty-five thousand warriors in the sh. Arnold could imagine the pain of all the people who thought they lost someone close to them, and also the joy of finding out that their loved ones were still alive... well, most of them were. The Japanese government jumped at the chance to help Arnold as they wanted to have a good rtionship with him. Thus they had sent an advanced force of medics and other disaster management units to help Arnold while Cetus made her way to the maind. Arnold had no way to resurrect the dead back to how they were before. And turning the fallen warriors into his summons was utterly disrespectful to both the brave warriors as well as their families. But at that moment an idea hit him. He could make Cetus a memorial ind so that the ones who lost their lives would be remembered as long as the existed. After all, system-sama had told him, Cetus would exist as long as Earth existed. So what better way would there be to remember the warriors other than to construct a memorial structure on thend they readily sacrificed their lives on. This way, people would also visit the ind, which would make Cetus happy and improve Arnold''s rtionship with her. It was a win-win situation for him. "Alright. Prepare to wee them on board. But be sure to keep an eye on them. You never know what they could be nning to do." Arnold mumbled back while stroking Nicole''s hair, who was fast asleep with her head on hisp. It was safe to say that Nicole was worried about him, even if she tried her best to hide it. But now that everything had been taken care of she could rx for a bit. She fell asleep while talking to him and just like the old times, Arnold began stroking her head. "Master... you just obliterated a demigod. I know earthlings can be foolish at times. But I don''t think they''ll be foolish enough to seek trouble especially against you." Natasha couldn''t help butugh, "I daresay if anything they''ll readily go against the gods but not against you." "I hope so too, Natasha," Arnold smiled a bit as well, "But you never know what these idiots could be nning against me. I have been betrayed way too many times. So for me, it''s better to be prepared and destroy them immediately rather than waiting for them to do something to hurt the others." "Well, that''s true." Talos nodded. "What about that brigadier? Did that moron say anything yet?" "Not yet, master. And I don''t believe he''ll be speaking anytime soon. Your actions... might have resulted in dealing a bigger shock to him than we expected." "Hm... one thing is clear. Whoever this Hel bit*h is, she was involved in both of the incidents. The one with Jake as well as the one with the Brigadier." Arnold sped his fists together before yawning. All of this continuous running had tried him as well and he desperately wanted to sleep even though he was great at hiding it, "Either she has some agenda against me or she desperately wants to get rid of me for some reason. Either way, I don''t think she''ll be bothering us for a long time now. Tell Amanda to inform me once that bast*rd starts talking." "Yes, master." Talos and Natasha left the siblings alone, and yet another notification popped up in front of him. Arnold opened the notification and was stunned by what he saw in front of him. ___ ASCENSION QUEST (2): Rise to Godhood. ? [ INTRODUCTION ]: The universe had recognised your worth. You are meant to do things no mortal being can''t. Sadly, that means you''ll have to face more hardships soon enough. This world no longer needs your support, but craves it. You have proven time and time again that you are no mere human. ying godly beings have be a hobby for you. But your path has lead you to have enmity with the gods. Some of them have grown ufortable with your existence and want to erase you. But they can''t, for now. The only way to counter them is to ascend and be one of them. But can you do the perilous task ahead of you? [ TASK ]: Complete the Second Ascension quest and evolve into a lesser god within a couple of years. That''s all the time you''ll get before the gods would send in their armies to deal with you. Complete the following task before/during event takes ce. ? Kill 10 Pdins ? Kill 5 Vassals ? Kill 3 Demigods [ PROGRESS ] : ? 1/10 Pdins killed ? 1/5 Vassals killed ? 2/3 Demigods killed [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ] : ? Rise to Godhood ? Substantial increase in stats ? Conditional Immortality ? Training by the Immortal One himself __ *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 401 - Kingdom Come (1) "I think your quest is bugged..." Arnold scratched the side of his head, "As far as I can recall... there was a total of nine pdins out of which five became vassals. Which means there are only four pdins on earth. So I can neither kill ten pdins or five vassals because the number of vassals includes me and Nicole." All of a sudden, Arnold''s voice became grim as if he wanted to rip the system out of him, "If you''re hoping I''ll harm Nicole to ascend, then you might as well get out of here before I kill you and that Immortal god of yours for even suggesting such a thing-"?? [Hold your horses, moron. Did I say you''ll have to harm your sister?] "Not directly..." [That''s why you should try to listen to what others have to say before you start jumping around like an idiot. I think I remember telling you this isn''t the first the gods have gambled for.] "Yeah, you did tell me about that." [So, what do you think happens to the Pdins and Vassals once the game has ended?] "Wait, there are multiple survivors? I thought thest vassal standing wins and the game continues till there is only one winner." [Nope. All of the vassals and pdins can remain alive as long as the Gods cane to an agreement on who won. Thest man standing scenario only happens like once in a thousand times. Most of the time, the gods can find somemon ground in dering a winner because for them it is better toe to an agreement than destroy the before it''s fulfilled its use.] "Okay... I hope that happens in our case. Though I don''t think the gods would give up so easily on earth..." [Worry about that once you survive the War of the Worlds.] Arnold kept his silence. He didn''t know what kind of sick event this War of the Worlds was. But judging by the name... it wasn''t something he wanted to be involved in. Sadly he already knew that wasn''t going to be the case. Especially since he had received an ascension quest that revolved around it. ___ Complete the following task before/during event takes ce. ___ ''Yup, I have to be part of the War. No doubts about that.'' Before system sama could exin what this event was, Arnold already had a rough idea regarding it. Judging by the chat he just had with the system, it meant one thing. Surviving Vassals and Pdins from all across the universe would have to face each other. And after seeing the tasks he had received for ascension, he guessed that they would most probably have to fight till death. Sure enough, what he was thinking turned out to be more or less correct as system sama began telling him more about the in detail. [ is an event organised once every 2500 earth years. During this time the Vassals and Pdins from all over the universe are given a set of perilous and life-threatening tasks toplete. However, the first round of tasks is just a way to separate the weeds from the ripe crops. You can say, the first round is a knockout round. Those who fail to survive this round would be thrown into hell. Like literal hell. But I''m sure someone like you would easily ace that test so no need to worry.] "Hm... we are just getting started and it already sounds a bit messed up." [The surviving contestants would then have to go through yet another knockout round. But this time, summoners like yourself can use their summons to aid them.] "Wait... you never told me that, I wasn''t allowed to use my summons in the first round. That aside, can we use our pets?" [It looks like you have already found a loophole in the rules. That being said, there is no mention of a rule that discourages the use of a pet. So even if you do use a pet, I doubt the gods can do much about it. Either way, let''s get back to the topic. In the second round, you can use your summons, but they can''t harm the other contestants. Well, at least not directly but who can predict when a minotaur would go on a rampage and cause a scene in the middle of thepetition.] The system might not have a face, but Arnold could imagine if it had one, there would be quite a smug look on its face, to say the least. That aside, System sama was only giving him the basic rundown of the events and not the actual event that would happen. And Arnold wanted to know why was that. But he kind of already knew the answer. [The events are not fixed. Throughout the years, things have been changing. That''s why it''s impossible, even for me to predict what will happen next.] "I thought so." Arnold gently slipped away from Nicole before heading to the beach, "But I suppose you do know what will happen after the second round. Don''t you?" [Deathmatch... Surviving contestants would have to face each other in a death match against the ones from the other world. The matchup would be based on the rankings of the first two elimination rounds.] "Interesting... I can already imagine how rigged up that''s going to be. Especially since my existence is already a sore spot for most of those basta*d gods." [I''m not going to lie and tell otherwise. But there is a silver lining in all of this chaos.] "What?" [Only one Vassal or pdin can represent a god. It means someone like Zeus who has about a dozen of them can''t make all of them participate in the contest.] "That does seem to be a good thing. So I have two years before the contest happens right?" [Correct.] "Looks like I''m going to spend a hell lot of time in that personal dungeon of mine." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 402 - Kingdom Come (2) One yearter... ___?? You''ve killed a mythical being. EXP: +500,000 You''ve killed a mythical King. EXP: +5,000,000 First Primordial Griffin killed. EXP: +6,000,000 Dungeon EXP multiplier activated. Total EXP gained: 23,000,000. Dungeon Stat bonus activated. The stat points you''ll gain while inside the dungeon would directly influence your growth. While inside the dungeon, all previous rules rted to stat increase are revoked. Maximum Stat level reached. You can no longer gain attribute points by clearing a personal dungeon till you ascend to the next level. ___ "Anything?" Arnold asked while wiping the Griffin''s blood off his forehead [Nope. Nothing changed in your mind. You''re still in control.] "It''s weird, don''t you think?" Arnold mumbled before ordering the frost giants to take the primordial Griffin''s body away, "I wasn''t supposed to kill anything. But even if I do so now, nothing happens. Do you think I''ve been cured of whatever affected me?" [You were never ill, in the first ce. So it''s unlikely that you were suddenly ''cured''. As far as I''m aware, most probably it was all work of a godly diety. Someone had been messing with your mind for a long time. But before I could track down who it was, it vanished. It''s almost as if they are scared of you or whatever you have be now.] Arnold looked around the scorchednd the transdimensional dungeon had led them to this time. Just like the previous three runs, this dungeon too was filled with mythical monsters. Which meant one thing, he and his summons had a time of their lives gaining an absurd amount of experience and attribute points. However, they had a hard time against the monsters they were facing this time: Griffins or as some of them were referred to as Gryphons. These feathered creatures had the body of a lion, while their legs resembled the talons of an eagle as well as they had gigantic wings on their backs that made them capable of flight. This is where the problem kicked in for his summons, while it also made Arnold aware of his army''s biggest weakness. His army was freakishly strong, there was no point in denying that. But they seriouscked the knowledge or strength to battle against aerial units. Most of his summons only aced in ground fights, thus the cunning gryphons easily managed to destroy a lot of them with their extraordinary teamwork. Even summons like Asterios, Grock and Dread weren''t able to withstand the gryphons continuous barrage of attacks and ended up getting destroyed. Even Talos only survived because he had the vindicator with him. None of the summons with close-range fighting abilities was able to do much against the gryphons. But those who were able to somehow counter them thrived in the dungeon as it meant bonus points for them. This was especially true in Tiamut''s case as she finally managed to reach cosmic S rank, while the rest of the elite summons were stuck at cosmic A. All in all, his private dungeon had helped them a lot that too at a crucial time. "I''d be surprised if someone who tried messing with my head wasn''t scared of me. Because the moment I find out whoever is responsible for doing such a thing, I''ll pull their intestines through their mouths, wrap them around their neck and hang them for the world to see." [Yup. Now I know why they ran away. No one would like to die like that. Still, I don''t know whether it''s a good thing or not. it almost feels like a tactical retreat if anything else. But at least no one had disturbed you in thest year.] "No one except that little brat of mine. He''s most probably throwing a tantrum as we speak." [I still can''t believe you''re a father now. There you were getting your a*s handed to you by every guy you ever met, a little over a decade ago and look at you now. Your strength easily rivals that of the lesser gods, and if things keep happening like this, soon you''ll be the only god the Earthlings would preach instead of real gods. Either way, congrattions on having Aiden. I just hope he takes after his mom rather than his father.] "You just had to do that, didn''t you?" Arnold sighed before smiling like an idiot, "I hope so too. I''m too big of an idiot. Aiden is better off taking after Nina. It''s even harder to believe that he is growing so fast. It''s not as if I have seen a lot of children growing up. But even a blind man would notice that he''s growing fast. I mean I could fit him in my palm when he was born and now, I have to use both my arms. I know I''m bbering nonsense now, so let''s just focus on the things we have to do first." Their conversation was soon interrupted by a couple of monsters whom Arnold had, had resurrected after the recent dungeon runs. Shyok and Miro. Shyok was an orc shaman who had the powers to alter the weather and was proficient in using both light and Shadow affinity at the same time. In short, he was someone of much importance to Arnold and had helped him in the rehabilitation of both the memorial ind on the back of Cetus as well as of East America. It was all thanks to Shyok that people were now slowly migrating from the west side of America to the east. Meanwhile, Miro was an elf who was primarily an assassin and was proficient in using a bow and knife. She was so good with her bow that even Arnold had to take sses from her to improve his uracy. More than that, she could fire arrows faster than Arnold could shoot bullets. Also, both of them were ranked at Cosmic B+, which meant even though they were weak inparison to the other summons. They were still one of the strongest beings on Earth. "Master... the gryphon carcasses have been gathered as youmanded," Miro said as she got to her knees, "What''s your nextmand, master." "Good work. I don''t think I have a task for you now. But the two of you should check in with Talos as he might need some help. If he has nothing for you then you''re free to do whatever you want to." "As you wish master." Both of them bowed onest time before heading out. [Who could have thought that the man whom even the gods fear, has such a side to him as well.] "As long as people don''t give a reason to blow their heads off, I think I''m quite a chill person to hang out with. you should know that by now." The following moment there was an explosion, followed by a notification. ___ All monsters in the dungeon have been in. ___ "Looks like the others are done handling the rest of the gryphons as well," Arnold mumbled as he stretched his arms over his head. [If by others you mean, your sister.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 403 - [Bonus ]Kingdom Come (3) [Do you still think bringing your sister around was the right thing to do?] "She is my sister as well as a participant in the War games. I see no harm in having her level up alongside me. In fact, if we earthlings are weak then it would only allow the others to trample us. Now I don''t care about what happens to the others, but I''m going to make sure nothing happens to the two of us."?? [Right.] Arnold knew system sama was ufortable with Nicole due to Donna. And he was right to be doubtful. Even Arnold didn''t trust Donna for a multitude of reasons. But that didn''t mean Arnold could''ve left Nicole on her own, especially after knowing what was going to happen in a year. Still, it wasn''t like Arnold was letting her train mindlessly. As long as she was in his domain, she was under constant surveince from either his summons or by him. Over the course ofst year, there hadn''t been an ident rted to her, only then did Arnold decided to take her for a trip inside his private dungeon. That way he could not only monitor her progress but also keep a close eye on her. But more than Nicole and Donna, Arnold was concerned about something else entirely. And he knew it very well that system sama was not going to like his next question at all. "Um... Has there been any changes in the stats?" [What? Are you hoping you''ll somehow manage to break through thest limit ced on you just like that?] "I mean one can hope for a miracle..." [Wanna know what''s the miracle? You breaking the limits ced on a mortal and yet be alive, that''s a fcking miracle.] Arnold scratched the back of his head while system sama kept scolding him. It wasn''t his fault that he found a loophole in the system and abused it. How was he supposed to know to what extent his stats would increase? He just wanted to be the strongest before the War of the Worlds event took ce. Back when his stats stopped increasing and Arnold was informed that he won''t gain any more attribute points for killing the monsters. He used his brains and kept killing the monsters while storing the EXP earned from the kills without increasing his level. As he knew, even though killing the monsters in his private dungeon wouldn''t give him additional attribute points, the system would still give him the necessary points after he levelled up. And that''s exactly what he did. Arnold used all of his stored EXP to level up at once. That way, not only did he manage to level up but also gain enough attribute points to increase his stats by a margin even System sama couldn''tprehend. But thanks to that, he wasn''t allowed to level up anymore even though he had the necessary EXP to level up. However, his n in fact worked out too well and he also ended up achieving a title for his deeds. ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Rule Breaker] [This is a title exclusive to the human known as ¡ÁArnold Ling¡Á, that he achieved for being the first mortal to have ever tricked a guardian and left alive to tell the tale.] Effect: ? Increases attribute points gained after levelling up by 3 points ? Increases potential points gained after levelling up by 3 points ___ It was safe to say that he had broken the system to the point system sama had to take control over everything before it came into notice of the other gods. "Just show me the stats then..." Arnold had a smug look on his face because he knew how annoying it felt to system sama to look at what kind of crap Arnold had pulled. [Fine.] ___ NAME: Arnold Ling TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer] +5 LEVEL : 351 Current EXP in storage: 123,046,567. EXP required to level up: Max Level Reached RANK : Cosmic SS+ STRENGTH (STR) : 3032 [+400] (due to the gears) DEFENSE (DEF): 2500 [+226] (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 1800 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 2244 AGILITY (AGI) : 1706 ACCURACY (ACC) : 1485 EVADE (EVD) : 1927 MYSTIC (MYS): 3037 Summons details : BELOVED PET: ? Scy (Uncrowned Queen of Dragon) ? Cetus (World Whale) NUMBER OF ELITE SUMMONS: 14/30 ? Duke ? Cerberus ? Talos ? Bad-Breath ? Natasha ? Asterios ? Dread ? Alice ? Grock ? Tiamut ? Yan ? Ogur ? Miro ? Shyok TOTAL NUMBER OF SUMMONS: 50054 ___ "Yup, the stats are broken. Got to admit that much..." [Just the stats are broken? The rank SS+ shouldn''t even exist! There is no rank such as that and yet you somehow have it. What do you think will happen if the gods got wind of this?] "Who knows? Maybe they''ll learn not to mess with me after all?" [As if they''re ever be able to learn anything. Especially those Greek gods, they love messing stuff up. Sometimes even I wonder that maybe it was best for one of them to have you as their vassal considering that you share their hobby of messing stuff too.] "I apologised already, didn''t I?" System sama went silent. As even if he was pissed, he couldn''t do anything to Arnold. In fact, System sama was quite proud that Arnold managed to trick him. But not as proud as when Arnold made the memorial statue that probably became the new sore spot for the Greek gods. What was so special about that statue, you ask? It wasn''t anything great, to be honest. It was just a regr statue of Hercules... being stomped to death by the mortals. Thanks to that statue, the tourism on the memorial ind had increased significantly, meaning that Cetus was happy with her new master as well. "I should probably get going! I don''t want to make Aiden wait for me." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 404 - Kingdom Come (4) [You still need to be wary of the gods. At least the ones who are after you.] ''By gods, if you mean Hel and most of the Greek pantheon then yeah... I have to be careful from now on," Arnold mumbled as he opened a portal to the memorial ind because that was the ce Nina and his son Aiden lived now, "I think I should be able to take care of Hel with my current strength. Zeus and hisckeys, on the other hand, would be a problem. I know I''m not even near his level yet. Even if I was to use Devil''s Rage, I don''t think I''ll be able to do much against him.''?? [You''re right about that. That''s why I rmend you to stay low and not cause unnecessary trouble for either of us.] ''Aye Aye, captain. Now go back to sleep, so hopefully, I can cheat and increase my level again.'' [Don''t you dare.] ''You''re no fun at all.'' [If it hadn''t been for me, you would have been too dead to have fun either way.] ''Cold... that was cold.'' As soon as Arnold stepped out onto the adamantine mountain on Cetus'' back, he was greeted by the brightest sun he had ever seen. But Arnold didn''t mind the sun. In fact, he was happy when the weatherplimented his mood. This happened a lot now since he had Shyok with him, who kept doing everything to please his new master. The za on the memorial ind was full of people as usual, with his automatons guiding everyone to different ces. Watching the people from above made them look like tiny droplets hovering around each other. Arnold could feel their positive energy around him and he was sure Cetus could too. The crowd had a life of its own. Their vibrant clothes shone in the morning light. People were running everywhere, chattering out loud,ughing and reminiscing about the past. The hustle and bustle of the ind made Arnold feel like someone that he hadn''t for a long time... He felt like a human. Not like the''s saviour or anything like that. Just a normal guy with a family behind him. "Not gonna lie, I love the calmness of this ce." Nicole took a deep breath before stretching out, "Too bad I don''t get to enjoy this view more often." "I already told you, you''re more than wee to stay here with me and Nina." Arnold replied before closing the gateway to his domain after Talos followed them, "This could be your home too." "It''s not like I don''t want to. But with you out of America and Johnny''s retirement, I can''t leave the country behind like that." Nicole smiled wanly. "So it''s true then. He is retiring... Man, I feel old now." "Well, Johnny did say retirement had been on his mind for a while now. In his words, he had be a burden after the two of us ''outssed'' him. When he talked to Allen, those were his exact words, so don''t me me for talking behind the man''s back. But yeah... he was an awesome partner to fight alongside with." Arnold sat down on the edge of the cliff, and Nicole and Talos joined him. Things have been peaceful now. There were no abnormal dungeons were popping up, neither there were any hidden enemies for Arnold to hunt down. But he knew that the clock was ticking at this was only the silence before the storm. A storm wasing their way and that storm would most probably wipe a lot of people off the. Arnold just hoped it wouldn''t be someone he was close to because he had started liking the peace around him. But he also knew that if he wanted to protect this peace, he would have to be willing to use his weapons without any regret or hesitation. No matter who it was against. Never in a million years had he thought he would be the protector of not only his family but of the entire fcking world. It felt unreal. The journey had been taxing, but if it wasn''t for that journey, he wouldn''t be where he was now and he wouldn''t have what he had now. "So how''s the Emperor of Asia doing these days. I mean apart from dungeon hunting." Nicole asked her ever-busy brother, "It''s a good thing that you''re at least spending time with Nina and Aiden." "First of all. I''m not the Emperor of Asia... Wait I have most of Europe under me as well. So except United Kingdom, Russia, India, South Korea, and Japan are just my allies. And the rest of them willingly joined the Empire because well, they wanted to get on my good side. Maybe they did so as a way to thank me after seeing how I took care of the terrorist organisations." "Right... they had to join willingly after they became aware of what could happen when you let Scy do whatever she wants. I''m still shocked that you actually did let her loose like that." Nicole might have beenughing it off right now, but back then even she was a bit scared when Scy burned half of the middle-east on a whim. But Nicole knew those terrorists deserved it. Those retarded basta*ds thought it would be easy to make Arnold do their bidding just because they kidnapped some of the Chinese citizens from Arnold''s Eastern Imperial empire. Well, it''s safe to say they didn''t who they were messing with. Arnold didn''t even go to handle them personally. He just sent Scy away with Yan and within a day... no more terrorists existed on the face of the. But there was another reason for Arnold to send Yan along with Scy. With Arnold''s empire growing bigger and wider every day, he needed more soldiers and Yan gave him that. His attack on the terrorist group not only made the world a better ce but also provided Arnold with some much-needed soldiers and workers. After all, ruling over half of the world''s poption wasn''t an easy task. However, Arnold, his summons and his allies made it seem too easy. "Mom and Dad would''ve been so proud of you if they were here... You made their dreame true." Nicole said as she hugged Arnold from the side, "You really made this a heaven, a true kingdome for those who deserve it..." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 405 - Zeus Rage While things have been quiet and peaceful on earth, it seemed like the chaos had found its way to Mount Olympus. It was all thanks to Arnold and his relentless ughter of Hercules. No one had ever humiliated Zeus as that mortal did. As if defeating Hercules wasn''t enough, Arnold just had to set up a statue to mock them. The statue especially hurt Zeus as Hercules had always been his favourite. The statue of a demigod being trampled on by thousands of mortals... If that wasn''t a clear show of disrespect then Zeus didn''t know what else was. His anger had almost gotten the better of him and he almost prepared himself to kill Arnold and his entire for what they did to Hercules. ?? Thankfully he was stopped by Hermes, who was just as agitated as his father. But unlike his father, he had not lost his sense of judgement. Zeus could surely kill Arnold and the rest of those mortals but what would happen after that? The immortal one wouldn''t stay silent. Nor would the rest of the gods, especially those Norse and without Hercules and the Olympian army fighting against any god would be a suicide attempt for them. One they would never recover from, not even after resurrecting. Moreover, none of the gods were allowed to harm any pdin or vassal except their own. If they did, well, then the thing that happened to Hercules would happen to them, only this time it would be the gods stomping on their own kind. And Hermes did not think it wouldn''t be as fun as living in humiliation. "Father, you have to quell your rage. Taking hasty decisions now would only lead to our demise and nothing else." Hermes tried his best to quell his father''s rage, "Think of it like this. Killing that mongrel right now would be too easy. Rather than killing him in an instant, without any suffering would be like a reward to him. Instead, we should work to make his life as miserable as possible by letting him live and watch as everyone around him sumbs to your rage. But till then, you have to hold on to your anger." "Shut up, you hummingbird!" Even though Hermes was moving faster than light, it did take any effort for Zeus to grapple his neck, "You are as useless as a swine''s excreta! My son was defeated... ughtered by those lowly humans and what were you doing? Why didn''t you went to collect his corpse? I could have had my son back! But you... all of you had always been jealous of him. Maybe you were evenughing when he fell. Maybe some of you betrayed him and helped that mortal instead. Yes... you''re the ones who betrayed me." "Father... you''re... choking me..." Hermes barely managed to get those words out as Zeus'' grip tightened around his son''s neck. Just as his vision had started going ck Hermes heard someone yell at the all father. "Enough of it, Zeus!" Hera yelled at her unfaithful husband, "Just because you lost one ipetent son, doesn''t mean you can kill another!" Zeus kicked Hermes away before staring at Hera. He was not in a festive mood at all, and now his wife was there to ruin whatever mood he had left. At times he wondered what it would be like if only he could kill her, just like she had killed many of his lovers. All he could think of was how much he wanted to kill this woman, who once was the joy to his eyes. But now she was just a thorn stuck to his leg. But it was better if that thought never came true as he didn''t have the throne of Olympus because he was the strongest. He only was their king because he was married to the queen. If he hadn''t married Hera, he would just be just a lousy god, nothing more. Zeus knew it very well that if there was to be a war between him and Hera, most of the pantheon would side with Hera with no hesitation. Even his own children would side with her well because unlike him, she was actually respected by them. Hercules and the Olympian army in a way maintained the bnce of power between the husband and wife and now that Zeus had lost both of the things, he was at a severe disadvantage against his wife. He was afraid Hera was nning a coup against him. However, it was just one of his many paranoid thoughts. If Hera wanted to take the throne for herself, she wouldn''t even have to stage a coup. She could simply throw him out of Olympus. But she didn''t, because the moment Zeus was out of the pantheon, the other gods mightunch an attack on them which would inevitably end up either in their death or worse, defeat. Just like Zeus was in a vulnerable state, the pantheon was as well. "It would be better if you do not lecture me about family Hera." Zeus spat out in disgust, "Hercules always treated you with the utmost respect and yet you couldn''t help yourself but mock him even after his death." "Your son wasn''t even able to kill one mortal even with your army and you''re sulking that I am mocking him? Well, boohoo, so is everyone else!" Hera finally lost her temper, "I''ll tell you once and I''ll tell you a million times. Your son was an overconfident and ipetent basta*d! And your sulking wouldn''t change that fact!" Zeus opened his mouth to say something, but in the end, he simply averted his eyes away. He knew everyone single god within and outside Olympus was busy mocking him. "Just tell me one thing Hera, Why did you forbid Hermes from recovering Hercules'' corpse?" Zeus asked her, even though he already knew her answer. "It was your decision to send in Hercules... Not mine. If I was to allow Hermes to go as well, the Immortal one might have seen it as an act of war. You have already been defeated by him even though you were at the pinnacle of your strength. Did you want to repeat it again without the Olympians or Hercules?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 406 - Two Brothers [Warning! Potential cheesy chapter. (It won''t happen again, I swear.)] "Arnold, I''m scared..." Nina mumbled in a low voice, "Or it''s my hormones acting up again."?? Nina was sitting on the bed as Arnold entered the room with a te full of her favourite dish. Well, it wasn''t her favourite but she was advised to eat fish and a lot of fruit juice postpartum. The problem was... Nina hated seafood. She wasn''t allergic to it, she just hated it for no reason at all. But for Aiden, she happily ate it all without anyints whatsoever. Nina wasn''t alone in the room as Nicole was apanying her and the four-month-old Aiden, who was happy in his own world. Talos had been helping Arnold in the kitchen and had followed him back to the master bedroom. The bedroom wasn''t fancy. It was quite unlike anything one would expect for an *Emperor''s* bedroom. It was just a quiterge yet cosy room in their humble abode. The house itself was nothing less than a mansion. It had eleven bedrooms each having attached bathrooms, three kitchens equipped with thetest technologies, three living rooms, a dining room, a special games room for the kids and a big front and back garden where the hounds and the golems liked to y. The back garden also served as a training ground for Arnold as well as his summons. But it was mostly used when Yu Zhung showed up along with the rest of Arnold''s heads of state to discuss something. The rest of the time, the garden was used as a meditation ground for Arnold. Doing mediation had helped him to control his rage a lot. "I know you don''t like fish. But you gotta eat some, once a day." Arnold pushed the te forward, "And my cooking isn''t that bad for you to get scared either." "I''m not scared about the food doofus!" Nina pped her fiance''s wrist, "Mom and dad areing over tomorrow..." "So... what''s there to be scared about?" Arnold blew at the hot tuna to cool it down a bit before feeding it to Nina, "They are here to bond with their grandson. There''s nothing to be worried about." "Yeah but it''s the first time they areing over after Aiden was born... and what if they don''t like how we have been raising him..." "Dear future sis-inw. Aiden has been in this world for four months only. The way I see it, there isn''t much of a raising to do until he''s a bit older." Nicole couldn''t keep it in anymore and burst outughing, "Just think of it like this, Aiden is in safer hands than I was with my big-brained brother." "Wait, what? I did everything I possibly could to raise you. Yet, you turned out to be a brat." Arnold said, pretending to be hurt by his sister''s words. "Bro... rx, I was just trying to make your fiance feel better about herself!" Nicole sighed before shaking her head, "But to be honest, I know you guys are going to be the best parents ever. Orco is a living example of how good your parenthood is." Nina took Nicole''s and in hers, "Thanks Nicole, it means a lot to us." Arnold handed the te over to Nicole the two of them were done with their sisterly bonding time, before turning to Talos. "Speaking of Orco, where is he?" "He is ying outside on thewn with theva hounds, Master," Talos replied after quickly checking in with T-90, who was also the guardian of the boy. "Has there been any signs of, you know, orc-like tendencies?" "Not at all. Devon''s been following your instructions to the letter. Blood tests are being performed on him every morning. If anyone were to see him, they won''t even know that he is not 100% human." "That''s reassuring..." Arnold mumbled before turning back to Nina and Nicole. Orco was the son of the woman who had been impregnated by the demon orc a few years back. It took some time but she was finally able to give birth to her offspring a couple of days after Arnold was done taking care of Hercules. Sadly, she couldn''t take the pain during delivery even with Natasha''s and Alice''s help and passed away. But her son turned out to be extraordinarily human. He had her brown skin and green eyes. Even his hair matched his mother''s. If anyone were to see Orco, they would think he had been cloned from his mother. However, his outer appearance was the only thing human about him. His inner anatomy was that of a monster. He had apletely different set of organs, unlike humans. Moreover, when Arnold used the probe skill on him, he realised that Orco had almost all of the abilities the Demon Orc had.It was only that his skills were in a ''dormant'' state as system sama referred to it. So since Orco looked like a human, and he was just a kid even though he was bigger than most newborns, Arnold decided to adopt him. At first, he was nning to raise him on his own, but Nina didn''t let him do it. So they end up adopting and naming the newborn Orco. It was also the moment when Nina decided she wouldn''t let Arnold name anything ever again, let it be their baby, a pet or anything. Simply because unlike his skills in battle, his naming skill was terrible. She should have expected that though, after all, the names of most of his summons were weird, to begin with. "Nothing will happen to him. Don''t worry." It was Nina''s turn to reassure Arnold, "And he''s going to be an amazing big brother to our little guy." Even Aiden seemed to agree with his mom as he let out a chuckle that made everyone forget about their worries andugh. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 407 - [Bonus ]New Arm (1) The next day, Yu Zhung and other ''kings'' within Arnold''s empire came together for their monthly meeting. This time the main topic of discussion was regarding the revenue generated by taxes. It looked like even with their low taxes, they were collecting way more money than they had estimated. Also, the difference between the estimated and actual tax was like earth and heaven. They didn''t know what to do with the surplus money. So Arnold came up with an idea to pay the taxpayers back through Tax rebates. The idea needed some more work but they decided to end the meeting a bit sooner. Which was a blessing for Yu Zhung as he dragged Arnold away as soon as the meeting was over saying he had something important to discuss with him.?? "Don''tugh at me... but do you believe in reincarnation and past life sins?" Yu Zhung asked Arnold while Talos served them drinks at the bar. Arnold didn''t know it would be such an attraction but Talos'' drinks had be one of the top attractions of the memorial ind. "Where did this came from?" Arnold smiled at him before gulping down his drink. The system didn''t allow Arnold to get drunk, but it failed to make Arnold quit trying. "Ah... just a thought my girlfriend put in my head..." "First tell me, which one is she? the 69th?" "No! Not her. I dumped her when I found out she wasn''t a she." Yu Zhung almost threw up just remembering about her- him, "Please don''t make me remind of her... damn it! Him! Don''t remind me of him again." "Alright, alright, rx. So you got someone new that''s cool. At least you don''t have trouble moving on like the rest of the people do. Now that''s an ability people would die to have." Arnold patted yu Zhung on the back, "Especially the residents of friendzone." Ever since Yu Zhung''s then-fiance left him as he failed to avenge her brother, he had be a bullet train. His dating life was even swifter than a particr singer who did not have Swift in her name. Not that it was a bad thing for her, but it turned out to be a bad thing for Yu Zhung. Ever since his fiance dumped him, he couldn''t help but get attached to people far quicker than anyone should. And that had been hampering his love life. This was also the time Arnold took him under his wings for real and they now shared a brotherly bond. "Nah, I''m famous in China. I don''t get much trouble findingdies to spend a night with. But when I see you and ma''am being all happy and stuff, I realise what I have been missing till now." Yu Zhung mumbled as he gulped down another shot. "Perhaps if you stop pushing women onto your bed on the first freaking date, they''ll try to stick around for you to have a bond." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "Try to take it slowly. It can do wonders." "Oh! That''s it then... That''s the secret of your happy rtionship!" "Nope. That''s not it." Talos finally decided to give Yu Zhung his two cents, "In fact, Master and madame slept together on their first date. If my 2.4 yottabyte memory serves me correctly." "What?" Yu Zhung looked at Arnold as if he had just stabbed him in the back, "You are one sly basta- person, Lord Deathless!" "In my defence, I knew her for like seven years before that happened. So... she knew me fairly well-" "Out of those seven years, you were locked up in that transdimensional dungeon for five years." It looked like Talos had some vendetta against his master as he kept dragging him through the mud, "And one year prior to that you were living in Rio de Janeiro." "Alright, but at least she knew me for a year... right?" Arnold pointed his hands towards the bloodthirsty automaton. "Actually it was more like 234 days, 14 hours, 21-" "Alright! We got it! Geez, dude!" Arnold surrendered to Talos, "Sometimes you really make me want to downgrade your memory. Who the fck remembers that kind of BS anyway?" "Women." Talos gave a swift reply that no one could counter. Women indeed have an inbuilt memoryrger than yottabyte. "Either way, I think Talos can give you better dating advice than I can, seeing that I have only ever been with one woman. Also, because he is the biggest Casanova among my summons." Arnold turned around to leave, "The dude legit builds a new girlfriend from scratch if the previous one breaks up with him, and then tells me he made the automaton for me. What a yer!" "Right... Talos... please make one for me as well." "Well, you know a man''s drunk when he starts fantasizing about a robot." Arnold mumbled before opening a portal to his domain, "Talos, take care of Mr heartbreak for me. Meanwhile, I''ll be in the domain." "Sure, Master. As you wish. But forgive me for asking it but, do you have an important business in there?" Arnold didn''t reply. He just lifted his Bionic arm in the air. "Is there something wrong with the arm?" "Nope. It''s good. But not good enough." Arnold replied while throwing a couple of punches in the air, "I realised it while fighting with Hercules. The Arm is effective against monsters and humans. But I''m afraid it might not be enough in a fight against the gods. Also, I have a ton of materials to experiment on along with more time than I can possibly waste, I thought it was about time for an upgrade." "I''ll take care of everything in your absence. So you can leave without any worries." Talos bowed down as usual. "Thanks, T. I''ll be back in a couple of hours." Arnold mumbled before jumping into the portal, "Now... where is that basta*d Hercules'' arm." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 408 - New Arm (2) The sound of Arnold hammering on some metal echoed throughout the domain. Arnold''s domain had been awfully quiet ever since most of the summons started living outside the domain. It wasn''t their decision do to so, but with half of the world under Arnold''smand, he needed people he could trust to be out there. Not inside his domain. Most of the time the summons only came together when the private dungeon opened. That is, once every three months after that, everyone went their separate ways. The rest of the time, they helped him looking over the world. Or at least the part he owned. The only one to keep Arnoldpany in the domain was Scy. But seeing how lonely she got after spending all the time alone, Arnold decided to let her and Cetus have some fun together. As for his army of undead and automatons, they hadn''t been inside the domain for quite some time as they too were busy protecting the people.?? So, right now, Arnold was the only one inside his domain with a bunch of corpses. As of now, he was busy forging a new arm for himself by fusing Hercules'' remains with a frost giants bone. He had tried variousbinations and although they proved to be strong, they weren''t was Arnold was looking for. He wanted to make something that could potentially one-shot the demigods. He needed something like that because he had a quest to clear and killing a demigod was an important and the trickiest part of it. Well, one could say it was one of the most important tasks because it was so tricky. Arnold was sure he would get a chance to kill pdins and vassals during the War of the Worlds, but he wasn''t sure when and where he would get a chance to kill a demigod. He was kind of in a hurry because system sama had put an end to his level gains. And the only way to start getting more levels along with more attributes and potential points was toplete the ascension quest. He was already being forced to wait for about a year before he could get his hands on some extraterrestrial basta*ds to kill. Hence he did not want to dy his ascension anymore than that. In other words, he was hoping to kill a demigod either before or within the duration of the event. But it wasn''t like he could do anything other than waiting. Previously he thought if he made the gods enraged, they might send in someone else to take care of him. It was also one of the important reasons why he was mocking the gods as if it was his life''s mission. But it all turned out to be in vain. No matter what he did, the gods did not even try to ''put him in ce''. "I wanted them to fear me... but not so much that those idiots... stopped sending in more of the gods to fight me!" Arnold yelled before hammering away, "God, it''s so frustrating to wait for something that you don''t know if it will ever happen." [Patience is the key to virtue.] "Have you ever seen me being patient?" [Considering the way you''re beating your hammer, I''ll say no.] "That sounds wrong on so many levels!" Arnold quickly dropped the hammer before making the weirdest face he ever had. [I know. It was intentional.] "Okay... so I was wondering if I can ask you a question?" Arnold''s voice suddenly got serious. [You''re going to ask me regardless of my answer. So shoot.] "God, I hate it when you''re right. Anyhow, I was wondering since I can''t use the exp I have to level up. What else can I use it for?" [So the real question you''re asking is... how do I get stronger even if the system is telling me not to? Am I right, or am I right?] "You are right, but what''s the point of having you here if I can''t get even stronger?" Arnold picked up the hammer once again and started trying to shape up the arm. [Look, Arnold. You are already as strong as a demigod. Probably even more than that. You don''t need to get stronger for a while. Have you seen your sister''s stats? That''s the level you should have been at as well.] "I know what you''re doing is for the best. But I just want to know is there a way for me to get rid of all this exp in a way that benefits me. I mean you''re not even allowing me to get a new subss!" Making a new arm wasn''t the only reason Arnold had for visiting his domain. System sama had told him that no one can see what was happening in his domain but him. Not even the all-seeing eye of Heimdal could see what he was doing inside his domain. Thus his domain had be a ce for Arnold to vent his frustrations and worries out, without anyone being aware of it. He was afraid if the gods got to know about his insecurities, he would be in big trouble. Arnold had been getting worriedtely. Ever since Aiden was born, Arnold had been training relentlessly to protect the ones he cared about. But even after all that, he was worried that it wasn''t enough. This thought even kept him awake at night. Only one thing kept racing in his mind, what if it wasn''t enough? What if he couldn''t protect Nina, Aiden or Nicole? System Sama wasn''t human. He couldn''t possibly understand that being the strongest also meant that someone was at his weakest in a different way. Arnold wanted to keep moving forward. No, he needed to keep moving forward. Because he was afraid that if he stopped for a moment, the gods would take everything away from him. This logic of his became more prominent after what happened with Hercules. He could only defeat Hercules because he got the private dungeon as a reward forpleting a quest. If he hadn''t gotten the dungeon, no one in the fcking world could have stopped Hercules and his army. So when anyone said Arnold saved the world, he could hear them saying that he just got lucky. But sooner orter, his luck was going to run out and he wanted to be prepared for it. [Alright, fine. I''ll think of something. Till then you keep your focus on making the arm.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 409 - New Arm (3) "That should do it..." Arnold was pleased with the end result of his hard work and sweat, "It turned out way better than I was expecting." Maybe it felt like he was a bit too happy with his achievement of forging a bionic arm. But well, the arm he made was indeed one of a kind. None of Arnold''s creations had ever carried so many abilities as this one bionic arm. Which was to be expected, after all, he had poured all of his soul into making this one arm all to one-shot a demigod.?? The first thing Arnold did as soon as he kept the hammer down, was to use the Probe skill on it. The description always said that his works were a piece of art, but Arnold knew that line was fcking true this time. He had put all of his knowledge and ideas into making this arm da*n near perfect. He had even thought of a name to mock those Olympus basta*ds. However, he made a slight mistake in his excitement and added the word ''kicker'' in the name. ___ ? [Zeus'' A*s Kicker]: A prosthetic arm made up from the remains of Hercules, the demigod of strength and hero of Olympus fused together with the bones of the frost giants of Jotunheim and an alloy made from the strongest metals found in the mortal realm. The arm is the personification of the words, ''loathe'' and ''hatred'' as the creature who serves as the core material still hates the one who killed him, even in death. Also, one of its creators harbours incredible hatred as he was subjected to endless horrors until the moment his captor decided to end his suffering by killing him. Grade: Cosmic SS Defense (DEF) : +200 (Physical) Strength (STR): Dependent on user''s existing STR Type: Weaponised Arm Weight: 22 kg Power source: Twin Star b Addition effect: [Blood Bath] - The creator of this weapon has carefully crafted the weapon to serve a purpose like never before. There are five in-built slots in the Bionic arm that can be used to insert blood runes inside them. Enabling the user of the arm to ess the abilities stored in those blood runes. Additional effect : [Automata] - Able to perform actions like a human arm, does not restrict the user''s arm movements. Also, the user won''t feel the weight of the arm once it syncs with their brain and be a part of their body. Additional effect : [Herculean Fist] - Upon the user''s will, the arm goes into overdrive, increasing the power output by 40% and raising the user''s strength (up to additional 500 STR) for 3 seconds. Additional effect : [Swift] - The weight of the arm reduces hence significantly increasing the attack speed of the user. Additional effect : [Mortal King''s Mandate] - When fighting against a godly being, STR increases by 10%. The effect bes permanent if the godly being is sessfully in by the user. Additional effect : [One punch man] - One shotting the enemies gives the user a chance of 80% to increase strength (STR) by 2 points. Addition effect: [Infernal ws] - Upon activation, three sharp-edged des pop out of the fist. These des can utilise Hellfire to get superheated and thus can cut through flesh easier than a knife through butter. However, after using this ability, the arm has a high chance of getting overheated and might require repairs. ___ Arnold always had aint that his summons could utilise blood runes, but he never could. The unfairness of the situation had always kept bugging him and now he had found a way to use the Blood runes by himself. Moreover, he was careful to let the arm have simr functions as before to ensure that he didn''t have to spend unnecessary time getting acquainted with it again. But most importantly, he had even managed to upgrade those abilities to better suit his needs. In short, if a punch from this arm couldn''t one-shot a demigod, then Arnold was positive no one''s punch could do that. It didn''t matter even if it was Sait*ma''s punch. "I should probably test it out..." Arnold mumbled before carefully disassembling his current arm and then recing it with the new one. Thankfully, he was able to do it by himself, unlike thest time when he needed both Devon and Talos to help him. "Oh... okay, this arm is a bit heavier than the previous one. But considering its advantages, it''s still better." Arnold mumbled and started throwing punches in the air, "Alrighty... seems good for now. everything checks out. I should probably visit a dungeon or something to check it out in actualbat." Without wasting any time, Arnold popped open a portal and reappeared on the frontwn of his new home. However, he wasn''t expecting the carnage in front of him. The automatons and hounds had surrounded something, and they weren''t being friendly with whoever was at the centre of the circle. Arnold knew something serious was happening once he was Talos had his weapons drawn out and so had Yu Zhung. "What the hell is going on here?" Arnold yelled as he pushed through the crowd of his summons, "What are you... oh my god... what the hell happened here?" There was a huge crater in the middle of thewn and his summons had gathered on the edge. Arnold was shocked to see the crater there, but he was even more shocked to see who was lying in the middle of it. "Orco!" Arnold immediately jumped into the crater followed by Talos and Yu Zhung, who refused to sheath his swords, "What the hell happened here?" "It... looks like Orco has finally awakened, master," Talos replied as Arnold lifted the boy in his arms. "Where is T-90? bring her here." Arnold''s eyes were zing, T-90 was there to stop such events before they got out of hand. However, this time she sessfully messed it all up and Arnold wasn''t pleased about it. "She''s right there, master... she has be one with the dust." Talos replied, "She tried to stop Orco, but ended up being blown to smithereens instead." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 410 - Orcos Strength __ NAME: Orco?? AGE: 11 months LEVEL: 89 RANK: A+ ROLE: Unknown CLASS: Unknown AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Ultra Tough Skin ? ? HP : 1950/2000 Mana/Energy : 10/1000 STRENGTH (STR) : 20 DEFENSE (DEF) : 12 STAMINA (STA) : 11 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 13 AGILITY (AGI) : 12 ACCURACY (ACC) : 11 EVADE (EVD) : 21 CHARISMA (CHA) : 25 THREAT LEVEL : Non-existent PERSONALITY: Kind, faithful, motivated and benevolent. PHYSICAL/HEALTH: No notable issues. AFRAID OF: Death, Pain, and being abandoned. FITNESS LEVEL: 51% - Increasing. MOTIVATION: His parents __ "Anything wrong with him?" Natasha asked Arnold as soon he was done looking at Orco. "No. I couldn''t find anything. Everything looks good no matter how many times I look at him..." Arnold mumbled to Alice and Natasha, "Why did this happen though? Now of all times..." At the moment Orco was lying unconscious. The minute Arnold found Orco copsed on the ground, he told Talos and Yu Zhung to take Orco in his room and immediately teleported to get Alice and Natasha from the Sectors he had given them to rule. They were the only ones who had enough knowledge on how to heal both people and monsters and since Orco was both, they were his only choice. But not even Alice and Natasha could find anything wrong with him. It had been five hours since Orco destroyed T-90 and copsed afterwards. Since then Orco had shown no signs of anything, to be honest. Even Natasha and Alice couldn''t determine whether he was getting good or not. All they knew was that he was in a stable condition. For now... Arnold was getting frustrated because of theck of answers so he used the probe skill on him and they were right. there wasn''t anything wrong with him. Only now little bits and pieces of information had started popping up on his interface. Like before whenever Arnold used the probe skill on Orco, nothing ever showed up. No age, no levels, no ranks, nothing, only his name and that was it. But this time, a lot of stuff was visible. More than Arnold had thought. Especially regarding his rank and levels. Orco''s stats might not seem special at first but... these were the stats of an eleven-month-old baby. Even Arnold had much worse stats before he found the scroll that changed his life and he was an adult back then. Moreover, Arnold was concerned about Orco''s rank. He was just an infant and still ording to his rank he was as strong as Nina. Still, his rank and his stats didn''t add up. Orco had stats simr to an E ranker, yet he was being marked as an A+ ranker. However, there was no denying that Orco''s abilities had been awakened and since he was half monster, maybe it would take him some time to start functioning again. "What should we do now?" Alice asked Arnold cing her hand on his shoulder while he was sitting next to Orco. She knew Orco was a son to him and so seeing Orco like this must have been troubling him. "I don''t know..." Arnold shook his head, "I guess we''ll just have to wait for him to get up on his own. It''s not like we can do much at this point either." Talos, Natasha, Yu Zhung, Alice and Arnold were the only ones in Orco''s bedroom. Talos and Yu Zhung were standing near the human-sized window looking at the rest, while the rest of them were hovering around Orco. Orco''s steady breathing was the only proof that he was alive. To some, it would even feel as if he is in aatose state. "What should we tell madame?" Yu Zhung was the next to reply, "I mean he is her son as well. She would definitely notice something was wrong if she doesn''t meet with Orco for a long time." "I agree with Zhung, master." Talos nodded, "Mistress Nina would definitely notice Orco''s absence and start asking questions sooner orter. And we should be prepared to answer her when that happens." "Not yet. She is already under stress since Aiden''s birth." Arnold dismissed their opinions, "I don''t want to dump more worries on her shoulders. More than that she''s spending time with her parents who have already made it abundantly clear that they do not support Orco''s adoption for god knows what reason." "Do you think they know about him being half-orc?" Natasha was the one to ask that. "I don''t think they do. None of us had told them about it." "Either way, Nina still has a right to know about this Arnold," Alice tried to persuade the man though she didn''t have much hope of being sessful, "Answer me this, if something was to happen to Orco while you were away, wouldn''t you like Nina to tell you about it? Wouldn''t you feel betrayed if she decided to hide from you?" Arnold nodded. He would certainly go apesh*t if something like that would happen in his absence. "Nina would probably feel the same way and her reaction might end up being worse than yours." "I get it." Arnold gave up resisting, "There''s a difference between hiding stuff and not telling the truth... and in both of the scenarios, Nina would end up getting hurt. I would rather be there next to her when that happens than be against her." Everyone went silent after that. No one knew what else was there to say. until Arnold asked Talos regarding the incident. "Talos, were you able to retrieve the video footage from T-90?" "Not yet, master. She was in much worse condition than I thought, so it will take a while." "How long?" "A couple of days." "Try to hurry it up. It is necessary for us to find out whatever T-90 recorded. Only then we will be able to decide whether keeping Orco around is a good idea or not." Arnold got up to leave the room, "I''ll go and inform Nina what happened and then I''ll be off." "Off to where?" All of his summons asked simultaneously as if they had a prior agreement. "To a dungeon. Where else?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 411 - [Bonus ] Shadowmancer (1) [I know I gave you the permission to kill but that doesn''t mean you can go haywire.] "Can''t you let me vent out my frustration a bit?" Arnold gritted his teeth while punching yet another skeleton into oblivion, "I mean I can''t use any of my abilities in this forsaken dungeon. At least let me go all out!"?? [Fine. Suit yourself.] "Thank you!" When Arnold teleported to Shanghai. He did not expect to teleport right in front of a dungeon. However, since he was there, the warriors who were about to enter the dungeon immediately backed out. They thought that Arnold was there to take care of the dungeon himself, and if that was the case, the dungeon would''ve been obviously dangerous for them to even casually walk into. So they happily surrendered the right to the dungeon to Arnold and went their merry way. In hindsight, it was all just a misunderstanding, but it turned out to be a blessing for the warriors. Because the moment Arnold walked into the dungeon System sama informed him that his mana usage was sealed. Thus Arnold could not use his abilities, just like he couldn''t use them during his trial all those years back. However, his stats weren''t affected and thus he had to depend on his stats to take care of the dungeon. Not having mana also led to another problem. He could no longer use the mana shield. This meant that since he was against a horde of creatures he couldn''t keep track of all the wounds he would get from the skeletons. As well, he couldn''t feel them at all. Moreover, he couldn''t even summon anyone to help him either as even summoning required a teensy bit of mana. However, because Arnold already wanted to test his new arm out, it was just the perfect scenario for him. Once inside, it looked it was another typical dungeon filled with skeletons. But this dungeon, in particr, had way more skeletons than any other dungeon Arnold had ever been into. Even system sama didn''t have a solid reason to exin why it was happening. Still, the system had a theory. ording to it, this abnormality could be a hint to what kind of tasks the Gods were nning for the Vassals and Pdins to do during the . Also, these dungeons could be a nning phase for the gods to determine whether the tasks would be enough to test them or not. Since Arnold was the one to enter the dungeon, system sama was sure the difficulty would rise up in this dungeon was implemented during the tournament. Unless the system''s guess was wrong and this was just an abnormality. Either way, Arnold had to kill them all as fast as he could because the more he waited around, the more skeletons he was being forced to face. "There has to be a source to them. They can not keep popping us endlessly without some kind or spawn spot." Arnold had finally started breaking a sweat against the skeletons, "Da*n it! Why did this dungeon have to take away my abilities? I could have easily one-shot the entire army and be done with it." [You see, that''s the entire point of having a dungeon like this. In case your intelligence points have betrayed you again, let me-] "It''s fine you know. I can do this. If only you would be generous enough to help me out by locating the thing that''s spawning these basta*ds like a bit*h in heat?" [We ain''t that close yet that I start doing you favours. You have to take me out for dinner first.] "Oh fck you!" [I''ll decide that after seeing how the dinner goes. But first, you should get this over with.] "Your humour is impable." Arnold didn''t even have the time to roast the system back. Despite him wanting to do it so badly. [Keep practising. Maybe you''ll have enough humour that you wouldn''t need someone else to roast you.] "Can you look at it or not!?" [No can do.] "Fine. I didn''t want to do this but alright!" Arnold finally had enough, "I''m done testing the arm. Not Its time to test the firearms." [Finally got it, huh?] Arnold remained quiet and drew the cardinal''s sin out of the inventory. The dungeon only sealed the mana usage of the warriors. The restriction didn''t affect the weapons having abilities as the weapons did not need to have mana to use the abilities. They just have the in-built abilities. Initially, Arnold only wanted to test his arm but now that he was willing to use weapons, he also brought out some old weapons. Especially the grenades. [Ayo, now that''s cheating.] "Shut the fck up. I tried to do it your way, but you didn''t help me." Arnold smirked before pulling the pins of a handful of grenades, "So now I''m gonna do this my way." [Alright! Have a st then.] It had been ages since Arnold used the incendiary or cryo grenades. Even since he started getting stronger he rarely ever used them. But now that he was forced to be reacquainted with them he once again realised how important and strategically useful they were. Because what was taking him forever to do, now took him less than a couple of seconds. All of the skeletons around him had either been burned to ashes or turned into frozen popsicles. This gave Arnold the crucial time he needed to find out the source of their production, which turned out to be... a gigantic ck slime. Or so it looked like. It would appear that the slime had taken over a graveyard and for some reason the corpses it fed on were being turned into skeletal warriors. "What the hell even is that thing? A necromancer slime?" [You have a skill made to look at these things.] "I know I have the skill to look at it. But in case you forgot, I can''t use it because I can''t use mana!" [... you''re right about that.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 412 - [Bonus ] Shadowmancer (2) [What are going to do now?] "I''ll have to kill it obviously. Leaving it alive would just mean inviting more trouble over." Arnold mumbled before taking out an empty sk from his inventory, "But first, I''ll take a sample so that I can have Devon and Talos study itter, as it is the first time I have seen such a unique slime. If only we can find a way to tame it, the slime could literally save hundreds of thousands of lives. As unlike using human soldiers the slime could provide an endless supply of soldiers till there were enough corpses around."?? There was a problem though. It was a well-known fact that touching a slime would cause corrosive damage to any surface thates in contact with it. Which meant if he was to touch the slime with his bare hands, the slime might end up causing irreversible damage to his hand and he wouldn''t feel a thing before it was toote. Moreover, if he used his bionic arm for the same, it would still affect him pretty bad. Also, Arnold wasn''t in the mood for losing his arm before he had tested all of its abilities so he decided to look for alternatives. He could use the cryo grenades to freeze the slime and then break a piece off of it as a sample. But he knew it wouldn''t work because the corrosive acid the slime secreted would easily melt the acid away and before he knew it there would be more skeletal zombies chasing him as freezing the slime didn''t mean killing it. Also, as fun, as it was to freeze the skeletons, Arnold only had a limited supply of grenades as he hadn''t manufactured any of those things in a long time. And most of what he had remaining was taken away by Talos when he was preparing to defend Zone 4 during the brigadier''s attack. He had to think of something quickly. He didn''t know when the slime would give birth to more of its disgusting skeletal babies. It could happen any second and Arnold wasn''t in the mood to handle them anymore. Thankfully, he did not have to look far for an answer. In fact, the answer he was looking for was right beneath his feet. The remain of the skeletal warriors. Since the slime couldn''t digest bones, they were the perfect material for Arnold to use in order to collect a sample of the slime. So he grabbed a thick piece of bone and shoved it right inside the slimes butt before pulling out a big part of it. There was jizzy liquid all over the ce but the slime was still busy feasting on the corpses it had in front of itself. It didn''t look like the slime had even noticed that half of it was gone forever. [I must say, the way you shoved that bone inside the slime, made it look like you have a lot of experience in doing that. Though I don''t know whether I should be proud or disgusted about it...] "You know what you should do? Shut your B grade disgusting mind and talk to yourself!" Arnold yelled dismissively as he put the slime in the jar before sealing it shut. [You know there was a time you would haveughed at that joke.] "Well, there was a time when I was an idiot." [You still are an Idiot. I already told you no living thing can be stored in the inventory, Mr 2000+ intelligence points. So where are you going to store the slime?] "... Couldn''t you have reminded me of that before I wasted my time?" [Where''s the fun in that? But let''s keep that aside. First, tell me what are you gonna do now genius?] "Guess I''ll hold onto the sk and take it away with me once I''ve cleared the dungeon. oh..." [What happened now?] "Nothing. I was just reminded of my portering days. I always used to carry a secondary backpack within the first one back then. Just in case one of the bags got full or something." Arnold smiled while reminiscing in his memories, "It was a crappy job. But at least my bag didn''t discriminate between living and non-living things. I could store whatever I wanted in it. You and your inventory have ruined my nning skills." [Just remember to kill the slime before it spawns more skeletons.] Arnold nodded and stepped back before bombarding the slime with half a dozen incendiary grenades. He wanted to make sure that the slime would not survive the attack and it didn''t. By the time the mes died down, not a trace of the slime was left behind. But it did leave something else behind. In the middle of the charred ground, a little golden key was shining. Arnold ce the sk aside and grabbed the key and as soon as he did that, a notification popped up in front of him. ___ You have discovered the key to the hidden dungeon, which is located deeper inside this dungeon. Find the trapdoor and use the key to face and kill the true final boss of the dungeon to clear it. ___ "Sure... throw another boss into this crazy mix. That always works right?" Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "I just wanted to quickly enter a dungeon and clear it by using my new Arm. But no, has anything ever been so easy?" [Quit sulking and look for that trapdoor.] "I already found it. It''s right here." Arnold pointed at the charred door that seemed to have been hidden underneath the slime. It took a while for Arnold to find the keyhole of the darned door as everything had turned entirely ck. But he found it soon enough and jumped inside after opening it unknown to what was waiting for him down below. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 413 - Shadowmancer (3) The trapdoor led Arnold to a room. A throne room to be specific. However, the room looked as if it had been abandoned for decades if not a century. There was dust and dirt everywhere. The paint wasing off of the walls and the cobwebs seemingly covered the entire room. Though strangely enough, the torches hung on the walls were still lit as if they had been left untouched by time. In the middle of the room was a throne that oddly enough had been turned to face away from the entrance. The path to the throne had been marked with blood that seemed to have been dried long ago. Countless gold and silvery armours were scattered on the floor. It looked as if the armours were trying to fight against someone or something but failed miserably. Arnold didn''t know why but the throne room was giving him some odd vibes as if someone had been waiting for him there. No, it wasn''t that. The ce seemed too familiar to him. Arnold was sure that he had been here before. A couple of momentster, he finally recognised the throne room. It had changed quite a bit. The golden curtain that once hugged the walls were now lying on the floor all tattered and ripped to shreds. The silvery paint of the walls had long been reced by ck moss and cobwebs. The gems which had once made the floor resemble the stars were also missing. "There is no doubt..." Arnold mumbled as he walked deeper into the room, "It''s where the trial to my first ascension came to an end. This is the ce where I had to answer all those ridiculous riddles to get out of the transdimensional portal..." "I didn''t know you thought my riddles were so ridiculous. Frankly, I even thought you enjoyed them." A voice echoed throughout the room as the throne turned around by itself to reveal a woman Arnold thought he would never have to see again, "It''s been far too long, Vassal of my master... or should I say, former master." "The hell are you doing here, Satina?" Arnold clenched his fists as the memories of the pain he felt all those years ago came rushing back to him as if it all happened yesterday, "What tricks are you going to y now?" "Oh my, calling a goddess like me by her name? How bold of you..." Satina, also known as the Guide between the worlds, got up from her throne and slowly made her way towards him. Her hips were swinging left and right like a pendulum in perfect sync. She was wearing the same dress Arnold had seen her wearing before. But much like the rest of the room, even her dress was tattered and ragged. The satin dress, or whatever that was left of it, was loosely held by her shoulders and looked like it could slip off at any moment. It had a low neckline that almostpletely showed off her ample and voluptuous chest, something which would have made Arnold extremely ufortable if he wasn''t already used to being around Natasha. In fact, Satina was dressed quite modestly inparison to the threads that Natasha wore as a dress. "I must say, you have grown a lot." Satina went to flick Arnold''s nose but he immediately jumped back, "Huhuhu, I see you really live up to your reputation. As the one who has be cancer to Olympus. No wonder that pervert''s son, Hercules lost to you. I quite liked him though... there was an aura around him that pulled everyone towards him. It''s a shame you hid his body after killing him." "Cut the crap and tell me why you''re here." Arnold''s mind was screaming like crazy. He already knew something was seriously wrong with her. Also, he was not in a mood to y games with her even if she was an underling to the Immortal one. He hated her from the bottom of his heart and he didn''t even know he had all these feelings inside him waiting to erupt like a volcano. After all, he hadn''t seen nor thought about her in a long... long time. But now that she was standing in front of him, the dormant feelings he had for her inside him reawakened. A feeling of intense hatred. Arnold was aware that what Satina did to him was most probably as per the Immortal one''s orders. After all, she was just a disciple of him, she would not dare to harm his vassal without his knowledge. Thus there was no reason for him to be hostile against her and yet all he could think about was how much he wanted to rip her heart out of her body. "Now now, I know I didn''t make a good impression on you thest time we met." Satina sighed and slipped out of her dress before turning around to show him her back, "But as you can look I already paid for what I did to you." "That must have hurt..." Arnold mumbled when he saw what Satina''s back had be. Her back was full of scars. It looked like someone had incessantly whipped her for quite a long time. Not only that, there were multiple burn marks on her as well. Arnold hated the person in front of him but after seeing the scars on her back, he couldn''t help but feel a bit of pity for her. "You can bet it did..." She replied before magically pulling her dress back to her, "I assume you enjoyed the little show. It''s not as if a mortal like you gets to see a naked goddess every day. You can call it repayment for back when I saw you nakedst time." "Sorry to disappoint you, but I''m not into older women. So... the immortal one did all of this as well?" Arnold inquired before pointing around the room. "Ah yes... He said I went too far while enjoying the riddles and the rewards. As you can see he destroyed all of my proud armoured babies as well... even when I said I felt terrible about hurting you." Satina shrugged her shoulders, "He even stripped me of the title of a lesser god that he had given me... That fcking barbarian!" "You seem oddly devoted to someone who did all that..." Arnold could feel something was wrong there. Thest time he had met Satina, she never bad-mouthed the Immortal one. However, that did not seem to be the case this time, "Also, you did not answer my question. What are you doing here?" "Oh... nothing much. I''m just here to get rid of the nuisance who happens to be the cause of all this!" Satina roared before lunging at Arnold, "Die, you basta*d!" Instead of being scared or worried, Arnold was quite happy. After all, he got quite a bargain for himself. Now he could kill Satina for the pleasure of it, while alsopleting the task of ying three demigods simultaneously. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 414 - [Bonus ] Shadowmancer (4) ___ CLASS: Mage / Shadowmancer NAME: Satina LEVEL: 200 COSMIC RANK: S+ ROLE: Demigod (Former underling of the immortal one, Goddess of Nomads, Immortal''s third disciple) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Singrity (Active skill) ? Enhanced Resilience (Active skill) ? Mana-ption (Active skill) ? Mana void (Active skill) ? Severed Souls (Active skill) [Expand to view 9 more] HP: 10000/100000 STRENGTH (STR) : 100 DEFENSE (DEF): 926 STAMINA (STA) : 800 INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 1744 AGILITY (AGI) : 500 ACCURACY (ACC) : 1465 EVADE (EVD) : 2387 CHARISMA (CHA): Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (30% damage reduction), Physical attacks (40% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Ranged attacks. Weak Against: Magic spells (Must be used from a close range to take effect) THREAT LEVEL: High REMARK: Don''t be surprised to see her having a high threat level even when you are at a much higher level. It''s just a precaution as her level might be low but you are fighting in her domain, not on even ground. This means you''re at a disadvantage. Moreover, you can''t even use mana to challenge the authority she has over her domain by bringing over your domain. On top of that, you should be careful because of the above-mentioned reason, you can not use your abilities and thus you''repletely dependent on your attributes, which to be honest, might not help you that much in this fight. You do not have anything else that can help you in this situation. The only ray of sunshine is that you can use your gears. Or if you really want to distract her, try showing her your ding dong. Thest time she saw it, she was quite infatuated by it, if I remember correctly. You can use it to distract her andy low while she is mesmerised and the next second you can take her down. Easy peasy! Let''s name this trick honey trapping. ___ ''System sama, please keep your pervertedness to yourself. I''m trying to reform myself.'' [Aye, that''s a good n. No one would ever expect something like that to happen! It''s the perfect surprise attack!] ''You stole that idea from one of the animes, didn''t you?'' [Just use it once and I assure you, you''ll like it.] ''Have you always been like this?'' Arnold couldn''t evenprehend a thing that system sama was telling him, ''Or is it somewhat rted to me? Either way, it looks like we have a problem.'' By problem, Arnold meant Satina who was racing towards him at an unimaginable speed. But due to Arnold''s high perception, she did look to be running at a high speed. Still, if Arnold had faced her a couple of years ago, he was quite sure he would get fcked up pretty bad. But not anymore. He was quite well versed in the knowledge of egoistic basta*dized gods and how to handle them. Also, Arnold didn''t care if her threat was high or not. Even after taking her defence into ount, she shouldn''t be able to handle the blow from his newly enhanced arm, one-shotting arm. "Die, you basta*d!" Satina roared in rage. "You idiots never learn..." Arnold mumbled before backhanding the witch of a goddess, "It''s always the same sh*t, just new faces to smack." Arnold might have sent Satina flying, but he didn''t hurt her. In fact, she disappeared into the darkness as soon as his arm was about to touch her. It was as if she had blended with the shadows. Before Arnold could evene up with a n, all of the torches around the room went out, shrouding him inplete darkness. Arnold was sure he had hit her with a punch. But if that had been the case then he would have gotten a notification about her death till now. ''What the hell is going on here?'' [It''s a blessing the Immortal one gave to her... I''m surprised she can still use it after being ostracised by him.] ''Just tell me what''s going on and I''ll handle the rest.'' [Essentially she is a shadowmancer. A mage who can manipte the shadow of anyone and anything as they want. They could be one with the shadow or twist it to make weapons. In other words, darkness is their ultimate weapon. Also, since they are so used to living in the shadows, they be a part of it, making it difficult for anyone to hit them and hence kill them.] ''Now ain''t that a bitch. I can''t use my abilities in here, and now even my physical attacks work on her. Great. Just great.'' Arnold felt as if he was being forced to once again go through the trial but on different terms than before. At least back then he was aware of the fact that it was a test so it was highly uncertain that he would''ve gotten killed back then. However this time, things were different. He knew very well that he could easily get killed by Satina as without his life-saving abilities like , he was like a sitting duck in the darkness. [Well. Shadowmancer ss might seem extraordinarily powerful, but that''s not correct. They have a serious drawback.] ''I hope you''re not waiting for me to ask you what that is...'' Arnold''s ears were pricked up. Without his vision and sense of touch, his listening skills were the only thing that could aid him. [Once they be one with the shadows they can''t use their abilities either. Thus if she wants to kill you, she would have to do so while she is in her physical form.] ''That makes things-'' The next moment he turned around and blocked a strike from Satina''s scythe. "How did you-" "You might have the shadows on your side, but the air molecules betrayed you." Arnold smiled as he grabbed onto her scythe, "With a biga*s weapon like this, even the deaf person would be able to feel the vibrations generated while swinging the scythe. So even if you hide and attack me, you''ll still end up losing because I am faster than you are!" Arnold yelled before ripping her arms off along with her scythe, "You lost the battle ever since you decided to wage one against me." "I-It''s not over yet!" "You think?" *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 415 - Unwarranted Meeting (1) "I give up! I surrender!" "Doesn''t look like I want you to surrender?" Arnold smirked before kicking her armless body around like a football, "I just want to understand something... why are you gods so into me as if your partners have cheated on you with me? Don''t you idiots have anything better to do? Just let me live my life and you live yours. It''s not rocket science!" Satina hadnded on her face and without her arms, she was unable to move from that position and thus couldn''t give Arnold a suitable reply. All he could hear were huffs and puffsing from her. "Hm... now that I think, you can surely give me a few answers before I kill you off. Let''s see... but first answer the question I asked before," Arnold mumbled as he gently kicked her over so that she could clearly speak, "What were you-" Before he could evenplete what he was saying, Satina lunged at him with her newly regenerated arms stretched right ahead of her. Arnold had forgotten that it was her domain and she was one with the shadow. Which meant, he body was made up of darkness itself and as strong as Arnold was, he wasn''t someone who could destroy darkness. But this process took a few seconds toplete. That''s why Satina was ready to surrender to him just to buy some time. In other words, Satina could keep healing till there was darkness in her domain. Arnold could hack away her libs all he wanted but she could easily regenerate the missing parts as long as she was in physical contact with her domain. Had Arnold been able to use mana, he could have easily called upon the guardian angel to help him out and Abdiel''s presence itself would have negated the void of darkness. But it was a waste of precious time to think about what-ifs and what-nows. "You''re a cheeky bit*h, aren''t you?" Arnold sighed. Thankfully Arnold''s stats were high enough to not only see the attacking but to effectively stop it in time as well. He grabbed her by his right hand while readying his bionic arm to deliver a deadly blow, even though he wasn''t sure whether it would work or not. But it wasn''t like he had any other option... he wasn''t going to use the sniper rifle against her in such a small room otherwise he could get affected by its range as well. He could have used the Cardinal''s Sin against her, but this was his backup n in case the punching part didn''t work. This time, however, rather than punching her normally, Arnold put all of his strength into that punch. He even activated the arms abilities to help him. In short, that one punch of his was carrying the power of almost four thousand strength points which was almost twice as Hercules could muster. "How can you be so strong!? You weren''t supposed to have this much strength ording to what the Immortal one told me about you!" Satina broke a sweat, actually, it looked more like someone had dumped a bucket of water on her. "Maybe you gods should give up on using inte explorer and try something new for a change" Arnold was in a mood to joke but the look on his face was one of a serious man, "Even I''m getting tired of you idiots underestimating me. Even though it''s fun to crush your overconfidence in one swoop." Just like Arnold, Satina too had the gift of perception and because of that, she could feel the strength umting in Arnold''s fists. But there was no escape for her, not this time as Arnold had been careful enough to sever her connection from her domain. He hadpletely lifted her off the ground, which meant that she had lost her connection with the darkness which was her weapon. Satina kept trying to push herself away from Arnold''s grasp but all of those attempts were made in vain. No matter how many kicks and blows she delivered to him, he didn''t even flinch. Seeing no other way, she used whatever mana she had left to resurrect the armours that had once agonised Arnold. In an instant, all of the armour that had been scattered across the throne room joined together to make a gigantic armour golden armour, unlike anything Arnold had seen before. "You and your cheap tricks. I hate your kind because of it you know?" But the armour wasn''t the only thing Arnold was looking at. Its weapon also looked very dangerous. Almost as if the armour could kill him in one blow. But Arnold knew that wouldn''t be possible with the current defence points he had, yet he didn''t want to test his theory out. So, he swapped the target of his punch and leapt in the air before unleashing all of the power in his arm to destroy the armour in one shot. Satina had used all of her mana in hopes that Arnold would be forced to let her go even if it was for a second. However, that did not happen. He destroyed her trump card, all while firmly grasping her neck. He simply refused to let go of her because he knew, if he did he might not get another chance like that again. "Looks like you can''t do anything as long as I keep dangling you in the air. It was such an obvious weakness and yet I almost missed it. Either way, It''s over for you." Arnold mumbled, "I can''t use a punch like that again for some time, but I do have something else in mind." The following moment, three bright red des emerged from Arnold''s closed bionic fist. The Infernal w had been activated for the first time. When Arnold first entered the dungeon, he wanted to test all of the arm''s abilities. But he had never thought he would have to use it in this way. "It ain''t much... but it''s still light, right?" Arnold said with a disgustingly horrifying look on his face, "Enough to pierce through your dense shadow." "No... you can''t do this... please... ARGHH!" ___ Congrattions! You have in the demigod [Satina]. Rewards for your feat are being calcted. ___ *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 416 - Unwarranted Meeting (2) [Collecting a former goddess'' blood sample? Good thinking. Finally, your stats are really helping you.] "Yeah. Since I can''t use mana to summon my domain, I thought at least I could some of her blood and use it to make some blood runes for my arm. I''ll do the same with Hercules and Tiamut when I get back." [Greed is a lovely thing.] "Hey! It''s not greed if I want to get stronger... wait it is... in a way..." Arnold took out another sk and filled it with Satina''s blood to the brim. He was aiming to extract her most ridiculous ability that became a pain in his butt during the dungeon run. Her signature ability that was known as Mana negation. Basically, this ability formed a bubble around the user within which everyone aside from the user would not be able to use any mana associated abilities. If the user had enough control over the ability, they could even stop the usage of specific abilities, as Satina had done previously during his trial. The size of the negation bubble could be as big as the user wanted but there were some restrictions. Just like an ordinary bubble, the more the bubble expanded or stretched, the higher was the probability of it breaking and thus it might lead to another problem altogether. Satina had a lot of practice using this ability and hence could expand it enough to cover an entire dungeon. Moreover, she could easily manipte the abilities of the ones inside the bubble even while she was engaged inbat. Also, the fact that she was using the ability within her domain boosted the output of the skill further and helped her to break through unimaginable limits. Arnold just had to have this ability to himself. He didn''t even care to revive Satina at this point because he only needed her for the skill nothing else. If he had to face so many troubles just because he couldn''t use mana, he could only imagine what carnage it would cause to the others. In Arnold''s eyes, this ability was a must-have for him as it would help him tremendously against the other vassals and pdins during the . However, even if he wanted to, he could not revive Satina, unless he carried her all the way to the entrance of the dungeon and it was troublesome for him to do so. She wasn''t all that strong and most of her abilities were associated with her domain. Thus, she wasn''t of much use to him and definitely worth the troubles for reviving her. Not to mention that she loathed him. He was the reason why she went haywire in the first ce and he was doubtful she would submit to him after being resurrected by Talos. And Arnold did not want to take any chances, there were already too many uncertainties in his life and he didn''t want to add more of them on top of his existing troubles. Thus he decided it was better to let her vanish along with the dungeon. [For once I agree with you. She is way too unpredictable for us to revive.] "Now, let''s get out of the dungeon before it closes," Arnold replied as he stored the sk full of blood in his storage while grabbing the one with the slime in it, "I need to repair my arm too... Infernal w is a great ability, but it''s a twin edged sword. I use it once and my arms cease most of its functions." [You need to be careful with that as you might not get a chance to repair the arm once the war starts.] "What do you mean?" [War of the worlds is a series of continuous tasks. That is until thest round. This means you won''t get much time to do repairs during the first couple of rounds.] "By the way, what about the rewards for killing Satina? Are you still calcting those?" [Yeah. I have to think about it for a while because there is no absolute reward for the feats you keep aplishing. I can reward you with the appropriate amount of EXP but that would be like pouring acid on your wounds as you won''t be able to use them anyways.] "Oh, should I take that as apliment then?" Arnold smiled as he began climbing out of the trap door. [I will allow it this time.] "Aren''t you the sweetest? Also, what about that subss you were about to give me?" [Patience.] "Right, sorry." It took another couple of minutes for Arnold to get out of the dungeon and when he did, he saw something weird. Hundreds of warriors had been assembled outside the dungeon along with his summons. Nicole and Yu Zhung were standing right in front of the dungeon and it seemed they were about to walk in when Arnold popped out of the dungeon. "What are you all doing here?" Arnold asked them before handing the sk of slime to Alice to hold on. "We were preparing for the worst..." Nicole mumbled, "Well... this is awkward." "Preparing for the worst?" Arnold was getting more confused with each passing moment, "What are you people talking about?" "Lady Nicole is referring to a dungeon break, master," Talos replied. "A dungeon break already? I just entered the dungeon a handful of hours ago. There wouldn''t be a dungeon break for at least a week." "No, master... you have been inside the dungeon for a week. That''s why all of us wanted to rush in to aid you, but no one could enter the dungeon after you did." Talos exined the situation to him, "It had been blocked by some kind of barrier from the inside, forcing us to wait outside and prepare for an outbreak." ''Right... I was inside Satina''s domain and time flow is different in everyone''s domain. Maybe that''s why what seemed like hours to me, turned into a week for the rest.'' Arnold thought, ''No wonder they were worried about me.'' [You are correct this time too. I''m so proud of you for using your brain cells today!] ''Shut the fck up!'' *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 417 - Unwarranted Meeting (3) In the week that Arnold had been missing, a few interesting things happened. First of all, Orco finally woke up from his slumber and now Talos had taken the role to be his guardian for the time being till Arnold thought of some other arrangement. Also, Talos finally managed to recover the lost video from T-90 about what happened to Orco right before T-90 was destroyed for good. Right now Arnold was watching the video while the rest of them sat around the table in Arnold''s mansion in Shanghai. It was a fairly short video but it had the important details from right before Orco lost control of himself. Apparently, one of theva pups Arnold had summoned for Orco to y with, hit him in the head by ident and the following moment all hell broke loose. Arnold was seeing the infamous ck lightning after a long time. It was simr to the Orc Chieftain from one of his previous dungeon experiences. A small thundercloud formed behind Orco as his eyes started glowing red and a small horn-like bone popped out the side of his head. The best description of him would be like an orc with a horn in human form. Even his face distorted a bit as his canines grew bigger. T-90 saw this as a threat and immediately charged towards him to stop before it was toote. But sadly, it was already toote. As soon as T-90 got closer to Orco, he let out a terrifying scream and the next second everything went ck as lightning struck the ground. And just like that one of the most sophisticated automatons Arnold, Talos and Devon had made together was gone and so were theva pups. "Talk about overkill..." Arnold sighed before closing the video feed, "It is worse than I thought..." "It''s worse than any one of us had thought." Nicole ced her hand on Arnold''s stiff shoulders, "You should rx. Too much stress isn''t good for your health even if you are the world''s strongest man." But at that moment Arnold couldn''t do anything but stress about the situation. He had to make a terrible but obvious decision. It didn''t matter whether he wanted to do it or not. He had to keep Nina and Aiden safe, they were his top priority, even if it meant to pull Orco away from them. He had to do it until they were sure that Orco was able to control his powers or else he could harm Aiden in the blink of an eye. "Nina is not going to like this one bit..." Arnold covered his face with the palm of his hands, "Hell, even I do like this at all. Why the fck all of this had to happen." Most of Arnold''s elite summons were standing around him, waiting to be given those dreadful orders that were wandering within Arnold''s mind. They knew it would be hard for Arnold to even think about separating Orco and Nina especially after they had bonded so well over the year they had known each other. But it had to be done. There was no other way. "Alright, Talos... no, everyone. We need to train Orco as soon as possible. In the meantime, Natasha you try and temporarily seal Orco''s abilities-" While Arnold was giving everyone their orders, an idea struck him hard. If his n worked, he wouldn''t need to separate Nina and Orco. All he needed to do was to find a way to prevent Orco from using his abilities and now, Arnold had a way to make sure it happened. All of a sudden the sulky face of Arnold was gone. He had finally found a way to help Orco without hurting anyone''s feelings. "That''s it! I can do this!" Arnold jumped from his chair. Everyone around him got confused all of a sudden, "But this could take some time. Till then Talos, you and Devon try to figure out a way to tame the slime and try to make it suitable to use in warfare. Take Yan with you, he is an expert when ites to dead and necromancy rted sh*t." "Will do, master," Talos replied as Alice handed him the sk that was carrying the slime. Arnold then turned towards Yu Zhung and Natasha, "Yu Zhung, you will train Orco along with Natasha and Alice. Natasha, I''m entrusting you with Yu Zhung''s and Orco''s lives. If you think Orco was going to go berserk immediately put him to sleep and Alice, you make sure to regrly check on him to see if everything was alright or not. Understood?" "Got it, my lord." Yu Zhung bowed to him, "I will ensure that no harm is done to either of your sons even if it costs me my life." "That''s a little bit excessive but your goodwill is much appreciated." Arnold nodded before taking a look at the rest of them, "In order to train Orco properly I would require help from all of you as well. But till then please keep on governing your respective sectors. I can''t let the world copse just because my son needs your help." "As your wish, master." "Alright then. I think I have handled everything here. So it''s time for me to disappear." Arnold said before stretching his neck, "Yu Zhung, Natasha, Alice, Talos and Yan. All of your new duties will take effect immediately. So follow me if you will, I''m heading back to the memorial ind and after that, I have some important work to do inside the domain." "Oh before you go, master. Indian prime minister had been calling like a maniac to set up a meeting with you." Talos interrupted, "They didn''t inform much about what was going on and were only pleading to set up a meeting first." "What do they want now? Fine, It''s not like I would disappear right after checking up on Nina and Aiden either way." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "Schedule a meeting for tomorrow morning. let''s see why they are being so frantic about." "Yes, master." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 418 - Land Of The Immortal One (1) The next morning... Talos had taken over the role of Arnold''s assistant-cum-advisor in thest year. Well, that was his official job title. And it was a position that he rightly deserved as he had been already doing it for about a decade. Still, even though Talos was an automaton, even he had his limits and at the rate, at which the Indian government kept calling him for help every two minutes, meant one of two things. Either they were used to do pestering someone like that, or the circumstances were really that bad that they were desperate to get some help. Either way, helping them or not wasn''t his decision to make. It was Arnold''s and he was still asleep. Talos knew that in thest few days, things had been difficult for Arnold. So much so, that even Talos wanted Arnold to get as much rest as he could. However, after dozens upon dozen of calls, Talos finally had to give in and wake Arnold up. But he knew facing him right away would be a great decision. So he used the privatemunicationwork spread across memorial Ind to reach his master and... it didn''t look like it was the best time to do so. "Master, I-" "Talos? What the hell? Can''t a man get some sleep here?" "It''s the Indian Prime minister again, master. It would seem they really are desperate..." "Alright, Alright, I''m on my way but till then. Tell them to fcking hold the line or I''ll storm into their office and punch some sense into them!" "I will convey your message to them," Talos replied before disconnecting the call. "I swear if it''s nothing important, I''m gonna conquer India too. I don''t give a sh*t about the treaty anymore." Arnold was already not in the best mood. All he could think about was the news regarding Orco. He wanted to help his son first, but it looked like it would have to wait till he was done chatting with the Indian representatives. However, now that he was getting constant calls from them, he was really annoyed. Although being around Nina and Aiden had calmed him a bit, thefort soon turned into rage as he got ready to storm out of the room to see Talos. But before he did, he identally woke up the sleeping beauty. "You''re up awfully early... Are you going somewhere?" Nina mumbled in her sleepy voice. "Yeah. It would seem, being the strongest man in the world it''s not as wonderful as I was told by my parents." Arnold smirked while slipping into his clothes, "Everyone told me about the Dragon, the castle and the princess. But no one told me about the work I would have to put in to get those things in the first ce! Sometimes I think I was better off working as a porter. Just carrying my humongous bag filled with useless crap." "Hm... maybe you would have. But if that were the case, we wouldn''t end up together, you know?" Nina was now out of her sleeppletely and immediately went to check on Aiden who was sleeping peacefully in his crib despite Arnold''s loud voice, "I never thought about it but it has been a long time since we first met. Do you remember the lecture you gave us about Astral beings and stuff? Back then I said I knew about it, but frankly, I didn''t." "Oh, I knew about it all this time. Either way, I''m sorry but I gotta head out now. Got to act as a superhero again." "Do what you need to. Just don''t be toote or Aiden would start throwing tantrums." Nina gave Arnold a quick peck as he left the room, "And no more dungeon hunts! I can''t have you going missing every other day, you oaf. Especially after considering your past. I''m telling you, if you disappear again for more than a couple of days, I''m gonna revoke your parental rights." "Don''t worry, this shouldn''t take long." *** ''How long is it going to take...'' Arnold thought to himself as the meeting that was supposedly only going to take a few minutes, had now crossed the two hour mark. All because of continuos illogical ramblings of the prime minister and his secretaries, much to Arnold''s dismay. "I''m sorry Mr Prime minister, but all I have heard in thest couple of hours is, h h h... people went missing... h h h... help us." Arnold finally had enough, "You said you couldn''t give the details to my assistant who is more capable than the bunch of baboons you have working in your office and yet you haven''t given me any important information either. Moreover, I''m not buying your half-as*ed truth that your people started missing for no reason at all." "Sir with all due respect-" The Prime minister tried to intervene but Arnold was having none of it. "I wasn''t done talking. As I was saying, if all you wanted was for me to organise a search party then you could have said so from the beginning. I wouldn''t have wasted my time to just go round and round with you giving me no details whatsoever about what really happened there?" Arnold took a few deep breaths after mming his fist on the table in front of him, "Believe it or not. I have more important matters to deal with than waste my time here. You get it?" Everyone on the other side of the video conference was stunned after seeing Arnold''s behaviour. Even though they were aware of Arnold''s short fuse, it was their first time seeing it and even though they were thousands of kilometres away from him, they could still feel how frightening he was. "Yes, sir..." The elderly prime minister mumbled, "Please forgive me for hiding the truth earlier. I swear on my country that I won''t hide anything from you anymore. That being said, a few months back, a dungeon popped up around the destednd near Kash, one of the many holy ces for the Hindus. Thus warriors were immediately dispatched to handle the threat. The only problem was that... there was no threat. The dungeon turned out to be a mine filled with an unknown metal that we had never seen before. So-" "So you decided to hoard all of it by yourself?" Arnold shook his head in disappointment. "Yes... and we terribly regret making that choice. And, now everyone who enters the mine disappears. I know what my cab did wasn''t in ordance with the treaty we signed, but please do not let those innocent warriors-" "I have heard enough. I''ll send some people to investigate the area and I expect your full cooperation on the matter. Or else, you know what could happen to you." Arnold said and disconnected the call, "Talos, prepare to send in some automatons to take care of the situation." "Yes, master." [It would be better if you visited the dungeon yourself.] ''And why would I do that?'' [You really don''t know anything about the Immortal one, do you? Kash is thend of the Immortal one. If things are happening there, then they must be rted to him and thus indirectly rted to you.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 419 - Land Of The Immortal One (2) ''So you''re telling me that there''s a chance that the Immortal one wants me to be there and this is his way of calling me?'' Arnold was in a deep conversation with System sama regarding the Indian situation, ''You know he could have just forced me to have nightmares like he used to? I mean those were great starters to have us bond with each other. Shared, unnecessary trauma of dying and being forced to watch it again and again. '' [You should really stop with your desperate attempts of sarcasm. Also, you never know what he is thinking. After all, he is a god that the other gods either respect or are afraid of him to their bones. So all I''m saying is, you should check it out yourself.] ''I could but-'' [Even if I''m wrong, you''ll still get some rare metal to work on and the way I see it, you''re gonna need quite a few weapons in the near future so you might as well stock up on some supplies.] ''Well, when you put it that way...'' Arnold scratched his chin, "Talos, send in the automatons along with Bad-Breath. Once they have been there for a few hours, I''ll use Void travel to teleport there and check things out myself." "You got it, Master. Although it would probably take a couple of days for them to reach the actual spot. I have studied the map and Kash is not an easy ce to reach. Doesn''t matter even if someone is superhuman or not." Talos wanted to confirm if Arnold really wanted to do that as the path to the ce was seemingly dangerous. But Arnold wanted to visit, despite all the problems. "That wouldn''t be an issue. I''ll be able to get a few things done in the meantime as well." Arnold replied, "Wait, before you send in the automatons, make sure to give them the thermal coating. I don''t want them to cease function in the cold environment and leave Bad-Breath alone. Not like anyone would approach someone as ugly and smelly as him." Talos nodded and left to do the preparations. In the meantime, Arnold just sat there in silence. Earlier he used to hate the immortal because he had put him through a lot of things. Like forcing him into multiple life and death situations without a break. But as time progressed he realised that whatever happened to him only ended up making him stronger than before. It was all thanks to the immortal one and system sama that Arnold had be whoever he was right now. Thinking about all this led Arnold into thinking more about the Immortal one. The godly deity was shrouded in a fog of mystery. Arnold might not show any interest in him from on the outside, but inside he too was intrigued about thend of the Immortal one. Although he was immortal one''s vassal, Arnold knew next to nothing about him. All he knew were a couple of tales System sama had told him along with the ones of the demigods he killed told him about. Apart from that, Arnold had no idea who the Immortal one was. And since he had to wait for a couple of days before he could do much, he decided to ask system sama to tell him more about the immortal one. In the meantime, he would try to repair his arm along with making the essory to stop Orco''s mana flow. So the way he saw it, it was a way to get rid of the lonely environment inside the domain while he forged some things and he would also get to learn something new as well. "Say... could you tell me more about the immortal one? It doesn''t need to be anything I shouldn''t know. Just think of it as an employee asking around to know more about his employer." Arnold walked up to the window in the room while he asked System sama, "I lowkey want to know before I represent him." [When you put it that way, I guess I could tell you something about the Lord.] "Great. Just let me get inside the domain and then we can carry on from here. But first I''ll have to tell Nina that I''ll be gone for a while." [As you wish. By the way, I got your rewards ready. You can im them a time you want from the missions tab as usual.] Arnold had not even noticed the blinking gift icon on his interface but now he did. He wanted to open it right then and there but he didn''t allow his gift-lust to get the better of him. He would im the giftter. First, he had to make sure Nina was okay with him disappearing for some time. Which she would most probably be once she finds out that he was disappearing to solve Orco''s problem. *** Four hourster, inside the Void... ___ ? [The Ring of Mana Negation]: A Ring made by the most influential creationist on earth. The silver ring sports a red crimson blood rune in the middle as its stone. The blood rune is formed by the blood of a demigod who once was the closest aide of the Immortal one but was banished from godhood by him as a consequence of her foolish and selfish actions. Whosoever equips this ring loses the ability to manipte mana and hence would not be able to use their abilities anymore. Grade: Cosmic A Type: essory Weight: 0.01 kg Addition effect: [Negation] - The rune in the ring seals away the user''s ability to use mana. But it can also be used to raise a barrier under which everyone would lose their abilities as well. Has a cooldown period of 2 days. Does not consumes mana. Addition effect: [Spell of Protection] - The engravings on the ring gives it the ability to raise a barrier to protect the user and everyone inside the barrier from any kind damage equivalent to 4000 STR points. Has a cooldown period of 2 hours. Does not consumes mana. ___ "Finally done." Arnold wiped the sweat off of his face, "I can not believe I used up all of Satina''s blood to get only 2 mana negation blood runes." [Well, she had a lot of abilities, to begin with. I''m actually surprised that you even managed to get two of them.] "Yeah. Also Thanks for the new subss. I don''t know if it would help a lot, but hey! At least I got something to spend my exp on." [Now that you are finally done, we can start with the Tale of Shiva and why he is the most feared god to have ever existed.