Arnold peered at the windows from the bed before letting his heavy head fall on the pillow. He felt like he was in a hospital ward during visiting time. Usually, in hospitals, the family and friends of a patient visited to check up on their loved once bringing nice food, fruits and flowers. But it wasn't the same for him.

'These guys are so loud...'

​​

Inside Arnold's room at the Alpha Base, all of his elite summons had crowded in to check up on their master. They didn't have food or flowers with them, but they did were worried about his well-being more than anyone else. Natasha had forced him to lay down and to Arnold's surprise, Talos was in complete agreement with her.

In his words, "Master has been overlooking his health while overworking, and because of that an outcome like this was expected."

Arnold felt a bit weird when Talos said those words. Talos' voice was still emotionless but Arnold felt as if Talos was actually pretty upset with him, so upset that he even agreed to Natasha's insane demand of tying Arnold to the bed! Fortunately, Cerberus jumped in between and stopped them from doing anything stupid.

While everyone was arguing within themselves, Arnold was laying on crisp but thin bedsheets. A curtain hung limply on the chrome railing and looked like it had been washed thousand times over.

'Weird, I never did any laundry then how come the sheets and curtain are so clean?"

His eyes then fell on the polystyrene tiles above, when he heard the door leading to his time open and in came Allen followed by Alice. Everyone immediately stepped aside to make way for Alice, who was the 'only' healer among them. (Author's note: Although Natasha has healing power, it's not her major strength, that's why I'm referring to Alice as the only healer among them. Also, the healing powers of Natasha are subject to how much life force she has, but I'll explain more on that later.)

"What do you want me to tell the others?" Alice whispered in his ears while pretending to check the back of his neck, "I know they've been pestering a lot since you came back, huhuhu."

"It's that obvious huh?" Arnold whispered back at the giggling Alice, "But before I answer that, am I completely fine?"

Arnold's wounds were healed and he couldn't feel any pain, but he thought it could be due to Natasha's weird healing technique. Thus he asked for an expert's advice on the matter.

"You look as good as new to me, but I'd recommend you to take rest for today," Alice replied after thoroughly checking him up and turned towards his summons, "Master is fine but he needs to rest for the day. So everyone who doesn't have any duty to do at the base can return to the domain right now."

The room was filled with huffing sounds when Alice ended her speech. All of them wanted to stay by his side. Although Arnold appreciated the sentiment, he needed to 'rest' first and foremost. Still, he didn't want to force hours summons to listen to him, so rather than forcing them to leave, he decided to open a portal to his domain beneath their feet and viola! All of the complaints ceased immediately. Only Allen, Talos and Alice were the only ones left inside the room.

"Easy peasy, lemon squeezy." Arnold smiled gestured at the others to leave.

Talos hesitantly left the room, followed by Alice but Allen decided to stay behind. He had some news for him.

"Nathan and the contacted me while you were gone." He said with a smile.

"What do they want?"

Arnold was still a bit hurt about Nicole's comments and also the fact that Nina didn't even try to correct her, but still, he was a part of the family so there wasn't anything he could do if Nathan wanted to contact him.

"He just wanted me to inform you that Nina and Nicole might be visiting us tomorrow-"

"What part of 'I don't want to talk' do they don't understand!?" Arnold sat up straight on the bed, "When are they going to show up?"

"In the morning."

"..."

"Is something wrong?" Allen asked, worried about his *brother's* reaction to the news.

"Nothing. It's fine." Arnold replied and got off his bed, "Is that all?"

"Yes," Allen replied.

"Then, you can leave now."

Allen knew Arnold was in a bad mood so he did as he was told. He also knew it was better to leave Arnold alone once he turned into an angry lad. Still, he couldn't help but wonder what could've possibly happened between them that turned Arnold's mood sour as soon as he heard about them coming here?

'It's not like he's going to tell me about it either way,' Allen thought as he left the workshop, 'I think I should give Nina a little heads-up about his mood...'

****

A few minutes later,

Inside the workshop...

"All I wanted was to rest for a bit but no," Arnold mumbled as he got dressed up to work.

His mind had been racing ever since Allen informed him about Nina's and Nicole's 'Surprise visit', and the only way he knew to calm his racing mind, was to make something... anything. But before he could do so he needed to take care of two things. One, claim his rewards for the headhunter quest and two, feed the giant egg.

So, he opened up his interface to claim the rewards first.

___

• HEADHUNTER :

[ INTRODUCTION ]: You've proven your worth to the 'Immortal One' and now your true training begins.

[ TASK ]: Hunt down 300 monsters as an offering to the Immortal one.

[ PROGRESS ] :

454/300 monsters hunted.

[COMPLETION GRADE]: S

___

'Claim.'

___

You've achieved a new title!

Name: [Killer Of The Masses]

Effect:

• Permanently increases the level of all of your abilities (regardless of their rarity) by 5 levels.

You offered 154 more monsters as an offering to the Immortal One. The lord is impressed by your valiant efforts and has decided to reward you.

You've earned 154 attribute points!

___

"I... can't... believe... this..."