章 10: Shadow Legion
For the first time since acquiring his Calm Mind skill, Adam's face contorted into an incredulous grimace.
Sweat kept pouring like buckets all over his body as he read and re-read the system's notification, over and over again.
" Now, this is too broken."
The notion of being able to command the souls of those he slayed was nothing short of insane.
Not only that but from the looks of it, Adam's new authority went an extra mile than the original's necromantic powers.
" Show me the description, system."
[True God of Shadows Authority (Rank- Origin)]
[Description:
Where there is life, death follows. As the one who rules over the shadows that lay within all beings, the dead will obey you, while the living will fear you.
'Arise' may they, for you are their master.]
[Additional Description:
1) Dead monsters that are consumed can be summoned in their shadow forms by using the user's energy points.
2) Once summoned, no further EP will be consumed.
3) EP regenerates as usual even during a summoning.
4)The weaker the shadow, the lesser the energy points spent.
5) Shadows that are summoned can either be dismissed to the user's inner world or they can remain in the user's shadow. In the latter case, no additional EP will be spent.
6) The arrangement of EP expenditure goes as follows:
F-Rank: 5 EP
E-Rank: 10 EP
D-Rank: 20 EP
C-Rank: 40 EP
B-Rank: 80 EP
A-Rank: ???
S-Rank: ???
SS-Rank: ???
SSS-Rank: ???
EX-Rank: ???
*&%$-Rank:???????
7) Current summon limit: 1000
8) All dead beings (Dead Monsters up to B rank currently) shall serve you in their shadow form, regardless of the cause of death.
9) The True God of Shadows Authority is unbreakable; no shadow of yours shall have a true 'death' under your watch.
*Authorities grow along with their users.]
As a light of understanding flashed in front of his eyes, Adam stood up from the pile of corpses and directly pointed his right hand toward it.
' Let's test it before I lose my shit...'
Then, with a newfound sense of superiority that overwhelmed the very concept of 'pride', Adam said-...
Wrong.
He dictated:
"Arise."
And so, they did.
Tendrils of pure darkness emerged out of his body, encompassing the entire area where he and the dead goblins were.
He witnessed how the lifeless little monsters began to be enclosed by his shadow bizarrely. They consumed their flesh and bones mercilessly until nothing was left behind.
In mere seconds, these same shadows morphed into exact replicas of the goblins Adam had hunted before, just that this time, their putrid green color was replaced by darkness itself, while their eyes emanated a violet eerie light that would send shivers down the spine of any sane person that was unlucky enough to look at them.
Finally, the shadow remnants in the cave proceeded to disperse around before they finally vanished back inside Adam.
"So, you guys are my 'bodyguards' now?"
Getting used to these recurring events was only possible thanks to Calm Mind, otherwise, Adam would've needed to take a small break to grab his head around it all.
" Well, you all follow me. I still haven't figured out the limits of my new powers, so we have some work to do. If I can level up some more, even better."
Just as Adam was about to dive deeper into the dungeon along with his new twenty shadow friends, a system notification halted his steps.
" There was a catch, uh?"
[!]
[ System notification:
The host has exhausted his random generations for now.
The next randomized generation will take place in 15 days.
Power Tickets can't be claimed during this period.]
" So there seems to be a limit to the number of powers I can obtain at the time."
Making a mental calculation that lasted less than a second Adam concluded.
'I produced five abilities so far, six if I count the authority, though I feel as though authorities shouldn't be compared to normal powers so brazenly. If my guesses are correct, then my limit for abilities should be higher than six, but acquiring an authority messed up that concept somehow.'
Shrugging his shoulders, Adam continued his path down the cave-like dungeon.
Things were going too well for him less than 24 hours after his awakening. He wouldn't complain because such an insignificant limitation was placed on him.
.....
After tirelessly hunting for all kinds of F- Rank monsters, Adam was finally standing in front of the door that would take him to the boss's room.
Once the boss was dead, a portal to the outside world would open, allowing hunters to leave the dungeon.
Taking a quick look at the group that was closely following behind him, he couldn't help but smile like a child.
' One hundred already~'
Apart from the twenty goblins, now thirty wolves with shadow bodies and pulsing violet eyes could be seen.
Although they were quite small for a monster and resembled a normal wolf in appearance, 'dire wolves' couldn't be underestimated.
Their teamwork was marvelous and their maw strength was unrivaled in the F-Rank, to the point where they could easily kill an E-Rank monster with minimal losses.
On the other hand, and representing the highest population within this dungeon, fifty spiders resembling both the goblins and the dire wolves in appearance were crawling around the ceiling of the cave.
Similar to the dire wolves, the 'venomous spiders' were a type of monster that hunted in groups, though their biggest trump card was not their ability to cooperate, but their venom, which was unmatched in the F-Rank as well.
They were highly desired in the outside market, not only because of the need for antidotes but also due to the paralyzing properties this venom had on higher-ranked monsters, all the way to C- Rank.
In addition to his increase in troops, he had also raised all the way to level 10, which earned him quite a lot.
***
[Status]
Name: Adam Zenith
Age: 21
Level: 10
Race: Human
Karma: error!
[Stats]
HP: 325/325 (Health Points)
EP: 680/700 (Energy Points)
Strength: 20+5 -> 25
Dexterity: 20+15 -> 35
Stamina: 20+10 -> 30
Intelligence: 16+5 -> 21
Luck: Error
***
Noticing that his EP was almost full again, he took a final look at his legion.
" Are you guys ready?"
"Kikikiki!"
"Awoooooou!"
"Tchtchtchtch!"
"..."
He couldn't lie and say he wasn't taken aback by the horrendous chorus of morbid sounds that came from his overly excited shadow legion.
' The intention is what counts... I guess.'
