Chapter 95

  Dylan lay down on the chair and quickly pulled out four books from the portal. "Advanced Wood Magic", "Spirit Magic - Spiritual Magic", "Advanced Shadow Magic", and "Blood Magic - Vampire Magic".

  Opening all the books to the spells he was interested in, Dylan laid them out on a small table next to him. The first page showed them briefly, the spells were three-dimensional, but were only drawn two-dimensionally. And yet Dylan could more or less understand them that way, despite the rest of the pages that together illustrated a three-dimensional model. It wasn't perfect, there were still many inaccuracies, but now...

  Dylan looked at the tier 3 “Rapid Directed Growth” spell and felt the subtle direction of his new [Special] skill. [Insight Great Mage’s] was working incredibly well, the spell’s design floated up in his mind and quickly began to form a three-dimensional model, just from a two-dimensional picture.

  Dylan watched this with great delight, his brain working incredibly fast and smoothly. He remembered the different parts of the spells, their interactions, and deciphered the thin lines without difficulty. It was as if he had dedicated his entire life to creating magic. But at some point, the construction stopped creating, there were left gaps in it that he could not fill. These were the parts of the spell that he either did not know or could not understand from a simple two-dimensional picture.

  Taking the book in his hands, Dylan began to leaf through the drawing of the spell. After quickly scanning and flipping through 12 pages, where the complete design was shown from different angles, Dylan was able to easily model it in his head.

  Not believing it, Dylan laughed lightly. "Ha ha, ha ha." Gradually, his laughter began to turn hysterical, and his smile became wider and wider. "Ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ha ha, Ha ha ha!" Dylan stopped laughing and thought in utter anticipation.

  I can't believe it. Now I won't have to spend hours deciphering spells and weeks studying them, this is real cheating! The balance that put me in the line of simply strong mages was mercilessly crushed.

  With the design in his head, Dylan reached out with both hands and created it between his palms. Looking at it carefully and memorizing it.

  Although it's not as rosy as I'd like. If I didn't keep the spell in my head, by using [Parallel Thinking] skill, I would have forgotten him. But I still feel like it would take me much less time to master spell perfectly. Maybe just a few days?

  Dylan smiled cheerfully, dispelled the spell and took another book, "Advanced Shadow Magic". It was opened on the spell "Second Shadow" level 3. The spell created a shadow double. It could not attack, had no weight. It was just a cloud of shadows in the shape of a person, through which identification skills do not see. The spell was created to cover itself with a shadow curtain and at the same time create a false copy in order to buy time, or to divert attention.

  For ordinary mages, this spell sucked. Firstly, it was very complex, almost 4 levels. Secondly, to understand who the double was, it was enough to just throw a stone so that it would pass through the shadow without touching it. Thirdly, the direction and movement of the shadow are controlled either through the aura, which is very difficult for most, or are set by the spell itself, which was even more difficult. Predicting the enemy's movements, creating a living behavior of the shadow and guessing a bunch of other little things was incredibly difficult.

  But for Dylan? It was perfect! The low cost of the spell allowed him to create about 5 shadows per second, without straining his reserves. Plus, controlling the shadows through his aura would be as easy as breathing for him. He could also infuse the shadows with will, making them completely autonomous. And that's not to mention his speed and incredible reflexes as a Phantom Sword Adept. It wouldn't be strange at all if the shadows moved incredibly fast and could dodge almost any projectile.

  Yes, Dylan could imagine it. How one moment he would cover himself in black fog, and the next, 5 shadows would jump out of it. Each of them would move at incredible speed towards the opponents, who would be full of anxiety and confusion, because they did not know which of the shadows was the real him.

  This is truly magnificent!

  But Dylan had to temper his enthusiasm. Fire magic, light magic, and some divination magic would easily dispel the shadows or reveal him. Light in general was dangerous, the only way he knew to keep shadow magic from dissipating instantly. Not counting even more advanced magic, of course. It was to have a lot of strong mana. Literally 500 MP of shadow mana would dissipate into dust in a few seconds of a light spell that only cost 10 MP.

  Yes, yes. Shadow Magic is specialized, but at the right moment it is incredibly dangerous. Too bad I won't be able to learn "Shadow Step" for a long time. Oh well.

  Dylan focused on the spell and slowly began to create it in his mind. The spell was almost unfamiliar to him, he only recognized the stealth constructs, the identification blocking, and the shadow aspect itself. Everything else was not clear at all from the simple image.

  Flipping through the pages and then the following ones, Dylan took the spell apart in more detail, slowly putting it together. If not for the help of [Insights Great Mage's], he would have been busy all day, maybe even longer. The spell was just too complicated, and incomprehensible.

