Chapter 27- The True Number 1

Arthur's eyes widely stared at the notifications as he heaved up and down. At the same time, his injuries vanished completely as all his status bars recovered to their maximum and more. He felt a strong rush of strength course through his body like a raging tide.

His muscles shuddered from the sheer pleasure of that feeling. It was by far the strongest sense of euphoria he had received from this game so far. After all, he had received 4 new levels, and 20 points worth of stats in one fell sweep.

What was even more important, however, was that he was able to escape death at the very last moment. Using the level-up recovery feature, he was able to pull himself out of the brink of death.

"Haha… Hahaha… Hahahahahaha!!" A few seconds later, Arthur opened his mouth and started laughing loudly. His laughter echoed in the entire cave. "It worked! Yes!!! Hahahaha! I'm the best! The goddamn best!"

As he laughed, he covered his face with his hand. What felt even more overwhelming than the newfound strength was the sense of accomplishment from killing something that was stronger than him. Arthur had somehow defeated a boss that was 8 levels above him in strength. He was level 4 and the creature was level 12.

It should've never been possible for him to even fight it, let alone defeat it. Granted, he had to rely a lot on luck. But, what else could he rely on in such a situation?

"The only way I could kill it was to make it completely drop its guard and then use a decoy to take its attention. That way, it cannot defend against one deadly blow and that was all I needed." Arthur muttered as he stood up and looked at the dead monster. 

"I'm sorry, man. When it comes to fights, honor is thrown to the side, only victory is important. I'm not honorable at all." He shrugged as he finally turned away and opened his status window.

[Name: Arthur]

[Gender: Male]

[Level: 8]

[Main Class: Blood Monarch (Locked) 1/10]

[Rank: SSS]

[Secondary Classes: None]

[Main Abilities: Blood Eater (Level 2)/ Blood Claw (Level 4)]

[Secondary Abilities: Blood Arrows (Level 3)/ Soul Fear (level 1)]

[Stats: 

Health: 22

Strength: 24

Agility: 19

Stamina: 20

Mind: 17

Presence: 18]

[Bonus Points: 8]

"Nice! My stats are looking insane!" He smiled upon witnessing the numbers. They were truly far beyond what he expected. "All my abilities have leveled up too. This is really good! But… I did receive one new ability. Hmm, Soul Fear? Very ominous."

[Soul Fear (Level 1): Inflicts fear on weaker enemies for a set amount of time per level. Requires mana to use.] 

"Oh! A fear attack? Nice! That is actually pretty useful! Makes fighting weaker enemies a lot easier." Arthur rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Soul fear seemed like a rather simple skill, but it still was quite amazing when applied. The boy could already imagine a lot of usage for it in many situations. Precisely when he was encountered with many enemies that were weaker than him. Inflicting fear would certainly change the situation a lot.

After that, Arthur opened his inventory to check the three new items he had just received. "The eye better be one of them or I'm rioting!"

Looking at the three new items, he was delighted to see that one of them looked like a black eye. Reading the name, it said 'Fetus Eye'.

"Good! That's really good! I don't know if this is the same young orc's eye Nina was talking about but well, I got her what's better than the eye of a young orc… This is the eye of an orc that should've not been born yet." Arthur muttered as he looked at the second item on the list.

"Fetus orc skin? Eww, that's nasty. His skin looked like that of an old hag." Arthur shuddered. "I will just sell it."

Then, for the final thing, he was quite confused. He had never seen anything like that but if he had to describe it, it looked like a rope of some kind. When he read the name, it quickly became apparent what it was. "Umbilical cord? Why the hell am I getting its umbilical cord for?"

Although that question was the very first obvious thing he thought of, what made this particular item eye-catching was the fact that the slot where it was had changed color from a bland grey to an eye-catching red. That particular detail was something Arthur was familiar with since he played a lot of RPG games.

"Is it the boss' special item perhaps?" He asked himself. Even when he tapped on it, the description only said that it belonged to the Fetus Orc, but it didn't give him any actual explanation on how it could be used. "I should ask Nina about it since she could know something."

With that, Arthur closed the inventory and exhaled a very long breath. Then, he looked up and all around him, only to notice countless corpses of dead orcs. Immediately, his eyes flashed with a hint of greed as he licked his lips.

[Ding!]

[15 dead targets have been detected.]

[Would you like to use 'Blood Eater' ability on them?]

[Accept.] [Refuse.]

[You have absorbed the target successfully.]

[Absorption efficiency 10%]

[+7 Agility, +5 Strength.]

[Ding!]

['Blood Eater' has leveled up!]

Standing up, Arthur went around the place and started absorbing the blood of every single orc there, making sure he gained every single point he could from them. There were dozens of them so the absorption gained him a surprising amount of stats, only to dwindle soon as he absorbed more orcs until there were no stat gains anymore.

"And that's the last one... I think. Ugh, it's finally over. This trip took longer than I expected. Oh well, time to go back and log out of the game. I'm tired."

It had been almost 7 hours since Arthur started playing Divinity Online. Although it didn't feel like it, time had passed rather quickly. Arthur was having so much fun that he didn't even notice it and that was something he didn't feel in a very long time.

"This game is so much fun, it's actually concerning." He muttered. "I didn't even think I would like it this much. I'm completely hooked!"

He felt it the very moment he stepped into the game, and he felt it even more with each passing second. This game had reached his expectations, smashed them, and then soared to the sky like a dragon.

He had never expected that he would truly find something like this that could truly put an end to his boredom. Yet, here it was, Divinity Online had rubbed that itch he had been struggling with.

As he was walking back to Nina, he kept thinking about the future, and what he wanted to do. "I want to first leave this region and head to the last empire's borders. I'm curious about those towers and what they have inside them. Then, I don't know, maybe I can find some way to make some money if I can. Then, uh, I won't be able to have too much time playing since school will come back, but I will figure something out." He muttered as he noted down his next steps carefully.

The future seemed quite exciting and Arthur surprisingly was looking forward to it. That feeling was completely foreign to him so it took him some time to understand what it was. 

'Dammit, it isn't fair for me to be this happy! I can't stop grinning like an idiot! Even these dipshits are looking at me like a weirdo." As he walked through the village, Arthur was kept being stared at by everyone he passed by.

This wasn't something new for him so he didn't care. But, what bothered him truly was the talking of the people around him. Some kind of uproar had suddenly taken over the entire village.

"Look at the global rankings dude! Something insane happened!!"

"Huh? What?"

"Persona! Persona is ranked 1 now! Look at the points!!"

'Persona? Who the fuck is Persona?' Arthur frowned. 'Is this a new player that showed up?'

Feeling curious, Arthur opened the rankings to check like everyone else. That was when he was met with a sudden realization. A realization that only sunk in when he looked at the rankings.

"I… I just killed a level 12 boss, didn't I?... A level 12… How many points would that add to my ranking…? Hmm, let's count…" Looking at the rankings, the math easily made sense.

[Rank 1: Arthur

Points: 3250]

A//N: Hand me all your PS!