Early in the morning. Lurep Village. The mansion of the governor of Lurep Village. Dining room.
White walls decorated with different paintings of sceneries of important and beautiful cities stood around an elegant and large table. At that moment, the light, which entered through two big glass windows, illuminated the entire room.
There, Arnold Alch was in the middle of his lavish breakfast; and across the table, his foster father, Cley Alch, sat holding a newspaper.
The governor looked gently at Arnold Alch, and comforted: "Don't worry son. With your potential, you'll definitely find a better girl in the future."
"*Sigh*… I know, father. It's just that, even though she is a mutant, I'll probably need a long time to forget her. It was… the first time for me… the first time I fell in love. This feeling isn't something one can start to ignore just because one wants to..." Arnold Alch said, sadness in his blue eyes and a dejected smile on his handsome adolescent face.
Such words made a reminiscent expression appear on the blue eyed, white bearded old man's wrinkled face. The memory of the only woman he had ever loved began to hover in his mind, and it hurt him for she was now just that: a memory. "Young man, you're unfortunately and completely right…" He softly muttered.
After a prolonged moment of silence, the old man reluctantly put aside that precious and painful ghost of the past, and said: "In any case, for now, the best you can do is to put all your thoughts on our ambitions."
Arnold Alch nodded. "Rest assured, I'm going to reach the Seventh Level Advanced Awaken stage today."
"Good luck with that, and be careful, the Branch Heads of the village guilds have begun to get suspicious." Cley Alch warned as a trace of worry flashed through his eyes.
"I understand." Arnold Alch firmly replied.
Having said all he wanted to say to his foster son and having finished reading the newspaper, Cley Alch left Arnold Alch alone.
Silently staring at the door Cley Alch had just closed, Arnold Alch couldn't help but let out a powerless long sigh.
*Sigh*…
In actually, right now, he desperately wanted to get into his bed, and then cry his heart out for a few days. Although on the surface he looked crestfallen, inside, he was a lot worse than that. He really needed to vent his depression somehow, but to his misfortune, he didn't have the right to ask for such luxury.
With a heavy heart, he remembered how life had been for him before meeting his foster father.
At that time, he was a homeless orphan, a lone four-year-old kid on the streets struggling every day just to survive. He constantly fantasized about reaching the First Level Basic Awaken stage and awakening an amazing Special Awakened Skill, gaining in this way the strength to have an extravagant life, or at least the same life everybody around him had.
For the sake of accomplishing such a dream, since the instant his soul connected with the Complex Energy and he stepped into the First Level Body Evolution stage, he started to cultivate in loneliness, tirelessly searching in trash cans discarded books and painstaking putting every cell in his brain into studying. It was a long and hard crusade.
After years of punishing effort, he finally reached the First Level Basic Awaken stage; but the heavens refused to be merciful to him and bestowed upon him the Soul Devourer skill. It was a half passive, half active skill which wasn't that different from a cruel curse. The passive part forced him to not be able to break through to higher levels of cultivation through normal means, and the active part allowed him to assault other cultivators' souls to kill them and devour them, action which increased his own cultivation. It was basically a malevolent skill that traded lives for strength and forced its user to not gain strength in a different way.
Although he desired to have an extravagant life with all his heart, he did not hesitate to choose to sacrifice himself and accept his cruel fate of being a vagabond for the rest of his life; because, even though he didn't have anyone who loved him and was despised by everybody he knew, he still refused to be cruel or coward. After all, his kindness and courage were the last traces of dignity he had as a poor vagabond, and were the last lights in this dark and cold world.
But the world he lived in was darker and colder than he thought.
On a rainy day, he met an arrogant and cruel goblin, a young master from some rich family whose cultivation was at the Seventh Level Basic Awaken stage. For some reason, that day, the young master was fuming with rage and after seeing the weak-looking slim vagabond, he thought it was a good idea to vent his anger on him. The young master dragged him over to a desolate alley, not afraid of the fact that it was forbidden to fight within the village; after all, he knew the guards wouldn't spare a second glance at such a trash of society. Arnold was used to this kind of treatment, so he thought little about it and let the goblin do as he pleased. But that time things proceeded differently. The young master didn't stop his maddened punches no matter how much blood Arnold lost. (Am I going to die today?) Arnold thought as an unprecedented storm of rage rose up within his heart. (This isn't fair! Is this how the world pays my kindness?! Is this my reward for my sacrifice?!) Unable to control himself, he suddenly used every bit of strength he had left in his body to heavily press his forehead against the young master's forehead. At that moment, the wrath in Arnold's eyes made the rage in the goblin's eyes seem like a joke. Then Arnold activated his Awakened Skill for the first time in his life.
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After their mental bodies clashed, Arnold woke up, and the young master's Aura disappeared. Immediately after, guards surrounded and shackled him.
Jailed in the barracks of Lurep Village, Arnold could only wait for his execution. However, when he thought it would be the end, an absolutely unexpected visitor appeared outside his prison cell: the governor of Lurep Village himself.
This scene was the definition of contrast, on one side stood the old man with the highest status in the village and on the other stood the young boy with the lowest status.
"Before you die, I'd like to hear your story. Would you be willing to leave the testimony of your life with this old man?" Cley Alch asked him as he plumped onto the cold ground and reclined on the prison cell bars, his back facing a dazed Arnold.
Given that Arnold didn't have anything else to lose, he narrated his past to Cley Alch.
