Chapter 321: Hidden Pride of An Eternal

Very hard, it turned out. Extremely fucking hard.

Uhtred’s eyes were closed, his hands frozen midair as he felt a deluge of gooey sludge slide down his face.

He hadn’t even tried anything yet when the light trace of essence that entered the man’s brain sent it ballooning in an instant. It exploded immediately, splattering brain matter all over his face, body and arms.

Uhtred released a breath and opened his eyes. They were cold and unfeeling as he looked down at the disfigured, headless corpse before him.

He should have felt guilty for doing this. But when he searched, he found not even the slightest trace of it.

If anything, there was only curiosity and intrigue.

Realizing how fucked up that was, Uhtred tore his gaze away from the headless corpse and quickly stood up.

He conjured a bit of water and air magic to remove all traces of brain matter splattered on his body. At the same time, he couldn’t help but analyze his earlier thoughts. He’d been getting bouts of such unfeeling states nowadays.

Perhaps unfeeling wasn’t the word... but rather, a sense of detachment...?

Almost like I’m higher being looking down at someone as weak as this.

"What? No! What the fuck?!" The thought flashed through Uhtred’s mind and he caught it in haste. It was as if his subconscious had simply spoken aloud what he refused to admit.

He frowned deeply, looking down at the corpse. The man was the only one dead; the others who had followed him were simply knocked out unconscious.

When they wake up they’ll see him dead. They’ll know it was you, and that’ll draw unnecessary attention. You know there’s people out there looking for three Champions right now. Any unwanted attention would be bad...

...So,why don’t you just kill them all and save yourself the trouble?

Again, another dark, intrusive thought.

Uhtred shook his head, his frown deepening into a terrifying scowl. What was wrong with him? What were these murderhobo thoughts all of a sudden?

He staggered away from the dark alley and out to the open. He began leaving the secluded area of the city, heading to the main city center. All the while, his mind kept screaming at him that he was being foolish, leaving that body and those unconscious adventurers behind without finishing the job.

Somehow, Uhtred found his way to an inn and paid for a room for the night. He stayed up through the dark hours, battling with his thoughts, wrestling with questions that left him confused and thoroughly dissatisfied.

Through it all, Uhtred realized a few things:

The first was that he really might — no. He really had developed some issues from all the killing that the System integration brought along with it.

The second was that unlike other people, those issues weren’t as a result of trauma or anything of the like. Rather, it stemmed from an inherent, natural urge... it stemmed from the blood running through his veins:

A deep rooted scorn for being weak.

That was the source of it all. The Eternal blood running in his veins was beginning to bare its maw.

Uhtred thought back, trying to pinpoint exactly when it began happening and he traced it back to after he fought that Prime Sapien — or rather, after the source of the Prime Sapiens’ strength was revealed to be from Transmutations.

That was when the thoughts he didn’t want to acknowledge began bubbling up.

Where he saw the failure of the Prime Sapien’s mutated body, his subconscious had compared it to himself and how he suffered no single drawback — how his own body was infinitely superior because it could adapt to a far grander Transmutation with total ease.

And now, inside this scenario world, that same subconscious had reignited because of all this endless talk of superior races.

What mighty Dragonkin race? What noble Elves? What brutal Trolls? I have Eternal blood running through my fucking veins! — were the kinds of thoughts running through his subconscious mind.

The funny thing was, Uhtred utterly detested having that bloodline. Of course, there were massive advantages to it, but from what he had gathered from Towermaster Lorien regarding his father, he held no positive image about being an "Eternal."

He couldn’t understand why he of all people was beginning to harbor thoughts that only belonged to a haughty, supremacist, high and mighty-feeling person.

Thoughts about whether he would be able to rein in his Eternal side... whether he would end up becoming someone like his father, roiled in his mind all night. It was with great difficulty that he eventually found some sleep. And even that felt extremely short.

He was jarred awake before the first light of dawn by a sharp, prickling sensation. He sat up from the narrow inn bed, spreading his senses outward to comb his immediate surroundings.

He detected no immediate danger — at least not for the moment. But he picked up something else... something guaranteed to ruin a day that was already off to a wretched start.

He got up and walked over to the window, parting the shutters slightly to reveal two familiar figures staring directly up at his room.

It was the two elves — Eifrith Ra’Elis and Elion Silverwood. They were still clad in their heavy cloaks, their faces shrouded beneath their deep hoods.

The shorter figure, Eifrith Ra’Elis, suddenly extended her hand in a dismissive, beckoning gesture.

The movement was undeniably directed at Uhtred, commanding him to come down. Not only that, but the way she’d done it oozed with casual disdain, her contempt for humans plainly visible in the gesture. She didn’t even bother to wait for Uhtred’s response before turning away, expecting him to fall into line behind her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Uhtred, who was already battling with his own Eternal bloodline, looked down, his eyes twitching viciously.

"This fucking bitch..." he chuckled darkly.

Smoothly, he turned around, dressed himself, and headed downstairs after them.

All the while, thoughts about why he’d even bothered to avoid them in the first place raged inside his head. He trailed behind them, staring at their prideful backs from a comfortable distance.

They could sense him walking behind them, so they continued forward without bothering to look back.

Suddenly, as they drew near the city gates, the two elves branched off to the left, heading toward whatever secluded destination they intended to lead him to.

Uhtred watched them go, his face an unreadable mask. Then, calmly, he kept walking straight along his original path. He strolled casually toward the gates, giving a polite nod to the guards in greeting as he stepped right out of the city.

At that moment, the two elves finally realized Uhtred wasn’t following them. They stopped dead in their tracks, turning around to watch him completely "snub" them by going his own way.

Uhtred could feel the burning weight of their gazes on his back. He snorted, spitting a quiet curse under his breath:

"Fucking elves... thinking the world revolves around them."

He had his own thing to do. He needed to head to the capital city and declare himself a participant of the competition at a Stele.

However, he had barely taken more than a few steps beyond the city gates when he felt a deadly projectile hurtling toward him at blinding, sound-breaking speed.

He twisted sharply, activating Slipstream Stride to match the projectile’s ridiculous velocity, and reached back, snatching it barehanded mid-air!

It was an arrow made of pure stellar heat, radiating with so much power, it seared Uhtred’s hand down to the very bone.

His eyes went wide in pain, but he held on to it nonetheless, cycling healing magic and ice to try and combat the heat.

Then with a mad growl filled with all the scorn and pride of an Eternal that he was trying to suppress, he spun in the air and hurled it right back to its sender!