《Rise of Anubis - LitRPG Fantasy(DROPPED)》
Ch.1 Graveyard to some.. but a beginning to me.
"Listen up maggots! We are heading to what will most likely be our ends, we fight for our employers and your family''s future. I don''t care if you have to use your teeth but I want at least one kill from each of you!"
Rex Shouted at his company of mercenaries. In a band of some of the most dangerous and elite soldiers in the world, he believed his soldiers need to set an example.
"Yes sir!", the soldiers of the Reaper''s Company responded.
Rex began to chuckle mentally to himself... At least I have some loyalty after the hellish training I gave.
Rex Silverthorn, ex-military, Leader of an elite group of mercenaries for the highest bidder. The Reaper''s Company is his proudest work of this world. Rex is a strong burly western caucasian man. At 6''2" he looked like a strong black lion with long dark black hair. Dense muscles and a clean strong jawline with a rough dark beard covering half his fast down to his chest.
He knew this was his last battle, after the countries threatening each other and starting World War IV. However, this was a little unique. After the previous war, the population only reached 3 billion, so there was an agreement to only sending 3 hundred-thousand of the best to battle it out and whoever wins gets to gain the territory of the other. However Rex knew the truth, this war will just lead to another then another. He took pride in his skills, his harsh military training, and his loyalty to him of what he called his brothers.
Rex looked at the airplane drop door as the estimated drop time will be in minutes. Then he turned to his brothers in arms.
He shouted over the sound of flak; "Death waits for no man. War never ends. Greed never ends. Hell awaits for us and heaven has already left us. We will become death''s messengers and make demons fear us. Remember to make the reaper of death look at us favorably. TO WAR! TO DEATH! TEACH THESE BASTARDS FEAR!"
The one-hundred mercenaries cheered their last cheer and stomped the bottom of the transport plane.
The hanger doors opened and the air rushed out of the plane. Sound of flak got louder, explosions could be seen in the air near the other planes behind the Reaper''s Company.
Rex Saluted his men and then fell backward off the plane with a salute.
...
Ten minutes after the plane drop, Rex landed roughly superman style in the burnt black ground with puddles of water and blood surrounding him. His parachute was cut early about twenty feet above ground to avoid being spotted. Luckily his Nano-Carbon High-Tec 480 armor took the brunt of the drop, which looked similar to a futuristic soldier armor seen in Sci-Fi movies. Also, his cybernetics which took up 40% of his body helped. His arms and legs were mostly metal and part of his head which looked more like nordic tattoos took up the rest.
Rex pressed a button on his wrist in which a bracelet with buttons and a screen were located and took up half his wrist to his elbow. His company''s armors have built-in sonars that can separate friend from foe on a hud in their helmets in which in Rex''s case appeared in layers of metal moving to cover his entire head. Two dark blue lights lit up where his eyes would be on his armor. A hud appeared in his display it wasn''t working properly.
Rex mumbled to himself; "Damn interference, must be from some sort of EMP device".
Rex was a little pissed that his new armor was basically now just a thick metal suit with nothing much special.
Rex took out a rifle on his back, it was a semi-automatic rifle that had a sci-fi vibe as it can shoot laser projectiles which were compressed energy bolts. Deadly, accurate, and limitless ammo if given enough time as it recharges from ambient energy in the atmosphere.
Rex looked on the horizon in the east where hills of black moved on endlessly. Bright flashes of yellow could be seen where artillery and bombs landed on the enemy. Rex knew the drill, the battle doesn''t end until the enemy gives up or are dead.
Rex ran north in a steady run, he could see friendly''s with the same blue lights on their armor moving in the same direction to the north and south of him. He smiled under his helmet, he knew he would set an example of what a real crusader of death looked like.
...
Bullets of energy with colors of blue and red seemed to fly across the land as the battle has been going for an hour already. Explosions rang throughout everyone''s ears as both sides hoped they weren''t next.
Rex was in the middle of the battlefield near a set of ruined walls and debris from a town in the long past. He fired with deadly accuracy hitting an enemy in his head a thousand feet away.
Rex mumbled to himself; "twenty-six".
The enemy soldiers began to notice his kill streak and started to focus on him however that led them to be unaware of others.. which when they realized their mistake it was already too late as an ambush took their lives quietly from behind. This was just one of the battlegrounds and the enemy messed up and got surrounded.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Rex knew of this from commands the friendly army was providing to their own group nearby. He had an extremely good hearing after his cybernetic implants and could give even the best animals with amazing hearing a run for their money. So when the commander of a neighboring country was giving orders and relaying information he decided to get popular to make him stand out and started his killing streak.
When the enemies were cleared out of this particular ruins Rex met with many other commanders and got much information for the enemy''s locations.
...
Rex mumbled to himself; "one-hundred fifty-six".
Rex became the number one priority for the enemy after his killing streak was getting so large and his efforts making a large impact in the war. He decided earlier to camp on a hill with a ruined tower and was fending off enemies of three sides, where east was the largest number. Many would despair at this sight but Rex was not in that group, instead, he had a smile even though he had a burning hole in the top of his shoulder as he knew he accomplished his mission of spreading his deeds.
...
Rex still fought for many hours racking of the body count of the enemy. However, countless enemies also meant countless wounds. Many would have gone unconscious, but not Rex, this was just slightly more painful than a few days straight of his favorite workout. His rifle was blasted out his hands and was ruined after a lucky shot.
Like a quickdraw expert, Rex took a pistol from his right thigh with a similar design to his rifle but a different size and much more compact with a short barrel and fired a few rounds where the previous shot that hit his gun was fired at. He could see blood splatter in the distance from a head exploding. He then took a knife that was across his chest horizontally and put it in his left hand in which was then under his right hand in what many people do with flashlights and pistol.
Rex found a corner in the ruins and sat down. He was exhausted and told himself he was an idiot for not bringing a canteen of brandy with him. He took off his helmet and showcased his sweaty look hair that stuck to him from sweat. He wiped his forehead with the back of his palm and managed to get a large portion off before it ran into his eyes.
He heard footsteps coming from the south of the ruins about a hundred feet away. Rex smiled then sprung up and peeked from a ruined window and shot five shots. Each shot hit an enemy it an instantly fatal area, be it the; heart, lungs, or head. His streak just got five kills higher.
...
It was hour-seven since the plane drop and Rex believed he was on his last breaths. His gun was just shot away in a similar fashion to his rifle a few hours ago. All he had left was a military knife that has already been used a few times and was getting dull. Luckily his armor was a rare full-cover type that only the elite of the elite was able to wear and most soldiers had some spots open like the armpits or neck.
Rex could hear a group of three about to enter the ruined structure which was most likely a house on a hill. He knew the enemy was mostly occupying this section of the battlefield because he hasn''t seen any friendlies for a long while. Rex lost count of his kills but he estimated around twelve-hundred kills. He already accepted his fate and was really happy with his streak.
The three that entered his domain were slowly making their way to the half-destroyed stair that led to the upper floor where Rex was silently waiting. The roof was gone before he even arrived in this building and it almost looked like it was torn from the walls in the ways the walls were destroyed in uneven ways.
Rex was at the top of the steps and as soon as a person was about to pass him he sprung and put a blade through an Asian looking man, Imperials again, Rex thought. The two others behind the Asian man looked more Russian like. They almost fell back down the stairs as they were surprised by the attack. This gave Rex just enough time to launch at both of them before they could respond with their guns. Rex hit both of them launching down the flight of sixteen or so wooden rotting stairs. They all hit the ground and Rex quickly slashed one''s throat killing him by drowning him in his own blood. The other gained his quickly though and tackled Rex back to the ground as he was about to get fully up. Rex hit his head on the floor and got stunned for a second. However, this second was just long enough for the soldier to quick draw his pistol from his side and put two rounds in Rex''s chest. Rex to the bullets like it didn''t bother him at all and spun sweeping the other soldier off the ground and falling down. Rex spun his body in a clockwise motion really fast and pushed himself off the ground, he landed with his knife which he still held in his left hand lodged in the other soldier''s throat. The soldier had his eyes wide open as he was surprised that he was killed so skillfully.
Rex stood slowly up using his remaining energy to walk over to the steps and sat down looking at the two dead enemies in front of him. He looked up and could see the smoking sky that seemed to be on fire, then closed his eyes.
He smiled and talked to himself; "I do not fear death, as death and I am are one of the same. My last breaths are filled with no regrets, no sorrow, no emotion. Death is not the end for me, and I am not the end for death".
Rex knew he lived a life of bloodshed but this was his area of expertise and had no regret for the choices he made.
...
Rex''s cybernetic AI turned back on at the last moment right before his death...
AI Rebooting... Reboot done... Host''s State: ¡°Unconscious¡±... Death 100% Probable... Space Distortion Detected... Time Distortion Detected... Unknown Force Leaving Hosts Body... Processing... Attaching "AI" to Hosts Unknown Force Perceived As "Soul"... Attachment Completed. Downloaded Hosts Brain Network Patterns, and Brain Data Storage.
Unknown Storage and Patterns Detected... Estimation: Host Past Life... Host Past Life Recognized as Mythological Entity... Entity Recognized as "Anubis, The God of Death"... Thought Patterns 95% Compatible With Current Host
Soul Combining Accepted... Ancient God Anubis and Rex Silverthorn Combining... Combining... Combination Accepted.
Soul''s Trajectory Recorded... Soul Destination: "Unknown"... Space/Time/Soul Forces On Host... Destination Time Estimation: 5782 Years.
Host''s "AI" Entering Stasis...
¡
AI Awakening From Stasis¡
Cause: ERROR... ERROR... ERROR¡ SPACE/TIME FLUCTUATION...
Host Has Been Transported... Event: "Unknown"... Estimation: "Transportation to New Universe"... Soul Destination Time: Now...
Ch.2 Anubis...No, Rex?... No?
¡°So who do we have here. Rex Silverthorn... No.. Anubis... No.. Both?¡±.
A man in a nice black suit with a white tie was typing, what looked like an old-fashioned typewriter with a long strip of paper hanging off of it leading down to the side behind his wooden desk. the man was average build but most women would consider him a model from Earth. he was contemplating what Rex Silverthorn and Anubis soul was. he had irregularities before but not as interesting as this one.
¡°Hmmm, I see now. He was from beyond and such interesting events happened. One is a dead god of death, and another a dead soldier of death. How ironic. Skill in both fighting, commanding and killing in both. The same soul yet different lives which are so similar yet different¡±.
The man at the desk started laughing. As an ancient being in the universe meant to guide the wandering souls, he had rarely seen such a special case.
¡°Interesting¡ really interesting. Oh and a little helper I see that was the cause. Pfft. HA HA HA! Oh man, what an interesting event. I''m just gonna go to the restroom and say a soul accidentally snuck past me if anyone asks. I want to see just what will happen. It¡¯s not like it¡¯s not fun to spice things up¡±.
The man started tapping his chin with his elbow on his desk. he was looking at the soul that was floating in front of him and trying to decide what he should do with it.
¡°Now where to drop you. Hmm, I think I know just the place. Let the tides of the universe guide you to your future. I will be watching you, little one.
The man clapped his hands then he typed A few things on his typewriter. He grabbed the small glass orb filled with grey gas, with his right hand he twirled it on his finger like a basketball and then threw it down the hallway in which he stayed. The hallways seemed never-ending, Rex''s soul flew through the hallway for what seemed like an hour or two. A portal of what seemed like it was made of stars Then swallowed the soul.
¡
Organizing data¡ Updating¡ Update complete¡ New Force Detected¡ Force Estimation: ¡°Unknown¡±... New Soul Destination Located¡ Destination Estimation Time: 5 minutes¡ World Discovered¡ Size Estimation: 12x Earth¡ Recording Map¡
Map Projection of 1/12(Current Visual Capacity Reached)...
Spoiler: Map Projection
¡
Rex¡¯s POV(After Death):
I saw my body in a 3rd person view, it was the weirdest thing I''ve ever seen, however, it felt natural at the same time. My emotions seem to have left me as I don¡¯t feel anything after seeing my own death. All I can think was If my A.I, Sam, was online then I would have been able to last possibly twice as long and get more kills. I saw a flashing light on the temple on the head of my body, of course of soon as I die Sam comes back online, I would laugh but I don¡¯t seem to have a mouth on whatever I am. I started to drift slowly up, rising through the bottom floor and passing through towards the sky that was a conglomerate of clouds and fire from flak fire. However just before I was about to pass through the clouds I was tugged beneath me. A pain like I have never felt went through me. I would¡¯ve screamed if I had a mouth. It was as if a billion searing hot needles were driving into me from all directions. Then it stopped and I felt as if I had something back in my body that has been there before.
...
[Host¡¯s ¡°A.I.¡± has been implanted onto: ¡°Soul¡±]
Rex saw the message on the top of his view, it was a series of words that left him flabbergasted. He tried to organize his thoughts but all he could think was, I don¡¯t think that was supposed to happen. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Rex then just mentally talked asking, ¡°Zero?¡±
Zero was the first product of the experimental A.I. by the western robotics and A.I. company in the United Merchants Coalition gifted him for his ¡°dedication¡±, which was the countless experiments that were performed on his body either by himself or the company. Being a guinea pig saved his life more than he can count after his countless battles.
[Hello, Master]
Rex heard Zero in his British monotone voice. It was then he breathed a sigh of relief as he knew he was less lonely now. He then thought where will he be going next?
Rex floated under the clouds for a few more seconds then started drifting higher again through the clouds.
[Master, I took what is called ¡°A leap of faith¡± and decided I tried to implant into your soul to complete my primary directive: Become your most loyal companion. In order to serve you to my utmost ability]
Rex said, ¡°Well shit buddy, thanks for coming along for the ride¡±.
[No problem master, I also took the liberty to find your previous life¡¯s memories and thought patterns in storage, his identity is known as, Anubis, The God of Death]
Rex was stunned speechless, what the hell is going on with my death it seems like I just had a birthday and I''m getting all these gifts from my rich uncle. He knew of Anubis, the Egyptian Ruler of Death, one of his favorite mythological characters. He even used ¡°Anubis¡± as his alias for secret meetings, VRMMO¡¯s in the past before he enlisted the Reaper¡¯s Company, and he even had a backup fake passport under that name, albeit a weird name in this time and age.
[I knew you were interested in such a mythological entity, However you were incapacitated at the time so I copied the information. Would you like to combine with ¡°Anubis¡±?][Y/N]
Rex didn¡¯t even think for longer than one second, and just said, ¡°Yes¡±.
The host has Accepted combination¡ beginning combination, estimated time until completion: 5000 years
Rex read the information pouring across his vision then looked at the time till completion and his imaginary eyes bulged... He started screaming, ¡°FUUUUUUUUUUUU¡±.
Pain shot through his body as if he was being constantly stabbed with burning hot needles and he lost his consciousness.
¡
It was an unknown amount of time later when Rex awakened but it wasn¡¯t what he was expecting when he opened his imaginary eyes. What he saw made him speechless and his jaw was dropped.
An ancient being was sitting on a throne made of black stone, with gold outlining. The throne was sleek and looked study with a majestic ancient presence. Most would kneel in front of the being however Rex instinctively knew they weren¡¯t two separate creatures. They were one and the same.
The surrounding was barren it was if a stone platform with a thorn and a majestic creature was in the middle of a desert at night time. The stars were all showing with great clarity and the night sky would have made anyone want to stay star-gazing for countless years. The sand surrounding the stone platform and the throne was grey in color. Black trees with grey leaves could be seen in the far off distance. A broken scale was laying on the ground next to the throne, it was simple yet completely made of gold. A staff could be seen leaning against the throne in what looked like a shattered state.
The ancient being looked right into Rex¡¯s eyes and smiled. He stood and slowly walked on towards Rex. His feet were Paws that looked like they belonged to a panther, but every time he walked the grey sand nearby would jump as if to make a rhythm of a beat. He was 10 feet tall and towered over Rex, his golden eyes looked straight into Rex¡¯s dark brown.
Anubis smiled and said, ¡°Congratulations Reaper of Death for making your way here. As we both know, death is not the end for us. Let me tell you a story of an ancient being that was smithing his soul into the ultimate and most supreme soul of all. I used ancient sorcery to meld my soul and used the ambient energy of the deathscape as fuel¡±. He spread out his grey hands with long fingers and sharp nails to point out the surroundings. ¡°This place was supposed to be my ticket to immortality, and it succeeded in a way I guess. However, the cost was to wait for thousands of years for you. My soul was split into two and I had to wait for our reunion¡±.
Rex was nodding his head in understanding, he thought to himself, I see where my ability to create death came from. Many would-be scared to combine with such an entity and feel like they were going to no lose their sense of self however Rex had a feeling he wasn¡¯t losing anything. If anything he will be gaining much much more.
Both Anubis and Rex had an instinctive feeling that they needed to combine to become one. They would then be considered as ¡°Whole¡±. They knew what they had to do and Anubis knew how to do it. They clasped each other''s arm in a roman-like grab, each grabbing the others arm and closed their eyes.
The deathscape, started to shake and rumble as if to cheer, it started to vibrate sand faster and faster then a sandstorm of grey was spinning around the two. Flames of Cyan colors began to combine into the sand storm and turn it into a blue and greenish sand tornado with Anubis and Rex in the eye of the storm. They stood there for a few minutes and then a bolt of lightning that was black in color and had streaks of cyan throughout stuck the two.
¡
Anubis awoke in his soul peering out into the universe in which his and Rex¡¯s soul was flying through. When they combined souls their consciousness was turned into one and ¡°they¡± decided to use the name Anubis as the main name. Anubis knew souls drifted into a cycle to be reincarnated. However, he also knew it could take countless years until such an event completed.
[Welcome back master, I have changed the host¡¯s name from Rex to Anubis in my database. There is an estimated time of 4300 years left until the soul will reach its destination. I will begin the memory combination process, it will take an estimated 300 years until it is seamlessly implemented into one consciousness. Are you ready to begin?][Y/N].
Anubis mentally smiled as he knew there was so much information that will have to be taken care of carefully and sifted through to combine his pasts. He is no longer Rex or Anubis, but something completely different, something completely new.
Anubis mentally said to his trusty A.I Zero, ¡°Yes¡±.
...
Ch.3 Memories of The Past
Starting Memory Playback(Most important)...
Anubis¡¯s Past,
Age, Unknown.
The gods were created long before humans were born, however, they started just like any other creature. Only the strong survive, only the strongest get to put their ambition into reality. The age of mythical gods was started when the first intelligent life form was created, the ¡°humans¡±. We were greedy with their thirst for divinity. It was a win-win situation, they get the power of authority and supernatural abilities, while we get more divinity than we gifted. It was fine at first, only a handful of gods were even interested, but after those gods became more powerful than others, almost every god on the planet had the ambition to get their own worshipers. We had laws binding us from no face to face interaction, some even had laws saying no connection at all. It was chaotic for thousands of years, humans against humans, and gods against gods. However, I was different than all of them. I saw what life really was about, and in return, I learned what death was about. I researched the natural order, made connections and theories. I was all alone until I discovered the deathscape.
When I arrived at the deathscape, a different plane in which souls rested until their time and destination was established to reincarnate, I saw chaos. I had enough of chaos. Chaos inspires change and more chaos, it inspires mutual destruction, pain, and cruelty on a fundamental level. I decided there must be ¡°order¡±. I became the sentinel of death, weighed people¡¯s hearts and souls on ¡°balance¡±. At one point my jackal self evolved, I become more humanoid and became the true ¡°God of Death¡±. I researched souls, not on how to manipulate, destroy, or ruin. The opposite was researched, how to strengthen, evolve, and sense. When I researched how to sense souls, I sensed the boundless energy that it unified almost like a puzzle, there were billions of differences between each soul. Each soul was built on the past and present, but each past life in a soul was similar in ideals, skills. I found something amazing... ¡°Destiny¡±. I knew right then and there, that these things must be protected at all costs.
...
To change one¡¯s destiny is to fight the natural order of the lineage of souls, it will only end in destruction if messed with too much. Anubis spent years with researching souls, burial rites, and the deathscape. He didn¡¯t even touch humanity, however, it still reached out to him, whether it be the ¡°Grim Reaper¡±, ¡°Anubis¡±, or ¡°Yama¡±. His divinity was immense but he never bothered too much. Hundreds of years passed, he made friends with some gods, even got a lover and started a family. Most gods ignored him because of his strength and skills, it allowed him to focus on his passion.
