Arthur’s mind stretched itself painfully thin as it did its very best to hold his horrifically wounded body and soul together and thus keep him alive. Yet, even with Arthur’s impressive durability, the sheer amount of power that had struck him was just too much for any person of his pitifully low level to recover from.
However, in the deepest crevices of his mind, a metaphorical gear was turning faster than it ever had before and would likely ever go again. It desperately ground, churning with unbridled vigour, as it both wove new threads with which Arthur’s mind could temporarily be stitched together and desperately tugged with ethereal might at the mysterious strings of fate.
It had done this many times before, though in a much lesser way. However, unlike all those other times, this was a life-and-death scenario. Its host’s mind and body were quickly falling apart. It had to act, now. Otherwise, both it and its host would be sucked into oblivion.
Yet, its tugs produced nothing, no matter how hard it tried. Its efforts had ended in failure. A first for the semi-sentient mental process, yet that made it all the more devastating to experience. However, its primordial instincts informed it to keep going, to try and tug so hard that the elusive gods of fate could not help but acknowledge its fervent wish to remain alive.
With complete and unilateral access to Arthur’s mental power, as well as the all-or-nothing circumstances providing incredible motivation, the metaphorical cog tugged with more ethereal force than it had thought possible for it to exert. Yet still fate seemed indifferent to the little cog’s pleas for assistance, with nothing coming back in response.
Until, suddenly, the strings of fate retaliated against their tugger, almost ceasing the cog’s efforts entirely with a metaphysically monstrous electric shock being shot directly at its metaphysical heart. Yet, if this was meant to discourage it, then the gods of fate were beyond stupid. This only confirmed in its primitive mind that the gods were listening, and that if he tugged hard enough they would respond.
So, in a last-ditch attempt, it overexerted its host’s mental powers and ceased weaving any mind-healing stitches, all so that it could muster its fullest potential strength with which to pull against the strings of fate. If this tug failed, the cog’s host would be dead within a split second, and it would cease to exist entirely. All of its efforts up till this point would be rendered totally worthless by fate.
So, when it finally tugged with all its might, the semi-sentient mental process experienced another first in its short existence. Elation. It seemed that fate had finally answered its tug and intervened to save its host’s life, for its host’s mind and body were regrowing and strengthening at an incredible rate. And, thereby, so was it, and it was more than happy to relish in the feeling of its growing power, a familiar emotion swelled in its primaeval mind – pride.
It had saved its host, even if only just. Now, it wanted to rest. So, it did.
----------------------------------------
Arthur jolted awake, his mind remarkably clear, and his body stunningly free of pain. This mental clarity allowed him to realise that he very much should not be awake right now. The monster’s attack had clearly hit him, and it had clearly dealt sufficient damage to cause him to black out due to the pain.
Where was the hydra? Where was his pain? How am I still alive? These were all questions that ran through his mind before he glimpsed a view of the hydra off in the distance, now charging towards him, and he realised he could save answering those important questions for another time.
He scrambled for his spirit dagger and once it was in his hand, he bolted in the opposite direction of the hydra. As he did so, he noticed that he was bounding forward at an unbelievable speed – far faster than he could remember ever being able to run before.
Though this speed was probably a result of the second thing he noticed, his once wizened muscles were now beyond refined and almost perfectly youthful, and with just a look Arthur could tell that his body was now somehow brimming with incredible physical might that he hadn't possessed before.
An observation he then immediately had field tested, as he had to leap out of the way of a ginormous beam of destruction being fired in his direction. Yet, his new strength made leaping in any direction for many dozens of metres rather easy. A new capability that made Arthur question whether or not he could use this newfound strength of his to finally deliver a killing blow to the colossal monster that was charging after him.
Deciding that it was better to stick to his pre-collapse plan than risk a frontal assault, Arthur did his best to lead the enraged Hydra to a more advantageous spot to ambush the giant monster. And, the monster, fuelled by an unyielding rage, would have probably followed him to the ends of the earth just to have a single shot at finishing off Arthur.
Eventually, after 29 more kilometres of forest had been rendered nothing more than ash, Arthur found his spot. His small vantage point was up in a tree above a small valley that resembled a welsh moor, and moments later, the hydra too entered the killing zone.
