The Shadow Blade (3)

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Name: Theodore Miller

Rank: F-

Strength: F

Agility: F

Stamina: G+

Perception: F-

Mana: G+

Charm: A+

Attribute (Element): Fire, Lighting

Profession Type: Assassin [Level 1]

Martial Arts: Shadow Blade [(S)-rank]

Shadow Blade [Level 1] ----- A martial art created by an unknown assassin, who used the power of darkness to kill his enemies and the stealth of shadow to hide himself. The art focuses on concealment, speed, and hitting vitals. There are 5 'known' signature moves of this art. As you practice it and understand the art more comprehensively, you will gradually be able to use the signature moves.

{Signature Moves}

First Move <Shadow Slash> [Level 1] --- Coats the blade with the shadow essence to increase the attack power as well as the attack speed of the user's slashes. Those who are harmed by shadow essence will have a hard time healing the wound.

{Passive Abilities}

<Might of The Werewolf> [Level 1(max.)] --- The user's senses and concealment are enhanced greatly in darkness or shadow.

Skills: None

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I sighed out of disappointment. I had been training for the last two days but...

"Haa..."

Even though I didn't expect much from 2 days of training, I was still disappointed as none of my stats improved. On top of that, I wasn't even able to activate <Shadow Slash>.

'I overestimated myself after being able to pull off the most basic spell, fireball.'

Looking at my digital watch, which was given to all students for identification reasons, I realized it was already afternoon. These two days all I did was training, and whenever I trained, I lost track of the time. As soon as I immerse myself into training, I often find myself swinging my daggers for hours.

I got up from the seat and put my towel on my neck. I wanted to watch the results of the lottery alive. When I win the lottery, the money will be transferred into my academy account. But in order to invest in stocks, I first have to open a new personal account.

While I was walking, I glanced around the training hall. There wasn't many students. Many were enjoying their time until the academy opened. Of course, the top rank students had their own private training rooms, so they weren't using the public training hall.

I tapped on my digital watch and a yellow hologram popped out.

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Name: Theodore Miller

Academy Power Rank: 2154th out of 3000

The Occupied Building: 5th Layer

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The power rank was an important aspect of the Light Academy. It determined your position in the academy. There was a total of 5 layer for each grade.

The 1st Layer - Top 3

The 2nd Layer - Top 10

The 3rd Layer - Top 100

The 4th Layer - Top 1000

The 5th Layer - Top 3000

Being the 2154th in the power ranking, I was nearly at the bottom of the food chain, 5th layer. The 1st layer had been monopolized by the nobles for years until the protagonist appeared, which angered the nobles. However, it is not only a matter of pride. As you climb the layers, the academy invests in you more. Basically, being a first layer student was very advantageous: private training rooms, extra resources, money and many more.

On the other hand, the fifth layer students were only given a small sum of money and ignored.

'I guess, I will have to wait for the term exams to rise in the ranks.'

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"And this lucky citizen has just won the lottery! 3 million BS!"

A chuckle escaped from my mouth. I had requested them not to reveal my information so that I wouldn't need to deal with the public attention. I closed the live broadcast and checked my academy account. The 3 million BS had already been sent. I was surprised by their operating speed.

I transferred 2 million of it to my personal account and immediately bought stocks of some organizations that would rise. I also bought some stocks of the ones that would suffer losses in the future. I did this or someone would have found out the absurdity of my accuracy.

The organization I had invested in the most was a guild named "Black Star", one of the female lead's father's guild. I invested because the guild is supposed to find an (S)-rank dungeon in an about a month. The guild will monopolize this dungeon, sky rocketing the guild's net worth.

"Alright! Making money is done."

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I gulped down a bottle of water after my training session. It had been another 2 days since I had won 3 million BS. Since then I was only training. But...

"Ha... It's frustrating..."

Nowadays I had been constantly sighing. The outcomes of my training sessions weren't really productive. I was trying to pull off the first signature move <Shadow Slash>. But I didn't make any progress at all.

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{Signature Moves}

First Move <Shadow Slash> [Level 1] --- Coats the blade with the shadow essence to increase the attack power as well as the attack speed of the user's slashes. Those who are harmed by shadow essence will have a hard time healing the wound.

