A month has passed since the 'Bloody Day', a lot of things occured, but nothing too dramatic, Arthur passed his days peacefully with Lucy and Saly, the little girl worked harder and harder, as for him, he just relaxed with Lucy, and would sometimes train his techniques.

He checked the orb that Zodiak gave him many times, but he just couldn't figure out how to use it or even activate it, it's a shame but there's nothing he could do about it, yet.

Arthur decided to rest for a bit more in the Ma Clan then go look for Zodiak's remainnig powers, he knew that people are coming for him, Zodiak's warning and that woman who attacked him last time were enough to alert him and make him on guard.

Zodiak said that there is portions of his powers left in this world, it may be hard to find them immediately but at least he got a clue, yes, it's 'Medusa'.

Since the moment he met them, he knew they had a relation with Zodiak, or else, how could you explain their ability to use the 'Dark Magic', it's just a pity that he didn't know their headquarters, or else he would have gone there immediately.

Nonetheless, he didn't plan to give up, he had the Ma Clan and other forces in his side, with their broad net of informations, there's bound to be some clues about the whereabouts of this secret organization.

...

"B-but Arthur, I want come with you two!"

Saly was sitting on Arthur's lap while he was stroking her fluffy ears, she was pouting and acting angry because Arthur told her that they would leave in 2 weeks to look for something but no matter how she begged, he didn't accept her request to come and told her to stay here as it is the safest place.

"I told you, the place we are going is not that safe, if you can reach LVL300, then I'll think about it? Alright?"

Saly was still pouting, although she's young, she wasn't an idiot, moreover, her high intelligence allowed her to act more like an adult than a child, but in front of Arthur and Lucy, she would always act like a spoiled brat.

"Hey Lucy! Please tell him to take me too!"

Saly looked at Lucy, who was leaning her head on Arthur's shoulder, she took her hands while pleading to her, she knew that only Lucy can change Arthur's choice, furthermore, Lucy always doted on Saly and granted her all her requests.

Lucy gently smiled at Saly while softly saying

"Hehehe~~, little Saly, I know you have become very strong, but we can't bring you this time, it's extremely dangerous, please stay here, don't worry, next time, we'll surely bring you along, that's a promise, okay?"

Hearing this, Saly could only slowly drop her head down and stay silent, no matter how stubborn she is, she can't insist too much, since she said she can't come then she can't come, maybe if she was stronger then they would have taken her, so while tightly gripping Lucy's hands, she slowly nodded her head while saying

"Okay.. Saly understands.. I'll go train and you'll take me if I reach LVL300 right? It's not too far away, I'm already 97!"

With that, she jumped from Arthur's lap and went outside to train, Astrith who was taking a nap not too far away, disappeared from his position and followed her, after all, it was his duty to protect her while she was not with Arthur and Lucy, and he himself didn't really dislike doing this, his relationship with her strengthened, plus she treated him to a lot of delicacies.

..

The remaining time passed in the blink of an eye, Arthur and Lucy prepared themselves, and after saying their farewell to little Saly, they departed, first thing they did is head to the E-clips company headquarters in the Itas continent to get the corpses.

It's been quite some time since he asked Belic and Robin to gather more corpses, their stats may be low, but if he possessed thousands, then his overall strength would increase by a significant amount.

..

The journey didn't take more than 10 minutes, the trade was a usual, the reaction of the old man and Robin was not like last time, I guess they got used it after experiencing it a few times.

Unlike last time, Arthur payed Belic for gathering the corpses, they gathered 1,012 beast corpses, Arthur didn't know how much they costed and he wanted to pay the old man for them, but Belic insisted on not receiving anything, saying that getting the help of the Ma Clan is enough.

Mentionning this, Arthur remembered that he promised Belic to help his Qin Clan, so yeah, maybe for him, helping out his own Clan is better than getting loads of Gold Coins, well, each got their preferences.

..

After they finished the deal, the duo went to a secluded cave a couple of kilometers away from the Elven city and rested, well it was not resting but to allow Arthur to possess the corpses.

The stronger he got the better, if an unexpected situation occurs, like it always does, he better be powerful enough to cope with it, or else, the only outcome would be his and Lucy's death, which is something he definitely didn't want.

Before he left the Ma Clan, he asked Anastassia about 'Medusa', however, she didn't know much about it, but she gave him a useful information, which is to look for them in the Western continent, apparently, they show themselves a lot around that area, and all the continent is considered a wasteland devoid of any rulers except a few powerful beastmen clans here and there, there is no one who can truly threaten their existence.

So, the first destination for Arthur and Lucy is going to be the Western continent, it's on the other side of the planet or world, but with their speed, it wouldn't take much time to arrive there, so it was not that big of a deal.

..

Their trip already began after he finished possessing all corpses, like last time, nothing special appeared, like a unique skill of something similar, however, his stats rocketed yet again.

TITLE : MEAT GRINDER / SEEKER OF KNOWLEDGE / ONE WITH THE SWORD / ARK??? Level: ???? Class: Dark ARK Parasite - Realm : Deity - Strength 19.7m Intelligence 18.0m Agility 23.4m Wisdom 17.6m Vitality 16.2m Dexterity 16.8m - Health 16.4m Health Regen 13871/s Mana 17.02m Mana Regen 23299/s Stamina infinite Stamina Regen ???? - Creation : 10 Attack: 17.01m Defense: 16.8m Magic defense : 2.9m Enigma abilities : Telekinesis / Ancient Threads / Sixth sense / ARK?? Mental Power : 844 Elemental Resistances: Fire: 100% Water: 75% Wind: 35% Earth: 75% Light/holy: 5% Shadow 30% Lightning 100% Ice 30%

His stats were really unbelievable, what's more amazing is his 'Mental Power', his guesses were that once he reached 1000 in Mental Power, then he will breakthrough to the Immortal Realm, and he really wanted that to happen because he knew that the difference between the Immortal Realm and the Deity Realm is much bigger than the Deity Realm and the Heavenly Realm, heck! He and Lucy barely managed to kill Tensui, taking in account that their stats are overpowered, if it was 2 normal people in the Deity Realm, there is no way in hell they could have done that.

