Shadow Dragon: The Fallen Angel Is My Teacher-Chapter 191: Shadow Eater Level Up, Everything Is Normal

MC’s POV

My stats kept rising.

[+1 Spirit]

[+2 Spirit]

[+1 Spirit]

The notifications flickered in the corner of my vision.

It took a few hours, but the next message finally appeared.

[Shadow Eater: Level 6 → Level 7]

"The skill leveled up twice in one day. Nice."

It really was a tremendous growth speed.

Nautilus was the perfect place for farming Spirit as I had expected.

Another window slid open.

[Spirit: 153 (+0) → 153 (+200)]

The moment my Spirit stat hit the rank limit again, the dull lethargy that had been clinging to me for the past few hours peeled away.

It was like someone had opened a window inside my head.

The pressure vanished, and in its place came a clear, refreshing sense of focus that made my thoughts feel lighter and sharper at the same time.

"Lord of Shadows, now, please start using Harmonic Flow Breathing," Yuna said, drifting into view in front of me.

I nodded.

First, I called back my shadow and used Shadow Assimilation.

The faint, familiar sensation of my body growing in size settled in.

Then I sat down on the edge of the bed, crossed my legs, and straightened my back.

I inhaled slowly and started Harmonic Flow Breathing.

Harmonic Flow Breathing to calm the mind.

Mind Amulet to protect the mind.

353 Spirit stat to strengthen the mind.

Thought Pulse Title to detect mental interference.

Right now, my mind was in the strongest state it had ever been in since I was reborn.

Minutes passed.

I let my breathing settle into a steady rhythm and allowed my thoughts to drift backward over everything that had happened in the past week.

The fights. The ship. The exorcists. The System Church.

Nothing immediately stood out.

’Nothing of note is really there.’

I let that thought sit.

’But...’

Something tugged at the back of my awareness. It was a faint sense you get when you realize you forgot something important, but you can’t quite remember what it is.

Then it clicked.

’Why is Yuna stopping me from going home?’

The moment I tried to follow that thought, my mind glitched, and the thought disappeared.

The same thing happened again when I tried to think about it.

I could "not" realize that something weird was going on.

Everything was perfectly normal.

Normal.

Normal.

’Something is weird?’ I thought as if it was a question, not a certainty. Certainty would not be allowed here.

Everything was perfectly normal. I could not detect any problems.

Yet, I could now notice that Yuna was stopping me from going home for a reason.

It felt suspicious.

"Something" told me I was not under a mental attack. "Something" calmed me, telling me everything was normal.

"Something" was speaking to me from within my mind.

But...

’Even if everything is normal, I need to be suspicious.’

The feeling reminded me of something else.

The moment I had noticed the Soul Shards after exorcising the Rank 4 Cursed Spirit, the Blackout Priest.

[Fifty million divided by four gives me ten million]

It was just math. Perfectly normal. And yet, for some reason, I couldn’t stop repeating it in my head. It didn’t make sense why that specific thought had stuck so hard.

This felt the same.

’Everything is normal.’

The words repeated in my mind, slow and steady.

’Everything is normal.’

’Everything is normal.’

’Everything is normal.’

’Everything is normal.’

For some reason, I had to keep reminding myself.

As if subconsciously, I was refusing to accept that everything was normal.

I opened my eyes and let out a deep sigh.

Yuna was already there, hovering right in front of my face.

"How do you feel, Lord of Shadows? Did you notice something?"

"No. Everything is normal."

Her expression hardened.

"But," I added, "I feel like I should be careful. Do you have any advice?"

Yuna stared at me for a second like she couldn’t quite believe what she had just heard.

Her mouth opened, closed, then opened again, like she was trying to decide which reaction to go with.

Then she dropped down onto the bed and pumped her fist into the air.

"Success!"

I blinked. "What?"

"Never mind my reaction. This much is enough," she said, waving a hand dismissively. Her grin didn’t go away, though. "Anyway, you should create some location tracker damping runes."

"Suddenly?" I asked.

"What if someone placed a location tracker on you?"

"That’s not really possible though? Even if someone did place one on me, it would be on my body. When I cancel Shadow Assimilation, it gets peeled off with it. And since I keep my shadow in my inventory or in this world, there’s no way they can track me."

For some reason, I found myself strongly against the idea of creating those runes.

"Something" told me there was no need for them.

"Just do it," Yuna said, her tone turning stern.

In the end, the decision was still mine.

And I didn’t want to do it.

But...

’Everything is normal.’

’Everything is normal.’

’Everything is normal.’

My body moved before I consciously decided anything.

I reached for the tools and started drawing.

I took out the [Contact Lens] I had received as a reward for exorcising the Blackout Priest.

Once I activated them, the world sharpened, zoomed in, and broke apart into tiny lines and flows of energy that I normally couldn’t see.

Using that view, I started carving microscopic runes directly onto my skin.

The process was slow but not painful.

The runes were designed to dampen any location trackers placed on me. Not block them completely, but blur the signal so badly that it would be almost useless.

And since the Estate had a powerful barrier that blocked location trackers, and hid everything, any signal that could escape my runes would be blocked by it in the end.

The runes were small, and almost impossible to notice.

Only sensitive exorcists would be able to see the faint flow of energy if they really focused.

When I was done, I leaned back against the bed and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

Yuna floated in a slow circle around me, studying the results.

"Good. That should be enough for now," she said.

I didn’t ask what she meant by "for now."