Enter the shadow dungeon

The king was staring at the flowers behind Jenny once more. He was admiring their beauty, but he was also thinking of the situation that Jenny mentioned. He indeed took her in, even while she was powerless. Even tho she was only eight years old, her intelligence was higher than most scholars. So he decided she would make a perfect maid for his daughter.

"You saw my potential? Or maybe so I could help princess Margarita with her studies after she began going to school?" she questioned king. Even tho she was grateful, she could never ask this before.

"It's to make you perfect subordinate for myself, not for my daughter, but me. You were thought to see into the future of the kingdom. And what you said did make sense, but do you know what's the problem with your plan?" king questioned again. He was angry that after all education she went through, she couldn't seem to figure out why her plan was stupid. But, he still felt joy that Jenny was thinking about his daughter's safety and happiness. However, he did not show it.

Jenny took a moment to think about it and realized.

"It's his rank S talent… Even without a teacher, he can learn it almost instantly as long as he sees the spell!" She now realized that trying to stop him from learning may end up even a greater catastrophe due to him feeling a grudge toward the kingdom.

"Indeed. Even if we would try to imprison him, we would need at least an S-ranked magician or mutants. Our kingdom only has four of those. And even then, there might be casualties. Let's say, Thomas ends up fighting them, he already has an advantage of legendary tier body. He can easily survive most of the spells that are legend or lower tier. And even worse, after he sees the spell, he will probably be able to copy it as long as he has that type of energy within his body."

Jenny understood now that it was impossible to cage a person without him retaliating against the kingdom. News has also spread to other domains already. For a person like Thomas, they wouldn't mind starting a war if they found out he was imprisoned. She began blushing out of embarrassment after realizing her stupidity. How could she even suggest such a thing? If the king decided to agree on this, it would mean the destruction of the kingdom itself.

King stood up and picked a cigarette out of his pocket. He lights it up using fire magic and slowly blows out the smoke. "Instead of restricting him, we need to show the benefits of being a royalty instead. In case he is, in fact, a dangerous person, we can always get help from other kingdoms to stop him. If a person decides to end a domain, other kings won't stand still out of fear that the same will happen to them.

"So what will you suggest my liege?" Jenny asked.

"As I said before. We will invite him to the castle. We will show him the benefits of being in a royal family. I am pretty sure he will be excited!" The king chuckled.

"But my lord, what if he already has a lover?" Jenny was curious.

"In that case, she will also join a royal family, haha! It's not uncommon for a nobleman to be married to more than one woman! I was the only black sheep among the kings that only married one woman. " the king became excited while thinking about Margarita. He was sure that no one would ever harm her with a man like Thomas.

"But.. How… are you going to convince princess Margarita? You know her attitude." Jenny was again curious.

"We will let it go with a flow. I won't force either to marry if they don't agree with that. But, as I said, I will give Thomas a chance to live in a castle as royalty and in time, maybe they will fall in love. Who knows?" the thought about this put a smile on the king's face.

Meanwhile,

After the studies with Gray, Thomas got a call from Johnson. He invited him to have tea with him and his daughter. Thomas had to refuse because his System was moments to finish the update. Thomas asked him if he was free on Monday evening.

[System updating 00:00:02]

[System update finished]

And what now? Thomas was curious about what kind of new features it will have.

[System will now allow the Host to go on a quest to get new abilities]

Can't I learn them from other people?

[No, these abilities are demon kind's abilities.]

So, what do I have to do? And what kind of ability can you give me now?

[Ability - Evil spirit form.]

What does it do?

[It will allow you to dematerialize your body and move as an Evil spirit]

[It will also make you immune to physical attacks ]

[And you will be able to move through solid objects]

Well, let's do this! What do I have to do?

[System asks for permission to begin the quest]

[Yes/No]

Huh? Again with permission? Well, let's do this!

[The System will transfer the Host into a shadow dungeon in 3..2…]

WHAT?

[1…]

White light blinded Thomas, he closed his eyes, but the light still went through his eyelids. When the light was gone, Thomas slowly opened his eyes. "What? Where in the world am I?"

Thomas found himself surrounded by large trees. And even tho it was still far from the evening, the sky seemed to be pitch black. If not for Thomas's demonic eyesight, he would have been entirely blind. A few moments later, he heard someone breaking the tree branches.

The System, where am I?

[System is unavailable during shadow dungeon quest]

Then he heard a roar. When he turned back, he saw an enormous mutated bear. "So, I have to fight these, huh?"

Thomas created a fireball, but then he changed his mind. He realized that if he used this in the forest, he might set the forest on fire due to his lack of control of energy. He absorbed the fireball back into his palm and created an ice spear. "This should be enough."

He threw the spear, and it pierced a bear's head. "This is pretty easy!"

Thomas walked around and met up with many creatures. Mutated wolves, mutated rabbits, mutated bears. A few hours later, he came into something unexpected. It was a village, and it was on fire. Women and girls were screaming. Soon Thomas saw something that completely horrified him. "What is this…."

When he came into the village, he saw hundreds of dead men's bodies. Monster tore all of them to pieces. For some reason, whoever, or should he say whatever did this, it left the women and girls alive. When he walked around, a woman ran to him.

"Young man, you must hide. Whatever that is, he is targeting men. Even… *sob* even my six-year-old baby boy was killed by it," the woman cried. She sincerely tried to help at least one man to survive this massacre.

"I suppose you don't know what that is… Do you?" Thomas asked that woman. Soon he felt shivers down his spine and an immense sense of danger that he hadn't felt ever since he had reincarnated as Thomas. He soon heard houses being destroyed, so he ran into the place to see what was happening.

"No, young man. Stay away from there," the woman begged him. And Thomas realized something. How the hell is this a dungeon? These people here are real!!! Thomas's demonic sense felt the souls in those women. He realized he wanted to save as many people as he could! But when he came to the source of all this destruction, Thomas was left horrified. All his senses were telling him to run, but all he could do was stand there and tremble. He once again heard a terrifying roar, and it was not a normal roar. It echoed and created small earthquakes that destroyed many of the village's houses.

"Oh… My… God…" Thomas stared into the creature. He wanted to run, but he couldn't. Out of shock at what Thomas saw, he was frozen in fear. He was staring at the evil spirit, a catlike creature. He was staring at his past self!