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 420 - Land Of The Immortal One (3) [Shivas Backstory Part 1] [P.S. this chapter is from the perspective of system-sama.] The story of Shiva is unlike any other. After all, extraordinary entities aren''t born out of the ordinary story and Shiva, the Immortal One was no ordinary god. Some may find his story disturbing and some might think it was just straight-up lies. But one thing is clear, Shiva, the Mahadev, the god of the gods, had never wanted to be who he was. And now was the time to tell why. A lot of people say that when there was nothing, there was him, The Immortal one. They say he was the overseer of the universe''s birth. The catalyst to all life, including gods and mortals alike. But it was something no one could know for sure. After all, if he was the only one there then who had seen him looking over the universe as it slowly stabilised itself from all the chaos? No one, right? No one had proof whether the immortal one was the one who made life possible in the universe or not. How could anyone have proof of anything like that? It was simply impossible, but System sama knew all about it because he was a part of Shiva''s conscience. He knew everything about the immortal one and he was telling the same to Arnold because he could learn from the mistakes of Shiva. anyhow, let''s get back to the story. It is often told that the Immortal one is timeless, which would be true if he existed even before the universe was born. After all, if he existed before everything, then Shiva existed before time as well because time was a concept that came along when the universe was born. But how could Shiva exist when there was nothing? Even if he was a god, he would still have to be born sometime right? Well, that was true. But before all that, let''s just say that the universe isn''t the first of its kind. The brightest minds of the universe believe that the universe was the beginning of everything. But what if I told you that''s only half of the truth? You see, before this universe came into being about 14 billion years ago, there existed an old universe and before that existed another one and another one. No one knows how long has this cycle of universal birth, death and rebirth had been going on, but it had been going on for at least a few trillion years because the immortal one has been overseeing this operation for that long. However, each time the universe is born, the same things happen all over again. Simr gxies are formed, simr sr systems are formed and even thes stay more or less the same. And yet in every few billion years, the universe resets itself as if it wants to achieve something on its own. Like a bnce. The creation of the universe is equivalent to a child making a drawing. The child wants to make the perfect art every time they lift a pencil or a brush in their hands. At that moment they have the most chaotic energy within them simr to the energy of a big bang. However, that energy dissipates one the child fails to create the masterpiece and throw away all of their hard work. But after that, they require some time to cool off, and once they do, they once again pick up the brush and start drawing with the same enthusiasm as they had before. The brush, however, doesn''t know who is controlling it. It just knows his duty and to keep on doing what it was made to do. To the brush, it didn''t matter who was using it and why it was being used to redraw the same thing again and again. But the brush doesn''t question, it only does what it was made to do. The child may fail time and time again. Still, they don''t ever give up on their dreams and keep pushing through in hope that the next time would be the final time they would seed. In this case, Shiva was the brush and the universe was the painting. But when the other gods said Shiva was the first one to witness the creation of the universe, they weren''t entirely wrong. After all, he had seen the birth of every universe but the first one. A universe that he himself was a part of. It happened trillions of years ago when the first universe was created by the unknown being of supreme strength called the Prime Creator. As usual, chaos ensueds collided withs, stars collided with stars, entire gxies collided with each other. It was a beautiful yet at the same time terrifying scene. But soon the universe calmed itself down and started taking its shape for the first time. After a few billion years following the strict chaos, the first Earth came into being. But back then, it wasn''t known as Earth, it had a different name. It was called Aratia. And of peace and harmony. Shiva was born on this in a tribe that resided in the harshest of the environments, mostly in hilly inessible areas. They lived their lives as nomads who would rather die than take up arms against their fellow beings. However, not everyone had the same ideals as them. The good and the evil always went hand in hand, they were two sides of the same coin. Just like chaos to calm, there was a terror to peace. For Shiva and his tribe, this terror came in the form of a neighbouring tribe. The Shakas were the neighbours to the Guna tribe of Shiva. And the Shakas had made sure to convey that they did not like the Gunas because of their way of living. Shiva''s tribe tried its best to be on friendly terms with the Shakas but to no avail. But things got better once Shiva, the son of the chieftain of the Guna tribe married Sati, the daughter of the Chieftain of the Shakas in secret. There was a thing that both the tribe believed. There should be no bloodshed among the rtives or the Prime creator''s anger would fall on them erasing them from existence. Now, since Shiva and Sati had married each other, that made the both of the tribes each other rtives by belief. However, one night, Daksha the chieftain of the Shakas decided it was enough and his daughter had humiliated him by marrying a Guna. So he and the rest of his tribesmen attacked the Gunas which resulted in a one-sided massacre. Shiva who had been out practising his dancing and singing skills in the nearbyke was unaware of everything. But not for long. He returned to see that everyone he knew and loved had been hacked into pieces, including his wife Sati. The holy river the Gunas lived next to had been turned into a river of blood. Shiva was struck with grief. He med himself for all of it and started banging his head on the stone next to Sati''s mangled corpse. He no longer wanted to live but no matter how hard he tried he couldn''t die. It was as if the universe had different ns for him. *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 421 - Land Of The Immortal One (4) [Shivas Backstory Part 2] "What did he do next? As far as I know him, he would go on a rampage-" Arnold waspletely involved in the story, he hadn''t even noticed that the System sama was had been narrating the tale for over six hours now. Thankfully they were inside the domain so only a couple of hours had passed on the outside. Arnold was excited as he just wanted to know what Immortal one did when he apparently lost everything. It was all because the Immortal one also wanted Arnold to lose everything in the first ce and so face, he was seeing quite a few connections between him and Shiva. It almost felt as if the immortal one wanted Arnold to be his carbon copy. [What did I tell you before starting? Do not interrupt me while I am recounting the tale!] "Alright, alright I''m sorry..." [So where was I?] "His wife died..." [Right... don''t ever tell him I told you this. Or he''ll kill us both.] *** After mming his head on the rock for three days and night, a huge scar formed in the middle of his forehead that almost looked like a vertical third eye right between his brow. But since he couldn''t kill himself, he started wandering around like a man without a soul. However, over time, his sadness and loneliness turned into rage. He was enraged that he couldn''t protect his family. Enraged that he couldn''t die to join them either. Enrage that the Shakas weren''t punished by the Prime Creator as they believed. There were no bounds to his rage. At that moment he decided if the Prime Creator, their god,wouldn''t punish them, he would be the god and punish the Shakas himself. That was the day when Shiva who had never lifted a finger against anyone with ill will, died and the lord of destruction awoke inside him. With whatever jewellery his dead tribesmen had, he forged a weapon for himself. A golden trident. After seeing Shiva''s rage and determination, the Prime Creator, the one to exist even before Shiva did, offered him strength as a way to achieve his goals. He gave Shiva a fraction of his powers to see what he would do with it. What happened after that was nothing inparison to what the Shakas did to him. The Shakas made a river turn red, but Shiva drenched the entirend with blood. It didn''t matter whether men, women or children were standing in front of him. He hacked them all to death and turned them into his army. He became the first mortal to rule over death. However, Shiva''s rage didn''t subside by killing the Shakas. He med everyone and everything for the demise of his beloved people. So he went ahead and destroyed everything with the help of his followers. Thes, the stars, even the universe. He destroyed it all, but even that wasn''t enough to quench his anger. Shiva then started ming the Prime Creator for not intervening when the Shakas attacked and killed Sati. So with a fraction of Prime Creators'' powers, Shiva went ahead wanting to attack and destroy the one who gave him his powers in the first ce. However, Shiva wasn''t strong enough to even put a scratch on the Prime Creator''s celestial body. That was the only fight he ever lost. The Prime Creator defeated him and in his defeat, Shiva''s rage finally subsided. There was a moment of relief in his eyes but then shbacks of what he had done to the universe entered his mind and he was pained with grief. Shiva couldn''t stop shivering in the guilt of what he had done. He couldn''t believe that in his blind rage he had destroyed everything that was in his sights. Including innocent bystanders. Shiva hadn''t cried even when Sati died but this time, he couldn''t hold his tears back. After seeing him so heartbroken and stricken with grief, The Prime Creator, the one above all, gave Shiva a chance to repent rather than destroying him as he was going to. He gave Shiva a chance to be his heir. He wanted shiva to rece him till he could make the perfect universe like the one he had just destroyed. Shiva was confused. There were so many questionsing into his mind. How would he create a universe from scratch? Also, how would he know whether he had created the perfect universe or not? How could he create something so... extraordinary by himself? In his eyes, it was impossible. That was the time when the Prime Creator smiled before lifting a defeated Shiva back to his feet. He told him, destruction and creation always go hand in hand. Only the one capable of destruction was also the only one capable of creation, and vice-versa. If Shiva had the power to destroy the universe, he also had the power to create a universe. And as to the first part of Shiva''s question, The Prime Creator replied, "I would once again show up in front of you with open arms to congratte you when you''ll create a universe worthy of my attention. But if you were unsessful inpleting the task, I would not be seen anywhere. That''s how you''ll know whether your job was done or not. Till then, I''m cursing you with Immortality. You will have to live as long as you do not achieve your goal... till then, farewell..." Those were thest words Shiva ever heard from the Prime creator who was the one above all. Ever since then, Shiva had been trying to make a perfect universe. He had created and destroyed innumerable universes and yet he could not make a perfect universe even once after trying for it again and again. He didn''t know what was going wrong. But the Prime Creator never appeared in front of him ever again and that''s what brings us to the present. *** "Wait a minute, then how did the other godse into existence?" Arnold asked. [Isn''t it obvious? Aren''t the gods simr entities?] "What do you mean?" [A new pantheon of gods is created whenever a new universe is created. Look at it this way, Zeus, Thor and Indra, all of them are the gods having power over thunder. Now why would there be multiple gods of the same entity?] "So you''re telling me-" [Even they don''t know, but they too were once mortals who achieved godhood due to their ability. And since they all existed in different universes, they are all different. Even though they have simr powers.] "... that sounds reasonable." [Also, since Shiva decided to destroy their universes, they lost all of their memories associated with their era. That''s why they think they have been gods forever, when in reality, whenever the Immortal one destroys a universe the memory of all the gods is reset. And whenever he creates one, they regain their consciousness.] "I don''t know why, but it feels illegal for me to know this stuff." Arnold scratched his head, "I mean, is all this really... real?" [It is real and that''s why you should better keep your mouth shut about what I told you here.] *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 422 - Duality (1) It had been a week since system sama told Arnold the truth about the universe as well as about Shiva''s past. Still, Arnold was having a hard time grasping it all. It wasn''t like he didn''t believe what the system informed him about. System sama had never lied to him, so he never suspected it. But knowing about the secrets of the universe wasn''t something Arnold was quite ready to ept yet. It was obvious that he was feeling this way because what system sama told him was indirectly the theory of the multiverse. Although it wasn''t quite like the multiverse theory Arnold knew of because ording to what system sama told him, no two universes existed at the same time. One was only created after another one had been destroyed. At least, that''s what Arnold derived from their little chat. But even he couldn''t deny the possibility that what System sama told him was true. At the very least the theory exined why there were multiple gods of the same entity and how the world had been destroyed so many times, that is, during Ragnarok and countless simr events and yet humans were still living on the as if nothing happened. The theory also confirmed why did the Immortal One want Arnold to lose everything he loved, in the first ce. Shiva just wanted to turn Arnold into something just like himself. Think of it as Shiva trying to make Arnold just like a carbon copy of himself if you will. Someone who could fulfil his task of creating the perfect universe in case Shiva failed to do so. Thankfully, it wasn''t the case anymore because the system sama informed Arnold that he had broken off from the cycle of fate. And now whatever he did or whatever happened to him would happen due to his own actions and would not be the doing of The Immortal One. Frankly, Arnold didn''t know whether he should have been excited or worried about it. He was definitely happy that he wouldn''t be forced to lose everything just because some god wanted him to. But he did not like the idea of being responsible for his own fate. If he was in the Immortal one''s ce, he would have never trusted himself with an important thing. After all, he did not even want to take responsibility for the world, so why would someone give him the responsibility of his fate. But he was especially sad about the fact that he won''t be able to me Shiva for the mishaps in his life anymore. After all system sama had made it clear. Whatever would happen to him, would have been a direct result of his own actions and not a verdict of the god anymore. Either way, rather than moping away, he still had things to do, like levelling up his new subss: Duality. Duality was kind of a peculiar subss. Well, Arnold wasn''t sure if it even was a subss. In his eyes, it was just a chore if anything. ording to the description of his new subss, he couldbine any two pr opposite abilities, affinities and gears as long as he met some specified conditions. Most of the conditions were doable, but they were quite absurd. Arnold had no doubts whatsoever that the system sama had made the conditions like that so that Arnold won''t be able to gain more power in a short time. or that he would be so embarrassed to do in the first ce. After learning the new subss, a new tab opened up in front of him. A tab with multiple slots but only two of them were currently open for him to use. The rules regarding using these slots were even moreplex. But in a gist, Arnold could use the slots to select any two of his abilities or affinities or gears that he wanted tobine. Also, he could onlybine abilities with abilities and affinities with affinities and so on. But on top of that, there were additional restrictions ced on thebination. He could notbine offensive abilities with defensive ones, like he could notbine [Devil''s rage] with [Sacred Protection]. But he couldbine [Devil''s Rage] with [Berserker''s Rage] and [Sacred Protection] with [Poseidon''s Blessings]. Simrly, he could notbine offensive weapons with defensive gears. After the selection was made he would be prompted whether he was sure to lock his choice. After the abilities/affinities/gears had been locked, he won''t be able to use the abilities or gears or the abilities rted to the affinity that had been locked until the fusion was sessful. But in case the fusion failed, he won''t be able to fuse those abilities or affinities or gears again. Even if he tried to reuse the abilities tobine with some other ability, the system would not ept it. But in case if affinity fusion failed, he would still be able tobine the abilities of the two affinities individually. Also, there was a way to improve the fusion''s sess rate. As soon as the abilities have been locked, he would be given a task or a series of tasks. With each task that hepleted, the rate of sess would go up by a certain margin, depending on the difficulty of the task undertaken. But Arnold was hesitant tobine abilities right away. So he decided to test the skill bybining gears first. So he took out a Cryo grenade and triedbining it with an incendiary grenade. Since both of them were offensive weapons, they were epted. Arnold then locked his choice and another prompt appeared in front of him. ___ Fusion is taking ce. ? Cryo Grenade ? Incendiary Grenade End result --> Rate of sess = 04.34% You can improve the sess rate bypleting the following tasks: ? Kill Ice based monsters. ? Kill fire based monsters. (Note: Each kill would increase the sess rate by 0.25%. Only monsters in by your hands will contribute towards this.) ___ *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 423 - Duality (2) The moment Arnold was out of the domain, he rushed over to the section of the home, where Orco was currently residing in. Seeing Arnold so restless even creeped Talos out. Talos was also in the room as he had been taking care of Orco, while making sure he did not have another outburst. Talos didn''t know it yet but Arnold was in a hurry because he got so lost in listening to the tale of Shiva and thinking about his new subss, that hepletely forgot about the ring he had made for Orco. And only now that he was done taking care of everything, did the thought of Orco entered his mind which made him feel guilty. "How is he doing?" Arnold asked Talos the moment he entered Orco''s room. "Everything seems normal. However, he still has no recollection was what he did to T-90." Talos replied, "I, however, can''t evaluate if it is for the better or not. On one hand, it''s better as it means that Orco can''t use his powers, at all. On the second hand, it shows that maybe he has no control over his powers and is like a time bomb that could explode any moment." "It''s better if a child so young don''t remember about something like that." Arnold cut Talos off as he took the ring out of his inventory and handed it to Talos, "What do you think about this?" "I can''t believe you actually did it. It''s quite impressive. I can see a rune imnted in your arm as well, is it the same one?" "Yeah, it is. Orco, could youe here for a second?" Arnold smiled at his eldest son who was once again ying with theva pups. "Coming daddy! Let''s race to see who is the fastest, okay?" Orco smiled at the pups as they nodded. The next second they all rushed with their baby steps towards Arnold and of course, the pups let Orco win as usual. "That''s my brave son." Arnold gave a heartyugh before picking him up in his arms, "Look, dad has a little something for you. You always wanted a ring just like mom and dad right? Well, there you go!" "Aw! It''s red. That''s my... favor... favu..." Orco was still a child and often had trouble pronouncing some words as he was still learning a lot of words. But that didn''t stop him from trying his best to do so. "Favourite?" "Yeah, that colour. Thanks, daddy!" "You''re most wee! Now, how about I put it where it belongs and then we''ll go and show it to your mom?" "Put! Put! Hurrrrrrry!" "Okay, okay! You''re even more impatient than I am." Arnold put the ring on Orco''s right index finger and wait for a second before making sure whether the ring worked or not. __ NAME: Orco AGE: 11 months LEVEL: 89 RANK: A+ ROLE: Unknown CLASS: Unknown AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Ultra Tough Skin ? ? HP: 2000/2000 Mana/Energy: 1000/1000 (Sealed) ___ ''Looks like it''s working. that solves one of my problems.'' Arnold was lost in his thought but Orco did his best to snap him out of it. "Daddy! Let''s go and show the ring to momma!" "Alright, sheriff. I heard you. Talos, I need you to do something for me. But let''s talk while walking or Orco would rip off all of my hairs." Arnold exined to Talos everything regarding his new subss as they made their way to the master bedroom. They talked about the weird tasks, the risks of failing the fusion. Everything that Arnold knew about. And Talos had a few questions of his own. "So you can''t level up the subss like you level up the others?" Talos asked Arnold as soon as he was done giving him details about the new subss, "I wonder what did the elder meant when he gave you the subss to use your EXP." "Yup. It seems System sama fooled me again. I can''t use my exp to level up the skill as it would only level up once I start using the skills associated with the subss." Arnold replied. "And for that, you need toplete the given tasks yourself." "Correct. But I still need your help. I want you to locate as many dungeons as you can that are spawning fire and ice based monsters. I don''t care which corner of the world that dungeon is in, I just need those dam-" Arnold was about to curse in front of Orco, which was a definite no-no for everyone, or else Nina would rip their tongue from their mouths, "I meant, I''m serious about it." "I got it, master. I have just alerted everyone to be on the lookout for such a dungeon." "Well, that takes care of one thing. What about Bad-Breath andpany? Have they left for India yet?" "Their flight took off an hour ago." "Good. Also, while we are on the topic ofpleting tasks, has Devon made any progress with the slime, yet?" "Not much. I think I''ll have to apany him. Maybe the two of us together can figure out something about that." "Well... I think Orco is in safe hands now, so you can leave. Also, Natasha, just because you are invisible, it doesn''t mean I can''t feel where your hands are touching me." Arnold scolded her before pping her hand away from his butt. Earlier Arnold had instructed Natasha to keep a close eye on Orco. His instructions were simple. If Orco was to exhibit any signs of using his powers, she was supposed to immediately put him to sleep. However, seeing her indecent attire, he ''nicely asked'' her to make herself invisible around Orco, so he wasn''t exposed to her... inappropriate behaviours. "Hehe... My hands just slipped away..." "Oh, that''s too bad. Cuz you know, if my hands started slipping away, they might end up blowing your head into smithereens." "Yikes! Let''s calm down, please! I swear it won''t happen again, master." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 424 - Trip To Jeju Island (1) True to his word, Talos found a dungeon as per Arnold''s specifications. It was a dungeon located inside the volcano on Jeju ind which now belonged to the United Korean Empire. Thankfully, Arnold had good rtions with the new Korean government, ever since he helped them dethrone the bloodthirsty dictator and unify both countries once again. Although he didn''t have any treaties with Korea as he did with Japan, Russia and India. Korea was still much more amodating to Arnold''s needs than any of those countries had been. As soon as the Korean foreign minister was informed that Arnold was interested in buying the rights to a dungeon, Seomun offered the dungeon to Arnold without taking any fees. Even though Arnold wanted to pay them for it. Their logic for doing so was simple. If it hadn''t been for Arnold, their country would have never been united with North Korea and they would lose thousands of soldiers every year fighting against the bloodthirsty dictator of North Korea. So in their eyes, Arnold had done something no one else could have, so this was the least they could do for him. Arnold thought the Koreans were going a bit overboard. He didn''t get rid of the dictator because of some goodwill or any of that crap. Arnold still vividly remember the day he was forced to take down North Korea once and for all. *** It happened when Arnold organised a banquet to celebrate him taking over China. At first, Arnold didn''t want to host a party to celebrate anything. But then Talos persuaded him to do it and invite leaders from the neighbouring countries to show his goodwill to them. It was supposed to be a method to forge new alliances while maintaining the existing ones. Even Nina and Nicole hopped on the bandwagon and Arnold caved under their pressure. Within a week invites were sent over to the respective countries and most of them immediately RSVP''d. It was almost as if they were either too scared to say no to him or they had been expecting him to invite them over. Either way, the day of the banquet arrived and Arnold was happy to see a lot of familiar faces among the crowd. Every representative who had participated in the war against Hercules and the Olympians was there as well and they were having a good time. As much as Arnold wanted to act like an anti-social person, he too was enjoying the party... until a certain someone arrived. Arnold didn''t know when Talos said he would invite the neighbouring country''s leaders, he would also invite Jin Wook, the dictator of North Korea. Arnold almost wanted to rip Talos a new one but he didn''t want to cause any drama there so he kept quiet and tried avoiding that motherfcker. But Jin Wook had different ns. He kept finding opportunities to talk with Arnold. At first, Arnold thought he disliked Jin Wook because of the way he did things in his country. But only after meeting him did Arnold realised he hated everything that Pig-faced basta*d did. From his face to his voice to his actions, everything about him infuriated Arnold. However, none of that was enough to enrage Arnold. He wasn''t enough of a psychopath to kill someone just because he found them annoying. Even if he really wanted to. But then something happened that flipped the switch in Arnold''s mind. Arnold didn''t know it, but Jin Wook had been staring at a pregnant woman and her friend ever since he entered the banquet. Also, the main reason he was flocking around Arnold was to ask him about those two women. Jin Wook finally gathered enough courage and asked Arnold about thedies by asking, "Whether those two women be happy if he buried his sword in their bubbled toochie." Jin Wook thought he was safe by saying those words in Korean. But, man... was he wrong. His first mistake was assuming Arnold didn''t know Korean. Jin Wook thought so because Arnold had been ignoring him till now. Little did he know Arnold knew all of thenguages in the world, thanks to System sama and was ignoring him on purpose. And his second mistake was not knowing who Nina and Nicole were. So far Arnold had been amodating to his peculiar and annoying guest. But this was the final straw. All of a sudden the temperature around the hall dropped sharply as Arnold grabbed the tiny man by his cor and lifted him off of the ground as if he weighed nothing. Everyone stopped doing whatever they were doing and immediately turned towards Arnold. Most of them were in for a treat because they were lucky enough to witness what Arnold''s rage looked like first-hand. It was only then that, Dictator Jin Wook, realised he had said something he shouldn''t have. He immediately went to damage control mode and tried his best to pass it on as a friendlyment that the North Koreans used a lot. However, his trick didn''t work on Arnold because didn''t care whether it was a praise or not. No one had the right to say such a vulgar thing about his close ones. Especially his pregnant wife and sister. But when Jin Wook kept trying to pass it off as a good thing, Arnold repeated what Jin Wook had said about Nina and Nicole word to word. Arnold also told him what was going to happen to him next in fluent Korean. After that, he let go of the man''s cor letting him fall on his ''bubble toochie''. Arnold gave him a chance to leave, and Jin Wook threw it straight out of the window by yelling at him. "I''ll destroy your entire nation with nukes!" The pig squeaked before rushing out of the banquet. "You won''t be the first one to try that," Arnold mumbled to himself before excusing himself from the party. Nina and Nicole rushed after Arnold along with his summons. They needed to know that Arnold wasn''t going to do anything reckless. And he just told them he was going for a walk to cool himself off. They had their doubts about his walk but who could have stopped him. So then went back inside. Arnold was back after a couple of hours so everyone thought the matter had been resolved peacefully and that Arnold had really gone for a walk. However, soon after Arnold was back, the international guests were informed about a piece of breaking news... North Korea... the entire country had been destroyed and people had been turned into refugees. Also, the country''s leader, Jin Wook was missing. Everybody immediately turned their attention towards Arnold. Even if they had no proof, they were sure Arnold was the one to destroy the country. No one else had the strength or the power to do something like this so quickly. Arnold''s destruction of North Korea as if it was nothing, turned out to be the reason why all of the countries readily signed the treaties Arnold had provided them even without reading it once. Lucky enough for them, the treaty was a fair one and not one-sided at all. It only stated one thing, as long as they were ready to help him in the time of need, he would protect them. Simple as that. *** "I guess, everything happens for a reason..." Arnold smiled while remembering how Jin Wook wet his pant right before he had fed him to Scy, "T, invite devon over and research the slime here. Someone needs to be here while I''m gone." "Already did master. I hope you''ll have a great time in Korea." *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 425 - Trip To Jeju Island (2) "It''s a pleasure to meet you again, Ms Seomun." Arnold greeted Seomun with a handshake. "The pleasure is all mine. After all, you don''t get to meet the world''s strongest person every day." Seomun smiled as she epted Arnold''s warm gesture. Seomun and Arnold had known each other for a year now and had developed some kind of friendship, forged through mutual understanding. But neither of them was the same like they had been a year ago. Back then, Arnold was just a lousy man who had half of China under his control and now he was ruling over half of the world. Things had been looking up for Seomun as well. Thest time Arnold met her, she was just the secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, and now, she was had be the minister herself. She was also the head of the warrior''s association and hence she could easily help Arnold with his request. Thanks to that, Arnold didn''t need to do anything and the dungeon had already been secured for his personal use. It wasn''t like the Korean government to show such hospitality to a foreigner, but Arnold was an exception for them. He was so special that the Koreans had also made a statue as a remembrance of Arnold''s exceptional effort to save thousands of lives. Both by killing Hercules and destroying North Korea. For all intent and purposes, Korea had be more like the weird fan of him than a nation. Although Arnold was happy about it all, he did not like when he was given all that attention. That was also one of the reasons why no one except Seomun and her close aides knew that Arnold was in their country and that he was heading to a dungeon. Also, rather than taking a flight to Korea, Arnold directly teleported close to Seomun''s official residence. All of it was to avoid unnecessary drama. Seomun was aplete professional and didn''t waste much time on idle chatter. As soon as they were done exchanging pleasantries, she fetched a folder from her secretary and handed it to Arnold. "As you wanted, we have collected as much information about your requested Dungeon as we could without killing anything on the other side." The report wasn''t the only thing she had with herself though, "And here is the permit showing that you are the official owner of the S-ss dungeon. I wish you- no, just saying that to you seems disrespectful. After all, someone of your calibre doesn''t need to depend on luck. His skills are enough to protect him." "You never know what would happen inside those dungeons. I might end up needing luck more than my skills." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "But if worsees to worst, I''ll get help from my army. After all, I pretty much created them for that purpose alone." "That''s a relief to know that you''re not blindly heading into the dungeon. Anyway, a helicopter has been arranged to take you to the ind. It will leave in four hours. If you want to, you can rest here till then." "Thanks for everything." "No problem. In fact, it''s a pleasure to be of any use to you." Seomun gave him one of her rare smiles, but her charm had no effect on Arnold, "I should get going now. By the way, this is Jok. Feel free to ask him for anything you need." "Will do." Arnold smiled back as Seomun left to go to the parliament. As soon as he was alone in the room, he took out the files and started skimming through the information they had gathered for him. The folder included a photograph of the monster along with a drawn sketch. Arnold immediately recognised the monster in the pictures. They were called Firenewts. These creatures were just like lizardmen as they too were reptilian humanoids. But unlike Lizardmen who were native to swamps, these red creatures were usually found around areas having Volcanic activities. Their height was usually around 5 feet, but some of them were known to outgrow the others and could even be up to 7 feet tall. But these cases were rare. Also, another noteworthy point was that while Lizardmen are thought to be Dragon''s true descendants, the title was more suitable for Firenewts. It was so because they had the ability to spew literal fire from their mouths apart from using weapons. Unlike lizardmen, most of them weren''t able to use mana either. Even a few of them who could use mana could only use low tier support spells. Other than that, they were superior to lizardmen in everything. As long as it didn''te to their defence. In contrast to Lizardmen, the Firenewts did not have solid protective scales covering their bodies, but this didn''t make them any easier to kill. Theck of natural heavy armour meant that they were quick as a scared fox. Their main skill was in their manoeuvring ability. They could almost turn in any direction while charging at their enemies. It was all a big thanks to their reversed knees that allowed them to quickly change their direction and attack their opponents from multiple directions. One of the most annoying things was that they almost always intended to fight mid to long-ranged battles. Thus they preferably used weapons like spears, bows etc to fight. Only the elites used close-range weapons like axes and swords, but the elites were extremely rare among their ranks. Also, contrary to the Lizardmen, they rarely fought their enemies head-on and preferred to set up traps to engage the target before ambushing them. Their favourite tactic to do so was to attack their enemies from the sides while the rest of their unit rained arrows on the target. Right next to those photographs and strengths, all of the monster''s weaknesses were listed. They were vulnerable to extremely low temperatures and Ice-based spells, just like every other fire element being. ''Wow... the Koreans do take this stuff very seriously.'' Arnold thought to himself as he read the report, ''I don''t think any of the other nations wouldhave such a detailed report about one type of monster.'' *** Please! Say no to piracy! Don''t take part in a crime! =>Link to the original site: /book/the-rise-of-a-porter_17460195006101205 Chapter 426 - No More Firenewts "Oi Mr pilot, you sure this thing is dormant? It doesn''t feel like it is." Arnold asked the pilot while they were making rounds around the volcano on Jeju ind, "I''m sweating like crazy here!" The firenewts had turned the Volcano into their hideout as soon as the Dungeon break urred. However, it felt more like the dungeon had turned itself into a volcano because rather than charging out to kill humans, the firenewts were strictly remaining inside the dormant volcano. Still, people had already been evacuated from the ind, just in case something weird happened. "Yes, sir. We are positive. the Volcano is still inactive as it had been for thest millennium." The pilot replied through thems, "Those Firenewts are the ones responsible for raising the heat again. Just like our body consists of around 70% water, their bodies consist of 80%va. And since hundreds of those have gathered inside the volcano, the temperature is just soaring high." Arnold nced over from the helicopter and he could see inside the volcano. The insides had turned red as if there was still magma lying inside the dormant volcano. Even from their height, Arnold could see there were way more fire newts than what was mentioned in the report. ''Hundreds? There have to be at least thousands of those creatures inside the volcano to raise the temperature significantly.'' Arnold thought, ''Well, the more there are, the easier it would be for me toplete the condition for the fusion to finish..'' Arnold now seemed to realise why the Koreans were all so happy to give up a dungeon to him. If Arnold could feel the heat even though he had thickened the mana shield around him. He could only imagine what would have happened to the warriors who would have entered the volcano prior to him. "Alright! Bring the helicopter as close as you can. I''ll jump out of here." "Ju-Jump out!? Sir, but we are at 1950-" "Dude... Just do as I say..." Arnold shook his head in disapproval before undoing his seat belts, "Before worrying about me, try worrying for yourself." Then even before the pilot could do what he had instructed him to do, Arnold jumped out of the helicopter. His body entered freefall and it went great. The wind kept rushing to his face as he got closer and closer to the volcano. The following moment there was an explosive noise marking Arnold''s arrival in the dungeon. Just from his arrival, he managed to kill over a dozen firenewts. __ You have in 14 firenewts. The fusion sess rate has been increased by 3.5% __ ''Eh? No exp? This fcking system! So that''s how you wanted to get rid of my Exp by not allowing me to get more in the first ce? That''s a low blow if anything!'' However, Arnold had more things to worry about than gaining EXP. Things like how nothing inside the volcano was as it had been stated in the report. The volcano was filled with firenewts alright, but they weren''t your run of the mill firenewts. For starters, almost all of them were taller than 7 feet, which was stated to be an abnormality in the reports and on top of that, these basta*ds weren''t shy at all. All of them were carrying short-range weapons like swords and maces rather than mid to long-range weapons. "Really? How can their reports be soooo off of the mark?" Arnold sighed as the firenewts surrounded him, "Come one,e all. Everyone will get to have a piece of themselves." Did they want to surround and pounce on him? Well, that was easier said than done. he had the perfect set of skills to take them down as swift as wukong''s beating. The following moment, the temperature inside the volcano plummeted as a thick sheet of fog formed around everybody. The newts who were extremely sensitive to cold immediately retreated, but there was nowhere for them to go. Till now, they were the ones surrounding Arnold, but the tables have turned as quick as Arnold''s arrival. Frostbite was the additional effect Arnold had gained after levelling up the skill . It was an AOE effect that was effective in immobilising and siphoning off their HP at the same time by up to 3% of their maximum HP every 5 seconds. Once a target acquired [Frostbite] status effect, Arnold''s attacks would deal double damage to them as well. ''I guess levelling up this skill was the right thing to do after all.'' Arnold smiled as he drew out the Cardinal''s sin for some action. He began shooting them one after another, however, Arnold deemed it to be an unnecessary waste of bullets. So he decided to use something different. After all, Icy veil wasn''t the only skill Arnold had at his disposal. He brought back one of his old and trusted skills back with him as well. A skill that he obtained on the very day he obtained the system: ''Elemental Control: ICE''. The newts who had been so confident before were now cowering in fear. First, there was the cold and then they couldn''t locate their target till it was toote for them. At first, they must have thought that the mist was bad news for them, but as soon as Arnold used elemental control, whatever glimmer of hope they had of survival, vanished in a second. "Oh... my... god... If the minister hoped she could hide this all between herself and the president... man she was wrong." The pilot who was still hovering around the volcano was in confusion as to what he was seeing was really happening or not. Since Arnold had not used the ability in a long time, he kind of went overboard with it... well, even saying overboard was being a bit... generous. Batsh*t crazy seemed more like the appropriate term in this case. For Arnold had just turned the volcano, Mountain Hasan into Mount Everest. Thankfully, it didn''tst for long as the next second Arnold cursed the mountain of ice along with the newts that were trapped inside it. The Dungeon which was estimated to take at least two weeks to clear out had been taken care of in barely a minute and most importantly... it was done in style. Chapter 427 - The Tower (1) While Arnold was busy recking the firenewts, something was going on in s different corner of the world. Something that was deemed to be weird even in a world that had seen it all. So far only dungeons had been popping up all over the world. But this time, something other than a dungeon appeared out of thin air in the USA in the shape of a tower. No one knew what it was and how it got there right in the middle of the recently rehabilitated New York. The sudden appearance of the 900-meter tall tower sent shock waves across the world. No one was sure what was going on. First, a dungeon spawned a living Ind, and now there was a tower. Just like the time Cetus was spawned in the world, the appearance of the tower also came with monsters. However, this time these were low levelled monsters that even a group of C rank warriors could handle. Thankfully, New York was still under construction after Arnold had Shyok terraform the wastnd into and even more beautiful than the garden of Eden, so even when this beautifulnd was cursed once again in the form of the tower, there weren''t any significant losses in terms of property damage. Still, half of the city was destroyed when the army of creatures attacked. But there were already enough warriors stationed there to take care of the mess before it got worse. However, that wasn''t the end. The tower kept spawning monsters at regr intervals, once every 6 hours and each time the horde kept getting harder and harder to contain. Non-fighters like the child, elderly and pregnant women, were immediately evacuated while those having the slightestbat experience willingly stayed behind to protect their city. They had gone through a lot of rehabilitating the city and they weren''t going to give up on it so easily. Not again. It wasn''t like the Syndicate was doing nothing either. Upon the initial discovery, they didn''t waste any time sending their best warriors to investigate the tower and if possible, take care of it once and for all. Even though Johnny was on the verge of retirement, he threw on somebat gear and head towards New york under Nicole''smand. The sister of Deathless had been appointed as the country''s first-ever female five-star general and the only one to be appointed after world war 2. Nicole had sessfully reced both Johnny and Arnold as the nation''s weapon and was known for her no mercy policy as well as having an imprable defence unlike before. Well, at least she was bing more and more like her brother in that regard. In the meantime, an emergency cooperation request had been sent to Arnold. Talos received the message instead of Arnold, only to inform them that Arnold was in Korea handling some private affairs. But Talos assured the syndicate that their message will reach Arnold as soon as possible and the master would get there to help them as soon as he was done taking care of things in Korea. Talos'' words were quite reassuring because he was known to be Arnold''s right-hand man-, no robot. Also, everyone knew about Arnold''s travelling abilities so, they were sure Arnold would be there before the day came to an end. Moreover, they had already taken care of three waves of monsters and had enough people to take care of a few more waves at least. Either way, it took Nicole and her army of warriors a couple of hours to reach New York and they arrived at the right time. The ck tower had spawned a fresh batch of nasty monsters and this time, they were Gargoyles. "Mages and Arrches get in position!" Nicole yelled at the top of her lungs, "Support units, buff them up and the rest of us will protect them. Go! Go! Go!" It wasn''t the first time Nicole had seen these rocky basta*ds. In fact, she knew them quite well. Well enough to know that the Gargoyles weren''t the real threat that they needed to handle. But it was the one controlling them. As terrifying creatures the gargoyles were, they had a huge disadvantage. The gargoyles were creatures who couldn''t think of their own. They were cursed to do a master''s bidding to survive. Because of this reason, they were fairly easy to kill if their master was a moron. But even then, they were known for their instinctual nature of causing pain and carnage around them. They were also a pain in the bu*t to kill because they knew how to take advantage of their ability to fly against humans and would often attack from a distance where the warrior''s weapons were eitherpletely useless or did very little damage to them. "Johnny, please take care of things here why I search for the one controlling them," Nicole mumbled before rushing towards the tower. "Don''t worry, we''ll handle these stone creatures. You do what you got to." Johnny replied and started concentrating energy into his punch, "I may be a brawler by ss, but that doesn''t mean I can''t take care of those flying a*sholes." With that being said, he jumped up as far as he could before unleashing the punch onto the iing swarm of Gargoyles. Whoever their master was, certainly did not foresee this to happen and just one punch destroyed a tenth of the gargoyles. The only downside to this was that a punch like that consumed quite a bit of energy. Johnny had to use it sparingly especially because now the one controlling the Gargoyle was aware of what Johnny could do and would be on the guard against him. But it gave the warriors the morale boost they needed, after all, they had been fighting monsters for 18 hours straight and were tired both mentally and physically. Meanwhile, Nicole was rushing towards the tower at maximum speed. She had gained the attention of quite a few gargoyles and now they were rushing to stop her from getting close to the one controlling them. Because if she killed the controller, everything would be over and the Gargoyles would turn into actual stone statues. But even the swarm of Gargoyles couldn''t stop her from reaching the tower. If the controller was surprised with Johnny''s ability to take down one-tenth of his gargoyle army, they were in for a shock as Nicole destroyed half of them in one swoop of her hand. Thanks to training in Arnold''s private dungeon, she no longer needed to use her mana sparingly as she had a bigger mana pool than even Arnold did. She could be as destructive as she wanted without being scared of running out of mana and fainting. Chapter 428 - The Tower (2) The Gargoyles might not have been able to stop Nina, but they were still having fun toying with the others. Even though more than half of their poption had vanished like relics of lost time, those who remained, forgot about Nicole as she entered the tower and focused their attempts on taking down the rest of the warriors. Which was proving to be oddly sessful. The warriors were under a lot of problems. For starters none of them had AOE skills that could deal damage to aerial units. The best the warriors could do was to use elemental magic against the gargoyles. But even that had a problem, three of them actually. First, the mages needed to perform a long chant in order to use elemental magic and they could be easily interrupted during this time which would lead to them losing precious time without any benefit. Second, the spells were slow to reach them, thus the gargoyles could easily dodge them and attack the warriors while they prepared for another attack. Which once again would lead to their defeat. And finally, third, in case the gargoyles dodge the attack, the aimless elemental spells could end up harming theirrades on descend. Now with these problems in front of them, they couldn''t do much against such a huge swarm of beasts. But even if they didn''t do it, the gargoyles would keep attacking them from a distance and they would still end up losing. No matter what they did, only the S rank warriors apart from Johnny, were being able to kill a few of them. However, as the battle progressed, the tanks and brawlers kept trying their best to tank the damage and take the aggro away from the mages, But there were too many gargoyles to aggravate and soon the tanks were at their limits. The only thing keeping them away from copsing right then and there was the continuous buffs the support units were providing them. But even that wouldn''tst forever as they were running out of mana quickly. "We can''t hold them off indefinitely!" One of the tanks roared at the mages he was protecting, "Get your crap together you dimwits! We ain''t Mount Rushmore to hold back these squeaking basta*ds indefinitely." "The fck you think we are doing here!?" The mage yelled back, "Chanting takes time, just hold them off for a little bit more!" "That''s easier said than done..." It was a pitiful situation to say the least. The swarm of gargoyles was not only messing up with the warriors physically but they were also tormenting them mentally. Nicole might have rushed towards the tower, but it didn''t seem like she would be able to do something about the one controlling the gargoyles soon enough. Moreover, if the warriors didn''t repair the fracture in their attitudes, they would be crushed from under the swarm of gargoyles. Johnny realised this and was continuously trying to boost the morale of the warriors. But it didn''t seem to be doing much. Everyone was suffering from exhaustion after the adrenaline in their body faded. This propelled Johnny to do something reckless. He abandoned his post as an offence, grabbed a shield and joined to back up the tanks. Even after that, within moments the main line of tanks copsed and the gargoyles freely charged towards the support line first. The brawlers tried to take down as many of them as they could, even the mages tried their best to deal as much damage to the Gargoyles as they could with their dried up mana. Johnny released all of his energy and killed a hundred of the gargoyles, but it wasn''t enough. Their support line had beenpromised. The creatures of the night were ready to rain terror once again. The night was filled with the screams of the warriors and the gargoyles began gnawing them. Just when the warriors thought it was the end, a deafening roar came from behind them and with it came an endless row of reinforcements in the shape of Automatons, Undead, Golems and Hounds. Following the army of mixed creatures, Arnold''s elite summons appeared on the battlefield, d in armours even gods would get jealous of. Just by looking at them, everyone on the battlefield knew that ytime was over. The greatest army on earth was there to take care of things. They could finally take a breather and not stress about the gargoyles. However, none of the ones who came out of the travel portal were responsible for making the deafening noise. It belonged to someone who was already flying in the air... it was the beast everyone had nicknamed the Dragon of Hope, Scy and on top of her was the masked king, deathless, Arnold Ling. The warriors had never been happier to see someone in their life. Neither Arnold nor his summons wasted any time. All of a sudden, the ground started quaking as numerous tree roots emerged out of the cracks to squat down the gargoyles like flies. The Orc shaman, Shyok had used his ability of terraform to force the root up to the surface of earth. Arnold took the charge of the roots using his Nature affinity and recked havoc on the noisy creatures. The remaining summons immediately went to action and didn''t let those two outperform them. Dread grew to his biggest possible size and started slicing the gargoyles into pieces. Asterios wasn''t that far behind and used Dread''s gargantuan body as a ramp to jump and swing his hammer. Talos has transformed himself into the Demon Orc and was shooting his spikes all around him. Miro and Duke were providing them with backup while the hounds atrted rescueing the injured and brought them to Alice and Natasha who healed everyone up. What was taking the warriors hours to do, was done in matter of mere moments. The Gargoyles have been destroyed and Arnold received a confirmation about that. ___ You have cleared the conditions to enter the Tower of Trials. Please use this site to prepare yourself for the event. The event will take ce in: 345 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 58 seconds. ___ "Arnold! Nicole went inside the tower!" Johnny yelled at the top of his lungs to make sure Arnold heard him. "That sister of mine... always desperate to outss me. Onwards, Scy. Let''s see what challenges this tower has in store for us." But Arnold and Nicole weren''t the only ones who got that same notification. All nine of the vassals and pdins were on their way to the tower. Chapter 429 - The Tower (3) Arnold stood in front of the ck tower. He couldn''t even locate the top of the tower as if was way above the clouds. The tower seemed endless. But that wasn''t the only thing. Even being around the tower felt a bit spooky as if the tower and the area around it had been possessed by Hades or one of his counterparts. When Arnold got closer to the tower, he saw something strange, there were strange markings etched all over the tower. It almost felt like the markings were the way for the tower tomunicate with the others. But it all came to head when system sama informed Arnold of what the markings said... [Death wees all those who wish to conquer the power to rule everyone hidden within the tower.] ''Looks like Halloween came early this year.'' Arnold smirked while talking to system sama, ''Now all that''s left to see is what this tower will give to us, would it be a trick or a treat.'' As soon as he heard the word power, two thoughts crossed Arnold''s mind. The first was that this could be a trick to lure the vassals and pdin''s into some kind of a trap. For the Vassals, who had more or less already met their limit to gain more power, the tower was a ce they could get past that limit and thus would madly rush into the tower in hopes of gaining more power before the event took ce. It was simr for the Pdins, they woulde here for two reasons, first was they could kill a vassal and take their ce and second if they couldn''t kill a vassal they could look for the ''power'' the markings spoke of and try to level up to the level of a vassal if not more. In the second case, the tower could genuinely provide what it said, a ''power to rule over everyone''. If that was true, then Arnold could not let anyone else get their hands on this mentioned power. His reasoning was simple, it was a power that could be easily abused to rule over the and he didn''t want anyone to misuse the power. Thus he wanted to get the power for himself so that he could either destroy it for good or at least make sure no one abuses it. [I would rmend you to not enter the tower.] ''Is it because you don''t want me to gain more powers?'' [That is partially the reason, but not the primary one.] ''Just say what you want to please. I like the straightforward version of you more than this riddler one.'' [I have no information whatsoever about such a structure in my database. And I know almost everything to have existed in this universe. If I don''t know about this, then most probably the tower is something you should stay away from.] ''Hm... I hear you loud and clear. But if the tower is even dangerous for me then that''s all the more reason to enter it, don''t you think? I can''t abandon Nicole to face the troubles by herself. I have to at least get her out of here.'' [...] ''You didn''t like my answer, did you?'' [My opinions won''t change your mind either way. So let''s just go and get your sister out of there for Immortal one''s sake.] While Arnold was busy debating whether to enter the tower or not, the backup from the syndicate arrived. After talking with them for a while, Arnold left the scene after giving orders to his summons to help them in any way they could. There wasn''t much for him to do outside either way. After all, the tower had appeared for the sake of their preparation for the war. Moreover, it was a normal notification that informed him about the tower so even if system sama was a bit confused regarding the tower, it didn''t mean that the tower was essentially led to his demise. But system sama''s concerns weren''t unfounded. First of all, nothing like this had happened in any of the previous events. Earlier, the participants were just taken off of theirs and forced to face each other without any ''preparations''. But for whatever reason, that didn''t seem to be the case this time. However, it doesn''t mean they could head into the tower without a proper n or something. But Arnold wasn''t listening to system sama. If the tower was dangerous, then it meant Nicole was in danger and he couldn''t sit idly not doing anything. However, there was one thing he could do. Before entering the tower, Arnold waved Talos over. There was something Arnold wanted him to take care of. "I''m going inside. Have everyone camp around the tower and do not let anyone enter. And I mean anyone. But send some people over to Memorial ind to ensure safety. Tell Yu Zhung and Kang to go there as well." "Master, maybe you should let some of us apany you-" "Talos, the vassals and Pdins from all over the woulde here in hopes of entering the tower. I can''t allow that. But since I would be inside, the only way to ensure that no one enters the tower and sabotage my or Nicole''s safety is to have you guys watch my back." "Alright, master. We will do as you wish. But there is a slight obstacle." Talos replied while pointing at the warriors dressed in ck armours, "It seems that those people want to enter the tower to investigate it as well. What should we do about them?" "Show them their ce, what else? If that doesn''t work, then contact Allen and tell him I have restricted ess to the tower of my own volition. No one is allowed to enter it without my permission. Not even the Syndicate." Talos nodded and left. A few momentster, Arnold''s army had surrounded the tower. It was safe to say the people dispatched from the syndicate did not like this development. But as much as they didn''t like someone else''s army taking hold of something in their country, they knew better and didn''t mess with the deathless'' army. So they let go of the matter as Arnold entered the tower. Chapter 430 - Problems Never Cease (1) While Arnold was taking care of the tower, Bad-Breath was having a tough time of his own. Arnold had sent him to investigate the situation near Kash. But when Bad-Breath finally reached the destination after trekking for days along with the Indian representatives, there was nothing there. No dungeon, no mine, nothing. It just looked like any mountain range like the ones around Kash. At first nce, it even seemed like the Indians were pulling a rude prank on them. But Bad-Breath knew they weren''t that big of a fool to try and prank Arnold, especially after seeing the ways he used to handle things. Arnold wouldn''t have hesitated for a moment before destroying their nation if they so much as try tricking him. Just like he got rid of North Korea. Also, Bad-breath thought they weren''t trying to trick them because there were still some traces around that indicated there had been a mining operation going on there for quite some time. Like tools and necessary safety equipment. All in all, it looked more like an abandoned ce than anything else. "What the hell happened here?" Bad-breath asked one of the two people apanying him. "We... have no idea." The man replied in his squeaky tone. "No idea? Don''t you people keep records for the dungeons that appear within the boundary of your nation?" "We do. But we haven''t noticed any energy spike or changes in the dungeon. Also, it had been opened for a month already so we thought it was safe to assume this dungeon wasn''t a typical dungeon..." The representative that apanied Bad-breath were just as surprised as he was. No one had any idea why this was happening. The disappearance of a dungeon only pointed at one thing, someone must have cleared the dungeon before they arrived there. But how could someone clear a dungeon if the dungeon had no monsters in it? Bad-Breath was not suited for brain work. Even though he had turned into a summon stronger and perhaps more intelligent than almost all of the warriors on the, deep down he was the same muscle for hire as always. The only change was that he had been permanently hired by Arnold at this time. "Give me your phone, I need to make a call." Bad-Breath snarled at one of the men. He knew exactly who could help him in this time of need, "Sir Devon, I''m afraid I have run into a problem that I can''t solve by myself. You see, Master sent me to investigate a dungeon in India. But when I got here, there was no dungeon in sight. Even the officials don''t know anything about it so I was thinking maybe you could help me out of this dilemma?" They kept talking for some time, and while he was doing that, something weird happened. The ground below him started distorting. It felt as if they were standing in a ne out of reality. The Indians weren''t familiar with this feeling but Bad-Breath was. It was the same sensation he felt whenever he was inside Arnold''s domain. But this time it felt a bit different. One thing was sure that this wasn''t Arnold''s domain because Bad-Breath knew Arnold was halfway across the globe, in the USA. So, if it wasn''t Arnold, it had to be someone else, a vassal or a pdin. If it was a pdin, Bad-Breath was sure in this ability to stop them, but if it was a vassal then he wasn''t so sure about it. Even if he was stronger than them, the vassals could have various aces up their sleeves to take care of him with little to no effort. "You two, get out of here!" Bad-breath yelled as he prepared himself for battle. However, it was already toote for them. All of a sudden, roots shot out of the ground like tentacles of Kraken and wrapped themselves around the two men. What happened next, left Bad-breath shook. The tree drained the humans out of their life force till there was nothing left. For some reason, the rootspletely ignore Bad-breath and only attacked the ones apanying him. Bad-breath went to action and tried his best to rip off the roots from their bodies and save them, but as soon as he got rid of one of the roots, two more wrapped themselves around their prey. Soon Bad-breath realised it was useless to fight against the roots as the men began to wither away. There was nothing left of them. Not even the bones were left behind as they were dragged underground along with roots. The only thing remaining there was Bad-breath with a satellite phone. Bad-breath was shocked so bad, he couldn''t even realise what happened there. He just picked the phone and thankfully Devon was still on the line. "Bob? What''s going on there? You went radio silent for a couple of minutes." Devon''s voice echoed from the other side of them. "I... I think I found out why the people were being disappeared around here..." Bad-breath could barely speak, "Something is really off with this ce. I can''t take care of this on my own, I think." "What happened? Are you alright?" "Something just up and swallowed the people who were apanying me." Bad-breath replied, "I tried to save them but couldn''t do sh*t! Whatever I did only made things worse." "Okay, you''re not making any sense. I''ll be over there in a couple of days and then-" "Don''t even think abouting here. I guess I know why nothing happened to me here. It''s because I''m already dead." Bad-breath mumbled as he finally regained hisposure, "The root or the tree whatever it was only targetted the ones with me and not me. And the people with me were alive unlike me. This is the only exnation I have that seems a bit realistic." "You sure about that?" "Pretty da*n much! But that doesn''t change the fact that I need some help here. But I can''t have any alive peeps here. Ask Talos for his help. If it''s him, then we can find the truth about what''s actually going on here." "Okay... got it. In the meantime, you should retreat to a safer ce." "Yeah. Tell Talos I''ll meet him at the airport. Sh*t! This ce is creepy AF. I''m just d Master didn''te here or who knows what might have happened?" Chapter 431 - Problems Never Cease (2): Mr Sweep Yo Bu*t __ You can not leave this tower beforepleting the following tasks. Time is being manipted inside the tower. 1 day inside the tower is equivalent to 10 days outside. You will have ess to only 10 floors of the tower, including the ground floor. The first participant to clear the 9th floor will receive a chance to select a reward of their choice from the variety of choices. Each floor has an obstacle you need to clear before proceeding to the next floor or receding to the previous one. each floor you clear will be a safe zone for you. You will be able to treat it as a leisure ce. Even if someone else would be facing a trial there, you will not be harmed. You can only leave the tower if you have umted enough points to do so. One exit ticket costs: 10000 points. You''ll receive 1000 points for clearing one floor. Furthermore, you''ll also receive points for killing the upants of the floors. Points will be awarded depending on the level and grade of the monster killed. __ "That sure is a lot of rules," Arnold mumbled as soon as he enter the tower, "At least it made one thing clear. I can''t leave before clearing the floors. Even void travel isn''t working in here." [Well... I''m not gonna say, ''I told you''.] "Yeah yeah, whatever. How long will it take to get the duality slots open again?" [A couple of days.] "Alright. In the meantime, let''s find Nicole and get the hell out of here. Nina is going to kill me either way for disappearing again." [You deserve it.] Arnold ignore system sama''spassionlessments and went ahead through the first door, where a challenge awaited his arrival. However, Arnold couldn''t see anything. It was too dark for him to even see the palm of his hand. Thankfully he had fire ability to take care of this problem. He conjured a small ball of blue me to give him some visibility. But Arnold didn''t like what he saw next. There were skeletons scattered all or the small room and it smelled so repulsive that Arnold had to use his bionic arm to cover his nose. Still, the smell of rotten flesh and blood made him ufortable. Moreover, the room wasden with moss and some kind of monster faeces. Arnold guessed it was this monster who was responsible for all this killing. He carefully looked around but there was no one except him in the room. This confused Arnold. He was supposed to clear this floor to head to the next one but how was he supposed to do that? In warrior''s terms, clearing something meant to get rid of a monster or several monsters, but there were no monsters to be seen inside the small room. "Don''t tell me..." A thought suddenly struck his mind when he saw a couple of brooms and dusting pans ced in a corner, "Do I literally have to ''clear'' this room? What the fck? I''m not a housekeeper anymore!" [Hahaha! It is quite funny indeed. Making the self-proimed world''s strongest man do sweeping. It''s better than any way I could have roasted your pride. Haha.] Arnold once again ignored system sama and his remarks. But... just what the hell was this tower making him do? He wouldn''t have to sweep across all of the ten floors right? Because if he had to, then that was just bull crap! He was a warrior, not a sweeper. However, it wasn''t like he did not have any experience in doing that. He would often have to do a lot of odd jobs while working as a porter to pay off Nicole''s hospital bills and cover his minimal living expenses and housekeeping was one of them. "Fine, if I have to do this, then let''s get it over with." Arnold shrugged his shoulder''s and went ahead to grab the broomstick, "Fck, if only I could still ess my domain, I could have had like a couple of automatons do this for me." [Too bad. Now get to work Mr sweeper.] "Yeah yeah- what the hell is this!?" It looked like the broomstick was some kind of a switch or a trap, because as soon as Arnold touched the broomstick, the room was filled with light and all of the corpses and skeletons came back to life. All of a sudden they didn''t look as frail as they had when Arnold entered the room. Arnold nced over them, and there were a lot of different skeletons. There were goblins, orcs and ogres which were easier to deal with. Then there were lizardmen skeletons, hell, there were a couple of skeletal dragons as well. However, this was only the start of his troubles. Arnold abandoned the broomstick and tried to take the Cardinal''s sin out of the inventory. But then he was notified that the ess to the inventory had been restricted. Not only that, he could only use the broomsticks to take care of the skeleton horde. Arnold tried punching the goblin skeleton closest to him. His fist connected with the goblin''s head, ad he crumbled into a pile of bones but the next second, it was back in shape as if nothing had happened to it. Arnold then tried using his abilities, but even that was a bust. He could use his skills but it did no damage to the skeletons. "What kind of sick joke is this?" [Try using the broom.] "... alright!" Arnold grabbed the fallen broom and smashed in on the goblin with all his might. Surprisingly... it worked! The goblin was reduced to dust. __ Critical attack! You have gained 1 tower point(s) for killing a basta*d goblin! Broomsticks durability has been reduced by 0.12 points. Remaining durability: 999999.88 __ "Something is seriously wrong with the one who came up with this game." Arnold sighed before charging towards the rest of the horde, "Killing monsters with a broomstick? Who the hell even thinks of this sh*t?" [... For the first time since I have known you, I want to roast someone else more than you. Either way, chop-chop. We have to clear the tower and find your sister.] "Yeah, yeah. I heard you!" Chapter 432 - Tower Of Trials: Onto Floor Two __ Critical attack! You have gained 10 tower point(s) for killing a slu*ty Dragon! Broomsticks durability has been reduced by 230.12 points. Remaining durability: 29.24 Congrattions! You have sessfully cleared the first floor of the tower of trials. You have gained 1000 tower point(s). You can proceed to the next level when you please. Current points: 1765 __ "I''m telling you... something is seriously wrong with this tower." Arnold mumbled before dropping the broomstick and huffing his lungs out, "Just look at these absurd monster names!" [You''re right but there is nothing we can do about this. We''ll just have to push forward and hope everything works out.] "Yeah... I''m just wondering how did Nicole manage to take care of all this. It took me an hour to do it. Sure it must have taken her more than that... and if that was true... then something doesn''t add up." [The timing.] Arnold nodded and began thinking about it. Johnny said he saw her entering the tower. After that, he took like half an hour to enter the tower as well but he didn''t meet her on the first level. It could only mean one of two things. Either Nicole managed to clear this stage under three minutes, which would have meant 30 minutes had already passed outside and moved on to the next stage. Arnold would''ve believed that to be the case if he hadn''t gone through the same tasks. But it was just impossible to kill all these skeletons in just under 3 minutes while using nothing but the broomsticks. This brought Arnold to think of the second scenario, something he was wishing did not happen... she never entered the tower. As much as Arnold did not want to believe it, it was the most probable reason. It was fairly possible that he had been fooled into entering the tower and that Nicole was used as bait to do that. Was it a ploy of one of the gods that he fell for? Maybe, but there was no way for him to be sure about it. ''No point in thinking about it all. Since I''m already in, I would just have to clear this tower as soon as I can and get out of here.'' If Nicole was inside the tower, then it was alright. But if she wasn''t then... Arnold was already getting all worked up at his own foolishness. But it wasn''t like he could turn back time to correct his mistakes. He was pretty sure not even the gods could do that because if they could he would most probably be six feet under the ground already for killing the demigods. As the notification informed him, a door leading to the next floor opened up. Arnold went ahead and grabbed thest remaining broomstick with him before leaving the floor. Who knew what this tower would throw at him this time. So he wanted to make sure to have at least one weapon that would be useful against the monsters inside the tower. But he was about to regret that decision. ___ An Illegal weapon has been brought onto the next floor. As a punishment, 400 tower points will be deducted. On your next offence, more points will be deducted. Please follow the rules properly. ___ "..." Arnold stared at the screen dumbfounded by what he was seeing. It was the most ridiculous and useless thing he had ever seen. He was shocked beyond the limit when he read what was written on the notification. It was as if he did something, then there would be a fine and if he didn''t there would still be a different kind of fine. He would be fined for anything he did. "FCK!!!" Arnold snapped the broomstick in half but that was yet another bad decision... ___ The property of the tower has been damaged. As a punishment, 500 tower points will be deducted. Current points: 865 ___ Within a minute Arnold went from having 1765 points to less than half of it and he didn''t even do anything yet. It almost felt like the tower would punish him for breathing in the wrong way and he wouldn''t be surprised if that actually ended up happening. [... yeah. I''m pretty sure this isn''t what we thought the tower was.] But at least he was on the second floor. The doors slowly closed behind him and he was left standing inside a ginormous ballroom, all alone. At least there were skeletons to apany him on the previous floor but this floor... was just like a beautiful barrennd. But that didn''t remain the case for long. Soon the room was filled with a mist and when that disappeared, there were Demonic lords standing in front of him. The only thing was, Arnold was pretty sure he had killed all 7 of them before, however, Natasha was not a part of this group despite being a demon lord herself. Thus it meant one thing, these were just cheap copies and nothing more. Among the group of remaining 6 demonic lords, were the great demons known as, Mammon: the sin of greed, Lucifer: the sin of pride, Levia: the sin of enviousness, Beelzebub: the sin of destruction, Astaroth: the sin of royalty andst but not the least, Berith: the sin of sphemy. Natasha was the sin of lust, but she wasn''t there. Arnold didn''t know why, nor did he cared. He already had his hands full with the ones that were in front of him. ''Fighting them all at once is going to be quite troublesome... even if they are fakes.'' Arnold slipped his hands into his inventory, but the ess was denied once again, ''Okay... now I can only use my fists and hope there isn''t some BS broom lying around here as well.'' Just as Arnold readied himself to face the demonic lords, another notification popped up in front of him. But this time it brought a piece of good news for him unlike before. ___ Choose your opponent: ? Mammon ? Lucifer ? Levia ? Beelzebub ? Astaroth ? Berith ? ? ? You''ll be given the choices once again when you reach the next floor. options will open once you have defeated the demonic lords shown above. ___ "Alright... this is good. I don''t need to fight them all at once." Arnold let out a sigh of relief, "If I have to choose one of these basta*ds... then I''ll go with Lucifer." ___ Affirmative. The duel will begin in 30 seconds. Please take whatever you want from your inventory till then. ___ Chapter 433 - Tower Of Trials: Against The Devil (1) Arnold hurried took out whatever he required to defeat Lucifer before the inventory was sealed away again. Soon, thirty seconds were over and the other demon lord disappeared as fast as they had appeared. All but Lucifer who was standing in front of him with all his primal glory. Arnold would never forget the face of the being who was once called the Morning star of the universe, but he was just one of the seven rulers of hell. Someone, whom Arnold had already defeated once. Lucifer was epitome of what every female desired in herpanion. He had a lean, fit and extardoinary physique coupled with a face that would make even a goddess fall in love with him. Not to mention the ck halo and the wings he had as a remembrance of him being a fallen angel. However, the most desirable thing was his crimson eyes that were thirsty for revenge against the ones who dam*ed him to rot in hell. ''Is this really him?'' [No. The Lucifer in front of youcks the mana he did when you first met and battled him.] ''Yeah, you''re right. But I''m sure whom I killed back then wasn''t the real deal either.'' Arnold remembered how he came across fighting the devil. It happened seven months ago, while he was expanding his territory in southwestern Asia, he came across a hidden undergroundbyrinth right before he was about to deal with Syria. It was also the same region where there had been reports of more than a hundred people had gone missing. At first, both Talos and Arnold thought the people would have lost their sense of direction in the Syrian desert and as a result, went missing. It wasn''t all that umon for that to happen, after all, deserts were a hard ce to navigate. Furthermore, he was pretty sure that terrorist organisations had nothing to do with the disappearance because there were no such organisations left. Arnold already had Scy taken care of them by that time. But now that he hade across abyrinth that no one had discovered before, he knew why people had gone missing in the area. A fricking cult was active in that region. A cult that worshipped Lucifer and the one leading them was supposedly the one Lucifer has chosen to be his host and was already upying his soul. Arnold had seen a lot of crap but this was something even he refused to believe in. Moreso, he didn''t give a flying fck about them. He was more disgusted at what they were doing with the ones they had captured. They were indulging in... cannibalism. There were hundreds of corpses inside the structure. Some have been eaten into and the rest left alone, perhaps to be feasted onter. Some of the corpses hung upside down, with multiple cuts all over their bodies. This allowed gravity to do its work and drain their blood. Below them, some utensils were left to collect the blood so that those satan worshippers could quench their thirst. This wasn''t the first time Arnold had seen something like this. It was quite...mon in among these basta*d demon worshippers. But it didn''t made Arnoldfortable and it was the first time he had seen it happen on this scale and... Arnold didn''t know what happened after that... but he just ughtered them all right then and there. They had abilities, quite a few in fact, but it was all useless against Arnold and his army. He easily dispatched them to hell and reunite them with the ones they were busy worshipping. However, as they were walking out a dungeon appeared out of nowhere. Arnold didn''t have a reason to think so, but something in his head kept telling him the appearance of a dungeon in such a ce was too random, even for his taste. It definitely had to do something with the cultists. Either way, he could not have left the dungeon alone and not clear it. So he along with a part of his army entered the portal while the rest of them guarded the dungeon as well as thebyrinth. And sure enough, Arnold''s hunch was right on point like always. The appearance of the dungeon definitely had something to do with the cult, because the dungeon teleported Arnold and his army right in front of some kind of a demonic castle. A castle that was made out of the bones of hundreds of thousands of condemned humans and demons. Basically, anyone who went against Lucifer became a part of his castle following their defeat. Arnold didn''t know why, but he kind of liked the idea behind it. Who in their right mind would go ahead and attack someone who literally had made a castle from the remains of his enemies, right? Well, someone as Arnold would. He had entered the dungeon to clear it. He didn''t care whom he had to go against. But the owner of the castle had a different opinion. Right now, Arnold and his army were invading hell, well, a replica of it. Volcanos were erupting all over the ce, the temperature was soaring higher than ever before, the da*ned souls of the evil were being tortured in ways Arnold hadn''t even thought of. But for Arnold it was more like he was looking around his new ce. It wasn''t because he was going to turn the casle in his own home, but because he was pretty sure he was going to hell for the things he had done. Even if they were righteous deeds, it didn''t matter. Either way, while Arnold was sight seeing, the gates to the castle opened and out came a horde of damned beings. Being led by none other than Lucifer himself. Their army outnumbered Arnold''s by 3 to 1. The fight began and Arnold''s army was surprisingly having a hard time against Lucifer''s. His regr summons were getting owned by them even though Arnold was destroying Lucifer''s army with just as ease, things were not looking good for him. His summons were getting destroyed continuously thinning their defense line, when Arnold realised why Lucifer''s army was so strong. They were used to the heat, no, they weren''t winning because they were used to the heat. They were winning because they were dependent on the heat. The creatures of hell were continuously converting the thermal energy and using it as a means to wreak havoc on Arnold''s army. So Arnold did what he did the best, and evened the odds a little by freezing the ce. Him being the mad he was, he froze hell... who could have thought about something like that? After that, it was only a matter of time before his army ughtered everyone. However, he couldn''t have Lucifer resurrected, because his corpse disappeared the moment Arnold killed him and the dungeon became unstable so they had to leave. It looked like he won''t be able to make Lucifer a part of his army this time either. Because he couldn''t call Talos or Yan to help him nor could he ess his domain to put Lucifer''s corpse in it, that is if there was a corpse left behind this time. "I''m looking forward to our rematch." Arnold mumbled before gripping on his guns. "I don''t even know you, imbecile." Lucifer remarked as he drew his sword, "You''ll pay for your foolishness with death." "You got a messed up head. That''s for sure." Chapter 434 - Tower Of Trials: Against The Devil (2) "So, where''s the real you hiding at, huh?" Arnold mumbled as he grabbed Lucifer''s head and mmed it on the pir next to him, "I''m sick and tired of fighting the fake you. First in the dungeon and then in this stupid tower." The battle between the devil and Arnold turned out to be more like a joke. It was far too one-sided to even call it a duel at this point. Lucifer had lost his sceptre when Arnold touched it, and his physical attacks were too lousy to deal any real damage to Arnold. Arnold wasn''t interested in dragging their battle out because he wanted to leave the tower as soon as he could. But the only problem was... the moment he killed Lucifer, another one appeared to fight him. They all had the same strength but their defence scaled whenever a new one appeared in front of him. For instance, Arnold killed the first ten Lucifers with a single attack from his bionic arm. But then from the 11th to the 15th, each of them took a couple of attacks and so on. Arnold knew the ones appearing in front of him were fakes because of their weak attacks so he initially paid them no heed. Instead, he focused his attempts on locating the responsible for causing these mirages. However, that did not help him at all. The one controlling them from behind was nowhere to be found. Arnold know that person had to be within the same floor to control the fake lucifer''s, but he had searched the floor like a sniffer dog and yet there wasn''t anything he could find to help him. Thus in the end he had to resort to interrogating the fake Lucifers rather than killing them. As much as a hassle it was. "I AM the TRUE king of HELL-" Lucifer yelled with his mouth pushed against the floor by Arnold''s fist. "Oh, just die already..." Arnold squashed his head in a heartbeat. The corpse disappeared as usual and then Arnold waited for Lucifer to reappear. As if it was written in the stars, another one of the Lucifers appeared. But this time he wasn''t alone... he was there with his army from hell. Or at least a very small part of it. There were around a hundred of his hellish monsters looking at Arnold. However, this time something happened. Lucifer acknowledge him as if he had known him for quite some time. "We meet again, Warrior from Earth." He mumbled, after teleporting behind Arnold, "You have had quite some fun with my doppelgangers. Now it''s time I have some fun with you." "Not gonna lie, that sounds wrong on so many levels," Arnold replied before doing the same trick on Lucifer, that he did to him, "But before you start being all touchy and feely with me, let me make one thing clear I''m not interested in men." [I know you''re not, but you sure sound like one. Touchy and Feely? No one uses those terms so lightly. I won''t me you though, he does look good.] ''I''m d you don''t have a dick, otherwise, I''ll have to get rid of you somehow.'' [Who would feel that way about you? You''re lucky that you actually got someone for yourself other than your hands.] ''... fck you.'' *** Meanwhile, on the outside, things were getting a bit weird. Just as the warriors were leaving as they had received the orders to leave the tower under Arnold''s protection, something strange happened. Nicole walked out of the tower and she was surprised to see Talos and the others outside. "Talos, what are you people doing here?" Nicole Asked the automaton who was dumbfounded to see her there, that too all alone. "If you''re here... then where''s master Arnold? He went inside to help you get out of there." "No way... no way!" Then she realised what was happening and immediately rushed ran back towards the gate of the tower. But it was shut permanently for her and didn''t budge. She had cleared the tower and ording to the rules, she could not enter it again for the next month. She tried destroying the stone gate using her ability but it was all in vain. In Talos'' opinion, Nicole had always been a bit... weird or over the top. He couldn''t pinpoint why he thought so, but now she felt crazier than she ever did to him before. All of them rushed over to see just what was going on there. "What is going on?" Talos asked Nicole as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and sat crossed-legged on the ground. "The tower resets the level of difficulty ording to thest person who cleared it." Nicole mumbled without looking at anyone of them, "When I went inside, each floor till thest floor was empty. And then I finally got to face the tower boss on thest floor... a crippled goblin. Basically, when I cleared the tower, it reset all of the floors ording to my level. That means, no one below my level would have been able to clear the tower." "Huh... so you''re mad because...?" Alice asked her. "Because now... Arnold will be able to clear the tower and it''ll reset all of the levels ording to his level!" She buried her head in her arms, "It''ll be impossible for anyone else to even think about clearing the tower on a difficulty level set ording to him." "So you''re not upset because Master went inside the tower to save you. You''re upset because he will set the difficulty too high?" "Why else would I be upset?" Nicole looked at them with perplexed eyes, "I''m sure he will clear the tower before we know it, and then it''ll be too hard for anyone else but him to even think about entering the tower." "With all due respect, ma''am," Talos spoke on behalf of everyone present there, "You''re weird." However, their fun time was interrupted by a call from Devon. Talos excused himself before picking up the call. As soon as he epted the call, Devon blew up at him and began telling him what Bad-Breath had told him. "Weird things? Like what?" Talos asked Devon. "No idea, but Bob said he knows why the people were disappearing and requested for your help. He also said... don''t send anyone alive here. I have no idea why he said that though." "Alright, I''ll get there as soon as I can. Till then, tell him to not let anyone go over there." "Will do." Chapter 435 - Tower Of Trials: Final Floor Inside the tower, 22 hourster... __ Congrattions! You have sessfully cleared the Eighth floor of the tower of trials. You have gained 1000 tower point(s). You can proceed to the next level when you please. Current points: 10165 You can exchange 10000 points for an exit ticket or you can head to the next floor. Please remember, shall you choose to take the final floor of the trials, you will not be permitted to leave unless you have cleared it. In the event shall you choose to leave the tower now, please note that you will not be allowed to enter the tower for the next 30 days (outside time). Exchange the points for the ticket? Yes or No __ Arnold thought about it carefully. His arm bionic arm was busted, his gears were a mess thanks to all those disgusting demon lords and their pawns, otherwise, he was in a good shape. Physically he had no reason not to get rid of the tower once and for all. However, his gut was telling him that he wasn''t ready for the final floor. Not yet. It was a strange feeling. It wasn''t as if his mind was telling him to run away from there, it was more like the mind was trying to tell him he wasn''t just prepared yet. He was pretty sure he could defeat whatever that was waiting for him behind those closed doors. After all, he had killed demigods, he doubted there was anything worse than a demigod waiting for him inside. But it was more like a feeling that he should do something else first. He just couldn''t pinpoint it. He could have used the foresight to look into the future and see what was inside thest floor... if only he had more usage left for the day. He had already used the skill five times to clear thest five floors and now he couldn''t use it anymore due to the daily usage limit. Also, the main reason for him to enter the tower was not to clear it but to get Nicole out of there. But after clear the floors till now, he was pretty sure Nicole wasn''t in there, either she never entered the tower or had already cleared it. If she was inside the tower, he would have already run into her. On top of that, as far as the ''secret power'' held within the tower was concerned, Arnold was pretty sure one could only get their hands on it after clearing the final floor. Also, by judging how tough of a time he had while climbing to this floor, he was pretty sure no one else would have been able to get to the final floor either way. Then there was the fact that he would leave his summons to guard the tower even when he wasn''t there. And no one in their right mind would go against him or his army. so the tower would remain safe until he decided to visit the tower again. After all, he had lots of time left the tower would disappear or till the ''event'' takes ce and the tower wasn''t going anywhere till then. ''Let''s just get out of here first.'' Arnold mumbled as he exchanged the points for the ticket to leave the tower, ''I have already spent 22 hours here, which should be a bit over 9 days outside. Not need to spend any more of my time here.'' Arnold might not have said it, but the main reason for him to leave the tower were Nina and Aiden. He couldn''t just keep disappearing on them like this. It wasn''t fair to with of them. In his eyes, it was about time to stop thinking about the world for once and try concentrating on being with his family because no one knew how long would he be gone during the war of the worlds. So it was probably the right decision to focus on his family for now and let his summons take care of things for him. The next moment he had a golden ticket in his hands and the tower points got deducted. He tore the ticket in half and was immediately teleported back outside. He was graced by the sunlight outside as well as his summons who all jumped up after seeing him alive and well. [How did you know you had to tear the ticket in half to get back?] ''I didn''t.'' [... you really are lucky.] However, his summons weren''t the only ones waiting for him there. Nicole and a few other ck family members were there as well. It looked like they were there to discuss something, and Arnold had an idea of what they wanted to talk about. "Did you know I was going toe out like now or what?" Arnold smiled as he took the towel from Nicole''s hands to wipe the dirt off his face. "We have been waiting here for quite some time..." Allen spoke with a smile on his face, "Actually for a week." "What a way to waste your time." Arnold smiled, "So to what do I owe the pleasure, Mr ck... that sounds awkward. I think I''ll stick with Allen for now." "Haha, it''s fine by me even if you call me a retard like you used to." Allen smiled back, "But let''s cut the crap. You know why I''m here, so why waste each others time?" "Straight to business, I like it. But as much as I like it... the tower will stay under my control. That''s non-negotiatable. It''s too risky to even for me to enter the tower so y''all can forget about it." "But it''s on our soil." One of the men apanying Allen bu*ted in before Allen could say anything, "You might be the strongest and a king, but that does not give you the right to invade ournd and im it as yours." Everyone gasped noiselessly as Jack, the new guy, said those words to Arnold. Only one thought was racing through everyone''s minds... Jack was a goner. However, Arnold surprisingly didn''t get mad at all. In fact, he burst intoughter while patting Jack''s shoulders. "You''re not wrong. I don''t have any right to hold on to yournd... but wait for a second... as far as I remember, it was MY summon who made thisnd using his ability. In other words, thisnd was terraformed by him on MY orders. So the way I see it, thisnd was mine since day one." Arnold stopped smiling all of a sudden and bore a hole into Jack''s eyes through his gaze, "Still, I think you are right. It IS your country, after all, and it''s not like I will have to move a finger to conquer this ''country'' of yours. Just my summons would be enough for me to do that." "B-But that''s tyranny-" Jack mumbled as if he was about to cry any second. "That''s how the world always has been." Arnold turned around and activated a portal, "Fine, you can have the tower. It''s not like you can enter it anyways. My summons will stay here and guard it while I rest and clear my head. Once that''s done, we can talk again, would that be alright, Allen?" "Sure, brother... anything you want. In the meantime.. take this idiot away from here!" Allen roared at his guards as Arnold disappeared. Chapter 436 - World Tree (1) It had been a couple of days since Arnold got out of the tower of trials. In those two days, quite a few things happened in Arnold''s world. Firstly, he got permanent authority over the tower. No one was even allowed to enter within a ten-kilometre radius of the tower or else, his summons had the right to proceed in a hostile manner. They could even kill the person who trespassed if they see it fit and the syndicate won''t be able to do a thing about it. It was safe to say that, New York was effectively under Arnold''s protection and control. The Syndicate had offered thend to Arnold on a lease but on a few conditions. One of them being that the rehabilitation program was allowed to be continued despite Arnold''s temporary ownership. Even though No one could stop Arnold from just grabbing thend and do as he wished, Arnold did not want any hostile feelings between the people of his world. Thus he agreed to lease thend and allow the syndicate to continue with its rehab ns as long as they stayed away from the tower as promised. The method of payment mentioned in the lease, however, was the peculiar part of the deal. Unlike Arnold''s expectations, the syndicate did not demand money or any assets from Arnold. Instead, they wanted protection but not in the traditional sense of the word. They wanted Arnold to help them out in any other case in which would prove too much for them to do. This included clearing dungeons that they deemed too dangerous for them to clear on their own. Also, Arnold would be allowed to take only 15% of the materials, equipment and beast crystals found in those dungeons. The rest would belong to the Syndicate. on top of all this, Arnold would have to set up a weapon manufacturing nt in New York and he would haveplete control over this manufacturing nt. He was free to sell the weapons to whoever he liked, however, he would have to sell these at a discounted price to the syndicate. As much as Arnold didn''t give a crap about money, he knew the Syndicate was being too greedy for their own good. However, since he could get his hands on the tower without necessary bloodshed and headache, he signed the contract. He was already helping them clearing the dungeons before so the first request was reasonable as long as he would get the chance to pick out his share first. Moreover, it wasn''t like he was facing any problems in terms of beast crystals to provide power to his empire so he did not need that. Thus, the second part of the deal was also good. The Syndicate''s request to put down a manufacturing nt was simr to testing Arnold''s limit to patience. But since he already had a couple of such nts set up on Memorial Ind, so all he had to do was to relocate one of them and that cost would be covered by the syndicate and not him. With that, Arnold''s professional duties came to an end, or so he had hoped. But when he started looking for Talos to go over the deal with the Syndicate, only then did he found out about the trouble that had been going on in Kash, the ce which was seemingly Shiva''s birthce. "What happened there?" Arnold asked Devon to give him theplete report, but there wasn''t much for Devon to report apart from what Bad-Breath had told him. He religiously narrated whatever he knew about the mysterious roots spread across Kash. ording to Talos, the roots must be located in the Astral realm and only appeared in the true realm once it locates a living target in its vicinity. After the target had been located, the roots appeared out of nowhere and gobbled up whatever living creature that was in front of them. Talos had experimented by putting Automatons and animals together, but the roots only attacked the animals andpletely ignored the existence of the Automatons. He repeated the same experiment again with carcasses and the results were the same. The carcasses were ignored and only the live animals were attacked, which confirmed his theory. "So the roots, as you call them, only seek the lifeforce of the others to live themselves? That means the root is more like a parasite than a tree." Arnoldmented, "Also since the parasite belongs to some other realm, that would exin why Bad-Breath''s physical attacks did not do much against them." "My thoughts exactly," Devon nodded with Arnold''s deduction. "Talos tried his best to get rid of the ''parasite'' as well, but seemingly he failed as well. Although on a positive note, he was able to collect a sample of it while attacking it using whatever he could use. The sample should arrive here by tomorrow along with Talos and Bad-Breath." "What about the area-" "The Indian government has been notified about the situation and advised to not do anything that would jeopardise our operation. As far as the security of the ce is considered, over a thousand Automatons have been stationed there along with sentries, and we have the official permission from the Indian government to capture anyone who came near the area, even if it was by ident." "Looks like you people have everything cleared up." Arnold smiled as he got up to leave, "Now since all of this has been taken care of, I''ll leave the rest to you guys as well." "Of course, you can leave it to us. With you taking care of everything, I have been feeling quite useless these days either way." Just as Arnold was about to leave Devon''sboratory, he spotted something he had forgotten about a long time ago. The ck slime he had captured was ced under a microscope. However, it was actively trying to escape the light as if it was contagious to it. The peculiar thing, though, was the fact that they loved bathing in the light, as far as Arnold knew about slimes. It didn''t matter to them whether the source was sunlight or any artificial light and would often be found clumped up together in ces where there was an active source of light as it was their primary source of food. "Have you made any progress with this little guy yet?" Arnold mumbled while taking a peek at it through the microscope, "Can''t see shit here..." "Not yet. But the slime doesn''t seem to be natural... it''s more like it was created by someone for some purpose." "Hm... We gotta figure out who could do something like this. But for now, keep it sealed away." Chapter 437 - World Tree (2): True Enemies (Part One) Somewhere in the unknown corner of the universe, a god was meeting with his underling. This orange-skinned woman had an absent-minded feel about her and was only attentive to things that were needed by her sworn lord. Standing at 5''2" tall, she had a lean face with a softly shaped jaw, a broad nose, thin lips, and small grey eyes that almost always seemed to be closed. She had mid-back length blonde hair which was worn in a bun to please her lord as he liked her hair that way. Her nted shoulders and muscr arms were, however, covered with burn marks and wounds. The armour she was wearing barely covered her heavy torso and chiselled abs, or her narrow waist and hips. As for the rest of her gear, her long legs were covered entirely with a ck pant which was made up of thin but nearly indestructible metal. On top of all this, she had a chain wrapped around her neck as a symbol of her being a ve. She always tried to please her lord, but often failed to do so, just like she had failed him this time. She had one job... and she horribly messed it all up. But to be honest, if Hercules could fail his task, it shouldn''t be a surprise that she failed her task as well. At least now she knew it was nearly impossible to trick that man... his instinct was just way too good. But her husband, who was also her lord, wouldn''t care about such things anymore. Even the woman knew this as she entered the throne room of the lord she served. The room was awkwardly dark. Not a single torch had been lit up. The usual crowd was missing as well... as it had been since the lord of the domain was killed by the Immortal one. But the woman could still feel her lord''s presence in the room. He was there, sitting on the broken throne of his broken kingdom that had been destroyed over a billion years ago and was yet to see the light shine again. At one point in time, the god whom this kingdom belonged to, was always surrounded by too many attendants and beauties that one couldn''t even count. But know he was all alone... except her unfaithful wife who had betrayed him when he was at his most vulnerable and he had been punishing her ever since and would continue to do so till the day he was once again praised amongst the gods. "Sigyn... you failed me again." The man sitting on the throne said with a snide tone, "I wonder what should I do with you this time? Break your bones and feed them to Fenrir, or should I throw you in front of Jormungandrso that he can have some fun with you? Oh... I can''t do that. You betrayed them as well and unlike me, my sons are still paying for their faithfulness to me." "L-Loki... I mean, my lord... If even the great Hercules couldn''t kill that man even with the Olympian army, what could have I done with just a t-tower?" Sigyn was once Loki''s most beautiful and trusted bride but now had a pained expression spread across her face. It was probably because she knew her husband''s twisted sense of revenge. Loki would torture her for millenniums in one go, whenever she failed to do anything he asked her to. But he never got physical with her... he just ''yed with her dreams''. Loki would often use his abilities to twist her dreams and make her rewatch the worst of her fears again and again, to the point where she would start questioning her sanity. She wasn''t the only one who betrayed him, his other brides and one of his sons, Vali, did too. But since all of them were gods or demigods, they didn''t need to depend on Loki for their Immortality, unlike her who was just a mortal from one of the thousands of worlds Loki once had control over. When Shiva attacked Loki after Loki betrayed Asgard, everyone persuaded Sigyn to betray Loki as well and weaken him prior to his fight with the Immortal one. At first, she didn''t agree, but then the other left her no choice. They said if she didn''t help them out, they would kill her before Loki died. If that happened, her immortality would end even before Loki could have a chance to resurrect her. On the other hand, they promised her, if sheplied with their request, they would have her truly be immortal. Which they did... after bounding her soul to Loki''s throne as some sick joke. That''s why she was never able to leave the ce without Loki''s permission and was punished for something she only did because she was forced to. "A tower made from my magic and mischief. A tower that even the gods were once afraid to enter as most of them spent millenniums after being trapped inside." Loki mmed his staff on the floor and Sigyn was forced to break her own hand, "And you''re saying... that tower wasn''t enough to trap one mortal human for a year in it?" Sigyn was crying her eyes out as her remaining arm was shattered into pieces and then... everything went back to normal like it was all a dream and none of it ever happened. But the pain she felt was real. This was the way Loki had been torturing her ever since he got resurrected and found that she was the one who betrayed him even though she was aware that her life depended on him. "Quit punishing a defenceless woman and try doing the same with your so-called sister or daughter, whatever you call her these days along with herpanion Surtr." Zeus'' voice interrupted Loki, "The Immortal one is on his deathbed. We can not let him get an heir or that would mean the end of us!" "What do you think I have been trying to do?" Loki yelled back at him, "Your good for nothing son, had the perfect opportunity to end this once and for all but no, he just ended up feeding him more power. At least the tower did not give him any powers." "But it failed to trap him inside till the war like you dered it would. Either way, I''m here to talk about something important... there might be a way to kill him... if we use your Vassal." Chapter 438 - World Tree (3): True Enemies (Part Two) "What about her?" Loki mumbled as he got off the remnants of his throne. He looked like a shell of his former self. Unlike Zeus, he was looked so frail that even the slightest breeze could have knocked him out. His overflowing ck hair was hidden under a crown that looked like it had been stomped on by elephants or simr gargantuan creatures for thousands of years. Yet there was something in his eye that not even the strongest of the gods had... a thirst for revenge. Especially ever since he had got to know that the Immortal one was not as immortal as everyone thought he was. Zeus was also aware of this fact but they were the only two who knew about the Immortal One''s secret. A secret that could have them crowned as the overlord of the universe or doom them to the underworld forever. It all happened when thest time Immortal one killed both Loki and Zeus. Usually, when a God was killed, two things would happen. One, the ''dead gods'' would be converted into a form of energy and it would take them a lot of time to slowly shape them back to their former selves. And two, they would lose all of their memories from the previous life and would slowly regain them back as time progressed. But these things only happened in the case when a higher god died. If any lower godly entity died, they would have to wait to be resurrected by the higher gods. This, however, did not happen thest time Loki and Zeus were killed. Instead of losing their memory, they ended up gaining all of their memories from their past lives. They did not know why or how that happened, but they did and as a result, they also got to know about how the immortal one was the one who had destroyed and recreated the universe hundreds of times... and had killed all of the gods during those times as well. But they got to know something else as well. Every time Shiva destroyed a universe and recreated it, a part of his soul died with it. And he had done that so many times now, that he can only do it maybe one more time and after that, he''ll be gone forever or maybe gone for a while till his energy was reformed as it did with the other higher gods. That was the reason why Shiva, someone who didn''t care about the game of gods till now, suddenly wanted to participate in one. Through thepetition, he had hoped to look for an heir to carry on his legacy. Or in other words, he was trying to create a newer version of himself who could rule over the universe in his stead. This was his first and thest shot to do things right and that''s why he was so desperate as well. However, Zeus and Loki both knew no one would believe them even if they informed the other gods about it. They would probably end up getting exiled from their own domains and would most definitely be killed by Shiva because they knew too much. Thus they decided to keep their mouth shut and destroy thest sliver of hope Shiva had for his future. Rather than attacking him themselves as they knew even in his weakened state, the Immortal One was more than capable enough to kick their godly as*es ten times over before breaking a sweat. Neither Zeus nor Loki knew why the immortal one was destroying and recreating the universe. But they didn''t even care about it. All they knew was to put an end to the drama along with the one who had killed them and for that, they needed to put an end to the one who was set to inherit the Immortal''s will and throne. That''s why they hatched a n along with Loki''s Lesser god sister, Hel and her aides. Hel agreed to take the job as soon as she heard it was a ploy to eliminate the immortal one and under her influence, the other lesser gods agreed as well. Since the Higher Gods weren''t allowed to step foot on earth, Zeus and Loki needed help from the lesser gods. This was because the Earth was too fragile to host a godly figure who had not been birthed there. But the lesser gods were not bound by this rule because their universal presence wasn''t asrge as the Higher gods. But to even the odds for the game''s sake, the lesser gods were not allowed to know the identity of the contestants other than their Vassals, unlike the higher gods. It was done so that the lesser gods won''t be able to influence thepetition in any way possible. Either way, Loki and Zeus promised to help Hel and sent her to earth along with a bunch of other lesser gods to locate and kill the Immortal one''s vassal. But they were instructed to not do it too soon as Shiva might get another Vassal then. Also, if their n of sabotaging thepetition was revealed they would probably permanently lose their lives. Thus they had to time it perfectly or else their n could have backfired on them. So they waited for Arnold to grow a bit while using their vassals to do their dirty deed. But Hel''s first pdin got overconfident and died as a result. Hel wanted to act by herself to kill Arnold but she was stopped by her brother, who also happened to be her father in one of the other universes. Hel tried to persuade Zeus and Loki to give her permission to get rid of Arnold right then and there because she had noticed his abnormal growth. She had seen something that the others failed to see. But the duo refused because it was ''too soon'' and making a direct move against Arnold would make the Immortal One suspicious of them. However, by the time they thought the moment to kill the Immortal one''s pdin had arrived, it was already toote. Arnold had be far too powerful for the vassals to handle on their own. As a result, they decided to sent in Tiamut, who equally hated Shiva for her own reasons. They knew she was the one who could defeat Arnold and she did... for a moment. Then Arnold did the impossible, something no human had ever done... he killed a demigod all on his own. That was the moment Zeus and Loki realised they had given Arnold far more time than they should have. Their caution had not turned into their foolishness and thus they decided to jeopardise all of Arnold''s moves following that incident. But no matter what they did, they always ended up aiding him rather than stopping him. They put Arnold through hell and yet he came out victorious as no one could even touch him. So now, they needed to do thest thing they could do to stop him... pit him against someone whom Arnold would never hurt in his wildest nightmares... his sister, who was the vassal of Loki, one of Arnold''s true enemy. Chapter 439 - The Name Is Enough (1) "It''s good to have you back with us. Although, I had hoped you will be able to take care of our little problem. But that doesn''t matter" Arnold said, "Either way, it''s good that none of you was injured or anything." "My apologies for not being able to kill the parasite, sir." Talos bowed down in front of Arnold, Bad-Breath followed his lead, after all, he was the one Arnold had trusted to take care of the situation and he failed spectacrly to do so. "No need for apologies, T. There was nothing more you could have done either way." "I agree." Devon chimed in. The four of them had gathered inside Arnold''s ''throne'' room along with a couple of others. Arnold never wanted to have one of these but Talos insisted on it, and so did the rest of his summons. Even Nicole and Nina suggested there should be such a ce on the memorial ind which could serve as the administrative centre of his empire. Thus Talos undertook the responsibility of making one such ce and he had seeded in doing so wlessly. He went all out with the nning and construction of the ce and the thing did look grand. But still, Arnold thought it was nothing but a waste of space because most of the time this ce remained closed as Arnold did not enjoy handling the administrative things by himself. He had Talos for all those things, but this time, it was important for them to use this ce because delegates from India had arrived with Talos and Bad-Breath. This just went to show how desperate they were to get rid of the parasitic tree. But for Arnold, their problems were not that important. However, since they were already there, Arnold decided to properly host them... by ignoring them. He was only interested in hearing what his summons had to say and nothing else. "So you''re sure it is an astral parasite?" Arnold had heard what Talos had said in his report, but he also knew if there was something more important than that, then Talos would only tell him in person. "I''m not so sure whether the parasite belongs to Astral ne or not. But I can confidently say it did not belong to our world. Or at least, it doesn''t solely belong to our world." Arnold had another question but before that, he had to take care of something. He pointed at the Indian delegates who were standing right behind Talos and Bad-Breath, "Would you gentlemen step out for a while?" "Since this talk may decide the future of our country, it might not-" One of the brown-skinned people started speaking with an arrogant authoritativeness in his voice, but was quickly shot down by Arnold. "I wasn''t asking you whether or not you would like to step out. I was ordering you to get out. I hope I made myself clear this time around?" Arnold''s cold gaze burned a hole through the men. Even Devon couldn''t help but shudder until he reminded himself that he was on Arnold''s side now. But still... his cold gaze mixed with a tinge of his deadly aura was enough to scare anyone. Even the gods. A few momentster, a couple of automatons quickly escorted the men out, in a respectful manner. Once the people were out of his sight, did Arnold asked what he wanted to. "Do you think it is doing of a god or something?" "I''m not certain but after considering all of the weird things that have happenedtely, I wouldn''t say it isn''t a possibility. It could certainly be the doing of one of the gods." "You have a sample of the parasite right?" Arnold inquired, "Can I have a look at that?" Talos wordlessly handed the transparent container to Arnold. Inside it, Arnold could see a small piece of mass that looked like a piece of burned wood. When Talos had the container in his hands, the specimen seemed lifeless, however, as soon as Arnold got the hold of the jar, it started smashing itself against the jar. Probably trying its best to break out of the jar and attack the one holding it. "Aren''t you a lively piece of crap?" Arnold mumbled as he looked inside the jar, "Do you think it could have anything to do with the trees that were found in the swamps before you nuke them?" "Those trees were alive, but they did not gobble up creature as a whole." Devon replied, "On top of that, those trees did not have to ability to disappear and reappear simultaneously." "Hm... Let''s see what this thing is then." ___ CLASS: Mythic NAME: World Tree Bark LEVEL: - RANK: - ROLE: Annihtor AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Uproot (active skill) ? Parasitic absorption (active skill) ? Hardening (active skill) HP: -/- [Please use Probe on the real tree to see the stats] Damage Resistances: Condition Immunities: Burn, Frozen Weak Against: Light affinity based attacks, True damage THREAT LEVEL: Non-existent [The tree on the other hand is a different matter altogether.] REMARK: A piece of wood from the world tree. The tree was originally nted in the mortal realm by the gods as a way to connect heaven (The realm of the gods), the Mortal world (the realm of the mortals) and the Underworld (The realm of the demons). However, it was also used as a way to punish the demons as they served as the primary source of nutrition for the tree. But over millenniums, due to negligence of the gods, the demons were sessful in ripping the roots off of their realm and now the tree is forced to consume the life force of the moral beings to sustain itself. ___ Arnold closed his eyes before nting back on his throne. The gods had started to really piss him off now. Whatever wrong happened on earth was a gift of their godly ipetence. All of it might just be a source of entertainment for them, but for the people of the earth, the mood swings of the gods could lead to global extinction. And Arnold was not fond of this idea. They kept toying with them without any consequences, but now it was crossing a limit but Arnold couldn''t do anything about them now. "Fck these gods!" Chapter 440 - The Name Is Enough (2) Somewhere in ce out of reach for even the gods, The Immortal one was looking at his vassal with amusement dripping through his eyes. Along with him were his usualpanions, his wife, Lady Parvati and his most loyal subject, Lord Nandi. It had be a habit for them to look at what the Immortal one''s vassal was doing, as the time for the War was rapidly approaching them. But for some reason, Shiva just couldn''t stop smiling when he saw Arnold cursing the gods. His behaviour kind of confused the other two, after all by cursing all of the gods, Arnold was indirectly cursing him as well, and yet, Shiva was smiling as he had never been happier before. But then again, even after spending millenniums with Shiva, none of the two could figure what was going on through his mind. "My Lord, forgive my impudent self for asking this," The lord of minotaurs asked Shiva, " but why are the mortal''s curses seem to be amusing to you? I am aware that he isn''t cursing you, but he hasn''t mentioned the name of the god he is cursing either. Which meant he was cursing all of us equally." "It''s nothing, Nandi. He just reminds me of myself. The more Arnold tries to not be like me, the more he ends up bing like me. I used to curse just like that without any reason all the time, just like he is doing now. Also, his actions only depict how simple-minded and goal-oriented he is, as peculiar as it sounds." Shiva continued, "Moreover, him being simple-minded would only make him focus on the task straight ahead of him and there are going to be a lot of tasks he would need to take care of. Primary of which would be to not die." Shiva turned around to face Nandi, "And with Zeus and his counterparts plotting against him, he would need everything that he could get his hands on to remain alive. As if he dies, so would thest hope of the universe." "My lord, since we know what those basta*ds are doing, shouldn''t we put a stop to them? Or at least shouldn''t we help your vassal to fight against them? Sending in Hercules to try and get rid of him was enough of a reason for us to kill them again!" Nandi mmed his battle hammer hard on the ashen ground. Nandi urged his lord to do something about Zeus and the ones who were conspiring with him, but Shiva only smiled. Nandi did not really care about Arnold that much if only it wasn''t for the fact that Arnold was thest hope for Shiva''s survival. So, through his worry for Arnold, Nandi was actually expressing the worries he had for Shiva. But his pleas fell on deaf ears. "We have already helped him enough." Shiva smiled once again, "Besides, I don''t think there is enough for us to do anymore. He is the owner of his own fate. What does or does not happen to him, is the result of his own karma. Not mine or yours. Additionally, I think he is more than ready to take care of someone of Zeus'' level. He only needs a bit of guidance that I will provide him once he ascends as a lesser god... well, I don''t think he would be a lesser god. Rather, I have a hunch that he would turn into someone on the level of the One." Both Nandi and Parvati gasped in shock at Shiva''s bold statement. Arnold sure was powerful and may even be able to be a higher god someday, butparing him with the ''One'', was too much. After all, One, or in other terms, the One above all, was someone whom even Shiva couldn''t defeat at his prime. Thus, in their eyes, Shiva was blowing things out of proportion. But Shiva wasn''t exaggerating anything. He was the only one in his knowledge to have fought against the one and lived, so he knew exactly what he was saying. There was something between Arnold and The Prime Creator that made Shiva say those words, and he knew if Arnold managed to survive the , there was no one in this universe who could stop him from bing as strong as the One. Although there was only a small chance of that happening... considering that most of the gods were plotting against him. "Rather than wasting our time thinking about uncertain future. We should rather focus on the impending war." "Why do we need to prepare for a war?" Lady Parvati finally overcame the shock and chimed in, "As far as I remember, it''s been clearly stated in the rules that no god can interfere with the sanctity of the event." "I wasn''t talking about the war my Vassal would have to face. I was referring to the battle that would follow after..." Suddenly the smile on Shiva''s face was reced by sadness, "Arnold did not only manage to change his future when he broke free from my curse but his willpower altered the future of the ones around him as well... A storm wille, and it would swallow everything in its way and we, gods, wouldn''t be an exception to that." Lady Parvati and Nandi went quiet. They knew Shiva never used such words lightly and if he had said something like that... then it would most probablye true. You see, Arnold was the only person whose future not even Shiva''s all-seeing eye could see. The same, however, did not apply to the people around him. By looking at the future of the ones around him, Shiva could roughly predict the future of Arnold as well and things were not looking good for the universe. "It seems the more you try to run away from your destiny, the closer it gets to you..." Shiva mumbled before taking onest gaze at Arnold, "The path ahead of you is a tough one. I merely hope the universe does not suffer through a fate as dire as yours." Chapter 441 - The Name Is Enough (3) "Did it work?" Talos didn''t even utter a word and shook his head in dismay. Even the 14th n to get rid of the world tree resulted in failure. They have been at it for two months now but no matter what n Arnold came up with, nothing worked. It was as if the tree had every immunity that one could have. Still, as much of a big issue it was, it could be easily tackled. As long as people didn''t go wandering around the tree everything should be fine. If worse came to worse, they would simply have to permanently restrict entry in the area and everything would be fine in the paradise. If only it wasn''t for the fact that... well, the parasite was expanding. It seemed like theck of ''nutrition'' had forced the parasite to expand in search of some more. That''s when all hell broke loose. Kash wasn''t the only ce at risk now. The parasite now had control over almost the entire northern part of India, along with parts of Nepal and China. Thankfully, Arnold''s summons managed to evacuate people from the affected region as soon as they could, and thus minimized the loss of human and animal life. However, there was a limit to how fast and how many people they could evacuate. On top of that, the world tree was growing at a much faster pace than Arnold and Devon could have anticipated. If they didn''t do something sooner, then it would be toote to do anything. Arnold had thrown absolutely everything he had on the tree. But the da.mn tree had so many immunities that it became difficult for them to actually do something. This time he thought maybe poisoning the da.mn thing would help him a bit. But even that failed and they ended up poisoning thend instead and were in the middle of cleaning up that mess. Arnold had not felt like this in a long time... The taste of defeat had once again found its way to his mouth. It had been a while since he had felt so defeated. Especially, ever since ascending and only now he remembered how bitter it tasted. He didn''t like feeling like this at all. It was almost as if the tree decided to remind him that even if he became the strongest being in the universe, he would still have someone or something stronger than him. He had grown a bit overconfident in his ability to handle no matter what was thrown in front of him, and now that things were getting out of his hands he wasn''t ready to ept his defeat. Even though the results were right in front of him. "Start the Evacuation of the next city..." Arnold mumbled in a calm voice before disconnecting the call, "The fck should I do now!?" He mmed his fist on the table in rage and half of the room got destroyed. Even in his anger, Arnold was careful enough to control his strength. Still, it wasn''t enough and the room that had been designed to take on even a barrage of nukes before fracturing was destroyed within moments. Hearing the exploding noise, Nina came rushing into the room to find it all messed up. Nina sighed and sat on the arm of his chair tofort him. She knew Arnold would sooner orter suffer from burnout given the rate he was trying to fix everything that was wrong with the world on his own. He might be the strongest man in the entire world, there were limits to what even he could do. And it was time he realised that. She let he fingers wander in the forest known as Arnold''s hair, while he had buried his face within his hands. To her, Arnold has always been a man with a n. No matter how many times he failed, he kept on going even if he knew he would fail. That was one of his qualities that attracted her. And now seeing Arnold so frustrated and defeated made her wanna move the world for his sake. But even she knew, the world tree spelt trouble for everyone who went near it. That was one of the main reasons Arnold had been leading the operation from afar. Because even someone like him wasn''t confident whether he would be able to return from the clutches of the world tree or not. However, it was mostly because he was scared of what would happen to Nina, Aiden and Orco once he was... gone. Arnold was so lost in his thoughts, he didn''t even notice Nina. He looked at her and tried his best to smile, but even that failed. "Sorry... I woke you up." He mumbled before wrapping his hands around her waist. "No worries. I wasn''t sleeping anyway..." Nina gave him a quick peck on the lips, "But you should sleep or at least try to. Overworking when you''re sleep deprived would only lead to unnecessary stress. And believe it or not, I''ll dump your as.s if you get dark circles." "I didn''t dump you when you had those." Arnold smiled wanly, "I hindsight, I should have. I would probably have a harem by now." "And here I was thinking that the useless joking phase of yours was over... Please don''t teach Aiden or Orco any of your jokes. I don''t want the other kids to pick on them because of something you did." "Hey! My jokes are gold!" [No no, thedy has a point.] "You feeling okay now?" Nina asked before getting up, "If you are then don''t break any more furniture, could you?" "I''ll try." "You better... Listen, do what you want to and don''t worry about us okay? We''ll be fine and I''m not as weak as you remember. We can take care of ourselves." "I... got it." Arnold smiled back as Nina made her way back, "Looks like I have to take matters into my own hands now." [Yeah. You weren''t involved in the matter before right?] Arnold ignored system sama as he was used to it by now and called Talos. "We are evacuating everyone out, master. But it''ll take some time-"Talos thought Arnold had called to check the progress but was interrupted by Arnold. "Get everyone together. I''ll be there shortly. Let''s see what this tree is really made of." [Wood. What else do you think?] "And she thinks my jokes are ridiculous." [...] Chapter 442 - The Name Is Enough (4) "Master, I strongly urge you to not do this!" For the first time in his life, Talos yelled at Arnold and he wasn''t the only one on to do so either. All of Arnold''s Elite summons were trying to make him change his mind about entering within the world tree''s range. Even Tiamut was amongst the ones trying to persuade Arnold to walk away. However, her worries were mostly because of Scy and less about Arnold''s safety. She knew the Dragon referred to Arnold as her parent and if anything happened to him... she would get to know instantly and all hell would break loose over the. Then there was Cetus. No one truly knew what she would do when her new master dies. As usual, Cetus would change her owner and adapt to their wishes ordingly. Thus if the World tree actually managed to kill Arnold... Cetus would then be used to the tree''s consciousness and then might even do something she had never done before... to harm the humans. On top of all that, Tiamut was formerly a goddess, a lesser one before her downfall but she was there when the world tree was nted between the realms. Thus she knew it was da.mn near impossible to kill the world tree unless the one wanting to destroy it happened to be a higher god with colossal universal presence. That is if this tree was indeed a part of the world tree. She had her doubts ever since Arnold informed them about what the parasite actually was. Firstly, she didn''t believe for a second that the demon managed to push the tree all the way to the realm of mortals. She had two reasons for believing that. Firstly, if such a thing would have been possible, the gods would have already taken care of it as their hatred for the demons was unparalleled. And second, it had been a long time since the demons were annihted by Zeus and his army because their then king Lucifer, ''dishonoured him'' by calling Zeus a needle di.ck after he had tried to court the queen of hell and pleasures, Natasha. She had also made Arnold and Talos aware of these facts. But having this new information only made Arnold''s resolve to get rid of the tree stronger than ever because then the world tree he was about to face was a fake one. "Guys, I hear you. I know you''re scared about it all but what are we supposed to do?" Arnold turned around once all of them started barking at him, "I did try to do things your way, didn''t I? Did help us in any way? It didn''t. As much as I don''t want to go anywhere near that da.mn thing, I have to. If I don''t do something now, the entire world would be in danger and I don''t want to happen." "But Master, that''s no reason for you to-" "Natasha, Talos already told me we can not keep evacuating people forever. Given the rate at which the roots are spreading soon, it will cover the entire continent. and what will we do next?" No one had an answer to that. After all, everything n that they hade up with had resulted in failure. That was what prompted Arnold to try and take care of things himself. But it wasn''t as if he was going in there without a n. His n was more like a hypothesis and nothing more, but it was the only chance for them to take the tree down in one shot. If they failed this time, then the world was doomed either way. Arnold quickly handed the summons their new weapon that would hopefully be effective against the roots. There was a high chance for the weapons to work against the trees. Still, Arnold wasn''t sure because it was all a theory. However, someone was yet to chew Arnold out. Just as he was about to enter the restricted area along with his summons, he received a call. Arnold couldn''t help but sigh when he saw the caller ID of the person calling him. "You just had to call, didn''t you?" Arnold mumbled before picking up the call, "Yeah?" "Don''t yeah me, you moron of a brother!" Nicole yelled from the other side of the call, "If you are so eager to die, thene meet me, I''ll kill you myself!" "Of course you would. That''s why I''m staying away from you." [I thought you were avoiding her because... she is a bit cracked on the top.] ''Keep talking and I''ll crack you instead.'' Arnold rebuked. [Those days?] ''...'' "Are you sure about this? You know I coulde and help you. Yeah, that would be a better n." Nicole rambled on and on. "You know what it would be? A stupid n, that''s what. Don''t worry, I''ll be back sooner than you know it." Arnold shook his head, "If you''re so worried about me, go and give Nina somepany while I get back." "... Just be safe and if you think for a moment that things are not working-" "I''ll get out asap. I''m not called Deathless for nothing you know?" "If you have already made up your mind then... good luck. You don''t need it but still." Arnold shook his head and disconnected the call. He contemted calling Nina as well but ultimately decided against it. She already told him to do what he needed to and that was all he wanted. It wasn''t like he was nning on dying in there. He had void travel as his ace. If things went sideways, he would simply conjure a portal and disappear. And in case that didn''t work, he would simply exit to his domain and then escape from there. "Alright, let''s do this." Arnold walked past the restricted area, followed by thousands of his summons. A plethora of greasy looking roots sprung out of seemingly nowhere as soon as Arnold got within their range. His summons rushed in to stop as many of them as they could. However, quite a few of them still made their way over to Arnold. He quickly pulled his handguns out and open fire on the iing roots. Surprisingly, each bullet tore through the roots with rtive ease. But that wasn''t all, the new gears Arnold had provided to his summons, easily tore through those da.mned roots as well. "How is this even possible?" Tiamut asked Arnold while she ripped yet another strand of root that made its way to him, "We tried doing everything to them and it didn''t work. But now it does!?" "All of your gears and bullets are made from an alloy of the god ying bullet and other metals. I thought if those could kill a god, they should most definitely be able to take care of these things. It was a risky move to use them, but I guess I got it proportion right." Arnold smirked as his n was working, "Ignore all that and push forward! We need to locate the source of this and take it down as quickly as possible!" Under Arnold''s leadership, the summons were more energetic than ever before and tore down through the roots like a hot knife through butter. For once, their n seemed to be working against the world tree. The only problem was... how long could they manage to keep it up? Chapter 443 - The Name Is Enough (5) The roots got denser and more fierce with their attacks as Arnold andpany were nearing the ''heart'' of the tree. However, Arnold was the sole target of the roots as he was the only one having a life force there as the rest of his summons were either already dead or made of metal. This made it easier for his summons to wreak havoc on the root suing their new gear. As for Arnold, well he was having a fun time dodging and attacking the roots at the same time. He was being forced to always be on his toes. He had to be observant and cautious to not get entangled between the roots or else it might as well be over for him. But at the same time, it was exciting. Arnold had forgotten how it felt to have adrenaline rushing within his veins. And now, well, even though he was doing a dangerous job, he was having the time of his life. His energetic appearance was further boosting the performance of the summons. They had forgotten how it felt to be undefeatable ever since they started fighting against the tree and now they were grasping that feeling again. One of the important reasons for their impending victory apart from their new weapons was also Arnold. He not only gave the summons a morale boost. But previously whenever the summons have tried to end the source of the roots, they had to do it in a limited time. It was due to the reason that they have been using livestock to lure the roots out, and well, the livestock couldn''tst long enough for the summons to deal enough damage to the tree. But Arnold was not someone who would go down so easily. He was repeatedly using all of his abilities to push the roots away while simultaneously killing off the roots one after another. Even now, when the roots were getting thicker and thicker, and their density was increasing, Arnold and summons were having little to no difficulty taking care of the roots. "Do not getcent!" Arnold''s voice boomed over the chaos, "We are still -bang- not done -bang- here. Keep pressing on!" Arnold could feel his summons were getting coc.ky and thus had to remind them that this was just the beginning. The more time they take to destroy the source of all this chaos, the stronger the roots would get. Thanks to his nature affinity, Arnold could almost feel the displeasure and difort of the roots as they were being chopped down one after another, and it was due to the sea reason that he was able to deduce where the heart of the roots was. However, not everything was going as nned. Arnold might have located the heart that caused all this trouble, but it was going to be incredibly tough to get rid of it because of the dense foliage of the roots at the centre of it all. Their individual attacks might not be enough to harm the tree at all. Thus they needed to concentrate their efforts to even make a dent on the thing. But that would mean the summons would have to leave Arnold unguarded for a while, which was never going to happen... unless Arnoldmanded them to do that. His summons had an instinct to protect him. That was the reason why they were urging him not to go inside in the first ce. Arnold, on the other hand, was already prepared to do something like this. If his summons could quickly take down the tree, then he would have no trouble in stalling for some time. But if they couldn''t then he would probably end up dead. "We have no choice." Arnold smiled and handed his guns to Talos, "Use these to open up a hole through that dense foliage along with the others. The moment that''s done, back out and call for me. I''ll take care of the rest." "Got it. We''ll do it as soon as possible." Talos epted the guns and rushed in, to prate the heart of the roots with the others. This time, no oneined or tried to persuade Arnold to do something else. They knew time was of the essence. Arnold had trusted them with his life and it was their turn to prove that he wasn''t wrong to put his faith in them. "I haven''t danced in a while. Hopefully, I still have the sticity I used to have." Arnold mumbled before he quickly drew two swords out of his inventory, "What is it? No expertments this time?" [I would rather let you concentrate on surviving for now. But believe me, I will have some dancer jokes prepared for you the moment you are done taking care of things here.] "Fair enough," Arnold mumbled while he got ready for the forting battle. Without the protection of his summons, the roots rushed towards him. Arnold used all of his strength as well as his agility increasing ability to outrun the roots. The battle had turned out into something more like a game of tag. One in which you die if you get tagged. Arnold did not stop running, but the roots soon started surrounding him. It was as if the roots had aplicated hivemind that they were continuouslymunicating with. Their strategies to catch Arnold was nothing but a pain in the bu.tt for Arnold. Even though he was giving it his all, he was still only barely able to dodge the roots. However, as mentioned above, the more he dodged them, the better their next n got. It was as if the roots were getting used to his movement patterns. If the things kept going this way then it was only a matter of time before Arnold''s luck ran out. "Talos! How much longer!?" Arnold yelled ver the radio before shing yet another root in half. "A couple of more minutes, Master! Come on, everyone! Hurry it up!!!" Just as he was chatting with Talos, he identally tripped over a piece of root he had just shredded down. After that, it only took a second for the roots to envelope around Arnold. However, before they could even graze his skin, Arnold activated one of his most overpowered skills. The Guardian Angel Abdiel, was there to save his master. Chapter 444 - The Name Is Enough (6) "Not so eager to strangle me now, are ya?" Arnold had a smug look on his face. With Abdiel around him, none of the roots was even able to get close to him now, forget about touching him. Arnold wasn''t nning to use the guardian angel so soon as having Abdiel around him would cost him a tremendous amount of mana, but he was left with no choice. The roots were on him and had he hesitated for a mere moment before activating, he would have been dead by now. "Talos, how long!?" Arnold roared over thems. "We''re about done here!" Talos roared as with a loud explosion, the summons managed to uncover the heart of the tree, "Wait, it''s done already, master! We have made a hole within the heart." Everything was in ce now. It was Arnold''s turn to shine. He let go of the swords, leaving Abdiel in charge of defending him and took out a weapon he had, had for a while but never used till now. The Sniper rifle he had created to kill demigods and lesser gods was finally being put to some use. However, now it was time for him to use it for a different purpose altogether. Since the weaker concentration of bullets from earlier worked on the roots, then the concentrated form of god ying bullet would definitely be able to kill it. However, there was a slight problem. The devastation a single bullet could cause is monumental. ording to what Arnold learnt about the bullets previously, a single one of them had the explosive power equivalent to a hundred times the nuke that Devon used on him. So yeah... quite a destructive force. Arnold was nning on using the sniper rifle once he was flying on top of Scy. But summoning her out now wouldn''t be a good idea with all the roots around. While he was able to survive the carnage of the roots thanks to Abdiel, she would definitely not. Thus, he had no other way but to take the shot while he was on the ground. Moreover, he would probably only get this one chance, if he screwed up now, the entire world would be doomed. On the other hand, Arnold was thankful that the bullet would not create an unstoppable nuclear fission reaction, but a more controble and concentrated nuclear fusion reaction. Thus, Arnold would have a bit of control over the explosion. Another problem, as system sama informed him was... to maintain a safe distance from the explosion. If he was too close while firing the weapon, he would end up getting incinerated along with the tree and system sama had also warned him that not even the Sacred Protection would be able to protect him from such a devastating force. Thankfully Arnold already had a n to tackle that situation. he would press the trigger and leap into his domain without worrying about anything else. If he survived, he would be able to look at what happened afterwards. But first, his survival was necessary. In the meantime, Abdiel was taking hit after hit and as a result, Arnold''s mana was decreasing rapidly. His guardian won''t hold out for longer, yet Arnold couldn''t pay attention to all these useless problems. His eyes were only fixed on what he was going to do next. [Remember. Press the trigger and jump back to your domain!] Arnold had already emptied his mind. he didn''t need anything else to distract him. And that included System sama as well. He had already helped Arnold enough, and now was the time to shut up. System sama took the hint and went silent. "Everyone, step back. Run as far as you can!" Arnold yelled as he angled the Dragon Bone sniper rifle while lying on the ground, with his one eye focused on the prize while the other was closed, "Steady your breathing... sense the wind direction... no problems..." -BANG!