Chapter 14: Balance

The innards of the cave walls I'd grown exceptionally used to were still and silent, echoing with the sounds of shifting sand as I dragged my way inside. I still couldn't denote myself as a living being, I had no skin, no blood or a pulse. The only thing I was sure of was that I had a soul, my own and yet I felt exhaustion.

Training with the felis demons had gone mostly how it had been for a while, an endless repetition of victories and close calls. I'd grown accustomed to the way in which they carried themselves as animals—as demons and felt as though there wasn't a mode of retaliation I hadn't been dealt with, to say that I was on a crash course for a black belt in unorthodox fighting would be a gross overstatement of what I was actually doing.

The reality was, in a situation where I could be forced into dire close quarters combat where my skills proved useless, I'd be as harmless as a toddler. Well..not completely harmless but if the enemy possessed a decent aptitude in fighting, I'd have problems. The felis demons had been a great start, with all my skills I could be arrogant when facing them, far too much if I wanted to though it wasn't the same without them; this was the humbling experience Cecil so vehemently tried to instill within me.

[There will be times where brute force won't be awarded with victory] she'd said, earning a look of skepticism as I'd sat on the grey sand's, watching the endless desert of near nothingness whilst caught between contemplation. The logic wasn't flawed on the spectrum of luck and experiences back on earth, brute force was impressive but unless you possessed an insurmountable level of power, there'd be times when you'd come up short and technique left you in the dirt. I plopped to the ground and leaned onto the stone walls before glancing outside, in about an hour it'd be nighttime. The incessant wails of shadow spawns would soon litter the desert grounds like an army of the damned.., weird that I was one of them.

I breathed out a sigh and took to analyzing the stats I'd accumulated over the time I'd spent here. My most prominent and with potential for vast improvement were still [Shadow manifestation] and [Shadow step], the latter had practically integrated as an instinctual reflex for me when in danger. The former however, was a stagnant piece of tantalizing beauty though useless with my current mana reserves. A simple piece of armor ate at least half of what I possessed now, more a flashy display of shadows but nothing useful not to mention that the weapons and armors I could create would only be as strong as I could feasibly make them. There was quite clearly a design flaw in the making of this skill, it was useless if I could only make something within my field of strength, a skill that's certain to keep me glued to a pattern of ceaseless repetition with no progress in sight but Cecil had been tight lipped when I'd asked her in passing during one of the training sessions, whether out of the fact she lacked the knowledge to know or was weirdly evasive towards answering it, he wouldn't know; the last evolution had given her human characteristics that were becoming increasingly annoying to deal with and to know she'd just keep growing from it was frightening.

Lastly was perhaps the most destructive spell in my arsenal, flames of insanity. I'd used them on occasion that revolved around my current mana reserves but it clearly had a glaring issue, killing only the insane wasn't what I'd only want to be able to do in the future, though Cecil had cleared up this issue with a concerning revelation.

All demons were mad..

The cave glowed with a bluish purple tint of lilac, without much thought I'd activated a skill, specifically shadow manifestation. The hapless form of darkness shifted and swirled but not an inkling of a solid object emerged from it, intentional to a degree..

[Not much can be done with your current reserves, master] Cecil echoed, though I obviously knew this. The last few days, though riddled in Cecil's ceaseless training regime, were only progressing my skills as an individual fighter not my levels or abilities granted by the system and finding a delicate balance between the two was necessary. I'd played enough games back on earth to know the ramifications of not properly allocating one's capabilities adequately to what they wanted to achieve and right now, an even split ensuring I wasn't completely inept or too preoccupied on one aspect was what I sought to achieve.

The lilac glow receded to the form of something harmless, slowly falling into my hands almost weightless. Weird were the things created from the shadows, like air in the hand yet as firm and heavy to the target as it had intended to be. In this case, the item was not a weapon but a simple cloak.

[Skill: Shadow manifestation has been activated]

[Mana: 990/1080]

It really hadn't taken much! A system notification flashed past my vision for a moment, the light outside gone and the darkness slowly being given form. It was at least time to make progress on other fronts after days worth of negligence.