Chapter 29- The Offer

Arthur woke up in an unfamiliar room, in a bed that wasn't his. He panicked for a moment, before remembering what had happened. They had challenged the lizard, and Arthur had somehow defeated it, though his recollection of that event was still a little fuzzy.

And then Arthur had finally passed out after the ordeal from the backlash of consuming so many potions, or maybe it had something to do with his lacking memories of the fight. He was already pretty certain he knew what the cause of his strange mental state had been, and he could only pray that his other titles didn’t have some strange side effects like making him think, or rather not think, like an actual fucking animal.

That would mean that this was most likely Mira’s house, and she had probably brought him here to help him recuperate. He certainly felt better, if a little tired, and he looked down at his hands to see that they had been healed, the flesh now perfect and whole instead of the mangled mess it had been less than a day ago.

Arthur stretched, and felt all his bones pop with a satisfying crunch as he sighed warily. He now had another problem to add to his quickly growing list, namely his half-breed title, and though he didn't want to, he’d have to get out of bed sooner or later to see what Mira was doing.

Getting to his feet, Arthur was glad they didn’t immediately give up on him. Walking slowly, his footing still unsure despite the hours it had been since he’d thrown his last kick, Arthur made his way out of the bedroom and down the stairs, taking a few moments to admire the Japanese themed design of the place.

His journey took him towards the kitchen from where he could hear the sound of pans clanging together.

“Fuck.”

He heard Mira’s cursing just as he pushed open the door to see that she had somehow managed to spill milk all over the floor. Looking at the absolute mess of the place and the cluttered cooking utensils, Arthur inferred that she had accomplished it whilst attempting to make breakfast.

It was obvious that Mira had no experience in the kitchen.

“Good morning.”

Arthur greeted Mira with false cheer, unsure of what else to say to the woman he knew so little about.

“There's nothing bloody good about it,” she muttered under her breath, but the words were perfectly clear in Arthur's ears.

“So you're finally awake.” she finally said, smiling at him.

“Took you long enough to stop lazing around.” Arthur chose to remain silent instead of deigning that statement with a reply and moved to start cleaning up the mess around him. He wasn't a clean freak or anything of the sort, but it almost physically hurt him to see the absolute disarray around him.

It was like a group of monkeys had been locked in the room for a day and this was how they’d left it when they’d finally been let out. Mira let him work in silence for a bit before speaking.

“Is that it. No questions about what I used the monster's blood for, or the core I found inside of it.”

Arthur paused involuntarily at the mention of a core. If it came from a level 200 monster, he wondered exactly how much he’d be able to gain from consuming it whilst at such a low level. He kept the greed out of his face however and tried to look as nonchalant as possible. He would gain nothing from letting Mira know how useful they were to him.

“I figured you’d tell me if you wanted to.”

He looked at Mira, who had an amused smile on her face as she shook her head in confused exasperation.

“You know, I just can't figure you out. It's like you’re a different person at times, sometimes a friendly, carefree idiot fresh out of adolescence and at other times a calculating, cold and cynical old man.”

“Which one’s the real you?”

Arthur took a moment to consider her question. It wasn't the first time someone told him his personality tended to flip out at times. Elizabeth had once even suggested he go and check whether he had bi-polar once. She’d said it as a joke, but it had hurt at the time.

“I guess both of them. It just depends on how comfortable I am with someone, the same as everyone else.”

His curiosity finally got the better of him and so he asked the question that had been on his mind since waking up.

“So, did the monster's blood work or not?”

Mira smiled, apparently pleased that he had finally asked the question.

“You’d already know if you identified me. You really didn’t go to the tutorial, did you? To forget something so basic.”

Arthur berated himself for not doing so earlier; it was a bad habit of his, always forgetting that the skill existed. After using identify however, he was left with just as many questions as he had received answers.

Human (Evolved Rank E) level 85- A human who has surpassed the limitations of her species, she has begun to touch upon the inherent powers that lie within her.

He could see that the elixir she had made had no doubt worked wonders as she had now evolved to rank E, but he didn't understand what was meant by the ‘Inherent powers’ that her description mentioned. Mira must have noticed the puzzled look on his face because she gave an answer to the question that was on the tip of his tongue.

“It’s called a trait, and before you ask; no I don't know what they are or what they do, except that they exist and are extremely useful. It's why I got into all this trouble in the first place, trying to acquire one.”

Arthur listened to her vague explanation, before deciding to drop the subject.

Mira claimed to not even know what they were and even if she was lying, he didn't want to use force to get information out of her. Besides, his plate was already overflowing with skills and monster cores to acquire without having an extra thing to worry about. Though he did add it to his ‘things I need to check out’ list.

“So I guess the draconic blood worked then.”

Arthur returned the topic to its original discussion instead. Mira looked surprised for a moment that he had ceased to ask questions regarding traits but then replied.

