Chapter 154 - A Boon Or A Curse: Into The Swamps arc (9)

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Your summon has killed a mutated being.

EXP: +1000

First Mutated Human killed.

EXP: +3500

EXP awarded: 4500

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Asterios huffed loudly and placed his foot over the humanoid monster's chest while his hammer rested on his shoulder. Everyone except Arnold was shocked, to say the least, none of them had seen the Minotaur before so they were surprised to see him.

"How many times do I need to tell you to control your strength?" Arnold let out a heavy sigh, "I'll let it slide this time since you triggered Storm crusher's ability, but try to control yourself could you?"

The minotaur's glorious smile vanished almost instantly, his head sunk down along with its hammer. Arnold was not expecting Asterios to react this way, since he never had acted like this before.

"Ahem, you did well. Thanks for your help." Arnold said and pat Asterios' broad back in an attempt to cheer him up, "Now go and rest up a bit."

Arnold's praise made Asterios feel slightly better, his head held high again as he disappeared inside the void.

"Who. Was. That?" Nicole rushed at Arnold before he could examine what was left of the mutated humanoid.

"That was one of my strongest summons. however as you can see, he tends to get a bit overexcited during the fights and he often ends up in destroying his target beyond recognition." Arnold answered back and brought his communicator watch close to his mouth, "Talos, the monster has been killed. Have you found the missing people yet?"

"Yes master, we have found their corpses." Talos' voice came through the communicator.

"I see. Gather up everyone and return along with the bodies."

"Yes, master." Talos replied and disconnected the call while Arnold squatted down to analyse the corpse of the monster.

The monster's head was looked like a bowl of mashed potatoes mixed along with tomato ketchup, but the rest of the body remained unharmed.

"You did a good job making that hammer. It complemented the minotaur's brutish strength quite well." Nina complimented Arnold's creationist skills as she pulled the silvery sword out of the monster's hand.

"Who said I made that?" Arnold smiled, his eyes still fixed on the corpse.

"I had a hunch but that smile of yours just confirmed that I was right." She said and squatted down next to him, "So what are you looking at?"

"Looking at the effects that beast crystals can have on a human." Arnold mumbled.

"Wait what?" She turned towards Arnold faster than lightning, "You mean this monster was a-"

"A human, who consumed a lot of beast crystals." Arnold got up and kicked over the body of the monster, "So this is what happens when someone consumes an uncontrollable amount of beast crystals and-"

The moment he kicked over the body of the humanoid, a notification appeared in front of his eyes.

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You've triggered an emergency quest!

• A BOON OR A CURSE:

[ INTRODUCTION ] : You've discovered a corpse which shows the signs of forced mutations due to consumption of beast crystals. However, it doesn't necessarily mean that the beast crystals cannot be used to evolve a being beyond the limitations placed upon them by the nature.

[ TASK ] : Study the effects that consuming beast crystals can have on humans along with monsters and find whether it is possible to evolve a being using the beast crystals.

[ PROGRESS ] :

0/10 attempts to evolve a being.

0/5 monsters successfully evolved.

0/1 humans successfully evolved.

COMPLETION REWARDS :

• Intelligence (INT): +100

• Mystic (MYS): +100

• A hidden reward.

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'I already had a long ass pending quest and you just had to add another one on top of it, thank you System-sama!'

"Arnold, you okay?" Nina placed her hand on his shoulder, "You went silent all of a sudden."

Nina's touched brought him back to reality, "Oh yeah, I'm good just something popped up in my mind."

"So you're thinking the same thing as me?" Nathan asked Arnold.

"Uh... what are you thinking about again?" Arnold asked back, completely unaware of what Nathan was talking about.

Nathan bent down over the monster, grabbed something from around the humanoid's neck and pulled it off. It was a locket with a weird looking insignia on it. Something that Arnold had missed.

"This is what I'm referring to." He held up the locket in front of everyone, Arnold felt like he had seen the locket somewhere but couldn't pinpoint where.

"That's the insignia of White Family!" Deacon exclaimed and took the locket from Nathan's hands, "Every family has a trademark that shows which family do they belong to, like our family exclusively wears black clothing, this locket is the what differentiates the White Family members from the others!"

It was then Arnold recalled where he had seen the locket before, Amanda used to wear one around her neck as well.

"If it's true, then..." Nicole mumbled.

"Then we finally know why the White Family needed crates filled with different types of beast crystals." Nathan completed what Nicole was saying, "I knew they were a despicable lot, but never in a hundred years I'd have thought they'd do something like this to their family members. Deacon track down any and every former member of the White Family who are in California right now, and send them all a summon. Also, contact the other heads and inform them about tonight's happenings."

"Will do sir." Deacon saluted him and left at once.

Nathan then turned towards Arnold, "I know it's your summon who killed but monster but could you allow us to confiscate the corpse of the monster? The council would want to take a look at it."

"Sure, it's all yours. As long as you share your findings with me." Arnold replied.

Nathan agreed and left.

Soon Talos and all of Arnold's summons returned along with the corpse of the men who were killed by the monster. Once all of the bodies were loaded up in a couple of ambulances and everyone left the haunted forest.

Since everything had wrapped up, Arnold decided to leave as well, but before he could leave, Nina pulled him sideways.

"Are you leaving?" She asked.

"Since everything has been taken care of and seeing that Nathan would be busy for a while, I think it'll be better if I leave for now." Arnold replied.

"Um... could you... like maybe stay here tonight?"