Chapter 3 - Ron
Arthur decided to explore the gigantic palace. When compared to the other clans, Arthur's new home could be considered unimpressive with its minimal decorations that showed the lack of power the Golden Lion clan had.
The other palaces were swamped in golden and diamond decorations that empathised the wealth and power that those clans had.
When Arthur searched for some high energy food he noticed his senses from his other life were still with him.
At least he could sense the food from far and figure out if it was useful to him or not.
After staggering around for some time, and meeting a bunch of servants and family members that were concerned about his health, Arthur reached a horrible dreadful conclusion…
There was nothing here that could help his body to grow!
He now understood why this miserable child had this unfortunate fate-he and the other clansmen too. Without proper food and the needed nutrients, the body grew weak like mortals.
To gain extraordinary power, the body had to depend on special nutrients; food with much strength and energy stored in it. Energy had to come from a source, and the most common basic source for children was always from food.
In his eyes, this body was suffering from malnutrition, so he had to fix this before planning for anything else.
It explained why his face was that narrow that when looking at his reflection he could see bone protruding out of it.
Yellow crooked and missing teeth showed that Willy had a vitamin D deficiency which explained why Arthur could feel his knees protesting in pain every time he walked around his new home.
As the house was void of any suitable nutrients, he had no other choice but to leave and seek suitable sources of food.
To do that, he had to use the help of one of the servants in the house. Willy was the son of the clan master, so he had a servant dedicated to help him in his daily needs.
That servant always showed up in the memories of Willy, as he was a friend more than a servant. The boy was the same age as Willy, and also lived with him. So it was natural for the two to become friends.
Suddenly, Arthur felt a crushing pain coming from his soul hitting his body and nearly made him fall to his knees. Yet strong hands held him in place.
Distortedly, Arthur scanned the room for the source of his further discomfort and found Ron his servant keeping him upright.
Ron's electric blue eyes were looking at Arthur in concern as his bulging muscles were grasping Arthurs fragile skinny shaking arm.
Before Ron could voice his concern Arthur quickly asked Ron to accompany him to go outside but was met with a surprised frown.
"You are acting weirdly today, why the hell do you want to go outside with the situation you are in?" Ron said with obvious disapproval from Arthur's decision.
For Willy, Ron wasn't just a servant or a friend, he was trusted to speak with him casually and give him advice as well. In Arthur's opinion, Willy couldn't reach this far inside the clan without the aid and advice of Ron as Willy was an idiot that was scared of his own shadow.
Arthur planned to raise his power and help this friend as well. More friends were always a good thing as you never know when they might come in hand.
"Just keep up with me as I don't have time to listen to your jibber-jabber," Arthur said.
"Can you at least tell me where are we going?"
This was a question that kept rolling in Arthur's mind without rest. Willy wasn't an active youth who liked to explore and roam the world. So the memories Arthur got from him about the external world were all limited to his futile knowledge.
Arthur needed to gather more information so he could decide where to go, and the most suitable one for this task was the bigger youth next to him.
"Tell me, Ron, is there a place where I can find a special environment with plants and animals?" Arthur asked.
"Special environment? What do you mean by that?" Ron replied with a confused look over his face.
"Like halos or lights appearing from time to time there, rumours about strange things happening," Arthur replied.
"Well, if you want something like that, then I know a place, and you too know it," Ron replied with more loss and confusion as Arthur was not acting like Willy.
"I know it too, that's weird. Why couldn't I remember it? It must be because of the disease that caught me, which made me lose my focus," Arthur said to him.
"That's for sure the reason behind forgetting simple things, even your simple habits. But it's strange… I mean c'mon, you are a turtle, a lazy person who doesn't like to go outside his bedroom.
Here you are, roaming the world outside the clan head house and asking about the well-known demon forest nearby as if you intend to really go there," Ron replied.
The words of Ron were spontaneous, but they caught the attention of Arthur at once.
Yes, he had a good deal of information about that forest, although Willy didn't visit it before in the flesh because he was too much of a lazy coward to ever enter the forest.
It would explain why Arthur didn't pay attention to this memory when he was looking for such a place.
When he thought about it, this forest was part of the great demon forest, the forest which extended east and west in this world covering a huge stretched distance.
The forest was filled with gigantic trees and starving monsters were unleashed everywhere. Some even said no one ever reached the depth of this forest as the monsters would have caught anyone that was stupid enough to enter there.
However, Arthur's interest was gained through his understanding… The only source of energy that would be useful for him to get substantial power would be from the monsters that inhabit the forest.