- The moment he pressed the trigger, everything went slow motion. Arnold could see the bullet speed out of the sniper rifle as the rifle''s barrel split open like a flower. The bullet made its way towards the small hole in the heart of the world tree, followed by a fiery trail. Then he felt a simr sensation once again... the one he had felt in the swamps all those years ago. Abdiel''s ultimate defence finally gave in to the reckless bashing of the roots. But surprisingly, they didn''t attack Arnold anymore and stood still, as if they knew it was the end of them. The bright sky turned dark crimson as the clouds started swirling around like a tornado apanied by thunderous sounds as if heaven itself was falling down. Arnold had never imagined what the world''s end would look like but now he knew for sure... if it would ever happen, the sight would be something simr to what he was witnessing now. It all seemed to happen over a duration of minutes, however, not even a second had passed since Arnold took the shot. [WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GET INSIDE YOUR DOMAIN NOW!] Arnold didn''t waste another moment romancing the beginning of the end anymore and slipped into the portal. As soon as the portal closed behind Arnold, numerous notifications popped up in front of him informing him about the summons he ended up destroying. There were a lot more than he had expected. Even a few of his elite summons ended up getting destroyed. While Arnold was sitting in his domain, waiting for System sama to give him the green signal to explore the outside once again, he couldn''t help but think about what-ifs. The biggest and most concerning one amongst them all was what if he failed? What would he do next? This was his final n, he had no clues what he would do next. A couple of hours passed on the outside when System sama told him to go outside. Arnold wore the protective suit and on top of it, he also increased the density of the mana shield around him as soon as his mana recovered. "Oh my god... it''s still alive..." Arnold mumbled before sping his fists together in rage. It wasn''t just that the core of the tree was still alive... the world tree was now in front of him. It was so huge, all Arnold could see was the trunk of the tree. Its branches were mixed with the ckened, thundering sky above. It looked like what he was thinking to be the heart of the tree... was actually just a seed. And the explosion triggered its evolution to the next stage. However, the bullet seemed to have worked to some extent because at least the roots that were spreading like cancer had all withered away. [The Immortal one is intently watching your next action.] [The Arrogant one hopes you die here.] [The Mischievous one agrees with the Arrogant one.] [The One with pleasureful eyes wishes for your safety.] [The Raging minotaur wishes you all the best for your future.] "What is going on here?" Arnold mumbled as continuous notifications shed above his eyes, "What''s up with all these names?" [Just seeing one of the names is enough... but to think all of the gods have their eyes on you...] "What is going on?" [The war of the worlds... has been started early.] Chapter 445 - Participants Assemble! [War Begins (1)] "W-Wait, How!? There was supposed to be about a year left till the war of the worlds was-" Arnold was confused as he had been never before. They were supposed to still have a lot of time left before the war began. But now he was suddenly being informed that the war was going to start early? What kind of bulls.hit were the gods feeding on? This was the future of a they were talking about not some end of season sale! [I don''t know the details either. But there is no mistake. The war has begun. You''ll get a notification about it soon- there it is.] __ Congrattions mortal! Upon carefully observing your actions ever since bing a Vassal/Pdin, it has been decided that you are selected to represent your in the esteemed event known as , where beings simr to you from around the universe are forced to fight for the survival of their kind. Starting today, you along with the selected individuals from your home will have to participate in a set of thrilling tasks. The winner(s) will receive a prize mortals always dreamed about but are never able to achieve... A chance to be a god. That''s right, you aplish all of the tasks and you''ll get to be a god, both in name and reality. With that being said, here is the first task that your has been allocated. ? First Task: Destroy the World Tree ? Category: Team Task (Friendly fire is prohibited. Please refrain from attacking each other while the gods are watching you or you may lose more than your life.) ? Reward: Based on clearance speed. ? Failure: Death of two participants with the lowest contribution. On behalf of the Gods, I [The One who sees everything], wish you all the very best. We hope you can provide some good action to us! Round Start! __ ''This really is a game for you as.sholes, isn''t it?'' Arnold gritted his teeth so hard he could hear his own teeth cracking, ''Just wait till I do the same to you.'' [Good thinking on not saying it out loud. The gods-] ''Fck your gods!!!'' Arnold was not in the mood to chit-chat with anyone anymore. His frustration was about to blow over his head, however, there was no time for him to waste. He immediately contacted his summons, or at least those who survived the hit from the sniper rifle. His forces had been reduced to a tenth of what they were when the fight began. Arnold knew there weren''t enough of them to do some significant damage to the tree. Hell, he wasn''t even sure what else could he possibly do next. He literally nuked the godd.amn tree and yet that didn''t put a dent on it. If his entire army couldn''t do something as trivial as uprooting a tree, no one in the world could have done that. ''Gotta think of something...'' While his troops assembled around him, he paced up and down thinking what to do next. But no matter how long and hard he thought, not a single n popped in his head. For the first time, even he felt like all the points he had invested in increasing his intelligence were wasted. Just then, he heard a loud noise behind him., simr to the one his travel portal made. Arnold turned around to look at what was going on and he saw multiple travel portals had opened up right behind him. There were seven travel portals top be precise and a person walked through every single portal. ''Aven.gers assemble?'' He didn''t know most of the people who had mysteriously appeared on the battlefield. But he knew two of them, Nina and- "JOHNNY?" Arnold yelled as Johnny walked out of thest portal, "What the hell are you doing here?" Even Nina was shocked to see Johnny there. This was supposed to be a battle of the vassals and the pdins against the world tree and none of them was aware that Johnny was one of them as well. Apart from those three, there were five others as well. Arnold didn''t know anything about any of them. "Surprised?" Johnny smiled, "I know you have a lot of questions about me being a vassal-" "Dude, you were already overpowered. Who chose you as their vassal?" Nicole yfully punched him in the shoulder, "Wait a moment, was all the retirement and stuff-" "A guise to train more for this weird event? Yup." Johnny scratched the back of his head, "As for your first question, I am the vassal of [The Thunderous One]." "Well, it is good to see familiar faces here. It''s better than to work with aplete stranger. But still, how did you manage to hide that you were a vassal from us for so long?" Arnold scratched his chin, "I thought our systems are supposed to react when a vassal or a pdin is within our reach." "Let''s just say not everyone is as bad as hiding their strength as the two of you." Johnny joked, "Just kidding. You can ask your guardians to shut the feature down if you want. Didn''t you know that? I thought you hadn''t turned it off to intimidate others." Arnold and Nicole both looked at each other. None of them knew about such a feature. If they did, they would have already used it as well. ''We are gonna have a long chat as soon as I''m done here... system sama.'' [Ehe...] ''Ehe? Te nandayo!?'' Arnold thought before shifting his gaze towards the other participants. Out of the five, three were women. The redhead was carrying the biggest bow Arnold had ever seen, while one of the brtes were wielding a shield that was big enough to be wielded by Dread and thest woman who was wearing a mask carried two swords strapped to her back. All three of them seemed to know each other pretty well as they were busy conversing amongst themselves, just like Arnold was busy talking with Nina and Johnny. The remaining two men were twins and both appeared to be brawlers like Johnny, considering their physique. "So what do we do now?" Nicole asked Arnold, "Some of these people were given a task to kill us." "I know. But for now, we will have to work together... either way, friendly fire ain''t allowed here. I anyone of them tried to do anything, they''ll be the ones losing their heads. Lets just focus on taking down the dam..n tree for now." Chapter 446 - Occupational Hazard [War Begins (2)] "No traces of Xenoic radiation found, master." Talos said, "I assume the tree absorbed it all. It might also be the reason why the tree grew so quickly." "I would definitely seem so." Arnold scratched his chin before turning to look at the small crowd that had been gathered behind him, "What do you think about those guys? Four of them were given tasks to kill the vassals. That means me, Nicole, Johnny and that redhead should be on their target list." Arnold had rmended all of them toe with a strategy to get rid of the tree. Although they listened to him, he could feel their eyes on his back. Especially of those twins. After a quick introduction, Arnold found that the Italian twins were not brawlers like he had presumed, but they were assassins with mastery in shadow affinity. Just having the shadow affinity meant they were just below the level of a vassal, and hence they were most likely to be the most desperate to be one as well. No wonder they were keeping an eye out for a vassal they could get rid of easily. Although they were eyeing Arnold, it was improbable that they would dare to go against him. It was the same with Nicole as well, since she could blow their heads off in a fraction of a second with her ability. But Arnold didn''t want to take any chances so he stationed some of his elite summons to guard her. That being said, it left the pdins with two choices, either they would attack Johnny or the Redhead Sonya. Sonya, the archer, looked like a frail flower on the outside. However, her stats were way better than Johnny, who was the Vassal of Thor. Also, she had her ''friends'' to protect her from the twins, that is if the twins decided to attack them and her friends did not betray her because they too were pdins. Thus by the method of elimination, Arnold thought it was most likely for Johnny to get attacked. But that would only happen after they were able to take care of the tree. Until then, Arnold was positive none of the pdins would dare to make a move against the vassals. Not if they weren''t crazy about dying. "I do not enjoy the way their eyes reeks of bloodlust." Talos remarked at the twins, "It''s like they are more interested in taking down people than fighting monsters." "You''re no wrong about that. That''s why I want you to guard Nicole. If you think anything is wrong, inform me immediately." "Will do, master. Oh and here, I think you can use it better than I can." Talos handed Arnold the Cardinal''s Sin back. "Also, since the roots are no longer attacking us, I think it would be better if you could summon Scy out. If she was here, she could provide us with more support. Not to mention, her intimidating aura would keep the Pdins away at least for some time." Arnold nodded as his gaze shifted towards the tree in the distance. The tree waspletely ckened as if it had been thoroughly charred with hellfire. The branches mingled with the ckened sky and could be seen from any part of the world. Even the few ginormous leaves that were visible to the naked eye, were ominously ck. This world tree looked nothing like Arnold had thought it would. Its menacing aura leaking from the tree was nerve-wrenching. That coupled with the thundering skies above, it truly looked like they were standing at the world''s end. Ragnarok was the only word that kept popping up in Arnold''s head. He never smoked, but right about now, Arnold was wishing he did, just to calm his nerves a bit. He had fought against three demigods till now, but none of them was frightening enough for Arnold to break a sweat. But this tree, well, it was something else entirely and what made it worse was the fact that he didn''t even know how to get rid of it. ''Standing idly wouldn''t solve anything.'' Arnold let out a deep breath, "Gather everyone up. It''s time we did something about this hideous tree." But before that, he needed to make a few things clear. Arnold turned around to face the pdins and vassals. He didn''t even need to speak a word to get their attention as their eyes were already on him. "I won''t beat around the bush and say I''m happy to be fighting alongside you." He mumbled, "We all know that some of you have a quest that requires you to kill the Vassals. So let me make one thing straight... if you dare to sabotage the quest we have now for any selfish desires, I''ll kill you in the most gruesome way possible then resurrect you against your will and keep on repeating the cycle until either your minds broke or your will to live." The vassals remained indifferent to his announcement, on the other hand, the pdins nervously looked away. The Pdins were most probably driven by the lust to obtain more power. They also wouldn''t have considered obeying the friendly fire use, thus Arnold needed to show them their ce before they end up hurting either Nicole or John. "I appreciate your sentiment, Mr Deathless," Sonya was surprisingly the one to interrupt the silence, "But don''t you think we should focus on the tree and not on my teammates." Nicole did not like the way Sonya was talking with Arnold, but Arnold shushed her up. He had picked up on something important. Something that would make sure Arnold was right to think the pdins would either try to attack Johnny or Nicole. "Your teammates?" Arnold asked her. "Y-Yeah! Except the three of you," Sonya pointed at Nicole and Johnny, "All five of us have met together before." "That''s good." Arnold mumbled, "I thought y''all had some chemistry. So, if one of you wrongs me, then I assume it would only be fair for me to kill all of you? After all, you''re teammates, right? The entire team should be held responsible for the mistake of one." "Is that a threat?" Sonya released her aura. It was quite extensive, but in front of Arnold, her aura was likeparing a goblin to a Demon Orc. "Call it an upational hazard," Arnold replied before unleashing his aura that made even the earth, quake for a bit, "Also, don''t you know who I am? If you don''t then maybe it''s time for you to stop using inte explorer and research about what has been going on in the world recently. Next time, doing something like that might as well cost you your head." [The Immortal one is pleased with your growth. But he is disappointed in your inability to focus on the task at hand.] ''....sorry.'' Chapter 447 - You Just Had To Jinx It! [War Begins (3)] Arnold got the temporary charge of the team after some protest from Sonya and her team. But with Arnold''s summons surrounding them, they did not have much choice but to ept his conditions. They still had no idea how were they going to uproot the tree. So, Arnold''s first phase of testingmenced. He told them all to attack the tree one after another to see if something happens. He was hoping Nicole''s ability would work, but sadly that wasn''t the case. She could only make a dent where Arnold had shot the tree. Johnny used a trick Arnold had never seen him use before. He summoned the lightning from above the dark clouds and controlled it expertly, forcing it to m against the tree where Nicole and Arnold had attacked the tree. The entire area suddenly turned too bright to see anything. Everyone was forced to avert their gazes and for a second it seemed to have worked... but it didn''t. The tree was already ckened but it turned darker where the lightning bolt had hit it. Sonya used a bow and arrow to show her expert control over the arrow. The Arrow broke the sound barrier the moment it left the bowstring and hit the tree right where Johnny''s attack hadnded. A small crack appeared on the dense wooden exterior of the tree. The pdins wasted no time and went to strike the stubbed arrow and they managed to further deepen the crack on the external surface a bit. Other than that, nothing else happened to the tree. "Haha! Take that sucker!" One of the twins bellowed, "The tree is so defenceless if we concentrate our efforts!" Arnold thenmanded his summons to attack the tree as well. But to their surprise, as soon as the summons started attacking the tree, rather than inflicting more damage, the tree absorbed their attacks to heal the little of what minuscule damage the vassals and the pdins had done to it. "Baldy is correct. If we simultaneously attack the tree, he might be able to take it down. But only we can attack the tree. If someone else does, it would backfire on us. It would take a lot of time but we have no other option." Arnold mumbled while flexing his shoulders, preparing to attack once again, "Alright then, let''s give it our all in the next attack... Wait- something is not right... the tree is moving!" Arnold blinked again to make sure he wasn''t hallucinating, and he wasn''t. The others could also witness the world tree as it bent the branches as if trying it was trying to hug the ground. The following moment, the gigantic ck leaves from the branches started falling down. The contestants thought it was a response from the tree because they had managed to ''hurt'' it. Arnold, however, looked at it differently. The tree could have been hurt by their attack for sure, but the falling leaves were not an indicator of the pain. As the leaves started falling down, Arnold could sense a sinister aura oozing out of them. Just the aura itself was more than what most A ranked warriors possessed. "Everyone fall back!" Arnold roared as soon as he realised what was happening, "Get away from the leaves and prepare for battle." None of them questioned him and did as he told them to. The next moment they realised why Arnold instructed them to fall back. The moment the leaves touched the ground... they transformed into people and animals the tree had consumed before. All of them have been mutated into sinister-looking creatures, ones they had never seen before. But not only that there were a lot of wood golems as well. These were the things Arnold had sensed through his nature affinity. "You just had to jinx it. The tree was enough of a trouble and now we got these jokers to deal with on top of it all." Sonya pped the bald twin on his head, "Keep your mouth shut from now on!" "Y-Yes... ma''am." The baldy replied back while rubbing his head. [The world tree has entered the second phase of its evolution. Wooden Golems and Consumed souls have risen to defend their master from its assants.] A system announcement was made for everyone there. Arnold couldn''t help but smile when he read the notification. Unlike the roots of the tree which were directly connected to it, these Golems or the undead humans covered in wooden armours were not in physical contact with the tree. Hence he could try and control them using his nature affinity or at the very least try to manipte them for long enough for them to deal with the situation. "I don''t think just my affinity would be enough to control all of them, that too in the presence of the tree." Arnold Scratched his chin, "It''s been a long time since I have used ''that'' title''s effect." "What do we do now?" Sonya''s teammates panicked as the golems charged towards them. They were severely outnumbered, to say the least. The leaves kept falling and the strength of their enemies kept growing. If they did not start doing something about them now, it would get toote for them to get rid of the tree. "What are you people waiting for? Let''s go!" Johnny roared and charged his fist once again. The others followed his lead and attacked the enemies. A battle between the tree and the ones chosen by the deities began. Arnold''s summons didn''t stay behind either. After Arnold, they were the deathliest presence on the battlefield. The situation was so dire, the elite summons that remained behind had to go all out as well. They could not harm the tree but these golems and undead were not so fortunate. Tiamut even reverted back to her dragon form to destroy as many enemies as she could. Talos, Duke and Cerberus transformed to wreak havoc on the wooden army. Asterios and Dread jumped to action as well. These were the only elite summons who managed to survive the aftermath of Arnold''s god ying bullet. Except Nina and Johnny, who had fought alongside Arnold''s summon on various asions, the others were inplete awe. Their coordination was better than any team they had known. It was as if their brains have been integrated into one. They did not even need tomunicate among themselves, because they already know where each one of them was and whether they required help or not. They might have been vassals and pdins, but the truth was, they were being carried by Arnold''s summons. But what was their master doing? ___ Title bonus activated : [Crouching Figure] Please select a summon whose attribute you would like obtain temporarily : ? [Duke] or [Miro]: uracy (ACC) +500 (Max) ? [Talos]: Intelligence (INT) +500 (Max) ? [Cerberus]: Agility (AGI) +500 (Max) ? [Bad-Breath]: Stamina (STA) +500 (Max) ? [Asterios] or [Dread] or [Grock]: Strength (STR) +500 (Max) ? [Natasha] or [Yan]: Mystic (MYS) +500 (Max) ? [Alice]: Mana +2000 (Max) ? [Tiamut] or [Ogur]: HP+2000 (Max) ? [Shyok]: Nature Affinity control +20 Levels (Max) ___ ''Shyok.'' Arnold selected the attribute he needed. The next moment he felt a surge of electricity flowing through his vein as his eyes started glowing. He felt like he could control anything around him.. From the freshness of the air to the wetness of the ground, nothing was untouched from his control. Chapter 448 - War Begins (4) A war broke out with Arnold and his summons on one side, and the minions of the tree on the other. It looked like the Vassals and the Pdins were able to deal more damage to the minions of the tree than most of the summons. Which was something Arnold had already foreseen. He expected something simr to happen since the leaves were once a part of the tree and thus it was possible for them to retain some of the characteristics of the tree, meaning only the contestants could inflict major harm to them. However, that wasn''t going tost for long. Nicole and the others were fighting against the minions when suddenly, they stopped. The Wooden Golems were frozen in their ces. It was a wee surprise for the gods chosen team. However, only the golems had stopped and not the undead people. The Vassals and the Pdins were a bit confused why it was happening as none of them was paying attention to Arnold since they were kind of preupied with the minions. Still, without the golems who had been tanking all the damage, it was fairly easy for them to take care of the undead troublemakers. But just as they were about to get rid of the undead, Arnold''s voice boomed over the battlefield. "Don''t waste your energy on these small flies." He said, "Concentrate your efforts on taking down the tree. I''ll handle the rest." [The Raging Minotaur is in awe of your leadership skills. Quest points +100] [The One with Luscious lips finds you unsettlingly desirable. Quest points +100] [The One Ruling the Sun finds you interesting. Quest points +100] Arnold didn''t pay any attention to what was written in front of him. Not because he didn''t want to, but because he couldn''t afford to. It was taking every ounce of his mental prowess and every fibre of his being to be able to control the golems and if he was to stray away even for the slightest moment, chaos would once again befall on the battlefield. Nicole and Johnny saw Arnold and couldn''t even look at him for long. His eyes were too bright and so was the aura circling around him. He appeared to be enigmatically divine. As if he had alreadypleted his journey to godhood. "Arnold what are you-" "Just do as I said, Nicole." Arnold had only whispered but to the others, it felt like he was speaking through the world''srgest loudspeaker, "Do not waste time! Go!" None of them said a word after that and quickly made their way towards the world tree. The undead sprung into action to try and stop them, but before they could do anything more than to take a step, the golems began crushing them along with Arnold''s summons. "What the hell..." Sonya mumbled when she saw four wooden golems running by her side, tackling anything and everything down that came in her way. It was the same for everyone else. The golems that had been trying their best to kill them a couple of minutes ago, were not defending the contestants with their lives. But this led to aplication. Arnold couldn''t even bear to move a step and thus was left defenceless as everyone else charged towards the tree. Someone had already noticed it and was about to end Arnold once and for all when Talos'' gunshot ripped the man''s hand in half. It was one of the two twins who decided to attack Arnold in his vulnerable state. If it hadn''t been for Talos and Tiamut, who were the first ones among the summons to notice Arnold''s vulnerable state, Arnold might have been gone for good. At first, they thought he would be safe since friendly fire was prohibited while the contest was still going on. But they didn''t want to take any chances and hence had rushed back to help their master. [The One who sees everything shakes his head disapprovingly.] The following moment a portal opened right before the twin with the ponytail. The portal wasrge enough to fit only one person in there and the next second, the man was gobbled up by the portal. [The One who sees everything, warns the contestants to focus on the task at hand.] Arnold could not even spare a moment to thank his saviours. He was solely focused on controlling the wooden golems. But he made a mental note to do something good for his summons. After that, both Tiamut and Talos refused to leave Arnold''s side as they wouldn''t be able to do anything else to help him either way. Soon the undead had been massacred by the joint effort of the golems and the summons. Also, the vassals were about to reach the foothold of the tree where they had attacked it before. Arnold was still required to help them take the tree down, but to do that, he would have to relinquish his control over the golems, which would cause unnecessary problems. But rather than doing that, Arnold decided to let them fight amongst themselves and die, that way he would be able to gradually rid himself of the golems without spending much effort. However, before he could put his n into action, blood came pouring out of his nose like a broken faucet, as his feet gave out. He began coughing with blooding out of his mouth as well. His body could no longer take the strain Arnold was putting it through and gave up. Controlling something that not even the lesser gods could control, had its consequences. One of which was unbearable pain. Thankfully, Arnold could not feel pain, but that didn''t mean his insides weren''t a wreck. As a direct result of his failure, the tree regained control over the golems and attacked the vassals and pdins. It was god''s grace the summons were crowded by their side and immediately went into action to stop the golems so things were still under control. As for Arnold, he was still suffering from overexertion. But his mind wasn''t as big of a wreck as his body. He quickly took out arge HP and mana potion and drank them in huge gulps. It took a moment for him to get back to his normal self but his vitals had stabilised. [The Arrogant One spats in anger that you''re still alive.] [The Mischievous One nods in agreement.] "You want me to kick your as.s?" Arnold flipped both his middle finger towards the sky. [The Gods can''t help but snigger.. Quest points +450.] Chapter 449 - Time For The Rewards (1) With the minions out of the equation, the contestants jumped to the fray hoping to uproot the tree as soon as possible. However, both Johnny and Nicole had to constantly watch their backs. After the stunt one of Sonya''s teammates pulled earlier, they were worried those basta.rds would try to jump them as well as soon as the quest was over. Especially now that they had lost one of their people. None of them had witnessed what happened to the one who attacked Arnold, but they knew it was pretty bad judging from the notification warning them about misconduct that they received. Maybe that was the reason why the rest of the twin''s gang was pretty agitated. Since the assant was associated with them, Sonya and her group were penalised and had 50 quest points deducted from their ounts. That right, they were being given points based on the damage they did to the tree and points were deducted for any misconduct on their part. The gods will probably rank them on the basis of the points they got. Which meant that the points they received would decide their fate in case they weren''t able to uproot the tree, as it was already mentioned that the two contestants having the least points would get... eliminated. That was the foremost reason everyone was giving it their all. No one wanted to get eliminated fearing that the gods might actually decide to ''eliminate'' them from the world. Nicole and Johnny had teamed up to gain as many points as they could, and even if none of them could view how many points the others had, Nicole could guess the two of them had more or less the same amount. "What the hell is he doing!?" Nicole cursed before ripping through yet anotheryer of the tree, "He won''t receive any points if he doesn''t stop cking off now!" Nicole was a bit worried about Arnold. She knew he did what he did for the sake of the, but Sonya and the others did not share the same sentiment as him. If they did then, firstly, they wouldn''t have sent a member of their team to attack him and secondly, rather than working individually, they would be working together to take the da.mn tree down. But all of them were busy hogging all the points to themselves. "I''m sure he has a n." Johnny huffed in between punching the tree, "He is not one to ck of without any reason. For now, the best we can do is to ignore him and focus on collecting points." "Yeah... how many do you have, if you don''t mind me asking?" "356, and you?" "429." "Damn... after throwing so many punches... I only got that much?" "That''s why I was worried about Arnold!" Nicole eximed, "I hope the spectators have given him some points for what he did back then. Or else, he is fcked!" "Less talking, more punching!" *** On the other side of the battlefield, Arnold was wondering about the significance of the quest points as well. And it didn''t take him long to put two and two together. The more points he had, the higher he was ranked. It was as simple as that. ''So I need to get these quest points and that''s it?'' Arnold asked system sama but didn''t receive a proper reply, ''Ohe on! You gotta help me out here!?'' [No can do. The quest started, the gods are watching. You''re on your own.] ''Typical.'' Arnold thought to himself, ''Since I got this many points without damaging the tree, I can only wonder how many points others got. Should be more than 750, I guess. Since they are actually doing some damage to the tree unlike me.'' "Let''s go and get some more points then." He flexed his shoulders before rushing away to help the others give some payback to the tree. However, when he arrived there, he was not expecting to see a pitiful sight. Only Nicole and Johnny were the ones working together why the rest were busy doing whatever they wanted. Arnold didn''t whether he was disappointed or angry with them. He wanted to teach them all a lesson especially Sonya and her bast.ard team. Not because one of them went against the rules and tried to kill him, but because he was angered by their tant disregard for their. Who knew what would happen to the if they were not able to get rid of the tree, and yet those idiots were busy doing their own sh.it. However, before Arnold could do anything about it, another announcement was made. [10 minutes before the quest ends.] "What? But there wasn''t supposed to be a time limit, right?" The woman bearing the shield bellowed, "How is this fair!?" Her teammates soon joined in a protest but Nicole and Johnny kept going at it without break. Arnold wasn''t surprised by the sudden change in the quest. These were gods who only seek entertainment from them and they would do anything to get their money''s worth. In fact, it was suitable to say that to the Gods, they were just like strippers. They were throwing points at them because they were being pleased by them. Now, that the routine has gotten repetitive, they wanted to get as much out of them as they could. Hence the time limit. Arnold still wanted to get rid of the tree, but even he wasn''t foolish enough to assume that they would be able to get rid of the tree within that time frame. So the best thing he could have done was... "Asterios, hand me your hammer." He instructed the minotaur who obediently did as he was told, "If I can''t uproot it, then I guess I''ll send it back to where it belongs." The next moment, Arnold summons Scy out and climbed on top of her. He wasn''t an expert, but Arnold was aware of a little bit of botany and if he had to guess the weakest part of a tree, it wasn''t the lower trunk but the stem axis which was located higher. As long as he could locate the ideal point and strike it hard enough, in theory, it should snap the tree in half. It was simr to snapping a human''s spine. "Scy full speed to the top!" Scy heeded her master''smand and went straight to the sky in one giant leap. [6 minutes before the quest ends.] "Faster!" Arnold yelled once again. As they were making their way to the top, the tree was getting noticeably slimmer. But it wasn''t slim enough for Arnold to attack yet. [2 minutes before the quest ends.] "Just a little bit more..." [1 minute before the quest ends.] "That''s it!" Arnold eximed and activated to increase his momentum while using to boost his strength. He would only get one shot at this so he had to make it count. But that wasn''t all, the hammer was build to alter its size upon the user''s will. "Maxima!" Arnold yelled the code word needed to activate the hammer''s ability and it grew ten times heavier than it had been before. [10 seconds before the quest ends.] In the meantime, people below were doing what they had been doing till now... wasting their time. However, just as the timer was about to go to zero, they all heard a loud explosive noiseing from the skies. It was the single loudest sound they had ever hear. But they weren''t the only ones to heard that... every single being living on the could hear the sound as well. "Unbelievable..." Nicole mumbled as a notification shed in front of her eyes, "He actually did it..." [Congrattions on destroying the World Tree! All surviving members are advised to start preparing for the next round of the !] Chapter 450 - Time For The Rewards (2) Watching Arnold snap the tree in half sent ripples of panic andughter throughout the gods. No one had ever been able to destroy the tree during any of thepetitions before. It was a difficult task for even the lesser gods had a hard time aplishing alone and yet Arnold not only managed to do it on his own but also made it seem too easy. None of the gods could have thought Arnold would one-shot the tree. The gods knew none of the worlds would be able to get rid of their world trees. In fact, they were about to move in and get rid of the trees themselves after the timer ran out, but Arnold surprised them all and took care of the mess on his own, surprising everyone. Even Shiva was no exception to this. He knew Arnold was strong but never in a million years had he thought Arnold would be able to get rid of the world tree by himself. This act only made his belief stronger. Arnold was, indeed, getting closer to bing just like the Prime Creator than Shiva ever was, and for that reason, he had a wide smile on his face. Shiva, however, wasn''t the only god that was happy. Countless gods who had been looking for some sort of entertainment could not be more impressed. And as a result, Arnold was showered with points on top of the ten thousand points he had received for destroying the tree. There was no doubt in anyone''s mind about who had won this round. [The One who rules the skies is impressed with your feat. Quest points +200.] [The One with Luscious lips wants to know your ''size''. Quest points +500] [The One Ruling the Sun thanks you for the entertainment you provided him. Quest points +1000] There were hundreds of such notifications in front of Arnold. While he was happy he had was earning points, he was more relieved to know that the tree was gone forever. Still, he couldn''t help but feel a bit conflicted because of all the people who were consumed by the tree as nutrients. ''I did what I could... that''s all that matters.'' Arnold thought as Scynded on the ground creating a minor wind storm knocking his summons away. In the world tree''s absence, the dark sky also started clearing up showing the vibrant sun above. However, as the world tree died, it left the world a gift... all the messes humanity had caused to the over the years were removed. The air was cleaner than before, the global warming, the sea waste... everything that the humans had done wrong to the were absorbed by the remnants of the world tree as it faded out of existence. It was as if the world tree wanted to give them a second chance to make a better world and Arnold appreciated it. Even many gods had forgotten about this aftereffect of destroying the world tree. That was how long it had been since the world tree was destroyed thest time. But it was indeed a sight to behold. Due to his affinity with Nature, Arnold was the first one to notice the changes around him and as he did, he couldn''t help but let out a smile. "Judging by your smile, it looks like you got a sh.it ton of points." Nicole said while hugging her brother, "Thank you. I don''t even want to think about what would have happened if it wasn''t for you." "Well, you can help me out taking care of the kids some time if you wanna thank me." Arnold joked as his Talos and his summons arrived at the spot. However, their reunion was interrupted by another announcement. But to their surprise, this time they heard a voice and not the usual notification. "Once again, congrattions to all of you on clearing this round with no penalties. Except for that one fool who thought it was a great idea to break the rules I set... He''s burning in hell right now if you are wondering about him." A divine voice echoed inside their heads, "Either way, it will take some time to calcte the points from other participating worlds, so in the meantime, I will be dering your person results and rewards associated with your ranks." Arnold had been waiting for this moment ever since he brought the tree down. He couldn''t wait to see what kind of reward he would get. "And here is the ranked list." [First ce: Arnold Ling ---> 15643 points] [Second ce: Nicole Ling ---> 843 points] [Third ce: Sonya Bancroft ---> 799 points] [Fourth ce: Johnny ck ---> 793 points] "The rest of the participants will not be ranked due to the minimal effort on their part." The voice repeated, "But don''t be sad, all of you will receive toke of participation regardless." Everyone on shocked to see the gap between the first ce and the second ce. It was astronomical! Although Arnold knew he was going to be ranked in the first ce, he had not expected the others to earn so few points. Even if he hadn''t taken the tree down, he would have still won first ce. But before anyone couldment about that, the list of their prizes was shown to them as well. "The rewards have been customised ording to the winner''s sses and affinities. We hope it will be up to your liking." [First ce: 10x Quest Shop Token, 3x Saplings of Life, 3x Affinity Booster (Nature), 2x Large material boxes, 1x Token of Gratitude, 1x Random Wish, 1x Unique title.] [Second ce: 5x Quest Shop Token, 2x Affinity Booster (Shadow), 2x Scroll of Shadow, 1x Token of Gratitude, 1x Random Wish, 1x Unique title] [Third ce: 3x Quest Shop Token, 1x Affinity Booster (Ice), 1x Scroll of Ice, 1x Token of Gratitude, 1x Unique title] [Fourth ce: 2x Quest Shop Token, 2x Scroll of Fist, 1x Token of Gratitude, 1x Unique title] [Constion Prize: 1x Quest Shop Token, 1x Scroll of their inherent talent, 1x Token of Gratitude] "That is all for now. You will receive world rank rewards after other participating worlds are done handling their own tasks. Till then, rest up. You all deserve it." The next moment the voice disappeared and they all received their rewards in their inventories. However, it looked like the Pdins were not pleased with their rewards. Their eyes were leaking with greed and now that the task was finally over, they could kill the vassals and avenge their fallenrade and take their rewards for themselves. "At least try to conceal your greedy eyes for once." Arnold shook his head, "One of you tried to kill me, so don''t even think about running away without providing me properpensation for that." But before they could make any moves, they felt a gust of wind from behind. They turned around and saw Arnold''s entire recently resurrected army standing right behind them, ready to reduce them to dust any moment. "So? What will it be?" Arnold smirked. Chapter 451 - Smooth Sail "W-We had nothing to do with what Jason did!" Sonya immediately surrendered as soon as Arnold''s forces started surrounding them, "I swear, if we had any idea, I would have stopped him myself. hell, I would have killed him by my-" "Oh, so you''re telling me that the psychic mage over there did not inform you about it?" Arnold scoffed while ying with his guns, "Smells like BS to me, to be honest." "I-I''m not a p-psychic-" -Bang- Before anyone could even realise what was going on, there was a bullet hole right next to the mage''s feet. The smell of gun powder was still fresh in the air. Arnold was not in a yful mood. Especially not after recklessly battling the tree, its minions and now these mofos. In fact, he just wanted to kill them and get it over with, but then he might need themter on for future tasks so he could not afford to bepletely reckless at the moment. ''We are already down from being 9 contestants to 7 since the brigadier and now one of the twins are gone.'' He thought, ''It would be a bad idea to kill any more of them. But that doesn''t mean I can not threaten them.'' The mage fell hard on her bu.tt, still shocked that Arnold actually fired at her without a moment''s hesitation. She had a look of shock and disbelief on her face while she kept gazing at Arnold as if he was mentally sick. But more than that, her entire squad was having a tough time wondering about how could Arnold know about her secret skill. The mage did know enough healing spells so that she could pass as a healer in the eyes of the others. But in reality, she was a psychic mage, just like Nichs. That was the reason for their confusion. Little did they know with probe skill, they were like an open book to him. At this point, Arnold might even know them better than they knew each other. "You lie one more time and the next bullet will go through your fcking head." Arnold said in a calm tone while smiling at her, "So, which one of you basta.rds is going to tell me the truth huh?" Sonya''s squad stared at each other like a herd of sheep without a shepherd. Of course, it was Sonya who had instructed Jason to try and assassinate Arnold. She chose him over the others for two reasons, first, he was the fastest amongst them and could kill Arnold before the gods could interfere. And second, Jason was already suffering from cancer. He was barely being kept alive using high-grade healing magic. But even after using that, he would have died either way sooner orter. Thus she instructed him to do them a favour before dying and he did. If it wasn''t for Talos, he might have seeded... or so they thought. Arnold had a couple of passive abilities that could have saved him in the nick of time. So he wasn''t all too worried about his safety if at all. "I am expecting an answer from you." Arnold yelled again, "You know what? Hand over your rewards to me and I''ll forget about everything." "We won''t do that!" The tank immediately yelled back. "Oh... it seems you got a pretty good one." Arnold smiled, "Let''s have a look shall we?" "I would never give it to you even if you kill me." "Kill you? Why would I do that when I could turn you into my ve." Arnold smiled at her before nodding at the one standing behind her, "Natasha, could you do the honours?" Controlling minds and forcing the others to make a fool out of them was what Natasha had the most fun doing. Except perhaps using sensual ways to torture someone to death. Either way, when the mage saw Natasha trying to control her friend''s mind, she immediately created a barrier separating them from Arnold''s forces. "An attempt was made..." Natasha mumbled and ripped off the barrier as if it was made of thin fabric, "A pitiful one at that too, tsk." "How can she be stronger than me! She is just a pathetic summon!" The mage couldn''t control her frustration anymore andshed out at the subus. "Bad move... why do these idiots never learn." "Master, shall I?" Arnold sighed, "Do what you want. Just don''t kill her, I still want them to pay for what they did. And them being dead won''t help me with that. Either way, I''m heading out. Talos make sure she doesn''t go overboard and the rest of you... do what you want." Arnold then turned towards Johnny and Nicole before leaving with them. He could no longer care what happened to the rest of the contestants, but if they dared to destroy even one of his summons, he wouldn''t care about thepetition anymore and erase them from existence. *** Back in Shiva''s domain, he couldn''t stop smiling. Things were actually going better than he had anticipated, for now. Lady Parvati and Nandi were happy because Shiva was happy. But they didn''t know the absolute reason for his happiness, however, they could guess it had to do something with his Vassal. "I know your vassal outperformed every participant in the universe, but don''t you think it''s a bit too soon to celebrate?" Lady Parati mumbled before softly caressing her husband''s shoulder. "I agree with Lady Parvati, my lord. It''s good that he won, but if he continue his reckless actions, his luck would sooner orter run out." Nandi respectfully enquired. "We have been observing the mortal for a while now. Do you think he would care about it even if I tell him to?" Shiva''s smile grew broader, "But you are right about one thing, he trusts too many people and does not know there are snakes everywhere. Even amongst the ones, he would readily give his life for." "What are you trying to say? Someone is going to betray him?" "Let''s just say.... the next couple of rounds wouldn''t be a smooth sail for our hero." Chapter 452 - Lady Luck Strikes Again (1) After chatting briefly with Nicole and Johnny regarding their uing tasks and course of action, Arnold decided to call it a day and head back to his family. It was only then did he learned what had been going on in the world. Apparently, while they were busy trying to destroy the tree, there was an explosion of Xenoic energy. Every warrior could feel the reverberation of the explosion and not only that, it would seem everyone''s ranks had been upgraded by at least one grade. But that wasn''t all. Just like the warriors, every dungeon around the world reacted to the explosion in their own unique way as well, by sealing themselves... thankfully none of the warriors who went to the dungeon were missing and even those who were inside the dungeons were able to get out as usual. Arnold was a bit surprised to hear the news. After all, none of them had felt such an explosion from where they were at, but then again, if the explosion only made the warrior''s grades go up by one level, he wasn''t sure there would be much difference in his level even if the explosion happened right in front of his eyes. However, just to be sure, Arnold went ahead and checked Nina''s levels and she wasn''t lying. Her rank had shot up from A to S+. Next, he checked Orco''s rank and sure enough, he was already an SS ranked warrior at the age of 19 months. Arnold didn''t forget about Aiden and although his abilities had not manifested yet, his potential was ranked at B. This newborn baby was stronger than Arnold was before getting the system! Well, in other words, Aiden had the potential to be a B ranked warrior. However, there was a thing about potentials... they could increase as people grow as well. For example, if someone had the potential to be B ranked warrior, then there was a high chance that they could as well be A or even S ranked warrior. ''Hm... I am not too worried about Aiden or anyone in fact. I would never want any one of them to go through what I did.'' Arnold thought to himself while rocking Aiden to sleep, ''I might as well check the rewards while I''m waiting for this cute brat to sleep.'' Arnold opened the inventory to take a look at the rewards he had received. His eyes fell first on the quest shop coins. Well, those little circr ck coins did exactly as the name suggested, they were the exchanging currency required to buy anything from the quest exclusive shop. However, system sama informed him that the quest shop wasn''t active yet as the first task wasn''t over in many worlds. So Arnold would have to wait to check what kind of things did the shop had to offer. But he could already bet there were going to be quite a few interesting things he could get his hands on. Next up were the small nt-like thingies called the Saplings of life. Judging by the name Arnold could feel that these were going to be one of the rarest things he could have gotten his hands on. And he was correct, but even he hadn''t thought these saplings were going to be so... potent and unique. Basically, whenever these nts were nted, the area within a kilometre''s radius of them, became a no-kill zone. No matter what an opponent tried to do to get past the sapling''s defence, they could not hurt the ones under their protection. However, there was a condition associated with the ntation of the saplings as well. Once the saplings had been nted, the one who nted them had to at least take care of it once a day, or else they would shrivel up and die, but they wouldn''t die alone. If even one of the saplings perished the others would perish as well. Arnold could not believe his eyes as he read the description of the saplings. Apparently, it was an exclusive reward for him too, as he was the one who had destroyed the world tree. He could nowprehend a bit why the gods went haywire when he got rid of the tree. Zeus would have been especially pissed because now, Arnold could now participate in the war without worrying about his family. "Not gonna lie, the rewards are better than I expected them to be." Arnold smiled before cing the baby Aiden back into its crib, "Now you sleep, while daddy works okay?" After the saplings were the affinity boosters. These vials of ck liquid did exactly as their name suggested, they boosted a specific affinity inside the consumer''s body. In his case, it was a few Nature affinity boosters. However, the effect of the boosters was only temporary so Arnold had no reason to try and test them out immediately. It was better to save them for the uing rounds. The token of gratitude was nothing much just a piece of proof that he had survived the first round of the war. That''s all there was to it. Then there were the material boxes. Arnold already knew about them so he did not pay any attention to them for now. He would just use them to craft new weapons and armours for him as usual. Then he quickly opened up the unique title he had received and he was surprised. He knew it said it was a unique title but Arnold hadn''t expected it to be such an obvious title. ___ You''ve achieved a new title! Name: [Earth''s Strongest Vassal] Effect: Increases the effect of all the titles and skills by 10%, shortens the cooldown of all the skills by 20% and gives you a new passive skill: [Regeneration]. After stepping out ofbat (not dealing or receiving any damage) for 10 seconds, heals the user by 2.5% of the maximum HP per second. ___ "It was obvious, but the effects aren''t bad at all." Arnold smiled before looking at thest thing among his rewards, "Now what do we have here...." Chapter 453 - Lady Luck Strikes Again (2) "Random wish... why do I have a feeling this thing isn''t as wishful as the name suggests?" Arnold mumbled as he saw the smallest vial of some kind of a translucent liquid, "Bruh... why does it look like this..." He was having seconds thought right from the moment he saw the liquid. It looked more like... someone''s bodily fluid than anything else. In fact, in his mind, he was almost sure it was some kind of a sick prank by the gods. Thankfully he had the probe ability to check whether it was a prank or not. ___ OBJECT: Random Wish Potion TYPE: Potion GRADE: Cosmic SS REMARK: Extremely rare material even for the higher gods. This is a liquid of origins only known to the Immortal one and contains power beyond anyone''sprehension. Upon consumption, the user is allowed to make three wishes and one of which is randomly chosen to be fulfilled. However, there are some limitations on the types of wishes one could ask for. No one could wish to be a god, or to resurrect the dead or to gain someone''s love/favour. Asking for immortality is prohibited as well. Other than these, if there is a wish that the Immortal one deems unfit, that wish would not be granted either. Even after knowing these limitations, if the consumer still breaks the rule, the contents of the vial would change and rather than receiving a wish, that user would end up getting poisoned and inevitably die. ___ "So basically, I can only wish for things that the Immortal one would be okay with." Arnold said while scratching his chin, "That seems... inconvenient." [You should be thankful it''s the Immortal one and not Zeus. If it was left to him, you would surely die upon drinking the contents of the vial.] "Look who''s back!" Arnold let out an exaggerated gasp, "It''s Mr I can''t help you." [Don''t be a baby now, but then again that might be too much for me to ask of you.] "I was kidding." [So was I.] Arnold shook his head and stored the vial back in his inventory. At the moment, he didn''t have anything he wanted so it was only wise to keep it forter use and Arnold had a feeling he would require it sometime soon. most probably during the next round of the war. "Next time when you decide to stop helping me, at least be kind enough to inform me about it beforehand." [Alright.] "Has the world rewards arrived yet?" [Nope. It seems a couple ofs are having more trouble handling their respective world trees than the Gods anticipated.] "I just hope that bastard Zeus'' vassal in on one of thoses..." Arnold scoffed, "By the way, would you mind telling me more about theses? I always wanted to know about aliens and stuff." [What do you want to know when you have been fighting with most of them for your entire life.] "What do you- wait a minute! You mean all those monsters we have been fighting inside the dungeons are aliens and there are entires filled with them?" [You are right about that.] "So does that mean..." [Humans have also been transported to these worlds as low-ranking monsters. Most of them are treated worse than goblins actually.] Arnold got quiet all of a sudden. The more time passed, the more his hatred grew for the gods. They were really like a bunch of toys for them, and the gods did not even bother to conceal the fact anymore. System sama could easily read what was going on inside Arnold''s head and decided to change the topic. [I do have some other news though.] "What is it about?" [The next and the final round of the .] "I thought you said there were 3 rounds in these events?" Arnold was a bit confused with the hastiness of thepetition. [There were, but it seems like the gods want it to get over with as soon as possible and hence they are jumping straight to thest round.] "Let me guess, it''s going to be a duel round?" [If only all of your guesses were that urate... but you are correct this time. It is going to be a traditional 1v1 duel elimination deathmatch. However, since the rules were being changed, the gods have decided to rule out the ''death'' from the match.] "What do you mean?" [Death is an optional oue now and the gods have decided to introduce the option to ''surrender'' to the opponent. However, there is a catch. If the vassal or pdin surrenders, they will lose their guardians would be forced to work for the one to whom they surrender.] "So you mean they would lose their powers?" [That would remain to be the choice of the god whether they would allow them to keep their abilities or not. But even if the gods decided to leave them with their abilities, they would no longer be able to level as they used to.] "Hm... I understand." Arnold nodded, "Is there anything else that I need to know?" [Vassals are allowed to bring twopanions with them. Thesepanions are allowed to participate in the duels with their masters and help them in any way they can. However, they must not break some rules that would be disclosed right before the duels started.] "What about pets?" [It is still a loophole even among the updated rules. You can bring as many pets as you like to, however, only two people or monsters can participate in the duel to aid you.] "Now that is something I love to hear." Arnold''s already big smile even broadened, "I already know who I am going to bring with me. But I do have two more questions. Will the vassals or pdins from the same be forced to face each other or not? And what would happen if a vassal surrenders to me, but I kill them regardless?" [Answer to your first question is yes. Starting from this time onwards, the vassal and pdins from the same could be forced to fight each other.] "And for the other question?" [If apetitor surrenders to you and still you decide to kill them... then your sponsor/god would have to give you a suitable punishment.] "You people never cease to baffle me. Either way, that''s all I wanted to know. But please let me know about every littlest detail regarding the final round." [That''s what I am here for.] Chapter 454 - Two Companions, More Rewards (1) Back inside the domain... Arnold''s summons had finally returned after beating the crap out of Sonya and her team. Well, they didn''ty a hand on them, as Arnold had instructed them to, but since Natasha could control the pdins but not the vassals, she forced Sonya''s own team to battle against her. Arnold assumed it wouldn''t have been a big issue for a vassal to handle a couple of pdins, but as his summons informed him, that did not seem to be the case at all. Natasha informed him of how the battle went. She didn''t know whether Sonya was hesitant to fight against her team, or was she just that weak without her team''s support? No matter what the reason was, in their fight, the Pdins were victorious. However, since they were under Natasha''s control, she not only took the scrolls from Sonya, she also took the scrolls from the pdins as payback. Armold didn''t mind this at all, after all, he didn''t need them any longer as the next rounds were going to be duelling rounds. Thus the weaker everyone else was, the higher was his chance to win. Natasha ced the four scrolls in front of him. Arnold stared at the scrolls with an indifferent look, before picking them up and handing two scrolls each to Tiamut and Talos. Everyone was wondering why Arnold gave the scroll to the two of them and not the others. The answer to their question was pretty simple. He had selected Tiamut and Talos to be hispanions for the final round of the war. Thus, since he had selected them, they would need to get stronger than they already were. These scrolls were just a step in that direction and the next step would be when the private dungeon opens up again. When that happens, only the three of them would enter the dungeon to maximise their strength to the best of their abilities. Arnold told the same to the rest of them and although they were a bit sad that they weren''t chosen as hispanions, they understood his decision. This was not a y date, the next round was actually going to be a war and Arnold wanted to have both Tiamut''s brawn and Talos'' brains to help him out. Also, having Tiamut by his side would be an excellent way to show the gods, whom they have been messing with till now. As for taking Talos, he wanted to show off how strong something created by a ''lowly mortal'' could be. But he wasn''t done yet. There was one more thing he could do to mock the gods, especially Zeus. "Talos, would you minding with me to the vault for a moment. There is someone I would like to resurrect." Tiamut looked at Talos and they both knew exactly the one Arnold was talking about. "Master, wouldn''t it be a bit too much?" Talos asked him, "Angering the gods too much would be quite a dangerous move." "Danger is fun ain''t it? Now let''s go." *** Despite many attempts of Talos, both of them found themselves standing in front of the remnants of the olympian demigod, Hercules. Resurrecting Hercules was going to be a dangerous move indeed because no one would ever be able to predict what was going on inside his head. One moment, he could be friendly and the other he could be rushing to kill them. Talos really didn''t know what was going on in Arnold''s head either. He was the one who had told them that resurrecting Hercules could be a dangerous move. But now he was the one telling him to resurrect that same person? "Then, I shall begin now," Talos said before transforming into Jake, the necromancer. "Hold up! Take these first." Arnold handed Talos a couple of cors and suddenly everything made sense, "I just wanted to mess with you guys. I wasn''t going to jump headfirst without an actual n now, would I?" There was a thing with the cor though, it would only take effect if someone willingly wore it by themselves. Nothing would happen if Arnold was to force the cor around Hercules'' neck. But he already had a n for that as well. Talos nodded and went about doing his thing. A secondter, Hercules was standing in front of them, hoping that he had been resurrected by his father and Arnold to be dead. However, the look on his face when he saw Arnold smiling in front of him was indescribable. "Ready to serve me yet?" Arnold smirked, "I told you I would turn you into my bit.ch, didn''t I?" "You ungrateful swine!" Hercules'' thunderous voice echoed throughout the domain as he charged towards like a raging bull. "Always the same thing..." Arnold mumbled before sidestepping out of his way. The next moment he grabbed Hercules'' head and mmed him on the ground. The next thing Hercules know, he was pinned to the ground with his arms hugging his back. It was clear as a day that Arnold had gained a considerable amount of strength from thest time they faced off each other. "Why don''t you idiots just listen to me?" Arnold shook his head, "Here you are, fighting with me in my domain, you do realise what I can do to you, don''t you?" "Your threats won''t make me submit to you, mortal!" "Well, then how about a deal? You know the way you are right now you would never be able to defeat me. Forget about me, you won''t even be able to take down some of my weakest summons." "..." Hercules'' silence spoke boundless words, and Arnold knew he was going in the right direction. He just had to keep pushing forward. "You want to defeat me, and I can give you the strength to do so." Arnold mumbled, "But I would only do so if you swear to help me out of a mess. However, if you don''t help me out now, I''ll send you back to hell and then no god would be able to resurrect you. The choice is yours." Saying so, Arnold got off of the demigod and stepped back. Allowing Hercules to think with his pea brain was an important part of his n. Arnold had touched a nerve while also giving Hercules a preview of what would happen if he did not obey him. But most importantly, Arnold had given the man an option to do what he couldn''t before and defeat him. "I will... serve you, but only till we can duel to the death after you are done taking care of your problems!" "Fine by me." Arnold smiled and waved Talos forward with the cors in his hands, "As a way to seal the deal, each one of us would have to wear this cor. If either one of us breaks the deal, we will be killed immediately." "... okay." Saying so, both the men took a cor in their hands, but little did Hercules knew his cor had been imbued with the envement charm while Arnold''s cor was... just an ordinary cor. Hercules immediately wrapped it around his neck as the golden words shed before Arnold''s eyes. [You have sessfully tamed the being: Hercules.] Chapter 455 - Two Companions, More Rewards (2) "That was fun," Arnold mumbled while Hercules emotionlessly stood in front of him, "Now we just have to wait for the next round to begin and see the shock on the faces of those dogs, I mean gods." "I thought you could only take twopanions with yourself." Talos inquired. "Mm-hmm, that''s true, ording to system sama, I am allowed to take only twopanions with me. However, there is no limit to the number of pets that can apany me. So even with Hercules around, there shouldn''t be a problem for me. As I wouldn''t be breaking any rules." Talos didn''t reply but looked at Hercules. His master was telling him he could bring along his pets, but the man in front of them was no pet. He was a demigod and if it hadn''t been for the cor, he would have already thrown a fit just by hearing about Arnold''s n. Arnold knew what Talos was thinking about. It was the same thing anyone in his position would have thought. How was he going to force a demigod to be his pet? It might seemplex but it was fairly simple in reality. As long as Hercules had the cor around him, there was nothing he could do against Arnold''s wish. If Arnold told him to kill Zeus, Hercules would end up dying fighting his own father but wouldn''t disobey Arnold''smand. So all Arnold had to do was to tell the Demigod to behave like his pet and he would dly do so. It was as simple as that and even though Hercules'' officially be a pet, He would still be behaving like a dog. That was enough for Arnold to rub salt on Zeus'' wounds. "Hercules, go and ask everyone if they need help with anything. If they do, then help them in any way you can." Arnold instructed Hercules and he bowed down before leaving to do as he was told to, "See, not that bad is it?" "As long as you''re sure about it, master, no one will question your judgement." Talos diligently replied, "Also, what do we do next? It doesn''t seem like the first round has ended yet and the private dungeon would only open up in 3 days. However, considering the pressure of the next round, I don''t think it would be wise enough for us to linger around and waste our time." Arnold nodded. Talos was right, it looked like the first round of the war would take some time to get over and in the meantime, only a fool would waste their time with leisure. Thankfully, Arnold had a lot of things to do. Like creating new weapons for Talos, Tiamut as well as for himself. He needed to at least finish one of the three weapons before the dungeon opened up. "Light up the forge, will you?" Arnold smiled before taking out onerge box of materials from his inventory, "Things are about to get heated once again." When the system said he had received tworge boxes of materials, he didn''t know howrge the boxes were going to be and now that he had taken one of them out of his inventory, he was shocked. At first, he was worried if he would have enough materials to create three weapons, but now he was worried that does he even have enough summons to hand out weapons to? Just one of the material boxes was almost as big as he was. Talos could swear he saw his master''s eyes shining the moment the box was out in the open. Just a fist-sized box was enough for Arnold to craft a god ying weapon. Not even the gods knew what he could do with all these materials. It seemed like hell was going to be lit this year because Arnold was surely going to send a lot of people there. But before all that, Arnold needed to know what type of material was he looking at. As far as he could remember there were five types of material these boxes could provide him with. Only Celestial gold and Celestial silver could be used to forge weapons while Celestial tinum could be used to make essories that could grant their user godly abilities. Celestial copper was one of the only two materials that could be used to create armours that could withstand an attack from a god. As for Adamantine, it was the material, not even the mighty higher gods could break. Thus making it the perfect material to make armours with. ___ REMARK: A rare reward that can be gained only through pletion rewards. This box contains a rare material that can be used as a forging material to make a weapon of the lesser/Higher gods. When opened one of the following materials can be gained: ? Adamantine (2% chance) ? Celestial tinum (8% chance) ? Celestial Gold (20% chance) ? Celestial Silver (30% chance) ? Celestial Copper (40% chance) ___ "Looks like the odds are still the same." Arnold nodded, "And from myst experience, there is no point in wasting foresight to determine what material I''ll get. The box would just give me whatever it wants." Stating his reasons, he opened the box while hoping for the best but being prepared for the worst. The next moment, the room was filled with a blinding light. Arnold hastily covered his eyes and by the time the light subsided, the box in front of him had been reced by hundreds of perfect cubes of shiny Golden material, but that wasn''t all. There were several cubes of some weird ck material as well. Arnold quickly used the probe skill on it. ___ OBJECT: Adamantine TYPE: Forging Material GRADE: Cosmic SS+ REMARK: The rarest of the rare metal in the whole universe. This metal can only be handled by experts metalsmiths and weaponsmiths. Even among the dwarfs of Avalon, it is a dream for many to work on this metal. Hephaestus is said to be one of the only two people who were able to create an armour that even Zeus'' thunder couldn''t prate. Making Zeus afraid of it and hence the armour was immediately sealed right after its creation. Later it was given to Achilles as a reward by Zeus. If forged the right way, the armour could even put a mortal on equal footing as of a god. However, this material should be handled with extreme care. Mishandling the material could lead to genocide. ___ As for the yellowish material, that was celestial gold. Meaning with just one box of materials, Arnold had found enough materials to craft both, the perfect weapon as well as the perfect Armour. Even Talos was rendered speechless from what he saw. He knew his master had blessings of thedy luck, but this time... it waspletely absurd for something like this to even happen.. Forget about fighting other vassals, with all these materials at his disposal, Arnold was ready to face the gods themselves. Chapter 456 - Two Companions, More Rewards (3) Arnold did not waste any time. He stored the cubes back inside his inventory and headed for the forge. He hadn''t felt this excited to create something new in ages and now that he had found the fire to forge once again, he wasn''t going to let it die before thoroughly milking it. Talos also apanied him because he had to repair the automatons that had been destroyed recently. Arnold picked up his hammer and started hammering away. Once he started, he did not stop for three straight days. He kept working without any sleep and food. Those things were just a hindrance for him now either way. Sleep and food were two things that his body could take care of on its own. Using his Light affinity, he could feel refreshed at any time of the day as he pleased and using the nature affinity, his body could utilise the excess nutrients present within itself and use them in the most effective way possible while minimising the loss. Thus at that point in time, Arnold was no less than an automaton and his efficiency was much higher than it had been ever before. Arnold had never had the opportunity to wear a full set of armour. Well, it was more like he never felt the need to make one for himself. When he had just found system sama, he was too broke to get one and as time passed, he realised he never needed one because of his already superior life-saving skills. Another reason for him not wearing armour was something to do with his mind. He had always thought the armour would just get in his way. After all, wearing a full set of armour could hinder his movement speed to say the very least. But back then, his only option to craft an armour was using the material that was avable on the. Although these materials were strong, they weren''t something Arnold would have used inbat. But now that he was about to face the strongest warriors from throughout the universe, it was only wise to get one from somewhere or make one for himself. Thankfully, he had gotten his hands on the right materials to craft a lightweight yet strong armour and all he needed was to let his forging skills do their job for him. Adamantine was said to be an impossible material to work on. Especially due to the nature of the element. It was extremely difficult to produce since it required extremely high forging temperatures followed by a very delicate procedure. Thankfully, System sama was kind enough to guide Arnold through the necessary process otherwise he would have definitely screwed up hriously. Although Adamantine was a strong metal, it was pretty useless if it was used to create a piece of armour just by using 100% adamantine. Thus, adamantine could be used along with hundreds of other materials. It was for this very reason Adamantine was also known as Chameleon Metal among the dwarves. A few of the mostmonly used materials alongside Adamantine were Steel, Mythril, titanium, tungsten and gold. However, using thest two items along with Adamantine was nothing but a waste of both time and important resources as the moment Adamantine bonded with either gold or tungsten, it loses most if not all of its special properties. The three remaining materials on the other hand could further boost Adamantine''s strength. Although Arnold had all of the bonding materials to work with, ording to system sama, it was best to use titanium along with Adamantine if he was trying to create an armour. Although it sounded easy to do, it turned out to be yet another challenge. This process was very rare so much so that it was a hidden secret among the dwarves. And even for the few of them, that knew about the process, they never even try to perform it. Melting Titanium was a well-considered feat in itself because of the high forging temperature of titanium which was somewhere in between 1000¡ãC to 2000¡ãC. Furthermore, it required a very special type of forge to even reach such extreme levels of heat. But as a result of spending all of the sweat and blood, Titanium-Forged Adamantine alloy became one of the strongest, sharpest, and toughest materials in the universe. This was also the secret behind Hephaestus'' forging of Achilles''s armour. System sama also informed Arnold that Hephaestus had to borrow the fire from hell by Hades to aplish the feat. Although Arnold did not have any rtion with Hades and couldn''t expect to receive his aid, he had his own solid, never-ending supply of hellfire. Arnold''s mind was made up. If Hephaestus could aplish such a thing, he could do it too. But to do that he would need help from the others. A couple of secondster, the forge became a ce graced by the presence of Dragons. Arnold had to call upon the help from Tiamut as well as Scy to achieve something impossible for even the dwarves. Talos also pitched in to help. His job was the easiest yet the most important. It was his responsibility to ensure that the titanium was heated evenly thoroughly. With that, Arnold, Tiamut and Scy, simultaneously used hellfire to light up the forge and Talos got to work. He was beating the metal at regr intervals and after heating the titanium bar for almost ten hours, the bar finally liquified and became one with the adamantine. With that being out of the way, it only took Arnold two more days to finally forge aplete set of armour using adamantine. ___ Name: God''s Headhunter Type: Armour Rank: Relic Defence (DEF): 200% increase regardless of user''s existing Defence (DEF) points. Requirements to use: Above lvl 350/ SS ranked cosmic being. Weight: 5 Kilograms Ability: [Backfire] Upon contact from an attack that could put a dent on the armour, the armour unleashes the concentrated radiation equivalent to a dozen nuclear explosions within a fraction of a second. The radiation is solely directed towards the attacker, poisoning them and could possibly lead to their death. The other''s, however, remain safe from this attack. Deals 1000-2300 physical damage/second for the duration of 5 seconds. damage dealt depend on the defence of the attack. Additional Effect: [God''s nightmare] ¡ª [Backfire] Deals additional 20% damage to godly beings (Demigods, Lesser gods and Higher gods) Additional Effect: [Light weight] ¡ª Upon activation of this skill, the user''s agility (AGI) increases by 150% for five seconds. This skill has a 20 second cooldown period. Additional Effect: [Sun re] ¡ª Blinds the target for 3 seconds. This ability has a one minute cooldown period. Additional Effect: [Resistor] ¡ª Grants the user immunity from conditional effects such as Cold, poison, fire etc. While increasing the healing abilities of the user by 20%. Additional Effect: [Hail Stomp] ¡ª Temporarily increases the user''s strength (STR) by 100% while stomping on the ground. This skill deals an AOE slow debuff to all the enemies while dealing 20% more damage to them. This skill has a cooldown of 1 hour. Remarks: An excellent armour crafted by Earth''s greatest forge master having both defensive and offensive abilities. If there''s something the gods fear, it''s death and immortality of a mortal. With this armour, not even the gods would be able to do much against you, making pretty much granting you immortality. This armour is the perfect tool for a headsman who is willing to go beyond rules and regtions to achieve their goal. ___ Chapter 457 - Trial Run (1) Arnold was itching to wear his armour and put it to a test. But with dungeons all over the world sealed, Arnold''s only choice was to wait till his private dungeon reset. Thankfully, he didn''t have to wait for long as the dungeon opened up within a couple of hours after Arnold was done crafting his armour. All of his summons had gathered in front of the dungeon to get the first look of their master in his armour. They were wondering how the armour looked because only Talos and Tiamut had seen the final product of their master''s hard work and sheer indomitable willpower. And Arnold did not disappoint them. Previously the summons thought Tiamut''s godly armour was the epitome of armours, but they were quick to change their opinions once they saw Arnold marching up to them dressed in his jet-ck armour. He was covered from the head to the toe, with his guns firmly ced by the side of his hips using especial holsters he had crafted before. Arnold had also crafted a bionic arm with the leftover Adamantine-Titanium alloy while waiting for the dungeon to reset. Since his arm was made of the same material, it shared the same ability as his armour as well, but that wasn''t all. The arm had also retained all of its previous abilities and effects as well. Also, due to titanium being the mainponent of the arm, the arm no longer was in danger of disintegration after Arnold used the ''Infernal w'' ability. In short, he could use it continuously without worry about destroying his bionic arm anymore. As for his armour, he had installed a oneway visor installed in his helmet, that way he could see his opponents but they wouldn''t be able to see his face. While Tiamut''s armour looked bulky and looked like it could take a hell of a beating, Arnold''s armour was the stark opposite of it. It was lightweight but could still take a direct hit from even the gods. Also, after using enhancement on his armour, Arnold had unlocked one of the most absurd abilities he could ever have... an ability to further scale his already insane amount of strength. As things were going now, Arnold might as well make his way into Olympus and knock straight at Zeus'' door. Moreover, his thin armour hugged his body. The closest resemnce Arnold could have thought of after seeing his armour was the one S.nake eyes used to wear. (Author''s Note: I''ll include a picture of the armour in thement section for your better understanding.) "Whoa..." That''s the only word that popped into the heads of all of his summons. Although Talos and Tiamut had already seen the armour, even they could help but be awestruck the moment they saw Arnold wearing the armour. "I want one of those..." Bad-Breath mumbled, his eyes were practically shining. "Yeah, I think you do." Natasha nodded her head, "At least a face mask so that we can be saved from your deadly breath." Everyone around them burst withughter. The subtle roasting was too good for them to notugh. After that, Bad-Breath didn''t speak a single word and silently red at Natasha, while the undead consoled him. After they were the only ones who understood his pain... as they too were covered in a horrible rotting smell. "Is that really you master?" Miro mumbled while trying to look through the visor. The next second the visor abruptly disappeared revealing Arnold''s smiling face. "Of course it''s me. Do you think I would craft such a sophisticated armour for someone else?" He shrugged his shoulders, "Now, let''s not waste any more of our precious time. Talos, Tiamut you guys ready?" "Yes, Master!" Both of them roared in unison. "Alright then, let''s head inside. And you," Arnold turned towards Hercules, "stay." Hercules nodded and sat down right in front of the portal. He didn''t have a tail, but if he had Arnold was pretty sure he would be wagging it by now if he had one. "Good dog. Natasha, keep an eye on him. If he does anything weird-" "I''ll seduce and kill him." "... just immobilise him. Okay?" "Got it master." ''I doubt that you do...'' Saying that Arnold stepped into the dungeon with Tiamut and Talos right behind him. *** In the meantime, the gods were watching the remaining twos struggle against their respective world trees. However, Zeus wasn''t paying attention to any of it. He was just randomly dropping points on everyone but his mind was filled with worries. He was so lost in his thoughts he hadn''t even seen Loki had already arrived there as he had said he would. In secret, of course. None of them wanted the others to know about their coalition. Or else, they might get taken out even before they had a chance to put their n into action. In fact, Loki had taken control over one of the female servants of Olympus so that no one would be suspicious of Zeus meeting with an attendant. "Hm... if I had seen a mortal taking down a child of Yggdrasil in one attack, I would be worried as well." Loki said in a feminine voice. "Is it done?" Zeus replied without any interest. "If you mean has that mortal''s guardian been tricked? If so, then yes." Loki replied with a smile, "My vassal might be stubborn but her guardian isn''t. Half of the time I have Donna do things my vassal isn''t even aware of, so it was easy. Too easy" "How long will the illusionst?" Zeus replied before finally turning towards the naked woman Loki had been controlling, "Also, give her, her clothes back." "I thought you would like to relieve some tension..." "You want to me relieve some tension? How very thoughtful of you." All of a sudden Zeus'' eyes started zing with thunder, as crackling clouds gathered over his head, "Let''s do it then." Loki hastily grabbed the woman''s clothes and wore them back in a sh. He knew Zeus was in a bad mood but he didn''t realise he was in such a terrible mood. "Easy there! I was just messing with you. No need to get all hyper over nothing!" "Then answer my question." "The illusion... shouldst until our nes to fruition. Or till the Immortal One realises what we have done." "It should be fine then.... the next round shall be the end of that bas.tard vassal" Chapter 458 - Trial Run (2) "Looks like creating an armour of adamantine angered the dwarves," Arnold smirked when his party encountered the wave of monsters inside the transdimensional dungeon, "Just look at them charging towards us." It had been roughly a couple of minutes since they arrived at the spot. At first, Arnold thought they had stepped back into Jotunheim, considering the white scenery around. However, it didn''t take him long to realise that wasn''t the case at all. Although the ce looked simr to Jotunheim, it was way different than Arnold remembered. For starters, the frozen trees in Jotunheim were even bigger than the frost giants that ruled over thend. But inside the current dungeon that he was in, even the tallest trees were just a couple of feet taller than him. Also, the atmosphere wasn''t as cold as it had been in Jotunheim. It wasn''t like Arnold could feel the cold, he was just stating what he was seeing through the temperature reading. Also, the trees there still had a hint of greenery in them, which wasn''t the case for the trees in Jotunheim. While Arnold was trying to figure out just exactly where they were, they were greeted by the natives of that region... Frost Dwarves. Riding on top of monsters that resembled pr bears, these midgets had long forgotten about their culture and adapted the curse of warfare as a way to survive the harshness of the environment they were forced to live in. However, even after all the violence, smithy still ran deep in their souls and they used whatever materials they could get their hands on, to convert them into weapons, shields, or essories for the animals they have managed to tame. These Dwarves had gone through a different route of evolution and as a result, were even shorter than an average Dwarf. The average height of this species was around 3''4" feet, unlike the usual 5 feet. It was the case so that they could conserve energy and hence survive through the harsh environment. However, as a way to bnce things, nature gave them an exceptional gift. A gift no other kind of Dwarven subspecies had. The gift to tame monsters. These dwarves usually had bluish-white skin that helped them camouge themselves with the surroundings as well as the animals they used to ride on. Despite their pinched faces and stubby legs, they had a strong physique and high agility that made them difficult to hunt down. Especially in the snowy region. Furthermore, after living in the cold for ages, they have gained immunity from cold or attacks using Ice, wind or water affinities. But none of it mattered to Arnold. They looked so small and cute that Arnold didn''t even consider them as an enemy first. To him, they were created by the gods to get bullied by others and he was no exception to that rule. However, his views quickly changed the moment they began attacking him. Their weapons had been imbued with mana. Thus even by the slightest swing of their weapons, would have easily cut through those weak pdins Arnold had met up with recently. That was the extent of the mastery these dwarves had over their weapons. However, this time these dwarves had no idea whom they were messing with. Even though Arnold could not level up thanks to the restrictions System sama had ced on him, he could still test his armour out before letting Talos and Tiamut have their fun with the kiddos. The first wave of Dwarves consisted of almost 200 midgets and their pet bear-like animals. Arnold wanted to see if he could take them out in the silliest way possible without putting in much effort either. "Step back," Arnold mumbled through his shielded face, "Things are about to get nasty here." Saying so, he lifted one of his feet up the level of his waist, while waiting for the dwarves to get closer. The Dwarves, who had never tasted defeat before, fearlessly charged towards their target. However, the second all of them got closer enough, Arnold stomped the ground with all his might. __ Armour effect [Hail Stomp] has been activated. Enemies with the area of effect have been slowed by 80% 20% more damage was dealt to them. The ability is now under cooldown for an hour. __ Arnold''s one simple stomp to the ground uprooted an entire section of the forest. Snow, dirt and broken trees were thrown around everywhere. The trees and dwarves in his immediate vicinity were flung up in the air as a crater had formed around him. Moreover, this was all an ability of his armour. He had not used any strength enhancing abilities or potions before attacking them. In an instant, the toon of dwarves was either dead or too injured to carry on fighting. The white snow had turned crimson after absorbing all the blood from the fallen dwarves. Leaving Arnold to imagine what carnage would this attack cause if he used it along with his strength-enhancing abilities like [Berserker''s rage] and [Devil''s rage]. He won''t be surprised if he ended up blowing up an entire continent or possibly, even a small. Sadly, as much as Arnold wanted to test out his theory, he couldn''t. Not because he was afraid of destroying the entire dungeon, but because this trip wasn''t meant for him to increase his strength but for Talos and Tiamut to prepare themselves for what was toe in the future. He just wanted to test his armour out, and now that he had, he could step back and let the other two doofuses have some fun of their own. "You guys are up. I don''t care what you do or how you do it, I just want you two to defeat the boss monster so that we can get back." