《Once Human, Now a Parasite》
Prologue: A valuable subject
In a distant universe, far from any we know or have seen, lies a completely black planet constantly emitting a dark and dangerous aura. Any being foolish enough to set foot near it would shake with fright and flee in desperation. They knew whose planet it was and they feared his retaliation, anyone found within several light years would be crushed without hesitation.
In an ominous black castle that dominated the landscape were two humanoids. A dark figure wrapped between his massive wings with a pair of two-inch horns bursting from his forehead that oozed a terrifying aura. However, this horror knelt on bended knee before an obscured figure lounging upon a throne made of skulls, skulls that used to belong to horrors unseen. His figure was blurred, a cloying mist gathered around him, revealing nothing but his chilling smile.
"My Lord, I''ve come to deliver news from the Overgod of Light, he demands compensation for what you have done to his universe. He threatens to retaliate with force if you do not acquiesce to his wishes!"
Bizarre laughter spilled from the seated figure¡¯s mouth, "Ah Belos... Indeed, that old fart probably won''t let this go unless I pay him recompense, after all, I did cause a slight mess of his home." The figure¡¯s tone mocking, seemingly unconcerned with his servant¡¯s update.
Belos, taken aback by what his Master would call a ¡®slight mess¡¯ felt a cold sweat from across his brow, "My Lord, please take this seriously! This is no laughing matter!"
"My dear Belos... Remember, life is, but a game and we are merely players! Perhaps in several centuries, you will come to realize that this whole exchange is nothing but a way to pass time for beings at our level. Regardless, my mirth is not at all attributed to that old goat¡¯s rage. The beginning of my grand experiment is finally at hand! I have finally succeeded in creating ''it'' and I believe I have indeed found a most suitable ''subject'' as well. I shall be absent whilst I handle the initialization. Look after things for me, send that coot a gift basket or something. I can¡¯t wait to see what he thinks of that." After speaking, the humanoid figure leaped from his throne, patted his new steward on the shoulder, and disappeared from his hall. All that remained was the rapidly dissipating mist that had been clinging to him.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Belos, unprepared for the rapid turn of events, stood there in disbelief, unable to react to his master¡¯s speed after delivering his instructions. After a moment he released an enormous sigh, "I thought there was no way a being of the Lord¡¯s power could actually be as bad as those stories..." He then performed a final low bow to the now empty throne and then swept out of the hall, preparing to do as his Lord bid. After all, he may think of the Master as eccentric, but he would never disobey. There was a reason the Overlord of Light had sent a strongly worded message rather than instigate the master directly. Only one as strong as He could behave in such a way among the highest beings in the multiverse.
Appearing just outside of Earth''s atmosphere, the being stopped for a moment to adjust his cuffs. Without the mist used to maintain his mystery, the being was clearly dressed in an immaculately fitted black suit, twirling his black cane capped in a golden skull with spiraling horns, he looked on in anticipation at his test subject-to-be.
A human torso chained to a chair, every inch of exposed skin mutilated, an oozing socket where his eye had previously been. Badly burnt, unevenly cut stumps were all that remained of his dismembered limbs. It was a wonder that he still lived in such terrible condition, in a situation that would cause any man to break, losing themselves to despair. However, he lived, seemingly in defiance of his fate. Gazing ahead at his tormentors with an expressionless face. Only the being knew what roiled behind the man¡¯s steely visage. The rage. The hatred. The bloody dreams of revenge against those who had wronged him. Holding death at bay with only the iron will be forged in the fires of his tribulations and suffering.
"Indeed, I have found the perfect ''subject''. Now, to get his approval and begin.¡± The figure gave a deafening, inhuman cackle before disappearing, eager to finally launch the experiment these millennia of preparation have led to.
Chapter 1 : A Second Chance
Arthur awoke from his sleep, or better call it a nightmare, because of the sound of the Iron door opening. He just knew it would be another day for them to torture him. It has been like that for months now, he stopped counting after passing the 100th day, he couldn''t even scream from pain anymore, as he slowly yet surely, got used to this inhuman torture and all of it, for what? Just money, apparently his so-called ''wife'' just married him and wanted his money, so she plotted to kidnap then torture to force him to give her all his assets and money.
They tortured him in all kinds of ways, cutting, whipping, starving him for several days, and even forcing him to watch her as she copulated just so she could see the look in his eyes when she was doing it with another man. First, he was asking her why all this cruelty, but as the days went on, Arthur knew his begging and crying wouldn''t do him any good so he just turned into a mute, neither responding to her questions nor showing any reaction.
He just stopped that and accepted his fate, yet the hatred and rage that dwelled within him kept growing every second, in fact, he wanted to kill them in the worst possible way and payback everything they had done to him until now, yet he knew that it was just wishful thinking.
He was never a religious man, but he believed in God. Yet after all that happened, he''s sure that God had forsaken him, or just never cared at all. Arthur is but an insignificant being to God, why would HE do anything to save him?
And so the hellish days continued and Arthur''s rage only grew greater and greater until one day, while they were torturing him, everything seemed to stop moving, his ''wife'', the man with her, everything. And then he saw a human-like figure appear out of thin air and stand in front of him, he couldn''t really distinguish the silhouette''s face, it seemed blurry, but maybe it was him being dizzy after all the torture and he just couldn''t see right, after all, they had ripped his right eye out, and he could barely see with his left one.
"Hello there! Hehe, I can see that you are in a bad situation here, ain''t ya?"
Said the ¡®man''
First, Arthur thought he was obviously hallucinating, after all, how could this be possible? But this ''man'' kept talking to him and waving his hand.
"Ara... perhaps you can''t see me with one eye?"
The man approached him and touched his forehead with his index finger, and just like that, Arthur¡¯s right eye was back, he didn''t know how to describe it, but his right eyes was fully restored, he felt no pain whatsoever throughout the entire process.
He could see with it and even his left eye was completely healed. Arthur stood there dazed for a second before looking at the ''man'' in front of him in disbelief.
"Ahah, you finally noticed me ehh? Good, good I am ''X'' it''s nice to meet you" said the ¡®man¡¯.
"Who''re you? And what did you do to me?"-Arthur.
The ¡®man¡¯replied with a rather nonchalant tone:
"No need to get angry, I just said it, I¡¯m ''X'', I¡¯m just a random entity that roams the universe, it''s complicated to explain but I¡¯m here to propose a deal for you."
"A deal? What kind of deal?"-Arthur.
¡®X¡¯ then approachedhim and extended his hand, suddenly, a black orb with some purple lines in it appeared in his hand, he then said:
"I want to give you a second chance, a new life in a different world. I guess you can call it some form of a reincarnation and obviously, being the generous person that I am, I''ll let you keep your memory of this life. However, nothing is free in this life, as a businessman, you know that more than I do, so I have a few conditions."
To be honest, Arthur couldn''t believe what he had just heard, a second chance? He thought about that a lot while being tortured and wondered if he had chosen a better wife, would things have turned out differently? Or maybe if he had been more careful, he wouldn''t be trapped in such a desolate place for so long.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
To become a wealthy CEO of an international company, Arthur passed many hurdles in his life but the only problem he had was that he trusted people easily, to be more accurate, he drops his guard against people whom he''s familiar with. No one would expect a dear friend to backstab you or a wife to betray you, or so thought Arthur before all of this happened. He never had a clear goal in his life, he became a businessman just to obtain money and live an easy life, he had all the luxuries a person could have but such things were only means to an end.
He looked at this ''man'' carefully, this strange person in front of him seemed kind of demonic, he wore a black suit and had a gold cane in his right hand, he really seemed like an evil person, but he talked with a friendly tone, so Arthur guessed he shouldn''t judge him by just his appearance albeit feeling a bit cautious.
He gazed at the entity before him and said:
"Why did you choose me? Surely there are people suffering from a life more miserable than mine, better candidates or suitable choices."
"Indeed there are, but you have something special, something that not every miserable person can have. The hatred and rage that have been accumulating in you through the past months are something really unbelievable, I have never seen anyperson with as much rage as you while still being so calm around the people who caused it, it really is quite terrifying to see, even for someone like me." Replied ''X'' with a praising tone.
Maybe he was right, whenever those people came to torture Arthur, he never uttered a single word. It''s as if he was a body without a soul,but that was only because he was keeping his hatred hidden, imagining what he would do to him if he were to escape.
"So ''X'', what are the conditions for you to be able to reincarnate me?"
X laughed hearing Arthur''s reply thenanswered
"Good, good, straight into business, huh? That''s what I like! Well, first I need to seal your hatred and rage until you can control them, or else you''ll just slaughter everybody in your next life. Second, I need you to ''eat'' this orb in my hand, it is quite special, believe me, it will help you a lot in your next life."
"I thought the conditions would be harsher or disadvantageous to me, but if it''s only that, then I accept your offer."
"Alright, it''ll be really exciting to watch you grow, I¡¯ll also gift you some unique abilities. By the way, you have to kill yourself to be able to reincarnate, since I can''t interfere in this world''s matters."
He then passed him the black orb, which Arthur swallowed straight away. It tasted sour, but it was not that bad, actually, he really couldn''t feel anything after swallowing it, so he asked ''X'' why, but the latter just shrugged while chuckling.
''X'' then sealed his rage, while saying that it would be better to keep it in check, just tapping his shoulder with his cane he had supposedly achieved such a feat.
After talking about the conditions once more ''X'' vanished just like he appeared and time resumed once again.
Everything returned to normal and the people in the room resumed their movements. Just like that, they continued torturing him like any other day, yet this time he didn''t care, because he knew he would soon die and leave this miserable world.
While they were leaving the room after having their ''fun'' with him, Arthur laughed and was noticed by his wife, Claudia.
"What are you laughing at? Did you finally turn insane?" asked Claudia.
He just ignored her and kept laughing¡
"You¡¯ll rot in here for your entire life or until you give us what we want, so no use laughing or searching for pity from me, I¡¯m just your wife on paper, you didn''t even take care of me or say that you loved me even once.¡± exclaimed Claudia.
Arthur finally stopped laughing and looked at her
"you''ll get what''s coming to you, one day I¡¯ll come back and KILL ALL OF YOU, DO YOU HEAR ME YOU B#*¡è!"
He kept cursing her over and over again until she left while laughing at him.
When he was alone, he thought about how his life was meaningless here and how he was going to start a new one and hopefully, not be as carefree as he was here, while avoiding humans who were simple creatures full of greed.
After being lost in thought for a couple of minutes he bit his tongue as hard as he could to kill himself, the pain from biting his tongue was almost nonexistent, compared to what he had been through, it was simply nothing.
Though biting the tongue would not kill someone instantly, he kept doing it until blood flowed endlessly from his mangled tongue. Time slowly passed and when enough blood leaked out,his breathing became slower and his skin turned paler, a few more minutes passed before he finally took his last breath and died.
''X'' never told him what the world he was going be reincarnated in was and which race he was going to be.
usually, reincarnation would lead him to a new life with a baby¡¯s body, while keeping his present memories, but this time maybe not? Maybe ''X'' would let him keep his present body?
Void surrounded him for a long time until he felt the fresh air and opened his eyes, it was kind of blurry for a second as he adjusted his vision and tried to move his sluggish body.
But what surprised him was that he could see plants as big as mountains around him, first, he thought this was just a weird world, but then he saw some kind of animal that wasas big as a mountain. Arthur dazed off for a second before thinking of a possibility...
''No, it couldn''t be, right? ''X'' wouldn''t reincarnate me as a worm or an insect right? RIGHT? ''X!''
Chapter 2 : A new World
While Arthur was gazing around the area and angrily cursing himself. He realized that he didn''t specify what race he should be reborn into, so ''X'' just reincarnated him into an Insect of some sort. He couldn''t even walk properly, in fact, he had to crawl. Despite this, he was quite fast for an insect. Not even a minute after he appeared, some sound rang in his head
''ting''
You have gained a Skill![Parasitic Possession].
Parasitic Possession: Allows you to possess any living being and gain their Stats and Skills. When you leave this being you will retain those Stats/Skills.
You have gained a Skill! [Language Comprehension].
Language Comprehension: Once you possess a being you can comprehend and speak its language automatically.
You have gained a Skill! [Appraisal].
Appraisal: You can Appraise anything in your field of vision.
You have gained a Skill! ["Blessing of ''X'']
Blessing of ''X'': You level up and gain experience for Stats/Skills 25 times faster than normal beings.
You have gained a Skill! [Swift]
Swift: Because you are a parasite, your Stats are lower than any other kind of being, but you gain +600% Speed.
You have gained a Skill! [Orb of the Fallen Overgods]
Orb of the Fallen Overgods: Locked until you meet the necessary requirements!
You have gained a Skill! [Orb of the Fallen Overgods(passive)].
Orb of the Fallen Overgods (passive): You gain affinity with every element(+65%). This can be raised if you level up.
increase resistance to all elements(+25%).
You have gained a Skill! [Parasitic use of Mana]
Parasitic use of Mana: Because you are a parasite your use of mana if more efficient than any other. Any skills used with mana have a 15% mana reduction and if you are possessing a being the mana reduction becomes 20%.
''Wow'', even though he thought ''X'' screwedup and made him an insect, he never thought of the possibility of being reincarnated as a parasite in a game-like world.
He could guess it was a game-like world by those blue windows which he could ¡®see¡¯ in his mind, or in his field of vision if he willed it. It''s really new to him as he hadn¡¯t played many games in his previous life, only 1 or 2 when he was a teenager, but he knewthe basics at least.
Arthur was really surprised when he saw his skills, they seemed really overpowered. Normally, if someone is supposedly reincarnated, they would get a blessing or a power, but not THIS many skills.
He also wondered if he could see his health and if it even existed because in games, there is a health bar with a number on it and if it reaches zero, you are dead.
He pondered for some time before attempting to open his ¡®status¡¯ by thinking various things,
''Window! status! open up! open up!............status window?''Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Finally, after some tries, he managed to achieve something as a large blue windowappeared out of nowhere.
TITLE :NONE
NAME :Arthur
RACE :Parasite
Strength :10
Intelligence :10
Agility :200
Wisdom :15
Vitality :5
Dexterity :15
-
-
Health :7
Health Regen :0.2/s
Mana :11
Mana Regen :0.4/s
Stamina :7
Stamina Regen :0.05/s
-
-
Attack :8
Defense :4
-
-
Elemental resistances
Holy/light :25%
Fire :25%
Darkness :25%
Water :25%
Wind :25%
Earth :25%
After¡®seeing¡¯ his Stats, he felt they were pathetic, in fact, pathetic would even be an understatement. 7 points of health? Wouldn''t he die from just a touch? His agility was high as expected, when he tried dragging his body a bit earlier, he noticed that his speed was rather fast for a parasite that was smaller than a damn insect.
Honestly, he felt depressed thinking of how weak and insignificant he was. After checking his status window once again, he started roaming in the area searching for temporary shelter to last until he can adjust to his new body and environment.
After some searching, he found a little hole in the ground, it was pitifully small, but to him, it looked like a massive pitfall.
Arthur jumped down hoping for the best, unfortunately, just as he landed he was surrounded by some disgusting and ugly creatures. They¡¯re more or less double his size and looked a little similar to the ants from his previous world, however, these supposed ¡®ants¡¯ were green in color and had some small scales on their body, more like a mantis.
Mutated child Ant level 1
Mutated child Ant level 1
Mutated adult Ant level 2
Mutated adult Ant level 3
Mutated child Ant level 2
He stood there dazed for a couple of seconds and only snapped out of it when these ants rushed at him while threatening him with their claws.
They were double his size and quite scary looking, so having one rush at you would obviously be scary. But even though Arthur was terrified, he didn''t dare stay put and accept whatever was coming toward him without even trying to retaliate.
He didn''t even know if they were going to hurt him, eat him or whatever. He didn''t have the time to think about such things in such a dire situation. He made use of his high Agility and dashed to the left.
Heck! He didn''t even have legs so all he could do was tocrawl and ''poof''.In mid-dash, he unconsciously struck a mutated adult ant that was in the way.
The result was rather unexpected as he expected himself to be cut in two pieces but that wasn''t the case at all. He underestimated his speed and managed to pass straight through the ant, resulting in a bloody hole in its chest.
The ant fell soundlessly to the floor while green blood flowed from its wound. Arthur, not knowing what to do, concentrated on the dead ant''s body and dove into it. Everything went dark for a second before he opened his eyes, hearing the sound of the notifications;
You have successfully Possessed an Adult Ant.
You have gained a new skill! [Dig](lvl 6).
You have gained a new skill! [Ant Language]
You have gained a new skill! [Dive](lvl 2).
You have gained a new skill! [Headbut](lvl 4).
Due to your possession of an Adult Ant your stats have increased. Please check your status Window for more details.
Arthur quickly got up using his new ''body'', he still wasn''t sure what just happened until he read the notification and noticed his increased height. There was a gaping wound on his chest but his Health didn''t decrease nor did he feel any pain. He wasn''t sure why but the absence of pain had probably something to do with him, perhaps a wound inflicted by himself isn''t recognized by the game-like system.
Surprisingly, all the other ants seemed briefly startled as the enemy disappeared from their sight. A few seconds later, with no appearance of the small enemy, they dispersed and went their own ways. After Arthur possessed that ant, he tried to sneak up and find a safe place, but it was a huge labyrinth, it took him 2 whole hours to finda place relatively quiet, remote and safe with no ants nearby.
He rested for the night and when he woke up, he decided to stroll around the labyrinth, thinking¡®maybe I should try to kill some of the Mutated Ants to gain some levels and power up¡¯.
He wanted to leave this damned place as soon as he could, moreover, since his Stats increased, he should be able to at least match them in a fight and could probably kill a few of them.
After all, being a parasite he has far more Agility than them. After searching for quite some time, he finally found a Mutated Ant child level 2. He approached it from behind and used [Dive] on it. He thought it would put a little resistance, but it was crushed into the wall and turned into a mass of flesh and broken scales with green blood dying the ground. As soon as it stopped twitching and died he got notifications that he gained several gaining levels.
Life sure is funny, a while back he was tortured and now he is struggling to kill an ant. Although he didn''t start off great, Arthur was still feeling relieved. There is no better thing than being free. Doing what he wants and going wherever he wishes however, that doesn''t mean he forgot what was done to him....
chapter 3 : Improving
TITLE : NONE
Level:
4
Class:
Parasite
-
Strength
36 (+26)
Intelligence
15(+5)
Agility
224(+24)
Wisdom
25(+10)
Vitality
10(+5)
Dexterity
25(+10)
-
Health
21(+14)
Health Regen
0.4/s(+0.2/s)
Mana
19
Mana Regen
0.6/s(+0.2/s)
Stamina
7
Stamina Regen
0,07/s(+0.02/s)
-
Attack:
14(+6)
Defense:
12(+8)
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25%
After killing that mutated child ant, he continued searching for others but surprisingly after killing more ants he didn''t get any experience. So Arthur came into conclusion that the stronger the opponent the bigger the experience.
He continued to slaughter ants just to be sure but he didn''t even advance half a level. So he wandered around the ant''s labyrinth to find a way out however, due to his low Stamina he had to take short pauses every now and then.
Arthur stuck and wasn¡¯t sure what he should do as he was trapped in this huge labyrinth with no way out. But an idea struck him.. didn''t he learn the ant''s language? So why didn''t he use it? Maybe the idea of talking to ants is what made him disregard such a solution, or perhaps, unconsciously he still rejected anything due to his past experiences.
He struggled on whether he should try to talk to one of them and after some time, he finally decided he should. This is a new life and being this passive and afraid would only lead him to a life like the past one.
He searched for a mutated ant after that and soon enough he found one, he hesitated for a second before walking towards the ant and speaking to it using their language. He didn''t have any prior knowledge about their language but thanks to his special skill, he was able to understand it and speak it fluently despite how weird it sounds.
"Hello, I seem to have hit my head when fighting the intruder and I feel a bit disoriented. Do you mind telling me where I can find the closest exit?"
Even though he finally mustered the courage to talk to an ant, he made a lame excuse while asking for the exit. His worries were for naught as the other party pointed toward certain direction before it resumed its work.
Surprisingly, not long after he started sprinting, he found the familiar hole in the roof and guessed it to be the exit. So he jumped with all his strength and landed outside of this hellish labyrinth, it really gave him the creeps to be inside it.
''FINALLY OUT!''
Arthur breathed a sigh of relief then checked his surroundings. He didn''t like the ant''s body and found it rather uncomfortable so he concentrated on leaving the body and ''poof'',he was out.
Though he had to crawl to move around, that didn''t matter for him as his original body was more comfortable to him than the ant¡¯s.
He began to crawl aimlessly with high speedand after a few minutes, he noticed that his body was bigger by a few inches. Unfortunately, it was too little to make a difference so he just ignored it.
When he was roaming in an area where the bushes were as big as mountains, Arthur felt a bit anxious as he feared to encounter a large predator. Nonetheless, he continued his crawling while searching for a suitable host to possess. After all, he''s a parasite and in such an environment, the best solution for survival is getting stronger.
After some time he arrived at a big field. There were nobushes or anything except a huge creature not far away. It was gigantic and had a brown body, Arthur guessed it to be a boar-like creature since it really was similar to the boars from his world.
What was special about this creature is that it had a red gem in its forehead. Also it was larger than a normal boar and had large legs, but this didn''t startle him much since this was a new world and discovering new races and beasts would, sooner or later, become a normal thing for him.
Anyway, He crawled until he reached its legs, fortunately, it didn''t seem to notice him or perhaps it just ignored him for he was too little and insignificant to waste time killing him.
He appraised the Boar-Like Creature and he Got this;
Forest boar (beast): LVL6
After seeing his status, Arthur gave up on the idea of possessing this boar because it was simply way stronger than him. It could crush him, and he wouldn''t be able to resist, his end would be pathetic and miserable.
He really didn''t know what to do, for the time being he needed a big enough body to roam the world and discover where he is and with his current small body it would take him forever to do that, so the boar was a perfect target for him.
Arthur pondered for some time, not knowing what to do when suddenly, a reckless and idiotic idea struck him. He didn''t know if he should do it or not but he finally decided to go through with it, after all, he was this close to the boar and it didn''t even bother to kill him so he had to grasp this chance.
He crawled to the boar''s legs as fast as he could and aimed to enter from the hole in its rear. Yes, it seemed really disgusting but he had no other choices, he didn''t even know if it would work or not. Nevertheless, he decided to risk it. His speed was out of the norm, along with a small amount of luck, his dive was successful.
You have successfully possessed a Forest Boar
He opened his eyes and was joyful he could see the field in front of him with a much better and larger view.
You have Gained a new skill(active): [Sprint LVL3]
You have Gained a new skill(passive): [Stamina Reduction]
Stamina Reduction(passive): Your Stamina Decreases 3.5% Slower
TITLE : NONE
Level:
4
Class:
Parasite
-
Strength
90
Intelligence
28
Agility
262The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
Wisdom
30
Vitality
50
Dexterity
60
-
Health
71
Health Regen
0.6/s
Mana
54
Mana Regen
0.7s
Stamina
52
Stamina Regen
0.97/s
-
Attack:
49
Defense:
37
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25%
Well, his stats rose by a significant amount. He should really thank ''X'' for this amazing cheat. Arthur wondered whether he is considered strong or not, almost 100 in strength seemed like a lot but he dared not overestimate his power or act carefreelest he ends in the same fate as his past life.
After adjusting to his new body, he began to wander around in what seemed to be a forest, but surprisingly, he didn''t find a single creature even after walking for some time. Anxiety soon enveloped him and dangerous thoughts overwhelmed his mind. He even thought of the possibility of this forest being haunted although it looked pretty normal and peaceful.
Whilst he spent time searching for a relatively safe place to sort his thoughts. Arthur managed to get used to the Boar''s body, at least, he will be able to put up a small fight in case danger comes. Approximately an hour later, he stumbled into a horrifying scene that momentarily startled him and he stood frozen in the same spot for several seconds.
A big silver wolf 2 meters high and 1.5 meters in lengthwas devouring a boar like him just 100 meters away. It was seriously terrifying, the boar¡¯s body was torn apart and blood was everywhere. He stood there scared, he couldn''t even move from fear, but not even a couple of seconds passed and the Silver wolf noticed him, itstopped devouring the poor boar and stared at him with its ferocious eyes.
He could feel its ferocity from where he stood, while he was lost in thought not knowing what to do, the silver wolf leapedin his direction. At full speed it resembled a streak of lightning as it made its way toward him.
Althoughhe was in a boar''s body, the agility stats was not just for show. When he was searching for a safe place, he tested his speed andHoly Cowwas it insane. If someone from earth saw a boar run like that, they would just think they are hallucinating or dreaming, after all, there is no way a boar could run like a leopard.
The amount of Agility he got from the Boar was very little but he was a Parasite and had increased speed and for this, Arthur was pretty thankful.
Even though he judged his speed to be greater than his opponent, the fear still rooted him to the ground and he couldn''t move. When the wolf finally struck Arthur, it bit him in his neck with its sharp fangs.
You have Been Bitten (-49 Health)
Due to the Effect of BloodFangs: Your stats have been decreased:-10% mana
-2 health every second
''ARGH, it fucking hurts!''
The pain was insane but it helped him snap out of it and come back to his senses. The thought of him dying without getting revenge and not even being able to enjoy a peaceful day in his new life popped into his head.
The rage and anger that were slumbering inside of him emerged, making his breath erratic and his mind blank for a split second. He started remembering all those painful memories and all the torture he received. His hatred exploded and he started slamming the wolf to the tree so it would lose its grip but its fangs were so deep in Arthur''s neck that it wouldn''t let go no matter how much he struggled.
Furthermore, his health was decreasing fast due of the effect of blood fangs. Nonetheless, he slammed into the tree again and again, without even caring about the pain, all he was thinking about was his revenge, he even forgot about the current situation.
While he was angrily pummeling the wolf into the tree, his mind cleared a bit when he heard sounds in his head but he just ignored it and kept repeating the same action ruthlessly.
Arthur only stopped after a while had passed, he felt his body become numb from the excessive blood loss and the depletion of his Stamina. He turned his head and looked at the area the wolf was supposed to be, however, all that was left of it was chunks of meat and bloodstains.
Even the tree was destroyed beyond recognition. He stood there, surprised at what he just did, everything about what happened seemed blurry. Although he was gravely injured, the good thing was that he didn''t lose his life, with blood all over the ground and gory meat paste next to him, Arthur checked his Logs to see what was the noise he heard a bit earlier was about.
level up!
level up!
level up!
Congratulations! Since you Attained level 5 all Status: +50
Congratulations! the skill [Swift] is now level 2
Congratulations! You have Gained a new title: Meat Grinder
+10 strength / + 10 vitality if equipped
He was happy to see he gained levels, and also he got +50 to all his stats, that really made him even more delighted. To be honest, he regretted doing what he did, had he controlled his emotion and just stopped after killing the wolf he could have possessed it. For it was a much better vessel than a boar, plus, he would gain the wolf''s stats which would really be helpful.
''I really should get a hold of my emotions, huh?''
After going through his status window again, he started searching for aplace to sleep for the night.
He felt mentally and physically tired, after all, it was a long day full of surprises. For a man like himself who lived in modern society, to experience all of this is exhausting, to say the least. Arthur wasn''t particularly knowledgeable about forest-life, but he at least knew that there must be dangerous beasts that hunt at night. It would be too unfavorable for him to roam an unknown territory when such monsters lurk around.
Soon enough, Arthur found a little cave not too far fromwhere his ''battle''occurred, he entered and laid on the ground to rest. Today was a tiresome day for him and he needed timeto recuperate some Stamina and let his mind relax.
His neck was still in pain because of the wound from the wolf''s fangs but his health bar was recovering slowly but surely, and that''s certainly a good sign. He didn''t feel hunger since he ate the wolf or what was left of it. So he just closed his eyes and thought about hiscurrent life and how things were bad from the moment he was reincarnated.
The passing of time went unnoticed for the sleeping boar until the light coming from the shiny sun woke him up. He felt energeticas he stretched his body and surveyed the cave just in precaution.
The good thing was that his wound was completely healed, his health and stamina bar were also full, he checked his status window again to see if anything changed:
Status:
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER
Level:
7
Class:
Parasite
-
Strength
150
Intelligence
78
Agility
312
Wisdom
80
Vitality
110
Dexterity
110
-
Health
121
Health Regen
0.6/s
Mana
104
Mana Regen
0.7s
Stamina
102
Stamina Regen
0.97/s
-
Attack:
49
Defense:
37
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25%
Chapter 4 : Farming..
When he woke up from a long sleep, he headed out to search for a possible prey since this boar''s body is not that amazing compared to the wolf''s, for example, he may have survived against a wolf yesterday but that was just luck and his emotions got the better of him, he can''t possibly win against a wolf in a head-on fight, he has to think of a way to possess his target without fighting or maybe sneak attack it with his high speed. After searching for a while, he found a silver wolf which looked, more or less, the same as the one from yesterday, so he appraised it
LightMoon Wolf [Lv8]
The wolf''s level was higher than him. When he observed it closely; the wolf seemed quite scary, long sharp claws, silver fur, and a long neck, it seemed more like a lion than a wolf, actually, even bigger than the lion. Surprisingly, the wolf was sleeping or taking a nap as it didn''t seem to noticehis presence.
It was laying 150m from him, so he decided to approach it carefully and wait for the perfect moment, he began to sneak on it whilst doing his best not to make any sound because if it wakes up and attacks him, he''ll surely be its lunch.
After a couple of minutes, he finally arrived 10m behind it and hid in a rather big bush, but to be honest, Arthur was hesitant, he wasn''t a fighter and it would be a lie to say he wasn''t scared, nonetheless, he hardenest his emotions and resolved himself, after all, it''s the jungle and its law applies to all living beings inside it.
In his previous life, he never really got in a fight, in fact, he would always avoid it either by apologizing or find another way to talk his way out of the fight, basically, he was just a coward and although he fought the ants and the wolf from yesterday, it was just on the spur of the moment.
Very soon, he came back to his senses and used [Sprint] to rush to the wolf and hit it, his speed was incredible, it was his highest stats and the one thing he was good at, he really was thankful for at least having good speed.
The ten meters or so were crossed in a matter of seconds and when he was going to hit the wolf, it seemed to notice something and turned its head toward his direction, however, it was too late as Arthur''s ''body'' had alreadyhitits back.
you have successfully landed a Sneak attack: Critical hit -95HP
He ignored the sound and kept smashing his big head on the wolf''s back without stopping and, unsurprisingly, his damage was so low that its HP decreased only little by little.
After landing 2 extra hits the wolf, turned towards him and slashed with its claws butthanks to his high Agility, Arthur was able to dodge with but a hair''s width, he then jumped towards the wolf with all the strength he could muster wishing for the best and expecting to deal some damage but what confronted him was the wolf''s other claw, which struck him right in his chest
''ting''
-52HP
The pain was was agonizing but compared to what he has been through in the past, it''s really nothing, he gritted his teeth and ignored the sharp closed stabbing his chest and used his legs to kick the wolf in its head, though when his legs touched the beast''s head, it was like hitting steel, he could feel his legs go numb from the wolf''s hard body.
The strike seemed pointless but since he hit a vital spot, the victim was affected despite the weak attack. The wolf growled with pain and anger, clearly displeased that a creature that was supposed to be its prey managed to hurt it.
Arthur didn''t waste that precious moment and struck it again at its face. Unlike the previous strike, he aimed for its skull and mustered all that strength, wanting to finish it once and for all.
''poof''
The wolf died and soundlessly fell down on the ground, Arthur was quite excited as he quickly left his current body and possessed the wolf''s, he knew he was going to get stronger by gaining itswolf''s stats and of course, those stats were probably very high.
You Successfully possessed a Lightmoon Wolf
You have Gained a new skill(active) : [Slash Claw Lv4]
You have Gained a new skill(active) : [Bite Lv2]
You have Gained a new skill(passive): LightMoon
LightMoon(Passive): Once you are exposed to the moon all stats raised by 5% and speed raised by 15%
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER
Level:
7
Class:
Parasite
-
Strength
320
Intelligence
140
Agility
542
Wisdom
110
Vitality
190
Dexterity
214
-
Health
242
Health Regen
0.7/s
Mana
187
Mana Regen
0.7s
Stamina
230
Stamina Regen
0.1/s
-
Attack:
120
Defense:
60
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25%
Seeing his status window, Arthur couldn''t help but laughin delight.
''As expected from a hunter, its stats are really above average.''
After possessing the wolf, he spent a couple of minutes getting used to the body, stretching and adjusting his control over it, but he soon noticed that the damage he received from ''himself'' in the fight are still here but are healing at a decent speed, the pain was lessening too.
Actually, when he possessed the ant with a hole in its chest the same thing happened and the hole healed in just a matter of minutes, he guessed that this is the good part of being a parasite.
After getting accustomed to his ''new body,'' he ate the boar since for he was hungry and boar meat was, without a doubt a delicacy.Despite eating it raw (the meat), it was delicious.
Next thing on his list was trying out his new body, especially, in terms of speed. He squatted his body then leaped forward, only feeling the strong wind breezes brushing over his fastly moving body.
He could see everything blurring when he exercised his full speed, this Agility is really cheat-like.
There''s no way any other wolf, at the same Level, would have a speed similar to his, this could prove useful in future encounters, whether it''s for fleeing or battling.
Also, he got sharp claws now to attack with and hopefully, he can kill other wolves easily. Unfortunately, the experience he received from killing the wolves wasn''t enough to level him up, this didn''t lower his morale as he decided to try and hunt a few more, to hone his battling ability and gain stats.
Arthur started running through the forest, searching for Lightmoon wolves to test his new strength at, soon enough, he finally found some opponents.
There were 2 wolves which were both [level 9] eating a boar together.
They didn''t seem to notice him, nonetheless, he decided to fight them head-on and charge at them while using his new speed to see if they could react to him and counterattack.
Arthur rushed at them with all his speed while using [Dive] to maximize the efficiency of his charge. Before any of them could react, he was already near them so he used [Slash Claw] on the nearest wolf which took half of its HP, then he used [Bite] on the same wolf and didn''t let go as he watched its HP drain little by little because of the continuous damage of the skill did, and within five seconds, the wolf''s body was already lifeless.
Without wasting as much as a second, he turned towards the second wolf, which seemed surprised by his actions and as to why a fellow wolf would kill its comrade, unfortunately for the poor wolf, Arthur didn''t let it the time adjust itself to the situation as he jumped at it and used his sharp claws to strike its defenseless face.
The hit injured the wolf''s yet the beast still managed to jump back as it tried to run away since itcouldn''t fight anymore. His claws luckily hit the wolf''s eyes, blinding it and forcing it into a desperate situation.
Wolves are known to be very clever and they would retreat whenever they find themselves at a disadvantage, that was what the wolf did, it ran for its life but Arthur didn''t stand there and watch, his speed was greater than his opponent and in a couple of seconds, he overtook the wolfand killed it after a few more hits.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Level up!
To be honest, it wasn''t a fight, it was a one sided-massacre, the two wolves didn''t even resist a little and just died easily.
Arthur was quite depressed as he only gained 1 level,nevertheless, he continued searching for more wolves to level up quickly and gain some strength, but every now and then, he didn''t forget to rest a little a to regen some Stamina.
He roamed the forest and killed every wolf he stumbled upon, usually, he would only see 2 wolves together but he found a small pack composed of 3 wolves yet he still attacked them and it was quite a hard fight, one that he got out from while being victorious.
level up!
Congratulations! Since you attained level 10 all status: +50
Congratulations! Since you attained level 10 you can now evolve: Void Parasite or Poison Parasite
Poison Parasite: APoisonous Being, immune to every poison and Can Deadly poison skills, can further evolve
Void Parasite: A being capable of using Void magic and gain void skills with growth, can further evolve
Arthur was quite surprised, never in his wildest dreams would he have thought he could evolve, and this soon too.
He was infinitely grateful for this opportunity, although the small body of the parasite is hindering, the way it gains its vessels'' stats and skills is a bonus that can never be replaced.
He pondered on what type of parasite he should evolve into, poison parasite seemed really appealing and by the name he could tell he would be able to use poison but void parasite seemed mysterious and appealing as the world ''void'' was not usual and had many meanings. After thoroughly thinking about the pros and cons of both choices, he decided to choose Void Parasite, after all, in many ancient books, it is said that Void is the source of everything, if one has control over it then there''s nothing he should fear, or so thought Arthur.
''Evolve to void parasite''
......''ting''
Congratulations! You have Evolved to Void Parasite
You Gained a new skill: Void Manipulation (can be used possessing any kind of being)
Void Manipulation: Can use Void in different ways, (you gain different void skills when the void manipulation levels up)
Congratulations! Due to being a void parasite intelligence and wisdom andsignificantly increased
After those notifications popped up, he felt his body burning and some weird black tattoos started forming on the wolf''s body, they formed strange dark signs which he couldn''t comprehend, after some time, it finally stopped and as he looked at his body, he saw all his limbs were covered with tattoos, he also noticed that his thinking became a bit faster, it wasn''t to an unimagianble degree but the difference could be felt.
At first, he just shrugged off the matter of the tattos but soon enough they started bothering him because the other wolves were cautious of him, so he couldn''t get close to them then aim for a sneak attack, all he could do was hide and slowly approach them little by little which wasted a lot of time. It was too late to regret this decision, then again, choosing the other option might have formed tattoos too.
Once night came, he received a notification..''ting''
The effect of Lightmoon are now effective : +5% stats / +10% speed
His speed got slightly better which helped him hunt and after a long hunt, he got accustomed to this routine.
He searched then killed wolves and if he got hungry, he would eat them, I guess you can consider cannibalism but he didn''t care for he was only possessing a wolf and is, essentially, a parasite so eating them is totally normal.
Moreover, he didn''t care about cannibalism or whatsoever for he wanted to survive and do whatever he wants, also, whenever his stamina got very low, he''ll rest for an hour or so until it is completely full then he would resume his hunt, he never encountered any other monsters beside a couple of boars and wolves, so he guessed that the wolves are the kings in this forest.
At midnight, after having hunted almost all day he checked my status to see if there is any change ... :
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER
Level:
14
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
395
Intelligence
580
Agility
630
Wisdom
420
Vitality
255
Dexterity
275
-
Health
310
Health Regen
0.8/s
Mana
420
Mana Regen
0.8s
Stamina
295
Stamina Regen
0.2/s
-
Attack:
143
Defense:
72
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25
His intelligence and Wisdom really skyrocketed, the idea of using Fire magic or become a mage soon struck him and made him a bit excited at the mere thought of casting flashy magic spells.
Actually, he always dreamt of being a mage when he was a kid.
''ahh, it brings back too many good memories ..bad ones too''
After checking his Status window, Arthur started searching again for preys but to his surprise, he stumbled upon a fight...
A hundred meters or so from him, there was a jet black bear-like creature fighting a pack of 4 wolves, he noticed that the bear was toying with them, all of 4 wolves were bloodied and in poor shape, it really was a one-sided massacre.
Feeling apprehensive of this large monster, Arthur appraised it
Hind bear Lv28
It was double his current level so there is no way he could beat this thing alone but maybe if the pack of wolves calls reinforcements, he could somehow attack with them and kill this huge bear.
He continued to watch the fight from afar, waiting for the right moment, the wolves were struggling with bear and could only take out 10% of its Health, which was pathetic, until one of the wolves backed away and howled, which he took it as a cry for help to his comrades.
In response, the bear didn''t just stay still, instead, it rushed to stop the wolf from howling but the 3 others blocked its way to stop it, which resulted in 2 of them being crushed and slashed to death, they were literally torn to pieces by the huge bear''s claws, it was a disgusting and gory sight to behold,Arthur event felt the urge to vomit what he ate a while ago.
Time slowly passed andthey continued to struggleuntil 5 new wolves rushed in to help the remaining ones, tides have turned and now it became a 7v1.
They began to attack the bear from different sides with bites and slashes, with their high speed, the bear could not focus on all of them so every now and then, one of them would get caught by the bear and getcrushed which resulted in losing almost all of its health, Arthurhad to admit that the hind bear really got some amazing strength for it to almost killa wolf with only a single strike.
After the bear''s health reached 15%, Arthur finally joined the fray from behind by jumping with his great speed and using [Sprint] which slightly increased his speed when attacking in a straight line, he landed a critical hit on the bear''s back, but surprisingly it took only about 5% of its Health, however, it was to be expected since the bear had a huge frame and probably a strong defense.
The other wolves looked and seemed surprised by Arthur''s appearance since he had tattoos in his limbs, nonetheless they soon regained their senses and ignored him while continuing to attack the bear relentlessly, it was a classic tactic but pretty effective against a large-sized creature, especially when they have the number and sufficient speed and decent cooperation.
Arthur didn''t miss that chance, he joined the fray as well and attacked the enemy from blind spots to assure he won''t get hit by a sudden counter-attack, this continued until the bear''s HP was almost gone.
He didn''t know if he''ll get the experience if he was not the last one to kill it so he was hoping to ''Kill secure'' the bear. He waited until the perfect moment and rushed with all the speed he could muster and used [Claw slash] at the bear finishing him off and obtaining the kill after a long struggle...''ting''
level up!
level up!
level up! level up ! level up ! level up ! level up!
Congratulations! Since you have attained level 20 all status:+50
You have gained a new skill: Void Slash
Void Slash: Using the power of void you can make a powerful slash eating everything in its way
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER
Level:
20
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
445
Intelligence
630
Agility
680
Wisdom
470
Vitality
305
Dexterity
325
-
Health
360
Health Regen
0.95/s
Mana
470
Mana Regen
0.95s
Stamina
345
Stamina Regen
0.4/s
-
Attack:
171
Defense:
102
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25
Chapter 5 : Zodiaks tomb
After having killed the bear, Arthur pondered for a moment about staying at the wolf''s body or possessing the bear but finally he decided to choose the later, so he checked his surroundings to see if there are any enemies nearby but no one was there even the remaining wolves ran away after the death of the bear, so he left his current ''body'' and ran toward the bear with all the speed he could muster, if some human from his previous world saw him he would only see a black blur.
Once he possessed the bear a lot of notifications popped up in his head ''ting''
you have successfully possessed a hind bear
you have gained a new skill(passive) [Strong resistance] : your stamina has permanently increased by 250
you have gained a new skill(active) [burst attack] : you charge your claws with power for 1.5 second then you unleash it . cooldown time : none cost : 75
you have gained all stats of the hind bear
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER
Level:
20
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
875(+430
Intelligence
720(+90)
Agility
980(+300)
Wisdom
490(+20)
Vitality
740(+435)
Dexterity
450(+125)
-
Health
1060
Health Regen
1.2/s
Mana
620
Mana Regen
1/s
Stamina
1045
Stamina Regen
1.5/s
-
Attack:
283
Defense:
310
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
25
AN : the red numbers are the stats added
Arthur was quite shocked by the amount of stats that was added , his overall have improved , at least now he can roam the forest without fear of being killed at any moment and since he possessed the hind bear''s body all creatures will avoid him unless it a big pack of wolves but he thought that even if there was a big pack he could handle himself well.
He spent some minutes adjusting himself to the bear''s body and testing [void slash] and [burst attack] which surprisingly can be used together at the same time, he tried used them together on a somewhat large tree and when his claws landed on it, the tree just disintegrated the void ate it away, even the space behind the tree was eating way the power of the attack was truly monstrous, if used on a beast nothing would be left of him, not even his blood.
Arthur somewhat satisfied with his accomplishment started roaming the forest and killing every beast he found to level up, he killed boars, wolves, and even other hind bears, he encountered 2 hind bears which seemed a female and male, he didn''t plan on attacking them since he thought they were a family but they rushed at him so he just killed them, all it took was 2 normal slashes from his claws and the 2 bears were insta-killed , he felt bad for killing them for they seemed like a family but life is cruel and he had learned that from his past life, if people are cruel toward you, you have to be crueler toward them and kill them before they could come back and cause trouble for you in the future .
If he had an eye for people and could distinguish between who was using him for his money like his wife and who was kind, he wouldn''t have been in hell for all those months, so he decided that in this newly granted life he would be cold toward everyone, he just couldn''t trust anyone after what has been done to him.
After spending all day hunting he managed to reach [Level 24], but that seemed really slow, he killed hundred of preys but all he got was 4 levels, he didn''t even need to rest because of his high Stamina and extraordinary Stamina regen, if some mercenaries or adventures saw his stats they wouldn''t believe their eyes and most likely vomit blood.
A normal veteran adventure would have between 300 to 400 [Strength] and if it''s an elite one he would have 600 but that was it, having almost 1000 strength is unheard of, even having 200 [agility] is considered good because Humans normally are slower than beasts but with their numbers and intelligence they can overcome their slow speed.
However Arthur''s speed was incredible for a hind bear which normally was slightly slower than a Lightmoon Wolf, but he had the combined speed of a bear and a Lightmoon Wolf, he couldn''t even cope with his speed as when he tried running at full speed he kept bumping into trees and rocks which were completely destroyed because of his raw strength.
Fortunately, after a few hours of practice, he managed to get the hang of it.
At night, Arthur tried to find a cave to sleep, even though he wasn''t tired at all he couldn''t forget the habits he had from his previous life, so sleeping was necessary, but he had drifted a long way from the cave he was in last night, so he tried finding another one.
He spent 2 hours searching for one until he found an entrance to a cave, it seemed really well hidden but he noticed because of his keen eyesight.
He felt some kind of chilly feeling coming from the cave but nevertheless, he entered it, he kept walking for a couple of minutes in the darkness until he spotted a light not far away, once he got closer he noticed that it was a torch.
Arthur seemed to be in a corridor but what surprised him was that the walls, ground and even the roof were jet black , even the torch seemed to be made from black wood, he could see that was a long corridor because the torches continued as far as his eyes could see, he continued to walk cautiously forward , but surprisingly nothing happened, he expected some traps or mazes but nothing occurred which was even scarier and worrying.
After walking for 40 minutes he arrived at the end of corridor and saw a wooden door which was black like the surroundings, the door seemed really ancient and in the center of it wassome kind of symbol, it was the head of the skull but what''s more surprising is that it had a third eye on it''s forehead, it gave a cold feeling looking at the symbol.
It seemed like it was alive and sucking the life out of him. The door was somewhat small compared to the huge body of the bear, even if he wanted to enter there was no way he could with his huge frame, so he pondered for a moment on whether to leave his body or not , he could always get back to this body but there was the chance that there is danger behind this door so he was hesitating whether to risk it or not but after some thinking he just snorted and left his body "Tsk! Danger or not, that doesn''t matter, it can''t be worse than what I already experienced"
Arthur left the body of the bear and entered from under the door since his real body was like 7 inches he could pass easily.
Once he entered, he saw an enormous room, because of his small size, everything was big but he could guess that it was a 20x20 meter room, it had dust all over it.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
There were bookshelves, tables filled with dusty papers and there also was big chests, the very first thing he thought when he saw those chests were "treasures" but he kept looking around the room because even if he wanted to see what''s in those chests, he can''t take them with his small size.
He had immense strength even in this body but he can''t use it properly due to his size.There were various other things but he didn''t bother much with them, in the center of the room he saw a half meter black stone be, he couldn''t exactly guess what it was since he was seeing it from downward but he guessed it was some container.
Arthur approached it slowly afraid of some sneak attack from an unknown enemy or a sudden trap, but fortunately, nothing happened.
With a sigh, he mustered his strength on his lower body and jumped up, because he underestimated his strength and speed, his jump carried him all over to the roof and when he was in mid-air he could see what was this container, it was a tomb containing a skeleton corpse.
He landed on the edge of the container so he could have a close look at the corpse, it was really an old corpse, there was dust all over, and by the state of the skeleton, it must have been thousands of years if not more. The skeleton was dusty and old but surprisingly it didn''t have any crack which shocked him greatly.
Arthur circled around the tomb to observe more. He noticed that near the corpse was a black book with the same symbol that he saw in the door, also there was a black robe and a cane with a red crystal on top of it, the cane seemed really old and creepy, the red crystal was in the shape of some kind of person with 8 hands, it reminded him of myth of Asura that he heard of in his previous life but this shape had 2 more hands than Asura.
He pondered whether he could possess a dead person or not, well he can possess dead animals like the bear and the wolves but is it the same thing for all beings or is it just monsters? He stopped thinking about this and dived right into the skeleton with a hope of possessing it.
Controlling a human body is more comfortable and there are things you can''t-do with a beast''s body like grabbing things, after all, you can''t grab with your claws it''s way too difficult. All it took was less than a second and he heard the rewarding notification sound ''ting''
you have successfully possessed zodiak''s body
Zodiak : in the past , there was an entity called the Dark magician , he was known for his necromancy and dark magic which was lethal to every being, he was pursued by the holy church and all kingdoms and empires for thousands of years but no one could catch him , every time they find him he would slaughter everyone or keep some for experimenting on them , he was the definition of evil , feared by all he built a small base to escape from all those people and keep researching without disturbance, after years passed the search of dark magician lessened until he became a myth and no one could find him , they concluded that he was dead because he never appeared again.
you have gained a new skill (active) Dark magic[Lvl : ???] : you can use dark magic to form an attack, barriers, traps and all sort of things, all research made by zodiak are available to you to use if you have the ability to do so. Cost : none
You have gained a new skill ( active) necromancy[Lvl ??]: you can spawn all kind of underworld beings and command them cost : depends on the being you revive
you have gained a new skill(passive) [dead being] : because you are A skeleton , your Stamina is infinite and your defense and vitality have increased : you can regenerate lost bones
you have gained all Zodiak''s stats
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER
Level:
24
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
1040(+165)
Intelligence
1500(+862)
Agility
1180(+200)
Wisdom
1248(+758
Vitality
1441(+701)
Dexterity
620(+170)
-
Health
1285
Health Regen
11.2/s
Mana
1240
Mana Regen
25.1/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
???
-
Attack:
581
Defense:
1032
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
100%
Arthur stared for a couple of minutes at his status window, his eyes widened when he saw the increase in Intelligence, Vitality, and Wisdom, his overall stats are all above 1000 except for his Dexterity, this was definitely a cheat, he believed that now he can one-shot everything that attacks him even with raw strength which was completely unbelievable.
He got up and tried moving his body, at first it felt really heavy but just after a couple of seconds, he was able to move normally and freely. Everything was alright, It''s the same feeling as being a human-like his previous life except it was kind of strangeseeing his body made of bones.
How can he eat delicious things like this or drink water, he was made of bones so normally anything will fall to the ground if he was eating or it will spill on his lower bones, but nevertheless he was excited when he tested his movements, he could run to the end of the room in less than a second it almost seemed like it was teleportation.
Arthur tried throwing a punch at the air but he underestimated his strength greatly and even when punching the air the wall at the end of the room was utterly destroyed with nothing left, he stood there dazed for a second then he sighed and thought
"if I had this kind of this strength in the past who would dare to have mess with me? Life is really cruel and unfair for some people..."
After spending 5 or so minutes testing his body and overall abilities he tried using his new skillsand the one which picked his interest is the Dark Magic ability.
It says that he can use dark magic to attack or defend but it didn''t explain how, so he focused and thought about a spear in his mind and suddenly
''bzzzt"
A dark 2-meter spear appeared near him floating beside his shoulder, he was surprised at first then he felt ecstatic and overjoyed.
The spear was jet black it didn''t have any special features except the-the edges of the spear had some kind of black flames, he tried aiming the spear at the wall and suddenly ''boom'' the wall was destroyed and there was no sign of the spear, the power was truly frightening.
The room was made by 4 walls, the wall which was targeted by the spear all crumbled and the spear just continued destroying everything it crossed until Arthur ordered the spear the go back to him, he truly couldn''t believe his eyes as the speed of this attack was faster than what his eyes could see.
He tried changing the shape of the spear and it was indeed like he thought, he could change it however he wants, whether it was an axe, a sword, a dagger and even a shield, then it occurred to him that it said in the description that you can use dark magic to form barriers so he thought about that, but the dark shield next to him didn''t change.
However, a black aura surrounded him from all directions it seemed like a sphere surrounding him, it was a transparent sphere but it was kind of black-ish, he willedthe barrier to disappear and it just disappeared in a split second.
It seemed like forming a barrier was slower than forming a weapon but nevertheless, it took only 1 second so it wasn''t that big of a deal.
Arthur tried experimenting more with Dark Magic and he discovered that he can make more weapons, he created spears until all the room was filled with them and what surprised him was that it didn''t cost mana to attack or form weapons or barriers which were truly a goodyet frightening thing.
Next, he tried the revival skill which came from Zodiak as well, and it was kind of Okay, it was not overpowered like the Dark Magic but it could be useful.
After some experimentation, he found out that he can summon a skeleton for 20 mana each and a mage skeleton which had a cane with 40 mana each, all kind of skeletons can be summoned.
Moreover, he tried thinking about a wolf or bear and it was a success, he could also summon them though they were all bones, he also can summon zombies but they seemed slow and not that strong so he just ignored them , he stopped further experiment with this skill because the room was not that big to experiment in.
Arthur was truly happy, he knew that his abilities are considered good even in this world.
After all, destroying a wall in a less than a second is a something not everybody can do, what''s more is that he can use magic so that meant that there are people who can use it as well, but he was kind of depressed becausehis level was somewhat low, even if his stats are cheat-like, he didn''t like having low level he felt kind of insecure.
For him, he didn''t want to be put in a situation like the tragic past, he must be in control of his own destiny and not be toyed with by some greedy and evil people.
Arthur turned around and went near the tomb to appraise the robe and cane, they seemed ancient but they weren''t destroyed so they may be useful to him, he first appraised the robe and waited for notification to tell him the details .....
Chapter 6 : Willsden Town
''ting''
Cursed robe of Zodiak : Casting Dark Magic is 50% faster / Mana regeneration is 100% faster / +1500 Mana // nullify any curse magic.
Unique skill(active)[Dark cloud]: you Can create a special cloud that allows you to ride it, can be used for flying or carrying things. cost : 35mana/s
Requirement: must be a controller of dark magic
Arthur was amazed by this robe, its stats are terrifying, increasing mana regeneration by 1 fold and a unique skill too? that was too amazing, this robe increases his overall abilities by a lot. Next thing he did was appraise the dark book next to the robe
''ting''
Book of the Damned : skill book(type : Unique ) : this book can be used to learn a unique skill : [Death touch] : By absorbing the Live energy of creatures you killed you can earn double the experience ( AN : experience is measurement for leveling, when you reach a specific number you level up ) and when you reach certain number or creatures absorbed you learn new skills
Requirement : 750 Intelligence / 500 Wisdom.
''Jackpot''
Thought Arthur, he really was lucky in getting this book but he was curious as to why, Zodiak the previous owner of his current ''body'' didn''t learn this book, by looking at the previous stats of Zodiak he could have learned this skill but he didn''t which alarmed Arthur , maybe this book has some side effects which were dangerous but that didn''t mean that he has to throw a precious skill like this after all he didn''t have anything to lose.
It''s a new life for him so he should do whatever he wants to do whether it is crazy dangerous or stupid, Arthur mumbled softly
"go big or go home, huh?"
And then he learned the skill, a dark flash of light appeared and then he heard the notification
you have learned [Death Touch]
Arthur didn''t feel anything out of the place when he learned the skill, nothing dangerous happened even after waiting a couple of minutes so he just shrugged it off and appraised the cane to see its stats.
Sol''khin''s cane: unable to appraise stats due to low-level
''That''s weird...''
Once this message popped up, he couldn''t help but feel sad and a bit confused. The cane had a creepy appearance but a unique, almost nonexistent aura was lingering around it, it was too ominous for him to not notice it.
He left the best for last but his excitement lessened, the cane looked creepy but it sure as hell was strong and that''s because he couldn''t appraise it and that means it''s too strong for him currently.
He has been able to appraise an item such as the robe which was totally cheating so an item which he couldn''t appraise with his current stats means either his level is too low or his stats are too low.
Arthur then tried putting the robe on and unsurprisingly it fitted him, since it was Zodiak''s robe so of course, it would, the robe covered all his bony body, it even had a hood which covered the head, if you look at his appearance now you could only see his legs and hands which were bones.
"if I''m gonna meet people, I need to find some boots and gloves to cover my body or else anyone would be suspicious if they see bones instead of hands or feets"
He searched the tomb for more items and he found 2 rings which seemed luxurious, the 2 were made of black gold and impossible to miss, next to them there was a bronze necklace and 1 feet black crystal, so he began by appraising the rings.
''ting''
Black Magic Ring: Zodiak Was very possessive of his items so he created a storage ring which can only be accessed by using dark magic so even if it was stolen no one but him can open it
Contain a huge space which can contain various items but no living beings, use dark magic on it to use it
Arthur was a little fan of hames in his previous life, even though he dedicated his life to his job, when he was a child he also played games or read some manga so he somehow understood what this ring is, it was some kind of inventory to store items, very classic thing in games.
Dark Flame Ring : all your attacks will contain black flames which increase the damage by 35% , +175 intelligence / +500 health / +500 mana
Necklace of the Chaotic Evocation of Conjuration: Can be used to strengthen anything created (fire, water, summoned pets,etc..) by 20%, +100 wisdom
The items were really cheated like, as you would expect from an ancient evil being, Arthur was really overjoyed by the discovery of this tomb, and it seems those items can be equipped by anyone so he could equip them now.....
After wearing the rings and necklace, he felt a slight increase in his pool of mana. He also noticed that his thinking is way faster than before and even more rational, he seemed very calm in a situation like this, he got so many things from this place but he was just excited for a couple of minutes if it was someone else they would die from joy.
Arthur then went on to appraise the big crystal which was very ominous, it emitted a dark aura similar to the book of the Damned
''appraise!''
''ting''
Soul container: Contains the life of many dead beings, they were stored by an ancient dark magician in the past for research but he didn''t get to use
Can be consumed by [Death touch] and all this would be changed to experience.
Do you want to use [death touch] to consume the lives in this crystal?
''Yes''
......
level up! level up! level up! .......
After having consumed the crystal, Arthur''s level went up by a lot and when he checked his current level he was dumbfounded to see it reach 87. His level increased by a whopping 63, which was really something he didn''t believe until he rechecked his level 5 times, various notification popped when he leveled up so many times, since he was a parasite every 5 levels he got a +50 increase in all stats so overall his stats increased by 600 each, and also he got 2 skills from [Death touch].
''ting''
Congratulations! since you absorbed 10.000 souls you learned: [Death Binding]: By using this skill you cannot be killed for the next 10 Seconds.
Cost: none
Can only be used 3 times. 3/3
Congratulations: since you have absorbed 100.000 souls you learned : [Faster than Death](passive): you Can now make instant movement on a radius of 50m / Agility +200 cost: 150 mana per movement.
Those abilities were top even among his abilities, not dying for 10 seconds was really a trump card for Arthur in case of emergencies, he tried activating [faster than death] and pinpointing a location in the room it was almost instantaneous as he found himself at the location where he wished to teleport to, such skill could only be described as Godly!
He could also use continuously as long as he has the necessary Mana, but regretfully it cost quite a bit, 150 Mana per use is really a lot so he decided to only use it when he needed it since even without it his speed is incredible.
Arthur looked around for more items in the tomb but there were none left, he felt refreshed because of the turn of the events, he shifted his gaze to various corners of the room, checking whether there are some good items hidden or left unnoticed by him.
There were some scrolls, ancient books and so on, but before he checked them, he tried using the storage ring he got just now.
Since he practiced dark magic for a couple of minutes, and with the knowledge he got from Zodiak his control was somewhat decent so he used it on the ring and suddenly he felt like he had control of a big space, in his mind he could see a big black space loaded with items but even with all those items there seems to be more space left than used . there really were a lot of items which him very happy, what''s more, he found boots and gloves that could possibly wear.
Imoogi''s boots: a special boot made of skin of an ancient Iimoogi: Agility +120 / Vitality +75 / defense +150
Level requirement: 50
black ruby gloves : +50 Intelligence // +10% Mana Regeneration
The stats were not that amazing compared to the other items he got but he didn''t care about that and he equipped them after he got them out of the storage which was an easy thing to do, he just willed them to be out and they popped out of thin air in front of him.
Amongst the other items in the storage, there were weapons and armors but they were not as good as the ones he was wearing so he just neglected them, there were some he couldn''t appraise like the cane too so he just put them aside for the time being.
He kept looking around until he found an interested cane that caught his attention.
Silence Cane : a cane specially crafted by Zodiak : +150 Intelligence / +150 Wisdom / +25% Mana Regeneration // attack +400
level requirement: 85
Since he didn''t have a weapon right now, he decided to use it in battle, after all, it was better than nothing, the cane didn''t look much special too, it was a black cane with a violet crystal on top in a shape of a skull.
Arthur continued looking through the items, but nothing caught his eyes as most of them were either weapons, strange talisman or countless books or chests that had items he never saw in his life, he decided to ignore them for now as maybe his level is way too low for them. There was a mind-boggling amount of Gold, Arthur could guess it was most likely the currency used here, but the amount was just too much.
After Arthur finished checking his storage ring he turned around to search for useful things, he first went to the bookshelves and tables and stored everything, since he can understand the language used by the being he possessed he could read those books, but for now he kept them in his storage he decided he will look through them when he has some free time.
Finally there were only the supposedly treasure chests left in the room, there were exactly 3 treasure chests, he approached them then he used a little bit of strength to open the first one, when it was open, all he could see was gold coins but those were very special as they were ancient and dusty but they had a symbol of dragon on them, the first and second chests were full of those coins so he just put the 2 chests in his storage then he went and opened the 3rd chest expecting to see gold coins too but surprisingly he found it loaded with crystals , they seemed to be emitting some kind of energy and they were various sizes and colours , he tried appraising them but all he got was this.
''ting''
magic crystal(type : rare) : can be used in enchanting????????????????
Since he didn''t know what enchanting means, he decided to put the chest into the storage and look at it further when he can comprehend what those crystals are meant for.
After clearing all the room he was left empty in this dusty room, he breathed a sigh of relief
''''luck has really a part in life huh".
After he readied himself and his clothes and checked everything he left the room and the first thing he saw was the corpse of the bear he left in here, since it was blocking the way he decided to push it with the dark magic but suddenly he stopped and tried using [death touch] , he put his hand on the bear and [death touch] consumed the be.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
The corpse was absorbed in Arthur''s hand like a black hole, after clearing the corpse he decided to test his speed, since it was a long corridor and with his new stats there isn''t anything that it can harm him so he used his full speed to run through the corridor and what surprised him is what took him 40 minutes with the bear .
Now took him roughly 2 minutes, his speed was really incredible, the corridor was approximately 20 to 25km and to do that in 2 minutes is like going 12.5km in 1 minute which was incredible.
After he arrived at the end he noticed that it was sunrise right now, h took a breath of fresh air and checked his stats.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER
Level:
87
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
1640
Intelligence
2475
Agility
2100
Wisdom
2098
Vitality
2116
Dexterity
1220
-
Health
1880
Health Regen
24.2/s
Mana
3840
Mana Regen
58.9/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
1581
Defense:
1782
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
25%
Earth:
25%
Light:
25%
Darkness:
100%
Arthur was quite happy and proud of his stats even though it was totally luck that got his this strong but nevertheless , he is considered strong now and since he stabilised himself more, he thought that it was time to head to a city or a town to learn more about this world after all he doesn''t have a goal in his life now, he will just live freely and do whatever he wants.
Since he doesn''t even know where he is right now, he used [Dark cloud] the black 2-meter cloud appeared beside him he jumped on it, it was sturdy cloud even sturdier and harder than the ground.
Arthur willed the cloud to fly up in the air so he can at least see his surroundings as maybe he''ll see a town or a city.
The cloud got very high until he willed it to stop, it seemed so natural to control it, it felt like it was a part of his body. When he was high enough in the air, he observed the surrounding and all he could see was a big forest in all directions except the North. On the North, there were fields and a town with high walls but for Arthur, those walls were tiny because he was higher than them in terms of altitude, plus he was quite far away from them.
The town seemed to be 30 to 40KM to the North but he was able to see it with his high Dexterity, there was also some kind of camp 15KM in the same direction of the town but it was really minuscule and he could barely see it as there were no trees in that direction and there existed an open grassy field with some fog produced by a flame most likely so he guessed it must be some kind of camp or something similar.
He went to the direction of the town with his cloud, and surprisingly the cloud has the same speed as him when he is running full speed.
When he was 20Km from the town he descended to the ground and decided to run from there because flying may attract some unwanted attention and he wanted to stay lowkey.
When he got down, he willed the cloud to disappear, rechecked his attire to make sure it didn''t look shady but no matter how you look at, anyone would find him suspicious with his black robe that covered his skeletal face and everything, literally, he looked like a black shadow, there is also the cold feeling he emanating, it was too chilling.
Arthur finished the check and started running toward the town, however, he didn''t run at full speed because that would even attract more suspicion than his shady look. If he were to run at full speed, no one would be able to see him, they would only feel a gust of wind passing by them.
His current running speed was relatively low, maybe similar to when he was inside the boar''s body and it did not attract any attention but it''s not like he met anyone so far but this situation soon changed when 5 men appeared out of the blue. They seemed dirty and had scars on their faces, one man was burly and had a big frame, and another was skinny with a long pointy nose, and the three others were more dirty looking and wore rusty armors.
The burly guy had a big axe at his back and the skinny one had a sword sheathed but the other three guys had just simple axes at both hands.
One of the 3 guys approached Arthur and said disdainfully
"Hello there, this is a dangerous place, don''t you need some protection from veteran people like us? Say no more, we''ll provide you with protection until Willsden town but you have to give us your belongings so we can keep''em safe ok?"
The man approached Arthur with a disgusting smile hanging on his hideous face but when he was 5 meter from him he felt a chill down his spines that stopped his feet from moving another step toward Arthur. One of the other guys saw that his companion stopped advancing and felt something was off so he approached his comrade and shouted at Arthur
"Didn''t you hear what second brother said? Hand over your f*cking belongings so we can protect you, or you would die by some ''unfortunate'' accident hehe".
Arthur knew from what they said that they were bandits but nevertheless he used appraise on them to measure their Levels and strength, after all, no matter how much he is strong he can''t act rashly unless he knows the general strength of a human in this world, when he used appraisal he could see their Levels
Sayo (Bandit Lv4)
Kayo (Bandit Lv3)
Bago (Bandit Lv4)
Silvester (Bandit Lv6)
Captain Bandit Lv8
It seemed that his guess was right and that the burly man was the highest level and apparently the strongest, but he stayed silent and watched as his companions tried to rob someone.
Arthur''s Level was 87 which was way higher than these bandits and from observing their Levels and equipment he concluded he could kill them at any given time but he didn''t, after all, killing a human is not like killing a monster, however, his hatred for humans is more than monsters as humans are more dangerous, their greed can change them completely but even so he hesitated on whether to kill them or not, bandits are usually bad people who rob and kill for their own benefit so killing them is like giving service to society but for someone who never took a human life before it was kind of difficult.
Arthur remained silent and waited to see their response. The one who shouted at Arthur got angry because he got no response and rushed at him with a short knife, clearly wanting to kill him, but once he got close he too felt the cold and chilling aura emitted from Arthur, nevertheless, he continued to rush at Arthur wishing to slit his throat him.
Arthur saw the man coming to him but his speed was so slow that he felt as if he was not moving, he could''ve killed him a thousand times if he wanted to be he didn''t, by seeing his speed he knew that even if this attack landed on him it wouldn''t do any damage because his defense is enormous and he wanted to use this situation to know his limits and how much his bones could hold. He waited for the attack to
He waited for the attack to land, fortunately, or unfortunately for him, it did but it didn''t even go through the robe, it was like it hit metal or something even harder, since Arthur was wearing the armor, it added to his Defense too so the knife of the bandit couldn''t pass through it, not even scratch it or rip it.
The bandit stood there dazed, he couldn''t believe his eyes, even a hind bear cannot withstand an attack like that and stand there so casually, so seeing with his one eyes that his attack didn''t even scratch the robe, his hand began shaking as he realized he attacked the wrong person and there will be no coming back.
The skinny looking bandit who was Lv6 noticed what happened, his eyes narrowed and his face turned serious, he leaned closed to the burly man and whispered with a low voice.
"Boss, this guy isn''t some random man, we should be cautious, do we attack all at the same time?"
The burly man''s eyes turned serious for a moment before he smiled and said
"Sayo! Bago! Why are you attacking this man? Come back here NOW !" he then approached Arthur slowly then said "little brother, please excuse my
He then approached Arthur slowly and apologetically said "little brother, please excuse my
"Little brother, please excuse my comrades, they lack manners, as a way to apologize would you please follow us to our village? We will certainly gift you something that will please you"
The burly man''s sudden change in attitude surprised the 4 other bandits but they quickly understood that if their boss was sweet-talking this man it means this person is strong, so they lowered their arms and smiled awkwardly to Arthur.
Arthur still didn''t say anything, but the burly man took his silence as a yes and added
"Then please follow us, the village is near it will only take us a couple of minutes at most."
He then turned around and started walking. The 4 others followed him, Arthur pondered for a moment then he followed them, he walked behind the burly man but the 4 others were circling around him, it was obvious that they were blocking his exit.
Just as the man said, after 5 minutes of walking, they arrived at the so-called village. Actually it couldn''t be called a village, there were several tents scattered here and there and a big one in the middle, there were dozens of men around the camp either drinking or sparring, Arthur even noticed that in the sparring, the one who won kept kicking the losing opponent until he killed him but the cheers from the comrades didn''t stop, they seemed unaffected by the death of their companion.
On the corner of the camp there was steel cage and what was inside it was really ugly to behold, it reminded Arthur of his past life, in the cage there were several men either torturing women or playing with them, there were even little children with bruised bodies. All these women had lifeless eyes they didn''t even scream, it seemed like it had been some time since they were captured and they either gave up or got used it too, those eyes reminded him of his hellish past and the time he spent in that desolate room, Arthur stopped walking and watched the cage in daze.
The burly man noticed Arthur''s action so he laughed and said
"Hahaha, little brother need not worry, we''ve got women better than these, but if you like some in there, we can always give them to you, you only need to say the word, for now, let''s head to my boss, he is the ruler of this village"
Arthur heard what the burly man just said and he got even angrier but he contained his anger and continued to follow the burly man who introduced himself as Ricardo.
When they arrived in front of the big tent, Ricardo told Arthur to wait for a moment, then he entered the tent, after some time he exited the tent with a smirk and said
"I have told the boss what happened and he wishes to meet you so he can compensate you and apologize for the actions of my companions, please enter. " Ricardo opened the tent for Arthur to let him enter.
Arthur didn''t say a single word from the beginning, he just entered the tent. The interior was quite luxury it contained some good furniture but compared to what Arthur had in his storage it was trash, he walked for 10 or so meter until he heard noises "you
"You whore! I chose you because you seemed really good but you''re worse than shit aren''t you? Hurry up and do your job properly! "
When Arthur passed the curtain and went toward the noise, he saw someone sitting in a chair with a wooden desk in front of him, he seemed to be doing inappropriate and his eyes were burning with lust, when he saw Arthur, he didn''t particularly stop or anything he just said
"Oh oh! So you are the man Ricardo was speaking of, wait a moment I need to finish what I''m doing.." after a couple of seconds a beautiful woman seemed to appear from near the desk, she seemed to have been crawling near the desk so Arthur didn''t see her when he came in, she had a collar on her neck and her eyes were more lifeless than the ones on the outside , the man picked her up and bent her over the desk and was apparently going to rape her, Arthur didn''t want to know why she was crawling near the desk but it didn''t appear to be pleasant.
Just as he pushed the woman on the desk, the man felt a cold chill and his body began shaking non-stop so he tried to look toward Arthur but before he could even lift his head, his vision turned jet black.
Arthur saw a scene he would rather not see but at least he was able to stop it. She must have been suffering for a long time considering the lifeless look on her face but at least he ended it right now or else she would have to suffer for a long time.
It reminded him of himself and how he wished someone would kill him or help him from his suffering but no one have done that, but now it was different, now he can help someone who was in the same situation he was in so of course he would help this person because he knew what being helpless and alone really means, he couldn''t control himself so he used the dark spear and with but a thought the spear rushed toward the man, it was so fast that it crushed his head until there was nothing left, he couldn''t even react in time, he instantly died when it hit him, the dark spear didn''t stop once it pulverised the man''s head, it continued toward the tent but arthur stopped it and willed it to dissapear.
The headless corpse of the bandit boss lifelessly fell on the ground with his lower body naked, showing his disgusting thing, as for the woman, she didn''t even seem surprised by what happened, she just stood there motionless, Arthur walked in front of her and said
"Do you want to die?"
The woman looked at him for a couple of seconds then tears poured out of her eyes, she just nodded. Arthur made a dark dagger with his dark magic and stabbed her heart killing her on the spot, he knew what she was feeling, even though she was saved but all that was done to her made her want to die more than to live, death was a way for her to escape and Arthur offered her that way because he too wanted to die back then but he couldn''t, so he understood her very much.
He walked to the corpse of the bandit and used [Death Touch] on it, absorbing it completely, then he looked around the tent to see if there is something of use or anyone around but all he could find was a wooden chest, so he walked towards it and opened it but all he found was couple hundred gold coins, the same type he found in his storage ring so he concluded that these gold coins were the currency used in this world .
After looking around one more time, Arthur headed to the entrance of the tent, he was going to slaughter everyone, since everyone in this camp was either heartless and cruel, he remembered the eyes of the men who were in the cage, they were filled with lust and greed, they acted on their desires and used those women as playthings.
''this world is more rotten than the previous one''Thought Arthur
When he exited the tent, he saw Ricardo and some other men chatting, without wasting time, he created dark spears and sent them to the heads of the bandits, Ricardo and the others fell on the ground helplessly without even knowing how they died, it was truly a grusome and gory sight, there were some other bandits who saw what happened and were terrified, after all, they saw their comerade dying so fast and couldn''t even see what killed them , so they started running away, but Arthur wouldn''t let them do so, he created as many spears as there were bandits and sent them towards these fleeing bastards.
In just seconds, all the bandits were dead, no one was left alive as they really deserved to die a million times, and maybe even that was not enough to atone for what they did, the only people still alive were the women and children inside the cage.
Arthur started checking the tents for more bandits, and he found 3 of them sleeping so he killed them on spot and headed toward the cage.
The women and kids had a look of fear in their eyes, they didn''t seem as desperate and hopeless as the women in the big tent so Arthur didn''t ask them if they wished to die and even they wanted to, they could always suicide so there was no point in doing it himself.
After checking if there were any other bandits, Arthur just left the camp and headed toward the town which was called "Willsden town", but his view of this world changed, he knew that people in here might be crueler than his previous world, so he was even more cautious toward anyone, but at least he could defend himself, with his abilities he could secure a good life for himself, as what he is going to do in this town, he still didn''t know yet, but one thing for sure is that he knew, no matter who it is, anyone who means ill toward him will be dead, be it a kind or evil person, that didn''t matter, his way of thinking is sure hypocritical, or maybe he is more like a tyran than a living being, but none of that bothered him, he just wants to live however he wants, he was no longer human, so why should he still follow their morals and stupid rules? That''s absurd!
Arthur headed toward the town and with a bit of speed he arrived in 5 minutes, it was still morning when he arrived, he saw the walls of the town 10 meters high and made of stone, and there was a somewhat big gate opened, also there was a long queue of people waiting to enter the town , there were merchants in big and small carriages, and people with their families, Arthur didn''t pay attention to them, he just walked towards the end of the queue and began waiting for his turn.
All the people close to him felt that cold and chilly feeling from him like he was a ghost, no one talked to him, they even left a space of 2 meters between him and them, but that didn''t bother him at all.
After the long wait, it was finally his turn, he approached the soldier or what seemed like one, he was armored and had a longsword attached to his waist, he looked at Arthur suspiciously then said
"Hello, are you an adventurer? If yes show me your adventurer''s ID if not, then pay up 10 copper coins" Arthur just retrieved 10 copper coins to appear from his storage ring then passed them to the soldier, then he entered the town.
It was a lively town, there were people everywhere, in every corner or alley, he saw merchants selling food or clothes and even furniture but he wasn''t interested in any of that, shops and stalls were displaying their treasures with price tags near the items. It was a bustling town despite it looking a bit primitive compared to where Arthur came from.
He continued to roam the town to get to know the places better, he saw a 10 story building which had a symbol of double swords on the front, he guessed it was the Adventurer''s guild, he also saw a luxury road with all kinds of residences, when he tried checking it out the guards in the road said:
"If you are not a noble you cannot enter, sorry."
Arthur didn''t bother with the guards and just passed the luxury road, he was just interested because it was cleaner and more luxurious than the rest of the town but he since he cannot enter it, he will not bother with it, after all, with all the gold he has he surely can be considered rich but he wanted to stay lowkey for the moment and not anger someone who can threaten his life, he won''t be careless like the past him.
When night came, Arthur started searching for an Inn and after half an hour he found a 2 story building, which seemed remotely similar to the inn so he entered it.....
chapter 7 : Reading
When Arthur entered the building, he could see tables scattered all around and people were either drinking beer or eating something, they were all chatting heartily, but few of them gazed at Arthur when he walked in the building, they threw suspicious gazes at him because of his attire but those glances lasted for a couple of seconds before they continued their laughter and chatter.
Arthur ignored them and headed for the reception desk, there was a big muscular lady at the reception desk, she was frightening like a gorilla but Arthur didn''t seem affected by her appearance.
The muscular lady saw Arthur coming toward her, she frowned for a second then smiled at him and said
"Hello customer, would you like to reserve a table to eat or do you want to stay at the inn?"
Because in his past live Arthur was isolated for months, his interactions with people became non-existent, so it was hard for him to respond properly, even when he speaks his voice seems cold and devoid of emotion, he stared at the lady for a second then just said
"Inn... a room"
The lady didn''t seem bothered by the lack of words of the man before her and just replied:
"A night at the inn is 1 silver, for lunch and dinner, it''s two silvers."
Since Arthur was new to this world, he didn''t know if the price was expensive or cheap but he had thousands of silver coins and even more gold coins in his storage so spending 1 or even 100 silver didn''t seem much to him.
He merely waved his hand and 5 silver coins appeared, he handed them to the lady and spoke yet again
"5 days"
He didn''t want to stay a lot of days, he thought that 5 days should be enough to familiarize himself with the town, and if he wanted to stay any longer then he would come back and pay for more days.
The lady accepted the 5 silver coins and said
"Thank you for your payment, if you would like to follow me upstairs, I will guide you to your room."
Arthur nodded and followed her, the building was made of stone but the interior was made of wood, it was clean and tidy, even the stairs were clean and well preserved.
After walking upstairs he found himself in a 15-meter corridor with doors left and right, he followed the lady until they reached the end of the corridor she then opened the door to the left and showed him the room.
"This is your room sir, if you would like a hot water tub then come and ask me, it costs 20 copper coins" she then turned around and left hurriedly to serve the other customers downstairs.
Arthur entered the room and looked around, he saw a simple wooden desk and a chair, there was a lit candle on the desk which would run out soon but Arthur didn''t mind that for that his vision at night is better than most people because of his high dexterity.
On the left of the room was a simple bed with sheets tidied up on it but because of his infinite stamina. The bed seemed totally useless for him since he could stay awake all day long without getting tired. Even if he could sleep, he would only have nightmares about his past so he preferred staying awake and avoid unnecessary trouble.
He sat on the chair near the desk and retrieved a book from his storage, but he didn''t retrieve a random book, instead, he took a history book and began reading it.
The reason he chose a history book wasbecausehe is new to this world and the better he knows the countries and historical events the better he will be able to understand his surroundings and his current location in the world, furthermore, it will help him better adapt to the environment.
He began reading at a fast pace through the pages, because of his tremendously high intelligence, his reading was far better and his memory was strengthened too, so the contents of the books would not fade away from his memory even after some time.
He even could remember what he has read letter by letter which was truly amazing. On Earth, this could be regarded as a photographic memory, albeit being a bit superior to that.
After an hour or so he finished reading the book but he wasn''t sure if it was the same or not, after all, this book was very old and maybe many things changed from back then.
The contents of the books were about this world and the continents in it, apparently the world was divided into 4 continents, in the South was the human continent which was ruled by a human emperor the empire was called The Nida empire.
In the north was the second continent, also called the Demon continent which was ruled by a council of demons and a demon lord.
In the west was the third continent which was a wasteland, it is a deserted land with few people living in it, usually, those people were savages and barbarians, you can also findbeastmenclans there too.
Last but not least was is the 4th content , also called the Itas continent ,the continent was in far to the East and was practically a big forest composed of mountains and rivers with some dangerous places here and there, it is inhabited by elves, fairies, and various other races, it is the smallest continent and the most peaceful one, even though it''s peaceful and small, it''s by no means weak, there are some strong individuals lurking there.
Arthur wasn''t sure if the information he got from the book he had just read were still true or false, so he decided that tomorrow he would go look for a history book in a library if there was one, because in a new world, information is everything, and if he goes around and provokes someone powerful, then he would most certainly be doomed.
He then picked another book and started rampaging through it and in just half an hour he finished it.
This book explained various cults and religions, apparently the human continent had the most religions and church, and the main one is the Holy Church which has the highest authority, it is said that even the human Emperor has to listen to the orders of the church and cannot actagainstit or it would be regarded as treason.
Also, the holy church had branches all over the world, even some secret ones in the demon continent, Arthur was surprised about how detailed the book was about the holy church, inscribed its location, army, and even the pope who was a very mysterious person and is rarely seen in the public.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Time passed and Arthur continued reading books until it was morning, he learned many things such as the existence of many races like dwarves, fishmen and even the dragons which surprised him even though he believed they existed since he was in such a fantasy world.
He also found out that there are various kinds of mages, a mage who can use any kind of attribute ( AN: by attribute I mean fire, water, wind etc...) was very well-known, usually mages are nobles or royalty which were trained to be mages from birth by using either elixir or they received a blessing from the Holy Church so they could use holy/light magic.
There were also geniuses who would be born with an attribute and be a prodigy in controlling it but those were extremely rare to come by.
Also, any mage who can use 2 kinds of attributes is called adual-mageand you can find one in every 10 to 100 thousand people, it is said that every dual-mage had good fighting abilities and can be sought for even by kings.
As for mages who can use more than 2 attributes it was mentioned that they were unique and almost non-existent, they were also known to be called as ''Wizards''.
There was also something that picked his interest, he read that there was a special kind of fighters.
It was those who used magic to enhance themselves since they couldn''t use any attribute but the enhancement depends on their skill in using mana, also mages who can use attributes like fire, for example, can use those attributes in their physical attacks, so in general any mage who can use an attribute can either use it by casting spells, for example, a fireball or use those attribute to enhance their physical body and use it in physical attack, for example, a normal slash of a sword would contain fire in it, which will be more deadly.
When Arthur read this he immediately thought of his [void slash] which was terrifying, a single slash of his contained the power of the attribute[void], if he could use it in physical attacks doesn''t that mean that he also can use void to perform ranged-attacks too?
Arthur ignored the idea of using Void Magic for now because he finds dark magic more useful, however thinking thoroughly about this, didn''t that mean that he was adual-mage?
He could use[dark magic]and[void magic]but he liked the dark magic more because he found it more easy to use, perhaps because he got the experience or Zodiak in controllingit?
''Let''s not think about this for now''Arthur shrugged the idea off and put the book in his storage, then got up from the chair to head out of the room.
When he got downstairs, he saw that the place was emptier than last night, as to be expected, it was still morning and many people were either sleeping or working.
The landlady was at the reception desk helping customers, and sometimes delivering food to them, she seemed very energetic although it was still morning.
Arthur just passed by her without giving any greetings and left the building, just as he left he saw that there were many people wearing coats, maybe the weather was too cold but he couldn''t feel it, perhaps because he was a pack of bones, albeit feeling the air touch his bones or the air resistance when he ran at his full speed, he was still perplexed about this body, he couldn''t get hungry not could he know if he was actually breathing, but it''s not like it mattered right?
Yesterday, Arthur roamed all the time, although it was called a town, it was considered big, it took him 3 hours to do a full tour of it and check everything except that luxurious road which he couldn''t access to.
He remembered seeing some kind of a building with a book symbol in the western part of the town, so he headed toward that building hoping that it was a library.
The town was still bustling with merchants and shops even though it was still early in the morning, the cold weather didn''t change the fact that there were many people either working or shopping, after walking for about 10 minutes he arrived in front of the supposed "library" and he entered it.
The first thing he noticed when he entered was the strange smell of paper, there were bookshelves aligned next to each other very neatly, even though the room was not that big, probably 30x30 meter, for a library it''s considered small, but it was very clean, there were some customers checking books and observing the bookshelves, but they were all quiet, as to be expected since they were in a library.
In the center of the room there was a wooden desk, and an old man was sitting there reading a book, the old man was very skinny albeit looking healthy and somewhat a face full of vigor, he had a long white beard all the way to his chest, and seemed to be reading a book leisurely.
Arthur walked toward the old man was, he guessed he must be the receptionist.
The old man glanced at Arthur for a second before he continued reading the book without a care in the world but when Arthur was too close to him, the old man felt a cold chill and his hands shook a bit, so he glanced seriously at the man coming towards him and guessed that he must be someone powerful or else he wouldn''t emanate such cold and ominous feeling, the old man strengthened his back and spoke politely to Arthur
"Hello there customer, welcome to our shop, would you like to buy a book or borrow one? If so please tell me what kind of book you want"
Arthur noticed the change in the personality of the old man, and he knew that it must''ve been his aura, he had long since decided to find a solution to it, maybe somehow turn it off or it would bring big troubles in the future, when he was in front of the old man he unconsciously appraised him, it seemed to become a habit of him to appraise anyone who spoke to him so he can measure their strength.
Jeff Kelner(Human): Lv11
"Buy all books.... history "
He was quite surprised by the Lvl of the old man, it seemed higher than the bandits, but he quickly concluded that it must have been because he was old and that even working in a library can give experience but compared to hunting it seemed to give much much less experience.
Arthur spoke in a weird manner, it even surprised the old man for he didn''t expect the man who scared him to speak in such a manner but nevertheless he brought all the historical books he could find for fear of angering Arthur.
After having Brought all the historical books he could find, there were about 20 to 30 books on the reception desk.
"Dear customer, these are all the books we have about history, you can choose whatever you want but please note that there are some expensive ones among them"
The old man spoke politely to Arthur and waited for him to choose whatever book he liked, but what surprised him more was what Arthur said next
"...All"
Just one word but it greatly shocked the librarian, he couldn''t believe his ears first so he questioned
"Dear customer, are you sure you want all of the books? Some are expensive and not all people can afford to buy even a single one of them".
Arthur just nodded his head, after seeing the affirmation of the customer the old man was shocked and couldn''t help but feel a bit suspicious, he didn''t think that Arthur would buy all the books as they cost a huge sum together but nevertheless he still took his time and calculated the price.
After 3 or so minutes of checking he told Arthur the amount, he told him the sum he needed to pay and greatly focused on the facial expression of Arthur, however, he was astonished to see that the customer didn''t as much as flinch when he heard the price, his suspicions soon subdued and he concluded that this customer is a noble or something similar or else why would he spend so much gold on those books?
It''s not like they were cheap, their sum could feed several households for a couple of years.
The total sum was a whopping 220 Gold which was enormous for the old man but for Arthur? Not so much, those 220 gold were just a single drop from an ocean of gold, his storage had mountains of gold coins, so spending some on books is nothing for him.
After he gave the gold coins to the old man, the librarian stared greedily at the gold coins for some seconds unable to believe his own eyes, but he quickly adjusted himself and thanked the customer, however, Arthur ignored him, he picked the books and left the building, the old man didn''t stop speaking as he shouted at Arthur to come back if he needed any sort of book .
''He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have''even though the old man got a whopping 220 gold he still wanted more, human greed is really the worst thing in them.
chapter 8 : Auction
When Arthur left the library, with nothing else to do, he started roaming around the town to pass the time, after 5 minutes or so of walking he noticed a crowd not far from his position, in front of the crowd was some kind of stage.
Since he had nothing better to do he went toward it to see what''s going on, the crowd of people seemed to be cheering and shouting from excitement and in the middle of the stage, in front of them, there was a man smiling and trying to calm down the crowd
"Now now, ladies and gentlemen if you would please calm down so we can start the auction."
After hearing what the men said, everybody calmed down a little except a few who were whistling and shouting, but they soon stopped too because of the angry gazes of the crowd.
After everything calmed down the man in the stage noticed the absolute calm in the crowd and took the opportunity to speak
"Thank you for your long wait, the auction will now begin , I assure you , you will not be disappointed as the''merchandise''of today is one of the best we ever had since the opening of our auction, please if you would like to participate in the auction all you have to do is raise your hand and name a price when the bidding starts and if your price is the highest you will get the''item'', now let the auctionbegin!".
Arthur was quite interested in this auction because in his previous life auctions were very rare and made in private, so he never got to participate in one, though he had everything he needed in his storage, something may pick his interest and the idea of participating in an auction made him a little excited.
Arthur appraised the man like always and got to see his name and LVL
Edward Fonel (Human): LVL5
"Ladies and gentleman, the first item to be auctioned is something that may interest many of you, I present to you the fire Attribute skill book:[Flame tornado]!,it was obtained in a dangerous hunt made by one of our adventurer friends"Just when Edward finished his announcement, a big muscular guy walked in from the backstage carrying in his hand something covered with a white piece of cloth, he walked near Edward then put the covered item on the table which was in front near him, he then walked where he previously was.
"OooOoOoo!"
all the crowd was amazed by theskillbook, and that''s because it was extremely rare to find one and even if there was, it will not be auctioned as most people will use it instead of selling it.
What was amazing about askillbookis that even if you are unable to use magic, if you learn a magic skill like this[Flame tornado],you could use this attack even with your inability to use magic, after all, it only costs mana, and every being possess it, so for those not born with capacities to be a mage, using askillbookto obtain magic skills was like a blessing to those people that allowed them to be a bit stronger or maybe have a trump card to use in a fight, and even for mages who would learn a skill book related to the their attribute when they execute this skill it would be many times more powerful than normal.
The crowd was stunned for 1 minute or so, and Edward was grinning at them as he was expecting this reaction from the participants.
Arthur wasmore amazedofthe reaction of the crowd more than the appearance of theskillbookbecause he didn''t expect skill books to be this rare, when he searched his storage he found hundreds ofskillbooks, but he didn''t learn them as they seemed really weak and useless to him, so he just kept them in his storage ring, and now seeing the eyes of people were full of greed and envy toward this singleskillbook, he understood that he completely underestimated the value of skills in this world.
Since he wasn''t interested in thisskillbookhe decided not to bid for it and wait to see other items.
After waiting some time, Edward said
"The starting price of thisskillbookwould be 1000 gold coins, may the higher bidder win!" Just as he finished talking, everyone started raising their hands and bidding
"1050 gold coins"
"1060!"
"1100"
The price of the skill book was rising non-stop, even after reaching 2000 gold, the bidding never stopped, and all of a sudden, a young man from the front of the crowd sitting in a luxurious chair and holding a fan in his hand said calmly
"10,000 gold coins"
All the crows turned silent when they saw who talked, no one dared to raise his hand and bid more than the young man said because they knew he was someone important and no one dared to provoke him, he was a well-known noble in this town and it is rumored he had strong backing behind him, whenever he wanted to buy something, no one would dare to stop him from buying it.
The young man was quite handsome, he seemed to be in his twenties, he wore an elegant white robe with gold symbols on it, he had jewelryinhis hands and neck which seemed really expensive, there was also two breath-taking women beside him, they seemed to be his maids since they wore a maid outfit.
Truthfully speaking, the price of the skill book could have risen to 20.000 gold coins or even more but since the young noble spoke no one dared to oppose him.
The auctioneer Edward seemed disappointed by this turn of the events but nevertheless, he kept a smile on his face and said
"10.000 going once, 10.000 going twice, 10.000 going thrice, SOLD! Congratulations to Mr. Feylord for buying this skill book"
Everybody looked dejected since this young noble called Feylord was here, no one expected to get anything if it picked the interest of Feylord.
The item was passed to Feylord, he then waved his hands and one his maids passed 10.000 gold coins toward the big muscular guy who brought the skill book in the beginning of the auction.
10.000 gold coins seemed a lot to carry with just 2 hands, so in this world they used magical bags that could contain various things and they used them when adventuring or for storing big amounts of money, it was kind of like the storage ring but very limited as those bags could only contain a specific weight(''AN: for example a magic bag that can hold to 50KG, you can put anything into it until it reaches the maximum weight which is 50KG)
After one of the maids passed the bag containing the money to the muscular man, Edward proceeded with the auction.
The rest of the items were amazing but they didn''t bring much excitement as the skill book, nonetheless there were still some amazing items in the eyes of the people but to Arthur all of it was garbage, the items sold in this auction couldn''t even remotely compare to what he had so he didn''t participate in any bidding and his excitement and hype lessened a lot, his hopes for the appearance something good were long gone.
After an hour or so of bidding, the crowd was depressed, and that''s because almost half of the items auctioned were bought by Feylord and they couldn''t do anything about it, he took all the good things, his prices were not even high but because no one could oppose him, he could buy them cheap, even Edward was sad because of this.
He expected to earn a quite a lot but all the items sold to Feylord were almost sold at the same price that was on the market if not cheaper.
Edward sighed then thought ''at least the last item will sure get us a fair amount of money even Feylord Buy it''
He then exclaimed toward the crowd
"Ladies and gentlemen we have approached the end of the auction, and we have saved the best for last, our last item is very special and I assure you it will please a lot of you "
After he finished talking Edward waved his hand toward the muscular man, the latter nodded and headed downstairs to bring the last item.
When Arthur heard the auctioneer, even though he lost all hope in finding something interesting he still looked forward to seeing the last item, after all, the auctioneer said it was the best thing in this auction.
After a couple of minutes the muscular guy came to the stage with the supposedly''item''but what it totally surprised everyone in the crowd even Arthur as they were expecting to see an item and not a living being, what accompanied matchless and all the crowd''s eyes were focused on her, even Arthur was stunned by her beauty but she looked devoid of emotion and had gorgeous but cold eyes that.
She was dressed in a simple ragged grey cloth that covered her from the chest area all down to her knees and she was chained in her legs and hands and also had a collar around her neck that was connected to a chain which was where the muscular guy dragged her from.
She had bruises all over her body except her face, even though her size was of a small, no one would think she is a kid, her demeanor was of a woman, Arthur thought that the idols from his past world were"trash"compared to this girl.
Edward couldn''t stop grinning when he saw the amazement of the crowd and shouted
"As you may have guessed, our last''item''is not an actual item but a slave, and a special one at that, she has a beauty second to none and is a demon! Yes! You heard me right, she from the demon race so there is no need to feel sorry someone for someone like her, she can be used as a simple servant or a sex slave but unfortunately she can''t fight due to her powers being sealed, as you may know, we can''t use slave contracts on demons so we have to seal their power so they can not harm their master, the starting price is 25,000 gold coins. "If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Some of the crowd were still amazed by the beauty of the demon girl, and others began bidding with all the money they had, deep in their hearts they wished for Feylord not to bid for the girl, but when they glanced at him they lost all hope, he seemed very calm on the outside but some could see that his eyes were burning with lust and obsession and many knew that Feylord liked to have beautiful women around him as you may have noticed from the 2 maids standing next to him, he couldn''t wait a minute before he raised his hand and said
"100.000 gold coins I bid 100.000 gold coins, give her to me!"
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Lucy''s POV/3rd view of Lucy
Lucy was an orphan child, all she could remember was that since she was 4 years old she was alone, she didn''t know her parents or anything about her family, but she did know that she was a demon and she was living in the human continent.
She lived her life running from either empire soldiers or Holy Church army who were slaughtering every demon they could find, be it a child or even a baby they were like brainwashed people all they knew was killing demons.
She didn''t know why her family abandoned her, but nevertheless she struggled for her life and by the age of 10 she began to understand more about the world, after all the running and struggling with her life she managed to be strong at fighting, she also learned to control magic by herself and little by little she became very skilled at it , you can say that her magic was strong so even when any normal soldier from the Holy Church attacked her she could defend herself, but even with her strong magic abilities she couldn''t win against numbers.
As the years passed and the fighting continued she became considerably strong until she wasn''t afraid of the Holy Church, however surprisingly they didn''t come for her anymore, many months passed without any pursuer, so she became a little bit relaxed and less anxious about the danger.
She always hid her appearance so she didn''t attract any attention, even if she was a demon no one would guess that as she basically looked more like human than a demon, especially because demons usually have horns, but she knew her beauty would cause big troubles so she lived years hidden and barely communicated with people.
She didn''t trust anyone and that''s because she knew that all humans were the same, that they would use anyone for their benefits and because of her beauty they would sweet-talk her to gain her trust until they could lay their hands on her body, but unfortunately even though she vowed to never trust humans, she broke this vow and trusted a man.
She fell in love with him because he was kind to her even though she never showed him her appearance and helped her when she was in need, as time passed and she stayed with the man and she fell in love with him and with his kindness, she never had a family who cared for her so having someone kind and warm who managed to break through her distrusting heart was something she always yearned for.
As time passed, they began to be closer to each other, and she began to open up to him, she showed him her real appearance but he didn''t seem very surprised, he complimented her beauty but he didn''t have the lustful eyes that all the men had when they looked at her so she felt more secure and trustful towards him.
Some random day she wanted to surprise him in his house, but as she was coming in, she heard him talk to some people and after hearing the conversation she began shaking and tears flowed from her eyes non-stop.
What she heard was that the man she fell in love with was apparently someone the Holy Church sent to seduce her and bring her to their base.
She couldn''t control her emotions and regretted the day that she trusted him and fell in love with him, she realized that all the months she passed with him and all the kindness he showed her was all but a big lie to lure her in. The poor girl was so broken that she cried real blood, she really was mentally broken as she thought she had someone in her life but she was just alone, and all the happy life she had was just an ''illusion, she tried to escape after hearing the conversation but the men noticed her and due to her being shaken and mentally unstable she couldn''t muster up the strength to escape, so they bound her movements and sealed her powers completely, she didn''t even resist as she was still in shock.
that man''s personality changed completely after capturing her and he started to laugh maniacally
"He-he-he, do you even know how much it was hard for me to put that kind act? Damn slut, do you know how much I wanted to do you? But I had to hold in my desires because of orders from higher-ups, now that you are captured I''m sure they wouldn''t mind right?"
Ss he finished speaking he grinned toward the other soldiers from the other church, they nodded their head with eyes were burning with desires.
Days passed and they used her body however they like, she was physically and mentally broken, and she couldn''t do anything, after some time she stopped reacting to people and all she would think about is just"kill kill kill kill", she wanted revenge for what was done to her, but she didn''t have the strength to do that as her powers were sealed by these guys, so as time passed and they kept using her to satisfy their desires her hatred became more terrifying and she waited for the day she could muster up the strength to free herself from the seal.
These soldiers kept her detained for 2 whole years, they lied to their higher-ups so they could have their fun with her more but one day she finally was able to break from those shackles, unfortunately she didn''t have much power to kill anyone of them as she was severely weakened, she waited for the perfect moment to escape with all the strength she muster.
She kept fleeing for months, she was afraid they would catch up to her due to her slow speed, but fortunately, nothing happened.
Since then she never trusted anyone and she killed without mercy any men she could find as her hatred for men was terrifying, after all, what has been to her, she had the right to loathe them.
Time passed quickly and her strength kept weakening until she became barely able to walk and due to that she was captured by some people who claimed to be slave traders, they were also captivated by her beauty but they thought she was virgin and didn''t touch her and they chained her and locked her away in order to sell her at the auction house expecting to get a fortune from a virgin beauty like her.
As she entered the auction stage following the muscular man and being chained in all over her body, she stared at the crowd who was eyeing her lustfully, she was used to those disgusting eyes so she just stared coldly at them without emotion, she didn''t care who would buy her as she would kill them when her powers were back.
************************************************************
POV Change to the original one (AN; I mean by that Arthur POV)
As he stared at this chained girl, curiosity got the better of Arthur and he was suspicious as to why someone with her appearance would end up in an auction house, he loathed the idea of slavery but he couldn''t really do much about it, even if he supposedly freed all the slaves in this town that wouldn''t save the others in the rest of the world, a man just cannot show and change something which has been here for ages , it was irrational.
As he appraised the girl he saw this:
"ting"
Lucy (Demon): LVL44
He was surprised by her high level, she was the first person he saw witha LVLthis high, he guessed that she must''ve been strong when her powers weren''t sealed, and to be honest he was captivated by her charm and appearance, even though she was this beautiful she had such a cold piercing eyes and emotionless face, she was just like a gorgeous sculpture.
He decided that he would buy her, as she would be beneficial to him in providing information, but Arthur wasn''t a human from this world so he wouldn''t force her, he would let her choose either to follow him and if not, he will set her free and let her be on her way.
He convinced himself with this excuse but deep in his heart he felt that something was special about this girl although he couldn''t let himself think that as he didn''t want to trust anyone, as they say, "A heart has its reasons which reason knows not"
Arthur heard the bidding going up, faster than ever before, then he saw the noble Feylord bid 100.000 gold but he didn''t care about all that as he was sure he would get her in the end after all the amount of gold he has in his storage is by no means little.
After the crowd heard the bid of Feylord, no one dared to bid, but they were reluctant to let go of the bid because they were captivated by the beauty of the girl and they wanted her for themselves, but whenever someone tried to raise his hand to bid they were stared at angrily by Feylord, if stares could kill he would''ve killed all of them.
After some hesitation everyone just gave up, after all even if they won the bid, they didn''t think Feylord would them off easily, he would kill them and claim the girl anyway.
Edward was quite happy, as he heard the price Feylord said, 100.000 gold coins was by no means a small amount, even nobles cannot have that much money, Feylord is a Special noble who was rumored to have ties with the royalty so it was normal for him to have much gold than normal nobles and it is also because of those rumours that no one dared to provoke or even anger him as the consequences of doing so would be tragic.
Just as Edward was going to begin the countdown of the bid, someone from raised his hand, it was someone from the back of the crowd, everyone stared at him with dumbfounded faces, they couldn''t believe that someone dared to oppose Feylord.
The man in question was dressed in black, you couldn''t even see his face, his hand was covered with black pointy gloves, even the auctioneer was shocked by this turn of events as he didn''t expect someone to raise his hand.
Everyone stared at Arthur but he didn''t care and just raised his left hand and showed 2 fingers.
Edward stared at the black-robed man and saw his hand and said hesitantly
"D-dear sir, by 2 d-do you mean 200.000 gold coins....?"
Just as he said that all the people who couldn''t understand why Arthur showed 2 fingers were stunned, after all, to bid 200.000 gold coinsissomething that would happen once in who knows how many years, so to see something happen in front of their eyes was shocking.
Arthur just nodded to the auctioneer to confirm his bid and just stayed there waiting silently.
At the front of the stages, where there were VIP customers, Feylord stared at Arthur furiously, he couldn''t believe someone was bold enough to bid higher than him, he was determined to get the demon girl no matter what as he was enchanted by her beauty and wanted her for himself to enjoy and no one could take her from him so he just snorted and turned his head toward Edward and said
"250.000 gold coins!"
Edward was still amazed by the actions of the black-robed men then he heard the voice of Feylord bidding , he was feeling fear and happiness at the same time, happiness because he would get a big fortune and fear because he didn''t want to offend Feylord, he was just a meager auctioneer and if he sold the girl to the black-robed man, there was a chance Feylord would hold a grudge against him so when he heard the bid of the young noble he breathed a sigh of relief but he didn''t dare to relax yet, he glanced toward the black-robed men at the end of the crowd.
Edward was not the only one who turned his gaze toward Arthur, everyone turned towards Arthur gazing at him with excitement and fear.
Arthur was kind of annoyed by this young noble, he was persisting and he didn''t like stubborn people, so he appraised him unconsciously and saw
''ting''
FeylordLernonL(Human:Fireattribute) :LVL17
His level was quite high, and he also was a mage, plus he had a fire attribute at that, it explains why he bought thatskillbookat the beginning of the auction, but even him being a mage and a noble didn''t matter much to Arthur as he just raised his left hand again and showed 5 fingers meaning 500.000 gold coins.
Just when Arthur showed his bid, there was complete silence, no one even talked , everyone was shocked by the amount that was just bid, they didn''t expect him to just bid the double amount that was previously bid, even Feylord who was usually calm had stunned eyes, his hands were shaking and he started to feel fearful of losing the bid, after all even though he had strong backing, he had a budget he couldn''t surpass so he just stood from his chair and shouted at Edward
"I BID1 Million GOLD COINS!"
Just after he finished his shout he turned his head toward Arthur to see his reaction but all he could see was Arthur showing 2 fingers again but he knew that this didn''t mean 200.000 gold coins like previously but it means a whopping 2 million gold coins, it''s not that easy to procure that much amount of money , even him a prestigious noble who had royalty backing, getting 2 million gold is doable but very hard, he couldn''t match up to this black-robed man so all he could do was just sit angrily on his chair with his head shaking from anger and ferocity.
Edward dazed for a couple of seconds before he shouted
"2 mmmmMillions going once, going twice, going thrice! SOLD ! CONGRATULATIONS to this esteemed customer who had won this demon girl, please come here to get your''item''"
Chapter 9 : Questions
Arthur arrived in the stage but the auctioneer didn''t dare take his money now because 2 million gold coins are no small amount and he had to do the transaction thoroughly. Edward said a few words to end the auction and thanked the people who participated in it, he then turned toward Arthur and politely said
"Esteemed customer, please follow me to the building so we can confirm your payment and hand you the ''goods'' "
The tone he used was very polite, it''s like he was addressing his master and not a customer.
Arthur nodded toward the auctioneer and followed him to the building, the muscular guy had already dragged the girl to the building some time ago.
When Arthur and Edward went on their way, Feylord who was sitting in his chair was shaking with anger , he couldn''t believe he was humiliated this way, after all, he was used to oppressing and humiliating others instead of being the one humiliated, he, a dignified noble lost to an unknown man without being able to fight back in a show-down of money.
The one thing he always boasted about and now he had to go back empty handed with his tail between his legs, he soon stood up but you could notice he was furious by the look in his eyes, he went to an armored men standing 2 meters or so behind him , this man seemed to be his bodyguard or servant , Feylord went to the men and said with a low voice so no one could hear him
"find out who this black-robed man is, you have until tonight to tell me his identity". He snorted and headed back to his mansion fuming in anger.
Arthur followed the auctioneer to a luxurious building, the exterior seemed to be made from high-grade wood and stone, and the interior was even more fascinating, there were gold pillars in the entrance, and a big red carpet which seemed to cover all the floor. He followed Edward until they arrived at the neat and luxurious room, it seemed to be the office of Edward.
Edward went to the chair near his desk and sat on it then smiled back at Arthur and said
"Please sit."
However, Arthur wasn''t in the mood to chitchat, he was a man of a few words so he shook his head not willing to sit, even after standing through all the auction he didn''t feel any numbness in his legs or wasn''t remotely tired.
The auctioneer wanted to befriend the man in front of him since he was able to pay up such a humongous sum but when he saw his unwillingness to sit and talk he felt depressed as he wanted to be acquainted with such a mysterious man,
"He either must have powerful backers or is from the royalty."
thought Edward as he was assessing the man in front of him.
After some time passed, with an awkward silence in the room, the muscular men came in with the girl in front of him, she glanced at Edward then toward Arthur but her face was emotionless as though she didn''t care who would buy her.
Edward so his men coming and was happy, as he couldn''t wait anymore and wanted to receive the money.
"I sincerely apologize for the long wait dear customer, here is your prize, if you would please pass us the gold"
Even though Arthur heard the auctioneer to talk to him, he seemed in a daze as he was staring at the girl while of something..but after some seconds he regained his senses and waived his hand and a magical bag appeared.
When he was in the tomb and searching through his storage, near the mountains of gold coins he found magical bags and when he got them out to try to find out what they were, he understood they were some kind of a storage ring but limited, he found a lot of bags in his storage and some of them had more gold coins in them, but the good thing is that somehow when he held the bag and sensed what was in it, something like a message popped in his head telling him exactly what was in there, even the exact amount of gold in the bag .
He guessed that since everyone uses this magical bag instead means they too will get the message, and will not need to check every single cold coin, after all, if they started counting from 1 to 2 million gold coins it would take forever.
He threw the magical back to Edward and the latter caught it excitedly, and held it tightly with his hands as if it would disappear at any moment. After 20 or so seconds, Edward opened his eyes after having sensed what was in the bag, he mumbled something to himself in a low voice then smiled brightly at Arthur and said
"Hahaha, thank you for your payment dear customer, I have checked the bag and it was indeed 2 million gold coins, you may take the girl, she is your property now "
The muscular received the signal and pushed the girl toward Arthur and said
"He is your master now, obey him or be gone forever."
Even though the muscular man said that his eyes were cheating him, it seemed he too wanted to have the girl but he couldn''t when he pushed her away it seemed as if he was throwing his own child away.
Arthur no more looked at the auctioneer and saw that the girl was still bounded with chains so he used a tiny bit of dark magic to break those chains, and ''poof'' all the chains just fell down from the girl.
Edward saw what the black-robed man just did and he knew for sure that it was magic, and a power type of magic at that, because those were special chains that bounded the physical abilities of the demon girl because even with sealed powers she could still be dangerous so he hurriedly said to Arthur
"Emm, Dear customer, I see that you are a powerful mage but I must advise to bind her as even though she has her powers sealed, she is still a demon and would be considered a threat."
Just after he finished speaking, he saw Arthur glare at him and felt something cold that could suffocate him from within the black hood. Immense fear surged him and made his body shiver uncontrollably for a split second, knowing that it was not a good idea to continue to press on this matter, he could only smile back awkwardly.
Arthur did not stare much, he soon walked out of the room followed by the girl. When they walked out of the building, the crowd seemed to be gone, maybe the guards dispersed them to not cause any trouble but there was still some people scattered who stared at Arthur with jealousy. As they were walking, Arthur noticed that many people were gazing at the girl behind him and then at him, and he didn''t want to attract more attention than he already has so he retrieved a grey cloth which seemed similar to a robe.
Actually, it was a good item from his storage but he just retrieved it for the girl so she can wear it and hide her appearance, so he stopped walking and passed her the cloth.
She stared at the cloth and the stretched hand of Arthur, then she quickly understood that he wanted her to wear the cloth to avoid unnecessary trouble, so she lifted her little white hands and took the cloth from the man then she quickly wore it.
If you look at her now you could only see her petite white hands and her bare feet, you couldn''t see her face or even her silver hair. It was such a waste to hide a beauty like her in a robe but Arthur had to do this as he underestimated her charm which attracted nearly everyone they passed by, even the females were either jealous or admiring the girl.
Arthur noticed that it was getting late and the sun was setting so he decided to go back to the inn, he also wanted to read the books he bought to get a better view of the world and maybe learn where he currently was.
He knew for certain that he is on the human continent, but where exactly, that, he didn''t know.
After walking for a couple of minutes they arrived at the inn.
As usual, the Inn at the evening was bustling with people, especially adventures who were tired from a long day of hunting, they would go to the inn''s restaurant which was surprisingly famous in this town and drink beer while talking with their comrades.
The entrance of the Arthur which was wearing a black-robe and a smaller person behind him wearing a grey cloth which covered him entirely, have caught the eyes of a few people but they recognized Arthur as he came in last night too but they were curious as to who was the person behind him , but of course no one came to cause him trouble and after a couple of glances they continued to chat with their companions.
The landlady also was there, serving people and taking their orders, she seemed very busy working alone in a bustling place but with her big frame, she must have a big endurance. Surprisingly, Arthur waited for her to finish with her customers then he walked towards her to say something.
The women noticed Arthur walking towards her and seemed kind of surprised as she knew he didn''t talk, he didn''t even greet her in the morning but she didn''t blame him as she was used by some customers being this way.
Arthur arrived in front of the landlady and said
"Bring food to my room"
his voice had a cold feeling about it as it seemed it could pierce any person''s heart, even the girl behind him lifted her head and gazed at him when she heard his voice, as it was almost the voice of a ghost and no a living person. The landlady was taken aback when she heard the voice but she soon regained her senses and saidUnauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
"I''m sorry mister, but we only serve food in here and don''t deliver them to the rooms."
Arthur heard her reply but he wasn''t surprised as he expected her to say something similar so he just retrieved 2 gold coins and passed them to her.
The woman saw him taking 2 gold coins to give it to her but she just interrupted him and said
"Sir, I''m sorry but those are rules, even if you would give me more gold coins I would not break rules that I personally made"
She had firm and decisive eyes and a strong personality, she was not greedy about mere gold coins and was strongly against breaking the rules she made for her inn and restaurant.
Arthur admired people like that , it was true that the world was corrupted by greedy and evil people but there still existed good people in this world but it was really rare to meet them as they are the first to die by the hands of the wicked, but that nevertheless those good people are a source of admiration for Arthur as he saw the evil the world had, when he saw kind and strong-hearted people who were not swayed by their desires.
Arthur nodded toward the landlady who was smiling at him and he headed upstairs toward his room, actually he didn''t any food as he was a skeleton but he the girl behind him is a living being with needs so he wanted to buy food for her to eat, as he was temporarily her master even though he loathed that idea.
He will take care of her in the meantime until he could break her sealed power so she can live freely because if he let her go now, she will only get caught again and it would also be a waste of 2 million gold.
He also wished to ask her some questions about the world as he saw she was LVL44 maybe she knew quite a bit about the world, so maybe she could explain to him something.
As they entered the room he was currently staying at. Arthur retrieved some food from his storage, even though the storage ring was very old, it seemed that every food kept in it was fresh , but surprisingly he didn''t find a lot only some fruits here and there so he wanted to buy a proper meal for the girl but unfortunately he couldn''t and he truly didn''t want to eat at the restaurant downstairs as there were many gazes and he didn''t want the appearance of the girl to be discovered when she was eating so he decided against the idea of letting her eat at the restaurant.
After following Arthur to the room, the girl just stayed standing there silent, she for some reason kept cloth he gave her and was standing still like a statue in the middle of the room.
Arthur approached her and stretched his hand to pass the fruits he retrieved from the storage ring to her, but there was no response as she didn''t take the food or do anything at all ,so Arthur just put the fruits on the bed then he went to sit in the chair , took a the newly bought pile of books from his storage and put them on the desk he then started reading without a care about the girl ,as he did his job and gave her food , it was up to her to eat it or not.
Not even 5 minutes later, Arthur remembered something and turned to look at the girl who was still staying at the same place, he thought that he should ask her about the things he was curious about before reading the historical books ,but he was doubtful if she would answer him or not as he had not heard her speak even once .
He turned around and looked at her for a second then said
"Do you mind answering some questions?"
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Lucy POV (Point of view)
Apparently, the black-robed man was the one who bought her and became her new master, but that didn''t matter much for her and she knew that the seal would not last much longer and when that time comes, not only he but everyone who took advantage of her will be dead , she wanted revenge and death for everyone especially men as they were beasts , she didn''t think that there existed even a single kind person in this world, if there was any they are just pretending to be so to achieve something.
She followed the mysterious black-robed man out of the building, she was surprised as to how much she was sold for, and even more irritated and disgusted when saw that someone paid 2 million gold coins to use her body to satisfy his desires.
After having walked for a little while, the men passed her a grey cloth and she quickly understood that she had to for she was very beautiful and it would cause trouble for both of them so she took the grey cloth from him then wore it. They continued to walk until they reached some kind of inn, she guessed that the man who bought her must be reserving a room at this inn.
When they entered the inn, the black-robed seemed to be unaffected by all the gazes the people at the restaurant threw at him, lucy didn''t mind either as she was pretty much used this kind of looks as she lived her life hiding.
The man walked toward the big woman which lucy guessed was the landlady and spoke to her, but what shocked Lucy was his voice, it was incredibly cold and emotionless.
She gazed at him curiously, lost in thought. The man demanded some food delivered to his room and tried giving the landlady some gold coins but she rejected him so he just went upstairs. Of course, she followed him, and very soon, they arrived at the room he was stayed in. Lucy was feeling a bit anxious, after all, why would this man buy her if not to use her body, so she expected him to jump at her once they were alone. Surprisingly, however, that never happened, all he did was retrieve some fruits from who knows her and tried passing it to her but she did not dare let her guard down as she was suspicious of everything and thought that maybe this was but a trick and this only ended up with her standing away from him, motionless and silent.
The men just left the fruits on the bed and sat on a chair near a small wooden desk, he waved his hands and a big pile of books appeared, she was sure now that he had the very expensive item storage ring , it is rumored that it can hold several things and is many times better than a magical bag, in fact, they couldn''t even compare, but how could he have one? Usually, only very high ranked royalty or a very rich merchant or an important official would have a ring like that.
Lucy began to be more anxious as the idea of him being from the holy church crossed her mind, and the mere thought of being captured by them left her restless after she would rather die than be captured again.
The man didn''t bother with her and started reading the book very rapidly he was blazing through the pages , Lucy thought that earlier he broke the reinforced chains that bound her and now he she noticed him reading the book very fastly and could one come to one conclusion and that''s he is a powerful magician just by seeing how casually he broke her chains you could know he is indeed very adept at using magic and is no mere beginner.
If he is from the holy church, there was no way for her to escape unless she got her powers back she could fight back and escape with her life, but she would never forget her grudges and she vowed to kill everyone involved in what happened so supposedly if he was indeed from the holy church if she successfully escaped, one day will come when she will come back and kill him and that was a big ''if''.
Not even 5 minutes passed and the men turned around to look at Lucy then said
"Do you mind answering some questions?"
Lucy was taken aback slightly by what he said, normally he was her master so he didn''t have to be polite, he would just order her around like any other person but he didn''t, instead asked her politely but his voice still as cold as ever, containing no hint of feelings , it was as if not someone was speaking but a ghost mumbling in your ears.
Lucy was standing there thinking whether she would answer or not, after all even though she didn''t trust him the slightest bit, he didn''t do anything particularly bad so she decided to answer him as long as the questions weren''t about her or related to her past or origins.
After some time of thinking, the man was still waiting for her answer with his body turned toward her, she couldn''t even see his eyes or features as he was hiding everything from head to toe, she nodded towards him approving to answer his questions.
Without wasting any second the black-robed man began talking again with a calm but cold voice
"Are we currently on the human continent?"
Lucy was slightly stunned when she heard his question as she didn''t expect him to say this, nevertheless, everyone had their reasons and maybe he was living under a rock for quite some time and forgot where he was, Lucy didn''t dwell on it that much and just nodded her head towards him. Having confirmed her answer, the man asked another question
"Which Kingdom or Empire are we in"
The man seemed to speak very few words and didn''t talk long phrases but Lucy didn''t mind that, she just answered him and spoke for the first time in a long time
"We are in the Nida Empire, in the province of Lenuka"
She tried to answer him precisely as he seemed very focused on her replies.
After some other questions which were common and everybody who lived her knew them, the men stopped his questioning and thanked Lucy for her help and then resumed reading his books. Lucy was quite surprised about his questions, she began to even consider the fact that he was living under a rock for a long time but nonetheless, she answered him truthfully, she felt kind of strange toward this man even though she knew him for half a day.
He seemed extremely mysterious, a powerful magician clueless about his surroundings and disguised in a black-robe that covered him from head to toe.
Lucy walked toward the bed, grabbed the fruits and began munching them, she took little bites at first, but when she was sure there was nothing in the fruits she ate them all.
He decided to eat the fruits because a powerful mage like this man, if he wanted to do her, he could do it anytime using magic and would not use petty tricks like poisoning, also she god the feeling that the way he looked at her was not lustful way but not in a kind way either as his gazes were cold and piercing as they would rip you apart at any second.
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POV Back to Arthur
After having questionned the girl about what he wanted to know, he concluded that somethings were different from the books he read last night but it was only minor, he was on the human continent, which was ruled by the nida empire, apparently this empire is very very old and powerful, you can see this by how it is still standing to this day and nothing could crumble it , but that by knowing this he also knew that the holy church must be still here as it was mentionned it is the master mind and the true ruler of the human continent.
When he heard the voice of the girl, he was utterly shocked , her voice was melodious and mature , if anyone would hear it, they would not think it is a petite girl but a women in her twenties, he guessed that demons aged differently from humans and she must have a special physic and her age was older compared to her size.
Arthur noticed her going to the bed and inspecting the fruits thoroughly then she started eating them cautiously, savoring each bite as if checking if they are poisoned or not. He unconsciously smiled in his heart and thought it was kind of funny but he did not bother with her much and resumed reading the books.......
In the luxurious road at Willsden town, there was a considerably big mansion which seemed almost like a castle, it was Feylord''s mansion.
Currently, he was in his room being fed some grapes by his maids and in front of him was the same armored soldier he spoke to this morning at the auction house, the soldier was kneeling on one knee and speaking respectfully to Feylord
"My lord, as you have commanded, we have investigated the black-robed men but unfortunately, no one has seen his face or knows about his identity, it is said he came to this town yesterday, and he is currently renting a room at the inn "
The soldier spoke the information in a slow and polite manner so to not anger Feylord
the young noble frowned for a second then said to his servant (AN : I mean by a servant=the soldier)
"No one knows about him? Then how could this ''no-one'' pay 2 million gold coins for just a girl? He must be someone with strong backing! but who cares about that, he dared to provoke me! FEYLORD ! I''ll show him what it means to oppose me and the Royalty ! Brian, immediately send highly trained assassins, I want him dead as fast as possible and also bring me that girl I must get her no matter what..."
the soldier listened to the command of his master and said
"Yes my Lord."
he then respectfully excused himself out of the room.
Feylord was lost in thought, he was thinking about the beauty he saw today and how much he would like to enjoy having his way with her, he then started mumbling
"Ahhh.. it is such a pity, you a nobody would be able to enjoy her before me but your luck has run out, soon she will become mine and you will die!"
Chapter 10 : A man that keeps his word
Arthur continued to read books all night and stopped early in the morning, he didn''t get much information than he already had, he finished reading all the books he bought yesterday, some of them were about great battles that occurred in the past, others described the continents and certain events but the books weren''t as detailed as the books he got from the tomb, he didn''t know why but he just shrugged it off as it didn''t matter anyway.
The girl stayed on the bed but didn''t sleep she just sat obediently and didn''t do anything special, she seemed lost in thought and kept staring in front of her.
Arthur didn''t know why she hasn''t slept, he had read that demons had inborn magic but their physical body was more or less like Humans, they needed a sufficient amount of food and rest to live albeit having a slightly better constitution thanks to the magic. He also noticed that she didn''t even move from her spot, despite that, he didn''t say anything as he let her do whatever she wanted, after all, even if he was ''supposedly'' her master, he didn''t dare think like that or have any strange thoughts about her, because such desires were gone since a long time ago. He just wanted to live his new life as he wished, unobstructed by ''desires''.
He stood up from the chair after a long night of reading then looked towards the girl sitting at the bad and asked:
"I''m preparing to go out, do you want to come with me or stay here"
The girl who was lost in thought looked at Arthur before nodding her head and getting up from the bed.
Arthur didn''t understand what she meant by her nod but when he saw her getting up he knew she was going to come with him.
Soon, both of them left the room and headed downstairs, Arthur didn''t go outside right away, instead, he sat at a table in the restaurant and waited for the landlady to come take his orders, he was going to order food for the girl who was sitting at the table with him as fruits aren''t enough to satisfy the hunger of anyone, and he couldn''t bear let her eat just that. Yesterday, after thoroughly checking the fruits, she wolved them pretty fast and it was as apparent as the sun itself that she had been starving, he thought about this matter and finally decided that even if there were people gazing at them when they were at the restaurant, it doesn''t matter, he wasn''t going to let a girl starve because of such trivial matter.
After a couple of minutes, the landlady came into Arthur''s table with a smile on her face and said "So you finally decided to eat in my restaurant huh? Breakfast will be served in 5 minutes and it costs 1 silver coin per person."
Arthur just nodded toward the landlady and passed her 3 silver coins replied
"Bring me 3 servings."
The women accepted the money from Arthur and nodded her head back at him, she didn''t seem bothered by his way of speaking as she knew he rarely talked.
Just as the landlady said, 5 minutes later, the food came and soon, all the table was filled with various kinds of delicacies. Lucy, the girl beside Arthur, although she was covered from head to toe with a cloth, he could sense she was intensely looking at the food, so he just casually said
"Feel free to eat all the food, it''s for you, after all."
As though she was waiting for him to say this, the girl began eating like a hungry wolf, but after finishing a couple of dishes, she looked at Arthur and then at the food in front of him, so he just pushed the dishes to her and shook his head as if meaning he was not eating it.
The girl just grabbed the remaining dishes and gulped them down.
Seeing the girl eat that much and remembering her petite frame, Arthur guessed that she didn''t eat much before he ''bought'' her because even though she was insanely beautiful she seemed a little skinny, seeing her like that and remembering the terrible thing that happened to the women and little girls in the camp of the bandits, Arthur''s loathe towards this lawless increased.
''For young girls like this to be sold as slaves just because they are from a different race, even calling those nobles and slave traders inhuman is still a compliment... tch!''
After noticing that she finished all the dishes and seemed full, Arthur got up from the chair and headed outside, the girl noticed his actions and followed him quickly after.
Arthur was thinking about heading to the Holy Church as the books about it mentioned that the only way to break the seal restricting the power of a demon is by visiting the Holy Church and asking the help of a Holy Priest or seeking the aid of an extremely skilled water mage as the [Water Attribute] had good purification effect, albeit lesser than the Holy/Light Attribute. Arthur himself could be considered a powerful mage, however, he was new to this world and he didn''t know how to break the seal, so the only way left was to take her to a Holy Priest.
It didn''t take them long to arrive in the front of the church, after all, Arthur remembered every single thing he saw and when he was touring the town on the first day he came here, he saw a building which was very similar to the church in his previous world, so he just assumed it is the Holy Church .
The Holy Church was not that big, but it seemed majestic, it was a white building with some beautiful gold lines painted on it. While he was proceeding toward the entrance of the church, he noticed that the girl who was following stopped walking and stood there.
Arthur frowned for a split second but quickly remembered that demons were hunted by the Holy Church on this continent, so logically, they wouldn''t let her live if they discovered she was a demon which led him into saying
"We came here only to lift your seal, do not worry about them as they can do nothing to you".
The girl lifted her covered head to look at Arthur but she still didn''t budge. She seemed to not trust Arthur''s word at all, so he didn''t know what to do, after all, he can''t force her to come with him, nevertheless, he still wanted to help her but it seems she was distrustful of him and there was no way she would come with him to the Holy Church on her own free will. Seeing her stubbornness, he let out a helpless sigh and gave up on that idea.
''I would never force her to come, if she''s unwilling then I guess I''ll try finding another solution.''
Just as he was going to leave with the girl, some guard who was wearing white armor shouted toward the girl
"It''s a demon, that person is surely a demon, quickly call over the lord!"
Just as he finished speaking, everyone who was nearby heard his shout and looked where he was pointing with his hand. It ended up with every person who was present looking fearfully at the girl who was covered with gray cloth. Their eyes held disdain, fear, disgust and extreme hate, some even contained bloodlust.
Not even a minute has passed and the Holy Church soldiers were coming out of the building armed with all kinds of weapons, they were looking to the girl as if she was a monster, they glanced at the black-robed figure standing beside the ''demon'' but they didn''t pay him much importance as they could tell he wasn''t a demon, in fact, any Holy Church soldier could distinguish a demon even with sealed powers as they emanated some kind of dark aura. Furthermore, they got the Holy blessing, so, the dark aura related to demon could easily be sensed by whoever got the blessing.
To begin with, Holy Attribute and Darkness Attribute were opposed, just like Yin and Yang. To make matters worse, Holy Attribute is usually able to purify darkness, but the opposite could not be said to be totally true. Plus, all demons were born with a good affinity to Darkness attribute, which made them naturally vulnerable to Holy Magic.
Soon, an old man came out of the building, he was wearing a white, long sleeved robe, which seemed like an expensive magical item. He was also holding a golden cane which had some flickering light around it.
The old man observed the crowd calm, unperturbed eyes. He didn''t utter a single word, neither did his expression change until his pupils shifted to the girl''s figure. The old man knew that she was not a threat but he deeply frowned as he glanced at the black robbed person next to the girl, he lived for a fairly long time and could distinguish between weak and strong. Just one look was able to make him ascertain that this person is not to be messed with.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.Even though he seemed to notice that Arthur was particularly strong, he believed that he could finish him easily so he ordered his men
"Faithful warriors of the Hoyl Church, hear my commands and erase this filthy existence! Demons have no right to live amongst us, purified and blessed Humans!"
Just as he finished speaking, all the soldiers who were looking at him with admiration roared and charged toward the enemy.
Even in a situation like this, Arthur was very calm, when he appraised the LVLS of soldiers he saw that they were strong in comparison to normal people but they were a weakling in front of him.
their LVLS ranged from LVL16 to the maximum being LVL19, indeed the Holy Church lived up to its name when it was said they were the true ruler of the Human continent. He also appraised the old man who seemed to be their commander and got "ting"
Theodor (Old priest) : LVL41
Arthur was a little surprised too that this old man had a high Lv so he was a little excited, as this was the first strong opponent that he encountered in a while.
The old man didn''t say anything and ordered his soldiers to attack. There was about 50 of them running toward him but he noticed that they were aiming for the girl near him, there were also some mages who started chanting to execute their attacks.
Arthur didn''t move, he just waved his hand and a dark spheric barrier surrounded him, protecting him and the girl.
Truthfully, he wanted to check how much this barrier could hold as he didn''t get the chance to test it yet.The soldiers were fast as they closed the distance fast but once they arrived near the barrier they couldn''t pass through as if there is some kind of wall so they started attacking it with their swords, spears, and maces but none of them did work as the barrier didn''t as much shake from their bombarding attacks.
They realized that their attacks were not doing any damage so they backed off and waited for their mages to launch their attacks as normally, a single mage attack power was many times more powerful than a normal attack from a sword, so there''s no need to mention an attack from a dozen or so mages.
Arthur didn''t do anything and just watched the scene as he waited for these mages to attack.
After 20 seconds of chanting, the attack was finally launched and a large blinding wave of Holy Magic struck the barrier, a loud sound echoed and the Holy Church mages were looking at their powerful attacks proudly with smug faces but that didn''t last long as their faces turned from proud to surprised and fearful and that''s because the spherical black barrier didn''t even crack and seemed impenetrable even when it was struck by such an overwhelming attack. Even the crowd of people watching this scene were dumbfounded and couldn''t react in time, which left them even more speechless.
The old man was also surprised and furrowed his brows as he didn''t expect the barrier to hold to such a powerful attack, nevertheless, he still maintained his calmness for he was confident of his triumph over this small battle.
Arthur was joyful to see his that his Dark Barrier can hold this much and not break. He noticed that the girl beside him was anxious and even shaking a bit so he gave up on the idea of testing other things and decided to end this. Slowly, Arthur started walking towards the old man whilst speaking with a chilling tone
"You should stop attacking, this is indeed a demon but ''it'' is also my ''slave'' so there is no need to be so aggressive towards it."
He intentionally called her his slave so they could understand that hurting his ''belonging'' is like offending him.
The soldiers didn''t seem affected by what he said and acted as if they would attack at any given moment. The old man stared at Arthur then replied with a calm voice
"Hohoh, so it is like this... how about you give the demon to us? We will compensate you for it with generous things, we have gold, skill books, treasures, everything you like, you just have to let us kill this filthy being."
When Arthur heard the answer of the white-robed priest, he was angered, this Holy Church seemed to be persistent about killing the girl in broad daylight and didn''t even consider her as an equal but treated like an animal, if not worse!
They didn''t seem to care about their actions as they were all ''justified'' which made him feel more disgusted with their way of doing things, and this added to the many reasons he had to help the demon girl, Lucy.
Arthur could always kill slaughter his way out of here but he didn''t want to as killing a priest of the church would bring nothing but troubles so he searched for another way to get out of this mess.
As he was thinking of a solution, he noticed the girl next become even more anxious so he guessed that she must''ve thought as he would accept the offer of the old man and give her away as he had known her for only a day and there was no need to go through such trouble for her, which was a logical thinking from her part, howver, he didn''t know why, but a strange feeling surged in his heart as he looked at her being scared of the Holy Church which made unconsciously pat her head, even though she was short in height, her head still reached his neck so he awkwardly patted her head and said
"I am a person who keeps his word, you do not have to worry about them."
Just as he said, he used [Faster Than Death] and instantaneously appeared in front of the old man, the distance between them was less than 50 meters so Arthur just teleported next to the priest and, without even letting him have the time to react to his sudden movement, he quickly created a long sword with his dark magic and just chopped off the arm which was holding the golden-cane. He quickly grabbed it with the cane and teleported back using [faster than death] to where he was previously.
It took this long to explain but it all happened too fast as not even 4 seconds passed since Arthur used his first teleportation.
The old man had shocked eyes as all he could see was Arthur disappearing then just reappearing in the same position holding his chopped arm.
Blood poured non-stop from his shoulder as he felt an immense pain but he didn''t dare scream. He felt fear from the black-robed man, he knew that this man was by no means someone to provoke but nevertheless he ended up provoking him by attacking his slave.
The old man felt relief as he knew the man didn''t kill him on purpose, nonetheless, he cut his arm off to warn him about what will happen if he dared to attack his slave again. There were no words in such situation, a person of his age immediately understood the intention of the other party.
Theodor could be considered a strong priest, but he knew that there were people stronger than him as he saw that his superiors in headquarters where much stronger than him and in their eyes he was just an ant, be once he came to this town he was considered a god and all people worshipped him, he liked this feeling and stayed here to supervise this town.
There was an absolute rule in the holy church and that is ''kill every demons you come by'' and whoever didn''t follow this rule would be punished or in worst cases executed, so when he heard there is a demon outside of the church, of course, he had to kill it, but after the turn of events and seeing the power of the opponent he decided to stop being so reckless and warn his superiors about this black-robed man.
He couldn''t just ignore his existence as he may become an enemy of the church. The old man grimaced because of the pain but soon many mages who were good at healing magic rushed at him and cast their magic to heal him.
He soon stabilized himself then looked toward Arthur who was still standing in the same place and holding his arm and said
"Thank you for showing mercy to this old man, we will immediately stop the attack, I''m sorry if we had offended you."
After having finished talking, Theodor stared at Arthur waiting for his reply, and after a couple of seconds, he saw the black-robed men Turn around and leave without saying another word.
The old man hesitated as for whether to ask for his arm and cane back or not but he soon gave up on this idea as he saw Arthur use some kind of magic to just devour his whole arm until nothing but emptiness remained. He also waved his hand and the white-cane seemed to have disappeared but Theodor knew he had put it in a storage ring.
After having erased the torn off arm with [Void Magic], Arthur turned around to leave, the girl which saw what happened was amazed as she looked at Arthur, she was so close to him so he could see her face from within the Grey cloth.
Her eyes were stunned and she gave him a complex look but nevertheless, she still followed him when he turned around to leave. Unsurprisingly, no one blocked their way as all the people were amazed and fearful of Arthur because of what he just did, not even a single person dared to follow him as they were afraid he would discover them and the consequences would be tragic.
******
After seeing the black-robed man and the demon going away, Theodor hurried over to his private office in the church, he soon retrieved a blue crystal and used holy magic on it to activate it, after a couple of seconds, the crystal lit up and a voice came out of it.
"Theodor, what do you want? hurry up and say it we are busier than someone like you who sits on their ass all day long "
Theodor didn''t seem bothered by the rude way the person from the crystal spoke as he seemed used to it so he hurriedly said
"Lord Erik, today we encountered a demon..."
"Did you just call me to tell me this? if you encountered a demon then just kill it, don''t you dare waste my time brat"
"N-nononono, we indeed encountered a demon but as we tried to kill it, it''s proclaimed ''Master'' defended it, and the master was very powerful"
"And? If he is powerful just kill him, last time I checked with the appraisal stone your LVL was 40, so someone with your strength should be able to deal with him, right?"
"I''m sorry Lord Erik, but this man was not weak, in fact, he shopped my arm off without me realizing it, so I couldn''t do anything about it, and I just let him go with the demon, I request some reinforcement to deal with this man"
"Hooooo, this is interesting, we just sent ''Rein'' to your town to investigate about ''her'' as she seemed to have appeared in your town but I will send someone else, just in case. However, I''m sure ''Rein'' could handle it for he is a tamed monster hehe..... in the meantime, keep an eye on this man."
"Yes Lord Erik, thank you thank you..."
When the conversation ended, the blue crystal seemed to return to normal, Theodor breathed a sigh of relief but he was still somewhat scared of the power of the black-robed man as he just couldn''t react in time, if he wanted to the enemy could have beheaded him easily and he would have died without even knowing how thinking about this he couldn''t stop his body from shaking , he provoked someone he shouldn''t have .
Chapter 11 : Holy Knight
Arthur had a bitter feeling as things didn''t go the way he wished them to, he wanted to free the girl from the seal but he didn''t know even why he would go to such lengths to do so ,he who had been betrayed and vowed to always be alone and never trust again felt some kind of special connection with the girl.
In a way, he guessed she was similar to him but he couldn''t guess in how exactly.
He knew she didn''t trust him and maybe she would like to be free but she didn''t have the power to so he wanted to release her from the seal so they could each go on their way.
For the time being , Arthur knew that the holy church let him go because they could not fight against him, but he was sure that later on they would come back for either for revenge or to kill the demon girl so he decided to leave the town for the time being and stay at ''that'' place for a while, so he bought various kinds of foods.
He didn''t hold back and bought everything that he came by and then put it in his storage, as he was going to be out of the town with the demongirl ,and she needed food daily, he broughtenormousamount of food that can hold out for half a year.He then headed to the town''s exit accompanied by the girl.
Once they were some distance away from the town, Arthur created a [dark cloud] that could fit him and the girl.
When the demon girl saw the ''cloud'' she was taken aback slightly then continued to gaze at it for sometime curiously.
Arthur chuckled as he saw the girl examining the cloud, he then said
"Get on the cloud, it''s much faster and I don''t want anyone following us"
He then jumped on the dark cloud and waited for the girl to follow him, he thought he could travel by foot with the same speed as the cloud but he would have to carry the girl and that seemed inappropriate and maybe she would not want to be held by anyone.
The girl finally jumped on the sturdy cloud, but as the cloud rose up high into the air, she seemed to be anxious and shaking a little, Arthur guessed she must''ve been acrophobic or never been so high up in the air, as for him?
He was never afraid of heights as he traveled a lot when he was a business-man because the job required him to make a lot of contracts in various countries.
Even though the dark cloud had incredible speed, Arthur didn''t use the maximum speed as he was afraid the girl would fall off with her fragile physic, but he was surprised to see that not only she had gotten used to the dark cloud, she also was not affected by the current speed.
"She must have a good amount of strength, huh?"
It took them 15 minutes to reach the entrance of the cave, Arthur landed the dark cloud and got off it followed by the girl who understood they reached their destination.
Arthur didn''t waste time as he entered the cave and began walking forward.After 30 minutes or so they finally arrived the empty room which was previously Zodiak''s tomb.
The demon girl looked around, surprised to see that they arrived at an empty room as she expected some kind of hideout but not an empty room.
Arthur noticed the stunned girl and said
"I will try to find a solution to your seal, meanwhile we will be staying here since the holy church is chasing us and I don''t want to bother with them"
Just as he finished speaking he waves his hands and retrieved a large bed and some other furniture form his storage ring.
He also took out some food for the girl and put them on thebed,then he proceeded to read the ancient books he got from the tomb hoping he will find some kind of clue as to how to break the seal for the girl''s powers.
The demon girl saw Arthur reading books and trying to find a solution for her so she had complicated feelings about this black-robed man she didn''t know why would he go to such lengths for her but she soon seemed to realize something and shook her
''You mustn''t fall for his plays! He must need something from you otherwise he wouldn''t help you''
She soon sat on the large bed which was luxurious and made of gold ,but she didn''t seem surprised by it and she was used to seeing this black-robed man have many incredible and expensive things, just by buying her for 2 million gold coins showed that he was by no means someone ordinary.
As time passed and she saw how strong he is by easily beating the old man from the church , and his strange dark cloud which seemed able to fly with high speed so she concluded that even with her powers back she might not able to escape from him so she began very anxious and she didn''t want to be held prisoner ever again.
A day had passed since they arrived at this room but Arthur didn''t stop reading even for a second, he didn''t feel tired or bored, and the more books he read the more he discovered new things.
Finally he could find a clue to break the seal, it was said that to break a seal cast on a demon, you either have to kill whoever cast it or you can overpower the seal with a stronger magic which will immediately break the seal, but it was noted that anyone who can seal the powers of a demon is usually very strong so it was considered impossible to break the seal with a magic more powerful than it, but Arthur was overjoyed as he knew he was considerably strong so he wanted to try this method and maybe it will work.
He turned around and looked at the demon girl, who surprisingly was asleep, after 2 days or so without sleeping she seemed to not be able to hold it anymore and fell asleep while sitting on the bed.
She seemed to be shaking a lot so Arthur guessed she must be having a nightmare of some kind but nevertheless he didn''t want to wake her up as she stayed awake for 2 days or maybe even more so some sleep will help her a lot.
Arthur decided to experiment with his magic until the girl wakes up.
He started by creating some weapons with his dark magic and trying to create complicated ones, and he easily succeeded as he was able to create a 30 meter long black chain made of dark magic, he noticed too that the chain had some black flames in it, they seemed hard to notice as the chain was black too, he guessed the black flames were the one from the ''dark flame ring'' but to make sure they were from the ring, he retrieve a long sword from his storage and held it , and noticed there was indeed black flames in the edges of the sword, he tried slashing in the air with minimum strength and saw black flames shot out from the slash 2 meters ahead until they disappeared.
He also tried summoning skeletons and then killing them but unsurprisingly he didn''t get any Experience for it so he sighed and gave up on the idea to level up non-stop by summoning and killing skeletons.When he was in the middle of doing some tests with his dark magic, an idea struck him so he quickly turned around and appraised the sleeping demon girl.
Lucy(Demon) : LVL44
But just as he saw the window which showed the demon''s level name he appraised again focusing on the window and as he has guessed another window showed up.
Lucy(Demon) : LVL44
Status: bound by holy magic
''I must really be stupid to not appraise a second-time sigh...''
After secretly blaming his stupidity, Arthur checked the status and he was joyful of the results as he could see the Health, Mana, and Stamina, he also noticed that her stamina was very low but that was to be expected after staying 2 days or even more without sleeping or taking a rest.
He tried appraising the window again but nothing happened nevertheless he didn''t give up just yet, as he tried appraising every single status but still nothing showed so he stopped any further tries.He continued with his dark magic experiments waiting for the girl to wake up...
After 2 hours or so, while Arthur has gone back to reading books since he was bored of training and trying things with his magic, he heard a cry which came from the large bed.
"NOO!"
The girl''s cry surprised Arthur who was engrossed in reading, he turned around and saw the girl awake and breathing very quickly.
She looked around a couple of seconds then breather a sigh of relief, she glanced at Arthur and realized he was looking at her, but when she looked at clothes, she noticed that she was not wearing the grey cloth anymore and her face and other parts of her body were exposed, fortunately, her important parts were still covered, at least.
She guessed that the grey cloth fell off from her body because of her habit of moving a lot when she is asleep , but she didn''t bother putting the grey cloth on again as she was only with black-robed man and she was sure that he would not touch her because if he wanted to he would already have done it.
The girl sat on the bed, picked some food which was put on a nearby table and began eating it slowly.
Arthur saw the petite girl eating so he waited for her to finishthen said:
"I might have found a method to break the seal so I''m gonna try it, ok?"
The demon girl just nodded toward Arthur but her eyes had no emotion as if she was expecting him to fail.
He walked toward her and when he was a couple of centimeters away he extended his hand and released dark magic which looked like a black fog , it invaded the girl''s body who seemed surprised by the action of Arthur but didn''t do anything , after all even if she wanted to protect herself from the dark magic invading her body she couldn''t do it as her powers were sealed , so she just stood there, gazing at Arthur.
The dark magic began entering the girl''s body slowly, and after a couple of seconds he couldn''t it push it further as some kind of barrier was blocking the way, he tried forcing the dark magic to break it and suddenly heard a notification ''ting''
Do you want to break the Holy barrier using you dark magic Y/N cost: 500 mana
''yes''
Just as he accepted, 500 Mana was used and he heard a ''Puchi'' sound and his dark magic continued to invade the demon''s body but he quickly called it back and in an instant, all his dark magic which was in the girl''s body exited it and then disappeared into thin air.
Lucy''s POV
After coming to this room, Lucy just ate and sat at the bad without doing anything, after all, there is nothing to do in this isolated room and she knew that there are enemies outside so she just stayed there quietly.
She noticed that the man was focused on reading books to help her and truthfully she was grateful but she just couldn''t bring herself to trust him not even a bit.
She was very tired after staying awake for almost a week, she Stamina higher than an average soldier but she couldn''t stay awake forever. She tried to resist the sleepiness but after so much struggle she couldn''t and fell asleep without realizing it.
She was in the same room the men she loved and other people from the church tortured her and had their fun with her, she looked around and was terrified to see them gazing at her lustfully and laughing evilly, she couldn''t hold her body from shaking.
Lucy vowed to kill them all but facing the men who betrayed her heart and used her she couldn''t even muster up the strength to move, she noticed she was still bound by the same chains as back then and the menwasapproaching her with eyes filled with obsession and lust.
As he was coming towards her slowly she couldn''t help but scream "NOOO"
Seconds passed and nothing happened so she opened her eyes and saw a different room, she was sitting on a large bed, and breathing heavily, she checked her surroundings as to make sure it''s real and then sighed
"Mmust''vebeen a nightmare again...."
Lucy got up from the bed and ate some food which was on the table, the food was quite delicious as the black-robed man bought every kind of food he found in the town, so she filled her stomach until it was full and when she finished she heard the man speakLove this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
"I might have found a method to break the seal so I''m gonna try it, ok?"
She just nodded towards him to expecting anything as she knew the one who sealed her powers is terrifying and there was no way to break the seal just by some ''method'' he foundin a book.
The man came close to her then extended his hand, some dark fog was created from who knows where then invaded her body, she could feel the cold feeling coming from this dark magic. Demons are beings of darkness and when they a born they get a small affinity with it so she knew that it was slightly similar to the Darkness Magic, but at the same time it wasn''t, it gave a ferocious feeling like it would devour her body at any second.
A couple of seconds passed then she heard a ''puchi'' sound and she was showered with a lot of notifications...''ting''..
The seal binding your powers have been broken!
All your stats have gone up!
The skill [demonic boost] is now available to use!
...
...A lot of notifications came telling her that all her skills are available to use and when she checked her status windows she saw that her stats have gone up to what they previously were before she was sealed. Lucy rubbed her eyes multiple times as to check if she was still dreaming but fortunately she was not, the black-robed men somehow successfully broke her powers even though she had no hope for him to succeed. She could feel the power in her body after a long time being so weak and fragile, her face gained some color and some small wounds and bruises healed slowly.
Arthur''sPOV
He noticed that his attempt was successful so he was happy, he saw the wounds on her body healing up and her face gains back some color, she seemed even more pretty now as her skin became even whiter and her eyes became more alluring and charming.
He realized that he gazed a bit too much so he coughed and said
"So? Is the seal broken? Are your powers completely back?"
Despite knowing he succeeded, he had to make sure that he had done it without making any side-effects.
The demon girl nodded towards him and then extended her hand and a ball of fire was on top of it.
She moved the ball of fire to show him she now had recovered and was no longer blinded by the holy seal. Since she now had become strong again, Arthur guessed that she will go on her way, but deep in his heart, he felt a connection, even though it was thin and he still couldn''t trust her after he hadunsealed to her, there was an almost non-existing spark between them.
"Good, since your powers are back, you can handle yourself if the Holy church came, but you should be cautious as someone of the old man''s caliber isn''t a person that you could defeat."
The girl nodded towards him and you could see anger and hatred in her eyes when he mentioned the holy church so he guessed they must''ve killed her family or done something to her.
"thank you"
The girl said those two words then headed back to the exit of the room. Arthur looked at her back walking further away then said
"Wait! I want you to take something."
He said that whilst throwing a glowing bracelet at her.
synchro Bracelet effect): As long as 2 people wear the same bracelet and if the bracelet of one of the 2 people is destroyed, the other one could pinpoint where the bracelet was destroyed.
The girl caught the bracelet, looked at it for a second before turning towards Arthur and nodding, after having worn the bracelet she quickly left the room.Arthur stood there lost in thought, he felt empty and a little bit alone, even though he didn''t interact a lot with the girl when they were together, she still accompanied him everywhere and got used to it so now returning to being alone felt kind of unpleasant.
He who passed months alone in a desolate room now felt lonely after accompanying a girl for a couple of days, he couldn''t believe what he was thinking
"..Me?Feeling lonely? You must bejoking!Being alone is better than being betrayed!"
Soon after he went back to his desk and resumed reading the books, after all, there is nothing he could do except reading books or practicing with his dark magic.
approximately one hour has passed since the demon girl left and Arthur was still reading books but suddenly he felt something in his wrist so he looked at it and saw the synchro bracelet glowing red, so he quickly knew that it was the sign indicating the destruction of the other bracelet, he received information in his mind telling him where exactly the bracelet was destroyed and it seemed that it was not very far from here, actually it was the bandit camp he had destroyed.
Without wasting any second, he quickly ran out of the room with his full speed and sprinted toward the exit of the long corridor.
While using his full speed, Arthur was just a blur whenever he passed you only feel the air moving and soon he exited the corridor, but he didn''t stop instead he increased his speed even more while thinking
''How could the bracelet have been broken? With her power and LVL she could handle anything even the priest of the holy church ... did she perhaps destroyed it on purpose?''
With his incredible speed, not even after 10 minutes of the destruction of the bracelet, he arrived at the place where it was the bracelet was supposedly destroyed.
He could see traces of battle, trees were destroyed and huge craters were here and there but surprisingly there was no one.
While Arthur was examining the place, he suddenly heard loud noises not far away from him so he rushed towards it without hesitating and in just seconds he arrived at the scene.
He saw the demon girl standing not far from him, she was bloodied all over, her appearance was slightly different as her hair was violet and she had some kind of tattoos in her arms.
On the opposite side of her was Theodor, who was grinning and laughing happily and beside him was a red-haired guy. He was quite handsome,he had a two-handed sword on his back and seemed very carefree, his eyes brows were shaped like a swords and his eyes filled with haughtiness and pride. He gazed at the girl and said
"HAHAHA to seem we were able to find you by tracing that mysterious black-robed man, I guessed that it must''ve been you who was with the that guy back then because it is not usual to find a demon so much deep in this continent, truly luck is on my side, to be able to bring you back will get me so much rewards and promotions haha you don''t even know your worth filthy thing"
He then dashed towards the girl and struck her in the stomach with his knee, she was sent flying until she hit a big boulder and fell down , she tried to stand up but to no avail, she didn''t have the strength too, she just kept coughing up blood.
Arthur quickly appraised the red-haired man as he saw he was quite strong , after all, to win against a LVL44 demon you have to be a lot stronger than it considering demons are more adept at magic than humans.
Holy knight:Rein:LVL51
His LVL was the highest Arthur have seen so far, and his speed was almost like his speed so he was considered a strong opponent.
Arthur used [faster than death] and appeared in front of the demon girl who was shocked to see him but then quickly realized that her bracelet was destroyed not long ago.
Rein saw Arthur appear out of nowhere and was stunned for a second but soon furrowed his brow and looked toward Theodor, but he was shocked to see that Theodor was shaking from fear while looking at the black-robed man.
"hey Theodor, is this him? the one who cut your arm so easily? "
Theodor seemed to come back to his senses and said hastily
"Y-yes lord Rein, he is indeed the one but please be cautious as he is strong and he can use teleportation too"
Rein ignore the last sentence of Theodor as he was confident in his skills and power, he turned to look at this black-robed man curiously and said
"Hey, you! Why don''t you join the holy church? Since you are supposedly powerful, your position will not be bad, you don''t have to protect this dogshit slave of yours, we can offer you a lot of beautiful women"
After waiting sometime Rein noticed that he was not getting a response and felt shame for being ignored so he shouted at Arthur
"Do you realize that by protecting this filthy thing, you are making all the holy church your enemy? fine since you won''t respond then excuse me for being impolite."
Just as he finished talking, he took the big sword from his back and dashed toward the black-robed man.
Arthur checked the girl behind him and noticed that she was heavily injured, it seemed the holy church wanted her alive for some reason, but he doesn''t have the time to think about this right now.
He saw the holy knight dash toward him so he too runs toward the knight and blocked with his bare hands the incoming attack of the big sword.
Arthur wanted to test his physical body and how much he could hold up without using his dark magic.
Once the sword landed on his bony arms, he didn''t feel any pain nor was he pushed back, instead, the sword seemed like it hit steel and couldn''t move an inch deeper.Rein was surprised to see that his attack was just stopped by bare hands, but he didn''t dare relax as he quickly run back, but Arthur didn''t let him the time to run as he rushed towards him and kicked him in his stomach , the kick sent Rein flying a couple of meters but didn''t do a lot of damage, when the kick landed on the stomach Arthur noticed that the armor he was wearing was special as it was very hard and he felt quite numb in his leg.
His strength stats was quite low compared to his other stats so he kind of guessed his physical power to be average in comparison of his dark magic.He wanted to know the limits of his physical strength and speed so that''s why he didn''t use any magic during this clash.
Rein stood up quickly, he didn''t seem affected by the kick but nevertheless he had shocked eyes as this was the first opponent except for his ''master'' to be able to fight back against him.
He looked at this black-robed man with curious eyes and wondered why he didn''t use his magic as he heard from Theodor that this man could use teleportation and create a powerful dark sword.
The holy knight stood there appearing to be lost in thought so Arthur just dashed towards and him and kept hitting him, the fight soon escalated and both opponents began hitting each other, but they seemed to be on par.
After some time , Arthur noticed that his speed was slightly slower than his opponents and he was quite stunned because he didn''t expect someone to be faster than him, also the attacks of the night seemed to become rougher and rougher while his attack is the same his fists and kicks are doing close to no damage to the knight as he seemed to get up every time he was sent flying.
Theodor in the back didn''t dare to interfere in this fight as he could do anything, he didn''t believe his eyes when he saw the black-robed man fight on par ''Rein'' as this holy knight was quite famous in the holy church to be very strong.
The old man soon thought of something and began chanting "You ,who is watching us from above , you, the lord of light and holiness, please grant us your power to aid our comrades" soon a bright light came emerged in front of the old man and soon landed on the holy knight who was fighting with Arthur.
Just after the light fell on the night, his speed and strength seemed to increase a lot and Arthur was pushed back by his attacks.
Even though the Strength of the holy knight was increased his attacks still didn''t even scratch his opponent , so he became quite fearful of this individual , in contrary of this Arthur was quite joyful as he knew his vitality was very high and because of this his defense was impenetrable , so he was delighted to see the attacks of the holy knight cause no harm to him.
With the increased speed of Rein, Arthur could no longer fight on par with him, as even though he had a strong defense continuing to fight like this would lead to nothing , he thought of fighting until his opponent has no stamina left but he quickly decided against it as he noticed that the demon girl''s state seemed to have gotten even worse, so he quickly used [Faster than death] to teleport away from the rampaging knight .The skill cost 150 mana peruse and he could regenerate 58 mana per second so he could use the skill every 3 seconds and he would not lose Mana.
Rein saw The black-robed mana teleport away and was a little surprised as this was the first time he saw this kind of instant teleportation because usually it takes a little-chant at the very least but this man just used it instantly if he had chanted he would''ve heardit.
The holy knight stood there gazing at Arthur, but you could see in his eyes contempt and pride even though was struggling against his opponent and couldn''t win he still didn''t give up his haughtiness and considered himself the best.
Arthur was very calm as he watched the holy knight and finally said
"Time to finish this little play, I''ve grown bored of it.."
When he finished speaking he created many dark daggers, there were hundreds if not thousands of them in the air, it was a terrifying sight to behold as even the holy knight was shocked and you could see the disbelief in his eyes.
Arthur just waved his hand and all the spears attacked the holy knight with lightning speed, the opponent couldn''t even react before he was stabbed continuously by the dagger, his armor was pierced easily by flying dark daggers and he died without even being able to scream.
Some moments passed and all you could see was a lot of holes in the ground as the daggers continued all the way deep into the earth so Arthur just willed for them to disappear and looked toward the holy knight or what remained of him.
All his body was filled with holes, and he no longer had his right arm or both his legs, he helplessly tried to resist the attack with his sword but the sword was literally turned into dust by so many daggers.
Arthur looked at his broken armor with sad eyes as he wanted to try because it seemed really special, he heard a small notification as killing the holy knight gave him 2 levels which was quite good.He breather a sigh of relief and thought back to how the holy knight who was surpassing him in terms of speed and strength couldn''t even resist against his dark magic and thought back to Zzodiak who was a terrifying existence back in the days
"if I ever meet him, even in the afterlife i, better thank him huhuhuhu"
Arthur chuckled but his it seemed like an evil laugh with his cold voice, he then suddenly seemed to remember something and looked toward Theodor.
After a minute or so the crystal changed color and some kind of light began enveloping the old man, he soon breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Arthur was also looking at him with strong killing intent "he noticed me !!!"
Arthur quickly created a long dark sword and used [faster than death] toward the old man . unfortunately he had to use it twice, but all it took it less than a second to teleport next to the old man, he soon slashed at the Priest who holding a white crystal and emanated a bright light. the sword slash only hit air as the old man seemed to completely disappear into thin air.
Arthur knew that he was not successful in killing and the priest and stood there in anger
"dammit ! he escaped, how could I''ve been this careless, he will only bring more troubles for me .. "
He then headed toward The demon girl who was laying on the floor with a pool of blood next to her, she looked dumbly at the dead holy knight and couldn''t belive what just happened.
Arthur searched in his storage for a potion as when he was searching for the first time he found quite a lot of miraculous healing potions.
He soon retrieved some kind of elixir which had a red blood liquid and passed her to the dazed girl, who did not respond to the action of Arthur so he said
"You should quickly drink this otherwise your wounds would only get worse you know?"
His sound seemed to snap her out of it and she more so looked at the black-robed man in front of her with a bit of mixed fear and gratitude, she took the elixir of him and gulped it down in one go.
Not even a minute passed and she noticed her wounds healing at a rapid pace, but she wasn''t amazed because after what just happened and the fight she just witnessed, she couldn''t be amazed by just miraculous healing elixir.
Arthur saw the changes in her body and the wounds healing, there were some serious ones like a big cut in her waist which even exposed her bones but with the help of elixir it seemed to get slowly get better
"Ididn''t expect less from a potion found in Zodiak''s ring"
He walked toward the dead corpse of the holy knight and thought of something , then he quickly sat on a small rock next to the corpse and soon he left his current ''body'' and with fast speed headed toward the holy knight speed, as he was a parasite and could get the stats of this strong knight he wouldn''t mind doing so after all he was already dead but he didn''t plan on staying on that body as it didn''t have either leg and even missed an arm...
''ting''
You have successfully possessed Holy Knight:Rein
Chapter 12 : Assassins
Just when Arthur possessed the dead holy knight notifications came one after another.. ''ting''
You have gained a new skill (passive) :[Blessing]: You are now blessed by the lord of light and holiness: +50% to all holy attacks
''ting''!
Because your affinity with dark magic is high, the skill [blessing] has been absorbed by dark magic and transformed into [holy resistance]: You resistance to holy attacks have increased by 25%
You have gained a new skill (passive): [Sword mastery: LVL8]: When using any type of sword, your attacks deal 20% more damage and have 10% increase in their speed and accuracy
You have gained a new skill(active) : [holy burst: LVL7]: this skill is an advanced version of [burst attack]: You charge your hands/legs/weapon with power for 1 second then you unleash it, cooldowntime: none, cost: 100 mana
You dark magic has absorbed the skill [holy burst] and created a new one : [Dark burst] :this skill is an advanced version of [burst attak]: you charge your hands/legs/weapon with power for 5 seconds then you unleash it dealing 200% more damage, cooldown time:60 seconds, cost: 125 mana
you have gained a new skill (passive) : [basic Wind comprehension]: Since you have understood the flow of wind and learned to be one with it, you gained +200 agility and 10% increase in speed
Your stats have improved! please check your status window for more detailed information
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER
Level:
89
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
3122(+1482)
Intelligence
2876(+401)
Agility
4580(+2480)
Wisdom
2410(+312)
Vitality
2754(+638)
Dexterity
2120(+900)
-
Health
2775(+895)
Health Regen
31.2/s
Mana
4552(+712)
Mana Regen
67.9/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
2953(+1372)
Defense:
2592(+810)
Elemental Resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
25%
Light/holy:
50%
Darkness:
100%
''Jackpot !This knight''s stats are unexpectedly high!''
Overjoyed would be understatement for Arthur, he was delighted to see his current stats almost double up especially for the Agility, it became by far the highest one, he was excited to test it right now and with the bonus of[Basic Wind comprehension]it''s like having +450 more Agility since it increased his speed by 10%.
He saw that his Intelligence and Wisdom didn''t increase that much and guessed that the Holy night was a fighter class and not a mage, nevertheless, even with his high strength, he still believed that his magic is terrifying as it''s able toinsta-killthe knight without any resistance.
He thought of Zodiak and how he wasa mythicalbeing feared by everyone but unfortunately, he died because of old age ''Not even a mythical being can overcome time huh?''
He read in the ancient books that most Humans in this world have a life-span of 70 to 80 years and those with high enough level they can even reach 200 years old but that was the limit except some individuals.He also read that there are some beasts that have long life-span that can reach thousands of years old if not more, like the mighty Dragon Race for example.
The Demon Race is also an exception, they have a have a long lifespan but their reproduction is extremely slow which results in having few numbers and low populations, as years passed, their populations never ceased decreasing in number, with the war occurring, the process is only becoming faster and faster.
Once Arthur checked his status window, he quickly left the knight''s corpse and returned to the old one after a few seconds as the process wasn''t instantaneous. He truthfully didn''t like this body very much as he was unable to feel anything, not feeling pain was sometimes a good but he still wanted to enjoy eating food so he wondered on whether to find a living body or not but he soon decided against it because if he ever wanted a body he would only want one with the same appearance he had in the previous world or something that he liked, not any random person he encountered in the street.
Immense strength and unbelievable power surged through his body, he felt as if he could destroy anything with just one punch!
When he fought against the Holy Knight he noticed his strength was very lacking as he was not able to damage his armor with his fists or kicks but now he was sure if he could haverematch, it would definitely be different than the previous one, maybe the knight would be defeated with just a fist, or at least be injured.
Arthur got up from the stone and felt something special, he felt one with the air as if he was dragged by it and guessed it must be the effect of[Basic Wind Comprehension], he quickly stretched his body and ran with his maximum speed, however, he was unable to cope with the speed as it was very fast and instantlycrushed into a big boulder forty meters ahead of him, due to his negligence and the fact that he underestimated his body by a huge margin, he was not even able to feel his body move until the moment he crashed with the bolder.
Obviously, the boulder was destroyed to dust by the strong impact and Arthur just stood there, dazed, not knowing what just happened, he couldn''t believe his speed, he wasn''t even able to distinguish anything when he ran, everything blurred and his head met with the rock.
He started running trying to get used to his new speed. Slowly but surely he got the hang of it, his speed doubled if not tripled in comparison to last time. Previously, when he tested it, he approximately ran 8.5Km/minute and now, when he tried, he ran 15km/minute, it was not double his previous speed but it still was amazing and if you calculate it, it''s a mind-numbing 900Km/hour and that is almost a Mach 1 speed, if anybody from his previous world knew about this, they would just call him crazy or wouldn''t believe him, hell! Even Arthur himself didn''t dare believe it if not for the fact that he is the one who is able to exerce that much speed!
The demon girl who had long since healed with the exception of a few minor injuries, which were healing at a speed the naked eye could see, stared at the disappearing Arthur and rubbed her eyes, after all, to her, he seemed to disappear and reappear in a different location, it was the same as the teleportation but different at the same time, she knew that it was his speed and not teleportation but she still couldn''t believe it as it was the first time she saw this kind of speed.
Arthur was ecstatic due to this joyful powerful, when he got used to his speed, he was surethat unlesshe encountered some godlike opponent, he wouldn''t lose to anyone. Furthermore, even if he couldn''t win, he still has several ways to escape using his incredible speed or with[Faster Than Death].
Next thing he tried was his Strength, he created a Dark Sword and the moment he held, he felt as if he was one with it, the two of them were like one existence, as if he was training with it from the day he was born,[Sword Mastery]was really amazing for it had many benefits for him, he didn''t regret possessing the Holy Knight for even a second, on the contrary he thought that if he didn''t do it, he wouldn''t have gained so much stats and if he encountred someone way stronger than the knight he would only have to run or use magic, however, although he won using his Dark Magic, he didn''t want to excessively use it as there may be a time when he would be unable to and he would have to rely only on his physical strength.
First, he used[Dark Burst]to charge his power and after 5 seconds have passed, he slashed with the dark sword in his hand at the air, when he executed the slash, all you could see was a blur, as his speed at attacking was insanely fast, soon a strong dark wave was created by the slash, it was a 2 meter long dark arc which had black flames at the edges of it, the force of the slash was so amazing that a small crater was formed by the pressure of the attack, the dark arc continued forward and annihiliated everything on its way, trees were destroyed and boulders were crushed and it finally stopped after crossing a distance of 100 meters. This was but a mere slash using [Dark Burst], imagine if he went in anall-out death battle, the result would be more astonishing.
Arthur seeing this laughed coldly
''I pity anyone who would be my next opponent!''
He wanted to do more tests but he decided against it as there may be reinforcements still coming and he didn''t want to bother with them. Dealing with one Holy Knight is no problem, even two or three can be managed but if it''s a whole army or a few dozens, then it would be troublesome, especially when he had to keep an eye on the demon girl too.
He turned around and headed toward the demon girl, who had already stood up and gazed at him with surprised eyes, she tried to keep an expressionless face but the shock was just too great. For her, someone who fought almost all her life, an existence such as the Holy Knight is uncomparable yet such an existence was flattened and killed like an ant when it faced Arthur.
"How about you follow me for a while until things calm down or we get away from this area. After what happened, it''s rather likely that a lot of forces stationed by the Holy Church would roam the surrounding town and cities, hiding would not be an easy feat, especially when you are unable to defend you. The Holy Church won''t let you off easily, they seemed to really want to capture you.., in fact, you were lucky I had given you the bracelet and you were close to my location, if you had been very far, I would have arrived very late to save you."
Arthur paused for a second then said
"... Think carefully, after all, you have nothing to lose if you followed me, in fact, there are many benefits but it''s up to you."
The girl seemed to think about what he said, she hesitated for a long time before nodding her a bit unwillingly, however, Arthur could''ve sworn he heard her click her tongue and mutter with a low voice
''Tch! To think I am unable to fight against some trash from the Holy Church!!''
"Alright then, it''s decided! We should hurry up and leave this place as they are probably on their way!"
The demon girl just nodded her head again without speaking, affirming what he said. Arthur saw her reply then thought for a moment as said to her
"Wait here for a moment,I need to bring my furniture and other things from the cave, in meantime, keep heading West and stay cautious as they may be lurking anywhere, I''ll be right back!"
As he finished speaking he turned around and headed toward the tomb to retrieve what he left, he couldn''t just leave them, after all, to him they seemed useful but if other people saw them they would droll non-stop and greed would control them, because even the big bed he put there was made of a special material that can not be found at the present time. Only some royalty or high officials would have luxurious beds like that.
With his speed, it only took him more or less a minute to arrive at the tomb, in a span of a single minute he can run approximately 15 or 16Km.
Arthur soon retrieved everything and left the room which became empty, it didn''t take him long before he arrived next to the girl, who was surprised to see him back so soon, she thought he was an enemy who sneaked up on her so unconsciously or perhaps instinctively, a fireball was thrown at him. It was too late for her to divert its direction or stop it, Arthur was surprised at first but he just he waved his hand and instantly made the fireball transform into dispersing flames which soon disappeared. Lucy didn''t give an apology as from her perspective, it is his fault that he appeared so suddenly, Arthur didn''t press on the matter either, they both acted as if nothing happened, however, if it was someone other than Arthur, such fireball would have seriously injured the target.
Arthur was only able to disperse the Fireball because the difference in Stats between her and him is too big, with a small Dark Barrier around his hand, he pushed the fireball to the side.
The duo didn''t linger there and headed back toWillsdenTown.
Arthur wanted to headback to the town one last time to buy clothes for the girl , truthfully he had a lot of clothes in his storage but they were only for male , and even if there were some for women , with the petite size of the girl they would be much bigger than her , also since the holy church was on his tail he didn''t have to hide the appearance of the girl anymore as he will be leaving the town soon and even if there is some trouble , it couldn''t be worse than the holy church.
with decent speed, they arrived at the entrance of the town, The guard was surprised by the beauty of the demon girl but he soon regained his senses and gazed at Arthur with jealousy and envy but the latter just ignored him after paying the entrance fee for himself and the girl.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
They entered the town and started roaming around searching for a cloth store.
Arthur couldn''t remember seeing any building resembling a cloth shop so he just kept searching for the girl following and after one hour or so of searching they found a little shop in the edges of the town, the shop was actually a small house but Arthur knew it was a cloth shop because there were various kind of clothes laid outside with prices put on top of it.
The owner of the little shop seemed excited when he saw Arthur and the girl come towards him and checking the clothes, it seemed he didn''t sell very often so seeing customers made him happy.
"Hello esteemed customers , what would you like to buy? we have everything here."
the shop owner who was a middle-aged man with a small black beard glanced at the demon girl and was stunned to see her beauty, no man could resist to not look at her, she had long silver hair , charming and alluring eyes they seemed cold but they would attract everyone who saw them , her size was petite but you could see she was developed , her skin was as white as snow and her hands seemed soft , but the middle-aged man did not stare for a long time as he was afraid to offend her or the men next to her so he soon averted his gaze and said
"Young mistress,I see that your beauty has no limits ,I have clothes that would perfectly match your appearance it would make you even more charming how about I show you?"
The demon girl didn''t seem interested and just stayed silent, so Arthur turned to her and spoke: "Go see if there is any cloth you like, you cannot stay in this ragged cloth ".She seemed unwilling but nevertheless, she still followed the owner of the shop into the store to see the clothes.
Arthur followed after them but he just stood at the entrance and waited for her to finish choosing and after a couple of minutes the girl came out wearing new clothes , she had black leather boots , a simple blue dress which perfectly sweeted her and made her body look even more voluptuous, he stared at her still amazed that she can become even more beatiful even with simple clothes but he soon turned around and if he had a normal body you could even see him blush, after all he too was a man and even with his cold attitude he can be affected by beauty.
"haha , esteemed customer she indeed looks more alluring but unfortunately she didn''t want to try other things ..." . The girl turned around and looked at the owner angerly as if he said something unnecessary. Arthur saw her react like that and chuckled as it was the first time he saw her act like that but nevertheless, he turned toward the owner and replied "Thank you for your help, give me all the clothes you have with her size "
The old man was full of disbelief by what Arthur said as he didn''t expect him to say something like that but he hastily ran toward his shops and in a matter of minutes he came back with hands full of clothes, some seemed luxurious why the others were simple daily-clothes.
"E-esteemed customer ,t-this all i got with her size , please check if there is anything you like."
Arthur looked at the cloth for a second then glanced at the girl but she was not even looking at the clothes as she seemed uninterested by the clothes but he just said
"How much for all of them?"
The middle-aged man didn''t know what to say, but he quickly snapped out of it then replied "iii-it''s 102 gold" . Actually, the price was a good price for all the these clothes , a gold coin for a normal citizen can hold him for half a year so 102 gold was considered a huge sum for small shops like this one which didn''t sell every day.
Arthur waved his hand and a magical bag was retrieved from his storage, after checking the amount of gold in it, he threw it toward the owner and took the clothes that were put on a table next to him , he quickly put them in his storage ring with just a wave of his hand and left the cloth store followed by the beautifully dressed girl as for the middle-aged man kept thanking Arthur and bowing non-stop to express his gratitude.
Not even after walking 5 minutes , with his high dexterity and fast reflexes he noticed that he was being attacked as fire balls and arrows which seemed to be filled with liquid in the head were shot towards him but their speed was very slow compared to the speed of the holy knight and he noticed that the attacks were only aimed at him and seemed to totally ignore the girl beside him.
In fact, the attacks were very accurate and probably made by professionals. Arthur didn''t even move as he waited for the attack to reach for he knew they would do absolutely no damage, those kind of attacks are pathetic and would not even hurt the demon girl who was much weaker than him.
Finally the arrows and fireballs hit him but the poisoned arrows just crushed when they hit his black robe and the fireballs distinguished, there were people passing and were surprised by the attacks and closed their eyes when they saw the attacks about to land on the black-robed man , but to their surprise when they opened their eyes they could see the black-robed man safe and wasn''t even wounded so they wondered if they were hallucinating but they soon realised they weren''t crazy as they noticed that other people were stunned too.As fpr Arthur , he assessed the situation and quickly found theassaillants , there were exactly 5 of them and they were hiding in dark places 50 meter or so away from him , they all wore black clothes and masks on their faces.
Without waiting for them to react , Arthur used [faster than death] and appeared in front of the closest black-clothes individual,the assassin was scared shitless by the this black-robed man that he and his comrades were supposed to eliminate easily but he didn''t expect his attacks to not even scatch his clothes but to be found out so quickly by him, just as he was going to turn around to run for his life he blacked out and died just like that.After having beheaded the assassin Arthur used [faster then death] again and beheaded the 3 other assassins and when he was next to the final, he didn''t kill him instead he just chopped his left leg and said
"Who hired you , you have 5 seconds or death awaits you"
The assassin was screaming from pain , and stared fearfully at Arthur as he was shaking and saw death doors waiting for him so he tried to answer him but he couldn''t do it as his mouth was shaking and couldn''t utter a single a word.
"4"
"3"
"2"
Just as Arthur was going to finish his countdown the assassin with a shaky voice "w-wwwait i''ll asnw-weer you , don''t k-kill me pp-please!! it''s Lord F-ffeylord h-hee made a c-contrract with u-us as llong as w-we k-kill you , h-he will r-reward us with a lot of g-gold coins" .when he finished speaking the assassin didn''t dare move and waited for black-robed man to let him go.
Arthur thought about what the man before him said and his eyes turned cold "as expected , if you don''t eliminate a source of trouble ,it will always come back for more!" . He then beheaded the assassin as he wasn''t going to let him go in the first place .After killing the last assassin he used [faster than death] and appeared next to the girl who didn''t look particulary surprised as she was used to ambushes and she knew that a single attack like this could kill the black-robed man.Arthur started walking slowly and spoke "I''ve changed my mind , we will stay at the inn tonight and leave tomorrow , i have some matters to resolve before going"
The two headed to the inn and half an hour they finally arrived.The landlady welcomed with a smile but she soon became stunned as she saw the celestial beauty next to Arthur , she didn''t expect him to bring such beatiful girl with him as he seemed the loner kind.
After buying some food and letting the girl eat it, they headed toward their room.night has come, so Arthur decided it was time to act, he turned to look at the girl who was unexpectedly sleeping defenseless on the bed, he was going to tell her he will comeback but because she was sleeping, he thought it was needless to wake her up for something so trivial.
He used [faster than death] and appeared out of the inn, and soon he started using [faster than death] to head toward the noble district.He preferred using instant moving rather than his speed , even though no one could see him if he was using his speed he still wanted to be cautious and use teleportation to arrive to his destination.With his mana regen he would use it once every 3 seconds without losing a mana , so in a matter of minutes he arrived at the noble district.
He started entring mansions one after another searching for the one Feylord was living in.After going through 7 or so mansions he arrived at big one which seemed like a castle and his gut told him that this is the one. in a 2 continuous [ faster than death] he was already in the building .what he saw was a luxurious hall , white stairs and a big red carpet made by a special animal fur but none of that impressed him as focused on his hearing to affirm if this was Feylord''s home or not.
Soon after, he heard a shout coming from upstairs "WHAT! YOU SAID THEY COULDN''T KILL HIM? INCOMPETENT FOOLS, WHAT IF THEY SPILLED THE TRUTH AND TOLD HIM THEY WERE HIRED BY ME?" it seemed Feylord was shouting at somebody and with anger. Arthur smirked and used one last teleportation as he appeared in the same room Feylord was staying in.
Arthur could see there were Feylord and his two maids standing behind him and in front of Feylord was a kneeling man who was in a full-plate armor .His appearance caused all the present in the room to stare in shock as if they were dreaming , especially the young noble, his face turned white and he backed away from fear
"W-what are you doing in here!! this is a restricted area !!" The noble didn''t even know what to say, he didn''t even question Arthur how he appeared out of nowhere .The full-plate soldier who was kneeling quickly appeared in front of Feylord and readied himself to fight as he stared with fear and caution at the black-robed man in front of him.
Arthur didn''t want to waste time talking so he just created a dark spear and willed it to attack the soldier who was protecting and ''poof'' with lightning speed the black spear created a hole in the chest of the soldier who had a eyes full of disbelief , he soon fell on the floor , dead without being able to resist for even a second. The dark spear just stood centimeters away from Feylord who fell on his butt and couldn''t even scream .didn''t even anything killing the soldier as if he was killing animals , his past-life taught him that humans are many times worse than anyother being , their greed and desires can push them to do things inhuman ,he even wondered why this supposed ''god'' who is watching them from above created such monstruous being ."men is really the cruelest animal" Arthur sighed and walked toward the petrified Feylord who didn''t was backing away on all fours as he didn''t even have the strength to stand up to run.
"D-don''t you dare kill me! do you know who I am? I am A NOBLE! YOU WILL BE PURSUED BY MY FAMILY! I have connections to royalty, do you think they will let you off easily!!!"
Those threats didn''t affect Arthur as he continued advancing slowly towards the young noble .Feylord noticing that his threats are to no avail so he soon changed his tactic and said
"Right right ! Do you want money? women? I can give you all and you can keep that demon girl!Ican give you everything, you just have to say the wor..."
before he could finish his sentence the dark spear smashed into his head which killed him instantly.A rthur stopped in front of the corpse of the noble , disgusted and with eyes full of contempt. He looked to his headless corpse and noticed a ring in his hand which resembled a little his storage ring so he guessed it must be similar to his.He took the ring from his finger and put it in his storage to check it later.
Arthur turned toward the 2 maids who were scared shitless and crying, they didn''t dare move as they knew if they did they will be killed. One of them quickly kneeled and said
"please don''t kill me !! I didn''t do anything to offend you, my lord ! if you want I can serve you, I can warm your bed too, I can be useful please don''t kill me!"
Truthfully, He was going to kill them both to erase evidence but when he saw what the maid said he was even more disgusted, humans will really do anything to stay alive. Just by what she said, he knew she was someone who will cling to someone with power and use her body to have benefits and would abandon them the second they have a better opportunity. He glanced at the second maid but she didn''t say anything as she looked at him with fearful and tears flowing from her eyes.
He killed the first maid who begged him not to kill her but he decided not to kill the second maid as when he questioned her, he found out she was from a poor family and worked for the noble to be able to help her family as they were struggling , true she sold her body to the lustful noble but she used for the sake of her family so Arthur just let her live and told her to leave the mansion fast and not say word of what happened or he will come back for her.
Soon he left the mansion and returned discreetly to his room in the inn.Once he arrived there he found the demon girl awake and staying silent on the bed apparently waiting for him to arrive. He sat on the chair and softly said: "everything is resolved now, we''ll leave this town tomorrow morning". the demon girl nodded coldly towards him.
Arthur suddenly remembered something and retrieved the ring he took from Feylord , he infused mana in it and discovered that it was indeed a storage ring but it was a lot smaller than his, actually it can be considered an upgraded version of a magical bag it had a space of 30x30 and had some items scattered here and there . What picked his interest is an envelope which seemed rather special, when he retrieved it and examined it he discovered it contained a little bit of mana so he appraised it
Nemia academy acceptance letter
He frowned as he didn''t know what this Nemia academy was, he didn''t even read any information about it in the ancient books so he wondered what it was.H e decided to question the demon girl about this academy as maybe she has some information about it so he turned around and asked
"Do you know what is the Nemia academy?"
For the first time Arthur saw the girl gape at him with amazement , but she soon snapped out of it and replied with her melodious voice "Nemia academy is a place where all talents from all the continents, they gather up and study magic or fighting classes , usually the academy only accepts nobles,royality or very talented people" Arthur listened carefully to the girl as to not miss any important information
"the academy was formed a thousand years old and it has immense authority as none of the powers in the continents dare to offend it , and it is said that everyone attending it is considered equad and power is determined by strength and even a royality will be regarded as a simple student there and he cannot use his backing to oppress othrs and if they did they will be severely punished if not kicked out of the academy . Normally if you want to enter the academy you need to pass the entrance exam which is extremly hard or have an special admission gotten from the academy" the demon girl seemed out of breath so she paused for a second to rest as she was not used to talking this much but she decided to tell Arthur all the information she got on the academy as she deemed him to be a little trustworthy and she noticed that she began to open up to him even if it was a little bit it still changed the whe thought about him . After a couple of seconds, she resumed
"Nemia academy is located at the center of the 4 continents on a big island, the whole island is owned by the academy and no army from the others continents is allowed to step on this island otherwise it will be considered an invader. Usually, the academy does an entrance exam once every 6 months but the accepted people are very few but extremely talented in either magic orclose combat strength."
Arthur was amazed by what he heard as he didn''t know of the existence of such institution and it seemed to be the perfect place for him to stay , since no one dared to offend it , the holy church would not chase him or cause him trouble there and it will be a good experience to go there and check it out , he also noticed that the demon girl spoke of the nemia academy with expectation and longing so that added another reason for him to go there. He looked at the girl who was out of breath and spoke
"The Nemia academy is the best choice for us now, not only the holy church would not dare chase us there, we will be able to learn new things and maybe you will be strong enough to defend yourself against the holy church, so what do you say do you want to come with me there? " he looked at the girl with warm eyes , he didn''t know why but he wished for her to accept his offer as he didn''t want to leave her alone...
"enn"
the girl nodded and her lips curved a little for a second forming a smile if you could barely call it that , she seemed more energetic after hearing that their next destination would be the Nemia academy as she always longed for it but couldn''t go there as the holy church didn''t stop chasing her and even if she went she didn''t know if she had enough talent to be able to pass the entrance exam..
****************************************************
Just when Arthur killed Feylord , in very far place from willsden town there was a very big castle , decorated with gold pillars and a gigantic garden filled with all kinds of flowers, in this garden there stood a man who was drawing non chalantly and enjoying his time , this man looked like a robust middle-aged man and had short black hair and a scar on his neck all the way to his left eye which looked injured .
Soon after a skinny tall man who was dressed like a butler came running towards the middle-aged man and said
"My lord, the light in the life crystal of Mr.Feylord has been shut, it seems he died not long ago!!"
The hand which was painting trembled for a second then the middle-aged man screamed angerly toward the butler "WHO ! WHO DID THIS ! TELL ME WHO KILLED MY SON !"
The poor butler couldn''t respond, he just extended his hand and showed the middle-aged a crystal, in this crystal, you can see a floating dark spear in front of you and an approaching black-robed man, you couldn''t see the exact features of this figure as he was hiding it with a black good. The crystal showed what happened a few seconds before the death of Feylord, the Robust middle-aged man was shaking from rage as he took the crystal as he smashed the painting he was drawing and roared towards the butler
"IMMEDIATELY SEND MEN TO INVESTIGATE WHO KILLED MY SON! DO YOU HEAR ME? IMMEDIATELY!" the butler bowed and quickly left to carry out the orders of his lord.
This middle-aged man name was Edward Omond and he was from the royalty, Feylord was his illegitimate son but he cared dearly for him and he took good care of him, he provided him with skill books , money and elixirs to boost his magic powers .
Edward didn''t have any sons beside Feylord so the death of his only son pained him and ignited anuncontrollable rage within him "you dare kill my son? just wait and see the day you will beg for your life in front of me! see how i will skin you alive !" Edward grinned evilly and turned around to enter his castle with a red face filled with anger and craziness.
Chapter 13 : Journey to the North
When Theodor Used the crystal to disappear, he was teleported to the Headquarters of the holy church in the centre of the human continent, actually this kind of crystal was very rare as not even high officials in neither the royalty or holy church would have it , it''s a unique item found in the dungeons and the probability of it dropping is near zero . The father of Theodor is a reputable man in the holy church and has somehow gotten his hands on this crystal so he gifted it to him to teleport to safety with it in case of an emergency.
The teleportation happened in just a second and he soon found himself in a circular room which seemed to be used as a teleportation room. In This world, the powerful people would not travel for days or maybe even months instead they will use teleportation arrays, for example, to go to the Nemia academy you have to either travel by boat which will take some time or use the teleportation array but it is very expensive so only a few rich nobles would use it. That kind of teleportation arrays is scattered in all the continents as to help people travel faster.
Theodor saw 2 guards standing at the entrance of the room so he shouted at them with a shaky voice
"Q-QUICKLY BRING ME TO LORD.ERIK I NEED TO INFORM HIM OF AN EMERGENCY !!"
The 2 guards were startled as the pale face of Theodor but they soon they ran out of the room followed by the terrified Theodor. After sprinting for a minute they arrived before a big white door which had some ancient runes written on it.
"Lord Theodor, this is Lord Erik''s office please wait so we can inform him first"
Theodor just ignored him and just pushed the door hastily and once he entered he saw an old man with a long white bear and deep blue eyes writing some kind of letter or document. The old man raised his head and saw Theodor in his sorry state so he frowned and said calmly"Theodor, what are you doing here? how did you even get back here.." even though the old man was surprised he still remained very calm.
"L-lord ERIK, Lord R-rein h-he died ! ! he died fighting against the black-robed mage !!!! "
The eyes of Lord Erik were stunned when they heard what Theodor said as he would never have thought he would say something like that.
"What are you saying? Rein is not a weak person to die , are you sure he is dead or just ran away without checking anything?" the tone of the old man seemed cold and threatening as he didn''t like Theodor in first place and considered him just a mere puppet to use for he is very weak and only relies on his father''s backing to rise in status.
"Lord Erik I am absolutely sure, I saw his corpse, not even his legs remained after he died !!! the black-robed mage is a monster!!!!" .The old man stood there thinking about something but he could feel that what Theodor was the truth by looking at his terrified face, after some seconds he raised his head and spoke "alright, tell me the details of the fight and how did this black-robed mage win"
Theodor nodded continuously and started narrating the whole fight without even leaving a single detail he even mentioned that the demon ''Lucy'' who they were looking for was with him and was actually his slave and that she regained her demon powers and the seal was broken.
".... After the black-robed men fought with Rein for quite some time, he backed away using his teleportation and just created a LOT of some kind of black daggers which were floating in air, it was REALLY A TERRIFYING SIGHT ! and in just a second those black daggers penetrated Rein without any resistance , even his holy enchanted armor was destroyed without nothing left of it !!!"
After he finished Theodor was still shaking as this was the first time he saw someone this monstrous and powerful, he knew the pope of the holy church and many other people were extremely powerful but he never saw any of them fight or demonstrate powers.
Having listened to Theodor, Lord Erik was shocked especially when he heard the last sentence ''Why would he use magic just in the end? He could''ve just finished the fight from the start... did he need to prepare it beforehand and it took a long time ?''.
Even though the old man was angry because he lost an important knight nevertheless he still didn''t argue any longer and just sighed , Rein was strong but compared to the monsters hiding in the holy church he considered nothing, even he himself could kill Rein with one attack but what made Rein special is that he was young and powerful so he still had a long future but now it''s too late...
"Since things have come to this, I''ll have to take the necessary measures against this man , I cannot let him become a threat to us and about that girl hmm to think she was with him, interesting ..very interesting, Theodor go tell ''him'' that we found her and if he wants her he should search for her himself I do not want to waste any more of my men in this useless search "
Theodor just nodded and bowed to the old man before quickly leaving, as for the old man he just continued what he was doing before Theodor barged in.
***************************************
Morning quickly came and Arthur was feeling quite relieved after he killed the young noble and stopped any future troubles , he learnt from his previous world that mercy on evil people is a decision only made by fools or mindless people as those evil people will somehow someway comeback for revenge either on you or your loved ones so you better kill them when you have the chance.
Like usual, Arthur passed the night reading and the girl just sat on the bed still excited from the thought of going to the Nemia academy, he thought that she really looked like a little girl seeing her excitment and her feet dangling from the bed and moving non-stop. In a way, she changed from the day he first saw her as now she talked more and didn''t feel as cold anymore towards him that is but when outside she returned to her usual emotionless attitude.
Early in the morning, They both left the inn after thanking the landlord for her hospitality and soon they were at the exit of the town. Willsden town was actually deep in the center of the human continent and 400km or so North there is a big city but Arthur didn''t plan to enter it as it will be a waste of time and there is probably a holy church branch there too since there is one in this town.
The human continent was in the south so Arthur and the demon girl had to go north until they reached the end of the continent then somehow go to the island which is owned by Nemia academy, actually this ''island'' could be considered a small continent as it was very big and stretched very far.
Soon they exited the town and started travelling, Arthur didn''t forget to give the ring he got from Feylord to the girl , the storage ring had quite an amount of gold he also put all the food he bought in it as it could fit since food didn''t take that much place he also put the clothes he bought for her in it. The girl took the ring after thanking and Arthur deemed it to be worth as hearing her melodious and charming voice was pleasing to the ear.
The speed which they were travelling was considered fast compared to normal travelers or merchants, even though the girl couldn''t run as fast as him and had to rest , that didn''t matter as he created a dark cloud and they just rode on it non-stop except a little rest in the night because he couldn''t fly at night as they were heading north and the weather would be colder and the demon girl wasn''t like him a body of bones instead she could feel coldness and he knew even if she did suffer from coldness she wouldn''t say it as it was her attitude so he just stopped at night without telling her.
They didn''t talk a lot except some questions here and there made by Arthur, the mood was awkward at first but he soon got used to it as there was nothing he could do. A week or so passed since they started their journey to the north and the distance they passed was considerably big, their speed increased more as Arthur thought of a way to increase the speed of the cloud and at the same time protect the girl from the strong air resistance and that''s by making a spheric dark barrier around her , it seemed his barrier had quite a lot of uses and this was one of them. With this method, their speed increased dozen of times and he now could use the dark cloud to fly at max speed all day long and in just one more week they crossed half the distance.
Honestly, Arthur was pretty surprised about the mind-numbing speed of the dark cloud, it could travel at a speed even faster than sound. On the course of two weeks, he was certain that the distance he crossed his large than a whole tour around his previous world, Earth. He concluded that this world is definitely larger as only a quarter of the Human continent is way bigger than the whole Earth, one can imagine how vast this mysterious world is.
At night, he just got down from the dark cloud to let the girl eat and sleep for some time, they were in a forst full of trees and plants but Arthur just ignored his surroundings and just sat on a nearby rock while gazing at the eating girl with a complex feeling, his thoughts drifted to his past as he remembred his wife , truthfully he really loved her before she had done anything to him as she was beatiful and caring but that was all an illusion as it was only to trick him and get him money, just for some papers which would buy a few things she was willing to let him go through hell , he couldn''t forget her look when she was torturing him with the other men , she laughed and mocked him for his stupidity " Haha, to think that I would love you? You''re not even that handsome! I only took the opportunity that was made from me and married you as I saw you were rich and indeed you were hahaha, I''ve never seen someone so stupid with just some words and kiss you fell for me, it couldn''t be easier!!" , Arthur''s heard ached as he remembered those terrible memories and couldn''t help shaking a bit, he was sad but angry, lonely but thirsty for revenge.
The demon girl seemed to notice Arthur looking towards her but she couldn''t see his eyes as not only was it a night at the moments, he wore a robe which covered him from head to toe, she didn''t even know which race he was from. She became restless because he continued to gaze at her for a long time but she didn''t say anything as she knew he was lost in thought otherwise he wouldn''t stay dazed like that. The girl frowned when she saw his hands shaking as it was the first time she saw him this distressed, usually, he was very calm no matter the situation is, even when he fought the holy knight he seemed relaxed as if nothing could change his mood.
Truthfully, she didn''t know what to do, after all this man helped her a lot and didn''t even anything in return , she didn''t particulary trust him but she felt indebted to him and couldn''t repay the things he had done for her so she suddenly thought of something, she stood up and walked toward Arthur who seemed unaffected by her action and lost in thought, when she was a couple of centimeters in front of him she patted his head , she thought of the moment when he too patted her head to reassure her that he will keep his word and then chopped that old man''s hand, back then his pat really relieved her from her anxious thoughts and comforted her even for a little bit.
Arthur who was still remembering those hellish memories was startled when he felt some kind of hand patting his head so he quickly snapped out of it and lifted his head to look at the figure who is patting him but he suddenly felt a terrifying sense of danger so he stretched both his arms and hugged the girl who was completely surprised by his actions , he quickly created a dark barrier behind his back and tried creating dark shields around it .
"boom"
An enormous object struck Arthur from behind and instantly destroyed his dark shields and barrier he was sent flying with the girl in his arms 20 hundred meters until they fell down , Arthur could feel that his left hand was completely destroyed as nothing was left of it and he had some ribs which were shattered, he even heard a notification
critical strike ! -901 Health
Fortunately, he managed to protect the girl in the last second with his body otherwise she would have been insta-killed by that sneak attack, she only had some minor injuries here and there but nothing serious. As she was surprised by what happened she quickly opened her eyes and saw the skeleton head of Arthur who was now exposed due to the attack, he also had some cracks on his skeleton head which made him look even more terrifying "You...What are y.." before she could finish Arthur threw a healing potion to her and quickly gulped one after quickly adjusting his body and checking his injuries but he was surprised by what he heard saw "ting"
You are possessing an undead body you cannot eat or drink any kind of food or potion
''what the fuck ! are you serious .. !!!'' he had no time to curse his luck as he turned around to see the origin of the attack and what faced him completely surprised him, it was huge beast, probably 300 meters in height and 100 meters in length , the creature had long sharp scales which were yellowish , the beast''s head was even more terrifying as it had grey ferocious eyes and sharp teeth , it appeared to be grinning toward Arthur with contempt and pride in its eyes.
Young Earth Dragon : LVL129
When he saw the results of the appraisal he didn''t dare believe it so he quickly appraised again and again, after multiple checking he took a deep breath and looked at his left arm which was now regenerating but at this rate it would take a couple of minutes and he didn''t have this kind of luxurious time as there was a boss-life beast in front of him. Arthur didn''t waste any time, he quickly retrieved Zodiak''s cane from his storage as this was his best weapon so far.
He saw how his barrier was useless against such a monster so he gave up on the idea to use it to defend from his attacks as the barrier was shattered in an instant but nevertheless he created one around the demon girl as to protect her from the collateral damage of the incoming fight then he created long dark spears, thousands of them were floating in the air and the sight was more terrifying than when he created many dark daggers, heconjured countless dark spears and threw the at the dragon which was also amazed by the dark spears but didn''t even budge or feel afraid.
...
Because of its huge frame, all the spears have hit the dragon but to Arthur''s surprise, they didn''t even scratch its scales, hell! It seemed to tickle it a bit.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Cold sweat broke out on Arthur''s skeletal forehead, he seemingly mopped it away with his forearm, when he saw that his attacks didn''t do anything he completely understood he was screwed but he wasn''t just going to give up as he couldn''t just run away with [faster than death] and let the girl perish. In the meantime the dragon didn''t just stay there without doing anything instead, it charged toward Arthur and although its frame was huge, it was crazy fast, creating tremors with each step and bringing a never stopping pressure. Despite the surprising swiftness of the dragon, it was still lacking compared to its tiny foe, who was specialized in speed.
Just when he was trying to move away to avoid the huge dragon, Arthur was surprised to see that he couldn''t move because some sort of solid rocks which were binding both his legs, as the dragon was going to crash onto him, he used [faster than death] to teleport some distance away but when he reappeared and was going to breathe a sigh of relief, he was surprised to see a gigantic long tail coming right at him with lightning speed so, with no time to react and lesser time to concentrate on a place to use [faster than death], he was left with no choice but to create a barrier and hope for the best.
''booom!''
The tail was bigger than all his body and when it hit him it felt like a mountain was pressing on him, the dragon''s tail has struck him from above and sent him flying to the ground, as he crushed on it, a huge crater was formed and he lost a whopping 1200 health.
Although he didn''t feel pain, he felt that his body was not responding to his thoughts and commands, he could barely stand up, his skeleton body was fully exposed and some places had shattered bones. He gritted his teeth and put back Zodiak''s cane, since it wasn''t useful he decided to change his tactic as his [Dark Magic] was not working. Mayhap it was because he was not skilled with it enough even though he got the mastery and talent of Zodiak, he still didn''t have a better imagination to create better weapons or to use it more efficiently.
He glanced at the demon girl who appeared looking at him with a stunned expression and strange complexion flickering in her cold pupils. He had no choice but to shout at her to wake her up for her long daze
"What are you dazing for! Quickly go away! I can''t deal with this dragon!"
Even though he created a barrier around her, he couldn''t guarantee her safety, he wasn''t sure if he was going to win or not but the probability of him winning was very low considering he lost more than half his Health with one blow and his attacks are doing nothing to his opponent.
He created a long dark sword and held it in his still functioning right hand and without wasting a second he dashed towards the dragon, with the insane speed he soon was near the creature and after having used [dark burst] he slashed with all his might at the scales of the dragon , a dark arc was formed by the slash and directly headed onto the yellowish scales and on contact a loud noise was created which could turn normal people deaf.
As Arthur checked the place where he aimed, his face immediately stiffened due to what he saw , the scales were not destroyed instead there was a slight crack on them, if he continued like this it would take him ages to completely destroy those scales and he didn''t have the time anyway as the dragon would not stand still and watch.
"what the hell is with this defense, how could I beat him!! think think..." seeing the dragon attacking with his sharp claws and high-speed tail Arthur used [faster than death] and teleported 50meter away to gain some seconds to think of a way to beat this dragon
"Maybe that will work?... I might as well try it"
Arthur started using [faster than death] every 3 seconds to escape the dragon''s attack until 1 minute passed then he quickly Charged a [dark burst] and dashed again towards the beast who was charging at him too.
When the enormous dragon was going to finish off its foe, Arthur quickly swung his weapon using [Void Slash] as he knew that his void magic would eat devour things like a black hole, truthfully Arthur wasn''t proficient in using [Void Magic] as he neglected it and didn''t even practice it because he deemed dark magic more powerful.
The [Void Slash] landed on the dragon''s scales and surprisingly, it wounded it which caused blood to gush out of its wound.
Actually, the scales were not shattered or destroyed but they were eaten and just disappeared when the [Void Slash] landed on them, Arthur hoped the slash would continue all the way to its bones but unfortunately, it did not, so he guessed that it had a relation to his low mastery in Void Magic. He decided to focus more on this mysterious attribute as it was deemed more useful than he thought previously. But all of this is for after surviving this battle, if he comes out alive, that is.
[Dark burst] cooldown was 60 seconds and the wound he inflicted didn''t even flinch the dragon , so Arthur knew even if he managed to find a way to harm the beast; he wouldn''t be able to kill it quickly considering the dragon began to understand his tactics of attacks and predict where he would teleport so whenever he used [Faster Than Death] the beast''s tail would come down at him with lightning speed, crushing his already cracked bones on the ground.
Just when he was busy dodging the dragon''s claws, a crazy idea struck Arthur, it was a reckless one but he had to gamble on it as there really was no other way to win
He noticed that the demon girl didn''t even move from her place even after he shouted at her but he didn''t have to question her actions now.
He backed away with a teleportation and created a long dark chain, it was 500meter long black chain, as it floated in the air it seemed like a black snake, Arthur willed it to charge at the dragon and soon it enveloped its legs and tail.
The long chain was pretty effective, using the Dark Magic as a conjuring source, he created this long chain and smoothly managed to restrain the dragon''s movements by wrapping it around its crazily swinging tail and its thick legs. He then retrieved Zodiak''s cane as every bit of intelligence is needed for the upcoming attack.
Arthur held the cane and raised both his hands and closed his eyes, you couldn''t know his eyes were closed because he was a skeleton and it had no eyes but nevertheless, he closed them and began to concentrate.
Soon enough, Dark Magic began to form on top of him but it had a little violet in it, it resembled a miniature black hole as it devoured everything around it, including air and light, the dark-violet energy began to expand little by little while the black chain was restraining the struggling dragon.
A minute had passed and Arthur finally opened his eyes, above him was a gigantic black and violet arrow, it emitted a terrifying pressure to the point of alarming the unyielding dragon.
The arrow''s length was 60 meters and you could even see it from a long distance, it seemed to be like a magnet as rocks and dust were being sucked into it, it was pointed at the dragon and was a dozen or so meters from the creature.
The earth dragon, sensing danger, ferociously struggled out of his bind but he just couldn''t shake off the chains, since he was a young dragon he still hasn''t grown any wings so he wouldn''t be able to fly even if he wanted to.
Just when Arthur opened his eyes he heard a notification and a window popped up ''ting''
Congratulations! you have successfully managed to fuse [void attribute] with [Dark attribute] : any attacks made by mixing [void] with [dark] would have 350% increased damage / be aware that attacks requiring the fuse of 2 attributes or more cost a lot more than normal attacks
Congratulations! you have created a new skill(active) : [Hell arrow] : By fusing [void] and [dark] you created a gigantic arrow that can annihilate everything in it''s way
cost : 3500 mana cooldown time : 10 minutes
For creating a skill without relying on any exterior help: 1 skill point
Skill point: They are very rare to obtain and you must have completed certain conditions, you can use skill points to increase the level of any skill by 1
Congratulations! your [void manipulation] mastery have improved
a lot of notifications came in but Arthur didn''t have the time to look through them, he noticed his mana pool being emptied and guessed that it must be because of the arrow, without wasting time he waved his hand and the arrow struck the dragon, for an arrow of that size; its speed was truly god-like as it landed on the dragon chest the second he willed it to strike, in a sense, it was instantaneous.
It did stop for a second before going through the Scales and creating a hole in the dragon''s chest, blood flowed out non-stop from the hole and from its terrifying mouth, the ground became dyed red along with the stench of this liquid. The beast crashed to the ground, screaming and howling in pain.