If he truly wanted to grow stronger, he had to hunt down monsters and cook their meat himself. However, it wasn't a straightforward task.
The power of the weakest monsters out there would be enough to kill him and Ron.
He knew he couldn't cultivate, and he couldn't train using this world's powers yet. His body was too weak to handle any form of energy, and he even couldn't sense a speck of spiritual energy anywhere around!
Everything depended on this opportunity. If he lost it, then he would live the rest of his life a weak coward, living on the mercy of his enemies' swords.
There was no denying that his powers right now were null, but he had his memories and experiences from his past life. If his strength couldn't help him, then he would prefer to use the tricks he knew from before as a cultivator.
Determinedly, Arthur walked back to his room, Ron hurriedly following behind him until they reached inside. Swiftly, Arthur opened the large oak chest to find his ancient sword that had been passed down through generations of the clan's leaders.
Arthur removed the scratchy material from the sword that was coated in dust as Willy had never even practised with the sword or even took the sword out of the chest to admire.
It was a fine blunt sword with intricate symbols engraved in the handle that represented the Golden Lion clan. The symbol was a large lion bearing its ferocious teeth and it made Arthur giggle in disbelief as he found that there was nothing ferocious about the clan.
Using the sword wouldn't be an issue for Arthur, but he knew the best choice for his current weak state of power was the bow and arrows. He saw them lying in peace at the bottom of the chest, suffocated in the dust and the moulding wood.
Archery was something he loved to use in his earlier life. Although he was well known as a sword cultivator, he was a jack of all trades.
In fact, archery was Arthur's favourite way to fight. However, the issue was he needed many special arrows, ones that could inflict substantial damage with the slightest strength used.
If he had the time, he would prefer to make his own bow and forge his own arrows, but he didn't have the luxury to waste time like this. The only solution he had right now was to use the identity of the body he was using, the son of the head of the golden lion clan.
"Is there a place where we can get a decent bow and good arrows?" Arthur asked as he stopped inspecting the damaged bow and arrows.
Ron looked suspiciously at him as he replied," what's wrong with you today? Suddenly, you became bossy and have a mind of your own.
That disease must have caused significant damage, or maybe it had knocked some senses back into you. A blessing in disguise no doubt!
Anyway, if you want to get a decent bow, then you can ask your uncle, Tridor, he has a nice one."
For Arthur, the name of Tridor was well known to him. The name was repeated many times in the memories of that poor youth, with very few appearances of the actual person in them.
For Arthur, it was clear that the uncle was eyeing the position of the head of the clan. He considered himself better than Willy's father, and his son was better than Willy.
Arthur agreed with him on a single point, as Willy was terrible in comparison with that cousin of his. But this world wasn't built on personal power only, but on blood relation as well.
Tridor was second in line after his brother, which made his son the fourth in line considering Willy's presence.
Willy getting poisoned was too coincidental as recently his uncle has been very vocal on his disagreement with Willy's father.
For Arthur, he could see that everything was linked to that uncle, as after the disposal of the son, he could easily get rid of the father as he would be too torn up, mourning the loss of his son to even care about his position as clan head or even his life.
The road for him to wield the power of the clan would be straight with no more obstacles.
Arthur wasn't much concerned with this weak clan, but he knew he couldn't just roam the world with no roots. This world wasn't like the cultivation world, as rogue mages here were considered outlaws and had a terrible reputation.
He knew that the wretched man had a nice bow, but he wouldn't ask him for that. That bow was the personal property and the pride of his uncle.
Ron knew first hand how precious it is as he nearly got his hand chopped off when Willy and Ron stole it when they were children as mere children play.
Ron suspected him, and it was a test to see if he was Willy or not.
"C'mon, don't be ridiculous, my uncle would rather see me dead than give his beloved bow to me," Arthur answered in a way to expose his knowledge of the tense relationship between him and his uncle.
"Phew, ok that was my bad. To get a nice bow, buy it then. I think grandpa Regil's weaponry shop might have decent bows and arrows. Why don't we check it?"
The face of Ron relaxed as he realized his worries were groundless. As for Arthur, he hoped Ron would get used to his new self, as he would be like this from now on and would never act as Willy Ron knew.
"Lead the way then, I have never been to that shop before," Arthur replied.
"You never go out in the first place, so everything here is new to you," Ron said as he moved out with Arthur following his steps as he joked, "I know the road to the big market, that's a place, isn't it?"
Ron just glanced over at him with a soft sigh and a low shake of head. During the way, both youths spoke with each other as Arthur wanted to know more about this world.
Ron was such a friendly person, as his strongest trait being so loyal to Arthur, or Willy.
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