Arnold took a suspicious green liquid by his side and washed his hands using it. The liquid masked his smell covering him in the scent of the swamps. But covering his smell wasn't enough. The smell of the dead lurked around him. Next to him were two inhuman corpses... Both of which had deformed beyond recognition. If Arnold hadn't killed them himself, he would've refused to believe these corpses were once human. 

'Devon is out of his head...' Arnold thought remembering that the people he had killed weren't pure humans, but Inhumans who had their body and DNA fused with that of monsters. Especially with those of lizardmen and nagas. 

"Master?" A voice similar to Arnold's echoed through Arnold's makeshift hideout. 

"I'm here. Finish up the report first, Talos." Arnold replied, "By the way, does anyone suspects anything?"

"No. No one suspects a thing other than Lady Nicole and maybe Lady Nina. But Lady Nicole already knew about what you did from the minute I stepped in front of her. Everyone else is oblivious. Lady Nina suspects something wrong but she can't point it out."

Arnold chuckled, "I'd be worried if Nicole couldn't differentiate between you and me. After all, she too has a system. Maybe that's the one who informed her. Anyways, you said you had to take action against someone? Let's see if I remember correctly, it was Caiden. Wasn't it?"

"Yes, master. It was Caiden who caused the ruckus. So I had to step in as you instructed. But I'm afraid I might have overdone it."

"Don't sweat it. People like him deserve it." Arnold smirked as he squatted down to study the corpses, "If there isn't anything else then I think we're done here."

"Apart from the incident with Caiden, there was another issue as well," Talos informed his master.

"The nagas?" Arnold asked without paying much attention to Talos. 

"Yes," Talos replied. 

"Can you handle it by yourself?"

"I can. But I wanted to get your opinion on the matter as well."

"Cut their tails off. Or apart of it at least." Arnold instructed Talos as a vile smirk crept up to his face, "Those fckers take pride in being a naga so losing a bit of their tail should teach them a lesson. But don't overdo it."

"Understood," Talos mumbled and disconnected the call. 

Finally, alone, Arnold let out a sigh of relief before looking through his 'Treehouse'. It was empty, apart from the little Sentry guns that were placed at equal intervals facing outwards. Just a little precaution to defend himself. Then there was the corpse of two Inhumans in front of him. 

"I told Talos not to overdo things when I end up doing the same..." Arnold shook his head, "Well, how the hell was I supposed to know they were so weak?"

While fighting against the Inhumans, Arnold felt like a certain bald guy who can knock out anyone with a single punch. All he had to do was to kick them and bam! The proud Inhumans turned into mashed potatoes. 

Arnold chuckled while remembering how one of the Inhumans was mocking him as he assumed his fighting stance. He claimed himself to be a Tank turned into a brawler and told Arnold to not hold back, because they wouldn't give him another chance to attack them.

Thankfully, Arnold was in a playful mood so he flipped him off instead. This angered the Inhumans more than anything else. They were members of Devon's elite corp, developed especially to deal with arrogant rascals like Arnold. They weren't the best, but the best among the best and he, a fcking nobody, dared to disrespect them? 

One of the Inhumans flexed his muscles ripping his shirt apart and charged at Arnold like a raging bull. The scene almost reminded Arnold of Asterios. As soon as Arnold was in his attack range, the inhuman drew a knife from his back and thrust the pointed tip of the blade to his throat in one swift motion.

As the blade was about to pierce Arnold's neck, a hand flashed in front of his eyes. Out of nowhere, Arnold's hand gripped his opponent's hand above the thumb. The next moment, the Inhuman's hand was crushed like an empty milk carton. Thankfully, the inhuman could not feel pain anymore. So even as his left hand was being crushed, he used his right arm upwards, going in for a deadly strike.

But Arnold was quicker. He brought his right arm grabbing his face. The other inhuman charged in to save his partner but it was too late. His partner was already dead. Blood oozed out from his nostrils and mouth. His cheekbones were shattered. His left eyeball was dangling out from his eye socket, swinging from side to side against his cheek like a pendulum as he remained suspended in the air. True to his name, he didn't look human anymore.

The second inhuman foolishly charged into his doom as well. As soon as the last inhuman entered Arnold's reach, Arnold threw the corpse of the inhuman down, before kicking the inhuman's chest. The blow hit like a sledgehammer as it pummeled into the inhuman's chest. Several of his ribs popped out of his chest like wolverine's claws. His heart, lungs and stomach were all ruptured.

***

Back to the present... 

'Open status plate.' Arnold thought after disposing of the Inhumans. 

___

NAME : Arnold Ling

TITLE : [Crouching figure], [Extraordinary figure], [Perfectionist], [Master Tamer], [Killer Of The Masses], [God Killer], [Forgemaster]

LEVEL : 162

RANK : Cosmic B

SPECIAL SKILL : Devil's Rage

AFFINITY : Ice (Wind and Water), Lava (Earth and Fire), Nature (Earth, Water, Wind and Light) 

[Increase your intelligence to learn more affinities]

Personal details and stats :

HP : 35138/35138

MANA : 20837/20837

EXP : 1250/15000

STRENGTH (STR) : 161[+65] (due to the gears)

DEFENSE (DEF) : 161 (due to the gears)

STAMINA (STA) : 78

INTELLIGENCE (INT) : 241

AGILITY (AGI) : 91

ACCURACY (ACC) : 94

EVADE (EVD) : 78

CHARISMA (CHA) : 86

MYSTIC (MYS) : 155

ATTRIBUTE POINTS REMAINING : 404

POTENTIAL POINTS REMAINING : 214

___

"I should use the points..." Arnold mumbled before getting lost in his thoughts like always. 

Arnold wanted to dump a lot of points to increase his intelligence and the number of his summons but when he remembered that after crossing the 120 point mark on any stat, levelling up that stat required 5 attribute points to level up by one point. And after 240 points, the requirement was increased to 10 points, he thought using all of his points to increase his intelligence and Mystic stat would be a waste. So he used a hundred points to increase his strength. After that, he used 50 points each on Charisma, Evasion, and stamina and 25 points on Agility and accuracy. 

He left the remaining 100 points as they were. As for the potential points... He thought it was better to save them and use them later to level up his abilities as and when required.