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "However, if I am forced to aid you in any way, I wouldn''t consider taking the two of you with me. Is that clear?" "That won''t be happening, master. Just rx and watch as we tear them to shreds." Tiamut replied back with a confident look on her face. Even Talos joined her while flexing his weapons.. Arnold smiled and nodded, giving them the go, to prove themselves worthy enough to be hispanions for the next round of the war of the worlds. Chapter 459 - Dani "How does it feels to be cosmic SS ranker?" Arnold greeted his summons with a smile on his face. Since he wasn''t participating in the fight, he decided to take his helmet off for a while. As cool and deadly as he looked in his armour, he didn''t like being concealed in it forever. It took them a while to find the main city of the dwarves as they had multiple settlements spread all over thend. However, the moment they found the main city, he got a bit worried because that''s when the boss finally showed up and Arnold was not liking what he was seeing in front of him. The boss of the dungeon turned out to be an Adamantine Golem. That was the reason for Arnold''s worry. He knew the power of Adamantine seeing a 20-foot tall golem that was constructed with adamantine just like his armour, didn''t calm him down. He thought his summons were going to be in a lot of trouble. However, Arnold soon realised his worries were unfounded. As unlike him, the Dwarves didn''t use Titanium along with Adamantine to create this golem. Instead, they used steel to do so and as a result, even though the Golem was strong it wasn''t strong enough to take on a continuous barrage of blows from Tiamut and Talos. Still, the golem''s attacks were about as strong as either of them. The only problem was that unlike Talos and Tiamut the golem was slow, way too slow to deal any damage to either Talos and Tiamut. However, thisck of speed was made up by the dozens of AOE skills the golem had been imbued with. Just getting hit by one of those skills could spell the end of his summons. Another thing that surprised Arnold was how quickly the golem got used to Talos'' and Tiamut''s movements. It also managed to copy some of their moves to use against them as the battle progressed. That''s why it took quite a while for Talos and Tiamut to take down the tanky bast.ard. But even after they managed to take the thing down, Arnold realised if this golem was to appear on earth, it just might turn out to be a bigger cmity than Tiamut was. Warriors on earth were strong but nowhere near strong as to defeat this monster of a construct on their own. Arnold was thankful the dungeon gave them a look at what true craftsmanship looked like. Arnold would have never thought about using Adamantine to create a golem, but now... he was certainly itching to create one. Thankfully, he had just received a crapton of adamantine just now to do exactly that. "It certainly feels great, master" Talos responded, "All this power... how intriguing." "I don''t know how you managed to control yourself after attaining a level even higher than this," Tiamut clenched her fists, "All I want to do is to smash everything around me." "Easy there. If you want to drain out your strength so much then how about you help me out?" Arnold pointed his thumb towards the fallen Golem, "It would be a waste to leave over 15000 kilograms worth of Adamantine-Steel alloy just like that, don''t you think so?" "I think it would be so." Talos nodded in agreement, "We need all the resources we can get our hands on at this time." "Exactly my point. So the two of you better get to work. Let''s take all of this home shall we." Arnold smiled before turning around, "You''ll being with us as well." "A-As y-yourmand, M-Master." A squeaky female voice replied. This was the Dwarf who had made the golem all by herself. And although Arnold generally did not like constructs or weapons created by others, it was clear that this tiny midget was really capable of achieving great things. Especially considering how she managed to create a mechanical golem that was not only capable of speech but also copying and using its opponent''s moves against them. That stuff was something Arnold could genuinely apud its creator for. He was positive that together they would be able to create something that even the gods would hesitate to fight against. And considering that he was nning to eventually send a couple of gods on a free trip to hell, he would need more capable people like this Dwarf by his side. However, she was a bit stubborn and refused to join him. Why? Because his summons had killed every single one of them. In her eyes, Arnold was nothing less than a tyrant and she would have rather died than aid him in any way or form. Arnold, however, had already set his eyes on having the Dwarf''s talent for himself. So if she wished to die rather than serve him, he would fulfil her wish. He killed her, and then had Talos resurrect her, then killed her again. This cycle kept repeating again and again till the dwarf willingly submitted herself to him. Now all that was left to do was to name her. Her original Norse name was something quite vulgar and at that moment, Arnold knew he wasn''t the worst at giving names. There was always someone much worse out there. "Hm... what should I name you now? I certainly can''t call you something that trantes to ''Cu.nt yer''." Arnold scratched his chin before looking at her carefully. He tried toe up with something rted to her white skin, but he wasn''t going to name her Snow White. Naming her after her auburn hair was a bust too. She was extremely tiny, roughly about 3''2" feet tall, so he thought to name her Midget, but that would have been too harsh even from his standards. In the end, he decided to go for something simple. Since she was dead he decided to give her a name that suited her... "Dani or the Dead one as it is called in Norse. Doesn''t seems too bad, does it?" "N-No, master. I-It''s a g-great name!" Dani squeaked once again. "Great then! We should get going now, we have a lot of things to do and we don''t have much time." However, as soon as they got back, another surprise was waiting for Arnold.. The world rank rewards had arrived. Chapter 460 - Destruction Is Just A Hobby (1) __ Apologies for making all of you wait, but the first round is finally over and we finally have our top three award-winnings. Please try to keep in mind that a lot of things were taken into consideration before deciding the rankeds. Most important of which was the time required for the teams to finish their tasks and the second reason was the team participation of the contestants. __ "We are fcked, aren''t we?" Arnold shook his head in disappointment. Just from judging thest line of the notification, he could say they weren''t going to win sh.it anymore. It would have been okay if they had considered only the time taken to finish the task, but if they were considering team participation as well, then he had no doubt in his mind they weren''t going to win. After all, one of his ''teammates'' had tried to kill him while four others were fined because of their nning against him. Arnold was very disappointed. He was disappointed to the point where he wanted to trace them down and kill them in the most horrendous ways possible. It was a result of their greed and uselessness, he potentially lost on a lot of great rewards. Thus, Arnold had made up his mind to do exactly that in case he didn''t get anything from the rewards. [First ce: hea ---> 35643 points] [Second ce: Sevis ---> 34843 points] [Third ce: Konvone ---> 28992 points] __ The contestants from the above-mentioneds would receive their respective rewards directly in their inventories. The Participants froms other than the above-stated ones, would not receive any rewards except for the one that they have been already provided. The rewards provided to the winners would also remain confidential. __ Arnold stood silently as the notification disappeared from his sight. It all happened just like he had thought it would. No rewards for him all because of the stupidity from a bunch of idiots. He was in a pretty good mood until now. He had received awesome rewards, created an armour that even rivalled the power of the gods, and had obtained another elite summon to do his bidding. But now all of a sudden, none of it mattered to him anymore. He was really looking forward to the type of rewards he would have gotten and the personal rewards had pumped him up even more. But now, he had nothing. His summons could feel that something was up even though they couldn''t see his expression as he was once again wearing his helmet. Talos went ahead to ask him if he was okay, but Arnold didn''t respond. He busy was trying his best to calm his anger down before he did something foolish. For all he knew, it was most probably just a bunch of crappy rewards and nothing more. He didn''t need to lose his calm over such trivial things now... ''Who am I kidding? I am pissed now. And I haven''t been this pissed in a long time.'' Arnold clenched his fist and all of a sudden a crazy amount of his aura started leaking everywhere, ''They screwed me over, so it''s only fair that I return them their favour, right? Killing them would also help me with my ascension quest. At least I would get something out of it. Yeah, let''s do that.'' The next moment, a travel portal appeared in front of Arnold and just when he was about to step out another notification popped up in front of him. Reading this made Arnold''s already bad mood get even worse. __ Considering recent results of the first round, it has been decided that no vassal or pdin would be allowed to fight each other before the second and the final round begins. The gods have decided to do this to ensure that the weaker participants don''t get targetted and killed as a way for the stronger ones to retaliate for their failure as a group. Anyone who intentionally breaks this rule would be given divine punishment by the gods. And I [The One who sees everything], can guarantee you, it won''t be a pretty sight. __ ''You people really want to screw me over, don''t you?'' Arnold smiled wanly before closing the portal. He didn''t want to take the risk of breaking the rules, especially after seeing what it could lead up to first-hand. Thus even though he didn''t want to, he had to let go of the matter for now. It wasn''t like he wouldn''t be meeting them again and the next time they were face to face, he swore it would be thest time those idiots ever see his face or anything for that matter again. "Wait a minute..." Arnold was about to give up on his n for revenge but then his evil mind started running in overdrive, "Talos, do you remember where those bastards lived?" "Are you asking about Sonya and her team?" "Yeah." "I heard them talking about Italy." "So... they live within my empire and still try to screw me over. Don''t you think I should do something about that?" An evil smirk formed on his face as he said those words, "I can''t kill them, but that doesn''t mean I can''t make their life a tad bit more difficult. If I was given an option, I would have tortured them instead but I want to y it safe for now." "Don''t worry master. It will be taken care of. I''ll personally see to it that they pay for whatever inconvenience they had caused to you." Talos bowed to him, while the others followed his suit. Talos readily agreed to this because he knew Arnold''s temper better than anyone. He knew if he didn''t agree to do something, then Arnold would end up doing something a hundred times worse than what Talos could even think of doing. So in a way, he wasn''t doing it for Arnold''s sake but for those who weren''t aware of his anger. Talos had already seen Arnold lose his sh.it for real once when Nina got hurt and he did not want to have a repeat of what happened after that, ever again. At least not while he was still around. "While you people are taking care of them, I''ll try to let out some steam in the forge.. Or else, I might actually end up doing something I would regretter." Chapter 461 - Destruction Is Just A Hobby (2) At the same time in Italy, Sonya and her team were having a meeting to discuss their next course of action and it was not going well at all. All of them kept arguing with each other rather than trying toe up with a solution to their problems. The meeting room of their guild had turned into a battlefield of words and slurs. "Great. Not only did we lose some of the rewards we got earlier, but we also didn''t receive sh.it from world rankings." The brutish looking tankined to Sonya, "I could have also managed to get a hardcore earth maniption ability from that scroll but no! This witch just had to open her big mouth and get us all into trouble." She was still pissed that despite being a pdin, a lowly summon was actually able to control their minds. Not only that, but that da.mned subus also forced them to give up the scrolls they had received as a reward. So basically, they were left with nothing. They were hoping that even without the scrolls they would be able to level up a bit by clearing dungeons. But even that n was a bust because the dungeon all over the world had been sealed shut for god knows why! As a result, now they were forced to go into the next round of the War without levelling up or having any new skills/abilities. They had never thought messing with Arnold would turn out to be so... unfortunate for them. But now that they had there was no point in sulking around. Still, they couldn''t get out of feeling as if they were cheated on. On top of that, they were already feeling down, thanks to being bullied by Arnold''s summon and were hoping to get some rewards to ensure they would be able to do something in the next round. However, since they didn''t receive anything, it felt like someone kicked them again while they were struggling to get back to their feet. "Why are you ming me, you good for nothing fat bit.ch!?" The mage who had aggravated Natasha yelled back at the tank, while her ck hair waved behind her, "If you were half as focused on using your shield than on your weight, we wouldn''t have been in this mess!" "Hmph! You''re just jealous of me cuz you''re t! tter than earth ever was! I''d prefer being thi any day over being all skin and bones like you." Just as a fight was about to break out between the two of you, Sonya grabbed both of her teammates and mmed their heads against each other. She had done it with such a force that it could have split their head open if it hadn''t been for the reinforcement spell cast by the mage. Still, even the spell could not handle all that power and their heads still hurt like hell. "Would you bitc.hes keep quiet for a bit!?" Sonya bellowed, "Unlike you, some people actually have to think before making their move first and because of you pathetic idiots, I always end up in a mess just like I am now." Everyone averted their gaze away from her. They knew better than to anger her even more because they knew Sonya was stronger than them... or was she? The mage thought as a sinister n hatched in her mind. Both the mage and the tank were slowly getting tired of Sonya''s continuous mistreatment of them. Earlier, they never rebelled against her because she had theplete support and loyalty of the twins. But now that she had pushed one of them to death, it would be easy to persuade the remaining twin to join them instead of doing her bidding. The mage was fully aware that, Rico, the remaining twin, was going through emotional turmoil and she could use that to her benefit. He had just lost hisst living rtive that he was aware of and hence was incredibly vulnerable right now. Before whenever he was upset, he either turned to his brother, Mica or to Sonya, but now with Mica gone and Sonya not being able to give him any emotional support, Skya, the mage could easily turn him into an ally with a little bit of mind games. ''Too bad we can''t kill her now.'' Skya thought, ''I could have be a vassal right here and now if it wasn''t for that announcement... argh! Hmm... maybe it is for the better. It would give me more time to n my next move.'' Sonya interrupted Skya''s train of thought by stating one fact that all of them had missed. Since they didn''t get the world rank rewards, it was clear that Arnold did not get anything either. So even though they had lost a lot of things while trying to fight Arnold, they finally managed to screw him over for once. In fact, they were happier that he didn''t receive any rewards more than the fact they were worse off than he was at the moment. "But wouldn''t he be pissed after what happened because of us?" Te, the tank asked Sonya. "Oh, I bet he is seething right now." Sonya had a crooked smile on her face, "More so because he can''t to horse-sh.it about it. After all, he can not kill us or harm us in any way. Or the one watching us would punish him the moment he tries to pull something." "That is true..." Skya nodded in agreement, "Da.mn, I want to see his agitated face right now, haha! He was acting so mighty and sh.it and now that we have screwed him over he can''t even harm us in any way! Haha!" The room wasn''t all that gloomy anymore. They wereughing and smiling, they were still worried about what was going to happen in thepetition but they decided to live their life for now, in case they don''t get the chance ever again. However, in their time of joy, they had failed to listen to the cries of their guildmates who were being put to ce by Talos and his automatons. They weren''t killing anyone, but they sure as hell weren''t showing them any mercy either because if they did.... then their master would arrive there and that won''t be good for anyone on the. Chapter 462 - Destruction Is Just A Hobby (3) "Did you guys hear that?" Skya mumbled interrupting the others. "What are you talking about? I can''t hear anything." Te replied. Even though the others stopped drinking, she wasn''t intending to put her beer down just because one of them was apparently hearing things. "That''s exactly my point." Skya mumbled before grabbing her staff, "This ce is never quiet. Sonya, Misha, something is seriously wrong here.". Both of them knew that Skya was correct. Their guild was never this quiet no matter what the time was. The recruits always keep partying especially as they had no dungeon to clear anymore. But now, all of a sudden the noise had stoppeding. They were so down partying themselves they didn''t realise it till now. All four of them jumped up. Every drop of alcohol from their blood was gone in a jiffy. Te, the tankdy, was forced by the others to make the first move as she slowly inched towards the doors leading to their room, while the others assumed position right behind her. Their abilities were on hold, ready to strike down the enemy. However, before they could even get a chance to start a fight, the windows behind them blew open. Broke ss rained on them like a hailstorm. The next moment, dozen upon dozens ofbat automatons made their way into the room through the window. The strategy of the four people proved to be horrendously wrong since the tank had left the crucial damage-dealer as well as weaker members behind to protect themselves. Te ran to help her team but she only managed to take two steps before the door was thrown away and managed to hit her in the head. This two-way attack made it impossible for them to defend themselves from two sides. Te might have been able to hold off the attack from one side with Skya''s buffs, but that would have left their other side unprotected. There was no way they were going to be able to defend and fight back at the same time in the current scenario. If they hadn''t been surrounded from two sides, they could have pushed through but now, they had no chance. It wasn''t like they couldn''t defeat Arnold''s automatons. They could have if there weren''t so many of them. Sonya had never thought Arnold would still try to attack them after the announcement was made. But the fact was that he did. No one except him could have made such high-levelbat automatons, so there was no doubt they were under attack by him. If a fight was about to break out, then Sonya and her team were going to lose for sure. However, she wasn''t one to give up without fighting. Especially when they were fighting against a bunch of tin wrapped robots. "Skya, psychic link now!" Sonya roared as a n came up in her mind. Skya nodded and immediately established a psychic link between the four of them to converse mentally. It was their go-to move tomunicate during fights. This way not only were they able to hide necessary information from the enemy, but theirmunication speed was also faster at the same time. Sometimes a difference of mere mini seconds was able to save their lives and that''s why it was super important. However, they were just about to realise their petty tricks to save their butts wasn''t going to work against the ones they were facing. Arnold and his elite summons weren''t the only ones getting upgraded every now and then. The automatons were given frequent updates as well, and one of the most recent ones among those upgrades was the ability to deduce what their enemy was thinking just by scanning their facial expressions. This technology that Devon, Talos and Arnold came up with together had an astounding uracy percentage of 95%, which was quite a lot. On top of that, the automatons had a link of their own which was much faster than their weak psychic link, to say the least. So in a way, the automatons were no longer dependent on listening to what their enemies were saying and then analyze it toe up with a way to counter them. Now they could know about their enemy''s ns while they were in the middle ofing up with one. Or in other words, it was safe to say that the Automatons had be ''creatures'' who were over-analytical. Their enemies would still being up with one n and in the meantime, the automatons woulde up with at least ten ns to kick their as.ses using a n none of them would have even thought of. Arnold''s might wasn''t the only reason his empire was functioning without any problems. His intelligence yed a pretty major role in it as well. And Sonya was just about to realise that as Talos walked into the room. "I suggest you put your weapons down and we will get this over with right away. In an easy way, of course." Talos asked them to surrender, "We''ll just break a few bones here and there, thrash your ce while we are at it and call it a day. But that is if you do as you are told. But if you want to do it the hard way, then we can hunt your loved ones down, kill them, and thene to break you as well. It would be a long process but it would be fun, for us. The choice is yours to make." "Don''t waste your time here and go threaten someone else," Sonya yelled back at him. "We have seen the notification. None of the vassals or pdins can harm each other till the next round started. So your-" "Are you blind?" Talos said in his emotionless voice, "Do I look like any one of those to you?" "But you serve him-" "My master isn''t here, is he now? Neither is he aware of what I''m doing here, in the first ce." Talos voice was still as emotionless as before, the only difference was that Sonya and the others could feel the hostility in his voice for the first time, "So tell me how can you me someone for doing something if he wasn''t even there to do. So, I''m gonna ask you once again for thest time. How is it going to be? The easy way or the hard way?" Chapter 463 - Destruction Is Just A Hobby (4) "See, was it that hard?" Talos mumbled while wiping the Te''s blood off his hands, "Couple of punches here, couple of broken bones there, and your punishment is done. As fast as a quickie, in my opinion. However, if my master would have been here, then... it would be another case altogether." "Y-You did... what you had to... now leave!" Sonya eximed before spitting out a mouthful of blood while holding her stomach where Talos had kicked her. Talos did not like what he had to do here. But for the sake of the world, it was better to hurt some morons or not even the gods would have been able to save the humans from Arnold''s rage. But he wasn''t going to show them his real ''feelings'', what use would be the use of doing that? They were the ones who wanted to screw his master over despite knowing he could have had them erased from existence with just a snap of his fingers, and he wouldn''t even need someme gauntlet to do it. Frankly, Talos didn''t even know what kept going on inside the head of these pathetic humans anymore. His master had already killed a handful of demigods on his own and these morons still think it is a good idea to go against a man who does now even fear the gods? Either way, Sonya and her team''s destiny had already been determined. They were going to die. Not now, but soon. Because Arnold doesn''t forgive nor forgets about the ones who dared to wrong him in any way. As for their current punishment, it was far from over. There was one more thing Talos had to do. "Throw them all outside," Talos instructed the automatons as they dragged everyone in the building out, "I think this should be enough to quell master''s rage just a tad bit." It didn''t take more than a couple of minutes for Talos to have the entire guild building evacuated. Every single member of Sonya''s guild was forced on their knees in front of the building as Talos wanted to send a message to everyone out there. All for their sake, do not mess with Arnold Ling, the Deathless or else suffer in despair. "Light it up!" Talos yelled and the next moment everyone found the building zing as blue mes consumed the entire building, "Be d destruction is just a hobby for us, if it was a full-time job, none of you would be alive right now. Learn your lesson and never ever think of messing with us again. Or we wouldn''t be so lenient the next time we meet." Talos nodded his head and all of them were knocked out and left on the wintry street, with only the fire from the guild building giving them warmth. It was the first time the summons had to show Arnold''s powers to themoners of his empire and it was safe to say they made quite a spectacle. But more important than that, Talos managed to get the message through without any issues... They would stay humble as long as the citizens respected their leader. The citiznes were free to enjoy their freedom, no one would ever stop them from doing that. However, they would be struck down the moment they try to betray their emperor and after the sight, the people had just witnessed, they were not going to disobey Arnold for a long time. *** At the rainbow bridge surrounded by the infinite space, a handful of gods had gathered demanding an exnation from [The One who sees everything], Heimdall. He was made the moderator of this contest because he was known for his just nature and willingness to stand against the wrongdoers, no matter who they were. Talos'' actions sent the involved gods into a frenzy. Their vassals and pdins were hurt, mercilessly beaten and yet Arnold was not going to receive any kind of punishment? They could not allow that. They wanted justice as the sanctity of the war was interrupted. Everyone knew he was behind this attack and he should be rightfully punished for what he did. Standing at 7 foot tall, Heimdall, being one of the most patient gods to have ever been born, listened to everyone''sints one at a time while fidgeting with his horn which had the powers to summon the entire Norse Pantheon to his side if needed be. While guarding Asgard all by himself. His golden sword was by his side, ready to strike down anyone and everyone who dared to defile Asgard with their harmful intentions. Even though the gods were upset, they were mindful to watch their tone in front of the one also known as the guardian of the realms. It wasn''t because they were afraid of him, but they respected him too much to raise their voice in front of him. Still, all of them wanted Arnold to be punished for what ''he'' had done. However, Heimdall did not see the need to punish someone just because their followers did something. If that was the case, then he would have to start punishing the gods first, as their followers were often responsible to cause mass extinctions. He told them so as well. "Punishing a master for the misdeed of a disciple isn''t the way of the Norse gods." Heimdall finally broke his silence as his voice boomed all over Asgard, "If a disciple makes a mistake, it is the responsibility of the master to teach them and guide them to the right path. Shall he choose not to do so, I will certainly punish him then. But even if I did, the punishment wouldn''t be a harsh one." Heimdall''s reasoning indeed made sense. He was correct that the Master should not be punished for the wrongdoings of one disciple. However, what if the master was the one to instruct his disciple to break the rules? Since no gods could see what was going inside the void domain of a vassal, they were not aware of what Arnold had told Talos to do for him. They could only guess that Arnold had used Talos to exact revenge while keeping his hands clean. However, it was just a wild guess and Heimdall couldn''t punish someone because of a hunch. He didn''t operate like that. Thus the gods left Bifrost desiring revenge, which would nevere. Chapter 464 - You Should Be An Actor It didn''t take much time for Talos and the automatons to make their way back to Arnold. The news of the uproar they had caused in Italy had reached Arnold much before his summons did and it didn''t look like Arnold was in a good mood after hearing that news. When Talos saw his master, he looked angrier than he had been in some time. Talos was immediately concerned thinking something bad had happened and rushed by his master''s side. However, as soon as he got within Arnold''s reach, Arnold pped him so hard, Talos lost his bnce and fell to the ground. If a human had been on the receiving end of Arnold''s blow, their head would have been sent flying across the world. Thankfully, Talos was strong enough to take the blow. In fact, the shockwaves released following the p caused quite a ruckus in the sea around Cetus.. Everyone, human or summon stood stunned there. Talos was Arnold''s most loyal follower, no one knew what he could have possibly done to anger Arnold so much that he had to raise his hands on the automaton. Talos was an automaton, he couldn''t feel pain. One could tear him in half and he wouldn''t feel a thing but Arnold''s p... that hurt him. Not physically, but emotionally... or whatever he had in him. Just like everyone else, he too couldn''t think of a reason why Arnold was angry with him. maybe it was because he left Sonya and her team alive? That was the only reason that Talos thought would have made his master enraged. But how could have he kill the other contestants? Even if it was said vassals and pdins were banned from harming each other, Talos just couldn''t take the chance. What if the gods target Arnold regardless of the situation? He would have never been able to forgive himself if he became the cause of something like that. Maybe if he could talk with Arnold and make him understand, he might forgive him. However, it didn''t seem like Arnold was in a mood to talk to anyone at the moment. Not even to Talos. Just as Talos was about to speak, Arnold raised his hand. Signalling the automaton to remain silent. Talos immediately obeyed his master, but at the moment Talos read Arnold''s face and realised what was going on. After Talos had a good look at his face, Arnold began pacing back and forth in front of Talos, while thetter was kneeling before him, looking extremely apologetic. Arnold, on the other hand, appeared to be... tired of BS. The expression on his face was just like a parent who had been informed his offspring had done something bad at school. After a couple of minutes, Arnold appeared to have regained hisposure and took several deep breaths before speaking for the first time since Talos returned "Where were you?" Arnold sternly asked. "In Italy, master..." "May I ask what were you doing there? Or I don''t have the right to that anymore either?" "We went there to teach them a lesson for what they did to you," Talos replied without any remorse in his voice, "If I could travel in time, I would do it again. But this time there would be two Talos kicking their crap instead of one." Arnold pped him once again, "Did I ask you to do anything of the sort? Did I ask you to attack them?" "No, master..." "So you went ahead and did whatever you wanted without even consulting with me first?" "Yes... master. I thought it would be enough to quell your rage for not getting what you wanted." Arnold didn''t ask him anything else. He just stood there massaging his forehead, trying to control his rage. Or at least he wanted to show that he was. "Did you even gave a thought to what could have happened to me as a result of your actions?" Arnold yelled at Talos, "If anyone saw what you did, they would think I put you up to it just because I created you and you follow me. Did you even consider the remote possibility of the bacsh your actions could have done to me, to all of us?" "I apologize master. It wasn''t my intention to cause you even more distress." "Arnold, I think it''s enough. Talos knows what he did wrong, no need to keep bashing him in front of everybody." Nina arrived there and scolded her husband, "So just drop it already. I don''t know what those people did to you but I can vouch for one thing. Whatever Talos did was for your well-being. It wasn''t his intention to cause you harm. So drop it already." Nina''s words seemed to have calmed Arnold a bit, but he was still a bit pissed. He opened a portal leading to his domain before turning back towards Talos and his summons. "Get inside. I''ll decide your punishmentter." "As you wish, Master." *** Sometimeter, inside the domain. "I am so sorry, T." Arnold said as he rushed over to Talos, "Your parts are working alright?" "Yes master, you p wasn''t that powerful," Talos shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe you should train more." "You want me to p you again? I can do some repairs for you afterwards." "I''ll pass. Either way master, you should consider being an actor once all this dungeon and godhood drama dies. I know enough fools who would love to see you on the big screen." Everyone inside the domain was confused. Just a moment ago Arnold was ready to rip Talos'' head off with his violent ps and now the two of them were acting like long lost buddies. Just what the hell were they nning to do? Talos and Arnold looked at the confused face of the others and couldn''t help but cackle. They looked so lost in all the drama and had no idea that what happened earlier was all a part of the n. You see, moments before Talos'' arrival, system sama informed Arnold that [The One who sees everything] was carefully watching his next moves. That warning made Arnold realise that judging from what would happen next, the god could decide to punish him. Thus he decided to act like he wasn''t aware of anything Talos had done and didn''t approve of it either. That was the reason why Arnold acted so harshly. Talos was filled in with the n when he saw Arnold''s face and read it, just like the rest of the automatons did and decided to y along so they could fool the god together. And... their n worked! Arnold got a bit of revenge and wasn''t even punished for it. Not like they had grounds to punish him either way because he broke no rules. But those gods could do anything they liked just because they wanted to, so Arnold wasn''t taking any risks. "So, now that''s been taken care of, shall we get down to business?" Arnold rubbed his palms together. After the sess of his armour, he was itching to create even more weapons and gear. For him as well as his twopanions. After all, he had more than enough materials to do that and he was yet to open the second box of materials. Chapter 465 - Farewell, Nathaniel. Arnold had to put everything on hold for he had received terrible news. One of the closest people to his heart, had left the world to find peace in the most wonderful ce. Nathaniel ck was no longer in the mortal world with them. He had been struggling with old age for some time now and despite Arnold''s numerous attempts to help him out, Nathaniel refused. He didn''t want to live any longer than he absolutely had to and asked Arnold to give him thisst gift. So Arnold respected it and never brought up the topic of healing his dying body again. That was a year ago when Arnold met him for thest time and now while working on making new weapons, Arnold was informed... that Nathaniel had died of a heart attack. The entire nation of America was grieving the loss of a great leader, but most importantly, a great human. Just like anyone else, Nathaniel wasn''t perfect but Arnold was sure if there was someone who could have achieved that dream, it was that man. The news was expected, but still shocked everyone who heard it.. The day was dered to be the national day of mourning both in America and in Arnold''s empire. Arnold along with his family rushed over to America. Nina wanted to be with her family and Arnold wanted to support the cks in any way he could. After all, if it hadn''t been for them, he would have possibly achieved what he had now. The day of the funeral was the only day the cks didn''t wear ck, but white clothing. A lot of people came to give final respects to the man. It was said that the more people show up at someone''s funeral, the better the person was. Arnold didn''t know how true that statement was, but at that moment, he surely hoped it was true. Because on the day of the funeral, the cks had to open their door to more than two thousand people and these were just the people that had been close to Nathaniel. Arnold didn''t even have the slightest idea of how many more people were waiting for them at the funeral venue. Slowly, even those two thousand people left for the funeral site leaving only the ''real'' family behind. Minutester a hearse and 10 ck limos arrived at the mansion. The family filed into the vehicles while the drivers loaded the hearse with numerous ck roses. Nathaniel loved every flower, but roses were the closest to his heart. Arnold, Nathan, Johnny and Allen, the four ''brothers'' helped them while everyone started leaving. Arnold had never acknowledged Nathaniel as a father, but he was indeed a father figure for him. Nathaniel always guided him on the right path and if it hadn''t been for him, Arnold might have gotten drunk in his power like the other vassals and pdins. He was d Nathaniel was there to help him out when times were dark and his emotions towards Arnold didn''t change even after he left the family. Arnold was still considered as one of his ''sons''. Arnold had thought all his emotions regarding life and death had been nulled, but he was a bit sad at that moment when he saw both Nathan and Allen going on about as robots. Even though they knew it wasing, they still couldn''te to terms with the news and how could Arnold me them? They could have saved Nathaniel, but he had refused all treatments stating he wanted to live hisst days in peace. In the end, Nicole and Nina along with the rest of the people went to the funeral site, leaving The four of them along with thewyer. Usually, the will reading was done after the funeral but there was something thewyer had to inform them at the moment. "Nathaniel Dyre ck, wanted the four of you to be a part of his final journey." The old-lookingwyer spoke in a frail voice, "He wanted you to carry his casket, to his funeral site together." At that moment, Arnold realised that Nathaniel did consider them all as his sons. Thus he had given such an honourable responsibility to them. The four of them looked at each other and smiled wanly. Maybe it was the old man''s way to teach them thest lesson to all four of them, "Stay together, even after his death". Or maybe they were thinking too much into it. "You should go to the site. We''ll be there soon." Arnold smiled at the oldwyer and helped him to a car before returning, "I hope you guys can walk fast." Everyone nodded before lifting the casket on their shoulders, with Allen and Nathan leading the pack. They were superhumans and using their enhanced agility managed to arrive at the site just as Nina and the others pulled over. Well, there was a ginormous crowd of almost ten thousand people had gathered there. All of the elite families, delegates from all over the globe and countless others were there to pay their respects to Nathaniel. It was truly a wonderful sight. Everyone shared their stories about Nathaniel with them and soon enough, it was Arnold''s turn to do so. He got on the stage and people held their breaths. Everyone wanted to know about the memories the strongest among them had to share about Nathaniel. But they weren''t expecting much because of his usual cold demeanour. "Nathaniel was someone I used to look up to. Someone I would have followed to hell. He was the type of man I could brag about knowing for the better part of my life." Arnold began his speech, "Someone to learn from and respect to. He was everything I dream of bing one day. A kind and gentle soul who wee two orphans with open arms not once thinking about what others would say. Today, I can proudly say, he is the reason I am who I am. Even when everyone turned against me, he was still by my side." He continued, "But I am not the only one who was affected by his greatness. If I was, then there wouldn''t be so many people present here in this beautiful garden paying respects to the man they all loved and cared about. He taught me many things but I think most importantly he gave me the ability to know that if you really put your mind to something, anything is possible. Like a weak and frail-looking porter to be the world''s strongest warrior. On behalf of the cks, I would like to thank all of you who came to see Nathaniel off, for onest time. I know he would be more than happy to read your minds right about now and assure you that he had a st living among you people." It looked like Arnold had more to talk about, but decided to keep some secrets to himself. Arnold''s words were simple and yet it was one of the most heartfelt eulogies anyone had ever heard. Following Arnold''s speech, Allen was thest to deliver his thanks to Nathaniel promising him that he would be a better man, a man he could have been proud of. After that, Nathaniel was cremated just like he had wished for and his ashes were spread across the mansion as per their tradition. In his memory, Arnold a sapling of life there, just like had on top of Cetus. It was Arnold''s way to assure that Nathaniel would stay undisturbed from evil bast.ards and he would have a ce to return to. Chapter 466 - Lets Have Some Fun, Shall We? (1) A couple of days passed since Nathaniel''s funeral, Arnold decided it was for the best that Nina stayed there for a while. Right now, the family needed to stay together. Arnold left a few of his summons to protect Nina and the rest of the family although it wasn''t necessary. After all, he had nted one of the saplings there so it should be safe for the family. Now he only had one sapling left and he had decided it wasn''t the right time to use it. He was strong, but he was definitely not the strongest in the universe. Who knows when he might need to protect himself too. Thus it was better to keep thest sapling in his inventory for now. After ensuring the safety of the family, Arnold decided to head back into his domain. He had a lot of weapons to forge and thus, another session of hammering began in the forge. Just like celestial silver, celestial gold was a highly vtile material to work with. Just one mistake was more than enough to blow the domain to smithereens. Not like Arnold cared about that, he would just expand his domain even more to minimize the loss.. His summons would resurrect over time and he would repair the automaton by himself too. As for him, his abilities were more than enough to protect him. Still, doing all that would be a hassle so he had left the precision work for Dani to do. While she was working on the gold, Arnold decided to use the leftover titanium as well. Tiamut and he, both already had armours that could take enough beating from a god. But Talos didn''t. Even though the armour he currently had was pretty sturdy and might be enough to take a beating, Arnold decided it was for the best to reinforce it as well. Thus, while Dani worked on the weapons, Arnold decided to work on Talos'' new armour. Arnold also chose Dani to work, because he wanted to test her skills first hand and see if she was really that special or the Adamantine golem was just a lucky invention. Arnold shaped Talos'' new armour and was waiting for it to cool down now so that he could begin another hammering session. Arnold was finished with his work but Dani wasn''t. It was given since her task was more delicate than Arnold''s. "Hmm... I can''t so much before Dani is finished doing her part." Arnold mumbled as he walked out of the forge, "If she could create anything as amazing as the golem, then she would be one of my most important summons, but if she couldn''t... well, even then she could help me with other things. Hm... but what should I do in the meantime?" While he was thinking this, he heard an uproar from the outside. As usual, he rushed over to see a familiar sight. His summons were once again indulged in sparring just like the old times. It was the same scenario, yet a lot of things were different. His summons were stronger, faster and could take down entire armies of gods. Grock and Tiamut were the most explosive ones. In fact, no one was around them, the way they were exchanging blows after blows, sounded like thunder in the skies. But they weren''t alone. Talos was taking on Asterios and Dread by himself. While the rest of them patiently waited for their turn. It appeared that everyone wanted to test Tiamut''s and Talos'' strengths after they cleared the Dwarven dungeon. So far, despite the odds, Talos and Tiamut were handling themselves pretty well. It didn''t look like the relentless strikes of his summons could even make them sweat. "Ahem, you people mind if I join in?" Arnold smiled before walking up to Talos and Tiamut, "As fun as it is to see the two of you kick, their as.sess over and over, I thought it might be more fun if you were on the receiving end of it as well. What do you people think?" "Can''t say it wouldn''t be fun," Asterios spoke in his hoarse voice. The others agreed as well. Talos and Tiamut had beaten the hell out of them and it would be fun to see them receive the same treatment for once as well. Arnold gave them all a smile and told them to back up a bit before turning towards his opponents. "I won''t be using my armour so that you two couldnd a couple of hits on me as well." Arnold pointed his hand towards them, provoking them, "But I would be going all out so you might try not to get destroyed soon." Talos and Tiamut did not waste any time and immediately charged in. As Tiamut approached Arnold, she began to grow bigger and bigger till she became thrice as big as Arnold. It seemed she had learned a new skill from one of the scrolls Arnold had given to her. It was a nice surprise. Talos on the other hand had gotten more agile. Even Arnold had to seriously focus to be aware of his movements. He started the sparring session because he had nothing else to do, but now, his boredom had led to something very satisfying. Tiamut raised her arms over the head, perhaps intending to use momentum to her advantage. Just as she mmed her hands on Arnold, he raised his arm cleanly blocking her strike. He might have blocked her attack, but the others weren''t so lucky. The shockwave released from the attack sent the summons around them rolling away. Till now they thought Tiamut and Talos were fighting with their true strength, however, it was far from true. Had they used their full strength, the rest of the summons wouldn''t have stood a chance against them and probably would have ended up getting destroyed. Maybe that was the reason the two of them were holding back against the others. But while facing Arnold, they didn''t need to do anything like that. If it was him, they could test their true strength without any fear of harming anyone. However, it was the same for Arnold as well. He no longer had to keep his strength in check before wrecking them. He grabbed Tiamut''s arm and mmed her on top of Talos who was about to kick Arnold from behind. They were sent flying to the other side of the domain as the rest of the summons watched them fight in awe. The rest of his elite summons had never been as jealous of anyone as they were now. Even though Talos and Tiamut were being thrashed, it still looked fun to them. "Looks like you two are not being serious enough." Arnold shook his head and smiled, "Maybe I should tone it down a bit after all. How about I use only one arm to fight you guys?" "No need, master." Talos replied before getting back up, "We will get serious now. Won''t we, Tiamut?" "Absolutely!" Tiamut grabbed his hand to lift herself up before transforming into her three-headed dragon form, "Let''s see if you feel the need to hold back now, master." Even her dragon form looked bigger than thest time Arnold remembered. Meanwhile, Talos brought out the Vindicators, to show he too was being serious now. Seeing the two of them all fired up, made Arnold even more excited. "Let''s Have Some Fun, Shall we?" Chapter 467 - Lets Have Some Fun, Shall We? (2) Arnold was expecting Tiamut to engage first. However, to his surprise, Tiamut decided to stay back while Talos charged at him. Talos was usually the calm one and tried to gain as much information about the enemy as he could before engaging. That was the reason, Talos rarely ever actively engaged in a battle unless he absolutely had to. Maybe they knew Arnold would be expecting something like that, thus they decided to change the script and let Talos attack while Tiamut backed him up. Talos did not waste any time and aimed at Arnold''s head. In the following moment, Arnold found himself in the middle of a barrage of bullets. But to everyone''s surprise, he didn''t even bother to dodge the bullets. He just stood there, grabbing the bullets using his new Adamantine arm. As for the ones he couldn''t catch, they were stopped by his mana shield. Talos was dumbfounded. He had hoped at least one of the bullets would get through Arnold''s defence but he was wrong to underestimate his master. After all, he was still a rank above him.. "What are you cking off for?" The next second Arnold disappeared from Talos'' sight and reappeared behind him. It all happened so quickly the others couldn''t even see what was happening. Talos on the other hand could see what happened however, his metallic body wasn''t able to react as fast as he had perceived Arnold. The next moment, Arnold punched Talos with half of the strength of his bionic arm. Because 100% would have been too much to handle, even for Talos. ''Once I''m done with his armour, I just might test the full output of my arm. But for now, let''s stick to 50%.'' Talos tried to dodge the iing fist, he was toote. The next moment he was sent flying to the other side. However, hended straight back on his feet and dug his fingers deep into the floor to decelerate himself, before charging right back in. Thus began the contest of who could punch whom the fastest. They were throwing punches at such an insane rate that both Talos'' and Arnold''s arms disappeared from sight. Thus, to the summons, it appeared they were standing still. Tiamut was an exception to this because of her ascension to Cosmic SS rank, she was able to perceive things easier than the rest of them. ''Hold on just for a tad bit longer Talos...'' Tiamut thought to herself while she chanted to make her next move seed. This was the second and final ability she had learned with the help of the scrolls Arnold had given her. It was also, currently the most dangerous move in her arsenal. However, the only problem was the long chant that needed to be performed before using the destructive spell. Talos was well aware of this, and hence took the charge against Arnold. It was to make sure Arnold was distracted for long enough for Tiamut to finish her chant and attack him. But even with that, Talos did not think even for one second they would be able to win against Arnold. The man was too strong and unpredictable. Also, it would have been foolish of him to think Arnold would just stand there and do nothing about the attack. However, the only thing Talos could do was to make sure Arnold is distracted even if Arnold managed to uncover their n. In the meantime, Arnold''s blows were getting stronger and relentless. The more Talos was able to take his beating, the more Arnold increased the output of the arm. What started at 50% was now at 56% and it seemed that was the breaking point of Talos. Arnold was afraid if he increased the power by even 0.1%, Talos might not be able to take his strikes anymore. Talos tried firing his guns at close range, but before he could even pull the trigger, the guns were snatched from his grasp and thrown away. "You depend too much on your guns." Arnold said while dodging Talos'' punch, "We don''t know what kind of enemies we would have to face in the duels, so it is better for you to expand your arsenal. Learn a lot of different battle styles and use them to create something new. A battle style only you can truly master." "Create something new you say," Talos voice was as emotionless as it had ever been, but still Arnold felt a tinge of smugness in his voice, "How about deception?" "You mean her?" Arnold pointed his thumb towards Tiamut, "You think you''re the only ones capable of reading faces? I have known about your n, even before she started chanting." "Hm... I thought I had you fooled." Talos replied as all three of Tiamut''s mouths started shining simultaneously, "I guess not." "It is a good move. No gonna lie about that. It can destroy everyone here, maybe even me. The match is over because I''m gonna put my armour on. In the meantime, you should step aside while you can." Arnold smirked at the next second, he had the Adamantine armour wrapped around him, "As for me, it is the precise time for me to test out the armour." There was no warning, nothing at all as Tiamut fired three beams of concentrated energy right towards Arnold. Arnold steeled his defense and gave system sama onemand. If his armour was to break, then immediately activate his defence abilities. He did not want to take any chances with his life at the moment. The dark domain was illuminated by the golden energy beams as the merged into one and turned red. Arnold was waiting for the beam to collide with him but not everything in life goes ording to n. While they were fighting outside, Dina hadpleted making the weapon Arnold had wanted her to. She was so excited after making it that she couldn''t wait to get Arnold''s approval. As a result, she rushed right outside the forge and when she saw Arnold in his armour, she couldn''t resist and ran over to him. But unlike the others, she didn''t know what was going on there and the moment she realised that... it was already toote. She got hit by the attack that was meant for Arnold and sure enough what followed next was a notification from System sama. __ Your summon had been destroyed. Time for resurrection: 30 minutes. __ No one knew wether they shouldugh right there, or wait till they were alone? Just how unlucky or blind one had to be so that they couldn''t see just a bright beam of energy? "Great. Just great." Arnold shook his head. Chapter 468 - Acknowledge "You''re blind?" Arnold asked Dani while scratching his temple, "What the hell are those eyes for then?" "I am not blind!!!" The midget dwarf threw a fit, "It''s a condition I suffer through. After working in the forge for more than 6 hours, my vision gets limited. As a result, I can only see the things in front of me and not sideways." "Ah... so that''s why you could see me and not Tiamut or her attack. As weird as it is, it kind of makes sense, hu... huhu-" Arnold tried to stop, but couldn''t hold himself back and startedughing again. He wasn''t alone either.. Soon all of his summons wereughing as well. No matter how much they tried, they could not get the image of an uncaring, free-spirited Dani being blown up by Tiamut''s attack. It was simply too funny for them to control themselves. "You better stopughing or else I will stop forging weapons for you delinquents!!!" Dani screamed so loud that even her face turned red. She did not have any right to stop Arnold fromughing, after all, he was her master. However, she did not have any problems in rebuking the others. As she was just bound to serving Arnold and not the rest of his army. If she was helping them by making weapons for them, it was due to kindness... Or so she hoped everyone to believe. In reality, if Arnold ordered her to make a weapon for someone, she would have to do it because it was her master''s wish. But even then, she could refuse the request from the others if Arnold didn''t intervene. However, her screaming voice seemed to have pickedbArnold''s attention and he raised his hands to make everyone stopughing at her. It looked like it would take some time for his newest summon to adjust to the environment they lived in. He then turned towards Alice and nodded. She immediately understood what Arnold was asking of her and took Dani back inside while the others stayed there. Arnold knew his summons had no bad intention whileughing at Dani. Even heughed at her reaction but maybe Dani, being a dwarf, didn''t know what humour was. "You guys can continue sparring." Arnold instructed his summons before rushing inside, "Woah, I certainly didn''t expect her to react this way. Well, I guess we took it too far this time. However, thanks to this incident at least I got to know about her eyesight problem. Let''s see if Alice can help her out not. If she couldn''t, well then I''ll have to do something myself." *** A few momentster Arnold entered the forge once again and saw Dani hard at work. Alice was by her side and appeared to be using some kind of ability on her. Arnold did not disturb them and stood quietly at the entrance of the and watched the two of them work. "How do you feel now?" Alice asked Dani. "It''s good, I can see without any issues," Dani replied in her chirpy voice. Arnold could sense her happiness from all the way where he was standing. He was d Dani was doing good, but they were on a clock. He had to make sure whether Dani managed to create a sword for Tiamut or not. He decided to go in and ask her about it and Dani was more than obliged to show him the result of her hard work. Dani handed the golden longsword to Arnold with a smug look on her face. She had poured her heart and soul into making this weapon and made sure it would be one of the best swords his master had ever wielded. She tried hard to unravel the emotionless face of Arnold while he absentmindedly swung the sword. However, she couldn''t do it. No matter how many times she tried, she couldn''t get a hold of what Arnold was thinking. Her anxiety shot through the roof. She had imbued the entire thing with mana, making it the perfect weapon to cause both physical and magical damage and yet she did not get praised for her efforts. ''Maybe master is speechless from my craftsmanship.'' The smug look on her face reappeared as she thought of that. "It''s good." Arnold finally said, "However, it could have been better." "What!?" Dani could not believe it, her masterpiece was not good enough for her master? "Don''t take it the wrong way. You made it much better than I thought you could. However, I have a secret weapon and that would give me an edge over your creativity." Arnold smiled and used Enhancement on the sword. The following moment, the sword suddenly started glowing. By the time the bright light faded away, Arnold was holding apletely different sword. The de of the sword was no longer golden as it was before by crimson as if it had been bleached with blood. Even the handle of the swords had changed and was now shaped like a three-headed dragon. All three heads were perfectly wrapped around Arnold''s arm. "What do you think about this?" Arnold handed the weapon back to Dani and smiled. What Dani did with the materials he had given her, was praiseworthy indeed. However, if Arnold was to praise her for everything she created, she might end up losing her motivation to create something better than she did before and would getcent. Honestly, it would have been a shame to see her go down that path thus, rather than praising her directly, he showed her something that would drive her motivated side to keep forging weapons until he was forced to recognise her worth. "H-How did you do it? The stats on this item... they are unlike anything I have ever seen!" Dani''s eyes were shining like the brightest stars in the universe, "Master! Master! Teach me the trick!!!" "I will teach it to you when I think you deserve it." Arnold smiled and patted her head, "Till then, keep working hard and create something even I can''t. Once you do that, I''ll tell you anything you would ask of me. Do we have a deal?" "Yes, master! I promise I will force you to acknowledge my work!" Dani excitedly punched the air after handing the sword back to Arnold. "I''ll look forward to it then!" Chapter 469 - Shocking The Gods (1) A week passed and there wasn''t a single day where Arnold did not spar with Tiamut and Talos. Arnold had also finished building their gears and they were testing it out on each other. Thanks to the reinforced armour Arnold had made for Talos, Arnold was now able to use his fists at 85% of its full strength. Which in Arnold''s eyes was more than enough as he did not expect them to fight anyone who was even as strong as that. Call it arrogance or overconfidence, but even System sama had to concur to that fact. If there was someone even as strong as Arnold they would have already gotten to know about them. As for what Johnny and Nicole were doing during this time... they too were exchanging fists trying to prepare for the next round. They had invited Arnold over too, but he was better off fighting someone close to his level. After all, both Nicole and Johnny were only at Cosmic S and Cosmic A levels respectively. Sparring with them would be like sparring with a punching bag.. Arnold would be the only one dealing the punches and never receiving one in return. Thus he had to decline their offer. But he was kind enough to send Asterios and Natasha over to help them train. After all, even though it was only for thepetition, he still didn''t want them to suffer. As for the rest of the summons, Arnold had to force them to stay away. It was because he didn''t want any one of them to identally get destroyed while the three of them were sparring seriously. Thanks to all the sparring they have been doing, Arnold could no longer afford to fight them without his armour on. He was afraid that fighting them without the armour on might necessarily trigger his defensive abilities and go under cooldown especially when he was trying to save them for thepetition. Also, after Zeus would see the surprise Arnold had made for him, he would certainly do something underhanded as usual to kill him. Thus, Arnold was saving his skills for that moment alone. As for his armour, it was taking all-out hits by Talos and Tiamut and not once had they even be able to as much as put a dent on the armour. Then there was the sword Arnold had given to Tiamut. It was safe to say that doing so wasn''t a good idea. Giving her the sword was equivalent to letting a newborn be in charge of taking care of nukes. She had gotten so excited and careless at one point that she almost destroyed the forge itself. Arnold had to force her into submission before she got a hold of herself. As for Talos, in addition to the armour received a new and improved version of the Vindicator and a crapton of god ying bullets. Arnold also used enhancement on both of them regrly and although he did not manage to increase their ranks, he managed to upgrade their stats by almost 30%, which was a huge amount especially considering how strong they already were. "Alright, that''s enough for today." Arnold called an end to their sparring session, "We''ll continue tomorrow again." "Come on! One more round!" Tiamut enthusiastically roared while swinging her sword. "Do you want me to take away the sword again?" "No! I got it. No more sparring for the day." Tiamut immediately hid the sword behind her back. "That''s better." However, before Arnold could say anything else, a notification popped up in front of him. His lips curved as he read the contents. However, he wasn''t the only one to receive that notification. 64 contestants from over sevens received that same notification too. "It''s about da.mn time." Arnold''s smiled widened even more, "Looks like the watcher was waiting for us to get done with our training." __ Honourary Vassal, Greetings! It is my pleasure to invite you to the final round of the grand event known as ''War of the Worlds''. There would be six rounds of battles. But before we get into that, let''s discuss the division of the contestants first. The vassals and pdins would be divided based on their ranks into 8 different groups. Each group would contain 8 vassals/pdins. All of these 8 contestants would have to battle the other contestants of the same group. After all the possible battles are over, the top 4 contestants of each group will proceed to the next round while the rest would have to either die or surrender to the ones who bested them. This sequence will continue till only 8 contestants are left. From then on the true knockout tournament will start. In quarterfinals, the contestants would have to face their opponents and the winner will proceed to the next round while the user will once again have to either ept death or surrender, hence acknowledging the other contestant as their master. However, these ves would not be allowed to intervene in the battle and their ownership will transfer in case their master is either killed or defeated by someone else. With that being said, each contestant is allowed to bring two consorts with them. These consorts can aid their master in battle, however, each consort can only aid their master once per round. I hope you all have prepared well, as the round will start in: 48 Earth hours. Best wishes, [The One who sees Everything]. P.S. All participants are requested to use their tokens to confirm participation in the next round as soon as possible. __ Arnold did not waste a moment and ced the token on the weird-looking circr seal. __ Invitation epted. Please be ready at the above mentioned time for departure. __ "Looks like we will be training after all." Arnold looked at Tiamut and nodded. He had 48 hours ording to the time out of his domain. That meant, while inside the domain, he had six days to do his final preparations. It wasn''t like he had much preparation left to do either way, other than to spar and rest. Chapter 470 - Shocking The Gods (2) Time flew faster than it ever had, and this time Arnold had to tell Nina what had been going on till now. As if things were to go south, it might have been thest time he would ever see his family and he wanted to tell her everything. Although the probability of something bad happening to him was really low, it was still there. Nina took the news as good as anyone else could have. At first, she didn''t believe Arnold, but as he kept telling them about the gods and their little game, somehow everything made sense. The dungeons, the superhuman powers, everything. The more Arnold talked about it, the more upset she got. But she also knew what Arnold had done and was doing, was all for the welfare of the world and most importantly the security of their own. However, as Arnold was telling her the tales, her warrior side kicked in and she too wanted to apany him for this crazy event. It goes without saying, Arnold quickly shot her down. He wasn''t going to take his wife into the lion''s den. No way in hell he would ever agree to something like that.. He hugged her, waiting for her to calm down, and she eventually did. All this information and knowing Arnold had been secretly fighting against the gods, made her overwhelmed with emotions. "Now I know why you weren''t surprised when Hercules came to kill you..." Nina smiled wanly, "Do you absolutely have to go?" "I need to put an end to this once and for all." Arnold said before kissing her forehead, "I can''t let them y these games anymore, and this is the perfect time to stop them." Nina nodded and buried her face in his chest. She was strong so she wasn''t going to cry. But she was on the edge of doing so. Just then Orco ran up to them and hugged Arnold''s thigh, Aiden slowly crawling behind him.Their smiles solidified Arnold''s decision even more. He had to do this. For the sake of his family. "There are my strong sons." Arnold smiled before lifting both of them in his arms, "What game are you ying today?" "Tag!" Orco eximed with joy waving his paper sword, "With sword!" "Oh my, that''s wonderful! Can you help me with something?" "Anything!" "Protect your mom and little brother while I''m gone, okay?" "I will!" "That''s my boy." He gave a kiss to both of them on their cheeks and let them go to y before walking outside with Nina. Arnold''s entire army was out there. Since he was only taking Talos and Tiamut with him, he had decided to leave everyone else to protect his family. He was sure that those bast.ardly gods would try something underhanded to distract him and harming his family would have been perfect to do so. However, as long as they were under the protection of the sampling they would be fine, the rest of his army was there for reassurance and nothing else. Outside, a portal was already waiting for him. However, right now it was inactive because they were informed to enter the portal only when their name was announced. Both Johnny and Nina had already gone through their respective portals and now was his turn. [It''s time.] "Alright." Arnold turned around to tell Nina one more thing but it was as if she already read his mind. "I know. I won''t let anyone go outside the tree''s protection. Stop thinking about us and go kick some as.s." Arnold smiled and dawned his armour on. With Talos and Tiamut right behind him. However, they weren''t alone. Arnold had a leash with him as well. A leash that was supposed to keep his ''pet'' in check. Hercules was on his knees walking like a dog behind Arnold as they disappeared inside the portal. "This should be fun." *** On the other side of the portal, the contestant who had arrived there were having a hard time not passing out. Hundreds of gods were present there and their collective aura was making it very difficult for them to even stand. Seeing all these gods together was super overwhelming, to say the least. After all, they were an existence no mortal was supposed to interact with and even Nicole who was ranked at Cosmic S couldn''t help but feel uneasy. It was dark, but the stage was clearly visible to them as they were standing on it. The stage was a huge circr piece of floatingndmass having even smaller floating inds around it. Each portal had lead them to the central ind while the gods were seated in their hovering thrones. The location gave a colosseum vibe, and it was perfect because they were fighting for their lives and freedom but most importantly they were fighting for the entertainment of the gods. Earth was ranked as the fourth among the sevens after the first round and hence contestants from only threes had arrived there before Nicole and others joined the stage. Now, they were waiting for Arnold to arrive there so that they could proceed with the nexts. ''Most of them have brought at least onepanion and here I am with not even one...'' Nicole thought to herself and Donna immediately replied to her. ''They brought additional support because they don''t trust their own strength.'' She said, ''You, on the other hand, are more than enough to kill anyone of them with a snap of your fingers.'' ''Still... I''m thinking I should have taken Arnold''s advice and took a couple of his summons to help me out.'' While Nicole was busy debating with Donna, a portal opened up next to her and she could feel Arnold''s auraing out of the portal. However, she wasn''t the only one who could feel himing. The gods could feel him too because the aura he was intentionally leaking, wasn''t any smaller than theirs. In fact, it easily overpowered most of their auras. But this was just the beginning of his grand entrance.Just like many times before, Heimdall got up to announce the arrival of the new contestant. "And now, please wee the Vassal who singlehandedly destroyed the world tree. The vassal, who topped the rankings with nothing but his sheer will. The Vassal chosen by the Immortal one, Arnold Ling!" Arnold walked out of the portal just as Heimdall was finished making the announcement and it was an understatement to say that the gods were shocked to see him. Firstly they saw his ck adamantine armour, a treasure even the gods had a hard time obtaining, but this mortal had an entire armour made out of it? How was that even possible!? While they were trying to get over that shock, they were shocked again to see who Arnold had brought as hispanions. Tiamut walked out of the portal next and stood right behind Arnold like a loyal servant. Just seeing a demigod serving a mortal made the gods a bit wary of Arnold. But no one was expecting what was going to happen next. They didn''t recognise Talos so there was not much of a reaction when he walked out of the portal. However, the gods stood up in shock the moment they saw who was at the end of the leash the Automaton was carrying. It was Hercules! But he was being treated like a dog... All of the gods immediately turned towards the one Arnold was clearly trying to mock, Zeus. To say that the greek god was seething would be an understatement. But Arnold didn''t mind it at all, because he was getting a ton of coins from the gods and the event was yet to start. "He just had to do that..." Shiva smiled while shaking his head, "This is going to be quite an interesting event." Chapter 471 - Remember The Name (1) Arnold''s wildly leaking aura brought a sense of relief to the ones present on the stage. As along with his presence, the aura his summons were leaking, helped to push the godly aura back a bit. Soon the gods realised it was futile to try and suppress him so most of them withdrew their aura back. Except for some stubborn ones who still wanted to ''show'' the mortal his ''ce''. Arnold paid no heed to them. If he wanted, he could open his suit and that would have been sufficient to show the gods who exactly was the boss there. However, he decided not to as it seemed like his n of humiliating Zeus worked even better than he had expected. Zeus could not hold his rage in after seeing Hercules and quickly got up from his seat before yelling at Heimdall. "Are you going to turn a blind eye on this too?" Zeus'' thunderous voice roared over the colosseum, "Keeping the tant disrespect aside, howe that mortal is allowed to have threepanions?" A few other gods nodded in agreement. ording to the rules, each participant was only allowed to bring twopanions at most. Arnold, however, had brought three which could be considered a ground for a penalty even after keeping the tant disrespect to the rules of the tournament aside. . "Yes yes, My lordship is right. How can a mortal disrespect the rules? He should be penalised so that dissuades anyone else from doing the same ever again." Hermes joined in to help Zeus out, after all, both of them shared a mutual hatred for Arnold and now was the time to deal as much damage to him as they could. Soon all of the gods started whispering amongst themselves as Shiva kept quiet knowing fully well that Arnold had not broken a single rule that they hade up with. Whatever he was doing could have been done by anyone else, that is if they were aware of the loophole. In fact, if anything, they should be thanking him for not bringing his entire army there because even if he had, none of them would have been able to do crap about it apart from just sulking around. As seconds turned into minutes, things got pretty heated. Also, the dramatic and ''threatening'' entry that Arnold made seemed to have to put quite a few gods on edge. However, there was also an overwhelming number of supporters for him. One of the prominent ones being the queen of Olympus herself. It had been clear to everyone that Queen Hera did not like the king and was only tolerating him for the sake of peace. But now it looked like they no longer cared about the image of their pantheon. But then again, all of them were also aware of her hatred towards Zeus'' illicit children. Hercules, being one of the most troublesome ones amongst them. Thus it was a surprise to no one that she was supporting the one who defeated Hercules. The gods might have gathered there for entertainment, but it was the contestants who were getting the most entertainment watching the gods quarrel amongst themselves. Although none of the contestants dared to say anything, it was clear that they were having quite some fun there. Arnold just stood there smiling like an idiot, however, thanks to the visor in his helmet, no one could see him doing so. Seeing the panicked faces of the gods gave him all the confirmation he needed. The Gods were afraid of him, or more likely what he would be in the near future. In fact, Arnold was shocked that Zeus did not try to attack him by now. He thought the moment he saw his son being treated like a dog, he would lose his temper and try to kill him. ''I guess he is not as big of an idiot as I thought he was. Still, it''s too early to test his limits. After all, I''m sure I''ll get a lot of chances to agitate him even more in the near future.'' Arnold thought to himself, ''For now, I should probably focus onpleting the ascension quest.'' __ Complete the following task before/during event takes ce. ? Kill 10 Pdins ? Kill 5 Vassals ? Kill 3 Demigods [ PROGRESS ] : ? 1/10 Pdins killed ? 1/5 Vassals killed ? 3/3 Demigods killed __ Arnold used probe on all of the contestants present there. He was a bit surprised by their levels and ranks. It was clear that they had been doing a lot of hard work because not only the vassals, some pdins were higher ranked than Sonya and her team. Even though Arnold was nning to kill them either way, he couldn''t help but feel a bit sad about it at the same time. Judging by the levels of the others, he wondered if he would even get a chance to fight Sonya and her team if they weren''t ced in the same starting group. After all, they were one of the weakest participants there. Back with the gods, things slowly started to get out of his hands as Heimdall mmed his sword hard on the floor to silence them all. As the moderator of the contest, it didn''t matter whether what the gods thought. His decision was ultimate in matters concerning the event. "I will suggest you keep your opinions to yourself." Heimdall shot a sharp re at Zeus, "I will see what can be done here." Heimdall then turned towards Arnold and asked one question, "What do you consider Hercules as, Vassal of the Immortal one?" Arnold knew exactly where Heimdall was trying to go with his question and he wasted no time in giving him the answer that would have cleared everything, "A pet, your lordship. Nothing more, nothing less." Upon hearing Arnold''s reply, all of the gods realised what was going on. But his reply enraged Zeus even more. This mortal bast.ard dared to call his son a pet? Thunder started crackling around Zeus but even he knew acting out there would do him more harm than good. "I see." Heimdall nodded, "If that''s the case there is nothing we can do to stop a pet from entering the contest alongside his master. There are nows that forbid the contestants to bring pets with them, nor are there any rules that decided the number of pets that can participate in the raid. Thus, the charges against Arnold Ling is found to be false!" Chapter 472 - Remember The Name (2) Everyone was surprised to hear Heimdall''s deration. But as much as they were surprised they were also shocked to see how Arnold had managed to exploit a loophole even they didn''t know existed. For that, he had earned some respect from the gods... that was except Zeus and a few others. "This bast.ard..." Zeus was seething with unadulterated rage. Hercules was one of his favourite children and seeing him reduced to the state of a mere dog was both infuriating and shameful at the same time. After all, Hercules was someone even full-fledged gods had to think twice before going against and yet not only this mortal was able to defeat him, he had also turned him into a pet.. His rage was already on the verge of clouding his ability to rationalise things when he looked at Arnold. At the same time, Arnold looked towards the thundering god as well. Arnold even took the visor off just so he could wink at Zeus. Zeus suddenly started hyperventting. This mortal had the audacity to mess with his son and then wink at him? Did he dare to continually disrespect him over and over again? It was time to give the man a lesson to never mess with him. Arnold had struck his family, so Zeus would do the same. *** At the same time, a thunderstorm like the earth had never seen before formed over the ck mansion, where Nina was currently staying with her family till Arnold returned. She looked out of the window and saw the ominous dark clouds making their way towards them. Soon the windows started to shake under the pressure of the sudden disastrous winds. This wasn''t normal. "Alice, get the boys please..." Nina mumbled as she rushed to get her parents. Everything was happening just like Arnold had said it would. Nina now realised the extent of the powers of the ones Arnold was facing. It was no wonder he was worried about her safety. She brought everyone there. None of them could believe the size of the sudden storm. Suddenly the clouds began growling as if their mere existence enraged it. Nina pulled her sons close to her chest as there was a blinding sh outside. However, the lightning wasn''t the only thing glowing there. The sky was torn in half from the noise of the lightning strike. Everyone grabbed whoever they could while Arnold''s summons were keeping a watch over them. As soon as a single strand of thunder was about to strike the mansion, the sapling Nina had nted in the garden shone as well. The next moment, the sapling had turned into a brand new tree. Its canopy touched the stormy sky and spread across the thundering clouds. The wide canopy of the tree saved the mansion and the people inside from the lightning strike of Zeus. There wasn''t a single scratch on the surface of the tree. No burn marks, nothing at all. It was as if Zeus'' strike got absorbed by the tree. Everyone soon let go of the ones they were hanging on to. They were safe. The sapling had saved them all. *** Talos'' eyes were fixed on the god of thunders. He might have been a god, but his face was easier to read than that of Arnold. In fact, Zeus was like an open book to him. Talos knew what Zeus had just tried to do and how miserably he failed. As the participants from the other worlds were arriving at the stage, Talos leaned in towards his master and informed him of what Zeus had just tried to do. Arnold had expected Zeus to do something like that, but it made him angry nheless. "Are you sure?" Arnold mumbled back. He had to make sure that Talos was not mistaken before doing something. "I swear upon my loyalty, master." Talos replied in a diligent tone, "He had tried to harmdy Nina and the young masters. However, the sapling you had, haddy Nina nt in the garden saved them all." Arnold let out a sigh of relief before extending his arm towards Talos. Talos understood what his master wanted and handed him the Hercules'' leash. He gave a quick look over to Zeus to make sure he was seeing him. ''An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'' Arnold sharply pulled the leash so that Hercules was right in front of him. The sudden movement had drawn all the attention on him. The gods wanted to see what was he nning to do now and just as they turned their sights on him, Arnold kicked Hercules right across his face. Everyone gasped as Hercule''s lower jaw flew out of his mouth. It seemed like Arnold did not hold back at all before kicking the demigod right across the face. No one could believe what he had done just now. At the same time, they finally realised Arnold wasn''t just bluffing when he said Hercules was his pet... However, this reckless move was exactly what pushed Zeus over the limit of his patience. Arnold had just crossed the line and it didn''t matter what the Immortal one would do to him anymore, he would kill his bast.ard of a Vassal. Suddenly Zeus'' eyes and hair started glowing while his body started floating in the air. Continuous loud crackling voices could be hearding from his direction. His eyes were fixated on Arnold as lightning gathered in his hand. Lord Nandi realised what Zeus was doing and rushed over to protect Arnold, but before he could take more than a couple of steps, Shiva stopped him. This wasn''t their battle to intervene in. "But my lord-" Nandi was getting frantic but Shiva simply smiled as he usually did. "Just wait and watch," Shiva told his loyal follower. He didn''t stop Nandi because he didn''t want to interfere there. Shiva stopped Nandi because there was no need to protect someone who was capable of doing so himself. Seeing no other way, Nandi sat back down while looking at Zeus'' erratic behaviour just like everyone else. Even Heimdall was shocked by Zeus'' behaviour but before he intervene in the matter, Zeus'' had already released his legendary attack: The thunderbolt. As Arnold saw the attacking towards him, he asked everyone to step back. Everyone immediately stepped back, while Tiamut had to push Nicole out of the way. Just when the thunderbolt was about to touch Arnold, the bright light blinded everyone. Zeus couldn''t stopughing. That was it! He had done it. Although it wasn''t the way they had nned to end the nuisance, the end result was the same. The Immortal''s vassal was dead. However, as the light faded away, so did his happiness. Arnold was still there, standing on his feet just he had before. The extreme glow of the thunderbolt had disappeared, but it was still there... in Arnold''s hands. Rather than trying to dodge the attack that even the gods feared, he stood there and grabbed it like it was nothing. The next moment, everyone, gods and mortal alike, got a glimpse of Arnold''s true strength as the thunderbolt disintegrated in his hand. Forget about his well-being, there was not even a single scratch on his freaking armour. To say that everyone was shocked... Nah, leave it. No words could express the turmoil of emotions the gods were having. Not only did a mortal stopped an attack even most of the gods couldn''t, but he also was acting like there was nothing wrong with him? How was that even possible? But Arnold wasn''t done yet. He turned towards Zeus who was still floating above them and looked him in the eye, "I''m Deathless. Remember the name, I don''t want you to forget the one who will promptly kick the a.ss of all the contestants here... and yours as well. Just wait and watch." After saying that, he went back to his ce and stood there as if nothing had happened. Chapter 473 - Unbeatable (1) Arnold actions once again put the gods in a conflict amongst themselves. On one hand, they all knew Zeus was an arrogant bast.ard with an ego as big as the universe itself and that he got what he deserved. But on the other hand, a mortal being dared to mock a superior life form like Zeus and they couldn''t let it go unpunished. To them, it didn''t matter whether Zeus was wrong or not, at that moment most of them were thinking how Arnold''s actions could be deemed as a deration of war. Arnold had said it out loud without any fear, he was going to kick Zeus'' a.ss after the tournament and that was what shocked them the most... However, not all of them thought about it like that. Most of the gods were happy to see Zeus being put in his rightful ce. The happiest among them was Hera. Not only did Arnold put Hercules in his ce, but he also did the same with her moronic husband giving her the perfect reason to get rid of him as the King of Olympus.. After all, who would want a king who couldn''t even kill one mortal? Zeus stood there stunned. Not only did the mortal survived his attack, he even dared to talk back to him? He could hear the whispers of the gods around him, calling him a plethora of names. Some were going as far as to say that he was afraid his vassal wouldn''t win thepetition and thus he tried to eliminate the strongest contestant by illicit means. The gods couldn''t help but frequently look at Shiva who appeared to be meditating while Nandi stood behind him like a loyal subject. In a way they were thankful that Shiva was busy meditating, or else who knew what he would have done to Zeus for attacking his Vassal and breaking one of the most sacred rules among the other rules. It was a rule that prohibited any god from attacking a contestant under any circumstances. Zeus had broken thatw and now he would have to pay for it. That is if the moderator thought it was a punishable offence. In the meantime, Heimdall was still trying to think about what had happened there and thought it was only correct to give them all an opportunity to exin themselves. Including Zeus. If he found Zeus'' exnation to be reasonable, he wouldn''t punish him. That being said, if Zeus'' reply wasn''t satisfactory then Heimdall would be forced to punish him to the best of his abilities. "Zeus, do you have anything to say in defence of what you just did?" Heimdall asked the god in a cold voice. "This mortal was continuously disrespecting me. I had no other choice but to retaliate." Zeus said in an indifferent tone knowing fully well he was fcked. As he uttered those words the gods either started giggling or shaking their heads. Hera was one of thetter gods who could not believe how Zeus could be so stupid. "So, you attacked the mortal in question because he was mocking you?" Heimdall asked once again to confirm what he had heard was correct. "Yes." "Zeus... with all due respect, who are you?" Even Heimdall couldn''t help but feel disappointed in his answer. "Pardon?" Zeus was strong but he wasn''t someone capable of concurrently using his brain toprehend what was Heimdall trying to say and focus on Arnold. "You are a god! One of the strongest ones to have ever lived and you''re saying that the provocation of an insignificant mortal was enough to trigger you to such an extreme?" "... He kicked my son-" "No. He kicked his pet, who used to be your son. There''s a difference in both of those things." Heimdall interrupted Zeus immediately, "It''s the mortal''s personal decision to do whatever he wants with his pet. He could kill him right now if he wanted to do so and none of us would lift a finger to stop him. Do you have anything else to say?" "..." Zeus didn''t say a word and kept staring at Arnold who did not even spare a single moment to look back at him. He didn''t know why but the way Arnold was ignoring him after their altercation seemed to piss him off even more. The worst part of it all? Arnold had once again covered his face so no one could see his face and say whether he was smiling or not. "Thought so," Heimdall mumbled after waiting for several minutes hoping Zeus would have something else to say, "Your actions have been a disgrace to our kind. That being said, you are hereby banned from entering the colosseum until the tournamentes to an end. Furthermore, you will no longer be allowed to remotely watch the event, nor would you be able to donate prizes to the contestants." Thanks to Zeus a lot of time had already been wasted. Heimdall could not waste a moment more on the topic than he absolutely had to. Everyone expected Zeus to throw a fit as he usually did, but this time, he didn''t. For the first time in his life, he epted the punishment and left the colosseum as he was requested to. However, as he was leaving he looked at a certain someone and nodded. Even in his absence, their n had to proceed ordingly. They had to put an end to Arnold there or else... they could kiss their authority as gods goodbye. "I would like to formally apologise for the misconduct shown by one of our kind." Heimdall looked at Arnold, "And thus, I would like to set things straight. Arnold Ling, I will grant one wish of yours as long as it is fair to the other contestants and within the limits of my powers." Arnold smiled as if he was waiting for Heimdall to say something like that. After all, he was a preacher of justice and was ought to try and set things right. However, Arnold didn''t need anything other than the task they had been gathered there for: To fight. "I wish to be the one to open this event. I don''t care who the enemy is," Arnold said before walking to the centre of the stage along with Tiamut and Talos, "I just want to fight." Chapter 474 - Unbeatable (2) "Is that all you wish for?" Heimdall confirmed with Arnold once again, "Once that wish is granted, I won''t be able to grant you another wish." "I just want this stupid contest to be over as soon as possible so I can go back to my family." Arnold shrugged his shoulders before he stretching in front of everyone there. "Fine then. Is there anyone who is willing to take on Arnold Ling?" Heimdall asked the contestants, however, nobody stepped up. They all had just seen even the almighty Zeus could not harm him, how could they even think about challenging someone like that? Even the warriors of the world that came in the first ce didn''t dare to take a step towards the stage. . Initially, they were acting as if they owned thepetition when they arrived there. After all, they were the ones who got to the first ce. How could anyone else challenge them? But that attitude changed when they saw Arnold fearlessly challenging the gods. At first, they thought he was some fool who was so drunk on power he actually stood up against the god... but now they all were aware of what Arnold was capable of. "No one? Not even in groups?" Heimdall asked again but there was no reply, "I didn''t know the gods picked a bunch of cowards as their representatives... what a shame." Heimdall thought maybe provoking them would work, but even that didn''t. At this point, there was no need to hold apetition anymore. Like, they should just save everyone''s time and dere Arnold the winner. However, the gods were there for entertainment and not for some serious feud. The attitude of the vassals could actually make the gods angry and they might even decide to kill them all. "Then I shall ask the gods, are there any challengers for our prime contestant?" Heimdall asked the gods, if they were craving some entertainment, they can do it themselves, right? As soon as those words left Heimdall''s mouth, Hermes hand immediately shot up, "I''ll take on the mortal, but on one condition." "And what would that be?" Heimdall was intrigued. "A deathmatch of the old times. No surrender, the duel keeps going on until one of us is dead." Hermes said while nodding towards the other gods. Hermes'' proposal was intriguing and entertaining. There was no doubt in that. Also, since they had already witnessed that Arnold was capable of disarming Zeus, they wanted to see how will he counter Hermes'' agility. In their eyes, it was a great way to start the tournament and maybe if Hermes managed to kill the contestant, he would be able to boost the other contestants lost confidence. However, at the same time, it was a bit unfair to the mortal. After all, the rules had been updated so that one could surrender when they felt like it and what Hermes was suggesting was more like intended to secure Zeus'' lost influence. Everyone knew the two of them were close thus him trying to kill the mortal, under the guise of duel made a lot of sense. "An intriguing suggestion but I don''t think it''s fair-" Heimdall tried to calm the situation, however, Arnold had a mind of his own and could decide what he wanted on his own. "Challenge epted." Arnold''s voice boomed over the colosseum as everyone was stunned into silence. Even Nandi was worried because of Arnold''s one reckless action after another. Shiva, on the other hand, had a broad smile on his face. He already knew who the victor of this match was going to be. So far, the gods believed one could only master one stat among the nine. However, they had never seen someone like Arnold before. A couple of his stats were already up to the Immortal one''s level and it was just the beginning of the mortal''s rise to godhood. Moreover, even if Arnold got rid of a god, he wouldn''t face any bacsh because he wasn''t the one who challenged a god to a deathmatch. It was the other way around. A god had underestimated the power of a mortal and challenged him wanting to avenge his father''s lost pride. That was all. It was Hermes'' n to get rid of Arnold in the most effective way possible and now he would have to pay the price for looking down upon Arnold. "W-What? Are you sure?" Heimdall was taken aback by Arnold''s response. "Well, no one else has enough guts to fight me, so why not? It''s not like a roadrunner would be strong enough to run me over." Arnold smirked while looking at Hermes, "What are you standing there for? I thought you wanted to fight, or is it that I haven''t hurt your daddy''s ego enough to make you fight? That''s the reason you challenged me for a deathmatch didn''t you?" "Run your mouth while you can, bast.ard." The smile on Hermes face dropped and the next second he was standing there in front of Arnold, "Let''s begin then, shall we?" "Yup, just a second." Arnold turned towards Talos and Tiamut, "Do not interfere, I got this." "As you wish, master." Both of them replied and went back to stand with Nicole and Johnny. "What is he thinking!?" Nicole asked the summons as soon as they walked off the stage, "If I knew something like this would happen, I would have stepped up to challenge him! It was better to put on a show for the gods than to risk his life like that!" "Well... Technically it''s not like his first time fighting against a god." Johnny shrugged his shoulders, "Or that he made an impulse-driven decision." "Fighting Tiamut or Hercules was a different matter. This time he is facing a full-fledged god!" "Lady Nicole, do you believe in your brother?" Talos asked her one simple question. "I do but-" "There are no buts here, with all due respect." Tiamut chimed in, "You have known master for longer than anyone else has. You should know that the master is no longer the same man he was all those years ago. He would have never epted the challenge if he wasn''t sure he could win. His decision was just as simple as that." Tiamut''s words silenced any doubts anyone had in their minds. Arnold was their strongest warrior. One even Zeus couldn''t strike down. All they have to do was to watch as he defeats a god in front of hundreds of others. Chapter 475 - Unbeatable (3) "You''re quite cocky for a mortal," Hermesughed as both thepetitors took their ces, "don''t worry about your family. I have heard your wife is beautiful. She would make a great concubine for me or maybe even for my father." "I thought it was a battle to test out strength and not how fast you can run your useless mouth." Arnold waspletely unprovoked by Hermes'' remarks. ''This bast.ard is awfully calm... If he had been anything like he was in the past then saying those words should have made him lose his shi.t by now.'' Hermes thought while waiting for Heimdall''s signal to start the battle.. In the meantime, Arnold had heard what the pipsqueak was telling a bit Nina, and was infuriated beyond any limit. He had the visor on, thus Hermes couldn''t see his angered face, but that was the moment Arnold had decided to end the bast.ard''s life in the most humiliating, gruesome and painful way possible. Initially, he had epted the duel because he wanted the gods to fear him, just like the vassals did. He wanted them to see the monster they had created, under the guise of a game. A monster capable of biting their master. However, this fool of a god Hermes had just made the duel personal. Did he say want to make Nina a concubine? Just wait and see what he will do to the likes of you. Maybe the gods needed a reminder of what happens when someone even thinks about touching his wife with bad intentions. But before that Arnold needed to use the probe skill on Hermes as usual, to see what was he working with. ___ CLASS: Speedster / Mage NAME: Hermes LEVEL: 310 COSMIC RANK: SS ROLE: Godhood (God of Speed, Messenger of gods, First Kin of the Gods) AFFINITY/ABILITIES : ? Penance Burst (Active skill) ? Zeus'' Favourite (Passive skill) (Grants boost in stats) ? Enrage (Active skill) ? Blessing of Zeus (Active skill) ? Blessing of Olympus (Active skill) ? Hell Strike (Active skill) ? Speedster''s Agility (Active skill) [Expand to view 9 more] HP: 40000/40000 STRENGTH (STR): 1201 [+1000] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) DEFENSE (DEF): 826[+226] (due to the gears) STAMINA (STA) : 1200 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) INTELLIGENCE (INT): 1444 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) AGILITY (AGI): 1700 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) ACCURACY (ACC) : 865 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) EVADE (EVD) : 1687 [+200] (due to the passive: God''s favourite) CHARISMA (CHA): 1200 Damage Resistances: Elemental Attacks (50% damage reduction), Magical attacks (70% damage reduction) Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Frozen, Ranged attacks, Attacks from a mob. Weak Against: ??? THREAT LEVEL: Mediocre REMARK: Hm... a speedster who had been running away from paying child support to his countless children. Maybe that''s the reason he is also known as the god of thieves as he is one himself. Possibly the only god to have taken after his father, Zeus, in terms of libido. This man would stick his junk in any hole. Hell, he could even fck a stone and it''ll get pregnant as well- wait, I think someone already did that. Either way, wanna know the best way of defeating him? Dig a small hole of about a couple of millimetres (I don''t think he is bigger than that, to be honest) and fill it with ants. At least those ants would do the universe a favour and eat away his tool. Or maybe try tripping him over. He may be smart but, meh, he is going up against you so how smart could he possibly be? Also, he has a fragile ego. Don''t believe me? Just call him out and you''ll see. ___ ''I see you went all out there, system sama.'' Arnold smiled a bit after reading the absurd remarks system sama had to give to him, ''Is he really a god? Even Talos has better stats than he has, let alone me.'' [Hey, it might be harsh, but I''m just telling the truth. That bastard really gets even on my nerves, do me a favour and kill him. If you do, I''ll lift the level limit off.] ''You serious?'' [Yup. Just got the Immortal''s permission. He wants to see your full strength and so I won''t hold you back anymore. Also, try to enrage him. He''ll lose focus in an instant.] ''I guess there is no harm in trying that...'' Before Heimdall could give them the signal, Arnold promptly open the visor and looked at the useless god in front of him. "Well, considering your useless father couldn''t do a thing to me, I don''t have high expectations from you either..." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "Looks like Olympuscks real men who have their junk at least in several inches and not in a couple of millimetres. No wonder you don''t have a wife, after all, who would touch you after seeing how ''big'' of a heart you have. But I guess, saying that out loud hits a bit too close to home doesn''t it?" "YOU ARE DEAD!" Hermes did not even wait for Heimdall to start the duel and rushed in to end Arnold. The size of his junk was a strictly private secret that only the ones he had slept with knew about. Hermes didn''t care where Arnold got to know about that, but he was certainly going to end Arnold now. "If only I had a dor for every time I heard someone say that to me... *Sigh*" Just like that, Hermes disappeared from everyone''s sight but for Arnold he was right there, trying to attack him from behind. The moment Hermes disappeared everyone thought Arnold was done for, the duel was over and Arnold was dead. But Arnold disagreed. The next moment, Arnold had his bionic fingers wrapped around Hermes'' frail head. The gods thought Hermes was fast then they didn''t even have a word to express how fast Arnold was. His slightest movements had created several after images of himself and the gods were still looking at somece Arnold already left a while ago. Hermes tried to free himself from Arnold''s grasp but it was all in vain. Arnold was better than him in every way. Hermes had signed up for death the moment he challenged Arnold to a deathmatch thinking he would win, but now he had lost, that too using the one thing Hermes took pride in... agility. "Inted ego, two brain cells, speedparable to a snail and a d.ick smaller than an amoeba... why were you acting so cocky again?" Arnold said while slowly tightening his grip around Hermes'' head, "You people should really stop looking down on mortals." Arnold couldn''t help butugh to his heart''s content as the gods were stunned. Apart from a few gods, no one had believed he would be able to defeat Hermes. But there he was standing tall while Hermes'' feet dangled in the air. "Hmph HMPH!" Hermes tried to say something but couldn''t because of Arnold''s hand. "You wanted to touch my wife right? Let''s see what you will be able to touch after I am done with you." Arnold grabbed one of Hermes'' legs with his other hand and started mming him around as if Hermes was a ragdoll, and he was a professional as.s-kicker which technically he was. At first, Hermes tried to fight back but soon realised the struggle was futile. He wasn''t going to survive after all he had said to Arnold. The only thing that mattered was how quickly will Arnold kill him and it was not looking good for him. Arnold really was unbeatable. Chapter 476 - Next! (1) Everyone thought that was going to be the end, but that wasn''t the case. Hermes had dared to talk filth about Nina and Arnold wasn''t going to let him die so easily after that. He kept thrashing Hermes around. A sight that sent shivers down through the spine of the gods. But just when he was about to die, Arnold abruptly stopped. "No, no, no." Arnold shook his head, "You''re not going to die so easily now. After all, we are just getting started." [The one with luscious lips is excited to see what you do next.] [The Raging Minotaur is thinking, ''Just kill him already!''] [15 Gods nod in agreement.]. [The rest disagree and wants you to humiliate Hermes more.] [The Immortal one is smiling.] [The One who rules over the Sun would like to give you additional rewards for slowly killing Hermes.] [The Ruler of the Skies demands you to stop humiliating the gods] [Other godsugh at him.] Multiple notifications were shing in front of Arnold''s eyes, but he simply ignored them all. He was doing what he was because he wanted to do so, not because some god was thirsty for some action. If he could gain rewards while doing what he was, then it was just a bonus for him. But he would not go out of his way to get those rewards. He wouldn''t be a puppet to their will. "Look at you... your own fes want me to kill you slowly so that they could enjoy the show." Arnold shook his head in disgust before pouring down a couple ofrge HP potions to heal Hermes, "Even humans value their species more than your people. But I guess You must have done something to them at one point in time to make them hate you so much." "Argh..." A slow wheezing sound escaped from Hermes'' mouth. He was trying to say something, but his jaw had been shattered into pieces from Arnold''s thrashing and could not form a single word no matter how hard he tried. For a second, even Arnold felt pity for the god and poured some potion into his mouth as well. The quantity of potion Arnold had used was not enough for Hermes to be able to run away or counterattack him. But just to heal him enough so that Arnold could continue with his beating without worrying that he would die. Also, it would give him enough time to berate the gods even more. Till, now Arnold had a consensus that few of the gods support him fighting with Zeus and the others either want nothing to do with him, or they are hostile to him. So by beating the crap out of Hermes, Arnold can aplish multiple things. Firstly, the gods who hate Zeus might help him get rid of him after seeing how easily he took care of Hermes and Zeus'' thunderbolt. Secondly, for the gods who are staying neutral, his actions would most likely force them to either join him or stay neutral. And finally, for the gods who would still be against him, Hermes'' death would serve as a lesson to not ever try and cross him or else they would share the same fate as Hermes and Zeus. A simple fight could aplish so many things and that was the reason while the Immortal One didn''t step in to stop Hermes'' challenge. However, Arnold had a hidden intention behind killing Hermes as well. The intention was to convert him into his summon. Talos was already a Cosmic SS ranked being, thus he could easily revive the same ranked gods and Hermes would be the first full-fledged god to join his army, whether he liked it or not. Soon enough, Hermes'' mouth healed enough for him to talk again. Arnold expected him to throw some expletives at him, but surprising that did not happen. No one had ever thought they would hear such wordsing out of a bast.ard like Hermes. "Forgive... me..." "What?" Arnold said before kicking him over, "You''re a god, don''t you have any shame? You''re the one who wanted a deathmatch and now you want forgiveness?" "Forgive me... for what the things... I''ll do to your wife and maybe even your sister... Haha!" Those words of Hermes agitated Arnold so much he opened his visor so that Hermes could see his angered face before he died. However, that turned out to be a mistake. From the minute Arnold grabbed his face, Hermes realised he would not be able to take the mortal down without underhanded means. But before he could use any as he was too busy being thrashed around like a doll. There was no hope of survival for him. But then when Arnold started to heal him, that''s when he hatched a n. A n to fight back. When Arnold healed his mouth, Hermes, being the cunning bast.ard he was, intentionally agitated Arnold even more. He wasn''t very hopeful whether his n would work thus he added the name of both of the women Arnold cherished the most. Just like that, his n worked. Arnold got too angry to notice that Hermes had retrieved something from his own dimensional pocket. It was a blinding powder that not even the gods weren''t immune to. Once the particles of the powder got into the moistyer of the eye, they would start a chain reaction that will push the blood out of the eye. On top of that, the tears produced during this time only served as a catalyst for the reaction and thus blinding the target in one swift blow. Even though Gods weren''t immune to this, they could be healed with time. However, the mortals did not have that luxury. For them, it was the end. Hermes couldn''t stopughing when he saw Arnold struggling in front of him. He quickly got back to his feet and then used more potions topletely heal himself, before turning to face the gods. Those who had been supporting the god of speed were happy to see him fight back. While those like Hera who wanted Hermes dead looked a bit taken aback. "A god is always stronger than a Mortal!" Hermes roared thinking he had won. "Says who?" A voice boomed over the gods and to everyone''s shock, Arnold was fine! "How is this possible-" All of the gods have forgotten that the one Hermes was fighting had the power only a few of them possessed: Foresight. Arnold had already seen what was going to happen while Hermes was grovelling on the ground and already prepared a counter for Hermes'' cheap trick. He never opened his visor. He just reduced the opacity of the visor to 0% and everyone thought he had removed the visor. Thus when Hermes threw the powder on Arnold''s face, it simply bounced off the visor. After that, all Arnold had to do was to act like Hermes'' attack worked to get the gods all riled up over nothing. Arnold only did so to let them enjoy a minute of hope before crushing it with an iron fist. Now Arnold would make the gods would know what true despair felt like. "Does it matter? You''re gonna die anyway." Arnold said before ripping off One of Hermes'' legs as if it was made of twigs, "And I''m going to enjoy every moment of it." Chapter 477 - Next! (2) "Do you mind if I keep these for myself? Shoes from my world are cool and all, but I can''t find any of them that have such stat. But on second thought, I can make better ones myself so... bye bye special shoes" Arnold asked a limbless Hermes while showcasing his own shoes to him as they turned to dust, "I don''t think, you''ll need them anymore either way... considering the situation with your legs..." "You''ll... pay for this.... REMEMBER THAT- Argh!" "You''ll pay for this, you''ll pay for that... h h h. Who will make me pay? Your father? Well, he''ll end up just as pathetically as you are if he even dared to show up around here." Arnold had one of his hands tightly gripped around Hermes'' neck, while the other one was busy disintegrating Hermes'' prized shoes. They were a masterpiece, but Arnold wasn''t interested in them. The thing he was interested in was their anatomy. The anatomy of these gods was quite funny, to say the least. Even though Arnold had severed both hands and legs of Hermes and not to mention, he was bleeding like crazy, he was just as feisty as he had been before. As much as Arnold wanted to continue marking the stage with the god''s blood, Hermes'' disgusting blood was ruining his armour as well. So Arnold quickly sealed his wounds using hellfire as the gods watched on in horror. Their brains couldn''tprehend howe a mortal was able to wield that kind of strength. Exactly what had this man been doing that no one else was? If he could subdue a god as if they were a bunch of goblins then letting such a mortal live was a problem... That was what the gods who supported Zeus were thinking. But for those, who were against Zeus, witnessing Arnold in action was a blessing. If they could help and gain his trust then they would have an unrivalled strength by their side to conquer any Pantheon they wanted. Hera was especially interested in him... for a purpose other than domination of other gods. "Looks like Mr moron still hasn''t learned his lesson yet." Arnold smiled before pping the crap out of Hermes, "Even though I have taken your shoes, your mouth is still as fast as before." p! p! p! Arnold wanted to humiliate him, and what better way was there other than pping a god in front of other gods? The sound of each p kept resounding over the crowd and with his ps, a few gods cheered him on while the rest had to gulp their difort back in. But they swore one thing... once thepetition was over, they would make the mortal cry tears of blood for the humiliation Arnold had given to them. "I still haven''t forgotten what you said about my wife... Did you want to make her your concubine? The same with my sister, right?" Arnold threw the god back on the ground and started walking towards the end of the arena where his summons were standing, "Tiamut, do you mind?" "Not at all, master." Tiamut immediately handed her the sword as Arnold turned towards Talos. "Your turn wille soon," Arnold whispered to Talos before walking back to where Hermes was lying helplessly. With the crimson de in his hand, Arnold looked even deadlier than he had before. But more importantly, the gods could feel what material was the sword made from. Celestial Gold... It was one of the two materials that the gods were afraid of, and Arnold had both of them. However, the thing which shocked them the most was the fact that Arnold could get his hands on such rare materials that were a luxury to have even for the gods. First, it was Adamantine and now Celestial gold, no wonder Arnold was so cocky while fighting against Hermes. He hade prepared to take any of them in a battle. "I wanted to chop off your ''proud tool'' at first, but considering there isn''t much to chop off in the first ce," Arnold mumbled before burying the sword deep into Hermes'' shoulder, "I''ll do something else, altogether. It''s called Lingchi or Death by a Thousand Cuts, an ancient torture technique of my people. I hope you will enjoy the time you have left in this universe as a god." While Arnold was ripping Hermes'' limbs apart, the god of speed didn''t even flinch. Losing a couple of limbs wasn''t something any god would have been concerned about. They lose them all the time and they could easily heal themselvester. However, as soon as the sword grazed his skin, Hermes'' face turned solid red as he could no longer hold in the desire to scream. The pain was blinding, he had never felt something like that in his life as a god. However, he wasn''t the only one feeling the pain he was going through. Every time Arnold gave Hermes a new cut, his screams sent shivers down the spine of the gods. Even Heimdall couldn''t bear to watch the torturous way Arnold had decided to kill Hermes. But Arnold didn''t stop. Every time Hermes cried for help, Arnold''s next cut got even slower. He was thoroughly enjoying it. Arnold also knew that his torturing Hermes was making the gods ufortable. That''s why he didn''t kill him immediately and kept going. He wanted the gods to fear him, he wanted to set an example at Hermes'' expense to show the gods that they weren''t as mighty as they thought they were. If given the right tools, even a mortal can not only kill a god but thoroughly humiliate their entire kind. However, Arnold''s fun came to an abrupt end when he received a notification from System sama. __ Congrattions! You have in the God of Speed [Hermes]. Rewards for your extraordinary feat are being calcted. __ "What a pathetic loser," Arnold spat out in disgust, "Couldn''t even survive 420 cuts..." Arnold then wiped the Hermes'' blood off the sword and headed back to Tiamut. Finally, the torture hade to an end. Heimdall immediately made the announcement of Arnold''s victory but stopped midway when Arnold returned to the stage with Talos walking right behind him. "What do you think you are doing?" Arnold asked a couple of soldiers from the Greek pantheon who were trying to retrieve Hermes'' corpse. "They are taking away Hermes for his resurrection," Heimdall informed Arnold and waved over to the soldier to continue. "Oh, I don''t think so." As they took a step towards Hermes, Arnold kicked them off the stage, "It was a deathmatch wasn''t it?" "Yes, it was and you killed him so you won, The match is over." Heimdall tried exining to Arnold, "The pantheon has the right to resurrect a fallen-" "Shush~" Arnold firmly pressed his index finger across his lips, "Now, you listen to me. It was a deathmatch. Meaning, the battle wouldn''t be over till one of us was dead. I killed him, I won. But tell me what would happen if it was the other way around?" "What do you mean?" Heimdall asked Arnold. "If I was the one who lost and died, would I be given the opportunity to get resurrected?" Arnold asked all of them there, "Just like Hermes, is being resurrected, I should be resurrected too right?" Everyone was silent. None of them had expected Arnold to pull such a card, except Shiva who kept smiling. ''This guy and his greed to obtain powerful summons...'' Shiva shook his head, ''I used to have that too.'' Chapter 478 - Next! (3) "Hm? Would any of you resurrect me?"Arnold repeated his question but the response was the same. Utter silence. Arnold was raising some valid points. It was a deathmatch and it wouldn''t be fair to him if they just up and resurrected Hermes back. it would be like a one-sided deathmatch where only he was bearing the actual risk of dying. Maybe that was the reason why Hermes challenged him in the first ce. He was a god and even though he didn''t do much for the welfare of the universe, there were a bunch of other gods who would be willing to resurrect him. But for Arnold death was the end.. "It doesn''t matter what the mortal says," Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and intoxication was the first one to speak, "WE are the gods and WE are the only ones who can decide what happen with our fallenrades-" "I can''t hear you from all the way up there." Arnold interrupted Dionysus while cing the sword on his shoulder yfully, "Why don''t youe down here and tell me what you have to say right to my face?" Arnold''s invitationpletely silenced Dionysus and he once again assumed his seat. Dionysus knew Arnold could hear him loud and clear and that he just wanted the god of wine down there so that he could do the same thing that he did with Hermes. Arnold liked the fear the gods had. But now since Dionysus had raised his voice, Arnold wanted to thoroughly silence it. Though he wanted to do it with words rather than swords. "By the way, Dio, I hope you don''t mind me calling you that not that I care even if you do, I have been wanting to ask you something." Arnold turned everyone''s attention on to the liquor god, "Why would the gods need someone like you in their pantheon? I mean, was Zeus distributing free godship to those who let their wives sleep with him or something?" As Arnold threw insults towards Dionysus, none of the gods rebuked him. Why would they punish someone who was speaking the truth and entertaining them at the same time? In fact, Hera knew Dionysus was a loyal follower of Zeus, whom she had already made up the mind to overthrow as the king of Mount Olympus once the event was over. Thus, even if Arnold was to kill the god, she would not bat an eye to it. "I have heard about useless gods but you, my guy, definitely take the victory when ites to uselessness. Hell, even my weakest summons can kick your as.s any time of the day." Arnold smiled and turned back to Heimdall, but he had onest jab to throw before talking about business, "So keep drinking your piss wine and shut your trap or I''ll send one of my undead warriors to kick your butt till it turned red like red wine." "Arnold, I would appreciate it if you focus on solving the issue at hand rather than trolling our fellow gods." Heimdall politely asked Arnold and even though Arnold hated gods, he hade to know that Heimdall wasn''t a bad guy. One could say he had even developed a bit of respect for the Asgardian. "My sincere apologies, it''s just that I don''t like to be interrupted by kids while I''m talking." Arnold gave Heimdall a short bow to show his ''sincerity'' before rebuking Dionysus once again, "So assuming that none of you would resurrect me, it''s only fair that none of you resurrects him either." "Alright. It seems fair enough. But what will we do with his corpse then? Let it rot?" "No. Let me have it." [The One with a Sword and Sheild apuds your intelligence. +1000 Quest points.] [The One with Luscious lips nods in agreement. +2000 Quest points.] [The Laughing baldy find you amusing. +100 quest points.] [The Immortal One is impressed by the reasons you put forward. +1 Quest points] [...] [...] ''Really dude? Just one point?'' Arnold scratched the back of his head, ''Well, considering this is the first time he had given me a point, I''ll treasure it.'' "Alright... let''s do a poll then," Heimdall mmed his greatsword on the ground and a digital screen popped up for everyone to see with two columns in it, "All of the gods that have been gathered here, will ce cast their votes within ten seconds whether the Mortal should be allowed to take the corpse away or not. Your time starts now." Arnold did not even have to wait for ten seconds to see the results. It was his overwhelming victory. Out of all the gods that had gathered there, only 31% voted for Hermes'' resurrection while 69% voted for Arnold to have the corpse as he was the victor of the match. ''I knew entertaining these fools would help me outter.'' "Well, it''s decided then." Heimdall once again tapped his sword on the ground and the screen disappeared, "The mortal will have Hermes'' corpse and he will not be resurrected by any gods ever." "Can I ask another favour of you?" Arnold interrupted Heimdall once again, "I would like to know the names of those who voted against me." "Request denied... We are here to watch you and your fellow contestants battle." Heimdall said as he massaged his temples, "And not for you to produce a river of the God''s blood here. Although it would be entertaining to watch." "Don''t mind me, I just had to shoot my shot. So who''s next?" "Not you definitely." Heimdall replied, "I, the moderator of this proud event, dere Arnold Ling ineligible to participate in the contest. He is clearly too strong for the other contestants to even stand a chance against him." "What the fck?" Arnold was not at all pleased with what he was hearing. First, he did not get the world rank rewards now he was being dered ineligible to fight and possibly win the event altogether? Heimdall noticed Arnold''s reaction and quicklypleted what he was saying, "That being said, all the contestants will now fight for the second ce and so forth. As it is only fair for the strongest to be crowned as the first ce winner of the War of the Worlds." "Wait... so I won without fighting the others?" Arnold asked as a crown appeared over his head. "I don''t think there is a point making you fight them anymore." Heimdall politely replied, "Now if you will, please join me and watch the others fight for the glory of owning the remaining prizes." While it might seem that everything was going well for Arnold, this turn of events was even better than the one Loki had nned and the wide smile on his face was proof of that. Chapter 479 - Accidental Deaths (1) Although Arnold was happy that he was given the first ce just like that, there were other things troubling him. One of which was his ascension quest. He still needed to kill four Vassals and nine Pdins before War of the Worlds was over. Although there wasn''t a punishment for failing the quest, Arnold didn''t want to lose out on all the EXP and other rewards he could get bypleting the ascension quest, especially the chance to be trained by the Immortal one himself. Also, ever since he had been there, he hadn''t seen the Immortal one. He knew he was there somewhere but even with his enhanced eyesight, he couldn''t see where Shiva was. He even used a wide-scale Probe skill to see if he could find the god he wanted to see in real life, but even that n failed. In the end, even System Sama told him to drop it as if the Immortal one didn''t want him to see him, then no matter what Arnold did, he wouldn''t be able to see him. Arnold wasn''t someone who would give up that easily but this time, he had other things to worry about so he left it at that. The second thing that Arnold was concerned about was Nicole''s safety. He was confident that as long as he was participating, no one would have dared to harm his sister. Even if they tried he could have stopped them, because fck the rules, no one would ever be able to harm his sister in his presence.. But now that Arnold was seated among the gods, Heimdall informed him that he would not be allowed to interfere in the matches for any reason whatsoever. If he did, it might give all of the gods the perfect opportunity to get rid of him and he was nowhere strong enough to defend himself against hundreds of gods. Arnold didn''t like being threatened but what Heimdall told him wasn''t a threat. It was a piece of advice for him to not do anything unnecessary. Although, Arnold did not like it... he knew it was wise to do as Heimdall said. "Okay... if I can''t do anything, maybe I can let my summons be herpanions? That much should be allowed right?" Arnold asked Heimdall hoping to aide Nicole in any way he could. "I''m afraid, I can not allow that." Heimdall shook his head, "If they had apanied her from the start, there would have been no issues. But I can''t allow you to give her yourpanions now." "I understand." Arnold nodded and went back to watch the match between a bluish humanoid creature from una and an abnormallyrge ck Ogre from the Draror. Arnold was never into watching others fight even back when he was a porter. But thanks to all the fighting he had been doing over the years, he had learned to appreciate the art of warfare. If nothing else, it would be a learning experience for him after all, it wasn''t every day that he got to see a monster tamer fight. While he was watching them fight, his mind once again drifted towards his own worries. Although he was set to be at least a lesser god after winning the first ce. He wasn''t so sure that he wanted to ascend like that. So far he had been ascending ranks and pushing through his limits all by himself. Thus, he was more confident in levelling up on his own rather than having someone reward him that. His biggest concern was that the reward he would receive might even nerf his powers. For example, there was a normal levelling scale and a cosmic levelling scale. ording to these levels, the normal SS level for humans was equivalent to the cosmic C level. This meant if he broke through the barrier and there was another levelling scheme, there was even a chance that he could be robbed of his levels. What if he was assigned to godly D level as his next rank? He would be less powerful than he was now. ''I can not let the gods assign me a level.'' Arnold thought, ''They would most certainly lower my rank and level to keep me in check. In order to prevent that from happening, I need toplete the ascension quest myself.'' [Maybe investing so many attribute points to increase your intelligence wasn''t a wise choice.] ''What do you mean?'' [You think too much.] "..." [Do you even know only 3 gods had ever been able to cross the cosmic realm?] ''I did... not.'' [Of course, you didn''t because, except Shiva, Zeus and Odin, none of the gods has ever crossed the cosmic realm in their lifetime and are probably not even aware of such a thing. Crossing the cosmic realm is not something one can do easily.] ''So you''re telling me, I was about to fight someone as strong as the Immortal one?'' [Zeus and Odin are no longer on that level anymore. They died once, remember? And once a god dies, their levels are reset.] ''So only the Immortal one has crossed the realm in the current time?'' [Yup. Still, your concerns are valid. These gods would certainly limit your power if they are allowed to grant you godhood and the Immortal wouldn''t be able to do a thing to prevent it.] Arnold nodded and went back to watching the match. It was no surprise that the gods most of the gods were chill even after he literally humiliated a lot of them. They would have their revenge by limiting his level as a ''reward''. [You need toplete the ascension quest somehow if you want to ascend to the next realm.] ''Yeah... I''m thinking how to do that...'' Just as he was thinking about what he could do next, the giant ogre identally slipped on some greasy substance left behind by one of the creatures tamed by the unian. The next moment the ogre was dead... no one was sure what happened but Heimdall dered the blue-skinned alien the winner. The match wasn''t as interesting as Arnold had expected it to be, but it was thanks to the match that he got an idea. ''Looks like I found a solution to our problem.'' Chapter 480 - Accidental Deaths (2) "Check the Arena!" One of the gods yelled as his vassal ''identally'' died as well. "We already did! There was nothing in the arena." Yet another one yelled back. It had been the seventh idental death. Four vassals had already perished and it looked like now was the turn of the pdins. No one knew what was happening, but it was apparent that something was off with the duels as all of them wereing to abrupt endings. There was no way in hell the vassals would have been foolish enough to slip and fall of the arena, to their doom. But that''s what exactly they were doing. Either falling on their weapon or the weapons of their enemies. Or they wouldmit suicide as if it was the best thing to do in front of the gods. [Arnold, you should stop for some time now..] ''Yeah, they have started to get suspicious.'' Arnold thought while trying to look as surprised as he could, ''Either way, it''s Nicole''s match next. She''s... up against Johnny. I''d rather not harm either of them so let''s see who''ll surrender first.'' [Still, I''m surprised you even managed to fool Heimdall.] ''Not me, Talos did everything. Who knew he would have mind maniption ability as the Demon Ogre?'' Arnold looked sideways to see Talos sitting in his Demon Ogre form waiting for Arnold''s next order, ''Heimdall had his eyes one me every since Talos killed one of those retards. I couldn''t risk doing anything.'' ___ ASCENSION QUEST (2): Rise to Godhood. [ TASK ]: Complete the Second Ascension quest and evolve into a lesser god within a couple of years. That''s all the time you''ll get before the gods would send in their armies to deal with you. Complete the following task before/during event takes ce. ? Kill 10 Pdins ? Kill 5 Vassals ? Kill 3 Demigods [ PROGRESS ] : ? 3/10 Pdins killed ? 5/5 Vassals killed ? 