Arthur watched the scene with joy and surprise, he was happy to see his arrow break the defense of the dragon and fatally wound him, he watched the beast fall and scream in pain but didn''t feel any pity as it deserved what happened to him because the creature attacked first without any reason. Arthur still didn''t know why it ferociously attacked him like that but he didn''t care for any enemy who wanted his life he would kill them without hesitation.
minutes passed and finally the screaming ended and the creature died from the serious wound in his chest, Arthur immediately heard notifications "ting"
level up! level up ! level up ! level up ! ..........
Congratulations! you can now use [Necromancy] to spawn a bone earth dragon from the underworld
Cost: 50.000 mana
He leveled up 6 times, and became LVL95 '' the experience from killing a dragon is really generous... ''
Arthur noticed that his bones had grown back again, same as new, and his health bar is full as his health regen was sky-high so it only took a short time to get him back to his peak condition, nonetheless, it didn''t stop the fact that the last fight was hard and a simple mistake would have led to his miserable death.
Arthur was quite delighted to see he can spawn a dragon but when he saw the cost he immediately gave up on that idea as he barely had one-tenth of the actual cost.
He turned to look at the demon girl and saw her standing not far away with the barrier still surroundings her so he felt reassured but he soon remembered she saw his actual ''body'' so he felt fear because his appearance was by no means normal, you could actually say it was terrifying as if he was a reaper or a lich so her being surprised and scared would be a normal reaction.
He saw her staring at him with surprise but there wasn''t any tinge of fear in her eyes, actually, she was looking at him curiously and frowning from time to time. He soon put back his robe in a way so that it covers his body completely as usual and walked towards the petite girl.
Arthur felt awkward to talk to her after she has seen his appearance but he still urged himself and said reproachingly
"Why didn''t you run when I told you to? Do you even know how dangerous it was? Even if someone like you with a Lv of 44 cannot take a single attack from that dragon!"
Just when he finished speaking, he saw the girl''s eyes widen from astonishment so he soon realized he said something he shouldn''t have. He was too focused on scolding her that he forgot that not everyone had the appraisal skill like him.
"H-how did you know my lvl is 44.... I never said that."
The girl spoke softly but with a cautious gaze as she recalled never saying her Lv to him and if he used an appraisal stone on her, she would''ve known.
He didn''t know how to respond so he coughed and splendidly dodged the subject by asking a question in return
"S-sooo, how are you ? Did you get injured from the previous attack?"
Noticing him dodge the question, she no longer persisted as everyone had secrets they didn''t want anybody to know about, even she was not an exception. She returned to her usual indifferent and cold expression whilst replying
"I am fine... thank you"
Her voice seemed to change at the end as if containing some concern and gratitude. Arthur hearing her response nodded and headed toward the dragon as it was the time for him to possess it and gain its stats.
He sat on a nearby rock and then exited his skeleton body and jumped to the dragon, his real body was so small that it was not noticeable by a normal person, unless a person had high Dexterity stats and good senses, nobody would be able to see him, not his real ''body'' at the very least. In a second, he was inside the dragon''s body and the joyous notifications came one after another
You have successfully possessed : Young Earth dragon
you have gained a new skill(passive) : [Earth''s aid]: the Earth has given you it helps, increased vitality and defense: +1500 vitality / +2000 defense
You have gained a new skill(active) : [medium: Earth magic]: you can now use earth magic to either attack or defend or to bind you, enemies.
You have gained a new Stats: Magic defense: similar to the ''defense'' stats, this stats increases your resistance towards magic attacks in general
Your stats have improved! please check your status window for more detailed information
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER
Level:
95
Class:
Void Parasite
-
Strength
6041(+2919)
Intelligence
4821(+1945)
Agility
5247(+667)
Wisdom
3866(+1456)
Vitality
7315(+4561)
Dexterity
4261(+2141)
-
Health
8013(+5238)
Health Regen
77.9/s
Mana
6801(+2249)
Mana Regen
82.7/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
4691(+1738)
Defense:
7812(+5220)
Magic defense : 1781
Elemental resistances
Fire:
25%
Water:
25%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
45%(+20%)
Light/holy:
50%
Darkness:
100%
Arthur was stunned when he saw his status window because his stats rose by an enormous amount , though he didn''t get many skills from the dragon he still was amazed especially when he saw his defense, it had become god-like and he guessed that his defense now was many times better than the dragon before it died, even without scales he still had a very strong defens , he also noticed the new stats magic defense and it intrigued him alot as he never got it from any other being he possessed not even Zodiak so he judged that it must be a unique attribute related to dragons but nevertheless he got it and his resistance toward magic is increased which is a huge benefit.
It was a hard fight but the rewards are extraordinary so Arthur didn''t regret for a second not running away as he felt more confident in himself when he saw his stats window.
He soon left the dragon''s body and headed toward his previous one. In a matter of seconds, he was back again at his skeleton body and felt his bones become harder and more robust.
He could feel them cracking as if transforming and becoming harder in every second, he also got a feeling that with his current strength he could destroy a big boulder with but a finger.
Both of them left the area quickly after, and headed deeper into the forest, they soon found a good spot and lit up some fire and both rested on a small rock.
For Arthur who lost his ability to trust people after what happened to him, he didn''t want to lie to people or neither cheats them so he thought that he should explain to the girl why was he able to see his lvl and why was he a skeleton, of course he didn''t have to and no one forced him to but if she is going to follow him to the academy he wouldn''t want to lie to her about his identity because he lying for him is like deceiving people and he doesn''t want to become someone like his ex-wife, and to be honest Arthur can''t deny the fact that he trusted her.
He who has forsaken his hope for humanity is trusting someone even if it is a demon, he felt comfort being with her and felt warmth when she didn''t leave him alone after he shouted at her to run away, maybe he is overthinking it and she didn''t run because of other reasons nevertheless it still touched him and melted some of his icy and cold heart. As the fire was between them, he gazed at this beautiful and alluring girl and began to speak.....
Chapter 14 : Evolve
"Since you asked earlier how I saw your level, I am going to answer you but I would like to keep what I''m going to tell you a secret"
Arthur tried to speak with a soft and gentle soft but it sounded cold and threatening nevertheless the girl nodded her continuously with excited eyes as she was a child who was going to hear a bed-time story , Arthur chuckled as the sight and continued to speak "I have a special skill called appraisal, when I use on an item or person it gives me small information about it, that''s how I knew your LVL."
The demon girl stayed silent for a moment before speaking "A-and you saw my name too?" , actually, she wasn''t that much astonished because she kind of guessed he had an ability like that otherwise how else would he have known her LVL so accurately.
"Yes, your name is Lucy, the skill tells me the name lvl and Race"
Lucy still remained silent and stared at Arthur with those breath-taking eyes, she was giving him a glare that could freeze bones, like being nude in the middle of hailstorm, where every chunk of ice was a frosted dagger cutting into her eyes , but soon the glare softened and you could feel some warmth from her cold eyes .Arthur noticing his change in her mood said reassuringly "don''t worry , i would not say your name as it seems you do no want it be discovered"
"It''s ok , since we are considered c-ccompanions you can call me by my name"
though Lucy seemed to hesitate before she spoke nonetheless she told him he can call her by her name which really surprised Arthur as he didn''t expect this cold girl to allow him to say her name even though it seemed to bother her that her name got discovered.
From the beginning of the conversation, Arthur didn''t shift away from his eyes from her face for he couldn''t, he was mesmerized, her soft lips, her white skin which made her even more gorgeous he couldn''t have enough looking even if he spent all his life doing it.
Even though he was staring at her, she didn''t seem bothered or disgusted for Lucy knew he wasn''t some one evil, the way he protected proved that he somehow cared for her safety, to be totally honest she still had some doubts here and there but when he saved her and she saw that he was not human or at least didn''t appear to be .
First, she was surprised by his appearance but slowly she just became curious as to what is he? And why would he save her , after all it didn''t seem he was after her body and he also didn''t hand her to the holy church so she got a lot of questions to ask , and when he told her he will reply to her suspicions she wanted to bombard him with questions but even after so much curiosity she couldn''t utter a single word.
Maybe she was startled by his stare and focus on her or maybe she was feeling embarrassed she couldn''t tell, but she felt that this was a familiar feeling as to ''back then''.
time passed and no one talked, the atmosphere seemed awkward so Arthur broke the silence by finally saying " If you have any more question, you can ask them".As if she was waiting for this moments, Lucy lifted her head and spoke
"T-then are you human?"
Although deep inside, she knew he wasn''t human when she saw his appearance she wanted to make sure, after all, what humans have done to her she still felt deep hatred for them.
"No I am not, I am a race called a parasite."
Lucy''s mouth was wide open, she was startled by the reply of this black-robed man in front of her, after all, she expected him to say demon, undead even a beastmen but never would she have thought he would say a ''parasite'' she didn''t know such race even existed as she never heard of them.
Arthur seeing her astonishment continued to explain
"My real appearance is not this body, a parasite can change body at any time just by possessing, for example, I can possess you now but I won''t because I don''t possess living beings so I just stuck with this skeleton corpse."
This time, once she heard what he said Lucy was silent and deep in thought
"If he could possess me then why didn''t he do it? if he needed to use me he should have done so right? after all, it would have been easier.."
She questioned his actions as she was used to people deceiving her so him saying that is contradicting all her beliefs.
A strange emotion surged in her heart and she seemed complexed and overwhelmed by such emotion that she didn''t feel in very long time, she opened her heart to him even though they had not been together for a long time, he didn''t try to trick or even use her and even if he wanted to he could''ve just possessed her albeit the fact that with his strength it should be a piece of cake to do it.
It was not like the man she previously loved who deceived her for months to lower her guard, this black-robed man could have killed her, tortured her, raped her ... but he didn''t do it un the contrary he protected, bought food and clothes for her and even told her his secrets.
After all those years, she trusted someone again and even felt warmth being with him but she still questions that needed to be answered to ascertain her complex emotions
"Why did you buy me at the auction? or protect me from the holy church or even that attack from the dragon, you could''ve just let me die after all we are not family or friends."
She asked him then looked at towards focusing on his face to see how is he gonna react or what is he gonna say, after all this was the question she wanted the most answered,he gazed at her for sometime before looking down as if remembering some painful memories and soon he replied with a voice which seemed sad and cold
"There was once a man who loved a women and married her, but to his surprise she was just a deceitful women who only married him for his wealth and she used the cruelest methods to get him to give all his wealth to her but he, overwhelmed by anger and revenge didn''t give in and was tortured for months if not years.
He learned that humans are but greedy creatures who only seek what their desires and don''t care how they reach them, this man was given a second chance by a certain being and has been reincarnated into a different world into a parasite so he decided to never trust anyone.
However, someday he saw a certain girl who reminded him of his past self so he helped her and promised himself to protect her until he could break her sealed powers which he finally did but the funny or perhaps stupid thing is he couldn''t bring himself to part with her as he felt a special connection between them, so asked her to follow him for he will protect her from her pursuers.
After that, they began their journey and someday they were ambushed by a sneak-attack so he protected her from the attack and after defeating the opponent, he knew that he felt a special thing for her and didn''t want to deceive her so he decided to tell her the truth about himself because he didn''t want to be a deceitful and lying person like most humans are..."
As he finished speaking Arthur lifted his head to look at the girl and was surprised to see her eyes were a bit teary and wore a sad look on her face.
Lucy didn''t expect to hear such an answer, as she more and more listened to the story, she knew he was talking about himself and that he had a past similar and had gone through a lot, she was slightly shocked hearing he was from another world but she didn''t bother with it much as it didn''t really matter right now.
It''s impossible to say she wasn''t curious about this world but she couldn''t just ask him for it will remind him of his sad past . She couldn''t control her emotions and cry for the first time in years , last time she cried was when she found out that the ''men'' she loved was deceiving her and that was the last time she showed any emotion, after that incident she became cold to everyone and had an emotionless face and a freezing gaze. She knew he wasn''t lying but the way he narrated the story, you could feel he was lonely and sad as he didn''t even lift his head to look at her the whole time until he finished his story and even at that moment he only looked at her for a second before looking down again.
She cried for sometime before she returned to her calmness but her cute face was red and her beatiful eyes were swollen from crying, she really felt a strong connection with him and somehow felt strange towards him as for Arthur he didn''t dare lift his head , he heard her cry and seeing her so affected by his story touched him deeply , you could even say he began to have feeling of love towards her , it may sound idiotic for him to love someone after what happened to him but he couldn''t do anything about it as he felt warmth and happiness when he was with her, even with almost no interraction he still felt her company was comfortable so he didn''t want to let go of her and protected her even with his life when the dragon attacked he just didn''t want to admit it but deep down he loved her dearly even more than his ex-life but he didn''t want to confess to her as he was afraid, afraid of being betrayed and used again for benefits, but after seeing her cry like that when hearing his story he couldn''t hold his mouth as he unconsciously blurted out
"E-even though it may sound stupid after what I just told you but I have realised that I have fallen in love with you but please do not be mistaken as I only love you for your appearance " Arthur said that while lifting his head and gazing at her , if he had real eyes he would''ve cried right now but unfortunately he didn''t and he cursed his luck as to be reborn in a parasite , he didn''t want to possess a living body because it seemed wrong for him and even if he did, it would still not be his real appearance. While he was thinking about this and somehow confessing so suddenly he heard her speak
"Y-you know, I too had a past similar to you, I was chased since I was a kid and when I finally thought I found a man who could protect me and love me for who I really am, a demon , he betrayed my trust and was only someone from the church , he and his friends even used my body as they liked for years , so how could you love someone as filthy as i am when you don''t know anything about my past" Lucy never thought she would tell her past to someone, as she was speaking tears flowed from her cheek and she sobbed silently , she was happy to his confession but she thought that once he knew what they did to her and how they sullied her and played with her, he would no longer want her, after all, who would want a dirty women, if anyone heard her story they would only call her a ''slut''.
"Even though the past creates the person, the present is what matters, I say I love you for what you are right now and what happened to you is irrelevant to me and would not change my feelings towards you , you can call me stupid if you want but I only loved once in my life which ended in being a dillusion but from the very first moment I saw you I fell in love you but I didn''t want to admit it as I was very afraid of being betrayed again and continued to make excuses everytime I helped you"
"But aren''t you afraid I will just use you like your ex-wife did?" (Lucy)
"If you ever wanted to do, you would have used me from the beginning but you didn''t which shows that you are not that kind of person and even if there is even a little chance that you use me I still trust you for I really do not want to feel lonely again because it''s more painful than death itself"(Arthur)
the sobbing girl stayed silent for a moment before she responded "Please give me some time, I have mixed feelings right now and cannot think properly. Arthur just nodded his head, stood up and left as to let the girl some time to calm herself down and think things through. He too didn''t believe what just happened, in such a short time he told her his past and confessed, he didn''t know why but he felt attracted to her and after he heard her past he didn''t pity her instead he felt warmth because she shared her deep and tragic past with him.
He stopped thinking about this for the time being as he can''t dwell on it all night but he still promised himself that he will treasure more than his own life as he realized what was important for him when he was attacked by the dragon,
''the dragon! yeah, I didn''t use [death touch] on him, how could I have forgotten"
He soon took out the dragon from his storage and used [Death touch] on him, it was a waste to just absorb all those precious scales but the experience was more important for him right now. Just when he finished absorbing it in a few seconds notifications came "ting"The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
level up ! level up ! level up! ......
Congratulations ! Since you reached Level 100 you can now evolve: soul parasite / advanced void parasite/humanoid parasite
Soul parasite: You no longer posses a physical body, and can only live by possessing living beings, your ability to possess creatures will be more efficient and you will gain double the stats of beings you possessed
Advanced void parasite: you will keep your current body, and can also possess other beings but your void manipulation will be at maximum stage and your magic attacks would be more powerful
Humanoid parasite: you create a unique body and still can possess other beings, you gain significant raise in stats if you create a unique body and depending on the body you may gain new skill
WARNING: Creating a unique body is an extremely painful experience , we advice you to rethink before choosing this option
Arthur was overjoyed by the fact he could evolve as he wondered why he didn''t get it much sooner but as time passed and he didn''t get any notifications telling him he could evolve so he gave up on that idea and judged void parasite to be his final form but now that he saw he could evolve again and he had 3 different choices he was delighted.
He wasn''t going to think them over as he long since decided he wanted a body for himself and was sick of possessing Zodiak''s body, first it was all bones and second he couldn''t even enjoy eating or drinking so he wished for a body from the moment he came to this world and he finally got the chance to have one.
It specially said that it would be painful but that didn''t seem to be a problem for him as he was used to being tortured for months so enduring a little wouldn''t matter either. Arthur also chose this option because he longed for a real body to be able to touch the beautiful hands of Lucy and be able to feel her body (AN : I MEAN THAT NOT IN A SEXUAL WAY OK?so don''t let your mind take you far away in perv land).
"I choose humanoid parasite"
Are you sure you want to choose humanoid parasite?
"Yes."
the creation of your body will begin immediately, while your body is being created you are vulnerable
''Fuck why didn''t they tell me that sooner argggggggggg''
Just as the notifications finished, Arthur was forcefully sent out of his current ''body'' and fell on the ground with his real body, he felt his bones breaking and flesh being ripped apart, it was by no means just ''painful'' , this level of pain was beyond imagination , even the torture he received was completely nothing compared to this pain . Soon enough all his bones were broken and flesh was skinned, if you see him now you would only see a small creature with only bones, a small heart beating, and a brain, it looked really disgusting and anyone who saw him would throw out. He Fel unconscious from the pain but he soon woke up again because of it, he couldn''t help but wish for the pain immunity he got when he was in Zodiak''s body it would really help him out now.
The pain stopped for a moment so he thought it was finally over but his wishes were soon crushed as a pain even more immense than the previous one enveloped him from every corner of what was left of his body, his mind was blank as he was only thinking of when will this pain vanish. 5 minutes , 10 minutes , 20 minutes.... time passed slowly as he was still suffering and twitching but if someone looked at him, they would see a humanoid skeleton forming slowly but surely, after 1 hour you could only see half a skeleton head formed and in it there was a brain which was expanding little by little . Arthur was waiting for the moment the pain slowed but he knew it would take a long time as he could feel his head being formed slowly.
5 hours passed since the creating of the body began and now all the bones in his body were formed, he surprisingly could feel his heavy breathing even with only being a skeleton and he could even talk but he didn''t dare try because even trying to move a little would bring more pain to him so he just remained motionless and waited for his body to finish creating itself while he endured the pain silently. Unexpectedly, the pain not only wasn''t going down, instead, it was escalating rapidly and he couldn''t control himself from screaming with all his might as the pain just didn''t stop increasing, he felt that this was not at a level a human can endure. His screaming was so loud that even though he was some distance away from Lucy, she still heard a screaming voice.
The voice seemed slightly similar to the black-robed man that she still didn''t know his name, so she quickly rushed to where the noise came from as it was the first time she heard him scream like that, it seemed like he was in deep suffering and the mere thought of him dying struck her , she felt afraid and anxious , she told him a few hours ago she would think about his confession but when she heard his loud screams.
He who protected her, he who cared for her and loved her, he a man who was reincarnated and had a tragic past similar to her, she thought that if something happened to him she would regret it for the rest of her life.
She guessed that she only cried when she heard his story because of how similar he was to her and even though she felt a special bond between him and her, she didn''t think it was love, so when he confessed to her she was startled a little but she couldn''t bring herself to tell him that she did not love him. But now that hearing his suffering screams filled pain, she dashed toward the voice with tears flowing her face non-stop
''I-I... what am I doing... I shouldn''t repeat my past mistakes.... Lucy! Don''t let your feelings control you! You should flee! Flee far away and only return to slaughter them all when you''re stronger! Ignore such foolish feelings! LUCY!''
Despite her unceasing warnings, her body betrayed was a step acted on its own as it continued to head towards the source of voice. Her thoughts soon followed, her panicked expression seemed to relax a bit as she seemed to realize something, her eyes flashed with a strange light and her breathing quickened.
When she arrived at where Arthur was she saw his previous corpse laying down not far away from her and some distance from it there was another skeleton which had bloody flesh on it, she could see with her naked eyes that flash, muscles are beings created rapidly. She soon heard the scream coming out of that scream and it was very very loud, she realised it was Arthur but still didn''t understand what exactly was going on , she rushed next to him and without hesitation held his bony hand as she looked at him with concern, once she realised her true thoughts for him she didn''t want to lose him without even being able to tell him her feelings.
Arthur felt something soft and warm touch his hand, he felt relieved and happy as he knew for sure it was Lucy, as his thoughts drifted the pain still increased but her being with him helped him calm down a little and the screamed lessened bit by bit until it completely disappeared even though the pain continued. His body was forming and after 5 more hours he could feel that it''s almost finished as his exterior body was the same as a human except he had an extremly pale white skin and he was completly naked but Lucy embarassed by the sight grabbed the nearby dark robe and put it on him but even after she did that she still didn''t let go of his hand as she was very worried about him but she calmed down a little because she noticed that he somehow managed to create a body but the cost was tremendous pain as anyone may have noticed from the intense screaming.
One more hour passed, and finally the creating of the body finished, his appearance was exactly the same as in his previous world except his eyes were blood red which made him more handsome , actually his looks were average compared to famous actors or models but with his red eyes and pale white skin, he really looked extremely charming and handsome. Once the Creation was completed a lot of notifications came ''ting'' ''ting''....
Congratulations ! you have successfully created a body thus became a humanoid parasite
The body has been according to the host''s wishes and imagination
''Huh, so I always wanted red eyes apparently?"
All your previous stats remained and skill can still be used
Your newly created body has specialcharacteristics :[fire magic]: affinity with fire greatly increased, you can now use fire magic to either attack or defend
Your [fire magic] absorbed by [orb of the fallen overgods](passive) and became = [Godly fire]: you can use fire to either attack or defend
your newly created body has specialcharacteristics: Your physical powers have been greatly increasing, please check your status window for more details
Your newly created body has special characteristics: your magical powers have been greatly increased, please check your status window for more details
Because of the creation of your new body, you have experienced a lot of pain thus acquired the skill(passive) : [pain immunity]: you cannot feel pain anymore, you can turn this skill on/off
The first seal of [orb of the fallen overgods] has been broken due to you have your own humanoid power
[orb of the fallen overgods] stage 1: The blessing of the Tul''ah the overload of misery would be accessible once you reach LVL:200
Now that you have a humanoid body, your soul power is much weaker than when you had a parasite body so you can only possess Dead beings
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER
Level:
107
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
10780(+4739)
Intelligence
12491(+7670)
Agility
11213(+5966)
Wisdom
9134(+5268)
Vitality
13476(+6161)
Dexterity
8347(+4086)
-
Health
12498(+4485)
Health Regen
107.1/s
Mana
14731(+7930)
Mana Regen
137.6/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
9571(+4880)
Defense:
10317(+2505)
Magic defense : 2174(+393)
Elemental resistances
Fire:
100%
Water:
25%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
45%
Light/holy:
50%
Darkness:
100%
Arthur was brimming with happiness but not because he saw his overpowered stats and new skills but because when he opened his eyes he saw Lucy smiling at him with her breath-taking beauty, her eyes that would suck you in at any moment, he felt somehow magically drawn to those serious and silent features. Though she always avoided his gaze or would only stare for a moment, he couldn''t help but notice a tinge of redness on her cheeks, and along with beautiful long silver hair, it made her look like a goddess.
Lucy noticed Arthur waking up and tried to separate her hands from his but was surprised to see him not letting go of her, she struggled a little before finally giving up. Arthur who was laying on the floor naked only covered with his black robe soon realized that it was an awkward situation so after enjoying the feel of her hands he soon let go of her and quickly got up and changed but he still didn''t forget to say "thank you" to her.
His voice seemed more gentle now and his smile was alluring. Lucy blushed a little when she saw his face as she seemed to remember something embarrassing to she soon turned her head as to not look at him changing. After having worn the black robe, Arthur headed toward Kodiak''s body and took the boots gloves and wore them he also put the 2 rings in his fingers then he turned around to Lucy and spoke gently
"I somehow managed to create my own body but I only was able to go through that hellish pain with you , it may not seem a lot for you but holding my hand really helped me calm down and forget the pain even for big, also I sincerely apologize that you had to touch my body as I know you hate humans and men especially, I am really sorry."
The girl was surprised by what he said, but she her lips curved to form an enchanting smile on her face and said with her melodious voice which didn''t contain even a hint of coldness in it
"You know , when I heard you screaming I feeling of urgency, as if I would lose something important and when I saw you in that state my heart ached, and soon realized that I too have to come to love you, maybe I''m being foolish again and acting upon my feelings, but I just couldn''t turn back and go."
Just as she finished speaking she unexpectedly ran to Arthur and hugged tightly without letting go, as for him he was dumbstruck he didn''t believe what just happened as not even in his dreams did he think she is in love with him because he heard her past and knew she absolutely hated man, so even touching them would be considered a miracle and now seeing her hugging didn''t register in his mind but nevertheless he unconsciously hugged her back but did not use much force, instead he did it gently and as caring as possible for he didn''t want to remind her of what happened to her in the past and what those guys did to her.
time slowly passed as they both stayed like that, Arthur finally broke the silence by saying softly
"I didn''t get to tell you my name, I am called Arthur as for my last name I don''t have one and I don''t wish to use my former one" after he spoke their hug finally come to an end but nevertheless he kept patting her head, he quite liked that feeling and she didn''t seem to mind it that much so he just continued at it.
Chapter 15 : Entrance exam
Arthur and Lucy soon got back to their little camp not far away from their current location, but he didn''t forget to put Zodiak''s body into his storage. They sat next to each other but they didn''t do anything weird, when Lucy thought of what she did a while ago , her face reddened as she didn''t think she was this daring, after all, they are considered lovers but that didn''t mean she had to rush up to him and hug him nevertheless him hugging her back made her happy and brimming with joy as she felt comfort when she was in his arms.
They talked all night and Arthur learned that she was proficient in fire and her average stats are between 900 and 1500 with intelligence being the highest one at 1800.
Even though they sat next to each other, they only held hands but simply doing that made his heart palpitate. He didn''t get to test his new strength or new skills, and he was quite interested in [godly fire].
Lucy was showing him her skills with fire as she created various things with it like fireballs, fire weapons and even a small barrier she also explained to him that depending on someone''s strength the power of the fire and hotness could increase,so he tried testing his newly [godly fire] and what came out was a blood red fire , it was completely different from Lucy fire as this one excluded great pressure even though it was a tiny fire ball. Lucy who was standing next to him gaped when she was that and she bombarded him with a question.
"W-what''s that !! I''ve never seen a fire like that, even in full mastery of the attribute"
Apparently, the color of the fire changes depending on the mastery of it, if you have [basic fire mastery] you fire would be yellow-ish, and if you have [medium fire mastery] it will be orange fire at the beginnig then changes to complete blue at the end , and finally there is the [complete fire mastery] which is the highest anyone could get and only the very best of fire mages could attain that , and the color of fire would be violet so when Lucy saw the red fire of Arthur she was dumbfounded and curious at the same time.
Arthur wasn''t that much surprised because he expected something similar as the name of the skill contained the word ''god'' and it had relations with his mysterious skill [orb of the fallen overgods] so of course it would be something special.
He discovered his control with fire was very good even on par with the dark magic if not more, and when his red blood fire ball approached Lucy''s orange fire it totally engulfed it in a second and the red fire ball semed to get even bigger, seeing the intensity of his fire getting stronger was overjoyed to have gained this strong fire manipulation as it will help him, he soon called back his fire as it was too close to Lucy and he knew she wouldn''t be able to handle even a single fire ball. His stats were ten times that of hers but those numbers don''t decide the results. One can have higher stats and still lose to the scheming and tactics of his foe.
He recalled having some skill books which might be useful to Lucy so without hesitation he retrieved them and passed them to her, to be honest those skill books were not that amazing but they probably will help Lucy get stronger even a little , she is considered High LVL compared to most people but he didn''t know what the level of Strength of students in the academy was so he had to boost her strength even a little, as for him?
He was sure that he would not have troubles as he knew that LVL107 is by no means little but he can''t forget the fact that there might be people way stronger than him, seeing he struggled against a young dragon, so the very thought of meeting an adult one sent shivers to him even though he got stronger by gaining the stats of the young dragon and if he can fight him again he might insta-kill him either by another [hell arrow] or by using the [godly fire] as he knew this fire is by no means just a normal and it had devastating power.
Actually he tried launching a small 5 inch fire ball into a tree and holy hell was it monstrous , even with a little fire ball the impact sound was so loud that even Lucy covered her ears and not even seconds passed and what was left of the tree was mere black ashes.
Just when he was thinking about his skills he remembered he gained a skill point but he didn''t read what it did , so he quickly checked it by using appraisal on it and after reading the information he became overjoyed, because increasing the level of any skill by 1 is considered incredible seeing that since he got here he never leveled any skill and got them all for free
"But if I use it on an already maxed skill will it increase or stay like that? what if I lose the precious skill point"
Arthur was in a dilemma, he didn''t know what skill to chose as there was many he wanted toupgrade [godly fire] , [dark magic] and even [faster than death] at it proved very useful to him.
Arthur already told his skills to Lucy which was listening like a little child, it didn''t seem necessary but he felt he should do it and after asking for her opinion on what to level up she answered him after pouting cutely with her beautiful face
"Seriously such a cheat to be able to earn a skill point and can use up to 4 attributes! that''s so unfair but since [void mage] helped you in your last fight why don''t you give it a shot"
Lucy''s personality seemed to have gotten a 180 degree change after what happened last night but truthfully Arthur adored her cute behavior and wouldn''t mind even if she kept her cold demeanor, when he heard her reply , it indeed struck him , why didn''t he think of [void magic] after all he underestimated a lot and without it he wouldn''t have won against the young earth dragon, but he still hestitated because he thought that [void magic] is still in primary LVLS and can be leveled up easily but other skills which cannot be leveled such as [faster than death ] or skills which already have reached max lvl like [dark magic] seemed more appealing.
After thinking for a long time, Arthur decided to use the skill point on [godly fire], though [dark magic] is indeed very strong and what it had special is it''s penetrating power, it can cut through almost every but what [godly fire] had was destruction power .
A small fireball of a few inches did that damage to the tree so what if he did an enormous fireball? what would the results be and after all some of his dreams when he was a kid is to be fire mage, it seemed really cool and powerful. Once he used the skill point he had, a sound entered his ears followed by the appearance of the familiar blue windows...''ting''
You used a skill point on [godly fire]
The skill [godly fire] has been upgraded to [Ancient fire]
[Ancient fire] : this is a unique skill , the ancient fire is the mother of all flames and it has a big destructive power with extreme hotness
it can absorb any other type of flames as long as the host has sufficient intelligence and +200% damage if faced with any ice or water attribute
cost : none
Arthur was very ecstatic as at first he was doubtful and hesitating because there was a possibility that the [godly fire] would not be upgraded and he would have lost a skill point which apparently is very rare to obtain, hell! even the pope of the Holy church might not be able to obtain one even though he is very powerful.
Arthur didn''t waste time as he quickly formed a small fire ball but this time its colour was not blood red instead it was dark red with some grey in its edges , and the heat was just unbelievable, even though it was him who created this little fire ball he could feel it''s hotness was several times more than the [godly fire], he threw the fire ball to a large tree 20 meters or so away from him...''BOOM'' this time the tree was turned to ash immediatly and what surprised him more is that even all the tree in its entourage were either turned to ash or destroyed beyond recognition.
Lucy''s mouth was wide open this time as she rubbed her eyes several times to check if she was not hallucinating or dreaming then she turned toward Arthur and ran up to him excitedly
"So you upgraded [godly fire] , thi-is is incredible, I''ve never seen such flames"
She extended her petite soft hands and held his with excitment and happiness as if she was the one who got the skill and not him.
He looked at her joyful face and deep black eyes which were staring at him with warmth, he unconsciously patted her head as it had become a habit of him and of course, she didn''t refuse him, quite the opposite, in fact, she seemed to really like being patted.
Both of them continued chatting all day long about various things, each second passed their relationship deepened and they became, even more, close but Arthur did not try to do any obscene thing and only held her hands, and he was satisfied with that and didn''t want to ruin it.
The very next day the finally continued on their journey, they both sat on the dark cloud and chatted non-stop, with his current speed Arthur could run up to 50km/sec which is almost mach 3 speed as to speak the dark cloud cannot be seen by normal people when it''s going full speed and they would only speed a dark blur , they continued to travel for approximately 13 hours a day , Arthur would let the girl sleep and eat and he didn''t forget to bring the luxurious bed he had in his storage as to make it more comfortable.... as for him? With infinite stamina he didn''t need sleep and but he still gazed at the beautiful sleeping maiden near him everytime she slept but he didn''t dare do anything.
A week passed since they resumed their travel and they finally arrived at North of the human continent at a city called Govore city , it had a big port which was full of all kind of boats , Arthur also noticed that the city was very prosperous and it had many visitors but that must be because of the incoming Nemia academy entrance exam which will be today .
Arthur entered the city with Lucy who was beautifully dressed in a red robe which added to her beauty and made her look like a Goddess, of course whenever they passed in the city everyone would gaze at her.
She seemed to return to her emotionless attitude when in public but Arthur didn''t mind it as he knew that this kind of attitude will let others think she is but a cold maiden and they would not dare talk to her or even approach, they would only stare at her with lust and amazement.
They both didn''t waste time roaming the city instead Arthur asked the guards at the entrance of the city about the city about the location of the teleportation array.
Even though it was costly he didn''t mind because he got enough gold and the entrance exam was today, so even if he went by boat there will not be enough time.
Once they arrived at what seemed to be a big square in the middle of the city, there was a long line of people who seemed to wait for something and at the very front there was a burly man who seemed to be in his thirties and just behind hit there was a 5 meter radius circle with runes inscribed at the ground and every time a person stepped on it they would disappear . When Arthur guessed saw that he immediately judges it to be the teleportation circle so he went with Lucy at the end of the line and started waiting for their turn.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.He noticed that all the people who were waiting were wearing luxurious clothes full of jewelry and had arrogant looks, they looked at the city''s citizens who were passing by with contempt and complete disgust as if they were looking at animals and not humans.
Arthur just ignored those kids but he still didn''t forget to appraise some of them and he was shocked to see that the average level was between 25 to 35 with some of them being above 40.
They surely had strength to back up that arrogance of theirs but he didn''t worry about them as they seemed weak compared to him but he was worried about Lucy as she may not be able to handle herself so he decided he would not leave her side even in the academy as people there might be even more powerful and even if the holy church can''t touch them there they may use underhanded means.
Lucy''s looks attracted the attention of these noble kids and some of them tried to talk to her but where completely ignored so they didn''t dwell on it but still kept looking at her with burning eyes, they didn''t dare to be forceful because they knew she was going to the entrance exam and if so she must be a powerful figure and talented too or else why would she go to Nemia academy after all not everyone can attend it.
One hour passed and their turn finally came, the burly man looked at the black-robed figure in front of him and a petite beautiful girl who was beside him and he too was dumbfounded by her beauty but he soon snapped out of it and said
"20.000 gold coins per person."
Arthur was surprised by the enormous price nonetheless he handed the burly man a magical back containing 40.000 gold coins and prepared to step in the teleportation array with Lucy but at that moment he heard cheers and girl cries from behind him so he turned around to look at what was going on.
A handsome looking young man was walking towards him, he wore a blue robe which had a golden dragon symbol on it, he held a fan in his hand, is facial features were kind of babyish, big eyes, soft skin, and a small nose nevertheless he looked handsome and would even be considered an idol in Arthur''s previous world.
This young man just ignored the queue and headed directly towards the burly-man
"It''s lord Christian, he''s the second prince, ohhhh I wish I can marry him, he''s so handsome." random girls just shouted their affection to this man but they were ruthlessly ignored as if they didn''t exist, some guys were looking at him jealousy but fear as they didn''t want to offend him, after all, he is the son of the emperor and a prince at that
"So he''s finally decided to join Nemia academy? I heard he was a talented mage, it''s rumored he is a dual-image and can use water and wind magic "
"Not only that, apparently his LVL is very high, I''m sure he will enter the Nemia academy without doing the entrance exam"
Arthur was curious about this ''prince'' so he appraised him ''ting''
Christian Terence (Mage) : LVL46
His level was quite high compared to the others but Arthur knew that LVL wasn''t everything, a low lvl mage can win an against a high lvl mage if he got good skill and better fighting experience. Once the burly man saw the ''prince'' his attitude change completely and he spoke respectfully toward him
"Lord Christian, please enter the teleportation array you don''t have to pay !"
No one from the long queue spoke to complain about waiting for hours to get to the teleportation array while this prince not only didn''t wait like them, he didn''t need to pay, of course, a lot of them were displeased but they couldn''t offend the prince, he is the Emperor''s son!
He is getting this treatment only because he is still at the human continent but when he enters the Nemia academy''s island all his status would mean nothing because of there only strength matter no matter who you are before you came here, as long as you are strong you will be respected and well treated there.
Seeing what just happened, Arthur frowned
"No matter if it''s my previous world or this one, it seems some things never change.."
He wasn''t going to stand there and let the so-called prince go before him while he and Lucy waited for a long time so he spoke with a cold voice
"We arrived first, and first come first served. You will have to patiently wait for me and my comrade to pass first."
Lucy who was near him turned her head to look at him but she didn''t say anything, as for the long-line behind him, almost all of them were full of disbelief for they didn''t think someone would dare speak so boldly like that without any fear if the consequences.
"He''s done for, I''m telling you he is totally done for, to say something to the second prince it''s like slapping him in the face"
"how could he say something like that! is he insane or doesn''t know what the word ''prince'' means?"
Many people started pitying this black-robed man as someone who dared to say that to the prince of all people, he surely won''t have a fun time. Christian who was going to enter the teleportation array stopped and looked toward Arthur who was still wearing the black robe and covering all of his body, he raised his brow for a second before turning his head towards the burly-man expecting him to resolve this matter.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY? YOU WANT TO ENTER FIRST BECAUSE YOU CAME FIRST? HE IS YOUR COUNTRY''S PRINCE TO IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE AN HONOR TO GIVE HIM YOUR PLACE! AS A PUNISHMENT YOU AND YOUR COMRADE WILL GO BACK TO THE END OF THE QUEUE"
The burly-man shouted at Arthur while saying a lame excuse, as for the prince he just had a smug smile on his face as he stared at Arthur but he suddenly saw Lucy which was standing behind him so he couldn''t see her when he was passing because of her petite frame, he obviously was amazed at her beauty , he licked his lips while having a disgusting look in his eyes
"ah ah , senior Jack, no need to be angry at this young lady, after all, she didn''t do anything wrong"
The prince seemed to ignore Arthur completely as if he didn''t acknowledge his existence and kept staring at Lucy. The burly man noticing Christian interest at the girl, so he turned toward Arthur and said:
"WHAT DID I SAY? go back to the end of the line as for your companion, Lord Christian has to take a liking to her so she will go with him."
Arthur was beyond angered when he heard that, he couldn''t hold himself back and was going to behead this burly-man with the prince but just as he was going to act he felt a soft thing touching his hand, it was Lucy who held his hand while smiling at him.
She shook her head and said softly as to not let anybody hear
"No need to make enemies before even entering the Nemia academy let''s just wait again, I know this seems unfair but we will get our payback once we are in the academy."
his heart warmed when he heard her speak so he just nodded at her turned around to walk back to the end of the queue, Lucy also followed him without letting go of his hand and completely ignored the prince who was dumbfounded at her actions.
"Hey you, I said the prince has to take a liking to you so you better stay here!"
the burly man ran toward Lucy intending to grab her hand and bring her forcefully but he soon froze up as he felt immense fear. He glanced at the black-robed man and he could''ve sworn he saw 2 red blood eyes shining from his covered head, he didn''t dare advance any further and retracted his hand and stood there awkwardly without uttering a single word.
Christian noticing this, also glanced at Arthur and felt the overwhelming killing intent coming from him, it would be a lie to say he didn''t feel fear but he was confident, not in his powers but in his backings, he was a prince and his father was the emperor so what could this insignificant man do to him? even if he is really strong, Christian didn''t think this black-robed man would dare kill him so he just waved his hand while snorting and walked toward the teleportation array.
Arthur and Lucy waited again for an hour before they were again at the front of the queue, he didn''t have to pay since he did pay earlier and the burly-man didn''t say anything either, actually to use a teleportation array all you had to do was inject it with a little bit of mana and that''s it , it will take you to your destination, so doing that Arthur and the demon girl were teleported to the Nemia academy .
The teleportation was only a couple of seconds before they found themselves in a big square filled with people , there were thousands of people and they all seemed from different races , there were what seemed like elves , they had long pointy ears and all looked beautiful, also there was what seemed like beastman and various other races which included demons too , but every race seemed to be grouped together and you couldn''t see any race talking with another one except for a few insults here and there especially toward the demon race as it was the most hated one because of the nature of demons.
Arthur noticed that the second prince was here not far away from him accompanied by 2 beautiful women who wore armors, they seemed to be his bodyguards and came here before him. To be honest, he was quite surprised as he didn''t expect this prince to be here, normally someone with his status would have an acceptance letter from the academy without doing the entrance exam.
He heard from Lucy that all people with acceptance letter from the academy would not teleported here instead the teleportation array would sense the mana injected in the letter and would send the one who got it to a different location from this one , so he was curious as to why the prince did not have one but he soon shrugged that idea of, after all, it was none of his business but he didn''t forget what happened earlier and would certainly get his revenge.
To most people it did seem like the prince only wanted Lucy for himself , but Arthur found that unforgivable for he was very protective of her and didn''t even want anyone looking at her but he didn''t want to cover her appearance as she may not like it so he just let those people gaze at her but if someone dared to touch her or take her forcefully he will surely cut that person''s head off.
3 hours passed since they arrived at this big square and more people seemed to be coming here every second , it was packed with various people and when Arthur appraised them he was quite surprised as there was a lot of hidden tigers in this crowd of people , he found some people with lvl higher than 50 and the highest he saw was a skinny demon with a lvl of 54 , in the appraisal it was indicated that he was a mage so Arthur was curious to see his strength.
There was big stage not far away from the square, from the moment he came in , Arthur noticed this stage but it was empty so he didn''t pay it that much attention but now some people walked on the stage , most of them were middle-aged and surprisingly they were different races but they chatted happily among themselves, they sat on the chairs and gazed at the big crowd of people as if assessing them and distinguishing the strong from the weak.
Arthur appraised those people on the stage and was surprised to find out that most of them had been beyond lvl 70 with the highest one being 86, it was a middle-aged man who seemed to be from the beastman race , he had a long sword attached to his back and some scars on his face, he gazed at the crowd with excited eyes.20 minutes or so after these people come on the stage, the second group of people came in but this one seemed special, they were exactly 9 people and when they came on stage everyone from the crowd closed his mouth and did not dare speak. Of course, Arthur appraised those 9 people and was dumbfounded when he saw their LVLS
Lamorti Schink(Elf) : LVL146
Morin (Demon): LVL158
....
All of the 9 people LVLS was higher than the last one, there was 2 elves, 3 demons, 2 beastmen and 3 humans and the highest leveled one was a demon male who was LVL166 , truthfully Arthur didn''t expect their LVLS to be that high ,but after some thought, he judged it to be reasonable after all the Nemia academy was a great force and none of the 4 continents dared oppose it, so it is to be expected that they have powerful people. Arthur thought of the people he encountered from the holy church and thanked his luck he only encountered weak ones if he stumbled upon someone like one of those 9 he was sure he wouldn''t have gotten out alive.
Those 9 people, walked up and sat on 9 golden chairs which were in front of the normals chairs which the others people sat on. Just as those people sat, a figure entered the stage and considering it the last person to come after a long time.
Arthur guessed this person must be thei chair-man or something like that so he was expecting an old man with a long white chest or something similar but what he saw was totally the opposite , it was a red-haired woman , her hair was dark-red and stretched to her waist , her voluptuous body would steal the gazes of everyone and her facial features were the definition of beauty ,she was wearing a witch hat and held wore a green robe which added to her charm, Arthur would be lying to say he was not stunned but by no means did she attract him , he simply didn''t expect the chair-man to be a young woman so he appraised her to make sure she really was the principal or not
Sonia Ma (human) : LVL189
"Holy shit, lvl 189? "He was now completely sure she was either the principal of the academy or someone who has a great status in this academy because her lvl was many times higher than the other 9 people. The young woman walked to the center of the stage and gazed at the crowd as if examining it and soon began talking
"Greetings, I see that this year''s participants are abundant, However, not everyone would be able to succeed. Only people with great talent would be accepted, there will be 2 tests to pass the entrance exam. The first one is to test your aptitude and see your lvl, and the second is a tournament for the people who passed the first test."
As she finished speaking, everyone from the crowd was surprised , usually the entrance exam would be an aptitude test and some sort of race of treasure finding or even dungeon exploring but this time it was a tournament and that meant that even fewer people would pass compared to the past so many of them had a burning eyes full of desire to succeed and become a student in this academy.
The principal sat on the chair near her and gazed at the crowd of people with curious eyes, and after some time, people who were apparently from the academy came in and started shouting
"Choose a line and wait for your turn to test your aptitude, no pushing or fighting or you will be immediately disqualified"
Soon people began to form long queues and waited for their turn.
Chapter 16 : Tournament
Time passed slowly as the two of them were waiting,apparently, the way they test your aptitude is by using a special kind of stone, which could pinpoint what kind of attribute you have the most affinity with and there was a second stone to see the level.
This was so because not everyone here was a mage, there were talented fighters as well, who excelled in close-combat and to let them have a chance they would all be judged by their level even if they didn''t have an affinity with any attribute or couldn''t practice magic.
For example, anyone who has a good affinity with the wind attribute, can''t practice their magic very easily, since if their family was poor they may not know if they have an affinity with an attribute or not and that''s why most talents are from nobles.
Usually, noble families have enough money to afford an aptitude stone and use it on their children to see if they have a good affinity with some attribute or not. Every being in this world has an affinity with an attribute but it can be strong or almost non-existent and that''s what differs talents from normal people.
While Arthur and Lucy were waiting, a commotion broke out in a nearby line, these types of commotions happened a few times when someone with a good affinity or high level showed up.
This time Arthur was a little curious as to who was the origin of this commotion, for there is a lot of noise and exclamations and when he turned his head to look, he immediately recognized the person, it was the skinny demon who had the highest lvl among the participants, to be honest, he was not surprised when he saw that this demon attracted so much attention, after all his level was high and without a doubt he would be considered powerful and talented to these people.
In front of him was a cubic crystal which looked a little weird, Arthur had been watching it for a while and whenever a person touched it, it had a different color to pinpoint which attribute the person who touched was compatible with.
For the skinny demon the crystal glowed with yellow light and some blackish too, he was considered a dual-mage and with a strong earth attribute at that, everybody looked at him with admiration and envy, the demon just smiled but didn''t say anything and just as he was going to leave the stage, someone appeared near him. It was one of the 9 people who had a high level.
Arthur heard from the people around him that those 9 people are the council of the academy and each one of them was extremely powerful, each year they picked talented people from the participants and nurture them while giving them elixirs and skill books.
The demon Molrihn who was LVL158 appeared near the skinny demon and seemed about to talk to him, as for this skinny demon, he wasn''t surprised by the appearance of someone from the council for he was confident in his strength and proud of his talent, he stood there for a second before he bowed to the man before him without saying anything.
Molrihn didn''t mind that behavior, in fact, he liked it, to see someone from his race with this much talent, of course, he wouldn''t let the chance to rope him under his care and help him in his training slip by, moreover this young demon seemed really talented, he was a dual-mage and a high leveled one at that.
"Young-one, I see your talent is indeed outstanding, how about your become my student when you pass the entrance exam? I will be delighted to have a student such as you."
The skinny demon smiled when he heard what the man said, he soon replied with a calm voice "It would be an honor, Master Molrihn¡±, he immediately started calling him ''master'' as to indicate he accepted the offer. Molrihn just nodded and went back to his seat with a happy face, after all, he gained a new student who seemed rather talented.
"Yo, old Molrihn, seems you got a nice catch didn''t ya? I bet you''re brimming with joy now, hehe but don''t worry I¡¯ve got my eyes on someone too and I hope he won''t disappoint me"
One of the 2 beastmen of the council spoke with an excited voice, it was a female beastman who had a large build and huge 2 handed axe on her back. She gazed at a particular beastman who also had a huge axe on his back and seemed to be calmly waiting for his turn in the queue, in contrast to many other people who, even though they knew they were talented, weren''t confident enough to be able to pass the second test.
The other members of the council also praised Molrihn for choosing a good seed and then returned to observing the crowd, looking for students for themselves as well.
Not long after the skinny demon passed the first test, another commotion came up followed by a stream of cries. This time, it was the second prince, since he too was a dual-mage, of course he piqued the interest of many. He held a smug smile on his face as if showing his might and waiting for a members of the council to come invite him, and indeed someone came. It was an elf male who was quite handsome and his LVL was 155.
Arthur frowned since he didn''t expect an elf to recruit the second prince to be his student. Christian accepted immediately when the elf male proposed to him and after hearing the prince''s answer the elf returned to his seat with a pleased expression hanging on his face.
An hour passed and many talents came up with several dozen dual-mages, almost all the members of the council chose a person. Even that female beastman chose the beastman she was looking at previously, even though he didn''t have any good affinity, he had a lvl of 52 so she invited him anyways, for the beastman race was famous for their overwhelming strength and very few of them were talented at using magic.
Finally, it was Lucy''s turn, who was in front of Arthur, so naturally she was considered before him in the queue. She walked for about 3 meters until she stopped in front a table with 2 crystals put on it. There was a person overseeing the results of the participants and deciding whether or not they pass.
She placed her little white hand on the attribute crystal and waited for the results, but she already knew what they would be. Soon enough a bright red light came up followed by a dark light but it seemed a little dimmer than the red and unexpectedly a third color appeared, it was blue but red with some blackish in it. Even Lucy was dumbfounded since she didn''t know she was compatible with such an attribute, actually that color indicated the attribute magma.
In this world there were unique people who could use normal attributes plus other ones, such as magma, ice, lightning, void, etc. These types of people were very rare and impossible to find, but almost all of them would grow up to be legendary figures, as these special attributes were many times more powerful than the normal ones. Once the inspector overseeing the results saw this he couldn''t even utter a single world, for he was shocked beyond belief.
"HEY look sh-shee got affinity with 3 attributes! There is magma!!!! How amazing."
Many cries came up from everywhere and all the participants gazed at this gorgeous girl who, not only was alluring and pleasing to the eyes, but she was apparently a wizard as well.
This word was not mentioned before, because mages who can use 3 attributes were unique; nonetheless, some existed and they were called wizards and every single one of them was by no means weak. Actually, it was rumored that the principal of the academy was a wizard but no one could confirm this rumor.
The red-haired principal who was seated lazily and watching the crowd was stunned when she saw the colors in the crystal "3 attributes, and magma is one of them. Indeed... some of this year''s participants sure are wolves in sheep''s clothing" She chuckled for a second before just nodding her head in satisfaction. Surprisingly one of the 9 members of the council, the demon with the highest lvl, who seemed not interested by this test, stood up from his seat in astonishment and rushed with great speed toward Lucy, as if he was afraid she would slip from his hands at any second.
"Little girl, how about you become my student? No need to even finish the second test, you''ll be directly accepted as a student in Nemia academy". Once he finished speaking, he looked at Lucy with expectant eyes.
If she accepted his offer, not only would he treat her well and offer her a lot of materials to enhance her magic and strength, but he would also let her pass the entrance exam directly. You must know that even the skinny demon, who was considered to have tremendous talent, didn''t have this kind of chance. So anyone in her place would accept this offer, plus it was Lord Zephir, the vice-principal and the head of the council of the academy who wanted her to be his student. He had a status second to only the principal and had a lot of resources, so whoever became his student was sure as hell to have a comfortable and easy life.
Not even the seniors in this academy would dare bully someone under the care of Zephir, as he was known to be very strict and would punish anyone who would break any kind of rule. Zephir didn''t have any students since a long time, as he didn''t find anyone with enough talent, but once he saw this girl he knew for sure she was the one, and he must by no means let her slip by, she was also a demon, so it would be easier to interact with her.
Lucy was still in disbelief when she saw the magma attribute, it would be a lie to say she was not happy, in fact, she was very joyful, but she didn''t want to express her emotion in public. Only when with Arthur would she be so carefree and easygoing.
She turned toward Arthur, who was standing a couple of meters behind her and saw him nodding at her as if complimenting her. A dozen of second after she saw her results she heard the proposition of some middle-aged man who somehow was now near her, he invited her to be his student but she didn''t care a lot about that, she liked this academy and liked studying and practicing magic but she still wanted to be close to Arthur and maybe being his student would restrict her movements or something similar to that, so she just shook her head towards the middle-aged man who seemed very excited.
Everyone knew what she meant when she shook her head, it was obvious to reject his offer, but only someone crazy in their mind would do that? After all, all sorts of benefits would come from being his student, so why reject him? Even Zephir didn''t dare believe what he saw and only after some seconds passed did he came back to his senses and stared at the girl.
Even though her refusing him lost him a bit of face, it didn''t matter, as he didn''t care for face and only wanted her to be his student and have someone to pass his skills to. He didn''t dwell on it much and spoke calmly "Alright, if you ever change your mind, just come looking for me and I¡¯ll accept you at any time, as for the moment, I know for sure that you will succeed and even if you don''t, I¡¯ll make sure you join the academy, consider it a welcoming gift from me" after speaking he walked back to his seat and sat down.
Zephir knew that even though she refused him now, it didn''t mean she would always do, and he too had a lot of means to rope her in, such as precious skills books, elixirs and even gold. He had them all, so she would surely be interested in something and when that time came, he would give her what she wanted in exchange for becoming his student.
Soon after, Lucy put her hand on the Appraisal stone and it showed her level and race. Unlike the previous crystal, this time there was not a lot of surprises as her lvl was average compared to other geniuses; nevertheless, even with a low level, she was still a wizard and her future accomplishments will be limitless.
After passing the first test Lucy didn''t go upwards toward the place where all the people who passed the first place were, instead she moved a little to the left and waited for Arthur as if she was unwilling to go without him.
Arthur walked toward the table but he was not calm, in fact, he was anxious, after all he had an affinity with 5 attributes, with wind being the weakest one. His level and race would also be exposed, so he wanted to find a way out, because if people saw his level and especially his race, a race never seen or heard of before, they would probably accuse him of being an alien of some sort. When he put his hand on the attribute stone he heard a notification ''ting''.
An aptitude stone is appraising your body and checking what attribute you are best compatible
An aptitude stone is appraising your body and checking what attribute you are best compatible with :
Dark On/OFF
Wind On/Off
Earth On/Off
Ancient Fire On/Off
Void On/Off
Confirm
In the beginning, he didn''t know what it meant by on, off but he soon judged that if he put them all on off, then the crystal would not show any light, which meant that he didn''t have any affinity with any attribute. Of course, he didn''t do that, since he wanted to enter the academy, so he turned them all off except his dark magic.
Dark magic was similar to darkness magic, but in the same time different, usually, darkness magic is for curses and is rarely used for attack, while his dark magic had a strong attack and defense power, with incredible penetration power. It was like nothing could withstand it and it would go through steel as if it was nothing. When he checked if he turned off all except magic a second time, he finally confirmed and a light began to show on the crystal.
This light was very special, it was dark but it wasn''t just light like the other people had, since it was the same shape he saw on the door when he first entered the cave leading to Zodiak''s tomb. The symbol was really creepy and would send shivers down anybody''s spine. The skull head which showed up on the crystal was really terrifying, especially with its third eye.
The inspector who was in charge of overseeing the results and deciding who passed and who failed was shocked, since it was the first time he encountered something like this. The council members and the principal were stunned as well, they had continued observing the line which Lucy was in, because they noticed that the black-robed man was with her, since they were very close to each other and seemed like companions.
When they saw the strange skull head, they didn''t know what to do, no one had ever seen an aptitude crystal show such a thing and none of the known attributes would show something like this. They tried to think of it as a darkness attribute, but even a person with a strong affinity with darkness, such as the demon lord, would not have such results when touching an aptitude crystal.
The inspector didn''t know what to do, so he just waited for Arthur to put his hand on the second crystal and see if he could decide the result depending on the level. Arthur noticed the surprise and strange gazes of everyone but he didn''t mind, he wanted to gain some fame because the holy church was on his tail and having some backing wouldn''t really hurt, especially if that backing was from a strong power like the Nemia academy.
Soon enough,he put his hand on the appraisal crystal. Actually, there were 2 kinds of appraisal objects: the appraisal crystal and the appraisal stone. The former was for showing the general information, like level and race, while the latter showed more detailed things, like which attributes the person used or even his name and age. Appraisal stones were very expensive and the academy would not just use them for an entrance exam. Arthur wasn''t particularly anxious anymore and by the time his hand touched the stone he heard a notification "ting".
An appraisal crystal is being used on you , do you want to show your level and race ?
yes / no
After some pondering, he said ''no'' because if those information was to be known, it would be a catastrophe and everyone except Lucy would regard him as an enemy. Just when he clicked the ''no'' the crystal stone broke, it literally shattered, which caused Arthur to panic a little but surprisingly the inspector didn''t seem bothered.
In fact, appraisal crystals sometimes brake from excessive use, so seeing one brake now wasn¡¯t very unusual. He soon retrieved one from behind him and put it in front of the participant, but Arthur was sure that the crystal broke because of him, so he didn''t know what to do. He just put his hand on it again and refused to show his information and ''poof'' the crystal shattered once more. This time there was a little shock in the inspector''s eyes; nonetheless, he picked another crystal, after all, it might be coincidence, but the 3rd 4th and 5th crystals also broke, so he stared at Arthur in disbelief and suspicion.
Even the other participants in other queue lines were dumbfounded by this turn of events. The inspector didn''t know what to do, after all, he couldn''t judge the results, for he didn''t even see his level, he so said hesitantly "emm, unfortunately, you have no...¡± before he could finish, there was another calm voice which spoke:
"He can pass the first test"
The inspector was startled by this voice, but he soon snapped out of it and nodded toward the origin of the voice, which was unexpectedly the principal, who didn''t speak since the beginning of the test.
She let him pass because she was curious about this individual, first the aptitude crystal showed a strange symbol and then the appraisal crystal broke many times It was by no means mere coincidence and she considered him worth paying attention to; moreover, if her judgment was false and he was weak, then he would just lose in the second test.
Arthur was happy since he somehow managed to pass the first test, without revealing his information. Nevertheless, he wasn¡¯t grateful or anything to the principal, since even if she didn¡¯t let him pass, he had other means in store in case of emergency.
He walked toward Lucy who was waiting for him, he couldn''t help but smile when he saw her. He felt warmth and happiness to have someone such as her love him, she was truly a maiden, especially with the red dress she was wearing today.
When he was close enough, he took her hand and continued to head upstairs toward the area were the accepted participants were. Although she was surprised by his sudden actions, she neither was mad or disgusted by his action, quite the opposite in fact. She also held his hand firmly and walked cheerfully beside him, you could notice a small smile hanging on her pretty face.
They found a quite spot and sat there waiting for the first test to finish. Since they had time and there was nothing to do, Arthur decided to spend the remaining time chatting with Lucy, since he liked talking with her and felt happiness when he did. Even when they sat on the stone chairs which were neatly put in a big square, Arthur didn''t let go of her hand for even a second.
"To think you got a magma attribute, good, good! You should try to practice with it!" when he mentioned the magma attribute, Lucy seemed to become excited. While looking at her other free hand she replied ¡°En! I didn''t believe it either, last time I used an aptitude crystal I only saw 2 attributes, I wonder how I got the third one"
"hehe no use bothering to think hard about it, the good thing is that you got it, so you will become even more powerful! And when the time comes, if you want I¡¯ll personally take you to take revenge, I promised you didn''t I?¡± While he said that, Arthur used his remaining hand and patted her head gently while smiling towards her. His face was close to her so she could clearly see him smiling and looking at her with soft and caring eyes. She could feel his honesty when he spoke and knew he would sooner or later take her to end the unfinished business. Lucy¡¯s eyes seemed to contain some tears but she wasn''t sad; on the contrary, she was happy, to have someone who would care for you to such an extent was rare and she wouldn''t want to be separated from a person like that.
Arthur was shocked when he saw some tears and he thought he reminded her of her tragic past, he regretted what he said immediately and with an apologetic said "I¡¯m sorry... I shouldn''t have reminded you of your past.." he looked down, not daring to look at her face for he felt guilty in his heart but surprisingly, he felt a warm feeling on his chest, and was surprised to see her hugging him.
There were some nearby people looking at him with eyes burning with jealousy and hatred but he ignored them and stared at this girl who was hugging him. To be more exact Lucy was considered a woman, she told him her age when they were traveling, even though she didn''t like the fact he asked her about it. She was 28 this year and even though she was petite, she was a fully matured woman, she may be petite in size but her chest was well developed and her face looked more like an adult woman than a little girl.
Lucy was crying but smiling, so he quickly realized she was not sad, but instead happy and blamed himself for being this stupid, since he couldn''t even understand the emotions of his lover; nonetheless, he hugged her back and closed his eyes as if enjoying this precious moment. It was the second time they hugged and even though they were lovers, Arthur didn''t cross the line, only either patting her head or holding her hand and she didn''t seem to dislike that. It would be a fat lie to say he didn''t want to hug her whenever he wanted, or even kiss her, but that would be too much for her to bear right now, since it could even remind her of those beast like men who used her body and never in this life would he want to do that. He could even stay like this forever and only hold hands rather than harming her and causing her to be sad or angry with him.
They stayed like that for a couple of minutes before Lucy let go, but unexpectedly she leaned on him and seemed to close her eyes as if wanting to relax. Of course Arthur let her do as she pleased, he wrapped his left arm around her shoulder, to let her lean more comfortably and she didn''t refuse it or anything, instead she just looked more relaxed and carefree.
Time passed and the first test seemed to be still going to take some time, but Arthur didn''t mind as he stared at Lucy who was now asleep. He was rather happy to see her sleeping face, which was breath-taking, also he felt warmth because she, who felt disgusted with men and loathed them, managed to sleep while leaning on his shoulder and having his arm around her shoulder. He felt like he made a big accomplishment and his heart was beating like crazy, with every second that passed, he would fall in love with her even more.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After 2 more hours, the first test finally came to an end and the final participants who passed the first test was truly shocking. From the thousands of people who came, only a hundred or so were accepted, the Nemia academy seemed to be very strict in choosing talents, of course, there were those who protested but they were slapped by the inspector and sent flying hundred meter or so from their previous location. In this island their status and power had no effect, the inspector could do whatever he wants with cocky brats like them.
The hundred or so participants who passed the first test were gathered in the big square which was accessible only by going several steps up from the previous square where they passed the first test. This square was much bigger than the previous one and there were many fighting arenas, so Arthur guessed it must be where the tournament was going to be held in. Lucy seemed to have woken up a dozen or minutes ago, but she still remained in the same position, lost in thought and didn''t realize the second test was about to begin.
In this square was a stage as well, all the teachers who were seated in the previous stage came in to this square with the council members and the principal. Arthur guessed that the people who previously came first on the stage were the teachers and their average level was 75-80, it was somehow lacking but he paid it no heed. The principal soon reached the center of the biggest arena and spoke
"Congratulations for passing the first test, even though it was just checking your abilities, the second test is about to begin, this board contains your names and your opponents'' names"
The academy didn''t knew all of their names, except who chose to say it or the famous figures like the second prince, so when the board appeared, all the names were kind of awkward and stupid. Lucy was named ¡®Ice Queen¡¯ and Arthur was named ''black-robed man'' it seemed funny, as their sense of naming was somewhat strange, but he soon shrugged it off since it wasn¡¯t that what seemed to concern him. He was worried about Lucy, she might fall against a powerful enemy and even if Zephir said she would pass whether she failed or not, he was afraid she would get hurt so he said:
"Lucy, please be cautious and surrender when necessary, remember that demon guy said you either way passed, so don''t force yourself, okay?"
She looked at him with warm eyes and nodded before saying "en! don''t worry, even though compared to you I¡¯m nothing ,I at least can handle myself against those people, after all I fought so many people from the holy church so how could I lose to mere nobles and rich brats"
SECTION A
Black-robed man
VS
Elf Zehn
Second Prince
VS
Jackie Beast
Ice Queen
VS
Huge build
Beast-man axe
VS
Human Archer
Priest
VS
Skinny Demon
''They really got no sense for naming huh?'' Arthur still complained when he saw the names again, apparently, Lucy was obviously Ice Queen and that''s because of her cold eyes and emotionless face, all the other names were made based on the person''s appearance, except the ''elf zehn'' and the second prince.
The tournament was divided into 11 sections and the winners of each section will have passed the second test, but there were also exceptions as there may be participants who pass the tests even though they lost, but that''s only if they were good at fighting and had considerable strength.
Arthur looked at his opponent for a second before turning his head, because it was only a lvl38 elf who got a strong affinity with wind, which was to be expected from an elf. He was sure of his victory, but when he saw Lucy''s opponent he was worried. It was a huge beastman who had a double one-handed axes on his back, he was almost 3 meters tall, with huge hands and a muscular body, while he was looking at this huge beastman, the beastman looked at Arthur in return, but soon turned his face towards Lucy and licked his lips excitedly, as if he was going to enjoy a meal.
His lvl was 53, so Arthur judged his strength to be quite close to the holy knight Rein, if not more, after all beastmen were famous for their enormous strength and Lucy was petite and only excelled in magic. She was indeed not bad in physical attacks, but compared to this huge beastmen folk, she was nothing.
Soon the fights began and the first fight in his section was between the skinny demon and the priest. The fight was not even 5 minutes long, the priest struggled a bit but he didn''t have the power to resist the skinny demon''s attack. The demon was indeed ruthless and powerful and deserved having the highest level among the participants, except Arthur of course, his use of darkness attribute and earth magic was not bad. He first attacked with a curse to weaken the priest considering he used holy magic and darkness magic was completely its opposite, and secondly he used earth attack, earth spikes and small meteors so the priest finally lost after a small struggle.
To be honest , his use of earth magic was lower than Arthur, who almost never used his, he got it from the young earth dragon and it was a [medium earth magic], he could even bind his opponents if he caught them off guard and could raise a 5 meter wall and do other various things, but compared to his dark or ancient fire magic, his skills in earth magic were considered pathetic; nonetheless, if he showed it to those people, he was sure he would get their attention, but what if he used his [hell arrow] what would they do? How would their reaction be? Arthur was excited to try that out, but of course he didn''t, as it was foolish and childish.
The second fight soon began and it was the beastman with a huge axe on his back, it was the same guy who got chosen by the female beastman from the council members. Contrary to the other huge build beastman, this one had a normal body with some scars here and there, but he seemed somewhat friendly even with those scars. The fight was even quicker than the first one, as the human archer was not the beastman''s match, he could only kite him for some time before he got knocked down by the axe and fell unconscious.
The conditions to win the fight were to either surrender or fall unconscious, of course Arthur noticed that in some other arena there were some ruthless opponents who would not let their enemy surrender or even fall unconscious, they mercilessly injured them purposely causing them serious damage as they seemed to enjoy doing that.
The third fight was Arthur against the elf Zehn. Arthur quickly jumped onto the arena, but didn''t take any weapon, as for the elf, he took out a wooden cane and looked seriously at his opponent. Once the referee announced the start of the fight the elf started chanting to attack his enemy but he was soon struck by a dark dagger in the shoulder and wailed in pain.
Truthfully, Arthur did not care even if he killed this elf, for that had nothing to do with him, but killing is prohibited and you would be disqualified if you did that, even if you didn''t do it on purpose, so he used a dark dagger and aimed it at the elf''s shoulder, of course the dagger went through the elf¡¯s shoulder and struck the ground behind him.
The elf''s painful cries soon reached the teachers and council member¡¯s ears and they turned their heads in curiosity, to see why someone would scream like that. When they saw the black dagger floating next to Arthur and the wailing elf, they were stunned and tried to observe the dark dagger, especially the principal, she gazed seriously at the dark dagger but she couldn''t guess what it was, she could only feel an ominous feeling coming from it, as if it was going to devour her whole.
Arthur stared coldly at the elf expecting him to surrender, but he surprisingly didn''t. After screaming for some time, he stood up while shaking, it seemed he was not used to pain at all, when he stabilized himself he started chanting again, but before he could even finish the first word another dagger pierced him in his other shoulder and blood flowed endlessly.
This time his screams even reached the ears of the other participants, they stared with fear at Arthur and thanked their luck for not being in the same section as him. The elf finally surrendered after being pierced by 2 daggers and left the stage while stumbling with shaking legs, Arthur couldn''t help but shake his head, to not be able to resist that much pain, what if he experienced the same situation Arthur was in and had his body created from nothing? Would he die from pain or would he go crazy?
Arthur went to his previous location where Lucy was waiting for him with a small smile on her face, to have someone wait for him made him delighted and joyful but when he thought of the next battle his thoughts quickly began to be erratic and his heart started beating faster, he was truly afraid of Lucy being hurt. She noticed his anxiousness, so she ran up to him and gave him a long hug while not minding the jealous gazes, and then she headed toward the stage.
The huge beastman was already waiting for her and you could see his eyes were burning with desire as he gazed at her body, he regarded her as an object and a toy, not as a human or a demon. That look made Lucy even more disgusted and angry, she hated those kinds of men the most, since they only thought of their desires and would do anything to achieve them.
The fight soon began and the beastman rushed towards her with great speed, but he didn''t use his axes. If you looked closely, not even his hands were shaped like a fist, instead they were claws as if wanting to rip her clothes off. Of course Lucy didn''t just stand still, she backed away and a dozen fireballs were fired at him, her aim was perfect and all fireballs hit him and he was sent flying a couple of meters before falling down.
He knew she was considered a wizard, but he regarded women as sexual toys and never thought of them as fighters, so being sent flying by a skill made from a women did not cause him to be angry, quite the contrary, it made him even more excited to touch her body and rip her red dress ''hahah such a ferocious girl , I wonder how she will be in bed, I¡¯ll enjoy her first, then someday I¡¯ll get my hands on that principal too haha , with that body of hers I¡¯m sure she''s perfect to satisfy me''he rushed again at her, but his speed seemed to increase nonetheless. Lucy casted a curse which slowed his speed by 10% and his strength by 5% then bombarded him with fireballs, her use of skills was really amazing and her actions were coordinated.
''boom'' ''boom'' the beastman was sent flying again and he had small burn marks on his fur and some other corners of his body, yet he was still grinning evilly and as he couldn''t get more shameful a huge tent rose up in his lower body. Seeing this Lucy became even more contempt towards him and her attacks became even more ferocious. After 10 minutes of one-sided attacks from Lucy, the beastman grew angry; nonetheless, the tent in his lower body was still there. He took his double axes from his back and rushed at Lucy with great speed, the curse she put on him was finally over, so his speed had gone back to normal.
Lucy was quite tired, she kept hitting him with a lot of fireballs but he seemed to be extremely resistant and not damaged that much by them. Her mana pool was not like Arthur¡¯s and her fireballs costed some mana, so after launching more than a hundred of them and using some other skills like flame tornado and flame lance, her mana was almost emptied out.
She had to buy some time for her mana to regen a little, but the beastman rushed at her, so she couldn''t do anything but create a desperate flame barrier. Even though flame was usually for offensive, it could also be used to form barriers but they were not that useful and would only negate a little of the incoming attack. The flame barrier formed by her was shattered and she was sent flying a dozen or so meters, her rose dress was tattered and it seemed to be ripped a little from the bottom, you could even see her thigh.
She quickly stood up while some blood came up from her pretty lips, even though she had good physical strength, she couldn''t withstand a powerful attack from a beastman who excelled in strength and was 9 levels higher than her. You must know that even the difference of one level was considered a lot, so 9 levels was like heaven and earth, it was already excellent that she could hold up until now, but she didn''t want to admit defeat, since he was a man like those who raped her, was he going to win again? Doesn¡¯t that mean even if she got the chance to face those who used her, she wouldn''t win and would end up in the same situation? Soon all those memories and tragic days passed in that room came to her, she remembered when those guys came in everyday to use her body as they pleased and would laugh at her and her stupidity.
The beastman noticed she was lost in thought and grinned while licking his lips again and his tent never stopped from getting bigger, he rushed toward the girl with extreme speed and slashed with his axes toward her chest area. Lucy, sensing danger, quickly snapped out of her daze and tried to dodge, but it was too late as the axe had already torn off half of the top of her dress. Some of her chest was now exposed and she wasn''t wearing anything under the dress except panties, since the dress was long enough to cover her, but now that she was almost naked.
A deep fear came to her and she covered her exposed chest with her hand, she was trembling and her eyes had fear in them, but it was not fear of the beastman in front of her, but she was reminded of those days and the suffering, and seemed to experience those memories again. It was as if she was back in the past, defenseless and bound while those men played with her. The beastman laughed and put his axes behind his back while stretching his left hand and grabbed Lucy''s free hand which was not covering her exposed chest, but just as he touched her hand, he felt cold and ''poof'' his stretched hand fell onto the ground and blood flowed endlessly from his shoulder, ''poof'' the tent in his lower body was also chopped off and his ''thing'' fell onto the floor.
Arthur was watching the fight with great anxiety, he was very worried for Lucy, and seeing her struggle against this lunatic made him even more helpless, he saw the beastman sent flying several times but got up like nothing happened, so it got him even more anxious as he thought of stopping the fight, but when he glanced at the principal at the others, he saw them all focusing on the fight between Lucy and the beastman, especially the principal and Zephir, who seemed to be assessing Lucy''s skill.
As time passed, Arthur saw the tent on the beastman''s lower body and his killing intent rose up, the air around him turned cold and his hands twitching. He really wanted to kill this bastard right now, but he didn''t want to be disqualified or let Lucy be disqualified. After all, he was considered her companion and him helping her out would be considered her fault, even though she was already accepted to the academy, his actions may not please the principal and she might not accept her.
The fight continued and he noticed she was starting to slow down at attacking and seemed exhausted, so he judged her mana pool to be almost empty. His face was distorted and he was barely holding himself back from interfering, and when he saw the beastman tear her dress, he decided he was going to kill him and ignored the consequences, but before he did that he noticed the eyes of Lucy, they were unwilling to lose and full of determination. It seemed she was fighting her past memories and wanted to get past them, so him interfering was like not letting her have a chance to overcome her tragic past, so he just stood there with an aching heart while looking at her with a worried look.
Arthur''s mind went blank when he saw the beast man tear the top area of her dress and expose her chest. Even though she quickly covered it, the beastman grinned and held her hand forcefully, so Arthur couldn''t control his emotions anymore, he didn''t care about either the principal or anything else, he loved her, he wanted to protect her, so her being this humiliated was unforgivable and he would not tolerate it.
He teleported in front of her and immediately created a dark sword and chopped the beastman''s hand and ''thing'' off, without hesitation he then kicked him in the stomach with full strength and you could even hear the beastman''s bones shattering completely.
He was sent flying across the stage until he hit a wall which was where the spectators were watching. The wall was also destroyed by the force of the impact and there laid the beastman who was coughing blood non-stop and his screams of pain resounded through all of the big square.
Everyone looked at what happened with disbelief, even the principal didn''t expect someone to interfere, she didn''t like what the beastman did, but she had no right to interfere, as this war a 1 on 1 fight and she personally set a rule that anyone who interfered would be disqualified, no matter who it was.
Arthur quickly retrieved a white cloth from his storage and wrapped it around Lucy, who was still shaking. His heart really ached and he couldn''t control his emotions anymore, he hugged her tightly and said
"Don''t worry Lucy, I¡¯m with you, did you already forget that I said I was going to be with you forever?''
Lucy, sensing someone hugging her, came back to her senses and looked at Arthur who was smiling back at her.
Tears floweduncontrollably from her eyes and she buried her face in his chest
"Arthur, I couldn''t do it, I couldn''t do it...."
She kept repeating the same words, Arthur knew that by those words she meant that she couldn''t forget about her past and overcome her fears, he didn''t really know what to say to her, so he just did something that even he didn''t expect to do. He kissed her on the forehead and kept hugging her while saying
"It¡¯s okay, if you couldn''t do it, I¡¯m here so I¡¯ll do it for you"
She seemed shocked by his kiss but she stopped saying those words and just sobbed silently in his embrace. Time passed, but no one interfered, the beastman was still screaming from the pain and the spectators were confused as to what was happening right now.
"Lucy, do you want to kill this man or should I kill him for you?"
Arthur asked her gently while still embracing her, she stopped crying and just stayed there silently, when she heard his question, she didn''t say anything for a while before replying with a shaky but somewhat relieved voice
"It doesn''t matter. I''m you and you are me, I''m happy as long as you are by my side."
She paused a second then resumed with a low voice
".... but next time I''ll be the one to save you, hmpf!"
just when she finished speaking, with her soft and charming lips she gave him a small kiss on the cheek, it seemed insignificant to others, but to him, it was like he was in heaven.
He was dazed for sometime while he thought of that kiss, that pitch black loving gaze of hers was so charming as to cause the fall of cities and the lovely smell of the fragrance that came from her made him feel like he was dreaming, but he didn''t dare think anything strange and after hugging her again he finally let go of her. After adjusting her clothes, he held her hand and looked at screaming beastman not far away.
He advanced slowly with Lucy beside him, he didn''t let go of her hand as he approached the beastman.
The principal was seriously astonished, she didn''t even see him run into the arena, so how could he have appeared out of nowhere? Is his speed that fast? No way, even if it was someone with the extreme speed they wouldn''t be like that, that was an instant movement! Teleportation!
"Who is he? To be able to use teleportation, and this fast too, he is not someone normal"
She looked at him chop that beastman''s arm and ''thing'' off without hesitation and with but a kick he sent him flying out of the arena, that was not a strength a simple participant would have.
She then observed him as he covered the girl who was still shaking and then hugged her and seemed to tell her something, she guessed they must be lovers or family, for he seemed to really care for her a lot, after some time had passed he let go of the girl and headed slowly toward the crying beastman, while accompanied by the demon girl.
Truthfully the principal was quite angry because someone dared to interfere and not only that, he injured the enemy that much in front of her face, at least other people would pretend this was an accident, but this man didn''t care and ruthlessly chopped his opponent''s hand off, he also seemed to want something else from him as he walked towards him.
"Stop right there! Not only did you break the rules by interfering in the fight, you also seriously injured a participant"
The female Beastman from the council shouted at Arthur, even though what that beastman did was shameless, he was still someone from her race. So seeing him suffer like that didn''t seem right to her, especially when he already got what he deserved and had his arm and ''thing'' cut off.
Arthur completely ignored her and continued walking towards the beastman, no matter who it was, even if god himself tried to stop him, he wouldn''t stop. This man dared do those things to Lucy, the most precious thing he had, so how could he forgive him, death was a way out for this beastman, but he didn''t care and was determined to kill him.
Soon he was finally in front of the beastman who turned to look at Arthur with extreme fear and rage. He believed he was only sneak attacked and in a normal fight he would have won, but now he couldn''t fight, so he just stared hatefully at this black-robed man.
Arthur used his free hand and grip the beastman around the neck and with great strength lifted him high up in the air while increasing the force he was exerting on the neck. The beastman first tried to struggle with his remaining hand but after a couple of seconds he began to suffocate and breathe heavily, his face turned red and he began to wriggle as he was unable to breathe.
The female beastman was angered as she rushed towards Arthur with great speed, she was a member of the council and she shouldn''t use her power to bully the weak, but she also couldn''t stand someone from her race being brutally killed like this Her speed was incredible, but to Arthur not that much, as she was closing in he put a little more strength and ''poof'' the head of the beastman was separated from his body and both his head and headless corpse fell to the ground.
The female beastman was full of rage as she made a fist and struck toward Arthur''s head intending to kill him instantly. But he didn''t move, for he had confidence in his defense, after all, he got the dragon''s defense and his new body gained a lot too, so he didn''t even bother creating a dark barrier.
The punch landed on his head which was covered with the black-robe and the female felt as if she had hit a mountain, cracks could be heard as some of the bones in her hand broke, she retracted her fist and backed away while having a mix of astonishment and rage in her eyes, she stared at Arthur while saying "Who are y...!"
Before she could finish, there was a loud shout and a strong wave of energy came out of nowhere pressuring everyone on the stage except the council members and Arthur. He could feel that it was a kind of a skill, if one was skilled in mana manipulation, they could use it to pressure enemies and that was what happened now.
"ENOUGH" The principal stood up and stared angrily at Arthur...
Chapter 17 : Unexpected encounter
Edward Omond, the father of Feylord, was sitting in his office while in front of him were 2 figures dressed in black. They seemed really similar to the assassins hired by Feylord, but they excluded a colder and creepier feeling. He looked at them for a second before speaking
"Speak, what have you found out about ''him'' and where is his location?!"
One of the 2 black clothes figures bowed respectfully and said with a calm voice
"Lord Edward, apparently his travel speed is beyond ordinary, in less than a month he managed to arrive at Govore city and it was reported by our spies there that today he took the teleportation array leading to Nemia academy accompanied by a lady who was the same one he bought at the auction in Willsden town."
Hearing this, Edward''s face boiled with anger ''bastard! To think he would go to the academy, how can I capture him now!''. After pondering for some time he waved his hands toward the 2 figures and they disappeared without saying anything else. Edward picked a paper and began writing on it for a couple of minutes before he called his butler who was standing outside of his office and told him
"Deliver this letter to Frederic in the Nemia academy, but you have to hand it to him personally, do you understand?"
The butler nodded continuously, not daring to disobey and soon enough he left the room after bowing respectfully toward Edward.
The Principal seemed really angry at Arthur and with that shout of hers, not a single person dared speak, since they were even afraid to make a noise by breathing. She used a special magic and slowly flew towards Arthur while staring daggers at him.
Even the 9 council members quickly followed after her, as they saw how the female beastman who was named Mary couldn''t kill or even injure the black-robed man, so they knew he was dangerous.
Probably a spy from some continent or something similar, because to have that amount of strength why would he pose himself as a mere participant? If he had shown his talent, he could have easily become a teacher in the academy. They also noticed how Mary''s punch didn''t even as much as scratch him and he just stood there doing nothing, so he was by no means someone to underestimate and they knew why the principal interfered and stopped Mary from doing anything reckless.
Arthur wasn''t surprised when he saw all the council members and the principal coming toward him, for what he did was truly excessive and brutal, but he didn''t care and if he was given a second chance to redo it, he would do the same thing with no hesitation.
Lucy was everything to him and seeing her hurt was something he couldn''t handle and watch, he wondered why they didn''t stop the fight, after all the beastman clearly was perverted and wanted to touch her and it was obvious he was winning for it, so why didn''t they finish the fight or stop it? Didn''t they care about what happened to her? Or they simply accepted the strong no matter how they behaved?
Just a couple of seconds passed and the principal was in front of Arthur and Lucy, she was standing near Mary who was still holding her hand, which had some broken bones; nonetheless, she stared at Arthur with anger and a little bit of fear, for she knew he was strong and maybe stronger than her.
She was a beastman and also a member of the council with a very high level and still couldn''t injure him, or even scratch his robe, so of course, she would be a little afraid, but she only used her fist and didn''t use any skills so she couldn''t gauge his power.
"Mary told you to stop, so why didn''t you listen to her, moreover, you clearly got your revenge by injuring him that much, so why continue any further and brutally kill him? Do you have no heart?"
The principal scolded Arthur angrily while still using her special skill which emanated pressure, but of course it didn''t affect him; nevertheless, he still created a small dark barrier around Lucy, since she was not like him and clearly the pressure from the principal affected her and made her pant heavily, so he had to make that barrier to ease the pressure, yet surprisingly the barrier completely blocked it.
"No heart? You must be kidding, right? If I don''t have a heart, then what about you? Didn''t you see my companion struggling and clearly losing? So why didn''t you stop the fight? He clearly had a bad intention and everyone could see that, but none of you made a move or spoke up, do you even have morals or do you just worship the strong?"
Arthur replied with another scolding as if blaming them for what happened to Lucy.
The principal seemed surprised by what Arthur said, she expected him to make poor excuses for his action but instead, she got harshly scolded by him.
Normally a person who interfered would be disqualified, so of course, she planned to do that, but when she saw that Mary''s punch didn''t even scratch him, she seriously was astonished. She thought that he may be a spy but soon gave up on that, for if he was one, he wouldn''t try to attract this much attention and would instead lay low.
To send him away would be like losing a good seed, especially when he was going to join her academy, it would bring her more benefits if she kept him in the academy rather than letting him go, it was true that he broke the rules she set and even killed a participant ruthlessly, but what if he broke some rules? She didn''t have to just let him go because of some stupid rule and to be quite honest, she felt a little guilty, after all, she saw what that beastman intended to do but nevertheless, she just watched. After some thinking she spoke:
"You and your companion, follow me"
Once she finished, the principal returned to her seat followed by Arthur, Lucy and the rest of the council members of course. Once everyone sat down except for Arthur and Lucy, the principal said loudly
"No need to stare, this participant was using a high leveled enchanted item and used it to kill ''huge build'' and defend against Mary. Continue with the tournament at once!... As for black-robed and Ice queen, they are both disqualified from the second test"
None of the participants dared to say anything back to her and resumed the tournament as if nothing had happened, but you could still notice some who were glancing at Arthur every now and then.
Just when the tournament resumed, the principal looked at Arthur who was still standing not far away from her and said
"Wait until the tournament is finished and we selected those who passed then I''ll see how I can punish you, for the time being, wait here!!"
Her tone was quiet but angry, still Arthur was confused since he thought that he would just be disqualified together with Lucy and be sent away, yet surprisingly the principal told him to wait here, so he was curious as to why she did that.
Truthfully he thought of the possibility of her wanting to rope him in because he displayed a decent amount of strength, but he snickered and felt disgusted toward the principal, if she really wanted to rope him in because of his power, then that really made her no different from greedy people, she would let him join her academy just because he was strong, even though he broke the rules and killed a participant.
The tournament finally finished and some participants, who even though they didn''t win, still got accepted. The skinny demon won in section A and there were some powerful individuals in the other sections too, the beastman with the axe on his back and the second prince were also accepted.
The principal soon left the stage followed by Arthur and Lucy. They walked past many big buildings and Arthur was quite amazed when he saw them, even Lucy never stopped gazing as she seemed more cheerful. Since she was a child she dreamt of coming here, so of course, she was happy, even though she still didn''t forget what happened earlier, but with Arthur, by her side, she felt comfortable and joyful.
After half an hour or so of walking, they entered a 5-floor building. The building was decorated from head to toe either with symbols or gold lines, even the structure of it was fascinating. Arthur couldn''t help but be amazed at how well constructed this building was and not only this one. When they passed through the academy grounds, each and every building was luxurious and they were all connected by long hallways, except this particular building, which they entered right now.
They finally stopped walking when they reached a big office which was obviously the principal''s office, it was quite a large room decorated with paintings and runes, and there were also a lot of bookshelves put next to each other neatly. In the center of the room there was a desk with 2 chairs in front of it and a large chair behind it, there was nothing on the desk except for a few scattered papers and a crystal.
The principal sat on her ''chair'' and gazed at Arthur with cold yet curious eyes. She broke the silence by finally saying "Now that we are alone, how about you tell me who YOU really are?" she said that with a smile hanging on her face.
Lucy remained silent as she gazed coldly at the principal while Arthur replied with a mocking tone:
"No one you should have heard of, I''m simply someone who wants to join your academy along with my comrade here"
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report itHe chuckled softly after saying that and stared at the principal to see her reaction and what she would do to him. If she tried anything against him, he was prepared to go all out and escape with Lucy, even if she was high leveled, he still had confidence in his power and if he couldn''t win he would just escape.
When he was attacked by Mary earlier he could feel that she was strong, but compared to the earth dragon, she was a little weaker and to him, who had gained the dragon''s stats plus his previous stats and also got the bonus stats from creating a body, so he should be several times stronger than the dragon and that''s only physically. If he used his magic, especially the destructive ancient fire, none would be able to guess the outcome of a battle between him and this principal, so a person with Mary''s strength was no threat to him at all, even if he didn''t do anything all day, she couldn''t hurt him and if all the council members had more an or less the same strength as her, then he shouldn''t worry about them.
After seeing Mary''s power and judging that he was stronger than her, he guessed for someone with his level he was overpowered, no! Overpowered would be an understatement for he was god-like.
Even though the principal told the participant that the black-robed man was cheating and had used a powerful enchanted item, that was because everyone saw how he wasn''t hurt when he was hit by Mary, who was one of the council members and if she didn''t say that, Mary would have lost face and would be probably called weak to not be able to injure a single participant who didn''t even defend against her attack.
The principal had to make an appropriate lie or else how could she protect the honor of Mary, but deep in her heart she was curious about this black-robed man ''Just who is he? To be able to take a bare attack from Mary and still not budge''
"How about you take that hood off so I can have a good look at your face."
To be honest, Arthur didn''t hide his appearance for special reasons, he was just used to hiding it because when he was in Zodiak''s body he didn''t want to show his creepy appearance. However, now that he had a body for himself he didn''t mind showing his face, but he found it unnecessary so he just covered his face the same way he did when he was in his previous ''body''.
When he heard the principal he wasn''t surprised, for he knew she would ask him that since anyone would be curious as to who he was after what he did. It would be the second time he showed his face to someone, the first time it was Lucy, Hell she even saw when his face was being created.
He soon pulled down his hood and his appearance was finally revealed. His face was stern with cold blood red eyes, there was the same long-boned face, tapered to a pointed chin; nonetheless, he looked quite charming and pleasing to the eye.
The principal was stunned when she saw his face, the steady but slightly cold gaze of his made her dazed for a second but what astonished her most was his red eyes.
You must know that even though there were different races in this world, none of them had red eyes, only beasts could have them and even for beasts, it was quite rare to find one with that eye color. She soon snapped out of it and stabilized herself "I don''t recognize you, you are neither royalty nor a noble, speak honestly, why did you come here?" her voice this time contained a threat and the air around the room seemed to turn cold.
While keeping a poker face Arthur replied with calm voice
"I already told you, I''m not going to repeat myself, as for what happened earlier I will not apologize doing something right." He then proceeded to ignore her, not paying any heed to her flushed face, which turned red from anger.
"Y-you!!!.."
the principal stood up while slapping her hands on the table with anger, she thought Arthur was mocking her and just playing around while not telling the truth.
After staring at him for some time she sighed and sat back down, truthfully she was in a dilemma, either to send him off and lose such precious fighting figure or take him under her care and gain a powerful figure in this academy, but she knew that Mary would be against it, since she seemed to be very angry and would hold a grudge toward this man.
Minutes passed and finally, after some pondering, she crossed her hands and was about to say something when Zephir barged into the room and seemed in a bit of a rush. He came near her and whispered something in her ear.
Arthur saw Zephir coming in and his whispering next to the principal''s ears but he paid it no heed as he was not interested. Once Zephir finished whispering, he stood behind the principal while waiting for her to say something, which she finally did
"You two, go sit there and wait for me to finish speaking with our guests then I''ll see what I''ll do with you."
while speaking she pointed at a corner of the room where there were a comfortable sofa and a small table. Arthur didn''t say anything, he just held Lucy''s hand and sat on the sofa with her.
Not even 5 minutes passed when 2 figures entered the room, it was 2 old men, one had a long white bear and deep blue eyes while the other one was an old man with a missing hand. Arthur immediately recognized one of them, since it was Theodor from the holy church, but he didn''t know the other so he immediately appraised him
Erik Vilsmore (human) : LVL118
It was the same person who spoke with Theodor through the crystal. When Erik heard from Theodor that Rein died fighting a mage, he was honestly surprised and even though he said he wouldn''t search for the girl anymore he still had to, after all, it was a direct order from the pope. He was curious as to why the pope was so interested in this lady, but he didn''t dare ask him, for the pope was considered a god-like figure in the holy church and all his orders must be obeyed without question or doubt.
He didn''t want to lose more men to the black-robed man, but since the girl was with him, he had to send men to monitor the black-robed mage''s location and soon his spies told him that this ''man'' was last seen using the teleportation array leading to the academy, so he suspected that this man was one of the members of the council, but he soon gave up on that idea as the man was supposedly using a strange kind of magic that none of the people in this academy had.
Nonetheless, he used a teleportation array which teleported him directly from the holy church headquarters to the Nemia academy and he took Theodor with him because Theodor knew the appearance of the black-robed mage, so if they encountered him on the academy grounds he should be cautious.
Erik didn''t go to the academy to look for the black-robed mage but was ordered directly by the Pope to head to the academy and retrieve the girl at any cost, he was even permitted to use force but he must first consult the principal and ask her if he could take away the girl without resorting to force.
That was why the first thing he did was coming to the principal''s office, he was going to ask her if she saw any silver-haired demon in the entrance exam and if she did, he would ask for her permission to take the girl for she was a fugitive from the Holy church and also is someone evil who must be taken away. But never in his wildest dreams would he think to bump into her when he just got here.
When he entered the room he first saw Zephir and the principal and in the corner he saw a black-robed man and a silver-haired girl who wore a green dress, she truly was pretty and Erik immediately recognized her, after all, every single person in the holy church was instructed to try to capture the girl when they saw her.
Erik didn''t do anything suspicious and just gazed at her for a second before continuing to walk towards the principal, whereas Theodor stood there stiff, you can see fear in his eyes when he looked at Arthur, but he soon regained his senses and followed Erik; nonetheless, his behavior didn''t pass unnoticed by the principal who had keen eyes.
She saw Theodor look at Arthur and then freeze up with fear and she was astonished since she didn''t actually think the holy church would have relations with this unusual individual; nonetheless, she didn''t say anything and simply smiled toward the guests while speaking
"Hello lord Erik, what brings you to my academy? The continents meeting is not until a year from now, so what does the holy church want from me?"
Even though she was smiling her tone was domineering, she didn''t like the fact that the holy church would come and not only that, but the pope didn''t even come personally, as if she wasn''t worth the time so her pent-up anger from earlier was released on these guests.
"Ohoh, Ms. Sonia, please excuse us for coming uninvited, but we are merely seeking someone who came to your academy and if you permit it, we would like to them away with us"
The principal frowned to the old man''s request, to think the holy church would have the gutts to come here and demand to take someone away, they seemed to forget that the Nemia academy had a power equal to them and only sent a little representative like this old man to make such a shameless request ''they really are thick-skinned!" even though she was angered by what he said she still remained calm and replied:
"Ohhh? And who might that person be? To make the holy church personally came, it must be a very important person."
her voice contained some sarcasm as if she was interested in who this person was and was going to hand this person to them.
"Ohohoho, Ms. Sonia, luck is on our side as it seems, the person we are looking for is that girl over there with the green dress, she really caused us big trouble, if you would permit us to take her away" when saying that he pointed with his hand at Lucy who was also gazing at him with cold and piercing eyes.
Arthur was slightly surprised when he saw Erik lvl but he wasn''t the least worried for he knew he could handle him with ease. He just laid on the sofa with Lucy while looking with interest as to why these people from the holy church came here, but he already had a guess and when he heard Erik say he came searching for a person his guess turned to be true as Erik pointed his finger toward Lucy. Arthur seemed calm, but he was ready to fight at any moment if he heard the principal accept the old man''s demand he would immediately bombard them with ancient fire and all kinds of attacks then try his best to get out of here with Lucy.
Sonia was quite surprised when she saw where the old man was pointing, for the holy church to go to such means to capture a girl, she must really be important to them, or else they wouldn''t dare come like this and be this shameless; nonetheless, she wasn''t going to accept their stupid demand in the first place, she was merely surprised to see they were looking for the demon girl.
"I don''t think that''s possible Mr. Erik, this girl was just accepted as a student in this academy and every student here is protected by us, moreover she is Zephir''s personal student so you taking her is out of the question."
She smiled smugly at Erik observing his reaction, and indeed it was priceless, his face was red and he looked angry, for he didn''t expect the principal to refuse his demand. After all, he came here representing the pope, so refusing him is like refusing the pope and he didn''t think she would dare to reject his demand so openly and without hesitation, he gritted his teeth and tried to keep a smile on his face but it only made him look uglier.
"You see Ms.Sonia, The pope personally ordered me to bring her back, since she''s really dangerous. Even to you and your academy, so it would be wise to let go of her"
Even though he was plainly rejected, he still persisted and tried again, but he was suddenly caught by an immense pressure and he heard the principal snort while gazing at him coldly so he no longer talked. He just bowed and left the room with Theodor but before he left he stared daggers at Lucy ''little pest, don''t you think you got away just because you are here, don''t forget we have means to capture you even if you escaped to the end of the world!''.
When the 2 old men left, the room regained its silence and the atmosphere became kind of awkward, Sonia glanced at Arthur who was laying on the sofa relaxingly while Lucy was leaning on his shoulder and seemed lost in thought
''Now it''s time to think of what I should do about them''
Chapter 18 : A bet
The principal, who was sitting on her desk, she turned head towards Arthur and said while chuckling
"I see that the holy church is searching for that girl but no worries since I said she is a student then I will not go back on my words, plus it was you who interfered and she didn''t do anything, as, for you, you would only be staying he as a GUEST!"
She continued to stare at Arthur expecting to see his reacting but to her surprise the man didn''t even bulge or seem the least surprised, in fact, he just smiled at her and nodded.
"A guest or whatever, but remember I will not leave my companion''s side, so deal with it!"
Arthur didn''t particularly care what his status was, guest or student, as long as he could stay here for the time being, it would be enough after all he wants to just get stronger to be able to crush the holy church and when he has that strength staying in this academy would only be meaningless.
Actually it would be a lie to say he wasn''t interested in this academy, quite the opposite, in fact, he wanted to learn new ways to use magic since he was still considered inexperienced and he wanted Lucy to get stronger and have fun, she seemed really excited and happy to be here so, of course, he wouldn''t take her away from here unless she says so, but seeing the Holy church coming here to look for her, he decided to never leave her side, not even for a second, as they may use underhanded means to take her away and he would not tolerate that.
Which is why the best way to avoid that is by constantly being near her, also, he was sure she would not be bothered if he were to follow her everywhere as he trusted her and he knew she trusted him back too.
Sonia seemed startled by the way he spoke, it seemed like he had zero respect for her nonetheless she didn''t mind it for she got used to his cold and shameless behavior and she knew he deeply cared for the girl beside him, she didn''t dwell on it any further and spoke
"It''s settled then, Zephir would lead you to a room for you 2 to stay together in."
She waved her hand and Zephir nodded as if understanding what she meant, he walked toward Arthur and said calmly but with a cold voice
"Follow me, I will guide you to your room."
To be honest, Zephir didn''t like Arthur, in fact he hated him and hated his behavior, he thought he was reckless and a savage especially when he saw how he killed that beastman, even he, someone from the demon race, which is infamous for its brutality, would never do that. Furthermore, he was with demon girl who he wanted to rope under his care but unfortunately, he has seen how powerful Arthur is and how he always sticks close to Lucy which made it difficult for him to try to recruit her.
Arthur and Lucy soon got up from the comfortable sofa and followed Zephir towards their room but of course they never stopped holding hands and Arthur didn''t want to let go either, the feeling of her soft but cold white hands was something he would never want to forget and she didn''t seem bothered when holding his hands, sometimes she took the initiative to do so and when she did, Arthur would be overjoyed.
Just when Arthur, Lucy, and Zephir were going to leave the room, someone barged into Sonia''s office, it was Mary the female beastman, she was still angry about what happened and she held a grudge towards Arthur for what he did to someone from her race.
"Big sister Sonia! why did you stop me earlier! didn''t you see what he had done!"
Mary and Sonia were friends since childhood and were very close, whenever they were alone she would always call her ''big sister'' rather than principal, when Mary finished speaking she glared with dagger eyes at Arthur who now had his face revealed but she wasn''t surprised by his appearance, she just wanted to rip him to shreds.
"Now Mary, if you would be please calm down, he became a guest in our academy so you have to treat him with care"
Sonia replied with a teasing voice, she knew Mary would always act by her emotions and when she saw that beastman killed brutally it hurt her emotionally nonetheless it was careless of Mary to just dive at a participant intending to kill her after all she had to consider her position and act accordingly, The principal stared at the angry Mary then continued speaking
"Plus, didn''t you see what that beastman was going to do? even if he was someone from your race, it doesn''t change the fact that he was shameless and savage and you attacking out guest here based on emotions is completely disregarding your position as a council member!"
She continued to scold the female beastman for what she did, not only did she attack Arthur she didn''t even hurt him which made her lose a lot of faces and force Sonia to make up a fat lie to cover up the Mary''s recklessness.
The female beastman didn''t talk for some time, she just stood there not knowing what to do, she was angry but what the principal said was true and she shouldn''t have done that nonetheless she still couldn''t forgive Arthur
"B-but! big sister Sonia, I still can''t forgive him for doing that!..."
She dropped her head down while saying that as if showing the principal her pitiful side and maybe changing her mind. Sonia''s heart softened as she saw Mary, they were childhood friends and she was older than Mary so she always took care of her and solved her problems, while she was thinking this an idea struck her, a smile soon formed on her breath-taking face and she spoke
"Fine! since you are so persistent, how about we make a bet?"
Hearing this, Mary''s eyes sparkled and she could see some hope for revenge so she replied with an excited voice
"Bb-big sister, quick tell me! what sort of bet? as long as you let me kill this bastard! I''ll accept any kind of bet"
Seemingly impatient, Mary turned her head towards Arthur and stared at him with killing intent and anger in her eyes, so Arthur couldn''t help but think ''what a crazy woman, seriously, the hell is wrong with her?'' he just stood there waiting for the principal to speak while being curious as to what this bet was about, since she said he would be a guest, she wouldn''t let Mary just kill him or attack him so the idea of a ''bet'' intrigued him.
"Haha you will fight against him and if you win you can do whatever you want with him but if you lose then you have to stop nagging and leave him alone.."
The principal made this bet for two reasons, first she wanted to see what this man was about and gauge his power, after all, she didn''t see him fight seriously and second she wanted to help Mary even for a little bit
Once Mary heard the bet, she jumped with happiness for she didn''t expect her big sister to help her this much ''finally! I will be able to kill this bastard!''
"Thank you big sister Sonia!"
Although she was happy, she looked at Arthur to see his response, after all, a bet has to be accepted by both sides or else it wouldn''t be a bet, also he could just reject the bet, the principal stared at Arthur expecting his answer while a meaningful smile was hanging on her face.
Arthur was truly delighted, by quickly winning against this pest he would finally get rid of a nuisance and she would no longer bug him so he just waved his hand while saying
"whatever, tomorrow at noon, how about that?" hearing him speak with a carefree tone, Mary was even more angered but she soon remembered what her big sister said and controlled her emotion she just replied "fine!" and turned around left with a "hmph!".
Arthur and Lucy didn''t stay there any longer and proceeded to follow Zephir and surprisingly they didn''t leave the building to head toward the dorms instead their room was in the same building that the principal''s office was at, a couple of minutes passed and they finally reached their room, Zephir escorted them to the room''s door then left after gazing coldly at Arthur.
The room was quite decent, there were 2 beds and also 2 desks, a big veranda and some beautiful paintings hanging on the walls which were also amazingly constructed. Still holding hands, they both went towards a bed and sat on it while still not talking.
He looked at Lucy who was quiet for some time now, he couldn''t get enough of her charm and wanted to stare at her all day long but he thought it may be unappropriated so he soon turned his head and let go of her hand while saying
"It''s already night, you must be tired after all that happened right? why don''t you take some rest and sleep?"
Hearing what he said, Lucy blushed a little and dropped her head down which was completely red, she was alone with him and after what happened today and that kiss she gave him, she couldn''t help but feel embarrassed but at the same time happy.
Unlike him who had infinite stamina and didn''t need to sleep, she was normal and like anyone else needed some sleep, she wasn''t physically tired but she was very exhausted mentally but having him with her calmed her and made her forget about her memories a little.
When she previously slept in his arms, it was really comfortable and warm, it had been a long time since she had that kind of comfortable sleep so after hesitating for a while she spoke with her melodious voice
"W-wait, can l-let me sleep on your shoulder like e-earlier?"
Her ears were bright red and she didn''t dare look at him in the eye as she very embarrassed and she couldn''t even believe what she just said. Arthur was startled by what he heard for he didn''t expect her to say that but nonetheless he smiled and looked at her being embarrassed and fidgeting a little, he approached her once again and gave her a small hug and said
"No need to feel embarrassed Lucy, you can ask me anything."
While saying that he sat next to her and held her pretty white hands.
Lucy couldn''t muster the courage to talk to him, her heart was beating madly fast and her face burning up and when he hugged her it only made her even more embarrassed but she felt happy and blessed to have someone like him beside her, her heart was slowly opening up to him and wished for this moment to last forever.
Soon enough both of them laid on the bed and she leaned on his shoulder but was surprised to see Arthur wrap his left hand around her back to let her feel more comfortable, of course she wasn''t angered or anything of the sort, instead she just smiled and got closed to him and closed her eyes intending to sleep, it was like heaven to her a warm place to sleep with no worries of someone of the holy church chasing her, she really couldn''t think of what would have happened if she didn''t meet him.
She first thought he was using her but as the time went on he only showed her what being loved really meant, he even went to such lengths as to kill someone in the academy grounds because he dared touch her, she unconsciously snuggled deep into his arms until her face on his chest but she didn''t care and she soundlessly fell asleep.
Arthur was surprised by this turn of events, he didn''t think she would get this close to him, hell even when he wrapped his left arm around her back he thought she would be against it but instead she not only accepted that, she also got closer to him, he could feel her cold body and petite white hands on his chests along with her head, he gazed at her enchanting sleeping face. It was truly breath-taking as if a goddess was sleeping and not a demon, he couldn''t feel more blessed to have someone like that besides him and love him too, deep in his heart he couldn''t help but thank ''X'' for giving him this new life, it allowed him to love again and enjoy the warmth of someone for the first time.
It was true he loved his wife, but when he thought about it again, it was not like this one, maybe he was merely attached to his wife for he just wanted someone next to him and when that person betrayed him he finally understood what it was like to be lonely.
When he was a businessman all he did was work and gain money, his friends were only ''friends'' for benefits and he was an orphan who got adopted by an old couple, they raised him and took care of him but they soon died of old age and he was left alone, so he just worked until he reached the pinnacle but he felt nothing, just empty, so he sought the warmth of a woman but that ended up badly for him and in contrary to his past life, he now had Lucy with him.
Yes, he didn''t have family here and yes, he didn''t have friends here, but he got her, and it was more than enough to make him feel relieved. For the first time in ages, he, who had been cold and emotionless had cried, yes, he cried for a very long time.
Lucy was sleeping so she didn''t notice him but nonetheless he cried, it was tears of grief but at the same time tears of joy, if he hadn''t met Lucy he would have just continued to be alone in this world and be chained with his distrustful heart forever, he would have become a robot rather than a human being. While crying Arthur thought of something he never did in his entire life, he thanked god for what was given to him, though he never believed in god, and never was a religious man, instead he cursed this ''god'' for he was given a miserable and lonely life and it only got worse when he was tortured so the idea of a god watching them from above was completly erased from his mind, because if there really was one he wouldn''t let people do as they please and give the kind people a miserable lives while the greedy people would have a luxurious and good life.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
In fact, the reason behind their very existence crossed mind, more precisely, ''why would this ''god'' create such greedy and wicked creatures!'' this thought bugged him a lot especially when he was in that desolate room being tortured every day.
Only after a while did he stop crying but his eyes were swollen and his face a bit red, since he got infinite stamina he didn''t need to sleep but he wanted to so he just closed his eyes and tried falling asleep.It had been quite a long time since he slept and every time he did he would have nightmares but this time he didn''t. He neither had good dreams nor did have nightmares and while sleeping he unconsciously hugged the sleeping Lucy and didn''t let go of her as if she would disappear if he let her go.
Morning came and Lucy woke up, but she dumbfounded to feel Arthur hugging her with both his arms and when she lifted her head to look at him she was more astonished to see him sleep nonetheless she noticed his eyes were swollen so she soon guessed he must have cried and hugged her so she didn''t mind and stayed in his embrace. She didn''t wake him up for she knew he never slept and him actually sleeping is rare, in fact, she never saw him sleep not even once since they met, so, for now, she stayed silent and enjoyed the feeling of being in his embrace, she wrapped her arms around him and smiled while gazing at his sleeping face.
1 hour or so he finally woke up and didn''t expect himself to be hugging her he immediately let go of her in panic while saying with an apologetic tone
"S-sorry, I must have done it unconsciously!"
As he let go of her, Lucy hugged him even more tightly as if indicating she didn''t mind, she looked at him with those charming eyes, you couldn''t even see a tinge of coldness coming from them, she smiled towards him and to be honest, when smiling her face was even more enchanting
"What are you apologizing for? Aren''t we lovers?"
Arthur heart softened when he heard that, because he knew she was trying her best and she still had some fear and hatred towards man but nonetheless she hugged him and even didn''t mind being hugged by him, so he once again wrapped his arms around her and they started chatting about various things including the Nemia academy.
Lucy talked with excited tone, she was joyful for she finally became a student of Nemia academy and her childhood dream became true and when seeing her cute side Arthur couldn''t help but chuckle as she really seemed like a child when talking about the academy, if someone saw her right now they would surely not think she was the same one as yesterday, in public not even a tinge of emotion could be seen on her face, she was like a goddess statue and unapproachable by mere humans.
After talking for some time, they finally separated even though Arthur seemed reluctant to do so as he enjoyed hugging while laying on the bed and didn''t want to let go, Lucy seeing the reluctance in his eyes approached her head closer to him and gave him a small kiss on the cheek like yesterday, this caught him by surprise and his ears turned red as he was embarrassed but happy at the same time.
They both adjusted their clothes, Arthur wore something different today, he retrieved new clothes from his storage ring, Zodiak had a lot of clothes and most of them were exceptional, he wore a blue robe which suited him perfectly, it had golden lines on it and the same symbol the black robe had but this symbol was white, he looked even more handsome and charming wearing this robe, as for Lucy she wore a green dress which made her look like a fairy.
Soon they left their room and headed towards outside to tour the academy and go to classes, actually since Lucy is a student now she can attend classes and the principal put her in the magic class. In fact, this academy was divided into 2 classes close-fighting class and magic class and these two in return were divided into several other minor classes, for example, the magic class was divided to mana manipulation class, attribute training class and several other classes.
Since Lucy was put in the magic class she can choose whatever she wanted from the minor classes but there were some restrictions, for example, there are special classes for senior students and these classes are teaching difficult magic tricks which a new student can''t possibly do.
Lucy decided to first head to the attribute training class and see what was it about. The principal didn''t forget to give them a small map so they can easily find their way in the academy as it was extremely big and one would get lost easily.
While they were walking, they passed by many students, some who were new and others who were old, but every one of them, especially the boys, stared at Lucy who was wearing a green dress with disbelief, you could even see lust in their eyes but of course none of them dared to approach her and speak to her. They also looked at the man beside her with jealousy and envy, he not only was handsome and charming he had a girl like that beside him so wouldn''t be jealous of him?
Though none of the boys did dare talk to Lucy, many girls rushed at Arthur and began speaking to him, there were many senior girls and even new ones who joined yesterday.
"Hello handsome, are you new here? how about I show you around ?"
"Let me show you around too.."
"Me too. please."
"Kyaa!! So handsome, I wonder if he is willing to be my boyfriend"
Truthfully, Arthur ignored them at first but they were persistent like cockroaches and he hated that kind of women the most, they were similar to his ex-wife they would cling to someone if he is handsome or seemed wealthy to gain fame or power, if he was ugly or average looking they would not even spare a glance at him.
Lucy who was beside him didn''t do anything but he could feel a cold feeling from her gaze as if she was a little jealous and to be honest he felt happy, for her to be jealous is really rare but he was bothered by those girls so he looked at them and lifted his hand as if signaling them to quiet down and when they finally did expect him to speak he just said with a cold voice
"Fuck off!" just as he said that he took Lucy''s hand and walked past them ignoring them completely. Some of the girls just shrugged it off as they didn''t care, others just seemed little depressed while there is some who snickered and said
"Who does he think he is? just because he is a little handsome he gets to be this bossy? Hmpf just wait and see."
A boy who heard this, approached the girl who said that and mocked "Can''t you see he have such a beauty beside him? so why would he bother with ugly girls like you"
"YOU!!!!!!"
Seemingly angry, the girl snapped at the boy and slapped him with all her strength which of course sent him flying a couple of meters and a stream of laughs soon came in from the nearby boys when they saw what happened to their poor ''friend''.
Arthur and Lucy continued heading to where the attribute training class is going to be held in. 20 minutes or so of walking they finally reached their destination, it was a gigantic room, it looked exactly like the conference rooms from the universities in his previous life except this one was much larger, it could hold up to 200 hundred students and in front of the row of seats there was a stage which was where the teacher would probably demonstrate his magic.
When they entered the classroom, there were already a lot of people either chatting or sitting and waiting for the class to begin.
When they saw Lucy they were extremely shocked, one has to know that what happened yesterday became extremely famous and almost everyone knew who this girl was but they didn''t expect her to be accepted, instead they thought she was disqualified and when they looked at the man beside her they felt curious.
They knew there was a black-robed man who protected her yesterday but this man beside her now looked completely different from yesterday and didn''t have the same cold atmosphere around him nonetheless they just stood there dazed and amazed by the girl''s beauty but they didn''t have the guts to talk to her for they were afraid of Arthur.
They still didn''t know if it was the same person because the black-robed man never showed his face but they knew she only had 1 companion and since today she is with a man and yesterday she also with a man so the natural conclusion would be that it''s the same man as yesterday and thinking like that, their body stiffened and even averted their gazes for they knew Arthur was brutal and would kill anyone who would dare harm her.
They soon found a seat in the back of the room and sat there waiting for the class to start but of course they didn''t just stay silent, instead they started chatting and Arthur loved the way she acted excitedly as if she couldn''t wait anymore, it seems it''s her first time being in a classroom and actually learning, all her skills and strength was gaining through combat and she never had the chance to be in an institution such as this one.
It pained Arthur thinking she had gone through all that but that was the past, even though she still kept her cold attitude, her excitement didn''t escape Arthur''s eyes he could see her eyes sparkling, he could even guess her mood even if she kept her cold attitude for he got used to it and learnt how to differentiate between her moods by looking at her eyes and her movements.
Time passed and finally what appeared to be the teacher finally came, it was a human male who was LVL84, he wore a white robe and some leather pants under it, he looked refined and amiable, when he entered the classroom soon became quiet as the people who were chatting closed their mouth and headed towards their seats. The human male''s name was Julian and once he saw all the class quiet and waiting for him to begin he spoke
"Hello there, my name is Julian and I''m your teacher in this class, I hope we can get along."
When he finished, the students applauded but didn''t talk, so Julian resumed speaking
"Without further ado, let''s start the class, many of you are already in their second or maybe third year and are experienced in attribute training, but some of you are new who joined us yesterday so I''m gonna go through a brief explanation of what this class is exactly about." He took a breath of fresh air then continued
"I am sure that since you are in this class then you must have a good affinity with an attribute, and the goal of this class is to train you in using it, for example, a newbie using a fire attribute can only create a fireball but an expert in fire attribute can create weapons,barriers with fire there is even cases where they invent skills."
Just when he finished, he created a small ball of water which floated on top of his hand
"I am a mage in water attribute, as you can see this is just a small ball of water, it can be used to attack but its power is nothing compared to a fireball or a wind slash or even an earth spike"
He then changed the water ball to a sharp arrow made from water there not even a drop of water that dropped to the ground and the arrow seemed very solid
"What i did here is exert my control of the attribute and changed the water ball to a sharp arrow made from solidified water, the process is not that hard but one has to train to be able to do something like this"
Julian then created a dozen more of water arrows before he resumed speaking again "As all of you may know, we all have a mana pool and every time we use the attribute we excel in we lose quite a bit of mana, for me I can create just 21 water arrows before my mana can be emptied out but don''t underestimate those arrows as they can be deadly if it hits any of you."
Some of the new students were astonished but the old one just listened carefully and took some notes, as for Lucy, she listened carefully trying to not miss anything but to be completely honest, she can change her attribute into weapons, she already did that in the tournament.
Nonetheless, she continued to listen while Arthur was just lazing around almost falling asleep, he could create thousands of dark arrows without losing a single point of mana, the same thing for ancient fire so listening this was boring, he can also create weapons and barriers with those attributes.
Truthfully Arthur was interested in mana injection or better say attribute injection, he read it in a book when he was in Willsden town, attribute injection is to use one''s attribute internally not externally, for example, your raw physical attacks will contain your attribute, he can do it with void slash but that was only unconsciously so he wanted to learn more about it, it is said that those who do not excel in magic also use attribute injection to strengthen their physical attacks even for a bit.
For example, a close-melee fighter who have a little affinity with the wind attribute can use attribute injection to make himself slightly faster and his attacks would contain a small portion of normal wind slashes.
It was minor change to the power of the attacks but it still was a change so Arthur was interested in it and he wanted to know how exactly can he do it, he tried questioning Lucy about it but she told him she never used it or read about it as she didn''t need to attack physically she always used her magic.
He decided to go to the library later, maybe he could find something worth reading, on the map the principal gave him he could see large building which was the library so he was quite excited to go see it, he wasn''t much of a reader in his past life but now he quite enjoyed it and wanted to learn more about this world for his knowledge was very limited right now.
Once Julian showed them few more tricks he said "Why don''t you try training your attribute now, for all the old students they must form a barrier as for the new one, just try to change the shape of your attribute and create a simple weapon of it"
Actually, creating barriers is much much more complicated than creating a weapon, in fact, even if someone succeeded in creating it, it usually would hold up only for some seconds before disappearing, even Lucy couldn''t hold it permanently and hers was weaker too because fire is not used for defense.
Soon enough the students began practicing and there were cries of surprise here and there from those people who succeeded easily in creating a weapon, they had smug smiles hanging on their faces and quite proud of their achievement.
As for Lucy she tried using her new attribute, the magma, firstly she couldn''t even create it but after some time concentrating she finally managed to create a strange ball of magma, it really emanated a strong heat and looked like a ball of red liquid with some blackish in it, it''s heat was really incredible but compared to Arthur''s ancient flames, this heat is considered nothing. The strange ball of magma soon began to change shape, as minutes passed the magma ball changed into some sort of sword or a saber? beads of sweat began forming on Lucy''s forehead while her eyes were closed and she seemed to concentrate a lot.
Actually to control an attribute like magma, lightning, ice etc.. it is much harder and complicated but that was to be expected as even though it''s hard to control if you manage to do it you would become a legendary figure because those special attributes are way stronger than the normal ones.
10 minutes or so passed and Lucy finally managed to make a weapon of that magma ball, the weapon emanated a small pressure but nevertheless, almost all the students gazed at the weapon in amazement and envy for they wanted to have a special attribute too
Julian who was standing at the stage also saw that scene and was astonished, he heard from his friends that there is a demon girl which rejected Lord Zephyr and didn''t want to be his student. He also knew she was a beauty and was a wizard at that with a magma attribute, to have such a student in his class made him proud, he knew she wasn''t disqualified for the principal already spread the news to the teachers about Lucy becoming a student, she also said not to bother her in any way or approach the guy with her.
Julian glanced at Arthur who was sitting next to the demon girl, but he noticed him not doing anything not even creating a weapon so he frowned but didn''t say anything, he didn''t know Arthur was a guest and thought he was just a student.
After 2 hours or so, the class finally ended, they passed almost all of the time practicing except a few times when Julian needed to explain something or correct the mistakes of some student.
In these 2 hours, Lucy improved greatly and was able to create a magma weapon in just 2 minutes, it was considered an amazing feat to do that so Arthur guessed she must be a genius or else how could she improve this fast?
They soon left the classroom and headed toward the building where the principal office was, actually, there was an underground arena under that building and the principal said that the fight would be there for she did not want students to watch the fight. It''s almost noon and that''s the appointed time for the bet so Arthur was kind of excited to beat the hell out of that female beastman for being that arrogant and persistent
''It sure will be a fun fight! hehe''.....''
Chapter 19 : Like the frog in the well
After half an hour of walking, they both arrived at the underground arena where the principal, Zephir, and Mary were waiting for them, actually, the principal didn''t want the fight to be known to anyone, not even the council member, only Zephir was present because he was her most trusted subordinate.
The arena was quite big, a rectangle shape with some kind of runes in the edges, when Arthur saw the runes he guessed it must be some sort of magic to hold off the fight inside the arena and protect those who watch it.
Mary was very excited as she couldn''t sleep yesterday night, she let her emotions got the better of her and even though it was the fault of the beastman nonetheless she held a grudge against Arthur, hell she didn''t even care about what happened to Lucy. When she saw Arthur coming entering she couldn''t help but snicker
"Finally here? i thought you would run with your tail between your legs but i guess you are at least courageous for coming, hmpf!" as she said that she jumped to the arena while waiting for him to come up too, to be honest she was confident in herself, of course she didn''t dare underestimate him because she knew he was powerful but she believed herself to be stronger and the reason she couldn''t injure him yesterady was because she didn''t use her weapons or any skills and simply judged him to have a strong defense that''s all.
Arthur didn''t waste time replying to her and advanced slowly towards the arena but he could feel Lucy''s hand hold his sleeve so he turned towards her and saw her worried face.
"Silly girl, no need to be that worried, do you not trust my abilities."
Hearing his reassuring voice, Lucy let go of him after mumbling softly:
"Good luck."
The principal was also curious and couldn''t wait any longer, she knew Mary was strong but she didn''t dare assume it would be an easy win for Mary for she knew Arthur was just too mysterious especially his magic, she even had suspicion about him teleporting because yesterday she couldn''t even see him run to the stage to save Lucy, she gazed at him with suspicious eyes while he was making his way towards the arena.
Finally, Arthur and Mary were facing each other, they were separated 50meters or so, no one talked and they just gazed at each other, rage and anger filled Mary''s eyes while Arthur''s seemed relaxed.
He knew how strong he is and he more or less has guessed her strength, even if she used skills or weapons that wouldn''t change the fact that he could easily win, with his Dark Magic and Ancient Fire he had absolute confidence.
The principal sensing that both of them are ready spoke with a serious tone
"Since you too are ready, there is just one rule, no killing! If your opponent gives up or falls unconscious then it is considered the win of the still standing person."
"B-but big sister!! you said I could do whatever I want with him and I want to KILL HIM!"
Sonia smiled towards the nagging beastman and responded:
"You can request anything if you win..."
Mary hearing this didn''t reply and just turned her head towards Arthur while taking the big axe from her back, she didn''t just charge recklessly like yesterday, she will go all out on this man before her. She didn''t even wait for him to take his weapon and just charged at him with incredible speed.
When he saw her come at him, Arthur just smiled but didn''t attack her or even tried to defend, he first wanted to enjoy the fight and teach the difference between her and him. Just as she was going to strike him with her ax.
He used [faster than death] and teleported a couple of meters behind her. Obviously, his action astonished everyone present including the principal for teleportation is not that simple and even there is someone who can use it, it takes time to teleport and not instantly.
She previously had a guess he could teleport but not this fast, as for Mary, who missed her attack and noticed his disappearance, she sensed him behind her and indeed he was a couple of meters behind her, with a smug smile on his face.
"What''s wrong? Can''t hit me?"
Arthur mocked as if he was playing with her, though she was surprised by his teleportation she nonetheless rushed at him again but this time you can see flames appear on her axe and the air around her become much hotter.
She was going to use a skill and it seemed really powerful but like last time when she was going to hit him, he just teleported away again. It would be lying to say she wasn''t angered, quite the opposite, in fact, Mary was boiling with rage, the fact that she had the chance to kill him but couldn''t even touch him angered her to no end. After all, no matter how fast someone is they can''t surpass teleportation unless they can stop time which pretty much impossible. Like this, Arthur continued to teleport away every single time he was going to be hit, and after 5 minutes the female beastman finally at him and shouted
"What do you keep running away with your cheap trick? Are you perhaps afraid of fighting me head on?"
Although she said that, she couldn''t help but feel a bit fearful of this man, he could teleport away with ease and he doesn''t seem to be the least tired after 5 minutes of teleportation so she guessed that prolonging the fight would only make her tired, that''s why she called out to him and told him to stop running, otherwise it would be a fight of who would be exhausted first and obviously, she would as he didn''t move and only teleported.
Hearing this, Arthur just shrugged it off but he judged it was time to stop this play and finish this ''fight'', though the principal said no killing that didn''t mean he can''t injure her so he decided to do so, after all, he hated her who just hated him killing some savage beastman and the excuse of her wanting his life is just because he killed her kin brutally even though he deserved it.
Mary was in a dilemma as what to do, but she finally came back to her sense and backed away, she held her axe firmly and suddenly, her body seemed to grow a little, her muscles looked more robust and her fur changed red, she appeared more savage, her eyes were burning with fury and she emitted a bit of pressure around her.
Actually what happened now was a special skill all beastman had it was [berserker mode], every beastman with high enough level would acquire this skill automatically, this particular skill would double the stats of the person using it for a couple of minutes but it has some side effects, after the effect wears off the user would have his stats halved for an hour, so it was only used by beastmen in case of emergencies only, the cooldown for it was supposedly 10 days so it can''t be used every day.
Arthur noticed the change in Mary but he merely frowned that''s all, he did read about the [berserker mode] skill but never saw it with his own eyes and truthfully he wanted to have that skill as welll so he hoped someday he would be able to possess a high leveled beastmen to get the skill.
The female beastman didn''t waste any second and charged at her opponent with insane speed and when Arthur saw her coming he too was surprised but nonetheless he wasn''t worried, apparently her speed was almost his if not slightly weaker, so in place of teleporting away he stayed there and awaited for her to struck him, she lifted her axe and used the same skill with the fire attribute then she struck down at Arthur with earth-shaking strength and in response for that Arthur just crossed his arms to defend.
"BOOM"
the impact sound was very loud and a small crater was formed under Arthur''s legs and he was pushed back a little, he couldn''t help but be astonished, her strength was more than his when she is in her [berserker mode], he could feel a little numbness in his arms but his health didn''t decrease, this attack of hers made him want the [berserker mode] skill even more and he was excited for the day he would acquire it.
When Mary saw Arthur not willing to teleport away, she was delighted for she knew he couldn''t handle her next attack and expected to injure if not kill him with that attack of hers, after all, she was in her [berserker mode] and only a handful of people can withstand her when she is in her current state and when she saw that her attack didn''t even injure him and he was only pushed back a little she didn''t dare belive her eyes, hell even his arms were in good shape, Mary remembred he moment when her axe landed on his arms, she felt like she had struck a mountain and not mere arms, ''th-this defense in unearthly...''
Zephir who was standing next to the principal, had also watched the whole fight and was in disbelief for he didn''t expect this ''man'' to be able to teleport non-stop and the more the fight continued the more surprised he became, he knew that this individual was by no means weak, he was even toying with Mary a member of the council, even though she was not fromt he strongest ones, her strength was decent and to be able to just play with her like that is not doable by just anyone.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Truthfully he just thought the fight would continue forever because Arthur just teleported to dodge every attack from Mary, but when he finally didn''t, Zephir thought it was the end of ''him'' despite having enough defense to resist Mary''s punch, it was a world''s difference between a punch and an attack buffed with a skill and adding that the Berserker mode, which further boosted the attack.
Nonetheless, such thoughts never crossed Arthur''s mind as he just crossed his arms and successfully defended her attack while only being pushed a couple of meters so Zephir couldn''t help but wonder ''why a mysterious figure like this would come here? What are his motives?'' simply coming here to be a student is meaningless to him when he is this strong so Zephir turned his head towards Lucy who wasn''t far away and became dazed as if he was thinking about something..
After receiving her head on attack, Arthur just teleported away and thought it was time to finish this nonsense, she is indeed strong and her strength is admirable, and he knew if he fought her in close-combat he would surely lose or just prolong the fight but he had magic and strong one at that so why doesn''t he use it? but if he did, he didn''t know what the consequences would be, because dark magic or the ancient flames are extremely strong and something like the ancient flames can annihilate humans completely so he looked at the beastman and spoke
"Now that we have played a little, you should know you are no match for me, so how about we finish and we consider my sin otherwise i can''t guarantee you will end up uninjured"
His tone contained some threat and a warning as if she didn''t back out now, he would show no mercy, but Mary didn''t seem affected by that and simply rushed at him again.
Her time in [berserker mode] was limited so every second counted. Seeing her act like this, Arthur just sighed and teleported away one last time before creating a small ball of ancient fire, it was a dark red ball of fire but it contained some grey here and there, the pressure it emitted was extraordinary and could be felt from some distance, even the principal frowned, normally the arena was supported by a strong barrier to protect the spectators and even if sound of impact could be heard, no after effects of a skill would affect it, so when she noticed this strange fire appear above Arthur hand, she felt a strong pressure followed by some heat. Albeit being was quite some distance away from it and the presence of the barrier, she could feel that this ''thing'' is dangerous... very dangerous.
Arthur didn''t waste time, and threw the ball of ancient fire which was smaller than a man''s first at the female beastman standing not to far from him, the speed of the fireball was lightning fast, even faster than Arthur speed, so Mary who was already surprised by the sudden turn of events and the appearance of this strange fire couldn''t react in time to defend against it and could only stand there.
Sonia who sensed the danger and saw Arthur about to throw his small fireball quickly rushed at the arena why retrieving her chain and chanting a skill with fast speed, she didn''t care about the fight anymore and she knew this was no normal fireball and if it hits Mary it''s for sure she will most likely die if not be seriously injured.
Before the fire ball could hit the 2 women, a huge barrier made of ice was formed it was very thick and extremly cold, once the dark red fire ball hit the ice barrier, an ear-breaking sound came from the impact, the whole underground arena shook and some of the walls started chattering, as for the ice barrier it held out until the dark red ball almost extinguished before breaking, nevertheless, a small 5 inch flame still remained and headed toward the femalebeastman who was still astonished and couldn''t react in time.
Sonia who was beside her quickly pushed her and crossed her arms in reflex as the small flame was extremly close and she didn''t have time to even form a small mana barrier to reduce the attack intensity.
The flames hit her left arm and it totally burned her robe and some of her skin, great pain soon filled her, even though it was a small burn and she was wearing quite an amount of items which protected her, nonetheless she was injured and couldn''t help but be astonished and hold some fear towards this flame, for her ice barrier which was perfected and almost unbreakable to just be demolished by a fist-sized fireball, this was unheard of!
Arthur wasn''t surprised by the damage made by his ancient flame as he already tested it when he was in that forest, but what surprised him is the principal interfering and protecting the female beastman, he also saw her ice barrier and guessed she too was someone with a special attribute like Lucy but none of that matters to him, he even saw her left arm slightly burned but he didn''t intend to apologize as this was a fight and it was already against the rules for her to interfere.
Mary who was pushed by the principal, fell on her butt and was still in a daze as if she couldn''t comprehend what just happened, she already returned to her normal appearance and the effects of [berserker mode] already ended, her mouth was wide open and her eyes filled with disbelief, a couple of seconds passed before she came back to her senses and rushed at Sonia while speaking to her with shaky voice
"B-big ss-ister Sonia!! Are you okk?"
She still couldn''t understand what happened, she only remembered Arthur making a strange fireball than throwing it at her and then her mind went blank and a loud sound struck her ears but she could distinguish Sonia her big sister rushing at her and pushing her to the side to protect her and in return getting injured in her left arm.
The principal retrieved a potion of some kind from what appeared to be her storage ring and quickly consumed it, she breathed a sigh of relief and responded to Mary who was already beside her
"No worries, I''m fine!"
After speaking she turned her head and stared at Arthur but you could see some anger and caution in her eyes
"Did you want to kill her? If I didn''t interfere she would really have died if not seriously injured!"
Arthur hearing this, shrugged his shoulder seemingly not caring and replied nonchalantly
"We were fighting so was I supposed to hold back? I don''t think she did hold back anything, so why would I? Plus, you interfered with the fight which is against your own rules and you''re still blaming me? Pathetic ! You can''t even accept the fact that I won. Moreover, I already warned her but she was persistent and didn''t heed my warning, she was basically asking for it."
The principal couldn''t even reply to him as she knew she broke her own rules and interfered but it couldn''t be helped because if she didn''t her friend would probably have died. Still, she dared not underestimate his powers and knew he is not someone to mess with. She sighed and said with an apologetic tone
"It was indeed my fault, it''s your win and she will no longer bother you."
As she finished speaking she looked at Mary and waited for her to declare her defeat, the female beastman was ashamed but had to admit she lost and couldn''t even withstand a single attack of his, if not for her big sister she could''ve died because of that small fire ball. At last, she had a chance to take revenge but she wasn''t able to and also her big sister got injured because of her, she felt guilty but she had to give up her reckless revenge for a stupid cause, she sought revenge for a death of someone she didn''t know, plus this person was shameful nonetheless he was the same race as her and it is known that all beastmen share a great bond between them and all like one big family. Mary clenched her fists while saying
"It''s your w-win.." she dropped her head after speaking as if feeling guilty and remorse.
"Truly like ''the frog in the well'', even with my warnings you are still naive, now then I should excuse myself."
Arthur snickered at Mary then turned around and left with Lucy as if nothing happened and all the fight earlier was just a play. When the principal saw his nonchalant attitude she was sure he was confident of his win from the very beginning and all of this was just entertainment.
It would be a lie to say she didn''t hold a grudge against him for he almost killed Mary when he could have beaten her with just a weak attack since he was that powerful, but he didn''t, and just threw that terrifying fireball which injured even her, bypassing all her protective items and burning her skin.
The injury had yet to heal even with the help of the potion, though the recovery was slow it was happening nonetheless so the wound would be sooner or later healed but Sonia was fearful, to have a man like him for an enemy is really no good so she to warn everyone from the council about him and not to provoke him or even she couldn''t protect them if he attacked them.
Yes, she was strong but if he were to attack someone of Mary''s strength when she was not present, that person would surely die if he doesn''t have any counter to that fireball. In fact the president was really a wizard but the ice attribute was her strongest and to that small fireball to break her ice barrier just like that made her anxious but she didn''t know that the ancient flames would have 400% increase in damage against any ice or water attribute.
*********************************************
Edward Omond''s butler finally arrived at Nemia academy, he has been instructed by his ''master'' to deliver a letter personally to one of the 9 council members, it was a human called Frederic, he was one of the 9 council members Arthur had appraised and his level was 162, it was quite high compared to the others, the butler who was named James was at Alex''s office handing him the letter.
"Lord Frederic, my master told me to deliver this letter personally to you as he couldn''t trust anyone."
As he finished speaking he gave the letter to Frederic, who was sitting on his desk, he was a blonde middle-aged man with blue eyes, he is also the newest member of the council members and only joined it for 2 years, though the reason he managed to do so is that of Edward.
Edward was Frederic''s benefactor and helped him when they once met, Frederic was seriously injured and was saved by Edward who happened to pass by. Since then they became like blood-brothers and vowed to help each other if they encountered an enemy or a problem occurred.
Frederic quickly read the contents of the letter which explained what happened to Feylord and how Edward wants revenge, of course, Edward changed some facts and exaggerated things.
He even made Arthur seem more evil and ruthless, when he finished reading the letter Frederic knew that this person Edward was talking about was the same one as the black-robed man from yesterday who caused that commotion.
He saw that this black-robed man was mysterious but he didn''t judge him to be strong and even with the principal''s warning not to disturb him, he thought the others were overestimating this guy. Actually Frederic was obviously stronger than Mary, and he didn''t even place her in his eyes, in fact, he hated all other races and his belief was that humans are superior, though he was on a council with other races, he felt disgusted when he talked with them but he bore with it, so when he saw Arthur block Mary''s punch he only thought of her being weak and not him being strong and never pay it any heed.
"Go back and tell Edward I will think of a way to deal with this guy."
James thanked Frederic and quickly left the room after respectfully bowing. Frederic was a usually cautious but he didn''t deem Arthur to be dangerous or a threat so killing him would be just a piece of cake but the letter from Edward told him to capture Arthur alive because Edward wanted to personally kill him, so even though it''s more troublesome Frederic didn''t think much of it and started planning how he is going to do it...
Chapter 20 : Seeker of knowledge
Once Arthur left the underground arena with Lucy, they both headed for the next class, Mana manipulation. Actually, Lucy may seem very good at using her attribute but Mana manipulation had many other uses too, so she was quite excited for this class, the same thing applied to Arthur for he needed knowledge about the Magic and how to control it and since Mana was the origin of all, it was more of a reason to attend this class.
They soon arrived at a classroom similar to the previous one except it was slightly bigger, it was filled with students but most of them were seniors and there were almost none of the new participants in this class and that''s because Mana manipulation is extremely hard and it''s not something a new student can handle.
Lucy and Arthur ignored the gazes thrown at them, they were used to it so they nonchalantly chose 2 seats at the back of the classroom and sat there, still not minding all the curious gazes they were getting.
Since it''s still a little early for the teacher to come, Lucy began practicing again with her Magma attribute, as for Arthur he started fiddling with [Void Magic].
[Void Magic] was really special and hard to handle as it can''t be used like normal attributes, for example, with [Dark Magic] and [Ancient Fire] Arthur can make a weapon or even a simple fireball but with [Void Magic] he couldn''t even materialize anything, besides the skills of the Void, he couldn''t conjure anything, like a sword or something similar to a fireball.
The only way he could use the Void Magic is by the [void slash] or [Hell Arrow]. After many tries, he gave up and decided to seriously practice when he was alone because now many people were glancing at him and he didn''t want to anyone to discover he had [void magic] as it was his trump card.
Finally, the teacher arrived, this time it was a young woman, a young-elf to be exact. When Arthur appraised her he saw this:
Teharissa Crara (elf) : LVL76
The elves were truly beautiful, she had long pointy ears, eyes as pretty as diamonds coupled with a curvy body which would attract any man. Teharissa stopped at the center of the stage in front of all the students and spoke with a soft voice
"Hello, I''m your professor for Mana manipulation, I hope we can get along."
Many males students cheered for her, but that was just an act for they just wanted to grab her attention as they were charmed by her beauty but she was still lacking a bit in comparison to Lucy. Nonetheless, she would still be considered kingdom-toppling by any man. The female teacher just raised her hand to quiet the class down then resumed talking
"You probably came here knowing that Mana manipulation is much harder than attribute training. Mana is the source of everything so training it isn''t as simple as wielding an attribute you have a strong affinity with.
In fact, any attribute no matter what is it is formed by mana and when, for example, someone creates a fireball, he would subconsciously change the flow of mana into the [fire attribute]. This transformation is referred to as conjuration by many famous and wise mages. Mana''s uses are not only this and to try and list them all is not possible as our current knowledge is not that big."
She paused for a few seconds and stared at the silent crowd, which was listening carefully to her explanation. She showed a soft smile and resumed:
"You can use mana to permanently strengthen your bones or muscles, or to form a small protective barrier covering your body to reduce the damage for a bit but that''s too difficult for you. Even old students wouldn''t necessarily be able to do that.
First of all, let''s begin with the easiest thing, to strengthen your body with Mana. To be able to do that, it depends on the individual and his talent, you must concentrate and sense the flow of Mana in your body and try to push it into your bones and muscles and like that, you may gain bonus stats ranging from 50 to 100 if you''re decent, a genius may reach 300 increase."
Even though her explanation was too plain, the students closed their eyes and proceeded in trying their best to achieve such a difficult feat, after all, 100 increase in stats is crucial for everyone one of them, who wouldn''t want to have an indestructible body or a light as feather body. Arthur too was curious about this and tried it, he could sense the Mana since he possessed Zodiak''s power but the Dark Magic is a transformation of Mana.
It''s not like a conjuration of an attribute from Mana but it''s the Mana transformed to some kind of a special type of Energy that works exactly like Mana so he always used the Dark Magic as a catalyst to form attribute.
He concentrated and tried to sense the flow of pure Mana in his surroundings but it didn''t work as he expected. Not knowing what to do, he switched the Mana form of the Dark Magic and slowly guided it to his marrow, bones, and muscles.
Very soon, a notification popped in front of him which was a proof that what he did was right, more or less.
''ting''
Congratulations! you were able to strengthen your body permanently with [Dark Mana] : +400 strength / +200 agility / +3000 intelligence
''huh, Dark Mana? Wasn''t it Dark Magic?''
Arthur was confused for he didn''t know of the existence of Dark Mana. After a much thorough checking with the help of the system, it ended up really being Dark Mana. Arthur unconsciously used when he uses Dark Magic as pure Mana isn''t compatible with Zodiak''s powers. [Dark magic] is the magic formed by the Dark Mana, it seems Zodiak was able to create some type of special Mana different from the normal one.
He was startled by the amount of intelligence added, 3000 is a big amount and some mages can train their whole life without even reaching half of it. Just when he was wondering about this Dark Mana another notification came up ''ting''
Congratulations! A portion of Zodiak''s power had been unlocked due to reaching necessary requirements!
You have gained Zodiak''s research about the forgotten continent
You have gained Zodiak''s title: Seeker of knowledge
Seeker of knowledge: When equipped +10% cooldown reduction to all skills
: can be stacked with other titles
Your [dark magic] has improved and became [Chaotic dark magic]!
[chaotic dark magic]: it''s the second transformation of dark magic and is more powerful: +50% damage when using [chaotic dark magic]
if you receive an attack from a holy attribute, the attack will deal 30% more damage to you.
[Chaotic dark magic] (passive): +1250 wisdom / +4500 mana
Your stats have improved! please check status window for more details
Arthur was startled when he saw all those notifications, he didn''t even understand what happened
''a portion of Zodiak''s power? I thought when I possessed him I already got all his powers?..''
Truthfully he was confused but that didn''t mean he was unhappy with this turn of events, however, he couldn''t help but ponder for a bit and organize his thoughts.
After some time, he came to a personal conclusion. He concluded that when he possessed Zodiak''s power, he only got a portion of it and couldn''t access the rest due to his low stats, which is exactly why another portion was unlocked now, but he still didn''t know how it was unlocked, perhaps it was the increase of intelligence or maybe other criteria.
Zodiak was a very strong mythical being, but he when he possessed him, the stats he received was not that amazing so he wondered why would this Zodiak, who was feared by all, only gave him this meager amount of stats.
Now, he understood that he only got a small portion of his powers so he dared not underestimate Zodiak ever again, plus, he was excited because he unlocked a ''portion'' of Zodiak''s power and which means there certainly is more portions, powerful portions!
All he has to do is reach the requirements, which he obviously knew nothing about, as he thought about that, his happy mood lessened a bit.
He tried forming a small ball made of his new [Chaotic dark magic] and what was created was a dark blue ball, everything seemed the same except the color was different but Arthur knew this new magic was much more powerful than the previous one. Once he finished inspecting his new magic, he opened his status window to see the changes:
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE
Level:
107
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
14180(+3400)
Intelligence
18491(+6000)
Agility
14413(+3200)
Wisdom
13384(+4250)
Vitality
16476(+3000)
Dexterity
11347(+3000)
-
Health
15498(+3000)
Health Regen
122.1/s
Mana
22231(+7500)
Mana Regen
176.6/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
12571(+3000)
Defense:
13317(+3000)
Magic defense: 3174(+1000)
Elemental resistances
Fire:
100%
Water:
25%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
45%
Light/holy:
20%(-30%)
Darkness:
100%
Arthur''s breathing became heavy as he saw his stats. Apparently; each stats was increased by 3000; which really made him astonished, he even rubbed his eyes a few times as he thought he was dreaming or just imagining things. Fortunately, he was not hallucinating
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.''if this was only a portion of Zodiak''s power then exactly how strong was he...''
After checking his stats a few more times, he remembered seeing a notification about some memories and indeed he kind of felt like some new memories had been added, though they were very blurry but what there were some clear ones which showed him all the information Zodiak had about this forgotten continent, actually Zodiak research was never finished and he only investigated it for a bit before he mysteriously died.
Apparently, this forgotten continent is on the far edges of the world and it''s impossible to enter by normal beings, it had some kind of supreme illusion barrier protecting it and you have to break it to be able to enter.
In those memories, Zodiak searched thousands of books for information about this continent but he found none, even though Arthur searched in the memories, or more precisely, the bits and pieces of blurry information he had gotten from the dead body of the mythical being, he discovered naught so he brushed these thoughts away as it did not matter for the time being.
Class continued and the teacher tried her best to explain how to use Mana more efficiently, many students tried to strengthen their bodies but they couldn''t as, normally, it would take days to succeed, a genius would take a day or two while a normal student would take 10 days.
Even Arthur when he tried for some time with normal Mana, nothing happened but with the Dark Mana, it was instantaneous, so one must know that this dark mana is by no means normal, hell if anybody found out that Arthur had this kind of Mana, no one would let him off and they would be greedy to get their hands on it, after all, greed was a nature of every being and they would desire strength and power no matter the form of it, be it money, magic, authority etc..
Arthur also noticed that the Dark Mana also changed and seemed to become [chaotic Dark Mana] which meant that every kind of dark magic he had was upgraded too which included his barrier to, so he was excited to test it when he is not in public.
One hour passed and the class finally ended, Lucy seemed dejected as she couldn''t succeed in strengthening her body in a short time even with her amazing talent, Arthur chuckled while seeing her pouting face and just patted her head while saying
"Why are you so dejected? the teacher said that even a genius would need a day or 2, so doing it in one hour is impossible."
Of course, he did it in a second but that was with his Dark Mana and even if he wanted to, he can''t give her the Dark Mana as it is not something to be given but to be created by transforming normal Mana. Arthur did it unconsciously because he had gained the talent and skills of Zodiak while Lucy didn''t, so it is impossible for her to acquire it unless she was a parasite and were to possess Zodiak''s body.
They soon left the classroom and headed towards the library, Arthur wanted to borrow some books to read, especially the historical ones.20 minutes or so, by following the map they arrived at a big building which apparently was the library.
As they entered, Arthur was amazed by how much books there were, there were circular stairs at the center of the enormous hall, they led to the top of the buildings and he noticed there were many floors, as he gazed around the hall, there were bookshelves as far as the eye can see, a few tables were here and there with some students reading silently and far to the left of the hall there was what seemed to be a reception desk with an old man sitting there also reading a book.
The old man noticed Arthur and Lucy and knew they were new students because if they weren''t he would have seen them, he was the loner type and never really gotten out of this library much, he didn''t even attend yesterday''s entrance exam so he didn''t know about what happened. He didn''t stare too long at them before he resumed reading while saying with an aged voice
"You can''t take skill books unless you have enough contribution points, as for borrowing normal books you have to show them to me so I can write their names down and if you steal or lose them you have to pay double their price!"
Hearing this, Arthur nodded his head even though he thought the punishment was kind of excessive, he didn''t mind it much since he wasn''t going to lose either steal any books.
He started roaming around searching for interesting books with Lucy quietly following him. After half an hour of wandering, he finally picked a dozen of books and took them to the old man so he can write their names, then he exited the library with Lucy and went searching for a calm place, the academy was quite big and there was a lot of open spaces for the students to exchange points or to duel or even to relax a bit.
They arrived at what seemed like a park of some sort, there were several students either practicing their magic or dueling.
Arthur sat on a bench and took a book to read while Lucy sat next to him and began practicing her magma attribute trying to improve it, her excitement never lessened and whenever she was practicing it you could see her fidgeting a bit as if happy to have the ability to use this special attribute. Their arrival attracted a bit of unwanted attention but none was courageous to come forward and talk to Lucy or Arthur.
As for Arthur, he took a book he just borrowed from the library and began reading it, it was a historical book describing the western continent, which was actually a big forest.
The elves were the leading race there and apparently they live in seclusion and do not welcome any sort of visitor, the book even mentioned that in the center of the western continent there was a gigantic world tree which was very special but the information about it was very lacking so he couldn''t comprehend what that world tree was.
Not willing to give up, Arthur searched in his storage for a book about elves or precisely that world tree and he did indeed find one. It was one of Zodiak''s old books, he quickly read it and was surprised to see the contents of it.
Apparently, that world tree was a very source of the Eastern continent, the Itas continent, that tree spreads a huge amount of natural Mana to the rest of the forest to keep it alive, also, if per say, that tree gets destroyed, all the eastern continent will crumble for it cannot live without receiving a constant flow of pure Mana. The cause of this is an ancient curse cast on that continent by a being who claimed to be a devil. It was mentioned that the tree was extremely big, it more than a thousand meters thick and you could see it for thousands of miles as its branches spread from all direction and cover the sky.
While reading this; Arthur really became interested in this World tree and wanted to personally see it but unfortunately, he couldn''t, for the time being , that is.
Time passed and he continued reading, and Lucy who was beside him was still practicing either her new attribute or focusing on strengthening her body with Mana.
As they were each doing their own thing, 2 individuals approached them, when Arthur glanced at them he totally recognized them it was Theodor and Erik from the holy church, apparently they too were staying here as guests like him and since the academy welcomed them they shamelessly stayed, though even if they wanted to leave they couldn''t for they received direct orders from the pope to capture the demon girl and bring her to the headquarters.
"Why hello there, isn''t it a coincidence to meet in such a place? could you spare us a bit of your time?"
Erik spoke with a playful tone towards Arthur and completely disregarded Lucy who was beside him, he didn''t even spare a glance at her and ignored her existence but she didn''t mind and just continued practicing her magic.
Arthur was also bothered by this person from the holy church, even though he came here to get rid of them they still followed him and persisted on getting Lucy.
He closed his book and lifted his head to look at Erik then said with a threatening tone
"We have nothing to tell each other, so you better get the fuck out of my sight or else I wouldn''t mind teaching you a lesson"
He spoke with a harsh and cold tone, in fact, he wanted to kill them both but he wasn''t sure the academy would protect him if he did that, anyway that didn''t mean he had to accept the fact they come to annoy him. He knew they wanted Lucy and they just wanted to bribe him or propose a deal with him for her, so he didn''t want to waste time on useless talk.
Erik seemed surprised by what Arthur said as he didn''t expect him to curse at him and tell him to go away, nonetheless he didn''t move to his position as if waiting for Arthur to accept his proposal, as for Theodor, he was a little bit anxious because the fear he got from Arthur still remained and even though he was with someone as powerful as Erik, he didn''t dare to be relaxed, when he saw Arthur cursing at Erik he mustered his courage and spoke
"Lord.Erik has personally come here to propose a deal to you and I assure you it will certainly please you." he respectfully but his voice contained a hint of anxiousness.
Arthur furrowed his brows when hearing this and turned his heads towards Theodor "I guess losing an arm is not enough! you still haven''t learned the difference between the two of us!" As he finished speaking a dark blue axe was creating and in lightning speed, it chopped Theodor right leg.
His actions caught Theodor by surprise who didn''t think Arthur would dare attack him with Erik around but nonetheless, he not only did dare attack, he also chopped his leg!
Theodor screamed in pain as blood flowed out endlessly, as for Erik his eyes were filled with disbelief but not because Theodor was injured, it''s because he couldn''t even react in time to stop the attack, all he saw was a dark blur flash for half a second before he saw Theodor''s chopped leg fly in the air.
The dark blue axe was still floating near Arthur, he purposely kept it to frighten Erik and warn him about the consequences if he dared annoy him again, as for his actions just a second ago, he did it because Theodor simply got on his nerves, just because he had someone who seemed strong beside him, he dared open his mouth and insist on the proposal even though Arthur plainly rejected them.
A couple of seconds passed before Erik came back to his senses and decided to back away before analyzing the situation and judging Arthur to be a strong enough opponent.
He came here willing to propose a good deal to him in exchange for Lucy and if he refused he was going to sneak attack him then capture Lucy and escape, quite a simply plan but now that he saw how strong Arthur was he decided against that idea, he quickly gave Theodor a potion to ease his pain and heal his wound then turned around and left without saying a word.
Many students who were present saw what happened and were astonished, they knew Arthur was not someone to mess with because they saw what happened yesterday and how he brutally killed that beastman so when they saw him cut the old man''s leg they were not very surprised, but what more stunned them is that he dared injure someone from the holy church, a supreme existence in the human continent.
Arthur did not bother with the fearful gazes of the students and turned to look at Lucy who stopped practicing and was also looking at him, he held her hand and say
"We should retire for the night, let''s head to our room."
She nodded without speaking and firmly held his hand.
Soon enough they both left and headed towards their room, the sun was setting and it was time to rest. It was not a tiresome day for Arthur but he knew Lucy might be a little tired since she trained all day.
******************************
The events of today soon reached the principal''s ears who was sitting in her office while drinking some tea, she didn''t seem surprised and just continued sipping from her cup of tea.
''I already expected them to try something but not this fast, they seem to really want that girl huh..''
Zephir who was in front of her spoke after some hesitation "Mrs.Sonia, will the holy church act against us because of what happened today? it may get troublesome"
The principal just laughed for a moment before responding "hehe , they wouldn''t dare attack us, heck they wouldn''t even dare send someone powerful here that''s why they sent those 2 weaklings, they know we have ''that'' and simply engaging in a war with us will end up in them losing horribly, the pope is indeed strong but against ''that'', he and his holy church are simply nothing"
Zephir just nodded his head and left the room as he was a vice-principal he had many things to do and couldn''t just stay there watch the principal enjoy her cup of tea.
He felt reassured when he heard what that principal said. At first, he was little afraid that the holy church might act up, but since they have ''that'' they surely have a big advantage. Actually, the Holy church is the only power from the 4 continents which is always trying to oppose the academy as for the other powers they are passive and don''t dare to do anything.
Chapter 21 : Ghost island
Erik and Theodor didn''t waste time and immediately headed towards the teleportation array, they went back to the holy church''s headquarters to report what just happened, Erik is not stupid enough to try to bring back Lucy forcefully as he saw how strong the black-robed man with her was.
Even though the Pope personally ordered him, he can''t do something impossible so he headed back to report what happened.
Erik''s position in the Holy church was considered high, actually, the Holy church was divided into 2 divisions, the first one is the army division which included soldiers, healers, and some mages and this division is led by a strong commander known as the Holy general, as for the second division; it''s composed of 6 Cardinals, 3 Bishops, and 1 Archbishop.
The 6 Cardinals are the weakest ones and must obey the 3 Bishops, which in return, must obey the Archbishop. Erik was one of the Cardinals, which is considered a high position in the church. The difference in power between a Cardinal and a Bishop is very big, so no Cardinal dares to provoke or oppose a Bishop, much less the archbishop.
Of course, the Pope had the absolute authority and can command both divisions at will and no matter his orders, they must obey without questioning. Once Erik arrived at the Headquarters, he quickly headed towards where the Bishop Arnold was.
Arnold was one of the 3 Bishops and also the ''master'' of the deceased Holy Knight Rein, he was the one who took him under his care and trained him. Erik usually receives the Pope orders from Arnold except in some unique cases where the Pope personally talks to him.
The old man soon arrived at what seemed to be a garden, he spotted a handsome middle-aged man with long green hair and charming eyes, he had a sheathed white sword at his waist and seemed energetic, the man wore a long sleeved blue robe with golden patterns on it. His appearance was of a definite ladykiller.
"Lord Arnold, excuse me for disturbing you but I have some urgent matters to report."
Arnold who already noticed the presence of Erik, continued to stare at the sky as if he didn''t hear what Erik said, after a couple of seconds he spoke with a calm yet overbearing voice
"Mhm? if it isn''t Erik, weren''t you in the Nemia Academy per the orders of our Lord?"
Of course, Arnold and every other Bishop knew that the Pope wanted that demon girl but they didn''t know why.
They only knew he was obsessed with her and he chased after her for years without catching her. When he questioned why did the Pope not send any of the bishops to just capture her, the Pope replied saying that doing that would attract a lot of unwanted attention so he just kept sending normal soldiers from the church.
Erik didn''t waste time and replied with an uneasy tone
"Yes, about that, it seems she has someone powerful by her side and I judged that person to be more powerful than I am, so I cannot take her forcefully even if I wanted to. That black-robed man actually ..."
He then continued to narrate what happened in details including how he couldn''t react to the sudden attack of Arthur.
When he finished speaking, Erik awaited for Arnold to give him his new orders but nothing happened, the middle-aged man just ordered Erik to stay here for now until he speaks to the Pope about this.
*****
Late at night, in a long and enormous hall, with a throne at the end of it, there was an old man sitting on it, he seemed on the verge of death, he wore a simple white robe and had a wrinkles all over his face, a couple of meters ahead of him was a kneeling Arnold.
Arnold already told the events of today to the Pope and waited for his orders with the utmost respect. The old man, who obviously was the Pope, was stroking his beard seemingly lost in thought, and after some time, he finally spoke with his an aged voice.
"Since it''s like this, we cannot capture her if she is in that academy. Young Arnold: I want you to wait for the moment she gets out of that island and capture her, and this time I don''t want any failure, do you understand?"
"Yes my Lord, your servant obeys."
Arnold soon left the hall prepared to carry out the pope''s orders, while the pope was still sitting on the throne, a flash of cold light appeared in his eyes as he thought about that demon girl
''Ahhh if I wasn''t afraid of those powers lurking in the darkness, I would have long since captured you myself, little girl!"
**********************
Arthur and Lucy soon arrived at their room when night has finally fallen. It was too early to sleep and with his infinite Stamina, he didn''t need any sleep in the first place so he wanted to try something new today.
He was still curious about the attribute fusion he did against that dragon and wanted to try it again, as for Lucy she was little tired so she laid on the bed to rest for a bit.
The room was spacious enough for him to practice without wasting time so he began doing his tests. The first thing he did was create a fireball with his ancient fire and tried adding the chaotic dark magic but to no avail, he couldn''t do it as the same notification popped up again and again
You don''t meet necessary requirements to do that!
You don''t meet necessary requirements to do that!
You don''t meet necessary requirements to do that!
After multiple tries, he gave up on fusing the ancient fire and chaotic dark magic as it was deemed impossible for the time being, nonetheless, he tried fusing the chaotic dark magic and the void magic which worked perfectly, he created a weapon with their fusion and it was a dark blue spear with some violet in it.
Surprisingly, creating it did cost quite an amount of mana. The exact cost of making this spear was 400 Mana, which was by no means a meager amount but that did make sense since the Hell Arrow did empty his Mana pool but its power was extraordinary too. As he was musing over this idea, a crazy thought struck him
''What if I were to fuse Void Magic and Ancient Fire? A Hell Arrow constructed from them both would be an interesting sight to behold..''
Arthur continued practicing for 2 more hours but no matter how he tried he couldn''t make a weapon made of void and that bugged him, the only thing can do is the [void slash] or fuse the void attribute with the chaotic dark magic or ancient fire to make a weapon.
In fact, when he fused it with the ancient fire it didn''t cost that much mana and he noticed it that the weapon made by void+chaotic dark magic was slightly powerful than ancient fire+void so he guessed that the void and the ancient fire are maybe not that compatible, after all, if he fuses ice and fire it may work but the weapon or whatever he creates might not be that powerful.
Lucy has already fallen asleep some time ago and Arthur decided to sleep too, he wasn''t the least tired but he enjoyed sleeping next to her for it was comfortable and warm, he soon joined her on the bed and slept next to her, he held her hand and closed his eyes to sleep.
The night has peacefully passed and morning soon came, Arthur opened his eyes and felt Lucy hugging him again like yesterday, she was also looking at him with soft eyes and a bright smile hanging on her face
"You finally woke up huh? so much for infinite stamina."
She teased him with her charming voice while hugging him tighter, to be honest, Arthur couldn''t believe this was the same cold and emotionless girl he met in the auction house but nonetheless he stretched her arms and hugged her back while saying
"A little more, let me stay like this a little more."
He was unwilling to just wake up, he liked the feeling of her hugging him and felt his heart melting being next to her, to just wake up now and leave her warm embrace would be such a waste.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Lucy didn''t say anything and just kept hugging him while leaning her face on his chest, though they didn''t do anything obscene or didn''t even kiss each other, they were quite close and enjoyed being the presence of one another and that was enough to let them forget their past for a little and free them from their loneliness. They stayed like that for some time without even talking, it was kind of awkward at first but Arthur soon got used to it and enjoyed this feeling.
Time passed quickly and it was time to finally let go of each other, though this time Lucy seemed more reluctant about it, there was nothing he could do after all classes were about to start and they can''t stay like that all day, for now at least.
When they were adjusting their clothes and preparing to head out, someone knocked on their room''s door and said :
"Mr and Mrs, the principal wants to see you, if you would please head to her office when you are ready."
Actually Arthur didn''t share his name or Lucy''s to the principal so they were just called by ''you'' or ''Mr,Mrs'', it was embarrassing for Arthur as he thought being called like that meant they considered them married, it''s kind of childish to be thinking that and he may be overthinking a lot but that''s just his attitude, when facing others he is as cold as ice and when with Lucy his personality changes completely, same goes for her.
Arthur replied to the man outside of the room and said he will head out immediately with Lucy. A couple of minutes later, they arrived at the principal''s office, when they entered Arthur noticed the principal talking with Zephir and another man who was a beastman and had a long sword on his back.
Sonia seeing Arthur come with the demon girl, smiled at them while saying "Good morning, I see that my subordinate has informed you" her tone seemed slightly different and contained some seriousness in it.
With an expressionless face, Arthur walked in front of her while ignoring the beastman and Zephir and replied "Yes, so why did you call out for me? is it maybe because of those dogshit people from the holy church? "
"No no, that''s irrelevant, they got what''s coming to them, I called you here to propose a deal for you."-the principal
Arthur furrowed his brows for a second before speaking again "A deal? please enlighten me"-Arthur
The principal looked at Zephir who was standing near Arthur and nodded towards him, seeing that the demon bowed and left the room with the beastman.
She then turned her head towards Arthur and said
"I see that the holy church really want that girl, I can protect her from them if she stays in the academy but on one condition."
Arthur was surprised by what he heard and was a little delighted, he really wanted the academy to provide protection for him and Lucy, for the time being, actually he was going to ask her for protection but he didn''t expect the principal to propose to him instead, but when he heard a condition he hesitated for a bit for he was fearful that she asks something unreasonable
"What''s the condition?"- Arthur
"It''s really simple, I want YOU to join the council and become a member."
To be honest, he never thought she would ask him something like this, he pondered for a moment before replying
"Why do you want me to be a council member?"
Sonia chuckled for a bit and gazed at him while saying
"Because of your strength, of course, I saw your power yesterday in your fight against Mary, and I must honestly say I''m speechless so having someone as powerful as you in my council would help me and the academy as a whole."
"Then just because I''m a bit strong you want to use my strength in exchange for keeping the holy church away?"-Arthur
"That''s a bad way to put it but I suppose it''s like that hehe"-the principal
"What if I was a weak person? what would you have done?"-Arthur
"If you were weak you would have died to Mary''s hands and we wouldn''t be talking about this right now."
The principal dodged the question but Arthur was disgusted by people like her, after all, everyone was the same, and he was sure if he was weak she would''ve just the holy church take Lucy and would not be proposing this deal to him, nonetheless he stared at her with cold eyes and replied
"Since it''s like this, then I accept your deal, but you must know I will still follow my companion and don''t want to bother myself with politics or anything of the sort."
Though Arthur disliked the idea of being used by someone the most, he truly couldn''t do anything about it right now as he really needed protection or else he wouldn''t be able to protect Lucy from all the holy church if they attacked with a large scale force.
The principal put her hand on her chin as if thinking about something then said "To join the Council you have to pass a test and be accepted by all it''s members or else you can''t join, even though I saw your power yesterday, not all council members will believe you are strong unless you show them"
To be honest, Arthur was quite irritated when he heard this, not only he needs to be a council member, he needs to pass a test too? he took a large breath and said
"What sort of test?"
"You just need to slay an imoogi, you have beaten Mary so I''m sure killing an imoogi will be easy"-the principal
"And where will I find an imoogi? do you expect me to search all the continents to find one?"-Arthur
"No need, there is an island nearby which have various dangerous beasts and imoogi is one of them"-the principal
"OK, and when will we go?"-Arthur
"Today would be great since I already called all the council member, we should head out in 10 minutes"-the principal
"Alright, let''s head out and finish this quick"Arthur
Hearing what he said, the principal just smiled but didn''t say anything, an imoogi is weaker than a dragon but it shouldn''t be underestimated nevertheless she too doubted he will fail, after all, seeing his small fireball yesterday, she knew just that would be enough but there are some persistent members in the council who would not accept Arthur unless he shows his strength in front of them.
She soon stood up from her chair and prepared to go out with Arthur, as for him he turned to look at Lucy who was beside him and softly said
"You should go to the classes, since it''s safe here and I know you are excited about these classes, don''t worry I''ll be back soon" Even though he very reluctant to leave her alone, hell he wanted her to accompany him but he didn''t know how strong an imoogi was and what would happen, so.... the best decision was to let her stay here and just attend classes.
Surprisingly Lucy glared at him with an annoyed look and said with her cold yet worried voice
"I want to go with you!"
she didn''t need to explain what she just, he could understand what she meant just by looking at her eyes, classes and such are irrelevant if he was not by her side, it''s true she liked attending those classes to learn new things but what of it if she is alone, without him accompanying her, she would just go back to being lonely like the old days.
She stretched her small white hand and held his while still looking at him. Arthur look softened and he just nodded at her and firmly held her hand, then they followed the principal out of the office.
The three walked for quite sometime before reaching a teleportation array in an open area, there were 9 people waiting there, of course, it was all the members of the council. Once they reached their destination and were going to teleport, Zephir spoke
"We will be going to the ghost island, it''s an ancient battlefield between and is full of dangerous beast so you better not head out deep into it or else no one of us would be able to help you and also for the girl next to you, it would be better not to take her as it will be dangerous and we don''t want to lose a genius like her."
Arthur glared at the demon and said
"Mind your own business, whether she comes or not, that''s for her to decide!"
he knew Zephir wanted Lucy to be his student and he said that because he wanted her to be safe for she is indeed a genius but since she wanted to come, of course, Arthur would let her come and he would protect her at the cost of everything.
Actually, he was interested in this ghost island, Zephir said it''s an ancient battlefield so a thought struck him ''since it''s a battlefield, could it be.....'' soon enough they were teleported, and in just seconds they appeared at a deserted place.
Arthur looked around and noticed that they were in some kind of forest, there was fog all over the place and it was kind of hard to see for normal people, but for him? it was totally normal, in fact, it was as if the fog didn''t even exist, the sky was cloudy and it seemed as it was night even though it''s early in the morning. Also, he was totally astonished when he saw what seemed to be a corpse, or better to say a skeleton and not just one but many, dozen probably, there were even some strange skeletons which not human.
The principal noticing Arthur reaction quickly explained
"As Zephir said, this place is an ancient battlefield and it littered with corpses of various beings but what makes it more special is that it''s full of strong beasts, actually it is rumored that if you go deep enough you can even encounter dragons, which are supreme existences with magnificent strength."
Arthur just nodded at her, but deep inside of him, he was full of excitement, since it''s full corpses and he is a parasite who can possess them, it could only mean one thing....
The principal continued
"We can find an imoogi a little deeper in the forest, we will not help you in the fight, remember we are only here to watch so you better show us your worth."
Just as she finished speaking, a female human who didn''t talk from the very beginning said
"Mr. Sonia this is clearly a waste of time, just because he could defend a punch from Mary doesn''t mean he has the right to join our council, Mary! why are you silent! I thought you are the one who will be the most opposed to this!"
Mary who was standing not far away, lowered her head and stayed silent, after all, she got no right to oppose Arthur or anything of the sort, she lost a fight with him and also lost the bet so she can''t bother him in any way possible.
"I also agree with what Selina said" One of the female elves also spoke and seemed to look down on Arthur, but all the members didn''t say anything and stayed silent.
"Whether he is strong or weak we will see in the near-future."
The principal replied with a playful tone as if she was mocking them for being this naive, though they were right to look down on him since they didn''t see yesterday''s fight, however, she and Zephir knew what this man was capable of, and how with just a small fireball he almost killed Mary.
Frederic who was also present, was a bit shocked as he didn''t expect the principal to try to invite Arthur to join the council but nevertheless he was overjoyed as he got a chance of a lifetime to capture Arthur. He began thinking of a plan to somehow take Arthur without warning any of the other council member, especially the principal who seemed to overestimate Arthur''s strength but Frederic could only sigh and blame her naivety and short sight.
Chapter 22 : Ghost island [2]
Soon, they started heading deeper into the forest in search for an imoogi, Arthur noticed some beasts here and there, but their levels were not that high, there were some that attacked but they were quickly killed by one of the council members.
Just in case, Arthur created a barrier around Lucy who was beside him, as he was going to fight and there is the possibility that something unexpected might occur. To be honest he wasn''t the least bit worried about defeating an imoogi for he knew dragons were much much stronger and he already defeated a young dragon, so even if he encountered an adult imoogi it will only be slightly stronger than the young dragon.
The appearance of the barrier surprised those present, but they soon understood that it was made by Arthur because they knew how much he cared for her safety, so of course, he would not let her unprotected in this place. Though no one questioned about the barrier, that didn''t stop them from observing it, especially the principal who gazed at it with curious eyes. Actually, the barrier was different from the old one, this one was a dark blue in color and seemed to emit a transparent dark fog around it, though the fog surprised Arthur for a second as he didn''t what''s it''s purpose, he soon shrugged it off and decided to examine it later.
Quite some time passed since they arrived and the more they walked deeper, the more Arthur noticed the creatures LVLS increase, finally they encountered what they were looking for. Probably 200 meters in height and 150 meters in length, it looked similar to a snake yet at the same time it had some resemblance to a dragon, though it didn''t have wings, it looked menacing.
Adult Lightning imoogi : LVL 175
''What! Lvl 175?''Truthfully, Arthur was surprised when he saw it''s LVL, for the principal said imoogis are usually strong but not that high leveled, he turned to look at the principal but he was stunned to see her eyes become serious.
"Adult imoogi? we''re not even that deep into the forest so what is it doing here?"-The principal
"So I am supposed to just kill right?"
Arthur asked her while focusing on her reaction, earlier she told him killing an imoogi is not that hard since he won against Mary but it seemed she was surprised by the appearance of this imoogi, was he supposed to kill a young one or what?
"N-no, for the test you have to kill a young imoogi, this one is an adult, and an old one at that, though it''s not impossible to kill it but it will be troublesome so it would be better to search for another one" She replied with a reassuring tone but just as she finished, the human female who spoke earlier said with annoyed voice
"Why waste our time to search for another one, he should be able to beat this thing since Mr.Sonia personally wanted to recruit him, right?" she kept grinning and looking at Arthur with contempt.
"No! how can you say that Serena! I remember you killing a young imoogi to join the council and not an adult one!"
Sonia glared at the human female, apparently angry at what she said.
To be honest, Arthur didn''t want to look and waste time too so he shrugged his shoulders and spoke with calm yet cold voice
"Let''s just get this over with, I''ll kill this one, after all, Idon''t want to waste time."
Hearing what he said, the principal just accepted as he didn''t seem against it and she knew he was powerful and could handle something like an adult imoogi but usually to pass the test a young one would do, plus every member of this council killed a young one except Zephir who founded this council.
Arthur turned his head towards Lucy and nodded to reassure her, then he headed to the imoogi''s location, it was approximately 100 meters and seemed to be devouring something. Since he needed to show his ''power'' to those people, he was going to just install this beast and be done with it, he didn''t want to be bothered and just wanted to be left alone.
Serena, the human female watched him go, but you could see arrogance and contempt in her eyes, she didn''t approve of him for she climbed her way from the bottom to attain her position, but he, in less than a week''s time, was personally invited to the council, that made her extremely jealous and she didn''t want to admit that he was strong enough to kill that imoogi ''Soon enough, everybody will see that you are just trash! just because you showed some strength in the entrance exam you think you''re qualified to join our council? dream on bastard!''.
Everybody looked at Arthur seriously as they wanted to see, just how strong is he and how will he beat this imoogi, though Mary and Zephir already knew the outcome, especially Zephir, he saw the abilities of Arthur and knew a flame like last time would obliterate that imoogi, but that didn''t stop him from looking at Arthur attentively to examine his flames or whatever he was going to attack with.
When Arthur was a dozen of meters away from the imoogi, it finally noticed him and glared at him while screeching, it was an ear-piercing screech as if it was angry it was disturbed from its meal, the adult imoogi stared angrily at the human in front it before charging at him.
He didn''t waste time either, his control over the ancient fire was considered top notch, but he wasn''t going to attack it for the destructive power of the fire was humongous and it may reach the others, but he wasn''t worried about them but about Lucy, there was a chance his barrier would not hold against the destructive power made by his fire. He came here wearing Zodiak''s robe so a dark cloud soon formed, he jumped on it and soared to the sky.
The imoogi cannot fly, so all it could do was stare at him with malice and ferocity, it would try to jump in the air to catch him but he was just too high and it couldn''t reach him. He led the imoogi away from the others, then he created a 10m spear made out of the ancient fire, the heat and pressure it emitted were astonishing and the color or the spear was dark red, if someone looked at it from afar they wouldn''t believe it was made of fire.
The principal saw the familiar fire, quickly formed an ice barrier around her and all the others, she knew what a small fire ball did back then, so a 10m spear would do hundreds of time worse than that. You could see some fear when she looked at the spear, even Mary was slightly afraid for she almost died from that, as for the others, they were confused and some of them frowned, they didn''t know why the principal formed the ice barrier, so one of them asked, it was Serena the same one who complained earlier
"Mr. Sonia, why did you make a barrier? Surely there''s no need for it, that imoogi cannot inflict damage to us from that distan.."
Her tone seemed as if she was mocking Sonia for her naivety but Serena was cut off by Zephir who was calm from the beginning
"She did not create the barrier to defend against from the imoogi but from THAT SPEAR!"
Arthur focused on the imoogi and the spear blazed through the air and in lightning speed, it struck the screeching imoogi.
"BOOOOM!"
A sound incomparable to any other, deafening to all ears was created by the impact, it was as if a meteor struck the ground, an astonishing light from the dark fire soon enveloped all the surroundings and destruction soon came after it. Nothing was left from the imoogi not even its ashes, hell! even all the surroundings, including trees, boulders were either destroyed or turned into black ashes.
the destruction reached the principal and the others, but fortunately, the ice barrier protected them even though it shook for a second. When everything calmed down, you could only see a black ground for 200 meters radius around where the imoogi was, the sight was terrifying, for a single spear to do that? that''s insane.
Serena''s mouth was wide open as if she couldn''t dare believe what she just saw, not just her all others were astonished, even the principal, who gazed around and saw the destruction made by the flame spear, her body couldn''t help but shake a little, she expected the spear to be strong but not THIS strong and destructive. She breathed a sigh of relief as this man was her ally and not her enemy, but having him as an enemy could only end up bad.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
Once the imoogi died, notifications soon came up to Arthur
level up! level up! level up! ........
He leveled 19 times, but he clenched his fists and regretted ever using the ancient fire
"fck my stupidity, if I have killed it normally I would have been able to use death touch and earn 19 more levels, damn damn!!''
He continued to blame his naivety while descending from the air on the dark cloud.
The rest of the people are still silent, no one talked they just stared with eyes full of disbelief at the approaching Arthur who seemed to be annoyed for some reason. Only Lucy seemed to guess why he is annoyed and just chuckled a little.
Arthur ignored the dumbfounded gazes and just nonchalantly said: "Now that''s done, I''m finally a member of the council right?".
"Yes, from now on you are part of the council, I guess no one is opposed to this?" the principal replied while she glanced at them, but none dared speak, not even Serena who seemed against it earlier, they just nodded while still not moving their eyes from Arthur, as if he was some monster and not a human.
"Now that it''s settled, we should go back to the academy"- the principal
"Actually, I''m little interested in this place, how about I stay for some time?" Arthur really wanted to stay here to get stronger by possessing all the corpses he could find, but he didn''t want to do it in front of them so he asked the principal to stay and go back later. The principal suspiciously looked at him for a second before nodding, seemingly accepting his request, after all, she was the one taking decisions and her status far overwhelmed the council members, moreover, they also listened to her decisions and didn''t dare oppose.
Frederic, who was thinking about capturing Arthur, stood there agape after he saw what just happened, and how nothing was left from the imoogi or his surroundings, all surroundings were burned to the ground ''The f*ck Edward? you want me to capture this f*cking monster? are you insane?''all plans he thought of just a while ago were now erased from his mind, a single spear like that could erase him from existence so why would he even think about fighting him head on?
Soon, they all left except Arthur who stayed there, He also told Lucy to go on ahead and this time she didn''t insist on staying for she knew he needed to possess a lot of corpses and them staying alone together may raise some suspicions from either the principal or the council.
Not wasting any second, Arthur began roaming the forest and searching for corpses, though after some time, he began to feel depressed and that''s because every time he tried to possess he got this notification
You cannot possess this being!
It would be a lie to say he was not pissed, quite the opposite, in fact, he was angered, the notification didn''t even precise why he can''t possess them, he wondered maybe because they were only bones? but he soon gave up on that idea for he already possessed Zodiak who also was corpse made of only bones. After multiple tries, he finally found the reason he couldn''t possess those corpses, and that''s because they were not whole, apparently if it''s an old corpse but not a whole one with a big part of the body missing that he can''t possess it, he wondered why he can''t but he soon shrugged the idea off, maybe it had some relations to his new evolution ''humanoid parasite'' ?
Nevertheless, he found a significant amount of bodies and successfully possessed them, since it took him just a couple of seconds to enter the body again its stats, skills and leave, he did it to any corpse he encountered.
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Heal]: can minor injuries
You have gained a new skill(passive) : [Spear mastery] : when using a spear as a weapon : +20% damage / +10% piercing power
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Basic water magic]: you can now use water to attack or defend
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Poison fangs]: cannot use in humanoid body
You have gained a new skill(passive): [basic wind magic]: you can now use the wind to attack or defend
you have gained a new skill(passive) : [poison immunity]: you are now immune to all poison, can be turned on/off
your stats have improved please check your status window for more details
your stats have improved please check your status window for more details
your stats have improved please check your status window for more details
.........
Like that, he passed 2 hours possessing bodies, even though the amount he possessed was not in thousands, he still got a LOT of skills but they were quite useless except a few ones who picked his interest, what benefited him more were his stats, they increased by a huge amount, almost all the bodies he possessed seemed to be soldiers so the stats they got were not a lot but he still possessed some powerful and gigantic beasts, for example, a huge snake like beast who was even bigger than the imoogi and he got the [poison immunity] from that snake-like creature.
Though, one more solid stats was not a lot, but by possessing hundreds of them and some unique beasts his stats changed by a huge amount
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE
Level:
126
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
26314(+12134)
Intelligence
32994(+14503)
Agility
27008(+12595
Wisdom
25137(+11735)
Vitality
29371(+12895)
Dexterity
24831(+13484)
-
Health
34827(+19329)
Health Regen
157.1/s
Mana
41395(+19164)
Mana Regen
266.4/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
21178(+8607)
Defense:
24691(+11374)
Magic defense : 5718
Elemental resistances
Fire:
100%
Water:
35%(+10%)
Wind:
35%
Earth:
45%
Light/Holy:
20%
Darkness:
100%
After searching for quite some time, he didn''t find any other corpses that he can possess, and he didn''t want to venture deeper into the forest just yet, the principal warned him that there may be an adult dragon, and the difference between a young and old dragon is like the difference between heaven and earth. He read in some book that a young dragon like the one he beat, is most likely ranging from 1 to 10 thousand years old, and an adult one is at least 100 thousands of years old, it is also mentioned that adult dragons can speak human language and the ancient dragon language and not even someone such as the pope or the demon lord can beat one in a 1 on 1 fight so Arthur decided to be cautious and just go back to the academy for the time being.
He got extremely strong from coming here, and he had much more confidence in dealing with the holy church. He decided to ask the principal later about the pope and how strong is he, if he is her level and his strength is slightly stronger than her, then Arthur would not have to worry for he was absolutely sure he could beat someone like the principal after all with his new stats he is a cheat.
To be honest, he wanted to go with Lucy to the holy church to get her revenge, and he wanted to do it as soon as possible because he knew how pained she was as every day passed and the guys who did that to her were still alive, she always mentioned to him how much she wanted to rip them to pieces and kill them but she didn'' have the power to do it.
Now that he has enough power, Arthur is confident he can handle himself against the holy church but for now he won''t leave the academy, firstly because Lucy seems to really be excited to be here and secondly, he needed to know just how exactly powerful the pope making any reckless actions, in fact, he didn''t trust the Academy the least, and knew perfectly what kind of person the principal is, but he had to accept being used by her for the time being for the sake of Lucy.
Once Lucy tell him she wants to leave, he will immediately go with her away from the Academy for the people there are no different from the greedy ones outside, he just didn''t want to force Lucy to leave this place as it finally seems she is enjoying her life after what she has been through....
Chapter 23 : Kneel!
Having stayed for quite some time at the Ghost island, Arthur finally decided to go back to the Academy, with his actual speed, 1 minute or so was required to arrive at the teleportation array.
He injected it with a bit of mana and it teleported him back to the Academy, it should be around noon now so he guessed that Lucy must be practicing magic somewhere, so he rushed to her location.
At the same place Arthur fought with the holy church, there was a white-dressed maiden sitting there, apparently practicing her magic, you can see a strangely shaped magma a couple of centimeters above her hands. She seemed to be concentrating a lot, but nonetheless, all you can see on her face is coldness and emotionless, as if she was a statue of a goddess and not a person.
No one dared to even approach her for they knew what would be the consequences, first They would have to receive Arthur''s wrath, secondly she was more than enough to take care of almost all of them, so they could only stare at her with lustful eyes.
While she was busy practicing, a black shadow so fast that no one could even react to it, dashed towards her with immense speed, even Lucy couldn''t react in time even though she felt someone coming at her, all of a sudden, that someone hugged her from behind and all she could do was struggle for a second before she turned her head and saw the familiar face. She stopped struggling and just relaxed and let Arthur hug her, but after some time she couldn''t suppress it anymore and said
"A-Arthur we''re in public.."
Arthur chuckled and kept hugging her as if he didn''t care
"So what, they can only stare at us with jealousy, hmph!"
Hearing this could only drop her head down in embarrassment, her ears had a tinge of redness in them, even though she protested a second ago, she felt comfortable and joyful to be hugged, it was like a behavior of an elementary kid.
After some time, he decided to let her go, but he sat next to her on the bench and just gazed around with lazy eyes. As for Lucy, she continued to practice her magic but you could notice her throwing some glances at Arthur every a couple of minutes.
To be honest, apart from reading books or sometimes practicing his void magic, Arthur didn''t have anything to do, but that didn''t cause to him to be bored, in fact just being next to his gorgeous woman besides him made him beyond happy, and just passing days like this is more than enough for him, but he knew the holy church just wouldn''t let go and give up chasing Lucy.
Having nothing to do, Arthur laid his head on Lucy''s lap and decided to take a nap, though his action may have surprised her, she nonetheless didn''t say anything and continued practicing. Just a couple of days ago, he wouldn''t have the guts to do what he did now, but now he knew she trusted him, he discovered that when he found her hugging him in the morning, and that she wouldn''t mind him just using her lap as a pillow and to be honest he totally enjoyed the feeling, a very soft yet relaxing lap pillow.
He could feel her soft legs, and heart-warming fragrance, he soon closed his eyes and drifted into a deep sleep.
Lucy, who was still practicing noticed how he quickly slept, and she couldn''t help but smile, even though she didn''t want to express her feelings in public, seeing sleep like that made her happy yet embarrassed. She stopped practicing and just gazed at him sleeping so defenseless. She stretched her hand and began stroking his hair gently while ignoring the burning gazes of the male students.
Half an hour passed and she never got enough of seeing his face, even her hands never stopped stroking his hair, you could see a tinge of redness on her face now and then as if she thought of something embarrassing, all of a sudden a commotion broke out and people began cheering and shouting.
"It''s the princess, she''s beautiful every time I see her"
"Look at that waist.."
Some students gazed at her while drolling non-stop.
"SHHH, do you want her to kill you? Last time someone disrespected her yet she crippled him and used her status to drive him out of the academy....."
".."
A tall girl, with a long blonde hair, mesmerizing legs, and breath-taking waist was walking at the park, she wore blue tight clothes that revealed, even more, her waist and the two huge peaks. She had a look of arrogance and pride as if all people around her were mere mortals and she was an immortal... that''s to be expected from a princess.
behind her was the second prince and two other women bodyguards from last time. They seemed to be heading towards where Arthur was, and you could notice the prince staring at Lucy as if he already owned her.
Since he is with his big sister and she has a lot of authority in this academy he decided to be more arrogant than ever.
They soon stopped before Lucy and the Sleeping Arthur on her lap, you could see jealousy in the second prince''s eyes, and if looks could kill he would have killed Arthur a thousand times if not more.
Arthur who was peacefully sleeping, was obviously awakened from the commotion, but he ignored it and decided to just continue his nap, but who would have thought that troubles would come non-stop, he already detected the princess and her brother coming towards him, so he couldn''t help but sigh, it was such a beautiful and calm day, enjoying a nap on Lucy''s lap... what could have been better than that? And to be disturbed by those kids was the worst possible way to wake up.
Christian, seeing both Arthur and Lucy not paying any attention to either him or his big sister, became enraged and shouted
"Hey, you! don''t you see who is in front of you? you have to at least be respectful towards your princess."
Nonetheless, Arthur kept ignoring the shouting idiot, and pretended not to hear him, he was already annoyed he was disturbed but he didn''t want to fight, for now, it was a peaceful day and he wanted to keep it like that.
"Now now, Christian, stop shouting, we are on the academy grounds and my title doesn''t matter in here"
The princess spoke but you could feel arrogance and contempt in her voice. Although she tried denying the importance of her status in this academy, her haughty expression and the tone of her voice said otherwise. It was easily noticeable that she didn''t even believe what she just said.
"Sorry about what my little brother said, he still is used to being arrogant, I have come today because I heard about you from my friends and about your performance in the entrance exam, so how about we talk Mr..."
Normally, seeing her like that, the princess she seemed very polite and kind, but Arthur knew better and just by her eyes and that heaven-defying arrogance, he knew she is only acting kind for whatever benefit she wanted from him, but since she is acting like that he decided to just play her game and see what she is after.
He woke up from Lucy''s lap and stared at the girl in front of him
"Arthur, My name Arthur, so what does ''the princess'' want from me or my comrade?"
"Mr. Arthur, how about we talk in private?"
Though she seemed extremely polite, one can see she only looked at Arthur and totally ignored Lucy even when He mentioned her, in fact, that''s to be expected since demons and humans are enemies from ancient times and never ceased fighting against each other.
"No need to talk in private, just say whatever you came here to say."
Arthur replied nonchalantly rolled his eyes towards the surroundings ''ah! can''t even pass a day in peace, this academy is more troublesome than outside''
Christian, who was standing next to the princess, was infuriated by the attitude of Arthur, his big sister is one of the most respected people inside and outside the academy, her strength and LVL were one of the highest and she is considered a genius, so seeing someone talk like that to her angered him.
"Big sister came all the way here to talk to you, but you are not even grateful and just speak disrespectfully towards her? even though her status as princess does not apply here, she is nonetheless one of the top-ranked students AND your senior, so you better watch what you say and be respectful!"
As if he didn''t hear the second prince, Arthur just relaxed and laid down on the bench, and stared at the princess to see what she is going to do.
"Since you want to talk here, alright, I came here to invite you to join my me, you will be under my care, and if you are outside of the academy you will be even considered one of the royalty."
"Ohoho, that''s indeed a good proposal, but I wonder? why did you only invite me? after all my partner talent is decent too."
Despite knowing what her answer will be, he still wanted her to say it, and affirm his thoughts, when he came here he thought the students in the academy lived without fights or disrespect towards each race, but each day passed and he never saw 2 races talk to each other, only the council had different races that talk with each other.
Hearing Arthur answer, the princess was a little joyful when she heard him say that the proposal is good, recruiting a man like him who isn''t half bad would benefit her a lot, especially her father, the emperor would praise her, but when she heard the last sentence she was emotionlessly said "Filthy things have no right to be invited, even breathing the same air as me is considered a gift, so she should be thankful I didn''t do anything, once you join me, you can be sure you would have enough beautiful women by your side"
Arthur frowned for a second, as he didn''t expect her to just insult a demon just like that in the academy grounds even though it was prohibited, it''s true he anticipated here saying something about not accepting a demon but to just insult her just like that? that truly came unexpectedly.
Arthur stared at her for a second before appraising her to see if she really is that powerful.
Lisa Terence(human): LVL95This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Her LVL was indeed high, even higher than some teachers but that didn''t mean she has to be this arrogant, he stared at her for a second before coldly saying
"You should apologize to my partner while you can.."
"Apologize? you must be fucking dreaming, a filthy thing like her can only be useful to be a bed partner, in fact, I wouldn''t mind taking her! haha"
Now that he is with his big sister, the second prince didn''t act polite like last time and straight-up proclaimed his desire and lust for Lucy, his arrogance has reached the skies and he never ceased to lick his lips while staring at the demon girl with burning eyes.
Lucy never spoke a word from the very beginning, she glanced at the second prince with disgust for a second before just leaning on Arthur and closing her eyes seeming not caring about the situation.
As for Arthur, seeing how those 2 kids in front of him are acting high and mighty, not caring about the Academy rules about not insulting other races, and abusing their power, he became slightly angry, but soon a grin appeared on his face..
"Kneel, you are not leaving this place before you kneel and apologize to my partner"-Arthur
Hearing what Arthur just said, Lisa laughed for a couple of seconds before speaking
"Hahaha, Mr. Arthur must be joking, why must I kneel or even speak to a dirty creature like her? Let us put that aside and talk about my proposal."
She seemingly dodged the topic and resumed talking about her proposal while smiling, but Arthur didn''t reply and just stared at her with a poker face.
A minute passed, but both parties kept silent, Lisa noticing how Arthur was not going to respond, clenched her hand for a moment before calming down and saying
"Since you are not going to accept, then I''m going to leave, hmpf!"
As if angry, she snorted and turned around to leave with the second prince who was also angry, he really wanted to get that demon girl but in this academy it was not that easy to get someone, if it were outside he would just order anyone and they would get it, but here his power and authority are very limited.
"I said, you are not leaving before you kneel to her and apologize." Arthur spoke threateningly at the leaving prince and princess.
Surprised by the tone of Arthur, the princess turned her head to look at him, but she snorted again and continued walking. Seeing her still ignoring his threats, Arthur sighed and decided to get more serious, to call Lucy something like that is by no mean forgivable, especially when the one who did it was not willing to apologize.
While Lisa, Christian, and their bodyguards were leaving, 3 dark blue spears appeared in front of them, blocking their way, being so close to the spears, Lisa could feel they were dangerous, the aura they emitted was like it would suck everything around it, like a black hole.
She furrowed her brows for a second before turning to look at Arthur, to think someone would dare attack her? now if she attacked it would only be self-defense, moreover she wanted to teach that demon a lesson, but to be honest, she was a little jealous of Lucy. The demon was a wizard and she was only a magician with 1 attribute, anyone would be envious of someone who has 3 attributes, including a special attribute, plus it was a demon, the race she hated the most.
the 2 women bodyguards, who were accompanying the prince and princess, were surprised when they saw the spears, but they snapped out of it and looked at the sitting Arthur, one of them advanced a couple of steps before shouting at the man
"What do you think are you doing? attacking a student in Academy grounds is punishable!"
"I am merely educating them not to disrespect others, it was them who insulted my partner."
Frederic, who followed Lucy since they left the ghost island, was not far away observing the situation, he wanted to kidnap her to force Arthur but quickly gave up on that idea when he remembered the flame spear of Arthur, his body couldn''t help but shiver. Nonetheless, he kept observing Lucy from afar until Arthur arrived. Judging that he has no chances if Arthur is here, he decided to return for the time being, but just as he was going to do so, something unexpected happened and it''s the arrival of the princess.
Deeming the situation interesting, he stayed there to observe the outcome, with his high stats hearing what they were speaking is nothing, and so he heard all the situation and how the princess invited him. He also heard how Arthur plainly rejected her and told her to kneel and apologize, but he didn''t think it was neither stupid nor arrogant, for he had the ability to say that, a simple flame spear like the one earlier could annihilate all the park with the students in it, hell nothing was left of an adult imoogi!
Seeing Arthur creating a different kind of spears, Frederic became anxious ''What the fuck? A dual mage!'' Athough he was very fearful towards Arthur, this situation was a one of a kind chance for him, if Arthur a council member dared to attack a student, that would result in a heavy punishment, but knowing Arthur''s behavior he didn''t think a punishment would stop him from massacring those people, so he decided to rush there and stop him.
"Hey what''s happening here!" Frederic shouted while he appeared next to the princess, but when he was close enough to the spear he could feel the ominous feeling it emitted.
"Uncle Frederic! thank god you''re here, This ''Arthur'' is trying to attack us!"
Lisa, having no shame, quickly blamed Arthur and accused him of attacking her, even though all he did was create the spears.
"Calm down and explain the situation."
Frederic pretended not knowing the situation and tried to resolve it in a peaceful way, even though he was a little shocked for he didn''t know ''Arthur'' was the name of this black-robed man.
As he said that, the princes began complaining as if a child complaining to a parent, Frederic was considered one of the royalty and close to the princess, so every time she has a problem she would always complain to him and ask him for help. Of course, while telling what happened, she changed things and made Arthur look faulty.
"I see, so you tried to invite him but he disrespectfully rejected you and demanded you kneel and apologize for insulting his companion?"
Frederic pretended to think for a second before resuming his talk "He shouldn''t have attacked you but Lisa, you must know that he became a council member and you, accusing him of that, is disrespectful too."
"...."
Lisa stood there shocked, not knowing what to say, never in her wildest dream did she think the man she wanted to invite was a council member, how long was he in this academy? less than a week! but he is already a council member and everyone knew that to be a council member you need to not only be approved by every member of the council, but you have to be extremely strong.
She began to regret acting recklessly, acting arrogantly and not being respectfully towards a council member is punishable, after all, he is considered her superior and she MUST respect him. She began fidgeting not knowing what to do.
Frederic noticing her change in behavior, waved his hand and said
"It''s fine, just apologize to him and go for now"-
Though she loathed the idea of apologizing and still didn''t believe this ''Arthur'' was a council member, since Frederic gave her a way out without being punished she must take it, she clenched her fists and hesitantly said
"I''mm ss-sorry.." though she said that, you cannot even feel a tinge of regret in her tone, it seems as if it was forced. Once she finished speaking she turned around and prepared to leave, the second prince also apologized but like his big sister, his apology seemed more of a threat than an apology, as if warning Arthur if he didn''t back down he will regret it.
Hearing them, Arthur didn''t do anything, not even his spears disappeared, them apologizing like that is not even the least bit satisfying, plus he said that they should kneel and not even someone like Frederic can stop him.
"Seems like you are deaf so I will repeat myself one last time, none of you are leaving before kneeling and apologizing SINCERELY towards my partner."
As he said that, more spears were created and blocked the way the princess and Christian were heading at. The sharp and chilling edges of the dark spears were pointed at the duo, making them unable to advance a single step.
"Arthur, what do you think you are doing! attacking a student in broad daylight? they already apologized so you should let them go!"
Frederic shouted at Arthur without even respecting him and calling him ''Mr.Arthur'', after all, every council member should respect one another, even Zephir the head of the council doesn''t dare act arrogant or disrespectful. Frederic wanted to cause problems to Arthur since he can''t capture him with his own strength.
Arthur just ignored Frederic and kept the spears pointed at Lisa and Christians.
"Lisa you don''t have to worry, just go! he won''t dare attack or else I''ll have to attack him too" though Frederic was truly afraid of Arthur, and knew that with only one attack he can be dead but he had to show his strength in front of the students and not lose face.
Some time passed and still the spears didn''t disappear, as for Lisa and her brother they too didn''t dare to move for the spears were just too close to them and they can''t pass unless the spears disappear. Seeing this Frederic got no choice but to act even though he is weak compared to Arthur, he got no choice but to attack.
Just as he was going to attack, dark blue chains appeared from the ground and bounded him from all angles, his legs, torso, and arms were all covered in chains, they emitted same pressure and feeling he felt from the spears. No matter how Frederic struggled, it didn''t help, he was literally bounded and couldn''t move a muscle.
"You are also a member of the council, so I thought maybe you had a reasonable thinking but I guess not huh?"
Arthur spoke with a calm yet cold voice, he didn''t even move but the chains appeared, Frederic also noticed he did not even do an incantation or anything of the sort.
Lisa seeing this, was now scared stiff and truly guessed she provoked someone she shouldn''t have, nevertheless she didn''t kneel because her pride didn''t let her do so, she was confident he would not dare hurt her, after all even if he is a council member, hurting a student was punishable and even if he did it he wouldn''t kill her or seriously injure her. She turned towards him and spoke
"I''m not kneeling! nor am I apologizing to this dogshit creature beside you, since you are not letting me leave, fine I''ll just stay here and wait for the principal to come."
She put her hands on her hip and took a provocative stance, but all of a sudden one of the spears floating near her rushed at her with speed no one but Arthur could see.
The spear formed a hole in her knee, but without waiting for her even to respond the spear attacked her other knee, and with that all she could do was fall down in a kneeling position, overcome with pain, the only thing she could do was scream in pain as bloody holes were on her knees. Even though Arthur hurt her, he controlled her spears and didn''t seriously injure her, after all, if he wanted to he could''ve made her disabled and unable to ever walk again.
Christian, dumbfounded by what he saw, unconsciously kneeled with shaking body, he knew now that Arthur didn''t care about them, and by seeing how his big sister was kneeling and screaming from the pain he didn''t want to be in the same situation so he gave up on his pride and knelt towards Arthur.
"I''m going to f*cking kill y-you..." While screaming, Lisa cursed Arthur but she couldn''t stand as the pain was agonizing and blood was flowing non-stop from her knees.
"You could try whenever you want, but now kneel and apologize to my partner or else your hands will be next."
Christian, being the coward he is, knelt towards Lucy who was still leaning on Arthur not caring about the situation, and apologized with tears on his face, after all, he cared for his life and even being disabled scared him.
"I, I''mm sorry, please forgive my insolence, i should not have called you that"
Even after saying that, Lucy didn''t seem affected and didn''t speak, for her no matter who, she didn''t care about them and hated them all, especially human males, before she encountered Arthur she didn''t trust anyone, hell she didn''t even accept help from anyone, even someone who seemed remotely kind, and now she only trusted Arthur and seeing some kneel in front of her didn''t bring her joy but her heart softened when she knew Arthur did that for her just because they insulted her.
Christian soon became anxious, seeing Lucy not saying anything, his thoughts drifted and he thought maybe it wasn''t enough and Arthur would just injure him like he did to Lisa, so he just kept kneeling without saying anything, he didn''t even dare move or breathe heavily for fear of Arthur''s wrath.
As for Lisa, even though she was kneeling, she didn''t apologize nor she say anything. "Your brother has atoned and apologized, what about you Princess? you got 5 seconds, after that it would be your arm"
She looked at him angrily and spoke "F*ck you, wait till my father hears of this and you and this filthy b*tch are dead, you hear me? DEA.." before she could finish, a spear pulverized all her right arm, nothing was left except her bloody shoulder. Having her arm turns into minced meat off, her screams become even louder and all the people in the surroundings had fearful eyes, even the 2 bodyguards didn''t move for fear of simply dying just like that.
Though she just cursed him, Lisa began to fear for her life, her right arm is now gone and if she didn''t treat them soon, she will be disabled, and if she died now how could she get revenge on this bastard, she decided to put away her pride and just apologize for now
"I''m sorr-yyy.."
She said that while kneeling towards Lucy, who was also looking at her with cold eyes. Strange thoughts soon struck Lisa, what if this demon didn''t forgive her? if so then she dead for sure and no one could save her!
"It''s fine"
Lucy just waved her hand as if accepting the apology, she then continued leaning on Arthur''s shoulder as if nothing happened.
"Now you can leave.."
Arthur''s voice soon followed, allowing them to leave, the bodyguards soon came back to their senses and held the princess who was shivering from pain and took her to the Academy''s infirmary to get healed as soon as possible, as for the second prince he followed them soon after...
Chapter 24 : Judgment
Quite some time passed since Lisa and Christian left the park, but Arthur still didn''t let go of Frederic and the chains were still bounding him, the surrounding people were astonished but none dared speak to protest, they just watched from afar excited yet fearful of what about to come.
finally, the principal came flying using her weird flying magic, accompanied with Zephir, though she didn''t seem angry, in any case, she was smiling, she was surprised to see Frederic bounded by those chains but nonetheless, she didn''t talk.
Arthur noticing her arrival, retrieved the chains from Frederic and willed them to disappear, he turned his head towards the principal as if expecting her to say something.
"Well, hello there Miss Sonia."
"Hahaha, Mr. Arthur, I see you caused some problems with Lisa, but that doesn''t matter since she was the one who provoked you, I''ve come here because I need to talk to you, and it would be nice if we talked in private."
To be honest, Arthur was quite surprised to hear she knew her name, but after some thought, it''s to be expected, after the commotion that happened earlier, there''s got to be some students who heard his name, he just shrugged his shoulder then nodded at the principal.
He stood up from the bench, and followed her with Lucy, the principal, of course, didn''t say anything when she saw Lucy following for she knew Lucy and Arthur almost never separated from each other.
They walked for quite sometime before they reached the edges of the Academy island, what Arthur saw was a gigantic building, probably the biggest one he ever saw since he came here, it was only made of stone and seemed more like a tower than a habitable building.
Sonia noticed the slight shock of Arthur and began talking "You may or may not have noticed, that although we do have some powerful individuals, they are not very strong, I mean if I fight you, I''m certain that I will lose but if we are so weak, why do you think the Academy is feared by other continents?"
It''s true, Arthur always wondered about that, he was sure with his new stats, he was the most powerful in the academy, but he has never seen the pope power or LVL so he couldn''t guess how much they are powerful but he judged him to be a little higher than the principal but if so, why do they fear the academy since they are more powerful than it?
The principal chuckled for a bit then resumed talking
"Actually, the holy church manpower is way stronger than us, in fact, the pope''s LVL is extremely high and he can kill me with but a single attack, but we have a weapon, a dangerous one, and as long as we have it, they won''t dare attack us"
Just as she finished that, she and the other council member mumbled some incantations, then the tower blurred for some time before it changed to a metallic object. Arthur observed the object, and to be honest, it looked like a cannon? but an extremely big one, with runes and patterns all over it.
