Why Are You Here Too?

Jonathan looked extremely punchable. Whether in reality or in the movies Josh had watched before, he had always been an incredibly punchable guy.

But looking punchable did not mean he was willing to be punched. Jonathan decisively moved away from Josh, and the moment Josh assigned them a task, he eagerly dragged O’Connor and Evelyn away at top speed, terrified that Josh might really use him as a punching bag.

Josh shot Jonathan an amused glance, then stopped paying attention to him.

He had more important things to do now, such as carefully studying the sphere-like object in his hand.

Of course, it was not actually a ball. Aside from soccer balls, basketballs, and a certain kind of ball that could pique Josh’s interest, there were no other balls that interested him.

Josh had gotten this thing from Alexios: the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus.

The Staff of Hermes Trismegistus could freely transform into various shapes, making it easier to carry. Josh was not overly concerned with that technique, though. What he needed to solve now was how to extract the life force within it.

As for Alexios, Josh had no intention of letting him die just like that.

In the game, once you took the staff Alexios offered, his face immediately turned ashen, and his life force visibly drained away until he died.

Since Josh wanted to study the staff, he naturally had to take protective measures. Otherwise, Alexios might end up among the people Josh had to revive, which was absolutely unacceptable to Josh. He could only figure something out himself.

"Damn it. I didn’t feel it before, but now that Akathosh isn’t here, I suddenly realize how many things have me scrambling."

"Of course. Who do you think I am? I’m the great Sky Wing! And you’re the bastard!"

While Josh had been pondering how to handle Alexios, he could not help wondering whether things would have been easier if he had brought that dragon along. Then, a voice suddenly sounded beside him.

When he turned around, Josh saw a silver dragon hatchling staring at him with utter disdain.

"Damn it! Why are you here?" Josh was startled by the guy’s sudden appearance.

"Why wouldn’t I be here?"

"When I called you before, you didn’t react at all. And I checked my tattoo—you weren’t in there!"

"That’s because I advanced. To put it simply, I’m a Void creature now. When I advanced, I directly became a Void element. Even I didn’t expect that, so it’s normal that you couldn’t find me."

"Wait! Does that mean you can see everything I do?" Josh asked, his face darkening.

"Of course." Akathosh nodded as if it were only natural. Seeing Josh’s expression grow uglier, he suddenly grinned. "I can’t."

"What do you mean?"

"I became a Void element, so naturally I don’t have any senses. I just went to sleep. How the hell would I know what you did? Besides, all that human crap in your head—I almost threw up just looking at it!"

"Is that so?"

Josh eyed Akathosh suspiciously. Akathosh did indeed strike him as thoroughly unpleasant, but the answer he had given left Josh with no grounds to argue.

In the end, Josh could only nod with a dark expression, accepting Akathosh’s explanation.

Although Josh did not look pleased, having Akathosh around did save him a great deal of trouble.

Garen had inherited some of Josh’s memories, but he could not possibly compare to Akathosh. After only briefly understanding the situation, Akathosh immediately grasped Josh’s intentions.

"You want me to seal Alexios’s life force so it won’t drain away? I can do that, though it’ll be rather troublesome. I’ll have to think carefully—I never liked this kind of sealing magic to begin with."

"You’re worried that you sealed someone away and then forgot, only for you to die while your enemy stayed trapped in the seal?"

"Idiot. I’d just wipe out my enemies directly, all right?"

It did not take Akathosh long to come up with a sealing method and directly seal away Alexios’s life force.

Fortunately, this was a world with a relatively low upper limit. Akathosh had advanced straight to the Sixth Tier this time, surpassing the world’s limits. Otherwise, he probably would not have been able to accomplish this so easily.

Life had always been a rather taboo subject. Otherwise, people like Josh would not be called cultivators who defied the heavens. After all, in any world, the lifespan of every living being had a limit, and breaking through that limit was equivalent to breaking the rules.

Sealing a living being’s life so it would not fade away violated those rules even more. It could be said to be even less tolerated by the rules than cultivation that broke through the limits of life.