3/3 Demigods killed __ [At you got the vassals off your list. Now you need to get rid of seven more pdins and you''re set to be a god.] ''That''s easier said than done...'' Getting kills was easy but getting kills without raising suspicions wasn''t. Arnold needed to rethink his strategy, and Nicole''s match was the perfect time for him to sit back, rx and think about his next move. Both Nicole and Johnny walked onto the stage and were ready to fight. However, Heimdall had different ns as he called off the match before it even begin. "While I know that the show must go on despite the unusual deaths, I think it''s time to do something different... a battle royale." Everyone was surprised at the suggestion. But they were on board as soon as Heimdall started exining the rules to them, which were pretty simple. A bit over the top, but simple. All of the remaining contestants would have to fight simultaneously. No holds barred. The only way to eliminate someone was to either kill them or make them surrender. The surrendered fighters would still have to fight either way. However, they would no longer fight for their victory, but for the victory of their leader. Also, they would still bear the risk of being killed. On top of that, one contestant is allowed to only surrender once. Thus, if someone who had already surrendered to someone else, would not be able to surrender again and hence would have to be killed to get eliminated. Elimination of those who surrendered would affect the score of the one they had surrendered to. Since all of them would be fighting simultaneously, the rule regarding the aid frompanions was also revoked. All of the contestants were now on their own. Forming teams at the start of the match was permitted, but nothing was going to stop the contestants in the same team from betraying each other. All in all... it was just like one of those wrestling shows where there eventually would be only one winner. The gods readily agreed to this new arrangement as in this battle royale, the probability of contestants dying was actually higher than it would have been in one on one duels. Because in the case of duels, it was easier for the contestants to evade death by simply surrendering to their opponent and their lives would have been spared. Also, even if their master was defeated, they would have a new master and hence they would continue to live on even if their master died. However, in the battle royale, one could be killed even after they had surrendered to someone. The ones who had surrendered would no longer be allowed to betray their masters. They would be killed immediately if they did. It didn''t matter whether the contestants were their own masters or not, they would have to keep fighting. On top of all the action, the unpredictability of battle royales would entertain the gods even more. It was due to these reasons when the voting was held to change the format of the contest, there was no resistance whatsoever from the god''s side. Thus, the tournament which should have been a one-on-one systematic duel was turned into a chaotic battle royale. But the gods weren''t the only ones who were pleased with Heimdall''s decision, Arnold had the widest smile on his face as well. A battle royale meant chaos and Arnold could take advantage of the chaos in the best way possible. If he could have Talos fool the gods in one on one matches, fooling them during the battle royale was no biggie. However, he had to be careful in choosing his targets. he didn''t want to identally end up harming Nicole or Johnny. The following moment, all of the contestants assembled in the arena. It was clear that everyone from the same had formed a team to take on the others. The only ones who didn''t do the same were the earthlings. While Nicole and Johnny joined forces, Sonya and her team made it obvious that they weren''t interested in helping them. The four of them were enough to protect each other''s backs. However, Sonya''s this move made Nicole and Johnny an easy target for everyone else, as while all of them at least had four or more members in their team, Nicole and Johnny only had each other. ''Looks like I know who I am going to have killed next...'' Arnold gritted his teeth under the guise of his visor, ''Those fools had one chance to make me forgive them, and they threw it away...'' He then turned towards Talos and whispered, "I want them dead. All of them." Talos nodded and waited for the match to begin. While they were doing that, Heimdall turned towards Arnold. He had something to tell him, but rather than speaking his mind, Heimdall decided to use Telepathy to convey his thoughts to Arnold. "I hope this makes things easy for you." "What do you mean?" Arnold acted all surprised. "Don''t get all flustered up. I''m on your side. Technically, I''m on Shiva''s side, and he told me about your little quest." "So you knew all the time?" "Kid, I can see everything that goes within every realm and the way you were taking care of those mortals, wasn''t as subtle as you thought. So I had to do something before the other gods caught wind of what you were trying to do." "I got busted before it even began huh..." Arnold smiled knowing he fcked up, "Still, you shouldn''t be helping me..." "I''m not. I''m simply repaying my debt to the Immortal one by helping you." Heimdall smiled at him, "We all want that bast.ard Zeus dead, either way." Chapter 481 - Betrayal (1) Only one word could have described the scene in the arena, chaos. Arnold had been in his fair share of battles, but the one he was seeing now even took him by surprise. People were being shot down like crazy. None of the attacks was getting wasted thanks to the overwhelming crowd. Even if someone managed to dodge an attack, it only went ahead and killed or hurt someone else. On top of that, since no one could predict which direction they will end up getting attacked from, most of them couldn''t even defend themselves. Initially, Arnold had been worried about Nicole and Johnny for the same reason as they seemed to have been targeted since the battle royale started. It was difficult for them to defend themselves against the horde of Vassals and Pdins. But they had each other''s back and with a little help from him, no one could even get their hands on them. Also, it didn''t seem like Nicole and Johnny were in the mood of taking anyone else under their wing because even though multiple participants willingly wanted to surrender themselves to them, Nicole and Johnny killed them either way. This.... was a bit unexpected, even for Arnold. He knew his sister and she would do something like that, but Johnny had always been a bit kind-hearted to the strangers around him. So watching him kill unnecessarily was a bit weird for Arnold and it almost felt as if something had snapped inside of him. ''It should be fine. His being scary should also keep others away from attacking them without a n. In the meantime,'' Arnold thought before turning his gaze towards Sonya and her crew, ''I should get to work as well.'' Sonya and her team, on the other hand, was not fairing well at all. It seemed like it didn''t take long for the others to realise that they were one of the weakest participants there and jumped at the chance to score some quick kills on them. Not working along with their fellow earthlings hade to bite them in the a.ss. But to their credit, so far they were fending the trouble makers off without taking many injuries. They might have been weak, but they knew exactly how to cover for each other. In fact, Arnold couldn''t helpmending them for their teamwork. But things change, and so did the loyalty of Sonya''s team members. While being surrounded by about a dozen contestants, out of which 5 were pdins and the rest were Vassals, Sonya''s teammates suddenly betrayed her and surrender to the enemy. ''Oh... this should be interesting.'' Arnold smiled after witnessing the sudden shift in the momentum. "Shall I kill her?" Talos asked Arnold who shook his head. "I don''t need to kill another vassal so leave her be." Arnold replied, "However, we don''t need to save her either. Let her reap what she sowed." *** Meanwhile, inside the Arena... "What do you think you are doing?" Sonya yelled at her teammates- former teammates as they joined the disgusting looking aliens, "I took care of you and helped you find the powers you hold and this is how you repay me?" "Shut your trap bit.ch" Skya, the witch barked back at Sonya, "I did this, I did that. The only thing you did was to use us and now, we''ll use you." "I shouldn''t have expected anything less from the witch who willingly killed her family, for some sickening ritual." Sonya replied, her de was still in her hand, ready to fight till death if need be, "What about you, Te? What kind ofme excuse do you have for betraying me?" "I don''t think I need to answer your stupid questions anymore." Te smiled like the evil bit.ch she was, "However, I don''t want you to resent me in the afterlife so I''ll tell you. There is no reason at all. I just don''t want to serve under yourmand anymore. If I have to serve someone, I''d rather serve someone who is actually strong." "Don''t know why I was expecting more from any of you. You included Rico. I always thought I will have you by my side no matter how bad things got. But I guess, I was the only one intending to keep the promise." "..." However, the silent assassin stayed true to his name when Sonya asked her the question. He had no words to say to her. He had to do it, he had to betray her to live on so that the memories of his brother would remain alive with him. He knew if he told Sonya that, she might understand him, but he also knew he would never be able to forgive him for what he had done. With that, they didn''t have any more words to exchange with each other. Their deepest desires, which they had been keeping in their hearts, had finallye out of their lips. They were finally ready to the deed and get it over with. "Fine by me, if I die, I die. But I''m dragging you backstabber to hell with me." Sonya yelled with all her might and charged towards her certain doom. She was confident in her skill, and that was the reason she knew she wouldn''t be able to win against 15 of them all by herself. It wasn''t difficult for Sonya to know who was the one who betrayed her. Te only had a couple of brain cells, there was no way in hell she would betray her on her own ord. She simply wasn''t capable enough to hatch a n like this to kill her. As for Rico, well, she had known him even from even before the dungeons started popping up on Earth. Although he was capable enough of nning something like this, she knew he wasn''t the one behind it all. His heart was simply too pure to n something like this. That left Skya. Deep down Sonya knew Skya hated her and she was the one who instigated the other two to aid her and not Sonya. And that''s why she was the first one on her list. "If I die, we all die. Remember?" Sonya yelled at the top of her lungs as she saw the 12 aliens from before charging towards her. However, the next second, help arrived from the most unexpected ce as Nicole and Johnny hold the twelve participants back, giving Sonya a shot at retribution. Chapter 482 - Betrayal (2) Sonya was shocked and surprised. Why were these idiots helping her? Even after she had not stood by their side in either of the rounds. She would have expected help from those strange aliens more but from these people. "The hell are you giving us that look for?" Nicole snarled at thedy, "You have screwed over my brother and me time and time again. For that, no one but he has the right to decide your fate." "What thedy said." Johnny jumped in on the conversation before snapping the neck of the four-armed creature, "Don''t think of it as social service. It''s just that we can''t let you die until you have paid your debts to the man." Sonya didn''t know what to say. Their brother, Arnold, would most certainly kill her if he got the chance, she knew that much. But for now, she was happy that she got a shot at retribution. There was no way she was going down without putting up a fight first, and with Nicole and Johnny backing her up.... there was no way she was going to die before killing the three backstabbers. Te immediately noticed the shift in Sonya''s attitude. She knew Sonya wasing for the kill and if the aliens they had just surrendered themselves to didn''t aid them, they had no chance against Sonya on their own. However, it seemed the aliens were having a bad time of their own. Nicole was turning their heads to dust, with just a sweep of her hand. While Johnny was enraged as if someone had killed the dog his dead wife gave him after her death. You know, like a gift from the beyond. They have been fighting against Vassals and Pdins, but against their teamwork, none of them stood a chance. "Fck! Give me some buffs now!" Te yelled at Skya who immediately went to work, but before she couldplete her incantations, a throwing knife got buried within her shoulder de. It wasn''t the first time Sonya was fighting against them. They had runbat simtions multiple times and they had not been able to defeat her even once. She was the one who had assembled the team and one could say she knew them better than they know themselves, including their weaknesses. This was no different than any simtion they had fought, only this time, Sonya was about to kill them for real. While Te and Skya were ready to fight, Rico just stood there. He knew fighting back after betraying a friend was the ultimate disrespectful thing to do. But he was still debating what he should do? Fight for the memories of his fallen brother, or die and join him in the afterlife? "There are worse ways to die, right?" Rico mumbled before smiling, "I guess, I''m fortunate to die by my friend''s hands rather than some unknown creature..." Saying so, he forced himself between just as Sonya was about to strike Te down. His crimson blood sshed all over her as he slumped down on the ground. Life was slowly slipping out of his body, but his mind was finally at peace. "Rico!" Sonya gasped and fell next to himpletely ignoring Te and Skya, "You fcking moron! Why did you do that!?" "I... knew you wouldn''t... do it yourself..." He smiled as tears flow down Sonya''s cheeks, "Also, I promised to pick up your ck... didn''t I? I just did that... Now I can go and join Mica. But you... don''t you dare die here... is that clear?" Skya and Te were not at all affected by what happened to Rico. In fact, for them, it was the perfect opportunity to end Sonya while she had her guard down. Skya quickly healed the wound on her shoulder and gave Te the buff which converted all her defence points into strength. As she was now, just one strike from Te was enough to squash the head of a vassal like a watermelon under a hydraulic press. But with her defence gone, it was the same for her. That was the fact, Skya was going to exploit as soon as Te finished Sonya off. ''This is it...'' Skya thought to herself before using another spell to buff herself up, ''Te would kill Sonya and as soon as she became a vassal, I''ll kill her. That way, I would get rid of this pathetic group and also be a vassal... hehehe.'' Te waspletely unaware of Skya''s evil n. She was thought Skya was her truepanion. When she was just a snake. In Te''s mind, Skya''s n was still afresh. Skya would help her kill a vassal so that Te would be a vassal as well, and after that Te was going to help Skya to kill some other vassal and that way both of them would be Vassals. Little did Te know, Skya was going to kill a vassal alright, but it was going to be her. Te raised her shield to kill Sonya in one swift attack, but just as she was about to do that, a bullet hole was made into her chest. However, she wasn''t the only one with a hole... Skya had one too, in her head. Both of them were shot down with a single bullet. ''I hate those who do me wrong.'' Arnold thought as Talos'' attack killed Skya and Te on the spot, ''But more than that, I hate those who stab their friends in the back.'' __ [ PROGRESS ] : ? 5/10 Pdins killed __ ''I''ll deal with Sonyater,'' Arnold turned his gaze away from her, ''I have toplete the quest first.'' Arnold knew the chaos in the Arena wouldn''tst forever. Contestants were being swatted down at an rming rate and most of them were Pdins. Also, once only a dozen or so of them remained, it would be difficult for Arnold to have them killed. Thus he needed to take as much advantage of the chaos as he could right then. He could always take care of the other matterster. He told Tiamut to keep an eye on Nicole and Johnny just in case they needed help, while he and Talos dealt with the quest. Chapter 483 - Betrayal (3) Corpses were littered everywhere. Humans, monsters and aliens alike. It was truly a sickening sight even for those who were used to frequent and merciless battles. The entire arena was covered with an assortment of different coloured blood from a variety of creatures. The floor of the arena had almost vanished under all the blood and gore left behind as the result of the battle royale. However, Arnold was getting frantic for a different reason altogether. He still needed to kill one more pdin, however, there were no Pdins remaining.... __ [ PROGRESS ] : ? 9/10 Pdins killed __ ''Fck... are there no more pdins here?'' Arnold cursed under his breath. He had been continuously using Probe to look for another pdin, but so far, his luck wasn''t with him. No matter how hard he looked, he could not find one, or if he did, it was already toote. Things were not looking good. At this rate, he would never be able to achieve godhood on his own and he could not allow that to happen. For the sake of his friends and family, he had to do it. He simply had to. Heimdall was watching him all this time. He knew Arnold was getting frustrated and he needed to guide him. So Heimdall established another link with Arnold to help him. "No more pdins?" He asked Arnold, however, there was a smugness in his voice as he said that. Something Arnold didn''t catch on as his full attention was on finding another pdin, "Seems like it. I guess everything''s going ording to n then." "Nothing is going ording to the n!" Arnold absentmindedly replied. "I wasn''t talking about your n, but ''ours''." This time Arnold did not let it slip. He clearly heard something that Heimdall wouldn''t have said before. He turned towards him and saw that Heimdall was smirking. No, it wasn''t a smirk. It was a burst of full-blownughter. "You people think of us too highly of us after reading a few pages of mythology. You think you have us all figured out, don''t you? Pathetic humans." Heimdallughed once again before continuing, "Mythology is nothing but how we gods want you, idiots, to think of us. To perceive us. The ''us'' you people read in Mythology have long ceased to exist. The ones we are now is nothing like you think." Arnold was confused. The look on Heimdall''s face was unlike anything he had seen before. He had always seen Heimdal as someone calm, collected and kind. But the twisted expression on his face changed the perspective Arnold had of him. But even then, Arnold couldn''t brush off the feeling that something was amiss. Heimdall was onto something else. Something sinister. "What did you do?" Arnold asked him. His voice no longer had the warmness it did before, "Tell me what did you do, or I''ll-" "You won''t do a thing." Heimdall smirked, "Even if you did, your precious friends would be the ones to suffer as I can change the rules of the battle as I see fit. You know what that means, don''t you?" How could he not? Heimdall was clearly threatening him. What he said, meant one thing... Nicole and Johnny had turned into his hostages. He could do anything he wanted to as long as his n could amuse the gods. Literally, anything and Arnold would be powerless to stop him. For the first time in a long time, Arnold was drowning in the feeling of helplessness. He wasn''t powerless, but helpless... and he had to keep his anger in check. For now. "Now you''re behaving like a mortal..." "Why are you doing this? I thought you were supporting the Immortal one?" Arnold managed to mumble through his gritted teeth. "Why would someone in their right mind support a dying god?" Heimdall said matter-of-factly, "That''s right. The Immortal one is not as Immortal as you think. Why do you think he suddenly needed a vassal after not caring about anything for billions of years?" "..." "It''s because he is in search of an heir so that he can die peacefully afterwards. But what were to happen if the heir died before the Immortal one? Zeus will take over as the overlord of the gods and that''s when his supporter get rewarded. That''s when I''ll get rewarded." "..." "We have no quarrel with you. It''s just your misfortune that you became the Immortal''s bit.ch. That was until what you did with Hercules and Zeus... you need to pay for that." There were a lot of things Arnold wanted to say, but he couldn''t. Not until the event was over, because if he were to do anything to Heimdall, not only he could destroy Nicole and Johnny, the rest of the gods would probably simultaneously attack him as well. "Why did you help me with the quest then? Or more importantly, how did you know about my quest?" Arnold tried to keep his mind away from getting angry and doing something he would have regrettedter. "Did I know about your quest? Of course, I didn''t." Heimdall shook his head whileughing his a.ss off, "I just saw you sneakily killing of contestants. I thought it was the right opportunity to get rid of you, but ''he'' thought otherwise and wanted me to help you out, instead. So I did, by causing enough chaos to help you out." Heimdall continued, "Then, I noticed you were killing only Pdins and nit the Vassals, so I did what any evil person would do and got rid of all the Pdins. And under the guise of the chaos, ''his'' n was put into action." "Why are you telling me all this?" "To distract you..." "From what?" "This." "Master look!!!" Tiamut eximed at the top of her lungs, snapping Arnold back to reality, "Something''s going on-" All of a sudden there was a movement in the arena. All of the remaining contestants had surrounded Nicole, Sonya and Johnny who were standing back to back. There was something wrong with the Vassals, all of them seemed stronger than they had been ever before. Arnold immediately saw red. Something was wrong... very wrong. "Talos! Take aim!" Arnold yelled but Heimdall knocked both of hispanions away before they could do anything. "ARGH!!!" The following moment, Arnold saw something that he would have never expected to see in a thousand years. While Nicole was fighting off the vassals... Johnny punched a hole right through her chest... Chapter 484 - No. More. Gods. (1) Once in our lives, therees a time when we have to transform, our mindsets need to be changed. One can change for the better or for the worse depending on what triggered this change. Whether it was grief or was it happiness. It can make you a warrior who battles for the good or a viin set to destroy it all. But what happens when grief is apanied by the worst pain one would have ever felt? That''s when a monster rises. One even the gods are afraid to confront. An unstoppable force with only one goal in their mind... eradication. Complete annihtion of everything. This.... pain severs one from the reality of the world and the man thinks about nothing but revenge to quell his anger down, to calm the raging nerves. ''I know how you feel right now...'' The smile Shiva had before was long gone. Now only sadness upied his face. But not for what happened to Nicole, but what was going to happen to the universe. He knew this was going to happen and he knew what was going to happen in the future. But even Shiva was praying to the prime creator to do something to evade the situation... however, it didn''t seem like his prayers were heard. Another monster had arisen, one that would consume the universe as a whole... Zeus and Loki thought they were so intelligent. They thought killing Nicole would smash Arnold''s willpower to bits... but what happened next could be only described as the biggest backfire in the history of the universe. Their n was a sess. They broke Arnold alright, but they broke him in a way they shouldn''t have. They killed someone closest to Arnold. His sister, the only one he had after their parents passed away. The one who kept him sane in those hard times when dungeons started appearing in the world. The only one who didn''t make him seem worthless. The one... they should have never even thought about touching. The goal of the event was to elevate a new god. Instead, a devil rose from the soul of a human. "It''s the beginning of the end..." Shiva as he got up and left along with Nandi, but not before turning around to have onest gaze to Arnold, for he would never be the same again. *** Arnold''s gun slipped from his weakened grip when he saw Nicole falling on the ground... lifeless, just like his eyes had turned. There was a barrier stopping anyone else from entering the Arena. The barrier was only supposed toe down when thepetition was over. It was a barrier even neither Zeus nor Loki could destroy, but Arnold shattered it into billion bits just like that and he had no recollection of it. All he could see was Nicole lying on the ground as blood gushed out of the gaping wound in her chest. Johnny saw himing but before Arnold could get to him, a portal opened behind him and he jumped right in. He was gone. He had betrayed them and now the fcking coward was gone. "STOP THAT MORTAL!!!" Heimdall roared at the top of his lungs while pointing at arnold, "He had broken the sanctity of the arena. Kill him this instant!" It was their n all along. To make Arnold do something rash and then even the Immortal one wouldn''t be able to stop them from executing Arnold. The Olympians, The Asgardians, everyone sent their soldiers to subdue the Arnold, but none of them was even able to get past Talos and Tiamut. Talos knew there was no turning back for what these fools had done today. He had seen Arnold like this once before, when Nina was attacked. However, they were lucky that back then, she managed to survive. However, this time... Talos knew for sure that Nicole was dead. Arnold kept walking towards Nicole, while Talos and Tiamut held the soldiers off. Everyone who was in the arena stepped out of Arnold''s way out of fear of what he might do. Arnold finally got a good look at his sister''s mutted body. Her eyes were still open... she still had the smug smile on her face. The same smile Arnold had seen multiple times before. The smile she always had when she knew she was going to make it through. Arnold wordlessly kept looking at her. He was raging inside... it felt like something within himself had exploded. The area between his brows was consumed by fire... his head was burning from the rage as it had never before. The next moment he lost all his strength and fell on his knees next to Nicole. He wrapped his arm around her and lifted her up. Hugging her just like he had so many times before. He looked her in the eyes, almost expecting her to start blinking and say it was all a prank... but nothing happened. She was gone, for real. He wanted to scream, he wanted to cry... but he couldn''t. Something had snapped inside him. His soul had been shattered into millions of pieces. He wasn''t crying but his eyes were swollen red. Whether it was because of the tears he was holding back, or due to the rage he was feeling, no one could have known. His brow kept throbbing as if there was something inside his head that was desperately trying toe out. Soon a ck blotch had formed there, in between his brows and looked like a vertical third eye. The same one as... Shiva had. "Heal her..." Arnold took out the wish from his inventory and wanted to use it to bring Nicole back to life. [Arnold... you can''t heal the dead...] "Resurrect her." [...] "I said, RESURRECT HER!" [The wish can not be used to resurrect the fallen...] It was at that moment it hit Arnold first time, Nicole was gone. He didn''t want to ept it but it was the truth. He started hyperventting. The pain in the middle of his brow was enough to drive any sane man to death. But Arnold wasn''t sane anymore. He wanted vengeance. He wanted to torture and annihte everyone who was behind this scheme. It didn''t matter whether it was a god or not they all had to die. __ Destroyer''s third eye has been sessfully manifested. __ System sama was stunned when the text appeared in front of Arnold. There was no way a mortal could have manifested the third eye. The process was so painful, even Shiva could barely tolerate it, that too when he was in his prime. Anyone who tried to activate the third eye would die from the pain in the process of its emergence and yet Arnold managed to activate it without as much as letting out a cry? System sama hastily checked Arnold''s status te... but it was empty. There was nothing but a few words written on it. __ Name: Arnold Ling Role: The One Above All Primal power manifested so far: 2.56% __ Chapter 485 - No. More. Gods. (2) Arnold stood there, stunned. He knew what had happened, but his mind couldn''tprehend what was going on. Why would Johnny betray them? Wasn''t he the one who always took care of them? No matter what task Heimdall would have given him, he would never betray them, right? Then why... "Vassal of the thunderous one..." Arnold mumbled to himself before walking onto the Arena, "He wasn''t the vassal of Thor..." [Arnold, I know this is a tough time for you but-] "Shut up..." [Please listen to me-] "Quiet..." [Walk off the arena now or you''ll be killed!] "You knew... and yet you never..." [I swear I didn''t! Someone must have done something. Someone must have sabotaged-] "I don''t need someone as frail as you on my side anymore..." [Arnold, just turn back now- Wait, what are you doing? No! Arnold DON''T-!!!] __ Destroyer ss Special Ability Activated. Are you sure you want to destroy your guardian? Yes / No __ "I don''t need you anymore..." [ARNOLD DON''T-] Silence. There was absolute silence in Arnold''s head. No longer could he hear System Sama. Until he heard someone''s voice again. But it was different. There was no emotion behind the voice. Nothing at all. __ All limiters ced on the Guardian has been removed. You are now inplete control of everything. You are bound by no restrictions. You can have the answers to all your questions. __ He had erased System sama, however, there were some remanents left and it was the voice of those remanents that he was hearing. The remanents of system sama that hadpletely integrated themselves with him. The basic build blocks of the system were now under his control. He had be his own system. He was now the master of his own. He wasn''t a vassal or a lesser god or even a higher god. He was above them all. However, his new powers were still manifesting. But that didn''t mean he couldn''t find answers to his problems. "How can I resurrect someone..." Arnold''s voice was emotionless as he got up with Nicole''s corpse still warm in his arms. __ Steps for the resurrection of a fallen soul: 1. Preservation of the corpse is of utmost importance. 2. If the one in question had been rted to any god in any way (Pdin/Vassal), then you have to gain some Universal authority before you could resurrect them. In addition to that, you will need to kill the god they were rted to. 3. To increase your universal authority, you will need to manifest your powers to 100%. 4. The easiest way to do so is through destruction. 5. Once the Primal power manifest to 100%, you''ll be an unstoppable existence, free from any rules. Only then will you be able to resurrect someone. 6. You will have to kill a lot of innocent people and gods and create a pantheon of your own. 7. Destroyer''s eye won''t work on higher entities until your powers have manifested more than 90%. This path is filled with Perilous tasks. One you would never be able to change once you step foot on it. __ "Kill the gods, huh?" Arnold turned around and walked up to Talos and handed him her corpse, "Before that... I need to do something else." He looked at the hundreds of thousands of soldiers in front of him. Even in her dragon form, Tiamut was struggling to hold them back since Talos was now taking care of Nicole. But not for long. These pesky little ants wanted to kill him? They dared to take his sister away from him and then they attempt to kill him as well. Uneptable. Completely uneptable. Arnold stepped out of his armour. He didn''t need to use his tools to get rid of them. After all, he didn''t want to bully the kids, he just wanted to kill them so that he could focus on killing the gods without these insects interfering with him. __ Destroyer ss Special Ability Activated. Are you sure you want to destroy 435,678 Soldiers? Yes / No __ "Begone." As soon as Arnold confirmed his intentions. His newly manifested third eye opened up. There was a bright sh of lighting through the third eye, and the next second all of the soldiers disappeared. Just a word was all it took for the collective army of the gods to turn to dust. The soldier they took pride in, couldn''t even stand for a mere second in front of him. __ Primal power manifested so far: 3.76% __ He wanted to target the gods next, who were scared shi.tless. They knew what the third eye was. It was the immortal one''s special skill. One that had enough power to destroy the entire universe, just in a blink of an eye. "No. More. Gods." Those were the words that would haunt the gods for the rest of their minuscule lives. Panic ensued among the gods as soon as they saw the third eye in action. All of them started fleeing away from the scene and left behind their Vassals. Arnold saw them escaping and immediately tried to use his wish. If he couldn''t resurrect Nicole, he should at least be able to trap the gods inside the colosseum. But that was a bust too... __ The wish is associated with the Immortal one and he, using his authority has declined to fulfil your wish. __ "You didn''t save Nicole, but you''re trying to save these pathetic morons?" Arnold''s anger was repeatedly crossing new limits and with his increasing rage, his powers were increasing as well, "You all are the same after all... rotten to your core. But don''t worry. I will find my way to them eventually and when I do, not even you will be able to stop me, Immortal one! Remember my words!" Portals were opening and closing all over crazily. No one wanted to stay there alone. Not even Heimdall who now realised he had messed with the wrong man. He was about to leave as well, but before he could, he found Arnold standing in front of him. "Where do you think you''re going?" Arnold asked the puny god before grabbing his shoulder and throwing him right in the middle of the arena. "You don''t know my powers foolish mortal!!!" Heimdall roared as he lunged towards Arnold with his sword, "The only fool here is you. Even after all I did, I still look like a mortal to you?" Arnold didn''t even move and yet Heimdall''s sword turned to dust and he himself was thrown to the other side of the arena. The vassals who saw this backed away... but that wasn''t good enough for Arnold. All of them were responsible for the death of his sister. If they hadn''t distracted her, she would have been able to dodge Johnny''s attack. She would have survived. But before he could do anything to them he was reminded of one important thing. The first step required for Nicole''s resurrection: Preservation of the corpse. The more time he wasted there, the lower the chance of sessful resurrection got. But he wasn''t going to let any one of them leave... not a single one. He opened a portal to his domain and instructed Talos to enter. His domain was the perfect ce to preserve Nicole''s corpse. While... it was also the best ce to torture the hell out of these bastards before they begged him for their lives. Arnold grabbed Heimdall''s leg and dragged him to his doom as he desperately looked towards Loki for help.. But he just shook his head and escaped just like everyone else. Chapter 486 - Real Enemies (1) "We can keep doing this for all eternity." Arnold mumbled while ying with a scalpel he had forged using celestial gold, "Neither you nor I will age even a second, and I''m not going to stop until you tell me what I want to hear. I''m having fun doing this too. After all, that bastard Hermes died before I could witness a god withering in pain." He was talking to a naked Heimdall, who had been tied up to a chair using chains made of titanium. Considering the weak and pathetic state he was in, it wouldn''t have mattered even if he was tied up using a single thread. Heimdall wouldn''t have been able tosh out at his torturer. On top of that, even if he could get free, what could he possibly do? He was inside Arnold''s domain. Normally he could have contested the ownership of the domain using his influence, but in front of Arnold, Heimdall''s existence was, in simple words, pathetic. A small pool of his blood and sweat had formed below his feet. Blood drizzled out of the hundreds of cuts Arnold had so generously gifted him. Heimdall had be the canvas to Arnold''s sadistic inclinations. The prominent example of it was... Heimdall''s missing eyes. He took pride in being the one who can see everything. So Arnold did what any sadistic torturer would do... he took away Heimdall''s most prized possession and gouged out his eyes. The eyes were now stored on Arnold''s inventory. Waiting to be used to upgrade his armourter on. That''s right, Arnold had decided to keep a remembrance of all the gods he would kill from now on, starting with Heimdall''s eyes. He would start the hunting season of the gods soon, and wanted all of them to feel frightened when the wait of their sins started drowning them in a sea of regrets. He wanted to see their expression when they saw him in an armour covered with organs of the higher entities he had killed. He wanted them to know exactly whom they had messed with. But that part of his n willeter. First, he needed some information from Heimdall. He could have evolved Natasha and then used her abilities to get what he wanted out of Heimdall, but he didn''t. Arnold wanted to make Heimdall suffer as he had never before. He wanted him to feel the despair and powerlessness he had felt when they took Nicole away from him. "You know, back when I was giving a thousand cuts to Hermes, I didn''t realise that I was doing it all wrong. Using a sword was the worst way to go about it." Arnold emotionlessly mumbled before dipping the de into an acidic solution, "Swords aren''t meant for torture. They are meant to do the killing. An instant release from this ursed universe. That''s when it hit me to make something small and precise that would cause immeasurable pain to someone, but won''t kill them." "I swear... I don''t know..." Heimdall weakly mumbled before blood gushed out of his mouth. It had been a week since Arnold began torturing him, without any breaks. The torture had put Heimdall on the verge of breaking, but he still hung on to the hope that someone would save him from the demon Arnold had be. "You expect me to believe that? You still had your all-seeing eyes with you when that bastard ran away. So I know you saw where he went. I tried saving you this misery by using the wish I had, to know his location but it seems that the Immortal had turned against me as well. No worries, I will kill him soon enough..." Arnold snarled and yet another clean-cut in Heimdall''s chest, "Until that moment arrives, you will tell me where Johnny is, whether you like it or not." "AHHHH!!!!" *** Heimdall''s ear-splitting scream could be heard anywhere within the domain. Arnold''s summons were worried for their master''s mental health as he hadn''t properly grieved Nicole''s loss yet. They all knew he was in pain, they all could feel it. But there was nothing they could say or do to calm him down. His rage had blinded himpletely. They knew it because hepletely ignored the one person they thought could have calmed him down. A week had passed inside Arnold''s domain since he stored Nicole''s corpse there and went back to Earth, However, he didn''t go there to mourn the loss of a sister with his family. He went there to gather his elite troops while leaving the rest of them there to protect Nina and the others in case the gods decided to pull another low blow and hit his family next. Nina knew something was wrong with Arnold the moment she saw him and Talos filled her in with what happened. She was stricken with grief as well, after all, Nicole had been a friend to her for years. She had always been there for her and now she was gone. However, she knew Arnold would be much more devastated than she was. Thus she rushed over to console him, but as she did, she realised that Arnold wasn''t emotional at all. He didn''t even shed a tear. It was as if he was... already dead inside. Talos still remembered the words Arnold told her back then when Nina tried to snap him out of his mindset. "Why mourn the loss of someone who will be back with us in no time? I will get her back even if I have to freeze hell and burn down the heaven. I will get her back. No matter the cost." These were thest words anyone of them hearding from Arnold''s mouth. Afterwards, he went into the forge made something and ever since then he had himself locked up with Heimdall and began torturing him. However, not all of the summons were worried about the universe like Talos. All they cared for was revenge. "We''ll kill every single one of those bastards!!!" Asterios couldn''t hold back his rage anymore, "By the time we are done, there shall be no trace of beings such as gods! How dare they do something like this to our master!?" "Calm down Asterios." Grock reprimanded the raging minotaur, "Let the master dictate what he wants to do first. Only then would will we do something." For the first time since turning into one of Arnold''s summon, Grock was the one not itching for a battle. Although their Master was strong, he was outnumbered and this time their enemies weren''t monsters. This was a battle where the numbers could decide the end result, at least this would happen until Arnold gained some more power. "Grock''s correct." Tiamut mumbled softly, "The gods might be weak in front of our Master when they are alone. But collectively... they are a force to be reckoned with. If we were to engage in a battle now... we might not win." "So what do we do? Sit here waiting for them to decide our fate?" Even Bad-Breath wanted revenge over those bastards. "Don''t worry about that." Tiamut mumbled, "The gods have their own disagreements that they''ll have to deal with first. Unless the master does something drastic to incite them, like obliterating an entire Pantheon, I doubt they would ever unite against us. On top of that, most of them don''t even like Zeus, which might even prompt some of them to join us and destroy Zeus... that is if the master didn''t decide to kill them first." "For now... we can only wait and hope that torturing one of them would be enough for the master to have a cool head while going about things." Talos replied to them, "In the meantime, we should start preparing for the worst. We need to expand our forces and increase our personal strength as well." "Agreed." Miro nodded along with the rest of them. "Another good thing is, we can gather information about our enemies easily through scriptures and other holy texts, but they can''t." Alice chimed in, "If we make our moves correctly, we will have the element of surprise over them." "I may not be able to fight, but I can help you out with making weapons and constructs. As long as I have enough materials, that is." Dani jumped in on the chance to prove her loyalty to Arnold. They knew the path ahead of them wasn''t one they''d look forward to, but it was a path they were destined to take.. A path to annihte the gods, or die trying. Chapter 487 - Real Enemies (2) It was only three dayster that Heimdall finally couldn''t take the pain anymore and spilt the beans quickly to ease his pain. In the end, he ended up revealing a lot of things. Things which Arnold might not have known otherwise. For starters, Arnold got to know that Zeus wasn''t the only one who had a problem with his existence as the vassal of the Immortal One, a lot of gods did. Some in fear of his ascension and some in anger that he would gain Immortal''s powers. Usually, they would have ignored their desires but someone along with Zeus had pressed all the right buttons to make them their allies. Most of these gods were the overlords of the Vassals who had participated in the war of the worlds. That''s why they all simultaneously gave their vassals the mission to kill Nicole in the end. Meaning they had already set up a trap for her. They wanted to kill her as they thought that would destroy him on the inside and he would give up on bing a god. Even Heimdall was in on the conspiracy as he was promised power in exchange for his support just like the other gods had. However, Arnold knew Zeus a bit and his pea brain would have never been able toe up with such an borate n to hurt him. And what Heimdall told him next confirmed his suspicions. Loki was the one who orchestrated this entire drama. He yed them all like the fools they were. He had been behind it all ever since Arnold gained his powers. He even tried to get him killed using some nonchnt means like with Jake the Necromancer from the flying swords guild and the Brigadier general. Heimdall also informed Arnold that the tower of trials was a sham as well. The only reason the tower appeared there was to ensure that he gets trapped in there. However, that n failed miserably and that''s when Loki decided to hurt Arnold by killing Nicole, who was his Vassal. Arnold got a bit pissed off with what Heimdall was telling him. But what he said next immediately got Arnold guilt-ridden. Nicole''s Guardian, Donna was the strongest among the other guardians. Even stronger than System Sama, due to her cunningness. Thus in order to fulfil the will of her master, Loki, she sabotaged System Sama and reced the Arrogant One with the Thunderous one, once Arnold got to know that the Arrogant one was Zeus. In other words, Donna switched System Sama''s perception of Zeus with that of Thor when the first round of the War began and the gods startedmenting on the progress made by them. ''System sama was right... He didn''t do anything wrong.'' Arnold shook his head while sighing heavily, ''My anger always gets the best of me. I''ll have to resurrect him too, somehow. There has to be a way to do that, right?'' __ Yes. The Guardians can never truly die. You can- __ ''That''s enough for now. I''ll think about it after I''m done resurrecting Nicole. That''s my priority for now.'' He then once again turned towards the god who couldn''t even cry in pain anymore. Heimdall was in a truly pathetic state. If he had known this would happen, he would have never even raised a finger against Arnold. However, Arnold still needed some answers. He wasn''t going to let Heimdall die before he got to know everything Heimdall knew about the gods. But first... "Where did Johnny escape to?" "Mount... Olympus..." Heimdall replied weakly, "Zeus was nning on adopting him... as a son and grant him godhood... that mortal was supposed... to rece Hercules... I swear that''s all I know..." "A recement... that bastard always liked to enjoy thepany of the strong people," Arnold mumbled with a straight face, "it''s either that or that coward has a daddyplex of getting adopted by someone. What about the identity of the other gods who were colluding with Zeus and Loki?" "Ask... the vassals... they''ll know... Please end this misery... I beg you..." "Got nothing else to tell me?" "I already told... you everything... just kill me... I beg you... I can''t take this pain anymore..." Heimdall kept begging. "Fine then," Arnold turned around and stabbed the scalpel into Heimdall''s throat in a sh, finally ending his misery, "I was already nning on doing that" __ Primal power manifested so far: 5.26% __ "Only 1.5% increase huh..." Arnold was hoping to increase it more than that but it didn''t seem like manifesting the power was going to be an easy task. He would need to kill a lot of beings before he challenged Zeus and Loki. But he had to be fast. Thankfully, he had to punish those fcking bastard vassals for what they did... and destroying their worlds seemed like a good start for doing that. "Either way, I wonder how Hercules will react to the news of his daddy getting a new son." Arnold mumbled, "Judging his pea brain, he wouldn''t believe me if I broke the news to him. However, if someone credible would tell him this... someone he knows wouldn''t lie, then he might even work for me. Looks like I need to resurrect Heimdall after all." *** Arnold''s summons were waiting for him right outside the building. In the meantime, all of them were busy training their bodies to the extreme for the inevitable battle ahead. Tiamut had taken up the role of an instructor as she had actualbat experience against the gods which was invaluable knowledge for them. "The Higher Gods aren''t the only ones we need to be wary of. The Lesser Gods, if given the chance, can be just as big of a pain as the Higher Gods." She roared while the others got busy duelling amongst themselves, "The weakest part of any god is their nape and the back of the head. That''s why all of their battle armours protect those parts at the very least." While they were doing that, Talos and Dani were busy creating an army of constructs. He was making Automatons while Dani was making golems with anything she could use. The domain was full of hustling and bustling until Arnold came out of the room he had been torturing Heimdall in. It was the first time the summons had seen him in ten days and he looked nothing like before. His eyes that always had a glow of hope within them now looked sunken, emotionless and lost. The only thing they could see was his anger. But it was different, it wasn''t as chaotic as they had assumed it would be. He had turned into more like a dormant volcano, calm and collected now, but could burst at any moment. His ckened third eye was visibly throbbing as the power within Arnold grew by a bit. He looked like he had gone beyond something as meagre as rage. "Master!" All of them immediately went on their knees to greet him, however, Arnold remained silent. He stared at them for a while before asking Alice, "Where is Talos? Bring him here." Alice got up without saying a single word and rushed towards the forge, while the others had their head bowed down. "Don''t mind me," Arnold said before sitting down, "carry on with your training." Chapter 488 - Impromptu Allies (1) "You called for me, master?" Talos Asked Arnold who was still sitting on the floor waiting for him to arrive. "I did. Follow me." Arnold got and led Talos back to the room where he had tortured Heimdall, and pointed at the corpse of the god, "Resurrect him." "Master, are you sure about it?" Talos wasn''t sure it was a good idea to resurrect a fallen god. After all, doing so would mean that Arnold was essentially granting him immortality. If Heimdall was to refuse his authority then, it might cause Arnold troubleter on. That''s why he wanted to make sure that Arnold actually had thought it through and wasn''t making a hasty decision by doing this. "I got it all under control. Just do as I said." Arnold replied in his emotionless voice. In fact, Arnold''s voice was probably even more emotionless than those of the automatons now. Either way, Talos got the confirmation he needed and that was it. He just wanted to make sure he had expressed his opinion, nothing else. A few moments passed and Heimdall slowly opened his eyes. He was rxed as if he had just woken up from a nightmare. However, the reality soon dawned upon him and he realised he hadn''t woken up from the nightmare... but he had woken up ''in'' the nightmare. Talos'' advanced resurrection spell healed all of Heimdall''s wounds. Even his eyes, although, now they were more like normal eyes and nothing more. However, these eyes were enough to cause him to panic. Arnold''s ruthless eyes were all he could see and started frantically looking around. He saw Talos and immediately lept towards him. Heimdall knew he was the one who resurrected him as Arnold''s godly powers had not manifested enough for him to resurrect someone. On top of it, the state he was in, Heimdall knew it wasn''t a ''true'' resurrection. But an ability that only a master necromancer could use. Thus he knew it was Talos who had resurrected him, and he was also the one who could cancel the resurrection. He wasn''t sure if Arnold''s summon could resurrect a god, that''s why he was happy when Arnold finally killed him. Thinking Arnold would never be able to resurrect him and hurt him again. But he was proven wrong yet again. "No... no. NO! Cancel the resurrection! I beg you-" "For a god, you sure beg a lot. The title of the god of beggars would suit you more than something as fancy as the protector of Asgard." Arnold said before squatting down to Heimdall''s level, "Listen up, you got two choices now. Either help me and maybe when I''m done doing what I have to, I''ll grant you eternal peace or I''ll chop you in pieces and kill you right now. However, it won''t be the end as you''ll resurrect again and I''ll do the same again and again till you agree to do the former." If someone else would have said those words to him, Heimdall would haveughed at their face. But after being tortured by him for days, he knew how sadistic Arnold could be. It wasn''t wise to anger him anymore and when Heimdall thought about it, Arnold''s proposal didn''t seem bad at all. In fact, if he joined up with him, he just might be able to get his revenge on Loki and Zeus for using him and abandoning himter on. And after all, was done and taken care of, he just might achieve peace. "I... agree," Heimdall said in a calm tone while bowing down in front of his new master. Arnold wordlessly got up and looked in the far corner of the room. There was another corpse lying there. The corpse too was once a god but now he was going to be another ve for Arnold to rule over. However, this time Arnold was actually contemting whether it was a good idea or not. Unlike Heimdall, Hermes was practically useless to him without his gears, that is, his shoes that Arnold had destroyed already. Moreover, he was sure that Hermes would even submit to him. After all, Hermes probably hated him just as much as Zeus did and unlike Heimdall, Hermes wasn''t aware of the new side of Arnold and might not give in with just threats. A couple of seconds passed and Arnold decided it was not worth it. At least not yet. With that, the three of them walked out of the chamber and towards an onlooking summons who couldn''t believe he actually resurrected Heimdall. "Bring me Hercules," Arnold asked everyone there and all of them rushed over to look for the demigod who had been reduced to a dog. While they were doing that, Heimdall was left alone with Arnold there. Heimdall thought that now that they were on the same side, he should express his condolences but even before he could utter a word Arnold stopped him. "Keep your words to yourself and don''t be confused," Arnold said while briefly pointing his summons, "Unlike them, you are my ve and you don''t speak until spoken to or ask permission first." "As you wish," Heimdall immediately stepped back and waited for a few seconds before opening his mouth once again, "Can I ask you something, my lord?" Arnold nodded and Heimdall continued, "Forgive my rudeness, but if you can have a god resurrected on your will then why didn''t you resurrect your sister the same way?" "You think I''m a fool who didn''t try? Or are you a fool who doesn''t even know the steps of the resurrection of a vassal? Either way, I did do everything that came to my mind but nothing worked..." Arnold shook his head before continuing, "Nothing will work on her till I kill Loki, who was the one Nicole served. Only none of the resurrection techniques worked on her. Since I have to kill Loki either way, I decided it was better for me to do it by myself as Talos'' resurrection might be iplete even after all that. I hope that satisfied your curiosity?" "It did..." Heimdall nodded, "What are we doing here then?" "Gathering strong allies.. That''s what." Chapter 489 - Impromptu Allies (2) It took them a while to look for Hercules. The domain was vast and not a good ce to keep and dog without a leash. After looking for a few minutes, Tiamut dragged him out of the cells where they were keeping all those vassals, where Hercules was found dry humping one of the aliens. Hercules might have been behaving like a dog, but he was still a demigod stronger than any of the vassals there. Thus, once he entered their cell, he could do whatever he pleased and none of them would have been able to stop him even if they wanted to. It was a good thing that he was technically dead and couldn''t reproduce... otherwise who knew what else he would have done. Either way, he was brought forward in front of Arnold who kept on looking at him with indifferent eyes. Without saying a word Arnold yanked the cor off and Hercules slowly got a hold over himself. However, as he did, memories of the time he spent as a dog came rushing back into his head. His eyes turned red with rage. How dare Arnold humiliate him like that? He was Hercules! The son of the mighty Zeus. Blinded by rage he turned towards Arnold ready to fight him to the death, however, as soon as he saw Arnold all idea of fighting flew straight out of his head. At first, he thought there was a blotch in between Arnold''s brows, left behind as a result of an injury. But the more he looked at it, the more he realised that wasn''t the case. It wasn''t a blotch or a wound, it was the third eye. Only a fool wouldn''t know about the Destroyer''s eye. An eye that held enough power to destroy the entire universe with just a blink. Over billions, no, trillions of years countless gods had tried to activate it and failed miserably. The only one known to have sessfully manifested it was the Immortal one. ''Did he inherit the Immortal''s powers?'' That was the first thought that crossed Hercules'' mind. However, when he looked into Arnold''s eyes, he knew that wasn''t the case. His eyes weren''t the eyes of someone who was triumphant, but of someone who was defeated. All of a sudden, Hercules broke intoughter thinking his father must have done something to the arrogant idiot. "Oh, high and mighty one, why art thou sad?" Hercules didn''t hold back in the slightest while mocking Arnold. What could he do to him? Kill him? Destroy him? Obliterate him? Doing any of those things would be nothing but an act of kindness to someone who had been reduced to his current state. "Are you done?" Arnold replied to his mockery as if he couldn''t give two fcks about what Hercules had to say to him. Hercules stoppedughing out of shock. If he would have said something like that before, Arnold would have definitely thrown a fit, but now it was like he didn''t care about anything in the world. It was at that moment, Hercules realised something had changed deep within Arnold. "Looks like it," Arnold continued before turning around to face the man standing next to him, "Tell him what you told me." Hercules had been so caught up on Arnold, he didn''t realise who the man standing next to him was. As soon as Hercules saw Heimdall there, he immediately got down on his knees. They might have had their differences in the past, but Hercules had nothing but deep respect for the Protector of Asgard. In fact, he was one of the few whom he respected enough to show it. "We are equals now, Hercules." Heimdall said in a confident voice, "As we both serve the same master." "What do you- how?" Hercules would have never thought Heimdall would be reduced to the state of a mere undead as well. "I sided with your father and-" "Just get to the point. You can chatter when I''m not here." Arnold didn''t have the time to listen to their idle chatter. He had things he needed to do and people to kill. Heimdall gave him a courteous nod and broke the news to Hercules, "Your father has reced you with someone else. A new son, but just like you were." Hercules kept staring at Heimdall as if he had never seen him before. His father reced him? What kind of bullshit was he spewing out of his mouth? His father would never do something as cruel as that to him! He was his favourite son! One who died trying to fulfil his desires and he reced him? No there was no way Zeus would do something like that to him. Heimdall was lying... It must be another one of Arnold''s ploys to use him. Hercules got up and threw a punch directed at Heimdall. But before his punch could even graze the Asgardian, Hercules found his face firmly nted on the ground. He desperately tried to get back up, but a finger was all it took for Arnold to keep him pinned down. "Your lies won''t work on me!" Hercules eximed in a fit of rage, "My father will nothing do something like that!" "Oh, high and mighty one, why art thou enraged?" Arnold said before briefly pping him across the face, "You are my ve, and my ves aren''t allowed to throw a fit in front of me. Heimdall, tell him what that bastard Zeus'' n was." And so, Heimdall retold the entire story with Arnold''s permission. He also pointed out that Zeus was adopting Johnny because he did something Hercules failed to... hurt Arnold. Godhood was just a reward for what he did... and that he was nning to change Johnny''s name to Herakles, another version of Hercules'' real name. "I swear in the name of Asgard, there isn''t a single lie in what I told you," Heimdall concluded by saying. Hercules was in a state of calm rage. He was still having a hard time epting that his father had just tossed him aside like that. But he knew Heimdall would never lie after swearing in the name of Asgard because if he did, then Asgard would be obliterated into pieces. Arnold finally let go of Hercules who slowly got back to his feet. Hercules was seething. He wanted revenge against Zeus... after everything he had done for the man, he dared to toss him aside like one of his used whores? He wanted to make him pay... make them all pay. "I know you want revenge, and I know you want strength." Arnold mumbled calmly, "I can give both of those things to you, but only if you swear loyalty to me. Zeus has stabbed all of us in the back, but now it''s time we do something about it. Or you can keep sulking here that daddy got a new son. The choice is yours." Saying so, Arnold extended his hand towards Hercules, who nkly stared at Arnold. After a long time, Hercules had found someone he could respect. He knew Arnold could achieve greatness, after all, he did defeat him and Heimdall, two of the greatest warriors of their respective pantheons, fair and square. Thus, Hercules had no issues epting help from someone like him. Someone who could help him get his revenge.. He immediately shook Arnold''s extended hand. Chapter 490 - Cycle Of Destruction "Talos, take them and do the necessary enhancements using beast crystals." Arnold waved his hands before walking towards the cells where the vassals were being held captive, "The private dungeon wouldn''t open for a couple of months. Till then, try to upgrade yourselves as much as you can. After that, I''ll use [Enhancement] on all of you to further increase your limit. We''ll keep repeating this cycle till you all are strong enough to take down Zeus by yourself." "Yes, master!" All of them roared in unison. But even then they all knew it wasn''t possible. Unlike their master they had a limit, they could increase their strength to. Once they reach that limit, even Arnold''s godly enhancement technique wouldn''t be enough to push them on par with Zeus. However, it should be enough for them to take on everyone apart from the king of gods himself. That being said, Talos took Hercules and Heimdall away to give them the strength the rest of Arnold''s summons had. Though Talos was sure that enhancing the two of them would use up almost all of the crystals they had, it would be worth it. Having their already unparalleled strength increased, even more, would ensure that at least they would be able to fight back against the gods. In the meantime, Arnold got to the cell where the Vassals were being kept captive. However, before he could even look at anyone else, his eyes caught the sight of Sonya. She too was being kept with everyone else. "What are you doing here?" Arnold asked her before pulling the door open. As soon as the vassals caught sight of Arnold, they instinctively backed away. None of them wanted to face him, none except Sonya who got up and walked up to the newly ordained god. Unlike the others, she didn''t feel scared of him, not anymore... but she sympathised with him. She too had lost a lot of people in the past and could somewhat understand the pain Arnold was in. Especially after her friends decided to betray her, just like Johnny decided to betray him. "Your summons kept me here for your judgement," Sonya mumbled a reply before giving him a weird hug, "I''m sorry for your loss. Your sister was a great woman." Arnold didn''t immediately shove her back but made it clear he did not like being touched, especially by those who had tried to hurt him. He could have killed her right then and there, but he didn''t. It wasn''t the right thing to do. For whatever reason, Nicole had saved her and he wasn''t going to undo that. "You can leave now." With a wave of the hand, he conjured up a portal leading to the memorial ind. He then turned towards her and gestured for her to leave. At the moment, he had bigger things to worry about than killing an ant. Sonya was surprised. She was sure that Arnold was going to kill her for real. Even if he didn''t, she thought he would turn her into one of his ves or something along those lines. But she had never ever thought Arnold would just let her leave like that. "I-I don''t... No, it would be wrong of me to leave without repaying you." Sonya shook her head, "Your sister saved me, and I''m indebted for that as well." "You want to repay me?" Arnold looked at her as if she was plotting something. Just as he thought that his third eye opened on its own and scanned Sonya as if she was an essory. Arnold didn''t know what was happening but he soon got his answer. __ This individual isn''t lying. She speaks her intentions. __ ''A lie detection skill?'' Arnold thought to himself, ''It is going to be highly useful while interrogating those bastard Gods or maybe the vassals.'' On second thought, even Arnold couldn''t deny that Sonya was strong. She wasn''t the strongest in any way, but she was strong enough to be useful to him. After all, it would be a disgrace if Arnold didn''t use someone who wanted to be used by him. "There is one way you can be of use to me." Arnold mumbled before pointing to the portal, "You can help protect my family in my absence. That way you would be able to repay whatever debt you think you have to me." "Thank you for giving me this opportunity! I won''t disappoint you!" "Yeah, yeah. Now get going. Head inside the portal. It will drop you in front of the house. Ask for Devon and tell him I sent you." Sonya nodded and disappeared inside the portal as it shut down. With that out of the way, Arnold could focus on the task at hand. He wanted to obtain the coordinates of all of these bastardss. After all, he needed to know where they were in order to destroy them. But he doubted they would be willing to cooperate with him. Not that he cared about such a trivial thing. The way he see it, they had no choice but to cooperate when he was done blooding them into being his blooded family. That way, not only would he be able to know the''s location, he would also be able to travel there with his army at his toe and annihte every single one of them. Earlier he would have debated whether he should kill them or not as they were innocent in all this. But not anymore. No one was innocent in this universe and if they were, then he was doing them a favour by killing them before they got corrupted by the gods. ''Yes... killing them is an act of mercy. I''m doing them a favour. There is nothing wrong with that. These idiots are born to be used by others, so why don''t I put them to good use first?'' While thinking that he grabbed one of those aliens by its slimy neck and began turning them into his loyal blooded servants. His abilities still had a cooldown so he could only turn one of them at a time. But it perfectly fitted his ns as it gave him ample time to destroy a before blooding another one of them and continuing the cycle of destruction.. Till it was enough to take on the gods. Chapter 491 - Universal Influence White, sleek hair awkwardly hung over a beautiful, yet furrowed frowning face. Her narrow golden eyes, set high within their sockets, watch loyally over her new master. A big scar could be seen on the left side of her face which started right below her eyes and ended just above her lips. But even the scar couldn''t keep her beauty from shining. She was a high elf after all. Her eyes were shining as she set her gaze upon the man she served. Ready to kill or be killed for him. All previous sense of hostility was gone as soon as her master''s blood started flowing in her veins. In the prison cell, she stood like a statue of loyalty while the rest of them cowered away in fear. The more these vassals got to know of Arnold''s power, the more they realised how feeble their own strength was in front of him. It was no wonder that even the gods decided to flee from him the moment he turned into a higher being himself. "Yourmand, my master?" Nilerea Dawnwhisper, the vassal from the Alfemia, the world of elves asked Arnold who had just finished blooding her into his servant. However, Arnold wasn''t paying attention to her at the moment. He had just got an interesting notification from the remnants of system sama. __ Due to receiving blood from a godly being, the vassal''s connection with her god has been severed. This being bows to a new overlord now, . You have gained a new apostle! Your universal influence has increased! +100,000 Her stats will be changed ordingly. However, you can provide her with additional stats upon your will. Although doing so would use up your universal influence. Current Universal Influence = 1,193,046,567 Primal power manifestation has increased by 0.12%. Primal power manifested so far: 5.38% __ ''Interesting... very interesting.'' Arnold absentmindedly scratched his chin, ''If only I had awakened while Nicole was still alive I could have used this to sever her connection with Loki and would have been able to- no... there''s no point in dreaming up scenarios. I need to focus on the task at hand.'' Either way, the notification in front of him was nothing but positive news. If one had to think about it, the notification cleared up a few things. First, that although he wasn''t a full-fledged god yet, he could still function as one. Seeing that he could make someone an apostle just like the gods, was proof for it, itself. Last, the increase in Primal power manifestation rate meant, as he made more apostles down the road his overall strength as a god will also increase. Meaning his army would also be stronger and he''ll be able to easily dispose of the gods. The only peculiar thing was the Universal influence. Arnold had no idea what it was and how it had such a high value in the first ce when he hadn''t done much after bing a god. Thankfully, he soon received his answer from the remnants. __ Universal Influence is a way to measure the strength among the gods as Cosmic ranks don''t do justice to the strength a god can have. For example, most of the gods ranked at Cosmic SS rank but their strength varies massively. That''s when Universal Influencees into y. In general terms, one can say, the higher the universal influence has, the stronger they are. However, just like everything else, there are exceptions here as well. Exceptions like you who has lower Universal Influence amongst all of the higher gods, and yet you are stronger than most of them. __ Arnold had already been made aware of the existence of a higher scale than the Cosmic scale that was used to rank Shiva. But since not all gods could reach that level, he already thought there should have been some other kind of method to scale the other gods and it looked like his thinking was spot on. However, this still didn''t exin why he had such an absurd amount of universal influence when he had just turned into a god, that too not a true god, just something in between. Once again, the remnants of the system rushed to solve his query. It had almost started to feel like he was had an encyclopedia with him, one that could answer anything. __ Answer: When a mortal being ascends to godhood, the amount of exp they have until that moment is converted to their Universal Influence. It is done so that the newly ascended god can have some authority over someone (mostly an apostle who can spread their name) and slowly gain more influence over time. Since the gods can not rank up using exp, it is automatically converted into Universal influence. The mostmon way of increasing one''s universal influence is through making the races spread across the universe praise you as a god, or by destroyings with life. Thetter would give you an enormous amount of universal influence in a short time thus most of the gods opt for this option. However, doing so might make the other races scared of you and you might lose the option to do the former. The former option, on the other hand, provides you with a steady stream of Universal influence over millenniums. A god is free to choose how they want to proceed. It''s as simple as that. __ "Hm... this is interesting," Arnold mumbled absentmindedly. Who would have thought a god''s life would be so strenuous? He certainly didn''t. Although, the option to cultivate preachers for a steady stream of Universal influence seemed good at first nce. He didn''t need it right now. Arnold had enough reasons for thinking like this. Firstly, he was going to destroy thes either way as he wanted to increase his Primal power which could be only increased by causing destruction. Thus he would receive universal influence either way. Secondly, he didn''t want to be a crowd-pleaser. He was only trying to be a god so that he could resurrect Nicole. Nothing else. As soon as that was done, he wouldn''t give two fcks about what happens to the universe. Andstly... destroyings seemed like a more fun option than the other one and it would also satisfy his need for vengeance against the vassals. Furthermore, doing so should make the gods aware that he wasing for them and it wasn''t going to be a meet and greet session.. Thus Arnold decided to stick with his original n and do what he was already nning to. Chapter 492 - Alfheim: The Land Of The Elves It didn''t even take more than a couple of minutes for Arnold''s forces to mobilise. Even though he didn''t have most of his army with him, Arnold knew, he was more than enough to get rid of the by himself. But he still wanted to take unforeseen circumstances into the ount and decided to let his elite summons apany him. In the meantime, he wore his armour and opened up a portal leading to Nilerea''s world. Since he had blooded her, he could travel anywhere where she had spent some time. This was the main reason Arnold had decided to blood all of them rather than torture the information out of them. Once everyone was ready, they all walked into a world none of them had ever been to. Arnold''s first concern was whether there would be oxygen on an alien or not. That was the reason he wore his armour prior to stepping foot on the alien soil. "It''s safe, master." Talos informed Arnold, "There is breathable oxygen here. In fact, this world appears to be somewhat identical to earth. It''s just ten times bigger hence the gravitational force is also higher." Arnold didn''t utter a word to acknowledge him. Instead, he opened up his visor and let the world greet him on its own. He closed his eyes as the fresh air of Alfheim grazed his face, calming his broken soul for a bit. The light bathed Arnold''s skin in along with the surface of the world. He looked at the trees and they looked as if they were dancing amongst each other with the wind guiding their every move like a careful instructor. No matter how far and wide Arnold''s gaze fell, there was greenery and nothing else. The grass felt crispy under his feet. On one side of his army, the trees as tall as skyscrapers could be seen and on the other an evesting field of grass and flowers. Mysterious Hare-like creatures scampering away from them could be seen. Weirdly enough, although the sky was as bright as any sky could be, Arnold could still see the stars as they shine like silver snowkes. Arnold could see and smell a lot of beautiful things. It almost reminded him of the time he was stuck in the first transdimensional dungeon he had been to. However, this ce was much more beautiful than that dungeon had been. He absentmindedly walked in and out of shady des. The peace of the morning was soul-soothing. The forest''s smell was fresh and organic. It was the purest world he had ever seen. In fact, it was the purest world any human had ever seen. Arnold didn''t remember how long it had been since he had felt such calmness in his life. It must have been when he held Aiden for the first time in his hands. Or maybe it would have been the life he lived after killing Hercules... that year was the best of his life. He had everything he had ever wondered about. But now, it all felt broken. He was willingly walking down on a path of destruction. All of a sudden, he started doubting his decision. Was reviving Nicole truly worth sacrificing so many people who weren''t even aware of her existence? Why couldn''t he just let her go and ept the present? It wasn''t the first time he had lost a close one. Being a warrior, he should have gotten used to this feeling right? Then why? ''Shut up...'' Arnold''s voice echoed in his head as his third eye opened. __ You have broken the curse of the Dark elves. You now see the world with no obstruction. __ "... I got a bit overwhelmed," Arnold mumbled absentmindedly before drawing the visor back up to cover his face once again, "Despite its beauty, this is pretty dangerous. You should have told me about this earlier, Nilerea. Or were you hoping I''ll lose myself and you''ll be free?" The high elf immediately went to her knees and apologised, "It wasn''t my intention, master. I hadn''t been here in so long I forgot about the defence magic the Dark elves might have ced to protect them from an invading army." "It''s better for me to stay inside my little cacoon then. I almost lost myself there for a second..." The air Arnold had felt on his face, was carrying the charm of the forest. It was a curse ced by the elves to protect their sacred forest and the fact that he almost fell for it, spoke volumes. He was strong, but the elves magic was stronger... and that didn''t even make any sense. He was someone even gods didn''t try to bother and yet these freaking long-eared, attractive looking bastards dared to fool him? "It''s not them... someone must be helping them. Probably a god." Arnold then turned towards Nilerea again, "Which god does your civilisation preach to?" "Lady Carollion, the elven goddess of moon, magic and warfare. Our creator and-" "Just answer what I ask. No need to boast about someone whom I''ll probably end up killing soon." Arnold tone felt like he was merely stating a fact, "Did any one of you feel as if you were in a dream too?" All of his summons shook their heads. If they had sensed any danger like that they would have alerted Arnold beforehand. This meant the magic didn''t work on the dead. Which was a relief because if he had difficulty freeing himself from the effect of the charm, he could only wonder what could have happened if all of his summons went berserk. He then looked at Nilerea and she shook her head as well. The spell didn''t affect her either. "Do any other species live on his that can endanger their safety?" Arnold asked Nilerea once again. "No. Light elves and Dark elves are the only ones capable enough of causing harm to each other." "And you are a light elf?" "Yes, master." "This barrier was created by dark elves?" "You are correct, master." "Since you are unaffected from the barrier. It''s safe to say, this barrier was specially made for me then," Arnold shrugged his shoulders and turned to face the forest, "No wonder they were able to fool me for a second. I was wondering whether I should destroy such a wonderful ce.. But now I''m sure I will destroy this." Chapter 493 - Slaughterhouse (1) Arnold thought he was being sneaky about his n to destroy thes of the vassals. But it seemed like the gods had already thought about his next moves and nned ordingly. As irritating as the current situation was, there was nothing he could do about it. Also, this magic had put him on the edge. His armour should protect him, for now. But there were bound to be other traps inside the forest and if the first trap almost got him, then he could only think about what the other trap will be able to do to him. "The elves live inside the forest right?" Arnold asked Nilerea who nodded her head, "Then we''ll have to lure them out. Tiamut, you''re up." Tiamut gave him a short, but curt nod and transformed into her dragon form. But this time, her size kept growing and growing till she could look over the entire forest. All of them stepped back, as they knew what was going toe next. The next moment one of her dragon heads spewed toxic gas into the forest as the forest became shrouded with a thickyer of green mist. "The poison won''t work on elves, master." Nilerea politely mumbled, "We elves are born immune to any kind of poison-" "She isn''t trying to poison them," Arnold said without even turning to face her, "But something much better. Something that will make your god know, she isn''t going to live for long." After a couple of minutes, Tiamut stopped spewing poison and opened another one of her dragon mouths. The one that spewed hellfire. The moment her blue mes touched the green mist there was a loud explosion as if several nuclear bombs had gone off simultaneously. The end result? The forest the elves were hiding in, was uprooted in an instant. There was nothing left behind but the charred trees and destroyed wildlife in a huge crater. The smoke after the obliteration of the forest could even be seen from space. The forest which had been green and full of life had turned into nothing but a ckened pit of death and misery. The crater must have put a huge dent on the itself as shockwaves were sent in every direction. If their goddess was thinking she could have stopped him somehow, then she was dead wrong. No mere god will ever be able to stop him again or decide the path he would walk on. Never again. "Tiamut! The master needs to kill them himself to gain influence!" Talos yelled at the dragon overlord, "How will-" "It''s fine Talos." Arnold interrupted the automaton, "Even if I would have killed 100,000 of them, the rate wouldn''t go up by more than 0.00025% ording to my calctions." "My apologies then," Talos mumbled and stepped back. Nilerea couldn''t believe her eyes. There was a saying that the elves are invincible as long as they had the blessing of the forest by their side... but it seemed even the forest couldn''t go up against someone like her new master. She knew her allegiance was with her master, but even then upon seeing the destruction of the entity they prayed to, was a bit much for her. She got extra quiet, and Arnold noticed it immediately. But he didn''t give a fck about her emotions. He was there to conquer and destroy, Nilerea knew it from the start and if she still couldn''te to terms with what he was doing then there was nothing he could do to ease her mind. As Tiamut turned back to her human form, Arnold turned towards the rest of them and start giving them their orders. "Talos, Grock, Dread and Asterios, you guys will look for any high ranking elven official you can find. I have a hunch the rulers of the forest might not have gone down so easily. Bring them to me alive." The four of them immediately got to work without wasting a single moment. "Duke, Cerberus, Bad-Breath, Miro. You people will look for any corpses you can find and bring them here. Natasha and Tiamut, you will go with them and if youe across anyone who is alive, bring them to me." They too went to work as well and then Arnold turned towards Nilerea, "On a ten times bigger than mine, no way that all the civilisation only existed in this forest. Am I right?" Nilerea nodded, she waspletely aware of what was going to happen next. Arnold was going to kill all of them without exception. It didn''t matter to him whether they had anything to do with the gods or not. He will end them all. "Heimdall, Hercules. Visit the ces Nilerea tells you about and locate all of the ces with civilisation. Alice, Ogur, the two of you will go with them as well. Do not kill any of the elves, if possible and bring as many of them as you can here." Arnold instructed them, "Yan, you''ll stay here with me. We need to expand the army and you will help me do that." With everyone having been given their tasks, they rushed to achieve what their master wanted them to. While Arnold took out his weapon and began tending to it. He had two goals in his mind when he stepped foot on the. To kill them and turn them into a part of his army, and to lure their goddess out and kill her as well. He hoped to increase the rate of Primal power manifestation by at least 2% and that wouldn''t be possible without killing the god they served. But he also knew no god will willingly appear in front of him as that would mean sure death for them. Thus Arnold wanted to capture some live samples and lure their dearest goddess out, before ughtering her. But he wasn''t heartless enough to kill every one of them. He will leave the children with enough adults to take of them and then return once again to kill them and repeat the cycle over and over again. He was nning to turn their into his personal ughterhouse which will guarantee him a slow, but constant supply of primal power and universal influence. Think of it as his personal KF..C branch. Chapter 494 - Slaughterhouse (2) Arnold had arrived on the with 16 of his summons and Nilerea who was his apostle. That was his entire army but within a couple of hours, his army had expanded to over 100,000 with the addition of the elves Tiamut had killed. Their corpses were collected and dumped in front of Yan to do his lich magic and turn them into his loyal undead soldiers. Just like Arnold had thought, there were elves who had managed to save themselves using top tier elven magic. However, they had used all of their mana to protect themselves and now they were no different than a bunch of low levelled goblins. Upon Arnold''s orders, anyone who was alive had their wounds patched up using Elven magic Nilerea could use. While the dead were turned into his private army. Arnold knew if he had to take the gods on, he needed to do something about their army. If an all-out war was to break out, then he would most likely be too preupied with the gods that he wouldn''t be able to tend to their godly army. Although his army was good, he didn''t have much confidence in anyone except his elite summons to be able to squash the enemies. What he was trying to say was that the other undead summons might not have enough skills to take down the army of gods. Thus, for the first time in his life, he was going to prefer quantity over quality. He would have to destroy hundreds ofs, if not more and that would further increase the diversity of his army as well. Which should make it harder for the gods to doe up with a tactic to defeat him, but it was all in the future. Right now, he had other matters to attend to. In the meantime, Nilerea was busy tending to the wounds of the elves who once were enemies, but upon their goddess'' will, they decided to reconcile and fight against the greater threat... Arnold. And seeing one of their kind helping Arnold of her own will, made them sick to the deepest pits of their stomach. Something they didn''t waste any time expressing. As soon as Nilerea reached the Dark Elven queen, to heal her wounds, the queen spat out a mouthful of blood at Nilerea''s face. Staining her pearl white skin and dress. "You ungrateful Helf! How does it feel to betray your kind in a madman''s crusade?" The Elven queen cursed and Nilerea stood there as silent as the dead forest, "When the day of judgementes, you will reap the burden of your sins and that day, you will regret ever allowing to let that man step his foot here!" "Talking about me are we?" Arnold saw themotion from the side and walked up to see what was going on. It was fine till the queen was cursing Nilerea, but the moment Arnold realised she was talking ill about her because she was serving him, he couldn''t ignore it any longer. Tyrant or not, Arnold was still fairer than most of the gods were. If he wanted to, he could have killed all of them himself right then and there. But he had to lure their so-called goddess out of her rabbit hole, and he could only do it if at least a few of these bastards were left alive. He turned to look at Nilerea and could see the conflict on her face. It was safe to say that the words of the Elven queen had got to her. But Arnold had the perfect way to resolve this issue... with a little bloodshed. ''Hm... it would also give me the opportunity to try this.'' Arnold opened up a new tab that appeared when he ascended to godhood. __ Apostle Details: ? Allen (Unblessed) ? Amanda (Unblessed) ? Yu Zhung (Unblessed) ? Nilerea (Blessed) __ Everyone Arnold had ever blooded could be now considered as an Apostle by themselves. However, they wouldn''t receive the benefits of being an apostle unless Arnold wanted them to. That''s why next to every name apart from Nilerea the word Unblessed was mentioned. Arnold then selected Nilerea''s tab and another prompt opened up in front of him. __ Would you like to give this apostle a mission? __ ''Yes.'' __ Select the type of mission and add rewards and penalties if you want to. (Note: You can only reward things that you currently own. You can also use your Universal Influence to give them exp. Upon sessfulpletion of the task, you''ll receive a certain per cent of your universal influence back.) __ ''Why would I give away my universal influence for such a meagre task? I''ll give her some other reward instead... one she won''t be able to refuse.'' Thinking so, Arnold set a mission and a reward for Nilerea and gave her, he first mission. Nilerea turned towards him the moment a notification shed in front of her. The look on her face said it all, she wasn''t expecting this from Arnold at all. __ You have received a new quest! [ INTRODUCTION ]: Your lord has been disrespected in front of your eyes. Avenge his hurt ego. [ TASK ]: Kill the Dark Elven Queen and serve her severed head to [The One Above All]. [ PROGRESS ]: 0/1 Dark Elven Queen head severed [ REWARDS FOR COMPLETION ]: ? The One Above All will acknowledge your loyalty towards him. [ PENALTY FOR FAILURE ]: ? All of the elves would be killed. ? Alfheim will be destroyed. __ It was a task... a task to kill the elven queen and as for the reward... Arnold would let the other elves live. If she failed the task, he would kill all of them right then and there. But he wouldn''t stop there, he would destroy the entire. Nilerea kept looking at Arnold, hoping he would forgive them. But when he didn''t even gave them another look and kept staring at her, she realised Arnold was being serious. He wasn''t kidding when about killing them all or destroying their world. Without speaking another word, Nilerea took out her sword and with a clean movement, severed the head of the queen, before picking it up and cing it right in front of Arnold''s feet. "The task has beenpleted, my lord." Chapter 495 - Slaughterhouse (3) Arnold was just messing with Nilerea when he said he would kill everyone on the. He had no intention of doing something like that. He just mentioned those things to push Nilerea into doing what she did. If he hadn''t pressurized her, he was sure she wouldn''t haveid a finger on any one of them. Arnold spared a look at the severed head before kicking it towards Yan, who understood what the master wanted and resurrected the elven queen as amon soldier. The rest of the captured elves learned their lesson and decided to keep their emotions to themselves. None of them even dared to look Arnold or anyone on his side, in the eye, as they were afraid they will meet a simr end soon. But Arnold was not having it. He wanted to enter the next phase of his n as soon as possible. He squatted down to be at the elves level and asked them one simple question. "Does you goddess listen to your prayers?" His voice was extremely calm as if he was talking to a friend and not his enemies. "Y-Yes... she does." One of the elves answered, her eyes still fixated on the ground. "Then start praying for her to save you and your. Pray for her toe and stop me herself. However, if she didn''t arrive, I will assume that you lied to me when you said your goddess listens to you and punish you lying to me... by killing all of you." One could see as panic and despair shrouded the face of the elf. There was no way the goddess woulde there to save a measly handful of them. Hell, she probably wouldn''t evene to save them even if the entire was taken hostage. With tears in her eyes, she began praying to the goddess to save them in the ancientnguage of the elves. She kept praying and praying... but nothing happened. Just as she had expected the goddess refused to acknowledge her prayers and thus forfeited the elf''s life as well. But it was just like Arnold had predicted. The elven goddess didn''t know it, but by not answering the prayers of the elves, she had done a huge favour to him. Her actions were in her self interest, nothing like a god. "I was hoping she would listen to you... what kind of foolish goddess do you idiots serve huh?" Arnold immediately jumped to n B. "..." There was absolute silence. None of them could even utter a word because they had no answer to the human''s question. They have been serving the goddess ever since they could remember. Generations upon generation, hailed her as the true goddess and now when they needed her, rather thaning forth to say them, she abandoned them? After all those years? She was no goddess if she could forget about her subjects so easily, however, they could admit it out loud. Even though they knew they had been abandoned, they couldn''t turn their loyalty to the goddess just like that. If they did, then what could they believe in again? Just by looking at their faces, Arnold could tell they were conflicted and that they needed a slight push to acknowledge him as their new overlord. It wasn''t like he wanted their loyalty. He couldn''t care less about such a thing. Arnold was just doing all of it just to provoke their so-called goddess because if there was one thing the gods had was a big ego. Just like Zeus, if he could get into their head, he could make them do whatever he wanted them to. Also, the gods wouldn''t let go of their loyal followers so easily. Hence, if he were to try and poach the goddess''s followers, she would inevitably get angry and appear in front of him. Either to win her precious followers over again or to punish them. Whatever her reason was, Arnold was going to force her to appear in front of him. In case she still didn''t, well then she would have lost the respect and loyalty of her subjects and that would give Arnold some Universal Influence either way. He could even demand regr sacrifices that would further increase his influence. No matter what happens, it was a win-win situation for him. That was his game n and so far everything was working out just like he wanted it to. He took out his gun and pressed it against the elf''s forehead, "Looks like your goddess doesn''t care about you at all... what a shame." The elf was scared but had resigned to her fate. The goddess was the only one who could save her but she didn''t. At that moment, she lost all faith in the goddess. She had lost faith in everything. Arnold gave her ast nce and rather than pulling the trigger, he looked at the rest of them. "Do you want to save her?" He asked them and turned towards the elf in front of him, "Do you want to save yourself?" None of them gave him an answer but the look of their eyes did the talking for them. They Would do anything to save themselves. They would believe in anything that could save them... "Follow me then... swear your allegiance to me and I will protect you, no matter what." Arnold put his guns back inside the inventory and extended his arm towards them, "I swear on my life, if you join me, you will never get abandoned again." The elves looked at each other, too surprised to even utter a word. Should they believe a man who had killed thousands of them? There was a point in what he was saying... if he wanted to kill them he would already have done so. No one was stopping him from that, thus his gesture said a lot about him. Not only was he willing to spare them, but he was also ready to take them under his wing, what else could they want? Nilerea jumped at the opportunity as well. If she could persuade them to join her master, then there would be no need for bloodshed anymore. "Join us, brothers and sisters. I can assure you my master is a man of his word. He would never allow any of you to be hurt again." Arnold still had his arm extended towards them, ready to ept them as his followers. Thanks to Nilerea''s words, the dark elves immediately jumped at the opportunity and swore loyalty to him. __ You have gained new followers. Universal Influence has been increased by 100 points! __ ''10 points for each follower huh.... interesting.'' Chapter 496 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Peace Was Never An Option (1) "You never told me how he killed you? I mean I get, I''m a demigod for all intents and purposes so a mortal could have killed me. It''s a long shot but possible. You, on the other hand, are an Asgardian that make even Odin sweat a bit before getting defeated." Hercules asked Heimdall. The path to the kingdom they were attempting to reach was long. They had been walking for hours and they were yet to arrive at the location Nilerea had told them about. As a way to cure the boredom, Hercules started a conversation with the only one he knew about, while Alice and the frost giant, Ogur trudged behind them wordlessly. They were all equals now being Arnold''s loyal summons, but still, Alice was fascinated and wanted to know more about the gods and the lives they spent before bing Arnold''s summon. After all, who wouldn''t be? They were gods! And even if Arnold treated them like dogs, they were still majestic beings that she could never have imagined walking alongside. That was the reason she was listening to them so intently. "You really are not going to let it go, are you?" Heimdall sighed and kept walking, "It''s fine, it isn''t that we have another task we need to aplish so I''ll tell you about it. You know your father and Loki, the two of them together are the most cunning and destructive force in the universe... but let''s just say, our master is even better or shall I say worse than the two of thembined." He continued, "Yes, they did manage to outsmart him, but that was the wrong deed. It was thanks to their greed that master ended up awakening the power only the Immortal one had and now our master possibly has the power to erase the entire universe and rewrite it in an instant. At it was all thanks to the two of them... and me." "You were working with them?" Hercules said with a smirk on his face, "The great Heimdall, went against Odin''s trusted friend?" "Loki has a way to mess with anyone''s head whether god or not, and you know it very well," Heimdall stated matter-of-factly. "That'' I am aware of... so, didn''t my father try to stop him before Arnold gained the Third eye?" Alice had not heard about what had happened during the war of the worlds, as Talos and Tiamut were so distraught with everything else going on there. So this was the first time she was hearing about it in such detail and the more she listened to them, the more she realised why Arnold was so infuriated. "I am sure he would have tried to if he had been there." Heimdall shook his head, "I had him banned from the arena." "What? Why?" Thus Heimdall began narrating what happened in the arena and the more he told about what happened there, the more Hercules was in awe of Arnold''s power. He had only heard of Shiva behaving arrogantly in front of Zeus, but now he was seeing Arnold in the same light. "He took the thunderbolt head-on!!!?" Hercules was so shocked he stopped walking. "Not only took it head-on... he destroyed it. Something no one ever has ever done before. Not even Shiva." "... how did he do that?" "It might sound unbelievable but all it took was a touch." "A touch?" "He grabbed the thunderbolt and it disintegrated into dust." "Ah... so he killed you like that too? In a sh?" Heimdall got silent as soon as he heard the question. He knew he wouldn''t ever be forced to experience what he did in that dark room, but just thinking about it made his spine shiver. The endless torture and pain... enough to make a god beg for their life. "I wish it was done in a sh... no, I already begged for that but that man... he isn''t someone anyone should even think about going up against. And the way things are proceeding I can only wish his pain is taken away as soon as possible, or else it wouldn''t be good for anyone in the universe." "What about your connection with Asgard? Is it still active? If it is, I bet you can persuade them to aid Arnold in his battle. That way, Asgard would remain safe from-" "The moment I was resurrected, I was no longer an Asgardian." Heimdall smiled wanly, "Odin changed thew under which even the dead were treated as Asgardians after Loki''s betrayal. That''s the reason that Loki couldn''t step a foot in Asgard without receiving divine punishment from the All-Father." As they were all listening to Heimdall, suddenly a ball of fire hit Ogur right in his face. However, the attack wasn''t enough to give him a grievous wound. Instead, all it did was to alert them of the presence of the enemy. Heimdall drew his greatsword, while Hercules brought out the gauntlets Arnold had, had designed exclusively for him. Both of these weapons were made of Celestial Gold and Silver alloy. Hence they were more than effective to wipe out even godly opponents. However, they wouldn''t get the chance to test it out this time. For their enemies weren''t gods, but their followers. It looked like the Kingdom they were heading to had the same idea as them: An impromptu ambush. Thousands upon thousands of elves could be seen charging towards them with a variety of weapons and troops. It was a full-fledged army. One intended to make Arnold and his summons fall on their knees. "These morons never learn..." Hercules snarled before smashing his gauntlets together, "It''s been a long time since I have crushed someone''s skull!" "Hercules, although I admire your confidence, you do remember what happened thest time you tried to crack someone''s skull. Don''t you?" Heimdall smirked while readying himself for the sh. "Hah! Don''t even think aboutparing these fools to someone as strong as Arnold. Dear mage, would you be kind enough to give us an agility boost?" "R-Right!" Alice stuttered momentarily after seeing Hercules be so gentlemanly and got to work as well. Chapter 497 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Peace Was Never An Option (2) Even in midst of a battle, Alfheim looked as peaceful as ever... but only from a distance. As we drew closer and closer to the actual battlefield, nothing but screams of pain and agony could be heard. Arnold''s forces were outnumbered almost fifty thousand to one, yet they were the ones winning. Hercules was swinging his fists left and right while Heimdall was more focused on disarming his opponents rather than killing them as per Arnold''s orders. Alice was continuously giving them BFFs while defending herself as well. Ogur on the other hand was not interested in taking prisoners either, just like Hercules. The fireball the elves had fired at him was more than enough to make him go berserk. "This is yourst chance to surrender!" Heimdall''s voice roared over the chaos of the battlefield that was littered with corpses, "No matter how many of you are there, we will inevitably victorious. I suggest you drop your weapons and surrender while you have the time." However, it looked like Heimdall was the only one interested in stopping the fight as all of them were busy destroying the elves. As for the elves, they looked like they have been possessed. Their eyes were red as all of the blood in their bodies had been pushed to the eyes. They had gone berserk. They couldn''t see sense in anything anymore. All they wanted to do was to die fighting, nothing else. This erratic behaviour caught Heimdall''s eye. Elves weren''t a race to lose all of their senses over some meagre battles. They often took the road of dialogue over violence and did not promote bloodshed under any circumstance. That was why Heimdall was sure to get them to Arnold''s side if he were to take to them. However, everything Heimdall knew about them was no longer true. Something or someone had forced the elves to change. They had been consumed with rage and anger like never before. It was almost as if they had turned into mindless zombies altogether. "Something is wrong..." Heimdall mumbled as he and Hercules got back to back while fending off the elves, "The Elves, they are unlike anything I have ever seen before." "Who cares? Just keep swatting them down and soon enough they will give up. See the frosty over there, he doesn''t care whether there''s something wrong with them or not. He just wants to kill them all. That''s it." Heimdall shook his head in dismay. What else could he expect a warmonger would reply to him in the middle of a battle? But there was someone who could hear him. Heimdall quickly made his way towards Alice and pulled kicked the elf she was fighting with. "Do you know any dispel magic?" He asked her while defending her. "I do. What do you want me to do with it? Is there a curse on you or something?" Alice asked the former god while giving strengthening buff to Ogur. "Not me, but for them." Heimdall pointed towards the elf he had pinned down, "Just use any dispelling ability you have on them. I just want to confirm something quickly." "Alright..." Alice found Heimdall request to be quite absurd but went with it anyways and used the required spell. As soon as the spell made contact with the elf, he started screaming like a banshee, struggling to free itself from Heimdall''s firm grasp. But no matter how much he struggled, Heimdall''s grip didn''t get any loose. After a couple of seconds, the elf stopped thrashing around like before and fainted. Heimdall let go of the elf and forced his eyelids open and what he saw next, confirmed his suspicions. The elf''s eyes turned back to their normal bluish-green shade. Not a tinge of redness was visible in the elf''s eyes anymore. "By the All-father... how far have you fallen, elven witch." Heimdall mumbled in rage, "Elves were one of the only pure races left under Asgards protection and you did something like this just to defeat one man?" Alice was confused as to what was Heimdall mumbling about when he turned to face her. But this time, his eyes weren''t as calm as before. In fact, she could only see pain and rage within them. Just like that of Arnold''s. "Can you cast the same spell overrge range?" His voice sounded frighteningly calm. Alice shook he head. The spell wasn''t something she could either use continuously or over arge range. And she didn''t know any other powerful dispelling spells either. Heimdall nodded and unsheathed his sword, "If we can''t dispel the curse off of them, then there is only one thing left to do... Put them out of their misery." Saying so, he charged towards the elves as if he had been possessed. Alice had no clue what prompted this behaviour, but she knew it couldn''t have been anything good. Even Hercules felt the change in Heimdall and for the first time since the battle started, he was actually concerned about someone. Hercules rarely lost control over himself, but when he did, it was always for the sake of the others and not for himself. This instance was just like one of those times. However, Hercules also knew it wasn''t the best time to question Heimdall. ''Something must really be wrong with the elves. That''s the only reason why he would go berserk all of a sudden.'' Hercules thought to himself as he smashed yet another Elf''s head into their body. But as he did that, he too got a look into the eyes of the elves and realised exactly what drove Heimdall so mad. "No way... this can''t be happening." Hercule was so shocked with the realisation that he put his arms down, "Never in my wildest dream I would have thought the gods will fall to this..." "What''s going on?" Alice finally couldn''t keep herself from asking what the hell was happening there, "What happened for the two of you to change your expressions all of a sudden?" "The elves..." Hercules tuned to face Alice, "They gods forced them to indulge in... cannibalism.... a sin that pure races like elves should nevermit." Chapter 498 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Blood Of The Pure (1) The blood of the elves was something extraordinary. It had properties, even the gods weren''t aware of until one of them started experimenting on them. Mimir, who was known as the great god of knowledge, was the first one to y the pure elves who at the time were treated as creatures with no sin or to be precise, they didn''t know of what sin was. One could say making the elves were the gods reattempt to make a docile, honest, and trustable species of followers who would never betray them and their beliefs. Just like they had attempted to do so while reseeding the Earth after the events of Ragnarok. However, unlike their failure with humans, this time they were able to preserve the innocence of the elves and taught them only the necessary things. Like how to popte themselves and how to advance in science. However, Mimir was blinded by his thirst for knowledge. Despite his old appearance and wrinkly body, Mimir was one of the young gods. Thus, he didn''t know about a lot of things that the old gods were aware of. On top of this, he was quite arrogant about his godhood and wanted to know exactly why the gods liked the elves so much more than the other races. However, rather than asking about it to the All-father or Heimdall, he decided to find the truth by himself and thus set out on a bloody rampage to kidnapping and experimenting on the elves. However, the more he experimented on the elves, the more his thirst grew. He couldn''t find anything in the elves that made them different from the other race. Simply because there was nothing like that in the first ce inside the Elves. Mimir could not ept that the elves were not special in any way. There had to be something that he could discover inside them, or else years worth of effort and nning would be thrown in the drain. However, no matter what he did, he only got failure after failure. This drove him to the verge of madness. He became a shell of his former jolly and cheery self. He was no longer seen by any of the gods again and started spending all of his time inside the cave one of his ''loyal'' friends, Loki, had provided him with. A cave that even Heimdall''s eyes couldn''t prate. The only time Mimir left the cave was to hunt more elves to experiment on. Not even for food or drinks or any other godly pleasure he could have enjoyed at that time. But as he started to spend all of his time inside the cave, his hunger grew as well. But inside the cave there was nothing to eat, nor was there anything to drink. Years of failure and starvation eventually began taking a toll on the god and he finally became mad. Mad enough to start feasting upon the captured Elves, while they were alive. It was at that moment he felt the changes in his body. The blood and flesh of the elves had unimaginable powers within themselves. Powers that no god was even aware of. With that discovery, Mimir finally got to know about what made the elves so special other than any other race in the universe. However, killing and feasting upon the pure and lovely creatures like elves came at a price. Mimir gained powers, alright, powers that could even rival that of Thor. But it was cursed power. Every time he used it, his lifespan as a god would shorten abnormally. Even that wasn''t even to stop Mimir. He soon discovered the ''cure'' of this problem. The more elven blood and flesh he consumed, the longer he could use his powers for and extend his cursed life as well. Soon what started as an innocent attempt to gain more knowledge, turned into ns of full-blown mutiny to overthrow Odin as the ruler of Asgard. Mimir tried his best to hide this from the other gods, but even though Heimdall''s all-seeing eye couldn''t see what Mimir was up to, it was more than capable enough to notice the rapidly dwindling numbers of the elves. In mere days after the discovery, Mimir was caught red-handed inside a cave. Heimdall, Thor and the warrior three went ahead to capture the fallen god. What they saw that day was still buried inside the depths of their memories. The cave reeked of rotting blood and flesh of the creatures known as their finest creations and in the middle of it all, Mimir was seen, consuming what could only be an elven child. Mimir was taken by surprise and so were the five godly beings who were there to confront him. Their battlested for about a decade. Mimir was stronger than any of them had anticipated. However, they were Asgard''s strongest warriors, no mere god running on drugs could defeat them like that. It was a long battle, but they managed to overpower Mimir and pull him back to Asgard. But even then, he wasn''t willing to admit to his faults. Instead, he started recounting about all he had achieved by sacrificing the elves. Odin knew if that knowledge got out of his courtroom, all hell would break loose. Thus he decided to punish Mimir and keep his knowledge for himself and the ones present in the courtroom, that is between Thor, Heimdall, the warrior three and Loki. As ast-ditch effort, Mimir tried to prove that Loki was involved in his schemes. However, no one believed the god and hence Loki was not punished for it. This drove Mimir further over the edge and he attacked Odin who swiftly severed his head away from the rest of his body. However, Mimir''s intelligence was still useful to Odin thus with the help of H and after receiving the blessings of the warriors of Valha, Mimir was resurrected on the spot, however, only his head was resurrected and the rest of the body was left dead as a punishment for the sins Mimir hadmitted. But Mimir''s action made Odin feel necessary to teach the Elves how to defend themselves in case someone tried to do something simr in the future to them. He also made one of them a god who waster known as Carollion to oversee them. But as time passed the tale of the elves and the power held within their blood spread and other pantheons got to know about them. However, none of them was ever able to make a move on the elves until now.... that was why Hercules and Heimdall both were shocked as they realised what had happened there. Chapter 499 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Blood Of The Pure (2) The gods had really fallen from their ce. To use the elves in such a horrendous way. Heimdall wouldn''t have been surprised if the elves would havee in the jurisdiction of the Olympus. But the elves belonged to Asgard and for them to behave this way could mean only one thing... Odin too was seeing Arnold as a threat. Either it was that or the fact that he could have been overthrown from the throne by someone else. However, this wasn''t possible because Heimdall would know about it if something like that would have happened. Either way, it wasn''t good news for Arnold. Asgard would have never supported Olympus in any way, shape or form. It was possible that Loki and Zeus twisted the narrative in their favour and made the others do as they asked. "May the All-father give you peace and a seat in Valha..." Heimdall uttered those words whenever an Elven soul was taken away by his sword. Hercules, on the other hand, had grown awfully silent ever since he realised what had been done to the elves. He was wordlessly ying them one after another, however, the more elves they killed, the stronger the rest of them became. Why? Because the elves were devouring their fallenrades to gain more strength. As if that wasn''t enough, Arnold''s summons had even more surprises waiting for them... "Argh!" Suddenly Hercules let out a painful scream, one that shrouded every other noise around him. Heimdall immediately turned his attention towards the Olympian champion, only to see that he had been stabbed by a weapon... but not just any weapon, it was a god ying weapon. But what surprised him, even more, was the person holding onto the sword... How could he not recognise them? He had fought countless times beside them. Let it be the battle with the frost giants or the battle against Mimir. Still, he couldn''t believe his eyes when he saw the warrior three standing in front of him amongst the elves. They weren''t alone either. With them was their leader, Lady Sif. She was the one who stabbed her sword into the flesh of the Olympian. Standing at 6''5" tall, Lady Sif had a resilient feel about her, much like her love interest Thor. However, that wasn''t the only thing she shared with Thor, her knee-length golden hair was exactly like his too. Her body waspletely covered in body armour but even that couldn''t stop her brown radiant skin from glowing like a star and in her hands was the sword Odin especially had, had forged for her. As for the warrior three, all of them were just as strong as Heimdall remembered. Their appearance on the battlefield also proved many points that Heimdall was previously wondering about. Lady Sif and the warriors came under the directmand and authority of the All-father himself. After seeing them there, he had no doubts that Asgard had made Arnold his enemy and if Asgard had turned against Arnold then it was safe to assume other Pantheons had turned against him either. Heimdall rushed over to Hercules and mmed his shoulders against Sif, pushing her back. At the same time, Alice used her magic to heal whatever damage she could while Ogur was keeping them busy. Hercules and Heimdall, both might have be somewhat like the undead, but they still retained most of their properties as a god. That was why Sif''s attack hurt Hercules more than it should have hurt an undead. But thanks to Alice, Hercules was able to get back on his feet faster than Heimdall had assumed. Just by sparing them a look, Heimdall realised that the elves weren''t the only ones consuming themselves. The Asgardians had been doing the same as well. Their red eyes served as the proof of their sphemy. "Who would have thought I would see the great Heimdall fall from grace so much," Sif spat out in disgust, "You were a god, one of the strongest ones to have ever graced the universe with his presence and now look at you. You''re nothing more than a henchman for a brat who couldn''t even obey the rules of the tournament-" "It would be better if someone like you doesn''t lecture someone else about pride and honour when you had sold all those things to stop the so-called ''brat''." Heimdall barked right back at her, "If Asgard has fallen so low that they had to use the unspeakable horrors of Mimir, then I am d that I no longer belong with the cowards who can''t even protect the one species they swore to protect." "Haha, this is a war Heimdall. There are nows and rules. It is only about the survival of the fittest and nothing more." Volstarg, the fattest and the most arrogant one amongst the warrior three mocked Heimdall. Weirdly enough, previously Volstarg was the one who respected Heimdall the most, but it looked like as soon as Heimdall renounced his Asgardian lineage, the fatso thought it was no longer necessary to respect his elder. Well, if he thought so, then Heimdal had no problems doing the same. "It''s amusing seeing you talk about survival of the fittest despite having an abdomen the entire universe could fit into. I suggest you stop eating pigs, or soon enough you''ll have to be crowned as their king." Heimdall said with a smirk on his face and readied his sword and turned towards Alice, "Youngdy, you might want to step back a bit right about now." Volstarg had always been conscious about his weight but never really did anything about it. That was the reason, Heimdall decided to throw a low blow at the walking road roller. Sure enough, just like he had predicted, Volstarg was consumed with rage and charged towards Heimdall like a mad titan. However, before he could eveny a finger on Heimdall, his face was met with Hercules'' fist and he was thrown right back towards the warriors. "I always thought of Asgardians as proud warriors." Hercules scoffed, "But it looks like the gods really have fallen so low they see no problem in stabbing someone from behind. I shouldn''t say this, but I''m am d I died before turning into some morons like you." He then turned towards Ogur who was busy fighting off the other two-thirds of the warrior three, "You, leave them for us. Focus on taking care of the elves and protecting the prettydy.. We''ll handle the four bastards." Chapter 500 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Blood Of The Pure (3) "Hmph... some fallen gods you are. Let''s kill them once again!" Sif roared in rage and everyone went into action. It might have appeared to be a usual roared, but it was infused with Asgardian magic. Anyone on her side who would hear her battle cry would receive a significant buff in their strength and agility, while it would make her enemies crawl in fear. This move often resulted in aplete one-sided end to any battle she had ever been a part of. Heimdall had seen the end result of all those battles with his own eyes. However, this time her trick wouldn''t work on them. Why? Because all of them had conquered their senses of fear and were no longer afraid of death and they all had to thank their master for that. After all, he was the one who potentially ended up giving them immortality as even if they die, they would resurrect again and again. Being Undead, their fears had long since been reced with courage. The only one they would ever be afraid of was the strength of their master and no one else. Not Zeus, not Odin, hell, not even the Immortal one himself would be enough to scare them anymore. They could, however, still erase them from existence if they put their mind to it. But not scare them ever again and Sif along with her army of Fallen elves were about to learn that now. They were battling the summons of the One Above All, and if the summons couldn''t even beat this pathetic excuse of an army then Arnold would never forgive them. "Ogur, a swarm ising from behind!" Alice yelled into the giant''s ears, "Stomp them down." Since Heimdall and Hercules were busy taking care of Sif and the three of her fck buddies, it was up to Ogur to defend Alice while taking down the elves as well. The best way to do that was to keep the support mage close to him, and he did so by putting her up on his shoulders. That way, Alice was not only able to give buffs to any of herrades as per the need, but she could also guide Ogur''s movements as a secondary bunch of eyes. All in all, they were in perfect sync. The elves madden with rage kept mindlessly charging at them, trying their best to disbnce Ogur and make him fall. It was an ancient tactic but still worked in modern times. The best way to counter a tall enemy was to make him lose his grip on the ground. Once the giant was on the ground, he was more like a sitting duck for the elves to take him down. Their n was good, but they were foolish if they thought Ogur didn''t already know how to handle himself. He must have been a Frost Giant by race, but thanks to Arnold and his logic-defying enhancement techniques, Ogur was able to manipte the ground beneath his feet. Although his maniption ability wasn''t as strong as Arnold or even Shyok for that matter, it was enough for him to alter thend in contact with him just enough to not allow him to fall, no matter how much the elves struggled to do so. Even in the event where he did end up falling over, he had Alice buff his defence up so that the elves wouldn''t be able to do much if any harm at all to him while he got back to his feet. It might have appeared that Arnold hastily formed the teams up and sent them away to do different tasks, but it was far from the truth. Arnold waspletely aware of the fields where his summonscked and had formed up teams to counter those problems effectively. Alice, even though she waspassionate and kind, couldn''t help butugh at the tant foolishness of Sif and her boy-toys. They might think they were selected to face Arnold because of their strength andpetence, but there was no doubt in Alice''s mind that they were simply being treated as guinea pigs by the gods in a poor attempt to assess Arnold''s strength after his ascension. That was also the reason why the gods decided to let them have elven flesh and blood. It could be an attempt to analyse the effects of elven blood in detail so that if deemed necessary they could use it to try and subdue Arnold with it. ''They are just the pawns for this game. Nothing more.'' Alice thought to herself while throwing buff and debuffs all around the battlefield, ''If I can see through it then Arnold can too. He probably already has... sigh. Why do these Gods even try to outsmart him anymore? Justy down and let him kill you. That''ll be faster for all of us, tsk.'' *** On the other side of the battlefield, Hercules and Heimdall were having a lot of fun as well. It seemed like Sif and the warriors underestimated their strength, just because they had been turned into undead summons. However, much to their surprise, rather than their strength going down, Hercules and Heimdall were actually much stronger than they had ever been. And it was all thanks to the augmentations and enhancements Arnold had done to them. It appeared that the gods had really underestimated the strength of a creationist for all intent and purposes. "Do you remember what I told to Mimir all those years ago, Volstarg?" Heimdall mumbled as he kicked the warrior yet another time, "No god running on drugs would ever be able to defeat someone like me. I would have never thought there would be a day when I''ll tell the same to you." "You talk too much, Heimdall!" Fendril, the ck-haired leader of the warrior three lunged at the former Asgardian, however, he too was sent flying a momentter just like his brother. "Looks like the Elven blood had lowered your inhibitions," Heimdall swung his de and a gust of wind knocked the three of them away, "Even in death, I am disappointed as your mentor. I thought you had enough strength and resolve out of everyone present on this battlefield, to be my sessor, but looks like I was wrong." "If you are free to lecture them, would you mind start killing them?" Hercules barked at him while parrying strike after strike from Sif, "Hey! Do you mind? We''re having a chat here!" "Shut your trap, you mongrel!" Sif cursed back at him before kicking him in the abdomen, "You can chat when you reach Valha." "Feisty... no wonder you''re Thor''s bitch. I heard that guy likes it rough." "You''re dead..." Sif whispered slowly and charged in once again, but this time it was Hercules'' turn to kick her away, ''Hm... maybe consuming elven blood makes one unconditionally angry. I had never imagined Sif falling for my taunts for any other reason. I should rid her of her misery yet.'' However, just as Hercules was about to put an end to Sif, a familiar voice echoed inside his head. ''Keep them alive till I get there.'' ''As your wish... The One Above All.'' Hercules sighed and ended up mming Sif''s head on the ground instead of ripping it off, ''I should probably call you by your name.. This master and god crap, isn''t meant for me.'' Chapter 501 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Whos Next? (1) Hercules wasn''t the only one who heard Arnold''smand. All four of them did, he probably wanted to kill the Asgardians by himself which made sense as unlike the Elves, killing the Asgardians might increase his influence quite a bit and he wasn''t a big enough fool to waste an opportunity like that. ''Subdue them... that''s easier said than done.'' A vein bulged out of Hercules'' head, ''Killing them would be much better. But since the man has spoken, I''ll have to do as asked of me.'' Saying so, Hercules took his gauntlets off as he didn''t want to identally kill any of them. Heimdall did something simr and put his sword back in the sheath. He was going to fight them with the sheathed sword, that way, he''ll be able to kick their asses without worrying about killing them. Sif and the warriors, unaware of Arnold''smand, saw this as an act of utter disrespect. To them, it looked as if their opponents were mocking them, which was far from the truth. Both Heimdall and Hercules knew it wouldn''t be an easy task to subdue them and were taking it extremely seriously. But even without weapons, they were confident in stopping them, but with a bit of... overexertion from their side. "Try to limit your blows below the waist." Heimdall whispered into Herules'' ears as he walked closer to him, "If we can cripple their legs then they are done for." "Right... How about I rip their limbs off? He said he wanted them alive but didn''t state anything other than that." "Don''t run your barbaric mind." Heimdall shook his head, "It will be better if they are in prime condition when Master arrives. Who knows why he wants them alive. It could be to increase his influence, but I think there is some other reason as well." "You think too much, you know that?" Hercules scoffed before bursting his knuckles, "Whatever, I''ll do what you want but this time, let me handle those three clowns and fight the bitch yourself." "Why? Did she scare the champion of Olympus?" "Nah. She makes me mad and I might identally end up killing her. So I thought it would be better if someone more delicate and collected, handled the matter." "Stop whispering amongst yourselves-" Volstarg rushed in and swung his gigantic axe to behead the two of them. But his n didn''t work out as well as he had expected, because a momentter his head was firmly nted under Heimdall''s feet, while the rest of his body was quickly immobilised thanks to Alice''s quick enchanting debuffs. "Didn''t I teach you to shut your yapping mouth when the elders are talking? I disappear for a while and all of you start thinking that you''re the king of this universe or something. What is the All-father even thinking letting you punks out loose?" "Oi! I told you to leave those three alone." Hercules uttered in annoyance. "Then you should have been quick about it. Fine. You can have the remaining two. I''ll put Sif to ce." Saying that Heimdall removed his feet off of Volstarg and started walking towards Sif. However, it seemed like the elves had different ns. At one point in time, Heimdall had sworn to protect the elves, but that time was long gone. The