Chapter 111: Favored By Darkness

Theo came back into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed. He hadn’t taken his boots off.

For a while everything stayed a blur. Then it thinned out and left a horrible taste in his mouth and a thick knot sitting under his ribs. He didn’t want to think about the losses. He told himself they had never been real, and it did nothing for the burning in his chest, and it did not make him care any less.

He laid down on his back and stayed there, breathing. The cold had stopped stinging his skin, and his arms kept bracing for it anyway, flinching at a room that was only room temperature. All that violent darkness and frost had gone quiet with it, and what stood in its place was silence, absolute and peaceful, with his own breathing loud in the middle of it.

He lay looking up at the ceiling with both hands flat on the sheet.

’I wonder what the purpose of the Tower is? Why it does the things it does the way it does them. If Climbers are just there to watch everything die, does that mean we are to carry a fate of endless suffering, what is the burden for saving these floors... at floor 50, will I remain the same person?’

Theo wondered about that, and about many more things like it. He didn’t need five more floors to get the memo. Nobody had been overselling it.

’At least I got a Class out of it...’

Theo sat up.

A Class was something many Climbers didn’t get until Floor 10, or even Floor 15. But Theo had been offered one on floor 1, and the way he passed the Trial was by burning everything. Was the act of burning it all so admirable that it earned him a Class on the first trial?

’That makes me question what exactly the others did to pass theirs... although it’s believed there can never be two of the same Trial.’

Theo summoned the runes of his status without a sound.

[STATUS]

Name: Theolyne Chadwick

Age: 21 Realm: Mundane

Rank: (-)F

Class: [Not Yet Awakened]

Attributes

STR: 30

STA: 30

AGI: 30

INT: 30

Awakened Skill: Hardening Mastery: 2.03%

[INVESTOR STATUS]

IDENTITY

Name: Theolyne Chadwick

Age: 21

Race: Human

REALM

Realm: Mundane

Stage: Early

CLASS

Class: Favored By Darkness

Authority: Darkness, Shadows

Domain: ???

ATTRIBUTES

Physical Power: 57 / 100

Stamina: 76 / 100

Agility: 68 / 100

Intelligence: 50 / 100

Combat Skill: 35 / 100

Endurance: 65 / 100

FOUNDATION

Constitution: [Limitless Body] — 64%

Circulation: [Limitless Flow] — 13.99%

ABILITIES

Class Abilities

[Darkness Manipulation].

Skills

[Genesis Eyes — A] 5.99%

[Shadow Sword — Mythic] 10.45%

[Protector’s Domain — A] 1.23%

[Directive — A] 2.87%

Domestic Manager — B] 6.99%

[Attendant’s Hands — A] 0.01%.

Traits

[Dark Sight]

[Darkness Favors You].

AFFINITIES

Primary

[Darkness — Extremely High]

Secondary

[Shadows — High]

[Ice — Moderate]

[Fire — Moderate]

[Wood — Moderate]

EQUIPMENT

Weapon: Raindrop

Armor: nil

Other: nil

INVENTORY

[Uncommon Fruit Salad ×1]

[Herbal Tea Recipe]

[Bottomless Flask]

[Uncommon Quill]

[Draught of the Quiet Hour]

...

The first thing Theo noticed was that the structure of his investor status had changed on him again.

With the introduction of Class, everything sat slotted properly into one section or the other, and the golden panel with its black runes had come out looking luxurious and proper, decorative even. The light of it lay yellow across his knuckles and along the sheet.

’Even a section for equipments.’

Theo was familiar with almost everything else on the status. So he went into the part he wasn’t.

[CLASS IDENTITY]

Class Name: Favored By Darkness

Core Concept: Darkness

Nature: Dominion / Concealment / Shadow / Absorption

Primary Authority: Darkness

Secondary Authority: Shadows

Class Description: [A being personally favored by Darkness, gradually evolving from someone who can enter and manipulate darkness into an existence that Darkness itself recognizes, protects and ultimately obeys. Most people use darkness, you are favored by it.]

CLASS SKILLS:

Darkness Manipulation

Description: [This ability allows you to manipulate a small amount of surrounding darkness. You can gather darkness, move it, condense it, stretch it, obscure yourself, create crude tendrils or forms, and extinguish weak sources of light.]

TRAITS:

Dark Sight

Description: [You can see naturally with darkness. Your perception isn’t dependent on light or the absence of light, it is solely dependent on darkness, even as a color.]

Darkness Favors You

Description: [This is a signature of the Class. Darkness naturally behaves slightly differently around you. This also affects the way shadows relate to you. They may gather around you, your presence becomes harder to perceive in darkness. Attacks directed in darkness can become marginally less accurate, and when you are injured while surrounded by darkness, that darkness instinctively attempts to conceal you. The darkness isn’t conscious yet, but it is the first indication that something is different about you.]

Physical/Soul Change:

[Your Soul has developed a very high compatibility to Darkness and shadow. Rather than resisting darkness, your body and soul will naturally become capable of holding it.]

[Note: There is a difference between Class Skills and Normal Skills and it is mastery. Class Skills do not need to be mastered. They are at their best at their current Realm, and will evolve and gain more skills as you evolve through Realms, while Normal Skills gain mastery independent of Realms, and may or may not gain new sections as you evolve across Realms]

...

Theo read it in silence for a long while, and there was a lot of it to read, and each time he went back through it his mouth went wider and wider.

By the end his neck had stiffened from holding his head at that angle, and he was staring straight ahead of him with a bedazzled expression.

He reached slowly down toward the floor.

And the darkness gathered beneath the bed came crawling out to meet him, climbing up over itself in small inky threads until it reached the tips of his fingers. They touched, cool and weightless, barely there at all. Then the whole of it collapsed back into a pool and retreated under the bed.

Theo’s expression was to die for.

’I.. I really can control the darkness!’