Arthur launched from the treetops onto one of the hydra’s necks, wanting to take advantage of its now obvious weak spot, and with his newfound strength helping him, his spirit blade soon once again burrowed into the soft flesh in the hydra’s neck, and another head dropped dead.
However, unlike last time, he was prepared for it to drop, and he’d launched off the hydra’s body with his dagger as soon as he felt the dagger pierce the flesh beneath the scales. This meant that when the remaining heads of the hydra shrieked in pain and fury, charging up a beam of death to fire at him, he had already created enough distance not to be hit by the uber-deadly attack.
When the titanic energy beam shot from the hydra’s 3 remaining heads, it was noticeably weaker, but that was only in comparison to its former beams, as the blast still decimated hundreds of metres of forest in its wake.
Arthur had planned on repeating the hit-and-run strategy again, but he quickly noticed that the hydra no longer seemed keen on following him. The monster’s two dangling heads’ weight seemed to be the cause, as well as the fact that it seemed the monster had finally figured out Arthur’s strategy and was doing the only thing it could to counter it. Stand totally still.
A sense of ominous dread filled Arthur’s heart as he noticed that the early cuts that he’d made with his spiritual weapon had begun to fade – which meant that the monster could heal from injuries inflicted by the Spirit Weapon, it just took far longer for some reason.
Realising the implications of this, Arthur clenched the dagger in his hand hard, his knuckles turning white as snow before he began running back in the direction of the world boss. A full-frontal assault it would have to be. The beast was now putting its foot down and giving him no other choice, and it being able to recover from its injuries worried Arthur to his very core. Though Arthur was still very much not certain he could win a head-to-head, even with this sudden power-up, he no longer thought it such an impossibility and he didn't think he really had any other, safer options.
Once the hydra spotted him, it charged up another beam aimed straight at him. The moment it fired, Arthur leapt to the side with his full might, landing far away from the area of effect, and he thus continued his singularly focused charge toward the hydra – the monster unable to charge another one for a few minutes at least.
However, its heads remained perfectly capable of biting, smashing, or crushing him to death and the monster seemingly intended to do all three things at once – with one task assigned to each head. Arthur decided to try and take out the biting headfirst, distinguished by the fact it was aggressively salivating as it gnashed its hideous teeth at Arthur.
Arthur dodged an attempted sweep from the smashing head, sidestepped the downward crushing blow of the crushing head and jumped up with all his might towards the biting head. The head in question opened its huge jaw, but before it could bite down on Arthur, the former butler, thanks purely to the combat prowess granted to him by his Battle State perk, managed to dodge and grapple onto the monster's neck and cling for his life.
Seemingly realising where this was heading, the smashing head surged towards Arthur – forcing Arthur to immediately let go of the biting head’s scales to avoid being killed. The smashing head had apparently decided to switch roles, as it idiotically bit down on its fellow head with a horrific crunch – not damaging Arthur at all but doing a stellar job at disabling the biting head for him.
The monster let out a horrific cry of pain as its third head dropped to the ground with a loud thud. The last two heads tried to charge up a beam of death and fire it at Arthur, but it seemed that it took at least 3 heads to do that, as the energy quickly dissipated in their necks. The rest of the battle was remarkably easy from then on.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Two heads might indeed be better than one, but compared to the might the creature had been capable of with 5, the resistance that the 2 heads were able to put up was rather pitiful in comparison. That was, until he delivered what must have been the killing blow, and the hydra’s body began to glow with dense magical energies. Pure mana began convulsing around a centralised point, and Arthur didn’t have to be an expert to figure out what was going to happen next.
He leapt back away from the monster, but in the end, his actions really didn’t matter. The momentous explosion let rip a second after the blow had been delivered, and it sent him flying forward with an unbelievable force. The blast did not come close to killing him, or even knocking him out, but he knew it had broken more than a few muscles in his body – immobilising him for some time with a horrible ringing in his ear.
