Chapter 18: A Surprise

' ': speaking to himself

" ": regular talks

[ ] : status and store related sections

<Fireball> :silent activation

<Fireball !!> : voiced activation

*...* : action

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When Arthur opened his eyes to numerous notification screens fully cover his vision. Usually, he would found this situation annoying but since seeing these screens means he is still alive and he actually had enough stat points in his reserve to save his life.

While he was under attack of those red bolts of lightning, the first screen that appeared in front of him warned him about his low leveled soul stat so before he passed out from the pain he dumped all of his stat points into the soul.

It took him at most two seconds to do this but in those two seconds, he lived through a level of pain that would put him in a vegetative state if he didn't have the Gamer's Mind perk.

Every single hair on his body felt like needles stuck at his flesh, the mana he guided through his veins felt like it turned into boiling magma and made him felt like he been cooking inside out. The heated mana caused him to lose his breath in his lung and made him unable to breathe again.

Remembering his situation, Arthur took a deep breath and turn his attention to notifications floating at his sight.

[ For reaching 50 in Soul stat you gain perk "Heroic Soul (Unique) " ]

[ For reaching 100 in Soul stat your perk "Heroic Soul (Unique)" evolve to "Heroic Soul (Epic)" ]

[ For reaching 250 in Soul stat your perk "Heroic Soul (Epic)" evolve to "Heroic Soul (Legendary)" ]

[ Heroic Soul (Legendary): You have a strong soul that cannot be found on lower planes.

↳ Learning speed increased by 50%

↳ Resistance against the soul attacks increased by 250%

↳ Effectiveness of soul-based skills increased by 50%

↳ Resistance against the Illusion attacks increased by 100%

↳ The effectiveness of Illusion based skills increased by 50% ]

[ For taking decisive actions to save yourself in a dangerous situation you gain 8 points in your Wisdom stat. ]

[ For reaching 50 in Wisdom stat you gain perk "Empathy " ]

↳ You are able to perceive others' emotional states and use this to manipulate them either pacifying or agitating them.

[ You signed a pact with the spirit of vengeance Helen]

[ Your affinity with lightning increased by 75 ]

[ Your affinity with darkness increased by 25 ]

[ Do you want to exchange memories with your companion "Helen"? (Yes \ No) ]

[ After resting in a comfortable place your HP and MP recovered fully. ]

" Helen? What Helen? What spirit of vengeance??!?! " Arthur shouted.

A voice came above his and answered his question. "That would be me, master. Unfortunately, our contract has caused a lot of pain to you, master. Are you feeling well? "

Hearing the voice Arthur quickly dispel the notifications clouding his vision and saw the woman talking to him, and their current position.

Sunlight shine on his face and blurred his eyes a little and he couldn't really see the woman's face but apparently, dungeon dispelled itself and he was actually resting his head on the lap of this woman called Helen and his companion that he signed a contract with the help of this ritual while he was still conscious Ashena was resting right beside two of them.

Arthur rise his head up to see Helen but he stuck in the midway. The woman in front of him was an absolute beauty that Arthur couldn't even think that there was someone beautiful as she is.

Her tanned skin, her smooth jawline that getting sharper under her glossy vermillion lips that forming the most bright and beautiful smile Arthur has ever seen and mix of light silver～purple colored eyes looking at him with hope, her wavy black hair cut neatly near on her shoulder and finally a faint fragrance that smells like most beautiful flower garden at the heaven.

"I .... Hey ... I.. I'm Arthur. How are you doing?" asked Arthur looking at her face while mesmerized by her smell.

"Thanks to you I finally freeing me from my prison, I am happiest I ever been in eons master."

"Eons? I sorry but how old are you Helen?" asked Arthur

"The concept of age loses its meaning once you reach a certain level of power. As long as you get matured according to your species biology and have developed a firm character for yourself. There is no seniority difference between ages of 50 or 5 million. As for your question Master, I came from a different plane of existence, so the way we perceive time is making age meaningless to us. "

"Well, that's okay I guess... by the way you don't have to call me "Master", I fine with Arthur and How did we actually form a contract, the book I got, only mentions that I would get a single summon and there was no mention of lightning strikes," said Arthur after the Gamer's Mind finally activating and help him calm his mind.

"Explanation of that unfortunate event and my story of how I was able to form a contract with master would too long to explaining If you wish master we can exchange our memories to better understand this situation and of course if you wish this exchange could be one-sided and you can keep your memories from me," said Helen and stand up to face Arthur before continuing her speech.

"As for addressing you with your name instead of referring you as my master, place rethink your decision after seeing my memories. As for I was the cause of the pain you felt... I apologize for making you go through that ritual my master but following your call was the only apparent way for me to escape my prison"

Thinking about what Helen said for a while and calming his emotions with the help of his perk Gamer's Mind, he decided how to deal with the person stands in front of him.

"Done is done, all pain is gone now and since we already signed a contract would last as the rest of our lives I don't think it's fair to keep my former life secret while I'm about to see through your whole life and I already now that connections between us are solid as my pact with Ashena. I can already sense your emotions through our bound and know that your feelings are sincere," said Arthur, not realizing Helen's eyes were getting a little misty.

"So, how we gonna do this? Are you gonna put your hand like Ashena did to finalize the contract or should I do it on my system... Oh, yeah I forgot to mention but I have a weird but convenient ability that helps me massively in a lot of situations... Well, you gonna see it eventually when we shared our memories. "

Without waiting for Arthur to finish Helen rise up on her toes to match his height and kissed him on the lips and start the memory exchange.

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Author Note: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca-e5MrVbVU