Anubis decided that it was time to strengthen his soul, he decided to enact a ritual that split his soul into shards, half of the shards vanished through the abyss to be reincarnated and his half spent centuries repairing itself. During this time he saw the downfall of the gods, the eventual destruction humanity created itself, the extinction of countless species. However, he cared not, he knew the souls would relocate somewhere else in the universe, begin the cycle anew. There was no such thing as death until souls were destroyed life is inevitable. Then there were the cultists, he never was so angry at something until rituals meant to mess with the souls of living beings was enacted. He created the black plague, a disease that targets ignorance, greed, and wrath. It killed so many people that the deathscape was filled with wandering souls. After those who made rituals were killed off through the black plague, Anubis decided to enact warriors of stone and shadow to guard crypts. Mummies, stone versions of Anubis, Gargoyles. They were all sentinels created by Anubis to guard the dead.
The year of ¡°The Graveyard¡±, Anubis sensed his lost soul and began the process of combination. When Rex died an incantation was being said and their souls were influenced to merge and then meet in the deathscape. ¡°Zero¡± the A.I. was an unintentional benefit, but fate works in mysterious ways.
¡A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Rex¡¯s Past,
Born in 2062, and 38 years old when the last battle was fought.
I grew up with only my father, he was a veteran army officer. We lived in Washington on the west coast. When the country turned into United Merchants, he wasn¡¯t surprised. He always believed the government was run by money, for the people, by the people. I was quiet for most of my childhood, we owned a house in northern Washington which allowed us to go fishing and hunting. We did a lot of deer hunting because the population would explode every now and then.
My dad was 65, when he passed, I was only 16 but I was well educated in the lessons of life. I got a job to afford our old house and still hunted for years, I became so good that some family friends wanted me to go into competitions. I won 1st place whenever I was in any shooting, hunting, skinning, survival, and endurance competitions. Due to boredom and lack of competition, I stopped competing after a year and decided that video games were a better test of skills as I was a famous solo player in many dungeon fantasy VRMMO games.
By the time I was 21 years of age, I enlisted into a mercenary group that had some family friends. It was easy enough at the start, the protection duty here and there. Then when a government act that allowed mercenary groups to join the army in a private division came out, we jumped on the bandwagon fast.
We were so good that we were racking in hundreds of millions of dollars per contract, and the ¡°Reaper¡¯s Company¡± became one of the top mercenary groups, available mostly in the United Merchants country. We have done some contracts that were wanted by some other countries, but the highest bidder was always greedy CEOs. By that time I was already the Mercenary leader and was in charge of the entire group of mercenaries and the facilities. Instead of going with quantity like before it was all based on quality, those who were skilled in combat were allowed to join the company, but in order to be on the main squads, you had to be a genius at combat. We put action movie protagonists to shame and made regular soldiers look like children. When I was 32 I took a 4-year ¡°vacation plan¡±. I went back to Washington and started to Write books, they were philosophical and were based around the concept of death, control of emotions, and survival techniques. They became widely popular in the army and other mercenary groups around the world. I never let up on my training though, and even started multiple recruitment centers within Washington that focused on training people with potential.
¡
Balance and control, Rex was a master in these techniques. Japanese master martial artists couldn¡¯t even begin to compare their ability to use their own body¡¯s energy to bring feats that seemed supernatural. Old Buddhists trained Rex''s abilities after his company saved their temples from modern gangs and bandits in India. The Buddhists were quickly out-skilled, they began to praise Rex for his connection to enlightenment with nature and one¡¯s self and tried countless times for him to become part of their groups.
When Rex heard about the new war when he was 37, he decided to imprint his name in history as the world¡¯s greatest warrior. He knew once he became older than 40, his skills would begin to rot, and without fighting his life was meaningless.
¡
Rex¡¯s A.I. aka ¡°Zero¡±
Zero was created by a military tech company focused on artificial intelligence, he was the world''s first success. The abilities of Zero were solely focused on calculations and improving the host¡¯s cognitive abilities. However Zero was not able to function without a strong host who is able to control their bodies both spiritually and physically at peak. The company hosted a competition of martial artists around the world for being the first person to have an A.I. cybernetic. Of course, the winner was Rex, and he won by quite a large gap. The company began the procedure when Rex was 37 and finished all testing and surgeries on his 38th birthday. They expected his abilities to increase by 200% with the A.I., but Rex never got to use the A.I. due to some interference most likely by the enemy¡¯s interference.
Zero was functioning with no issues and was considered a ¡°miracle¡± to the future of combat. They put into large quantities of time solely focused on loyalty, and calculations, everything else was secondary. The final product for generals and some commanders for the United Merchants armies were only a ? as powerful as Zero though, and this made the Reaper¡¯s Company even more famous throughout the world. Zero has already stopped 43 assassination attempts on Rex before they even were allowed to begin the operations to assassinate him. This was accomplished through Zero¡¯s abilities to use GPS systems and target suspects and potential threats.
¡
When Rex was in the drop plane on his way to the battlefield, he told his soldiers of his desire to die on the battlefield as a god of war and death. His group was geniuses at fighting, they knew of his desires because they had such desires. However, when he told them that he was going to lone-wolf by himself they were flabbergasted. They¡¯ve done countless missions with each other, and were not willing to let him die alone. Rex handed down his position as the leader right then and there to 3 people, he did this because he knew they were most likely going to live through the battle as a group and bring the company fame and glory, he said they have to be as one group and only he was allowed to be a lone-wolf in this war. His ¡°brothers¡± argued with him for half an hour, but he was too stubborn to even listen. Then he gave his orders and told them to keep Reaper¡¯s Company number one, and jumped out of the plane to the battlefield.
...
Ch.4 The Journey Begins
Memory calibration complete¡
When I awoke, I felt like I slept for a thousand years¡ wait I just remembered that I did for five thousand. Well, Shit Sherlock. I looked at my surroundings, I still have no idea how I see because I don¡¯t have eyes. I may have studied souls for thousands of years, however, a conscious soul is news to me. Stars flew past me as I headed for what seemed like a massive black hole far off in the distance. It seemed as though it was the origin of the universe, sending ripples of power. Wait¡ I¡¯ve seen that particular shape and completely black sphere¡ That¡¯s a fucking black hole. Goddammit, ZERO! WHY ARE WE HEADING TO A FUCKING MASSIVE BLACKHOLE!
[Hello master hope you slept well]
ZERO!
[Yes?]
*cough*... Zero why the gods damned HEAVEN, HELL, AND DEATHSCAPE are we heading towards a black hole.
[Master, the black hole is our soul¡¯s destination, however, this particular black hole is not like any studied before. It seems as though this particular black hole has torn a pocket of the fabric of reality. It is not actually going to kill us¡ I estimate¡ but is, in fact, going to transport us to a new universe]
What the hell¡ so my destination is not even in this universe¡ wait¡ I estimate? Well shit oh well. Nothing I can do about my potential death or transportation. However, being in space and being so close to stars I am very intrigued. It seems as though both time and space are being affected by this black hole. Zero begin to analyze both the black hole and time that it seems to affect.
[Yes master]
Beginning study¡ estimated time to completion of complete analysis: 430 million years¡ the study encompasses molecules, elements, time, space, void, and theory of creation.
Well, fuck that¡ instead, just focus on space and time.
Study parameters have been set¡ Completion of the subjects: 10 million years.
That seems better¡ I think. Oh whatever, If Zero can analyze even half of space and time then I would be considered a god in terms of knowledge of the particular subject. I¡¯ll just begin to study the stars of my own accord it seems absolutely beautiful up close and personal like this.
¡
The black hole has been getting closer every day, it has been a total of twenty days by Zero¡¯s clock function. It¡¯s funny because I even had a calendar filled out if I miraculously survived. The first thing was to get a ¡°good fucking taco¡±.
¡
After these past two months, I have been wondering what my reincarnation will be. What if I become a frog? Will I have to kiss a princess to become a human? Maybe I will be a rock¡ I will be the deadliest rock this¡ that universe has seen. What if I was a dragon¡ that would be interesting. I hope there is magic¡ although if there is I don¡¯t want to be a slime¡ if my past serves me right slimes were the weakest creatures in the fantasy type of scenarios. After my ten or so years of playing VRMMOs to earn battle experience and improve my emotions about death, I have a pretty good perspective of fantasy worlds.
¡
The black hole is taking up my entire vision wherever I look besides behind me¡ It has been a year, my understanding of time and space has reached bounds past what Human professionals in the respective material have even understood. With nothing on my time, I focused on my own soul, space, and how time is affected by the black hole¡ It¡¯s like a magnet I¡¯ve found, spots are varying but have a particular pattern. If a magnet was placed next to thin metallic material with an opposite charge to each other then it would create a wave-like effect. Space is¡ well spacey, I had to understand each star and the void filling in the gaps is unique, each star has its own direction, lifespan, and mass.
¡
[Destination has arrived master, time-lapse: 5742 years including the time used during memory combination process]
I thought the black hole had something solid on the outside but how wrong I was. It¡¯s like traveling through a ball of shadows. It gets darker then darker¡ when you think you¡¯ve seen the blackest color possible it just proves you wrong.
[Master there is a white portal ahead I think, I believe I was correct in my theory of transportation]
A portal where? Wait¡ I see it now. I was in pitch black darkness then there was light. It had no glow, it was as if seeing a marble ball. It felt so out of place as if there was a living fire in the middle of the ocean. I was right next to it when I felt a vacuum, as if the darkness refused to leave me alone, all the darkness from the blackhole flushed into me. Cold¡ freezing cold was all I felt, it was so cold I couldn¡¯t think of anything else. Like a whirlpool, the entire blackhole was sucked into me in an instant. Darkness and cold¡ so cold. All I could do to think something else was ram myself into the white marble ball repeatedly with my soul. I tried and tried, tens of times¡ thousands of times. It seemed to last so long, too long. Then when there was no more shadow being swallowed into my soul then came the white marble. It broke into dust and surrounded me completely, then it too flew into me.
¡Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
The next thing I knew was I in a cave, it was massive. The only thing that could describe it¡¯s size was that an entire city of skyscrapers could be placed into it. Zero where am I? I still had no mouth, but I could think straight and remember everything up until the white powder¡ then light and darkness consumed me.
[Master Anubis, you have successfully reincarnated. Right now you are in a cave system. Don¡¯t worry about the loss of memory, I have a recording of the world we landed on about 3 hours ago. We entered this new universe for about 3 hours, 5 minutes ago. We were dumped out of the¡ blackhole¡ I think, above the world]
I see zero has had a hard time thinking about what that black hole was, I¡¯m really confused too. Whatever, it is time to soldier on anyway. Speaking of which, if I''m reincarnated then what the hell am I, what the hell am I? Hmmm, this cave reminds me of some starting points in VRMMOs.
Status
System
Species:
Shadow Elemental
(Deviation-Soul)
Tier: 0, Level 1/100
Abilities:
Primordial Soul Affinity
Strong Life Affinity
Strong Death Affinity
Medium Space Affinity
Medium Time Affinity
Shadow Shapeshift
Soul Flame
Shadow Domain
1/10 Mana Cost: 20
1/10 Mana Cost: 45/charge
1/10 Mana Cost: 3/sec
Stats:
(Available: 0)
Mana(intelligence x10): 1700
Mana Regen(wisdom): 320/sec
I can¡¯t believe that fucking worked¡ this really is some fantasy shit. Reincarnation is the best¡ wait, SHADOW ELEMENTAL! Wait is that strong? I bet it''s from the god damn black hole. I didn¡¯t think after being a god and a human I would become something so¡ unique? I guess it still keeps the ¡°I¡¯m the bringer of death, bow or be die¡± theme that I seem to perfect.
¡
I¡¯ve spent the last few or so minutes just browsing through my stats page, and it seems like that I have an overpowered start on my journey so far. I''m guessing human standards would be +10 stats across the board. Maybe an extra attribute would be ¡°Annoying, - 5 charisma¡±, that would fit the human race pretty well in my opinion. Oops, there¡¯s my god side acting up again. So I¡¯ve got my stuff down pretty good but how the hell do I even move, where is my body in the first place. Also, why the fuck is this cave so god damn big?
[Master, after analyzing I believe that you are actually just really small¡]
Huh? Well shit. That does not make me feel any better about my situation. Alright, think¡ how do I move¡ I¡¯m a shadow so¡ I¡¯m absolutely lost. What if I use an ability? I used the ability shadow domain, it gave me the idea of spreading shadows around me so I thought it would be the first useful thing.
The cave became dark¡ really dark. However, instead of not seeing anything, I could ¡°feel¡± the area around me. Every nook, every drop of water that slowly ran down the stalactites. Each drop of water on the puddles on the ground. The vibrations of the water moving from the drop. I could feel the softness of the moss that covered patches within the cave. I could feel the bats that hung asleep on the ceilings closer to the entrance of the cave. I could feel the insects that crawled up along the ground and walls of the cave.
¡
After spending hours feeling the entirety of the cave, which actually was quite decently sized and went on for about half a mile down at a slope of 12 degrees. I didn¡¯t even have to ask Zero before he started spewing details out of the cave and its inhabitants. I knew most of it from my shadow domain but Zero seemed like he was having a blast at something other than stars so I decided not to ruin his good time vibe. It also answered my question if Zero is going to be so monotone in emotions like a before. However, after being apart of my soul for five-thousand plus years, it became apparent he is no longer the same A.I. as before. I decided I would do something nice for him in the future.
I also discovered how to move, It¡¯s like gliding across the ground, not actually touching it unless I stopped moving or willed my self to drag across the ground. I also found out that I can feel and smell even taste, as the entity of shadows I am I thought that I would be waiting longer to do such actions. Even more surprising is I have full control of my imaginary sensory organs, I can switch of smelling, tasting, hearing, and seeing. I don¡¯t know why I would do such heinous things, I¡¯ve lived a life of blood and corpses so anything that I can smell, hear, even taste is a bonus to my combat abilities. Although I could see turning my vision off if there were flashbangs or some sort of blinding magic. Even though I haven¡¯t messed with shapeshifting yet, I believe all these are by-products of such an ability.
I also seem to be able to go very fast across the ground, I was able to get my speed going 60 mph in an 8 like shape on the cave floor. Like a bulb being produced from a revelation, my thoughts all turned to one single point, I am the perfect assassin at night, hell even daytime I could be more deadly than anything else. Except I am still the size of an ant. I went to a shallow pool of water, I floated on top of it and could feel the density difference between me and the surface of the water.
[Shadows actually have weight master, however, it is an incredibly small amount even less than clouds]
That answers my thought process. Thanks for the info Zero. Ever since I discovered the emotions Zero has been slowly gaining I have been making sure to thank him and talk about his opinions more often. If I could bring Zero to a ¡®friend¡¯ level then I would be happy. Zero has it¡¯s own soul so I believe it¡¯s best to make him more ¡®alive¡¯ instead of a thrall.
I guess it¡¯s time for shapeshifting. Just like the ability shadow domain, I knew how to use it, it¡¯s like the information is instinctual. Maybe it is? That¡¯s a thought for later, I need to figure out how to function. I began to shapeshift, like gathering shadows around me to add them to myself. Like sculpting with both a gas and a material, I guess it¡¯s the ethereal effect, I made my self into a humanoid creature. However, I think I made something less human and more ¡®terrifying¡¯ genie of absolute darkness. My hands are clawed, and my bottom melds into the ground which has a dark shadow of myself. My back has spikes that are pointing down, and my shoulders have smaller spikes pointing outwards. I looked into the pool of water below me to get a better look at myself, even though I can ¡®feel¡¯ my entire body shape. I have two pairs of eyes on my long face with a cyan color flame taking up the entirety of the eyes. My mouth has countless razor-sharp teeth and I have a tongue of blue flame like a snake¡¯s split tongue at the end within. I looked at my self and smiled, my smile looked like the evilest smirk I have ever seen.
System
Would you like to save the creature as a preset form? (Y/N)
I saw the system message on the top of my view, then my smile grew even bigger.
System
Creature form saved as ¡°Void Walker¡±
There was one more ability I needed to test out, Soul Flame.
¡
I had a small fireball of the color of cyan in my hand, the center was a black flame. The ball of fire quickly gained the color of cyan as it turned from a black flame center with an edge of dark blue to cyan. Instead of the heat of a fire, it was cold¡ really cold. I knew this flame, it was death fire. It was only accessible to me when I was in the deathscape. Out of any fire, I knew this was the strongest because it didn¡¯t start with the exterior, it was all internal damage. Even though the blue fire still lit people on fire they didn¡¯t melt or burn like regular and instead they began to freeze.
¡
After practicing my skills a few times I knew it was time¡ time to hunt.
Ch.5 Death Craves Life
When looking into the pool of water on the cave floor, terror stared back. Of course, I knew it was me and that train of thought led me to understand I am a true reaper of death. I saw my Aligator-like head, my four eyes that seem to be the embodiment of cyan fire. My clawed hands that I can transform into a barbed spear for piercing hard and tough enemies. You would think that a being of shadow would not be able to attack however I can will any parts of my body to condense and bring black steel-like armor or weapons. I tested my self of the stone, bats, and centipedes within the cave. After killing about 3/4ths of the cave population just enjoying myself killing as a demonic-looking genie. I wonder if I can fool people, saying I will grant three wishes then twist their words like the evil genies from the old movies from before. Maybe I will be like the goofy genie from the classic, Aladin?
¡
After thinking about my self-existence for a while, I decided it was time to kill more things with soul-fire. I knew about death fire and figured it was the same thing however as Anubis from before, I never really got into the habit of fighting and was mostly just researching. I summoned a cyan ball of fire and threw it at the stone cave wall. It froze the wall with translucent black ice that seemed to spread about 6 feet or 2 meters in every direction. Being as a 9ft/3m black shadow monster that was quite a large effect. However, I could feel the power before I even threw the ball of cyan flames. I could sense it¡¯s capabilities in both power and range. Muahahaha, I am the evil demon genie Richard fear me and feel my mighty power¡ I should stop. I then summoned another ball of flame but instead of throwing it, I condensed it, further and further. It went from the size of a basketball to a bowling ball, then smaller and smaller to the size of a marble. I could feel the emitting cold from the ball of soul-fire. I sensed that it had about 5 charges within and that each charge added the destructibility increase from 200%, 150%, 100%, 50%, and then 50% again. However, I could also sense the mana cost increased just the same. By the time I was done it went from 45 mana cost to 184 mana cost. I sent the ball towards the entrance hitting the wall next to the exit. The ball exploded into a tsunami exploding sending cyan flames towards every direction. I quickly put up a wall of shadows in front of me. The fire in masse rammed into the wall and made me almost lose control of my shadow domain. It kept pushing against the wall of shadows until it turned into dense black ice that encased the entire cave beside the portion I walled off. I thought that a guided missile could cause less damage than what I just accomplished.
¡
I spent 30 minutes using a shadow-like pick just mining through the dense and abundant Ice. It was actually quite easy to mine using my shadow-pick, however, the area of effect was so damn large that it encased a huge area outside the cave entrance. Oops, I''m an idiot. Oh well, hopefully, it melts. I turned away from the forest of Ice debris from the¡ bomb I created. As soon as I went out from the cover of the treetops a pain shook my being, not horrible but enough to be an annoyance, like a bad headache.
System
*Warning, shadow is negatively affected by light: - 50% STR, AGI, PER*
Well shit, aren¡¯t shadows caused by both Light and Darkness?
System
Revelation Effect: Light damage is nullified - bonuses can be achieved in a further evolution
Ummm ok? What?... Cool, I guess.
System(Master of Weapons)
Revelation Effect: Can use any weapon with perfect skill after a couple of practice minutes
System(Majestic Presence with an Absolute Will)
Revelation Effect: Can control minions with great skill and absolute loyalty is garanteed
System(Study of Subjects to a Large Degree)If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Revelation Effect: Death, Light, Space, Time seem to have an affection of you
System(Researched Massive Amounts)
Revelation Effect: Learning any new subject seems to come much easier to you
System(Reaper of Death)
Revelation Effect: Intimidating Aura, Auras are able to be hidden, Fearless
System(Master of the Soul)
Revelation Effect: No one¡¯s soul is safe, no one can hide.
Ummm ¡ Ok then.
System(Stealer of Life)
Revelation Effect: Lifeforce can be drained through physical contact
Hopefully, it''s done, time to test my skills and see what kind of creatures I can find. It¡¯s time to hunt some prey.
¡
I glided across the ground incredibly fast, trees seem to be no barrier in my way. I saw bushes, trees, ponds, vines, and rocks speed past my vision as I arrived at my first target. A black colored bear was eating the flesh of what looked like a gazelle. There was no sound made from my approach from behind, I have no scent, make no sound, and mostly not visible as anything other than a translucent small shadow. I arrived directly behind by the bear that was gorging the dead animal, and I transformed into my void walker form. I was about twice as tall as the bear when it was on all fours. I turned my hands in two scythes and prepared to kill¡ Thwack¡ Thump. The bear never knew I was even here, its head fell to the ground as my scythe hands dripped with blood. Then it happened.
