章 31: Uno and Dos [Bonus Chapter]

Romulus wasn't even able to finish his proclamation before an icy aura suffocated the air, making it far harder to breathe. Correcting himself with a cough, he said, "I was just kidding; your actual names will be uhmm…" He racked his brain for something truly great.

Ultimately, he landed on something that should suffice. "#1 shall thus be dubbed Uno, while #2 shall thus become Dos," he announced. "What say you, oh summons of mine?"

Surprisingly, the two summons fervently nodded up and down, with their eyes shining in gratitude. "Crackatacka!" Dos conveyed with a few jaw cackles. He heaved his greatsword up over his head and blasted a bright golden light from inside his body, which temporarily impaired the vision of both his master and Uno. Swift as lightning, Uno slid through the shadows and appeared behind Dos before smacking him across the head, causing the brilliant golden light to die down into nothing. It was instead replaced with a large skeleton rubbing his armored noggin in pain while staring at his master with many grievances.

'You reap what you sow,' Romulus thought to himself as he averted his gaze from those unusual puppy dog eyes. He caught sight of the rest of his Shadow Legion, which then led to him understanding that this army, along with his unique skills, would wind up changing the entire playfield. If before, he had to resummon his summons every time they died, then now, with Shadow Conjure and Shadow Immortality, they could fight on forever.

Wishing to see the limits of everything he just acquired, Romulus used Shadow Conjuration on every single one of his Skeletons, causing 50% of his MP to vanish. After which, all of them were enveloped in shimmering layers of iridescence. Upon emerging from this iridescence, their bodies transformed into something almost intangible, completely unlike the purely physical form that they took on before. Moreover, they changed from a pure white bone structure with silver and sometimes black armor to fully black bones and pitch black wavy armor.

The difference in appearance was palpable, but more than that, it was their new unique traits that truly interested Romulus. Watching them closely, he saw that they had no shadows like before. Rather, they had become the shadows themselves.

Looking at their system tags, he saw the reason for this.

[Shadow Grand Knight (S) (Lvl 31) - Skills: [C-Rank Shadowless (Lvl 1)], [C-Rank Master's Shadow (Lvl 1)], [C-Rank Shadow Transfer (Lvl 1)], [C-Rank Shadow Teleport (Lvl 1)]...]

The rest of the skills were the same as before, but the new shadow-related ones were specifically pertaining to racial traits. For example, the C-Rank Shadowless skill erased their shadows and gave them no presence, while Master's Shadow made it so they could hide within their Master's Shadow. On the other hand, Shadow Transfer would cause them to trade spots with their master. Finally, there was Shadow Teleport, which made it possible for them to teleport to any shadow within a visible radius. Overall, every single one of them was incredibly useful and would make things far easier while inside Ghost Town.

|C-Rank Shadow Box (Lvl 1)]

After calling upon this skill, all the shadows were brought into Romulus's pocket dimension, where they stayed unmoving and unresponsive. As this was just a test, he quickly recalled them and brought them back into the world. A sense of content welled up within him when he saw everything work as intended, but there was still a skill that he wanted to try out. Namely, it was the C-Rank Skill Shadow Rebirth.

Sauntering toward an unsuspecting Moon Wolf while in incognito mode, Romulus cleanly sliced off its head with a C-Rank Skill called 'Shadow Blade'.

SPURT! — Blood gushed from the spot where the head was severed, but as if utterly unbothered by this bloody display, the monster who killed it made an upside-down claw motion with his right hand. "Arise," he declared.

Nothing happened.

[1 out of 3 chances have been used up.]

A profound coldness flashed past Romulus's deathly red ascendant eyes. In a deep, savory tone, he spoke once more. "ARISE."

BZZZzzzzttt!

Unlike the last time, the Moon Wolf's corpse had something happen to it. A clumping of shadowy tendrils shot out of its headless body and covered every inch of it. Then, with an ethereal reanimation effect, the corpse spasmed and rose up from the thick cobblestone pavement.

[Ding! A Lvl 33 Moon Wolf rebirthed and transformed into a Lvl 33 Shadow Moon Wolf!]

[Summon limit has been exceeded! Would you like to de-summon one of your current summons and replace it with the Lvl 33 Shadow Moon Wolf summon?] - [Y/N]

Romulus clicked yes, then watched one of his Shadow Grand Knights fade into the Shadow Realm, with the Shadow Moon Wolf taking its place.

"Awooooh!!" The wolf howled as its new shadowy form invigorated every fiber of its being. It quickly stopped its howling and rushed over to its new master, who was far smaller than it was. Wagging its fluffy shadow, it patiently waited while sitting down a few feet away.

Curious, Romulus used the S-Rank Discerning Eye Skill and looked at what it wanted. He figured out that it was just happy about its new existence and master. Furthermore, it really wanted to… do battle!

After thinking over the matter, Romulus pointed toward a giant building-sized monster with sixteen legs and a centipede face. It was sitting over a couple buildings, waiting for any prey to pass by and fall into its trap. "Go and kill that thing," he instructed. To which the Shadow Moon Wolf happily complied and vanished into the surrounding shadows.

When the moving shadows got closer and closer to the monster, it launched out and conjured a long, serrated shadow blade in its toothy mouth. With one lightning quick flash, it zoomed past the C-Rank centipede.

SPURT!

….