Shadow Eater

It took Draven over an hour to make the trip. But as he arrived just as the map showed Draven stood in front of a mountain with a narrow passageway almost as if it had split at some point that led through the mountain. Draven's spine shuddered just thinking about what kind of attack could split a mountain. The passageway was wide enough for roughly 5 Draven's to walk side by side so it wasn't as narrow as the map made it out to be. Draven began to walk leisurely through the crack in the mountain while using his mystic eye in every direction hoping to find the elusive shadow creature. Draven took his time and even went out of his way to gather some odd herbs and flowers as well as mining what were mostly small scattered iron nodes.

According to the Map Draven had reached roughly the halfway point of the passageway but he hadn't seen anything living since he got here. No creatures, birds, not even insects Draven was starting to get a bit creeped out. Instead of going further Draven decided to take a break he was a bit fatigued from killing all the Naga and running around the map all day and night. He took a seat on a boulder and gazed at the stars. Hours went by as Draven sat on this boulder just staring into the sky he was getting extremely tired at this point so he started to close his eyes maybe a nap wouldn't be that bad right now he thought to himself. He was about to close his eyes as he remembered training the kids earlier tonight he chuckled when he remembered kicking that warrior in the butt for laying down after… Draven pried his eyes open immediately "What the hell am I doing falling asleep out in the open? Have I lost my mind!?" Draven was incredibly confused he moved his legs to jump off the boulder but he was so slow and he felt incredibly weak. He managed to get off the boulder and scanned the area and found nothing. "System why do I feel so weak?" Draven decided to give the system a go maybe it learned some diagnostic skills when it upgraded.

<Beep! The user has been slowly losing stat points over the last couple of hours. cause Phenomenon is unknown.>

Draven could feel the sweat dripping down his spine he was losing stat points?! Draven activated Draconic Aura and instantly started to feel better but he was a long way from full strength. He saw something move out of the corner of his eye, Draven spun around and saw nothing. The sweat running down his back was beginning to turn cold. Using the mystic eye Draven scanned the area over and over again making sure not to look up above and below in every direction and finally, he got a hit.

Shadow Eater Level 15

Health: 1/1

Mana: 800/1500

Looking closely Draven saw a creature attached to his shadow but it wasn't like a physical creature. Draven simply saw the shadow of a creature with long tentacles latched onto his shadow. Draven threw out a wind scythe toward his shadow but other than breaking the rocky floor nothing changed. He could feel himself getting weaker again. It seemed Draconic Aura only scared it for a moment but it was firmly latched back in place now. Since attacking the shadow didn't work Draven tried reaching towards where the creature was shown to be on his body based on where the shadow was latching on to him in his shadow. He reached over his shoulder and scratched the hell out of his back but all he did was hurt himself there was nothing there. Draven was starting to feel weaker by the second he knew he didn't have a lot of time left in him. He dropped and reactivated Draconic Aura but the creature wasn't scared anymore.

Panic was starting to set in Draven was running out of options on what to do while this thing was latched onto his shadow sucking the life out of him. Draven had an idea and summoned a few fireballs in the hopes of creating enough light to drown out his shadow but the more fireballs he created the weaker he felt as every fireball cast another shadow of him and this thing began to feed on all of them. Draven dropped his fireball spells he was close to collapsing at this point. If more light is feeding it then what about less light? Draven summoned a dome made of earth around Draven and his shadow. As soon as the Dome closed Draven felt sweet relief the creature was no longer latched to him but he no longer had the strength to stand up as he fell to a knee. He could hear something banging against the dome wall it sounded like the creature was trapped in here with Draven and with no shadows to hide in, it was forced to take on a physical form. "I f..inally g..got you Draven stammered trying to stay awake as he used his mystic eye to locate the creature in this pitch-black space. Draven was quickly able to find it based on the sounds of it slamming against the wall and Draven used the last bit of strength he had left to create an earth spike from the ground hoping it would pierce the creature.

<Beep! Congratulations! The user has slain Shadow Eater level 15.>

Draven didn't hear the end of the Message before collapsing to the ground.

James POV

James awoke from within the Pod at the Adventurers Guild as he just completed his Iron Rank up.

<Beep! Please come to the front counter Terminal "Iron Adventurer James Morgan.">

James opened the Pod and walked out of the room on route to the front counter. The Guild was full with everyone who had been power leveled waiting for their turn to rank up. Like before James inserted his ID card and within seconds a new Card was printed displaying his Iron Rank. James took a moment to check himself out he felt much stronger than before his scales covered more of his skin and they seemed to be much thicker. Looking into the room James noticed he had a much better view of everything as if he was looking at the room from a higher point of view. Did he get taller? James was promptly cut off from checking himself out after getting tapped on the side of his stomach. James turned around to find the Fox girl that was in Dravens training group standing next to him.