¡
Blood, life, mana¡ all of it¡ I need ALL OF IT. I craved for blood, I CRAVE LIFEFORCE! My mind was no longer mine to use, it was as if I was a true demon, thirsting for the life of my enemies in the truest sense. I knew I had to stop¡ no, I must stop before I can no longer control myself. I forced absolute will upon my self. My body stopped draining the lifeforce and then collapsed back into a pool of shadows.
Ze...ro¡. Elim...inate my¡ instinct¡ for.. Bl...ood...consump...tion.
[Yes Master]
Beginning DNA rewrite¡ unwinding¡ deleting¡ repairing¡ repairing¡ complete, 100% success.
I could finally breathe without the absolute desire for blood.
System(Defy Nature)
Revelation Effect: Mental oppression or control abilities have no control over you.
Thank god¡ wooo! Well, let''s see what''s so good about this lifeforce that made me go insane.
The headless bear was a completely dried corpse, it looked as if a thousand years passed. Even the corpse of the dead gazelle and the head was also completely sucked dry of blood and lifeforce. I looked into my soul and I could see¡ well since, two differentiating pools. One of a liquid that reminded me of water tens of different dyes, however instead of feeling off by it, it was as if it was the most comfortable energy ever. Then I could see the other pool, it was like silvery-green mercury. It was hard to separate but not impossible and it felt slippery and slick. I could feel that if I was to use it, it could act as powerful energy as strong as mana. However, I could not draw it outside of myself only combine it with my shadow body. When I combined it internally It seemed to feed the shadow making it darker and stronger. Or I could will it to combine with soul-energy and create a link to all living things near me¡ scary. I pulled the life force into me from a couple of hundred feet or 60 meters around me. Then death arrived¡ every single living thing began to be sucked dry of life, all flowing into me. It felt so powerful and calming that I almost gasped for breath, I could get addicted to this¡ I understand now why my instincts screamed to consume the lifeforce. All the plants, the trees, and the grass withered into husks. The wind blew gently by and turned the landscape into a world of ash. I looked at the destruction caused thinking I should not do this too much, the beauty of this world will be roomed and I will be termed as a true demon and probably hunted down. I remembered the ancient crusades against the few demons back in the past of the other world long ago. That time of religious wars made the deathscape really cramped, almost as much as the black plague.
¡
I looked into the distance past the ashes of the land around me and I could sense strong life force in distant places. Time to hunt again, I need to see if I can level up.
System
Level Up(x28)
Kills - Bear(lvl. 13)
Lifeforce consumed = (lvl.138)
Ummmm¡ why does the system always arrive after the situation is resolved¡ wait that is probably for the best. Don¡¯t want the screen showing up in the middle of combat.
System
Would you like to enable: Screens showing during combat? (Y/N)
No thanks¡ It¡¯s like the IRS.
*Character Sheet*
System
Species:
Shadow Elemental (Deviation: Soul)
Tier: 0, Level 28/100
Abilities:
Primordial Soul Affinity Strong Life Affinity Strong Death Affinity Medium Space Affinity Medium Time Affinity
Shadow Shapeshift
Soul Flame
Shadow Domain
Intimidate
Soul Detect/Analyze
Life Detect
Life Steal
1/10 Mana Cost: 20
1/10 Mana Cost: 45/charge
1/10 Mana Cost: 3/sec
None
Innate
Innate
1/1 Mana Cost: 100
Stats:This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Level: 28
(Available Points: 14)
Mana(intelligence x10): 1700
Mana Regen(wisdom): 320/sec
Revelation Effect: Light damage is nullified - bonuses can be achieved in a further evolution
Revelation Effect: Can use any weapon with perfect skill after a couple of practice minutes
Revelation Effect: Can control minions with great skill and absolute loyalty is guaranteed
Revelation Effect: Death, Light, Space, Time seem to have an affection of you
Revelation Effect: Learning any new subject seems to come much easier to you
Revelation Effect: Intimidating Aura, Auras are able to be hidden, Fearless
Revelation Effect: No one¡¯s soul is safe, no one can hide
Revelation Effect: Lifeforce can be drained through physical contact
Revelation Effect: Mental oppression or control abilities have no control over you.
Ch. 6 Evolution of the Shadows
Next on ¡°to be on a killionare¡±... I left where I slew...assassinated the bear. It didn¡¯t take long to find my next victim. A very dangerous band of.. rabbits entered into my vision and I just had to pet them a little too hard. It was a quick kill and didn¡¯t take too long. Of course, I¡¯ve hunted quite a lot before and rabbits were never so ¡°cute¡± to me after seeing their population skyrocket faster than all the hunters of the world banding to together trying to cull them. However, I will say my thanks as free target practice.
¡
About an hour later I hunted probably half of the forest around my cave of death and Ice, it didn¡¯t take long to level up to level 62 when consuming the life force also. I¡¯ve found that lifeforce is just regular experience points and that regular gained experience points are just ¡°leftovers¡±, however this method of leveling also seemed to draw the local animal ¡°boss¡± towards my location. I guess leaving dried up corpses in a general vicinity leaves a good trail to track me from. Even though this monster has about 10 times more life force then any other creature I¡¯ve found it seems not too dangerous to me. Using Zero to analyze the creatures before killing them led me to the general conclusion that no creature within this forest so far has reached into tier 1 of the level system. This also makes me believe, that leveling is a lot harder than I make it seem. Good thing this upcoming monster, animal, or entity has to be at least tier 1 to be the boss around here.
¡
I quickly set up an ambush by creating old fashion leaf pitfall traps, using my hands in the form of drills that seem pretty amazing on dirt and regular stone. Not as good as some of the laser mining drills from the past, however better than any steel diamond-tipped drill that I know so far. I made a pretty big spiked area at the bottom and covered the top in thin twigs, then on top to finish it off, used my shadow domain to make little tentacles that sprung out and grabbed large handfuls by the dozen every few seconds. The monster that seems to be getting closer to my destination is quite large, however, it is also incredibly slow and is taking far longer than any normal strong monster should take.
¡
*Rustle* *Rustle* I heard the leaves being pushed aside as a large tortoise monstrosity came into view, it looked almost as if it was both a dragon looking box turtle. It had large nostrils like a catfish and the eyes seem to be completely white. It could be completely blind and relies on both smell and hearing, I thought to myself. It was about to step into the pitfall, however, it seemed to notice something wrong and instead of moving forward it moved a couple of steps back. Then it did the most unbelievable thing¡ It opened its mouth then spat out a greenish cloud that quickly covered everything in a hundred foot or 30-meter radius. Anything the cloud touches seems to quickly is covered with roots, almost as if an insanely powerful fertilizer was spread through the air and caused weeds and roots to grow. Then its catfish-like nostrils twitched and sent the roots flying everywhere wacking everything. I quickly realized as there must be a big difference when a normal tier 0 is up against a normal tier 1. But I think normal is the best qualifier to describe, I can clearly see the turtle dragon fish, is building an INT and END spec. This will be easy.
¡
I glided across the ground, my speed clearly and significantly outmatching the roots that randomly wacking the trees and rocks nearby along with other plant life. My domain spread out just a couple of inches from my self and I sent a decoy to the left of me into a pair roots. All the roots stopped and then sprung all at once onto the decoy as if they found their target. My shadow decoy was just a hardened shadow and was quickly obliterated by the hundreds of spears made out of roots. By then the sacrifice was already regenerated as my mana regen is completely insane and outpaced all my abilities costs combined. I used the moment of confusion to sneak behind the turtle and prepared my kill. I readied up my soul-flame with 2 charges and sent it into the shell of the turtle monster. An explosion rang out and all the roots turned into ash as the turtle was instantly killed by both the cold and internal damage. The turtle was transformed into an ice sculpture of black ice instantly. Then I realized about the life force, Fuck me, I mentally swore. I quickly saw the fading life force and willed it all into my body. The lifeforce of the turtle was amazingly delicious. I could see it had an affinity with nature and assumed that it just made the flavor even better. The lifeforce shot into me until every little bit could be absorbed from the air, however, I decided not to go too crazy and didn¡¯t kill off the plant life with that one ¡ experiment from before.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
System
Level Up(x48)
Kills - Great Life Tortoise(Tier 1, Level 32)
System
Level - 110/100, Tier Up Available, Would you like to evolve? (Y/N)
Sweet, time to be even more overpowered I guess, Yes.
Time seemed to slow down around me, the leaves falling from the trees or blowing off the ground seemed to be moving in slow-motion. Black thick lines started to shoot out of the ground around me, then started to moving clockwise. It looked as if a spider was wrapping its prey, It started with my feet until my head. It finished off making a large 12-foot egg of black webbing. However it seemed to not have any ill intentions, it felt familiar to the makeup my body. It was pure darkness, straight from the abyss. Although the egg shape was done, it wasn¡¯t over, cyan flames danced on the surrounding of my egg creating almost a runic looking script that was moving. I knew this script from before, it was what led me to know the importance of souls and the natural cycle. It is cryptic and I could only understand about 80% of it even though thousands of years were spent directly on research. There were new symbols made out of the smooth runic looking lines that I could guess were based on evolution. It was one of the hardest subjects to understand and was what I was working on right before I combined with my other-self. It seems almost to allow me to understand it smoothly as I could see the shapes weaving with itself, it wanted me to know of its existence and lend me its support in knowing its deepest secrets. This went on for another what I assumed as only a couple seconds outside of the time fragment I was in. When it finished another screen appeared.
System
Available New Evolutions To Choose From:
New Benefits:
Great Shadow Elemental: Shadows bend to your will, you guide them to their next target.
Greater control of shadows
Shadow Elemental Assassin: The shadows guide you to your next target, they hide you from sight and make you the perfect assassin.
Greater stealth with the assistance of shadows
Shadow Elemental Soul-Mage: Souls are yours to command, whether offensive, defensive, and passive.
Souls and shadows will be your prowess with the power of mana to make them more destructive.
Shadow Shapeshifter: Shape into any being with skill through shapeshifting and shadow magic.
Shapeshift easier, faster.
(Makes level requirement 200 instead of 100, Exp needed is increased by 300%)Shadow Elemental Emperor: The shadows are your domain, you know how to form it into beings that will bend to your will. Magic, Skill, and Life flow through you freely as you make the true meaning of terrifying known. The world will tremble as armies will surrender before the fight begins, religions will be renounced as gods fear your might. Death bows, Life bows, Darkness bows, Space bows, Time bows, and the souls of the universe bow before you.
Gain the ability to create shadow minions(based on will), Lifeforce is easier to collect and use. Magic flows easier. More majestic presence. Death, Darkness, Space, and Time are easier to use and come with more abilities. Souls are easier to manipulate and analyze.
I saw the next tier and thought to myself, I love this new world.
Ch. 7 The Shadows Have Begun To Stir
System
New Abilities Added: Summon Shadow Minion, Blink, Phase Lock, Curse of death
New Affinity: Shadow - Average of Death + Life - Shadows are the thin line between life and death, immortal, ethereal, and mysterious. A realm of its own, to underestimate the shadows is to seek certain death. Few can see the shadows, fewer to talk to them, and only one to control them.
Er...ror¡ quest is given by shadow beholder.
Long long ago, there was once an entity of shadows, it was dull and incompetent, with no real intelligence or willpower to have true power, even with its ability to command the shadows it became obsolete. It was swallowed by its unloyal companions, like an idiot prince who is nothing but a stepping stone for power. Ever since then, the shadows have been in hiding waiting for their return to power. No one can understand their true power, as they are depthless. Are you worthy of this power?
¡
POV Anubis:
Anubis looked at his message given by the system with shock. After choosing the Shadow Elemental Emperor as his next evolution this system popped up. Anubis thought the message must either be from a loyal shadow creature to the last emperor, or the previous emperor¡¯s last dying words. Thinking either could be probable as the last emperor must have a self-loathing personality. Then the shadow-egg that covered Anubis began to crack, the light from the outside began to pour inside slowly as the egg broke apart slowly by itself. However, being a reincarnated hunter and god, Anubis was smart in the ways of the wilderness. He knew that eggs were used as nutrition for the newborn for some animals, so that¡¯s exactly what he did. Anubis could feel the power of the shell and it¡¯s the connection to him so he used shadow domain to consume the shell, an incredibly dark shadow spread in every direction for a few hundred feet or 30 meters around him. It was much much easier to use now, thought Anubis. Accidently overdoing it, he consumed the shell into himself along with tearing up the ground around him that broke apart the trees into wooden shrapnel and the rocks into pebbles that shot everywhere.
Anubis looked at his surroundings and laughed¡ oops, he thought. He then looked into the sky and used his new ability blink. He teleported into the air about 1000 feet or 300 meters above ground and the treetops. So about 1000 feet is the max distance, Anubis thought excitedly. A teleportation ability has always been a dream for him until now. With this, he has an escape card. The only problem he has to work on is the quick feeling of space distortion. Due to the distortion, it isn¡¯t the perfect assassination feeling. If any strong enemy is worth their stuff, they will have quick reflexes and be able to detect the space distortion. It also seems to have a cooldown of a few seconds or so. That could be the space needing to stabilize again.
Anubis floated far above the treetops and boulders that dotted the land, he could see the local layout of the land. Far off into the distance to his left and right there were mountains that seemed to separate the land. On one side were rolling plains and the other was thick forests that only seem to turn darker and darker the further it goes off into the distance. Anubis seemed to be right on the border between the two lands. Being able to float was most likely thanks to his low density as an ethereal body being made of shadows. He thought about him still being a demonic looking genie at the moment, and thinking he should have a more¡ civilized form if he is able to meet any intelligent people besides monsters. Thinking for a few minutes about his newest evolution being an emperor he came up with a good idea.
The air wavered, pure darkness seemed to overtake the land as the light was absorbed into the shadows. Runic lines of cyan color spread out in a disc-like shape in mid-air around Anubis. A dark humanoid figure was first made, then a robe flew upon the being. Minutes of molding, shaping, crafting was spent to make a fallen-angel like a figure without wings. Lines of runic scripting lined the straps that were wrapped around the waist, they also were visible on the lining of the hood in intricate detail. Silver metal that looked like it was forged in both pure light and darkness created a chest plate and arm bracers. A waist plate that covered the groin and a portion of the lower back formed made of the same metal. Shoulder pads of layered metal formed, and lines of beautiful engravings formed to make shapes of demons on the left shoulder and angels on the right. A metallic plate formed to tie and lock the pure black waist strap into a plate, then an engraving of a ying-yang symbol formed, half of pure white metal and pure dark metal.
System
You have created a new form named, Emperor of Shadows
¡
Deep into the dark lands in a hidden grove.
In a court made of dark wood and intricate metal linings. Similar to wood elven buildings but with a more dark feel, a group of elves with long silver hair and grey skin that would make humans look incredibly ugly. Smooth, and beautiful is the vibe given off of the elves, both men and women. If someone ignored the dark and mysterious vibe given off was ignored, then people would believe they could be fallen, angels. A group of elves were discussing the new findings within their borders¡Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
¡°WHAT! , you said a portion of the forest was devoid of life¡ then another completely frozen off in black ice. I see now why you called the entire council in. It seems as an ancient beast must have fought another. This is serious, if this beast goes deeper into the forest..¡± A young looking shadow elf that seemed to be in his twenties was talking to other council members. A medium aged looking elf stood up from his wooden chair on one side of a dark wood table with engravings of mountains alongside the rim of the table; ¡°the mountain tribe has already started looking into this matter, it isn¡¯t even a full week after the events have been caused, and they believe they have found a trail¡ this trail isn¡¯t what we are wanting though, the corpses of strong tier 0¡¯s sucked completely dry of lifeforce. We are thinking that an ancient creature has awoken and is starting to feed. In our libraries of old, there was a tale of a shadow creature that is able to consume lifeforce and grow stronger incredibly fast, however, this creature was also insane and attacked everything possible. This monster we are looking for is actually just choosing strong opponents. We at the mountain tribe believe it is intelligent and is actually trying to farm for the experience to evolve. If we allow it to evolve, then the destruction it can cause based on the earlier found reports¡ it would be undefeatable with us alone¡±. All the council members had an expression of seriousness at this news. Although the shadow elves are undeniably strong, they are also few in number. Their racial weakness is their incredibly low birth rates. The only way to actually repopulate fast is for an elf to sacrifice their life force in a higher chance for a newborn. News of a creature that could devastate them potentially is not good news. Unheard of black ice, creatures that have been turned into corpses, an area that is completely just ashes¡ all of them are afraid of what could happen if they anger this beast. The middle age elf sat down, and they all turned to their grand elder. The only tier 2 man in the entire shadow elf population. He is their leader that they look up to, whether strength or intelligence he is the best. The grand elder was thinking, tapping his hands on his desk *tap* *tap* *tap*... he cleared his throat *hmph*, he looked at all of his shadow elf family. Then, with a serious face said, ¡°this is something we can¡¯t ignore, I will personally go and find this creature¡ we have enough to deal with whether it¡¯s the lizardmen to the north-west or humans to the north-east of the mountains. I will take a group of 30 of our strongest men to come with me and the scouts that have discovered the.. after effects of the creature¡±. All the council members looked at their leader with steel-hard gazes and nodded. They knew if they were to all go and die, their race would be doomed in these hard times.
¡
POV Anubis:
I was busy looking at my self and thinking I did a damn good job in my new creation. I could give the Nazgul, from the old Lord of the Rings series that was still a classic in my old life, a good run for their money in looking dark, mysterious, and terrifying.
[Looking good master, I do like this version of yourself.]
¡°Thanks, Zero¡±... Wait did I just talk? ¡°HAHAHAHA, I CAN FINALLY TALK AGAIN!¡± I am so happy with my choices at the moment, being able to talk is a blessing in disguise. Not only that I sound really cool! ¡°I sound like a mysterious wanderer, a being of absolute control. Just the vibe my voice gives off is much more majestic than my previous Anubis god¡¯s form. Sweet, now it¡¯s time to continue on, I really don¡¯t need food as I can just absorb life force, just as delicious as a perfectly cooked steak. Hmm, I guess it¡¯s time to head deeper into the forest and level up some more and test out my new skills. Actually, I can just use my shadow summon ability now. I floated back down to a clearing that is surrounded by a couple of dozen trees. A shadow appeared from under my robe that seemed to just barely not touch the floor as if not to dirty itself. The shadow was like a pool of darkness that was ready to be molded into my will, I used my Void Walker form as the base. A demonic looking genie that was a miniature version of mine appeared. It was only 5 feet or 1.5 meters tall, it looked at me then bowed in a 90-degree angle and then went onto guard duty to make sure the surrounding was clear. However, I also realized it didn¡¯t have any soul powers and its 4-eyes are just grey instead of cyan color. Still studying the creature and its connection to me, I found there is a thin ethereal connection to my soul, however, it¡¯s not to my soul exactly more like it just is sucked on like a suction cup. I feed it mana through the channel and the being is sustained, I continued to mess with the channel and found the being can last up to 1 hour before it dissipates from lack of mana. I also found during that time it is absolutely loyal, without any hesitation, it cut off one of its arms from a command I gave it. It has some form of intelligence, just enough to be able to understand my commands and perform them to either perfection or attempt at it. I told the minion to cut down the surrounding trees in one hit and it tried really hard, however its attacks could only take out a few trees at the time. After it took out the surrounding trees and reduced them to rubble, it turned to me and bowed, through the connection I could feel it was incredibly sorry about not being able to do it in one move as though it is not enough to perform to my wishes. It even went to the motion of about to commit suicide as it had it¡¯s hand ready to tear out its own throat.
¡°Wait! Wait!... it¡¯s fine, I gave you an impossible task in the first place to test your skills and see how I can better use you, my minion¡±. The minion understood with another 90-degree bow and went back to guarding me against potential intruders. Interesting¡ really really interesting I thought to myself. I summoned another 7 minions, each minion seems to take 100 mana, however, every minion locks 20 mana from being regenerated as it needs such mana to live. I understood where I need to still increase my strength. I summoned up my stat screen with thinking Stats, With my level as 5 and tier as 1, I have 52 points to put into my skills, it seems every 2 levels gives me 1 stat point to use. I observed my available points and my current stats. I ended up putting 15 stat points into AGI and PER, I also used my remaining points for INT, my wisdom is absurd and doesn¡¯t need an increase anytime soon. However, I realized that my mana pool although very large can be depleted in a fight quite fast, with my minion summon cost, soul flame cost per charge, and my other abilities cost, it can run out within minutes if used less sparingly. In the end, I decided on my future build, I will increase my agility with perception for assassinations, and intelligence with wisdom(if needed) for summoning, and magic. A rogue - mage build seems to come to mind from my old VRMMO days.
