Arthur watched on in silence as Steven buried what remained of his sister’s body in unfamiliar ground on a planet they’d likely never return to again. The teen had wanted to bury her as close to Earth as possible and this was the first planet they had landed on, so the young man had decided to bury her here. The boy had not shown any sign of being bothered by this, however, and had simply decided to get it over with.
There was not a priest overseeing this impromptu funeral, no eulogies would be given, and no witnesses bar Arthur were in attendance. Such things were the treasured ornaments of better times, and neither Steven nor Arthur had the time necessary right now to try and arrange a full-on earthly funeral, so just as Steven had done with his mother, he buried his sister as quickly as he could with endless tears flowing from his eyes.
Arthur had spent the last few days comforting the boy but only time would heal the boy’s wounds and Arthur didn’t feel as though he was one to advise unhypocritically about how to healthily handle a loved one’s death considering his own situation. However, he had suggested that the boy try his hand at cultivation, as Arthur knew first-hand how therapeutic literally battling your inner demons could be. Something he’d had to do a lot in recent days with his Automatic Cultivation perk still inactive.
Steven soon finished refilling the grave with dirt. Once he’d flattened the dirt with his shovel he stood in sombre silence for a moment before he turned around and faced Arthur. His eyes were tired and bloodshot and the skin around his eyes was reddened from grief and sorrow. He looked almost thrice his age at that moment, and the suffering that wore his youth away was crystal clear on his face.
“Thank you, Mr Goodman.” The boy said at last – not quite whispering but also not quite speaking aloud.
Arthur simply nodded at the boy and the two began walking back to the mothership in silence, the ship being clearly visible off in the distance – currently resupplying itself at one of the Imperium’s many military outposts. They eventually found their way back into the outpost and walked through alien streets formed out of an unknown azure blue stone, not really taking in the outpost’s architecture or businesses.
Just before they were about to re-enter the mothership, they were met by a now fully recovered general Maximus – the injuries he’d sustained during his battle with the world serpent having been apparently healed with some high-level healing elixir.
The man looked at Arthur sternly and said, “Mr Goodman, it’s good to see you have finally returned from your outing. Our trip to the capital begins in only a few hours’ time, so I recommend that you prepare yourself accordingly.”
Arthur, shocked by this sudden news took a moment to organise his thoughts before replying, “I see. I was not aware that the mothership took so short an amount of time to resupply. But I shall do as you say, general, sir.”
Maximus chuckled at his response while shaking his head, and he then gestured at the ship behind him and said, “This colossal beast takes ages to get anywhere as it burns through fuel quickly and takes a lot of time to fully refuel. Ships like this are really only useful on protracted campaigns and housing and transporting large populations of people for reasonable periods of time.” He paused and then pointed at a far smaller ship being fuelled a few dozen metres away from the mothership and continued, “We will be travelling to the capital on my private ship, Mr Goodman. That way we will be in the capital within a matter of weeks, not a handful of years. Plus, my ship has far superior amenities – trust me on that.”
Arthur had found the casualness in the man’s voice of late odd at first, but by now he’d come to find it quite charming. The general had been serious whilst he was dealing with a serious situation, yet now that he was heading back to his home, he allowed himself to relax and take everything less seriously.
Arthur had met many men like him back on Earth, the easy-going but reliable type, and he found it comforting that in and amongst all the new unfamiliar stuff Arthur was experiencing lately, people didn’t vary all too much from his experience – even if they were monstrously powerful demi-gods capable of almost single-handedly defeating a world-ending monster in less than an hour.
“I see general, I have no issue with this. Shall there be room on the ship for young Steven here to join us on the journey if he so wishes?” Arthur eventually responded to the man, his question seemingly shocking the young man next to him out of his depressed stupor.
The general looked at Arthur curiously for a moment before asking, amused, “Do you wish there to be Mr Goodman?”
Arthur was a bit confused by the question and asked, “I don’t understand what you mean General.”
The general gestured at him and said, “Mr. Goodman, since I respect you, I shall speak plainly and simply as clearly there is a vast chasm between our two native cultures and societies.”
He gestured at a random soldier, a human man with an unkempt beard and short braided hair who seemed to be working on repairing a part of the mothership that had been damaged, and said, “Mr Goodman, you are not only destined to achieve monumental feats of strength, but you are already strong. Take the soldier over there, for example, if you were so inclined, you could snuff out his life with even the merest wave of your hand in his general direction.”
Arthur tried to protest that he would never do such a thing, but the general cut him off, “My point is not that you would, Mr Goodman, but simply that the man over there relies on the strength of the Imperium, in other words, the strength in raw numbers and the strength of others like myself, to shield him from those who may wish him harm. Whereas you simply do not need such help. Or soon you will not need anyone else.
“For you are a nexus of power in your own right, destined to accumulate great power far beyond anything you can currently imagine, so you need not ask me or anyone else for something, you need only plainly request it to receive. The multiverse runs on the exchange of requests and favours among the elite, so I’d get used to throwing around your new status if I were you – better to learn how to do it now than fail at it later when your very life or the lives of those you care about depend on you doing so.”