...

The trip was peaceful and without any problems occuring in the middle of it, they didn't travel at full speed, more at a moderate one, and in just one day, they were already on the borders of the Western Continent.

The first thing Arthur saw was a barren land, almost like a desert, but with no cliffs and mountains of sands, the weather was a bit hot compared to the other continents, and there were no sights of cities or towns, it's literally like a deserted land, well, he expected that much when he read lots of books about it, the problem is, where will they go now? Do they roam hazardly or search for living beings and question them?

The Western continent is known to be the biggest one albeit it being a wasteland, too many wars occured in it making it dyed red with the blood of countless races, it's also the continent which contain the most dungeons, furthermore, it is widely known that almost all the dungeons here are the most dangerous, they contain high levelled creatures, even Anastassia warned him not to enter dungeons recklessly.

Although she warned him, he didn't care much about that warning, he got Lucy with him and if it's not someone in the Immortal Realm or higher then they could deal with it easily, hopefully.

Arthur and Lucy decided to roam for a bit and search for any living being, then they can question him/her about the location of a city or a village, after all, they have to start from somewhere.

If he can only get his hands on a higher up from 'Medusa' then he can use 'Soul Search' on him, although it's a bit risky, it's worth it, he'll be able to know the whereabouts of their HQ and it'll save a lot of time.

..

Fortunately, with their overpowered speed, it didn't take them much time to find someone, approximately after an hour or so, they found some people, or what appeared to be beastmen.

Normally, an hour is enough for him to travel thousands if not millions of kilometres, yes, it's insane, but he and Lucy were not travelling, they were inspecting every corner of the wasteland, if not, they would miss something, so that's why it took them that much time, although, it's considered a short amount to other people.

.........

Jackob was currently fighting an Earth Worm, it's the most common monster in the Western Continent, and probably the most annoying one, it never gives up on it's preys, it will even die trying to catch their food, they have large frames, probably 2 meters in height, plus, they are 4 meters long, their appearance are too disgusting, and their mouth contains hundreds of sharp teeth.

Right now, he was on an expedition with some other clan members to secure some medicine, although it's called medicine, it's just the saliva of the Earth Worm, as apparently, their saliva is an important material for alchemy crafting and can be used to heal curses or diseases.

His mother was a bit sick, and the only way to cure her is by an expensive Elixir or the saliva of the Earth Worm, it was not only his case, several other clan members needed that saliva for personal reasons, so they formed a small party and went for the hunt.

What they didn't expect though, is getting ambushed by 4 Earth Worms, they are not particulary strong if fought individually, but if you got surrounded, then it's troublesome to deal with them, plus, Jackob and the other 3 were not that strong, their LVL was only in the 60, as for the Earth Worm, they were between 50 and 70.

He wielded a two-handed mace, it was rusty and hard to wield, but that's all he could procure, as for the rest of the members, they had either bronze swords or bronze lances, poor weapons but they got used to them after countless battles.

Since youth they fought for their survival, so having poor weapons didn't mean they are weak, in fact, some beastmen can fight bare-handed and tear the Earth Worm into pieces.

"HAA"

Jackob jumped to the side and smashed his mace on the side of the Earth Worm, it was not an accurate hit but it dealt some damage to the Earth Worm, the disgusting creature dived into the ground after being struck, but he didn't dare relax as another Earth Worm came at him from behind.

With almost perfect reflexes, he kicked the ground and jumped backward in a cool manner, the Earth Worm's sharp teeth struck his previous location and some green toxic liquid came out of its big mouth.

It was it's poison, it was not deadly but it caused the 'paralysis' status for 10 seconds, which was more than enough for the Worm to devour it's prey.

As he was delighted to have dodged that poison, he wa caught off guard when another Worm came flying at him from below, since he was in the air, he couldn't dodge or do anything beside block with his mace, but it was too late as some of the green liquid already landed on some of his body, making him unable to move.

His jump was quite high and amazing, but the fall was pitiful and full of despair, he couldn't move, so when he hit the ground, he just layed there, motionless, but now that he took second and thought about what happened, it seemed a bit weird doesn't it?

I mean, they got ambushed by 4 Worms, so why the hell did 3 attack him? Where were the other 3 party members? Surely they didn't die, they were not that weak to die in just seconds.

As he was thinking about that, his eyes happened to land on running figures about 70meters away from his location, they were indeed those 3 party members, each held a fist-sized bottle filled with transparent liquid, he could already guess it's the Worm's salive, and by the look of their faces, he knew they abandonned him, however, he didn't hate them or became enraged.

In this land, each have to take care of themselves, that was an untold rule, so what if they abandonned him? Each must only care about his own life, why should they sacrifice themselves for something as absurd as camaraderie?

Jackob's only regret is his unability to procure the saliva for his mother, nothing mattered apart from that, he layed their motionless, unable to move because of the saliva, and look at the incoming Worms which dived toward him like hungry dogs, their mouths were wide open as if they were going to tear him into pieces.