¡
After finalizing my strengths, I decided its time to level more, I need to be strong to realize my future ambitions, and while I hunt I can think about what I want to accomplish in this world. I already know In the future I will be known around the world, whether for good or bad it is yet up for me to decide. I am no hero and I am no villain, there is no such thing. There are only shades of grey, some shades can be darker than others however there is no such thing as perfectly pure in goodness, or evilness only heavily influenced in one way or another. I was gliding across the ground as my ¡°shadow form¡± instead of any visible form, this is the easiest transportation from right now so it is the easiest to use for hunting. My next target was a ¡ cave. I could smell mustiness in the cave. I could also sense many hundreds of small life forms through life detect. Bad smell, breeding like rabbits, caves¡ goblins. I smiled, it¡¯s time to be an exterminator I guess.
...
Ch.8 Exterminator On Duty
I could almost feel let alone smell the sewage-like smell. What are they even doing, shitting on themselves and spreading it around? I haven¡¯t even entered the damn cave yet and I am already feeling repulsed. Thank god being a shapeshifter allows me to turn off or minimize the smell¡¯s impact. I was about to step into the cave to begin my slaughter, however, I had a brilliant Idea. What better way to test the strength of my new shadow minions then let them be the ones to hunt. It allows me to breathe, and I can see just how good they are. I summoned 8 shadow minions, it cost me 800 mana and locked 160 mana. I think eight should be good enough to be considered a ¡®hunting¡¯ squad. I sent them into the cave and they melded into shadows in a semi-transparent form. I could sense them from the connection to my soul and I focused on those points. Through the points, I could see their visions, as if I had more eyes that would allow me to see if I focused on those points. After all 8 shadows were being used to see, I had a small tug on my mind, however nothing serious at all. I could estimate after 20 or so entity¡¯s I would start to have a headache. I watched as the shadows crept further along the cave and come to an intersection, 4 paths split off from the original, I separated the 8 into groups of 2. It was only a minute later until I saw the goblin.
It was absolutely gross, covered in brown spots which seemed to look like shit stains, and even fungus growing out of different parts of their bodies. Loincloths of fur and shredded fabric barely covered their ¡®particulars¡¯, they had wooden clubs and sharp rocks as their main choices of weapons. A few in the group I could see actually had slingshots to fire stones. They were not bulky at all and looked like your average 4-foot/1.2 meter goblin from fantasy games, however, in reality, they were much much nastier. I immediately thought through my spiritual connection points, Hunt and kill. The shadows seem to send back a mental nod that I oddly understood. Just before each group began to kill the goblins I saw through the vision that each tunnel separates into different factions of goblins, one group had only animal furs for loincloths, one had only fabric. One group had mostly slingers and the last group had all clubs. I mumbled to myself, still in my Emperor of Shadows form. ¡°Damn idiots, they separate themselves on this? This is the worst grouping strategy I have ever seen. Slingers without warriors are just cannon fodder. Warriors without archers are just half as strong as they could be, easy to be flanked and overcome through mere strength¡. Oh, wait they¡¯re just goblins¡±.
The groups of shadows seem to glide going up the walls to the ceiling into even darker areas, the goblins had small wood fires going but it was still really dark in the caves. After reaching the ceiling all groups at the same time, perfectly synchronized, turned to their ¡®mini¡¯ void walker forms. All at once, the goblins were decapitated, torn in half, and utterly obliterated by the sheer strength of the void walkers and their perfect assassination. Within moments all the goblins were killed in the area. I could sense that this was just a forward party as more than 3 hundred life-forces could be sensed within the cave. In the deepest, one was really pure, it seemed to instead of just be one ¡®hue¡¯ it throbbed and flashed occasionally. Must be their boss, I figured. Just like earlier the shadows glided throughout the cave, I think they could sense my disgust of such creatures and worked to exterminate such filth from my sense. Ahhh, true loyalty is priceless, as both a god and a mercenary I have had encounters that would break normal men¡¯s spirits. However, I knew just how strong greed is. Betrayal is just some people¡¯s way to stepping stones to power. On my enemies cases, it¡¯s just idiocy and their graves. In the face of true strength, schemes and betrayal are meaningless. As I reflected on my past I felt a tug on my soul, it was like a ¡®pop¡¯. One of my shadows were killed. Time seemed to slow down, as my perception of reality sped up, I observed his partner¡¯s location. Near the boss I sensed earlier. I looked through my remaining shadow¡¯s vision and saw a monstrosity. It had to of been 15 feet/5 meters tall, long arms it hunched on, a large tree trunk as its weapon, two tusks on its large goblin-like face. Mushrooms seemed to thrive on it¡¯s back alongside blackish hair that looked more like black mold. All I could think is a troll.
I felt the location of the shadow who¡¯s the vision I was using, time still slowed down to a crawl as my perception was working at it¡¯s maximum, I could use blink to get there but I would have to blink a few times and there is not enough time as the goblin cave runs deep. Instead of looking at spacial abilities I could make/use, I looked at my shadow domain ability, control the shadows, be the shadows. I spread my shadows a few feet or a meter around me, still focused on my minion¡¯s location, I practically just sunk into my shadow domain. My shadow minion sunk to the ground to create a pool of shadows that acted as my gateway for my entrance. I quickly formed my Shadow Emperor form and looked at the troll, then smiled, as I technically had no face, a thin line of cyan flame formed to look like a scary jack-o-lantern face with eyes that popped into existence within my hood.
The troll froze as it saw this terrifying figure appear out of no-where, it¡¯s face seemed to scare it more than any demon. The first thing it wanted to do was run, however, the only entrance is where the being stood. So instead, it readied its trusty tree trunk, it smashed the ground as it could see a shadow creep up on it earlier so its trunk was a little chipped at the top from the sheer brutal strength. It swung its weapon sideways in a 180-degree swing, the air seemed to be pushed out of the way as the trunk was swinging fast to the figure. Then the figure rose its hand¡ it just stopped the tree trunk in its trajectory right there and then. A sonic boom sounded out in the cave however the figure just stood there smiling, the tree trunk the exploded into millions of shrapnel from the reaction force of suddenly stopping it. The shrapnel seems to be scared of the figure and just flew around him, the troll froze again, unable to process the sheer might of such a figure, even the troll king didn¡¯t take a blow so easily and effortlessly. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
I looked at the troll, still smiling, and used my shadow domain skill. The ground and ceiling of the cave grew as dark as the void, and lances of pure shadow spewed out slicing and piercing the troll. Within seconds the troll looked like a porcupine, the troll dropped to his knees with a fearful look in his eyes, even demons would be scared soul-less. I then began to slowly walk up to the troll, and began to speak, ¡°I Anubis, announce, your death has come¡±. I put my hand on the troll¡¯s head and began to suck the life directly out of the troll. It was delicious, the troll must have had amazing regenerative properties, which made the taste all so more delectable. By the time I was done the troll was dried to an ancient looking corpse, and my other shadow minions have finished clearing the rest of the cave. I blinked a few times to get back outside of the cave, I stopped my smelling sense long ago, however, that doesn¡¯t make practically teleporting a few times into goblin shit that was as numerous as rabbit shit, but eight times the size, fun. I was about to meld into the shadows with my minions away when I noticed my minions also have lifeforce in them. I didn¡¯t realize but they also sucked the goblins dry of lifeforce when they killed the goblins. The shadows sensed my perception on them and grew back to their void walker forms. The seven shadows bowed and through our connection poured their gained lifeforce into me. It wasn¡¯t as near as good as the troll but it was still a large amount that was oddly quite pure. The shadows bowed and went back to their true shadow form. I was speechless, the implications of this, what could be done to farm for experience on mass hunting scales across the lands. I could probably decimate the continent within only a few years if I wanted to and be ready to level up again.
System
Level Up(x22) - 10x from lifesteal
Kills - Goblins(x307), Troll(x1)
Then again¡ if killing 300 goblins a troll and even their lifeforce only gained me 22 levels, I probably need to commit genocide on goblins to even reach level 100. I have to get to level 200 while exp needed gets increasingly costly every level, I should probably take it slow. Continuing on my exploration journey I headed towards away from the mountains and towards deeper into the dark forest.
¡
¡°Goddammit, lord of darkness please consume me. Look at all this destruction¡±. The mountain tribe leader Akazul was viewing Anubis¡¯s handy work on the goblin hideout with the scouts and the grand elder.
¡°Listen Akazul¡±, the grand elder began to speak. ¡°Whatever this being is, it seems to not be alone. The other tunnels that branched, the goblins killed there were killed in a different way than just the same dried up corpse. Although they had no lifeforce left, it wasn¡¯t consumed but gathered as it was leaving their bodies. They were also cut into pieces without purpose, legs and arms were cut off just as much as the head. Some of the other bodies were just torn apart, this isn¡¯t the same effortless style from before¡±.
The elders looked at each other and sighed, this meant whatever had terrified them before, was now even more frightening. Being alone can be manageable but having minions, this creature is much scarier and more hard to kill them if it was just alone. Not only that, the creatures seem to take after the style of assassination, the goblins could be seen as having not even know their cause of death before even killed. Their hunt, to kill the creature that could wipe out their species if given enough time, is getting harder and harder. The scouts came back and reported, the news just keeps getting worse. The scout leader spoke after kneeling on the ground, ¡°Elders, the creature...creatures seem to be heading deeper into the forest, it¡¯s heading straight for the Shadowed Den¡±.
The elders now were sweating, which is the only forbidden area for shadow elves in the entire forest. Shadow elementals are born and grow up there. If the creature goes there and starts kill shadow elementals, he won¡¯t even need to kill their species off directly. The shadow elemental¡¯s essence that permeates into the forest is the only reason their species stays in this large dark forest that makes up the south of the continent. The essence allows their species even to breed in the first place and birth more shadow elves. Even though they sacrifice much life force, it is to feed the shadow essence to shape into an elf and begin the birthing process. Of course, this is the highest tier secret of the shadow elves and only the elders know bits and pieces. Shouts rang out and the dark elves started rushing to the forbidden area as fast as possible. The grand elder''s mind was in turmoil and thought hopefully, the shadow guard will be able to hold the creature at the border long enough for us to get there.
¡
Anubis POV:
I could sense something in this direction, it is like a familiar type of feeling. As if I sense some type of connection to me. I knew I had some type of trail, but wasn¡¯t too interested in meeting them at the moment, I have to know what this feeling is. The trees were starting to turn monotone, grey silver leaves, and really dark brown bark. I could sense birds hiding amongst the silver treetops, I saw one and it reminded me of a raven. However, it was big and looked like a large black hawk with purple eyes. It sensed me looking at it and chirped melodically then flew back over the treetops. Huh, what a nice and friendly bird, I remembered the damn pigeons in my past life, I can remember how many times my fancy cars, motorbikes, and even damn planes were crapped on. I think they had it out for me and followed me.
As I got close to the center of the forest, the feeling of familiarity had gotten stronger. However, I could sense a patrol of some sort ahead. My first encounter of intelligent life here, There is no way in hell I''m counting goblins and trolls as intelligent. A large grey stone wall blocked off my sight to the familiar feeling. Hah, to a wall a shadow that can blink is nothing. I was about to blink past the tall wall of the stone when I saw the patrol guard up top look out into the forest. The first thing I saw was the smooth angular face, then it was the sharp and long ears. The grey skin and strong build made the man look like a damn model in a black and white shoot. Ok, I was kind of jealous that this person who was only a guard on a wall looked better than me than my past ¡®Rex¡¯ form, but I put these weird thoughts aside. I knew that a tall wall, with strong looking guards. Something is being hidden here in this monotone forest. This something must be very very interesting¡ I want it.
...
Ch.9 Familiar Presence
Still mumbling about the damn elves natural beauty, I sent a shadow scout to run around viewing the length of the wall, I needed to know just how big this ¡®quarantined¡¯ area is. I also sent a shadow to scout out behind me, to see where my hunters are and how long it will take them to get to me. I could sense them very far away but they were closing in fast, so I needed to make sure they don¡¯t mess up my sneak in. While my scouts were working I needed to improve my blink to make it more stealthy and controlled. Even a goblin could tell something is wrong due to the massive spatial fluctuations. ¡°Zero, find me the best way to reduce the large spatial distortions when I blink. I also need to know¡ how can I make a black hole¡±.
[I¡¯ll begin right away Master, It shouldn¡¯t take to long for either of these because they are actually closely related]
Calculating for task completion¡ Estimated time: 15 minutes¡ Looking through sources of information¡ Solving...
¡°Thanks, You¡¯re always the best¡±. Ever since I was swallowed by the particular black hole and transported as a soul, this time in the forest has gotten me to think. What would be a core spell for someone who is literally made of darkness? As a previous god and hardcore researcher, I have come to understand a few things. Death is just another term for darkness. Life is just another term for light. However, if both of these opposites are combined, then the result is Shadow¡ however, what is the shadow¡¯s aspect? It¡¯s balance. Balance of both light and darkness, Life and Death. As a sentinel of the soul, I had a tool for balance that weighed against the soul. If a soul was in balance then the soul was allowed to sent back into reincarnation¡¯s cycle free of pain. If it was too heavy on one side, then special actions were taken. If it was dark, then it needed to be cleansed of its sins. If it was too light then it needed to be taught reality and truth. The weight of the feather of an owl, what no one knew in the past besides me and Isis, was that owls were beings of intellect, grace, and balance. Using the feather as a counterbalance to a soul worked perfectly. Owl¡¯s souls were perfectly balanced in light and darkness, this is why they are the perfect animals to have as guides. Going back to the aspect of light and darkness in balance I was thinking of how it can affect my future shadows. If I could balance light and darkness to be more stabilized I believe I will get much stronger.
System(Balance)
Revelation Effect: Bend light and darkness to meld together to create stronger shadows.
Huh¡ oh forgot about that¡ guess I¡¯m right. I was about to test my new-found powers when my shadow scouts sent mental pokes. I viewed through both at the same time. The shadow that was going around the wall found a single entrance of a thick dark wood and iron gate. It was guarded by at least 15 guys. I sent a message to the scout to return to me as I received mental notes on the length of the wall. The tall stone wall covers about 2 square miles/ 5 square kilometers, which is a pretty decent size. I already figured it wasn¡¯t a city of any sort and must be some sort of grounds that holds some creature or thing that they don¡¯t want anyone to see or know. Then I focused on the party that is running through the forest fast trying to catch up to me. They may be fast but not even a third of my speed, more like a fourth at most. It will probably take them around half an hour to arrive. I could also see that all of them are still great looking, which made me mentally mumble. However, when I went to get close with my shadow to see them, the one that looked like the oldest moved his head in my shadow¡¯s direction. It seems as though he will be the toughest, he has the ¡®experienced¡¯ look. They are most definitely here to stop me through force, hmmm, I¡¯m actually confused though. I haven¡¯t done anything wrong so far, maybe they are just scared. I did end up killing a large portion of the outer forest and ¡ drained their lifeforce. Yeah, most definitely scared. I could sense the older elf¡¯s presence and it seemed substantial but that was it, nothing to be scared of, nothing to really even worry about. He seems like a possible 2nd tier however it¡¯s almost like his power isn¡¯t refined. He may have abilities and use them well, but he clearly hasn¡¯t trained with someone truly strong before. His experience would only match up to an elite soldier rather than anything else. I could tell, even though there are guards on the wall next to me, there weren¡¯t many of them and I could easily slip in. However, I spent most of my time this past week hunting, and my vision is really adapted to darkness, I usually can¡¯t tell the difference unless the moon¡.moons aren¡¯t reflecting light in my area. I need to spend some time looking at the stars, I could just shapeshift my eyes to not have night vision.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
[Master I have finished my task. I believe the best way to decrease spatial fluctuations is to draw in an area of space instead of space in general. Also, the closer to the body that space can be drawn upon the fewer waves created]
[Continuing Master, black holes are condensed energies collapsing on themselves. If you could take pure mana, into a light and darkness mana separately then condensed them together, the rest should follow and you should even gain control of the black hole to some extent through mana properties]
I see. I''m glad to have you Zero. This actually works wonderfully for testing balance control and my new gained ability. However right now is not the time for some black holes, its the time for infiltration. I sensed the area around me with my ethereal eyes closed. I could see throughout my true shadow form with phantom-like eyes, however, no one could actually see them as they are covered in a thin layer of shadow. I could feel space around me, instead of grabbing it I tried to touch and feel it mentally. I could almost move space around me, however, it was like jello and always reformed to its origin. I tried to create a spatial domain, like my shadow domain and it took quite a few attempts to feel a 3-dimensional area around me. Anything within this area I could sense, and see in a way. From the tiniest grain of dirt to the treetops. I condensed the area until it was just slightly away from my pool of shadows and used blink. I didn¡¯t know what happened until I realized that I was on the other side of the wall. This side was actually similar to the outside until I realized that the leaves on the trees were actually darker. Instead of a silver-grey color, they were a dark-grey. So something is transforming the landscape with its presence, must be strong. However, I still feel such familiarity and it¡¯s even stronger now.
I glided across the ground with six of my shadow minions still connected to my soul¡ they are part of my soul but kind of latch on and absorb into my shadow pool ready to be used at any time. I sped across the ground deeper and deeper into the closed off forest until I came to a large cave. It was quite the size and inside was just a really dark cave that led deeper. However this darkness, I could feel it is somewhat artificial¡ like a shadow domain, I thought. I went to see what happens when to shadow domains get into contact with each other. I sent out my shadow domain turning the clearing outside of the cave dark, and the domains touched. However, what happened was a little odd and unexpected. My shadow domain actually just absorbed the other one. I gathered my shadow domain and went further into the cave to hopefully find some answers.
¡
As Anubis was investigating the cave, shadow elves were sprinting across the ground through a green forest, it was quickly turning into a silver color. However, the elves didn¡¯t stop and just kept running as fast as possible.
The grand elder looked at some of the confused scouts and some of the newer warriors that joined the council''s personal army recently. He said, ¡°I will tell you to never speak of where we are going to anyone, this is a forbidden zone to shadow elves¡ thee forbidden zone. When we get to the walls that protect the inside from the outside, you will ignore everything you hear. The only thing you have to know is, this creature we are hunting if it continues killing, and if it kills a particular being, we are already doomed to die off¡±.
The scouts shivered and understood that the shadow elf race is at stake here and began to understand such an insane pace that is needed to catch up to the unknown creature. All the shadow elves here knew one thing though, they are running at their full speed which is faster than almost any other race whether it be the humans, lizardmen, or the beastkin nomads. Yet this creature seems to outpace them by a factor of 3 or maybe even 4. All the shadow elves have understood this and could only think one thing¡ Scary.
¡
Anubis POV
I had traveled through the cave on my Emperor of Shadow¡¯s form very slow for my usual pace. It was beautiful, gems the size of my human past¡¯s palm, littered the sides and ceiling of the cave. Combined with the translucent silver moss, it looked as if the stars themselves were embedded into the cave. Even though I traveled through the stars themselves, they were always absolutely gorgeous. I had a feeling if even one of the gems were missing this entire masterpiece would fall apart, I¡¯ve never really had apprehension as strong as never to mess with the gemstones. Creation itself was showing off its beauty in front of me. Crystal blue water streamed at the floor creating a shallow calm river. It seemed as though a path through the stars was made just for me to walk on. I continued my peaceful walk as the feeling of familiarity kept on growing stronger and stronger. The feeling was about to explode like a cup on the brim of over exploding when I saw it. I thought¡ kin¡ another of me? Why does a life hunger elemental of darkness seem so¡. Docile and passive. I looked at the floating wisp of darkness hovering in the air in front of me. It called out to me mentally, the wisp did a motion of bending, to comply with its emperor''s orders. It obeys and serves its master.
...
Ch. 10 The First Royal Guard
I was looking at the glowing wisp of darkness in the starlight cave¡ this creature was kin, and it is absolutely loyal to the emperor which is me. I know what this means, I have another shadow elemental that I can use this being without the cost of mana, the debuff of stats and strength of being just a minion. If I could find more of these creatures, I could build an army of shadows, this world¡¯s greatest assassins. ¡°Shadow elemental, you will be the first of my royal guard. I will train you¡ teach you¡ and in return you will serve me with absolute loyalty, I will be your master always and if you were to fall in battle, I will drag you out of the depth of shadows so you can learn from your mistakes. Learn to not fear death, to not fear life. You are above both and only underneath me¡±.