  Over time, Dylan was able to create it between his hands. It took a lot of effort and time, several times he even had to carefully examine the book, in minute detail. Most of the spell was not clear to him at all, everything was new and difficult. He would have to spend a lot of time to fully understand and master the casting, without the [Special] skill, it would be too difficult.

  Dylan poured his will into the spell and activated it with a small wish. A shadow cloud began to form between his hands, slowly gathering into a sphere that slowly expanded, she became 40 cm in diameter and stopped growing. A hand of a shadow entity emerged from it. Dark mist danced on its surface like light smoke. After the hand, an equally black leg emerged from the sphere, lightly touching the floor. The sphere began to change shape, slowly a second arm and leg emerged from it. Then the sphere changed, slowly turning into a head and torso.

  Dylan's shadow double stood before him, but it was a simple mannequin without any features. Touching it with his aura, Dylan willed it to become an exact copy of him. The surface of the shadow floated, and the mist dancing on its surface disappeared without a trace. The shadow's features quickly began to change, creating clothes and weapons. After a few seconds, the shadow was indistinguishable from Dylan, but still appeared completely black.

  Dylan came closer to her, examining her face and once again making sure of his beauty and the complete authenticity of his figure. Smiling slightly, Dylan wished that the shadow would pass through the room.

  At his silent command, the shadow took a step. It was silent, light, and magnificent. Just like Dylan would walk, as a Phantom Sword Adept after many years of training. The shadow's gait was perfect, and each step measured and alive.

  Dylan touched his chin with his hand, wanting to see her move in battle. He wished for it and the shadow began to move. She instantly drew one of the swords on her belt and threw a shadow dagger with her other hand.

  In that brief moment, Dylan estimated that the shadow's speed was his maximum possible speed. Out of the corner of his eye, Dylan saw the shadow dagger hit the wall and simply dissipate into shadow mana, having no effect. It was somewhat disappointing, but it was still everything he wanted.

  The shadow moved in front of him, using the Phantom Sword art in rapid succession, perhaps too perfect for Dylan's liking. He wondered if he should add a new directive to the will, change some of the rules and priorities, maybe add a shadow mist around the shadow to blur its movements.

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  This is definitely something to think about. Adding some light strategy is also necessary.

  Dylan was about to continue giving new instructions to the shadow when he heard his communication amulet ringing. At first he didn't understand what it was for and who would actually want to contact him but the next moment he remembered how he was rushing to meet the Shards.

  Crap

  Quickly knitting the amulet of communication, Dylan connected with the other side.

  "Where can you be, we can't wait for you anymore!" Callen said loudly and irritably. "There is very important news today, I don't want to hear any excuses for you to be here as soon as possible!" Callen finished and hung up.

  Dylan slightly complained, but quickly began to get ready. He waved his hand and clenched it into a fist. Dylan dispersed the shadow and gathered all the remaining shadows mana. Thinking about what to do with it, Dylan decided to make his real shadow much blacker than usual. This had its own atmosphere.

  Why not, if he could?

  Looking at his black and black shadow, Dylan couldn't help but think how cool that was. Shaking his head, he left the room and quickly, almost running, went to the meeting of the Shards .

  As Dylan walked through the academy's hallways, he wondered what could possibly be so important that Cullen was annoyed with him for being late. He had been late before, but no one had ever been annoyed enough to really call him out on it.

  Something important and very interesting happened.

  Making assumptions, Dylan quickly made his way to the meeting place, eager to meet. Opening the door, he saw that all of the Shards were present, which was rare. Dylan awkwardly waved, earning a piercing look from everyone. Cullen waved for him to take his place, and Dylan quickly complied.

  Cullen stood up from his chair, looked at each one again and spoke.

  "Just the other day, the Beastman Republic's mid-sized border city of Karton was destroyed. Over 1,400,000 million people died." Seeing the shock in most eyes and a bit of confusion in others, Cullen decided to elaborate. "The last time any country lost cities was because of the "Undead Eminence" it literally took millions of undead to destroy even one city."

  "And before that, cities fell only from Epic and Legendary monsters, at least. Contrary to the opinion of some, cities fall very rarely and under very strange circumstances. Because every average city has a spatial gate and reinforcements are never weak, mostly even too strong to suppress the threat without casualties."

  "I'll explain in order and what I was able to find out. Karton is a city that produces a lot of low quality things due to cheap labor. It is only a week's journey from the Holy Kingdom. Therefore, trade is a large part of the city's income, as is the slave trade." At Cullen's last words, everyone at the table involuntarily grimaced. Cullen shook his head and continued.

  "I found out that the slaves were in a very bad way. The worst treatment, they were literally worse than animals and lived without any choice. They even had a separate area built for them, like a prison, where they were born, worked to death and died, unless they were bought out. For some, this was a blessing."

