Professor Jhonson watched the young healer in front of him with keen eyes as he finally left the room. He’d been waiting for almost an hour for Arthur to finish his meeting with the green alien and his curiosity would probably kill him if he didn't get some answers soon. ‘What the hell were they talking about for so long, he thought in wonder.
He’d almost believed he’d been hallucinating when he first saw the proud alverin woman bend the knee for the young man. She had done nothing of the sort for anyone else, treating the rest of the humans with either indifference or disdain. What's so different about the healer? Everyone's so interested in the kid. Even those Murker bastards. Am I missing something? He seems pretty normal so far.
The woman had bloody been laughing with Arthur for Christ's sake. Actually laughing, when she seemed ready to kill everyone else every time they talked to her. The meeting was supposed to be about whether or not Arthur could heal her brother and Professor Jhonson was certain it didn't take an hour to figure that out.
No, Arthur had definitely learnt some interesting pieces of information and he’d make sure to pry those secrets from the young healer's hands, forcefully if necessary. Looking at Arthurs piercing gaze once again, he quickly revised that opinion. The kid's supposed to be special. Hopefully, no force would be necessary.
A bribe went a long way after all, and he wasn't ready to antagonise the man that had somehow befriended a level 150 alien. He sighed wearily. Why could nothing ever be easy in his line of work? Well, there was no use waiting. The young man was standing expectantly in front of him as if waiting for the professor to ask some questions.
Arthur meanwhile was trying to go over as many plausible lies as he could in his head. It couldn't be anything absurd and unbelievable but neither could he disclose anything that he had been told by Alyssia. He’d given the alverin woman his word and that was something he put a lot of value on.
Despite all his failings, Arthur tried his best to be a man of integrity. It was the absolute minimum of the already abysmal standard he held himself to.
“Could you please give me a report of everything that happened whilst you were in the room?” Professor Jhonson asked, almost commanding him with his formal tone. So that's how he’s playing it. Trying to make it seem like I have to explain myself as if I’m some agent that he’s debriefing. I'm not under his command so he's trying to strong-arm me as if I'm a standard civilian.
As far as Arthur remembered, he had never agreed to disclose any information whatsoever to the man before him. No, the Professor was simply trying to intimidate him. Perhaps if he had employed such methods an hour ago, Arthur would have acquiesced just to avoid the headache, but after talking to Alyssia for so long, Professor Jhonsson almost looked cute in comparison.
Like a child playing at being a soldier, desperately clinging to the coattails of an outdated system.
And so it was that Arthur quickly discarded all his prepared stories. Maybe he should have given the man something but after hearing the professor's commanding tone, Arthur didn't want to talk to him. Maybe unnecessary, definitely foolish, but it was what made Arthur happy. So he decided to be true to his desires and speak his mind for the first time in a while.
“I’m afraid to say, sir, that I gave my word to not tell anyone anything. And we both know how bad it would be if I wasn't a man of my word,” Arthur curtly stated, delighting in the look of surprise that came over the old man's face.
“Besides, I never agreed to disclose anything to you sir, and I’d appreciate it if you didn't try and force me into doing so,” he added, realising that he had perhaps spoken a tad too disrespectfully when he saw a brief flicker of disgusted rage come across the man's face.
It was gone just as quickly, replaced by a strained smile, but Arthur knew exactly what he had seen. For the briefest of moments, Arthur saw Professor Jhonson for what he truly was, an unfeeling, cold man that cared little for the sanctity of life. After all, it took a special breed of monster to treat a sapient individual like they were a lab rat.
Arthur shuddered a little in distaste. Associating with the man felt dirty. Perhaps he had made a mistake. He quickly firmed his resolve, reminding himself that once again, the people he was working with were not the good guys. Only the ones whose ideals best matched with his own, and he’d do his best to make sure he didn't abandon Alyssia to their grasping hands when he was done with his job.
Though I hardly doubt she needs any help from me. The only thing tieing her hands right now is her injured brother. Hopefully, I can do something about that.
“Of course, of course,” Professor Jhonson said cheerfully, though he sounded dead to Arthur's ears.
“You don't have to tell me anything, I just let my curiosity get the better of me,” he added, with a smile on his face.
“An old man like me tends to forget those things, you see,” the professor tried to joke, attempting to bring some levity to the mood he had created.
Arthur smiled back at the old man.
“Just make sure I don't have to tell you again,” he eventually said.
The professor pursed his lips in obvious displeasure at the warning before nodding his head. He really had been too hasty this time. The old man berated himself internally, looking at the cocky brat in front of him. Perhaps a lighter hand would have served him better here.
A tirade of obscenities ran through his head as he looked at the cocky brat in front of him though he wisely decided to keep those thoughts to himself.
He’d asked a few choice questions about Arthur when he’d realised that the healer's conversation with the alverin woman would take much longer than expected. He couldn't help his curiosity. Just who was this healer everyone was so interested in?
The answers he’d received from his superiors painted a very different picture of the young man than the conclusions he had initially come to. The boy was apparently strong and dangerous. And volatile too. Not someone he’d want to antagonize so soon.
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After all, the young man was an integral part of many of the future plans the government had already laid out, though he wasn't yet privy to any of them. Too low in the chain of command.
“I’ve been given the clear from Alyssia to tend to her brother's wounds,” Arthur said, interrupting the professor's racing thoughts.
If the old man was surprised by the familiarity Arthur displayed when using the alverin's name, he didn't show it.
“I’d like to get that done as soon as possible or I won't have enough ether to use my regeneration skill on the team in time for the fight against Shade,” Arthur added.
Well maybe he would have enough, but he didn't want others to know about his outrageous ether supply. He already had enough abnormalities about him without inviting even more attention onto himself by keeping himself in check. Though Bryan's warning suggests the cat's already out of the bag.