"It''s called ''Judgment'' and it''s an ancient weapon the founder of the Academy made with his companions created, it only used twice since its creation, but you must know a single use requires a LOT of mana, if it''s used, maybe half the Holy church''s Headquarters would obliterated. That''s why none of the leaders of the continent dare attack us, because they fear this weapon, but the problem is, to prepare a single use we must inject it with mana for a week at least and we cannot fire it consecutively. Sigh, since you are a member of the council, we thought you should know about this but be aware not to divulge this secret or else..."
''Judgment huh?''
He never read about it in Zodiak''s book so it must be made after his death, nevertheless he was still amazed by this weapon, he couldn''t help but swallow some saliva, and imagine what if he was hit by a shot from that cannon, without a doubt it would be his doom, I mean the height of this weapon is 400 meters and it''s length is about 250 meters, that''s completely ridiculous.
He continued gazing at it for sometime before turning his head towards Sonia and just nodding as if understanding what she said. Though she was still suspicious of him, she nevertheless decided to tell him about ''judgment'' for he is not someone to mess with and since he is a council member now, he has the right to know.
The principal only wanted to show him the weapon, so when everything was done, everyone got back to their respective duties, as for Lucy and Arthur they headed to the mana manipulation class, since it was about time to start. As always, Lucy was excited about the class and couldn''t help but shake a bit from excitement, every time she is going into a class, she is happy because learning magic and becoming more powerful is her goal.
Though Arthur was in a dilemma, as he wanted her to get stronger faster and just going to class is not helping that much apart from teaching her new ways of using magic. Too bad she wasn''t a parasite or else she would power-up fastly like him, nevertheless he decided to try the leeching way, it''s when he lowers the opponent''s health to near zero and she finishes him and takes the XP. Though it''s slow but effective so he decided to try it when they got free time.
Soon, they reached class and took their seats. The same teacher as yesterday came and began explaining about mana manipulation and as always Lucy listened to him carefully, afraid of not missing anything, as for Arthur he lazily watched the students practicing and injecting mana in their bodies to get bonus stats, since he succeeded yesterday, all this gibberish is useless to him, if not for Lucy wanting to be in this academy, he would have gone adventuring and visiting all the continents.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Class passed peacefully, and the pair left the classroom and headed for their private room. Once they reached it, Arthur decided not to practice, it''s been a long day, from killing an imoogi to dealing with that lousy princess and also finding of the secret weapon. As for Lucy, she too was tired, after all, she doesn''t have infinite stamina.
Since both of them got nothing to do, they began chatting why sitting next to each other on the veranda. They held each other''s hand and began happily chatting about various things, though Lucy seemed really curious about Arthur''s previous world, nonetheless, she didn''t ask him a lot, but that didn''t slip unnoticed by him, so he just patted her head and said
"Silly girl, don''t be shy to ask me about my world. If you want to say something just say it, no one is going to hate you."
As he said that he stroked her hair and began describing his world, the cars, machines etc..
Hours passed, and Lucy never ceased to listen to him, whenever he mentioned something new, she would stare dumbfounded at him, Seeing her like that he couldn''t help but chuckle, the Lucy right now seemed completely different from the one in public, in fact, it''s like 2 different people.
Since he told her to not hold back her curiosity, she bombarded him with questions but whenever he answered her, her heart softened and warmed for she knew he had a tragic past and just reminding him of that would hurt him but nevertheless he always answered her and that made her open to him more.
When it was time to sleep, they both laid on the bed, but this time, they hugged each other like the past days without embarrassment, Arthur knew she would not be angry not will she feel disgusted and just by hugging her when going to sleep made him feel as if he was dreaming.
Just like that, they both fell asleep in each other''s embrace, and even though Arthur had infinite stamina, he decided to sleep for it was very comfortable and to wake up and see Lucy in his arms is something that cannot be replaced, after all what''s better than to be with someone you love?
Just like that, 2 weeks peacefully passed, the holy church didn''t attack and the princess never showed in front of Arthur again, maybe it was fear or maybe she learned her lesson, but Arthur happened to see her, and her legs seemed fine, however, her arm is still not regrown. It would seem to get a limb back is hard but still possible, since Arthur read in a book that with a powerful healing magic, or a miraculous potion, you can get a limb or anybody member back.
In these 2 weeks, They attended classes and practiced whenever they got time, Lucy seemed to have strengthened her body in the first week and apparently, her stats increased by 250, as for her control magma attribute, it had become near-perfect, she could even create a barrier with magma even though it was weak.
As for Arthur, the principal never contacted him in this time, and that really made him happy, to not be disturbed by anyone and just live his days peacefully is all he ever wanted, as for his relationship with Lucy, every day they would get even closer. Actually, Lucy seemed to get bolder, she would always hold his hands, and whenever a girl would come talk to him or ask him for advice, she would stare coldly at this girl as if the girl would steal him away.
Arthur, of course, didn''t mind that, as for the girls he always ignored them as he didn''t care about them but it was kind of funny to see the jealous side of Lucy. When he first saw her stare coldly at that girl as if telling her to back off, he couldn''t help but laugh, and that only resulted in Lucy pouting and letting go of his hand while going ahead of him.
There was that one time when she even threw a puddle of lava at him while snorting, of course, the lava didn''t affect him and she was aware of that. Furthermore, she didn''t talk to him for the rest of the day, so he had to apologize even though he had done nothing.
As for the leeching idea, Arthur did indeed take her every day after classes to the Ghost island and would let her last hit the monsters, and like that her LVL rose to 56 in these 2 weeks, that may seem a little for Arthur, but for her it''s a miracle, for one to advance a level without killing monsters, they would need months if not years, and with killing monsters they would rise quickly, but who from the students in this academy would have someone like Arthur who would nearly kill the monster and let them last hit it.
Everyone must take care of himself and level up alone, so Lucy is considered very lucky to have Arthur give her a hand. Though she never wanted help from others, when Arthur asked her to come with him to help her level up, she didn''t even protest, she just followed him obediently. to be honest, Lucy never even disobeyed him, it''s not like he ordered her around, but whenever he suggested something, she would instantly agree.
She didn''t know why but she held something akin to blind trust toward his decision and never in those 2 weeks did she have a nightmare about her past. She would always wake up in his warm embrace and cuddle herself close to him while staring at his sleeping face, though, he may not know it because he was asleep but she would sometimes give him a kiss on the cheek, and just doing that made her blush and her ears would turn bright red.
Today was a special day, apparently, some students were picked to go a dungeon to experience real fighting to enhance their strength and Lucy was picked too since she was a new students, the one overseeing them normally would be a teacher but surprisingly Frederic volunteered to go, of course, Arthur was going to accompany Lucy, first because he can''t let her go alone, Secondly because he was excited to see a dungeon for he never entered one since he came here, he only read about them.
Actually, they are going to a dungeon named ''El Kassia dungeon'', it was a low leveled dungeon and apparently the dungeon-boss is only lvl 115, for the students it was high but for someone like Frederic it''s nothing, plus the students were only going there to practice and there was no need kill the dungeon-boss.
There was approximately, 30 students which are going and surprisingly, Lisa was going too, though Arthur was suspicious and guessed she may try to do something, after all her and Frederic going is by no means an accident, nevertheless since he was going he was sure he can crush them if they dared to do anything to harm him or especially Lucy. Princess or not, that didn''t matter Arthur, if someone causes troubles, they are dead, nothing more nothing less.
All the people going finally gathered near the teleportation array and prepared to head out to the dungeon, it was on the human continent, far in the south but since they have the teleportation array it would take them near the dungeon, they would only need to cross a mountain to
Chapter 25 : Despair
Soon, they used the teleportation array and appeared in a small square, Arthur noticed they are in some kind of a small town, there were some people passed, they were surprised by the appearance of the students for a second, but they soon resumed what they were previously doing without a care in the world, it seems students coming here is a frequent thing.
The group of students didn''t stay in the town, they immediately headed for the dungeon, it was still morning so they would arrive early to the dungeon. An hour or so, after crossing a small mountain, they arrived at the entrance of a rocky cave, there was a sign which surprised Arthur.
El Kassia dungeon entrance: recommended LVL: 40-90
He didn''t expect to see a sign like this, nonetheless he shrugged it off and followed them inside the cave, truthfully there was nothing special about this dungeon, it was more like a labyrinth than a dungeon, after walking for sometime, the cave showed 2 different ways, and the deeper they went the more complicated the dungeon became. Finally, they encountered some lizard-like monsters
Salamander Lvl 67
It was a red-like lizard with some fire coming out of its tail, it didn''t seem intimidating though because of its small size, but they always roamed in groups of 3 or more. Just like that, the students began training and attacking together to kill the salamanders, team-work necessary but for new students, it was quite hard for them to work together, especially for someone like Lucy.
To be quite honest, with her magma attribute, a simple magma lance was enough to pierce and melt the creature, even Frederic was surprised by how powerful the magma was.
As for Lisa since she was high leveled, she didn''t need to attack, she just stood there watching Lucy with jealousy, though she glanced sometimes at Arthur and you could notice some anger and rage in her eyes but she didn''t dare act for she knew the difference in strength between them, she even saw how he easily bound Frederic with those chains.
As for Arthur, he didn''t attack nevertheless he made a transparent chaotic dark mana around Lucy, it wasn''t noticeable by anyone, and it was much weaker than a normal barrier, but it should hold out against attacks from those monsters. He knew it was against the rules to protect those students for they had to experience real danger to grow up but he didn''t care, it''s not some stupid rules that are going to stop him from protecting the person he loves.
Just like that, they kept advancing in the going deeper in the dungeon, and the monsters increased until it was hard for the students to kill them, even Lucy could only some minor damage to the salamanders. So Frederic decided to stay there and encourage the students to try their best and win against those monsters, but he actually was thinking of a way to separate Lucy from Arthur, but it seemed near impossible for Arthur kept sticking to Lucy even when she is fighting even though he didn''t help her.
Even if he wanted to force a fight he knew it would end up badly for him, so, for now, he decided to stay low until a chance comes up, after all, he brought up something special with him, it was a talisman curse, it''s very rare to find and more difficult to create.
The one he had is to reduce the stats of the one it touched by 5%, so it''s like reducing the stats by half and he believed if he can decrease Arthur''s stats by at least half he would have a chance to get Lucy, because for him if he can kidnap her and use her as a hostage to get Arthur, it would be the best way to lure him, even though his stats would be reduced, it would only be for an hour and just 1 hour is not enough for him to either win or capture him.
Evening soon came, and all the students except were exhausted and could barely walk, they found a safe area in the dungeon and camped there. They made tents and some fire here and there and split into different groups, friends stayed with each other while some other male students accompanied Lisa, as for Lucy and Arthur they sat alone in a corner.
Arthur appraised Lucy and saw her LVL became 58, to raise 2 LVLS in one day but apparently the experience one gets from killing monsters in a dungeon is better than killing normal monsters in forests or other places.
Actually, Arthur was curious as to what exactly is a dungeon, how is it created or why? but even after going through a lot of books he still couldn''t find anything so he decided to give up his search for the time being.
Night slowly passed and all students soon went to their tent to sleep, Lucy was also tired by she just leaned on Arthur''s shoulder and soon soundlessly fell asleep, it seemed uncomfortable for her to sleep like that so he used his lap as a pillow to let her sleep more comfortably.
Truthfully, it was the first time she slept in his lap and felt kind of awkward but nevertheless he stroked her hair and stayed awake all night, he wasn''t worried about Frederic or Lisa but you never know when danger comes and since he wasn''t the least bit tired, staying awake all night didn''t matter to him.
Morning finally came, and all the students woke up including Lucy who was slightly surprised to see herself sleeping in his lap, nonetheless she didn''t stand up, she smiled at him with her enchanting face and he couldn''t help but blush a little, to gaze at by this beauty no matter how many times, it still makes him embarrassed even though they were lovers.
Since he already gave her a lot of food, she retrieved some food and began devouring them, seriously every time he saw her eating he wondered where all the food goes, it''s like there is a black hole in her stomach.
After breakfast, they continued hunting the salamanders and if they ever encountered a small-boss it will get dealt with by Lisa, honestly she was considered strong, her magic attack was weak but damn she was savage at attacking, her strength is no joke for a human even Arthur was slightly surprised, though with a punch from him it''s sure she will turn into minced meat, nonetheless her strength is decent, at least for now she is considered more powerful than Lucy.
Another day peacefully passed, and the students seemed to get more excited, even Lucy managed to level up one more time, her strength grew every second she fought and her control over magma was perfect, she didn''t use the fire attribute anymore for it was useless compared to the magma, even Arthur wanted the magma attribute as it seemed powerful but compared to his ancient fire it was truly a joke nevertheless that didn''t stop him from wanting to have the magma.
*********
Outside of the El Kassia Dungeon, Arnold stood there alone, grinning as if he was mad, finally his spies informed him that the demon girl got out of the academy grounds and it means he can act and retrieve her, to be honest, he wasn''t worried about Arthur for he was very confident in his powers, he heard Frederic also came but since the holy church was close with royalty he was sure Frederic wouldn''t dare oppose him, in fact, he may even help him.
Without wasting time, he entered the dungeon with incredible speed as he was happy he finally going to capture the girl and be rewarded by the pope since he seemed to really want to get his hands on the demon for some reason but of course he didn''t dare question his orders but after 2 weeks of patience finally a chance came. He came alone because he was already a bishop and no matter who came with him it would only bother him except other bishops came with him.
*********
As the students were fighting the salamanders like usual with Frederic, Lisa watching them and Arthur staying close to Lucy to watch her, a man suddenly came dashing in their direction, it was a handsome middle-aged man with a green-hair and a white sword sheathed to his waist. His arrival seemed too surprised everyone including Frederic and Arthur.
Feeling suspicious of this man, Arthur couldn''t help but appraise him for he seemed not someone weak or a pushover
Arnold Kloer(human) : LVL204
''What! 204? that''s higher than the principal, who is this man!'', though Frederic was little shocked, he soon smiled and bowed towards the man while respectfully saying
"Lord Arnold, pleased to see you, what brings you to this low-level dungeon?"
It would be a lie to say Frederic wasn''t overjoyed, quite the opposite, in fact, he was delighted, a chance finally came, he already knew the holy church tried to get Lucy, but he didn''t think they would send someone Arnold a bishop! he was just guessing but what else would a bishop appear here, it''s not like this dungeon has a precious treasure or anything of the sort.
"haha, Mr. Frederic, I''ve come here just to retrieve something."
While saying that, Arnold directed his gaze at Lucy who already finished killing the salamander.
Lucy, hearing the man''s name and seeing his appearance couldn''t help but tug Arthur''s sleeve and softly say
"He''s one of the 3 bishops..."
Although she trusted Arthur, Lucy was a little anxious, because bishops are known to be extremely strong and rarely come out to carry out missions but seeing him here, it was obvious it was to retrieve her, but she was curious why would they go to such lengths. She always wondered about that, after all, she was only a normal demon so why would the holy church chase her to the end of the world just to capture her, it really intrigued her.
Arthur seeing the Lucy little anxious, giggled for a bit before patting her soft head as if reassuring her, he then turned his head and looked at Arnold, the man seemed an upright and kind man, but who would have thought he would be in the holy church? maybe not all the people there are so greedy and evil but since he came to retrieve here, kind or not that didn''t matter.
"I presume you are that famous black-robed man who slew my disciple, I believe you have met him? he was a swordsman like me."Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
While laughing, Arthur stared coldly at him and replied
"Indeed I have met him, unfortunately, he was so weak that he died in just one attack."
Arnold was a little angry to see someone mock his deceased disciple, but he didn''t let his emotions get the better of him but he really wanted revenge for his disciple for he really doted on him and raised him since he was a child and seeing die just like that made him quite sad, plus his killer is in front of him is in front of him why wouldn''t he take revenge.
"I believe you know why I''m here so why not cut to the chase and begin fighting, I''m really interested to see how would you handle yourself against me."
As he said that, he unsheathed his sword and took a fighting stance, one hand holding the sword and the other behind his back.
As for Arthur, he was little curious to see how powerful he is, after all, he didn''t get a strong opponent since the young dragon, and to finally meet one made him rather excited. He wanted to go full out and see what would happen.
He slowly walked forward and waved his hand at Arnold as if indicating he''s ready, to his signal the middle-aged man charged at him with incredible speed, to all watchers it was incredible speed but to Arthur it was nothing much, in fact, if he didn''t possess the corpses from the Ghost island, he might have a little problem, however, with his new stats, the man''s speed is almost like a crawling turtle in front of his eyes.
Arthur also rushed at the man while holding a dark red longsword, just as the two clashed, a huge crater was made under them and the nearby students were blown away, as for Lucy since Arthur created a barrier around her, she was completely safe.
Arnold frowned for a second when he clashed with Arthur, he knew he was pushed back and his strength is way inferior to his opponents, nevertheless his mastery in sword and skills are no joke, he backed 2 steps and quickly sidestepped to the left and used [tripple stab] it was a unique skill to swordsman and only professionals had it, with it you can stab 3 times instantly at the same place while inflicting double the damage every hit.
As his stabs were going to hit, Arthur simply disappeared and appeared behind him ready to hack at him, ''teleportation! Without incantation?'' thought Arnorld as he saw the instantaneous movement of his foe, he was flabbergasted for a split second but thanks to many years of battle experience, he snapped out of it quickly and turned to defend against the incoming attack. As he was expecting the attack, Arthur vanished again and appeared behind him, but this time, the swordsman could feel a dangerous aura from the sword, and some violet energy seemed to pour out of the strange long sword.
Arthur prepared the [dark burst] with [void slash] and attacked Arnold who surprisingly reacted in time even though Arthur teleported two times in a row, the middle-aged man blurred for a second before he somehow backed away with amazing speed, but the slash of Arthur created a violent dark arc lengthening 3 meters, it continued all the way until it reached the dungeon''s wall and shaking the whole cave.
To be honest, Arthur could just use the destructive force of ancient fire or (hell arrow] but he didn''t do it, he wanted to see how he handles himself in a normal fight without using those, of course, if things began to be problematic he would use them instantly, but for now he wanted to test his physical strength. After he noticed he missed the slash, he created a spear and willed it to pierce the retreating swordsman and with its lightning speed, even Arnold couldn''t react in time and was pierced in the shoulder.
Though he seemed to wear some special armor like his disciple and it almost resisted the spear, but nonetheless, some blood came out from the wound, it wasn''t that serious but it could hinder anyone in a fight.
Arnold couldn''t hind the astonishment from his face, he truly was surprised, for someone to be able to wound him and come out unscathed, plus he can use teleportation, hell he even used it 2 times in a row, his look soon turned more serious and he took some elixirs and gulped them, they were boosting elixirs than increased his power for some time, he noticed he held no advantage whatsoever, in fact in terms of strength and speed he was weaker so he had to find a way to win or use strong skills.
Frederic in the back stood there dumbfounded at the fight, normally only the principal could win against a bishop like this, even though her LVL was not higher than this bishop, her skills and magic was extremely powerful, but for this Arthur to injure a bishop is really surprising, and what made it surprising is that he didn''t use that strange flame spear.
He truly was afraid of that flame and of its destruction that he guessed that Arthur didn''t use it because if he did it he would injure all students including Lucy and destroy the cave and that would bring more problems, but unfortunately that Arthur couldn''t care less about those students and whether they live or miserably die has nothing to do with him.
As for Lisa, she watched from afar, with her hands on her mouth and her legs shaking, it''s the first time she saw powerful individuals fighting, heck! She couldn''t even follow them, their speed is just beyond her, and even while concentrating, she only managed to barely see their clashing shadows. She didn''t voice out her thoughts but it was clear on whose side she was, alas, if she was more thoughtful, she would have recruited this individual under her father, the Emperor''s wing.
The fight continued, and the 2 men clashed together many times, but every trade ended up in Arnold being hurt, whether pierced by a spear or sent flying by a punch or a kick from Arthur, even his armor showed signs of breaking, ''he is not human! simply a monster!'' Arnold couldn''t help but shiver a little as he stared at the man a couple of meters in front of him. Arthur was smugly smiling at him.
"A bishop can only hold out this much? it''s truly regretful and here I wanted to have a good fight, I''m not even seriously fighting"
Through the course of the fight, Arthur judged himself to be slightly more powerful than the bishop, moreover he had teleportation and a lot of magic so of course, he would gain easy advantage and his chaotic dark magic has a strong piercing power, so even the swordsman''s armor couldn''t hold out much and many wounds soon emerged after a couple of attacks.
While gazing at the struggling Bishop, Arthur sensed a great danger and looked at Frederic who was standing not far away, but it was too late and the man somehow teleported next to Lucy who was not far away, he then quickly a yellow weird talisman at her. The object seemed to exclude some gray energy that alerted him, he didn''t even have confidence in his barrier and didn''t think it would be able to stop that talisman, it looked more like a mental attack than a physical attack and the barrier only defended normal attacks.
Without a second to waste, he teleported between the incoming talisman and Lucy, he extended his hand as if wanting to crush it with his chaotic dark magic, but surprisingly the talisman went through the chaotic dark magic as if it didn''t exist and struck Arthur''s hand. A couple of seconds passed without nothing happening and just as Arthur was about to sigh a breath of relief a notification came :
WARNING: Cursed! -50% all stats
''Cursed?'' it would be a lie to say he wasn''t surprised, nonetheless, he sighed, at least it wasn''t some dangerous attack, but for Frederic to have the guts to sneak attack, and at Lucy, why would he ever do that? Arthur didn''t remember offending him except when he bound him but that wasn''t something big to hold a strong grudge and why did he aim at Lucy.
Just as Arthur lifted his head to look at Frederic, he saw him smirking at him with a smug face, Frederic expected Arthur to try to protect Lucy, after all, everyone knew he was overprotective of the demon girl and him trying to take the talisman is to be expected. Now that his plan has succeeded there was a little bit of hope, he turned to look at Arnold and said
"Fear no more Lord. Arnold, he has been cursed for an hour, his power is halved you can take him down but please do not kill him I need him alive, as for the girl she''s yours."
Hearing this, Arnold was startled for a second before he nodded at Frederic, now that his opponent has halved strength, his confidence rose, because no matter how strong he is, with a halved power he had the confidence to be able to win.
Arnold dashed at the weakened Arthur with the sword in his hand ready to slash, but Arthur just teleported away while still looking at Frederic
"I don''t remember ever being in a conflict with you, so why would you attack me?"
Frederic furrowed his brows before laughing and replying
"Hahaha no conflict? You greatly offended Royalty and you expect to get away with it? There are a lot of people who want your head."
Truthfully, Arthur was quite pissed, for even royalty to butt in, he had to take precautions later and warn them about what would be the consequences but one thing for sure, playing time is over and none of the 2 men would get away alive from this dungeon.
The cave they were fighting was quite spacious, you couldn''t even see the roof, and the students were a hundred meters or so, watching the fight with fearful eyes, they didn''t know why the council members were fighting among themselves but of course they didn''t dare question it or try to understand, all they cared about it getting out alive.
"You know, I wish I could tell you how grateful I am, you showing your true colors and attacking me is giving me a chance to get rid of you."
As he finished, Arthur raised his hand and closed his eyes but he nevertheless continued talking
"How cold and harsh is this place? Everywhere people want something, greed envelops all people and there is always conflict and unkindness, I think God has forsaken this place, if there is a god that is, I believe I have seen hell and I''m sure you will see it soon, for you have met despair the moment you have met me!"
Soon, the dark blue magic began to form rapidly above him and just a matter of seconds it began to form into an arrow, though this time, it had a blue and violet color, actually, the pressure it emitted is even more terrifying than the previous arrow.
It had the same size as the last arrow, and all nearby rocks began flying towards it as if it was some kind of black hole sucking everything around it.
Every student including Lisa got to their knees as they saw this horrific arrow, the sheer pressure was enough to make some students fall unconscious, as for Frederic and Arnold they only stared at the arrow dumbfounded, Frederic began shaking and Arnold only stood straight but he didn''t dare attack, you could see a tinge of fear in his eyes even though he tried to calm down he couldn''t, the arrow was facing him and he knew for sure he was doomed.
"Do you think you will get away with this? The Pope is not like me, he is god-like and not even this pitiful arrow can injure him."
"Whether it is pitiful or not, we''ll see soon."
The hell arrow was already formed, but Arthur waited for a second before launching it at swordsman and Frederic, luckily, they were not far away from each other and the arrow length was very big so it could ravish them both, and indeed it did.
The arrow passed through both of them as if they didn''t exist and struck the dungeon wall, literally nothing stopped it, not even the armor of the swordsman was left, even their blood didn''t show, only some dark fog remained where arrow passed, though it struck the wall, it continued as if the wall never existed. It passed through various walls and a lot of monsters until Arthur willed it to disappear but it seemed to have massacred hundreds of creatures, and living a gigantic hole in the walls, in fact, you could see all the way to where the arrow disappeared, only a dark fog was left and nothing else, as if a huge black hole ate everything there.
The walls appeared eaten and not even the creatures were left just like Arnold and Frederic. Arthur sighed for a second before he turned towards Lisa who was shaking non-stop while looking at him
"It seems I need to make a little visit to your father to give him a little warning for I do not want unnecessary troubles coming from royalty again."
The girl could only nod continuously, what she saw today was obviously going to traumatize her, that''s not a normal strength a human should have, to completely erase a bishop from existence, not even the best magician in the Human Empire can do that. Just remembering the sight made her wet herself a bit due to the extreme fear, after all, she''s still young and was born with a golden spoon, so naturally, she never saw something as terrifying and fear-inducing as this, her life has always been laid back and relaxed. As for the other students, no comment.... some were unconscious and most of them were shivering nonstop, they were low-leveled compared to Lisa so they couldn''t handle the pressure albeit the fact that it remained for only a few seconds.
Lucy stood there emotionless, she was neither surprised not terrified, she already saw that arrow when he used on the dragon, and she knew he killed the bishop for her sake, that alone made her joyful. Since he is this powerful it would be soon for her to go take revenge on them, especially that ''man'' and the mere thought of it made her excited to finally get her revenge on those bastards. Arthur turned around walked towards Lucy and held her hand as if to comfort her
"Silly girl, I told you to not worry, a bishop is not a big deal, soon I will take you there, I promise!"
As he finished talking, he bent down and gave her a little kiss on her forehead...
About releases
yeh, sorry its not a chapter, well as you may or may not have noticed i didnt post last week, fear not i didnt drop the story but im just very busy with studies and exams, ill try to squueze out 3 chap per week if possibleIf you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
then again im really sorry
Chapter 26 : " Im sorry..."
When Arthur had just slaughtered the bishop, also known as Arnold, the pope who was sitting in his office writing something suddenly stood up, well to be more precise he stared at a shattered crystal not too far away from his desk, his eyes were full of astonishment and disbelief and he seemed to mumble something with a low voice.
Actually, that crystal was a special object also known as ''life crystal'' and its function is to indicate whether the last person who injected Mana in it is still alive or not, and it only brakes when the person dies because every being is full of mana and if for example they ran off it and can''t cast skills they still possess mana but they can''t use it, it''s just like air, once you can''t breathe you are obviously going to die when there is not even a single drop of mana in your body, you die...
Normally, when the person runs out of mana the crystal turns to the white colour but now it only broke suddenly, the pope was not paying attention to it so he didn''t notice changing colour for some time and that''s because, in the fight against Arthur, Arnold used quite a bit of mana, but it was negligible.
The crystal was really rare, in fact almost non-existent as one may know the pope only had 7 of them each for a bishop including the archbishop, but unfortunately, one crystal was now broken and no longer functioned but he paid it no heed he was astonished to the fact that a bishop actually died.
The pope can, of course, remember ordering Arnold to get the demon girl but her killing him is literally impossible so he could only ponder on who might have been able to kill Arnold, ''Could it be those geezers from the demon clan or that bastard elf? No no that''s impossible! They are not this stupid as to rush and kill a bishop like that! Then who....''
Returning to the dungeon, just after some time passed since the fight ended, a rain of notifications came to Arthur who was busy reassuring Lucy and giving her a light hug, he was momentarily startled as to why the notifications came late but that didn''t matter that much right now.
[You have killed El Kassia mid-boss ''dijin'' :+2 Lvl, it will respawn in 6 hours]
[You have killed El Kassia final boss ''Raa, the Lightning bug'' :+5 lvl]
[You have conquered ''El Kassia dungeon and obtained the title : Dungeon Conqueror: +20% EXP inside any dungeon / can be stacked with other titles]
[level up! Level up! Level up!......]
Since he killed Frederic and Arnold who were both very high leveled a lot, the amount of EXP he got was enormous, he even killed the final boss but that''s to be expected since the arrow was just gigantic and massacred everything in its way.
Arthur was rather joyful his lvl became 148 and he was more close to obtaining the mysterious blessing of the Overgod, after all, he had high hopes for it to be a positive thingthat can help him improve his strength, but he had a little sour feeling, he actually wanted to use [death touch] but since there is nothing left he can''t do it otherwise he would have gotten double the EXP, he could only blame his stupidity, why didn''t he just kill them with normal means instead of that big show? maybe he wanted to appearscary or terrifying to show off his powers? Or maybe he didn''t want to appear weak? even he didn''t know why he used the arrow...
Lucy also didn''t mind the students who were almost all unconscious and she hugged Arthur back, him killing a bishop gave her joy and happiness, after all, seeing the beginning of the end of the organization which pursued her all her life is by no means a bad thing.
After some time enjoying each other''s embrace, they finally let go. When he looked at the students, he noticed that all of them seemed to have woken up, but no one dared to speak or move, hell! none even stood up as if afraid of angering Arthur and disturbing that lovey-dovey atmosphere he had with Lucy.
He looked coldly at them and said "No need for me to explain right? Frederic betrayed the academy and attacked me as for that stupid man from the church..hmph! he got what he deserved, if you dare lie or tell anything about my abilities don''t blame me if you are killed!!" he spoke with a chilly and threatening tone that made everyone tremble even more and nodded continuously towards him.
Even, Lisa who was supposed to be rebellious and wanted revenge didn''t oppose, her face was ghastly pale and she cursed herself for even thinking about revenge, that arrow showed her what despair really is and just having her arm cut is nothing compared to what happened to Frederic and Arnold, not even their blood was left.
The students didn''t stay there long and soon left the dungeon with Arthur, they rushed to the academy and by subset they arrived. If he wanted too, Arthur could''ve arrived in a minute or so but he was a council member and he had to at least accompany them, even though he didn''t care zbout what happened to them.
So with decent speed and some breaks, they arrived at the teleportation array and used it.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Seemingly relieved, the students soon dispersed and each went on their way but Arthur didn''t forget to warn them a second time, he then headed for the principal''s office to tell her what happened, of course, Lucy accompanied him.
The couple arrived in just five minutes or so and entered Sonia''s office, she was slightly surprised to see Arthur since he wasn''t supposed to come back until a week or so later.
Without further ado, he explained what happened while changing some facts here and there, he, of course, didn''t mention the arrow at it was a trump card and not even the principal had to know about it.
One must know that Arthur only trusted Lucy and no one else, yes he is working for the principal and yes heis a member of the council but he didn''t have even the least bit of trust, quite the opposite in fact, he judged the principal to be a manipulating b*tch, she may not look like it but she surely is as crafty as a fox and as wise as an old man, heck! He even heard that she is over 150 years old even with her appearance so she must be an old womaninside.
Though she was surprised a lot by what she heard, nonetheless she dismissed Arthur while praising him on what he did but once he left she couldn''t help but sigh and feel a bit of fear, she had some suspicions on him being more powerful than her but now that she heard he killed both Frederic and a bishop, she was certain he can kill her too so she began having some regrets on inviting him in, because if he turned against the Academy it would truly be a disaster.
Add to that she just lost a powerful council member, but that was life and to be totally honest she knew Frederic wasn''t the kind of guy to get along with others but she didn''t expect him to attack Arthur so she thought of the possibility of him holdingsome grudge against Arthur...
*******
having been dismissed and with nothing better to do, Lucy and Arthur went to their private room, since night has fallen and Lucy was a little bit tired from all the fighting in the dungeon, Arthur asked her if she wanted to rest and she agreed so they ended up going back home.
Arthur was fine even after all what happened, he even was a bit happy to get rid of nuisances, but something bothered him a little and that''s what Frederic said, apparently some people want his head but even though he opposed some people they weren''t that powerful and all have been dealt with except the holy church...
While Arthur was laying on the bed Lost in thought, Lucy who has just gotten out of a warm shower, laid besidehim, she was still a bit wet and wore black pyjamas that made her look extremely enchanting, the clothes were tight and showed some of her round and perky butt and developed chest, though it was not big, it was not flat either.
She noticed him dazing and blushed for a second as if she thought of something embarrassing.
Lucy finally mustered her courage, grabbed Arthur''s hand and put it on her chest, as for him, what just happened snapped him back to reality and shocked him, he could feel the soft feeling from his hand and it would be a lie to say he disliked it.
"Lucy, you...."
He was rather confused as to why she suddenly did that, after all, he knew her body was a taboo for him and he only hugged her, though hugging can be extreme he never touched any strange places, in fact he always kept his urges in control, one must know having a beauty like her sleeping beside you and not doing something is crazy, no normal man can do that, and Lucy was well aware of that, that''s why she decided that tonight will be the night she finally gave her body to him, after all, she knew he was a man that truly loved her and even after a long time didn''t even ask for a kiss, he only hugged her, but every time he did that, she noticed he would look at her as he wanted to check if he angered her or not by doing that.
"i-it''s okay, you can do it"
Though she tried to hide it, you can notice some shaking in her voice and Arthur definitely sensed that he guessed she wanted to satisfy him and give her body to him and that really touched him, for her who treasured her body after what happened to willingly let a man touch her and at her breast. That required an immense courage and determination and she lacked none of both.
Seeing her beautiful and long silver hair, extraordinary body and charming curves that would attract all men, urges began to surface, and he couldn''t help it, gazing at her body plus touching her soft breast made his face flush red and his mind to shake, though he didn''t do anything, moreover he retracted his hand which was touching her breast.
Though it would be a lie to say that seeing her like that didn''t excite him and that he didn''t think of eating her up, but he just couldn''t do it, he knew she was willing but just from her eyes and heavy breathing he knew she still had a bit of trauma and that really pained him so doing anything further would only cause her harm.
Lucy was surprised by the turn of events, she lifted her head and noticed him smiling at her, sometimes passed without him doing anything so she guessed that he wasn''t going to do anything and at that moment she could no longer control her suppressed emotions and started sobbing
"Arthur..*hikk* I''m sorry, i-i..."
She cried silently while apologizing to him, he knew she tried her best and he really didn''t blame her, he extended his hand and wiped the tears from her face, then he patted her face gently while saying
"There''s nothing to be sorry about Lucy, you know I''ll always love you"
After hearing that, her crying seemed to have increased and she kept at it until late at night, he couldn''t anything but stay by her side.
Unknowingly, when she was sobbing she hugged tightly and leaned her head on his face and just like that she slept after crying silently for some time, seeing her sleeping face and swollen red eyes, Arthur chuckled then hugged her back and stayed like that for quite some time.
It was 2 am or so when Arthur got up from the bed after gentling putting down the sleeping demon, he struggled for a bit to free himself from her grip as she tightly held him, as if he would disappear, after some effort he managed to free himself and give her a blanked to hug.
After some Thought earlier, he seemed to have thought of who might want to harm him and that''s humans, after all, he was only on the human continent and never went to the other continents and he killed Feylord who was rumored to have royalty backing, and since he had enough power right now, it was the perfect time to visit this Emperor and warn him to stop harassing, he wasn''t sure if Frederic was from the royalty but the best way to get rid of the enemies is to kill their leader so he decided to threaten the emperor and tell him to keep his dogs near him and stop sending people to either harass him or Lucy.
Chapter 27 : Warning
Arthur soon got up from the bed and gotready to travel, in fact with his actual speed, going to the main city of the empire where the emperor lives is an easy thing for him as he was confident with his speed.
He didn''t know how powerful the people there are, but he guessed them to be at most like Bishop Arnold if not slightly stronger, and since it''s only a matter of hours he didn''t want to bring Lucy, plus she was resting and wasn''t like him with infinite stamina.
After he wore Zodiak''s robe and put a mask that he found on his storage, he decided it was time to go even though he was reluctant to let Lucy alone.
He pondered for a bit before he created a barrier around her plus another one around the room, but the one around her was special as he fused it with void magic to strengthen it more. Actually, he didn''t know if it would strengthen but he did it anyway.
Arthur glanced at the Sleeping Lucy onefinal time before he dashed from the veranda. He jumped on the dark cloud and used his max speed to go to the capital of the empire. Actually, he indeed used the teleportation and immediately arrived at the city but the Emperor lives outside of it, in an enormous castle a couple of hundred kilometers of the city which was known as ''Laksy''.
Once he arrived at the city, he didn''t waste any time and headed towards the castle by following the map he got from the principal.
With his current speed, a hundred kilometers is just done in minutes so it didn''t take him long to spot a white castle, it looked extremely large and spacious, there was a garden entering it and apparently a river behind it, he also noticed a lot of soldiers guarding it. Even though it was late at night, they didn''t seem sleepy, quite the opposite, in fact, they were looking around cautiously with serious eyes.
Arthur didn''t mind being noticed but he didn''t want to bother fighting them, it would truly be a pain the ass and since he came here only to warn the Emperor, killing them would only be like adding oil tofire.
He tried to find a way to at least sneak to where the emperor is but the reality is sad and even if he successfully sneaked in, he didn''t know where the damned man is so the only way to meet him is by making a commotion.
He landed in front of the gate where 2 guards were standing and just stood there.
the guards were startled to see someone appear so suddenly, nonetheless, they unsheathed their swords and tightened their grip on the weapons, one of them shouted at Arthur
"Who dares trespass in Lord''s castle!"
Arthur looked at them coldly before finally speaking "I wish to speak with the Emperor"
"What nonsense are you spouting? you come in the middle of the night and expect to meet him"
Arthur could only sigh, this will be a long night since those guards are going to be stubborn, so he decided to not bother with such a matter and only speak when it''s necessary, wasting words and time with them will lead to nothing.
With lightning he dashed towards the 2 guards and sent them flying by attacking them with his palm, he exerted minimal strength but nevertheless, some bones were definitely broken but their lives werenot in danger.
The 2 guards started groaning from pain and couldn''t even get up but one of them took out some crystal and crushed, of course, could have prevented that from happening but since he wanted to create a commotion he let the guards do as theypleased.
He ignored the guards and kept advancing but not even 20 meters ahead, armored guards began to show up, there was a dozen if not more coming his way.
With his insane speed, no one could even react before all of them were either KOed or sent flying, some were unconscious and some groaned from pain but absolutely no one had been able to get up, Arthur''s control of strength was almost perfect and not even one was able to withstand a simple palm attack, if he used magic, it would literally become a bloodbath.
5 minutes hadn''t even passed before Arthur arrived in front of the gigantic gates of thecastle, if you look behind him you would only see more than a hundred soldiers on the ground.
****************
Inside the castle in a big hall, with white pillars and golden walls, therewas a middle-aged man sitting on a throne, to be honest, he was quite handsome with blue eyes and a blonde hair; he was lazily looking at the people in front of him and resting his chin on his hand.
there were 3 people in front of him, while there was another throne next to him where a woman was sitting, she seemed to be chatting with a maid and giggling every now and then, as for the 3 people, it was an oldman with white hair that reaches down to his chest, a bald man with scars on his face and last but least is a woman who held a staff and Had a witch hat on her head, she was pretty young and seemed energetic but she kept looking at the emperor respectfully.
As they were apparently speaking about important matters, a soldier came to the hall while heavily breathing as if he was tired, he didn''t stop for a second before reaching a dozen or so meters in front of the Emperor and kneeling then he respectfully said
"Your majesty,there''s an intruder! even after we sent our reinforcements, they were severely beaten!"
The emperor who appeared non-caring a second ago furrowed his brows and spoke with interest
"Ohhh~ an intruder? that''s indeed interesting, and to take down my soldiers, he must be up to something if he showed himself like that, Buzo why don''t you go there and see what''s happening"
Buzo was the general of the army and one of the most trusted subordinates of the emperor, he was that bald man full of scars, he hada huge build and was full of muscles, one must say he was rather intimidating, especially if he stood before you, but that''s to be expected of someone who fought in a lot of wars.
"Yes, your majesty! Your subordinate obeys! Plus my body has been itching for a fight, I just hope this intruder doesn''t get beaten before I arrive there."
As he finished speaking, Buzo made a courteous bow towards the emperor and headed towards the existence of the big hall, but just as he was approaching the big door leading to the outside of the hall, it(the door) got completly destroyed and parts of it were sent flying every where.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
Everyone one present was momentarily startled, including the Emperor too, even his wife who was chatting happily a moment ago stopped talking and directed her gaze towards the source of the sound
a black robed man who wore a strange mettalic mask was walking slowly towards their direction.
Buzo who was the closest one to Arthur came back to his senses quickly and rushed at the black-robed man.
After some beating, one of the soldiers finally told Arthur where the emperor is, so of course Arthur wouldn''t waste any second, although soldiers kept coming non-stop, they were easily disposed of and in just minutes he appeared in front of the big door leading towards the hall but he heard the conversation the emperor had with Buzo due to his insanely high dexterity and guessed the one addressed to by Majesty shoulddefinitely be the emperor, he breathed a sigh of relief and destroyed the door blocking the way.
Once he entered he saw a middle agedman sitting on a throne, a womannextto him, there were also other people present but hepaid them no heed.
Just as he was approaching the emperor to finally talk to him, a bald man with a huge build rushed at him, to be honest his speed and the aura around this bald man were quite unique as Arthur judged him to be someone who has been through a lot of battles but anybody can conclude that if they saw Buzo.
In no time Buzo arrived next to Arthur and threw a punchat him, but to Arthur, the attack speed of his opponent was a joke! heck, the Bishop Arnold was faster sosomeone of this caliber was just weaklings to Arthur and though he could evade, he didn''t, he also threw a punch while not using too much strength.
When the 2 punches collided, you could only hear a loud cracking sound and in a half a second the collision came to an end but the result was not how the emperor and the others had envisioned.
Buzo was sent flying with extreme speed until he crashed into a nearby wall, and the hand which was used to punch was completely broken, even it''s shape right know looked weird, the injury seemed quite serious as some bones can be seen, he was unconscious and didn''t seem he would wake up anytime soon.
The emperor''s eyes turned serious as he saw what just happened and he unconsciously clenched his fists, he turned his head towards Arthur, only to see him slowly coming to his direction.
The young women wearing the green robe and witch hat ran to Buzo with a worried face as she kept looking at his horrible injury, as for the old man next to her, he turned towards Arthur and gazed at him, but Arthur could hear him chant some incantation in a very low but quick voice, and when he appraised all of them he noticed that the Emperor was the second highest and this strangeold man to be Lvl242 while the king is 211 and the women with the staff is Lvl199 as for that bald man he''s Lvl197.
Having proved his strength, Arthur thought it was uncessary to continue fighting so he spoke with a cold yet threatening voice
"I have come tonight to speak to the Emperor, not to fight, I have only been defending myself, now if you could stop attacking and let me talk."
Seemingly surprised to what he just heard, the emperor who was also named Alexander Louis the II, frowned and seemed to be deep in thought as to how to handle this situation.
As for the young-women, she became angry and yelled at Arthur
"Haa? Who do you think you are? Barging in here and hurting people including Uncle Buzo and claiming it to be only self defense, plus you speak disrespectfully to our majesty" just as she finished she lifted her staff and began quickly chanting..
Not even 5 seconds passed before a violet fire speak appeared in front of her, as expected of a mage working under the emperor, she could control the highest flame excluding Arthur''s of course.
The spear radiated some heat and pressure and it soon flew at Arthur, but the latter didn''t lift his hand to defend and just let the spear hit him.
But what surprised the onlookers including Celcy, the young women who threw the spear is that the violent spear only hit the black robe and nothing happened, not even a scratch but that was to be expexted since he hadimmunity against all flames.
The old man who seemed to be muttering something since a while ago was astonished when he saw what just happened but nevertheless, he smirked and shouted
"Cubic earth cage."
This particular skill was quite famous in this world and powerful earth mages could use it, like fire, earth magic is divided to basic medium and advanced and each has a specificcolour, yellow for basic, brown for medium and jet black for advanced, of course, this skill is only used by people who achieved advanced earth magic and it is known to be one of the most binding logic as it is almost impossible to break free from the black cage for earth magic is known to be the best for defense.
The old man cast the skill a spheric black earth surged from the ground and enveloped Arthur from all sides, from afar it looked like a blackdome.
As he saw the cage, the old man breathed a sigh of relief and nodded as if praising himself but not 10 seconds passed before Arthur appeared in front of the old man, with no time to react, he(the old man) could only stare with disbelief at the black robed man in front of him.
Actually, Arthur could have easily broken that pathetic cage, hell even his dark barrier was tougher but he just teleported away, he also created black chains and made them bind the old man and Celcy to stop them from attacking recklessly and aimlessly like that, after all, it would be a waste of time and truthfully he didn''t come here to play.
No matter how the old man struggled or how many magic spells he used, they were all useless and he couldn''t free himself so Celcy also couldn''t escape her bind, she could only staremaliciously at Arthur.
Now that everything was calm, Arthur walked until he was 4 meters or so from Alexander he stood there waiting for the Emperor to speak.
Alexander was truly afraid, he was strong, that''s true! but not as strong as Gen the old man who was bound by chains, and seeing Arthur just teleport like that, made him realise he is really someone dangerous and if he came here to assassinate him then he could only await his death, but he noticed earlier that the man in front of him said he was only here to talk so he decided to go along with that and see where that leads
"W-what do you want?"
To finally get a reply, Arthur was quite joyous, finally, someone talked instead of attacking, it seems the emperor was indeed a rational person.
"finally speaking huh? Well I''ve only come here to warn you."
"Warn me? Sorry but we do not even know you."
"Whether you know me or not, keep your dogs away, especially your children, anyone from the royalty who dares disturb me again would die with you, you better watch your subordinates and tell them they provoked someone they should not have to!" Arthur''s tone was quite threatening and contained some killing-intent.
Even though Alexander didn''t know exactly whathappened, he couidgrasp the general idea and it seems someone provoked this man, and this someone is surely from royality, he honestly didn''t have anychoice right now since he didn''t know everything but he swore he would punish who ever was this reckless and idiotic to provoke thisman.
"Thus friend, you need not worry, no one will ever bother you" even though he was an emperor he spoke respectfully as he didn''t to just die like that by angering this man.
"Since you understand then I have nothing to do here, also don''t call me ''friend''or I''ll cut your tong-"
Before he could finish, the woman sitting beside Alexander, the queen could no longer hold her anger and shouted
"Who the heck do you think you are, you are in front of the emperor, just because you are a little strong you dare be this arrogant, wait until the holy church come and we will see if you dare be this bossy!"
She was flaming with anger and looked with contemptat Arthur, even though she saw him easily teleport and bind Genand Celcy, she still shouted at him.
*paaf*
a loud slap noise soon came, Arthur came in front of her and slapped her with his hand, she was even sent flying a couple of meters. There was a red hand sign on her face and it seemed a little swollen, she was utterly shocked and could only hold her cheeks and glared fearfully at Arthur.
Even Alexander was angry by what happened but he remained silent andheld back his emotions.
Arthur then turned around to leave but just after some steps he said
"Remember, if I ever saw one of your dogs annoying me or my companion, not even God can save you, much less a petty church."
Just as he finished speaking hedisappeared from the hall, the chains binding Gen and Celcy also are goneand the hall became deathly silent.
Finally, Alexander sighed and spoke with a loud tone
"Gen, immediately investigate who is this, since he mentioned my children then they must know something, go ask them, also if anything happens justwithdraw, we do not want to provoke someone like him."
Gen just nodded and swiftly left as for Celcy she brought Buzo and left, but you could seeshe was still angry by what just happened, but some fear nonetheless grew in her heart as she saw how powerful Arthur was, at least she didn''t get slapped......
Chapter 28.1 : Yamak
After having dealt with the Emperor, Arthur used [Faster than death] to teleport away from the hall and with a dozen more teleportations, he arrived out of the castle.
Since he achieved what he came here to do, it was time to return, so without staying any longer he started running towards Laksy city.
It didn''t take him long to arrive there, so he used the teleportation array to go back to the academy.
Just when he was making his way to his room he came across the principal who surprisingly wasnearthe teleportation array.
Though he noticed her and saw her smiling at him, he bypassed her without speaking, after all, he had nothing to tell her.
"Sneaking away in the middle of the night, I wonder where were you?"
She couldn''t help but finally speak and ask him because she honestly was curious, naturally, he would not sneak around at night and tonight was the first time he did, soshe was wondering why he did that.
In fact, she only saw him leave the academy earlier, but that was purely by accident so she decided to wait for him to come back, I guess you could say curiosity got the better of her.
Arthur turned around to look at Sonia and coldly replied
"Though I''m a member of the council, I don''t have to tell you everything I do, or do I?"
As if expecting this kind of answer, Sonia giggled for a second before speaking again
"Hehe~ of course not Mr. Arthur~, I was just wondering that''s all"
Arthur was quite irritated that hisname was discovered, though it''s not like he was purposely hiding it, but the way the principal said his name seemed Like a teasing.
Since she didn''t insist and he had nothing else to say he turned around and continuedwalking.
Though she was disappointedhe didn''t tell her what she wanted tohear, she could do nothing about it, after all it''s not like she could read minds and get the answer but him acting unfriendly made her feel a bit sour, she wanted to build a friendly relationship with him but he kept acting cold and unwilling...
To be honest, Arthur hates people like the principal because behind that charming smile there is surely some schemes or plans, though she is kind and friendly on the outside, she must be crafty on the inside, as to be expected from a principal of a powerful magicacademy, but of course that was only how Arthur thought of her, maybe his past made him think badly of everyone he encounters.
Arthur never believed himself to be remotely kind, or right, he just does what he wants, maybe it''s bad or evil to others but that''s justhow his mind works, for him everyone who might cause troubles to him is an enemy no matter if they are kind people or bad ones, they are all the same as long as they provoke him.
He finally reached his room and foundLucy awake, she was sitting on the bed without doing anything apparently lost in thought, and when she saw Arthur come back, you could see her expression brighten and a breath-taking smile formed on her face.
Arthur quickly sat beside her and softly said
"I was just warning some idiots, why don''t we goto sleep?"
Though she didn''t question him about what he was doing, he knew her nature and after some time with her he comprehended a little of her personality, he could pinpoint her mood just by looking at her face, though in public she kept an expressionless face, when she is with him she started to smile often and speak a lot and her heart seemed to open to him more and more, so when he saw her gaze now, he immediately knew she was a bit curious so of course would tell her.
"Um!"
She nodded at him and soon bothof them slept in the usual position, she used his chest as a pillow and he wrapped his hands around her, hugging her tightly.
Morning soon came and both of them quickly got ready and headed to class like usual, though it''s a bit weird for a council member to be attending class, however, Arthur didn''t particularly care about that and enjoyed the company of Lucy very much.
Like this a few days passed peacefully until Arthur got summoned by the principal along with Lucy, so after classes, they both headed to Sonia''s office.
It didn''t take them long to arrive, and once they entered Arthur saw that there were 3 council members present, Mary, the male beastman who apparently was named Mach and last but not least is the female elf.
Arthur ignored them and sat with Lucy on a nearby sofa, seemingly nonchalant, once he got comfortable he looked at the principal as if expecting her to speak.
This time the female elf who was quite arrogant last time didn''t dare talk and provoke Arthur for she honestly was afraid of what he was capable of, heck she even heard from the principal that he(Arthur) killed Frederic, who compared to her was many times stronger.
"I see you finally came Mr. Arthur, well I have summoned you here for a special mission for you and 3 other council members"
Sonia didn''t waste time contemplating Arthur and spoke directly about the mission, she knew his attitude so she didn''t waste time prolonging the talk, when she finished speakingshe gazed at him to observe his reaction but he kept apoker face without even as much as flinch.
Sonia waited forhim to speak but even after a minute he still didn''t talk so she took his silence as a confirmation and continued talkingSupport the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
"This mission will be quite dangerous, deep in the ghost island there is a true adult dragon who has been residing there for a long time, I want you 4 to try to steal an essence crystal from him"
She posed for a second as if still observing Arthur, but with still no reaction, she smiled and said
"What I want you to steal is an essence crystal. An essence crystal is a catalyst for using ''judgment'' and without it, we cannot use it, as for why we need it now, you should know very well how threatening the holy church had become and I want to take precautions..."
To be honest Arthur was quite surprised, first as to why would she choose him to partake in this mission, and second is why would she need the essence crystal now, I mean normally they should have it always with them to prepare for any sudden attacks, so this was completely illogical, suspicions grew in his heart as he began to be more and more distrustful against the principal, there surely is a scheme behind this.
"Alright, but my comrade will come with me"
Since he was sure there is something going on, he had to bring Lucy, he had an uneasy feeling and he absolutely couldn''t let her stay here alone.
"Of course, that''s exactly why I summoned her here too."
As if expecting him to say that she immediately replied back to him while smiling.
"Since it''s decided, you will head to the ghost island tomorrow morning."
Sonia continued to talk about some other matters about the trip, and after half an hour, Lucy and Arthur left the office and headed towards their room.
As they entered their room Arthur softly said
"Lucy, sorry but I had to.."
Before he could finish Lucy interrupted him and spoke
"I know, something is suspicious about this mission.."
It seems evenLucy found it strange, surprisingly she put a hand on her hip and began to think deeply about something.
Arthur patted her head reassuringly while chuckling to himself as he found her pose very cute and enchanting especially with that green dress she was wearing, though he patted her head, he didn''t say anything, after all, words are meaningless between them, she knew he would protect her no matter what and he knew she would do the same even though she is not as strong as him.
The night passed rather quickly and it was now morning, Arthur and Lucy went to the meeting place and found the 2 beastmen and elf waiting there.
No words were needed and they proceeded, as usual, they took the teleportation array and appeared at the ghost island.
As they were heading deeper in the island, Mary finally broke the silence and spoke to Arthur
"The adult dragon is a lightning type and he is extremely strong but we do not need to beat it, just distract it for some time until we get the essence crystal, it is located in his(the dragon)cave with all the other treasures"
Dragons were the greedy type and loved collectingtreasuresof all kinds and would never let go of them even if theydied, so just stealing the treasure in front of it would enrage it even more.
Arthur heard her but still remained silent which greatly angered her but nonetheless, she snorted and spoke again
"You need to know that you have to distract him until we get the essence crystal, we picked you to do that because apparently, you are the strongest among us and with teleportation, you should win sometimes against him"
Arthur still didn''t reply but this timeshe didn''t mindand kept walking ahead with Mach.
Along the way, they encountered some strongmonsters but the female elf waved her staff and killed them with her wind magic.
Arthur could only sigh and repress his emotions, every time he bypassed a dead corpse without possessing it would be such a huge waste, after all, every single point of stats matters, he thought to himself that on the way back he would use the excuse of training and possess those corpses.
They did indeed encounter some imoogis but they discretely bypassed them to not cause unnecessary troubles or attract even more beasts.
After 3 hours of walking with decent traveling speed, a black mountain came in to view, it was very high and could be seen from a long distance, Arthur noticed it from earlier due to his keen sensesbut to normal people like Lucy the towering forest trees blocked almost all the view, plus the cloudy sky with no sun made it even harder to see.
The mountain was very normal except it was jet black and extremely high, but the more they approached it the more Arthur noticed the surroundings become darker as if they were at night, but you can see various lightning around, striking the ground now and then and as they become closer to the edge of the mountain the lightning become more frequent.
Mary and the female elf seemed a bit afraid as for Mach he held a poker face which surprised Arthur a little, he never heard the man talk but he somehow appearedspecial with his silent yet cold demeanor
They finally reached the foot of the mountain and stoppedthere, Mary turned around to look at Arthur and said:
"The dragon is probablyat the summit of themountain, his home is there so the treasures are likely to be there, we need you to distract him and bring him a little further from hishome so we can sneak in and take what we need"
Arthur was curious as to how she knew he lived above or even how she was so sure of that, but he gave up on that idea for the timebeings and made the dark cloud and jumped on it along with Lucy.
He decided tojust get done with this quickly but he was overly cautious of the people here more than the dragon, sure he was way stronger than them but there were some strange things in this world that he still didn''t knowabout and those things can probably harm him even if he is this powerful.
He created a barrier around Lucy, he made sure it''s complete and perfect and then he flew to the summit with her using the dark cloud.
He then retrieved his staff, and also made a barrier around him, he didn''t know how powerful a dragon can be but a young earth dragon gave him a headache,so an adult one must be extremely strong too.
He can use [hell arrow] but that was his trump card and he didn''t want to show it to them plus he was sure there is something plotted and to straight up use his trump card would put him at a disadvantage, also what if the arrow don''t work?that would only bring his doom.
Once they reached the summit which looked like a huge crater that spanned a kilometer or so, Arthur saw a silver creature laying not too far away, seemingly asleep.
The dragon had silver scales which honestly looked very beautiful and made him look majestic, lightning descended on him now and them but he seemed to be completely unaffected by it, not too far away from his there was a cave that could barely fit him, Arthur guessed that the treasures must be there.
He contemplated the silver dragon for a second beforehe was interrupted by adeep yet calm voice
"Who dares disturb Yamak?"
The dragon opened his eyes for a second before closing them again when he saw that it was just a puny human as if not caring about these beings, he wanted to kill the oneswho disturbed him but since it was just some weakhumans he found it useless and a waste of time to do it so he resumed his nap.
Dragons are creatures who didn''t love traveling, they always stuck to one place and made it their home, also they would sleep for a long time, especially the adult ones as they can survive without food for a very long time.
Arthur was startled as it is the first time he heard a beast talk but that''s to be expectedfrom a legendary being, after all, dragons are known to be able to talk human language when theyreach adulthood.
The First thing he did was appraise the dragon and he got this
[Named lightning dragon(Yamak, the Unforgiven): Lvl637]
''Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to distract THAT!''
Arthur gritted his teeth in anger, the dragon''s level was completely out of his expectation after all the young earth dragon was only 100 and something but this one was a whopping 600, no matter how confident Arthur was, he didn''t even have the assurance to be able to win against Yamak, fortunately, he only had to win some time and if he couldn''t he would only run with Lucy and abandon the others, after all, who cares about their petty lives.
He soon created a dozen or so dark spears and threw them at the silver dragon....
Chapter 28.2 : Might of Yamak
Arthur threw the dark spears at the sleeping silver dragon, and with insane speed, they blazed through the air and struck him.
But as Arthur expected, spears like that didn''t even scratch him, but the dragon seemed to have woken up.
He stared coldly at Arthur for second before speaking with an annoyed tone
"damn ants, you dare disturb Yamak even though he spared your petty lives!"
As he finished speaking, he didn''t waste any secondand charged at Arthur, but what was more terrifying is that he completely transformed into yellow lightning and his speed cannot be seen by naked eye, it was far more superior than Arthur''s.
Fortunately, the distance between them was not small so Arthur quickly came back to his senses and teleported a distance away.
Just when he reappeared, he was astonished to see that the dragon who was in the form of lightning was already in front of him as if he predicted his teleportation, and with a simple slash of his claws, Arthur was sent flying until he hit the ground.
Yamak, seemingly sure he killed Arthur, turned his gaze towards Lucy who was very high in the sky, standing on the dark cloud, but surprisingly he didn''t attack her, instead he returned slowly near hiscave.
Arthur groaned from pain since he didn''t want to shut off his sense of pain, and that''s because if he did, he wouldn''t know if he was injured or not, moreover, this pain was nothing compared to what he experienced while evolving, but it still hurts!
there was a deep cut on his chest, you could even see some bones, a simple slash from that dragon was really no jokeand must not be taken lightly.
Fortunately, his vitality was special and exceptionally high, so the wound was healing at fast speed, you could see the flesh and organs healing with the naked eye.
Arthur got up and quickly created a dark spear again but this time he fused it with void magic.
To be honest the spear looked quite strange and it emanatedan ominous feeling. He created around 30 or so of those spears then he willed them to attack Yamak.
As for the dragon who was leisurely returning to his home, he didn''t expect the human to survive and even counter-attack.
One must know that humans who can survive a blunt attack from him are extremely rare.
This time, Yamak didn''t stay still and receive the spears because he felt they are no ordinary ones and they can be harmful so he easily dodged them.
Asthe attacks continued, Arthur became depressed, he couldn''t even hit the dragon, much less match him with speed, it seemed as if he was being played by Yamak.
The dragon''s speed was just crazy, every time he moves he transforms into a streak of lightning, sometimes there is some lightning attacking him from above but he barely dodged them with [faster than death].
Arthur created more spears and weapons to attack the dragon but it didn''t hit him even once, and what made matters worse is that the council members who were supposed to come back shortly are still in the cave even though 5 minutes have passed.
Yamak finally began personally attacking and tried to slash Arthur with his claws again, while he was charging at him(Arthur) with his extreme speed, Arthur decided to face him head on, since he knew even if he teleported, the dragon can predict where he will teleport to and that made him stressful and depressed, in fact even the earth dragon could predict where he will teleport, which confused Arthur but he paid it no heed for the moment as it was not the time to think about something like that.
Arthur created a flame sword this time, it was dark red and it emanated an extraordinary heat that could melt everything.
He held it firmly and used [dark burst] and [void slash], he knew how powerful the claws of the dragon were so he used everything he got.
The dragon quickly reached him, and once he was just a couple of meters in front of Arthur, he transformed back to his original form and slashed with his claws but this time you could notice some green lightning in his claws.
''BOOOOM''
The impact of the sword and the claws were just earth-shattering.
All surroundings trees and rocks were annihilated, and the place of impact was divided into 2 parts, one seemingly black as if burned by flames and the other part was much less bad but nevertheless ravaged and destroyed with some green lightning striking from the sky now and then.
Both the opponents were pushed back, Arthur was gravely injured, the arm used to strike with the sword was now gone, and blood flowed endlessly, he alsoseemed to be breathing heavily.
In fact, that attack from the dragon wasextremely strong, not only was his arm gone, even his internal organs seemed to be injured, somehow that green lightning invaded his body and injured him internally.
As for the dragon, he was less hurt than Arthur but his claws were melted and some of his arms were burned, you could see gold blood flowing from his arm.
He groaned for some time before speaking
"This flame..., you! Who are you? why are you attacking Yamak!"
After receiving this kind of injury, the dragon became cautious, and he couldn''t help but ask for the identity of his enemy, because someone who can holdhis grounds against a dragon and even injury it is by no means someone weak, he surely must be known in this world, so why would this person come here to attack him?maybe for his treasures?
"My identity is none of your business, as for why I came here? well let''s say it''s for entertainment"
Arthur had only wanted to distract him for some time but even after a decent period of time, those bastards didn''t come back, ''Did they run away? Or they encountered some problem? Nevertheless, I''monly going to distract him for a few minutes before running with Lucy, this dragon is out of my league...''
Arthur adjusted his body, and prepared to continue fighting, his vitality was helping him and his wounds were slowly but surely healing, even his lost arm will regenerate but that will take a more or less an hour, so he has to fight while missing an arm.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
This time he created chains from chaotic dark magic and void magic and made them chase the dragon to bind him, actually using the chains against big targets is very efficient, but unfortunately the dragon kept dodging.
After multiple tries, he managedto wrap the chain around Yamak''s leg but somehow he broke it with a whip of his tail, which astonished Arthur as it was the first time some weapon created by 2 attributes wasdestroyed, though he was surprised, he didn''t dare daze off because a second can decide his life or death, one must know a single slash from the dragon did 7000 damage, as for the last attack, it did 12000, so it''s to be expected for him to be seriously injured, after all, he was in the bring of death.
He gave up on the idea to bind him and created flame spears which lengthened 10m, and once the dragon saw them he became extremely alert, heck! he even backed off a bit.
Yamak knew how dangerous those flames are, and he obviously didn''t want to face them head on like earlier.
Creating flame spears didn''t consume mana so Arthur abusedthe hell out of it and created spears, arrows, swords, and threw them at the dragon, but to no avail, when Yamaktransformed into lightning, Arthur could not cope with him(Yamak), and all of his attacks missed, the dragon even kept being passive and didn''t dare approach Arthur.
Finally, Arthur got enough of this prolonged fight and decided to retreat, the council members didn''t seem they were going to come back anytime soon, and he is being attackedby the streaks of lightning, and to be fair, being struck by hundreds of them did injure him.
If one looked at him, they will only see a bloodied figure, even his black robe was covered in blood, he was wounded all over, and the injuries spanned from minor cuts to deep bloody holes which looked painful.
Lucy who was watchingthe fight from afar in the sky, was clenching her small hands until blood came out, she gritted herteeth and blamed herself for being weak, if she was strong enough to fight beside him, he wouldn''t have been this gravely injured, whenever she saw him in this state, her heart ached, she regrettedcoming to this academy, because if coming to the Academy makes him suffer then there is no meaning to it, she knew he is doing this for her and it pained her even more.
*********************
Back at the academy, Sonia was in her office and surprisingly Mary, Mach, and the female elf was in front of her.
"Big sister! Are you sure wehave to do this?"
Mary seemed anxious and unwilling for what about to happen and even with her blind trust to her big sister, she couldn''t help but ask.
The principal seemed lost in thought and tapped her pretty white fingers on the table asif she was struggling with something.
"What do you mean by that, Mr. Sonia''s decision is wise! who would want that monster living with us, plus what if he turns against us? that would be our disaster, you are still young so you don''t understand! Hmpf!"
The female elf snapped at Mary and shouted at her as if lecturing her, so all Mary could do is look down and shut up.
The principal who was silent from the very beginning finally spoke and said
"Mr. Mach, what do you think about the current situation"
Surprisingly, she asked the silent Beastman who almost never talked, as wanted to hear his opinion, actually he was one of the first members of the council and his opinion is important for her to make a decision.
"Mr. Sonia, actually, I think it was not wise to do ''that'', but it''s too late right now and we can only proceed as planned"
Once she heard that, Sonia could only sigh and wave her hand saying
"Alright, I will contact Mr. Molrid"
She then took a crystal and injected some Mana into it and aftersome seconds, a connection was established between another crystal which obviously belonged to the demon Molrid.
"Mr. Molrid, is everything ready?"
After some seconds without a response, Molrid hastily replied
"Yes yes! Mrs. Sonia, it has been completely charged, and it can fire 3 shots, indeed after a long time without use, it has accumulated a big amount of Mana."
Even after hearing that, Sonia was not happy, quite the opposite, in fact, she was depressed, she could only sigh.
She never wanted this but her ''big sister'' told her that him staying in the academy would only bring its destruction, even that demon girl was dangerous.
Actually Soniawas from a very secretive and powerful clan that not many people knew of, and the clan controlled the academy for a long time, sheusually took all decisions about the academy herself,but sometimes her big sister, who also is the current clan master, would order her to do things in the academyand she can not disobey for she knows that her sister is NEVERwrong, and disobeying her is like betraying her clan and her own family. Plus; between Arthur and her big sister, of course, she would choose her sister, after all, blood is thicker than water.
And this time, to her surprise, her big sister orderedher to get rid of those two at all costs, and there was no room for denial, and if she didn''t, her sister will personally come, and see exactly how her sister handle things, so she decided to just be done with it.
To be honest, Sonia didn''t dislike Arthur, even though he acted cold and indifferent, she knew he was kind and you could see that by the way, he treats Lucy, he is overprotective and never leaves her side, so killing him like that made her feels evil and disgusted with herself but there is nothing she could do.
For someone like her sister, the holy church or whatever are just ants so even if she killed Lucy, her big sister told her that she will handle thechurch, so there is no need to be afraid of it being angry because she killed the person they were looking for.
She mustered her courage and seriously said
"Use it! Fire at the ghost island, exactly at the lightning mountain!"
When he received the order, Molrid didn''t delay any further and fired the gigantic cannon, also known as ''judgment'', surprisingly the cannon immediately fired, in fact, the cannon was enormous so obviously the attack would be crazy big too, what was special about this weapon is that it fired a special kind of mana which annihilateseverything in its way.
Though it''s strong and it can indeed erase something like the holy church HQ from existence, it cannot completely destroy ghost island but it was enough to destroy the lightning mountain along with the other mountain in a radius of 200 kilometers around it, and even after that, the land would be poisoned, so there is absolutely no way to survive such a terrifying thing.
The cannon fired a blueish light, the light was very bright and the pressure it emanated was no joke, someone with a normal strengthwould piss their pants seeing it, as for its speed, it was even faster than Yamak.
*******
Arthur has decided to retreat so he had to distract the dragon until he dashes to Lucy and bring her withhim.
First, he created many flame spears and threw them at the dragon to lure him into a specific location, while the spears were doing their job, he began creating the hell arrow, and in no time it was created.
Asalways, the arrow looked terrifying, even the silver dragon narrowed his eyes and felt a little fearful.
Though it made him feel some fear, he still didn''t back off, actually, he doubled in size and transformed into a green lightning dragon, streaks of green lightning never ceased to stop hitting him, and every time it did, he became more and more powerful.
As the 2 opponents prepared strong attacks and readied themselves, and as Arthur was going to fire that spear at the currently green lightning dragon, his expression abruptly changed, and panic showed on hisface.
Even though he didn''t have any strong skill to detect danger, he knew a disaster was coming and once he turned his head he saw a bright blue light coming towards him, it would engulf everything surrounding him including Lucy andYamak.
"Lucy!!"
Sensing the great danger, he teleported 4 times to arrive in front of Lucy and immediately began creating a large barrier, but unfortunately the time it took him to teleport was barely enough and when he was going to create that barrier, the dazzling blue light already arrived.
He had high intelligence and wisdom so he could clearly think but there was no absolute safe solution, if he used that skill that made him unkillable he would surely survive but what about Lucy? will she survive if he covered her with his body while using that skill?
He was in a dilemma and was running out of time, ''live together, or die together!'' While thinking that, he hugged Lucy while covering every inch of her body and faced his back to the light, preparing for the impact, last thing he did was commanding the arrow and willed it to charge at the blue light, asfor the dragon, he dashedat the blue light while roaring....
Chapter 29 : A Long Winter
While Arthur braced himself for the impact, and the [Hell Arrow] accompanied by Yamak charged at the blue light, a deafening sound was created for the impact.
It seemed the Blue light targeted the mountain but Arthur and the others didn''t escape the danger.
The sound was so loud that it could be heard from afar, even the students in the academy did hear it.
From afar, it was as if a nuclear attack struck the ghost island, moreover that blue light is a condensed mana and its power is immeasurable.
Once the blue light struck, Arthur could feel his back disintegrating and burning like hell, it was as if it''s being eaten by the blue light, but soon the light covered all his body and the pain increased even more.
even the black robe showed signs of breaking, blood flowed and wounds covered his body, the light never ended so he could only grit his teeth and cover Lucy, he knew if she was exposed to this light like him she would die as she didn''t have stats like him.
Even when he tried his best to protect her, the light managed somehow injure her in her arms and legs but compared to Arthur, it was literally nothing.
Even his conscience began fading, he could no longer hold and the light didn''t seem to stop, heck! Even his ears were bleeding from the sound of impact, though it''s supposed to only be the sound of the impact, it didn''t stop and the ringing made his headache like hell.
Fortunately, just as he was going to fall unconscious the light disappeared but if one looked at the scenery, they would be dumbstruck, especially if one knew the previous scenery.
Now it only looked like a huge pit, you could only see darkness as if it was a long forgotten abyss, there was not even a place to land in.
Arthur didn''t have the time to be surprised, with barely any strength left, he commanded the cloud to quickly find a place to land on.
After a dozen of minutes they finally find a place, actually it was a huge cliff, and on the far horizon you could see the forest, but it seemed unusually quiet as if all beasts were afraid.
Arthur paid that no heed and with his last strength he landed the cloud at the cliff, then he finally fell unconscious, he knew Lucy was fine so he breathed a sigh of relief.
If one would see him now, they would surely not recognize him as a human being, his left leg is gone and his right one is half gone too, with some bones sticking out, his chest is bloody and full of holes as big as fists, as for his back, there is nothing left of it, it''s as if he didn''t have a back, no bones, no blood, just nothing, if one saw him they would surely think he is dead for sure.
Lucy was trembling as she saw his state, she thought he was dead yer she subconsciously began calling for him while shaking his body.
"A-Arthur!..Arthur!..."
Even in the middle of calling out for him, she began sobbing as she was afraid of the possibility of him dying, then she would come back to being alone in this world, but of course she can''t handle that anymore, not after experiencing true warmth, and being cherished and loved by someone, for her death is way better than being alone again.
After some time, she still didn''t get any response, nevertheless she didn''t give up that easily, she dragged Arthur''s body or what was left of him and didn''t stop until she found a small cave, she knew it''s a dangerous forest, so she made a curse allowing her to cover the cave, it was a simple curse that distracts weak beasts or makes them feel as if the place was ominous, it may work on weak animals but against powerful beasts like an imoogi, they would be easily discovered, so she could only hope for the best.
Lucy really didn''t know what to do, she didn''t have any powerful healing skills, even normal healing was not available for her, so she could only use the miraculous healing potion he gave her.
She had hundreds of them, so she made him drink them.
This time she didn''t restrain herself in any way and made him drink those portions using her mouth, it can be considered kissing, but she didn''t care, as long as he is healed then it''s fine, though it''s the first time she kissed him on the lips, and she didn''t do it in the past because she was afraid of her fears resurfacing again, but for the time being what most scared her is him dying, and if he wakes up she would no longer be shy about something like this.
She had a lot of objects in her storage ring, so she took out a bed which Arthur gave to her from his storage back then, and then she put him on the bed.
Her mind was much calmer now, and after some thinking and observation, she saw that his wounds were healing but for some reason or another, his healing is extremely slow.
Lucy would feed him a potion twice a day and never ever leave his side, she had enough food to eat but she didn''t eat, she would fall asleep while sitting next to him.
She held his healed arm gently as if afraid of hurting him, and would sometimes start sobbing silently while calling out for him
"Arthur*sob* please wake up *sob*, I-I would never reject you again*sob*, please*sob*.....I love you.."
Days passed quickly, and after 2 weeks his body was half-healed, only his back is still gone, Lucy didn''t lose hope but she still felt extremely depressed.
Not even once did she leave his side, she only ate enough for her to live, and every day she would shed tears while calling out to him.
Her heart ached, looking at his state and his back, she knew he protected her using his body, and she would rather die than make him suffer this again.
Lucy would stroke his chin with her beautiful white hand while lovingly smile at him but become worried the next second and anxious thoughts would overwhelm her.
......
A month passed and Lucy never stopped giving him the potion, in any case, she started giving him more, and fortunately, his back started slowly healing.
She became extremely joyful as she saw that, she couldn''t wait for the day he would wake up.
.........
2 months passed since the incident, and now his body is completely healed, including his back, Lucy was beyond happy and waited for every second with impatience, hoping to see him open his eyes, but that never happened, a week even passed but he still didn''t wake up.
Having passed 2 months taking care of him, Lucy became anxious seeing him not wake up, however, she didn''t feel lonely, even though he was unconscious, he is still next to her, and even if there is a chance in a million that he will wake up, she would still stick with it.
Every day passed like the previous one, from morning until night, she would stay next to him on the bed, the cave was sealed with a huge rock, and a fire was lit not too far from them.
In fact, it was winter right now, and even with the cave being sealed, it was still cold, so she lit a fire and she would sleep next to him under the blankets.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
What was more surprising is that she would take his and her clothes off and stick to him closely for better heat, first she felt embarrassed but after that she no longer felt shy or anything of the sort, more so, not even once did she become afraid of him even when sleeping naked with him, quite the opposite, in fact, she hoped he would wake up and hugged her back, but to no avail, he never woke up and she would end up soundlessly crying...
There were some accidents when strong monsters discovered the cave, but she fought them until the bitter end, then she would come back to his side with bloody wounds on her, if he saw her like this, Arthur would fly into an endless rage.
There was even a time an imoogi found out about the cave and attacked them, so she had to lure it very far away then barely escape, but she didn''t come out unscathed, she was seriously injured and could barely walk, the imoogi was too much for her, nevertheless she never gave up or even thought of giving up, heck! Even when she was luring the imoogi she was worried about the snow wolves that might ambush Arthur.
She knew his body somehow became very vulnerable even though he was completely healed and even a Lvl 45 snow wolf can hurt him if not kill him.
She was deathly worried and only when she finally came back to the cave and found him safe did she breathe a sigh of relief. That time she was so injured that she had to rest for a week, but that was a damnable week as the wolves sniffed her blood all the way to the cave so she had to take care of them regardless of her wounds.
After completely killing them and getting rid of the danger, she would as always come back to his side.
Sometimes, when she is on the brink of death in a hard fight against a beast, she would think, now it''s time for her death as the opponent is stronger but at the last second she would muster her courage and fight until the very end to survive.
Though all of that happened just before winter came. However, when it finally came, monsters stayed home and would come out rarely, with the exception of snow wolves of course.
Not a day passed, she didn''t wish to find him awake when she opens her eyes after a long sleep, but all of that became hopeless dreams as time slowly passed.
To be honest, she didn''t know why he didn''t wake up but she guessed maybe it had to do with his soul, maybe that bright blue light was also a soul attack?
In fact, in this world, there are physical attacks and soul attacks, but the soul attacks are almost non-existent and only certain beings can use them.
It is said soul attacks are terrifying as they use your worst fears and nightmares to destroy your soul, and of course, without a soul, you would only be an empty shell and your body will soon deteriorate.
Lucy was sure he didn''t die and his soul is still existing, if not he would not have been completely healed, but him staying unconscious made her guess that surely his soul is affected and is either slowly weakening or slowly healing itself, but she had no way to know for sure, so she was confused as what to do, but in the end all she could truly do is wait and hope for the best.
Days passed and Lucy no longer stayed next to him all day, well technically she did, but she didn''t hold his hand and wait for him to wake up, No! Instead she began practicing magic in the cave, right next to him, moreover, she would read books related to souls.
Actually, all the books Arthur got from Zodiak are now stored in a single storage ring, which is available for him and Lucy and of course, he handed her the ring and would only ask for it when he needed a book.
She read numerous books that contained information about souls and soul attacks, and one must know that those books belonged to Zodiak, so every one of them was very special and detailed.
Though her reading speed was not like Arthur, she managed to get decent knowledge about souls, and with the practicing and previous fights, her strength skyrocketed and her level became 112.
One need to know that to level up is by no means easy, Arthur can do that quickly because of ''X'' blessing, but she didn''t have that, nevertheless she managed to level up so much, so that totally proves how much she struggled and worked to become stronger to protect him from those beasts, she even stored the corpses for him to possess when he wakes up, a gentle and enchanting smile would form on her face every time she remembered him patting her head while smiling or when he hugged her or slept in her lap, those were the best memories she got, and never will she forget them...
Her usage of magma was now nb the beginning of [Advanced Magma Magic] and that was something extraordinary, one must know that to get to advanced in an attribute, one needs to practice for dozen of years, and even more years to reach advanced in special attributes as they were more powerful but they took more time to muster, while she practiced for less than a year, she guessed it must have to do with her family or blood, since she didn''t know her origin, she didn''t think much about it right now.
................................
It has been 7 months since the incident and Lucy managed to finally find a clue and maybe a possible solution.
As for her practice and strength, she managed to reach advanced in Darkness magic and perfection in fire magic, her fire was now Violet, the strongest kind, also in this long winter there were numerous fights with yetis(AN:google the name to know what it is), and snow wolves, so she accumulated hundreds of those wolves, her level rose again and she managed to reach LVL131. However, that was only after thousands of bloody fights that injured her, every one of those battles was a struggle to her, nevertheless, with every fight that passed, her control in darkness, fire and magma became insanely good, the coordination in using them was beyond perfect.
Her [Advanced magma magic] reached the middle level and can now be considered quite terrifying, and with the strong curses of darkness magic she would win every fight except when those damned snow wolves would attack in a big pack of hundreds, they were very clever and very persistent, nonetheless Lucy always won even when she was covered with injuries.
She read a lot of books and finally found something that may wake him up, it was ''soul search'', it''s very ancient ritual, while there is a strong darkness curse similar to this ritual, it is not near as strong as this ritual.
The book mentioned that this ritual is used to invade the target''s soul, and get its memories or bind it with your blood so you can control it.
It is indeed a sinister ritual, as to be expected from a book which belonged to Zodiak who was known as a mythical being, however, Lucy wanted to use this ritual to her advantage and see what is happening to Arthur.
She missed his touch, his voice, and his behavior, it has been a long time since she talked to him but she still didn''t lose hope and since she found something that may help him then so be it.
To use ritual you need some ingredients, but they were all very simple and within her reach, so in no time she managed to assemble them, what was left was a drop of her blood and some of his hair.
As the last 2 things were acquired, she drew the mysterious circle and strange symbols like the book indicated, then she put the ingredients, after saying some incantations with some strange language that even she didn''t understand, the circle excluded a black light and in a matter of seconds, her surroundings changed and she no longer was in a cave.
She was floating in some sort of dark space, there were stars all over, with all kinds of size. Lucy was astonished as she didn''t think the inside of someone''s soul is like this, or maybe it differs from person to another?
She began floating until she saw a dim light not too far away from her location, so she slowly flew towards to check what it is, since the ritual is meant to bind someone or steal their memories then surely it can do other things, it was just that Zodiak used it for evil things.
When she touched that light, she was transferred to another place. Lucy now is in an empty room with an iron door, the room reeked of blood and other disgusting things, the smell alone was agonizing, and in the middle was a man she recognized at first sight, it was obviously Arthur, but his state was horrifying and his eyes seemed empty as if he didn''t feel anything.
Since she knew of his past, she totally guessed that she is in his memories, nonetheless, she tried calling out to him but that was useless of course.
She saw as the memories accelerated, and people came torturing him, there was also a particular woman who came to mock him or torture him in a disgusting way, it would be a lie to say Lucy was not angry and sad but no matter how she tried she couldn''t change the past.
Memories changed and she saw his childhood, high school, etcetera..
She was astonished to see the new world, by that I mean the world he lived in, the towering buildings or strange machines, she stared in disbelief at all of that.
Very soon, she was cast out when she saw enough and she started roaming the dark space in search of the problem in his soul.
After some time, she finally found Arthur naked, while being bound by blue chains, he seemed to be in a sleep-state. Lucy tried to approach him but a strange orb above him seemed to exclude a terrifying pressure, it didn''t let her get even a little closer, so she only could call for him, endlessly without stopping, until she could no longer do it. Time seemed to be running out, and the distance between them became wider, but even with that happening she never ceased her calls and yells.
At some point, her efforts and yells did indeed reach him and his body twitched, the chains began shattering slowly until they disappeared when were strangely sucked of the strange orb above him, nonetheless even after the chains broke, he seemed to be still asleep, Lucy did clearly see that and only then did she stop and let the energy cast her out of his soul.
To be honest, she didn''t know if she was successful or not, but her guts told her that the chains were definitely the problem but now that they are shattered, he would wake up soon, hopefully.
She didn''t retry the ritual and continued with her practice while sleeping next to him every night.
..........
2 more months passed since the ''Soul Search'', and now it has been 9 months since the incident, Arthur''s hand twitched a little and he slowly opened his eyes at last....
Chapter 30 : an unbreakable Bond
Arthur opened his eyes for the first time in a very long time, just as his eyes opened, he heard notifications come one after another ''ting''...
[Your soul have been weakened by (Pure Mana chains) for a certain period of time : 1 year / 3 months left]
[Due to yourweakened soul -99% to all stats for 1 year : 3 months left]
[Orb of the fallen overgods has absorbed the (Pure Mana chains), the restriction on the blessing of Tul''ah has been lifted]
[The blessing of the overgod of Misery, Tul''ah is now available]
[Blessing of Tul''ah : Known as the tyrannic and evil overgod,always being alone until he fell in love with a mortal, he shared his powers with her to make her immortal like him, by doing that he was punished by the heavens : Can link your strength to one person, you will gain 50% of his stats, while he gains 60% of yours]
[Congratulations! You have obtained [Peak Sword Mastery](passive): While using a sword, +30% damage/ +15% speed]
[Congratulations! You earned the title: One with thesword: you do not need a sword to attack, even your fingers can be one, and the bonus from sword mastery still applies]
[You have gained a new skill(active) : [Lone sword] : You unsheath and sheath your sword at lightning speed and a pure sword slash is created which have strong cutting power]
[Having gained Tul''ah blessing, your stats have been increased please check your status window for more details]
Arthur could barely read the notifications, his body was sore and he couldn''t even get up, so he only looked around, only to see Lucy who was training stare at him with wide-open eyes, as if she couldn''t believe what she was seeing.
"H-hey..."
His voice seemed a bit weak, he barely talked and he is already feeling a little tired, the astonished Lucy soon jumped on him while crying non-stop.
Before he could even react, she was already hugging him tightly and sobbing, it was as if he was gone for a long time, which he obviously was.
Arthur mustered some strength and hugged her back, his body seemed to be heavy and surprisingly he was naked under the blankets but he paid it no heed for the time being.
Even after some time passed, Lucy was still crying so Arthur finally spoke again
"Now now silly girl, there is no need to cry, I''m awake, see?"
He continued stroking her silver hair gently until she calmeddown, nonetheless, she kept hugging him and laid down comfortably next to him, it seemed she didn''t mind him being naked which surprised him a lot.
The first thing that was on his mind was how long was he unconscious so he asked her
"H-How long was I unconscious"
Lucy looked at him joyfully, one couldn''t believe that she was crying a while ago, she felt beyond happy, for him to finally wake up, it is like a dream for her, after waiting for such a long time, he was finally awake, she held him sotight as if afraid he would disappear if she let go.
She gazed at his face, though it seemed a bit pale it was still charming, his blood red eyes that would terrify anyone werenow looking at her with softness and love, that alone made her heart beat so fast and her cheeks to redden, the love she held for him was immeasurable.
She quickly approached his face and kissed him directly on the lips, and to be honest he was dumbstruck by her bold act.
He never kissed her like this and never tried to, so, her doing this abruptly, made him surprised, however one would be lying to say he didn''t enjoy the feel of her soft lips resting on his, that feeling was like travelling into a dream world, so he didn''t push her back and instead kissed her back, and she seemed to be neither disgusted or angry, quite the opposite, in fact, she felt even happier.
After some time enjoying the kiss, they finally separated, Arthur''s face was a bit flushed, as for her she didn''t seem the least bit embarrassed, she smiled back at him coquettishly.
After having slept naked next to him for months, there is nothing to be afraid of, moreover she no longer felt hesitant and she would wholly give her body to him if he ever desired, her tragic past was nothing compared to what she has been through these 9 months, the fear of losing him was more intense than the fear of those men, in any case, she didn''t fear them anymore.
Arthur was still in a daze after what just happened and stared dumbly at demoness in front of him.
As for Lucy, she could not help but giggle a bit after seeing his dumbfounded look.
Arthur snapped out of it after some time, but he did something unexpected, he reached for herface with both his hands and put them on her soft cheeks and slowly kissed her again on the lips, though his action surprised her, she did not struggle and kissed him back.
Arthur could not forget that feeling so heunconsciously kissed her, he thought he screwed up, but seeing Lucy welcoming him, he continued kissing her, even his tongue invaded her mouth and you could hear her moan a bit.
"Mn..."
Lucy did the same and soon their kiss became extremely erotic but he didn''t go any further and only kissed her but that kiss was enough to holdhim for another hundredyears, it would be an everlasting feeling of pleasure and happiness for him.
One must know Lucy is an extreme beauty, her long silver hair, alluring black eyes that could steal every man''s heart, also not to forget her snow white skin and voluptuous body, she was indeed petite compared to normal women, but only by a little bit and her breasts are considered well developed, adding her perky and round butt and her curvy waist, that made her look like a goddess that descended fromanother realm.
She was wearing a simple leather shirt and some black pants, nonetheless she looked gorgeous and seeing her made him fall in a daze, but he didn''t dare touch her in anywhere for he still respected her and her decisions, even though she kissed him there were still limits.
After some time they separated again and both of them were panting heavily.
It was the first time for them they experience something like this but nonetheless, they both liked that feeling, to be close to the one you love and to be totally accepted by them.
This time, Arthur didn''t apologize for what he did as he knew she didn''t mind and there is no need for pointless words.
Lucy wrapped her hands around his neckand smiled brightly at him, and it was really a breath-taking sight.
After they both sat up comfortable on the bed, Lucy being on his lap still not letting go, she finally spoke
"..9 months, you have been unconscious for 9 months"
To be honest, he expected himself to be out cold for long but not THIS long was just astonishing, 9 months is not a short period, it''s true the notifications also indicated 9 months but he didn''t focus much on it and he wanted to hear it from Lucy.
It really pained him whenhe thought about it, for 9 months she must have been struggling alone and even taking care of him, he could only blame his weakness
"I-I''m sorry..for 9 months you.."
Before he could finish, she interrupted him by kissing him and stopping him from further speaking.
The kiss ended quickly this time, she then looked at him and softly said
"Don''t apologize, I''m more than happy to see you awake, as for the 9 months, just being by your side was enough"
Arthur didn''t how to reply, actually he didn''t even know why the sudden change in Lucy but maybe many things happened in those months, anyway, his view of her never changed, and he would always love her dearly, even more so now when he saw how worried she was.
As he was thinking about the past, the memory of the bright light resurfaced, and he remembred being attacked by it
"that blue light...."
Once he mentioned this, even Lucy became angry and killing intent emanated from her eyes, she replied while clenching her fists
"It''s surely those bastards from theacademy, I''m sure it was their weapon, ''judgment'', there is no other weapon that can cause that much devastation..."
Arthur didn''t have 9 months to think thoroughly like her, but once she mentioned that, it seemed logical, plus he believed her guess to be on point.
He truly was enraged and angry, he gritted his teeth and had already begun to plan how he is going to slaughter all the academy, especially that damned principal.
''Just you wait! My revenge would be bloody, and no one can save you. Sonia...''
Though he was angry, there was no need to show it to Lucy and since he is greatly weakened right now, he could only wait.
After reading the notifications again, he was both happy and sad, first sad because he needs 3 more months to recover, but happy because of the new blessing and powerup, since he is weakened right now, it was useless to check his status so he decided to do it once he recovered, the same thing applied for the link.
If lucy is going to get more than half his stats then he would be much less worried abouther, and of course, the link would be with her, who else would he chose besides his dear woman.
Both of them spent the day speaking, Lucy never let go of him for even a second and would even kiss him every now and then.
He came to learn that they are not far from the impact, in a small cave, and after some observation, it was indeed a cave, though now it was decorated from bookshelves to tables and chairs, it seems Lucy decorated it well, and it resembled a small house rather than a cave.
the entrance was blocked by a huge boulder and some runes, in fact, she learned some sealing spells from Zodiak''sbooks and used them on the entrance to block the enemies.
Arthur became even more surprised when he learned about her Lvl which was 140 now, she almost reached him, though she didn''t tell him it rose because of the fights, he already knew that, because that was the only way to level up really quickly in a short amount of time.
She told him about her improvement in darkness and magma and showed him her new violet fire, she looked very proud of herself and showed her new skills and techniques to him, so he couldn''t help but come hug her from behind and imprint a deep kiss on her lips.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
shewas startled for a bit before relaxing and letting him kiss her, it had already become a usual thing for them to kiss, especially Arthur who would kiss her a lot, and that made her giggle and tease him
"Hmph! You never stop with your kisses!"
Every time she would tease like this he would become depressed and feel guilty as if he angered her but also every time that happens she would giggle and kiss him while he is lost in those guilty thoughts, actually she didn''t know why but she lovedteasing him and would always do that, even though she never did it in the past.
She more than anyone else knew that she changed, and became more open when she is with him, she didn''t hide any emotion and never ever acted cold towards him.
Passing one day with him made her forget all she has been through in her past and the bloody fights she had in those 9 months, just one day made her feel as if she was dreaming, never did she know that the company of a lover can be this comfortable.
It''s indeed true, they were lovers even before the incident, but the interractions changed, before she hugged him and held hands but still felt embarassed, and when she offered her body but then couldn''t do it, that was evidence proving she didn''t forget her painful pastyet, she even didn''t directly kiss him, but she changed, when he saved her and nearly died, it affected her, and being without him for 9 months made her realise what''s more important, and a past is still past and she should focus on him, who loves her more than anything and would sacrifice everything for her.
She knew that so that''swhy she fed him the potions like that, she knew that so that''s why she slept next to him naked not caring if it''s embarrassing or not, to provide heat for him for she knew he somehow became very vulnerable and his body is like any normal commoner and the cold of the winter would freeze him. She knew that so that''s why she fought endlessly to protect him from every danger and cause herself to be gravely injured, nevertheless she didn''t regret any of her decisions, and decided she would live just for him just as he only lives for her.
She now knew his past as she saw his memories, and she understood his feelings more than anyone, so there was no need to hold back anymore.
....
At the end of the day, Arthur managed towalk some steps with the help of Lucy who was supporting him, he already wore a white robe to cover himself.
Lucy was deathly afraid so she didn''t let him walk alone even with his insistence.
"No means no! You should rest, since it said 3 months then we have to wait 3 months, there was no need to rush"
Even her behavior seemed to have slightly changed, she would become panicked every time he falls and would forbid him from walking alone, it''s like a mother worried about her child, everytime he saw her behave like that, he would burst into laughter.
She would pout when she see him laugh at her, but a smile would soon form on her face, she just couldn''t get angry with him even if she wanted to.
Arthur body seemed to still be very slowly recovering and even after 3 days, he could not walk alone.
Those 3 days were like heaven for Lucy, she didn''t practice and would pass all day long with him, either chatting or helping him stabilize his body, every second passed, their relationship deepened even more, and Arthur was no longer embarrassedof kissing her, moreover he told her he would kiss her everytime he wakes up in the morning, and indeed he held his promise.
Though they kissed intimately, they never did anything beyond that, to be honest, Lucy didn''t mind at all, but she didn''t say anything, as for Arthur he was hesitating, afterthey become this close, he didn''t want to ruin it, and he didn''t know what she would think of him if he ever did anything obscene.Maybe she would leave him? Curse at him? Or even worse, he could not think about that, his heart would really break if she ever left him, or if he hurt her in any way possible, so he decided not to do anything for now and wait to see what happens.
On the morning of the fourth day, while they were both sleeping, a loud soundwoke them both up, they were obviously wearing clothes but still hugging eachother, while sleeping soundlessly on the comfortable and big bed, but the sound woke them up and especially Lucy, shewas on high alert and jumped from the bed with fast speed.
She definitely knew this sound, it was of an imoogi, she lured a dozen or so imoogi out of this place in those months but she had gotten injured in return, so she obviously would recognize their sound from afar.
Arthur gave her his gloves and boots since she can equip them and with high leveled staff, she readied herself while saying
"Don''t worry, an imoogi coming here is not unusual, I will lure it away then come back here."
Though she said that, Arthur was deathly worried, even though he knew she became very strong, he also knew an imoogi is not a simple monster, so he was anxious, he could only clench his fists and curse his luck because he is weakened, or else a petty imoogi would be nothing to him.
Before she went outside, Arthur grapped her soft hand and brought her to his embrace, he couldn''t help but tightly hugg her, he was afraid of losing her, since she didn''t tell him about the fights that she had, he clearly wouldn''t know about them but now she is going to fight a strong beast and he didn''t wish forthat to happen, after all when he was strong, never did he let her be in danger except in entrance exam and that was the first and last time.
"Lucy...please be careful and come back safe"
He could only say that and it truly made him feel pathetic and useless, as, for the beauty in front of him, she approached her face to his and imprinted a kiss on his cheek before dashing out of the cave.
Just as she left, she began waving her staff and magma spears with violetflame balls began chargingat the black imoogi which looked creepy.
For someone at her LVL, Lucy was overpowered, plus her special attribute and her perfect control in magic, all of that made her really strong, even the imoogi found it hard to attack her straight onand could only use other methods to attack.
Arthur who was in the bed, unable to even walk, heard the sound of the fighting and the explosions, the sounds became weaker and weaker until they disappeared, Lucy did not forget to close the cave when she left, afraid of other beasts coming.
A lot of strange thoughts came to his mind, and he began to feel and more anxious for Lucy.
One hour passed but there was still no signs of her coming back and Arthur started panicking, and he began to think that something really happened to her.
Time slowly passed and she still didn''t come back, as for Arthur, he could only stay there and hope for the best, he never ceased blaming himself over and over again and he clenched his fist until his nails cut through his skin and blood started flowing but he paid it no heed ashis thoughts were on Lucy''s current state.
.....
It was now sunset, and finally, the boulder blocking the entrance moved, Arthur jumped from surprised and leaned his head to the side to see who came but he deeply wished for her to be the one who came.
And it was indeed her, though her statewas horrible, the blue robe she was wearing was covered in blood and she had a deep bloody hole in her left shoulder.
She was a complete mess, with a staggering walk, she barely managed to walk inside and somehow close the entrance with thestrangeseal, after that, she collapsed.
"Lucy!!"
Seeing her current state, he couldn''t help but call out to her in panic, he got up from the bed and tried walking to her, but he collapsed after some steps, nevertheless, he crawled till he was next to her and used all the strength he could muster to drag her body to the bed, he tried to be as careful and gentle as he can, afraid of wounding her evenmore.
Lucy was awake but the fight really made her exhausted and that wound on hershoulder made her even more tired.
Seeing Arthur dragged her until the bed also pained for she knew his body was still recovering but she couldn''t utter any single word.
Soon enough he laid her on the bed and removed her clothes not caring about seeing her naked, he didn''t even have time to enjoy the view, he took out healing potions from his storage and fed it to her, he also took some golden powder and sprayed it on the bloody woundon her shoulder.
When the powder touched the wound, the pain was agonizing, and she couldn''t help but twitch a little but she knew he was doing that to heal her, so she didn''t dare scream.
Once the treatment was done, he held her hand, and stayed by her side, as time passed, the wounds closed and she no longer was in any apparent danger, he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled while looking at the sleeping beauty, even wounded, her body was as alluring as ever, but he didn''t stare for long and covered her naked body with the blanket.
He soon joined her in the bed, but he didn''t hug her and only stroked her head, actually, he didn''t know why even with infinite stamina he couldn''t move and even get sleepy, but he guessed it must''ve been related to his soul.
As he waslost in thought, he fell asleep without realizing it.
Next morning, he woke up only to see Lucy staring at him, first, he was startled but joyful to see her awake and well, he kissed her and then noticed himself hugging her, it must have become a habit of his, as they always hugged each other in sleep.
"What are youhugging me for! Don''t you know I''m injured"
Arthur seemingly startled, released his hands off her but just as he did that he heard her complain again.
"What are you doing!"
Honestly, he was confused and could only say
"Since you are injured, I shouldn''t hug you or it will open the wounds"
"Hmpf! Who said that! Quickly hug me back or else.."
Lucy teased him as always while giggling non-stop and the day passed with them layingon the bed all day long chatting endlessly.
.....
Several days passed since Lucy got injured and she was now fully healed and she could move freely, as for Arthur, he got a little better but he still got difficulties in moving, he would get exhausted quickly if he did a lot of movements.
.....
One night, as they were going to sleep, Lucy became silent and she took his hand and boldly put it on her chest.
"..."
Arthur was dumbstruck and he couldn''t anything to react in time, the feeling was superb, but he was confused as to why she would do that out of the blue.
Lucy lifted her head to look at him and asked
"Arthur, am I dirty?"
He didn''t why would she ask this but nonetheless honestly replied.
"Lucy, how could you say that, I have never considered you dirty and never will, please don''t say that"
It was truly his true feelings and he blurted that out unconsciously.
A charming smile covered her face and she asked again
"Then why don''t you touch me?"
"I-I...., It''s just that I didn''t want to hurt you..."
As he said he dropped his head down seemingly feeling guilty, as for Lucy she approached her face to his and kissed him intimately.
IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE!!!!! : This part is irrelevant to the story and can be passed, it contains sexual content. You''ll see a line of ********** to indicate when it ends.
PS: I''m not good at such scenes and not a very big fan, so the description will be omitted next time, this is only a one time deal.
***************************
Lucy kissed him intimately while her tongue invaded his mouth, she already decided on this and was completely willing to do it with him.
As for him, he was surprised at first but soon snapped out of it and kissed her back, his hand pressed on that soft and round chest, and it felt really good.
Soon their tongues were in each others mouth and they were sucking like crazy, as for his hands they were gently squeezing her chest, and every time he did she would cutely moan.
It was the first time for her to feel like this as those who played with her were always rough, so this feeling made her moan from pleasure.
Their mouths finally separated, and she began breathing heavily, as for him, he began sucking on her soft breast, though they were not towering peaks, there were well developed and it fit his whole hand, as he sucked on those breasts, her moans became even louder.
As for Arthur, you could see his little brother become rock hard, and erect a tent in his lower body, but that''s to be expected, how could he not be excited when he is with a maiden like her and a body like this, no man can resist this charm, not even he.
They took off all of their clothes, and Arthur enjoyed the full view of her enchanting body, snow white skin with a perfect body features, it only made his rod more erect as he couldn''t hold himself, and his head made his way to her lower body, soon his tongue penetrated her pink fortress(AN: strange naming I know, but bear with me), and he began furiously licking, though it sounded rough, he tried to be as gentle as possible to not bring any bad memories.
Her moans only got harder until she couldn''t hold it anymore and finally, the holy water came out, now that it is wet, Arthur thought it was time but he hesitated a bit and looked at her, and surprisingly as if she understood his behavior, she nodded towards him.
With this confirmation, he inserted his little brother into her cave of wonders and engulfed himself into a heavenly pleasure with her.
they hugged each other and made love with passion until they were out of breath
***********************************************************************************************
After passing the night in pleasure, they laid down both naked, while a blanket was covering them, nevertheless, they were hugging each other and she was leaning on his chest, seemingly lost in thought, but neither of them was embarrassed, not even a little bit, it''s as if it was normal and as if they were together for a long time.
In fact, Arthur felt more close to her than ever before, he noticed her being lost in thought so he said
"...Do you regret it?.."
Though he knew the answer, he nonetheless asked.
As for her, when she heard him, she coquettishly smiled at him and responded.
"Yeah, we only did it a few times how about another time?"
As she finished she jumped on top of him and they went at it until morning.
.....
This time she was happily humming while drawing circles on his chest with her beautiful little white hands, as for him, he was wrapping his hand around her waist and enjoying the soft touch of her skin, but she didn''t seem to be minding him and continued humming.
They didn''t particularly do anything special today, they chatted a lot and just rested.
Now that they were more open, her interactions were bolder and they would make love very often.
Moreover, it seems Lucy was more into it than Arthur and she would be the one engaging first if his body wasn''t recovering she would do him all day, he was sure of it.
But to be honest, he was extremely delighted, to see her forget about her past and do this kind of activities without a care meant she surpassed her fears and that made him happy.
...
Like this, days passed peacefully, they would not do anything special except when some monsters came but they were handled by Lucy and she didn''t injure herself either, also after some insistence from Arthur, she resumed practicing but on one condition, is that she will do it on his lap, so he immediatly agreed, there was even a time when he would jump at her when she was in the middle of practicing and either squeeze her perky butt or softly massage her breast which startled her but she in return would jump at him...
.....
2 months passed since Arthur woke up and now he is able to freely move, so sometimes he and Lucy would come out of the cave to search for the dragon.
In fact, he truly hoped to find his body, because the stats he would get are no joke so they would sometimes go out to search and he vowed to thoroughly search that huge pit once he regains his strength.
He was delighted when he saw a number of corpses Lucy got for him and at the same time angry because she risked herself but she reassured him saying it was no big deal.
They also picked some old corpses which seemed more or less in a good state and stored them in their storage.
...
the last month passed at last, and the day he regains his strength finally came so he braved himself and could not wait any longer...
Chapter 31 : Powerup
The day he regains his strength finally came, and Arthur couldn''t help but feel a bit excited.
He doesn''t remember the exact time he lost them, but he could only wait.
And to make it more ironic, while he was doing it with Lucy, notifications came in and he sensed his body completely recover, but he didn''t stop what he was doing and enjoyed his time with Lucy.
As for her, she also noticed the changes, because normally, he would be the one exhausted at the end of the deed, but this time around, she was the one exhausted while he was as energetic as ever.
She looked at him and spoke with a depressed tone
"So your body has recovered...."
Actually, she was happy for him, but part of her was a little bit depressed, because she quite liked taking care of him, and even bullying him now and then, but now that he recovered, she could no longer do any of that, so she couldn''t help but release a deep sigh.
Arthur looked at her and then chuckled while saying
"I''m the one doing the bullying now, hehe"
As he finished speaking, he jumped on her and his hands landed on her chest, feeling it quite thoroughly and enjoying the sensation, they obviously went for another round before finally stopping.
Arthur then wore some clothes to cover himself, not that he felt the least bit embarrassed in front of her, but he was going to possess the bodies she got for him plus the ones he picked when he roamed the forest with her.
There was exactly, 364 snow wolves, 72 Yetis and 102 corpses of demon and human soldiers, and last but not least is a dozen or so of big ancient creatures corpses, which seemed quite strong and in a good shape to be possessed, because as Arthur has already tested, he could only possess corpses with a rather complete body or half complete, if all it''s left from the corpse is just a hand or a head then he can''t possess.
....
It took him quite some time to possess all of them, but in the end, he still finished them all, and was excited to see the changes in stats, as for the skills, he picked the most interesting and looked at them
You have gained a new skill[passive]: [medium ice magic]: You can now use ice to attack or defend
You have gained an enigma skill! ; [Telekinesis]: You can now use soul power to move objects, power depends on the soul.
You have gained a new skill[active]: [advanced earth magic]: You can now use earth to attack or defend, your earth attribute is now at the max transformation: jet black
You have gained a new skill[passive]: [wind fly]: Using the power of the wind, you can fly but your speed would be greatly decreased while flying
You have gained an innate ability : [titan blood]: You have titan blood running though your veins, as titans are known to be terrific mythical beings, capable of crushing gods and devils, they have an extraordinary physique: your strength is doubled
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD
Level:
195
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
273 502(+247188)
Intelligence
171409(+138415)
Agility
169021(+142013)
Wisdom
166398(+141261)
Vitality
159661(+130290)
Dexterity
154375(+129544)
-
Health
180922(+146095)
Health Regen
401,2/s
Mana
177410(+136015)
Mana Regen
486,9/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
152609(+131431)
Defense:
149001(+124310)
Magic defense : 24196(+18478)
Elemental resistances
Fire:
100%
Water:
43%(+8%)
Wind:
35%
Earth:
65%(+20%
Light/holy:
20%
Darkness:
100%
Arthur was dumbfounded when he saw his status, he stood there, mouth wide open and eyes full of disbelief, he couldn''t even believe what he was seeing and checked his status window a few times before being sure, he indeed felt himself powerup, but not that much so seeing his status really did surprise him.
His strength is beyond high, he even thought it may be bugged or something similar, but after some logical thought he gave up on that idea.
Also, seeing new skills, like the enigma skills and especially the innate ability really caught him off guards, he didn''t read enough books about skills, so there are many things he didn''t know, but he was sure that titan blood is by no means easy to obtain or simple, I Mean it literally doubled his strength, that''s just straight out cheat.
As for telekinesis, he was interested in it, as it may be useful in some normal needs, but he didn''t think it woud help him a lot in fights, anyways, it''s better having it so he thanked his luck and especially Lucy, as she is the one who struggled and amassed this much corpses, his noticed his lvl also sky rocketed as he, of course, used [Death touch] on them, and considering they were not that much high leveled, the snow wolves didn''t give him much, but the ancient corpses of beasts and yeti really gave generous experience.
He couldn''t hide his happiness, so he brought Lucy to his embrace and gave her a deep and lovely kiss as if thanking her for all her efforts, he was one hundred percent sure he could handle the church now.
He even judged himself to be able to sustain a shot from ''judgment'', but what made him the most happy is that Lucy would gain 60% of his stats with the help of the blessing, and she would be even stronger than his previous self before the incident, so he would no longer be very worried about her in fights, plus she would even help him if they ever encountered a powerful enemy.
Arthur didn''t waste any time and he began using the method to link himself to Lucy so she would powerup too, he first wrote with his blood some strange symbols and runes on her chest, near her heart area, she did the same for him using some of her blood, and just as she finished, the symbols and runes began burning yet freezing at the same time, but they both endured it and after some time, it finally ended, and he guessed it was done.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Lucy, felt a strange feeling engulfing her body, power surged on all parts of her body, and her thinking became much clearer, she didn''t waste time and opened her status window to check how was the changes, but something happened which surprised Arthur, he could, in fact, see her status window, also some notifications soon came, telling him of the success of the link.
The link between Arthur and Lucy has been successfully completed: Both of them would gain 80% of the other''s stats
The title : [Unseen bond] has been added to both parties: Your souls are now connected
TITLE :
Level:
144
Class:
Half demon\ ????
-
Strength
218701
Intelligence
138390
Agility
136742
Wisdom
134639
Vitality
128042
Dexterity
125756
-
Health
148756
Health Regen
330/s
Mana
143523
Mana Regen
348,8/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Charm :25
Attack:
122489
Defense:
120987
Magic defense : 19356,8
Elemental resistances
Fire:
65%
Water:
10%
Wind:
10%
Earth:
10%
Magma
100%
Light/holy:
0%
Darkness:
80%
This time, it was Lucy''s turn to be shocked, hell! her mouth was as wide open and she rubbed her eyes a few times seemingly not believing what she was, she even thought she was just having a good dream and cutely tried pinching her hand but that only resulted in her cry of pain as she didn''t control her strength and used too much force to pinch.
Arthur was delighted when he saw the status window, but just as he looked at her, he noticed some changes, her skins became literally as white as snow, it seemed more clear, her features slightly changed, for example her black eyes, changed to blood red eyes like his, and she seemed to became slightly just slightly taller, though it was not noticeable, and she was still considered short.
Arthur gazed at her, as he was lost in thought, contemplating her appearance, she really looked like a celestial being, a goddess, this little change made her look even more pretty, he couldn''t help but feel lucky to have someone such as her be his lover.
Lucy didn''t seem to notice her change, nonetheless, she was jumping from happiness once she realized she was not dreaming and that was truly her own status window, she started jumping like a little girl, and as Arthur saw her, he couldn''t help but chuckle and shake his head.
Soon after, he showed her his own status and she understood that the link made them be able to see each other''s stats, but what was bizarre was that the blessing clearly mentioned the bonus stats to be 60% but the notification earlier said 80%, it really confused Arthur but he paid no heed, since it turned out for the better, then there is no need to bother with it.
There is also some special thing he felt, he somehow could feel her mood, by that I mean deep inside he could pinpoint her mood without looking at her, for example, right now, he felt her happiness, though it was very clear, the strange feeling still existed and it allowed him to feel closer to her.
Lucy also noticed this change, and she clearly saw the notifications, so she judged it to be a cause of the link and the result of the linked souls, she was totally happy and this only made her even more joyful, if it''s like this, they both would know if one of them is angry or happy or anything of the sort, basically they would feel the simple emotions, and that made them feel like they were one.
It seemed Lucy also gained his infinite stamina, and she too noticed that too, she grinned evilly and jumped on Arthur who was still enjoying the view of her body, she, of course, could somehow feel his desires, and with infinite stamina for both them, that only meant one thing...
Like that, they passed the night making passionate love, but even with not being tired, they still slept after doing it sometimes, sleeping is not necessary for them, but they quite enjoyed sleeping, especially in each other''s embrace, Arthur''s hands would always be enjoying the sensation of her perky and soft butt, it was just heavenly, as for her she would call him a big pervert, but she would not push him away, quite the opposite, she would press herself even closer to him.
Like this, they would sleep, with Arthur enjoying the feeling of her breasts pressing on his chest.
Morning soon came, and they both woke up at the same time, the first thing that happened was Lucy leaning her face closer to him and kissing him intimately, and would only let go when she had enough, Arthur would be out of breath, still enjoying that feeling of her lips.
Arthur was in no rush right now to leave, so he and Lucy soon wore clothes and exited the cave, actually, they started sparring, Lucy wanted to get used to her new strength, and their speed was really inimaginable, in fact a normal person seeing them from afar would literall see nothing, even simple punches and kicks would cause the trees behind Arthur to be broken in half from the force of the attack.
Soon, she got used to it, but it was really a pity she could not use her magic on him, as magma and fire won''t do anything against him, so she could only use her physique to spar.
Arthur, made sure to teach her thoroughly, and every now and then he would sneak behind her and touch a private spot, then back away and pretend nothing happened, as for her, she would only pout and say it''s not fair fighting against him as he was clearly stronger and more experienced than her in close fighting, nonetheless, the next second she would coquettishly laugh and attack him again, to be honest.
She quite enjoyed that feeling, the feeling of beeing strong, and fast, her control in attributes became smoother, and she can do voiceless magic, just like him, even when using curses, so how could she not be delighted.
The next day, both of them left the cave, and used the dark cloud to go the huge pit, Arthur wanted to search for the Yamak, because if he died, it would be a huge harvest for him.
Everytime he thought about that lightning he skills, he drolled, I mean, whenever Yamak transformed into lightning, he would be so fast that Arthur could not even follow him with his eyes, but of course right now, with his new stats, his speed was even faster than Yamak, but that didn''t stop him from wanting to possess the dragon.
They reached the huge pit rather quickly, and the dark cloud, descended slowly, while Arthur started focusing his gaze around, searching for the dragon or his corpse.
In a matter of minutes, they reached ground, it was extremely dark, but both of them had god like dexterity, so there was no problem, and they could see clearly, they jumped down from the cloud, and resumed the search and surprisingly, they quickly found Yamak, or to be more precise, his corpse.
Even when Arthur tried appraising him, the dragon didn''t seem to move, so he presumed he is dead, but it''s amazing that his body was able to sustain the damage from the blue light.
As to be expected from a true dragon. Arthur was very excited, before possessing the dragon, he looked around to confirm if there is any danger nearby, but it didn''t really matter that much as Lucy was near him and with her current strength, she is unbeatable.
''ting''
You have successfully possessed Yamak
You gained a new skill(passive): [Advanced lightning magic] ; you can now use magic to attack or defend
You gained a new skill(active): [Natural lightning] : it''s a special kind of lightning gained after thousands of years of amassing normal lightning, it can be used to attack the enemy with strong vibrations that injure him internally
You have gained a new skill(active): [lightning step]: you can use lightning when you move, transforming into it, and your agility will double when you are in that form
You have gained a new skill(passive): [dragon blood] : you have dragon blood running through your veins, you gained the skill : Transmutation
your stats have increased, check your status window for more details
.................
Chapter 32 : Katrina, the Overgod of Knowledge
Transmutation : You use natural lightning, and cover yourself with it, your stats will be increased by 25% for 10 minutes but you will receive 20% more damage
cooldown : 6 hours
cost : none
Your titan blood and dragon blood had successfully fused: LVL +50
You gained a new skill(active): [Essence creation]: With the power of natural lightning, you can create essence crystals : an ingredient for alchemy, rituals, spells,etcetera...
Orb of the fallen overgods has unlocked various lightnings types :
Demonic lightning : colour : black/ effect : it''s a special type of lightning, but it''s rather weak, however, it can be used to destroy all curses and seals : to unlock need 400.000 intelligence, LVL 450
Godly lightning : colour : white / effect : it''s a special type of lightning, it has the most destructive power amongst all lightnings, it can slay gods and devils: to uncloked 1Million wisdom, LVL 900
Natural lightning : colour : green / effect: it''s a special type of lightning, it can be used to attack the opponent with small vibrations that can cause deadly damage, already unlocked!
Beastly lightning : colour : blue / effect : it''s a special type of lightning, it cannot be used to attack, instead, you summon a lightning beast with great powers, and it will obey your commands, the beast will die when it''s health reach 0, and can be summoned back after a certain amount of time: to unlock, 350.000 strength, 300.000 agility, LVL 300.
Heavenly lightning : ?????????
Seven colored lightning : ???????
????????????????????
????????????????????
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD
Level:
424
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
321734(+48232)
Intelligence
215477(+44068)
Agility
223896(+54875)
Wisdom
204687(+38289)
Vitality
199430(+39769)
Dexterity
209007(+54632)
-
Health
256472(+75550)
Health Regen
522,7/s
Mana
236060(+58650)
Mana Regen
614,2/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
215390(+62781)
Defense:
208732(+59731)
Magic defense : 24196(+18478)
Elemental resistances
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis
Fire:
100%
Water:
43%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
65%
Light/holy:
20%
Darkness:
100%
Lightning
100%
Ice
10%
The second seal of orb of the fallen overgods has been broken :The blessing of Katrina, the overgod of knowledge, is now unlocked : to get the blessing, you need to reach LVL 300 and have 300.000 intelligence
To say Arthur was not shocked by the great amount of information he just read would be akin to lying to oneself, he was dumbstruck, he couldn''t help but read the blue windows again, it''s true he was delighted seeing his stats once again greatly increase, but that new blessing and those types lightnings intrigued him even more.
''Holy hell! fucking 1 million wisdom? LVL 900?....'' Seeing the conditions to unlock the lightning, he became more and more depressed, nonetheless, just having at least one type of lightning is enough for now, plus he liked that green lightning, I mean, to injure the enemy with vibrations and cause damage internally, that''s awesome isn''t it? and it''s too damn Overpowered.
He had more trump card to use in fights now, his dark magic had strong piercing power, the ancient fire is terrifying with its destructive power, as for the green lightning, it''s for sneak attack, as it only deals damage inside the body, the enemy would only notice it once it''s too late, plus Arthur got all the experience Yamak had on using the lightning, so he could use as if he was born with it, and attacking with it is akin to breathing.
Arthur was now sure if he encountered the dragon once more he would be able to fight him and possibly win, no scratch that! he would absolutely win, he even doubted if there is anyone who could compete with him.
The holy church doesn''t have a long time to live as he would destroy it just after he gets his revenge, if his calculations are on point, then the pope should LVL300 or even 400, and even if that''s the case, he was confident in his win, as his strength now was just godlike, but he didn''t dare be overly arrogant and act high and mighty because he was sure there are some terrifying monsters hiding somewhere, just like Yamak.
Soon, Arthur exited Yamak''s body, but he didn''t use [death touch] on him directly, first, he got as much golden blood as he possibly could, he didn''t know if it''s precious or not, but it didn''t hurt him to do that, he also wanted to get some of his scales, maybe he would find a good blacksmith to forge some good equipment for him and Lucy.
To be honest, he quite enjoyed fighting with magic, but now, even his strength is sky-high so why not use it, if he gets used to attacking with his body while at the same time coordinating that with a precise attack from his magic, he would truly become unbeatable.
He pondered for a moment as to how to cut the dragon''s tail as he really didn''t have any magic capable of cutting, his fire burns or annihilates everything as for the chaotic dark magic, it only has extraordinary piercing power.
Just as he was thinking about a solution, an idea struck him, of course, how could he forget about his sword mastery, and especially his title. As the title mentioned, he could use any part of his body as a sharp sword and attack with it, so he soon extended both fingers and concentrated a bit...
''bzzzt''
Just as he expected, around his two fingers, there was some kind of white energy, it didn''t emit anything special but Arthur knew that was some kind of sword energy, he tried cutting the tale with his fingers and it indeed worked, it seemed as if he was cutting tofu and not a dragon, but since the tale was enormous and the energy sword was only in his fingers, he could not cut the tale thoroughly, so he used his whole hand and the sword energy covered it in a second.
With a simple slash, Arthur was able to smoothly cut the tale, he felt really delighted and quite licked the feeling, since he had that peak mastery sword, he decided to find a good sword and use it in battles, he didn''t know why, but ever since he got that peak sword mastery from the blessing of Tul''ah, he was itching to try a sword, but unfortunately, it seemed Zodiak was not a sword fighter and he only used magic, so even though his storage contained a lot of treasures, none of them was satisfactory, so Arthur felt depressed.
He could, of course, create a sword with magic, but let''s be real here, having a real sword is way better, plus if he can get his hands on a good one, it would raise his stats greatly, just Zodiak''s robe.
After he finished storing the tale, Arthur finally used [Death touch] on him and once he did that, the sound of notifications telling he leveled up never stopped until a while later..
........
Once he opened his status window again, he was shocked to see his LVL become 422, it seems the experience from the dragon was generous and he gained more than 100 LVL.
What surprised him, even more, is that Lucy''s stats sky-rocketed too, first he thought she would only gain 60% of his stats and that''s it, but it seems everytime he powers up, so would she.
Lucy became very excited once she saw how much her stats have risen, she started running around and testing her magic, she dashed with incredible speed at a big boulder a hundred meters or so from her current location, and with a punch, the boulder was pulverized.
Arthur could only shake his head, he felt pity for whoever would be her opponent, that person would really be transformed into the minced meat if she used all her strength.
As for him, he tried the new lightning transformation, first he activated the skill and dashed at place far away, and holy hell was it terrific, he didn''t feel strange once he became just lightning and the speed was just out of his expectations, it was several times faster than Yamak, even Lucy who was proudly showing off a second ago became dumbstruck, she pouted and pretending as if she is jealous, but he knew she felt extremely happy for him, the soul link is really an amazing thing.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He tried several times, and indeed, just as the skill said, his speed in lightning form is double his speed without it, he experimented with it a few more times, and surprisingly once he transforms into lightning while holding Lucy then dashing off, she will also transform into lightning and would not be harmed, so he tried using [faster than death] while also holding her and it worked too.
Previously, he couldn''t teleport her with him, but this time he was sure it was due to the soul link, and to be honest, he couldn''t be happier, he couldn''t help but wrap his hands around her delicate and enchanting waist and give her a long passionate kiss, it was a wonderful occasion, plus he felt like kissing her, so why not do it?
While kissing her, his hands which were holding her waist, descended a bit and landed on her butt, of course, he did it on purpose, he then started squeezing those buttocks, and damn was it a heavenly feeling, it was very soft and he couldn''t get enough of that, his desires surged, and his little brother began waking up, but he knew he shouldn''t do it in a place like this so he restrained himself and let go of her, though he felt a little bit bitter and relucant even after letting go.
As for Lucy, she panted and her face was flushed from the kiss, she stared at him and said
"There''s no one around, so why did you stop? hmph!"
He didn''t expect her to say that, so he could only retort with a lame excuse
"Well... I thought it may be inappropriate to do it here..."
Lucy snorted and interrupted him saying
"Inappropriate or whatnot, who cares!....."
As she finished talking, she jumped on him kissing him again, while her petit white hand grabbed his little brother, and this time, of course, Arthur would not show any reluctance.
Soon they were both passionately making love while ignoring their surroundings, it was as if they were in their own world, in the spur of the moment, Arthur retrieved a sofa and that was where the deed was done.
After they were done, they laid down on the sofa, still not caring that they are in the dark pit, actually, if it was a normal person they would see nothing in this darkness, but for both of them with their strength, it was no problem.
Lucy looked at him who was brightly smiling for no apparent reason and asked
"Why are you grinning like that! you look perverted!"
Actually, both of them can be considered perverted, as they do it every day countless times, especially since they got their infinite stamina, but it was only because there was no one around, they would of course not do it in the public, still Arthur was really happy about the current development of things.
Who could have thought he and Lucy would be this close, have sex whenever they feel like it, share everything and be strong enoughto not fear any church or enemy. He quite liked this turn of events, in fact, he loved it, he noticed their personalities change dramatically, but that change was for the better.
In fact, he liked his attitude now better than his attitude before the incident, he was now more open and talkative, just like Lucy, and to be honest, he regretted somethings he did in the past, for example, hurting that princess, even though she was very arrogant, he didn''t have to be that ruthless, a simple spanking would have been enough, after all, she was only a child.
He always viewed the bad side of the world, and only looked at the bad habits of the people, he treated them all coldly, even if it was a kind person, he didn''t care and considered that that person has some bad in him.
Basically, he saw the bad side of the people more than the good side, which was really idiotic, but that was his character, he was tortured for a long time, and his point of view towards the world changed, so you cannot blame him for what he has done, nonetheless, he decided to try to change, and only act ruthlessly against someone who deserves it.
He even decided to seek that princess, and apologize for what he have done, sure she might not accept the apology, but he would feel at ease if he did that. Maybe this change of attitude and his decisions now would make him be betrayed by those people who treated kindly, but he didn''t care for he had Lucy and he was surer than ever that she will stay with him forever, so he turned his head towards her and seriously said :
"Lucy, I want to talk to you about an important matter."
She also noticed how serious his tone is, so she stopped teasing him and listened carefully.
Seeing that she was all ears to him, he breathed some fresh air then said :
"Would you become my wife?"
Though they loved each other, and can be considered lovers, or even more than that, he still wanted to ask her that question, and even though he knew what her answer is going to be, he nevertheless felt a bit of anxiousness, after all, any man who proposes to the woman he loves is bound to be nervous.
As for Lucy, she stared in shock for a second, before smiling coquettishly, she didn''t respond, instead, she lifted her head and imprinted a kiss on his lips, then she retracted her face and said with a happy tone
"How''s that for an answer, Dear..."
Arthur smiled back at her then retrived two simple rings from his storage, he put one of the rings on his right hand, then grabbed her small white hand which looked delicate, then he put the remaining ring on her finger, he felt that doing that may be useless to others, but to him, it was a moment to be proud of, doing that is akin to claiming her to be his woman and any other man can''t and defintiely should not lay his hands on her, heck if he even dared to talk to her, Arthur would show him what Hell really is.
Lucy almost died from happiness, this moment to her was very precious, she even began about the time when she will brag about her husband to everyone else, especially that man who did all those things to her. She was excited for the moment she meets him, oh that would be the day she does her revenge and make him suffer for all he did to her, but she was in no rush, and for the time being, getting revenge on Sonia was more important, heck! she would do anything as long as Arthur is with her.
The newlyweds didn''t linger off a long time relaxing on the sofa which was in the middle of nowhere, instead, they prepared to head off and exit the pit since there is nothing left to do here.
But before leaving, Arthur decided to do a full swoop around the pit, as one may know, Yamak surely had treasures and even with the blast from judgment, there may some treasures which survived, just like Yamak''s body.
With their speed, the pit which spanned hundred of miles was crossed in a short amount of time, especially when he used the lightning form, it was as if time stopped, everything was in a VERY slow motion, and if people saw him they would only see a yellow streak of lightning moving at an insane speed.
They circled the pit a few times, until Lucy spotted an object stuck to the ground, without delay, Arthur brought her and went to the object''s location, and what they found was really astonishing, it was really his lucky day, he even thought of the possibility that he may be blessed by the gods or heaven itself.
What was on the ground was a sword, or to be more precise, a katana, a dark katana, even its steel is made of black steel, which had some grey in it. The ground around it was jet black too, and right next to it was a black sheath, which obviously was its sheath but it''s was strange how the katana and the sheath somehow remained close to each other even after the blast.
Once he was close enough, Arthur stretched his hand and pulled the katana from the ground, then appraised it.
Makaze, evil wind : An ancient katana, that has been laying here for thousands of years, due to its high affinity with darkness and lightning, a mountain was formed on top of it, and lightning would descend, striking the base of the mountain and nourishing the katana.
It''s origins are unknown
LVL requirements : none
Stats required : none
to equip you need to have at least [advance sword mastery]
stats : Depends on the owner : calculation............ : +25.000 agility / +15.000 strength / +25.000 dexterity
Unique skill(passive) : [Devourer] : this katana can devour any kind of sword and by doing that its stats would significantly increase, you need to know that it needs to feed to strong swords to increase its stats significantly, otherwise the increase would be very low.
Arthur was overjoyed, seeing the result of the appraisal, he became delighted, he didn''t regret the decision of swooping the pit for more treasures, it seems the gods have not forgotten about him, that is if they even existed, but that didn''t matter, as he had the weapon now, he soon put in its sheath and put the sheath on his waist.
He felt dignified and proud as if he looked really cool, Lucy could only chuckle when she saw him like that, of course since he can see her status window, she can see his, plus she can see whatever he appraises so that gave her a huge advantage.
Once he readied himself, Arthur thought of trying the unique skill he got from the blessing of Tul''ah, and that is [Lone Sword], as the description says, it a simple but deadly attack. He held the sheathed katana, and used the skill, he didn''t much power, just enough to see how it is, and oh my god was it earth-shattering.
His figure blurred for a milli-second before reappearing, the sword slash was also white, but very thin, he could almost not see it, the slash was so fast, that he could not follow it, heck it was faster than him in lightning form, and once it hit the wall, it cut it in half and kept going, as the pit was huge, and the slash continued to cut everything until it stopped after a certain distance, the results were surprising.
Very soon the wall started collapsing, so Arthur just backs off with Lucy. He then again tried the skill again, since it didn''t mention any cost of cooldown, then maybe he can abuse the shit out of it?
And indeed, he can, he just concentrated a bit, and his figure blurred again, and just like that, 3 sword slashes almost invisible to the eye were created, plus it seems he could control the length and power of the slash with ease, which made him more cheerful, even Lucy was clapping excitedly at him.
With the bonus of peak sword mastery plus Makaze, his stats would rise a lot, his future enemies would sure have it rough, that''s for sure!
Arthur and Lucy quickly left the pit using the dark cloud and returned to the cave, in fact, they were not going to leave now, instead Arthur wanted to stay one more week and of course, Lucy happily agreed.
Days passed peacefully, they enjoyed their relaxing life, at night they would either snuggle or have sex as usual, as for the day, they would either spar or separately train. Lucy''s control over her strength became really good, and her magic never ceased increasing, either in power or precision.
As for Arthur, he adjusted his control with Makaze, his new katana, and in just a day he managed to grasp it, he had the peak mastery, so it''s like having trained sword his entire life, what''s more, he enjoyed roaming the forest and just slaughtering the monsters with just a slash from his sword.
He even encountered an imoogi, which was LVL195, pretty strong for one of it''s kind, but with but a [Lone sword] the poor beast was cut in half, he could not even resist, the attack was too sudden and fast, the last thing he saw was lightning coming his way and stopping not too far away from him, then his vision darkened and he died.
With much hunting, Arthur rose his Lvl by 2, not too much but that was enough, as his stats also increased but also that much, approximately 12.000 for each stats. He also read books about sealing and memorized some spells to use them, it seemed the books that Zodiak left were indeed amazing, and he managed to obtain quite a bit of useful spells that can greatly help him.
The last 2 days, he tried to fuse the void magic with others, it indeed worked, but that didn''t change the power a lot and it consumed a lot of mana, only when fusing it with chaotic dark magic did it really became a frightful result, as for the others, it was useless, and for some bizarre reason, whenever he tried fusing two attributes together, he couldn''t, every time a notification would pop up telling him that it''s impossible to do that action, though he was a bit reluctant, he still gave up on that idea.
The remaining days quicky passedand they packed all of their belongings and readied themselves, Lucy wore an enchanting white dress that reached to her knees, her chest area was quite developed, and if one saw them, they would definitely want to feel them or even squeeze those round balls, with blood red eyes and silver hair, she really looked like an unparalleled beauty that could destroy kingdoms and start wars.
As for Arthur, he wore long black pants, with a black shirt, and some kind of strange cloth that resembled a vest, he didn''t really like it, but Lucy personally picked the clothes and insisted on him wearing it saying that it suited him a lot so he could only obey but in one condition, it''s that he picks her clothes too, so she immediately agreed.
After one final look, they both set off, he wrapped his hand around her waist and dashed using her lightning front, and the destination.... well it was obviously the academy grounds!
''Sonia.. ahh Sonia! Do you dare plot against me and my wife?even though all I did was help you, and didn''t oppose your orders, you dare try to kill me? fine, let''s see who will be dying because my revenge would be bloody and your petty followers would save you when I arrive!''
Chapter 33 : War?
Actually, Lucy and Arthur were pretty deep in the ghost island, but they did not reach the deepest part and to be honest, Arthur was quite interested in it, but for the time being, he gave up on the idea of exploring it, but one must know that he met an adult dragon in here, so what if he went a little deeper?
Even though they are quite far, it should not be a problem as his traveling speed is incredible. Actually, they didn''t travel slowly, nor did they use the cloud, instead, Arthur held Lucy and transformed into lightning, then he ran towards the academy''s location.
With his speed, not one monster could stop him, heck! even those who were too close to the lightning became dust and instantly died, it''s a pity, but they could only curse their own luck.
In a short time, they reached the teleportation array, and to be honest, Arthur was proud and surprised by his speed. Seeing himself be this fast, he could not help but feel a bit excited, even Lucy complimented him.
Surprisingly, the array was not destroyed, it looked fine, there was nothing suspicious about it, so after some pondering, Arthur guessed that since the principal fired at him with ''judgment'' then she might have thought that he was killed and didn''t even have any suspicions of him being alive.
he took a breath a fresh air before stepping on the array with Lucy, then he teleported himself along with Lucy.
In fact, he was perplexed as to why the principal would do that, after all, he didn''t anything to oppose her, in any case, his thoughts of revenge never subdued and he couldn''t wait for the moment he kills her or whoever did that, but he was almost sure she was the one, as only the principal have the right to use that weapon.
.......
Once they appeared on the array located in the Academy ground, Arthur looked around to observe his surroundings, but to his surprise, there was no one there.
One must know, the teleportation array was in the heart of the academy, so normally, there would be a dozen or so students either practicing or just relaxing, but this time, there was no one, even with his good eyesight, he couldn''t sense any student.
What astonished him, even more, was that the nearby buildings seemed a bit off, some of them were half destroyed and some others were fine.
Seeing this, Arthur grew suspicious, nonetheless, he didn''t dare be careless even with his godlike strength.
He retrieved a green talisman from his storage, and he threw it to the ground, and in a matter of seconds, the talisman lit up and the strange runes on it formed a symbol, then a notification appeared to Arthur.
The space sealing talisman has been used, any kind of teleportation is impossible within a radius of 400 kilometers.
Arthur didn''t pass the week just playing around, instead, he read many books that Lucy showed him, and he became quite skilled in making sealing spells or talismans, though it required some time, they were absolutely useful, especially this one, so he made a dozen or so of them just in case.
Actually, he too can''t teleport now, but that didn''t matter as his speed in lightning form is akin to teleportation, so that''s why he used it, plus what if the opponents use teleportations to get away, just like that old man from the church once did, that would really be troublesome for Arthur so using this was the best way stop them from fleeing.
After he used that, he held Lucy again and dashed to the principal''s office, he didn''t know what happened, but most of the academy was destroyed and there were no signs of life.
Just as he approached the main building which was where Sonia''s office was, he saw a few soldiers who looked like the holy church''s soldiers.
Arthur couldn''t help but frown and wonder what the hell actually happened here.
He didn''t waste time-fighting them, and he passed them quickly, the lightning was enough to annihilate them and to be honest, he didn''t feel guilt or anything of the sort, they were from the church so they were enemies, kind or evil, that didn''t matter, because when the church hunts demon, they don''t care if these demons are kind or not, they just slaughter and blindly follow orders, so why would he show mercy.
In just seconds, he was already in her office, and every soldier he met was killed without even knowing how he died. Once he reached her office, he noticed that there were 3 people.
One was someone Arthur definitely know, as for the other 2 he didn''t know them, it was Mary, the female beastman, and two people apparently from the church, Arthur was able to guess that one of them was a bishop as the other was a cardinal, since in the past he already met a cardinal and a bishop and Lucy told him that every rank has a specific robe, he was able to distinguish their identity rather quickly.
Mary was tied by a white rope which seemed special, her hands and feet were tied, and she was sitting in a chair, as for the other two, who was a woman and an old man, they were chatting about something not too far away from Mary.
Arthur''s arrival did attract their attention, after all when he is in lightning form, one would hear the ''bzzt'' whenever he moved.
He didn''t rush in and kill right away, instead he transformed back to his original form with Lucy, then he stood there assessing the situation, one would be lying to say that his blood was not boiling and he wasn''t holding back his anger and rage, he really wanted to kill the female beastman right away but he didn''t, he first wanted to know what happened, then decide what to do, but he was sure if it was him of the past, then he would have killed them all right away, no questions asked.
While Mary was dumbstruck seeing Arthur and Lucy, the woman and old man from the church were first surprised then alert.
Mozu : LVL 227
Lara Singlore : LVL 138
Arthur appraised them both, and with the soul link, Lucy could see the appraisal too, she could only feel grateful to have this ability as it was very useful.
The first one who spoke was Lara, the woman, she was a cardinal and her looks was decent enough to be considered a small beauty, but in front of Lucy, she was straight trash, but of course one should not judge a person by his appearance.
"You! Who are you! and how did you manage to come here"
Lara was really frustrated, this duo appearance out of nowhere, and not even she could sense them.
As for Mozu, the old man, he stayed silent for a moment, gazing at Lucy as thinking about something, and after a couple of seconds, he spoke
"You....You are Lucy!! We knew you weren''t dead, the war was not futile after all, ah! the pope will be joyful to hear this"
Lucy didn''t seem surprised that he knew her, even though her appearance changed but not that much, and she knew higher ups knew her exact appearance, as for the soldiers only knew they must capture every silver-haired female demon they encounter.
Arthur remained silent and refrained from speaking for some reason, as for Lucy, she decided to speak, normally it would be the opposite, but she changed the course or this one year and she had the power to stand up for herself, even though Arthur would still protect her, she wanted to be strong enough to not burden him.
"I am indeed Lucy, care to tell me what that ''war'' was about?"
Hearing her confirming her identity, the old man chuckled then replied
"hahaha, so the cause of the war don''t know anything about it? hahaha, then this old man will tell you. As you know, we the holy church are searching for you, and when the Academy rejected our offer to hand you over, the pope personally came here to retrieve you, but the principal told him that you died fighting a dragon....so the pope became so angry that he declared war on the academy. There was bloody fights, especially the fight between our pope and the principal and with that weapon of theirs they managed to hurt us pretty badly, but hehe, the pope finally came victorious but he couldn''t kill the damned headmaster as she somehow fled, after that the academy became the church''s propriety, hehe so how about that? now you know how much suffering you caused to the people around you, how about you peacefully go with this old man, I don''t like to bully little girls, especially beautiful ones.."
To be honest, Arthur was astonished, he really didn''t think a war would break out just because of Lucy, is she that important to the church that they would be so reckless and attack the academy, they even won somehow, but Arthur knew the pope must have been injured or else how could Sonia escape, it''s true she''s strong but definitely not as strong as him, and that''s because a bishop was LVL237 so the pope might be in the 300 if not 400, and it''s impossible for her to escape from his grasp.
As for Lucy, she didn''t seem affected by what Mozu said, blaming her and telling her she causes suffering, for her only what Arthur says matters, and if she caused calamities or wars, that still had nothing to do with her, plus the Academy got what''s coming for it and totally deserved what happened to it.
"What happened to the other council members?"
Finally, Arthur spoke, his revenge was not only to Sonia but to whoever plotted to kill him, including those people, so he wanted to know where they are, as for Sonia, he would surely chase her down until he died or else his heart cannot be at ease knowing that a cunning person like her is still alive and well, but at least her Academy got destroyed, that counted as some payback, right?
Mozu, who was still heartily laughing, shifted his gaze to Arthur, who was standing next to Lucy, he stared at him for a second before speaking again
"Ohhh! You must be Arthur, right? the pope told us you managed to kill Arnold, I must really congratulate you, you do have some skills, but do not think I''m like Arnold, this old man is more experienced than that brat, plus I really want to know how you survived against that dragon, even our pope won''t come back alive fighting it so...it''s quite intriguing"
This old man seemed quite talkative, but in the end, he still didn''t reply to Arthur''s question, which irritated him quite a bit but he kept calm and said
"Sigh...I asked you a question, so why are you babbling about useless things"
This time, it was Lara''s turn to become more enraged, she retrieved a silver long whip from her waist and shouted
"Who do you think you are to be bossy like that, haha?? Even though you somehow killed Lord. Arnold, it''s a whole matter to be able to fight Lord. Mozu and me!"
Arthur thought it''s useless to ask further questions, this duo didn''t seem willing to answer more questions so he would question Mary after dealing with that trash, but just before he was going to kill them with [lone sword], he was stopped by Lucy, she tapped his sleeve and said in a somehow excited tone:
"Le.Let me fight that old man, I wanna see how I do! you deal with that woman, but don''t do anything perverted! I''m watching you! hmph!"
It seemed Lucy really wanted to test her current strength and see how she does against a bishop, but that last sentence is like throwing a bucket of cold water at him, it seems even in a situation like this, her teasing never ceased.
Arthur nodded his head and murmured quietly so no one could hear him "Let''s see how I punish you tonight..." Even though no one heard that that didn''t include Lucy who was next to him, and had extraordinary senses, nevertheless, she didn''t react and only giggled and turned her head to look at the old man.
Seeing them not engaging first, Lucy didn''t stay still, with unimaginable speed and explosive strength, she appeared right in front of Mozu in lightning speed, and landed a kick on his abdomen.
The poor old man, could not even react in time, he was sent flying until he hit a nearby wall, and a huge crater was formed on the wall and he was still laying there, not moving.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
In a panic, the woman who only saw Mozu being attacked and sent flying, she stretched her whip and mumbled something with fast speed then attacked with her long whip, blue flames appeared on the whip and its speed was pretty fast.
Without transforming into lightning, Arthur appeared in front of the attacking whip, with his great speed it was a piece of cake, in fact using his max speed, he could see the whip slowly move, it''s almost as if time stopped.
After appearing in front of the incoming flaming whip, he stretched his hand and held the whip with it, just like that, it couldn''t be more simple, an attack of this caliber can not even scratch him, the blue fire on the whip disappeared, he easily absorbed, then he exerted enough amount of strength to firmly hold the whip and not crush it.
The woman who attacked in panic, and expected her attack to land on Lucy didn''t expect this black clothed man to appear out of nowhere and easily block her attack, but once she saw that, she knew that she is screwed.
Lara is an old member of the church, and can judge a situation rather quickly, just by seeing Mozu defeated with one kick and her attack blocked, she guessed that those two are not as the pope mentioned, they are way stronger, especially that Lucy, I mean to defeat a bishop with just a kick, who can do that? plus rumors said that he is stronger than Lucy, she rubbed the cold sweat from her forehead and felt her body shivering, right, she was experiencing fear, the situation is unfavorable, and most likely she would die if she can''t think of something.
After some hesitation, Lara retrieved her teleportation crystal, actually, every cardinal or above, did possess one like those, and can only be used in emergency situations, but how could this not be an emergency?
As for Arthur, seeing her take out the familiar crystal, he only shake his head as if mocking her, and he waited for her to finish the long chant and see her reaction when the crystal won''t work, of course that was due to his talisman, and damn was it a great idea to use it.
"Oops, hubby~, It seems I still can''t control my strength, I overdid it again...is he already dead?"
Lucy walked slowly towards Mozu who was stuck at the wall. Once she was close enough, she reached her hand and pulled him out, she then threw him to the ground and said
"oh! He is still alive but seriously injured, I just simply kicked him, it''s so boring like this......"
Arthur could only shake his head, this woman still doesn''t know how strong she is, her strength is a whopping 300k, of course, she would crush him with just a kick, hell! if she used all her strength then the poor guy would be crushed to death.
Also, he felt quite amused, first because she called him hubby in front of people, and it made him feel quite proud, though when they were in the cave, he told her to call him ''hubby''and not by his name, but she strongly objected, nonetheless, she started calling him that since then, and she even did it now, plus her attitude really changed, in the past she would not talk in public, even when fighting, but now, she seemed extremely relaxed and carefree, and he really thought she looked cute.
Even though she seemed like a new person, her coldness remained a bit, but that only added to her beauty, but do not be mistaken, she had a hint of coldness when dealing with this old man, and even though she was happily talking right now, that deep inside her, she was feeling delighted to finally begin her revenge towards the church with her own hands.
To be honest, the miserable appearance of the old man was really pitiable, he was coughing blood non-stop, almost choking from it, his ribs were all broken, and his internal organs were crushed into dust, even with a specially divine armor from the pope, it still couldn''t hold and he knew his death is nearing, he could only stare at Lucy with fear as he seriously did not expect her to be this strong, one must know that she was very weak just a year ago, and even a cardinal can take care of her, but now, with one kick, she defeated him, a bishop, he felt he had to tell the pope of this this, but unfortunately he can''t..
The woman who was mumbling the incantation for some time, finally finished, and a grin soon appeared on her face, she breathed a sigh of relief, and prepared herself for the teleportation..but it never happened, first she thought she did something wrong or made a mistake in the incantation, but that was impossible, so the only reason is that...there is something obstructing the teleportation..
She lifted her head and saw the grinning Arthur as if he was a harbinger of death, she knew she was done for, so her legs grew weak and she almost fell down.
"So you finally understand that there is no way out, how about you take a seat and calm down a little"
Arthur spoke in a mocking tone while waving her hand nonchalantly, a near chair was moved to Lara, since her legs grew weak and she was barely standing, when the chair came out, she unconsciously sat on it, then dark blue chains appeared out of nowhere and bound her legs and hands.
The telekinesis was really useful thing, and even though Arthur could not use it in fights, it still was good to have it, he trained with it for some time, and he managed to even lift a boulder which was quite big, he became quite skilled in it, but it still was useless in fights, maybe it''ll be helpful in house labor, if he ever had a house..
As for Lucy who was still looking at Mozu, she pondered for a moment before slowly extending her petite hands and taking off Mozu''s storage ring with a ''hehe'', no matter how rich she and Arthur were, if a storage ring which was probably full of treasure was thrown in front of them, of course, they will take it.
Mozu saw her actions, but he could only gaze at her grudgingly and curse her in his mind. As for her, she injected her mana, and inspected the storage, and to her surprise, there was some books, items and even enchanted weapon, plus there were gold coins, but the amount had in his storage ring was just unbelievable, he even gave her more than 1 billion gold coins, but the mountain of gold still didn''t diminish.
She put the ring in her own storage ring then walked near Arthur, she knew the old man was going to die anyway, so why waste her time with him.
Since things were done now, Arthur headed to Mary, who was still silent, her eyes showed astonishment and fear. She really was beyond surprised when she saw how much both of them improved in terms of strength, especially Lucy, heck! if she received that kick then she would surely have died, that''s for sure.
To be honest, she never was willing to kill Arthur and Lucy, it''s true, she hated Arthur in the beginning, but later on she felt neutral, she neither liked him nor hated him, and the decision of her big sister seemed rushed, even though she tried to persuade Sonia to not proceed with plan, her efforts were futile, and she had to follow the orders of her big sister.
She felt guilty towards this duo, they didn''t deserve to die yet they were ruthlessly killed by the cannon, she really couldn''t accept that but what was done is done and no one can change the past.
But not that she saw them alive and kicking, plus they became even more strong, she felt complicated, she felt a tinge of happiness to see them both alive, but at the same time ashamed to face them, after all, she plotted behind their backs, so how could they not hate her, she even knew they come back today for revenge, or else why would they come back?
She saw a Bishop, who only her big sister can defeat, easily killed by Lucy, with just one kick, and how helpless Lara was against Arthur, so she knew they became extremely strong, but if it was anybody else she would be saved, but these two would surely not let her live, nonetheless, she wanted to die peacefully and not feel guilty.
"I-I''m sorry, even though I know it''s too late, but I''m sorry for what we did, I-I really tried to persuade them not to do it, but alas...."
Arthur and Lucy walked up in front of the tied female beastman and coldly looked at her.
"Do you think apologizing now would change anything? If you really feel guilty, then tell us where is the rest of the council members and SONIA!" (Arthur)
Even though she expected this kind of harsh treatment, Mary still felt sad and guilty at the same time, nevertheless, she mustered her courage, breathed some fresh air and replied to Arthur
"I-In the war, a lot of people died, and only 4 council members remained, me, Mach, Veronica, and Zephir, as for their locations. I really don''t know, we dispersed in the war, and each went fighting, I was captured 3 months ago, as for them I don''t know if they are even still alive or not but last time I have seen them in 3 months ago"
Even though Arthur hated her guts, he still felt some sincerity in her tone, and she didn''t seem to be lying.
"Fine! then how about Sonia!"(Arthur)
"B-Big sister is......Arthur, you must know! big sister really didn''t have a choice, you know..she is part of a clan, the Ma Clan, and very few know of it, even I only visited a few times, It''s really secretive but have a lot of experts, and basically, the clan controls the Academy through big sister, really!! she only obeyed orders, she can''t oppose them! please believe me! it''s not her fault!"
The identity of Sonia known to all council members, but Mary was Sonia''s little sister, they grew together so she obviously knew of her circumstances, that''s why she followed her here to the academy and stayed with her, when she went begging Sonia to not kill Arthur as he was an innocent bystander and didn''t do anything wrong, Sonia could only shake her head and tell Mary that she received direct orders to kill Arthur and Lucy no matter the cost.
Arthur was a bit shocked to hear this and pondered for a bit
''A clan why would they want my death? I don''t remember messing with any clan whatsoever, there is only one way to resolve this, it''s to pay them a LITTLE VISIT!''
"hmm, and where is this clan? since it''s very secretive, it''ll be quite a pain to search for it, so since you visited it a few times, how about you tell me where it is"(Arthur)
"I..I cannot do that!" (Mary)
She seemed quite stubborn in this matter, she shook her head continuously and seemed unwilling to say the location.
Arthur just smiled at said
"Huh? And why is that?.."(Arthur)
"Obviously because I know you want to kill big sister, how could I tell you her location! She wasn''t at fault! I''m not saying, just take my life instead and consider it the end of your revenge."
"Either you tell me or not, that doesn''t matter, sooner or later, I will find the clan''s location!"
As he said that, he lifted his hand, and white sword energy formed on his hand, he used the unique skill of his title to make a sword out of his hand, he planned on beheading the female beast-man, but for some reason, he felt unease.
He didn''t know why but mayhap these 12 months really did change him? Did he become soft or did he feel pity for this woman? How could he feel that! that''s absurd! look at what they have done to him, they tried to kill him and Lucy, and were almost successful, so why would he feel sympathy for someone who plotted behind his back, didn''t that make him weak? he came here for revenge and not to save lives!
His hand was lifted for a couple of seconds, and even Mary who already prepared herself for her death was confused why it never happened, but finally, Arthur''s hand twitched and was about to cut the female beastman when Lucy interrupted him and said
"Hubby~ how about you forgive her? she indeed plotted against us, but she admitted her wronging, and it''s not like she did it willingly, I feel she didn''t lie to us and really tried to save us"
Arthur was really surprised by what he heard, for Lucy to say that out of nowhere made him dumbfounded, he didn''t think she would say that or even defend Mary, thanks for the soul link, he kind of grasped what she felt so just a couple of words from her were enough to make him understand what she was trying to say.
In fact, his hesitation a moment ago was a proof that he didn''t want to kill her, it''s true he came to extract revenge and pay back what was done to him, but this woman seemed sincere and really apologized, she even closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
It''s true he hated her, but to hate someone doesn''t mean you have to kill him, heck! if it''s the previous him, he would have killed her if not tortured her more then killed her, but now he changed, it may be a good or a bad change, but he nonetheless changed and since even Lucy spoke up, he had to think this through and make a wise decision.
As for Mary, hearing what Lucy said, she was dumbstruck, but she didn''t dare anything, as it was not her place to do so, she just stayed still and closed her eyes, awaiting her fate, in fact, she wouldn''t blame him even if he killed her, as she deserved that.
Arthur''s lifted hand, soon descended at lightning speed, and even Lucy was a little bit panicked, because to be honest, she really pitied Mary and knew she had to do that due to her circumstances, she was forced to, nonetheless she apologized and even accepted her death, so why not forgive her? but seeing Arthur''s hand descend, she couldn''t do anything.
It''s true she wanted the female beast to be forgiven by Arthur, but even if she wasn''t forgiven, it doesn''t matter, because no matter his decisions she would always support him, if he decided to spare her then it''s good if he killed her then so be it.
The hand descended at lightning speed and even Mary felt as if a sword descended on her, but even after some seconds passed, she was still breathing, she also noticed that the white rope tied her legs and hands were now cut, it took her quite some time to realise what just happened before she lifted her head to look at him.
"Hmpf! Consider yourself lucky! if not for Lucy then you would be already dead! since she forgave you then I''ll make an exception and let the matter go.... but only you and not the others!"
Mary didn''t know what to say, she still couldn''t believe he spared her after what she had done, ''he really is kind'' was what she thought, it seems she was on point, and even though he doesn''t want to show it, he indeed is kind-hearted, she also noticed his attitude slightly change from back then.
"Th-Thank you...."(Mary)
"You should be thanking Lucy, not me!"
Mary hastily turned to look at Lucy and then bowed her head saying
"R-really thank you, you forgave me even though I did all those things... thank you"(Mary)
Lucy only nodded without saying anything, she felt her attitude changed, she forgave someone who tried to kill her, that may be stupid to others, but for her, it was her own choice, and it seems even Arthur respected that choice and supported her, he let go of his revenge and urge to kill just because of her.
Lucy then turned around to look Lara who was still shaking from fear and looking at her and Arthur, afraid of dying, but this time she didn''t feel any sympathy nor pity for this woman, a sharp dagger was soon created, it was made from the violet fire, the most powerful type of flames, the dagger went for Lara''s heart with extreme speed
''poof''
In less than a second, the Cardinal woman was stabbed exactly at her heart, the dagger melted her heart along with other organs and she died instantly, as for her storage ring, it flew towards Lucy, Arthur used telekinesis and made the ring fly toward Lucy who was looking at it with expectant eyes, he couldn''t help but think ''This chick really does love stealing others rings, hehe''
....
Since there was nothing else to do, both of them didn''t bother with Mary anymore and were about to leave the office which was pretty much destroyed, but all of the sudden, Mary who was silent for sometime spoke again, with a hesitant voice.
"I-If you want..I can take you to the clan, but on one condition!"
Arthur who was about to leave heard that and turned his head to look at Mary, who was clenching her fists and looking back at him.
"Speak, what''s the condition"(Arthur)
To be honest, he was quite interested, if she can take him there, that would save him a lot of trouble to look for Sonia"
"Y-You must promise me to not kill b-big sister, if you want to punish someone then punish the clan"(Mary)
"Not kill her? Well, if you take me there, I''ll think about it"(Arthur)
"No! You must promise me, and a man cannot go back on his promise!"
This woman was pretty persistent, deep inside, she knew he would find the clan someday, and her big sister would surely die at his hands, if she can make him spare her too by guiding him there, then it was worth it, as for the clan? Mary didn''t care, pretty much all the people there are selfish and arrogant, except a few people, just because they are strong, they think they are gods among humans.
This time, Arthur did not talk, instead, Lucy was the one who spoke
"Fine, I promise you that we will not touch Sonia unless we investigate this further, but if she really is guilty, then don''t blame us for breaking the promise"(Lucy)
Mary was hesitant for a second before nodding her head and responding
"Since that''s the case, then I will take you there..."
Chapter 34 : Travelling Together
After finishing the deal with the female beastmen, Arthur stored Lara and Mozu''s corpses in his storage as he didn''t want to possess them in front of Mary because that was his big secret and only Lucy can know about it.
To be honest, even though Mary said she would guide them, she felt awkward now that she thought about it thoroughly, I mean, she clearly knew they were a couple, heck! Lucy called him ''hubby'' earlier, so wouldn''t come with them is considered interfering? nevertheless, what was done is done and nothing can change it since she promised to guide them to the Ma Clan, then she would do it.
Arthur made sure to look around and see if there is anything worth taking, but there is none, it seems that principal took all the goods and ran away...
He then turned around and asked Mary
"Since you are going to guide us, how about you tell us where this clan is? I''m quite interested."
Mary was taken aback for a moment before stabilizing her posture and hastily replying
"Err...It''s in the Itas continent, as for exact location, it''s very difficult to describe, plus there are various magical arrays that distract any invaders, but I know them all, plus a lot of the people there know me, so they will probably welcome us.."
Once Arthur heard her response, he was 2 parts delighted and 3 parts excited, because he loved traveling and discovering this world, and he wanted to go to the eastern continent for a long time now.
It is said that it''s a small continent compared to the 3 others, but it has some strong individuals.
It has no official ruler, but everyone knew that the elves were the one in control there and opposing them is like opposing all the other races.
In fact, the elves were a peaceful race and very rarely fought, and many similar races living there also didn''t like fighting, such as fairies and spirits.
The continent is one giant forest, but of course, there are some scattered cities, but they were not as big as in the human continent.
One of the most famous cities is Rondo, it is the city located near the world tree, and it''s where the Elves mainly live, except some others who are scattered here and there.
As for fairies and spirits, they liked living in forests and enjoy nature, they are rarely seen and aren''t hostile against visitors, they would only attack if you invade their terrorism and try to steal or kill someone or something.
....
Very soon, the trio left the office and headed out of the building.
Actually, Arthur didn''t want to leave just yet, he wanted to get the library! he really hoped there are some good books left so he can take them.
To be honest, he enjoyed reading, and enjoyed even more discovering new things about this world, it''s true he still didn''t read all of Zodiak''s books as they were a lot, but he still wanted to amass even more and read them in his free time, which he would most certainly have a lot of from now on, because since Mary joined them, he can''t transform into lightning and carry her with him, first because they were not soul linked, and even if it was possible he would not do it.
One must know that to do it, he needs to hold her, and he would never touch another woman when he has Lucy, moreover, she is with him so how could he shamelessly touch another woman, so the travel this time would not be fast but not too slow either.
He had the dark cloud and with his speed, it should be fine to travel at fast speed, but he wanted to enjoy travelling more and pass time exploring, in fact, he wasn''t very rushed to get to the clan as it would obviously not disappear in a day or two, so it doesn''t really hurt to take some time and enjoy his life with Lucy.
There were some holy church soldiers still patrolling not too far away and didn''t seem to notice what happened, so Arthur disposed of them in a flash using his lightning form, then he entered the library.
As for Lucy and Mary, they stayed outside to stand guard if anyone came plus Lucy wasn''t interested a lot in reading, in fact she hated it, she only read a lot of books in the cave for the sake of Arthur, so now that she is given a choice, she would rather do nothing than reading.
Mary saw how Arthur became lightning and in a split second all those soldiers instantly died, she couldn''t even follow him when he was in his original form much less now, she could only mutter some things with a low voice, still not believing what she saw
"S-So fast..., I can''t even follow him with my eyes.."
Unfortunately, this did not pass unheard by Lucy, she turned her gaze at the still surprised Mary and proudly said
"Hehe, of course, you can''t, no one can beat my hubby now! in a way it''s thanks to you hehe"
Lucy seemed so proud as she bragged about Arthur, she indeed said some arrogant words by saying he is unbeatable but Mary knew they were not just some arrogant words, and he is pretty much unbeatable, heck! even Lucy herself became such a terrifying individual, and Mary would shiver every time she remembered that kick of Lucy.
Lucy behavior seemed to suddenly change once Arthur was mentioned, and she continued to talk about how strong he is his magic, etcetera....
Even Mary was dumbfounded when she saw how much Lucy changed in the course of this one year, she never heard her talk in the past, but now she seemed rather talkative, especially when her ''hubby'' was mentioned.
.......
Once he was in the Library, Arthur looked in excitement, indeed his hopes didn''t betray him and the library had some books, in fact, pretty much 40% of the books are still here, as for the others, they were either taken or burned as he noticed there were some black ashes here and there, fights must have occurred there but it was not that much damaged.
Without losing a second, he began rampaging around the library, he stored bookshelf after bookshelf without even seeing the books names, he would do it later, as for now, he would take all.
He didn''t care if it was stealing or not, the Academy didn''t belong to anyone right now, so it''s like he found a treasure and simply took it.
Surprisingly, the area where skill books were supposed to be was totally empty, it seems someone was smart enough to take them but neglected the other books, and that someone was a complete idiot in Arthur''s eyes.
''How could you ignore such precious books? damn fool''
5 minutes later, everything was stored in his dark ring, he didn''t know why or how, but this storage ring had a very big space, even with all the furniture, gold, books, items and everything else, the storage was still empty, Arthur never ceased thanking Zodiak for leaving such a wonderful thing.
he transformed into lightning yet again and in a split second left the building, and just by chance, he happened to hear Lucy talk and brag about him and his skills.
"You know, my hubby can use ice magic, yes you heard right! ice magic, just like your big sister, so what''s the big deal if she can use it? hmpf! my hubby can use lightning magic too, and many other things, hmpf hmpf! that Sonia is nothing compared to my hubby"
Though he was partially glad she was bragging proudly about him, he still didn''t like Mary hearing about his abilities, so he decided to punish Lucy with something.
With his incredible speed, he rushed at Lucy, she was still happily talking so she didn''t notice him, and even if she did, she can''t react in time due to how fast he is.
Just as he was going to crash into her, his left hand stretched and landed on her butt, squeezing it a little, but he soon retracted and appeared next to her, as if nothing happened.
"Oh yeah, I didn''t tell you about his....Ah~~"
being interrupted like that, Lucy couldn''t help but moan after she felt someone squeeze her buttocks, she then noticed Arthur appear out of nowhere, so she quickly pulled the strings together and knew he was obviously the culprit.
As for Mary, she didn''t see what happened and was only taken aback when she saw Arthur appear out of thin air, nonetheless, she came back to her senses in a second and looked at Lucy, though she didn''t see what happened, she heard Lucy and her moan so she became confused.
Lucy glared at Arthur for sometime before finally saying
"You....."
Arthur pretended that he didn''t hear her and began whistling and looking away from her piercing glare.
One must say his acting his skills are so poor to the point that he can be seen through in a second, nonetheless, he continued with that act until Lucy retracted her gaze after snorting, seemingly not caring about him anymore.
Of course, she was not angry nor did she blame him, she just felt a little embarrassed as she was in front of Mary and that happened, so she could only pretend to be angry with him.
The trio didn''t stay much longer in the academy, instead, they used the teleportation array leading to ''Laksy city''.
Nothing special really happened, they did meet some holy church soldiers, but Mary finished them off this time.
Arthur and Lucy would chat without a care in the world and seemed to completely forget about the existence of Mary, which made her a little sad and cast out, but she didn''t utter a word and silently followed behind them, after all, she was only a guide, so why did she expect to become their companion or their friend?
It was around noon when they arrived and the city was bustling, stalls were put as far as the eye can see, and many buyers were bargaining with the sellers about a decent price, there were blacksmiths, cloth shops, etcetera.
What angered Arthur a little, is when he saw the slave traders selling their slaves who were put in a cage made out of steel as if they were animals, he came from the world where slavery has long since disappeared, so seeing living beings treated like that didn''t seem right.
He felt pity, but he can''t just buy them all then release them, because he was not some savior or a hero of justice, but he also was kind a black-hearted person, however, there really is nothing he could do except wish them a good luck to at least get a good master, maybe someday he will stop this nonsense and make slavery disappear completely.
Even Mary didn''t like what she saw, especially when almost all the slaves were beastmen, in fact, beastmen were the most common slaves, either for fighting, house labors, or even sexual needs, very rarely would you see demons or elves, as for other races, they were hard to find in the first place so to find a slave of one of them is near impossible.
Once the trio appeared, they attracted a lot of attention, especially Lucy, white robe, blood red eyes, silver hair, a voluptuous body, a curvy waist and an enchanting figure, who would not be attracted to her, her figure really looked like an angel or a goddess.
"Hey, W-who is this beauty?..." (random citizen A)
"I don''t know bro, maybe a princess or a noble?" (random citizen B)
"I don''t know who she is, but damn! I''ve never seen someone as beautiful as her, even the emperor''s daughter is not her match" (random middle-aged man)
"ah! When I see her then I remember that when I return home I''ll only see my ugly wife...how could life be so unfair.."(an old man)
" ''Slap'' Who did you say was ugly? you are ugly! your whole family is ugly, back in the day, men chased me all day long but I chose you, damn that was the dumbest mistake I''ve ever made, come with me, NOW"
The old man''s wife slapped him a few times before dragging him from the collar to a nearby alley, people around could only sigh and pity the man.
As for Lucy, she was used to this gazes and reactions, so she didn''t pay them any attention and continued walking with Arthur and Mary, she actually was holding Arthur''s arm intimately, even her breasts were pressing on his arm.
Arthur enjoyed the feeling of her chest, those soft round balls, he really wanted to touch them right now and enjoy them, but he didn''t do it, they were now in public and he couldn''t do something this reckless, just her holding her arm like that was enough for him.
He ignored the burning gazes of the surrounding men, and just kept walking and observing the stalls seeing if there is anything worth buying.
They roamed the city for 2 hours, but none of them bought anything as they didn''t anything worth it.
Finally, they stopped in front of a renewed inn and entered it. Even though it was in the middle of the day, it was still bustling as many soldiers, mercenaries and citizens were either eating or drinking.
Like always, Lucy attract a lot of attention yet again, and all present men were looking at her body up and down, while drooling, it would be a lie to say they were not enchanted and mesmerized by her beauty, they lusted over her body, and some of them even began shaking from excitement, while other sneakily put their hands on their pants and ''began training''....
Arthur, Lucy, and Mary headed towards the reception desk, where a muscular guy was standing, he was also looking at Lucy and was attracted by her prettiness but he didn''t dare hold his gaze for a long time as he looked at Arthur and Mary as if assessing them. And to be honest, he was jealous of Arthur, as he saw the beauty hold his arm like that.
Actually, Arthur''s appearance wasn''t bad, to begin with, it''s ordinary, but with his red eyes, it added to a touch of charm to him that made him eye-catching.
Very soon, they arrived in front of the muscular man, and Mary handled the talking, she booked 2 rooms, one for her and the other for Lucy and Arthur.
When the muscular man received the payment, he headed off to get the keys for the rooms.
The trio stood in front of the desk, patiently waiting for the muscular man to come back when some people headed to their direction.
It was 4 people, they all seemed to have a tattoo on their shoulder, it was a scorpion, they all seemed like experienced fighters, and they had either swords or sabers sheathed on their waist.
3 of the incoming people had an ordinary appearance, just like any other citizen, except they excluded a cold aura, as if they killed countless lives, as for the 4th one, he was slightly taller than the rest, with scars on his neck and chest.
"Hello there little girl, how about you come with this uncle? this uncle is from black scorpion mercenary, you should know about it, right? I will surely treat you well"
The man who seemed to be the boss was the one who spoke first, he cut through the chase and shamelessly invited Lucy to join him.
Even though the other men were sizing her up and lusting over her, none dared to speak to her as they suspected her to be a noble or someone with a strong backing, but this man from a mercenary, casually came and asked her to come with him, his tone even contained a bit of threat.
Arthur was really pissed that this man dared to take his wife like that and speak disrespectfully towards her, but he calmed himself, he didn''t want to start a slaughter just for this, he should be more reasonable, however, that didn''t mean he should sit by and watch.
"I think you misunderstood something, she is my wife, so how about you on your way and we go on ours?"
Once he heard that, the tall man, burst out in laughter, and after some time, he looked at Arthur with a mocking gaze and said
"Your wife? So what! she must be with you because you maybe are a little rich, but I, Bill, am richer than you, plus I''m a sectional leader of the mercenary black scorpion, it''s not something that You could possibly match.."
Bill then turned his head to look at Lucy and continued speaking
"So how about it little girl? I see that you are pretty so why won''t you come enjoy the night with this uncle?"
Lucy was unfazed and still nonchalantly held arm, she didn''t pay Bill any attention, she didn''t even spare a glance for him, for her this kind of scumbag was not worth her time.
As for Arthur, he was sure that peacefully talking his way out of this is an impossible task, heck! if it was the past him, these 4 people would already be dead for sure, but he wanted to take a different route, a better one, so just killing is by no means the best outcome.
he stretched his free arm, which was not held by Lucy, and gently put it on her chin, his face descended to match her height and soon, his lips landed on hers, he didn''t hold back and kissed her intimately.
He thought that the best way to deal with those people is to show them that she is his woman, and it''s not that just simple words from them that would change that.
His actions surprised Lucy, she didn''t expect him to kiss her out of the blue, and in front of all these people too, she was not used to that, but she didn''t struggle, in fact, she kissed him back.
The surroundings people were dumbstruck, even Bill was astonished, he didn''t expect this to happen, every time he mentions that he is from the black scorpion mercenary, everyone would show him respect and every girl would come with him right away, even noble girls were tainted by him, so when he saw this gorgeous woman, his desires surged up, and he thought that he must get his hands on her.
Mary who was behind them didn''t know what to do as she saw what happened, a tinge of red appeared on her face, she dropped her head down not daring to look anymore as she felt embarrassed.
One must know, she is indeed an experienced fighter but except that, she knew nothing, for all her life, she followed her big sister, Sonia, so apart from fighting and magic, she didn''t experience love, or had a boyfriend.
It was a simple kiss between a couple, yet it angered almost all people present, they stared maliciously at Arthur, with envious eyes, their jealousy now could even reach the skies.
I mean, who wouldn''t be jealous if they saw a beauty like that kiss someone in front of them, they could only blame that someone, as he was the one who got the kiss and enjoyed the feeling, as for them, they were nothing but viewers, and could only watch from afar.
Their kiss finally came to an end and their lips separated, though Arthur was still reluctant to let go, as he didn''t enjoy as much as usual, he had to, though he dared to kiss her, he didn''t do it that intimately.
As for Bill, he was shaking from anger, not only was he rejected, with this simple kiss, it''s like Arthur didn''t give him any face and ignored his existence, and that made him even more enraged.
In the spur of the moment, he unsheathed his saber and viciously slashed toward Arthur with no intention of holding back, he really didn''t care anymore, someone who disrespected like him must certainly die or he would lose so much face that he will no longer be feared or respected.
Seeing what just happened, neither Arthur nor Lucy were worried, instead, they were as calm as a toad in the sun, this slash of his was a joke to them, even for someone like Mary, it was a child''s play to block it, much less for them.
Arthur didn''t take action this time, Lucy did, in a split second she crushed that sabre by just putting a little force in her fingers, then she grabbed his stretched arm and threw him at the 3 people behind him, even though she tried using minimal strength, it didn''t matter that much as the 4 people were sent flying until they hit the tables and chairs not too far away from their current location.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
The 3 people were not heavily injured, even Bill was not, but nonetheless, he screamed in pain as his wrist was crushed by her arm, it seems she still can''t control her strength and unconsciously crushed his wrist.
"This is just a warning, scram! before I become serious!"
Lucy''s cold voice swept over all the inn, and everyone didn''t dare even breathe heavily, hervoice contained a chill that made them rub the invisible cold sweat in their forehead.
In reality, they all understood that she was not kidding, they literally couldn''t see what happened, they only saw Bill slash at Arthur, then he somehow was sent flying towards his 3 lackeys.
Bill was helped up by his subordinates, but he was still groaning from pain and holding his swelled wrist, it was truly an agonizing pain, but this time he didn''t dare say any bold words, he maliciously stared at her, then turned around and left while saying
"Don''t think you can get away from this, black scorpion mercenary is not just for show and it sure as hell does not let its people get bullied, I''ll remember this!"
Silence ruled over the place and none spoke, they shifted their gazes from the trio and seemingly resumed what they were previously doing.
The muscular man finally came back, but he paid no heed to what happened as if it was a usual thing, he passed the keys to the trio and told them the location of their rooms.
Just as they were going to enter their rooms, Arthur turned to look at Mary and said
"Stay in your room for tonight, me and Lucy will go out to resolve some matters, we will go back in a few hours"
Mary could only obediently nod and enter her room without speaking any further.
As for Lucy, she was confused as she doesn''t remember them needing to go anywhere, so she looked at Arthur appearing questioning him on what he was doing.
"Don''t worry, I need to go see the Emperor, and I want to bring you along, plus I want some alone time with you~~ or is it that you don''t want to come?"
Arthur relieved her puzzlement by saying that, to be honest, he wanted to go back to see the emperor only to apologize to his daughter, he really felt uneasy about what he did, and it was really excessive to do that to her, she was only a child after all, there was no need to be that ruthless, plus last time he shamelessly barged in there while hurting that many soldiers while they were only doing their duty, it was really inappropriate.
His point of view of many things dramatically changed, and he wanted to correct some mistakes he made and act more reasonably in the future, it''s true some people need severe punishment or even death, but he didn''t have to dismember them or heavily injure them just because they said a few things, that''s only what a tyrant would do.
"Who said I don''t want to come!" (Lucy)
Lucy pouted and crossed her arms seemingly furious, but even with that act, a smile formed on her captivating face.
They both left the inn, then Arthur wrapped his arm around her waist and rushed towards the emperor''s castle using his lightning form, he used the lightning form in the city because he knew even like that no one would be able to see him, they would only see a yellow streak of light of lightning pass by them for a split second, so it was no big matter.
...
With his speed, it only took them a short amount of time to arrive at the familiar castle, but in the way, he possessed Lara and Mozu''s bodies, and the familiar sound of notification soon rang in his head, and the blue screen appeared in front of him.
You successfully possessed Lara Singlore
You gained a new skill(passive) : [Advanced whip mastery] : when using a whip as a weapon : +15% damage/+5% agility
You gained a new skill(active) : [fire storm]: you use fire attribute to cause a blizzard which burns everything in its way
Cost: 250 mana
Cooldown: 1 hour
...........
To be honest, all skills she got were useless and weak, so Arthur passed them quickly and didn''t bother with them, the only good thing he got from her was getting her stats, she had about 7000 intelligence, so it''s at least better than nothing.
He then proceeded to the big prey, Mozu
You have successfully possessed Mozu
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Light bullet]: using a Light attribute, you can create bullets which attack with an incredible speed.
WARNING: You cannot use any skills related to light attribute if you do that nevertheless, that would cause too heavy consequences and your possible death
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Sara''s blessing]: Your blind faith to the goddess of light, Sara, would be rewarded once you call out to her, and your stats would be doubled for 30 minutes
Cost: none
Cooldown: 1 month
WARNING: You cannot use any skills related to light attribute if you do that nevertheless, that would cause too heavy consequences and your possible death
You gained a new skill(passive) : [Advanced wind magic]: you can now use the wind to attack or defend
You gained a new skill(active) : [Soul essence flame] : It is a flame condensed by your soul, and each person has a unique flame, either in colour or power, this type of flame can be used for Alchemy and other things, but cannot be used to attack or deal damage.
You gained a new skill(passive) : [Basic Alchemy]: You can now concoct pills and create elixirs that strengthen you, increase your stats, heal injuries, or even poison your enemies: the quality of the pills, elixirs depends on your soul essence flame and Alchemy''s skill Lvl.
Your stats have increased, please check your status window for more details
...........................
Honestly, Arthur was delighted by what this old man has, it was really a good harvest, he did indeed read about alchemy, but never expected Mozu to have the alchemy skill, it''s really a great occasion, even his stats increased by quite a bit, the average stats of Mozu were 15k with only his intelligence being 19k, he really was strong, well compared to normal people of course, but to Arthur? he''s nothing.
Arthur wanted to try the essence flame, so he concentrated for a bit and indeed a ball of flame appeared in his hand, it was a weird flame though, it was half white, half black, and didn''t emit any heat or pressure or anything else.
Since the notice said it wasn''t meant for attacking, so that may be why it didn''t emit any heat.
Arthur shrugged that idea off and walked with Lucy toward the gates of the castle. He was somehow lost in thought about another thing, which is why he can''t use the light attribute, but since he can''t why bother with it right now? if he ever found a solution then it''s good, if not then so be it, it''s not like he didn''t have other magic, hell! he can all 6 of main attributes, plus ice, void, and lightning, that''s just insane.
Even his control in wind, earth is really good, as he had them both in advanced, he even gained strong skills for wind and earth, such as the black earth cage the old man next to the emperor used, but that cage was only strong to them, with a simple slash from a condensed sword energy, he can cut that cage in half...what a pity..
There were 2 guards standing near the gate, patrolling the area with great vigilance, and once they spotted someone coming, they held their swords and shields and shouted
"Who''s there, for what purpose did you come here?"
Arthur couldn''t help but chuckle seeing the guard, it was the same one who he injured last time, it seems he was somehow safe and back to his duty, he overdid it when he injured all those guards as they were only doing their job, so this time he decided to try another thing.
"haha, Little brother, did you already forget about me?"
Once Arthur was close enough, the guards saw his features, they were confused, they surely didn''t know them, and them, as experienced fighters had a good memory because of high stats.
Arthur laughed then retrieved a mask, then seemingly put it on his face for a second before taking it off.
Seeing thatthe guard''s bodies immediately stiffened and their faces paled, how could they forget about him? he was their nightmare!
The emperor himself even told all the guards to treat him courteously if they ever crossed his path and never anger him, so of course, they knew him.
Seeing as he was not coming to fight or didn''t attack immediately, the guards relaxed a little, they lowered their weapons to not anger him and forced a smile on their face.
"hahaha, my lord, please for me, I''m a bit short-sighted, I see you come here to meet the emperor right?"
The guard also saw Lucy walking beside Arthur, he was stunned for a second but didn''t stare for too long for fear of the wrath of Arthur, he opened the gate and adjusted his posture to appear more respectful.
"Indeed, I have come here to meet the Emperor"
The guard didn''t seem to mind this time when Arthur called his majesty like that, instead, he bowed his head and replied:
"In that case, please wait a moment, we will immediately inform his majesty of your visit, in meantime, please enter!"
Arthur couldn''t help but smile, this guard seemed to have learned his lesson and was very respectful towards him, in a way he felt happy and guilty, he didn''t say anything else and entered the enormous garden which surrounded the castle, it was indeed a fascinating garden, decorated with many statues and had a lot of flowers of all colors, the view was just spectacular.
The guard then ran off to inform the emperor, he ran with his full speed as if his life depended on it, it was quite a funny sight, to be honest.
As for Arthur and Lucy, they walked around the garden, enjoying the view and chatting happily, Lucy was contemplating the roses and praising them so Arthur just told him to take whatever she liked, but for some reason she refused.
After a dozen of minutes, it was not the guard who came back, instead, it was the old man, who apparently was named Cylmar, his speed was way faster than the guard and with each step, he passed 5m or so.
To be honest, once Cylmar heard what the guard said, he didn''t have time to inform his majesty, he didn''t want to anger Arthur, so he wanted to personally welcome him and see what he wants, hopefully, he wouldn''t cause trouble like last time.
In fact, he investigated his identity, but all he could find is that he was a council member of the Nemia Academy until he disappeared a year ago and he couldn''t find what happened to him, and in a way he was relieved, as along Arthur don''t cause trouble to his majesty then it''s alright.
Cylmar soon arrived near Arthur, he also spotted Lucy but he didn''t pay much attention to her, instead, he was more worried about Arthur, but seeing he did nothing to the guards this time, he felt reassured, nonetheless he didn''t let his guard down.
"My, if it isn''t Mr. Arthur, I''m sorry for the poor welcome but the guards were only doing their job"
Actually, last time Arthur came he was wearing a mask, nonetheless Cylmar managed to find his identity because of his clothes, his robe was quite unique with that symbol on it so he was easily discovered, nevertheless, Arthur only put that mask for show, it''s not like he was trying his best to hide his identity back then.
Now that he saw his features, he was quite surprised to see that he was a young man, to have such strength at that age, just who is he?
Arthur softly laughed then replied
"No problem, I''m not mad about that, anyway, no need to be overly cautious Mr. Cylmar, I only came here today to have a little chat of the Emperor"
The old man was momentarily surprised by two things, first because Arthur was strangely different, last time he was ruthless and cold, but this time he appeared respectful and well mannered, though he still called his majesty the emperor, the second thing he was stunned about was that he knew his name, but after some logical thinking, it''s to be expected, after all, Cylmar was famous for being a counselor of the emperor and almost everyone knew him so how could Arthur not know him?
"Oh, is that so, then I''m relieved, Please follow me, His majesty is currently on the other side of the garden, I''m sure he''ll be delighted to see you"
Cylmar then put his hands behind his back, and walked slowly, guiding the duo towards the Emperor''s location, so Arthur''s followed him with Lucy without delaying any further.
...........
Alexander, the human emperor, was currently enjoying his day with his family in his castle''s garden, he was with his wife, his eldest son, the crown prince and Celcy the female mage, she was actually a disciple of Cylmar and had a close relationship with the royal family so the Emperor treated her as family.
He was sitting next to his wife, Lynessa, they were both eating some fruits and watching their eldest son practice with that Celcy.
Actually, Alexander rarely took some time off, but when he did, he would only pass it relaxing at home, it would only be a few days, and he would tell higher-ups of the empire to handle the political matters in his short absence.
He had 3 children, but the most he was proud of was the eldest, Syth, he was very talented in fighting, and was a genius in handling swords, in fact, he was amongst the best in the country, plus he had a good affinity with lightning, one of the special attributes, and the most uncommon one.
Syth excelled in using that attribute, his attacks with lightning were frightening and could not be easily blocked.
He was currently sparring with Celcy, he was older than her, but he still regarded her as a little sister and would always spare some time to teach her a few tricks, since she was only a mage, he would teach her sometimes how to use mana in an efficient way or other good tricks.
In fact, Syth was not a playboy like his little brother, in fact, he never showed any interest in opposite sex, he always devoted his life to training and becoming strong, for him strength equaled power, he had no interest in ruling the empire, he just wanted to become the strongest.
...........................
As they were currently having fun and relaxing, they noticed Cylmar coming their way, and behind him, they saw 2 figures.
Though Syth and Celcy were sparring, they didn''t notice them immediately, but Alexander with his high stats, saw them instantly and once his gaze landed on Arthur, his body stiffened and he became slightly anxious.
Actually, he and Cylmar knew Arthur''s real appearance, and that''s because when they investigated, they managed to find someone who imprinted Arthur''s face on a crystal, also, his daughter told him about Arthur, his behavior, his features and other things, so when he saw him now, he immediately recognized him, heck! those red eyes alone were enough to confirm his suspicions.
Celcy and Syth also stopped sparring to see what is happening and who are these people.
After some seconds, they finally arrived a couple of meters near Alexander, his wife, and the two others.
Syth gazed at the 2 unfamiliar people with indifference, he first looked at Arthur but wasn''t that much interested in him until he saw that black sheath and what looked like a sword, he as a swordsman and a fighter, really liked challenges, and wanted to be the best swordsman, so seeing the sword, his fighting spirit ignited.
He then looked at the woman beside Arthur, and he was momentarily surprised, even someone such as him who had no interest or whatsoever towards the woman, was mesmerized by her beauty and couldn''t help but stare at her for some time, apparently lost in thought.
Cylmar heartily laughed and said
"Your Majesty, It seems Mr. Arthur have come to speak with you, so I brought him directly to you."
If he brought any other person, Alexander would have been irritated, but it was Arthur, he already saw what he was capable off so he dared not be arrogant or be rude.
"Ohh! it''s Mr. Arthur, yes yes! it''s been such a long time, why don''t you sit so we can have a little chat?"
This time, Alexander became respectful, he feared Arthur and knew he can''t beat him and can be easily killed, plus he didn''t know that the behavior of Arthur changed, so he acted overly courteous and didn''t dare anger him like last time.
"Your majesty is so courteous, please don''t be alerted, I didn''t come to cause trouble this time, I only want to chat with you for a bit, that''s it"
Arthur called him ''your majesty'' this time around. Actually, he didn''t want to call him that, but he wanted to build a good relation ship with him, and forgetting about the past, because if he ever needed some help in political matters then maybe this man would help him.
Celcy also knew about Arthur, so when she heard his name, she became slightly angry and clenched her fists, last time she and her master were easily beaten by him so she trained all year to not end up in the same situation, she trained for hours and hours to overcome her weakness, as she felt bitter about what happened that night.
As for Syth, he was confused, his father didn''t tell him about Arthur, so he obviously didn''t know what happened in the past, even his sister didn''t tell him about what happened to her, as he was quite reclusive so he rarely engaged in those matters, but now that he saw his father become this respectful and appear quite frustrated in front of this individual, he became interested and intrigued at the same time.
Lynessa, who was sitting next to her husband, became afraid once she heard of this man''s name, it was the same one who slapped her, one could be lying to say she wasn''t afraid of him, she deeply regretted saying those words, as it seems this man didn''t care about her background or her status and could have easily killed her, so this time she didn''t dare open her mouths and stayed silent.
Alexander breathed a sigh of relief once he heard that and said :
"So it''s like that, in any case, I''m very grateful for your visit and this young lady...?"(-the emperor)
"She is my wife, her name is Lucy"(-Arthur)
"So it''s Mrs. Lucy, thank you for your visit, you and your husband, why don''t you take a sit?"(-the emperor)
Lucy just nodded toward the Emperor without saying anything and sat on a nearby chair, as for Arthur he also did the same.
The atmosphere seemed a little awkward, as the emperor, his wife, Arthur and Lucy were the only people sitting, while Cylmar, Syth, and Celcy were standing a couple of meters away, still staring at Arthur and Lucy.
Alexander, noticing his son and Celcy standing there without doing anything, hastily said
"Syth, Celcy, weren''t you sparring? you can continue doing that, I''m going to have a little chat with Mr. Arthur here."
Though, he said that both of them didn''t continue sparring, in fact, Syth walked closer to his father and said
"Father, we just finished, so how about we join you? would you mind Mr. Arthur?"
Even though he spoke to his father, he was looking at Arthur and brightly smiling, but Arthur knew it was this kind of people he didn''t like the most, very shrewd and cunning, talented at hiding their motives.
Though he thought like that, Arthur just waved his hand and said
"No problem no problem!"
Whatever he wanted, Arthur didn''t mind, he might be very cunning or planning something, that didn''t matter either, he had enough strength to be able to stay confident against a brat like this.
Soon, Celcy and Syth took a seat next to the emperor, as for Cylmar, he preferred to stand so the emperor didn''t insist and let him do as he pleases.
Time passed and no one talked, the atmosphere seemed awkward as no one dared take the initiative to speak, Alexander couldn''t take it anymore and said
"Mr. Arthur, about what you want to chat about........."
The emperor seemed very disorganized, as he spoke with a hesitant voice.
As for Arthur, he was leisurely sitting in the chair, admiring the view and when he heard the emperor, he snapped out of it and coughed a few times before replying
"Well, I''ve come here to apologize to you and your daughter for what I have done, it was ruthless of my part and I shouldn''t have done that, so I would be very pleased if you could call your daughter so I can properly apologize"
Hearing this, Alexander sat there, dumbstruck, he couldn''t believe what he just heard, I mean, who would right? just a year ago, this man heavily injured his daughter, and even barged in his castle injuring people left and right without a care in the world, he even threatened him, but here he is now, apologizing, it seemed like it was a different person, but his eyes are most certainly not lying to him so what was going on here?
In any case, he came back to his senses and didn''t think much of it, true, it''s astonishing and strange he changed like this, nonetheless, the truth was in front of him, and since this man came to apologize then he will just let him do so, because, after some logical thoughts, it would be better to have a good relationship with a strong figure like this one.
"Good, good! about that matter, it''s really alright, it was our fault, to begin with, as for my daughter, I will call her right away...."
Alexander then turned his head towards Cylmar, and the latter understood what he meant so he nodded and headed towards the castle to call for the princess.
...
Syth, who was silently sitting there, was still confused, what did this man do to my sister and my father? he really wanted to know what happened, but he couldn''t ask his father now, so he just remained silent but he would sometimes sneak glances at Lucy who was nonchalantly gazing at the garden, ignoring the emperor and everybody else, it seemed as if she didn''t care about the conversation.
As they were waiting for the Lisa to come, none of them talked and silence ruled over once again, but that didn''t last long as the princess finally came with Cylmar.
Cylmar only told Lisa that her father called her and she needs to go see him hastily, so she headed to the garden with Cylmar with fast speed.
Once she was close enough, she saw her father with the usual people from her family, but there were 2 strangers, and when she was in range to distinguish their features, her heartbeat quickened and she felt fear.
In fact, she told her father about how Arthur injured her, but she sure as hell didn''t tell anyone about what happened in that dungeon, that was her most terrifying nightmare, every time she remembered it she would shake non-stop, and now that she saw Arthur from afar, the fear from that time once again engulfed her.
Nonetheless, she didn''t stop and headed to her father.
With her speed, she arrived next to him in a matter of seconds, she didn''t dare look at Arthur and only looked at her father.
"Oh, Lisa, you''re finally here. Do you know whothis Mister is?"
The emperor gently talked to his daughter and pointed at Arthur.
Lisa had to turn to look at Arthur, so she mustered up courage and turned her head to look at him, only to see him smiling at her, surprisingly, there was no hint of coldness or killing intent like before, nevertheless, she still felt afraid.
"Y-yes father, It''s Mr. Arthur"
When Arthur saw her current state, he really felt guilty, this girl became completely terrified by him, she could barely look at him, the arrogance she had when he first met her didn''t show, it''s as if she is another person.
"Mrs. Lisa, no need to be afraid, I came here to apologize for what I did, if you do not mind, I''ll give you something in return, it may be not enough, but please accept it"
Actually, Lisa was surprised by what she said, but that didn''t appease her fear, she only wanted to get done with this and return to her room, the farther from this man the better.
"D-Don''t worry Sir Arthur, It was my arrogance and bad personality that angered you. I totally deserved that."
Arthur couldn''t help but chuckle when he heard her say that a child was a child after all, after a lesson she seemed to have become more obedient and didn''t act high and mighty anymore, but still, his actions were unnecessary and ruthless so he should at least pay her back in some way or another.
"Hahaha, it''s good that Mrs. Lisa understood her faults, one should not be overly arrogant even if his strength reaches the skies, but even so, I hope you accept my gift, I know you are suited for close-range combat, so I brought you a good item"
Once he finished speaking, he waved his hand, and a 3m long red spear appeared from his storage, it was actually the ''Flaming Sky Spear'' it was one of the treasures Zodiak left behind and he had a LOT of power weapons, they just were not suited for him or a bit weak for him, but for other people, these weapons are national treasures.
When he took out the spear, everyone except Lucy was taken aback, they stared with disbelief at the spear, it was a red spear with a bit of orange in his pole, it had a flame engraved in its shaft, and this symbol of flame was very famous in this world.
Actually, any weapon that had that symbol is the work of an ancient legendary blacksmiths, his weapon and armors are renowned to be the best and the top of the notch, anyone wielding his weapons is surely a powerhouse that cannot be reckoned with, so when they saw the spear, they couldn''t believe their eyes.
Arthur stood up, walked in front of the princess, who was also looking at the spear and still in a daze, noticing her be still lost in thought, he spoke again
"It seems, you know of this weapon, it''s called ''Flaming Sky Spear'' and it''s not bad, I''m sure it will help you, you can test it if you don''t believe me"
he then stretched his hand and handed her the spear, she unconsciously took it and regained her senses.
"That''s impossible, this spear was lost for ages! H-how could you have it!"(Alexander)
Alexander was really stunned, and he couldn''t believe it was the real deal, but when he said that, he immediately regretted his words, who was Arthur? he was a mysterious figure with incredible strength and unknown background, so what if he got a legendary weapon?
"Ahem, I''m sorry for my outburst, I was not thinking properly, please excuse my rudeness"(Alexander)
"haha, it''s okay, it''s a normal reaction to have, but you can test it and see if it''s really fake or not"
Lisa already forgot her fear of Arthur and was contemplating the spear, she began feeling it and even when holding it, she felt her strength greatly rise and her speed slightly increase, even her senses seemed to become better.
She distanced herself from them then started waving the spear with a practiced manner, and each time the spear moved, flames would appear.
What was special about this weapon is that even a person who is not a mage can use it and it will produce flames, plus the power of the flames depended on one''s stats, so that made it even better.
The handling felt really smooth and the spear was neither very heavy nor too light, it was at a manageable weight.
After passing sometimes testing the spear, Lisa felt reallyexcited, she even forgot that she was very afraid of Arthur.
Surprisingly, she turned around to look at her father and others and said
"It''s real, it''s really genuine, I can feel its power, I''ve only done a few movies but I Feel like this spear''s ability is incredible"
She then walked toward Arthur and said
"Mr. Arthur, I graciously accept your gift, thank you!"
Arthur could only shake his head and laugh in his heart, after all, she is still a child, and to please a child, you only need to give him a candy, of course, he knew she wasn''t that stupid, but he was sure she liked the present.
"No problem, no problem! I just hope you can forget about the past and start anew"
Lisa, who was brimming with joy, as if she never was afraid of him in the first place, nodded her head and said
"Yes!"
...........
Chapter 35 : Friends
Lisa was quite happy right now, she received a good weapon which will greatly help her.
Even her father, the emperor, can''t get her a weapon like this spear, after all, it was a weapon of legends.
In fact, every weapon or piece of equipment that was created by that ancient blacksmith is extremely strong and priceless.
That blacksmith was named ''Juda'', not much was known about him except that he created incredible weapons, and he would engrave his mark on them, which was a flame symbol, it had some unique mana fluctuation that cannot be imitated, so basically, no one can easily copy his weapon or just put a flame symbol then claim that it''s a weapon of Juda.
Though she felt happy, that didn''t mean Lisa had totally gotten over her fears of Arthur, after all, it needs some time, nonetheless, her view of him slightly changed.
She knew it was her fault when she got her arm ripped off, but thankfully, her father bought a miraculous medicine that healed her, however, it cost him a tremendous amount of gold and treasures to do so.
As for Alexander, hearing what his daughter said and seeing her wave the spear left and right while flames were coming out of spear, all of this really made him stunned and he no longer had any suspicions.
Originally, he doubted Arthur, after all, he feared him but that did not mean he trusted him.
But seeing this turn of events, he couldn''t help but believe his daughter, it was really a genuine legendary weapon and it was handed to his daughter just like that.
To be honest, he was still perplexed about Arthur''s sudden change of behavior, but since it turned out for the better then he could only smile and just accept it, after all, it was a joyous event, with this spear, if his daughter keeps improving then she can become a strong individual.
....
Syth, who was sitting next to his father, was looking intensely at the spear, I mean, of course, he would.
Even though he wasn''t skilled in spears, he was still slightly jealous of his sister.
He, who was more talented than her and even good at magic, didn''t get any awesome weapon like her which seemed a bit unfair to him but he still remained silent.
After all, he can''t just straight out complain to Arthur and blame him for not giving him a cool weapon too, only children do that and he was an adult, but he still envied his sister.
"hahaha, Mr. Arthur is sure generous, Thank you for giving her such a strong weapon, it means really a lot to us"
After saying that, the emperor personally poured some tea to Arthur and Lucy, then he passed it to them.
As for Arthur, he sipped from the cup then said
"It''s nothing, hahaha, I hope his majesty can consider me his friend, that''s all"
Actually, Arthur quite liked the his change of behavior, now that he interacted more freely with others and became more open, it made him feel a bit of delight.
His previous way of doing things was way reckless and idiotic, he only killed or injured without trying to solve things peacefully, he guessed that back then, maybe he was still overwhelmed by his past and he didn''t overcome it.
Fortunately, Lucy was here for him and she did what he thought was impossible, she changed him for the better and supported him, he saw her past just as he saw his and neither was disgusted by the other.
Arthur really couldn''t think of a life without her, actually, he can''t live without her as she was his only purpose of living.
...
Alexander was surprised to hear that Arthur wanted to befriend him, he didn''t know if it was some trick or he was just honest, nevertheless, he smiled back at Arthur and said
"Of course! I would be happy to have a friend such as yourself"
Arthur didn''t dislike the emperor that much, quite the opposite, this man seemed up-right and was even very respectful towards him, but that must''ve been because of his visit last time, nonetheless, for an emperor to lower himself this much, it was indeed rare.
....
Time slowly passed and none of them talked, Arthur enjoyed his tea while Lucy also drank the cup of tea and gazed at Celcy, as if thinking about something.
As for Alexander, he calmed down a little but he still felt awkward when silence ruled over the place.
Lisa was not far away, still excited, she practiced moves and skills with the spear to get used to it.
From time to time, the emperor or Celcy would compliment Lisa to break the silence and lighten up the mood a little.
¡
Syth, who was silent from the very beginning, was a little angry, for his father, the emperor to be this modest and respectful towards this man, just who was he?
Finally, he couldn''t hold back himself anymore and spoke with a cold yet unyielding voice
"Mr. Arthur, I see that you have a sword with you, do you mind exchanging some pointers with me?"
He was quite intrigued by this guy''s strength and skills, for his father to treat him this good, he must surely be strong.
But even like that, he had quite the confidence, with advanced sword mastery and advanced lightning magic, there is few people who were his match, he was practically a prodigy, even his LVL was a whopping 230, even higher than his father, only Cylmar was his match.
So that''s why he invited Arthur for a spar, he wanted to see his strength with his own eyes, and if he ended up being weak, he would be extremely disappointed.
...
Arthur heard that so he turned his head to look at Syth, the latter was also looking at him with a cold yet piercing gaze, as for Arthur, he only laughed in his heart.
He obviously knew the intentions of Syth, but he wasn''t worried or angered, quite the opposite, a bit of action to lighten up the mood is not bad.
The emperor suddenly stood up from his chair and angrily shouted at his son
"Syth! How could you say that. Mr. Arthur is a guest, not a fighting partner!"
His actions may seem stupid to others, but he knew how strong Arthur was, he can even teleport freely, so his son''s provocation might anger him(Arthur) and even if it doesn''t, he didn''t believe his son had a chance.
"hahah, no need to be angry your majesty, your son only wanted to spar, and I would be happy to oblige, plus, some action is not bad once in a while, don''t you think so"
Arthur said that while still looking at Syth, as if he was talking to him.
"Indeed, just as Mr. Arthur, we are only exchanging pointers, so no need to fret about it"
Hearing this, the emperor could only sigh and sit back, he only hoped that Arthur would be merciful.
As for Lucy, once she heard that Arthur was going to fight, her interest was immediately picked, and she eagerly stared after Arthur who walking to an open space with Syth.
She loved watching him fight, so her eyes never left his figure.
Soon, both of them arrived at where Celcy and Syth were previously sparring, it was an open space approximately 30 meters from Lucy and the others
Both of them were standing while facing each other with a 10meters distance separating them.
Syth didn''t waste any time and took his sword right away, it was a green sword with a bit of whiteness in it, it had some gems on one of its edges and it looked like a decent sword.
Actually, it was one of the best swords, but compared to the spear, it was still lacking.
"Mr. Arthur, why aren''t you drawing your sword? I don''t want to seem like a bully who attacks unarmed men"
"hahaha, Prince Syth, no need to worry about that, I''m not going to use it"
Actually, Arthur was not purposely acting arrogant, he just truly didn''t need his katana to deal with Syth
To be honest, Syth was quite angry when he saw his opponent underestimating him, nonetheless, he didn''t speak any further and rushed at Arthur with fast speed.
Arthur stood there, observing the incoming prince while gazing at him, interested in what this prince can do as he appraised him and saw his LvL.
In reality, Syth''s speed was quite decent, it was on par with Arnold, the deceased bishop, if not slightly faster.
He firmly held his sword and already started hacking at Arthur with precision.
As for Arthur, seeing this, he only smirked and easily side-stepped, successfully dodging the attack.
Though Syth was shocked, he didn''t dare daze off, he rotated his body and slashed at Arthur, this time, his sword contained some lightning in it.
But just like a second ago, Arthur perfectly dodged the slash and the sword could only hit the air.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Syth gritted his teeth and backed away some meters, then he charged at Arthur again, but soon enough,3 lightning balls appeared out of nowhere and headed for Arthur.
This time, Syth had more confidence, first, he wanted to only use sword skills but after only 2 exchanges, he decided against that and immediately use his magic.
He was an experienced fighter and just seeing Arthur easily dodge his attacks like that made him become more serious and cautious, it seems this man is really not ordinary after all.
To be honest, it was only Syth who was surprised when he saw Arthur dodge, as for the others, they could only sigh.
Even Celcy and Cylmar combined could not win against Arthur, much less Syth alone.
...
Seeing the incoming lightning balls, Arthur just waved his hand and they disappeared, just like that.
Actually, his control of the lightning was incredible, these types of attacks won''t even hurt him, quite the opposite, being struck by lightning would only make him feel comfortable.
He got all the talent and skills Yamak had, so his control over lightning is as if he used it for ages.
The incoming slash was also evaded by Arthur.
This time, Syth was stunned, he saw Arthur simply wave his hand and his 3 lightning balls suddenly disappeared.
He was sure it was Arthur''s doing, so he began to feel more excited and fearful, excited because he met a strong opponent, and fearful because he began to feel hopeless against him after only a few attacks.
He continued attacking using everything he got, lightning bolts, sword skills but the lightning would always disappear and Arthur would dodge every single time.
...
After 3 minutes of this scenario, Syth could only feel depressed, but he didn''t give up and relentlessly attacked.
It''s the first time he encountered such an opponent, he felt admiration for Arthur even though he somewhat disliked him just earlier.
After an exchange which of course resulted in the same outcome, Syth backed away, he was softly smiling while tightly holding his sword
"Mr. Arthur is indeed strong, to think, I, with my advanced lightning magic and sword mastery, could not even hit you once, that''s incredible"
Even Arthur quite liked this brat, Syth wasn''t that old, to begin with but he is still skilled.
Even though earlier he was quite provocative and acted cold, that was only because he regarded Arthur as a stranger, and for some reason, his father, the emperor, had to treat this stranger respectfully, so he couldn''t help but feel annoyed.
Arthur observed Syth''s fighting and judged him to be a genius, because, how else would he be able to be this good, his sword mastery were top of the notch, but to say the truth, Arthur''s peak sword mastery was way better.
He grasped all secrets to the sword, and wielded it as if it was part of his body, his control over his katana is beyond perfect.
Since this prince seemed like a good person and didn''t even give up even after understanding that he cannot win, Arthur decided to truly teach him some things and maybe give some advice, after all, he liked the kid''s behavior so it wouldn''t hurt him to help a little.
It''s quite ironic though, who would have thought that him, who never trusted anyone, killed in cold blood and interacted coldly with people, would decide to give a little help to someone except Lucy.
Maybe he matured? Or his heart softened? That didn''t matter, what really mattered is that he changed and learned how to forgive, and here he is now deciding to help.
"I see you are an interesting fellow, so I''ll teach you a few things."
Arthur then retrieved a simple steel sword from his storage then he held it with his right hand.
