As he drove his car, Knight glanced at the backseat in thought. More specifically, he was looking at Cesar. After waiting a while, he took out his cell phone. He also took a detour from the hospital.
Calling a number, Knight waited a while before the call was answered. "Good night, Mr Carvalho!"
"Good night. What's the problem? Did something happen?" An old, husky voice spoke from the other end. It wasn't kind, but it wasn't rude either.
"Yes, there was a problem. Cesar was in a car accident and I think he broke his arm so I'm taking him to the hospital." Knight spoke without the slightest hint of a tremor. It was obvious that he was used to lying.
"... Is he okay?" After a few moments of silence, the old man's voice rang out again. Unlike what you'd expect, he wasn't worried.
"He's just unconscious and a little dirty. I can't tell the exact condition of his arm, but it looks ugly. There are no bruises anywhere else." Knight spoke as he looked at the road. After looking at Cesar again, he noticed his chin and added quickly, "Actually, it looks like his jaw dislocated too, I think it was when he hit the steering wheel."
"... okay, it's good for him to learn... take the car to mechanics and don't return it. Bring it here. I have to teach this idiot grandson some lessons before he dies of stupidity. Beep!" As soon as he finished speaking, the elder on the other side had already hung up.
After seeing the call ended, Knight called another number.
"Honey, I'm sorry, but I won't be able to make it on time today. I promise to take you to dinner tomorrow, okay?" Knight's voice seemed to be gentler as he spoke on the phone.
***
Parking the car in the upstairs garage, Arthur entered the house. Upon arriving in the living room, he saw that Thomas and Amanda were eating cake and ice cream and watching television.
"Good night!" Arthur called attention as he entered.
"Hey, how was the date?" Amanda was direct and already asked. She tilted her head at him while still chewing.
"It wasn't a date, it was a meetup. A lot of people... stop looking at me like that, it wasn't a big deal." Arthur noticed that Amanda was looking at him strangely and lied. In fact, he almost lied. He wanted something big to have happened, but the universe was against him.
"What is this thing?" Thomas looked at the rod in Arthur's hand curiously. He was tapping the spoon in the pot over and over again, but not making much noise.
"A deal I won at the mall..." Arthur was vague in his answer and was already going upstairs to change. He was already shirtless, so no one would see the rips. He also walked quickly around the room so that no one would notice the cut on his cheek.
This really went unnoticed by Thomas, but not by Amanda, who was watching Arthur climb the stairs.
"Amanda, come here!" Arthur called from upstairs.
"I'll be right back!" Amanda jumped up off the couch and ran to the stairs excitedly. From the way she acted, it looked like something very incredible was going to happen. As she passed Thomas, she ruffled his hair.
'Why does everyone like to mess up my hair? It's not even that smooth!' He was left wondering on the couch and lost himself in his thoughts as he fiddled with his hair. If someone called out to him, he sure as hell wouldn't hear it now.
In Arthur's room, as soon as Amanda entered, he had already taken off his clothes and was only in his underwear.
"Are you asking me to have sex? I'll take it if that's it!" Amanda wasted no time and already jumped on Arthur's back.
With one smooth movement, Arthur dropped her onto the bed.
"No, I need you to do something. Take it and come!" He tossed her the rod and pulled her into the bathroom. "Under no circumstances should you tell Thomas about this."
Looking at the rod and then at Arthur almost naked and pulling her into the bathroom, a very strange smile appeared on Amanda's face. "I didn't know you were the type to like that..."
Arthur immediately stopped in his tracks and looked at her. He was silent for a bit and then spoke with a bit of anger, "You just think about that shit all day!?"
"Look at the situation and tell me if it doesn't look like it?" Amanda returned while smiling.
"Okay, I have no arguments. Just come!"
Arthur soon pulled Amanda into the bathroom and locked the door. He had already locked the door to his own room as well.
"See this rod? He is yours now. And I need you to do something. See this button? When I speak now, you will press him." Arthur spoke with a serious expression. He looked at the time again and saw that there was 15 minutes left for the reaction. Get on top of it!" He handed her a plastic stool.
"Okay..." Seeing that he was serious, Amanda saved her curiosity and decided to obey.
Arthur then extended his right hand to the staff and said, "Go!"
