This chapter has been proof-read by: AnthonyL

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After a few minutes, Anastaria came back from her visit to the king. Seeing her walking our way, Irene and I got up and prepared to leave.

“Got what you came for ?” (Kneeko)

“Not exactly...” (Anastaria)

“What do you mean?” (Kneeko)

“Apparently when his daughter came back, the king got scared of having angered our clan leader so he immediately dispatched an envoy to return our treasure.” (Anastaria)

“Well, the problem is solved then isn't it?” (Kneeko)

“It'll be ea- to prete- i... *** disap- that wa- fufufu*” (Anastaria)

“Fufufufu* That created some little changes in my plans but it's even better this way. I need to quickly go after them. They almost have a 2 month lead so even if I fly at full speed I won't reach them before a few weeks. That, plus the time to make it back here, I will be gone for a bit more than a month.” (Anastaria)

“What do you mean? I don't get it, you speak as if you are leaving without us...” (Kneeko)

“I am, I will be faster on my own.” (Anastaria)

“I m- be caref- of *hat I s- -nd **m.” (Anastaria)

“If they are bringing the treasure back to our clan, why do you mean to “intercept” them? Thinking of keeping the treasure to yourself eh? What a bad example for your children you are guhuhuhu*” (Kneeko)

“Fufufu* You are not exactly right. Actually I intend to give this treasure to you Kneeko.” (Anastaria) She then said with a subtle smile on her face.

“Eh?” (Kneeko)

“I m- have sa..* to mu-..” (Anastaria)

“It's for his clan ceremony is it ?!” (Irene)

“Yes my little Irene. In the end it will benefit the entire clan. There, take this so I can find you when I'm finished.” (Anastaria) She then threw a small blue translucent mana stone to Irene.

“My magic compass is linked to this stone, so wherever you go, I will find you once I am done. Don't loose it.” (Anastaria)

Suddenly many guards began swarming the streets and slowly but surely made their way toward us. They were looking everywhere, using [identify] on everybody. It was obviously the princess who rang the alarm. Crap!.

“Mhhh... how about we leave right now.” (Kneeko)

“I was thinking of grabbing a bite before leaving. Why the hurry?” (Anastaria)

“Let me rephrase this, we NEED to leave RIGHT NOW...” (Kneeko)

Anastaria began looking around us and seemed to understand something was happening so we quickly walked toward the city gate. We crossed the gate without difficulty and rapidly made our way toward the forest. When we were finally out of sight, mother turned around to trow a menacing look in my direction.

“Th** lit-, did he -gere* the roy-?” (Anastaria)

“What did you do?” (Anastaria)

“... N'tin ...” (Kneeko)

“Was it when you told me to go ahead without you? You also gave that creepy laugh before I left..” (Irene)

“YOU SNITCH!” (Kneeko)

Paf!* Mother slapped me on the back of the head so hard I could hear bells ringing.

“Ouch!... That hurt!” (Kneeko)

“What did you do?” (Anastaria)

“I just said hello to an old acquaintance of mine...” (Kneeko)

“No **e in -ing to *u- abo- it.” (Anastaria)

She frowned and showed an unsatisfied expression but ended up brushing it off as a minor accident. She sprouted wings and said her goodbye before leaving in a flash. Now it was only me and Irene. Better avoid going back to Niardo for a while so I guess we will be traveling for now.

“Let's find a deserted area with nobody around. There's something I need to do.” (Kneeko)

“Hmm ok.. This way should be best since there's no town in that direction for a thousand miles.” (Irene)

“......ECHO......ECHO......ECHO.....” (Irene)

[...]

“You still won't tell me what this treasure is? Even tho mother is supposed to give it to me?” (Kneeko)

“She will tell you when she feels like it I suppose.” (Irene)

“I do- *now -self w... I c*n't tel* -t's a dr- core...” (Irene)

“That's annoying...” (Kneeko)

“Sorry.” (Irene) She said in a voice that sounded sincere.

“Ple- do- hate m-.” (Irene)

“Ho well, whatever. Let's get going.” (Kneeko)

[1 week later]

We were in a deserted forest far from any sign of civilization. Luckily the forest was filled with low and medium rank monsters since I just can't seem to stop eating. Did I contract an eating disorder of some sort? I could eat the equivalent of 2 cows a day.

At least thanks to that I had leveled up 3 times. That was without including all the monster cores I ate as we left Niardo. The cores I had spend a long time purchasing back in Vennari had given me a total of 37 levels making me now level 157.

Having access to my last 2 storage rings, I was now beyond rich. Not that it was of any use in a deserted forest but it was still an accomplishment. Irene and I had some time to discuss various things and thanks to that I now had a good idea of what it was like to be part of a pure blooded dragon clan.

