"Why didn't you tell me before?!" Norman was furious and frustrated. "We are already in such a critical situation! Why are you hiding info from me like this?! Are you sure you're a proper system?"
"You're blind to not see this information in bold letters yourself in the description section of the skill when you had made a purchase," Shane's voice was cold as he spoke in Norman's mind, "You're a grown-up, so act like one!"
Norman pursed his lips as he said nothing after this. He rushed toward the tunnel's center as the ground trembled more and more. A layer of cold sweat formed on his forehead. Even his back was soaked with it as he continued to rush inside.
Then, a faint roar echoed in the background. With the roar, it seemed that the voice carried a hint of darkness floating in the air. Norman's steps paused for a moment as traces of fear filled his bones. Since he was a lower-level half-monster already, fear of powerful ones automatically appeared in his body.
He trembled, "I-I can't go."
Even though Shane hadn't turned on the senses-sharing element, he could tell what was going on. The powerful monsters must have overwhelmed the host to the point of trembling. He pursed his lips as he took a deep breath, "Do you want me to control your body and do it for you?"
Norman's lower lips trembled as he stared in that direction. After thinking for a while, he finally stood up while leaning against the wall as he shook his head, "No, I'm a man. I can do this."
"Suit yourself," Shane didn't say anything about it again. He thought for a while and turned on the sharing system for a while temporarily. This was a critical moment. So he needed to see whether his host was critically injured. If yes, he might have to take control of the body abruptly.
Soon enough, they came face to face with the monsters at the center of the cave filled with limestone columns, a river, and even stalagmites. There was also a spring and another tunnel on the other side of the sea of monsters.
Even the monsters were huge enough to look like the grandfathers of Norman's current monster body. He had to tilt his head to stare at the wolf-like bodies of those monsters. Their faces seemed to be of the wolves, but their bodies were that of a horse with a deer's hoofs.
Norman's eyes widened after seeing these strange creatures in front of his eyes. He took a deep breath to suppress fear in his heart and asked, "How do I use the skill?"
Shane opened the skill page as he glanced at the description and the random spell name he had written while filling out the form. He said, "Just utter the spell while imagining yourself using that power."
Norman pursed his lips as he closed his eyes and imagined himself using that power he muttered that spell under his breath. Soon after a while, a gush of power flooded inside his body, making his body tremble. Shane had already opened the stats page of his host as he kept an eye on the level and CE part.
It kept on increasing. He was amazed to see how easy it was to become powerful with the help of this skill. Since this skill was in the shop, even the people with the non-darkness attribute could use it temporarily. He just wondered what would happen if they would end up sucking darkness inside their bodies. Perhaps, the menu system would turn it into divine because his host's CE had also increased without hesitation despite having both divine and darkness as a combo.
Shane shrugged as he decided not to worry too much about it as he continued to stare at the scene in front of his eyes. Soon enough, the stats stopped increasing at level ten. It meant that this was probably Norman's limit to suck powers.
Soon after this, Norman's body fell to the ground, on his knees as the host's eyes went wide. He felt his body being flooded with energy so much that he wanted to jump around in happiness. He suddenly glanced at the monsters who seemed to be too tired and were lying on the ground with only a breath remaining.
He suddenly grew excited as he walked over and kicked the head of a monster, "So cool! I didn't know this skill was so powerful!"
Even Shane didn't know that this skill would do so much destruction. He wondered if he should remove it after this exam. It might end up creating havoc among other systems in the system world. He hesitated for a while before shaking his head.
No, he shouldn't do anything at the moment. If he removed it, it might create suspicion among the systems and they might end up pointing fingers at him. He didn't want to take any risks.
As he was busy thinking, Norman walked ahead and glanced around the tunnel. This was the place beside the river, filled with sparkling treasures. His eyes lit up. If it were a normal world, these things would be of value to him, but it wasn't. Norman sighed and shook his head.
He was about to ignore it all when he noticed a certain item of a strange shape shining brighter than the rest of the things available at that place. He walked closer as if his body was attracted to that piece of shining item. He crouched and picked it up.
The luster instantly went away, leaving only a broken wooden piece carved with strange circles looking like an unfinished, complex array. He frowned as he turned it around, but he couldn't find anything strange. He was about to place it back when he heard his system's voice, "Don't leave this behind. Place it in your inventory."
"Why? It's useless."
"I have a feeling it'll be useful," Shane didn't say anymore after this. His intuition said that his piece of wood was special. Even if he didn't rely on his intuition, this piece of wood had an array. It couldn't be a coincidence that it was hidden in such a place filled with powerful monsters.
He frowned as he said, "Let's get out of here. Those monsters ran away when you used that skill."
Norman nodded as he walked toward the tunnel from where he came. As he walked, he asked his system, "This body I'm in…. It should be powerful, right? Otherwise, why would he sit on the throne? Then why was it that when I entered the body, the level was zero?"
"The level depends on individuals," Shane replied as he turned off the sense-sharing system, "Your soul is responsible for that, not the bodies. Bodies can be changed after reincarnating again and again, but the soul would remain the same, carrying on these levels and other aspects attached to the spirit body."
Norman seemed to have gained more information as he asked again, "Then why did you ask me to choose a powerful body?"
"Even though power wouldn't be the same, the status matters even in the monster world. It should have worked out well, but for some reason, it didn't…." Shane frowned when he realized this. Something was wrong here. Those monsters shouldn't have that much intelligence to find out about it.
It almost felt like a hidden hand was guiding these beings and even himself to act in a certain manner….
Shane's heart jolted. He remembered that demon he met in the dungeon and the case of hackers. It seemed they were all after his powers. So it could be that this time, the enemies hidden behind the scenes probably wanted to force him to come out and control Norman's body. Or perhaps, they wanted to see what was doing.
Since the enemies weren't attacking him directly, it could only mean one thing: they were collecting intell on his powers. Otherwise, would they stay silent? Demons were way more powerful than regular monsters, and they also had a human level of intelligence. Most humans would turn into demons while tilting toward demonic techniques.
So if they gathered together, they could manage to defeat him easily, but they didn't. Instead, they hid in the dark and collected intel like this!
Shane couldn't calm down he realized this. He almost felt like they were all staring at him through the livestreams, trying to see whether he figured out their plan or not.
He took a deep breath. He should control his emotions. If he managed to fool them, he might end up finding out more about these powers running through his veins.
By this time, they had already walked out of the cave. Norman sighed as he asked, "What should we do?"
Shane thought for a while and said, "Let's go to the nearest demon town. We might find something there."
"Okay, let's go."
Then, they embarked on the journey. What they didn't know was that Shane's thinking was spot-on. The demon who had appeared at the open ground in the hood was already staring at the livestream as he glanced at the window with Shane's skill as he snickered, "What a foolish guy! He actually shared his skill with others for the sake of the mission!"
He soon made a purchase and leaned back on the chair, "This young man is interesting. It'll be fun dealing with him."
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om