Professor Jhonson just nodded his head in agreement.
“So, does Alyssia wish to be present during the procedure or is she willing to wait for the news,” Arthur smiled when the man bought the topic up.
He’d been wondering how to go about fulfilling Alyssia’s request after the awkward tension that had been created in this conversation.
“Yes, she asked if it would be possible, though she does understand if you're not willing to allow her out of her cell,” Arthur answered truthfully referring to the woman's current residence by what it truly was, a prison.
The old man winced a little- that's a fake reaction- at the blunt words Arthur spoke before sighing tiredly.
“Well, I’m not sure what Bryan will have to say, this falls under his purview. But I think it’ll be fine letting the woman out for a short while. He should be able to handle security.” Johnson replied, rubbing his temples as if trying to help himself with a headache.
Arthur tried to control his excitement when he heard the old man's admission. The only thing keeping Alyssia under control was the fact that her brother was completely at the mercy of those in charge of the facility. Something that would be changing very soon, and if the powerful woman was present when her brother was finally healed, Arthur would have to do very little to help her escape.
He had no doubt that Alyssia would be able to deal with everyone within the facility with an arm tied behind her back. After she accepted the system's invitation and learnt more about her own skills and class, she'd practically be untouchable by anyone on Earth save perhaps Kazi Alukai. That man was just something else hat with him being a Prime. He would probably solve most of the problems with the Silver Rose group in a single day if he ever took action.
Still, Arthur couldn't help but get excited at the prospect of what Alyssia would do when she was freed of her current shackles. He hoped she wouldn't go overboard in getting revenge for the terrible way she’d been treated as Arthur would have to try and stop her from going on a rampage if that was the case, and he didn't think he was quite yet ready to do something like that.
He was actually quite surprised that the professor wasn't being more cautious until he realised that Alyssia must have controlled her aura a lot around all the humans she’d met so far. They had no idea exactly how much of a monster the alverin woman was and Arthur suspected they’d be in for quite a rude awakening shortly.
Well, no matter what happened, at least it would be interesting.
~Alyssia Sil’Vorken~
Looking down at her younger brother's prone frame, she once again felt a piercing stab of guilt in her chest. He looked so small and vulnerable, almost like he was just sleeping, about to wake up if she just called out his name.
She knew however about the terrible wound festering on his chest, covered under his clothing. If only she had been a little faster, a little more aware of her surroundings, none of this would have happened. If only she’d come into contact with the system earlier, she would have had the foresight to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in the first place. Checking her new status for the umpteenth time, she was still amazed by just how powerful she was, as well as how much of her own strength she'd been failing to apply properly.
123 stat points to be exact. She had apparently failed to allocate whilst ‘levelling up’ without the system's assistance. Whilst the program seemed to hinder a species' potential growth and control over ether, she couldn't help but admit that it offered its hosts far more control over their own bodies.
Without the system's help, assigning her attributes had been a long process of meditation and wasted time, where she had to use techniques cultivated by her tribe and go by feeling alone. Sure when she'd mastered them, all this untapped potential would have been utilised, but she was perhaps decades away from such proficiency.
The system let her use it now.
Sure, she'd keep up with her clan's technique- assigning strength was far from its only use- but she no longer needed to dedicate so much of her time to master it quickly. She could take things a little slower.
So much power has gone to waste over the past few years. Well, it's better late than never, she thought to herself as she imagined just how powerful her tribe's youth would be with the assistance of the system.
Heck, her mother would have probably become their first ascendent mage in a thousand years if she'd had the system's aid in her formative years. Thinking of the equivalent of this new dimension of hers, she estimated that she'd need to upgrade her Legendary class to Pinnacle if she wanted to compare. That was two steps above her current capability and also two below the fabled Transcendent class level that everyone coveted. She had no idea how she'd go about evolving her class as her tier two system access had little to say on the matter but it couldn't be too hard, could it?
Now, if only her brother could make a miraculous recovery, everything would be perfectly fine with her life. She was no longer too worried about making her way back home as with the system's assistance and Arthur's help, it was only a matter of when instead of previously intangible if she would one day go back home, though if her brother would be accompanying her was still left up to fate.
After looking at the strange young healer she'd first met today, however, she felt a flood of relief wash over her. Arthur's healing abilities significantly raised her brother's chances of recovery and were far greater than anything she had expected to find on the recently evolved planet.
She could still feel the strong aura he exerted around him, though it was a little more subdued than before after she'd taught him how to control it a little. It was still glaringly obvious in her sight, the difference between a hypernova and a supernova, still fucking bright as day, but the attempt at control was cute enough.
The fact that he was already a little proficient in doing so after barely an hour had passed was testimony to just how strange an existence the young healer was, and just how dangerous he would one day be. I guess it's his bestial nature, relying on his significantly stronger instincts to control his magic instead of learning systematically like he’s supposed to, she wondered to herself as she looked at Arthur.
None of the other people present in the room seemed to realise her conclusions about the young man and seemed perfectly content to just let him work on her brother in peace. Only Professor Jhonson had a dark look on his face as he stood stock still, observing the healer do his work. He looked shifty and a little uncertain for the first time she'd ever seen. Something's going on there but I can't find it in me to care.
You could see the cold calculative eyes with which he gazed at Arthur and Alyssia felt a stab of rage when she remembered how the old man had looked at her with those same eyes. He's a real monster in this room, she thought angrily to herself. Arthur looked sharply back at her when he felt the alverin's tight control on her aura slip a little, one eyebrow raised inquisitively at her. It was more an intentional expression of her rage than a lack of control.
She smiled back at him sweetly, once again bringing her aura to heal as she took a calming breath. After all, she’d have all the time in the world for revenge later.