After having killed the bear, Arthur pondered for a moment about staying at the wolf's body or possessing the bear but finally he decided to choose the later, so he checked his surroundings to see if there are any enemies nearby but no one was there even the remaining wolves ran away after the death of the bear, so he left his current 'body' and ran toward the bear with all the speed he could muster, if some human from his previous world saw him he would only see a black blur.
Once he possessed the bear a lot of notifications popped up in his head 'ting'
you have successfully possessed a hind bear
you have gained a new skill(passive) [Strong resistance] : your stamina has permanently increased by 250
you have gained a new skill(active) [burst attack] : you charge your claws with power for 1.5 second then you unleash it . cooldown time : none cost : 75
you have gained all stats of the hind bear
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER Level: 20 Class: Void Parasite - Strength 875(+430) Intelligence 720(+90) Agility 980(+300) Wisdom 490(+20) Vitality 740(+435) Dexterity 450(+125) - Health 1060 Health Regen 1.2/s Mana 620 Mana Regen 1/s Stamina 1045 Stamina Regen 1.5/s - Attack: 283 Defense: 310 Elemental Resistances Fire: 25% Water: 25% Wind: 25% Earth: 25% Light: 25% Darkness: 25
AN : the red numbers are the stats added
Arthur was quite shocked by the amount of stats that was added , his overall have improved , at least now he can roam the forest without fear of being killed at any moment and since he possessed the hind bear's body all creatures will avoid him unless it a big pack of wolves but he thought that even if there was a big pack he could handle himself well.
He spent some minutes adjusting himself to the bear's body and testing [void slash] and [burst attack] which surprisingly can be used together at the same time, he tried used them together on a somewhat large tree and when his claws landed on it, the tree just disintegrated the void ate it away, even the space behind the tree was eating way the power of the attack was truly monstrous, if used on a beast nothing would be left of him, not even his blood.
Arthur somewhat satisfied with his accomplishment started roaming the forest and killing every beast he found to level up, he killed boars, wolves, and even other hind bears, he encountered 2 hind bears which seemed a female and male, he didn't plan on attacking them since he thought they were a family but they rushed at him so he just killed them, all it took was 2 normal slashes from his claws and the 2 bears were insta-killed , he felt bad for killing them for they seemed like a family but life is cruel and he had learned that from his past life, if people are cruel toward you, you have to be crueler toward them and kill them before they could come back and cause trouble for you in the future .
If he had an eye for people and could distinguish between who was using him for his money like his wife and who was kind, he wouldn't have been in hell for all those months, so he decided that in this newly granted life he would be cold toward everyone, he just couldn't trust anyone after what has been done to him.
After spending all day hunting he managed to reach [Level 24], but that seemed really slow, he killed hundred of preys but all he got was 4 levels, he didn't even need to rest because of his high Stamina and extraordinary Stamina regen, if some mercenaries or adventures saw his stats they wouldn't believe their eyes and most likely vomit blood.
A normal veteran adventure would have between 300 to 400 [Strength] and if it's an elite one he would have 600 but that was it, having almost 1000 strength is unheard of, even having 200 [agility] is considered good because Humans normally are slower than beasts but with their numbers and intelligence they can overcome their slow speed.
However Arthur's speed was incredible for a hind bear which normally was slightly slower than a Lightmoon Wolf, but he had the combined speed of a bear and a Lightmoon Wolf, he couldn't even cope with his speed as when he tried running at full speed he kept bumping into trees and rocks which were completely destroyed because of his raw strength.
Fortunately, after a few hours of practice, he managed to get the hang of it.
At night, Arthur tried to find a cave to sleep, even though he wasn't tired at all he couldn't forget the habits he had from his previous life, so sleeping was necessary, but he had drifted a long way from the cave he was in last night, so he tried finding another one.
He spent 2 hours searching for one until he found an entrance to a cave, it seemed really well hidden but he noticed because of his keen eyesight.
He felt some kind of chilly feeling coming from the cave but nevertheless, he entered it, he kept walking for a couple of minutes in the darkness until he spotted a light not far away, once he got closer he noticed that it was a torch.
