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I'll post the second chapter of the day there by midnight or something. I got kinda busy and I still will be, so there's no way to finish writing and posting. As I also don't want you to be left with nothing, go this first! :)
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Soon, several police cars surrounded the house as police cordoned off the house.
"Can you tell roughly how long they've been dead?" Jonas asked the coroner.
"It is hard to say. This house is isolated and humid, with many insects and mice, so the decomposition of the body is faster. Evidence was eaten, but I think it might have been 2 or 3 months ago."
"Right. You can continue your work. Has the house been cordoned? We need to collect samples for investigation, don't miss anything!" After checking the progress, Jonas left the house. The smell inside was unbearable, and everything was possible evidence.
He walked over to Rebecca, who was waiting outside as well.
"What do you think it might have been?" he asked her.
"I do not know. But it sure isn't normal. I had never seen anything like that thing..." The vision of the room was still clear in Rebecca's mind. She could almost hear the screams there, as she imagined what could have happened..
"I asked what that black goo could be. It wasn't tar or coal paste or anything we know about. We only knew it was organic. Will the delegate come? This case could be big."
"I don't think she will. There's a lot of legal work at the station to sort out now."
"Really. Since the last delegate disappeared, the drug dealers' case has been all over her..."
'Not to mention all the paperwork that wasn't done out of irresponsibility...' Rebecca thought to herself.
A few hours later, the evidence that could be collected was already placed in suitcases. Blood samples from the room, along with the fingers and black goo were also being taken.
"It's five people. We just need to know who the two are." Rebecca spoke as she looked at the fingers being tucked away.
"How do you know?" Jonas asked, curious.
"All three corpses have all fingers, so those fingers have to be someone else's. You may have noticed too, but there are strong blood footprints coming out of that room. The footprints have all the toes, which indicates that someone killed four people here and then took one of the bodies, who was probably tortured in that room, or the killer is just a sadist who cut off the victim's fingers without purpose." Rebecca gave her analysis succinctly and without interruption. One would even suspect that she was seeing everything that happened in front of her.
"Makes a lot of sense. Let's wait for the blood tests. I think two days will be enough to gather the victims' identities." Jonas spoke as he got into the squad car.
The house had already been cordoned off as evidence and no one would come near it. It would be under surveillance now.
Two days later, Rebecca was in a loose dress shirt, no bra and only underwear. She was eating popcorn while looking for something to watch. Since the day she found those bodies she hasn't been able to eat anything without wanting to throw up afterwards. Popcorn was the only food good enough for now.
"No... no no... it can't be!" A woman passed quickly in front of the television. This woman was almost identical to Rebecca, but the traces of age and stress had already crept into her face. You could see her desperate gaze as she eagerly searched for something.
"What is it, mother? Why are you like this?" Rebecca noticed her mother's condition and turned off the TV. She got up and walked over to her. "What are you looking for?"
"No, no. It can't be him!" The woman kept saying the same thing as she looked everywhere in the room. After much searching, the woman found a small box. Tears were already threatening to run down her beautiful, weathered face.
Rebecca's gaze was drawn to the box, and a worried expression appeared on her face. "Mother, you need to forget the past. We already came here after separating from the da- that man. It doesn't have to be like this. If we can find him then it's luck." She said as she hugged her mother. They had come a long way in hopes of a small piece of information her mother had found.
"Exam results! Where are they?" The woman ignored her daughter as she opened the box and searched for a specific document.
"What are you- hey!" Rebecca wanted to ask what was going on, but her mother had already run away with a frayed paper in her hand.. It was possible to see that that paper had been reconstructed after being torn apart, as it was full of tape.
Accompanying her mother, she entered her office and saw her sitting at a table full of papers. They were papers of authorizations, legalities, and other things responsible to a delegate.
The woman was currently analyzing two pieces of paper.
"O-, anemia, weakness, allergy to paracetamol... that's him! It's him!" Almost bursting into tears, the woman continued reading the papers, which looked identical and were the same person.
She was the sheriff, so she knew very well what had happened in this case and the suspicions. She had taken the exams to read out of curiosity now. When she was reading the missing person's, those same diseases, same allergies, same blood type and even the same DNA, despair began to reach her heart.
"Mom, what happened?" Rebecca had already arrived behind her and also started reading the papers. Her worried expression began to change to one of despair as well. "No, it can't be... it can't be him... what are the chances..."
"It's him! There's no denying it! I'm going to the police station, this case is now a priority. I'm going to hire some investigators from Recife, I want to know where he is! I'll only rest when I see his body." The woman had already made up her mind. She wiped her eyes and went to get dressed. Her many years dealing with traumatic cases had already taught her about priorities. "I already lost you once, and it won't happen again..."
Rebecca remained standing in her office, looking at the two sheets.
"How can it be him... why does it have to be you..." Tears were faster than Rebecca's willpower and were already running down her cheeks.
"Brother..."
***
...
...
...
