I didn’t rush out of the house.
There was always the chance that the guards or my parents might check my room in the middle of the night.
If they walked in and didn’t find me, things could get complicated fast.
I raised my hand and chanted a Spell.
"—Silent Bind: Veil Layer."
A soft shimmer passed through the air, invisible to the eye.
The spell created a thin layer of spatial sensory magic over the door and windows.
If anyone entered or even got too close, I would be alerted instantly.
Once triggered, I could teleport straight into the bathroom, and pretend I had been here all along.
"The Spell is working perfectly. The only problem is the mana leaking from the Spell. It won’t do me good if someone enters the room and senses the mana."
Mana traces always remained near the Spell.
Most wouldn’t notice it, but Nisha was quite exceptional.
"I’ll set up a Rune to deal with the residual mana from the Spell."
Biting the tip of my finger, I drew a quick symbol onto the wooden side of the bedpost.
My blood formed a thin pattern, glowing faintly for a moment before fading into the surface.
[Absorption Rune: Null Drift]
The rune activated immediately, pulling in the leftover mana from the Spell I had used.
It would store everything inside itself. Nothing would be traceable.
Once I was satisfied, I stood up, and created a portal.
I entered it.
The next moment, I appeared deep in the jungle.
Tall trees loomed above, their branches swaying faintly in the wind.
Crickets chirped in the background, and the distant sound of a bird’s call echoed through the air.
The night was peaceful here, far from the noise of the city.
I checked the time again.
10:30 p.m.
There were still several hours before the alchemy materials I ordered from the Underworld would be delivered.
Without them, I couldn’t begin preparations to stop Elira’s summoning, so I had some time to kill.
"The delivery should come at around 2 a.m. I should collect stats with Shadow Eater until then."
I stepped into a nearby shadow and activated one of my signature abilities.
"Shadow Assimilation."
The moment I activated the skill, cold tendrils wrapped around my body like a second skin.
I sank deeper, until only the top half of my body remained visible above the ground.
Then, I let the darkness take me completely and emerged near the edge of the city, where the streets were still alive.
Even at this hour, the city didn’t sleep.
I moved into the shadow of a lamp post and paused.
From there, I could sense dozens of people walking nearby—couples, delivery bikers, drunks leaving bars.
Each of them cast shadows that flickered under the streetlights.
In every one of those shadows, a small black fire burned.
It was their Shadow Essence.
I focused on a nearby couple walking past a convenience store and slipped into their shadows.
The moment I entered, I felt the flicker of Shadow Essence writhing. It tried to resist me, but it was no match.
I devoured it.
+0.1 Strength
+0.2 Strength
As soon as I absorbed their Shadow Essence, I moved to the next.
A man exiting a 24-hour pharmacy. +0.1 Strength
A woman checking her reflection in a boutique window. +0.1 Strength
A food delivery driver waiting by his scooter. +0.1 Endurance
I weaved between them all, consuming their Shadow Essence piece by piece.
My shadow flared with every new trace I added, slowly growing thicker, darker, and more solid.
Thanks to the stats, my Shadow Summon’s shaped was changing.
Earlier it mirrored me, a three-year-old.
But by the end of the four hours, it looked like a seven-year-old.
I opened my palm and summoned the interface.
...
Shadow Summon
Stats:
Strength: 3 → 6
Dexterity: 0
Endurance: 0 → 2
Spirit: 0
...
"It gained two stats in Endurance and three stats in Strength. Nice."
Endurance was harder to increase than strength.
With two Endurance stat, my shadow summon would no longer evaporate from just one attack.
A notification appeared in front of my eyes.
Shadow Eater: Level 1 → Level 2
A faint smile appeared on my face.
I brought up my own status window next.
...
Name: !@%!@$1
Rank 1
...
Species: Human [Rank 1]
...
Stats:
Strength: 13 (+0.3) → 13 (+0.6) → 13 (+1.2)
Dexterity: 23
Endurance: 13 → 13 (+0.2) → 13 (+0.4)
Intelligence: 127
Spirit: 29
...
The numbers in brackets showed the stats gained from my Shadow Summon.
Since the Shadow Summon was technically classified as an external equipment, those gains were in brackets.
Now that Shadow Eater was level two, I could share 20% of its stats instead of 10%.
Before I would have gained 0.6 Strength and 0.2 Endurance.
But now I received 1.2 Strength, and 0.4 Endurance.
It was a 100% increase.
Not bad at all.
I looked up again. The moon was higher now.
Time?
Almost two after the midnight.
’The delivery should be arriving anytime now.’
I opened a thin portal—just a slit—right in front of my left eye.
Its exit was placed in the sky above the neighboring city.
Using my Hollow Eyes, I could everything on the ground through the portal clearly. The distance was no problem for my vision.
There he was.
The courier stood at the edge of an empty street near an industrial zone.
No one else was around.
I created another portal in front of him and opened its exit portal that led to a remote clearing in the forest, far from my current position.
The courier blinked at the sudden appearance of the portal in the air, but he didn’t panic.
He had seen it last time. He understood what he had to do.
The courier began unloading the containers—each one neatly labeled and sealed—into the portal.
Some had arcane symbols scrawled on them.
Most were wrapped in suppression cloth.
They were my precious alchemy materials.
Once the last box was pushed through, I closed the second set of portals.
Then I opened a smaller one next to the courier’s ear and spoke through it in a heavy voice.
"You can leave. I’ll approve the delivery confirmation later."