Chapter 36: I am the shadow monarch
Levon took the initiative to ask another question.
"So does he also give out missions?" Levon said calmly.
The man immediately turned and shot Levon a sharp look.
Levon went quiet.
"Yes he does. Which reaper doesn’t?" the figure said as they approached the shop.
"Hello, Mr. Reaper. I have obtained my shadow crystal and I would like to exchange it for a shadow shade," the figure said the moment they arrived at the shop window.
"Well then, let me have it. Your luck must have been very high these past few weeks. Just keep working hard and maybe you will gather enough shades," the figure inside said as he collected the crystal.
The figure in the shop differed from the one outside in several ways. Firstly, the shadow inside had a long whitish hair that was noticeably lighter than everything around it, whereas the other man had no hair at all.
"What can I say, I guess I really have just been lucky," the figure outside said calmly, clearly pleased with how the exchange was going.
"Well, just remember you haven’t completed the mission I gave you. That mission is worth 3 soul shades, and if you fail to complete it before the deadline I will be forced to take those soul shades back from you," the reaper said, his voice carrying no particular malice.
"Yes, I know. I promise to complete it as soon as I possibly can," the man said, his head lowered slightly in a show of respect.
Only after seeing the man’s sincerity did the soul reaper ease up and hand over a freshly produced soul shade.
"Thank you very much," the figure said as he immediately sprinted away, as though the reaper might call him back at any moment and demand it returned.
Levon watched the retreating figure for a moment before stepping up to the shop himself.
"Well, good day, young man. I am guessing you are new here, given the confusion on your face. Or have you been living in another part of the shadow world?" the reaper asked with a note of concern.
Souls appearing in different parts of the shadow world was not an unusual occurrence. Time and space behaved in entirely different ways here compared to both the underworld and the world of the living.
Levon thought for a moment and decided to go with being new.
"I am new here and I am honestly not sure what I am supposed to do," Levon said calmly, glancing around to reinforce the point.
The reaper studied him.
"What do you already know, what don’t you know, and what do you want to know?" he asked directly, as though he had other matters waiting for him.
"Well, I just want to understand how I ended up here," Levon said in a confused tone.
He needed to understand what determined whether a soul ended up in the underworld or in the shadow world. If he could figure out the deciding factor, he would know how to feed shadows of creatures directly to his sword.
Based on his current understanding, if a creature was destined for the underworld there would be no shadow to feed the sword with. Though the sword primarily fed on shadow crystals, he still wanted to have every possible option available to him.
"It is quite simple. When a human is killed, if their mental force is damaged they go to the shadow verse. If their life force is damaged, they go to the underworld," the man said calmly, before going on to explain other things Levon had already been told by the other figure outside.
"But surely death can happen through being stabbed or through an accident. And how can someone die and still have life force? Are you saying that shadows carry life force?" Levon pressed on with his questions.
If shadows did carry life force, then everything surrounding his sword suddenly made a lot more sense, including why it needed shadow crystals or actual shadows to sustain itself.
"Yes, shadows do have life force. And as for your first question, it depends on how the individual lived their life, whether they were at peace with it, and a great many other factors down to the specific cause of death. But those are not things we need to go into right now. Once you reach a certain level you will come to understand all of it," the reaper said, then took a brief pause.
"So would you like to proceed with registration so I can begin assigning you missions to help you level up, as I mentioned?" the reaper asked, his patience wearing slightly thin with the direction of the conversation.
"Yes, I would like a mission," Levon said simply.
"Very well. Place your hand on this stone so I can assess how far your mental force has deteriorated and assign you missions that are appropriate and survivable for your current level," the man said, producing what appeared to be a tombstone, flat and wide with grooves carved into it to allow for comfortable hand placement.
Levon immediately placed his hands on the stone without any hesitation.
The moment his hands made contact, it shimmered with a light brown glow, and after about three seconds the reaper told him to remove them.
But the moment the reaper read the result his eyes went wide with shock.
’That’s not possible,’ the reaper muttered internally as he ran the procedure again from the beginning.
But to his shock, it gave him the exact same result.
"Is something wrong?" Levon asked, noticing the unsettled look in his eyes.
"No, there is no problem. I think the mechanics of this stone may be faulty. Let me try another one," the reaper said, reaching out to grab a different large mental stone.
But almost immediately after Levon placed his hands on the new stone, it produced the same result once again.
A cold sweat ran down the reaper’s face as he looked at Levon with something between disbelief and genuine fear.
Even he himself did not have a hundred percent mental energy intact.
"Who are you? Who exactly are you?" the reaper managed to get the words out, though his voice carried a slight tremor.
"I am the Shadow Monarch."
