บท 5: 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 per second.

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 great! 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'

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 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.

'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 games 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 650 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 the 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, 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) : ??????????????????

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 bear.

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, he took a breath of fresh air and checked his stats.

TITLE : NONE

Level: 87

RACE: 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 decided to 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 was 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 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 and apologetically said :

"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 continued to follow the burly man which his name seemed to be 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 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 t 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 disappear.

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' though 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 gruesome and gory sight, there were some other bandits who saw what happened and were terrified, after all, they saw their comrade 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.

However, 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 tyrant 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.....