Chapter 112: Coincidence or Fate?

Theo had a long list of things he wanted to try with the darkness. But first he wanted the difference between Darkness and Shadow, the real one, so he would know which of the two to reach for and when.

For one thing, it looked like everything the Shadow could do, the Darkness could do as well.

Theo didn’t think so. The reason he could sharpen his sword and set a shield out of shadow was the skill doing it. Shadow Sword did that. Darkness could coat a blade too, certainly, but he had no way of knowing whether the same thing came out the other end.

’For that I’d have to understand the mechanics of weapons, and I don’t need to rush it, since I can still keep using the shadows.’

Theo glanced down at the darkness lying under the bed. It pooled deeper than the frame should have thrown, and the lamp in the corner did nothing to it at all.

’This one takes a lot of focus though, and I can feel it pulling on my mana... maybe that’s another difference, that Class skills lean on mana harder than normal skills do.’

Normal skills went the other way. The higher the mastery climbed, the better they worked and the less they cost.

Theo stood up off the bed and could not get himself to stand still, rocking once on the balls of his feet before he caught it.

’I want to challenge a dungeon right now and test all of this!’

And the faster he got into the next realm, the sooner he could go on the expedition and find the Hearthfire Tree.

Theo inhaled deeply.

’Now that I’m strong enough... maybe it’s time to move faster.’

He opened his inventory and picked out an item that had been given to him a while ago, one he had never sat down and studied properly.

[Shadow Fragment]

Rank: Rare

Type: Armor

Nature: Living / Conceptual

Description: A fragment of an incomplete armor.

Effects:

• Manifests as armor.

• Adapts to its wearer.

• Can repair itself using darkness.

Special Property:

[Fragment Resonance]

Reacts strongly to nearby fragments of the same origin.

[Several functions remain locked.]

Theo studied the runes running under the description with an amused smile on his face.

’Is this coincidence or fate?’

He straightened, massaging his jaw as he read the panel through a second time.

’I did get drawn to it for the dark nature it seemed to have.’

He had first taken it for something he could use alongside his affinity to shadows. He had not expected to end up with an actual Darkness Class with manipulation on top of it, and in a far better position to use the thing than he had been when it was handed to him.

Either way, he was satisfied with how it had turned out.

’The only outlier is Raindrop, but I wonder how it’ll react to Shadow Sword.’

He had never once used the skill in training with Uthed, so there was no telling.

Theo closed his eyes for a moment and willed the Shadow Fragment into existence.

Smoky shadow pulled at his feet and rose, crawling up over his body and hardening as it went, leaving a sleek suit of obsidian armor behind it. The plates settled against one another with small clicks and clung to his lean, muscled frame, layered close enough to follow every contour and still leave him his shoulders.

Then a dark helm closed around his head, wisps flowing off the crown like smoke caught in a wind nobody could feel. The surface was matte black all the way across, broken only by sharp edges and thin lines that made the whole thing look forged out of condensed darkness.

Theo stretched in it. He put his arm out, dropped into a few squats, and jumped on the spot.

’Oh wow, feels really nice and not limiting in any manner!’

Then he dismissed the armor and glanced around the house. Theo inhaled very deeply, looking at the dust that lay on every sheet and every sill of the place.

And from the bed he was standing beside, he began a deep cleaning.

He hauled the white sheets off the furniture two at a time and beat them out over the balcony rail until the air in front of him went grey. He carried water up the stairs and down again, and the water went out of the buckets black.

By the fourth room the cord of the pail had worn a line across his palm that was still there in the morning.

There had never been a time Theo thought he would clean a mansion by himself, and the maids and guards the King had allocated to him came later that night and stood in the doorway in absolute shock that a single man had done the whole house.

Theo welcomed them and went to sleep, and when morning came he got off his bed and walked outside.

"Good morning sir."

"Good morning Sir."

"Good morning Sir!"

Different voices, masculine and feminine both, greeted him as he came down the stairs and across the sitting room and out of the mansion.

The King had sent clothes as well. Theo would rather not look like he was going to a banquet when all he was doing was finding a dungeon to enter, so he dressed in a simple knee-level coat with an open grey inner shirt and trousers, Raindrop hanging at his waist.

He climbed onto the black stallion he had ridden in on. A man who looked to be in his fifties, tall and lean, came across the gravel towards him.

"My Lord, the Chariot is available, it comes with four White Snow Horses, they were just imported from the Siberian regions."

Theo paused for more than a moment, then chuckled shyly.

"Uhm, I’ll be fine alone... uhh..."

The man inclined his head.

"The name is Alfred sir, I’m your butler."

Theo nodded.

"Right, Alfred. I’ll be fine. Do make sure the newly imported horses are properly tended to though. And keep strangers out of my home, might take a while before I return."

He kept Genesis Eyes on the man the whole way through it.

Alfred nodded. Then Theo drew his reins and the destrier went, and he sat the saddle stiffly for the first hundred yards while Alfred stayed where he was on the gravel with his hands behind his back and watched him all the way to the gate.

The road took him off the estate and through the Alderkind Woods, and the trees gave way to the plains and then to the outer lanes of the city.

After a few minutes’ ride he reached the building that managed Dungeon Exploration.

And as soon as he approached, trouble came knocking.