Arthur smiled as he saw the brother and sister pair that he'd picked up only yesterday with small smiles on their faces as they chewed on some well-cooked meat that he’d bought from the system store. They’d just completed a full day of travel together and in that time hiking, between having to fend off every [Boss] monster under the sun and checking his map for directions, Arthur had done his best to get Steven and Annabelle to not distrust him.
As seemed to be a trend, his efforts had been much more successful with Steven who was grateful to have someone fresh to speak to about everything that had happened over the last 2 months. The lad was strong of heart but the burden he had placed upon his shoulders would have been a lot for any person to handle, let alone a teenage boy whose natural disposition did not align well with his new duties. And so, once Arthur had shown himself to be sincere in his desire to listen to him, the boy had unloaded some details of his not-so-distant past and the struggles therein, but Arthur knew and respected that the boy kept many of the more personal details to himself.
However, though not as fruitful, he had also been able to make inroads with Annabelle, in that she now would occasionally speak to him without cowering in fear. Yet, because of her young age and the extent of her trauma, she was far more reserved around strangers than her older brother. Yet, progress was progress in Arthur’s mind, and he was not going to rush forming a bond with the pair, as he didn’t even know what would happen to the two once they arrived at the Imperium’s base.
It was really up to the pair to make the decision as to what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives, and there was very little chance they'd want to follow Arthur, so the best he could do for them was to offer them whatever support he could towards achieving whatever goals they ended up wanting to aim for.
Once the two had finished their first cooked meal in a long while, Annabelle yawned deeply – showing just how very tired she was. Arthur didn't find this very surprising considering just how much ground they’d covered in a single day and how straining that must have been on her young body. So, being the good brother that he was, Steven helped the 10-year-old calm down and go to sleep and soon she was snoring away a few metres from the respectably sized campfire that Arthur had set up just before sundown.
A silence formed as Steven sat on a tree stump opposite Arthur’s wooden seat. The lad mostly focused his eyes on the fire, but Arthur spotted his eyes occasionally twitching upwards to sneak a peek at Arthur whose gaze was peering off into the distance – keeping watch out for any incoming monsters.
Arthur eventually broke the silence, his voice warm and sincere, but his eyes not moving from their position, “You’re a very good brother to her, you know that lad.”
Steven shook his head in response. The boy disagreed, and his eyes held within them only a deep and personal shame. When the lad did finally speak a reply after much obvious deliberation, his voice was sombre and pained, “I don't think so. In fact, I have to be one of the worst brothers in all of history.”
“Why would you think so?”
The boy picked up a chunky stick and threw it in the fire before responding, his voice tentative and low, “I don’t know. The world is so different now. I am so different now. She and I never used to get along, we’d always fight over stupid shit like who sat in the front of the car on the way to a store or something like that. Yet, ever since the apocalypse started, and I saw…” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Ever since I saw unspeakable horrors happening before my very own eyes, I’ve just been trying my best to ensure that she didn’t have to see anything like what I've seen. Yet, again and again, I failed to protect her from it all and I…” He began choking up.
Arthur nodded in understanding before answering softly, “You’re not to blame for the cruelties of the world old or new being too much for you to protect your sister from completely. Heck, if they were handleable then you’d hope that humanity and or any sentient race would have long since relieved us all of them. You are still just a young man, no one could have asked you to take on the responsibilities that…”
Arthur was cut off by a teary-eyed Steven bursting out with a barely suppressed anger, “Don’t tell me that all of what happened to me was inevitable because that just makes everything 10x worse!” The boy could barely hold back the tears from streaming down his face as he reacted strongly to Arthur's words, “None of what happened to us or what she had to see was inevitable. Mom's death in that way was not inevitable. I've gone through hell trying to protect her but what would be the point in even resisting in the first place if it all was inevitable? No, it couldn’t have been inevitable. You're wrong.”
Arthur could tell that this was not the first time the boy had been told by another to be less hard on himself, and he could guess that this shame at letting down his sister was something that had been lingering at the back of the teenager's mind for a while.