After which, Cley Alch, very interested in Arnold's Awakened Skill, proposed him to become his foster father and to help him with his cultivation in exchange of the promise that Arnold would raise Cley Alch's status when he had the strength to do so.
Arnold; who was now tired of being trashed, tired of being the only sympathetic person in the whole world, and tired of being the plaything of the heavens; accepted Cley Alch's offer. He decided to survive.
From then onward, both of them committed innumerable crimes. Cley Alch used his economic and social power to create a small syndicate with the purpose of kidnaping 'unimportant people' to be devoured by the now named Arnold Alch. He even bribed the tracking experts who were hired from Stormy Cloud City into saying that it was impossible to track down the culprits. For years they were careful to not attract unwanted attention, so much so that Arnold progressed in his cultivation just at the same speed a top genius from a big city would.
It was difficult but they managed to reach the actual point.
So, Arnold Alch didn't have the luxury to be depressed. There were just too many sacrifices at stake for him to allow himself to delay their plans for even a single day.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
The outskirts of Lurep Village. A region covered by tall bushes.
Four figures cloaked in black hooded capes stood side by side. Three were at the Fourth Level Basic Build stage and the fourth was at the Eight Level Basic Build stage.
Soon, a fifth cloaked figure came close to them. "Sorry for making you wait guys." Arnold Alch's voice echoed out.
"Don't worry about it. Lois, we are on your hands now." This time, the owner of the voice was Captain Fou Tre.
"Here we go~." A lively feminine voice chirped out.
A current of wind then surrounded the five of them and raised them up into the air.
It was evident that Lois Cae's understanding degree had already reached Control of the Skill.
Well, it was to be expected, after all, to get into the Basic Build stage at minimum one needed to be at the First-Star Control of the Skill.
In no time, the cloaked figures disappeared off into the distance.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
An ancient castle made of yellowish metallic bricks could be seen surrounded by imposing and thick trees, as well as hills taller than the castle itself. It had four towers and was six stories high. Although the castle was big, thanks to its surroundings, it was hard to spot.
In front of the black gates of the castle, a middle aged elemental elf with yellow eyes and yellow hair was sitting cross-legged, a bored expression on his face, his Aura at the Sixth Level Intermediate Awaken stage. He wore a strange brown armor which looked as if it were made of mud.
Suddenly, along with a gentle breeze, five cloaked figures appeared before his eyes. He immediately stoop up and respectfully greeted: "Good morning bosses!"
The five figures put away their hooded capes and revealed their magnificent and expensive armors. Among them, there stood Arnold Alch and Captain Fou Tre. The other three individuals were Lois Cae, a beautiful female green eyed and green haired elemental elf; Davis Toc, a male dullahan with a 'ɨ' shaped pitch-black smoke; and Xale Henr, a male red feathered harpy. The three of them were knights.
"Ral, give me your report." Arnold Alch ordered the male elemental elf.
"No unexpected incidents happened, and we got fourteen souls." Ral Bal expressionlessly informed as he opened the gates of the castle.
Arnold Alch nodded at Ral Bal, and led the group into the castle.
Inside, six mid Intermediate Awaken cultivators were waiting for them while keeping an eye on fourteen shackled individuals.
The fourteen had their mouths covered by metallic masks, and fear could be seen within their eyes.
When the captives saw Arnold Alch and the others, they were greatly surprised. Captain Fou Tre, Arnold Alch, and those knights were famous characters in Lurep Village that even they could recognize.
Arnold Alch's cold gaze slowly analyzed the captives, then it stopped on the weakest of them all.
Under such intimidating stare, the female rabbit human monster trembled. Instants later, her eyes became dull, and her body slumped over to the floor, her Aura already gone.
"!!!!" The scene terrorized the captives.
Next, Arnold Alch gazed over at a female middle aged gorgon who had white snakes and whose eyes were teary. Yes, she was Caroline Darrel's mother, Cara Darrel.
*Clatter!* *Clatter!* *Clatter!* *Clatter!* *Clatter!*…
A loud metallic clatter of chains suddenly sounded.
It was Kawan Darrel struggling with all his strength to come closer to his mother!
Slightly bothered, Arnold Alch glanced at Kawan Darrel only for an instant before returning his gaze back to Cara Darrel.
The Soul Devourer skill was about to be activated once again when, all of a sudden, Captain Fou Tre and the knights moved their heads to look up at the same time in surprise.
This confused Arnold Alch, so he looked up too. Moments later, three Auras closing in at an astonishing speed reached his senses.
"Did they follow us? But, how?!" Arnold Alch shouted evidently shaken.
"Holy shit, something's wrong! Those bastards aren't slowing down in the slightest even after feeling our Auras! To dare to head direct at us in this lawless place with their levels of cultivation, they must have some kind of absurd trump card!" Lois Cae cried out in alarm.
*CRUMBLE!*
*CRUMBLE!!*
*CRUMBLE!!!*
*CRUMBLE!!!!*
*CRUMBLE!!!!!*
*CRUMBLE!!!!!!*
In extremely quick succession, six ceilings were destroyed into innumerable fragments; and from within the debris, Thorn and company fearlessly emerged.
After seeing who the intruders were; Arnold Alch, Captain Fou Tre and the three knights got so shocked they couldn't help but wonder whether their eyes were still working properly or not!
"So, who wants to die first?" Thorn asked, a menacing smile on his face.