Arthur looked at his friends and smiled, shouting, "DID YOU SEE THAT? I JUST ONE SHOT AN AWAKENED DEMON AND KILLED AN AWAKENED TYRANT!"
Kaelen was the one who responded, "YES, WE SAW COME BACK HERE ALREADY."
Arthur did just that, as he thought, 'my Magician "potion" is at 25% digestion already; having an audience makes this almost too easy!'
After giving the midnight shard, he got to Kaelen, the Underworld Armament, to Abner they sailed, chasing after a moving statue. During the time they chased it, Kaelen had managed to awaken!
His awakened ability was called [My Moment]. By touching something that was moving for half a second, its speed will be stolen by him, but due to his flaw, he can't move for half a second after using the speed he stole.
Kaelen wanted to test his new Shard and awakened strength, so he decided to take on the corrupted Builder, a fallen beast, by himself. No one stopped him; they knew he would be fine.
Kaelen rushed at the corrupted builder the moment they saw each other. Eger to test his strength. He used his Dormant ability [Blink] and quickly killed the corrupted builder and got the Sunlight Shard that went to Glorrielle, who awakened soon after.
Kaelen was disappointed by how easily he won the fight since he wanted to test his strength, but he didn't complain.
Glorielle's new ability was called Fusion; she could combine two enhancements to make a stronger one, and she knew what effects the result had.
But she doesn't have a way to know about what enhancements she was using to make it if she didn't know beforehand.
They just stayed on the moving statue, waiting to be brought to the Hollow Mountains.
After a few weeks, they finally arrived.
Arthur knew that they needed to cover their eyes while traveling underground due to the mist, so he was prepared.
Covering their eyes with cloth and sealing them with wax, they were guided by Arthur's dosing rod divination until they finally arrived at their destination.
Killing the Cursed Herald with the Three of them was extremely easy, even though they had to touch the statue before dealing the final blow.
After Glorielle who had killed it, gave the Dusk Shard to Alec, they went back to the Dark City.
They only had to get two more shards now, the Dawn Shard held by a fallen beast and the Starlight shard held by the Lord of the Dead, a fallen Tyrant.
The people of the Dark City greeted them enthusiastically; they were ecstatic that their expedition went so well with Three awakened of their caliber; they believed in their chances of getting the rest of the shards and defeating the Fallen Terror guarding the Gateway!
After their long expedition, they took a break for a few days before getting the rest of the Shards.
During that time, wherever Arthur or his friends went, they would always be treated with immense reverence, as if they were some great religious figures.
Arthur couldn't help but lampoon to himself occasionally: 'I know my beauty is blinding, but to mistake me for a god is too much, don't you think?'
Arthur was slowly getting tired of people looking at him like he was a Messiah; all he did was cultivate for a few years!
As he hunted for fun, having nothing to do before the Battle with the Fallen Tyrant, he saw people looking at him in shock as he went back with the corpse of the poor nightmare creature he bullied for sport.
He heard one of them talk, "Even after having just returned from his expedition, he still does his best for all of us! The Lord of The Mysteries is the Ideal Awakened always fighting nightmare creatures and helping humanity in any way he can; he's always working without rest!"
The one who spoke seemed extremely touched by Arthur's diligence, to the point of tears even.
And the people who heard him all seemed to agree. As Arthur dragged the nightmare creature he killed to the Bright Castle's Nightmare Creatures storage room,
a chef cutting some meat to prepare dinner saw him and urged him to take a break.
Arthur sighed and agreed, "Fine, if you all want me to stop hunting today, then so be it."
Arthur was just walking around the Bright Castle without a destination in mind when he heard someone praying to him.
"The Fool Who Does Not Belong to This Era, please save us! We just encountered a fallen monster, a Cursed Herald, while I was hunting with my two friends; it didn't spot us yet, but it won't be long before it does!"
Arthur quickly pulled them above the Grey Fog and went to where they used to be; he just said he wasn't hunting,
but during the Siege of The Crimson Spire, those Cursed Heralds will be the most troublesome for the Sleepers to defeat, so taking care of them before that was for the best.
Arthur soon arrived, where the sleepers were asking for his help, and shot a bunch of air bullets at The Cursed Heralds wings.
The cursed Herald rushed at him, but now that it couldn't fly, it was easy for Arthur to defeat it.
He dismissed the Sleepers from the Grey Fog as he told them to help him carry the corpse of the dead Herald back to the Bright Castle.
They quickly agreed as they made some small talk between themselves.
One of them said, "The Grey Fog is as cool as ever, man! The Bright Lord dealt with that Herald so quickly, I wouldn't have minded staying there a little more."
The second one said, "The Grey Fog? You were staring at that the whole time!? The dreamscape battle he let us watch while he fought with that cursed herald was much better!"
The third one who had prayed to Arthur Scoffed as he interjected, "Both of you are stupid."
The two of them looked at him as he elaborated, "Don't you get it? It's seeing the Lord of The Mysteries up close; that's the best part!"
The second one responded, "But didn't we see him like every other day since we got to the Bright Castle? Besides, he's got this ridiculous air about him that makes it impossible to take him seriously"
The first one scolded the second, "That's his flaw, you idiot; if he didn't have such a flaw, his aura would be so immense we would faint just from seeing him!"
The third one nodded, while the second one wondered out loud, "I don't know; he says he has a divine aspect, doesn't he? If he did, then why would he get such a useless flaw? Shouldn't it be more serious? Surely it has to be something else!"
The first one thought out loud, "Something else… wait, I got it! His flaw. . . It must be his lack of shame; seriously think about it! He never seems to get embarrassed in any situation!
Even when he fell from the stairs of the Bright Castle because he was trying to see if Abner has a sense of humor by telling him ridiculous jokes and making weird acrobatic techniques, he acted like nothing happened despite almost breaking his leg!"
The other two seemed to seriously consider it, and eventually they nodded, agreeing, "I never thought of it like that to think the Lord of The Mysteries hid his flaw so well... even the ridiculous air around him is all an act... as expected of the foremost genius of humanity! I was completely fooled!"
Arthur had heard everything they had said about him and couldn't help but lampoon in his heart, 'These guys are seeing the invisible connections Alger did when the Fool breathed like a normal person. How impressive!'
Eventually, Arthur and the rest arrived at the Bright Castle just in time for the chef to announce dinner would be ready in 15 minutes.
The chef, seeing Arthur already hunting again, asked, "My Lord, didn't you say you would take a break?" He was angry at Arthur.
Arthur sighed as he tried to explain himself, but before he could, the three sleepers he helped defended him:
"It's our fault, chef; we prayed to him for help because we encountered this Cursed Herald, and the Lord of The Mysteries immediately rushed over to help us!"
The chef sighed as he let the matter go, but not before strongly advising Arthur to take a break from hunting while he rests for his Battle with the Fallen Tyrant, The Lord of the Dead.
They had already made quite a scene, and everyone was talking about it: "The Lord just can't help himself from helping others; even though he should be resting for his battle with a fallen tyrant, he doesn't even look worried. I'm sure it's all an act to reassure us!"
Everyone seemed to agree as they continued talking about how the Lord of The Mysteries is the "Perfect Awakened."
Arthur sighed as he watched the scene unfold, thinking to himself, 'I wanted this, didn't I? Being praised feels nice, but I'm also being treated like fragile glass.'