Chương 101: Nothing Will Be Out of My Reach

Time passed slowly. Every minute felt like an hour, and every hour felt like a month. Arthur sat blankly, staring at the white floor. He could not sleep; every time he closed his eyes, he felt discomfort. Why did he need to go through this torture? What had he done that he had to suffer here? Couldn't he just be a regular awakened person, doing normal quests and living an ordinary life? Why was he put through this cruel life? Just what had he done in his previous life to deserve this?

Frustration slowly built in his heart. He just needed an answer to a single question: Why him? There was no answer. Arthur clicked his tongue in frustration as he stood up, stretching his body. He stared at the text appearing before him.

"50% of Remaining Lifespan," he muttered. Before the Awakening era, a human's lifespan was 80 years. After the awakening, a human could live up to 110 years. It was not the biggest change, but 30 years was a huge deal for Arthur's current situation. A sacrifice of half a lifetime just to get his life back. If one were to consider it a good deal, anyone would agree to this contract. Instead of dying right away, they would get to live half a lifetime. However, for Arthur, it just did not feel right.

He had died two times. Both times, he died a cruel death, and both times, it was for unknown reasons by some unknown person. It was simply unacceptable. How could someone get killed so easily? Did he do something to them? As far as he could remember, he had never even talked back to them. It was absurd just how easily he had died. It was simply unacceptable. Filled with frustration, Arthur looked up hoping to see some clouds, but all he could see was a white canvas. What should he do now?

If he stayed here forever, would his family have a peaceful life? Without his verbal confirmation, the contract could not be established by this Notebook. It did not have the authority. He was afraid that if he were to return to his life, his family would become collateral damage, as he did not have enough strength to protect them.

"Fuck! Motherfuckers! Why is this happening to me? God damn it!" Arthur yelled at no one in particular. It was just his frustration. He wanted to ask those people why he was killed for no reason, but he could not do that. He could not even get a Yes or No answer from the Notebook. Yeah, whatever. With this penalty, he believed that if he died one more time, it would truly be the end of him. At the very least, he would not appear in this place and suffer this torture. He would directly arrive at heaven.

That was one pleasant thing to think about when he considered a third death.

"Very well, Mr. Notebook. I accept the contract. Take half my lifespan, give me life, and release me from this hell," Arthur provided his verbal confirmation for the resurrection. He could not take this torture anymore; he would rather die a third time and be done with it. [Verbal confirmation received.] [Proceeding with the Resurrection Protocol.] [You have lost 50% of your Lifespan.] [Half of Lifespan forcefully used to reconstruct your life.] [Construction of life completed.] [Congratulations on a successful resurrection.] Arthur watched the text appear one line at a time, finally seeing the congratulatory message. What a sad bastard, he thought as he looked at the Notebook. Soon after, his senses faded. Once his consciousness half returned, he felt as if he were caught in a landslide. He was traveling very fast, yet he could not make out which way was up or which side was down. It felt very confusing, and this sensation stayed for a very long time. Reading on this site?

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Within a quiet area of a big crater, the terrain remained in a devastating state. The battle had left behind tons of deep scars; it was truly a terrific state to watch. In that quiet place, the breeze slowly blew against an empty shirt and pants lying there in the middle of nowhere. It was the exact same place where Arthur had turned into ash and become disintegrating dirt. On top of that empty shirt and pants, a spark suddenly appeared.

That spark began to burn, creating extra sparks that gathered around to form a ball of sparks. The process continued until it formed a ball of light the size of an adult fist. From that ball of light, lightning veins began to spread in every direction. The veins continuously originated, taking on different shapes and sizes. If someone were to witness this phenomenon from afar, they would see a figure standing and emitting a bright light throughout the body.

What had started as a small spark eventually spread wide and long, forming a human figure. As time passed, the light began to form bones, organs, blood vessels, a heart, and eyes. Every body part took its proper place, eventually forming skin, nails, and hair. When the final spark died down on the eyes, a human figure stood in the empty crater with a naked body. Arthur, who felt as though he had just been on a land slide, looked around his surroundings.

