The Shadows Awaken

Chapter 2: Shadow & Alpha

I lay within the true darkness of the night where shadows do not reach. Where truthful light is a myth spoken of in whispers in fear of retribution of the lying void. True darkness, evil unimaginable to the mortal mind, comes from forbidden knowledge that I bargained for from... the Dark One? Ancient Beings? Unspeakable?

"Hey," I poked at a bandit who was on the ground, "I need your opinion on a name for this dark entity I'm writing about. And you're dead." I looked at the other dead bodies lying on the ground in this abandoned village hidden in the forest. "All of you are useless."

My name is Erix Kageno, currently age eight, and I am without a clever alias to go by or mysterious backstory. I've spent every waking moment of the night training and working on my persona. However, recently I've been collecting slimes for an experiment that crossed my mind.

Related to that, I was about to give into despair on account of the state of magic in this world. For the majority of cases where it is used, magic either provides enhancements to equipment or physically. All materials have a conductivity with magic, with iron being around ten percent and mithril being around fifty.

"Eh..."

This is where slimes come in. I have a theory that since they have a high mana conductivity, if I can refine them into a jelly, I'll be able to control their shape. Through their sacrifice as the weakest of monsters, I hope to use magic to another level! A slimy dangerous level!

"I have to... run..."

"Huh?" I titled my head back and looked at the man alive a few feet away. "You dare interrupt my internal monologue?" I walked forward, causing the bandit that was already fatally bleeding to weakly crawl away. "Tell me," I stabbed his right foot, "Are there anymore training dummies around here? Anymore of your friends? Doesn't matter. I'll find them." Removing my sword from him, and slicing him across the back, I stared at the moon. "For I am... Darkness? The Night? Ugh..."

I was about to head back home to sleep when a young female voice called out, "Excuse me..."

I turned to see a young girl with long blond hair step out from one of the buildings in a night gown. I expected her to be scared, on account of the dead bodies and blood splatters everywhere. Instead, her eyes gazed at me with wonder, as if she had witnessed the most beautiful artwork displayed before her.

"Who are you?"

"I..." Have no idea! I faced away from her, "Am the Knight of Nights."

"The Night of Knights?"

I feel like she said it wrong. Doesn't matter. I hate it. And in embarrassment, I decided to leave the girl there by herself. That's kind of heartless of me, but I'm sure she'll be fine and our encounter will be a distant and forgotten memory. Plus, I hope to never hear that name uttered again. Now to go home and sleep. Well, as much as I can sleep. Knowing my sister, like yesterday, she'll be waking me early.

Why would my sister do that? She thinks I need additional training which is what I wanted her to think so I had more chances to show off my 'mediocre' strength when compared to her. This training started when I picked up an interest in the local plant life and began to study farming. For a house of spellswords, that wasn't smiled upon and talks began in making Claire the heir. That all said, it wasn't as if I never learned anything from the training.

Not that anything notable comes to mind since most of it is low-level endurance training and form practice. However, I did throw in a few suggestions to show her I was paying attention. Like asking why she didn't focus on improving her control of magic if she couldn't increase the amount. That suggestion seemed to make her more wary of my act when it was meant to kept her busy with her own training.