Arthur replied calmly and empathetically, “Something being inevitable does not make the struggle against it any less meaningful lad. Death. Loss. Suffering. All of these things are inevitable for people, no matter how noble and or powerful, to have to go through and experience for themselves. However, it is not by denying these things’ inevitability that we live a meaningful life or make other's lives more meaningful. Instead, it is in the constant struggle to hold off these things for as long as possible in our own lives and in the lives of those that we care about that humanity as a whole has found meaning in our checkered and miserable existence. For, in the end, life itself is at heart about delay.”
The boy was about to respond, but Arthur cut him off, “Not too long ago I was immobile in a care home, unable to do anything but eat mushed-up food, sleep 19 hours a day, and talk to the occasional uninterested nurse who came into my room to administer my muscle atrophy treatment. My mind was quickly degenerating, and I nearly had fully lost the ability to recall even the most basic details about the ones whom I swore to cherish and protect.
“And being in my 90s it was pretty much guaranteed that I would die in only a few months, maybe a year if I was lucky. However, even at my lowest point emotionally speaking, I held onto life because even though I knew death was just around the corner, life meant so much more to me. Every pill I took, every massage I endured, and every elusive mental thread of hope that I clung to are in my mind the only reason I'm still alive right now. The life I lived then may have been miserable and bland, but I suffered through it all, otherwise, I'd never have had those albeit rare moments of happiness later on. Like recalling my beautiful dead wife's face again as though for the first time and falling in love with her all over again, or remembering one of my children's first words after days of not remembering. Those times were incredibly meaningful to me and my struggle to survive was a part of what made them so, yet death was still around the corner - even then.
"So, what I'm trying to say is, that you should judge yourself not by whether or not you managed to prevent the inevitable, for that will always only dig you into a bottomless pit of despair and self-loathing. Instead, you should try to judge yourself by whether or not you did your best to keep all the bad stuff at bay for long enough, or in large enough quantities so that she has the time and the mental space to develop to the point where she can healthily handle it all without you. And, from what I've witnessed, you're being the best brother you can be for her and that's all anyone could and should ever ask of you."
Arthur was just as surprised with his own words as Steven seemed to be. He learned a crucial fact about himself and the boy in that split-second moment where their eyes met, that he and Steven were similar people in that as soon as Arthur felt he was in sincere company, he, perhaps unknowingly, began to just open up about all of his innermost thoughts and problems.
Arthur didn't know if he'd always been like this, or if this was a byproduct of his long isolation from other Earthlings making him more talkative, but as he looked at Steven's wide-eyed expression, he knew for a fact that he and the boy were kindred souls despite their myriad divides both in terms of age and experience.
Steven didn't let out another word for the rest of the evening, or at least none that Arthur understood. The boy would occasionally mumble to himself, but Arthur knew that this was more due to how the boy thought than a genuine attempt at speaking. A few hours after their conversation, Steven got off his tree stump, lay on the ground opposite his sister and fell asleep.
Arthur felt tempted to sleep as well, not out of physical necessity as his body felt almost perfectly energetic as of now, but more because he honestly felt mentally exhausted after he'd also spent the last few hours reflecting on his own words. He'd meant every word he'd said but he couldn't quite help but realise that his own advice to Steven was applicable to him also, a fact that had taken much in the way of thinking about to make sense of in his own mind. However, despite his mental tiredness, he had to keep watch lest his treasonous new aura attract a dangerous foe to attack them whilst they slept.
When the sun rose over the horizon many hours later, the campsite was nearly completely encircled with the bodies of [Boss] monsters. Arthur was genuinely starting to wonder just how large his aura was if so many [Boss] monsters were charging at him with abandon, as he had only encountered a very small number of boss monsters prior to defeating the world boss, and now, according to his most recent title upgrade, he'd slayed over 250 of them.
Title Upgraded: Bane of Monster Lords - Grade: [C] - While others would hesitate before fighting a recognised lord of monsters, you seek them out for slaughter. You have solo killed over 250 [Boss]/[Wild-Boss]/[World-Boss] rank monsters. - Effects: You deal 50% more damage to [Boss] monsters.
