"Pay me with Arcanium then!" He said with a shrug, ignoring the gazes that were drawn to him.
Liam wanted to turn around to the other young man whose expression turned sour because he couldn't even react to the fact that Liam had indirectly called him out for being a spineless coward.
However, he was interrupted by the murmurs that resounded from all around him.
The people he saved, including some students, were a bit baffled by Liam's straightforward demand.
"Isn't it obvious for someone as strong as you to help us? Stronger people should help the weak and helpless!" A man in his late 50s grumbled all of a sudden.
He too was drenched in water and he looked miserable, but Liam couldn't care less about the man's pitiful appearance.
"If you don't want to pay me, you might as well keep your mouth shut! Don't bother putting up with the act of having gratitude and come over to thank me for rescuing you when you cannot accept that your 'gratefulness' is worthless to me. Your gratefulness cannot help me kill monsters, but Arcanium can!" He said sharply, his purple eyes staring at the man for a moment before he turned his head away in disgust.
The man who was in his 50s was just about to say something when Olivia opened her mouth.
"How much do you want, and how can I transfer Arcanium to you?" She asked without giving it a second thought.
Olivia could tell how valuable Arcanium was and it was certainly the best way to repay her debt to her savior with something that would help him become stronger than offering empty words!
"I don't care how much you give me. You know how difficult it was to kill the rats and how much Arcanium you gained for each kill. Arcanium can be used for everything, so I will let you be the judge to figure out how much you want to give me, and how much you want to save up for yourself," Liam stressed the importance and use of Arcanium once again rather than greedily telling Olivia to give him everything she had.
He had never expected Olivia to simply hand over her entire fortune, to begin with, but he wanted to make sure that she understood the value of Arcanium before doing something she would regret.
"You can transfer Arcanium simply by thinking about transferring it to a specific person. My name is Liam Wandel, so think about transferring Arcanium to me and a notification will pop up in front of you to verify the transfer," He explained while simultaneously sharing his name for the first time with the others.
Everyone, even those who had been angry with him for being greedy and asking for Arcanium if they were truly grateful for him rescuing them, listened to his words intently. They learned a lot from Liam and subconsciously nodded their head in understanding.
[Olivia Jellin(Circleless) transferred 26.7 Arcanium to Liam Wandel(Circleless)]
[Transaction completed. 26.7 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
"That-..." Liam blurted out, unable to hide his astonishment as Olivia interrupted him before he could say anything else, "That's all I have for now. You will get more once I have more!"
Liam was mostly astonished that Olivia had already amassed 26.7 Arcanium, to begin with. Everyone started with 10 Arcanium, which meant that Olivia must have accumulated at least 16.7 Arcanium by herself.
That was pretty impressive and a lot more than he expected from someone whom he had presumed to have been raised in a very sheltered environment.
"My life is worth much more, so don't even think of rejecting my Arcanium!" Olivia pressed on when Liam opened his mouth to say something.
"I didn't plan on rejecting your money, don't worry. I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job collecting so much Arcanium in such a short time." He responded quite calmly before he noted that more people began to transfer some Arcanium to him.
[Transaction completed 0.6 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 2.1 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 1.3 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 0.1 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[Transaction completed 9.4 Arcanium has been added to the Balance!]
[...]
[...]
[...]
Liam received dozens of notifications that rang through his head like the crowing of a rooster in the morning…if the rooster were to be IN your head…
This astonished him quite a bit since he didn't expect to receive much from the people around him. That was also why he was dumbfounded to see the transactions ended up increasing his Arcanium by 56.9!
[Arcanium: 121.4]
"...Damn…" Liam blurted out when he took a glance at his total Arcanium. It was very pleasing to the eye.
For a moment, he reconsidered increasing all Stats that were still stuck in [G] to [F], but he also knew that it would cost too much Arcanium. His gains would disappear in the blink of an eye, the moment he increased some of his stats by one or two sub-ranks, especially if he would jump a whole rank from [G+] to [F-]!
An alternative to this was attempting to raise his stats by training hard, or by consuming special items that were far more cost-efficient than plainly increasing his stats with Arcanium.
'Fighting until I am on the verge of collapsing should be enough to increase my stats up to F+...but how long do I have to fight…?' Liam began to wonder.
He was trying to figure out if he should just purchase a weapon with his Arcanium, or if other equipment and goods that increased his stats permanently upon consumption would be better in the current situation. After all, his customized mission had yet to end and it was quite obvious that the situation might suddenly change since the entrances of the gymnasium's outer layer had yet to be sealed off.
While he was deep in thought the young man whom Liam had offended by openly calling him immoral had had enough of the intruder. He ignored the people around Liam, pushed them aside, and stepped closer to him. His hand was still tightly coiled around the longsword which he had purchased in the Arcane Shop after realizing the seriousness of the situation, and he pointed the tip of the blade toward Liam.
The gap between Liam and the blade was less than 30 centimeters when the young man finally halted in his tracks.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" The young man asked sharply as he thrust the tip of his longsword forward so as to intimidate Liam by nearly cutting his neck.
And in response, Liam's eyes turned ice-cold. He pushed the battle-axe upward with ease, forcefully changed the path of the sword thrust and inched closer to the young man, whose eyes widened as he felt Liam's fingers grasping him by the throat.
"If you continue to act like this, I will be your death, kid!"
**
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Liam's left hand was not in the claw form anymore. That was the young man's fortune or else he would be lying on the ground, drenched in his own puddle of blood.
A faint smile could be seen on Liam's face as he looked at the quivering eyes of the young man who couldn't say a word even though his mouth opened and closed repetitively.
