[The Host's Will increased.]
[+1.6 Arcanium]
[+0.9 Arcanium]
[+1.3 Arcanium]
[+0.6 Arcanium]
[+1.1 Arcanium]
"Looks like I scared you guys," Liam said calmly as he wiped off the blood with one of the men's shirts before they returned to the hallway. Olivia and a few other female students looked back into the room but they didn't linger around the young woman who had nearly been raped for long.
They had helped her move aside the lifeless body of the rapist before rushing behind Liam to make sure that they wouldn't lose him.
"But that was nothing. You guys will face much worse situations very soon. Prepare yourself for the worst!" Liam lectured, not caring that nobody showed a sign of having understood his words.
The ducklings behind him were still shaken about what they had witnessed mere moments ago. They didn't know whether it was more shocking that they had seen someone familiar attempting to rape a helpless girl, or that Liam could act nonchalantly after killing five humans in a breeze.
However, Liam didn't really care about who he had to kill anymore. He didn't even know how many humans, demons, and devils he had killed in his entire life. It had been way too many to count.
Rather than bothering about something that didn't matter either way, Liam was more focused on the increase in his Will stat and the changes it brought to his body.
'It is a little bit easier to think straight and control my entire body with much more precision. Even the Arcane Power in my body is easier to control, though it's only a little…not bad!'
They didn't possess the Arcane System in the Nine Realms since it was a creation that had been implemented solely for the Arcane Apocalypse and Haltan's reawakening after it had been in a deep slumber for eons.
Thus, Liam was bound to learn many new things even if he had been forcefully fed some information about the Arcane System. His mother and siblings had gotten their hands on ancient documents related to the Arcane Apocalypse. It proved to be extremely helpful for Liam since he could make use of the Arcane System thanks to these bits of information.
The way he had been taught the information was not very nice but the result made up for the pain, somewhat at least.
While Liam was testing the changes an increase in his Will stat caused, the students behind him remained silent. They had a lot to digest and preferred to silently observe him.
Once Liam was done with his tests, he took a look at the Arcanium he had obtained from the humans he killed in the blink of an eye.
'Even though they were unable to use their Soultraits let alone fight accordingly, I received 1.1 Arcanium for each of them on average? Looks like their combat prowess was regarded twice as high as that of the Blazing Tooth Rats…good for me, I guess!' Liam thought with a shrug. He accepted the Arcanium regardless. It was not as if anyone would reject a gift, even less if it was something he was in dire need of.
Some time passed before Liam and his people encountered a group of ordinary huge rats that were led by a few Blazing Tooth Rats. There was no Elite Ratatuo which was enough reason for Liam to rush forward and start killing everything that obstructed his path.
The students behind him were still recovering from the shocking incident that had happened in the coach's office but they understood that hesitating would inevitably lead to their death. If they were to hesitate while fighting with their life on the line, they would end up dead.
Olivia, Rex, and Kian were the first to follow Liam and join the battle that ended with a clear victory not even two minutes later.
Liam had observed the three students and he gave them a quick thumbs up before they continued their way through the hallway of the outer ring.
He was not sure how much time passed but they encountered Felix and his group of dozens of people after fighting against three more groups of monsters.
"I heard you killed the head coach and his assistants!" Felix said loudly when he saw Liam soaked in the blood of the monsters he had killed before.
Felix's people retreated involuntarily when Liam approached them with the same overbearing and calm manner he had subjected Felix to before.
"Yeah, so?" Liam responded, guessing that the young woman had safely made it inside the inner ring of the gymnasium.
"So? Nothing much. I just wanted to tell you that you did a good job," Felix said while the corners of his lips curled upward. It looked like Felix wanted to add something but he shut his mouth and pointed behind him.
"We've started sealing the side entrances of the outer layer but it looks like more rats made their way inside the outer ring. I guess you've encountered a bunch of them already. How about we clear one entrance after another together rather than running around wildly?" He proposed and Liam nodded his head without thinking too much about it.
Felix turned around, not even considering that Liam could actually betray them and attack all of a sudden. His followers were not as trustworthy as Felix so they waited for Liam to walk past them before they followed Felix.
After Liam had received more than one Arcanium for killing the ridiculously weak head coach and his assistants, he learned that it was actually worth killing Felix, his followers, and even the students he brought inside and receive easy money.
Killing everyone inside the gymnasium would probably reward him with more than 1000 Arcanium, however, on the flip side it would end up with him being forced to fend for himself all alone and he wouldn't be able to complete his customized mission properly. He wanted the additional rewards and not only his debt removed!
That was one of the two reasons why he didn't even think about massacring everyone mindlessly. The second reason, it was that he was distracted by the three notifications that had popped up when he finished killing the last group of rats.
[The Host's Stamina increased.]
[The Host's Stamina increased.]
[The Host's Will increased.]
**
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Liam was not sure why his Will increased twice in less than an hour, let alone why his Stamina increased straight to [F-] but he didn't even think of rejecting the bountiful gains he made from fighting while being dead-tired.
