Chapter 38 - 38 : Shadow magic (1/2)
Julian stood there, petrified by what just happened, never did he expect Arthur to be this strong, heck! When he saw how Bony died in a flash and how he couldn't even see what killed him, he immediately gave up any idea about sneak-attacking Arthur.
He had the best skills and tricks to sneak-attack, anyone but against this man in front him, there is just no way he could succeed, that teleportation from Arthur and quick reaction speed was enough for Julian to understand that with his strength, it is just not possible to beat either this guy or the silver-haired girl.
When he(Julian) heard Arthur talk, Julian snapped out of his daze but the fear was still lingering in his heart, he had really bad luck to meet this kind of enemy here, he even regretted taking Mary as apparently, they are her companions.
Left with no choice but try to talk his way out of this, Julian looked at Arthur and replied
« What do you want to talk about? »
« It's pretty simple actually, I just want some honest replies to some of my unanswered questions, who knows, maybe if you answer sincerely I might let you live»
Julian knew that even if he answered honestly he would still die here, this man in front of him was ruthless and he learned that by the hard way, he saw his companion beheaded like that but Arthur didn't have any change in his expression as if he was used to killing, and for someone like Julian, who is experienced in assassinations and such, he knew that these type of people would dispose of you once you are no longer needed.
He unconsciously rubbed the invisible cold sweat on his forehead and began thinking of a way out of this dangerous situation, though it's clearly impossible either way because if he answered he would most likely die and if he didn't then he'll die too..
« Friend, as I said, it's only a misunderstanding, if answering a few questions will solve it then so be it »
« Great ! Since you are willing then it makes things much easier, alright, first what is 'Medusa' ?”
It's to be expected that Arthur would ask the most obvious question, he already had a guess but he just wanted to confirm it so that's why he straight out asked that, as for the honesty of the answer, that for him to decide.
« This….Friend, don't make things difficult for me, we cannot talk about that or else we'll be automatically killed by a curse put on us, so how about your ask other questions? »
'A curse ? ' Once he heard that, Arthur was confused, he had advanced darkness magic when he acquired the dark magic, but since it's useless and mostly relies on curses he never used it, as for the curse Julian talked about it, even after searching through his memories he still couldn't find any curse like that, so the only logical answer is that it's a lie.
Of course, there is the possibility of him saying the truth and Arthur not knowing about the curse but that chance was slim as Arthur read a lot of books about dark magic and spells but there was not a mention of a similar curse or spell.
Arthur also thought of the chance of it being a completely different thing and the people who put it on Julian just told him it's a curse, in any case, he still had other questions for him so whether he is lying or not that didn't matter, sooner or later he will know about this 'Medusa' as he already killed one of their own, so maybe they will chase him, and maybe they won't, either way, he will slaughter them all.
« Hmm, Alright, then why did you take our companion and not just straight out kill her? »
« Our organization already know about important figures like her, so I thought about extracting some information from her and maybe get a decent reward… »
« What kind of information? »
« It's about a secret weapon of the places she worked at and other things. »
« I'm warning you, don't try to play around with me, what are these other things? »
« Friend, it's just that they may not interest you but since you insist then I'll tell you, our network of information is very wide so there is little that we don't know, this girl here has some information about a certain clan so I wanted to get it out of her »
Arthur immediately guessed he was talking about the Ma clan, what else could he be talking about except that.
« Oh, so it's like that, well,next question, who is the boss of the organization? »
« I can't answer or else the curse will kill me »
« How many people are there in the organization? »
« I can't answer »
…
After some minutes, Arthur grew tired of this useless talk, the only question he answered is the one about Mary, everything else was left unanswered by the pretext of 'I will die if I answer '
Since it's unnecessary to continue talking, Arthur decided that it's time to end this, he was going to kill him, well, it's not like he was going to spare him in the beginning, he just said that to give some hope to Julian so he can honestly reply.
« It seems our talk is going nowhere, it's time to end this, don't you think? Julian »
Julian was scared shitless when he heard that, he never mentioned his name and apart from a few comrades, no one knew about his name, so how could this man know it!
« How….Who are you? How could you know about my name! »
Arthur just shrugged his shoulders and retorted
« Sorry…I can't tell you, you see I've been cursed, if I tell you, I will most likely die… »
« You… »
Julian didn't know wether to laugh or cry, he understood it's his end and there is no way he can escape by his own strength, thoughts raced through his mind and he began to hesitate on wether to make a move or not.
« Friend, let's not be rush here, I admit that I could have answered some of your questions, but the curse's matter is really not a lie, if you really want answers, then how about you join our organization, I'm sure you and your comrade will be accepted, with your strength, you'll even be put in a high ranking…So what do you think? »
« Quite a good offer I must say,but I honestly want to lead a peaceful life so I have to refuse your offer »
Hearing this, Julian became more panicked as this was the last trick he had, if he could successfully escape danger and invite such a powerful individual to 'Medusa' then he would be handsomely rewarded by the higher-ups.
« Any last words? »
Arthur started walking slowly towards Julian while his right hand touching Makaze(his katana's name), he thought that [Lone sword] was the quickest way to eliminate enemies, plus it was quite effective and deadly so why not use it?
Knowing that it's hopeless now and he was at death's door, Julian decided to abandon his friendly attitude and shout at the approaching Arthur.