It was a lot like the life of royalty. People trying to marry the strong while the weak were humiliated and trampled on. Everybody was competing against everybody and there was a lot of backstabbing going on. I would need to be on my top game if I wanted to survive this place.

Going there was now a lot less tempting prospect. There was something else annoying me. For the past week I have been feeling.....weird. I can't get the image of An'dalia crying out of my head. Is that guilt? Since when did I start feeling anything toward NPC's?

Something must be wrong with me.. Maybe it's a sickness related to my eating disorder ? I thought messing with her would be funny but it's torturing me instead. How can this be? Even in the real world I never cared about other people excepted my father of course...

Sigh, maybe I'll try to find a way to make it up to her... I understand that leaving her alone should be the best course of action but I simply can't get her out of my head. How troubling. I going soft. I'm a monster for Christ sake, I'm destined to kill thousands of these lowly beings...

Maybe I'll make an exception with An'dalia only... Ho well, let's think of something else. Good news, the buzzing in my ears had greatly decreased since I left the town. Maybe I simply don't like crowds. But I don't remember ever having this problem before.

Since Anastaria left, Irene had asked for some alone time regularly, I spied on her a little and from what I can tell she's going off alone to kill some monsters on her own. Could she be training? Or venting frustration?

Whatever she was doing, being on my own right now was a good thing. I discovered that when I was on my own the buzzing in my ears was totally gone. Not only that but it was finally time to open my arcane grimoire that I had bought back in Niardo.

I took the old lady's warning to heart and avoided opening it before being miles away from anyone. I pulled it out of my inventory and held it on my laps. It was an old looking wooden box with intricate carvings sealed by what looked like black wax.

I unsealed it with a knife, then opened it. A black mist came out of it and enveloped my body before disappearing.

Compatibility with “Death” element confirmed.

You have activated a new Interface Skill [Arcane Library].

You can now access a new interface allowing you to design your own arcane circles.

“GUWAHAhAhahahHAhHAha!*” (Kneeko)

I did a small celebratory dance before going back to business. I opened my interface and pressed on the arcane library icon. A new menu then opened showing me various information. This was no simple menu, but more like an arcane circle design software.

In a scrolling menu to the left were all the elements I had an affinity with, the second one had form and function like “blade” “expansion” “refining” “create” suppress” and hundreds more... Since I couldn't make sense of most of it, I opened the arcane book and began reading it.

It was so incredibly complex, to create arcane circles I needed to learn something akin to a programming language. Like someone learning Java language, I needed to learn arcane language. The language used unknown characters and depending on their order, the place they were in the circle, what other function were around it and a lot more factors.

Each circle was basically a small program that you needed to create to achieve a certain effect. Thanks to my photographic memory I quickly memorized the book, then reopened the arcane library to try my luck at my first circle creation.

Since I didn't have any fire skills, I decided to try and create a circle using fire as element. Other more complex circles could use more than one element but I decided to start with the basics. I spent 45 minutes designing my first circle, then when I thought it was completed it was now time to try it.

Spoiler :

[Activate]

BOOM!!!

The circle blew up in my face. It was a failure... Looks like this arcane stuff is harder than it looks. Practice practice practice! There's no other answer to that. Then coming out of the woods short of breath was Irene.

“I felt an ominous feeling then heard a big explosion! Are you okay?” (Irene) She said visibly worried.

With my face completely black and a few hairs curled up by the heat I smiled at her before answering.

“You know how I can't stop eating recently ?” (Kneeko)

“Yes?” (Irene)

“Believe it or not, I just had an explosive fart!!” (Kneeko)

+++

STATUS:

PROFILENAME:KneekoLEVEL:157GENDER:MaleMONEY:445G 37S 22CRACE:Bolt Basilisk (Rare Variant)MONSTER RANK:MediumHEALTH:4800STAMINA:600MANA:6190STRENGTH:735(M)INTELLIGENCE:504 (+100)SPEED:22DEXTERITY:18(H)VITALITY:415 (+50)CHARM:40 (+40)LUCK:19 (+40)AGILITY:19RESISTANCE:125 (+50)(S)ENDURANCE:45SKILL POINTS:600FAME/INFAMY:-1700 (Mostly Evil)CLASS:-------------------TITLES:Spoiler : ☑ Elemental Master

☑ King of the pond

☑ Toxic Powerhouse

☑ TycoonPASSIVE SKILLS:Spoiler : Amphibious (E)

Obscuro Poison (B)

Poison Resistance (A)

Viper Neurotoxin (A)ACTIVE SKILLS:Spoiler : Basilisk Cry (D)

Deadly Breath ©

Death Stare (S)

Gardener touch (B)

Lightning Strike (E)

Lightning Discharge (E)

Poison Spit (D)

Sad puppy eyes (B)

Tail Whip (B)

TerrorEyes (B)

Vines Hell (D)

Viper Bite ©ARCANE LIBRARY: