Chapter 45: Divine Elixir

Arthur’s coughing worsened before Victor could react, and blood spilled from his mouth as his body leaned forward.

Victor immediately moved beside him and caught him before he could fall properly, while Karl, Leon and Mira followed them back inside the villa.

Arthur was brought into one of the nearby sitting rooms and lowered onto a couch.

By then the coughing had already settled, and he calmly wiped the blood from his mouth with a towel as though nothing serious had happened.

Leon looked at him worriedly.

"Granduncle Arthur, are you really alright?"

Arthur waved one hand.

"Don’t worry about me, I’m alright it’s just some accumulated blood."

Victor’s expression made it obvious that he did not believe him but instead of arguing he turned toward Karl.

"Young Master, bring that thing out."

Karl understood immediately.

His expression changed slightly before he reached into his storage and took out the Divine Elixir they had obtained from Forgotten Cave.

By now Arthur had already cleaned the blood from his face, and at first he only gave the bottle a casual glance but then he froze.

Karl walked closer and handed it over, Arthur slowly took the bottle from him and activated Perception.

[Divine Elixir]

[Type: Special Item — Elixir of Divinity]

[Effect: Restores severe internal injuries and repairs damaged foundations.]

[Effect: Purifies harmful and corrupted energy within the body.]

[Effect: Greatly strengthens the recovery of weakened life force.]

Arthur’s eyes widened as he continued reading, and even his lips trembled slightly.

"No way..."

He looked back toward Karl.

"How did you get something like this?"

"It was one of the final rewards from the legacy realm and I was lucky enough to get it."

Karl paused before looking directly at him.

"I was hoping it could help you."

Arthur said nothing for several seconds.

A faint moisture appeared in his eyes as he looked at Karl, but he quickly lowered his gaze toward the bottle before anyone could say anything about it.

When he looked back up, his expression had already become stern again.

"Don’t look so proud."

Arthur continued.

"You were lucky you came out of that place alive, and now you dare stand here showing off little trinkets in front of me."

Karl’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

Leon looked toward the Divine Elixir and then toward Arthur, but wisely decided not to comment.

Arthur examined the bottle once more before slowly standing.

"Still... let’s see what this thing can actually do."

He turned toward the others.

"Follow me."

Arthur led Karl, Leon, Mira and Victor deeper through the Reed villa before reaching one of the secured passages leading underground.

They descended through several reinforced corridors, passing multiple security formations and sealed gates before eventually reaching a massive private training chamber beneath the estate.

The entire underground area was heavily isolated.

Several layers of defensive formations surrounded the chamber, while advanced training equipment covered the outer sections.

Even powerful professionals could normally train here without allowing much sound or energy to escape beyond the Reed compound.

Arthur walked toward the centre of the arena.

"Stay back."

Karl and the others moved toward the edge while Arthur sat down in the middle and looked at the Divine Elixir again.

For several moments, his expression became much quieter.

Ever since the injury that ruined his body, Arthur had tried nearly everything.

He had once fought on the front lines and but later later moved as rhe Ardent City’s strongest commanders, but his condition had continued worsening until his strength, position and even his ability to move freely were slowly taken from him.

Years had passed like that.

The man who had spent most of his life fighting had eventually been reduced to remaining inside the Reed estate, watching his body deteriorate further every year.

Arthur had long stopped expecting some miraculous cure but as he looked at the Divine Elixir in his hand, a small amount of hope returned.

He opened the bottle and the moment the seal broke, a faint divine fragrance spread throughout the entire underground arena.

Even Karl, Leon and Mira felt their bodies relax slightly after breathing it in.

Leon took another breath almost instinctively.

"Damn..."

Arthur did not hesitate any longer, he raised the bottle and drank the entire Divine Elixir in several large gulps.

For a few seconds, absolutely nothing happened and Arthur lowered the empty container.

Then his expression changed.

[Divine Purification initiated.]

[Severe damage detected.]

[Healing process beginning.]

[Foreign impurities detected.]

[Purging in progress.]

Arthur’s eyes widened as brilliant divine light suddenly escaped from his eyes and mouth.

His body slowly lifted several feet above the ground.

Dark markings began appearing across his skin, some almost completely black while others shifted between deep red and strange shades of purple.

They spread across his arms, neck and face as whatever had remained buried inside his body for years began being forced outward.

At the same time, the old marks covering Arthur’s body slowly started fading.

His grey hair thickened and became healthier, while the permanent exhaustion across his face gradually disappeared.

Leon watched the changes for several seconds before finally looking toward Karl.

"What the fuck... did you accidentally bring back a beautifying potion?"

Karl ignored him, the transformation had only started.

A thick black substance began dripping from Arthur’s skin as impurities were violently expelled from his body.

Inside him, the Divine Elixir continued moving through every damaged section it could reach, passing through his muscles, bones, organs and Mana pathways while repairing the damage left behind over the years.

Then the divine energy moved deeper and it reached Arthur’s damaged essence itself.

The moment that happened, a massive wave of Mana erupted from his body.

The first defensive formation surrounding the arena activated automatically, but cracks spread across the barrier almost immediately before it shattered.

A stronger formation activated behind it but that one broke as well.

Victor’s expression finally changed.

He raised one hand and personally formed another barrier around Arthur, but the barrier immediately began trembling under the pressure.

Several seconds later, cracks appeared across it, Victor turned sharply toward them.

"Move!"

Karl, Leon and Mira retreated at once.