His stance changed and he excluded some pressure, him holding the sword appeared elegant and refined and that''s exactly what Lucy adored.
Even Syth was surprised by what happened, he was overwhelmed by the pressure but he didn''t back off and instead mustered his strength and fought this invisible pressure.
Arthur rushed at Syth using enough speed for his opponent to barely see him, in a second he crossed the distance between them and slashed with his sword.
Syth was startled as he could not react in time, he only unconsciously lifted his sword to block.
''tinggg''
Syth sword was thrown to the ground and he backed away a few steps with a slightly pale face.
"Your offensive is good but it seems you are lacking in the defensive....pick up your sword and attack.... what are you dazing for, a man should not give up because he lost once."
Syth was surprised and came back to his senses, he didn''t expect Arthur to lecture him like that.
Back then, he couldn''t hold out for even a second, that attack of Arthur was overwhelming and powerful yet it had some precision in it, it cannot be described, it really seemed like he did that movement for millions of times.
Syth walked next to his sword and picked it up, he had a bitter feeling as he was embarrassed from losing like that, nevertheless, what Arthur said was right and he shouldn''t give up easily.
Once Syth picked his sword, he charged at Arthur while attacking with his sword and magic again.
But Arthur got rid of the magic and once again knocked the sword out of his hand
"No, you rely too much on your magic, try distracting the enemy first, then attack them from behind with your magic, the way you are fighting now is too shallow, it''s like reading an open book, anyone can predict what you are going to do next"
Just like that, Syth would attack again and again, everytime his sword would fly out of his hands and every time he would pick it and attack again.
"You should control your strength, don''t just attack with your full power.."
..
"Your blocking is horrible, trying side-stepping or using a barrier to decrease the damage."
...
"This skill of yours takes ages to charge and it''s very obvious, I could have killed you a thousand times now.."
..
An hour passed, and Arthur never stopped lecturing him, over and over until Syth was panting heavily from exhaustion, he was a normal person, he had a lot of stamina, but he couldn''t fight all day like Arthur.
He had some scratches here and there but they were only superficial.
Even Alexander and the others were surprised by Arthur, they didn''t expect him to spend a whole hour just to lecture Syth.
"It seems you''re at your limit, good, maybe if you practice every day like this, then you would surely become better because now, your reflexes are lacking."
Arthur stored the steel sword and walked up next to Lucy and sat there as if nothing happened, he took a sip of the cold tea and spoke again
"Though I was harsh, that was only because you indeed have some talent in fighting."
Syth was really happy right now, even though he was so tired and he could barely stand up, the beating he took opened his eyes and helped him a lot.
Arthur pointed a lot of his flaws and taught him a few tricks, never had he thought that this ''spar'' would benefit him this much.
Arthur''s sword skills were beyond his comprehension, they were flawless, delicate yet deadly, and compared to him, Syth skills were considered just average.
Syth bowed his head for the first time in a long time and said
"Thank you very much, Your help benefited me a lot, also I would like to sincerely apologize for my behavior earlier, it was rude of my part"
Syth now understood why his father valued this man and treated him with respect, it seems he is extremely strong and mysterious as well.
Even Alexander, his father was surprised, for his son, Syth, who never bowed his head to anyone but him to do that to Arthur indicated how much he was feeling grateful.
Actually, even the emperor himself was overjoyed right now, it seems Arthur did indeed change, plus Arthur said that he liked Syth''s character and even helped him, so what did that mean?
that means there is a chance of building a good relationship with Arthur.
"Hahaha, no need to be so thankful, the only thing that matters is that this hour did benefit you, even if it''s by a little"
Arthur chuckled, then he returned his attention to his tea, still enjoying it even though it was cold, then all of a sudden, he seemed to remember something and said to Syth, who just sat on the chair to relieve some exhaustion.
"Oh, by the way, that sword does not suit you, in fact, it hinders you and you cannot release your full potential if you use it"
Arthur''s words surprised Syth, he looked at his sheathed sword in a complicated manner, he used it because it granted a lot of stats and was powerful, he never thought that it was unsuited for him, after a couple of seconds, he breathed some fresh air and responded
"Mr. Arthur''s skill with a sword is formidable since you said that then it must be the case, I will look for another sword"
Hearing that, Arthur nodded continuously at Syth, his view of this kid never ceased to escalate, he really followed his advice without questioning so he couldn''t help but feel slightly moved.
He retrieved a violet sword from his storage, it had a snake engraved on it and in its sheath, there were some words: ''Heavenly Snake''
"Then you can make do with this one until you find a better one..."
Without waiting for his reply, Arthur threw the violet sword at Syth, who unconsciously caught it.
The weapon emanated some strange aura, and its demeanor was more overwhelming than the spear.
This time, none knew of this sword or if it was legendary or not, but it''s aura alone was enough for them to understand how precious it is.
Syth was dumbfounded, he didn''t think Arthur would give him a sword and a powerful one at that.
"T-thank you, Mr. Arthur"
In fact, even Arthur didn''t know why he became this generous and gave him the sword but he just did it and it''s not like he regretted it.
.....
They passed one more hour with the emperor, but this time, the mood seemed to become much better as they chatted about simple things such as fighting, the garden, and flowers which Lucy liked, the emperor even started naming each and every flower.
Finally, Arthur decided it was time to head back so he bade them farewell and disappeared with Lucy.
All they saw was a yellow streak of lightning flash by and disappear in a split second.
...
Soon, they reached the inn and went to their room, it was almost night and it was a long day so they decided to stay in their room.
"Who would have thought you are a good mentor, hmpf! why didn''t you teach me too!"
Lucy was pouting again, she turned her head away from him seemingly furious.
As for Arthur, he grinned and said
"Don''t worry, I''ll teach you too~"
He then appeared behind her and groped her chest from behind while kissing her neck.
"Ah~"
Actually, she was only teasing as usual, because if she really liked sword fighting, she wouldn''t be embarrassed to ask him and he would teach her everything.
The heavenly feeling of her chest was as incredible as ever, never would he get enough of it.
He groped them until Lucy was panting, she tried not to moan but some cute cries would escape from time to time.
They soon engaged in passionate and affectionate sex but this time they went at it until very late at night.
After having finished, they both laid on the familiar bed which Lucy retrieved from her storage.
They liked doing it only on that bed, it had a special meaning for both of them.
They were both laying naked next to each other, Arthur was wrapping his arms around her waist and would sometimes squeeze those soft buttocks, as for her, she was stroking his hair and smiling.
"Do you think what I did was excessive? Should I not have given him the sword?"
Arthur asked for her opinion about today''s matter.
"No...that kid was not bad, I think he deserved the sword....but how come you didn''t give me, your wife, anything?"
As she said that, she pinched his cheeks but in truth, she didn''t put force into it, in fact, it felt warm and good to him rather than painful.
In just seconds, that pinch transformed into a gentle stroke, her alluring eyes stared at him lovingly, she lifted her head and kissed him, for her, that was the best way to express how much she loved him, no matter how much they kissed or had sex, it was never enough.
Neither of them was ever tired of the other, and not once did they reject anything from the other, no matter how he touched her, she never struggled, she let him do as he pleases and she actually enjoyed that, she never told him to stop or even thought about doing that.
And even him, no matter what she did or how many times she kissed him, he didn''t push her away, moreover, why would he do that? He loved her so dearly and seeing her hurt would pain him, plus he would never forgive himself if he hurts her.
Their tragic past was long forgotten and they already started their new life.
Today was the first day they interacted with people since the incident and even made friends, they may not be real friends but they were at least acquaintances.
¡
Arthur kissed her back, and after some time they separated, but Lucy didn''t seem to have had enough so her lips pressed on his yet again.
Only after fully enjoying it did she let go.
Even Arthur liked that feeling, her delicate lips, and that tongue....one just cannot dislike kissing her.
"...Lucy, I love you..."
He then hugged her tightly without letting go.
She also wrapped her hands around his back, hugging him back while saying
"I love you too..and that will never change"
And in that position they fell asleep, enjoying the warmth of each other, for either of them, sleeping in each other''s embrace is the best thing they can wish for.
....
Morning came after a long night of love and warmth, they both got up from bed after some snuggling.
They wore their clothes and readied themselves, today they would be leaving this city and heading to the Itas continent.
Lucy wore some tight clothes instead of a robe or dress, these clothes revealed her body and showed the alluring curves and the perky butt.
......
As they left their room found Mary waiting for them in front of her room, silently waiting.
Honestly, Lucy felt a little embarrassed as maybe Mary heard her moans but it was too late to regret it now, not that she regretted doing it though.
The trio didn''t waste time roaming the city and immediately left it, heading towards Itas continent.
Actually, Mary told them that because of the war that happened between the academy and the Holy Church, the magic arrays leading from a continent to another were blocked and to travel they will have to go by boat.
But Arthur was going to slowly travel by foot and when they arrive at the sea, they would ride on the dark cloud, it''s way faster and better than a boat.
Chapter 36 : Dragon Rider
Laksy city was located at the center of the human continent and it was considered the capital.
Basically, Arthur, Lucy, and Mary need to head far east until they reach the sea separating the 2 continents.
Arthur could have used a teleportation array to lower the distance, but he didn''t do so as he wanted to enjoy traveling a little bit and not just straight out rush towards their destination, it would be boring to do so, and it''s not like the Clan matter is an urgent thing.
The distance they have to cross is quite big, I mean for a merchant or a normal person, they would need months to reach their destination but for Arthur? if he uses his lightning form a few days would be enough.
To be honest, their speed was neither too fast nor too slow, they would camp at night and let Mary sleep for a bit, as for Lucy and Arthur, they would just stand guard and chat.
Though because of the presence of Mary, they didn''t do anything obscene and only kissed a few times.
They didn''t travel the same path merchants do, instead, they crossed dangerous forests and places to shorten the time, but it''s not like they were in a hurry, nevertheless, Arthur preferred passing by those dangerous places, you never know, maybe he finds a treasure of some sort, after all he found Zodiak''s tomb.
The trio did encounter some enemies, from beasts to bandits, but they were all mercilessly killed by Arthur and Lucy.
As for Mary, she was too slow compared to them, this crazy couple would dispose of the enemies before she could even take out her axe, they never ceased to amaze her.
She was even more surprised when she saw Arthur use all kinds of magic, and high leveled one at that.
In fact, Arthur would try out his earth and wind magic on any beast they encounter, he wanted to see if they are decent or not, and to be honest, they were deadly and strong, but just not up to his standard.
In the course of this trip, the relationship between Mary and the couple seemed to get a bit better, especially Lucy and Mary, they seemed to become some kind of friends as they would chat and Arthur would be left alone.
Lucy would even happily tell Arthur every night how she became a friend of Mary, and that this female beastman is truly kind and friendly.
Even for someone like Lucy, she managed to open her cold heart and became her friend, so Arthur''s view of Mary slightly changed but he still didn''t talk to her a lot except when he needed to ask something.
He usually read books, especially at nights when they were resting, Lucy would sometimes sleep with Mary as she liked sleeping, but Arthur would stay up the whole night either reading books or practicing some magic.
Lucy''s POV
It has been 1 week since they began traveling and even though they encountered some annoying bandits, that didn''t trouble them much.
Lucy was overjoyed, though not for an important reason, just as she was traveling with Arthur and actually made a friend, it was Mary.
Even though the first few days they didn''t talk, that didn''t mean it would always be like that.
As days passed, Mary began asking Lucy about magic and other stuff.
It''s quite ironic though, one year ago Lucy was a student and Mary was a council member, but seeing how Lucy became so good at magic, especially her control over magma and her godlike physical strength, so she abandoned her pride and asked Lucy a few things.
Actually, Mary wasn''t very proficient in magic, her specialty was close-range combat and her strength was considered decent, but after seeing Lucy''s strength, she couldn''t help but feel depressed.
Lucy didn''t actually hate this female beastman, it''s true at first she disliked her when she thought she plotted to kill Arthur and her, but after Mary sincerely apologized and even accepted her death, Lucy couldn''t help but acknowledge the sincerity of this woman and change her point of view about her.
When Mary asked Lucy about her strength and even demanded to have a little spar with her, she felt elated.
Each time she explained some basic magic to Mary or sparred with her, this beastman would bow her head and say
"Thank you very much for your help, Mrs. Lucy"
Lucy would only chuckle and nod her head when she heard this, Mary was truly too respectful towards her and Arthur, she even didn''t dare to look at them in the eye.
First, Lucy didn''t mind her attitude, but as time passed she told Mary to act more natural and there is no need to act like that towards her or Arthur, but Mary refused to do that and kept at it even with the insistence of Lucy.
Lucy really noticed that her attitude changed, if it was her past self, she would never talk to Mary, heck! she would not talk at all, but here she is becoming more and more talkative and open to others except Arthur.
She felt ecstatic, her relationship with Mary really became better as time passed, this beastman finally managed to speak freely and get rid of her respectful attitude towards Lucy but when talking to Arthur, she just couldn''t talk like that and she would be polite to him.
It truly was not as easy as it was with Lucy, after all, they were 2 females and can be considered friends now, but Arthur rarely talked to Mary, and he didn''t seem to be open to her as he is with Lucy.
Though Mary was a little sad because of that, she didn''t try anything and just kept things as it is.
...
Lucy was in a tent with Mary as they were heartily chatting, Mary was cleaning her axe as for Lucy, she was hugging a pillow and grinning.
"Hey Mary, why are you cleaning this axe, if you want, I can tell Arthur to give you a better one"
Hearing this, Mary''s hand trembled for a second before regaining their posture.
"N-no, it''s alright, this one is not that bad, so there is no need to do that"
Lucy really wanted to give a good weapon to Mary, it''s been already 3 weeks since they began their travel and their friendship bloomed, even more, they became more intimate and even she, didn''t believe that she would open up to someone other than Arthur, she became more approachable and easy to talk to.
To be honest, she felt that Mary is special, apparently, this female beast-man was younger than Lucy, and even though she had a hot temper back in the past, now it seems she changed and became silent and calm.
"Hmpf! it seems you still don''t accept me as your friend!"
Lucy snorted and turned her head away from Mary.
In fact, she just was a little bit sad that Mary didn''t want to accept her gift, she tried multiple times to give her good equipment but this woman would always decline.
Lucy even unconsciously broke Mary''s leg guards but the famed beast-man refused to take any compensations, so Lucy couldn''t help but feel a bit guilty.
Hearing what Lucy just said, Mary became a bit panicked and replied
"How can it be like that! I-It''s just that I don''t deserve to be a friend of Lucy..."
As she said that, Mary dropped her head down and her eyes became watery.
"I told you that was already in the past, Me and Arthur have already forgiven you, so there really is no need to feel guilty, I truly know that you are kind and didn''t mean to do that and that''s precisely why I want to become your friend"
Lucy retorted with a smile hanging on her face, she didn''t feel any disgust, loathe or anything of the sort towards Mary, she somewhat came to understand this baseman''s behavior, plus she was a good judge of people after what happened to her in the past and she sensed that Mary was definitely not acting kind to gain their trust or anything like that.
In fact, Mary is a person who is always controlled by their emotions and would act upon them. It''s like when she attacked Arthur in the entrance exam, her kin''s death affected her and she didn''t want to stand there and watch, she just acted on impulse.
"But..but I-I..."
"There are no buts, I''m already considering you my friend, so please consider me yours"
Lucy gently stretched her hand and took Mary''s, and shook it as if indicating the start of a friendship.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
The best man could only slowly nod her head and softly smile at Lucy, it would be a lie to say she wasn''t happy, the guilty emotion really engulfed her, but little by little they began to disappear, and hearing Lucy say that she could only comply and decide to forget about the past little by little, deep in her heart, she decided to fix her mistakes and start anew, as the saying goes ''In looking back, I see nothing to regret and little to correct''
Seeing Mary finally accept her and shake her hand back, Lucy really felt excited, though she already considered her a friend. This was an official beginning of their friendship and it was her first friend since a long long time, so how could she not feel thrilled and overjoyed?
"Since we''re friends now then there is no need to be shy or refuse anything, tomorrow, I''ll give you a good weapon and good equipment, you cannot refuse!"
Lucy grasped Mary''s hand and said excitedly, she already sparred with Mary and saw her style and gears, she indeed had good ones but Lucy already saw what Arthur had and compared to Mary''s equipment they were far better so why not give her first friend some good things, after all, she was not like them who had super stats, she was far weaker.
"....Um!"
Mary nodded her head towards Lucy, she couldn''t refuse this time, and to be honest, she felt a bit excited to get a new equipment.
Since Lucy told her they had good gears, and she saw that Arthur''s sword was insanely strong, she couldn''t help but feel ecstatic about what she was going to get, she really felt grateful to have Lucy as a friend.
First she thought it would be impossible for them to get close, but as time passed, Lucy seemed to accept her and completely forgive her, so some hope appeared but she didn''t dare step out of the line and consider herself deserving of Lucy because of what she did, but after hearing Lucy saying again and again that the past is the past and she should forget about it just as Lucy did, after all, sooner or later, we''ve all got to let go of our past.
Lucy and Mary continued to chat for an hour or so before going to sleep, though Lucy didn''t sleep near Mary this time, instead she exited the tent and leaned on Arthur who was sitting on a rock near a fire camp and silently reading a book.
Soon enough she fell into his embrace, he brought her to his lap and let her comfortably sleep then he continued reading after implementing a kiss on her lips, she couldn''t help but giggle and say
"You don''t seem to feel jealous because I left you alone and went to talk with Mary."
Arthur just used his free hand to stroke her hair and calmly replied
"hehe, don''t worry, I know you really like that Mary and became friends and you are feeling excited about that, how can I selfishly tell you to be with me all time? plus I know you will never my side"
Lucy didn''t reply to him and only pressed her head on his chest and fell asleep.
....
Early in the morning, Lucy woke up only to see she was still sleeping in his embrace and he didn''t seem to have moved, he was still reading a book and didn''t seem to be bored.
"nnn...good morning"
Arthur noticed her so he kissed her like usual, he already said he would kiss her every morning so he was keeping his promise, Lucy stretched her petite hands and held his warm cheeks and kissed him back.
Only after a moment did she notice Mary sitting on the opposite side of the camp, but that didn''t stop her from kissing him, however a tinge of red appeared on her cheeks, she felt a little embarrassed to do that in first of Mary, her friend.
After they kissed, Mary looked up to Lucy with a red face and said with a low voice
"G-good m....morning Lucy"
"En! Good morning Mary~~hehe"
Lucy still didn''t calm down and was happy to have a friend.
While lost in thought, Lucy remembered she told Mary that she would give her the equipment so she turned her head to Arthur and said
"Arthur, give me the storage ring that has the weapons and other equipment, I want to give Mary some"
In fact, Arthur had gone through his black storage ring and managed to get some of the weapons he found there into a single storage ring that he also stored in there, he did that to various other things like clothes, furniture, books, gold...
So basically, in his black storage ring, he has several storage rings inside, each containing the same type of thing, of course, he couldn''t rearrange everything like the gold for examples but he nevertheless organized most of the things except some scattered things.
The gold was the biggest problem as there really was a lot, even after taking some and dividing it in several other storages, the gold didn''t seem to lessen so he could only give up.
"mmm"(Arthur)
Arthur nodded his head, he waved his hand and a storage ring appeared, he immediately put it in Lucy''s hand.
In fact, even if she told him to give her the whole storage ring he still wouldn''t mind since she wanted to give good weapons to Mary then he wouldn''t oppose her, in any case, he was happy to see his wife this excited about having a friend.
There was no need to thank Arthur as it was needed between them two, Lucy soon injected mana to the ring and began seeing the good axes there.
..
Soon enough, Lucy got up from Arthur''s lap and headed to sit next to Mary, then she waved her hand and several big axes appeared from the storage.
"Here, these are all the good ones I found that suit you and are on your level"
Mary was surprised to see the axes, each and every one of them seemed extremely powerful and good, her eyes couldn''t help but gaze at them seriously and try to pick one, she was really feeling excited, she even began fidgeting and shaking a little as if she didn''t choose quickly they will disappear.
Lucy, seeing the state of Mary, could only giggle and pat her shoulder while saying
"Hehe, no need to feel pressured, if you want, you can take them all, after all, we don''t need them, they are only laying on the storage so having someone use them is better"
Mary didn''t reply as she still felt nervous, all axes were really excellent, and after 5 minutes or so, she finally picked one.
Surprisingly, it was also a work of ''Juda'' the famous blacksmith, but Mary didn''t know about him, still, the axe really pleased her.
It was just like the spear, and each time she waved it around, flames would come out, plus Mary had a good affinity with fire, so combining her fire skills with this would be extraordinary.
She felt extremely happy as she tested the axe, compared to her old axe, this one is several times better, though it was big and overbearing in appearance, it wasn''t that heavy, it was manageable and easy to handle and that only made her appreciate it even more.
Realising she became too caught up with the axe, Mary snapped out of it and turned to Lucy and bowed her head while saying
"T-thank you, Lucy, really!! I like this axe a lot, it''s so good!"
As for Lucy, even though she wasn''t the one receiving the item, she was pleased with Mary and didn''t regret giving the axe, in fact, she wanted to give her a better one, but the ones still in the storage and way too strong for Mary so she didn''t take them out.
"Hahaha, I Told you there is no need to thank me! We''re friends now so of course, I would help you get stronger, hehe~~"
Mary nodded then excitedly said
"Right Lucy, let''s spar, with this axe maybe I have a chance against you..."
Though she said that, Mary didn''t believe it, but she only said that to joke around.
"Alright, let''s see how you do with your new weapon, but wait I still have to give you other things"
After that, Lucy handed Mary some good leg guards and a good armor which was slightly better than the previous ones, then they began sparring.
Mary felt ecstatic, the axe was beyond her imagination, it''s power was really insane and every time she attacked with it, she couldn''t help but feel more and more excited, but even with a new weapon and a high strength, Lucy would block her attacks bare handed, her skin was not even scratched.
Mary even used the [berserker mode] but the situation was still hopeless and Lucy was able to win easily, even a full swing of the axe while using a strong skill and being in [berserker mode] was stopped by Lucy''s hand as if it was a baby''s punch.
Shefelt 1 part depressed and 4 parts admiration for Lucy, she really idolized her, for them beastmen, they took pride in strength, and seeing someone with this much strength, she couldn''t help but deeply admire her and feel proud to be her friend.
Arthur''s POV
It has been 5 days since Lucy gave the weapon to Mary, they would spar every day, Lucy did that to train Mary and would sometimes advise her, Arthur couldn''t help but shake his head, he taught Lucy and here she is teaching someone else even though she is not that good at close combat.
It was only due to her high stats that she is very good at it, as for him, he was more than good at it, he got all the people''s talent and experience in fighting, whether it''s with magic or close combat, so his fighting style is nearly perfect and flawless, as for his sword mastery, then that truly was godlike.
He was now trying the necromancer skill, he never used it on fighting, but he remembered getting a notification saying he could now summon the earth dragon, but surprisingly he can''t summon Yamak.
He concentrated for a second and then the ground in front of his changed, it was as if it was a dark pit, though it had some kind of ominous aura, very soon a bone dragon came out of it, it was extremely huge, heck! it looked very terrifying, it was the bone earth dragon, it cost him 50.000 mana to summon him.
He looked at the big dragon and appraised him
RACE
Dragon
ORIGIN
UNDERWORLD
LVL
150
NAME
NONE
Strength
10.000
Intelligence
4.000
Agility
5.000
Wisdom
1.000
Vitality
15.000
Dexterity
7.000
Health
20.000
Health regen
12/s
Mana
5.000
Mana regen
1/s
Stamina
?????
Stamina regen
?????
You have summoned bone dragon : It will follow your orders until it dies, once dead you can summon it again after 1 day
maximum bone dragon number : 3
''!!''
Arthur truly didn''t expect to be able to see the status window of the bone dragon, plus why is it this strong? originally the young earth dragon was not this strong, does the summoned monster have a connection with his own stats?
Confused about this matter, he summoned skeleton warrior, and it was indeed the case, this time, the skeletons had special black armors, though they were beyond weak for Arthur, they still felt slightly more powerful than the ones in the past.
The bone dragon howled, then it obediently waited for Arthur''s orders.
Mary who was chatting heartily with Lucy, became dumbstruck as she saw the bone dragon, her eyes almost popped out of her head
"Y-You''re a..n-necromancer too?..."
She really couldn''t believe what she was seeing, adding to what he already got, he can summon this beast, this is beyond common sense.
Arthur didn''t reply to her, he smugly grinned and jumped on the dragon to ride him and see if he''s decent in flying or not.
Just as he hopped on the dragon, a notification came ''ting''
You earned the title: Dragon rider : When riding a dragon, the flying speed of the dragon increases by 25%
The dragon soon flew towards the sky, he really had a huge frame and looked terrifying, if one saw this bone dragon, he would definitely pass out or piss his pants, the dragons were known as strong existences and none would dare anger them.
The bone dragon''s speed in the air was not bad, it truly was decent, though compared to the dark cloud it was far lacking Arthur delighted, he had another method to fly, if he ever can''t use the cloud then he can use this bone dragon, plus it''s good for fighting, this kind of dragon can probably fight against a bishop.
That day, Arthur decided to travel on the dragon, Mary and Lucy also got that title, Mary was beyond happy, tears of joys even came out of her eyes, it was truly a rare thing to get a title, plus one like this is certainly a good one, I mean ''Dragon Rider'' is sure a cool title.
Just like that, they continued their journey towards the east on the back of the bone dragon for some days.....
Chapter 37 : Lumbra City
The next few days, the trio traveled on the bone dragon and to be honest, their traveling speed was quite decent.
Mary was dumbfounded when she rode on the dragon when she saw its speed. Lucy could only chuckle as Mary didn''t even experience Arthur''s speed when in lightning form so she was amazed by only this.
In truth, Arthur only planned to travel on the dragon for a few days but the two girls enjoyed traveling on the dragon as it was surprisingly comfortable so they continued to use the dragon.
....
It has been a month since they started traveling on the bone dragon, they did stop sometimes to rest and other things or else they would already arrive at the east of the continent.
Lucy and Mary continued to spar almost every day, as for Arthur he just read books or tried a few things with his magic, in fact, he came to learn many new spells thanks to Zodiak''s books and even after 1 month he still didn''t finish them all, plus he took all the academy''s book so his collection is humongous.
There is also something that bothered Arthur, it''s that he almost didn''t get some alone time with Lucy, so they didn''t anything except a few kisses, he felt a bit depressed but he couldn''t do anything about it since Mary was here.
When they were traveling, Arthur asked Mary about the clan for more detailed information so she answered him and explained everything she knew about it.
Apparently, the clan specialized in martial arts, almost everyone there is a martial artist with immense power and skill, only a few are mages but they are weaker compared to the martial arts, even Mary she didn''t know why but they have some special methods to train themselves and raise their stats by a big amount.
Since Sonia didn''t have a talent for martial arts and she only was good at magic, she was sent to become the headmaster of the academy.
Mary also mentioned that the clan had more women than men, and it was because that for a mysterious reason, only women would inherit the good talents and are more suited for those special martial arts, there was indeed some men who were good at it but they were extremely few.
Also, the clan apparently controlled many facilities and had some people who attained key positions in various powerful forces in the continents, plus Mary added that the clan is very secretive, only a few people knew of its existence.
When he asked her who was in the control of such a powerful clan, Mary said that it was Sonia''s big sister.
Mary even mentioned that she disliked Sonia''s big sister as she was ruthless and cold-blooded, she was even a professional assassin, her skills are deadly, it was said that her talent was unimaginable and she was a true prodigy in martial arts, she controlled her clan even though she is still young.
But there is something that confused Arthur, why would anyone from the clan want him dead? Mary told him that probably Sonia''s big sister is the one who wanted him dead, but why? he didn''t even know that woman so why would she want him dead?
Nonetheless, he wanted to kill the one who gave that order, he did indeed promise Mary that he wouldn''t touch Sonia until he investigated but he didn''t know if he can control his emotions when he sees her.
He already swore that the culprit will die but there is just no reason to start massacring everyone without giving it a second thought, he didn''t enjoy killing, he only killed it because he had to, so if he ever met any of the council members, he would see their reaction first and observe how will they react, will they apologize? or do something else?
The only way he would lose all rationality and start a massacre is if someone dared to hurt Lucy, at that time, none would escapefrom his grasp as he will mercilessly kill them all, but he hoped that time will never come and peaceful days like this would continue as he really like the current situation, just travelling with Lucy and exploring new places.
.......
After 2 weeks, they finally arrived at the city which is in the far east of the continent, it was called ''Lumbra City'', it was the only place people go to for a trip towards Itas continent, it had a big port full of large and small boats.
Arthur called back the bone dragon several miles from the city then proceeded by foot with the others, it was better not to attract attention to avoid any unnecessary troubles.
Actually, Arthur planned to travel the sea on the bone dragon but Lucy and Mary wanted to go by boat so he could only give up on the idea of traveling on the dragon.
By boat, the trip would take a long time but he just couldn''t refuse a request from Lucy.
Very soon, they arrived at the city and entered it after paying some money for the entrance fee.
Lumbra city was considered a bustling city, as it was in a very strategical place, it was near the sea so merchants would often come and go to trade things they got from the other continent.
Arthur also noticed that there is a lot of beggars and poor people in here, there was a lot of stalls set by rich merchants, they were selling various things at outrageous prices, other than that there were some kids and old people selling flowers or simple things, they looked in a badshape, ragged clothes and dirty appearance.
Mary couldn''t help but stop walking, take out a gold coin from her storage than say
"I like your flowers, how about you give this big sister the flowers and take this and buy a good meal?"
Mary really couldn''t handle seeing little kids working like this, they were very young and still didn''t learn anything about life yet here they are work every day to get money for food and shelter
"T-thanks big sister, but I can''t a get meal until I sell all my flowers or else Uncle bald will beat us again"
A little boy, approximately 5 or 6 years old accompanied by 2 other kids took the gold coin excitedly and replied to Mary.
A gold coin could let them leave for a year if they preserved right and didn''t waste anything on useless stuff, but unfortunately, this money was not for him and he had to give all his earning at the end of the day.
Mary could only nod towards the boy and patted his head gently while forcing a smile, seeing kids like this smile made her heart ache as she was very sensitive towards things like this.
One must know she met Sonia when she was 6 years old, and before that, she lived in the western continent, the wasteland, it was truly an awful place, full of bloodshed and wars, she lived a couple of years in poverty, so she in someway is similar to those kids.
After a short while, Mary reluctantly let go of the kids and turned to Arthur and Lucy, she apologized for the delay but Lucy told her it''s alright.
They went for the port to search for a boat to travel on, actually it''s almost impossible to find a boat that will travel immediately as it needs passengers and preparation, nevertheless they headed to the port to reserve some places and wait until it''s time for the trip, though Arthur wanted to find the boat which will travel sooner as he didn''t want to stay here for long.
..
It didn''t take them long to arrive at their destination, however, the port was bustling with people, there were even some stalls which sold fish and other sea food.
Seeing the seafood, Lucy''s eyes lit up and she hurriedly went to buy some, she also dragged Mary with her.
As for Arthur, he began to search for a suitable boat, in fact, there was really a lot of them, there was even some with a symbol of some sort on them, so he guessed they must be owned by a power such as the church or maybe a guild.
The most eye-catching ones were ones which had a symbol of a horse, all those boats were built by some kind of dark red wood which looked quite sturdy, plus it all those boats had a special demeanor, there were armed guards standing there and they looked like experienced fighters.
Arthur picked random boats which had this symbol and went on it to talk with the captain to reserve some places if possible.
Just as he was going to enter the boat, the armored men standing there to guard rushed at Arthur and pointed their arms at him while saying
"This is a private property, please turn around and go away, or else don''t blame us for attacking you!"
Hearing this and seeing their attitude, Arthur furrowed his brows and retorted
"I am only here to talk with your captain, Since this boat is heading towards Itas continent, I want to reserve some places"
Actually, due to his good hearing, he managed toeavesdrop and get some useful information, apparently those boats with the horse symbol are all going to the Itas continent, and they all belong to the ''E-Clips Company'', it''s a trading company and it has a large influential power, it has many branches in all continents and it''s said that its fortune is unbelievable.
There is 2 main Headquarters of the E-clips Company, one is on the western continent and the other is in Itas continent, and to be honest, it''s quite a smart and wise decision to make the headquarters there, considering that those 2 continents don''t have an official ruler so they can freely act there.
There are many other trading companies like this, but this one was the most known, be it slaves, legendary items, strong skill books or even simple things, they handled them all and this company is renewed to be the best amongst its peers.
Arthur also heard that those ships are transporting items from this continent to the Itas continent and apparently the head of the E-clips company is also here.
While looking around, Arthur saw a ship bigger than the others and many times more luxurious, it even had gold in it and looked more majestic, he guessed that it''s definitely the main ship which the head of the company will be, but in truth, which ever ship suited him as long as it takes him to his destination so he chose a random one which looked ordinary much like the others ones except the main ship of course.
The guards were stunned for a second before saying
"This is not some inn or a carriage to reserve a place, this boat is used to hold ''goods'' so you cannot travel in it"
The guards relaxed when they heard what said and they replied to him calmly, in fact, they thought it was a spy or some thief, as those kind of accidents would happen a lot.
"It that so? but I''m willing to pay a lot, are you sure the captain is not interested?"
The guards didn''t react and kept solemn faces.
"Sir, please leave, even if you pay a lot, you still cannot ride on this ship!"
Just as they said that, a middle-aged man came from behind them in neither quick nor slow pace, he appeared quite irritated for some reason, once he arrived near the guards, he started yelling
"Damn fools, this lord proposed to pay a lot just for some places yet you refuse? don''t you even know the motto of our company? ''if you have a chance to earn money then take it!'' , ahh! what a bunch of ignorant fools, get out of my face!"
This middle-aged man snapped at the guards for sometimes, when they hurriedly left he turned towards Arthur and bowed his head while saying
"Please excuse my subordinates, normally we were instructed to refuse anyone who wants to ride on the ship but I just happened to hear you are willing to pay a lot, so why not accept your request? Please don''t think bad of our company, it''s just that every gold coin counts for us and whatever profit we gain is beneficial to us so when an esteemed person like you proposes a good offer, of course, we have to graciously accept"
The middle-aged man spoke respectfully, but he truly was too shameless, he announced his intentions right away and declared that he only accepted Arthur''s proposal because he would pay a lot.
Though Arthur despised this kind of people, they would grasp any opportunity to gain money, even though gold coins are mere objects and in a life and death situation, it''s not those gold coins that will save you but your strength, nevertheless he didn''t speak his thoughts and kept them to himself, each and every person had a thing they liked to obtain, this man, for example, was hungry for gold coins.
"Hahaha, no problem! Since you are accepted, then let''s cut to the chase, I want to reserve 3 places, name your price"
There was no need to talk about needless things, Arthur straight out asked for a price, he didn''t want to befriend this kind of people, he just wanted to get this over with.
In fact, greedy or evil people, that had nothing to do with him, if they didn''t provoke or annoy him then he would ignore them too, so as long as this man doesn''t go over the line then it''s fine.
"Oh, so this esteemed man want to reserve 3 places, right..., how about 1.000 gold each!"
Normally, a trip from Lumbra city to Itas continent would cost at most 200 gold even though the trip is long, there may be an attack from pirates or monsters, so the price cannot be that high, but this man asked for a whopping 1.000 gold, he really is shameless.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
"Deal!"
Without any thought, Arthur agreed, for him, this amount of gold is nothing, heck! even if he asked for 10.000 gold coins each he would have accepted either, it''s not like he was lacking either, the gold he had would last him for a few lifetimes, Zodiak was filthy rich, Arthur could only continuously thank Zodiak for leaving all his fortune behind.
Once he thought of Zodiak, a thought struck him, why did he not get another portion of his power, I mean, his intelligence already increased by a lot, but still, he didn''t unlock another portion, maybe there is a specific condition he needs to trigger? Well it''s not like he was in urgent need of it, he was just wondering, he shrugged that idea off and decided to think about it later.
..
As for the middle-aged man, once he saw Arthur agree right away, he felt happy yet depressed, he was happy because he managed to earn 3.000 gold coin this easily but he felt sad because he didn''t ask for a higher price.
He smiled back at Arthur and spoke
"Great, tomorrow morning we will begin our trip, as for the payment you can pay me tomorrow, this one''s name is Koez, I will instruct the guards to not block you like today.."
Arthur just nodded towards Koez while saying
"Since that''s the case then I will come back tomorrow with my companions, I''m called Arthur"
After they shaken hands, Arthur left the ship and went to look for Lucy and Mary.
It didn''t take him long to find both of them, they were still buying sea food, especially Lucy, it seems she bought a whole lot of it and stored them in her ring, she loved this type of food so she spent a lot of gold on it. She almost emptied the whole shops.
Actually, the central cities did not always sell seafood and only nobles or rich people can afford to buy them, plus their cost would be many times higher than in here so Lucy grasped this opportunity and bought whatever she liked.
She already got a ring which contained a billion or so gold coin given to her by Arthur, he wanted to give her more but she refused to say that if he ever needed more then she would ask him, so basically, she had no shortage of money.
"I already reserved places for us in a ship, we will depart tomorrow morning"
Arthur informed them about the trip''s matter, Lucy only nodded while smiling at him as for Mary she stared at him curiously then said
"T-this fast?.. did you perhaps pay more than the normal price?"(Mary)
"Indeed..but that doesn''t matter, it''s not like we lack gold, hehe~~"
Hearing his answer, Mary could only nod her head, in fact, she knew that they had a lot of gold, Lucy vaguely told her that their fortunes is immense but she didn''t precise, so Mary only guessed that they had a couple of thousands gold.
A million at best, and even with that, paying a lot for a trip seemed a huge waste, especially when there was poor people struggling even to gain a gold coin, but it''s not like Arthur cared about them, he pitied them but every person has to care for himself just like Arthur did, sometimes he would help when the situation is extreme but other than that he will not interfere.
...
They soon found an inn and booked two rooms for the night, the inn wasn''t that bad and it had some good hospitality, but unlike last time, there was no problem, though Lucy still attracted a lot of attention, none dared to take action.
It was already sunset when they went to the inn since the day is almost over, Mary went to her room, as for Arthur and Lucy, they went to theirs.
It was not until an hour passed did they start enjoying themselves, in fact, they didn''t make love for more than a month now so they fully released their desires and went at it for hours, but in the middle of the deed, Arthur happened to hear Mary leave her room and head downstairs, however, even after hearing that, he paid it no heed and continued enjoying himself with Lucy, after all, Mary was an adult and she can take care of herself.
Arthur and Lucy only stopped late at night, they held themselves because of Mary, but now they released all their pent-up desires, especially Lucy, she missed doing that more than Arthur but she had to hold herself for the sake of Mary, after all, they just couldn''t do it in her presence.
As they were snuggling and chatting happily, Lucy remembered something so she looked up at Arthur with hopeless eyes.
Arthur sensed her gaze so he looked back at her in return and once he saw her expectant gaze and that hopeless look, he shook his head and said
"Alright, I know, you''re worried for your friend, but she''s an adult, she surely is strong enough to take care of herself, maybe she''s just taking a walk"
"B-But, but it''s been more than 5 hours! she previously told me she was going to see who is taking care of those little kids we met today, I thought it was no big deal so I payed it no attention, but something must have happened......"
Seeing her sad look, Arthur''s heart ached a bit, he sighed and replied to her
"Alright alright, we''ll go look for her.."
Thought it was a pain to look for her and he didn''t particularly care about her, she was nevertheless Lucy''s friend and Lucy seemed worried about her so he has no choice but looks for her.
Both of them quickly wore clothes and readied themselves, then they headed downstairs and asked the inn keeper about any nearby orphanage.
They didn''t have a clue about where Mary is, the only information they got is that she went to look for that ''bald'' guy the little boy was talking about.
The inn keeper didn''t hold back and answered them earnestly, so they didn''t waste any time and headed for the orphanage, apparently, there was only one, and the kids who are selling flowers or other things indeed live there.
Once they left the inn, Arthur held Lucy and transformed into lightning, for some reason, Lucy wanted to go there fast, so Arthur could only comply.
Even though they didn''t have a map of the city, it was quite easy to find the orphanage, it looked like a warehouse more than an orphanage or an habitable-building.
Arthur didn''t just knock or the door or anything, he barged in without caring since his speed was godlike, no one was able to notice him.
Once he and Lucy were there, they saw no one, it was empty but with their keen senses, they managed to hear some cries from a corner of the buildings, actually it was indeed a warehouse, there was scattered beds and destroyed furniture everywhere, it was quite spacious.
Within seconds they arrived where the crying noise originated from, it was actually a group of kids, most of them were crying why the others were clenching their fists and holding their tears.
The little boy from earlier was also present, he had fresh bruises on his body and some scratches on his face, they were not serious wounds but they are still painful, especially for a little kid.
The appearance of Arthur and Lucy startled the kids, they crawled back and hugged each other as if afraid, however, the little boy seemed to recognize Lucy from earlier so he ran up to her and said
"Yo-You.., you were with big sister this morning right? p-please save her! she came earlier to talk with us but she was taken by Uncle bald and other guys"
Lucy was quite surprised when she heard that, Mary? taken? how is that possible, with her strength, there is few people who can match her, was she maybe poisoned or drugged?
She hurriedly patted the little boy and responded to him
"Okey, little boy, don''t worry, we will save ''big sister'', where did uncle bald take her?"
Even though Lucy appeared calm, she felt anxious, she really cared for Mary, and if something happened to her she wouldn''t forgive herself, if she went with her then this wouldn''t have happened.
"T-the basement, it''s that way!" The little boy pointed at the nearby door not far away.
Seeing her state, Arthur wrapped his arm around her waist and transformed into lightning, he noticed the door from way earlier but he just wanted the boy to confirm if Mary was taken there or not.
In a split second they arrived at the door, it was turned into dust by the lightning but Arthur didn''t stop, there was actually stairs leading down, there was some candle on the wall to provide some light, it appears those stairs lead very far down.
With their speed, it only took them a couple of seconds to arrive at the end of the stairs, what they saw was a simple room with no special decoration, there was 2 people there, a bald man and another skinny man.
Fred(Human): LVL 97
Loyk(Half-human/Half beastmen): LVL 81
Arthur appraised them both and they seemed quite high leveled, it was really strange, normally people would have low levels, at most 20 or 30 but these two had strangely high LVLS.
The baldy Fred and the Loyk were startled by the sudden appearance of Arthur and Lucy, they only saw a streak of lightning then these two appeared out of thin air.
Before they could even react, Lucy leaped on the skinny guy, one punch was enough for his head to fly out of his body, then she jumped on the bald guy and snapped both of his arms in lightning speed.
Lucy was really angry, it was sure these two guys took Mary since the little boy said so but once they entered the room she didn''t see Mary around so hopeless thoughts soon engulfed her and in the spur of the moment she killed that skinny guy but she held back and didn''t kill the bald guy, she needed to question him first.
"That female beastman that came earlier, she was taken by you, where is she now? SPEAK!"
The baldy was screaming from pain, he couldn''t even react and could only helplessly watch as his comrade was killed in an instant and he got both of arms broken, the pain was agonizing but once he heard Lucy, he couldn''t help but feel fear.
Arthur saw what happened and he knew how Lucy felt, but he didn''t want her to do those ruthless things, instead, he preferred to do that for her, so he walked in front of the wailing baldy and coldly said
"Didn''t you hear? she asked you where is that female beastman and what did you do to her! you got 5 seconds, if you don''t speak, I''ll cut off one of your legs"
Hearing this, Fred shivered as deep inside him, he knew Arthur wasn''t just joking, nonetheless he didn''t answer and kept staringat the couple with a fierce glare.
5 seconds passed and the baldy still didn''t reply, it seems he planned to act stubborn so Arthur stretched his hand, white sword energy appeared on his hand, he waved it with fast speed and ''poof'', Fred''s right leg was cleanly cut and blood gushed out endlessly.
...
The baldy regretted not replying as the pain was even moretortuous than the last one, in fact, he disliked pain, so when his leg was cut off, it was like hell for him.
"S-She was taken..."
Lucy panicked when she heard that, her killing intent surged out, even more, she coldly looked at the screaming baldy and said
"Who took her? and where! SPEAK, don''t try to delay!"
Arthur waved his head again and the right arm of the man went was cut off too, a pool of blood soon formed under the baldy, his face even paled and his screams increased, even more, he didn''t think Arthur would cut off his arm out of the blue, but he didn''t dare waste any more time as the pain was intense and he knew they would only torture him more if the didn''t answer truthfully.
"B-behind that wall, there is a long corridor, they are probably still dragging her.."
Fred looked at the wall at his left, indicating to Lucy that it was the wall he was talking about, he then breathed a sigh of relief, even though he already lost an arm and a leg, he gave them what they wanted to they will probably let him live.
But to his surprise, with the last wave of his hand, Arthur beheaded the baldy but he didn''t forget to store the corpses in his storage, then he crushed the wall and rushed towards the corridor with Lucy in his hands.
Even under his lightning form, it took them 2 minutes to finally arrive at the end of the dark corridor, one must know that 2 minutes on his lightning form is a humongous distance, it''s even more than 50 kilometers, just where did this lead? and why did it even exist?
At the end of the corridor there was a steel door which had some runes on it and behind it, Arthur and Lucy could hear some voice
"Julian, what do are we going to do with this one?"
"she is a previous member of the council of the Nemia academy, she must hold precious information, we''ll try to get it out of her, if it''s not possible, we''ll just dispose of her"
"ahh, such a waste, and here I wanted to have some fun with her~~~"
"You and your disgusting hobbies....anyways, later, you have to go back and dispose of those kids too, they saw us and they need to die, our existence must not and cannot be known by anyone, do you hear me?"
"Yes Yes! You already told me that a thousand times.."
"I''m just reminding you of the rules, you are a new member of ''Medusa'' so you need to follow the rules, otherwise, they would send one of their ''assassins'' to dispose of some trash like us, don''t forget that our position is tight since we failed two missions already!"
"Alright alright...., the infiltration to E-clips is successful, we probably would get rewarded this time.."
"Rewarded my ass! the mission is still not complete, don''t let your guard down!"
Arthur have heard enough, it appeared that there are only 2 people and they are from ''Medusa'', the name seemed weird but it was not the time to think about things like this.
Lucy advanced slowly and punched the steel door which seemed sturdy but unfortunately, she didn''t hold back and used all her strength.
The door was pulverized, it was literally crushed into bits and pieces, even the ground seemed to shake by the punch, everything which was behind the door was also destroyed by the force of the punch.
The two who were talking a second ago were surprised by what they saw, they were happily chatting a second ago, but all of the sudden, the reinforced door was smashed to pieces along, the small room was wrecked and even the ground shook.
There was dust all over the small room and it was quite hard to see, nevertheless, they managed to see a dark clothed woman with a man next to her, they entered the room leisurely.
It only took several seconds for the dust to disappear, Arthur could now see those two.
It was two black-clothed people who wore masks, they didn''t have anything special on them, only a black robe and a mask, that was it.
He didn''t waste time and appraised them right away
Julian(human) : LVL 243
Bony(human) :LVL187
He was stunned for a second to see their LVLS, one of them even had a LVL similar to a bishop, ''Who are they? the church? no that''s not possible! why would they be secretive if they are from the church? they said ''Medusa'' earlier, but what exactly is it?...''
Though their high LVLS impressed him, he was still the least bit worried, in fact, he was as calm as water, people of their caliber are not his match, but they indeed were capable of capturing Mary.
Speaking of her, she was unconscious on the ground not too far away from the 2 masked men, she had some injuries but she didn''t appear to be dead or heavily injured.
In a flash, Lucy appeared next to Mary and began checking her condition, as for the other 2, they were astonished as they couldn''t react in time, they only saw Lucy disappear and appear next to the unconscious beastman.
"Who are you..."
The one named Julian, even though he was surprised by Lucy''s speed, was still calm, he turned his head to look at Arthur and calmly asked about his identity.
Arthur only smirked and responded
"It should be me asking that, but I managed to somewhat grasp your identities, what was it again?... ah yes, ''Medusa'', well it''s not like it matters, you will die today"
Julian was startled once he heard that, for this man to know all of this, he guessed that their conversation was heard earlier, he was someone with keen sight, just seeing the door was smashed into pieces and that explosive strength and incredible speed, he judged them to be extremely strong, so he began to think of underhanded means to take care of them, after all, it was his speciality.
"Friend, it''s only a misunderstanding, why not just let go and each will go on his way?"
Lucy affirmed that Mary was alright, she was merely unconscious and she didn''t have anything serious like a deep wound, once she finished checking her friend, she turned her head to glare at those two and her killing intent covered all the room.
Even those 2 experienced fighters and cold-blooded killers felt a shiver down to their spine, they couldn''t help but shake a bit from the strong killing intent emanated by Lucy.
"I don''t care if it''s a misunderstanding or whatnot, I''m going to ask you some questions and if you answer me, I may consider sparing you"
Bony, who was silent from the beginning, snapped out of it, he saw what that couple was capable of but he still believed himself to be stronger, which was idiotic, nevertheless he shouted at Arthur and said
"EVERYONE WHO SAW US SHALL DIE, NO ONE CAN KNOW ABOUT OUR EXISTENCES, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO ACT SO BOSSY, JUST DIE!"
He then disappeared and reappeared behind Arthur.
To be honest, Arthur was surprised to see someone teleport like that, this easily and without incantation, nevertheless he didn''t feel worried or in danger, just as Bony appeared behind him and stricken with his dagger, Arthur teleported just a couple of meters to the left, his decision making and calmness were far greater than someone like bony, after all his wisdom and intelligence were sky-high.
Feeling that his dagger only hit air, Bony could only stare in disbelief, he had a special skill for that teleportation and he even attacked the opponent by surprise, but his hit missed and his enemy teleported away with lightning speed, he couldn''t believe that this man could react in time and dodge like that.
Arthur felt that it was hopeless to keep this man alive, he seemed to be the crazy type and would not answer his questions, plus he didn''t feel like torturing him.
He put his hand on his katana, and his figure blurred for a split second, he used [Lone sword] on Bony, and the poor man could not even react in time, he was beheaded and could only see Arthur''s figure blur for a bit before his conscience blackened.
A headless body soon hit the ground and the head of Bony flew away before landing a couple of meters away from its body.
As for Julian, he could only stare in disbelief, now he was absolutely sure he was not their match, he could not even see what killed Bony, the only thing he saw was Arthur blur for a split second, was he that fast that he beheaded Bony then went back to his original position? no that''s completely absurd!
Arthur then turned his head to look at Julian and said while evilly laughing
"Now, shall we talk?"
Chapter 38 : Shadow magic
Julian stood there, petrified by what just happened, never did he expect Arthur to be this strong, heck! When he saw how Bony died in a flash and how he couldn¡¯t even see what killed him, he immediately gave up any idea about sneak-attacking Arthur.
He had the best skills and tricks to sneak-attack, anyone but against this man in front him, there is just no way he could succeed, that teleportation from Arthur and quick reaction speed was enough for Julian to understand that with his strength, it is just not possible to beat either this guy or the silver-haired girl.
When he(Julian) heard Arthur talk, Julian snapped out of his daze but the fear was still lingering in his heart, he had really bad luck to meet this kind of enemy here, he even regretted taking Mary as apparently, they are her companions.
Left with no choice but try to talk his way out of this, Julian looked at Arthur and replied
?What do you want to talk about??
?It¡¯s pretty simple actually, I just want some honest replies to some of my unanswered questions, who knows, maybe if you answer sincerely I might let you live?
Julian knew that even if he answered honestly he would still die here, this man in front of him was ruthless and he learned that by the hard way, he saw his companion beheaded like that but Arthur didn¡¯t have any change in his expression as if he was used to killing, and for someone like Julian, who is experienced in assassinations and such, he knew that these type of people would dispose of you once you are no longer needed.
He unconsciously rubbed the invisible cold sweat on his forehead and began thinking of a way out of this dangerous situation, though it¡¯s clearly impossible either way because if he answered he would most likely die and if he didn¡¯t then he¡¯ll die too..
?Friend, as I said, it¡¯s only a misunderstanding, if answering a few questions will solve it then so be it?
?Great! Since you are willing then it makes things much easier, alright, first what is ¡®Medusa¡¯?"
It¡¯s to be expected that Arthur would ask the most obvious question, he already had a guess but he just wanted to confirm it so that¡¯s why he straight out asked that, as for the honesty of the answer, that for him to decide.
?This¡.Friend, don¡¯t make things difficult for me, we cannot talk about that or else we¡¯ll be automatically killed by a curse put on us, so how about your ask other questions??
¡®A curse?¡® Once he heard that, Arthur was confused, he had advanced darkness magic when he acquired the dark magic, but since it¡¯s useless and mostly relies on curses he never used it, as for the curse Julian talked about it, even after searching through his memories he still couldn¡¯t find any curse like that, so the only logical answer is that it¡¯s a lie.
Of course, there is the possibility of him saying the truth and Arthur not knowing about the curse but that chance was slim as Arthur read a lot of books about dark magic and spells but there was not a mention of a similar curse or spell.
Arthur also thought of the chance of it being a completely different thing and the people who put it on Julian just told him it¡¯s a curse, in any case, he still had other questions for him so whether he is lying or not that didn¡¯t matter, sooner or later he will know about this ¡®Medusa¡¯ as he already killed one of their own, so maybe they will chase him, and maybe they won¡¯t, either way, he will slaughter them all.
?Hmm, Alright, then why did you take our companion and not just straight out kill her??
?Our organization already know about important figures like her, so I thought about extracting some information from her and maybe get a decent reward¡?
?What kind of information??
?It¡¯s about a secret weapon of the places she worked at and other things.?
?I¡¯m warning you, don¡¯t try to play around with me, what are these other things??
?Friend, it¡¯s just that they may not interest you but since you insist then I¡¯ll tell you, our network of information is very wide so there is little that we don¡¯t know, this girl here has some information about a certain clan so I wanted to get it out of her?
Arthur immediately guessed he was talking about the Ma clan, what else could he be talking about except that.
?Oh, so it¡¯s like that, well, next question, who is the boss of the organization??
?I can¡¯t answer or else the curse will kill me?
?How many people are there in the organization??
?I can¡¯t answer?
¡
After some minutes, Arthur grew tired of this useless talk, the only question he answered is the one about Mary, everything else was left unanswered by the pretext of ¡®I will die if I answer¡®
Since it¡¯s unnecessary to continue talking, Arthur decided that it¡¯s time to end this, he was going to kill him, well, it¡¯s not like he was going to spare him in the beginning, he just said that to give some hope to Julian so he can honestly reply.
?It seems our talk is going nowhere, it¡¯s time to end this, don¡¯t you think? Julian?
Julian was scared shitless when he heard that, he never mentioned his name and apart from a few comrades, no one knew about his name, so how could this man know it!
?How¡.Who are you? How could you know about my name!?
Arthur just shrugged his shoulders and retorted
?Sorry¡I can¡¯t tell you, you see I¡¯ve been cursed, if I tell you, I will most likely die¡?
?You¡?
Julian didn¡¯t know wether to laugh or cry, he understood it¡¯s his end and there is no way he can escape by his own strength, thoughts raced through his mind and he began to hesitate on wether to make a move or not.
?Friend, let¡¯s not be rush here, I admit that I could have answered some of your questions, but the curse¡¯s matter is really not a lie, if you really want answers, then how about you join our organization, I¡¯m sure you and your comrade will be accepted, with your strength, you¡¯ll even be put in a high ranking¡So what do you think??
?Quite a good offer I must say, but I honestly want to lead a peaceful life so I have to refuse your offer?
Hearing this, Julian became more panicked as this was the last trick he had, if he could successfully escape danger and invite such a powerful individual to ¡®Medusa¡¯ then he would be handsomely rewarded by the higher-ups.
?Any last words??
Arthur started walking slowly towards Julian while his right hand touching Makaze(his katana¡¯s name), he thought that [Lone sword] was the quickest way to eliminate enemies, plus it was quite effective and deadly so why not use it?
Knowing that it¡¯s hopeless now and he was at death¡¯s door, Julian decided to abandon his friendly attitude and shout at the approaching Arthur.
?Do you really think our organization will let you go after you kill me? Even with your strength, you cannot fight against it, it will be you and your comrades'' doom!?
OnceArthur saw the change of behavior and the sudden burst of anger from Julian, he only snickered and calmly replied
?I would love to see them try?
Then without delay, he activated [Lone sword] and in a split second a sharp and almost invisible white arc formed from sword energy was released from Makaze, the slash was small, probably 1 feet, but it was more than enough to finish Julian.
The speed of the attack was faster than Arthur in his lightning form, so of course, someone like Julian can¡¯t block or react in time to dodge it, the poor guy just died in the blink of an eye.
Soon enough, his(Julian) corpse fell on the ground with his head not too far away from it.
As for Arthur, he took a breath of fresh air then he looked at Mary to see if she is awake or not.
?It¡¯s fine, you can possess them now, she is unconscious and will only wake up after a while?
Hearing Lucy¡¯s confirmation, Arthur brought Bony and Julian¡¯s bodies next to each other, he also put their heads near their corpses or else he can¡¯t possess them, it¡¯s actually strange but when he was in Ghost island and tried to possess many corpses, the only ones he can possess are the ones in good shape, for example, they have a complete body or are missing a limb.
It¡¯s quite bizarre because, before the evolution, he could possess any kind no matter if it¡¯s half a body or a complete one, but now it seems to have changed, he guessed that maybe it was due to his evolution to humanoid parasite, but it¡¯s not like he regretted that, perhaps, if there is the next evolution, he would be able to possess any kind of corpse, that would truly be fantastic.
Come to think of it, why was there no evolution even though he reached is above lvl 400, it¡¯s strange but there is nothing he could do, maybe he needs to reach a specific LVL to evolve again.
You have successfully possessed Bony!
You have gained a new skill(passive) : [Medium Shadow magic]: you can now use shadows to either attack or defend
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Shadow step] : you can teleport in a specific shadow position in your field of view
Cost : 500 mana
cooldown : 1 minute
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Shadow clone]: You can create a shadow clone of yourself which can attack enemies for a period of time: 30 seconds
Clone''s strength : 10% of your stats
Cost : none
Cooldown : 10 minutes
WARNING : The Clone''s strength increase if the mastery in shadow magic increases
....
Your stats have increased, please check your status window for more details
Arthur was rather confused when he saw these notifications, firstly, he didn''t know about the existence of shadow magic, isn''t it the same as darkness or dark? secondly, he didn''t think that shadow magic even existed, it''s true there is a lot of special attributes that are unknown or not discovered yet but never did he imagine that shadow magic existed.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Well, since he got it then there is nothing he could do but feel delighted, it kind of intrigued him to have this shadow magic, he wanted to test it right away so he focused on a shadow in this room and used [Shadow step].
Just as he used it, he appeared in that shadow''s place, it truly was instant teleportation just like [faster than death] but it cannot be used continuously plus it cost more so Arthur decided to stick with his previous teleportation since it''s more efficient.
Next, he tried using some of the shadow magic but unfortunately, no shadow spears or anything of the sort appear, he didn''t know why nothing happened so he focused and tried multiple times but their result was the same, he could only give up and use the last skill which is [shadow clone].
As the skill was activated, a black shadow rose from behind Arthur, it had the same silhouette as him, with a sword on its waist, you could not see its face nor its features, it wasjet black.
The controls of the clone were exactly the same as with the skeletons or the bone dragon, he just needed to order it in his mind and it will follow his orders.
It may be useful to deal with weak enemies but it only lasted half a minute so summoning the bone dragon was way better.
Actually, he received quite a bit of skill from Bony, such as dagger mastery, wind magic, but he already had all of that, so they didn''t help him with anything.
When he possessed so many corpses in the Ghost island, he acquired almost every weapon mastery, except a few special ones, though not all of them were advanced, most of them were.
Arthur didn''t waste any more time, he turned towards the corpse of Julian and possessed him in a split second.
You have successfully possessed Julian!
You have gained an enigma skill(passive) : [Ancient Threads]: You can now use tiny strings to attack or defend
WARNING : The string''s durability and power will depend on the owner''s stats.
...
Your stats have increased, please check your status window for more details
Apart from that [Ancient strings] there was nothing special about his other skills, an advanced mastery in spears and some weak attacks which Arthur couldn''t bother with.
Though that enigma skill caught his attention, it was the second time he got an enigma skill and the first one was not that bad, it was not used for combat but it had many other uses, as for this one, he still didn''t know.
With but a though, the skill [Ancient Threads] was activated and some very thin, almost invisible thread came out of his hand, it extremely tiny, even Arthur had to focus to be able to see it.
The threads came out endlessly out of his hands until he willed it to stop, then with small concentrations, the threads moved on their own and formed a small sword of 3 inches.
When Arthur tried attacking with the threads, the speeds were pretty fast, as for the power of the threads, it was terrifying, how can threads be this deadly, the wooden chair which was not far away from Arthur, was cut in several thousand pieces with those threads, even he felt that their power is outrageous.
After passing some minutes to get used to the threads, his control over them became almost perfect, it seems Julian did his best to become good with those threads so Arthur naturally gained all his skill in using those threads.
Arthur felt ecstatic, [Ancient threads] were really beyond broken and would be very useful especially in sneak attacks as those threads are almost invisible and only one with very good eyesight can see them.
After consuming the two corpses with [Death touch], he retrieved the baldy''s corpse and the other one and he possessed them two to get their stats and skills but unfortunately, he didn''t get anything good, that half-beastmen didn''t have the [berserker mode] skill so he felt a bit depressed.
After consuming the last 2 corpses, he opened his status window to check how much his stats increased.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD
Level:
431
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
374234(+53076)
Intelligence
279258(+63781)
Agility
274995(+51099)
Wisdom
258504(+53817)
Vitality
237882(+38452)
Dexterity
252100(+43093)
-
Health
256472(+49174)
Health Regen
596.2/s
Mana
284067(+48007)
Mana Regen
702.4/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Attack:
262301(+46911)
Defense:
250027(+41295)
Magic defense : 24196
Elemental resistances
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads
Fire:
100%
Water:
43%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
65%
Light/holy:
20%
Darkness:
100%
Lightning
100%
Ice
10%
Shadow
30%
Arthur rather happy, especially when he saw his agility, just a bit more and he unlocks another type of lightning, he looked forward to that moment, the natural lightning was already overpowered, adding another one would make him even more powerful.
After he finished checking everything, Arthur took their storage rings to see if they had anything valuable but surprisingly, they didn''t have anything, except a few healing potions there was literally nothing in their storage, Arthur guessed that they may have hidden their real storages but it''s too late to ask them now.
There was another door at the end of the small room, it was similar to the one Lucy destroyed, Arthur didn''t know where it led nor did he care at the moment, if this organization chased after him then he''ll wipe it out just like what he''ll do to the church, if they left him alone then he will not bother with them.
As a matter of fact, Arthur wanted to wipe out the holy church before going to the Ma clan, but for some reason, Lucy didn''t want to go immediately and told him to go once they took revenge on whoever plotted against them, she also told him that even though the bishops were indeed weak to the current him, they still had a lot more tricks up their sleeves and they can be quite troublesome.
Though even with her warning, Arthur still thought he had the strength to destroy the church and whoever is in it, I mean, the pope cannot be that strong, even if he was as strong as Yamak, a true adult dragon, he would still be pulverised by Arthur so there was no need to fear the church but since Lucy didn''t want to go now then he complied with her request, after all, he was going there for her sake, so if she didn''t want to go then there is no need to insist.
As they had nothing to do in there, Lucy and Arthur prepared to leave, it was almost sunshine and the E-clips boats will be leaving soon so they better hurry a little.
Mary was still unconscious so Lucy asked him to carry her, though with her strength she could also lift Mary, however, Mary''s frame was bigger than Lucy so it would be uncomfortable for her.
Arthur refused to carry her so he used his telekinesis on her to make her body slowly float.
Like that, they left the small room and headed back to the warehouse, however, because he was focusing on Mary so she couldn''t fall, they couldn''t run, they had to walk at a fast pace.
Fortunately, Mary woke up when they almost finished crossing the corridor.
She seemed rather confused when she saw Arthur and Lucy next to her and that she was floating, she stared dumbly at her surroundings to remember what exactly happened.
Seeing her awake, Arthur deactivated his telekineses, so her body fell down and her butt hit the ground, which resulted in a small yell coming out of her mouth.
"Ah!!"
"What is the last thing you remember?"
Arthur didn''t want to waste time as the appointed time he discussed Koez was almost up so he had to hurry or else he has to find another ship and it may take some time, but after seeing Lucy asking Mary, he had to wait for them to finish talking.
"I-I remember yelling at that baldy then someone knocked me out from behind..."
Hearing that, Lucy just giggled and said
"You''re alright now, next time, be more careful or just ask me to come with you, I was worried about you earlier.."
Lucy was truly worried as Mary was her first friend, though she opened her heart to Mary, it wasn''t like she did with Arthur, but she still treated Mary kindly and took care of her, though maybe Mary is an exception as apart from her, Lucy still despised other people, especially men, she could not think of herself being friendly with any men, except her husband of course.
"eh...oh! I''m sorry....I''ve caused you troubles didn''t I?"
Arthur turned his head to look at Mary then calmly said
"You indeed caused troubles, jeez..can''t even take care of herself, I can''t believe you are an adult since you never act like one...."
Mary, who was sad because she caused troubles to Lucy and Arthur, was both depressed and angry when she heard him, he not only blamed her, he even mocked her, so of course, she became angry, but she did not dare to retort and only turned his head away as if acting furious.
"It''s almost time for the trip...we must hurry"(Arthur)
Both of the girls nodded then they rushed towards the corridor''s exit.
The kids were still sitting there, though some of them were already asleep.
As she saw the kids, Mary dashed to them to see if they are hurt, she appeared very worried about them as if they were her own children, she truly was sensitive and caring.
The little boy from earlier didn''t seem to be asleep, once he saw Mary, he got up and hugged her, then he said
"B-big sister, are you okay? I''m sorry...because of us.."
Mary patted his head while saying
"Hehehe, this big sister is alright, the bad guys are gone now so you can relax okay?"
The rest of the kids also woke up from the noise, they soon began to heartily chat with Mary. Seeing this, Arthur got irritated, so he walked to Mary and coldly said
"Oy! I just said we were late and here you are chatting as if you don''t care, don''t forget you are our guide"
Being suddenly interrupted, Mary lifted her head to stare at Arthur ''How could he be this indifferent towards this little children..''
Though she was cursing him in her heart, she stayed silent and nodded her head.
"Since the bad guys are gone, you can do work and earn money for yourselves without worrying, big sister have to go now okay? take care of yourselves"
As she said that, Mary stood up and prepared herself to go but the little boy from earlier, who was named John, stretched his small hand and held her sleeve, he gazed at her with a sad look and hesitantly said
"B-big sister...c-can''t you take us with you? we''ve got nothing here, please..."
The kid''s look appeared pitiful as he really liked Mary and wanted to go with her, of course, all the other kids were the same as Mary was friendly and helped them a lot.
Hearing that, Mary''s heart softened, she pitied those kids and wanted to do her best to help them, that''s exactly why she came here last night.
Though they asked her to take them with her, she couldn''t immediately accept, firstly because she was going to a dangerous place, secondly, it''s that Arthur had to accept, after all, he was the one making decisions, she turned her head and looked at Arthur with a helpless look.
"Absolutely not!"
It''s true he felt pity for these kids, but that does not mean he had to take care of him and feed them, his heart did soften in these days but not to this point, he won''t just go around helping whoever is in need.
Hearing Arthur immediate rejection, Mary couldn''t help but feel depressed, she clenched her teeth and said
"P-please Mr. Arthur, I''ll find a good place for them to stay when we reach Itas continent"
"I said No! No need to insist, I will not change my decision"
As he said that, Arthur turned around to leave, he was not going to bother with this problem, it''s not like these children were his responsibility.
Even Lucy didn''t try to help Mary, since Arthur didn''t want to bring them then so be it, it''s true Mary was her friend but between her and Arthur, of course, the choice would be her husband, plus she felt quite similar to Arthur, these children were not hers to take care of so why bother with taking them all the way to Itas continent and find them a good place? they can work here like they did previously and earn money little by little.
Once she saw Arthur turn around to leave, Mary felt really helpless, it seems he was hellbent on taking these children.
"Fine! since you won''t bring them, then I will, you can go ahead of me to Itas continent and I''ll follow you in a few days!"
She could only do this, Mary didn''t want to leave this kid alone since they asked for her help so the only way for her to take them is to do this.
Arthur stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Mary, killing intent soon emanated from him and the surroundings turned icy cold, even the childrenwere frozen from fear while some of them fell to their knees, his cold glare made Mary''s body shiver for a short moment.
"You already promised to take us to the clan, are you already breaking it?"
Even though she was afraid, she mustered her courage and replied
"It''s true, I did promise and I''m going to keep it too, I just said I''ll catch up to you since you won''t bring the children then I''ll bring them on a normal ship once I find one, It''s not like I''m running away!"
What she said made sense but Arthur didn''t like this idea, it will only hinder him more, what if she doesn''t find a ship for one month? then he and Lucy would have to wait for her until she comes, that would be troublesome.
After a minute of thorough thinking, he sighed angrily and said
"FINE! you can bring those damn brats! But I''m warning you Mary, when we reach Itas continent, you better get rid of them or else our agreement will come to an end!"
Chapter 39 : Kraken
Since Arthur agreed after the persistence of Mary, the group exitedthe warehouse and headed towards the port as it was almost time for departure.
There were exactly 7 kids, including the little boy from earlier, these children were extremely happy when they heard Mary say that she will take them with her.
They can indeed live in Lumbra city while selling things or doing odd jobs, but that was no way of living for little kids like this.
As they were rushing towards the port, Arthur turned his head to Mary and solemnly said
"They are your responsibility, whatever happens to them I''m not going to bother to save them or whatever, also, you will pay for their shares"
Mary only nodded although he said that, a smile was covering her face, it didn''t matter if she had to take care of them, as with her strength, it should be no problem, the payment was even more so not a problem, as she is a former council member of the Nemia academy, so her fortune is not small, a few thousand gold coins are nothing to her.
...
After 20 minutes of running, the kids were breathing heavily and panting while Lucy and Arthur were fine due to their fine infinite stamina.
Arthur thought about this infinite stamina a lot, he even judged this to be a bug, it''s literally system breaking, having infinite stamina is impossible for any living being, it''s just that he got it from a skeleton corpse, so he automatically got its infinite stamina, normally, something like this is absurd, but he was a parasite, something that breaks every rule and allows one to be overpowered just by possessing corpses, it''s really absurd, however, since he was reincarnated into one, so why not enjoy its advantages?
Once they reached the port, it didn''t take Arthur long to notice Koez standing not too far away on a ship, he was looking around as if he was searching for someone.
Arthur and the others proceeded towards Koez and when they were close enough for him to see them, he waved his hand at Arthur while brightly smiling.
''Damn! his acting skills are impressive..''Arthur couldn''t help but praise this middle-aged man, if he didn''t say that he will pay a lot, then Koez would by no means act like this.
Well, it''s not like it bothered Arthur, it was merely a trade between them and once they reach Itas continent then they will separate and each will go on his way, so there is no reason for him to hate or loathe this man.
He came to know that every person has ambitions and dreams, though the way they try to reach them is different, some use evil means, some work-hard, it''s needless to coldly treat anyone who seems greedy, Arthur decided to treat them all equally and if they tried anything against him, then the treatment will change.
"Good morning Mr. Arthur, for a second, I really thought you wouldn''t come"
Though it''s still very early in the morning, Koez''s voice seemed as energetic as ever.
Hearing Koez, Arthur heartily laughed while saying
"We already made a deal, how can I not come? I''ve also bought several more people, the price will be the same, I assume you don''t mind?"
"Of course not, of course not! quite the opposite, I''m happy you bring more people, we will provide good rooms and food for all of you, our service are among the best, no need to worry"
Arthur nodded towards Koez then turned his head to Mary, waiting for her to hand him the money for the children.
First Mary was confused, she tilted her head while showing a dumb expression, but after some seconds, she managed to get a hold of herself and retrieve the money.
She quickly handed Arthur 7.000 gold coins, and he in return added another 3.000 and gave them to Koez, who couldn''t be happier when he saw the payment.
After taking the gold coins and storing them in a flash, Koez slightly bowed his hand and said in a humble tone
"Thank you very much for your payment Mr. Arthur, You can pick whatever rooms you want as all people except you are only slaves or some labor workers"
Actually, pretty much all the shops belonging to E-clips company were full of slaves or weapons, Arthur noticed the immense number of slaves, they were almost all beastmen, whether it is children or old people, as for the weapons or miscellaneous items, they were put in a wooden box then in a large container.
The slaves were in steelcages, they were also chained in some of their limbs to bind their movements even more, their state looked horrible, even Arthur became slightly irritated as he saw them, this world was really rotten, slavery is what Arthur despised the most, he really wanted to get rid of it but just saving a couple of slaves won''t fix it, so he could only sympathize with those beastmen.
As for Mary, when she finally saw all those beastmen chained up, she became enraged and almost acted on impulse but a simple cold glare from Arthur made her stand her ground and suppress her anger.
It didn''t take them long to find suitable rooms, the 7 kids all preferred staying in the same room, Mary took one for herself, and Arthur chose a random room for himself and Lucy of course.
The interior of the ship was stunning, even Arthur was astonished, it was luxurious, red carpenters and a big golden chandelier in a central room inside of the ship, one would definitely think it''s a ship for tourism or relaxing, not for importing slaves and other items.
The more Arthur observed and saw how the ship was well built and luxurious the more he got curious about this E-clips company.
This ship was only one of a few others which were exactly similar, so if these normal ships were like this, then how was the main ship that the head of the company was currently in?
That ship was double the size of the one Arthur was currently on, it looked more majestic and beautiful, it even had some golden carvings here and there, which made it look even more stunning.
......
The boats finally departed and the trip to Itas continent began, their speed was decent, though if Arthur went on the bone dragon or the dark cloud then it would have been faster and more convenient.
It was the first time for Lucy to travel on boat, since she was a child all she could remember is being on the human continent so finally leaving it was a relief to her, she felt really thrilled as it is also the first time she was on a ship, she didn''t linger off in the room and went outside to observe the sea.
Arthur followed her but the sight was not as he expected, the beastmen were doing some labors and sometimes they would get whipped by the guards, it was truly a pitiful sight, nevertheless, Arthur didn''t do anything.
Lucy, who came to enjoy a good view, felt a bitter taste in her mouth and the idea of enjoying the sea was already out of her mind, for someone who was already captured and treated as a slave, or even worse than that, seeing people treated similar made her angry.
Her ecstatic mood vanished and what replaced it was a cold an emotionless face, the one she once had when she met Arthur.
She turned around, held Arthur''s hand and dragged him to their room, she didn''t want to stay outside to watch more of that, so the best solution was to go back to her room and find something to do.
...
When they finally arrived at their room, they both silently sat on the bed, Arthur knew what she felt, so he wrapped his hand around her back and made her lean on his shoulder.
"Do you want me to stop those guards? just a word from you and it will be done, Lucy..."
His actions already snapped her out of her daze, she felt his warm hand around her back and his soft voice talking to her, that emotionless face instantly disappeared and what replaced it what an enchanting, breath-taking smile which blossomed on her face.
"Hehe,~~ No need, these slaves have a bad fortune but they have nothing to do with us...."
After she said that, she stayed silent again for a dozen or so seconds before speaking again
"....Arthur, kiss me...."
This really surprised Arthur as usually, she wouldn''t ask him this, she would kiss him without warning and he would do so too.
Arthur complied with her request and imprinted his lips on hers, but they didn''t intimately kiss, it was a simple yet warm kiss.
No words were necessary, both of them laid on the bed, they hugged each other and started chatting.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
After the kiss, Lucy''s mood seemed to got better, whatever saddened her seems to have vanished and her usual behavior resurfaced, they even ended up doing it after Lucy insisted many times.
....
The trip will approximately take 1 to 2 months, depending on the weather and the circumstances.
It has been 10 days since the trip began and everything passed smoothly, Arthur and Lucy would sometimes come out but most of the time they stayed in their rooms.
It was also the case for the children and Mary, she would visit them often to give them food and take care of them, plus she didn''t let them go outside for fear they would see what is happening to the slaves, maybe it''s too much for them to handle.
Arthur was silently reading a book while Lucy was taking a nap next to him, it was a normal day like any other and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except, Arthur heard the cry of a guard from outside, with his good hearing, he can hear anything if he focuses a little.
"EVERYONE, PREPARE YOUR WEAPONS, KRAKENS! KRAKENS ARE ATTACKING THE SHIPS"
Everyone panicked when they heard that, it seems whatever it attacking is dangerous.
After he heard that, Arthur had a rough idea of what''s happening but he still remained calm, he knew what a Kraken is as he already read a book about some sea monsters and compared to a dragon, it''s nothing, though for normal travelers it was a pain in the fucking ass as it had many limbs and tentacles and it''s hard to kill it.
The book he read was one of the Zodiak''s so the information about the Kraken was detailed. Apparently, a Kraken can use some water magic but it''s stronger in physicals attacks, especially with its tentacles.
Koez, who was the current captain of the ship, began shouting and commanding the guards left and right
"IMMEDIATELY HAND THE SLAVES WEAPONS TO FIGHT! USE THEM AS CANNON FODDER AND TRY TO HURT THE KRAKEN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, BE WARY It''s NOT JUST ONE KRAKEN, THERE IS A LOT OF THEM!"
Normally, Krakens were solitary, so Arthur was a little confused as to why they are attacking in groups, nonetheless, one or ten, that''s still the same for Arthur.
The book he read also mentioned that a Kraken''s LVL ranges from 100 to 150 and it''s impossible to find a stronger one, though he found a note of Zodiak saying that he encountered some Kraken Lords and Kraken kings deep in the southern sea, he even mentioned that he cooked some of them and their meat was delicious, plus he added that these Kraken lords and kings are way more powerful than the normal ones.
Lucy, who was soundlessly taken a nap, awoke from the noise, people were yelling everywhere so how could she not have awoken by that loud shouting, she could only grunt and curse them ''damn bastards! scared of a few Kraken..''
"Let''s go see what''s happening, if it goes out of hand I''ll interfere, if not then we''ll just watch"(Arthur)
"Un!"(Lucy)
They slowly left their room and made their way outside to observe the situation.
Mary and the kids were also outside, as, for the female beastmen, she seemed a bit worried, after all, she was not like Arthur and Lucy, a few Kraken with high levels were troublesome for someone with her strength, so for those guards, it was almost impossible to deal with the Kraken.
As Arthur looked around, he saw 3 ships already wrecked and sinking, these Kraken were enormous with disgusting tentacles that had some kind of sticky substance.
Though 3 ships were sinking, the others were doing well, he managed to see that on other ships there is some strong warriors and mages who were able to hurt if not kill the Kraken that was attacking their ship.
Slaves were holding spears, swords and various other weapons and sluggishly attacking the gigantic tentacles, but that only ended up badly for them, they were either sent flying or fell from the boat, however, excluding those weak slaves, there were others who were skilled at fighting and managed to injure the Kraken, which impressed Arthur.
As for the guards, they were ruthlessly smashed into minced meat by the Kraken or blown away, they only stood in the backline and attacked using arrows or crossbows, but even staying in the back didn''t mean the tentacles would ignore them, actually, it seems it purposely targetted them or maybe was it just coincidence? no one knows.
Koez, who was the captain of the ships, never ceased attacking using his wind magic, he would mumble some incantations then wind slashes or cyclones would ravage everything in its way, he didn''t even care about the lives of the slaves.
Koez Laflamor (human) : LVL104
Arthur appraised him to assess his strength but he wasn''t anything special, though, for normal people, his LVL was indeed quite high.
..
At some point, the tentacles became more violent and attacked randomly, one of them even headed for Arthur and Lucy who were standing next to each other.
Since an opportunity appeared, Arthur decided to test his [Ancient threads], the tiny threads came out from his hand in a split second and headed for the incoming tentacle with lightning speed.
It was but a tiny threads, almost invisible, but it cleanly cut the gigantic tentacle, it''s as if it was cut by a big sword.
The Kraken, sensing that one of its tentacles has been cut, became furious and concentrated its attacks on that location, it even excluded some howls which sounded terrifying.
As for Arthur, he was joyous by the result, the threads were strong enough to cut the Kraken''s tentacle, it was like his white sword energy, but it these threads can be used in a lot more ways than just cutting.
''sigh...I guess it''s time to end this, the boat is almost destroyed''
Though he was not an expert in boats, he still noticed how wrecked this ship became, it''s sail was completely destroyed and even the ground began cracking.
When he(Arthur) looked around to see the stats of the ship, many of the guards seemed to have disappeared, even Koez strangely vanished.
There was the possibility of them dying, but it was strange, too strange because only the slaves and his group remained, Koez and all the guards seemed to have gone somewhere.
With his good eyesight, he a few escape boats not too far away from this ship, of course, the one in it was Koez and the other guards, they were using all their strength to get away from the Kraken.
''ho ho ho, so they abandoned the ship and now fleeing....''
Arthur realized he misjudged Koez a little, it''s true he seemed a bit greedy about gold, but he didn''t think he would straight out abandon them in a situation like this.
The ship he was on currently began breaking bit by bit and it was obvious it will sink soon enough. The tentacles never ceased to attack but Arthur put a dark barrier which enveloped him and the other as he pondered on what to do, he was not in a hurry for he was not the least bit afraid of the Kraken, quite the opposite, Zodiak''s note intrigued him and he wanted to taste their meat...
There were about 30 slaves left, give or take, and he honestly didn''t want to abandon them like Koez did, it''s true he said he didn''t care about them, but the situation is different now, if he decided to abandon them then they can only wait for their deaths.
The slaves noticed the barrier of the Arthur so they slowly approached it, they saw how the tentacles couldn''t break it no matter how it tried.
After some thorough thinking, Arthur decided to save them, for no special reason, he just decided to do so, also while he was thinking about that, a strange idea struck him, but he put it in the back of his mind to think about it later as it was clearly not the time for it.
Normally, no one could enter his barrier without his permissions, the incoming slaves were able to pass the barrier safely, Arthur obviously did let them pass, plus he enlarged the barrier so it covered all of them.
Then, he turned around and walked inside the breaking ship, since Koez left it in a hurry, then the imported items should be here right?
After looking in some of the storage rooms, the containers which had the weapons and other items were still there, intact, though some of them slipped through the big cracks and fell in the sea.
Arthur stored all the containers in his storage since it was left then it''s his now, he''ll not give it back to E-clips Company.
The tentacles were becoming more and more annoying so Arthur created a dozen dark spears and threw them into the sea, exactly towards the Kraken''s position.
In just seconds, the sea around the ship became dyed red, the tentacles became lifeless as they fell to the ground and began slowly descending to the sea.
The spears instantly killed the Kraken, with their strong piercing power, of course, the Kraken could not defend, he was killed in an instant as the spears left many holes in his big body.
Normal darks spears should not have killed a big body like him even if they penetrated him, so when Arthur created those spears, he made them bigger, probably one the size of a bed, so with a dozen spears like that, the Kraken could only meet it''s cruel fate and die, but it could only blame itself as it is the one attacked Arthur and not the other way around.
After a minute of storing all present containers, Arthur breathed some fresh air and calmly said
"Guess it''s time to go now huh?"
The slaves followed him silently since earlier since his bizarre spheric barrier protected them, then they didn''t care where they went.
Arthur firstly thought about using the dark cloud, but unfortunately it had a specific maximum size and at best it could hold ten people, while he had more than 30 with him, so the only solution for him is to use another flying thing....yes you guessed it right, it''s his dear bone dragon.
With a frame like the bone dragon, even a hundred people could fit on his back, he was seriously enormous.
Arthur didn''t know why, but Yamak''s body was smaller than the young earth dragon, he was confused about this for several hours but he then judged that every dragon had something special, Yamak had incredible speed and strength with godlike magic, while that young dragon had a big body with high defense.
With a mere thought, he summoned the bone dragon, soon the ground in front of him disappeared and what replaced it was an ominous dark hole.
In just seconds, a terrifying bone dragon came out howling from that hole.
The appearance of the dragon petrified everyone excluding Mary and Lucy.
The slaves were shaking and many kids were crying, even the 7 kids who Mary brought were shaking with fear.
A dragon was more terrifying than a simple Kraken, more so a bone dragon, just his appearance would make anyone piss their pants and pass out.
"Calm down, he isn''t dangerous"
Though Arthur tried to calm them down, it didn''t help at all, their eyes were glued on the flying dragon and all of them already fell on their knees, not capable of standing.
There were some of the slaves, who showed good fighting skills earlier, managed to control their fear and stay standing, though their bodies remained standing, their eyes showed fear and anxiousness as they were looking at the bone dragon.
The ship was already on the verge of breaking completely, so Arthur didn''t waste time and said
"I''m not going to repeat myself, if you want to live then get on the dragon, if not then just stay here"
As he said that, he ordered the dragon to come down so the others could get on it.
The bone dragon obviously obeyed and slowly landed on the wrecked ship, it didn''t exercise too much strength to not deal more damage to the already destroyed ship, its state was more like a wreckage of wood than a ship.
Arthur then jumped on the back of the bone dragon with Lucy, Mary soon followed as she urged the kids to come with her, after some little comforting and persuasion they finally followed her.
As for the slaves, they were hesitant at first, but seeing that they only got this choice or else they would die, they clenched their teeth and one by one got on the dragon''s back, they even helped each other and the few elders to get on the dragon as it was quite difficult for weak people.
Once he confirmed that everyone was on the dragon, Arthur ordered it to fly away.
Their ship already sunk and as he looked around, he noticed that almost all Kraken were either heavily injured or killed by some way or another, though 5 ships completely sunk excluding theirs.
Arthur also saw that from the other 5 ships which got destroyed, their guards and captains escaped the same Koez did, he didn''t even see one slave in those dozen escape boats, there were only guards and the captain.
Though their ship was destroyed, that didn''t mean the deal was over, they paid 10.000 gold coins for nothing, he still wanted to finish the deal and travel by boat.
He then ordered his bone dragon to head to the biggest ship, the one the head of E-clips company was occupying.
Chapter 40 : Strange Dream
Arthur decided to go towards the biggest ship just because he wanted to, of course, he could have chosen the other surviving ships but he didn''t.
The ship wasn''t that far, to begin with, plus the bone dragon''s body could have been seen by miles away, so when the guards in the main ship saw the incoming dragon, they freaked out and stood there, petrified from fear, after all, a dragon is a completely different thing from a Kraken, heck! it was even a bone dragon.
"DRAGON INCOMING! PREPARE TO FIGHT"
The guards and fighters in the main boat began shouting and preparing themselves, that shout snapped almost all of them out of their daze, they mustered what was left of their strength and courage and tightly held their weapons.
An old man who stood on the main ship with the guards gazed at the bone dragon, but he appeared calm, he raised his hand and declared
"No need, it''s a bone dragon, it must surely have been summoned"
The old man apparently knew about the bone dragon and immediately guessed that it was not coming to attack, he was a mage expert and lived enough to know the difference between and a bone dragon and a normal one.
When they heard him, all guards relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief, this old man was the captain of this main ship and he was extremely strong, so they obviously trusted his words.
It didn''t take long for the dragon to arrive near the main ship and land on it.
All the people backed away to let some place for the dragon or else they would be squashed to death by the dragon.
As for the old man, his gaze landed on the people on the dragon''s back, especially on Arthur, he was the one in the lead, standing on the dragon''s head, anyone would judge Arthur to be the leader or boss of this group behind him.
Just when the dragon landed on the ship, Arthur jumped from it followed by Lucy, Mary, and the rest.
Arthur looked around to observe the boat and he indeed was a bit stunned, this ship''s structure and decoration were on another level compared to the previous one, even though it was only the exterior of the ship, it really looked extravagant.
The old man advanced towards Arthur in a flash then said
"Friend, what brings you to our ship?"
Arthur noticed the old man from way earlier, he saw how he took care of the Kraken which attacked the main ship.
When Arthur watched how the old man fought, he immediately guessed that his attribute is light and metal.
Metal magic was also one of the special attributes and it was pretty rare too, usually, it''s not very strong in the offensive but it has a strong defensive power, it is even rumored to be amongst the best.
He didn''t waste time and appraised the old man who was approaching him, he didn''t do it earlier because he wasn''t in range, the distance was just too far.
Bedic Qin(Human) : LVL 294
''What!'' Arthur couldn''t help but exclaim, this old man was the highest person he had ever appraised, even the bishops from the church weren''t this strong.
Though he was surprised by the old man''s LVL, he never felt fear or anxiousness, heck! the bone dragon was enough to deal with this old man, even if he can''t kill him he would most likely heavily injure him.
"Hmm, nothing special really..I paid for a trip from the human continent t to the Itas continent, I was on one of your ships, but your guards and captain abandoned us when the ship began breaking so I simply switched ships"
Arthur''s opinion about this E-clips company changed a lot, this Company was by no means a small or weak one.
He heard from Mary that this company did not participate in any political fights or wars, in fact, it provided weapons to anyone who was buying, it had strong individuals that were specifically paid to protect it from any danger, plus no one from the strong powers in this world would want to fight E-clips company, as it provided them everything they needed.
He did think they had strong figures, but not to this extent, if money could buy people like this Bedic, then the powers couldn''t be balanced like this, this old man must be someone special, at least that''s what Arthur guessed.
Though, someone special or not, that didn''t matter, he paid gold coins for the trip on a ship from their company, so if it was destroyed or whatever, that didn''t matter, he will travel on another one, heck! if this old man refuses to welcome them, he would just forcefully stay here, after all, it''s not like anyone can stop him?
"Oh! So it''s like that! Well, no worries, there is a lot of other ships, you can choose whichever you like, and we apologize for the behavior of the captain and guards, it''s just that they were instructed to flee when in danger, don''t blame them"
Bedic acted friendly because someone who can use a bone dragon must certainly be insanely strong, and of course, Arthur was the one who was controlling him, it was as obvious as the sun!
"No problem, I like this ship so I''ll stay here, me and my companions"
The old man was stunned for a second before retorting to Arthur
"this....I cannot do, Friend, this ship is where the head of our company and many other strong individuals are staying, we cannot disturb them"
"I do not care about that, I said I want to stay here and I will, it''s not my fault that your petty subordinates couldn''t even protect the ship"
Bedic was distressed, it seems this man in front of him was quite stubborn and only wanted to stay here, he didn''t think he could forcefully kick him out, he barely can handle the bone dragon, so if the owner was the same strength then he''ll be easily defeated, he was wise enough to judge the situation logically.
" *Sigh*.....Alright, we will provide rooms for you, but the slaves will go to the other ship"
This was the only solution, if he refused, a fight would be inevitable so he decided to comply with Arthur''s request.
Arthur just nodded at Belic and said
"They will go to another ship, but they are no more slaves since your subordinates abandoned them then they are free"
A random guard who was behind Belic, heard what Arthur said so he pointed his spear at him and said
"What are you trying to be righteous for! those slaves belong to the E-clips company, can''t you see the symbol in their col.."
Before he could finish, he was interrupted as he saw all the collars fall from the slave''s neck, they were cleanly cut by a sharp object.
"These...are mere objects, they do not decide if a person is a slave or not, I said they are free so they are free, you do not have the right to negotiate that with me"
Arthur glared at the guard, his killing intent soon engulfed the surroundings and the atmosphere became slightly colder, the guard felt a chill down his spines and he couldn''t move, much less talk.
As for the old man, his eyes were glued to the collars, he focused on the on the part which was cut ''How is that possible! they are special collars which are imprinted with a strong seal, anyone who attempts to break them will suffer a strong rebound..."
The more Belic looked at those collars, the more he felt afraid of Arthur, he didn''t even see what exactly cut those collars.
"Of course, these slaves are now free" (Belic)
With that, the slaves jumped on the dragon''s back again, then Arthur ordered it to head to a nearby ship, a guard also went with them to inform the captain of the ship.
Mary also brought the kid and went with the slaves, after all, she cared for them and wanted to uphold justice, so she decided to go with them to make sure they are not mistreated.
The only ones left are Lucy and Arthur, who stood silently in front of Belic and the rest of the guards.
Just as the dragon flew away, the luxurious golden door which led to the interior of the ship slowly opened, and a lady came out of it.
Each time she took a step, her body will make an ''S'' shape and her waist will sway left and right, she looked gorgeous with an enchanting face and two towering peaks in her chest area, they almost bulged out of the tight dress, they looked like two soft melons that would make any man drool.
the red lipstick in her lips made her look even sexier, plus the red robe she was wearing only added to her beauty.
"Grandpa! did you deal with the Kraken?"
Robin Qin(Human) : LVL47
It would be a lie to say Arthur wasn''t surprised by her appearance, but he didn''t have any strange ideas about her, he merely thought she was pretty, but just not as beautiful as Lucy, his wife.
He unconsciously appraised her but her LVL was quite low, but she had the same surname as the old man in front of him and by what she said, she seemed to be his granddaughter.
"Hahaha, little girl, how can mere Kraken''s stop this old man? it was a trivial thing, no need to be worried everytime they attack"
Robin happily went near the old man but when she saw Arthur and Lucy, plus the flying bone dragon which was not far away, she frowned and showed a confused look.
She icily glared at the strangers and said
"Who are you?"
Just as she said that, Belic softly laughed and said
"Now now little girl, no need to act cautiously, this friend was on board of another ship but it was destroyed so he wanted to stay in this one as they had already paid one of the captains for the trip, as the head of the company, what do you think?"
Though Robin was weak and had a low LVL, her ability to run the company is outstanding since she took hold of the company, it never ceased growing and expanding all around the globe, the profit she managed to earn had already outtakes her peers.
She was a true genius when it came to trading and managing business.
Even Arthur was slightly astonished when he heard she was the head of E-clips company, he didn''t expect this lady to be the head, of course, he didn''t look down on her but the thought of her being the head simply didn''t cross his mind.
Robin kept coldly glaring at Arthur while saying
"Hmpf! what if they paid? that didn''t mean they can stay on THIS ship, there are several others so just go there!"
Her attitude really irritated Arthur, nonetheless, he kept a calm attitude and suppressed the urge to beat her down(AN : just a beating, not a f*cking rape, don''t misunderstand....).
"I do not want to waste my time arguing with a spoiled brat like you, I will stay here whether you like it or not"
Arthur didn''t really want to cause a scene but this lady was making things different for him, he just wanted a room to stay here, not all the rooms.
"You!!!!"
Robin pointed at him with anger, she didn''t think he''ll shamelessly call her ''spoiled little brat'', it made her enraged as it was the first time someone dared to say that to her face.
Arthur then turned to look at Belic then coldly said
"As I have already said, whether you like it or not, I am staying here, deal with it"
He then began walking towards the interior of the ship followed by Lucy, who was silent from the very beginning.
She wasn''t interested in any of this, she didn''t even spare a glance at anyone except Robin, for any woman, having someone who has the same beauty or even slightly less would make her feel a bit troubled, as she would consider her like a rival.
As she saw Arthur and Lucy leisurely head inside, Robin almost choked, they completely ignored her and Belic and walked inside, it''s like not giving them any face.
"Guards! what are you dazing for! CAPTURE THEM!" (Robin)
Her yell made all the guards who were either drooling over her body or Lucy''s came back to their senses, however, after she said that, Robin and everyone present, felt that their body couldn''t move, not even for an inch, no matter how they tried, they just couldn''t move a muscle, heck! even Belic was unable to move, he stared at disbelief in Arthur''s direction, even with his high LVL, he was bound like this.
It was actually Arthur''s threads, in a split second a lot of threads came out of his hand and bound all the enemies, no one would be able to break free if they do not have the sufficient strength, maybe someone like Yamak would be able to easily break free but not those weak people.
He was really feeling grateful, these threads are used in a lot of ways, and this was just one of them.
He didn''t linger off there a lot and entered the ship with Lucy, as they were searching for a free room, they would hear moans from almost every room, of course, it was people having sex but Arthur wondered why are there so many, however he didn''t bother them and proceeded to search until they finally found a large and luxurious room which appeared to be unoccupied.
Just when they entered the room, Arthur released the bound guards from the threads, which fell to the ground and disappeared in a flash.
"G-Grandpa..W-What happened?"
Robin stared at her grandfather with a bit of fear and curiosity.
"Robin, do not bother with those two, just let them stay here, you already noticed that flying beast out there right? it''s a bone dragon, he most likely summoned it, even I, am not sure I can beat it, and you have already seen how he easily bound us, I couldn''t break free no matter how much spells I used, they are not ordinary so better not provoke them, since they are only staying here then let them be, don''t act recklessly"
Robin is indeed the head of the company, but Belic would always advise her and protect her, he was with her all day long to protect her from any assassins, as the company was a strong power, there are obviously people who would want to get rid of it, for example, other clans.
Belic and Robin were from the Qin clan, it was not a strong one but it had control of the E-clips company plus other known facilities, so its strength is decent, but not enough to fight against the other clans.
Their clan was not like the others, which had strong fighters, the Qin clan only had a few geniuses but compared to the other clan they were still lacking, even Robin was not strong albeit being an intelligent girl who managed to rise E-clips Company into a never before seen glory.
"Alright Grandpa, since you said so...but he was so arrogant, calling me a spoiled brat, tsk tsk!"
She was still feeling resentful towards Arthur, but since her grandfather told her to not act recklessly she could only obey, after all, he was the one who helped her since she was a little girl.
Belic then ordered the guards not to bother Arthur and especially not anger him, then he and Robin went to the office Robin had on the ship.
Once they were alone, Belic turned his head to look at his granddaughter then softly said
"Little girl, you are still young so you don''t know what''s out there, people like today should not be provoked easily, I''m absolutely sure he could have killed us in a second, I couldn''t even see what bound us, a spell, a skill or whatever it was, it sure as hell didn''t let me move an inch, so forget about what he said and don''t act rebellious, I know you always scheme behind my back.."
Belic warned her again as he knew she was a crafty little girl, whenever someone angered her she would pay him back in any possible way, so he couldn''t help but warn her again to explain how dangerous those two individuals were, he didn''t even see Lucy act but she most likely was strong too and that only made the situation worse.
"But but.."
Robin appeared distressed as it was unusual for her grandfather to seriously warn her, even if he did, he would not insist like this time.
"No buts! Did you not hear what I said or are you pretending to be deaf? They are dangerous! don''t act up against them, this is an order from your grandfather!"
Hearing this, Robin could only silently nod her head, it''s the first time Belic ordered her like this to she understood how serious the situation was.
...
Arthur and Lucy relaxed in their room as if nothing happened, he sat on a comfortable sofa and retrieved a book from his storage and began silently reading, as for Lucy she stared at him with dagger eyes and said
"Hmpf! I saw you stare at her for too long, especially those fat balls in her chest! hmpf hmpf!"
Arthur who just began enjoying the book, was startled by what he just heard, he lifted his head only to see Lucy stare at him intensely
"You must be joking! I only spared her a glance..."
It was really the truth, he merely looked at her for a second, maybe his eyes landed on her chest area but it was only for a split second.
The only conclusion he could think of is that she was teasing him yet again, but then again, if she was indeed joking then why the intense glare.
He put the book down and went to sit near Lucy who just sat on the nearby big bed.
"You can''t be jealous......right?"
"Hmpf! who would be jealous of her!"
Arthur stretched his hand and began enjoying her soft breast, though it was not as big as Robin''s, it was more than enough, he could never get enough of them.
"Though I prefer yours so why the need to feel jealous..."
Lucy didn''t respond to that, she only let him massage her chest while moaning sometimes though this time they didn''t end up doing it, it was not because she was angry at him or anything of the sort, in fact, she was happy with what he said and couldn''t be more overjoyed, but the two of them just didn''t feel like doing it, so she merely let him do as he pleases.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The two of them passed the night in the room, no one bothered them, and it was for the best, Arthur continued reading the book after he enjoyed groping Lucy''s breasts to the fullest.
She fell asleep as she wanted to continue her previous nap, and he resumed reading the book.
But, as he was silently reading the book, he remembered about the thought that had struck him earlier.
He wanted to build something, more accurately, make a mercenary or even an academy, he saw how powerful the Nemia academy was, it''s probably because of the Ma clan controlling it, nevertheless it was feared by all the powers in the other continents, so if he established an academy, with his power and Lucy''s it would be easy.
He liked traveling and he was planning to do a lot of that, but an academy or something similar would be interesting, first, he would have a place to return to, and it would have a power strong enough to face up against other continents, if not stronger than them.
Of course, it was only thought so he wanted to thoroughly think about it then decided what to do, for now, he was going to deal with Ma clan and the holy church then he will see if he is going to do that or not, it depends.
Arthur read a book for about an hour before joining Lucy in bed, he hugged her then went to sleep.
....
This time, in his sleep, Arthur had a strange dream, it only lasteda couple of seconds but it was nonetheless a dream.
He was in a small wooden house, it was very small but it felt really familiar and warm, he was chopping some wood while a melodic voice came from behind him
"Honey, it''s almost time...."
It was the only thing he heard before the strange dream ended and he suddenly woke up.
Lucy was still soundlessly sleeping, as for him, he was sweating a little, he quickly changed his clothes and got back to sleep yet again, however, this time, he didn''t dream of anything strange like earlier and only woke up the next morning.
.........
Both of them got up from bed early in the bed after a deep kiss, he wore a blue robe which perfectly suited him, as for Lucy, she wore those sexy tight clothes, which made her look like a true demoness who would steal anyone''s heart.
Arthur wanted to go outside to breathe some fresh air, he noticed that this ship is not like others and there were only guards and not a single slave, so why not enjoy the view outside.
They soon left their room and headed outside, the ship was really big with a lot of rooms and a big main room which had some round stairs, a red carpet was put on them which made them look more stunning, an enormous chandelier was on the roof, at night, it provided light with some special magic, there was also some beautiful paintings on the walls, they looked very fascinating, the one who made them must surely be a famous artist.
After a couple of minutes, they were finally outside. Their appearance raised the alertness of all the guards, they stared intensely at Arthur but none dared to bother him or even talk to him.
As for Arthur, he didn''t pay them any attention too and leisurely walked with Lucy.
He noticed that there were people he didn''t see yesterday, they seemed to be nobles or something similar, they wore luxurious clothes and had a lot of jewelry, there were women and men, and when Arthur appraised them, they were all between LVL20 and LVL30, it was high but not high enough.
Nobles had money to buy elixirs and mercenaries to protect them in dungeons while they killed monsters so it''s rather easy for them to LEVEL UP, but even with high LVL, their fighting strength can be considered weak.
Every one of those nobles had some bodyguards, and Arthur was honestly surprised when he saw the bodyguards LVLS, they were all above LVL130, they emanated some a slight pressure and looked like experts.
The only possible explanation for this is that these people were very important, or else why would they have such strong bodyguards, there really was a lot of powerful people out there.
The Nemia academy was considered powerful because of its council member and principal, very few knew of the ''judgment'', but those who knew didn''t dare attack, they may have people stronger than even the principal but they still didn''t have the courage to attack as their fear from that weapon stopped from doing so.
The strongest bodyguards he saw were 2 twins, they were both LVL 143 and had green hair, they were handsome and appeared more like a nobles than a bodyguard, what was worst is who they were protecting, it was a fat ball of meat, this guy was seriously so fat that from afar, you would see a round ball, he looked really disgusting.
Even though he was wearing some luxurious clothes, you could see the sweat on them, his look was disgusting and sweat was coming out of his forehead every now and then, he would take some cloth and wipe it but that didn''t help much.
He was sitting on a chair that almost broke because of his weight, but he didn''t seem to mind it as he put all his weight on the poor chair, if it was a human, he would surely be squashed to death by this fat pig.
Next to him was sitting what seemed to be a female beastmen, she wore a collar so she obviously was his slave.
Even she looked disgusted by her master and couldn''t handle staying next to him even another second, but she couldn''t go against him so he obediently sat there.
The pig had his right hand holding a chain which stretched from the collar of the slave, as for his left hand, it was caressing the naked thigh of the girl.
He didn''t care about the surroundings and kept stroking her thigh while licking his lips every now and then.
Arthur coldly stared at the fat guy but didn''t do anything, this was the kind of people he hated the most, buying a slave then forcing him to do anything he wants.
He didn''t feel a pity for all slaves, but he pitied this girl, to have a disgusting freak for her monster must have been a nightmare, in bed he would surely suffocate her with his weight, truly a poor girl.
He and Lucy approached the pig, and once they were near him, the twins who were protecting him blocked Arthur''s path while coldly glaring at him.
They heard from the guards that there was a special someone who came and he is dangerous but they didn''t know his appearance, plus they assumed Arthur was a noble, as he clearly looked like one, he was handsome and looked clean and wore a luxurious blue robe, so how could they not think he is a noble.
Seeing the twins block his path, Arthur didn''t particularly mind, he stared at the fat pig and said
"Hey you..."
Arthur already appraised the fat guy and he saw that his name was Robert Yan, quite a good name but didn''t suit someone like him.
Arthur loathed guys like him but he didn''t want to act rashly and just kill or injure him just because he hated him, he just wanted to give an option to the girl beside him, that''s all.
He was probably a couple of meters away from Robert, so the latter heard someone call for him, he lifted his head which was contemplating the girl''s body and stared at the origin of the voice, once he saw it was a well-dressed young man with a beauty next to him, he became quite cautious, there was a lot of powerful figures like him on the ship, and he didn''t know all of them, so he couldn''t act recklessly, however, that didn''t stop him from looking at Lucy''s body with eyes burning from lust.
"Y-Yes...What do you want?"
He only replied after fully enjoying the view of Lucy''s alluring body, even with his fat stomach which covered his lower body, you could see a small tent in his lower body.
Arthur didn''t like anyone looking at Lucy like that but since it happened a lot of times, there was nothing he could do, it''s not like he had to take out the eyes of every one who could see her, but to have his wife sized up by this disgusting pig irritated him, nonetheless, he remained calm and responded
"I would like to speak with your slave for a second, do you mind?"
Robert was startled by this question, but since it wasn''t an extravagant request and it wouldn''t hurt he decided to accept Arthur''s request.
"S-sure.."
He still didn''t know what is this man and beauty next to him, but he didn''t dare offend anyone even though he had a very special status, his old man told him many times to think about his actions before acting, plus his mind was already thinking about Lucy and how would she be in bed, he just couldn''t get her out of his head, just like Robin, every time he saw her he would become excited and his desires would surge up, he would release it on his slaves all night long.
Robert gestured for the girl next to him to stand up to talk to Arthur, of course, she didn''t dare disobey, she slowly went next to Arthur and softly said
"S.Sir...."
Arthur brought her a little away from Robert and the bodyguards then said
"If you want, I can free you from your master"
She thought he would propose to be her master or buy her for a night, just like any other noble would do, but never did she think she would hear this.
There was a time where someone asked her the same thing, and she accepted, that person tried to fight against her current master, but that only ended up with his head on a stick, and she was beaten by her master so severely that she couldn''t move for a week, that was a nightmare for her that she would never forget in her entire life.
When she heard him, she was grateful that Arthur requested her help, but her heart couldn''t take it if she was beaten like last time and kind people would die for her sake, so she shook her head to Arthur while saying
"I''m Okay...."
Though Arthur really wanted to help her, he couldn''t do it forcefully, plus since she didn''t want help and said she was alright, there is nothing he could do, he already tried to help her but she refused, he could only sigh and say
"Alright, just tell me when you need help, even a scream would be enough.."
Arthur wasn''t this soft usually, but after what happened to Lucy and after he saw her past, he couldn''t handle seeing other women being forcefully raped or do something against their will, it''s just that something like that angered him and made him loathe slavery even more, truly a disgusting system which only brings pain and misery to people.
People would play with the lives of the slaves and use them as if they were toys, people like that are even worse than animals, one would truly think if those people are devils and not actual human beings.
Actually, in this world, it was humans who made the slavery system and only them who used it, demons never used it and elves did not use it either, only those greedy and crafty humans resorted to such low and sinister methods so to subdue enemies and people against their will.
Even in his previous world, humans were no less cruel than this one, they slaughtered, tortured, made wars, killed so many animals to the point that almost all of them went extinct, to this very day, Arthur could remember what the old lady from the orphanage always said to him
''We humans, if we are given the choice to live without violence, we are also given the choice to center our meals and harvest around slaughter, slavery or war. Unfortunately, we have chosen slaughter. We have chosen war, we were dumb enough to choose something that would only bring our end, for the sake of what? Just the greed for ''power''....''
In a way, it is true that other beings can be evil and sinister like humans, but humans excelled in those things, when one mentions humans, they would mention their cruel acts more than mentioning their good actions, which truly is a sad thing, ''one would always remember a famous war between humans us but would not remember a peace treaty between nations''This thought was always on Arthur''s mind, he felt ashamed to be human in the past, at least he is a parasite now..
...
Anyway, the female beastmen soon went back next to her master, who was still daydreaming while gazing at Lucy''s figure, who in return, didn''t spare a glance at him, he made her feel so disgusted that she wished to go and punch him to death, but of course, she didn''t do that.
Arthur and Lucy went to a near bench and sat there to relax a little, he didn''t pay Robert or his slave any more thought, he wrapped his hand around Lucy''s back and made her lean on him, and just like that, both of them relaxed why staring at the beautiful view of the sea.
As for Robert, he felt envious when he saw Arthur act that intimate with Lucy, he gritted his teeth and regretted accepting his request earlier, but what done is done and there is nothing that could change that, he turned to look at one of the twins and said
"Go bring me that little girl from my room, now! I feel like playing with her now"
When he mentioned the little girl, the slave beast men next to him felt a bit of anxiousness and pity towards that little girl that Robert mentioned.
One of the twins nodded and headed inside to bring the girl as for the other one he stood there, still doing his job.
Roughly 5 minutes passed and finally the twin brought a little girl with him, she was following him while staggering every now and then, one of her hands were holding the bodyguard''s sleeve.
She was about 5 years old, with a slightly long brown hair which looked messy and a bit dirty, she had multiple bruises and injuries in her small body and her eyes were closed, she was most likely blind so that''s why she was holding the sleeve of the bodyguard, to not crash into anything, after all, there were many nobles, and causing them troubles would bring a disaster for her.
She was a beast, with dog ears but she surprisingly didn''t have any tail, she also didn''t wear any extravagant clothes, only a small black cloth that covered her body.
Her state really looked horrible, she was even younger than the kids Arthur brought yet what she has been through must''ve been worse than them.
Once the little girl appeared in front of the fat pig, she bowed and said with a low voice
"M-Master..."
Her voice contained a bit of fear and anxiousness, she was truly afraid of her master.
When he saw the little girl in front of him, Robert suddenly slapped her, the sound of the slap was quite loud as almost all the present people looked to see the origin, once they saw it was a slave and the fat pig, they ignored it and resumed what they were doing, after all, none wanted to provoke him.
"F*ck, every time I see you I want to beat the sh*t out of you...take this *slap*"
Even though he was a noble, he used such vulgar words and kept slapping the little girl who didn''t even have the chance to get up, her small lips and nose leaked some blood as the slaps were powerful, especially when it was a noble who had high LVL, well technically he didn''t have a high LVL, but she had a fragile body, and even with his meager strength, a slap from him would still hurt her a lot, she was a little kid after all not an adult with a sturdy body.
Arthur, who had his back facing Robert and the rest, didn''t see the scene and only turned his head when he heard the slap, and what he saw now really enraged him a lot.
Previously, he gave a choice to the slave, however, she didn''t accept so he could only give up, but now, it was an entirely different thing.
Even if it was the previous him, he would still feel angered by this sight, he indeed hated everyone as they were bad and greedy but little kids like this one didn''t do anything wrong, heck! they don''t even know right from wrong.
They barely lived enough to be able to talk and move and had yet to discover the world, so he couldn''t blame nor hate them, in fact, he would like to help them if they are in a bad situation.
It''s also true he didn''t want to bring those kids with him, it''s just because they were free now and they looked alright, they could handle themselves and provide food and shelter if they work, but this little girl was a slave, not only was she blind, so she cannot enjoy life to it''s fullest, she also is a slave, that only made it worse.
He really couldn''t hold himself back, the little girl''s state was horrible, even some of the present nobles pitied her, what this fat pig what doing is extreme and ruthless.
Robert bought this slave not too long ago, he didn''t use her as a sex slave as he wasn''t into little girls but he enjoyed beating her up, whenever he was angry, he would whip her or just slap her, it was a stress relief toy for him, there was even a time he had to spend a potion to heal her or else she would die, he hated that but he used it nevertheless just to keep beating her more, though she begged him to stop at first, as time passed, she stopped doing that and accepted her fate.
He quite liked her begging and struggling and when she stopped, it angered him even more and he became more violent and vicious, he truly was a sadistic fat pig.
...
"How about you stop?"
Arthur appeared to Robert and the little girl, since he was holding Lucy, she was teleported with him, he held Robert''s hand, stopping it from slapping the girl, while gazing coldly at him, strong killing intent emanated from him, this time, he was beyond angry, as black-hearted as he could sometimes be, there were times he just couldn''t sit and watch, not after seeing a helpless little girl like this, being beaten like this with no way to defend, her state was miserable.
When he appraised her, he saw she was named Saly and was only LVL1, she never LEVELED UP, and her stats probably never increased, a body full of bruises and injuries with some scars here and there, and add to that she was blind, if that''s not miserable, then I don''t know what is.
"Hiiii!!!" (It''s like a cry of fear and it''s not ''hi'')
The fat pig fell from the chair, his body was trembling as the glare and the killing intent was directed at him.
The twins sensed the change in atmosphere and the sudden appearance of Arthur but they couldn''t react in time, but that didn''t stop them from charging at the close Arthur, they unsheathed their swords and slashed at him with perfect coordination.
But, the next second, all they could feel is their body beeing sent flying until they hit the wall of the entrance leading inside the ship.
They didn''t know what happened, but they felt immense pain in the abdomen and they both started coughing blood, the damage was to their abdomen but their ribs were broken with some shattered bones, even their shoulders were broken, of course with this sort of damage, they couldn''t possibly get up.
It was Lucy who interfered this time, she saw the state of Saly and sympathized with her, she also felt the rage of Arthur and totally understood how he felt, from the soul link she felt how angry he was at this fat pig in front of her.
She only needed two quick punches and it was enough to deal with those twins, she didn''t want anyone to disturb Arthur from whatever he is doing.
Robert already pissed his pants as he saw his two precious bodyguards easily defeated.
"Let me ask you a simple question....Why did you beat her like that? it''s not like she disobeyed you right?"
Arthur finally spoke, however, his killing intent never ceased to increase, even the surrounding people didn''t dare make a noise.
Robert was scared shitless from Arthur, but after some seconds, he seemed to remember his status and that he is from the strong Yan Clan so he regained a bit of confidence, but that didn''t stop him from still feeling afraid of the man in front of him.
"She''s my slave, my property, I can do anything with her! Who are you to judge my actions?"
Arthur laughed evilly when he heard that then spoke again
"HAHAHAHA, SO she''s your slave then you can beat her down?"
"Y-yes! So what?"
"And why exactly did you beat her?"
"I already told you, she''s my slave, whether I beat her or not, that''s my own business."
Seeing that Arthur was only talking and didn''t do anything beyond that, Robert gained even more confidence.
"I ASKED YOU A QUESTION!"
Black ancient threads came out of Arthur''s hand, they emanated some black fog, they soon wrapped around all the fatty''s body and held him in the air, he was floating a couple of centimeters in the air and his limbs were stretched like a star.
(AN : You know that knife or ball game when someone is put in a wooden circle in the star shape then someone throws the knife or ball at him? it''s like that but without that wooden circle, if you don''t know then google it)
The threads were tightly holding Robert, and as he started feeling some pain he began wailing like a pig.
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
Arthur loosened the threads a bit then looked at Robert, waiting for his answer.
"STOP STOP! I''ll tell you!..."
As he said that, Robert panted for a couple of seconds before speaking again
"I did it for fun okay? I liked beating her, is that e-enough?.."
This time, he felt afraid, he no longer had the confidence from earlier, he knew Arthur was dead serious and if he angered even more, maybe even his life would be in danger.
As he said that, Arthur was going to speak again but what interrupted when a small hand held his foot.
Slay, who couldn''t muster the strength to get up, crawled a little before she managed to reach Arthur, she softly said
"Mi--Mister, I-I''m a-alright, f-ff-forgive m-master.."
She couldn''t even talk properly as her voice was low and almost non-existent.
Hearing this, Robert became a bit happy, he looked at Saly and said
"That''s right! Tell him Saly, you like being beaten right, right??"
In the spur of the moment, he created an idiotic and lame excuse to make Arthur calm down.
Saly was still small, but she had been a slave since she was born, and there is one thing she learned, is that her master is like a god, and she must obey him no matter what happens, she learned that the hard way and since then she never dared to fight back or retort to him.
So that''s why she begged Arthur to stop, for her, Robert is a god, she was blind since birth so she couldn''t see but she could hear and whenever someone defended her, that only ended up in him being killed, she would always hear that person die and Robert laugh evilly, so even though she heard the cry of Robert, she still thought he was a god, a scar of years cannot be removed in a second.
She sincerely wanted to stop Arthur from fighting Robert or else he would end up like the others, after all, she is blind so she can''t see what''s currently happening.
Arthur heard what she said but he didn''t reply to her, he kept staring at Robert
"A lame excuse, can''t-fool me since you enjoy beating her then I also enjoy beating you"
As he said that, he punched the fatty on his big stomach, he didn''t put much force into it, just enough to hurt him yet not kill him.
Robert screamed from the pain, he was not used to fighting and hated pain, so when the punch struck him, he yelled non-stop.
Arthur didn''t stop and kept punching him in his legs, arms, abdomen, face, everywhere, he didn''t leave any place, it''s like he was a punching bag.
..
The golden door leading to the inside of the ship opened and Robin accompanied by Belic came out running.
"Stop!! What do you think you are doing!" (Robin)
They both rushed at Arthur and the bloody body of Robert, his face was now unrecognizable, chunks of meat was missing from his body and he looked gory and disgusting as blood flowed endlessly from various injuries he had.
Lucy interrupted both of them as she appeared out of thin air and blocked their way
"I advise to stay back, he is only getting punished for what he has done, if you come any closer don''t blame me for being ruthless"
Even though Robin and Belic heard her they still rushed at Arthur trying to stop him.
Metal needles appeared out of nowhere, there were thousands of them, they looked sharp and terrifying, with a thought, they rushed at Lucy, who was calmly looking at the incoming attack.
A 10m magma ball appeared, the pressure and heat it emanated was overwhelming, it''s speed was also shocking, in a split second it melted all the incoming needles and headed for Belic and Robin.
Startled by what just happened, Belic grabbed Robin, who was next to him and backed away with all his speed.
He was smart enough to see that the magma ball was enough to melt him and Robin, and if he had been a second slower then it would have been their doom.
A magma ball from someone who has 150.000 intelligence is not the same from a magma ball of someone with 10.000 intelligence, they are entirely different, one was obviously way stronger than the other, Belic managed to think fast and guess that it was not a mere magma ball and its strength is horrifying.
He quickly understood that Lucy is out of his league, she was way stronger than him and he would not be able to beat her, heck! he almost died a second ago by just one move from her, that explains everything.
Robin still didn''t give up, by seeing her grandpa''s face she realized that this silver-haired beauty is also dangerous and they could not pass and forcefully stop Arthur so she could only look at him(Arthur) and shout.
"Stop! You have injured him enough, he is from the Yan Clan! It will be troublesome if you hurt him further!"
She was right in a way, the Yan clan was equal to the Qin clan and had a decent strength, though it was not THAT strong it had some strong people and killing their young master, who was Robert, would only bring trouble to her and Arthur.
The Qin and Yan Clan have a good relationship and if the young master got killed in their care, their relationship would obviously disappear and they will probably become enemies, they would even suspect her clan of assassination, and she definitely could not afford that.
..
Arthur looked at the gory body of Robert, he calmed a little but he still felt irritated, he stared at the fatty''s face, with intense killing intent and said
"You must have regretted your actions right? Or you probably didn''t, maybe you just feel fearful towards me and that''s it, or maybe you are angry and want to kill me? No one knows what you''re thinking but I wonder what it feels like to be beaten like this? Does it feel good? Painful? Agonizing?.......that''s exactly what you have been doing to this little kid, except, you did it every day, I''m sure of that, after all, that''s what the likes of you do, they feed off the suffering of others, they enjoy making others miserable and look down on everyone.......that''s all there is to it, nothing more, nothing less......"
".....You made people despair, perhaps many people died by your idiotic and sadistic methods and beatings, you must have enjoyed it right? feeling superior and having someone else''s life in your hands? that''s what I''m feeling right know......."
"......You probably think that I''m a monster, beating you like this, Well I suppose I am, but your thoughts or anyone else''s don''t matter as I don''t care what you or anyone cares, but know that what I did to you is nothing compared to what you to her, if I''m a monster then you''re worse than that..."
As he said that, Arthur stretched his hand and began strangling Robert
".....Ahh, I wonder how does it feel when you know you''re about to die? You know what makes me disgusted and angry even more? It''s that there are people like you still breathing in this world, they are oppressing and using others lives like toys, it really makes me feel sick and outraged, but sooner or later, they will meet their fate too, sooner or later...yes.."
The fatty couldn''t scream anymore as he didn''t have the strength to do so, but he heard Arthur and the only thing he did was laugh, he laughed as if he turned into an insane person and even with Arthur strangling him he still laughed...
Arthur could only sigh and mumble
" *Sigh*....Indeed, the only real laughter comes from despair."
As he said that, he exercised more strength and after a couple of seconds, the laughing stopped and his body stopped twitching, Robert died like that, with a simple squeeze of Arthur''s hand.
His corpse, or what was left of it fell on the ground, which was now a pool of blood, the sight looked really gory and disgusting, however, no one dared to make a sound, not even breathing heavily as they watched what happened....
Chapter 41 : Saly
Silence ruled over the place, no one dared to move or talk, they just watched Arthur with fear, after all, what he did is brutal, and for them, who passed their lives in luxury, they never saw something similar to this, of course, there may be some exceptions.
Once the corpse of the dead fatty fell to the ground, Arthur didn''t bother with it and turned towards Saly, who was still on the ground, but she stayed silent while sometimes softly groaning from pain.
Her body had scars, injuries, and blood all over, she would not die but she sure as hell was in a pitiful state.
She had several broken bones, Robert didn''t bother with her health or injuries, instead, he would beat her more so she always tried to hide them, but that only made her condition worse.
He provided her enough food to survive but not enough to satisfy her hunger, she never had a full stomach or enjoyed food until she was no longer hungry, her master was stingy and would sometimes leave her starving for days.
Arthur ignored the gazes of the surrounding people and squatted down near Saly, just her appearance made his heart ache, usually, he would only feel pity and that''s it, but today, when he saw this little girl condition and how she was beaten without being able to defend, that angered him, to think there are people like this in this world, that made him feel disgusted towards humans even more.
"Little girl, It''s okay now...your master is gone, no need to feel afraid"
From way earlier, even though she was silent, he noticed that her shoulders were trembling, though she didn''t express it, it was apparent that she felt fear.
When she heard Arthur''s voice, which seemed very close to her, she back away a little as it startled her, but that only made her groan again from pain, her injuries were not light yet not fatal too, but for a fragile body like hers, bruises and injuries like these are painful to her, but after years passed, she somewhat had gotten used to this, however, that didn''t mean she no longer felt pain, quite the opposite, in fact, the pain was the most thing she felt afraid of, excluding her master of course.
Seeing her react like that, afraid of him, Arthur kept a solemn face and softly said
"There is no need to be afraid, your master is truly gone, you are free now.........."
No one else could understand how he felt right now except Lucy, thanks for the soul link, she felt his sorrow and pain.
He came from another world, so things like this would not happen in broad daylight, so when he saw something this extreme, he couldn''t control his emotions, for this wasn''t something he can ignore, as for her, she saw a lot of things similar to this, so she was a bit used to it, nonetheless, that didn''t mean that what happened didn''t anger her, she was just better in controlling her emotions than him.
Though Arthur said that, for some reason, Saly became even more afraid, she started trembling and said
"M-Mister...y-you should go...o-oo-or m..master would kill you too..."
It seems she didn''t believe Arthur and even tried to help him by telling him to go, her fear of Robert was imprinted deep in her bones, she couldn''t just believe he was gone for good.
Arthur stretched his hand a patted her small head, she was trembling so much and his action made her body flinch, she didn''t think a hand would pat her, instead, she thought it would be a punch or a slap on her face, though she was scared, she didn''t dare push that hand away, or else the consequences would be horrible, that''s what she thought at least.
"Little girl...It''s unfortunate you cannot see with your own eyes, but your master is already dead, I killed him...."
It''s surprising how she still believed her master to be alive after all that happened, even though she cannot see, she still heard his wailing and screams, but that wasn''t enough to erase her deep fear she held for him.
Feeling that the unfamiliar hand didn''t hit her or do anything but gently pat her head, she knew it was the mister she was talking too, Saly knew he was a kind person as he tried to help her, that''s why she didn''t want him to be killed like any other person who tried to rescue her.
" *Sigh*....How about you come with me? You are free now and can do whatever you want, if you want, you can come with me..."
Saly always wished for freedom but that was only a dream, many people said the same thing to her but that only ended up badly for them, she clenched her little fists with what was left of her strength and said with a hesitant tone
"M-Mister...I cc-can''t, my master will b-be a..angry if I disobey h-him"
Even Arthur was surprised by her strong belief in her master, he understood that Robert was like a god for her so no matter what he says would be futile.
He stretched his other free hand and carried Saly, who began struggling with all her strength to free herself from him while yelling and telling him to stop.
He held her in a princess carry and she never ceased to struggle, but she soon was exhausted and could only lay there, however, she felt some warmth coming from the one who was carrying her, and it felt really comfortable, so she wanted to enjoy this moment to the fullest before her master appear again, she felt sadness because she can''t see who this mister is, he was so gentle and kind to her, so how could she not feel curious about him.
Once Arthur held her, he headed inside the ship to go to his room, while Lucy silently followed him.
Robin, who watched what happened, wanted to protest and shout at him, but a piercing glare from Arthur was enough for her to shut her mouth and stay there, petrified, she didn''t dare say anything, in fact, no one spoke, they let him pass and watched him disappear inside the ship.
Robin''s POV
YESTERDAY NIGHT
Ahhh! I can''t believe that I can''t do anything to him! Even with grandpa''s warning, I will still find a way to pay back what he did for me...
How can he be this arrogant and call me a spoiled brat........, I''m a genius, a prodigy! my skills and talent are not things he can have, did this mature and alluring body of mine seem like a child''s? tsk tsk! wait until I get my hands on that bastard.
I feel so pissed just thinking about his smug face, guess I''ll take a shower then go talk to grandpa about the deal with the other companies, I can''t let this fall down, especially with the Yan clan.
..............
Waah! I feel refreshed, what a good shower that was, I don''t regret buying this boat for even a second, his structure and functions are unbelievable, I guess those 200 million gold coins were worth after all.
NEXT MORNING
As I was talking with grandpa in my office, I heard a small shaking and once I turned my head to see what''s happening outside, I was dumbfounded to see the two bodyguards of fatty Yan on the ground, they seem pretty injured...that looks painful...
WAIT! It''s not the time to think about this, who? who did hurt them?
My eyes soon landed on that woman with silver hair, hmph! she''s ugly compared to me....wait did she do that? and what is that bastard doing to fatty Yan?
"Robin, this is troublesome, we should stop him before he causes more problems for us.."
Grandpa seemed to have grasped the situation faster than me, we soon left the office and headed to where that bastard is with fast speed.
However, that ugly woman stopped us, thank god grandpa helped me or else I would have been cooked meat....tch! how come this woman is strong and beautiful, that''s just not fair! wait..no! she''s ugly! yes ugly.....
That man started beating Fatty Yan non-stop, even I, who loathed fatty Yan, felt pity for him, he looked like a pig being slaughtered, his screams made my ears hurt, he sure can yell....
We couldn''t even get close to stop him, and even with my warning, that bastard kept beating Fatty, again and again, I could only watch, if he ends up dying, then that would be troublesome, the Yan clan would surely blame us...ahhh what can I do?
After a while, that bastard stopped his punches and said a few words which I could not hear to Fatty Yan before he strangled him to death, at that time, I could only sigh and try to find an excuse to the Yan clan, maybe I''ll them that it was this bastard..but will they even believe me? even with so many witnesses, no one would want to provoke someone like this bastard too..even grandpa told me to stay away from him.
I seriously couldn''t move an inch as his killing intent was way too terrifying and the pressure he emanated made me petrified, I never felt more afraid in my life than this second, arghhh! I can already feel myself having nightmares about this...*sigh*
That monster carried the slave girl of Fatty Yan and went inside, I couldn''t even speak and blame him, a mere gaze from him was enough for me to know I shouldn''t anger him in his current state....If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
You know, I too felt that what fatty Yan was doing is bad and heartless, but just saving a little girl won''t stop everything, is he an idiot or what? well whatever, it''s not like I can change anything........
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POV.
It didn''t take them long to arrive in their room, Saly already stopped her struggle long ago and stayed silent.
Though only a couple of minutes passed, she still didn''t hear her master yells or laughter, so she felt some hope and began believing what Arthur said as usual, when someone takes her away from her monster, in only seconds, that person would die by the hands of his bodyguards or him.
When they finally arrived, Arthur sat on the bed while still carrying Saly, he began using his healing magic, but unfortunately, he never possessed anyone who had strong healing magic so his heals were not that good, but that didn''t stop him from doing so.
He retrieved the miraculous healing potion he had in his storage and softly said to Saly
"Don''t worry, as I said, your master is gone, he will not come back so you can relax......drink this, it will make the pain go away.."
He had a lot of potions like this, Zodiak left a big stack of it and with Arthur''s vitality, they were practically useless for him, so why not use them.
He placed the potion in her little hands as he didn''t want to force her to drink it.
Surprisingly, she was obedient enough and she drank the potion with help of Arthur, she barely could lift her small hands so Arthur helped her a little while not exerting too much force to not scare her.
The bruises she had and injuries, began healing, though it was not extremely fast healing, it was effective and very soon, the bruises disappeared, only the injuries were left, slowly but surely recovering.
Saly was startled by this, the pain began to fade away and she felt that many of her injuries healed, she no longer felt heavy and unable to move, though she recovered a bit, she didn''t struggle or push Arthur away as she knew for sure he was kind and only wanted to help her.
Unconsciously, she fell into a deep sleep, the pain went away but she was exhausted mentally so sleep soon took over and in his warm embrace she slept.
Arthur and Lucy both saw her soundlessly sleep, he didn''t put her away immediately, only after a dozen of minutes did he put her on the comfortable bed, he then covered her with the blankets.
Lucy giggled while covering her mouth and said
"hehe~~ I never thought you were good with children"
To what she said, Arthur only scratched his nose and replied
"I am not good with them, it''s just that she was...."
Before he could even finish, Lucy interrupted him by putting her finger in his mouth to stop him from talking, she then smiled and said
"I already know, did you already forget about the soul link? there is no need to explain your actions to me"
"mmm"
Arthur merely nodded and hugged her tightly, to have someone who understands you without explanation is rare but he had one, and he couldn''t feel more grateful.
They both sat near the bed and gazed at the sleeping Saly.
"Her injuries will heal sooner or later, but the scars and the blindness...the potions are not enough *sigh*"
Arthur already read in books that deafness, blindness, and even scars can be healed, you just need a strong healing magic, such as the light magic or strong spells, and he didn''t have that.
He only met her for a short time, but he wanted to help her, her blindness is like a curse, and he wanted to get rid of it, she is still a kid, so he can''t call her a bad or greedy person nor can he dislike her, she still didn''t learn anything from life, she was still pure so how can he hate a kid?
Whether it is the current him, or him from the past, they both would have helped her, but their actions would have been different, now, he only killed the fatty, he didn''t even take his body as he didn''t want to possess such a disgusting body, if it were him from the past, then everyone in the boat would have been killed with no exceptions.
He just couldn''t handle people seeing such a little kid, who was even blind, be beaten heartlessly like that, it''s true he overcame his past, but that didn''t mean he forgot about it and would let people like Robert do as they please, that was two different things.
Arthur and Lucy just stood there, waiting for Saly to wake up, they chatted with a low voice as to let the little girl rest a little.
Arthur really was distressed, he was helpless as he literally had nothing he could use to heal those scars, he even noticed when he carried her that her tails were cut, nothing was left of it, that only made his heart ache, for all of this to happen to a mere 4 to 5 years old was really pitiful and miserable.
6 hours have passed since Saly fell asleep, no one came to bother them in their room and they both patiently wait for Saly to wake up as they wanted to talk to her and maybe ease her fear for even a little bit.
The fluffy dog ears of Saly twitched a little, and she her breathing changed, she woke up but for some reason, she appeared startled and abruptly sat up.
Since she couldn''t see, she didn''t know where she is, but after some seconds, she remembered what had happened before she slept, so she relaxed for a bit.
"So you have woken up, no need to be a be afraid.........do you still feel pain? is your body alright now?"
When she heard the gentle voice of Arthur, Saly calmed for a bit, now that she thought of it, she realized she could move and she didn''t feel the least bit of pain, her body seemed alright and she can even stand up if she wanted to.
Even her broken bones were healed, she was surprised but she didn''t think much about it, after all, she only knew a thing or two about healing and seeing something new wasn''t out of her expectations.
"M-Mister, thank you..."
Arthur''s heart softened, he stretched his hand and patted her small head, the feeling of her fluffy ears was really comfortable and her appearance was cute albeit her being blind.
"No need to thank me, it''s been 6 hours since you slept yet your master didn''t come, do you believe me now?"
As she heard that, Saly felt relieved, an unspeakable feeling covered her heart, Arthur''s hand delicately patted her head, and for some reason, she quite liked that, it made her feel safe.
Even though she still held fear from her master, since this mister said her master didn''t come, then she would of course not willingly go back, being treated like this was like a dream for her and she didn''t want to let it go, she would enjoy it as much as she can until her master comes, if he is still alive that is.
Arthur didn''t pat her head for too long as he didn''t want to scare her.
As for Lucy, she sat up next to the little girl and said
"Little girl, what''s your name?"
Saly was startled when she heard a different voice, one of her ears was not functioning so she couldn''t hear Lucy until she spoke, though she kind of opened up a little and calmed down when speaking with Arthur, she still held fear from strangers, so she backed away a bit from Lucy unconsciously but then she remembered she shouldn''t struggle or back away as it was her master''s orders, so she hesitantly sat up next to Lucy yet again.
"It''s alright, the woman next to you is my wife, she won''t treat you badly"
Saly slowly nodded her head and replied to Lucy who was sitting next to her
"M-My name is Saly, I''m sorry for my behavior...."
Lucy merely giggled then suddenly hugged Saly, who in return, was started but she didn''t struggle or anything of the sort, she was just surprised.
"Hehehe, my name is Lucy, and this man here is Arthur"
Lucy''s actions were rather bold, as she didn''t hate this kid, in fact, she liked her and her cute appearance, like Arthur she wanted to treat her injuries, it''s just that she is not good at expressing her emotions in public, but now, only Arthur was present so she would act normally.
She only let go of the little girl after a couple of seconds, the latter was still surprised but she didn''t fear Lucy as much as she did, maybe it was only a hug for others, but for Saly, it was something special, it was warm and gentle, she couldn''t feel that Lucy was evil like her master, she felt like Arthur, the man who carried her and helped her.
..
As she stood there, lost in thought, her stomach made some noise, it seems she was hungry, actually, she was starving, she didn''t eat for two days as her master kept beating her.
She was startled by the noise of her stomach, she panicked and said in a hurried tone
"N-no, this is not what you think....I''m not hungry..please don''t beat me"
Since she was small, she learned from her master that she has to never say she is hungry or else she would be beaten, of course, she thought it applied to all people and not just with her master, and for fear of a beating, she tried to lie and cover up saying she was not hungry.
She didn''t know that only her master would beat her when he heard her stomach, she thought even those two kind people would do the same if that happened, it''s just that she thought it was a normal thing, you can''t blame her as she was raised knowing that.
"Listen Saly...you must forget those things you learned from your master, we would never beat you, if you are hungry, just say so...." (Arthur)
As he said that, Arthur retrieved some food from his storage, the good thing about storage rings is that they keep the food fresh, and although he didn''t need to eat, he still enjoyed eating sometimes, so he kept food in his storage, he even had Yamak''s meat, which tasted extremely delicious when he ate it, he still had a lot of it so he took out some from his storage, it was already cooked, he also took some fruits for Saly.
Since she had a master like that, he guessed she didn''t eat much.
Soon, the smell of the cooked meat covered the room, it was such a delicious smell that even Saly couldn''t help but drool, she never ate something besides bread, and she only drank filthy water she found in the stables, it was disgusting, but she had to do that in order to live, sometimes she would get sick but her master didn''t mind and only beat her more.
In a flash, Arthur cut the meat into several small pieces and began feeding Saly who unconsciously opened her mouth, the flavor was just heavenly as it was the first time she ate something like this.
When she took the first bite, she thought it was enough but Arthur surprisingly told her to open her mouth again, so she obediently did that, she ate until she was full, while Arthur gave her the meat, Lucy fed her some delicious fruits when she finished the meat.
While she was enjoying that meat, she couldn''t help but feel overjoyed, she even suspected being in a dream as never did she think something like this would happen to her, if her eyes were okay, she would be crying right now, but for some bizarre reason, she can''t cry, maybe because of her blindness? or perhaps another reason? she didn''t know but she could only accept her fate.
Saly can indeed eat by herself, but Arthur preferred feeding her, he didn''t think it was troublesome, quite the opposite, he liked doing that.
Once the little girl was full and couldn''t eat anymore, Lucy and Arthur stopped feeding her, Saly ate a lot because she thought it was the last time she would have this chance so she enjoyed it to the fullest.
They didn''t do anything special after that, they just chatted, Arthur asked Saly about her past and various other things and the latter replied to him without hiding anything.
Saly left the bed and tried walking and it seems she was still staggering even though her body healed a lot, Arthur guessed that maybe it was a deformed bone, he could only sigh and feel depressed, if he had a good healing skill than her blindness along with the scars would be gone, she would become fine and maybe even enjoy life more.
A day peacefully passed like that and the three of them got a bit more closely.
Saly became more open, she didn''t feel fear or distrust against Lucy and Arthur, they both treated so well that she pinched her arm many times to confirm it was indeed reality.
She would silently sit on the bed and do nothing, Arthur asked her if she wanted to go outside but she refused as she still felt that her master was waiting for her outside.
Albeit feeling hungry after a couple of hours passed, she didn''t dare ask for food, so Arthur and Lucy only discovered when they heard her stomach yet again, they gave her meat and various things and fed her.
"Saly, next time, please tell us when you''re hungry okay? we will not get mad at you" (Lucy)
Lucy softly said that while gently patting the girl''s head, she doted on this kid and it pained her to see how much scars she had on her body.
Saly merely nodded without saying anything, she would always sit on the bed motionless without doing nothing.
Arthur and Lucy couldn''t force her to do anything, so Lucy would stay next to her and play little games with her to cheer her up.
In the first few days Saly only acted like that, however, as time slowly passed, her behavior gradually changed for the better, she would now ask for food and even engage in conversations with Lucy and Arthur.
.............
Chapter 42 : Banquet
It has been a few days since Arthur rescued Saly from Robert and brought her to his and Lucy''s room.
Saly no longer acted obedient and silent, after a lot of persistence from Lucy and Arthur, she became more open, she would ask for food when hungry and even play little games with Lucy, who surprisingly was good at dealing with children, especially with Saly.
No one came to disturb them, not even Robin, so the days passed peacefully without any disturbance or anything of the sort.
Although the ship''s speed was considered fast, it still needs more than a month to reach Itas continent, but it''s not like Arthur cared about that, he was more focused on finding a cure for the little girl.
every time he saw her walking in a staggering manner or saw her closed eyes, his heart couldn''t help but ache, to not be able to see for a child like this is considered cruel and unfair, he even heard from her that she was blind from birth, so she never saw anything, and that made him more depressed.
Furthermore, no matter how many books he managed to read, he didn''t find any solution for this issue, Zodiak''s books mentioned almost everything except healing and a few other things, which irritated Arthur, I mean, how could someone such as Zodiak, known as a mythical being didn''t leave any good healing spell or skill, that was strange.
He was perplexed about that matter, he didn''t focus on it too much right now, what he wanted to do at the moment is cure Saly.
She mentioned that she didn''t have family, or more precisely she doesn''t remember having one, furthermore, he liked this cute little girl, so he and Lucy wouldn''t mind, but he was still hesitating as to whether take her with them or not, after all, they would encounter a lot of dangers and maybe a life like that is not suited for her, so he didn''t know what to do.
He wanted to heal her and keep her with him, but at the same time, he wanted her to have a good and safe life, and that would be impossible if she remained by his and Lucy''s side.
...
Arthur possessed a lot of corpses since he became a parasite, he got their stats and skills, but he also got their experience in other things, be it cooking, tailoring or other things, they were not the best, but they were helpful.
For example, he would play the violin for Saly, since she couldn''t see, the only thing she does is hear, so he would always play some symphonies for her, she enjoyed it a lot and would ask him to play for her every now and then.
It''s a pity she can''t see so he can''t show her magic or teach her reading, but hopefully, her blindness won''t last long, at least that''s what Arthur wished.
....
After 2 weeks since the incident with Robert, a guard came to their room and after knocking the door a few times, he slipped a letter from under it,then he left in a hurry.
When Saly heard the knock, her body stiffened and she tugged Lucy''s sleeve who was next to her, keeping her company.
Though she changed and she no longer was afraid of everything, she couldn''t help but feel a little anxiousness when she heard the knocking sound.
Lucy giggled and softly said to the little girl who was tugging her sleeve.
"Hehe, there is nothing to fear Saly, we are with you..."
The little girl merely nodded but her hand didn''t let go of Lucy''s sleeve, she felt safe by doing that, and Lucy didn''t mind, in fact, she brought Saly closer to her as if reassuring her.
The letter flew towards Arthur and landed on his hands
His control of telekinesis never ceased to increase, and a simple action like this was nothing to him.
He didn''t waste time and opened the letter to read it.
''Hello Sir, I am the head of the E-clips Company, Robin, we''ve met already but I haven''t properly introduced myself, also, I apologize for my rude behavior. Tonight, we are holding a banquet and I would like to invite you and your comrade, feel free to come if you have the time.
Sincerely, Robin.''
Arthur couldn''t help but chuckle when he read this letter ''that woman can be respectful after all, then why the need to act haughty? I can''t help but think she''s a little spoiled..*sigh* "
After reading that letter, Arthur discussed its content with Lucy, to see if they should attend the banquet or not, after all, it''s not like they had a better thing to do, so why not go?
Lucy also didn''t oppose, since it was only a banquet then there is nothing to fear or worry about.
Though after firmly deciding, they wanted to ask Saly too, as they can''t let her stay here alone, firstly because they couldn''t bear to, secondly, they already recognized her as one of them and if she didn''t want to go then they too won''t, Lucy and Arthur already discussed the matter of Saly and they decided to keep her until they find a cure for her blindness and other injuries, then they''ll see.
"Saly, there is a banquet tonight, and we were thinking about going, what do you think?"(Arthur)
Once she heard that they were going, Saly became silent for a couple of seconds before speaking with an anxious and hesitant tone
"P-Please don''t l-leave me, I''ll stop bothering you about the s-songs, please!"
Saly totally misunderstood Arthur, as she didn''t know what a banquet means, she knew how to talk but she learned that alone and there is a lot of words she didn''t know, plus when she heard they were going to go, she thought they were leaving her and will never come back, so how could she not panic?
Seeing her panic, Arthur stretched both of his hand and carried her like a princess. Moreover, she loved being carried like that and she would always calm down once he did that.
She was small and light, so it didn''t bother Arthur, furthermore, he liked carrying her, her fluffy fur had a good sensation, especially her ears, they looked so adorable, it only made her look cuter.
They didn''t have clothes for kids so Saly only wore Lucy''s clothes which were bigger but at least it was way better than what she was previously wearing when she was with Robert, it was a mere piece of black cloth which was dirty and ripped.
"How could we leave such a cute little girl ha? we were only asking you if you wanted to go" (Arthur)
Arthur replied to hear in a teasing manner while pinching her little nose, his way of treating her was very gentle and he didn''t want to see this little girl said, maybe it was similar yet different from Lucy.
Saly''s POV
Ever since mister Arthur took me from my master, I felt like every day was like a dream.
I even tasted delicious food, I think it was meat?? anyway, he and aunty Lucy treat me really nice.
I firstly didn''t dare to cause them troubles, so I silently sat on the bed to not disturb them, but...but for some strange reason they get angry if I act like that, they always tell me to do whatever I want.
But I didn''t want to trouble them, even when my tummy hurts, I won''t tell them to give me their food, it was so delicious......it must be precious....but it was yummy.....
I-I..I managed to ask them for ''meat'', and they-they didn''t get angry! instead, they gave me more meat and other things which I couldn''t remember their names, it was so delicious, I ate until my tummy almost exploded ''poof'' waaah, I wonder why they would help someone like me.....
..
It''s been a few days, and Mister Arthur and aunty Lucy insisted that I only call them by their names without adding any honorific, but...but I can''t do that! they helped me so much, how could I speak disrespectfully to them...master said never to call someone by their names or else he would beat me....*hic*.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Waah, I like it when Mister Arthur carries me, it''s comfortable and warm, whenever he does that, I get very sleepy....so warm.........
I wish I could see them both, I wonder how they look like?........
I don''t even know how I look like............
.....
When Mister Arthur said that they were going to a ''banquet'', my heart almost stopped! I don''t know what''s a banquet but he said they were going.......did I do something bad for them to leave me? Maybe because I troubled Mister Arthur by telling him to play songs for me? I knew I shouldn''t act like that, I should have stayed silent and acted obediently.....
Or maybe is it b-because my master threatened them-m?? n-nno! it''s not possible, Mister Arthur said my master is gone, he would never lie to me.......
"P-Please don''t l-leave me, I''ll stop bothering you about the s-songs, please!"
I could only beg, I don''t want them to leave me *hicc* *hicc*, I don''t want to be alone again...
Mister Arthur held me in his arms again and it felt very pleasant....he reassured me and asked me if I wanted to go the banquet with them.........''feeew'' I thought they would leave me, I really can''t handle being alone after staying with them.....it''s like being in a dream..I could eat a lot and it''s very delicious, I never got beaten and Aunty Lucy would always play with me...was it too much to hope for things to stay like this?...Maybe I have been a bad girl...
I nodded my head so they would take me...and they didn''t refuse, they were very happy.
Mister Arthur put me on something comfortable, it was like the bed but it seemed to be floating...I think? since I can''t see I don''t really know but my feet were dangling and I couldn''t touch the ground.
We left the ''heaven'' I was in the last 2 weeks, it''s such a good place, I want to stay there forever..but without Aunty Lucy and Mister Arthur, that place is nothing....hehe, I''ll go with them everywhere if they don''t throw me...
In just a few minutes, I think we arrived in a place with a lot of people, I was from the dog kin race so my hearing was not bad..but I can only hear with one ear, Master tested his new sword on me and it hurt my left ear...it was so painful.....at least I can hear with my right one.
Saly agreed on going to the banquet, so after Arthur put her on the dark cloud since she can''t walk properly and it may be painful for her to walk, they left the room and proceeded towards the main room in the ship.
A couple of minutes were enough for them to arrive at their destination.
It was a luxurious room, tables and chairs of famous brands were scattered, nobles wearing expensive and elegant clothes were either chatting with each other or drinking some wine.
Arthur was stupefied by the ''banquet'', it was well-organized and it didn''t lack anything.
It didn''t take long for them to find a free table, Lucy sat on a chair and put the cute little Saly on her lap.
Though the nobles glanced towards their direction, none dared to come talk with them, after what happened previously, who would have the guts to talk to Arthur, they were terrified by him, however, there were some unique people who appeared nonchalant and resumed their matters after glancing at them for a split second.
Not all of them were present that day, they indeed heard what happened from their friends or rumors, but seeing is believing, right? since they didn''t see with their own eyes then they won''t feel what the witnesses felt.
Arthur didn''t come here just for a breath of fresh air and some ''fun'', he wanted to discuss with Robin and maybe ask her something, since she was the head of a famous trading company, she must have a lot of resources so why not ask her? though her answering will depend on her and her only. Arthur didn''t treat her kindly or respectfully so he had some doubts if she will respond to his questions or not, if she doesn''t then so be it, there was no need to make a fuss about it, he isn''t going to sweet-talk her for favors.
He spotted her almost instantly, she was wearing a golden dress, her curves were exposed and her body looked more erotic than ever, however, he didn''t focus too much on it.
He turned towards Lucy and nodded, the latter understood his meaning and smiled, he already told her he''s going to talk with Robin so there was no need for words between them.
He then patted Saly''s little head while saying
"I''ll be right back okay? Lucy will stay with you"
This time, Saly was more relaxed, with a ''Un!'' she nodded her head and brightly smiled, she didn''t feel as worried as she was earlier, she herself didn''t know the reason but she just believed in Arthur''s words.
Arthur didn''t waste time, he headed towards Robin, who was chatting with some nobles with Belic by her side.
She noticed Arthur coming her way, her body stiffened for a moment before calming down again, the smile never left her face, she ended her conversation with the nobles and turned towards the incoming Arthur.
"Sir Arthur, so you came...I hope this banquet didn''t disappoint you"
Robin naturally learned his name from Koez, she questioned him about Arthur and how he met him, but all she got were '' I don''t know'', that irritated her but she didn''t dare vent her anger on Arthur, she actually felt that was he did was right but excessive, it''s true Robert was heartless towards his slaves but that''s how all nobles act, if you kill everyone who acted like that then there will be no end to it, literally.
Albeit her anger, she took care of the slave of Robert, that young female beastman, she made her a free person and sent her to another ship, informing the captain to give her some gold and send her on her way once they arrived at their destination.
Arthur stopped in front of Robin and Belic, he smiled at them and replied
"Indeed, it''s a good banquet, I''m amazed, but I didn''t come here to enjoy it, I want to talk about some matters with you, I wonder if you can spare me some of your time?"
Honestly, Robin was startled by what she heard, nonetheless, she kept her smile and spoke yet again, however her mind was confused, ''Why is this bastard acting kind and respectful all of a sudden? multiple personalities? or maybe he''s insane? anyway, since he''s come here to talk then it''s alright...I think?''
"Of course, of course, Sir Arthur, please follow me"
She then led him to a nearby free table, and the three of them sat, Belic was silent from the very beginning but he was suspicious of Arthur, however, he didn''t act nor did he talk, if a fight broke out because of a reckless thing he did, then he can only wait for his death, a monster like Arthur is out of his league, even Lucy can pulverise him....
Once they sat down, Robin stared at Arthur with her two crystal eyes, if it was any other man, they would already be enchanted by those eyes, but unfortunately it was Arthur, he had Lucy, and even though this Robin was a beauty, he didn''t have any strange ideas about her.
"So, Sir Arthur, what would you like to talk about?"
Arthur leisurely crossed his arms, leaned his back on the chair and replied
"First of all, I will not apologize for what I did, that fat pig deserved what happened, so don''t expect an apology, I have come here today to ask you about something if you can do it, I assure you that you will receive of equivalent price"
Although Robin was irritated by what he said, she didn''t yell or burst out in anger like last time, she has already learned her lesson, she suppressed her angry emotions and decided to take a calmer route
"Ohh..I wonder what Sir Arthur would want from me~~"
She said that in a coquettish manner, however, that had no reaction whatsoever on Arthur, he just fixed his eyes on her and kept a solemn face.
"I will spare you the useless talk, do you know any method of healing blindness and other deep scars"
As she heard that, Robin glanced at the sitting Saly, she was sure he was talking about her, but what perplexed her is that why would he go to such lengths for her? he only met her 2 weeks ago, right?
Robin was startled by his demand, however, that didn''t stop her from smirking and replying
"What if I do?"
Arthur''s cold eyes changed for a split second before regaining their coldness yet again.
"I''m willing to pay for it, just name whatever price you want"
Robin was ecstatic right now, an opportunity to pay back what was done to her finally came, he wanted something from her, and she actually had a solution for what he asked but it was not easy to do it, so how could she just accept Arthur''s offer, he, who mocked her, and caused a mess in her ship.
"I''m sorry, but we cannot help yo.."
Before she could finish, Arthur interrupted her and said
"10 million gold coins!"
Robin seriously stared at him for a couple of seconds before softly laughing while replying
"Heheh~~, Sir Arthur, I''m sorry to disappoint you, but even if I accepted your request, 10 million gold coins would never be enough, to cure blindness requires a very strong healing spell or skill"
What she said what completely true, normally, only extremely rich nobles would afford to obtain strong healing spells for missing limbs or recovering from deafness, blindness, etcetera...
Arthur didn''t seem fazed by what she said, he unhesitantly spoke again
"100 million gold coins!"
This time, Robin was stunned, this amount of money is by no means little, even some nobles would not reach that amount, only royalties, and other special figures, so she began to ponder about his identity.
"I''m so..."
"1 billion!"
Yet again, he interrupted her, but the amount he said made her and Belic stand agape, mouth wide open.
1 Billion gold coins are such an astronomical price, even she wouldn''t dare joke about such an amount.
The E-clips Company had at most a few hundred billion, it''s a lot but that was obtained after a lot of generations, though Robin managed to earn a lot, a billion gold coins is still a freaking huge sum. It''s true the company''s money is in the hundred billion, but that didn''t mean she can use them however she wants.
Robin couldn''t reject like earlier, he heart was swayed by the amount for a second, but she soon snapped out of her fantasies about the huge sum and was about to reject yet again when all of the sudden, she heard Arthur speak again
"Just tell me how much you want, 100billion? 1000 billion? name a price, I can give you legendary weapons too.."
For him, such things as those treasure or gold coins, he had a lot of it, so much in fact that he could not use it in this lifetime or even the next one, especially the gold.
For the weapons, there were thousands of them but not all of them were good, however, even the worse weapon can amount to a few hundred million in the auction.
As he finished saying that, he retrieved a long red axe, it was the work of ''Juda'', since the Emperor recognized then Robin would surely recognize it too, he decided he would do anything to cure Saly, such useless items are really not worth for him, her regaining her sight and get rid of her scars was a better thing for Arthur, he couldn''t wish for more.
Seeing her staggered walking, no matter how many times, he would feel sad, her state was as miserable as one could be, she couldn''t even see! how can it be much worse than that? she''s only 5 years old! not 10 or 20, just 5! how can a kid like this handle all of that...even when Arthur suffered that tragic torture, he was already above 30, howevershe was but a small and fragile child.
Once Belic and Robin''s eyes landed on the red axe and that flame symbol, they couldn''t believe what they were seeing, Belic unconsciously snatched the axe from Arthur''s hands and began examining it, he was a mage expert and he lived long enough to see one of ''Juda''s works, so when he saw a similar one, how couldn''t he be astonished?
"This...this is real!"(Belic)
He didn''t need to test it, just by holding it for a few seconds, and sensing that strange mana fluctuation coming from the flame symbol affirmed his guesses.
He couldn''t help but turn his head to look at Arthur and ask
"You...just who are you?"
Chapter 43 : C12
"No one you should know of, I''m but a mere traveler, more importantly, what is your price?"
Belic was really stunned and confused right now, for someone to take out such a weapon is not a mere ''traveler'', the E-clips Company doesn''t even have a single legendary weapon like this one, even though he saw one in the past, that didn''t mean he had it
Although Robin is the head of the company, Belic, as her grandfather, can take decisions in her place if the situation is serious, after all, she is still young and she may do something reckless.
"Friend, please do not misunderstand, your offer is very good, in fact, we would very much like to accept it, but it''s that.........the method to cure the blindness is not easy....."
Belic stopped speaking for a second before he resumed explaining
"Curing blindness is not the same as regrowing a limb or healing a serious injury............we indeed have a method to heal that little girl, however, it requires the world tree...you see the elven chief owes us a favor, we can use the world tree''s extraordinary healing powers to heal her but such a big favor should be kept and we are not willing to use it on a stranger...please understand"
Belic didn''t want to anger Arthur, much less disappoint him but he really couldn''t use that favor for a stranger like Arthur, they barely knew each other and their relationship started badly, no matter how much money he proposes, it''s still not enough.
The world tree can do many things besides healing, like blessings, increase stats, etcetera...and to use it just to cure blindness is laughable and isn''t really worth it, however, it''s true that Belic was drawn by the weapon he was currently holding, but after a couple of seconds of pondering, he reluctantly gave it back to its owner.
Arthur was truly depressed right now, no matter how much he had, it was still not enough, but at least he got a clue, the world tree, he had already read about it when he was in Willsden town, it had immense power, it even fed the whole continent''s ground so it can survive and without it the land would crumble and most likely disappear.
He received the long axe from Belic and stored it, then he looked at the old man and asked
"Is there any other method? I''m willing to pay just for information"
He still didn''t give up, after all, getting the world tree to cure Saly might be hard, so having other options may be helpful.
This time, it was Robin who replied, though she was in a daze because of the long axe, she regained her senses moments earlier and her view of Arthur dramatically changed.
"There is an elexir...it''s called ''Rebirth Elixir", it''s very expensive but I''m sure you can buy it...the problem is....you cannot find it easily, usually it''s only available on the black market and there is a high demand for it, so you have to be lucky to find one...however, if you announce that you will trade that axe for an elixir, I''m sure there may be people who will be interested...."
She felt perplexed, firstly because of his identity, she only knew very few people that had a weapon like that, and all of them were terrifying figures, secondly, she pondered about why? why would he be willing to even let go of a legendary weapon such as this just to cure a slave he never met, assuming he just met her of course, but that appeared to be the case and there is no way he is acting, I mean, what would he gain from doing that.
Arthur nodded towards her and stood from his chair while saying
"Well, thank you for your help, I won''t be disturbing you any further, have a good night"
He could threaten her and Belic but he won''t, he was not that kind of man, he was desperate to cure Saly, but he won''t resort to such means, it''s not like Robin was a bad person, she may be hot-headed but she''s not cunning or evil.
Arthur didn''t linger there any longer, he headed towards the sitting Lucy and Saly and took a seat right next to them, he took Saly from Lucy''s lap and put her on his, he enjoyed patting her head and enjoying the feeling of her fluffy and cute ears, they were just adorable, it''s really a pity she can''t see or else he would teach her some fighting techniques, not a serious training but just enough so she could defend herself if they ever separated, he didn''t want her to be a slave ever again.
Nothing special happened, they passed the night eating the delicacies served there and relaxing there, other nobles chatted non-stop or danced, no one came to bother them, only a few glances here and there but nothing too serious.
They went back to their room late at night, Saly fell asleep in Arthur''s arms, she completely ignored her surroundings and soundlessly slept.
She held Arthur''s clothes tightly without letting go, it was a rather cute scene, Arthur and Lucy couldn''t help but laugh, seeing her do that.
...
He gently put her on the bed and covered her with blankets then sat next to Lucy on a nearby sofa, they both leaned on each other and stayed silent until some time passed.
"So...is there a way?"
Arthur gazed at her alluring eyes, there was a tinge of hope and warmth in them, she wanted to cure Saly as she already considered her more than a friend.
"There is, 2 actually, the first is impossible, it requires the world tree and the other is by an elixir"
He then explained what Robin told him without missing a single detail, he and Lucy could be considered one person and he didn''t and couldn''t hide anything from her, they would both consult each other when making a decision and would never decide alone selfishly.
"Are we going to buy the elixir then...?"(Lucy)
"I still don''t know, maybe there are other ways.......when we reach the Itas continent, we''ll try to seek the world tree''s help first, if it''s not willing then the elixir is the only option left.
Lucy only nodded at him then gave him a deep kiss.
....
Days passed slowly as the three of them would pass every day either having fun or sometimes going outside to breathe some fresh air, of course, no one had the guts to provoke or anger them.
One day, when Arthur and Lucy were leisurely sitting on a bench outside, Saly was between them humming and giggling, her behavior changed for the better and she became more cheerful as the days passed, she managed to barely forget about her master and his orders, and she now called Arthur and Lucy by their names without adding anything like ''Aunty'' or ''Mister''.
Although at first, she said it a few times after both of them insisted, as time passed, she had gotten used to calling them like that.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
It was like any other day, they were outside to enjoy the view, however, something unexpected happened.
The cool and calm weather changed and the blue sky turned black, it happened in a split second, Arthur and Lucy, who were enjoying their time, were both startled by this, however, that didn''t mean they were afraid, they were merely stunned.
It only took Arthur a second to understand what actually happened
"Teleportation.."
They were no longer in the vast sea, they were in some kind of an isolated place, there was no sky, just a wooden roof and some lights here and there to provide vision, the other ships were not teleported.
Saly who was humming, heard Arthur but she still didn''t understand
"Tel-teleportation?"
A term like this was confused as to why he would suddenly say that, she noticed the slight coldness but maybe it was some wind, she couldn''t see the surroundings so how could she not what just happened.
"Little girl, don''t worry, it''s nothing, just stick with Lucy okay?"
As he said that, he looked at Lucy, only to see her nodding at him, she understood what he meant immediately, though they had enough strength to be called gods or monsters. One never knows when something unexpected may happen so he wanted her to watch Saly.
He observed his surroundings and noticed that it was indeed a place similar to a port, there were some small boats here and there but they were either destroyed or unfunctional, there were also a lot of black-clothed people.
He immediately knew their origin as he saw people like them not long ago, that''s right, it was the two people from ''Medusa'' they were dressed the same as Bony and his comrade.
There were a lot of them and once he appraised them their LVLs were ranging from 50 to a whopping 200.
''They already found us? not that''s impossible....that''s right! I heard them talking about infiltration, so their target is not us?..''
Although they may not be targeting Lucy and Arthur, they were surely not kind enough to let them live right? after all, what would you expect from an evil organization?
The nobles who were also relaxing outside of the ship completely freaked out by the sudden turn of events, albeit their surprise, no one dared to curse or shout out loud, there were just too many black clothes people and anyone with a good thinking can understand that these people were not friendly.
It did not take long for Robin and Belic to come out from the ship with a panicked face, they already saw what happened to the outside and they immediately understood that they were either under attack or something unexpected occurred.
Once they saw the several black clothes figures, their bodies stiffened and their faces paled, especially Belic''s.
Just a simple glimpse of those people made him affirm his suspicions, though ''Medusa'' is a secretive organization, how could someone who holds much power like him not know about it? furthermore, this organization already made several attempts to attack them.
As Arthur was observing the situation and pondering on what to do, a voice came out from one of the black-clothed people, he had nothing special and resembled the others.
"Hahaha, Belic, we meet yet again....although this time you won''t be as lucky as last time...."
The person who talked suddenly flew from the air, and landed on the boat, he completely ignored the nobles and only stared at Belic.
"C12.....so it''s you....what do you want?"
Belic''s face turned ugly, it was not the first time he crossed paths with C12, he was a member of Medusa and had a high rank.
He didn''t know a lot about Medusa but what he knew was already sufficient for him to know that C12 is not someone to mess with.
In this organization, when someone is of high rank, their names will be changed as to not discover their identities, and there was a special naming to every person.
each letter is a category of people and the number indicated that person'' strength in that category, C12 is obviously in the C category and was ranked 12th, the higher the ranking the stronger the person.
it is said that people who have names with A in Medusa are extremely strong, as, for those with S, that was confidential.
C12 was already considered strong, though not as strong as someone like Belic. However there were a lot of people with him and Belic can''t face them all, even his guards can''t handle that much.
C12 took off his mask and smirked at Belic, he didn''t care if his face was shown as all witnesses will die anyway.
"You know damn well what we want, f*king geezer, you better give ''it'' to me or else I assure you, we would not give you an easy death, especially for your granddaughter"
C12 didn''t stop grinning as he stared lecherously at Robin''s body, sizing her up and down.
As for Belic, he didn''t know what to do right now, what C12 want cannot be given to him, however, he doesn''t want to send his guards to their death or fight until his last breath against those people, it was obvious he had no chance, C12''s LVL was indeed lower than his, but that didn''t mean he is weak or should be underestimated, quite the opposite, people with high ranking like him can use special magic that is rather troublesome so it would be wise to avoid a fight against him.
Belic unconsciously glanced at Arthur, if there is someone who can get him out of this mess, it would surely be him.
He never suspected Arthur to be from ''Medusa'', because if he was, then this ambush would be completely useless, he, more than anyone, knew how terrifying Arthur is, and he would be able to wipe out all his guards without the help of these people.
As his eyes landed on Arthur, Belic was surprised to see that he(Arthur) was still sitting on the bench leisurely with Lucy and Saly, he didn''t appear the least bit worried and observed the situation as if he was watching a show.
Arthur was still cautious of the enemies but so far, they didn''t seem that threatening, even that C12 or whatever was not impressing, with a LVL of 239, he sure was strong to other people but for him? pfft! he was mere trash.
However, for some odd reason, he felt a familiar presence from C12, he didn''t know but he felt some kind of connection.
He noticed the gaze of Belic but he pretended not doing so, he has no reason whatsoever to help them get out of this mess, only if those people attacked him will he kill them, but a thought struck his mind and made him decide to proceed in a different way.
There was a moment of silence before Belic, in the blink of an eye, he appeared next to C12, a metal gauntlet formed around his hand, he then punched C12 hazard.
Just by his punch, Arthur immediately concluded that he was a beginner in close-combat so he was confused as to why he would use that instead of attacking from afar, that seemed idiotic and reckless.
Just as the strike was going to land, a black barrier formed and completely blocked the incoming attack.
Arthur who had his eyes on the punch, was flabbergasted, that black barrier astonished him, for a second, he couldn''t believe what he was seeing, it was the same as his before his dark magic evolved, though it was a bit weak, it nonetheless was from dark magic, so how could he not be surprised?
A lot of thoughts raced through his mind, he was confused as to why this man can use dark magic, normally, only he could use it so how?
''did he discover the use of dark mana and dark magic by chance? no that''s impossible....but I could feel the dark magic from that barrier, I''m sure of it! I can''t be wrong!''
After C12 defended against the sudden attack of Belic, his hand transformed into a dark sword and without wasting time he slashed at Belic, who was centimeters away from him.
''What? his hand?''
Though he had perfect control in dark magic, Arthur can''t transform his body into dark magic, after all, it was still mana, but a different kind, no matter how proficient he was in using it he still can''t do something like that, it was not possible, literally, but he was someone doing it now, which confused him a lot.
Maybe his control is lacking? but C12 sword or barrier was beyond weak, they even weaker than Arthur''s when he just possessed Zodiak.
Unlike Belic, C12''s usage of his dark sword was of an expert, it seems he was good with a sword and even his movements were not useless.
Though it took a lot to explain this, it happened in just seconds, from the first attack of Belic to the slash of C12.
....
Belic was no fool and he fought in countless battles, his high LVL was proof of that, so when C12 slashed at him, a 3-meter metal shield was created in a second, he lifted it to defend against the slash.
Soon enough, the sword landed on the metal shield, Belic backed away a couple of steps, even with that metal shield he still can''t defend against that strange sword.
Even in the last fight between him and C12, it was the same, he was heavily injured, but fortunately, someone came to save him at the last second, or else he would surely have died at the enemy''s hands.
His shield was almost destroyed, even a simple slash from that weird sword was deadly, if not for his quick reaction he would have been injured if not killed.
Whenever he came too close to that weird magic of C12, he would have the chills and feel it''s ominous aura.
Last time he tried fighting from afar, but that was worse as C12 would bombard him with weird dark balls made from this magic, they were not that fast but he can make a lot of them so dodging becomes rather hard.
Now that the situation is dire and he can''t do anything to C12, he began to feel hopeless as even if goes all out in fighting C12, there is no way the other black clothed people would stand there and watch, furthermore, there surely is some powerful individuals amongst them so how can he fight against them?
........
Chapter 44 : Rinotsu
Being stuck in a dilemma, Belic couldn''t decide on what to do, he just backed away and only stopped when he was next to Robin.
There is no safe solution out of this mess, he turned his head to look at Arthur yet again, but this time, he didn''t remain silent, instead, he spoke in a somewhat loud tone.
"Sir Arthur, could you give us a hand? We will greatly reward you."
This time, Belic didn''t call Arthur ''Friend'' but respectfully called him ''Sir'', it was a small change but it was apparent that he was demanding help, however, he didn''t lower himself as to beg for it.
Arthur, who had his eyes glued on C12, came back to his senses when he heard Belic''s voice, he totally expected the old man to ask him for his help, after all, it was very clear that he and his guards alone are not enough to deal with those people.
"Oh~~ Well, you know what exactly I want, if you are willing to do that, then I don''t mind helping you"
Since an opportunity like this came, of course, Arthur would grasp it, for him, killing that weakling can be done in seconds.
C12, who was enjoying the moment of glory, he finally was going to finish his mission and may be handsomely rewarded, probably even rank up, however, hearing the old man ask for help from someone else alarmed him a little, because, the old man was really strong and for him to respectfully ask for him, it is unusual.
He glanced at Arthur, who was leisurely sitting on the bench with a silver-haired beauty and a kid, he frowned and stared cautiously at this man.
He wasn''t an idiot to underestimate anyone, everything should be done carefully, or else the consequences would be bad.
Hearing what Arthur said, Belic regained some hope, though what he demanded was a lot, if he didn''t escape from here today then forget about that favor he owes the elven chief, he would even lose the item C12 came to get.
He didn''t need Robin''s confirmation in such matter, he would accept and then when the time comes he would try to repay Arthur with another thing with an equal value if possible.
Belic gritted his teeth and replied with a somewhat hesitant voice
"F-fine, if we get out of here alive then we will give you what you want."
"Excellent excellent! hahaha"
Arthur began laughing, he was overjoyed when he heard that, with the help of the world tree, Saly would surely be healed so he felt quite happy.
He didn''t want to end this quickly, furthermore, he always wanted to test the bone dragon''s power and the skeletons, he never got to use them on enemies, so why not use them now?
He waved his hand and a huge dark pit appeared out of nowhere, it''s appearance startled everyone present.
C12 who was already cautious of Arthur, backed away when the pit appeared, he felt ominous aura from it and some danger.
Very soon, the familiar bone dragon flew from the huge dark pit, it looked as big as ever and its appearance couldn''t be more creepy and terrifying.
With a loud roar, it came out from the pit and flew above Arthur, the port was small, to begin with so it can''t fly too high, however, that didn''t mean the small place would trouble it a lot.
C12 gasped looking at the bone dragon, never did he think a dragon would come out, and a huge one at that, his confidence almost disappeared as he stared at this humongous beast.
"Ne-Necromancer....You! who are you? no one should know about necromancy magic!"
He started to have suspicions because there were some people in ''Medusa'' who are good with necromancy, he didn''t know all high rankers so he wasn''t sure of Arthur identity, however, he suspected him to be from the same organization as him.
Arthur merely grinned and replied
"So what if I can use it? More importantly, you should think how you are going to deal with my baby boy and his brothers....I swear you all from ''Medusa'' always cause trouble..."
Just as C12 was going to shout at Arthur yet again for answers, he was interrupted as several skeletons came from the dark pit.
There were skeletal warriors wearing black armors and holding a sword and a shield, skeleton archers and even skeleton mages which held either a book or a staff.
They never stopped coming out from the pit, and they didn''t just stand there, they charged at all the black-clothed people.
One would expect skeletons to be slow or weak, however, they were so fast that few of the enemies who were closer to the skeletons got instantly killed by the magic attack or sword slashes.
Arthur ordered his little army to only attack the enemies and spare no one, he wasn''t that merciful to let them go.
The bone dragon also engaged in the one-sided slaughter, it flew at C12 while ignoring the others.
Although some of the enemies were killed, there was some who reacted in time and defended against the swarm of skeleton, the powerful individuals even managed to finish some skeletons but the ranged ones which used magic and arrows were bothersome as they(the black-clothed people) couldn''t reach them because the skeleton warriors were blocking the way.
The dark pit never stopped summoning the skeletons, the mana it cost was nothing and Arthur could summon non-stop without losing any bit of mana, only the dragon cost a lot, however, a couple of minutes are enough for him to recover that 50.000 mana.
He was very impressed with the skeletons, though they can''t win in a one on one fight, with their large numbers, they could even overwhelm high leveled people, but there was also some enemies which dealt with the skeleton easily and were not injured.
The fight between the bone dragon and C12 has long since started, numerous dark balls would strike the dragon''s body, however, except a few scratches and some half destroyed bones, the damage was not great, but for C12 it was much worse.
He managed to defend against the ruthless strikes of the bone dragon as he was slightly faster but the bone dragon was able to hit him with its fast tail.
It was faster than the young earth dragon in every aspect, so an attack from its tail with its high strength stat would hurt a lot and of course, that''s what exactly happened to the poor C12.
He was sent flying by the tail, if it were not for his subordinates barely catching him then he would have been injured even more by the impact of the crash.
After coughing some mouthfuls of blood, he lifted his head and angrily gazed at the bone dragon, he was weak compared to the high rankers in ''Medusa'' but he was not THAT weak, to be this damaged by a single strike from the dragon indicated that this dragon is no ordinary bone dragon because he already saw a bone dragon previously and it was sure as hell that it was not this strong.
....
Belic still couldn''t understand what happened, he indeed knew Arthur can summon the bone dragon but he never thought he can endlessly summon skeletons, furthermore, they were strongly armed and attacked with coordination.
He knew a bit about necromancy but one thing for sure is that to control this many skeletons you need a lot of wisdom or else your mind can''t handle it, and to make them be this coordinated, one must have immense wisdom.
His view of Arthur already completely changed, he even started regretting accepting his offer, since the beginning he was not going to give him what he wants, he was going to offer him a compensation that would appease him, but seeing now he started of other ways, otherwise he would meet his end at Arthur''s hands.
However, his mind calmed a little when he thought about the old fogeys in his clan, he was considered weak compared to them so that''s why he was sent to guard his granddaughter, though they didn''t give him face, he didn''t mind but they would surely act if someone dared to kill him or Robin.
....
The large-scale battle already reached its peak intensity, there were hundreds who died at the skeleton''s hands, but a number of skeletons were far greater, however, their numbers never decreased by even a single one, they came out endlessly from that dark pit, so the dark-clothed people couldn''t help but feel hopeless, if this continued, their stamina would run out and they would surely die.
After being struck by the dragon''s tail, C12 started dodging the beast non-stop and focused on evasion more than attacking, he was more powerful than the others so he still got a lot more stamina to spare, the problem wasn''t that, but that this freaking bone dragon is troublesome to deal with so he was puzzled on what to do.
His control with his ''power'' is not yet good, it was given to him by a high ranked so he could use some of it, but it was not enough, so he switched to his wind magic, he already reached advanced in it so maybe it would be more effective against the dragon.
Wind magic is known to be the sharpest amongst all the other normal attributes so he had high hopes to cut the bone dragons into pieces.
A long time ago, he managed to find a very powerful wind magic skill, it was called [Rinotsu], a weird name but that didn''t depress him, when he read it''s effect, he was dumbfounded for some time.
By using this skill, he would trap a volume of air in a circular invisible barrier and compress it until it''s a fist''s size, once he releases the condensed air, it would create a huge explosion.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Normally, Wind magic uses the air to create slashes or cyclone or whatever is the attack, however, to be able to control air, that''s impossible to do, even for someone who perfected Wind magic, so when he had gotten his hands on this skill, he became overjoyed.
Although the skeletons and the bone dragon were very powerful, C12 didn''t think that Arthur is strong like them as a necromancer is usually weak, his way of attacking is by curses or his summonings, so in his mind, if he gets rid of the bone dragon, then killing Arthur would be a piece of cake, he was also sure that he can''t summon another dragon immediately or else he would already have done it.
...
C12 retreated one final time, the dragon came at him slashing with its claws but he managed to barely dodge it and back away from the huge beast.
Then he began channeling his mana to use [Rinotsu], it would take half a minute or so to finish the skill and he can''t be disturbed so he turned his head towards his subordinates, who were engaging in an intense battle against the skeletons.
"D18, D3! Come hold this f*cker for a second!"
Just as he said that the figures came out from that group of people and stood in front of C12, they didn''t have anything special, just like any other black-clothed people, however, Arthur could see that their LVLs were 173 and 189.
Arthur was really impressed by this ''Medusa'', he was not interested in it that much in the beginning, but once he saw that dark magic, he couldn''t help but feel intrigued, he already decided to ''thoroughly'' question C12 about that magic.
Moreover, for a secret organization to have this many high leveled people, it seems that the holy church and the others being the most powerful existences in this world is but a mere lie to cover up and to fool idiots, this C12 is already considered stronger than a bishop.
D18 and D3 rushed at the dragon wielding daggers, they also created small dark balls which were as big as a baby''s fist, truly pathetic.
This small balls may seem weak to Arthur, but to others it was deadly, he just compared them to his dark magic, so of course, he would think they are weak.
They only needed to hold out for a short period of time, however, that easier said than done.
When they charged at the dragon, in seconds they were already close to it, each activated their strongest skill and launched their small dark balls, however, none of their attacks injured or scratched the dragon, in fact, it only made it angrier, it''s tail pierced D3 at lightning speed, the poor guy could not even react in time before he fell on the ground, the tail made a large hole in his chest, it was a horrifying sight.
D18, who saw what just happened, froze there without even moving, he knew it was already his doom, in a flash, D3, someone stronger than him was instantly killed.
The tail then attacked the petrified D18horizontally, cutting him in two, his eyes were filled with disbelief and fear, he saw C12 fighting almost equally against the dragon so he thought he and D3 had a chance but they could not even hold a minute against this beast.
As it got rid of the two annoying ants, the bone dragon lifted its head and howled, then it headed towards C12 who was still condensing the air.
Even though D18 and D3 died, fortunately for C12, they managed to gain 20 seconds or so, it was enough for him to barely finish completing the skill, a bright orb was floating a couple of centimeters above his hand, it emitted strong pressure, and there was white light coming out of it.
Arthur, who was watching the whole process, was slightly astonished when he sensed the pressure from that orb, it may not even injure him, but it nevertheless was extremely strong, the pressure alone was enough to prove that.
Although he could interfere, he didn''t, he was still sitting on the bench enjoying the show, he wanted to know what can this orb do, even if the dragon dies, he could summon him in a few days, it''s not like he needed him.
C12, satisfied by the Orb, gently pushed toward the incoming dragon and backed away with his fastest speed, he was not afraid of the dragon, but that orb, it was his skill but it could hurt him too, normally a skill you make can never hurt you but this one did, maybe because his control over it was lacking but that didn''t matter, what really matters is that he needs to retreat far from it, cause he once used this attack and its destructive force is earth-shattering.
The speed of the orb was very slow, however, since the dragon was already coming in its way, ignoring the small little orb, it didn''t take long enough for it to touch the bones of the beast, and once it did.
A bright light emanated from it, all the surroundings had to forcefully close their eyes, and accompanying that bright light was a very loud screeching sound, yes, it was a screeching sound, as if a beast was howling.
A barrier was already formed in front of Arthur and the others so nothing happened to them, but all the skeletons and the black-clothed people were either sent flying away or cut into pieces.
The small port was full of the stench of blood, the blood dyed almost the entire ship, even the roof.
The skeleton was destroyed with only the ones far from the impact managed to barely stay unscathed.
There was no sign of the bone dragon, even part of the ship was gone, fortunately, the impact was on its edges or else it would have sunk long ago.
Arthur was momentarily stupefied, that orb could cause damage equal to his past ancient flame, it was truly a terrifying attack, even Yamak would be injured by this, perhaps not seriously injured by he will nevertheless be wounded, that was a fact.
Arthur was stunned and happy, since this enemy had this skill, then it naturally belonged to him, he could no longer wait to get his hands on it, even Lucy was slightly surprised but she didn''t say or do anything, she continued chatting with Saly to distract her a little from what''s happening, though it was barely working, it''s enough for the time being.
The little girl somehow grasped what''s happening, but she didn''t feel that much scared, Arthur and Lucy were with her and it was enough for her to feel safe, they managed to get rid of her master, who was like a god for her, so anyone else is a weakling for her, as her master was the considered the strongest, that''s just how she thought, she was a child after all and her way of thinking is still immature and limited.
....
They were only a few black clothed people still alive, most of them were ravaged by the explosion, no more skeletons came out of the pit, which had already disappeared.
The skeletons which were left continued attacking non-stop, they didn''t care about the explosion and only followed orders.
As for C12, he was feeling proud of his skill and happy, he saw how the bone dragon got obliterated, and that meant that the troublesome opponent is finally down, now only he has to do is finish Arthur.
He rushed at Arthur, his plans were perfectly proceeding, and it''s not a little bastard like this ''Arthur'' that will stop him.
A distance of a hundred meters or so was crossed in seconds by C12, he already changed his hand into an axe and prepared to behead Arthur, who was still sitting leisurely and staring at the incoming C12.
"Hmmm.........I think it''s time to finish this little play, don''t you think?"
Just as he heard Arthur''s voice, C12 body froze, it literally froze, he thought it was an illusion or something similar, but no! he was frozen in mid air.
No matter how much he struggled, he couldn''t free himself, even the dark axe could not cut what''s binding him, he already felt it was some kind of threads but he couldn''t see anything.
"We are going to have a long chat~~ you better answer me truthfully, or else...I assure you that you won''t be having a pleasant time"
Arthur finally stood up and slowly walked toward C12, who was still confused at what just happened.
"You...what did you do!"
C12 didn''t know what happened, a lot of thoughts raced through his mind and he couldn''t comprehend how he was frozen like this and what the actual f*ck did this bastard do, so he couldn''t help but shout at Arthur, as if shouting would help him....
"Nothing special...no need to think about this, more importantly, focus on honestly answering"
Even in a situation like this, C12 didn''t feel like obediently answering, he was a strong figure and he had a decent position in ''Medusa'' how can someone except his superiors talk to him like this?
"F*ck you! who''s going to answer you?"
He continued to curse Arthur and use vulgar words, however, Arthur just acted like he didn''t hear them, he turned his head towards the still living subordinates of C12 and was pondering on what to do with them, question them or kills them right now?
After a couple of seconds, he concluded that they are useless, and C12 was enough, even if he didn''t answer him, there''ll be someday when he personally goes to ''Medusa'' Headquarters if it existed and forcefully extract his answers from its people.
Streaks of lightning fell from above, the wood couldn''t withstand the lightning and soon crumbled, there was exactly 27 streaks of lightning, the same number as the still standing black-clothed people.
The speed of the lightning was just beyond them, the only thing they managed to see before their death was hearing the ''bzzzt'' sound of the incoming lightning.
Arthur controlled his lightning so it would only kill them and not turn them into ashes, his control over the lightning magic was obviously perfect so something like this can easily be done.
The streaks of lightning contained some natural lightning which literally tore theirs hears, they instantly died without being able to defend or react in time.
Belic, Robin, and the other nobles, who were standing a dozen of meters behind Lucy and Saly were dumbstruck by the sudden appearance of the lightning.
Belic brought them all behind Lucy because he knew it was the safest place, though they kind of sneaked behind Lucy and did not just ask for protection, which was rather shameless, Lucy didn''t mind and completely ignored them.
As for C12, who was cursing Arthur, he paused and stared at his subordinates with eyes full of disbelief, even someone such as him, couldn''t see the lightning in time, he only managed to get a glimpse of it when all of his subordinates already died.
His pupils constricted and he no longer cursed or shouted at Arthur, just by seeing the 27 or so figures die instantly, he knew that from the very beginning, it was within Arthur''s plans. He was easily bound like this and they died in a split second, he now understood this opponent is no mere necromancer, the lightning was the proof of it, however, he had something in case of emergencies, so he didn''t waste any time and began mumbling some incantations with a low voice.
Obviously, Arthur noticed the change in C12 and heard him chant, however, he didn''t stop him, it was not a teleportation since there was no crystal, maybe it was a strong spell? no matter what it is, he wanted to see what this person would do when he discovers that his trick is useless.
The chanting lasted 10 seconds before a violet pendant in his chest began vibrating.
It flew out of his chest and floated in front of his face, Arthur stared at this pendant and sensed that something was coming out of it.
C12 began laughing out loud
"HAHAHA, you are f*cking doomed now, you piece of sh*t!"
All of a sudden, the violet pendant shattered and a dark figure came out of it, it stood in front C12.
It was a silhouette of an old man, he had both of his arms behind his back and very soon, his figure became clear.
The old man wore a violet robe with some symbols and runes in it, he looked like he would die at any moment, a long beard stretched from his chin all the way to his chest.
He raised one of his hands and began stroking his long beard while the other free one was still on his back.
The old man didn''t say anything, he merely looked around to grasp the situation, once his eyes landed on Arthur, he furrowed his brows for a second.
Except gazing a little longer at Arthur, he didn''t do anything, when he finally finished looking around, he turned his head and saw C12 frozen a couple of meters above the air.
Seeing the old man look at him, C12 felt a cold chill round down to his spines, however, he didn''t dare be disrespectful.
"Lord A, I''m sorry to call you like this, but I encountered someone unexpected and I couldn''t handle him so I had to call you, please forgive this one"
C12 had a special pendant which can summon this old man, not all people had it, but it was given to him because he managed to finish a high difficulty mission so the higher-ups gifted him this.
He also knew that there is a handful of people in the category A, however, he when he spoke to the old man, he didn''t dare say his rank too, or else it would enrage him, so he just called him ''Lord A''.
The old man already understood the situation before C12 even talked, he also knew that the man in front of him was the person C12 was talking about.
Seeing that the old man remained silent, C12 continued to talk
"L-Lord A, this person is a necromancer...I barely managed to defeat his bone dragon..he also used lightning magic...."
He didn''t waste time and informed his superior about what Arthur was capable of.
When Lord A heard that, his gaze landed on Arthur yet again, his eyes turned serious and a smile formed on his aged face.
For someone to be able to use necromancy and lightning magic, he must be a powerful individual, plus C12 he fought a bone dragon...so that means this person can summon one? all of this piqued the interest of the old man.
"Indeed, you weren''t wrong by summoning this old man, how can this old man miss such an opportunity to meet someone such as this...."
When Arthur saw this old man, he couldn''t feel happier, he heard how C12 addressed him so he must certainly be a high-ranker in ''Medusa'' so maybe the answers he would receive would be more than he would get from C12, isn''t that something to celebrate for?
Arthur grinned at the old man who was staring at him, he lifted his hand and a dark blue sword was created, it was floating a few inches from his hand
"Old man, what do you think this is?.."
Chapter 45 : Heavenly Arrow
The calm eyes of the old man abruptly changed when they landed on the floating sword.
His control over the dark magic was better than C12 so he immediately sensed a familiar feeling from the sword, however, it was countless times stronger than his magic or any dark magic he has ever seen.
The cold and ominous feeling it emanated, how could he not know it was the same magic as his, yet at the same time different.
C12 saw the sword too but he didn''t feel anything special about it, perhaps because he didn''t get enough dark magic so he can''t sense the sword''s power, for him it was just a simple sword created from magic.
The old man stood there agape with wonder, his attainment in dark magic is considered one of the best in the A category, but even with that, he still couldn''t create such a sword, also, what''s up with that blue color? he never heard of the dark magic being like that?
He started having many suspicions and didn''t snap out of his daze until a minute has passed.
Arthur kept silent after he asked his question, just from the look of the old man he understood that he(Lord A) could feel that this sword is made from dark magic.
Lord A''s mind never ceased thinking about a lot of ideas as to who this person is, but seeing this sword, he could only come up with one thing, without hesitation, he bowed his head toward Arthur and said
"Forgive this old man, esteemed one, you must be Lord S, your existence is a taboo for us and none of this lowly ones know about your identities"
The only thing he could think of is that this person is someone from the S category, he never met anyone of them since he joined ''Medusa'', even his powers were given to him by a stone, he only knew that there was an S category, but their identities were completely unknown.
Hearing this, Arthur chuckled for a second before his demeanor turned serious and his killing intent engulfed all his surroundings, the temperature seemed to drop, C12 and the nobles couldn''t help but feel fear and their bodies began trembling.
"So you think I''m that Lord S? Truly pathetic! I asked you a question, so why are you not answering it!"
His tone was heavy and his words were like piercing knives to the old man, he didn''t dare to be disrespectful and even his calm behavior vanished, whether he is Lord S or not didn''t matter, he was just sure that this man was from ''Medusa'' and was someone above him in the rank, that''s for sure, or else, how could he create such a powerful sword?
"I-It''s a sword made from the dark magic..."
''So they even know the name of the magic?'' Arthur became more and more curious about this organization, for them to know Zodiak''s dark magic, they may have discovered it differently from him, but that was most likelynot the case, dark magic is not that simple to be easily found like this, even for him, if he didn''t possess Zodiak, he wouldn''t be able to use it.
"Indeed it is, now let''s get to the thing I want to know the most...WHY are you able to use it? you and that idiot behind you"
Lord A was afraid of Arthur that he was not an idiot, he lived long enough to know this from that, and by the way Arthur talked and his angry tone, he understood that he completely misunderstood his identity and believed him to be a person from the S category, however, if he was not from it then why is he able to create such a strong dark sword?
With that thought, confidence came back yet again to the old man, though Arthur may be stronger than him, he was not in his real form here, he was summoned by the pendant so he can only use half of his power, and even if he was killed here doesn''t mean he will truly die.
He wanted to test Arthur''s strength and see if he could deal with this troublesome person here, because a person like him who can manipulate dark magic to this extent is dangerous.
Lord A remained silent for a couple a second until several arrows from dark magic were created, he also created a spear and thrust at the nearby Arthur, the arrows also blazed through the air and rushed at Arthur with incredible speed.
However, for some reason, Arthur felt the intent of the old man, he could feel the arrows being created from the very beginning, he didn''t know why but he just felt it, same thing for the arrow, even with the sudden attack of the old man, he remained motionless and waited for the attacks to hit him.
Soon enough, the dark arrow and the spear thrust struck him, the spear''s tip hit him in his neck while the arrows in his abdomen and legs, it was very precise but unfortunately for the old man nothing happened.
As he was holding the spear, it seemed as if he was hitting an unmovable mountain, it reached his skin and couldn''t even scratch it.
The arrows disappeared when they hit Arthur, his clothes remained the same without any holes from the arrows.
Arthur grinned at the still shocked old man and said with a cold voice
"What? Is that all you got? such pitiful arrows and a slow strike, not only did you not answer, you also attacked me, heh, you must surely be ready to face the consequences right?"
Arthur didn''t care about the answers, these two fools didn''t seem they were going to answer, but that didn''t matter, he was not in a rush, sooner or later, he will find out.
With a quick teleportation, he appeared 20 meters from his previous location, the old man and C12 were dumbfounded and still couldn''t believe the attacks just now were utterly ineffective.
When the figure of Arthur disappeared and reappeared some distance away, they came back to their senses and stared with disbelief at Arthur.
Even the nobles and Belic had their mouths wide open, the sudden turn of events made them fear Arthur more and more, especially Belic, he seriously regretted making that deal with Arthur.
"......You....No matter who you are or how powerful you are, you cannot escape from ''us'', just because you got some little tricks doesn''t mean you can face ''us'' ."
Lord A thought things through and said that after calming himself down, although he said that, he didn''t believe it that much, it''s just that he never saw the powerhouses of ''Medusa'' so he can''t compare them to Arthur, plus he was using half of his power, but even with that he couldn''t damage Arthur so he concluded that even full power he at best would have scratched him.
"Hahaha, so now you''re acting arrogant, I just loathe double-faced people, anyways.....you said little tricks? then why don''t you see this and judge if it''s a little trick or not..."
Just as he said that Arthur channeled his dark man and the [Hell Arrow] was activated, previously, he needed half a minute or so to completely create it but now, it was almost instant.
The big ship began shaking and some parts were drawn to the huge arrow, the atmosphere changed, strong winds arrived and the sunny sky totally disappeared, the clouds covered the sky as if a strong storm was coming.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Even Arthur didn''t expect the arrow to cause this much change as last time he used it didn''t cause this much mess, even its size seemed to have gotten bigger.
What''s more surprising is that even without him doing it, the natural lightning descended from the sky, striking the arrow and combining itself with it, the lightning strikes never ceased and the sounds was just deafening.
An arrow formed by 3 attributes, just it''s appearance caused the old man''s face to pale, he seemed to have aged a lot and the spear he was holding in his hand had already fallen to the ground, he had no strength to hold it anymore, but that wasn''t the end.
Just as it hit the ground, the spear flew to the huge arrow, completely fusing with it, not only the spear, the chairs, tables, everything was being absorbed by the arrow, either strengthening it or turned into nothingness by it.
Green lightning enveloped a part of the arrow but the lightning never ceased to strike from above, in fact, it increased and it even began hitting the water and small boats, completely disintegrating them.
''ting''
[Hell Arrow] has transformed into [Heavenly Arrow] : the Natural lightning is now part of the arrow: Damage +300%
Cooldown : 1 Day
Cost: 10.000 mana
Congratulations! because you created a skill containing 3 skills you received +15.000 to allstats
The sudden appearance of the notifications shocked Arthur for a bit, but once he saw them, he felt satisfied, though he didn''t intentionally add the natural lightning, it was at least a good thing, the arrow already deals tons of damage, but with the bonus of 300% it will deal even more, plus the bonus to stats was not that bad.
"Wha.....What...is t-t...this"
Lord A could barely talk as he gaped at the arrow, anyone who saw this arrow felt it''s terrifying power and the overwhelming pressure.
Belic, who was standing not too far away obviously saw the arrow, and never in his life did he regret a decision as much as he did in this moment, just the mere sight of the arrow made feel immense fear, however, in a way, he was fortunate that it was not pointed at him, for the time being..
"Fuck! You''re a f-ffucking mm-monster!"
C12 was in a desperate situation. He felt that there is no way out, no one was going to save him from this, not even lord A, who he had high hopes for him(Lord A) to get him out of this bloody mess.
..
Lucy and Saly who were still sitting didn''t feel any pressure from the arrow, even the streaks of lightning didn''t touch them or strike near them, Arthur had absolute control on the lightning and the arrow so of course he would not cause them to feel uncomfortable.
"~Hmm~~ So, what do you think about this? Is it a little trick? please enlighten me"
Arthur spoke sarcastically to Lord A while looking at his petrified state.
Even though Arthur created the arrow and all, he wasn''t going to use it, or else the whole ship, or what was left of it would be eaten by the [Heavenly Arrow], not even this small port would survive such an arrow, he just wanted to scare the old man and show him what true power is.
"No matter where you have gotten that power from, remember that one day, I''ll come looking for answers and not you, or anyone else can stop me"
Arthur already knew he can''t kill the old man when he appraised him nothing appeared, so he was sure that he this old man was not really here, maybe it was a temporary summoning.
After he finished what he had to say, the arrow disappeared into thin air, followed by the dispersing clouds and the lightning.
Everything seemed to return to normal, the sun was as bright as ever and the sea calmed down, it''s as if nothing happened.
Arthur didn''t waste time anymore, with a simple slash he beheaded the old man, who was still silent and petrified after his head fell down, it immediately disappeared along with his body, as for C12, he was struck by one final green lightning which instantly killed him.
Since Arthur wanted to possess the corpses now and there were witnesses, he transformed into his lightning form and began possessing them, however, Belic and the nobles could only see an almost invisible streak of lightning rush from corpse to corpse.
Arthur would take a couple of seconds to possess several corpses, he had gotten used to the feeling and can now enter and leave a body way faster than before.
There were exactly 279 corpses, including C12''s, and it took him approximately 300 seconds to possess them all, no one moved or dared speak, they just watched the lightning disappear and reappear from a place to another.
Lucy knew what he was doing so she continued to chat with Saly, who also didn''t bother with what happened that much as she couldn''t see so obviously she wouldn''t be able to see the lightning or the arrow, Arthur even made sure she won''t feel a strong pressure.
''ting''
''ting''
......
You have gained a new skill(passive) : [advanced water magic]: you can now use water to attack or defend
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Rinotsu]: By compressing a volume of air to a small size then unleashing it, it would create a devastating explosion: power depends on owner''s wind magic attainment and his intelligence stats
Cooldown: 10 days
Cost: none
[Rinotsu] has been absorbed by [Orb of the fallen overgods] and changed to [Rizaki]
You cannot use [Rizaki] until you unlock [Space magic] and have over 1.000.000 intelligence / ???????
Just as Arthur was pondering about this [Rizaki] and [Space magic], another long notification came ''ting''
Another portion of Zodiak''s power has been unlocked: Your [void magic] and [Chaotic dark magic] have fused together into [Lost magic]
[Lost magic]: A very ancient magic used in the first era, you can now use it to attack or defend.
You have gained a new enigma ability : [Sixth Sense]: By using it you can locate any being within a radius of 100 meters
The range increases depending on your stats.
You have gained another portion of Zodiak''s stats, please check your status window for more details
WARNING! WARNIN...! WARNI....Ahh I managed to decode it...well emm, I don''t know who you are, but I''m sure you must be someone who managed to obtain [Lost magic] whether by yourself which is an almost impossible case or by using the things I left scattered in Astria...I can''t say a lot because this b*tch is trying to interfere but remember one thing! DO NOT GET DISCOVERED! They will come for you sooner or later..WARNi...find the...WARNING WARNING...
Initiating System Reboot...............System Reboot successful.
*********************
Sitting on thrones made of creepy skulls, ''X'' was leisurely humming and playing with a human skull, he appeared to be lost in thought but he was indeed in a good mood.
"It''s been more than a year right? I wonder what little Arthur is doing? hahaha~~ he must be a crawling baby right now, right? Hahaha I''d love to see that...why not give him a visit...maybe help him out a bit?"
Just as he said that, he disappeared from the big gloomy hall and all that was left was the fog that was encouraging him.
....
He appeared in front of an enormous planet, several times bigger than the earth, he gazed at it for a couple of seconds before he disappeared yet again.
His divine sense already covered the whole planet in search of Arthur, he already can recognize anyone by just sending them one time.
However, even after a first and second divine sense, he found...nothing! his humming halted and some dark fog emanated from his silhouette.
"What''s the meaning of this? How can''t I find him?"
''X'' started teleporting non-stop all over the planet, he appeared in front of every baby on this planet but he still couldn''t find what he was looking for.
"It''s impossible! Even if he was reincarnated to a beast, he should still be HERE! WHY! WHERE IS HE!"
His demeanor completely changed and he seemed to be a different person.
He came back to his castle and sat on his throne, however, he was still angry and confused.
"Belos..."
Just as he called that name, a figure with two big wings and a horn coming stretching out from his forehead appeared, he was kneeling on one knee and his head was dropped down, not daring to look at ''X'', just from the tone of his master, he understood he was furious.
"Immediately search every planet in Zutis! do you hear me? Every planet, search for him, you need to find him! FIND HIM"
Belos already knew who his master was talking about, with a final bow he vanished from the hall, he knew his master was very angry and he could be ''accidentally'' killed by his hot-temper.
As for ''X'', he crushed that skull he was playing with it earlier and roared, just by that roar, the whole castle shook and the dark fog emanating from him increased even more.
''I don''t know how you managed to escape....but I''ll find you...my precious little toy...you are my subject after all....hahaha~~~"
Chapter 46 : Astrith
The Beastly Lightning is now available!
The Demonic Lightning is now available!
The blessing of Katrina, The Overgod of Knowledge is now available : She was the sole being who was known for her extreme thirst for knowledge, known to have created the largest library the multiverse has ever seen, she even managed to decipher symbols from the Void Era, furthermore, she was one of the founders of ''The Council of Creators''.......CANNOT GAIN THE BLESSING UNTIL YOU BREAK THE SEALS.
SEAL 1 : LVL 750 : Gain the skill [Life State]
SEAL 2 : UNLOCK Knowledge stat : Gain the skill [Saint Hands]
SEAL 3 : ACHIEVE ??? Intelligence : Obtain the key to the 9 Earths and 8 Moons.
SEAL 4 : Use The Book of the Damned....ACHIEVED...........Miscalculation...UNACHIEVED...: You cannot summon ''Radolf''
SEAL 5 : Use The Book of Eternity: You cannot summon ''Midolf''
Just as this row of notifications came, Arthur became flabbergasted, first the weird message, then the new skills and last but not least, the blessing of Katrina, He really didn''t know how to react, too many things appeared so he couldn''t choose what to focus on.
After a couple of seconds, he decided to think about all of that once everything calmed down, he still didn''t check his status window but 279 corpses ranging from LVL 50 to 200 must have a lot of stats, that explains why unlocked a lot of things.
He didn''t forget to store all of the corpses to his storage so he can use [Death touch] on them when he''s alone with Lucy, after all, he can''t use it in front of the nobles and Belic, the process takes time, it''s way longer than possessing bodies.
After he breathed some fresh air to calm his mind, he opened his stats to see the changes, however, even without that, he could feel that he became much much stronger, the stats he got are seriously no joke, I guess this ambush can be called a fortune to him rather than a misfortune.
He was not so heartless as to invade a city and slaughter all citizens for stats but if there was an army of evil and ruthless people out there, then he wouldn''t mind cleaning them up and gaining their stats, it would truly be fantastic.
TITLE: MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD
Level:
431
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
0
Intelligence
0
Agility
0
Wisdom
0
Vitality
0
Dexterity
0
-
Health
0
Health Regen
0
Mana
0
Mana Regen
0
Stamina
0
Stamina Regen
0
-
Attack:
0
Defense:
0
Magic defense :0
Elemental Resistances
Enigma abilities: Telekinesis / Ancient Threads
Fire:
0
Water:
0
Wind:
0
Earth:
0
Light/holy:
0
Darkness:
0
Lightning
0
Ice
0
Shadow
0
''WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!''As he saw his stats, Arthur couldn''t help but stagger a few steps, he even rubbed his eyes multiple times to check if he was dreaming or not.
However, after a minute passed, the stats didn''t change but a notification popped up
SYSTEM ERROR! Can''t calculate stats....SYSTEM MALFUNCTION...........RE-INSTALLING SYSTEM CALCULATION SYSTEM.........
''....'' Artur seriously didn''t know what to do, since the message from Zodiak came, the system seemed to be malfunctioning, he didn''t know why but it''s not like it mattered because even though it indicated 0 in all stats, he didn''t feel weak, he even felt like his power doubled, or even tripled, same goes for the sitting Lucy, power surged through her muscles and she felt the change in her stats.
