Once Human, Now a Parasite 318 Chapter 271 : Time

Slowly, Arthur brought Josef and himself closer to the mage while wising Wind Magic to push away the nearby fog. Soon enough, they were only around thirty meters away from the masked woman, who was busy fighting some monsters called [Fire Devils]. They were quite powerful considering the point of view of players and even the mage was having difficulty taking them down for she was a fire user too.

Although they were close enough to be noticed, thanks to Space Magic, they were hiding in a separate spatial dimension, allowing them to pass as unnoticed and remain invisible to outsiders.

Le Orn only needed a single look at the mage to recognize her, he took a deep breath as he was lost in thought while staring at his niece.

After some time has passed, he said:

"If bringing me here without the headset caused me to power-up and obtain the skills I have in the game but what about the opposite?"

Arthur smiled as he expected such a question and replied:

"I was wondering the same too, however, It's too early to test it out. I need to bring a trusted person for such an experiment as the consequences could be fatal."

Arthur was thinking about doing it himself, however, once he enters the game, he'll lose his powers due to the overwritten System. There is also the possibility of that not happening since his System was originally from Astria.

"Hmm, does that mean you trust me? Hehehe"

Josef chuckled as he glanced at Arthur. For his old friend to bring him to Astria and tell him what happened in the past, he must have at least trust him a bit.

"I may not be a good judge of character but at least I know who to and to not trust."

Josef remained silent for some time as he absent-mindedly gazed at Arthur then said with a weird tone

"I may be a money-hungry motherfucker but by no means am I blind or idiot. The way I see it, you somehow managed to come to this world a couple of years ago, which is why no one found you or your corpse. This also explains your current power but I still don't understand how you got THIS strong, it's absurd."

Hearing this, Arthur laughed and didn't deny Josef's words, instead, he added to them:

"Although I was in the fool in the past, not all people I befriended were complete bastards huh..."

In response, Le Orn scratched his head and smiled awkwardly while maintaining his silence. After all he had seen, along with Arthur's powers and how he can teleport from Earth to Astria this easily, Josef presumed that his powers could match the Goddess on Earth if not stronger.

Of course, to ascertain that, he needs to see them fight, not like it'll ever happen, though.

"So, what do you intend to do?"

After a long silence and when the battle blow was getting more heated, Josef asked out of curiosity. With his meager power and low-level, he can do nothing and will definitely keep what he saw to himself but he was still intrigued by what Arthur's plans were.

"I suppose asking you to get rid of all the headsets is impossible. For now, I'll keep investigating and deal with Claudia first, then I'll see how to proceed. As long as nothing urgent happens then there's no need to rush things as I'm busy with other matters."

Josef nodded his head as he agreed with Arthur while speaking

"Do you need my help? I may be a CEO of a gaming company, I still have a lot of connections."

Arthur waved his hand and retorted

"Josef, connections are temporary. With enough power, you can do anything you want and no one would stop you. Do you think I don't have the power to capture Claudia without anyone finding out? I can do it in the blink of an eye yet I won't. It won't be satisfying, I have to do it the right way, the way it should be done."

As he listened to Arthur's words and stared at the latter, Josef felt chills down his spines, his body shook against his will and he could feel a suffocating pressure that overwhelmed him. Thankfully, this lasted for a split second before it disappeared.

The duo didn't linger on the Westia Continent any longer, with a few teleports, Arthur and Josef appeared at the MoonStar Sect. The roof was empty as Anastassia were welcoming Lucy and enjoying a short moment of relaxation.

.......

[Level up]

Although Victoria's face was hidden, under that mask there was a totally dumbfounded expression, one she never had for years. Just a half a minute ago, she was fighting a group of five Fire Devils and she barely managed to destroy three of them only for a High Fire Devil to appear out of nowhere. She knew she would die so she mustered all her powers to slay another one to gain a bit more experience, however, the unexpected happened which led her to stand there, dazed and shocked for more than a minute.

Out of nowhere, the three remaining opponents lifelessly fell on the burning floor and never got up again.

She didn't know what exactly happened and when she took a closer look at the corpses, she still was unable to comprehend how exactly did they die.

Fortunately, the loot was bountiful and the experience allowed her to give up yet the woman didn't feel her usual sense of satisfaction after a tough fight, she just felt startled and a sense of emptiness.

...

Arthur and Josef entered the High Tower of the MoonStar sect and met with Lucy and the rest at a wide room beautifully decorated and filled with tables which had all kinds of delicacies. Currently, Sonia and Mary were chatting with Lucy, who seemed happy to meet them.

Unlike her usual indifferent attitude, she was actively talking with the two girls and even softly smiling every now and then.

"I didn't expect you to go back this early, what happened?"

Jackob appeared out of nowhere, his muscular body and naked upper half outlined his refined muscles and sturdy figure. He was covered with sweat as he was training a short time ago and only appeared late because no one informed him of the return of Lucy until a few minutes ago so he rushed here immediately.

"It's complicated but it's nothing threatening so don't worry about it and focus on your duties."

Arthur waved his hand dismissively to reply to Jackob and signal him not to come hug him as apparently, the latter had the intentions to do so.