Arthur dismissed the prompt and walked over to the sleeping forms of Steven and Annabelle and woke them up. They had a lot of ground to cover and Arthur wanted to get back to Lucas as fast as he could. There was so much to make up for and Arthur didn't want to add to the boy's stress any longer.
The brother and sister woke quite easily, and soon enough the three of them were following Arthur's plotted route back to the Imperium's base. The walk proceeded mostly in silence as Steven was clearly still thinking about what had been said the night before, and Annabelle seemed to prefer silence.
An hour or so passed before Steven finally broke the silence and said awkwardly, "I ummm thought about what you said. I just wanted to say thanks. However, I'm not quite sure whether or not I can stop myself from blaming myself for everything that happens to us. However, your words... helped. A little."
Arthur smiled back in response and nodded and the boy smiled awkwardly back.
Arthur had thought he'd probably have many heartfelt conversations with the lad before the journey ended, so gladly let the boy off without any deeper follow-up questions. However, at around midday, the trio froze in place as a house-sized aircraft began circling in the sky above them - the insignia on the bottom of the ship being unmistakably that of the Imperium. Arthur felt excitement swell in his heart as he knew he could get this airship to fly him back to the base - which skipped another day and a bit of walking.
His happiness at the development was not shared by the brother and sister duo, who both looked at the large airship with suspicion and dread. Though Arthur had informed them of the Imperium and Arthur's connection to the group being quite friendly, the siblings held much hatred in their hearts for the alien empire.
The Imperium's orbital bombardments had killed millions, if not billions, of people and while Arthur had largely avoided thinking about it too much, the siblings were not so absent-mindedly accepting of the 'nation' that had killed friends, relatives, and family members without much of a thought. They were, in most native Earthlings' eyes, the bringers of the greatest calamity in all of history and thus were seen as the unequivocal foes of all things good and fair.
So, when the ship eventually landed, creating a new clearing nearby, and the humanoid figure of Corporeal Leah cautiously got off the ship and approached them - there was no attempt on behalf of Steven or Annabelle to hide the sheer hatred they felt towards the Imperium and its soldiers on their faces.
The corporeal looked at Arthur with a wild cocktail of emotions on her face. Shock, Disbelief, Fear. All were present. However, the dominant emotion clear on her face was the most concerning to Arthur. Her eyes were full of sorrow and regret as she looked at Arthur apologetically. Something was wrong.
Arthur was the first to speak, his voice cracking with nervousness, "Madame Corporeal, I hope I'm not overstepping here, but why the sorrowful look?"
Arthur only heard a single word of the woman's response before he felt his world begin to collapse and it was as though his heart had been torn out of his chest and his vital energy drained.
"Lucas."
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Lucas completely regretted ever stepping foot inside the dungeon. Every second that Lucas spent in the dungeon was an opportunity for the monstrous titans of bone to impale him on their humungous spears, club him with their enormous arms, and or crush him with their titanic legs. He had been mere inches away from being killed far too many times for his liking and his mind was being run purely on adrenaline, paranoia, and fear.
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As such, he was in a constant struggle to keep control over his mind, for if allowed himself to lose control and give in to the demonic side of himself, he'd lose all rationality and he'd almost certainly be smashed aside by his far larger, far stronger opponents. His overriding total fear of death was his mental anchor and with it, Lucas just about managed to keep himself sane as he dodged every attack and did his best to get in his own.
His mother, on the other hand, had seemingly lost all control almost immediately upon entering the dungeon. However, her tremendous strength and inhuman endurance meant that though she was completely out of her mind with rage, and despite the fact she kept taking attack after attack without even blocking, she just kept on going – seemingly never faltering even a single bit. The tactic seemed to work for her, as though she had many grievous injuries, she brought down the undead giants consistently with her fists alone, a feat that Lucas would not have believed possible if he was not currently seeing it with his own eyes.
