As Amon muttered "Status Window,"

A translucent blue screen appeared in front of his eyes, floating in the air.

---

[Status Window]

Name: Amon Vale

Age: 17

Rank: Awakened

Class: Death Bearer

Element: Shadow, Darkness

Mana: 142

Strength: 40

Agility: 48

Speed: 45

Endurance: 26

Skills: [Basic Swordsmanship]

Spells: [Gloom Orb], [Shadow Clutch], [Mana Bullets], [Shadow Claw]

Abilities: [Death's Shadow]

---

"Ohhh! That's huge progress!" Amon yelled in excitement. Then his eyes fell on the new ability he got.

"Death's Shadow…" he muttered in a low voice. His body was trembling.

Not in fear or discomfort. Rather, he was excited. Too much.

He was one of the people who had awakened with a class, yet he had been unable to achieve any ability related to it.

Finally, he had done it. Finally, he had achieved it.

He closed the Status Window and sighed.

"Hah... hahahahaha!" He started to laugh crazily. He was happy — genuinely happy.

He had actually been thinking that accepting Arnold's request was a wrong decision. That he shouldn't have gone on that mission.

But now it was worth it. All the pain and suffering he had gone through were worth it.

Slowly, he stopped laughing and became silent.

Though the cost was heavy. So many people died. Amon knew that he didn't have anything to do with it.

It was never in his hands. Maybe things would have been different if he were stronger.

But alas, they were dead.

He felt pity and sympathy for them, but he wasn't that sad.

If there was something still on his mind, something that bothered him most,

It was Senior Vixra and Senior Jareth.

He closed his eyes. The scenes where they died came back — their last moments.

His beautiful senior's head rolling on the ground, his disciplined senior whose chest was pierced through by that black tentacle limb.

It all happened… to protect him.

To protect Amon, they lost their lives.

"Hah…"

He exhaled heavily, his expression now sad.

"Thank you, Senior Vixra and Senior Jareth. I am alive because of you two," he said in a low voice.

He sighed and got up from the bed.

"Alright, that's enough brooding. Now let's see what my ability can do."

He pushed those thoughts aside.

He was grateful to them for protecting him, but he didn't feel guilty about it. He was sad, but not guilty. He was just like that.

He stood up and observed his shadow.

"It looks darker." He hadn't noticed it before, but now he could see it.

His shadow had become darker, and the more he looked at it, the weirder he felt as if the shadow was looking back at him.

As if it was alive.

"Okay... don't overthink. Let's see what Death's Shadow can do... fuu."

He raised his palm and muttered,

"Death's Shadow."

Nothing happened.

"Aaargh... what should I do? Should I use mana? Should I move it toward my shadow?" he said to himself quietly.

He thought deeply.

'Let's focus on the shadow for now. No mana. Just think about the shadow.'

Amon closed his eyes. He calmed himself and tried to clear his mind.

He breathed calmly and steadily. His mind was clear now.

There was only one thing in his thoughts, his shadow.

The dark shape beneath his feet trembled.

A ripple flowed through his shadow like a wave on water.

Then it detached from his feet and started to move toward the nearby wall.

Amon felt as if something had separated from his body — like a part of him was gone, yet he could still feel it.

At that moment, Amon slowly opened his eyes.

And his eyes widened in disbelief.

"What in the seven hells is that?" His eyes locked onto the black liquid-like thing on the room's wall surface.

It was undeniably his shadow.

He looked down. There was nothing beneath his feet.

The place where a dark spot should have been — there was nothing now.

"Okay, let's try this." He tried to command the thing, making it move as he wished.

The shadow actually obeyed him.

It moved in circles over the wall's surface.

"Hehehe... it's fun~" Then he called it back.

The shadow came back under his legs.

"Can I use it to augment the strength of my weapon? Or maybe my body?"

As he tried, the shadow moved again like a ghostly black aura, creeping up his legs and slowly going to his hand, covering his fist.

His fist was now darker, leaving behind a ghostly black smoke. The shadow had covered his fist and strengthened it perfectly.

He watched it with fascination. He could see that his fist up to his forearm was coated in shadow.

'This is amazing! ...Now that I think about it, there was something that covered my sword's blade near the end of the fight, just before killing that abomination bitch.' He didn't remember it clearly, but there had really been something like that on his blade.

Now he was sure, it was his shadow. His dark eyes observed the shadow around his fist.

'The best thing is that it doesn't use any mana at all!' It was a true boost for Amon.

Someone who had such a small amount of mana, and was physically weak compared to his classmates,

Having this ability was a blessing.

Though there was one problem.

A bead of sweat flowed down his forehead.

"It needs damn focus to control. It'll take a lot of time to get used to it... also, my mind is becoming tired and heavy just by using it for a while..." He dismissed his shadow as it went back beneath him.

Now his mind and body felt light again.

'Well, it's perfect for someone like me... who's a little messed up in the head,' he thought with a grin.

It was creepy and wide.

"Heheheh!" He started to laugh.

His academy life was going to be fun now.

He was getting stronger.

Then a sudden thought came to him,

'Wait! I nearly forgot. I need to take the remaining money from Arnold, as per our deal. Also, I need extra charges for what I went through!'

Amon clenched his fist tightly.

"Arnold! You fucker!" he screamed in anger.

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