Arthur bristled at the man’s words. The man’s casualness is now being cast in a whole new light. Perhaps he was able to be so casual because at the end of the day, who was strong enough to demand his formality?
The general apparently believed in the dominance of the strong and Arthur couldn’t find it within himself to see the man as any worse a person for it. Regardless of the Vae Victis mentality’s ethical deficiency, rationally speaking it was the ethical system that most suited those who sought to maximise their potential with the system, so it was no surprise that the uber-mighty general subscribed to it due to his impressive strength.
However, Arthur just couldn’t accept the mindset as sound for him. As, for better or worse, he was compelled by his Earthly morality to consider the weak just as much as the strong, and he had long ago vowed to remain true to himself and his old world’s beliefs – even if all that was left of Earth in the modern day was charred space debris.
“Though I cannot say I agree with you on this, general, I shall take your words into consideration. In accordance with your words, should Steven desire to accompany me to the capital, I request that space on your ship be made available to him so that he may travel with us.” Arthur said, doing his best not to sound too haughty in front of the young man standing nervously next to him. The general’s words had clearly gotten to him.
General Maximus smiled before saying, “I shall have my assistant prepare a room for your companion at once, Mr Goodman. Let me know as soon as you can whether he will be joining us on our journey. I shall now leave you two to discuss the matter, and once you’ve reached your conclusion about that and the other matter we spoke of before – come to my office and inform me at once.”
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The general then turned around and he all but disappeared from sight. Arthur briefly wondered whether he had teleported or simply turned invisible, but quickly dismissed the questions from his head and turned to Steven.
The young man spoke first.
“I want to accompany you to the capital.” He said as firmly as his current uncertain sad mental state allowed him to sound.
Arthur asked softly, “Are you sure Steven? No one, especially not I, would hold it against you if you wanted to stay here with her grave for a bit longer. You are allowed to mourn those you have lost you know?”
Steven snapped back, louder, and angrier than he had likely planned, “I don’t want to stay here for a second longer Mr Goodman! I don’t want to be on this accursed death ship for longer than I have to be!”
He started choking up as he finished yelling, his spoken words becoming much quieter, “Just knowing that she is gone and that she lies in a terribly dug grave only a few kilometres away and having to be around every other miserable man woman and child who lost someone due to that DAMN beast or this damn system more generally. It’s all so… suffocating.
“It’s just too much for me to handle right now and I… just want to be away from it all.”
The boy paused before he finished with, “So yes. I am sure.”
Arthur placed his hand on the boy’s shoulders and said, “I didn’t know you were suffering in that way Steven, I’m sorry for questioning your decision. I just wanted to make sure that you weren’t rushing into things and now I see that you accompanying me to the capital is for the best.”
Steven wiped the few tears from his eyes and shook his head. “It’s alright Mr Goodman. I didn’t mean to yell at you either. It’s just…” The boy’s words trailed off.
Arthur gave the young man a sympathetic smile before he led the young man by the neck back up the mothership’s entry ramp and into the mothership – both of them feeling slightly better due to the other’s presence.
Realising Arthur hadn’t checked in on it in a while, he opened up his status page and his jaw dropped.
Arthur Goodman’s Status
Titles: [A] Leviathan Slayer, [C] Bane of Monster Lords, [C] Monster Among Men
Tier: [D]
Bloodline: Herculean Legacy
Class: [Rookie] Guardian Butler | Progress to next Class Rank: 10.0%
Realm: 3rd Step of the [Lesser Spirit] Realm
Level: 84
Stats:
Physical: 151 | Mental: 159 | Social: 133 | Spiritual: 318 | System: 132
HP: 13,967/13,967 | HP regen p/s: 342.99
STM: 26,191/27,935 | STM regen p/s: 101.925
MP: 5,883/5,883 | MP regen p/s: 5.883
Qi: 26,474/26,474 | Qi regen p/s: 52.947
Balance: £2,845,780
Traits: Blood of the Hydra (Lvl:25), Lucky (Lvl:25), Qi Pylon (Lvl:25), Nemean Toughness (Lvl:12), Charybdis’ Heir (Lvl:9), Fang of Fenrir (Lvl:6), … [Abridged - Focus to See More]
Skills:
[Expert] Cleaning, [Expert] Dispute Management, [Expert] Cooking, [Expert] Small-Bladed Weaponry, [Adept] Unarmed Combat, [Advanced] Tracking, [Advanced] Trap-making, [Basic] Spear Mastery
Arthur dismissed his status as soon as he’d finished reading it as he had learned from Oliver that spending long periods of time looking at your status screen makes you come across as vain in the eyes of the multiverse’s many citizens. Most of his status screen’s insanity related to his physical stat like his health and health regen were due to the compounded effects of his high cultivation, incredible bloodline, and ridiculously powerful traits.
