บท 38: 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! »

Once Arthur 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.

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 was jet 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

Enigma abilities: Telekinesis / Ancient Threads

Elemental Resistances:

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 children were 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!"