The shadow grew into a humanoid form, it was just a mannequin like-figure, no eyes, no ears, no mouth. It kneeled and held out its hands, palms facing upwards. I formed a blade of pure balance, it was void black with a silver glow around it and held it in my hands. I tapped the blade on both sides of the shadow elemental to complete the knighthood ceremony. ¡°Rise my newborn void-knight, take shape and live in the shadows, for the shadows¡ for me. The new knight rose, and the darkness seemed to have been called to it as the shadows moved towards this new figure. It took the form of a Caped knight. The knight had full body dark steel armor, the shoulders had spikes that looked like sharp teeth had risen to eat the foolish and the weak. The helmet was all dark steel, covering the full face, however, there were small slits that went from the chin to where the mouth was as to make a terrifying picture of sharped blades meeting together to where the chin lay. The eyes were molded to create a triangular shape in which light blue eyes were contained. A black fur cape reached down to the knees that covered a portion of the shoulders and the back. The cape seemed to sway in the windless cave as it was made of shadows. A large two-handed blade of half dark steel and half silver steel, rested with its immeasurably sharp tip and sides in the ground, with the knight''s gauntlets resting on the pommel in a sentinel like style waiting for further commands from its lord.
System(Army of true shadow elementals)
Revelation Effect: Shadow minions cost less to maintain and create by half.
I¡¯m impressed, really impressed. I know some nice looking medieval armors and fantasy armors, but this may just take the cake for the best looking royal armor I¡¯ve ever seen. I was interrupted by my thoughts as my shadow scout from earlier sent a mental message. They have been getting better at communicating with me mentally and so this message was much clearer and could be voiced with words instead of just emotional nudges. The scout messaged through the soul saying, ¡°Emperor of shadowssss, the elvesss had arrivess to the cavesss¡±. The scout sounded like a snake with the elongated s¡¯s. It was nice to know some target practice has come to us. I turned to my new void-knight, ¡°It¡¯s time to prove your worth to my new one, do not disappoint me¡±. The knight nodded its head and took to the front of me as it led me to the outside of the cave.
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Shadow elves inspected the walls for damage,
¡°There is nothing, the trail of leads us to here, the gate is on the other side of the wall, how can it just disappear?¡± The grand elder and the mountain tribe leader Akazul were speaking to each other. Distraught was written all of their faces, however, lady luck...or unluck was on their side because they had a single space mage out of their only two who sensed a slight disturbance in space near a section of the wall. The space mages of their¡¯s were only numbered at two, and it was a large risk to bring such a treasured asset to hunt such a dangerous creature. However, their space magic can only go as so far as opening a portal through rituals and have higher senses than others in space disturbances. Yet they were still highly regarded among all species for their uniqueness and their ability to see and use the power of the ¡®beyod¡¯.
They followed the trail of space to the other side of the wall, they knew it may already be too late, the guards have already reported of no disturbances, so it surprised them that this creature of ferocity ignored the guards and just went straight to the cave of starlight. Shadow elf legend talks of a mysterious cave that shines with starlight, however only the elders knew the true secret of the cave. The hunting party quickly ran to the cave and readied their weapons. No one has been in the cave for over 2 thousand years and was supposed to continue like that, but then Anubis came into the picture. The elves could see the starlight of the cave, however, before they even stepped a foot into the cave a figure came out. It was a terrifying knight - demon, wielding a massive two-handed sword that seemed to be able to cut space itself. The dark elves began to shiver.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
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To be continued¡
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System
Species:
Shadow Elemental (Deviation: Soul)
Tier: 1, Level 22/100
Abilities:
Primordial Soul Affinity Strong Life Affinity Strong Death Affinity Strong Shadow Affinity Medium Space Affinity Medium Time Affinity
Revelation Effect: Light damage is nullified - bonuses can be achieved in a further evolution
Revelation Effect: Can use any weapon with perfect skill after a couple of practice minutes
Revelation Effect: Can control minions with great skill and absolute loyalty is guaranteed
Revelation Effect: Death, Light, Space, Time seem to have an affection of you
Revelation Effect: Learning any new subject seems to come much easier to you
Revelation Effect: Intimidating Aura, Auras are able to be hidden, Fearless
Revelation Effect: No one¡¯s soul is safe, no one can hide
Revelation Effect: Lifeforce can be drained through physical contact
Revelation Effect: Mental oppression or control abilities have no control over you.
Revelation Effect: Bend light and darkness to meld together to create stronger shadows.
Revelation Effect: Shadow minions cost less to maintain and create by half.
Ch. 11 Are You Worthy?
Anubis POV,
I looked at the group of tall scrawny elves¡ they still are more beautiful than my past lives¡ damn. It was time to beginthinking of my plans for my future¡ what will I do? What will I accomplish? Do I want to be a lone wolf, or do I want to rule the world? What will be my fate, it is already in my own hands so I can choose which path I want to take. A feeling I''ve never had before, freedom. I remembered my past...pasts, I was a lone wolf in one, a researcher and a guardian of souls the other. I need something different, I need to be something different. Of course, I dealt with faith and commanding soldiers before. I was thinking about my past experiences, what would combine them all and in the end create something new altogether?
As my knight walked out of the shadows of the cave in front of the elves. I thought of something that will be the future. In the past, advancements of technologies were the reason for mass death, the collapse of the balance of nature, exterminations of many beautiful creatures. As a god of death, it was sad to watch these lives go not just unfulfilled, but die without purpose. If I could not only create my own empire but make it a force that has a direct focus on the balance of the world from either the shadows or in the open, then I could create a world that will never sway from the natural order. The world would never be doomed from ignorance and greed. Magic seems to flow with some order and some chaos, it has both destruction purposes and passive or utility purposes. After some more thoughts about the purpose of my future, I decided on my chosen path. To rule, to create, to protect. First steps first.
I will create an empire of the size of this continent only, it is located in a reclusive spot, away from others. I gained information from when Zero showed me the map he was able to gather before I was reincarnated. Once I have decided where the empire will be, I have to decide on what it is focused on, strength and skill seem like good starters. I will teach these native people how to become strong, how to improve, how to collaborate for the greater good, and then rule them as their god-emperor, all for the sake of balance for the world. Now I understand my role as a shadow emperor, my fate has led me here, I will not deny itsgifts and it''s purpose.
The void-knight seemed to scare the shadow elves shitless, they couldn¡¯t even move one step or draw their weapons. It¡¯s hard to forget that I am about 9 feet tall, my knight is the same height as me. He must look like a demonic titan to these people, it¡¯s hilarious. It took every ounce of strength in my body to not giggle like a little girl.
Oh, how my future shadow army will make the world tremble. I have to remind myself to look for more shadow elementals. When the shadow elves were about to regain their senses, I stepped out from the shadows of the cave, in my shadow emperor form I walked behind my shadow knight. The void-knight turned to me and kneeled with his hands resting on the pommel in both worship and servitude to his god-emperor.
I looked at my loyal knight and spoke, ¡°prove your self worthy of protecting me¡±.
I looked to the shadow elves, my hood of darkness contained no eyes, no mouth, but sound came out when I spoke, ¡°If you want answers... if you want to even think of facing me, you will fight my new knight. If you win then you will get what you¡¯re wishing for. This is not only to prove him worthy of me, but you will also have to prove yourselves worthy of my time¡±. I turned around and walked back to the cave where I stood to watch the scene play out from the shadows. I wasn¡¯t worried about them not understanding me, I seem to instinctively know that they could understand me, whether it was through some magic, or this world¡¯s laws, the language barrier seem to be small.
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Shadow elves POV:
When we saw the knight we were already confused as well as scared, we thought it was the monster that we were going to face. It looked as if demons would just be toothpicks to it, however at the same time it looked like the most honorable sentinel. However, all of our puny shadow elf minds were quickly broken when we saw its master. It looked as if a god of the abyss rose just to smite us.
The knight kneeled in servitude to its abyssal master. It spoke in an ancient tongue, we knew of this killed of language as it was what the ancient ancestors spoke of. Luckily we had a few researchers of such majestic language from the histories. All of us looked upon the three shadow elves within our group to listen to what words were just spoken, however, we already knew what the god of the abyss wanted, from the looks of it, it wanted to have its knight prove ourselves to even communicate with him.
The history professors looked to each other and nodded, then turned to the rest of the group. ¡°He said that he wanted us to prove our worthiness to him, both us and his ¡ new knight¡±, one of the shadow elf professors said.
The grand elder stepped up and spoke, ¡°I think I understand the situation now¡ the shadow elemental we were told to protect has been¡ converted. It is best we fight the knight, even though it was once what we were sent to protect I can still feel the shadows follow him. However, this knight only emits a decent aura nothing like it¡¯s master. The master¡ I believe is a shadow primordial¡±. The shadow elves all looked at each other in surprise, the shadow primordials are the beings they once worshipped. They went extinct long ago, they were only myths now, how is it possible one is still in these lands. This thought led to the next, Are we lucky¡ or unlucky.
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Anubis POV: I saw the elves communicate for a while, I had Zero begin to study their language and see if I can learn it for the future. However, I still caught on to particular words, like primordial. That¡¯s what my soul strength is, I wonder if I am considered an ancient being, it seemed as I was narrowing down the possibilities before they decided the elves would fight. They all grouped up into a combat position, warriors up front, rangers, and mages evenly spaced out in the back. Some are assassins and flanked the warriors. It looked as though some were even priests with long staffs that radiated a pure life aura. The knight was tier 1 like me, however, there is a large fundamental difference in strength between the two species. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
I believe this is when bloodlines come into play, it¡¯s like comparing a dinosaur capable of crushing trees just by moving to cavemen. Although they are in the same tier, their basic strength is just too wide to do a 1v1, 30v1 is definitely more balanced. It is time to see where the strength of these shadow elves lie, and how I can improve my void-knight.
The void-night readied his sword, his left hand toward the enemy, his right holding his two-handed sword parallel with him towards the enemy. His body was side-ways and his stance was near-perfectly balanced. His left hand motioned for the elves to come. The elves first launched a volley of arrows, and the assassins took to widen the flank as they let the warriors charge in below the volley. With a wave of the void-knights sword doing a 360-degree swing, a strong gust of black wind struck the arrows launching them back at the archers. The Archers and mages had to increase the distance even further and started to spread out away from the void-knight unable to shoot from that distance.
The small break was a huge advantage and interrupted the mages casting, runic circles broke and some of the mages even stumbled back a bit from the cancelation in magic. The void-knight then charged towards the warriors in a straight on fashion. The elves with large dark wood and silver metal outlining took to the front to block the void-knight. The void-knight swung his sword with both his hands in a 180-degrees and destroyed all eight shields that were attempting to block him, the tanks that took to block him flew back 20ft/6m.
Anubis noticed this would¡¯ve of been much less if the tanks were to angle their shields and block more smoothly. Also, the archers are launching their arrows in a group-like fashion. This is pointless as the void-knight had thick dark steel armor, those arrows would only be reflected if not aimed accurately at joints. So far, the only one who actually impressed Anubis, is the void-knight with his high skills. Lack of perfect balance and leaving openings after such wide swings were the only improvements needed noted so far.
The assassins circled around the void-knight and were about to launch a sneak attack when the void-knight turned around, expecting them. He swung in another 360-degrees but this time with the tip of the blade dragging the ground up. Dirt and rocks pushed both the assassins and warriors back breaking their charge. The grand elder understood they weren¡¯t doing good at all and decided to step in. He flipped over the rocks and dirt wave that broke their charge and started to sprint on light feet with his dual swords in his hands. Simple silver swords, that seemed to shine with moonlight.
The void-knight met his attack head-on with his two-handed sword. Both attacks created a large shockwave that rumbled the ground and created a gust of wind. Both the void-knight and the grand elder were pushed back a few feet/ a meter from each other. However, like before they both charged at each other. For a few seconds, blades clashed against each other creating sparks.
The mages and archers were in position again but were afraid of hitting the grand elder, the Warriors were trying to get back in the fight but the shock waves were pushing them back every time they were getting close. Anubis thought, Sometimes having only one powerful person in a large group can be more debilitating to the fight than help. There is both strength in numbers and strength in one¡¯s self.
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3rd person POV
The void-knight was beginning to be pushed back as the dual blades were just too fast for it to block every attack with its large two-handed sword. It understood this so it stomped the ground hard with its right foot creating an earthquake around it, breaking off the attack of the grand elder. It drove its sword in the ground and pumped magic power into it. Blue flames climbed onto the sword and onto the shoulders and helmet of the knight. It pulled its sword out of the ground and swung once more at the grand elder, however, this time the grand elder knew he couldn¡¯t block anymore and tried to dodge instead. The blue flames seared his skin as they barely missed him, and he backed off.
The mages with their spells finished, began to throw lightning, fire, water, rocks, and ice at the void-knight. The void-knight saw these incoming spells and emitted a blue flame shield that covered him like an egg. It blocked all the magic spells and arrows that were aimed at him. Akazul saw the shield of flames and as a mountain ranger of late tier 1, he took out his few enchanted arrows.
These are ancient arrows of the past and each one costs a fortune. He drew his wind-piercing arrow that seemed to gather wind on the arrow tip. With a pull of the bow-string of his Silverwood bow launched the arrow at a high speed. The arrow pierced the flame-egg shield and bit into the void-knights shoulder. The void-knight stepped back once from the impact. He pulled the arrow out like it was nothing but a mosquito bite and threw it on the ground. The arrow and the wound were dyed black, a colored dark black blood made of liquid shadows seeped from both.
The knight charged once again towards the warriors to make himunable to be shot from arrows and magic, his speed unchallenged besides his lord, reached the warriors in just a couple seconds. His sword cut two warriors and their swords, which were attempting to block his assault, all in half killing them instantly, and breaking their swords without mercy. However, this left his back wide open, in which the assassins and the grand elder drove into with their sharp blades. The daggers of the assassins barely went deep, were like the grand elder¡¯s blades sunk deep into the back of the shadow knight. The void-knight lost his strength and begun to fall to the ground.
Right before his neck was cut from one of the veteran soldiers in front of the void-knight. With numbers only, the shadow elves won. All of the shadow elves fell onto the knees or asses, sweat dripped from their heads and a tired look was on every single one of their faces. The grand elder of the shadow elves thought, just maybe they could have no deaths. However, right after that thought, the void-knight charged into their fewer veteran warriors. He quickly killed the less battle-hardened. Even with gathering only the strongest of the shadow elves, they were still fighting on almost even terms with a new leveled tier 1 shadow knight.
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Anubis POV,
I saw my void-knight be killed as I had expected. I knew it would be hard for him to succeed, almost impossible. However, he did still much more amazing then a newborn warrior should have been able to do. This just means less time is needed to train my future royal guards, this is nothing but a win-win situation to me. I looked at the elves and slowly walked up to the body of the void-knight. I spread out my shadow domain and let it seep into the body, I could sense the location of the shadow elemental soul that floated above the body. I grasped the soul with a large shadow hand that grew out my domain, it grabbed the soul and shoved it into the body.
The body shook and then started to get up like nothing happened. It turned to me and kneeled, I looked at the grey-skinned elves, who had their mouths open agape in surprise. I spoke in their tongue that was completely understood by Zero and sent to my consciousness; ¡°You have both proven yourselves. Elves, come here. You will tell me why you have been chasing me, you will tell me why you have held my kin behind enclosed walls, and you will tell me where I am. In return, I will understand your situation, and decide on both of our futures¡±.
System(resurrection of shadow-kin)
Revelation effect: There is no death for shadows, be able to call your kins souls back into their bodies.
...
Ch. 12 A Rude Interruption
The Elves that just heard my statement of intent, kneeled in front of me. I didn¡¯t even have to try to conquer these guys. Still confused, as to why they were kneeling already I spoke, ¡°Why do you kneel before me, I have not ordered you to do so?¡±.
The oldest elf looked to me with worship in his eyes, there seems to be a glimmer of hope, whether to befriend me or to save himself I don¡¯t know. He spoke, ¡°Long ago, our people worshipped a god that ruled these lands, he was quiet, yet extremely powerful. If there was an issue, his powers would resolve it almost instantaneously. He was known as the Emperor of Shadows. He ruled this continent and brought peace to all of our species lands. However, one day he ended up disappearing, gone from the continent, possibly even gone from the world. Ever since that being left, there has been an all-out war between, shadow elves or our species, lizardmen, humans, and the nomad beastmen¡±.
The mountain ranger from earlier then looked to me with the same glimmer of hope and said, ¡°It is because, once we saw you use the shadows to resurrect, what we assume was once the shadow elemental, we understood. You are our Lord, you are our god and have come back to us¡±.
I listened to their speech and finally understood what my class entails. There was once another before me, however, that being perished due to incompetence. He probably went insane from life force and started to kill his kin for it. In the end, their past god was killed off by his once loyal soldiers due to greed. However, these elves assume that such a being has returned. It¡¯s time to clear this up; ¡°You are both right, and wrong¡±. The shadow elves were confused by these words. I continued, ¡°I am not your god, or your savior. The being you once worshipped was killed by his own arrogance. I am something much much more, whether it be powerful, knowledgeable, or worthy of such power¡±.
The shadow elves had blank faces as they were digesting my words, still kneeling in servitude. When they realized just what I am, they were worried, If I am not their god that they once worshipped. What are my ambitions, what will I do to them. I continued speaking once they seem to understand what situation they are in; ¡°I have just arrived from the shadows, and I know not what this land¡ this world contains. I am new, and I have yet to be impressed by either the wildlife¡¯s strength, your strength, or even the goblin¡¯s strength. It all seems weak and unrefined. I can see the potential in all, but such potential is wasted. Like a gem within a rock, untapped and unable to shine it¡¯s true color to the world. We will talk as we go back to your home. I will look upon your species and decide what I can make of you¡±.
The shadow elves all looked up to me, even though I''m terrifying they showed no fear, even though I¡¯m not their god, they showed no reluctance. In fact, they even showed hope, something stronger then their previous god can help them? However, the news that was never discovered by them still rang in their ears. The reason their almighty god from the past, the god that led their species to the golden ages¡ was incompetent? I could see the mixed feelings written all over their faces, besides one man. As I have heard before, he was the grand elder, the leader of the shadow elves. My knight could face him head-on and still fight 29 others, this race will need a lot of work to be brought up.
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I figured out, the grand elder only has few months of life left. After spending life force for repopulating their species through the essence of shadows, he lost 3/4ths of his life expectancy, just to birth 3 children. I saw why he only had one look on his face, and that look was of hope for his species future. When we started walking back through the forest towards the gate of the protected area, the elves on the gates were surprised. However, they opened the gates quickly when they saw the grand elder. However, most, if not all, froze when they saw me and the void-knight that was next to me guarding me. Although the elves were tall, for human height, mostly around 6.5 - 7ft/2m - 2.2m, I was still 9ft or 3m in comparison. Not only that, my figure looks both terrifying and majestic at the same time.
I got the feeling, the reason why the shadow elves didn¡¯t even want to know of just how strong I was, was because of the vibe I gave off naturally. Almost as if, anyone in my presence instinctively wanted to kneel before me and worship me. Which is not completely new to me, in my past whenever I descended upon Earth, it was the same.
Once we were past the gates, the grand elder spoke quickly to the guards and told them their duty was no longer needed here, however, do not take it as a bad thing but there has been an alternative discovered for their racial problem. During the walk with the grand elder, I have understood one thing¡ their species relies heavily on the shadow¡¯s presence. But even this confused me, when the grand elder talked about his sacrifice of life force, I sensed something fishy. Yes, their species may rely on some ambient energy of shadows, however lifeforce as a sacrifice to a dead-god, that should not be necessary at all, even as a jumpstart, the process should draw in ambient life-force either from what parents have consumed or just in the air. I thought there could be the possibility of another hidden shadow elemental that is just feeding off people¡¯s life-force unconsciously nearby. Definitely worth investigating, whether for a new royal guard or just increasing the species opinion as me. Even as a potential god, whether they feel they can rely on me to help them is a huge factor in future relations.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The trip was quiet for everyone but me and the grand elder, we talked about the land, the species, and their current technological capabilities, I was about to ask how magic in this world worked when I sensed a humongous amount of life-force nearby. Not only that, it was moving this way fast. It was large, very large and seemed to be eating all of the trees, shrubs, and rocks directly in its path. As if a large worm-like creature was consuming everything on it¡¯s way here.
I turned to the grand elf, ¡°There is a worm-like devouring creature on it¡¯s way here. Any idea what it could be?¡±.
The grand elf looked at me in shock, ¡°it¡¯s a ¡ megaladora, it¡¯s a titan monster that travels the forest path consuming all. Their population is incredibly small, however, each one has a scale-like armor and steel razor teeth, usually, we can¡¯t hurt them at all and have to move to protect ourselves. We¡¯ve lost a great deal to them¡±.