Arthur checking his status the last time but to no avail, he walked toward Lucy and Saly, they didn''t know where they were but it didn''t seem they were still where they previously were, the port was completely destroyed and you can now see the surroundings.
There was nothing but sea in the West, however, when you look East, there was a forest, a big one at that, full of trees, you could see greenery as far as the eye can see, even Arthur could only see trees with his good eyesight.
Just when Arthur was a few steps from Lucy, he noticed her shocked face, she even imitated and rubbed her eyes, he could only guess that she must''ve seen her stats and they were ''0'' too, at first it was confusing why it''s happening to her too, however, after some thorough thought, it''s to be expected since they are soul linked.
He wanted to ask her about the system error or the other things but he pushed that for later.
Although she was shocked when Lucy lifted her head and saw Arthur slowly nodding at her, she immediately understood that she was not the only one, so she shrugged that off and kept gently brushing Saly''s brown hair.
Belic and the others, who were still dumbstruck, were awakened when they heard Arthur voice
"You should know where we are better than me, so enlighten me..."
Even though he wanted to know where they were, it was almost obvious they were at Itas continent, but he wanted to confirm that, furthermore, he was only staying with Belic and Robin just for the deal to heal Saly, or else he would have gone with Saly and Lucy already.
Belic snapped out of his daze and looked around, however, his eyes were still full of disbelief and he didn''t dare approach, Arthur.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Once his eyes landed on the enormous forest that stretched on all the land, he sighed then replied
"It seems were are in Itas continent, I don''t know the exact location but I''m sure we are there, these special trees are only located in Itas continent"
He paused for a second before resuming his talk
"We''ve got no choice but to travel near the sea and not venture into the forest, there is a lot of dangerous places in there, plus, our destination is the little town called ''Lopel'' it''s just like ''Lumbra city'', once we reach it, we''ll wait for the other ships to arrive.
Though he said they were in Itas continent, Arthur didn''t want to waste time in search for Lopel Town, so he turned his head to look at Belic and calmly said
"No need to waste time searching, wait for me, I''ll find it then come back, I''m faster after all"
As he said that, he nodded at Lucy one final time before he disappeared from the ship.
He transformed into his lightning form and headed South at his fastest speed, he just chose South hazard, maybe it was the wrong way but with his speed, he should be able to go back easily.
He was totally dumbfounded by his speed, it really seemed to have doubled, he could see the environment surrounding him blur when he ran, he was even able to run in the air, I know, it seems impossible but he somehow managed to do it, gravity didn''t affect him anymore, maybe because of his speed or another factor?
He didn''t really know why but he just could do it, no need to make a fuss about it right?
Just like that, he headed South with speed that may be regarded as godly, you can''t see a streak of lightning if he passed near you, only strong winds would be left, that''s all.
Arthur really wanted to test his new [Lost magic] and two new lightnings types right now but it would waste time, in seconds he would cross a long distance, his speed already broke the laws of this world, he even thought that maybe in this world there is no match for him, if all dragons were like Yamak, then they would be instantly killed, as for that weapon ''judgment'' he was sure as hell that he could withstand a shot from it with no injuries.
''Ah...being the only strong person is sure lonely....''
After 20 minutes of flying through the air whilst running at the same time, he found a small town with a port, the first thing that came to his mind is that this town is indeed ''Lopel'', he didn''t stay there that much, there was a signboard near the port which indicated the name of the town and it was indeed ''Lopel Town'', Arthur didn''t linger there that much, he immediately returned where he came from.
.......
20 minutes later, he arrived at the half destroyed ship, the nobles went back to their rooms and only Robin, Belic was staying outside a couple of meters near Lucy and Saly.
Arthur appeared out of nowhere, just his sudden appearance scared the shit out of Robin, she even yelled and fell on her butt, she was chatting with her grandfather with what happened and what they should do when Arthur appeared from thin air just like a ghost.
Arthur ignored her and faced Belic while saying
"I found Lopel Town, with your speed, you could reach it in half a day more or less, as for the others, I don''t know"
Though he was startled by what just happened, Belic kept a calm demeanor and smile and nodded toward Arthur, however, deep inside him, he was cursing himself for being foolish ''Belic O''Belic, you really screwed yourself right now, this freak is going to use YOU as a punching bag once he discovers you lied to him......those damn geezers probably won''t be able to face him.....that freaking arrow...my hand is still shaking!''
Belic brought Robin inside their office and headed to the office to talk things through, only Arthur, Lucy, and Saly were left there.
Arthur sat next to them just like earlier and resumed talking with Saly to cheer her up, though he didn''t want to tell her he''s going to heal her because he was not a 100% sure about that.
To avoid being heard, he used the dark cloud and jumped on it along with them and went up high the sky, Saly couldn''t feel cold or pressure of course thanks to the barrier surrounding her, however, even though Arthur unconsciously created the barrier, this time, it was white, pure white, he saw a light barrier before but it was completely different from it.
He was startled by that, the strongest barrier he had was the dark magic one, so he used that but he quickly remembered that it evolved to [Lost Magic].
With a thought, he created a sword from [Lost Magic] and a white sword was formed, it was as white but it had some orange lines, they looked like veins, quite weird yet satisfying to look at.
Surprisingly, the sword didn''t emanate any ominous aura or anything of sort which astonished Arthur, he guessed the sword could be excluding a strong aura, however, this one looked like a normal sword apart from its appearance, albeit his confusion, he never looked down on it and was sure that this [Lost Magic] is better than the chaotic dark magic, it was the fusion of the void and dark magic, so it couldn''t be weak right?
Next thing he tried was the Demonic lightning, a black lightning spark appeared in his hand, it was nothing special but from the description it said that it can break curses and seals, which is good, however, he had the cape which made him invulnerable to the curses, but you never know, maybe there are things the cape can''t protect him from.
He used the beastly lightning next, as the notification said, this one cannot be used to attack but to summon a lightning beast.
Just as he concentrated and activated the beastly lightning, blue lightning streaks came from the sky non-stop, but there was literally no sound, just blue lightning striking in front of them, high up in the sky.
The blue lightning finally stopped striking, but only after a beast lightning was created, it looked like a huge wolf, probably 3 meters in length and 2 meters in height, with two red eyes and the rest of the body formed of blue lightning, it looked really ferocious and overbearing.
"This one greets master"
"!!!"
Both Arthur and Lucy were stunned by what they heard, normally, a beast shouldn''t be able to talk except a few unique monsters or mutated beasts, however, this one just talked after a few seconds of his birth.
Arthur naturally knew the beast was talking about him, who else did create him apart from him?
The beast was flying mid-air, his huge body was bigger than the dark cloud so he couldn''t fit it, but it''s not like it mattered as he was able to fly.
"Good good, so you are able to talk....and fly"
"Naturally, this one was created by you, this one''master"
The beast spoke with utmost respect which kind of bothered Arthur, so he waved his hand and replied
"Do not call me ''master'', my name is Arthur."
"This one can''t do that, you are this one''s master."
Arthur felt hopeless, he knew insisting would only lead to a headache so he decided to give up on this matter and ask another thing
"Alright, then what''s your name?"
The beast remained motionless and stared at Arthur whilst responding
"This one does not have a name..."
"..*Sigh* then your name shall be Astrith!"
The beast''s eyes seemed to flash for a second as it heard it''s new name, it inclined its front legs as if bowing to Arthur then respectfully replied
"This one thanks master for giving it a name"
Arthur merely nodded at the beast before he began thinking about something, he just wanted to test the blue lightning andhadthought a simple beast would be created, just like a skeleton.
"So, you can hide? or go back to the blue lightning and then wait for me summon you? how does it work."
He felt that it would be troublesome to have him with them all day, just his appearance would scare everyone.
Just as Astrith heard him, master, he dived into Arthur''s chest, then after a few seconds, he got out from his chest, the process only took 10 seconds at most.
"This one can enter master''s consciousness and wait for your call, this one can only leave your consciousness if master allow me, just now, master unconsciously or consciously let this one out."
Arthur comprehended everything when Astrith entered his consciousness, as he was going to come out, he felt like he could either block him there or allow him to come out, it seemed complex but it''s rather simple.
"I understand, for now just stay here until I re-summon you"
"This one obeys"
Arthur then descended to the ship along with the others. The nobles, Belic and Robin already readied themselves and were going to head to Lopel town, after all, they can''t just stay here.
When they saw Astrith, some of them couldn''t help but cry out, since it''s their first time seeing something like this, even Belic had his eyes wide open and stood there agape with wonder.
Arthur just waved his hand and casually said
"Do not mind him"
Since Astrith now had a name, he felt it would be degrading to call him a beast or ''it'', he was indeed a beast, but he just felt like not doing that, there were some humans who deserve to be called ''it'' or beasts more than him for what they have done..
"You go at your own pace, we''ll arrive before you but we''ll wait for you there, I accomplished my end of the deal, time to accomplish yours"
Just as Arthur said that he, Lucy and Saly jumped on Astrith''s huge back and they disappeared into a streak of blue lightning.
Since Astrith was considered Arthur''s subordinate, more or less, why not ride him? it would be convenient and he wanted to see this beasts''s speed and power too, plus Astrith didn''t mind so why not do it?
The Lightning didn''t hurt either Lucy or Saly as per Arthur''s orders, he didn''t need to create any barrier as he knew Astrith wouldn''t dare hurt them.
Just like that, they made their way toward Lopel Town...
Chapter 47 : Ace
As they headed toward Lopel town, Arthur was delighted to see the speed of Astrith, it wasn''t comparable to his or Lucy''s but it was decent, he guessed his agility to be around 150.000 more or less, furthermore, it was very comfortable riding Astrith, as his back was huge and it could fit the 3 of them.
Time passed quickly and after almost two hours, they finally arrived at their destination.
It was a small town with a port, it had several buildings but none of them looked special, they were ranging from 1 floor to 3 floor buildings made from wood, albeit the town is small, it was bustling, boats were coming from every direction and merchants were busy unloading their belongings to start selling, there were also people who immediately set off to the ''elven city'', which was also the only city in this continent, it was right next to the world tree and governed by elves.
For those merchants, selling their items in the elven city would be much more profitable than doing it here, so the majority of them would stay here a day or two to relax from the long journey then head to the centre of the continent, but fortunately for them, the trip would be devoid of dangers as the forest is peaceful except a few forbidden zones.
In this short trip, Arthur came to learn from Astrith that he can alter his appearance by a bit, that blue lightning would be changed to black fur, but his length or height cannot be changed, it was a pity but that would do, since he looked more like a big wolf than a lightning beast.
He didn''t mind keeping him around as in this world there were beast tamers, they are known to only live in the western continent but there were few scattered here and there so the bystanders would mistake him for a beast tamer, which was for the best, plus the appearance of Astrith may scare some arrogant nobles who may come to flirt with Lucy.
The main order Arthur gave to Astrith is to use all his strength to protect Lucy and Saly, especially the little girl since she can''t even walk properly.
Without questioning his master, Astrith obeyed and vowed to protect them, he already sensed that there was some connection between Lucy and Arthur when he was in Arthur''s consciousness but he didn''t know anything about Saly, however, he didn''t dare disobey his master so he decided to protect the little lass.
Speaking of Saly, when Astrith transformed into a black wolf, Saly began praising his fur and in just minutes she fell asleep on his back, she was a beastmen so she felt a connection between her and him even though in reality there was none.
Arthur and Lucy no longer sat on Astrith''s back when they entered the town, there was only the sleeping Saly still on his back, however, no matter how she moved, she cannot fall as his back was quite broad and he too, paid close attention to her so she won''t fall.
Since they were ambushed and directly teleported to their destination, Arthur guessed that the rest of the ships would probably come in a few weeks more or less.
They started roaming the small town, and their appearance grabbed too much attention, especially the huge Astrith, whenever they saw him, they would stand there, petrified, there were even some people who ran off when they saw him.
Not even 10 minutes passed when some guards holding long bows came to block Arthur''s way, they appeared to be elves, they looked more handsome than humans with long pointy ears and white skin, they didn''t wear metal or steel armors, instead, they wore green clothes which seemed to be made of leather, it would not provide protection but it''s easier to move when you wear them, there was also a symbol of a tree in the clothes which obviously was the world tree, I mean, what else could it be?
Arthur didn''t even let them talk before he waved his hand and said in an annoyed tone
"I''m a beast tamer, no need to be afraid of ''it'', now..can you let us pass?"
The 2 elves were startled for a second before they courteously bowed to Arthur and the others then resumed their duties, they were not as persistent as humans and had a pure heart, however, that didn''t mean that all elves were kind, there were some evil and cunning ones, but it was few, as this race is known to be the most peaceful, along with the fairy race.
It didn''t take them long to find an inn, it was the only one in this town so it''s pretty easy to locate, Astrith was unsummoned and Arthur carried the sleeping Saly in his arms.
Lucy quickly reserved a room for them and they soon headed to it, they had nothing to do in this small town so they were going to just wait until Belic and the others arrive then wait yet again for the other ships to come.
The room was as usual, very small, a wooden desk and a chair, and a bed which would fit 2 people, no decoration or anything of the sort, it was just a simple plain room.
Arthur retrieved the familiar big bed from his storage and place Saly on it as she was sleeping, then he retrieved a sofa and sat on it with Lucy, there was nothing to do now but chat or maybe read some books.
He began using [Lost Magic] to get a better grasp on it, and after a few tries, all the created weapons were white with the usual orange veins.
He wanted to try the sword on something, so he took out a good armor from his storage and slash at it with the sword, however, the outcome was completely unexpected, the sword couldn''t even scratch the armor, Arthur could only stare at the armor, dumbfounded as he didn''t expect this.
he tried a few more times but to no avail, no matter which weapon he created, it would deal zero damage to the armor, which was pretty strange, so Arthur tried another way of attacking.
He created a white ball just like a fireball and threw it at the armor but yet again nothing happened.
Arthur became more and more confused, if it''s a strong magic, then why is it not working? an armor like this would be easily pierced by an arrow from his previous dark magic so why is this [Lost Magic] not doing anything?
As he was pondering about this, a strange yet crazy idea struck him, he even wondered why he never thought about it, without wasting any time, a huge white ball was created and in just seconds it began to deform in a weird shape.
Just after half a minute, there was a sniper rifle floating above his hands, it was pure white but this time there was no orange veins in it, which was a bit strange but Arthur totally ignored that, he was eager to test this new weapon.
In fact, he tried creating the sniper using the other attributes but it didn''t work and when he used the [Lost Magic], the process was very smooth, with ancient flames for example, once he started imagining a sniper rifle or simple gun from his previous world, the fire would start forming it until it crumbles, even after a few tries it still didn''t work, only with this weird magic.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Just as the Sniper rifle was created, notification came......''ting''
You have gained a new stats : Creation : By using [Lost Magic] you created a powerful weapon which cannot be created at the current era
You have successfully created [Ace] : Sniper Rifle created by ''Arthur''
Bonus effect : There is 1% chance to cause a fatal-attack
You can shoot once every 3 seconds.
''Haa?'' Arthur didn''t imagine a notification to pop up as everytime he creates a weapon from an attribute nothing happens, but maybe [Lost magic] is not an attribute?
It''s kind of hard to know what it is exactly since there is no information about it but with this new discovery, he began to have some thoughts.
The white sniper rifle soon changed colour to a jet black colour, however, it had the same symbol as the cane Zodiak had besides its body, Sol''khin''s cane, to this very day, he still can''t see it''s stats, he would always try whenever he leveled up but the same notification would pop up non-stop.
The symbol in the rifle was exactly the same as the skull on the cane, even the colour was the same, when he held [Ace], he felt it was heavy, well not for him but for others it may be very heavy, it''s was approximately 100Kg, quite a lot for a weapon like this, even a bazooka would be at best 10kg.
..
''ting''
You have gained a new skill(passive) : [Basic gun mastery] : When using any type of gun or rifle, you will deal +10% damage and will gain +5% accuracy
He only held the gun yet he obtained the basic mastery, it was really funny, he didn''t even know if it was a characteristic of the parasite race or it''s from the blessing of ''X'', well, either way, it was a good thing for him.
However, he felt a bit dejected as he was not outside to test the weapon, he didn''t even know how much power it is, but that didn''t stop him from feeling overjoyed, if this [Lost magic] allows him to create anything then he would truly become a god...but reality was cruel, once he tried creating a simple gun, he couldn''t as a notifications kept coming again and again
Not enough mental power!
Not enough mental power!
Not enough mental power!
''Alright, fucking bitch! no need to repeat it three times!''Arthur heard the feminine voice of the notifications too much these days and got fed up with it, it really became as useless as trash, so he couldn''t help but mentally curse the system but something unexpected happened after he snapped at it.
Not enough mental power!
Not enough mental power!
....
It kept saying that for 20 minutes before stopping, Arthur almost burst out from anger and destroyed the whole inn, but he managed to subdue his anger, the system was clearly messing with him which annoyed him and astonished him, he thought it was a mere system with informing every person of stats or new things he did or gotten, however, never did he thinks it wouldretaliate and disturb him, the sound became louder too, as if it did it on purpose, fortunately, it stopped after some time or else he would have become crazy.
Once he thoroughly thought about it, he found it strange as he didn''t even know what''s mental power, there wasn''t anything of the sort in the status window so perhaps it''s related to his soul?
As a matter of fact, when he evolved into a humanoid parasite, the system told him that his soul became weak compared to his last form, so maybe that was the case?
Sadly, no one here could answer him so he could only keep those unanswered questions to himself.
..
Lucy gazed at the sniper rifle in Arthur''s hand in astonishment, she indeed saw his memories but not literally everything, just fragments and it was fast paced so she couldn''t focus on everything, so when she saw this strange weapon, it immediately interested her.
Arthur chuckled and passed her the heavy weapon, however, for someone like her, with immense strength, it was not that heavy for her but she could felt it''s weight, she stroked it a few time and held it in backwards, it was really a funny scene, since she didn''t know about it, she naturally don''t know how to use it.
"W-what''s this..."
Arthur took [Ace] from her and held it in his hands in a practiced manner then he put his left eye on the scope and said
"It''s a weapon from my previous world..it''s called a sniper rifle, apparently, the new magic I got lets me create things..I think?"
Lucy obviously saw the whole process of its creation so she understood what he''s talking about, plus he told her about the [Lost magic] and the 2 lightning types he unlocked, but seeing the sniper rifle now, she became interested in it, maybe she was the kind of person to love military weapons?
There were things even Arthur still didn''t grasp, like what about the bullets? must he create them or are they already in the weapon?
Since he didn''t try it, he didn''t know yet, but sooner or later, he would understand how this [Lost Magic] works.
Lucy try imitating Arthur and held the sniper rifle, but she found it uncomfortable and her interest soon vanished, however, Arthur laughed while saying
"Hahaha, don''t worry, there are other weapons I maybe can create, there surely some that may suit you, don''t feel dejected"
As he said that, he imprinted a deep kiss on her soft lips and didn''t let go until he enjoyed that sensation to his fullest.
But just as he was going to let go, Lucy''s tongue had already invaded his mouth and she sucked vigorously, as things turned out like this, he didn''t hold back and his hand snaked under her skirt and dived into her private part, as for his other hand, it began squeezing that round and soft chest.
Just like that, they ended up doing it a few times, however, they were careful as to not wake up the sleeping Saly, after all, it would be embarrassing if she woke up by Lucy''s passionate moans.
.....
A few hours have passed since then, Arthur wore some clothes and began using [Death touch] on all the corpses he stored, his LVL was too high so they didn''t give a lot but when he finished them all, he managed to become LVL489, again thanks to the blessing of ''X'' or else his LVL right now would be very low, maybe like Lucy or even lower.
Saly had woken up when Arthur was in the process of absorbing the corpses. she didn''t disturb him and obediently sat next to Lucy, chatting with her, the little girl became cheerful and very close to Lucy and Arthur, almost inseparable, Arthur even wanted to train her a bit, but it''s a shame she''s blind now so it was not possible yet.
..
The next morning, Belic managed to find Arthur''s room so he came to inform him that he finally arrived with the others, but he was still feeling fearful, even more now when he saw how long the distance they crossed and Arthur managed to cross it twice in less than a fucking hour, so how could he not feel afraid of his speed and strength after all he saw in that ambush from ''Medusa''.
ONE DAY EARLIER
Just when Lord A was killed by Arthur, in an underground room was a sitting old man, he was sitting in a meditative stance, however, all of a sudden, he was sent flying from an invisible force, he hit the nearby wall and fell on his knees.
He coughed blood a few time but you could notice his hands trembling as he was mumbling some things with a very low voice, almost non-existent
"T-that.....I-I must inform the others....M-MMoonster...I-I have t-to..."
He got up and left the small room in a hurry, though he was killed by Arthur, it only damaged him a little, the injuries will heal in a week, but what he saw would never leave his memories, just the mere sight of the arrow made him shiver, it was as if a god created it and not a mere human.
From the trembling, he fell a few times as he was heading to inform his superiors, the fear was still lingering in him and the sight of the arrow just couldn''t leave his mind, he was powerful, very powerful yet he never could create something like that, heck! he believed no one can do that, fortunately, he was not in his real form or else he would have been killed easily.
After 10 minutes or so, he arrived in front of the statue, it was a rock statue, the figure was a woman as you can see that by the two huge peaks in the chest area, and the somewhat curvy waist, he didn''t dare look at it as he kowtowed and said
"O-Our Lord...Please hear me....I..."
Just like that, he informed the statue which was motionless and devoid of life, he didn''t leave any details, even describing the features or Arthur without missing a thing, the statue would shine slightly every now and then, however except that, nothing happened......
chapter 48 : Loli
Belic came and informed Arthur that he, Robin and the rest of the nobles would be staying at the Inn to wait for the other ships, then they''ll head to the elven city as the Head Quarters of the E-clips company is near the city.
The days passed very quickly and all Arthur and the rest had done is stay at the inn room except going to take a few meals downstairs at the restaurant, they also went out shopping and bought some cute clothes for Saly as she was wearing Lucy''s clothes and they were bigger, so Lucy bought all the clothes she could find for Saly even though the little girl insisted that a single piece of cloth was enough.
As for the baths, usually, Arthur and Lucy would use big wooden tub, Arthur would fill it with water then use a bit of fire to make warm, he did the same for Saly but he didn''t join her and Lucy as he felt it may be uncomfortable for the little girl, but surprisingly, it was Saly herself who invited him to join.
It''s not like he had strange thoughts about the little girl but he just didn''t want to make her feel disgusted or anything of the sort, however, when she invited her, he couldn''t refuse so he joined the 2 girls in the big tub.
Lucy and Arthur didn''t do anything obscene, they just relaxed in the bath tub with Saly who seemed to really like it as it was the first time she used it.
In reality, it was not the first time she had a bath, when they were on the ship, Lucy and Saly would always have a bath together and it''s at that time when Saly wanted Arthur to come bath with her, she seemed so innocent when she said that, thank god Arthur wasn''t a person with an ulterior motive.
.....
In the blink of an eye, almost 3 weeks had passed since they arrived at Lopel, Arthur managed to sneak out from the town and test [Ace], however, he was greatly surprised when he saw the fire power of the weapon, it was insane.
But it''s very slow, 1 bullet every 3 seconds is considered slow to Arthur as every second can change the outcome of the battle, so he decided not to use it right now, perhaps against big targets such as dragon it may work, but against moving enemies it''s almost impossible.
He also created some guns but unexpectedly, they were plain and simple, they were exactly the same as the ones from his previous world and against magic, he guessed it would be totally useless, a simple earth barrier can block those bullets, but for some reason [Ace] was a bit special as it''s his power is considered decent, for example, a shot from it may injure a dragon such as Yamak, which can be considered reasonable.
Arthur tried to create things from his previous world but to no avail, he couldn''t create anything but weapons which frustrated him, after all, there were so many useful things, like the flash grenade which can help in battles.
After a lot of thought, he knew it was because of the insufficient mental power which he had no idea how to increase, so he could only give up and think of it when an opportunity arises.
In these 2 weeks or so, Belic never came to visit Arthur, neither did Robin, however, Arthur didn''t mind and knew they feared him a little, after all, who wouldn''t?
After what they witnessed, there is literally no one who would not feel afraid except if they saw something more dreading than that arrow.
..
The ships finally arrived, there were several less but that may be due to another Kraken attack or pirates, anything can happen in the sea, and it''s not like Arthur cared, he only needed Mary, that''s all.
Arthur, Lucy, Saly, and Astrith were in the port along with Belic and the others, the ships already came and the guards began unloading the items and such.
Saly was riding on the big black wolf''s back, even Belic was curious about this beast''s sudden appearance, however, he didn''t dare question Arthur, he just threw a couple of glances at Astrith now and then, as for Robin, she was unusually silent, too silent, as if she became a mute, maybe she became traumatized by what happened? Or her grandfather warned her to suppress her hot-temper?
Arthur glanced among the ships in search for Mary and in no time, he located her, she was as usual with the 7 little kids, first, she was looking around in worry but when her eyes landed on the familiar figures of Arthur and Lucy, she smiled and hurried toward them.
She nodded at Arthur then gave Lucy a bear hug, she failed to notice the big wolf at first as she was more focused on Lucy and Arthur but when she was so close to him, she couldn''t ignore him anymore, however, she didn''t think much about it right now andhurriedly spoke to Lucy
"W-what happened...your ship suddenly disappeared.."
Lucy giggled as she heard the anxious Mary and replied with a nonchalant tone
"Nothing much...we just took a shorter route, no need to be worried"
Belic who was close enough to hear that could only sigh and curse in his heard ''Nothing much? Shorter route? my fucking ass! we were ambushed by ''Medusa'' and you call that nothing...''
Of course, he kept all his thoughts to himself or else no one can tell what Arthur would do to him...
As Mary and Lucy were chatting about what happened, a commotion broke out not too far away from them.
"Where do you think you''re going? You are our slaves!"
A person was yelling at some slaves which were heading into the town, they were the slaves Arthur helped, furthermore, he said they were now free and no longer are slaves, the female beastman which was with Robert was also amongst them.
And unsurprisingly, the person who was shouting was that damn Koez, the very person who abandoned them, guess he is really that shameless after all.
One of the slaves, a muscular male beast clenched his fists and replied at Koez
"You already abandoned us when the Kraken attacked! You really are too thick-headed, even our benefactor said we are free, you were just not there to witness it"
Koez obviously knew about that, and whenever he thought about the actions he made, his would feel a shiver down to his spines, he abandoned Arthur, who could summon a bone dragon, he saw how monstrous that dragon was, so how could not feel afraid of Arthur, however, he saw the ship disappear and so even if he is alive and well, he was not here to save those slaves, so his arrogance and confidence came back to him.
"Benefactor? So what? By the law, you are OUR slaves, so if you try to run away we will either execute you or forcefully drag you here, guards!"
As he finished talking, several armed guards charged at the slaves with their weapons already unsheathed.
The faces of the slaves paled and some of them raised their fists to fight, they no longer wanted to be enslaved by nobles or rich people, they wanted to be free.
fortunately for them, Arthur saw the whole process and was infuriated by Koez, this man really crossed his boundaries.
In a split second, Arthur arrived between the charging guards and the slaves and mockingly said
"Oh?? I wonder what is intending on doing....raising your weapons like that...it''s like you are going for the instakill right...isn''t that quite heartless"
The sudden appearance of Arthur startled the soldiers and the slaves, however, one was relieved while the other was confused, even though the guards were wondering how Arthur suddenly appeared, they didn''t intend to pause and charged straight at him, even though he was a bystander, they were still going to attack him.
Firstly, Arthur was just going to stop these guards with his threads, however, when he saw their attitude and their aggressiveness, a few broken bones would help them realize not to mess with someone you don''t know, just like the guards in the emperor''s castle.
Even without using his lightning form Arthur still sees they moving in slow-motion, their speed was so pathetic to the extent that they were basically non-moving targets, in a split second he dashed at them and one by one he punched them at the same place, he didn''t exert too much strength, just enough to break a bone or two.
Then he just returned where he was before, as if nothing happened, as for the bystanders like Koez and Belic, all they saw was the guards being sent flying in several directions, when they fell on the ground, not even one of them could stand up, they were unconscious.
Arthur turned to look at Koez who was standing there agape, still not knowing what just happened, he was looking at Arthur as if he was facing a grim reaper.
"So Koez...you still want to capture those slaves?"
Koez stood there, neither talking nor moving, he was depressed by this turn of events, however, in the middle of his panicking hecoincidentally saw Belic, and at that moment, his hopes rose and his fear almost vanished, since he saw Belic, who is known to be very powerful then what''s the point of being afraid of Arthur.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
"I do, they are our company''s, whether I abandoned them or not doesn''t matter, furthermore, they are our belongings, whetherI abandon them or kill them, that''s my problem, you were just a guest on our ship"
Hearing this, Arthur frowned for a second before a bright evil smile was formed on his face, slowly, he began to walk toward Koez, since this double-faced bastard doesn''t understand what''s best for him then Arthur wouldn''t mind teaching him some manners, it''s not like Belic or anyone can stop him.
"Ohhhh? Is that so?...."
Koez, who was acting confident a second ago, began sweating when he saw Arthur coming to his direction, so he unconsciously glanced at Belic with a helpless look.
The old man saw what just happened and also saw Koez gaze, deep inside himself, he was struggling whether to interfere or not, after all, an individual like Arthur should not be messed with, however, Koez was his subordinate, he can''t just stand there and watch him get killed, injured or whatever Arthur was going to do.
"Sir Arthur, can''t you forgive my foolish subordinate.......It was indeed his fault and he will be properly punished, so have mercy.."
Belic mustered what was left of his tiny courage and spoke, it was the only thing he could say as he can''t forcefully stop him, it would literally be him going straight to his death.
Arthur stopped walking and changed his gaze to Belic, who was standing a dozen of meters away from him, the smile was still hanging face, however, it looked terrifying rather than charming.
"Well...since Sir Belic said so then I will stop."
He then turned to look at the petrified Koez and spoke yet again
"You should thank the old man for saving your life."
Arthur wasn''t going to kill him in reality, but he wanted to scare him a little more, plus, a sentence from Belic is notgoing to stop him from teaching this shameless man a lesson.
In the course of these 2 weeks, Arthur accomplished quite a few things, and one of them is lightning threads, or that''s how he named it, basically, while using his threads, he added the natural lightning to it, so it becomes more effective, it will be visible, but it''s not like anyone can stop it if they saw it, it''s speed is beyond them.
The lightning threads came out from Arthur''s hand and in a split second it enveloped Koez''s right arm, however, it didn''t tear it off or cut it, the lightning invaded the interior of Koez''s arm and broke its bones, as Arthur''s control with the natural lighting is flawless, something like this can be done even with his eyes closed.
As his left arm''s bones were broken, the pain abruptly came and Koez face paled, he began wailing and screaming which surprised Belic and the others.
"Consider this a small punishment, those slaves are all free the moment you abandoned them, say that again and believe me when I say this, not even the old man can save you..."
As he said that, Arthur nodded at the slaves, who in return bowed toward him, there were even some who personally came and thanked him.
Arthur wasn''t going to help them, they are now free and independent, he was not as merciful as to give them gold or food, they can take care of themselves.
..
Belic, who saw how Koez started holding his and screaming, was a bit angered but didn''t dare do anything, it was fortunate enough that he didn''t kill him, or else nothing would be left without any honor for someone with his status.
When Arthur finished speaking with the slaves, he walked next to Belic and softly said
"So, are we departing now?"
Belic snapped out of his daze and shook his head while replying
"We can''t, we will head out tomorrow morning, it''s better that way.."
Hearing this, Arthur merely nodded and left with Lucy and the others.
Mary reserved rooms for her and the kids and Arthur went back to his room along with Lucy and the little girl.
......
NEXT DAY
Time quickly passed and it was already early morning, Arthur was waiting for Belic, Robin and the rest of the people as it was going to be peaceful yet long trip, there were many guards and shipments to move so when they finally came, there were about fifty to sixty carriages full of goods, excluding the slaves of course.
There were a lot of people, hundreds, even if it was a strong beast, it would probably be cautious and not attack a big number of people like this, but fortunately, the forest was peaceful in this area and there should be no danger whatsoever.
Saly was playing with Astrith fur, Lucy was also on the beast, chatting with Saly, as for Arthur, he was on foot.
The trip soon began, however, their traveling speed was slow, too slow, they were literally walking as there were many people and it doesn''t make sense if they start running.
Just as Arthur was cursing this damn lucky he got, a notification suddenly popped up.
''ting''
...
New System installation complete! Reboot.............
System Loli is now functioning!
''Loli?'' Arthur was surprised by this sudden strange notifications, even the name was bizarre, what kind of system was named Loli?
He remembered that when the message of Zodiak came, not long after that, there was a notification telling him of the system installation, however, he didn''t pay it too much attention.
Since this ''installation'' was complete, then maybe his stats can be shown now? Arthur tried to open his status window right away to check if he was right or not
''Alright Loli or whatever, status window!''
Hmpf!
''...!''
''Status window''
''STATUS WINDOW''
No matter how much he tried, he couldn''t open it, it was worse than the last system, plus he could''ve sworn he heard a snort, and why was this window pink?
''Stop messing with me! this is worse than the last system, this is shit!''
Who are you calling ''Shitty little girl'', YOU ARE SHIT, YOUR WHOLE FAMILY IS SHIT!
''...''
Arthur was flabbergasted, he truly didn''t know how to react to this, it''s as if he was speaking to a little girl on the phone, furthermore, her screaming almost made him deaf.
''S-system reboot?''
He thought perhaps it''s a bug so maybe if he rebooted it if possible, then it would be fixed, because this is not a system anymore, it''s an annoying little girl.
Hehehe, you can''t reboot it, you meanie, only I can do it!
This sudden turn of events made Arthur confused, he began pondering on this matter and took some time to think through thoroughly because right now, he doesn''t know what the fuck is actually happening.
After taking some minutes to ponder, he called again
''So...you are the new system?''
Yes! Loli at your service
''My service? Better say you are here to annoy my ass..''
What did you say?!
''I said you are a good girl! Good girl!..''
''So, first, can you change the color back?''
.......But pink is my favorite color...
''Didn''t you say you are at my service? Yet you refuse to do this''
Ok...It''s done *hik* *hik*
''She''s crying over this? Why must they give me this brat...''
''Alright...stop crying....tell me what happened to the other system....''
It was deleted....it got decoded by some stranger so it was forcefully deleted and replaced by ME! I''m much more advanced than the last system
''I really doubt that..but let''s move on..why are you a little brat..and why can you see speak like this..unlike the other system''
I don''t know! I was created just now, I''m the AI of this system..that''s all I know..
''AI? well never mind that....show me my status window then..AND DON''T make it in pink colour..don''t you dare''
Hmpf! FINE!
Spoiler: Spoiler
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD /
Level:
489
Class:
Humanoid parasite
-
Strength
683751(+309517)
Intelligence
546311(+267053)
Agility
525129(+250134)
Wisdom
508135(+249631)
Vitality
441796(+203914)
Dexterity
448471(+196371)
-
Health
456296(+199824)
Health Regen
893.4/s
Mana
486438(+202371)
Mana Regen
1012.1/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation : 10
Attack:
500373(+238072)
Defense:
469368(+219368)
Magic defense : 24196
Elemental resistances
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense
Fire:
100%
Water:
60%(+17%)
Wind:
35%
Earth:
65%
Light/holy:
20%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%(+20%)
''You Fucking......!''
Chapter 49 : Elven City
As he saw his stats, Arthur was not really surprised, he sort of expected when he saw how his speed doubled, however, he still can''t get used to those big numbers, it''s really a blessing that he was reincarnated into a parasite, or else even with hard-work and amazing talent, there is just no way he would have achieved his current strength.
Arthur didn''t think too much of the stats and asked Loli a few more questions, but all he got was
I don''t know...
I''m not authorized to answer.
There is a good thing which is that she changed the color back, however, she didn''t answer even a single question which irritated him, she was no different than the last system, except being more annoying.
At least, unless he talks to her, she never engages in a conversation, and like that, he can be more at peace from that brat.
Arthur asked Lucy to open her status window, and surprisingly, it was a blue one and there was no sound of the girl, it was just a usual system, he was first confused because Lucy had the ''0'' stats like him, however, she didn''t get a new system, it was intriguing but he decided to give up thinking about that as it will only lead to more questions.
..
The journey proceeded slowly toward the elven city, even after 10 days have passed, nothing happened, they would rest at night and resume the trip early in the morning.
Saly would sometimes go play with the kids who were with Mary, as for Lucy and Arthur, they did nothing, Lucy would train when she''s bored, she is unlike Arthur, with a bit of training, she can raise her stats, however, he can''t, no matter how much he tried, he can''t raise them unless he creates a new skill which is extremely hard, or possess corpses.
It didn''t bother him that much, he would hop on Astrith and read books whenever he''s free, thanks to [Sixth sense] he could sense if there were any enemies, but except a few beasts which observed from far away, there was nothing worth paying attention to.
Arthur even sneaked out of the camp every night to search for a monster to kill, he wanted to gain more stats, even if it was a little, the trip was so boring and they were very slow, he was sure that if he went with Lucy and Saly, they would have already arrived at their destination.
Since it''s going to be too bothersome to stick with them and travel slowly, Arthur informed Belic that he would go ahead with Lucy and Saly.
He could bring Mary and the kids but he didn''t, they were going to go on Astrith and he can''t possibly fit all of them, even if he can, Arthur decided against it.
On the 11th day, Arthur and the other went ahead, and with Astrith speed, it would surely take them less time to arrive.
...
The trip on Astrith''s back was comfortable and relatively smooth, in just 15 hours, they already arrived.
However, what stunned Arthur and the rest is that they could see a humongous tree, even from hundreds of kilometers, it was still visible, it was so gigantic that can no longer be called a tree.
Once they were close enough, the sky was no longer bright from the sun, there were several branches which were like small mountains and leaves which are as big as a carriage, it was fascinating to see.
This tree was obviously the world tree, Arthur already read that its thickness is several kilometers, and it is nourishing the whole continent so it would not collapse, but seeing is believing, reading something on a book is not the same as seeing it with your eyes.
...
Furthermore, in the course of this short trip, Arthur discovered a few things about [Lost Magic], when he asked Loli why he can''t use the previous attributes, such as a void, and why did darkness disappear, she surprisingly answered him.
Apparently, they did not disappear, it''s just that they are no longer an attribute, but were transformed into their original form.
Lost Magic
? Creation : Mental power
? void magic : Mana
? Chaotic dark magic : Dark mana
? Eclipse magic {Void + Chaotic dark} :Dark Mana
??????????????????????????
?????????????????????????
..
Loli showed him this window and told him that [Lost Magic] has many functions, it''s just that he needs to discover them alone or else they won''t show up, and the reason he couldn''t use Void Magic or Chaotic Dark Magic is because he can''t right now.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Fortunately, her explanation was rather detailed so he kind of grasped the reason behind that, it''s actually because of him, more precisely, his strength, the two attributes are no longer normal magic, but evolved into a terrifying magic which cannot be used with his current power.
Loli even said that void especially, is one of the ancient magic and it is the more fearsome one, as there were universes completely made from the void.
As for dark, she didn''t know about it, it''s just that Zodiak somehow invented it, nothing more than that.
Arthur asked her to give him approximately how much his stats need to rise so he can use them again, however, she didn''t know either.
There was also the [Eclipse Magic], he heard from Loli that he can use it right now and it''s indeed a powerful magic, but his control over it will not be perfect as he was still too weak to completely grasp it, nevertheless, Arthur wanted to test it, and that''s what he did.
With but a thought, a gray sword was formed, it emitted the familiar pressure the chaotic dark magic did, plus the suffocating feeling the void magic exuded, it was no doubt a fusion of the two, plus it seemed very powerful.
Arthur then tried several other things with the new magic, such as spears, barriers, etcetera....
Everything seemed smooth, he didn''t know why Loli told him that his control won''t be perfect, but it was really easy to control it, it was exactly the same as dark magic if not slightly better.
He didn''t really lack any form of magic, but he always favored the dark magic, as it was the first magic he grasped and one of the powerful ones, and it still is.
[Eclipse Magic] and [Ancient Fire] are the most powerful magic Arthur currently have, there was also the lightning, but it was slightly weaker than them.
The normal lightning wasn''t that powerful, to begin with, however, the natural lightning can deal internal damage which is quite good, as, for the demonic lightning, it''s only for breaking curses and seals so it''s practically useless for him, at least for the time being.
As for the beastly lightning, he felt grateful to have it, Astrith seemed loyal and he was strong enough to defeat Yamak, so having such companion is not bad, plus he can be used as a mount and a fast one at that.
...
Going back to the trip, the Elven City can already be spotted from afar, there were gigantic trees scattered here and there, with Arthur''s good eyesight, he managed to see those trees even though they were still quite far from them, he saw a couple of elves on those trees, which appeared to be houses.
There were also towering buildings, like literally ranging from 10 to 20 floors, even in the capital of the human continent, he didn''t see such things, which surprisedhim a lot, the buildings were approximately a couple of kilometers away from the big trees but they were quite noticeable.
They finally arrived at the entrance of the city, Astrith had already descended from the sky to not attract too much attention, he also changed back to the fake form.
The entrance to the city was plain, there was not a big gate or high walls, instead, there was a small wooden gate and 2 elven guards patrolling, to be honest, it was more like a village than a city, it was very big, but it certainlydidn''t look like a city so why did they name it like that.
The elven guards didn''t stop Arthur, even when they saw the wolf, they didn''t seem surprised, they just stared at Astrith for a couple of seconds before resuming whatever they were doing.
As for Arthur and the others, they roamed the city, which was very different from what Arthur expected.
It was bustling with elves and other weird races he had never seen, it was bustling with people, merchants selling their merchandise and elves selling medicine or plants.
Unlike a human city, the elven city prohibitedslavery, no one has the right to bring slaves into the elven city or else they would be forcefully kicked out, it was the one and the only rule in this city.
As a matter of fact, the elven race held a bit of disgust toward humans, as these humans would enslave elves, demons and even their own kin, which was heartless.
After some roaming in the city, Arthur came to know that these tall buildings he saw earlier were not part of the city, they were the headquarters of the E-clips company, the elves allowed the company to build an HQ nearby as it provided them with a lot of things, however, some of the elves were a bit against this idea, but they couldn''t do anything about it.
As for the rulers of this elven city, it was obviously the elves, there were an elven chief and 4 elders under him, they took care of the political matters in this city.
Arthur didn''t know what he will do here, maybe he will reserve a room in the inn and wait for the others to come, but that would be boring, that''s all he did the past weeks.
He wanted to find a way to heal Saly, but the only solution is that Elixir or the world tree.
....
The 4 of them arrived at big square, it was like a park, little elven children were playing, while other elves were fighting amongst themselves to train, it was a peaceful place and there were no arrogant people who act high and mighty, Arthur''s view of elves never ceased to increase, they were really a peaceful race.
He also spotted some 15 inches or so flying humanoid figure, he already read about this race and it was the pixie race, they usually seclude themselves in a specific zone and don''t like intruders, however, there were some exceptions of course, like this one for example.
It was a red pixie, with small transparent wings, they fluttered with great speed as to keep the pixie flying. She was a female pixie and she emanated a red light, from afar, it''s as if a red lantern was flying by itself, quite a funny sight.
As he appraised her, Arthur came to see that her LVL was 62, which was very high, but maybe that race can LVL up faster? He still didn''t know everything about the races, so perhaps there are things he missed or didn''t know about.
Just as he was observing the flying pixie, he heard a commotion from not too far away.
"Hmpf! Who do you think you are? Just because our parents vowed to marry us to each other, that didn''t mean I''m going to accept a trash like you"
Once Arthur turned his head to look at the origin of the voice, his killing intent was unconsciously unleashed and his eyes were filled with rage.
Lucy who was beside him obviously saw that woman too, she stared at her with piercing eyes and coldly said
"It''s her...."
It was a female elf, who had one of her legs on a kneeling man, she was looking at him with a disgust and hate as if looking at some trash.
The woman was Veronica, that elf from the Council of the Nemia Academy, she was one of the 4 surviving members, plus she was the one Arthur hated the most.
She was always against him joining the council and was against him in every matter, so no matter if she''s involved or not, she''s surely going to die, as she led him to Yamak along with Mach and Marry, how could he forget that?
Arthur repressed his rage to not attract attention, then he walked away from the square, followed by Lucy, Astrith, and Saly.
He didn''t want to kill her right away, in front of all people, or else the elves would not help him in Saly''s matter, however, that did not mean he would spare her, quite the opposite, just the thought of killing her made his blood boil from excitement.
''It seems luck is on my side....I''m definitely going to enjoy killing you...that''s for sure..''
Chapter 50 : O Sweet Revenge [1]
Arthur didn''t linger in that square and headed off to the inn along with Saly and Lucy, after all, just seeing Veronica''s face made him angry, he barely managed to control his boiling rage or else he would have already ripped her head off.
She was very different from Mary, who even though she betrayed him, she apologized in the end, but this slutty elf had a disgusting attitude and was always against him, just by seeing her behavior towards that poor guy was enough to know she''s conceited and evil.
He even began to suspect her race, I mean, how the bloody hell can an elf act like that? He thought they were supposed to be peaceful and kind...or maybe she''s an exception? Or she''s pretending to be an elf..it''s certainly one of the two.
Soon enough, the three of them reached their room, which was pretty decent, it was actually in a big tree which surprisingly was the Inn.
From the outside, it may not look that good, but when Arthur entered it, he was fascinated, although it''s only made from wood, the interior was decorated with natural grown plants and flowers, with some furniture here and there.
It didn''t look like an inn but strangely it was, even the reception was different, a young female elf was at the reception desk, she spoke politely to all customers and smiled brightly at them.
Arthur could only sigh as he stared at that beauty, the elves really deserve to be known as one of the most beautiful races, however, his stare didn''t last long as Lucy pinched his waist.
In response to that, he could only smile wryly, he merely stared at the woman for a couple of seconds, but Lucy was already jealous, must be hard being a husband....but it''s not like he regretted marrying her, in fact, it was the happiest moment of his life.
..
The room they were staying in was large, way larger than the ones from the Human continent, the difference is just too big to compare them, even the decorations, the beds, etcetera.
It was literally on a whole other level, the treatment here was considerably better, even though Arthur looked human, no elf insulted him or treated him unkindly, however, if he was an elf in a city full of humans, they would surely either enslave him or treat him as a lower being, it''s just how humans are, Arthur had seen enough from them to know that the bad things they did outweigh the good things they did.
Saly soon fell asleep so Lucy put her on the comfortable bed, as for Arthur, he sat on a nearby chair and began thinking about how to handle Veronica.
There is just no way he will let her off, now that he knows she''s here, no one can save her, not even that elven chief.
It''s really too bad he can''t possess a living being, that would make things much easier, it''s not like he can''t kill her in a flash with anyone knowing, it''s just that possessing her than showing her what hell truly is seeming more fitting for a revenge.
This thought really troubled him since he evolved, I mean, isn''t he a parasite? From what he knew, parasites should be able to any possess any living being, heck! They can even possess plants, trees, anything, so why can''t he?
It''s truly a confusing thing, it''s not like he never tried possessing plants, however, when he did that, nothing happened which made things even more perplexing.
The only logical conclusion he could come up with is that his LVL is too low or he screwed up when he evolved into a humanoid parasite, just thinking about the Soul parasite made him drool, as it was able to gain double the stats of the possessed being, if he had chosen that evolution then he would be more powerful than he is now...It''s really too bad but having his own body is the best thing, he didn''t want to rot in someone''s body, perhaps having his own body and possessing other bodies may be good, but not having a body is a no-no for him.
While Lucy and Saly stayed at the room, Arthur headed out at night to check Veronica''s status in this city and her residence if possible, a simple fast kill would not subdue his thirst for revenge, oh no nono, he wanted to make things more interesting.
Of course, the elves didn''t know his intentions so they answered him honestly, which made things easier for him.
Apparently, this Veronica is the granddaughter of the first elder, one of the 4 elders who are under the elven chief, so it''s no wonder she''s acting high and mighty even here.
As for her house, she is currently staying at her grandfather''s house, which was a giant black tree at the northern part of the city, it was decorated with lanterns which made it look beautiful at night.
Arthur made his way to that tree with a few teleports, he may be very fast but with teleportations, he was assured there won''t be any noise to alarm any guards patrolling nearby.
In just seconds, he was already next to the black tree. Although it was just a tree, when Arthur touched it, he felt how sturdy it was, its defence can be considered decent, however, it was a pity as he can destroy with but a punch, but it''s not like he was going to do that, he only came here to check if she''s here or not.
The good thing about [Faster than Death] is that you can teleport through walls, it may be not as instant as teleporting to a nearby place, but it is doable, it just takes 20 or so seconds as Arthur needs to focus a bit so it can work.
Arthur just did that and appeared in that tree, he already activated simple skills he got from all the corpses he possessed such as [Sneak] or [invisible presence] which by the way were already maxed and can be effective in that kind of situations.
As a matter of fact, Arthur has hundreds if not more of skills, they were just not that useful to him except a few ones which can be used in situations similar to this, though he never used them, they were still there and can be used at any time.
The interior of the tree surprised Arthur a bit, how can I say it...it was a bit extravagant?
There were just too much furniture and decorations, golden paintings, vases, weird tables and even some naked statues, one would think it''s a house of a noble and not an elf, to be totally honest, the inn he was staying in looked way better even though it contained much fewer decorations, after all, sometimes simple things can be better than complex ones.
No one was in the room he just teleported to, however, Arthur could hear voices coming from upstairs, though it was a tree, inside, it was like a goddam mansion.
It really hard to believe he was currently inside a tree.
Arthur didn''t go upstairs, he could hear the voices rather clearly, as he heard the sounds for a couple of minutes, he came to guess they were dining together.
"Grandpa! Today, that trash Sebas came begging me for marriage again...he''s so annoying!"
"Ha ha ha, little lass, I remember when you were young, you used to like that boy"
"Hmpf! That was in the past, I never thought he would become a useless weak dogshit, I don''t want to marry him, dad, mom, why aren''t you stopping the marriage.."
"Veronica, you must understand that Sebas is the second elder''s grandson, and that geezer is going to help me in my plans, we can''t stop the marriage, however, no one can do anything if that boy were to die ''accidentally'' after marriage..."(the grandpa)
Then Arthur''s head began to ache as he heard the evil laughter of that bitch, though he heard that, it didn''t concern him, he just wanted to eavesdrop as maybe he will learn a thing or two, but I guess not...As these idiots were talking about some boring things, that Veronica girl was complaining non-stop about that Sebas boy, it''s like hearing a bad song on the radio over and over again, how can it be not annoying?
Arthur gave up on eavesdropping as it became needless now, just hearing more would make him rush out there and murder that woman, if it was the past him then she would be already dead.
However, just as he was going to teleport away, something interested came up and he paused, he heard something that caught his interest.
"Little lass, it should be time now to go to that auction right?"
"Um! Ever since that crazy day, my right hand cannot use any skills, it must be that weird magic those bastards used, hmph! If it were not a surprise attack then I would have killed them all!"
"Hahaha, no doubt about that! You should have enough money or treasures to obtain the ''Rebirth Elixir'', it''s a rare chance so don''t miss it"
"Yes, I know....I''ll go prepare myself"You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Then Veronica apparently left that room and headed to hers.
Arthur was still there, lost in thought, not only was he fortunate enough to meet her again, he also got a chance to get that Elixir, he never thought a chance would come.
It''s indeed true he was going to heal Saly with the world tree''s powers, however, Belic and the others may take some time, and since an opportunity arose, why not grasp it?
If he can get his hands on that Elixir, then the deal with Belic would no longer matter, the only reason he cared for that deal is that it will heal Saly, but if he can heal her using that Elixir then screw that deal! It''s not like he needed anything else apart from curing the little girl.
He had a loving and caring wife who loved him and enough money to live the rest of his life comfortably after he finishes the matter with the Ma Clan and the holy church, he wanted to continue traveling and maybe just maybe establish some kind of academy or something similar.
..
Arthur also guessed that the auction must certainly be an auction made by the people from the black market, so he was pondering on how to enter it.
He teleported out of the black tree but didn''t leave the area, he planned to follow Veronica so he can find where the auction is held.
Soon enough, that woman came out of the black tree, she was looking around as to see if there was anyone following her then she sneakily dashed between the buildings, she wore a mask which covered half of her face and some luxurious black clothes.
Someone like her, who was previously a council member of the Nemia Academy, surely doesn''t need any bodyguards, she had enough strength to be able to defend herself, however, even with her current strength, she still couldn''t sense Arthur, who was following closely behind her.
With some skills activated and his high stats, there is just no way she can sense him or hear him, that would be impossible.
After 30 minutes of running through alleys and circling around, she stopped at a particular alley, nothing was special about it except it was too dark, no normal person would be able to see.
She knocked on the wooden door 5 times, then a muscular man came out, he looked around suspiciously than he turned his head to look at the masked woman.
"Password?"
Without hesitating, Veronica instantly said
"O-Ohh those thighs..."
The muscular man nodded then stretched his hand as if expecting something from her.
Veronica passed him a magical bag which probably had some money in it, actually, even though she had a special status in here, the black market had nothing to do with it and anyone would have enough money can participate, in this auction, her background doesn''t matter, only money or treasures do.
..
''What the hell is wrong with that password?..''
Arthur, who saw what just happened, stood there stupefied for a second, they used a password, and a weird one at that, so how could he not feel surprised, he really thought that one needs an invitation or some kind of letter to enter and not just a password and money, anyway, it''s not like it mattered, in fact, if it''s like this then it''s for the best.
Arthur waited 10 minutes before he came in front of the wooden door and knocked 5 times.
He wore simple clothes, he already wore that metallic mask, with dark clothes from head to toe and Makaze unsheathed at his waist.
Just like earlier, the muscular man came out, he looked around to confirm there were no guards or anyone suspicious then he turned his gaze to Arthur.
"Password?"
"Ohh those thighs"
Arthur immediately responded, it''s a bizarre password but that didn''t matter, he was a bit worried about the magical bag, he didn''t know what he was supposed to put in it but he assumed it''s money so he took out a magical bag containing 1.000 gold coins and handed it to the muscular man before he could even stretch his hand.
He can forcefully enter and wreak havoc here, but there is a slim chance that they would flee with the Elixir or maybe it''s not even here yet, being careful would be better than acting recklessly.
The muscular man held the magical bag and injected some mana to inspect it.
Normally, those magical bags would contain minor money for the participation in the auction, it would range from 10 to 500 gold, so when he saw those 1000 gold coins, he was a bit startled, however, he soon regained his professional look and invited the black-clothed man in.
...
Arthur was brought to a relatively large room, there were no decorations, just a small stage, and some wooden chairs, there were already several masked people sitting on the chairs, while there were what appeared to be guards standing at the entrance of the room and at the edges of the room, they were monitoring the places, wary of ambushes as it happens a lot in those sort of occasions.
He was given a number by the muscular man then he took a seat next to a random person, he noticed that every person holds a number just like him.
By the way, his number was ''31'', he just sat there and waited for the auction to begin.
Arthur specifically took that seat because of it exactly behind Veronica, he already knew her clothes and mask so he discovered her the moment he entered the room and he purposely sat there.
She was happily chatting with some people as if they were friends, perhaps they were but that may not be the case if they are competing for the same item.
Half an hour passed since Arthur came and the room became crowdy, not all seats were taken but most of them were.
There was some chatter here and there, but nothing too big or noisy.
Finally, someone came on stage, it was a woman...in a bunny suit, no don''t get me wrong, it''s not that bunny costume for kids, but the one that is sexy, and alluring, the figure of the woman''s round butt swaying left and right as she moved attracted a lot of attention from the men.
She was a beauty in the true sense of the word, long dark hair accompanied with deep dark eyes which made her look even more enchanting.
Everyone held their breath as they saw this woman get on stage.
"Good evening everyone! I''m Bunnie and I hope you are ready for tonight''s auction, it will hold a lot of precious items! I''m sure you won''t be disappointed"
Just as she finished, some people from the front rows began whistlingand shouting her name as if they were her fans.
"You are as beautiful as ever Bunnie!"
It was actually a youth who didn''t have a mask on, he stared lecherously at Bunnie and he couldn''t take off his eyes of her.
"Mister Klaud, thank you for your words, well then let''s begin.."
Bunnie didn''t fully answer him as he would always come here and pester her so she got used to it, he had a somewhat powerful background so she didn''t want to offend him, she could only thank him for his praises.
Two other beauties walked on the stage, carrying a covered item, it was the same process as a usual auction except for the items in here are very precious and rare, of course, the cost would be sky high but all the present people have special backgrounds or are filthy rich with nothing better to do than collect precious items or wasting their money.
Bunnie uncovered the item and said
"The first item is...a dungeon core."
What was under the cloth was a jet black orb, it was quite big but apart from that, nothing was special about it.
All the guests were surprised, the only known item is the Rebirth Elixir, apart from that, all the auctioned items are unknown so when they saw the first item, most of them were a bit surprised.
"As you may know, a dungeon core is a very rare drop, and on top of that, this is a dungeon core for a medium dungeon!"
Bunnie breathed some fresh air then resumed with an excited voice
"A dungeon core would increasea random stat for the user, a basic core would give 1 to 100 as for medium it''s from 100 to 1000 and the high dungeon core it''s from 1000 to 10000, however, the latter is nearly extinct"
The participants were astonished but they didn''t raise their hands to bind haphazardly, one must be wise, first, they waited for the beginning price, because if they bid a high price from the beginning then they may be losing a bit.
Bunnie so the dumbfounded looks of the participants, a smile was formed on her mesmerizing face.
"Hehe~~ the beginning price is 100.000 gold coins"
For an item like this, it was a reasonable price as 100 stats are considered goods for normal people.
Arthur appraised some of them but they were all low leveled with only Veronica being the highest, compared to commoners they sure had decent LVLS but for him? It''s nothing, even if someone with a LVL of 500 showed up, Arthur would still feel calm as he can defeat Yamak who had a LVL over 600.
Soon enough, the bidding began and people began raising their hands non-stop.
"110.000!"
"125.000!"
"128.000"
Only after a minute or two did the bidding almost stopped, the price reached a whopping 243.000 gold coins which is a really high sum of money, but for people like them, it''s nothing.
Arthur wasn''t that interested in anything except the Elixir, however, the orb piqued his interest so why not try it? If he''s lucky then he will get a bonus of 1000 stats, maybe it was very little but it still strengthened him.
The youth, who was previously praising Bunnie, raised his number and calmly said
"Friends...why don''t you give me some face and let me have this?"
There were already few people who were still bidding for the orb, however, when they saw this youth talk and ask them to let him, they could only clench their teeth and accept his request, he had no weak background, just the fact that he doesn''t hide his face is proof that he fears no one, most of them cursed him but none dared to oppose him, there were also some who didn''t care and were just not interested in the orb.
One must not judge by appearance or LVL, there were hidden tigers and crawling dragons in here, they won''t show themselves until the item they were waiting for comes out.
As for Arthur, he couldn''t give a rat''s ass about the youth or others, it''s a competition of bidding, so what if he wanted the Orb? Everyone wanted, they just didn''t have the guts to compete for it once he talked.
The number ''31''was soon raised and was followed by a voice
"260.000"
The youth who was delighted and was going to bid the last price, was surprised, he turned his head to look at the man who just bid and glared at him with piercing eyes, however, that didn''t seem to affect the man as he was leisurely sitting on his chair, not even glancing at the youth.
"Hmpf! 270.000!"
Klaud snorted and bid then he stared at Arthur yet again, but he saw was the masked man raising his number and bidding again without a care in the world.
"280.000"
Klaud was truly enraged, but he restrained himself, smiled at Arthur and said
"Friend, I really need this orb...how about this, let me take this orb and I, Klaud, will owe you a favor"
To have someones like him with a powerful background owe you a favor is surely a good thing, but such a thing is useless for Arthur, he raised his number yet again and said
"300.000!"
The youth''s eyes flashed for a second before he turned around and just acted as if nothing happened, he didn''t come here for the orb but it''s interested him, however, this man didn''t give him any face and bid anyway, furthermore, he can''t spend more than 300.000 gold coins for an item like this.
After some time passed without anyone bidding, Bunnie softly said
"300.000 going once... twice... thrice.. congratulations to the number ''31''who won this item"
The items bought will be given at the end of the auction, unlike a normal auction, so just like that, the second item came and the third, etcetera...
All the items were sold at a high price, but most of the people came for that Elixir, except a few ones, so they eagerly waited for it.
After 40 minutes of bidding, the time has finally come and an Elixir was shown to the participants, it contained black liquid and was quite small, it looked ordinary apart from that liquid.
When Arthur saw it and hear Bunnie say that it''s the ''Rebirth Elixir'', he was truly flabbergasted
''What the fuck........HEY! Loli, answer me!! Isn''t that....''
Chapter 51 : O Sweet Revenge [2]
''.......Loli.. isn''t that the Minor Healing Elixir I have in my freaking storage?''
....Y-Yes...
''%&$#?@! Why didn''t you tell me from the very beginning?''
You didn''t ask..
''*Sigh* Then why is the name different...Those in my storage are called Minor Healing Elixir while this one is Rebirth Elixir, despite them looking exactly the same...''
Each operating system personally chooses the name of the item, usually, they all use the same but there are some....exceptions..your previous system had a lot of abnormalities..
Arthur really wanted to roar right now, for more than a month, he has been searching for the goddam cure for the little girl but the ironic thing is that he had it with him, and not just one or two but thousands of them, however, how could he know it''s the same, it was called ''MINOR'' while there was the miraculous potion, one would obviously use the better one rather the bad right?
Arthur repressed anger and breathed some fresh air then talked to Loli yet again
''THEN DO YOUR JOB! Change the names back to their original if there are some others like this...why are you so useless''
All he got in response was a cold snort for the annoying system, he really preferred the last one even though it was malfunctioning.
After pondering for a moment, he felt relief and joy, since he already had the cure, then there is no need to buy the one on stage, he was really excited about this matter, just imagining little Saly regaining her eyesight and walking properly made him unconsciously smile under his metal mask.
Albeit his excitement, he didn''t leave yet, there is still unfinished business here.
Just to be sure, Arthur checked the Minor Healing Elixir he had in his storage, and they were indeed exactly like the one on the stage, the most confusing thing is that he had Medium and Advanced Healing Elixirs, but he never used them, he only used the miraculous one, kind of dumb but he never bothered to test the others.
The healing Elixirs and Potions are a bit different, the latter''s effect is instantaneous. The Elixir''s effect is over time, it may take years just like it may take a few seconds, it''s just not as instant as potions which is exactly why Arthur didn''t pay the ones in his storage any heed, he deemed them useless compared to the Miraculous Healing Potions.
It seems even though the Loli system snorted and ignored Arthur, she still did her job and changed a lot of the names in his storage, but for some reason, she kept the names of the healing potions and Elixirs, maybe it was to annoy Arthur or some other odd reason? He was in no mood to argue with her so just ignored that and waited for the biding to begin.
Almost all present participants looked at the black Elixir with awe and greed, their eyes were burning from the desire to get it, for them, this could save a life or cure blindness, deafness and so on, so how could they not want it?
Bunnie smiled at the crowd, she obviously saw their dumbfounded state but stayed silent to let them observe the Elixir for a while then she softly spoke with her melodic voice
"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the most precious item our auction will sell tonight, due to its rarity, the beginning price would be 5 Million gold coins"
It was a huge sum, even for those present, this price was really high, however, it was reasonable, the Elixir is known for its extraordinary healing so they kind of expected a price like this.
Just as the cute Bunnie finished speaking, half of the participants started raising their numbers and shouting prices, in mere seconds the price already escalated to 25 million gold coins.
Arthur silently observed without caring that much, first, he was going to compete, but it was needless right now, he was only gazing at Veronica who was sitting in front of him.
She surprisingly didn''t raise her hand to bid, which confused him a little but he soon shrugged that off, her getting the Elixir or not wasn''t of his concern, he was just a bit curious as to why she didn''t bid.
The answer to his question soon came as many of the silent people who didn''t bid at first started bidding when the price reached a whopping 80 million gold coins.
No matter how much someone''s fortune is, not all of them can have this big amount of money, some were hoping the price wouldn''t increase beyond their budget but it was hopeless.
All the big figures started bidding, which included Klaud and Veronica.
5 minutes after the bid began, there were only 4 people left still bidding, it was 2 masked people, Veronica and Klaud.
The price already reached 156 million gold coins but it started to increase little by little unlike previously.
The 2 masked people soon withdrew and the only ones left are that annoying woman and Klaud, Arthur was quite delighted to see the struggle between the two, if he was participating, he would have bid 200 million to just let them feel despair and give up, ohh he really wanted to see the look on their faces if that happened.
"Miss, give me some face please, I really need this Elixir."
Klaud used the same trick again but he was sure it would not work, he already knew the identity of the woman as he had many spies inserted in several places, so how could he not know her? Albeit that, he still wanted to get the Elixir, his status was no lower than hers, so even if a fight broke out, he would not be losing.
It''s true he''s far weaker than her, but he had hidden powerful bodyguards outside just in case so he wasn''t that afraid of her or anyone else.
Veronica just snorted and ignored the youth, she raised her number and said
"I bid 170 million gold coins."
Unexpectedly, she raised the bid by a lot this time, contrary to earlier when she only added 1 million per bid, it was obvious she wanted to get her hands on the Elixir.
As for Klaud, he gritted his teeth and slowly raised his number while speaking in a somewhat angry tone
"I bid 180 million."
"200 million"
Veronica didn''t leave him the time to feel proud as she bid again increasing the price by a lot yet again.
Klaud''s face was already red from anger, he amassed a lot of money to get this Elixir, he suffered internal injuries last year and some of them didn''t heal because of a strange curse, only this Elixir can heal him so he wanted to get it no matter the cost.
He gave up on trying to save some money and bid all his money not caring about anything anymore.
"270 million gold coins!"
Veronica, who was ready to raise her number to bid, was stunned and sat there motionless for a couple of seconds before slowly putting her hand down, unfortunately for her, she didn''t have that much money to bid more than him, she could only suppress her anger and gaze maliciously at the youth who was grinning back at her as if showing off his victory.
Bunnie was also a bit astonished by the price, but she soon came back to her senses and waited a bit more to see if there were anyone who would bid but there was none so she said
"270 million gold coins going once.... twice.... thrice, the item ''Rebirth Elixir'' is sold to the Sir Klaud, congratulations!"
The youth nodded at the beautiful bunny girl then looked excitedly at the black Elixir, he couldn''t hide his excitement as he grinned to himself and seemed lost in thought.
The Rebirth Elixir was the last item, so everybody depressingly got up from their seats and left the room after bidding farewell to some of their friends.
..
Arthur was only focused on Veronica''s figure, she angrily left the room, one could see she was enraged and wasn''t happy with the outcome.
She didn''t think that this bastard Klaud would come and compete with her, if she knew that, she would''ve asked her grandfather for more money.
In fact, you can also bid treasures, but bidding money is better and more suitable, so it was very rare when someone bids a treasure or another item.
It''s been 5 minutes or so since Veronica left so Arthur decided it was time for him to leave as well, he left the room and exited the building, finding himself in the dark alley.
Even though she went ahead, with his speed, he can find her in a matter of seconds, furthermore, he already knew the route she took to come here.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
With but a thought, he disappeared from the dark alley and teleported a few times until he found Veronica in a small alley.
She took off her mask and angrily stomped her feet, just like a little girl, however, it didn''t seem cute, her face looked ugly as she showed her angry expressions.
Arthur smirked and thought that this small alley seemed like the right place.
With one final teleport, he appeared a couple of meters in front of the angry Veronica, who didn''t notice his presence until a dozen seconds passed.
Although she was startled by his appearance, she didn''t feel alert, moreover, she wanted to vent her anger on something and a target appeared, it was as if the heavens were blessing her after cursing her with some bad luck.
Arthur didn''t take off his mask, so when Veronica saw him, she didn''t recognize him, even when he spoke earlier, he already altered his voice a little, there was a lot of skills that allowed him to do so, it''s too bad there are none that change appearances, although he read about illusion magic which is good to trick people.
The atmosphere was awkward as neither talked, but that didn''t last long as Arthur slowly took off his mask while coldly saying
"We meet at last...Veronica"
Veronica, who was just going to shout at Arthur then attack him on the pretext of a dumb excuse, was petrified as she heard the voice and saw two blood red eyes shining, the alley was dark with only some light, and that only made his eyes more terrifying.
She only knew two people with similar eyes, seeing the face of Arthur, her body shuddered, she stood there motionless as if still not believing what he saw seeing.
"Ha ha ha, What''s up? Did the cat eat your tongue? You were talking just seconds ago...."
Arthur then slowly walked towards as his killing intent exploded, he was still evilly smirking at her.
"You don''t even know how much for the day I meet you..or any other who betrayed me..."
Veronica who was silent finally opened her trembling mouth as her eyes were wide open staring at him in disbelief
"H-How..."
"Hm? How? You mean how am I alive? None of that matters right now, don''t you think?"
Although, she was afraid of him as in the past he was already stronger than her, no matter how much she tried to deny that, it was a fact that he was stronger, plus she is injured now so her winning against him is impossible.
Seeing him slowly come toward her, Veronica turned around attempted to flee at top speed, the only way to get away from him is to lure him near her house, that way, her grandfather can save her, she didn''t think Arthur is stronger than her grandfather.
But to her surprise, just as she was going to turn her body, she couldn''t, it definitely was not because of fear but it was something else restraining her, even with her injuries, she shouldn''t be this powerless against him, her look transformed from surprise and fear to horror, it was as if she was seeing the devil himself.
Just the matter of him being still alive confused her and made her feel afraid, how could he survive against Yamak? Supposedly he managed to defeat Yamak, then how could he escape the fire from that cannon, its range is huge, no one should be able to escape.
"O''ho ho ho ho, it''s funny seeing you trying to flee, it''s like seeing a little rabbit trying to flee from a tiger, truly pathetic..."
Arthur finally arrived in front of the petrified Veronica, from the very beginning she didn''t utter manywords, she was still not believing what''s happening, as if she was in some sort of nightmare.
Arthur coldly stared at the shivering woman in front him, however, he didn''t felt hesitation or pity like Mary, she didn''t even apologize like Mary, she just stared at him with fear.
He retrieved a talisman and threw it to a nearby wall, very soon, a light emanated from the rune and a notification came, Arthur ignored it and asked Veronica
"I think you know why I''m here...right?"
Although she was very afraid of him, the thought of apologizing never crossed her mind, she gritted her teeth and replied
"Screw you, do y..."
Unfortunately, before she could finish the sentence, blood splattered all over the alley, it took her several seconds that her right arm has been ripped off and blood splashed endlessly from her shoulder, it was literally like a fountain, the pain soon followed, it was so agonizing that she screamed loudly.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGH!"
Veronica wasn''t used to this amount of pain which came surprisingly, her screams were deafening, however, no one came or heard her screams except Arthur.
The talisman he used before was used to stop any sound from leaking out from a specific range, he made it specifically for this situation, there were thousands of spells in Zodiak''s books, but all of them were ruthless so he only picked the useful ones and made them, then he imprinted them into talismans.
"Yes, scream, scream louder! That''s what I felt when that attack hit me! Ha ha ha...You must think I''m crazy and a monster, right? Well, I definitely am, but at least, I never betrayed anyone, unlike you people..."
''ting''
You gained a new title : Psychopath : Each time you brutally kill someone +15% stats increase for 10 minutes.
If you kill another person brutally when the buff is on, the timer will reset.
Arthur ignored the notifications and looked at the wailing woman, still not feeling sympathy of pity.
"Arrrrgg--Hel---------Help!!......-mmm-me...ARRGG"
While she was screaming, Veronica tried her best to ask for help but to no avail, no one came, it''s like they were isolated, and it''s at that time that she realized that she''s done for, she turned her head to look at Arthur who was looking back at her with cold and piercing eyes.
"Ahhh... I''m s-sorry.... shouldn''t.... done... that....... ahhh... mistake.." Veronica couldn''t talk properly as she was panting, the pain was just too much for her as she barely managed to let out these few words when she was suddenly interrupted by Arthur''s voice
"It was a mistake you said...... but the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you or any other from that damned academy....."
Veronica shivered as she stopped struggling, she couldn''t even hold her arm to stop the bleeding, the only way for her to stay alive is to beg.
"P-Please ahhh..... have mercy.... don''t be cruel... We.. I really regret...that."
Arthur burst out in laughter for a couple of seconds before he shouted with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion
"Cruel? Me? Hahaha, You say I''m cruel when you don''t even know how cruel what you have done is......ha ha ha"
He laughed for a while before his killing intent exploded yet again, enveloping all the alley, his blood red eyes turned jet black and his voice sounded like the devil itself
"You teach me how cruel you''ve been..cruel or false, why did you and the others betray me? I didn''t do anything for you to despise me...yet you have done the unspeakable...for you Veronica..I have no word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may beg, cry or even call for help, but all of these will only blight you...they''ll damn you..curse you! What right did you have to betray me? ANSWER ME! Just because a simple order comes from above, you are just like dogs who obey without thinking....You know...be it misery, degradation or even death itself, I can accept all of them, but betrayal is the thing I despise the most...you and the others did it, on your own will....yet even after that...you still live comfortably knowing what you have done...."
Veronica couldn''t even talk as she heard that, even though she was frozen by the ancient threads, her body shivered non-stop and she even forgot about the pain, facing Arthur made her fall into a bottomless abyss, especially when she looked at those black eyes.
"It''s truly a pity....to see an elf act like that.....If it were not for your appearance, I could''ve sworn you are human as you behave exactly like them.......I''m sure one day..you would betray your family if an opportunity arise...it''s just what people like you do......now then it''s time to meet your maker..if he exists that is...rot in hell or whatever the place you are going is"
With this last sentence, natural lightning entered her body and killed her on the spot, her eyes became lifeless and the low groaning stopped, the alley became silent, and the killing intent subdued a little.
Even when he killed her, he wasn''t completely satisfied, however, there''s nothing he could do now.
He promised Mary to investigate first, but he didn''t know if he could control himself if he saw Sonia, hopefully, he could.
He really wants to rip her to shreds, but she may really have been forced or tricked, anyways, whoever made that order would surely die by his hands, that''s for sure.
Arthur didn''t linger off and returned to the inn after storing Veronica''s body.
His eyes returned to normal not too long after she died and when he arrived at their room, he surprisingly found Saly and Lucy awake this late at night.
Lucy was gently brushing the little girl''s hair, who was silently enjoying that and humming a song.
The sudden appearance of Arthur didn''t startle Lucy, and Saly who was blind couldn''t see so she didn''t know, only when Arthur talked did she know.
Arthur went next to the little girl and patted her head.
"Naughty girl, still awake this late at night?"
Although he was pretending to scold her, he was patting her small head with extreme gentleness.
"I-I wanted to wait for A-Arthur to return...sorry"
The little lass dropped her head down as if she committed a grave crime. Arthur merely laughed and replied
"Don''t worry....by the way, I got a gift for you"
As he said that, he retrieved that Minor Healing Elixir from his storage and held it in his hand, even the calm Lucy looked at him with surprise, she immediately guessed what that was and softly smiled.
"O-Ohhh..."
Arthur would always give her things but he never once said it was a gift, so hearing this, Saly felt overjoyed and excited at the same time.
He put the small bottle in her petite hands and softly spoke
"Drink it, okay?"
Naturally, Saly had complete trust for Arthur and Lucy, for her, they were her sole family and she felt grateful towards them, if they didn''t save her, she would have died or would be still suffering from the beatings of her master.
She didn''t hesitate and gulped the whole bottle, although it was very bitter, she endured it and finished it all. She was very cute as she displayed her reaction to the bitter taste.
"Now, relax for a bit, alright?"
As he said that, Arthur stretched both of his arms and put the little girl on his lap as he sat on the bed. He didn''t know when will the Elixir take effect, so all he could do now is wait with her.
Following what he said, the little girl leaned on Arthur and enjoyed the warm sensation. A minute has passed and finally, something happened.
Saly began to emanate some light and Arthur noticed the scars on her neck and arms began to disappear very quickly, he also felt a fluffy feeling in his leg, so he guessed it to be her tail as he learned from her that it was cut in the past.
The light lasted for half a minute before it disappeared, Arthur clearly felt the change in Saly, part of the malfunctioning ear was restored and all the scars seemed to have disappeared.
The little girl was still unable to comprehend what just happened, she felt her tail moving non-stop as she was not used to it, and she surprisingly could hear with both ears, it was very clear and comfortable feeling, however, what came next astonished her even more.
Her two closed eyes were unconsciously opened by her, she saw things for the first time, it was blurry for a couple of seconds before it became clear.
She didn''t know what people looked like, she only had a rough idea, but when she saw the red-eyedman looking at her while smiling, tears flowed from her eyes non-stop, she didn''t know what this liquid was so she touched it in a confused manner.
"Fool, those are tears" (Arthur)
He smiled at her while stroking her brown hair, she was still dumbfounded and couldn''t react, her eyes were fixed on him contemplating his appearance, she soon turned her head to see a silver-haired person also smiling at her, Lucy already stretched her hand and held Saly''s little hand to reassure her.
" *hik* thank *hik you.."
Saly cried while thanking both of them, she really couldn''t believe what was happening, everything happened too fast and it felt like a dream, seeing both of them acting so affectionate and caring towards her and being able to see them, furthermore, she no longer felt pain from herinternal injuries, how could she not feel happy?
It was literally the happiest moment in her life, tears flowed endlessly as she cried her heart out that night until she fell asleep in his arms, her eyes were swollen and her breathing was heavy but Lucy and Arthur knew that this little girl was overjoyed, they didn''t wake her up and merely looked at her sleeping face, which seemed very peaceful.
Arthur already told Lucy what happened without leaving any details, however, he didn''t put Saly into the bed and let her sleep in his arms as she seemed to like that, plus, it''s not he disliked that either.
...
Chapter 52 : Ma Clan
It''s been three days since the little girl was cured, and seeing so many new things for the first time, she couldn''t hold her excitement, she became more cheerful and energetic as she listened to Lucy while she was teaching her what this and that were.
Arthur couldn''t help but feel joyful as he watched her jump and stare at certain objects, she would praise him and especially Lucy on her appearance, saying that she was very pretty, her big round eyes were cute and funny as she behaved more like a child than ever before.
At first,he was planning on consuming that Medium Dungeon Core, however, he changed his mind, Saly was still LVL1 and with extremely low stats, even though she could move, she could get injured very quickly so he decided to give it to her.
To consume the orb, you just need to inject some mana in it, but as Saly didn''t know how to do that, Lucy helped her and with that, the little girl managed to gain stats.
As she saw her status window for the first time, she stared at disbelief and tried touching it with cute motions, but of course, she wasn''t able to.
Saly told all her stats to Lucy and Arthur, and fortunately, the orb increased her overall stats by 250, it was not that good but not that bad either, considering a soldier or a guard would have between 200 and 300 stats.
If she fought against a soldier, she would obviously miserably lose, as she was inexperienced and still a child, she had never fought in her life, however, Arthur was certain that she would become very strong if he and Lucy helped her, he didn''t lack skill books and good items, and he will not hold back and give her only the best.
In these three days, surprisingly, Saly didn''t want to go outside, she wanted to stay with Lucy and Arthur and continue to have fun with them.
..
Arthur and Lucy were laying on the bed and the little Saly was between them, she was softly giggling as she felt extremely happy for all what happened to her since she met them both.
Lucy, seeing the girl giggle to herself, smiled at her and gently hugged her small body while saying
"What''s wrong? Why are you giggling secretly."
Lucy really doted on this girl, she couldn''t bring herself to dislike her, she was just too adorable, although she seemed very excited when she recovered her sight and healed from her injuries, she wasn''t noisy and never pestered them, she would obediently behave like she previously did except she smiled a lot and would sometimes ask about something related to the room.
Saly knew most of the basic objects by names, but she never saw them so how would she know what would they look like, furthermore, the colors and many tiny objects grabbed her attention as she would gaze at them for several minutes wondering what they were.
"He~he~he, I''m just happy to be with Lucy and Arthur."
As she said that, the little girl stretched her two small arms and hugged back the smiling Lucy, she really loved them both and couldn''t think of life without them.
Seeing this, Arthur chuckled as he stared at the cute little girl, then he pondered for a couple of seconds before he said in a somewhat serious yet gentle tone
"Hey Saly, now that you''re healed, what are your plans for the future? Do you want to come with us or go alone?.."
Saly, who was brimming with happiness a second ago, trembled and looked at Arthur with teary eyes, although she knew he and Lucy doted on her, she also thought that she may be a bother to them and hinder them so these strange thoughts soon cover her mind.
"A-Am I a bother..?"
The little girl almost cried as she didn''t want to part ways from them.
Lucy, who heard that, softly laughed and said to the confused Saly.
"Little Saly, don''t worry, we won''t leave you, in fact, we want to bring you with us but we don''t want to force you so that''s why he asked you that."
Then she resumed patting the kid on her little head, it would be a lie to say she didn''t enjoy that as even Arthur did, her fluffy ears were soft and adorable, coupled with her brown and smooth hair, it was truly a good feeling.
Saly kept silent for an unknown amount of time until tears flowed from her big round eyes, she was crying but smiling so one would guess they were tears of happiness.
"Un!... I want to stay with Lucy and Arthur..."
She then stopped for a second before continuing
".... Forever..."
She then buried her head in Lucy''s chest, silently sobbing, it was clear she was happy and just by looking at Arthur and Lucy''s expressions, she knew they agreed, there was no need for unnecessarywords.
.......
In the blink of an eye, 2 weeks passed, Lucy and Arthur took Saly outside and roamed the city and the nearby forest to let the little girl discover new things.
She seemed very attached to Astrith as she loved riding on his back, sometimes, she would go out alone with him as they would fly around the forest to explore new things.
Honestly, Arthur wasn''t that worried about her, with Astrith''s strength, even an adult dragon would not match him, much less those pathetic people from Medusa or the elven city so he let her do as she pleased.
It was unfortunate that there were no nearby dangerous places or dungeons to gain experience, he really wanted to possess some corpses and help Saly get stronger.
In these 2 weeks, he gave her a bunch of skill books that suited her, she obviously learned them and used a few times even though it was clumsy, with some practice she would be able to handle them perfectly.
Lucy also taught her a few things, for example how to control mana, it was just basic knowledge but for a little girl, it was a bit hard so it took some patience to do it, it went relatively well as Saly was a diligent and hardworking kid, she followed every instructions and didn''t complain.
Arthur and Lucy liked that side of her, she was not like other kids who would only play, she was a quiet and obedient girl, maybe it was partially because of her past but she was a good girl, although they taught her a few things, they didn''t spend too much effort, only 2 hours a day as they didn''t want to tire her out, they would also take her out to play or buy anything she wants, be it clothes, food or anything similar.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The girl opposed in the beginning and only watched from afar, but after some encouraging from Arthur, she no longer held back, however, that does not mean she bought everything that caught her attention, quite the opposite, in fact, she merely bought 2 stuffed toys, nothing more, nothing less.
After Saly managed to somehow control mana to a certain extent, Lucy taught her how to open a storage ring and take out an item, it was relatively easy, way easier than controlling mana, so Saly learned it in no time.
Controlling mana is divided into several levels, her control is the most basic, she can''t create a simple mana barrier or strengthen herself with it, she only felt the flow of it in the air and barely managed to control it in certain directions which were enough for someone at her age.
Lucy then gave the little girl a storage ring with a bit of money to buy whatever she likes, there were times she would go outside with Astrith and there is a chance she might like something, so why not buy it?
Though I said a little bit of money, that little girl had a few million gold coins in her storage ring, Saly knew that the money in the storage is a lot, but she couldn''t understandhow much exactly, she knew basic numbers but big numbers are unknown to her.
Something unexpected also happened, Astrith who firstly was against accompanying Saly, changed dramatically as he began to like Saly and change his point of view towards her, at first, he only respected Lucy and Arthur, and when Arthur told him to go with Saly, he obeyed but only with reluctance, but he soon came to know how kind and gently this little girl, although Arthur told her she could order the beast around, she never did that and instead she would ask him to take her here and there with pleading eyes.
She even bought him a lot of different kinds of meats which he enjoyed devouring, although he didn''t need to eat, enjoying those delicacies is the only thing he could do apart from sleeping, so when she bought him a lot of food, he began to like her even more, one would obviously think she bought him with food but he changed his behaviour towards her way before she bought him any food.
He would even occasionally play with her or show her some tricks with his lightning and each time she would clap non-stop and stare at him with excitement with her big round eyes.
........
After these two weeks passed, Belic and the rest finally arrived, some of the nobles presents went to the city, as for the city, they accompanied Robin and Belic to the HQ of the company. It was located several kilometers away from the elven city.
Arthur went to find Belic and informed him that he will go back again and at that time he will use that favour from the elven chief as he was no longer interested in it now, right now it''s time to go to the Ma Clan, his blood was boiling as he could not wait any longer.
Surprisingly, Mary had a house in the elven city, she said that she bought it in the past and would stay therewhen she visited Sonia, she invited Arthur, Lucy, and Saly to the house and they stayed two days before they were finally ready to head off.
As for the 7 kids, Mary told them to stay there and wait until she comes back, she left some gold for them and there was enough space in the house for them to live together.
..
It was finally the day, Lucy and Mary were chatting together as Marry narrated what happened in that long trip, as for Saly, she was on Astrith''s back, sitting on Arthur''s lap, she enjoyed staying close to him, especially in his embrace as she felt warm and comfortable laying there.
Mary and Lucy also sat onAstrith''s back and enjoying the beautiful view, although Mary was a bit distressed as she still couldn''t believe the black wolf not only can fly at immense speed, he could also talk and is a lightning beast.
There was just too much to grasp and she needed a couple of minutes to comprehend what''s happening.
They were all on Astrith''s back as he was speeding in the sky and looked like a streak of blue lightning, one would see a mountain far away and the next second they would already bypass that mountain, it was really a god-like speed.
Mary said that the Ma Clan is situated in the eastern part of the continent, so if they travelled by foot, it would take them a long time, especially since Mary is slow compared to Lucy and Arthur, however, fortunately, there was Astrith, as even if Arthur used the bone dragon, it would still take more time.
Mary also added that the Ma Clan used a very powerful illusion seal to confuse the enemy, there was also a strong barrier, so she said that it''s pretty much impossible to break through it, they had to wait for someone to come out of the Clan to talk to them and either force him to let them in or ask him.
Arthur was not so sure about what she said, illusion or barrier, he judged them to be useless against his demonic lightning but he still had some doubts, the notification indicated seals and not illusions so maybe it wouldn''t work, in any case, a meager illusion is not going to stop him.
..
The trip passed peacefully, Saly fell asleep in Arthur''s lap and Lucy kept Mary company as for Arthur, he leisurely read a book as there was nothing he could do in this current situation.
After 15 hours of continuous flying, Mary finally told them to stop as they appeared to have reached their destination, as for Astrith, he didn''t seem to be the least bit tired, something like this is nothing to him.
The place they stopped at was normal, nothing special about it, Arthur didn''t even know how Mary could precisely know the place but he didn''t say anything and got down from Astrith along with the others.
Arthur put the sleeping Saly on Astrith and instructed him to take care of her as he didn''t know what kind of power did the clan possessed, however, he was not that worried, but being a bit cautious would not hurt him.
..
Apparently, Mary can pinpoint the exact location is because there is large bolder, very noticeable from afar, it was the edge of the illusion and the barrier, so she remembered it from before.
"This is it... I''m sure of it, now we have to wait for the-"
Just as she was finishing her sentence, a black streak of lightning came out of nowhere and struck the boulder and the air around it.
When the lightning touched the huge boulder, a shattering sounded from it, actually, Arthur wasn''t sure if it would work, but seeing the notification telling him he shattered a part of the illusion and barrier, he smirked and felt happy.
He purposely didn''t use that much lightning, he didn''t want to completely destroy them as he wanted to sneak in. A part of the big boulder seemed shattered as if it was a mirror and a piece was taken from it, it looked very strange.
Soon enough, all of them entered through that small entrance which could fit only one person, and Mary followed behind with a look of disbelief in her eyes.
The illusion put around the Clan or the barrier was not some basic spells but they were very high-leveled skills and spells, too much effort was put to create them and with just a shot from his strange lightning, he opened a crack in both of them, so how could she not be dumbfounded?
Just as Arthur passed by the crack, the surroundings changed, the trees looked completely different and some of them bore strange symbols, there were also those pink cherry trees which looked absolutely stunning, it was like stepping into another world, this forest looked extremely breath-taking and the atmosphere seemed calm.
From afar, Arthur could see a very tall pagoda, it was like a big mountain, there were also few others shorter than it but it was the most eye-catching, it was red with some black bricks on its roof.
Mary noticed his surprised look so she hurriedly said
"Actually, the Ma Clan has a very big territory, approximately a radius of 500 kilometers, there are scattered villages and secluded mountains to train in, there is even an exclusive dungeon, they have great resources and powerful experts, that tall pagoda is the mainHQ of the clan"
Hearing her explain everything with details, Arthur was very pleased, his face showed an evil smirk, he held Lucy''s waist and jumped on Astrith.
Mary silently followed and yet again they were on the beast''s back.
"Astrith, go to that tall pagoda, fast"
"This one obeys"
Astrith then sped toward that pagoda, all that could be seen is a blue streak of lightning. Arthur saw several robed individuals rushing toward where they came from and when they saw the lightning they turned around and chased it, Arthur didn''t want to bother with them and told Astrith to just ignore them.
In no time, they were already near the pagoda, they entered an extremely big yard, it was very beautiful, a small bridge with a clear river running under it, some medicine aroma lingered in the air and it looked very peaceful, but the appearance of Arthur and the others disturbed this peace.
Just as they arrived, dozens of people soon arrived too, they were staring at the big beast and the individuals on it, they circled around them and blocked all their way, they basically left them no way to flee from here unless they fly.
Arthur looked at them with a grin on his face, he already appraised most of them and saw how high-leveled they are.
Of course, it was compared to normal people, as for him, they were crawling ants.
An old man also came out from the Pagoda entrance, he wore a yellow robe with a golden dragon symbol on it, he emanated a strong pressure and gazed at Arthur with a bit of alert and anger.
Seeing this current situation, Arthur couldn''t help but say
"It''s Showtime..."
Chapter 53 : Fight and Slaughter
Seeing the big crowd circling them, Arthur became excited, as for him, they were precious stats and skills, it''s indeed true he promised Mary he would investigate this, if they attack him first then it''s self-defense right?
He previously appraised them and the old man and they were indeed very high-leveled, the old man was even higher LVL than the Yamak, he was LVL729, but Arthur had complete confidence, he knew his stats are not for someone of his LVL.
In theory, Yamak was over lvl 600 and had 70/80k stats, so Arthur who has 500/600k stats should theoretically be someone with a lvl of over 2000.
The old man was angry but he acted calm, he glanced at Arthur, who was the only one not on Astrith''s back and assessed him, however, he didn''t have any appraise skill so he couldn''t guess his exact strength, even so, he wasn''t threatened or worried as he was enough power to deal with a bunch of invaders but why bother when there are so many disciples present?
Arthur was just about to talk when the old man waved his hand randomly indicating to the disciples to attack, he didn''t want to hear Arthur or waste time on him.
After he did that, he turned around to walk away, although it''s surprising they managed to get in, it was not impossible and there were several cases in the past so he judged them to be weak, and even if they were strong, against so many opponents, it''s quite hard to stay alive.
Arthur was quite irritated by this the nonchalant attitude of the old man, he sneered and transformed into lightning, rushing at the incoming enemies.
He noticed that all of them had no weapons and seemed about to punch him, he was momentarily surprised but still didn''t care about them, whether they pitied him or were going easy, that''s a matter he paid no heed about since they were attacking him then that means only one thing...
Death!
Their speed was fast, but not faster than Yamak, however, it astonished Arthur as they were the fastest opponents he faced except the dragon of course, albeit their great speed, it was useless against him.
Each time he passed by a disciple, he would stab in their hearts with sword energy then store the body in his storage in a flash, from other people''s view, they only saw the disciples disappearing one by one, which was very strange.
When Arthur uses lightning form, one cannot even see the streak of lightning anymore, it''s at a LVL where one needs immense eyesight and stats to be able to see him, much less dodge him.
Arthur held no mercy, the hundred or so disciples who were rushing at him were literally cleared in 10 seconds, no more than that, and the only reason it was this long because he had to store their bodies.
The yard was now quiet, there was only the old man who walked a few steps away from his previous location, he noticed how there was no noise so he abruptly turned his head and saw that there was only Arthur standing leisurely there, staring at him with a long grin hanging on his face.
Arthur laughed heartily then said while staring at the old man
"Ha ha ha, what''s the matter? Please don''t make that face, I came here only to talk but they attacked me, it''s self-defense, I tell you, self-defense hahaha"
The man only stared at Arthur with disbelief, more than a hundred disciple vanished in a mere 10 seconds, that''s obviously no natural thing, he didn''t even see what happened as he was walking away.
He was strong enough to defeat them or kill them all but not in just 10 seconds.
Mary, who was sitting on Astrith, had her mouth wide open, she saw Arthur fight many times but she knew how powerful the disciples in the Ma clan is which is why she was flabbergasted when she saw him finish them in a short amount of time.
She jumped from Astrith and said to Arthur hurriedly
"Arthur...this place is the male area..."
Arthur was sneering and mocking the old man heard her and turned to look at the female beastmen while furrowing his brows showing his questioning look
"Male area?"
Seeing his confused look, Mary continued to explain
"..A-Actually, the Ma clan is divided to 2 areas, the female area and the male area, the female area is stronger as the bloodline affects females better than males, but there are some strong individuals in the male area.."
She then rested for a couple of seconds to breathe some fresh air as she talked non-stop
"...That old man must be a section chief, his position is considered decent, from what I know, there is section chiefs, lords, and elders, with the elders being the highest rank besides the master of the clan and the grand elder"
"We''ve been together for months and you only tell me this right now?..."
Mary pouted when she heard this and retorted in a somewhat angry tone
"....I''ve already told you all that but you were reading a book and nodded continuously...tsk tsk!"
Arthur pretended to not hear that and turned to look at the old man who was still staring at him maliciously but he didn''t dare attack for some odd reason.
He just killed more than a hundred disciples but unfortunately, they were unrelated to that matter, they can only blame their bad luck for picking the wrong side or being born in the wrong family.
Actually, every disciple or person in the clan is surnamed Ma except very very few individuals who were recruited, there were some talented ones who became disciples and others who lived normal lives in the villages.
".. You told me this was the Headquarters, then there are no females disciples?"
Mary was startled before replying in an embarrassed manner
".. Um... I forgot to tell you... there is two headquarters, one for the female area and the other for the male area, this one should be for the males, and no one from each area is allowed to go to the other except in few occasions if they break this rule they will be heavily punished..."
Arthur could no longer bother with her, it''s not like he can do anything to her since he was in the wrong area, he will go to the female area, he only needed Sonia to tell him who gave that order, and if she refuses then she''ll just die, easy peasy.
"Who are you?"
The old man finally decided to talk after some thorough thought, he didn''t have the guts to attack recklessly, he was confident a minute ago but now he was not, after what happened, how could he be so?
Arthur laughed yet again and replied
"I''ll let you guess"
Just as he said that he rushed at the old man, however, this time, he didn''t his lightning form nor did he use his fullest speed as he wanted to see how strong a LVL 729 person can be.
The old man was shocked by this but soon regained at his senses and took a defensive stance.
Arthur already knew this clan was a clan for martial artists and they rarely used magic so he was curious about their way of fightning.
When he was very close to the old man and about to kick, he saw a green aura envelop the old man''s body as if it was a shield.
Arthur possessed hundreds of corpses, be it beasts, monsters or people, so he gained all their fighting experience, instincts or whatever it was they excelled at, so even though he never fought in his previous life, his fighting is akin to an expert, it was beyond perfect, flawless and fast.
He controlled his strength and punched the man on his crossed arms, he already talked with Loli and came to know that when attacking, if he thought of an accurate number of strengthpoints then it will be used.
For example, if he thought of 10.000 strength then that attack would only contain that amount of strength, it was similar to unconsciously lowering his strength but doing that will only lower it to a random number, it may be too weak or too strong, so doing this was really useful.
Of course, not everyone could do that, she told him that it was a unique trait of a parasite and others cannot do that, Lucy would always try to control her strength but she would fail on certain occasions, like against that Bishop for example when she shattered almost all his bones with a simple kick.
The punch landed on the old man, however, he was only pushed back a meter or so, he looked surprised for a second but his fear disappeared because if Arthur was only thing strong then it was no problem to face him, he was only fearful of the opponent being incredibly strong and beyond his league.
With his confidence back up, he didn''t waste time as he dashed at Arthur in a weird manner, everytime his foot touched the ground, he seemed to blur for a split second, it was weird and his speed was fast too, unfortunately his enemy was Arthur so he already ran out of the luck the moment he met with him.
Arthur excitedly punched again at the old man when he saw him come at him, he enjoyed fighting like this but it''s too bad he was only using so little of power, if he used all of it, a single sword slash from Makaze would be enough.
Actually, the old man was not that weak, Arthur guessed his stats to be around 50 to 60k, close to the dragon but having the same stats doesn''t mean being equal in strength, there was still skills and other things that played a huge role in a fight.
Surprisingly, the old man used a palm to attack Arthur, the palm turned into golden colour and emitted a bit of pressure, even Arthur couldn''t guess what that attribute is, and honestly, he was stunned by its power, it was seriously no joke and would have hurt him if he was him from back then, before he fought Yamak.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The old man who was expecting his palm to heavily injure Arthur was in disbelief as he saw the palm striking at the enemy''s incoming punch, however, nothing happened, he was pushed back yet again in the same manner.
Just like that, the old man continued to strike again and again, but to no avail, he was blocked by simple attacks from his enemy, even after 10 minutes he couldn''t do anything and his confidence shattered, it was obvious that Arthur was playing with him.
Some disciples came but only watched with awe at the strange fight, it was one-sided and the old man was panting heavily, although Arthur didn''t directly injure him, he increased the strength of the punch in each attack so the old man had some bruises in his body, it was not life-threatening or even regarded as a serious injury but it would surely be a disadvantage in a fight.
After an exchange, Arthur backed away some steps and cheerfully said
"Ha ha ha, well I had fun fighting you, if you properly apologize then I can consider living you alive"
What Arthur didn''t like his arrogance, when he saw the old man leave previously and act high and mighty, he didn''t like that but after fighting, he discovered a lot of new things, like the strange mouvement he used or the attacks he displayed so he decided to forgive him and be merciful for one, after all, he just slaughtered a lot of disciples just earlier.
Arthur can never be considered kind ora good person, he is sometimes merciful or kind and some other times evil and acts like a psychopath, that''s just his nature, he acts kind only towards people who deserve it as he apparently learned that the hard way.
The old man was breathing heavily, he knew he stood no chance against this man so he said in an apologetic tone
"...This old man was foolish, I should not have acted rashly.. welcome to the Ma Clan"
Although it''s shameful to say that to someone who just invaded their clan and slaughtered disciples, he threw away his face and decided to hang on to his life, after all, it was more precious for him.
Arthur merely nodded at him while smiling then turned to look at Mary and asked
"Where is the female area?"
Mary was now calm as after some pondering she managed to convince herself that Arthur is way stronger than she originally thought.
"It should be several kilometers in that way.."
She then pointed to the North with her hand.
"Very well, let''s go then"
Mary had already jumped back on the big black wolf and was soon followed by Arthur, then they disappeared into a blue lightning, even the stunned old man could barely see it and was more and more afraid, he broke out in cold sweat and praised himself for apologizing or else he would have died just like that.
...
Several kilometres can be crossed in a short time by Astrith and yet again there were some disciples following them as they felt something was suspicious and caught a glimpse of the lightning but after a certain boundary, the males disciples stopped chasing and went back from where they came from, invader or not, they didn''t dare go to the female area as it was prohibited.
Arthur also this but didn''t think much of it, furthermore, contrary to the male area, the female area seemed more peaceful and with fewer disciples, they only encountered a dozen at best but like earlier, they ignored them and headed toward the second pagoda which was not seen earlier by Arthur because of the trees and the long distance.
This pagoda seemed very similar to the last one, practically the same except it had a different color, this one was jet black with dark red bricks on the roof, making it look domineering.
The Pagoda was approximately 20 kilometers away from the first one and there was a somewhat large bridge separating the two areas.
When Arthur and the others were just a kilometer or so away from the pagoda, they were stopped but an unexpected thing.
While Astrith was dashing through the trees in an incredible speed, a shadow suddenly appeared out of nowhere and attacked them, the attacker seemed to be able to see Astrith, a golden slash came out of nowhere and headed straight at Astrith.
Arthur, who was leisurely observing the surroundings was startled by this, he didn''t expect someone to be able to see Astrith, much less attack him with precision.
A barrier made from Eclipse Magic was created in a flash and blocked that incoming golden slash, however, Arthur didn''t expect the opponent to rush at behind him and take Mary then back away.
Astrith stopped and stared maliciously at the figure in front of him, as for Arthur, he was startled as the enemy seemed to be not bad, his speed was good but not as good at him, however, this geezer in front of him seemed to be strong, that''s for sure.
Ma Wuji(Human) : LVL 1074
''hmm'' Even after his LVL he was not astonished, just from the LVL of that section chief, he expected people with high LVLS but LVL didn''t mean strength, look at him, just LVL 433 but his strength is many many times stronger than what a normal LVL400 person would have.
..
Saly has woken up since earlier but she didn''t say anything, she was surprised by all what happened by she didn''t cry or feel afraid, for her, Lucy and Arthur were the strongest.
Lucy sat next to the little girl and gently rubbed her head, she liked how this girl is obedient and just watched from behind silently without asking any questions.
..
Mary was still trying to comprehend what just happened, a second ago she was on Astrith and the other she was being held by an old man, when she lifted her head she immediately recognized him as he was Sonia''s grandfather, one of the few male people who can stay at the female area.
"Child, are you okay?"
The old man''s voice was full of vigor and energy as if it was a young man speaking, he knew Mary as she was Sonia''s friend from childhood and she came a few times so he recognized her appearance, but he thought she was held captive and forced to lead these people in here.
"Ehh..Uncle Wuji"
Wuji smiled at Mary then turned his head to look at the ''enemies'', he was sure of deductions, after all, it couldn''t be anything but that, however, after much look at Arthur and Lucy, he seemed to have thought of something but soon rejected that idea.
The high ranked people in the Ma Clan obviously knew about Arthur and Lucy, even Wuji but they were dead, so seeing those people, he first thought it was them but soon rejected that as it was practically impossible.
Amused, Arthur looked at the old man and had the urge to fight him, he wanted to go all out against someone, although it may not be this old man,but if there are more people like him then his wish will not be impossible to realize which made him a bit happy.
"Who are you?"
The old man asked the usual question, and Arthur could not help but burst out in laughter.
"Ha ha ha, you people only know to say that question or what? I''m here looking for Sonia~~"
The old man was startled when he heard that, Sonia was not known to be from the Ma clan and only very few people knew about that so when he heard a stranger say that, how could he not feel surprised?
"I''m sorry, there is no ''Sonia'' in here."
Even hearing this, Arthur continued smirking at the old man while saying
"That''s not what the person you''re holding told me."
Then Arthur stared at Mary who stabilized herself and stood up.
Seeing his piercing gaze, Mary knew he was signaling her to clear things up or else he wouldn''t mind adding another victim.
"U-Uncle Wuji... t-they are ''them''.... Arthur and Lucy"
Wuji was seriously dumbstruck right now, Mary didn''t have any reason to lie to him, however, what she said was unreasonable as Arthur and Lucy were dead from the cannon blast.
He thoroughly looked at the couple and focused and their appearances, by what he previously knew, they indeed looked exactly like the descriptions he got on them, what made them stand out even more were those blood red eyes.
"How is that possible... weren''t they dead?"
He seemed to be directing his question to Arthur and Lucy, expecting an answer.
"Unfortunately for you, we survived, of course, no thanks for you guys, now then.... how about you tell me OR guide me to where Sonia is, or I won''t be polite anymore"
Receiving no answer, Wuji was discontented but he didn''t show it, he stared at Arthur angrily seemingly not liking his bossy attitude and retorted
"No matter what happened, I''m not going to take you where she is, if you leave right now you may keep your life, you and your comrades"
He didn''t know what exactly happened, but he didn''t want to kill people so he gave them a way out, even though these were people the clan wanted to kill, he wouldn''t do it as it was complicated but that doesn''t mean he will let them act like this in his clan.
Mary tugged the old man''s sleeve and said
"Uncle Wuji, don''t worry, they only came here to investigate who gave that ''order'' they promised not to hurt big sister."
Even after hearing her, Wuji showed no reaction and coldly said to Arthur
"Please now, or else the consequenc.."
Before he could even finish, Arthur teleported in front of him and kicked his abdomen with his knee, he only lowered his strength by half, even so, the old man was sent flying like a rocket smashing to several trees until he stopped 100 meters from his previous position.
he was kneeling and coughed several mouthfuls of blood, if he wasn''t already on alert and covered his body with Qi, the damage would have been more serious, fortunately, he was a cautious person and was always on guard against any enemies.
Nevertheless, this attack made him completely surprised and fearful from Arthur, a year or so ago, he wasn''t this strong, his LVL was known to be 98 but due to special reasons, he had to be killed, as for Lucy, there were unique circumstances too.
That attack managed to injure him a bit, some of his bones were broken but it was not that serious, he still could fight but decided against it, he was wise enough to see the difference, he couldn''t even see Arthur rush at him, he just appeared suddenly, so he concluded it was teleportation, as Arthur was known to be able to teleport freely which was very troublesome.
Fortunately, there was the clan master who was very powerful, she hopefully can take care of this man, that''s what Wuji thought so for the time being, he decided to cooperate with this man.
He walked toward Arthur and said
"I''ll guide you to Sonia, since Mary said you promised not to hurt my granddaughter then I hope you hold your promise, you''re a man after all.."
Wuji could only say that and head toward the pagoda expecting Arthur to follow, but deep inside him, he hoped the clan master notice what happened and come as she was currently in the clan.
"That''s the way I like it, Sir Wuji, you are indeed a wise person, ha ha ha"
Arthur then slowly followed the old man without riding Astrith.
The lightning beast soon followed closely behind Arthur while being full alert again ambushes like earlier.
After walking for a couple of minutes, they were already in a similar yard in front of the Pagoda, there were already several female disciples following closely as they saw the strangers heading to the pagoda with Wuji guiding them.
..
Just when Arthur was calmly following the old man, something sudden happened, first thing Arthur heard was Loli shouting
RUN! QUICKLY RUN!!!
However, it was too late as black chains appeared from the ground and in a split second covered Arthur limbs and waist, they bound him onto the ground, they emanated black fog and tightly held Arthur, you could even hear the bones shattering.
To this sudden turn of events, Arthur was surprised but not scared, the pain was agonizing for other people and even for him but he didn''t shout as he experienced far worse than this, however, he couldn''t help but clench his teeth as it was really painful, he was confused as to why this would happen, he didn''t sense anything and was sure it was not someone from the clan, after all, the clan is for martial artists, so this made him confused as to what those chains are.
Very soon, the chains pressed harder on his body, shattering every existing bone and even blood flowed endlessly, a thicker chain came out from the ground and immediately struck him at his chest without any notice, which made him finally roar and shout from pain.
It seemed this chain was sucking the life out of him and touched his soul, this pain was many times worse than physical pain and soon his cries resounded in all the yard.
Lucy was already rushing at him but she was interrupted when she heard Arthur shout at her
"D-DDDon''t! Sta------ay back! T-these chains are nnn-n-ot norma-l AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH!"
The shouts never ceased to get louder and even Saly was worried for Arthur as she saw him scream like that, however, she was stopped by Astrith who backed away, he could feel the ominous feeling from the chains and unconsciously stepped back.
Lucy also reluctantly stood away however her face was full of worry as she saw him like that, she knew how much strong he is and that he rarely scream from pain like that, the only time she heard him scream like that is when his body was in the process of being created, so she couldn''t help but feel anxious.
Killing intent emanated from her as she looked at Wuji who was nor far away, for her the only possible cause of these chains is him, but to her surprise, even the old man was looking at Arthur with surprise and disbelief as he couldn''t comprehend what happened.
As Arthur screamed from the pain, notifications began to come one after another
RUN! YOU MUST RUN AWAY FROM IT!!
System malfunctioning...........System Shutdown..........
System ''Loli'' has been forcefully sealed for breaking rule number 102
Installing new system..........
Just at that moment, a crack in the air appeared and a silhouette gracefully came out of it, Arthur who was held on the ground was not able to see her until she came near him...
...........
Chapter 54 : Be Gone
The woman who just appeared from the crack approached Arthur and assessed him while smiling.
"Boy....To think I finally found you, this will surely bring me a lot of benefits, It won''t be long before I arrive here, wherever here is.."
Then she looked around but she couldn''t find out where exactly she is, in what planet.. She just found Arthur by using a forbidden spell which cost her a lot, she bet on it and fortunately, it worked.
Just as she said that, Arthur storage ring vibrated then a skeleton came out of it, surprisingly it was Zodiak¡¯s corpse which was only a skeleton now, it appeared more alive than ever and its eyes were jet black.
Even the woman seemed surprised by this, the other witnesses couldn¡¯t normally see her except for Arthur and the appearance of this skeleton startled her a little.
The skeleton didn¡¯t speak, it only raised it¡¯s hand and immediately, a huge black vortex appeared next to the woman, it was like a vacuum attracting everything, even the woman¡¯s face whitened as she saw this vortex.
She began to write some strange white lines on the air however it didn¡¯t seem to work as she was being pulled by the vortex at a rapid pace.
After several seconds, she was almost sucked in and at that time, the silent skeleton finally broke the silence and coldly said
¡°It¡¯s too early for you to come here, be gone treacherous woman from Heavenly Snake Clan¡±
Then, the vortex began to shrink followed by the woman¡¯s yells and in no time everything returned to normal, the skeleton turned to look at Arthur for a second before returning to his storage as if nothing happened.
All of this was only visible to Arthur, the others only saw the black chains holding Arthur, even Lucy didn¡¯t see the skeleton nor the woman.
¡.
Arthur''s body began to regenerate at rapid speed, his high vitality was really useful, however, his body was bloodied and his limbs twisted in a weird manner which made it look even more disturbing.
Such pain was nothing compared to what he was feeling a couple of seconds ago, he sighed and his mind calmed down a bit, but he was feeling a bit fearful, he couldn¡¯t resist for even a split second if that woman wanted to kill him then he would have been killed.
Lucy, who has been standing not too far away from him, rushed next to him and began observing his injuries, her face was full of worry as she looked at Arthur¡¯s state.
She retrieved the Minor Healing Elixir and the Miraculous Healing Potion and fed them to him with extreme gentleness however they did nothing, it was as if he only drank some water.
..
Saly also came running toward Arthur, her face full of tears as she was very anxious, she didn¡¯t want anything to happen to him and when she saw him screaming like that she obviously thought he was going to die.
She hugged Arthur¡¯s bloodied body forgetting that he was injured and began sobbing and calling out to him.
Arthur let her do as she pleases and tried using some minor Healing on himself which surprisingly worked, it didn¡¯t do anything big but it helped ease the pain by a little.
Mary and Wuji were still dumbfounded by what happened, the old man gazed and seemed lost in thought, he didn¡¯t know what exactly happened, but for those chains to be able to let him scream like that, a person with his strength, they must not be ordinary or the least bit weak.
Soon, his surprised gaze turned to a serious one as he seemed to have come up with a dangerous idea.
Wuji charged at Arthur and Lucy, wanting to finish them off, from the very beginning he didn¡¯t want to invite them into the clan but as he couldn¡¯t win against Arthur he had to stop but now since the man is heavily injured, he wanted to kill them and end it.
His speed was very fast, however, Lucy who was almost as strong as Arthur, sensed him and lifted her head only to see the old man coming her way with his palm prepared to strike, she was already worried about Arthur and seeing someone use this opportunity to finish him angered her.
In a split second she rushed at an old man who was equally surprised by her speed as he never expected her to be this strong, unfortunately for him, Lucy was in no mood to spare him, whether he is important or not, she launched a punch with all her strength intending to instantly kill him.
If he is struck by this he would obviously die or would be heavily injured if he¡¯s lucky, previously Arthur only used half his strength and sent him flying so if Lucy used all her strength then he¡¯ll be dead for sure, of course, Wuji didn¡¯t know this so even though he saw her coming at him with a speed faster than his, he was abruptly startled, nonetheless he didn¡¯t back off and already readied his strongest attack.
An almost invisible golden dragon was formed around his hand, it roared and made his palm more brilliant, the palm itself emanated a strong pressure with a dense green fog enveloping it.
The two strikes were going to touch each other when all of a sudden, something or rather someone came between them.
Lucy¡¯s punch was stopped as a cold palm completely stopped it as for Wuji¡¯s palm, it was also stopped in a similar way.
If one would look closely, they would see a black-haired woman between them, she wore black clothes from head to toe and had what seemed like daggers in her waist, she literally looked like an assassin.
Lucy, who was expecting to kill the old man was startled by what happened and gazed at the pretty woman in front of her.
The black-clothed woman, had a breath-taking face, it was extremely beautiful, however, it contained coldness, her eyes were icy and not a single emotion was showed on her face, it¡¯s as if she¡¯s a painting.
The woman stared at Lucy but the latter couldn¡¯t see what that woman¡¯s expression is as she seemed skilled in hiding it.
Lucy backed away a few steps in a flash and continued to stare suspiciously at the woman.
As for Wuji, once he saw that woman, he sighed and became even more relaxed, he was already in despair that¡¯s why he used his strongest attack, he was not embarrassed that his attack was easily stopped by this woman as he knew how strong she really is and he simply cannot compare to her even though she is way younger than him.
It was his eldest granddaughter and the master of the clan, albeit being very young, she already took over the position of the clan master and no one could oppose her, at the day of the ceremony, a few elders challenged her for the position but were mercilessly killed by her.
She is Anastassia Ma, her talent in martial art is considered non-rivaled as for magic she is also not bad, from a young age she showed unparalleled talent and she never ceased to train which resulted in her being the strongest in the clan at the time being.
¡°Clan Master!¡±
Wuji called happily, in front of the public he had to call her like that but in private he would call her by her name as she is his granddaughter.
Soon, a cold and piercing void resounded as she finally spoke while turning her head to look at Wuji
¡°What is this?¡±
She did not know what happened, she heard a loud scream so she came immediately and what she saw was her grandfather almost dying by this woman''s hands in front of her.
..
Just as Wuji was going to speak, someone came flying from the pagoda, at a closer look, it was a red-haired young woman with a witch hat who obviously was the long-awaited Sonia.
She too heard the scream and was curious about what happened as she saw her sister disappear suddenly.
Once she was close enough, her eyes landed on Mary then Lucy then Arthur who was on the ground, her eyes widened and her mouth was wide open, she was going to call out for her big sister but now she¡¯s dumbstruck by what she is seeing.
¡®That¡¯s impossible! How could it be them?¡¯ Even though she wanted to deny that, her eyes were clearly not lying to her, those two were certainly Lucy and Arthur, just by their eyes one can be sure of their identity, plus, someone with Lucy¡¯s beauty and appearance cannot be found anywhere.
She landed a couple of meters behind Wuji and hesitantly said
¡°L-Lucy?...¡±
Lucy was merely staring at Sonia with eyes full of killing intent, although she promised Mary to not kill her that didn¡¯t mean she forgave this woman, after all, she was the cause of everything, perhaps she was ordered but she did that willingly, or at least that¡¯s what it was said.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
Arthur was also conscious and saw the incoming Sonia, he hated her guts, just looking at her made him enraged yet again, if he wasn¡¯t injured maybe he would not have been able to control himself and would have already killed her, it¡¯s truly a pity those damn black chains injured him, furthermore, he saw how that black clothed woman stopped Lucy¡¯s punch which could turn an adult dragon into minced meat.
He honestly felt cautious toward her, just by what happened earlier he already concluded she is very strong, at least she would be equal to Lucy if not stronger, he only saw her stop a punch so he can¡¯t judge her strength unless he fought her himself, he tried appraising but the damn system wouldn¡¯t respond.
Fortunately, his vitality was no joke and the visible injuries were healing at a speed that the naked eye can see, the only problem is the crushed organs and bones which will take a few hours to heal or regenerate so he can¡¯t fight right now.
..
For someone like Anastassia who was a clan master for few years and had good guessing, she immediately knew that this silver-haired woman is Lucy, who the clan ordered to kill and that man is certainly her comrade, Arthur.
However, something doesn¡¯t add up, those two should be dead by ¡®judgement¡¯ 1 year ago and with their previous strength, they shouldn¡¯t be able to survive moreover, she sensed how strong the punch of Lucy is and for someone to improve like this in a year is unbelievable.
She knew Lucy was merely a student in the academy and was considered a genius, but no matter how talented a person is, they can¡¯t just power up like this in just a year, that¡¯s heaven-defying.
Lucy ignored Sonia who was looking at her with eyes full of disbelief and returned next to Arthur checking his body.
Arthur nodded at her reassuringly and used his right hand which could barely move to stroke Saly¡¯s back to comfort her, this little girl soaked his chest with tears, she really seemed afraid to lose him which moved him a lot.
..
As silent ruled over and no one talked, a streak of blue lightning struck at Sonia.
Astrith was basically linked with Arthur so he could feel how much his master hates his woman and want to kill her, so even without receiving an order, he launched an attack.
With insane speed he jumped at her intending to finish her off, he was already in his lightning form, his appearance looked threatening and ferocious, even Anastassia frowned but didn¡¯t show any trace of surprise.
The streak of blue lightning was dispelled by Anastassia who appeared in front of her little sister, she was already grasping one of her daggers and looked angrily at the incoming beast.
Soon, the two of them engaged in a fight, albeit Astrith¡¯s low stats compared to Lucy, his fighting was domineering, he would open his mouth and attack with some sort of yellow beam of lightning but to his surprise, it was easily blocked by the black clothed woman.
She merely waved her dagger around and the attacks would vanish as if nothing happened, however, he didn¡¯t give up, his attacks were focused only on Sonia.
Naturally, Arthur saw Astrith¡¯s action, but he didn¡¯t stop him, he wanted to see what will be the outcome of this battle.
..
Astrith created two other clones of himself and rushed at the standing Anastassia, after some exchanges, he deemed to be hopeless to aim at Sonia so he switched his focus to this black clothed woman.
None of his attacks did anything to her and she seemed not be fighting seriously so he could only use trump card.
In seconds, the bright sky darkened and clouds covered the sky, blue lightning streaks hit him endlessly and his body became twice it¡¯s original size, he now had two big wings made of yellow lightning and sharp teeth which looked terrifying.
Arthur was surprised as he didn¡¯t know Astrith could do that, still, he didn¡¯t stop him and continued to watch as Lucy already helped him adjust him and lean on her to feel more comfortable.
This time, Anastassia furrowed her brows as she looked at new form of the lightning beast, she felt a bit of pressure from him which surprised her a little, for someone with her level of strength to feel pressure is very rare, so that only indicated one thing; this beast is strong, very strong!
For the first time, she was the one to attack, she seemed to disappear from her location and appear in front of the beast, however, it was not teleportation, she was just too fast so that seemed like teleportation.
Astrith was astonished by this by he didn¡¯t dare daze off, several streaks of lightning were aimed at her as he backed away but to his surprise, his left wing was somehow cut and he couldn¡¯t even see her wave her dagger.
The streaks of lightning hit her but they didn¡¯t do any damage, she just rushed at the beast yet again to attack.
With no way to escape, Astrith decided to go all out and gamble on it, he opened his large mouth and in just a split second, a red beam which didn¡¯t look like lightning came out of it and was aimed at the incoming enemy.
The red beam was even faster than Anastassia which surprised her, she couldn¡¯t help but turn serious, she took out her second dagger and in a strange manner, she slashed both of them which resulted in two black arcs coming out of the daggers.
The beam and the black arcs crashed into each other, the sound was ear deafening but there was no damage to surroundings as fortunately both Anastassia and Astrith were fighting high in the sky.
The red beam resisted the two arcs for 20 seconds or so before it vanished while two arcs continued forward until they struck Astrith and cut him in four pieces, he was immediately killed as for Anastassia, she was merely pushed back a little by the impact as it was closer to her than the beast.
Though she only needed to attack seriously once, she didn¡¯t dare think that this beast is weak, if she wasn¡¯t here, that beast could easily kill Wuji, maybe he can¡¯t face all the elders alone but there was still Lucy.
After she sighed and prepared to head down, she suddenly stopped and a look of surprise appeared on her emotionless face, it¡¯s rather rare for her to be surprised multiple times in a short amount of time but this time she really was stunned.
She reached her hand to her cheek only to find a 1 inch cut on it as some blood leaked from it, it was most certainly a cause of the red beam but what¡¯s strange is that she didn¡¯t notice it hitting her cheek, perhaps it was due to the impact but it was highly unlikely, she couldn¡¯t help but feel a bit of admiration for this beast as even though he was leagues weaker than her, he managed to make her attack seriously and even injure her albeit being a mere cut.
She soon went back near Wuji and her sister who was still dumbfounded by the fight a moment ago and became more so when she saw the cut on her sister¡¯s cheek, even Wuji couldn¡¯t help but feel fearful toward that blue lightning beast.
As for Arthur, he only sighed as he somehow expected an outcome like this, he didn¡¯t think Astrith was this strong, he really was extraordinary, never did he regret having him by his side, as for his death, it doesn¡¯t really matter as he can summon him again after the cooldown is done, maybe it will be not Astrith but he got a strong feeling it would still be the same beast.
¡°Sonia¡ we meet at last, very glad to see you.¡±
Arthur spoke sarcastically to Sonia who was awakened by his voice, she turned her head to look at him was a surprised and complex look.
¡°A-Arthur¡ How are you alive?¡±
¡°Again with that question¡ that¡¯s in the past, more importantly, we have some matters to talk about¡ however, it¡¯s really a pity, if I didn¡¯t promise your friend, I assure you, you would have already been dead by now¡±
As he said that, Arthur stared coldly at the beauty as his killing intent began to spread but it was unexpectedly overwhelmed by the killing intent coming from Anastassia who was looking at Arthur with a piercing gaze.
"T-Talk about what?"
Sonia asked with a confused look hanging on her face, it was totally different from her usual demeanor.
"You still have the nerf to say that? Did you already forget what you did?"
Although he said that, Sonia was still as confused as ever, she looked dumbly at Arthur not knowing how to answer.
Anastassia put her daggers down and retorted
"There is nothing to talk about, I have decided to spare you, go back to where you came from."
Then she turned around to walk away seemingly not caring anymore, however, to her surprise, Arthur burst out in laughter for a couple of seconds before speaking
"Ha ha ha! Spare us? What a joke! I will NOT leave this place until I find out WHO WANTED US DEAD!"
Suddenly, Arthur who was leaning on Lucy stood up and his killing intent resurfaced again, but this time it was many times stronger and thicker, as if it would suffocate anyone, his eyes turned jet black as he stared at Anastassia who was also looking back at him.
Anastassia was perplexed now, the matter behind that ''order'' is quite complicated so she gave them a way out but he refused to leave to it left her in a dilemma on whether to finish them off now or do something else.
After a couple of seconds of thorough thinking, she sighed and said
"..... Alright, as you wish, since you want to know what happened then follow me, it''s better to talk inside.."
She didn''t want to cause a bigger commotion, plus she knew that dealing with him and Lucy would not be that easy, probably Lucy alone can be defeated by her but if he attacked too it would be troublesome, she noticed his current state but regardless of that, deep in her heart she felt that fighting him now will only lead to disastrous results.
Arthur gazed at her surprised for a couple of seconds, he didn''t think she would easily accept, he held some suspicions as maybe she would ambush him, nevertheless, he followed her with Lucy and Saly.
Lucy was already holding Saly as they followed behind Arthur.
Sonia and Mary were with each other and Wuji was next to Anastassia, all of them entered the pagoda as for the few female disciples who were present, they soon dispersed but they all knew they must keep what happened a secret or else the only way out is death.
In a certain Palace which was entirely white, there was no decoration whatsoever, it was literally empty.
There was a middle-aged man sitting on a similarly white chair with a kneeling woman in front of him, she seemed to be afraid of him as she didn''t dare raise her head and look at him in the eye.
"Explain what happened.."
Although he only said 3 words, the woman knew by his tone that he seemed irritated and that was definitely not a good sign.
"Lord Kem, I found what you were looking for, however, I was interrupted by someone.."
The man slammed his fist on the chair angrily and retorted
"Don''t dawdle around like that, explain clearly, don''t make me angrier than I already am!"
The woman trembled yet again and replied with a somewhat shaky voice
"Y-yes.. It was a skeleton... I don''t know how but it used some kind of vortex to throw completely out of the lower realm, it even erased my memories about which planet it was..."
"A skeleton you say? Fool! Can''t even finish a simple job! That staff is beyond important and you lost it just like that, DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW LONG I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR IT? I only sensed it''s existence again a year ago, and in the lower realm too, just how is it there..."
The woman only stayed silent and waited for the man''s orders, after a couple of minutes of silence, he waved his hand indicating for her to leave so without delay she left without speaking and left the man alone pondering about something.
''Almost...I almost got it....''
In an endless dark void where you cannot see anything but stars far away, there was a man flying around and laughing maniacally, he seemed to be crazy but if one knew him they would certainly know he is enraged.
''X'' searched for his ''subject'' for quite some time now but he never found it, not even a trace of him, it''s like he doesn''t even exist anymore, he even managed to somehow return to Earth but he was not there, what angered him is not losing Arthur but what''s inside him, he spent millions of years if not more creating that with the help of some luck so losing it like that angered him to the extreme.
It just didn''t seem logical for him to disappear like that, he should have been reincarnated to the designed planet, so how come he isn''t there?
He searched his whole area but to no avail he found nothing, even in theneighboring areas he wasn''t there, this left ''X'' astonished, if he wanted to search everywhere for him that would take a LOT of time but that''s the only solution so he began roaming randomly into planets and searching them one by one, of course, he instructed Belos and his other subordinates to the same and immediately inform him if they find anything suspicious or even a trace of that bastard.
''You won''t run away... Arthur, don''t forget I have something you need...don''t forget''
Chapter 55 : Explanation and Rage
Soon, all 7 of them entered the pagoda and headed to a room there, although it was very neat and beautiful there, Arthur didn''t pay it much attention, his attention was focused on the black-clothed woman, he was still suspicious of her and had a feeling she may sneak attack them, so even with his injured body he still walked alone without the help of Lucy.
He was still using the Minor Healing on himself non-stop but that helped him only a bit, he was still feeling pain all over his body so he canceled his pain with [Pain immunity] he didn''t want to use it but in a situation like this, the pain will only hinder him.
A passive skill like this may be useful for others but for him it''s the opposite, once he canceled the pain and walked properly, the healing wounds will take longer and the blood flower faster than ever.
It didn''t take them long to arrive at a somewhat large room, the style seemed really familiar to Arthur, it was similar to the Chinese style houses which dated from hundreds of years ago.
Anastassia, Mary, and the others sat around a long yet short table seemingly forgetting that Arthur and Lucy are staring at them angrily.
As for Arthur he only stood there waiting for them to talk, he doesn''t want to chat happily with them, it''s not like he can forget what they have done, so even with the insistence of Mary, he and Lucy stood there near the entrance, Saly was also next to Lucy starring at Arthur and the blood coming out from him.
After an unknown amount of silent, Anastassia finally spoke
"I don''t know what you exactly want to know so I''ll tell you the whole matter... You see, even though I''m master of the clan, it is only by name, there is an internal conflict between the two areas as you may have noticed..."
She then turned her head to look at Sonia for a second before continuing
"Actually... Sonia has also a twin sister who look exactly like her and that twin fell in love with someone from the male area and she would do anything for him...... it was too late to warn you two as last year her sister replaced Sonia after you came to the academy and followed that man''s order to kill you.."
Arthur was stunned for a couple of seconds as he didn''t expect this, however, he didn''t completely believe this.
"And where is her twin sister right now?"
"She''s probably at the male area"
Arthur pondered for a bit before speaking again
"That man, who is he and why did he give that order?"
"He is... the son of the Grand Elder of the Clan"
"Is that so... well then, I''ll go over and see if that''s really true, and trust me when I say this, if you are lying then even you can''t stop me from killing you sister"
Just as he said that, Arthur turned around to leave the room, he wanted to get done with this matter as soon as possible.
"What are you going to do?"
Hearing Anastassia say that, Arthur paused for a second before coldly replying
"What needs to be done."
Then he exited the room along with Saly and Lucy.
As they quickly got out from the Pagoda, Arthur turned toward Lucy and softly said
".. Stay here, It''ll be done quickly."
Surprised by what he just said, Lucy turned to look at the bloodied Arthur with a worried face and said hesitantly
"I-I can fight you know... besides you are injured.."
Arthur brought Lucy to his arms reassuring her
"Don''t worry, if you come with me then who is going to protect little Saly?"
Lucy couldn''t help but reluctantly nod her head as she watched Arthur disappeared from her view. Saly merely watched this as she knew she isn''t strong enough now, deep in her heart she vowed to train harder so that one day she can fight with him too.
Arthur already transformed into his lightning form and headed to the male area, along with the way he coughed some mouthfuls of blood as his internal injuries are still not healed.
He stopped in a somewhat quiet place to possess the bodies of the hundred or so disciples he killed, he didn''t know how strong the grand elder is and he didn''t dare to be overconfident anymore, not after what that woman did to him, just thinking about how helpless he was made him depressed.
There were 124 disciples and Arthur took about 10 minutes to possess them all, he felt his strength increase by a lot, and a lot of information came to his mind, unexpectedly not even one notification came which confused him but he doesn''t have time to thoroughly think about it now.
He knew the stats he must''ve gotten from the disciples are enormous but due to the heavy injuries, he has now he can''t quite know how much his strength increased.
As he searched in his mind what skills he got, he was surprised to see a strange method, there were a lot of skills required using ''Qi'' and apparently, these disciples would stay for hours to absorb the ''Qi'' from the surroundings to strengthen themselves.
He tried condensing some Qi in his hand and it indeed worked, it was that strange green fog he saw it earlier when he fought Wuji and that section chief.
He could also use a lot of new skills, ''Buddha palm'', ''Metal Finger'', they all required ''Qi'' to use and seemed strange for skills as Arthur never obtained something similar to this.
Albeit all the new skills and so on, he didn''t dwell on them much, it''s not like he would use them now, he would thoroughly test them later when things calmed down.
He transformed yet again into his lightning form and went to the male area.
In no time, he was already in the same yard as earlier, there were some disciples sitting cross-legged seemingly training, Arthur didn''t pay them any attention and immediately entered the pagoda.
It was very similar to the one in the male area, with his godly speed, he searched in the pagoda but it was strangely empty, however, he stumbled into the section chief from earlier who seemed to be talking with another old man while calmly drinking some tea.
The appearance of Arthur startled the two old men, especially that section chief who was named Yuxi, when he saw Arthur appear out of nowhere, his face turned white as he thought he came back for him.
Arthur gazed at the old men and coldly said
"I''m only going to ask once, where is that twin sister of Sonia?"
The one with Yuxi was another section chief, he was just chatting with his friend on what happened earlier, and when he heard Arthur, he became irritated, he obviously didn''t know it was the same man Yuxi was talking about, but even if he knew, he would not be scared as he is stronger than Yuxi and he thought his friend was exaggerating things.
He jumped on Arthur without replying intending to finish him off and get done with this intruder but to his surprise, just as he launched himself on Arthur, he vision darkened and he just died.
From the perspective of Yuxi, he only saw his friend jump on Arthur then his head rolled over the ground, he couldn''t even see what killed him, then the corpse of old man disappeared along with his head.
Yuxi couldn''t help but tremble at this sight, this man in front of him was literally a monster, he was a bit confused when he saw why such a monster is injured like this with blood all over so he had a bit of hope to get rid of him with the help of his friend but now all his hopes were crushed.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Arthur walked slowly toward the remaining old man intending to finish him off, whether he answered or not didn''t matter, he would search the whole area for her.
"W-Wait! I''ll tell you! Spare me!"
Hearing this, Arthur stopped and gazed at the old man waiting for his answer.
"She''s most likely at the top of the pagoda, she never leaves that place as she is disliked by the female area!"
As he said that, Yuxi breathed a sigh of relief as he thought Arthur was going to spare him this time too, after all, earlier, although he slaughtered all the disciples, he didn''t kill him but to his surprise, a sharp pain came from his chest and he looked down he saw a deep cut into his chest area where his heart is located.
Just like that, he dropped to the ground with eyes full of disbelief and unwillingness to die.
From the very beginning, Arthur wasn''t planning to let him off, he didn''t want him to go and inform all the others plus he had a good idea.
Very soon, he entered Yuxi''s body by possessing him and adjusted himself, although he possessed him, it seems the injuries he got from that woman are still present and every now and then he would cough some blood.
He intended to go around using this body so that not all the people would block him, it would be relatively easier this way.
He dashed out of the small room and headed to what seemed like stairs, he didn''t run and merely walked to not attract attention and in 15 minutes he arrived at the top, it was broad and strangely calm.
Arthur didn''t know what room she was in, so he planned to check them all, hopefully no one bother him but just as he was hoping that, a grey-robbed man came out of a random room, he wore a grey robe with a golden dragon on it and by Mary''s descriptions, he seemed to be an Elder.
The Elder stared at Yuxi confused before saying with an annoyed tone
"Section chief Yuxi, what are you doing here? You are not allowed to come here! Go back now and wait for your punishment when I finish what I''m doing! Don''t you know the rules?"
Arthur could only sigh, he just got here and an elder already showed up, he didn''t know how strong an elder is, and if there was too much noise then others would come too.
He took Makaze and teleported next to elder to finish him off quickly.
Unexpectedly, the elder managed to react in time, but he wasn''t able to dodge, just slightly move his body to avoid the slash of Arthur, but that was useless and the slash was wider than he thought.
He was sent flying a couple of meters with a deep cut on his chest, seeing this, Arthur frowned, he was honestly confused as a slash like this is supposed to kill him no matter how strong he is, maybe against Anastassia it wouldn''t work but against him, it should be enough.
He didn''t think much about it and rushed at the Elder again using his lightning form, fortunately, the elder didn''t get up and was pierced in the heard by Arthur, thus like that he died adding another victim to Arthur''s list.
..
The situation became even uglier to Arthur, this fast fight already attracted attention as there were 6 grey-robbed around him, he didn''t know how they got here this fast or how they discovered them but that didn''t matter anymore, right?
The 6 elders stared at their dead comrade with shock and disbelief, then they shifted their gaze to the culprit only to see it''s a section chief, it''s practically impossible for a section chief to kill an elder so the only conclusion they could think off is that he is a spy from an enemy clan.
They didn''t daze off and attacked together each using a skill. Arthur who was going to teleport a distance to avoid them was interrupted as large amounts of blood came out of his mouth.
As he was coughing blood, he managed to somehow shift his body to the side avoiding 4 of the incoming attacks but the two other landed on him, one on his back while the other on his right arm.
He couldn''t feel the pain since he disabled it but unexpectedly the attacks damaged him as he was pushed back a couple of meters, seeing this, Arthur was sure it was because of the black chains, they must have debuffed him or damaged his soul making weakened, or there is the possibility of these elders being strong but even if they were, he already possessed a whole lot of disciples which had high LVLS so the stats he should have gotten areunimaginable.
Arthur didn''t waste time and launched himself on a nearby elder, he used a quick [Lone sword] on him while 5 spears were already created and thrown to the remaining enemies.
This time, the slash cut the Elder in half but the spears only pushed them back burning them slightly. He didn''t know why it didn''t damage them and he didn''t care now, with another thought, 5 dark red spears were created and thrown at them again.
The problem with the [Ancient fire] attacks is that they are slightly slower than the others albeit having the most destructive power, so the elders managed to dodge them, however, that didn''t mean the spears disappeared, they streak the wooden floor which resulted in a huge explosion.
The top of the Pagoda was in flames and the top floor was like an inferno, the elders flown to the air while staring at Arthur with fear and shock, they just witnessed how he cut that elder in half so how can they not be surprised by it?
As for Arthur, he was depressed he couldn''t use the [Heavenly Arrow] but it''s not like he was could do anything about it now.
Due to the top floor being burned down by the flames, all the elders in the surroundings came in a hurry and soon the sky was filled with 23 Elders all gazing at the red flames and the man inside of them.
As Arthur gazed at the elders who surprisingly could fly, he wasn''t shocked that much as it was no time to be shocked, he could sense his state worsening for some reason, maybe this fighting is not letting his recovering ability properly function.
Among the flying Elders, he spotted one who was holding a red-haired girl, who looked exactly like Sonia, she appeared surprised and confused at what just happened. She was just in her room when all of a sudden, an elder appeared next to her, he held her and flew to the air, then at the next second, she heard a deafening explosion.
Arthur cannot fly like them but he can use his lightning form to speed in the air, it seemed similar but it was different.
His eyes already changed to jet black and his killing intent arose, his only target now was that red-haired woman, all the elders are mere obstacles.
Unfortunately, he cannot teleport at a certain position in the air or else he could instantly kill her, but he didn''t give up, in his lightning form, he dashed at her direction while green streaks of lightning struck from the sky, they were all aimed at the elders.
There were just so many streaks of lightning so the elders who were going to intercept the incoming Arthur were busy evading them, however, Arthur didn''t just do that, he also created all kinds of weapons from [Ancient fire] and [Eclipse magic] and launched them at the elders so hinder them and buy sometime.
His speed was insane as he was already a dozen of meters from the red-haired woman who was being held by the elder, who was surprised by what just happened, he saw how the attacks were only focused on the others and nothing happened to him, furthermore, he saw the yellow streak of lightning come at him.
His face paled as he turned around while holding the woman and prepared to flee.
Just as Arthur closed on them, several Elders who managed to dodge his attacks came at him using various attacks, the streaks of lightning weren''t fast enough to hit them as they moved together to block this monster.
''Tsk! annoying bastards!'' Seeing the incoming opponents, he changed his direction toward the closest enemy and in lightning speed pierced Makaze in the old man''s heart, it was just too fast for the poor old man to react, he just instantly died.
Arthur didn''t stop at that, he quickly left Yuxi body and immediately possessed the old man, to gain more stats and perhaps attack them by surprise.
All they saw was how the yellow streak of lightning changed back to Yuxi then he stabbed the old man, then they saw Yuxi fall from the sky so they charged at him.
As for Arthur, it took him a couple of seconds to adjust himself to the new body, then he charged at the fleeing elder yet again.
This time, the fleeing elder who didn''t say what just happened, was relieved when he saw a comrade coming to help him protect the ''miss'' but to his surprise, his ''comrade'' pierced his heart with his bare hand, as if that wasn''t enough, he felt all his organs and bones shattering and turning into dust.
Arthur used Natural Lightning to pulverize that elder then held the red-haired woman who was still shocked and looking at him with a pale face.
..
The elders who rushed at Yuxi who was falling, were relieved when they checked his and saw that he is definitely dead, however, when they turned their head to look at the fleeing elder to check if he successfully brought the miss to safety, they were surprised to see the supposedly ''dead'' elder holding the miss by her neck and there was no trace of the other elder who was supposed to protect her.
They didn''t waste time as they flew in the air and headed there to see what happened, by as they were half their eyes widened as they saw the elder who was holding the ''miss'' by her neck, literally beheading the poor woman with his bare hands, however, what seemed more surprising is that black flames were coming out of his body.
Arthur was already very enraged as he held her and couldn''t control his urges to kill her, he wanted to tell her that he is alive and well then see her surprised face then slowly kill her but he couldn''t do it, he killed her brutally but it didn''t satisfy his thirst, so he turned to look at the incoming elder with a grin hanging on his face.
........
It has been an hour since Arthur went to the male area, and there were several sounds of explosions and streaks of lightning, even though there was a distance between the two pagodas, Anastassia, Lucy and the others could hear those sounds.
Lucy and Saly were standing outside along with Anastassia and the rest, they were waiting for Arthur, Lucy was very worried as for Anastassia, she was just curious about what would happen.
She no longer considered Kali, who was Sonia''s twin sister, her little sister as she already betrayed her and all the female area when she went to that ''man'', so she didn''t stop Arthur but seeing his bloodied state, she wasn''t sure he could handle all the elders, after all, she didn''t see him fight.
Lucy finally couldn''t handle it, she held Saly and dashed toward the male area, and was surprisingly followed by Anastassia.
In no time, they finally arrived at the scene but this time, Anastassia was dumbfounded, her eyes were locked on the red figure standing in the middle of a somewhat big square near the pagoda.
All the ground was dyed red as the man was standing alone there, on his knees and staring at the sky.
Lucy was the first to rush next to Arthur, seeing his state, tears couldn''t help but flow from her eyes as she was worried about his state.
"Arthur....Arthur!"
No matter how she called, he wouldn''t respond, and after some observation, she noticed he was unconscious, although his eyes were still opened, he seemed to have fallen unconscious.
Saly was hugging Arthur while crying as for Lucy, she fed him all the healing potions she had, he was bloody all over, even his face was no exception, and if one looked around they would see pools of blood here and there, however, there was no sign of a disciple or elder.
Anastassia was still shocked as she looked at this, she couldn''t sense anyone nearby, not even one breathing soul, the only one left was him.
Chapter 56 : Spirit Realm
..
After an unknown amount of time, Arthur finally opened his eyes, only to see that he was in a room strangely decorated.
One look at it and he discovered that he must surely be in the Ma Clan area or else this Chinese style wouldn''t be present, he became anxious for a second before he noticed he wasn''t bound or chained so his mind relaxed a bit.
Arthur didn''t know why but he didn''t feel injured or unable to move, quite the opposite, in fact, he felt he was in great form and as if he was never injured, to begin with.
Unsurprisingly, Lucy was sitting next to him, when she saw slightly move and open his eyes, tears flowed down from her beautiful eyes as she looked at him while smiling, yet despite the smiling, the tears couldn''t help but come out endlessly.
Saly was sleeping in a not far away bed which was similar to his, he also noticed her swollen eyes, it must be because she cried a lot waiting for him, his heart ached when he thought about how much he caused her and Lucy to worry.
As if predicting what he was going to ask, Lucy leaned next to him, giving him a tight hug while saying
"5 days, you have been unconscious 5 days since... then"
Seeing how much she was worried, Arthur didn''t ask anything and hugged her back while giving her a small pat on her forehead.
They laid in each other''s embrace for quite sometime before Lucy let go and leaned her head on his shoulder.
"... What happened?"
Arthur finally asked what he wanted to know the most, the only thing he could remember was killing Kali, then he blacked out, all that happened afterward was unknown to him.
"When we arrived there.. only you were there, apparently you killed 29 elders and 4 section chiefs of the male area, to the public, it was only known as an attack from a strong spy from a rival clan and only a few higher-ups knew the truth."
Lucy didn''t hide a thing from him and narrated what happened in details, and somethings really stunned Arthur as he didn''t expect that cold-blooded Anastassia to help them in that matter, furthermore, she asked Lucy to stay here until he heals.
Arthur thought that maybe Anastassia also had plans for him but Lucy reassured him saying that Anastassia felt grateful toward him as he got rid of troubles, as she already said, the two areas weren''t cooperating so him killing a few elders made the female area gain absolute control as they were now much stronger.
..
They talked for an hour or so before Arthur got up from the bed and retrieved a decent robe to wear then the first thing he did was summon a lightning beast hoping it was Astrith.
His hopes weren''t for nothing as after a short amount of time, the beast was created and it was indeed Astrith, he was same as the last and also kept the memory of all that happened.
Next thing Arthur did was check his status but the system still wouldn''t work, not even a notification popped up so he shrugged that off for later and retrieved the corpses he had in his storage.
He honestly didn''t know what happened at that time, but when he checked his storage he was surprised to see 26 corpses of grey robbed old men and 2 corpses of what appeared to be section chiefs.
Seeing that, he couldn''t help but feel delighted as these were precious stats, however, since he woke up, he got this strange feeling as if everything was much clearer, he could feel his senses increase by a tremendous amount, even his enigma ability [Sixth sense] enlarged to a radius of 250m which was pretty awesome.
He already possessed those hundred disciples so his strength must''ve sky-rocketed, it was unfortunate he couldn''t demonstrate it in that fight as his soul was weakened but there was nothing he could do, his soul was weaker than others and those chains almost instantly killed him.
What Arthur was happy to discover was that he can control [Dark magic] again, the good old dark magic is back so he was overjoyed, in terms of piercing and speed, that was his fastest, [Eclipse magic] may be the combination of void and dark but for some odd reason, it was weaker than dark magic or maybe his use of it is different.
Unfortunately, he couldn''t use [void magic] but that wasn''t that important as he didn''t use it that much compared to [Dark Magic].
Previously dark magic was named [Chaotic Dark Magic] and had a blue-ish colour to it but now it was dark green, it was the same as the last one except it was green, it also had an additional thing, which is its pressure, it seemed to have risen by several times, Arthur didn''t feel a thing because he was the one who created but Lucy said that she felt heavy when she was next to it, maybe it had something to do with gravity or the pressure was just too great, who knows?
Also, even without the notification, Arthur subconsciously knew that he could use the [Godly Lightning], however, contrary to the other types lightning, this one needed some concentration so it could not be used instantly in a fight, but, if he can fuse it with [Ancient fire] then the result would be devastating, he must try that when he finds a quiet and secluded spot! Surely!
After 3 hours of possessing and consuming the corpses with [Death Touch], Arthur was finally done, fortunately, he woke up at night and neither Anastassia not Saly noticed what he has done except for Lucy of course who was brimming with happiness, she felt how strong she became everytime he possessed a body.
After these 3 hours, Arthur didn''t have time to check what skills or strength he has gotten before Lucy jumped on him kissing intimately.
It has indeed been quite a time since they did it plus these 5 days were stressful for her so she wanted to vent it all out in a passionate sex, which she did.
With a simple sound-proof talisman to block the moans from getting out, Arthur and Lucy went at it for 2 hours before they stopped, the sun was rising and Saly would be waking up soon, they didn''t want to make her see such a sight, she was still a kid after all.
As Arthur and Lucy were laying on the bed, she had her head on his chest while he wrapped his left hand around her waist and used his other hand to caress her long soft hair.
As he was doing this, he suddenly remembered that Lucy could use the system, he thought she didn''t have one too but earlier she told him she had one which was different to the pink one so he asked her to show him, since she had 80% of his stats, he should be able to guess his own.
TITLE :???????????
Level:
1000
Class:
Half demon\ ????
REALM : Spirit
-
Strength
3.55m
Intelligence
3.40m
Agility
3.39m
Wisdom
3.35m
Vitality
3.34m
Dexterity
2.9m
-
Health
3.30m
Health Regen
3 415/s
Mana
3.01m
Mana Regen
7899/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Charm :49
Attack:
3.49m
Defense:
3.27m
Magic defense : 19356,8
Elemental resistances
Fire:
65%
Water:
10%
Wind:
10%
Earth:
10%
Magma
100%
Light/holy:
0%
Darkness:
80%
Due to reaching the necessary requirements, your level has risen to 1000(Spirit Realm)
"...."
Arthur was dumbfounded as he saw this, he even thought he was hallucinating and the injuries were still affecting his eye-sight but it wasn''t the case, fortunately.
Lucy was just as dumbstruck as him, albeit feeling extremely power, she didn''t think her stats were THIS high.
After several minutes of silence, Lucy broke it by laughing as if she was controlling the world, she was so happy to become this strong that she couldn''t contain her excitement.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
What was more fascinating is that both Lucy and Arthur could fly now, it''s not like using wind magic to fly but to actually fly, they floated a meter or so to test it out and it worked out smoothly and perfectly, it''s like they used it all their lives.
Now, they wouldn''t need Astrith or the bone dragon or even the dark cloud to fly, however, using Astrith once in a while wouldn''t hurt either.
After cuddling with Lucy for a bit, Arthur began analyzing the skills he got from the disciples and elders, there were a lot, just so much new things.
They all relied on this new kind of energy which was called ''Qi'', he can freely be used it and absorb it from the surroundings as he appeared to have gotten all the talents of the poor deceased disciples.
Unfortunately, he didn''t have the system to explain the skills more thoroughly, but he grasped them and comprehended them, sort of, he also could use them.
There were palm attacks, punches, kicks, various fighting styles similar to Karate and Kung fu, with all the experiences from these people, Arthur''s fighting is literally considered peerless now.
He even got some foot techniques which increased the mouvement in combat, it was extraordinary, these foot techniques can be used along with normal skills which made them much more convenient, Arthur picked the best one he found and tried it.
Even without the system, he still got the information about the skill, and its name, except it didn''t say what it exactly does, he knows it''s a technique to increase speed.
Without wasting time, he proceeded in testing in and to his surprise, it was mind-blowing, this [Petal footsteps], left him astonished, this technique required the owner to move in a certain manner and gently step on the ground or air as if they were soft flower petals, it was a strange yet relaxing feeling, once Arthur used it, it was akin to teleportation, literally.
Now all he got to do in fights is use the talisman which seals all teleportations then uses this, it apparently can be used with lightning form too but they were not compatible, plus [Petal footsteps] seemed to increased his speed slightly better than the lightning form, however, that didn''t mean he would give up on the latter, after all, each had it''s uses.
As he ran around the room using this skill, you could see several after images of him, his speed was godly, or rather say, it was overpowered, even Anastassia''s speed, which previously dumbfounded Arthur cannot really be compared to this.
Arthur also tried a few other techniques such as the golden palm of Wuji which he also has, it was strong but he didn''t completely unleash it for fear to destroy the place or wake up the sleeping Saly.
He decided to try those offensive techniques later, next he tried the defensive techniques, they were all focused on Qi and when using it in a unique manner, they could form a defensive layer around their bodies.
For example, there is a skill called [Turtle Shell], it uses ''Qi'' to create an invisible armor around your body to defend against physical attacks, it is weak in the beginning but if cultivated to its end then you can create a golden turtle shell that can even defend from the frightful soul attacks.
Apparently, those new skills that were based on ''Qi'' are divided into several comprehension realms, each time you advance to the next one, the skill becomes better and stronger, the realms are respectively: Mortal, Spirit, heavenly, divine and godlike, however, that was only based on what Arthur has, maybe there were things still unknown to him.
But, he honestly liked those skills and techniques better than the ones he had, he felt they were stronger and harder to practice.
..
Last but not least, Arthur checked the strengthening techniques, it consisted of acupoint clearing, breathing techniques and so on.
He only picked the best of them and ignored the mysterious ones which they seemed strange to him, for now, he only wanted to try the simple breathing technique and the acupoint clearing skill, unfortunately, it only cleared 1 acupuncture in the right arm but it was enough for now.
Without delay, Arthur used it on himself and just as it was cleared, he felt as if some energy entered through that acupoint, it filled his arm, he felt his right arm become more solid and refreshed, it was a strange feeling yet satisfying at the same time.
Next, he cleared Lucy''s acupoint in her left arm, the result was a cute and lovely moan from her, the feeling was just too great so she couldn''t contain it, she even blushed a little as it embarrassed her, but that only ended up in her getting a passionate kiss from Arthur.
He couldn''t help himself when he sees he act like this, it''s just too stimulating.
.....
Two more hours passed before the little girl finally woke up, as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, her sleepy gaze immediately changed as she Arthur sitting next to her while smiling.
She jumped on him while sobbing, on the course of these 5 days, she and Lucy never left his side and since she saw his bloodied corpse she was deathly worried about his safety, she would pass the whole night crying beside him until she fell asleep and Lucy carries her to her bed.
Now that he woke up, she couldn''t feel happier, nothing is worth having him by her side as only hugging him and feeling is warm embrace is enough for her to feel relaxed and comfortable.
After enjoying the feeling of the fluffy ears of Saly and chatting with her for some time, the three of them left the room to look for Anastassia.
Lucy already informed Arthur that Anastassia came looking for her these past few days and told her that if Arthur isn''t healing, she can give her(Lucy) a few Elixirs which might be effective, however, Lucy strongly rejected as she knew that if her potions and Elixirs didn''t work then there is no way in hell Anastassia''s Elixirs or whatever would work.
Arthur was no longer angry or thirsty for revenge, he doesn''t know why but since he woke up, he feels calm, extremely calm, no anger, no irritation, nothing, just the usual emotions such as love, happiness and so on.
His mind didn''t think of the culprit anymore as if that matter never happened, he didn''t know why but he didn''t think too much about it.
Furthermore, he thought Anastassia despised him but she surprisingly offered her help, maybe because he helped her out in some way or she is feeling, whichever the case doesn''t really matter, what matters is she provided him, Lucy and Saly a place to stay when he was gravely injured and that is a big favour.
It''s true he hated this clan''s guts but all of that seemed far away in the past for him for some odd reason, it felt like it was thousands of years ago and that he should let go of it, but you cannot deny that there is some reluctance deep in his heart, it doesn''t want to let go and let the real culprit go.
He indeed killed Kali, however, she was not the only culprit, there was also the young master, fortunately for him, he was not there when ''that'' happened but Arthur never thought of letting him go even though he felt peaceful about this matter, plus, it''s not like Anastassia is going to stop him, after all, she let him kill her own sister so that proves that she treasures loyality more than family and her own sister betrayed so there is nothing else to talk about, only death awaited Kali from the very moment she betrayed her elder sister.
Although Arthur became strong, incomparable strong, he never ever will act overconfident again, what happened last time was proof that there will always be someone stronger and more powerful, so just for precautions, he used his mental power and tried to create flash grenades.
In the past, when he created Ace, he couldn''t do this, however, since he became stronger, maybe his mental power increased? And it indeed did, it was just by a little by but it nonetheless increased and now he managed to create flash grenades.
Since they are items from a different world, not everyone would expect them, plus they would buy him some time to escape from that woman if she reappears again, hopefully, not..
..
The interior of the pagoda was as magnificent and fascinating as ever, Arthur quite enjoyed this style, it was total to his liking, if he ever built a house, it would be much like this.
They soon found what appeared to be a servant as she wore an outfit relatively similar to a maid, she held a plate which contained teacups.
As Arthur asked for instructions, the maid appeared frightened for a second but she then relaxed when he told her they were visitors, and it just so happened that she was serving Anastassia and Sonia right now so she asked Arthur and the rest to follow her.
Not long after that, they arrived at a big room, it was not full of decoration but it had some ancient paintings and redwood vases and status, the floor was covered with some kind of soft carpet which was pleasing to walk on, and there was a beautiful view of the yard which had a small river and some medicinal plants, the fragrance could be smelled from dozens of meters away.
This room was literally like heaven, quiet and beautiful, one could enjoy the rest of his life living here, a book in one hand and the teacup in the other, enjoying the full view of the yard and the bright moon at night, none would disturb you and the food will be delivered, what can you ask more?
A dark-haired woman was sitting in a seiza stance( AN : google it) on the floor while her sister, Sonia was sitting normally, they both seemed to chat but in reality, only Sonia was talking and Anastassia was nodding in response, since Sonia was used to this kind of behavior from her sister, she didn''t mind that.
Anastassia was wearing tight black clothes, they seemed more formals than in the past and suited her quite well, you can see her mature and elegant body and curvy waist, she would not lose against her sister Sonia, in a way Anastassia looked more mature and refined as she also held a cold demeanor, it seemed impossible to see through her.
Noticing the arrival of the maid followed by Lucy, Arthur and Saly, Anastassia was momentarily shocked, because not too long ago, Arthur was on the verge of death, yet here is walking normally as if it wasn''t him that looked bloodied just several days ago, it was really illogical, but she was not the kind of person to dwell on matters like this, naturally everyone has their secret and she has no right to ask about it.
As for Sonia, it took her a bit longer to notice their arrival, as she saw them coming, especially Arthur, she looked at him with a complicated gaze, she felt guilty, although it was not her fault, she should have been more cautious, because if she did, that thing would not have happened, it''s a pity the past is the past and nothing can change it, not even apologizing a hundred or a thousand times, nonetheless, she bowed her head at the incoming Arthur while saying
"Sir Arthur, I''m deeply sorry about what happened, it was out of my expectation and didn''t know until recently about what happened."
What she said was actually true, when her sister took her place, they only told her Arthur and Lucy died at the war, so she believed that, it was only recently that her grandfather told her the whole truth, which saddened her and made her feel extremely guilty.
Arthur did not want to bother with that matter anymore, only the young master was done and then everything would be over, perhaps he would ask Lucy to go over the Holy Church to finish them too, it should be enough to completely erase their existence and pull them from their roots, then he would think about what to do.
"It''s okay, the matter is almost solved, only one person is left, it has nothing to do with you anymore"
After saying that, he sat opposite to Anastassia, there was a table separating them which was quite long, Lucy and Saly sat next to him, the little girl didn''t want to let go of him as she sat on his lap and hummed with a cheerful tone.
Arthur looked at Anastassia deeply for a minute or so before speaking yet again
"For what you did these past few days, thank you, without your hospitality maybe things could have been much worse for us, I''m a person who does not want to owe favors to others, just tell me what you want"
Although she helped him only a bit and they were enemies, Arthur decided to let go of stupid grudges and to begin with she had nothing to do with that matter, he felt that when she told him the story, he could not bring herself to call her a liar, she seemed honest enough, for him at least.
It was a meager help but it was enough to win his favor, for people like that, albeit them previously being enemies, she extended her hand and helped them in need which was more than enough for him to feel a bit grateful.
Several minutes passed and the atmosphere became a bit awkward, Anastassia didn''t reply to Arthur and merely stared at him up and down as if assessing him, for Arthur, it felt strange yet funny, it''s as if he was a girl being gauged by a playboy.
The silence have been finally broken by Anastassia''s sentence
"Join my clan...."
Chapter 57 : Boy, Be Careful
As Arthur heard her say that, he was a bit shocked, to be honest, he didn''t expect her to say this, he indeed decided to let go of the enmity between them, however, that didn''t mean he wants to join her clan or whatever, that was a whole different thing.
It may be a good offer to others, heck! people wish to join the Ma Clan but can''t so what she told him now is very rare, especially when you know the Ma Clan almost never recruits people from outside, it may have been a bold move from her, but for Arthur, he didn''t think much of it.
Firstly, he didn''t want to be restricted by a Clan as he liked travelling, but it may be a lie to say he never thought of establishing some kind of institution or something similar, it''s just some trait he got from his past-life, in the past he established several companies and became filthy rich, the money didn''t interest him, what he quite enjoyed is raising that company to the very top.
Arthur stared at Anastassia who was looking at him with cold eyes and emotionless face, she didn''t even seem eager to hear his answer so it seemed confusing as to why she would ask that.
"I cannot do that..."
She didn''t seem surprised by his answer, and when he just finished those 4 words, she talked yet again
"How about a guest Elder? You and your comrade."
Her insistence perplexed Arthur for there is no apparent reason for what she asked, did she think the clan would gain better protection or what?
"Why do you want me to join your clan or become a guest Elder?"
To this question, Anastassia remained silent as if struggling between answering or not, finally, after spending some time thinking thoroughly, she replied to Arthur.
"The Grand Elder won''t let you live after what you did, especially if you plan to kill his grandson, so if you join us and stay in the female area, the probability of you surviving is better."
Hearing this, Arthur burst out in laughter and retorted
"Ha! What a joke! I know you are not this kind and this is not the real reason if you don''t plan on telling it then nevermind, it''s not like I''m willing to join with a clan with its master being a liar!"
Sonia, hearing Arthur badmouth her sister, became a bit angered and shouted at Arthur
"Who are you calling a liar!"
However, she soon realized who she was shouting at, so she shrank back behind her big sister, afraid to even glance at Arthur, she did that on impulse and it was completely out of her character.
Arthur ignored Sonia and just kept staring at the black-haired woman with a smile on his face.
Having no choice but to say the truth, Anastassia sighed and slowly said
"Fine... that reason was only secondary, I was interested in your strength and your comrade, after all, you managed to kill 29 Elders. Furthermore, each and every one of them is a powerhouse not to be reckoned with, so I wanted to rope you in to increase the power of the clan and at the same time protect you from the Grand Elder"
In fact, Anastassia wasn''t the kind of person to easily say her motives, but this time, she got no choice, Arthur is not someone she can easily mess with, she didn''t see him fight but from the result of that incident, it was certain that he was very powerful, plus it was mysterious how he healed from those horrifying wounds in just 5 days, one must have a godlike recovering ability or some heaven-defying Elixir than can instantly heal all wounds.
"Hoo.. so you finally speak honestly, good! good! I like that, but I think it''s unnecessary to protect us.."
"I know you are strong, but the Grand Elder is not like those normal Elders, he is almost on par with me, he has been concealing his strength for a while now"
Anastassia obviously didn''t think Arthur became much stronger by possessing so even though he managed to kill all those elders, for her, it was a simple thing, an achievable feat even by her. although for others it may sound like a miracle, she can kill them easily but that didn''t mean she can kill the Grand Elder easily too.
She also thought he was very lucky as the day he attacked the male area, the Grand Elder was out of the clan and not all elders were present, nonetheless, he slaughtered half of them which is incredible.
"I think you misunderstand something too, I''m not as weak you think, I was merely injured last time because of an unexpected thing, if you do not believe me then.. how about a spar between us?"
This time, she was taken aback a bit, she never expected him to ask her to spar with him, Anastassia felt a bit of contempt toward him as he was certainly not the first to ask her for a spar then end up half crippled.
After staring at him with piercing eyes trying to find his motive, it was futile so she could only nod at him indicating her confirmation about his proposal.
The two of them didn''t linger off in that room any longer and headed outside, there was a private training ground not too far from the pagoda, it only needed 5 minutes of walk and they decided to make it the place of the spar.
Anastassia was yet again shocked when she saw the familiar Astrith outside, she thought he was dead for sure so how in the blue hell did he come back?
Astrith too was staring at her, he wanted to fight her again now that he becomes stronger, one must not forget that his strength increases when Arthur stats increase, it may not be like Lucy, but it nevertheless strengthened him a lot, he became more confident in his victory against her.
The place was quiet and suitable for a duel or a spar, it was a big square devoid of people of anything, it was just green ground with some wind blowing making the place seem very peaceful and pleasant.
Anastassia didn''t change her clothes, she only retrieved her two black daggers and put them in her waist, as for Arthur, he took out Makaze and also put it his waist, unsheathed.
They stood 50 meters from each other while Lucy and the other spectators were not far away.
Although has new skills and techniques now and his stats sky-rocketed and became insane, that didn''t mean he should underestimate her, especially her, he previously saw her speed and offense and it was no joke, even with his new strength he didn''t dare act overconfident like last time, furthermore, he was on full alert as maybe that woman with the black chains will come back again, after all, they appeared suddenly and if not for Zodiak, he would have been killed by her.
He took out Zodiak''s corpse earlier and inspected it, but no matter how much he called for Zodiak''s name, nothing happened, it just returned to a normal skeleton corpse, it was confusing but he didn''t dare absorb it or throw it, after all, it saved his goddam life.
One other thing that bothered him is his soul, it was very weak, thinner than paper, even a simple soul attack would heavily injure him so he wanted to find a solution to strengthen it, it was too bad that the system won''t work right now, as he wanted to thoroughly inspect the skills, see his LVL and so on.
"How about we make this more interesting?" Arthur said while grinning at Anastassia.
She only stayed silent, unwilling to speak for some odd reason so he continued speaking.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
"Let''s make a bet, if you win I''ll become a guest Elder, and if I win.... I''ll decide what I want at that time.. what do you say?"
Anastassia''s eyes widened for a second before regaining their normal sharpness and coldness, she pondered for a dozen of seconds before nodding at Arthur.
..
Wuji stood between them and counted down from 3 and just when he said ''Go!'' both of them charged at each other, this time Anastassia took both of her daggers from the very beginning, just like him.
Arthur didn''t use [Petal Footsteps], he wanted to see his speed without it and compare it to her.
As they were rushing at each other, although the distance was extremely short, he was able to guess that she was fast, very fast, faster than him, it made him more and more surprised, his agilitiy must be in the 4 million, no matter how high her agility is, it can never reach that, that''s going by logic of course, because Arthur is a parasite, he only reached it by possessing countless corpses, and Lucy had the blessing which is considered literal cheat, but how did Anastassia do it?
He didn''t dare to relax anymore and launched [Petal footsteps] in the middle of the charge, his speed more than doubled and he finally clashed with her, he didn''t use any dangerous skills such as dark magic or anything similar, after all it was just a spar.
Makaze and both the daggers struck each other, and the impact was incredible, just the strength of the clash was enough to create a 30m radius crater under their feet.
Anastassia''s eyes were wide open, her face looked like she has seen a ghost as she stared with disbelief at Arthur, never did she think he not only was fast but had immense strength, although it looked like both of them clashed, she was pushed back a couple of steps by that simple slash of his.
Makaze was pressing on both of the crossed daggers, she could barely hold on as she was slowly but surely being overwhelmed by his brute strength, with no choice left, she jumped back with lightning speed and sneakily sent hidden needles at Arthur.
They were not dangerous, but they were precisely aimed at specific Acupoints to make him paralyzed, her accuracy was no joke, but unfortunately for her, as if hitting an invisible wall the needles fell on the ground once they come into contact with Arthur body.
Actually, Arthur picked a good defensive technique from all the ones he got, it was called [Suppressing Mountains], it was originally an offensive technique but it is used to defend more than to attack, by using it, the owner will be extremely heavy and his skin and bones would be hardened to the extreme, once active it would make the user 75% slower but his defense would sky-rocket and would become almost like a fortress.
Arthur used it in a flash as his reaction speed was unbeatable, he noticed the needles the moment they were thrown at him and since he didn''t want to use magic in this sparr, he used that technique.
He didn''t know if those needles would hurt or not if he didn''t use [Suppressing Mountains] but he won''t lose anything from using it.
Arthur then used [Lone Sword] at her, then he followed the two supersonic slashes but jumping on her using a palm attack he gained, it was one of the few which was practiced to a high realm and is decent, it was called [Buddha Palm] and is strong at crushing enemies.
..
Anastassia wasn''t holding all her hopes on the needles, she had already retreated several dozens of meters from him, while doing so, she saw a wide black slash coming at her with illogical speed, it was a 1 meter curvy black arc, it''s speed was many times faster than her, but fortunately, she managed to react in time to defend, it''s basically impossible to dodge that as she was already backing away, so the only left solution is to counter it or successfully block.
For someone like her, who experienced countless battles and even managed to take hold of a powerful clan, her fighting reached a heavenly level.
She used a secret defensive technique that she practiced since childhood, it was her main one, although she didn''t use it much, it was nevertheless useful.
In a slow yet strangely fast motions, she waved her daggers sending two slashes of her own, then she waved her left hand in a weird manner which resulted in a dark shield appearing in front of her.
The slash of [Lone Sword] and those of Anastassia''s finally clashed but her slashes only managed to slow down his by a little bit, it was still charging at her.
When it finally hit the dark shield, there was a loud ringing sound before it vanished leaving cracks on the shield, however, that wasn''t all, Arthur was following behind that slash as he struck the dark shield with his [Buddha Palm], his palm turned into a golden colour, emanating an overwhelming pressure, the dark shield instantly shattered, leaving Anastassia exposed to the sudden attack of Arthur.
With no way to defend, she crossed her hands in a defensive stance and awaited for the palm to hit her, which it obviously did, it sent her flying very far away, until she hit a tree a hundred or so meters from her previous position.
Soon, she got up from the ground with some blood leaking out from her pale white lips, she was still unable to comprehend what just happened in this exchange, she was totally overwhelmed by him, she barely managed to block his attacks only to receive stronger ones, also, how is he able to use those techniques of her clan? That mouvement technique or that palm...
She was curious, but she didn''t ask him, it was a spar, he can use whatever he want, however, it nonetheless was intriguing as even if he managed to get a hold of the scrolls of those techniques, there is absolutely no way he can use them like that.
Anastassia, didn''t waste time thinking as she rushed at him yet again, but this time her speed seemed to have increased.
Arthur was excited as he tested the new skill and enjoyed the spar, he also rushed at her but even with her increase, she was still slower than him when he used [Petal Footsteps].
They clashed yet again but this time, they flew to the sky and from afar, you can see two black shadows appearing and disappearing in the sky with strong impact noises here and there.
For spectators like Saly, Astrith and Wuji, they could only see blurs, only Lucy barely managed to see both of them, a smile bloomed on her enchanting face as she saw Arthur fight, he was totally suppressing Anastassia.
Although to others it seemed like both of them were relentlessly attacking each other in the sky with explosions here and there, it was all Arthur''s doing.
He was hit a few time by her but it didn''t even injure him, as for her, she was sent flying several times, he didn''t exert too much strength to not kill or heavily injure her, nonetheless, she had superficial injuries, she just couldn''t block his monstrous strength, the only way is to dodge which is even more impossible to do seeing that he is faster than her.
Anastassia had a few deadly techniques or skills that would strengthen her by a huge margin, but that would cost a lot and this was just a spar, so there was no need to use them.
She was flabbergasted the more she fought him, no matter how she attacked, it was useless as it would be either dodged by him or blocked.
At a certain exchange, one of her daggers finally couldn''t hold on and suddenly shattered, shocked by this, she hastily retreated and looked dumbfoundedly at the shattered dagger as if it was just an illusion.
Arthur felt a bit guilty as he didn''t do it on purpose, Makaze was a deadly weapon and it''s already surprising those daggers managed to hold on many exchanges against him, it was a matter of time before one of these daggers would shatter, however, even if he have told her that earlier, he was sure she wouldn''t have believed him or would have simply continued so he refrained from doing that.
This outcome was anticipated by him, so when he saw her stare at the dagger like that, he descended from the air and calmly said
"Let''s stop here... I didn''t mean to break it but it just happened.... anyways, I''ll compensate you for it."
Hearing this, she snapped out of her daze and looked at him coldly before retorting
"The spar isn''t over yet, the winner has not been decided yet."
Arthur merely waved his hand non-chalantly while saying
"There is no need to continue, none of us fighted seriously, I held back a lot and I think so do you.. because if that''s your real power, then I''m really disappointed... you can consider yourself the winner and I''ll be the guest Elder... Just for the time being, it''s only until I leave the clan"
Arthur wanted to stay here for a certain amount of time, first to find some solutions to his weak soul and finish that young master, then he would probably go to the Holy Church or something else, depends on what he plans.
Anastassia could only angrily descend and stare at Arthur''s back with ferocity, even though it was apparent he was suppressing her and he should be the winner, he said she won, this kind of undeserved victory is unwanted by her, it sounded like a pity more than victory.
It was rare for her to show expressions, and this time was one of the rare times she did, her face looked a bit distorted as she looked at him going with Lucy and Saly back to the Pagoda.
It was a good thing he became a guest Elder, and now that she knew he is very strong, probably stronger than her, then someone like the Grand Elder is no threat to him, plus he said he will stay here for a while so that means her clan would gain many benefits.
Her decisions weren''t wrong after all, it was a wise idea to help him that time, although they were firstly enemies, that didn''t mean they will always be like that.
**********
Arthur, Lucy went back to their room while Saly stayed with Astrith in the yard, even though she wanted to stick with Arthur, seeing him fight like that, she resolved herself to become stronger and immediately began training, after all, she vowed to become strong enough to be able to fight by his side.
Just as Arthur and Lucy went back to the room, his black storage ring vibrated intensily before the familiar skeleton of Zodiak got out of it.
It looked as creepy as ever and suprisingly it wore the black robe, it looked around for a second before it''s lifeless eyes landed on Arthur''s figure, it didn''t remain silent as it hastily spoke.
"Boy, I don''t know who you are but I can sense my magic within you, I sealed some of my consciousness into my body so it can activate once it is near a divine being, I only managed to win a couple of years for you, that treacherous woman will find you sooner or later... anyways, I don''t have much time left. I said what I had to say, hopefully, we meet again in the future.. boy."
Chapter 58 : Unexpected Encounter
Arthur was momentarily surprised by the sudden appearance of Zodiak, he stood there dazed for some time before he came back to his senses when Lucy called out to him.
Like last time, she didn''t see Zodiak''s corpse appear, the only thing she saw was Arthur looking in one direction and carefully listening as if he was hearing someone.
After Arthur managed to calm down, he sat down next to Lucy and explained what just happened, she naturally knew what happened with the black chains as he already narrated that to her when he woke up, and now he told her what Zodiak just said.
He honestly surprised as he didn''t think Zodiak was this powerful, he easily got rid of that woman with that vortex, it was horrifying, every time Arthur remembered it he would unconsciously shiver.
Previously, he only thought that Zodiak was a mythical being, true he must be very strong, but not THIS strong, although he died he still managed to insert some of his consciousness or whatever it was into his dead body.
He also mentioned ''Divine being'' which was an indication to that woman, unfortunately, Arthur didn''t mean what it exactly meant and he was hoping to get answers from Zodiak but he had gone back to his storage too quickly for him to react in time.
The rest of the day, Arthur continued testing some techniques then chatted with Lucy, as for Saly, she passed the whole day practicing, she had Astrith with her who helped her a lot plus she was wholly dedicated to becoming stronger.
Arthur obviously wasn''t stingy and had already given her every item or Elixir that could strengthen her, he even cleared the Acupoint which increased her stats by 300, although she is 5-years-old, her prowess is no joke, she just has to gain combat-experience and learn some good skills.
..
The next day, Arthur went to talk to Anastassia privately about some things, plus he was going to compensate her because he shattered his dagger, it''s not like he was too concerned about that, he just picked a somewhat strong dagger from his storage and decided to give it to her.
There were many weapons and treasures still inaccessible by him or some which cannot even be appraised, he discovered that everytime he powers-up, he would be able to yield some, it was not a lot of items but there were some nonetheless and the dagger was one of them.
He was sitting in front of Anastassia in the yard without anyone disturbing them, Lucy stayed with Saly in the room and Astrith is inside Arthur''s consciousness.
Wuji, Sonia, and Mary went to the elven city as Mary wanted to bring the little kids here and after some persistence from Sonia, Anastassia finally accepted.
As they were both staring at each other, Arthur could see that Anastassia was still angry about yesterday but she could not bring herself to talk about it, so he didn''t either, he merely retrieved a dagger from his storage and threw it at her.
She easily caught what seemed like a normal bronze dagger, she frowned for a second before her eyes widened, although it looked like a completely normal bronze dagger, she felt an icy feeling coming from it, she couldn''t guess what it is but she definitely knew this was not a mere dagger.
She began inspecting it and casually slashing in the air, and after a couple of minutes, she nodded with a satisfied look on her face, she didn''t fully use it but she kind of grasped it, from her perspective, it was not stronger than her previous dagger but Arthur knew the truth, and that dagger most certainly way better, it''s just that Anastassia still didn''t uncover it''s truths.
He, who had [Peak sword mastery], it worked on all types of swords, although daggers cannot be considered swords, the passive skills strangely worked with daggers and when he tried using that dagger, it''s prowess was by no means weak.
He felt some kind of bloodlust and coldness coming from it, however, he didn''t dwell on it that much, it was a reasonable compensation so he gave it to her, now it was time to talk about some things.
"From the look of it, you are satisfied... then let''s move on to the other things."
She finally stored the dagger and lifted her head to look at him, she slowly nodded as she knew he wanted to ask her a few things, just by his look she can tell.
"First, where is that young master?"
"... He is currently out of the clan along with the Grand Elder to finish some matters, they should be back soon.."
Arthur put his hand on his chin as if thinking about something then he proceeded asking other things
"So it''s like that... then what''s the difference between the Mortal Realm and Spirit Realm?"
He kind of knew some information about that but it was not detailed so he wanted some explanation.
Anastassia was shocked when she heard that, for someone like him who is this strong to not know about this basic knowledge left her confused and stunned, however, she didn''t question him about why he is asking that and just replied to him.
"The Mortal Realm is for those who are under LVL1000, as for Spirit Realm, it''s for those above LVL1000 such as me and you, once you reach LVL1000 there will be a slight boost in your stats, but there are some cases when some people in the Mortal Realm defeat those in the Spirit Realm but that''s very rare..."
"... There is also several Realm above the Spirit Realm but unlike the two first ones, the next Realms are not biased on the LVL but on the strength, I was told that one must achieve a specific condition"
Arthur listened carefully to not miss anything, then when she finished, he moved onto the next question without letting her rest
"Hmm and what about Acupoints?"
"There is 361 Acupoints in our bodies and by clearing one or several, your strength would significantly rise, it was said that if someone managed to clear them all then he would become an existence above gods or deities.."
"... For example, I cleared 12 Acupoints in my feet which is why my speed is like that, just clearing one Acupoint in someone''s foot increases the agility by a tremendous amount and I only managed to clear 12 with the help of my master..."
Once she talked about her master, her tone seemed to become slightly sad yet you can notice a hint of killing intent, Arthur didn''t ask much about that matter and continued asking her about what he didn''t understand.
She was surprisingly helpful unlike what he thought her to be, perhaps it''s because he became a guest Elder which is considered to be a member of the clan, plus him being an Elder is a huge help to the clan, especially if it ever faced danger or an attack.
After 1 hour of asking and answering, Arthur came to know a lot of new things such as the existence of several other strong clans like the Yan Clan, the Xi Clan, and the Aristocrat Family Yun, these were the ones Anastassia said to be on par with the Ma Clan, and like them, these clans were not known to the world.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Each Clan has it''s unique techniques except a few known ones such as the breathing technique and so on, there were some friendly clans while rival ones, the competition was fierce between them but they would not engage in a reckless war like kingdoms or the war between Humans and Demons.
..
After talking with Anastassia, he went back to his room only to find Lucy and Saly there, the silver-haired beauty was brushing Saly''s hair with gentleness while chatting heartily with her.
Just seeing this warm sight made Arthur brightly smile, it was heartwarming to go back to your room and see your family waiting for you.
Although Saly is said to behis companion, he already considered her to be his family along with Lucy, he treated her like a father would treat his daughter.
Yesterday, he gave her the breathing technique and taught her how to absorb Qi, he guessed that for a beastmen with superior strength, practicing those martial art techniques may be better than magic, of course she can use her skills that he gave her but using the martial arts with them would lead to a better result.
What was kind of annoying is that sensing ''Qi'' and absorbing it way harder than Mana, which is why people who can manipulate Qi are very few.
The little girl sat cross-legged on the carpet with Arthur behind her, she used the breathing technique and tried her best to sense it but it was just too hard, fortunately for her, Arthur was behind her and guided the Qi around him toward her so it would make things easier.
Lucy didn''t want to practice martial arts, she was already proficient with magic and a decent fighter, furthermore, she wasn''t someone who could gain someone else''s skills like Arthur, she had to begin from scratch so she was unwilling.
Naturally, Arthur didn''t force her and spent the next few days helping Saly who finally managed to sense the Qi after the thorough and huge help of Arthur.
Compared to the other 5-year-old kids, she would be considered a little monster as her stats are unbelievable.
Arthur urged her to go around the area to meet new kids and perhaps make some new friends and even spar with them, Saly happily agreed but not after Arthur ordered Astrith to go with her.
He told him to not let anyone, literally anyone harm her, it''s alright if she practices with others but if the opponent tried to heavily injure her then Astrith was instructed to protect her and punish whoever wanted to hurt her.
Arthur and Lucy were sitting on the quiet Yard enjoying their time, he was absorbing Qi as he discovered that after passing some time absorbing it, he is getting strong, slowly but surely, it was a very meager increase but it is nonetheless an increase in his power so every day, he would use some of his time to absorb some Qi from the surroundings, or more precisely, the earth.
Qi is much abundant in the earth, Anastassia also told him that this place, where the clan is located has a high density of Qi, which is why they built the clan here.
There were several yards around the pagoda, some of them are used for practice for the female disciples and others are private, Arthur and Lucy were using a private one given to them by Anastassia, since he was considered an Elder now, he had his private room and yard in the pagoda.
Lucy was leaning on his shoulder and staring at his face while smiling as for him he was using the breathing technique and relaxing his mind.
All of a sudden, he sensed 3 powers with [Sixth Sense] coming with extreme speed toward the Pagoda, from their speed, he was sure they were not just disciples as it is impossible for them to be this fast.
Since they were not bothering him, Arthur didn''t pay them any heed and continued what he was previously doing without a care in the world.
However, not even 10 minutes have passed when some people barged in, it was Anastassia and 3 people, there was an old man wearing a black robe, another old man wearing a grey-robed so it was obviously an elder, and the last was a youth, he was wearing some tight black leather clothes, with a somewhat long vest which looked kind of weird.
Just as Anastassia was about to talk, the black-robed old man advanced toward Arthur while roaring angrily
"So you are the one who caused that mess and killed the elders, what right do you have to do that!"
The Grand Elder was only told by Anastassia that an individual killed the elders and he was staying at the clan, he was confused on why she would keep him alive but after some thought, it was to be expected as the two areas were not getting along recently, it''s as if it was two different clans.
Arthur ignored the roaring old man and gazed at Anastassia while calmly saying
"Who are these people and why did you bring them here"
"It''s the Grand Elder, his grandson, and Elder Chenyu."
Arthur only grasped the ''Grandson'' part and as soon as he heard that, his eyes landed on the haughty youth not far away, it wasn''t that hard to guess from the very beginning but he just needed some confirmation, he wanted to go there and finish him but it seems he willingly came to his yard, how is that not fortunate for him? It saved him a lot of trouble.
Arthur turned his head to look at the Grand Elder and casually said
"Ask your grandson and he will tell you who we are"
Momentarily surprised, the Grand Elder stood there dazed for a second before he abruptly turned his head to look at his grandson, expecting some answers, but all he received was a confused look from Chenqi, his grandson, who shrugged his shoulders as if indicating he doesn''t know.
Seeing this, he looked back at Arthur again, however, his face was flushed and was ready to explode as he felt he was being played with and was merely tricked.
"Stop playing tricks and tell me who you are, or I''ll stop being merciful"
Arthur burst out in laughter and retorted mockingly
"Ha ha ha, I''m not playing any tricks, your grandson clearly knows who we are, after all, he ordered to kill us.."
Chenqi, who just heard this, was slightly astonished but he still couldn''t remember who these two were, after all, he ordered many of his surbordinates to kill countless people so how could he remember all of them.
Arthur also noticed the perplexed look of the youth so he continued while smiling
"... A year ago.. at the academy, blasting a demon and a new member of the council.. do you remember now? Or should I refresh your memory?"
Chenqi''s pupils constricted and he immediately remembered that matter, he sent his wife to replace Sonia and ordered her to kill a man and a demon using judgment.
"Oooh! So you remember, good! good! It''s better to die knowing you were killed, right?"
Just as he said that, Arthur used [Petal footsteps] and rushed at the nearby Chenqi, his sudden actions were too quick for the Grand Elder to react, by the time he wanted to stop him, Arthur was already holding Chenqi''s neck, who was also shocked.
"W-What are you doing!" Roared the Grand Elder as he saw this, his doted on his grandson and although his behavior wasn''t the best, he still went along with it, but now he understood that Chenqi provoked someone he shouldn''t have.
Anastassia didn''t do anything, for her, the life of Chenqi or anyone in the male area was not her problem, the Ma clan can still remain powerful even without that trash, furthermore, Arthur just became an Elder of the clan which boosted its strength by a huge margin.
Arthur turned his head to look at the Grand Elder who didn''t dare to attack as he knew Arthur can kill his grandson with just a simple squeeze.
"What am I doing? Well, I''m returning what has been done to me and my wife obviously.."
Then he turned he stared at the panic-stricken Chenqi and coldly said
"Maybe if you tell me why you did that... hmm let''s say I may spare your life.. what do you say?.."
However, Chenqi wasn''t intending to reply as he slowly spoke
"... Grandpa.. Help m-me!"
His eyes were fixed on his Grandfather, expecting him to help and get him out of this mess, but the Grand Elder knew he can''t act recklessly, just now, he couldn''t react in time as Arthur''s speed was insane, so he knew he wasn''t weak.
"What do you want?"
The Grand Elder, Leiu, spoke to Arthur with a low tone, his angry shouting stopped as he thought that dealing with this situation calmly may lead to a better result and perhaps there is still a chance to save his grandson.
"What do I want? I already said that, I want to know why he did that"
Leiu honestly didn''t know the reason, he just thought of it as a normal matter of Chenqi as he always kills whoever he doesn''t like so he began thinking hastily, trying to come up with a reasonable excuse.
1...3...5 minutes passed without anyone speaking, Chenqi''s face became pale white as he could barely breathe, he couldn''t even move or resist, as for Leiu, he couldn''t do anything, he urged Chenqi to speak the truth but the latter stayed silent but after 5 minutes, he finally understood that there was no way out so he said the truth.
"I-I wanted t-to... control the a-academy, and you w-were tro-ublesom-mme *gasp*"
Hearing this, Arthur wasn''t angered or anything, for some reason, he felt calm, there was this urge to kill him but it was not as intense as last time, he released his grasp from Chenqi''s neck, but not after Natural lightning invaded his body and instantly struck his heart, turning it into dust.
The lifeless body of Chenqi fell on the flour, and just as Leiu was going to rush toward Arthur as he sensed that Chenqi is dead, just from his lifeless eyes one could tell he died, however, to his surprise, he felt intense pain in his chest and when he looked down, there was a huge hole in his chest.
His organs were melting at rapid speed and the pain was agonizing, blood flowed endlessly from all his face, his ears, his nose and mouth, his heart was melting from the heat as drops of red liquid were visible on his bloody chest.
He soon fell soundlessly on the ground, just like his grandson. Actually, Lucy used her magma magic to eliminate him, although he was strong, he didn''t expect her to sneak attack him, plus how could he resist an attack from someone with 3million intelligence, even Anastassia probably can''t resist it.
Chapter 59 : Sacred Soul Steal.
As Leiu''s incomplete corpse fell on the ground, Anastassia stood there dazed for a couple of seconds, she knew Arthur could kill the Grand Elder, but that previous attack was most certainly not from him but from Lucy, her hand motion was sure.
What truly shocked her is not that Lucy attacked but is that she freaking one-shotted Leiu, and a couple of days ago, she didn''t seem this strong, that''s for sure.
The corpse of Leiu was still melting, but after some time, Lucy stopped the magma from spreading further, after all, that was a harvest for Arthur.
"Ehh! Fierce! Fierce! That''s my wife, ha ha ha"
Arthur complimented Lucy while patting her head and enjoying her soft hair, he couldn''t feel more proud, Leiu was absolutely insta-killed by that magma attack, he didn''t expect her to attack but he didn''t mind that, it actually made him feel happy to see his woman show her power.
He then turned his head to look at the still dazed Anastassia and laughingly said
"Ha ha ha, well, I guess you don''t mind one more victim? Ha ha ha, I''m sure you don''t"
''One more victim?He''s the goddam Grand Elder!'' Although she thought that, she didn''t openly express it, albeit Leiu being a Grand Elder, him dying is a good thing for the clan, now she can unite the two areas and take control of the remaining Elders from the male area, they wouldn''t dare oppose when they hear the news.
As she was thinking about this, she saw Arthur store the two bodies, he then returned to the bench and sat with Lucy as if nothing happened, he was humming and smiling brightly, maybe because he killed that young master? Who knows, Anastassia didn''t object on him taking the bodies as she can tell the others his body his gone, what she was curious about is why he did that?
If he wanted the storage ring he could''ve retrieved that alone, so why did he took the corpse?
She was very curious but she didn''t dare ask, she turned around and returned from where she came from.
After checking the surroundings with [Sixth Sense] and confirming there was no one around, Arthur took out the two bodies and possessed them quickly, then he used [Death Touch] on them, completely absorbing them.
A lot of information was added to his head, unfortunately, no system was present now, however, that didn''t mean what skills and techniques were added.
Leiu was also in the Spirit Realm, and by the feeling of immense power he gained, he was sure that old man was strong, very strong, it''s a shame Lucy''s magma was stronger.
By the way, the Realms from low to high are respectively, Mortal Realm=> Spirit Realm=>Heavenly Realm=> Deity Realm=> Immortal Realm=> Divine Realm=> Godlike Realm.
Anastassia said that her master was in the Heavenly Realm and he was very strong, she couldn''t even last a second against him, she didn''t know how one can break through from the spirit Realm to the next one so there was some unanswered questions in his mind.
Arthur was surprised to see a lot of new skills, it seems the Grand Elder some weird techniques, but a lot of them caught his attention, especially one technique named ''Sacred Soul Steal''
It is similar to [Death Touch] but instead of absorbing the body, it steals the soul of the victim and fuse it with one''s ownsoul, it was somewhat dangerous as if the corpse''s soul is stronger than the user, then he will receive heavy backlash and in some cases even death.
Furthermore, using the skill would bring the evil spirits of the corpse you stealed their souls, they would come from the underworld and torment you.
Arthur wasn''t particulary worried about that, he was a necromancer and he had Zodiak''s knowledge, something like tormenting evil spirits are nothing to him, heck! With a flick of his hand he can make them disappear.
Not long ago, he discovered he could summon more amazing undead such as Death knights and wraiths, the former was a dark armored horrifying knight riding a huge black horse, he emanated a strong death aura and looked particulary creepy, as for the wraiths, they were transparent and looked disgusting, they were not that strong but they were good at scouting.
Arthur felt so depressed when he thought back on when he absorbed Leiu''s corpse, if he stole his soul first it would have been much better.
The old man also had 4 techniques to clear 4 Acupoints in the chest, so he used them on Lucy and himself immediately and as he did that, he was surprised yet overjoyed to hear the familiar sound
''TING''
System installation complete......Rebooting..
.....Reboot complete, System 1.2 is functioning properly..
Congratulations! You have entered the Spirit Realm!
Congratulations! You have entered the Heavenly Realm!
Congratulations! You cleared the Acupoints : Kisha, Reikyo, Kyo-in, Kyosen : Effect : +20% Defense, +50% Mental power.
Due to reaching Spirit Realm! You gained +100.000 to all stats
You can now evole due to reaching LVL1000:
? Adult Humanoid Parasite : An evolved form to ''Humanoid Parasite'', you will be able to possess plants and all other possible beings, you will gain 115% of their stats, you would be able to possess any being with weaker soul power than you and stay dormant there, without disturbing the host.
? ARK Human : A lot race from long ago, almost all records of it have been deleted, it was known to be one of the most powerful races, apart from that, all information on the race are unknown.
The notifications didn''t stop until 10 minutes after the first one, it informed him of the skills he got from Leiu, the Elders he previously killed and so on, especially that ''level up'' it was annoying as hell.
He was a bit surprised but delighted it was a normal system this time, also, it said he was in the heavenly realm which astonished him, he didn''t even know how he reached it or what the required conditions are, nonetheless, he reached so he didn''t think much of it right now, what interested him more is the evolution.
He was wondering why he didn''t evolve since forever, but here it is again, finally, although the ARK Human seemed mysterious nad powerful, for him, being a parasite is still better than that, but that only his opinion as in a mere year or so, he became this powerful while it would take others decades.
Without much hesitation, he chose the Adult Humanoid Parasite and clicked ''yes'',just as he did that, he body began burning intensely while his left eye began bleeding.
Lucy saw this and began to feel anxious, she knew he was evolving, but last time the pain was agonizing so this one would be too, but she hoped that it would not be like last time.
The pain was not much for him, he endured as he held Lucy''s hands and sat on the chair, and after half an hour, it finally stopped.
Nothing seemed different in his appearance apart from his left eye, which turned from blood red to grey colour.
Congratulations! You have evolved into Dark ARK Parasite!
''What!? What is this..''
You have gained a new skill(passive) : [ARK] : available at Divine Realm
Your stats have improved due to the evolution, please check your status window for more details.
As a Dark ARK Parasite: you can now possess living being without controlling them, if you stay a sufficient amount of time, you can steals all the host''s stats which would kill him, you can also stay dormand there observing the host.
The innate skill of parasite [Swift] has evolved to [S-Speed] : Your speed is now higher than other being, +1200% agility (AN: Previously, it was +600%, just so you know)
The thing that irritated Arthur the most is that he needed the System to evolve, or else he would have done it ages ago, it''s such a shame but that how things work, unfortunately.
As he reassured Lucy and gave her a kiss, he opened his status window to check his stats and so on.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm : Heavenly
-
Strength
6.7m
Intelligence
5.9m
Agility
10.4m
Wisdom
5.7m
Vitality
5.3m
Dexterity
5.1m
-
Health
5.6m
Health Regen
3405/s
Mana
5.5m
Mana Regen
7994/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation : 10
Attack:
6.0m
Defense:
5.6m
Magic defense :2.9m
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK
Mental Power :255
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
60%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%(+10%)
Light/holy:
20%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Arthur stood there, flabbergasted for a second before he snapped out of it, even Lucy, who saw his stats was surprised, after a quick check, her stats seemed to have risen too, which was a joyous event.
What seemed illogical is his LVL, it didn''t show anything, so he was quite intrigued about it, but it seemed the strength was judged by the Realm now, it was basically the same thing except the LVL seemed more accurate.
Nevermind that, Arthur was delighted about his new stats, especially his speed, he was already fast but wow, the [Swift] skills evolved and if not for that then his speed would have been half of that.
Plus, the race seemed not as the system indicated, many things were strange about that, but mysterious things never ceased to happen since sometime ago so adding another one would do nothing but complicate things, answers would come sooner or later so he didn''t bother with it much.
He was excited about all of this, he couldn''t wait to go hunting monsters and steals there souls, he didn''t know much about the process of soul fusing, but since it would strengthen his soul then he would do it non-stop until his soul was strong enough.
Arthur and Lucy soon headed to their room only to find Saly sleeping there, she seemed to have gone back a little while ago and she was pretty tired so she slept, that''s what Astrith said so Arthur didn''t wake her up and let her sleep.
He and Lucy engaged in a passionate deed before going into a deep sleep.
.............
It''s been 1 week since Arthur evolved and nothing interesting happened, Anastassia killed a few elders which were opposing the fusion of the two areas, they even wanted to take the disciples and create another clan but they were easily killed by her, after all, they were just Elders, they didn''t have the right to oppose the master of the clan.
Although there the two areas were still seperated in some way, there is still some male-female disciples chatting or sparing here and there, the atmosphere seemed less tense and the disciples were not afraid of being punished anymore.
As for Lucy and Arthur, they headed for the dungeon of the clan, it was a medium-level Dungeon, the monsters were not that strong for him, nonetheless, he killed all the monsters, they were going to respawn anyway so he killed them everyday.
However, what was irritating is that once he used [Sacred Soul steal] on the boss of the dungeon ''Abhuva'', he couldn''t use it anymore, he didn''t know what happened exactly but it just wouldn''t work anymore, nevertheless, he didn''t stop as continued earning stats.
The boss would take 1 days to respawn, as for the monsters it would take half a day, so each day he would do two runs which make 14 times a week, and the approximate corpses he would get in each run is about 150.
The monsters were ranging from 100 to 500 with abhuva being 700, only a week passed, just one, yet he managed to increase his overall stats more than one million, he could do that for a year or a decade to become invinsible but he didn''t want to spend all his days hunting, after all, he wanted to enjoy his life.
Although he thought like that, a genius idea struck him, once he goes to Robin, he would use that favor and tell her to collect thousands of corpses for him then he would harvest, it would be good, he would get stats without doing anything.
As for possessing plants, it indeed worked, he can''t move once he possess a tree or a small plant but he nonetheless got stats, but it was very low, a small plant would barely give him 1, as for trees, it would be at best 10, so he gave up on doing that, the only good thing he got it [Nature Magic], he even got it to ''Advanced'' after possessing several hundred trees, it was really nothing special, it allowed him to grow trees and plants.
Actually, every plants he possess now can be grown by him in mere seconds, it was the effect of [Nature Magic], it wasn''t useful in fight, that for sure, but if he ever created a home or something similar then he it would look much better with greenery.
He even thought of visiting the emperor again and possessing his garden so he can be able to grow those beautiful flowers too since Lucy seemed to like them a lot, with his speed it wouldn''t take much to go there and come back, so he decided to go when he was free.
..
In this week, Arthur came to discover Anastassia''s LVL, she was 1891, pretty high but he was sure he was higher since he is in the Heavenly Realm.
His speed now was broken, just literally broken, a single step with [Petal footsteps] would allow him to cross several kilometres, that''s not normal, if it''s like this then it would be better to use that mouvement technique than teleportation, but teleportation had it''s uses too and can be used in other useful ways to it''s not like he gave up on it.
Apparently, [Petal Footsteps] is at the Spirit Realm, it is the only skill at that Realm along with [Buddha Palm], Leiu used that palm attack the most and trained it hard so that''s why it is in that Realm, it''s power is several times more powerful as even a palm technique in the Mortal Realm used by Arthur would become deadly, much less a skill trained until Spirit Realm.
There is also one thing that was surprising, it''s Sol''khin''s cane, the cane he found near Zodiak''s corpse, now it didn''t show ''unsufficient Level'' but it said ''Usable at Immortal Realm'' which at least better in some way.. right?
Robin was sitting in her office in the HQ of E-clips company, it has been quite some time since that incident with Arthur and Lucy and he disappeared suddenly.
In a way, she is relieved, since he wanted to use the world tree relying on the favour the Elven chief owe''s them, if he doesn''t come back then that''s for the best.
Even her grandfather became more cheerful when Arthur didn''t come back, however, one day as she was having a meeting with all the company''s important figures.
A black-clothed man appeared out of no where, scaring the shit out of the sitted people, even the nearby guards were startled but due to their experience, they came back to their senses and prepared to attack, but to their surprise, they couldn''t even move a muscle.
Obviously, the black-clothed man was Arthur who came from the Ma Clan, all it took him was literally several minutes to arrive here, which was a bit funny when he remembered Mary taking 10 days to go and come back.
He came alone now because Lucy was chatting with Mary and Saly was training, the little girl seemed to change a bit, not in a bad way of course but she became much more dedicated to training, she would play after some hard work but the good thing is that she seemed to enjoy training, furthermore, Anastassia was kind ENOUGH to let the little girl teach the girl some things, it was surprising at first but the cold blooded woman was in fact a kind woman, it''s just that toward strangers she act indifferent.
She only opened up a little to Saly because she was a good and cute kid which didn''t do any harm, also, as time passed, she discovered how heaven-defying that simple bronze dagger was and her curiousity about Arthur never ceased to increase day by day.
"Hello there, Robin"
Arthur smirked at the stunned Robin who looked at him with round eyes filled with disbelief and lingering fear, it seemes she was still feeling afraid of him, after all, who wouldn''t after seeing that arrow.
Speaking of the [Heavenly Arrow], Arthur wanted to test it but the Clan wasn''t a good place since it would cause much destruction so he decided to open space empy of people to test it, adding the godly lightning instead of the natural lightning plus trying to add the [Ancient flames], even if it is without the void magic then it would sure be very powerful.
Seeing he got no response, Arthur revealed a puzzled look and said
"What''s up? Cat got your tongue? Don''t worry, I''m only here to receive what belongs to me, I ended my part of the deal, so it''s time for you to do yours"
As he said that, he turned his gaze to Belic, who was also astonished by what just happened, he couldn''t move for a moment but once Arthur''s cold gaze landed on him, his body shivered but he was somehow free from what restrained his movement.
Arthur used his threads to bind all the sitting people except Robin and Belic, he only needed them collect the corpses and wait for his return.
Quite some time have passed but Robin still didn''t understand what to say or what to do, Arthur sighed at how idiotic this woman is, he wanted her to kick those people so they can dicuss the matter but she didn''t seem she was going to do it anytime soon.
"... You really are slow-witted, kick these people out, I don''t want to do it myself or else they would only leave this room as corpses as I know they won''t simply leave when I say so"
Suddenly hearing his voice, she trembled for a second before she hesitantly and politely told these old geezes and other figures to leave, although they were unwilling but no one dared to oppose, she is the head of the E-clips company, even though it''s only by name, they have to do follow her orders, furthermore, just now they were binded by some invisible thing, and even the trained guards couldn''t move which just explains how powerful this man is.
When everyone exited the room, only 3 people were left, Robin looked at Arthur and said
"W-What do you want?"
Arthur really wanted to samck her, she was really dense, very dense, he was here for the deal, what else would he come here for? To propose to her?
"I want you to do what you promised, however, never mind that healing matter, just gather beast corpses, as much as you can, the higher LVL the better, that''s all, remember, they need to be DEAD"
Belic, who was just to speak as he saw Arthur was annoyed, was momentarily stunned before he smiled and nodded continuously at Arthur, if it''s only this, then it''s totally doable, plus it much easier.
He was going to apologize and beg Arthur to choose another thing as he couldn''t use that favour of the elven chief but now it seemed the heaven blessed him and Arthur wanted another thing.
Arthur didn''t waste more time and said
"Alright, since you understand then you better begin now, I''ll come back in a month, I hope you gather a lot... oh and before I go, since you are her grandfather then teach her common sense and to stop being so dense, it''s really irritating.."
As he said that, he disappeared from the room, one would think he was still nearby but after mere second he was several kilometres away.
"That Bastard, he dares insult me again, who''s dense? He''s so annoying!"
Robin outloud as she remembered what he just said, she couldn''t muster he courage and say that in front of him but when she saw him leave then she released all her pent up anger, she even punched the table.
Belic only helplessly shook his head but he was relieved because it ended up peacefully, he only needed to gather what Arthur wanted.
It didn''t take Arthur much to arrive to the Ma Clan, with a special token he didn''t have to break the barrier again and just as he was passing by the clan area, he saw Anastassia standing in his yard as if waiting for him.
He stopped a couple of meters away from her, Anastassia, who was waiting for Arthur patiently was alerted by the sudden appearance of the black-clothed man, she couldn''t react in time as he was next to her the next split second, even with her extremely keen presence senses, she couldn''t locate him until he was near her which made her even more amazed and curious about him.
Arthur didn''t say anything and waited for her to talk, as for her, she didn''t want to talk non sense and talked about the main thing she came here to talk about straight away.