Arthur seemed to be in a corridor but what surprised him was that the walls, ground and even the roof were jet black , even the torch seemed to be made from black wood, he could see that was a long corridor because the torches continued as far as his eyes could see, he continued to walk cautiously forward , but surprisingly nothing happened, he expected some traps or mazes but nothing occurred which was even scarier and worrying.
After walking for 40 minutes he arrived at the end of corridor and saw a wooden door which was black like the surroundings, the door seemed really ancient and in the center of it was some kind of symbol, it was the head of the skull but what's more surprising is that it had a third eye on it's forehead, it gave a cold feeling looking at the symbol.
It seemed like it was alive and sucking the life out of him. The door was somewhat small compared to the huge body of the bear, even if he wanted to enter there was no way he could with his huge frame, so he pondered for a moment on whether to leave his body or not , he could always get back to this body but there was the chance that there is danger behind this door so he was hesitating whether to risk it or not but after some thinking he just snorted and left his body "Tsk! Danger or not, that doesn't matter, it can't be worse than what I already experienced"
Arthur left the body of the bear and entered from under the door since his real body was like 7 inches he could pass easily.
Once he entered, he saw an enormous room, because of his small size, everything was big but he could guess that it was a 20x20 meter room, it had dust all over it.
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There were bookshelves, tables filled with dusty papers and there also was big chests, the very first thing he thought when he saw those chests were "treasures" but he kept looking around the room because even if he wanted to see what's in those chests, he can't take them with his small size.
He had immense strength even in this body but he can't use it properly due to his size.There were various other things but he didn't bother much with them, in the center of the room he saw a half meter black stone be, he couldn't exactly guess what it was since he was seeing it from downward but he guessed it was some container.
Arthur approached it slowly afraid of some sneak attack from an unknown enemy or a sudden trap, but fortunately, nothing happened.
With a sigh, he mustered his strength on his lower body and jumped up, because he underestimated his strength and speed, his jump carried him all over to the roof and when he was in mid-air he could see what was this container, it was a tomb containing a skeleton corpse.
He landed on the edge of the container so he could have a close look at the corpse, it was really an old corpse, there was dust all over, and by the state of the skeleton, it must have been thousands of years if not more. The skeleton was dusty and old but surprisingly it didn't have any crack which shocked him greatly.
Arthur circled around the tomb to observe more. He noticed that near the corpse was a black book with the same symbol that he saw in the door, also there was a black robe and a cane with a red crystal on top of it, the cane seemed really old and creepy, the red crystal was in the shape of some kind of person with 8 hands, it reminded him of myth of Asura that he heard of in his previous life but this shape had 2 more hands than Asura.
He pondered whether he could possess a dead person or not, well he can possess dead animals like the bear and the wolves but is it the same thing for all beings or is it just monsters? He stopped thinking about this and dived right into the skeleton with a hope of possessing it.
Controlling a human body is more comfortable and there are things you can't-do with a beast's body like grabbing things, after all, you can't grab with your claws it's way too difficult. All it took was less than a second and he heard the rewarding notification sound 'ting'
you have successfully possessed zodiak's body
Zodiak : in the past , there was an entity called the Dark magician , he was known for his necromancy and dark magic which was lethal to every being, he was pursued by the holy church and all kingdoms and empires for thousands of years but no one could catch him , every time they find him he would slaughter everyone or keep some for experimenting on them , he was the definition of evil , feared by all he built a small base to escape from all those people and keep researching without disturbance, after years passed the search of dark magician lessened until he became a myth and no one could find him , they concluded that he was dead because he never appeared again.
you have gained a new skill (active) Dark magic[Lvl : ???] : you can use dark magic to form an attack, barriers, traps and all sort of things, all research made by zodiak are available to you to use if you have the ability to do so. Cost : none
You have gained a new skill ( active) necromancy[Lvl ??] : you can spawn all kind of underworld beings and command them cost : depends on the being you revive
you have gained a new skill(passive) [dead being] : because you are A skeleton , your Stamina is infinite and your defense and vitality have increased : you can regenerate lost bones
you have gained all Zodiak's stats
TITLE : MEAT GRINDER Level: 24 Class: Void Parasite - Strength 1040(+165) Intelligence 1500(+862) Agility 1180(+200) Wisdom 1248(+758) Vitality 1441(+701) Dexterity 620(+170) - Health 1285 Health Regen 11.2/s Mana 1240 Mana Regen 25.1/s Stamina infinite Stamina Regen ??? - Attack: 581 Defense: 1032 Elemental Resistances Fire: 25% Water: 25% Wind: 25% Earth: 25% Light: 25% Darkness: 100%
Arthur stared for a couple of minutes at his status window, his eyes widened when he saw the increase in Intelligence, Vitality, and Wisdom, his overall stats are all above 1000 except for his Dexterity, this was definitely a cheat, he believed that now he can one-shot everything that attacks him even with raw strength which was completely unbelievable.