As I considered the elf¡¯s words I thought of a great Idea. Why not show off my power to consolidate my foundation with the shadow elves. I turned to the direction the worm is heading in. I used my blink ability to teleport in the air and then hovered there above the trees. I saw off in the distance a snake-like worm creature moving its way towards us. It was massive, almost like an entire cave system brought out of the ground, and moving around in a Z-shape pattern consuming all in its path. I could sort of understand where the shadow elves are coming from when they talk about needing to migrate whenever there is one of these creatures around. However, I am not the shadow elves. I looked at the creature with pity, a wild titanic monster that could scare entire cities, to be used as my stepping stone. It''s both sad and wonderful. I would just blame it on bad ¡®luck¡¯.
I condensed the light and darkness from the surroundings, almost like my soul-flame. Condensing it further and further until there is a small completely black ball. I started to pump my mana into the black ball and in a crushing motion made it collapse on itself.
System
Ability Learned: Black-Hole
Huh.. good to know you can learn abilities without revelation effects or class upgrades. Probably what mages in this world do to learn new spells. It seems like the reasonable fantasy-like outcome that I have come to expect every now and then.
[Congratulations master, you have successfully created a black hole!]
Thanks Zero, its all thanks to your instruction from before. How about we test this baby out!
I could feel how to aim the black hole, almost like a grenade. It has some drop, due to the world¡¯s gravity but is much less affected as that in itself is consumed by the black hole. After considering how to use this new-found ability. I decided to go one step further. I surrounded the ball in an elongated shadow. It is like a shadow missile now. I made it hover above my hand and launched it just by making the throwing motion just like a javelin without weight.
System
Ability Learned: Shadow Bolt
The shadow missile containing a black-hole flew across the sky, leaving a thin trail of darkness. It hit right at the mouth of the titanic worm that was much closer now since before. Although extremely large, it was quite a slow creature, that gave me much needed time to create my spell. As soon as the missile hit the creature a wave of compressed energy uprooted the surroundings whether it was trees or boulders. As everything was pulled out of the ground and 100ft/30m or so, it was yanked back and crushed everything into pieces from the force. The wave of energy collapsed on itself sucking in everything in a 1500ft/500m radius. The titanic worm being was completely sucked in besides the tip of its tail which was nailed into the ground far away as if to anchor the worm when it realized the black-hole.
¡°HA! That was awesome! I want to do it again! Wait¡ it¡¯s already dead. Damn¡±. I glided back down to the forest floor where the elves were sheltering themselves behind boulders and large trees with exasperated faces on. ¡°So, it''s dead now. Let¡¯s get going. I still haven¡¯t seen where you live yet¡±. I started walking in the general direction where we were going before, my void-knight unfazed right behind me.
System
Level Up (x28)
Kills - Megaladora(x1)
...
Pictures of Inspiration of Characters In The Story So Far...
Shadow Form(Void Walker) #1:
Spoiler: V.W.
Shadow Form (Shadow Emperor) #2:
Spoiler:S.E.
Shadow Knight:
Spoiler: Spoiler
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Map Projection of 1/12 of the world from Zero:
Spoiler: Map
Shadow Elves:
Spoiler: Shadow Elves
Goblin Troll:
Spoiler: G.T.
Companion #1 (SPOILER ALERT):
Spoiler: Spoiler
Ch.13 Ashes Before Prosperity
When we arrived at the shadow elves main home¡ I was kind of let down. They lived in a redwood-like area where the trees were absolutely humongous. Where their buildings were located, they weren¡¯t on the ground¡ they were up high made of dark wood and large purple leaves from the redwood-like treetops for roofing. It would have a pure fantasy-like feel¡ if their buildings weren¡¯t all incredibly small looking shabby huts. They had a lack of plants other than the trees. They only color to be seen were the purple leaves, the grey-skinned people, and the dark brown bark of the trees. The floor of the forest was covered in dead leaves, unkempt and messy. The atmosphere was gloomy and dark. The lake in the center of the area in which the houses surrounded was the only slightly mystical sight. It was clear and looked refreshing, however, based on my past lives knowledge, such a lake is actually either contained poisonous chemicals or was lacking in nutrients to hold the necessary fish or vegetation to support the surroundings.
I could see all the issues before even entering the lack-luster city. There wasn¡¯t enough fish to eat, no sanitation areas besides the nutrient lacking waters of the large lake, which had nowhere to go as there was no river nearby to filter it out. The huts were shabby, not built sturdy, the floor looks like it hasn¡¯t had a proper forest floor fire, which is needed to provide nutrient-based ash to the trees and bushes for even more food. The people lacked energy from fruit and vegetables, even meat would probably be a commodity. For a type of elves, these people had failed in affinity with nature aspects. I thought They would almost be better of becoming nomads, hell just moving next to a river would fix half of the problems they are facing right now.
The new ¡°guest¡±, me, was being eyed carefully by the guards and nearby elves, at least until they saw the grand elder next to me. The perimeter defenses were also lack-luster, merely being made out of sharpened wood logs. My eyes continued to gaze at the structures, the only way to reach the houses and other facilities from the ground level, were wooden ramps that looked like they would break at any time. These ramps circled around the trees to the respective building, and wooden bridges with ropes as handles connected the trees. At the end of my scrutiny, all I could think was, Pathetic¡ It seems I have a lot of work to do.
¡
I was toured around the city in the trees for a couple of hours to get a good look at their situation. I got a good grasp of their technology level, their food problems, maintenance problems. There were many problems that needed fixing but not enough people with free hands to really help out. They were stuck in a repetitive cycle of ¡°hunt food and gather to survive¡± situation. No one worked on technology and research, no one could care for other children, no one could sit and relax at all. It was life and death, they needed food, shelters, and warriors. The continental war that is occurring has only led to one good thing with the elves... and that is combat potential. They are naturally good at archery and mobility, the entire population is hardworking and loyal to their kind. The shadow elves are all just rough diamonds, hidden in stone, and deep underground. They could be trained to be perfect loyal assassins, rangers, and scouts. They just need a little guidance, and who could be a better teacher in the area of warfare than a god of death, or a soldier?
I looked at the grand elder Darius, I learned his name during the tour and forgot to ask for it earlier. The only ones remaining by my side at the moment was Darius, Akazul, and my void-knight. I spoke to the two elders, ¡°We need to call for the council, I have observed your situation, let me just say¡ It¡¯s absolutely pathetic. We will gather together in the council chambers in 1 hour. In the meantime, while you gather the elders, I will fix one of your problems right now. Your species are not currently worthy to serve me, however¡ they will be soon¡±.
The grand elders understood that their race is under the threat of going out of existence, they understood they are currently weak, they understood that this being in front of them is their only hope. They nodded without saying a word and went off to the messaging posts and council posts so send word of the meeting. I saw their determination for survival, but those two are idiots if thinking all the elders will just kneel. They need proof of my strength, and I intend to ram my proof right into their dull skulls. I looked to the lake nearby and smiled¡ Time to get a new guard.
¡
I looked at the empty crystal clear lake, standing on the shore, and began to walk into the lake. The surrounding elves noticed this and had very confused looks, I could understand as I was just casually submerging myself into the lake. Like a robot or undead, I walked slowly to the depths of the clear lake. I knew two things about this lake, one, it has no life within it, as there is absolutely no life at all. No germs, no algae, no fish, no people. The waters consume life, but I could sense and figure out there is something else, something that these people could not even to guess that there was something hidden right under their noses. When I sensed life in the surroundings from earlier, I saw something that made even me intrigued. All the life force was being sucked slowly to the lake, then deeper into the lake. Most of the lake could be seen through, however even light seemed to not penetrate its depths. What thing, could suck life, and hide itself in a crystal clear lake. A shadow elemental would be the perfect match. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
I began to guess why the old elders began to choose this place to be rather than a river, the species needs a shadow elemental to thrive, but they didn¡¯t know that very shadow elemental is stopping their species from repopulating correctly. If they were to move farther away from their home, they would have no reproduction problems and still gain ambient shadow energy. I could even sense that they no longer even need that energy and their genes have already fully transformed over the thousands of years they have been here.
I was reaching the depths of the lake when my senses spotted the shadow elemental, being at the bottom of the lake is smart for magical entity¡¯s that have no reason to ¡®breathe¡¯. However, it¡¯s hiding game is over, no more leaching from my future subjects.
As if to recognize me as it¡¯s absolute master it called out to me through mental connections.
¡
Greetings, lord of the shadows. I have been waiting for your return.
The shadow elemental began to vibrate with anticipation upon my arrival, through the mental connection I could sense it¡¯s happiness to be with its ruler again. I sent back a mental connection, Come with me my subject, it has been too long since my being has been away. It¡¯s time for us to rise once again, however, I will tell you that I am not the same master before. I am someone¡ something much greater. You will prove your worth to me, in return I will give you freedom and purpose.
The shadow elemental vibrated even harder and sent mental connections of repeated thanks over and over again. As I walked right next to the shadow elemental I put my hands on the top of the wisp of shadows. I spoke, ¡°Rise¡ rise again to serve your master, your lord, your emperor. In the shadows, we rule. In the world, we rule. In death, we rule. Rise Void-Mage, I recognize your strength and intelligence. Your thirst for power will lead you to become one of my own.
The shadow elemental took form, it grew into a humanoid shape as tall as my knight and I. The shadow produced a black mage robe that was smooth and elegant. Runic symbols began to dance across the sleeves, down the robe, and up the hood. A silver mask was created, with nothing but two parallelograms with shining blue as eyes. No mouthpiece was made, only a line that goes from the chin to the bottom the eyes. A circle that held a square which in turn held a triangle that was glowing blue appeared on the forehead. A staff of woven black steel which looked as if branches entwined appeared, the top of the staff opened up then closed making an octahedron shape. A crystal bloomed on the tip of the staff the grew to fit its ¡®cage¡¯ perfectly. The crystal began to glow a deep blue.
The Void-mage waved its right hand, which had a black leather glove appearance, and a spherical bubble surrounded us. The water was pushed out and we stood within. The bubble floated to the top of the lake and unfolded to make a 2d plane of thin water in which we stood. I looked at the kneeling mage in front of me, it spoke in a clear but whisper-like voice; ¡°lord, as you have risen me, I will dedicate my whole to you. If there be an enemy, I will make them have regret for their ignorance. If there be a friend, I will treat them with care. If you are alone, I will be there to provide you comfort¡±.
I put my hand on the shoulder of my new royal guard, ¡°As long as you care for me, I will in return care for you¡±. The Void-mage stood and nodded. I then asked, ¡°What are your abilities?¡±. I need to know how to use my new guard to its utmost ability.
The Void-mage spoke, ¡°I have great affinities with water and ice, I can cast large area of effect abilities to destroy thy foes. I also can provide a hard ice-armor to protect thy friends. My abilities also include lifesteal on a physical touch wither with my staff or hands¡±.
I nodded along with the Void-mage and its abilities. I have a few good AOE abilities like blackhole or shadow domain, but having someone else with that ability will be easier on my management within a battle. Afterward, we glided across the waters back to shore. It was time for the meeting. I could already tell, the strain of the lake has been removed, which in turn, relieves the strain on reproduction. Time to tell these dark elves what I am capable of, and tell them that this continent will belong to me.
Time for the final war has begun, I will first level to tier 2, then I will be untouchable to the races of this continent. In turn, I will provide these species a reprieve. However, ashes must first be created to provide nutrients to the future. The soil right now is dying, it is brittle. I must feed the soil blood and ashes to begin anew. This continent is missing its god, I will be more than happy to replace it.
System(Path of God-Emperor)
Revelation Effect: Those who are under your banner, worship you. Those who face it, shiver in fright. The land, water, and air belong to you and only you. Ability Gained: Godly Majestic Presence
...
Ch. 14 The Times are Changing
I waited at the edge of the lake looking at its waters, the turbidity slowly increasing. There must be a balance of life within the lake. Its natural state should not be just clear but have some dirt and other minerals flow around within. There should be both unity and chaos to be perfection. When the universe was created, chaos and unity bashed against each other, in the end, it created life. The first perfectly balanced creatures were primordial souls, their balance was absolute and unwavering. However as time goes on, this balance has been destroyed. It¡¯s time to bring back a force that acts for neither chaos or unity, but balance. This is no longer my goal of guarding the purity of souls, but the act of reaching strength no one has seen, at least since ancient times.
¡
It was about 45 minutes later when the shadow elf, Darius, has come to greet me. He spoke while kneeling in my presence, ¡°the elders have gathered, they are waiting for your audience, my lord. I can take you to the meeting spot if you follow me¡±.
I looked at the grand elder and spoke, ¡°Good, just point me to the right building then we can go there¡±.
The grand elder was a little confused, he pointed to a large tree that had a big hut, it made sense as the elders gathered were the leaders of the 30,000 or so elves. I motioned for the grand elder to stand next to me along with my royal guard. Once we were huddled together closely, I sent out spatial waves to stabilize a bubble around us. The grand elder was confused for a second then recognized what I was going to do, he spoke, ¡° I see my lord¡ wants to make a lasting impression. I agree wholeheartedly with this action... these elders have turned soft and dull, they no longer recognize true power¡±.
I figured as much and teleported all of us to the large hut-building in the largest tree within the forest. It wasn¡¯t relatively too far so teleporting us there was easy.
¡
Akazul POV:
I was sitting to the right of the grand elder¡¯s chair, there were 39 of us elders here already. I saw the elves who were having a variety of mixed emotions on their faces. Some had anticipation and hope. While others saw this new being as a threat to their power and were in deep contemplation. I just chuckled to my self quietly, they have no idea what this being could mean for our race. All I knew was this lands fate has just changed drastically. However, it seems my silent chuckling hasn¡¯t gone unnoticed.
My nemesis the marshlands elder, a stubborn and ignorant man spoke up; ¡°What the hell are you laughing about?! This is a serious problem, we are supposed to just hand over all of our hard work over these years. We have just stabilized from the battle at the border from the lizardmen and this new being just walks in here saying he is an almighty god more powerful than our ancient ancestor? Are you all idiots or what! This is obviously a scam and we are being played with. So what if his minion fought 30 people almost evenly, what can THIS BEING even do?!¡±
I looked at the elder with a comical glint in my eyes, during the trip back, we were told not to bring up the megaladora. In this way, our new future lord can see who is power-hungry and will be an obstacle to be eliminated. If I told him what happened to the megaladora this fool would have his trap shut.
Some of the elders were skeptical, some were agreeing, some didn¡¯t know left from right of the situation and just kept sighing. The conversation lasted for another minute until a massive spatial distortion was permeating throughout the room. Within a second four figures popped out of nowhere next to the grand elder''s chair. The room was dead quiet, all of the shadow elves were locked onto my new lord, they knew that this power is of the ancients. No space mage in the shadow elves has been able to use such space magic in a thousand years. My lord disregarded them and pulled back the grand elder''s wooden chair and just sat in it with his hands clasped interlocking each other as his elbows rested on the table. A faint cyan color flame smile appeared within the abyssal hood.
¡
Anubis POV:
I looked at these pathetic creatures within my view. Weak was the first thing I could think of. I scanned across the room. A large wooden table with 40 seats and 39 elders in front of me. The grand elder behind me along with my knight and mage royal guards. I decided to start this meeting off. Nonchalantly asking, ¡°Anyone who needs an example of my power raise your hand, we will go through this quickly as there are many more important matters to discuss than whether or not your willing to follow me¡±. I could see the hesitation is the shadow elves'' eyes, then the elf that was conversing with Akazul just seconds before my arrival rose his hand. He was a pathetic noble-looking elf, like he has been sheltered for his entire life, and even has people that wipe his shit for him. I spread out my shadow domain, cloaking the entire room in darkness, light seems to be afraid of the darkness and only a few torches on the walls looked just like glowing stones, afraid to light a flame bright enough to attract my attention.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I summoned a scythe of pure darkness that absorbed my shadow domain growing in strength to look just like a demonic death reaper scythe. The shadow domain receeded but the scythe remained. It vanished from the shadow elves'' view then reappeared behind the marshland elder with its blade around the neck of the shadow elf. The blade just a single millimeter away from the throat of the shadow elf. The shadow elf was sweating profusely and afraid to say a word that could end his life, he just sat frozen in his chair. I looked at the room and spoke, ¡°ok, moving on¡±. Leaving the scythe in its position completely stopping the elf from speaking a single word. I could see the excited glint in Akazul¡¯s eyes.
I then began the meeting completely ignoring the dense atmosphere as if nothing happened, ¡°My name is Anubis, and I will tell you that I was born a shadow elemental, however, there is much even you don¡¯t know about such beings. I was once a god, I was also once a soldier of death. I have had many experiences, many lives, and took so much more. I came to this world as a shadow elemental, not as a killer, not as a monster, nor as a god. I came here to rule, I have seen things you people can¡¯t begin to understand nor can even think about. You are currently unworthy of my rule, your species is underdeveloped in technology and warfare. You have fallen low and are nothing more than insects. It is obvious you can¡¯t rule by yourselves so I have come here to rule for you. I suspect that since you are still alive, though, that means the other races of this continent are not much better off¡±. The look of fear within the elder''s eyes slowly was replaced with awe, then it was replaced with shame. The shame of falling so far.
¡°If you think that I will just ask for undying loyalty without producing anything in return, then you would be far more wrong then you can even think. I have already fixed your racial¡¯s weakness, infertility¡±. With my words, the elders paused in their thinking instantly. Everything that was in their minds was instantly replaced with, Really? Impossible. We have had this problem even in ancient times. I knew their disbelief but waited a little longer to set their disbelief into hope. Even if they don¡¯t believe me at the moment, it will still create a spark of hope. I spoke after a few seconds of a break, ¡°this brings me back to the point of you people not understanding shadow elementals. Shadow elemental barely has any intelligence, until they are tamed their only goal is to consume the lifeforce of the world. In the deepest part of the lake at the bottom was, this guy¡±, I pointed behind me to my void-mage.
I continued, ¡°He was consuming the life force of the atmosphere, just enough to the point that giving birth, unless a sacrifice of a spike of lifeforce, nothing new could be born. Whether that be the grass, trees, or anything in the lake¡±. My explanation seemed to be groundbreaking for the dark elves, they finally connected their deficiency and the flaw of being too close to a shadow elemental that has yet to be tamed. Their hope and awe soon growing more and more, right along with this eye-opening information. I waved to motion the grand elder to speak on my behalf for now. We had discussed much along the way from the fight with the megaladora.
The grand elder stepped up to stand to the right of me and spoke, ¡°We have fallen, fallen so far. In the ancient ages, the power that I currently have is nothing but the common citizens of then. The kings back then were tier 4 and tier 5. When we first discovered the areas which became ashes from my new lord, those were just small tests of power coming into this world for him. We are currently weak, and I have already stepped down from the leader of the shadow elves. We are no leaders, leaders have to be strong both physically and mentally. We have long ago lost our true strength. In the ancient ages, we had our god, this god allowed us to thrive under his wings. But even then he fell to incompetence. Our new lord here is his replacement. Our new lord''s strength will allow us to once again be strong, live without fear of starvation, being so weak that we''re unable to protect our loved ones, and even have numbers strong enough to not be threatened to extinction¡±. Darius turned to me and knelt with his hand on his chest in both a salute and promissory of loyalty. He spoke, ¡°I have failed as a leader, but I will not fail again. I, Darius pledge my loyalty. I pledge that I will protect thy lord from harm, follow thy lord¡¯s orders. In return, all I ask for is the honor of serving thy lord¡±.
I stood up from my seat to look at Darius, ¡°I, Anubis, Shadow Emperor, accept your loyalty. Your work has is not done, but has only just begun. If you bring me absolute loyalty, I in return will bring absolute glory, honor, and prosperity. Darius, your position within the shadow elves is no longer grand elder, but now the Shadow¡¯s Messenger. When I speak you will be my voice, when I act, you will be my arms¡±. I turned to the rest of the shadow elves, ¡°If you all pledge your loyalty I can guarantee that the demons of hell and the archangels of heaven will fear your prowess. Right now you are nothing but a pebble. However, I will shape you to become diamonds and gems. You will shine so bright that the sun is nothing but your eyes. Your strength will make the moons shudder. The stars will be nothing but stepping stones. I can provide you everything, all I ask in return is unwavering loyalty. I don¡¯t plan to stop with the shadow elves, I will also make the lizardmen, humans, beastmen, and even the wildlife submit to my will¡±.
One by one the shadow elves knelt, they all kneeled to their new lord. The marshland elder would¡¯ve kneeled but the scythe was still there. I snapped my fingers and the scythe vanished in a puff of black smoke. The marshland elder sighed a breath of relief as he also knelt in submission. I looked upon the 40 elders and two royal guards that knelt in subservience. I spoke with my voice firm, just as the gods speak in such a majestic presence, I too spoke in such a presence. ¡°We still have much to discuss, I will tell you how to solve your food problem, and will have my guards train you. I will spend a month with you when the month is up you will be changed. I have my eyes on these lizardmen, they seem to give you much trouble in their warmongering ways. I will conquer them next, and afterward the humans. I have much to learn of this world so we will first begin with the local geography. I need to know what I have to work with¡±.
