13 New Companion?

Standing over a now unconscious Liang, Xing breathed a sigh of relief; he would not lose his third life this day, and Lei would not be sexually assaulted either.

His gaze shifted from the downed man toward the tiny creature that saved both his, and his cousin's lives, 'That was seriously close, if this thing, whatever it is, didn't show up, it would have all been over.'

'I've never heard of a snake that can manipulate shadow before, no- I've never heard of anything having a similar element as me. Is that perhaps the reason why it saved me?'

Giving the creature a closer inspection Xing could tell that it was a snake covered in pitch-black scales, and it was currently staring at him with golden snake-eyes in what appeared to be anticipation.

'What is with that look? Whatever it doesn't seem hostile, should be fine to take care of other things first.'

Xing signed again as he returned his gaze to Liang, 'What should I do with him? He was planning on killing me, so I should do the same to him, but do I really want to kill a human?'

A quarrel between personalities was raging within Xings' mind, the clash was constant, but right now it was more intense than usual. On one side his average university student personality, which had stayed with him during reincarnation, was telling him that upon killing a human there was no turning back. And the other side was the stoic personality tied to his soul, which had stuck with it over who knows how many alternate lives. It was declaring that the man cannot live since he had humiliated Xing, and that was intolerable.

He knew that if he gave into the souls desires now, his ordinary personality would merge with the overarching one, and forever change him.

'There is a simple solution to this, I just walk away and leave his life up to fate. This way I don't need to kill him personally, and since he is bleeding out from his missing family jewels, he will most likely die from blood loss- fulfilling both sides.'

Accepting this warped logic, Xing took some form of middle-ground in the battle between personalities.

'Live or die, he definitely won't be able to win the competition, or even come within the top 3, maybe he won't even pass the trial. That will be the payback he receives for the humiliation.'

Xing reached down and ruffled through Liang's pockets, taking every single monster-core he could find, before he walked over to the warrior lackey, doing the same to him.

Throughout the looting the little snake followed behind Xing, he noticed the critter staring at each core with hunger, the anticipation in its eyes growing. Taking one of the average-sized cores Xing dropped it to the ground in front of the snake.

"Here you go little fellow, thanks for saving me and my cousin." Xing thanked the snake.

Upon the core touching the ground, the snake sprang out toward it, gobbling the round sphere whole, vanishing the moment it entered the snake's dark jaws like they were the entrance into a black hole which devoured all creation.

Delight replaced the anticipation in its eyes, while a blissful hiss came out of its jaws, resembling what one would expect from a house cat- not an apex predator.

Xing did not know if he should be baffled by the snake's behavior, so he just turned away and started picking up his dropped equipment as-well-as Lei's spear, before he made his way over to where she was lying.

Strapping both parties gear onto his back he reached down and hoisted Lei into his arms in a princess carry.

'Time to leave, the smell of blood will bring countless creatures here. And if there are any other participants around, they may want to investigate the explosion.'

After Xing had walked a few hundred meters away he noticed that the little black snake was following him. He turned toward the snake and said, "Hey, thanks for saving us but we are fine now, you can go off into the wild."

The snake just stared at him with its beady golden eyes, "Who am I talking to? Your just a monster, you can't understand me," Xing rotated on the spot, facing his original direction, "Follow if you want."

Little did Xing know that he was both right and wrong. Right in the fact that the little black snake could not understand the language Xing was using. Yet wrong due to the fact that it was not an ordinary beast, but a Mythical-Beast which had human-like intelligence and would gain the ability to morph into a human in the future. Thus the snake could- and was learning the language of Xing, albeit slowly, while for now, it could understand the body-language being used.

***

After a few hours of trudging through the jungle carrying Lei, Xing decided to stop and set up camp for the night. He was starting to feel exhausted and Lei should wake up soon, so it was the best decision. There was also the fact that the surroundings were getting darker and darker, as evidenced by the sharp increase in the number of shadows.

Xing had luckily stumbled across a fallen tree-trunk, which had toppled over and was hollow inside, "What an excellent place to camp for the night."

Leaning Lei up against the wall of the log, Xing started on setting up and lighting a campfire. When he had finished with everything he sat down opposite Lei to relax. He spotted the little black snake popping up out of the shadows and sliding across the ground toward him, stopping right in front of him.

Man and snake stared into each other eyes for a second, before the snake began using its tail to carve something into the dirt. A large profound symbol quickly made its appearance known, followed by more, combing to make an extensive network of linking patterns.