« Do you really think our organization will let you go after you kill me? Even with your strength, you cannot fight against it, it will be you and your comrades' doom! »
Once Arthur saw the change of behavior and the sudden burst of anger from Julian, he only snickered and calmly replied
« I would love to see them try »
Then without delay, he activated [Lone sword] and in a split second a sharp and almost invisible white arc formed from sword energy was released from Makaze, the slash was small, probably1 feet, but it was more than enough to finish Julian.
The speed of the attack was faster than Arthur in his lightning form, so of course, someone like Julian can't block or react in time to dodge it, the poor guy just died in the blink of an eye.
Soon enough, his(Julian) corpse fell on the ground with his head not too far away from it.
As for Arthur, he took a breath of fresh air then he looked at Mary to see if she is awake or not.
« It's fine, you can possess them now, she is unconscious and will only wake up after a while »
Hearing Lucy's confirmation, Arthur brought Bony and Julian's bodies next to each other, he also put their heads near their corpses or else he can't possess them, it's actually strange but when he was in Ghost island and tried to possess many corpses, the only ones he can possess are the ones in good shape, for example, they have a complete body or are missing a limb.
It's quite bizarre because, before the evolution, he could possess any kind no matter if it's half a body or a complete one, but now it seems to have changed, he guessed that maybe it was due to his evolution to humanoid parasite, but it's not like he regretted that, perhaps, if there is the next evolution, he would be able to possess any kind of corpse, that would truly be fantastic.
Come to think of it, why was there no evolution even though he reached is above lvl 400, it's strange but there is nothing he could do, maybe he needs to reach a specific LVL to evolve again.
You have successfully possessed Bony!
You have gained a new skill(passive) : [Medium Shadow magic]: you can now use shadows to either attack or defend
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Shadow step] : you can teleport in a specific shadow position in your field of view
Cost : 500 mana
cooldown : 1 minute
You have gained a new skill(active) : [Shadow clone]: You can create a shadow clone of yourself which can attack enemies for a period of time: 30 seconds
Clone's strength : 10% of your stats
Cost : none
Cooldown : 10 minutes
WARNING : The Clone's strength increase if the mastery in shadow magic increases
....
Your stats have increased, please check your status window for more details
Arthur was rather confused when he saw these notifications, firstly, he didn't know about the existence of shadow magic, isn't it the same as darkness or dark? secondly, he didn't think that shadow magic even existed, it's true there is a lot of special attributes that are unknown or not discovered yet but never did he imagine that shadow magic existed.
Well, since he got it then there is nothing he could do but feel delighted, it kind of intrigued him to have this shadow magic, he wanted to test it right away so he focused on a shadow in this room and used [Shadow step].
Just as he used it, he appeared in that shadow's place, it truly was instant teleportation just like [faster than death] but it cannot be used continuously plus it cost more so Arthur decided to stick with his previous teleportation since it's more efficient.
Next, he tried using some of the shadow magic but unfortunately, no shadow spears or anything of the sort appear, he didn't know why nothing happened so he focused and tried multiple times but their result was the same, he could only give up and use the last skill which is [shadow clone].
As the skill was activated, a black shadow rose from behind Arthur, it had the same silhouette as him, with a sword on its waist, you could not see its face nor its features, it was jet black.
The controls of the clone were exactly the same as with the skeletons or the bone dragon, he just needed to order it in his mind and it will follow his orders.
It may be useful to deal with weak enemies but it only lasted half a minute so summoning the bone dragon was way better.
Actually, he received quite a bit of skill from Bony, such as dagger mastery, wind magic, but he already had all of that, so they didn't help him with anything.
When he possessed so many corpses in the Ghost island, he acquired almost every weapon mastery, except a few special ones, though not all of them were advanced, most of them were.
Arthur didn't waste any more time, he turned towards the corpse of Julian and possessed him in a split second.
You have successfully possessed Julian!
You have gained an enigma skill(passive) : [Ancient Threads]: You can now use tiny strings to attack or defend
WARNING : The string's durability and power will depend on the owner's stats.
...
Your stats have increased, please check your status window for more details
Apart from that [Ancient strings] there was nothing special about his other skills, an advanced mastery in spears and some weak attacks which Arthur couldn't bother with.
Though that enigma skill caught his attention, it was the second time he got an enigma skill and the first one was not that bad, it was not used for combat but it had many other uses, as for this one, he still didn't know.
With but a though, the skill [Ancient Threads] was activated and some very thin, almost invisible thread came out of his hand, it extremely tiny, even Arthur had to focus to be able to see it.
The threads came out endlessly out of his hands until he willed it to stop, then with small concentrations, the threads moved on their own and formed a small sword of 3 inches.
When Arthur tried attacking with the threads, the speeds were pretty fast, as for the power of the threads, it was terrifying, how can threads be this deadly, the wooden chair which was not far away from Arthur, was cut in several thousand pieces with those threads, even he felt that their power is outrageous.
After passing some minutes to get used to the threads, his control over them became almost perfect, it seems Julian did his best to become good with those threads so Arthur naturally gained all his skill in using those threads.
Arthur felt ecstatic, [Ancient threads] were really beyond broken and would be very useful especially in sneak attacks as those threads are almost invisible and only one with very good eyesight can see them.
After consuming the two corpses with [Death touch], he retrieved the baldy's corpse and the other one and he possessed them two to get their stats and skills but unfortunately, he didn't get anything good, that half-beastmen didn't have the [berserker mode] skill so he felt a bit depressed.
After consuming the last 2 corpses, he opened his status window to check how much his stats increased.