"I don't think you should act like a bigshot if you cannot even protect yourself properly," He gave him a word of advice as he loosened his grasp around the young man's neck. He pushed him lightly which resulted in the man stumbling backward before he tripped and slumped to the ground loudly.
"Don't provoke others if you cannot estimate their strength properly!" Liam added before he turned around to the others.
"Is everyone's Soultrait activated? If not…just increase your stats for the time being, and don't play around like this prime example of a donkey brain, otherwise, you will only gift yourself a quicker death!"
In order to complete his mission with the best possible result, Liam chose to teach those who were worthy of being taught. His explanations and tips were worth much more than a few Arcanium and everyone listened, no matter if they liked Liam as a person, or if they loathed him for his personality.
He didn't really care whether he was loved or hated since love and hatred were two sides of the same coin, either way.
While he handed out a few explanations, a few fellow athletes stepped up to their colleagues. They helped him up from the ground and stared threateningly at Liam, or they were trying to glare at him threateningly. It didn't really make Liam cower in fear since he had a tiny little bit more experience on the battlefield. In comparison to the rookies who picked up a weapon for the first time in their lives, Liam could basically be considered a Warlord!
That was also why Liam didn't think highly about the bunch of athletes whose clothes were still unstained and dry. They may hold a weapon but they didn't even know how to wield it properly, and they had yet to kill a monster using their perfectly new, shiny weapons!
Liam's expression only changed a little when someone wearing a uniform approached the athletes.
The young athlete whom Liam had taught a lesson rushed over to the man whose uniform was similar to the uniform humans in the Overworld wore when they practiced martial arts in a dojo.
"Felix, please help me…He nearly killed me!!" The young athlete shouted out loud, his voice sounding like the bleating of a sheep that was on the brink of death.
Liam had more respect for a desperate animal that was trying its utmost to survive until the last breath left its body rather than the young athlete who looked more pitiful and disgusting than the other people whose bodies froze when facing fierce monsters.
"Is that true?" The man wearing a martial arts uniform asked, his voice and expression showing no sign of malice let alone anger.
A few people began to speak up for Liam since they had witnessed what actually happened in detail, making the martial artist keep looking at Liam curiously.
"I could have killed him if I wanted to, but as you can see, I didn't," Liam responded which caused the martial artist to nod his head.
"I'm Felix, Martial Arts Champion of the Chivan Gotenksu University. Do you want to help me build a small base in the gym?" Felix, the martial artist, introduced himself and asked a question.
"I don't really intend to stay inside the gymnasium for too long. Furthermore, following someone is not really something I want to do, especially since I'm stronger either way!" Liam said, hinting that he was stronger than Felix.
The martial artist wanted Liam to become one of his subordinates because his presence was intense. One could tell at the first glance that Liam was not a pushover or someone to be taken lightly.
Yet, even before Felix could open up the discussion to entice Liam to become his subordinate, he was rejected.
Felix looked at Liam for a second or two before the corners of his lips curled upward.
"You seem quite confident. Are you certain that you're stronger than me?" He asked sharply while taking a step forward.
The moment his feet touched the ground again, the pressure exuded by Felix increased drastically.
"You can come at me if you want to give it a try," Liam replied in a calm and composed manner as he watched the changes in Felix's movements.
Currents of blue light burst forth from the martial artist as he changed his stance, the currents further intensifying the pressure around Felix.
Felix's strength underwent a sudden change as he turned into a blue flash that shot forward at once.
The artificial grass of the rugby field around Felix's feet burst as green bits were tossed around.
Liam didn't move an inch at first. He simply kept looking ahead, his eyes following the movements of the blue flash easily. His pupils seemed to enlarge and the sealed galaxies within his eyes were clearly visible through the hollow socket of the black devil mask as Liam triggered his Soultrait for a short moment.
He twisted his upper body, making it seem as if he wanted to move backward, and evade the incoming attack with slow and subtle motions just to change his tactic the moment Felix closed in.
When Felix was only three meters away from him, Liam kicked out all of a sudden.
His leg jerked upward, aiming at Felix's chin with tremendous force. The martial artist couldn't react fast enough to the sudden kick that took him by surprise as he was fully focused on reaching Liam's upper body. He failed to deflect the attack as quickly as possible and was flung around like a newborn calf.
While Felix had focused on Liam's upper body that'd moved backward, a tremendous force impacted on his chin.
His head snapped up even before Felix understood what had happened and something cold was pressed against his neck not even a quarter of a second later.
"Inner Strength…not a bad Soultrait, that's for sure. You just need a little bit more training and you might be able to wield it properly!" Liam muttered his observation next to Felix.
The young martial artist didn't even dare to move his head as the cold steel was still tightly pressed against his neck.
His hair stood up on its end and the fear of death crawled up his spine as he realized that Liam didn't retract his weapon.
Instead, Liam waited for a few seconds to analyze the Inner Strength of the young martial artist.
'A Soultrait that allows him to break his limits by unleashing his Inner Strength…to think that I would meet so many interesting people so soon… Now it makes sense why the rewards of the customized mission are so high…there are potential threats to the Nine Realms in here, and the Arcane System wants me to reassure their survival!!'
Liam figured out what the Arcane System intended to do and he was more than fine with that.
Felix could become someone extremely powerful provided he learned how to use his power and strength properly.
It hadn't even been half a day since the Arcane Apocalypse started. Of course, it was not possible for someone to be able to use their Soultrait as proficiently as Liam!
Felix couldn't control the sudden surge of power that erupted within him upon triggering his Soultrait.
It prevented him from using his combat knowledge properly and forced him to attack with brute force without a strategy.
He couldn't even evade attacks properly as of now, which led to his inevitable loss.
"As I said before, I'm stronger!"
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