Chapter 33- Carrying

Arthur looked at his prey. It was a majestic beast, standing almost six feet tall, with antlers that shone with a golden luminescence. It was beautiful. No other description would do it justice.

And here I am, planning to kill it.

Elemental deer [lightning] level 37 - This beast possesses devastating long-range attacks and has a high damage output compared to its weaker defences.

Frank and Rachel had become pale at the monster's appearance whilst Mira just looked bored. Arthur didn't blame her. The creature was half her level.

“Don't worry, everything will go to plan.”

Arthur tried to reassure them. They nodded their heads but didn't speak. It almost surprised him how terrified the redheads were, but then he remembered that everyone didn’t have absurd health like him. A single attack from the beast would literally kill them.

Arthur turned back to look at the monster and saw that it had begun to drink from the water of the lake, the action revealing the sharp fangs within its mouth, a polarity in the former herbivore. The scene was almost serene, an animal relieving its thirst in the beautiful woodlands, completely at peace with its surroundings.

It made Arthur almost feel bad for what he was about to do, but he cast away any hesitation he felt and firmed his resolve. Think of this like it's an abortion, he told himself. Oh fuck, that just made it worse. Now I feel like a baby killer.

Arthur tried his best to rationalise it. Killing a being with the potential of sapience might’ve been wrong, but Arthur wasn’t going to take chances. Just how many evolutions would it take to become intelligent, and how many people would it kill in that intervening time? Would sapience teach it restraint, or would it learn to resent humanity? Once again, it wasn’t a perfect argument, but Arthur had learned to look the other way when he started selling drugs all those years ago. Besides, I'm running on guesswork here. Odds are, sapience isn't even a thing I need to be worried about.

Waiting for the perfect moment, Arthur sprang his trap. It was almost too easy, with the system doing everything for him. He missed this feeling of power when it came to his evolved skill.

Spending five-hundred ether in one go, he willed a portion of the lake water to surround the beast, using it to lift the elemental deer into the air so that it no longer had any purchase on the ground. The water responded to his will like it was an extension of his limbs, flowing around the helpless beast and arresting its movement.

No matter how much speed or agility the animal possessed, it would mean nothing if it couldn’t find any purchase to leverage it. Its paws could gain no traction underwater. The fight devolved into a waiting game after that.

The deer struggled against its unseen attacker, shooting electricity in a wide arc around it. The ether-infused water absorbed much of the blast, vaporising instantly under the extreme heat, and Arthur tanked the little that came through by standing in front of his teammates.

Health 3160/3200.

The tiny decrease in health was a pleasant surprise. Arthur remembered reading somewhere that lightning was five times hotter than the sun's surface temperature, and whilst the beast's attack was nowhere near the level of mother nature’s fury, it was nothing to scoff at.

With his insane investments into constitution, the attack had barely even damaged him, and all he felt was a slight tingle; like he’d just been dunked in freezing waters instead of facing the devastating destruction of a beast fighting for its life.

It helped put into perspective just how crazy his inflated stats made him for his level, and it almost scared him to think of the unkillable monsters he might one day become. He was more excited than afraid, though. I knew investing in physicality wasn't gonna do me wrong.

The others in their group of four, even Mira, looked at him in shock.

Had he just tanked that lightning straight on? That was impossible. Except there had been no signs of ether usage. What the hell was wrong with his constitution?!

These thoughts raced through Mira’s head, as she reevaluated everything she knew about the strange young man in front of her. She’d known he was stronger than his level suggested, his absurd tyrannical aura always leaking like a tap was a dead giveaway, but never had she expected this particular brand of insanity. It went against everything she'd learnt about the system and made her question all the decisions she'd made so far.

It scared her to think that she had once considered antagonising him to get him to reveal all his powers. She reevaluated her plans. That probably wouldn’t have gone so well. For either of them.

Arthur meanwhile was counting the seconds it took the deer to lose consciousness.

178

That's how long it managed to stay awake in the bubble of water without any oxygen. Three minutes for Arthur to change his decision and let the animal go.

He didn't.

Arthur waited for another twenty seconds just to be on the safe side, before setting the animal back down on the ground. He was afraid that he had accidentally killed the monster when he saw that it wasn't moving at all but then breathed out a sigh of relief when its leg twitched.

“Now, quick. We’ve probably only got a minute before it wakes back up. Maybe less.” Arthur whispered before running towards the sleeping deer, his three companions trailing behind him at a much slower pace.

