After entering his room, Thomas closed the door slowly. He had just gone upstairs and left Arthur in the kitchen.
His room was well lit by several white LED lights, but still leaving a touch of comfortable darkness.
The computer was turned on and the monitor showed a structural drawing, a house plan. On that plan, in one of the rooms, there were numerous red dots together, glowing brightly.
On Thomas's bed, countless small objects were piled up.
The reason Thomas stopped Arthur from telling him whatever he wanted was because of these objects.
"Cameras, huh..." He spoke as he approached the bed. He picked up one of the small cameras and studied it curiously.
A few days ago he discovered such a camera in his room, next to one of the LED lights. Since then, he has taken tracking software and modified it to try to find more of these. After all, if you have one, you can have more.
And it was as he expected. The house was full of these cameras, and he knew something was off. Arthur is not the type of person who likes to watch, let alone intensely observe something he already knows. So these cameras weren't his.
So whose was it? It was at that moment that Thomas remembered the conversation he had with Arthur about something being watching him.
So, it was just connecting dots: Sudden change in behavior, habit and life in general, being watched by an entity that appears to be powerful in the world, arriving late and now completely bruised and malnourished, plus the case of those cameras now.
Even though some points were very questionable, even surreal, Thomas managed to understand more or less Arthur's current life.
But he also knew what was in Arthur's mind. He didn't want to leave him in danger, and give him a more than good life.
"Relax..." Thomas took a deep breath and grabbed some tools that were already on the bed and brought them to the computer table. It was wide and stretched from wall to wall, so he had plenty of room to work.
He first began to dismantle one by one, calmly studying its structure. Plans formed in his mind, both to help Arthur and to find out what was happening to him.
***
06:00
"I really didn't expect you to call me at this hour." Said Augusto, giving a lazy laugh. It was very early and anyone could clearly see the weariness on his face.
He had delivered a bag with many snacks to Arthur, more specifically, all the ones he had in the restaurant. There were coxinhas, pastries, pieces of pie and among others.
Arthur was at the door with an equally tired smile. He took the lunch bag and made the payment on Thomas's card.
After saying goodbye to Augustus, Arthur returned to the kitchen and placed the snacks on the marble counter. There were actually quite a few, and they came in 4 large filled lunchboxes.
After separating some for Thomas, Arthur slowly ate the rest. His body was doing a complete digestion of the food and pure energy was filtering into his injured muscles as well as all other parts of his body.
Arthur also realized that the more energy he produced and the closer to complete well-being, slower would be the process. It is probably due to excess energy and the natural, and necessary, regeneration of the body. After all, if eating would heal any and all injuries, it would be too easy.
The small hole in his right chest was already in the faster process of healing, but all his muscles were bruised from using the skills.
Arthur decided not to train today and went upstairs to his room. Once there, he checked his current stats.
Statistics Panel |
[Level: 5] (30/10000)
[Name: Arthur (???)]
[Race: (???)]
[HP: 3800]
[MP: 1625]
[Karma]
• Good: 350 •
• Evil: 1534 •
[Statistics]
•Strength: 150•
•Agility: 150•
•Vitality: 380•
•Constitution: 380•
•Intelligence: 325•
•Resilience: 499•
[Skills]
• Constellation •
• Absorption •
• Will •
• Abyss •
• Force •
• Berserk •
• Quickness •
• Golden Blood •
• Mithril Body •
• Cold Blood •
[Techniques]
• Universes Absorber Technique •
• Heavenly Flow Technique •
[Supreme Skills]
• Vision of Soul •
• God Body •
'I lost 100 points in Strength and Agil-aargh!' Before Arthur could complain about the loss of strength, a heavy force pulled him down, causing his face to hit the ground hard.
Bang!
All the muscles already injured got worse and the hole in his chest started to bleed again. The five tears in his back also started to bleed again, though they had nearly closed.
The system's voice also began to ring in Arthur's ears.
...
...
...
...
Instantly, on Arthur's wrists and ankles, black stains, like black ink, appeared out of nowhere and clung tightly there. This ink moved unsteadily, but soon began to firm up, and patterns began to appear on its surface as well.
Once they were solid, the appearance that formed was both frightening and regretful. These stains have solidified to look like handcuffs from ancient times. They were completely black and thick, clinging tightly to Arthur's wrists and ankles.
The patterns that formed disappeared within the handcuffs and images of Titans and Gods took their place. It was also possible to see, in the wrist cuffs, that a powerful Titan figure, with eyes filled with Rage, was looking down. And in the ankle cuffs, a winged figure with a huge spear also glared upward.
These handcuffs were currently pressing Arthur to the ground, but there didn't seem to be any damage to the ground itself.
Obviously, Arthur was very angry with the current situation, being forced to lie down and with immense pain spreading through his body.
"Aaaaargh!!" Arthur yelled as his arms slowly lifted. His newly regained stamina from the food was again fading away.
But just as Arthur thought he had a chance to get up, the grievous force pushing him to the ground doubled and his head slammed into the ground, knocking him unconscious.
***
Slowly Arthur opened his eyes as the worried figure of Thomas stared at him. He also noticed that his back was touching something comfortable, so he must have been in bed.
As soon as he opened his eyes fully, Thomas noticed and asked, "Did you pass out? Are you still hungry or has there been any problems?" By the tone of voice, Thomas had been waiting for some time for Arthur to wake up.
"No, calm down. I just wasn't doing really well yet and I ended up trying too hard. I couldn't stand it and I lay down on the floor, but I ended up sleeping with exhaustion..." Arthur made up some excuse as he got sit on the bed. He also gave Thomas a reassuring smile.
The worried expression on Thomas's face slowly went away and one of relief replaced it.
"It's already 7:00 am, are we still going to school?" Thomas asked again.
"Already?? Get ready! It's been two days we don't go!" Arthur was immediately alarmed and jumped out of bed to get ready. He knew how long he'd been unconscious and he'd definitely have to come up with a good excuse. He didn't want to miss another day.
As soon as Thomas left the room to get ready, Arthur breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to the bathroom with a frown. He didn't want to show Thomas that he was in too much pain from the recent incident.
He took off the now bloody clothes and threw them into the clothes hamper. He took another shower, to get rid of any odor. The bath also hurt a lot.
At the speed of light, Arthur was ready, and without any odor of blood or anything like that, but with his natural scent. He had to wash very heavily for that, which caused even more pain.
Despite having a white shirt underneath, he had already put on a coat over it, for future accidents.
He went downstairs and Thomas was eating snacks. Pulling him fast, the two left the house and went to school.
On the way, Arthur slowly rolled up his coat sleeves and looked at the black band on his wrist, thin and dull. It was also located on the other wrist and ankles.
Deciding to ignore it for now, Arthur continued to pedal.