"Can I help you?" James asked politely. "Have you seen Draven? I wanted to ask him some questions." She replied. James' lips turned upwards into a wide grin. The day finally came when a pretty girl asked about his son if only his late wife could see this she would be so happy right now. Coming back to reality James looked at her and coughed to clear his throat. "I haven't seen him yet, I just got out of the pod but I'm sure he's either at my place or walking around town somewhere. I'll make sure to let him know you were looking for him." He said while giving her a thumbs up with a crooked grin on his face. The girl simply nodded with a confused look on her face. Jennifer began to nervously fidget with her hands. "Also many of the villagers have noticed that we have gotten stronger and have been nonstop asking us if they can join as well we didn't know what to tell them... could you maybe talk to them?"

James let out an annoyed sigh. This would be troublesome, James knew that Draven would want to work on his class quest and start leveling up again he already pulled off a miracle getting everyone he did to level 5 in one night. Asking him to do all that over again with the other half of the village was a bit much. James looked at the fox girl who seemed to be nervous to talk to him, so he decided to rough up her hair "Just tell them to meet later tonight in front of the guild hall I have some things to take care of until then." He answered hoping he could think of something until then. Jennifer nodded and smiled relieved to have an answer to give all the people bothering her. Jennifer started to head towards the exit of the guild hall. "Make sure to let everyone know to give the same answer," James called out but without reply, she had already run out the door.

James decided to see if he could find Draven knowing him, he was probably still asleep. James made his way through the streets of Novice Village many of its inhabitants took notice of him and whispered with each other but no one approached him which was just fine for James. After reaching his hut he discovered Draven wasn't there nor was there any sign that anyone had been there since yesterday. James went back out and walked through the marketplace and the profession vendors but everywhere he looked there was no sign of Draven. "Did he leave town?" James thought to himself. James started to get worried, he knew Draven could take care of himself but we still don't know enough about this place he might not be the biggest fish in the lake. After asking around a couple of the Orb hunters that were on his side said they saw him enter the forest after the training camp was over. And no one has seen him since. James felt a moment of panic, he had just gotten Draven back what if he was in trouble? Where would he even begin to look for him? He could be anywhere by now. James decided to at least look around a mile or so into the forest and see if he could find anything.

Draven POV

Draven awoke on the cold rocky floor; he was grateful for his scales as it made sleeping on small pointy rocks a whole lot easier. Draven was still enclosed within the earth dome with a wave of his hand he opened a way out allowing sunlight to enter the otherwise complete darkness that was the inside of the earth dome. Draven found the corpse of the Shadow Eater and looted the well-deserved Shadow Crystal and Carving materials. Draven pulled out the Shadow Crystal and was surprised to discover that it was nearly weightless. "Ok so all I need to do now is absorb the shadows of Ten Iron creatures and I can obtain my Class." If Draven didn't feel like he was run over by a truck, he would be skipping through the forest already absorbing shadows. One quick look at his Stats and Draven was able to sigh in relief as all his stats returned to normal. "System why do I still feel sluggish if my HP and stats are full?"

 <Beep! The user's Body is currently fatigued due to the Rapid loss of attributes and refilling said resources. This will not diminish Combat ability. user advised replenish nutrients through sustenance.>

As if on cue Draven Stomach started to groan louder than the growl of any monster he had encountered. "Can't argue with that logic," Draven muttered under his breath as he pulled out some Crab meat and roasted it with fire magic. As soon as he started eating, he realized how hungry he really was, and he ended up eating 30 portions of Crab. Draven had to double-check to make sure he didn't have a hole in his stomach as he continued to wolf down roasted crab like he was at an all-you-can-eat buffet after fasting for a week. Once he was satisfied with food and drank his fill of water, he created through magic he instantly felt much better. "Okay let's see what is on the other side of these mountains and fill this crystal with some shadows."

Draven gleefully exclaimed as he began traversing through the crack of the mountain. He made sure to activate Mythic Eyes as much as possible to check for any surprises and ordered the system to notify him if he began to lose stats again. Even though he knew how to defeat those shadow suckers he did not want to be caught off guard like that again. Like before, the crack in the mountain was void of any life so Draven decided to put some electrical spring into his step and accelerated through the mountain within a few minutes. Once he arrived on the other side, he felt that he had landed in another world all over again the terrain and atmosphere of this area was completely different. It went from lakes and forests to mountains and hills. In the distance, Draven was even able to see the dim light of a barrier. Perhaps another novice village? Draven thought to himself. As he made his way towards the barrier. After a few minutes, he stood in front of the barrier that was located at the bottom of adjacent mountains, a crossroads of sorts.

<Beep! The user has discovered an iron-ranked Town.< p>