Chapter 21

Soon, they started heading deeper into the forest in search for an imoogi, Arthur noticed some beasts here and there, but their levels were not that high, there were some that attacked but they were quickly killed by one of the council members .

Just in case, Arthur created a barrier around Lucy who was beside him, as he was going to fight and there is the possibility that something unexpected might occur . To be honest he wasn't the least bit worried about defeating an imoogi for he knew dragons were much much stronger and he already defeated a young dragon, so even if he encountered an adult imoogi it will only be slightly stronger than the young dragon .

The appearance of the barrier surprised those present, but they soon understood that it was made by Arthur because they knew how much he cared for her safety, so of course, he would not let her unprotected in this place .

Though no one questioned about the barrier, that didn't stop them from observing it, especially the principal who gazed at it with curious eyes . Actually, the barrier was different from the old one, this one was a dark blue in color and seemed to emit a transparent dark fog around it, though the fog surprised Arthur for a second as he didn't what's it's purpose, he soon shrugged it off and decided to examine it later .

Quite some time passed since they arrived and the more they walked deeper, the more Arthur noticed the creatures LVLS increase, finally they encountered what they were looking for . Probably 200 meters in height and 150 meters in length, it looked similar to a snake yet at the same time it had some resemblance to a dragon, though it didn't have wings, it looked menacing .

Adult Lightning imoogi : LVL 175

'What! Lvl 175?' Truthfully, Arthur was surprised when he saw it's LVL, for the principal said imoogis are usually strong but not that high leveled, he turned to look at the principal but he was stunned to see her eyes become serious .

"Adult imoogi? we're not even that deep into the forest so what is it doing here?"-The principal

"So I am supposed to just kill right?"

Arthur asked her while focusing on her reaction, earlier she told him killing an imoogi is not that hard since he won against Mary but it seemed she was surprised by the appearance of this imoogi, was he supposed to kill a young one or what?

"N-no, for the test you have to kill a young imoogi, this one is an adult, and an old one at that, though it's not impossible to kill it but it will be troublesome so it would be better to search for another one" She replied with a reassuring tone but just as she finished, the human female who spoke earlier said with annoyed voice

"Why waste our time to search for another one, he should be able to beat this thing since Mr . Sonia personally wanted to recruit him, right?" she kept grinning and looking at Arthur with contempt .

"No! how can you say that Serena! I remember you killing a young imoogi to join the council and not an adult one!"

Sonia glared at the human female, apparently angry at what she said .

To be honest, Arthur didn't want to look and waste time too so he shrugged his shoulders and spoke with a calm yet cold voice

"Let's just get this over with, I'll kill this one, after all, I don't want to waste time . "

Hearing what he said, the principal just accepted as he didn't seem against it and she knew he was powerful and could handle something like an adult imoogi but usually to pass the test a young one would do, plus every member of this council killed a young one except Zephir who founded this council .

Arthur turned his head towards Lucy and nodded to reassure her, then he headed to the imoogi's location, it was approximately 100 meters and seemed to be devouring something .

Since he needed to show his 'power' to those people, he was going to just install this beast and be done with it, he didn't want to be bothered and just wanted to be left alone .

Serena, the human female watched him go, but you could see arrogance and contempt in her eyes, she didn't approve of him for she climbed her way from the bottom to attain her position, but he, in less than a week's time, was personally invited to the council, that made her extremely jealous .

She didn't want to admit that he was strong enough to kill that imoogi 'Soon enough, everybody will see that you are just trash! just because you showed some strength in the entrance exam you think you're qualified to join our council? dream on bastard!' .

Everybody looked at Arthur seriously as they wanted to see, just how strong is he and how will he beat this imoogi, though Mary and Zephir already knew the outcome, especially Zephir, he saw the abilities of Arthur and knew a flame like last time would obliterate that imoogi, but that didn't stop him from looking at Arthur attentively to examine his flames or whatever he was going to attack with .

When Arthur was a dozen of meters away from the imoogi, it finally noticed him and glared at him while screeching, it was an ear-piercing screech as if it was angry it was disturbed from its meal, the adult imoogi stared angrily at the human in front it before charging at him .

He didn't waste time either, his control over the ancient fire was considered top notch, but he wasn't going to attack it for the destructive power of the fire was humongous and it may reach the others, but he wasn't worried about them but about Lucy, there was a chance his barrier would not hold against the destructive power made by his fire . He came here wearing Zodiak's robe so a dark cloud soon formed, he jumped on it and soared to the sky .

