Arric Cross

"Ahhhh!"

'What the fuck is this?! Am I dreaming?'

Elias slap himself with both hands, trying to wake himself from the dream he thought he was having, to no avail, since he wasn't dreaming, but awake. Before Elias could try hitting himself once more, the door of his room was forcedly opened.

The person who forcedly open the door was an old man wearing an all black suit, like the all professional butler from a manga he had read before.

The old man rushed towards Elias and pushed him towards his back, shielding him away from an unknown enemy. The old man looked around but didn't find anything wrong. The old man had a sudden realization which made him freeze. The old butler slowly turned his head towards his young master, and saw that he wasn't in any harm.

Before the old butler could heave a sigh of relief, another person walked in, not forgetting to destroy the left door. Elias saw the left door being broken into pieces, and some of these broken pieces flew in their direction with some momentum.

The old butler could only use his old body to protect his young master from the harm made by the master of the house.

While the old butler was protecting Elias, the person who barged in the room with a huge commotion showed up, not forgetting to waved away the broken pieces aside.

When Elias saw the man, he knew that it was the original body's father. Besides the hair, he looked exactly like his father.

"My son!"

The father walked past the old butler who was protecting his son and grabbed Elias softly. He inspected his son if he was in any harm. Before he could finish checking if his son was hurt, another person barged into the room, destroying the right door.

"Ah!"

Elias couldn't help but gasp because of the deja vu he was feeling. Like before, the broken pieces of the door flew towards in their direction but with greater momentum.

The old butler and the father protected Elias from harm. They both understood right there and then that they might have overreacted.

Just like before, the woman who showed up, waved away the debris, and after the dust has been settled, the first thing she did was to cry, "My baby!"

The woman rushed towards Elias not forgetting to pushed aside her husband gently, replacing him in checking Elias if he sustained any injury. When the woman was almost done, she looked up at her son's face to ask him what was wrong but before she could ask, she saw the red swollen cheeks of his son.

"Ah!"

The woman unknowningly released the pressure of her cutivation around her, both the master of the house and the old butler couldn't help but grunt because of the pressure. Due to the shock, the woman couldn't control the pressure she was releasing, the pressure she had released was enough to make the two men kneel on the ground, trying their hardest not to faint from the pressure. The only exception from her unconscious release of pressure was her son who wasn't affected at all.

Even in her shocked state, the woman didn't forget to protect her son from any harm, including herself. Before the woman could wake up from the shock, another incident happened.

"Ugh!"

A gasped full of pain shattered the heavy atmosphere caused by the woman's unintentional release of pressure. The father and the old butler could only watch as Elias gasped from pain. They had no choice but to hope that the woman would wake up from her initial shock, because they couldn't get up from the pressure.

'It hurts! It fucking hurts!'

While the two men were fighting with their full power, Elias, who was suffering from pain, couldn't help but gripped his hair tightly, trying to ease the pain he was feeling inside. Unfortunately, it didn't help at all.

After a few minutes, the woman who had released her pressure unconsciously, woke up from her shock. When she turned towards her son, she saw her son in pain. She hadn't moved on from the initial shock, when she saw another stimulation. She couldn't help but gasp, and before the two men breathe a sigh of relief in surviving the pressure, the woman fainted.

The master of the house, hurriedly caught his wife in his arm. He didn't know what to do at the moment. His son was in so much pain, and his wife fainted from too much stimulation. He was so helpless that he felt he was useless.

Although they were worried, they couldn't carelessly touch Elias, as they were afraid of hurting him if they disturbed him from the agony he was suffering. All they could do was hope that Elias would survive it with sheer willpower.

Fortunately, the man could still have a breather because the only people at the mountain villa was his family and the old butler. At least there were no outsider in the villa to see the joke they had cause.

Another fortunate thing was his wife fainted, if not even him couldn't know the repercussion that would happen to his wife. She was already emotionally unstable, he couldn't let her witness her son's agony.

"Devis, call the Family Pharmacists! Tell him to hurry up."

"Yes, master."

The old butler glanced at his young master one last time before he hurried to call the Family Pharmacists. The Family Pharmacist was at the main house, he couldn't waste time in worrying here. There were only four of them here, and the two was already incapable of acting.

Elias was unaware of what was happening around him, all he could feel was pain. Intense pain that made him wish that he never experienced it. The feeling of his head being pinched so hard that he wouldn't be surprised if his head burst. He had never felt the kind of pain he was dealing with at the moment, not even once, thus within just a few breaths of the old butler's departure, he fainted.

The original owner's father caught his son with his other hand. He could see that his son was still in pain due to his frowning face.

"Why is this happening to you?"

The man couldn't help but wonder why his son was so unlucky.

...

Elias had another dreamless sleep, but his quality of sleep didn't improve due to overload of the memories that were fed on him. When he woke up, the first thing he saw was the same thing when he woke up from the very first time. Unlike before, he wasn't groggy nor ignorant.

It was the room of the original owner of the body he was now currently residing in, or to be exact, his soul resided into the body of someone who had recently died. And the original owner of the body was someone Elias knew through reading a web novel. The original owner's name was Arric Cross, the only child of Baron Cross, the wealthiest noble of the Empire, and Maria Katz, the expelled youngest daughter of Earl Langley.

Arric Cross was fated to die in the web novel in the first twenty chapters. He died by the hands of the main protagonist, in the name of justice and love. Arric Cross was just one of the many villainous cannon fodder of the book, but what made the readers remember him was the words he uttered before his death.

"You only see what you want to see, and believe what you want to believe. What a fool."