He got up and tried moving his body, at first it felt really heavy but just after a couple of seconds, he was able to move normally and freely. Everything was alright, It's the same feeling as being a human-like his previous life except it was kind of strange seeing his body made of bones.
How can he eat delicious things like this or drink water, he was made of bones so normally anything will fall to the ground if he was eating or it will spill on his lower bones, but nevertheless he was excited when he tested his movements, he could run to the end of the room in less than a second it almost seemed like it was teleportation.
Arthur tried throwing a punch at the air but he underestimated his strength greatly and even when punching the air the wall at the end of the room was utterly destroyed with nothing left, he stood there dazed for a second then he sighed and thought
"if I had this kind of this strength in the past who would dare to have mess with me ? Life is really cruel and unfair for some people..."
After spending 5 or so minutes testing his body and overall abilities he tried using his new skills and the one which picked his interest is the Dark Magic ability.
It says that he can use dark magic to attack or defend but it didn't explain how, so he focused and thought about a spear in his mind and suddenly
'bzzzt"
A dark 2-meter spear appeared near him floating beside his shoulder, he was surprised at first then he felt ecstatic and overjoyed.
The spear was jet black it didn't have any special features except the-the edges of the spear had some kind of black flames, he tried aiming the spear at the wall and suddenly 'boom' the wall was destroyed and there was no sign of the spear, the power was truly frightening.
The room was made by 4 walls, the wall which was targeted by the spear all crumbled and the spear just continued destroying everything it crossed until Arthur ordered the spear the go back to him, he truly couldn't believe his eyes as the speed of this attack was faster than what his eyes could see.
He tried changing the shape of the spear and it was indeed like he thought, he could change it however he wants, whether it was an axe, a sword, a dagger and even a shield, then it occurred to him that it said in the description that you can use dark magic to form barriers so he thought about that, but the dark shield next to him didn't change.
However, a black aura surrounded him from all directions it seemed like a sphere surrounding him, it was a transparent sphere but it was kind of black-ish, he willed the barrier to disappear and it just disappeared in a split second.
It seemed like forming a barrier was slower than forming a weapon but nevertheless, it took only 1 second so it wasn't that big of a deal.
Arthur tried experimenting more with Dark Magic and he discovered that he can make more weapons, he created spears until all the room was filled with them and what surprised him was that it didn't cost mana to attack or form weapons or barriers which were truly a good yet frightening thing.
Next, he tried the revival skill which came from Zodiak as well, and it was kind of Okay, it was not overpowered like the Dark Magic but it could be useful.
After some experimentation, he found out that he can summon a skeleton for 20 mana each and a mage skeleton which had a cane with 40 mana each, all kind of skeletons can be summoned.
Moreover, he tried thinking about a wolf or bear and it was a success, he could also summon them though they were all bones, he also can summon zombies but they seemed slow and not that strong so he just ignored them , he stopped further experiment with this skill because the room was not that big to experiment in.
Arthur was truly happy, he knew that his abilities are considered good even in this world.
After all, destroying a wall in a less than a second is a something not everybody can do, what's more is that he can use magic so that meant that there are people who can use it as well, but he was kind of depressed because his level was somewhat low, even if his stats are cheat-like, he didn't like having low level he felt kind of insecure.
For him, he didn't want to be put in a situation like the tragic past, he must be in control of his own destiny and not be toyed with by some greedy and evil people.
Arthur turned around and went near the tomb to appraise the robe and cane, they seemed ancient but they weren't destroyed so they may be useful to him, he first appraised the robe and waited for notification to tell him the details .....