"There will be a ''friendly'' competition soon, it''s between the powerful Clans and the Ma clan is obviously one of them, it''s a team fight or a one versus one, it''s pretty important to keep the honour of the clans so every one would be participating and bringing their strongest fighters, I wanted to invite you too, it will be a great show, so what do you think about it?"
Arthur pondered for a bit about this, it''s not like he had anything to do, but he was a bit interested, he loved tournaments and competitions, so he really wanted to join and fight, but will it be possible? Sure he would win easily, but it would still be fun, anyway, he will see if he''ll do it or not, as for going, then he will surely go.
He accepted Anastassia invitation and headed to his room to inform Lucy or wait for her if she''s still with Mary.
Anastassia said that the competition will begin in 2 weeks so there was still time, plus he wanted to farm in that dungeon more and get used to his new stats even more, he wanted to be able to fight that woman with the black chains if she ever came back, at that time, he would not be as helpless as before, definitely!
Chapter 60 : The Competition
Arthur was a bit excited about the upcoming competition, he liked those kinds of events so after some thorough thinking, he decided to join it, yes, you heard right, he wanted to enter the competition as a normal martial artist.
It didn''t indicate that outsiders are forbidden from entering it, actually, many powerful individuals would join it, there are also some people would want to try their chance in it, but it''s not a simple competition, there will be a lot of strong people from the clans.
The competition was kind of like a tournament, it was divided into three tournaments, one for disciples and those who joined, the second is for sections chiefs and the other is for Elders.
Anastassia also told Arthur that the winner from the disciple tournament can participate in the section chief tournament and so on, it happens a lot of times as there are some genius disciples from the clans who are considered very powerful, there were even some exceptional ones who even managed to get second place in the section chief tournament.
Arthur told Anastassia that Lucy would be attending and as for him, he is busy with some important matters.
She was a bit disappointed, but she couldn''t force him to go, it was his choice after all.
He already thought about how to enter the competition and planned everything, he had Zodiak''s corpse and with some good clothes, it would be easy to hide his appearance.
Lucy already knew about all of this, it was kind of unfortunate that she can''t change her appearance or else she would have joined him, but they already for something like that too.
The 2 weeks passed just in the blink of an eye, nothing interesting happened, Lucy and Arthur passed their days, as usual, either snuggling and raiding the dungeon or playing with little Saly, who with their help and Astrith''s, managed to reach LVL39.
She was just leeching in the dungeon and finishing the monster when it was near death, although at first, she was unwilling, she quickly got used to it, after all, they were just monsters.
If she could kill them alone then her LVL would have been much higher as their LVLS were high too, but considering she only dealt the final blow, the experience she got was not that much.
Her lvl is low compared to others, but for normal people, she was a genius, she was very hardworking and trained every day so she never ceased to improve, furthermore, while Arthur cleared the dungeon a lot of times during his stay in the clan, she luckily found 3 medium cores of the dungeon.
It is really hard to find them as they rarely dropped from the boss, he had no use for them so he passed them to Saly, who consumed them, fortunately, her stats have risen once again.
Her overall stats were in the 2-3k, she was considered very strong, no matter how exhausting the training was, she bore with it and never complained.
Seeing her dedication and strong will, Arthur told her to rest for a few days and go with Lucy to watch the competition, training too much may lead to negative effects so why not rest from time to time?
Compared to her, he only needed to hunt a few monsters and possess them, it was really a big difference. Clearing a dungeon would only take seconds as he would pass by the monsters and they would explode into blood and gore, if they could respawn immediately then his stats would rise by millions in just a day, such a pity..
Nonetheless, in these 2 weeks, he hunted quite a few of monsters, it was not like last time but he killed and possessed a few as he went with Saly to the dungeon.
Today was the day of the competition, it was held in a biga Colosseum in a secluded place in an island South of Itas of the continent.
Lucy, Anastassia, and the others headed there a couple of days ago to arrive in time, as for Arthur, he didn''t need to do that as it would only take him a few minutes at best.
He already knew the location of the island, he went early in the morning after possessing Zodiak''s corpse and wearing that familiar dark robe along with some black gloves and boots.
It was as if he was him from back then, in Willsden.
The island was nothing suspicious from the outside, however, once he got too close and stopped a few hundred meters from it he saw a couple of people guarding it, it was just a 5 kilometer radius, it was small and appeared to be a forest for travelers that used boats, they only thought of it as a deserted island so no one bothered to check it.
Arthur sensed the illusion barrier around it much like the one in the Ma clan, of course, he could break it with but a wave of his hand but he didn''t, he didn''t come to bring trouble but to participate in the competition.
The guards suspiciously looked at Arthur but once he told them he is here to participate, he just had to pay a small fee of 50 gold then he was allowed in.
The bigcolosseum could be seen from far away, and it was apparently full but people were still coming from all directions.
After inquiring about the location of the place to sign himself in the competition, he went there and did a simple strength test to measure his power, after all, they can''t accept anybody who came, one must at least have a certain amount of strength.
He didn''t need to pay anything for the entrance which surprised him but what Arthur didn''t know is that simple strength test was considered very hard, but he only needed to pretend to punch at that brown rock then a number showed on the crystal near it.
He was an extremely low amount of strength so to not attract attention and it seemed his control over his strength is as perfect as ever.
Of course, there was some who used martial arts or magic to attack the rock, everyone can do whatever they wanted, they just needed to pass.
Actually, this competition is not made by the collaboration of the several participating clans, it was made by the Locus Clan, Anastassia didn''t say much about it except that it was the most powerful one and that its master is known to have exceeded the Heavenly Realm, it didn''t arrogantly control the other clans because if all the clans help each other they can manage to defeat the Locus Clan.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
However, that didn''t mean that it(Locus Clan) is on equal footing, it had many strong individuals which made it a terrifying force not to be messed with.
Arthur noticed that the guards outside and the people measuring the strength of the applicants are all dressed in violet robes or violet clothes with the word Locus imprinted in it so he immediately knew they were from that clan.
To be honest, he didn''t care about it, he just came here to have some fun so there is no need to meddle with them.
Each participant had his own waiting room, they can also go to a certain place which is near the big arena, all participants who are waiting for their turn can observe the matches from there.
Arthur directly went there, just when he exited the long corridor, what faced him was a big stone arena, probably 200x200 meter, it was broad, the Colosseum was 100 meters high and full of people sitting on the stone chairs, they were already cheering loudly.
All those people were either random people who knew about this event and exclusively came to watch or disciples from the various clans.
70% of the Colosseum was filled with people, however, there was an area where it was kind of empty, there were old men and women sitting there, just as he saw Anastassia sitting there with several Elders from the Clan, he knew it was some kind of VIP area where the Elders of the clans sat.
It was divided into 4 areas, there was an area where the Ma clan sat, the other three is for the Xi Clan, Yan clan and the Aristocrat Yun Family.
Also, there was a special place above that place where the place looked more luxurious, just one look and Arthur guessed that it must''ve been a place where the host of the competition will be staying.
He observed the several clans which apparently were strong, the Xi Clan Elders wore a red robe with a fire lizard symbol on it, Anastassia previously told him that this Clan is known for having powerful fire magicians and warrior which excelled in using close-combat fire attacks.
As for the Yan Clan, it was like the Ma Clan, it was known for having strong disciples, it is also known that they are the descendants of the White Tiger of the West which is a legendary beast known to have ascended to godhood and left this world, same thing for the Azure Dragon of the East, Black Turtle of the North and last but not least is the Vermillion Bird of the South.
Four Legendary Beasts which defended this world from what was known as the ''Calamity'' Ten thousand years ago.
The Aristocrat Yun Family strangely only has female disciples and Elders, it was a mysterious clan, not much was known about it except that they used ice magic and they were very skilled at using it, there was even a time when the young master of the Yan family took a liking to the direct disciple of the Aristocrat Yun Family, however, he was crippled as he fought her after making a bet with her.
Since it was a fair fight, the two clans didn''t fight but an enmity was grown since that time and they were on guard against each other.
Arthur used the name ''Moonstar'' as his nickname, every participant from outside was allowed to give whatever name he liked, it''s not like there was a rule against that, he couldn''t come up with anything but that so he went with that.
The first Tournament was obviously the one for the disciples as to be expected, after all, they were the weakest ones.
There was a big board on the Southern wall of the Colosseum, and in it there were all the names on the of the participants, the names written were extremely small but almost everyone could see them as it was not a bothersome matter if someone had just a bit of dexterity they could see them, even someone such as Saly could see them.
Arthur almost immediately found his name, his first enemy was ''BegMe'' who also seemed to be a participant, if not then his name would not be like that, it didn''t matter anyway, his blood was boiling.
Maybe for others, it may not look like it an exciting thing when someone with strong power fights against weaklings, but he can adjust his power so he can fight on par with them and enjoy some fighting even if it was for a little bit.
The rules were simple, if one of the two fell from the arena or was knocked unconscious then it''s the win of the other one, pretty simple, it was prohibited to kill or cripple but ''accidents'' could always happen.
The first tournament didn''t begin until the host clan, the Locus Clan members finally arrived.
There were several golden armored guards followed by the clan master, he was a middle-aged man with a golden hair, he appeared to be his forties, he emanated a strange majestic power and wore a white golden armor which suited him and made him look even more handsome.
Arthur already appraised all the present Elders from the other clans but their LVL was not that high, however, when he appraised this man, he was a bit shocked by the result.
Tenhi Larin(Human) : Deity Realm
The reason he was surprised is because he didn''t expect him to be a deity, he could feel some mysterious aura coming out of him but he couldn''t guess what it is.
Even the guards were above lvl 1000, which means they were in the Spirit Realm, of course, they must be no common guards for them to be able to be next to such a strong individual, furthermore, why in the bloody hell would he need guards when he is this strong? Is it perhaps for show?
Tenhi walked leisurely to his sit and sat, then he looked at the clan master and Elders of the several clans, he nodded his head at the clan masters then he turned his head and said
"Thank you all for coming! Ha ha ha, I cannot wait to see this year''s champions! I''m sure it will be as exciting as ever, let the competition begin"
He wasn''t a man who would pass minutes talking non-sense, just a couple of words to start the competition and brighten the atmosphere was enough.
Loud cheers and yells from the came from the disciples who came to watch, they were very excited, every fight would be thrilling so wouldn''t be excited?
Arthur merely sat there, there were some nervous participants nearby, some were trembling while others coudn''t wait any extra second to begin the fight, there was also some similar to him and kept silent, a couple of individuals caught his attention.
The first was a bald man who looked like a Buddhist, he wore a ragged yellow robe and went around the area saying to every participant
"Hello, this penniless daoist is hungry, could you contribute a little by donating some gold?"
Most of the people ignored him while there were some who were angered and attacked him, but to their surprise, he swiftly dodged and went to the next person.
The next person that Arthur was interested in was a girl, she looked to be around twenty more or less, she wore tight grey clothes with a violet sword behind her back, she maintained an emotionless face as she closed her eyes and sat cross legged in a cornor, perhaps she wmeditatinging or using some similar skill, no one bothered her as everyone was busy with their own matters.
She wasn''t particulary beautiful, she had that natural charm but nothing was too outrageous or stunning like Lucy, nevertheless, she may be considered a beauty for some people.
The third person was a bandaged guy, he had bandages all over his body as if he was a mummy and mumbled some words every now and then, he would cautiously looked left and right every two seconds as if afraid, Arthur could feel some strong aura coming out of him.
The girl and the bandaged guy were in the Spirit Realm but the bald daoist was surprisingly in the Heavenly Realm, Arthur was momentarily surprised by that as seeing a person in the Heavenly Realm here is very rare.
As Arthur kept observing the participants nearby, his eyes landed on a black robbed man not too far away, once he saw him, he furrowed his brow for a second before mumbling ''huh.. so they are here too, annoying fucking pests... well let''s ignore them..''
Except for those participants, there were also the disciples from the 4 clans who were respectively staying in their clan''s area, each clan only had 5 disciples who participated and each one of them was considered a genius.
Arthur merely glanced at them then ignored them, although there were some who seemed strong, he was more interested in the three he found here.
......
Chapter 61 : First Tournament
The first tournament soon began without any disturbance, Arthur''s match was not the first so he sat back and watched the fights.
They were not that exciting yet not that boring too, in most of the matches, the participants fought each other except a few matches were a participant fought a disciple of one of the four clans.
Tenhi, the master of the Locus Clan watched from above, each time a talented or strong participant joins he would nod in satisfaction, all people knew he would recruit everyone that pleased his eyes to his clan and that was an opportunity no one would want to miss so everyone that fought tried to show off the best he can as to maybe grab Tenhi''s attention.
After 13 matches, it was the bald daoist''s turn to fight, Arthur waited for this match since the beginning as he wanted to see what this man was capable of, after all, he was in the Heavenly Realm and he was the only one amongst the participants to be in this Realm.
Actually, all the clan masters were in the Heavenly Realm except Anastassia, Arthur didn''t why but he was sure that although she''s still in the Spirit Realm, her strength was probably much stronger than that.
The bald daoist went up to the arena while rubbing his hands awkwardly, his opponent was a disciple from the Xi Clan, since each clan only put 5 disciples to participate then that only meant that each of these disciples is very strong.
The rules were simple, once the two of them entered the arena, they have 20 seconds to get ready then the battle will automatically begin whether they are ready or not.
The disciple from the Xi Clan looked at the bald daoist coldly and hastily retrieved a short cane which had a small red gem on top of it.
As for the bald man, he just walked while staggering toward the disciple, he literally looked like a beggar or a homeless person.
"Youth! This daoist is willing to spare you for some gold.. what do you say?"
The disciple furrowed his brows for a couple of seconds before he felt he was underestimated and given a ''chance'' by this beggar, he was easily angered and wanted to teach this bald man a lesson.
Once the 20 seconds were finished, the disciple waved the cane in the air which resulted in 3-meter fire cyclone to spawn and charge at the bald daoist.
Although a fire cyclone was quite simple, that didn''t mean it was slow or weak, the more the person has intelligence the more his attribute will deal more damage to the enemies, for example, Lucy''s magma melted the Grand Elder who was considered very strong.
The bald daoist looked at the incoming fire cyclone with surprise, his face paled and he appeared frightened and scared shitless.
He jumped with what seemed to be all his strength to the right, barely dodging the cyclone, but unfortunately for him, the disciple was very adept at controlling the cyclone as it immediately follows after the bald man.
The daoist looked like a chicken as he jumped around multiple times, everytime dodging by a hair''s breath, however, his ragged clothes was slightly burned in the sides.
He really appeared to be struggling and trying his best to evade.
The disciple got more irritated, with another wave of his hand several 30-inch fireballs were created and thrown at the daoist.
The bald man just landed on the ground after evading the cyclone when he saw the fireballs coming at him, so for the first time in the match, he used his magic or skill or whatever it was, a metal shield was created around his hand, he quickly raised it and prepared himself for the impact.
He, fortunately, managed to dodge 12 balls just by ''luck'' like always then, also by a streak of good luck, managed to defend against the rest, each time a ball hit him he would advance little by little as if he was struggling against them.
The disciple was surprised by this but he didn''t dare attack lightly anymore, he created 2 other fire cyclone and soon they rushed at the poor bald man.
Arthur looked at this while laughing inside as this bald daoist really deserved the Oscar prize for his act as there is no way in hell he is not acting, he was in the Heavenly Realm so struggling against a Mortal Realm is simply nonsense.
But he got to give it to him, he really knew how to act, his expressions and actions are precise that even he would be fooled if he didn''t appraise him and see his Realm.
The daoist, seeing all 3 directions blocked by the fire cyclones, showed a terrified face and created a metal sphere around himself to protect for the fire.
In no time, the cyclone hit the metal sphere and began melting it easily, however, for some odd reason, metal was being created as the last one was melted, it was a continuous process and it lasted until the cyclone disappeared.
The disciple was satisfied by his attack but when he saw the bald man come out of the sphere with only several burns on his arms and face, his eyes widened.
The daoist was running at the disciple, who unconsciously backed away as he was weak in close combat, after all, he was a fire mage.
While backing away, he threw fireballs at the incoming enemy non-stop but they all missed as he was not concentrating enough and couldn''t aim right.
The bald man was extremely smart as he slowly chased the youth until he led him to the edges of the arena then punched him weakly making him fall from the stage, as per the rules said, if one of the two people fell out from the arena then he''s disqualified.
And just like that, the daoist won after a long ''struggle'', as Arthur glanced at Tenhi, he too didn''t appear to be able to see through the bald man which indicated how much is good at acting.
"This penniless Daoist is in need of gold... if you gave me you might have won, you are very strong after all"
After he said that, the daoist strolled out of the arena then he resumed begging the people for some gold again, he didn''t seem to get tired of it.
The next few matches weren''t worth watching, Arthur simply took a book and began reading leisurely, he would sometimes glance at the fights if they are a bit interesting, but except that he didn''t do anything.
He already saw Lucy, Saly sitting in the back rows of the audience, Mary and Sonia were also present and sitting next to them, Saly was watching excitedly, as for Lucy, she too was observing the fights but she didn''t seem much interested, she would sometimes throw some glances at Arthur.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
She knew him best and immediately recognized him even with that robe, after all, there was only a few who were covering themselves and Zodiak''s robe was a bit unique and hard to miss.
As he heard the next announcement, Arthur put down his book and stared at the arena, it was not yet his turn but the mysterious bandaged guy was going to fight right now and he was curious about his abilities, he was in the Spirit Realm but he emitted a strange and somewhat suffocating aura.
His opponent was a participant from the nearby crowd, it was an old man in the Mortal Realm, he was LVL834 and had a long cane as a weapon.
Unlike last time''s fight, this one ended very fast, the bandaged guy kept mumbling some incomprehensible words as he went to the arena, as for his opponent, he stayed silent and cast some barriers around him before the 20 seconds were up.
The bandaged guy slowly lifted his hand which caused his white bandage to suddenly stretch out and with lightning speed strike the old man.
Fortunately, the old man was an experienced mage and cast several barriers but they were easily broken by the fast bandage, it struck his rib cage and he was sent flying out of the arena.
He was shocked and stared with disbelief at the bandaged guy, he was unwilling to lose like this but rules were rules and he didn''t dare protest, he could only angrily go out of the stage.
The bandaged guy also went back and sat at a corner by himself.
The matches resumed and after 2 more matches, Arthur name was announced, so he got up and headed for the arena, and as for his enemy, it was a disciple from the Ma Clan, he wanted to fight others but his luck was apparently rotten.
His opponent was a tall muscular man, he wore the disciple robe of the Ma Clan, Arthur obviously didn''t know these disciples, him being Elder doesn''t mean he had to know all disciples and just by the look of it, this muscular man appeared to be a brainless fool who relied on strength too much.
Arthur wanted to fight people like the bandaged guy or the daoist, not this one so he decided to finish fast and hope his next match would be against a better opponent.
The 20 seconds were quickly up and the muscular man activated his defensive skill and rushed at Arthur.
For someone with his build, he was quite decent but for Arthur he was slower than a turtle, he didn''t want to attract much attention by a one-hit win so he clashed with the muscular man and exchanged a few hits with him, although it was called an exchange, he evaded all the attacks and weakly used simple punches and kicks to overwhelm the muscular man.
The poor man was pushed back again and again until finally, Arthur what seemed to be a strong wind wave to push the opponent out of the arena.
For the spectators he only appeared to be a good fighter who did a surprise attack to win, they didn''t consider him that strong.
Arthur then returned to his previous location and retrieved his book to read.
After Arthur''s match, the girl from before fought a disciple from the Yun Family, although the disciple seemed a strong girl as she attacked with ice spears and formed several thick ice barriers to defend, she was easily defeated by an elegant kick from that girl.
The crowd was just crazy over her as they were attracted by her charm, the cheers didn''t stop until a couple of minutes later when the next match began.
At the 30th match, the first round of the tournament was over, and the participants were given a 30-minute pause, although they truly didn''t need it, it was only a lame pretext for them to arrange the name and the opponents.
30 minutes passed in the blink of an eye as Arthur was reading the book, he could finish the book in minutes but he enjoyed slowly reading a book, it''s just that he liked it more that way.
The names and opponents were arranged and this time, Arthur''s name ''MoonStar'' was called at the first match which surprised him a little but it made him feel a bit more excited too.
His opponent was a disciple from a clan yet again, it was a woman from the Yan Clan, and just by appraising her LVL, he guessed she is the strongest, she was LVL973, almost at the Spirit Realm and she had a small dagger on her waist.
The two of them headed for the arena and stared at each other waiting for the 20 seconds to pass.
Arthur wanted to fight her, of course not seriously but just have some fun, after all, that''s what he came for right?
When the time was up, she didn''t attack him but continued to stare at him arrogantly, she saw him fight earlier but wasn''t that impressed, she held complete confidence in herself.
As for Arthur, he slowly walked toward her while attacking with his wind attribute, although it was not as fast as dark magic or as destructive as the godly lightning or the ancient fire, it was not weak, after all, he had it in advanced, which is the peak unless he unlocks a special kind of wind or special skills.
Invisible wind blades were attacking her from all directions, Arthur held back and didn''t create strong wind blades but if he did, they would, at best, hurt someone like an Elder, and just lightly, it would not even scratch someone like Anastassia.
Sensing the incoming attacks, the woman struck the air with her hand which emitted a faint white light, and just by doing that, the wind blades vanished easily.
Arthur had already guessed that attacks of that caliber wouldn''t work but he wanted to try it anyway.
While she was defending against those wind blades, he was already rushing at her with a moderate speed and in just seconds he was near her, he struck with his palm aiming at her waist but she surprisingly evaded and rotated her body while sending a kick straight at his head.
''What a ruthless woman!'' Although it was only a match, a kick like that would surely kill, if he was the muscular man from earlier, for example, he would have certainly died by that kick.
With a perfect reaction time, he raised his left hand defending against the incoming kick, but once he blocked it, he saw the woman throw her dagger exactly at his heart.
She was really going for the kill, opponents can accidentally die so she didn''t care but what unfortunately for her, Arthur was no ordinary opponent.
The dagger was caught by Arthur right arm, he could let it struck him and he would still receive no damage but that would bring too much attention, for a fast and piercing dagger like this one to not deal damage to him seemed rather suspicious.
As the woman was going to retract her leg which was used to kick him in his head, she was surprised to see Arthur use his left hand and tightly hold her leg, no matter what how she struggled, she couldn''t free her leg, so she used her other leg to kick him again but this time, her leg emitted a strong white light followed by a tiger roar as it was directed at his abdomen.
Arthur was smirking as he saw her try to free himself which was impossible, then she used her other leg but before it could reach him, he lifted her up in the air and slammed her body into the ground, if he used all his strength, then she would literally turn into a minced meat or a blood pool, so he used minimum strength.
Despite doing that, the attack was ruthless as there was a small crater on the ground, he backed away 2 steps and watched as the woman got up from the ground with some blood leaking down from her lips.
Her clothes were dirtied by the previous impact and her slender legs had a few bruises, she couldn''t help but feel a bit of fear from him as she couldn''t retaliate when he slammed her down, even someone such as her, who is the best disciple in the Yan Clan younger generation, couldn''t measure to his strength.
She was quick-witted and understood that he had some immense brute strength, there was still a hand sign on her leg, it was the place he gripped her from, she even felt some pain coming from it, the bones were surely cracked.
She stared intensely at Arthur, she previously thought he was not that strong after observing him in his last match but he surprisingly was a monster, he didn''t show off that much so she clearly underestimated him.
The only way for her is to overcome his strength and strike him with a strong attack, she wasn''t a good mage to kite him or she could only use her speed to attack him.
..
Diyun, the woman who was fighting Arthur, was now depressed as she discovered that he not only had immense strength, his speed was equal to her, she could only circle around while trying her best to evade his attacks.
After 5 minutes of continuous struggle, an opportunity finally arose so she didn''t waste it as she appeared behind him and strike with her hand, which was doing a claw sign, behind that hand an illusory image of white and golden claws appeared.
What Diyun didn''t know was that Arthur purposely created that opportunity for her to finish this, he had gotten bored quickly, she was not that strong, to begin with and he wanted to fight the bald daoist and not this one.
The claw attack was almost going to hit him when he half turned his body and used [Rotating punch] which was a martial art technique, it was not that strong but he didn''t want to beat her with just a normal punch to not attract the attention of Tenhi, he didn''t want to bother by him later on.
Just as the name indicated, [Rotating punch] was a punch which had a rotating Qi inside it and it would create something similar to a tornado wave from the punch.
The two attacks struck each other and strong winds were created from the impact, a heavy sound resulted from the clash and after just a few seconds, Diyun was sent flying out of the arena.
Chapter 62 : A Beautiful Yet Dangerous Lotus
The next matches were slightly better than the ones on the next round as it the fighters were better, but that''s to be expected considering they won the first round.
There were martial artists, mages, and some dual classes but the most common one was mages.
It is known that not all people can use ''Qi'', so that''s why there was not a lot of martial artists from the participants.
Of course there can be some fighters and people who use normal close combat skills using mana, but the techniques which required Qi are stronger, this didn''t apply on all cases but generally, the techniques and skills with the Qi are better.
Most of the participants were mages, and that''s totally normal as mages can kite and even without Qi, people can still deal a lot of damage and possibly one shot someone.
So although there were people unable to use Qi, they relied on their talent for magic to become great mages and came here to try their luck and show their flashy skills.
The matches proceeded normally, the bandaged guy and the pretty woman won easily like the last round.
As for the bald daoist who was named Gobu, he won exactly like last time, he struggled against a girl from the Yun Clan before pushing her off the arena, simple yet effective.
The audience opinion about him seemed to decrease, they didn''t like his way of fighting as he was always evading and didn''t attack, he would sneakily come from behind and strike so they kept booing him.
Very soon, the 15 matches were done and the 15 winners were given another half an hour pause.
Since there were 15 people, there is a person who would be left alone without an opponent so they decided to let him fight against a random person from the winners of this round.
This person was decided by luck, and apparently, it was a disciple from the Ma clan, it was a short girl who appeared to be shy but Arthur knew she was powerful, just previously she nearly one hit her opponent, too fierce!
As for Arthur, his opponent was a person from the Xi Clan.
The matches were even more exciting, the skills and techniques used damaged the arena, but fortunately, it was a large one so it didn''t cause any problems.
Arthur''s match was decent, he won again by attacking consistently with his kicks and punches while using some wind cyclone and tornados every now and then to suppress the enemy.
It worked perfectly, plus he was weaker than Diyun so it didn''t take him long to lose
The third round was finished after an hour of fighting, the shy small girl won against a random person who also won in the third round, he was disqualified because he lost to her and she proceeded to the fourth round.
Same thing for Gobu, the bandaged guy, and that pretty girl.
There were 7 participants left, the girl from the Ma clan, Arthur and the 3 other monsters and 2 final people, one was a girl from the Yun Family while the other was the dark robed person from earlier.
Arthur was surprised when he saw this dark robed person proceed to the fourth round, nonetheless, he had already decided not to let him leave this island alive, that''s for sure.
This time''s competition was surprising as usually, the people proceeding to the fourth round and 70% disciples from the clan, but this time, the majority were participants coming from outside.
..
Yet another half an hour was given and the names and opponents were arranged.
Arthur''s opponent was the little shy girl from the Ma clan, and surprisingly, the bandaged guy and the pretty girl who was named ''SilentFlower'' were against each other, as for Gobu, he was against the guy from the Xi Clan, while the girl from the Yun family will fight later against a random winner.
Arthur''s name was called first followed by Mia, the shy girl''s name, she kept an embarrassed look as she slowly walked to the arena.
Arthur also headed for the arena and waited for the time to pass so the fight can begin. To be honest, he wasn''t interested in fighting her, well fighting anyone from the Ma clan generally, because it''s needless, he wanted to fight others, why not was he not put against that guy from the Xi Clan, he appeared to be pretty good, his purple fire was very strong and his attack seemed accurate and his decisions were perfect.
Arthur observed him from the very beginning and was a bit interested in him, unfortunately, he will lose against Gobu, that''s for sure.
The 20 seconds soon passed and Mia rushed at Arthur using [Petal Footsteps], she was fast as she dashed towards him while throwing her punch at him.
Arthur easily blocked that punch with his palms but what special about this girl is that she is fast at attacking, she continuously attacked him as if she was boxing, but no matter how fast her fists were, they were unable to pass through his palms.
With each punch, he noticed her attacking speed increase a by a small amount and after dozens of punch, it became incredibly fast, this girl was really talented, if he was not her opponent but someone else, maybe she would have won, of course, if her opponent is not Arthur or either of the 3 other monsters.
Arthur decided to finish it fast so he lightly kicked her abdomen and sent her flying, he defended from the very beginning so Mia gained a bit of confidence but his high-speed kick which was like lightning surprised her and she couldn''t react in time to evade or block.
She somehow managed to stabilize her body at the edges of the arena and crouched down holding her abdomen and showing a pained expression.
She only groaned for a couple of seconds before she adjusted her body and stared at Arthur with fear and excitement.
Mia loved fighting, especially when she met opponents stronger than her, so she rushed at Arthur yet again, but unfortunately for her, he wasn''t in a mood to fight her so with a speed much faster than her, he rushed at her and while doing that, four walls of flames were created around her, completely shocking her as she thought he was only good at wind magic but those flames were clearly purple.
After he did that, he willed them to encircle her and strike her at the same time, however, she clever and jumped high in the sky to avoid them but that only resulted in being struck in the back by Arthur, who jumped behind her with lightning speed and attacked her without giving her enough time to react.
This time she couldn''t stop her body from hitting the ground out of the arena, as she stared at him with shock, she was depressed as if this wasn''t a tournament she would have continued the fight, it''s such a pity, she pouted and headed back to her clan''s area.
Arthur walked back to his previous place and gazed at the arena waiting for the next fight, he really wanted to watch the fight between SilentFlower and the bandaged guy.
Luckily, the next match was that fight so he relaxed his body and stared at the two of them, he really wished for something to eat right now, it''s as if he was in a cinema about to watch a movie.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The two of them soon faced each other, the bandaged guy named Tianqi kept mumbling some nonsense while SilentFlower coldly stared at him, this time she unsheathed her double blades and prepared herself as she knew her opponent was simple like the others.
Those bandages were very fast and strong, the pierced several barriers like they were paper and even broke bones easily.
Just as the waiting time was done, the bandaged guy used the same attack to strike the girl, the bandage headed for her with fast speed but this time, it was blocked.
SilentFlower elegantly slashed her double swords at the bandage, her attack contained a hint of ice yet when Arthur saw it, it was clearly ice but it had a pink color.
The bandages were cut this time and some of it was deflected to the site, as for her two slashes, they transformed into two ice arrows which were aimed at the bandaged guy, their speed was faster than the bandage and they emitted a freezing aura, Arthur could feel it from that big distance.
The bandaged guy didn''t move but the bandages got left his body and created a thick wall which blocked the arrows.
The wall was so thick that even after the arrows struck it deep into it, it couldn''t pass through, no matter how much bandages left his body, they never ended.
SilentFlower didn''t stay still and had already appeared near Tianqi who didn''t seem surprised or startled by her speed, the bandages were already around him, forming another wall from that direction while some of them transformed into sharp spikes and attacked Silent Flower.
She sent several slashes at the spikes and avoided some of them, and in just seconds, she was in front of the thick wall of the bandages, she crossed both the blades and muttered something with a very low voice.
The crossed blades shined for a second before the ground turned into a weird colored ice and the thick wall was covered with ice, then with a hack from her, it crumbled.
The legs of Tianqi were covered in some ice as it was the cause of her previous attack, he was greatly slowed and before he could back away, the wall already crumbled and Silent Flower slashed with both the blades in a weird manner and to make matter worse, 3 ice arrows came flying at him from behind.
She was really strong and capable, not only did she managed to break through his strong defense, she even counter-attacked and managed to attack him from both sides, she was really powerful.
With not enough time to defend against those two incoming attacks, Tianqi lifted both of his hands and the white bandages in his hands turned black then they blocked the two slashes of Silent Flower, they wrapped themselves around the blades with insane speed and froze them in mid-air.
Of the 3 arrows, one of them managed to strike his back as for the 2 others, they were blocked by a black bandage.
The arrow didn''t heavily injure him, nonetheless, blood leaked out from the bloody bandages and he couldn''t help but become alarmed.
He discovered that this was not a normal ice, the arrow dissipated and the ice invaded his body trying to freeze him from the inside, even when he tried to fight back he could barely hold on, after all, he had to fight her back too.
Seeing the arrow hit its target, Silent Flower smirked and back away 10 steps, the bandages were no longer wrapped around the blades.
When she looked at the bandaged guy, she frowned a little before regaining her usual expression. The bandages on his head came off a little and showed a blonde hair and a blue eye, unfortunately, only part of his head was shown so apart from his right eye and half of his hair, nothing else was shown.
Even Arthur was shocked, he expected an ugly person behind the bandages or at least some hideous scars and not some blondie with a blue eye, maybe the other part of his face was injured, who knows? What intrigued him more was the bandages and the ice, he was the fight with his blood boiling.
Very quickly, all the bandages turned black and some violet fog was coming out of it, the aura was chilling and he emanated an intimidating pressure.
Silent Flower was not surprised by this, she expected him to have something up his sleeve and it seemed he finally became serious so it''s time for her to become serious too.
She put her blades on their sheath then she drew some strange symbols in the air, and in just 10 or so seconds, a blue circle with a star inside it and some strange runes appeared mid-air where she was waving her hands a moment ago, the runes and symbols were pink coloured and began to shine brightly until it vanished inside her chest.
And at that moment, all the arena ground turned was frozen by the ice and she transformed into ice, literally, all her clothes were gone and she turned into an ice pink woman, well it was pink yet purple, a little of the two, she held both of her blades which turned into ice too but they were normal ice and charged at Tianqi.
She really emitted chilling cold and even the audience began feeling it, her speed more than doubled and with but a simple slash of hers, a big ice wave would be created, it was terrifying.
Tianqi also wasn''t weak, his aura was not suppressed by her ice and they both clashed creating explosions and craters all over the arena which was already frozen.
The only place which wasn''t frozen was where he stood, and whenever he moved, the ground he stepped on would either be melted or the ice would disappear, he became more and more ferocious as the battle continued.
They were equal in power but because she somehow could use the cold environment and the frozen arena, she held a slight advantage, ice spears or arrows would appear out of nowhere to attack him, it was endless, furthermore, she used strong skills to overwhelm him but his black bandages were like a vacuum, sucking out the power of her attacks and making it almost non existent.
It continued like this for almost 10 minutes when suddenly, Silent Flower backed away and stared at Tianqi angrily, he was pretty persistent and even with her personal ice domain, she couldn''t win, it was almost time for it to run out so she could only use her strongest attack and gamble on it.
..
Tenhi, who was enjoying the fight from way earlier, was smiling as he looked at Silent Flower ''To be able to create an ice domain since a young age, truly a genius ha ha ha.... however, she''s unlucky to be against that guy'' Then he looked at Tianqi with a somewhat interested gaze, he too didn''t know what those bandages were even with vast knowledge and it would be a lie to say he wasn''t interested, maybe if he won he''ll ask him to join and then ask him about it.
Silent Flower threw both of her blades up in the air, they floated a couple of meters above her head, she then closed her eyes and lifted her hands and soon, all the ice in the arena began to concentrate at the same location which was where the blades floated.
Tianqi looked at this from afar and didn''t waste this opportunity to use his black bandages to secretly attack her, a lightning fast back spike came flying at her but it was completely blocked by an invisible barrier.
He continued doing that but it didn''t work as the invisible barrier blocked everything, and after 30 seconds passed, the ice began forming and its coldness seemed about to freeze the whole Colosseum, some spectators were even trembling while others stared with awe at the big pink lotus flower with now was formed.
it 70meters in height and 10 meters in length, pretty big and beautiful, truly too beautiful yet it emitted a freezing aura, Arthur stared at it with curiosity and excitement.
He wished to fight her as she was really strong, just this fight made him not regret participating in this competition.
Tianqi backed away several meters as he felt the terrifying pressure and coldness coming out of the big lotus, it was very dangerous so he had to take the appropriate measures.
The bandages began unfolding and soon a black sword formed in front of him, it was floating and had some black bandages in its hilt, the rest of it was made from the violet fog but now it seemed much denser, the sword was created in an instant but you could notice Tianqi staggering as he created it, it seems the process to create it quickly did something to him, maybe a backlash of some sort?
Silent Flower then mumbled some final words to finish her attack then waved her hand toward Tianqi and in the next moment, the ice lotus flower was thrown at him, it wasn''t that fast but nor that slow either, although it''s slow, Tianqi had no place to escape and he didn''t intend to do so, he gritted his teeth and willed the dark and violet sword to charge at the incoming attack.
Compared to the big lotus, the sword was very small, but at the moment of the impact, an ear-deafening sound was created and the arena split in half, strong waves of ice were emitted from the lotus as for the sword, the violet fog formed some sort of invisible wall which stopped the lotus from advancing further.
Albeit the violet fog creating a transparent wall, the lotus began suppressing it and slowly advancing toward Tianqi, but surprisingly, 2 other similar swords flew from his position and struck the lotus completely stopping it from advancing.
The clash remained like that for half a minute, and just 30 seconds, the arena was broken in half with a huge crater formed under the impact of the attacks and a ringing sound was coming from the lotus.
It suddenly lit up and exploded creating a big explosion, only a small portion was left from the arena and the 3 swords seemed to vanish.
Some of the spectators were hit by the impact too and some had some parts frozen, Arthur glanced at Lucy to check but nothing happened, a simple barrier was created by her which protected her and the nearby people from any harm.
Dust was around the arena, blocking the view of almost everyone and the had to wait a couple of seconds for it to vanish and went it did, they saw 2 figures, one was kneeling on the ground while coughing blood non-stop, there was even a bloody wound in his leg, while the other was struggling to get up from the ground while having her hand burned up and there was a deep scar near her shoulder.
At a closer look, the bandaged guy was still in the arena but Silent Flower was out of it, although she first tried to get up, once she saw the wall of the Colosseum so close, she knew she lost so she stopped struggling, as for Tianqi, he breathed heavily as he swallowed a couple of pills and tended to his wounds.
Chapter 63 : The Penniless Daoist, Gobu
The battle between Tianqi and Silent Flower was so intense that the crowd stayed silent after that last explosion, it took them a couple of minutes to realize what just happened.
The cheers were loud as they called out both their names, however, Tianqi walked back with some mustered strength, as for Silent Flower, she layed on the ground for some time before she could stand up and walk back, she gritted her teeth and was unwilling to accept defeat but she was sent out of the arena and she can''t refute that.
..
Due to how damaged the arena became, the other match will be held up in an hour. Some disciples of the Locus Clan came and started fixing the arena, it didn''t even take them 10 minutes to fix it so it''s confusing on why they said 1 hour.
Anyways, Arthur didn''t just stay still, instead, he surprisingly walked next to Silent Flower, who was tending her wounds and said
"Here, drink this"
He said that while stretching his hand which hat the Miraculous Healing Potion.
The reason he decided to give her and not Tianqi is that she seemed more approachable? He seemed to be the kind of guy to not like others, Arthur even guessed that he would be ignored if he talked to him.
Silent Flower was lifted her head and saw a black robed person covering his head, handing her fist-sized red Potion, but she didn''t take it and stared at him with a confused look.
Seeing her act like this, Arthur put the Potion on the ground then went back to where he was, he only did that because he wanted to form a friendly relationship with her, someone who can use a special kind of ice is by no means normal, she must have a powerful backing or something similar, if not then she perhaps was born with that kind of ice.
Maybe if they became friends, she could teach him how to use that ice.
He didn''t bother with her anymore and retrieved a book to read until the next match is up.
Silent Flower frowned at his actions and didn''t pick the potion until 20 minutes later, she didn''t know why a complete stranger would do this but she couldn''t find a reason he would hurt her, a direct reason that is, he may want something in return but since he didn''t say it then it doesn''t matter right?
First, she drank just a little bit to confirm it''s not poison, but just when it invaded her body, a warm feeling covered her and her wounds were healing much faster. Surprised by this, she gulped the Potion straight away which made her wounds heal at an incredible speed.
Just after 5 minutes of consuming it, all her wounds healed except that serious one on her shoulder, although it didn''t fully heal, it was less painful.
She gazed at the empty bottle with widened eyes then she shifted her gaze to Arthur, who was leisurely sitting and reading a book.
She doesn''t want to fill indebted to someone so she slowly walked next to him and hesitantly said
"T-Thank you, I owe you a fav-vour.."
Arthur lowered the book and chuckled before replying
"No problem, no problem! Ah ah, for that favor, I would like to use it now.."
Startled by this, Silent Flower began regretting even coming to thank him, she guessed he would ask for something precious or ridiculous so she clenched her fists and retorted
"W-What do you want?"
"Hai! Let''s become friends then.. what do you say?"
She stayed silent for an unknown amount of time before she spoke with a low voice
"Isn''t it e-early to become friends? I just met you..."
Hearing this, Arthur waved his hand as if he was annoyed and said
"Ah.. then consider it a gift.. no need to return the favor."
Silent Flower would feel guilty if she did that, her honor and pride wouldn''t let her do that.
''He just wants to be your friend! What are you afraid of?'' After successfully reassuring herself, she stretched her hand as if she wanted to shake his and said
"Pleased to become your f-friend.."
Arthur laughed heartily and immediately replied while shaking her hand rapidly
"Ha ha ha, the pleasure is mine, sit sit!"
He indicated at the chair next to him, telling her to sit as he wanted to chat with her about that ice, he was very curious about it.
However, from a while back, he could feel killing intent coming from the audience, he didn''t dare look as he knew Lucy was gazing at him with piercing eyes.
It''s not like he was flirting with Silent Flower or wanted her to become his woman, he approached her for different reasons, but it seems Lucy misunderstood or is being jealous for no apparent reason.
..
From the very beginning, Silent Flower impression on Arthur was not that bad, she just felt he was a bit strong as she saw him fight earlier, she didn''t think he could win against her, but he was decently strong and after he helped her, he seemed like an friendly and kind person, although it seemed strange as to why he covered his face.
The two chatted for a couple of minutes before they stopped, they only talked about simple things like the participants and the bandaged guy, Arthur discovered that it would be hard to make her speak of her strange ice so he stopped talking and resumed reading his book.
The silence was awkward but he didn''t mind that and acted normally, as for her, she closed her eyes and seemed to be trying to treat her shoulder.
The one hour was finally done and the next match was announced, Arthur was extremely overjoyed as he heard the announcement as his opponent was Gobu.
He finally gotten what he wished for, he really wanted to see what will the great actor do when he realises his opponent has seen through him.
Arthur jumped on the new arena followed by Gobu who acted the same. Arthur didn''t know how strong a Heavenly Realm person is, but he knew he is strong, at least compared to others, however, he didn''t dare to be reckless so he decided to fight seriously, he would only use Makaze, if it gets hard then he will use his dark magic and the others.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
He wouldn''t use his full speed as he it but he would fight seriously, at least he wouldn''t hold back his attacks.
Soon, the two of them were on the arena, Gobu was barely standing as if he would fall at any moment, as if Arthur, he already took a special sword stance while holding Makaze.
..
Anastassia, who was watching the next match with depressed eyes because her clan was out was shocked once her eyes landed on that black katana.
There is no way there are other swords similar to Arthur''s, with just one look, she was sure it was the same sword, so the one holding it must be Arthur..
''damned fool! Why would he disguise himself to join?'' She was irritated because he not only participated disguised but also because he beat the only clan member still in the competition, plus, why would he even participate, with his strength, it''s a piece of cake to win the first tournament and even the second.
..
Once the 20 seconds were up, Arthur used [Petal Footsteps] to rush at Gobu, who was dumbstruck by the speed of his opponent.
The speed Arthur displayed was just slightly slower than Anastassia, so Gobu who was preparing himself to start the act was caught off guard.
As he was rushing at the daoist, Arthur already used [Lone sword] 2 times and sent 2 slashes ahead of him.
This time, the bald man didn''t dare act and retrieved a golden shield from his storage.
It was a big gold shield which was 1 meter in height and 10 centimeters thick, it looked dazling as a bright light came out of it.
Even the calm Tenhi who was leisurely watching the fight was stunned 2 times in less than 5 seconds, first because of the fast and powerful attacks of Arthur which were very fast, then by the golden shield, he couldn''t help but mumbly
"Artifact..!"
Once the two slashes of Arthur struck the shield, they vanished, it was not cut or destroyed, and that greatly shocked Arthur, however, he didn''t dare back away, instead he increased his speed even more.
Even if it was a shield, it was not a normal one for it to be able to block a slash from [Lone Sword], it''s true he didn''t use all his strength but he used quite an amount that would even injure a Spirit Realm.
With his godly speed, he appeared behind the still startled Gobu and thrusted his sword at his back with accuracy and fast speed.
Somehow, the golden shield which was put in front of Gobu, appeared behind him and blocked the thrust of Makaze, but this time, it didn''t stay put, but it was pushed back a couple of meters, pushing Gobu with it.
Although astonished that Makaze couldn''t go through the shield, Arthur didn''t stop there, instead, he used Natural Lightning which descended from the sky and kept striking Gobu.
The bald daoist was completely with what just happened, he still couldn''t believe what he is seeing, he just thought of Arthur as a regular participant, maybe slightly stronger than others but he by no means did he think he was a Heavenly Realm like him.
As to why he thought he is Heavenly Realm? Well, obviously it''s because with that kind of speed and power of attacks! Only people in that Realm or above could perform like that and show mind-numbing strength.
He desperately dodged those lightning but a few of them hit him, it didn''t hurt for a couple of seconds until he felt his inside twist a bit and the pain followed that.
With no way but to take out his few treasures, he retrieved yet another shield which was purple and held it in the air, he then quickly mumbled some few words and the purple shield floated above him, completely blocking the streaks of lightning.
Then he flew high in the sky, to avoid the incoming Arthur, but the latter was coming at him even when he flew and his speed seemed to increase even more.
Although the daoist''s speed was not that fast, he had that golden shield which would teleport at every place Arthur slashed or thrusted his sword, the priest would be sent flying 50 or so meters until he stopped and adjusted his body.
He couldn''t even counter-attack as Arthur speed was too fast for him to be able to accurately hit him.
The golden shield protected him from all direction except above, but he had the purple one to do the job from that direction, they two shield had similar runes and symbols except the purple one was a bit smaller.
Arthur increased his speed even more until he was like a black blur, the audience was flabbergasted as they saw the flying priest get pushed a couple of meters every second by an invisible force.
Arthur tried his best to attack him but the shield kept blocking so he finally raised his speed and strength to the max and decided to use powerful skills.
The Godly lightning would take 10 seconds to hit which is a big amount of time in a battle like this one, he first prepared a Godly lightning which will be followed by a 10m ball of ancient fire to strike Gobu from above then he flew around Gobu with his full speed making the enemy unable to locate his exact position.
Even the calm Tenhi stood up from his chair and stared with widened eyes at Arthur, even him someone in the Deity Realm can barely keep up with him, much less Gobu who was depressed right now as he never thought he would encounter such an enemy in the first tournament.
As the 10 seconds were up, a white thick streak of lightning came from above, as it was descending, it fused with the ball of red fire and transformed into a 15m red and white arrow, it''s speed was outstanding as it struck the purple shield, Arthur also appeared in front of Gobu and used [Dark Burst] to slash at the dumbfounded bald man.
Unfortunately, even with his godly speed, the golden shield appeared in front of the slash and blocked it but this time, but the impact of the slash and the arrow on both of the shield made a deafening explosion.
The shockwaves were ravaging as even though they are fighting high up in the air, the shockwaves broke the arena and the colosseum, some of the nearby spectators fell unconscious or were sent flying from the power of the impact.
The golden shield managed to block that powerful strike of Arthur but the purple shield only lasted for a second before it broke in two, almost all the arrow vanished, it was now only a 2m arrow, it struck the pale-faced Gobu who created a metal shield from his magic just in time to block the arrow but it was not that effective as he was sent flying down until he struck the broke arena.
He was quite lucky as he hit the center of it, but it was broken into pieces and a huge crater was created from that impact, it couldn''t be called an arena right now, it was just scattered rocks.
Gobu barely managed to stand up as there was burn marks on his face and shoulders and blood leaked out of his lips, he stared at Arthur with a anger and some fear, that arrow was reduced to just 2 meters but the damage it did to him was serious.
He could feel some of his organs to being melted by that fire and his bones were crushed by that lightning. Not only his opponent was a monster in close-combat, he was a freaking Wizard and could use a special type of fire and lightning.
Arthur was delighted by the outcome, he expected no less from that arrow, now that the purple shield is gone, the streaks of nature lightning resumed attacking Gobu who started dodging.
He looked more pitiful than ever, with a burnt clothes and sorry state, he previously was acting but now he was dodging for real, he couldn''t help but laugh at himself as he wanted to try fooling Arthur too.
Arthur didn''t just stay in the air, he rushed at the bald man with his fastest speed and attacked with slashes and kicks, he didn''t want to win by pushing him out of the arena he wanted to defeat him normally, furthermore, the golden shield annoyed him and he really wanted to break into to, but unfortunately he was unable too, even with a slash supported by [Dark burst].
He appeared behind Gobu and was ready to slash yet again when he felt extremely heavy and was slowed down by a huge margin, and to make thing worse, the golden shield appeared in front of him and brightly shined then the elephant symbol which was imprinted in it seemed to move and an illusory image of the creature came out of it and slammed into him.
It felt like he was struck by a mountain as he was sent flying, for someone with his defense to be sent flying like this was really shocking, that attack was very powerful as he almost fell on the ground out of the ''arena'', so long as he flying, even if it''s out of the arena range then it''s alright but if he touched the ground then he''s out.
Some of his bones appeared damaged, but it was nothing serious, fortunately.
Gobu, who thought the attack now was enough to win, stared at Arthur with eyes full of disbelief as he really couldn''t believe this was a person in front of him.
The golden shield is a strange artifact he had gotten his hands on and it is by no means weak, it can defend against attacks from a person in the Deity Realm and it''s offensive is great too, that attack can slaughter Heavenly Realm people like chicken so why was he not dead? It only left one conclusion and it''s that Arthur is certainly a Deity Realm.
Tenhi could not calm down, this fight was not like anything he had seen before, that previous attack of the golden shield could even hurt him, and what''s with that speed of the black-robed man? He began to feel suspicious about the two of them and was on full alert, he must investigate properly their identities.
..
Chapter 64 : Madman
Arthur stabilized his body and stared intensely at the golden shield, theprevious attack was powerful and he really wanted to havea similar shield, however, he was not going to rob it or murder Gobu then take it as he had good ones in his storage too, they just didn''t entirely suit his style of combat.
this time, he didn''t rush at Gobu, instead, he put his katana back at its sheath then flew a bit high in the sky.
Gobu was surprised to see this strange act of Arthur, he knew something was fishy and he was probably changing tactic, nonetheless, he didn''t budge from his position and glared cautiously at his opponent.
..
Arthur started concentrating and in just seconds, several dark red fireballs were created, each ball was was 3m and emitted some intense heat, in just seconds there were dozens of those balls.
Gobu was petrified as he felt a shiver down his spines, that 5m fire ball from earlier almost melted him, so when he saw this many, he couldn''t help but feel afraid.
Arthur then threw all the balls at the same time toward Gobu, he made sure they struck him from all direction while Godly lightning struck him from above.
The poor daoist clenched his hands and formed several metal walls around him hoping for the best but they were easily melted and by the fireballs, they didn''t hold them even for a millisecond as they passed through it as if it was air.
Fortunately, the shield was very fast, even with all the balls attacking from all directions, it would teleport instantly and block it, but with several hitting at the same time, it was practically impossible to defend against all at the same time no matter how fast it is.
None of the balls hit Gobu, but some of the fire landed on his body and burned him a little, although it was just a bit of the fireball that managed to hit him, it was enough to cause damage to him, especially when several bits of fire landed on him.
Even to a strong destructive fire such as the ancient fire, the golden shield was able to defend which astonished Arthur, but even seeing that, he didn''t stop his bombarding.
The Godly lightning was even more destructive than the ancient fire, but it''s only con is that it''s slow so with Gobu''s speed, he managed to evade it, but it caused more flames to touch him, his state became even more miserable as he was almost naked, his ragged clothes were almost fully burned and he had much more burn marks each time the fire touched him.
The bombarding continued until Gobu finally fell into despair and yelled
"I give up, I give up, stop! This penniless daoist cannot fight anymore, have mercy!"
Arthur smirked when he heard this and stopped, he knew that the tactic he just used was very useful and if it continued a couple more minutes, he would''ve been able to defeat him and seriously injure him but it seemed Gobu was wise and knew when to give up or else the consequences would have been dire.
He could have used [Dark Magic] but he didn''t, he didn''t want to show it for several reasons so he refrained from using it yet.
The arrow from earlier did some considerable damage to Gobu and as time passed, he felt that his insides are melting and each time the fire touched him, the pain became even more agonizing, he could not hold off anymore, if he continued, it would have been life-threatening, he wasn''t dumb enough to fight to death with this madman.
...
Silent Flower, who was not that interested in the fight from the very beginning, closed her eyes and was tending her injured shoulder, but once the fight started and she heard the cries of surprise of the spectators, she opened her eyes only to see a shocking scene.
Arthur''s speed was so fast that she literally couldn''t follow it and his attacks were extremely strong, she also was stunned by those shields.
Once the big arrow struck the purple shield and broke it in two, and the huge impact happened, her eyes and mode were wide open as she stared at the scene in disbelief, she previously thought of Arthur as a somewhat strong participant but not a monster.
Even if she used her ice domain she can''t defend against that arrow, no way in hell, she would die miserably, her opinion of him greatly changed as she stared at him with awe and curiosity.
When she saw him bombarding the poor daoist, she felt a bit fearful of those flames as even though some distance were separating them, she still felt the strong heat and pressure coming out of it, Gobu was really lucky to have a shield like that or he would have been roasted by those fireballs.
As the fight was done, nothing was left of the arena, even some of the walls of the Colosseum were either melted or destroyed by the impact of the explosions and fireballs, to say that Arthur is weak right now is just spouting non sense, previously none thought he is that strong but now they believed he will surely win this tournament.
This battle was even more ravaging and shocking than the previous, the damage was done to the surroundings numerous times higher than the last one, at least previously some part of the stage was left intact, however, the arena looked became miserable with several big craters scattered in all its corners, it couldn''t be called an arena anymore.
Gobu was breathing heavily as he summoned back his golden shield and panted, he walked back while staggering and holding his chest, he would cough some blood every now and then.
Arthur wasn''t feeling tired or anything like that, that attack previously did hurt him a bit with his illogical recovering speed as the injury was healing at fast speed, it would be fine in 10 minutes or so.
He went back to his previous location and was going to resume reading as if nothing happened when all of a sudden, an explosion resounded in the ''arena''.
The black-robed man who was going to fight the disciple from the Xi Clan was floating a couple of meters in the air while removing his black hood.
It revealed a very sinister and hideous face full of scars, the man was hysterically laughing and staring at Tenhi.
Arthur thought they were here for a reason but he didn''t think they would act up this early, this person emitted the familiar aura the people from ''Medusa'' did, well not all of them but the ones which were a bit more experienced in using [Dark magic].
When he appraised him earlier he discovered his LVL to be 561, it was not that high compared to the other participant but for some odd reason, he kept winning, he didn''t use dark magic earlier not to alert him as he didn''t want to attract his attention, he wanted to know what they were here for, last time they attacked Belic and Robin for some item, so they must be here for a reason.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Although it was only one guy, he was sure there are some others hiding somewhere, each time he met paths with them there was always more than one person.
Tenhi furrowed his brows when he saw the ugly man laughing while staring at him, then he sensed danger, he suddenly disappeared from his sit and appeared high up in the sky, and in his previous location was a dozen of black daggers than appeared out of nowhere.
Arthur also this process and was a bit shocked when he saw the dark blue daggers, it seemed this person was using [Chaotic dark magic] which was the first evolution of dark magic, also, why were the daggers speed very fast?
He appraised the ugly man again and was shocked to see his LVL, it was literally increasing at a rapid pace.
When he appraised it was already 1403 but only 10 seconds passed and it was 1600+, this was insane and incomprehensible.
The aura around the ugly man was becoming more and more overbearing as he began attacking Tenhi and everyone else, the dark magic attacks were aimed randomly at everyone and his Lvl kept increasing rapidly.
His attacks were so fast that he killed more than a hundred spectators in just seconds, even some of the nearby participants got struck by the dark magic and fell soundlessly on the ground.
The area of the clans was protected by the clan masters as they formed a barrier to protect from the dark magic but it didn''t hold much at is began shattering when the attacks become more ferocious.
In less than a minute, the appraisal showed Arthur that this man was already in the Heavenly Realm, however, his aura didn''t stop rising, instead, it kept increasing even faster which shocked him.
He became full alert, he didn''t know how much it would increase but it didn''t it would stop soon.
The clan masters already retreated and none attacked the ugly mad man, dark magic chains, spears, spikes were beeing created endlessly from all around him as he threw them at everyone while he kept laughing.
Suddenly, Tenhi appeared in front of him and struck with his fist, but to his surprise, it was blocked by the ugly black-robed man, he unexpectedly managed to react in time and form a dark blue shield in front of the punch, but it was not able to hold on much as it shattered and the fist sent him flying until he struck the Colosseum wall.
..
''Astrith!''
As Arthur called out for Astrith, the blue lightning beast appeared and dashed towards Lucy and Saly where at, he was previously instructed to protect Saly and this ugly man was dangerous so he had to send Astrith.
Astrith was fast and appeared near Saly and Lucy in seconds, he took Saly, Sonia, and Mary and flew out of the Colosseum with lightning speed, as for Lucy, she appeared next to Arthur, who was staring at the ugly madman.
He doesn''t have anything to do with him but anyone who wanted him dead is his enemy, no matter who he is, maybe this man wasn''t aiming for him, but he sure as hell seemed non-caring about the lives of who he killed.
Tensui, which was the name of the ugly man, stood up from the ground and continued to laugh although he was sent flying by Tenhi not oo long ago.
This time, he dashed at the middle-aged man while wielding a dark blue sword in both of his hands, he madly slashed out at Tenhi while sending the random dark magic attacks to his surroundings.
The clans already evacuated and only the clan masters were flying not too far away and observing the situation, as for the spectators, more than half of them died and the rest managed to escape from the Colosseum.
The sight was gory and nauseating, blood was all over the walls and ground and hundreds of lifeless corpses were laying on the ground.
The appraisal of Arthur was still ON, and by this time, he already reached the Deity Realm, the madman was fighting with Tenhi, albeit being sent flying much time and being struck by numerous skills of the middle-aged man, he would always get up and strike again.
At some point, Tenhi couldn''t suppress him anymore and felt like Tensui''s aura become even more ferocious, he didn''t know why ''Medusa'' would attack him or his competition suddenly but he didn''t have the time to think about it right now.
Obviously, someone with a clan like his and a strength in the Deity Realm, he knew about the existence of Medusa and he knew there was a lot of strong people in it, but what was confusing as to why they would act against him now.
"Careful, he''s in the Deity Realm and his strength is still increasing.."
Arthur warned Lucy before they engaged in the fight, unlike him, she wasn''t immune to the dark magic so a strike from him would hurt her and he knew he couldn''t convince her to escape.
Very soon, both him and Lucy rushed at the madman who was fighting Tenhi, Lucy waved her hand and several big magma balls were thrown at Tensui while Arthur unsheathed Makaze and launched [Lone Sword] 5 times using all his strength.
5 dark arcs made from the skills were aimed at Tensui and rushed at him with a speed faster than Lucy''s magma balls.
Tensui, who was busy fighting Tenhi, was surprised by the sudden sneak-attack and was barely able to dodge 3 slashes before the 2 others hit him and made 2 deep cuts, one in his abdomen while the other in his shoulder.
He was shocked by the force of the slashes but he didn''t have time to think about it as several big magma balls were coming at him, they were fortunately slow enough for him to dodge but just as he dodged, a silver-haired woman appeared at his right and sent a kick at his waist.
The strength of the kick was so strong that it shattered some of his bones and sent him flying with so much speed that he couldn''t even stabilize his body in mid-air, for him, a person in the Deity Realm to be damaged like this with just a kick is astonishing, however, it didn''t just end like this.
He was sent flying in the air by that kick which was instantly followed by a black shadow appearing above him and using both of its arms to strike his stomach and sending him flying to the ground yet again, but this strike was more powerful than the first one as he coughed blood continuously, his insides were totally crushed.
Arthur not only used all his strength, he even slipped some natural energy in that strike, it invaded Tensui''s stomach and damaged his organs, but surprisingly he was very tough and had a high defense for some reason, maybe because he was in the Deity Realm?
The poor ugly man struck the ground and a huge crater appeared, Tenhi who was fighting the black-robed man was caught off guard by the attacks of those two and was more surprised when he saw them continuously attack Tensui and send him flying numerous times as if he was a ball.
Arthur descended and stood next to Lucy as he stared at the huge hole in the ground where Tensui landed, he didn''t know if he was unconscious or not but that last strike surely damaged him greatly.
Soon enough, a hand stretched out from the hole and a pale Tensui appeared, blood came out of his mouth and eyes but for some reason, his aura never ceased to increase, there was even black fog coming out of him and there were dark symbols shining in his back.
..
Tensui was angry, he didn''t expect those two to be this strong, it''s true Arthur demonstrated amazing power earlier but he didn''t pay that much attention as he was busy channeling the spell.
In fact, he was only able to increase his strength like this because he used a forbidden spell which consumed the soul energy of the subordinates of ''Medusa'' to strengthen him for some time.
The lives spent to increase his energy to Deity Realm were countless, probably in the tens of thousands and it didn''t seem to diminish, he could feel himself almost breaking through to the next Realm.
He could feel his body healing at godly speed and powerful energy surge in his body, he felt like a god, even the wounds he had gotten from Arthur and Lucy and not painful anymore.
He was in the A category which is considered very high in the organization and he got a mission from the ''statue'' to perform a spell and use the subordinates life, he had to cause disturbances in the competition and kill as many people as he could, he wasn''t given a reason and he didn''t ask for one as it was an order from the ''statue''.
Not even 10 seconds after he got up from that hole, his hands and legs turned got bigger and claws came out of them, there were some brown scales on them and he felt something come out of his head.
..
Arthur''s expression turned ugly as he saw the ugly man change appearance just as the statue indicated ''Immortal Realm'', the aura he emanated was no joke, even he felt suppressed and a bit fearful.
He didn''t hesitate as he used [Transmutation], his body transformed into a green lightning and he became covered with it, he looked like Yamak when he used that skill.
His stats were risen by 25% but only for a short amount of time, he needed to take this seriously and just by the pressure coming out of Tensui, he knew there is no time to think about it.
"Stay back and assist me with your magic, remember don''t come close!"
As he Arthur said that, he launched himself at Tensui while several dark spikes were created and thrown at Tensui...
Chapter 65 : Struggle
Arthur transformed into a green streak of lightning as he dashed at Tensui, who was laughing and checking his body.
The pressure was too overwhelming, even for someone such as Arthur, who have insane stats.
He didn''t use [Petal Footsteps] because when using [Transmutation] and the lightning form, his speed would be higher than when using that mouvement technique.
Fortunately, the chaotic dark magic used by Tensui didn''t damage Arthur, he was quite worried for Lucy as she may be hit but he can always instant teleport if something were to happen.
Tenhi, who was dazed from a while ago, snapped out of it as he felt the terrifying aura coming from Tensui, although right now, he didn''t look like a human, not in the slightest, his skin has already turned black and he grew 1 meter taller.
It''s better to call it a monstrosity, hideous face with long sharp claws in his arms and legs with a violet tail coming out of his lower back, he had what appeared to be violet scales in his knees and shoulders and a dense black fog was emanating from him.
..
Arthur''s speed could be considered godly as he appeared next to the monster in a split second, he didn''t hesitate as he used all his power and launched a [Lone Sword], but that wasn''t all of it, several orange and dark red spears were coming at Tensui.
Arthur didn''t use Dark magic this time because he had a feeling that it may do the opposite effect, maybe it was just his imagination but he didn''t dare use it until he is sure it would not strengthen him.
The good thing is that his power ceased to increase once he reached the Immortal Realm, but just being in that Realm made him a terrifying being, his appearance was no longer recognizable.
The slash of Arthur finally landed on Tensui''s abdomen, followed by a bombardment of spears made from ancient fire and eclipse magic.
Surprisingly, Tensui didn''t move as he grinned at Arthur and looked at him as if looking at a struggling ant, but that look changed dramatically when the ancient fire spears struck him.
The slash didn''t even scratch him but the spears clearly injured him as was pushed back a couple of meters with blood flowing from the newly made wounds, clearly the ancient fire was effective as it melted his black body.
His arrogant look changed as he gazed at the incoming spears, the Eclipse magic also injured him but it not as much as the ancient fire did.
..
Arthur didn''t sit around during this time when Tensui was pushed back, he teleported behind him and used [Buddha Palm] his strongest palm attack currently, and struck the monster''s back without holding back.
Just as his hand touched Tensui, he felt a bit numb and there was not any apparent damage to him, he was only pushed yet again but just 2 steps.
..
But just those two steps were enough for Tensui to be distracted by Arthur as suddenly three 5 meter Magma balls struck him.
For some reason, he was quite vulnerable against fire or magma, the three balls struck him successively as he was sent flying while black blood came out of him, his scales began melting and he was wailing with a deafening sound.
Tensui never reached the Immortal Realm so he was not accustomed to his new power and strength, moreover, those two were very powerful, although Arthur''s physical attacks didn''t injure him, his magical ones were deadly, same goes for Lucy.
He quickly got up from the ground as he gritted his sharp teeth and screamed from the pain, but suddenly, he could feel a mysterious energy, it didn''t even take him a second to realize that this is called ''Immortal Energy'' and it is quite special.
He began using it unconsciously and with its help, the pain became less and less and a black transparent energy covered his entire body.
Tensui felt lighter and the wounds he received from the spears and balls were healing rapidly, as he discovered that, he couldn''t help but smirk and launch and stare at Arthur and Lucy.
Dozens of dark blue spikes were created in a second and thrown at both of them, their speed was godly and they emanated some ominous aura, but his smirk soon turned into shock and astonishment.
The spikes didn''t as much as scratch Arthur, they just struck him and disappeared, as for Lucy, they shattered when they hit what appeared to be a black barrier surrounding her.
....
Tenhi, who was previously fighting Tensui, already flew away and stared at this fight from afar, just from their speed and powerful attacks he already knew he got no chance, that one spike can severely injure him so why should he risk it?
..
Since Physical attacks like [Lone Sword] and [Buddha palm] are not working, Arthur decided to try another tactic, while still bombarding Tensui with his fire spears, a white streak of lightning struck him and a white spear formed in his hand.
With a ''bzzzt''sound, the spear kept hitting the ground and making a few craters, he knew that trying to hitting Tensui with godly lightning is close to impossible since it was slow, even the fire spears were slow but it''s just that Tensui previously underestimated them, but since he knew their effect, he would surely be much more cautious.
Arthur dashed at Tensui yet again while lucy seemed to be chanting something, normally she never used them but if she is going to do a very powerful attack then they are needed to make the process faster.
The distance separating them was more than 50m so he couldn''t instantly teleport, but he already had an idea, with his insane speed, he crossed the distance separating them in a split second and just as he entered the 50m range.
He teleported while leaving a shadow clone of himself, unfortunately, the duration of the clone was just too short but it was enough to distract Tensui.
He reappeared just behind the monster and thrusted the spear with all his strength, Physical attacks don''t work, but a magic as destructive as this lightning will surely harm him.
What Arthur didn''t expect is that Tensui reacted in time and inclined his body to barely dodge the spear, normally it would literally be impossible to do this, however, he just did it, although he ''evaded'', some of the lightning managed to strike him on the left side of his waist which made a bloody wound, it didn''t look that serious but on a closer look, one can even some bones which now looked black too, just like his skin.
Arthur''s clone had only 10% of his stats but he wasn''t that weak either, it dashed at the monster using [Petal Footsteps] and struck with a [Dark Burst], of course, it may not hurt Tensui but it would probably push him back.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
The reason his clone managed to came and attack without Tensui countering is that the latter was dazed for some reason but once he saw the incoming punch of the ''clone'', he used the new Immortal energy and stricken the clone.
It was just a simple punch but the clone was sent flying with a fast speed until it crashed into the wall of the Colosseum which was followed by a notification telling Arthur that his clone is dead.
Tensui didn''t just stop at this, his tail which was now 1m in length, struck Arthur who was behind him with a speed that dumbfounded Arthur, he couldn''t do anything except cross his arms to try and block it.
Arthur was flying in the air as the force of the strike was too immense, he could feel the bones in his hands flying away, even with his fast regeneration, recovering both of his hands would take minutes.
As he was flying in the air from that attack, Tensui dashed at him with no attention to stop and used his knee to strike Arthur''s stomach, making him fall on the ground and make a hole similar to the one he was in earlier, but this one was deeper and wider and even a crater was formed.
Next thing he did was turn his head to stare at Lucy who was still preparing her skill, he grinned and rushed at her.
His speed was unbelievable, it was slower than Arthur but that didn''t mean it was slow, quite the opposite, there were approximately 250m meters separating Tensui and Lucy but it was crossed in a flash.
..
Although felt his body numb as he managed to ''leave'' Zodiak''s corpse at the final moment before he crushed, albeit that, he still was injured as Tensui''s attacks were ruthless and powerful, now that he is using his original body, blood leaked out of his lips but he didn''t care about that.
He transformed into lightning and immediately followed Tensui without even recovering Zodiak''s body.
His speed was faster than Tensui but the monster already dashed at Lucy a second or so before him so even with incredible speed, it was akin to impossible to catch up to him in time.
But that wasn''t what he wanted to, he just wanted to be just 50m from him to be able to stop him which finally happened, Arthur exercised all the speed he could muster and managed to teleport in front of Tensui who was dumbstruck by the sudden appearance of Arthur.
Arthur didn''t waste time and stabbed with his white spear, not only that, 2 fireballs were prepared in advance and thrown at Tensui from both directions, leaving him only a single route to escape from.
Although Tensui knew he was very powerful and just by how he sent Arthur flying a second ago, he knew he held a big advantage, nonetheless, he felt fearful toward this strange lightning and that fire, his injury in the waist was hurting him albeit using the Immortal energy.
Furthermore, no matter how many attacks landed on Arthur, the wouldn''t work, only physical attacks would, he thought that his black magic is supposed to even slay gods yet it couldn''t scratch this fellow which made him perplexed.
He honestly didn''t want to face this one head on, plus, the fireballs were very big and emitted intense heat, even with his newly discovered energy, it would still heavily injure him if it struck him.
..
Arthur already expected him to do so, he knew that this monster would choose not to confront his attacks head-on as they would damage him, it seemed only his appearance changed and he still had rational thinking.
It was a bit of a pity, he was betting on the chance of him turning into a beast so that he can defeat him with clever tactics but it didn''t it would work.
Just as Tensui backed away, Lucy finally finished what she was preparing so she immediately spoke
"Arthur.. it''s ready!"
When he heard her, he felt a bit delighted but he was still tensed and on full alert.
If one looked above, high in the sky, they would see a gigantic bow, yes, it''s a bow, precisely it''s a bow made of very dense magma, it didn''t even look like magma but like red iron, it was so condensed that the heat it emitted was overwhelming Tensui, someone in the Immortal Realm.
When his eyes landed on that terrifyingly big bow, he furrowed his long brows and stared at it wth disbelief, he could feel pressure coming from that bow.
As for Arthur, he just smirked and nodded at Lucy, he fastly descended from above and landed next to Lucy.
"Buy me 20 seconds... no 15 seconds are enough, just 15!"
Lucy didn''t reply as she nodded her head and rushed at Tensui, who was still dumbstruck and staring at the bow.
Sensing danger, he turned his head only to see numerous lava waves coming at him, they looked like huge water waves, but instead of water, it was magma, a very strong magma.
The range of her attacks was very wide and he got no choice but to back away and evade it, since Lucy only needed to buy time, there was no use coming near him but what she didn''t expect is that Tensui suddenly rushed straight at the magma waves.
Some sort of a cubic dark wall was formed in front of him, and just as he hit the magma waves, the wall melted slowly until it was finally gone which resulted in him being slightly injured by the waves, fortunately for him, he managed to pass the waves, so he continued to rush at Lucy.
Seeing him come at her with insane speed, Lucy didn''t just stay still, two 3m big magma hands appeared from the ground and slammed at him, who was just 20m away from her.
Although the attack appeared suddenly, he kind of expected it, so with a wave of his hand, more than 10 dark blue shields appeared around him, pushing the hands and letting him through.
No matter how fast Lucy is at launching attacks, the last attack of hers was barely enough, if she wanted to thoroughly block him, she needed to create a magma wall or barrier or something similar, but even that would not be created in enough time.
Tensui finally arrived in front of the silver-haired woman who gave him a headache, he still felt fearful of the bow so he decided to take care of her first, or else he would surely regret it.
Tensui''s attack was simple but deadly, he launched a punch at Lucy who tried to back away but the punch was faster, fortunately for her, the barrier made of dark magic was still surrounding her so his punch was stopped a little before the barrier shattered and it finally landed on her.
She managed to cross her arms to try to minimize the damage but what she didn''t expect is the black tail striking her waist from who knows where, she instantly coughed blood as she was sent flying until she struck a nearby wall, but it was also destroyed and she kept flying from the force of the tail whip until a few walls were destroyed.
Her state looked pitiful as there was a bloody wound on her abdomen, unlike Arthur, her stats were lower than him, and even without the stats, he had defensive technique while she didn''t, from the very beginning, she was a mage, and a mage clearly doesn''t have a good defense, it''s just that she has better defense than others because of the soul link.
Tensui didn''t stop there, he wanted to thoroughly kill her so he can get rid of the bow, she is the one who created it, so naturally, if she''s dead then it would disappear along with her.
Arthur watched this but he could only grit his teeth and continue to concentrate, he wanted to rush there and interrupt Tensui but just couldn''t or else all the work she did would have gone to waste.
..
Tensui appeared next to Lucy, who was trying to stand and used his tail to hold her by her neck, he started exercising some strength into his grip to suffocate her, however, things didn''t go as planned as a violet fire spike struck him from the ground, it was so sudden so he couldn''t dodge, all he could do was try to use his Immortan energy to receive less damage.
Even with the help of the new energy, the fire spike was very sharp and emanated a heat that could even suffocate him, both of his legs were damaged as some of the scales in his knees were melting.
He, fortunately, had the Immortal energy or else his legs would have vanished, Tensui naturally backed away from his previous location while letting go of Lucy.
The pain from the fire was seriously no joke, Tensui was both fearful and curious about that pair, not only they were very mysterious, they were also extremely powerful so how come he doesn''t know about them? He never even heard about people similar to them.
This time, while observing the surroundings and confirming that there is no hidden traps or spikes, he launched himself on Lucy, who was panting heavily and when he was just 1 meter in front of her, he disappeared and appeared right behind her, and unsurprisingly, yet another fire spike appeared in the same location he was just in.
A look of surprise appeared in Lucy''s eyes, but it was too late to react now as she felt intense pain in her back, apparently, Tensui punched her back, breaking some of her bones, even the ribcage was damaged, which explains how much his strength is insane.
She couldn''t stabilize or body as she was sent flying in the opposite direction but suddenly, two warm hands appeared from nowhere and gently held her, stopping her from flying any further and adjusting her body while not touching the heavy injuries.
Who else could it be but Arthur? He already finished what he was appearing, as he saw the bloody body of Lucy, his face turned ugly but an evil smile couldn''t help but form on his face, normally, although one of his eyes turned grey, it would only be like that when he fought, in normal days, both of his eyes are blood red but now, one eye was grey while the other was black.
A notification was shown in front of him which made him a bit relieved as his plan worked.
Chapter 66 : Complete Devastation
Just as the notification showed in front of Arthur, the atmosphere around the island completely changed, it''s like changing from a peaceful and quiet island with a few sounds of explosions here and there to a literal Hell.
The calm sea became raging and even a few tall water cyclone appeared.
The clan masters who sneakily watched the fight from afar became more alerted since the red bow appeared but now the horrifying arrow appeared, they didn''t dare stay close, they left the island perimeter and gazed at the Colosseum from very far.
With their stats, seeing from that distance with no big deal, furthermore, sensing the overwhelming aura of the arrow, how could they still near it?
Anastassia who already knew about the identity of the black-robed man was now extremely shocked, here she thought that Arthur was equal to her in terms of strength but now, with her own eyes, saw him fight face to face to a peak Deity Realm if not Immortal Realm.
She couldn''t exactly confirm the monster''s Realm, but it was very apparent that he was above Deity Realm, even Tenhi couldn''t face him before he transformed, much less now.
Tenhi also backed away when the arrow appeared, since a while ago he felt helpless against that monster much less now, it was kind of fortunate those pair were here or else he would certainly havedied earlier.
..
The arrow was pure black with a sharp white edge in the front from the godly lightning, and in the back corners of it there were several sharp ancient flames spikes, it didn''t exactly like an arrow but it was rather similar.
The [Heavenly Arrow] synchronized itself with the bow as it positioned itself in the middle of the bow and was ready to be launched at any second but every second passed its aura became more and more terrifying.
Streaks of white lightning struck the Colosseum, completely destroying it until it looked no more than ruins, but it didn''t stop and kept striking the ground surroundings the arrow.
..
Tensui who sensed the sudden change in atmosphere and the great pressure noticed the arrow, his face whitened as he stared at this dangerous combination of two attacks.
He turned his head to Arthur and Lucy and was going to launch himself on them but he felt that the pressure coming from them is way stronger than the arrow.
Lucy and Arthur were already under the arrow so if Tensui wanted to attack them, he would be surely struck by the arrow.
The monster surprisingly used one of his sharp hands and stabbed his heart, and even after 10 seconds, he didn''t seem to have died, instead, violet energy surrounded him and a violet sickle was formed from that energy.
It looked like an ancient sickle, very ancient, it emitted some ripples around it, and even Tensui''s hand which was holding it was shaking non-stop, blood oozed from all the holes in his face.
Arthur didn''t wait for the monster to finish preparing, gently, he held Lucy''s soft hands and took a stance with her as if they were holding a bow.
Just like that, transparent white hands appeared in mid-air, these two hands were very big, as big as the arrow as it held it firmly, the pressure became several times stronger and a mysterious silver metal formed around the arrow.
Arthur and Lucy, who were holding what appeared to be an invisible arrow, closed both their eyes, if you look closer, you could even notice that their breathing is absolutely synchronized.
Tensui felt fear and danger, all his instincts were alarming him and telling him to flee but it was too late for that, the sickle almost flew from his hand as it''s power was too much for him, without hesitation, he flew in the air, toward the direction of the pair while slashing furiously with his violet sickle.
Anyone could guess that the stance the pair were taking and the motions as if they were holding a bow were the cause of the appearance of the two transparent big hands which were holding the bow.
With a calm look, both of them released the arrow and that at that time, the two big hands which held the arrow and bow, released it instantly, creating a sound so loud that it created powerful soundwaves, Tenhi who was the closer was sent flying until he sunk deeply into the sea, one could even see blood coming out of his mouth as he was pushed by the soundwaves.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The arrow seemed to disappear when it was thrown, Tensui who just slashed with his sickle, was more than shocked as the sound shockwaves already stopped his slash, only a little was left of it, but that wasn''t all, the arrow''s speed was so fast that it was already in front of him in a split second.
It was a very big arrow, approximately 100 meters in length and 5 meters thick, it may be smaller than the previous arrow Arthur created but it is the most powerful, that''s for sure.
The tip and sharp edge of the arrow which had a tinge of silver shining metal on it struck Tensui chest, surprisingly, it stopped there, previously Arthur would let the arrow continue it''s way even though the enemy was dead, but now, he specifically controlled so it strikes Tensui and completely kills him, after all, even making all his body vanish may not be enough, perhaps an Immortal Realm may have tricks to survive that.
As the arrow struck Tensui, a deafening shriek came out of his mouth, he seemed to be as if he was being purified, there was an extremely bright silver light when the arrow struck him and even the pale clan master who was very far away were blinded by this light.
They were pushed back even further by the sound shockwaves and there is even some who were injured, so they retreated even further but the light still blinded them.
The explosion caused after the shiny silver light was a complete terror, fortunately, the arrow was created by Arthur, so he wasn''t injured, neither was Lucy but all the nearby people who thought they were safe received heavy damage due to the explosion.
The whole island literally vanished, there was just nothing left, just a gigantic hole with the sea filling it rapidly, the sight was horrifying, furthermore, there was a huge wind and dust cyclone which spanned 3 kilometers, from afar it looked like it''s a calamity.
It wasn''t that harmful in reality but it limited the sight of many people. Anastassia and a few lucky clan masters managed to only receive light injuries but the Xi Clan master had lost his left leg and blood flowed endlessly as the elder of his clan helped him, he had a pale face and had a look of extreme regret, he thought that with his protective armor and divine fire shield, he would be able to withhold the damages but they were both easily shattered.
.....
Lucy and Arthur were quite weak, this synchronization wasn''t easy and it consumed a lot of energy, albeit their infinite stamina that didn''t mean they can use this endlessly, the result was much more astonishing than what Arthur was expecting.
He held Lucy in his arms as she was more injured than him and left the area, surely the body of Tensui wouldn''t be left and even if it was, he seemed to be using a special kind of technique and it was not his real strength so even after possessing he would only gain his original stats, which is a real shame.
He fed her a Minor and Miraculous Healing Potions which helped her recover faster and treated the heavy injury on her back and waist.
He was feeling weak too but it shouldn''t be a problem for him to fly and move. After 10 minutes, he arrived near the Itas Continent where he found Astrith waiting there along with the others, even Anastassia somehow came here.
She looked at Arthur with eyes full of disbelief, that arrow what just heaven-defying, it obliterated the whole island along with that monster, and here she thought he was only in the Spirit Realm, was he acting that day against the elder of in the spar?
Although she had countless questions, she didn''t dare ask them, she saw the weak and pale Lucy in his arms and knew that he greatly cared her so she kept silent.
Arthur ignored the others and descended on Astrith''s back, mentally telling him to go back to the clan, now that Astrith was transporting them, he felt a bit relaxed as he gazed at the weak Lucy.
He layed her on Astrith with her upper body leaning on his chest, Saly was worried but she didn''t cry or show childish behavior, she just sat next to them while holding Lucy''s hand and stared at her.
In a gloomy underground rocky room, there stood a kneeling man, he had a pale face and wore a black robe, he was involuntarily shaking as he didn''t have the guts to look up to the stone statue.
The statue was in the shape of an adult woman, a voluptuous body with two peaks in her chest that would seemed as if they would explode at any moment although it was only a statue, it looked very real, she had a book in her waist and if Arthur saw it, he would immediately recognize it, it was exactly like the book of the damned he found near Zodiak.
"Reporting to the Lord, t-the mission ff--faile-ed..... please forgive this one, an unexpected problem occurred!"
His body was trembling even more as he spoke, his voice was shaky, if one saw him act like this they would be astonished, he was one of the people in the S category in ''Medusa'' but he was still so afraid of the statue to the point of shaking non-stop.
A snort came out of the statue followed by a very cold and piercing voice
"Incompetent dogs! Since a while ago, all you do is failing missions, this was supposed to be important, how can a person in the Immortal Realm be killed like that and you are just saying ''Unexpected Problem'' this is a big problem, tell me! What exactly happened!"
While still kneeling, the old man didn''t dare delay as he replied immediately.
"Reporting to the Lord, Tensui used the forbidden spell as instructed and by sacrificing exactly 54.314 soul, he managed to ascend to the Immortal Realm, we don''t know who exactly killed him but what we know is that it''s a black-robed man and a silver-haired woman, their attack apparently obliterated the whole island, leaving no trace of Tensui, that''s what our spies saw."
As if pondering for a bit, the statue finally spoke again after a couple of minutes of silence
"Black-robed man? Silver-haired woman? A few months ago, one of the dogs also told me of similar individuals... but I just ignored them... it seems I have to personally come?"
As she said that, the lifeless eyes of the statue shined with a dark and violet light and the big statue shook for a couple of seconds before it regained its usual state.
Even after a couple of minutes passed, no sound came from the statue, so the kneeling old man concluded that ''the Lord'' is gone, for now.
He breathed a sigh of relief, and after a final kowtow, he left the room in a hurry, he couldn''t help but wipe the invisible cold sweat in his forehead as if he avoided death by a hair''s breath.
Chapter 67 : Pure Dark Essence
Arthur and the rest went back to the Clan, he and Lucy passed the next few days resting as the last fight consumed a bit of their power, it wasn''t only mana, but the synchronization needed the stats ''mental power'', Arthur didn''t fully comprehend how to grasp it but he managed to find a few uses for it, one is for the lost magic and the second is the synchronization but the latter would make him exhausted after using it.
The incident became known very quickly, although the clans usually keep a low profile, an explosion like that cannot be unnoticed, heck! A whole island disappeared.
After 5 days, Arthur and Lucy went back to where the explosion happened, he wanted to find Zodiak''s corpse as he may be useful to him, you must know that it saved him last time.
When they arrived there, they saw several disciples of the clans standing guard, however, with their insane speed, they easily passed without being caught, and even if they were caught, it''s not like anyone can stop them?
..
Arthur already had [Advanced water magic] which allowed him to create a special bubble allowing him to breathe underwater for a couple of hours, he created one for him and Lucy and they dived into the water.
The explosion made such a big hole that from afar, it looked like a huge black hole albeit it being filled with water.
He didn''t know if Zodiak''s body is still intact but he strongly believed it''s still undamaged, knowing how powerful Zodiak is, even an explosion like may not injure his bones, they survived countless years in that tomb so that shows how hard they are.
Especially after Zodiak saved him last time, he felt a strange aura coming out of them, it was almost non-existent but he still managed to sense it, he didn''t pay it much attention at first but it was surely an after-effect of the sudden revival or Zodiak.
The duo searched for Zodiak''s water for an hour or so before they finally found it very deep in the sea, you can''t see any light in there, there was some big and strong beast but the strongest one was barely LVL 817, he was easily killed by Lucy''s magma, even the water couldn''t stop it or slow it, it melted the huge beast until nothing was left of it.
..
After storing the corpse, they didn''t immediately go back, Arthur wanted to search for Tensui''s corpse, maybe if he possessed him he would gain his previous power but the chance was very low as he probably was obliterated by that arrow, nonetheless, they kept searching for two hours until they stumbled upon something.
It was actually the violent sickle he used in his last struggle, it was shining and emitting dark fog around it, Arthur''s familiarity with dark magic was extremely strong, so he managed to sense it for miles away.
It was dozens of kilometres away from the explosion, maybe it was sent flying from the impact, none of that mattered, Arthur picked up and as soon as he touched it, it shined even more brightly and dispersed, it no longer was a sickle but just violet fog, it entered Arthur body slowly.
All it took is 5 minutes for it to completely fuse with Arthur, and in when that was happening, he was feeling very comfortable and he sensed that his powers are growing at an astonishing speed, and when it finally vanished, a notification popped.
''ting''
[Dark magic] pure dark essence absorbed : Intelligence and Dexterity increased, check your status window for more details.
Another portion of Zodiak''s powers has been unlocked!
You gained a new skill(passive) : [Pure Dark Essence]: All your movements, be it skills or techniques or simple attacks will contain Pure Dark Essence which will increase make them deadly : +25% damage
Your stats have increased! Please check your status window for more details.
Congratulations! You reached the Deity Realm!
''Already?'' Arthur was a bit startled as he saw the last notification, it hasn''t been a month since he became Heavenly realm yet here he is in the Deity Realm already, what surprised him even more is that when he appraised Lucy right now, he discovered she is in the Deity Realm too.
He still couldn''t understand what are the requirements but they must have to do with stats? Or else why would Lucy would jump 2 whole Realms, she was in the Spirit Realm but suddenly became in the Deity Realm when he unlocked a portion of Zodiak''s powers.
Without hesitation, he opened his status window.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm :Deity
-
Strength
7.2m
Intelligence
7.4m
Agility
10.9m
Wisdom
6.2m
Vitality
5.7m
Dexterity
6.6m
-
Health
6.4m
Health Regen
5781/s
Mana
7.0m
Mana Regen
11843/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation : 10
Attack:
6.9m
Defense:
6.3m
Magic defense :2.9m
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??
Mental Power :503
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
60%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%
Light/holy:
5%(-15%)
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
His stats have definitely risen but it''s not that much, he thought that the threshold of 10m is for the next Realm but it wasn''t the case, only his Agility is above 10m, Arthur pondered for a moment before he made a theory.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
It''s that the Realms have something to do with the Mental Power and nothing else except that, the sudden rise in stats is because of the upgrade of a realm and not because of the portion of Zodiak, sure his portion must give a lot of stats but not enough to do add 1m or more.
His Mental Power has just passed (500), so maybe just maybe it is the cause he passed to the next Realm.
As a matter of fact, the Mental Power stat was also added to Lucy since a while ago and when she opened her status window right now, he saw that her Mental Power was 501, so it affirmed his theories and he strongly believed that Mental Power has a relation with the Realms.
But he had no way of increasing it, possessing monsters or people will not increase it, he didn''t even know how it increased right now, maybe that violet fog increased it?
..
He didn''t dwell on it that much, he decided to stick with that theory until he discovers something else, he also decided to try to increase his mental power, since it''s the requirements for upgrading to the next Realm, furthermore, in the previous fight, he saw how big is the difference between the Deity Realm and the Immortal Realm, the difference was just too big.
While they were searching for those 3 whole hours, they killed close to 30 big beasts which had a decent LVL, Lucy stored them for him so he can possess them later.
..
They didn''t go back home immediately after that, it has almost been a month since he went to Robin to ask her for that favor, so it''s time to visit her and see if she gathered enough.
With Arthur''s speed, crossing half of that continent required him half an hour, it is quite illogical, and everyone would call him a liar if he said that, but it was the truth, if he was on Earth then it would take him a very short time to travel from a continent to another considering Earth was much smaller than this planet.
Arthur wanted to check something before going to Robin and Belic, thus he and Lucy went toward the gigantic World tree.
He was curious about it since a long time and wondered if he could possess it, but deep inside, he knew it''s a bit difficult, he could feel pure nature energy coming out of it and surrounding it completely, like some kind of barrier.
Once he was half a mile away from it, the natural energy around it became denser and it became quite difficult to move.
Without hesitation, he launched his Demonic Lightning, trying to destroy what seemed to be a barrier but to no avail, the lightning passed through it, it didn''t seem to be a barrier, nonetheless, when he was 200 meters from the tree, he could no longer advance, literally, it''s like a mountain is pressing on him.
Suddenly, when he was struggling to take another step, a deep yet melodic voice rang in his ears
"Go back, this is no place for you, I can smell ''his'' aura coming out of you from miles away"
Just as the sound stopped, Arthur was sent flying in the air, he couldn''t even stabilize his body until a couple of miles away, fortunately, he didn''t bring Lucy this close and told her to stay away or else the same would have happened to her.
It seemed as if that dense energy condensed into a huge palm and pushed him which resulted in that sudden attack, it seemed simple yet fatal, he could feel his rib cage damaged and some of his blood vessels blocked by that nature energy, only after he managed to get up with the help of the nearby Lucy did the nature energy back away.
The tree was already far away from him but he could feel it still staring at him if he dared come any closer then maybe it wouldn''t be as merciful as before.
The power that struck him felt even more powerful than Tensui, he was completely helpless against it, it was merciful or else he would turn into a corpse in a split second.
He rested a couple of minutes to let his body recover and heal its injuries and in no time, he was fine, as if nothing happened.
"Let''s go, time to collect the favor"
Lucy nodded at him while holding his arm and they both flew toward the HeadQuarters of the E-clips Company.
A few minutes later, they were already flying above the tall building which Arthur barged in last time. They disappeared one last time and appeared in that meeting room, but unlike last time, it was totally empty which was a bit surprising.
It''s not like they came in the middle of the night, and this room is the office of the head of the company, so where could she be?
It''s not like Arthur and Lucy had anything to do, they sat on a comfortable sofa not far away from the window and snuggled into each other''s embrace as if they were in their home.
2 hours passed when finally the door leading to outside opened and a pretty young woman entering, she was wearing a long white dress.
"But Grandpa.. Why do we have to go that meeting.. it''s not like our Clan was participating in that competition..AHH!"
She shrieked once her eyes landed on the pair sitting leisurely on her sofa, she couldn''t even finish her sentence as he stared with widened eyes at Arthur and Lucy.
Belic who was following Robin was a bit startled by her cry, but he soon understood why she reacted like that when he saw Arthur.
Unlike her, he remained calm and smiled while saying
"If it''s not Sir Arthur and Mrs. Lucy, it''s good to see you, we have already accumulated enough corpses as per your request"
Belic knew that the only reason Arthur would come is because of that request, so he immediately dived into the matter without delay.
Arthur who enjoying his time with Lucy, looked up at the smiling old man and nodded
"Good, why don''t you show me how much you gathered and their LVLs, I''m thrilled!"
He and Lucy soon got up from the sofa and went near Belic to inspect the corpses.
The old man didn''t waste any time and handed Lucy and storage ring which had the monsters'' corpses.
As for Arthur, he injected a bit of mana and began inspecting them, there was exactly 1098 beast corpse with the lower one being LVL124 and the highest being 273.
The result was quite satisfactory, so he smiled back at the old man and said
"Um! You did a great job! Why don''t you keep gathering, this time, I will pay, gather as much as you can and I''ll pay whatever the cost it, what do you say?"
This time, it was Robin who talked, she seemed a bit angry as Arthur didn''t seem grateful enough
"Hmpf! What do you know? It took great effort to get all those corpses yet you want more? Even if you payed a lot we won''t do it!"
What she said what true, for them, although being a powerful company, killing so many beasts in a month required a strong manpower that they could not afford so they had to hire mercenaries all over the continent which cost them quite an amount.
Even Belic looked a bit distressed, this was no easy matter for him to accomplish and getting more will be more difficult so albeit knowing the power of Arthur, he didn''t dare accept.
Arthur merely chuckled and added
"I seem to remember you guys are from the Qin Clan? Furthermore, you were talking about a competition when you entered, so I presume you were talking about that Martial competition that happened in that island? I was there and I just happen to be an Elder from the Ma Clan, so maybe I could help you out in exchange for gathering the corpses again?"
Hearing this, the angry Robin had her mouth wide open and was goggle-eyed, she didn''t seem to believe it at first but Arthur retrieved a golden Token from his storage and showed it to them so they could believe him without further questioning.
As for Belic, he was mentally shaken by that, it took him several minutes to realize and absorb what just happened, he hastily took Arthur''s hand and shook it while resuming his smile
"Of course, of course, why didn''t you tell us that from the beginning? Please sit so we can talk about it."
The four of them soon sat and Belic expression was of fear and happiness, he was fearful because Arthur''s statue was very high, their clan is not considered powerful and the Ma Clan could crush them, plus he was an Elder from the Ma Clan so he must be at least in the Spirit Realm!
He first didn''t believe him but there is no way you could fake that Token, it emitted a strange yet powerful aura that was unique, and each clan had its own token, only Elders, and grand Elders had one, of course including the clan master, so when a person has it then he must be very powerful.
His view of Arthur escalated dramatically and he couldn''t help but feel overjoyed to encounter him, he previously thought Arthur was a strong traveler, but now that he saw the token, everything became Clear.
Chapter 68 : The Long Awaited Day
After spending half an hour discussing the terms of the agreement, Arthur and Lucy finally departed.
Belic and Robin would gather corpses for them as long as their clans create an alliance, for the clans, it may be a big thing but for Arthur? It didn''t matter, he asked Belic for the day of the meeting of all the clans, he would surely attend it and ask Anastassia to make the alliance.
Surely the Qin clan would not refuse it, neither would Arthur, he already had the strength to become the clan master but he doesn''t want to, and even someone such as Tenhi can''t oppose him.
He eagerly went back to the Clan and directly headed home along with Lucy, he had more than a thousand corpse to possess, and that''s a lot of stats.
He didn''t start harvesting right away, Arthur spent some time playing with Saly and giving her some pieces of advice, the little lass already reached LVL64 with the help of Astrith who guided her to the dungeon every day to let her practice and gain experience.
No matter how powerful the monsters are, they couldn''t defeat the little girl, first because Astrith protected her and second because she was strong.
Not overpowered but she really trained every day and became more and more strong, in terms of strength, she can probably fight evenly against a lvl 100 beast, which is considered pretty good.
Shespecialized in speed and defense, Lucy gave her a couple of strong Earth skill books, such as [Earthen Waves] and [Earth Pillard], they usually help her either sneak up on the enemy or attack them by surprise, however, those are only support skills, she mostly relied on her strong physique and Qi techniques to overcome her enemies.
She trained the defensive skill [Turtle Shell] which is a very powerful defensive technique, as for the mouvement technique, Anastassia personally taught her the strongest mouvement technique that existed in this clan, it''s called [Imaginary Steps]
Anastassia didn''t use this technique because she was not compatible with it but Saly''s affinity with the technique was beyond Anastassia''s expectation.
Even though this woman is usually cold and rarely talks when she''s with her sister or Saly, she becomes quite talkative, she would even sometimes ask Saly some questions about Arthur.
..
After spending some time with Saly, Arthur went to his room with Lucy and they both engaged in their usual routine of passionate love, although Arthur thought that with Saly''s presence, it would be impossible to make love to Lucy as they can''t just do it in front of the kid, Saly used all her day either practicing or playing with Astrith, she didn''t bother them a lot, but it''s not like they ignored it her too.
Lucy would sometimes spend all day long chatting and playing with the little girl, same goes for Arthur, it''s just that these past few days, with what previously happened and so on, there wasn''t much time.
Fortunately, Saly was happy and always smiling, albeit fighting monsters every day in the dungeon, the thought of becoming stronger made her train even harder.
..
Arthur was laying on the bed with Lucy in his embrace, his hand was snaking around her body as he groped her round chest, he never disliked this feeling and would sometimes spend a whole day doing that.
Lucy was leaning her head on his chest while a smile was hanging on her enchanting face, she was calm yet Arthur could feel she was feeling overjoyed.
"What''s the matter?"
Seeing her so happy, he couldn''t help but blurt that question.
"He he he, nothing, I''m just happy that we are getting stronger."
Arthur smiled and put one of his hands on her chin and lifted her head gently until their locked into each other, then he softly said
"Then, why don''t we go there? I think it''s time to end the unfinished business"
Hearing this, she didn''t seem startled, her smile blossomed even more and after a couple of seconds, she slowly nodded at him, then she buried her face in his chest.
She never asked him to go to the Holy Church because she was afraid that he would get hurt because of her revenge, but now, their relationship was special, he was her and she was him, no matter was happened, they would always stick together and there is no need to be reluctant or shy to ask anything from the other.
Lucy wasn''t planning on telling him to go there, it''s not like she forgot about that matter but it didn''t bother her that much anymore, however, since he didn''t mind going too then why not just go and finish this once and for all?
..
After snuggling for sometime, Arthur finally got up from the bed and started possessing those corpses while Lucy began training, unlike Arthur, by using [Meditation] she can slowly but surely increase her stats, due to her stats being so big, the amount increased would not be a lot but it still strengthened her, so when she got time, she would use that skill to improve herself.
Possessing a body would take a second if not less, and leaving it is also shorter than a second so basically, to possess more than 1100 corpses, it would at least need 1000 second.
After more or less 15 minutes, he possessed all the beast and absorbed them with [Death Touch], his stats have risen by a ridiculous amount, it was literally mind boggling.
Each stats have at least risen by 8m, which is already more than his current stats, so his overall stats became even more astonishing.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm :Deity
-
Strength
16.5m
Intelligence
16.7m
Agility
20.4m
Wisdom
15.8m
Vitality
14.1m
Dexterity
15.5m
-
Health
14.9m
Health Regen
10242/s
Mana
15.7m
Mana Regen
18724/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation : 10
Attack:
15.4m
Defense:
15.0m
Magic defense :2.9m
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??
Mental Power : 503
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
75%(+15%)
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%
Light/holy:
5%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
Due to having all stats above 10Million average in stats : +150 Mental Power
Arthur was delighted, first because of the stats and most importantly is the Mental Power, it''s true he has gotten so powerful but raising his Realm to the next one would surely make him even more powerful which made him very excited.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
He didn''t get any important skills, the disadvantage of possessing beasts is that not all skills he gets can be used with his human body, some required being a beast''s body which is quite unfortunate, however, just getting the stats from them is already enough for him.
With the increase of his Mental Power, his [Sixth Sense]''s radius became one thousand meters and his other enigma abilities became more efficient and powerful.
Furthermore, with his [Lost Magic] the number of things he can create became broader, for example, except for weapons, he can now create clothes, it''s not powerful equipment but he can create comfortable clothes and decent ones at that.
He tried creating a dress for Lucy and the result was a stunning black dress with made her look even more breath-taking.
Arthur also created more powerful flash grenades, he forgot to use them in the last fight but surely next time, he would remember, he also created several bombs, not powerful ones but they could be useful in some ways.
He came to understand that this Mental Power is the base of everything, even Necromancy, he already reached the limit of powerful summons with his stats, the more his Mental Power increases the more powerful his summons is.
A simple skeleton now wears a black armor with shoulder and leg guard, a black shield and a long dark sword, their speed and strength increased and they also had a more cold and domineering aura around them.
He planned to use his summons with the Holy Church, although he can manage to get rid of all their guards, it would surely be a pain in the ass and a waste of time, an army of skeletons can manage those guards, as for him and Lucy, he would get rid of the bigshots.
It''s a bit, unfortunately, the Holy/Light attribute is the weakness of the skeletons, but with the numbers, he can overcome this disadvantage.
He can summon a dark knight, which can command up to 1,000 skeletons, and with the Bone Dragon, it would surely be enough.
What''s even more fascinating is that he can summon skeleton mages which had long black staffs and strange bows, they would be able to bombard the church and obliterate it, he couldn''t wait for that show.
They planned to head to the Human continent in a few days, and albeit Saly''s begging, Arthur refused to take her along, it''s true the Holy Church is weak compared to the clans, but he didn''t dare act overconfident, not after what happened with that woman, it''s better to keep Saly out of danger for the time being.
With Astrith guarding her, even Anastassia can''t hurt her, one must know that whenever Arthur gets stronger, so does Astrith.
The lightning beast can probably fight Anastassia head to head and perhaps come out victorious, although Anastassia is in the Spirit Realm, she has the strength of a Heavenly Realm, so one must not underestimate her, or else, how come the Ma clan is one of the powerful clans?
..
A few days passed peacefully, Lucy and Arthur finally departed after telling Anastassia that they had a matter to take care of.
Their speed was godly but the distance they have to cover is by no means small, they didn''t stop at town or cities to relax, with the dark cloud, they simply sat on it and chatted.
After 15 hours of continuous travel, they finally arrived at the capital of the human continent, Itas continent was the smallest one, so they crossed it in less than an hour, but the distance between the two continents is so big so that''s what prolonged their travel.
Arthur already knew where the HQ of the Holy Church is, but he didn''t immediately head there, first, he and Lucy went to the emperor''s castle, first to pay a visit and tell him on what''s about to happen.
..
This time, Arthur didn''t respectfully go near the gate and wait for the guards to guide them since last time, Alexander told him to immediately go in.
They arrived around midday, so the first place Arthur and Lucy headed to is the main Hall, where the emperor''s throne is and where the meetings are located at.
He didn''t know where the emperor is so he decided to head there first and unsurprisingly, Alexander was indeed there with his son, Syth and his adviser, Cylmar.
They were discussing something when all of a sudden, 2 people appeared out of thin air, they stood next to Cylmar, who was startled and was taken aback by what just happened.
It took them a couple of seconds to snap out of their daze and the first one to react was Syth who walked toward Arthur and gently bowed while saying
"Sir Arthur, it''s been a while!"
The youth was still using ''Heavenly Snake'' the violet sword that Arthur gifted him, when Arthur appraised him, he was surprised to see that this youth is already LVL322, his progress is really astonishing.
He nodded at Syth, Lucy also smiled back at him as Syth acted extremely respectful toward both of them so there was no need to act emotionless or cold toward him.
Soon, Cylmar and Alexander came back to their senses, the emperor walked up to Arthur while smiling and shook hands with him as if greetings him while speaking some good words, as for the old man, he simply bowed at the pair and greeted them too.
"Sir Arthur, Mrs. Lucy, come come! This is no place to talk"
Alexander guided them to his lovely yard, Arthur already possessed the whole garden before he came here since every plant he possesses can be grown by him at any time, he didn''t miss a single one, furthermore, Lucy adored those flowers so there was no need to hold back.
The four of them sat and a servant brought some desert and whine, unlike last time, Alexander offered them some of his finest wine and insisted on drinking it with Arthur, so the latter didn''t refuse.
They chatted happily for half an hour, then Syth asked Arthur for a spar, he wanted to show him how much he improved.
Just like that, both of them sparred and the youth indeed greatly improved, his sword mastery has gotten way better than last time, it may not be flawless but it''s considered very good.
Arthur spent a whole hour sparring with the youth, telling him what to improve and what to fix in his swordplay, and when they finished, the youth was panting heavily as always, he got a good beating from Arthur.
This time, Arthur only used a sword made from ice magic, for no special reason, he just felt like using one made from ice magic.
..
After he went back to sit near Lucy, he finally spoke about the important matter.
"Your Majesty, the reason I came here today is just to warn you about something"
Just as he said that, Alexander''s face stiffened and he thought that some of his relatives did something to anger Arthur yet again.
"No need to be anxious, it has nothing to do with you, I just want to warn you so you don''t employ you soldiers to fight with the Holy Church... Tomorrow, I will obliterate that Church and if you employ your soldiers to defend, they will only perish with it, so I''m only giving you a friendly advice as I consider you my friend"
Alexander and the company were dumbfounded, first, they thought they heard wrong, but once they saw the expressions on each other''s face, they knew they didn''t hear wrong.
"Sir Arthur... what.."
Arthur immediately interrupted him and said
"I''ve already tolerated them for some time, it''s time for them to perish, I''ve already held some deep grudges on them and it''s time to end this, I know they are very powerful from your point view, but for me, they are mere ants, I''m sure you will benefit from this, you will be the true ruler of this continent once they are gone.."
Alexander stayed silent for a couple of minutes before his demeanor turned serious, he looked at Arthur and said
"Alright, It''s not like I have any choice, I will not send my soldiers to help them but are you sure you make the Holy Church vanish?"
Arthur heartily laughed and replied
"Ha ha ha, absolutely sure, no need to worry, since I''ve told you this, then I''ll be on my way, I''ll come visit you after the matter is over, stay tuned for the good news"
As he said that, he gave a final look to Alexander and Syth then disappeared with Lucy.
..
The emperor stood there silent as if pondering about something.
"Your Majesty, are you sure about this?.."
Hearing his adviser talk hesitantly, Alexander turned his head toward Cylmar, who appeared distressed and calmly said
"I''m willing to bet on him.. It''s not like I have anything to lose, right?"
The Holy Church HeadQuarters is located, South of the Human continent, it is in the Holy City, a flourishing city which had a strong force and is probably bigger than the capital of the continent.
It is filled with guards from the Church and no one would dare to cause trouble.
50 kilometers from the city, Arthur stood there along with Lucy, and in front of them was a huge dark hole where countless skeletons are emerging every second.
There was black armored skeletons, mages skeletons and so on. The bone dragon look completely different right now, it had some crystalline armor around its body and a violet crystal above its lifeless eyes.
It was bigger than last time and had a more domineering aura.
Arthur already used some wraiths to scout, they were invisible to other so, within the perimeter of the city, there were a hundred or so guards but they can''t see them from that distance.
He spent 7 hours summoning skeletons, and in front of him was an extremely big organized army of skeletons.
Exactly 50 dark knights, which means 50,000 skeletons with a bone dragon flying in the sky, roaring loudly.
There were 15,000 mages, 10,000 archers and the rest were skeleton warriors, the sight was terrifying as they were marching slowly toward the Holy city, Arthur planned to eradicate the whole city, only sparing the innocent bystanders, he already gave the orders to the skeleton to only spare those who do not resist and kill all those who fight back.
50 dark knights were leading the army, a big dark horse with a big framed figure riding it, it had either a huge axe on it''s back or a huge violet sword, they were LVL350 and had immense fighting strength.
Maybe it was overkill, but Arthur planned to finish it once and for all without acting recklessly or go there alone while being overconfident.
They may be weak but they must surely have a trump card, or else how could they still exist albeit having the weak strength?
Arthur didn''t create enough, but he gave 150 firearms to the skeletons, he couldn''t create a lot as they consumed a lot of Mental Power, so he only managed to create 150 of them.
Their power was normal but they may be useful, with a few grenades here and there, the army could even defeat another with double it''s number, as skeletons didn''t feel pain or get tired so that was a bonus.
Arthur was already informed that the Holy Church had a lot of guards and people in it, maybe a bit less than his army but since they use the Holy attribute, they have an advantage, which is why he summoned so many skeletons.
He could summon more, but he thought it was enough, he was also there with them so nothing should go wrong.
As they marched toward their destination, slowly but surely they were nearing the Holy City, which can now be seen by the naked eye after 2 hours of marching.
Chapter 69 : Confrontation (1)
At the Holy Church Headquarters in Holy City, guards were running around in panic and warning each other, the undead army was only several kilometers away from the city and it is visible.
Holy City was kind of situated in a deserted area, so all its surroundings is void of any trees or forests which allowed the guards to see the army from some distance away.
The Pope, who was in his office handling some matters, was disturbed as by a very burly middle-aged man, he was covered in armor from head to toe and had a golden spear in his back, his appearance looked quite domineering.
The Holy General walked in front of the Pope and bowed respectfully but you could see his eyes flashing coldly, he then spoke in a somewhat hoarse voice.
"Our Lord, an army of undead was spotted marching toward Holy City, their numbers are in the thousands."
Although he looked a bit in a hurry, he didn''t show any anxiousness about that matter, he stopped for a second before he resumed
"... there was also a bone dragon and apparently a strong one at that."
The Pope already heard the commotion before the Holy General came, he was sure something must have happened, however, never did he expect an undead army to invade his city!
He pondered for a moment
"Deploy the first division, I''ll immediately tell the second division to help with the army too."
The Holy Church was divided to two divisions, one with which his like an army, and the Holy General was in command of it, as for the second one, it''s commanded by the Archbishop, it included priests and mages as for the first one it has the soldiers and warriors.
Usually, each division handled its own matters, but in times of crisis like this one, they would obviously join hands, after all, they were from the same Church.
Without further talking, the Holy General, Uguria, nodded at the Pope and left the room.
The Pope stayed alone in the room, his hand stroking his long beard and his eyes emitting a white light which pulsed every now and then.
''Demons? No, it can''t be, although they have necromancers, they can''t summon this amount of them.. who could it be?''
The Holy Church has several enemies, so he couldn''t exactly guess the one who is currently attacking, nevertheless, it doesn''t matter right now as he will try to fight them back anyways.
The undead army was slowly approaching the Holy City, Arthur and Lucy were on the black cloud which floated a couple of meters in front of the army.
By their current speed, they would arrive after approximately 20 minutes, more or less, Arthur didn''t rush ahead and wanted to invade with the army.
..
Time passed slowly but finally, the army was just 200 hundred meters away from the city, there were countless white armored soldiers from the Holy Church, there were formations and spells prepared, mages and priests at the back prepared to bombard with their magic and several cannons which didn''t look quite impressive.
Arthur already guessed they would be prepared, so he just gave a single order to the dark knights and in just a second, the skeleton army which was slowly walking as if crawling, completely changed, all skeletons rushed at the enemy with insane speed, while the mage skeletons andskeleton archers already launched their spells and attacks.
The sky was filled with all kinds of attacks, from afar, it looked like fireworks.
Soon, the two sides clashes and although the Holy Attribute was lethal to the skeletons, they overcome this weakness by their numbers and strength, they were easily crushing the lines of the Holy Church soldiers.
In mere minutes, the ground was red from the blood of all the dead soldiers, as for the skeletons, they would fight until the end, even if their legs were crushed, they would slowly crawl toward the enemy, they had infinite stamina and felt no pain so that was in itself a huge advantage.
Arthur and Lucy didn''t linger there that much, since the undead army was doing a great job taking care of the small fries, he flew away from the battle and headed toward the HeadQuarters of the Church.
It was actually a very tall white building with a golden bell on its roof, there were several buildings glued to it which almost made it look like a gigantic castle.
Excluding the army which was fighting outside of the city, there were thousands of soldiers still in the city, either keeping their position and guarding or waiting to see if there is any skeleton which managed to invade the city.
Arthur previously saw 4 cardinals in the fight outside, however, the dark knights alone were more than enough to finish them, those dark knights have immense strength and were quite ruthless, with a wave of their axe dozens of soldiers would be cut in two or turned into minced meat, the sight was very gory and brutal, but Arthur gave the order to spare those who do not resist, it''s not his fault that those soldiers are fighting.
What if they are doing their job? It''s not like he forced them to fight, one must know when to give up, when they saw how powerful the dark knights are, they must be wise and concede or else only death awaits them.
..
While he was slowly roaming the city and seeing those guards, he would summon quite a few skeletons on the roof, which would jump on the cautious soldiers and start a fight with them, he already summoned more than hundred skeletons which managed to ambush quite a few soldiers.
He could summon dark knights, but unlike skeletons, they required Mental Power, and he didn''t have that much of it, a single Dark Knight would requite 150 Mental Power and for it to completely recover, it needs around 30 minutes, so he didn''t recklessly summon them, for now, skeletons were enough.
As he continued flying with Lucy, who kept silent from the very beginning, he spotted something that caught his interest.
In a somewhat big square, there stood 10 rows of well-armored soldiers, each had a golden shield and a white saber in their arms and each row had about 50 of those soldiers, so in total it was 500soldier.
And in the very front, was a burly man with a long spear on is back, his back was facing Arthur so he couldn''t see his appearance, but it was easy to guess that he was their commander.
He seemed to be talking to them but when Arthur jumped from the dark cloud followed by Lucy, they landed 100 meters from the soldiers, Uguria, who was previously ordering his subordinates was startled by the sudden noise behind him and when he turned his head, he was shocked to see two individuals.
One silver-haired woman who wore white leather clothes which suited her perfectly, and next to her was a man who was smirking at him.
The first thought that crossed Uguria''s mind is how those two managed to come here, moreover, the fight only started several minutes ago, so it''s near to impossible to have made it here unless they could fly?
His eyes then landed on the strange dark cloud above them, but it only lasted a short moment before it disappeared into thin air.
Being the Holy General, Uguria obviously knew about Lucy and how the Pope insisted several times for him to memorize her appearance, so after calming down, he guessed that it''s definitely her, although she looked a bit different from the previous image he saw of her.
She now had blood red piercing eyes, and she looked more pretty, the atmosphere around here seemed completely different from what he was told.
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Arthur looked at Lucy and softly said
"I really don''t want you to dirty your hands with them, but I also know that you want to do it personally, so I would only stand by your side and assist you, if you don''t want to do it, all you got to do is say it, I''ll handle it all."
As he said that, he gently patted her head as he resolutely looked at her, a smile was blooming on his face.
Lucy returned his smile with a more enchanting smile as he stared at his deep red eyes, she nodded her head and replied to him
"Um! I want to do myself, thank you......."
"Silly... still thanking when we are already husband and wife? There''s nothing to thank me for, now go on, do whatever you feel like doing"
Lucy nodded yet again before she turned her head to look at the still dumbfounded Uguria, her gentle and breath-taking look suddenly changed, as she gazed at the burly man, killing intent emanated from her to the point of making all the white armored soldiersshiver non-stop, even Uguria couldn''t help but slightly tremble, but he was able to somewhat resist her killing intent.
He was a warrior who fought countless battle, unlike those Cardinals or normal soldiers, his job was to conquer cities or do the dirty job of the Holy Church, he murdered countless people, so when he felt this strong killing intent he couldn''t help but be amazed yet at the same time a bit fearful.
"Yo-you''re Lucy, right? Why did you come here? Is the undead army yours?"
Lucy''s hatred was mainly focused on the man who betrayed her and the Pope as they were the main ones who caused the suffering, but this Holy General also caused a bit of trouble of her as several of his trained soldiers chased for her quite some time, so how could she spare him? She already knew he slaughtered innocents without care, and the only excuse he would declare is that ''it''s for the sake of good'' or ''It''s the Lord''s orders''.
Lucy didn''t reply to him, she merely launched herself at him. After some practice with Arthur, she managed to control her power a bit and her physical prowess is not to be underestimated.
Uguria, who was expecting an answer, was a bit shocked to see her rush at him with a great speed, however, due to his countless life and death experiences, he managed to react in time and take the spear from his back with lightning speed and counter-attack with a swipe of his spear.
He was known to be very ruthless, and that swipe proved it, from the very beginning, he used one of his strongest attacks risking it all, he felt danger from her, and her speed was slightly faster than his, so how could he not go all in?
He used the skill [Mad Swipe], it was one of the basic skill gained from [Spear Mastery], obviously Arthur had it too but he never used spears, as for swords, the skills similar to this, would most certainly deal more damage if used but they would slow down the attack, it was just by a little bit, but it was enough to change the outcome of the battle between two people in the Heavenly Realm for example.
Being proficient in the Holy Attribute, that swipe had some holy aura around it, Uguria was confident with his swipe and guessed that it would at least injure the opponent but no! His eyes were wide and full of disbelief as he saw Lucy''s left hand catch the incoming spear with great ease and simply deflect it away with a wave of her hand, then she kicked with her right leg, aiming for the waist.
Lucy wanted to let him suffer first or else she would have finished him from that distance with her magic, it was a piece of cake for her to do that, but she wanted him to feel despair just like he did to her, she may not make him despair just like he did to her, but as long as she made him suffer that was enough for her.
She may have overcome her past but that never meant she had forgotten and forgave them for what they did, that was a completely different thing.
Uguria was pushed back a couple of meters, he barely had been able to stay standing as he supported himself while crouching on one knee.
Lucy didn''t even put any force in her kick, this was just the beginning, her eyes flashed for a second as her killing intent intensified, she walked to the long spear which was deflected from his hand a moment ago and picked up.
"What are you staring at her for? Charge, all attack together!"
Uguria shouted at his subordinates, he knew that he was not her opponent so he had a sliver of hope and that is numbers! Yes, perhaps with numbers he could win, however, his pitiful hopes were mercilessly crushed as when he turned his head to look at his subordinates, he was shocked to see them all standing still, not moving an inch.
"Ha ha ha, now now, why don''t you guys sit back and watch this show, it''s no good to gang up on a woman."
Arthur spoke mockingly, he didn''t even move from his location but all the soldierscouldn''t even move a muscle, he already used his threads to freeze them, they could never free themselves unless they are at least in the Heavenly Realm.
It was time for Lucy to enjoy her revenge, so how could he let them interfere, he would wait all day and a week if needed until she finishes with every single one of those who harmed her, specifically those higher-ups like this burly man.
Once he saw his subordinates struggling and red faces and heard Arthur, he was sure that this man used some kind of trick to bind them.
He merely gritted his teeth and got up from the ground, he could feel the intense pain coming from his waist, his spear was in Lucy''s hand, so that made him more depressed.
One exchange!
Only one exchange and he was already without his weapon and was injured in the waist, him, the Holy General, either the Pope was bullshitting him about Lucy''s power or it''s not her!
..
Lucy''s eyes were looked on Uguria, who in return was looking at her with rage, anger, and fear.
She grasped the spear and snapped it in two, with a bit of force it was easily done, but this action of her made Uguria''s expression turn extremely ugly, his face whitened and he seemed to be muttering something.
"This is impossible... it''s a legendary weapon.. impossible!"
His spear was a special treasure of the Church and it was a legendary weapon from ancient times, yet it was snapped in two just like that, no matter how much the fights he fought were long and hard, the spear never suffered as much as a scratch, but here it is broken in two!
He became just speechless, he already gave up on the idea of trying to retrieve it, what could he two with a broken spear, it would not display its full strength, even the skills would probably not work.
"Fortunately for you, although you caused suffering to me, I do not hold strong grudges for you, what you are going to receive is merely justice for all what you have done, all the innocents you killed and the despair you caused me."
Lucy''s voice rang in his ears, it was devoid of emotions and cold, he lifted his pale face to look at her approaching figure, she already threw the two pieces of the spear and slowly walked toward him.
..
In panic, Uguria waved his left hand and 3 dark pills appeared in his hand, with no hesitation, he threw them into his mouth, but just as they were going to enter it(his mouth).
They stopped in mid-air, then they flew toward Arthur, who was looking at them with curiosity.
His [Telekinesis] was very useful in situations like this, although Uguria actions were fast, it was not THAT fast, for Arthur and Lucy, who had speed incomparable to him, if they used their full speed, those pills flying to his mouth to literally move at a very slow speed, so retrieving them with [Telekinesis] is as easy at it could.
Uguria stared helplessly at the flying pills and he began feeling despair and uneasiness, every step Lucy took toward him, he could feel his body unconsciously tremble on its own.
When she was only 1 step away from him, she lifted her head to look at him as he was a bit taller than her, then her figure blurred for a split second which was followed by two snapping sounds.
Uguria was already on his knees before he could realize it, he felt the agonizing pain coming from his knees, they were literally crushed into dust, blood flowed endlessly from them, there were no bones left, the two invisible strikes of her already turned his bones into nothingless.
He made some groaning sounds but he didn''t scream loudly.
"... A bit brave to not laugh from a like this, but that does not change anything.. your fate remains unchanged"
Uguria couldn''t concentrate with her voice as the pain was truly more than he could bear, if he wants to recover his legs, he needs a personal blessing from the holy goddess, which is close to impossible to have, he already sunk into the depths of despair as Lucy''s figure was in front of him emitting some suffocating intense killing.
Now that he was in front of her, the pressure was more overwhelming, her cold voice invaded his ears and engraved deep fear into his hear which was supposed to be a heart of a fearless warrior who experienced countless battles.
..
Lucy didn''t make any mouvement, however, very soon the ground under Uguria changed, it turbed from it''s usual appearance to dark red then white fog came out of it, then it completely transformed into lava which slowly rised and began to envelop the scared Uguria who no longer could keep his dignified and confident look.
His eyes stared at the lava, he finally couldn''t hold it as it was melting him from all direction, the pain was more agonizing than before when his knees were crushed.
The screams and wails became louder and louder until they ceased after 5 minutes or so, there was literally nothing left of him, not even the strong armor he wore, his bones, skin melted along with everything else, he screamed until the last second as Lucy made sure to make him suffer without killing him.
The soldierswere stunned and scared shitless, although Arthur ordered the skeletons to spare those who do not resist and those soldiersprobably would surrender too, but these were special, they were with Uguria, who was infamous for murdering innocent and even bystanders, and those soldiers naturally did the same thing.
Athough there was some good people in the Holy Church, the majority of them are corrupted which made Arthur perplexed, this kind of Church is supposed to aim for peace and have a lot of wise and good people and not this kind of individuals, it was really a pity.
With a mere thought, the long threads which were holding the soldiers flashed with green lightning and in an instant, all 500 of them fell on the ground, lifelessly.
Maybe spare those guards who did not participate on wars and slaughter as they were only doing their job and if they surrender now then it''s alright, but spare those soldiers? Hell no! They maybe even raped helpless women, this kind of acts is usually conducted by those kind of people, Arthur would not be surprised to see them act like that, if not more heartless and ruthless.
Anyway, he disappeared and in just seconds, he stored all their bodies and appeared next to Lucy, who was still looking at where Uguria died.
He gave her a deep hug and patted her lovely head. Responding to him, she burried her head in his chest and tightly hugged him back.
They stayed like that for a minute or so before they finally seperated, although she was taking revenge, Lucy was softly smiling to Arthur.
She turned to look at the tall tower which is the HQ of the Church and coldly said
"That''s one less scum, there are still others, let''s go"
Arthur nodded, and both of them flew toward the tower, however this time, they didn''t use the dark cloud.
Chapter 70 : Confrontation (2)
In the Holy Church headquarters, precisely in that tall white tower which Arthur and Lucy are heading to, the Pope was sitting on the golden throne while 3 people are kneeling in front of him.
There was also an old woman standing next to him, she emitted a gentle and ancient aura around her, she looked extremely old and her face was full of wrinkles.
The 3 people kneeling were the 3 current bishops, 2 are new since the 2 former ones were killed and the last one is still alive, as for that old woman, she is the Archbishop.
"Are you sure about that?"
The Pope''s domineering voice rang out in the big and empty hall, it was full of coldness, for the bishops, the Pope was like a god to them, he is the messenger of their holy goddess and he would sometimes communicate with her which gave him a position much higher than the others, his strength is not to be reckoned with too, so since a long time, no one dares to mess with him or even disobey with him.
One of the kneeling bishops, who was a handsome young man, replied to the Pope
"Yes, my Lord! Several soldiers came a few minutes ago and informed me about the situation outside, it seems the undead army is winning and breaking through our defense, 3 Cardinals are already dead! What''s more is that there were sneak attacks from the undead skeletons inside the city"
The Pope''s wrinkled face turned ugly, he kept stroking his long white beard while gazing outside through the huge glass windows which had a picture of their goddess, Delia.
"Mhm.. Alex, you go to the frontline and stop them, it shouldn''t be a problem for you, right? Cara, you go too"
Two of the kneeling bishops nodded and left without a word, only the handsome young man stayed behind, still kneeling in front of the Pope, he appeared calm although he was in front of the Pope which was surprising, but none of them were impressed, neither the Archbishop nor the Pope.
Arthur and Lucy flew to the tall tower, and just when they were in front of the front gate, it opened and several soldiers came out of it, holding their arms and shields.
There were hundreds of them, priests and mages are at the back and the close-combat fighters at the front.
Arthur knew that Lucy didn''t want to deal with them and only wanted to deal with the big shots, such as the Pope, so mercilessly and easily slaughtered them with the Natural Lightning, it only took him a simple wave of his hand to end their lives, After all, their LVL was just too low, even lower than the disciples of the Ma Clan.
It really left him confused, why such a force is still existing even with the clans around? Even the weakest Clan would probably have a Spirit Realm, and he was sure that the Pope is at best LVL500, so it would be very easy to finish him.
As they were entering the gate after collecting the corpses, two figures came at them with fast speed, if you look closely, it was a middle-aged man and a woman, each of them was heading for a target, the woman wielded a blue lance and the man had a white saber.
Just from their attire, Arthur knew they were bishops, and he also knew they were probably new, as he killed two and generally there are only 3, of course, he could be mistaken but who cares right?
Lucy didn''t have a grudge with them, so there was no reason to thoroughly torture them, since they were higher rank in the Holy Church and not like the soldiers, maybe they would have some common sense, so he used his threads to totally freeze their movements then he calmly said
"I''m only going to say it once. If you surrender now, I''ll probably let you live, if not then you''ll die in despair and be slaughtered like a pig!"
In fact, he wasn''t going to live them alive, he just wanted to get some answers from them.
"Ignorant! Wh.."
Before the man could finish, he was beheaded by Arthur, the threads were more than enough to do the job, then Arthur''s cold gaze turned toward the terrified woman.
It took her some time to realize what just happened, a second she was attacking the intruders and the next one she was frozen mid-air and her companion was already beheaded before he could resist, with fearful eyes she looked at Arthur and Lucy and hesitantly said
"Wh-what do you w-w..want?"
Arthur smirked and spoke again
"Simple, I''m going to ask you few questions and you have to honestly reply"
The reason he wanted some answers is because he found out that he can''t use his [Sixth Sense] to determine the position of the Pope, maybe there was some kind of array making him unable to do that, and he wanted to thoroughly finish the big shots before proceeding with the soldiers and such.
The woman slowly nodded, she was still scared shitless of those two, she saw how her comrade was easily killed and truthfully, she didn''t want to end up dead like him because of her stupid pride, if there was a way out then she would take it.
From the very moment she was frozen in mid-air, she discovered that albeit her strong armor or the great enchantments on her gear, that was useless against what was restricting her movements, no matter how she struggled, it was utterly meaningless.
"Alright, where is the Pope"
"O-our lord is in the main hall, i-it''s at the top of the t-t..tower.."
Arthur pondered for a bit then looked at Lucy, after all, she was the one who was going to take revenge, so maybe there are more people who she is looking for, for example, Sebastien, the man who she previously thought she loved but ended up horribly betrayed by him
"Then what about Sebastien, do you know who he is?"
The terrified woman didn''t dare delay and immediately replied hastily
"S-sebastien, y-yes yes! I know, you must be talking about the Bishop Sebastien, that''s the only person with the name ''Sebastian'' that I know of!"
As he heard that, Arthur turned to look at Lucy and saw that her eyes were cold and full of killing intent as she heard about that name, he, obviously, knew about that man since she told him and he saw her memories, she didn''t hide anything from him just as he didn''t from her.
He had many other questions, but for now, that was enough, just as he was about to behead her too, Lucy''s soft voice rang out
"Don''t kill her"
He was a bit confused but since she said that, then he let the scared bishop go, after all, Lucy had her reasons and if she didn''t want that woman killed then she won''t be killed.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
"Consider yourself lucky, you are probably the only person who would come out of here alive, if we ever meet path again, then that would truly be your end.."
As he said that, Arthur and Lucy disappeared from there and flew to the top of the tower.
The woman shivered there for a couple of seconds before she ran out of the building without even looking back, she knew it was the end of the Church, not even the Pope made her feel that afraid, it was really terrifying and since she was somehow spared, she decided to flee.
..
With their speed, Arthur and Lucy appeared in the big hall in a matter of seconds, it was empty, not even one soldier was there, only 3 people.
The appearance of two individuals naturally surprised the Pope and the rest, yet before they could react, they heard a loud scream.
The scream was coming out of the handsome young man who was kneeling a second ago in front of the Pope, he was now held by the back of his neck by a silver-haired woman.
The Pope and the old woman couldn''t move as they felt something binding them, and in the next moment, a black-robed man appeared in front of the Pope, his back was facing the old man as he was silently looking at what was happening in front of him.
..
When Lucy saw that handsome man, who was obviously Sebastien, she just couldn''t control her emotions, she appeared behind him and instantly broke his knee then held him by the back of his neck while exerting enough force to cause him immense pain yet not kill him.
This sudden turn of events shocked all those who were present, the Pope had many tricks up his sleeves but this mysterious force binding him was too powerful and he couldn''t dispel it even after muttering countless spells.
As for the old woman, she didn''t try anything and merely gazed at the scene.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."
Lucy''s killing intent reached its climax, the hall''s atmosphere became extremely cold as even the Pope felt a shiver down his spines, he was afraid yet a bit happy when he saw Lucy''s silhouette, he never thought she was the one who came, after several years searching for her, she finally came to his doorstep but surprisingly, he felt extreme fear as he looked at her and at the man in front of him.
"It''s been a very long time.... Sebastien!"
Hearing the familiar yet chilling voice, Sebastien didn''t need to turn his head at see her to know who it was, he was usually a scheming and cunning person and wouldn''t expose his motives until he was sure he held the advantage, but never did he think this day would come.
"L-Lucy?.."
She didn''t respond, instead, a small ball of magma began melting his left hand, and his loud screams resumed.
When almost all of his hand was gone, melted by the magma until it reached his shoulder, it suddenly stopped and vanished, what was left was only blood flowing endlessly and a gory scene, Sebastien face was extremely pale and he could barely hold his consciousness.
Actually, he passed out several times, but he somehow awakened by a mysterious energy which made this like hell for him, the pain was seriously unimaginable.
Lucy didn''t even let him time to breath, she picked him up easily and then slammed him down on the ground, a small crater was a formed, blood and foam was leaking out of his lips as he stared fearfully at the cold Lucy in front of him.
His face was finally facing her, it took him a few seconds to adjust and focus on her face, his pale face became even paler as he shrieked, yet because of his special nature, he managed to calm down after breathing for some time, however, that didn''t lessen the pain, his left shoulder was aching like crazy and all of the bones in his back were crushed.
"Hahaha *cough* *cough*, So it was you, hahaahhah"
He started laughing hysterically after seeing her figure, that calm attitude he showed normally wasn''t present, just by what happened and seeing how he couldn''t even retaliate, he knew it was his doom, so he exposed his true face, although he was on the verge of death, he still stared intensely at her while laughing, his gaze even had some lust and lewdness in it.
"S-So you *cough* came, hahaha, did you perhaps miss me? Or miss my.."
Before he could finish, a sharp golden sword was thrust into his body''s lower part, and what followed that is a scream even louder than any other one, this time, the pain Sebastien felt by far exceeded the previous ones, even his right hand is broken so he couldn''t even move it to hold his lower part, he could only bear and stare at the sharp golden sword penetrating his precious body part.
Lucy''s evilly smirked as she saw him stare at the sword, she didn''t only do that, instead, she moved the sword while it was still thrust and caused him to wail even more, and while doing that she said
"Emm? It seems you are no longer a man? Here, let me help you out.."
As she said that, a small yet terrifying magma ball, the size of a finger, rushed at his lower part, melting the sword and his body.
Sebastien never once stopped screaming, even his voice changed from all that wailing yet he couldn''t stop, as for Lucy, her killing intent subdued a lot, she didn''t torture him like he did to her, it''s true, but all of this satisfied most of her urges, if it was back then, before she met Arthur, then if she ever caught him like then, she would have tortured him for years, but now, she overcame what he did to her, and this was merely punishment.
Several minutes passed and the Pope never ceased trying to dispel the strange spell cast on him, it was a pity it was not a spell but invisible threads, the more he witnessed what''s happening, the more danger he felt, he only thought it was an attack by slightly powerful necromancer, and not by Lucy and Arthur.
Speaking of Arthur, the Pope already knew about him, he knew he was Lucy''s companion when he was in the academy, and he helped her a lot, and he felt even more danger coming from this black-robed man.
..
After some time struggling with the threads, he gave up and began chanting something else.
Obviously, Arthur knew about this and heard him chant but he knew it was useless, but once he heard him change his chant, he became alert, he already used the talisman to prevent any teleportation, however, although he knew how powerful he is in comparison to the Pope, he didn''t dare act overconfident.
When the chant changed, he spared no time as Natural Lightning circulated in the threads and immediately damaged his vocal cord, permanently preventing the old man from ever chanting again, not only that, he even broke the bones of both his hands and feet.
Never would he underestimate someone again, especially not this man, if not for Lucy, he would have already killed him along with this old woman, it''s just that he wanted Lucy to personally kill him, and perhaps ask him why was he so persistent to catch her.
With his voice gone, the Pope couldn''t even scream from pain, his eyes were locked onto Arthur as he stared at him with a bit of fear and anger, he was still unwilling to give up, he lived more than 400 years and would never let his fate in the hands of this monster.
..
"*Cough* *cough* Lucy *cough* hahah, good! Good! It seems I didn''t educate you enough last *cough* time, even if you do this, you are mine! MINE! HAHAHAH! BITCH! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? JUST A MERE DITY DEMON!"
Although he was provoking her while cursing continuously at her, Lucy appeared calm as her gaze shifted to Arthur, in a split second, she already appeared next to him without even killing Sebastien.
Arthur patted her head while smiling softly, ignoring everything around them, since she wasn''t going to kill him, he would do it instead, with a wave of his hand, dark red flames ignited on his body and began burning him very slowly.
The cursing stopped and was replaced by loud yells from him, and from time to time, you would even hear begging but it was useless, as Arthur and Lucy totally ignored him and turned to look at the Pope.
Now that he thought of it, what Arthur did was a bit stupid as now, he can''t get answers from the Pope, but the didn''t matter anymore, he knew the Holy Church''s Pope was famous for his soul attacks and his soul was apparently weak, he didn''t know if it became strong or not, but since he devoured ''Abhuva''s soul, he couldn''t devour anymore.
Lucy''s didn''t seem she was going to kill the Pope either, so Arthur didn''t waste time and guided his Natural Lightning to finish the Pope, but just as the green lightning was going to crush his heart, a deep yet melodic voice rang out in the big hall, completely dispersing the lightning and binding Arthur''s movements.
"Boy... stop"
Even though he heard that, Arthur didn''t stop and concentrated his powers on the Pope, sending all the green lightning on to his heart, the threads also tightened and started to crush all his bones and trying to behead him.
"Ignorance! I told you to stop!"
As the voice rang out again, Arthur hastily held Lucy and covered her as they were both sent flying away from the Pope, what followed that was a bright light descending from a white crystal above the throne, it was 50 meters or so above it and had a diameter of 20m.
It emitted a very bright light, and a woman''s silhouette came out of it, she seemed transparent as you couldn''t see her features, but the aura she emanated was very overwhelming yet at the same time calm.
Arthur could barely stand, not even against the Immortal did he feel that.
"Ohhh! Pope Geroge, you indeed managed to get that demon, It seems I need to reward you.."
As she said that, the woman floating in the hall, stretched her bright white hand, and in the next second, a strong force came at Lucy, pushing her toward the Pope and the woman.
The woman''s figure was very big, she was approximately 10m, the aura increased every second, Arthur couldn''t even move to defend Lucy, he could only look helplessly.
As Lucy''s was closing in slowly toward the woman, a cold yet deep voice rang out yet again, it was soul piercing and appeared angry.
"Delia! A goddess like you dares to bully juniors? Seriously gods these days think they are above all or what?"
Chapter 71 : Bloody Day
"Delia! A goddess like you dares to bully juniors? Seriously gods these days think they are above all or what?"
Zodiak''s skeleton appeared in front of Lucy, when the pressure was lifted, Arthur appeared next to Lucy to support her, a moment ago, he couldn''t even move from that pressure, it''s like something was restricting his movements.
Delia, who was floating and only gazing at Lucy, was startled by the sudden turn of events, and when Zodiak''s voice rang out, don''t speak of her body, her entire being became afraid, she spoke in an inconsistent and hesitant manner while her bright silhouette seemed like it was shaking.
"S-senior Z-zodia-k? I didn''t know you are in this L-lower Realm.."
Zodiak slowly advanced toward her while lifting his right hand and snorting
"Hmpf! Scram from here, but before you go, give me your soul essence.."
Delia, who was acting majestic a second ago, became extremely flustered, to meet someone as tyrannic and terrifying as Zodiak, she surely has one hell of a bad luck, yet seeing Lucy, some stubbornness appeared in her eyes, she unconsciously clenched her teeth and replied
"Senior Zodiak.. This..."
Before she could even finish, a small vortex appeared next to Zodiak, and the silhouette of Delia was sucked by it with a fast speed, the goddess shrieked as she was being sucked by that vortex, even with her godly powers, she couldn''t resist.
Just as she was going to be sucked, the vortex stopped and what appeared what a woman who was about 1.75cm, long blonde hair and snow-white skin, the most astonishing thing is that she wore almost nothing, just a white cloth that barely covered her lower part and her bulging double peaks.
She was truly a goddess, but unfortunately, her hair looked disheveled, she looked fearfully at Zodiak, or more precisely, his corpse which was made of only skeletons.
"Girl, don''t try to play things with me, give me your soul essence!"
Although he threatened one more time, Delia still stood there, shivering in front of him, as if it was a mouse in front of a cat, she didn''t even dare attack or even look up to him.
"Senior Zodiak.. You know that it''s f-forbid-den for u.u...us gods to g-give our s...soul essence.. please.."
The lifeless eyes of the corpse flashed red for a moment before Zodiak hand was lifted and a vortex several times bigger than the previous was created, this time, it wasn''t a black vortex but a violet one with some loud screams coming out of it..
"You know what''s this right? I''ll give 5 seconds, you better not play tricks and give me your soul essence or suffer the consequences, I don''t have time to play with brats like you which still didn''t even reach adulthood!"
Slowly, the goddess was being pushed into the vortex, and this time, her face paled even more as she saw the vortex and heard the screams, so without delaying for even a split second.
She spat a golden blood out of her mouth, it was just a drop but she seemed a lot weakened when she did that, the drop of blood slowly floated toward Zodiak who was looking at her coldly, prepared to finish her at any second.
Just as the skeleton was about to touch the golden drop of blood, it suddenly disappeared along with the goddess.
First, Delia wanted to get Lucy too, but seeing Zodiak here, she didn''t even dare try to get Lucy, if she escaped that in itself is a goddam miracle, much less escaping with another one.
Delia suddenly disappeared and the big white crystal began shining even more brightly.
The eyes of the skeleton glowed blood red as a grey mist came out of the skeleton.
"Girl, you''re overestimating your abilities"
As he said that, dozens of black talisman were created out of thin air and in lightning speed struck the glowing crystal, blocking all the light, in just seconds, the white crystal which was brighter than the sun, became a black ball covered with talisman.
Then the figure of Delia appeared yet again, she floated slowly to the ground while heavily panting, she didn''t look like a goddess right now, if you add a collar then you would surely think she''s a pretty slave.
Her majestic aura or calm demeanor disappeared since the skeleton appeared, for her, this is her worst nightmare, for someone like her, a lower God to meet him shows how unlucky she is.
Zodiak didn''t stop, one golden talisman was created again and struck her at her abdomen, the poor Delia shrieked for a second before she calmed down, her face was so pale that anyone would think she''s a corpse.
She already fell on the ground and could no longer get up, she didn''t even have the strength to move because of the golden talisman along with the black talismans that struck the crystal.
Soon, the golden talisman entered her abdomen as if it was melting, then all of a sudden, the figure of Delia began shrinking slowly until it was the size of a fist.
It stayed like that for a couple of seconds until it transformed into a big white pearl, it looked breath-taking, and every now and then, it would glow with a blue light.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Zodiak held for a second before he turned toward Arthur and spoke after gazing at him for some time
"Here, this is your new pet, consider it a gift, but boy, don''t count on me everytime you mess with someone more powerful than you, this corpse only has a bit of my conscience and can only awaken a few times, by sealing that girl, I already used a lot of my reserve, don''t go around causing a messeverywhere..."
As he was talking to Arthur, he frowned for a second before he said
"Deity Realm... I''m quite surprised, last time, I came you were barely in the Spirit Realm, yet now... never mind.. here, use this talisman, put it on your companion, her origins are special and any god can guess that so this will help her for the time being"
A violet talisman was created and floated next to Arthur, he was still shocked by what just happened, nonetheless, he took the talisman and nodded.
"Ahh, you are some troublesome brat! This should be Astria.. go look for the remains of my powers, there should be two portions here, it may help you a lot..."
Arthur nodded again without speaking, he somehow got the feeling that even if he asked, his questions will not be answered so he just didn''t ask anything.
..
Zodiak turned to look at the Pope and the archbishop, then appeared before them, they were astonished by this turn of events, for their goddess to become a ''pet''? This is simply a crazy nightmare for them, but none of that mattered as they knew it was their final day living when he appeared in front of them.
The Pope''s body got sucked into that big vortex, as for the Archbishop, after Zodiak gazed at the old woman for a second, he struck her with a dark green talisman then appeared next to Arthur yet again.
"That old hag is not a bad person, so I spared her, her memories of what happened have already been erased, now then, I exhausted more than half of my reserve power in this conscience, remember, try to find the portions of my power, it''ll surely help you, I don''t know why but my magic fused with you completely, it is synchronized with you more than me, it''s creators, it''s really mysterious... now now.. it''s time.."
After he finished saying that, his corpse entered Arthur''s storage and became lifeless, its eyes were not glowing anymore and the robe he wore disappeared.
When Zodiak was gone, the atmosphere calmed in the big hall and the silence ruled over the place, no one talked, Arthur gazed at the big white pearl for sometime before he stored it and took the talisman and gently put it on Lucy.
She was calm and for some reason, she was gently smiling, maybe she was relieved that her revenge is finally over, she felt at ease.
The talisman melted on her abdomen just like it happened to Delia, some changes happened to her, fortunately, it wasn''t anything bad, only strands of her silver-hair turned violet, which made her look even more stunning, apart from that, nothing else happened.
...
Arthur already knew that his army already broke through the gates and invaded the city, all the cardinals were killed and more than 70% of the Holy Church army was killed and the rest finally surrendered, after all, they couldn''t bear it, orders or whatnot, it was clearly shown that it was a one-sided massacre.
His army withdrew from the city, the same thing for Lucy and Arthur, only the Archbishop was left and the rest was killed with only the surrendered soldiers kept alive since they achieved their purpose, then Arthur decided to spare them for now.
The city was literally in ruins, only some of the main buildings were kept intact and the rest were demolished, the war outside of the tower was bloody as the ground was dyed red with the blood of the deceased, this short yet devastating war between the sudden invasion of the undead army and the Holy Church was sure insane, this day would be known in the future as the ''Bloody Day''..
The news of the Holy Church spread to the surroundings continents in just 2 weeks or so, the control and power of the Church became non-existent and several of the branches located in several cities have withdrawn to the HQ.
The emperor took control of the continent and became the official ruler, he couldn''t be happier as he trusted his guts and didn''t send soldiers.
As for the Demon Lord and such, they tried sending some attacks to the Human continent now that the Holy Church is no more, but they faced strong resistance from the royal soldiers as they were stationed in all corners of the continent, surprisingly, Arthur''s undead was also among them.
Since he thought it would be a waste to send it back, he let the emperor borrow it, it would follow his orders for the time being until something happens and he needs them again, with the dark knights here, not even the Demon Lord would dare attack head-on.
Of the 50 dark knights, 47 were left, only 3 were barely killed by the 6 cardinals, however, Arthur summoned 3 others, to make it equal, and from the 50,000 undead, 39,000 were left, compared to the emperor''s army of hundreds of thousands, it may seem a lot less, but their prowess is insane.
..
Arthur already returned to the Ma Clan with Lucy, and he possessed all the corpses he managed to store in his ring, they exceeded 2,000 but unfortunately, they were not high leveled, their stats ranged from 800 to 1,500 with only the cardinals being 10,000+.
Basically, his stats increased by 2.2 million, more or less and his mental power surprisingly increased by more than 200, he didn''t forget to possess the Pope, however, all his skills were for the Holy attribute, which was a pity, there was even a strong soul attack.
Nothing interesting happened in those two weeks for Arthur and Lucy, she seemed a bit more cheerful now that the burden of the revenge is gone, they would pass every day either snuggling, being intimate or playing with little Saly, who with the help of Astrith, managed to LVL up to 79, it was really insane for a 5 years old to be that LVL.
Maybe it was even unprecedented, after all, who is like Lucy, who had a lightning beast which would leech her monsters in dungeons and let her easily kill them, there was also Arthur and Lucy who trained her and gave her the strongest skills.
In terms of strength, she can match a person LVL140, her stats were outrageous and her fighting style is perfect. one cannot stop praising her when they see her fight.
..
Today, Arthur and Lucy were staying in their yard, relaxing with Saly, who was meditating. Astrith was taking a nap next to her.
Arthur was pondering about the skills Zodiak used, that terrifying vortex or the strange talismans, he also knew how to use them but didn''t know how to create them, well technically, he did know how to, but not like Zodiak, who did it instantly and from thin air.
Just to create that Talisman to prevent teleportation, he needs a lot of materials and a spell, so creating it would at least need half an hour, while Zodiak made dozens of them in a split second.
He was really intrigued by them and wanted to learn how to use that, but unfortunately, he can''t know, not until he finds the two portions.
He decided that he''ll search for them, but for now, he''ll stay here for some time with Lucy and Saly and when the time comes, he will go with them, perhaps if Saly is still not strong, she''ll stay here, but there''s no way he''ll go without Lucy, not only he was afraid that woman would come again, Lucy also was a strong fighter and can help him a lot.
..
In those 2 weeks, Arthur checked that big white pearl many time, Zodiak told him that it was his new ''pet'' but he couldn''t sense nothing from it which confused him greatly, nonetheless, he didn''t dwell on it that much and decided to check it when the time comes.
Lucy''s revenge was done, and the only one left was his, his wife, Claudia... one day, he''ll return to Earth and make a bloody river in it from the blood of all who wronged him, especially his ex-wife.
''Oh... Claudia, just wait... I promise you it won''t be long before I come for you and all the others...''
Chapter 72 : Hunt (1)
A month has passed since the ''Bloody Day'', a lot of things occured, but nothing too dramatic, Arthur passed his days peacefully with Lucy and Saly, the little girl worked harder and harder, as for him, he just relaxed with Lucy, and would sometimes train his techniques.
He checked the orb that Zodiak gave him many times, but he just couldn''t figure out how to use it or even activate it, it''s a shame but there''s nothing he could do about it, yet.
Arthur decided to rest for a bit more in the Ma Clan then go look for Zodiak''s remainnig powers, he knew that people are coming for him, Zodiak''s warning and that woman who attacked him last time were enough to alert him and make him on guard.
Zodiak said that there is portions of his powers left in this world, it may be hard to find them immediately but at least he got a clue, yes, it''s ''Medusa''.
Since the moment he met them, he knew they had a relation with Zodiak, or else, how could you explain their ability to use the ''Dark Magic'', it''s just a pity that he didn''t know their headquarters, or else he would have gone there immediately.
Nonetheless, he didn''t plan to give up, he had the Ma Clan and other forces in his side, with their broad net of informations, there''s bound to be some clues about the whereabouts of this secret organization.
...
"B-but Arthur, I want come with you two!"
Saly was sitting on Arthur''s lap while he was stroking her fluffy ears, she was pouting and acting angry because Arthur told her that they would leave in 2 weeks to look for something but no matter how she begged, he didn''t accept her request to come and told her to stay here as it is the safest place.
"I told you, the place we are going is not that safe, if you can reach LVL300, then I''ll think about it? Alright?"
Saly was still pouting, although she''s young, she wasn''t an idiot, moreover, her high intelligence allowed her to act more like an adult than a child, but in front of Arthur and Lucy, she would always act like a spoiled brat.
"Hey Lucy! Please tell him to take me too!"
Saly looked at Lucy, who was leaning her head on Arthur''s shoulder, she took her hands while pleading to her, she knew that only Lucy can change Arthur''s choice, furthermore, Lucy always doted on Saly and granted her all her requests.
Lucy gently smiled at Saly while softly saying
"Hehehe~~, little Saly, I know you have become very strong, but we can''t bring you this time, it''s extremely dangerous, please stay here, don''t worry, next time, we''ll surely bring you along, that''s a promise, okay?"
Hearing this, Saly could only slowly drop her head down and stay silent, no matter how stubborn she is, she can''t insist too much, since she said she can''t come then she can''t come, maybe if she was stronger then they would have taken her, so while tightly gripping Lucy''s hands, she slowly nodded her head while saying
"Okay.. Saly understands.. I''ll go train and you''ll take me if I reach LVL300 right? It''s not too far away, I''m already 97!"
With that, she jumped from Arthur''s lap and went outside to train, Astrith who was taking a nap not too far away, disappeared from his position and followed her, after all, it was his duty to protect her while she was not with Arthur and Lucy, and he himself didn''t really dislike doing this, his relationship with her strengthened, plus she treated him to a lot of delicacies.
..
The remaining time passed in the blink of an eye, Arthur and Lucy prepared themselves, and after saying their farewell to little Saly, they departed, first thing they did is head to the E-clips company headquarters in the Itas continent to get the corpses.
It''s been quite some time since he asked Belic and Robin to gather more corpses, their stats may be low, but if he possessed thousands, then his overall strength would increase by a significant amount.
..
The journey didn''t take more than 10 minutes, the trade was a usual, the reaction of the old man and Robin was not like last time, I guess they got used it after experiencing it a few times.
Unlike last time, Arthur payed Belic for gathering the corpses, they gathered 1,012 beast corpses, Arthur didn''t know how much they costed and he wanted to pay the old man for them, but Belic insisted on not receiving anything, saying that getting the help of the Ma Clan is enough.
Mentionning this, Arthur remembered that he promised Belic to help his Qin Clan, so yeah, maybe for him, helping out his own Clan is better than getting loads of Gold Coins, well, each got their preferences.
..
After they finished the deal, the duo went to a secluded cave a couple of kilometers away from the Elven city and rested, well it was not resting but to allow Arthur to possess the corpses.
The stronger he got the better, if an unexpected situation occurs, like it always does, he better be powerful enough to cope with it, or else, the only outcome would be his and Lucy''s death, which is something he definitely didn''t want.
Before he left the Ma Clan, he asked Anastassia about ''Medusa'', however, she didn''t know much about it, but she gave him a useful information, which is to look for them in the Western continent, apparently, they show themselves a lot around that area, and all the continent is considered a wasteland devoid of any rulers except a few powerful beastmen clans here and there, there is no one who can truly threaten their existence.
So, the first destination for Arthur and Lucy is going to be the Western continent, it''s on the other side of the planet or world, but with their speed, it wouldn''t take much time to arrive there, so it was not that big of a deal.
..
Their trip already began after he finished possessing all corpses, like last time, nothing special appeared, like a unique skill of something similar, however, his stats rocketed yet again.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm :Deity
-
Strength
19.7m
Intelligence
18.0m
Agility
23.4m
Wisdom
17.6m
Vitality
16.2m
Dexterity
16.8m
-
Health
16.4m
Health Regen
13871/s
Mana
17.02m
Mana Regen
23299/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation : 10
Attack:
17.01m
Defense:
16.8m
Magic defense :2.9m
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??
Mental Power :844
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
75%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%
Light/holy:
5%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
His stats were really unbelievable, what''s more amazing is his ''Mental Power'', his guesses were that once he reached 1000 in Mental Power, then he will breakthrough to the Immortal Realm, and he really wanted that to happen because he knew that the difference between the Immortal Realm and the Deity Realm is much bigger than the Deity Realm and the Heavenly Realm, heck! He and Lucy barely managed to kill Tensui, taking in account that their stats are overpowered, if it was 2 normal people in the Deity Realm, there is no way in hell they could have done that.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
...
The trip was peaceful and without any problems occuring in the middle of it, they didn''t travel at full speed, more at a moderate one, and in just one day, they were already on the borders of the Western Continent.
The first thing Arthur saw was a barren land, almost like a desert, but with no cliffs and mountains of sands, the weather was a bit hot compared to the other continents, and there were no sights of cities or towns, it''s literally like a deserted land, well, he expected that much when he read lots of books about it, the problem is, where will they go now? Do they roam hazardly or search for living beings and question them?
The Western continent is known to be the biggest one albeit it being a wasteland, too many wars occured in it making it dyed red with the blood of countless races, it''s also the continent which contain the most dungeons, furthermore, it is widely known that almost all the dungeons here are the most dangerous, they contain high levelled creatures, even Anastassia warned him not to enter dungeons recklessly.
Although she warned him, he didn''t care much about that warning, he got Lucy with him and if it''s not someone in the Immortal Realm or higher then they could deal with it easily, hopefully.
Arthur and Lucy decided to roam for a bit and search for any living being, then they can question him/her about the location of a city or a village, after all, they have to start from somewhere.
If he can only get his hands on a higher up from ''Medusa'' then he can use ''Soul Search'' on him, although it''s a bit risky, it''s worth it, he''ll be able to know the whereabouts of their HQ and it''ll save a lot of time.
..
Fortunately, with their overpowered speed, it didn''t take them much time to find someone, approximately after an hour or so, they found some people, or what appeared to be beastmen.
Normally, an hour is enough for him to travel thousands if not millions of kilometres, yes, it''s insane, but he and Lucy were not travelling, they were inspecting every corner of the wasteland, if not, they would miss something, so that''s why it took them that much time, although, it''s considered a short amount to other people.
.........
Jackob was currently fighting an Earth Worm, it''s the most common monster in the Western Continent, and probably the most annoying one, it never gives up on it''s preys, it will even die trying to catch their food, they have large frames, probably 2 meters in height, plus, they are 4 meters long, their appearance are too disgusting, and their mouth contains hundreds of sharp teeth.
Right now, he was on an expedition with some other clan members to secure some medicine, although it''s called medicine, it''s just the saliva of the Earth Worm, as apparently, their saliva is an important material for alchemy crafting and can be used to heal curses or diseases.
His mother was a bit sick, and the only way to cure her is by an expensive Elixir or the saliva of the Earth Worm, it was not only his case, several other clan members needed that saliva for personal reasons, so they formed a small party and went for the hunt.
What they didn''t expect though, is getting ambushed by 4 Earth Worms, they are not particulary strong if fought individually, but if you got surrounded, then it''s troublesome to deal with them, plus, Jackob and the other 3 were not that strong, their LVL was only in the 60, as for the Earth Worm, they were between 50 and 70.
He wielded a two-handed mace, it was rusty and hard to wield, but that''s all he could procure, as for the rest of the members, they had either bronze swords or bronze lances, poor weapons but they got used to them after countless battles.
Since youth they fought for their survival, so having poor weapons didn''t mean they are weak, in fact, some beastmen can fight bare-handed and tear the Earth Worm into pieces.
"HAA"
Jackob jumped to the side and smashed his mace on the side of the Earth Worm, it was not an accurate hit but it dealt some damage to the Earth Worm, the disgusting creature dived into the ground after being struck, but he didn''t dare relax as another Earth Worm came at him from behind.
With almost perfect reflexes, he kicked the ground and jumped backward in a cool manner, the Earth Worm''s sharp teeth struck his previous location and some green toxic liquid came out of its big mouth.
It was it''s poison, it was not deadly but it caused the ''paralysis'' status for 10 seconds, which was more than enough for the Worm to devour it''s prey.
As he was delighted to have dodged that poison, he wa caught off guard when another Worm came flying at him from below, since he was in the air, he couldn''t dodge or do anything beside block with his mace, but it was too late as some of the green liquid already landed on some of his body, making him unable to move.
His jump was quite high and amazing, but the fall was pitiful and full of despair, he couldn''t move, so when he hit the ground, he just layed there, motionless, but now that he took second and thought about what happened, it seemed a bit weird doesn''t it?
I mean, they got ambushed by 4 Worms, so why the hell did 3 attack him? Where were the other 3 party members? Surely they didn''t die, they were not that weak to die in just seconds.
As he was thinking about that, his eyes happened to land on running figures about 70meters away from his location, they were indeed those 3 party members, each held a fist-sized bottle filled with transparent liquid, he could already guess it''s the Worm''s salive, and by the look of their faces, he knew they abandonned him, however, he didn''t hate them or became enraged.
In this land, each have to take care of themselves, that was an untold rule, so what if they abandonned him? Each must only care about his own life, why should they sacrifice themselves for something as absurd as camaraderie?
Jackob''s only regret is his unability to procure the saliva for his mother, nothing mattered apart from that, he layed their motionless, unable to move because of the saliva, and look at the incoming Worms which dived toward him like hungry dogs, their mouths were wide open as if they were going to tear him into pieces.
Chapter 73 : Hunt (2)
The distance between the giant disgusting worms and the bound Jackob is shortening each second, until it was less than 5 meters, albeit their huge frame, the worm''s speed is quite fast, which make it more troublesome to deal with it.
Jackob already gave up on escaping, there is no way he could free himself from the paralyzing saliva, so what is only left is just give up and accept his death, he closed his mouth and layed there, silent, his thoughts about his mother..
However, even after a couple of seconds passed, nothing happened, the first thought that crossed his mind is that perhaps it''s done? Maybe he died painlessly? It was a happy thing yet depressing, happy because he didn''t feel pain, yet sad and depressing because he died and can no longer help his mother, but if so, then where is he now? The afterlife?
With that absurd thought in mind, he opened his eyes only to see the disgusting body of the 3 worms around him, but what was even more surprising is that they were frozen in a big block of ice, each and every one of them.
Apart from them, two figures appeared a couple of meters away from him, because he still felt a bit weakened, and couldn''t comprehend what just happened, he couldn''t exactly see their appearances, but he was sure it was a man and a silver-haired woman next to him, both of them slowly walked toward him.
As for the giant worms, they didn''t move since they were frozen, Jackob was relieved as he breathed a sigh of relief, he didn''t die, so why not feel a bit delighted? Yet he also felt a mix of cautious and fear toward those mysterious individuals.
First, why did they save him? For someone like him who fought countless battles and grew in a harsh environment like this place, it''s weird to save someone out of kindness, there surely must be a reason they saved him, so he raised his guard against them although they saved his life.
Arthur and Lucy finally found a living being, well to be more precise, it was a small party, but as they approached, it seemed 3 of the people in that party left the last one alone and fled, it was kind of expected and neither Arthur nor Lucy was surprised, such acts were very common in this world, especially on this continent.
First, they were going to go question the 3 fleeing people, but after some thought, they decided to save the other one and question him instead, he may give some honest answers because they saved him, and the others may spit some lies.
Arthur doesn''t particularly care about that beastmen''s life, he was kind, yes, but not to the point of saving everyone that was in danger, he would only help friend and relatives, probably helpless people that were kind of hisacquaintances, but helping strangers was a no-no for him, but that seemed really ironic when he helped Lucy, a complete stranger to him right? And Saly? I guess his character may have changed a bit after all that happened, maybe he softened or became colder, whatever happened, it doesn''t matter as long as he did was he thought was right.
..
Dealing with such weak worms was truthfully extremely easy, even Saly could slaughter hundreds of them, they didn''t even seem strong, just disgusting.
With but a thought, all the 3 attacking worms were frozen with his Ice Magic, he didn''t use it often or tried it, but against such weak creatures, this kind of magic is very effective against , furthermore, after possessing thousands of creatures, his Ice Magic is the most common amongst the special attributes, so he already got it in advanced, but what he really wanted to have is that strange ice the woman used in the tournament back then.
After having possessed a significant amount of corpses of numerous races, Arthur came to know that special attributes are really very rare, Ice is the most common, although I said common, it''s just that it''s the attribute that is commonly found amongst all the other attributes, from all those corpses, he never got the metal or wood or another attribute, which is a pity.
..
Lucy and Arthur walked toward the beastmen who appeared to be paralyzed and layed on the ground, he looked at them with fear and cautiousness, but Arthur wasn''t going to hurt him anyway, he could only chuckle and speak loud enough for the beastmen to hear him.
"Hello there, no need to panic! We were just passing by, we''re definitely not suspicious, I saw you were in danger, so I saved you......"
Hearing this, Lucy could only sigh and slowly shake her head while mumbling
"You... from all the things you could have said, why say that?"
Arthur just scratched the back of the head while smiling, now that he thought about it, what he said was a bit suspicious, plus with their sudden appearance, how could the other party not feel fearful and suspicious towards them? Anyways, he kept looking at the beastmen, expecting an answer.
As for Lucy, she didn''t try to correct or do anything, talking to strangers was not something she excelled at, only when talking to Arthur can she express her feeling and talk about whatever she wants, as for others, it was not like with Arthur, for example when talking to Anastassia or Sonia, she wouldn''t talk much, maybe Saly was an exception as she loved chatting with that little girl, but other than her, there was none.
Of course, that didn''t necessarily mean she can''t talk, she just didn''t want to talk to strangers, she also found it useless, plus there was Arthur to do the talking.
..
Half a minute passed with no response, the atmosphere was a bit awkward, Jackob managed to sit up as the paralysis began to wear off bit by bit, plus his resistance to it was stronger than normal people because he had been exposed to it numerous times.
"W-who are you?.."
Jackob finally managed to utter those words, he escaped from calamity but he could not relax yet, maybe those two are even more dangerous than the worms, it''s just that every person from here would feel suspicious and confused if they were saved like this.
"Ehh? I know that in this continent, everything is messy, but I think that most people know that if a person got saved by someone, they have to thank them first before asking anything else, or am I wrong perhaps?"
Arthur kept a distance of 5m or so between him and Jackob, he knew that his beastmen felt very cautious, so he didn''t want to cause him more fear than he is already feeling, he just wanted to know the whereabouts of the closest city.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
To be honest, with Lucy and Arthur''s traveling speed, circling the continent a few time a day would be easy, crossing it all would not take a lot of time, it was possible, but what he needed was information, just going to random cities would not really help that much, if he just searched every village and city one by one, and inspecting its people and so on, then that would take a lot of time, so having someone provide necessary information for him is very crucial.
Jackob somehow managed to stand up, he cautiously stared at the couple while replying
"Y-yes, I apologize for my rudeness, thank you for saving my life.. uhh.."
After thanking him, he couldn''t think of anything else to say, if they truly helped him out of kindness, then he would eternally feel grateful, but such thoughts never crossed his mind as events like this where people are saved by strangers without expecting anything is impossible to occur in this wasteland.
"Good, so you know how to appreciate kindness, well then, we saved your life, what have you got to repay us?"
''I fucking knew it!'' Jackob gritted his teeth as he unconsciously backed away from Arthur, he obviously has nothing to give him, so he could only helplessly gaze at Arthur and hesitantly say
"I-I have a couple of gold coins back home, if you''re willing to follow me, I can give them to you.."
Jackob did many contributions to his clan and village, so he was rewarded with money, and after more or less 5 years, he managed to save a couple of gold coins, it was not lot for rich people, but for the beastmen and the inhabitant in this continent, every coin, be it copper, silver or gold, it''s worth a lot, after all, they were short on food, water and so on.
Unlike other continents, this one is very special, as recorded in the history books, this continent suffered from countless bloody wars, it was a battlefield for hundreds of years, it was not a place to live, no more grass or trees grow anymore, it''s just ''rotten earth'', there were canyons, cliffs, dungeons, but every single one of them didn''t even have a single tree, it''s a pity but that''s to be expected after all these wars that happened here.
..
Arthur walked toward the restless beastmen, still smiling, hearing what Jackob said, hissmile became wider, but to Jackob, it looked evil rather than appealing.
"Ohoho, such things like gold coins.. they are useless for me"
Jackob really wanted to get the hell out of here, he didn''t know what would this person do to him, after seeing him come toward him while smiling, he regretted not dying, maybe his fate was going to be worse than death? That''s what most people in his situation would think.
"Then what do you want? Apart from that I really don''t have anything else..."
Arthur was finally a meter or so in front of the beastmen, he gazed intensely at him whilehumorously saying
"No no! You indeed can repay me with something apart from the gold coins, hmm..... for example, your body?"
As he heard that, Jackob stared at him with a confused look, he really couldn''t understand what he just heard, after a couple of seconds, he seemed to have realized something, with a still confused look, he shifted his gaze to Lucy, who was next to Arthur.
''Maybe he swings that way?... eh!? then this woman is maybe his sister? No way... or perhaps he wants to dissect me?"
Many absurd and crazy thoughts rampaged in his mind, but outside, he didn''t utter a single word.
After an unknown amount of time, a cold yet pleasant to hear voice rang out.
"You really should stop, your joking scared the boy a lot..."
It was Lucy who talked, Arthur didn''t joke around this much usually, so why would he do that now? Well, either way, it didn''t bother her but the beastmen seemed to become more and more afraid and restless.
After stopping for a second, she resumed talking again while facing Jackob.
"We just want answers from you, that''s all"
Hearing this, Jackob was momentarily startled before he managed to process what she just said, his mind was still confused by what Arthur said, but the woman finally said something reasonable, he unconsciously sighed and stared at Lucy.
Now that he took a closer look, he couldn''t help but feel a bit of shock, this mysterious woman is really a top-class beauty, even amongst all the women he saw in his entire life, she can be considered amongst the top, well, he doesn''t have the time to contemplate her beauty, plus, just by the way he coldly looked at him, he felt cold sweat and chills over his whole body.
"O-oh oh... if so, then I will try to answer as best as I can!"
He still didn''t let go of his suspicions, but if it''s only questioning, then it''s no problem, he resolutely looked at the duo while waiting for their questions.
''Hopefully, they let me go after they are done with me... fuck! My luck is so bad, why must I run into them, especially this man! If he was really joking, then it''s not funny! Not funny at all!''
Arthur nonchalantly clapped his hands as if a bit excited, then he said
"Alright alright! Just answer some questions okay? Hmm, first, tell us about the cities here, are there any major city or a capital? Any important places for the people to gather.."
Just from their demeanor and appearances, Jackob already guessed they were not people from this continent, the worms were easily frozen, someone with strong magic like this would definitely be known if he was from here, plus the woman, how can someone with her beauty not be popular? Strong beastman chiefs loved collecting beauties, especially from other races, so such person wouldn''t escape their radar, so the only guess is that they are from beyond the sea.
As he heard Arthur, Jackob didn''t hesitate and earnestly answered.
"There does not exist any cities in this continent, only territories, each beastmen clan have a territory, depending on the force of the clan, the territory''s size also varies, however, there is a somewhat big town on the west of the continent, it''s called ''Kal Town'', it would take more or less 3 months to arrive there, as far as I know, that''s the only place where ''tourists'' such as yourselves can go, there are some merchants and private auctions too"
Arthur touched his chin, deep in thought, then he proceeded to ask other question, Lucy stood next to him, silent and listening to Jackob..
Deep underground, precisely where the statue of the pretty woman that Lord A previously kneeled in front of, there appeared a crack in the air, as it was shattering glass, the sound was not loud, almost non-existent.
It expanded until it was the size of a door, then a black-clothed woman got out from it, she was exactly the same as the statue, voluptuous body with pretty curves and enchanting waist, and a dark ominous book hanging on the dark belt in her waist.
The room she appeared in not that big, but currently, it was filled with 8 people, each and every one of them was kowtowing toward the woman, not daring to look at her face without permission.
"Damned ''Lower Realm'', can''t even maintain my full powers, tsk tsk! I guess even with my current powers, it should be enough to deal with ''them''.. hmpf!"
The arrogant yet sweet tone of the woman rang out in a silent room, she sounded a bit annoyed and angry, and when her eyes landed on the 8 figures present, for some reason, she became even more annoyed
"HMPF! Can''t you even finish a simple mission yet daring to show your ugly dog faces? I can''t even believe I have to come to clean up your mess you made up! If it was not important for my plan, why would I come to such insignificant place?"
She then remained silent for half a minute before speaking again
"Divine Realm should be enough huh?....."
She then remained silent for a second before speaking again while pointing at a random old woman from the 8 figures
"You! You''ll be in charge of completing the mission from now on"
The old woman didn''t dare talk, she merely kowtowed, again and again, all of them worshipped this mysterious woman and considered her their god, so how could they dare talk back to her? Much less disobey her.
The pretty dark-haired woman then disappeared from the room and appeared in the sky, floating above a forest thick of trees.
''They appeared in the East right? To think I have to come to deal with some ants because of these useless dogs! Nonetheless, they managed to kill an Immortal... I have to deal with them even if I have to search all this damn planet!''
With that, she disappeared once again, beginning her ''hunt'', but what she did not know that Arthur himself was also looking for ''Medusa'' to get Zodiak''s powers and soon enough, the hunter will become the hunted!
Chapter 74 : Hunt (3)
"....Our clan is not far from here if we begin walking now, it''ll probably take us 2 days or so."
It''s already been 15 minutes since Arthur began asking the questions, and the good thing is that this beastmen Jackob answered perfectly, almost as if it was planned, Arthur knew that the other party was not telling lies, so he just clapped at Jackob a few times while saying
"Good good! It''s really great to encounter someone so cooperative, I tell you what, why don''t you guide us to your clan"
Jackob, who barely had the time to breathe, was momentarily startled, he hesitated for a second before replying
"S-sir, as I have already said, h-humans are prohibited t-to come to the c-cla..n"
"Ha ha ha, no worries, we''re demons, ain''t that right, Lucy?"
As he said that, Arthur playfully looked at Lucy, who has been silent since a while ago.
The silver-haired woman nodded at Arthur while muttering ''Yes'', but albeit that, Jackob was still restless and continued
"S-sir, demons are e-even worse than h-humans, the c-clan will not s....s-spare you! The relationship between our race and the others are very chaotic..."
"Will not spare us? Ha ha ha, alright alright, just guide us there and that''s it, we''ll not bother you anymore.."
Jackob knew that insisting will not matter, this man is extremely stubborn and persistent, he sighed and nodded at the couple.
Arthur summoned the black cloud, which is the fastest way to travel while carrying other people except for Lucy, Astrith wasn''t here so that was the only way, he could also use the bone dragon, however, it was much slower than the cloud.
Previously, the cloud matched his speed but since his stats reached the millions, it''s speed didn''t match him anymore, which is a pity but it nonetheless was very fast, probably a bit slower than Astrith.
The sudden appearance shocked Jackob, he stared at it with eyes full of curiosity and fear.
"With this, we should reach your clan much faster, so why don''t you hop on?"
Arthur didn''t wait for Jackob as he embraced Lucy''s waist and jumped on the cloud, it was approximately 5 meters long, so it''s wide enough for the three of them.
Few seconds passed before Jackob snapped out of his daze and jumped on the cloud, it was not floating very high, so for someone with his stats, even when weakened, he still managed to easily do it, however, his gaze was on the nearby frozen worms.
They were probably dead, so getting some of their saliva is easy, he was very reluctant to let this chance go away.
"W-wait, can you p-please remove your i-ice? I need something from the wor-ms.."
It seems that it took him a lot of courage to say that, which confused Arthur a bit, there is no need to be this scared of them, maybe demons or humans are like monsters to beastmen? But it can''t be to this degree, right?
Anyways, with but a thought, the ice melted and the dead bodies of the worms fell on the ground, they instantly died since the moment they were frozen by the ice, it''s coldness is just too much for weak creature, especially when Arthur''s intelligence is so damn high, of course, he didn''t use all his strength, but even 1 percent of it is a lot..
Jackob jumped from the cloud and went near the worms, he then skillfully removed their sharp teeth and some transparent yet disgusting liquid from their big mouth.
It only took him a few minutes to finish collecting all he needed, a broad smile appeared on his face, he now had so much saliva that he could make a fortune out of it, well by fortune, I mean a few gold coins.
He then hurriedly jumped on the cloud and sincerely said
"Thank you for waiting, these things are very important for me"
He didn''t have a storage ring so he put all of that in his backpack which was thrown a couple of meters away, the smile never left his face, it''s like he never was fearful of Arthur and Lucy earlier.
Since he got the cure for his mother''s illness, then that''s all it matters, so what if they come with him, they could take of themselves.Stolen novel; please report.
"The clan is toward the Wes.."
Before he could finish, his eyes widened and he couldn''t utter a single word, he even forgot to breathe from the shock.
A dark barrier was already formed around the cloud to protect from the wind resistance, and the cloud was flying with an extreme speed, even after half a minute, not a word came out of Jackob''s mouth, he was just too shocked to be able to speak, basically, he became speechless.
It took them almost 2 hours to arrive at what appeared to be a populated area, the cloud''s speed was heavenly for Jackob, but for Arthur? It was beyond slow, if he flew here, then it would barely take a dozen minutes.
"Hey, is this your clan''s territory?"
Arthur finally spoke after a long silence, well he had been silent toward Jackob, but in the course of this short trip, he chatted with Lucy and read some books, as for Jackob, he just stood there, motionless, watching the surroundings which are blurring and changing every second"
"A-ah, w-what? O-oh, y-....yyyes yes! It is"
He could barely talk, he still couldn''t process what just happened in the last hour, ''Fuck! What the hell! 1 hour? I couldn''t even see the surroundings, this strange cloud is so fast......maybe I brought doom to my clan?''
"Alright, why don''t we go to your home first? We don''t want trouble from your clan..."
Although he said that, if they attacked him on their own, then he doesn''t mind ''fighting back'', after all, he and Lucy came in peace, whether they hated Humans or not, that was not Arthur''s problem, furthermore, he''s not Human, neither is Lucy.
"M-my home? Alright....."
Jackob didn''t really want to bring trouble to himself, however, he can''t refuse Arthur''s request, after witnessing his ice magic and the cloud, how could he have the guts to refuse? A weakling like him will die with a single attack like that Ice magic.
....
It didn''t take 5 minutes for them to appear in Jackob''s house, it was just a one-room wooden house which barely looked like a house, calling it a tent is is better.
Jackob separated from them a distance away, as for Arthur and Lucy, they just teleported from above to inside the small house.
Jackob was already sitting next to an old woman laying on a bed, she was profusely sweating and twitching a bit, as for her son, Jackob, he was mixing that transparent saliva with some powder, then he gently lifted her head to make her drink it.
The saliva was known to be very effective so Jackob was relieved the moment he saw his mother drink the medicine, after putting her back on the bed again, he turned around and bowed while saying
"Again, thank you for saving me and bringing me here, If I died, I would not have been able to save my mother, I''m not sure if you know or not, but in this clan, although it''s called a ''clan'' , each takes care or himself, it''s just someone powerful leading weakling and calling it a clan.."
Arthur merely nodded at the thankful Jackob, he just was lucky because he and Lucy happened to be passing by, or else he would have died, unfortunately, but it wasn''t the case.
"Well, then... we will st-.."
Arthur was just about to finish talking, when all of a sudden, a strange bell sound rang outside of the ''house'', it was very loud, and rang many times, following it, cries and shouting came out of the several houses and tents.
Even Jackob''s face paled a bit, he gritted his teeth and looked at the confused Arthur while saying
"It''s called the ''War Bell'', it''s only used when an enemy Clan invades our territory or launches an attack.."
Hearing this, Arthur didn''t seem shocked or afraid, unlike Jackob, as for Lucy, she was as indifferent to that matter as ever.
The couple just sat on nearby chairs while and relaxed.
"If it''s like that, then no worries, I see that you only got your mother right? If so, just stay here with us and you two won''t be hurt, of course, if you want to flee or go, then that''s your choice"
Arthur was not interested in those clans or wars, he just wanted to spot some people from Medusa, there must be spies here, right? Or else, where would they be, last time he found underground rooms, so there must be countless here too right? Going by the logic that is.
Jackob, still feeling afraid and anxious about the incoming enemies, was confused by Arthur''s calm attitude, but thinking about the cloud and the ice, then this calmness is to be expected, nevertheless, he didn''t stay silent and carefully said
"I know you two are strong, but an army of another clan, is huge, ours is probably in the hundred thousand, theirs too will have an astronomical number, furthermore, my house is in the borders of the clan''s territory!"
Hearing this, Arthur merely chuckled while responding
"He he he, well, do whatever you want, but if you stay here, I can guarantee yours and your mother''s lives, if you go, then I''m not going to save you.."
..
Jackob was stuck in a dilemma, he couldn''t make a decision, and thinking about it, moving his sick mother is dangerous, the medicine effect needs time, so with that thought in mind, he gritted his teeth and sat again near his mother while looking around anxiously, cries and yells sounded, even the clashing of weapons can be heard.
"Relax, ha ha ha, I think you are underestimating us, boy..."
Arthur reassured the panicked Jackob, but it didn''t have any effect, so he just shrugged his shoulders and leaned on Lucy, his head laid on her lap, with a final sentence, he smiled back at her and said
"I''m going to take a nap, I''ll leave the rest to you, alright?"
Lucy softly smiled and nodded, then she continued stroking his black hair, this situation is not dangerous for them to take it seriously, but although Arthur was acting like that, a strong dark barrier was surroundings both of them, you may never know when powerful enemies can come.
He had confidence in Lucy''s strength and unless an Immortal Realm person showed up, then no one can beat her, even a person in the Deity Realm will be melted by her magma.
What he was sure about is that, the people who reach the Immortal Realm will either gain a special power, or have a big boost in strength, or else, how can you explain Tensui''s power? When he reached the Immortal Realm, his speed, strength, were defense incredible, even surpassing Arthur.
Also, when he arrived in the clan''s territory, and with his [Sixth Sense] which increased to 5Km range, he was confident to be able to react in time.
Chapter 75 : Sea Of Flames
Cries and weapons clashes resounded non-stop, Jackob sat next to his unconscious mother while looking anxious and afraid, after all, his house was located at the edges of the clan''s territory, and in no time, they will be surrounded by enemies.
He would shot glances at the sleeping Arthur and the non-chalant Lucy every now and then, but he didn''t have enough confidence in them to deal with the whole army.
It has already been a few minutes since the fighting started and the enemies roars and crazy laughs could be heard, every second passed the sounds got closer and closer.
These armies of beastmen are basically savages, Jackob knew that when he heard those laughs, a single clan popped in his mind, one that has cruel and ruthless people, which only care about themselves, although called an army, they destroy villages and other clans, slaughter all elders and men and keep women for slaves.
Beastmen are usually known to have a good relationship with themselves, even between clans, if a war happens between them, they would not completely slaughter the opponent, if one of them surrenders, then the winner will spare them, but the ''Savage Beast Clan'' is not like that.
They had crazy people, even their leader is known to be insane and behaves however he wants, sometimes he would even kill his own people for entertaiment, so apart from a few powerful beast clans, the ''Savage Beast Clan'' is known to be very dominating and powerful.
Furthermore, Jackob''s clan is considered powerful, but not to the point of being able to resist the ''Savage Beast Clan'', one because once the savage clan attacks another clan, then they will deploy all their troops and spare none, and second is because Jackob''s clan didn''t have many troops like the invading enemy.
If the Savage Beast Clan has 100,000 troops, then Jackob''s clan would have at best, 40,000, the difference was just too big, even if there was someone very powerful, he can''t deal with thousands of people, that''s what Jackob thought at least.
He already made a plan in his mind, once they were surrounded, he would surrender and hope they spare him, it was a slim chance but that''s the only thing he could do, as for Lucy and Arthur? He thought that they would get rid of maybe hundreds then will be overwhelmed.
..
After a dozen or so minutes, 3 beastmen holding machete like weapons, dripping blood entered the small house.
They had huge frame and numerous scars on their body, especially one of them which had a hideous face and an evil grin.
His gaze landed on Jackob and his mother but he didn''t pay much attention to them, however, once his eyes saw Lucy, they began burning, even his hands seemed to shake from excitment.
Unfortunately for him, he didn''t have time to contemplate Lucy''s beauty, neither have lewd thoughts or anything of the sort, as he and his two comerades soundlessly fell on the floor.
It hasn''t been 10 seconds since they entered yet they just fell on the floor like that, even the terrified Jackob stared dumbfounded, not understanding what just happened.
He may not know what happened, but it was just a simple attack from Lucy, for her, killing beasts like this is similar to killing monsters or ants, no difference at all, she didn''t even turn her head, she was staring at the sleeping face of Arthur while stroking his smooth black hair.
Lucy had many ways of attacking, her advanced purple fire, the overpowered magma, even her physical attacks are extremely deadly, but she didn''t show off much.
Two small yet dangerous needles were created and penetrated the enemies''s heads, the needles were very small, but with the magma''s heat and power, there''s no way one could survive, this needle would even be dangerous to a person in the Spirit Realm, he may have a way to dodge it or somehow resist it, but it would cost him something in return, only against someone in the Heavenly Realm or above would Lucy need to be serious.
Plus, with stats like hers, creating such needles and attacking with them, who would be fast enough to dodge such fast attacks? One must know that the more stats one have the more fast and powerful their magic is.
Lucy didn''t stop at that, the bodies of the three beastmen floated next to her then disappeared suddenly, why would she waste such previous corpses, Arthur would ''harvest'' everything later.
A minute did not even pass when more beastmen barged in, this time it was 5, and one of them held a staff, yet just like last time, they helplessly fall on the ground just like last time, they couldn''t even talk or react.
Lucy didn''t care if it was Jackob''s clan or the invading clan, anyone coming in would be an enemy.
Enemies entered the small house again and again, until the corpses count surpassed a hundred, Jackob''s eyes were wide open, he didn''t even notice that even his mouth was wide open.
Each person who entered instantly died, it''s like a death reaper was standing and welcoming them, the more people died the more he came to understand why Arthur had that leisurely attitude.
He couldn''t even see what killed them, they would suddenly fell on the ground with disbelief filling their eyes, then they woud float toward Lucy and disappear.
..
For the invading clan, a dozen or so people from the army disappearing was nothing, even a hundred, but the problem is that, all houses were destroyed, except a small house which looked like a tent, it was like a blackhole, each person entering disappeared.
It didn''t take much time for the enormous army to notice that, first they didn''t pay it much heed, then they began focusing in it and noticed that each and every person who entered would not come out, it was really like a blackhole.
"Hey! Fools! This is not a fucking show, go destroy that tent! Or else I will strip you and feed the horse someaphrodisiac!"
A high in command beastmen ordered and yelled at his army, so without hesitation, more than 500 beastmen bombarded the house, there were a lot of mages obviously, although a beastmen aptitude to magic is not that great, they still can use it, it was not just that, arrows and axes landed on the poor house.
So, like that, the small house was annihilated, however, what surprised that commander and the rest of the army is that, although the house was gone, the attacks couldn''t penetrate what seemed like a transparent yet dark barrier which enveloped 4 people.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Lucy and Arthur were sitting on chairs, the position of Arthur was a bit awkward as half of his body leaning on Lucy and his head was on her lap.
As for Jackob, he stared at his surroundings, dumbstruck, there was no more roof, walls or anything, just him and his mother sitting on the half-destroyed bed.
Many eyes stared at him with fury, anger, confusion and many other complex emotions, he truly didn''t how to react or what to say, he awakardly tried to smile but the smile wouldn''t come out.
As for Lucy, she just acted coldly and didn''t mind, if they dared attack, massacring them all wouldn''t be a problem, after all, they only needed Jackob, so why not spare those?
...
Mad Dog was a famous commander in the ''Savage Beast Clan'' his position was second only to the clan master, he was a proud and arrogant person, he was also the one who gave the order earlier.
He felt suspicion about that small house so he ordered his army to destroy it, but what happened next dumbfounded him, his eyes landed on that barrier-like thing around the people who were in the house.
Apparently, there were 2 beastmen and 2 ..humans?
For him, humans were just slaves, women are used as toys and human men are slaughtered with no mercy, he gazed at Jackob and his laying mother for a second before he focused on Arthur and Lucy.
He was of course mesmerized by Lucy''s beauty, for him, such beauty would be fun to play with, but he wasn''t stupid, countless wars taught him that this woman is not easy or weak.
Hundreds of attacks were not enough to even crack that barrier, so he advanced until he was a meter away from the barrier and smiled while saying
"Hello there, I see you two are humans, I apologize for the previous attacks, I thoughts there was only beastmen here, hahaha, don''t worry we''re not here to cause trouble, so why not have a talk?"
He never payed Jackob any attention, he didn''t even spare him a gaze apart from the first one, he talked while staring intensily at Lucy, who from didn''t even spare him a single glance.
She didn''t react and continued busying herself with Arthur, although she heard him, she totally ignored him.
Mad Dog cringed for a bit and didn''t know what to do, he was not used to this kind of cold attitude toward him, who was he? He was the Mad Dog! He takes what he wants, so what if she''s powerful? He will subdue her!
He first tried to be respectful and sneakily attack, but it didn''t seem it''s going to work.
"Hmpf! Don''t say I didn''t give you a choice! Attack! Demolish this dogshit barrier! NOW!"
As he said that, he used [Berserker mode] increasing his stats and took the red big two-handed axe from his back and struck the barrier, the nearby army also focused on the attacking.
Thousands of attacks landed on the barrier, the army was huge, a lot of it advanced to demolish the clan, but half of it attacked the barrier, basically, the long-raged attackers and mages stayed behind to help Mad Dog and attacked from far behind, and the close fighters advanced to finish Jackob''s clan.
10 minutes passed yet the barrier didn''t bulge, didn''t crack or shatter, didn''t even seem like it weakened, and that''s to be expected isn''t it?
It was made by Arthur, it''s a superior dark magic barrier, only a Heavenly Realm would be able to break it, anyone under that Realm can only dream about doing that, so what if there is dozen of thousands attacking? Their attacks were beyond weak, for Lucy and Arthur that is.
Jackob has already held his mother carefully and retreated close to Lucy, his face was pale and he was shaking a bit, he was hoping again and again for this barrier to not shatter.
20 minutes passed, and something finally happened, well, not to the barrier of course, it''s just that... Arthur''s nap was over, with a somewhat sleepy eyes, he sat up and gazed around him leisurely.
"Ah ah, stats everywhere... am I still dreaming?"
Jackob was confused, as for Lucy, she just giggled and softly nodded at him.
She then looked at Mad Dog, who was still attacking and using fire based skills to demolish the barrier, his hatred intensified every second, he swore to never end until he broke this barrier.
"Fucking bastard! Wait until I break this barrier, I''ll fucking play with you until you die!"
Mad Dog cursed again and again, but he never got a response, for 20 minutes, he was ignored as if he never existed, him and his army, however, when Arthur finally got up, Lucy cold gaze landed on the thousands of beastmen along with Mad Dog, she only said one word before hell surfaced on this bloody battlefied.
"....Annoying.."
After that, there was a sea of purple flames, as far as the naked eye can see, it was terrifying yet a spectacular view, raging sea of flames burned the beastmen army, it''s like they were in hell.
They felt intense and agonizing pain, yet they did not die, it was worse than dying, some even committed suicide and other loudly screamed.
Lucy''s control of her flame was flawless at this stage, Arthur''s ancient flames may be stronger, yet his control is a bit weaker than hers, she used flames since she was young, so how could her control of it be lacking?
The flames killed thousands easily, the most dumbfounding thing is that their skin didn''t burn, no no no! they just cried endlessly until they just.. died, what actually happened is that they experienced pain, but not from the outside, but from the inside.
Arthur couldn''t possess half a body or a burned body, but the strange thing is that he can even an empty shell, even if all organs, heart and brain was gone, he can still possess, but if the exterior was fully burned or missing a head or half the body, he can''t.
He made a lot of experiences when he was in the clan and made a lot of conclusion and results which helped him learn more about his ''possessing'', so that''s why she killed them by burning their insides.
Hell''s door opened and the huge army was burned to the ground, the sea of flames prolonged enough to burn the whole army, yes! You heard right! The whole damn army!
With almost 20 million points in intelligence, what''s a sea of flaming which had a radius of dozen of kilometres? Maybe some of Jackob''s clan army was burned too, but why would Lucy care? Unlike Arthur, she may be kind sometimes, but there was times when she have to be cold too, her attitude may have changed, but she was not kind enough to spare what seemed like ''kind people''.
..
Jackob almost fell unconscious from the shock, he stared and remained speechless, now he felt fear not from the army, but from Lucy.
''Fuck fuck fuck fuck!!!!! Why am I the one to meet them?''
In a way he was fortunate and infortunate, they saved him, it''s a good thing, but seeing their power right now, he felt like he did the wrong choice when he brought them here.
As for Arthur, he didn''t express sympathy or pity for the dead, he just licked his lips and hugged Lucy while saying
"Ah, such a good gift from my wife when I just have woken up, I cannot be happier, ha ha ha!"
But Jackob didn''t think like that, he gritted his teeth and fearfully gazed at Arthur and Lucy ''I met lunatics, definitely lunatic people, I''m doomed, they seemed kind earlier, but she just slaughtered thousands and didn''t even flinch!''
He used to fear Arthur more but now? Pfft! Lucy was like a true death reaper, one must not be allured by her Beauty, she''s the devil himself!
But oh well, she was a demon, so a demon or a devil, it''s similar right?
"This should be 50,000... no no 100,000? Should be that amount, HAHAHA, I cannot wait, however, it''ll take time to get them all.."
With that thought in mind, Arthur waved his mind, and right away, a bottomless pit appeared, and 2 dark knights and countless skeletons appeared, Arthur just gave them one order, ''Be good delivery boys and gather those corpses for me''
The skeletons obviously followed his orders, with the dark knights leading them, it would also be much easier, although it cost a bit of mental power, it''s no problem, it''ll recover in no time.
After he did that, Arthur turned to look at the dumbstruck Jackob while still tightly hugging Lucy from behind and said
"Well, it''s about time to visit you clan master, I need to ask him something, then we''ll be gone from your life, promise! ''kay?"
He showed an honest smile toward Jackob, for the latter, it rather seemed like a demon god''s evil smirk!
''Be gone my ass! You told me that earlier and you''re still here!''
Although he thought that, Jackob could only nod in reality and silently guide Arthur, however, he was still relucant, but he before he could speak, Arthur spoke again.
"Ah, about your mother, don''t worry, I''ll let someone protect her, plus, who would hurt her when everyone is dead? Right?"
A couple of heavily armed skeleton warriorswere enough to protect the mother, in an empty battlefield which contained countless dead bodies, who could hurt a sick woman laying who is unable to move?
....
Chapter 76 : No Mercy (1)
Jackob''s house was a hundred or so kilometers from the main base of the clan. For high-leveled crossing that distance would not take much time, Arthur would cross it in less than a minute but for them, it''ll be around 10 minutes, more or less.
Currently, Arthur, Lucy, and Jackob were back on the dark cloud, flying toward the main base of the clan.
Arthur had some questions to the master of the clan, after all, Jackob was just a normal beastmen, he didn''t have any authority, so how could he know any information about Medusa?
As for the clan master, Arthur guessed that he definitely knew, why? Because Medusa is known between powerhouses here, they feared it and didn''t dare attack or scheme against it, that was an information Anastassia herself told him.
As they were flying with high-speed, a house which looked like a small manor was built, it wasn''t made of expensive materials, just normal stone and some wood, but its appearance was too eye-catching in a deserted place like this.
Around this small manor, there were countless houses, either made of stone or wood, there was also a lot of people tightly holding their weapons, be it spell-books, staffs or axes.
They were obviously waiting for the enemy, although they saw the purple sea flames, they didn''t know what''s happening, and Arthur was not planning on explaining.
"You stay here, no one would be able to threaten you"
After saying that, Arthur and Lucy disappeared from the cloud and teleported inside the manor, with his [Sixth Sense] he could already pinpoint the exact the location of the clan master.
Not only [Sixth Sense] allowed him to sense enemies from a high radius, he could also sense which Realm or Lv the inspected person is.
Even if he couldn''t, it wasn''t hard to find the clan master as a dozen of people were sitting around a table in a big room, except them, there was no one in the rest of the manor.
"Leonardo! You bastard! I didn''t make you a general to just fool around, tell me what the fuck just happened! Didn''t you just wake me up telling me that the enemy just attacked?"
A huge beastmen which looked like a tiger with some red fur and scars all over his body, roared at another beastmen in front of him, spit and saliva came out of the tiger-like beastmen as he yelled and roared.
"Clan M-Master, the ''Savage Beast Clan'' was definitely attacking us, but all of a sudden, a strange purple sea of flames appeared, more than 2,000 our troops were burned!"
The clan master didn''t seem to believe his subordinate and kept yelling and blaming him
"Did you turn fucking nuts or what? Sea of flames? Why am I not seeing any flames right now? Quit spitting bullshit and tell me the truth"
He saw many strange things in his life, but a sea of flames? And it killed 2,000 of their troops? He simply couldn''t believe it.
..
"Oh my! But your subordinate is not lying though.."
A cold yet mocking voice resounded in the room, all the generals and higher-ups of the clan were present, including the clan master, they were surprised by the voice.
All of the generals were sweating profusely and cursed whoever dared say that, because whenever the clan master is angry, he would randomly punish one of them.
They turned their heads to the source of the voices, but once their eyes landed on the two figures, they were shocked, suspicious and angry.
For an enemy to invade their main base without anyone knowing, that was a disgrace to them, what was more annoying is that they were both Humans!
"No need to look so surprised... we''re just paying a little visit"
Arthur kept his playful attitude while gazing at the beastmen, all of them had a LVL between 200 and 300 with the highest one being 384.
Kolan(Beastmen) : Lv384
His level was quite high, no wonder he''s the clan master, with that high-level, who would dare oppose him? They would surely be courting death.
"You! Who the fuck are you.."
All the beastmen took their weapons and readied themselves, even the clan master was no exception, he took his sword from its sheath roared at Arthur.
It''s surprising to see a beastmen who uses swords as most of the race uses two-handed weapons which are usually heavy, and that''s to deal more damage.
They already got superior Strength, so all they needed is a good weapon.
Arthur didn''t want to waste much time in here, just get his some of his questions answered and leave.
"No need to know that, so... I''m going to ask a couple of questions, each time you don''t reply, one of the present people here would die, it''s up to you to decide"
Although he said, Arthur wasn''t too sure of this tactic, people like these rely too much on their strength and don''t believe on friendship or ''saving a friend''s life'' each wanted to save his own life and that''s it.
Kolan, who was the clan master, almost had his head explode from anger, his face turned ugly as he listened to Arthur.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
For someone to act this arrogant in his territory, not only that, they were Humans too.
He didn''t know how they arrived here, neither did he care how they did it, he just wanted to relieve his anger on those two.
Not only him, all the other beastmen couldn''t control their attitudes as they launched themselves at the Human.
Not all of them attacked, but most of them did, there were 12 beastmen and 9 were already leaping at Arthur.
They were all melee fighters and had various weapons.
Arthur didn''t move and didn''t seem surprised, he just shrugged his shoulders and casually said.
"I was going to spare some, don''t say I didn''t give you a chance"
As he said that, there was an almost unheard sound which was followed by 8 heads rolling on the ground.
8 headless corpses fell on the ground, they were precise all those who attacked Arthur except Kolan, who was now frozen in mid-air.
Arthur''s threads were more than enough to behead weak people like them, he wasn''t someone who killed anyone he stumbled upon, however, if one dares to attack him then it''s automatically his enemy.
The 3 beastmen who didn''t attack where Leonardo, the one was yelled at previously, and two other beastmen, they looked at Arthur with wide eyes, they didn''t even dare breath heavily.
They could only see 8 heads falling on the ground, they couldn''t even resist or emit a desperate sound before dying, it was just too abrupt.
Arthur didn''t even look at the headless corpses, he just coldly stared at clan master and calmly said
"Now, do you understand your current situation? Either you answer or you will miserably die"
Surprisingly, Kolan, who was super angry a second ago, completely changed his attitude, being held in mid-air and unable to resist terrified him and made him fear this Human.
He wasn''t stupid, his life was more precious than anything else, so what if he lowers himself to answer some questions.
"Yes yes! Please forgive me, I had eyes but couldn''t recognize Mt.Tai! I''ll answer so please have mercy!!!"
Even the calm Arthur was surprised by this sudden change, he never expected such change, it''s like he''s talking to another person, no wonder he''s a clan master, he''s cunning and knows when to bow his head.
Lucy furrowed her brows for a second as she witnessed this shameful behavior, but she didn''t comment or do anything.
"Alright then, what do you know about ''Medusa'' "
As he was respectfully listening to Arthur, Kolan''s eyes constricted and he began sweating a bit, while shaking his head he humbly replied.
"This lowly one doesn''t know what that is, please forgive me."
Arthur didn''t even flinch, he just waved his hand dismissively and coldly said
"Since that''s the case, then I don''t need you.."
"Wait wait! I happened to remember something... ah yes yes! It''s some kind of cult I think, they are very secretive and no one knows about their base.."
Arthur listened but since nothing new was said, he became even more annoyed and spoke yet again while adding a bit of killing intent in his tone
"Not enough, you''re just telling things I already knew, as I thought, you''re useless"
Just as Arthur was going to behead Kolan, the latter interrupted him again, this time his face was pale and his eyes a bit teary, to think someone like this is a clan-master.
"Wait please please... Sir wisdom and patience and incomparable to any other, please spare this lowly one, I still know something about ''Medusa''!! Ah ah, they... they apparently have many bases under the several dungeons in this continent, that''s all I know, please spare me!!"
''Dungeons? Hmm, it''s a good place to hide, indeed...''
As Arthur pondered about what Kolan said, Lucy finally made her move and used magma magic to finish the crying beastmen.
It''s not like Arthur was going to let him live, a person as cunning as him may be troublesome, even if he''s this weak, no one knows what could happen.
The magma completely melted his body, leaving nothing in just seconds, which made the 3 surviving beastmen terrified, they didn''t dare move as they gazed at Arthur and Lucy.
After some time, Arthur gazed at the 3 remaining beastmen and said
"Don''t move, in a moment, someone will arrive and you have to obey him, if someone dares to even talk back to him, he will be immediately executed, understood?"
The 3 continuously nodded, after all, who dares refuse and die miserably like Kolan?
Not even a minute passed when Jackob arrived, the dark cloud flew through the window and disappeared when Jackob jumped out of it.
Jackob stared at the 3 petrified beastmen, he knew they were 3 generals of his clans, but no matter how much he looked, he only saw those 3.
"From today onward, you''re the temporary clan master, establish a base here, ahh! This is not a clan anymore, it''s a sect, the Moonstar sect."
As he said that, a bottomless pit appeared suddenly, making the present people even more fearful.
What came out of the pit was even more terrifying, it was a gigantic bone dragon, it totally demolished the small manor and flew in the air while roaring.
Not only that, but a bony skeleton that was about 3 meters in height was summoned too, it was a Death Lich, it had a staff in its hand and a black robe.
It costs 500 Mental Power, it''s a lot but totally worth it, this Lich can battle with a low leveled person in the Spirit Realm so it''s considered pretty strong.
"Those two creatures would obey you when I''m gone, from now on you will be recruiting people in the sect, doesn''t matter the sect, as long as you think they are strong and loyal, then recruit them, anyone who dares rebel or betray you, kill them, the Lich and Dragon should be enough!"
After he said that, Arthur disappeared with Lucy, not leaving any room for discussion.
Jackob couldn''t even react in time before Arthur and Lucy disappeared from the already demolished manor.
...
As Arthur and Lucy flew toward the nearest dungeon, Arthur calmly said to Lucy
"Hahaha, it''s rare to see you confused, as you heard, I spared them because it''s time to establish a force in here, I don''t know when that woman would come back and at that time, we must be prepared!"
Lucy merely nodded, a sect or a clan, it doesn''t matter as long she was with him and they were both alright.
Arthur planned to finally establish a sect, no matter the races, or the genders, as long as it''s someone who obeys him and is strong, then it''s fine.
The reason he left in a hurry is because he felt a bad omen of death, some kind of uneasiness in his heart, he didn''t know why but he just felt he had to hurry.
Far in the East, in the Ma Clan, all the surroundings were destroyed, the trees were cut off and there were big and small craters all over the place.
Anastassia was in mid-air with Astrith next to her, both were in an extremely bad shape, in fact, she had one of her arms cut off and blood leaked endlessly from that wound, as for Astrith, his figure is a bit transparent and surprisingly dark blood was coming out of his body.
Not even 50 meters from them was a woman, she was holding a book in her hand and gazed at Astrith and Anastassia with contempt, a smile was hanging on her alluring face.
"Although you are in the Spirit Realm, you really are decent, it''s a pity you''ll die here.."
As she said that, she razed her hand a mysterious energy rushed at Anastassia, who was breathing heavily.
But before that energy could reach its target, a strange black light came out of Anastassia, tattoos appeared on her body, and the dagger she held in her remaining arm became bigger and had some black light in it too.
Astrith also became much bigger, he opened his mouth and a red and blue beam was being compressed and ready to explode.
