Chapter 57 - 57 : Boy, Be Careful (1/2)

As Arthur heard her say that, he was a bit shocked, to be honest, he didn't expect her to say this, he indeed decided to let go of the enmity between them, however, that didn't mean he wants to join her clan or whatever, that was a whole different thing.

It may be a good offer to others, heck! people wish to join the Ma Clan but can't so what she told him now is very rare, especially when you know the Ma Clan almost never recruits people from outside, it may have been a bold move from her, but for Arthur, he didn't think much of it.

Firstly, he didn't want to be restricted by a Clan as he liked travelling, but it may be a lie to say he never thought of establishing some kind of institution or something similar, it's just some trait he got from his past-life, in the past he established several companies and became filthy rich, the money didn't interest him, what he quite enjoyed is raising that company to the very top.

Arthur stared at Anastassia who was looking at him with cold eyes and emotionless face, she didn't even seem eager to hear his answer so it seemed confusing as to why she would ask that.

”I cannot do that...”

She didn't seem surprised by his answer, and when he just finished those 4 words, she talked yet again

”How about a guest Elder? You and your comrade.”

Her insistence perplexed Arthur for there is no apparent reason for what she asked, did she think the clan would gain better protection or what?

”Why do you want me to join your clan or become a guest Elder?”

To this question, Anastassia remained silent as if struggling between answering or not, finally, after spending some time thinking thoroughly, she replied to Arthur.

”The Grand Elder won't let you live after what you did, especially if you plan to kill his grandson, so if you join us and stay in the female area, the probability of you surviving is better.”

Hearing this, Arthur burst out in laughter and retorted

”Ha! What a joke! I know you are not this kind and this is not the real reason if you don't plan on telling it then nevermind, it's not like I'm willing to join with a clan with its master being a liar!”

Sonia, hearing Arthur badmouth her sister, became a bit angered and shouted at Arthur

”Who are you calling a liar!”

However, she soon realized who she was shouting at, so she shrank back behind her big sister, afraid to even glance at Arthur, she did that on impulse and it was completely out of her character.

Arthur ignored Sonia and just kept staring at the black-haired woman with a smile on his face.

Having no choice but to say the truth, Anastassia sighed and slowly said

”Fine... that reason was only secondary, I was interested in your strength and your comrade, after all, you managed to kill 29 Elders. Furthermore, each and every one of them is a powerhouse not to be reckoned with, so I wanted to rope you in to increase the power of the clan and at the same time protect you from the Grand Elder”

In fact, Anastassia wasn't the kind of person to easily say her motives, but this time, she got no choice, Arthur is not someone she can easily mess with, she didn't see him fight but from the result of that incident, it was certain that he was very powerful, plus it was mysterious how he healed from those horrifying wounds in just 5 days, one must have a godlike recovering ability or some heaven-defying Elixir than can instantly heal all wounds.

”Hoo.. so you finally speak honestly, good! good! I like that, but I think it's unnecessary to protect us..”

”I know you are strong, but the Grand Elder is not like those normal Elders, he is almost on par with me, he has been concealing his strength for a while now”

Anastassia obviously didn't think Arthur became much stronger by possessing so even though he managed to kill all those elders, for her, it was a simple thing, an achievable feat even by her. although for others it may sound like a miracle, she can kill them easily but that didn't mean she can kill the Grand Elder easily too.

She also thought he was very lucky as the day he attacked the male area, the Grand Elder was out of the clan and not all elders were present, nonetheless, he slaughtered half of them which is incredible.

”I think you misunderstand something too, I'm not as weak you think, I was merely injured last time because of an unexpected thing, if you do not believe me then.. how about a spar between us?”

This time, she was taken aback a bit, she never expected him to ask her to spar with him, Anastassia felt a bit of contempt toward him as he was certainly not the first to ask her for a spar then end up half crippled.

After staring at him with piercing eyes trying to find his motive, it was futile so she could only nod at him indicating her confirmation about his proposal.

The two of them didn't linger off in that room any longer and headed outside, there was a private training ground not too far from the pagoda, it only needed 5 minutes of walk and they decided to make it the place of the spar.

Anastassia was yet again shocked when she saw the familiar Astrith outside, she thought he was dead for sure so how in the blue hell did he come back?

Astrith too was staring at her, he wanted to fight her again now that he becomes stronger, one must not forget that his strength increases when Arthur stats increase, it may not be like Lucy, but it nevertheless strengthened him a lot, he became more confident in his victory against her.

The place was quiet and suitable for a duel or a spar, it was a big square devoid of people of anything, it was just green ground with some wind blowing making the place seem very peaceful and pleasant.

Anastassia didn't change her clothes, she only retrieved her two black daggers and put them in her waist, as for Arthur, he took out Makaze and also put it his waist, unsheathed.

They stood 50 meters from each other while Lucy and the other spectators were not far away.

Although has new skills and techniques now and his stats sky-rocketed and became insane, that didn't mean he should underestimate her, especially her, he previously saw her speed and offense and it was no joke, even with his new strength he didn't dare act overconfident like last time, furthermore, he was on full alert as maybe that woman with the black chains will come back again, after all, they appeared suddenly and if not for Zodiak, he would have been killed by her.

He took out Zodiak's corpse earlier and inspected it, but no matter how much he called for Zodiak's name, nothing happened, it just returned to a normal skeleton corpse, it was confusing but he didn't dare absorb it or throw it, after all, it saved his goddam life.

One other thing that bothered him is his soul, it was very weak, thinner than paper, even a simple soul attack would heavily injure him so he wanted to find a solution to strengthen it, it was too bad that the system won't work right now, as he wanted to thoroughly inspect the skills, see his LVL and so on.

”How about we make this more interesting?” Arthur said while grinning at Anastassia.

She only stayed silent, unwilling to speak for some odd reason so he continued speaking.

”Let's make a bet, if you win I'll become a guest Elder, and if I win.... I'll decide what I want at that time.. what do you say?”

Anastassia's eyes widened for a second before regaining their normal sharpness and coldness, she pondered for a dozen of seconds before nodding at Arthur.

..

Wuji stood between them and counted down from 3 and just when he said 'Go!' both of them charged at each other, this time Anastassia took both of her daggers from the very beginning, just like him.

Arthur didn't use [Petal Footsteps], he wanted to see his speed without it and compare it to her.

As they were rushing at each other, although the distance was extremely short, he was able to guess that she was fast, very fast, faster than him, it made him more and more surprised, his agilitiy must be in the 4 million, no matter how high her agility is, it can never reach that, that's going by logic of course, because Arthur is a parasite, he only reached it by possessing countless corpses, and Lucy had the blessing which is considered literal cheat, but how did Anastassia do it?

He didn't dare to relax anymore and launched [Petal footsteps] in the middle of the charge, his speed more than doubled and he finally clashed with her, he didn't use any dangerous skills such as dark magic or anything similar, after all it was just a spar.