only promise he cared about was the one he made to Arnold. Sif blew a horn and charged towards him, followed by the vicious horde of Elves, the same happened on Hercules'' side. Their agility had grown surprisingly by a lot, but that wasn''t all. Alice''s debuffs weren''t working on them anymore. Thankfully, Volstarg still couldn''t move but the rest of them were unaffected by her spells. Sif thought this would force her opponents to back up. However, as soon as she saw Heimdall charging right towards them, she was taken by surprise. His sword was still sheathed, but even so, each swing of his sword was backed up with enough strength to rid any elves that came in touch useless to the battle. Heimdall avoided all of the enemy attacks while putting numerous souls out of their misery. He swung his sword in a beautiful arc, incapacitating anyone who came within the range of his attack. But he didn''t stop there, he immediately changed direction and shed at yet another wave of elves. The scariest part about it? His eyes were shut while he took the lives of all those elves. Even though he was no longer bound to his oath, he couldn''t just blindly kill them all. That was the difference between a god and a warrior. Sif saw it and her steps faltered. She knew even with the trick they had pulled there, it wouldn''t be possible for them to defeat Heimdall and Hercules simultaneously. ''I can''t believe that I''m thinking about retreating... but it''s the right choice.'' Sif slowly started taking steps backwards, ''The rest of them can think about themselvester. I need to escape before it gets toote.'' She opened a portal back to Asgard and was about to jump in when someone grabbed onto her shoulder and pulled her back. "Cowards... just like I thought." Arnold''s voice echoed over the noise of the battlefield, "I don''t know why people are so scared of a bunch of running bastards." "It''s you!" Sif roared and swung her sword at Arnold who grabbed onto it and it disappeared into nothingness. "... Coward and brain dead. Things are not looking bright for you at all." Saying so, Arnold punched a hole open in Sif''s abdomen and ripped her intestines out. It was a truly gory scene seeing her blood and organs spew out of her body like a fountain... it was too much. Even Sif looked more surprised than she felt pain. Surprised that someone who was once a mortal could be so ruthless. However, Arnold did not give her much time to wonder and ripped her head apart from her body right in front of everyone before throwing her remains inside his domain. He wasn''t nning to use her for anything, but he couldn''t let her corpse be outside or those gods would resurrect her. "So.... who''s next?" Chapter 502 - Battle Of Alfheim Arc: Whos Next? (2) __ Primal power manifested so far: 6.13% __ ''Just 0.75%... this is going to be a lot tougher than I initially thought. Well, it means I get to kill more gods so it''s fine.'' Arnold''s arrival on the battlefield was a bit... unexpected. Thus friends and foes alike were rendered silent as the new god walked to the centre of the battlefield. He was no longer concealing his aura as if he wanted to crush whatever little hope the enemies had with a firm Ironfist. At that moment their stature of god was reduced to that of prey. They were nothing but insolent fools who thought that taking on him would be an easy task. In fact, even the elves who were consumed with rage and madness were now acting as docile as a herd of sheep. There was no movement, none at all. Just silence. The way he got rid of Sif, was telling how much strength he had. He didn''t even need a weapon to ughter one of Asgards strongest warriors. "Arnold, the elves-" Alice tried telling him about the effects of elven blood, but Arnold cut her off. "I know," Arnold mumbled and kept walking towards the warrior three, his hands still drenched in Sif''s blood, "I know it all." Alice was confused how could Arnold know about what conspired there when he wasn''t even there in the first ce. Heimdall and Hercules, however, were not surprised at all. Not even the littlest bit. Arnold was a god now, so obviously he had to power to see and hear what any of his subjects heard or saw. It was the most preferred way of the gods tomunicate. Since Arnold was in the mood of fighting, both Heimdall and Hercules decided it was wise to step away for a bit. Because even though his deadly aura wasn''t directed at them, they still couldn''t help but feel uneasy next to him. "That guy gets scarier every time I see him." Hercules whispered, "More than that, I''m d I decided to join him rather than fight him." "You''re not the only one. I thought the Immortal one gets scary at times, but now I''m thinking I should evaluate my fears." Heimdall replied. Since no one would dare to attack them in presence of their master, Ogur decided to put Alice back down. Mere seconds had passed, yet it seemed like they had been standing there for hours. Arnold''s eyes were fixated upon the warrior three. He was ready to fight them, but it looked like his enemies did not share the same emotions. If he could get rid of Sif so swiftly, then there was no way they would ever be able to win against him. But they were proud Asgardians, they were never taught to flee from a battle. All they knew was to either kill their enemies or die trying. "I asked, who''s next?" Arnold''s voice tore the silence, "Asgardians, the noble warriors can''t even think of anything other than tucking their trials between their legs and running away." "..." All three of them were silent. Not because what Arnold said was spot on, but because of their own shame. They couldn''t believe that the thought of leaving the battlefield even entered their minds. Where will they go after running away? Asgard was as lenient as Olympus when it came to these things. They would probably be killed even if they got back to Asgard. Sif wasn''t bound to theirws because well... Thor would not allow anyone to punish her. That''s why she could have thought about abandoning the battlefield and running away. However, even if they were close, Thor would not do the same for them. In other words, they were fcked either way, whether they fought Arnold or not. "It''s better to fight and die on the battlefield rather than being called deserters and cowards and then executed. Don''t you think so?" Fendril asked the third warrior amongst their group. "Volstarg is out for good. I guess it''s up to us to redeem ourselves." Hoggun replied before taking his sword out, "Let''s take that bastard''sst remaining arm with us at least." "Spoke like a true warrior, brother." Fendril smiled and charged towards Arnold. But they weren''t the only ones charging towards him, the elves did as well. However, as they did, Arnold activated his third eye once again, reducing them to dust. But he did not kill all of them, he left at least 50 of them behind. Nobody knew why he did that and no one was going to question him for that. __ Primal power manifested so far: 6.31% __ This disy of power took away the will of the elves to fight him any longer. Those who remained there on the battlefield were paralysed with fear. The disappearance of the elves even shook Fendril and Hoggun. They had heard numerous tales about the power of the third eye but they had never seen it in action. and now that they did... they were wishing they hadn''t. Their firm steps began to falter as they raced towards their doom. But they didn''t stop. They knew the sooner they reached close to Arnold, the sooner they will meet their end and hence the sooner they would be able to find eternal peace. The two of them simultaneously swung their weapons right at Arnold''s head who suddenly vanished from their sight and reappeared behind them. "Eternal peace? You fools believe I will be kind enough to give you that?" Arnold said in a sinister voice, "After the moronic stunt you pulled here, I am not going to kill you. You will be the guinea pigs to my experiments, just like those elves." "Keep dreaming!" Fendril turned around swinging his axe in full force, however, before he could even realise... his hands were no longer attached to the rest of his body. It was the same with Hoggun and the next moment, they were knocked asleep by Arnold and pushed into his domain. "Sweet dreams to you too." Chapter 503 - Asgardian Council (1) "Just like that huh?" Hercules mumbled in surprise. "Just like that... it almost feels wrong to end a battle in mere moments." Heimdall agreed with Hercules as well, "Like a cheat..." However, Arnold wasn''t done yet. He pointed at Hercules and Heimdall and then at the portal. "Get inside, make sure they don''t cause a ruckus. Dani and her iron golems are there to guard the forge and the prison cells, but I want you two to be there just in case." Arnold stated as if he couldn''t be bothered to do anything, "Take a couple of elves with you too. I will have some use for themter." "As you wish." After saying so both Hercules and Heimdall went through the portal as it copsed behind them. Once that was taken care of Arnold walked toward the few elves that remained there. His goal was the same, turn them into his followers and keep trying to anger their goddess to show herself. This time, however, it was much easier to persuade the elves because they had seen with their own eyes exactly what he was capable of. They readily epted his proposal and became the few of his loyal followers. They had no other choice in the matter as they knew their goddess wasn''ting to save them. If she wanted to, she would havee thee a lot earlier and in the face of death, the faith of any creature is either at its strongest or its weakest. In this case, it had been weak for as long as they could remember. If their goddess wanted to help them, then they wouldn''t have been forced to kill and consume the flesh and blood of their families andrades and under the wing of their new god, they wouldn''t have to do anything of that sort. They could once again live in peace... maybe... __ You have gained new followers. Universal Influence has been increased by 480 points! __ "Your goddess has failed you. To her and the rest of them, you are no more than a resource. Something they could exploit as they wish and want. They made you sacrifice your kin and for what? To lose yet again?" Arnold started brainwashing them as soon as they epted his proposal, "It''s time to retake the control from them and for that, I need your help." All of them started looking at each other. Thinking, what could a being like their new god need from them? But none of them asked any questions. Their heads were fixated upon the bloodied ground in front of them. "I need you to spread my name. Make as many of you join me as you can so that I can protect them as well." Arnold finally mumbled, "I don''t care f you can persuade one or one under or one million of your kind to join me. I just want to save those who still believe in more than karmic justice." "Yes! We will spread the words of your greatness to as many of us as we can, o great Lord!" All of the elves roared simultaneously, but there was a question in their minds. What were they supposed to call their new lord? After all, they didn''t know his name or identity or anything else in that matter. "Deathless. That should be fine." Arnold then turned towards Alice and Ogur, "Go, rejoin the others and make a base on this. It doesn''t look like the elven goddess is nning to herself to us any time soon." After saying that, Arnold opened a portal leading to his domain and jumped in. Since there was nothing he could do there, he decided to take care of other things in the meantime. *** Around the same time in Asgard, Odin''s court was thrown into chaos. The warrior gods of the pantheon had gone frantic. They were still trying to recover from the loss and betrayal of Heimdall and now they had lost Sif and the warrior three as well. All of them might be worried about the future of the universe, but none of them was as distraught as Thor. Not only did he lose his friends at the hands of Arnold, but he also lost the one he loved and cared about the most. He was raging from both the inside and the outside. Seeing his state, Odin had to order the magicians to put him to sleep before he did something moronic and died at the hands of the man whom none of them could believe had achieved godhood. But putting Thor to sleep wouldn''t solve their problems. It was the first time after the defeat of the cosmic giants, that all of the pantheons had toe together to solve an issue. The Norse, the Greeks, the Hindu, the Egyptians... all of the gods recognised the threat Arnold posed to the stability of the universe. But even then, they still had differences they needed to sort out before they coulde to an agreement to help each other out. The main argument was that why did all of them have to suffer because of the greed of Loki and Zeus? After all, they were the ones who enraged a mortal so much that he ended up activating the third eye. Who told them to pull such a stunt together? But Odin, who was overseeing the council in Shiva''s absence, knew if they opened this conversation there would be no end to the me game. On top of that, they had gathered there to solve the most important issue at hand, how do they deal with the rogue god. "Thanks to the sacrifice of the Asgardians, we have been able to study the effect of elven blood and to my assumptions, that would y an important role in the future battles." Mimir''s severed head expressed his findings, "We should focus on harvesting as much of it as we can for now." Numerous gods from different pantheons nodded in agreement. If they could start consuming the blood now, then that would be the best for them. "I agree with Mimir..." Loki''s voice echoed in front of everyone, "But before that, we need strong allies. I think we should contact the Dragons and the demons before that rogue god turned them against us.. Thankfully, both of them already have their own problems rted to the rogue bastard so it wouldn''t be difficult to make them join us." Chapter 504 - Asgardian Council (2) "I don''t recall giving you the permission to speak in this council." Odin mmed his spear on the ground, "You and that moron Zeus, have no right to speak here, after causing all of this mess." Zeus and Loki might have turned everyone into thinking that Arnold was the real threat here, but Odin knew both Loki and Zeus better than anyone there. He didn''t grow a rugged beard like his own without gaining experience and knowledge. For all he knew, it could as well be another one of their tricks to overthrow Shiva from his ce of power. If this was the case, then he wouldn''t allow any of their ns to seed. Still, despite what he wanted to do or not, his hands were more or less tied regarding Arnold''s matter. The moment Arnold killed Heimdall, he had turned Asgard into his enemies as well. Also, after what they had seen right now, was troubling as well. Odin was hoping he would somehow be able to help Arnold out because he knew Zeus and Loki were behind all of this, but after Arnold''s actions, it didn''t look like anyone would be able to help him now. The strangest part of it all was Shiva''s silence. He wasn''t someone to keep quiet especially if he had been wronged in some way. But so far he had not done anything and had most probably gone into one of his meditative periods. Meaning... Arnold was on his own against so many gods. ''It doesn''t matter how strong he is... no one can stand up against the united pantheon of the gods, dragons and the demons... not even me.'' Odin slowly calmed his nerves after rebuking Loki. "All-father, it is not right to rebuke Loki for suggesting something that would get us out of this mess and destroy that rogue god once and for all." To nobody''s surprise, Hades, Loki''s close aide, immediately rushed to his rescue. With his ming hair and beard flowing in the air, he looked more like a volcano than a god. His ridiculous physique also only backed it up. Also, he referred to Odin as All-father because his standing was higher than even Zeus at this point in time. But he had ulterior motives for saying so as well. By referring to him as the All-father, Hades immediately won over quite a few Asgardian''s attention. "I know Loki has done quite a few wrong things in the past, but he had already paid for it as well. There is no other reason for any of us to still keep treating him the same. We need to forgive him and focus on the grave task at our hands." Hades ended his speech and numerous gods nodded in agreement. However, most of them were susceptible regarding Loki''s entrance into Asgard, the ce he had betrayed too often and even had killed the All-father once to take over the throne. That was the kind of God he was, one who would betray anyone without a tinge of hesitation. But thanks to Hades'' n, Odin got an idea to get the focus off of Arnold for the time being. Meanwhile, Hades had no idea his n was going to backfire on him so bad. Had he known, he would never open his mouth in front of the council, in the first ce. "Alright." Odin mumbled once again, "Your reasoning is sound Hades." Hades face was beaming and so was Loki''s. They thought they had the cat in the bag now, but there were about to realise that the animal they were thinking of like a cat, was in fact a lion. An old and wise Lion. "Then based on that logic... Arnold has not done anything that''s even remotely close to what Loki did." Odin smirked as he saw the colours drain from Loki''s face, "Thus, I don''t think there is anything any of us need to do to him. He is a newly ascended god, we all know how it feels to have all that power. Let him run amock for a while, let him gather his followers, he will calm down soon enough." Odin wasn''t done yet, "He had killed a couple of gods, but the way I see it, he never intended to do so. Hermes was killed because of the conditions he imposed on the duel, killing Heimdall was wrong, but even then Heimdall was the one to attack him first. It was the same case with Sif and the warriors." "Every time he has killed a god, was because we interfered with him first. If we leave him be, he will eventually get quiet once again like before. But if we keep pushing him, he will keep retaliating and we will keep on losing." "But All-father-" Vale, the ruler of the winds and third son of Odin knew what his father was suggesting and tried to stop him, however, his feeble attempts weren''t going to dissuade Odin''s resolve. "I wasn''t done speaking yet, Vale." Odin replied sternly and turned back towards the other gods, "That being said, we should prepare for the worst. As Loki said, we should forge an alliance with the Dragons and the Demons, but we should not rush into it blindly. We need to remember ourplex rtionship with both of those parties and thus it will take time to forge trust between us." At this time Mimir''s severed head decided to interfere, "All-father is correct. Hastily nning an alliance with races that we haven''t been on good terms for ages would be a bad decision. For all we know, they might betray us right after we are done taking care of the rogue god. It will be like recing one problem with another one." Although the gods were a bit susceptible to this n, it was the right way to go about things thus all of them agreed to leave Arnold be for the meantime, and focus on increasing their strength. Much to Loki''s dismay. But at that moment, Loki decided it was more important than ever to overthrow Odin once again. And he knew just how to do it. After all, Thor would not like the decision Odin had made... and in his anger, who knows, Thor might even end up killing Odin. Chapter 505 - Truth Seeker After leaving his elite summons and Dani''s constructs on Alfheim, Arnold made his way back to earth. However, it wasn''t because he missed his home or anything. He just wanted to meet up with his family and do some other work... like having Devon figure out the mystery hidden within the Elven blood. If the gods were interested in it so much, then there had to be a way for Arnold to harness that strength for himself. And Devon being the expert in these things, could help him do exactly just that. In the meantime, the dungeons had started popping up once again on Earth. The industry which had been suffering a lul, was now back in full force. In Arnold''s absence, the other guilds were given an opportunity to exploit the dungeons and their resources to the extreme. Arnold had no interest in dungeons or anything even remotely close to them. But there was one thing he still needed from the dungeon. The beast crystals. Since the war with the gods was inevitable, Arnold wanted to make himself and his summons as strong as he could and the beast crystals were a shortcut to that. If the guilds wanted to own dungeons, then they could. However, they needed to pay up in beast crystals after clearing the dungeons. That way, Arnold did not have to spend his forces to clear the dungeon and gain beast crystals either way. As for the Syndicate in America, Nina told them what happened with Nicole and Johnny. But they only knew a believable version of what happened as Nina doubted the rest of them would believe her if she told her about the existence of gods and other shenanigans. So on Devon''s advice, she told them that Arnold, Johnny and Nicole were clearing a dungeon and Johnny betrayed them and escaped with no one being able to trace him down. The news came as a shock to everyone as most of them knew how close those two were. Johnny betraying Nicole was like hell freezing over. Some of them even went as far as ming Arnold saying things like he might have killed both of them and was using Johnny as a scapegoat. Of course, none of them had enough courage to say those things in front of anyone who personally knew Arnold. Arnold, on the other hand, could not care less about what anyone thought about him. The status of the humans had been reduced to even worse than insects in front of him. If he wanted to, he could kill everyone in the entire world and wouldn''t even bat an eye. In fact, doing so might actually force the gods into some action. But Arnold decided to keep this wild thought to himself. After leaving the elves he had brought over in Devon''s care, he headed back inside to interrogate the warriors. Information was the key that could turn the tide of any war. Sadly, Arnold did not have much information regarding who were his enemies and how were they nning to take care of him. Thankfully, he had found more gods to interrogate, or so he thought... "Fck this!" Arnold cursed loudly as he walked out of the room his summons now referred to as the torture chamber, "Days wasted and those fools don''t know shit!" He had tortured them in every way he possibly could have. But in the end, he had to ept the fact that these idiots did not know a thing about what the rest of the gods nning. But it wasn''t all a waste. Even though they didn''t know much, they made one thing clear, Olympus wasn''t the only thing he had to worry about. Almost all of the gods were now against him and ording to what the fools told him, they were busy forming up a n to end him. Which again wasn''t good news. He was not afraid of fighting them head-on, but he knew he wasn''t ready yet. In other words, if the gods decide to attack him right now, he might not have any other choice but to retreat and try to kill them one after another. But he doubted the gods would allow him to do something like that so easily. "Whether they do it or not, it doesn''t matter," Arnold mumbled to himself before heading towards the forge, "I will kill them all." "Master!" Dani immediately bowed her head as soon as she saw Arnold, "You should-" "I''ll take a lookter Dani." Arnold brushed her off before taking out his amour and cing it on the anvil, "I have things to do now." Without saying another word, he took the hammer opened his inventory to get something out... "Are those-" "Heimdall''s eyes," Arnold replied and began thinking of the best ce to ce the eyes on. The visor was not an option as that would force him to redesign the entire helmet from scratch. In the end, he decided to add them to his shoulders tes. One of either side. With a vision in his head, he started hammering away. The process roughly took a couple of hours to finish, but in the end, he managed to make his visione true. Even though it had been a while since Dani became one of his summons, she had never seen her master, work with such a focus. Once he grabbed the hammer, he didn''t stop before he was done. Not even for a second and the reward for his effort was a new ability associated with his armour. __ [Truth Seeker]: This passive ability allows the user to see whether a being''s words are true or not. Destroyer ss Sync Ability: The effectiveness and range of the [Third eye] increased by 20%. Destroying entire civilizations would now provide an additional 5% Primal Power Manifestation and an additional 10% universal influence. __ "Perfect," Arnold mumbled and ced the armour back inside his inventory before turning towards Dani, "So, what did you want to show me?" "I-It''s nothing major, master. Just a few enhancements that I have done to your automaton designs." "Talos would be back here in some time. You can ask him about the changes. Is there anything else?" "No, master." "Then, I''ll be on my way." Chapter 506 - Brewing Conflict (1) It looked like the elves who had surrendered their faith to Arnold, were busy spreading his name. On an average day, he was gaining anywhere from five thousand to fifteen thousand universal influence points. Which meant that he was getting anywhere between five hundred to fifteen hundred followers every day. But for a world that has a poption of a little over 10 billion, these many followers won''t do him any good. The elven goddess might be thinking the same thing as she still had not appeared on the to save her followers. Which could mean one of two things. First, it was possible that she was asked not to do anything against him by the other gods. Hence she was ignoring him. The second could be that, she genuinely didn''t give two fcks about her followers and thus didn''t mind Arnold doing whatever he wanted to her people. Arnold was hoping that thetter would not be the case. Because if it was then... he wouldn''t get anything from Alfheim. Still, on a positive note, he was sure that the elves were amodity for the other gods due to the use of their blood. Thus, sooner orter, the gods will have to face him. Especially, if he gained control over elves. Till then, he would simply have to keep going on doing what he was. In the meantime, Talos was busy making a city of their own on Alfheim. This ce would act both as a weapon against the gods and a shield for his elven followers so that he could protect them. It was for that reason that the city was named after his mother and was called Alessia. Since the city was being built from scratch and as a result, even the elite summons needed a bit of help. That''s why Arnold went to visit them and left a ton of newly created automatons and Iron golems along with Dani to assist them. Other than its tactical and symbolic importance, Arnold had no interest in anything rted to Alessia. As a result, Talos, being his second-inmand, had taken it upon himself to make the city as magnificent as he could. Thankfully, he received help from the elves too who were master architects in their own right. The city was being built atop the crowns of majestic hills, which oversaw the forest below. Despite being on top of the mountains, thend around the city was fertile, which made it easier for the elves to indulge in agriculture to feed themselves and their ever-growing poption. Funnily enough, the elves were adamant about one thing that Talos found to be quite silly. A dedicated temple to their lord and saviour Deathless. Talos was aware of their sentiments but this was quite a bit... weird. Talos wasn''t against the idea at all. In fact, he immediately assigned enough resources and personnel to make a shrine of some sort dedicated to his master. It was just that how easily the elves had been persuaded to join Arnold and how loyal they were to him when only a few days ago they were preaching to some other god. ''These elves are weird.'' Talos shook his head and went about toplete his other duties, ''Maybe the gods are not concerned about losing them, since they are so easy to win over. They must be thinking once they finish master off, they''ll be able to reim what was once theirs. Little do they know what will happen once master deems Alfheim worthless.'' The city will continue to live on whether Alfheim does or not. In the case Arnold decides to destroy Alfheim, he could easily ce the city inside his domain and leave. This way, the city could be used again and again as they invade and conquer new worlds. It looked like Arnold had already nned for even the littlest of things. *** Somewhere else on Alfheim, the leaders of the remaining eleven Elven factions had gathered to discuss their next course of action. The aggressive expansion of the new religion did not look appealing to all of the elves. They saw Arnold and his followers as the threat he truly was and wanted to do something about him. But unlike before, the gods were no longer responding to their prayers. They didn''t know why none of the gods was trying to help them anymore. The feeling of getting abandoned was slowly overpowering their faith. Sadly, they weren''t aware of Odin''s order which prohibited the gods tomunicate with the elves in any shape or form. Until and unless it was for the purpose of ''harvesting'' them. Finally, the elves decided to take the matter into their own hands and slowly began forming a resistance against the heretics and their false god. But they had to be careful. All of them had heard what happened thest time the elves tried to get rid of the false god. That too, when they were being led by Asgardians. Thus they knew, if they wanted to win, they had to strike when the enemy is not prepared. Or at least when they are in a worse situation than they were during their fight with the forces led by Lady Sif. If not, then rushing in now was more or less like forfeiting their lives. "Before we do anything, there is one thing we absolutely need... information." Said the leader of the fallen elves, Aimon Vna, a redhead, dark-skinned beauty, "Thankfully, we know exactly how to get that." She pped twice and a blindfolded elf was brought forward into the dark room. The other leaders had a perplexed look on their faces, but Aimon started speaking once again to quell their thoughts. "This is one of the heretics who enter one of my viges wanting to spread the word about his ''great'' and ''merciful'' lord." She said with a cruel smirk on her face, "But for someone on such an important mission, he seriouslycked the security he should have had. Either way, thanks to this foolish heretic, we will now be able to know about this city of.... what was it called again? Right, the city of Alessia." Chapter 507 - Brewing Conflict (2) A weekter... "Dread, could you help set up the turrets there. Thank you. Ogur, carry the automatons to the side of the cliff please." Talos'' day was just as busy as it had been on the first day they started building the foundation of Alessia. Every day, new followers and believers were showing up at their doorstep. With such an influx of poption in a town that was still under construction had its own issues. Firstly there was not enough ce for every one of them to stay there. The housings they had built till then were nothing inparison to Arnold''s followers. In the end, Talos had to reallocate resources meant for building defences around the city to construct more housing. Thankfully, before he ended up using all of the resources Arnold had left them with, the elves themselves volunteered to procure enough resources from the forest below to help ease the burden on Talos. Still, the manpower they needed could only be provided by the Elite summons. Thus, even though Talos retained some resources, he still lost time in setting up necessary defences. That''s why now Talos and the rest of them were working relentlessly to set up the necessary defence around the city. ''These turrets are hand made by the master himself.'' Talos thought to himself, ''He might show that he doesn''t care about this city at all. But his actions speak otherwise... I should have figured it out when he decided to name the city after his mother.'' "Grock, are you still on security detail?" Talos radioed in with the Lizard-King. "Yeah. But it is difficult... hundreds of thousands of these floosies have entered the city at once. It''ll take time for me and Natasha to reassure whether these people are genuine or not." Grock''s hoarse voice echoed back in. "Just keep at it. If you need more personnel, then seek the aid of those whom we have already cleared of suspicion." "Got it." "Sigh... As much as I would like to wish everything is fine, I can never be too careful." Talos whispered and went back to work. The time Talos had spent in the Alpha base back on earth made him think like a militaristic leader. With that in mind, he could not deny the possibility that some elves might retaliate against them, and this would have been the perfect opportunity to do so. They were in the middle of constructing a base on a hostile. Also, their leader was missing. If Talos was to attack an enemy, he would not have wasted such an opportunity. Talos also knew these elves were intelligent enough to do that as well. That''s why he had Grock and Natasha on the security detail. Their job was simple. Natasha had to peek into everyone''s mind who wanted to enter the city and if they even had a tinge of hostility in them for their master, Grock was to eliminate them on the spot. However, this n copsed when too many elves started showing up there. Finally, Talos had to give the order to let them all enter the city. But even then, they were only allowed to stay within a certain area until they were cleared of any and all suspicion. If someone tried to leave the area without clearance, then they were shot down without hesitation. However, even with all those rules in ce, the danger could not be evaded so easily... The following moment, a series of explosions shook the city to its core. The explosion seared the air and earth in a way that left devoid of life down to the microbes. The sound of the explosion came like a terrible echo as if it were the anguished cry of God. Everyone near the za where the elves were being kept waspletely blown away as gigantic mushroom sized clouds rose in reach the skies. "GROCK!? NATASHA!? Does anyone copy?" Talos roared through the radio as soon as he realised what was going on, but there was no response, "Shit! Shit! Shit! Everyone, guard the boundaries. It just might be the start of an all-out war. Man the turrets that have been set up till now. And keep setting up as many as you can! The enemy can strike from anywhere." The Automatons and the Iron Golems immediately went to work, while Talos and the other elite summons who weren''t around the za immediately rushed there. By the time they got there, there was nothing left. Just a pit of charrednd could be seen there, with severed body parts, flesh and blood scattered around everywhere. "Grock!" Talos immediately rushed over to the injured Lizardking, "Alice-" "I''m on it!" Alice replied and immediately started healing Grock. For an explosion to reduce the mighty Grock to this state... it must have been imbued with magic or something else. Something that could have probably killed him. It could be said that Grock was lucky that he did not get destroyed. However, it looked like Natasha wasn''t as lucky as him. "Where is Natasha?" Bad-Breath asked while looking around, "Did she get blown up-" "In your dreams, fcking brute." Natasha''s voice echoed from behind them. As they turned around they saw her body materialising. She was injured as well, but her injuries were more like scratches inparison to Grock''s. On top of that, she could heal herself as well. "What happened here?" Talos asked her while gently putting Grock down. "Most of the elves that entered the city in thest few days were part of the resistance formed by the other elves." Natasha replied, "When they realised I found them, they activated the bomb. I escaped into the Astral ne to save myself but Grock was too far away from me to drag him to safety along with me." "Wait, if they were here to eliminate us they why did they blow themselves up?" Asterios asked Natasha. "For a diversion..." Talos mumbled, "Were you able to get where they areing from?" "South," Heimdall replied with his closed eyes, "About their forces are roughly about a million." "Damn it! That''s the only ce we do not have turrets set up yet." Dani chimed in, "How do they know all this?" "One of the elves must have betrayed-" "It doesn''t matter how they know this." Talos raised his hands to silence them all, "What matters is that we are going to kill them all. Dani, Miro, you two stay with Alice while she heals Grock.. The rest of us will head to the south. Let''s go!" Chapter 508 - A Lesson To Remember (1) As soon as Talos andpany reached the south point of Alessia, they were greeted by a sight that would make any earthling shiver in fear. An army of about a million soldiers strong was heading towards them with a trail of dust so big that it made thend void of sunlight. But the elves weren''t alone. They had siege weaponry with them. It wouldn''t take a bright mind to realise what they were up to. This so-called resistance was not there to defeat them, they were there to destroy all semnce of Arnold''s presence on their. To realise the scale the elves had prepared themselves to attack, there was only one example. If a force like this was to break out of a dungeon, then it would only be a matter of days before entire nations copsed. Of course, it would depend on the country they would invade, but one could get the gist of a situation like this. "Now this is a battle worthy of my time." Hercules bumped his fists together before grinning like the warmonger he was, "You, foul-breathing human corpse. You seem like a true warrior to me. Let''s crush their heads!" Bad-Breath had a perplexed look on his face. He never realised when did Hercules get so close to him that he started referring to him so casually. That aside, Hercules'' excitement charged all of them up as well. To them, it didn''t matter whether the enemies were in millions or billions. They will crush them all. After all, they were the elites, they would never back down from any challenge. No matter how big or small it might be. "We have an advantage over them in many ways." Talos mumbled as all of them got ready to smash the elves, "Even if we ignore our strength. We are on top of the mountain. We can take care of them effortlessly just by sitting here." "He is correct." Heimdall chimed in unsheathing his sword, "They might be in millions, but in front of us, they were just pitiful ants." "And here I was thinking living on this would be boring." Tiamut shook her head and transformed into her dragon form. Everyone followed her suit and got ready for the bloody battle ahead of them. Talos transformed into his demon form and started blindly shooting spikes in the direction of the iing horde. There was no point in wasting time to aim. They were a horde, no matter how widely they wanted to spread to dodge the iing attacks, it wasn''t enough. The others did the same while the closebat experts waited for the enemies to reach them. However, it didn''t look like most of them would be able to reach them all thanks to Talos'' spikes, Tiamut''s fireballs and finally Shyok''s vines. Also... there was Ogur was busy throwing random things at the charging army. It didn''t matter what he picked to throw Talos didn''t know what the heck these fools were thinking trying to challenge them like that. Just because they hadn''tpleted developing defences around the base didn''t mean they were vulnerable. They were more than enough to defend themselves no matter the crisis. "Are they really foolish enough to think we''ll just sit around and let them do whatever they pleased to?" Natasha mumbled to herself waiting for the elves to get within her range, "I can''t wait to torture them for trying to kill me. Only master has the right to punish me, no one else." "I... almost forgot... you are one... perverted soul..." Yan replied to her before raising his army of undead to further slow the Elves charge. "I never said I wasn''t one." Natasha winked at the rotting lich. While the two of them were busy doing that, there was Ogur throwing random things at the charging army. It didn''t matter what he picked to throw, with the velocity he was throwing stuff was more than enough to kill anything that came in contact with the projectile. They were winning. But for Hercules, it wasn''t enough. He did not have enough patience like the others to wait for the elves to get there. That''s when a bright n entered his pea-sized brain. "Oye, Frosty. Throw me next." Hemanded Ogur with the silliest smile on his face. Ogur saw no problem in doing so, as he was getting bored of throwing rocks and metal at them. So he dly picked the Olympian and threw him with a force so strong that Hercules broke the sound barrier beforending in the middle of the elves army. The impact shook the ground as hundreds of elves were killed immediately. Hercules could not have been more excited in his life than he was now. Momentster he began relentlessly killing the elves one after another. But there was one thing he wasn''t aware of. He had created a chain reaction within Arnold''s summons. After watching Hercules fly like that, they too wanted to experience that. As a result, they lined up in front of Ogur, waiting to be tossed into the battlefield like a freaking meteor. "What are you doing?" Asterios yelled at Duke and Cerberus who were fighting to be tossed first, "There has to be an order here." ''He has matured...'' Talos thought Asterios had gained some maturity after his ascension. "I will be thrown first as I am stronger." Asterios proudly proimed the next moment. ''I take that back...'' Talos shook his head and kept shooting the spikes, ''He can never be mature enough...'' "Yoloooooooooo!" Everyone heard Asterios screamed as Ogur threw him as well. It was at that moment Alice along with Miro, Dani and Grock walked towards them. "We are still under attack right?" Dani asked Alice. "We are always under attack... that''s why these fools don''t take it seriously. What do think about that Grock? Where the heck did he- Oh hell no!" "Yeeeeeeeet!" Grock creamed at the top of his lungs as he was thrown away as well. "This damn lizard... he was on the brink of being destroyed a moment earlier, now look at him..." "No one will ever understand what goes inside a male''s head...." Dani shrugged her shoulders while Miro nodded along. Chapter 509 - A Lesson To Remember (2) "Come one,e all! It''s getting your ass kicked buffet!!!" Bad-Breath yelled as he began kicking the crap out of everyone around him. Hercules and the rest of them were busy doing the same. At this time, Talos, Tiamut and Ogur stopped doing their part in attacking the crowd as their attacks did AOE damage and they were afraid of hitting one of their ''yoloing'' idiots. Shyok and Yan, on the other hand, were not bound by such restrictions as they hadplete control over their powers. "I guess we should go and join them?" Tiamut suggested as she transformed back into her human form. "You wanna be yeeted too?" Talos said with a tinge of sarcasm in his voice, "Ogur would love to throw you as well. Just look at him all sad since he can''t throw anything anymore." "Hard pass... as much as I would love to, I think the boys won''t be able to handle someone like me." Tiamut shrugged her shoulders and leaned over the wall, "On a serious note though, you sure we don''t need to intervene?" "Nah, we don''t get to show our true power these days. So, this should be a great time for those idiots to vent their pent up frustrations." Talos replied and reverted back t being an automaton as well, "For now, let''s just observe them. If it looks that things are going south, then we might aid them." Heimdall nodded and sheathed his sword. A million of them were nothing whenpared to what Hercules could do by himself, especially after having his strength increased by Arnold''s mystic science. At first he was worried because of their numbers, but it doesn''t seem like the elves would be able to do anything to them. "I wonder what those gods are nning to do now..." Alice mumbled, "This has to be another one of their ns, right?" "I doubt that." Talos replied before Heimdall could do so, "I mean no disrespect by saying this, but gods are a bunch of fools. However, even they aren''t foolish enough to do something like this." Heimdall smiled because he knew Talos had arrived at the correct conclusion. "Why is that? Those idiots already tried it once so they could- oh I see..." Alice shook her head, "I really need to stop hanging around those brutes... they are killing my brain cells." "Wait, I don''t get it?" Dani couldn''t help but ask them as everyone else seem to already understand why the gods couldn''t be behind this attack. "Let me exin it in simpler terms that you will understand," Talos replied, "Let''s say you discover a new method for quenching a hot de right out of the furnace. However, when you tried to do it, the results were disastrous. The de broke and all in all, it was just a huge mistake. So will you do it again right away, or figure out your mistake first and then try to ovee it?" "I would never do it again... or at least try to figure out the mistake." "It''s the same for the gods. In what I said above, the gods are the cksmiths, and subduing our master is like quenching the de. Since they already failed once, they have no reason to do it again. At least not so soon, did you get it now?" All of them intently looked at her while her mind processed the analogy Talos used. Then she finally had a lightbulb moment as it all came together. "I didn''t know these fools had enough courage to go against us like this." Natasha chimed in, "They clearly know we killed their gods and yet they thought to do something like this?" This time Talos kept his silence even though he knew what could have possibly prompted them to do this. Those explosions from earlier were not meant to distract them. They were meant to destroy them. Their n must have been to invade their city and spread out. After that, they would have used the explosives to throw everyone in chaos and possibly kill most of them too. Then they would have used their soldiers to swipe the city. However, their ns did not work thanks to the security measures. "Let''s see what these fools can do now." *** Back on the battlefield, the elves were taken by surprise. The chaos and death were the least of their worries right now. In fact, the only thing they could think of now was how they could escape from this hell? It was their n to take the heretics by surprise, however, it was them who were taken by surprise instead. The days they spent in nning had been wastedpletely. Nothing was going the way they had expected. "We have to retreat. That''s the only way to survive." Leader of the wartorn tribe of elves barked at his fellow leaders, "We need to survive and fight another day-" Suddenly his head exploded and the bits and pieces of his head were sttered all around him. "Run away from the battlefield? I thought elves were supposed to be a noble species who honoured the code of war." Hercules was standing over the fallen, headless corpse of the elf. His body was smeared with the flesh and blood of the elves unfortunate enough to cross his path. "It looks like the gods aren''t the only ones fallen from grace... tsk tsk tsk, too bad you fools thought you could take us down by yourselves" Hercules continued, "Either way, I''ll try to save the strongest of you people to killst. Right now isn''t the time to do so. Till then, hang on will you? And try not to run... or else I''ll have to give you a lesson to remember. Oi oi oi, Asterios why are you killing the elves on my side eh?" Saying so, Hercules headed back to where he was fighting the elves before, leaving the so-called leaders stunned into silence. They were cursing their fate now.. Just why did they listen to the foolish woman in the first ce? Thanks to her, they were going to die now while shefortably sat on her throne. Chapter 510 - Sacrifice Somewhere secluded, the remaining leaders of the elves had gathered. However, they were no longer as harmonious as they had been previously. Just after the first battle, cracks started popping up in their so-called alliance. All because of one failure. "What do you mean we have to abandon them!?" One of the elves roared in his furious hoarse voice, "They are our brothers who willing went into the battlefield trusting your n!" "I think you know exactly what I mean, Lorcan." Aimon scoffed, "It isn''t a matter of trusting my n if the bombers failed to properly get through the first phase of the n." "... We still need to help them." Lorcan mmed his fists on the table, breaking it in half. Lorcan Ogreson was the chief of the warrior tribe in Alfheim. They were known to be the most aggressive and ruthless warriors amongst the elves. It was thanks to that, they had expanded and takenplete control over one of the four major continents of Alfheim. As for his physique, it was true to how the elven legends described the mountain elves. A strong lean figure covered from the head to the toe with proud battle scars that merged with their brown skin. His ragged beard and the battleaxe strapped on his back further pushed his aggressive look. These Elves never trimmed their beards until and unless they were defeated in a battle. Thus the length of their beard also signified their unending battle streak. It was thanks to their god gifted physique and talent in battle they had protected their continent from every threat on their own for centuries. But this time even the proud Lorcan had to give in and join the alliance. He knew it very well that even trying to stop Arnold on his own was a foolish move. However, the way Aimon and the rest of them had decided to sacrifice their fellow elves without even thinking about them did not sit well with him. Thus, he wasted no time voicing his opinions either. However, without the support from the others, his opinions didn''t mean shit to anyone. "Lorcan, you and your war craving n will never understand how delicate this situation is." Aimon continued, "The entire purpose ofunching an attack on them was to take them by surprise. But now that element is gone, sending in more forces would do us more harm than good." Everyone present in the room nodded. Their n had failed miserably and now they had to take responsibility for that failure. As much as they wanted to save the fellow elves, they knew even thinking about that was more or less suicidal. ''It was no coincidence though...'' Aimon thought to herself, ''After all, I already knew about the defences and security check those aliens had imposed on the elves. Heretics? Gods? I don''t give a shit about those things. All I do care about is profits.'' The elf Aimon had presented in front of the alliance was indeed someone who wanted to propagate the name of their new god. But the fact of the matter was that Aimon had already interrogated the elf about everything under the guise of joining their new god. She made every elf under her authority change their religion and follow Deathless. They even had a secret altar dedicated to him in her tribe. Just to win the informer''s confidence. However, it wasn''t because she believed in him or anything. She simply saw the profit she would receive by joining his side. The elves who oppose him, would eventually fail and be killed. That would create a void of power which her people would slowly fill and be the strongest n of Alfheim. Thus she would prove her ''loyalty'' to Deathless and rule over Alfheim in his absence. That was her n and to fulfil it, she would go to extreme lengths. Lengths such as sacrificing countless souls. Aimon sent the bombers to the newfound city knowing that they will get caught. So she had already given them the instruction to detonate themselves as soon as they thought things were going south. Once the bombs had exploded, it should have been enough to throw the residents in disarray. Then when the elves would have attacked them, they would have been in desperate need of help. That was when her secret soldiers would enter the battlefield and save them, hence making her be praised and she would have won over the trust and gratitude of the new god. However, she had severely underestimated the capabilities of the beings hiding within the walls of the city. As a result, her ns did note to fruition. But at least she managed to tune her opposition down a bit. Even though things did not work out as she had imagined, it was still a win for her. "Let''s just gather our forces and think about a better n." Vistara Mermaiden, the leader of the sea elves said. Unlike the other elves, the sea elves did not have any of the usual characteristics that an elf had. Their ears were not pointy, but bby which helped them hear things underwater. On top of that, they breathed through their whitish-blue skin which also made it possible for them to breathe and live underwater. They also had the ability to morph their bodies ording to the terrain they were on. Meaning they can make their tails turn into legs and vice versa upon will. Also, they weren''t the most social bunch and liked to stay secluded in their own domain and rarely ever interacted with the rest of the species. But at times of crisis like these, even they could not afford to stay silent anymore. "It doesn''t what ns we make... they will always have contingencies against them." Aimon replied softly, "But for the sake of Alfheim, we have to keep pushing through even if we have to sacrifice countless brothers and sisters. But that does not mean we have to go in blindly to get massacred." She continued inside her head, ''After all, how will it be fun if all of you get massacred so easily?'' Chapter 511 - Thors Rage (1) The area surrounding Alessia had turned into a marsnd soaked up with the blood left behind by the dead Elves. The ground was no longer green as everyone remembered but a shade of crimson red that would shake even a god''s resolve. Despite the horrific-looking battlefield, not a single corpse was visible there. As if the earth opened up and swallowed all of them. "What happened here?" That was the first question Arnold asked as soon as he walked into Alessia. The city wasn''t in aplete ruin but a bog chunk of it had been destroyed. Not to mention all the crap Ogur threw at the elves like a cannonball. "A battle, What else do you think?" Hercules said with a smug look on his face, which was promptly wiped out the moment Arnold pped him on the back of his head, "Oi! Don''t mortals know there is the small brain-" "You don''t have one." Arnold cut him off immediately, "Only mortal have brains, the ones the gods had decayed long ago." The expression on Hercules'' face said it all. The rest of them were confused whether they shouldugh or not because Arnold had said those words with a straight face. He usually smiled whenever he trolled someone, but not anymore. Heimdall and Talos, on the other hand, did not hesitate for a second and burst outughing. But it seemed to be the wrong time to do so. "A battle... I did not think my summons were so ipetent they could not even defend the city properly." Arnold threw a verbal jab at them, "I have given you everything I possibly can to make you people strong. We are supposed to overthrow and kill the gods and yet you can''t even defend a city against mortals?" Well... Arnold was wrong about one thing. The elves did not destroy the quarter of the city on their own. Ogur helped them too... albeit unintentionally. It was safe to say that the Elves only destroyed 10% of the city with the bombings and the rest 15% was destroyed by Ogur himself. And that was enough for Arnold to scold the heck out of him, but he didn''t. Talos had predicted something like this would happen and thus came up with an idea that should have been enough to please their master. For this n to work, he needed Yan''s help and It was all thanks to Yan, the situation wasn''t too bad. There was a reason why there was no corpse present on the battlefield. Yan had resurrected the fallen Elves, increasing Arnold''s army by the addition of a million more soldiers. Thus pleasing Arnold a bit. and getting rid of his anger on them. These elves, on top of the summons, were enough to make anything think properly beforeunching a surprise attack on them again. At the moment, these undead elves were standing on the other side of Alessia. Thus Arnold had not seen them. But as soon as he felt the presence of the undead around him, his raging head calmed down. "At least you did something right." Arnold shook his head, "My apologies forshing out before. I was not thinking clearly..." "No need to apologise, master. We understand that we should have done a better job defending the city in your absence." Natasha was the first one to start licking Arnold''s ass, "However, if you ever need any type of relief, do not hesitate to ask me." "I''ll keep that in mind Natasha. The next time I will get an urge to smash someone''s head into pulp, I will definitely find you." Arnold emotionlessly mumbled. "..." "That aside, we need to do something about these pestering elves." Grock popped up the thing all of them were waiting for. However, no one opened up their mouth and waited for Arnold to say something. "Well, it does not look like they are going to leave us alone in peace." Arnold sighed and turned his gaze towards the dawning horizon, "So, instead of waiting for them toe for us, let''s take the battle to them as ast effort to draw their goddess out. If she doesn''te out after that, then... I will destroy this and be done with it." *** Back in Asgard, Loki was busy enacting his shady ns. "It was a mistake to bring me back to Asgard, father," Loki mumbled to himself, "A mistake you will pay for dearly." He had turned himself into one of the healers, to roam around the city of gods while the guards were busy guarding an illusion of him. He wasn''t the god of trickers just for the sake of it. Odin was afraid that he would do something like this, thus he ordered Loki to be imprisoned. Unfortunately, Odin had severely underestimated Loki''s ability. It did not take him longer than a few seconds to get through the guards just like that and in Heimdall''s absence, there was no one else in Asgard who could look through his disguise. Not even the All-father. ''Let''s go and wake up my dearest brother, shall we?'' Loki walked towards the Sanatorium where Thor was being kept after he was forced to sleep. However, getting into the sanatorium was not going to be as easy as getting out of the prison cell. Thanks to all the guards Odin had ced around the chamber. ''It wouldn''t surprise me if the old fool ced a couple of gods there as well. I just hope no one bothers me on my way-'' "You there!" A voice echoed behind him. ''Just my serpent tongue...'' Loki forced a smile on his face as he turned around, "Yes sir, so you need something from me?" Loki, who was in the form of a woman tried his best to seduce the guard. But his charm did not take any effect on the man. "Go and get me some water." The soldier said before shooing Loki away, "And do not make me wait." "Yes, sir.. I''ll get to it immediately." Chapter 512 - Thors Rage (2) "Where is that witch? Why isn''t my water her yet?" The Asgardian started to mumble as several minutes passed, "Tsk, guarding someone like Thor Odinson is already nerve-racking and now this tant show of disrespect... I should ask the sergeant to do something about it. No matter who it is, they should respect the hard-working soldiers." The soldier did not know who the person actually was Loki in the form of a beautiful maiden. Either way, the soldier had been on duty for more than a couple of days now, guarding the sanatorium, he expected his needs to be taken care of immediately. While he was bitching about his over proportionate needs, the soldier in the golden armour saw another healer, making her way towards the Sanatorium. It almost felt like Deja vu because the healer had the exact same face as the one he had just sent away to fetch him some water. "You! Where is my water?" The soldier asked thedy. "What water, soldier?" The blonde healer got all startled upon the soldier''s scream. "Don''t y games with me- Oh Fenrir''s rotten arse!!!" The soldier eximed as soon as he realised what had happened, "You healer, go and alert everyone else that Loki has broken into the Sanatorium. Go now!!!" Saying so the soldier rushed towards the chamber where Thor was being kept. Upon seeing the woman again, the soldier realised that someone must have disguised themselves to appear like the healer and walked inside the sanatorium to awaken Thor. The only one, in the soldier''s opinion, who would have done something like this was Loki. As no one else in the pantheon was as capable of shapeshifting as he was, nor was anyone else as big of a fool to do something that the All-father had strictly prohibited. Even the queen herself did not bother to argue with the All-father to let her meet her son and help him grieve the loss of the woman he loved. Thus leaving Loki to be the only one who would dare disobey the All-father. The soldier unsheathed his sword as he rushed inside the Sanatorium,pletely prepared to fight a losing battle against the god of mischieve. By the time he arrived there, he saw everyone else was fine and doing their job. Nothing was out of the ordinary there. "Fruna, what are you doing here?" One of the other soldiers asked the soldier from before who was heaving as if he had never breathed properly before. But Fruna was too shocked to say anything at that moment. ''How is everyone fine... I swear I saw that healer walk in before. Oh no! What have I done!?'' Without saying a word, the soldier got up turned around to see his worst fearse true. He had unintentionally led the lion right into the deer''s hideout. The sanatorium was a huge building. People often got lost in there if they did not know exactly where they were headed. On top of that, the chamber Thor was being kept in had been enchanted to move locations on its own every 10 minutes and this location was only known to the soldiers who were stationed to protect Thor through telepathy. This was done as a precautionary measure to keep Thor out of Loki''s hands in case he managed to break out of prison. However, in his haste and worry, Fruna forgot about the security measures and led Loki directly to where Thor was. The healer was behind Fruna every second of the way. Concealed using dark magic which the soldier could not trace in his panicked state. Suddenly the noise of slow pping shrouded the room as the soldiers took their weapons out. "Your brain works just fine... the only issue is, that it workste." Loki smiled as he turned back to his original form, "That sly father of mine certainly pulled all the stops to hide my brother from me, didn''t he? I mean I kept looking around and couldn''t find a clue where Thor was." "But thanks to him trusting you fools, it made my job easier than it would have been. For that, I would like to thank you sir... by slicing your head off your shoulders." "Contact the All-father and lord Vale! Only they can stop him. In the meantime, the rest of us will try to hold this bastard off." The so-called sergeant yelled at one of his soldiers as he along with the others rushed to confront Loki. However, Loki wasn''t someone any of them could have stopped. In a blink of an eye, all of them were either dead or left crippled enough that they could not do anything to stop him anymore. As for the one who was supposed to contact the All-father and Vale... well, he rushed inside the chamber and locked herself inside along with a sleeping Thor. Still, after seeing herrades being torn to pieces just like that, turned her mind into a mess. As a consequence that, she was unable to contact any of the gods using telepathy. "Knock knock?" Loki''s voice echoed outside the room and the next moment the door was thrown open, "Did you seriously expect this door to stop me? Come one, thest time I was here, the soldiers were a bit more reasonable and intelligent than now. Tsk, tsk, tsk, what a shame indeed." The soldier, seeing no other way to defend Thor from falling into Loki''s hands, stood up with her dagger in ast-ditch effort to stop the raging god. "ohe on... I did not want to kill a beauty like you." Loki sighed as a smile popped upon his face, "But what can I do? After all, I''m a merciful god. If someone wants to die so eagerly, it is my duty to grant them their will." Out of nowhere, two daggers materialised in his hands and he threw them in the soldier''s direction. However, at thest possible moment, the daggers flew away as if a gust of wind knocked them away. "Vale... quite hiding!" Loki cursed out loudly. "Who''s hiding?" A voice reverberated throughout the room, "I''m right in front of you." Vale suddenly appeared in front of Loki and punched him in the face, making him fly out of the room.. He then promptly gave the soldier a curt nod and flew right behind Loki. Chapter 513 - Thors Rage (3) Vale, the ruler of the winds and one of the five biological sons of the All-father.He had blonde hair just like Thor''s. But his physique was more on the leaner side and not as buffed as any of his brothers. His azure eyes alwaysplemented his figure and so did the white clothing he always wore. While all of the brothers inherited world-destroying powers from their father, Vale was the only one who inherited something more... a calm mind like that of Odin himself. One could say that he was theplete opposite of Thor, it was also the reason why Thor loved Vale the most who was his youngest brother. On the other hand, Thor, Baldr, Vioarr and Hoor, all lived for war. They would start fighting over the smallest matters just for the sake of it. It was for this same reason Odin was even thinking about giving the Throne to Loki, who was also his son but not by birth. Odin had called Loki his son because of his capabilities. Loki was also the only one ever treated like a son by both Odin and Frigg apart from their biological children. But Vale knew a disaster would unfold if the throne was handed over to Loki. Thus, he made sure his achievements overshadowed Loki''s. His efforts paid off and Vale was supposed to be the crown prince of Asgard but vacated the position when he saw how upset it made Thor as he was Odin''s eldest son. Vale had no doubts Loki had filled Thor''s ears with his corrupt words because Thor had been the happiest when he learnt his little brother was going to be the next King of Asgard. Loki must have thought Vale was really going after the throne, and thus Thor challenging him would lead them to a battle. Loki could have then used this moment to make Odin have a look at his ''ipetent'' sons. However, his n failed as Vale readily gave up the throne to Thor. Vale had outsmarted Loki once again. He never really cared about the throne in the first ce. He was fine with anyone being made the crown prince as long it wasn''t Loki or any of his associates. Vale made this sacrifice not to please his brother only. He knew Thor''s capabilities as a warrior, and hence with him being crowned as the prince, no one in their right mind would even think about attacking Asgard, at least from the outside. Odin saw this as an act of unrivalled brotherhood and hence gave Vale another position with equivalent powers to that of a King. He was granted a second throne ced next to his own. While Thor was going to be the ''King of Valor'', Vale was going to be the ''King of Reason''. This made Loki furious to no limit. He felt cheated out of something that should have been his. Thus he sided with Zeus and made a n to overthrow Asgard and forcibly assume the role of the king. Which led to the death of countless gods on both sides, but eventually Loki won and was the king of Asgard for a while. He immediately ordered Vale''s execution. However, Vale pulled a disappearing act and rushed to Shiva for his help as Odin had told him in case anything happened to him, Shiva would be the only one who could get them out of their misery. True to his words, Shiva who was in deep meditation when the attack on Asgard happened, quite literally destroyed Mount Olympus and Asgard just like that. Thus restoring order in the universe once again. Had it not been for Vale, Loki and Zeus would have had enough time to prepare for contingencies against Shiva. Thus Vale gave Loki another reason to despise him. Just like he did now. "Vale... always putting your nose in other''s business." Loki mumbled before spitting out a mouthful of blood, "Thanks for reminding me why I hated you so much." "That were some heavy wordsing out of your mouth, Loki, the backstabber." Vale still had a smile on his face, "You can fool anyone you want, but not me. I have seen through you and your pettiness ever since I looked into your eyes for the first time." "Oh, how romantic. But sorry brother, no homo and no incest." "Says the one who''s sister is his daughter. How''s Hel doing these days? I heard she ran off with Surtr?" Loki could agitate anyone. He could even y mind games with Heimdall... but when it came to Vale, he couldn''t do a thing. None of his tricks worked against him, that was the reason why h wanted to awaken Thor before doing anything else. But his ns failed miserably. Vale could see through him and his tricks with ease. After all, his mind was faster than the cerulean winds that guided warrior Vikings to the afterlife. "You should not have ever stepped foot in this ce again..." Suddenly the smile on Vale''s face disappeared, "You are the one who pushed Arnold to be the enemy of the gods and use that as an excuse to get back here. Other''s might have forgotten about what you put us through, but not me." Vale continued, "me the rogue god as much as you like, Loki. But doing something as cheap as that would never take your sins away and today, I''ll be the one to end you here." As soon as he was done giving Loki a piece of his mind, winds started revolving around Vale like a tornado and two giant des of wind shot at Loki. "Argh!" Loki managed to didge one of the des but the second one manage to graze his cheek. The pain wouldn''t have been enough to make a God sequel... had Vale not intended to make it so. His clothes had finely powdered celestial gold within its threads. Thus the winds that were generated due to his clothes carried a tinge of god killing material within itself. In other words, when the wind de grazed Loki''s skin, the celestial gold particles made the unbearable. "Don''t think for a moment I was sitting idly like the rest of them in your absence, brother.." Vale said with an emotionless face, "I had been training to kill you by my hands." Chapter 514 - Thors Rage (4) The battle between Vale and Loki alerted Asgard in its entirety. However, even then, it wasn''t possible for anyone to reach Vale for help because of their rapidly changing position. The n enacted to keep Thor safe from outside influence had now be a problem. Still, the entire armada of Asgardian soldiers rushed over to the Sanatorium and was working together to find the chamber where Thor was being kept. In the meantime, Vale was kicking Loki''s ass over and over again. This wasn''t surprising at all. After all, ever since being resurrected Loki had just been focused on manipting others to achieve his means. After all, it was his speciality to get dirty work done without getting his hands dirty. Thanks to his new habits of plotting and nning, he rarely ever practised warfare. As a direct result of that, he had gotten weak. Vale, on the other hand, had done quite the opposite. He was still cunning as ever, but ever since Asgard was restored he had made it his life''s mission to grow stronger. Strong enough to protect Asgard from any danger. Finally, millennia of excruciating training and pain was paying off. He was strong enough to take his revenge on Loki for what he did to Asgard. Loki''s body was covered in bruises and scars, while there was not even a single scratch on Vale. That was just as strong as Vale had be. As things stood now, he could even go toe to toe with Thor, until thetter got serious about killing the former. Also, the state Thor was in at the moment, it was better to keep him asleep. Otherwise, he could even trigger Ragnarok by himself. Thor''s rage was legendary. Some even dared topare it to Shiva''s. Vale did not know whether it was true or not, nor was he interested in confirming that fact. His only concern was to either kill Loki or stall him long enough for the All-father to show up. "I see you are not yelping anymore, Loki," Vale said before shooting yet another de of god ying winds, "I thought you said you were going to destroy me?" Loki barely managed to dodge the wind de before copsing on his knees. Loki had not expected the weakest of Odin''s sons to have grown this strong in his absence. Still, like always, he had contingency ns prepared for such circumstances. The only problem was that he did not want to sacrifice his son to make his escape. But there was no other way. He had to call forth his most agile offspring, that was the only chance Loki had against Vale''s godly winds. Loki let out a horrifying howl that came out from the depth of his soulless bowels. The noise was so loud that even Vale, who had apanied countless storms, had to force his ears shut as blood came gushing out of them. It took a few moments for Vale to realise what Loki was doing. Vale tried to shut Loki down, but it was already toote. The one whom Loki wanted to hear his call had already heard him. ''I hope I will not need to abandon you this time,'' Loki thought to himself as the creature lying in his own domain of misery and Chaos underneath Asgard rushed to the surface, ''Come forth, Fenrir!'' Suddenly cracks appeared in the golden floor of the Sanatorium. Vale had the most terrifying look on his face as the floors copsed and out of the crack walked out the beast no one would have ever wanted to see. In front was Vale was standing a giant wolf, covered in ck fur from the head to the toe. The menacing look in his crimson eyes was enough to even make any of Odin''s sons take a step back, except Thor, who was one of the gods who fought the wolf during capturing it. Even as a newborn, Fenrir was stronger than quite a few gods. Which made the others scared of him as well. His absurd strength coupled with his seemingly limitless growth in size made Odin order to put the beast into sleep only to be wakened up to be fed. However, their ns of taming the beast fell apart as he got stronger and stronger. Soon enough, no gods other than Tyr even dared to approach the sleeping beast. The redheaded god of Law, justice and formerly of war as well, became the sole caretaker of the wolf... Until the day, Loki, Fenrir''s father, rebelled against the gods in the greed of obtaining the throne. Loki snuck into the chambers where Fenrir was put under sleep and used the magic of the giants to wake him up. However, before Loki could havepleted the spell, Tyr caught wind of the situation and stopped Loki midway. However, Fenrir was already awake and he was mad. Since the spell was still iplete, neither Loki nor Tyr had control over the beast. Tyr, being the brave and the only affectionate god among Asgardians, immediately rushed to calm the wolf down. He slowly inched his hands closer and closer to Fenrir''s head to try and pet him like Tyr always did. However, it was a mistake... a grave one. In his confused state of mind, Fenrir bit Tyr''s head off, killing the one benefactor amongst the gods the wolf ever had. By the time Fenrir awokepletely, it was already toote. Tyr was dead and the taste of blood in his mouth racked the king of wolves with guilt. As for Loki, he being the mastermind he was, manipted his own son into thinking that the gods fed the wolf something which made him hallucinate and kill Tyr. He branded himself as the hero who got the wind of the n and wanted to help Tyr but by the time he got there, it was toote. In his susceptible state, Fenrir believed his father and swear to destroy Asgard along with the gods. Which he did as Loki overthrew Odin and captured the throne for himself. After a few years, Loki was killed and as soon as the other gods revived again, they ordered Fenrir to once again be forced to sleep. Some would have called it a foolish move, however, inspired too much fear in them for them to let him out from under their watchful eyes. Thus, they unanimously decided to force the wolf to stay in their stronghold of Asgard. But this time, they had chained him using chains made of Celestial Silver. Still, none of them was aware that even in his death, Loki had messed their ns up. It was estimated that it would take seven chains to safely bind Fenrir. However, out of the seven chains only six were made of celestial silver while the remaining one was the fake one. No one except Loki knew about it, and no one except him could make the call that would agitate the wolf enough to break free of his chains. "Hello, father..." Fenrir let out a growl to greet his father with a bloodthirsty look in his eyes. Loki knew what that stare meant because thest time they had met each other, Loki had made Fenrir a scapegoat to distract Shiva long enough for him to escape. However, the n failed when Fenrir realised what was going on and refused to battle Shiva, allowing the Immortal one to kill Loki. In the meantime, Vale had a terrified look on his face. It wasn''t because he was afraid of Fenrir, but because of the prophecy rted to Fenrir... ''The day Loki''s second son would break out of the chains binding him to Asgard, would be the day Ragnarok begins...'' "What have you done...." Vale managed to mumble a response. Chapter 515 - Awakening The Nightmare Ragnarok was a word deeply etched in the minds of the Asgardians. The origin of the prophecy itself was a mystery and all the Asgardians knew about it came from the giantess Grea, the only giantess allowed to remain among their pantheon due to her exceptional foresight. It was this power of hers that allowed the Asgardians to win countless wars. She even helped them defeat the frost giants and free the nine realms from their grasp. But one night, in her sleep, she saw the destruction of the Asgard and the death of almost all of the gods. That was thest vision she ever had. Because after she informed Odin about the event called Ragnarok and the catastrophe it would bring forth to the nine realms, she decided she did not wish to live any longer. The Giantess imed that she had served her purpose and thus now wanted to live the rest of her days in peace. The other gods, however, did not believe her for a second. They were one of the strongest pantheons in the universe. Just who could destroy them? In their tone of arrogance, they kept bashing the giantess who kept listening to their absurdities with a smile on her face for she knew, these gods would be the ones to die first. However, she had another news for them, the Ragnarok would be a doing of their own arrogance. Odin immediately rebuked the Asgardians who were humiliating the Giantess after all she had done for them. But his efforts were too little and toote. There was another thing she wanted to inform the gods about... the betrayal of Loki. However, she didn''t as a way to say fck you to them for thest time. Either way, if they could not even survive Loki''s betrayal, then they would never be able to stop Ragnarok from happening. And now that Fenrir had awoken, it was time for the prophecy toe true. Vale snapped back almost instantly and started barraging the giant wolf with wind de after wind de. But all his attacks managed to do was to shave Fenrir''s overgrown fur. Much to Vale''s dismay, the winds he had been so proud of, were proving to be useless against the wolf. ''I must not let the All-father get here. Not before Fenrir either dies or leaves.'' Vale Thought to himself and tried to angle himself in a way to attack Loki who was hiding behind Fenrir, ''If All-Father gets here... then ording to the prophecy, he''ll die and be consumed by Fenrir.'' The death of most, if not all gods had been clearly described by Grea. Odin was to fall by the hands of Fenrir, who would then be killed by one of Odin''s sons... Baldr. However, there was a problem. Although Baldr had the physical strength to even rival Odin, he was least interested in anything rted to fights. He was called the God of Silence for how peaceful life he lived. One would always find him sitting in the gardens or reading books and scriptures in the great library. No one ever believed that he would be the one to kill Fenrir and the more Vale fought the wolf, the more he started to believe that as well. If his winds could not defeat the wolf, then how the hell was Baldr going to defeat the wolf? "This pest..." Fenrir growled after Vale kept attacking him, "I shall dispose of him immediately." Saying so, Fenrir sent Vale flying into the chamber where Thor was being kept, and all it took was an attack from his tail. However, the nightmare had only started to unfold. As Vale was sent flying into the chamber, he ended up colliding with the stasis chamber Thor was being kept in. The stasis chamber was said to be strong enough to hold against even the attacks of the giants. But the impact Vale had on the chamber, made it burst open. Shards of mystical ss flew in every direction as magic keeping Thor asleep started leaking out of the chamber. "No..." Vale weakly mumbled. Just with a tail whip, his head had been split open in half, even though no godly weapon was used on him... just a creature''s tail reduced him to such a pitiful condition and yet, even after going all out with his attack, Vale could not even make the wolf bleed. The soldier who was inside the room this entire time could not even move as she was fear-stricken after seeing the god of destruction... Fenrir walking inside the room. Even Loki had not made her feel so helpless as Fenrir was, that itself was enough for anyone to realise how strong Fenrir was. "That''s all the gods got in them these days?" Fenrir growled before kicking away the fallen Vale, "One strike you are done? I was hoping for a challenge after being forced to sleep in the bowels of hell... but I am disappointed, to say the least." Each word that came out of Fenrir''s mouth stubbed Vale like a nail made of celestial gold. However, with the throbbing pain in the head and his blurry vision, there wasn''t much that Vale could have done at that point. His winds were not strong enough to stop Fenrir, he should have known that much. After all, even All-father could not defeat the wolf, so how was he supposed to do that? "I thought the gods would have turned stronger as time went by. But it looks like all of you have gotten weaker and weaker instead," Fenrir growled for thest time before turning away, "You are not even worthy of being killed by my jaws. You, pathetic excuse of a god." "Where are you going?" Loki asked his son. "You wanted my aid to get rid of this ''God'', and I did that. Consider it me expressing my gratitude." Fenrir replied matter-of-factly, "Now I''m leaving to explore the universe till the arrival of Ragnarok." Saying so, Fenrir ran out of the chamber and possibly out of Asgard as well. Leaving Loki alone with Thor and a half-dead god.. Since all of his troubles were now taken care of, Loki opened up the pod in which Thor was sleeping, awakening the nightmare that Thor had be. Chapter 516 - Ragnarok... But Different (1) Thor kicked open the chamber he was forced to sleep in and walked out as his golden hair flew behind him. Vale had seen this sight countless times as just like everyone else, Thor never liked having short hair. However, this time the aura shrouding him wasn''t the usual hopeful and cheery one. In contrast to his usual self, he looked as if everything had been taken away from him. He was still a god, but he looked nothing like the god of thunder. The skies over Asgard were immediately covered with ck and ominous-looking dark clouds, apanied by the loudest thundering sounds anyone had ever heard. The lightning bolts were so bright they would even put Zeus to shame. The clouds themselves were the sign of the cmity that was toe in the form of Thor. By this time, Loki could not help but smile like an idiot. The major part of his n was sessful. Now he just needed to manipte Thor to kick Odin''s ass and then he could have the throne without any problems. As Thor stood there, he looked around himself. Carefully analyse his surroundings. It was at that moment he saw Vale lying on his back, previously injured, but alive. Thor slowly started taking step after step towards Vale and stood over him like the grim reaper. ''Yes! Kill that bastard!'' Loki couldn''t help but get excited thinking about what was going to happen next, ''Kill him first and then we will kill Odin as well! After that, you would be the king, but only in name while I destroyed shiva and that pathetic vassal of his. Thor raised his hands over his head and the next second, his mighty hammer, Mjolnir, came rushing to his hands from deep within the halls of the armoury. As that happened, the skies cackled and so did Loki, eagerly waiting for one brother to kill the other. However, the next second Mjolnir mmed into Loki''s chest once again throwing him out of the chamber, but this time, the impact was much stronger than before. Afterwards, Thor turned towards the soldier who was shocked and confused at the same time. "Tend to his wounds," Thor said in his hoarse and pain-stricken voice before heading outside to take care of Loki. "Brother..." "I would advise you to keep your mouth close." Thor sternly replied before disappearing out of the room. *** Outside, Loki was confused as to what was going on. One moment everything was going ording to his n and the next everything gotpletely screwed over. And it wasn''t even the first time that had happened on the same day. First, it was Vale and now Thor, however, thetter was much worse than the former and with Fenrir gone the hopes of Loki''s survival were dwindling down rapidly. "Damn it! Why did I look at my face when I got up this morning." Loki cursed himself while trying to move Mjolnir off his chest, but it was all in vain. A sinner as big as him would never be able to lift the righteous Mjolnir. He knew that fact as well but could not help trying otherwise. "Why are you doing this to the one who saved you from the eternal sleep, damn it!?" Loki yelled at Thor as he came into his vision, "You should be thanking-" "Tell that to someone who does not know about that scheming brain of yours." Thor rebuked Loki, "I have spent aeons with you, Loki, and that time is enough for me to know that someone with as much filth as in your head will never help anyone until and unless you have something to gain from it as well." ''When the hell did this brute get so intelligent?'' Loki thought to himself as Thor read him like an open book, ''I have to choose my words carefully, or this brutish bastard would have me turn into a fine paste of blood and uncooked meat.'' "Tell me, what did you think would happen? You will help me out and in my blind rage I will kill the All-father?" Thor kept exposing Loki''s n after n without even thinking about it twice, "Or maybe I will destroy Asgard altogether? That''s what you thought, didn''t you?" Loki had a look of rage and defiance in his eyes. He had underestimated Thor based on his reaction after hearing the news of Sif''s death. Loki had wanted to enrage Thor right then and there but ultimately decided to y it safe. However, in hindsight, it was the wrong move. He should have simply struck the iron while it was hot. As it appeared that by keeping him asleep, the All-father did not only manage to stop Thor from causing a catastrophe, but he also gave Thor the time he much needed to think. Thanks to that, even though he was still enraged for the loss of his beloved, Thor was still calm enough to think things through. He wasn''t as irrational nor as frantic as Loki had expected and that was going to be the reason for his downfall. By this time, the Asgardian forces and the gods finally arrived there, ready to fight Fenrir and Loki simultaneously. But instead what they saw was a defeated Loki lying on the floor while there was no sign of Fenrir anywhere. The king of wolves had already made his escape. More importantly, as they saw Thor, all of them went down on their knees. Thor looked around over them and saw Odin was not there. When asked about his whereabouts, Magni, the son of Thor, replied that he was away trying to seek help from the Immortal one. Thor nodded and then told them about Vale who was lying inside and ordered them to take Loki and bind him in the chains used to bind the giantess Grea before her death. In Odin''s absence, Thor''s orders were supreme. Thus all of them rushed to fulfil hismands while Thor himself headed towards Bifrost. Seeing this Magni inquired Thor about it and his only response was, "Vengeance." Chapter 517 - Ragnarok... But Different (2) Odin arrives in Asgard a little toote and will only be greeted by the news of both Thor''s and Fenrir''s disappearance. That news itself was infuriating enough, but when he realised that Vale had slipped into the eternal slumber, his heart broke into a thousand pieces and enraged him at the same time. The eternal slumber of the Asgardians was equivalent to theatose state found in the humans. There was no telling when Vale will wake up from his slumber, that is if he ever did. Also, he might not be the same ever again, despite walking up. In his blind rage, Odin immediately ordered Loki to be bound in chains, just like Thor had told Magni to do before leaving. But then Odin took the order to the next extent and told the Valkyries to keepshing Loki with the whip made out of the bones of frost giants without any break. The bones of the giants were strong enough to injure the gods but were not enough to grant them death. It was Odin''s preferred way to torture someone to insanity. However, he had not used this method since the days when he was arguably as strong as Shiva. Since then, Odin had decided to walk on the path of a proud warrior. Giving his enemies merciful and often honourable deaths and not letting them suffer despite their crimes. However, after hearing what Loki did, he no longer cared about his beliefs. He wanted Loki to suffer as much as possible, and to do that, he did not care if he had to drench his throne once again with the blood of those who stood against him. Seeing him like that, even the gids from other pantheons who wanted to save Loki did not dare to express their minds in front of the All-father. However, Odin wasn''t the only one affected by this catastrophe that Loki had pulled off. Baldr, who never really cared about anything, no longer left the side of his brother Vale. He was still as silent as before, however, his eyes were fuming red with rage. He wanted to take revenge on the bastard to put his brother in such a pitiful state. Apart from Odin''s family who was distressed about the loss of three of their sons, Thor, Vale and Loki. Yes, Frigga still considered Loki to be a son of hers after everything he did. The rest of the three remaining Odin''s sons were enraged. But none like Baldr. Seeing this, most of the Asgardians were tensed up. Even if they were trying their best to hide it. ording to what Grea prophesied, Fenrir''s breakout from the clutches of the gods would signify the beginning of the end for the Asgardians. Thus with Fenrir now gone, all of them were worried if that aeons old prophecy will finallye true. However, some countered that there had been discrepancies in what Grea had prophesied. For example, it was told that Tyr would be the one to y one of Fenrir''s children during thest great battle, but as all of them knew, Tyr was already dead. On top of that, Fenrir did not have any children of his own as he had spent all of his time inside the bowels of hell. Not only that, Heimdall was supposed to blow his great horn, the Gjarhorn, to mark the start of the final battle. But he was no longer a part of their pantheon nor was he ''alive'' as a god to use the Bifrost. All in all, there were a lot of things that did not match with the version Grea had told them about. This sparked a debate between the gods as they tried toe to an agreement on whether the Ragnarok was about to happen or not. Most of them denied it, however, it was not a result of their reasoning, but that of panic and fear. It was as if they were forcing themselves to believe that it wasn''t true. Hoping that if they didn''t believe it, it wouldn''t happen. All of this was happening in absence of Odin or any representative from his family. Thus Mimir took it upon himself to lead the discussion. However, while they were busy discussing that, the doors leading to Odin''s war court were thrown open and in walked someone whom no one would have ever believed to see there... it was Baldr. He walked up to the throne and sat beside it. All of the gods immediately bowed their heads down in respect. Something which most of them had never bothered to do before. Usually the whenever someone from Odin''s family appeared in the court, all of the gods had to remain silent till they were allowed to speak. But Baldr had never spoken a word before, at least in front of anyone. It almost made them think whether Baldr had forgotten how to speak altogether. Either way, the gods did not know what they should do now. Thus most of them decided to follow Mimir''s suit and stay silent. In the meantime, Baldr''s careful eyes were gazing over all of them. As if he was looking for hidden enemies within the ranks of Odin''s ''allies''. After what seemed like centuries, Baldr finally dropped his gaze and sighed. "No wonder that bastard was able to y you like fools." Baldr''s thunderous voice echoed throughout the halls of the courtroom. All of them were stunned into silence as they heard Baldr speak for the first time. His voice was nothing like any of them could have imagined, but more importantly, the words that he spoke stung them even more. Even if he was an Odinson, how dare he mock the court like that? Even Thor did not disrespect them to this extent and yet Baldr was humiliating them by calling them fools. "You look surprised. Is it the first time someone had called you fools?" Baldr said with an expressionless face, "No wonder we were failing time after time. Do you ''gods'' want to know why I called you fools? It wasn''t because of your obviously low intelligence, but because of your cowardice." All of them got more and more surprised and shocked with every word that came out of Baldr''s mouth. Only Mimir was quick enough to catch on to what Baldr was trying to achieve there. The spirit of the gods had been broken from recent events. So much so, that some of them were even nning to leave Asgard altogether. What was a good leader supposed to do at times like these? Encourage the warriors and raise their spirits, and nothing raised the spirit of an Asgardian more than being told that they are worthless. Because in that case, their hearts were ignited that which wouldpel them to prove otherwise. That was exactly what Baldr was doing by calling the Asgardians cowards. Baldr''s challenge would make them prove their worth to him. Which would then, ignite the power and the spirits of the others as well. This chain reaction would make them forget about their worries regarding Ragnarok and do what they did the best... fight till theirst breath and enter Valha with their heads held high. ''Well done, young one... well done..'' Mimir thought to himself as the corners of his mouth twitched with happiness. Chapter 518 - Inevitable Clash (1) Ever since the sh between Arnold''s summons and the resistance, things had been awkwardly quiet on Alfheim. Initially, the elves were concerned about the bacsh they would suffer after failing to take care of the heretics. But it appeared as if the damage they dealt to Arnold''s forces was much worse than they thought. It was the only reason to exin the silence of the godly army. Not that they wereining, as it gave them some crucial time to gather their troops to engage their enemies one final time. All of the leaders were happy with the oue, except for one. From what Aimon had observed and knew about Deathless, he wasn''t someone who would have left the elves alone without taking some sort of revenge. Yet it had been days and yet he was nowhere to be seen. Seeing no other way, Aimon sent some of her most trusted and capable spies over to see what was going on there. She soon got her reports back. Not only did the spies couldn''t see ''Deathless'', but none of his ''elites'' was also seen either. Still, the construction of the city was still going at the same pace. The elves appeared to be constructing the city by themselves now. That was all the spies could tell her as going anywhere close to the city would have proven to be lethal. ''Just where is he...?'' Aimon thought to herself. Just then, the rms started ringing all over the capital of the strongest nation on Alfheim. A citadel dedicated to their Goddess and theirst safe haven from the invaders. Numerous elves, monsters and even gods had tried to seize the city from them, yet all of them had failed. Now a new challenger had risen up to try and im the Citadel once again. While the rms worried everyone else, the sound of panic and chaos was weed with opened arms by Aimon. Finally, it was time for her great ascension to begin. It was her time to shine! She kept thinking that as all of the leaders rushed over to the borders surrounding the city to take a look at the army of heretics that had invaded them. However, as they did that, they were left utterly disappointed. There was no army surrounding the Citadel, but one man. That too without any weapon or armour. But there was no denying that it was a human and not an elf. On top of all that, the man did not have a trace of mana on him. "Is he some sort of guinea pig or something?" Lorcan, the war chieftain, asked hispanions. "Looks like that to me." Yet another one replied, "Why else would there be mana less human here? They probably sent the poor guy to check our defences." However, there was one discrepancy. The rms in the citadel weren''t something that could be triggered manually. It automatically senses danger and activates. Also, the loudness of the rm determined the level of threat out there. And right now, the rms were wailing the loudest they ever had. "It would appear that the rms are malfunctioning..." Vistara shrugged her shoulders and turned around, "If they want a show, then let''s give them one. Blow the man to smithereens." With the instructions being given to the soldiers they immediately charged up the turrets. The elves thought the man would get scared by the sounds and then run for his life. But the man simply stood there like nothing was going on. "What are you waiting for? Fire away!" Dozens upon dozens of turrets fired upon the man. The sounds of explosions shook the skies, while the grasnd in front of them got scorched so bad to never resemble lush greenery again. Thye kept bombarding the spot where the man had been standing till nothing but smoke remained there. "Huh... that was quite uneventful," Vistara mumbled, but a secondter she realised that the rms were still ring like before. She once again rushed towards the walls, and then she finally felt it... a dreadful aura like she had never felt before. She screamed at the soldiers to keep firing. But as they did that, a figure shot out through the smoke and headed straight towards the gates. The gates were designed from the toughest metal found on the, and yet with a single kick, it was blown apart by the human. "All hands to the battle stations!" Lorcan eximed as he jumped down from the walls along with his soldiers to fend off the threat. The aura surrounding the man had made them all nervous, and in their nervousness, the soldiers started firing away their weapons without even bothering to see who their target was. One soldier, in particr, was so scared that he could shit his pants at any moment. He was firing his weapons without waiting even for a moment. However, he soon snapped out of his panicked state when he felt something fall next to his feet. He stopped firing and looked around... only to find that his entire toon of 100 soldiers had been obliterated in a second, with huge chunks of their bodies missing. He was the only one standing there. This was enough to make the soldier lose his shit. He dropped his weapon and started running away like a mad man. However, for some reason, no matter how fast he tried to run away, he couldn''t. Suddenly he felt something breathing down his nape. The next moment he was paralysed with fear. He did not even dare to look at what was holding him back, he just stood there as fear took hold over his body. Tears started flowing down from the man''s face as he surrendered himself to his inevitable fate. But then, he heard a slow, hissing voice in his ears. "Tell me, do you want to live?" The elf nodded and was immediately let go off. He couldn''t believe it... he was safe? Either way, the elf didn''t wait there and began running away. But as he did that, a hole was blown through his stomach. "Why..." The elf mumbled with itsst breath. "You didn''t say thanks.." Arnold shrugged his shoulders and walked deeper inside the citadel, "Let''s see if you wille to fend for your people or not, miss goddess." Chapter 519 - Inevitable Clash (2) The citadel was thest bastion for the elves. However, with Arnold there, no bastion could have kept them safe. Hundreds upon hundreds of elves appeared in front of him to try and stop him, however, no matter what they did it wasn''t enough. Right now, Lorcan had found the intruder and was busy fighting Arnold ff while they tried to evacuate the citizens from there. "Hurry up!" One of Lorcan''s lieutenants roared in rage. How couldn''t he be agitated? The man he had looked up to his whole life was on the verge of losing for the first time ever. Moreover, that loss would inevitably result in Lorcan''s death. He wanted to help Lorcan, or at least die by his side, however, Lorcan''s instructions were clear. No one was to even try to help him until everyone had been evacuated from there. That was the reason everyone from Lorcan''s tribe was trying to evacuate the citizens as soon as possible. But there were too many of them and where the hell would they even evacuate them? This city was thest ce they could go to and if this ce wasn''t safe for them, none of the other ces would be safe either. ''We are all doomed...'' The lieutenant thought to himself, ''We should not have angered someone like him in the first ce and now, it''s toote.'' *** The elf in front of Arnold was bleeding from the head to the toe, yet he was still standing in front of him like the proud warrior he was. It took a moment for Arnold to realise why was this elf so adamant about not letting him move forward. The elf was trying to stall him for long enough for the others to evacuate safely. ''Looks like there are still some good ones left in the bag of rotten tomatoes.'' Arnold thought to himself and for the first time ever since Nicole was killed, his mouth carved up in a little smile. It wasn''t every day that Arnold got to see such acts of chivalry, that too on a like this one. Thus he decided to reward the elf... After all, if he wanted to control the world, he needed trustable people there, without spending someone from his elite force. The elf in front of him seemed to be the perfect candidate for that. Arnold could feel that the man had a genuinely caring heart. A trait that he thought to be rare in the elves. With that thought in his mind, Arnold poured down a couple of health potions on the elf. "What the-" The elf initially thought Arnold had poured acid over him and was about to curse him out for using such a dirty trick. However, he stopped when he realised that all of the wounds he had on his body, whether they were inflicted upon him during this fight or during the others, had started to heal. Momentster, he was back to full health. "But why?" Lorcan seemed to have dropped his guard down a bit at this unexpected gesture of his opponent. "Fighting with you made me realise that not every elf has a rotten heart. Moreover, my fight is not with you, if it was all of you would have already been on a trip to the afterlife. It''s your goddess that I seek." Arnold said in a emotionless voice, "Go and evacuate your people. I''ll stay here till then." This was the first time Lorcan had seen an enemymit such foolery. Who in their right mind would give his opponent a chance to recover, knowing that they will fight again? Only three types of people would do something like this. First came the fools, then the overconfident pricks and atst, people whose strength did the talking for them. Just by exchanging a couple of blows with the human, Lorcan had realised that Arnold belonged to thest category. It was as he said, if the human wanted them dead, nothing on Alfheim would be able to stop him. Nothing at all. "Thank you." Lorcan bowed down to Arnold, "I will never forget this kindness. Not till the moment I die." Arnold gave the elf a short nod and then sat down there. Lorcan was someone who had never bowed before anyone. His tribe only allowed him to bow before just one person in their lifetime, to show utmost devotion to that person, god or natural diety. And Lorcan just used that to acknowledge Arnold. The others from his n saw their leader heading back to them and were surprised. None of them thought they would ever see him again. But with himing back, it meant one thing... he had defeated the heretic god. What other possible reason could have been for their leader toe back to them alive? They rushed to greet their leader for doing something even the gods couldn''t. But they soon realised that wasn''t the case. The heretic god was still alive and seemed to be meditating? "Haha, you fools actually thought I would ever be able to defeat someone as great as master Deathless?" Lorcan said as he patted his soldiers on their back, "That human, no, that god s the god our tribe shall serve from now on. Is that clear?" Every single one of them was surprised by the sudden change in Lorcan''s demeanour. They had never thought someone like their master would ever acknowledge someone as his master. But there was, doing the exact same thing, that too with a broad smile on his face. The Warriors from the tribe did not know what was going on, but as long as their leader was happy, they were happy as well. However, there was someone who was not pleased with this sudden development. All the leaders of the resistance had been stationed to evacuate different parts of the city. Aimon was stationed furthest away from where Arnold was. Thus she had deployed her spies to every corner of the city to seek and report her about everything that was going on. "That bastard... he would win Deathless over before I do." Aimon cursed out in fury, "I have to get rid of him.... I will be the one to control Alfheim, not that bastard Lorcan!"allnovelfull Chapter 520 - Inevitable Clash (3) Arnold patiently waited for Lorcan to get over with hismitment, and by then the report of Arnold''s patience reached the ears of the other leaders as well. Thus they hurried into the zone where Lorcan and his men were busy evacuating. They came under the guise of backup, but their true intention was to see for themselves whether what they had heard was true or not. Much to their surprise, it was true. In fact, Arnold was even helping Lorcan to lift copsed buildings which they couldn''t do on their own. None of them could believe their eyes. Whatever they had heard and witnessed about the heretic god seemed to be false. If he was truly as heartless as Aimon had told them, then why would he be helping them rescue the elves rather than taking advantage of the situation? "Don''t be fooled by this disy, brothers and sisters!" One of the leaders yelled his lungs out, "This is nothing but a tactic to catch us off guard! Why is he helping us now after causing all this mess in the first ce, can someone tell me that?" The elves were now feeling a bit conflicted. It was true that Arnold had already killed hundreds, if not thousands of them and helping them now would not resurrect the fallen souls. It felt much believable that the heretic god was trying to catch them off guard rather than to have a change of heart in the middle of the battlefield. They drew their arms out and were about to charge right into Arnold when suddenly Lorcan and his men jumped in between them. "Anyone who wants to confront the lord will have to go through me and my men first!" Much to everyone''s surprise, Lorcan proudly proimed his allegiance to Arnold. The other leaders had not expected this to happen. After all, Lorcan wasn''t someone who would bow his head in front of someone. Even if they were a god. But for him to jump in like that, the other elves saw it as heresy. He was not only betraying them but also betraying their goddess as well. "Lorcan, have you turned into a heretic as well?" Yet another leader questioned him. But this time Lorcan was not afraid to show them whose side he was on. He walked right up to the leader who had just proimed Lorcan to be a heretic. However, he did not do anything else and yet the leader''s knee started to feel weak all of a sudden. In the presence of a bigger threat, all of the elves had forgotten just exactly who Lorcan was. He was the only tribal leader who had not been defeated ever in a battle. Even an alliance between the Light elves and the Dark elves was not enough to bring this elf down, and the leader thought he could simply berate him like that? "It seems you all have forgotten who I am?" Lorcan said before flexing his neck in front of them, "I got tame for a second and here you all are thinking that you are some big shot-" "Lorcan, was it? I thought I told you to focus on evacuation so that we can resume our fight. Then why are you wasting your time here?" Arnold said without even bothering to look at the other elves, "As for them, they can fight me if they so desperately wish to die today." With a snap of his fingers, Arnold knocked them all away and it was just the beginning of his show of powers. If they wanted to fight him, they could do so, but first, he needed to make one thing clear. "Before I start killing you like insects, let me tell you one thing." He said with a poker face, "I am not here to kill you. As long as your goddess appears in front of me and fights me, I''ll be content with leaving you alone." "However, it does not seem like she cares enough about you to actually help you out. In that case, she leaves me no choice but to kill all of you for wasting my time. With that out of the way, why don''t youe at me?" Arnold issued an open challenge to them, yet none of them even dared to take a step towards him. It was strange to see something like that. After all, mere moments ago they were boasting about defeating him and now they were cowering away in fear? ''No... they aren''t afraid of me.'' Arnold thought as he read their faces, ''It''s something else, something they know to be afraid of.'' Then he saw what they were looking at. Up in the skies. He looked up as well and realised something wasing. The skies had turned the darkest shade of ck he had ever seen. However, a momentter he saw something within those dark clouds. A ray of light that resembled more of a rainbow... It took him a moment to realise exactly what it was and jumped away at thest possible moment to avoid getting hit by the beam. Huge clouds of dust rose in the air as multiple buildings were knocked down as if they were made of twigs. The elves who had been sitting there a moment ago could no longer be seen. It seemed the violent shockwaves knocked them away along with the buildings. "I was expecting a god to show up," Arnold mumbled as the dust around him began to settle down, "but I had never thought you would be the one to show up like this." "Shut your trap. I am not here to chat with someone like you." A thunderous voice echoed throughout Alfheim, "I am here to avenge my beloved..." "You live up to the folklore I had read about back home," Arnold replied back before dawning his armour, "Thor, the god of thunder and an arrogant prick. All that aside, your entrance was nothing short of epess-" Before Arnold could evenplete was he was saying, Thor hurled Mjolnir at him. However, much to Thor''s surprise, Arnold managed to dodge his strike effortlessly. "Hmm... you might not be the one I was looking for, but you would surely make a better ything.." Arnold said as he banged his fists together and got into his battle stance. allnovelfull Chapter 521 - Enraged? So Am I. (1) "Is this the end?" Aimon mumbled as soon the two gods shed with one another. The elves had seen and heard a lot about the Norse god of thunder. He was not someone to be trifled with. As soon as they realised who had arrived on their, the elves knew it was the end of the heretic god. After all, apart from Odin and a select few other individuals, there was no one who had been able to defeat Thor. But the moment they saw Arnold and Thor battle it out amongst themselves, they realised that the battle wasn''t going to be as one-sided as they had thought. The God of thunder was relentless in his blows, and yet the heretic god took every single one of his blows head-on as if they meant nothing to him. The shockwaves generated from their sh send entire buildings away, let alone the elves. The ces that were once hustling and bustling with life were now lost in craters made from the chaos between Arnold and Thor. Even the skies were not left untouched by their sheer disy of strength. Even after all fighting for hours, the elves couldn''t decide who was winning and who was on the back foot. As the two gods battled, it appeared that none of them could gain an advantage over the other. It was a fight between two people who were on equal footing. "Equal footing? You fools really think that?" Lorcan proudly rebuked the other elves, "That thinking is all that tells me you know nothing about the art of war." All of the elves had been blown away by the fight between the two gods and had gathered somewhere safe. It was from there that they were eagerly watching the battle between Thor and Arnold. How could they not be interested in a battle like that? After all, the future of their world depended on who the victor was going to be. However, since the elves had been under the protection of Asgard for so long, it was obvious for them to be supporting Thor. All of them were hoping for Thor''s victory, everyone except Lorcan and his men. They had already given away their loyalty to Arnold. It was clear to the others if Arnold did not win the battle, Lorcan was as good as gone. As for Aimon, well, she had never made her side clear in all the mess. Thus she didn''t care who won between the two, she was going to be the one to be benefitted. In fact, in her eyes, Thor''s appearance was nothing less than a blessing. Now she would be able to make a clear decision and see for herself just how strong Deathless was. However, if he were to win against Thor, that would make her do a little bit of extra work, as then she would have to get rid of Lorcan. Which wasn''t going to be a difficult task at all. She had already surrounded herself with some of the strongest assassins. When the time was right, she would give them the signal to attack and kill him. Till then, Lorcan was allowed to enjoy the battle they don''t get to see every day. "What do you mean by that? Following the heretic leader must have made you mentally ill." One of the leaders mocked him with the othersughed along with him. The heretic god would beat Thor? Yeah, right. "You fools really can''t see well, can you?" Lorcan replied with a smirk, "All you see is the two of them fighting on equal footing, but you don''t seem to realise they are not on equal footing at all. Look closely and you''ll know." Everyone thought Lorcan had lost his mind for real. Everyone but, Aimon. She looked closely and a momentter a realisation dawned upon her. Lorcan was correct. The two of them were not fighting on equal footing, one of them was using his gxy destroying thundering hammer while the other was using his bare fists. If Arnold was fighting Thor off without using a weapon, she could only wonder what would he be able to do when he started using a weapon of his own. ''Damn this bastard,'' Aimon cursed at Lorcan, ''He really has an eye for fortune. I will have to kill him now, there''s no other way.'' She nodded at her assassins and they immediately went into action. However, before they could even get close to Lorcan, they were swatted down like the flies they were. All of a sudden, everyone''s attention was diverted away from the godly battle to what was happening right next to them. In front of them,id the corpse of more than fifty elves. "What the hell?" Everyone who was alive immediately perked up. Their weapons were drawn in a sh, while their eyes searched for the unknown enemy. "We''re up here you dinguses." A voice echoed from above. They looked into the skies and were frozen in fear. They had thought the shadow over them was cast by a ginormous cloud, but they couldn''t have been more wrong. What was above them was ginormous alright, but it was no cloud. "A-A Hydra!!!" Aimon eximed as she saw Tiamut floating over them. However, what Aimon couldn''t see was that the three-headed was not alone. On top of her were all of Arnold''s elite summons, except Ogur, who jumped below on queue. Theynded right next to Lorcan and surrounded him as if they were there to guard him. It didn''t take long for the elves to recognise who they were. After all, Heimdall was apanying them and all of the elves knew about him. Some even went down to their knees as soon as they saw him while the rest were conflicted on what to do next. There was no way they would be able to stand against so many of them when even an army of a million soldiers couldn''t. "Rx. As long as you stay away from... Lorman, you should be fine." Hercules proudly proimed, "He is under the protection of our lord so all of you can go. Shoo." "His name is Lorcan." Natasha whispered in the Olypians'' ears, "Lorman? Who the fck would name themselves that?" "Yeah, yeah whatever." Hercules brushed her off, "So when do we get to kill them?" "Not till lord tells us to." Heimdal mumbled and turned his gaze towards the ongoing battle, ".... this is going to be much more devastating than I thought." Chapter 522 - Enraged? So Am I. (2) The gods continued to fight like wild beasts, no,paring them to wild beasts would be disrespectful to them. It was more as if the two of them were thest living beings in the universe around them, fighting to be the one on the top. However, none of them was ready to back down. Even so, Arnold was in a much better position than Thor was. Unlike the raging god of thunder, Arnold was not making any unnecessary moves. Even his slightest moves had an objective to fulfil. Unlike Thor who had gone crazy. His relentless attacks had turned barbaric as he kept bashing Arnold with all his might. It appeared as if Thor was trying to overwhelm Arnold''s precision with sheer strength. But even after doing all that, the mighty Mjolnir wasn''t able to put a single crack on Arnold''s armour. Thor was slowly but surely, tiring out. The adrenaline that had been pumping him to put more and more into fighting Arnold had started to take a toll on his body. But it wasn''t all that one-sided as it appeared to be. There might not be any cracks on the armour, but Arnold was still suffering through some damage. Some of that lightning was getting through his armour and causing him tingling pain. This was the reason why Arnold was not making any unnecessary movements because well, his body was slowly getting numb. At the same time, his strength was also being siphoned off thanks to the numbness. Not to mention, his movement was getting sloppier. He could notpletely dodge Thor''s attacks anymore and was forced to parry them. As a result, he suffered through more and more shocks. It was slowly turning into an endless cycle that could even lead to his defeat. ''Looks like we both ended up underestimating each other.'' Arnold thought to himself as he parried yet another thunderous blow, ''Enough ying. Time to get serious.'' Arnold needed time to recuperate from the numbness. But it didn''t seem like Thor was going to give him a chance to do that. Thankfully, Arnold had just the skill which suited his purpose. The next moment, Arnold''s armour was shrouded in a golden hue. He had called forth his guardian angel to assist him in the crucial moment. Thor realised and began pounding Arnold with all his might while the guardian manifested. He wanted to do as much damage to Arnold as he could because he knew, once the guardian angel had manifestedpletely, he would not be able to deal even the minuscule amount of direct damage to Arnold. The Guardian would block all his damage. However, it wasn''t as bad as one would think. With the strength behind his hammer, Thor would be able to deal an absurd amount of damage to the guardian. Which meant, he would be able to deplete Arnold''s mana reserves. ''No matter how strong he physically is,'' Thor thought with a smile on his face, ''without his mana, he would not be able to do much. You got yed, bastard and I''ll make you pay with your life for what you did to Sif.'' Just the thought about his precious one enrage Thor even more and his attacks got even more brutal. By now, the guardian was in ce and Arnold could let out a sigh of relief, though only for a moment as rming notifications soon started to appear in front of him as soon as Thor began hitting Abdiel, the guardian angel. ''Trying to deplete my mana huh?'' Arnold had a smile on his face, ''You think someone like you can do that?'' Thor was right, attacking Abdiel like that would definitely make Arnold use his mana to replenish Abdieal''s lost health. But the thing he didn''t know about was that Arnold no longer had the minuscule amount of mana that he once had. Considering the rate at which he was losing mana, it would take thor at least a dozen hours to dry Arnold''s mana reserve. Thor might have assumed Arnold to be a fool by using Guardian angel at such a moment. When in fact it was a calcted move on his part to throw Thor off-guard while recovering from the shocks he had received. After that, Arnold quickly took out some status effect potions from his inventory and gulped them down while Abdiel was keeping Thor busy. The potions were going to take a couple of minutes to take effect andpletely get rid of the stunning effect of the shocks. In the meantime, Arnold was getting prepared to put the raging god in his ce, and he had just the thing he needed to do that. Thir had been hammering the guardian for ten minutes when he realised his n might not work as easily as he thought. Each of his blows was strong enough to reduce a into dust, yet the guardian was not only holding against his attacks but attacked him at the same time. Seeing no other way, Thor summoned all of his strength to break the guardian. The skies above started crackling as huge ck clouds started swirling around Mjolnir. Thor was finally showing his strength as the god of thunder and the prince of Asgard. The lightning above illuminated his enraged face and he brought the hammer down on the guardian. The moment