Looking behind him to make sure nobody was looking at what he was about to do, Arthur took a deep breath before he finally read the notification in front of him. He knew that what he was about to do now was going to be eye-catching so he had to do it quickly and efficiently.
'They're busy so they shouldn't be able to see what I'm gonna do.' He thought to himself.
This was the first time Arthur was going to use Ink Absorber which was his one and only skill. The skill description said that it would give him extra Ink Points on top of the ones he got from achieving the objective. What was going to happen when he activates it was still a mystery.
With that in mind, he finally activated the skill and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again. For the first few moments, nothing happened.
'Hm? Did I not acti-'
Before he could even finish his thoughts, Arthur noticed something weird happening nearby. One of the dead monsters he just killed was going through some kind of change. Arthur's eyes instinctively went to the dead demon as it watched carefully what was happening.
The puddle of blood surrounding the monster was now turning from the bright red color that it was a few seconds ago to a darker color… Something as dark as ink.
The change in color happened so subtly with no noises or grandiose transformations which made it even more alerting.
"..." Arthur blinked in surprise before he turned to look at another monster. Predictably, they were also going through the same change. In fact, all the demons he killed were going through it.
The sight was beautiful and yet also eerie. To see blood going from red to black was something straight out of a nightmare. This process continued for a good 10 seconds before it finally stopped.
Then, the puddles of ink all around Arthur started slowly rising in the air, drop by drop.
"...!!" The boy was about to shriek in surprise but he held his mouth and watched what was happening in stupified silence. He just couldn't find the words to describe what he was seeing now.
The drops of ink slowly accumulated in the air, hovering above the corpses of the demons until every drop of ink on the ground rose in the air. When that happened, the balls of ink finally started moving toward Arthur at the same time.
From every single angle, they flew toward the boy who was simply rooted in his place, waiting for what was going to happen. For some reason, he didn't feel the urge to move or try to evade these ink spheres. Something about them felt weird. As if his instincts were telling him to simply approach them and extend his hand toward them.
However, Arthur didn't follow his instincts and waited for the spheres. When they reached him, the spheres finally stopped. They were all about a few inches away from him. For some reason, Arthur felt like these ink spheres were greeting him or at least asking his permission to approach him.
"This is insane…" Arthur murmured at the same time as the balls finally moved again. They started disintegrating and turning into thin lines of ink that quickly wrapped around Arthur's body forming what seemed to be a magical dark barrier that almost covered his entire body.
Inside it, Arthur was completely submerged in his own world, watching the scene with complete stupefaction. This was by far the most beautiful feat of magic he had seen ever. Even better than the huge ball of fire Ani created even though this wasn't as colorful as the other one.
However, something about these strings of ink was charming to an endless degree. He couldn't wrap his head around the reason and he frankly didn't have any reason why he should so he simply enjoyed the show.
A few seconds passed and the strings finally started vanishing as they span around his body swiftly. Their density started decreasing rapidly before they eventually vanished out of sight as if they were never there to begin with.
[Ding!]
[Absorption complete!]
[You have gained +70 Ink Points.]
'Oh! 70 points?! That's even more than the objective itself!' Arthur almost couldn't believe his eyes.
He had in total 150 Points which meant that he had just gained almost half of all the Ink Points he gathered ever since he entered MangaVerse.
'Isn't this too powerful?' Rubbing the back of his head, Arthur thought to himself. These Ink Points could be turned into status points or be used in many other ways that he didn't discover yet so gaining as much as he could of them was going to be really helpful in the foreseeable future.
"Arthur!! Are you ok there?!" As the boy was deep in thought, he heard a voice calling for him so he sighed and closed the menu.
"I'm fine! I will be back in a second!" He replied.
After saying that, he approached one of the demons and crouched to take a closer look at it. After losing that much blood, its body was visibly skinnier and paler than before. However, it wasn't easily noticeable.
Staring at it for a good 10 seconds, Arthur sighed and stood up. "I really killed these, didn't I? If I was told a month ago that I was going to be fighting demons in a fantasy world, I would slap who told me that. Or probably ask him for permission to use that idea for my next manga attempt."
With that, he turned around and strolled back to the hero's party. He was no more the old Arthur nor did he want to think that way anymore. He was changing now. His body wasn't the only thing that was undergoing evolution. His mindset was also going through an equally drastic change.
He was still a coward who easily gets scared. But, he was fighting those instincts and facing his fears. Granted, this was a very horrifying experience but considering the fact that this was his first step into this magical world, Arthur was rather proud with himself.
"Where have you been man? We though you got attacked." Mino said to Arthur who finally arrived at where the group was sitting.
The young mangaka looked at the four people with complicated gaze.
'So they're all made out of the same thing I just absorbed… Ink.' He thought to himself as he looked down at his fist.
For a while, Arthur forgot that these people he was talking to weren't real. They weren't from the real world and merely a product of the MangaVerse, created and formed out of ink. This whole world was created out of dark ink.
Perhaps Arthur himself was also made out of ink. In contrast to them, he at least knew that he was real. Yet, for some reason, he felt pain in his chest when he remembered that these people aren't real.
'I guess I grew to like them more than I should've.' He thought to himself. He really did grow attached to each one of them. He grew attached to their stories, to their pain, to their fears and to their strong, unbreakable bond.
They were all the heroes of his magical world. But… They were first and foremost his friends. His friends made out of ink.
"What are you doing standing there, lad?! Time to celebrate!!" Boriat exclaimed.
"Yeah!!"
Their words took Arthur out of his dazed state as he closed his eyes, leaked a sigh before smiling.
"I'm going to eat till I collapse tonight!" He finally yelled as he lifted his hand.
"We're all gonna eat till we fall unconscious!!"
With that, the laughs of the 5 heroes echoed in the vast land, not heard by anyone except by one another.