Lucas, on the other hand, had to use his spear and his active skill to even do damage to the giant skeletons, their bone armour proving incredibly durable. Plus, even though they were easy to hit as they were comically large targets, the monsters paradoxically with their undead nature seemed to have an impressive vitality, meaning it took Lucas multiple stabs from his spear to bring down just one of their number. And, more often than not, the attempt to bring down one titan would invoke the wrath of another, and Lucas had only managed to stave off death so far with his quick reaction speed and small body's natural nimbleness.
Lucas had lost track of time as he fought, his focus on survival being absolute. That was why it took a monumental system prompt appearing in his vision and the whole dungeon beginning to shake as though there was a huge earthquake going on for Lucas to realise that something big was going on around him. An observation that was reinforced by the fact that it seemed like his mother had also been brought out of her rage-fuelled rampage mode by the appearance of the prompt as she momentarily froze in place, her yet-to-be-killed opponent no longer holding her full ferocious attention.
Lucas had been unable to check his system prompts since entering the dungeon, since if he had gotten distracted whilst fighting he would have almost certainly been killed by an opportunistic undead. However, as the earthquake had destabilised the skeleton giants, sending them falling to the Earth with such force that all Lucas could hear around him was the sounds of bones cracking as they crashed against the ground, he decided to risk a peek at his most recent system prompts.
The big one he’d just received almost immediately caused his breath to catch in his throat. It couldn’t be.
Global Announcement! A WORLD BOSS HAS BEEN DEFEATED!
Global Reward: +50% EXP gain boost for 24 hours (Full boost applies only to native Earthlings, all non-native users shall receive only a 25% boost to EXP gain.)
You have reached the 5th step of the [Greater Devil] realm!
You have reached the 6th step of the [Greater Devil] realm!
You have reached the 7th step of the [Greater Devil] realm!
Reward: +3 Spiritual Points
You have assisted in killing a [Pest] Skeleton Behemoth (Lvl:55)!
Reward: 24,508 EXP
You have levelled up!
Stat Point(s) awarded: 2
Skill Point(s) awarded: 3
New Level: 44
Progress to next level: 3,601/105,000
A World Boss had been defeated! Could that mean? Lucas shook his head aggressively; he couldn’t let his hopes be raised to the sky only for them to crash to the Earth again upon discovering he’d been wrong to hope. Wrong to imagine that this world could offer him anything other than despair.
A depressing sentiment that was quickly reinforced as an ominous, oppressive aura washed over the whole valley of bones. Lucas needed only to look up to see the cause of this new wave of power for his whole body to start trembling, for floating in the artificial sky above was a 12ft tall skeleton behemoth with a refined cloak draped around its body – with only its barren white skull being visible to Lucas' naked eyes.
Some monsters exuded power due to their large muscles, powerful weapons, and or incredible skills. This monster lacked all of those things, yet was far more intimidating than anything Lucas had ever felt before in his entire time life. The monster exuded an absurd, almost palpable, degree of intense magical power from both its body and the large metallic staff that it wielded in its bony right hand. Without even looking at the new prompt in his vision, he knew this creature was the dungeon boss and that his grandfather had been right to be wary of entering this death trap.
You have encountered the Dungeon Boss: [Boss][Minion] Grand Lich (Lvl:75)!
Both Lucas and his mother looked up with dread as the Grand Lich began casting its first spell, it being their first time seeing real magic being performed. The sight was totally mysterious in how it all worked, and yet at the same time, the intent of whatever spell was being cast was clear. The annihilation of every living organism within a certain unknown radius.
Lucas ran as fast as he could away from the epicentre of the magic, the Grand Lich itself, but the spell had already finished being cast and the horrific black bolt of energy that the skeleton monster had manifested into existence struck the ground like a missile upon its hurtling. The resulting explosion created a crater 7 metres deep and dozens of metres wide, sending huge skeleton bones, chunks of Earth, and Lucas flying away from the blast zone.
Lucas heard only a ringing in his ears as a chunk of earth hurtled into his back, pinning the lower part of his body with a tremendous weight against the ground – crushing his bones in an instant to nothing more than powder. The level of pain was meaningless as Lucas' broken body registered nothing, his mind so muddled and confused. His vision soon went from somewhat white and blurry to completely fluid and multicoloured.