"This fucking hurts!" Through gritted teeth, Arthur turned off the shock machine. He was breathing rapidly as he recovered.. The Mana was circulating in his body and prompting the cells to regenerate everything faster, while the Force guided everything to the right place and calmed his heart.
In those two days of pure night torture, Arthur didn't sleep a wink as he continued with this hellish training. It was an ordinary and normal day during the morning, while at night he subjected himself to this torture in order to become stronger and get rid of the reactions.
In the meantime, he had already made a basic mechanism with the rod. It was standing and with several wires connected to him. The end that transmitted the electrical discharge was connected by cables to the metal chair that Arthur was sitting on. The button on the stick had also been broken and connected with a button that was in his hand. The power of the rod was directly linked to the power of the house, acting as more of a mediator than a source of electricity.
From the previous night's learning, he knew that what he had unlocked on the rod was some system that regulated the intensity of the shock. Basically, it was pure physics. The rod had an output of 100 volts, while it was possible to regulate the amperage. Soon, a watt charge was poured into Arthur's body, which was converted into exp, which was then used to break the seal.
Through this training over these two days, Arthur forcibly tempered his body with electricity. The night before, he could only handle 200 watts of power, and now he could handle 300 watts. It was always enough to make him want to die.
At the same time, he also found that his reactions didn't stop, just that they were at different intervals. Sometimes it took 10 hours, sometimes 15. The minimum was 10, while the maximum was 20 hours. He was almost suspended from school for spending an entire class's time in the bathroom.
Thanks to this hellish training, the amount he got in two nights was the same as he got from a full day of torture earlier.
Statistics Panel |
[Level: 6] (10000/30000)
[Name: Arthur (???)]
[Race: (???)]
[HP: 4250]
[MP: 1700]
[Karma]
•Good: 350•
•Evil: 1534•
[Statistics]
•Strength: 290•
•Agility: 300•
•Vitality: 425•
•Constitution: 425•
•Intelligence: 340•
•Resilience: 700•
[Skills]
• Constellation •
• Absorption •
• Will •
• Abyss •
• Force •
• Demonic* •
• Impetus* •
• Golden Blood •
• Mithril Body •
• Cold Blood •
[Techniques]
• Universes Absorber Technique •
• Heavenly Flow Technique •
[Ultimate Abilities]
• Vision of Soul •
• God Body •
It was possible to see from his statistics the amount of stress his body and mind had suffered. The constant destruction and repair was making his body grow stronger. And taking it all as calmly as he was trying to, made his Resilience skyrocket.
The amount of food Arthur ate during that time was enough to feed a family of 4 for an entire month.
Even so, the expense was not greater because his time observing and training with mana allowed him to have much greater control with it. He was already able to control it very well, and even healing with it was no longer a big problem. The healing value was small, as was the amount of mana he had now. One cool thing he also learned was to speed up the electrical energy conversion process. This caused him to absorb 30% more in those 10 minutes he could handle.
Another very impressive thing is also that his passive skills 'Golden Blood', 'Mithril Body' and 'Constellation' seemed to absorb some of the converted energy and constantly operated on Arthur's body, making him more robust, healthy and mentally strong. He even grew another two centimeters, reaching 1.85m.
"Help, honey?" Amanda appeared just as the elevator doors opened.
"If it's not too much to ask..." Arthur was still taking a deep breath, but his shocked skin had already begun to regain a healthy color.
Amanda went to him and untied the knots on his wrists. He had put it there so he wouldn't shake too much and fall off his chair. This happened the first night, and it wasn't pleasant to lose control of the button that controls the shock.
Standing up, Arthur looked at Amanda and his eyes gleamed in confusion.
"You're lower."
"And you look better!" Amanda ran her finger over Arthur's musculature. He literally went through the process of burning fat, making his body look more sculpted, but not ugly.
"Shut up!" Arthur pushed Amanda's head lightly. "I'm going up. I have a meeting at the guild and I also need to think about the manpower we are going to use in the construction. Do you already have all the details ready?" Arthur walked towards the elevator and waited for Amanda to go up.
"Will you leave me alone here? I'm so needy, I've only been working for you and I'm not getting anything!" Amanda pouted on her face and hugged Arthur, almost in tears.
Suddenly, she felt her body lighten up as Arthur lifted her and pressed her against the wall. Their lips were almost touching.
"So tell me what you want..." Arthur spoke, close to her ear. Amanda's teasing was already getting on his nerves. She was beautiful and very hot, so a young man like him wasn't going to take too much.
"Looks like I woke up the lion..." Amanda continued her game and reached out to stroke Arthur's hair. It was a little spiky and smelled of burning, so slight it was almost imperceptible. She came very close to him and said, "Go wash that mane!"
"Fuck it!" Arthur threw her across the elevator, trying to hold back his laugh.
"Hahaha..." Amanda couldn't hold back anymore and laughed when she saw his expression.
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Author Note: I ended up forgetting to change it in the previous chapters. These are the right names for Arthur's skills, relevant to Strength and Agility respectively. I'm too lazy to fix in previous chapters, so that's it...
Good Reading! :)