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'Shadow Essence'. I was trying to figure out what shadow essence was. I knew the key to use the <Shadow Slash>, and even the art itself, was comprehending the shadow essence. But shadow essence was never mentioned in the novel, so my information was limited.

But I at least knew the shadow essence was not related to dark attribute or any other elements in any way. It should be a completely different form of mana.

Also, because every martial art centers themselves around a specific element, if my martial art, Shadow Blade, were to be using dark element, it would say so in the description of the manuel. But nothing was specified.

The problem was that there wasn't any occasion where a martial art didn't use an element as a base for its attributes in the novel, it wasn't written how the mechanics worked. Even the protagonist had an art that was centered around a specific element.

Though you could argue that Ralph who should have seized this martial art would be an exception, but the author hadn't described this art in a detailed way. It was indicated that the art was weird and didn't seem to use any element. Still, it was an unknown what this martial art was all about since Ralph wasn't really a big-shot in the story.

"This makes me feel unsettling."

Spells don't necessarily use elements to operate.

For instance, a spell such as fireball. If I extract the fire element from it, it will turn into a compressed form of mana. It will still have an explosive effect but it will lose its heat. But if I add lighting element to it, it will turn into a sphere of high voltage. So the elements were used to enhance the power of spells, not to create them.

However, martial arts guide the mana in a special way for the desired result, which in this case is the signature move. Martial arts fuse the mana with the specified element, around which the art is centralized.

However, the shadow essence is the outcome of this martial art guiding the mana. So basically, Shadow Blade is centralized around shadow essence instead of an element.

This was all I could come up with at the moment. Though I was still not sure what shadow essence was in any means.

"Whatever... I will leave these questions for my future self. I need to figure out how to pull the first signature move."

I leaned on a wall and closed my eyes. I closed off all my senses and ignored everything around me. I focused on my inner voice. I pondered about the shadow essence over and over.

'Shadow... Light... Shadow...'

Suddenly a light bulb went on in my head. I opened my eyes and ran towards one of the dummies. I began to concentrate on my mana.

'How can I miss such a basic but also an essential fact. Shadow is not absolute. It always needs a light, or rather an energy source to exist.'

'However, in this case, just any energy source like sun isn't what I need to produce shadow essence. Shadow essence is a higher form of shadow, so it needs a higher form of energy as well. That is mana!'

I guided my mana towards the silver dagger on my right hand. At first it was just coated with null mana but gradually a dark layer replaced the null mana, starting from the bottom of the blade to the tip of the dagger. It was quivering like fire but in a small scale.

It was devoid of any light. Absolute darkness.

It gave off an ominous aura.

However, not minding it a bit, my eyes opened with excitement.

"Finally! I thought I would never succeed!"

I took my stance against the dummy and slashed down diagonally. As the dagger pierced through the air, it left a line of utter darkness behind. As soon as it collided with the dummy, it cut the dummy into two as easily as cutting butter. The upper body of the dummy fell to the ground with a thud.

I sat on the ground. My breathing was ragged due to fatigue. Although it was extremely powerful, it required a great amount of mana. After resting for a while, I stood up with a notification sound coming from my phone.

*Ding!*

It was about the dungeon expedition I had registered. The message informed me that I was approved for the dungeon expedition. It was an (G+)-rank dungeon. Since I was an (F-)-rank awakener, it shouldn't be impossible for me to clear that dungeon alone.

'Status'

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Name: Theodore Miller

Rank: F-

Strength: F

Agility: F

Stamina: F-

Perception: F-

Mana: F-

Charm: A+

Attribute (Element): Fire, Lighting

Profession Type: Assassin [Level 1]

Martial Arts: Shadow Blade [(S)-rank]

Skills: None

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"Wow! My both stamina and mana stats have gone up to (F-) from (G+). I wasn't expecting that one."

I went back to my room to prepare for the dungeon expedition. Even though I knew a lot of things from the novel about dungeons, I still didn't want to enter a dungeon without being throughly prepared.

I had knowledge but no real life experience.

As the saying goes...

"In case of a ferocious storm, even the most knowledgeable captain, if he/she doesn't have any experience, is no different from a passenger."