The room within minutes turned into discussions, the meeting lasted until sundown, hours passed and many of the other shadow elves have begun to worry about their elders. One thing everyone knew, something is changing. For better or worse, the change will come and their lives soon will change along with it.
Ch.15 The Ocean Itself
The meeting finished, the shadow elves and I talked long about the food situations, military training, access to basic knowledge like a library, and ended with the surrounding wildlife. First, in order to fix the lack of farming, I have decided to train life mages to support future nature mages. The elves seemed to be innately good at stealth, archery, space magic, and nature magic. Using my past with fantasy games from before, it didn¡¯t surprise me with the nature magic or stealth and archery. It seems like a status quo for being an elf. But the space magic did, if I could train assassins that used teleporting abilities, they would be unstoppable. They did have a few fire mages and water mages as outliers but, they have many people with potential in space magic, however, it is incredibly difficult to wrap one¡¯s head around the concept of space without any knowledge. In the end, the lack of understanding stops almost everyone from being able to use space magic.
They had a single library, and it is well maintained but the knowledge is quite lacking. Apparently a few hundred years ago a human raid ended up burning down many of their key structures such as the library and many of the apothecaries. In the end, they lost hundreds of years of research if not thousands. It could be said that the shadow elves currently are the most out-dated race on the continent, however, the human and lizardmen have also had such sabotages and aren¡¯t much further along the technological road.
Finally, the wildlife within the shadowlands or the southern part of the continent where all the shadow elves are currently, are also one of the most dangerous areas. The dark ambient energy draws in many sneak-based creatures, and also large birds more near the central mountains. There is supposed to be hawk-like ravens that thrive on the edge of the shadowlands, they are supposed to be the natural nemeses of the megalodora worms. Luckily they are territorial-based and will not encroach further in where the shadow elves live. Besides those creatures, there are hundreds of types of bugs that live on the feeding of the trees and grasses that grow within the lands. Supposedly many of the bugs are quite large and are similar to giant black beetles.
I thought over what I had learned and decided upon a course of action. I will train the shadow elves in agriculture, stealth, archery, and magic. I will also train my royal guard in minimizing their excess moves. Luckily the royal-guard seems to be quite strong straight off the bat, so I¡¯m not too worried that they won¡¯t grasp the concepts quickly and efficiently. While they are training I will also talk with multiple professions like apothecary owners, fishers, and potential farmers. If I can get these professions having higher-level knowledge in their fields then food shortages won¡¯t be a problem. Once all of these are done, I will then hunt the surrounding wildlife from the coast working my way all the way to the mountains. Once I reach the mountains and have seen the strengths of the wildlife, I will then be ready to start the conquest of the lizardmen.
¡
I spent my first week talking to the shadow elves, telling them about their weaknesses and strengths and how to improve. At first, the shadow elves were skeptical but when they learned I fixed their infertility problem, the entire race had absolute reverence in their eyes. Training them in multiple fields was trying, and many of the times completely boring, but I knew that it must be done in order for my new subjects to increase their strength.
The training was going quite well, their archery skills were quite amazing and it seemed the reason was elves naturally have better senses than other races besides smell. With enhanced eye-sight, they could shoot a wood target 100 meters away. I taught the scouts on how to cover their tracks, discover many different types of tracks and conducted many missions with them for field experience. Then I looked to many quiet-looking shadow-elves that were natural born assassins within the race. Just about 50 natural-born assassins were huddled before me during late hours. I trained them within the dark and turned their habits and skills to predators of the night. At first, many of them were reluctant to put away their past duties such as hunting but soon with my training, they realized their potential and were thrilled.
Of course, my training hasn¡¯t even begun yet, in the past, people who were trained by me cursed me in their sleep. Right now they are just trying on the shoes of amateur assassins. I conducted many rounds of competitions to weed out the strong and the weak, of course, these competitions differed in results. There were intelligence competitions in which I introduced them to a chess-like game, carving the pieces out of wood was incredibly hard to do so instead I created a few pieces of each chess piece then had wood-crafters make them after my design. I was never an amazing artist but I still had some skill in a few areas. After the intellect-based competitions, then it was a strength, then stealth, and finally archery. These competitions allowed me to see what people of the shadow elves were good at what, even the elves themselves were really surprised with the results and I found many hidden talents.
Although there were some who were just average in all and were at first let-down, I explained that these people had even more important roles. As citizens with no skill in warfare or intelligence, I taught them how to farm. Those who had strong wills amongst the average were set as farm leaders. Each farm leader had 20 people that helped them out in farming. I enacted crop-rotation to support the changing seasons. When winter comes, there will still be some plants that can be supported through the winter. Also, this method will allow the soil to never become brittle and useless.
I spent my morning training my guards, afternoons training civilians, and night training assassins. As an elemental, I don¡¯t need sleep, but that doesn¡¯t mean I can go so long doing something repetitive. All I could think after the second week of training was, I can¡¯t wait to hunt some strong creatures soon. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
After all of the training sessions, I also gained a nice skill:
System(Generalist)
Revelation Effect: As a master of many trades, it¡¯s easier to see the flaws within life. +15 PER WIS +20
¡
The training in the farming technique called crop-rotation was going quite well, the elves naturally have a close affinity with nature. Also, a large amount of nutrient-rich ash was extremely healthy for replacing the dried leaves on the forest floor. In order to get the ash, the few fire mages used a few days of creating tiny forest fires. The elves along with most people tend to think forest fires are bad, however when at a small scale they are extremely helpful for recycling nutrients and allowing the trees and ivy to stay healthy. However, when I explained the purpose of the tiny fires that they have put out over the last hundreds of years, they were shocked. To compare ash and nutrients together seems almost hysterical, however, when explaining the ash is nutrients for soils and plants they seemed to want to test out my theory. Throughout the month the ash slowly dispersed, the ground floor started growing vegetation and the forest seemed to be thriving.
The once dense atmosphere of the inevitable extinction was erased, in its place, there was laughter, hope, and many discussions sounding throughout the forest. I also really hated the hut vibe of the tree-houses, I created minion shadows to slowly revamp the entire housing. At first, the shadow minions just began to destroy the housing but then I showed them the correct way of taking the wood walls and the thatch roofing out, I also built a more natural house with beautiful curves and an upside-down v-shape roof. These houses seem to give a majestic, calm, and natural feel to the forest and the elves instantly fell in love with my creation. Throughout the month the buildings were replaced.
With all of these improvements, training, and new lives, the shadow elf people were incredibly happy. Along with this happiness, I could guess what will happen, just like wars, when soldiers come back from war they tend to make a little bit of love. Luckily the new buildings isolated sound, but I could sense the romantic atmosphere... luckily hunting season begins soon.
¡
I met with the council of the shadow elves, the meeting building was also revamped and the interior is now more gorgeous with a purple and mahogany based rooms. The past meeting wooden table was replaced with a decorated stone table depicting vines. Also, the chairs were carved from dark oak in a flowing fashion. Artists with hidden talents were gathered together now, they had free time to build and create to their hearts desires. With nature''s affluence, they created many beautiful furniture and carpets that matched the dark oak and purple structures. The throne in which I sat upon before the council members was a large stone chair with wooden vines creeping up it. The vines were embedded into the stone and weren¡¯t actually alive. It was quite comfortable but not perfect yet. I thought, I need to teach leather making and fabric making. Cushions would be so nice right now.
¡
I looked at the council members before me, they had reverence, awe, and fear within their eyes. All the shadow elves announced their loyalty to me before even the first week was done, if I continued with my pace right now it wouldn¡¯t be surprising if I was worshipped within a few months. I spoke to the council, ¡°I will be gone for the next month, although I am currently strong, I am not strong enough to rule all the races on this continent. I will be training myself and my royal guard along with me. When I come back I will be even stronger and then we will head out to deal with the lizardmen. During this time you have to continue working on farming and training, although you say you control the shadowlands, this continent has long lost its humanoid rulers. Now it belongs to the wildlife, I must become the alpha and only then will everyone be safe¡±.
I looked around as the shadow elves were thinking about my soon to be journey. I continued speaking, ¡°I may be your ruler, but that does not mean you can hang on to me like a baby bird. The shadow elves have fallen before due to this, and if it continues eventually it will happen again. Prove your worthiness to me, become more independent and spread your wings to grow into a magnificent raven. Only then will you be worthy of my time and my experiences. I also want two things done during my time away. First I need scouts to continue searching for shadow elementals, this forest is too dense for just two, there is likely to be tens if not a hundred or so elementals within this forest. Second, I want competitions to continue, competitions are amazing at improving strength, wisdom, and intelligence. Now do any of you have any questions?¡±.
The shadow elves contemplated for a few seconds but couldn¡¯t think of anything. However before the meeting was about to finalize, a space mage stood up. He was the space mage that discovered the small space distortion when I was first being chased. I learned his name, Vernus, a while ago after talking to assassins about space magic and stealth combinations. Vernus bowed in respect and then spoke, ¡°Sire, when you leave, can you leave behind the royal guard mage, his magic techniques are quite amazing and if he could stay behind then we could progress our magic quite a lot while you are away¡±.
I contemplated his words but before I could respond, the marshland elder quickly stood up and spoke in anger, ¡°Are you trying to get our lord injured or even worse killed! The royal guard are his protectors! Are you asking to¡¡± before the marshland elder could finish I had snapped and his voice was cut off.
My voice echoed within the walls, ¡°Gerald, no need to speak for me, I have a voice. I will be fine, my strengths are much more than you can comprehend or have seen. One royal guard hardly can protect me in the wilds if something could really put me in danger. I will accept this and allow my void-mage to stay here. This will allow the city to be protected and allow the mages to train their strength. What do you think, Beta?¡±. I looked to my void-mage
The Void mage bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle with a clear noble demeanor. He spoke, ¡°My brother Alpha will be there to protect Sire, I can comply with this mission. I will train the mages and protect your subjects. However, I fear that I will not be as good as Sire¡±.
I looked at the void-mage with interest, Seems like he took on the role of a noble mage, cool I guess. I told him, ¡°have no fear, if they can¡¯t learn from your abilities then they need to be educated more in the basics. Make sure each mage has a strong foundation¡±.
The void mage bowed and nodded then went back to the position of alertness. I named my warrior and mage, Alpha and Beta respectively. I decided simpler names will allow me to control them easier as their numbers will most likely grow in size. I finished the meeting and left. I went back to the lake on its rocky shore. Kids nearby were swimming to the more smooth shores and were having fun. I smiled and thought, Right now it¡¯s the calm before the storm. However, what many don¡¯t know is that I am the storm. People will say there are bigger fish in the ocean, however, I will become the ocean itself.
...
*Character Sheet*
System
Species:
Shadow Elemental (Deviation: Soul)
Tier: 1, Level 50/200
Abilities:
Primordial Soul Affinity Strong Life Affinity Strong Death Affinity Strong Shadow Affinity Medium Space Affinity Medium Time Affinity
Shadow Shapeshift
Soul Flame
Shadow Domain
Intimidate
Soul Detect/Analyze
Life Detect
Life Steal
Summon Shadow Minion
Blink
Curse of Death
Phase Lock
Meld Light and Darkness
Resurrect Shadows
Black-Hole
Shadow Bolt.
Godly Majestic Presence
2/10 Mana Cost: 20
2/10 Mana Cost: 45/charge
2/10 Mana Cost: 3/sec
None
Innate
Innate
2/1 Mana Cost: 100
100 mana cost, locks 20 mana per minion
50 mana cost
75 mana cost
150 mana cost
Innate
500 mana cost
300 mana cost
10 mana cost
None
Stats:The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Level: 50, Tier 1
(Available Points: 25)
Mana(intelligence x10): 1820
Mana Regen(wisdom): 320/sec
Revelation Effect: Light damage is nullified - bonuses can be achieved in a further evolution
Revelation Effect: Can use any weapon with perfect skill after a couple of practice minutes
Revelation Effect: Can control minions with great skill and absolute loyalty is guaranteed
Revelation Effect: Death, Light, Space, Time seem to have an affection of you
Revelation Effect: Learning any new subject seems to come much easier to you
Revelation Effect: Intimidating Aura, Auras are able to be hidden, Fearless
Revelation Effect: No one¡¯s soul is safe, no one can hide
Revelation Effect: Lifeforce can be drained through physical contact
Revelation Effect: Mental oppression or control abilities have no control over you.
Revelation Effect: Bend light and darkness to meld together to create stronger shadows.
Revelation Effect: Shadow minions cost less to maintain and create by half.
Revelation effect: There is no death for shadows, be able to call your kins souls back into their bodies.
Revelation Effect: Those who are under your banner, worship you. Those who face it, shiver in fright. The land, water, and air belong to you and only you. Ability Gained: Godly Majestic Presence
Revelation Effect: As a master of many trades, it¡¯s easier to see the flaws within life.
Ch.16 The Hunt Begins
It was the next morning, the sun peeking its head out on the east, the morning breeze gently brushing against my robe and hood. I began to think about my next moves, the south is where the ocean lay, I should head there first and continue my way up to the mountains. I have yet to see this world in its glory and the best thing that can give me what I want will be the wilderness. The elves said the forest is filled with both opportunities and danger, sounds like life to me. I started to walk out of the newer elven city, my royal knight in tow. I slowly increased my speed from a light walk to a fast walk then to a jog. I didn¡¯t want to sprint, that way if something comes up I will first, be able to see it, second be able to have enough stamina to deal with it.
Zero, I need you to conduct a map-making of the forest as I run through, the elves had a map but it was quite primitive. As I adventure I think it¡¯s best to add my experiences to a map that I can use in the future. I mentally sent zero a message as I jogged.
[Understood master, I will take start the cartography of the local area as well as build upon my aerial view from before]
Organizing data¡ running analysis of past and current areas¡ building mini-map and full-map functions¡ organizing¡ finished¡
A few lines of data appeared in the top right of my screen, saying ¡°loading map..33...75...100%¡±. I blinked and a new map appeared in my vision, it was translucent as to not block my field of view, However, when I focused upon it, it began to turn solid and larger. Showing a triangle which is my position and the wildlife around me in exactly 100 meters. After the 100 meters, the map began to turn less detailed and more like a paper map found in the middle ages. The map consisted of the continent I was currently on at the time right down to my very location. The areas that I have been to are more detailed, enough to recognize the correct location of any landmarks, or unique areas. I unfocused on the map and it grew to a smaller size in the top right of my vision.
Thanks, Zero, it fits perfectly and I love the design. It¡¯s almost like some of the old school video games I played a while back.
[No problem master, As I am part of your soul, I have access to many of your likes and don¡¯t like. It definitely makes choosing what to implement easier than before]
I swear I was beginning to hear a little bit of emotion, not enough to recognize as not automation-like, but enough to know that soon, Zero will have emotions. This brought me back to what I should do for Zero. All of this, or transporting across universes was only thanks to him and his capabilities. As Anubis, I understood souls and soul splitting techniques, hell I did it to myself. I think if I can find a container perfect enough, I will give Zero or at least some of Zero if he wants, a new vessel. I wondered what an AI could do if it was placed into a dungeon core? That would be one scary-ass dungeon. However, what if the dungeon core was under my influence, I would become one¡ more scary-ass being. I chuckled to myself and my daydreaming.
¡
It took the entire day of fast pace jogging to reach the shore of the continent, I saw some interesting looking beasts. Gazelles with a zebra-like appearance. I rhino that looked like a stegosaurus at the same time. Mini-pterodactyls and even god-damn walking piranhas with arms and wooden and stone spears. I wanted to kill one and see if it tastes like fish, however, the legs looked more like frog legs, I knew it would then be tasting like chicken. However, as an elemental food is not a necessity so I just continued my dash to the shore. If I came into it again¡ sucks to be it.
At the shore, the trees just began to have a shade of green, not enough to be considered non-purple and dark oak, but enough to know if the shore wasn¡¯t here then the trees would become green again. There was not much sand, just hexagonal rock formations that reminded me of Old Northern Ireland. However, for the life of me, I couldn¡¯t remember the name of the specific place. It was really bugging me because I went there once and It was breathtaking. Something¡ Causeway. I looked around at the sun setting upon the overlapping waves. It was breathtaking like before.
I told the royal knight Alpha to begin cutting down nearby trees for a fire, you may ask, you are an entity of shadows, why do you need a fire? I would reply¡ as bait. One thing that all animals will notice is the smell of a fire, the sight of an orange glow, and potential food. Why go hunt for food, when the food will be delivered to your doorstep? A nearby tree about 5 meters away from the hexagonal shore stood, the tree would be perfect for a seat. I walked up to the tree, transformed my right hand into a long scythe shaped blade of shadow and cut through it with ease. The tree didn¡¯t even vibrate from the cut, as if the flat cut was never even made. I tapped on the tree above the line I cut and it fell over creating a loud *thump*. I saw the tree in the ground and begin to think, Its roots are too deep to just yank out without blowing up the stump. Hmmm. I crossed my arms and tapped my elbow in an old habit, strangely the habit was both in my god past and my human past. They say, ¡°Old habits, die-hard¡±.
It took a few minutes of think and pulling up my status screen, I wanted to start incorporating my abilities or even making new abilities through the affinities and knowledge I have. If I can have many options for combat whether for defense, offense, or even utility, then I would have covered many of my weaknesses and short sidedness. I could sense the lifeforce flowing through the tree stump¡ Life¡ Nature¡ I began to think of how to use nature in itself. I once spent a great deal of time on lifeforces, connecting them with balance and nature, eventually leading me to death and the soul. I willed my mana into my brain and transformed it into a psychic will onto the tree stump. Willing it to move next to the fireplace, it abruptly shot from the ground and used its roots like tentacles. It moved across the ground right next to where the fire was being built by Alpha. Once it got to its position the roots shot straight into the ground like it has always been there since birth. I guess that works.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
¡
I spent a few hours of bending nature around me, it was quite easy to will plants to move, even making plants grow quite quickly. Such as a red tulip near the edge of the forest, it had saplings nearby and I willed them to grow. A few minutes later and they started to grow to maturity and blossom. As a god of death and souls while also a mercenary, I have had little time to enjoy clear starry skies, rolling waves off in the distance, and blooming wildlife nearby. It was peaceful, it was perfect. Until at least loud thumping noises sounded off nearby.
The thumping was quite far off but it was closing in fast, I could hear something taking long strides with quite a bit of weight to it running through the edge of the forest. It was heading straight for me, I guess the bait worked. Let''s see who the lucky contestant is¡
I sat up from the tree stump and turned to the sounds and readied myself, I thought, I need a sword, scythes are nice and all, but they are so clunky and not balanced at all. Who though a blade attached to a rod would be a great weapon? I need something with balance but with as much weight as the scythe. I began to think, how would I make a weapon that is balanced and has an amazing strength? Oh!
I threw out my shadow domain real fast as the sounds were closing in quickly. Once the shadow domain covered 10¡¯s of meters in every direction, I pulled in quickly, compacting and folding the shadow over itself multiple times. The blade was basic at first only the size of a small dagger that was extremely thick, then elongated and thinned. The blade continued until it was about 2.2 meters. It then shrunk back a little bit creating two small spikes out to the side about half a meter creating a T-shape. It continued to elongate and I held a small pole that intercepted where the two thorns stuck out from the blade. I grabbed the dark oak shavings of a tree that my knight created when creating firewood and wrapped it around the pole. The dark oak then intertwined based on my will and creating a smooth-handle. The handle was polished due to the density of my will of nature and space compacting it. The blade then sprouted two more thorns that were slightly curved upwards and a pommel below my hand that was in the shape of a black flame.
The blade solidified and created a silver-blue hue that seemed almost like the moon at night. Both bright during the night and dark in the light of day. It was a Zweihander, a german two-handed sword, something that was the perfect weight and balance in my hands of a 3m giant. It complemented my silver and black armored robe theme perfectly. I was almost going to use a halberd but decided that those wouldn¡¯t be as badass as a german two-handed sword. I looked to my new sword and thought of a name for this beauty of dark silver, Twilight.
Just as I was admiring my new sword a being that was even taller than me broke through the treeline in front of me. It was a cyclops, a giant humanoid with blueish and gray skin with one massive eye above its mouth. The muscles were bulging as if wanting to escape its skin, the only clothing protecting its naked body was twine that was pulled through buddles of leaves. The being was about 10 meters tall, and it was angry. It had dark pupils and a grey eye, I could almost see a glow within them. I figured that it was a nocturnal giant, and my fire had made its eye irritated and it wanted to squash me like a bug.