Of course, that lack of tolerance was relative. If the caster surpassed those rules, then the rules were worthless. Akathosh was exactly like that.

Holding the bronze sphere the staff had transformed into, Josh pondered how to draw out the life force inside. Garen and Natasha had gone to help O’Connor and the others, while Alexios was adapting to his state after suddenly losing the staff’s support. Fortunately, he had already begun learning Battle Qi and had made some progress, allowing him to adapt fairly quickly.

"This is the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus?" Akathosh perched on Josh’s shoulder, staring at the bronze sphere in confusion.

"What else would it be?"

"The life force inside is indeed abundant, and it continuously generates more life force on its own. But the grade of that life force is really low."

"Of course. I expected that much. I just don’t know whether the life force in here is enough to bring Imhotep fully back to life."

"Why not just try it? Also, for extracting life force, you could consider using magical guidance."

"Magical guidance?"

Josh rubbed his chin. Magical guidance was essentially the same as magical control. It was not that Josh had never considered using such a method, but he felt it might waste a great deal of life force.

Life force was far more fragile than magic power, and controlling it required much greater precision. Josh worried that poor control would cause the life force to dissipate.

"Of course. What other method do you have? By the time you come up with one, who knows how many years will have passed."

"That does seem right."

Josh nodded. Rather than spending an unknown amount of time researching the matter, it would be more practical to simply revive Imhotep first, then learn what Josh wanted from him.

Besides, according to Akathosh, this staff could generate life force on its own. What was Josh afraid of?

Come to think of it, Josh truly had not known that it could generate life force on its own. That technique was extremely appealing. For one thing, Josh could use it to establish Rivendell’s medical system.

After giving it some thought, Josh decided to have Howard study it carefully when they returned. It would be even better if they could produce higher-grade life force.

With that in mind, Josh directly sent his magic power into the Staff of Hermes Trismegistus. Very soon, he sensed an immense surge of life force.

Slowly guiding that life force with his magic power, Josh discovered that things were indeed as he had expected. Once he guided the life force out of the staff, part of it dissipated.

But it was not a major problem. Most of the life force remained under Josh’s control.

There was some waste—roughly equivalent to more than a hundred years of an ordinary person’s lifespan—but Josh did not care much. He casually pressed the life force back into the staff.

He did it casually, but Alexios looked as though he had seen a ghost.

Of course, he recognized that faint golden energy. He had used it for thousands of years, so he was intimately familiar with it. But he had never imagined anyone could directly control that life force in their hands the way Josh did.

Yet the more terrifying Josh appeared, the happier Alexios became.

He, too, had begun coming into contact with these legendary powers. Though he had only just begun, he could already sense some miraculous changes.

He had accepted external life force for far too long. To be honest, although his body looked exceptionally strong, the aging of his internal organs was obvious.

He knew that once he left that energy behind, he would be finished. But now, he could feel the organs in his body slowly beginning to recover.

The process was extremely slow. After all, he had been aging for a thousand years; it was not something that could be restored overnight.

And with the help of the dragon that seemed to love bickering with Josh, he was delighted to discover that he could actually separate himself from the staff he had inherited from his biological father.

It was a very special feeling. Honestly, if he had been given a choice, he would never have wanted to inherit this thing. The Staff of Hermes Trismegistus was not merely a symbol of life; it was also a symbol of responsibility. The responsibility Alexios bore was simply too heavy.

This responsibility, along with that seemingly inexhaustible life force, had forced Alexios to live through wars and witness countless life-and-death separations. He had even been forced to watch his friends and family grow old and die before his eyes.

Only he remained alive.

Even after all the trials of time, even when his body had nearly been eroded by the years, he was still the same as before.

But now things were different. After that dragon appeared, he felt that his life seemed to have changed. Nothing else mattered—just being able to see his friends and family again was enough for him.

Just as Alexios was lost in thought and emotion, Natasha suddenly ran back. He knew this beautiful woman was Josh’s woman. Though she was beautiful enough to stir any man’s heart, Alexios did not dare entertain any thoughts about her.

"Josh, we found it. Huh? Akathosh? Why are you here too?!"