Chapter 510: Law of Wind 2

The hours that followed became a slaughterhouse of monsters.

Nero continued deeper into the pocket world.

He didn’t bother looking for ordinary prey anymore.

After obtaining his first Shadow Slave, the White-Horned Wolf, something inside him had changed.

He had discovered something new.

Something he wanted to understand.

Darkness.

Every monster he encountered became another opportunity to test it.

Nero stood atop a rocky cliff, his black sword resting against his shoulder.

Below him was a massive beast.

It resembled a lion, but its body was covered in dark metallic scales, while two enormous horns curved backward from its skull.

A Rank B+ monster.

Its roar shook the valley.

ROOOOAAAR!

Nero’s eyes gleamed.

He simply stepped forward.

The beast charged.

The distance between them disappeared.

Its enormous claws descended.

Nero raised his sword.

CLANG!

The impact sent a shockwave across the valley.

Nero slid backward.

His feet carved lines into the ground.

The beast attacked again.

Nero twisted aside.

Its claws missed.

His sword swept across its flank.

SHING!

The metallic scales resisted.

Nero’s eyes narrowed.

Instead of increasing the sword’s physical strength, he allowed Darkness to flow through the blade.

The black aura condensed along the edge until it became almost invisible.

He swung again.

This time—

The sword slipped through the gap between two scales.

The beast recoiled.

Nero’s eyes lit up.

So that was another property of Darkness.

It didn’t necessarily need overwhelming force.

It could become extremely thin.

Almost nonexistent.

He could use that property to bypass defenses.

The beast roared and released a powerful wave of energy.

Nero raised his left hand.

Darkness expanded.

A black shield appeared.

BOOM!

The attack struck.

The shield cracked.

Nero didn’t reinforce it.

Instead, he allowed it to break.

The fragments scattered through the air.

His eyes followed them.

An idea appeared.

He moved his fingers.

The fragments stopped.

Then—

They shot forward.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

The beast attempted to dodge.

The fragments changed direction.

They followed.

Nero’s eyes widened slightly.

He could control individual pieces of Darkness.

Not just one large construct.

Hundreds of smaller ones.

The beast tried to retreat.

A shadow suddenly appeared beneath it.

Nero’s sword emerged from that shadow.

BOOM!

The monster stumbled.

Nero appeared above it.

His sword descended.

This time, the Darkness surrounding the blade didn’t simply reinforce the weapon.

It flowed into the beast.

The monster’s movements slowed.

Nero understood immediately.

Darkness could interfere with an opponent’s energy.

He stepped back.

The beast attempted to roar.

Black shadows emerged from beneath its body.

They wrapped around its limbs.

Nero raised his hand.

The shadows tightened.

The monster struggled.

Then Nero’s sword flashed.

The battle ended.

The enormous beast collapsed.

Darkness spread across its body.

Nero watched carefully.

The corpse slowly dissolved.

The energy within it flowed toward him.

A new shadow formed behind him.

Another enormous creature emerged.

A black-scaled lion with curved horns.

Nero looked at it.

Then smiled faintly.

"Not bad."

The shadow lowered its head.

Nero continued, he had to increase his private army.

The next monster was a giant serpent.

It lived inside a forest filled with poisonous mist.

The moment Nero entered its territory, the serpent attacked.

Its enormous body tore through the trees.

Nero jumped.

The serpent’s jaws snapped shut beneath him.

He landed on its head.

His sword struck.

The serpent twisted violently.

Nero was thrown into the air.

A second head emerged from its body.

Nero’s eyes narrowed.

Two heads.

The second head opened its mouth.

A stream of poisonous energy erupted.

Nero transformed his body into Darkness.

The attack passed through him.

For two seconds, his body became nothing more than a mass of black shadows.

He reappeared behind the serpent.

Instead of immediately attacking, Nero studied the technique.

He had already discovered how useful the transformation could be.

But maintaining it consumed too much prana.

He needed another solution.

Nero raised his hand.

His shadow expanded.

The serpent’s shadow suddenly separated from its body.

The monster froze.

Nero understood.

He wasn’t manipulating the serpent.

He was manipulating the shadow beneath it.

His sword descended.

The serpent’s movement was restricted for just long enough.

SHING!

The battle ended.

Another Shadow Slave joined his army.

Nero continued deeper.

A massive bird descended from the clouds next.

Its wings stretched nearly fifty meters.

Every flap generated violent wind.

Nero looked upward.

The creature attacked.

A storm descended.

Nero moved.

He only used Darkness.

His sword became a black spear.

He threw it.

The bird dodged.

The spear dissolved into shadows.

The shadows spread across the sky.

Nero’s eyes narrowed.

The Darkness began forming countless thin threads.

The threads connected.

A giant net appeared.

The bird crashed into it.

Nero pulled his hand downward.

The net dragged the creature from the sky.

The bird fought back.

Its wings generated a massive gust.

The net began breaking.

Nero released it.

The net dissolved.

Then the scattered threads became hundreds of black arrows.

He fired them simultaneously.

The sky shook.

The bird fell.

Darkness consumed it.

Another Shadow Slave was born.

Nero looked at the creature.

Three.

He now had three powerful servants.

And he wasn’t finished as he was not satisfied.

The fourth monster was a gigantic armored ape.

It possessed incredible physical strength.

Its fists could crush stone.

Nero fought it for nearly an hour.

The battle became a pure contest of swordsmanship and physical ability.

Nero refused to use another Law.

The ape swung.

Nero blocked.

BOOM!

He countered.

The ape dodged.

Nero took a step forward.

His sword struck diagonally from a tricky angle, however, the ape blocked with its forearm.

Nero wasn’t shocked as he had expected this, he changed his grip.

Darkness flowed along the sword.

The blade became shorter.

Then longer.

The ape couldn’t predict its range.

Nero began experimenting.

A short blade became a long blade.

A long blade became a whip.

The whip became a spear.

The spear dissolved.

Darkness flowed around his arm.

Nero punched.

The ape was thrown backward.

Nero’s eyes widened.

Darkness could enhance his movements without covering his entire body.

He had discovered another method.

Instead of reinforcing his whole body, he could reinforce individual muscles for an instant.

Less waste, more power.

He immediately began experimenting.

His feet.

His shoulders.

His wrists.

His spine.

Every movement received just enough Darkness.

His swordsmanship became faster.

Cleaner.

More unpredictable.

Eventually—

The ape fell.

Nero converted it into his fourth Shadow Slave. Slowly but surely his private immortal army was growing.