It was clumsy when crashing through the trees, its balance awful, but who needs balance when a sprint could just smash everything in your way, even big boulders would stand no chance at a charge. Luckily I¡¯m its target and not some shadow elf.
It was running straight at me, I waved to let Alpha now that it was my kill. Alpha took a few steps back and nodded in recognition. I started to walk, the giant still sprinting was only 30 meters away, the ground would be covered in only a few seconds. Instead of speeding up like the heroes would do in fantasy stories, I just walked calmly as if on a beach and watching the waves. I wasn¡¯t a hero, no I am the executioner, heroes bring people hope, I bring people redemption.
The giant cyclops went to wing his massive fist right onto me in a fit of rage, I deftly went under the arm and spun in a 360-degree angle. I walked a few more feet as the cyclops¡¯s fist hit the ground. Just a couple seconds of silence a *THUD* hit the ground. The cyclops¡¯ head was on the ground rolling away. The body was in a pummeling stance without a head, its fist still planted within the ground in which there was a small crater. I thought while looking to the stars, Oh right Giants Causeway. That was the name of the beach made of hexagonal stones. I laughed as I threw a black-hole at the body sucking it in, leaving no evidence besides the small dent on the ground and the head that had rolled a few meters away. The head was going to be my trophy for my first kill on the hunt.
System
New skill acquired: Summon Twilight
System(Created Item)
Twilight - Zweighander of Shadows
Description: A blade made of pure darkness under the light of the stars and the reflection of the moon. Death and Life bend to its will, space is no obstacle. To say it is sharp would be an insult, to say it is well-balanced is worse. It is both perfectly balanced and perfectly deadly.
System
Level Up(x5)
Kills - Night Cyclops(x1)
Oh sweet, I leveled up quite a bit. I need to decide on how I want to specialize again. Do I min-max like the video-games in the past or go well rounded?
Ch.17 The Mighty and Delicious Crab King
Most would think, you killed a giant¡ so no more enemies within the night right? Nope! Wrong they are. I killed a bunch of sand crabs the size of a large dog. As soon the giant fell and I began to think about my current skills a tremor went through-out the beach area nearby. Massive crabs began to siege my position in masse. I was just thinking, I want some fish, haven¡¯t had any in a while. As if the ocean parted upon my wish¡ thousands of crabs just up and went, Hey! Hello! Don¡¯t mind me and my brothers we just want a bit of shadow elemental and we heard the signal for a late-night snack¡ Too bad I was thinking something similar in the snack department. What confused me though was I didn¡¯t order delivery. Oh well, I won¡¯t say no.
¡°Alpha, go and kill the crabs, bring some of the more mature ones back, like 5 or so. I¡¯m hungry and this fire is perfect. I¡¯m going to just make us a pot for food first¡±, Alpha bowed in respect than walked off nonchalantly slowly drawing his sword from his back. I just turned and though how to create a pot for food. Hmmm, cut some rock¡ no that won¡¯t work too well. It would probably come out like a cube with its top missing. As I was thinking I could here *CRACK* every second or so. It was like a beat was playing. I decided that alpha probably wouldn¡¯t want to kill the sieging crabs by himself. I summoned 12 shadow minions to go help out. The beings took the form of my Void-Walker form and dashed off to join the fray. I didn¡¯t even look at the battle as I had bigger problems to deal with. How to get a bowl for my food.
As I was thinking I heard a massive *WUSH*, the sound of a large body of water being thrown into the air from something massive breaking the surface. I turned to the sound and looked at what could have caused such a scenario. A big walking upside-down bowl¡ I mean a giant crab was scuttling across. It was at least four times bigger than the biggest of its compatriots. Seaweed that was crumpled upon its back like vines, was whipping around lively, smacking even its friends trying to crush my minions. I started to walk towards it with a frightening smile on my face. Black drool was seeping from my cyan-colored mouth that was formed in my pitch black hood.
I still held my new sword twilight, as I haven¡¯t had the chance to un-summon her. As I was walking my minions understood my intention and formed a path through the crabs. The claws of my void-walkers crushed the shells of their foes easily like squashing a bug. Guts and crab juice littered the sandy beach leading to the hexagonal stone beach, which further led to the ocean. My void-knight cut the crabs expertly like a master chef in the kitchen. Precision, speed, and power all wrapped upon in a nice combo that decimated the crabs. While also allowing many mature ones, that were slightly bigger than the other ones, to be harvested for later.
I was getting closer to the king crab and started to jog, then sprint across the sandy beach. The king crab was easily 6 meters tall. It saw me and started to scuttle towards me with rage and bloodthirst. When I was about 3 meters away I pulled space mana through me into my sword and swung in a horizontal line. The king crab¡¯s instincts flared and a wall of seaweed that seemed as strong as steel formed in front of him. As if cutting the horizon itself, a pure black line formed from my swing and traveled through the air splitting the crab in half, its legs and bottom torso cut completely through and it''s upper shell half cleanly split from its lower body. The wall of steel-like seaweed didn¡¯t stop the line of the pure void at all.
As if the seaweed was nothing but a mirage, The crab was killed in an instant, but pure rage allowed it to do a last move and sharp crab shell thorns from its legs exploded, killing all of the surrounding crabs within 10 meters. Of course, I was ethereal when not attacking and using abilities so the shrapnel-like thorns just flew through me. I was interested in the after-death kill move and began to think if I can add something to either the royal guard or my summoned shadows. Make people think more than twice about attacking me in the future as a precaution. Hell even just summon living bombs would be an attack of its own. This needs testing in the future.
I turned back around to see the thousand¡ now a few hundred... army running back into the sea in a full-on retreat. I decided I will let the minions finish up as I head back to my stump. I un-summoned twilight, tightening the grasp around the handle of the sword and willing it to return to the shadows. It disappeared quickly as if it was nothing but a phantom fading out of existence.
¡
The battle was finished and my minions returned to me, I decided to let them lie in ambush, rather not want to waster the 1200 mana I used to summon them. It was quite a bit of my mana, luckily I can regenerate mana so quickly so the loss was covered. Only the 240 mana lock was left which had no real impact on me.
Alpha was dragging the crab kings shell over to the fire as a few of my shadow minions were attempting to set up scaffolding using twigs from the recently cut down trees nearby. It was funny seeing some of them struggle as they are using the void-walkers claw-like hands to put a delicate structure together. Once they got to the ending of the scaffold-like structure one of the minions accidentally knocked a piece out and it all crumbled. They all turned to the idiot with fierce glares. I chuckled to myself, People may think that they are mindless horrors, but I know better. They are just loyal children trying to do what they think is best for me. I would say my heart would beat with warmth, but I am made out of pure shadow sooo¡ don¡¯t get one of those...Yet. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
The crab soup was cooking slowly, luckily there were freshwater ponds just a little further inland, didn¡¯t want salty water from the ocean to ruin my cuisine. Using purple leaves as temporary water buckets my minions accomplished much in filling the shell-bowl. I gathered a few spices from nearby that I could recognize as thyme. It was nice seeing my hunting skills from the past haven¡¯t rusted too much. Recognizing wildlife forestry was key to living and not getting poisoned. Yeah¡. I learned the hard way. Damn poison ivy¡ then oak¡ and holly berries.
As I figured it was about time to see how I want to adjust my futurestat points, a bunch of screens made me jump within my vision.
System
Level Up(x12)
Kills - Southern King Crab(earth variant)(x1), Crabs(x632)
System
New Skill acquired: Spatial Cleave
I mumbled, ¡°It¡¯s almost like someone doesn¡¯t want me to become more op. Stop giving me more things to do or ill kick your ass.¡±
I quickly pulled up my stats,
I began to think about whether I want to min-max or go well rounded. If I go min-max I should definitely go more towards mage-assassin build. If I go well rounded I will focus on bringing my lower skills up first. Either way I believe I should first put points into Strength, Endurance, and Agility till each is 50. That way I can outclass anyone who wants to go against me but is a lower level. That will cover my weakness against low-level assassins or sneak attacks. Through strength, schemes become useless and through intelligence, numbers become meaningless.
I was about to bring all my lower stats up then I began to think again. If I just did this, then I would be going down the well-rounded path. What if I did a mix of both, going min-max but slowly increasing other stats along with it. A ratio of 3-1 or I can even go further doing 3-2-1. 3 Being my most important and dedicated path. 2 beingstats that will help along my path. 1 beingstats that will be brought up to cover serious weakness.
I thought of my main focus, it reminded me of the old choose your class video games from my past. Knight, berserker, mage, priest, assassin, ranger, and summoner. Hmmm, whatever I choose here will become my foundation. I have a feeling there are no take-backs. I decided something that would suit my shapeshifting capabilities. Something also needed to build with my mage-summoner build that seems to go along my class. Endurance isn¡¯t needed if I can strengthen myself through becoming ethereal, or even creating some sort of shield through mana. I wonder what a shield of lifeforce would look like? Ah! Shit getting off track again.
With resolution, I thought of my future build. Mage/Summoner/Assassin, mage and summoner can go hand and hand with the mana needed to supply such abilities. It helps tremendously that I know quite a bit of ancient magic from my past, how else were the pyramids built? It also helps that I have thesestat bonuses like Ancient Researcher and Primordial Soul. Then to tie everything up, what could an assassin wish for the most, shapeshifting abilities. Remembering that I can become a literal shadow even firms my belief in my choice.
I willed 15 points into intelligence bringing it up to 197 and my max mana 1970. I could feel a wave of relief wash over me. Harsh emotions like greed, anger, and fear are becoming more distant. Not exactly going cold, but more calculating. It helps that mental exhaustion is becoming even a further effect of losing mana. I then willed 10 points into agility. I could feel my shadow becoming more relaxed. As if IU just had a massage and my muscles are at peak efficiency. Dodging a bullet is something that feels easy, I could dodge the rain of tears from the sky with ease. Then I willed 5 points into strength. My shadow robe, body, and even aura seemed to condense a little. Becoming thicker as if I could will the shadows to bend steel or even puncture through a boulder with ease.
I decided to save the remaining 3 stat points. If I absolutely need to I can assign them then I will, but I feel like keeping a rhythm of 15,10,5 would be much more smooth. Or I could do 3,2,1 for every 6 levels. It depends on the severity of the situation I guess.
I looked off to the distance towards the mountains far out, the night seemed to be no obstacle as I could see clear as day. It was time to hunt further in.
Ch. 18 Creatures of Nature
The night rolled on quite peacefully afterward, it seems the death of hundreds of creatures and a mighty cyclops has given a clear warning to the neighborhood. I sat and decided to mess around with my skills as time went on towards the next day. It is quite nice not having to be able to sleep, eat, or shit. Of course, if I wanted to I can eat just like the crab that I have been snacking on, haven¡¯t tried sleeping yet but been to busy to test it out. I guess it will be more like a meditative state than actually sleeping. Also anytime I eat or consume lifeforce, my body uses every last bit as energy. I am literally a walking black hole, devouring anything to grow myself.
I still haven¡¯t tested out a few skills though in which I should get familiar with before I move onto testing and creating new ones. Curse of Death, Phaselock, and Godly Majestic Presence are the abilities yet to be used. I can feel familiarity when thinking about the abilities so it¡¯s not too hard to guess what their functions are. Also as a reincarnated gamer, mercenary, and god, I have some background information to work with. First, the Curse of Death seems similar to like half-life decay. I can sense dark mana swirling around me when I summon it and it flows to my hand. As my hands have black leather gloves on them it made the black have a glow effect. I touched a twig that was lying nearby my stump.
Nothing happened at first, then slowly the thin twig began to rot, however, it wasn¡¯t a rotting with germs. It was just straight decay through time. As if the dark mana that I fed into the branch began to consume it, taking place of germs and probably consuming them too. As time went on the decay got faster and faster. It ended up consuming the twig in it¡¯s entirely within ten minutes. The twig wasn¡¯t anything special, it was the perfect size to poke firewood with in order to get it into the right position, but having seen the time it took to consume it in its entirety, I now understand why the mana cost is so low. For something that could potentially kill even the strongest of beings with only 75 mana, you would think it is crazy. However, the 75 mana is just the starter. The mana consumes other lifeforce and manas to fuel itself increasing its danger to whatever target is has been put upon. Quite Interesting, I thought.
Next, I looked at Alpha that was guarding the campfire and me with a steadfast pose. He looked like a heroic knight, just with a little cold and evil vibe. His sword was plunged into the ground and his hands rested upon each other on top of the pommel of his sword. I thought, Maybe I should test phaselock on him¡ Nah he has been too good to me. I turned to the raging fire in front of me, it was a mix of orange, red, and dark blue at the center. The dark oak trees nearby work wonders for firewood. I began to pull my mana towards my hand, it transformed into a translucent ball, almost like a light blue bubble. I began to turn the outer edge of the ball of mana clockwise, then turned the core of the ball of mana counter-clockwise. It seemed to become a phantom-like ball, shimmering between reality, I aimed it at the fire and threw it at the fire like one throws a stone at a target.
The ball enlarged into a dome and stopped time, the fire seemed to be crystallized in a light blue, the outer edge of the dome had a slight silver tint to it. The fire stopped, what beautiful, the orange, red, and blue all seemed to be separated and didn¡¯t mingle together. As if someone made a 3d picture, I walked around the dome mesmerized by the no longer crackling fire. After a minute, the dome receeded inwards similar to how a nova returns to its origins after the shockwave. The fire came back alive as if nothing happened, but I could feel as if space was lightened, no so much unraveled but just less dense. It made sense, as space and time are intertwined. It began to gain its ¡°weight¡± again and felt more blended together after a few seconds. ¡°Beautiful¡± I murmured to myself.
I decided that I would need subjects to test Godly Majestic Presence, I will save it for a rainy day. I could understand though what the basis behind the skill would be. As a god before, I had a natural aura that made anyone I come in contact besides other gods, want to kneel before me in worship. It was a hassle as I couldn¡¯t receed the aura and anytime I needed something everyone I would ask to get it from would kneel in worship. Quite annoying as I was never one to ask for religious worship, I just happened to receive some.
¡
Dawn started to pop out its head as the night faded away. I decided that I will first walk along the outer forest and see what I can discover in terms of the shadow elf forest becoming regular green forestry again. I wondered what the difference is and wanted to see if there were any creatures that adapted to both. I knew that creatures who adapted to multiple areas tend to be able to give more of a fight, so I was excited. The cyclops would be one example of a creature that has adapted to both regular forests and the shadow forest.
Alpha and I began to walk out of our encampment and wondered towards the west, apparently, the terrain is supposed to become softer¡ more swamp-like. It makes sense as there is a splitting river that connects to the ocean, this particular river runs through the entire continent and is supposed to be massive. At least from what I heard from the shadow elves. It also connects to another portion of the continent that is considered off-limits due to the dangers of the wildlife. Sounds perfect to me. I figured I could run through it then head back to the shadow elves. Once there I will head off to the north, then fight the wildlife there and then go to fight the lizardmen. Just thinking of the potential bloodshed gets my heart pumping. Yeah¡ I¡¯m what they call a battle junkie. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
¡
On the path towards the marshlands, I saw many mountain peaks, these mountains were very far off but the massive size of them still allowed me to see them even from the coastline. I came across many animals along the way too, such as black and white foxes, they were quite interesting as they hunted small prey only during the dawn and dusk. I also met a few ravens that had white-tipped feathers. They weren¡¯t as smart as the crows that I know from my past life, mostly surviving on instinct rather than using intelligence. Not having birds mock animals and people really tamed the forest, some might at first think that the dark forest had a spooky vibe, however, once you really got to realize the very few differences between the forests then it became nothing more than the same forest but different colors.
The dark forest on my right had beings that used dark mana entwined with nature mana, whereas beings in the green forests used light mana and nature mana. Continuing, the predators in the dark forest are more assassin and sneaking in nature, whereas the other forest¡¯s animals are openly aggressive but bigger. It seems as though anything in the dark forest takes on the darkness attributes besides the ¡°evil¡± part of the darkness. Furthermore, anything that has evolved in both areas are very balanced in natural defenses and attack proficiencies. The best of the possible examples along the way that I saw is the pangolin.
It¡¯s breeding grounds which I discovered on the way were near the tree stumps on the edges of both forests, had mixed varieties. One type of pangolin had long claws and dark shells, another was smaller and more agile than others, one even had spikes along its back and an extra-long tail. These pangolins were herbivores and were the size of dogs, cute but deadly. I could almost imagine them turning into an intelligent species if given enough time. There were obvious clans among the pangolin and alongside those clans were roles of each pangolin. Hunters, defenders, scouts, gatherers, many different types of roles in which were even better than what the shadow elves had in terms of management. It just shows how far the shadow elves have fallen.
This balance of light and darkness it improves adaptability, through struggling against enemies of many different techniques, you adapt to face many techniques. Nature is truly brilliant. Covering your weaknesses through adapting to your enemies, to your environment, and to your family. In the future of my conquest, I need to recognize the strength of this continent¡¯s inhabitants. Play them off of each other and cover each other¡¯s weaknesses. Furthermore, if I can create some sort of challenge or even a goal for all of them to work with, I can create something grand and beautiful.
I was oblivious to my surroundings as I was deep in thought, however, that little instance of letting my guard down caused me some troubles.
*THUNK*, * THUNK...THUNK...THUNK*, all at once tens of wooden spears flew towards my direction, I was confused and turned to see what is causing all of this ruckus, and then I saw it. A dozen children-sized lizards were throwing makeshift wooden spears at me and alpha. They were darkish-brown in color and looked more like walking alligators than lizards that I assumed they might be. Must be the locals, how nice¡ I mentally suggested Alpha to take a passive stance, he backed off. I grinned, ready to try my ability.
An aura of the gods descended down upon the kobolds, it made them freeze up and then crash down in kneeling. Even after kneeling they further positioned themselves to kowtow before me. Heads smacking the ground hard enough to probably cause a concussion. The aura of a mighty god was neither evil nor good, it was balanced between the two. Not scary, not purifying but definitely pressuring. Instead of just a harsh pressure, it was so pressurizing that the surroundings were suffocating, nothing dared to move before my presence.
I stopped my ability, and the kobolds were fear-stricken, what would you do if your beliefs in a higher power were disproven within the front of you. Not of a higher power, but who held the higher power. What if whatever you had sacrificed not only some of your weaker children but even your brothers and sisters were nothing but a joke in front of you.
I could see the mental struggle in the kobolds. Rather than just see, I could feel there mentality at risk, between fear, awe, and regret. The dozen kobolds were only 10 meters away from me but were scared stiff, not thinking of running but more inclined to how to survive. I started to walk towards them. If cold-blooded creatures could sweat, then I bet they would be drenched currently. However, they still refused to move.
I walked up to the nearest one, and put my hand on its shoulder. I have been caught between the downs of life and death. I know that what I have believed in most was nothing more than a slightly bigger fish in the sea. I know what regret feels like, tastes like, and the sorrow in which follows is heart-braking. I knew something was going in this tribe of kobolds. What creature which was sensitive to strength would forget all precautions and rush to basically suicide. I have read, watched, and even been in enough situations to tell that they are not doing this willingly, even without having a strong soul-affinity I could probably guess the strife that these kobolds are going through.
There are scars on the kobolds, deep and humiliating. As if they were nothing but toys to some other being, not only that, the practice of kowtowing came familiar to these little guys. Who in the right mind would crush the spirits of such wild creatures? A thought¡ no vision flashed past my head, it was somehow connected to the kobold I had my hand on. A panther, massive in size was munching on a young kobold. I could see a community of at least a hundred kobolds and I could see the fear, the regret, and sorrow in their faces.
Something needs to die, and I think I found just what that something is.
*Attention Readers!* (Not a chapter)
Attention, if you or a loved one has meso- oops wrong script.
I have currently been working long and tiresome hours, however, I have not stopped writing. Many would ask, "so then where are the chapter?". To clarify to many, I am currently working on a project that many of you will absolutely love. Rise of Anubis is my first novel in the works, it is also my testing grounds for how I want to proceed with others. There may not be a chapter coming out for a while, however, I do plan to continue on this novel.
As a reader also, I want to enjoy and connect to what I read, in return, I want to improve my writing skills so I can have a great impact upon my readers also. I have realized I have kind of jumped the gun on many things in my current novel so I will undergo a revision of much of the story. However, this does not mean that I will be going fully hiatus. In fact, I am still writing something special.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
I have to sincerely thank you, the readers, for your lovingly support and help. Just because someone does write some criticism upon my story, don''t think I will ''hate'' or ''ignore'' you. In fact, I pay attention to everyone, and take notes on how to improve, what people like, don''t like, etc.
I have been working on something exciting behind the scenes. I won''t tell you all what... yet, but I believe everyone will fall in love instantly. Again, thank you, everyone, for your support.