  "Actually, a [Special]-level curse was born in the city. [Vengeful Cursed Spirit of Decay and Rot]. It had the body of a huge wolf and had many abilities tied to erosion and decay." Cullen opened a portal near his hand, taking out a stack of papers. With a deft movement, Cullen handed these papers to the others. "Here you can read, all the abilities of the curse are written down here, while you read this, I will continue."

  Each of the Shards opened a stack of papers, reading the specifics of the curse. Dylan quickly familiarized himself with all the basic abilities and covered his face with his hands. It was the most important reminder that the world was not entirely fantastic.

  "The Church and the Beastman government believe that the curse was born in the slave quarter. That's not important for now, but we'll get to that." Cullen continued.

  "The curse first destroyed the slave quarter and then began to storm the main wall. For more than 12 hours, it tried to break through, but it did not succeed. Turrets, a high wall, priests and 40,000 soldiers, along with 5 [Special] ranks did not allow it to do so."

  "If you want to ask why reinforcements haven't arrived? No one has received a clear answer from the Sinators. Some rather brave people claim that this is sabotage, but that's not what I'm talking about today."

  "The reinforcements finally arrived, 10 [Special] levels and Executor [Epic] rank. Executors, the Republic's elite fighter squad. I won't talk about what they should have done, we'll discuss that later."

  "This unit, along with the [Special] ranks of the city, entered the battle with the curse. As far as I know, they almost destroyed it, but the curse survived. It is still unclear how exactly, but it became much stronger. Then it summoned many evil spirits into the bodies of the dead Beastmen and destroyed the wall. Everything that happened next was a massacre, after which the city was completely destroyed and populated by evil spirit in the bodies of the dead, something that will very soon become undead." Taking out another report, Cullen passed it on to the others.

  "In the end, the Executor was killed, and along with him, 5 or 8 [Special] ranks, it was not yet possible to determine who survived and who simply fled." Looking at the faces of those present with a silent question of "how could this relate to them," Cullen continued.

  "Yes, so many deaths are indicative, but should not affect us in any way, but I am going to this. Does everyone know about the Great Mage of the Elusive Space Veksian?" Everyone nodded without exception. "He went to kill the curses at the request of one of the sinators. There he met the curse, Richard Darrell and a little beast-girl of 12 years old."

  "This girl was a [Master of Curses] and had the [Legendary] title of [Cursed Existence]. She was the one who destroyed the city. It would seem that she was already dead, since Veksian saw her, but no. Richard Darrell [Bard] was able to protect her and seal Veksian. He took the cursed one and disappeared." Cullen gave another report to everyone, continuing.

  "Veksian later provided a memory enogram. At that moment, the Church declared Richard Darrell a criminal and an [Apostle] of one of the evil gods, placing a price on his head that could have bought the County. The same reward was put on the damned."

  Dylan, like the others, listened to Cullen with great shock. It was known that all the intelligent races and even each of the three pillars, [Mythic] ranks, publicly stated that Veksian was the strongest, practically invincible.

  And yet he lost to the bard. Damn it, how is that possible?!

  While everyone was deep in thought, Cullen continued.

  "The Church hasn't given many answers about what happened. But I'll venture to guess that this young girl might be a Reincarnator. Or rather, we should assume so. While she could be anyone with the [Polymorph] skill, I'm sticking to the idea that she's either a Reincarnator or someone who attained a [Legendary] skill at a young age."

  Cullen stopped talking, and there was silence at the table. Everyone was thinking about something as they read the next report. Dylan in particular was thinking about everything.

  While he couldn't even comprehend the power of a [Special] rank curse, it was in the highest danger category. Which put him far above Green, the troll he met in the forest. He was at the lowest level of that rank and was still incredibly dangerous.

  Reading how the battle went from the words of the [Special] rank survivors and fortune tellers, Dylan did not understand even a small part of their decisions. He was of course interested in their weapons and strategies, but he did not yet know how strong it was and what he could compare it to. Especially the report on the battle of Richard and Veksian, it was far beyond his level, he did not understand any of their magic.

  But as for the reincarnator, Dylan thought about it. He decided to assume that she was one of them, but what would that mean to him? A mass murderer who had wiped out a city, damned. He didn't know what to think about it. On the one hand, she had done something unforgivable, but at the same time, she was one of them.

  This is too hard.

  During his time at the academy, Dylan realized that he had become very attached to each of the Reincarnators. They were not better or kinder than the people in this world, but their mentality was the same as his. They did not submit to the system of nobility, did not admire the church, questioned the current moral standards. Slavery was also a rotten thing that needed to be cut out with extreme prejudice and everyone agreed with this. The shards were his like-minded people, of course he liked some more, some less, but he could not deny that each of them was his friend, on whom he could rely.

  It made him think that he valued them too much, perhaps irrationally. Because he did. And he didn't know what to do about it, or did he want to do anything about it? Dylan found himself thinking that he should again rethink his life's path.