After that, he didn't even fight back and accepted his death. It was quite tragic, and what readers loved to sympathize with were people who looked pitiful, like Arric Cross who had died in the first twenty chapters.

It didn't stop with just sympathy, one of the readers made an assumption about Arric's statement being it a confession of his feelings towards the main protagonist and him being fool in love. It struck the readers, since then, Arric was labeled as one of the tragic characters who died by the hands of the person they love.

Elias only read it because he was out of the loop in the comment section. After that, he threw it in the back of his mind, not knowing that the character he had not paid much attention to before, would be the owner of the body that he would occupy after transmigrating

After processing the memory of the original Arric, he knew that he wasn't like the character he was painted by the author. Instead he was like every cannon fodder, he was used by the Author to push the plot.

The memories he received started when Arric became aware of his surroundings. It was when he was six years old. The memories were full of joy. Everyday was full of laughter and love, until Arric turned ten.

At the age of ten, children would be tested if they could cultivate. Once they were confirmed capable of cultivating, they would be given priority of the Head of each families depending on their talent. When Arric was tested by his parents, they found out that he was incapable of cultivating. For Arric, his world that was once full of colors became dull. He wasn't asking much, he would accept anything even if it was the lowest talent level, but his prayers were not heard. He was incapable of cultivating, and he became the stain of the Cross Family.

If it only stopped there, then Arric wouldn't have been what he was in the novel. But, his parents didn't think it through. When Arric was at his lowest, when he needed the most was the love and comfort of the people he cherished the most, he was abandoned and forgotten. Not only did they not console their only child, but three months later, they brought back his mother's Family, who once kicked his mother out of their family just because she was a recessive omega.

Arric's emotion was in turmoil. He hated his parents, but he still loved them. He tried his hardest to show to the Family who bullied his mother their place, especially his cousin who was the most outstanding of them all, the genius of the Langley Family, Julia Langley.

Based on the memories he had received, and his current understanding, Arric didn't really mistreated Julia. He only made sure that they know their places, that the owner of this house was Baron Cross, not Langley Family.

Also, Julia Langley was the cause of the original owner's death in the web novel. So, Elias didn't sympathize with her even a bit. What done was done, but he couldn't help but reprimand the original Arric. He should have given him some leeways to change! An abrupt change might arouse suspicion.

Fortunately, his parents love him even if he became a bad fruit. They even decided to build a villa in the mountain for Elias so he would not be disturbed. Unfortunately, Arric took it negatively, he decided to take his life away with poison!

'How foolish! I despise this kind of people the most!'

Elias believed that him running away from confronting Rowan's feelings for him was not that despicable anymore. Instead, it was quite understanding in the point of view of the straightest person ever, which was him.

'Fine, it's not acceptable! Why do you even follow me even here...'

Elias wanted to reprimand Rowan, but he knew that it was his fault why he was unaware of his transmigration. Why did he drunk until he fell asleep?! He couldn't help but wonder if Rowan would miss him.

"..."

Elias felt speechless with the fleeting thought that came to his mind. It was truly despicable of him. Now that he was no longer in the same world as Rowan, he was now brave enough to have those thoughts.

Elias slapped himself awake. He winced in pain when he felt stinging pain on both of his cheeks. He had forgotten that he slapped himself earlier. Elias wasn't sure what to do, according to his inherited memory, he only had one year and six months before the start of the web novel. He only had a year left to prevent the downfall of Arric's parents. Since he was now living as Arric, he would make sure that they would keep their lives and live through until the main protagonist ascend to the Heaven, it was the only thing he could do for the original Arric. He was no god after all.

However, before that, he had to find a way to cultivate. There were two ways for a person who was incapable of cultivation be able to cultivate. One of them was the Level 10 Elixir, the Elixir of Heavens, which was impossible because the highest cultivation in their world was level 7. Then there was only one option remaining, and that was to continuously inject mana or spiritual energy in his body while running the technique that was compatible with the injected energy. He had to practice until his body accepted the mana or spiritual energy while braving through the pain that would come to him because his body was incapable of cultivating.

Nobody knew this method because this method was only available in Immortal Realm. Since the main protagonist was the Son of Destiny, he met an old man who had escaped from the Immortal Realm. It was like a timely rain, after all, he needed this information to help his soon-to-be fourth wife to leave with him.

Who would pass up a well-known genius Weapon Maker? The protagonist wasn't that stupid.

Elias couldn't help but lament the difference between cannon fodder and protagonist. Elias now had only two options, either he would take the safe method and the unsafe method which could lead to death.

Well, he didn't have ten years to wait so the only choice was to brave through the pain, everyday until his body could accept mana or spiritual energy.

"As they said, pain makes you stronger. I'll definitely avenge your death, brother."

The first thing he needed to find was someone who could inject him the energy that he wanted to cultivate, more specifically a Stage 5 cultivator with his chosen path of cultivation.

Although he wanted to cultivate both energies like the main protagonist, he didn't want to undergo too much pain, once was enough for him. He didn't want to experience another intense pain that could lead to fainting.

First, he had to make sure that his chosen path would not only save him from his fated death, but also would make him strong enough to keep his life until the main protagonist ascended to Heaven.

The difference between the two paths was only at the start, because of the limited resources in the lower realm where he was at, and their fighting style. The magical path was more of a spell caster, while the spiritual path was more of a fighter and tank in games. Although both could learn arts in the later stages, he didn't have much time to grow stronger slowly.

Elias, no, Arric made up his mind. He chose the magical cultivation path. And the main element he wanted to practice was the rarest element, the darkness and the light element. They had the mutual restriction against each other and they would amplify his offense if he cultivated the technique he had in mind. And if he survived his fated death, he could then think about cultivating the spiritual path.