The imoogi cannot fly, so all it could do was stare at him with malice and ferocity, it would try to jump in the air to catch him but he was just too high and it couldn't reach him . He led the imoogi away from the others, then he created a 10m spear made out of the ancient fire, the heat and pressure it emitted were astonishing and the color or the spear was dark red, if someone looked at it from afar they wouldn't believe it was made of fire .

The principal saw the familiar fire, quickly formed an ice barrier around her and all the others, she knew what a small fireball did back then, so a 10m spear would do hundreds of time worse than that .

You could see some fear when she looked at the spear, even Mary was slightly afraid for she almost died from that, as for the others, they were confused and some of them frowned, they didn't know why the principal formed the ice barrier, so one of them asked, it was Serena the same one who complained earlier

"Mr . Sonia, why did you make a barrier? Surely there's no need for it, that imoogi cannot inflict damage to us from that distan . . "

Her tone seemed as if she was mocking Sonia for her naivety but Serena was cut off by Zephir who was calm from the beginning

"She did not create the barrier to defend against from the imoogi but from THAT SPEAR!"

Arthur focused on the imoogi and the spear blazed through the air and in lightning speed, it struck the screeching imoogi .

"BOOOOM!"

A sound incomparable to any other, deafening to all ears was created by the impact, it was as if a meteor struck the ground, an astonishing light from the dark fire soon enveloped all the surroundings and destruction soon came after it . Nothing was left from the imoogi, not even its ashes, hell! even all the surroundings, including trees, boulders were either destroyed or turned into black ashes .

the destruction reached the principal and the others, but fortunately, the ice barrier protected them even though it shook for a second . When everything calmed down, you could only see a black ground for 200 meters radius around where the imoogi was, the sight was terrifying, for a single spear to do that? that's insane .

Serena's mouth was wide open as if she couldn't dare believe what she just saw, not just her all others were astonished, even the principal, who gazed around and saw the destruction made by the flame spear, her body couldn't help but shake a little, she expected the spear to be strong but not THIS strong and destructive . She breathed a sigh of relief as this man was her ally and not her enemy, but having him as an enemy could only end up bad .

Once the imoogi died, notifications soon came up to Arthur

level up! level up! level up! . . . . .

He leveled 19 times, but he clenched his fists and regretted ever using the ancient fire

"Damn my stupidity, if I have killed it normally I would have been able to use death touch and earn 19 more levels, damn damn!!'

He continued to blame his naivety while descending from the air on the dark cloud .

The rest of the people are still silent, no one talked they just stared with eyes full of disbelief at the approaching Arthur who seemed to be annoyed for some reason . Only Lucy seemed to guess why he is annoyed and just chuckled a little .

Arthur ignored the dumbfounded gazes and just nonchalantly said:

"Now that's done, I'm finally a member of the council right?" .

"Yes, from now on you are part of the council, I guess no one is opposed to this?" the principal replied while she glanced at them, but none dared speak, not even Serena who seemed against it earlier, they just nodded while still not moving their eyes from Arthur, as if he was some monster and not a human .

"Now that it's settled, we should go back to the academy"- the principal

"Actually, I'm little interested in this place, how about I stay for some time?" Arthur really wanted to stay here to get stronger by possessing all the corpses he could find, but he didn't want to do it in front of them so he asked the principal to stay and go back later .

The principal suspiciously looked at him for a second before nodding, seemingly accepting his request, after all, she was the one making decisions and her status far overwhelmed the council members, moreover, they also listened to her decisions and didn't dare oppose .

Frederic, who was thinking about capturing Arthur, stood there agape after he saw what just happened, and how nothing was left from the imoogi or his surroundings, all surroundings were burned to the ground 'The f*ck Edward? you want me to capture this f*cking monster? are you insane?' all plans he thought of just a while ago were now erased from his mind, a single spear like that could erase him from existence so why would he even think about fighting him head on?

Soon, they all left except Arthur who stayed there, He also told Lucy to go on ahead and this time she didn't insist on staying for she knew he needed to possess a lot of corpses and them staying alone together may raise some suspicions from either the principal or the council .

Not wasting any second, Arthur began roaming the forest and searching for corpses, though after some time, he began to feel depressed and that's because every time he tried to possess he got this notification

You cannot possess this being!