The only thing Arthur could move without pain were his arms, which he thanked the heavens for, as at least with them he could have a chance at defending himself should any scavenger come looking to eat him while he was weak. Having nothing better to do, he decided to use this opportunity to finally rest his mind and think a bit about the last few days, as well as look at all the stupid system prompts that he’d received during the last day and a half.
And with his usual thoroughness, he went through them all one at a time.
You have reached the 7th step of the [Foundation] realm!
You have reached the 12th step of the [Foundation] realm!
You have taken the first step into the [Lesser Spirit] realm!
Current Core Grade: [V] - Quality: [Extraordinary]
Total Reward: +65 Spiritual Points
Oliver had told him about the importance of having a high-grade core, and one of a high quality, but the man hadn’t given much specifics on what was considered good. Despite that, however, Arthur felt that ‘extraordinary’ was probably not the average quality rating of most people’s cores.
He was almost about to chalk up his new strength to his new realm and core upgrade when he shifted his eyes to the next system prompt and his heart skipped a beat as he read through its contents.
You have acquired the Herculean Bloodline!
(Note from User Manual: [Unknown – Upgrade your User Manual perk to learn more])
Bloodline Type: Hybrid (Physical/Spiritual)
Quality: [Heroic]
Rarity: [Legendary]
Description: You are a long-suffering warrior whose personal losses have driven him to perform overwhelming feats of physical strength and resilience. You walk in the footsteps of Hercules, slayer of the Lyncean Hydra. Do his legacy justice and your power shall grow to be as unchallengeable and hailed as the uber-mighty hero of legends.
Effects:
1. All Physical Perks are now their “Herculean” variants, boosting their effects and power tremendously.
2. All Spiritual Perks are now their “Demi-God” variants, boosting their effects and power by a good amount.
Arthur, like any civilised person, had spent his childhood, and a good part of his younger adult years too, marvelling at the works of Homer and Hesiod – enjoying the rich mythology of past eras. So, of course, he knew who Hercules was, but everything about this prompt blew his lax Church of England Christian mind, as the prompt almost implied that the figure of Hercules had been a real one. Who had slayed a real hydra? How was that even possible? Was he thinking too much into this?
Surely the hero had to have existed as how otherwise could the fabled hero have a bloodline that was attainable somehow? Unless the system created it especially for a native of Earth to unlock, but even that he doubted.
Regardless of Arthur’s many many questions, this bloodline seemed on the face of it to be the cause of his new strength, but that left Arthur with perhaps the most fundamental question of all.
Just how had he gotten this bloodline while unconscious and on the verge of death? However, yet again, he had very little to work off, and soon had to abandon that line of thinking as he was getting too worked up about it as he thought over ridiculous hypotheses in his head.
He turned his head to look at the next few prompts at once, as they were all relevant to one another, his neck clicking painfully into place.
You have killed [World-Boss] [Minion] Adolescent Hydra (Lvl:101)!
Rewards:
* 2,339,990 EXP
* Title: [A] Leviathan Slayer, has been acquired!
* Trait: Lesser Regenerator, has evolved into Trait: Blood of the Hydra, and raised to level 10!
* 14 [Platinum], 30 [Gold], and 2 [Silver], System Coins have been awarded to you!
* 50 Trait Points awarded!
* 100 Stat Points awarded!
* 100 Skill Points awarded!
* Permanent [Platinum] ranked System Coin Shop Membership!
GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT! A WORLD BOSS HAS BEEN DEFEATED!
Global Reward: +50% EXP gain boost for the next 24 hours (Full Boost applies only to native Earthlings, all non-native users shall receive only a 25% boost to EXP gain).
QUEST UNLOCKED!
Quest Objective: Defeat the 8 world bosses that threaten all life on Earth!
Current Progress: 1/8
Quest Reward: Opportunity to Change to the Leviathan class and [UNKNOWN] other rewards.
Accept Quest: Y/N
Arthur could only sigh as he rejected the quest as soon as he had finished reading its objective. Not only did he not want to change his class, but he was honestly sick and tired of fighting monsters, especially exceptionally powerful monsters that could kill him with a single breath.