“Yes it did.”

“Thanks to you, even if you almost gave me a heart attack when you went off script and decided to duke it out with the Liverthion all on your lonesome. But I'm still alive so I guess I can’t really complain. And I WILL do everything I can to repay the favour.”

She really emphasised that statement.

“That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. I need to teach you my alchemy and resurgence skills. I suspect alchemy will be much more difficult of the two to learn as mine is based around poison whereas you’ll have to adapt the skill a little to fall under healing.”

Arthur nodded his head. He had a lot of skills he’d have to learn, from both Frank and Mira, and he wasn't sure exactly how long it would take. It could be anything from a week of dedicated study to an entire year. He just wasn't sure. Mira began talking again.

“If it's okay with you, I think it's best that we start the process next week, on Monday. It’ll give both of us the time to prepare ourselves and I suspect that you’ll need a break after the fight with the lizard just as much as I do after evolving for the second time.”

Arthur considered her proposition. Frank had said the same thing, that they should wait a week before trying to learn anything so that he could better prepare himself for the teaching process. Arthur had agreed, though reluctantly, that it was a sound idea. He couldn’t be impatient. They’d get nowhere if neither of them knew what to do.

Now Mira was proposing the same course of action, and while Arthur was itching to learn some new skills. He could wait for a week. Plus he suspected he’d be extremely busy in the near future if his predictions for the Zaibatsu corporation were anywhere close to what they had planned for him. Or maybe he was just overestimating his self-worth. Arthur finally voiced his opinions.

“Sure, I can wait a week before doing anything.”

Mira sighed out in relief when Arthur agreed with her plan. Though she looked completely fine, she was not ready to even go close to anything ether related for a while yet. Nothing was wrong with her body anymore thankfully, but she thought that it was in her best interests to at least rest for a while before using magic of any sort.

“I'm glad you agree with me.”

“As for the monster core, whilst I am itching to use such a rare ingredient in a potion, I would never have been able to obtain it without your help.”

She began to walk towards her living room, pausing only to dispose of the now empty milk bottle that was resting on her table.

Mira made her way to her bag that she’d placed on the sofa and opened it before pulling out a dark purple orb that seemed to almost vibrate in her hand.

“That's why I'm going to give it to you.” she said, handing it over to Arthur.

“Take it as part of my thanks for helping me out when I needed it so much. I know it's nothing compared to what you’ve done for me and it practically belongs to you anyways, but it's the best I can do for you.

“For now.”

“I promise to repay this favour in full at first opportunity.” Mira then did something he would have never expected. She lowered her head, almost as if she- wait- was she ACTUALLY bowing.

Arthur stood in shock with the monster core in his hand. Whilst he had already decided to ask for the loot from the monster, he hadn't expected Mira to just give it to him without even having to make a request.

“Are you sure? This is a very rare item.” Arthur spluttered, whist inwardly screaming ‘just shut the fuck up and take it, you stupid bastard!’

Mira glared at him for a moment, immediately switching back from her uncharacteristic display of humility earlier before she snapped.

“Not as rare as me and I wouldn't be standing here if it wasn't for what you did. Stop being an idiot and just take it. I already know how badly you want it. You’re practically drooling.”

Arthur smiled wryly and thanked Mira, before inspecting the orb. It was smaller than all the other monster cores he had found, besides probably the shadow panthers, and yet it was far heavier than the others, feeling almost like an orb of iron in his hands instead of the usual light weight possessed by the other monster cores he’d come into contact with.

The core when observed closely, seemed to fluctuate in colour, sometimes so dark it almost appeared black and at others almost violet. He identified it and let out a gasp of surprise.

Unstable Draconic Core (Elite)- Contains Great power ??? ???

Identify has reached level 5

It was the first time Arthur had seen an elite rating on any object and he assumed that it was one step above the rare rating he had seen so often before. The description however, left a lot to be desired in the sense that it contained no information whatsoever.

Still, Arthur expected, or rather hoped, that it would work much the same way the others he had consumed with his standard blood elixir, and he eagerly awaited the power spike he would get after ingesting it.

That could all wait for after he had left Mira’s house however, and he placed the core back on the table for him to take when he outstayed his welcome in Mira’s residence, which he felt was fast approaching. Turning back to the woman in question, he saw that she seemed to be conducting some sort of internal debate in her head.

“What’s on your mind?”

Mira was silent for a moment longer before she seemed to come to a decision.

“Well you see, I’ve got another proposal for you. One significantly less dangerous than the monster hunt we just went on.”

Arthur was curious to hear what Mira had to say. Whilst she wasn't the best person in the world, she at least wasn’t pretending to be anymore, and things were always interesting  when he was around her. Maybe he was actually starting to like her waspish personality a little. It beat her annoying naive girl act from before, that was for sure.

