Shadow Realm (part 2)

Salem listened to Knight Heidon explain the discipline of the wraiths. Unless one was of higher position most of the wraiths would use each other's names or titles if you were the same rank or position you could ignore any requests unless a strategic asset of the wraiths was in danger.

If you ignored such a call and everything turned out fine then there would be no punishment, if the asset was lost or destroyed and someone of higher rank found out, you would face their judgment, most often the case was death.

It was unlikely anyone would pay attention to Salem until he became a knight, with the new information provided by Heidon, the system had told him there was an issue and would rectify any misunderstandings once he had returned to the land of the living.

Coming to the end of his explanation Heidon announced his departure, "Knight Heidon, I know I have no right to ask, but I would be eternally grateful if you would grant me knowledge of any magic you might be able to spare." Salem stopped and bowed to the knight of his own will.

"I don't have much in the ways of magical tomes, but I did find a journal on a desolate world, it may be of use to you but I have tried to sell it before and no one could read it. It would be useless to hold onto it so I don't mind gifting it to you, but if you find its worth I hope you can repay me with favor in the future, deal?"

"Deal!" Salem agreed and bowed again, Heidon passed him two books, one on knowledge of how wraiths advance more quickly, while the other was a tiny black book the size of his palm, even the pages were black.

Heidon left right after he passed the books over, disappearing in a blast of red light.

Taking a moment to soak in the display of power, he looked about the shadow realm or what he was told was just a port that knights could use to travel between worlds via the shadow realm, the true shadow realm would only be open to him if he was brought there by a knight or if he became one himself.

He turned and walked back along the road whenever he passed a guard he would motion for them to follow him back home. Arriving back where the road and his palace met he looked at the small boy who had only moved forward a few feet.

Salem now knew that the boy wasn't a Squire but a shade, along with his own personal guards. The undead he had turned would become shades themselves after decades of service and would be a strong fighting force for this small plane, but there would be a few knight class existences here as well.

For now, he would find out what the system needed, then he would explain the situation to his guards, he was very curious as to how the system had been so ill-informed.

His five commanders noticed the strange mood he was in and followed behind him, he walked up to the boy and put a hand on his shoulder, "Welcome to the wraiths," he told him with a warm smile on his face, the boy smiled back and Annah kissed the top of his head.

The heartwarming scene was witnessed by the others. Anticipation filled their hearts, they couldn't wait to guide their own apprentices to the road and watch them become like them. Salem let them talk with each other about the road and left with his five advisors, they reached his study and had servants bring them a meal.

Staring at the fire, surrounded by his most devout followers, he finally asked the system for an explanation. "Master Salem, it would appear I was severely damaged when you absorbed that first soul. There was a piece of energy lodged in it, and when you devoured it, the energy must have gone through you and destroyed parts of the system."

"The more surprising aspect would be that it did the damage undetected, the power to infiltrate and destroy key information would mean the energy would've had to come from something high above the knight class. I am just a tool to give information and a path to the wraiths of the shadow realm if a being of high enough power found my roots they could destroy me with ease."

A little shocked that the system was so weak and he had damaged it to such an extent that it hadn't even known something was wrong, he realized the system may not always be by his side. He had a large cache of points available and he was going to spend as much as he could so that the information the system had left wouldn't be at risk of being lost.

Formulating the plan was simple, buy as much as he could when he could, he asked the system how much would it cost to take the remaining knowledge it had stored. He didn't even respond when he heard the price, it was astronomically high it made his current points look like a child receiving a weekly allowance.

Now he would need to search the small plain for any information the system had no knowledge of that would reward him with points. He turned to the girls around him and he told them what he had learned, at first there was shock and dejection, though that didn't last long as he told them that they could become stronger and become Squires soon.

Though the path to becoming a knight would take a long time, they were elves and had near endless lives to study and gain power. By the end of the explanation, there was a fire in their eyes, their new goal was to become Knights and serve their master until the end of time, and if so willing go beyond knight class along with him.

Noticing the gleam in their eye, he kissed each one sweetly, he wouldn't be able to serve their other needs but he would give them sweet moments like this. The twins like always were friskier than the others but they stopped when Railia coughed to signal it was enough, surprisingly the Twins listened to her.

He smiled and told them he was proud of all three of them for moving past the incident when they first met, causing them to blush with embarrassment at the memory, he laughed aloud at the three bright red faces.

After that adorable scene, Salem thought now was a good time to start his plan.

"System begin purchasing all knowledge and skills available and prepare them to be moved to books and memory crystals. What can you do with these two books Knight Heidon passed onto me?" Salem thought to the system who had gone quiet during the explanation. He had not told his advisors about the system yet, a secret never spoken aloud could not be exposed easily.

"Right away master Salem, conversion and purchase will begin immediately, the two books will be scanned and integrated with the system and anything of use will be reported and placed into manuals to absorb at your leisure."

Thinking over the recent information Knight Heidon gave him, he pulled up his stats page to see if anything had changed.

Name:Salem Belegast

Class:<Squire>

Location:Country->??? City-> Minas Lusta mil Luna

CP: 8.000.000

Race: (High) Void Elf

Physique:Tier- 3 Stage-1

Agility:Tier- 3 Stage-1

Intelligence:Tier- 3 Stage-1

Wisdom:Tier- 3 Stage-4

<Abilities/Powers>

Devour- Absorb(T-3)

Mind- Alure(T-4), Mind Control(T-3)

Space- Short range teleport(T-3), Pocket Dimension(T-5)

Death- Raise Undead(T-4), Command Undead(T-4), Death Bolt(T-3) , Promote Undead (T-3)

Wraith-Wings-1

Wraith-Armor-4

Wraith-weapon-4

Wraith-Soul Brand-3

Wraith-SolarFlame-3

Wraith-Shadow Realm

<Forces>

Wraith <knights>:0 <Squires>:0 <Shades>:23

Wraiths:

Tier(1)- 37.000

Tier(2)- 5

Tier(3)- 0

Helh Rauku(Silver Demons):<Queens-1> <Spawn-0>

Skeletons: 0

Undead captains:0

His knights were no more, they had been classed as Shades, only a step higher than the near-mindless servants he had fighting on his behalf.

And so Salem continued to wait for any news from the system, a few more days before it was time to go and watch his mount be reborn from a monstrous insect to reaper of death.