The system screen flickered in front of my eyes.
[Class: Shadow]
[Rank 0 → Rank 1]
[Skills]:
Shadow Summon (Level 10 – Max): Allows user to summon their own shadow. The summoned shadow’s size and traits depend on its strength.
Shadow Eater (Level 1 – New): Allow the shadow summon to absorb a portion of another being’s shadow. Affects stats. 10% of absorbed shadow’s stats will be permanently shared with the user.
Shadow Gaze (Level 1 – New): Grants the ability to see the shadows of all beings.
Shadow Assimilation (Level 1 – New): Temporarily merges the user with their summoned shadow. User’s presence is greatly diminished, becoming undetectable. In this state, the user may enter shadows and move through them. 100% stats of the shadow are shared while this skill is in use.
...
I stared at the list for a moment. Then I grinned.
Finally, my class looked somewhat respectable.
Ever since I awakened my system, I’d been waiting for this.
"Let’s try the skills," I murmured.
I activated Shadow Assimilation.
My body froze.
Cold rushed over me like a bucket of icy water had been poured straight into my blood.
My heartbeat slowed, my breath thinned. The light dimmed, as though someone had turned down the brightness on the world itself.
I looked at my hand.
It was no longer made of flesh.
The outline remained—my fingers, the lines of my palm—but it all looked hazy.
Wisps of black smoke clung to shape, forming the suggestion of a hand more than the real thing.
I took a slow step forward, toward the edge of the balcony, and pressed my palm to the concrete rail.
My hand went through it at first, but then I focused, and it solidified just enough to feel the rough texture.
Through the rails, I could see the garden.
But it now looked different to me.
The shadows beneath the flowers were different. They were deeper, sharper in shape, and almost alive in the way they move.
"Shadow Gaze is working perfectly."
"Now, it’s time to test the actual functions of Shadow Assimilation."
I focused again.
My body sank fully into the floor.
The sensation was instant.
The room vanished, replaced by a dull, ambient darkness.
It wasn’t pitch-black, but dim and heavy like fog at dusk.
My senses transformed.
My limbs didn’t feel like limbs anymore, but like jellies.
It was a fascinating — or horrifying sensation, depending on how you saw it.
I glanced down.
My entire form—clothes, skin, hair—had dissolved into some hybrid between mist and shadow.
I had lost the colors, and the finer details of my body had disappeared as soon as I entered the shadow.
In this strange space that I called Shadow Path, I could move easily.
This place had no noise.
It had no gravity, and no resistance to movement.
I surged forward and slipped beneath the shadows cast by the furniture, then flowed toward the corner of the room.
The balcony door wasn’t even a barrier.
I slid under the gap, emerged onto the balcony, and continued moving.
As long as the actual shadows were within ten meters of each other, I could travel between them.
That distance would increase as my skill leveled up.
"I’ve missed this feeling." I grinned.
I kept moving.
From one shadow to the next.
Street to street.
Alley to alley.
Eventually, I came to a stop atop a tall building.
The city stretched beneath me.
Lights blinked. Cars passed. People laughed and moved about their lives, blind to what moved just above and below them.
I crouched at the edge of the rooftop and watched.
"Let’s test more."
With Shadow Gaze, I could see a black fire flickering in every person’s shadow.
That was their Shadow Essence.
"Shadow Summon. Come out, and devour those Shadow Essences."
The Shadow detached from me.
It slithered toward the edge, dropped into the alley below, and moved along the base of a building.
Nobody noticed.
That was the beauty of it.
My shadow could move through other shadows.
As long as it stayed low and quiet, nobody would suspect a thing. It glided across the sidewalk and reached a woman waiting at a bus stop.
Her shadow twitched, but she didn’t feel it.
My shadow reached out, and consumed its Shadow Essence.
A notification popped up.
[+0.1 Strength]
"Yes!" I clenched my fist.
It wasn’t much. But that was normal. These were just civilians.
What mattered was the skill worked.
My shadow could gain stats by devouring Shadow Essence.
More importantly, Shadow Essence regenerated daily.
If I could come back to the same people again and again, I had a renewable supply of stats.
Unlimited, technically.
Of course, I’d get better returns from supernaturals.
Their shadows would hold more Shadow Essence.
But finding Supernaturals was hard, especially when I could only move out during the night.
"With this, I don’t need to worry about my stats."
Most people went through dozens of classes just to squeeze out a few stat points, and hopefully max out their stats for their rank.
"Maxing out stats from Rank 1 gives Titles. Everyone wanted to get those Titles."
But that had long-term consequences.
When you reached higher ranks, you needed to merge classes. And weak or undeveloped classes would drag the entire result down.
That was why so many high-rankers got stuck. They had too many garbage classes muddying their potential.
But I didn’t need that.
I could get my stats another way.
By feeding on shadows.
For the next hour, I kept harvesting Shadow Essence.
My summoned shadow moved from person to person, nibbling at the essence. I kept count.
I called my shadow back after I was done.
It slithered up the side of the building and merged with my own.
Then I checked its stats.
...
Shadow Summon
Stats:
Strength: 0 → 3
Dexterity: 0
Endurance: 0
Spirit: 0
...
"It finally has strength stats."
I gave it a test.
"Pick up that pipe," I said, pointing to a rusted metal pipe lying near the rooftop’s edge.
My shadow moved, wrapped its hand around the pipe, and lifted it up.
It wobbled slightly, but that was expected. It had zero Endurance.
More importantly, my Shadow picked up the pipe.
It could touch objects!
I grinned.
With Strength increased, it could now interact with the world.
It could carry, push, and even fight if needed.
That opened a lot of possibilities.
Satisfied, I slipped back into Shadow Assimilation and moved through the streets once more. No one noticed the faint black streak gliding from building to building.
Eventually, I returned home.
The lights were still off.
I deactivated the Shadow Assimilation skill and stood in the darkened room.
There was still a lot to do. Shadow had ranked up, but that was just one task I had for today.
"I need to start preparing alchemy materials. If I want to evolve my race into a High Human, I can’t afford to slack now."
The race I was aiming for—High Human—was rare.
It had incredible adaptability, and, more importantly, it opened up the path to countless future evolutions.
"Without becoming a High Human, I can’t awaken Aura, even if I get my hands on a warrior-type Class."
Not all Classes were compatible.
A Rank 1 human could usually only operate with either a Mana-based Class or an Aura-based Class.