“You haven't been offered any scholarship at a magic Academy since you weren't at the tutorial, right?” Mira asked him.

Arthur shook his head no. The poison mage took a deep breath, hoping she wasn't rushing things. She knew that if she didn't make an offer now, someone would find out about Arthur’s true capabilities soon enough and whisk him away from Earth with a far better offer then the one she was about to give him. She crossed her fingers and began to speak.

“So Arthur, the thing is, I was offered a position at Alvaross Academy, the most prestigious school within 300 light years of Earth.”

She paused for a moment to let that fact sink in before continuing.

“This isn’t just big talk, but the agreed upon consensus by everyone within the Chrollo Empire, whose territory Earth just happens to fall in. As for why they didn’t interact with our planet at all, well that’s a different matter altogether and not at all important right now.”

“The reason I told you all this, is that I’ll be leaving Earth in four months.”

Mira looked at Arthur to see if her confession had affected him in any way. He didn't seem to really care. ‘Well, we have only known each other for a week,’ she tried to reassure her wounded feminine charm but it did hurt a little knowing that her departure didn’t concern Arthur in the least.

“The only reason I’m even on Earth, was because Rakesh, that's the person that offered me the position, a total dick by the way, went against proper protocol and told, no, forced me to come back here to see if I could find anyone interesting that might be good enough to also go there.”

This piece of information, Mira observed, had at least managed to get Arthur excited, which she could see in the tell-tale signs of his slightly raised eyebrows. Something humans did when they were interested in something to allow light to better enter the eyes, even if the item or thing of interest wasn’t visual in any way, shape or form.Arthur seemed to have guessed where the conversation was going.

“Yes Arthur, you guessed right. I’m offering you a position at the Alvaross  Academy. All you have to do is make sure you're ready to leave Earth in four months.”

Mira finished off her short speech and hoped the twinkle in Arthur’s eyes was a good sign that he was interested.

Mira almost felt bad when she saw the hopeful look on his face. She was taking advantage of the fact that Arthur didn't even know just how rare his own talents were to make it seem like she was actually doing him a favour in offering him a chance at going to such a prestigious academy.

Still, Mira didn't think it was all bad. Alvaross Academy really was the best school within 300 light years of earth and even if Mira didn't get Arthur to attend there, he would have eventually ended up at the school when someone saw his potential and referred him there.

The institute had a system in place to reward those who did so, which was also the main reason why Rakesh, a second year student at the academy, was so desperate to get as many people to go there as possible. Mira wasn't one hundred percent certain, but she’d managed to infer that the arrogant man was in some sort of trouble and hoped the merits such a service would award him would help him out of his situation.

Being the one to offer Arthur a position he would have eventually ended up with just made sure that she could be part of his success and also help her build a connection with Arthur before he managed to forget about her. Maybe she was being a leech, but Mira didn’t really care as long as she accomplished her goals. And it wasn’t like she was actually doing anything to harm Arthur.

Even if Rakesh was a snobbish prick, he wouldn’t do anything to actively harm Arthur.  He was far too much of a coward for that. His annoyance factor came from his passive aggressive attitude and disposition of scorn and arrogance.

Arthur meanwhile, had no idea what thoughts were growing through Mira’s head. He was too preoccupied with the fact that he could actually attend an institute of formal learning about ether and its proper usage. It wasn't an opportunity he had expected to come across any time soon, and despite all his acclaimed intelligence, Arthur didn't suspect any ulterior motives from Mira.

After all, he didn't even know just how absurd his own abilities were, just that they were special, and the woman's strange act of sudden kindness was attributed to the fact that he had just helped save her life.

Arthur’s goal of resurrecting his sister was not one he’d forgotten, though he tried not to dwell on it too much since it was still far beyond him. Although he had been in contact with the system for around two weeks now, albeit nearly half that time was with a defective one, he was no closer to achieving his goal.

It was that line of thinking that finally made the decision for him. Maybe he’d be able to find out about resurrection there, and if not, it could at least start him on the process. There was also the fact he still had no idea whatsoever how to use his soul magic despite all his attempts at it.

Arthur began to speak and Mira's smile grew wider when she heard his answer.

~Mira~

Mira sat at her kitchen table, eating the meal Arthur had made before he left her house half an hour earlier. ‘It seems he’s just full of more and more secrets.’

The food was fucking delicious, to the point that Mira suspected Arthur may have used a skill to enhance its taste, but that was just absurd. There couldn't be a skill for cooking, could there? Idly playing with the token she had been given during the tutorial, she realised she only had one now.

The other had been given to Arthur. She felt a pang of regret at the loss of such an amazing item, but reminded herself that Arthur was a worthy investment. She smiled. Life seemed to finally be looking up for her.

Token of entry: Alvaross Academy (Epic) - A token of entry to Alvaross Academy of Ascendency. ???  ???  ???