the hammer collided with the guardian, the loudest noise the universe had ever heard was let out along with an equally powerful shockwave that blew everything away, even the spectators who were looking at the battle from far above were not left untouched by it. As the dust settled down, the golden hue was no longer seen around Arnold. He had done it! Thor managed to destroy the guardian! The rogue god was now defenceless, or so he thought. The next moment, the happiness on Thor''s face faded away as quickly as it had appeared. "Celebrating already?" Arnold opened his visor to witness the clear look of desperation on Thor''s face, as the god saw what Arnold was holding in his hands. It was the same sniper rifle that Arnold had used to rip the world seed a few months ago on earth. And this time, Thor was its target. Without wasting any more time, Arnold pushed the trigger and Thor was blown away in the sky. Chapter 523 - Enraged? So Am I. (3) The sound of the bullet was something the elves were going to remember for the rest of their lives. Even Thor''s thunder was nothingpared to the noise made by the gunshot. Just one shot made it feel like Alfheim was shaking right from its core. The clouds that had been looming over the signalling Thor''s arrival and strength were now nowhere to be seen. However, a single line was visible in the sky. It was the trail left behind by the god-ying bullet that even made the storm clouds dissipate as if they were afraid to be caught in its line of fire. Everyone was looking at Arnold in disbelief. Even Lorcan was having a hard time believing what he was seeing, even though he knew something like that would happen inevitably. As for Arnold''s summons, this result was well within their expectations, even though it seemed a bit too easy. All of them had somewhat dered Arnold to be the winner. All, but Talos and Heimdall. Prior to their battle, Talos had asked Heimdall about everything he could remember about Thor and judging by the things he had learnt about Thor from Heimdall, Thor wasn''t someone who would get defeated so easily. He was the prince of Asgard for a reason and a single bullet was not enough to bring the god down. Hell, a single bullet did not manage to take down the world tree then how the fck was something like that strong enough to kill Thor? As for Arnold, well, he was safe and sound. Thanks to his armour being resistant to the radiation. However, the shockwave released due to the contact between the bullet and Thor ended up knocking him away as well. ''Damn it...'' Arnold thought to himself as the storm clouds began gathering over him once again, ''I should have gotten rid of the hammer first.'' As if Heimdall and Talos were reading a script for a movie, suddenly something fell towards Arnold from the skies. It took a moment for them to recognise exactly what it was. As much as they had wanted Thor to have died, he had survived thanks to his quick thinking when it came to fighting. Thornded back on the ground with a thunderous bang. He was covered in his own blood from the head to the toe, yet he looked even more fierce than he did previously. As if he was trying to prove the saying, ''an injured lion is the most dangerous one''. Arnold looked at the hammer and realised what had happened there. As soon as he fired the bullet at him, Thor''s godly reflexes kicked in and he brought Mjolnir forward to block the bullet. However, the power behind the bullet was so strong that he was sent flying into the sky. Thus, Arnold''s god ying bullet never managed to hit him. It hit the hammer and exploded, resulting in Thor''s injuries. It was evident that this happened because there was quite a big dent in Thor''s hammer with its edges being chipped away. Arnold was the first living creature to have ever so much as put a dent on the mighty hammer since the dwarves stopped shaping it up. "You bastard..." Thor growled in a low voice, "You dare to take away the woman most precious to me and then try to kill me too?" "What else am I supposed to do?" Arnold replied as he got back to his feet as well, "If a dog chases to bite your leg off, do you kick him away or let him do as it pleases?" Thor did not like the analogy Arnold used. That bastard was trying to indirectly call him a dog. However, rather than getting angry, Thor ended up smiling. There were quite a lot of things simr between the two of them. Their fighting styles were different, yet their ability to mick their enemy no matter how grim the situation was pretty much the same. ''If it wasn''t for what this fool had done, we would have been quite a decent pair of battle brothers.'' Thor thought and his smile faded away bit by bit. Arnold was someone whom Thor used to support while the former was still a human. But now, things had changed drastically. He was now standing against Arnold, all for Sif... As the thought of her entered his mind, Thor lost it all over again. Rage and anger were the only emotions he could feel. Arnold knew exactly what the gd was going through and decided to take advantage of the situation. Anger and rage were known to cloud one''s mind, Arnold had experienced it first-hand. "Enraged about the loss of someone you loved? Well, so am I." That''s all Arnold said before lunging towards Thor. Thetter was injured and tired at the same time, while Arnold was in a much better condition than him. Also, with Mjolnir out ofmission, Arnold did not have to think much before jumping in to engage Thor in hand-to-handbat. Thor did not hold back either. He knew he had to give it his all if he was to have even the slightest chance in defeating Arnold in his current state. He was a gid who had never backed down from a challenge even if he knew death was certain and this happened to be one of such moments. The two began exchanging fists with the intent to kill each other. None of them was holding back and as a result, thendscape of Alfheim was changing rapidly. The battle was getting so fierce that Talos had to order the summons to take the elves somewhere safer which they did. Aas all of them left, only Talos and Heimdall were left behind as they wanted to see how the fight ended between the two gods. "Both of them have gone crazy," Heimdall mumbled with a sad smile on his face. "Good to know I''m not the only one who thinks that," Talos replied. None of them was using anything apart from their limbs to attack each other. There was no tactic behind their attacks and no extraordinary manoeuvre. If it wasn''t for the destruction the two of them were causing, one would have said they were not fighting for real, but just ying around. However, Talos and Heimdall were not the only ones watching the battle among the two of them. Every single god had their eyes on the event as well.. It was the first time they had seen Thor give in to his rage and let it propel him to fight against Arnold. Chapter 524 - Work With Me (1) The battle seemed as if it would never end. Despite all the hurt, Thor had been subjected to, his will to get revenge did not allow him to give up. It was somewhat simr to what Arnold was thinking. After all, by killing Thor, Arnold was surely going to increase both his universal influence as well as his manifestation power as [The One Above All]. Both of them had their own goals to aplish and for that, one of them needed to die. "Wouldn''t it be easier for you to lie down and ept defeat with grace?" Arnold asked through his gritted teeth as he punched Thor once again right in the face. The Asgardian spat a couple of teeth out before turning towards Arnold with a look in his eyes as if mocking Arnold. It was clear that Thor was not going to give up, and neither he could defeat Arnold. Forget about defeating him, Thor could not even prate his opponent''s armour. Other than that, it did not look like Thor was in a mood to chat anymore. Arnold took the hint and shut his mouth as well. They were there to kill each other, not to solve a disagreement between each other. ''If he wants to waste his time, then who am I to stop him.'' The winner of the battle was already clear. The result was inevitable, and yet Thor was not ready to give... honestly, Arnold thought it was quite frustrating. If only Thor would have epted his defeat and died by his hands, Arnold would have been able to invade some other. But Thor''s stubbornness ended up holding him back. Though they were battling in silence, Arnold''s mind was in full-blown calctive mode. He was constantly calcting the cooldown to his physical skills, the damage he dealt to his opponent and Thor''s remaining HP. His own HP was quite high than Thor, and that coupled with the durability of his armour made Arnold quite literally be a punching bag for Thor''s desperate attempt. However, just like a punching bag wasn''t usually affected by someone''s punches, Arnold was unaffected by Thor''s punches too. If anything it appeared that Thor was dead set on breaking his fingers by mming his fists onto the strongest material to ever exist in the universe. It was at that moment that something unexpected happened. Arnold''s armour... it started to give out. It seemed even the Adamantine had its limits, and Thor''s relentless punches were rapidly pushing it to the brink of destruction as multiple cracks appeared on its surface. As the cracks began to appear on the armour, simultaneously a smile popped up on Thor''s face as well. It felt as if he was finally getting closer to his goal. At a speed of a snail, but still, he was proceeding. The gods who had been eagerly watching their battle were shocked as well, but none of them was as shocked as Zeus. As that very same armour was the thing that protected Arnold from when he was tried to smite him. And now, he had seen that the armour had a weakness as well, the next time he met Shiva''s former vassal, he would end him for sure. As for the Asgardians, as soon as they saw Arnold''s armour breaking, they started debating whether or not they should send help to aid Thor in his battle. Most of them wanted to send the army to help their crown prince out, but all that changed when Baldr refused them all without any dy. In his mind, he was the reason Loki was able to do what he did and put Vale in a condition that he may never ever wake up from. They could me Loki all they want but Thor was equally responsible for potentially triggering Ragnarok. "He made his bed, and now he can lie in it." Those were the exact words Baldr spoke before disbanding the council and banning any of them from trying to aid Thor, even if it meant he would die. Everyone headed to seek Odin''s guidance, but surprisingly, Odin was content with the decision Baldr had made. Thor had acted on his own, and now he had to suffer the consequences. Arnold on the other hand was beyond pissed at that point. His unbreakable armour was on the verge of being reduced to pieces and he did not even know how the hell Thor managed to do something like that. ''This bastard until the very end...'' Arnold thought and gather all of his strength to finish off Thor in one strike. In the meantime, he had to drop his defensive stance allowing the mighty Thor to pummel his armour pushing it deeper to the verge of breaking apart. Just when it appeared that the armour was about to fall apart, Arnold smashed his fist to Thor''s face sending him flying across the fields with a loud boom. After what seemed an eternity, Thor finally came to a halt. His body had finally gone past the limits. Thor did not even have enough strength to lift a finger let alone fight someone. As for Arnold... a few small chunks of his armour were missing. But otherwise, he was rtively unharmed when he walked up to where Thor was lying on his back. Arnold could hear Thor coughing as he got closer to the god. Blood dripped from the corner of Thor''s lips as he saw Arnold standing over him. At that moment, the realisation of his defeat finally dawned upon him. "Haha... I underestimated... you..." Thor mumbled in his weak voice, "You defeated me... with a punch... quite a feat..." After saying that, Thor waited for a few moments. Maybe he expected Arnold to say something, but he carried on when Arnold didn''t. "We could have... been quite some pals... if the circumstance were... different." "We can still be." Arnold finally said something before squatting down, "You can still resurrect Sif." As soon as Arnold uttered those words, Thor''s eyes that were losing the light in them shone brightly once again. But before he could do or say anything, a bullet pierced his head killing him in an instant. "Let''s discuss the terms when we meet again, shall we?" Saying so, Arnold put Thor''s corpse inside his domain along with his almost broken armour. The skies finally started to clear once again and as the light prated through the dark clouds, something was seen shining on the battlefield. It was the legendary weapon Mjolnir, lying there in the middle of the ravagednd. "Now what should I do with this?" Chapter 525 - Additional : The Tale Of Mjolnirs Theft (Part 1) Mjolnir, one of if not the strongest weapons ever made for a Norse god. A weapon that had destroyed countless worlds and bathed in the blood of innumerable foes. It would be a shame to leave a weapon reeking of such power and might, to bite the dust in a wreck of a destroyed city. However, there was a tale regarding who can wield the hammer. It was said that since the hammer was a godly weapon, thus not every being, god or mortal could wield it. One had to be worthy ording to the hammer itself. If not, then it would forever stay in its spot till someone worthy to wield it arrived and lifted it up, restoring it to its glory. "There''s a reason why one should not believe in what movies tell you." Arnold calmly walked up to the hammer and wrapped his fingers around the handle, "Because none of them tells you the unadulterated truth about mythology." The thing about Mjolnir recognising his master was true. But the fact that only those who were ''worthy'' enough to wield it could move the hammer was nothing but a hoax spread after a certain movie rted to Thor was made. Arnold was not going to lie, the movie did a great job at manipting the truth. If he had not studied mythology, he would have been fooled by it as well. Thankfully, that was not the case. He knew pretty much the only tale about Mjolnir''s second owner who ultimately led to the demise of his entire kind through the hands of Asgardians. *** This happened long before the gods decided to y around with the lives of mortals for their entertainment. Even before Loki decided to betray the pantheon. The giants always shared animosity with the Asgardians as in their eyes they, the giants, should have been responsible for overseeing the universe as they had been looking after their own world before the gods appeared out of nowhere. But they knew it would not be easy to fight with them considering the strength and weapons these gods had. Thus they decided to approach the matter in a weird way. To this day, no Asgardian knows what had transpired there, but one day, Thor woke up from his bed and found out that there was something wrong in the cosmos. It wasn''t something that could be taken lightly either as it was something that would definitely affect the destiny of all beings. The Mjolnir hammer was missing. Worried about the safety of the beings that they were supposed to protect sent Thor into a frenzy. He must have dug up the entirety of Asgard to search for Mjolnir but he could not see any trace of it. Thor quickly assumed that only Loki dared to think of this prank and off he went to find Loki. However, when Thor angrily asked Loki about the Mjolnir, Loki insisted he didn''t know where Thor put Mjolnir before, let alone stealing it. Actually, Loki knew who the hammer thief was but he didn''t constantly tell Thor because he had some ns. Loki did not confess about ''identally'' opening a portal leading into an unknown location within the nine realms, allowing the hammer to freefall into Jotunheim. Loki wanted the giants to die for a personal reason. But he knew Odin would not condone such behaviour and if someone tried to kill an entire race just because they wanted to, they would not live long enough either. That was the time when Loki decided to kill two birds with one stone. He made Mjolnir disappear so that it would throw Thor into a fit of rage and kill the giants. This would then lead Odin to exile Thor, if not kill him. Which then, in turn, would have cleared Loki''s path to the throne. Everything was going ording to his n as he sessfully managed to fool everyone around him. Odin got to know about the disappearance of Mjolnir and immediately a search party was formed consisting of 8 gods. Each of them was sent to a realm to look for the hammer, while he stayed behind and looked over Asgard. Since Loki knew where the hammer was, he decided to visit Jotunheim. However, all he knew was that the hammer was in Jotunheim, but not where. Thend of the giants was quite vast and it could have taken him years to look for the hammer on his own. After aimlessly roaming around for days, Loki came across a giant called Thrym. Loki was easily able to trick this foolish giant into confessing that he was the one who found and hammer and kept it safe. However, despite Loki''s constant attempts, he was not able to get the giant to divulge the location of where the hammer was hidden. In the end, Loki tried to bribe him. He asked the giant what would he want in exchange for the Hammer, to which the giant replied he wanted to marry the goddess, Freya. Loki was dumbfounded when he heard the giant''s absurd demand. Seeing no other way to persuade the giant, he flew back to Asgard and informed them about what had transpired. As expected, Freya immediately declined the offer and said he would rather marry a dog than marry a giant. By this time Thor was seething with rage and wanted tosh out. However, killing the giants would not get his hammer back to him. A n entered Loki''s mind which would further humiliate Thor and hence force him to act irrationally. Loki proposed the idea of Thor being portrayed as Freya to marry the giant. Just hearing the proposal made Thor want to rip Loki''s head off, but Odin stopped his son and gave Loki a chance to exin what he was nning. As the Giants had never seen a goddess before, they wouldn''t know the difference between Thor and Freya. Thus helping him get Mjolnir back.. It was a solid n and thus Thor begrudgingly agreed to do it, even though his rage was crossing a limit and so wedding preparations in Asgard began. Chapter 526 - Additional : The Tale Of Mjolnirs Theft (Part 2) Mjolnir wasn''t just important to Thor, but to the entirety of Asgard as well. Thor had used the hammer to protect Asgard on countless asions and thus by losing the hammer, it was like losing ayer of protection for themselves. It was for this reason, all of the gods chipped in to help him in disguising him as a woman. Freya handed her clothes to Thor while the other goddesses bathed him with perfume and braided his hair to look like that of Freya. Even Loki chipped in and using his magic got rid of Thor''s bushy beard, the one thing he had been proud of. Along with giving him a feminine look as a whole. Having been treated like that, while hearing the goddesses and their attendants giggle as they dressed him up was the final straw to his patience. It was at that moment Thor made up his mind to eradicate the giants for putting him through this humiliation. It was for this same reason why Thor wanted one of the attendants to attend the wedding on his behalf. He swore he would rescue them from the clutches of the giants as soon as he got the hammer back. However, all of them refused. Thor wanted to force one of them to do that, but Odin quickly put a stop to it. ording to the All-father, it was Thor''s failure and a result of his ipetence that made him lose sight of the hammer, and thus it was his responsibility to get it back. Therefore, forcing others to do something they did not need to was uncalled for. In the end, Thor was readied to get ''wedded'' away. Thanks to Loki''s magic, Thor did not look anything like his former self. In fact, some of the gods even proimed Thor to be the most beautiful bride they had seen in their lives. Had they not known that it was Thor, some of them might have even tried to im ''her'' for themselves. Through all that, Thor''s eyes were zing with rage. He could have ripped the gods in half even without his hammer and thus with Thor''s one gaze, they were sent in a sweating frenzy. None of them mocked him after that. A momentter both he and Loki were on their way to Jotunheim in a carriage driven by goats, as without his hammer, the goats were his primary source of transportation. Not a second after the two of them were out of earshot, the gods could not hold theirugh anymore. Odin was no exception to this, even though he felt quite bad that his son that to go through all that humiliation and trouble. He should have seen what wasing next, but he couldn''t. If he had, then he would have most certainly not allowed Thor to leave Asgard and go on a murderous rampage. Either way, it was much toote for them to regret anything. As everything was set into motion. By the time the two of them arrived at Thrym''s mansion, they saw it had been decorated with countless decorations. It seemed like from the day Loki left Jotunheim to the day he arrived there along with ''Freya'', Thrym had not slept at all and spent the entire time decorating his wonderful mansion. The second the giant saw Loki riding a carriage, there was no limit to Thrym''s happiness. Although he had prepared so much for that day, he had not expected the god to actually fulfil his promise to him. But now that Loki had delivered his promise, Thrym could not contain his excitement or his happiness. Soon, Thrym got a glimpse of ''Freya'' and could not help but feel a sense of aplishment wash over him. The goddess was everything any giant ever wanted, strong, beautiful and intelligent. In his eyes, ''Freya'' was the epitome of everything. Loki and Thrym quickly exchanged pleasantries, while Thor kept quiet the entire time. His appearance might have been altered but his voice was the same and there was nothing Loki could do about it. Well, he could but he did not want to waste any more time than he absolutely needed to. Thrym found this odd, but Loki exined it away by saying that the bride in their culture was not allowed to speak until the marriage ceremony was over. The red gs were all over the ce, but it seemed like in his excitement to marry someone, the giant had turned blind to everything. Loki then asked the giant about the hammer and Thrym replied that the hammer would be presented to the bride once the ceremony was over as a promation of the giant''s love for Freya. Those words made ''Freya'' clench her hands so tightly that the flowers Thrym had presented to her were torn to shreds. Loki thought that was it, but rather than getting suspicious, Thrym was happy to know that his future bride was so strong and burst intoughter. The ceremony went on without a hitch and it was during the feast afterwards when the shit show began. Thor had an abnormal appetite even among the gods. On top of that, the rage and embarrassment he had felt before and during the ceremony enraged him more which in turn, turned his hunger much worse. During the feast, ''Freya'' impressed Thrym with her appetite. Loki excused Freya''s eating actions by saying that she was so excited about the wedding that she did not eat anything for days, thus she was so hungry. This made Thrym want to kiss his bride. He lifted the veil and immediately encountered the red eyes of his bride. Loki again exined that she cried in happiness for soon bing the bride of the almighty Thrym. When in reality, Thor''s eyes were red with all the rage he was forced to keep within himself. Just like that, the ceremony and the feast both came to an end. Thrym was true to his word in the end and present Freya with Mjolnir as per his promise. The moment Thor wrapped his fingers around the hammer, pandemonium ensued. A thunderbolt struck Thor and all the magic that had been ced on him to look like a woman was torn to shreds. Just like his wedding gown. Everyone knows what happened afterwards as Thor dered a one-sided war on the giants which ultimately led to Loki being crowned as the prince of Asgard. "That was the one and the only time someone other than Thor had touched Mjolnir.." Arnold mumbled to himself before swiftly lifting the hammer himself, as the thunder started cackling over him once again, "Until now." Chapter 527 - Work With Me (2) With Thor dead and the Citadel destroyed, Arnold was sure this ''Elven Goddess'' was too scared to appear in front of him. Either way, he was notining as he had achieved more than he wanted to. With Mjolnir in his hands, it was more than enough for him to not destroy the entire ner anymore. The minute Arnold lifted the hammer and made it his own, the gods along with his summons and the elves were stunned too stunned to do anything. In fact, even if they weren''t too shocked, there wasn''t much they could have done either way... right? Some of them did not think about it like that. For them, Arnold was in a weakened state after his battle with Thor. Moreover, his armour was in a fragile state as well, which meant... it was the perfect opportunity for them to defeat him. When Arnold was least expecting it, a plethora of portals opened all around him. These gates were simr to the dungeon entrances that Arnold once frequented. However, their sudden appearance meant only one thing... it was time to hunt the hunter. Arnold''s summons saw this as well and immediately rushed over to his aid. But before they could take more than two steps towards him, his voice echoed deep inside their heads. "Protect the one I told you to. I got this." Even after listening to their master''s confident voice, the summons were a bit hesitant to follow hismand. All but Heimdall and Hercules. The moment the dozen or so portal changed their colours, both of them could not help but shake their heads. Arnold was under attack by gods alright, but these people were gods only in name. These gods were called the forgotten ones. Gods who were no longer preached or prayed to. Gods who were once among the strongest as old civilizations used to pray to them. But as those civilisations were wiped out, so did the influence of these gods. Right now it could be said that these gods were fighting to make sure their existence was known to the universe, and what better way could it have been to do that than to defeat someone of whom even the greatest of pantheons were scared of? "These fools... just because Arnold has lost his armour they think they can defeat him? Don''t make meugh." Hercules grumpily mumbled and sat down on the grass. He was nning to enjoy the beatdown that was about to ensue there. "As much as I would have loved to walk up to those fools and p them across the face." Heimdall joined Hercules in berating them. This left the other summons as well as the elves confused. They could sense that the beings which Heimdall and Hercules were berating were gods or some higher deities. As far as why they were doing that was not known to them... until Talos ran a scan on the new beings who had walked out of the portals. To say that he was surprised would have been the understatement of a lifetime. They were gods and they were strong... if they were fighting against the warriors from the earth and not Arnold or even them. Even Alice appeared to be stronger than them and mind you, she was the weakest amongst Arnold''s summons. Hell, even if those ''gods'' were to appear on earth, a warrior alliance like one that had gathered to fight with Hercules, would have been sufficient to suppress them. With all that in mind, these fools thought it was a good idea to try and challenge their master? Were they high on elven blood as well? Whatever it was, Talos wanted to try that substance as well. "Now you realise why Arnold told us to wait, don''t you?" Heimdall smiled towards Talos, "Going out against Arnold is like a herd of goats fighting against the chimera. So just sit back and watch the ughter." Heimdall turned around for a second before realising there was something else he had to do. "Oh and don''t forget to take that elven witch into custody. She tried to assassinate the new king of Alfheim," he mumbled while pointing at Aimon. As soon as Aimon heard those words, she tried to run away. She hadn''t thought that the summons had managed to know that it was her behind the attacks. Thus wanted to stick around to see if he could somehow manage to lick Arnold''s ass into being allowed to rule over Alfheim. But now that her ns were foiled, she had no choice but to run away in hopes of finding safety somewhere else. In hindsight, it was a foolish, panic-driven decision to try and run away. Heimdall wasn''t sure it was her who did that, but she was the most suspicious among the crowd. Hence he pointed her out. Her actions afterwards proved her guilt. If she was innocent, then she should have been shocked, then start defending herself even going as far as putting her pride on the line. That was what most of the elves would have done when ced in that situation if they were not guilty. "Shit shit shit..." Aimon continuously kept cursing everyone and everything around her, "I was so close to achieving my dreams and now, fck! I''m so close to dying!? No... No... No!" Aimon was one of the most agile elves on Alfheim. Thus she was confident in her skill to run away. However, her speed was nothing more than the agility of a sleeping rabbit for the one who was chasing after her. Aimon turned around to see whether or not someone was chasing her, at that same moment, her head bashed against something and she fell right on her back. She got up to curse at whoever it was only to see a three-headed giant dog made of stone and fire staring right at her. For the first time in her life, she was petrified with fear.. Those six eyes felt as if they were boring a hole inside her as she felt her life shed in front of her eyes. Chapter 528 - Work With Me (3) "Since when did hyenas start contending for the ce as the king of the jungle?" Arnold asked his new opponents. Well, calling them his opponents was a bit disrespectful to all the gods he had defeated and tamed. These ''gods'' were more like those young masters that Arnold hated so much. Never growing a backbone to confront someone on the face, but always trying to get rid of someone for one stupid reason or another. "Haha, joke all you want bastard. But this is the day you will die." One of the gods who was dressed like a jokermented. By the clothes they were wearing, it was difficult to judge whether it was a man or a woman. The others on the other hand were draped in torn and shredded clothes. They did not even have any proper weapons with them. If Arnold didn''t know better, he would have thought that the gods were pulling a prank on him. They were so weak and yet they thought it would be a great idea to fight someone who just killed Thor? "Look. I have things to do and killing you idiots is not on the list." Arnold sighed and turned around, "Go and live your miserable lives for as long as you want. I don''t want to waste my stamina on killing gods who will not even increase my universal influence." When Arnold ran a scan on them, he was informed that these gods did not have any influence left of their own. Which meant even if he happened to kill them, it would do him no benefit and be a waste of time more than anything else. Thus after sharing his views Arnold opened a portal leading to his domain. He had more important things to take care of. However, it looked like Momus, the clown was not on board with Arnold''s ns. He immediately grabbed Arnold''s shoulder and forced him to turn around... well, at least he tried to, but could not even make Arnold budge an inch from where he was standing. Arnold tried to be calm as he was a bit tired after fighting Thor. But that also meant he was short with everyone. He had already given those fools a chance to leave and if they did not want to, then there was only one thing that could be done. ''Hm... it might not be all that bad.'' Arnold thought to himself as his grip got tighter around Mjolnir, ''I needed to test this thing either way.'' Suddenly, storm clouds that had been harmlessly hovering over their heads, started to swirl and converge at one point, right above where the twelve forgotten gods stand. The next moment, Arnold lifted the hammer over his head and innumerable thunder strikes scorched the ground. In an instant, all of them were obliterated. Nothing even resembling the twelve gods could be seen there and all that was the might of Mjolnir when Arnold did not even know how to use it properly. It was only then a fact struck him... ''Why wasn''t the hammer destroyed?'' Arnold thought to himself. A primary effect of his creationist ss was that the moment he touched a weapon that was not made by him, it would get disintegrated into dust. However, for some reason, the hammer did not... ''Maybe it''s because the hammer belonged to a god- no that can''t be it.'' Arnold shook his head, ''I already destroyed Hermes'' shoes and Zeus'' lightning bolt. There has to be some other reason for this anomaly.'' Arnold inquired about it with the remnant of the system-sama. But strangely enough, for the first time, even that did not have any answers for him. At first, he thought that since he was inside his armour, he was not able to destroy the hammer, but now he knew it wasn''t correct. Arnold was left thinking whether he had lost the power to do so. If that was the case, then it was going to be somewhat problematic. The Gods even though they were mighty, depended on their weapons just as much as a human would. Thus getting rid of their weapons meant that they were more or less already defeated. That was the reason Arnold had been counting on his curse to help him out with his uing battles. But if he had lost his powers, then things might get a bit... messy. Not difficult, but messy. ''What''s the point of thinking about it now? If it''s already done, then I suspect there isn''t much I can do about it at the moment.'' He then turned towards where Talos and the others were, ''Heimdall, get rid of the bitch. I''m not in the mood to handle anything else now. And Talos, get inside the domain. We have things to do.'' "Understood master." Heimdall and Talos mumbled simultaneously as another portal leading to Arnold''s domain opened up behind Talos. It was another one of Arnold''s abilities. Since he had turned into a god, he could grant his loyal subjects a fraction of the powers of his domain. Which essentially meant that the ones he gave the authority to, could use the domain as if it was their own. So far only Talos was the one given this wonderful power. It wasn''t like Arnold did not trust the others with such power. He merely gave it to Talos as he was the one most responsible and intelligent among his summons. As for Heimdall and Hercules, they already had their own domains which had been linked with the one Arnold had. Thus, they too could enter and exit Arnold''s domain. However, they would have to take permission from him first, if they wanted to do so. You could say the merging of their individual domains had led to somewhat of a gatedmunity. Where one would have to ring and ask for the permission of the owner before they could enter their premises. Another reason for not giving anyone else ess to his domain was because the enemies could take advantage of the situation to enter his domain which was one safe haven for Arnold and also the ones he wanted to protect. "I wish I would get ess to the domain as well..." Natasha pouted while Alce shook her head. "Then you better get stronger. Arnold would not give an authoritative power to someone who isn''t even strong enough to protect themselves." She mumbled, "Now what should we do about them?" The elves were stricken with fear as the summons turned their gaze on them. Chapter 529 - Work With Me (4) The moment Arnold stepped into the domain, he was greeted by the sight of Talos already preparing for Thor''s resurrection. ''At least he is aware of what I want from him.'' Arnold ced the Mjolnir in his inventory and walked over to them. "Master," Talos mumbled before respectfully bowing before Arnold. "I see you were quick to catch on," Arnold replied before Squatting down to examine the corpse. He had unintentionally done quite a number on Thor. There wasn''t a single ce on his body that wasn''t drenched in his blood. Killing Thor in such a manner was not an easy feat for anyone, but Arnold had made it seem too easy. ''If it hadn''t been for the armour, I would have been the oneying dead.'' Arnold shook his head, ''Nah... it isn''t that easy to kill me with all those overpowered skills I have... but he could have forced me to fall back and recover. His skills are frightening. I would rather have someone of his skills on my side than standing against him.'' Arnold then got up and shifted Thor''s corpse to where Sif''s corpse was. If he wanted to have any chance of negotiating with Thor, then it would have to be through Sif. Thankfully, since he hadn''t resurrected Sif, the negotiations would proceed quite smoothly. Either that or Thor would lose his crap and start fighting with him. In other words, what they were going to do was like dancing on a double-edged sword. But Arnold knew the worth of Thor thus resurrecting him was worth the risk. Heimdall had already informed him all about Thor and his strength was something Arnold could not take lightly. At first, he thought Heimdall was simply saying those things out of his loyalty to Asgard. However, the moment the two of them shed, Arnold realised if anything Heimdall had been ying down on Thor''s skills. Even though Arnold sessfully wielded Mjolnir before taking out those forgotten gods, it was nowhere near the level Thor could use it. ''It is to be expected though. After all, the weapon was made for him and him only. I don''t think I would ever be able to bring out the true strength of the hammer by myself.'' "Master. shall we proceed?" Talos asked respectfully Arnold nodded and a momentter everything was set into motion. It didn''t take long for Talos to resurrect a god again. He had gotten used to doing all that, neither did he question Arnold anymore. On top of all that, resurrecting a dead god who resented his master was bing more and more like a hobby. A momentter, Thor was restored to his former glory and his reaction was as expected. Shock, rage, surprise... he was feeling too many emotions at the same time. But he soon got calm as he realised what had happened. He had expected Arnold to do something like that. If he was in his shoes, he would have done the same. But now that he had been resurrected like a summon, he felt a bit weird. Thor was shocked that he was back and happy being alive at the same time. Apart from that, there was an unadulterated rage in his eyes as soon as he saw Sif''s corpse right next to him. The momentary fit of rage passed quickly as sadness washed over him. He bent on his knees and began caressing her affectionately. For some reason, Arnold turned around to face away from both Thor and Talos. His master might not have wanted them to notice, but Talos already knew Arnold was moved a bit by their love. ''It would appear you are not as cold-hearted as you want everyone to know, master.'' Talos let out a smile which quickly disappeared when Arnold turned around. A few secondster, thor got back to his feet and looked Arnold straight into his eyes. "What do you want?" He asked Arnold with a respectful, yet authoritative tone. "I think you already know. If you didn''t we wouldn''t be standing here having a conversation." Arnold replied with a simr tone. Thor nodded, he wasn''t a fool. Arnold had already made him an offer even before they exchanged words. That was the reason why Arnold had him resurrected next to Sif. Since Arnold had left Sif''s body untouched, she could be ''truly'' resurrected by using the way the gods usually resurrect themselves. "I will help you. But I will not rebel against Asgard. Not even for Sif." Thor made his stance clear. His love for Sif was unquestionable. But so was his loyalty towards his people. He would not kill the Asgardians, even if it meant he would lose Sif forever. Arnold was a bit taken by surprise but it onlysted for a moment. Thor was their prince thus it was obvious that he would try to protect them even in death. "Fine by me. I wasn''t nning on attacking Asgard either way." Arnold shrugged his shoulders, "The ones I want are the Olympians and Loki. If you can help me with them, I swear in the name of my dead... sister. I will not resurrect Sif or make her my servant." "I have my own score to settle with Zeus and Loki. So I will dly help you out. As a reward for helping you, you will hand over Sif to me and I''ll have her resurrected through... holy ways." "As long as you are willing to work with me in taking my revenge, you will get what you want." Arnold nodded and offered Thor his hand. Thor stared at him for a while before excepting the deal. He would have made a deal even with the giants if it meant he could have his Sif back. But on top of that, after losing Sif, Thor hade to realise the pain and anger Arnold would have gone through after losing his sister. ''It is a bond formed out of grief,'' Talos thought to himself, ''one which would not falter easily. Master sure knows who to press their buttons.'' At that moment, a notification shed in front of Arnold''s eyes... __ You have obtained a new summon: ? Thor (Norse god of Thunder and the Prince of Asgard). __ Chapter 530 - Ragnarok Begins (1) A couple of years had passed after Arnold turned Thor into his summon when a bomb was dropped over him by the former. It was regarding what the other gods were nning and things did not look good for them. "Dragons and Demons? The gods would really reconcile with their worst enemies just to get rid of me?" Arnold blurted out. All of them were back on earth where they were discussing their next move. Arnold and his summons were not the only ones included in the talks. Leaders from all the worlds Arnold had conquered and the earth was there with him as well. It was a unique and nerve-wracking experience for the humans to sit around the table with Gods and monsters together. In hindsight, Arnold was the only one who could have made some like this possible. However, now was not the time to admire his strength and capabilities. After all, they had more important matters to discuss... like the gods deciding to make their move. Thor already knew about their ns and had informed Arnold about it as well. He did so for his own greed, but he knew if he did not help Arnold, he could kiss Sif bye forever. However, none of them had thought the gods would be able to do something like that in a matter of mere years. It waspletely unprecedented, to say the least. Dragon, Demons and God, all three of them had their own reasons to hate each other. Arnold looked towards Heimdall who was not looking him in the eyes anymore. It was Heimdall who told him that most of the differences between them were irreconcble. After all, all of them had bloodied their hands with each other''s blood at one point or another. But Heimdall''s prediction had proved to be wrong for the first time. Something must have prompted the gods to force such an alliance among each other. And Arnold knew exactly what it was. In thest two years, Arnold had been relentlessly capturing world after world. Thus both his, primal power and universal influence had increased manifolds. He wasn''t a god yet, but he was still stronger than most of them. His expanded list of summons was a ''living'' proof of that. From the gods of Egypt to the gods of Japan, Arnold had killed, resurrected and tamed dozens of gods. As of now, there were only four spots left in his initial list of 30 summons. Just to name some of them, Arnold''s forces now included the kinds of gods like Raijin and Anubis, just to name a few. His forces were strong enough to invade worlds and rule over them without any problems, but they were in no shape or form enough to fight thebined army of gods, dragons and demons. As for why Dragons and Demons were helping the gods... Arnold knew the reason pretty well. He had killed Tiamut and when... turned the legitimate dragon queen into his pet. As everyone knew, dragons are prideful creatures who would rather die than bow their heads in front of anyone else, let alone a human. So, by siding with the gods, they might be trying to get revenge for the ''disrespect'' Arnold had shown to them. As for the demons... when it was no secret. Demons hated Arnold. He had already in quite a lot of them. So even if they would have to tolerate the gods, they would not leave any opportunity to kill him. The more they thought about it, the grimmer things got. In the end, there wasn''t much Arnold could do bout them. But as it is said, when one door closes, another one opens up. There was a ray of hope in the clouds of defeat and despair. Not all the gods agreed with the decision to make an alliance with being they have spent their entire lives either fighting or hating. Especially Asgardians. Dragons and Giants were two species they hated with all of their beings. Dying by Arnold''s hands was a much better option than teaming up with them. This essentially made Asgard an ally from being an enemy. But that wasn''t all. The way Arnold had conquered the worlds and gods alike, had made almost all of the lesser gods follow hismand as well. representatives of both of these groups of gods were also sitting there in a meeting with the rest of them. In fact, they were the ones to inform him about the alliance along with a certain piece of positive news as well. "Olympus has been divided. Hera and Zeus are officially out of wedlock for the first time in... eh it doesn''t matter," said Baldr, who had been crowned the new prince of Asgard considering Thor''s absence and Vale''s critical condition, "What matters is that Olympus is not as strong as they once were and Hera''s side wants to aide you in the uing battle." Arnold got silent as he heard those words. They were bothforting and troubling at the same time. It was safe to say that Olympus had fallen. But then why the hell did he feel as if Zeus had only gotten stronger? Baldr seemed to have read his mind and with the help of Mimir exined everything that had happened in thest two years on Asgard. In a gist, things were happening as the giantess had prophesied they would... Loki had disappeared overnight and the gates to hell had been sealed off from the inside. Which meant one thing... Loki had been colluding with the demons and the army of hell. As it was said in the prophecy. As a precaution, the gods of sun and moon, Sol and Mani, had been hidden away in a safe location by Asgardians. Odin had ordered them to do so because the events of Ragnarok would get kicked in once both Sol and Mani died. As Baldr gave Arnold that information, everything started to make sense. "Loki isn''t the only one trying to make Ragnarok happen. Zeus is in on it as well. That''s why he is not worried in the slightest even after losing his pantheon." Arnold mumbles left everyone there utterly shocked, "They don''t only want to get rid of me, but everything that stands in their way. They want to rebuild the universe in their image.. That has been their n since day one." Chapter 531 - Ragnarok Begins (2) The meeting which was supposed to end within hours ended up taking an entire day. However, it was necessary. The information both sides shared, revealed a lot of things that previously didn''t make any sense. But none of them was more useful than the realisation of Loki''s and Zeus'' true ns. They did not hate him. But only saw him as an obstacle to their ns of universal domination. However, he wasn''t just as any obstacle. Arnold would have already been dead if that was the case. He was the biggest obstacle any of them could face individually. That was the reason why both of them had to team up with the dragons and demons. But that talk was for a different time. It had been a while he had seen his sons. The bracelet he gave Orco was functioning as it was expected and he did not have any sudden outbursts anymore. As for Aiden... well it was safe to say that he was growing quickly... too quickly. He was a little short of being three years and yet he looked as if he was already 6 or 7. At first, Arnold was concerned about his inhumanely fast growth. But after checking him up along with Devon, Alice and Natasha, they determined it wasn''t anything threatening. Apparently, his body was growing because of Arnold''s dominant genes. Essentially, Aiden was on his way to bing superman. That was all. Arnold did not know how to feel about it, but he was happy that Aiden''s life was not in any kind of danger. As for Nina, well, she was back to being the badass bitch she always was. Allen had made her in charge of the family affairs. In Allen''s words, he was getting tired of handling everything by himself. He was going to offer the ce to Nicole but... since that wasn''t possible anymore, he chose the next best person he could find. Arnold, on the other hand, was happy about Nina''s achievements but did not give much thought to other earthly affairs. And who could have med him? He was already busy strategising for a war that would reshape the universe in its entirety. Either for the good or the bad. Everyone could feel the tension building up, especially after their talk with allied gods. But it was time for yet another debate... a debate whether or not they should trust Hera and her Olympians or even Asgard for that matter. If to everyone it seemed that Zeus was bad, then Hera was much worse than her former husband. Zeus usually did things to satiate his dick. Thus, he at times used to be a bit considerate about the feelings of his lovers. Hera, on the other hand, knew of only one thing...plete obliteration. Mythology was filled with tales of how she punished her husband''s lovers and illegitimate children at times and all Arnold could remember was her cruelty. In his eyes, she was just as wrong as Zeus if not more. Why? Because rather than putting her husband in ce, she decided to punish others in order to dissuade them from ever courting with her ''man'' again. That itself was a different tale of a-holery. However, her n failed every time. But not because the mortals were not afraid of Hera. But for the simple fact that they could be mating with their partners and it would turn out that they were not their partners or lovers, but Zeus in disguise. Thus, Hera kept punishing them for no reason at all. Then there was the fact that Arnold did not trust anyone. Especially the gods. They could be the god of truth, justice and honesty, and he would still doubt them more than he would doubt a liar. That was the kind of effect the gods had had on him. However, he knew if he was to have even the slightest chance of surviving Ragnarok and defeating Zeus and Loki, he would have to side with Asgard and the others. Just like Zeus and Loki needed the Dragons and Demon, he too needed to have strong allies. This debate was on how Arnold should proceed with the alliance suggested by Baldr. So far the Asgardians he had known, namely Heimdall and Thor, were some of his closest aides. But then, they were once his enemies too and there was no guarantee whether the Asgardians would turn against him after the battle was over and done. They could easily stab him in the back just like that. Just like Loki and Zeus probably would do to the Dragons and the demons. That was one thing unpredictable about alliances. They are formed in times of dire need, but as soon as that need had been dealt with, they could turn against each other just as easily. Moreover, Thor has already made it clear that he would not lift his hammer against Asgard no matter what and Arnold had a feeling Heimdall would do the same even if he had not explicitly said so. However, Arnold had other ns. "I can betray them just like that too." He spoke in a calm but frightening manner. "What?" Heimdall blurted out of shock. "That''s right." Arnold said decisively and got up from his seat, "If I get the slightest hunch that they are about to betray me. I''m gonna kill them before they do or die trying. Either way, I was already nning to kill them to unlock my potential power." He continued, "If I don''t get enough primal power or universal influence after killing the dragons, demons and everything Zeus and Loki have to offer to me. Then I might turn against them either way." The mere fact that Arnold stated it with such simplicity had troubled both Heimdall and Thor. They were bound to Arnold, but they loved Asgard just as much as they did before. Hearing him say such a thing made them feel ufortable in their skin. However, Arnold wasn''t done just yet. "Don''t feel down. Just pray that there would be more Olympians on their side than on ours. Because, if there aren''t.... well then you are intelligent enough to figure out what would happen next." Chapter 532 - Ragnarok Begins (3) While they were on the topic of Ragnarok, Arnold wanted to know why didn''t Odin do something about it? If the children of Loki were the ones to cause the most problems, they should have just made him... sterile. That right there would have solved the problem itself, or they could just keep killing him as he resurrected again and again. "The answer to that question is pretty straightforward." Heimdall mumbled, "Even among the gods, we can not kill other of our kind just because of a prophecy. You see, in the billions of years we have existed, there had been innumerable prophecies made. Most of them were false." "As a result, we can not act upon mere prophecies alone." Thor chimed in, "If we did, the gods would be in a constant war with each other and mortals as well. Thus a rule was made by the immortal one that no god will act upon these prophecies." "If they did, they would have to suffer his wrath and let''s be honest, no one wants to be on the receiving end of his rage." Herculespleted what Thor was trying to convey. Arnold nodded his head along. If he could be almost unstoppable with just fifty per cent of his powers, then he could only imagine what someone like Shiva could do. The lone fact that even the alliance between his enemies was not brave enough to confront or battle with Shiva head-on was telling in itself. "All that strength and he is still as silent as ever..." Arnold sighed heavily, "Looks like he really wants to give up the mantle of responsibility." "What''s that?" Heimdall asked Arnold. It was the first time he had heard about such a thing, thus was curious. "It''s nothing." Arnold shook his head as he was reminded of the game he used to y, "Or maybe you can say it''s a mantle for someone who has the strength to regte the universe in a righteous manner." Arnold pushed such thoughts away. His life was no game. He was not 117 who could win despite facing overwhelming odds. He was strong, but he wasn''t absolute... not yet either way. "Time to train then." Arnold casually mentioned and walked out of the room, "Thor, Hercules, Heimdall. The three of you will spar with me. Anubis, try to teach Yan stronger necromancy spells. We would need it to resurrect as many dead as possible if we are facing dragons." "On it." All of them simultaneously replied. "I wasn''t done yet, motherfckers!" It was taking some time, but slowly Arnold was turning into his usual old self. He had started to smile more, joke more and curse a lot as well. However, the pain and sorrow for not being able to protect his sister were still eating him up. That was the whole reason he was still moving to achieve what he had to. But, the summons would take his emotions over his silence any day. With that, Arnold began exining to everyone their individual roles. Essentially he was nning to divide his force into five divisions. One of them would handle the Demons, one would take care of the dragons, another team would fight the gods and thest offensive team would lead the humans, ogres, elves, merpeople and upants of other worlds against the soldiers of Olympus and other pantheons. Apart from all these, there was another team that would focus on providing support to all of the teams as they needed it. Natasha was appointed to be the leader of the forces to subdue the demons. Along with a couple of other gods whom Arnold had defeated recently. As for the dragons, Tiamut and Scy were going to be the ones to confront them. After witnessing the current and the former queen of Dragons standing against them, at least some of the dragons should move over to his side or remain neutral. That''s what Arnold was hoping for either way. Heimdall, Thor and Hercule would lead the battle against the other gods, while Talos will lead the battle against the godly soldiers. Yan, Anubis and Alice would be the ones leading the support force with their main focus would be on resurrecting the fallen soldiers to aid the others. While Alice would try to make the losses on their side to a minimum. As for him... well he was only nning to show up to confront Zeus and Loki. He was confident enough that his summons and his army would be enough to take care of the rest themselves. That, with the Asgard''s and New Olympus'' support, they should be able to fend the enemies off without destroying the as a whole. "You say, gods were forbidden from acting upon prophecies. But that doesn''t mean they had to stop preparing themselves in case a prophecy became true, right?" Arnold mumbled before blocking a full-powered strike from Heimdall, "I refuse to believe someone like Odin would not prepare for such a possibility." "It is true." Heimdall nodded his head as he was kicked away by Arnold, "The All-father is a being who has prepared for such an event. I assume you have heart about Valha?" "Who has not? It''s the ce where only strong warriors are allowed to enter after dying on the battlefield-" As Arnold was exining what he knew about Valha, he realised he already knew the answer to his question. Odin has been preparing for Ragnarok for a long time. Valha was a ce where strong warriors with exceptional strength rested... or did they? It could be said that Valha was a vault to secure dead souls who could be unleashed upon the world to protect it from evil. Odin had been preparing his own army for this day. Arnold looked at Heimdall and he confirmed that what Arnold was thinking was indeed true. They will not be alone in their fight with Zeus and Loki. But Arnold was still worried. Not about winning the war... but what would happen to the ones he loved if he died? ''There''s a solution to that as well.... I won''t die.'' Chapter 533 - They Got Dragons, We Got Giants Over the years of their existence, the gods have made countless enemies. There were some mortal creatures who dared to defy the gods and lived to tell the tale. As much as Thor would want to im that the giants had beenpletely eradicated, Arnold knew that was not the truth. Far from it. The Asgardians might have killed the frost giants, but frost giants weren''t the only types of giants. As far as Arnold could recall, there were at least four more types of giants. The fire giants, wood giants, stone giants and Aqua Giants. Just like the giants weren''t the only problems gods had to handle, the same was true for the giants as well. While their prime enemies were the gods, which go without a saying, the giants often had quite a war amongst themselves as well. As such there were multiple disputes amongst themselves and Arnold was nning to take advantage of that. It was no secret that Surtr, the lesser god of the underworld was a fire giant. Since he was supporting Loki, it was safe to assume that the fire giants would aid them as well. And that''s exactly what Arnold wanted. "As long as one of them takes a side, it would be easy to convince the others to join in as well." Arnold mumbled as he reviewed the information about these giants, "But for that, we would need to press their buttons correctly." This time not all of his summons were there. This time Arnold was meeting up with only those who could help him in his quest to win over the giants... at least as many of them as they can. After all, he could always conquer the rest of them by force. Thor, Heimdall, Hercules, Talos and Tiamut. These five were the ones listening to Arnold''s ns. The four gods were the perfect people to help him out with the giants and as for Talos, when he was there to guide them all and provide a vision for the mortals, and to see how the other soldiers in his army would react to working with giants. However, so far, they were stuck on the first question itself. "Why do you need the giants on our side?" Thor voiced the opinion of everyone there, "You know the gods can defeat them right?" "In that case, would you mind telling me how long did it take Asgard to defeat the giants?" "A decade or two? Oh, I see..." Just because the giants could be defeated, doesn''t mean it was easy to do so. But that wasn''t the only reason why Arnold was nning to make them join his battle. It was to boost up the morale of the mortals. Going up against the gods was already nerve-wracking, but gods coupled with dragons? Well, that would make them shit themselves, quite literally. They needed someone or something to bring their courage up before they lost their minds. Having giants on their side could have just that effect. The mortals were aware of Arnold strength, but just like that, they were also aware of his limits as well. After all, not long ago he was just another mortal, like them. Thus even if he imed to have achieved godhood, most of the people would think that he was simply messing with them. "That''s a great n, Arnold." Heimdall chimed in, "But I don''t think it would be as easy as you are thinking." "Yeah... nothing is ever easy when I''m the one nning it out." Arnold smiled wanly before shaking his head, "The Giants will not fight together with the gods... especially together with Asgard." Arnold needed both Asgard and the giants on his side and the only way he could think of doing that was to either give the giants an offering or force them to join him. Thetter of those was going to be a long and draining process. Also, it wasn''t a good idea to make more enemies when he already has enough problems in his hands. And only left him with one choice... "Looks like I''m going to need your help, Thor." Arnold sighed heavily. Thor had been his summons for two years now. Yet, Arnolf had not called him out to fight even once. Not because Thor didn''t want to fight, but because Arnold was treating him as a secret weapon. In other words, everyone across the cosmos would be thinking that Arnold and Talos were not able to resurrect him. Thus he could fool the giants into offering something they would have never even dreamt of getting their hands on. The n was good and should work without any issues. But even then, he would not have thought that he would even think of using the All-mighty Thor in this way. "To be precise, I''ll only need your head." Arnoldpleted his thought and took out a long short from his inventory. "You want my WHAT!?" Thor yelled and started to back away. But before he could get away Heimdall and Hercule held him in his ce, "Et Tu Heimdall?" "You seriously need to calm down, boy." Heimdall tried talking some sense into his fellow god, "Offering your head, the annihtor of the giants, to the giants would make them turn a blind eye towards the rest of Asgard. Thus they might be willing to help us out." "On top of that, your head would make one hell of a decoration piece." Hercules chimed in, "It''s not like you''re going to die again or something. You''re already dead fool, and will resurrect over time." "Oh yeah? If it''s all that great then why don''t you serve your head on a tter for them?" Thor screamed while trying to free himself. "Sorry dude. I wasn''t the one who killed the frost giants..." Arnold was getting tired of their banter. So he decided to do it the easier way. Kill Thor first, and then sever his headter.. Quite a simple n, to be honest and that was what he exactly did. Chapter 534 - An Alliance Like Never Before (1) Recruiting giants was not going to be an easy task. Even with Thor''s severed head. Well, not all of the giants were tough to influence. Arnold was pretty sure that with Mimir''s support, he would be able to fool them into taking up arms for him. But there was a problem... the fire giants. Even though the fire giants were enemies of frost giants, when Thor killed thetter, the fire giants were not pleased with the end result. In their mind, Thor had taken away their enemies from him and believed that Thor or any other god for that matter did not have any right to interfere in their issues. This was when the fire giants were losing the battle horribly. If it hadn''t been for Thor''s anger, they would have been the ones to get... extinguished. It was more like a loser''s barking, but as time went on the fire giants actually started believing the crap their leader, Surtr was spewing out. Also, there was another roadblock stopping Arnold from getting the fire giants on his side. It was none other than Surtr himself. It was no secret that the fire giants had already allied himself with H and effectively with Loki and Zeus. The fact that the fire giants were a species that believed in strict hierarchy meant that they would go wherever their leader told them to. Thus it was safe to assume that the Fire giants would be fighting along with them. As in the absence of Frost giants, the Fire giants were the ones in charge. Hence it was possible for them to force the other giants to fight alongside them. Unless... somehow the leadership between the giants was forced to change. In other words, Arnold wanted to send one of the others to rece Surtr as their leader. That was the n Arnold shared with others. "That n might have worked against humans, elves and ogres. But not against the fire giants." Heimdall immediately shot the n down. "Why though?" "Those bastards hold grudges for too long. If someone were to suddenly rece their leader just like that, they were more likely to revolt rather than obey the new leader''smands." Surprisingly it was Raijin who chimed in this time. For being the Japanese god of thunder, Raijin was usually quiet and kept to himself, unlike Thor. But there was one simrity between the two of them... both of them didn''t listen to anyone once they lose their crap and thus chaos and destruction ensued. In a way, all of these gods having control over the same element were simr to one another. "Correct. Nothing would be worse than eliminating Surtr right away." Hercules nodded, "He might be a lesser god, but his army was strong enough to send a chill through the spine of the toughest gods." Arnold took all of the information they had to give and devised another n. One that would make him the hero and saviour of the fire giants. But Surtr would die either way. He exined the n to everyone there and while the n was indeed worth trying to execute. There was a slight problem. "Where are we going to find a group of gods who would blondly challenge the fire giants?" Heimdall asked the obvious question. "I never said I will be sending actual gods there." Arnold smiled, "I will just send people who were strong enough to ssify as a lesser god." At that moment, All of the gods had a smile on their faces. They realised what Arnold was nning to do and it was almost certain that it would work. "Well, let''s get to it then, shall we?" *** However, Arnold wasn''t the only one doing the nning and plotting. Loki and Zeus had been pretty busy by themselves. Zeus had just lost almost 70% of his army to Hera after they went their separate ways. Even though by doing so he obtained some stronger allies, the Dragons nor the demons were someone he could have forced their will upon as he could do with his soldiers. In other words, it could be said that he lost his strength, in order to join some other army. As for Loki, well, he had not had an army ever since Shiva killed him for the first time. So there was nothing new in his life. On the other hand, he did have an army of Undead and the fire giantspletely under hismand thanks to H''s romantic rtionship with Surtr. Of course, H was only toying with Surtr and did not like him at all. She was only interested in his army to aide her brother... who was also her father in an alternate dimension, or so Loki had told her. Then there were his other children like Fenrir and Jormungandr who were strong enough to destroy an infinite number of worlds by themselves. In other words, the power in their coalition had been shifted from Zeus'' hands to Loki''s. Zeus was still in the middle of recognising it, but Loki had been ying him like a fool for a long time. Loki was only afraid of the other Olympians who could have opened Zeus'' eyes to his treachery. But now that Zeus no longer had the backing of Olympus, all Loki needed to do was to get rid of Zeus after they got rid of the Deathless. Then the entire universe would be his to rule. That was the entire point of him triggering Ragnarok. Loki wanted to take the advantage of the chaos and discreetly take care of everything in his path... even his own children. He was manipting and using all of them, yet all of them thought they had him figured out. ''That is the fun way to do things...'' Loki thought to himself, ''Be obvious and reveal a few of your cards to the enemy and they start to think they have you all figured out. Pathetic morons. I am Loki, the trickster. There is no way my spawn would ever be able to outsmart me.'' Just as he was thinking that the representatives of the alliance, the demon lord Beezelbub and the lord of the dragons Orochi entered his chambers. They were there to discuss the division of assets after they had won the war. Little did they know, by the time the war was over, all of them would be dead.. That is, if everything went ording to Loki''s ns. Chapter 535 - An Alliance Like Never Before (2) Muspelheim was thend of fire giants. this domain was inplete contrast to what Jotunheim looked like. The was entirely covered in mes andva with patches of scorchingnd which could be seen as continents of this weird ce. Other than the scorching temperature of the and seas made ofva, this wasn''t all that different from the dozens ofs Arnold had conquered so far. The only issue was... the extraordinarily high temperature of the ce acted as the firstyer of defence for the fire giants. Most of the mortal organisms usually were burned to a crisp the moment they decided to approach them. Even lesser gods had problems while fighting the giants in their domain. However, the power of the giants was greatly reduced once they step out of their. Obviously, all this information was provided to Arnold by the remnants of system sama as well as his godly summons. While this information was useful, it ended up raising a lot of concerns about their ns to attack Muspelheim. Bringing mortals or regr undead summons with them waspletely out of question. Which left Arnold with his elite summons. Sadly, Talos could not apany them because Arnold did not want his metallic skeletal structure to suffer any damage. Well, Talos getting damaged wasn''t his main concern. But it was the fact that it might take quite a while to repair him like that. But it wasn''t like Talos didn''t have a job to do. While Arnold and the rest of them would handle the fire giants, Talos with some of the remaining forces would make his way to the rest of the giants. However, he wouldn''t go there as Talos, but as Arnold along with Thor''s severed head. Arnold decided to do this because he was worried if the gods saw through his n they would immediately recruit the rest of the giants against him. Which, to be honest, did not seem to be a great beginning to their battle. Thus it was necessary for them to act quickly and simultaneously to sabotage Zeus'' and Loki''s ns like that. With everything nned and taken care of, they were ready to move out. *** Back in Muspelheim, everything was going great as usual. The other worlds might not have known this, but there was a legend that everything in the universe was created from their realm along with Niflheim. Even the sun and the moon were created from the sparks released from their realm. It was for all these reasons they believed that they should be the ones overseeing the welfare of the universe and not those Norse gods. Niflheim or realm of the dead, could not have contested them against this ideology as... well, they were already dead. Why should they be allowed to look after the universe? While their im about being the progenitor of everything was somewhat true. It wasn''t all that one-sided as the fire giants imed. Surtr knew the truth about the genesis of the realms, yet he kept his silence on the matter because he knew, as long as the fire giants believed in that tale, they would have great hatred towards the gods. He could use this blind belief in faith and abuse it to make them do his bidding like he was doing now. However, putting one''s faith in the unknowing could have unforeseen...plications. Surtr was blinded by his love for H. But his empire wasn''t. They could see him putting her interests above everything else and went the giants started feeling neglected and taken for granted, nothing good coulde out of it. In a way, it could be said that Muspelheim was more like a nuclear bomb recently. If it hadn''t been for the absolute hierarchy of their society, the bomb would have exploded a long time ago. They needed a spark... just one wrong move and they would not stop reminding their leader of who he was and who they were. Just then a portal from Asgard was thrown open right in front of the capital city of Muspelheim. Out of the Bifrost, poured out countless valkyries and proud warriors. Odin, who had been waiting to open the gates of Valha, had done so and every proud and assertive warrior to ever been born and in walked out of the gates... ready to battle again. "I hope your strategy is fruitful, for the sake of this universe," Odin mumbled while watching the carnage opening the Valha would cause on Muspelheim. "Trust me... this is the only way to do things," Arnold replied with a confident yet uncaring expression, "This way, the giants will know you attacked them. However, since you are no longer the king of Asgard, they can not me this on Baldr. It''s a win-win situation for all of us." "Also, it''s worth mentioning that All-father has a perfectly good reason to attack them." Mimir chimed in as Odin looked at him with puzzled eyes, "Allow me to borate. H is Loki''s... daughter and it''s not a secret that she is involved with Surtr. So it is possible that Loki escaped and was hiding in Muspelheim." "So this could be waved off as a raid to look for him and not to cause trouble with the giants..." Heimdallpleted Mimir''s thoughts while staring towards Arnold, "Or it could be depicted as a way for All-father to let go of the pain caused by Thor''s death..." ''He is... I cannot believe that he thought about all this in mere moments.'' Heimdall''s admiration for Arnold had shot up through the nine realms. He was practically the most ruthless yet calm strategist he had ever seen in his lifetime. But he wasn''t the only one feeling like that. Everyone in Asgard was thinking the same thing... but some of them even viewed him as a bigger problem thanks to that. Arnold could sense it all. He was afraid one of them might realise his real intentions, but it didn''t look like they did. What Mimir and Heimdall told the others was indeed correct. But the real reason why Arnold forced Odin to release Valha, was to make Asgard weaker. They would eventually turn against him. Maybe during the great war or after it, but they will. Why? Because they knew exactly what he was capable of and leaving him alive would be a foolish thing to do. If he was in their shoes, he would have done the same.. Thus, by taking away Odin''s ultimate weapon, he had started preparing for the inevitable. Chapter 536 - An Alliance Like Never Before (3) Within mere hours, Muspelheim was thrown into chaos. The fire giants were overwhelming the warriors and valkyries from Valha. But even then, it was the giants who were being pushed back. Unlike the giants, the warriors from Valha had already died once. Thus they did not care about dying again. In other words, they were fearless. However, the same wasn''t true for the giants. They were scared of dying in their homeworld. Unlike the other giants, when fire giants died, they became one with their. They became a part of the eternal me. However, it wasn''t anything that filled them with pride. As they wouldn''t truly be dead. Their souls would be fuel to keep the burning and cause them eternal pain and misery. This was the reason why the giants didn''t want to die in Muspelheim. None of the gods was aware of this fact simply because giants weren''t foolish enough to reveal such a huge weakness to them. But now that they were under attack, they had no choice but to retreat while slowly shredding the enemies. Surtr had been made aware of the attack and was not pleased by the behaviour of the giants. They were supposed to be proud warriors, not a bunch of cowards! How could those fools bring shame upon their lineage? Blinded by rage, Surtr issued a warning for his fellow giants... if even one of them took a single step backwards with the intention of ''living'' to see another day, he would personally kill them along with their families. Surtr was hoping this would make the giants obey him. But his n backfired horrendously. He had been already losing the support of his people and this was the final straw. All of a sudden, the giants stopped fighting the Valhan soldiers and instead turned against their leader. They had enough of Surtr''s disrespect. If he was such a great leader, then why the hell was he still holed up inside that castle of his? A true leader would not have forced his people to fight and defend their world while not showing up on the front lines himself. "What the hell is going on here!?" Surtr was taken aback by the sudden disobedience of his people. Within a moment, his castle was surrounded and even his most loyal guards had turned their backs on him and left their posts. Surtr was confused and enraged by this new development. Since his army had turned against him as well, he only had two choices. Either run away from the or ask H for her help. Surtr being Surtr, decided to go with the second option. He had done so much for the welfare and the development of the and he wasn''t going to let go of it all that so easily. "H! I need your help!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he rushed into their room. However, as soon as he walked in, he was surprised to find that H was no longer there. She had left Muspelheim the moment it was attacked by Odin. At that moment, it dawned upon him. She never loved her... it was all a ploy to gain the support of the giants. Now that he had lost the trust of his people, they no longer needed him and he was abandoned like trash. Seeing no other way... Surtr prepared himself for battle. There was no hope for his survival. He knew that much. But that didn''t mean he would wait for them toe and kill him. ''If I''m going to die, then I''m taking as many bastards as I can with me.'' Having betrayed twice that too one after another had his eyes zing with rage. He opened the doors of his chamber and was greeted by the sight of his soldiers holding their weapons against him. They were the giants who had sworn to protect him with theirst breath and now, they were the ones who wanted him dead. Surtr valued what they had done for him over the years. But the fact they would betray him undid all the goodwill he ever had towards them. "Drop your weapon ow and peacefully surrender... that is if you don''t want to suffer eternal damnation." Frute, Surtr''s second inmand was the one to warn his leader. However, his warning only made Surtrugh. "Do you fools think I am afraid of merging with Muspelheim? Unlike you cowards, I would rejoice for being given the chance to be one with thend I died protecting!" Surtr eximed as loudly as he could. He wanted to make sure those fools got to know that he wasn''t stepping down as their leader. He wanted them to know... who was their king. Even if it was only for a moment. "Surtr, this is thest chance-" "How about we stop dragging this out and get to the good part?" Saying so, Surtr charged right into the crowd. Prepared to kill or be killed. Surtr had always been a bit overwhelming for them to handle. Or one could say, he had always been... strange. The way he did things was different and any of the other giants. But now that he was betrayed by them all, his unpredictability had only shot up through the roof. A momentter, the bloodbath began. By the time Surtr stopped, everything around him was covered in the blood of giants. However, it wasn''t like Surtr was able to escape unharmed. He could barely hold on to his sword as he scanned the halls scattered with corpses. But there one of them was still alive... Frute. Surtr had saved the best of them for thest. Frute was arguably the second strongest giant on Muspelheim. The only one who could have exchanged blows with Surtr without getting injured in the process. However, Frute was no longer capable of fighting Surtr. After all, all of his limbs were missing. The only thing he could do was to re at Surtr as he took his final breaths. "We could have achieved so much together..." Surtr mumbled in pain, "but you of all people decided to lead a coup against me." "Cut... the crap and... kill me. I would rather be with my... soldiers than listen to your shit anymore." Surtr nodded and with a swing of his sword, killed his oldest and most trusted ally, "Let''s getrid of everyone else then...." Chapter 537 - An Alliance Like Never Before (4) "Prepare the Bifrost again," Arnold said in an authoritative tone, "it''s time to make some changes in Muspelheim." "What do you mean?" Baldr was the one to question Arnold. "I mean, I''m going down there myself." The Asgardian council erupted into chaos as soon as Arnold uttered those words. None of them knew what Arnold was nning and that''s why they were being overly cautious. In the few hours he had spent in Asgard, his ns had changed at least 3 times. At first, he wanted Odin to ensue as much chaos on Muspelheim as he could. But changed his n midway by telling Odin to order the Valhan warriors to minimise the killing. And now he was changing the n once again by expressing his wishes to go to Muspelheim by himself. No matter how the Asgardians viewed the situation, Arnold''s moves were getting more and more suspicious. But the ones who were suspicious of his behaviour could note up with a reason to feel that way. They wanted to advise Baldr, their new king, to not trust the outsider blindly. But they needed toe with a reason to do so. Just saying that they should not trust him because he was an outsider wasn''t enough as they were now in an alliance. On top of that, the one god Odin respected the most was an outsider as well so this absurd reasoning could end up enraging the All-father. They could also argue over the point that Arnold had killed so many Asgardian soldiers during the night of the tournament. But it was no secret that he only did so because they were the ones to instigate it. It was the same case with almost every god he killed. They were the ones who came after him, he did not go seeking them out. By this time, Odin raised his hand and the chatter amongst the gods seized immediately. "That was not the n you proposed, Deathless..." As Odin uttered those words, Arnold raised his eyebrows in surprise. He had never expected Odin of all the gods to treat him like an equal. Unlike the rest of them who even then refused to acknowledge Arnold as a fellow god. Arnold quickly regained hisposure and replied in kind. "ns change. They always do." Odin broke a smile as he remembered something... Shiva was the one who told him the same thing when they were fighting together against an enemy none of them had faced before. But that was a tale for some other time, right now, he needed to focus on the task at hand. Baldr attentively looked at his father. While Baldr was the king of Asgard for all intent and purposes, Odin was still the most respected one among the Asgardians. As a result, his words and decisions were final. A momentter Odin looked at Baldr and nodded. For some reason, he felt like Arnold wasn''t going to betray them. Not until they tried to do something like that first. A momentter Arnold was escorted to the rainbow bridge, closely followed by Heimdall and Thor. "Just remember what you said about not doing anything to the Asgardians," Thor mumbled as soon as they arrived at the teleporter. "You do not need to remind me of my promises, Thor. I''m not like Loki who would stab the others when their back is turned." Arnold red at Thor, "If I wanted to destroy Asgard, I would have already done so and none of your little gods would be able to stop me. That''s the kind of man I am." Arnold''s words might have seemed a bit too harsh. But Heimdall knew he was correct. If Arnold wanted to attack Asgard, he was afraid that without him and Thor to help them... the battle would end in Asgard''s defeat. Especially considering the number of Gods Arnold currently had as his summons. Thor was about to say something else too, but Heimdall ced his hand on his shoulder. Signalling him to stop pushing his luck or else he might be the reason why Arnold would end up destroying Asgard. "If you two have nothing else to do, just go back and wait for me. You might need to handle things here. As things are about to get heated when I return." Arnold instructed them before leaping through the Bifrost, leaving the two of his summons confused. "Why would the things get heated here?" Thor asked Heimdall who got wide-eyed as he realised what Arnold was nning to do. "He did not..." Heimdall started to speak but then shrugged his shoulders, "You know what, fck it all. I don''t even care what he does anymore." First Arnold and now Heimdall, both of them were confusing the heck out of him, "The hell are you bbering on about?" "Arnold! He didn''t go to Muspelheim to kill Surtr and rece him with someone else. He is going there to make everybody else obey him!" "Nah... you''re overthinking a bit too much." Thor dismissed what Heimdall was thinking... until he realised something. Before leaving Arnold told them to prepare for the heat... "The fire giants be one with Muspelheim when they die right?" Thor asked Heimdall. "Why are you asking a question you already know the answer to?" "Just wanted to confirm it before spewing my bullshit." Thor said with a nervous cackle, "I don''t think he is going there to make Surtr or anyone else their leader... Instead, he is going to a graveyard filled with millions of fire giants." It took a few moments for Heimdall to realise what Thor was trying to say. And suddenly all of it made sense. Why would someone like Arnold bother to form an alliance with a few hundred thousand giants... when he could easily resurrect the millions who had died and merge themselves with Muspelheim. "This... is much more fcked up than anything I could evere up with." Heimdall shook his head, "Immortal one... you really chose a unique man to fill your shoes." *** Author''s note: I haven''t made a reference to Halo in a long time, so here you go! Kudos if you could recognise which part of the chapter is a reference! Chapter 538 - An Alliance Like Never Before (5) ''For being gods, they are quite... foolish.'' Arnold thought on his way to Muspelheim, ''Little did they know I could make out what they were thinking just by looking at their faces. nning to backstab me? Hate me? Wanting to use me? Let''s see who will use who when I am done doing what I have to.'' There was one thing Arnold hated the most. An Alliance that is formed by mutual need and not by the trust between each other. Such an alliance is always doomed to fail. But before taking any rash decisions, Arnold wanted to give the Asgardians a chance to make him trust them. Even though most of them trusted his judgement, there were quite a few of them who didn''t. Sadly, this was enough of a reason for Arnold to deem all of them as gods who will potentially betray him. That was the reason why Arnold decided to change the n drastically. He could no longer depend on the Asgardians. But he still needed some form of explosive support if he wanted to even stand a chance against the army of Zeus and Loki. As much as Arnold did not want to admit it, it was thanks to Odin, that he would be getting just the thing that he wanted. ''"Let''s shake the universe, shall we?" Arnold mumbled as soon as his feet touched the surface of Muspelheim, "It is hot... incredibly so. I can feel the heat through the armour. I better not let any of the summons touch the ground or they''ll burn to a crisp before I can do anything." Thinking so, he opened a portal right over his head and out of it came Scy and on top of her were Arnold''s masterful necromancer summons. Anubis, Talos and Yan were riding on top of Scy because of the reason Arnold mentioned earlier. Namely, Talos had been the best Necromancer Arnold ever had. But that wasn''t true after the inclusion of Anubis in his army. Talos was incredibly skilful as he had proven time after time over the years. But then again, he had his drawbacks when it came to resurrecting someone. Everything that Talos resurrected immediately became a part of Arnold''s elite ranks. Which was good only if Arnold wanted to resurrect a certain person, god, or creature. But if Arnold wanted to resurrect an entire army... Talos was not able to do so. That''s when Yan came in. The Lich was more than capable of resurrecting any number of dead... but just like Talos, Yan had a drawback as well. The creatures he resurrected were only raised as basic Zombies and skeletons, which was good to increase the size of Arnold''s army but otherwise were kinda useless. With Anubis, however, Arnold had found a way to get rid of both Talos'' and Yan''s individual weaknesses whilebining their strengths. It was as if they were members of some sort of trinity that Arnold unintentionallypleted with a bit of luck. Why was Arnold referring to them as the ''Trinity''? Well, it was because that''s what their synchronised skill was called... ''The Trinity of The Dead''. The three of them were strong individually... but when they banded together, they were damned near unstoppable. Arnold had kept it hidden from everyone. Only the four of them were aware of this skill and its effects. However, this was the first time such a skill was being cast... even the gods had long forgotten about the existence of such skill. As three necromancers allying themselves with each other wasn''t a sight even they got to witness in millions of years. ''Let''s see them in action for the first time,'' Arnold thought to himself before turning towards the necromancers, "You better put on a show for our spectators!" The three of them nodded and got to work. Within moments, an invisible link formed between Talos, Anubis and Yan. Their individual powers had be one. All of a sudden, the ground beneath them started moving as if the itself wasing to life. But then thend burst apart and out of it walked... hundreds of thousands of fire giants. It was a sight to behold as the giants of various shapes and sizes kneeled before Arnold and the three necromancers, recognising them as their masters. But it wasn''t over just yet. More and more giants continued to pour out of the surface as the temperature of the gradually got lower and lower. Within a minute, the ground beneath Arnold''s feet was covered with more than four hundred thousand giants. The number was less than what Arnold had estimated but it wasn''t over yet. After all, all these fire giants had juste out of one of the six continents of Muspelheim. So the way Arnold saw it... there were more ces for them to visit and cause havoc. "Pretty sure those bastards are shaking in their seats right about now..." At this point, Arnold couldn''t stopughing... and quite maniacally. Either way, his prediction was correct. The Asgardians along with everyone in Zeus and Loki''s party were shocked like never before. But none of them was as shocked as Mimir. It was not a difficult feat for anyone to trick the gods. But it was quite a wonder if someone who managed to fool the torsoless Mimir. Only Loki had been able to do so before and now Arnold had joined the ranks with him. Mimir had wondered what was Arnold''s true purpose of visiting Muspelheim and he had arrived at one result. He was going there to resurrect Surtr. That was the limit to which Mimir could have predicted Arnold''s actions ording to what he had been doing until then. But never in his wildest nightmares, he would have thought that Arnold was going there to resurrect an entire and restore the undead fire giants back to their full glory. But no one could me him for not thinking of such a scenario. After all, Arnold''s summons used had used an ability even the Gods had long forgotten about. But there was another entity of the universe who was interested in Arnold.. However, his curiosity wasn''t enough to make him appear in front of the universe just yet. Chapter 539 - Walking Hell (1) It didn''t take long for Arnold to get an army of fire giants. Hell, even dragons would have a tough time dealing with the walking hell he had just resurrected from death. With more than a million giants backing him up, Odin thought it was the best time to recall his forces. Odin did not recall the Valkyries or Valhan warriors because he wanted to make sure that no one would cause trouble in his ns. While the council back in Asgard was against this move and had started seeing Arnold as a threat more than anything else, Odin trusted him. Not because Arnold was someone worthy of his trust. But because Shiva had told him to trust the newly consecrated half god and Odin trusted Shiva more than he trusted himself. Thus he readily spent every ounce of power he had to help the man. However, he understood the concern of the other gods. Arnold now arguably had enough power to challenge Asgard all by himself. Hell, if Loki and Zeus had not partnered up with the Dragons and Demons, he could have even taken them out right then and there. But there was one thing the gods of Asgard were having a tough time digesting. Even if Arnold resurrected the giants, there was no reason for the giants to obey his will. But surprisingly they were doing so without any question. Little did they know the reason why the giants were obeying Arnold was pretty simple. Simple enough to not even enter the mind of the other gods. Bing one with the itself was a horrifying experience, causing them eternal pain. Thus by forcing them to resurrect, Arnold had actually helped them get out of a nasty situation. In other words, it could be said that Arnold was their saviour. And who would not help their saviour? The Giants would. Despite their negative image in the universe, the giants were a species that honoured the ones to help them while punishing the ones who betrayed them. Thus, they were readily helping Arnold conquer more and more areas while resurrecting more and more of them into his ranks. But this incredible pace of resurrecting the giants came at a price... As the giants were a part of the itself, ripping them apart and resurrecting them was causing the to slowly fall apart. it was only a matter of time before the literally crumbled away. ''We can''t have that now, can we?'' Arnold thought to himself before halting the undead trinity from resurrecting any more giants. As much as Arnold wanted to have another few hundred thousand fire giants by his side, he wanted to get hold of someone else. Someone who was much more precious than mere giants. Who was more important than fire giants? Surtr, who else? By this time the news of H''s betrayal had reached Arnold''s years, and he wasn''t surprised. Not even a bit. After all, she was the sister of Loki... well, maybe she was the daughter. Arnold did not have enough time to worry about the incestual deeds of a pathetic god. Either way, since she was rted to Loki, it was given that she would have some of his traits within herself. However, that being said, Arnold wasn''t foolish enough to think that Surtr would join him just because he ended up getting betrayed. In fact, if anything Surtr might even try to me it all upon Arnold and try to kill him. Arnold said try because there was no way in hell someone like Surtr would be able to kill him, especially while he was in a state of godhood. Still, underestimating one''s opponent was like courting death. Arnold knew that very well because he had been the one getting underestimated for most if not all of his life as a human. "Alright... let''s find him and see how shit goes down. Talos, how much time do we have before the gives out?" "A week in earth''s time, master," Talos replied before transforming back to his automaton form. Since the had cooled down considerably, his summons had no difficulty walking next to their master. As for Scy, she was busy enjoying the heat released from the fire giants. It was a different matter that Arnold had to stop her numerous times when she tried to eat a few of them. The fire giants might have been an expendable force but having them eaten was a waste even in Arnold''s eyes. "A week... hm..." Arnold scratched his chin before turning towards the giants, "Have any of you ever been to the capital? I mean the ce where Surtr resides?" The giants looked at each other, confused. Muspelheim was much bigger than any of the others. Hence, most of them never got the chance to visit other ces at all. They spent most of their life around the area where they were born. As a result... none of them had the idea where the capital was. Arnold kept scanning the crowd when one of them came forward. The resurrected giants were incapable of speech. But thanks to Anubis, who had the ability tomunicate with the dead, Arnold was able to know what was going on inside their heads. Although the giant in front of him had never been to the capital himself, he had heard about its location. But he wasn''t sure. However, at this time there wasn''t much Arnold could do. The was falling apart and he had to not only find Surtr before that but probably defeat him as well. It was him against the time and right now, time wasn''t a constraint Arnold could control, unlike Shiva. "I not a man who''s into fate and bullshit... but that the only thing I can do for now." He sighed before turning his attention towards the giant, "Wee to the club of my apostles." The next moment there was a bright sh and the giant was made into an apostle. It was necessary to do this to enable Arnold to travel to the Capital using void travel. "Let''s face off with the protector of this ce then. Talos, Anubis, cover the nk.. Yan, try not to get left behind." Chapter 540 - Walking Hell (2) Arnold''s army was prepared to confront the leader of the fire giants. While Arnold was not worried about being unable to handle Surtr on his own, he thought it would be good to at least be prepared for any uncertainties. That was if they could find Surtr in the first ce. Upon arriving at the ce the other fire giant had pointed them towards, they arrived at the capital... or the ce that had the ruins of such a ce either way... The city in front of them was the capital city of the fire giants. However, the city had already been obliterated, only ruins of the once-magnificent city had been left behind. At first, Arnold thought maybe the''s crumbling had destroyed the ce. But the more he looked at the destroyed city, the more revtions popped up in his head. Although a fire giant''s body disappeared after it was killed and became one with the, their weapons and armours did not. Those things were left behind on the surface of the... and well, the city ruins were scattered with armours and weapons. At that moment, it was clear that the city had not been destroyed by the''s crumbling. but someone had intentionally destroyed the city and ended up killing everyone in it. ''Looks like Surtr decided to get rid of everyone at once.'' Arnold was already aware of the situation going on between Surtr and the fire giants. They had rebelled against him so he killed them all. A ruthless but powerful move. However, there was one question left behind along with the destroyed city. ''Where the hell did Surtr go to?'' It was unlikely that Surtr decided to make a run for it after killing everyone in his sight. Which left Arnold confused as to where he could have possibly gone to. Then it hit him... there was one ce Surtr could have gone, especially after being betrayed by H. "He''s going after H." Arnold sighed before loudly screaming at the top of his lungs, "OPEN THIS DAMNED BRIDGE HEIMDALL!" The following moment a Bifrost portal opened up in front of Arnold who immediately jumped into it after sending all of the giants into his domain along with Scy, Anubis and Yan. As for Talos, he apanied Arnold back to Asgard. From the moment Arnoldnded back into the council, he knew something the Norse gods had been cooking something up. All of them had this weird look on their faces that made them look as if they were teenagers who had been caught doing drugs. "Alright... what the fck did they do?" Arnold asked the only ones who could be forced to give him an answer, Thor and Heimdall. Both of them looked at each other with guilty expressions. How could they not have such an expression on their faces? After all, they were the ones who helped Surtr go to Niflheim, thend of the dead so that he could get rid of H or at least deal significant damage to her forces. However, there was another reason why Heimdall used the Bifrost to send Surtr over to Niflheim. The Norse was worried that if Arnold got his hands on Surtr, he would be unstoppable and hence decided to get rid of Surtr altogether. For obvious reasons, none of the Norse gods actually helped Thor and Heimdall do that. Nor did they force them to do it. They just ''suggested'' that they did so. Thankfully, Thor and Heimdall still cared about Asgard and decided to act against Arnold to help their old allies. That way, Asgard would have achieved its goal of preventing Arnold from getting too strong, while also keeping their hands clean. After all, it was his summons who acted that way and not them. There was nothing Arnold could do to them without fearing retaliation from the other gods. "It was... me. I made the decision to send Surtr away." Heimdall fearlessly said, "I thought it would be a great way to get rid of H and her forces before Ragnarok was activated in its true sense." Heimdall was afraid Arnold would lose his shit and start killing them in a blind rage. But he had never thought Arnold would break into hystericalughter the moment he admitted his fault. But theughter stopped as abruptly as it had begun and was reced by a look that made Heimdall shiver in his ce. But he wasn''t the only one who felt that way... Thor and the rest of the Asgardians shared that feeling with him as well. "Really? How big of a fool do you think I am, Heimdall?" Arnold mumbled before opening a portal leading to his domain, "Did you really think I didn''t know that trusting you was a mistake? But I still gave you a chance... and look at what you did." Arnold sighed before turning towards Thor, "And you, I thought you loved Sif. But it looks like you didn''t love her as much as I thought. No worries... I''ll punish both of you either way. No, punishment would be the wrong term. I''ll torment you." Soon, innumerable fire giants walked out of the portal one after another... along with the rest of his summons. "You thought you could save yourselves by sending Surtr away. But what will you do, if I came after you and your precious Asgard?" Arnold had bared his fangs. He tried to trust them once, but it appeared in their love for their home, Heimdall and Thor forgot who he was. Well, if that was the case, all he needed to do was to give them a little reminder of who he was and what he could have done if his hands were forced. Odin got up from his seat and walked up to Arnold. His legendary spear was in his hands. A spear that was crafted by Shiva himself... just like Thor''s hammer was. The tale of the Dwarves forging it was just a cover that the Dwarves used to promote their ''business''. That was the reason why Mjolnir was not destroyed by when Arnold touched it. Because both Arnold''s powers of a creationist and the hammer were created by one person, Shiva. In other words, Arnold could use the weapons that were created by Shiva as if they were created by him. Either way, back in Asgard, Odin mmed the back of his spear in front of Arnold. There was not a tinge of fear in Odin''s eyes. Which was obvious. Why the hell would he be afraid of something as useless as death? Something that he had experienced time and time again. "Quit acting tough, Deathless." Odin said in a thunderous voice, "You and I both know we need tobine our strength to defeat Loki, Zeus and everyone else who has allied themselves with him. So I suggest, we make a truce. A truce that we will only fight each other after Zeus and Loki were taken care of." He continued, "I will make sure no one from my side will even think about causing you any harm till then, and I expect the same from you in return." Arnold was still infuriated. As much as the fire giants would have been enough to take care of Asgard by themselves, Arnold was not sure whether or not they would be able to take care of Zeus and Loki. "Fine... you got your truce. But make sure to remember it... I will destroy Asgard the moment I''m done with them." Arnold then turned towards Talos, "Take Heimdall and Thor away.. I will deal with themter." Chapter 541 - Consequences To say that Arnold was pissed was an understatement, unlike any other god, have ever heard. He despite his hatred towards the gods decided to treat them with kindness and respect, and what did he get? Yet another betrayal. Arnold had thought after leaving them with the Asgardians, they''ll be able to keep everyone in check. But quite the opposite happened. They were the ones who took it upon themselves to try and keep his, their master''s, strength in check by sending Surtr away before Arnold could include him in his army. No matter how Arnold saw it, it was nothing but an obscene betrayal of trust he had put on both Heimdall and Thor. Well, actually, Arnold wasn''t surprised by what Thor did. After all, he had proimed that he will not tolerate anything against Asgard so it was obvious that he was acting in the interest of Asgardians. However, the story of Heimdall waspletely different. He, unlike Thor, had sworn allegiance towards him and him alone the minute he was resurrected. And yet that bastard thought it would be okay to betray him just because thor was by his side? Well, Arnold didn''t care about such things anymore. At the end of the day, they were his summons and their acting out was a result of his insufficient disciplining. They fcking wanted to screw him over? Well, they were about to see what happens with those who screw him over. As of now, both Thor and Heimdall had been strapped onto the walls of the vault inside Arnold''s domain. The same vault where the dead waited for Arnold''smand to be resurrected and join Arnold''s army as per the need. Thor''s head was throbbing like crazy. Why, do you ask? Well, because he could see Sif''s corpse right in front of his eyes. But that wasn''t all... a couple of undead were ying ser with her mutted head, kicking her all over the ce. Of course, they were not doing it out of their own volition. But they were doing so because they had been instructed to do so by Arnold. Despite his anger, Arnold was still a man of his word. As long as Thor helped him, he wasn''t going to resurrect Sif to be her puppet. But since Thor had taken it upon himself to y the knight in the shining armour for the Asgardians, it was only fair that the rest of them got to y with something as well. Thankfully, Sif''s head appeared to be the best thing to y with at the moment. Just seeing the love of his life being treated like that was enough to enrage Thor. But he couldn''t do anything. After all, he had been trapped with chains made of celestial gold which had been reinforced by small chunks of Adamantine and then enchanted by earth''s best creationist himself. As a result, the chain had a peculiar blessing. A blessing to strip away any being of power. The chain took their mana, stat points away as long as they were in contact with the person before using all of that strength and power to subdue them further. Not to mention the incredible amount of pain it caused. Arnold was initially nning on using these chains to interrogate any gods he captured alive to get to them to give him the location where Zeus and Loki had been hiding. But testing it on Thor and Heimdall seemed to be a good enough option. While Thor was being tortured emotionally. Heimdall was not so lucky. His punishment was much more severe than Thor''s as he was the one who said he was first loyal to Arnold and then to anyone else. Yet, he was also the one who effortlessly, without even thinking about it twice, betrayed him. Heimdall''s punishment was a bit simr to what Arnold had done to him while he was alive. Only this time, it was Natasha who was doing in. Her ways of tormenting one''s soul were unparalleled. So sickening that even Arnold would eventually be forced to look away. That was the case when Arnold had a leash around her neck. But this time, Arnold had left her to her devices. So one could only imagine the kind of torment she would be putting Heimdall through. This kept going on as slowly the hours turned into days. In the dark room, where time was a constraint that was no longer valid, slowly but surely Arnold was making the two of them regret their choices. Finally, the sealed doors to the vault opened up and in walked Arnold, who was closely followed by Talos and Alice. While Thor''s bloodshot eyes were still had a will to fight against Arnold after all the sickening things he had seen those freaking undead do to Sif''s corpse, his will to rebel against Arnold had disappeared long ago. It was the same case with Heimdall. Except for the fact that he didn''t have his eyes. In their ce were two golden stakes... just like the rest of his body. Natasha, being the depraved one,pletely outdid herself this time. But instead of reprimanding her or anything, Arnold happily acknowledged her good work before asking Alice and Talos to help the two out of their chains. While they were at it, Arnold started talking to Talos. well, actually he was talking to Heimdall and Thor, but right now, Talos was the participant in the conversation. Not them. "You don''t know much about my father, do you Talos?" "No, master. I have only ever heard the tales you have told us about him." Talos diligently replied, not looking into his master''s eyes. "Did I ever tell you about the time he lectured me about consequences?" Talos shook his head. "Well, I think it was a couple of years before the Dungeons started popping up in this world. Back then I was still an idiot, rich brat who thought anything could be solved with money. I mean, we were raised around money so that was all I knew." He continued, "There was this one guy from school who always bested me at everything. Studies, sports and even gaming. He was a bully too. