Seems ‘Someone’ is coming back...

On the Last floor of the 'Graveyard of The Arrogant', the Demonic Hand Executive, Seith, spoke into a communication medallion in his palm.

"...My lord, the Sword of Pride...is gone."

[...]

There was silence on the other end as Keith found himself sweating while waiting for a reply.

Finally, after an uncomfortably long silence, a response came.

[...Very well then, it seems we were a step too late. Return.]

"Yes, my lord."

The connection cut off and Keith stared at the empty room while gritting his teeth.

'To think such a thing would happen!!'

He wanted to thrash around and destroy anything he saw but he knew doing that would not bring back the sword of Pride so he held himself and turned around, walking in the direction of the teleportation circle that led outside the dungeon.

◇ ◇ ◇

After Seith left, the corpse of Troll Emperor Yetu that had gone cold suddenly twitched as energy condensed in front of it.

A notification board appeared in front of it, displaying a single message.

|Conditions Met|

|Unique Skill, Second Life has been acquired. |

|Unique Skill, Second Life has been used. |

|Beginning Resurrection Process|

| Hidden Conditions Met|

|Commencing Evolution to Humanoid Battle Troll|

The condensed energy entered the corpse of the Troll Emperor Yetu as the hole on his torso began closing up slowly.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a type of existence Aidos had never seen before was being born.

◇ ◇ ◇

The last thing Evan planned to do after packing the identification badge and many other essentials, including loads of money, from copper to gold coins, was to increase his Existence Level.

Evan poured out all the magic stones he got from all the monsters in the dungeon and began to absorb the magic within.

He had no idea how to go about this at first but after a hint from Artemisia, he was able to realize his magic control skill was what he needed, at least until he learnt to do this without the skill.

After three hours and three jugs of strawberry juice, he had managed to absorb the magic in the stones completely, though he had to stop occasionally to pacify the Duke who barged in multiple times after sensing a large amount of magic within his room.

Eventually, after a few surges of energy and a few bouts of pain, he managed to increase his existence level, a little too much at once.

[The goddess 'Artemisia' declares you as a bug in the system]

Artemisia's reaction was natural, even he was surprised because he broke through two levels at once.

[The 'Eternal of time and destruction' says that although you are close to being useful, you are still effectively useless.]

He ignored the blatant diss and decided to take a look at his status.

|Name- Evan Del Eris

Race-###e# ###s###e#

Gender - Male

Age - 12

Level- 36

Existence Level - Gold

Titles- The Second of Seven Heroes, Leader of the Seven Heroes, Reincarnated Hero, Wielder of Mystic Eyes, Loved by Nature, Heir of Eris Dukedom, #####c ########. Bug in the System (Temporary)

Class- Magic Swordsman

Health – D-

Energy – D-

Strength – D-

Agility – D-

Durability –D-

Intelligence- D-

Condition- Heavily Fatigued

Magic Tiers- Fire Tier 1, Lightning Tier 1

Skills- Full Appraisal, Magic Control, Weapon Control, Paladin, Concealment, Language Comprehension.

Mimicked Skills-Energy Blast, Body Transformation.

Unique Skills- Mystic Eyes of Mimicry (1), Adaptive Evolution, Blessing of Destruction. |

'It seems raising my existence level helped me recover the level I lost and-Oy!'

"What the hell Artemisia?!

[The goddess 'Artemisia' looks elsewhere and whistles.]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you should hurry up and leave within the next five minutes if you really want to, any later and you would not even be able to take a step outside the floor you're on.]

"Haa~, good thing it's temporary."

Evan facepalmed as he stuffed the rest of his load into the space expansion bag. He looked at the night sky outside and nodded before turning his gaze to his shadow.

"Alright, it's time to leave.

Little guy, you've had a nice sleep in my shadow but it's not for free, pay up."

As he said that, his shadow wriggled and a black cat came out and meowed. He picked it up and petted its head lightly.

[Master, pet me too]

Naturally, Kayla was jealous and transformed into a cat and said to pet her too.

"Not now, when we leave here, so Kuro get us out of here with that skill of yours."

He arbitrarily called the spirit a name he heard that meant 'black' in a language from his previous world.

However, it seems that there were other implications in that, a pseudo contract was formed within them.

There was no proper contract ceremony neither could he contract with another spirit so it was only half a contract, still he didn't expect calling the spirit a name to have such an effect.

Appraising it he saw that it had indeed gotten a name.

|Name- Kuro

Race- Spirit

Gender - Male

Level- 30

Existence Level - Silver

Titles- Middle-Rank Spirit

Class - Shadow Controller

Health – E+

Energy – D-

Strength – E+

Agility – D-

Durability – E+

Intelligence - E+

Condition- Normal

Magic Tiers- Shadow Tier 1

Skills- Shadow Movement, Shadow Manipulation, Shadow Magic. (Extreme)

Unique Skills- None. |

'At least he's a genuine mid-rank spirit'

Kuro purred and jumped down from his hands, he then circled Evan a few times drawing a magic circle around him with his claws.

Jumping back into Evan's arms, he spoke for the first time.

[I'm sending us to the nearest location we can evade the guards from]

His voice was like that of a little boy's, testament to his young age. Evan nodded, as he placed the short note he had written down explaining the reason for his 'departure' on his desk.

He used body transformation to transform into the form of a random servant he saw earlier in the day, for the event he was noticed by someone on his way out.

However, this was not necessary.

The moment Kuro activated shadow movement, he felt his magic power being drained out of him till there was almost nothing left.

His sight was covered in darkness as he sank into the ground. When it brightened up once more, he realised he was outside the mansion.

'This is way too handy!!'

[Too much energy used, sleepy]

Kuro murmured and jumped back into Evan's shadow without even bothering to ask for permission.

'Enjoy your rest, you really deserve it.'

The young hero took a moment to rest and downed a magic potion to get rid of the lethargy he was feeling, only standing up after a few minutes of rest.

Like so, Evan disappeared into the night of the capital. Completely uncaring in regards to the uproar his disappearance was gonna cause the next day.

◇ ◇ ◇

The next morning, Rei came over to Evan's room to wake him up at the order of the Duke, however, even after knocking a few times, she received no reply.

She finally decided to use her presence detection, and that was when she realised there was no one in the room.

Even a hidden bodyguard like her would panic at such a thing. She hurriedly reported to the Duke who was in the dining, unfortunately, the Duchess just walked in as she spoke.

Hearing her son had literally 'disappeared', she fainted in shock and had to be carried back to her room.

The Duke then personally inspected Evan's room to see if he left of his free will and the letter on the table gave him all the answers he needed.

"What on Aidos?!"

Unfortunately, a noble lady who had come over to meet the Duchess unannounced, heard the maids talking about it and went on to spread it to her friends.

Within a week it had become a topic of discussion between the various nobles of the Empire.