After thorough deliberation, Arthur headed to the Blue Blossom Forest when the night started falling.

Instead of wasting his time on the outer region, he rushed toward the inner one, where stronger variations of beasts lived.

As always, the magical blue trees were letting out a dazzling light amidst the darkness of the night. It was a peaceful sight, ruined by the constant roars of the beasts and the cold wind that seemed to exist only within the forest.

The parasite, who had a sizable quantity of spare hosts available in his magical bag and pockets, delved deeper while keeping relying on stealthy movements.

Thankfully, [Mist of Decay] allowed him to avoid the detection of most of this place’s inhabitants.

After approximately an hour of fruitless searching, Arthur’s vision turned red as [Survival Instincts(Passive)] kicked in.

The mist dispersed and a large and shiny barrier appeared, blocking an incoming silhouette just in time.

However, Arthur didn’t have time to rejoice as the assailant let out an unpleasant screech and banged on the Sanguis barrier repeatedly until it shattered.

It was a baboon, one that shared the characteristics of the Blossom Baboons but looked more savage and bigger.

Its body was covered in white and blue-ish fur, had exceptionally long arms, and hideously twisted face. With its teeth bared, it howled and leapt toward Arthur, who took out a normal sword and used [Lunar Blade].

The blast that was unleashed from the blade didn’t even stop the baboon, which caught the parasite and smashed his body on the ground. When it was about to use the claws on its legs to slash him, a cold chill spread from Arthur.

Two icicles whistled in the air and pierced the baboon’s face, causing it to cover it and stagger to the back.

Before it could recover, Arthur followed up with [Enhanced Spell] then [Infernal Cry].

The demonic screech reverberated across the forest and disoriented the baboon.

Arthur switched the sword to his still-functioning other hand and invoked a resplendent light that transformed into a half moon.

The beautiful semi-circle, letting out a mesmerizing silver light, rose in the air then let out a shock wave.

Although the baboon was blown to the back, it sustained no major injuries. In fact, its thick fur had absorbed most of the damage.

Enraged, it banged its clenched fists into the ground before jumping in the air and opened its mouth. Expecting a laser beam similar to the one used by the tenacious tiger he had fought multiple times, Arthur consumed more Mana to empower the Sanguis Barrier.

A straight and translucent wall-sized barrier surged from the ground and protected Arthur’s front just in time to block a swirling mass of strange energy.

When he saw cracks appear on the barrier, Arthur held the sword with both hands and glided to the side using [Mist of Decay].

When he was right underneath the airborne beast, he used [Sword Blast] before discarding his current host.

‘Using a beast against another beast would be more fitting.’

His many magical and physical skills notwithstanding, Arthur was at his strongest when possessing certain animals. After all, the accumulating passive skills were more beneficial than the active ones.

As the spiralling [Sword Blast] struck the baboon, it somehow managed to pierce through one of its legs and make it crash to the ground.

Yet again, it swiftly recovered and shook its head, but when it focused on the enemy again, it didn’t see a human but a grizzly and frightening black bear.

It was half of its size, but its eyes were glowing red and its fur was covered in a sticky green liquid.

[Physical Enhancement Lv9]

[Tenacity Lv2]

[Magic Beast Lv4]

[Gila Poison Lv5]

[Sharpened Claws Lv6]

[Flexibility Lv3]

[Bestial Regen Lv3]

[Physical Damage Resistance]

[Magic Resistance]

All those passives took effect and were well-suited for Arthur’s current host: Mutated Grizzly Bear.

When he had spent a month increasing his stats, the bear was his toughest opponent. Although it took most of the storage capacity of his magical bag, he kept with him for situations like this one.

The burly and frightening bear ran with an impressive speed and slashed its long and poisoned claws at the baboon, which retaliated by swinging clumsily punching.

Its monstrous strength notwithstanding, it was overpowered as the bear’s claws ripped through its fur and skin and caused its hand to profusely bleed.

That was only the beginning as the parasite crashed into it and activated [Bestial Rage].

A black aura enveloped the bear as the stats increased, allowing it to jump on top of the thrashing baboon.

Arthur employed no tactics whatsoever, he used his overwhelming strength to completely beat up the baboon. He eviscerated its chest, ripped its arm with his teeth, and kept attacking randomly and savagely. It was truly a battle between beasts.

The baboon retaliated more than once and injured the parasite, but thanks to [Tenacity] and [Bestial Regen], either the wounds were too superficial or they healed within seconds.

As the baboon kept struggling and hitting his head, Arthur’s open mouth descended upon the enemy’s neck, shredding it and injecting poison.

His fur, which was sticky from [Gila Poison] brought even more pain to the baboon, causing it to writhe and screech crazily.

In terms of raw strength, he was overwhelmingly superior to the baboon. Nevertheless, it took Arthur ten whole minutes to kill it. It lost a lot of blood, had its neck bit and ripped, and most of its body was covered in poison, but it persisted.

By the end of it, as he jumped from the baboon’s lifeless and massive body, Arthur was covered in blood. There was a tinge of pain in his head from all the hits he was subjected too, thus showcasing how freakishly strong the baboon truly was. Even immobilized, it managed to fight back so much and only died after getting ravaged for minutes non-stop.

Admittedly, it wasn’t the best host for ‘Last Possession’, but Arthur was relieved that he found something a bit superior to the bear.

