When Arthur opened his eyes from his deep sleep, he felt unusually refreshed. His body felt unburdened and his mind was free from the stress and exhaustion he was feeling before sleeping. He dreamed of nothing, just complete darkness yet no nightmares occurred, which was a fortunate thing.

His body obeyed his every command, no more sluggishness or numbness, he could move freely, he totally recovered from the fight against the Sovereign, which made him delighted and a bit relaxed since in this state, he wouldn't be afraid of sudden enemy attacks.

He sat cross-legged to do a more thorough check, he needed to make sure there were no lingering wounds that that did not fully recover, after all, the backlash he suffered from the overuse of skills and the injuries he sustained against the old man were not something that could be easily recovered from, or so thought Arthur.

Surprisingly, his body was unscathed, in a flawless state. In fact, he felt energetic and in high-spirits, as if a heavy weight has been lifted off his shoulders.

Arthur speculated that he had slept for more than he expected, that's the only reason that explains why his body was healthy again, nonetheless, this was a joyous matter, so he didn't bother thinking about it too much.

He retrieved the lifeless body of the old man and proceeded to possess it as the stats he'll gain from the deceased elder would be by no means a meager amount.

He transformed into a small black whirlpool that soon entered the old man's body and took control over it, taking its previous stats, skills, and talent.

You have Successfully possessed Rozak (Race: Human).

You have gained a new skill[Passive][Holy Resistance]: +50% .

The Dark Magic of the user overpowers the Holy Magic : -25% Holy Resistance.

You have gained a new skill[Active][Holy Arts: Sixth Chapter: Golden Nova]: Summons a temporary Holy Entity that aids the user in battle.

The entity's stats are 120% stronger than the user

Cost: 300m Mental Power.

Cooldown: 1 minute.

WARNING: There is a chance that the summoned entity will attack the user.

You have gained a new skill…

…

As usual, Arthur ended up gaining all the skills and techniques of the old man, including his precious stats. The chains around his body became hot for a couple of seconds before they returned to normal, this must've been due to the sudden increase in stats.

As he felt the immense strength surging him, Arthur eagerly opened his Status Window to see the improvement.

TITLE: MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE / ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK HOLDER / LIVE WITH HONOR, DIE WITH GLORY

--

Level: ??

Class: Dark ARK Parasite

Realm: Divine Realm 3rd Grade

-

Strength: 725.5M

Intelligence: 877.1M

Agility: 701.2M

Wisdom: 827M

Vitality: 599.7M

Dexterity: 584.9M

-

Health: 850.7M // Health Regen: 282490/s

Nether Energy: 900.4M // Nether Energy Regen: 299512/s

Mana: 781.1M // Mana Regen: 345571/s

Stamina: Infinite /Stamina Regen: ???

-----

Creation: 273

Attack: 889M (+65% Damage)

Defense: 698M (+25% Damage Reduction)

Magic Defense: 218.4M

Soul Defense: 5,000

--

Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK(Activated)

Mental Power: 6999

---

Elemental Resistances(+)

Fire: 100%

Darkness: 100%

Wind: 35%

Water: 75%

Earth: 75%

Light/holy: 30%

Shadow: 30%

Lightning: 100%

Ice: 30%

---

Death Count: 1 (2 more to obtain 'Unbound')

---

Possessions (472,012)

Races:

?Humans (282,991)

?Demons (84,997)

?Beasts (+)(101,528)

?Unique Beasts (2498)

?Mythical beings (1)

*****

Arthur was delighted when he saw the new stats, the old man apparently had a high amount of Intelligence and Wisdom, as expected of a Holy Magic user. From the way he fought and his long-ranged attacks, Arthur had already guessed that he resembled a mage more than a melee fighter, which is why the stats related to the physical body didn't increase as much as the other two.

Nonetheless, the power-up was a joyous event, if he could fight the Sovereign again, he was certain that he could put up a better fight, without resorting to forbidden skills that drop his Realm.