Once they reached the animal, Arthur quickly clambered onto it to hold it down just in case the animal woke up during its execution. He swallowed the bile in his throat when he felt its warm flesh under his hands.

It's beating heart.

As they had already discussed, the three remaining members of their group all struck at the same time, Rachel and Mira first with their bows, before moving in, and Frank with his machete, in the hopes that they would all benefit equally from killing the monster.

Their plan seemed to have worked as Arthur saw both Frank and Rachel shoot up in levels, Frank going from level 17 to level 22 and Rachel adding a whopping 13 levels from the single kill to her meagre level 9.

Mira of course had no visible change in her status, but then again, she was at level 73 and a fight against something half her strength would not give her much experience. Her veiled status did however shoot up by nine levels to reach level 20, so it seemed she wanted to keep her facade of weakness up for a little longer.

Arthur smiled. Everything had gone perfectly, and now they were perhaps ready to hunt bigger prey. Maybe Arthur could finish this task much sooner than he’d expected.

~Rachel Cromwell~

Rachel was exhausted. In the past eight hours, she had managed to over quadruple her level. She was both shocked and excited. Her body almost felt like it belonged to a different person; faster, stronger, better. It was scary, how a few level-ups could change her so much. This had probably been the most productive day of her life and her status could attest to that fact.

Rachel Cromwell

Level 47

Unallocated Stat point: 0

Strength- 31

Vitality- 60

Endurance- 40

Constitution- 29

Agility- 30

Intelligence- 140

Willpower- 42 (40)

Charisma- 15

Health-600/600 (40/hour)

Ether- 1400/1400 (140/hour)

Stamina- 400/400 (40/minute)

Rachel smiled when she saw how much she’d grown and then she looked towards Arthur. This had all been possible because of him. She had barely even known the broody young man before the system’s arrival, except as the antisocial attractive boy that only came to class when he seemed to feel like it.

She’d later found out that the reason for his absence was the fact that his sister died recently.

After that Rachel had begun to feel sorry for him and made allowances for any of the weird quirks he had.

Standing in the now-darkening clearing, she realised just how little she actually knew of Arthur. Just who is he?

The man she had come to know in the past few days was completely different from the awkward classmate she had once had. Maybe this was how he used to act before his sister died. Rachel sighed. None of that mattered anyway.

Arthur had delivered on his promise and she, unlike the other two members of their party, had no skill that she could teach Arthur. Rachel felt like a leech, a spare tire in the car that would never be used. The title she'd gained last night only served to add insult to injury, no matter how useful it might turn out to be.

Kinky Healer- (Indulge religiously in a cycle of self-harm and healing) Increase willpower and effect of personal healing skills used on self by 10%

You have caused 321% of self-inflicted damage to yourself in the past five days. It is advised that you seek therapy and talk to a friend. No matter how hard it gets, know that the system is behind you.

She didn't know if she should laugh or cry.

~Arthur Ward~

Arthur was happy with how the day had gone. There had been a few close encounters when a monster at a far greater level than they had expected turned up, but Arthur had just waited for those beasts to finish feeding and leave. If he was alone, there’d have been no risk, but the presence of his weaker group stayed his hand from engaging.

The rest of the day had gone much like he had expected, with more and more monsters making an appearance on the scene as the scent of blood began to spread from their little hunting zone.

Now all he had to do was learn the skills that were promised to him, and he’d be done with healing magic training for a long time, and finally move on to more interesting things.

He knew he’d stagnated in his more combat-oriented magic, and he’d yet to even successfully use his soul infusion skill. No matter how he approached it, nothing worked. It still felt like there was a barrier blocking him off or something.

Looking at his teammates and their exhausted expressions, he realised it was time to call it a day. He’d already fulfilled his promise to Frank who was now sitting at a comfortable level 49 and Rachel wasn’t far off. It was a little surprising that he hadn't levelled a bit more but according to Mira, levelling stopped being so easy at the fifty mark.

Which raised even more questions about her level 73.

With his careful hunting methods, Arthur had managed to remain at level 39, which had of course brought him a whole slew of questions from Rachel as to why he didn't want to level.

He had decided to tell the group about the formation of classes at level 100 and how prior preparation could make all the difference in how good it would be. It would become common knowledge soon enough and he didn't want to gatekeep it.

The two cousins were shocked by this new piece of information whilst Mira just looked as bored as she had since they’d first entered the forest. It made him wonder why she had even wanted to come in the first place.

Something, it turned out, he would be finding out very soon.

“Hey, I think we should call it a day. We’ve all achieved our goals, and it's probably too dangerous to carry on hunting when it's nighttime.”