There was only so much a bear could do, whereas a baboon’s body structure was slightly similar to a human. Were he to possess it, he would be able to perform more flexible attacks rather than just biting or using his claws.

‘Perhaps I could use the sword skills.’

Arthur was tempted to try it, but he held himself back and returned to the injured human host, which belonged to one of the cultists.

Just as he was about to squeeze the baboon’s corpse into his magical bag, Arthur’s vision turned red, signaling another ambush.

A spiraling mist burst from his body, shrouding him and allowing him to dodge out of the way.

There was a deafening sound and a small shock wave as a large figure made its appearance.

It was yet another baboon, one even larger. It was holding a clearly man-made club buzzing with lightning, its round eyeballs locked onto the parasite.

Seeing it crouch down then, with an outrageous agility, leap at him and swing down the black club, Arthur used [Air Decay] then [Freeze], which were enough to slow it down by a little bit.

Not interested in battling it, Arthur channeled his Mana then used an Enhanced version of [Wither Blast].

The energy of decay and withering was formless as it shot from the parasite’s hand and rose upwards, hitting the baboon.

Unlike what happened with the cultists, the beast wasn’t killed on the spot. Surprisingly, it resisted [Wither Blast] and survived, but it did lose half of its right arm along with its club.

Arthur, feeling exhausted from over-consumption of Mana, lowered his hand and was about to attack again only to hear a loud roar.

A shadow leapt from the darkness and crashed into the one-armed baboon. As he shot toward his prize, Arthur saw the new arrival, which turned out to be the tiger from before.

It had grown larger and was riddled with all kinds of scars. This time, it didn’t seem to care about him as it opened its mouth and let out a thick laser beam that pierced through the baboon’s chest.

Another, more intense battle ensued between the two monsters. Meanwhile, Arthur secured the host and used [Mist of Decay] to rise into the air and flee.

As he rose higher and higher, he noticed several large shadows heading toward the chaos, which made him give up on the thought of lurking in the shadows and waiting until either the tiger or the baboon died.

Kidnapping Feylord and obtaining a relatively good host for ‘Last Possession’, it was a good night for Arthur.

After switching to Khalil’s body, he made his way to the campus only to hear an explosion echo from a distance away.

It originated from the Northern Coast, opposite to where Sun Alchemists’ hideout was. He rose as far as he could using [Mist of Decay] and a bit of flames easily noticeable from afar.

He momentarily hesitated before cautiously heading towards that direction.

‘The sound would have alerted the Dean already. I’ll just take a quick look.’

The green mist, masked by the darkness of the night, glided above the blue trees and flew toward the coast.

At some point, Arthur, thanks to [Magick Sense] and [Keen Eyes] caught the hint of a rapidly moving shadow. He followed it for a couple of seconds but it suddenly vanished into thin air.

He removed the mist and squinted his eyes, concentrating on a particular spot that had a barely noticeable fluctuation of Mana.

He saw a mass of eerie black matter right next to a nearby tree, but before he could get close, there was a desperate shout

“Teacher!”

Joshua, the timid and bespectacled youth appeared. He was disheveled and blood was trickling down from his nostrils. His uniform was shredded and his arm injured.

Upon seeing the familiar face, Joshua gasped and fell to the ground, breathing heavily and shaking from fear.

Alas, due to Joshua, when Arthur looked at the spot again, it returned to normal.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

“T-there was an explosion. I… I don’t know.”

With his brow furrowed, Arthur inspected the youth.

[Medical Field] was the most unique skill in Arthur’s arsenal. It was also the sole skill that imprinted knowledge into his mind. Thanks to that, he had more than a basic understanding of many illnesses as well as the anatomy of humans and vampires.

‘His Mana flow is stable… strange. Broken nose… probably from a direct blunt attack from the front. Slash mark right under the left elbow, but it’s shallow and superficial. There are some ‘marks’ on his neck too. Was he attacked?’

“Head straight to the infirmary.”

He helped the distressed Joshua and pointed toward the campus before he shot toward the coast.

Fortunately, Arthur was the first to arrive. Right under a small cliff, a narrow entrance to a cavern could be seen.

After dropping down, Arthur used [Freeze] to get rid of the flames and step inside. Unexpectedly, the interior was intact and there were no signs of flames whatsoever.

Nevertheless, the sight shocked the parasite. His eyes landed on the gruesome and mutilated bodies of four students.

It was a massacre as blood dyed the ground and walls, mutilated limbs and gore were splattered everywhere.

At the very back of the room, Arthur saw Verno Vir Divitiae. The youth was lying on the ground, his right arm bent backwards and his legs crushed to smithereens.

‘He’s still alive.’

Arthur rushed toward him and knelt down, first seeing the ring flashing with a vermillion light. It was emitting a fiery heat, but it could no longer release more flames as the energy within it had been completely exhausted.

“A-ahh…ghh…”

Verno tried to move his body but the agony was too much. He coughed blood, his eyes shifting to the bronze-skinned man beside him.

He tried to say something, probably calling for help or asking to be saved, but the parasite didn’t respond.

‘They could probably save him if I make it in time.’

A soft sigh escaped Arthur’s lips as he lowered his head and pressed it against Verno’s head.

For the first time, he used [Mind Blast]. Verno’s body convulsed and twitched for a couple of breaths before it ceased all motions.