His focus had been and would forever be his family first and foremost, and Arthur was already piling guilt on himself for having been stuck fighting the damn hydra for so long and couldn’t imagine fighting the other World-Bosses would be any less time-consuming and or less deadly. So, therefore, even if this had been an extremely profitable victory for him personally, the wages of defeat were too much for Arthur to risk putting onto the shoulders of his poor grandson.
Thoughts of his last interaction with the boy put Arthur in a rather sombre mood. He’d been gone for almost 2 days, and he’d spent most of that time running in random directions, not really caring where he was going, only caring about luring the hydra towards him to carry out his rather miserable hit-and-run offensive strategy.
And even though Arthur had his world map, actively checking it and running at top speed at the same time would be incredibly difficult for him. This meant that it would probably take him at least 2 full days to get back to the Imperium’s base – maybe a day and a half if he didn’t rest at all. As a result of his decision to go hunting those many days ago, he will have been not there for the boy for over 4 days straight by the time he returns, a shameful fact in Arthur’s own mind.
Just thinking about how terrible of a grandfather he was had him looking back at all he’d done so far and wondering what he had been thinking.
Case in point, the fact that he had been so utterly focused on Lucas getting his own system, that Arthur had almost completely forgotten to give the boy anything amounting to a semi-regular birthday present. Then, to make his crimes worse, he’d then left the boy totally alone to study in their room as he went out to do what he had so convinced himself that he hated – hunting and killing monsters to grow stronger.
Sure he knew he had done it all with Lucas’ best interests in mind, but it didn’t matter if Arthur was the strongest man in the whole multi-verse if he forgot to actually be a good normal grandfather and give the boy normal stuff like birthday presents. For it was always the small things that children were prone to remember and cling to, and if he forgot that, then the boy would live nowhere close to a normal life, and Arthur would have accrued all this power, by his own standard, for nought. Arthur realised that he had let down Lucas in a major way, even if he had done it all with nothing but good intentions.
The butler took a deep breath in, before exhaling shakily. He didn’t know precisely what to do to make up for all of his failings, but at least now he had been able to reflect enough on his actions to see that he had failed and that he needed to do something to make up for that failure.
Even though Arthur didn't feel like he deserved it, he let a small smile form on his face and happiness filled his heart as he imagined what his wife would have said to him if he’d told her he would one day fight and kill a damn hydra for god’s sake.
She would have probably laughed at him, given him a light slap around the head, and then teased him with a soft, “Of course you will dear.” Before shooting him a warm smile, one that he would have gladly reciprocated.
It was after this more rosey reflection on his past that he finally turned his head once again and checked on his final system prompt.
You have levelled up! ULTRA LEVELLING ACHIEVED X12!
Stat Point(s) awarded: 94!
Skill Point(s) awarded: 72!
New Level: 59
Progress to Next Level: 131,455/205,000
Simultaneously Arthur was both elated to have so many stat points again and slightly dreading the inevitable system prompt that would rob him of them. As had become a kind of ritual ever since he first made the decision to purchase a certain Spiritual stat perk. He also knew that stat points gained through levelling were going to be much rarer from now on as the exp curve steepened with each and every level that he gained, so even greater was his dread at them being absconded with by his damn Automatic Cultivation perk.
Yet, going against all his expectations, even after an hour had passed no upstart sarcastic system prompt suddenly appeared – not even a disingenuous “suggestion” had come through. Questioning why that was, Arthur brought up his Spiritual stat perk list and blinked rapidly as he took in the blue panel's astonishing contents.
[III] Breath of the Demi-God (Lvl:1->Lvl:2) | Cost: 5 Spiritual Point
[III] Heavenly Qi Gathering (Lvl:1->Lvl:2) | Cost: 5 Spiritual Point
[III] Core Mastery (Lvl:1 -> Lvl:2) | Cost: 5 Spiritual Point
[III] Special Automatic Cultivation (Lvl:5) | [INACTIVE] | Cost: N/A – Your Tier is too Low to Evolve this Perk.
(Note from User Manual: You have a perk that has been rendered Inactive. A perk can become inactive for various reasons. Some of these include: being afflicted by a high-level curse, entering a unique dungeon domain, and or various other much rarer causes. There is no known way to reactivate a perk other than to simply wait for it to become active again, which is to say - do nothing.)