Frank and Rachel both looked grateful that they could finally get some rest, and they both nodded their heads in assent. Mira however looked like she had something she wanted to say. “Actually. Arthur, could we wait here a little longer whilst the others head back,” Mira asked him. "I have something I want to tell you."

She looked imploringly at Arthur, her eyes wide and gleaming with hope. Arthur was immediately cautious at the sight. Nothing good would ever come out of being alone with a woman like Mira in a dangerous forest at night. It was plain stupid.

He was just about to say no before Rachel cut in.

“Yes, it’ll be perfectly fine. Me and Frank are okay getting out of here on our own now since levelling so much.”

“Good luck!”

She quickly left after saying that, directing her last words at Mira with a pointed look, dragging a green-eyed Frank away.

Arthur sighed in exasperation. It seemed like everyone had somehow gotten the wrong idea about what was about to happen. Unless he was the one being oblivious, he highly doubted that Mira had fallen for him. When two minutes had passed in awkward silence, and Mira still didn't seem to want to say anything, Arthur finally broke the silence.

“So what did you want to talk about?”

Mira looked up at Arthur and smiled mischievously with a glint in her eyes.

“Actually, I wanted to tell you that I’ve started to like -” she began before being interrupted by Arthur.

“No, stop with your bullshit. It got stale right after we met. what do you really want?”

He couldn’t be bothered with her weird act right now.

Mira just sighed.

“You're no fun.”

She seemed to muse over something for a moment before coming to a decision. He could see it in the false-cheer leaving her face. Her voice when she next spoke was low and contained traces of exhaustion.

“Actually, I want to make a deal, kid.”

Gone was the flirting girly personality, suddenly replaced by the cold disposition of a jaded adult. The change was so drastic and sudden that it threw Arthur off for a second and he stood there, blinking dumbly in the cold air, unable to respond.

“Hello, anyone there.” Mira drawled, waving her hand in front of him.

Holy shit, did she switch up fast. So I guess this is the real her.

“Did you, did you just say you want to make a deal with me?” Arthur asked, still very much surprised by the strange question.

“Yes,” Mira snapped. "Are you deaf as well as dumb?”

Arthur was astounded by the sheer spite contained in her voice. It was almost like he had wronged her.

“Okay. Okay. There's no need to start being a bitch now.” Arthur replied finally dealing with the whiplash.

He’d met Miras’ type before and he honestly loathed them, finding that the best way to treat their shitty attitude was by reciprocating it in turn. Perhaps it wasn't the wisest decision when it came to a woman with an affinity for poison, and maybe it was childish, but very few things pissed off Arthur as much as being talked down to.

Mira rubbed her forehead in frustration before she surprised him once again.

“You're right. I’m sorry for acting like that.”

She had actually apologised!

Maybe I was jumping to conclusions too quickly.

“The thing is, I have very, very less time to sort out a problem that I caused and it’s starting to creep up on me. Except I don't think I’m strong enough to deal with it myself.”

She paused for breath.

“I need your help, or I’ll be dead within the month."

"Or worse.”

Arthur raised his eyebrow at Mira’s blunt statement and immediately thought that she was lying to him. What does she mean she’s going to die? Did she offend someone? Just what was it that could kill such a capable woman? It was so absurd that he couldn’t help but falsify it.

And that was exactly why he felt it might contain a shred of truth.

She would have come up with a better story, or maybe it's all a part of her ploy to get me to lower my guard.

Deciding to entertain her proposition, he asked.

“And what's in it for me if I help you?”

Mira felt the tension drain out of her when she heard Arthur say that. She’d been worried that he would say no after her earlier outburst.

“Well, I’m actually a poison alchemist.” She explained.

“It's how I was able to reach such a high level in the tutorial island. By poisoning the monster's water source."

"And everyone else's.”

“They deserved it”

“I can try and teach you the principles of the skill except you’ll probably get a variant of healing alchemy instead. At least that’s what I think. I'm told they make a lot of money in the wider universe."

Arthur didn’t say anything, opting to remain silent and see if Mira would say anything else. She looked nervous and was starting to babble.

“Look, I wasn’t going to tell you any of this, I wasn't even going to ask you for help, but I saw how you tanked all those attacks earlier. You're a fucking monster.”

Taking a deep breath, Mira hoped her next question wouldn't throw Arthur off.

“But, before I tell you anything else, you’ll have to tell me who, no- what even are you? I'll even take the system oath of non-disclosure.”

She paused for a moment.

“What secrets are you hiding?”