"I have finally come back to life. What a miracle," Arthur muttered. He used to study about the Old Era; when a person died, there was no chance of coming back to life. It was the end of the road. But now, in this new Awakening Era, Arthur had come back to life not just once, but twice. It was truly a miracle. He picked up his clothes and donned them, checking his belongings. It was not much: a Bathory resurrection coin, a Bronze Bank card, and some Night crystals.

Instinctively, Arthur could feel the presence of the Repp and Rouka skeletons, who were still invisible. When he had run towards the lady for help, he had asked Repp to use an invisible barrier on Rouka and itself. That decision had saved their lives; otherwise, those people would have definitely destroyed the skeletons. Arthur looked up at the sky. The countdown was nowhere to be found. He did not know what happened after it hit zero.

However, guessing from the empty crater, the Trial must have sent those people somewhere else, or they had gone back to the Safe Spot. First of all, he was not ready to visit the Safe Spot. He was not even ready to send the skeletons. He thought for a while about whether to send the Hall skeleton to scout the location and see if the people were still there. The last time, he was discovered easily because of its inferior skills.

Now, Repp possessed high-level barriers that could conceal even their presence, meaning he could send it easily to check. On second thought, however, he decided against it. Arthur summoned Brog, the Tracker skeleton.

"Brog, lead us to the quarry cave," Arthur commanded.

"Repp, please use a Protection Barrier on me." Arthur summoned Coburn and started to walk towards the quarry. Currently, Arthur lacked a few things; or rather, he lacked everything. He lacked the strength to protect himself. He lacked the knowledge of what this Trial was about. He lacked the information regarding what all these things meant for him. He simply lacked everything. Therefore, the very first thing he needed to do was obtain everything he needed. And that was exactly what he was going to do.

He would gain strength so powerful that he would not need to worry about anything. He would gain knowledge so vast that he would not need to think for even a second before making a decision. He would gain every piece of information about this place so that he could walk through it like a cakewalk. Once he was finished with this place, everything that happened here would be at his mercy. Brog took a clear shortcut, allowing them to reach their destination very quickly.

Upon seeing the cave entrance, he noticed a few activities. The ants that had scattered earlier must have returned to claim their home. But from now on, it was his territory. No one else would claim it. He summoned the Trio, as well as the crew of Beginner Skeletons, and lastly, Hall, the assassin.

"Everyone, let's do it," Arthur said as he directly jumped from the edge of the cliff. Boom! Arthur landed on his feet, shattering the ground beneath him. The Protection Barrier protected him from the impact. It was basically his armor, and a very good armor at that. The Master and Expert Status skeletons jumped directly down as well, but the Intermediate and Beginner Status skeletons took a few seconds to descend, climbing down through the rocks. Arthur did not wait for them as he ran to start the battle.

His two fists instantly turned into crystal. However, before he could reach the location, a few ants were killed. It must have been the doing of the Hall skeleton; with its superior Master Status, it was flexing its speed. While he was running, he noticed Repp was still gliding beside him. Suddenly, a thought came to his mind: was Repp capable of combat? He had never checked its abilities. Well, he would check later, since they were not facing an unbeatable enemy.

Once they finished their business here, he would relax and check what the Great Grand Master skeleton possessed on its roster. When Arthur reached the entrance of the cave, most of the ants were dead. Only a few remained, and they were quickly cleared by the trio of Coburn, Dolph, and Maan. Once the entrance was cleared, they did not wait for the ants to come out like earlier; instead, they entered the cave. The amount of ants at the entrance this time around was very few compared to two days before.

The team pushed forward, slaughtering everything, and entered the main chamber. There, he saw a few worker ants working, moving some stones here and there. Without waiting, Arthur moved along the same path he had traveled last time. They moved directly to the King's chamber to check whether a new king was already selected and the Faunite Crystals was gathered. But the King's chamber was empty. Currently, they had already found three Faunite Crystal chambers and mined a few, but three were not enough.

He needed everything available in this place; he intended to mine every bit of Faunite Crystal. So, he quickly summoned Zero and sent it to find more Faunite chambers. For now Zero was okay, but it was not enough to achieve his intent. He would find a solution for this issue soon. But first, let's mine the Faunite Crystals.