Then, as though his survival instincts completely took over, his arms began desperately thrashing out at the Earth that pinned him, but he wasn’t strong enough to free himself, let alone move the huge chunk of Earth. With nothing left of his mind to resist, his vision turned totally crimson red and his child-sized fists smashed into the earth again and again, sending chunks of dirt and bone flying off the huge mass. Then, it was as though his soul itself froze in time.
The dark ominous aura that heralded the arrival of the boss no longer felt spread out and generalised, instead, it felt as though every 'particle' of the boss' aura was now bearing down on him in particular. His animalistic mind lost any semblance of rationality at this, his survival instincts going haywire, but all of his struggle was for nought. Seconds later, a rancid smell crawled up his nostrils, and his eyes rolled into the back of his head, all of reality slipping away. Had he been aware enough, Lucas would have doubted at this moment whether he'd ever wake up again.
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Maximus had to say, that Earth was quite a beautiful planet to behold from outer space. Its relatively small size for a life-bearing planet only helped to accentuate the beautiful aspects of the world's outer appearance. However, in his own mind, the blue marble he was currently looking at was nothing in comparison to his own home world - a planet acclaimed throughout the whole multiverse for its unparalleled beauty and impressive size.
A nostalgic memory of the first time he saw his own planet from outer space flashed through his mind before he quickly dismissed it. Though he was one for reminiscing on childhood memories, there was a time and a place for everything and now was certainly not the time. He'd already wasted enough time and though his trust in oracles had been severely shaken in recent weeks, the warning he'd received from one about Earth's near future only hours earlier rang true in his mind so he needed to act fast to avoid a potential disaster.
He shifted his gaze from the window to his assistant sitting opposite him, typing away furiously into the ship's interface.
"Report your progress in acquiring the delivery that I asked for." He barked out.
"The Merchants Guild says they will only be able to deliver 21% of your order in the timeline you gave sir and that they apologise for being unable to meet the demand on such short notice." The boy said flatly, not even bothering to lift his head up to look at his boss.
Maximus cursed to himself. Fucking Merchants.
"Have you contacted that guild?" Maximus asked in a conspiratorial tone.
The boy shivered before nodding and replying, "They do not have anywhere near the requested amount sir. At best, we are getting an additional 1% of the requested amount from them at such short notice."
"I see," Maximus said coldly. "I guess we better hope that an untold quantity of system store-bought [D] grade poison will be enough to make up for our crappy national providers' lack of production capacity."
A grim look formed on the boy's face as he realised what his boss meant to do. For the first time in a long while, the boy wondered whether or not he should just quit and apply to become some kind of imperial bureaucrat. No amount of prestige was worth the monumental amount of paperwork that Maximus was now all but promising to have him do in the next few weeks. He could only compare the task that would soon be on his shoulders to that of a man being asked to reach the [God] realm of cultivation - in other words, a monumental, perhaps impossible, feat that very few could ever 'boast' about achieving.
"Have you received any updates about the group behind the world boss's death?" Maximus asked, restoring his assistant's attention.
The boy scrambled with his interface for a second, before reading out the most recent report to his boss, "According to Corporeal Leah of the 77th Imperial Legion, the world boss was in all likelihood slain not by a group but by a single individual..." Maximus' assistant paused, probably due to the shock of the report's contents, before noticing Maximus' gaze on him and finishing the sentence, "killed by a single individual, a native, known as Arthur Goodman."
Maximus was sceptical of the report's validity, but when he pulled up the report himself, he saw a classified intelligence report attached whose name suggested it contained a suspected profile of the man who had apparently killed a world boss by himself. Upon accessing this report, his suspicion turned to unbounded interest, as the words on his screen almost defied belief.
"ARTHUR GOODMAN" - Classified Dossier
Race: Humanoid (Native)
Age: ???
Class: Guardian Butler - No data is available on this class.
