Chapter 741: Absorbing

The gardens, with their lush bushes and engraved woody benches, turned to ashes before the flames touched the ground. His great sun crashed to the mansion"s front yard, rendering it anything but that. Arthur stared at the gangsters dying one after the other before no one was left alive or standing.

[Absorb] muttered Arthur as he raised his hand toward the corpses. The golden rune appeared, gravitating everything towards itself. Arthur was then struck by a powerful stream of energy that remolded his body.

[+2 Strength!]

[+2 Agility!]

[+2 Stamina!]

[You obtained a new skill!]

[+2 Agility!]

[+2 Strength!]

[You obtained a memory fragment!]

[+2 Mana!]

[+2 Perception!]

…

His stats started rising so fast that he couldn"t see them. The corpses were plenty, and although Arthur started receiving fewer points, he was still harvesting strength at an abnormal rate. It was at that moment that a weird sensation overwhelmed him.

Arthur could feel unfamiliar emotions entering his body, making him frown. However, his mana of creation quickly eradicated it. It lasted for no more than a second, but he realized what those emotions were: hatred.

"Amelio used this method to become the strongest guardian before he fell," muttered Arthur as he stared at the golden rune. "No wonder he lost his mind since his rune was incomplete."

Jizo, the Scholar Guardian, was a genius. The fact that he created this rune from research left Arthur in awe. Before the outsider arrived, Jizo was the closest person to being called the creator. However, there were details he did not know since not even King Arthur knew why Jizo wanted to reincarnate him.

Gaia explained the world and its runes to Arthur, but she did not tell him how to go beyond that. A rune that can absorb stats or release the limits of the human body should not exist, but the legacy runes were different.

That was why, even if Arthur could manipulate the world now, he could not create a phenomenon that was not already in it. For example, the flames from earlier. However, if Arthur wanted to develop a rune-like transferring body, he could not.

Arthur decided not to rush things and overwhelm himself. For now, he could enjoy the boost in strength he received from these gangsters, who were either rei-rankers or early Vetus-rankers. However, no one can match Arthur"s flames of creation.

The flames did not damage Arthur as he walked through them. At that moment, a siren went off in the Silver District after the explosion happened. However, Arthur did not quicken his pace. Despite the commotion, the doors of the mansion were sealed shut.

"An ambush that is not an ambush," Arthur said, shaking his head and crouching on the ground. "Let the Dark Realm rise."

[Dark Realm-IV]

Arthur named the rune after writing multiple runic lines with no sequence. With his hands as the center, the darkness exploded from his fingertips and absorbed all the light around it. The wave rolled toward the mansion, crashing into it and covering it.

In a few seconds, the mansion erupted with screams. Arthur manipulated the shadows to kill whoever was inside by impaling them with shadow spears from the ground and raising them to the ceiling. Then, he made the doors burst open for him, pushing two gangsters to fall before him.

"Heeeeee!"

"Arthur Silvera!"

The two gangsters started to crawl back in fear at his sight, and Arthur found it quite rude. However, given the circ.u.mstances, he forgave them. Arthur raised his eyes at the two and used his art to control them.

"Do not move or speak unless I command otherwise," said Arthur while raising his hands, making golden threads leave them. "One of you will die here, suffering the same fate as your comrades in the ceiling. The other will be my guide in this place."

Their eyes were filled with fear, with a face as pale as the white marble below them. Arthur was satisfied with the result and walked toward them and grabbed their heads.

"Now, tell me the worst deeds you have committed."

Arthur wanted to clear his conscience from this ma.s.sacre, and he succeeded. But unfortunately, the two answered his questions with similar answers to the ones before, making Arthur lose all sympathy for them.

"Extortion, rape, and killing. It seems the two of you deserve to die in this instant, but I need a guide to this place. Whoever knows more will live, and the other will die. Speak."

"I have been here for five years while he was here for three!"

"My ring is specialized in information gathering!"

"I had dinner with the boss last week!"

"I"m in charge of filing!"

The two started selling themselves to Arthur, trying to prove their worthiness. Arthur stared at them silently, weighing between the two, before he raised his hand and impaled the one on the right.

"I… I…" said the man as he started bleeding, his face losing color. The man beside him cried as the shadow spear again carried the corpse toward the ceiling.

"You caught my attention earlier. Did you say you were in charge of cleaning the underground?" asked Arthur, to which the middle-aged man nodded. "Do you know where the forger is?"

"If you spare my life, then I will lead…!" the man started shouting when Arthur grabbed his head and wrote another rune.

"There is no need, as long as I can read your memories," Arthur said before slapping the rune on the man"s temple. Then, a diagram of the underground facilities was transferred to his memories.

"You deserve death as well, for all the sins you have committed," Arthur raised the man by grabbing his head and throwing him toward the ceiling. A spear of darkness shot from the ceiling and pierced him, hanging the man there as well.

It was cruel, but Arthur knew his actions were justified, given how many people these gangsters killed. It was his first time killing so many people at once, so he had to remind himself that sparing them meant allowing the innocents" suffering to resume.

The Dark Realm rune kept creating shadows after Arthur infused it into the ground, like a wildfire that swallowed everything it came across. Arthur walked deeper into the mansion, and he could feel countless people inside.

Arthur pushed the doors open and entered the large hall filled with almost two hundred gangsters. All of them were armed, with several wearing armor and holding shields. As soon as he appeared, he received countless attacks: ice, fire, earth, air, metals, ether, and even acid.

"Do not let him attack!" shouted the man wearing black armor, pointing his great sword at Arthur. He seemed to be the leader since he was the only deme-rank in this sea of Vetus-rankers.

"That"s right! That"s right!" shouted a man beside him, making the leader turn toward him with confusion. His face drained color when he realized it was Arthur Silvera standing beside him.

"Attack!" shouted the leader before bringing his sword toward Arthur, who received it with his bare hands. Arthur"s hand turned into a beastly claw that blocked and shattered the blade.

Weng~

Woosh!

A sound whistled in their ears as Arthur appeared behind the leader, his monstrous arm covered with blood. The leader then fell to the ground with his neck bleeding, declaring him dead.

"Retreat and leave distance between us! Do not let him get close!" shouted the rest of the gangsters as they retreated from Arthur, leaving him standing beside the corpse.

[Absorb]

Arthur used his rune on the leader, who died in that instant. He used a combination of his skill, Monster Hand, and the rune Release to overwhelm his enemy with instant speed.

"As long as you can bleed, then you can die," muttered Arthur as he allowed the deme-ranker"s strength to enter his body. Then, as he rose to kill the rest, he received an unexpected notification from his nameless legacy.

[You obtained a pure mana essence. Required mana essences for next evolution: 1/12]

Arthur frowned at the notification because this was the first time he learned that there would be requirements to reach the deme-rank. As far as he knew, evolution only needed an Art and time.

"A mana essence?" muttered Arthur as he remembered how he created Queen Ruki using her Dark Essence. This was the second time he obtained an essence, so he might be able to… summon this deme-ranker using it. "That sounds inhuman," sighed Arthur.

"Attack him!" shouted the rest of the gangsters before they bounced on him. But, even when faced with two hundred warriors of Helios, Arthur did not flinch. Instead, he realized he was running out of time.

"Listen to my commands," his golden eyes overflowed with authority. "Kill each other until no one is left."

His Art of Creator, Submission exploded in full force around him. Countless threads struck the gangsters, making them halt their actions before starting to attack each other. Arthur stared at them, killing each other, reminding himself to come back and absorb their stats. Then, he walked deeper into the mansion to reach the underground entrance.