The two faced that energy, Anastassia speed became unbelievable as even the woman squinted her eyes in surprise, by the time she reacted there was only a black light left, her energy was somehow blocked by that beam of Astrith, as for Anastassia, there was no sign of her, she disappeared with Astrith.
"Tsk! To think she knew a forbidden technique, she''s not ordinary, but oh well! Where could she run in this small world? Hahahaha"
As she said that, she transformed into a beam of light that flew into the horizon.
Chapter 77 : No Mercy (2)
The dungeon Lucy and Arthur were heading to was not that far away from them, so considering their speed, it didn''t take them more than 10 minutes to arrive.
The dungeon was called ''Underground Mines'', a shabby name, however, Arthur didn''t mind that and dived into in along with Lucy without even posing for a second.
It was a high-level dungeon as the monsters were at least Lv350, there were ogres, double-headed ogres, minotaurs and similar creatures.
They were strong, if someone Lv350 or a bit lower entered the dungeon, then it will be extremely hard for him to clear it, but for Arthur? Each group of monsters he passed by was slaughtered mercilessly.
His threads did their job pretty well, they were sharp and fast, invisible to the monsters and able to insta-kill them.
He was going to stop for an hour or so before entering the dungeon, he wanted to possess all the corpses he gathered, there was a lot, although he didn''t manage to store all the corpses of the army.
Nonetheless, there were no less than 10,000 beastmen corpse in his storage ring, which is an astronomical amount.
If you consider their stats to be around 5-6k then altogether it''ll be around 6million! That will boost his strength by a lot, he''ll also gain a meager amount of Mental Power from them, however, perhaps it''ll be enough for him to breakthrough to the Immortal Realm?
He wasn''t sure exactly on how much Mental Power he needs to break through, but his guess was 1,000 Mental Power.
Anyways, the reason he didn''t possess them is because he felt something wasn''t right, Arthur had a strange feeling inside him telling him to hurry up so trusted his guts and traveled as fast as he could to the dungeon to find the ''Medusa'' organization, even if he didn''t find anything, he''ll still go back, the feeling he had was like a call out from the Itas Continent.
Notifications popped non-stop in front of him, Arthur didn''t pay them any heed and dismissed them, monsters were killed left and right, if they were not in range of his threads then their fate was being burned by the purple fire of Lucy.
10 Minutes
That''s the time it took them to arrive at the final room which had the boss, they didn''t clear all the dungeons monster but they nevertheless killed all the monsters they stumbled upon and it definitely wasn''t a meager number of monsters, it was at the very least 500 monsters of various races and Lvls.
There was a mid-level boss which was a 5-meter minotaur, but the poor thing was instantly melted by the magma of Lucy, he couldn''t even stand up or flinch before dying.
The final boss was also a minotaur, however, this one had red skin and a thick and long blade on his back, it was Lv500 and looked threatening.
Arthur contemplated it for a bit, he didn''t kill it as a strange thought struck him.
While he was in the Ma Clan, Anastassia informed things he wasn''t aware of, such as the dungeons.
Unlike the mid-level and low-level dungeons, the high-level dungeons are special, once you kill their final boss, it won''t respawn, well it would but wouldn''t be the same, the respawned boss would be much weaker compared to the original.
He didn''t know if this dungeon was cleared or not, but if ''Medusa'' really is here, then they would make sure this dungeon is not cleared to cover up their hideout, but that''s a big if.
They could have cleared it and just didn''t mind if the dungeon was cleared or not.
Arthur pondered for a bit before he summoned a ''Death Knight'', this summoned knight was a bit similar to the ''Dark Knight'', it had similar armor and weapon, but it cost double the amount required for the ''Dark Knight''.
Arthur''s Mental Power recovered earlier then before as usually, it would take much more time but now that his stats have risen, the recovery became faster too.
500 Mental Power, that''s how much it costs to summon them, their strength was immense as they could fight head-on with a person in the early stages of the Spirit Realm.
It was strong but compared to the bone dragon it was slightly weaker, it''s a shame the bone dragon is with Jackob or else Arthur would have summoned it.
"Ahh, it would be a waste to kill you... really"
Arthur groaned while saying that, then he ordered his ''Death Knight'' to attack the minotaur but he forbid it to kill the boss.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He just wanted to subdue the minotaur, it may be extremely hard and he was in a hurry so that''s why he summoned the death knight to take care of it.
The reason he wanted the subdue the minotaur is for his sect, having a more powerful beast to protect his newlyestablished sect would be amazing, after all, these monsters have potential to grow, unlike the skeletons.
It''s true that the skeleton becomes stronger along with him, but the already summoned always keep the same strength, unless he summones new ones when he had his strength boosted, then nothing would change.
Arthur and Lucy are considered the sect masters, however, he wasn''t planning on always staying in this word, much less in his sect, he may expand it in the future, but not for the time being.
There is still Earth and many other places that he had to go to, he cannot stay here for the rest of his life.
Anastassia also informed him a secret, well it was not a big secret but not many people of this piece of information.
It''s that this world, or rather, this planet which is called ''Astria'' is only considered '' A lower Realm'' and that ''Gobu'' and probably that woman which used the pink ice certainly came from another planet which is most likely a planet which is a ''Middle-Level Realm''.
She told him that unlike this planet, the place is thousands of times bigger and clans and sects are numerous there, her master was also from there but due to some reasons he descended to this planet.
Even without her saying that, Arthur already had a guess about this, after all, he always wondered how powerful ''X'' is, or how powerful is that damned woman who attacked him?
He only knew that there is 3 Realms beyond the deity Realm, which are respectively, Immortal Realm => Divine Realm => God Realm.
His guess was that the woman who attacked him was in the late stage Immortal Realm or probably a Divine Realm, as for ''X'' he got to be in the God Realm.
Speaking of ''X'', Arthur was a bit confused as to why ''X'' didn''t show up since that time, but he didn''t think much about it, whether he comes back or not, it won''t make much difference, he just wanted to thank him for what he did.
..
The Death Knight ruthlessly beat up the red minotaur who stopped resisting after a couple of minutes, he truly couldn''t react in time as the opponent didn''t let him breath for even a split second.
Arthur and Lucy were already gone from that room, Arthur was sure that the minotaur would be subdued, it''s just a matter of time, a monster like him would be useful, he may be weak to him, however, to people like Jackob or even the clan masters, it is a powerful beast.
The dungeon was not big to begin with, but it would take time to thoroughly search it, inch by inch, so Arthur split up from Lucy to make things easier, after all, two people searching together is useless, better split up.
.
Arthur inspected the walls, the roof and grounds everytime he passed by a room, the dungeon was really like mines, there were mine routes and some pickaxes here and there but there wasn''t any living being except the monsters.
He killed every beast he stumbled upon and focused on every detail as maybe there is a secret room or trigger to open up the hideout of ''Medusa''.
..
Lucy was silently roaming the dungeons, monsters were falling left and right, she didn''t need to move her hands or say any incantations, her overpowered purple fire burned everything in it''s way.
She was less focused that Arthur as her method of searching is completely the opposite, she destroyed the walls she found suspicious, if there is something suspicious then she''ll inspect what''s inside, if there is nothing, she''ll continue searching.
Like this, half an hour passed with no results, Lucy and Arthur were inside the boss room, the minotaur was in a corner, it was looking fearfully at the Death Knight.
It didn''t dare even raise its blade to defend, it just received the attacks and emitted some pitiful screams.
Arthur didn''t pay much attention at that, he was pissed that he didn''t find anything, he didn''t doubt the words of the clan master, in fact, he totally believed him and was more certain when he heard where the hideout is.
Hiding in this dungeon is really the perfect place, so the only problem is that he just couldn''t find the place.
First, he didn''t want to warn them but seeing that it will not work like this, he waved his hand and countless dark lightning bolts were striking everywhere around him.
They caused zero damage to the surroundings, nonetheless, he kept throwing them everywhere, his range increased as the demonic lightning struck everywhere until he heard a shattering sound.
The shattering sound came from a small room not far away from where he and Lucy were.
Without wasting any second, they headed for that room and once they entered, they saw that the wall which was blocking the route and making it a dead end was no gone, what was in place of it was a staircase leading down, there was no lights or torches.
Well, all the dungeon was dark as it was underground, but where the stairs lead to was even darker, however, something like dark and unability to see was a joke to Lucy and Arthur.
Darkness attribute may be focused on curses and such, but the main thing is ''darkness'', so with both of them having that attribute in max advanced, seeing in darkness is the same thing as seeing in broad day light.
After ordering the Death Knight to dragg the minotaur to Jackob, he dashed to the staircase with Lucy, their speed was incredible as it seemed as if they were teleporting.
The only thing you can see in that total darkness was a yellow streak of lightning descending at a speed which the naked eye cannot see, even someone in the Spirit Realm could barely see a small streak of lightning, he can even mistake it as yellow thread extremely thin.
They descended for 1 minute before finally reaching a door, this underground staircase was really surprising, it only took them 1 minute because they were fast.
But the distance was hundreds of miles, if not thousands, to be able to build something this deep underground, it''s fascinating, the door they faced was the same as the last one in Lumbra City.
It was a 2-meter iron door, reinforced with what seemed to be a magical barrier.
However, even when he saw this door, Arthur didn''t stop and dived through it, something of this caliber was not worth stopping for.
With a loud crashing sound, the door was completely demolished and the two black-robed men who were supposed to be guards were dumbstruck by what happened.
"Wha.. what the fuck just happened! Who goes there!"
One of them shouted as he took out a dark sword which was on his waist, as for the other one, he was still dumbfounded as he stared at what was left of the metal door.
Arthur didn''t speak as the only thought in his mind was to hurry up and return to the Ma Clan.
''Kill!''
Chapter 78 : Extermination and Uneasiness
When Arthur saw the two black-robed men, he disregarded the option of questioning them.
First, because it would take time, usually people like them would only speak after getting tortured for hours or even days, second, he doesn''t need to question them anymore.
Since it''s confirmed that this is a secret base of ''Medusa'', his only goal now is to kill all of them and try to find the boss or Zodiak''s power.
He wanted to find it in here, but the likeliness of ''it'' being in this base is almost non-existent, for such an organization like ''Medusa'', it must certainly have at least a dozen secret bases, so what is the probability of Zodiak''s power being here?
Anyways, whether he finds it or not, he decided to go to the Ma Clan to check on Saly.
The connection between him and Astrith was still on, however, since the distance separating them is too much for him to know if Astrith is in a battle or anything similar.
He even suspected that he would not realize it if Astrith died, he could barely feel the connection between them, much less know if Astrith is dead or not as even if he''s dead, the connection will still exist.
This kind of strange connection was established when Arthur summoned Astrith the second time, he didn''t clearly know its purpose, so he didn''t think too much about it, for the time being, that is.
..
The two black-robed men were instantly killed and absorbed into his ring.
Right behind them, there was a metal door similar to the one which was demolished, the room was small and there was nothing in here besides a table and 2 chairs.
It''s amazing to think about those two men, sitting here and doing nothing, isn''t it boring?
The metal door was melted by Lucy''s magma in a split second, as the metal door vanished, two fast figures rushed from it and continuedto run deeper and deeper into this underground base.
What layed behind the metal door was a dark and long corridor, it was not very wide, approximately 1 meter.
It only took them 10 seconds or less to arrive at the next metal door, the distance between the two rooms must have been a dozen or so kilometers.
Such distance is considered big, but for Arthur, crossing this distance in seconds couldn''t be easier, even Lucy, who couldn''t use any movement techniques could do it, their stats were just too high so it''s to be expected to be able to do at least this much.
The metal door was melted yet again, but unlike the other room, what was in front of Arthur and Lucy was a huge room, probably a hall of some kind?
There were several black-robed figures, some were talking and others were sitting in a meditative position.
However, everyone noticed what happened o the entrance, what was supposed to be a metal door reinforced with some protective spells was now gone, they didn''t even have time to react before the door disappeared.
The magma turned it into nothingness, what was in place of the door were two people, one dark-haired man with red eyes, and next to him was a woman with silver hair and similar blood red eyes.
"Ahh, it seems this is no ordinary base, good good"
Arthur gazed at the numerous enemies with a smile, some hope surged in him as the probability of finding Zodiak''s powers in here increased.
''It would be great if this is the main base''
Although Arthur wished that, he really didn''t believe it was the case, maybe because it was too easy to find it?
If some people heard what Arthur thought, and that finding this place was rather easy, they would surely cough blood and curse him non-stop.
The illusion barrier laid to hide the base was similar to the one hiding the powerful clans, only someone extremely skilled in barriers and seals would be able to discover, yet he just bombarded all the place with his Demonic Lightning...
..
Purple fire and countless invisible threads rampaged left and right, people were dying at a rapid pace as Arthur and Lucy showed no mercy, they didn''t even speak, they just advanced and killed everyone they saw.
The place was like a maze as there were no more corridors or stairs, just big halls, and some small rooms, there were hundreds of black-robed figures, and their numbers increased by the second.
Some of them even used ''Dark Magic'' and tried resisting the invisible sharp attacks or the purple waves of flames but it was utterly useless, they were either cut into pieces or burned to ashes.
After they have advanced for about 500 meters, an old man and several figures behind him appeared out of nowhere and blocked Arthur''s path.
Just as Arthur was to slaughter them, he stopped as he saw the old man''s Lv.
Kenishi(Lord S) : Lv1273 (Spirit Realm)
Honestly, Arthur kind of expected to see people in the Spirit Realm, Tensui was Immortal Realm so seeing some people in the Heavenly or Spirit Realm is not surprising.
"Stop! Why have you com.."
The old man was planning to try to stop them and question them, however, once he looked at their appearances properly, especially Arthur, his eyes widened and he couldn''t even continue speaking.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
"Y-you...!! How come you are here?"
As he heard Kenishi, Arthur furrowed his brows and causally replied
"Ah? So you know about me? This makes things easier.."
The old man didn''t seem to have heard Arthur as he stared at him with great shock and disbelief.
It was like he just saw a ghost, Arthur became more confused as the behavior of the old man was strange.
Even some of the people behind him appeared surprised, some stared coldly at Lucy and Arthur and some had a mix of fear and shock mingling in their eyes.
"Yo...you should not be here!!! How are you even alive.."
Arthur who was confused a second ago suddenly appeared in front of the old man, then without even letting the enemy react, he grabbed him by the neck and squeezed tightly, almost choking the old man, who snapped out of it and gazed at Arthur with fear.
The people behind the old man didn''t just stay there and watch, they were preparing to attack Arthur when all of a sudden, dark red magma hands came out of the ground and bound them, the pain was agonizing as the parts being held by the magma hands were being melted by the second.
These people were obviously trained and a bit used to pain, although some of them groaned, none issued a loud scream or yelled pitifully, they just tried to struggle but it''s didn''t work no matter how they did.
"What do you mean how am I alive? Speak! If you''re just going to waste time then I''ll just try to find another one who will answer"
Arthur wanted some answers to his questions when he saw the weird behavior of the old man, so that''s why he did all that, although these answers he sought for were not urgent since an opportunity arose, then why not grasp it and try to force this old man to answer?
"..*cough*...you... it''s definitely *cough* you!! You are that man who killed *cough* Tensui! You''re alive, it''s *cough* *cough* impossible!"
Kenishi then gasped for breath and continued after he managed to breath for a couple of seconds.
"....Ha ha ha, you are *cough* so dead... *cough*Lord has *cough* descended to get you...and you *cough* delivered yourself to our doorstep *cough*.. *cough*..... ha ha ha ha"
Listening to the old man, Arthur frowned and pondered for some time, the uneasiness he was feeling was definitely not fake, and this old man said ''Lord''...
"Your lord or whatever, where is he?"
The old man didn''t respond to Arthur and continued laughing while coughing from time to time, anger arose in Arthur as the man didn''t answer, so he tightened his grip on Kenishi''s neck, choking him and slowly killing him.
"You have 5 seconds to answer or else you''ll be killed! Where.is.your LORD!"
Albeit the threats of Arthur, neither Kenishi nor any of the bound people uttered a single word.
5 seconds passed and nothing happened, so Arthur didn''t bother with Kenishi anymore, he snapped his neck, killing him which was followed by the deaths of the other people who died by the hands of Lucy''s magma.
"Something is not right.... Let''s go back. now..."
"I know, I have been feeling uneasy since some time ago...."(Lucy)
Arthur picked Lucy and transformed into a streak of lightning, he didn''t bother with the other figures as he left the secret base, the uneasy feeling become stronger as he felt something calling out for him from the East.
He didn''t stop as he flew toward the Itas continent, he used his max speed to arrive faster and earlier.
The more he got closer to the Ma Clan the more the uneasy feeling became stronger.
..
The distance between the Western continent and Itas continent is by no means short, it''s at least a million kilometers.
And with Arthur''s speed, he could cross 700 or so kilometers in a minute, so going by this speed, it would take them about a day to arrive, and that''s considering the distance is just one million kilometers.
..
It has been 26 hours since Arthur started flying non-stop with Lucy near him, he didn''t go to Jackob to check about the sector even bother with the Red Minotaur.
He just entered the Ma Clan territory but just by seeing the broken illusion and protective barriers, his face paled, the ground was totally destroyed as if a power happened here.
What was in the past a calm and dense forest is now a ravaged and destroyed land, there was a dozen of craters the size of a building scattered everywhere, making it look more like a battlefield than what was essentially a peaceful habitable environment.
In the middle was an extremely big crater, its width was approximately 500 meter and it was located exactly where the big pagoda belonging to the female area of the Ma Clan was.
There were no signs of living being, even with Arthur''s sixth sense, he couldn''t sense any living being, he wasn''t worried about the disciples.
Only Saly mattered for him, of course, he cared for Anastassia and the others, but not like Saly, he regarded her as his own daughter, so how could he not feel anxious.
Even the usually calm Lucy was anxious, she tightly held Arthur''s hand while gazing at the destroyed area.
With their speed, it doesn''t take much time to inspect the whole clan area, after all, its territory is only a hundred kilometres at best.
Arthur and Lucy landed on the ground and carefully searched for a living person, Arthur''s Sixth Sense was constantly activated.
It didn''t take them much time to find a person, it was actually Anastassia.
She was laying in a small pond, which turned red from her blood.
It didn''t seem she was fighting recently, she was unconscious and she looked absolutely horrible. One of her hands was cut off and the other was no worse as it was probably broken. There were bloody holes in her chest and wait and some cuts in her legs, one look at her and would assume she''s dead.
Arthur picked Anastassia as it was not time to follow his own rule about ''not touching any other woman''.
No matter how cold he was toward other woman, Anastassia was a good person who helped him and gave him a shelter, he considered her a friend so it was not time to act like that.
Lucy retrieved a small bed from the storage and put it near Arthur, who slowly put Anastassia on it.
Then he retrieved all the healing potions he had and slowly put it in her mouth, it was not easy to make her drink it but there were no other choice.
He could only guide the potion''s liquid to her throad with his telekinesis, in times like this, it was very usesful but using telekinesis inside a person''s body is very difficult, it even cost a lot of Mental Power.
"I''ll go look for Saly, you wait here and check on her..."
Lucy spoke with an anxious tone, although they found Anastassia, she couldn''t calm down, Saly was equally important to her just as she is to Arthur.
She could not afford to lose her!
Lucy ran as she circled around the area, checking any place which could hold living being, any rubble or houses, albeit the destruction, there was some intact houses, however, all of them were empty.
After checking all the female area in no less than 15 minutes, she proceeded to the male area....
30 minutes passed and finally, Anastassia''s eyes opened, she had no strength to move, much less raise her head, she could only open her eyes slowly.
She was a bit delighted to see that she was alive but that happiness on lasted for a split second before she felt bitter and sad.
"You finally awakened.."
She heard a familiar sound but she couldn''t lift her head to look at the origin of the sound, but she didn''t need to, this voice was obviously Arthur''s!
"Art.. *cough* *cough* Arthur *cough* "
"Take it easy, you survived with these dire wounds, it''s already fortunate.. take things easy and only talk when you think you can.."
Arthur wanted some answers quickly, but he wasn''t heartless to the point to force Anastassia into speaking even though she''s this injured.
He gave her potions that even gods would wish for, but she was surely going to die, so it''s already a miracle that she survived, one could say she only survived until now because of her strong will.
Albeit hearing Arthur, Anastassia struggled to talk and tried lifting her head.
"No time *cough* a woman came.. She ...*cough* very strong... *cough* I couldn''t fight back *cough* ... she told me to inform youthat she''ll be waiting for your arrival."
After struggling to blurt that out, Anastassia finally passed out again........
Chapter 79 : Arthurs resolve
It has been 3 days since Anastassia passed out, Arthur and Lucy took her to a small house which was not devastated by what happened at waited for her to wake up.
Lucy became more and more anxious as after searching the whole clan''s territory, she found no trace of Saly, even Astrith was missing.
Apparently, a lot of people died, it''s like a clan extermination as the Elders and the section chiefs all died, Arthur didn''t know what happened exactly, but one thing is certain, it''s that the opponent is very strong.
Anastassia spoke of a woman, so his first guess was the woman who attacked him that time, but if so, then why would she attack the clan instead of him?
That was a bit confusing, nonetheless, he couldn''t guess the whole truth so he patiently waited for the unconscious Anastassia to wake up.
..
"Hey Arthur, d-do you think she''s okay?"
Lucy was leaning on Arthur as she asked him with an anxious and sad tone, after searching many times, she couldn''t find Saly.
She deeply loved the little girl and considered her part of her family, if something happened to her then how could Lucy forgive herself?
Arthur was also restless and worried, but in situations like this, one cannot act recklessly, although he was very fast in terms of traveling and such, he can''t search the four continents for Saly, it would take a lot of time, especially if he were to search every corner.
Anastassia was present and she most likely knew what happened here and to Lucy, so it''s better to wait for her to wake up.
...
At the 6th day, Anastassia finally woke up, the serious injuries were healing slowly which was a good thing but she still couldn''t move properly.
It took her a lot of effort to lift her head and sit on the bed instead of laying on it.
Arthur and Lucy were near the bed, sitting on wooden chairs and staring at Anastassia, who had a sad look on her eyes.
"Are your injuries okay?"
Arthur didn''t bombard her with questions right away, no matter how worried he was for Saly, he couldn''t ignore Anastassia and just expect some answers from her while disregarding her current state.
"Not fully healed but it''s possible to move"
Before Arthur could open his mouth to talk again, Lucy interrupted him as she spoke to Anastassia.
"Where is Saly?"
Anastassia wasn''t particularly surprised by this question, after all, she knew how much they deeply cared for Saly and for Lucy to ask her that was expected, but anyone could see sad and regret were shown in Anastassia''s eyes as if it was her own fault.
"She was taken by that woman..... I''m sorry"
It was too late to apologize but she nevertheless did it, it was the only thing she could do right now, with her body in this state, unable to even walk, how could she help them?
"Taken? Where was she taken? And who is that woman?"
Lucy never ceased asking questions and she wanted to immediately rush to the place where Saly was taken to save her.
"She didn''t say the exact place... that woman only said ''Underworld'' "
"Underworld?"
Lucy was confused, she stared at Arthur but he too was as confused as her, it''s the first time he heard of this place.
Usually, when thinking of the Underworld, it''s like the hell, or the opposite of heaven, or in some cases a place where the dead resides.
After staying silent for a while, Arthur spoke again.
"What about Astrith? I''m sure he is not dead because if he was, then I could summon him again.."
"I don''t know either, the last time I saw him was when he followed that woman in some kind of a portal."
Lucy was gripping Arthur''s hand as thinking of Saly being alone in an unknown place made her even more worried.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
That kid just got out of hell when they took her with them, but it''s not been that long yet she was taken again, and this time it''s by an even more powerful person.
...
Arthur knew that he won''t find Saly easily, If he were to begin searching through the books and asking people, it would take some time, but the woman said she''ll be waiting, but for how much time? 1 day? 10 days? A month?
He wanted fast answers and the only one he could think of was...
As Lucy was thinking about Saly and Anastassia was resting on the bed while gritting her teeth, a skeleton appeared out of nowhere.
Arthur decided to ask Zodiak, he didn''t know if he would reply or even wake up, but he should at least try.
Anastassia stared at the skeleton with a puzzled expression, as for Lucy, she didn''t react as she was absentminded.
"Sir Zodiak, can you hear me?"
Honestly, Arthur didn''t know if this would even work, Zodiak only wakes up in dire situations and up until now, he woke up only 2 times and last time he said that he didn''t have much energy left, so the possibility of him waking up is quite slim, however, Arthur chose to bet on that slim chance.
Arthur called Zodiak many times, he repeated the calling over and over again until something finally occurred.
The skeleton rose by itself and like last time, a black robe covered its body.
"..*Sigh*brat, I may be dormant, but I can still hear what happened, if not for your annoying callings then I wouldn''t have woken up, every second I''m awake is consuming what''s left of my energy."
The lifeless eye-sockets of the skeleton beamed with bright red as a dark aura enveloped the small room.
Anastassia stared at Zodiak with wide open eyes, still not believing what just happened.
"Senior Zodiak, please forgive me, but I need your help in something.."
Arthur was not someone who begs for forgiveness like this, in fact, he never did it before, but Zodiak was a special case.
Not only has he gained Zodiak''s powers and treasures, this Senior also saved his life two times, he didn''t seem a bad guy like the myths said.
Zodiak waved his skeletal hand dismissively at Arthur while saying.
"I know I know, you want to ask about the underwork right? I''ve been with you this whole time so I know your attitude"
Zodiak sighed again before he continued speaking.
"Underworld, if that woman was talking about the same Underworld that I know, then I must tell you that going there right now is impossible for you. It''s a dangerous place, in fact, it''s one of the most dangerous Realms, so that woman must be at least in the God Realm. If I''m correct, then she went back to her world quickly because her powers in this Realm are restricted and if she stays too long then she''ll weaken permanently, this is also part of the reason that you don''t see any powerful being in the Lower Realms."
As he carefully listened to Zodiak, Arthur''s face turned ugly as he unconsciously clenched his fists. To think that Saly is at a place like this made him even more nervous.
Zodiak noticed how Arthur became even more anxious but he(Zodiak) didn''t say anything, he just kept staring for sometime before he resumed speaking, but this time, it''s with a softer tone.
"I know what you are thinking, brat. But I have to warn you that going there is simply suicide, you''ll die before even reaching that woman. For her to even be able to come here indicates that she has a powerful backing!"
Even though Arthur heard that he still couldn''t hold himself and just obediently stay here. Without hesitation, Arthur got on his knees and said.
"Senior Zodiak, I beg of you, send me and Lucy to there, we only need to way to go there and that''s it!"
Arthur''s action was followed by Lucy, who got on her knees too next to Arthur. Begging was always something not to be done easily, some people would rather die than beg or get on their knees and perhaps Lucy and Arthur would have never done that in the past.
But now it was different, they were begging for a chance to save Saly, there was clearly no other way to go to the Underworld with their current strength so Zodiak was their only way.
"...*Sigh*, Usually I only think rationally, even in situations like this, brat, sooner or later you''ll know that decisions like this, made from the heart are reckless and will only lead you to your death! If you want to save someone then you have to prepare..... It seems I''ve got no choice but to send you, however, you have to know that this will be the last time as all my energy would be spent to send you both, only if you get another portion of my powers will I be able to wake up again.."
The small room began to distort and twist itself and in just seconds, what seemed like a space rift which was about 2 meters was created.
"Go... you''ll appear in a random place in the Underworld, oh and one more thing, if you somehow manage to meet the woman, get her book! I can sense that it''s the other half of ''the book of the damned'', it''ll be a great help for you.... I hope we meet again, brat.."
As he said that, Zodiak''s body went back to Arthur''s storage, and the only thing left in the room were the three of them and the space rift.
Anastassia was still dumbfounded and couldn''t process everything, as for Lucy and Arthur, they were preparing to go into the space rift.
Before they entered, Arthur turned to look at Anastassia, who was sitting on the bed and said while waving his hand.
"Almost all your clan was wiped out, I''m really sorry about that, I don''t know if you want to stay here or not but It''ll be better if you go away since the other clans won''t stay still. You can head to our sect on the Western continent, these 3 will obey your orders and will take you to the sect if you want."
After he said that, Arthur and Lucy disappeared into the rift, the space rift vanished too leaving only Anastassia in the small room.
Just as the rift disappeared, a bottomless hole appeared in the room and seemed to stretch even outside of it and suddenly 2 huge bone dragons and a Death Knight which was riding on a 2m dark steed appeared out of the hole.
The bone dragons were a bit smaller and weaker than the one in the Western continent, Arthur didn''t know why but it seemed that the first bone dragon mutated and became much stronger.
As for these bone dragons, each was Lv650 and the Death Knight was at the Spirit Realm, it cost Arthur 700 Mental Power but it was worth it as it''ll at least protect Anastassia if something happened.
The small room was destroyed by the bone dragons and what was left was only a bed and a person sitting on it.
Anastassia finally snapped out of her daze and looked at those 3, after some time, she struggled to stand up and said with a low voice
"Let''s go..."
Chapter 80 : Underworld
When Arthur and Lucy stepped on that spatial portal, their surroundings blurred for a couple of seconds before they found themselves in some kind of a blurred tunnel.
It remained like that for a couple of minutes until they suddenly found themselves in a barren land.
The sky was gloomy and red, there were no clouds and the ground was black-ish with some strange rocks which Arthur couldn''t recognize.
All around them was just desolate lands, no trace of living beings, monsters or even vegetation, some would even describe it as hell.
Although Arthur came here with Lucy, he didn''t think things through and didn''t know what to do from here, he doesn''t know anything about the Underworld except a few things he read from Zodiak''s books.
For example, the one and only ruler of the underworld is some immortal individual who is known since ancient times to be extremely powerful and overbearing, his name was Hades.
It has been a long time since he was seen but no one believed that he died or was injured as he strength was unquestionable in the Underworld.
"This...."
Arthur didn''t notice it at first but when he tried to move, he found it a bit difficult, of course not to the point of being unable to move but it''s just that it was harder, he felt an invisible pressure which limited his movements.
Lucy also couldn''t move freely as the pressure affected her. They were both puzzled about this but it''s not like they can get rid of it. Arthur even tried using the Demonic Lightning inside his body and at the surroundings but to no avail, it didn''t seem to be a curse or anything similar.
As they were pondering about the cause of this pressure, Lucy said.
"It must be because it''s a higher-Realm compared to Astria."
It was the only plausible conclusion they could come up with at the time being. Astria, which was the world Arthur was reincarnated to, is known to be a lower-Realm and compared to the Underworld, which is a High-Realm.
After getting adjusted to this ''pressure'', they didn''t stay still but instead, they began flying north. It was just a hunch but Arthur felt it was the right direction, moreover, since they were blindly traveling, it was better going with a hunch than roaming the place randomly.
...
Albeit Arthur and Lucy''s current strength and their strong attacks, Arthur still felt anxious and worried as unlike Astria, this was a world full of strong people and people in the Immortal Realm may be everywhere whereas they can barely defeat one when they pair up.
He has Makaze and his various powerful magic, but even so, the difference between a Deity Realm and an Immortal Realm is just immense, just remembering the fight from back then made Arthur worry even more.
Arthur already took Makaze out of the storage ring and tightly held it in his hand as he prepared himself for any sudden attack from unknown enemies.
...
After about 15 minutes of flying through the barren lands, they finally encountered what seemed to be people.
It was actually a huge group of people, unlike Arthur and Lucy, they were slowly walking on the desolate ground and some of them looked horrifying.
They were actually zombie people, some didn''t have limbs and others didn''t have eyes, they wore tattered and dirty clothes and seemed to be following specific paths and not roaming aimlessly like the movies Arthur saw in his past life.
It was fortunate Arthur discovered them with his [Sixth Sense], which can stretch to a couple of kilometers. Arthur didn''t fly toward them immediately, first, he landed on the ground with Lucy and began walking toward the huge crowd of zombies.
Their appearances were covered, he wore black clothes and a somewhat huge hat that covered his facial features, it slightly resembled a bamboo hat, as for Lucy, she wore deep blue clothes and covered her head with a grey hood which was even more effective than the hat.
So, with Makaze sheathed at his waist and Lucy at his right, Arthur strolled toward the zombie army but the latter didn''t seem to notice them even when the two of them were a hundred or so meters from them.
Noticing that the zombies were ignoring them, the couple closed the distance slowly to not attract much attention.
When they were just 30 meters away, some shouting could be heard from the front of the crowd.
Unexpectedly, neither Arthur not Lucy could comprehend what was spoken, but that''s to be expected as they were in an entirely different world.
Arthur''s knowledge about languages would be endless, he could speak so much languages that he stopped counting after 100, although most of them were weird sounding languages belonging to beasts, it still counted as a proper language.
Beasts and animals do not talk and only speak in a rather simple manner such as screeching or roaring, due to possessing countless corpses, Arthur learned many languages.
Maybe they were talking a special language of the Underworld and to learn it, he just needs to possess one corpse but unfortunately, there were none.
"____________________?"
"________!"
"_____________"
Two people seemed to be talking at the front, Arthur didn''t dare spread his Sixth Sense from this close range, you never know what could be hiding amongst those zombies.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
He didn''t appraise all of them but most of them were at the Spirit Realm with some of them being at the Heavenly Realm!
It has to be known that at Astria, a single Spirit Realm individual can be considered a king if not a god, yet here, a bunch of dirty zombies was all without exception in the Spirit Realm.
Seeing this made him dread attracting attention even more. The crowd of zombies was consisted of at least a few thousand zombies, Arthur''s Sixth Sense only spread to the edges as he didn''t dare sense what was leading them but one could easily tell that it''s a powerful person.
...
Finally, Arthur and Lucy joined the zombie crowd, all of the zombies seemed to be walking silently with no reaction, but some were quite lively as they chatted among themselves with an unknown language.
Arthur and Lucy stuck together as they walked slowly with the crowd, they didn''t talk nor make any unnecessary movements and just silently followed.
The talking from a while ago subdued and the zombies didn''t seem to mind the shouting as if it was a casual thing.
Very soon, Arthur started seeing some zombie corpses on the ground, there wasn''t a lot, just a dozen or so but each one of them was headless with no trace of the head.
Normally, possessing a headless corpse would be useless but it may not be so if it were a zombie, or so thought Arthur.
He couldn''t go near a corpse and casually possess it, so he waited for a chance to stumble upon a corpse without deviating from the crowd and he finally did but he still couldn''t possess the corpse.
Even after that failure, Arthur still didn''t give up, he decided to try something risky, which was possessing a zombie.
Since his last evolution, he became able to possess living being without controlling their bodies, it should be enough to gain his stats and skills so Arthur decided to try that.
The problem was; would the zombie notice something amiss? Even if it was just a Spirit Realm zombie, it could still alert the crowd which would be a disaster.
Dealing with the crowd is an easy thing for Lucy alone, let alone adding Arthur, but if there are some dozen or so Deity Realm zombies or even an Immortal Zombie then it would only be suicide, even escaping may be a problem.
...
Arthur didn''t say anything to Lucy, he just grabbed her sleeves and lead her near a zombie which was close to them, he was more or less like the other zombies, with some injuries all over his body but no blood whatsoever, the clothes were stained and dirty and in a horrible state.
A stinking smell was coming out of each and every zombie but Lucy and Arthur still held it in and ignored it.
The zombie was just 2 meters from them so Arthur closed in and swiftly possessed him. The process of possessing was quite weird as his figure would suddenly become a small black whirlpool, the size of a finger and enters the target''s skin.
By the next second, notifications began popping up as Arthur invaded the zombie''s body.
You have successfully possessed Zombie #487157
Your stats have been increased, for more details please check your status window
You gained a new skill(passive) [Odor] : You emit a stinking smell but gain 10% additional defense against magical and physical attacks.
This can be toggled betwen ON/OFF
You gained a new skill(passive) [Underworld Language] : You can now speak/read/write Underworld Language
...
Arthur gained a couple other skills but they were weak compared to what he already had so he disregarded them, zombies seemed to rely on their strong physics to attack and defend coupled with that passive.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm :Deity
-
Strength
29.99m
Intelligence
29.99m
Agility
29.99m
Wisdom
29.99m
Vitality
29.99m
Dexterity
29.99m
-
Health
29.99m
Health Regen
19999/s
Mana
29.99m
Mana Regen
29999/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation : 10
Attack:
29.99/m
Defense:
29.99m
Magic defense :3.2m
Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??
Mental Power :943
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
75%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%
Light/holy:
5%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
He checked his but unfortunately, his stats didn''t change except the Magic Defense.
When Anastassia was unconscious, Arthur already used those 3 days to possess the corpses he stored from the beastmen army, he possessed more than 10,000 corpses but after his stats reached the 29.99 million, they stopped there.
The only stats that still increased is the Magic Defense, but it was pretty hard to increase it due to it only present in special existences.
His prowess did indeed increase by a lot but he still didn''t have a lot of confidence against people in the Immortal Realm.
Arthur didn''t continue possessing the corpses as it would be a waste, even the Mental Power ceased increasing which made him feel more hopeless, it was the only factor for him breaking through to the Immortal Realm and it was most likely the 1000th mark, it was close yet so far.
He still had a lot of corpses in his storage which can grant him skills but he already had so many skills that he didn''t need anymore, it would be useless as he wouldn''t use them.
From simple cooking or tailoring to blacksmithing or fishing, he had them all, some are even in Advanced but that''s only because he possessed too many people who had that specific skills.
As to why he never uses the simple sword skills like [Slash] or a speed skill [Rush] is because it''s useless at this stage.
His speed was faster than activating a skill like [Rush], in fact, it would only make him in a disadvantageous position, and [Slash] is a skill which creates a minimal slash made from sword energy but Arthur was a person who mastered swords and sword energy can be created at will, even with his fingers or legs.
His only way now was to find a solution and try to break through to the Immortal Realm as it was probably the only way to increase his stats too.
Chapter 81 : Malark
Arthur became able to understand what was happening.
After he possessed the zombie, he didn''t linger off inside it much longer. He left the body and appeared beside the walking Lucy.
The language of the Underworld sounded a bit weird at first but since he got the skill, it became much easier to understand the current situation.
It seems this crowd of zombies is going back to their territory which is also known as ''The Silent Graveyard'', not too much was said about this place except being the homeland of the undead including zombies, skeletons, ghouls and so on.
As for why there were scattered corpses of zombies here and there, it was because they were rebelling zombies.
It was quite simple if you follow the leader you live, and if you try to revolt you get instantly beheaded, pretty easy thing to grasp, however, some zombies would try run off or cause trouble which results in them dying.
The leader of this crowd is known as a Zombie General, Arthur also heard that he was a ''4th-grade Immortal''.
He didn''t get what that meant but one thing was certain, it''s that the leader was an Immortal, which made things even harder and worrying.
There were random conversations about fights and loots but these were not important so Arthur ignored them and focused on what''s important.
...
The crowd kept slowly marching non-stop, Zombie''s didn''t have endless Stamina like skeletons, however, they still had an immense reserve of it, so it can be considered endless in a way.
Even after walking for 4 days, there didn''t seem to be an end to those desolate lands.
Lucy and Arthur had infinite Stamina. As for eating, it really wasn''t anything necessary, someone like Arthur can spend years without eating because he just got too many skills and characteristics he got from the corpses he possessed that allowed him to leave without food.
Lucy was not like that, nevertheless, she could still hold on more or less 10 days, plus, it''s not like it''s prohibited to eat in this crowd.
Due to zombies not needing to eat, none of them bothered to do that, moreover, even if they wanted to, they can''t as there was no food unless they eat each other, there was nothing else to eat.
...
"We are now entering our territory, so we''ll move faster!"
Arthur heard someone talk with a very loud tone, just from the domineering presence and the power of the shout, he immediately guessed that it''s the General.
Although he didn''t know what he meant by moving faster, he didn''t pay it much heed as it was probably running or flying and doing this was beneficial to him and Lucy as it would make the travelling easier and faster.
Walking with this crowd is simply too slow and boring so a change of things is rather good.
As Arthur was pondering on the meaning of ''moving faster'', his eyes landed on a grave not too far away.
It was a crude looking grave with parts of it destroyed and not a couple of meters from it were other graves.
He didn''t focus too much on his surroundings as they were still in the desolate lands, however, there were some graves here and there.
It must''ve been because of this that the General decided to travel faster, these graves must be some kind of mark indicating the border of their territory.
...
When the zombies heard the General, all of them stopped walking and just stood there.
Not knowing what was happening, Arthur and Lucy also stopped and patiently waited.
Arthur couldn''t help but tense up for a bit, it was very unlikely that they were discovered, but anything can happen in a place like this.
He saw a figure flying high in the sky, it was a zombie, but its appearance was very different from the normal ones.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
This zombie was wearing a silver armor accompanied by an iron helmet and leg guards, there was also a 7 feet lance on his back.
He didn''t look threatening but he emitted an invisible pressure that made others fear him.
This was the zombie General who shouted at the crowd earlier. He looked down at the crowd of zombies, his eyes were full of contempt and superiority.
It was obvious that he didn''t value those zombies, they were a meat shield for him and a mean for him to earn some military achievements.
.....
With a wave of his hand, Malark, the Zombie General summoned a huge floating boat.
It was a very big boat, made from special black wood and reaching the skies, its frame completely shocked Lucy and Arthur as it was the first time they saw something like this.
This boat could probably hold thousands of people. The boat floated on the air while sometimes emitting some creaking sounds, it looked a bit old but that only made it look greater.
"Now line up and proceed in order toward the Spirit Boat!"
Malark said that then flew on top of the boat which was called a Spirit Boat, he sat on a corner and completely ignored the zombies, acting as if they never existed.
..
The zombies didn''t seem bothered or angry about his behavior, they followed his orders and made neat and quiet queues and proceeded one by one onto the Spirit Boat.
Arthur and Lucy did the same and joined a random queue and began waiting, but each time they advanced, Arthur felt more and more anxious, he really had a bad feeling about this but it was too late to back off now, if he diverted from the queues and escaped with Lucy, the Zombie General wouldn''t stay idle and would probably give chase.
Actually, Arthur had confidence in his speed, when running in a straight line, his lightning form was the best, but what if this Zombie General was stronger than the Immortal Demon they fought in the tournament? What if he catches up to them in a split second?
...
Time slowly passed and the pair were advancing in the queues until finally, it was their turn. Arthur and Lucy slowly flew to the ship while trying to not attract the General''s attention, who was sitting in a corner.
Contrary to Arthur''s expectations, nothing happened, the General didn''t even flinch or react when they flew to the boat, although their clothing and appearance were definitely weird, he either ignored them or viewed them as weaklings.
The boat was very big and although the zombie''s numbers were high, there were still a lot of empty areas, so Arthur and Lucy sat on a corner with few zombies.
The tension finally subdued and the boat began moving after a few more hours, the Spirit Boat could still hold more people, which was surprising but what shocked Arthur, even more, is its speed.
It was extremely fast, if it was compared to his speed, it was at the very least 4 or 5 times faster than him, so while feeling astonished, a sense of dread was also lingering in his heart.
If it''s only a Zombie General and he has this Spirit Boat, then what about Hades? Or the woman who took Saly..
....
Arthur being a parasite, there are things that are limited and undoable by him, for example, he can''t Lv up normal skills he got from corpses.
Even though his dark magic power is increased when his stats rise, the same thing for all skills, it''s still not the same as increasing a skill''s Lvl.
By Lvling up a skill too many times, you can master it and even create a magic unique and only used by you. Zodiak is a good example for this as he created the dark magic.
Arthur can''t do things like that, he can only lvl up his dark magic if he gets the other remaining power portions of Zodiak.
There is no skill except the Lost Magic that he can Lvl up. And even for the Lost Magic, only the one which creates weapons or clothes and so on can be upgraded by increasing his Mental Power.
It was an unfortunate thing but that''s how things are, he is already a cheat race, so if he could do that then he would become undefeatable.
Despite being unable to Lvl up skills, it was not the case for Qi related techniques. Be it a defense or offensive technique, or movement techniques, they can be upgraded by constant practice.
But the requirements are very hard and almost impossible to achieve. Take Arthur''s movement technique, for example, it''s already in the Spirit Realm but it was only due to possessing someone who already had it on that Realm if not, Arthur would need years to do that, if not decades.
Excluding all those techniques, there were simple but effective techniques such as meditation, which allowed one to absorb the Earth''s Qi and relax one''s mind.
By absorbing enough Earth Qi, one would be able to increase his strength and achieve greater results so this kind of techniques are used by everyone who practices in Qi.
Anastassia also told him that Mana and Qi are forms of energies that are commonly used and that her master told her that there is countless other forms and types of energies, some are dangerous and some are miraculous.
In this Underworld, Arthur could not feel any Qi even after mediating, besides calming his frustrated mind, he couldn''t absorb Qi, maybe not all worlds have Qi, Earth for example.
As for Mana, Arthur could feel it but compared to Astria, the amount of mana present in here is very meager.
He could also feel another form of energy, but he could not absorb it or manipulate it so he didn''t pay it much attention for the time being.
....
It has been a few hours since the boat started flying at high-speed, normally, nothing should have happened, however, while it was flying it suddenly crushed into something which resulted in tremors and a bit of destruction.
The shock was so strong that some of the Zombies flew out of the boat, it was fortunate that they could fly or they would have died from that fall as the height the Spirit Boat was flying at was extremely big.
Arthur was also startled, he shifted his gaze to inspect and see what happened and what faced him was 5 floating figures.
3 of them had a lizard appearance with a green skin and some scales in the legs and neck, as for the remaining two, they had bull faces and burly bodies, each held big hammers which were double their size.
They were grinning and intensely staring at the Zombie General.
"Malark! Come out! You dare steal the ''Yin Flower'' and slaughter our comrades and you want to run away just like that? Dream on!"
..............
Chapter 82 : Malark (2)
The 5 people looked angrily at Malark, ready to erupt at any second, but you could see arrogance and contempt lingering in their eyes.
They seemed to look down on Malark for some reason.
As for the Zombie General who was peacefully sitting on a corner, once the Spirit Boat crashed into that invisible barrier, he was already standing.
Although there were 5 opponents, and each one of them appeared strong, Malark didn''t seem startled or anxious.
Arthur already appraised Malark when he first saw him and he knew that he was a 4th-grade Immortal, he didn''t know what 4th Grade meant but he was certainly an Immortal.
When these 5 showed up, the first thing he did was appraise them to see their Realms and have a grasp about their strength.
Lizard Kimu (Monster Race) : Immortal 2nd Grade
Lizard Kima (Monster Race) : Immortal 1st Grade
Lizard Kimo (Monster Race) : Peak Deity
N¨¤khbu (Monster Race) : Peak Deity
Kashron (Monster Race) :Immortal 1st Grade
Arthur was not surprised by this, he expected them all to be Immortals, but two of them were at the peak of the Deity Realm which was a bit reassuring, however, that didn''t mean that the situation was good.
He didn''t know the difference between the grades, but he already guessed that the higher the grade, the more powerful you are.
And by seeing the calmness of Malark made Arthur even more sure of his guess.
...
Malark stared at the five them while saying
"The five of you are not my match, you''re simply courting death by coming right at me"
As he said that, he took out his lance and pointed it at the five of them, specifically at the Lizard Kimu, who was most likely the strongest among them.
"Just because you''re a 4th Grade Immortal you think you can hold all of us together? ha! Laughable"
Lizard Kimu retorted while sneering at Malark.
Of the five of them, four charged at Malark while the last one flew toward the Zombie army, clearly planning to finish it.
The one who headed toward the Zombie army was N¨¤khbu, since he was at the peak of Deity Realm, he would be mercilessly killed if he fought against Malark.
But surprisingly, the other Lizard, who was at the peak of Deity Realm too, didn''t rush at the army but went with the others.
Each of the four charging at Malark wielded a special weapon, the bull-like person had a gigantic hammer, as for the three lizards, they had similar swords which were covered with some green liquid.
The green liquid was spit by their mouths and it was a special poison which their race can use and produce.
The fight already began and explosions and energy waves began emitting from the several clashes.
Despite fighting 1v4, Malark completely suppressed them with his absolute strength, a single sweep sent a lizardman flying a hundred meters.
His prowess was just too great, one man and one lance fought marvelously against the enemies, albeit receiving attacks from all directions and sword slashes filled with poison and mystical laws, he managed to withstand them either by dodging or dissipating them with a counter-attack.
Arthur flew back with Lucy, getting away fromN¨¤khbu, who was fighting against thousands of normal zombies, despite him being more powerful than him, it was not that easy as there were some Heavenly Realm Zombies.
He slaughtered left and right and received some minor injuries, but those injuries were healing at a very fast pace.
The normal Zombies only used primitive attacks such as grabs, punches and kicks, most of the time it was useless, as for the ones in the Heavenly Realm, they would wait for a good opportunity to deal some damage before succumbing to their death.
Zombies don''t feel pain so it made them even more crazy in fights, which was a good thing as they would not be held back by the immense pain coming from having one''s limb chopped off or severely wounded.
Arthur hid in a corner while he watched the occurring fights and assessing their strength, he didn''t want to join them and doesn''t want to get involved in their fights as it was dangerous.
By seeing the main fight between Malark and the other four, he regained a bit of confidence, the four were powerful, but he was sure he could deal with them as they are not good at cooperating. Well, the three lizards have good synergy, but the bull creature only attacks randomly, even Anastassia had more accurate attacks.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
But the accuracy is not everything, a single strike from his can cause a lot of damage, well not to Arthur but Lucy can suffer a bit.
...
Malark''s might was unbelievable, his lance caused tremors and huge pits on the grounds despite the fight being at the sky, a simple sweep or thrust of his lance would produce energy whirlpools that strike his enemies.
Kashron, the bull-like monster was now in a bloody state, he was struck by Malark''s lance and it struck his chest which resulted in a heavy injury.
He was bleeding profusely and panting heavily, the exterior wound was nothing as it would heal after sometimes, but Malark''s attack hit his meridians.
The meridians, acupoints were the main thing for people in the Immortal Realms. Once someone breakthrough to the Immortal Realm, they construct energy meridians and a dantian which are very important.
They help the person absorb special kinds of energy and produce attacks from it, whether it''s skills or techniques, they would be much powerful if you used energy refined by the meridians and stored at the Dantian.
The attack of Malark managed to break through his defenses and injure his meridians which greatly reduced his fighting ability.
Malark stared at Kashon''s state and at the three lizards while sneering.
"A bunch of weaklings, you ambushed me and wanted to snatch back the ''Yin Flower'' with this pathetic strength?"
"You...."
One of the lizardmen was angered by Malark''s taunting words as he didn''t like being looked upon, but he was stopped by another lizardman.
"Third brother, don''t fall into his trap, he''s provoking us to make us attack him recklessly due to rage"
Kimu, the strongest lizardmen, held his little brother''s shoulder while saying that. Although they didn''t receive injuries similar to Kashon, they were still a bit injured and they felt a bit of fear from Malark.
Malark is known amongst the undead to be a strong and overwhelming individual, he''s one of the top generals and is respected by many.
They indeed overestimated their capabilities, but for someone with their strength and age, they always have a plan B and a precaution.
"We cannot beat him like this, we are in their territory, it won''t be long before reinforcements come, Malark is not stupid to not use a voice talisman to inform the Headquarters of our ambush, we must get done with this quickly!"
Lizard Kimu spoke with a low voice and told his brothers to use ''that''.
Malark stood there, without doing anything, he only needed to gain some time for the reinforcements to come, he could beat them but to kill them all would be too hard.
The more they waited the better it was, so why would he just go there and attack them.
...
N¨¤khbu was still fighting the zombies while laughing, he massacred half of the crowd of zombies and he was closing into Arthur and Lucy.
"Hahaha, these are free points, too easy too easy!!"
He laughed maniacally as he crushed yet another zombie with his hammer, he didn''t use any special attacks, just brute strength was enough as his Realm as already very high compared to these weaklings.
Simply showing up and engaging with both parties would be reckless and stupid, Arthur decided to help Malark, whether this zombie general would be thankful or attack him would be unknown but that''s the best choice for the time being.
"Lucy, you finish this idiot and I''ll help the Zombie General, alright?"
Lucy nodded as she didn''t question his intentions, she knew she couldn''t beat an Immortal Realm, even Arthur could barely fight equally against a first grade, as for second grade, it would be quite hard.
He had many attacks and trump cards such as the heavenly arrow and the ancient flames, but even those areinsufficient against Immortals.
People at the Immortal Realm had augmented physique and a special kind of energy is like a layer around their body, it constantly protects them.
The Heavenly Arrow Arthur used with Lucy against that demon back then managed to instantly kill him, however, that consumed way too much Mana, he would only be left with 20% if not less.
As for Lucy, she would be unable to fight if they used it, so that was the last trump card and they would only use it at a desperate situation.
As for now, they would wait until N¨¤khbu gets too close to finally strike, he would somehow attack the four above, and Lucy would deal with N¨¤khbu, with her ability, it should be enough.
...
The three lizards finally made a move, Lizard Kimu gritted his teeth as he took out a worn out yellow scroll from his storage ring.
It was crude looking and dirty, it didn''t look like anything special, but this scroll was a special item given to him by his superior and the cost of using it is heavy.
Malark, who was nonchalantly gazing at them was a bit alarmed, he was not afraid, however, he felt a bit of unease seeing that scroll, they were also generals of the monster race so seeing Kimu taking this scroll, it must be at least a Mystic Item.
Items in the Underworld and in the high-Realms in general and separated by different Realms too, just like people''s Strength.
It is Common, Spirit, Mystic, Heavenly, Godly, Mysterious with Common being the lowest and Mysterious being the highest.
People who had high enough position can have this kind of items, even Malark had one but that was only for emergencies and the cost of using it is no joke, it could save his life but there is a high chance of dropping an entire Realm if not becoming a cripple in some extreme cases.
Malark tightened his grip on his lance and stood in a defensive stance, ready to dodge or back off at any moment, he was not dumb enough to receive a straight attack from that scroll, assuming it''s really a Mystic Item.
What Malark didn''t know is that it''s actually not a Mystic Item, but a peak grade Spirit Item. Whether it''s a common or Spirit item or whatever it was, it was divided into 3 grades with 3rdgrade being the highest.
This yellow scroll was a 3rd grade Spirit Item, its prowess was equal to a Mystic item.
As Kimu took out the scroll, his two brothers spit two golden drops of blood which flew toward the scroll. As for Kimu, he spat two drops too, which resulted in 4 drops entering the scroll, then without hesitation, Kimu opened the scroll toward Malark, who had already backed off more than a thousand meters.
But it was already late by this time, an ancient rune was drawn on the yellow scroll and an immense scroll fell on Malark, completely sealing his movements and crushing his insides.
He felt like he was suppressed by a mountain, mouthful after mouthful of blood came out of his mouth as he retreated, but no matter how much he retreated, the pressure didn''t stop, instead, it increased by the second.
His face turned pale and he couldn''t fly anymore, his body was sent flying as he struck the ground like a meteorite, he seemed to be restrained by an invisible pressure that was crushing him, the sound of muscles snapping and bones cracking could be heard from miles away.
Just as this time, N¨¤khbu, who was enjoying his slaughter, finally arrived a couple of meter from Arthur and Lucy, who were supposedly sitting in a corner and not doing anything.
N¨¤khbu frowned for a second as he saw two weird zombies that were sitting and didn''t attack, but he didn''t pay it too much heed and struck down at both of them with his hammer, however, what he expected didn''t happen.
A terrifying flame tornado that appeared out of nowhere came clashing with his hammer, it was not even a clash as his hammer was pushed away, but that was not the end, a meteorite came from out of nowhere, it had some red liquid in it and it was surrounded by purple flames, it was just 10m in size, but the size it emitted is unimaginable.
N¨¤khbu''s face paled as he couldn''t even lift his hammer which was struck down by the flame tornado, all he could do is try to forcefully move his body to dodge but that was not going to happen as the mysterious enemy who suddenly attacked was already in front of him, launching yet another attack.......
Chapter 83 : Ill Skin you Alive
Lucy has prepared the meteorite for some time now. Since N¨¤khbu started closing in on her and Arthur, she prepared this attack, it was one of her strongest offensive attacks and is very deadly.
It had a combination of three attributes which are Earth, Magma, and her Purple Fire. It''s potential and destructive is unimaginable. She created this attack not too long ago, so her achievements and control over it is not perfect, it can even be considered lacking, however, that didn''t mean the attack was weak.
The only flaw in this attack was the time it takes to prepare it, but that was taken care of as she had more than enough time to do that.
The Meteorite came flying with incredible speed, the pressure and heat of the 10m huge rock were not to be underestimated.
Even N¨¤khbu, who was momentarily shocked by the sudden appearance of the fire tornado, was dumbstruck by this meteorite that came flying toward him.
His face paled as he was unable to lift his hammer to block. The fire tornado deflected his hammer at the perfect time so he couldn''t muster the energy to block or dodge.
The bull-like N¨¤khbu, who was at the peak of the Deity Realm, was fear-stricken by this deadly attack, he sensed death approaching and he was already at its door.
As he was facing a desperate situation, N¨¤khbu spat a golden drop of blood which instantly transformed into a transparent and golden shield, faced against the incoming meteorite.
He expended some of his precious Soul Essence to resist the incoming strike, but even that was useless as the golden shield was shattered after resisting the meteorite for no more than 5 seconds.
Lucy had already backed off some distance as she coldly watched N¨¤khbu getting struck by her Meteorite.
Blood splattered and bones shattered as his body was smashed into the Spirit Boat, however, the meteorite didn''t stop as it continued drilling into the Spirit Boat for a couple of meters before it subdued.
What layed in the huge pit made by the meteorite was a purple flaming rock and some blood at its bottom.
This sudden explosion caused energy waves all over its surroundings, it even caught the attention of Malark and the others.
Malark was busy resisting the pressure from the yellow scroll, once he saw the explosion and the pit on the boat, his face became ugly as this was his precious Spirit Boat and to repair it or buy a new one is not a simple matter.
Unfortunately, he was busy defending against the scroll or else he would have ripped apart the one who damaged his Spirit Boat.
As for the three lizards and the injured Kashron shifted their gaze to the Spirit Boat, only to see the flaming rock and the blood under it.
Kashron, who was a close friend of N¨¤khbu, was enraged as he sensed his friend''s life force under the flaming rock, it was diminishing bit by bit, if nothing was done then he would die in a minute or so.
He ignored the fight with Malark and flew toward the Spirit Boat with red eyes, him and N¨¤khbu and very close as they fought countless battles together so they could be considered brothers.
Due to him being heavily injured by Malark, his flying speed was not that fast for someone at the Immortal Realm, but nevertheless, he used his energy to heal his meridians slowly as he charged at the Spirit Boat to save his friend.
The three lizards didn''t pay much attention to N¨¤khbu, if he died then it''s his fault for being weak. They were allies but not friends, after glancing at the flaming rock for a second, Kimu resumed exerting the yellow scroll''s pressure on Malark.
"Getting done by these zombie weaklings, truly pathetic"
Lizard Kimu sneered as he saw the blood under the rock and N¨¤khbu life force decreasing.
...
Kashron was flying toward the flaming rock when all of a sudden, he felt a cold sweat down his spines, a sudden chill covered his body.
Before he could comprehend what happened, a shadow appeared in front of him and with lightning speed, a dark katana was trusted toward his chest, precisely at his beating heart.
The attack was fast and decisive, and before Kashron could react, his heart was already penetrated by the sharp sword, what followed was some deadly energy that went through all his injured meridians and bones and caused tremors and strong vibrations that broke all of his bones and muscles.
Kashron never expected such a sudden attack, coupled with his heavy injured he received from Malark, this strike killed him instantly.
Actually, Kashron already died when Makaze struck his heart, however, Arthur used his green lightning to cripple his body just in case, better safe than sorry, he was dealing with an Immortal so he must make sure his opponent is one hundred percent dead.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
As he sensed the enemy''s death, Arthur immediately transformed into a small black whirlpool as he entered Kashron''s body.
You have successfully possessed Kashron (Monster Race)
...
Arthur dismissed all the messages about the skills at it was not the time to check them, then he continued slowly flying toward the flaming rock.
For a parasite like him, despite possessing an already crippled body, it made no difference, as long as the body is whole, then whenever he possessed him, it will regenerate instantly.
Arthur did not know anything about Immortal Energy or the meridians since he didn''t break through the Immortal Realm, they can''t use that energy or use the meridians to make his techniques even more powerful.
The reason he continued flying toward the flaming rock is to not attract too much attention, he would act for a bit then strike the lizards when they have lowered their guard.
He calmly approached N¨¤khbu, who was buried under the rock, when he was next to the rock, its purple flames disappeared and what was left was only a dark red rock which had some steam and magma coming out of it.
Arthur pushed the rock and looked at what was under it.
There layed a bloodied corpse, there were no signs of the left arm and some of the waist.
N¨¤khbu was barely breathing as he was slowly dying, his wounds were too serious. The meteorite was just too strong, despite using his Soul Essence, it didn''t hold for even a minute.
When the bloodshot eyes of N¨¤khbu landed on Kashron''s figure, he felt happy yet a bit embarrassed. He was really thankful to have a close friend such as Kashron.
However, before he could muster the strength to talk, Kashron pointed at the spot between his eyebrows and said with a low voice that only N¨¤khbu could hear.
"Die.."
A white beam of lightning came out of Arthur''s head and penetrated N¨¤khbu''s skull, killing him on the spot.
The Godly Lightning burst N¨¤khbu''s head as brain matter and flesh exploded out of N¨¤khbu''s head, it splattered on the surroundings and some of it even landed on Arthur.
Arthur was not going to let an enemy live, he came here to not attract attention and to finish this person.
After killing N¨¤khbu, Arthur glanced at the not far away from Lucy and slowly nodded, he already planned everything with her earlier.
...
The lizard trio was still dealing with Malark, who was still being suppressed by the scroll, his face was filled with disbelief as he panted heavily, he couldn''t advance no matter what he did, but this was enough, he just needed to buy some time.
As the three lizards were injecting their energy to the yellow scroll, an enraged Kashron flew toward them, he was holding a small-sized person who had a hood on his face.
Kashron was holding this person by the back of his neck, he had a ruthless face and bloodshot eyes as he stared at this person.
"Oh? Kashron, did N¨¤khbu die? And who is that person?"
Kimu, who was the strongest out of them, asked Kashron with a frown, although he already knew the answer, he still wanted to ask, he wanted to humiliate him(Kashron). They were allies but Kimu always believed that his blood lineage is better than Kashron and the others, moreover, he always looked down on their way of doing things.
People like Kashron were ruthless and reckless, they would not think before acting which made them the first to die.
"He''s dead!!"
Lizard Kima snickered as he heard that and said
"Tsk tsk! To think he died while fighting a bunch of weaklings... is he really a general?"
Kashron''s face turned even uglier as he retorted while yelling loudly
"You!! Kima, don''t take things too far! N¨¤khbu was killed only because he was ambushed by this bastard"
As Kashron said that, he tightened his grip on his hostage''s neck as if causing more pain and suffering.
Lizard Kima ignored Kashron, he glanced at the hooded person''s figure for a second before he resumed injecting his energy to the scroll.
He already knew this hooded-man''s strength was at the Peak of the Deity Realm, but he still believed that he was an ant, a weakling who is not worth paying attention to.
Kashron slowly floated near the trio''s location, he continued cursing at his hostage as if he was angry.
"Wait till we go back! Hehe, I''ll make you wish you were dead!! I''ll skin you alive you little bastard!"
The act continued, Arthur, who was possessing Kashron''s body, managed to approach the trio without alerting them.
Once he was 10 meters away from them, he stopped and faced Malark, who was struggling against the immense pressure.
He loosened his grip on the hostage, who was also Lucy, all he did was acting, he of course never tightened his grip on her neck or whatever was acted out.
With a quiet tap on her back, he indicated that he will act out. Arthur never looked down at Lucy, her strength was almost equal to his and in some aspects, she overtook him by a long margin, the reason he brought her as a hostage is to help him take care of these three with a sneak attack.
After he readied himself, Arthur began channeling the Godly Lightning to strike from above, it takes a dozen of seconds to strike so he patiently waited for the most perfect moment.
Before just a second that he thick white streak of lightning struck, Arthur used [Faster than Death] and teleported behind the lizard trio with Lucy.
Makaze was already when he appeared behind them, at the same time, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky, the sound was deafening at stricken Lizard Kimu.
Arthur was not hoping to kill this second-grade Immortal, he just needed to paralyze him for a split second so he could finish the other two.
With his Peak Mastery in Sword, Dark magic embodied around the sharp sword edges and [Dark Burst], Arthur slashed at Kima''s neck, aiming to behead him, as for Lucy, she punched with all of her strength.
Lucy''s strength was leagues above someone at the Peak of the Deity Realm, coupled with the purple fire, the punch was not something that should be looked upon.
This sudden turn of events was not left unnoticed by the trio, however, they never expected someone to suddenly appear behind them, not only that but that someone is Kashron, who was supposed to be their ally.
"Wha..."
Before Lizard Kima was able to react, Makaze sliced his head off, it was a clean slash and there was no resistance whatsoever from his neck.
The Lizard''s head flew out of his body, blood splattered on his two brothers, who were dumbfounded by what just happened.
Kimu was still numb from the lightning, although it didn''t kill him, it still caused a lot of damage, he used his Soul Essence not long ago, so he was weakened and was caught off guard so he couldn''t protect from the strike.
He coughed a mouthful of blood as his control with the yellow scroll began weakening.
As for the last Lizard, he received Lucy''s fire punch just right at his abdomen, his intestines, organs, and bones shattered, the purple fire burned his flesh and scales and his body was sent flying hundreds of meters.
Chapter 84 : Blooming Rose
By the time Kimo was sent flying, Lizard Kimu regained control of his body, the numbness is gone, so, without hesitation, he spat a golden drop of blood and retreated with incredible speed away from Arthur and Lucy.
However, Arthur was not planning to let him flee, Kimu''s speed was very fast due to him using his Soul Essence and some mysterious techniques, but Arthur was very fast too.
With his movement techniques, Petal Footsteps and his high Agility stats, his speed was only slightly slower than Kimu.
He was chasing the lizard and slashing with Makaze, long and black slash arcs were produced, this powerful sword energy was even faster than Kimu, no matter how fast he was, he couldn''t be faster than Arthur''s slashes.
Not only that, Arthur was closing on Kimu while using dark magic to follow up with countless dark spears.
Lizard Kimu, who just breathed a sigh of relief as he backed away from Kashron, was dumbstricken when he saw this slashes and the enemy''s bombardment of weird dark spears.
Kashron was never this strong, he also didn''t use this weird magic, moreover, he was a hammer user but this Kashron clearly had a long black sword.
Arthur slashed exactly two times, these two black arc slashes which contained his sword energy, struck Kimu, but the Lizard used the scroll in his hands to shift the pressure from Malark to the incoming attacks.
He was powering the scroll by himself, which made it ten times more difficult, not only that, by shifting the pressure, Malark was now free so it made things even more dangerous.
The pressure clashed with these two slashes and the countless dark spears, although it was an invisible pressure, you could see Arthur''s attacks facing some barrier which stopped them, their momentum was being lost every second and some dark spears even shattered.
Seeing that he blocked these attacks, Kimu was relieved but by the next second, Kashron who was flying at him, suddenly disappeared from his view and appeared behind him.
A chill ran down his spines as he felt strong killing intent aimed at his back.
With his sword in hand, Arthur slashed with his sword at the lizard''s neck, he wanted to behead him just like the last one.
However, just as Makaze was going to cut off Kimu''s head, a violet liquid came out from his scales situated at his neck, this liquid was aimed exactly at Kashron chest.
Arthur didn''t know what this liquid, but he was absolutely sure that it was not a good thing, he sensed danger from it, it was most likely the lizard''s trump card.
Without hesitating for even a split second, Arthur left Kashron''s body and appeared next to it.
Once the violet liquid touched Kashron''s body, the body started melting anddeteriorating, it was a gory and horrible sight.
Makaze flew from Kashron''s hand to Arthur''s, then Arthur used [Faster than death] to appear a distance away from Kimu, who was overjoyed to have successfully landed his most deadly poison, but it came at a cost.
This poison was his life-saving trump card, it was too deadly and could even heavily injure Malark if not kill him, but the cost of using it was no laughing matter.
He dropped to the Immortal 1st grade, but at least he managed to get rid of Kashron.
Kimu didn''t dare celebrate his victory yet, he shifted his gaze to Malark, but the latter was already flying at him with lightning speed.
Lizard Kimu just used a heavy price to kill Kashron, he needed a couple of seconds to recuperate and use the scroll, but unfortunately for him, he was not given this time.
A meteorite even bigger than previous one was flying at him from above, its speed was faster than Malark, but was even worse was that this meteorite had dark red flames instead of purple flames.
The pressure he felt from the meteorite made him freeze, facing this desperate situation, he didn''t know what to do, even if he tried dodging, it would result in his death.
Kimu could only lift the scroll and inject all the energy he could muster to activate it, not only that, he spit 2 golden drops of Soul essence which integrated with scroll to strengthen it more, but even with that, he still felt the pressure of the incoming attack.
Malark, who was flying toward Kimu was alarmed from the huge meteorite which was double the size of the previous one, he stopped in his tracks and gazed at it. He didn''t dare attack Kimu as he feared the flaming rock very much, he could feel its head even from a long distance.
The yellow scroll''s pressure faced the meteorite, trying to stop it. The meteorite wasunstoppable as it faced the invisible pressure, the scroll''s power only managed to slow it for a bit.
Kimu used this time to flee, he abandoned the scroll which was now floating by itself and facing the meteorite.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
But what faced him was a black-clothed person whit a big bamboo hat and the previous hostage of Kashron.
Despite seeing them blocking his escape route, he charged straight at them, after all, facing them was better than facing the meteorite.
Arthur already expected this outcome, dark strings, which were almost invisible were shot from his fingertips and wrapped around Kimu.
These strings were very tight and strong, their speed was incredible as in a matter of seconds, they restricted Kimu, who was already weakened from Arthur''s attack and using his Soul Essence too much.
In fact, Soul Essence is the most important thing for people at the Immortal Realm and above, if one used Soul Essence drops, they can never recover it no matter how much time passes, moreover, if one expands all his Soul Essence, he would most definitely die.
Kimu used too much of his Soul Essence and his Realm was too weak, so how could he resist these threads.
"Yo-You!!!..."
He gazed at Arthur and Lucy with hatred, he was unwilling to die here, but no matter how he struggled, he couldn''t free himself.
The scroll, which was not powered by Kimu anymore, lost its effect and fell from the sky, as for the meteorite, it resumed its fast momentum and finally struck the immobile Kimu, but that was not the end.
In a matter of seconds, Kimu was crushed and burned to ashes by the dark red flames, the meteorite kept falling from the sky at fast speed until it struck the ground.
Boom!!
An earth-shattering, ear deafening explosion happened when the meteorite struck the ground, dark flames burned the ground and a huge pit was made from the explosion, it was a terrifying sight.
A very large dust cloud was formed on its surroundings, blocking the view, but one could feel energy ripples all over the place.
What followed that was a gigantic blood red rose made by the ancient flames, it rose very high up in the sky and illuminated the gloomy sky. Dark red flames raged as the rose emitted a hellish heat, the desolate ground was turning black and the zombies'' corpses which fell from the Spirit Boat were turned into black ashes.
Lucy stood beside Arthur as she gazed at the dark red flaming rose, she couldn''t help but mutter
"..Beautiful..."
It was attacked which combined her meteorite attack and Arthur''s ancient flames, its might was not something Kimu could withstand, not only that, after the meteorite struck its target, a dark red rose would bloom and cause even more destruction, it would burn everything in existence, including the energy of this world.
In the Underworld, far away from where Arthur and Lucy were, there was a dark-haired middle-aged man with a good build, he was sitting cross-legged and had his eyes closed.
It has been countless years since he moved or even opened his eyes, however, at this very moment, the middle-aged man opened his eyes and said with a very deep voice.
"...This pressure, the heat... it isunforgettable but it''s still too weak from the original... how come it is here?"
The man stroked his chin as he wasreminiscing about the past. After some time, he sighed and said
"... I can''t even perceive its user..."
Then, as if he felt something, a look of surprise appeared on his normally emotionless face as he continued muttering
"Zodiak... how come I feel your magic too.... old friend, where are you...."
Malark was shocked by the power of the meteorite, he could not help but unconsciously tremble at this mind-numbing sight.
He only snapped out of his daze when he saw two individuals slowly fly toward him.
It was the black-clothed man with a big bamboo hat and the supposedly ''hostage'' of Kashron.
He didn''t know if they were enemies or allies, they indeed helped him but they could be aiming for the ''Yin Flower'' and only got rid of the enemies to deal with him after.
Arthur noticed Malark''s anxiousness, so he didn''t waste time and said
"Senior, do not worry, we mean no harm to you or your people"
Malark relaxed a bit when he heard that, but he dared not put down his lance.
"W-Who are you?"
"We joined your zombie army not too long ago and marched with it, we are a couple who were cultivating in seclusion for a long time, we happened to meet with the zombie crowd and decided to join."
Malark stayed silent as he stared at Arthur and Lucy, after some time, his face turned from caution to disbelief and fear.
"Y...You...you''re both at the peak of the Deity Realm? How is that possible!"
It was indeed shocking to see two people at the peak of the Deity Realm deal with those lizards, who were at the Immortal Realm, normally, it should be impossible.
"Senior, we cultivate a special technique that increases our attacks if we join forces, the cultivation divides our Realms and make it harder to breakthrough but with each breakthrough, our strength increases by leaps and bounds"
Arthur fabricated some lies and spoke with an honest tone, he only explained to not cause Malark to be too suspicious.
He wanted to befriend Malark to learn more about the Underworld and the woman who abducted Saly.
"Oh... So it''s like that... but even so... for the attacks to be so powerful........ ."
The reason it sounded so believable is because the world is so big, many techniques and cultivation manuals are mysterious, so it is not surprising to see one which divides the Realms of its users but make them stronger than the ones at the same Realm as them.
Despite somewhat believing them, Malark kept a cautious attitude, their strength is not just ''decent'', it''s too damn terrifying.
That meteorite attack could have killed him too.
What didn''t know was that meteorite attack was also one of Arthur and Lucy''s trump card, of course, it could not be compared to the one used at the tournament, but this one expended a lot of Mana and Mental power too.
Especially for Lucy as she used it two times in a row without resting, she prepared the second one in just 20 seconds whereas she needs 2 or 3 minutes to normally make one, so she was currently depleted of her Mana.
Moreover, the Mana in this world is not like Astria, the quantity is meager so it made the recovery a bit slower albeit her having very high Mana recovery.
Silent ruled over the place as none of the parties spoke, so Arthur decided to cut this silence and spoke again.
"Senior, as I said, we were cultivating at seclusion and very rarely go outside to roam, if you don''t mind, we would like to accompany to ask you about the recent matters of the Underworld and perhaps become friends at the future"
Arthur was too direct as he stated his intentions without much hesitation, he had a strong feeling that being honest toward Malark would be better than making up lies, although he just lied about the cultivation bull-shittery a second ago.
Malark was the calm type, but he appeared to be a person who regards friendship highly and is not like some crafty people.
"Hahaha, friend, I like your attitude, stating your intention straight out! How can I be uncourteous to someone saved my life!"
It was a bit exaggerating to say that Arthur saved his life as the trio lizard couldn''t possibly kill Malark, but what astonished Arthur even more than that is the very sudden change in attitude.
It just too abrupt for him to keep up, he expected Malark to be suspicious or even reject him, he never would have predicted that this Zombie General would do a 180-degree change in attitude when he said that....
Chapter 85 : The Silent Graveyard
Not long after the meteorite explosion occurred, several beams appeared in the sky.
These beams were the reinforcements Malark was expecting, however, they arrived a bit too late for the show.
When these people arrived, the first thing that caught their attention is the still burning rose, although its size decreased, the pressure and heat it emitted were still present, coupled with the destruction it caused, it''s no wonder it caught their eyes.
They were precisely 3 people, or rather, it was 2 people and one.. skeleton.
The first two wore a battle armor and were twins, as for the skeleton, it just wore a long grey robe and held a long black staff in its hands.
After dazing for a couple of second at the sight, the trio snapped out of it and shifted their gaze toward Malark, who was still chatting with Arthur.
"Malark, what''s going on here!"
One of the two twins, which was apparently a zombie too, questioned Malark as they came to help him yet here he is happily chatting as if nothing happened.
Malark was with Lucy and Arthur on his Spirit Boat, although it was a bit damaged, he didn''t get angry too much on them, his attitude change was still shocking Arthur.
The Zombie General turned his head in surprise as he someone calling out to him. It has been only a few minutes yet he already forgot about the previous fight, Arthur and Lucy''s existence shocked him and left an unforgettable imprint on his mind, especially their powerful attacks.
"Oh? Velice?"
Only now did Malark remember he called for reinforcement at the previous fight.
"Don''t show us that look, didn''t you crush the sound talisman?"
Velice said that as he glanced at the flaming red rose, he and the other two purposely stayed away from it as they sensed danger.
...
Arthur, who was on the side, stared at them as appraised them when they were in range as the appraise skill can''t be done from a very long distance.
Velice (Undead) : Immortal 2nd grade
Karnal (Undead) : Immortal 2nd grade
O''lex (Soul) : Immortal 3rd grade
''Soul?''
Arthur was a bit confused over this ''Soul'' Race, it was clearly a skeleton and it should be regarded as an undead, so why does it say Soul?
...
After a short conversation, it was apparent that Malark held a higher position than the other three, although they were a bit angry they come for nothing, they didn''t dare shout or blame him.
They boarded the Spirit Boat and proceeded deeper into the Silent Graveyard. The two zombie generals sat a corner and mediated, as for the skeleton, O''lex was scribbling some notes on a shabby looking book.
Arthur got to knew a lot of things of Malark, this Zombie General was really not bad.
It seemed that he looked down on weaklings, especially the ones who do not try to get stronger, that is why he never held the simple and lazy zombies in his eyes.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
"The Underworld is divided into 3 Territories, the first is at the south, it''s called ''The Abyss Valley''and is ruled by a single entity, its called the ''Void Behemoth'', it is the biggest territory in the underworld and no one dares to recklessly invade it as there are other strong beasts lurking there.
At the North-West, there is the ''Monster Archipelago'', it''s ruled by the monster race. As for the North-East, it is the home of the Undead, also known as ''The Silent Graveyard'', it''s ruled by the Lich king Aborak.
The only remaining area is the middle of the three territories, it was a rectangle area, small than the others but it is ruled by a mysterious alliance which does not join the fights of the three territories.
It is also not attacked by neither of the three factions as it had some strong individuals"
Malark explained thoroughly to Arthur, not missing any details. He had long since believed that Arthur and Lucy were really a couple who were in seclusion for a long time.
In fact, Malark was 500 years old and it was considered very young in the Underworld. If he heard Arthur''s age, he would surely spit blood.
Moreover, despite Malark being at the Immortal 4th grade, he was considered weak compared to the undead elders or the Lich King.
There was a rumor that the Lich King had already broken through the God Realm, but none confirmed it yet.
"Oh, so it''s like that, then Senior Malark, could you explain the grading system in the Immortal Realm? Since I and my comrade are still at the Deity Realm, we do not know much about the higher Realm except that between the Deity and Immortal Realm, there is a huge power-up."
The pale-faced Malark nodded continuously at Arthur and resumed explaining, he seemed ratherenthusiastic about this matter.
There was always competition about the generals, so very rarely would he sit like this and spend time chatting.
"It''s actually pretty simple, after breaking through to the Immortal Realm, it will be different from the Deity Realm, The Immortal Realm and above are divided into 9 grade with the first being the lowest. Each breakthrough to a higher grade would make much stronger. for example, two people at the Immortal 3rd grade willnecessarily not be able to defeat me, a 4th-grade Immortal"
Arthur slowly nodded as he listened carefully, his guess about the grade was correct, however, the 9 grades thing was a new thing to him.
"I see.. thank you for your help, Senior"
"Hahaha, no problem no problem, always glad to help my life savior, hahaha"
Malark laughed heartily while the other three stayed silent and threw Arthur and Lucy a couple of suspicious gazes.
Although Malark said that they saved him, these three were still suspicious about Arthur and Lucy''s identities.
If they came to help, why would they cover their appearances, anyone would think they are suspicious! It''s just that Malark is either stupid or doesn''t particularly care. But if they knew that the flaming rose from earlier and the destruction was caused by them, they would surely freak out.
Malark didn''t give too many details, he just casually said that they helped him kill the enemies, he didn''t even say what Realm the enemies were so they just assumed the enemies to be at most 1st Grade Immortals.
The trip back didn''t more than 2 days, the Spirit Boat arrived at an enormous city, there was no end to it.
There were black walls at its edges, they had a height of a whopping 40 meters, buildings with various sizes were scattered all around the city.
It was bustling with people, Arthur saw zombies, ghouls and even death knights which had a black aura around them.
The Spirit Boat landed outside of the city, they proceeded at feet from then on as it was prohibited for them to fly inside the city.
"No one is allowed to fly inside the city unless they are important figures such as Commanders, Elders and so on.."
As he noticed Arthur confusion, Malark kept explaining everything to Arthur.
"These walls are made from the Void Stone, which is a very rare material and is able to withstand attacks from any Immortal Realm head on without being damaged... moreover, this wall creates a defensive barrier around the whole city, protecting it from sudden enemy attacks"
When Arthur heard that the wall can withstand any attack from an Immortal Realm, he wanted to test his heavenly Arrow with Lucy and see the results.
After the previous fight, he regained a lot of confidence. It appeared that he underestimated himself because he could barely beat that Immortal demon from before, but now his stats were different from the past so his prowess is obviously better too.
If it is 5th or 6th-grade Immortal, there is a big chance to defeat them with Lucy, as for higher, he didn''t know.
He never thought or imagined the strength of a Divine Realm individual as it was too dreadful, just thinking about the woman at the God Realm which Zodiak sealed in that orb made Arthur feel amazed by Zodiak''s strength.
He sealed her so easily, which made Arthur curious about his Realm. He never heard of a Realm higher than the God Realm, perhaps his strength is not enough to know that..
He still didn''t reach the Immortal Realm yet he wants to know what''s beyond the God Realm, it seemed rather funny.
Chapter 86 : Untitled
After they entered the city, Malark proposed to Arthur and Lucy to stay the army''s headquarters, however, his offer was rejected as Arthur wanted to tour the city and learn more about Saly''s location.
From what he already knew, Saly was most likely at the mysterious place in the middle of the three factions and that''s because the woman who abducted her is not a monster or an undead, so the only plausible place for Saly to be, is there.
"Don''t forget, if you need anything, just go to the Army''s headquarter at the West of the city and call for my name"
As Malark said that, he handed a badge to Arthur, it was a silver badge with a skull engraved on it, apparently, it''s their symbol.
After they bid farewell, Lucy and Arthur began roaming the undead city. It was full of undead left and right, with all kinds of shops and weird places.
The most shocking thing is all of the people Arthur saw, the lowest one was Lv700, There were also a lot of Spirit, Heavenly or Deity Realm people in the city.
Arthur even spotted numerous Immortals, they didn''t look like an undead and were probably strangers traveling and just came here to visit or ''sightsee''.
There was even an old man who was an 8th-grade Immortal. He had a long red horn and a black-ish skin. From his appearance, one could tell he came from the Monster Race.
It was easy for them to find a place to temporarily stay at with Arthur''s comprehension of the Underworld''s language.
There were several inns in the city as it was extremely huge, it spanned dozens of miles, so it was hard for them to explore it.
Moreover, they were not planning to do so, their only purpose in coming to this world is to retrieve Saly and possibly go back to Astria.
They chose a random inn and entered, it was a five-story building made from unknown grey stones, it didn''t have a bad appearance and compared to the inns in Astria, this one can be considered top class.
The problem was the currency, Arthur did not ask Malark about the currency because it would be too idiotic, no matter if he was in seclusion for decades or centuries, it was basic knowledge to know the currency used here.
He didn''t know if Zodiak has been here or not, his storage contained so many things he couldn''t use or didn''t know its use.
The couple didn''t immediately head to an inn, they observed the shops to see the currency used and in just minutes, it was obvious that the currency was some form of a stone.
It was small, the size of a thumb and had a red color.
Arthur rampaged through his storage ring, which used to belong to Zodiak, he tried finding similar red stones.
The search took a couple of minutes as the storage was extremely big, he didn''t search all of it, he stopped when he stumbled upon a clump of red stones.
They were all sizes, there was another batch of blue and violet stones too. He ignored the other two and checked the red ones.
They had three sizes, one the size of a thumb which had the lowest numbers, the other was a size bigger and the last one was the size of a fist.
Seeing this gem resembling stones, Arthur remembered that when he found Zodiak''s tomb, he found a chest full of gems too.
He brought his consciousness toward the chest and checked its contents, they were indeed stones with various color, however, these ones were different from the previous ones.
These stones or rather gems had a cluster in them and were all the size of a fist. Be it black, red, white or yellow, there was all color, moreover, the big chest was full of it.
There was also another chest full of unknown material, it looked like gold, it was full of coins with a unique symbol on them, he still didn''t know what the contents of these chests were exactly.
Arthur checked the red stones one more time to ascertain that they were the same as the ones used in this world. After he was one hundred percent sure, he split all the red stones and put them in storage rings.
He handed Lucy some storage rings which small and big red stones and kept some for himself.
In fact, storage rings cannot be put into other storage rings, however, this law didn''t apply on Zodiak''s storage as it could hold countless storage rings.
Whenever they retrieved the rings of their dead enemies, it was always put on Arthur''s storage as it was more convenient.
He wanted to hand the large storage ring to Lucy, but it was unfortunate as she can''t use black mana so she can''t open it.
As they walked toward the inn''s reception desk, a ghoul female welcomed them with warm smiles as she didn''t mind their appearances.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
"Welcome to the Misty Inn, how could I help you?"
The female displayed a very warm and friendly attitude, but that''s to be expected for someone who works as a receptionist.
"We want to book a room"
The receptionist continued smiling as she respectfully replied
"Honoured customers, would you like a normal or VIP room?"
Hearing this, Arthur frowned as this concept of VIP room was not present in Astria, there was a larger room which cost more, but there was no such thing as VIP rooms for rich customers, moreover, in Astria, no nobles or wealthy people would stay at an inn.
"VIP?"
"Hai! VIP rooms have denser Nether Energy, they are also more comfortable and bigger than normal rooms, what''s more is that...."
The receptionist kept babbling about the advantages of VIP room for a couple of minutes, as for Arthur, he was curious about this Nether Energy..
"....The cost of the VIP room is 20 Red Spirit Stones per day, as for the normal rooms, it''s 3 Red Spirit Stones per day."
"We''ll take the VIP room then..."
Arthur casually replied, in fact from the very beginning he decided to choose it, all the babbling was a bit needless.
The female receptionist was ecstatic as she saw that her 5 minutes non-stop talking paid off, she accepted the 20 Red Spirit Stones from Arthur and guided the customers to their room.
....
The room was indeed very wide, it had luxurious furniture and a large bed. Although people at the higher-Realms don''t need to sleep, it doesn''t mean that they can''t.
Some people prefer sleeping every day instead of mediating, for them, it made them calmer and in a better mood.
For Arthur and Lucy, sleeping is needless yet they still do it, nothing is better than sleeping in each other''s embrace.
When they entered the room, Arthur didn''t feel much, as for the dense Nether Energy, he couldn''t feel it or absorb it.
However, Lucy sensed the thick Nether Energy, when they were outside, she could feel an unknown energy but she didn''t pay it much heed, however, now that the energy is thicked, her body became unconsciously absorbing it like a whirlpool.
"This.... it''s absorbing it on its own?"
Lucy was confused as she felt her strength rising at an alarming pace and the unknown Nether Energy entering her body at a very fast pace.
She sat cross-legged on the comfortable bed and began assisting her body in absorbing even more Nether Energy.
As for Arthur, he sat next to her and stayed silent, he knew she was most likely breaking through, there was a very meager amount of Mana present, but it was noticeable by Arthur, he could clearly feel it being absorbed by Lucy, she was like a bottomless pit.
Nether Energy invaded her meridians, slowly opening them, her strength never ceased rising.
When all her meridians were fully opened, they started madly absorbing the Nether Energy, which made it much easier for Lucy. The Meridians are meant to absorb the Energy and transform it into attacks or barriers or anything the host wishes.
Lucy''s facial features matured by a bit, it was almostunnoticeable, but her height also increased by a few centimeters.
Parts of her body changed and some areas which were a still growing became fully developed.
Her womanly charm increased and her skin became softer and smoother.
After an hour, sweat began coming out of her body, she was like a sponge filled with water. She absorbed too much Nether Energy, her body felt like it would explode at any given second.
Lucy patiently guided the energy to her a specific place, it was a bit under her stomach, that''s where the Dantian is formed.
The energy began compressing, it was extremely painful, but Lucy didn''t stop, if she failed this process then she would most likely not breakthrough and would instead receive a backlash.
One more hour passed, Lucy''s body was soaking wet and her face was red, at her Dantian area, a very small ice blue orb was formed from the repeated compression of the Nether Energy.
It was when the blue orb was formed did Lucy stop madly compressing the Nether Energy.
She finally broke through to Immortal Realm. She could feel her body surging with power, her meridians no longer absorbed Mana and only focused on the Nether Energy as it was better.
If she didn''t focus and absorb the energy herself, her meridians would still absorb but at a slower pace.
"Lucy, Congratulations!"
Arthur gave her a warm hug as he appraised her and saw that she was already at the Immortal Realm. Her prowess sky-rocketed and she would probably not lose if she faced Malark alone!
She wrapped her arms around Arthur and rested on her head on his chest as smiled.
"Hehe, thank you.... You''ll breakthrough very soon too, I can feel it... then we''ll go take Saly back.."
Arthur nodded at her as he embraced, they rested for a couple of hours to calm their minds, too much happened since they came, and her breakthrough was just the beginning.
TITLE :NONE
Level:
????
RACE :
Half Demon/ ??????
-
Realm :Immortal 1st Grade
-
Strength
45m
Intelligence
60m
Agility
45m
Wisdom
60m
Vitality
45m
Dexterity
60m
-
Health
34m
Health Regen
30000/s
Nether Energy
40m
Nether Energy Regen
35000/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
--
Attack:
75m
Defense:
39.9m
Magic defense :9.9m
Enigma abilities :Ice Spirit
Mental Power :1008
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
85%
Water:
5%
Wind:
0%
Earth:
25%
Light/holy:
-50%
Magma
60%
Lightning
5%
Ice
100%
Chapter 87 : Treasure Pavillion
The next day, Lucy and Arthur headed out of the inn, there were so many things to do and staying on the room all day won''t help them solve the problems or neither find the location of Saly.
Each second passes, the two of them became more anxious and worried about their daughter Saly, she was an important existence for them.
The destination they were head to is called ''The Treasure Pavillon'', Malark informed Arthur about that place and told him that it''s a very famous place to exchange, sell or buy weapons or treasures.
This Treasure pavilion is merely a branch from a more famous power, and its expansion is not only in the Underworld, what''s more, the pavilion located here and in other cities cannot compare to the ones in the higher-Realms.
Although the Underworld is considered a Higher-Realm, it is in fact kind of a prison, no one can get out of it unless they have a very high-Realm, not even people at the God-Realm can escape this world.
The Underworld is very vast and chaotic, it is not a planet but sealed world, there were numerous rumors about the reasons it was sealed, but none of them were confirmed yet.
The two of them exited the inn and walked to the Treasure Pavillon. Since the city was extremely big and flying was prohibited, they had to walk, they could also teleport multiple times but they would rather walk as it was much better moreover, teleportation is still a big deal even at a place like this, especially a skill like [Faster than Death] which let him teleport without any cost and unlimited usage.
The problem with [Faster than Death] in a fight, is that you have to focus on a location then teleport, just focusing would take more or less a second, and this second can change many things in a fight between two individuals at a very high-realm.
It was not a fight between two Mortal Realm people, their speed would be slow and exchange would last a couple of seconds, comparing it to the fight of powerhouses is a joke.
Back when Lucy broke through to the Immortal Realm and with the apparition of the ice blue orb in her Dantian, she subconsciously transformed whether in power of appearance.
Her body became more developed and she unconsciously emitted a bit of frost energy, it was quite ironic knowing that she practices fire oriented magic.
Moreover, after checking her Status Window a second time, she discovered that her resistance to Ice is 100% and she could use Ice magic proficiently, it was a strange occurrence which surprised both of them.
Not only was she able to use Ice magic, her Ice magic was a bit special in itself. Arthur could also use Ice magic, but he only had Medium ranked Ice magic, as for Lucy, she had Peak Ranked Ice magic, just like Arthur''s sword mastery, adding to that is that her Ice is a bit special.
The color seemed pure and the coldness of her Ice is at another Level. The only conclusion she could think of is her origins.
She only knew she was a half-demon, so there is a strong chance that one of her parents or ancestors was good at Ice magic so she inherited it, there was no other explanation other than that.
If one broke through to the Immortal Realm, they would not gain such things as her, it was preposterous.
There was also one more thing that was quite surprising for both of them, it was the system. The status window, the blue notifications that pop up when something happens to them, these things do not exist in this world.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
One''s strength is judged based on their overall prowess, for example, if one becomes able to fly, then they are most likely at the Spirit Realm. If he could condense a normal protective barrier around one''s body, then he''s at the Heavenly Realm and so on.
The Immortal Realm is like a threshold is the higher-Realms, if you become an Immortal then you can be considered a proper cultivator. All the Realms below that are disregard by the strong individual as the difference between them is meager.
A young genius would easily be able to defeat a Deity Realm while being at the Heavenly Realm, however, to defeat an Immortal Realm while being at the Deity Realm is nonsense.
Arthur is able to do that because of his cheat like race, stealing stats is an outrageous thing, moreover, Lucy gains 80% of his stats, so it is understandable that she is powerful too and even if she does not gain 80% of his stats, she would still be powerful, not to this degree of course, but she would have been at the Spirit Realm at the very least.
...
It took them about an hour to arrive at their destination, it was a very big building, it had 5 floors and lookedluxurious. It was made from some unknown red stone that made it look even more eye-catching, with a golden door and a notice at the front.
This building could be considered top of the crop, from what Arthur has seen since he was reincarnated, this was by far the best building he saw, except the huge castles and manors of course.
Next, to the golden door, there was a glass wall which exposed several weapons and treasures, they looked grandiose and alluring to the eye, many passersby would stop for a couple of seconds to assess these.
As for Arthur and Lucy? They had the appraise skill, nothing can escape their eyes, whether it''s a fake item or not, they will immediately know it.
What was displayed was a couple of treasures, there were sets of equipment, an armor, gloves, and boots, they were purple in color and had a tiger symbol inscribed on them.
There was a price under them, with Arthur''s comprehension of the Underworld knowledge, he managed to comprehend what the weird symbols are written on the wooden plate under the equipment meant.
However, even if he didn''t do that, a simply appraise could tell him what that was about, at times like this, the legendary appraise skill could not be more useful, especially for Lucy, who had yet to understand or learn the language.
Agony Spirit (Full set) : 2,500 Medium Red Spirit Stones.
There was also a big brown halberd, it had some blood stains on it and even through the glass, Arthur could feel the stench of blood coming out of it.
Blood Halberd of Massacre : 15,000 Medium Red Spirit Stones.
The prices vary, but from the displayed items, the halberd was by far the most expensive one. Arthur didn''t have as many Red Stones as Gold, but the amount he had was by no means meager. Buying these treasures is not a problem, but the reason he came here was not for that.
Be it halberds, axes or even swords, he had tons of them in his storage, some are weak and others cannot used by him.
Lucy tested some of the unknown treasures and weapons he had on his storage, not all of them could be used but there was a bunch that worked when injecting Nether Energy on them.
Their prowess was amazing, but there are some strange treasures that they didn''t know their uses, so they ignored them for the time being.
The two of them came here today to look for weapons, precisely sabers.
Lucy wanted to buy a weapon for her to practice with. She liked sabers the most and from all the sabers they had on the storage, not one suited her tastes.
She was a fire-oriented mage, but now the Ice magic was added, it was on equal footing with the Magma and Purple Fire, if not stronger, she wanted to get a good saber that works with both attributes.
It was practically impossible to find something like this, as Fire and Ice are considered opposites and even using them both in combat would only result in hurting the meridians.
This simple concept that was known by everybody, didn''t apply on Lucy, it was true that she couldn''t attack using both attributes, but she could channel both of them and attacksuccessively with them.
After looking at the exposed items and not finding interest in any, the duo finally entered the huge building.
The interior was just as good as the exterior. There were many guests in the big room, a red carpet was laid on all the floor and there were luxurious stairs at the end of the room leading to the next floor.
Standing next to the staircase were 2 men, they had tall build and muscular bodies, they were most likely security of some kind.
Arthur and Lucy were not in a hurry, they started checking the items displayed on the first floor first, what didn''t catch the interest of many may be a hidden treasure to them, who can use appraise...
Chapter 88 : The Indignant Young-Woman
Arthur followed Lucy as she browsed through the treasures. The first floor contained low-grade weapons and items, so there wasn''t anything interesting that caught their eyes.
The floor had a lot of customers, some were even lookinglongingly at these treasures. The prices of these treasures were considered low for Arthur, but for normal cultivators, it was an astronomical price, moreover, each and every one of those items was good.
They were all common ranked items, however, albeit the low rank, their prowess is by no means meager. Even if an Immortal used the axe displayed outside, which is a 3rd-grade Common item, the destruction and power he could do with that are unimaginable.
After looking around for a couple of minutes and finding nothing worth their attention, Lucy and Arthur decided to head to the second floor.
As they headed toward the staircase, the two tall men standing near it stopped the couple and said
"Stop! To proceed, you need to pay 100 Red Spirit Stones"
Hearing this, Arthur frowned as he stared at the man who spoke.
''Maybe because of our appearance, he wants to take advantage of us and gain some money? Or..''
"Pay?..."
Seeing the confusion of Arthur, the man explained
"The second floor is not allowed to anyone, you can''t proceed until you prove you have enough money to go there, it''s not a place to sightsee after all"
It was kind of sad that in most worlds, rich people are treated way better than poor people, but there was nothing he could do, with a wave of his hand, Arthur threw the Spirit Red Stones to the tall man then he proceeded upwards with Lucy.
Even if they ended up not buying anything, it was certain that they would not give back those 100 Spirit Red Stones and it''s not like Arthur minded that, it''s just that he didn''t like this way of doing things.
...
The second floor was another level compared to the first one, with less people and more treasures, there were some decorations and ancient paintings that added to the luxury and demeanor.
The number of people here was less than half the people on the first floor.
When they entered the second floor, a young female walked toward the duo while showing a bright smile.
She had a voluptuous body and wore tight purple clothes that showed her two mountain picks and her curves. Although people at a high-Realm are mostly not interested in things like woman and sex. There is some who do, by properly dressing this young woman and making her serve the customers, it would make the atmosphere more lively and in some rare or extreme cases, the girls would ''serve'' the customers at a price.
Although it''s a treasure pavilion if the girls are willing, and with a reasonable price, anything would work.
"Welcome to the second floor of our Treasure Pavillon, customers, please inform me if you are looking for something specific so I can help you.."
Despite her exceptional beauty and charm, Arthur didn''t stare too much, first because Lucy would quickly get jealous and ditch him for a day or two, and second because it was neither the place or time for that, finding Saly and saving her is what''s important at the moment.
He waved his hand nonchalantly and replied to the young woman
"No need, we are just looking around."
The young woman''s smile twitched for a second before it returned to its brightness, Arthur''s reply was a bit unexpected so she was a bit taken aback, however, she regained her attitude in a split second and merely nodded.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
What she thought was completely different to what she showed, for a customer to not want any help and paying a whopping 100 Spirit Red Stones.
After years of experience, the young woman knew that Arthur''s partner was a woman. Seeing that her charm didn''t affect him, it was obvious that he either was not interested in women or the person next to him was his partner.
Lucy''s head was covered with the hood, however, her clothing didn''t completely hide her womanly features, especially after her breakthrough.
Whether it''s her waist, hips or chest area, they all have grown significantly and you could easily guess that she''s a woman with a glance.
It''s not like she didn''t have any womanly charm before, but the difference from before is apparent and exposed even more of her beauty.
Soul Instrument (Spirit 2th Grade); Effect : Could be used to strengthen one''s soul and heal it if it''s injured
Cost : 25 Medium Spirit Red Stones
There was a box which had a green feather inside of it, Arthur cast appraise on it to see its effects and it greatly interested him.
This was not for him obviously, but for Lucy. He had [The Sacred Soul Steal], and his soul could be considered strong now.
Since he devoured "Abhuva''s Soul", the soul of the Ma clan''s personal dungeon, he was not able to devour any other souls.
Inside his consciousness, the blob of light, which was his soul, became brighter and had its size increased by more than three times.
There were still chains enveloping it and the mysterious Orb of the Fallen Overgods floating above his soul.
"I''ll buy this."
Lucy calmly said that as she gestured to the young woman from earlier, she was standing not far away and gazing at both of them. When she saw Lucy waving at her, she walked toward her with her usual bright smile.
"How may I help you, dear customer?"
Lucy said that as she pointed toward the box with the green feather inside of it.
Kara glanced at the red box and the green feather and was a bit shocked, this Soul Instrument is not the most expensive item on this floor, but its price is by no means small.
25 Medium Spirit Red Stones is an astronomical price for her. She didn''t focus on cultivation, so she was only at the middle-stages of the Spirit Realm, she has been working here for a couple of years and the rich people she encountered were countless.
No emotions were showed on eyes or facial features, with an earnest nod, Kara picked the red box and held it in her hand.
Lucy did not appear she was done purchasing, so Kara obediently held the red box and followed the couple as they roamed the second floor.
Fruit of corruption (Spirit 3th Grade) ; effect : Eating this would make the user gain 200% Strength increase and 100% Dexterity increase for 1 minute, after that the user would gain a debuff which decreases all his stats by 20% for 5 minutes.
Cost : 10 Medium Spirit Red Stones.
The fruit had the shape of a strawberry and was jet black with some grey gas emitting from it. After a bit of pondering, Arthur decided not to buy it. As for Lucy, she doesn''t like items like these, especially those which give a debuff.
She can''t use appraise, but since she could see anything Arthur appraises, nothing escaped from her. Arthur appraised every single item to see its effect.
Most of them were average with some having a special effect, but besides the Soul Instrument, nothing caught Lucy''s attention.
Kara silently followed them, she started explaining the item effects for them non-stop, until she was out of breath yet they seemed like they were ignoring him completely.
Albeit being ignored, she continued doing her job and thoroughly explained what was good and what was average.
Finally, she got some attention from Arthur as he turned to look at her. She was prepared to answer his question no matter what it was but what she heard next made her mind go blank for a second
"Emm, do we need to pay to go the third floor too?"
Kara''s job was to try to sell these treasures and appeal to the customers, such dumb questions are not asked to her but to the two tall men standing in the staircases leading to the third floor.
''Kara, calm down, calm down, it''s your job to answer every question!''
"Yes, dear customer, to proceed to the next floor, you need to pay 100 Medium Spirit Red Stones to prove that yo..."
Before she could finish, she was interrupted by Arthur, who withdrew a bunch of middle-sized red stones and stuffed them in her hands, which were already busy holding the red box.
Some of the stones even fell on the floor, but Arthur ignored that and headed to the next floor.
''You...... why was I dumb enough to try and help them!''
Kara was uncertain about what to do. She called the two tall men and instructed them to collect the red stones, then she hastily followed the duo whilst pouting and stomping on the floor.
She disliked dealing with these kinds of customers the most, she could only keep the anger inside of her and customers and gods for them and they are obliged to obey them and serve them or else she would be fired or severely punished.
"Dear customers, please wait!"
Chapter 89 : The Mysterious Man
The third floor of the Treasure Pavillon was even emptier than the second. In Arthur''s view, he could only see 8 people, and mostof them are at the Immortal Realm with two being at the Divine Realm!
The one at the Divine Realm was a scholarly middle-aged man, with azure clothes that were made from expensive silk and jade. The strange thing is that when Arthur appraised him, something weird happened.
Not only was his race not show, there was the word ''Debuff'' displayed after his Realm, Arthur was puzzled about this, but he didn''t probe any further. He did not want to do a reckless thing and cause trouble, he came here along with Lucy to buy some stuff, not to create unnecessary troubles, especially with such individual.
This azure-clothed man had an attendant next to him, she already held 2 red boxes and patiently waited for the man to finish his tour and pick whatever he liked. Despite being at the Divine Realm, he didn''t emanate any strong pressure, quite the opposite, in fact, he looked like a mortal scholar. He had a peaceful expression on his face as he was contemplating a treasure piece in front of him.
The other seven people also had some kind of special attire and none of them looked like any normal cultivator.
Some youth even had an old man beside him and that old man was a 3rd Grade Divine Realm. Although he was weaker than the scholar who was a 9th Grade Divine realm.
Apart from the scholarly man who threw Arthur and Lucy some glances, the others completely ignored their presence, which suited them way better than attracting unwanted attention.
The third floor didn''t contain as many treasures as the other previous floor, however, these treasures were covered with a glass and the price and effect were under them, it was much neater and properly prepared, unlike the chunk of treasures in the first floor.
The prices here were sky-high and it was not even the last floor, this building had 5 floors and they were only at the third yet the treasures here were not bad.
Arthur was not sure if all the floors sell treasures, but it was most likely the case and of course if he wants to proceed further, he needs more Spirit Red Stones, well, it''s not like he was out of them, as long as Lucy still didn''t find anything that suited her, they''ll look at all the present treasures.
Apocalypse Gem ; effect : if it is enchanted with a proper Mystic ranked weapon then the weapon will be able to display Lightning and will deal double the damage.
Cost : 175 Medium Spirit Red Stones
Lucy was not interested in this, however, this finger sized purple gem was caught Arthur''s attention as he could use lightning freely. The good point is not the lightning effect but that it doubles the damage of the weapon!
Since he didn''t breakthrough yet, Arthur needed much more damage. With his current ability, dealing with a 5th Grade Immortal may not be a problem, but compared to Lucy, he was far off.
Before she broke through, Lucy was able to handle 1st or 2nd Grade Immortals, but now that she broke through, with her outrageous physical strength and her Purple Fire and the new Ice magic, her power increased by leaps and bounds.
She most likely could handle even an 8th Grade Immortal. She still didn''t test her new strength on any opponent, but just by her stats, one could say she''s very strong.
If we assume that a 1st Grade Immortal have an average stats of 10 million, and that''s only an assumption, then Lucy could be considered a 6th Grade Immortal.
However, it was not the case, Mental Power is what counts, increasing it makes the person more powerful. It''s not that increasing the stats is useless, but increasing Mental Power is faster for the cultivators here, even for Lucy.
Just by absorbing Nether Energy for no more than an hour, Lucy increased her Mental Power by 40.
Hence it is obvious that people would lean toward absorbing Nether Energy to increase their Mental Power as gaining million of stats is way difficult.
Due to Arthur''s race, he can''t absorb Nether Energy to increase his Mental Power, the only way to do so is by possessing countless people and even with that it only increases by a meager amount.
There was also the possibility of him being unable to absorb Nether Energy even after breaking through to the Immortal Realm, if that was the case then he''s totally screwed as it would take ages to increase his Mental Power.
"We''ll take this too"
Arthur spoke to Kara, who was standing a couple of meters behind them. She was still holding the red box and waiting for his next purchases.
Since she couldn''t hold everything in her hand, Kara stuffed the two red boxes in a normal storage ring and resumed following them.
The gem was pretty useful to Arthur, he doesn''t know how to enchant, neither does he have an enchantment skill, but it was not difficult to find an enchanter in this city, after all, enchanting is a major thing in this world and higher-Realms.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
His only weapon, Makaze, is a black katana that grows with him, so he never needed to change it, if there is a way to increase its potential by a fair bit, then why not do so?
Makaze was a Mystic ranked weapon, it was a 2nd Grade. It''s to be expected and it grows with him and whenever his stats are increased, it''s sharpness and power also rises.
It is an extremely sharp and deadly weapon, one can easily deduce that by the way it easily cut through the Immortal Lizard''s neck.
As for the armor and so on, he didn''t rely much on them. For Arthur, wearing heavy armor would slow him down, what''s more, he found them pretty uncomfortable.
He just wears Zodiak''s black robe in fights as it increased Mana Regeneration and it is comfortable to wear. He had a guess that once he breaks through, the robe would change too and it was most likely the case.
Zodiak, a mighty figure like him would not use such trashy robe when he was at such a high Realm, there must be a secret behind the robe or else why would he still be wearing it when he died?
Energy Recovering Pill(Spirit 3rd Grade) : effect ; Recover some of the user''s Nether Energy at a faster pace for a short period of time
Stock : 300
Cost : 1 Medium Spirit Red Stones per pill
''So there were such things?''
Arthur assessed the pill as it was not bad at all. For some reason, Zodiak didn''t have a single pill in his storage, so he presumed that the pills are useless and there is no need to use them anylonger.
Furthermore, alchemy is pretty much non-existent in Astria. He possessed a person that gave him basic Alchemy skills but he didn''t have the time or materials to try them.
Some of the materials were present in Zodiak''s storage but some were not which made him give up on that idea.
Thinking about Alchemy, Arthur also had that mysterious Soul Flame, which was a grey flame, it was not harmful and apparently, it could only be used to refine and make pills.
"We''ll take all the stock of these pills too"
Lucy was the one said that, in desperate fights, especially versus strong opponents, such pills are needed to recover some of their Nether Energy.
Nether Energy was not like Stamina and it was certainly not endless, it also depleted faster than Mana so Lucy didn''t hesitate over buying these.
"A-all of them?"
Kara was taken aback as some people would take a stock of 10 or even 50 but not the whole stock! It was quite wasteful!
Even if they needed such pills for fights, it was crazy to buy them all. One pill would be more than enough to allow them to recover in a fight, it''s not like they are going to war to buy them all.
Albeit her surprise, Kara went to the reception desk at the third floor and talked with another attendant.
The other attendant remained calm despite what was told to her, she was working on this floor for ages so seeing a couple who was willing to buy the whole stock is not surprising.
Compared to her, Kara was still shocked, she didn''t come to the third floor very often, in fact, it was only her second time here as she was not allowed to come here, she was only able to come because she ''became'' the customer''s personal attendant.
There was a rule in this Treasure Pavillon and it stated that once you become a customer''s person attendant then you must serve him until he steps out of the building, no matter where he goes, the attendant must follow him and help him buy whatever he wishes, and in some cases, explain to him about the effects of certain mysterious treasures.
...
The attendant left to prepare the pills for Lucy and Arthur, as for Kara, she returned to their side and continued doing her ''job''.
One more reason Arthur wanted to come here is to purchase a Spirit Boat, the highest quality there is!
Simply traveling without a Spirit Boat is way slower, so with their immense fortune, is would be a waste not to buy a good Spirit Boat.
They once saw the speed of Malark''s Spirit Boat and it left a strong impression on them.
"Oh come on! It''s just the fourth Volume, can''t you lower the price a bit more?"
As they were browsing through the displayed treasures, Arthur and co heard someone speak with a rather loud and annoyed tone.
It was actually the Peak Grade young man from earlier who had an old man next to him. He was talking to an attendant while pointing at a yellow book.
The attendant remained calm despite being yelled at, the authority and power of the Treasure Pavillon far exceeded the power of the factions here, the branch in here is just one of many in this Underworld and the headquarters of this powerful force is not even in this world.
"Young master Yun, you are a VIP customer at our Treasure Pavillon and have a 20% discount on anything you purchase, we cannot reduce the price any further, it is the rules."
The attendant spoke respectfully, but you could sense a hint of contempt in her words. She didn''t show it as she maintained an expressionless face, but she actually looked down on people like him. He already had enough money to buy it even without the discount yet this bastard kept nagging about lowering the price.
"Rules or whatnot, I already packed 12 things to buy! 12! So what if you lowered the price a bit more, it''s not like you''ll lose anything.."
The young master named Yun kept insisting as he acted displeased and was about to burst.
"Hmpf! If it''s like that, then I mist as well not buy anything, since the treatment is this bad in here..."
As he said that, Yun looked at the attendant but his face turned ugly when he noticed that she was neither angry nor worried from his words, it''s not like nomatter what he said, it would still be ineffective.
"Young master Yun, it is up to you if you want to buy from our Treasure Pavillon or not, please lower your voice as you are disturbing other customers."
The tone of the attendant changed as she reprimanded him and kept her calm attitude, she was not the slightest bit afraid as she knew that if he dared do anything, the higher-ups of the Treasure Pavillon would not stay still.
When she mentioned the other customers, Yun looked around and stared at the 7 other customers with disdain and extreme arrogance, it''s like he was looking down on ants, his gaze rested on the scholarly man for a second before he snorted and retorted
"It''s just a few bumpkins with little money to spare so they wanted to come here to try to show off, hmpf!"
...
Not far away from young master Yun, Arthur was looking at this youth with a strange glint in his eyes. He didn''t like what Yun said neither did he have a good impression of him, but he still remained silent as it was not the time to be provoked by such a useless and arrogant person.
He turned toward Kara and said with a low voice
"That person, who is he?"
Before Kara could reply to Arthur, a calm voice rang out near Arthur''s ears.
"He''s the Young master of the Peng family from the Monster Race."
It was the azure clothed man who said that, he walked near Lucy and Arthur and spoke with a friendly tone.
His steps were elegant and there was some mysteriousness in them, with a warm smile displayed on his face, he walked next to the couple.
Chapter 90 : Extreme Yin Body
Azure Bai, walked next to the duo as he showed a friendly face. When they entered the third floor, he threw a couple of curious glances at them as their attire was a bit weird.
All the other customers were wearing luxurious clothes, only Lucy and Arthur had their normal clothes that covered their appearances.
"Senior, you are?"
Arthur kept a respectful tone as he spoke to the Azure-clothed man. He knew this man was at the peak of the Divine Realm, so he didn''t want to offend him or cause a dispute with him.
Bai didn''t seem to mind Arthur''s respectful attitude, he waved his hand nonchalantly and replied.
"Ahh, forgive me, I didn''t introduce myself, I''m Bai Lingyue but they call me Azure Bai, pleased to meet you two..."
As he said that, his gaze focused on Lucy for some time. Unlike the other gazes, he wasn''t having strange and obscene thoughts, but he seemed like he was probing her.
"I''m Arthur and this is Lucy"
Arthur introduced himself to the scholarly man and didn''t lie about their names as there was no need to.
Bai Lingyue nodded to Arthur as he continued staring at Lucy.
"I''ve traveled to numerous Realms and Worlds, yet it is very rare to find an ''Extreme Yin Body'' in a world such as this one...."
Hearing this, Arthur frowned and Lucy unconsciously tilted her head a bit as she couldn''t understand what he was talking about, however, one thing was for sure, he was talking about her.
Noticing their puzzled actions, Bai Lingyue was a bit shocked at first then he smirked and said
"I thought it wasn intentional but perhaps it is an accident?"
Azure Bai kept muttering to himself as if he was presuming somethings on his own about Lucy''s body.
"Senior Bai, what is an ''Extreme Yin Body'' ?"
This term is completely new to Arthur and Lucy, and since it was related to them, more specifically Lucy, he had to ask about it.
"An Extreme Yin Body is a special kind of a body that allows the host of the body to have a peerless body that increases his talent and potential of growth. It is very rare, just like the Extreme Yang Body, and it is only obtained from special bloodlines or other unique methods such as cultivating in a dense Yin environment since birth. Seeing that your friend, Lucy, has an Extreme Yin Body, I presumed that she used one of the special methods but it appears I was wrong. But this makes things even more surprising because as far as I know, there is no family or sect here that focuses on Yin energy or techniques, much less producing people who have this body."
Lucy was a bit taken aback when she heard that. She knew that this Extreme Yin Body was not cultivated by her but just earned from the bloodline, however, what made it even more complicated is that she doesn''t know her own origins.
"Senior Bai, you said it can also be earned from bloodlines, how does that work?"
Lucy was the one who questioned him this time, she was eager to know a bit of information about her origins, and this man in front of her may be able to provide some hints.
Azure Bai''s eye flashed for a second as he continued smirking and replied to her with another thorough explanation.
"To earn the Extreme Yin Body from a bloodline is even more difficult, as even if you were from a family or heritage that focuses on Yin cultivation techniques, you would have a very low chance of obtaining the body through the bloodline. Not only do you need to stimulate the bloodline to be able to awaken it, you have to first have an extremely pure bloodline and be at a sufficient Realm to bear through the pain of the transformation of your body, moreover, the Yin body obtained through the bloodline is much better than any other."
Lucy furrowed her brows as she carefully listened to Bai Lingyue, it was a bit complicated but what astonished her is she didn''t feel any pain nor did she stimulate her bloodline, so how the hell does she have an Extreme Yin Body?
''Perhaps he is mistaking?''
This possibility crossed Lucy''s mind but was soon extinguished as it was impossible he was wrong. First, he was at the peak of the Divine Realm, so his strength and knowledge far exceeded hers and Arthur''s, second, her Extreme Yin Body can be proven by the fact that she can use Ice magic very easily when she broke through to the Immortal Realm.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Arthur couldn''t feel it because he was soul linked with her, but Lucy''s body emitted some kind of chilliness and coldness.
Lucy could use the Ice magic because she has an Extreme Yin Body, but if we''re talking about the Yin energy, it isn''t only Ice, actually, Ice could be considered the very basic stuff that her special body could do.
"Senior Bai, please excuse us for this many questions"
Azure Bai didn''t seem to mind answering their questions, in fact, he appeared to be pleased with the two of them for some reason.
"No problem, if you have any more questions, do not hold back."
Arthur understood Lucy the most and immediately understood why she asked that, so he followed her question with another one.
"I thank Senior Bai for his kindness, then does Senior Bai know of any faction that focuses on Yin techniques?"
"If we''re talking about Yin related cultivation techniques, there are countless factions, you must know that the Universe is very big so there must be some that even I do not know of, however, as far as I can remember, if we''re talking about strong factions then there is one. It''s called ''The Yin Lotus Sect'' it is part of theMilky Alliance, situated at theLocal Milky Globe"
''Yin Lotus Sect? Milky Alliance? Local Milky Globe?''
All of these names were new to the duo, especially for Lucy, who never left Astria prior to this.
Despite the presence of some clues from their questions, Bai Lingyue didn''t question them about their identity or origins, he just answered them truthfully without leaving any details.
Azure Bai rested his chin on his hand as if he was pondering about something, then after spending a dozen of seconds in this pose, he resumed talking.
"Leaving Miss Lucy aside, friend Arthur''s body is even more strange. I encountered countless people with various types of bodies, but yours could be considered the most perfect, every cell, every bones and muscle and strangely ''perfect''? It''s like they are alive and independent... what''s more is its aura, It is rather... how should I phrase it.... ''Unique''?"
After he finished saying that, he continued staring at Arthur from head to toe, assessing him and trying to find out the secrets of his body, he was looking at him as if he(Arthur) was a new species.
Well, technically, he is a new species but that will be left a secret and should never be told. Only Lucy is allowed to know his deepest secrets such as his unique race and skills, anybody else will only be kept in the dark.
Lucy was not accustomed to thanking people, especially men as she was still disgusted by them. However, that doesn''t mean that she takes everything for granted, as much as there are bad and greedy men in the world, there is also kind men. That doesn''t necessarily mean that Azure Bai is a good person, but at the very least he answered her questions and gave her some hints and clues about her origins.
She cupped her hands and bowed to the azure-clothed man, Arthur also did the same. It was a casual bow to express their gratitude. They would show hostility and ruthlessness to enemies, but to friends, the most basic thing to do is to help them when they are in need and thank them if they were helpful.
"Many thanks, Senior Bai"
Lucy thanked Bai Lingyue, now that she had a clue, when they are done saving Saly and when they have sufficient strength to roam other Realms without the fear of being killed by strong enemies, they can check the Yin Lotus Sect.
Maybe one of her birth parents is there, she always wanted to meet her parents and know why was she thrown away on the Human continent in Astria.
She was half-demon, so there was a possibility that one of her parents is in the Demon continent in Astria. She didn''t have the time to go check it, perhaps after things cool down, she and Arthur would go check it out.
...
Young Master Yun was fuming with anger, he was rather famous as he was amongst the young geniuses of the Monster Race. He was always treated with respect, some people would suck up to him to leave a good impression yet this attendant not only reprimanded him but also treated him coldly, she completely disregarded his status as the young master of the Peng Family.
Young Master Yun leaned close to the attendant and said with a low voice that only he could hear.
"You know, if you lower the price a bit, I could provide you with some good cultivation techniques from my family. There is even some that make the user younger.."
He was VIP customer and always purchases treasures from here, so Young Master Yun presumed that if he bribed her a bit, it would work easily. However, what the content said next made him dumbstruck.
"Young Master Yun, if you try to bribe me a second time, I would be obliged to call for the Treasure Pavillon and throw you out"
Her tone was not very loud, but it was loud enough for all the present people to here. She maintained the expressionless face and a look of disgust appeared on her eyes.
"You..."
Young Master Yun was about to erupt and most likely cause a ruckus here, but just as he was about to burst and cause trouble, the calm yet the friendly voice of Bai Lingyue resounded in the third floor.
"Friend, it is unwise to try and cause trouble, you better follow the rules or the consequences would be dire not only for you but for your whole family."
He was not worried for Yun but it is a pity that his whole family which has a good reputation in the Monster Race to suffer because of his reckless actions so he tried to stop that from happening. Offending the Treasure Pavillon would only result in a lot of endless trouble.
The Treasure Pavillon is merely a small branch and the power of this faction is levels ahead of the Peng Family, it has a lot of powerful individuals, heck! Just the guard in this branch is probably a lot stronger than Young Master Yun.
With his face red with anger, Yun shifted his gaze to Azure Bai and yelled furiously
"Who the hell are you? I can do whatever I want!"
Azure Bai didn''t seem to mind being yelled at, he just shrugged and retorted
"I was just warning you, whatever you do is obviously up to you."
Then without minding the young man anymore, he turned his head toward Arthur and casually said.
"So, Friend Arthur, is there anything you are searching for in this Treasure Pavillon? I could be considered a bitacknowledgeable about the treasures in here, so I can lend you a hand, moreover, I could buy it for you then you''ll pay me, so you can have the 20% discount."
This sudden kind treatment was a bit unusual, Arthur didn''t know if he should accept or not, maybe by accepting, this mysterious man would ask for something in return...
Chapter 91 : Dragons
"We are not looking for anything specific yet, but thank you for your offer anyway, if we happen to find something worth purchasing, we''ll graciously accept Senior Bai''s generous offer"
Arthur didn''t how to properly answer, so this was all he managed to come up with at the moment. Senior Bai was mysteriously kind to them, not only did he thoroughly explained various things, he also proposed to help them in that way.
Young Master Yun was still fuming with anger but after hearing Bai''s warning and seeing the calm attitude of the attendant in front of him, he forcefully held back and kept his rising anger inside of him.
His handsome face turned extremely ugly and he was unsure of what to do, if he left now, it would seem like he was afraid of the Treasure Pavillon, however, if he stayed, it would be much more embarrassing.
"Since it''s like this, then fine! No need to waste my money buying expensive treasures from here"
After saying that, he harrumphed and left the third floor. The old man beside him remained silent from the very beginning, his only job was to protect the Young Master.
Of course, if the Young Master was going to do something reckless, he would have stopped him as it is absolutely idiotic to provoke the Treasure Pavillon. With a sigh, the Divine Realm old man sighed and followed the young man out of the floor.
As for the attendant, she acted as if nothing happened and returned to the reception desk on the third floor, she stood there silently and didn''t pay much heed to what just happened.
Situations like these rare but they are not non-existent, it is always handled by her or old attendants and usually, the angry customers behave just like Young Master Yun and leave after being warned. Very few would dare attack her or cause any trouble in here, especially on high floors.
In the Treasure Pavillon, the higher the floor the stronger the attendant. Kara was an attendant on the second floor and what just the Spirit Realm, as for this attendant, she was already in the Heavenly Realm.
Perhaps the fourth floor would have a Deity Realm attendant. It sounded a bit hard to believe as although there were numerous Deity Realm people in the Underworld, who would spend their time working as an attendant.
Seeing that there are no more treasures that are worth buying, Arthur decided to head to the next floor with Lucy.
Followed by the smiling Bai Lingyue, Arthur and Lucy headed to the fourth floor. When they were in front of the stairs, two tall men were standing like pillars there without moving.
Arthur appraised them and was surprised to see that they were both 1st Grade Immortals.
"Dear Customer, you need to pay 1 Top class Spirit Red Stone to proceed to the 4th floor"
The attendant who was speaking with Young Master Yun previously came up to the couple and said that. She noticed them from the very beginning and when she ascertained that they were heading to the next floor, she told them the price to head upwards.
With a wave of his hand, a big red stone floated toward the expressionless attendant. Without reacting much, the attendant grabbed the Top Class Spirit Red Stone and stored it in her storage ring, then she shifted her gaze to Kara, who was still dazed from seeing the red stone.
Just from her gaze, it was obvious that she was telling Kara to leave and the rest of her.
The attendants working in the Treasure Pavillon were paid quite well, but there was also another method to gain money and that''s by pushing the customers they serve to buy more treasures.
Arthur and Lucy already prepared two items to buy, both their prices were astronomical, so Kara would get a very small percentage of the full price.
Seeing that the other attendant was telling her to go away, Kara was very displeased, however, she didn''t dare to show it, she merely nodded and planned to follow the orders.
She was an attendant of the second floor, as for this one, she worked at the 3rd floor but she appeared to have a higher position in this Treasure Pavillon, so she was considered like her boss, why would Kara dare oppose her or disobey her?
Just as she was about to remove the storage ring and pass it to the other attendant, she heard the customers she serves suddenly talk.
"She''s our attendant, let her follow us to the next floor"
Even the other attendant, who was named Nongying was momentarily surprised by this, she didn''t expect Arthur to say that.
Her face returned to its expressionless state after a second, she slightly bowed to Arthur and Lucy while saying
"Dear Customers, this attendant is only an attendant of the second floor, her knowledge about the treasures at the fourth floor is very limited so she would be of no help, let me serve you for the rest of your tour in our Treasure Pavillon"
"No need, we don''t need her knowledge, just let her do her job and prepare the items we''ll buy"
After Arthur said that, he and Lucy headed to the next floor. As for Kara, she didn''t know what to do, follow them or just back off.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
"As you wish, dear customers"
Nongying didn''t insist anymore, she glanced at Kara and urged her with her eyes to hurry up and follow them!
...
Arthur didn''t know when did Bai Lingyue pay the fee but he followed them to the fourth floor. He didn''t even see the man pay so it was very strange as to why he was let in without paying. Perhaps because he is a VIP customer? If so then he and Lucy need to get the VIP thingy too or they would have to pay each time they came here.
The fourth floor was totally empty, except the attendant at the desk in the center, there were no customers here.
The treasure displayed here appeared even more amazing than the third floor. The treasures here were a bit special. In the first three floors, treasures would be pills, cultivation techniques, and most weapons. But here, there were fewer weapons and a lot of cultivation techniques coupled with weird looking treasures.
Golden-Body Strengthening technique (Volume 4)
Cost : 10 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
The price was astronomical for all treasures, such as this one for example. 10 Top Class Spirit Red Stones are equivalent to 10 million Spirit Red Stones, it is by no means a meager number!
Seeing that Arthur was checking this cultivation technique, Bai Lingyue shook his head and said
"Friend Arthur, I advice you not to buy this body strengthening technique. It is indeed a very good one for the people in the Underworld, but it could only be considered so-so compared to other legendary techniques. The price is a bit too high and it''s only the 4th volume. This technique has 7 volume in total and if you do not have the all the volumes, you will not be able to display its full potential."
Arthur read the sign of this cultivation technique and when he saw there was no description, he used his appraisal skill.
Golden-body strengthening technique (Volume 4) (Mystic ranked : 1st Grade) : Effect ; By practicing this skill, you can use Nether Energy to turn your body golden and increase your defense and offense by leaps and bounds, it is said that when mastered, you can use one golden palm to flatten skies and crush mountains.
''Only so-so?''
Arthur believed Bai Lingyue at first, but when he read the description of the technique, he was hesitating on whether what Azure Bai said is really true or not. Maybe the system managing the description is exaggerating things? After all, problems occurring in the system are not a rare thing for him.
"If you want, I can sell you a body-strengthening technique better than this and at a lower price, what do you say?"
Kara, who was flabbergasted by the price of the technique, was astonished when she heard Bai Lingyue said that. Not only did he belittle their treasures, he even dared to sell his own stuff in their Treasure Pavillon, it''s like slapping them in the face.
Nongying, who followed the trio just to explain the things Kara wasn''t able to, frowned as she didn''t like the attitude of Bai Lingyue, however, she didn''t warn him or even open her mouth. He was not someone she could reprimand or threaten. Her boss repeatedly told her to treat Azure Bai with the most respect and act as if he was her own boss!
"Hahaha, thank you, Senior Bai, for your offer, but I was just looking at the technique, I''m not planning to buy any cultivation technique for the time being."
Hearing this, Bai Lingyue didn''t appear displeased, he merely nodded at Arthur and kept following them. It was kind of strange as for why he was following them all around, but Arthur didn''t mind nor did he say anything, as for Lucy? She couldn''t care less about him, he helped her but it doesn''t mean she had to pay him special attention.
All the treasures displayed here were at the least 3rd grade Spirit Ranked, and some were Mystic Rank like the body strengthening technique.
Geo Dragon''s Marrow (Mystic ranked 2nd Grade) ; effect: By consuming this dragon marrow, one would have 0.5% of obtaining the Geo Dragonic Bloodline.
Additional effect : Clears the Zhongfu, Yunmen, and Tianfu Acupoints
cost: 100 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
"Geo Dragon? It is not the marrow of a real Geo Dragon or else the price would be thousands of times higher... *sigh* what a pity"
Bai Lingyue appeareddisheartened as he said that. It was truly a pity as dragons are known as majestic and legendary creatures.
What Arthur fought way back was indeed an Earth and Lightning dragons, but they were weak because they were not true dragons.
A true dragon, who has the bloodlines heritage of one of the three legendary dragon race would be born in the God Realm automatically.
They would have intelligence superior to humans and other races and their power is enormous.
The Geo dragon race is one of the three legendary dragon races, the other two are known as the Black dragon race and the Empyrian dragon race.
The three ancestors of those three dragon Races were three dragons gods, their power was monstrous as they couldshatter space and wipe planets with only their physical body!
The marrow of the Geo dragon displayed here must be the marrow of a Geo Dragon who had a very limited bloodline coming from the Geo dragon race or else the effects of the marrow would not be this trivial.
But this in itself is impressive, the Geo dragon''s marrow here is also very rare, not only that, the original dragon must have been at least a 5th Grade Divine Realm dragon.
"We''ll take it"
Arthur said that as he looked at Kara and pointed at the crystalline dragon marrow displayed in front of them. It was 2 foot long and was green in color.
Even the expressionless Nongying was pleased when she heard that, for her Treasure Pavillon to sell such an expensive treasure is a good thing, especially for Kara, who would get a percentage of the full price.
Seeing Arthur choose the marrow, Azure Bai smirked and didn''t comment, whatever the couple bought is none of his business, he was just here to advise them and help them a bit.
In a place where there was nothing but void all over, stars and planets would be seen far away and space is shattering here and there, from afar it looked like some glass was falling from this dark void but this small glass was the size of a planet!
A lone figure stood there as he gnashed his teeth, his facial features were blurry.
"Damn you Arthur, I clearly put a Spiritual Imprint on your soul! How did it get erased! It''s impossible unless it''s someone in the same Realm as me or a very powerful charm! No matter the case, I''ll find you! I will not let my millions of years of planning to go to waste!"
''X'' cursed as he was in a bad mood, it has been more than a year since Arthur disappeared and he was still searching along with his subordinates. But there was no trace of Arthur!
"Even if I wanted to! I can''t recreate that orb! I was lucky enough to make it due to the war back then... but now, how am I supposed to create it again!"
Space began to distort and more shattering occurred as ''X''''s mood began worse.
"I know you, Arthur, that anger and rage that I helped you seal will resurface and when that happens, you''ll seek revenge and there is only one place you''ll head to... sooner or later, we''ll meet Arthur..... I''m sure we will."
After he said that, he turned into black smoke as he disappeared from that empty black void.
Chapter 92 : The Calamity
After buying the Geo Dragon''s marrow, the couple continued searching for a good weapon for Lucy.
Lucy preferences were not specific, she just wanted a good weapon that matched her Extreme Yin Body and her magic.
Speaking fo specific weapon, she leaned more towards sabers more than swords or daggers. So it would be great if they found a good saber.
Since it was the fourth floor, the treasures present were much less than the other floors, however, the quality is another level compared to the first three floors.
Each item displayed has a unique effect that attracted Arthur. There were many strengthening pills and protective charms.
Protective Charm (Spirit Rank 3rd Grade) ; effect: When infused with Nether Energy, can provide a temporary barrier that protects the user from incoming attacks.
Cost : 5 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
They found 5 of these protective Charms so they decided to buy them all. In such a dangerous world, having more means to protect from strong enemies can only be something good.
If they relied too much on Charms, it would affect them negatively and they would get used to only using exterior means. But Arthur and Lucy were not buying them to use them whenever a desperate situation occurred, these charms are one of the last trump cards that will be used only in a fatal situation.
At the corner of the fourth floor, there was an area designed for weapons.
Lucy walked there as she browsed through the weapon, she was eager to buy a good saber but it didn''t seem there were any good weapons, much less a saber.
As she was looking at the Mystic Ranked weapons, Lucy''s steps halted as her eyes were fixed on a certain weapon.
Arthur was near her and without needing to hear her say it, he appraised the weapon.
Featherfall (Weapon : Saber) (Mystic Rank 2nd Grade) : +120,000 Strength / +85,000 Agility / +25,0000 Dexterity
Unique Skill : Can produce special feathers made from wind Attribute, these feathers could be used to defend and attack and are very sharp.
Cost : 95 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
''Wind Attribute?''
This saber was not bad, the stats and Rank were perfect for Lucy''s Realm, however, Lucy specialized in Magma, Fire and more importantly, the new Unique Yin Attribute.
As for the saber, it would be well matched with a Wind Attribute user, of course, Lucy could still wield it and even its Unique Skill but she was not satisfied with the saber.
"Still no good...."
Lucy mumbled as gave up on the idea of purchasing the saber. Arthur had some amazing sabers in his storage, some even added astronomical numbers of stats, yet Lucy didn''t like them too and the sole reason was that she didn''t they suited her!
"I see that Miss Lucy is interested in sabers?"
The one who talked was not Bai Lingyue but Nongying the attendant who has followed a small distance behind the trio and Kara.
She heard Bai Lingyue call Lucy''s name earlier so she remembered it. Since they are buying a lot of expensive items, it would be a bit rude to still calm them ''Dear Customer'' so she changed the way she addressed Lucy.
She had keen eyes and noticed that Lucy paid a special attention to the saber, so she concluded that this silver-haired woman was searching for good sabers.
Despite covering her head with a hood, Lucy''s long silver hair was still shown, her hair was naturally long so it couldn''t be fully hidden, but that was no problem for Lucy. As long as she hid her face, it would be fine.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
There may be some old perverted fogies or some young masters who would be attracted by her appearances so the best choice is to hide her face.
Lucy nodded to Nongying, which made the latter confirm her gaze, so she resumed talking
"Since that''s the case, please wait for a second, we have a few hidden sabers that are good in Quality, I''m sure Miss Lucy would not be disappointed"
With another bow, Nongying disappeared for the fourth floor, she headed toward the mysterious fifth floor.
In fact, the fifth floor is not like the other floors, no one can access it, even Bai Lingyue is prohibited for going there, the Treasure Pavillon kept its most amazing treasures there and would take them out for special customers.
The reason Nongying decided to bring those hidden sabers was because she confirmed that Arthur and Lucy are no ordinary and they most likely have an immense fortune, so to sell expensive treasures would benefit both parties.
...
Azure Bai stood silently a bit behind Arthur and Lucy. A friendly smile was still hanging on his serene and calm face. He would sometimes glance at the treasures displayed in front of him but it appeared none interested him, it''s like he was looking at trash.
For someone who lived as long as him, seeing ordinary treasures like these is not impressive, maybe a Heavenly Ranked Treasure would be a bit worth of his attention but these treasures? They are but disposable items for him.
"Oh? A scale from the Black Tortoise Shell? Hmm"
Azure Bai seemed a bit surprised as he strode toward a normal looking scale. It was two feet long and didn''t exude any kind of Energy.
Arthur''s curiosity was also picked when he saw Bai Lingyue react like that so he unconsciously appraised the scale.
Degenerated Scale of the Black Tortoise ; Effect : Contain some leftover Energy of the legendary Black Tortoise
WARNING : Absorbing the leftover Energy would lead to a fatal backlash to the user''s soul and cause his life deteriorate
''Black Tortoise?''
Arthur heard that name in the past. It was something about a calamity that happened in Astria ten thousand years ago. The Black Tortoise, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger and the Azure Dragon were mentioned.
"Senior Bai, what is the Black Tortoise"
Arthur could not help but ask as he was really curious about this topic. Only some myths and scary stories were told about the calamity that occurred in the past, but all of the stories were vague and most of them are most likely fake.
"You don''t know about the Black Tortoise?"
Azure Bai furrowed his brows for a second as he seemed to be pondering about something.
"Friend Arthur, may I know how old are you and Miss Lucy?"
Arthur was expecting an answer and not a question from the azure-clothed man. He didn''t know much about the age of people here, but there was one thing for certain, he is considered a Junior, whether it''s him or Lucy.
He didn''t dare lie as in Zodiak''s books, he read that there are some techniques that powerful individuals use to ascertain the bone age of weaker people, so in front of someone like Bai Lingyue, it would be futile to lie about their age. But there was also the chance that Azure Bai couldn''t use that technique, or he could but he wanted to see how Arthur would answer.
"Answering to Senior Bai, I''m 37 Years old and Lucy is 44"
Lucy was a bit older than Arthur, but the difference was just 7 years, moreover, age doesn''t matter in a world like this.
Silence ruled over the fourth floor as Azure Bai''s eyes widened, for the first time, he showed a surprised expression and couldn''t utter a word for a dozen of swords.
"37 and 44 you say..... that''s amazing..."
Kara who was standing not far away, was left speechless as she really couldn''t believe what she heard.
Arthur wasn''t sure on what this was about, he just stated his and Lucy''s age, there was nothing to fret about, or maybe he done goofed and said something unnecessary.
"Amazing?"
Lucy was the one was uttered that, she didn''t find anything particularly special or amazing about her age or Arthur''s, so she was left confused.
"I-It''s really amazing... amazing would be an understatement... I cannot sense Sir Arthur and Miss Lucy''s Realm so you must be at least in the Heavenly Realm... to be at that Realm at the age of 37 is incredible... compared to you, I''m already 76 and I''m only at the Spirit Realm..."
Kara was the one who spoke as she couldn''t hide her astonishment.
"Just as Miss attendant said, it''s unbelievable, If I didn''t see it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it... The peak of the Deity Realm at 37 and First Grade Immortal at 44... that''s something only the peak geniuses do in the sect at the higher-Realms..."
"What! Immortal?!"
Kara suddenly cried but she quickly covered her mouth with both of her hands, you could see a look of surprise and disbelief in her eyes.
"... is that so..."
Arthur didn''t know how to react, he should''ve lied but it was too late to regret it now, so he could only act normal and play it cool as if he already knew he was a genius. Well, he is not a genius but it''s just that his race allowed him to steal the power of whoever he possessed so it is to be expected to reach this Realm this fast.
If he said that it only took him about two or three years to climb from Level 1 to the Peak of Deity Realm, both of Azure Bai and Kara would spit blood!
It didn''t take long for Azure Bai to regain his calmness, whatever Arthur and Lucy did or their origins, he didn''t ask, he was very curious but he managed to hold himself back.
" *Sigh*... returning to the Black Tortoise topic, since you''re young, you may not know but ten thousand years ago....
Chapter 93 : Exchange
"... Ten thousand years ago, the four mythical beasts which are The Black Tortoise of the North, The Vermillion Bird of the South, The White Tiger of the West and last but not least the Azure Dragon of the East, these legendary beasts that are known to have died a long time ago had suddenly appeared. Not only that, but almost every world had been attacked by them at the same time. It may seem impossible but they somehow had an avatar technique that allowed them to multiply but their strength decreases a lot, albeit the decrease in strength, these four caused tremors and destruction in all the worlds. There were some worlds with strong experts that managed to barely withstand the attack but most of the worlds had been demolished.
No one knows why they did so as these beasts are known to be peaceful and tend to defend the Humans from invasion by some alien races. Even the principal Clans of the four beasts received some punishment and attacks by sect alliances, they declined a lot but they managed to defend their territories and heritage. From that year, the four legendary beasts are known as evil creatures and regarded negatively by almost everyone."
As he spoke of the calamity, Azure Bai seemed to remember sad memories, there was no anger in his tone but only some regret and sadness.
"Why did they attack all the worlds?"
Arthur was shocked as he heard this story, he was a bit confused on why they suddenly attacked everyone.
"No one knows, they focused on destroying ancient heritages and killed everyone that tried to stop them, it was hell to fight them as their power was unimaginable, especially when they combine their powers. The only world that was almost unscathed is the main world they attacked, which is also known as the ''Divine Planet''. This main world had too many experts so thanks to combining their strength, they pushed the four beasts out of the planet and they even severely injured the Vermillion Bird."
"What happened then, where the four beasts go? Did they get sealed or?"
Hearing this, Bai Lingyue chuckled and replied with a smile
"Sealed? It''s practically impossible to seal them, especially if they''re together. As for their whereabouts, no one knows, just like they suddenly appeared, they disappeared suddenly, no one could trace their location, even the legendary figures in the Divine Planet."
Arthur could not help but sigh, it seems that this calamity was a big deal, it happened at Astria too but the damage was not that bad, after all, not everyone talked about it which means the impact was not that catastrophic. Moreover, there was the clan that had a tiny portion of the White Tiger''s bloodline and they were not hated, in fact, they were respected.
...
Nongying finally came down from the fifth floor, unlike what they expected, she didn''t hold any saber, so Arthur guessed that they the sabers are either sold or she didn''t want to take them out as the manager refused to do so.
"Sorry for the wait, here''s all the good quality saber we have here"
As she said that, she waved her hand and four sabers appeared from her storage, they were put on a small pillar stone not even 1 meter in height.
Lucy was excited as she saw the sabers, there was some description of them but she didn''t pay it any much heed as the appraisal is way better.
Banished Gold Saber(Mystic Ranked 3rd Grade) : +480,000 Strength / +185,000 Dexterity
Effect: Metal Attribute attacks deal 45% more damage
Unique Skill : Can produce a temporary golden orb that lasts for 1 hour, it can explode and deal 135% of the user''s Strength.
Cost : 500 Top Class Red Spirit Stones
Bloodied Mageblade (Mystic Ranked 3rd Grade) : +200,000 Intelligence / +275,000 Strength / +120,000 Wisdom.
Effect : Absorbs the victim''s blood and increase the weapon''s power by 0.5% for each blood absorption. (100 absorption MAX)
Unique Skill : Use all the blood absorbed to recover 10% of the missing Health of the user.
Cost : 850 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
Burning Fate (Heavenly Ranked 1st Grade) : +1m Strength / +1m Intelligence / +7.5% Nether Energy Recovery
Effect : Any fire attribute related skills or attacks have a 15% chance to deal double the damage / +5% incantation speed when using Fire related skills.
Unique Skill : Lock into an opponent and slash at him, a Fire beam will follow the target and strikes him(Cannot be avoided)
Cost : 10,000 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
Twilight''s Vow (Heavenly Ranked 1st Grade) : +1m Strength / +1m Agility / +125,000 Wisdom
Effect : Water and Ice attributes deal 20% more damage
Unique Skill :Creates a saber array that slow the opponent''s movement speed by 15% (1,000 Nether Energy per second)
Cost : 10,000 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
''10,000!?''
Lucy was alarmed when she saw the prices, the last two sabers were not bad, but their prices are outrageous, it''s like they put the price high purposely.
Although they could afford it, It would cost a lot, they didn''t have unlimited Spirit Red Stones like the Gold so she wasn''t sure in what to do.
"We''ll take the last two"A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Arthur calmly said, he knew the last two sabers suited her, so the moment he appraised them, he decided to buy them, moreover.
Nongying, who was hoping that they buy at least one of the first two sabers, was dumbstruck, she couldn''t react as her eyes widened.
"Sir Arthur, could you please repeat what you said?"
She thought she was definitely hearing things, after all, 20,000 Top Class Spirit Red Stones are not something anyone could have.
Even the calm Azure Bai was a bit startled when he heard that.
"Friend Arthur, although these two sabers are good, it is a bit reckless to spend that much Spirit Stones on them, if you are lucky, you could find them at lower price in an auction."
Lucy also was unwilling to spend that much money just for a two sabers, she looked at Arthur and was about to stop him when she suddenly felt his hand patting her head, he was reassuring her and telling her it was alright, it was his usual behavior, for his wife, he would spoil her.
"Thanks for the advice Senior Bai, however, we''re still going to buy the two of them"
Azure Bai kept silence when he saw that his advice didn''t help at all, it was not his money that will be wasted, but he still didn''t want his newly made friends to spend so much Spirit Red Stones for just two sabers.
Once Nongying heard that the couple really intended to purchase the two of them, she gasped and didn''t know how to react, go prepare the weapons, or inform the manager.
As she was stuck in a dilemma, she heard an old yet excited voice.
"I presume you are Miss Lucy and Sir Arthur? Nongying told me about you two earlier."
The old man who came had a long white beard, albeit his age, he had a muscular body and you could see he was full of Vitality. He wore some strange golden tight clothes and had a thick and long sword on his back.
He assessed Arthur and Lucy, after probing them while stroking his beard, he resumed his talking.
"Emm, I see, your Realms are not high, but to be bold enough to buy these two expensive sabers, I''m intrigued about your identities, but since I can''t dive into personal information, I can only speculate..."
Albert (Race : Human) : Divine Realm 5th Grade.
This person was no doubt the manager of this ''Treasure Pavillon'', Arthur guessed it immediately, after all, who else would come out from the 5th floor and have a high Realm except the manager.
"Hahaha, Senior must be joking, we just earned a bit of money so we decided to spend them on good items."
Arthur kept a humble attitude as he faced the old man, he knew that he was probed by Albert but it was a natural thing, after him and Lucy''s identities were mysterious and they were not known in the Underworld, so how did they manage to get this much Spirit Red Stones.
Only the huge Clans or Sects in the Underworld are able to spend this much money on items and not just two strangers who came out of nowhere.
"A bit of money huh? But aren''t you afraid that people will target you both because of your wealth? It''s a natural thing in this kind of world after all."
Arthur kept a calm attitude as he shrugged his shoulder and responded to Albert.
"They are very welcome to try."
Although he said that, he was a bit worried about this matter. If it''s not a Divine Realm person who is after them, then there is a high chance of escaping.
"Alright, alright, since that''s the case then good, so, you sure about buying the two sabers?"
Albert too was a bit startled when he saw that they decided to buy them both, but years of experience taught him to be cool and calm in a situation like such.
"Yes, along with the other items, we would like to buy these swords... however, I heard that it is possible to purchase with Spirit Red Stones and also trade with an item with an equal value."
Arthur heard this accidentally, moreover, he had some good items he that is almost priceless in his storage, so why waste the limited Red Stones. It is way better to give a good item which has a value of 20,000 Top Class Spirit Stones versus the two sabers.
As he heard Arthur say that, the old man frowned as he was not pleased. To be honest, he had the right to be a bit displeased, he was expecting to receive Spirit Red Stones and not an item, the reason he''s not much happy because most people who claim that they want to exchange an item for another usually take out trash treasures.
There has not been a time when he was pleased with an exchange, selling is way better and he even thought of removing this rule, but unfortunately, he didn''t have the authority to remove it, he was just a manager of this branch and didn''t have a high status in the Treasure Pavillon in general.
"I wonder what Sir Arthur will propose against those two sabers?"
Albeit feeling a bit displeased, Albert didn''t show it on his face, he smiled and talked friend to Arthur and co.
Arthur waved his hand and a book appeared from his storage, it looked a bit dusty and didn''t look like anything special. Albert was even more displeased when he saw that, his first thought was that Arthur was treating him like a fool.
The appraisal skill is obviously not available for Albert and co, so the only way to know what the book is about is by recognizing or just checking it.
Arthur had Heavenly Ranked cultivation books, he even reserved some for him when he breakthrough to the Immortal Realm, after all using a technique to strengthen your body and increase your prowess is a common thing people at the higher-Realm do.
This body-strengthening technique is one of many that Arthur has, from the all the items he had, he picked the one who would not shock the people a lot.
In fact, in Arthur''s storage, there are even items that are Godly Ranked! However, neither him or Lucy could use them, they lack too much power. From these Godly Ranked items, there were a couple of cultivation techniques that Arthur stored for himself.
Lucy picked a Heavenly cultivation technique related to Fire Attribute, but since she discovered that she had an Extreme Yin Body, she already decided to change to a Yin related cultivation.
"This is..?"
Albert didn''t seem to recognize the book, so Arthur handed the book to him to check it whilst saying
"Senior, this is a Heavenly Ranked body-strengthening technique called Astral Body"
Bai Lingyue, who was gazing at the book, was momentarily stunned when he heard that.
"Astral body? I know it, it''s a rare technique that makes the body able to control and crush stars when mastered. Friend Arthur, If I remember correctly, this technique has 6 volumes, which volume is this one?"
"It''s the 5th volume"
It was Albert''s turn to be shocked now, he had heard of this technique but never had seen it, moreover, it was the 5th volume! Even if it was a Mystic Ranked technique and this was the volume before the last, it would be priceless.
The old man unconsciously gulped some saliva as he checked the contents of the book. He didn''t read the whole book but he just ascertained it was real.
"To have the 5th volume of Astral Body, Friend Arthur, I find you more and more interesting."
Bai Lingyue laughed as he praised Arthur, it hasn''t been long since he met Arthur but he never ceased from being surprised.
Albert suddenly took out a transparent orb the size of fist, then he immediately injected some Nether Energy while approaching the dusty book toward it.
Astral Body (Heavenly Ranked 2nd Grade)
"What! 2nd Grade?"
The old man couldn''t believe what he said, he even checked the grade again to make sure he was not hallucinating.
The Heavenly Ranked items are different from the lower Ranked items, each grade upgrade is a big difference from the previous one. One could even say that the price of a second Grade Heavenly Ranked Item is worth 4 or 5 times the price of a first Grade Heavenly Ranked Item, if not more.
"Senior, are you satisfied with the item I proposed?"
"Yes, it''s acceptable."
Hearing this, Azure Bai chuckled and retorted
"Acceptable? Even the value of those 4 sabers together does not reach the 5th volume of Astral Body."
Albert, who was holding the book as if it was already his turned a bit angry hearing this, but he didn''t dare snap at Bai Lingyue as what he said couldn''t be truer.
"*cough*... *cough*,Sir Arthur, what you proposed is indeed an extraordinary treasure, how about this, all the items you are going to buy will be exchanged against this book."
Arthur expected the book to be enough for the two sabers, but he never did imagine that it will be much more expensive than the 4 sabers together!
"Since Senior said that, then we''ll not hold back, hahaha."
After listening to Arthur, Albert realised he said something a bit unnecessary, but it was too late to take that back, he could only helplessly smile at Arthur and stroke the dusty book.
As for Lucy and Arthur, they continued roaming the fourth floor and taking what they found interesing, after all, all of it will be exchanged for the book.
Chapter 94 : Two Words
After the exchange, Arthur found some protective charms that were not bad so he took all of them, without exception.
Each time Albert saw Arthur pick a treasure, he felt like his heart was bleeding, he would hold his breath whenever Arthur gets too close to very expensive treasure.
But what was most terrifying is Lucy, she literally held nothing back and picked anything as if it was her own shop, be it a cool looking armor, a cultivation technique or whatever it was, she would take it.
She doesn''t need them of course, but she had a hobby of collecting everything, just like when killing their enemies, she would be the first to check their storage ring. She always wanted to see what the items inside Arthur''s storage were but it is impossible since she can''t use Black Mana. Even when injecting Nether Energy, it won''t open no matter what.
From the treasures she bought, there were some that may be helpful in fights and other occasions like these ones.
Mask of Truth (Mystic Ranked 1st Grade) : effect ; If used, the host can change his/her facial appearances however they like.
WARNING : Can be seen through by people who have : Heavenly eyes(skill) , Godly/Demon eyes(bloodline/heritage) or individuals at the Godly Realm or above can also see through the Item.
Cost : 10 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
Eradication Bell (Heavenly Ranked 1st Grade); effect : Each time the user rings the bell, it creates a strong outburst of energy.
Each time the user rings the bell, the next ring would cost 100% more Nether Energy.
Cost : 750 Top Class Spirit Red Stones.
These were only a few of the good things they found. Albert was even about to burst out and forcefully take the items back. Although he got the rare body-strengthening technique from Arthur for all of these items, it is absolutely not worth it, however, if he does really take them treasures back, he would have gone back on his word, not only would he lose a lot of face, rumors about him deceiving his customers would be spread in the city in less than a day.
"S-Sir Arthur... isn''t that enough? M..M-Miss Lucy took almost all the treasures on this floor.."
Albert''s face whitened and he appeared to have aged quite a bit when he saw the emptiness of the floor. Lucy was ruthless as she didn''t spare anything, the more she took the more he felt pain and anxiousness.
"Oh... we''re almost done Senior Bai, we just need... a good quality Spirit Boat."
Having gotten more than they wished for, Arthur wanted to get Spirit Boat and be done with this, he knew that taking any more would anger Albert even more and perhaps he would try to seek revenge one way or another.
Hearing that they are almost done, Albert''s face bloomed, with a wave of his hand, a fist-sized Spirit Boat appeared, it was red in color and didn''t have anything special about it.
"If that''s the case, I''ll give you this Spirit Boat, it''s called Blood Curl and it is one of the best out in our Treasure Pavillon, here! Take a look at it."
The mini-Spirit Boat floated near Arthur as Albert gave it to him to check its quality.
All it took was a simply appraise to see the Spirit Boat.
Bloood Curl (Mystic Ranked 3rd Grade) : An ancient Spirit Boat that has a fast speed.
Consumes 100 Nether Energy Per second or 1 Medium Spirit Red Stones per day.
Normally, people would never waste their Nether Energy on their Spirit Boat, they would use the Spirit Red Stones to power it since it''s better and less consuming for them, after all, you never know when a fight might break out in here so it is better to always have your Nether Energy full at any time.
"Indeed, as Senior Bai said, this Spirit Boat is really good quality, moreover, it''s a Mystic Ranked."
Arthur stored the Spirit Boat in his ring and patted his clothes while looking around the fourth floor. More than half of the treasures that were here have disappeared forever, they are now stored in Lucy''s storage ring along with the items they were going to buy in first floors.
...
Finally, after taking whatever they liked and getting what they wanted, Lucy and Arthur left the ''Treasure Pavillon'' accompanied by Azure Bai who, for whatever reason followed them.
"Hahaha, it''s the first time I see people taking advantage of the ''Treasure Pavillon'' like this, Friend Arthur and Miss Lucy are indeed very special and interesting.
Bai Lingyue was laughing as he said that, he walked with both of them and seemed he was going to follow them to the inn.
"It''s nothing special, we just did a fair exchange, isn''t that right, Lucy?"
Arthur humbly replied to Azure Bai as he added Lucy in his little scheme, it was obvious he was taking advantage of Albert but he didn''t want to directly say it.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Azure Bai kept laughing for some time as he elegantly walked along the duo, his eyes were fixed on both of them and sometimes he would furrow his brows or chuckle.
Lucy wore the Mask of Truth, her hair turned black and her facial appearances transformed into an average looking woman. It was not like the breath-taking beauty like earlier. In public, she would wear it but if she''s alone with Arthur, then she would not wear it of course as it is not needed.
"Friend Arthur, I have long since considered you and Miss Lucy friendsof me, Bai Lingyue. I do have a lot of friends but not all of them have my respect, I would be lying to say I''m not curious about you two, especially after what happened earlier, so, I would like you to come to the Grand Banquet that will be held in 2 months. You can use this token to enter it."
As he said that, Bai handed a simple white token to Arthur before even listening to his answer, by the time caught the token that Azure Bai threw toward him, the scholarly man had long since disappeared. Even Lucy who had been focusing on him didn''t know what just happened, but that''s to be expected as he was at the peak of the Divine Realm, so his strength must beunfathomable.
"It doesn''t seem we''ll be able to go to that banquet huh?"
Arthur was going to reject Bai Lingyue''s offer as they were only here to search for Saly and not have some fun.
"Maybe if we find Saly and get rid of that woman, we can go there if we have some free time."
Surprisingly, Lucy was the one who said that, she didn''t have a negative impression on Bai Lingyue, apart from the usual disgust she feels from all men, there is no loathe or dislike toward him, moreover, he helped them a lot so it would fun to a banquet with Saly.
Contrary to Lucy, Arthur was not very optimistic about this matter, he wanted to find Saly before everything else, it had been some time since she was abducted, was she tortured? Killed? Or even worse, no one knows what that woman would do to Saly, just thinking about this made him feel more anxious and worried for her.
...
The couple went back to their room in the inn to prepare and to try and find some information about Saly. The problem is that finding her just by asking is too hard in a world as big as the Underworld. The only clue they had is that the woman who attacked the Ma Clan is definitely a human, or more precisely, she looked exactly like a human.
If she had been an undead or another race, Anastassia would have noticed, so the only place they could search into is a mysterious faction in the center of the Underworld and the Monster Archipelago.
Arthur handed all the cultivation techniques he had in his storage to Lucy so she could pick whatever suited her, with her two new sabers her Extreme yin Body, with an appropriate technique, her prowess will increase by leaps and bounds.
After much pondering on what to pick, she decided to go with ''Nine Star Yin Technique''. It is only a 3rd Grade Spirit Ranked technique, there was even a Yin related technique at the Heavenly Rank yet Lucy chose this one as she felt it suited her much more than all the others.
Moreover, she also planned to practice ''Liberating Heavenly Fire'', it''s a Mystic Ranked technique which is so-so, but just like the first technique she chose, she felt it suited her a lot.
Normally, it is impossible to practice with two cultivation techniques, much less two cultivation techniques which are the total opposite of each other yet Lucy wanted to try it.
She is considered a genius in cultivating, whether it''s her bloodline or due to the soul-link with Arthur, whatever it was, it made her absorb Nether Energy faster and better, advance in her skills at an unimaginable speed and add to that her Extreme Yin Body, it made her progress unstoppable.
Lucy could use both Fire attribute and Ice attribute without receiving a backlash, but what she aimed is to use themspontaneously and even try to fuse them, the result is unknown but that made it even more exciting for her.
...
Several days passed without them leaving the inn room, Lucy kept practicing in her two techniques while learning Saber Mastery from Arthur.
They did not even fight each other, she just imitated what he showed her whilst channeling her Nine Star Yin Technique.
She would use Twilight''s vow with Nine Star Yin Technique and Burning Fate with Liberating Heavenly Fire Technique. Once she manages to merge the two techniques, she would try wielding dual sabers, but it is very early to do that. She just started practicing the two techniques.
Her Extreme Yin Body helped her a lot when practicing the Nine Star Yin Technique, her surroundings will freeze bit by a bit and she would emit a bone-cold chilliness then when she switches to the Liberating Heavenly Fire Technique, the surroundings would slowly become hot and purple fire would burn at the edges of her clothes. There was no contradiction between the two techniques, even the sky-blue orb in her Dantian had some purple-red strands in it.
As for Arthur, there was not much progress in his Realm, he can''t absorb Nether Energy, no matter how match he wracked his brains, he couldn''t breakthrough.
Seeing Lucy leaving him far behind, he started feeling a bit depressed, at this pace, he won''t be able to help much in fights against people at the Divine Realm and he couldn''t afford to be that weak that he can''t even help or protect his wife, Lucy.
Since he couldn''t forcefully absorb the Nether Energy, Arthur decided to calm down and focus on Zodiak and his powers, if he could unlock another portion of his powers, then he could possibly breakthrough.
He sat cross-legged next to the mediating Lucy and began remembering the Ancient Magic, Dark Magic, Zodiak''s weird attacks and seals and so on.
He sat there for hours, Lucy didn''t disturb him and kept mediating, even after five days, which was the time they agreed upon to go to the city and find some information about Saly, Arthur didn''t wake up from thatethereal state.
Lucy took notice of this and didn''t wake him up, this may be his chance to breakthrough, waiting a bit more would not hurt since they can''t find immediate information about Saly.
....
Another five days passed and by that time, a black and weird looking talisman had been conjured above Arthur, it started condensing above his head and it was about 25% done.
Although it was only 1/4 of the talisman, Lucy recognized this talisman as it resembled the ones Zodiak used at against the Holy Church Goddess.
The talisman was pure black with some black gold runes and symbols on it, what''s more, is that very small black flames are burning on all of it, which made it look ominous.
Lucy didn''t know what was going on, but she guessed that perhaps when the talisman is completely conjured, he would break through, but just as she was speculating on what might and might not happen, Arthur suddenly opened his eyes.
From the looks of it, it didn''t seem that he broke through. Having been in a mysterious state for more than 10 days, one would naturally feel a bit of dizziness or numbness, however, Arthur felt relaxed and his mind was as calm and clear as the water.
"... Astrith... he just died... I felt it."
Lucy was expecting him to speak about what happened these few days, when she heard him say that, her eyes widened for a second and a nervous look appeared on her usually expressionless face.
"Are you sure? Perhaps the connection between you two has been disrupted."
Arthur nodded as he unconsciously clenched his fists.
"No. I''m definitely sure he just died, moreover, I received a message from him too... fortunately we came to the Underworld or else I wouldn''t have received it...."
Lucy kept silent as she could no longer remain calm, Astrith disappeared with Saly, they first presumed he died, but Arthur couldn''t summon him so that meant he was still alive somewhere, but now, he had died. What if he died protecting Saly and she doesn''t have much time left? Moreover, they don''t know where he died, so that made things even more complicated.
"He only said two words... ''Grand Banquet''..."
Chapter 95 : Reclusive Training.
"Grand Banquet? Isn''t that the party Azure Bai invited us to?"
This specific name was remembered by Lucy, but unlike Arthur, she would not call him Senior when he is not here, she just didn''t respect him to that point, well neither did Arthur but he just got used to calling him that.
But why did Astrith only say those two words, does it mean that Saly would be there? That would be too contradictory as she is only a small girl with no status in the Underworld, the only conclusion they could come up with is that the abductor of Saly would be there.
They had a detailed description of that woman from Anastassia, so they should not miss her if she comes to the Grand Banquet.
The banquet would be held after a few months, but would Saly be safe in these 2 months? What if the woman gave up on dealing with them and had already killed Saly?
"Do we wait for the banquet or continue searching?"
Arthur didn''t want to make all the decisions, he should discuss it with Lucy first as Saly is considered their daughter.
"Since it''s Astrith who said that, we better trust his words, it''s futile to waste time on searching for her, we better prepare for the upcoming event."
Lucy really wanted to find Saly immediately, but it was impossible, the only thing they could rely on is what Astrith said, if they found the woman, the finding Saly would not be too hard.
Since it was decided, both of them entered closed door training, Arthur reserved the inn room for the next 5 months to not be disturbed when they are practicing.
Lucy had already broken through the Immortal Realm, but in 2 months, she could still improve further and stabilize her foundation. There is much to do in a few months, if it were old fogies that had lived for thousands of years, a few months or a couple of years are nothing, they could even pass centuries in reclusive training.
There was also a thing that surprised Arthur; it''s that woman''s weapon, Anastassia said that she only used a book and only at the last moment did she use it. The main point is the book, its description was rather vague but from the look of it, it looked very similar to the Book of the Damned.
In the past, he thought learned it all, but after breaking the seal of the overgod of Knowledge, he came to know that there is another part to the book and her book is most likely that part. Considering that the first part gave him [Faster Than Death] , [Death Touch] and [Death Binding] .
Lucy and Arthur didn''t waste time roaming on the city, the stayed at their room and began training non-stop.
Lucy practiced in both her techniques and honed her saber skills, her progress was unbelievable and her Strength rose very fast, by the 12th day, she already broke through to the Immortal 2nd Grade. Her Mental power had to reach 2,000 but with her talent and fast progress, it was done rather quickly.
As for Arthur, he managed to enter the ethereal state again, the black talisman started conjuring again with a slow pace. The black flames kept burning and the black gold symbols shined even brighter when the talisman was almost finished.
After one month of this meticulous and non-stop training, the black talisman was 90% done. Arthur had his eyes closed and looked extremely serene. It''s like he was sleeping and not breaking through.
Deep in his consciousness, Arthur was actually having a dream, a strange dream. It happened once before but this time it was much clearer as he could distinguish himself in the dream.
He was looking at his body from above, the him in the dream was a bit older and had a beard. He wore a simple and long white robe and didn''t emit any strong pressure or chilliness.
He was holding a small baby, who didn''t even open his eyes yet, he was touching the baby''s noise and heartily laughing as he was teasing the baby in his hands.
It was a peaceful scene, anyone would think it''s a father teasing his child. As for the surroundings, all of it was plains of grass except a small hut, it was very small and had some plants stuck in it.
As Arthur was contemplating the scene and wondering what was this about, he sensed a presence behind him so he turned his head only to be dumbstruck as Zodiak''s skeleton was floating behind him.
It looked at him with its lifeless eyes and seemed to be thinking about something as it remained silent.
"Kid.. you sure have some strange past."
"Past?..."
Arthur didn''t understand what Zodiak was implying, these scenes never happened in his past, he didn''t even know what this place was, much less who the baby is.
"Senior Zodiak, I don''t think this is my past."
Arthur didn''t try to hide it as his relationship with Zodiak is not that bad, this man, who had unbelievable strength helped him more than one time, whether it''s by saving his life or giving him a hand in some matters, such as the portal to the Underworld.
Zodiak''s skeleton kept floating as it didn''t show any emotions or gestures, after a couple of seconds, the cold and emotionless voice of Zodiak rang again in Arthur''s ears.
"Not your past? You must be mistaken kid, this cannot be a dream as it is too realistic, so the only plausible possibility is that it''s your past, I heard of some people practicing Fate laws but I''m sure you are not one of them so this cannot be a dream of the future."
After pausing for a split second, Zodiak continued talking.
"Anyways, I didn''t come here to learn about your past, this is only a late message I left for you when you are about to breakthrough. Since you got my corpse, then you surely have my storage ring, inside it, there is a cultivation book for you, it''s named ''Dark Anguish Technique'', all the volumes are there, moreover, practice the ''Dark Star Body-Strengthening Technique'' it''s only 1 volume but it compliments the first one. Oh! And stop using that lowly soul absorption technique, your souls is filled with impurities, that way to increase your soul power is totally wrong, either reach a high-realm or find a Godly treasure for that!
And one last thing, don''t break through in a public place, find a seclusive place to breakthrough or troubles will come, especially if you''re in the high-Realm."
Just as he finished talking, Arthur found himself sitting cross-legged in the inn room with Lucy practicing her saber skills.
He didn''t even thank Zodiak for his help, he was suddenly ejected from that strange dream and found himself awoken here.
"Lucy, we have to change to another place"
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In a mountain range named The Decayed Tips, approximately in the central mountains which were sky-high. Lucy and Arthur built a cave very deep underground. It was rather easy with Arthur Advanced mastery in Earth Attribute, his physical strength and so on. They got here using their new Spirit Boat which had an insane speed, it was much faster than Malark''s.
They followed Zodiak''s advice and moved to a very reclusive place, this mountain range doesn''t have any strong monsters, in fact, it doesn''t have any monsters and it was just a border between the Silent Graveyard and the Void Abyss.
It was the perfect place for Arthur to Breakthrough. Lucy is rapidly advancing in her saber skills and new Yin power. She managed to create that meteorite attack in just 10 seconds, not only that her attacks with Yin power are very strong and freezing. If Arthur doesn''t use the Ancient Flames, he can''t defend, moreover, the red flames could barely withstand the Yin power as he is weaker than Lucy.
Normally the dark red flames can burn anything, but this time, they couldn''t burn Lucy''s attacks which contained Yin power and that''s because it had been enhanced by her special meridians and what''s more is that she is using Nether Energy and he''s using the meager Mana present in this space.
Arthur and Lucy sparred a few times as sometimes, the talisman would stop conjuring unless he consumes all his Mana. It is rather hard to consume it all, so he would create big and slow attacks that only cause destruction and are easily dodged, Lucy in return would try to defend with her saber skills and Yin power.
While wearing a sky-blue robe with long sleeves and with Twilight''s Vow in her hand, she seemed like a fairy. Each saber strike would create an ice beam that headed straight at the enemy, it is beautiful but deadly.
....
40 days passed since they received the message from Astrith and as this specific day, the black talisman was finally conjured fully, its size was of a normal talisman but it emanated an ominous aura that made others look away from it rather than staring at it.
Arthur was focusing on the black talisman and slowly, this dark flaming Talisman started melting and going inside his head all the way to his Dantian area.
He felt his body burning hot and all his clothes he was wearing were burned by the mysterious black flames. He was literally a ball of black flames and all his surroundings were engulfed in the flames.
Lucy stepped back and did not dare approach it, despite the soul-link, she still felt danger from the black flames.
As Arthur was feeling his meridians opening and the Nether Energy entering his body, a sudden black beam of light rushed from his body all the way to the sky. It was very noticeable and it started thickening by the second, even Lucy was engulfed in it but fortunately, it wasn''t harmful.
As the black beam was thickening, Arthur''s hair which was pure black and a bit long suddenly transformed to grey, but that was not the end, his veins and muscles started convulsing and you could see their greyness even from his skin. The pain was agonizing, he totally forgot about the black beam due to the pain from the convulsion. He was closing his eyes but if he opened them, Lucy would be surprised as they too turned to grey.
All his body was pulsating and transforming. The black beam of light started decreasing in size and transformed into a huge whirlpool in the sky, this whirlpool was absorbing Nether Energy and Mana like crazy, even the decaying mountains started falling apart as their natural Nether Energy was forcefully absorbed by the Nether Energy.
All this Nether Energy and the meager Mana absorbed went to Arthur''s Dantian through his meridians, just like Lucy, a jet black orb was condensed from the Energy, it continued increasing in size for some time until it reached its maximum and at that time, the whirlpool disappeared and what replaced it was just the sounds of the nearby mountains falling as they were out of energy.
The greyness in Arthur''s body disappeared but his hair was still grey, it even grow a bit longer. As he was steadily breathing, Arthur felt the Nether Energy being absorbed by his Meridians and he could see the black orb in his Dantian. It had black flames all over it and a purple light was pulsating in it as if it was a heart.
He checked his body condition but there was nothing wrong, in fact, he was feeling great, he wanted to fight and unleash all the stocked up energy in his body, it''s like he was a sponge filled with water.
It was fortunate that they changed location or else this would have been a serious problem, the black whirlpool was noticeable from hundreds of miles but the distance from the Undead city is not just hundreds of miles but millions of miles! So unless someone was passing from this area, no one should have seen it.
The cave they built in the underground was no long gone and what replaced it was just a very deep pit.
"Congratulations!"
The silver-haired Lucy softly smiled to Arthur, she went next to him and gave him a cloth to wear as he was naked, if it was like usual, they would have enjoyed their time as it was a joyous occasion, but now was not the time, saving Saly took priority.
"Hehe, thank you, it seems we''re going to spar more often now."
Arthur was hugely overwhelmed by her strength before breaking through, but after he grasps his techniques and stabilizes his foundation, sparring equally with her would not be a problem.
The first thing Arthur did was obviously check his status window, after all, it was the most precise thing that indicated his strength. He may have stats higher than Lucy or a Divine Realm individual but that didn''t mean he is stronger because stats aren''t everything, they are just numerical values, one had to rely on his wit, techniques to overcome his enemies.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm :Immortal 1st Grade
-
Strength
72.3m
Intelligence
63.4m
Agility
65m
Wisdom
45m
Vitality
59.9m
Dexterity
52.8m
-
Health
50m
Health Regen
29999/s
Nether Energy
48m
Nether Energy Regen
29999/s
Mana
35m
Mana Regen
19999/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation :25
Attack:
95m
Defense:
65m
Magic defense :15.5m
Enigma abilities :Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??
Mental Power :1027
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
75%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%
Light/holy:
5%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
The increase in all the stats was very obvious as all of them increased by more than 10m but that was not it, he still had a lot of corpses in his storage so without hesitation, Arthur started possessing them like crazy.
Lucy didn''t disturb him and continued practicing, as for him, after possessing all of them, he fed Makaze as many swords as it could devour, it didn''t devour all of the swords in storage as there were just too many but Arthur purposely fed it the better ones so after having devoured 40 Mystic Ranked swords and 3 Heavenly Ranked Sword, it stats didn''t increase any more.
Makaze, evil wind (Heavenly Ranked 2nd Grade)
Origins : Dark Supreme World.
LVL requirements :Immortal 1st Grade or above
Stats required :1000+ Mental Power
to equip you to need to have at least [advance sword mastery]
stats : Depends on the owner : calculation............ : +2.5m Agility/ +4mstrength / +2m dexterity
Unique skill(passive) : [Devourer] : this katana can devour any kind of sword and by doing that it''s stats would significantly increase, you need to know that it needs to feed to strong swords to increase its stats significantly, otherwise the increase would be very low.
Chapter 96 : Friendly Spar
The changes that occurred to Arthur were not just inside his body and appearance. Even the items Zodiak was wearing were mysteriously upgraded. Including the Dark Flame Ring and Zodiak''s robe.
dark flame ring : all your attacks will always contain black flames which increase the damage by 50%
Cursed robe of Zodiak : Casting dark magic is 75% faster / Nether Energy Regenerationis 10% faster // Nullify any curse/illusion/barrier magic cast on the user.
Unique skill(active)[Dark cloud]: you Can create a special cloud that allows the user to transform it however he likes.
250 Nether Energy/second
requirement : must be a controller ofDark Magic.
This upgrade was great for Arthur, not only his damage is greatly increased, the Dark Cloud can now be transformed however he likes, but the question is; Can he make a weapon out of it? So far, it has been only a mean of transport but it appears it isn''t just meant for transport and he had been using it all wrong since the beginning?
Arthur wore the long black robe of Zodiak, since breaking through, he could feel himself bursting with power, his Meridians are constantly absorbing Nether Energy even without him focusing on doing so.
In the past, he had thought that due to his Unique Race, he would not be able to absorb Nether Energy, but it didn''t appear to be the case, fortunately.
The familiar dark cloud was condensed out of thin air when Arthur wished for it. It was as strange looking as ever, it resembled a dark nebula and had a small purple luster in it, it is very hard to distinguish it if you don''t focus enough.
With a mere thought, the dark cloud transformed into a sword, moreover, there was no longer the dark nebula around the sword, just as Arthur imagined, it transformed into a golden sword which was brightly shining.
Arthur kept changing its shapes several times until an idea struck him, so he tried doing it. The dark nebula transformed into a humanoid figure, it started clearing every second until this humanoid figure was exactly like Arthur, moreover, it didn''t seem to be weak either.
He didn''t know how strong it was compared to him but it was not weak to the point of losing to a Spirit Realm person, that''s for sure. Knowing this is already more than enough, if this can be used a bait it would be great!
Next thing Arthur did was take out the two cultivation techniques Zodiak told him to practice and started checking them.
''Dark Anguish Technique'' was a normal cultivation technique that made the circulation of his Nether Energy special and had a bonus power in it, just like any other technique. This technique used the Dark magic attribute as its core and if one doesn''t have it, he would have a very hard time practicing it.
As for the second technique, it was only a body-strengthening technique with only one volume, but once Arthur read it, he understood why Zodiak adviced him to practice it too.
Apparently,''Dark Star Body-Strengthening Technique''is enhancing one''s body permanently by creating a layer of black magic around the whole body whilst limiting the use of Nether Energy, also, if mastered, the overall physical strength of the user would rise dramatically if he uses Dark Magic.
Basically, it feeds on Dark Magic to make the body stronger and vice versa, with the use of Dark Magic, it creates a protective layer from incoming attacks.
Arthur started practicing these two techniques without wasting any time, only a dozen of days are left and he had to at least stabilize his foundation.
...
The Grand Banquet is in two days. Arthur and Lucy were sparring against each currently, the surroundings decayed mountains were long demolished by the spars and could not hold on for even a day. Craters and pits of all ships are scattered everywhere, with some places totally frozen and others burned.
Arthur was flying at high speed while holding the flaming black sword in his hand, he didn''t use the movement technique he got from the Ma Clan and instead practiced a new one.
It is a simple one called ''Slow Steps'', it was a basic movement technique that anyone can practice but it is usually ignored as it was not that great.
It was mastered easily by Arthur and even with his great speed, he looked very slow yet moved at an extremely fast speed. He didn''t need a movement technique that was great for the moment, with his lightning form and this simple technique, it should be enough.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
As he was rushing at Lucy, she too wastip-toeing on the air, each step created an illusory Ice lotus under her feet, her speed equal to Arthur and it was very beautiful and pleasing to the eyes.
Contrary to Arthur, she left some after images after her as she was just too fast, with her ice-blue saber in hand, she swung it elegantly at the incoming Arthur.
The two blades clashed, despite Arthur''s special black flames and the sword conjured from Dark Magic, it couldn''t break Lucy''s ice saber, the two attributes opposed each other and clashed in the air, causing small tremors and energy waves.
Arthur suddenly teleported behind Lucy and slashed down with his sword, the Dark burst was activated and an overwhelming black beam came out of his flaming sword, what''s more, is that this strike contained some small green Lightning streaks in it.
He didn''t just slash at Lucy, a loud clap of lightning rang out, it was deafening as it came down from the sky, it was very thick and white in color, its target was obviously Lucy.
The target in question was very calm, despite seeing the two incoming attacks, she didn''t panic. An ice lotusappeared just above her, completely blocking the white streak of lightning and shattering it, but that was not the end, another Ice lotusthe same size as the previous one was flying right at Arthur''s incoming sword beam.
The two clashed for a split second before the black beam was shattered and the Ice lotuscontinued its way toward Arthur with an amazing momentum, its speed was unbelievable and it emitted a strong coldness that could freeze anyone nearby.
A black barrier was created in front of Arthur, while conjuring a dark red flaming sword, he slashed with both the swords in his hands at the incoming Icelotus.
A cross-shaped beam which had the ancient flames and the dark magic of Arthur was launched at the incoming Icelotus. The clash between them created a blinding light that lasted for a second, although the fight was in mid-air, that clash alone caused another mountain to fall apart.
Arthur and Lucy retreated repeatedly while gazing at the clash''s location to see what attack managed to survive, but it was like usual, the Ice lotus was still floating unscathed and the cross-shaped beam disappeared.
"Tsk! I got no choice then.."
As he said that, his two swords disappeared and what replaced them were orange swords with black flames burning on their edges. They were made from Eclipse Magic.
Seeing the two orange swords, Lucy frowned and circulated her Nether Energy to recover and defend.
2 Ice lotuses were floating around her systematically, it was the core technique of the Nine Star Yin Technique, it focused on using Ice Lotus to defend and attack. It is said that if the user creates 9 Ice lotuses then their power would be godly!
She already managed to conjure two, which is considered pretty good for a beginner like her, normal people would take years to do so yet she did it in a few months.
Arthur rushed at Lucy and at the same time, two figures identical to him rushed at her from the her left and right side. Each held two orange swords and came at fast speed. But you could notice that one was slower than the original Arthur and the second had an average speed, probably half of Arthur''s max speed.
Lucy was already prepared for this, so she focused on the original Arthur and disregarded the other two clones as they are long since dead after what she prepared.
The first clone was made from the Shadow Magic and the second was the transformed Dark Cloud which was named Dark Clone by Arthur.
A 3m flaming meteorite with a speed even faster than the Dark Clone came crushing at it, totally annihilating it and making it regain its normal nebula form but you could sense its weakening and turning hazy. As for the Shadow Clone, it couldn''t react in time before a mysterious and almost illusory wave of sky-blue Energy rushed at it, freezing it at the spot and then shattering into beautiful little fragments that looked a bit shiny in the air.
The main clash has yet to happen, the two Ice lotuses appeared in front of Lucy, with an Ice saber in her hand, she tip-toed on the air as she charged at Arthur.
The two orange swords slashed at the two Ice lotuses, dark flames erupted and space distorted for a split second due to the powerful clash of two strong attacks.
The Ice lotuses were slowly spinning as they struck the two orange swords, but you could see that there were some cracks appearing on them, if this continued on, they''ll shatter in no time.
"Mooo, using Void Magic is no fair... it easily devours my Yin Lotuses...."
Lucy complained,as every time, her lotuses would get countered by the Eclipse magic which had Void Magic.
Void magic was like a devourer and it apparently is like an opposite attribute of the Yin magic, it would devour it whenever it''s too close and that''s why the lotuses are shattering, they were being devoured by the Void magic in the orange swords.
As she said that, Lucy concentrated on the Ice Lotuses and they both started spinning faster than usual, the cracks stopped appearing and the orange swords were pushed back by them. Snowflakes were falling from the Ice lotuses and slowly enveloping the small area around Arthur, before he could retreat, a sphere of snowflakes had enveloped him, he started feeling a chilling coldness, even his bones were freezing and not even the protective layer managed to withstand it.
"You lost, hehehe."
As she said that, the snowflakes disappeared, so did the Ice lotuses, everything returned to normal, only Lucy was showing a victorious smile as she walked near Arthur and gave him a deep hug.
"I can''t counter that attack yet... hahaha. but the score is 15-15, it''s a tie."
Arthur didn''t care much about winning, he only sparred with Lucy to train and hone their skills with combat experience. He won many times just like her, there were no bets whatsoever, he just started calling a score when Lucy teased him and won in the first spar so wasn''t willing to give up.
"Sure, but what''s so point of the score? It''s not like the winner gets anything special."
Lucy was confused about this, she would always ask him this but he would not answer her, however, surprisingly, today, he finally replied.
"The loser has to do whatever the winner says..."
Lucy didn''t seem surprised by what he said, in fact, shechuckled when she heard that.
"But you''ll do anything I say just like I''ll do anything you say even without winning, that''s not a prize now, is it? hehehe~~"
Arthur couldn''t help but scratch the back of his head as he couldn''t think of some good prize. In the end, he just shrugged it off and changed the subject to avoid being teased any further.
"Anyways, the banquet is in two days, we should head out right now..."
"Ehhh.. but you still didn''t tell me about the prize.. I want to know."
Arthur didn''t reply as he summoned the Spirit Boat and entered it in advance as he wanted to avoid that question...
"Come on dear, why are you not telling me..."
Chapter 97 : Grand Banquet
With their new Spirit Boat, it didn''t take them long to arrive at where the Grand Banquet will be held. Not only is the Spirit Boat was extremely fast, it was very comfortable too. In the Underworld and all the higher-realms, Spirit Boats are very commonly used, be it by wealthy people or rogue travelers.
The Grand Banquet will be held in the mysterious factions in the center of the Underworld. This faction was actually an Alliance of three Human clans.
Arthur didn''t know what their names or any information about this faction, but at the very least, there is a strong chance that the woman who abducted Saly is from that clan, and her position must be very high as her strength is much greater than Anastassia, it could be said that she toyed with Astrith and her, apparently, she didn''t fight too seriously even when Anastassia used her forbidden techniques, which meant she''s at the very least a peak Grade Immortal Realm.
The Grand Banquet will not only have the important figures of the Silent Graveyard, Abyss Valley or the Void Abyss and the Monster Archipelago, ancient clans, and sects would also come over. Arthur didn''t know the real reason behind the Grand Banquet, but he never thought It is just for entertainment, after all, leaders of various forces would gather there, and it surely wouldn''t be just to have fun, right?
The Lich King Aborak and the leader of the Monster Race would be present too, as for the Behemoth, which is the leader of the Void Abyss, it is unknown if it would come or not.
Nobody has ever seen it for thousands of years, so it highly unlikely that it would show up, but that doesn''t mean that its surbordinates will not come.
It is widely known that the Behemoth is the strongest of the three leaders of the factions, it is leagues stronger than them but it is very quiet and doesn''t show up very often. Its territory is the largest and it has many strong subordinates, some are even at the God Realm.
There was a rumor saying that Aborak, the Lich King, has just broken through to the God Realm but Arthur Lucy doubted that rumor, if the Lich King is just at the God Realm first Grade, then he doesn''t have the right to be a leader of a strong faction like the Undead, his true Strength must be hidden.
Moreover, a lich is deadly for its summons and not its true strength, the creatures and things it summons can be way stronger than it is, even an Immortal Realm lich can put up a fight against a Divine Realm person if it can summon some unique and powerful species.
The Summoner class and the summoning of the lich are two different things. A lich summons dead creatures with no soul, so there is never a problem in controlling them as they would over it mindlessly, as for the creatures summoned by an expert Summoner, if they are much stronger than the Summoner, they could break from their shackles and defy their master.
Arthur could also summon undead with him Necromancy skill, but theyare way weaker than what the lich could summon for that the summoning needs a lot of Mental Power, as for a lich, it uses special skills and techniques coupled with Death Laws.
...
Despite the Mysterious faction in the center of the Underworld having the smallest territory out of all of them, it was surprisingly flourishing, with many bustling cities and various places to cultivate or have some fun.
The cities appeared more grandiose than the Undead City Arthur and Lucy visited back then, it was surprising as despite the cities being smaller, probably the size of a normal city in Astria, they had something unique about them. Maybe because it was made by humans and not a different race?
Each race has its advantages and disadvantages, perhaps humans are a bit better in constructing cities or it''s just that Arthur prefers these ones over the others. His taste may have been affected by his previous life.
When the two of them departed from the Decayed Mountain Range, Lucy broke through the Immortal Realm 3rd Grade and Arthur became a 2nd Grade Immortal. It may be surprising to others but if you practice technique that suited your body and have very high stats like them, your Realm will increase very fast to match the stats.
The Grand Banquet will be exactly held in one of the three main cities of the Human Alliance of the three ancient clans. The city is called ''The Royal Stronghold''.
The Royal Stronghold was an extremely big city, probably the only city that rivaled the Undead city, even the two other cities that belonged to the two other ancient clans weren''t this big.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
The reason is that the Royal Cobra Clan is the strongest out of the three, although it is said to be an alliance between the three, this clan is the one that almost always makes the decisions. The two other clans are called ''The Doom Bringer Clan'' and ''The Lightning Fox Clan''.
Despite The Royal Cobra Clan holding the power over the other two, it doesn''t mean they are weak, in fact, they are only slightly weaker than the Royal Cobra Clan and if they join hands, they can easily demolish it, it''s just that they would never do that. The alliance was made to join their powers and stand equally with the other strong factions in the Underworld. Considering they are unwelcomed powers that came from other Realms, they weren''t very welcomed when they first came here two thousand years ago.
The Royal Stronghold has a towering 50m wall surrounding it, it is not only a huge city but also an impenetrable fortress. It also had a very strong barrier that defends it from any sudden invades.
Arthur and Lucy disembarked from their Spirit Boat as they approached the city, it was prohibited to fly inside the city even if you have a high status, only people like Aborak were allowed to fly.
The building structures inside the city strongly resembled the ones in Astria with them being grander and better looking. There were one main road and several other alleys and roads branching from it.
As the Banquet was going to be held tomorrow night, the city was bustling with all kinds of races, young masters were visiting expensive restaurants or buying some treasures from the various stalls put in the main road.
Arthur and Lucy did not come here to sightsee, they headed to an inn and booked a normal room for a few days. After paying the Spirit Red Stones to the receptionist, the two of them went to their room and readied themselves.
Unlike everyone that was going to come to the Grand Banquet, they were not going there to have fun but to find that woman and hopefully save Saly. If that woman is indeed there, they would not sit idle even if strong figures would be present.
No matter what happens, they won''t let go of that woman unless they retrieve Saly safe and sound, and if something had really happened to little Saly, no one could predict what would happen.
"Hey, Arthur, do you think Saly is safe?"
As Lucy was sitting in Arthur''s lap as usual, she leaned on his chest as her hair was being stroked by Arthur. She displayed a calm attitude and practiced hard for tomorrow but it''s a few months are not enough for them to be able to overwhelm someone at the peak of the Divine Realm or the God Realm. She was afraid that the woman is at very high Realm, at that time, nothing could be done.
"Don''t worry, I''m sure that despite being abducted by that woman and imprisoned in some dark place, she would not be crying but training hard to get stronger, she''s no longer that frail girl after all."
Arthur comforted Lucy as he remembered the cheerful Saly, after being cured of her blindness and injuries, she became very cheerful and ecstatic, every day she would train either alone or with Astrith, despite being very young, she didn''t complain and only wanted to get stronger to fight with them, it was a childish but doable dream that motivated her every day.
He didn''t want to accept the thought of her being hurt or even dead as he didn''t know who he would react to that...
....
At the center of the Royal Stronghold was a natural river that stretched all the long of the city and cut it into two halves. It wasn''t a big river but it was very special. It had natural Spirit Water very rich with Nether Energy and beneficial to every person who practiced near it on in it. The Cobra Clan specialized in Water attribute techniques with some techniques related to Wind Attribute, so this river could be considered a blessing to them.
At the center of the city, just near the river was a small tower and wide garden decorated with special magic lanterns that made the place look breathtaking, especially at night.
The garden which was decorated with the lanterns and beautiful plants was where the Grand Banquet was held. There were tables everywhere, they weren''t crude tables but special ones made from rare wood materials. Not only that, very expensive and rare food that helps one''s constitution was served on the tables, coupled with ancient and delicious wine, the feast was grandiose and deserving of this occasion.
Many important figures were enjoying the food or the wine whilst sitting and chatting with each other. The garden was separated in two parts, one for Juniors and the other for older generation people, like clan masters and so on.
Just near the river, there was a small stage where seven empty chairs, these were where the most strong and important guests of the banquet would sit. People like Aborak and co were the ones allowed to sit there and held the highest position in the Grand Banquet. Although the factions were considered sort of enemies, that didn''t mean they had to treat each other with hate in such events, they were neither archenemies or at a war.
The night has just begun and the important figures had yet to arrive, not even all guests had come. At a time like this, Arthur and Lucy finally entered this place. Lucy changed her appearance to a normal-looking black-haired woman and wore a beautiful green robe, she didn''t look very beautiful, in fact, her appearance was only average, but despite that, she emanated a serene and fairy-like atmosphere around her.
As for Arthur, he possessed a male body from his storage, he didn''t know if the woman would recognize him if he came with his real appearance, but better be safe than sorry. To enter the banquet, he showed the token he got from Azure Bai to the guards outside, apparently, that token allowed him and Lucy to sit amongst the important figures of the older generation, so he and Lucy casually took a sit in an empty table far at the corner.
Chapter 98 : Gathering of Experts
Since the two of them sat a table for the important figures of the older generation, many people threw curious gazes at both of them. Some even thought that these two didn''t know the rules and just sat there randomly.
They wanted to go and mock both of them in front of everybody but there was some part of them that stopped them from doing so as there is also a chance that these two strangers do indeed have a high status. But if that''s the case then why does everyone know them?
No one went to greet them or chat with them which indicated that no one knows them or they are enemies with all of them.
Back at where the juniors sat, Malark and a group of Undead Generals sat at a corner discussing what''s going to happen, they are generals but still considered young as their Realm was too low, so was their ages.
If Arthur and Lucy didn''t change their appearances, he may have recognized them, but now he just threw a couple of glances at them before continuing to talk with the others. He didn''t have good friends but that didn''t mean he was a complete loner.
Not only was there Undead Generals, there were also Monster Generals and some youths from various sects and clans that were either quarreling about who''s better or enjoying the feast. It is common for juniors to fight in events like these, but now it was too early, they would fight to entertain the strong figures and perhaps impress them to gain favors from or to build a good impression.
Arthur wasn''t going to participate in this useless fights, he needs to spot the woman and attack, quite simple but very hard to do. Attacking wouldn''t allow him to find where Saly is, but if he successfully takes the woman with him and Lucy, he would be able to get Saly''s location from her, for someone who was brutally tortured, he didn''t lack ways to make her talk.
He remained calm on the outside, but he and Lucy were anxious, if people like Aborak and co got involved and try to stop them then it''ll be very troublesome.
As they were waiting for the important figures, Lucy didn''t hold back as she ate whatever she liked, even Arthur ate ravenously as if he was a beggar who didn''t eat for years. Well, the food is not going to eat itself so why not benefit from this and eat whatever is displayed? It''s not like it''s prohibited.
Time passed slowly as it was quite boring for a banquet. After an hour or so, one of the powerhouses finally came, it was a middle-aged man with a long red hair, he had a sturdy body and scars on face and neck. From the description he heard from people, he knew that it''s the clan master of the Doom Bringer Clan.
Two old men and a youth followed him, the two old men were probably elders of the clan, as for the youth, it was his son Tyga. The boy had a red hair just like his father and had a long red two-handed sword on his back. He emitted strong killing intent and thick blood sent.
"I''m welcome everyone to this Grand Banquet, I hope you can enjoy your time here."
The clan master said that with a deadpan face, he didn''t seem like the guy who loves to talk, he only said this because he was one of the hosts and simply ignoring everyone is disrespectful.
After saying that, Meyzu, the clan master sat at one of the 7 seats on the stage, he looked a bit bored as he checked the guests one by one.
As for the youth, he went to a random chair in the juniors area and sat there silently, he didn''t seem to have any friends and no one mocked him or wanted to pick a fight with him.
Followed by Meyzu were the rest of the powerful figures, they arrived just after him. There was a bearded old man with a black robe, he sat at the central chair. As for the clan master of the Lightning fox clan, it was a blond old woman with wrinkles all over her face, despite her old age, her eyes were sharp even though she was displaying a friendly smile.
Arthur felt his body being probed several times by them, clearly, they didn''t know him or Lucy, so they were curious about him, after all, someone who sits at such an area without them knowing his identity if a bit shameful for them. They didn''t dare straight out ask them so they just kept staring at him, especially the clan master of the Royal Cobra Clan and the old woman.
As they were checking the guests and elders of the three powerful clans, Lucy''s eyes constricted when her gaze landed on a black-dressed woman, she was sitting with the elders of the Royal Cobra Clan and enjoying some Spirit Wine.
"Arthur, it''s her, I''m sure of it!"
Lucy didn''t even bother to confirm her guess, the description they got from Anastassia is very precise, with a black long hair and a mysterious tattoo that could barely be seen in her neck. She was very pretty and albeit not seeing the book that Anastassia mentioned, Lucy had a strong feeling that it''s her.
Lissandra (Race : Human) : God Realm 2nd Grade.
''What! God Realm?''
When Arthur appraised her, he was seriously shocked, her being at the God Realm may thing hundreds if not thousands of times more difficult. Being appraised by Arthur wasn''t noticed by her obviously as the appraisal is a unique skill and it''s not like the probing the strong figures do.
If he tried to probe her through Nether Energy, because she''s stronger than him, she would instantly know, even if she is weaker, she would still feel it, so Appraisal could be said to be very beneficial.
Lucy''s fists were clenched as she wanted to jump on Lissandra immediately, she knew she wasn''t her match but she just couldn''t stay still, after all, this woman killed almost all the Ma Clan and hurt Saly, a person who she(Lucy) considered as her daughter!Stolen novel; please report.
"Calm down, it''s not the time yet."
Arthur held Lucy''s hands and calmed her down, he too was angry and enraged but he knew it would be suicidal, especially when Lissandra is in the God Realm. Not only was she in the God Realm, there were elders from the Royal Cobra Realm in the God Realm too.
As for the clan masters, each and every one of them was at least at the 4th Grade God Realm.
...
After a couple more minutes, a crude-looking Spirit Boat that had some cracks and dust all over it flew above the huge garden. From it descended an illusory-looking figure. It was the Lich King Aborak.
He looked like a reaper, with a long black robe and skeletal hands, he looked very creepy and terrifying, as for his face, it was blurry and you could only distinguish a somewhat skull face with two purple beams in its eye sockets.
The Lich King Aborak (Race : Undead) : God Realm 8th Grade.
Arthur gasped as he saw that, he knew that the difference between one grade in the God Realm is just too big, much less a difference of two or three. The strongest person the in the alliance of the three clans was the clan master Jizung of the Royal Cobra Clan who was at the God Realm 6th Grade, but he still was far weaker than Aborak.
What followed Aborak was a luxurious looking Spirit Boat that stretched for more than a mile! It had many decorations and a big symbol on it. Several figures descended from it.
Arthur guessed that they were the Monster Race. The one leading was a white-haired male, he looked very young, probably in his twenties. With a golden robe and a pale white skin, he was waving his hand friendly at the people in the banquet while displaying a very angelic smile.
"I thank you dear friends for inviting me to this banquet."
He slowly descended from his Spirit Boat and sat next to Aborak. He seemed like the talkative type as he started engaging in conversations with Meyzu, who only grunted and nodded in the process.
"Kilan, As friendly and forceful as ever, huh?"
The red-haired Meyzu was an old friend of this white-haired man so despite Kilan never ceasing to talk with him, he didn''t appear disgusted or irritated.
"Oh come on don''t say that, I was very happy to come here you know, it''s been centuries since we met."
This man was called Kilan, the current leader of the Monster Race and a person at the God Realm 8th Grade too. Many Monster generals and elders came with him too and sat a corner like the others too.
Only the Abyss Valley people didn''t come, no one did expect them to come anyways but that didn''t mean they were afraid, it was the strongest faction and the most mysterious one, no one would be brave enough to belittle it or pick a fight with it.
It is said that the Void Behemoth had long since transcended the God Realm, so people like Aborak and Kilan are no match for him even if they joined hands.
Aborak didn''t seem to mind that Lucy was wearing a mask, with his Realm, it was very easy to see her real appearance but he didn''t bother to dig further.
As for Kilan, he frowned as he inspected Lucy then Arthur, they were only at the Immortal Realm and weren''t special or strong enough to sit where they were sitting, so he was kind of curious.
"Hey Meyzu, who''s those two over there?"
As he said that, he pointed at the two of them with his eyes. The red-haired Meyzu glanced at them but didn''t seem interested or curious like Kilan, after looking at them for a couple of seconds, he shook his head whilst replying
"I don''t know, probably some people from one of those reclusive sects, they are like flies after all, why are you so interested..."
Kilan slapped Meyzu''s shoulder while chuckling, he didn''t reply to that question, no one knows what he was thinking at that moment.
...
Arthur obviously knew he was probed by Kilan more than one time but he wasn''t worried much as someone such as Kilan wouldn''t dare act in here.
Lucy''s gaze never left Lissandra, who was enjoying the banquet to its fullest, she would talk with some of the elders or gaze at the guests with a seductive smile on her face.
She was considered a god to the people in Astria and she was indeed at the God Realm, she only stumbled upon Astria by chance and made a small organization there as she found a portion of Zodiak''s power there, so she instructed people to look for more but apart from 2 portions in the Demon Continent and 1 portion in the Western Continent, there nothing in the rest of the world.
The Grand Banquet livened up as Juniors began showcasing their skills and techniques in front of the elders, whether to display their power or entertain the older generation.
"We proceed as planned, begin preparing."
Arthur reminded Lucy so as she would not lose focus because of her anger, things need to be done according to the plan, It''s true Lissandra is in the God Realm but they would still follow their plan.
All 6 of the 7 seats were now full, there was only one seat left empty, many people wondered who that person was, maybe it was for the leader of the Abyss Valley? But the behemoth''s body is way bigger than the whole garden so it left them curious about the identity of this mysterious person.
As the atmosphere was as its peak, a floating figure appeared in the night sky. It was an azure-clothed middle-aged man, he had a serene and calm face and showed a friendly smile as he was coming down.
"Excuse me for being late."
Bai Lingyue apologized as he descended on the stage.
"Hahaha, no need for Senior Bai to apologize, the banquet had just begun."
The one who spoke was the old man from the Royal Cobra Clan, he wasn''t offended by the lateness of Azure Bai and welcomed him to sit in the chair right next to him.
Bai Lingyue just nodded and sat next to the old man, just as he sat, he began chatting with old Li, who was the clan master old man of the Royal Cobra Clan.
Their relationship couldn''t be considered great, they were just being respectful to him because his position was rather high. Although he was only at the Peak of the Divine Realm, he was respected by all the three clans masters.
As for Aborak, he remained silent since he got here, only lifelessly staring at the riven just below.
Kilan was opposite to Aborak, he wanted to build a good relationship with Azure Bai so he butted in and tried to give a good impression.
"I see that the juniors are exchanging pointers, good good, I heard that there are some amazing talents in here."
Bai Lingyue said that as he gazed at the stage that was put in the center of the garden, it was meant for the juniors to fight each other and learn from each other.
His gaze passed Lucy and Arthur for a second before he stared back at them again; Arthur had a completely different aura to him, he also broke through to the Immortal Realm, so no matter how much he thought, Bai Lingyue couldn''t guess who the person next to Lucy was.
As for her, he just nodded at her while smiling, he was very curious about why Arthur is not here and who the person next to her is, but he didn''t go and ask. No matter was he thought, the idea of the male near Lucy being Arthur never crossed his mind.
He had unfathomable strength and could see through Lucy''s mask, so he probed Arthur''s current ''body'' and couldn''t find even a strand of Arthur''s presence, for someone as talented as him, that only meant one thing and that it''s not Arthur but a different person, too bad he is totally wrong and that Arthur had a special race.
The fighting that occurred from the start was considered just a beginning, the real show will begin only when all-powerful figures are present and paying attention, with that in mind the talent youths readied themselves to begin and show their awesomeness and improvement to their elders.
Arthur circulated the two techniques he practices and absorbed Nether Energy to ready himself.
"It''s time to begin...."
