Chapter 35: The mysteries behind shadow crystals and shadow shades

Levon immediately began hearing voices in his head, but this time they were not those of the Sword of Oblivion.

They were the wails of a human. The cries and the regrets.

It just kept coming louder and louder as the body of the creature began to melt away into a dark molten form that seemed to fuse with everything around it, as though the monster had never existed at all.

Only after the fusion was complete did the sound finally stop.

"You see, the voice of the creature will follow forever because I was the one that ended all of its misery," the shadowy figure spoke calmly. A glowing crystal could now be seen at the tip of the spear he had used to finish the creature.

"But if it was truly a man, what makes you any different from it? Aren’t you also a shadow?" Levon said calmly, still trying to make sense of everything unfolding around him.

The figure turned slightly.

"I guess you’re new here. We are all shadows," the figure said, passing Levon without stopping.

"Follow me. I’ll explain more once we get to the general’s office," the man said calmly as he walked forward, flicking his hand through the air to form what looked like a cigarette.

He formed a lighter right after and lit it.

That was when it occurred to Levon. This world could be shaped into anything. No wonder the monster had been able to regenerate its hands so seamlessly. It was as though some creative force guided everything here, or perhaps darkness and shadows themselves were simply moldable.

At this point Levon could only speculate.

But one thing he could note with certainty was that this was a place where he could come to learn more about the element of darkness.

Having control over all elements was a massive advantage, but just like any other bloodline he would need to grind, obtain skill books related to his bloodline, and find the right stones to develop those skills. Mechanical stones were bounded solely to equipment and enhancements, so they wouldn’t help here.

Levon couldn’t wait to receive his first skill.

He already knew that most people with fire powers usually started with the basic fireball, the most foundational ground spell of all. A very basic move, but a devastatingly effective weapon against monsters below level 15.

Levon kept following the figure, giving him enough space as he smoked freely.

Levon also kept his guard up at all times, just in case the man decided to turn on him. He needed to conserve enough energy to evade any attack without hesitation.

Soon buildings began to come into view as they walked on.

But everyone Levon could see had the same shadowy form the man had. They were all shadows.

’Wait, was everyone here actually a shadow?’

Levon immediately looked down at his own hands for the first time, and he was more than a little stunned.

He was a shadow too.

"Am I dead? What is going on?" Levon thought out loud, causing the man in front of him to laugh heartily.

"Well, well, well. Welcome to the world of shadows. No one here knows whether they are dead or not. We cannot remember who we are or who we were. We simply arrive in this world stripped of almost all our mental capacity.

Those of us who are still here and still retain the knowledge that we were once human go around hunting creatures to obtain their shadow crystals, which we trade at the reaper’s house for shadow shades.

Shadow shades are the only thing that can keep what little remains of one’s sanity intact. It is said that if you consume enough of them, you can begin to actually remember who you truly are. Consume even more, and you earn the chance to either become a reaper yourself, gaining the ability to return to the living world at will for a set duration, or you can take the risk and enter the wheel of reincarnation, where the shadow god randomly sends you to another world by pure luck.

So you see, those of us in the shadow verse have more hope than those who end up in the underworld."

The man talked freely as he finished one cigarette after another. It was clear he enjoyed the company of a newcomer and was more than happy to keep going.

Levon still had a flood of questions and wasted no time jumping on the opportunity.

"So what happens if someone never gets shadow shades, and is there no way to obtain them from creatures directly? Does it always have to go through the reaper?"

The figure went quiet for a moment, as though processing what Levon had just asked. After a while he finally spoke.

"Everything here works on a loot table. Don’t be fooled by the fact that I got a crystal just now. It actually takes endless grinding to get even one.

To put it into perspective, every creature has a shadow crystal embedded in its shadow heart, but it can still take killing five, ten, sometimes fifty creatures before even one shadow crystal actually drops.

As for shadow shades, those only drop from a very small number of creatures that have lived long enough or happen to have certain special abilities. And even then, not all of them carry it.

Only the reaper is able to convert shadow crystals into shadow shades. The remnant that is left over, that pure black residue, is what he uses to leave this world.

So now you understand.

And to answer your other question, if someone never gets the shades, they lose more and more of their mental capacity until they eventually become a halo or a creature, like the ones you saw in the forest. They forget everything about themselves, even the smallest details, like the fact that they are human, or how to speak, or how to walk.

Since the shadow and darkness around them cannot process their chaotic thoughts, they end up mutating into terrifying creatures that plague this world with insane abilities and frightening strength."

The figure suddenly stopped speaking as a shop came into view ahead of them. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Mind your behavior in there. That shop belongs to a reaper, and I want to trade my crystal for a shade," the man said, tossing the finished cigarette into the air.