Only now did Jackob notice Josef, since the CEO was shorter than Arthur and kept silent, no one noticed him at first but when Jackob talked, all pairs of eyes landed on Le Orn except Lucy and Arthur.

"And who's this?"-Jackob

"A friend from Earth."

The two women and Jackob were staring at Josef as if he was some kind of alien. Their gaze contained curiosity, they inspected him from head to toe which led to the middle-aged man feeling uncomfortable.

He wore a black tuxedo and had a refined look, this made him look a bit similar look to the nobles of Astria and although they couldn't determine his exact Lv, they knew he was much, much weaker than them.

With the additional skills Josef obtained a while ago, he obtained the Human Language, which allowed him to understand Jackob's words. Instead of being able to talk Astria's common human language, he was able to hear it translated to English thanks to his System.

"Pleased to meet you, I am Josef Le Orn."

Jackob was the friendly type, he walked up to Josef and shook his hand while introducing himself. The two girls respectfully did the same too and resumed talking with Lucy while Jackob wrapped his arm around Le Orn's shoulder and brought him somewhere, excited to show him many things.

Arthur wasn't too interested in that so he sat on a corner and enjoyed some of the laid deserts. He took out Zodiak's notes and carefully re-read them.

He was planning to complete secure Astria and isolate it from any outside interferences, not only to protect the World Tree, which he made an oath with, but to also be able to live a peaceful life once everything ends.

'4th Peace Era, year 183 11th month, 29th day.

I successfully found the ruins of an ancient elven Race that perished during the Titan War. It was mostly filled with defensive formations but I was able to find a secret room that had a high-level Spatial formation that I was able to resist. Against my will, I was sent back in time to the time during the way, it was a weird as only my consciousness was sent but I was still able to demonstrate my powers even without my body. I saw the perishing of this Elven Race, unfortunately, I wasn't able to remain there for a long time and was only able to get my hands on a formation scroll. Although I wasn't able to obtain the item I wanted, the scroll was still precious, however, I wasn't able to completely decipher it to due to my weak Space Magic.

Matters got worse when a Guardian appeared and attacked me on the spot. I defeated it after a bitter struggle but didn't kill it, requesting some answers about the scroll in the exchange for its life. I was flatly rejected and thrown out of the ruins when the Guardian activated the last layer of defense of the ruins.'

'4th Peace Era, year 7514, 2nd month, 1st day.

I managed to decipher the whole scroll but the formation inside couldn't be cast by me, I was inadequate and the materials are too extravagant. The formation is a defensive one, highly-effective against anyone that attacks it from outside. It has three functions, the first it to completely defend whatever is inside of it, the second one is absolute isolation from the rest of the world. Upon further research, I discovered that most of the secret Realms and worlds out there have a similar formation that prevents people from finding them unless a set of requirements is met or if it's destroyed by brute force, which is a very rare occurrence. The third function only applies if one material is added before it is cast, the heart of a fully mature Space Dragon. If the heart is added then the formation becomes able to send whatever is inside of it in the past, the time they are sent to can be adjusted, however, the downside is that they cannot go back, once you go, then there's no return.

I was unable to believe this even after spending five thousand years deciphering this scroll, playing with time is always dangerous and to send back people or worlds in time goes against the balance........'

Arthur stared at these words then looked down at the blank pages with confusion. Zodiak's notes were always complete but this one seemed to be missing some part of it. He wondered about this since the first time he saw it and tried injecting Dark Magic into the paper or do different things but no words appeared as per his expectations.

Curious, Arthur asked his copy

'Is traveling back in time really possible?'

He heard a chuckle resound inside of his ears which was soon followed by his copy's voice

"Why? Do you want to try it? Maybe fix some past mistakes or avoid being kidnaped?"

'No, I know it's not that easy to distort what happened.'

"...'not that easy'? More like impossible. You can't change the past, the consequences will lead to things you can't even imagine. First of all, Time Wraiths won't let you off once you break the balance and travel back."

'Time Wraiths? Then why didn't Zodiak mention them?'

"That's because he didn't literally travel back in time. His consciousness was sent back and although he acquired the scroll, he didn't affect what happened in the past. Time Wraiths will chase after you if you travel back in time with your body, consciousness, soul, and everything else. Don't you know the Butterfly Effect?"

'I know it but what if you're able to get rid of the Time Wraiths?'

"Not possible."

The copy's reply was immediate and confident as if he was certain such a thing can never happen.

'How can you be so sure? What if it was Death itself, or the Joker, for example.'

"Look, you're misunderstanding something. These people are unimaginably strong and perhaps have no equals, but there's a big difference between existing beings and non-existing things. Death exists, has a form, a beginning, and an end but things like Time, or Time Wraiths which are born from the former, are not materialistic things, they are Laws that make the Multiverse. Unchanged Laws that cannot be broken."

Arthur kept his silence for a few seconds before he retorted

'You still haven't answered my question.'

Right after that, he heard a long sigh come out of his copy's mouth.

"No, they can't get rid of the Time Wraiths. To begin with, they won't try to travel in time, they are wise enough to understand there's nothing good from doing that. And if by chance, they attempt to do so, then they must be prepared to cease existing as Time is an unforgiving thing."

Chapter end