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and decided to teach that bastard a lesson. I went ahead and hired professional fighters and told them to roughen the bastard up. I thought they would give him a beating that that''ll be it. I never knew they would send him into aa... nor did I know that he was the only man in his family who was supporting his mother through cancer." "Long story short. The guy barely made it back alive. But even then he was left wheelchair-bound for life. When my father got to know that I was behind that, he blew up like any decent parent would. Took my college fund away and gave it to the guy''s family." Arnold stood there silent for a bit after that as memories from the old times flooded his head. "I even had to spend some time in jail. Not as much as anyone else would have had to if they were in my shoes. But after I got back, my father only ever said one thing to me for the rest of the year... ''Choices have consequences, son''. "From that moment on, that line had been etched into my head. I hope it''s been etched into yours as well... Thor and Heimdall. Don''t disappoint me again or I might not be as forgiving as I am now." Saying so, Arnold left the room, leaving his summons to tend to each other. Chapter 542 - Beginning Of The End (1) Meanwhile, on earth, things had taken a turn for the worse. "Breaking News! Several unconquered dungeons have started to cause numerous breakouts all over the globe. Each and every nation in existence is suffering through the same thing and are beingpletely overwhelmed by the insurmountable number of monsters pouring out of the dungeons." The same news was being telecasted all over the world. Which was weird considering no one had the time to idle around and watch television. Those who had even a bit of power in them were busy trying to fight these beasts out. While those who did not have powers were forced to run and hide. Within just an hour of the dungeon breaks, numerous small countries had fallen down. They had no way to handle multiple dungeon breaks that too on such a huge scale. The monsters that came gushing out of the dungeons were not normal monsters either. All of them were at least grade A or above. Which meant not only were the humans outnumbered, they were outssed as well. Something none of them had even imagined would happen in such a short duration. Requests for Arnold''s aid came from all over the. He was the only one who could have saved them from such a crisis. Yet he was nowhere to be seen. America wasn''t fairly much better than the others either. Since Arnold had taken away his elite summons with him, only his army of undead and machines like golems and Automatons were left behind. Thankfully, within these ranks, Olympian soldiers were included as well. Unlike the humans, they had much more experience when it came to fighting against overwhelming odds. On top of that, they also know the weakness of most, if not all, of the beasts that were in front of them. Also, even in Arnold''s absence, they had quite a few capable warriors they could depend on. After all, they had been training to face against the gods. If they couldn''t even handle these mortal monsters, how the hell were they supposed to even stand against the being far more superior to them? "Devon, I need every bit of data you can find on those high-grade monsters. Also, sent that information to every other nation. We might not be able to help them physically but I''m sure the information would at least save some lives." Nina hurriedly gave everyone their orders while she prepared to head out herself. Aiden was still too young to help them in any way. He was strong... but young and naive. The same went with Orco. He looked like a fifteen-year-old, but he wasn''t. Nina could not let either of her sons get caught in the line of fire. Thus with help of magic, she had put both of them to sleep as she knew they would not have let her go and fight by herself. They might hate her for itter, but that was the right thing to do... as a mother. "Already sent them everything," Devon replied. Even he was dressed in his battlesuit. A much better and evolved version of the Armour that he had used to fight against Arnold all those years ago. The situation was so tense that at one point they even contemted the choice of bombarding the dungeons with nukes. But considering what happened thest time they did so, their n could massively backfire. Unlike before, they could not afford anything backfiring. Thus it was decided they would give it all they had and try to push the monsters back. If they failed and the end appeared to be inevitable they''ll nuke everything. The other countries had been asked to do the same. However, Devon doubted anyone of them would do such a thing. Not because they didn''t want to, but because they wouldn''t get the time to. After all, they were being attacked from all directions and through every kind of being. Also, they were under attack fromnd, air and even the sea. The skies had turned red with all the fire and smoke, much like the sea and thend. It truly looked as if the judgement day was upon them and the world was going to end. It was just a matter of when and how. Somewhere else, in the USA, Allen and Nathan were looking over the carnage caused by the monster while their respective teams prepared to walk into the mouth of the devil... "May God help us all..." Allen absentmindedly mumbled. "Praying to the ones who had caused this mess? Not a good idea, in my opinion." Nathanughed before wrapping his hand around his brother''s shoulder. "Everything is going to end and you''re still joking?" Allen brushed off Nathan''s hand. "That''s the entire point! If we are gonna die, better die whileughing." Nathan''s smile got even wider, "Either way, I don''t think that bastard will let anyone die. Not like this." "You mean Arnold?" Allen asked, "Hm... I would like to think he woulde and help us too. But we can always trouble the guy, can we? I don''t know about you but I''m tired of being saved by him again and again." "It feels weird... as if it was just yesterday when I used to be stronger than him. Haha, now I can only be stronger than him in my dreams..." "Nah, you''ll be too weak even in your dreams." The brothers started throwing punches at each other yfully. They might be acting all calm and collected, but it was because both of them knew they weren''t going to survive for long. The monsters were too much for them to handle. However, it seemed their luck just got even worse. Yet another portal opened up in front of them and it was much bigger than anything any one of them had seen before. "You motherfcker! I told you not to pray now look, another one of those fcking portals popped up!" Nathan smacked Allen in the back of the head before turning towards the portal. What happened the next moment could only be described as a wonder. Thousands upon thousands of fire giants walked out of the portal as Allen and Nathan got ready to fight till theirst breath. However, the giantspletely ignored them and rushed towards the other portal. The one which had been pouring monsters out. "Just leave this to us, pussies." Suddenly the two of them heard a familiar voice and there they saw the one who quelled all of their doubts and fears away. It was Bad-Breath on top of thest fire giant that walked out of the portal. "Are they his summons now?" Bad-Breath nodded her head, but he was clearly annoyed by Allen''s stupid question. Of course, they were Arnold''s summons. Who the fck other than him could even pull something like that off? "Master is already on his way. but sent us first while he took care of something. We''ll take care of the monsters. You guys just focus on evacuating the civilians." "Got it!" Both Allen and Nathan replied simultaneously and rushed to work. "I told you he''ll save us!" Allen eximed in his excitement. "Seriously... this guy never ceases to amaze me.. Haha!" Nathan replied with equal enthusiasm. Chapter 543 - Beginning Of The End (2) Los Angeles wasn''t the only ce where Arnold''s forces had popped out of nowhere. Throughout the globe, fire giants had appeared along with the rest of Arnold''s army. No one knew what the hell was going on but they were happy that finally, someone could take care of the rampaging monsters. "F-Fire Giants!?" "They are on our side!" "Focus on rescuing as many people as you can. The giants will handle the monsters." "We are saved... we are saved..." Some people were rejoicing, some were crying, and some were just stunned to see all of that with their own eyes. It looked like a scene from some movie, but at that moment, no one wanted to question the reality of what was going on. The situation which was slowly moving towards humanities questionable defeat was turned with the help of giants. A single fire giant was enough to take on hundreds of monsters on their own. A single fire giant was ranked as an SS ranked being ording to the humans. Just one of them could send the toughest warriors to their doom. And here they were witnessing not a hundred or two hundred giants... but about a billion giants all over the. None of them had a single doubt regarding who was responsible for this. Deathless... no other human could have possibly pulled something like this off. As the situation on earth was getting better... the same could not be said about Loki and Zeus. When they realised what Arnold was doing with Muspelheim, they decided to usher their ns and put them in effect prematurely. The monster''s sudden appearance on earth was no coincidence. It was all Loki''s and Zeus'' doing. They had hoped that while Arnold was busy with the giants, they would use the time to obliterate earth and convert it into the battlefield of the gods. However, it seemed like their n was leaked as Arnold''s forces showed up there before any of them had anticipated. "It''s not the time to sulk about." The new dragon overlord, Typhon, mumbled. The dragon was currently in her human form and looked fearsome. Even more so than Zeus himself. Standing at 7''10", this beautiful white-skinned woman had an authoritative feeling around her. Maybe it was her knee-length white hair or her glittering blue eyes, just looking at her sent tantalising feeling in Zeus as if he wanted nothing more than to have her in his life. She had scars all over her body which was barely covered with the rope of a cloth she was wearing. Every single man in the room had their eyes on her. But they were well aware that acting on their ''indecent'' feelings would be the end of them. "Ahem,dy Typhon has a point." To everyone''s surprise, it was Lucifer who spoke this time. He had been quiet ever since joining the alliance, so him speaking up now was a pretty big deal. Just like Typhon, Lucifer too had an enigmatic presence in the room. However, his appearance was inplete contrast with Typhoon. He looked as if his skin had been charred away... just like the horns on his head. This was his real appearance. Unlike his doppelgangers whom Arnold had killed before. "It''s toote to back away now either way. The other gods will know this isn''t normal and act on it soon. We need to send in our forces before that." Lucifer said while tapping his fingers on someone''s head, "We can start so by sending the sun out with a bang." In the mess between Asgardians and Arnold, Loki along with Lucifer was able to get in and out of the ce with Sol and Mani, the goddesses who were responsible for moving the sun and the moon around Earth. Taking them out would mean taking the sun and the moon out and triggering Ragnarok. It was obvious that the Asgardians were aware that Sol and Mani were missing. After that, it would not take them much time to realise what Loki had done and retaliate. "As much as I detest myself for saying this..." Typhon shrugged her shoulders, "I agree with the demon. We have to strike now." As soon as those words escaped her lips. Lucifer wrapped his ws over Sol''s head and crushed it in an instant while Typhon did the same with Mani. Just like that... the goddesses were dead and so were the Sun and the moon. At the same time, a gigantic portal opened behind Typhon and Lucifer and both of them left... for the earth. Ragnarok had been dered and it was time to start the beginning of the end for humanity and everything else. In the end, only Loki, Zeus, H and the army of undead were left behind. With their allies heading into battle, they would have to head down there as well. But Loki still had something to do... gather the rest of his children. Without them, the end result of Ragnarok would be changed drastically and he did not want anything to stop him. "H, send the undead in along with the rest of Niflheim residents." Loki mumbled as he got up to leave, "The two of you stay behind and observe the situation first. It won''t do us any good if we''re targetted right from the start." "As you wish," H replied while Zeus left to sort his forces out. "You should go in as well," Zeus instructed someone who had been standing in shadow. Hiding away. "It''s time?" Johnny''s voice echoed from the darkness. "Yes, it is. The portal will guide you to earth. Godspeed, my son. You''ll need it." Zeus replied before leaving. Johnny sighed and walked into the portal. It was time for him to face the people he once called his friends. He had no doubt, they''ll view him as an enemy... as he would. But even then, he didn''t have an option apart from doing what he did. Either he killed Nicole, or Zeus would have killed him and he chose to survive at her expense. "Let''s see what you have in store for me.... Deathless." Chapter 544 - Foes Like Never Seen Before (1) Meanwhile, on earth, everything was a mess. Humans, giants and other monsters, all of them were busy trying to one-up each other. Although they were tied up, the humans were no longer in despair. Since the fire giants and Arnold''s elite summons were already there, it was only a moment of time before the Deathless would appear there himself. When that happens, the tide of the war would be irrevocably changed in their favour. Till then, it was up to them to hold those bastard monsters off. Also, thanks to their united efforts, both evacuation and fending off the monsters were simultaneously going good. But that all changed soon. The army of monsters was already giving them a hard time, but now they had another cmity to take care of. Three new portals had just opened up over LA. But they were unlike the portal which had opened prior. With just a nce, Nina could say that they were in deep trouble because the portals looked exactly like the one from which Hercules had appeared. "Mistress, you should back out now." Talos urged Nina to get back along with the rest of the humans, which only confirmed her suspicions. "Something terrible is going toe out of there, isn''t it?" Nina asked with a tired smile. They had been fighting relentlessly for days. It was a miracle they were even able to hold their weapons properly and just when they thought they had everything under control, a curveball was thrown at them. They weren''t some majestic species, but mere humans. They might have superpowers but at the end of the day, they were just... humans, who had their limits. Right now they had been pushed further and further. So it was obvious most of them would break. It was, for this reason, Talos asked them to go back. In their condition, they were better off helping with the evacuation rather than fighting. However, there was a reason why Talos respected Nina. She was just as stubborn and careless as his master. When ites to protecting the ones they loved, they would rather die trying to beat the odds than give up. "Go away? Why would I do something moronic like that?" She said with the broadest smile her blood-drenched face coulde up with, "How will I ever look Arnold in the eyes if I always keep running and hiding behind his summons? If he wanted me to protect myself, he would have given me a shield, not this badass sword." She continued, "Now, if you don''t want to fight, just stay behind me. I''ll take care of Arnold''s precious science project." "You sure know how to hurt my nonexistent feelings, mistress." Talos shrugged his shoulder, "I just didn''t want the master to go on another rampage. That''s all." "Could have fooled me." devon chimed in, "Well, let''s just kill them already and get this over with. I still have some research to do and these morons would be the perfect test subjects for it." The three of them weren''t aware of it. But their casual bickering was enough to boost the morale of the others around them. Hell, if they could be so casual right in the middle of Armageddon, then why couldn''t they do the same? None of them was delusional enough to think all of them would make it out of the battle alive. But they weren''t going to let that thought ruin their battle spirit anymore. If they were going to die anyway, then they would do it with a smile rather than get depressed and ept defeat without fighting back. "Mages, Archers, everyone who had any kind of ranged ability, aim them towards the portals." Nina roared at the top of her lungs, "It doesn''t matter how little damage the ability does. Just bring them all out!" Her cry was nothing less than a lioness''s roar. In an instant, all of the warriors were filled with energy and adrenaline. They knew no matter what, they had to stop whatever came out of the portals. They were humanity''s first and only line of defence against unknown enemies. If the enemies made it past them, everything that they had been fighting for would be obliterated in moments. However, once they saw what came flying out of the portal, they realised that things were not going to be easy. "D-Dragons!?" One of the warriors shrieked in panic when she saw the majestic creatures flying out of the portals. In an instant, they were reminded of what happened when that three-headed dragon had appeared in LA, all those years ago. Even with all of the warriorsbined, they weren''t able to put an end to a single dragon and now there wasn''t one but several thousands of them simultaneously invading their? How the hell were they supposed to stop them? "The hell are you fckers spacing out for!? Fire away damn it!" Nina roared once again, snapping all of them back to reality. A momentter, all of them took their shots against the dragons. However, the result was as to be expected... all of their spells simply bounced off of their scales. The dragons who had been looking forward to a fight, and a look of annoyance on their faces. Since the gods were having a lot of trouble against these... humans, they had expected them to put up a fight. But now that they were there themselves, it seemed as if their expectations of the humans was misced. "Annoying little bugs..." Typhoon mumbled, "Burn them down to ashes!" A moment the dragons of all shapes, sizes and colours rained hell on earth from above. The moment their mes touched the ground, loud explosions could be seen, followed by earth-shattering noise. With an attack like that the dragons had no doubts, the human could not have possibly survived. "Why did we even bother toe here? Who were we here to fight against?" The next moment, the sky was torn open with a loud explosion as over a dozen dragons were shot down like flies. "You want to fight? Don''t make meugh." A masculine voice echoed throughout the skies as the dust began to settle down back on the ground. As that happened, Typhoon was left behind utterly stunned. She was sure their attack had obliterated the humans, however, there was not a single scratch on any one of them. It appeared they were protected by some kind of a shield. It was only when the dust was clearedpletely that Typhoon realised what had happened. Right in the middle of the army of humans, stood a man d in adamantine armour. Right next to his feet was a sapling... the sapling of the world tree. It was thanks to that sapling the humans were able to survive. But that wasn''t all... behind the man stood someone whom Typhoon had believed to be long dead, along with another dragon. One who had the presence of a queen... a true queen, unlike herself. "Tiamut..." Typhoon mumbled absentmindedly. "So what''s it gonna be? Fight or surrender?" Arnold asked the queen of dragons while brandishing his sniper rifle, the one who had just taken down 14 dragons in a single shot. Chapter 545 - Foes Like Never Seen Before (2) "Dragons never surrender, human." Typhoonughed it off, "We are being who rival even the mightiest of gods. What possibly can-" "And I am someone who hunts them down like a hobby. Do you still wanna talk about what we have can or can not do?" Arnold cut the dragon queen off midsentence while reloading his rifle, "I''m gonna ask you onest time. Will you fight or surrender?" "This is my answer!" Typhoon yelled again as the dragons once again hurled a hailstorm of fire at them. "You never learn..." Arnold shook his head and stood there motionless. Since he had nted the sapling of the world tree there, no matter what the dragons did, everyone inside the barrier would remain safe. Arnold then ignored the dragons and turned towards Nina who even after being drenched in monster blood, looked just as beautiful as she did on the night they confessed their feelings for each other. "Sorry, I had to put you through all that..." "What are you even talking about? We''re married for fck''s sake. Your problems are my problems and I wouldn''t back down just because of some stupid reptiles. No offence!" She looked at Tiamut and Scy, realising that they too were dragons. "None taken." Tiamut smiled back and so did Scy, or at least all of them assumed that she did. "Are you hurt anywhere? Anyone?" Though it was clear to Arnold that they were definitely hurt, none of them wanted to burden him with their mild wounds. He had already done enough for them by saving their lives. "We''re fine. Just go and do what you have to." Nina nudged him towards the dragons. Arnold smiled before shaking his head in defeat. Nina and his sons were the only ones he could never win against, even though he was probably the universe''s strongest individual. After making sure everyone was actually okay, he walked out of the barrier along with Scy and Tiamut. But not before he had called forth Yan and Anubis. This ce was about to get littered with corpses of dragons, which was the perfect opportunity for him to further improve the battle power of his army. The masters of death got together and immediately knew what they had to do. Typhoon could also tell what they were trying to do but she had no way of stopping them. The barrier was blocking out most of their attacks. The few attacks that managed to get through the barrier turned useless against a meat shield made of the fire giants. A momentter the fourteen dragons who Arnold had killed sometime before were back to life, but this time, they stood against their allies in support of their new master. However, the dragons were not just shocked because of that. All of them had their attention on Tiamut. She was their queen... well that was until she met her demise and seeing her there in front of them caused several thoughts to go berserk in their heads. They were also intrigued to know who the other dragon was, because she seemed awfully close to Tiamut, judging by how close they were walking with each other. ''Perfect.'' It was just like Arnold had nned. He didn''t know much about the dragons and their way of living. But what he could gather from Tiamut and other gods, they were being who believed in the absolute hierarchy, just like the giants. Which meant if one of their past kings or queens were to reemerge in front of them, they would feel conflicted. On one hand, there would their recent patriarch, which in this case was none other than Typhoon and on the other hand, would their former king or queen whom they had sworn to serve in life and death. This confusion would eventually end up causing a battle amongst themselves. One faction would support the recent ruler while the other one would support the other one. Right now, the dragons were debating within themselves what their next course of action should be. But it didn''t take long for them to turn against each other. It happened so fast that Arnold was honestly surprised. Tiamut nor Typhoon had spoken a word, and yet the dragons were ready to fight each other. However, the one thing Arnold did not know was that Typhoon had already foreseen such an event and prepared several contingencies for the same. "Do not believe for a second the Tiamut you''re seeing is same as our queen!" Typhoon roared at the top of her lungs, "We all saw her dying by the hands of that filthy human, and if she had died once, it means she has died for real. There is no need to cause bloodshed over someone who wasn''t even real!" Her words had started swaying the crown in her favour. However, it wasn''t like she was the only one with a n. Tiamut had her own piece of mind that she wanted to say. "What is your definition of being ''alive'', Typhoon?" She asked, "I would like to know that since you are so hellbent on dering me dead, just like you did right after I was defeated at the hands of the Immortal one." "You..." There was nothing she could say to counter Tiamut. Tiamut was alive and well in every sense of the word. There was nothing she couldn''t do that someone alive could do. She could walk, talk and even fight. Thus she could be considered as someone who was ''alive''. "As for the one you me to have killed me, is the man who actually saved me and freed me from the curse the Immortal one had ced on me." Tiamut continued hammering the iron while it was hot, "if anything, he is my saviour who helped me grow strong enough to stand by his side and you people are believing the lies Typhoon says?" "She is the one colluding with the gods, our enemies since the beginning of time. The goals of Deathless and the Dragons are one and the same.. Complete annihtion of the gods or at least the only of those who absolutely loath. So what''s it going to be? Are you going to fight with the gods or with the human who can free all of you from a curse?" Chapter 546 - Fall Of The Earth (1) Typhoon was enraged. A fcking human dared to disrupt the harmony she had worked hard for thousands of years between the dragons? She will kill her and take her revenge. "You fcking piece of shit think you can win like this?" Typhoon suddenly reverted back to her god-like form, "Believe me human, these dragons are just wheels driven by a force, a force that''s ME! I am Typhoon! The queen of Dragons! No human shall stand in front of me and disrespect me like this." Arnold ignored herpletely which seemed to get her even more enraged. She was a creature even the gods were wary enough to not anger, and yet this human who wasn''t even a full-fledged god dared to not only make fun of her but ignore her as well? "I know what I will do..." Suddenly she started smiling as her body got covered with a white armour which was somewhat simr to the one Tiamut was wearing, "You think that puny shield of yours can protect those humans you have been hiding? They will not-" "Shh... you''re too loud and annoying." Arnold threw a giant ball of mud at her face, "Also you seem to be getting something wrong." Arnold stepped out of the shield generated by the sapling and stood right in front of Typhoon, "The shield is not there to protect them from you but from me. It would take at least a decade before someone like you would be able to break the shield. But if went all-out it would only take a fraction of a second." "You insolent-" Typhoon wanted to say something more but was once again interrupted. But this time it wasn''t Arnold, but the sky... it had turned jet ck as if darkness itself had engulfed everything. It was still daytime but the darkness would have fooled everyone into thinking it was midnight. "Where''s the sun?" That was the only thought that came into the minds of everyone. Even Arnold was a bit perplexed at first but then he realised what was happening. "Those fcking Asgardians..." Arnold gritted his teeth. The sun had disappeared, so it was obvious the same had happened with the moon as well. Their disappearance signalled towards one thing and sure enough, within moments Bifrost''s beam graced the earth with its presence. All of the Asgardians were on the battlefield... to face Ragnarok, to face their end. But they weren''t the only ones who arrived there. The remnants of Olympus, under Hera''smand, arrived there to back Arnold up ording to their agreement. However, their arrival only seemed to piss him even more. He had told those fckers to protect the sun and moon from falling into the hands of Loki and Zeus, and they couldn''t even do that. There was a link between the sun and moon and the beginning of Ragnarok. They didn''t simply act as a source of light and warmth on earth, they also kept several monsters at bay. Monster''s like Loki''s rowdy children. Amongst which Jormungandr was someone whom no god wanted to stand up against other than the Norse goddesses of Sun and moon. With the sisters gone, Jormungandr was free to makendfall and covered the world in his deadly poison. Arnold turned towards the fire giants as apart from his summons, they were the only ones who could have survived the Jormungandr''s poison by burning it all away. Using his ability as a god, Arnoldmanded his forces all around the world and instructed them to do whatever they could to stop the poison from spreading everywhere. "Looks like you''re at your wit''s end, human." Typhoon smiled, but that turned out to be her worst mistake. The following moment ancient nordic runes appeared all over his armour. At the same time, the darkened skies above them got covered with even darker clouds. Soon thundering could be heard everywhere. The dragons who had been fighting amongst themselves were forced to stop as Arnold''s armour started glowing brighter and brighter. Lightning soon began coursing through his veins. But it wasn''t the only thing that was happening... soon the clouds turned into a deep crimson shade. As if someone had just drenched the clouds in blood. "Hide..." Arnold mumbled to the ones on his side, gods, summons and humans alike. That warning was enough to make all of them take shelter inside the sapling''s protection. Forget about humans, even gods were shocked to see what happened next. Hundreds of thousands of lightning bolts struck the dragons at once. But these lightning bolts were blue or white as the gods had seen Zeus and Thor use. They were red, just like the clouds above them. Within a matter of seconds, the entire army of dragons was obliterated, with pieces of their seared flesh falling all over thend. Not a single dragon could be seen in the air by the time the lightning strikes came to an end. "Holy hell..." Odin mumbled as soon as he saw the strikes. It wasn''t his first time seeing such a sh of bloody lightning in his life. He had seen someone else control lighting like that before... someone who was absent from the battlefield for now. "It''s just like-" Freya turned towards Odin to confirm her suspicions. "Shiva. I know." "Talos, Yan, Anubis, get to work!" Arnold yelled at them before rushing for the dead Typhoon. She had something he need for his armour. "Yes, master!" The trio immediately got to work and started resurrecting the dead dragons. Arnold did not want to show it to anyone but using the ability had caused him to lose quite a bit of his health. The Blood drenched lightning was a powerful attack, but it also consumed the user''s HP instead of mana. Arnold learned the ability while he was fusing Mjolnir with his armour. However, he did not expect the skill to have such a huge drawback. The longer he would have used the ability, the more Hp he would have lost. Even though he had only activated the ability for 20 seconds, he had already lost a little over 20% of his HP. However, there was a way he could have reduced the bacsh of this skill. And right now he was looking for it. Typhoon''s heart.. Well, technically he needed a Dragon queen''s heart but since Tiamut didn''t have one and Killing Scy was out of the question, looking for Typhoon''s heart was his best bet. Chapter 547 - Fall Of The Earth (2) The Dragon queen''s heart... it was a fabled treasure that even the gods desired to possess. But none of them had the might to even try to get their hands on one. None except one, and he was least interested in obtaining more power than he already had. As a result, the effect of consuming or transnting the dragon queen''s heart was shrouded in mystery. However, there was not a single thing the fragments of the system Arnold had, could not tell him. Still, all the fragments could tell him was that one who got the heart transnted into them would gain powers like no one had ever seen. That is if they were able to survive. ording to the fragments, the power of a dragon queen resided inside her heart, unlike the other dragons who did not have one concentrated power source. That''s why transnting the heart into someone else''s body was more or less equivalent to iming their powers for themselves. Such an abrupt surge of power could have driven even the calmest and mightiest gods to lose their sanity. As for Arnold who wasn''t even a full-fledged god yet the bacsh to transnting such a heart for himself would have been catastrophic. There was an 80% chance he would die during the process of transnting. Another 10% chance that the operation would fail and he would be left crippled. 4% chance that he won''t be able to adapt to the power of the dragon itself. 5% chance that he would go insane... As for the remaining 1%, in the event the operation would be sessful, he would transcend any gods who could rival him. Possibly even Shiva. Arnold had known about the secret of the dragon heart for a while now. He had gotten to know about the heart when he was looking for ways to increase his universal influence and primal power exponentially. However, given the risks and the problems he would have to face to obtain the heart in the first ce, he decide to take the safe and slow path. That was until Ragnarok became a reality. He knew it was going to be a matter of time when Zeus and Loki would show up on earth as well and well, destroy everything in their wake. Just handling the dragons caused some irreparable strain on his body. Thus, no matter how strong he believed himself to be, he would not be able to take all of the demons and gods by himself. Even his army of fire giants, dragons and other summons, might not be enough. Thus he needed to act fast and get strong as soon as he possibly could. Even if it meant risking himself getting killed in the process. After all, if he failed to subdue his enemies without the heart, he was going to die either way. Therefore, in Arnold''s eyes, it was better if he died trying rather than by not doing anything. The higher the prize, the higher was going to be the risk. In the end, he decided to trust his legendary cheat of luck onest time. [Dragon Queen''s heart located.] After spending minutes running like a mad man in a field littered with the burnt corpses of dragons, Arnold finally saw the majestic bluish-white scale of Typhoon. Judging by the condition the corpse was in, it was evident it had taken a lot of lightning bolts for her to die. Unlike the rest of the dragons who were swatted down like flies. Without wasting another moment Arnold quickly teleported the corpse inside his domain. His domain was the safest ce for him to get operated in. Also, since the time flowed ording to his will inside the domain, he could literally take forever to get operated on and not much time would pass in the outside world. Next, he opened up a portal next to Natasha, Alice, Dani, Tiamut and everyone he needed to get operated on. Except Talos, Anubis and Yan. It would take at least a couple of hours for the three of them to raise the undead dragons to help protect and defend the humans against the inevitable dangers. Arnold was hoping to dy Zeus and Loki for as long as he could in hope of getting back on the battlefield better and stronger than all of those dastardly godsbined. However, it seemed like the Asgardians had a different n. Having the fire giants with him already made Arnold quite a force to be reckoned with. With the addition of dragons and the dragon queen''s heart to the mix, he was brewing a recipe for disaster. They could not allow that to happen. As much as Arnold bing unstoppable would help them ensure their victory against the foes, Arnold would inevitably be a source of constant headache for them. After all, he would be unstoppable. But since they were tied with Odin''s oath of non-violence, they couldn''t directly harm him. As a result, they decided to do what they had done before ad tried instigating the crowd against him. However, as things stood, humanities faith in Arnold and his summons was much stronger than anything they had ever seen before. He wasn''t even a god and yet the humans preached him like he was the greatest being they had ever seen and touched. The humans finally made the gods understand one thing. Arnold didn''t need to have the dragon or the dragon heart to be unstoppable, because he already was. Still, Baldr was thinking about doing something extremely stupid. He was nning on kidnaping the woman Arnold was close to and using her as a bargaining chip. However, before he could have done anything he was immediately hit by the back of Odin''s spear. "How foolish can you be, my son." Odin shook his head, "Deathless is doing all this just because he lost his sister. Do you really think it is a good idea to put out hands on the woman he loves?" "Then what can we do? He will kill us all after the battle is over either way!" Baldr yelled back at his father. "We''ll see what happens when it happens. Till then we only have one goal... to defeat Zeus and Loki. Remember that." Baldr gritted his teeth in a mixture of annoyance and anger. But he knew his father was speaking the truth. Instigating Deathless wasn''t something they could afford at the moment.. They''ll have to wait and see how things panned out. Chapter 548 - Fall Of The Earth (3) Chapter 548 ¨C Fall Of The Earth (3) Meanwhile, inside the domain, all preparations for the operation had beenpleted. However, the summons were still having doubts about it. They get why Arnold was taking such a dangerous step, still, they couldn''t help but feel useless. If only they had been stronger, their master would not have needed to risk his life to ensure the safety of the. They would have been able to do it by themselves. However, that was not the case anymore. "Get yourselves together." Tiamut yelled at Alice, Natasha and Dani to make them snap out of their dreams, "It wouldn''t help us if we keep thinking about what could or could not have been. We have to do what we can right now, is that clear?" All of them nodded their heads. Thinking about what-ifs wasn''t going to make the operation any easier. Right now, all of their attention should be on making the operation a sess and that too as quickly as possible. "There''s no need to haste," Suddenly they heard Arnold''s voice as he walked into the makeshift operation theatre, "I have manipted the time inside the domain so that it flows ten times faster than outside. Take as much time as you need. But make sure I can at least fight through the hordes of monsters and gods before copsing." While they were preparing for the operation, Arnold had left to retrieve the dragon heart from Typhoon''s corpse. After all, it was the most needed ingredient for the sess of the operation. Saying so, heid naked on the operating table. The girls knew it was time to be serious, but upon seeing Arnold naked, they couldn''t help but thoroughly nce at his body. "Ladies, as much as I feel good that you all are interested in my body, I would appreciate it if you could hurry up." Arnold shook his head, "Also, Natasha stop leaking your aura absentmindedly. You''re making all of them think things, they probably shouldn''t." "R-Right!" "Also, no need to knock me out. I can take the pain, remember. Besides, I would be able to give you feedback on how I feel through the operation." With that Arnold took the dragon heart out of his inventory and handed it to Alice. The heart was even more peculiar than she had imagined. Since it was a heart that would have supported the huge body of a dragon, she thought it would be much bigger as well. However, the heart was even smaller than a human''s. Also, it wasn''t made of flesh, but solid ck crystal. In fact, it looked more like a big ck beast crystal than anything else. Alice turned towards Tiamut and she nodded. The thing she held in her hands was indeed a dragon queen''s heart, or precisely, the source of their power. "Let''s start¡­" Tiamut mumbled as she ripped open Arnold''s chest. Usually, this shouldn''t have been possible, but since Arnold had lowered his defences, Tiamut was able to do it rather effortlessly. This was another reason why Arnold decided to do the operation in the safest ce he was aware of. After all, if his enemies would have seen him in such a state they wouldn''t have stopped at anything before they could take advantage of his weakened condition. "ce the crystal right above his heart." Tiamut instructed Alice and she did so. Even though Tiamut did not have any knowledge about operating on humans, she was still the in-charge of the operation because well, she was the only one who could have handled transnting the dragon''s heart into a human''s body. "Yes, now we¡­" It felt a bit strange to Arnold. Even though he couldn''t feel any pain, seeing his insides was a bit disturbing. However, he easily averted his attention by thinking about what was going on the outside. ''I have left all of my forces for Talos tomand. On top of that, we have an army of dragons on our side. Things¡­ should be fine.'' All of a sudden, Arnold''s consciousness started slipping away. Well, not exactly. It was more like he was standing inside his conscious mind. However, he wasn''t alone. There was someone else along with him. "I don''t remember giving you permission to invade my mind, you sly lizard." Arnold smiled, "Come out now. There''s no point in hiding anymore." "You have some audacity¡­ human." Typhoon manifested herself in front of him, "You ripped my heart out of my body and still you try to act all surprised when I appear inside your head?" "Cut the crap," Arnold rebuked the dragon, "You hoping to take control of my body while I was vulnerable, weren''t you?" "¡­" "Looks like I was right. Well, too bad for you, I already saw what you would do using my foresight." Arnold smiled as his armour and weapon manifested on him, "In fact, I have already seen how all of this would go down. You, Lucifer, Zeus, Loki and all yourckeys¡­ I have seen the end of all of you." "Don''t be so cocky human! The future-" "Can change. Nobody knows it better than I do. But believe me when I say¡­ none of it matters." Arnold interrupted Typhoon and charged at her, "Because I will still destroy all of you one way or the other." Even though the battle between Typhoon and Arnold was happening inside his head, it was very much real. As Typhoon''s heart would start assimting within his body, the power of the Typhoon in his head would grow more and more. Arnold had to force the dragon into submission before both of their hearts became one. Or else, Typhoon would start interfering with his ns with whatever little influence she would have over his mind. Arnold could not let that happen, no matter the cost. Domination. Utter domination. That''s what Arnold needed at the moment. Thankfully, he knew exactly what he had to do. He had already defeated the dragon once and he could do it again. Chapter 549 - Fall Of The Earth (4) Chapter 549 ¨C Fall Of The Earth (4) "I''m the one destined to defeat Zeus, and you think you, a half-god, can defeat me?" Typhoon screamed at the top of her lungs before shing her ws at Arnold. "Oh, is that so?" Arnold smiled and grabbed her ws with ease, "I just wanna know¡­ who the fck asked?" Saying so, he collected all of his strength, lifted the dragon over his shoulder and mmed her down on the ground. Physically, doing something like that would have been impossible for him in the real world. But since they were fighting inside his mind, there was little to nothing impossible for him. Typhoon was boasting about her destiny as if it was ever going toe true now that she was dead. Well, there was a way her wish coulde true. Once she became a part of his heart, and he defeated Zeus, then it would mean that she defeated Zeus and fulfilled her destiny. Or it could mean she was sessful in dominating him and took control of his body and then, defeated Zeus. But this scenario was highly unlikely because, well, he wouldn''t let her take control over his body. Arnold also tried to reason with her, but the dragon bitch being the proud piece of shit she was, couldn''t ept working under a ''lowly'' human. It was funny how she was adamant about looking down on him, even though he singlehandedly obliterated her entire race as if it was child''s y. ''Technically, it was child''s y.'' He thought as a smile appeared on his face. It had been a long time since Arnold had enjoyed himself. Well, technically since the day he lost Nicole. But after all the time that had passed, he was finally able to be himself. He was finally able to be who he was supposed to be, a warmonger. he had been fighting stronger enemies one after another for so long, that it had almost be a part of his routine to achieve the impossible and set out again to repeat the same thing over and over again. If someone were to go back in time roughly about 10-15 years and told him he would be fighting dragons, demons and gods to ensure the survival of the world and his sister, he would haveughed at their faces. Yet here was, doing the exact same thing and loving every freaking second of it. "Why¡­ why¡­ WHY!!!" Typhoon officially lost her mind. She thought taking over a human''s body would be a piece of cake. Especially if the human was unconscious while drunk in the hopes of obtaining the dragon queen''s powers. Then she would have been able to dominate Zeus and Loki into submission. That was her entire n¡­ to stab the backstabbers in the back. However, her dreams got shattered the moment the first roadblock appeared in the path of her victory. A roadblock in the shame of a human. The worst part? She couldn''t have done jackshit as she got tossed around and yed with continuously. *** Meanwhile, outside the realm of Arnold''s conscience, his summons were struggling to keep him alive. As the two hearts began fusing to be one, his human heart stopped beating. It sent all of them in a frenzy. They were worried that Arnold''s luck had betrayed him. They were on the verge of losing him when a shing out of their master''s body blinded them, followed by a whish that threw them all away. Arnold hadn''t moved from his spot, yet his body was defending himself. Just like ones'' immune system kicked in in a time of need, Arnold''s body was trying to fix itself up as his open chest started to seal itself. "Take the heart out!" Alice yelled at the top of her lungs. She had been wanting to say that ever since Arnold lost his conscience. But as Tiamut was leading them, she could have freely expressed her emotions. However, if she didn''t speak up now, Arnold would have most definitely lost his life. Even though she didn''t know anything about how a dragon''s heart worked, she could still tell that the dragon''s heart was trying to overpower his human heart. If the hearts got sealed together in such a state, they would most definitely lose Arnold. Natasha felt the same, and upon hearing Alice''s words, rushed in to pull the heart out. she had barely wrapped her hands around the crystal next to Arnold''s heart when Tiamut pushed her away. "The hell do you think you''re doing?" Tiamut revealed her ws and stood in between Arnold and the rest of them, "If you interfere with the merging now, the master''s blood would be on your hands! So back off-" "Fck you! Can''t you see he is already dying!?" Natasha yelled back at Tiamut, "If we let this continue, he would end up killing himself! I don''t know about what you want, but I certainly don''t want that to happen." "I''m telling you¡­ everything is going ording to-" Tiamut tried to reason with her but Alice jumped in on the conversation. "ording to n? Arnold dying is ording to n?" Alice then turned towards Natasha, "We have to take her down first. Dani, you help us out too!" "M-Me? The heck do you want me to d-do?" Dani stuttered. She always had trouble understanding things especially in high-stress situations like these. "We''re in the forge! Call your metal golems for fuck''s sake!" Natasha yelled at her before readying herself to battle. Alice couldn''t fight against Tiamut. Not by a long shot. As for Dani, it would take some time for her to assemble the golems. That left her to take it upon herself to fight against Tiamut. Well, at least she thought it was going to be a fight and not a massacre. "You think just bybining your strengths you''ll be able to stop me?" Tiamut banged her fists together and got ready for the fight that was ahead of her. She lunged towards Natasha, but before her fist could touch Natasha''s skill, something stopped her. "Why the hell are you morons making so much noise?" Arnold was standing in between them, countering both of their attacks simultaneously, "I go for a nap and all hell breaks loose." Chapter 550 - Fall Of The Earth (5) Chapter 550 ¨C Fall Of The Earth (5) "We are supposed to be fighting off the threats, not each other." Arnold scolded all of them, "Why the hell were you fighting for either way?" "You were dying!" Alice eximed but her voice broke before she couldplete what she was saying. "The dragon heart was consuming you so we got worried-" Natasha chimed in. Arnold had never seen the two of them get so emotional before. He didn''t know why, but it kind of made him happy to think his summons still worried about his well-being so much. He ced his hands on their heads like he used to do with Nicole whenever she worried about him. "Thanks for caring about me." He smiled, "But you should not fight amongst each other. Especially during times like these." Both of them nodded as they did, the walls of the forge exploded and in walked Dani with hundreds of metallic golems by her side. "Natasha! I brought them as you requested¡­" Dani proudly eximed until she saw Arnold standing there, "Why the hell is my timing so off all the time!!!" "Your timing couldn''t have been more on point, Dani." Arnold flexed his neck as his armour materialised over him, "Let''s head back, shall we?" *** During that time, on the outside¡­ The disappearance of the sun and moon had many side effects, which had been previously ignored. The darkness slowly started driving the low ranked humans crazy. As if the darkness itself was an entity hell-bent on swallowing the sanity of as many people as it could. People slowly started turning against each other, order was slowly turning into uncontroble chaos. But these were only the psychological effects that apanied the endless darkness. Without the sunlight, there was no reliable source to heat up the. As a result, the temperature of the slowly started to go down. However, thanks to Arnold''s fire giants, things were still under control. Still, as the war progressed, the number of fire giants would inevitably go down. With it, the temperature would as well. In other words, the longer the battle was drawn out, the higher were the chances of earth going into yet another ice age. Only this time, the humans would not be able to survive, even with their superhuman abilities. ''We have to find out who is the one responsible for this global ckout and get rid of them.'' Talos thought, ''We have to get rid of at least them, even if we cannot defeat the whole armada.'' "Talos, you worry too much." Hercules patted the automaton on the back, "Do you think the one controlling the darkness would ever appear on the frontlines?" "I didn''t know you could read my thoughts." "I can''t." Hercules shrugged his shoulders, "But right now, all of us are thinking the same thing. So, it was obvious." "So what do you suggest we do?" For the first time, Talos was interested in what Hercules had to say. After all, most of the time he did not say anything worth his time. "Let me go talk to some first." Saying so, Hercules headed off to where the Olympians were holding position. Talos didn''t know what Hercules was nning to do, but at least he was trying to do something. Unlike him, who was simply standing there. However, he wouldn''t be doing nothing for long. The dragons might have been defeated, but they weren''t the only threats there either. Momentster, another set of portals opened up and this time, the number of enemies overshadowed the force Arnold had left behind to protect the humans. It was as if the doors leading to hell had opened themselves as nightmarish creatures walked out of the portal. Creatures that none of them had ever seen before. None of them, but the ones who had apanied Arnold during his numerous fights with Lucifer''s doppelgangers. "Just like Master had predicted," Talos mumbled to himself and got ready to face off against the creatures of hell. But the surprises were still toe. The portals were still active even after the demons had walked out. Which meant something even more sinister wasing their way, and it did, in the form of Fenrir. Loki''s son had allied himself with Lucifer, than his own father. Simply because he knew trusting his father was like biting his own ass. It was better to trust someone evil, but honourable like Lucifer. Even though he was helping Loki out, Fenrir knew it very well that Lucifer''s n was to use this war as an opportunity to get rid of the gods altogether and rule over the universe himself. As far as the things Fenrir was concerned about, his father''s safety was not one of them. He could die for all he cared, after all, despite being his father, he had betrayed him previously and so he could do it again and Fenrir was not about to take that risk. "Woah¡­ I never thought the dragons would be taken down so easily." An ashen Lucifer mumbled when he saw the undead dragons flying in the sky, "This is going to be a lot more fun than I expected." The fire giants, dragons, god, and humans. Who would have thought someone would be able to unite these entric species to fight as one? Lucifer sure didn''t. He would have even said just thinking about the existence of such an absurd alliance wasughable. But now that he was seeing it happen with his own eyes, he wasn''t sure what was possible and was not. "The more I get to know about him, the more interesting this Deathless guy seems to be." Lucifer shrugged, "Too bad I will have to kill him. Wait¡­ maybe I can kill him and then resurrect him as my personal ve. It''s been a while since I had some fun with a boy." Everyone around Lucifer could say that he was fanboying Arnold but they were also aware that telling him that on his face would be like embracing death with open arms. Chapter 551 - Fall Of The Earth (6) Chapter 551 ¨C Fall Of The Earth (6) "Now where is he?" Lucifer scanned the destroyed battlefield but could not sense Arnold anywhere, "He''s not someone who''d run away from a challenge¡­ is he?" "No, he''s not." Talos replied to the fallen angel before standing right in front of his army of hell, "But he isn''t someone who would mingle with filth like you either." "Oh¡­ it seems I''ll have to train his pets for him." Lucifer had a weird sadistic smile on his face, "Then, maybe I''ll train him too. That is after I defeat him." "Hey there Luci boy, long time no see!" Hercules rushed in and joined Talos with Apollo by his side, "As for the question of you defeating the master is concerned, you are a thousand years too early for that. Try to get past us first, then maybe you''ll be able to stand for a minute against him." Hearing Hercule''s words made Lucifer enraged. A fcking demigod had the audacity to mock him as if he was a whore? Not even Hercule''s father had been such a big fool to mock him, the king of the demons! But the mockery had just begun, for it was Apollo''s turn to confront Lucifer. With his ming hair and radiance of the sun, Apollo''s presence on the battlefield cleared up the darkness looming over the. That was the reason Hercules left Talos to go and check-in with the remnants of Olympus who were still willing to fight for humanity''s survival. After all, Asgardians weren''t the only ones having their own sun and moon deities. For now, the Greeks would take control over the skies till the sun and the moon goddesses could get resurrected again. "I don''t know why you think going against our godly alliance would do you any good, Lucifer." Apollo shrugged his shoulders before jumping off his grand chariot, "Look around yourself, that man took down all of the dragons by himself without breaking a sweat, and you think your puny demons can do anything to harm such a person?" It might seem like Apollo was trying to reason with the fallen angel when in reality he was just mocking him for having even lower intelligence than Hercules. No offence to Olympus''s champion though. He had his strength but¡­ everyone knew Hercules'' top floor was more or less empty. By this time, Lucifer really got pissed. The dragons might have been stronger than the demons, but their unity wasughable. After all, the only reason Arnold was able to defeat them was that he made it so they ended up fighting within themselves. Then used that opportunity to kill them! Demons were not such big fools. They might have been weaker than most dragons in terms of strength, but their unity and loyalty to their king were unconquerable¡­ however, that was only till portal opened up next to Talos, and out of it came Natasha, who herself was the demon queen of lust. As soon as she appeared on the battlefield, the lower-ranking demons immediately lost theirposure. How could they not? Most of them praised her as their goddess and seeing her in flesh made them feel as if there was nothing more they needed to do but to sumb to her lust and die. However, she did not appear there alone. Alice, Tiamut, and Dani followed her along with thousands of Adamantine golems. It seemed as if Arnold had pulled all the stops now and was bringing everything he could right on the table. Hell, if these bastards wanted to rule over his and kill the people he cared about, then they would have to go through a gruelling battle first. A battle even the gods would not survive, let alone these demons. However, there was something more¡­ "What is this pressure I''m feeling¡­" Lucifer couldn''t help but feel overwhelmed as thest participant of the battle walked through the portal. However, he wasn''t the only one who felt that way. All of the gods, dragons, demons, giants and humans alike felt an insane amount of aura as a man walked through the portal. It was something none of them had ever felt before, and those who had, they had forgotten it long ago. At the moment, the person in front of them wasn''t a human or a half-god. But someone who had far exceeded the realm of godhood. He was a man they couldn''t help but bow down to. It didn''t matter whether they were his enemies orrades, they couldn''t help but feel a sense of looming fear over their heads. It was as if they had been forced to put their head on the line while a guillotine de was being prepared to slice their heads off. As for the gods, most of them felt such an aura for the first time, except Hera and Odin, both of whom had seen one god having such a legendary aura around him. It was none other than Shiva. "Such¡­ intensity!" Hera barely managed to squeak out while Odin was stunned into silence before realising what had happened. ''Hw must have been sessful in fusing his heart with Typhoon''s¡­'' He thought before tapping on Baldr''s shoulder, "If you manage to survive the war, then be sure to beg for your life to the supreme being." Baldr, who would have usually thrown a fit after hearing his father''s words, could not help but nod vigorously while gulping down his saliva. Handling Arnold before would have been a difficult task, but doing so now was impossible. No matter how many gods, demons or dragons, Zeus and Loki would have made on their side, there was no way they would be able to defeat Arnold as he was now. The only one who would even have a chance against him would have been Shiva himself and no one else. However, Lucifer seemed to still be in denial. Being one of the primordial beings, he knew very well what Arnold had done. As a result, he was also aware of how fcked up he and his demons were now. "Don''t think we are going to-" Lucifer began mumbling but Arnold looked at him and gestured him to shut up. "I hate when mosquitoes keep humming in my ears," Arnold mumbled and opened his eyes, which had turned golden, "It''ll be better if you shut your damn trap and call those bastards Zeus and Loki here.. Maybe then, I''ll spare your life." Chapter 552 Fall Of The Earth (7) ''Spare my life?'' Lucifer kept repeating those words inside his head. It was the first time he had been disrespected in such a manner. The continuous disrespect was making him lose his crap. But deep down he knew that Arnold had the strength to do exactly what he said he would.? he and his demons joined Loki and Zeus thinking they would be able to defeat the humans and take over the for themselves. But not, Lucifer realised it wasn''t going to be as easy as he had imagined. Arnold was now in a different league, one which no god had been able to achieve in recent years. The only one who could still probably challenge him was Shiva, but why would he challenge his own vassal? They were fcked. At that moment, Lucifer''s attention immediately shifted from conquering the to saving his kind.? "I don''t have much time. Make whatever decision you have to, your survival or Loki and Zeus?" Arnold gave the fallen angel onest chance to spare his life. Well, at least he showed that he would spare their lives. But in reality, Arnold had no such intentions. He had already made up his mind to kill everyone who dared to stand up against him and thanks to Typhoon''s heart, he could do just that. At least that''s what he had learned after extensively using foresight for hours.? Still, he had seen several oues of their battle and in only one of them was he able to achieve all of his goals. One among a million oues. He won the battle in several of them, but his goal of reviving Nicole only became reality in one of them... and that path was the most bloody one. One wrong step on that path could lead to the destruction of the entire.? On top of that, he could not even tell anyone about the oues he had seen because, well, that would change the future drastically. How did he know that? Well, because he had seen such a future while he was busy fighting Typhoon inside his consciousness.? ''They should appear right about now...'' Arnold thought and just as he did, thest of the portals opened up and every god''s and human''s nightmares walked out of them.? H was there with all of her undead armies, along with Surtr... who too had been converted into an undead. But monsters kepting out of the portal until Zeus and Loki walked out. Wearing their godly armour along with... Fenrir and Jormungandr, the legendary serpent son of Loki. In the middle of them all, a person was standing. The person whom Arnold once referred to as his brother. The person who brought him into the ck family and once was the bestrade Arnold could have ever asked to have his back. But the next moment, all those memories were reced by a singr memory... the memory of the man ripping Nicole''s heart out, killing her in an instant. He wasn''t the only one who was overwhelmed by such emotions.? Nina could not help but feel enraged and emotional at the same time. Johnny was once her mentor too, but now he was nothing more than an enemy. It pained her heart but she knew Arnold would have been in more pain than she was. It was time for the final battle tomence, and Arnold would need to help of those currently being protected by the sapling.? "Let''s back him up!" Nina roared and was about to walk out of the protective area when Arnold raised his hand in the air, signalling them to stop.? If any human walked out of the protective zone, they will be killed instantly. No one would attack them but they will still die. How? Because of Jormungandr''s poison. The serpent was unlike anything the world had ever seen.? Jormungandr had been cursed from the moment he was born. A curse to kill anyone who got close to him. Well, not precisely as through millennia he learned to control the poison leaking from his skin in such a manner that it would only harm the ones he wanted to. As a result, he could essentially grant immunity from his poison to those he wanted to, like his father and his allies.? As for the other gods on the battlefield, although they were affected by the poison, the poison could not harm them indefinitely as they had built a resistance from poison when they first encountered the most lethal poison in the whole universe.? The same poison which Shiva had to swallow in order to protect the gods all those years ago. However, being exposed torge amounts of poison for longer periods of time would eventually make them weak. As a result, they would either die at the hands of their enemies in their weakened state or would die simply from consuming too much poison. After all, no matter how resistant they were to poison, at the end of the day, it was just that... a resistance and not immunity.? The only one who had everpletely been immune to poison was Shiva because he already had too much poison in his body, poison did not work on him anymore. As for the humans, well, just taking a whiff of the poison would kill them before they could even process anything.? "No matter what, none of you should walk out of there." Arnold instructed Nina and the rest of them while he got inside his armour, "As for the rest of you ''gods'', the moment the moment the poison starts spreading within your body, go inside the barrier and stay there till you get healed up." Arnold further stated, "It''s just a suggestion. Obeying it or not ispletely your choice." "What about you?" Apollo asked him, "Your summons are immune to poison because they are undead. You on the other hand-" "I, on the other hand, can fall to the poison, is that what you are saying?" Arnold interrupted him without even turning to look at him, "If I start worrying about the little things, who will save humanity? You gods won''t, would you?" Chapter 553 Fall Of The Earth (8) Apollo had no answer for Arnold''s question. After all, all this mess was caused by the gods themselves and now humanity was paying the price for it. Just for the sake of entertainment, these fcking gods had done more than enough damage to the world, but Arnold will not allow it to happen anymore.? But to do that, he first needed to take down the serpent or else no one would be safe around the world. However, it seemed Loki, Zeus and Johnny were already on to what he was thinking because they jumped in front of Jormungandr to protect him from Arnold. Now to mention, Fenrir was there as well. Fenrir was the first one to make a move, however, the moment he jumped at Arnold he got flung sideways. It wasn''t Arnold who did it but to everyone''s surprise, it was Baldr and Odin! It would appear they wanted to be on good terms with Arnold now that he had crossed over and achieved the state of omnipotence. They had to redeem themselves for crossing his path but that wasn''t the only reason for their preemptive strike.? They wanted to fulfil the future they had been preparing for billions of years. The future where most of them lost their lives trying to protect humanity for once.? "You fcking dog think I''ll let you go after what you did to my brothers?" Baldr roared in rage while Odin charged behind him on his heavenly steed. "Don''t get carried away, Baldr. Fenrir is someone destined to kill me." Odin''s voice was all serious but he had a smile on his face almost as if he was looking forward to dying.? Arnold spared a look at them as they rushed to the other side of the battlefield, before turning back towards the rest of his enemies. He might have been omnipotent, but taking on all of them by himself was nothing less than suicide... still he would have been able to take all of them down so there was that.? He looked around him and found all of the summons were attentively looking at him. Without a tinge of fear in their eyes. They were itching for the final battle just as much as he was. But unlike them... he knew another battle was awaiting him if he manages to defeat Loki and Zeus.? ''There''s no point thinking about that now.'' Arnold flexed his neck before charging straight into Zeus.? The way hepletely ignored Johnny baffled Loki. He was sure Arnold would lose his cool the moment he saw Johnny and would do something irrational. But Arnold didn''t do that and went to get Zeus instead. Even Zeus was taken by surprise but managed to summon his lightning bolt to assist him. He bombarded Arnold with everything he had in his arsenal, the entire world shook under the might of his powerful attacks. The ground split apart and oceans began consuming thend. Thunderous clouds covered the entire world as everyone went rampant thinking it was the beginning of the end. Which in a way, it was.? Zeus managed to take millions of lives all around the globe, including his own army, with the intention to kill only one. However, as everything slowly began to settle down... his face was met with a punch and he was flung into the sky.? After everything Zeus did, there wasn''t a single scratch on his armour. The next moment, Arnold squatted on the ground and jumped with all his might. The ground shattered under his feet as he raced behind Zeus. The god of lightning was waiting for him on top of the clouds. But waiting was all he could do as Arnold was not nning to hold back and drag the fight more than it was necessary.? Zeus rushed in to punch him, but although the punch connected, it didn''t even make Arnold flinch a bit.? "That damned dragon heart!" Zeus yelled in frustration and began relentlessly pounding Arnold left and right. Each of his blows was equivalent to thousands of nuclear bombs exploding simultaneously.? Yet, by looking at Arnold, it would appear that he was ying wrestling with a kid as he kept walking towards Zeus. In a couple of seconds, Arnold grabbed Zeus by his neck and punched him right in the guts.? "You seriously think I transnted the dragon heart in me for the likes of you?" Zeus couldn''t see Arnold''s face, but he knew the bastard was smiling underneath his helmet. But more than focusing on what he couldn''t see, the thing Arnold had just said got stuck to him.? ''Not for us? Then for whom?'' Zeus thought with a surprised look as blood gushed out of his mouth. "Sure it would have taken some time, but I could have defeated you and your pesky army sooner orter. But I had to prepare for what was toe next." Arnold whispered in his ears before he began hammering Zeus instead.? Unlike Zeus, Arnold''s blows were much stronger and seemed to suck out Zeus''s life force with every punch. Soon, Zeus lost too much blood to keep himself floating in the skies and rapidly fell down. Still, Arnold wasn''t done and kept pounding Zeus with his fists till they collided with the ground below them. Back in Los Angeles, Arnold''s army was busy fighting Loki''s. In Arnold''s absence, Talos took the reins of his army while he himself engaged with Loki. However, it wasn''t easy. Talos had the strength to defeat Loki, but Loki was the most cunning bastard Talos had ever seen.? On top of that, his mastery over the illusion of all sorts made it even more difficult for Talos to fight him. At the same time, Hercules was fighting Johnny while Anubis and Yan together were busy taking care of Loki''s undead army. As for Jormungandr, Tiamut and Scy were actively showing why they were the rulers of the dragons.? The humans did not back away either. Although they could not actively participate in the war, they were helping the gods by healing them when they got overwhelmed with the serpent''s poison.? Chapter 554 A Friends Hand Zeus was getting thrashed as he had never been before. Well, actually it was his second time in all the lives he had spent when he was being toyed with like this. Although the gods had their hands filled with taking care of the undead and Loki''s illusions, none of them could keep their eyes away from the part where Arnold was literally manhandling the former king of Olympus.? Zeus was getting more and more desperate as seconds turned into minutes as Arnold kept beating the living crap out of him. No matter what he tried, he could not put a dent on Arnold''s armour, let alone harm him.? "Why is this happening!?" Zeus roared in rage as bolts of lightning kept colliding with Arnold''s armour, only to get absorbed by it, "That bastard Thor was able to put you in a desperate situation, yet why can''t I do the same!?" Arnold didn''t respond and wrapped his hands around Zeus'' neck, putting him in a chokehold... Slowly squeezing his life out of him. By this time, it was clear that Arnold was simply toying with Zeus, after all, Zeus'' strongest weapon had proven to be useless against Arnold and without that, there was nothing the greek god could have done to him.? In midst of fighting against Fenrir, Baldr was suddenly hit with a realisation. As far as he knew, only one thing could have nullified the effect of Zeus'' lightning bolts... Uru metal. During the fight between Thor and Arnold, Arnold was able to shatter huge chunks out of the majestic hammer.? Although heter repaired the hammer, there was no way a creationist like Arnold would have been able to resist the urge of using the rare material. Which meant... Arnold''s armour was not only made of Adamantine but also contained Uru metal that was responsible for the absorption of Zeus'' lighting bolts.? "Did he-"? "Took you long enough to guess." Odin smiled at his son, "Although that metal wasn''t meant to be harnessed by a human, I guess someone like Arnold can put it to much better use than Thor. Enough gawking at him, we have our own troubles to deal with." In front of them, Fenrir was growling as blood dripped between his canines, and no, that wasn''t his blood but the blood of Odin''s steed whom the wolf had killed. He had already fought with the All-father once before and knew it very well as long as Odin had his steed, he was damn near invincible.? So, he dealt with the horse first... just like it was said in the prophecy. But there were errors. By now ording to the prophecy, Odin was supposed to call forth the warriors from Valha, but that was no longer a possibility. He had already used them during the battle of Muspelheim.? After skipping that step... there was only one thing remaining for him. That was to perish by the jaws of the wolf. But Odin wasn''t gonna make it easy for Fenrir just because the prophecy mentioned so. Horse or no horse, he was still the All-father for fuck''s sake. If he had to inevitably go down, he was taking the damned wolf with him. But the next moment it did not seem to be possible.? A couple of moments passed and Fenrir began to grow bigger and bigger. His presence was already monumental on the battlefield, but now it had be insurmountable. It wasn''t anything like Odin had felt before.? "Once a puny god, always a puny god..." Fenrir snarled with a smile on his face. He stopped growing in size when he was about the size of his brother Jormungandr, "What are you going to do now, All-father?" "I have in countless giants in my lifetime pup." Odin quickly regained hisposure, "And today, I''ll add another one on the list." Although Odin sounded confident in his abilities, he was sweating buckets. Not because he was scared of the wolf, far from it. It was just that Jormungandr''s poison was finally getting to him. It had severely weakened his reflexes and that was part of the reason why his steed fell in battle.? If only someone could have taken care of the serpent, things would have been much easier. For a moment, Odin contemted the possibility of momentarily leaving the battlefield and healing up. But he knew if he backed out now not only would he endanger the humans there but also deal a heavy blow to the resolve of his fellow gods.? With being left no other choice, Odin grasped his sceptre with all his strength and was about to charge in when someone reached out to him from behind. The next moment, snow started falling all over the battlefield and the temperature dropped drastically.? "It took a while for you to get here," Odin mumbled with a smile on his face as all the poison in his body was actively sucked away, "Shiva." "I never knew you were expecting me here. It''s been a while, friend." Shiva responded with one of his signature enigmatic smiles while staring at the battlefield, "Looks like he has done everything like it was supposed to happen. Excellent, today might be the day all of us attain true freedom." "I''m really getting fed up with all your riddles, you know?"? Odin shook his head before embracing his one true friend with a punch to his chest, "but eh, whatever, tell me what to do and I''ll make it happen." "Oh no no, you''re mistaken." Shiva yfully shook his head, "It''s not my battle. Not yet at least. But I guess I can lend you a hand or two." Saying so, Shiva exhaled all of the air in his lungs before quickly breathing in all of Jormungandr''s poison as if it was some snack for him. The air was fresh and breathable again. All of those who had been poisoned were back to their feet as if nothing had happened there.? The next moment, somethingnded next to Shiva''s feet with a loud bang. It was Zeus'' crippled body. His limbs were bent in weird angles while his skin seemed to have been turned inside out. All in all, he no longer appeared like the glorious god he was but a mere excuse of a living being. "You''re early." Arnold barked at the god whom he was the vassal of, "''He'' will not appear for a few hours at the very least." "I just wanted to enjoy the show for once, is it too much to ask?" Shive sarcastically replied.? "...just don''t get in my way." "Wasn''t nning to." Chapter 555 The Hidden Enemy (1) "I see you havepleted half of your task already. I had my full strength, it shouldn''t have taken this long." Shiva gave Arnold one of his ever so mysterious smiles, "You need to get stronger if you want to shelter the universe on your shoulders." "Not interested. I''m only doing this to get Nicole back. Once that''s done, we''ll go our separate ways." Arnold retorted before rushing towards where Loki and Talos were fighting.? Shiva just kept smiling without a tinge of worry on his face. Although it wasn''t showing on his face, he was worried to his bones. Both he and Arnold had seen a future where everything goes right. But the one who they were about to faceter was someone who could manipte time on his own. A true god, both in name and sense.? That being said, worrying about the future unnecessarily wasn''t something Shiva looked forward to. Although he was hailed as a destroyer, he didn''t enjoy killing or destruction for that matter. But for the sake of the universe, he had to take up arms again and again. Much like now. But for Arnold, it was something else. He was slowly bing drunk on power. But it wasn''t a bad thing. After all, it was necessary to have a certain level of lust for power, at least to defeat the Primordial.? ''Defeating the Primordial has to be the answer to all our questions. But to lure him out, someone has to deal with his pawns first.'' Shiva thought before sitting down while Arnold handled Loki.? Shiva was referring to Loki and Zeus as Primordial''s pawns. It was no coincidence that the two of them had retained their memories even after dying by Shiva''s hands. It was all part of Primordial''s ns to destroy the universe as Shiva had failed his task of recreating the perfect universe.? However, Shiva wasn''t willing to give it all up just yet. Thankfully, even though he was nowhere near as strong as he used to before, with Arnold by his side, they could just manage to defeat the Primordial and free the universe and everyone in it from the curse of being ''perfect''.? It took Shiva to destroy and recreate the universe about a thousand times before the realisation hit him. The universe had always been perfect. He didn''t need to change anything. Everything was perfect just like they were born. The imperfections in the universe had their own charm to them.? It took Shiva all this time to realise that the Primordial might have had a different n right from the start. A n to get rid of Shiva along with the universe. Maybe the Primordial wasn''t the one who created the universe, instead, he was the one born to destroy it. But when Shiva beat him to it, he decided to do something else. As neither Shiva nor the Primordial were able to kill each other back when they met, the Primordial decided to fool Shiva into creating a universe worthy of being destroyed by his hands.? But as time passed and Shiva got weaker and weaker... the primordial decided now was the right time to act and thus interfered during Zeus'' and Loki''s reincarnation so that they could n a way to get rid of Shiva.? However, his n failed when a new god rose amongst the existing ranks. No god or even the primordial was able to foresee this oue. The next thing they knew, Shiva was no longer alone. His vassal wasn''t a proper god yet, but he was stronger than any god to have ever been born.? An unstoppable force just like Shiva had been when he ascended to godhood for the first time. If they worked together, they just might be able to defeat the primordial and ensure peace in the universe once and for all.? As for Nicole... Shiva had a good reason why he didn''t intervene in the matter, despite wanting to. He needed to conserve his strength for the battle that was toe next. As things stand, Shiva was weakened to the limit where he could no longer use mana to cast his abilities. Instead, even the most basic of his abilities were consuming his life force or HP. Even though he had more than enough HP to create onest universe from the scratch, fighting the primordial would take most if not all of it away from him. In other words... Shiva was destined to die fighting the Primordial.? "Remember you need to bring them to me alive," Shiva shouted as Arnold began fighting Loki, "or else I won''t be able to summon him!" Arnold simply shook his head and continued to turn Loki''s army into mashed potatoes. At the moment Arnold was the only one on the field who was unstoppable in all sense of the word.? But there were a lot of things that could go wrong leading up to the moment of the Primordial''s arrival. These uncertainties could even end up in Arnold''s and Shiva''s loss which meant... the loss of everyone in the universe.? That was the reason why Shiva had arrived there so early. This was the one and the only chance they had and couldn''t risk messing it all up. Shiva was going to keep an eye on things to make sure everything proceeded smoothly till the ultimate collision starts.? "Who is this person the two of you keep referring to?" Odin couldn''t hold back his curiosity anymore and blurted out, "He must be someone really strong for the two of you to get this tensed. Needless to say, Asgard will be standing right by your side through it all!" "It''s more of a what is he than who is he, old friend." Shiva replied, "There are some things that even you don''t know about me. Things that only Arnold knows apart from Nandi and Parvati. But to satisfy your curiosity, let''s just say he''s someone not even I could defeat, despite being in my prime. Do you still think you could help us out?" Chapter 556 The Hidden Enemy (2) Odin was silent. Shiva was the single most powerful entity in the universe. That was what everyone had believed for as long as they could remember. but for him to say that there was someone even stronger... it was unbelievable.? For a moment Odin thought Shiva was joking. It was rare but Shiva was one to joke in serious moments. But as he kept looking at Shiva''s face, Odin realised it wasn''t a joke. Every single word that came out of his mouth was true.? "I''m afraid we''ll just be a hindrance to you and Arnold if we even tried to get involved in the first ce." Odin smiled wanly while shaking his head, "Battling with such a fearsome foe... wouldn''t it be a sight to behold?" "I''m sure it will be. Sadly, the would get destroyed in the blink of an eye if that man enters the battlefield now." Shiva replied, "No, at least this entire sr system would, if not the gxy. It would be better if we didn''t fight here." "So your domain then?"? Shiva shook his head, "My domain will have a special purposeter on. That''s why I have sealed it. The only ce we can go into would the domain... ''The One Above All'' has created for himself." ''The One Above All''... was Arnold''s official godly title. The title itself showed how strong he was considering only Shiva had such a title before. But even then Shiva''s title simply meant, ''The One Above All Entities''. Not above everything but above other gods, unlike Arnold.? "You don''t seem like someone who is about to fight someone so strong. Maybe you need something to calm your nerves down! We Vikings know how to throw parties from time to time. What do you say?" Odin smirked knowing that shiva had given up on liquor and weed long ago. "You were just looking for an excuse to drink, we''re you? You sly bastard. maybe try asking Nandi. He has quite an appetite for your liquor, haha." Odinughed along, joking with his greatest friend in theirst moments. Odin didn''t know what was about to happen, but he had seen enough wars to somewhat predict the oue of this one.? Shiva''s strength was declining at a pace that was considered rapid in the timeframe of the gods. It took no severed head for Odin to see that this was going to be Shiva''s final battle. And as much as he wanted to be by the side of his friend in hisst stand, he knew he would only be a nuisance there.? "It''s been an honour to fight and live alongside someone like you. Maybe we''ll meet in some other life... where you don''t have to be the destroyer and can sing and dance along as you did before..." Odin spoke sincerely, extending his arm.? Shiva smiled and shook his hand. the feelings of honour and friendship were mutual. It was farewell.? "Now if you don''t mind, I need to take care of a rabid wolf," Odin spoke as Shiva let go of his hand. "I''m afraid, someone else is taking care of the wolf." Shiva pointed in the direction Arnold had headed before.? "You really found a treasure on earth didn''t you?" Odin sighed heavily and slumped down to rest. "I guess I got lucky," Shiva replied.? Far away Arnold was inbat with a certain wolf called Fenrir. Yeah, the same one who almost killed Vale and Odin. The same one whom the Asgardians feared more than the giants. But it was hard to believe it was the same wolf anymore.? If he was then how the hell was he being manhandled... well, technically wolf-handled, so easily? Arnold wasn''t even attacking Fenrir, it was the other way around and yet Fenrir was the one getting hurt.? Arnold simply wanted to find and hunt down Loki so that the Primordial would find his way to him. But the damned wolf attacked him out of nowhere. Not that Arnold paid any attention to it. He was someone who had prepared himself to go in a battle with someone who could erase the universe the moment he wanted to. So what could a stinky dog''s ws do to him? But Fenrir wasn''t one to give up easily either. He might have jumped in to help his father, but now he was fighting for his honour and nothing else. The wolf jumped once again to bite Arnold''s armour, but before Fenrir could even get close to him, Arnold rushed in and grabbed his whiskers, before mming him down on the ground with ease.? "Do you mind tucking your tail in your ass and leave? Or do you want me to do that for you?" Arnold stated matter-of-factly, "There are so many fools here who would love to fight you to prove their strength. So be a good doggy and go y fetch with them, before I start ying fetch with your bones." "You fucker-" "Tail in the ass it is then." Arnold interrupted the wolf before grabbing his tail and smashing him on the ground again and again. By the time Arnold was done, there wasn''t a single bone in Fenrir''s body that wasn''t broken. But he didn''t stop there. He was going to go through with his words... at least of ying fetch with his bones. He ripped Fenrir''s chest open and snapped his corbone in half before yanking it off. All while the wolf was still alive.? "Cerberus, go fetch!" Arnold threw the bone in the middle of the battlefield that had been silent since Arnold started beating up Fenrir... but now, everyone around was simply horrified. Never in a million years had they thought Arnold would go through with what he said moments ago. But there he was... standing in the middle of a war-torn ce, ying with his summoned hell hounds.? "Is this what the young ones call a madd?" Odin asked Shiva with admiration for Arnold in his eyes. "Nah. He has transcended that limit quite some time ago." Chapter 557 The Hidden Enemy (3) "Where are you looking at?" Talos kicked Loki the moment he got distracted. Talos was half expecting it to be another one of Loki''s tricks, but it wasn''t. Talos had managed to hit the real Loki. It would seem like despite not having the best of rtionships with his son, Fenrir''s loss in such a brutal manner had shaken Loki to the core. "You... BASTARD!!!" Loki roared in rage. No one had seen him in such an enraged state before. He ignored everyone and everything in his way to charge towards Arnold. Thetter saw himing and yet didn''t move an inch to protect himself. The collision between the gods was imminent, and collide they did. It all happened in the billionth part of a second, so quickly that even the gods had a tough time watching the scene unfold. "What happened? Why is everything so quiet all of a sudden?" Nina eximed and almost rushed out of the sapling''s protection but Devon held her back. "Nina, control yourself! Nothing could ever happen to him." Devon screamed in her ear to calm her down but failed. Natasha took the queue and immediately blinded Nina and used her magic to make Nina hallucinate about having a dream. She didn''t know what was going on with Arnold, but she knew she had to calm Nina down. If she stepped into a battlefield, filled with mythical creatures she would get obliterated in the blink of an eye. Loki''s attack sent shockwaves throughout the. The people were already having troubles facing the natural disasters that were urring continuously as the gods exchanged blows after blows. But now the itself had started to slowly fall apart. Small chunks of the were detaching themselves and had been turned into debris while massive tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions gued the parts that remained. It had started to feel as if no matter who wins the battle... humanity would be the one to lose. Even though the gods were worried about this oue, if they won, they could always restore the like it was before. But only IF they won. Loki was a dangerous man when he had his cool, but now that he was going berserk... no one knew what he was capable of doing. The strike he had dealt to Arnold was the proof of it. But a momentter... all of them were shocked. Unlike what the gods had thought, Arnold was... unaffected from Loki''s attack. Sure, his armour had taken quite a hit, but other than a wound on Arnold''s hand, he wasn''t hurt bad. However, the same could not be said about Loki. Arnold''s hand was sped around Loki''s neck, while thetter struggled like a fish out of water to get out of his grasp. But his struggles were in vain. The armour covering Arnold''s right hand was shattered. Shards of Adamantine had pierced through Arnold''s skin, covering his hand in blood. Just by looking at his hand, everyone around him could feel his pain. Yet Arnold didn''t even wince. Not one bit. His cold eyes were focused on Loki. In Loki, he saw the pain and anger he felt when Nicole was killed right in front of his eyes and he couldn''t do a thing. "It hurts doesn''t it?" Arnold whispered with an expressionless face, "When someone takes away someone important to you and you oculdn''t do a thing to protect them..." "Fuck you bastard!" Loki spat on Arnold face, "What do you know about pain? What do any of you know about pain?" The fighting stopped and everyone turned their attention to Loki and Arnold. To their surprise, Arnold released Loki from his grasp and thetter did not make any moves to kill Arnold. Instead he fell to the ground painted with the blood of his children. "You are in pain?" Arnold''s tone changed to sarcasm, "Maybe you are, but you should stop holding others responsible for your pain. After all, all of this pain, war, and killing exist because of your own faults." He continued, "You are the only one responsible for your misery in this situation. Rather than taking ountability for your actions, you kept destroying others as if the whole universe was out to get you. When in reality, you were the one who inevitably led to your demise." Everyone was surprised as those words came out of Arnold''s mouth. No one could believe such words of wisdom could evere from him. Especially when he had been more or less walking down the same path. Arnold then squatted on the same level as Loki, cing his hands of his shoulders, "That being said, I hope you can be a better person in the next life, becuase this life of yours was doomed from the moment you had my sister killed." Before loki could even react to Arnold''s words, thetter snapped his head in half, once again stunning everyone. "For a moment there, I thought you were going to forgive him." Shiva smiled as he teleported himself by Arnold''s side, "Putting the drama aside, are you injured anywhere?" "A couple of broken ribs. Nothing life-threathening." Arnold shrugged his shoulders. He was injured but it wasn''t like he could feel any pain. Also, for the final battle that was about tomence, it was for the better if he couldn''t feel the pain. Otherwise, he wasn''t sure if he wouldn''t go insane with everything that was about to happen. "The battle is over." Arnold proimed proudly, "Those who still want to fight... I can make arrangements for their funerals. If not, then stand the fuck down." He looked around the battlefield, expecting a few people to resist. But to his surprise, no one did. All of them were already aware of his strength and willingly surrendered themselves without making a fuss. However, suddenly a portal opened up in the middle of the battlefield. No one knew what was happening but Shiva and Arnold immediately drew their weapons out. "It''s so good to see you again... Shiva." A masculine voice came out of the portal, followed by a maniacalughter, "Let''s destroy the universe together, shall we?" Chapter 558 Primordial... The One Before All. (1) The entity in front of them was nothing like the numerous gods scattered across the battlefield. In front of him... no one even measured up to a spec of dust. Just looking at him stroked fears in the heart of the ''gods''. The aura around the entity shrouded in darkness sucked the life out of the. The winds were no longer blowing with the grace they were known for. The mere appearance of the shadowy figure, made the already nerve-wracking battlefield look even grimmer. It almost felt that the as a whole was disgusted that such a thing had stepped its foot on it. But it was too weak to do anything to the man. No one could do anything to the man. ''He is one hell of an opponent, isn''t he?'' Shivamunicated using telepathy, ''Despite how powerful he is, he can not invade our heads. We should use it to our advantage.'' ''I guess...'' Arnold replied before taking a good look at the ultimate boss. As Arnold stared at the faceless thing in front of him, even he couldn''t help but unconsciously take a step back. The man who had the title of ''The One Above All'' was hesitant to strike first, that was the kind of authority the figure in front of him had. ''Stand tall, the one above all. There''s a reason why you are above everything.'' Shiva pushed his thoughts into Arnold''s head as soon as he felt a pinch of fear in Arnold''s heart. At that moment, Arnold looked at Shiva and saw him smiling. They both knew how it was going to end and yet he was smiling. Arnold knew Shiva was at his weakest and yet he was smiling. He knew even if the slightest thing went wrong, the universe would be no more and yet... Shiva was smiling? Arnold could only imagine what was going on inside Shiva''s head, or whether he had guts made of adamantine to have such a rxed look on his face, while he was sweating buckets just by being around the enemy. It almost felt as if he was back to being a porter... vulnerable, weak and useless. "Haha, I see you have found a pet!" The figure spoke through the slit that appeared on what appeared to be his head, "The more the merrier! Let''s all destroy the universe together!" The figure continued, "But before all that, allow me to introduce myself for the first and thest time. I am Zik also known as the primordial... The One Before All. And today, I''ll be erasing your existence. So please, cooperate with me as I kill you." "Oh, is that you think what''s going to happen?" Arnold suddenly got his confidence back. Probab;y because he was already aware of all the possibilities their battle could yield. Back when he used foresight, Arnold had seen it all. Yet now that he was faced with the challenge, he knew things were not going to be as simple as he had thought. In any case, if he was going to end up dying after the fight, now was the chance for him to act all badass. "Let me tell you what''s going to happen." Arnold nodded and both Shiva and he simultaneously expanded their domain, sucking up the three of them inside the endless void. Just one of their domains wasn''t going to be strong enough to hold the primordial down for long. Heck, if they even tried to do something like that, the primordial would easily overpower the one who had dominion over the domain and transfer the ownership to himself. Also, by taking the battle to their domain, Shiva and Arnold had severed the ties with the universe outside. As a result, even if they were losing, at least everything outside the domain would remain untouched... at least till either one of Arnold or Shiva was alive. Then was the most important reason for it all. Both Shiva and Arnold were the strongest in their respective domain and if they wanted to defeat the Primordial, they needed every bit of advantage they could get. "You think this petty trick of yours would be enough to stop me?" Primordialughed at their desperate attempts to put a stop to him. None of them replied to his provocation and simultaneously charged at the Primordial. In Shiva''s hand, was his legendary trident, and in Arnold''s hand, his variety of weapons of mass destruction. "Pathetic." That was all the Primordial said before sping his tentacle-like hands around both of their head and crushing them. In one swift move, he had dealt with both of his ''strongest opponents in one swift move. But something was off... he was sure he had killed them and yet he was still stuck within their domain. In the following moment, Arnold materialized in front of him out of nowhere and tried to stab him through a de however, the de immediately snapped in half the moment it made contact with the Primordial. The primordial immediately targetted Arnold. But before he could do much, Shiva lunged at him with a speed faster than light itself, throwing the Primordial back before he couldy a hand on Arnold. Despite the universe splitting blow Shiva delivered to Primordial, he was unscathed. There wasn''t a single scratch on his body, let alone any injury. "You want to y with a numbers advantage, is that it?" Primordial scoffed as he got back to his feet, "Then, I can y this game too." The next moment, the shadow beneath the Primordial split into two and two identical figures appeared on each side. Now Arnold and Shiva didn''t have to take care of one but three Primordials at the same time. It wouldn''t have been a difficult task to do so if only their strength was divided as well. Instead, all three of them had the exact same level of strength as they possessed before splitting up. "Rejoice! For you are about to feel despair like never before!" Chapter 559 Primordial... The One Before All. (2) Both Arnold''s and Shiva''s expressions turned grim. Primordial was right. They felt despair like never before. It wasn''t as bad for shiva as it was for Arnold as he had fought the thing before. That being said, neither of them was prepared to fight against three equally powerful primordial when facing off against one itself was proving to be a task they couldn''tplete. That would have been the case if they weren''t going to use their strengthening abilities.? ''Sorry to ask you this, but would you mind taking a more passive role in the fight?'' Arnold asked Shiva through telepathy.? ''The spotlight has always been yours.'' Shiva replied and took a step back, ''Just let me know when you need help.'' ''Will do.'' Without wasting a moment, Arnold once again charged right towards the primordial and his clones. Even the primordial was a bit surprised by his reckless move. Had he given all hope to live? That was probably the reason.? "Ah, the pet wants to protect his master? Come right ahead and I''ll slice you up before your master." The primordial standing in the middleughed before parrying Arnold''s attack.? However, his smile disappeared when his punch didn''t even make Arnold flinch. As their attacks collide, it let out such a strong shockwave that the domain in its entirety was shaken, with parts of it even falling apart.? "Kill him!" The primordial yelled at his doppelgangers, and all three of them lunged at Arnold. All of their moves were faster than lightning, but somehow Ashton was able to parry all of their strikes. The Primordial knew it was only a matter of time before Arnold would get weaker. As even if the human parried his strikes, there was a high probability slowly the umted pain of his attacks would be too much for him to handle.? ? But to his surprise, Arnold was showing no signs of losing his fight against the primordial. If anything, the more the primordial attacked him, the wider his smile got.? It was the primordial who had started the ying mind games with them, but now it seemed the tables had turned. Now it was his turn to be on the receiving end of Arnold''s mind games.? Although Arnold was smiling, he wasn''t aware of the pain his body was going through. All thanks to Devon for destroying his sensory cells all those years ago. But not feeling pain and not being affected by the primordial''s attacks were two separate things.? Arnold''s HP was rapidly reducing with each attack he blocked or defended against. He had to keep and on his health and the moment his health went below the 30% mark, he immediately utilised one of his infinite HP potions gathering dust in his inventory.? But to the Primordial, it appeared as if his health was regenerating back by itself. That made the primordial lose his cool further, giving Arnold ample opportunities to strike back.? ''It''s been a long time since I used these,'' Arnold thought and kept parrying the attacks.? Just like the primordial, he too was solely focused on finding a crack in his defence. Only striking when it was the most viable. However, it didn''t seem the primordial''s HP was going down by much.? But at the end of the day, Primordial had the advantage over him. Both in numbers and in strength even Arnold couldn''t rival him. All of a sudden, something whizzed past him and one of the Primordials was knocked back. Arnold spared a gaze off of the fight and immediately recognised Shiva had knocked on the doppelgangers with the help of his trident. "You insolent-" Before the primordial could even say anything, Arnold wrapped his hands around the creature''s head and mmed his knee on his face. The Primordial once again was sent flying, but this time, Arnold didn''t stop there.? [You have activated the Skill Devil''s rage. All stats and ability effects have been boosted by 500%.] [Skill usages remaining: 2] Suddenly a presence rivalling that of the primordial appeared on the battlefield. But it wasn''t enough as Arnold''s boost wouldn''tst forever nor was it strong enough topletely overpower the primordial.? ''You wanted my support, you have it now.'' Shiva smiled and the following moment another notification appeared in front of Arnold.? A notification that was going to be the game-changer.? [All restrictions such as cooldown of the skills and any possible bacsh after their use have been permanently removed.] ''Now I understand why you were the first one to create a system.'' Arnold smiled before going unhinged.? The system was something Shiva created as a result, he and only he had true control over it. This meant, that even though he didn''t have one for himself, Shiva could abuse the system Arnold had to his own benefit. Which in this case was to take care of the Primordial, any means necessary.? He immediately used the two remaining uses of [Devil''s Rage]. At that moment, his strength was unparalleled. But that didn''t mean it came without any cost at all. The strain on his body was incredible.? Not even Shiva would have been able to control such a level of power without the aid of someone. However, before Arnold''s ascension, there was no one who could do so. The domain responded to the sudden surge of power from Arnold. His body began to glow, his eyes, his limbs, his armour... everything felt as if he had transcended the level of godhood that even Shiva didn''t know it existed.? The space around him began distorting. Time stopped with each of his steps. At that moment, he was truly the one above all. Even the primordial himself.? "I tasted despair, sadly it ain''t my cup of tea." Arnold smiled as the primordial struggled to find a way to get back on his feet, "Maybe you''ll like it more?" "Haha... HAHA! Do you think you can defeat an outer like me with those petty tricks of yours? Fine by me, show me what you got!"? Chapter 560 Unrivalled Power (1) There was a time in the universe when the gods reigned supreme. There was nothing anyone could have done to them as they travelled throughout the universe without any restraints doing whatever they pleased at the expense of the mortals. Shiva never indulged in such desires. For he knew, there were stronger beings than them hiding in the darkness of the universe. He referred to these creatures as ''outers''. Being from another universe that existed before anything in their own universe did. Usually, there shouldn''t have been a way for the outers to cross over from their universe to someone else''s. But somehow, this primordial had done so twice already. Strangely enough, he always appeared in their universe when a being gained supreme strength. Just like when Shiva did and now it was Arnold''s turn. It almost felt as if the Primordial wanted to test their strength and keep them in check so that their power does not be a threat to his universe. If he deemed them a threat, his job was to annihte them and destroy their universe. The only thing was that Shiva was supposed to be the first god of the universe. But he vividly remembered killing ''gods'' in his thirst for revenge. Turns out, the godly being that he killed were in fact not gods, but the Primordial''sckeys whom he had brought along to take care of their universe billions of years ago. With his army gone, the primordial had no choice but to put up a friendly face and then use Shiva''sck of knowledge in his favour. However, it seemed he had overestimated what Shiva could do back then. Last time, he tested Shiva who couldn''t even put a scratch on him. Thus the primordial gave him a bullshit quest of making the perfect universe and left, thinking their universe would now never feel threatened by some other universe. Since the Primordial was a being of higher existence, Shiva foolishly believed his words and agreed to make a perfect universe and in its pursuit, ended up destroying the universe countless times. But this time, it was different. Arnold was nothing like Shiva when it came to detecting BS. The primordial couldn''t fool him, but judging by his looks, it didn''t appear that he had any intention of letting the universe be unharmed anymore. Especially these humans who seem to break their limits time and time again. Arnold was fighting the outer with all his might. By abusing the non-existent cooldowns of his skills, he was making quick work of the primordial and his doppelgangers. Shiva was helping his former vassal out in any way he could, let it be usual support or full-on assault on the outer being. However, it wasn''t like the battle was one-sided. On the surface, it might have seemed like Arnold was winning the fight, but the fight was stuck at a stalemate. "Oh, you managed to protect your heart. Impressive." The primordialughed while Arnold rubbed his chest, "You are not half bad. I tell you what, join us and I''ll make sure you and your loved ones on the live on without any issues." "You really take me as a fool, don''t you?" Arnold scoffed and got back to his feet, "If your goal is to destroy the universe, how the fuck are you nning to keep Earth unharmed? Even before that, your job is to kill me, isn''t it? Then why the fuck do you think I''ll side with you?" "Hm... I just gave you an opportunity to do something no one ever has before, but it doesn''t seem like you''re someone who follows orders. Tch, what a waste of potential." The primordial shook his head, "Fine, let''s do it your way then." All of them locked eyes with each other, at least Arnold did considering that the outer did not have any visible ''eyes''. A momentter, they shed again. Sparks were sent flying whenever their attacks collided with each other. Three of them managed to swarm Arnold with the intention of beating him to a pulp. But instead, they fell right into thetter''s trap. Arnold grabbed their arms and ripped them off with ease. The primordial could easily regenerate them, however, before he could do so, Arnold immediately sealed his wounds usingva elemental control. "You bastard! How did you know-" Before the doppelganger could evenplete, Arnold sliced his head off before doing the same thing again. However, he wasn''t dead yet. Arnold then proceeded to wrap his mechanical fist withva, and ripped through the head, messing up the insides in the process. He was doing all this to the doppelganger and yet the Primordial''s real body was suffering as well. The primordial had no idea how did the mortal realiseva was his weakness. However, Shiva wasn''t doing well. The more he supported Arnold, the faster he was depleting his life force. It was only a matter of time before he copsed. ''Just a bit longer...'' Shiva reminded himself, ''I have to see this to the end...'' However, mere thoughts weren''t enough to sustain him and he couldn''t hold on anymore. Watching Shiva fall, Arnold kicked the remaining primordials away before rushing to Shiva''s side. "Haha, looks like I am not as strong as I thought I was," Shiva mumbled with a smile. "Damn it! You are supposed to be the strongest god! Not get back on your feet." Arnold might have said that, but he had seen the future... he knew this was it even if he didn''t want it to be. A momentter, Shiva''s body slowly started shrivelling up. His life force was dissipating quicker than Arnold had predicted. If Shiva fell, then he would no longer be able to use his skills continuously without worrying about depleting his own lifeforce. "It''s time... to return..." Shiva said in a weak voice. As those words came out of his mouth, the domain copsed, forcing them back on earth. Where the gods, demons, and humans stood side by side. But none of them had expected to see what they did. Shiva was down and now there weren''t one, but two of those terrifying creatures. "Consider this... a parting gift... from me. Mana spread throughout the universe, shall be yours tomand..." "Stop it!" The primordial roared in rage and rushed toward Arnold as he realised what was happening. "No, you won''t!" Odin yelled back as all of the gods and Arnold''s summons lunged to slow the creatures down, if not stop them. Chapter 561 Unrivalled Power (2) "Odin, Take the humans... away... this ce is not... safe for them anymore." Shiva urged his long time friend to do ast favour for him. Odin nodded andmanded the gods to get the humans out of there why Arnold''s army held the Primordial back. However, it wasn''t going to be an easy task. Since Shiva had created the universe, hemanded absolute power within it. It was because of that power, Shiva was able to inject every molecule of mana ever created right into Arnold. This included the vast mana reserves the gods had. Most of the humans had already lost all of their mana permanently and hence couldn''t use their skills and abilities anymore. Making them a liability. Not only that, merely being around Arnold, who had be the embodiment of the universe himself, they were being put in a terribly dangerous situation. Not because Arnold was going to harm them, but because the mana swirling around him was untamed and hence could cause an explosion at least a million times stronger than the strongest supernova explosion ever recorded. "Arnold..." Nina mumbled when she saw her husband squirming in pain as mana was rapid being forced into his body. "Your man will be fine, just go!" Hera urged her before pushing all of them back under the world tree''s protection. On the other side of the battlefield, Johnny was having an existential crisis. He knew it very well that he had fucked up big time and no one was ever going to forgive him for what he did to Nicole. Initially, he thought he was making the correct decision by supporting Zeus, but after seeing Arnold and the Primordial... he knew no god would everpare to those two. He was a fool to ever go against Arnold, someone whom he once referred to as his younger brother... "I need to redeem myself. Even if it costs me my life." He mumbled to himself, "I... am sorry." Unlike the rest of the humans, Johnny was now a demigod. Hence, his mana reserves didn''t immediately evaporate like them. Even so, they were rapidly decreasing. It was only a moment of time before he turned back to being a powerless human, like the rest of them. Without sparing a second thought regarding his life, Johnny rushed through the retreating crowd. He caught a lot of familiar faces looking at him, but he couldn''t bring himself to look them in the eye. Hopefully, at least in his death, he would have to courage to once again look at them and hope to see a friend looking back at him. With a couple of gigantic leaps, he reached the ce where Hercules, Talos, Tiamut and the rest of them were trying their best to hold the primordial back till Arnold got back to his feet. Using Talos'' shoulder as a foothold, he jumped above them and mmed his hands straight down at the primordial. Primordial was shocked looking at the tenacity of a mere insect. The primordial wasn''t hurt physically, but his ego had suffered a lot. "You BASTARDS!" He out an ear-piercing screech, loud enough to fuck up anyone''s insides. Even Arnold''s undead summons were having trouble staying on their feet, as for Johnny, he immediately copsed right in front of the Primordial with no one there to help him out. His eyes were bleeding, much like his nose and ears. But it was just the beginning. As soon as the Primordial was free from the grasp of Arnold''s summons, he wrapped one of his tentacles around Johnny''s neck, lifting him in the air. "You insects are the most tenacious species I have ever seen. For that, I apud you." The Primordial snarled but the next moment gave Johnny a courteous bow, "But now you fuckers are getting on my nerves!" Suddenly, four more tentacles grabbed onto all of Johnny''s limbs and began trying to tear them apart. However, the next moment Johnny fell to the ground with a thud. The Primordial''s tentacles were still attached to his limbs but they were no longer attached to the Primordial. "You are not the one who gets to decide his fate..." Arnold''s cold voice echoed throughout the universe as he himself had be the embodiment of one, "But I have already written your fate with your own blood." Everyone suddenly turned towards where Arnold was and was left... mesmerised. Every single piece of equipment he had on himid on the ground, shattered to bits. But it didn''t matter anymore, for mana had itself be his armour, his weapon and his soul. His body waspletely shrouded in a luminescent white glow. His skin, his hair, his eyes, along with every single part of his body was emitting the same whitish glow which was inplete contrast to how the primordial looked like. Upon seeing the two of them on the battlefield, one would think a ssic showdown between the good and the bad was about to take ce. And they wouldn''t have been far from true. "Look at the bug, acting all high and mighty just because he got a bit bigger. Kekeke." The primordialughed as his limbs regenerated, and formed a couple of more clones of himself, "I''ll make sure to kill you and assimte you into myself. But enough talking, Let''s end this once and-" Everything happened faster than the speed of light itself. Arnold merely took a step but ended in front of the primordial, punching him straight into space. he then grabbed onto the next one and ripped his head apart. All of this happened before the primordial''s main body could even retaliate in any capacity. "Die-" The primordial tried to grab Arnold, but he phased out right in front of his eyes and grabbed the former''s neck instead, "How are you... so powerful all of a sudden...?" "You think mana is the only thing I absorbed?" Arnold said before ripping his arm apart with his bare hands, "For once, I''ll agree with you. It''s time to end this farce." Chapter 562 One Final Battle The primordial did everything he could to free himself from Arnold''s vice grip but had little to no sess regarding that. Simply being grabbed by him felt as if he was being sucked into a ck hole, making escape from him impossible. "Fighting you is getting quite boring." Arnold then turned towards Talos, his fiery eyes seemed to have calmed down a bit as he stared at his summons, "Take everyone and leave. I don''t care about anything else, but do not let Johnny die." "As you wish, master." Talos bowed and instructed everyone to back away immediately. Their job was done there.? Once all of them were gone, Arnold turned his attention towards the primordial once again. For the first time in his life, the primordial was afraid of a being that belonged to a universe other than his own.? For the first time in his life, he was being overwhelmed and manhandled so... easily. "How..." "Because this is my universe. Not the one... yourckeys... created." Shiva replied with a weak smile, "Everything I have done this time was a result of how powerless you made me seem. Now it''s your turn to feel the same powerlessness against the man who is free from the shackles of creating the perfect universe." Arnold did not care about the conversation these two war buddies were having. What he did care about was the fact he needed to get rid of the bastard in front of him. He curled up his fingers and threw a punch at the primordial. Thetter tried his best to block the strike but failed miserably as the tentacles in the way got obliterated effortlessly. However, after thoroughly punching the shit out of the primordial, Arnold let go of the creature. "I-It makes no sense." The primordial mumbled, unable to grasp that he had been granted his freedom. "Run." "W-What?"? "Killing you like this is getting boring. For myst fight, I want it to be exciting. So... run." The primordial gritted his teeth together. Never in his entire life, someone had humiliated him like this. Telling him to run away like a coward. However, the thing was... he knew he had to get away from there.? As long he as could get back to his universe, the primordial would definitely return stronger than before. If... only he could get back. He knew the human wouldn''t let him go so easily, but the situation was desperate thus he needed to act before Arnold could.? The Primordial began crawling away, and to his surprise Arnold stood in his ce, staring at his retreating form.? "I can''t care about what that human is nning to do. I have to get out of here if I don''t want to die a gruesome death... that''s what you were thinking right?"? Arnold suddenly disappeared from where he had been standing and teleported in front of the primordial.? "I might actually let you live but only if you are willing to cooperate." "Cooperation?" "Why are you attacking us? Our universe has never done anything to you. For fuck''s sake, we never even knew beings like you even exist, then why are you so dead set on destroying our universe?" As soon as those words fell on the primordial''s non-existent ears, he once again beganughing like a maniac. However, this time he wasn''tughing because he was so sure of his victory. But because he knew he wasn''t going to live much longer and the human thought he would answer him.? "You think I''ll believe you? We both know you are going to kill me regardless of what I say." He scoffed, "But I''ll tell you this, your universe isn''t the only universe we want to destroy. We want to destroy every single universe that exists alongside ours." He continued, "There should only be one universe that''s the way it would finally be called an ''uni''-verse. However, we know the beings of the other universes would be tough to deal with in our current state. That''s how my kind came up with the idea of assimting every universe into ours to make sure our universe flourishes while the rest of them wither away." Arnold nodded, bringing up his arms to finish the creature with a final blow. "You are correct. You are stronger than us. All of you. But you know why you''ll never win against us?" Arnold looked down upon the creature, "Because as long a single one of us lives on, the universe will live as well." "Cut the crap and kill me already. I''m not interested in your weak monologue of sess h h h..." The primordial smiled again, "You might have killed me, but I''m not the strongest of among the 12 generals. When my brethren arrive here, no one would be able to save you or this pitiful universe-" "No monologues, remember?" Arnold whispered mming his fists down on the primordial, destroying him to bits. It was done. Thest battle was finally over...? Arnold had wondered how it would feel to win the fight against the Primordial. Now that he had done it, it felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He was finally free... no more dungeons, no more gods, nothing. The universe had returned to the state it should have always been.? As the glow surrounding his body faded away, the earth slowly turned back to as it had been before the war, peaceful and full of life.? "You did it." Shiva mumbled in his weak voice, "I had faith in you more than I had faith in myself." "None of it would have been possible without you." Arnold smiled before bowing his head in front of him, "All of this only happened because of your sacrifice and nothing else." Watching their master bow his head, Arnold''s summons followed suit along with every single person present on the battlefield, it didn''t matter whether they were human, god or a demon, all of them had nothing but respect for Shiva in their eyes.? "The fight is not over yet... more of them wille... you will need allies... by your side."? "I know. Your followers will guide us, while your wisdom would guide me." Even in his final moments, Shiva had no consideration for himself and only wanted the best for the universe. Arnold knew what the task ahead of him was, but he did know whether he was up to it or not.? Shiva had taken the burden of the universe on hsi shoulders, and now it was Arnold''s turn to do the same. Live a life dedicated to the universe and die protecting it.? "Then I shall... fulfil my promise..." Shiva smiled gesturing for Arnold to look behind him. A portal was open behind all of them, blinding everyone but Arnold... someone seemed to be walking out of there.? "Brother?"? Tears flooded Arnold''s eyes as he realised who it was. He got up and rushed to embrace Nicole.? "W-What''s going on here?" Nicole was surprised to see everything in front of her, but she was most surprised to see her brother cry. Someone who had been the strongest pir in her life had turned into a crying mess. But he wasn''t alone, Nina and everyone who had known her were crying as well.? "Could someone stop crying and tell me what''s going on?" Nicole asked all of them, but no one replied as they were busy hugging her, "Thest thing I remember was fighting alongside Johnny and now I''m here and... you know what, I''m not gonna ask shit from now on." Arnold turned towards Shiva whose body had begun to fade out of existence. "A life... for a life... is aw of the universe even I cannot escape." Shiva smiled for thest time, "If I''m dying... I better make it amends... don''t you think? Also... you don''t need to join me... unlike the future you saw... Live a life that I couldn''t and learn the virtue of forgiveness... that''ll bring me peace." "Thank you... for everything." Arnold thanked the god who changed his life onest time before he was gone forever.? Chapter 563 Epilogue Five yearster, In the eternal city on the back of Cetus. Arnold was standing on the beach by himself, staring at the endless sea that didn''t seem to be endless anymore. The mysteries of the world and the universe existed no more for him now that he had been crowned as their protector.? From the hidden sea creatures lying in the bowels of the earth to the secret behind the supermassive ck holes, he was aware of everything and yet, he wished he didn''t. Being the all-knowing was a bit boring. So much so, that Arnold wondered, how the hell Shiva managed to keep himself busy for all those years when it only took Arnold about five to get bored to death.? "Maybe I should start meditating like him for centuries at a time." Arnold smiled while stone-skipping in the ocean. Even doing that had lost its fun. All because he couldn''t use even 0.1% of his strength to do so without destroying the entire sr system. He had to ask Natasha to cast a spell on the beach that made it possible for Arnold to do stone skipping and feel like he was actually throwing stones, not merely touching them.? "You know, you could have used the spell yourself." Nichs''s voice echoed inside his head. "Do make me regret bringing you back." Arnold said yfully, "Come on, I''m the one above all. Show me some respect!" "To me, you''ll always be that weak brat who used to carry a bag thrice his weight to make mere cents." Nichs replied, "In a way, you''re still carrying that bag. Only this time, you''re carrying the entire weight of the universe in it." Arnold nodded and kept idling till the sun took the day off. He got off the enchanted beach and saw people partying around. Gods, humans, and demons, all of them existing in harmony. It had been like this since the day he defeated the Primordial and it seems... the party never came to an end.? "You made a wise decision not restoring all of the gods back to their glory." Nichs chimed in. "That''s what Shiva wanted. To let the gods rest, just like he did." Arnold replied while leaning over the world tree and watching over everyone.? Back when Shiva gave him everything the universe had to offer, he also stripped the gods that existed back then of their powers. All of which, was given to Arnold in order to defeat the primordial.? Some of the gods would have loved to have their powers back, but Shiva urged Arnold to do what he deemed right. He needed allies, there was no doubt about it, but most of the old gods like Odin and Hera refused their godhood.? In their words, they were tired of being gods and wanted to live a normal life. A life they had longed to live. This left Arnold with one choice... make new gods and he had no shortage of capable candidates. But before all that, he did something else. He revived all of his undead summons. Of course, he would have had to give up a chink of his life force to revive them... but there was a loophole. Arnold was their lord but he wasn''t the one who revived them, Talos did and since Talos wasn''t a living creature, he could never ''die''. That meant no one had to be sacrificed to revive the summons. Why did he do something like that? Well, because they had served their purpose and Arnold did not want them to be shackled to him forever. He thought they would be eager to get away from him because at the end of the day, he had killed most of them. But much to his surprise, all of them decided to keep following him as their master. They did not care about whether he had killed them or not, the time that had passed between them made them realise that whatever Arnold did was for the sake of the universe. Thus in a weird sense, he saved them by killing them? It was very confusing but at the end of the day, all of them were happy with what happened.? Back to the topic of granting godhood, Arnold shortlisted a group of people and asked them whether they would like to be literal gods. Naturally, all of them were excited till he began exining the problems they would have to face like being immortal and all that jazz.? Still, most of them agreed. The only one who disagreed was... Nicole. She did not like the idea of being immortal and having powers at all. She had grown tired of it all, the creatures, the powers, everything.? But upon her request, Arnold nted a dormant seed of godhood within her. So she could be a goddess whenever she felt like it or if a need arises for her to take a drastic measure like that.? That being said, all of his former summons were granted godhood. Making them even more powerful. These gods then proceeded to establish their own pantheons looking for more candidates to be crowned as gods of lesser, but important entities.? As the concept of Lesser or higher gods had been abolished as soon as Arnold ascended to being the protector of the universe. In his eyes, all of the gods had fought bravely in the time of crisis and hence all of them should be valued equally.? As for the demon, since Lucifer and all of the other lords of the underworld followed Shiva, they willingly surrendered themselves for Arnold to do as he pleased with them.? So, Arnold did what he thought would be the best and made them the rulers of the various parallel underworlds, including Muspelheim. Life was... good. "Finally at peace?" Nichs said knowing that Arnold was never at peace before, but now it seemed to have changed.? Arnold nodded while looking at his beautiful family. Both Aiden and Orco were going fine, although Orco had developed a lot of Orc-like features, he still looked more like a human than a monster.? Nina met his gaze and smiled, their love has only gotten stronger as time passed and they had all eternity to be in love with each other for Nina was her queen and also a goddess. As for their sons, they were still a bit immature to grant them godhood. But hopefully one day they''ll be able to decide whether they want to be gods or not. Till then, Arnold would look over them, just like he was looking over the universe.? "My lord, the feast is ready," Nandi called Arnold.? When Shiva said he gave him everything, he meant every word of it. His domain, his trident, his army... everything was now Arnold''s and that''s why Nandi addressed him as his lord.? "Coming." Arnold patted the world tree and left to enjoy the party as usual. "There he is!" Hercules, the god of strength and willpower greeted his old master like a war buddy, passing him some liquor.? "Go easy on the alcohol, or I''ll show everyone who has the real strength in bed," Natasha warned her now-husband. That''s right, the pervert married a masochist, a pair made in heaven. They weren''t the only ones either. Talos had a me of his own with Dani. As for Thor, well, Arnold resurrected Sif to be with him so he was happy, although he was a bit taken aback when he got to know about Odin''s choice to live as a human, he was happy as long as his father was happy.? Alice on the other hand decided to devote her life to Arnold, knowing that something between them would never be possible. Asterios... well he was already married to war and violence so there wasn''t any need for him to find a mate. As for Johnny... Nicole forgave him for doing what he did to her. But Johnny decided to punish himself and begged Arnold to imprison him. Which Arnold did... in a ce where the concept of time was void. Johnny would stay there for as long as he thought he needed to be for the sake of punishing himself.? Despite living a happy life, none of them ever stopped their training. All because of the Primordial''s parting words. There were more creatures like him, an entire universe filled with them but the most dangerous among them were the 11 remaining generals and their king as the primordial called them. But Arnold wasn''t scared of them. Because he wasn''t alone anymore. He didn''t need to do everything by himself and as long as he had his allies, no matter how strong the enemy was they would defeat them.? "There are more than 12 of them you''ll need to take care of. It''s just a hunch though." Nichs gave his two cents to Arnold.? "Let theme." Arnold grinned, "It''ll be fun to tear them to shreds, just like everyone else before them." *** Author''s note: (I''m adding this after publishing the chapter so the cost of it remains the same.) Hmm... what should I say? I always wanted to type a final author''s note and talk to my readers like this, but now that the time hase, I''m out of words.? Firstly, let me say this, The Rise Of A Porter might be over, but there are other projects of mine you can read and show your love to. and are two stories I decided to write when I realised it was the time to end Porter and hopefully, they''ll be worthy sessors of the legacy Porter will leave behind.? That being said, I can''t thank you, the readers, enough for showing all the love and support through the years. Sadly, due to my regr health issues, I had to rush the ending quite a bit as I wanted some time off to recover as well as give you guys a proper ending to the epic saga as that was the least I could do to honour all the love and support you gave me. Haha, I am a bit emotional as I''m typing this so please, forgive me cringeness. But it''s a bit overwhelming as the novel finally got its ending after about two years. Two amazing years, let''s go! "Wrap it up, I have to go." Arnold mocks the author, "The Outers don''t have to sit through your BS, then why should I?" Do you want me to inform them about the sequel or not? "Oh, right I forgot about that." Ahem... so, there will be a sequel to the story (eventually). I just need a couple of years to finish the ongoing novels and make a proper outline of the story. So till then, it''s goodbye (Unless you want to read my other novels *Wink* *Wink*). Lastly, I would like to thank everyone who managed to get through my horrible work. I would like to thank you for all the creative criticism you gave me, for all the love you gave me, and for thements that cursed me out and a special thanks to Sinir for sticking to the story till the end and giving it the one and only super gift the novel ever got. Also, don''t remove the novel from your library because I will announce the sequel here itself. And now that it''s time for the final goodbye, I wish you all the best in whatever you do. Thank you for being a part of Arnold''s journey, of my journey.? See you next time. With love and tear in his eyes... Akshat Arpit. P.S. Try to ignore the typos like I ignore my health.? The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!