Chapter 99 : Overconfidence Leads to Death
The plan was simple for Arthur, he was going to participate in the junior fights. They were meant to just exchange pointers and learn from each other, however, everybody knew that it was not that but it''s just for the powerful factions to flaunt their powers and see who from their juniors is better, after all, the younger generation is the future of these factions.
The real appearance of Arthur was of a handsome middle-aged man, with his hear turning grey and his breakthrough, it changed his appearance. Anyone from his previous life would certainly not recognize him if he saw him now.
As for the body he possessed, he purposely chose a young body of a youth, it looked like a 19-20-year-old young man with short black hair and an average facial features. He maintained a deadpan expression as he sat next to Lucy.
There plan was thought after thinking for a long time, it wasn''t just the usual ''win all these fights'' and try to impress the older generation or claim for a good reward or even try to frighten the enemy with his power. No, their plan began the moment all the strong figures appeared, Lucy began channeling her Nine Yin Star Technique and preparing her skill.
As for Arthur, he first sat next to her and when all of the powerful experts arrived, he walked to the area where the juniors gathered and sat randomly at an empty table.
There was a middle-sized arena in the middle of the garden, which was meant for the youths to battle, an array was layed there to prevent the after-effects or the explosion from the fights to reach the spectators.
"Ha ha ha, thank you all for coming to this Grand Banquet, as all of you know, there has been a lot of spatial turbulences these past years, so it is very likely to be a lost world that has been directly or indirectly connected to our world, I wonder what are your thoughts about this?"
Jizung, who is the main host of this banquet, finally spoke to the 6 figures sitting next to him, his voice was not very loud but even the people sitting below could clearly hear his old but spirited voice.
"Old Jizung is right, it is quite strange for this many turbulences to occur, it is precisely why I came to the Underworld. The appearance of a lost world may bring a lot of benefits to whoever enters it."
Azure Bai spoke his opinion as he was speculating about this world, the turbulences were only part of the reason he came here, but he was not planning to tell the full truth to these people, on the outside they may be his friends, but only the granny from the Lightning Fox clan was a dear friend of his.
"Senior Bai is right, an opportunity like this cannot be missed."
Kilan, being the clever and ass-kisser that he is, started agreeing with Bai Lingyue right away, it was very apparent that he wanted to build a friendly relationship with Bai but it didn''t appear that the latter was impressed or pleased with this Monster Race leader.
"It is not yet confirmed that it''s a lost world, and even if it was, do you think it''ll be easy to access it? Just the location of these Spatial turbulences is very troublesome!"
The red-haired Meyzu was not in the mood for banquet or chitchatting, he wanted to just finish talking and get done with this banquet sooner than later.
"Hmpf! Obviously, we know, or why else would we have gathered here?"
The granny, who appeared to be so old that she would at any second, snorted and sarcastically replied to Meyzu. Despite her appearance, she was the clan master of the Lightning Fox and her strength was no lower than Meyzu, it could even be said that she''s stronger despite being in the same Realm and Grade as she was way older than him, so whether it''s her wisdom, knowledge or fighting strength, she is beyond him.
Meyzu had an angry look on his face but he didn''t dare retort, he just stayed silent and waited to hear the other opinions.
All people have talked beside Aborak, who remained since he came here. He was the most reclusive and strange out of all of them, despite the Undead Race having some small wars with the other factions, his name is not widely spread as never participates in these things. Even when the Race is offended or provoked, he would sit still and ignore what happened.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
It may sound surprising, but except Kilan, no one saw Aborak fight, however, just by the fact that Kilan didn''t provoke or talk to Aborak, one could know that he is not someone to mess with. The Monster Race and the Undead Race had long since been enemies, they would wage wars for small lands or simple treasures, Kilan was someone very tricky and annoying yet he didn''t directly provoke Aborak, so the others were wondering how powerful this skeleton Lich King really is.
Everyone shifted their gaze to Aborak, as he is the one who had yet to speak his thoughts. His face was still blurry with two purple lights emanating from his lifeless eyes, no one would deny his creepy and ominous atmosphere around him.
"The location of the turbulence is deep into the Abyss Valley, I and my Race will neither help you or get involved, you simply don''t know what you guys are doing by dividing deep into the Behemoth''s territory, it''s simply seeking death!"
With a cold and piercing voice, Aborak voiced his thoughts, he was not optimistic about this matter, he just wanted to clear things out and separate himself from this bunch.
After pausing a second, Aborak continued talking
"You think only the Behemoth is worthy for you to be on guard but you are strongly mistaken... I''m just saying this so you bunch don''t get obliterated and cause other forces to invade the Underworld."
Just as he finished speaking, his lifeless eyes stared at the three clans leaders, he never liked them as they came here and established a base and even took a territory, of course, he wasn''t reckless to start a fight with them, but it doesn''t mean he''ll keep silent and welcome them with open arms. For him, if they perish it doesn''t matter, but Kilan must at least so they could keep the balance.
The Underworld could be said to be a dead and mysterious world, no one knew much about it except it''s ruled by the ancient Hades, so none were brave enough to proudly claim its lands, but that didn''t mean they can''t come and slowly make a faction in here, like the three clans.
"Ha ha ha, Sir Aborak is indeed right, but isn''t Sir Aborak underestimating us? If we combine forces, especially with Senior Bai here, fighting the ancient beasts lurking in these won''t be much of a problem."
Jizung didn''t seem bothered by Aborak''s remark and kept a friendly attitude, he didn''t hold Aborak''s words too much in heart as he was overconfident, especially with Azure Bai with them.
"Underestimating you? Ha! Don''t make me laugh, it''s you who are underestimating the Abyss Valley, a bunch of old fogies at the God Realm wanting to dive deep in there? You''re overestimating your strength too much, even if you were at the Sovereign Realm you would still perish. I said what I had to say, it''s up to you to decide, I''m not going to beg you to not go there but remember carefully Kilan, you should know what''s there, right? Never forget that overconfidence leads to Death! You should have learned that the hard way."
Aborak''s tone was full of mocking as he seemed to enjoy seeing Jizung''s confident and hearing his honest words, but it was simply too unrealistic for them to even get close to those Spatial Turbulences. In fact, they were only able to know of these turbulences because they were too big and could be seen from afar if not, they would never have known.
When Kilan heard this, his smile froze for a second as he seemed to remember something, he didn''t retort to Aborak and remained silent while showing a somewhat forceful smile.
"Anyways, it''s still the beginning of the banquet, let''s see how our younger generation is, after all, they are our future and they would benefit a lot from the lost world if we access it. I''m not trying to boast but my Royal Cobra Clan has some talented youths."
Jizung still didn''t directly reply to what Aborak said, he kept his confident look and from his words, you could tell that the lost world was already in his hands. He switched the subject as he gazed at the youths from the Royal Cobra Clan near the arena.
"Old Jizung is right, it''s not time to discuss such serious matters. Speaking of our juniors, ou clan''s young Miss is not bad too... she awakened the bloodline with a nearly perfect bloodline."
Granny Shishu, the clan master of the Lightning Fox was full of smiles as she said that, her wrinkled face had a wide smile hanging on it as she lovingly looked at a green-haired girl sitting on a table with a few youths next to her. The girl had a calm demeanor and wore a stunning short purple dress. She was considered a fairy with her appearance and gentleness.
Each faction had a genius or two they relied on, whether it was the Undead Race, the Monster Race or the three clans.
....
The fights that will occur in the arena will not be like a tournament or a championship, it''ll be completely random and whoever wants to challenge someone will jump on it(arena).
Currently, a wolf-looking person stepped on the stone arena. He was from the Monster Race and looked a bit similar to a werewolf except he was not tall and he looked creepier.
"Excuse me for stepping first. This lowly one only wants to exchange some pointers with a friend, what do you say, Brother Junki?"
His gaze was directed at a Ghoul from the Undead Race, the male Ghoul was sitting with the other Undead and when the wolf-looking monster stepped on the stage, he knew he would be called.
They knew each other since long as they always fought when they met in caves or dungeons. Slovar, the wolf-looking monster would always try to steal his treasures or cause troubles, they enmity never ceased, whether it''s mocking, robbing or harassing, the two races did all kinds of things to each other, just like what happened to Malark when he stole a treasure from the Monster generals.
Chapter 100.1 : Lethality of Blood Magic
The ghoul-looking person who was named Junki stepped on the arena when Slovar called him, it would be too embarrassing to forfeit or ignore him, all the elders were looking at him so how could he refuse.
Although he knew he was weaker then Slovar, he walked to the arena and faced the wolf-looking monster. His weapon was a sword. Ghouls were a bit similar to zombie yet had their small differences too, such as they were not as smelly or disgusting as them.
All ghouls had a soul and a consciousness, moreover, they are a level stronger than normal skeletons. They have powerful physics and can only be killed when you damage their soul, otherwise, it''s useless to harm their body. They do not have an infinite Stamina and they could feel pain like normal humans. You could say that they are mutated humans and corrupted by Death Laws after their death.
Slovar didn''t take any weapon as he grinned at Junki, he was looking forward to this since a long time ago. Junki would always run if they ever meet outside but currently, there is no place to run to.
No referee was present, they just had to say they are ready and begin.
"Brother Junki, I presume you''re ready?... unless you want to forfeit?"
Junki''s face became ugly as he knew Slovar was mocking him, clearly, he wasn''t taking him seriously.
"Who do you think you are?"
Junki was someone easily provoked, after hearing the mocking of Slovar, he could not hold himself back and charged at him whilst wielding his sword and using several sword skills.
Three consecutive sword beams were launched at Slovar, but the wolf-looking monster blocked them easily with his bare hands. His thick brown fur withstood the powerful beams as if they were nothing.
...
Arthur who was watching from afar, focused on the battle to analyze what he should do, until now, nothing was very interesting. Both the parties were at the middle stages of the Deity Realm but one was way stronger than the others. For him, he just needs one attack to finish them both but that''s to be expected after seeing his stats and Realm.
The fight continued but it was one-sided and no matter what Junki did, it was useless, Slovar wasn''t even serious and only blocked the incoming attacks while continuing to mock and sneer at ghoul.
Back at the stage near the river, where the seven were sitting, Kilan grimaced and casually said
"Yo Aborak, seems the youths from your side are still lacking huh?"
The creepy looking Aborak didn''t seem to mind what Kilan said, he was not someone who is interested by these fights or wants the younger generation of his Race to win as it was useless. So what if they won? There may be some rewards from each one of the 7 people to the strongest Junior, but that''s it, for someone as old as him, rewards like that are not needed and he won''t be the one to get the reward.
He is considered a selfish person, but he didn''t completely disregard his Race, it''s just that he had goals he had to achieve and simply winning this little competition won''t do him any progress, so after hearing Kilan mock the youths of his Race, he remained silent and acted as if he didn''t hear anything.
Kilan and Aborak were old friends, but they were enemies too, it''s a complicated and strange relationship, Kilan may be mocking him but he was not provoking him, it''s just having fun as Kilan''s personality was always like this.
...
The fight lasted for 15 minutes before Junki was forcefully thrown out of the arena, he was dead but he was injured all over his body, from bruises to claw slashes, he was in a terrible state. All the people from Undead Race were looking angrily at Slovar, who kept sneering and grinning.
"What? If you want revenge then come on up on the stage."
The wolf-looking Slovar crossed his long arms and gazed at the juniors from the Undead Race. It would be a lie to say he was confident to beat them all, after all, like any other Race, the Undead Race had some strong youths too. Malark could more or less be considered a youth but he won''t be participating as it would be losing face rather than gaining it.
He was a couple of centuries old and these juniors were at most 100 years old, so fighting someone much younger than you is a disgrace even though he can beat them and if by chance he loses, it would be more embarrassing.
Another Undead youth jumped on the arena after hearing the infuriating mocking of Slovar, he was a ghoul too but unlike Junki, he was at the Peak of the Deity Realm. Normally, one would be embarrassed to fight against some lower Realm than him but this ghoul didn''t care as his junior brother was injured so much whilst he couldn''t do anything but watch from the side.
"So it''s brother Bija, aren''t you ashamed to fight someone at the middle-stages of the Deity Realm?"
With an ugly face, Bija took out a long silver halberd and retorted
"Cut the crap, I''m attacking!"
While wielding his halberd, Bija rushed at the sneering Slovar, who still wasn''t anxious about fighting someone stronger than him.
The fight was exciting to weak people but couldn''t be more boring than it already is for strong figures. For them, such slow movements and weak attacks are not worth paying attention to. At the end, Slovar managed to hold for 10 minutes before he and Bija were out of the arena. Although the ghoul won, he didn''t have any face remaining to stand on the arena and challenge anyone else, so after throwing Slovar out, he walked out of the arena with a lowered head.
....
Fights between Deity Realm juniors continued for about an hour or so before the quality of the fights finally changed. From Deity Realm to Immortal Realm.
No more Deity Realm dared to step on the arena as it was practically impossible to beat anyone in the Immortal Realm, geniuses could leapfrog a few grades or sometimes a whole Realm but that was for the Immortal and Divine Realm, or the Heavenly and Deity Realm but to leapfrog from the Deity Realm to the Immortal Realm is considered absolute non-sense.
The difference between the two Realms is just too huge, just like the Divine Realm and the God Realm and that''s exactly why Arthur felt a bit worried when he saw the Realm of the person they were going to attack.
A black-haired youthfrom the Doom Bringer Clan stepped on the arena, he was at the Immortal Realm and had a saber sheathed on his waist. He stood erect on the arena and gazed at the youths sitting on the junior area, with an expressionless face he saidIf you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
"My name is Buo Bing, I welcome anyone who wants to challenge me."
What he said may sound arrogant but everyone knew he had the power to back his words, he was one of the geniuses of the Doom Bringer Clan and someone not to be underestimated.
''Finally!''
Arthur felt ecstatic when he heard that, he didn''t want to challenge anyone or it would bring suspicion, if he challenged any person from a clan, it would cause troubles as the clan would target him, however, if someone in return said he would challenge anyone who dares, he would immediately join as then it looks like he just took up the offer that was proposed.
Just as he was going to stand up and jump on the arena, someone already appeared in the opposite direction if Buo Bing.
It was also a handsome looking youth, he appeared to be in his mid-twenties, he had blonde hair and was holding a fan in his hand. He displayed a calm attitude and a broad smile was hanging on his face.
"Since brother Buo said so, then I''ll graciously accept your offer, it''s been a long time since I fought seriously after all."
Coneli, the blondie spoke proudly as he gazed at the expressionless Buo, he was not fearful or worried about the incoming fights and kept fanning himself with a calm attitude.
As for Buo, he didn''t say anything and simply unsheathed his saber, he knew Coneli since a long time as he was from the Lightning Fox Clan, their two clans have an alliance, so it''s to be expected that the geniuses from each clan know each other.
They didn''t need to say outloud that they are ready, just from their actions one could know.
"The real fights are finally starting, ha ha ha"
Granny Shishu chuckled as she saw the two youths preparing themselves, she was not worried about who might win and had already placed all her hopes on the green-haired girl from earlier. Of course, she didn''t give up on the other geniuses from her clan, it''s just that she held the most confidence on that girl.
...
The Doom Bringer Class practiced the mysterious Blood Magic, it is one of the most powerful but dangerous attributes, it is used by the ancient Vampire Race and very few humans use it as it is lethal to them, if one is reckless and use it in the wrong way, he will surely die a miserable death.
There is many special techniques and attributes in the world, the normal ones could be practiced by whoever has a good affinity with them, but some could be practiced even without having a good affinity with them and such ones are the Blood Magic.
There is also Spatial Magic which taken from the Void Magic, so if you could use Void Magic then mastering the Spatial Magic is only a matter of time. There was also the Death and Life Laws, the Yin and Yang Attributes and so on.
After Buo unsheathed his saber, the weapon started reeking of blood and thick killing intent emanated from him. His eyes were very sharp as they intensely gazed at the Blondie, who kept fanning himself and ignored the changes that happened to Buo.
"As repulsive and aggressive as ever, huh? Men must be delicate you know?"
As he said that, purple lightning began twirling around his fan and legs. Sparks would explode near him and none did any damage to the arena or the surroundings. The moment he stopped fanning himself, his white robe transformed into a purple lightning coat and his fan was like a sharp lightning weapon.
The pressure around him increased by several folds but his face remained calm. The two youths charged at each other, one waving the saber and the other gently waving the fan at his enemy.
A mysterious looking blood wave was created from the saber edges, its target was the incoming blondie, the attack didn''t damage the arena but spectators could feel the strong power of the blood wave.
Coneli didn''t try to dodge the blood wave but instead, he waved his fan at the blood wave, creating a spheric purple lightning ball that clashed with the blood wave.
The wind became erratic and the two sides backed off, none of the two attacks managed to overcome the others and the only result was a small crater under the clashing place.
If it were not for the strong protective array placed inside the arena and around it, the clash would have destroyed it whole.
For the rest of the fight, the arena transformed into a river of blood and a purple lightning storm, it was an amazing sight, even the elders enjoyed the fight unlike the other weak and unentertaining fights.
The winner was the blood user Buo Bing, who managed to win with great effort. Coneli was someone to underestimate, his lightning attacks are powerful and fast, even with his Blood Magic, he barely emerged victorious.
Coneli walked out of the arena with a not-so-good appearance, his heard wasdisheveled hair and tattered clothes with a lot of blood stains on them. He lost but he pushed Buo to use a lot of effort to win, despite losing, their strength''s difference is meager.
It''s just that Blood Magic is too mysterious and dangerous, if he gets hit his blood would get sucked and it would heal Bui in return, so getting hit is equal to losing against people from the Doom Bringer Clan.
Seeing that Buo Bing was not going down from arena despite being injured by Coneli and panting heavily, Arthur was confused on whether this youth couldn''t move or was planning to still fight until he lost?
Either way was fine for him, Buo was at the Immortal Realm 4th Grade but hehad absolute confidence in winning, he was planning to fight the strong figures and juniors are nothing to him. He had a lot planned with Lucy, it''s not some youth who is going to ruin it all.
Buo Bing kept stabilizing his breathing and took a red colored potion from his storage. Arthur didn''t know what that but he knew it was going to help him, he was not in a hurry, Lucy was still preparing so the longer it took the better.
Without minding the amazed and envious eyes of the youths while staring Buo Bing, Arthur walked to the arena casually.
His appearance was average, he wore Zodiak''s black robe and some black tight clothes under it when he went to the junior''s area.
The good thing about the new dark cloud is that it could create an avatar of him, it would take the appearance of whoever he is possessing so it''s useful.
Seeing that an unknown youth walked toward him, Buo Bing frowned as he didn''t who is the black-robed young man was, of course, he was not planning to kick him to mock him, he welcomed any challengers, so his identity didn''t matter.
Moreover, for this youth to challenge meant he was not weak, or else he would be coming down to the arena to embarrass himself and get injured.
With a simple probe, Buo came to know that Arthur was an Immortal 2nd Grade which made him furrow his brows for a second. It was okay for a genius from one of the clan to challenge with him whilst being in the same Realm as him or a Grade lower, but for an unknown person with two Grades lower than him to dare come and fight him made him a bit displeased.
Even the people sitting on the stage were curious about his identity, Meyzu was even angry that a weak youth like him dared to come and fight Buo Bing, who was considered one of the geniuses of his clan.
"Who''s this brat? Why don''t I know him?"
Meyzu spoke with a displeased tone as he sharply gazed at Arthur while probing him.
Kilan shook his gaze to Meyzu indicating that he didn''t know the black-robed youth''s identity. Seeing that even Kilan didn''t know, Meyzu was a bit surprised, his gaze shifted to Granny Shishu and the others but all of them had a strange look, it was apparent that they didn''t know either.
"What''s with this, if no one invited him then what the hell is he doing here? Someone kick him out!"
Meyzu didn''t like the idea of some frail youth fighting Buo, it would lower his self-esteem, so he immediately ordered to kick Arthur out but before any person could head toward him(Arthur), a calm voice rang out from the stage.
"No need, that person along with the black-haired woman wearing a mask are guests I invited, they are friends."
Azure Bai was still curious about who the identity of the black-robed youth was, but since he was with Lucy then he was a friend so why be harsh toward him?
What he said surprised the five of them, Meyzu had a strange look as he was feeling uncomfortable, for Bai Lingyue to invite them they must be quite special.
"Oh! If it''s people Senior Bai invited then they''re welcome to stay, please excuse our rude behavior, we didn''t know."
Jizung stroked his beard as he displayed an apologetic look to Bai, he didn''t want to create a bad relationship with him and simply apologizing is nothing to him if could gain the favor of a character such as Bai Lingyue.
"Oh!! Since it''s people Senior Bai invited then they must be special, especially that junior, what does Senior Bai think, will he be able to resist Buo Bing?"
It was Kilan who spoke, he was very curious about Arthur and Lucy, especially when he came to know that Lucy had an Extreme Yin Body. God knows how he managed to know but nonetheless, he did so he was interested in them the moment he discovered that.
Azure Bai just shrugged his shoulders and replied to Kilan
"We shall see in a moment, ha ha ha."
Although he didn''t know who the youth Arthur was possessing was, he was sure he was not some weakling, after all, everything about Lucy and Arthur is mysterious, be it their bodies, fortune or background.
Chapter 100.2 : Initiating The Plan
When Arthur finally arrived at the arena, he stood in the opposite direction of Buo and patiently waited for him to finish recovering.
Buo Bing was sitting cross-legged and from time to time, he would take a small sip from the red colored bottle, some blood drops would come out of his skin and circle around for a couple of seconds before melting in his hands.
This process was repeated a few times but each time it would take only a couple of seconds so, by the time he recovered a bit of his strength, only a few minutes passed since his last fight with Coneli.
Arthur was not planning on using Eclipse Magic or Dark Magic as he didn''t want to warn Lissandra about his presence. She uses Dark Magic so once she sees it, she would be able to ascertain his identity and that was something he didn''t wish for. Their only advantage right now is that they are not discovered by her yet.
He wasn''t certain if she knew Lucy''s real appearance or not but even after seeing through her mask, Lissandra didn''t seem affected and totally ignored Lucy. Perhaps she only heard some description about them and never saw them in reality? None of that matters, they have the advantage of not being discovered so sneak attacking her is the best way to capture her. The only troublesome thing is that her clan would not stand still, as for others, it is unknown how they would react.
Arthur remained silent and didn''t introduce himself or speak to Buo Bing, once the black-haired youth stood up and unsheathed his sword, he said
"Are you sure you recuperated fully?"
The reason he said this was only to sound like a kind and patient person, basically, it was acting cool and friendly. But what he said was obviously misunderstood by Buo Bing, who was displeased from the beginning.
"To defeat you, it''s more than enough."
As he said that, he unsheathed his saber and took a fighting stance, he was not someone who underestimates his enemies and despite saying that, he was not going to go easy on Arthur.
Arthur shrugged his shoulders and stood there calmly, he didn''t take Makaze or any other weapon, he was not willing to show any of his skills, especially the Peak Sword Mastery.
His Sword Mastery is at flawless, whether its sword-dancing, executing perfect attacks or special slashes, he knew them all, after all, he possessed countless sword-users and had the Peak Sword Mastery, there is literally no one who could beat him in using swords.
He had many things besides the Sword Mastery, such as his Ancient Fire, the several Advanced Mastery Attributes and so on. Although he was not excellent in using them, that didn''t mean they are weak, just adding them to his normal punches or kicks would deal bonus damage but he was going to focus on one Attribute and that is Lightning.
It was one of his Unique Attributes and second to none in speed, once he transforms into the lightning form or uses [Transcendence], he becomes much more powerful, add that to the Godly and Natural Lightning, he would become almost invisible in the Immortal Realm.
Although he circulated the Dark Star Strengthening technique, he was not going to use the Dark Magic, but albeit not using it, the protective barrier around his body would still be present, moreover, his attacks would contain the black flames too.
It was unknown if Lissandra would sense the dark magic or not but the black flames were not a form of Dark Magic but something completely different, even Arthur didn''t know what they were except that they add damage and are very lethal, even to Lucy''s Ice Lotuses. Although they could barely block them, they can''t do so permanently.
The more intriguing thing is that the ring he wore also added black flames the same as the one he got from the breakthrough, previously, when he wore it before breaking through, no one black flames showed in his normal attacks but currently, even a normal punch would produce them, he had no way of cancelling that, even with the help of the System.
...
The battle has finally begun, Buo charged at Arthur with great speed, a huge blood wave was created by a wave of sharp saber and its target was Arthur, who was still standing still.
Seeing that a blood wave was aimed at him, Arthur was confident that a Dark barrier or the dark protective layer around his body could easily withstand it, but he decided to not do that, it would be too obvious and he wanted to show a bit of struggle in front of ''them''.
Yellow Lightning twirled around him and many lightning streaks whistled through the air and blocked the Blood wave. They looked like normal lightning streaks but they soon formed a net bigger than the blood wave and completely blocked it from advancing further, what''s more, is that Arthur was already on the move. It was unknown how but he appeared at the right side of Buo and sent at the enemy''s arm, making him back away a couple of steps.
He almost put no strength in his kick as to not seem overly strong, with his astronomical Strength stats, he could have crushed all the bones of Buo but he restrained himself and held back a lot.
However, this one-sided exchange was more than surprising to the spectators, especially Meyzu, who was going to enjoy seeing Arthur get beaten badly by Buo, but unfortunately, it was the other way around. Not only was his blood wave blocked by his lightning, he managed to kick Buo and push him back.
Granny Shishu frowned when she saw the lightning, although it was the most basic lightning with yellow color, she, as a lightning user, could feel its extreme intensity and power. Such powerful lightning despite being only a basic one is terrifying, what if he could use the special lightning of her clan?
Moreover, she and the other six could see him transform into lightning and appear near Buo, that speed was not something the black-haired junior could match.
"Granny Shishu, what do you think about that brat''s movements? He clearly used Lightning."
The one who asked was the irritated Meyzu, despite being displeased with what happened, he had to admit Arthur''s movement and attacks were a bit fast and overwhelming to an opponent such as Buo.
"It''s just that Basic Lightning, you could notice that just from the color, but his use of it is perfect and flexible to a terrifying degree, I say Meyzu, your junior is no match for him, you better call him back or he''ll just embarrass himself."
Granny Shishu didn''t hold her thoughts and spoke honestly, it was obvious just from one exchange that Arthur was stronger, it may seem like nothing to others but just by the way the blood wave was easily blocked and his speed, an expert could ascertain that Arthur is stronger despite being at a lower Grade.
"Buo, you''re not his match, forfeit."
It was unknown what he used but Meyzu telepathically to Buo, no one but the two parties could hear what he said.
Hearing the clan master say that, Buo''s face turned ugly and his expressionless turned into one of anger and unwillingness, albeit losing the previous exchange, he was still confident he could hold his ground against Arthur but since it was a direct order from the clan master, he couldn''t be stubborn and disregard the order.
Currently, everybody was gazing at the arena. The blood wave had already dissipated but the lightning was still floating a couple of meters above Arthur, it transformed into a huge lightning spark. If Arthur wanted, he could use the Natural Lightning, but that was too deadly, if it touched Buo, the strong vibrations could crush his bones and possibly his Meridians if he could not resist them, crippling such genius would make Meyzu thirsty for revenge, after all, he appeared to be someone who takes care of his clan''s disciples.
You could see that just by the fact that he told Buo to back off, he didn''t want this junior to suffer a set back by losing miserably to Arthur, as an experienced and old expert, he knew who would win in this fight after that exchange.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
After staring at Arthur for a bit, Buo Bing unwillingly walked out of the arena after saying three words.
"I admit defeat."
What he said was expected by the elders but the juniors were dumbfounded, the battle lasted barely a minute and Buo already admitted defeat? How could that be so?
Many were unable to believe what just happened, after all, Buo was considered very strong, he even won against Coneli, so it was kind of strange that he admitted defeat this fast.
Azure Bai was smiling as he gazed at Arthur, he didn''t know who the youth was but he was very curious, especially after seeing what happened. One other person who was curious was Aborak, but he was not curious about Arthur but the robe, precisely the symbol on its back.
The skull symbol that changed to blood red color, it was a creepy looking skull with a third eye on its forehead, the Lich King kept staring at it for some time and pondering about something. Of course, he didn''t voice out his thoughts and kept them to himself.
Even Lissandra was staring at the arena, she was not curious about the symbol as she never saw it, despite having gained a portion of Zodiak''s power and the strange book, she never saw that symbol. She was only curious about the youth but him being Arthur never crossed her mind. She came here to enjoy here time and have fun, for her, the junior fights are some kind of entertainment to pass time, it''s a bit funny when you know that all the things Arthur and Lucy prepared and specifically for her and the ''fun'' she is having is not something that will last long.
....
The atmosphere was dead silent as Arthur stood in the middle of the arena and gazed at the juniors sitting not far away. After some time, seeing that no one was willing to come here and fight, he showed a friendly smile and said
"I''m MoonStar, I wonder if anyone is willing to exchange some pointers with me?"
He didn''t say any arrogant word and only spoke what was on his mind, or so the listeners thought, his goal was something else but he had to act and couldn''t rashly provoke everyone.
Whether it''s the Royal Cobra Clan, the Lightning Fox Clan or the other factions, each had one unique Genius they relied on him. For the Monster Clan, it was there were two, one was very familiar to Arthur, it was Young Master Yun and the other was a white-haired youth that looked a bit similar to Kilan.
The Undead Race had a lich at the Peak of the Immortal Realm, the lich looked like a skeleton and wore a grey robe, from the beginning of the banquet, he didn''t speak or move, he was even more bizarre than Aborak.
The Doom Bringer Clan had the youth that came with Meyzu, the youth had a sword on his back and red-hair like Meyzu, he emitted thick killing intent and stayed silent with his eyes closed since the beginning. The Lightning Fox Clan had the green-haired and fairy-like girl and last but not least the Royal Cobra Clan which had a woman. It was a woman in her twenties with an alluring body. She wore a tight dress and sat next to other girls while enjoying some dessert.
She completely ignored what was happening on the arena and simply chatted with the other girls, even her outfit was not meant for fighting, clearly, she came here not to fight with others but to enjoy her time.
All of these geniuses were at the Peak of the Immortal Realm and they represented their own faction.
...
After Arthur spoke, no one jumped on the arena, the juniors just gazed at him with envy and curiosity. They were intrigued by his identity, although they didn''t understand how he still made Buo admit defeat.
"Fuck! Senior Buo just admitted defeat because he was injured from the previous fight, who does this punk think he is? I''ll take care of him."
A short youth jumped from the crowd, he wore the outfit of the Doom Bringer Clan and held a gold scabbard with a short sword sheathed in it.
He was displeased by the previous fight and wanted to regain the little bit of face his clan lost, all the juniors felt he was courageous but extremely stupid, especially the elders.
"It seems Brother Meyzu''s clan disciples are talented and courageous."
The praising words of Bai LIngyue were like needles piercing Meyzu''s ears, he was angry because of Buo''s defeat but here is another idiot jumping to his doom.
"Let''s begin!"
As he said that, the youth unsheathed his sword and leaped at Arthur without even waiting for his answer. A weak-looking Blood Ball was conjured from a blood gem engraved on his gold sword, the blood ball flew toward Arthur''s head.
The youth followed that by a slash of his sword from afar which created 20-inch blood snakes that swirled around the blood ball and increased its speed.
Seeing this, Arthur didn''t budge, the huge lightning spark above him came down and with a speed faster than the incoming attack, it struck the blood snake and the ball, shattering them instantly. The yellow lightning didn''t stop as it hit the youth''s chest before he could react. The poor youth was sent flying out of the arena with a bloody wound on his chest, his clothes were burned from the attack and blood flowed out from his injuries.
Arthur purposely avoided any vitals but he still broke some bones and dealt some damage to the youth''s body. He waiting for the right time to begin the plan.
No one was surprised when they saw what happened, it was kind of expected, although most of them were confused on why Buo admitted defeat, no one thought Arthur was weak and simply jumping on the stage like that youth is totally idiotic.
The lightning spark returned to where it was an kept floating there, if Arthur wanted, he could make it bigger but he decided to just let it be like that. He was not planning to display all his power.
The atmosphere returned to its usual silence, no one spoke or went to fight Arthur, which made it awkward. After some time, a person could not bear it and leaped on the stage.
It was a youngster with a golden-robe and handsome looks, he was Young Master Yun who Arthur met in the Treasure Pavillon.
"It''s time for the big shots to fight right now, why don''t you go down from the arena?"
Yun was not planning on being respectful toward Arthur, so he cut through the chase and said what''s on his mind. Arthur''s presence made thing awkward and stopped the fights since that''s the case, the fight between the geniuses is going to begin so he told Arthur to go back and it was not his place and he was not worth fighting.
However, but he heard next made Yin almost cough out blood, his face turned ugly and his smile disappeared.
"Why should I? Defeat me and I''ll step back from the arena, that''s how things are, or perhaps you can''t do that?"
Yun was not expecting Arthur to retort like that, so he remained silent for a bit before grinning and arrogantly saying
"Fine! It''ll be done in a second, let''s not waste our time!"
As he said that, Yun took out golden black gauntlets from his storage. The gauntlets were big and had some spike on their edges. Yun didn''t waste time as he hastily wore them and took a bizarre fighting stance. He was overconfident in his win but he simply was not going to fight bare-handed against Arthur, he saw what he was capable of and had to be a bit serious.
A golden light emanated from his robe as his long hair fluttered in the wind. His appearance was dazzling as it made many young maidens heart beat rapidly.
Seeing that Yun was going to attack, Arthur secretly took out a blue talisman from his storage and stuck into his wrist under his sleeves, no one was able to see his actions as it was in a very secretive and fast manner.
After doing that, Arthur shifted his gaze to Yun and displayed a provoked and sneering gaze, as if he was saying ''Come on! Attack me, I''m waiting for you..''
Yun rushed at Arthur while punching out with his gauntlets, various golden energy bursts were created by his countless punches, although he was still far from Arthur, he kept punching and each punch created a strong golden energy burst that was aimed at Arthur. Clearly, he was planning to finish this from the start.
Arthur didn''t hesitate as he circulated the lightning spark and created 4 feet lightning shield planning to block the energy bursts. He also moved from his position and made his way toward Yun while making a huge detour to avoid the energy bursts.
Two small needle-like streaks of lightning were launched from his fingertips, their target was obviously Yun''s body, precisely his two eyes.
Arthur''s speed was a bit slower than Yun but in no time, the two of them arrived in front of each other and clashed. The two lightning sparks were shattered by Yun''s gauntlets, after blocking that, he rooted his legs into the arena and punched out with immense strength.
Blinding golden light was emanating from his gauntlet as a strange looking seal appeared in front of the gauntlet. A strange looking lantern appeared on Arthur''s left hand, he waved around and placed it where the gauntlet was going to hit him.
The grey looking lantern was shaken a bit by Arthur''s hand and yellow fog came out of it, the process was very fast and by the time the golden seal hit Arthur''s chest, the condensed yellow fog was already around it.
Arthur received the attack head-on, blood came out of his mouth as he was sent flying, but before he did, he clapped his two fingers, making an unnoticeable sound and at that time, several thunderclaps rang out in the arena.
The thunder streak out the condensed yellow fog and all its surroundings, including Yun, who was happy that he landed his hit but the happiness disappeared as the pain followed, the thick thunder explosion sent his body flying high-up in the air, some blood leaked out of his lips as he fell to the ground and slowly stood up with an ugly face.
The item Arthur just used was a Mystic Ranked Item that stores Lightning energy and condenses it, then when released, it transforms into thunder explosions that deal tremendous damage.
The only reason Arthur was sent flying is because he acted it out, such strike from Yun would not hurt him normally, not after he started practicing the Dark Star technique, but he nonetheless acted as if he was injured and spit some blood.
After stabilizing his body, Arthur rushed at Yun yet again with several lightning balls circulating around him, they formed a star-shaped lightning with each ball on an edge of the star, then it started increasing in size until it was the size of a normal human.
Arthur pushed his hands on the star-shaped lightning and with ''bzzt'' sound, it flew with an extreme speed at the panting Yun.
The golden-robed Yun was surprised by Arthur prowess, seeing that another attack was coming at him with fast speed, he roared and punched the air yet again, but this time you could feel the arena''s ground shake.
A bigger golden seal was formed, this time it emitted an incredible pressure as it struck the star-shaped lightning and shattered immediately.
Seeing this, Arthur''s eyes sharpened, he charged at the huge symbol while waving around a long lightning whip in his hands, the last thing the spectators saw was a bright flash before Arthur''s body was sent flying out of the arena and Yun staring at it with a daze.
After a few second, Yun grinned and crossed his arms in a proud manner as if he expected this outcome.
Chapter 100.3 : Initiating the Plan (2)
"It seems the guest you invited is actually not bad, Senior Bai."
Meyzu said that while having a smug look on his face, the disgrace he suffered earlier was returned when he saw Arthur''s body sent flying out of the arena.
"Indeed, Senior Bai, that young man has a promising future, for him to cause Yun to be in such a miserable state is a great feat."
Kilan, who was supposed to side with his Race, praised Arthur and completely disregarded Yun for he didn''t care about Yun a lot, what he cared about most right now is appealing to Bai Lingyue and possibly gain a favor or two."
He showed his usual friendly smile as he gazed at Arthur, who slowly stood up and went to the table he was sitting at previously.
Bai Lingyue didn''t comment on this as his eyes were fixated on Arthur, who was making his way to his seat. He didn''t appear depressed about Arthur''s lost as his(Arthur''s) face was expressionless without regret or unwillingness.
"Ha ha ha, I told you to back off earlier but you didn''t heed my warnings, serves you right! It''s for the strong people to fight and not weaklings like you."
Yun''s mocking voice rang in the silent garden, he looked at Arthur with eyes full of contempt and sneering. Although he was saying that, his appearance didn''t look that good to be honest. With wounds all over his body and most of his robe ripped apart from the thunder explosions, his exterior appearance couldn''t be worse.
With Zodaik''s black robe covering his body and head, Arthur silently sat on the chair and didn''t speak a word, after a few seconds, he grabbed a piece of meat and stuffed ii in his mouth, he chewed slowly and the chewing sound could be heard as no one spoke and merely stared at him.
"Ha ha ha, he is an odd entity, although he lost, he is so calm. I wonder if you could introduce me to him?"
Granny Shishu had an interest in Arthur when she saw his skills with lightning. Despite being only basic lightning, he used it in so many manners and his prowess with it is unbelievable.
Her relationship with Bai Lingyue was very close so she rarely called him ''Senior'' like the others as she was older than him and they were close friends. If he could introduce Arthur to her and this junior accepts joining her clan, it''ll be beneficial to her.
"Would you believe me if I said I never talked to him or met him?"
With some kind of strange technique that allowed Bai Lingyue to speak with Shishutelepathically, he transmitted that to her with some a curious and surprised tone.
Granny Shishu frowned when she heard that, she didn''t maintain her frown as to not alert the others and replied to him
"You do not know him? Then how come you said you invited him?"
"It seems the guest you invited is actually not bad, Senior Bai."
Meyzu said that while having a smug look on his face, the disgrace he suffered earlier was returned when he saw Arthur''s body sent flying out of the arena.
"Indeed, Senior Bai, that young man has a promising future, for him to cause Yun to be in such a miserable state is a great feat."
Kilan, who was supposed to side with his Race, praised Arthur and completely disregarded Yun for he didn''t care about Yun a lot, what he cared about most right now is appealing to Bai Lingyue and possibly gain a favor or two."
He showed his usual friendly smile as he gazed at Arthur, who slowly stood up and went to the table he was sitting at previously.
Bai Lingyue didn''t comment on this as his eyes were fixated on Arthur, who was making his way to his seat. He didn''t appear depressed about Arthur''s lost as his(Arthur''s) face was expressionless without regret or unwillingness.
"Ha ha ha, I told you to back off earlier but you didn''t heed my warnings, serves you right! It''s for the strong people to fight and not weaklings like you."
Yun''s mocking voice rang in the silent garden, he looked at Arthur with eyes full of contempt and sneering. Although he was saying that, his appearance didn''t look that good, to be honest. With wounds all over his body and most of his robe ripped apart from the thunder explosions, his exterior appearance couldn''t be worse.
With Zodaik''s black robe covering his body and head, Arthur silently sat on the chair and didn''t speak a word, after a few seconds, he grabbed a piece of meat and stuffed it in his mouth, he chewed slowly and the chewing sound could be heard as no one spoke and merely stared at him.
"Ha ha ha, he is an odd entity, although he lost, he is so calm. I wonder if you could introduce me to him?"
Granny Shishu had an interest in Arthur when she saw his skills with lightning. Despite being only basic lightning, he used it in so many manners and his prowess with it is unbelievable.
Her relationship with Bai Lingyue was very close so she rarely called him ''Senior'' like the others as she was older than him and they were close friends. If he could introduce Arthur to her and this junior accepts joining her clan, it''ll be beneficial to her.
"Would you believe me if I said I never talked to him or met him?"
With some kind of strange technique that allowed Bai Lingyue to speak with Shishu telepathically, he transmitted that to her with some a curious and surprised tone.
Granny Shishu frowned when she heard that, she didn''t maintain her frown as to not alert the others and replied to him
"You do not know him? Then how come you said you invited him?"
She knew him for a long time and he would not casually things like that, especially to help or protect a total stranger.
"It''s true, today is the first time I see him, however, that woman with the mask is the one I invited, she was supposed to be with a man but apparently he did not come such a shame."
The sharp eyes of the old woman shifted from Azure Bai to Lucy, who was calmly sitting at a table in the area designed for experts and clan masters. She was sitting alone and wearing a simple dress and her appearance was average, or so the people thought but she had a stunning beauty under that mask. Shishu saw the silver hair and the real face of Lucy but she wasn''t that surprised.
In high-Realms, beauties were everywhere, when women reach a high-realm, they can practice techniques that allow them to maintain their youth. There is treasures and ancient items that could do as well. Even Shishu used it back then but she aged after a long time passed as she didn''t break through for a very long time which made her body age as well.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
"Does they come from a high-Realm? That boy has a perfect control over the Lightning, it''s even better than ''Miya''."
"Even I do not know what their origin is, I met them at the Treasure Pavillon and we became friends then. I didn''t see them fight but even without that they had many... many unique and special things about them."
Bai Lingyue didn''t say any details but just from the way he spoke, you know he gave them a high evaluation which surprised granny Shishu.
"Anyways, it is quite unfortunate that the boy lost, I guess the opponent was a bit too much for him to handle."
Listening to her, Bai pondered about the last battle as was unsure of what happened, after remaining silent for a period of time, he spoke telepathically to her again.
"About that.... he should have won, I''m not sure if controlling Lightning like that consumes his Nether Energy at a very fast pace or if it''s another thing, but I''m sure he could have won but...."
"But what?"
"... But he didn''t. It''s whether he purposely lost or he has a very weak defense to not withstand even a simple punch."
Bai Lingyue put his hand on his chin and continued thinking about the fight while gazing at Arthur''s figure. He simply couldn''t believe that his assumptions are incorrect as he was never wrong to this degree. Unfortunately, the truth layed before his very eyes.
...
Yun sat cross-legged and recuperated some of his energy, the last battle was tough for him as Arthur was not some weakling, he only mocked him like that to not appear weak, he wanted to maintain his oppressive and arrogant attitude to display his might in front of the old ones.
After spending 15 minutes recovering and using some expensive Healing Potions he had in his storage, Yun changed his robe and wore another one which was exactly the same.
As he finished readying himself, he did not descend from the arena but looked at the top geniuses left from each faction, his gaze only focused the five of them.
One was the other genius of the Monster Race, the lich from the Undead Race and the three youths from the three clan alliance.
"I wonder if this Young Miss is free to exchange some pointers with me?"
Yun was gazing at the green-haired girl from the Lightning Fox Clan, he didn''t recover fully but he could still fight so he chose his next opponent by challenging her.
Miya, who was silently sitting at a table with her friends was a bit startled to be picked first, however, she didn''t show it on her face.
With a gentle smile, she nodded at Yun and said
"If Young Master Yun is fine with me then I would be glad to exchange some pointers with you."
As she said that, she got up from her seat and slowly floated toward the arena. She was like a fairy as her long robe fluttered by the passing wind. She had a serene and calm face and held a soft and long white saber.
Her floating seemed slow but she arrived on the arrived in the blink of an eye. Seeing that she already unsheathed her saber from its scabbard, Yun took a fighting stance and said
"Whenever Miss Miya is ready."
Her only reply to him was a quick dash to his direction, purple lightning twirled around her saber but it appeared to be calm and not raging like the normal nature of any lightning.
Miya''s speed was incredible as few spectators couldn''t keep up and only saw a purple blur rush at Yun. Seeing the enemy coming at him, Yun punched the air with his gauntlets which created a tremor through the whole arena but didn''t cause any actual damage.
No golden light appeared like earlier, not even the golden seal was present, it was only a simple but terrific punch. The wind twisted where the gauntlet punched and a horrifying outburst of wind compressing was created from the punch. It looked like the air was twisting from afar, even the incoming purple snake created by Miya''s slash was sucked in the twisting wind.
The calm Miya retreated hastily when she saw that, she didn''t dare get near it as she felt imminent danger from it.
No explosion happened, after twisting for a bit, the wind returned to its usual calmness and what was left was the figure of Yun punching the air. After blocking Miya''s attack, Yun jumped toward her with a speed equal to hers.
Being the genius she is, it took her only a split second to recover from that powerful attack of his. Purple lightning appeared all around her body and even strands of her hair turned purple.
''bzzt'' ''bzzt''
Lightning sounds rang out in the arena and soon, a 2-meter purple lightning snake twirled its body around Miya''s. It hissed at the incoming Yun. Once he was close to it, it spat a huge purple lightning ball which flew at Yun with insane speed, he couldn''t react in time at it was already upon him in a split second.
In such a desperate situation, he lifted both of his gauntlets to defend against the lightning ball but unfortunately, it was futile as the lightning ball sent his body flying high in the air and it quickly invaded his body.
Seeing that he was severely injured by the ball and falling to the ground with blood gushing out of a grievous wound created by the lightning ball. Yun bit his tongue to remain conscious and shifted from falling to crazily flying to Miya.
She presumed the fight ended and was about to call the snake back when she suddenly noticed the crazed Yun fly toward her. She panicked as it was only a spar and there is no need to injure him any further or he would die, however, seeing that there was no choice, she lifted her white saber vertically and pushed the tip of it on the arena''s ground.
Once that happened, the snake turned into a huge purple lightning net that circled above her and formed a huge lightning sphere similar to a net that covered her and Yun.
Of course, this did nothing to him apart from imprisoning him inside it but he could care less about that, with a roar Yun punched out again at Miya when he was only a couple of meters away from her.
The moment he punched out, the purple lightning compressed in an unbelievable speed and struck his back, the golden robe he was wearing burned and he was pushed on the ground making his punch useless as his gauntlets hit the ground just like he did.
While groaning, Yun struggled to stand up but the purple net was pressing against him so he could not retaliate.
Seeing his desperate tries, Miya sighed and approached him, she squatted and softly shook her head as if indicating for him to stop but she was surprised to see him show a smirk once she squatted near him.
She didn''t know but she felt danger, the purple net that was containing him suddenly enveloped him and threw him outside of the arena, making his body all bloody.
...
Seeing this scene, Lucy who was quietly sitting alone took out a talisman from her storage and secretly slammed it under the table. Although she intended not to alert anyone, her actions were instantly seen by Bai Lingyue, who was keeping a close attention to the fight and her at the same time.
He didn''t what the talisman did and was curious about why she was doing, he didn''t say anything and remained silent while frowning. No one knew what he was thinking as he gazed at her and the talisman stuck on the table.
Miya remained silent but a bit startled by that grin of Yun, maybe it was disgust or her instinct telling her to retreat, fortunately, she reacted before he did anything and sent him flying away from her.
Unlike the previous matches, she didn''t remain on the arena and returned to her table, she didn''t want to show off and would only fight when her name was called.
People from clan were cheering for her and the Monster Race was feeling a bit gloomy seeing what happened, they were angry but could not vent their frustration as Yun lost fair and square. They were only a bit angry for she didn''t need to injure him this much, especially the last attack, it was too vicious for a fairy like her.
No fights continued and after resting for thirty minutes, the white-haired youth from the Monster Race walked up the stage and challenged the lich.
This was a fight everyone was excited to see, their attention was fully focused on the fight as the lich summoned some powerful specters that are tough to deal with. These decayed and creepy looking monsters that floated around the lich and damaged the white-haired youth from afar were quite annoying to deal with.
The youth surprisingly used a big red bow that shot magical arrows filled with a destructive and unique fire.
Fire and Thunder are considered the weakness of all evil, including the specters, so when he continuously shot the almost invisible arrows from that bow, specters were falling left and right.
The crow of spectators was cheering for both parties and the battle reached its climax after a few minutes.
At such a time, Arthur, who was silently eating some meat for a while ago finally made a move. His body floated close to where Lissandra and the 7 strong figures were sitting. He didn''t float too high to not attract attention.
Although he wished not to be spotted, his action was seen by the 7 seven figures, who unlike the others, still paid attention to the surroundings, especially Azure Bai who was intrigued on why Arthur approached them slowly as if he was trying to sneak.
Meyzu, who was displeased with Arthur since the beginning had enough of it and glared angrily at the incoming Arthur, he waved his hand as if getting rid of a bug and said
"Wh---"
Before he could finish, Arthur did something that made him swallow back his words. Countless cylindrical objects appeared around him, they were grey and green in color and had some weird words on them. There was a mind-boggling amount of them as they fell from the air.
Meyzu didn''t expect Arthur to do that, he didn''t what they were but just doing this was disrespectful to them so he was planning to punish Arthur no what happens, after what he did, not even Bai Lingyue can help him leave unscathed.
Contrary to what the others thought, this was totally intentional by Arthur, he was grinning under the black robe as countless objects were taken out of his storage ring
Chapter 101 : Ruining the Grand Banquet
Some of the strange objects that appeared fell on the ground and the rest were covering the whole sky, there was an astronomical amount of them. Arthur''s figure could be seen in the middle of them, he was raising both of his arms and gazing at the 7 sitting figures from under his dark hood.
Before anyone could react or speak, the cylindrical objects were activated. A white flash so bright covered the whole banquet, no, scratch that, at least the whole city was blinded by the sudden flash.
No person could resist the intensity of the light, not even the people at God Realm, there were some exceptions of course, such as the Lich King, who didn''t have physical eyes, so he wasn''t affected but the light still bothered him.
This flash didn''t just last seconds and even if it did, it would take seconds for the blinded people to recover as it was just too sudden, especially the weak people at the Deity Realm or lower.
Flash Grenade (modified) : After throwing it, the user can activate using the Nether Energy connection with it. Creates a blinding flash that causes ''Blind'' effect for 30 seconds. The blinding effect is lowered when the target''s Realm is higher than the user (5 seconds less for each Realm above the user).
Cost : 50 Mental Power
The intensity of the flash can be stacked by using multiple grenades. However, the effect''s time would remain the same.
In the last few months, Arthur created countless of these grenades using [Lost Magic]. Since he broke through to the Immortal Realm and with a high Mental Power, he became able to create many things that were useful. Flash Grenades were just one of many.
Although the people were blinded, they still could open their mouth and speak. Some shouted in surprise and some were enraged, such as the Jizung, who got up from his seat in fury whilst yelling loudly
"Who dares!"
He was obviously extremely angry as someone attacked them in such an important event. Jizung was the main host and even if nothing occurs, this alone could be considered a huge loss of face for him and his clan.
"Don''t panic! Use your ''Nether Sense'' and find theperpetrator!"
Meyzu kept a calm attitude despite not being able to see, he ordered the elders and supervisors of the banquet to search for the criminal. But most of the wise ones knew it was Arthur as they saw him coming toward them, but it wasn''t certain yet as they didn''t want to recklessly blame Bai Lingyue.
Speaking of Azure Bai, he remained silent and calm as he was sitting near Jizung. First, he frowned as he discovered he couldn''t get rid of the blindness no matter what he did and his surprise intensified when he thought about Arthur''s figure previously as it came toward them and the sudden appearance of the countless strange objects.
''Friend Arthur, what are you thinking?''
He didn''t see Arthur but he knew he was here after this happened, someone like this youth can''t do such a thing and blind people at the God Realm. Just thinking that it was a person at the Peak of the Deity Realm doing that made him greatly surprised.
He only thought it was Arthur because there was no enemy willing to do this bold action in the presence of so many strong figures.
Since the moment he threw the flash grenades, Arthur didn''t waste time as he rushed toward Lissandra, who was also confused about what just happened. He was not blinded by the flash grenades as he had a connection with them. They were modified so they would not harm the user but contrary to him, Lucy was also blinded for half a minute which was unfortunate but there was no other way.
His speed was extremely fast as he flew toward Lissandra while holding a long silver sword in his hand.
Aborak, who was not affected much by the flash was able to see the actions of Arthur. He didn''t like the fact that someone as insignificant as this junior dares to do that, so despite seeing him charge at Lissandra, who wasn''t from his faction, he still interfered.
It was only a wave of his hand but the force behind it was not something someone like Arthur could handle, he may not die but he would be severely injured. Such actions were predicted by Arthur when he was making the plan with Lucy, all of this was accounted for and when the illusory grey fog created by Aborak was going to hit Arthur something unexpected and even more shocking than the bright flash occurred.
Lucy''s previous preparation was not for nothing as more than 20 huge flaming meteorites came flying down from above. Each and everyone was empowered by Arthur''s dark red flames, what''s more, is that these meteorites were way stronger than the ones used last time.
The combined pressure of the several meteorites which suddenly appeared out of nowhere completely shocked the audience, especially the strong figures who felt the enormous pressure emanated from them. They were stunned to see them appear out of nowhere as it was impossible for people at the God Realm to not notice them until they were so close.
This was yet another skill that Arthur created using some of the Eclipse Magic. He used Spatial Magic, which is a small part of the Void Magic.
Spatial Passage (U) : a Self-created skill which hides anything that is put in the small Spatial Passage. It cannot be felt by anyone and can hide any non-living thing for a certain amount of time.
Cost: 100 Mental Power (You will lose them permanently and they cannot be recovered)This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Cooldown:Cannot be used until the user reach the next grade of his Realm.
Lucy was previously channeling her Nether Energy to keep the meteorites active so they would not their power inside the Spatial Passage.
Such an attack may not hurt people at the God Realm who have a lot of techniques to defend against it, but juniors or other people at a lower-Realm would be totally annihilated by this attack. The whole garden would be burned to the ground if they did not act.
"Pretentious!"
Jizung roared as he formed a seal in the air, it was a dark green seal which resembled a cobra. Following that, he took an ancient looking black scene and pushed into in the middle of the dark green seal.
His actions were the fastest amongst the 6 of them, it was unknown how he managed to see the meteorites but he nevertheless did, Kilan and the others also took out some items and in a split second, the items covered their respective disciples and elders.
But Jizung and the others were a bit too late as the meteorites were too close from the start so the damage could not be blocked.
''booom!!'' ''boooooom''
Earth-shattering, deafening explosions resounded in the ears of everyone present, blood dyed the ground and several gigantic red roses burned in the already black-ish garden. The spiritual Riven was nowhere to be seen as it was turned into a fog by the dark red flames.
The explosions added to the blinding effect, with some rubbles, dust clouds all over the place, the garden turned into a battlefield and could no longer be recognized as the place where the Grand Banquet was held.
Lucy backed away in a corner as she previously aimed the meteorites at all places except the area she was in. Despite being unable to see, it was rather easy to retreat. As for Arthur, he didn''t manage to reach Lissandra in time. The grey fog emitted from Aborak almost vanished by the surprise attack of Lucy but it was not totally deflected.
Some of it reached him and sent pushed him to the ground as if a huge mountain was pressing on him. The black robe was not affected but some of his bones shattered to ashes and his skin began melting in a very weird way as the grey fog integrated with it.
Not even a single cry came out of Arthur''s mouth, he ignored the damage done to his possessed body and rushed toward Lissandra.
The blinding effect for the God Realm was almost over, the time was too tight for him to care about pain or cry out. With the silver sword in his hand, he appeared behind Lissandra and coldly stabbed the sword exactly to her spine.
For someone at the God Realm, their bones are one of their main defenses, so he did not have any hope to crush her spine but simply damaging them would be enough.
Unfortunately, the stab didn''t even go through her dress, much less penetrate her skin. Some kind of dark green layer was covering Lissandra. The moment Arthur appeared behind her, she instantly noticed him despite being currently blind. When he stabbed and didn''t do any damage, Arthur was planning to retreat but Lissandra was way faster than him as a dark whip was suddenly wrapped around his waist very tightly, crushing his bones and making him unable to move.
"Where do you think you''re going? Such insolence!"
Lissandra wanted to kill him but she couldn''t as she wanted to know the reason he attacked her and why. She couldn''t see him so she couldn''t know his identity but just by probing him, she saw that he was only at the Immortal Realm.
Her cold yet angry voice rang out in his ears, the dark whip she was using tightened around him, almost cutting him in two but he still didn''t emit any sound. The only thing he did was stare at her with thick killing intent coming out of him.
Second by second passed slowly as the eyes of the eyes of the God Realm people began to recover, the 20 seconds were almost over. Nothing happened after the explosions but these were enough to cause a huge ruckus as many people died despite the elders using items to protect them from the meteorites.
It''s not that the items they used were weak but it was too late for them, if they weren''t at the God Realm then all the people here would have died, with the exception of them and some elders at the God Realm of course.
With their eyes recovering and nothing occurring, some began to relax for a bit but that only lasted for a second or two at most as suddenly, another deafening sound rang out.
The sound came exactly from where the elders of the Royal Cobra Clan were sitting, more precisely it was where Lissandra was standing. She didn''t think this weakling could hurt her but what she didn''t expect is an extremely thick and terrifying bolt of white Thunder.
Yes, it was Thunder and not Lightning and it is the upgrade of the Godly Lightning which became Godly Thunder. It takes more time to generate and it is slower than the previous one but it is much more destructive and terrifying.
The bolt of Thunder was even thicker than Lissandra as it came down from above, it is slower than Lightning but it''s still fast, coupled with terrifying pressure and ear-deafening sound it brought, Lissandra''s face changed as she hastily let go of Arthur and backed away without hesitation.
Her decision was very fast, in just a second she appeared a distance away from the bolt of Thunder. The white bolt struck Arthur and the area around him, creating dust and a huge pit where it struck. He was not hurt but the ground turned jet black and the pit was several meters deep.
Eyes were very important things, even for people at the God Realm. However, they were not everything, such strong figures could sense danger from miles away and don''t need eyes to dodge them but being blinded still affected their fighting abilities.
Just when the bolt of Thunder struck its target, the vision of the people at the God Realm was finally recovered. They were dumbstruck by the sight in front of them. If one called it a battlefield, no one would rebuke him. With part of the ground dyed red and the other jet black, adding countless big and small craters, the sight couldn''t be more dumbfounding.
The red roses were still burning and emitting intense heat as they burned the ground even further, the meteorites were all over the place and some elders were hurt by them as even with the protection of the powerful six, they still received damage.
"What the hell..."
Granny Shishu couldn''t find words to describe what she was feeling, the first thing she did was ascertain the safety of Miya, but since she used her wooden statue of the lightning fox to create a barrier around Miya and the juniors, nothing happened to them, fortunately.
Even Bai Lingyue had widened eyes and full of disbelief as he gazed at the flaming roses and the destruction, then his gaze shifted to where the last explosion occurred, exactly where Arthur was currently standing.
His eyes landed at Arthur, he saw his terrible state but what was more astonishing is that he was emitting thick killing intent which was directed at an elder of the Royal Cobra Clan.
Not only Bai saw that, Jizung, Meyzu and the rest also saw that, their first guess was that Arthur was the one who did all of this and it was fairly obvious.
"You!! You''re courting death, boy!"
Jizung was the first to act as he suddenly vanished and appeared in front of Arthur but the latter''s eyes were still focusing on Lissandra without minding Jizung.
As if the situation couldn''t be more surprising, 2 Ice lotuses appeared behind Lissandra, who was gazing at Arthur with anger, rage, and curiosity.
The sudden appearance of the lotuses startled her but didn''t scare her, the next thing she saw was the cold blade of Lucy coming straight at her neck without slowing down or stopping.
She sensed that Lucy is only at the Immortal Realm, however, Lissandra felt imminent danger from this attack. A book suddenly appeared in front of her, it was suddenly opened at a specific page and a creepy black hand stretched out of the book to block the cold blade of Lucy...
Chapter 102 : Fusion
The cold and icy saber of Lucy struck the creepy black hand that came out of Lissandra''s book. The hand was started to freeze from the cold tip of the saber but it suddenly moved and shattered all the ice, what''s more, is that it deflected Lucy''s saber and made her retread a few steps.
Some blood leaked out of her lips as this strange black hand was weird and strong. She didn''t hold back in the last attack, moreover, it was a sneak-attack yet Lissandra blocked it easily. The difference between them was truly great.
Having suffered in the last exchange, Lucy didn''t retreat, instead, she rushed at Lissandra yet again. The Ice lotuses behind Lissandra started blooming slowly and rotating, each one flew at one of Lissandra''s sides while Lucy took out ''Burning Fate'' and held in her left hand while wielding Twilight''s Vow in her right hand.
Ice and Fire attacks were launched by Lucy, she successively slashed down with her two sabers without stopping, the purple fire raged and cold and freezing Ice rampaged as she went all out against this woman.
She had a deep hatred toward Lissandra and if not for Arthur reminding her to not try to kill her, she would expend her Soul Essence to finish her. Although he said not to kill her, even if Lucy wanted to, killing Lissandra is impossible but if she could injure her then it''s more than enough.
Lissandra was alarmed by the aggressive attacks of Lucy but what''s moreaggravating is those two lotuses. They were blooming very slowly but the damage they are doing to her is not a joke! Some of her bones began freezing from out of nowhere and even her Meridians began shaking.
She was a person at the God Realm and the enemy was at the Immortal Realm, this was a huge disgrace to her clan and especially to her and her pride.
A dark whip conjured from her Dark Magic appeared, she held the whip and slashed at Lucy, but that was not the end. In place of two hands, a sharp claw appeared out of the book and stabbed right at Lucy''s heart!
The two simultaneous attacks were very strong and someone such as Lucy couldn''t withstand both of them.
Seeing death approached, Lucy crossed both of her sabers in front of her chest and mumbled
"Shatter!"
Her two blades shined with purple and Icy-blue colors, they intersected and created a cross-shaped slash that went against the whip of Lissandra.
As for the sharp dark claw, it was met with the two lotuses which appeared in front of it and shattered instantly into countless pieces. The explosion created by the lotuses was very destructive as Lucy was pushed down high in the air whilst coughing blood.
Lissandra retread three steps as her whip clashed with the cross-shaped slash of Lucy. What was surprising is not the explosion of the Ice lotuses but this weird slash that contained a minor fusion of two opposite attributes!
Once the whip and Lucy''s attack struck each other, the whip shattered into dark matter and vanished, as for the slash, it continued its way and hit Lissandra.
Fortunately, someone such as she, had a protective layer that was fairly strong, coupled with the treasures she wore, her defense was very good, even for someone at the God Realm. Yet even such defense was penetrated by that small but weird slash of Lucy.
Blood leaked out of Lissandra''s lips as she stared at her, exactly where Lucy was floating. You could see deep hatred and rage in her eyes but there was a mix of fear. For some in the Immortal Realm to injure her is considered nonsense but it just happened, moreover, in front of so many strong figures.
Even Jizung, who was about to kill Arthur, was momentarily surprised as he was looking at the blood leaking out of Lissandra''s lips. He first thought it was some kind of act, but Lissandra was a very proud character, she wouldn''t humiliate herself like this.
"You.... who are you? Why are you attacking me?"
Lissandra didn''t know why Lucy attacked her, although she saw her true appearance, she didn''t link it with Lucy as it was impossible for such an insignificant and weakling person like the couple from Astria to deal this much damage to her. Her first guess was that she provoked a powerful sect from one of the higher-Realms and they sent an assassin or someone to finish her.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
However, as far as she knows, she never did anything like that. Although she was a very proud person, she wouldn''t act arrogant in front people who have a powerful background.
Back at the stage, Bai Lingyue stood up from his chair as he was looking at Lucy with disbelief. He had a good impression of her and knew she was very strong, but to fight against Lissandra and injure her? That''s not something you see every day. Heck! If someone said that, no one would believe him unless they witness what just happened.
Everyone was amazed by Lucy''s prowess but no one knew that she used a bit of her Soul Essence in that last attack. To simply fuse Fire and Ice is impossible for her current self, so she forcefully did it which resulted in a backlash and some internal injuries.
"Hey Bai! Did you say this woman is your friend? Do you know what she just did?"
Granny Shishu secretly contacted Bai Lingyue as she cared for him. No one could harm him despite what Lucy and Arthur but that didn''t mean that the criminals would be left alive. She knew him since a long time ago and knew his character, he would always help his friends so if he interfered, it would be troublesome for her as she is from the alliance and had to stand against him in such situation.
"She is, but I never saw her fight nor do I know why she and that boy did that."
His voice contained a hint of surprised and uneasiness. Even someone with his status may not be able to rescue them.
Hearing Lissandra''s question, Lucy remained silent as she gripped both her sabers. Two Ice lotuses appeared beside her and rotated with fast speed.
"Not willing to talk? I guess we''ll have to force you then!"
Lissandra then turned her gaze to the elders and harshly said
"What are you dazing for? She''s an enemy and dared attack an Elder of the clan you are still watching? Help me capture her."
It was totally shameless to say that, for several elders at the God Realm to gang up on Lucy would be unfair. But since she was the one who attacked first and caused so much death and destruction, no one opposed or commented on that. Moreover, Jizung was in front of Arthur, so he(Arthur) couldn''t helpher.
4 shadows flew toward Lucy, they were all old men and they exuded terrifying pressure that weighted down on Lucy, who had a pale face. Shattering the Ice lotuses and that slash drained her a lot, she was facing a God Realm so it was not easy to fight equally with Lissandra even for a couple of seconds.
If 4 more God Realm figures were added, there is no way she could cope as she would be instantly killed or captured. Despite knowing the situation, Lucy remained calm and stood there, watching the five of them attack her.
The four old men were not like Lissandra, they appeared near Lucy and launched their attacks, willing to finish Lucy but Lissandra was a bit hesitant as she just exchanged some attacks with Lucy and knew that she was not simple as to let them all attack her like that so she purposely slowed her speed to watch the situation.
Her guess and uneasiness were on point as when the four old men were just about to finish Lucy, something unexpected occurred. Just a couple of meters above Lucy, two fark flaming meteorites appeared. The two of them came flying down with incredible speed and seemed to be flying down since some time ago but why did no one sense them?
Even Jizung frowned as he saw that, he couldn''t sense them at all. He started to think about other possibilities such as the existence of another enemy! If she was not the one who created them then it must be another hiding enemy.
His eyes started shifting from one guest to another but he knew all of them and he was confident that no one was brave enough to oppose all of them but if that was the case, then how does this Immortal Realm woman able to do that?
The meteorites were too close to the old men, it was too block, much less avoid them. The dark red flames already reached them.
The heat was intense and the burning flames were merciless as they started burning their clothes and diving into their skins. It was fortunate that it couldn''t penetrate their layer of defense around their body but this was just the flames, what was to come is the meteorites which were more dangerous!
Jizung, who saw the two meteorites, was prepared to act but deep inside, he knew that it was impossible for him to save them from the impact and more importantly, this strange youth could not be left alone.
No one from the other factions interfered, first because they enjoyed the misfortune of the Royal Cobra Clan, especially the enemies like the Monster and Undead Race, secondly because it had nothing to do with them. It''s true that Lucy and Arthur attacked all of them but it was shown that their target was specifically Lissandra.
Lissandra was confused as she tried to remember who she provoked, she was fortunate as she didn''t go with the elders but she still felt a bit of fear from Lucy. For someone in the Immortal Realm to be capable of doing that is simply terrifying.
As her thoughts were in a disarray and surging forth trying to find a solution, a weird or more precisely a crazy thought crossed her mind. It seemed impossible at first and completely idiotic to even think about it but she nonetheless did. Her eyes gazed at Lucy''s silver hair and unique facial features and seeing this only confirmed crazy guess.
"N-no.. it couldn''t be...It can''t be her!"
At such a time, the two meteorites struck the four old men, three were hit by the first one and the last one who somehow forcefully shifted his body to dodge it was struck in the back by the second one. You could hear bones breaking and the screams of the old men but more importantly, in such a situation.
The surprised Lissandra heard a cold but gentle voice ringing in her ears.
"What if I say it can?"
The source of the voice was not a male but a female. Just as she heard that, Lissandra saw a black flash aimed at her neck, it was too sudden and just looking at the attack made her feel an instinctive fear that created a shiver down her spines. She knew death was approaching and she was at its door.
Chapter 103 : Deceived
The soft sword of Miya had a tinge of darkness as it slashed toward Lissandra''s neck. Its sheer speed was something that made the target baffled as she subconsciously lifted her dark book to block it.
This time, not a hand or two came from the book but a horrifying and ugly head, it had black skin and no teeth, its appearance literally couldn''t be creepier or uglier.
The head opened its mouth as it wanted to swallow the sword whole but it couldn''t as the weapon was too strong.
The strike was successfully blocked, once Lissandra was going to breathe a sigh of relief another dark and long sword was stabbed at her right shoulder.
This time, not even her protective layer could withstand it, blood gushed out from the injury and the sword didn''t meet any resistance.
As the fights between the two powerful figures are about to begin. Kilan, Aborak and Bai LIngyue are still calmly watching what is happening. No one commented or lifted a finger.
As for Meyzu, he appeared in front of ''Arthur'' to replace Jizung, however, he was not as kind as Jizung as he stretched his hand to cripple him to get rid of any future unnecessary trouble that would perhaps come from him.
The person who did this was surprisingly Miya, who is the genius disciple of the Lightning Fox. She wielded two swords, one was her sword and the seconds was... Makaze!
Granny Shishu didn''t notice the sneaky movements of her disciple, only when Miya attacked Lissandra did she notice the disappearance of Miya from the specific area of her clan.
Her normally sharp and piercing eyes were wide open as she stared at Miya, Granny Shishu was astonished by this, even Lissandra didn''t understand what is happening.
Miya could not be a traitor or an enemy of hers but she nonetheless attacked her, which made her confused. She hesitated as she was not brave enough to attack her, if she killed Miya, her clan would not stand still, especially the clan master.
"What are you doing?"
Lissandra''s panicked and confused voice was totally ignored by Miya, who had an expressionless face. She gazed at Lissandra and twisted Makaze to inflict even more damage to her enemy.
Arthur already used Natural Lightning and managed to slip some of it in the wound created by Makaze. He possessed Miya since the time she fought Yun.
Going back to his fight again Yun, he managed to successfully posses Yun as he killed him instantly by the Natural Lightning. It was hidden in his last strike with the Thunder explosion and it burst the young master''s heart.
He remained hidden and acted as if he was Yun to not attract any attention. Contrary to what he did to Yun, he didn''t kill Miya but simply possessed her.
It is impossible to possess her in a normal case, but he, fortunately, got a new skill when he broke through and that''s what allowed him to possess her.
Possess, possess and possess (U) : As long as the target is within 2 meters of the user, the user can possess him for a certain amount of time.
Cost: -1 million to all stats (The stronger the enemy the higher the cost) (Cannot possess God Realm and above)
Cooldown : None
With this cheat skill, he possessed Miya and stayed dormant inside of her for some time, only when the clash of Lucy and Lissandra began did he fully take control of Miya''s body.
He could feel her resisting his possession but she seemed to be locked in some kind of cage in her consciousness. Even she, didn''t know what the hell is going on but she kept attacking the cage. Too bad it was futile and it only exhausted her Mental Power even more.
Natural Lightning invaded Lissandra''s body and with Arthur controlling it, it began breaking her Meridians and attacking her Dantian, attempting to destroy it completely.
Due to her being two Realms above him, his Natural Lightning couldn''t even damage the Meridians, much less the Dantian so they moved to the bones and tried inflicting any damage to them but it was still useless. He was still too weak to damage her internally.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Arthur let go of the soft sword of Miya which was being blocked by the creepy head. What replaced her sword was a short dagger that was purple in color and devoured the air around it.
It was made from the Void Magic, however, this was only the beginning. At the same time that the dagger appeared, black chains conjured from Dark Magic appeared around Arthur''s waist and wrapped around Lissandra''s waist in a split second.
Coupled with [Dark Burst], Arthur struck his dagger to the creepy head and used Makaze which was in his left hand to stab further into Lissandra''s new wound.
Lissandra didn''t stay still when he did that, but due to her being used in attacking with Dark Magic, she instinctively used it and a black demon head opened its mouth to eat Arthur.
The result was not something she expected, the dark demon head didn''t even scratch Arthur, it actually seemed to strengthen him as the chains which were wrapped around her waist tightened and became bigger and longer.
"I-it''s you!!!"
She could feel the power behind the chains so she immediately recognized it but what stunned her is that she could not resist it. She was a person at the God Realm, it should not be possible to restrict her movements this easily, even for Arthur, but what she didn''t know is that because she''s a Dark Magic user and because Arthur is considered the original source of Dark Magic, she''s like a part of him, or more like, a toy.
He forcefully used the strong connection that the Dark Magic had with her to weaken her and make her vulnerable to him. The only reason he was struggling to capture her is that despite her being weakened, her body wasn''t. She was in the God Realm, after all, her physical body is extremely strong.
The Void dagger cut through the creepy head as if it was butter, it''s as if the head didn''t exist, it was engulfed by the humongous absorption force coming out of the purple dagger. Makaze slashed at the other shoulder of Lissandra, but due to her being expecting this slash, the dark blade only managed to cut some flesh off her.
"Do you think you can hurt me? See how I''ll skin alive that girl of yours!"
Lissandra''s look changed as she yelled at Miya. She didn''t know how he did it, but she knew it was him as no one but him could use Dark Magic. He was the only one besides her subordinates who could use such powerful Dark Magic.
Her current guess was that he was controlling her from a distance, her eyes shifted to ''Arthur'', who was standing in front of Jizung.
Lucy, who took down the elders with the help of the meteorites, flew toward Lissandra as her blood red eyes were staring intensely at Lissandra.
Her two Ice lotuses were formed again and circled around her, snowflakes appeared out of thin air and her strongest attacked was launched at Lissandra.
It was not an offensive or a defensive attack but a restricting one. It imprisoned the target in an Ice domain that deal continuous damage and froze them the longer they stayed in it.
The elders she took down were obviously not dead but they were seriously injured. Such meteorites took her quite a bit of time to prepare and maintain unlike the normal ones, their damage was immense and was enough to get rid of them for some time.
With the Ice domain of Lucy and the black chains around her waist, linking her to Arthur. Lissandra was not in a favorable position. Although she was attacked by their combined attacks, that didn''t mean it''s the end for her.
The black book shined with black light and a creature similar to scepter but way darker and visible appeared out of one of the book''s pages.
The creature screeched and bit down on Miya''s shoulder. Its mouth was not large but once it bit down on the girl''s shoulder, it took a big chunk of flesh and gore with it. Arthur felt the agonizing pain as this bite was not ordinary, he felt drained of his Nether Energy and weakened.
You received the debuff ''Death Specter Drain'': -70% Nether Energy Recover / -50% Nether Energy (2 Minutes)
-15% Health
"Miya!!"
Granny Shishu couldn''t stay still after she saw that, no matter what Miya was doing, she couldn''t let her receive heavy injuries and just watch from the sidelines.
The Granny transformed into Purple lightning Fox and with a speed uncomparable to Arthur or Lucy, she flew toward Miya but someone appeared in front of her and blocked her from proceeding further.
It was Jizung, for some reason he stopped Granny Shishu from helping Miya.
"Granny! What do you think you''re doing?"
"What do I look like I''m doing? I''m going to help Miya!"
Granny Shishu had no time to argue with an old geezer like Jizung. She waved her handsdismissively and bypassed him. But what she didn''t expect is that a dark cobra the size of a hand leaped at her and hissed dangerously.
Fortunately, she was not someone who is inexperienced, before the cobra could get close to her, it was vaporized by her purple Lightning.
"Old Ji! You dare attack me?"
This time, Granny Shishu''s aura turned ferocious as she looked angrily at the old man.
Responding to her, Jizung chuckled and shrugged his shoulder whilst saying
"The disciple Miya has committed crimes and should be properly punished. Perhaps she is from allying with an alien race or one of our enemies."
It was obvious that Jizung didn''t think like that, but he just said that to stop Granny from interfering. Miya was attacking one of the elders of his clan, that in itself is too disgraceful. If she is saved by Granny and nothing is done to her, it would be like slapping his clan in the face and getting away with it.
"If you don''t get out of my way right now, you''ll regret it, old Ji!!!"
Granny didn''t listen to what he said as she neither cared nor wanted to care. Miya was her granddaughter and she wasn''t going to let her be hurt because Jizung wants to keep his stupid pride.
Chapter 104 : All Out
Before the outstretched hand of Meyzu reached ''Arthur'', he transformed into a dark nebula in an instant. Even Meyzu was dumbfounded by the process, one second ago he was looking at a black-robed youth and the next one there was no youth or whatsoever, only a floating black nebula that emanated an ominous aura.
A drop of blood came out of Meyzu''s index, just as it came out, it enlarged to an insane degree until it became the same size as the weird nebula. The blood pool was beast''s mouth, it started taking bites from the nebula but no matter how matter or how long the mouth bit down the nebula, nothing happened. It was if the nebula didn''t exist there.
"W-what''s this?"
Meyzu was confused as he could not feel anything from the nebula, it was neither a treasure or an attack, it just stood there, floating peacefully.
...
The garden was destroyed beyond repair and the fight between Jizung and Shishu made it even worse. Purple Lightning and green seals accompanied with a dark cobra attacks damaged the surroundings. The juniors could not follow the two with their eyes as they were too fast, the only thing they saw was green and purple sparks.
One thing was noticeable is that Granny Shishu held a slight advantage. She was oldest out of the three leaders and she was at the God Realm the longest. They didn''t go all out but they didn''t hold back either. Lightning raged as it struck the ground and turned into black ash, pillars fell and tables were turned into nothingness.
As for Jizung''s attacks, they were simple but oppressive, the green seals were like poison as they melted everything they touched and the cobra would spit some gas that suffocates the target and sucks the vitality out of them.
...
''We must hurry''
Arthur saw that the situation worsen and decided to wrap things up. Once Miya''s body is damaged, the Granny won''t hold back but he was not so ruthless to cause the young girl to be crippled or even killed.
He was using her, yes, but he never wanted to ruin her future. With her and Lissandra being chained, he would be able to temporarily gain the Granny''s protection for she will not let her disciple get killed by Lissandra or any person.
A small black whirlpool appeared next to Miya, who finally regained her senses. What appeared was a wolf, a big silver wolf.
"...Eh?"
Miya was surprised as she sensed that she was unable to move, moreover, she felt a heart-wrenching pain coming from her shoulder. In front of her stood Lissandra, who was bombarded by Lucy''s attacks and imprisoned in her Ice domain.
Lissandra defended against Lucy but she couldn''t pay attention to Arthur as Lucy was very crazy, she would attack and abandon all defense. Whether it''s her book or the Dark magic, nothing was useful.
To begin with, her Dark Magic was ineffective as a Dark Barrier was around Lucy permanently, since Arthur''s Dark Magic is way stronger than Lissandra''s, she wasn''t able to shatter it. She could only use her clan''s green seal techniques but they were much weaker than Dark Magic.
Seeing the silver wolf appear, Lucy silently nodded her head and backed away. Her two Ice lotuses rotated near Lissandra and fully bloomed, activating the full potential of her Ice domain.
The chains around the two women tightened and wrapped them from the waist to the upper half of their chest. Miya could barely breathe as her face was pale.
"Miya!!!"
Granny Shishu could not pass Jizung as he used his tricky moves to lock her there. Seeing Miya''s condition, the old woman could no longer hold it. Killing intent emanated from her sharp eyes as she stared at Jizung.
"Old Ji! If you don''t move out of my way right now, I''ll abandon all thoughts and go all out against you!"
The sleeves of her robe turned turned purple and her hair long white hair became filled with small and twirling lightning streaks. A purple and majestic Fox appeared behind her, it was a bit illusory but the pressure that it emitted was real and domineering.
"Granny! You''re letting emotions rule you. You are one of the three leaders of our alliance! Rules should be followed and whoever crosses them must be punished. Even clan masters are no exceptions, by attacking me now, you''ll be considered a traitor!"
"Traitor? You say that as if you never broke any rule. Don''t make me state every wrong thing you did, that is something neither of us wishes to hear."
With a sneering tone, Shishu looked at him mockingly and pressed her hand to her forehead. The dark night was filled with purple Lightning as endless bolts of lightning enveloped her. The fox roared and leaped at Jizung, who had an ugly face after he heard what she said.
"You asked for it!"
Just like Granny Shishu, a big dark cobra appeared behind Jizung, it looked creepy and some black gas was coming out of its illusory body. Contrary to the domineering aura that the fox emitted, this cobra had a very cold and chilling aura around it.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
The cobra hissed at the incoming fox and dived at it with its mouth spitting green gas. The fight was only between the two of them but the collateral damage reached the juniors and even Arthur, who was some distance away from them.
''Not good''
Not only did they to fight seriously, Meyzu abandoned the black nebula and appeared in front of the silver wolf.
This silver wolf was only Lv850, Arthur possessed it some time ago and kept it because it was exceptional. From all the corpses he possessed, it was the only one that activated many passives that are related to beasts. He could also use Nether Magic and skills with it, so it was his perfect form.
The silver wolf turned into a green lightning wolf as Arthur activated [Transcendence] but that was not the only skill that was activated. The passive of the light moon wolves, the passive of snow wolves, the passive of poisonous snakes. hundreds of passives were activated and his stats rocketed by leaps and bounds.
The aura around Arthur changed as black flames burned on his body, he was a mass of green lightning and black flames as he clashed with Meyzu. All that was seen was a red shadow clash with a mix of green and black shadows.
Arthur did not hold back anything, Gigantic dark red flames raged through the sky and countless dark spears rushed at Meyzu, who deflected them with a blood red long sword. His blood magic was terrifying as it engulfed everything in its way.
"You.... who... what are you!!!"
Meyzu exchanged a few hundred attacks with Arthur, who did not lose one bit to him. He was unable to sense the Realm of this wolf. Weird attacks flew at him, from burning flames to strange and small purple orbs that ate his blood.
The Void Magic was very effective against any other magic so Arthur countered with it whilst slashing at Meyzu with his claws. A dozen or so skills would be used at once and his Nether Energy reserve is depleting very fast.
With a loud howl, Arthur used [Faster Than Death] and appeared behind Meyzu, then he bit down at the enemy''s shoulder. His sharp and long fangs mercilessly cut through the red-haired Meyzu and penetrated his skins.
"Arrrrrrrrrrgh!!!!"
A loud scream was heard as various poisons and effects were hidden in those fangs. The stress on Arthur was too overwhelming but he still endured it and pressed his fangs further. Blood flowed from Meyzu''s injury but it did not fall down, instead, it transformed a fog.
"You''re dead! I don''t care what you are or where you came from but you''ll die today!"
Meyzu shook his body violently to get rid of the big wolf that was biting his shoulder ruthlessly but no matter what he did, the wolf won''t let go of him.
He even tried stabbing the wolf but the creature didn''t react, no blood came out of the stabs and it seemed as if he dealt no damage.
As he was holding Meyzu, dark red flames ignited from his fangs and started burning the insides of Meyzu but just as Arthur did that. The atmosphere around Meyzu had a dramatic change.
Like the two other clan masters, a figure appeared behind him, it was very big and looked like a Blood Asura!
Thick killing intent was coming out of it, but that was not all, the blood stench around it was not something like Miya or any other junior could handle.
Arthur obviously saw the fight between Jizung and Shishu and knew that these illusory figures are extremely strong and probably the trump cards of these clan masters.
Although he was alarmed, he didn''t let go of Meyzu, he bit harder and used both his claws to cling to the target.
With the empowered body and the Natural Lightning, it should have been easy to cling to Meyzu just like he bit his shoulders but by the next second, Arthur''s body was sent flying from above.
He crashed violently on the ground, he didn''t even see what happened and only felt a tremendous force pressing down on him.
Meyzu was descending from the sky while coldly looking at him, he had a sinister smile and the Blood Asura was behind him, emitting an overwhelming pressure.
A huge chunk of Health disappeared from Arthur''s bar, he disabled the pain so he could fight better, the stress from all those accumulated skills brought a heart-wrenching pain, so such injuries were not enough to stop him.
A simple glance to the side allowed him to see a 30 meter long Ice-blue and purple bow. The bow didn''t emit any pressure or didn''t do anything, it just silently floated there near the Lucy, who was concentrating on completing the bow.
The bow was almost complete and Lissandra was captured, all he needs now is to retreat with Lucy and co.
With the big wolf''s body, Arthur opened its huge mouth and aimed it straight at the incoming Meyzu.
Fortunately, Meyzu was an arrogant prick and thought he had just won because he summoned his Blood Asure, so he didn''t finish things fast and dive at him with all his speed, or else Arthur could not resist.
While channeling his Nether Energy, a grey orb of energy appeared in the wolf''s mouth.
It started increasing in size with a fast speed in just a couple of seconds, its size was the same as the wolf''s head. Arthur didn''t look at Meyzu a second time as he spat the orb from the huge mouth, the grey orb was thrown straight at Meyzu and at the same time, Arthur left the wolf''s body and teleported a distance away.
It has to be said that the mysterious orb''s speed was not something Meyzu expected, it was even faster than Arthur while using [Transcendence] and possessing the wolf''s body.
The red-haired man raised his sword to block and the Blood Asura opened its closed eyes. A bright red light appeared in its cold eyes, a strange and ear-deafening sound came from the illusory Blood Asura.
Meyzu was engulfed in a big blood wave that covered the whole sky, the wave was like an unpenetrable wall in front of the orb, which looked very small in front of the blood wave.
Even Jizung and Granny Shishu stopped their fight as they heard the sound of the Blood Asura.
"Meyzu is using his Blood Shura?"
Jizung frowned as he found it unbelievable. There should not be an opponent for Meyzu to be serious, except the two other Race leaders and Azure Bai of course.
But none of them would be so stupid as to fight Meyzu in such situation, so old Ji was curious on why Meyzu used his Blood Shura and on whom.
...
Back at the stages, Kilan frowned as he saw Meyzu summon his Blood Shura. He saw the strength of the wolf but it was not enough for someone such as Meyzu to use his summoning. It''s true that the mysterious wolf was an odd and dangerous entity, but it can be dealt with easily if Meyzu was cool-headed.
"Ahhhh, that Meyzu must have been angered to use that..."
"You''re the fool. That wolf is not ordinary, it uses very weird attacks. Not even your strong fur could withstand its flames or those spears. You''re not in his position so you can''t tell the strength behind those unoriented but ferocious attacks."
Aborak snickered as he heard Kilan, they were old friends but he rarely talked.
Silence ruled over again as they continued to watch. When Arthur launched his grey orb, Kilan furrowed his brows and was ready to act.
Meyzu was one of his dear friends and he could feel a very strong engulfing power behind that small orb. It may look harmless at first but it was beyond dangerous.
"Friend Kilan. The weather is wonderful and the sight is amazing, we should relax and enjoy the show."
Bai Lingyue''s calm and friendly voice awakened Kilan, he felt an invisible pressure press him down. Seeing that Bai Lingyue was guarding him, he couldn''t help Meyzu, he could only force a smile and remain sitting.
Chapter 105 : Nothing Can Stop It
The grey orb that Arthur threw passed through the blood wave created by the Blood Shura of Meyzu. It passed through it as if it didn''t exist, moreover, its speed was not something Meyzu could cope with.
The red-haired Meyzu was confident in his blood wave and didn''t expect this insignificant attack of Arthur to pass this easily. The reason he executed blood wave to block it is that he didn''t feel any energy from this orb and that''s what''s alarming about it.
The fatal and deadly attacks are the unseen ones, the ones that come by surprise or burst from nothingness.
Arthur had already arrived behind Lucy. The two of them took the usual stance as if they were pulling the string of an invisible bow. Contrary to Lucy, Arthur''s preparation only needs a couple of seconds to conjure and this one is different from the last one.
At the same time that a black and purple arrow was being created at an insane speed, the orb passed through the blood wave and was just going to hit Meyzu.
With no time to launch another technique, Meyzu raised his blood red sword to block the incoming orb. Everyone was expecting a huge clash or some kind of an explosion, however, none of that happened as the orb shifted its direction at the last second.
What clashed with Meyzu''s sword was a big flash grenade triple the size of the original one. Arthur didn''t hesitate as he willed it to explode which created a blinding flash.
Because the grenade very close to Meyzu, he was affected the most by it, but it won''t be like last time as his eyes brightened with a red glow and the Blood Shura behind him shot two blood rays to where the grenade exploded.
This happened very fast but it managed to gain enough time for Arthur to finish what he was doing. Surprisingly, the grey orb which frightened Meyzu was now merging with the and sharp purple arrow.
It was the last touch of the arrow, it transformed into a feather at the end of it. It was a long grey feather which added the speed and pressure of the combination of bow and arrow.
Unlike any other attack, precisely the [Heavenly Arrow], this one only contained pure Dark and Void Magic. It was not the merging of the two but they were separated with the Void Magic being the core of it and the Dark Magic only at its edges.
It has to be said that its aura was too horrifying, not only Meyzu was astonished, even the calm Bai Lingyue was frowning and had a worried look as he gazed at the sight.
Tables, grass and even the ground was being pulled to the arrow, big and small wind whirlpools were created around it and sucked the air itself. Some of the juniors were forcefully pulled towards it, if not for their elders which created several barriers, they would be engulfed by this monstrosity.
Arthur and Lucy had their eyes closed and were focusing on the attack, at any second, they could let go of the invisible string of the bow and launch the arrow.
Heavenly Arrow [Void] has been completed : +1200% Damage (Guaranteed crit)
Defiance Orb (buff) : +250% speed / 4 million damage/s (15 seconds)
Nine Star Bow (Add) : +400% speed / +400% damage
Complete Sync with the target (Lucy : Soul Link) : +40% to all stats for 2 minutes.
The sky was no longer the same as even though Arthur didn''t add the Lightning to the bow, clouds appeared and a storm was about to ravage this place. Not even the clouds escaped the engulfing power of the Void Magic.
"T-this..."
No matter how old or strong he is, Meyzu could not help but feel fear from that arrow, especially when he saw it was pointing at him. It was fortunate that Meyzu was in the same direction as Granny Shishu and Jizung, so this final attack could slow them down.
Arthur did not have confidence in killing them alone or even with Lucy, but at least, this attack should be able to deal some damage to even people at their Realm.
Conjuring the bow and the arrow, coupled with the feather, it almost exhausted all his Nether Energy. As for Lucy, after using this attack, she can''t fight anymore, so this has to work or else they would have to abandon Lissandra.
"Y-you.. I don''t know who you are or why are you attacking one of the elders of my clan, but we can talk this out, your attack may not injure us but the juniors have nothing to do with this."
Old Jizung had already stopped fighting the granny after seeing that arrow, it was not the time to fight amongst themselves when they have one common enemy.
Although he said that, Jizung still felt fear from that this thing, the ground, and the sky were being sucked out by it, it''s not something to just block or dodge. He knew that the moment he tried to move or attack suddenly, Arthur would not hesitate on letting go of the arrow, so he resorted to the peaceful talking.
"T-that''s right! You came for the little girl right? She''s still alive, I''ll lead you to her, she''s safe!"
Lissandra was panicking as she not only was unable to move, she also felt that her Energy was being drained by the chains. Seeing this sight, and the power of the couple, she didn''t hesitate in trying to calm them down. That arrow struck fear to every single person present, even Bai Lingyue was unsure of being able to withstand that.
He recognized Arthur after he appeared, although he saw him wearing a big hat at the Treasure Pavillon, he still had many techniques to see what''s under that hat. Arthur had a different hair color but the rest was the same. He was still curious about why they would do this, but what surprised him the most if their power. For a mere two Immortal Realm couple to cause this much damage in the presence of so many experts is unheard of!
Arthur opened his eyes while still holding Lucy''s hands from behind and maintaining the same stance. He completely ignored Jizung and coldly gazed at Lissandra. Never did he think about what he said, he just wanted to make things a bit faster and make sure she absolutely gets captured.
In the middle of the sky, just a bit under him and Lucy. A bottomless and jet black circle appeared and from it appeared two huge bone dragons. They were not that powerful, only at the first stages of the Spirit Realm but they were more than enough for their designated job.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
The two dragons bit down on the chains wrapped around Lissandra and Miya then they flew off behind Arthur. They didn''t stop and continued to fly outside of the garden. No one stopped them, not even Jizung, who had burning eyes as an elder from his clan was captured and abducted under his eyes and he couldn''t do a thing to stop it.
Everyone knew that if any person moved, that arrow would be released, so the figure of the two dragons disappeared onto the horizon and only when they vanished from everyone''s view did Arthur relax a bit.
He ordered the two dragons to head to the Abyss Valley, at that place, none would dare to venture recklessly.
"Now then, I would like everyone to let us go but I don''t think it''ll be that easy, huh?"
Arthur spoke casually as he stared at Meyzu and co. The attack was still ready to be released and every second its prowess is increasing. It was absorbing everything, including the Mana and Nether Energy in the air. If it isn''t shot after some time, Arthur and Lucy may lose control of it.
Void Energy is strengthened when it absorbs something, even a small grain of sand may strengthen it but that increase is almost non-existent. However, if it''s like this arrow and it absorbs too many sands, air, Energy and so on, it would increase its power second by second.
"If you stop what you''re doing and calm down, we can discuss this rationally. Don''t be rash."
Aborak''s illusory and black figure appeared a distance away from Meyzu. He felt it too and didn''t want this arrow to be released or else it would be too catastrophic. He may be able to dodge in time or find a way to block, but all the juniors would perish, including the ones from his Race.
He could not stay still and just let it go, after all, no matter how unconcerned he was about the people from his Race, he can''t let them die under his eyes without lifting a finger to save them.
"Right right, listen to your elders. There is no need to be so violent."
Kilan joined the fray, he slipped through Bai Lingyue as the latter ignored him completely after the purple arrow appeared so he grasped this opportunity to fly next to Aborak.
Granny Shishu didn''t say anything but you could see she wanted Arthur to stop, she didn''t speak as she was afraid that she may anger Arthur and Lucy and make them kill Miya. It was apparent they only aimed for Lissandra but they used Miya to cause trouble between her and Jizung.
"Don''t be a fool. You two can''t face five of us at the same time. The moment you release that ''thing'' would be the moment you guys signed your death contract. Think carefully."
As Jizung was speaking, a dust cloud was formed above the bow, it was the signal Arthur was waiting for. He only needed to add the last touch to their attack to make it more complete and add to its power.
''boooooom!'' ''bzzzzzt'' ''boom''
Several thick thunderbolts struck from the dust cloud. It seemed like a huge tornado that spun above the bow. It was like doomsday for the spectators as the arrow''s length became wider and countless thunderbolts were exploding around it.
Endless white thunderbolts struck from above, the bow became bigger and the pressure increased by leaps and bounds. With Lucy, this was the strongest Arthur could use, it may not exhaust all his Nether Energy but it was not far off from that, adding the stress he felt a bit earlier, if he turned the pain immunity off, he would collapse immediately.
"Friend Arthur, it would be unwise to attack them, no matter what you are planning, this is their territory and you can''t possibly run from that with your Realms. If you stop right now, I may be able to save you and I promise you I can guarantee your safety."
Bai Lingyue spoke telepathically to Arthur as he knew it won''t end well for both of them. Albeit seeing the power of this attack, he still thought it won''t be a good idea to make all of them their enemies. he had a special status so he could somehow fix things up a bit but if they dare attack, even someone such as him would be unable to save them from their fate.
"Fighting one God is already exciting, so fighting five at the same time would be even more thrilling, what do you say, Lucy?"
Arthur smirked as he held Lucy''s hands and gazed at the five figures not far away from them.
"En! I''m sure it''ll be an unforgettable experience."
The moment Meyzu, Jizung and co heard Arthur say that they knew it was too late to try to reason with him. Each person had a beast or some kind of humanoid figure appear behind them. A Lightning Fox behind Shishu, a black Cobra behind Jizung. The Blood Shura of Meyzu shined with a bright red light and an ugly and rotten dragon roared and circled around Aborak.
As for Kilan, an illusory White Tiger image much bigger than the rest of the images appeared behind him.
Bai Lingyue stared at both parties and couldn''t help but sigh and shake his head ''This is madness!''
He knew the arrow couldn''t kill them, but for someone as powerful as him, he knew they won''t bet unscathed and simply facing it head-on is too idiotic. But they are clan masters and Race leaders with high pride and a lot face, simply dodging or escaping is too shameful, or so they thought.
''TING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!''
The ear-deafening sound of the string being let go by Lucy and Arthur''s hands were heard by everyone present. The sound was just too loud but that was nothing compared to what happened next.
It didn''t seem like an arrow but a huge mouth that ate everything in its way, the dark and gloomy sky shattered, thunder explosion resounded everywhere and a loud howl emanated from engulfing attack.
Each one of the leaders used their treasures and special techniques to block the arrow and stop it from advancing but none of them ever expected it to be this horrific.
Once it was too close to them, they felt their Nether Energy being forcefully absorbed and even the fantom images behind them started fading due to the overwhelming Void.
Once Arthur and Lucy released the arrow, they disappeared from view as they turned around and left with fast speed. They used their Spirit Boat as it was the fastest way and in just a split second, only a rainbow-colored light was left behind them.
''BOOOM''
As they were flying on the Spirit Boat, they head endless explosions from the city, it literally turned to hell as thunder struck from the sky and the arrow advanced without anything that can stop its destruction.
The first one who was struck was Meyzu, the closest one to it, he was not killed but his whole left arm vanished. It was not cut or chopped off, it just disappeared from existence as the thing which struck him wasn''t stopped by his strong barrier or tough skin. Against it, he was like paper, but that was not the end of it, one of his Meridians was bent and compressed to a terrifying degree, making him immediately drop one Grade.
His bloody body was sent flying to the ground, smoking from the Thunder explosion and bleeding profusely because of the Void and Dark Magic in the attack.
All the five God Realm leaders were struck but only Meyzu suffered the heaviest injuries. Aborak was the one who was almost unscathed, followed by Kilan. Shishu had a fist-sized hole in her abdomen and Jizung was even worse and the right side of his head was burned and you could even see bone. They were all sent flying and crashed heavily on the ground.
They focused their barriers and techniques on the juniors so most of them suffered, only Aborak had a special way to protect himself and the juniors from his Race.
Despite their efforts, the arrow still struck a specific area. From the beginning to end, it didn''t even stop for a second and what was agonizing was that the whole elder area of the Royal Cobra Clan vanished. No blood, no explosion, nothing. There was a gigantic hole in that area and there were no sights of the elders. Some of the juniors of Meyzu''s clan disappeared too.
The arrow had already disappeared but thunder explosions still occurred all around the area and the huge dust cloud was still spinning slowly high in the sky.
"This is....."
Shishu gazed at the huge hole in the ground with wide eyes, no sound or nothing was emitted from that it when it struck its target, this only made it much more terrifying. It could be said that they were injured just because the arrow passed next to them, if it was aimed at one of them, especially Meyzu, he would have been crippled or have disappeared like those elders.
"*Cough* ...*cough* those fucking two! I''ll kill them!"
Meyzu was in a very bad state as he continuously coughed blood. Blood gushed from his shoulder and his face pale but despite that, he used his sword to get up and gazed at the direction Lucy and Arthur ran off to.
"We must not let them get away, everyone, catch them!"
Jizung was the one to act as he transformed into a green light that flew toward the South, where Lucy and Arthur. Aborak, Kilan, and Shishu also followed.
Chapter 106 : Desperate Situation
The couple''s mean of escape was their Spirit Boat which they bought from the ''Treasure Pavillon''. It was amongst the fastest Spirit Boats, whether it''s its quality, speed or even decoration, everything about it was superior to normal or even high-class Spirit Boats.
Such Spirit Boat is one of a kind, even people like Meyzu and co who are at the God Realm may not have like that. To begin with, once you reach the God Realm, you can easily teleport a distance away from your current location. Same goes for these powerful figures too.
But what they didn''t expect is that Arthur had already prepared a counter-measure for that, before escaping or even when coming to the Grand Banquet, he put several talismans that disabled teleportation.
Albeit restricting their special teleportation, Aborak, Kilan and the rest still managed to catch up to them with unbelievable speed. They didn''t immediately reach them, however, slowly but surely, they were getting close.
Lucy was breathing heavily as she sat up on the Spirit Boat and tried to recover some Nether Energy but it wasn''t possible as she consumed too much. Fusing the two opposite attributes, conjuring the bow and launching the arrow, a single of those three would normally make her exhausted. What''s more is that she fought for some time against Lissandra making her even more mentally tired and unable to even move properly.
Arthur''s Nether Energydepletion is much slower than her as he had many passives and skills to limit its decrease, nevertheless, with so many attacks covered from the view and the use of [Heavenly Arrow], he wasn''t in his best shape.
Especially if he disables the pain immunity, he would instantly collapse from the unbearable pain he is receiving by the countless activated passives.
Normally, activating so many passives should not hurt like that, but when he possessed that wolf''s body and activated them all at once, because their number was just too great and they changed many things, his body nor soul could handle such change.
Unlike his wife, Arthur stood at the back of the flying boat and gazed at the 4 beams chasing him. Aborak seemed to be the closest, he gazed lifelessly and coldly at Arthur and waved his cane and creating a grey cube.
The cube didn''t attack Arthur or his Spirit Boat, instead, it enlarged at a very fast speed, its size kept increasing endlessly. At one point, it has covered the area around Arthur and the other 3.
Unfortunately, Arthur could only stare at the cube with a wary look, he knew to fight would be meaningless and futile so he concentrated on injecting all his Nether Energy on the Spirit Boat to make it fly faster. He even took out precious Spirit Stones and used them.
Even the big Red Spirit Stones were useless but once he put one of the gems and bright stones in that special chest, something mind-boggling and unexpected happened.
The Spirit Boat literally vanished from the four''s sight, it didn''t just disappear into thin air, it''s just that its speed was far to great, it broke through the grey cube and became a rainbow-colored beam that lasted for merely a second or so.
"T-that Spirit Boat.... is it a Godly Item?"
Kilan had a look of greed as he saw the speed of the Spirit Boat, he was not worried that they would escape as he and the other leaders were personally chasing the enemy, there is no way they could escape even with a fast Spirit Boat.
Godly treasures are extremely rare, even for him, he only had one Godly treasure and it must be used only in emergencies, which is clearly not the case right now.
"It''s not the Spirit Boat but what''s channeling it..."
Aborak eyes were as lifeless as ever, but contrary to the others, he was not angry over what happened, no one beside him knew why he was chasing after Arthur but one thing was for sure, unlike the others, he didn''t want to punish or kill them for what they did.
Jizung''s face became uglier as he saw the Spirit Boat disappear, he didn''t remain calm like the others. An illusory and big black Cobra appeared behind him, the beast hissed as its two eyes shined with a green color. They were ominous and creepy to look at.
Jizung''s speed increased by several times, he surpassed the other three and began to catch up to the Spirit Boat of Arthur, but all he could see was the faraway light left from the enemy''s Spirit Boat.
Whilst gritting his teeth, Jizung performed several seals in the air as he was flying, each seal was green and had an ancient aura around it. In total, he created 8 seals and every one of them floated behind him and landed on the black Cobra.
Once they touched the black beast, its size increased by two-fold at the very least. It was like a small black mountain, but that was not the only change. the old man Jizung became like a green beam that whistled in the air. His speed couldn''t be compared to the previous one.
"That geezer.. why is he stubborn, sooner or later we will catch them. No matter what they are using to fuel the Spirit Boat, it''ll end and at that time we''ll catch them yet Old Ji is willing to resort to such means.... does he know them?"
Granny Shishu was feeling unease, confusion, and suspicion as she pondered about Jizung''s behavior. Shen never saw the grey-haired man or that woman, so abducting Miya was probably to make her fight Jizung. It was obvious they didn''t want to fight with her clan, but just their actions made them her archenemies as Miya was her precious granddaughter.
...
In no time, a green beam appeared behind Arthur''s Spirit Boat, Jizung laughed madly as he closed in on them. He didn''t need to act calm when no one was around, moreover, he was very enraged by what Arthur and Lucy did. Destroying the garden and ruining the banquet, attacking his clansmen, abducting an elder under his very eyes and then escaping, if this isn''t a slap in the face I don''t what know what is.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Arthur tried putting more of these mysterious gems but after using the first one, the boat didn''t accept any other for some odd reason. Jizung was closing in and was half a mile away and every second that passes he becomes closer and closer.
"It''s better for you to stop chasing, there is no way for a mere Immortal to escape from me!"
Jizung roared and waved his hands, creating hundreds of finger-sized black snakes that rushed at the Spirit Boat. They were biting the air and creating a disgusting sound. A green fog came out of their small mouth, their bodies twirled in the air and their speed was insane.
In an attempt to block that, Arthur could only create several big sized fireballs conjured from ancient flames to try and smite these dangerous little things.
There was nothing his flames can''t burn, as long as he is powerful enough, anything can be burned to ashes.
The fireballs hit the black snakes and burned most of them but because there was a lot of them, some of them managed to slip between the flames and strike the Spirit Boat. They didn''t attack Arthur and started biting the Spirit Boat, eating it and becoming larger in size everytime they took a bite.
Arthur didn''t waste time as he used basic lightning to kill them, their size became very large due to biting too much of the Spirit Boat but the good thing was that he managed to kill them all.
Unfortunately, by the time he breathed a sigh of relief, Jizung was already a dozen of meters away from the Spirit Boat, the huge black Cobra was still hovering behind him and hissing at Arthur while emitting the same green fog the small snakes did.
Arthur knew that Jizung needed only one attack to destroy the Spirit Boat and once the others arrive, there would be no hope of escaping, much less taking Lissandra with them. He turned toward Lucy and softly said
"You know how to control the Spirit Boat, use the gems in this chest and wait at the place we agreed upon."
Arthur didn''t wait for her to reply, a storage ring was thrown toward her.
Lucy didn''t try to convince him, she just gripped the storage ring and dropped her head down while clenching her fists. She was depressed as she couldn''t aid him and could only escape. She wasn''t idiot enough to blindly stay there and hinder him so she just sat there silently without saying a word or moving.
As for Arthur, he jumped off the boat and faced Jizung, who was coming straight at him. Makaze was already at hand and in just a second the sky darkened as White Thunder was going to strike and hundreds of dark spears were aimed at the old man.
He didn''t even pause for a second as he rushed at the black robbed Jizung and slashed down with Makaze, [Dark Burst] and [Void Magic] were used in that slash as to maximize the damage and slow down the old man for even a second.
The slash was indeed strong, too strong, it would have hurt Meyzu or even Jizung if he didn''t use those strange seals on the black Cobra. But there were no if''s in this world, the reality was cruel and life is always unfair.
Makaze couldn''t descend further as it was blocked by Jizung''s black sleeve. It was unusual for Makaze to not be able to cut through something, especially a simple sleeve, but that only showed how strong the old man was compared to Arthur.
Arthur''s wasn''t fazed by this block, a purple Void sword was conjured in a split second, Arthur used his left hand, which was holding this purple sword to stab at Jizung''s Dantian.
To no avail, this stab was yet again blocked by the other sleeve of Jizung, moreover, the green fog emanated from the black Cobra reached the purple sword and made it shatter into countless little fragments.
Not only that, several notifications popped up indicating that Arthur''s Health is rapidly decreasing. The poison was too strong and it drained his life second by second.
"Quite ruthless huh? Aiming at my Dantian without hesitation."
Only enemies who would despise each other to the bones would aim for the Dantian and cripple the opponent, Arthur''s second strike clearly indicated how indifferent and cold he was toward his enemies.
He and Jizung could not be considered archenemies yet he struck at the old man''s Dantian, that in itself showed what kind of person he was. Nonetheless, whether he struck his Dantian, heart or brain, Jizung didn''t pay it any heed as it won''t change his opinion on Arthur, in fact, it just worsened by a huge margin.
He was a cultivator first and a clan master second, there were unspoken rules in high-Realms and not striking the Dantian is one of them. If the Meridians are hurt or broken, they could still be healed even if it''s near impossible but if the Dantian is destroyed then it''s practically impossible to recover. You would become a mere mortal with a very weak and fragile body, you could even say that a simple gust of wind could kill you and that''s not even an exaggeration.
The Dantian is created when one reaches the Immortal Realm, but before tha,t it also existed in another form, it was only in a dormant state. The Immortal Realm could be considered its awakening. Simply destroying it would make the body exposed to any sickness no matter how trivial it is, a punch would deal more damage to that fragile body and even a simple cold can end its life.
For someone like Jizung, Arthur''s actions were obvious. An invisible and forceful pressure pressed on Arthur and sent him flying until he crushed on the ground, blood came out from several bloody holes in his chest and shoulders. He looked very pathetic and haggard.
Jizung''s first goal was to retrieve Lissandra, so with a final glance to Arthur, he turned around and chased the Spirit Boat.
"Oh no you won''t!"
Arthur roared as white Thunder struck down from above, several thick white bolts shot toward the black Cobra. Whether it''s a an evil spirit or a manifestation, he guessed that Thunder would hurt it and it actually did!
Although the damage was minimal to the huge black Cobra, it still roared painfully and stared with dagger eyes and anger at Arthur. Jizung was forcefully stopped as he sensed that the black Cobra was enraged.
The white Thunder didn''t stop as it kept striking the Cobra, moreover, Arthur threw the grey lantern toward the beast, creating even more explosive Thunder.
The whole area was covered in countless white lines which created deafening explosions, the black Cobra writhed and roared. Channelling the white Thunder was too consuming for Arthur yet he didn''t stop, he noticed that some blood leaked out of Jizung''s lips and his complexions whitened a bit.
Finally, the black Cobra couldn''t take it, an enormous green seal appeared above it and acted like an impenetrable barrier that blocked all the lightning. Following that, Jizung accompanied by the Cobra appeared in front of Arthur and striked.
A green fog entered his body and a fast hand struck his abdomen, it penetrated his skin and bones and made blood gush out endlessly.
Arthur maintained an expressionless face, he couldn''t feel pain but he saw his Health decreasing so without hesitation, he created a miniature Heavenly Arrow. It was the size of a normal arrow and was made from Ancient Flames and Void Magic. The pressure was not something to laugh at and it conjured just in front of Jizung, who was freaked out from the arrow.
He retreacted his hand and backed away, only until he was a hundred meters away from the arrow did he relax. No matter if it''s small or not, its terrifying might earlier was imprinted on his mind, he can''t be careless around it.
Seeing that, Arthur smirked and waved his hand, sending the arrow at Jizung.
Far away, 4 beams could be seen coming their way with the one leading being Aborak.
Chapter 107 : Warning
The situation wasn''t looking good for Arthur as all the powerhouses arrived. Even a single one of them could deal with him, so for him to deal with all of them is not only impossible, it''s absurd!
The arrow''s speed is unmatchable even for someone like Jizung, fortunately for the old man, his Black Cobra intercepted the arrow and blocked it before it could strike him.
The Black Cobra seemed to be the main strength of the old man so it wasn''t destroyed by this small arrow, nonetheless, it still received quite the damage.
Albeit it is an illusory phantom of the Black Cobra, blood came out from a small hole created from the arrow. The blood was green in color. Jizung''s complexions turned paler and he couldn''t help but cough a mouthful of blood.
If the arrow hit him, although it''s a lot weaker than the last one, it would have damaged him greatly nonetheless, which proves how strong the Heavenly Arrow from earlier. It was fortunate for him or any other leader that Arthur aimed at the elder area of the Royal Cobra Clan. If it was aimed at one of them, it would have been hard to escape unscathed.
Heck! Meyzu was heavily wounded by it although it just passed close to him, such power is not something that can be neglected or blocked.
Void Magic had always been one of the most mysterious laws, not only is it lethal, it is hard to control and even the user can be injured while using it. What''s more surprising is that the people that can use it are extremely sparse. It was as apparent as the sun that the Heavenly Arrow was made from Void Magic mainly, that gigantic pit created by its impact is the most indisputable fact.
Jizung had confidence in dealing with Arthur but he still feared the Void Magic, he didn''t want to take any risks so he shielded himself with the Black Cobra. It may have injured him but it''s way better than receiving the piercing power of the arrow head-on.
...
As Arthur floated silently in the air, 4 beams of unique colors appeared around him. Granny Shishu, Aborak,and Kilan, each of these three leaders appeared around Arthur. Only Bai Lingyue stood a bit farther. It was too late to help Arthur, not only did he kidnap Lissandra, he made all the leaders lose a lot of face and such thing isunforgivable by such people who cares a lot about face.
"Brat! Where is Miya!"
Granny Shishu was not a patient person, when she only saw Arthur and no signs of the silver-haired woman or her granddaughter, a sense of panic and uneasiness surged through her.
Before Arthur could even reply, Jizung''s old and angry voice was heard
"That woman took your disciple and Lissandra on the Spirit Boat, if you go now you may be able to catch up."
Jizung wanted to get Lissandra back but he gave up on that as Arthur simply angered him too much. If he didn''t deal with him right now then he better crawl into a hole and never come out of it because of shame.
More than half of his clan''s elders disappeared, one of the powerful elders got abducted under his eyes and the banquet he hosted got literally obliterated into black ashes and resembled a bloody battleground currently.
Hearing the answer she was waiting for, Granny Shishu was not willing to listen to Arthur anymore and prepared to chase after Lucy. At such a crucial time, Arthur finally decided to break his silence and speak at last.
"You should be Senior Shishu, right? As long you don''t try to obstruct my way, I can promise you that your disciple won''t suffer anything."
Arthur didn''t look in his best state, not only was he mentally exhausted, his clothes were a bitdisheveled and his grey hair was messy from all the previous fights. It was better to call it a final struggle better than a threat, nevertheless, Shishu didn''t chase after Lucy and just stared angrily at Arthur.
"Hmpf! Why should I believe a shameless brat like you? You used me earlier and you could be using me right now too."
Granny Shishu wasn''t like Jizung and co, losing face or whatnot didn''t matter as long as Miya was alright. It''s true that Arthur caused havoc in the banquet, but if he really would not hurt Miya, for the sake of her granddaughter, she would back off just this time.
"Granny! What are you hesitating for? Don''t fall for his threats! Go chase that Spirit Boat and get Miya and Lissandra back, he can''t do anything to stop you."
Jizung''s loud voice snapped the old woman out of her daze, she stared at Jizung then shifted her gaze at Arthur, she was still hesitating as maybe chasing the Spirit Boat will lead really lead to Miya''s death.
Withuncertainty and hesitation, she kept staring at Arthur, who in return just shrugged his shoulders and casually saidIf you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
"I''m not going to beg you, if you chase the Spirit Boat or try in any way to block me, I can guarantee you that you''ll never see that girl ever again."
Arthur was really not bluffing, if Lucy saw the Granny chasing her, she would not hesitate on killing Miya, the girl may be innocent but that has nothing to do with her, from the very beginning, neither her nor Arthur were kind people. Innocent people die every day.
What''s more, if Arthur got captured, Lucy would undoubtedly try to save him but not after she kills Miya and get the information needed from Lissandra. Arthur and she had already discussed this and saving Saly took theutmost priority.
Everyone remained silent and only the dripping blood from Arthur''s countless wounds resounded in the surroundings. The Black Cobra was healing at a rapid pace and Granny Shishu kept frowning as she intensely stared at the white-haired man.
After an unknown amount of time, Granny Shishu flicked her sleeve in annoyance and floated near Bai Lingyue, clearly indicating her response.
The once who didn''t expect this the most was Jizung, he stared dumbfoundedly at the old woman, his eyes were full of disbelief and confusion. No matter what is the situation, a person at the God Realm like Shishu, with unfathomable strength shouldn''t back off just because the other party said one or two words.
"Granny Shishu! Did you go nuts or what? A few words from the enemy made you back off? Did you forget you are a clan master and should also follow the rules?!"
The old man''s face became uglier than it already was, he was extremely angry and couldn''t understand why would she act like that.
Granny didn''t retort to Jizung and merely kept a silent attitude whilst locking eyes with a calm Arthur.
All of this was very beneficial to Arthur as buying more time meant recovering some Nether Energy and Health. Even a second could allow him to recuperate even the slightest bit of Nether Energy, no matter how insignificant it is, it would still be helpful in such a situation.
He got rid of Granny for the time being but there was still three and by the look of it, neither Kilan nor Aborak will listen to him and back off, even if he had a disciple of theirs, they wouldn''t stop. One could say he was lucky to capture Miya as Granny seemed to care for her too much.
"Playing time is over, how about you go back with us..."
With a chilling smile, Kilan approached Arthur whilst a white tiger phantom appeared behind him, it was more domineering and frightening than the Black Cobra.
Golden chains that were as thick as a human''s waist appeared out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around Arthur from his legs all the way to his chest. What surprised Kilan is that he met no resistance whatsoever, even Jizung was dumbfounded by this as he expected Arthur to retaliate.
''Could he perhaps have really given up?''
Such thoughts invaded Jizung''s mind but they were all rejected as after all he has done, it''s certainly impossible that he would give up but in such situation, surrendering would be the safest decision so he was confused...
From start to finish, Aborak didn''t utter a single word but that didn''t mean he stayed still, with a wave of his hand a cubic black cage made from black bones appeared around Arthur. Grey fog seeped out of the bones and the smell too pungent.
Arthur felt as if thousands of mountains are pressing on him but even such godly techniques can''t block him using magical skills such as Dark Magic and such so that''s why he let them restrict his movements.
What he is going to do is too dangerous and it''s certainly not such seals that are going to stop him, he had the system that helped him use the skills in a more efficient way, some skills only need to be spoken or thought of to launch them which made it more advantageous to him.
"What are you going to do now? Arrogant bastard... with two godly seals put on you, there is no way in hell you''re escaping from us!"
While Jizung was rejoicing by the fact that Arthur was captured, Kilan and Aborak were feeling unease as they noticed Arthur calm attitude. He was too calm for someone who has been captured and sealed by their powerful techniques, it''s too strange!
Arthur turned his head to look at Azure Bai and Granny and smiled, from outside, it looked only like a small but secretly, he used a one-time use talisman that allowed him to transfer his thoughts to a specific target. Creating this talisman required too many materials so he didn''t make any, which is why he rarely used them.
"Senior Bai, Senior Shishu, it''s better if you evacuate right now, if it''s right now, you may be able to make it...."
Arthur didn''t say anything further than that, from their point of view, it sounded like he was telling them to save themselves but if you look at the situation, it''s quite funny from his part or so would think normal people, but not Bai Lingyue.
Adding his calm attitude despite being captured and his warning right now, it absolutely certain that he has something up his sleeves, a trump card and not a weak one at that!
One has to know that even when he used the Heavenly Arrow with Lucy, he didn''t tell Bai Lingyue to escape, so what he is about to do could be more dangerous.
Bai Lingyue''s guess was on point as Arthur''s preparation had already began since the time the four of them arrived, he was concealing the attack while it is being readied.
If the Heavenly Arrow is his strongest attack then this once could be considered his most dangerous and lethal attack, even to himself. He was unwilling to use it in the presence of Lucy and it would undoubtedly hurt her if not instantly kill her, same goes for him but in such a desperate situation, he had no choice but to use it and hope for the best.
Perhaps his godly recovery or insanely high stats would allow him to survive but one thing for sure, even people like these leaders cannot escape unscathed from this, it impossible and that''s because Arthur had already tested a weak version of the attack and the result was mind-boggling.
Several days ago, at the mountain range they were secluding themselves in, nearly twenty mountains were obliterated with no remains of them except huge boulders and rubbles.
Arthur was hurt, he lost his whole left arm but it recovered in a matter of minutes, the astonishing thing is that he only put so little energy in the attack and yet it dealt so much damage, it''s fortunate Lucy was not near him when he experimented with it.
...
Bai Lingyue''s calm face turned serious and after gazing at Arthur for a couple of seconds, he showed one last friendly smile before vanishing into a multicolored fog, Granny Shishu also vanished with him.
They disappeared secretly without emitting any noise whatsoever because they were behind Aborak and co, they were not noticed yet which made it even better for Arthur.
Chapter 108 : Rizaki
WARNING WARNING!!!
''Just screw off!!''
Countless warning notifications appeared in front of Arthur as the skill was being prepared inside the Spatial Passage. It didn''t take a long time to be readied but it even that small amount of time is precious for him as the enemy won''t let him prepare when they see it.
Rizaki, previously named Rinotsu, a skill Arthur received when he arrived at the Itas continent in Astria. From the moment he received he was never able to use it even when completing the two requirements. 1 million intelligence and the use of Spatial Magic were easy to achieve when he possessed countless corpses but albeit achieving them, he wasn''t able to use it.
Just like that mysterious scepter that he found with Zodiak, this skill is extremely unique. When it was used in the fight back then, although it was done by a very weak individual, the damage was unimaginable. It was precisely this skill that destroyed the twenty mountains.
The skill transformed into Rizaki but he still could use a simplified version of the skill which is Rinotsu with the help of Wind Attribute.
Arthur knew that using Rinotsu would deal damage to the surroundings but it would most likely not hurt any of those three even if by chance it did, the damage won''t allow him to escape as he needed them completely unable to chase after him if he survived the impact, that is.
Rinotsu relied on Wind Attribute, by compressing a certain volume of air into a volume way smaller than its original size then suddenly letting go of that compressed air, it''ll create a devastating explosion. A simple Rinotsu managed to rip off his whole arm and injure him here and there so Rizaki must at least deal twice the damage.
Rizaki(U)(Active) : Compress a volume of a certain attribute(No attributes currently) or pure Nether Energy into a small ball then open the ball and create an explosion.
WARNING: Can hurt the user.
Cost: 150 Mental Power (Lost permanently)
Cooldown : 1 Week.
Silence ruled the area as the chains tightened around Arthur and the cube made of black bones was also decreasing in size. Arthur was suffocating, even breathing became harder but all of this was totally futile as he was wholly concentrating on finishing Rizaki.
''ting!''
A small sound was heard by Arthur, it was the signal he was waiting for. He lifted his head and gazed at an empty air not far away from him. His actions were obviously noticed by Kilan, Aborak, and Jizung but all they saw was empty air and nothing else.
They inspected it with their Godly Sense but they still felt nothing, the only conclusion they could come up with is that Arthur was messing with them. After all, if they, people almost at the Peak of the God Realm couldn''t feel anything from that area, then obviously nothing was there.
"Hmpf! Captured yet you still dare to mess with us?"
A long green lance appeared near Jizung, the old man floated next to Arthur and struck the green lance into his chest. The move was ruthless, what''s more, is that the lance was purely made of condensed poison that was created by the gigantic Black Cobra.
Jizung was expecting a painful shout or at least something from Arthur after he struck with his poison, after all, the poison was very lethal and painful. It would melt the skin then the bones and muscles, it was a slow yet agonizing process. The moment the poison entered his body, it was definite that he will die, the question is when?
Jizung had total control of the poison, if he wanted, he could kill Arthur right now but he couldn''t, it''s not just him that needed Arthur, if he killed him now, he had to deal with an angry Lich King and a howling White Tiger.
The strike of Jizung was indeed painful but for Arthur, who disabled the feeling of pain, it only managed to take a big chunk of his Health. Blood flowed from the huge hole created by the lance. The green weapon was melting on Arthur skin and very soon, all the chains were dyed red.
"Don''t kill him."
Aborak noticed the situation and saw how Arthur''s body was filled with holes and slashes, it was a miracle that he was still awake and alive. He had to say something to stop the enraged Jizung as unlike him, he didn''t want to kill nor torture Arthur, he needed him for something else.
Kilan kept a calm attitude and merely gazed at what''s happening, a smile was hanging on his face as he stared at Arthur, even he, had his own agenda and wanted something from Arthur.
WARNING! You have dropped to the Deity Realm!
''As expected huh?''
After using so many skills that permanently took his Mental Power, it''s bound to drop him a whole Realm as to begin with, he was only at the Immortal Realm 2nd Grade.
Arthur turned his head and coldly gazed at Jizung whilst speaking at last.
"See you at hell."
Immediately after he muttered those words, a blinding flash covered the whole area, not just where Aborak and co, but the light stretched for thousands of miles.
"Senior Bai, what is the meaning of this?"You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Whilst Granny Shishu was trying to get an answer on why Bai Lingyue forcefully took her with him, the bright light suddenly appeared and even managed to force both of them to close their eyes.
Bai Lingyue''s hands turned blurry and in just a second, a shield as big as a mountain appeared, the shield strongly resembled the one that Gobu used but it was way more majestic. The shield was golden and managed to block the flash for Shishu and him.
"I''m saving you from that."
With a serious expression, Bai Lingyue channelled his power to try and block what''s about to come. The distance Arthur crossed was not short when he escaped from the city. Yet even the people from the city saw a flash at the horizon, it didn''t reach them but they still saw a flash that resembled a divine punishment.
The light was just the beginning, what followed was the true hell. As the flash blinded Aborak and co, they couldn''t see what''s happening, but them being ancient experts, each one of them took their most precious treasures to block whatever is going to attack them. Their fear from the Heavenly Arrow was present and even though Arthur was just in the Immortal Realm, the power he showed off is at the very least at the peak of the Divine Realm.
The closest ones to the impact were Jizung and Arthur, followed by Aborak and Kilan. No sound came at the beginning as winds whistled and a heavenly explosion occured. Arthur felt his Meridians burning and Dantian shaking heavily, he could feel his body being sent flying far away but he still could feel the explosion following him.
He was not the only one that was flung far away, Jizung and co were sent flying, each took out a Godly defensive treasure yet all of them were injured with no exception.
Because Aborak was a Lich and with mysterious treasures, he was the one who managed to stabilize himself but he still coudn''t stop his body from being pushed by a terrifying force.
"Thi-this is not someone at the Immortal Realm could do...."
....
Lucy, who was riding the Spirit Boat and escaping to the designed destination, turned her head as she saw a bright flash cover the sky and ground. It was blinding and bright, she couldn''t focus her pupils on them. What followed that was an explosion that made the flying Spirit Boat shake.
Beacuse the Boat''s speed was extremely fast, she was not hurt by the explosion but some winds still reached her and made the boat shake violently, it even made it deviate from its direction and almost made it crush into a tall mountain.
Dust and wind were twirling everywhere and an ear-deafening explosion rang in every person who was near the explosion. Even people at the cities heard that explosion. It was not wrong to call it a divine punishment carried by a true God who was angry at someone who disobeyed or ridiculed him.
Blood flowed out from Lucy''s ears as she covered them, there was no serious damage but the constant ringing sound was still present inside her head, no matter how much Nether Energy she channelled, she couldn''t get rid of the ringing sound.
For a couple of seconds, she couldn''t hear a sound, it''s as if she literally became deaf. For people who were at close proximity to the explosion, such as Aborak and Kilan. Their Meridians were heavily injured by the sheer force of the sound waves emitted from the explosion but that was nothing compared to the damage they sustained from the explosions.
At a far away place from the explosion, the middle-aged man from before, who was reminiscing his time with Zodiak was awoken from his deep thoughts. He gazed at the North while frowning.
Although the distance was unimaginably great, he still was able to see what was happening, the bright flash followed by the explosion and the deafening sound waves. His frown deepened and after a while, he sighed and muttered.
"Too many guests cause trouble nowadays... seriously, they can''t keep themselves at check."
Then he waved his hand in annoyance and closed his eyes to rest as he couldn''t bother with it anymore.
Although it was only a wave of his hand, an invisible barrier was conjured around the whole perimeter of the explosion, it completely blocked it and stopped it from advancing any further. No matter how much force was behind the explosion, it couldn''t penetrate the barrier or even shake it. This was a good thing for the nearby cities or travelers but a bad thing for the ones inside the barrier as the explosion multiplied because it couldn''t expand further. It''s like it had a mind of its own.
Shishu gazed at the surroundings and saw the destruction of ancient mountains, rivers turned into white fog and the ground was no more. If it wasn''t for the big golden shield that Bai was using to defend, she would have been heavily injured if not killed.
"After all... who are you really, friend Arthur.."
Whilst using all his Nether Energy to block the incoming damage, Bai Lingyue was trying to guess Arthur''s identity, to cause this much destruction with his attack, even someone such as him can''t do that. What''s more surprising is that a crack formed at the far right edge of the golden shield it was a small one but it stretched for a couple of meters. This made Azure Bai gasp and hold more admiration and curiosity toward the couple, especially Arthur.
....
An hour has passed and the explosion didn''t stop, the intensity decreased by a fair amount and it was possible for the likes of Aborak and co to move inside it but only while using defensive treasures and with a slow speed.
As for Arthur, he was currenltly layed on the ground with a huge pool of blood under him, his eyes weree tightly closed and he appeared like a dead person. It was a gory and horrifying sight. He didn''t have his lower half and his left arm, moreover, he didn''t appear to be breathing.
Arthur was quite lucky as he was flung at the edges of the bottom pit, his body struck the invisible barrier in the explosion and he luckily landed on a small land that wasn''t annihilated by the explosion.
Anyone that saw him would definitely think he''s dead. The fortunate thing, even when he''s unconscious or half dead, the recovery was still present and steam came out of his stomach as his body was healing itself on its own. Slowly but surely, his waist and legs were being healed and created from nothingness.
....
After three full hours, the explosions stopped and was what left was only a deep and dark pit that no one could mesure how deep it was. It was like a bottomless abyss, cold and chilling was emitted from it and the more you dive deeper the more uneasy and fearful you feel.
All that Aborak, Kilan and the rest could see was total darkness, there was no longer any mountains, rivers or valleys. The mysterious barrier that blocked the explosion from expanding was a spheric shape so from afar, you could see a gigantic dark hole that covered at the very least a thousand mile.
Arthur was not the only one that was hurt, Aborak lost his skeletic left arm and Kilan was better off as he covered himself with some special white fur that deflected most of the damage, apart from cuts and wounds here and there, nothing was done to him.
As for Jizung, blood flowed from his forehead and made his face look creepier and scary. He had an ugly expression as he roared loudly, one of his Meridians was permanently burned to a crisp by the pure Nether Energy and he dropped 2 Grades. It couldn''t be worse, literally.
His body was full of blood and he was stinking of the usual blood stench. It has been 1 hour since he recovered a bit and since that time, he never stopped searching for Arthur as he knew that even the user couldn''t escape unscathed from such explosion.
The place was filled with dust and it was very hard to see but with their Godly Sense, it''s pretty easy to search for living beings. Jizung tried probing what''s deep into the bottom abyss but he felt nothing except an extremely chill and a since of fear. He was not the only one that was searching for Arthur, Aborak and Kilan were contacting each other and searching everywhere.
After what he did to them, there is no way they were going to give up chasing right now. Although they were endlessly searching, their searching speed was too slow because of their injuries, someone like Jizung was slowly floating in the air. He would even stop for a couple of seconds to cough mouthfuls of blood.
Chapter 109 : Mission; Protect Arthur
Time was tight for someone like Jizung, who was searching for Arthur. He should be resting and recovering from his injuries and not expanding Nether Energy and using multiple techniques to find Arthur.
The reason is, if he didn''t kill Arthur or at least torture him to his heart''s will, he(Arthur) will become a knot in his heart, like a demon that stops him from advancing any further in cultivation.
He already dropped two whole grades so it''s obvious that his clan will suffer a lot, in fact, it may even be kicked out as most of the elders disappeared and he became too weakened because of the explosion.
The only was who was almost unscathed is Granny Shishu and Azure Bai, who used the golden shield. Kilan was also managed to avoid danger, he was currently flying with high speed with Aborak on his left. Both of them used techniques to locate Arthur.
Since the area of the explosion was within the range of their techniques, it didn''t take them long to find his location, it was to the far north of the bottomless abyss. Jizung was slower than them as he couldn''t use high-levelled tracking techniques or else he might drop more grades, his Nether Energy is already depleted so using more techniques would make things much worse.
The situation is becoming worse for the unconscious Arthur as there was no sign of him waking up any time soon. His body was still healing itself but unless someone forcefully tried to wake him up then he would remain like that.
...
The first person who found Arthur was the Lich King and Kilan. They didn''t recklessly dive ahead and strike him as it was too idiotic after what happened.
He was layed unconscious with a pool of blood under him, he looked in a very miserable state yet the two of them stayed far away and simply stared at him.
"What do you think we should do? He looks unconscious."
Kilan questioned his friend as he was not brave enough to go and restrain him again after what happened, no matter if he''s unconscious or not, he''s a dangerous man that should not be underestimated.
"He''s at the Deity Realm? Perhaps he''s trying to make us get close again.... let''s restrain him from here."
Aborak pondered for then made some strange seals in the air, black gas came out of his sleeves and suddenly, two ugly looking beasts appeared out of nowhere. They resembled a griffin but they were much smaller, more or less the size of a lion. They were jet black including their skin and they had a foul stench.
The two beasts flew toward Arthur intending to restrain him. Kilan took out a long white chain from his storage and threw it toward the Griffin, the chain had two shackles which are used to lock someone''s limbs.
Each one of the two griffins bit the end of the chain and flew toward Arthur. Surprisingly, they were met with no resistance when they put the shackles and wrapped the chains around him yet a second time today but all of this made Aborak and Kilan frown even more.
It would have been fine if some kind of mechanism was activated but nothing happening made them worry even more.
Very soon, the griffin flew again while restraining Arthur between them in mid-air, slowly but surely they were making their way toward the two.
At such a time, a green beams came from the South, it was Jizung in a very haggard state, blood was flowing out from the forehead and his face almost dyed with blood yet he didn''t seem to mind it as his eyes were focused on Arthur who was held in mid-air.
"FOUND YOU!"
Without even minding Aborak and Kilan, Jizung madly rushed at Arthur and attacked. Multiple small green snakes twirled in the air and flew toward the unconscious Arthur.
The old man showed no mercy and his actions were too sudden, by the time Aborak and Kilan reacted, it was too late to stop the snakes from reaching Arthur, even for strong figures like them, to begin with, even that godly teleportation needed at least a second or so to activate yet they didn''t have such precious time to block the snakes.
Unlike Jizung, they didn''t want to deal with Arthur immediately, there were too many questions they needed to ask and things needed to check before killing him so Jizung''s actions were too rush from their point of view.
At such a desperate time, just when the snakes were going to invade Arthur''s mind and soul and slowly poison him to death and cause him unimaginable pain, a blue light suddenly appeared.
A fist-sized white pearl appeared out of nowhere in front of Arthur''s chest, it glowed with a blue light and it pulsated every now and then. The pearl sudden appearance was surprising but what was even more shocking is that all the snakes with no exception were burned into a crisp by a blinding white flash.
Jizung''s face turned paler when he saw that, he retreated repeatedly from that white flash until he was near Aborak and Kilan. The fear from that blinding flash from earlier was still engraved inside of him, never to be forgotten so when he saw a similar light, he couldn''t help but back off and feel afraid.
If another similar explosion occurred, it''s without a doubt that he''ll perish and it''s unlikely that neither Aborak nor Kilan would spend their Nether Energy or treasures to protect him, after all, they were friends on public but in reality, they were bitter enemies albeit not fighting.
After throbbing for half a minute, the pearl glowed with a blue light constantly until the pearl transformed into a miniature figure. If you look closely, you would notice that it''s a pretty woman with long blond hair and two alluring blue eyes.
In a matter of seconds, her size became that of a normal human as her size increased, one could see the unmatched beauty, whether it''s her curvy body or two snowballs in her chest area, everything about her would make any man love stricken.
Although she only wore a golden piece that did not cover anything but her lower regions and some of her chest, that only made her more pretty. It was, in fact, the Holy Goddess Delia that was sealed by Zodiak.
The famous Bloody Day was the day she lost her freedom and was sealed by Zodiak into this pearl but it came at a cost, she lost her freedom but what was surprising is that every day, her power increased by several folds. It''s only been a short time but she advanced from the God Realm 6th Grade to the peak of the God Realm.
Normally, it would have taken her at the very least a century to advance a grade or two if she''s lucky but in less than a year, she advanced 3 whole grades.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
She didn''t know what Zodiak did but she was both happy and depressed. Happiness because of her rise in strength and depression because she literally became the toy of a human.
Zodiak made sure that no matter how strong she became, she has to obey Arthur''s words and he also added missions for her to follow and she absolutely cannot disobey.
The main mission is to protect Arthur and Lucy but she had to put priority to Arthur. In case of a life and death situation, she would automatically be summoned to protect him so when the green snakes attacked, the pearl came out of Arthur''s storage and started to function like Zodiak planned.
''Argg!! A Holy Goddess like is me a slave! How can that be! If the Holy Order heard of this then I would be burned to death by the Holy Fire as punishment...''
If she didn''t protect Arthur then she would die alongside him and that is something she certainly did not want to happen.
Seeing that there were only three enemies, one only at the 6th Grade and the two others at the 8th Grade, it didn''t look that bad for her as she was at the Peak of the God Realm, moreover, the Lich used death energy mainly and that''s something a Holy goddess can easily block or destroy.
Holy magic has always been the weakness of evil magic in general, whether it''s darkness, dark or death magic, there was also other magics that are weak against Holy attribute but just like Holy magic is strong against those, it is very weak to Fire especially and Lightning secondly.
Delia turned her head and saw the miserable state of Arthur, with bloody injuries and slashes all over, his state couldn''t be worse, he was on the verge of death.
"Gosh, what kind of man requires a woman to save his ass...."
As a Holy Goddess, she was supposed to be kind and polite but since she was sealed, her mouth became rotten and she never ceased insulting Zodiak and especially Arthur, her new master.
Fortunately, her new master was an idiot who didn''t know how to use the peal or else it would have been disastrous.
''Hmpf! If he dares touch my body, I''ll smite him and erase him for existence!''
She always thought he would try to make a move and force things but she never was summoned since she was sealed which was surprising. She couldn''t see what''s happening outside but at least, inside of the pearl was a comfortable space and every day that passes, she became much more powerful.
Delia raised her hand toward Arthur''s figure and healed his wounds, although it was notinstantaneous, his lower half was healing at much faster pace, moreover, the chain that was put around his waist was shaking violently as [Holy Ligt] was trying to break it.
Seeing that her Holy magic couldn''t break the white chain and the shackles around his two arms, Delia frowned, her focus shifted from the chain to the two griffins that were holding the two ends of it.
With a wave of her hand, countless Holy Bullets the size of a thumb struck the two griffins and once they penetrated deep into their bodies, the bullets started burning their corpses easily.
After merely 10 seconds, the two griffins vanished without a trace. With no support, Arthur''s body should have fallen but Holy Light surrounded him and at the same time that it was healing him, it made his body floated steadily and a barrier was created all around him, blocking any incoming attacks.
Now that Delia was certain that Arthur would not die, she turned her head to look at the astonished Aborak and the rest. It was obvious she was looking down on them, not because she was higher Grade than them but just because she was an arrogant person and she considered anything that has to do with evil magic as something corrupted. It''s to be expected as she was a Holy Goddess.
Arthur was safe right now but the white chain was still wrapped around him and even the Holy Light wasn''t able to burn it or destroy it.
"What are you gazing at me for? Hurry up and get rid of this damnable chain!"
Her crisp voice awakened the three of them, they were just too shocked by her sudden appearance, no matter if she''s at the Peak of the God Realm they should have at least sensed her from a mile yet no one suspected anything.
"A goddess from the Holy Order at the Underwork?"
Kilan was acknowledgeable about the strong factions and the Holy Order was one of the main ones, it''s just that it''s practically impossible to find any of its followers in the Underworld as this place is considered enemy territory for them, moreover, she''s protecting Arthur? This matter was getting more and more confusing and complicated.
"It doesn''t matter if she''s from the Holy Order or not, we''re already their enemy so whether we kill her or not, nothing will change."
Aborak spoke coldly as his lifeless eyes were fixated on Delia, he can fight her but he prefers not too, after he remained silent for a couple of seconds, he resumed speaking.
".... I''m going back, it''s futile to waste more energy in fighting another God, moreover one that is stronger than us."
With that, Aborak stared at Arthur one final time before he turned around to leave but before he did so, Kilan held his shoulder and said
"You''re leaving just like that? After all, that man has done to you and us?"
Jizung was also dumbstruck by Aborak''s sudden retreat, seeing that Kilan tried to stop him, he joined the conversation and said
"Lich King, that man not only destroyed the banquet, he hurt people of your Race and humiliated you, how can you leave just like that?"
It was one thing that his friend was Kilan but Aborak didn''t like the fact that Jizung reprimanded him and tried to stop him. With eyes full of thick killing intent, he stared at old man Jizung and retorted
"Whether I leave or not is none of your business, try to use me again and we''ll see what happens."
After saying that, Aborak disappeared into a black beam that flew toward the East. It was obvious that Jizung was injured and couldn''t find Delia alone so he wanted to use Kilan and Aborak to fight with him and grasp an opportunity to finish Arthur but his plan was clearly seen by the Lich King.
Kilan was also aware of what Jizung was planning but unlike Aborak, he was not going to let Arthur go for certain reasons. After Aborak''s figure disappeared, he sighed and stared at Delia whilst showing a creepy smile.
"So it''s Holy Goddess, It''s a pleasure to meet a beautiful goddess, I wonder what business you have in such a lowly world like the Underworld?"
Kilan didn''t attack immediately and replied to Delia''s question with another question. Although she was at the Peak of the God Realm, he was not worried about getting killed as he had something up his sleeves, moreover, he is considered strong even for someone at the 8th Grade God Realm. You could easily deduce that by the fact that he was unscathed by Rizaki.
''So it''s the Underworld? No wonder that I don''t like the atmosphere.....''
Just as Delia was going to speak again, two beams appeared from the horizon. It was actually Bai Lingyue and Granny Shishu, they were the farthest from Arthur so it took them a bit more time to arrive.
They were first confused by the situation but after seeing Delia in front of Arthur and the Holy Light covering him, it''s obvious that she''s his comrade. Even the calm Bai frowned as he saw Arthur with a Holy Goddess.
"Jizung, what''s the situation?"
Despite knowing more or less what happened, Shishu still asked Jizung to ascertain her assumptions.
"Just as you see, I was going to kill that bastard but this unknown goddess appeared out of nowhere, no one could sense where she came from."
As he was replying to Shishu, Jizung was looking at Arthur and trying to find a golden opportunity to strike with a deadly attack to finish it once and for all.
As for Shishu, seeing Arthur unconscious, she started to have doubts and hesitation. She didn''t interfere earlier but this time it was different.
''If I capture him alive, I can trade him for Miya with that silver-haired woman.... perhaps..''
Suddenly, Granny Shishu appeared a couple of meters near Kilan and Jizung and stared intensely at Delia. An illusory and big Lightning Fox emerged from her back and emitted ferocious aura all around itself.
Purple Lightning started raging as the fox appeared, what followed is the White Tiger behind Kilan and the Black Cobra behind Jizung. All of them prepared themselves as they were going to face Delia. They didn''t know how strong she was but a one Grade difference in the God Realm is a very big deal.
Bai Lingyue was unhappy with Granny''s sudden change in actions but even though they were friends, he can''t forcefully stop her, he just stayed at the back and silently watched.
Delia wasn''t happy either, fighting Jizung and Kilan is no problem but adding Lightning if not favorable for her but she can''t escape in such situation, fighting would be the best.
Unlike the illusory images from those three, no beast or anything appeared behind Delia, instead, two big and golden wings spread out from her back, making her look even more majestic. The aura around her became several times more overwhelming and she emitted a blue brilliance. A blue whip appeared in her hand and there were some water drops surroundings it.
Chapter 110 : Battle of Gods
The first one to strike was Delia who swung her whip. Coupled with her power Holy Magic, the whip was mainly for Water-attribute and fortunately, Delia was good at using this attribute. It was not the point that it is the same as her Holy Magic but it''s not that far off.
Since she was against three enemies, her she whipped the air three times, creating 5-meter long water snakes that twirled around in a weird manner.
Not only were these three water snakes big, they spat Holy Light balls at Shishu and co. The sound of the whip hitting the air was loud and crisp. The first attack of Delia was just a show-off, after sending the snakes she disappeared from her position and transformed into a bright light that dived toward Granny Shishu.
For her, dealing with the lightning if the most important thing. For someone like her, she could easily make Arthur fly far from here but then she would be unable to save him if someone unexpected attacked him so the only thing she could do is let him close to her and keep an eye on him.
The good thing is that his body was fully healed and he only wore torn clothes. No knows when but he was suddenly golden pants. Delia couldn''t just let him have his lower body naked in such situation. She hated him but not to the point of loathing, he was just an enemy of the Holy Church and she was summoned to kill him. There was the slave thing but there were several conditions that were complicated that gave her a big headache so she didn''t try to humiliate him or anything of the sort.
No matter how strong the water snakes were, they were easily deflected with a wave of Kilan''s hand. With merely his pure Nether Energy, he dissipated the three snakes as if they were nothing but simple snakes but Delia was not fazed by this.
Her whip whistled in the air as it struck Granny Shishu who already took out a purple ribbon from her storage and clashed it with the whip. What she didn''t expect is despite Delia using mainly Holy Magic, she couldn''t deflect the whip.
Shishu was forced to retreat a few steps but that was the end, Delia grasped this opportunity and with a wave of her gracious hand, the long whip instantly wrapped around Shishu''s arm. After successfully doing that, Delia flung her whip and sent the old women flying with high-speed toward the ground.
Her attack was simply but deadly. Lightning may be the weakness of Holy Magic but she was at the peak of the God Realm and she would probably breakthrough in the next few months, the difference between their strength is too big.
As Delia sent Shishu flying and crashing into the ground, Kilan appeared to her left and used a curved white blade to slash at her neck. He was still smiling creepily but the killing intent he emitted was too thick and overwhelming.
Even Delia was surprised by such a killing intent. The Holy Goddess raised her hand and a bright white shield instantly appeared, it looked very durable and impenetrable.
Soon, the curved white blade struck the white shield and caused it to have multiple cracks but fortunately for Delia, the shield didn''t break.
Seeing the result, Kilan was not surprised or depressed, he performed a weird movement technique and his figure began turning blurry but before he could completely vanish, Delia''s fast whip came striking at his head with amazing momentum, what''s more is that the whip became like a straight weapon and at its tip was a sharp water edge. Although it was only water, it had pink-ish color and the aura emanated from that small tip was not something to underestimate.
Kilan didn''t lag behind as he performed strange seals in mid-air and held his blade horizontally to block the whip. In reality, the curved blade didn''t clash with the whip, it was the big white tiger behind Kilan that moved and used its gigantic and long sharp claws to clash with the incoming whip.
The wind whistled and ringing resounded in the surroundings when the clash occurred, the claws were able to block the whip and even after a couple of seconds, the whip didn''t manage to break the claws.
Kilan smirked and his figure began blurring yet again but as he was staring at Delia''s expression, he was astonished to see her sneering and showing a playful smile.
"N.."
Before he could mutter a single word, the big wings behind Delia finally moved, they flapped just one time but that alone created a bright flash and an overwhelming pressure, it was like a mountain was pressing on Kilan. With a speed even greater than Shishu, his figure crashed into the ground and destroyed huge boulders, he even went deeper into the ground and created a hole.
"Ah too easy, come on at least fight back a bit."
Delia was grunting as she was not pleased, she showed her wings but she didn''t fight seriously as none of them pushed her to do that, she was depressed as she was eager to see how strong she became. She didn''t fight for a long time but it was obvious that her prowess increased multiple times.
As she was feeling ecstatic, she suddenly remembered Jizung who didn''t attack, her sense soon caught him a couple of meters Arthur, he was laughing madly and a long saber was in his left hand, he was already prepared to stab Arthur''s heart.
Even after seeing him so close to Arthur, Delia was not the least bit worried or anxious. Her wings flapped a second time and this time, no bright flash or pressure was emitted from her but she suddenly appeared next to old man Jizung.
The clan master was terrified by the sudden appearance of this Goddess, he was so close to his target yet he was blocked by her. He was not recovering and every time he used Nether Energy or moved around, his state worsened. As he saw death coming so he gave up on retreating and was willing to seriously injure himself and in return at least kill Arthur.
All of Jizung''s skin turned green and the Black Cobra behind him hissed loudly, it shrunk in rapid speed and merged with him. His eyes turned jet black and his skin became dark green with gas coming out of it.
"Scram!"
Delia was not here to see the show of him sacrificing himself to hurt Arthur. A 2-meter long spear made from Holy Light was created by her, she held the spear and throw it at him whilst her wings flapped yet another time.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Her throw was strengthened due to the power of her wings, the spear transformed into a white straight line of multiple meters and its speed was not something Jizung could cope with.
He was happy with his new transformation but before he could even use a technique or a treasure to block the spear, it had already stabbed his stomach and came out of his back, not only that, but he was flung with it far off from where Arthur was.
While the spear was still stabbed in him, Jizung coughed blood endlessly, after being flung more than 500 meters, the spear vanished and reappeared in Delia''s hand.
Shishu and Kilan had already got up from the ground and flew to the same level as Delia. Both of them stared at the Holy Goddess with fear and anticipation.
Granny Shishu was already regretting her actions but it was too late to back off, the only thing she could do is fight seriously. Kilan also knew he was no match for Delia even if he fought with Shishu, the only way for them to defeat her is to fight seriously.
White fur that resembled a coat was taken out by Kilan, he wore it and covered his whole body, at the same time, the white tiger behind him merged with his body and soon, cracking sounds were heard as Kilan''s appearance changed dramatically.
From his humanoid figure, he transformed into a large white tiger with yellow eyes. The pressure around Kilan intensified, he growled once but the sound was deep and terrifying. His two yellow eyes gazed at Delia with contempt and anger, killing intent never ceased being emitted from this two frightful eyes.
As for Granny Shishu, she didn''t transform into a purple Fox but her whole demeanor changed from raging lightning to complete calmness. From head to toe, she was covered in purple lightning, her eyebrows were longer and purple too. Dual purple blades were held by her two hands and although Lightning struck her from above, no loud noise resounded, which was weird.
"Hoooo, so you''re finally being serious? But isn''t it a bit late?"
As Delia said that, she glanced at Jizung who could barely flight, he was literally on the brink of death, another attack from her and he''ll certainly die but it doesn''t look like these two would let her do so.
Since both of them turned serious then Delia had to fight seriously too. Her wings started flapping and soon, what looked like rain but weren''t started falling all around her. It was countless little white sparks that made her look even more majestic and beautiful but prettiness wasn''t their function.
The sparks enveloped the whole area, including Shishu and Kilan who were dumbfounded by this.
"A high-leveled Holy Domain...."
Shishu mumbled those words but she didn''t back off, instead, she was the one to attack, whilst spontaneously slashing with her two blades at Delia, purple lightning sparks enveloped her and shot off toward Arthur.
Kilan did the same and leaped at Delia with his new body, he didn''t use any skill and purely relied on his physical strength but what''s surprising is that he was faster than Shishu.
Seeing both of them come at once, Delia was unfazed, her whip somehow transformed into a long golden blue spear that had some white feathers at its, the feathers resembled her wings.
Her wings flapped non-stop as she swept with the spear toward both of them and merely a sweep was enough to create a mind-boggling water-wave that covered the sky and made the area a bit dark.
The big water wave clashed with the lightning and the white tiger but it did nothing more than slowing their charge for a couple of seconds.
The fight started and Holy light coupled with mysterious water attacks raged all around the area. The fight was in mid-air but since their fight shifted out of the bottomless abyss, destruction occurred everywhere and mountains were flattened by monstrous water waves or lightning strikes.
Since they were in her domain, Delia could attack from anywhere she wants and can create Holy Light attacks that strike them from the back. It was a disadvantage to fight two versus one but she overwhelmed both of them and in a matter of minutes, Shishu was panting heavily and Kilan had an ugly wound in his back.
As for Delia, she only suffered minor injuries and the worst one was a frontal slash from Kilan''s long claws yet even this was healed in a matter of seconds by the little white sparks.
Bai Lingyue was not at the back anymore, nobody knew when but he had long since disappeared from the area, maybe he had gone back or went off to a specific location. He could do nothing to help Arthur and although it''s a bit interesting to watch a fight between gods, he was not in the mood for it after all that happened.
The more the fight lasted, the better the situation turned for Delia, she had more Nether Energy reserve thanks to the pearl and was stronger, so the injuries for Kilan became more numerous and Shishu''s figure began blurring and some Lightning was being removed from her body every second, it was obvious that she could not maintain this form too long because of Delia relentless and strong attacks.
Just as Delia''s spear clashed with the dual blades of Shishu, the Holy Goddess hurt a slashing sound from behind. Because she immersed in the fight, she didn''t focus much on Arthur but she didn''t completely ignore him too, moreover, some of her sense was locked in Jizung at the back so nothing should have happened, or so she thought.
With an angry sweep with her spear, Shishu was flung a hundred meters away and Delia hastily turned around only to see the bloodied Meyzu stabbing Arthur with his blood red long sword.
Meyzu''s state was even worse than Jizung and the reason she didn''t sense him was that he''s dead, it seems he used all his remaining Soul Essence and lifespan to push himself to remain unnoticed and sneak attack Arthur, which turned to be successful.
After he stabbed Arthur, he grinned madly and fell from the sky with an evil grin hanging on his face. His blood red sword was still stabbed into Arthur back and came out of his chest. In just a few seconds, all the blood in Arthur''s body was absorbed by Meyzu''s sword, he literally turned white and by the time Delia appeared beside him and started using the full potential of her domain to heal him, he was already on the brink of death.
Delia was so angry and depressed, she didn''t particularly care about Arthur as a person but his death meant hers too so how couldn''t she feel depressed?
No matter how she healed and even after the sword was taking out, Arthur''s wounds didn''t seem like it was healing and he didn''t have any drop of blood. Normally, his heart should have stopped beating but miraculously, it was beating very slowly. Delia could feel it but she didn''t know why he didn''t die.
As she was frowning, a sound of a crackling chain was heard inside of her head, not only her but even Shishu and Kilan who were surprised by this turn of events.
The first thought that struck them was that it''s the sound of the white chains wrapped around Arthur''s was tightening or causing this sound but after a simple glance, it was apparent that it wasn''t the source of the crackling chains.
After hearing this sound for half a minute, a loud heart thumping sound was added and it was even louder than the previous sound, the weird thing is that they heard it inside their heads and no matter what they did, it couldn''t be stopped or removed.
The heart thumping was getting slower until it finally stopped after one full minute, as for the crackling chains, it became louder until Kilan started howling loudly and Shishu clutched her ears. Even Delia was no exception but she didn''t do anything and merely gazed at Arthur.
No one knew where that sound came from but one thing for sure, if it didn''t stop then they''ll seriously be injured. Their meridians started shaking from the sound and they felt as if they would turn mad at any second.
If one looked at Arthur''s consciousness, they would see that the bright light which was his soul which was wrapped with tight black and purple chains was now being released. The crackling chains sound was indeed because of those chains as they were being slowly released from the soul. Previously, they were tightly held around his soul but after his heart stopped beating, the chains were being released and his soul was emitting a blinding light. It''s like the blinding light of the sun was present in the consciousness of Arthur.
Chapter 111 : Drastic Changes
From North to South, from East to West, every inch, every corner of the Underworld was suddenly covered by a cold Sense. Every living being felt it, it''s like they were watched by something or someone, it gave them the chills and some even fainted because they were too weak, besides fainting, nothing dangerous happened to them.
At the quite and grand palace, the middle-aged man who blocked Arthur''s Rizaki was awakened by the sense, he felt it clearly and he knew he was probed and discovered.
He stood up and probed the whole Underworld but he still felt nothing. He then shifted his sense to where Arthur and co but he was surprised to see that all of them were present except the supposedly dead Arthur.
...
Going back to where Arthur, Delia, and the rest were. The white tiger Kilan and Shishu were mind boggled and in total disbelief. The reason for this was because Arthur, who was supposed to have died is now calmly floating above Delia.
Even the Holy Goddess was confused and stunned, the crackling of chains ended by seeing Arthur completely healed and fully awake startled her.
Everyone present looked at Arthur with confusion and astonishment but the target of all attention didn''t even spare them a glance.
He stayed silent for a long time and gazed at a specific distance whilst being lost in thought. No one dared to disturb him for some reason, the feeling, and demeanor around him was completely different from the previous Arthur, it could be said that they are two different people. While the previous one was aggressive and had a hint of arrogance or maybe overconfidence, this one was calm, too calm and serene.
It''s like he was another being and didn''t even hold them in his eyes, even a goddess such as Delia felt that he was way superior to her.
Even after a long time, no one dared to move or speak, they just floated there silently without doing anything.
Suddenly, the spirit sense arrived and covered the whole Underworld. No one was able to know who was the source of it but those three, it''s because this was their only guess.
He transformed in such a short time and his behavior coupled with the serene but domineering aura around him ascertained their guesses to a hundred percent.
Anyone who knows Arthur would surely know that this person was not him, he had his appearance but it was not him.
At the majestic palace in the far South of the Underworld, the surprised middle-aged man was perplexed and felt unease so he was going to personally leave this palace after a very long time and go check Delia and the others as it was the most suspicious place because Arthur disappeared.
However, just as he was going to teleport and arrive next to the three gods, the silent Arthur finally spoke with a slow but crisp voice.
"You didn''t repent enough to leave that palace and it is still not the time for you to show up."
It was only a sentence but the meaning behind it made the middle-aged man freeze. An invisible pressure pressed down on him and didn''t even let him move a muscle, even breathing was very hard, much less move.
''H-how did he know? How? Who is he!''
A lot of thoughts and questions surged him but they were left unanswered, he couldn''t do a thing as the pressure was too strong, it''s like the whole sky or the whole world was pressed on him.
Not only Arthur''s voice rang inside his ears, it was also heard by the present gods near him, they didn''t know his meaning and were left even more confused.
After dealing with that middle-aged man, ''Arthur'' no longer paid attention to him. When he stretched his sense earlier, he easily found what he was looking for.
As silence ruled the place once again, something happened yet again. In front of Arthur, an unconscious Saly appeared, she didn''t have any injuries and appeared to be simply sleeping.
"Hold her."
Two words from ''Arthur'' were enough for Delia to snap out of her daze and unconsciously follow his order and hold the sleeping Saly in her arms. For no apparent reasoning, she was afraid of the present Arthur and didn''t dare mock him or even disobey his words.
For the first time since he arrived, ''Arthur'' glanced at Kilan and Shishu but after glancing for less than a second, he didn''t bother with them anymore.
Kilan no longer could hold it and be going to act but after blinking his eyes once, Delia and ''Arthur'' disappeared into thin air. No matter how much he tried and probed with his Godly Sense, he didn''t find any trace of them.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"H-how could this be, I couldn''t even move...."
Kilan was shocked as he really couldn''t move in ''Arthur''s presence, it''s like he was an ant or even less than that and if he dared stand out, he would be erased from existence.
Granny Shishu was silent but you could notice her sleeve shaking a bit. A single glance that didn''t even last a second was enough to cause her to feel terror. He had a calm attitude and was not particularly angry or aggressive toward her but she still felt an overwhelming pressure that suffocated her.
"I''m going back."
Without minding Kilan anymore, the old woman turned around left. As for Kilan, he didn''t give up and continued roaming the area to find ''Arthur'' and Delia.
What he didn''t know is that ''Arthur'' appeared in a secluded cave near the Abyss Valley. Lucy didn''t arrive yet as the distance between the cave and the banquet was too far but that didn''t stop him from teleporting her and the two hostages next to him.
Lucy, who was still riding the Spirit Boat and heading to her destination, was startled by the sudden change of environment, by the time she came back to her senses. Arthur and Delia were in front of her, what was even more joyful is that little Saly was sleeping in Delia''s arms.
"Saly!"
Without hesitation, Lucy dashed to Delia and took Saly from her arms while hugging the little girl tightly, she was extremely happy to see her only daughter alive and well.
She checked her with her conditions but she seemed to be in perfect shape. After confirming it again, she shifted her attention to the calm Arthur. Just one look and Lucy was sure that he was not the real Arthur. She didn''t want to jump into conclusions so she asked him
"Who are you?"
The cold and serene eyes of ''Arthur'' softened when he looked at Lucy, he didn''t have much time left yet he still replied to her.
"I''m no one. Time is tight and the Underworld is not safe at all, albeit facing the leaders, there are things lurking here much more dangerous than you think. After 10 days, there should be strong spatial fluctuation and there would be one who is green, that one will lead you ''home''. Don''t stay here any longer."
After saying that, ''Arthur'' gazed at the roof but in reality, he was gazing at the gloomy gray sky of the Underworld.
''It''s too early, way too early for me to appear. This is not good.''
Hearing this, Lucy seemed to have thought of something so she said after some hesitation.
"Are you Senior Zodiak?"
Her question made ''Arthur'' frown for a second, he then laughed and spoke
"Hahaha, I''m not that geezer, I''m no one, really no one...."
Lucy wasn''t willing to give up so she retorted with another question
"If you''re no one then where''s Arthur and why are you possessing his body?"
''Arthur'' wanted to scream some words to her but he held back and calmly replied to her without feeling annoyed by her endless bombardment of questions.
"Your dear lover is safe and sound, he''s sleeping and he should be waking up soon."
What no one saw is that inside Arthur''s consciousness, the bright soul that was like the sun was slowly blurring and the intense light was diminishing.
Thicker and longer chains appeared and started to wrap themselves around the bright soul, making it return to its normal size.
''It''s almost time huh? I guess I''ll help him one last time.''
''Arthur'' used a special Energy to help Arthur and make his breakthrough to the Immortal Realm yet again, some changes were made to his body. After doing that, he seemed to have become tired so he silently walked toward Lucy and softly said
"It''s time to part, I''m sleepy so I''m going to rest for a bit... just a bit."
As he said that, he leaned on Lucy and closed his eyes. Obviously, Lucy still had tons of questions but she knew none of them would get answered so she sat at a corner while Arthur was leaning on her shoulder, a smile was hanging on her breathtaking face as she stroked Saly''s fluffy ears and gazed at the sleeping Arthur.
Delia, Lissandra, and Miya gazed at what happened with surprise and confusion, too many things happened, especially for Delia, so she wasn''t able to fully comprehend what happened. One thing for sure is that the Arthur that was awake just a moment ago was not the real one.
The Holy Goddess walked near Lissandra and Miya and used Holy Light to create white shackles that bound them to the wall, restraining them completely, then she stood silently near them without making a word. For now, she''s Arthur''s servant and slave and she can''t fight back, after what she witnessed, there is no courage left for her to rebel.
At the white and empty palace, the middle-aged man was finally able to move after ''Arthur'' fell asleep. Cold sweat ran down his back and his body couldn''t help but shake for a second.
He didn''t dare leave the palace and went back to his usual place and sat cross-legged, after a couple of seconds, the aura around him change and he seemed to have gone into a deep sleep. The only sound that could be heard is the whistling of the wind in this big and empty palace that was devoid of any object or living being.
... Earth, the original place Arthur lived in before dying, a lot of things changed on this planet, including its main system. Countless companies fell and many rose.
Money became much more valuable but there is another currency that also became valuable and it''s items, magic items.
About a month ago, weird and mysterious caves appeared all around the planet, whether it''s in Africa, Asia or even the north pole. These places were called dungeons by the government as they strongly resembled them.
In fact, these dungeons had weak and strong monsters in them. Albeit the sudden appearance of these dungeons, nothing major happened, the monsters were aggressive but they never left the dungeons and it''s not obligatory to enter it but almost every person wanted to enter the dungeons.
Not all people were lucky, life has always been unfair, some people thought that God blessed them with the dungeons so they can rise further and discover more things. Just like they walked on the moon, people wanted to aim higher and further and this was like a blessing for them.
Some rare people gained abilities on Earth, it a very meager amount of people but they still existed. All the abilities defied physics and science, ranging from fireballs to wind tornado. The public was surprised and those people that had special abilities became famous and rich in just a month.
They would explore dungeons and gain magical items that would be sold for millions of dollars if not more. So like that, a unique government was created and ruled by those people and in just a week, this government became international and welcomed any person with abilities......
Chapter 112 : Wicked Mouth
''International Hero Organization'' A.K.A ''IHO'' is the name of the company that is ruled by those special peoples. Some even had abilities which were only average and allowed them to have a bit more physical strength than normal humans but they were still regarded highly and valued.
What''s more is by going to the dungeon, these people can become stronger, the only bothersome thing is that leveling is just too hard, only one month and passed yet the highest level is just 28.
Auctions were organized almost every week in any city that had a dungeon and rich people would fight to buy one or two magical items. Many important people, despite not having any powers still had a high status such as officials and filthy rich people.
Before Arthur died, he was a very famous businessman, he was originally from the Philippines but somehow he managed to go to South Korea and build a good life there. Not only was he very rich, he had many successful companies whether it''s cosmetic companies, electronic companies. It''s no wonder his wife was greedy about his money.
He even had a special brand called ''LobiSoft'' and it specialized in selling computers, TVs and such. It was his main company and the one which had the most income. Now that he was declared dead, all his companies, restaurants, everything he owned was currently the properties of his wife Claudia. Being the CEO of all these companies, he had the most shares so even after his death, no one from the other shareholders could take over the CEO seat.
His wife was merciless as she fired or ''dealt'' with any person that was opposing her in any way and just like that. She became the known CEO of LobiSoft and the other companies. Claudia didn''t marry a second man but that didn''t mean she was still single.
Secretly, she dated many men or used some to satisfy her ''desires''. This woman, who Arthur couldn''t wait to kill was living peacefully and happily and enjoying her life to its fullest.
As if life couldn''t get any better, Claudia was fortunate enough to gain an ability like the special people but her ability was shallow and useless in fighting.
Wicked Mouth(Passive) : +25 Intelligence; In an argument with another party, no matter what you say, you have 25% chance of winning over the other party and 0.5% of making him/her blindly trust you.
The second effect has a cooldown of 10 days if it''s activated.
Despite having a shitty ability, Claudia was still invited to IHO and with an enormous amount of money investment and coupled with her high status, she was able to win a good position in this company.
She had many backings, from government officials she seduced to other famous companies. For example, currently, Claudia was sitting in a VIP room at a 5-star hotel in the US.
She sipped from the expensive red wine in her hand as she stared at the break-taking view in front of her. The room was at the top of the sky-high building and the room was luxurious and have anything that a person needs, even a jacuzzi.
Claudia was only wearing a violet robe that covered less than half of her body, she was practically naked. Just a while ago, she was on the bed with a middle-aged man who was the CEO of a powerful company in the US.
"Hahaha, although it''s only 0.5%, it''s the second time that it''s activated in just a month. Maybe the watching gods are with me?"
As she played with the transparent glass of wine in her hand, Claudia gazed at the night sky full of stars and playfully smiled whilst saying
"It''s all thanks to you, Arthur, though it''s a shame you died too early... there were some things you hid from me that I cannot find... a real shame indeed. *sigh*"
After she finished talking, she walked toward the bed and leaned her naked body on top of the man. Her voluptuous body and two mountains peaks pressed on the man and woke him up from his sleep.
"I''m still not satisfied."
Like that, the two of them continued doing their business...
It''s been two days since Arthur fell asleep yet he didn''t wake up. Lucy was not worried about his condition as his body fully recovered, moreover, Saly had finally woken up.
She didn''t know what Lissandra did but after Delia slapped her a few time, the miserable woman confessed and told her the way to get rid of the sleeping magic she used on little Saly.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
On the course of these two days, apart from staying with Arthur, Lucy happily chatted with Saly and even played with her. What''s more surprising is that the little girl liked Delia a lot and would often ask her to perform some things with her Holy Magic.
Delia could ignore the little girl but since she''s Arthur''s daughter, she couldn''t refuse, moreover, she didn''t have any reason to refuse. At least taking care of a little girl is better than being stuck at the pearl. She sensed that the tremendous and fast increase in strength which usually occurred every day had slowed down but it was still existent.
At this pace, she guessed that she would break-through in about three to four months and if she''s inside the pearl, two months or less would be more than enough.
"When will father wake up?"
It has been some time since Saly started calling Arthur ''father'' and Lucy ''mom'', since they already considered her like their own daughter, they were more pleased to hear her call them that.
While combing Saly''s brown hair which had grown a bit since the first time they met, Lucy showed a soft smile and said while looking at the sleeping Arthur next to her.
"It won''t be long, don''t worry."
Saly nodded her head silently but after a couple of seconds, she hugged Lucy and said in a low voice.
"I, I''m sorry, I caused you a lot of troubles... *sniff*''
Very soon, Lucy''s clothes were wet from Saly''s clothes but she didn''t mind, she hugged the little girl back while repeatedly telling her that it''s not her fault as it really wasn''t.
Lissandra was in another part of the cave as it was carved by Delia, she made many rooms and a cell for Lissandra.
Miya stayed in one of the rooms, despite the fact that she was free from her shackles, she couldn''t leave yet as Lucy didn''t let her, since Lucy didn''t let her go then Delia did not either and put a strong seal outside of her room to imprison her.
Lucy heard from Delia that Zodiak forcefully made her(Delia) Arthur''s servant and she had to protect him with her life otherwise she would die, even disobeying him is not an option. As for Lucy, Zodiak only said that she had to try and obey her and she could still refuse but the Holy Goddess didn''t dare as she felt that Lucy is more cold and ruthless than Arthur and angering her would be a disaster.
Lucy did not bother with Lissandra for the time being but she didn''t ignore her either, after making sure she cut both of her arms and sealed her legs with her ice.
The sight was gory and Lissandra''s shrieking was too loud but Delia blocked the sound so Saly couldn''t hear, even she wouldn''t be able to do that to someone so when she saw Lucy doing that with an expressionless face, she really felt a bit of fear despite knowing she''s stronger.
Lissandra sat there silently, she was first arrogant and tried threatening Lucy with her clan but it was futile so she switched from threatening to try to make a deal. After countless tries, she apologized for what she did but it was still useless as Lucy turned a deaf ear to her. Apologizing would not work not now and not ever, especially after what they had to go through to capture Saly.
If Arthur didn''t bring her back then maybe this pest wouldn''t have given them their daughter''s location and would have to bargain her life out of this place.
Apologizing turned into begging when her arms were cut off and legs were frozen yet it still didn''t work. Delia made sure she shattered Lissandra''s Dantian, making her a mortal and destroying her Meridians.
...
Late that night, Arthur finally woke up from his long sleep. His headache a bit and he felt a bit dizzy but after a couple of seconds, he managed to see his wife''s figure beside him.
"Emmm, L, Lucy?"
His voice was not too loud but it instantly woke up the sleeping Lucy, she didn''t respond to him and jumped in his arms. Nothing made her happier than seeing her own daughter alive and well and her husband waking up from that long sleep. Thoughts like ''What if he never wakes up'' or ''What if it''s not him'' surged her many times but each time she would shrug them off and hope for the best.
"Mnnnn"
Saly moved her small body as she leaned on Lucy''s leg and used her thigh as a pillow but when Lucy hugged Arthur, that soft pillow disappeared so the little girl couldn''t help but sit up and rub her sleepy eyes while looking at the two in front of her.
It did take her a few seconds to realize what''s happening when she saw Arthur smiling at her, she exclaimed.
"Father!"
A lovely smile blossomed on her face as she jumped between Lucy and Arthur and hugged them both, her head was buried in her father''s chest. Even after some time, the girl didn''t let go of Arthur and she felt that he would disappear if she did so.
While wrapping his left arm around Lucy and Saly hugging him, Arthur leaned on the pillow positioned vertically behind him and checked his surroundings.
"Where are we? I can''t remember what happened after the explosion..."
Just as he said that, Delia entered the room and happened to hear his question but before she could ask anything, a dark spear came flying at her.
It was easily blocked by her but she was still surprised by the sudden aggressiveness or Arthur, she looked at him with confusion before Lucy finally explained the situation.
"It''s fine, she''s not an enemy, she helped us."
Listening to Lucy, Arthur frowned and still didn''t restrain his killing intent as he stared intensely at Delia, who barely had any clothes on her.
"Not an enemy? She''s the bitch who almost killed us. Wasn''t she sealed by Senior Zodiak?"
Delia was expecting to hear him apologize for him thoughtless attack but was met with a harsh insult.
"You.... what did you just call me? Hmpf! You should listen to your wife and thank me because if not for ME, YOU would have died. hmpf!"
After saying that, Delia left the room without speaking further, she was pretty angry since her kindness was met with insult and ungratefulness, she began even regretting not humiliating him or letting him die and die with him as it''s better than being treated like this, after all, she''s a goddess and not a mortal.
"I don''t know what happened when I left but you suddenly..."
Lucy started to explain what she saw and she didn''t miss any detail, she even told him the words the unknown person who used his body said.
Saly already fell asleep while hugging him and Lucy continued explained the events from two days ago.
Chapter 113 : Book of The Damned
The next day, Arthur and Lucy accompanied by Delia went to where Lissandra was imprisoned as it was time for revenge and punishment. From the second they caught her, they were never going to let her live, even after torturing her and planning to exchange her for Saly, they would have found a way to secretly kill her.
As she saw the main person who captured her and caused her to become a mortal, Lissandra froze and started shaking. She didn''t have her godly and mighty demeanor and instead, she stared with fear toward Lucy and Arthur.
"Y, You already got your daughter back and I apologized many times, w-what e...else do you want?"
Lissandra tried to look composed and calm but her body betrayed her as it was shaking non-stop. In the past, she was a very strong figure but facing death and being reduced to a weak moral completely changed her attitude.
Arthur could kill her and possess her and albeit not having her Dantian, he''s still gaining a meager amount of stats but the most important is that but the fact that she has a portion of Zodiak''s powers.
He walked near Lissandra and crouched, his actions were not aggressive but just seeing him approach her made the terrified Lissandra shiver faster.
Arthur didn''t attack her or anything of the sort, he just snatched the dark book from her waist. If she still had some Nether Energy, she still could have used it but now she''s but a weak mortal, even Saly could kill her.
Book of the Damned (Second Part)
A simple appraise allowed him to know what the book is. When he found Zodiak, he found the book of the damned with him, of course, he absorbed it and it gave him two cheat skills.
He also knew that he didn''t absorb the whole book as when the seal for the Overgod of Knowledge was lifted, the system clearly stated that he still didn''t absorb the whole book which left him confused at first but after some thoughts, he guessed that there is missing pages or another part.
Arthur wasn''t rush and didn''t absorb the book immediately, he stored it in his ring and shifted his attention to Lissandra, who dipped her head down and didn''t dare stare at him.
''She''s seriously like another person....''
Lucy also told him that she''s like another person and seeing her reverting back to being a mortal and her fearful attitude, he didn''t suspect that it was all an act.
What she did was unforgivable yet he found it quite hard to kill her right now. He''s a cold-blooded killer but since they adopted Saly and Lucy became his wife, he no longer cared about killing and was much more merciful. There were parts of him that relentlessly urged him to skin her alive than kill her but a small part of him insisted that he let her live.
Arthur scratched the back of his head as he looked at her with a somewhat helpless gaze then he turned his head and looked at Lucy whilst saying
"What do you think we should do?"
Hearing Arthur says that Lucy stared at Lissandra''s frozen legs and the empty space where her arms should have been, she shook her head and said.
"I already vented my anger on her, you can kill her or throw her into a pit, what you want to do, I''ll support you."
Arthur nodded back at her and transformed into a small black whirlpool that vanished in just a split second.
You have successfully possessed Lissandra (Human Lv10)
You gained another portion of Zodiak''s powers: Forcefully taken from the host Lissandra.
Dark Heal (Active) : Dark Magic to heal the user, the effect is quadrupled if the user has a body made from Dark Magic.
Dark Magic now deals 40% more damage.
You gained a new skill(passive) : Death Laws: The more your Health decreases the stronger you become. If your Health reaches 1%, you stats are increased by 400%.
You gained a new skill(active) : Black Scorpion Body Strengthening-technique....
Your stats have increased, please check your window status for more details.
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE/ ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK???
Level:
????
Class:
Dark ARK Parasite
-
Realm :Immortal 4th Grade
-
Strength
90.1m
Intelligence
107.9m
Agility
79.0m
Wisdom
88.4m
Vitality
68.4m
Dexterity
66.6m
-
Health
80m
Health Regen
41721/s
Nether Energy
75.5m
Nether Energy Regen
47000/s
Mana
120m
Mana Regen
85177/s
Stamina
infinite
Stamina Regen
????
-
Creation :80
Attack:
140.8m
Defense:
92.4m
Magic defense :15.5m
Enigma abilities :Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK??
Mental Power :1497
Elemental Resistances:
Fire:
100%
Water:
75%
Wind:
35%
Earth:
75%
Light/holy:
5%
Shadow
30%
Lightning
100%
Ice
30%
Arthur only possessed Lissandra for a couple of seconds but her body already started recovering, the two arms were already halfway grown right now. He didn''t activate any healing but there were many passives gained from self-recovery of the ancient beasts and so on that can be activated in a humanoid body that was doing the work.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
By the time Arthur left Lissandra''s body, her arms were fully grown and healed, it''s like she never lost them. The only evidence that she didn''t have any is that the sleeves and the whole arm part of her clothes vanished so both her arms were not covered with anything.
There were two kinds of possessing Arthur could do. The possessing of the dead corpses and the possessing of living creatures. He could only possess weak creatures but if he leaves their body again, they would still regain control of their body.
There is the forceful possessing but the cost was too great so it would only use in case of emergencies. Actually, Arthur planned a lot to make his ex-wife''s life a leaving hell, with his possessing, he would every person she trusts betray her, they would act against her, he would literally make her feel real despair but that plan won''t start until he manages to arrive on Earth.
Lissandra felt as she blacked out for a short time, by the time she woke up, she found that her arm was fully grown. She wasn''t surprised because they are back but why they are back? From their look, it was obvious that they loathed her to death so she was confused but she didn''t speak and remained silent.
Even if her power is back, she still wouldn''t dare escape in the presence of Lucy and the rest, especially when Delia is next to her. The Holy Goddess was even stronger than Jizung, much less Lissandra so she lost all her courage from the moment her she became a mortal.
"Alright, let''s start the questions. There is only one rule, I ask, you answer, if I feel you''re lying, I''ll cut your arms off. If you don''t answer, I''ll cut your both your arms. If you take time to answer, I''ll cut off your arms. Oh, and one more thing, I can heal them immediately so be prepared."
Lissandra nodded her had and replied with a shaky voice
"Y, yes yes. I''ll answer I''ll answer."
From her fear, Lissandra couldn''t help but repeat the words more than one time so Arthur could hear her and not just cut-off arms left and right because he heard no answer.
"First question; How did you go to Astria and how did you come back here?"
Lissandra didn''t waste any second and replied instantly and didn''t dare tell any lies.
"I-it''s with the help rare spatial stone and a special energy people at the God Realm have... it, it''s the same thing for coming back."
Arthur remained silent for a while before asking another question.
"What is the book you were holding and where did you find it?"
"A, ah, it-iit''s, n-no I mean I found it in a cave at the western continent of Astria. It was within a dark temple which held the Dark Magic. It''s a tool for attacking and defending and despite being at the God Realm, I,I.. I couldn''t fully use it and can only spawn some creatures or conjure a fog that makes any object wither."
Lissandra disclosed everything she knew about the book, her life was already doomed so maybe if she told the whole truth, there is still a chance she can live. She still wanted to live despite becoming a mortal, she didn''t give up yet.
"Are you the part of Medusa?"
Lissandra nodded continuously and responded
"Yey yes! In fact, it''s me who created it for the purpose of finding other dark temples."
"Have you found any dark temples then?"
"I didn''t personally search as even with my God Sense, I couldn''t sense them but my subordinates found 8 other temples scattered in the four continents but none of them had anything special."
"You''ll tell me the full details of their location later. Where do I find those spatial stones and what do they look like?"
This time, it was Delia who replied before Lissandra could.
"It''s an old stone that absorbed too much spatial matter in the void and managed to fall in a world. It''s very random and extremely difficult to find it. If you want to go back, then you better use special spatial doors or spatial turbulence but the latter choice will lead you to a random place, even a desolate world or a destroyed one, it could also throw you into the void."
Seeing that she wasn''t able to answer, Lissandra face paled, although Arthur got the answer he wanted, she still felt afraid as she was not who replied but it appeared that she was too afraid and her worries were needless.
"Do you know of any way to go back to Astria besides the spatial stones?"
"In fact, traveling between worlds is easy if you''re at the Immortal Realm. At this age, almost all worlds have spatial doors that lead to different precise worlds, it''s just that the Underworld is unique and no one knows the frequency of the world. Astria is also a very, very remote world, even my summoning took some time, usually, it''s instantaneous."
Arthur was confused by those new words but he didn''t ask about them currently, he needed to go back to Astria with Lucy quickly as he too knew that they''ll not last long. They offended everyone in the Underworld and sooner or later, they''ll find him.
He continued asking Lissandra for a whole hour before he left that dark room with Delia and Lucy. Most of his questions were answered and he didn''t need to cut off her arms even a single time.
"You said that the one who possessed me said that we can go back after 7 days through a green spatial turbulence?"
"Yes. His tone sounded like he was confident about it and was sure that it''ll lead us ''home''."
Lucy recounted every word the ''person'' said but Arthur was still hesitant. He didn''t like the fact that someone possessed him, it felt strange and uncomfortable.
"We''ll check that then, it''s our only choice currently."
"En!"
Lucy just nodded and followed him, as for Delia, she remained silent but after some time, as if something was ushering her to talk, she finally spoke.
"What about that abominable existence? Shall I burn her?"
"Let her ber, we need her for now."
Delia didn''t like the fact that Arthur let Lissandra live, the Holy Goddesses regarded everything evil as their enemy, including Lissandra so she wanted to purify her by burning her with her Holy Light.
Even Arthur is considered evil but since he''s her master, she couldn''t act against him or she would instantly die. While gritting her teeth and showing an annoyed expression that didn''t suit her mesmerizing face, she retorted.
"... Why? You already asked her everything you needed to know, moreover, I can answer if you still have anymore."
Arthur ignored her and went to his and Lucy''s room where Saly was currently at. Delia could only stare at him begrudgingly for a moment before turning around and walk away but she was stopped by his voice.
"You were captured just like her and sealed to become my slave, I spared your life and let you live so why shouldn''t I spare hers too? Moreover, I make the decisions and not you, If I say you let her live then you do so. The day you become free, you can do whatever you want but for now. You.are.my.slave."
With that, Arthur no longer paid attention to Delia and sat on the bed with Lucy. He took the book and finally absorbed it to see what''s going to happen.
Chapter 114 : Departure
You have absorbed Book of the Damned (Part 2)
You have fully absorbed The Book of the Damned
Faster than Death : Range increased from 50 to 150 meters.
Death Binding : The effect is now increased by 5 seconds.
Death Touch : absoring corpses in the Immortal Realm or above will allow you to gain 1% from their Mental Power
You gained a new skill(passive) : Death Manipulation : Summon The Book of the Damned and used it as a mean to attack or defend.
Can only use 10% of the book''s capacity.
To unlock more functions of the Book of the Damned, the user(Arthur) have to be in a higher-Realm.
It''s to be expected that the results of absorbing the book would be like this but Arthur felt a bit disappointed as he only gained one skill.
With a thought, the dark and ancient book appeared in front of him, floating. He didn''t know how Lissandra controlled her book but after hearing some of her answers, he found it rather easy to control the book in such way.
All he had to do is open the book and in its pages, there are pictures of certain creatures and some details about them, for example, their attacks, weaknesses and so.
In total, Arthur was able to use 3 creatures. One was a creepy and zombie-looking hand which is mainly to absorb incoming attacks and store it as temporary Energy. That temporary Energy can be used with ''Radiun'', it''s also a monster that can be summoned from the book. It''s a two-headed bone lizard with a black flaming tail. The stored energy would make him 20% more powerful.
Moreover, Raduin is an attack-monster and is at the peak of the Immortal Realm at the very least, its power will increase when the user is at a higher-Realm.
The monster lasts forever until Arthur falls unconscious, dies or his connection with the monster is cut-off forcefully by an exterior pressure or anything of the sort.
Last but not least, ''Death Golem'', its strength is unusually weak, to the point of not matching even a Deity Realm person but its defense is almost unpenetrable by any individual at the Divine Realm or less.
Seeing the new strong creatures, Arthur was absolutely sure that under the God Realm, he''s the strongest albeit not reaching the Divine Realm yet.
After a couple of minutes checking the new skills and such, Arthur heard a ting and knew it was a signal. It was unknown why it occurred now and even he was hella confused but he didn''t think too much about it.
With a wave of his hand, a blue lightning fog formed in the room and after only a few seconds. A huge wolf''s figure was created from the blue fog, unlike his previous appearance, Astrith was bigger and looked more domineering.
With two pointed fangs coming out of his upper mouth and a surprisingly smooth blue fur, he looked like a legendary beast and not just a lightning beast.
"This one greets master."
Astrith performed a bow with his huge bow and dropped his head toward Arthur to show his respect. His body was made of out of lightning but unlike last time, there was now blue fur.
"Is this your new cover?"
"This one doesn''t know exactly, however, this one isn''t using anything. This one thinks that he evolved after master grew stronger."
"Um! Good to have you back."
Arthur nodded and checked Astrith with his appraisal only to be wide eyes from astonishment. He was supposed to be Astrith''s master but the blue wolf was at the peak of the Divine Realm. He even checked multiple times but the result remained the same.
Logically, his Realm is not a bug or mistakes it''s just that a servant''s power is based on his master''s. Arthur may be an Immortal 4th Grade but his strength is of a God Realm, even Lucy.
With Rizaki, he could even reach the peak of the God Realm but that move is too dangerous, he hoped not to be forced to use it a second time. Death Binding could have saved him if he activated at the moment of death but what of Lucy was nearby? If he lived and she died because of him then he would rather die with her.
With Randuin, Astrith, Delia and the Death Golem, Arthur pretty much has his own squad that has godly strength.
He is confident that if all of them ganged up on Jizung or Meyzu, they would probably be able to kill him, especially if he and Lucy prepare the Heavenly Arrow before fighting. Albeit wanting to try that, he wasn''t going to as it was almost time to depart.
..
Saly woke up and was overjoyed to see Astrith, she jumped on him and wanted to ride him outside but was strictly forbidden by Lucy but Delia, fortunately, stepped in and proposed to join them so Lucy could only sigh and accept after seeing Saly''s puppy eyes.
"Seriously, I can''t reject her when she does that to me..."
As Lucy was sitting on Arthur''s lap and getting her hair combed by him, she complained about Saly''s puppy eyes that made her heart unable to be strict.
"Hahaha, It''s okay to let her play once in a while, she''s been through a lot after all."
Unlike Lucy, Arthur was easy-going with Saly and always let her do whatever she wants if it''s not dangerous. Seeing Astrith going with her, he knew it would be safe and the God Realm individuals won''t find this place today or tomorrow as it''s filled with illusion techniques laid by Delia and some old talismans of Zodiak.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
However, after seeing Lucy refuse, he couldn''t speak up as gave up his own rights the moment he married her. If it''s about decision-making, he would make all of them but if it''s about Saly or simple things, Lucy was the ruler. He couldn''t even retort or he will be ditched for a day or two or she would pinch him very hard THEN ditch him for a week.
Between ditching or not ditching, of course, he would pick the latter so he shut his mouth and agreed with Lucy.
"Hmpf! You''re always easy with her, as her father, you should bestricter. What if she comes back with a man someday, you''ll still accept him like that? Hmpf!"
Arthur laughed it off and heartily replied
"Hahaha, she''s still young, how would she bring a man home, moreover. Where would she bring it from? We''re in the middle of nowhere...."
Lucy didn''t speak and merely snorted and remained silent. She liked having her hear caressed and combed by him so she just laid on her back on his chest and relaxed. They were still not out of the danger but they are temporarily safe so she wanted to enjoy her time with him. Having all the important and serious matters sorted out, she felt extremely relaxed and happy.
...
The next day, Arthur and co departed for the Abyss Valley. Their destination was a very dangerous place and on the way, they met many dangerous beasts, even some godly ones but they were all pushed away or killed by Delia or Arthur''s new bodyguards.
A black rocky Death Golem with the height of 4 meters, a two-headed lizard, and a blue wolf was flying around Arthur and Lucy.
Saly was riding Astrith and Delia was flying next to her. On the shoulders of the golem was the poor Miya who was forcefully taken from her clan by the cruel Arthur who she despised to the bone.
She didn''t know why he decided to take her with them but she couldn''t resist or flee as it was impossible in their presence. As for Lissandra, Arthur told Delia to seal her in the white pearl for the moment, it was only a temporary solution as the pearl would kick her out sooner or later.
After a couple of hours spent flying, they finally arrived near the spatial fluctuations. The reason they didn''t use a Spirit Boat is that it''s very sensitive to spatial magic and even a bit of it can destroy it so Arthur decided to keep it hidden for the time being.
"It''s going to get dangerous from now on, better stick close to me to avoid any incidents."
Delia spoke as she gestured to Astrith and Arthur to come closer. The blue furry wolf shrunk in size until it was the size of a normal wolf, Saly was still riding him. Arthur and Lucy who were riding also got next to Delia. Miya was miserably thrown by the golem toward Delia, who waved her hand and made Miya stop her fast air charging.
"You.... was it necessary?"
Miya was a very calm person, even after what has been to her, she never snapped in anger or shouted but this time she was unable to hold her emotions in check and raised her voice a bit. She quickly realized it and turned red from embarrassment. She resented Arthur so much, she saw he was not a bad person but she really wanted to strangle him right now.
The 5 of them were surrounded by Delia''s Holy Light. When she was sure everyone was protected, the Holy Goddess proceeded toward the spatial fluctuations.
The mysterious person said ''Green'' so they searched for a green spatial fluctuation but it was hard. There were thousands of them, one the size of a fingernail and the other the size of a mountain. Some were colorless and some were blood red but none was green.
....
"It appears there is no green colored spatial fluctuation and it''s dangerous to head further as it would invade the territories of ancient beasts."
"So?"
Arthur didn''t appear to care as they had Delia but the Holy Goddess showed an annoyed look and explained.
"I may be your servant for now but I''m not going to head for my death if you want to die then go by yourself. These territories are ruled by Sovereign Beasts and above, even ten of me can''t beat or block them, much me alone. What''s more is that the evil Energy here is more concentrated than any other place, if we head deeper, it''ll weaken me and I''ll be unable to protect you with my Holy Light."
Hearing this, Arthur felt depressed as they found no sign of the green colored spatial fluctuation and the situation is getting dangerous by the second. At such an important and desperate moment, the silent Saly pointed at the far distance and exclaimed.
"It''s a green one, a green!"
She wasn''t smart enough to understand the whole process of the going back to Astria but at least she knew that they were looking for a green portal of some kind so when she noticed green she spoke.
The green spatial fluctuation was about a kilometer or two at most from their distance and since it was surrounded by many other ones, it was hard to see it, it''s a miracle Saly somehow discovered it.
"It''s indeed a green one but is it the right one?"
Delia was still not willing to take the risk of diving there and then passing the wrong one, she was quite hesitant.
"Wrong or not, we''ll still try it, now go and stop wasting time."
Arthur didn''t hesitate as he gave Delia a direct order she can''t disobey. Whilst gritting her teeth, the Holy Goddess spread her white and breath-taking wings, they flapped multiple times and the Holy Light around them became brighter and more powerful.
The speed they were advancing at was a bit faster but Delia''s Energy was expanding at an unbelievable pace as she was using Holy Magic in such an environment, it''s like trying to ignite a fire inside water.
Not long after, the 6 of them reached the green spatial fluctuation. It was the size of 2-meter door and the width of two normal humans.
So as they do not get separated, they held hands and Astrith went back to Arthur''s consciousness. Just as they were ready to enter the blurry green portal, a terrifyingly loud noise resounded in their ears to the point of almost making them deaf.
When Arthur turned his head to look, he was dumbstruck to see a giganticdsungaripterus, its wingspan is at the very least 50 meters. It was opening its mouth and ready to devour all of them in one ago.
Fortunately, the Holy Goddess noticed it before them and stepped ahead while her wings flapped and a flash of blue light was emitted from them.
Some kind of cubic blue barrier was formed in front of her but it was instantly shattered after holding no more than a second. Delia was struck by the creature and her left wing was torn off forcefully while the right one had some of its feathers fall.
Arthur grabbed Delia''s hand and formed a Dark Magic while jumping to the portal along with the three others.
It was fortunate enough that the creature couldn''t fit in the portal but its angry screeching was heard even after they passed the spatial fluctuation.
What laid in front of them was a dark space with countless flashing stars and planets all around, they seemed to be in some kind of tunnel that led to a specific world.
The road was silent and after just two minutes, another portal was at the end of the tunnel. Since the distance was too far, they could only see a spatial fluctuation but couldn''t see what type of world it was.
Arthur was going to breathe a sigh of relief when suddenly, Zodiak''s skeletal corpse appeared in front of him, his two lifeless eyes flashed with a purple light. The skeleton forcefully grabbed Arthur''s arm and said
"I don''t know what happened but just in case, I put a seal into my corpse so It would forcefully bring you to Astria when you''re going back from the Underworld, if you''re hearing this it means the place you''re going to is not Astria, it may even be more dangerous than the Underworld so I thought it''ll be good if I helped you a bit."
Before Arthur could react or even utter a word, the skeleton dragged him out of the tunnel and opened another tunnel on its own, the tunnel was endless and you could not see the end of it. Before any of the people present could react, Arthur was no longer seen and the tunnel created by the skeleton disappeared.
Lucy''s face paled as she heard what Zodiak said, just like the others. The things she feared was what kind of world would they go to? The man said ''Home'' but Astria was their home.
''Unless?''
Just as a thought struck Lucy, their surroundings flashed and by the next second, a semi-dead Holy Goddess, a small beast girl and half-demon silver-haired woman and a wide-eyed green haired girl along with a two-headed lizard that appeared out of nowhere, appeared in a very narrow alley.
The place reeked of a foul stench, it seemed like piss and just a couple meters of them was a gray cubic box that emitted a more horrible smell.
All of them stared at the end of the alley as they heard people speaking and the sound of countless footsteps, what''s more, surprising is the presence of a four-wheeled gray or black boxes that were moving on their own.....
Chapter 115 : Earth
"Hey you fucker, move the fucking car or I''llgothere and beat the shit out of you!"
A muscular man driving a black BMW was yelling at an old man who was blocking the road with his slow car, apparently, it stopped midway and wouldn''t move no matter how much he tried. Other people were annoyed too but didn''t yell like the muscular man they just glared at the poor old man.
When Lucy sensed the muscular man and all the others, she was surprised to see that they all are weak, just simple mortals like in Astria, perhaps a bit weaker.
She couldn''t use appraise but with her sense, it was easy to probe them. Delia was half-conscious and floating behind Lucy with the help of Miya. One of her wings was nowhere to be seen and the other one seemed to be withering.
"W-we are we?"
Miya was surprised by the sky-high buildings and the cars, it''s the first time she saw things like these. The only one who immediately recognized the place is Lucy.
Arthur told her many things about Earth and when she saw his moments, although it was blurry, she managed to get a glimpse of some of the advanced technologies in here.
"It''s Earth."
Lucy''s tone was of absolute certainty so Miya didn''t doubt her but Delia did. Although she was half-conscious, she could still speak and hear so when she heard an unfamiliar name of a world, she was alarmed.
"E-Earth? *cough* There is no such world with that name."
"There is and we are in it. It''s Arthur''s former home before he..---, it''s his real home."
The little Saly gazed at the multiple cloth shops and the different types of cars. Everything was so different from Astria of the Underworld.
Unlike the Underworld, Earth had almost no Nether Energy but there was Mana and the concentration of Mana here is more than Astria but if it is like this, how come no one from the present people discovered it in the past?
Arthur clearly told Lucy that Mana was just a thing in stories or games on Earth but there is a huge amount of it here so she started having doubts about the world.
''Perhaps it''s not the same world? Just a small resemblance?''
The muscular man kept shouting but none of them comprehended what he was speaking, they just stared at the surroundings from the narrow alley.
Lucy scanned the area around them but except buildings of all sorts and kinds, those cubic cars and countless people, there were no empty places.
She stretched her sense further and managed to find an empty building which was actually a desolate factory. A dark talisman appeared from her storage, without hesitation, Lucy threw it on the ground and by the next second, she and the rest were teleported to the factory.
It was one of the few teleport talismans Arthur did. With the help of Zodiak''s notes and some experiments, he managed to create some of them and passed all of them to Lucy since he doesn''t need them.
In such a new world with no one who could comprehend the language and no home to live in, this was the best place she could find for the time being.
"Lay her down on this."
With a wave of her hand, a luxurious bed was taken out of her storage ring. Miya moved Delia on the bed without an opposition, she was the weakest out of all of them except Lucy and she knew they were in a strange world so the best thing she could do now is stick with them.
The double-headed lizard stayed close to Lucy and Saly and merely scanned the surroundings whilst remaining silent. Its mission is to protect both of them, especially Saly and unlike them, it had an ability to turn invisible so no human could see it. If it wants, it could pass undetected by people at the Divine Realm or less.
It looked ferocious with its body made of bones and its black flaming tail and long sharp fangs, it was a monstrosity but none of them was afraid of it as they were used to seeing monsters but if any of the humans in earth saw it, they would freak out and might even pass out.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Lucy walked near the sweating Delia who was on the brink of death and passed her 4 kinds of Potions. Each was high-quality and each did something. Arthur was not stingy and in fact, he gave Lucy astronomical amounts of potions, talisman, and other things. She had storage rings inside her personal storage rings that had weapons, armors, and artifacts. It was useless to use them but he insisted on her having them in case of emergencies such as this one.
"Drink all of them."
Delia gazed at Lucy for sometime before she nodded and drank the potions but it was done with great difficulty so Miya stepped in and gave her a hand. The Holy Goddesses was in a terrible state, it was fortunate that her Dantian or Meridians were not broken or destroyed by that attack but it would take her some time to recover as her wings were torn off. She would recover to her full strength in a couple of months but to regrow the wing it would at least take a decade if not a century.
The potions were quite effective as Delia''s face color regained some of its redness. She definitely looked much better and she could finally move a bit. She sat up on the bed and leaned on a big cushion behind her.
"So you said we''re on Earth?"
Her question was obviously directed at Lucy, who only nodded in response. Delia pondered for a bit before asking another question
"You also said your husband was from here but you offered no explanation about the important stuff. Is it a dangerous world? Are there other gods? Sovereigns? Or perhaps more powerful beings? Seeing the strength of your husbands and his connections, I feel unease when I know that I''m in his world right now."
While checking the empty factory and the dust all over, Lucy kept scanning the place while replying to the curious Delia.
"As far as I know, it''s not a dangerous world. Arthur told me that all of the humans here are mortals and there is no such thing as magic or cultivation, they rely on science and live peacefully with no wars whatsoever. It''s basically a paradise on the surface."
As Delia was going to breathe a sigh of relief, the last sentence shook her a bit.
"On the surface.....?"
"Yes. Humans here may be weak but they have numbers and advanced technology that can deal damage to even high-leveled people. I don''t know if they can hurt a god-like you but I think that''s far-fetched, what''s more, bothersome is that despite being weak, they are intelligent and cunning, the world is corrupted by money and power, just like any other world."
Delia remained silent as she pondered about what Lucy said, if there is no threat to them then it''s fine but it''ll be quite bothersome if there are other aggressive gods, especially if this small world belongs to one as most gods don''t like anyone who invades their territory.
After sorting things out inside her head, Delia nodded and added.
"I never heard of this world and I have gone to countless worlds, being summoned or going intentionally. I can feel some Holy Magic in the surroundings but it''s almost non-existent as far Holy believers, there is none here so there is only one explanation. It''s either a private world of a mighty god or reclusive one, or it''s a deserted world or in a worst-case scenario, it''s an abandoned world."
This time, it was the calm Miya who asked, she wanted to go back to the Underworld and hearing the word ''abandoned'' made her despair a bit.
"Yes, abandoned. An abandoned a world is a place where the gods deemed useless and fruitless, it''s a discarded world that was sent away from the other worlds. There are many reasons to abandon the world, no mana source or similar Energy or if it''s going to extinguish itself soon, it''s corrupted or poisoned by a strong poison that could destroy it etc....."
Silent ruled the place as all of them were worried about what''s about to happen. Only Lucy remained calm and said after a long silence
"Either way, we have to adjust until Arthur is back or we find away to go back where he is but the best solution, for now, is to remain here, I know he will come here."
Earth was not a big place compared to Astria or the Underworld, in fact, it''s too small. For someone like Lucy or Delia, it could be crossed in one hour, literally. A few dozen kilometers a second is their normal speed, so crossing the Earth or traveling from a country to another is done in a few seconds.
Later that night, after ascertaining no one saw them. Lucy and the rest went to a forest a few hundred miles away from that city. Lucy couldn''t understand the language but because her intelligence was astronomically high and with the help of the system. Hearing a bit allowed to her understand a few words such as Hi and Thanks.
The system said it was Korean language and like the language in the Underworld, learning it with the system''s help the intelligence stats is very easy.
Lucy built a normal house with the earth magic, it was only temporary as they needed a place currently. Delia was recovering quickly with the help of the potion albeit the meager presence of the Nether Energy. Saly was feeling down because Arthur was not here so Lucy stayed with her and comforted her. She just woke up a few days ago and didn''t enjoy her father''s presence enough and yet they are separated again in less than a week.
She didn''t cry and held in here and she knew the situation was complicated, she was intelligent enough to understand that crying right now won''t do anything good so she obediently stayed in the house with her mother.
She would go with lizard and roam the forest. Except for a few deers, she didn''t see anything dangerous, moreover, the deer was very weak and caught by her in a flash.
She had enough food in her storage to live for a few years but she still liked hunting so she brought a deer back and roasted it to eat with the others. Although they were a bit depressed, eating a good meal raised their morale a bit.
Even Delia, a god, ate with them even though she could live without eating. Most gods if not all would usually eat, not to because they were hungry as they obviously didn''t feel hunger but because it was tasty. Some food was even priceless and legendary chefs were respected in higher-Realms.