This was unmistakably a Spell-Model, and one so unfathomable that Xing didn't have any clue as to what it was, he wouldn't even know where to begin trying to decipher it.

When the snake had finished, the completed design felt like it had come alive and gave off an ancient and profound aura. Even though it was carved in the dirt on the forest floor, it looked majestic.

The snake waved its tail in Xing's line-of-sight to catch his attention, before slapping its tail onto the diagram, then pointing the tip at Xing.

"What? You want me to cast this spell or something?" Xing looked at the snake confused.

Responding, the snake repeated its previous actions trying to make it clear to Xing, it obviously wanted Xing to use the spell-model it had carved.

Xing was conflicted, however, 'Can I really trust this little thing? Sure it saved both me and Lei, but this is way beyond me. I have no idea what this spell could possibly do, the letters and symbols within look like they could be some ancient language straight out of fantasy, like some dragon language or something. Just how does this snake even know how to carve this?'

Repeating its actions for the third time, the snake made it even clearer that it would not give up until Xing used the spell.

"Haaah," he sighed, "Fine, I'll place my life in your hands."

Over the next hour Xing carefully and meticulously replicated the Spell-Model, realizing that this was a very high-tiered spell, yet strangely it did not require any mana at all. Yet even though he figured this out, he still had no idea just what the spell would do.

It took yet another hour to pass-by before Xing had completed the spell. Staring at the snake, "Well, here goes nothing, if I die you can eat me, but leave Lei alone."

With a sigh, Xing activated the spell which had taken him slightly over 2 hours to construct. Suddenly a flash of light lit up the insides of the fallen tree-trunk, originating from Xing himself. Not affected by the blinding light, Xing was able to feel the light and he somehow knew that the light was not coming from his body- but his soul.

The snake released a happy hiss at the accomplishment, leaping into the light which was now hovering before Xing.

Both man and snake were bathing in the bright and harmless light when Xing started feeling a connection developing between them. It was then he started hearing a voice. The voice was that of a little girl who still had trouble speaking full sentences due to the link being unstable.

[Can- you- hear- me-?] The voice sounded out within his mind like it were his own thoughts.

Xing didn't know how to speak back to the voice using the same method, but he assumed that the voice belonged to the little black snake, so he looked into its eyes replying, "Is that you speaking little snake?"

[Ye- ssss]

"So that spell was just a way for us to communicate? ...Why was it so complicated then?"

[It- came- from my- inherited- memories- and is used to form- soul contracts-] The snake's sentences were starting to sound complete as the connection stabilized.

"Soul contract huh. So you're like my pet now or something?"

[Companion.] A pouting voice echoed within Xings' mind.

"Hehe," Xing chuckled, "I can see some human emotions from you, it's quite surprising that your female as-well. Do you have a name?"

[No name. And I'm a Mythical-Beast so I'm the most human-like monster, eventually, I'll be able to shape-shift into a human form.]

"Mythical-Beast? That's the first time I'm hearing about something like that. I've heard of special monsters that can evolve and rank-up but never one that can take human form."

[There are not many of them and unless you catch them shape-shifting you'd never know they weren't who they appear to be. There is no way weak humans would be able to know.]

"And you just formed a soul contract with a so-called weak human."

[My instinct tells me you're not a normal human, hence why I saved you and formed a contract.]

"Haaah, your right, I'm certainly not normal," Xing sighed, "But enough about that, do you want me to name you? I've got the perfect name for a little black snake like you."

[Yes, name me.]

"Alright, from this day forward you will be called Umbra! So how do you like it?"

[Umbra- Umbra- what does it mean?]

"It means shadow."

[Hmm... I like it, from now on my name is Umbra!] The snake twisted happily on the ground like a real little girl, getting dirt all over its pitch-black scales.

***

| ~2000 B.C. | ??? | ??? | ??? |

Unknown to the new companions, a similar scene was playing out on a chain of islands to the east. At the center of an inhospitable jungle stood a mound, similar to Umbra's. The hillock was glowing in a passive light which kept away all life.

Beholding this scene was a female humanoid figure with long golden blonde hair draped over her shoulders, running down her back halting just passed her waist. Looking from behind you would almost mistakenly assume the woman was human, except she was not, as two pointy tips pocked out from under her hair where her ears should be.

In front of the woman was a snake covered in moonlight-white armored scales. Golden eyes gleamed up at the woman, the pair looking like they were communicating through eyesight.

"From this day forward your name shall be Lumen."