However, he wasn't completely sure of victory, sure, his stats increased as the whole power of the old man belonged to him, but these were only numbers, it all depends on the fighters and the way you fight, how you use the skills and when.

He already possessed the body of the Peak God which he managed to grab in the middle of the battle, as for the remaining ones, they were both invalid.

From the number of stats he gained, Arthur speculated that Sovereigns do not rely on stats, they do not have the system, neither do they have as much stats as he expected in the past.

They rely on their high Mental Power and their strong skills, moreover, they are able to fuse with their God Spirit, which is strong just by itself.

It's a shame that Arthur only gains a small percentage of the Mental Power of the corpses he possesses, which is why he only leveled up to the Peak of the Divine Realm, unable to break through to the God Realm.

He obtained a few powerful skills that belonged to the Holy Arts, they cost a lot and his control over the Holy Attribute isn't perfect so he decided to put them to the aside unless he faces an enemy who uses an attribute that is weak against Holy Magic, nevertheless, it's better to have the Holy Arts as it is one more thing he can use in times of desperation, it's never bad to add increase his already large arsenal of skills.

After doing a thorough look at the skills he gained, he took out Sol'khin's cane to test it out. Whenever he powers up by a lot, he always takes it out for a test. It's a mysterious cane he found near Zodiak's body.

The origin and use of this cane had always been something that intrigued Arthur, no matter what he tried, he couldn't activate it, even the system didn't mention its uses, it just displayed its name.

First, he tried injecting some Mana into it but nothing happened. Nether Energy didn't have any effect too, so he tried Dark Mana, he used one million Dark Mana in one fell swoop.

At last, he felt a slight connection so he put ten times more Dark Mana, an almost nonexistent purple light was emitted from the skeletal head at the top of it.

Arthur yet again added a bigger amount of Dark Mana, however, nothing occurred. Besides that small purple light that could barely be seen, there was no reaction from the cane.

Even the light would disappear after a few seconds if he doesn't keep a constant supply of Dark Mana. Arthur didn't waste much time on it, he stored away the cane for another time since it requires an absurd amount of Dark Mana to use, or so he guessed.

Furthermore, he's not entirely safe here, he just woke up and recovered to his peak state, he doesn't want to waste all his Dark Mana to see what are the uses of this cane, at least not in this time and place.

The next thing he did was check the storage rings he got from the Spatial Master and the Sovereign. There was also the woman accompanying the old man, the one he possessed earlier.

…

Ten minutes later, Arthur was smirking as he held two weird stones in his hand. They were two Dimensional Stones he found in the Master's storage. There was a bunch of pills and miscellaneous stuff that he didn't inspect thoroughly as they were of no use for him.

He also found a decent amount of Green and Red Spirit Stones from the Peak God's storage. The only ring he wasn't able to open was the Sovereign's. Whenever he injected Mana to inspect it, he was met with some sort of a formation that blocked his Sense and Nether Energy.

Seeing this obstruction, Arthur pointed his index finger at the ring and shot a streak of black lightning from it. Demonic Lightning is efficient in dealing with illusion, barriers, formations, and arrays. As long as his Intelligence was high enough, everything is breakable.

Plus, with over 850m Intelligence, not being to break through the formation protecting what's inside the wrong is illogical.

Small thread-like black lightning streaks twirled around the silver ring similar to a snake trying to suffocate its prey. In a few seconds, the ring became jet black, covered by the Demonic Lightning, Arthur saw no results so he added the intensity.

This time, he pointed his palm and shot a thick bolt of lightning. In nature, the Demonic Lightning does no physical damage even if it hit a normal object, so he wasn't afraid of destroying the room, nonetheless, he used this much lightning because he needed to open this ring.

A Sovereign is a powerful and respectable entity, surely that ring contains desirable treasures and artifacts that may be useful for him in future fights.