Arthur had acquired quite a few ridiculous traits of late – having earned one after every world boss that he’d managed to kill, all of the traits relating somehow to the traits of the monster slain to acquire them. He’d also noticed that after every World Boss that he killed, the rewards he’d gained from them started to become nearly exclusively lots of System Coins – presumably because he was growing closer to the monsters in level and his killing of them was thus not so impressive to the system.
Though he hadn’t necessarily enjoyed spending weeks of his life hunting powerful monsters with his spirit dagger, the rewards he had received were great. Not only in terms of personal levels, system coins, and skill points but also in terms of important information – such as that it had been whilst fighting against the Nemean lion that he’d learned about just how ridiculous monsters’ powers could get and that he thus needed to always be careful thanks to his dumb aura.
The mythical monster brought back to life by the system had been prowling the vast Sahara desert – killing nearly everything and everyone that it could find. The legends of Heracles and his 12 labours had not done the monster's true power justice in Arthur’s mind. The lion’s skin was not only impenetrable to any damage – even from Arthur’s spirit weapon, but the monster also had a damage reflection type passive ability that meant any potential damage from a weapon was reflected on its attacker automatically.
Arthur had needed to wrestle with the monster to eventually strangle it to death like Hercules had done in the myths. Arthur had later learned from the general that all monsters, whether world boss or otherwise, grew exponentially more powerful the higher in the ranks they ascended until eventually, they were unstoppable unkillable disasters prone to destroy all the foundations of existence itself if given the chance. That was why every civilised nation maintained a powerful adventurer’s guild or monster-hunting part of their standard army so as to cull monsters who might grow to become too powerful to deal with at a later date. The price for not doing so was one that no empire, no matter how strong, could afford.
“Arthur!” A frantic gurgled voice called out, bringing Arthur out of his thoughts. The former butler turned to see Oscar running towards him. The octoid man was in quite a fancy-looking suit and had a pair of oddly stylish looking glasses on, the look reminding Arthur of a strange fancy dress party one of his former masters had once thrown.
Pushing such trivial thoughts to the side, Arthur waited for Oscar to get close enough to hear him speak, and then asked concerned, “Oscar? Are you ok?”
The man nodded before reaching into a satchel at his waist and pulling out a thick dust-covered tome. On the front cover of the hefty tome, it had printed in big black letters: Mastering Etiquette Vol 1 by Piwewar the Most Excellent.
“Friend. I. Arthur, I.” He panted out, exhausted. He then extended his hands out and presented Arthur with the thick book and said, “I found you a book on etiquette and elite social practice in the multiverse just like you asked for and it was only a few hours ago that it finally bothered to arrive. Damn system marketplace regulations.” The squid-faced man let out another deep breath before finishing his speech with, “I couldn’t find you up till now, You sure as hell get around a lot my friend, but finally, here you are.”
Arthur couldn’t even remember the conversation in question but the fact that the teacher had gone out of his way to help him honestly made Arthur happy. He gently took the book from Oscar’s hands as he said, “I truly thank you, Oscar. With how busy you’ve been lately with all the people on this ship who need your knowledge, the fact you took the time out of your day to give this to me proves to me that you are a true friend.”
The octoid’s face turned into his best inhuman impersonation of a smile and he said, “No problem, Arthur. I am just happy I caught you before you… you know.” The man’s reply instantly made the atmosphere surrounding them awkward.
Arthur didn’t know how the man had found out he was leaving soon, he hadn’t even known until a few minutes ago, but the prospect was clearly troubling the educator. The two had become quick friends due to their shared love of knowledge, trivia, and a good story. Arthur had realised long ago that Oscar was a good person and a good friend, but he now had to come to terms with the fact that despite both of their wishes - their friendship would probably come to an end today.
Arthur was headed to the capital in only a couple of hours, meanwhile, Oscar was duty-bound to stay with the mothership and educate Earth's natives. The two hadn't been friends long and recent events had meant they hadn't spoken much, but in a time when Arthur had already lost so much, losing even the newest of friends like a truly harrowing loss. So, overwhelmed by emotion, he simply stepped forward and hugged his new friend goodbye.
Oscar seemed quite taken aback by this action but hugged back. Arthur broke the hug and said, "I truly enjoyed your company while it lasted, Oscar."
The octoid man nodded and replied, "So did I your esteemed company, Arthur."
Arthur reached into his inventory and pulled out a shimmering fist-sized monster core that pulsed with green energy. "As you gave me a farewell gift, I feel obligated to give one to you as well. This is the monster core of the hydra and before you say that it's too much, I know its value on the market, but I want you to have it for your research."
The man in front of him stuttered in shock, not able to form words after being handed the core. Arthur smiled at him, and simply walked off in the direction of the general's office - Steven not far behind him.
However, as if everyone in the mothership was out looking for him, a robot zoomed over to him and said in a formal seamless voice, "You are Arthur Goodman, nearest kin of Lucas Goodman, correct?"
Arthur nodded.
"Patient #93821 - Amanda Fitzgerald has woken up. As per protocol, and in line with your prior requests, you are permitted to see her now."