Tzz! Tzz!
As soon as Amanda pressed the button, a steady electrical charge went through Arthur's body.
"Don't stop!" Arthur noticed Amanda's worried and horrified look and pleaded.
...
...
...
...
Noticing the string of messages, Arthur held the staff in his left hand now.
...
...
...
'As I imagined, if it passes through the heart, the experience is greater!' Arthur thought as he could hear his heart beating frantically and a strange energy began to circulate through his body. He felt that energy was warm.
"Keep going!" He yelled in excitement.
This continued for 10 minutes, and he managed to gain 1,000 experience. He also noticed that the warm energy seemed to be going to the depths of his body and slowly fading away. This volume of experience was constant, and he calculated that he gained 100 every 1 minute.
Just as he was overjoyed by it, the warm energy in his body began to emit excruciating pain. His heart also couldn't take the frequent beating for so long and was on the verge of failing.
...
...
...
...
With a speed too fast, Arthur's HP started to go down, indicating that he had suffered damage that was threatening to his life. This also became quite obvious when he spat a mouthful of black blood onto the floor.
Seeing that, Amanda immediately pressed the button again, turning off the energy. This made Arthur fall weakly to the floor.
"Are you okay?? What the fuck was that crazy thing? You won't do that anymore!" She asked in a worried voice as she helped Arthur to a seat.
"If you don't, I'll do it myself. And relax, I'm really weird..." In a husky voice, Arthur pulled out a bottle of potion to drink. He wasn't the least bit worried about Amanda getting shocked or anything, as he would completely trust anyone who was in his house.
Sure Amanda found this trick of Arthur's fucking weird, but he was kind of right. He was all weird and everyone in the world had their secrets. She was a mercenary too and she knew some pretty weird things.
Drinking the potion didn't help his body much, but it did make his blood circulate faster. Arthur's entire body began to enter a state of regeneration. A few golden globules of blood pooled in the middle of Arthur's heart and made a shocking repair of the mess.
Despite this, the excruciating pain still hasn't gone away, although HP has already stopped decreasing and is recovering very slowly. One could imagine the danger of the situation in the fact that Arthur had lost about 3,000 HP in a short space of time.
'I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I know the system won't kill me. This strange energy must be somehow connected to my heart. I must have pushed my luck too much and caused this. This pain must be the energy trying to break the seal... if not, I'm just a piece of shit with something trying to kill me inside!' The searing pain was keeping Arthu sober and conscious, but also irritating him greatly.
Just as he'd expected, the pain started to fade after a few minutes of rest. His body was still bruised, but now it was numb with pain.
'Damn, looks like I'll have to wait to regenerate all my HP to continue! I can't risk my life for that.' Arthur looked at the HP which was rising very slowly and expected it to be full in about 3 hours. It seemed like a long time, but getting rid of an electrical shock to the heart and fully recovering in three hours was NOT easy.
He looked at Amanda and patted her head weakly, "Is it okay to stay with me late? You can go to sleep and I'll call you later. We can continue tomorrow morning if you want, we have all day."
"This seems to be important to you, so I'll accompany you. I can't sleep either..." She spoke as she gave herself to Arthur's affection. She didn't like Arthur romantically, but she had to admit he had remarkable skills at making a woman feel good. Clearly speaking of caring...
They left the bathroom and Amanda lay on Arthur's bed while he went to the chair. He sat and tried to feel what was happening to his body. He had no method of doing it, but he had pain to guide him.
Without waiting for his consent, black lines appeared all over Arthur's body, emitting devastating pain. This took 5 minutes before leaving, a little longer than at the mall.
Because of the dark, Amanda didn't see anything, and she was almost falling asleep too.
About 2 hours later, when it was already 2am, Arthur woke up from his light sleep and looked at Amanda sleeping.
What woke him was the devastating pain, which he again faced through gritted teeth. This time it was 10 minutes of intense pain. But at no time did he scream, or make any noise. He just stared at Amanda intently and studied her beautiful face as she slept.
'I'll have all day for this...' He thought and closed his eyes again. He really couldn't stay awake and his head felt like it was going to explode if he didn't sleep. The sleep was so heavy that even these pains did not prevent him from falling asleep.