It would be a lie to say he was not pissed, quite the opposite, in fact, he was angered, the notification didn't even precise why he can't possess them, he wondered maybe because they were only bones? but he soon gave up on that idea for he already possessed Zodiak who also was corpse made of only bones .

After multiple tries, he finally found the reason he couldn't possess those corpses, and that's because they were not whole, apparently if it's an old corpse but not a whole one with a big part of the body missing that he can't possess it, he wondered why he can't but he soon shrugged the idea off, maybe it had some relations to his new evolution 'humanoid parasite' ?

Nevertheless, he found a significant amount of bodies and successfully possessed them, since it took him just a couple of seconds to enter the body again its stats, skills and leave, he did it to any corpse he encountered .

You have gained a new skill(active) : [Heal]: can minor injuries

You have gained a new skill(passive) : [Spear mastery] : when using a spear as a weapon : +20% damage / +10% piercing power

You have gained a new skill(active) : [Basic water magic]: you can now use water to attack or defend

You have gained a new skill(active) : [Poison fangs]: cannot use in a humanoid body

You have gained a new skill(passive): [basic wind magic]: you can now use the wind to attack or defend

You have gained a new skill(passive) : [poison immunity]: you are now immune to all poison, can be turned on/off .

Your stats have improved please check your status window for more details .

Your stats have improved please check your status window for more details .

Your stats have improved please check your status window for more details .

. . . . . .

Like that, he passed 2 hours possessing bodies, even though the amount he possessed was not in thousands, he still got a LOT of skills but they were quite useless except a few ones who picked his interest, what benefited him more were his stats, they increased by a huge amount, almost all the bodies he possessed seemed to be soldiers so the stats they got were not a lot but he still possessed some powerful and gigantic beasts, for example, a huge snake like beast who was even bigger than the imoogi and he got the [poison immunity] from that snake-like creature .

Though, one more solid stats was not a lot, but by possessing hundreds of them and some unique beasts, his stats changed by a huge amount

TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE

Level: 126 Class: Humanoid parasite

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Strength 26314(+12134) Intelligence 32994(+14503)

Agility 27008(+12595) Wisdom 25137(+11735)

Vitality 29371(+12895) Dexterity 24831(+13484)

--

Health 34827(+19329) Health Regen 157 . 1/s

Mana 41395(+19164) Mana Regen 266 . 4/s

Stamina infinite Stamina Regen ????

--

Attack: 21178(+8607) Defense: 24691(+11374)

Magic defense : 5718

--

Elemental Resistances:

Fire: 100% Water: 35%(+10%)

Wind: 35% Earth: 45%

Light/Holy: 20% Darkness: 100%

After searching for quite some time, he didn't find any other corpses that he can possess, and he didn't want to venture deeper into the forest just yet, the principal warned him that there may be an adult dragon, and the difference between a young and old dragon is like the difference between heaven and earth . He read in some book that a young dragon like the one he beat, is most likely ranging from 1 to 10 thousand years old, and an adult one is at least 100 thousands of years old, it is also mentioned that adult dragons can speak human language and the ancient dragon language and not even someone such as the pope or the demon lord can beat one in a 1 on 1 fight so Arthur decided to be cautious and just go back to the academy for the time being .

He got extremely strong from coming here, and he had much more confidence in dealing with the holy church . He decided to ask the principal later about the pope and how strong is he, if he is her level and his strength is slightly stronger than her, then Arthur would not have to worry for he was absolutely sure he could beat someone like the principal after all with his new stats he is a cheat .

To be honest, he wanted to go with Lucy to the holy church to get her revenge, and he wanted to do it as soon as possible because he knew how pained she was as every day passed and the guys who did that to her were still alive, she always mentioned to him how much she wanted to rip them to pieces and kill them but she didn' have the power to do it .

Now that he has enough power, Arthur is confident he can handle himself against the holy church but for now he won't leave the academy, firstly because Lucy seems to really be excited to be here and secondly . He needed to know just how exactly powerful the pope making any reckless actions, in fact, he didn't trust the Academy the least bit and knew perfectly what kind of person the principal is, but he had to accept being used by her for the time being for the sake of Lucy .

Once Lucy tell him she wants to leave, he will immediately go with her away from the Academy for the people there are no different from the greedy ones outside, he just didn't want to force Lucy to leave this place as it finally seems she is enjoying her life after what she has been through . . . .