The divine light surrounding Arthur suddenly became several times brighter before Victor’s barrier shattered as well.

A deafening explosion shook the underground facility.

The pillar of light tore straight through the ceiling.

Victor immediately moved.

"Up!"

Karl and the others hurried toward the surface while the entire Reed estate began trembling around them.

Leon ran beside Karl and looked back toward the growing pillar of light.

By the time they reached the surface, the entire Reed estate had already stopped what it was doing.

Servants, guards and workers stood throughout the compound staring upward while a massive pillar of divine light pierced through the estate and reached high into the sky.

The phenomenon was far too large to hide.

Across Ardent City, countless people began looking toward the Reed family territory, while stronger professionals immediately activated Perception and discovered the person floating inside the light.

Arthur Reed.

Another terrifying boom spread throughout the city.

The clouds across nearly twenty kilometres were violently pushed away, leaving the entire sky above that section of Ardent City completely clear.

Arthur remained floating high above the Reed estate while divine light surrounded his body.

For several moments, the pressure spreading from him covered the entire area.

Then Arthur finally regained full awareness.

He looked down at his hands and slowly clenched one fist and the space around his fingers trembled.

Arthur went silent, the Divine Elixir had not simply healed the injuries inside his body.

While purifying everything that had accumulated over the years, it had also repaired and strengthened his damaged essence itself.

Arthur looked toward the city below and finally seemed to realise how much attention the phenomenon had attracted.

His expression changed slightly and the pressure immediately began disappearing.

The pillar of divine light weakened as Arthur descended back toward the Reed estate, while Victor had already started ordering the nearby guards and servants to return to their positions.

Everyone obeyed, but there was no point pretending the event could be hidden.

Half of Ardent City had already seen the sky above the Reed estate light up.

Arthur finally landed as Karl looked toward him properly he totally froze.

The exhausted old man who had been sitting in the garden less than an hour earlier was gone.

Most of the tiredness had disappeared from Arthur’s face, his skin had recovered, his hair had become much healthier and many of the signs of age caused by his condition had vanished.

Arthur now looked closer to a man in his early forties.

He noticed his reflection against one of the nearby windows and stared at himself for several seconds.

Then he casually raised one hand and fixed his hair.

"Hm..."

Arthur turned his head slightly while examining the reflection.

"This Divine Elixir was quite useful."

Karl’s eyebrow twitched violently.

Quite useful, it’s not a beautifying potion that you are judging it’s effect by the kushness of your hair!!?

Leon looked at Arthur and then he slowly turned toward Victor and studied his face for several seconds before shaking his head.

"Victor, you seriously need to learn from Granduncle Arthur and start taking better care of yourself."

Victor’s jaw visibly clenched.

Mira immediately turned her face away to hide her smile.

Karl was about to laugh when a familiar notification appeared before him.

[Congratulations, Host.]

His attention shifted immediately.

[Mission completed.]

The mission connected to curing Arthur had finally been completed.

Another notification followed.

[Reward obtained: Undead Summoning Token.]

Karl paused, together with the Undead Summoning Token he had already received from the Emergency Mission inside Forgotten Cave, he now possessed two.

Then the final reward appeared.

[Reward obtained: Divine Skill.]

Karl’s eyes brightened slightly.

Still, the reward standing in front of him mattered far more.

Arthur was healthy again and that alone was worth more than anything the System could have given him.

Even so, Karl stored the second Undead Summoning Token and briefly checked the Divine Skill before deciding to leave it for later.

One should never reject goodwill.

He looked toward Arthur again and finally relaxed.

Forgotten Cave was over, he had reached Level 99 and Arthur had been cured.

The Anathema problem was certainly not going anywhere, but there was nothing Karl could immediately do about it either.

He released a quiet breath.

Now only the entrance examination is left.

Arthur looked toward Karl, Leon and Mira.

"The exam is in six days."

"Until then, none of you are leaving the estate."

Leon blinked.

"What?"

Arthur looked toward him and then Mira.

"I’ll speak with your parents myself."

Neither of them argued, next Arthur turned toward Victor.

"Stay with them at all times, if anything happens, don’t hesitate to use whatever is necessary."

Victor nodded.

"Understood, Old Master."

Arthur’s gaze then moved toward the damaged section of the estate behind them.

A massive crack ran through the ground and into the building where the divine light had torn through.

He pointed toward it.

"And repair that."

Arthur had already turned away.

Karl raised an eyebrow.

"And what are you doing?"

Arthur stopped.

"I need to go outside."

Karl frowned.

"To do what?"

Arthur looked back at him.

"Meet someone."

Before Karl could ask anything further, Arthur disappeared.

The air shifted slightly where he had been standing before even that vanished.

A soft purr suddenly came from beneath one of the nearby sofas, and Karl looked over as Noctis slowly crawled out from underneath it.

The Black Fang Tiger was trembling slightly, apparently having been frightened by the explosions and Arthur’s sudden burst of power.

Karl bent down to pick him up, but his hands stopped halfway.

Noctis had grown nearly three times larger than Karl remembered.

Karl stared at him for a moment.

What the hell has Grandpa been feeding you?

He awkwardly lowered his hands again and simply patted Noctis on the head.

"Come on."

Noctis immediately followed behind him as Karl headed toward his bedroom, while Leon and Mira also went off to find somewhere to sleep.

After nearly a month in the wilderness followed by everything inside Forgotten Cave, none of them had any energy left to do much else.