Level: 43 - Tier: [E]
Realm: 6th Step of the [Foundation] realm - CULTIVATION SPEED EXCEEDINGLY ABNORMAL (THIS DATA THUS HAS A LOW CHANCE OF REMAINING ACCURATE)
Imperial Compatability Grade: [B]
Imperial Potential Grade: [S]
Current Danger Rating: [Elite] Projected Danger Rating in 1 Imperial year: [Advanced]
Disposition: Professional, Courteous, Considerate.
Known Objectives: Wishes to work as a Butler - No ulterior motive suspected.
Known Associations:
Grandchild - Lucas Goodman - Age: 8 - Humanoid - Status: Hexxed
- The patient is in critical condition - Emergency care is being administered after the patient was inflicted with a tier 5 death hex. No visible sign of recovery despite repeated curse-breaking spells, though the patient somehow remains alive. Analysis has so far revealed nothing.
-Questioning the severely injured adult humanoid who brought him back to the nearest Imperium base has led to no answers as to what happened or how the boy still lives - further investigations are underway.
There were many aspects of the report that piqued Maximus' interest. For one, Maximus had never heard of anyone, let alone a random native, achieving mid-[Foundation] realm in cultivation in only 2 months without serious aid from Elixirs. Yet, even then, the fastest cultivation speed he'd ever heard of was the legendary heir to one of the Heavenly Dominions who managed to reach the [Lesser-Spirit] realm in 4 months, mostly due to the unbelievable quantity and quality of elixirs that were rammed down their throat from an early age. So the fact that this native had achieved what he had in such a short period of time was beyond impressive.
Secondly, he'd not heard about the Guardian Butler class up till now. However, that was hardly surprising considering just how bellicose the Fraternity of Butlers was when it came to preventing "trade secrets" from becoming common knowledge. The group were a multi-verse wide organisation and held a considerable amount of sway due to the necessity of butler class skills for any halfway decent noble to keep their huge mega houses in order, so more times than not the group were able to suppress Butler class variants from being leaked due to this sway.
However, what most interested him, was not even the man himself but his grandson. Well, not really even the boy himself. But instead, the fact the two were related and both were reported to be doing the impossible. One supposedly defeated a World Boss by himself, and the other is apparently enduring a tier 5 death hex. Both were extreme anomalies and whereas one anomaly might not mean much in and of itself, two anomalies that are closely related in the multiverse suggested only one thing to Maximus. Bloodlines.
If there was a bloodline involved, it was a powerful one. And if Maximus was right, then the native was more valuable to the Imperium than was the very planet that he had called home, for bloodlines - especially powerful ones - were exceedingly rare and valuable. To have one was to instantly make you a VIP worthy of serious attention across the multi-verse and in a time when talent was seemingly drying up across the multi-verse, the appearance of even a single powerful bloodline owner within the Imperium would give Maximus' country an unimaginable amount of kudos on the multi-versal stage.
A small smirk formed on his face as he dismissed his interface with a wave of his hand, the absurdity of the whole situation dawning on him at last. He is possibly a possessor of a powerful bloodline. He is a martial talent capable of defeating a world boss almost twice his reported level. Yet, the man's only aspiration was to become a butler. How positively absurd. Maximus must meet this native at once.
"Inform Major Theodora that I shall be headquartered in the Northern Hemisphere's base for the foreseeable future. Have my ship prepared and tell the commanding officer of the base that I shall soon arrive and perform a mandatory inspection."
"As you wish sir." His assistant said whilst saluting before he moved to leave the room.
And, in less than an hour, Maximus stood on Earth in a beautifully quaint forest - the sound of birds chirping pleasing him tremendously. He was, without a doubt, the most powerful man on the planet right now and yet as he took in the sheer majestic beauty of nature, he couldn't help but feel small and weak.
"General, sir, the man, Arthur Goodman, has returned to the base." A nervous private informed him - his assistant was off organising the poison's arrival here on Earth so he'd been forced to 'deputise' a random private to become his temporary assistant and the octoid soldier looked as though he were about to explode from nerves.
"Excellent. Have him come to my office as soon as possible. I shall meet him there."
"I shall do as ordered, General Maximus, sir."
Maximus could only smile as he wondered what this native was going to be like and what his mere existence meant for the Imperium.