He was still tired and with every passing second grew more and more exhausted. It was great to see that his suicidal tactic was worth it!
Four stats were now at [F-], his Arcane Power was at [E] while his Vitality was still at [G+]. Liam didn't sustain any wounds which were why he didn't expect his Vitality to improve soon either.
'I don't have to use Arcanium for the time being…' He told himself once again, hoping that he made the right decision by not investing his Arcanium immediately. Rushing things usually led to big mistakes, and Liam wanted to prevent that.
Time passed slowly, yet oddly fast and they ended up sealing three side entrances while fighting hundreds of huge rats in between. The ordinary huge rats were not a problem anymore since there were dozens of people fighting them head-on by now.
Liam and the others pulled several groups of ragged humans inside the gymnasium when they saw them desperately running for their lives, and Felix's group, including the martial artist himself, began to fight soon after.
At first, they thought of the Arcane Apocalypse as a game, a means that had been created for them to become the main protagonists and emerge victorious, but reality forced them back to their senses real quickly.
Monsters were real and even more so the fact that a single mistake could lead to death. That was something some arrogant members in Felix's group realized firsthand as they charged forward in an attempt to defeat a handful of ordinary huge rats all by themselves. Some of the rats were only injured since despite their huge size they were not strong enough to kill a human instantaneously.
They would have to tear apart a human's throat to kill them within seconds. And that was exactly what happened to two young athletes who had been trampled over by a group of ten dog-sized rats that tore them apart while they were still alive and screaming at the top of their lungs.
Everyone witnessed their death and many were petrified due to the terrified and desperate screams that rang in their ears. Only Liam continued to move and retain his sensibility, saving the lives of dozens by killing a dozen rats with quick movement sequences. His action prevented the rats from overwhelming the shell-shocked witnesses of their friend's cruel death.
They regained their senses when they heard Liam's shout that resounded in the surrounding area.
"If you guys want to die, don't pull others down with you, you fucktards!"
Once everyone had regained their senses to a certain extent, fighting hundreds of ordinary huge rats every now and then seemed extremely easy. Nobody overestimated their power anymore and they chose to fight defensively rather than charging forward and dying a stupid death.
They didn't want to be torn apart like their friends whose screams were still ringing in their ears, forcing them to recall what they had witnessed not too long ago.
It was still raining even after a few hours had passed but three out of six side entrances from the outer layer had been sealed properly. However, things changed drastically after the third entrance had been sealed.
A thunderous roar reverberated through the area all of a sudden, forcing everything to a standstill. The walls of the gymnasium began to shake violently, causing trophies and other objects to fall off shelves.
The people around Liam had a hard time breathing as heavy pressure descended onto them. They experienced the pressure accompanied by a higher-ranked monster's berserk roar for the first time that drained all the color from their faces. It was only obvious that they were shocked and unable to move properly.
A memory crossed Liam's mind when he had been unable to breathe for several minutes while he was quite young and forced to stand in front of a high-ranked monster that roared right in his face. At that time he was Circleless and not even five years old and the monster that unleashed its pressure was a Mythical creature, but the situation could still be considered similar…somehow.
Liam rushed outside, ignoring the terrified expressions on the natives behind him as he looked in the direction he presumed the roar to come from.
"I can't see anything…that's good…" He mumbled just to see something else that attracted his attention. His lips twitched and he turned around in an instant before he rushed back inside.
"Go inside, or get trampled to death!" Liam shouted loudly as he returned back inside the fourth entrance they had planned to seal just now. He pushed the shell-shocked people inside, and shoved them all mercilessly without caring if he was manhandling them before he closed the entrance's door. He got hold of a few iron poles that they had also used to seal the other gates before he put them through the handle.
"Felix, bent it!" He ordered and Felix acted immediately, subconsciously following the command he had been given. Currents of blue light burst forth from the martial artist as he moved next to Liam before he grasped the two ends of the iron pole. He pulled the ends together with all his might while Liam had already averted his focus.
"You, you and you, push the carts over!" Liam commanded in an imposing manner that didn't leave any choice for the men whom he had pointed at other than to follow his orders.
They rushed over with the carts that they had used to carry around the sport equipment and mats they had previously used to seal everything including the small glass windows through which one could see the horror that unfolded outside the gymnasium.
Liam could clearly see different monsters fleeing away from the direction from which the thunderous roar seemed to echo as it had been more than enough to shock them to the core.
He averted his attention only when the carts were pushed to the front where Felix used his amplified strength to push the sport equipment down before they all rushed back to the second door of the side entrance. Since there were two entrances, Felix sealed it once more by bending an iron pole around the door handles, binding them together.
This was not a permanent solution to protect the gymnasium since the Arcane Apocalypse would bring far more horrors to Haltan but it was a good way to reassure their survival in the early 'game'.
Everyone sighed in relief when the entrance was more or less sealed, only for Liam to contemplate silently.
"The monsters have been scattered all over the place thanks to the roar…they will start fighting soon…"