With that, Adam pushed the giant door open.
He couldn't make the boss wait for too long, could he?
....
During his path to conquest the dungeon not even once did he allow his army to fight for him. He wanted to see how far he could go with his abilities, and boy was he pleased.
His Pyrokinesis proved to be one of his most useful abilities so far.
Since it was an A- Ranked skill with little EP expenditure if used correctly, he could burn hordes of F-rank monsters to dust, and he believed that this would also apply to E and possibly D-Ranks, though he lacked too much information to be completely sure.
This belief came short of a fact when he realized that his intelligence stat had a high influence on the damage his fire did. So, in theory, provided that his intelligence stat increased greatly, he should deal with all monsters regardless of their Rank.
Would Pyrokinesis's rank change eventually to S or higher then?
That was something he was looking forward to finding out.
His martial arts were as good if not better.
In his spar with Bakugo, he came to realize that he was nothing in front of a Hunter with C -Rank prowess, not to mention monsters from the same rank.
The only reason he 'won' was thanks to his spatial jump and the unexpected use of his martial arts, where he used his opponent's momentum to throw him out of the designated area of sparring.
No one seemed to have followed his movements because that's how perfectly Adam had executed it.
Not only that, but the blonde hair psycho was surprisingly decent enough to hold back.
Because of this, Adam was adamant about the idea of testing his newly acquired martial knowledge fully.
The result?
A bloodbath of dire wolves.
Lastly, he got to understand his Adaptive Regeneration to a certain degree.
Adapting comes from the ability someone has to counter a stimulus, getting accustomed to it in the process to the point where it is manageable and can't affect the individual as it would've done the first time.
This was an easy concept to understand, and Adam had theories on how this adaptiveness could go along with regeneration.
But, once again, his expectations were too low for the actual thing.
In a moment of distraction, a mere fraction of a second where he didn't sense a lone wolf attacking him from the back, Adam got his first serious injury since the moment he came to this world.
The wolf took a big bite out of his left arm, severing it from his elbow.
Unable to panic for more than a second thanks to 'Calm Mind' he easily killed the wolf with a simple fireball the moment it came into his visual field. An action that prevented him from sensing another wolf coming from the opposite side from which the latter came.
It was too late when he felt yet another maw attempting to lacerate his remaining upper limb, yet that never happened.
The moment the wolf's teeth came into contact with Adam's unhurt right arm, a sense of helplessness assaulted the creature when it realized that its bite wasn't coming through the human's skin it was trying to have for dinner.
And before Adam could understand what had just happened, his left arm was already back as new.
In simple terms, Adam could not get injured twice by the same cause. At least not when it came to injuries at this level.
Since he tested himself already, he was curious to see how well his new shadow legion would fight against a boss monster.
Boss monsters, the apex predators in a dungeon, were usually higher ranked than the average monsters from that dungeon.
So, an F-rank boss monster would be classified as an E-rank.
Adam was sure that he would easily overpower anything up to the D-Rank at least just by himself, but what about his army?
Honestly speaking, there was no way for an E-Rank monster to beat an army of one hundred F-Ranks by itself, so at this point, Adam just wanted to see how long his shadows would take to bring the boss down.
As soon as he stepped in, Adam readied himself to command his legion and destroy the boss, but his joy was short-lived.
It seemed as though fate had other plans in stock for him.
" An Ogre?"
Looking at the monstrosity that was waiting for him at the other side of the door, as it was holding an axe that was several times the size of a normal dire wolf, Adam couldn't help but be confused.
Ogres were considered C-Rank monsters after all.
The chances of a C-rank monster appearing in an F-Rank dungeon were 0. Never before had this happened, or at least that's what Adam thought based on what he had read around on the internet.
'This can be dangerous... shit.'
....
In a dim room, a meeting was currently taking place.
Sitting around a large wooden table with a rounded shape, five individuals discussed what appeared to be a very important matter.
" Did you place the executioner as Master instructed?"
A woman, wrapped in a veil of darkness asked in a monotone.
On the other side, a man with a wicked smile and a pair of weird-looking glasses laughed loudly at the woman's question, his feet laid on the table in disregard to any authority this cold-spoken woman may possess over him.
" Hihihi~ He should be facing the Ogre as we are speaking."
The other three individuals looked blankly at the laughing fool with scorn present in their eyes. They had to deal with his arrogance for too long already, and it was tiring.
" Is decency absent from your brain? Be more respectful to Ms. Alice you bastard!"
A woman with green curly hair yelled annoyingly at the overly confident man on the other end of the table.
"Shh~ Children should stay silent when adults are talking, brat."
The room, as if connected to the girl's emotions, started shaking furiously at the mention of such an adjective.
" Donflamingo, do you have a death wish?!"
Before the man could respond, the woman donning darkness itself raised her hand, automatically, the shaking stopped and the green-haired girl looked away from the man, a frown persistently plastered on her juvenile-looking face.
" That's enough Tatsumaki, we can't fight each other like this, it's counterproductive."
Then looking back at the man with the weird glasses, she continued with her questioning.
" Did you confirm his awakener's ability?"
The man in question smiled triumphantly at the petite girl with the intent to mock her, which only added fuel to her annoyance.
" That's right. That brat's nothing like his parents~ Hihihihi~ I assumed he would have his father's magical abilities or his mother's absurd physical strength but all he can do is teleport like a weakling."
The woman nodded lightly in a sign of understanding. This man may be a bother, but his sources were top-notch, so she did not ask any further questions.
Since the 'heroes' son' issue seemed to be solved, she proceeded with the itinerary for the day.
" Now, let us go over today's main topic, Star City's fall."
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Hey, I'm back with the ff. In a few days, I will upload again. Peace out.
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