Octavius stared intently forward. He wasn’t trying to peer through the utter darkness of the cell, but rather he was looking at it. What is there to understand about shadows? He wondered. Concentrating, he tried to think of what shadows were.

Shadows aren’t really anything, he realized, they are the absence of something. If there isn’t any light, there are shadows. But does that mean that I have to understand light? No, that wouldn’t make any sense. Why would I need to understand what shadows aren’t? The spellbook did say that certain elements required different amounts of understanding and will to learn. Maybe shadow magic takes less wisdom and understanding and instead requires a lot of will.

He hoped that was true. After all, his will stat was much higher than his wisdom stat. Closing his eyes, he extended a tendril of mana once more. All previous exhaustion was forgotten with the hope that his discovery sparked in him.

The deep blackness of the shadows was all around him. Instead of trying to wrap around the shadows, he merely extended the mana into it and used the tendril of energy as a bridge between himself and the darkness around him. He poured all of his understanding of shadows down the mana.

He knew probably more about shadows than most. Knowing where to hide was a vital part of any stealth training, and one of the best places to hide was within shadows. While his knowledge of shadows wouldn’t fill even a sheet of paper, it was complete and concise. He concentrated on collecting all the information into a single imaginary point and letting it flow through his mana and into the shadows themselves.

Shadows are the absence of light. They are darkness. Shadows can range from pitch black to only slight darkness. Even the weakest darkness is still considered a shadow. While they aren’t tangible, shadows can affect the world around them through people’s perceptions. Even now, I am surrounded by the shadow cast by all the earth around me.

His insights into shadows and darkness were far from profound. Still, the effect his knowledge had on the darkness around him was much greater than when he had tried with stone. When he had poured his insights into the cold, hard stone, he had racked his brain for the information that he had long ago learned and forgotten in grade school. The types of rocks, how they were made, the elements that made them up were all fuzzy at best in his memories. In the end, he had failed to elicit a single reaction from the stone.

Now, however, the shadows that were saturated with his mana began to slowly stir. He could not see any change in the uniform darkness, but he could sense it. His mana seemed to meld with the shadows and roil in the air before him. Through the tendril of mana, he continued to pour his insights, eventually repeating them over and over.

The tenuous connection between him and the darkness grew. Whereas before, he had felt a vague sense of the shadows that were saturated with his mana, now he felt them clearly. He knew now that his mana had saturated three square inches of shadow.

A smile made its way on his face at his minor success. He tried to will the mana to move, and it did. His smile fell when he realized that the section of shadow stayed exactly where it was. Licking his lips, he tried to wrap the piece of shadow with mana. The strand wrapped around it again and again until it was trapped within a woven cocoon of energy.

Just that simple act knocked another two-hundred mana from his pool, and he felt a headache begin to settle over him. Compartmentalizing the pain, he did nothing for a moment. His mana still decreased, but at a minuscule rate compared to when he was forcing more and more from his core to encapsulate the shadow.

When he once more tried to move the section of shadow, he felt resistance. His jaw clenched as a spike of pain shot into his head, and more mana left his core. He discarded all conscious thought and poured his knowledge, mana, and willpower into moving the shadow. Ever so slowly, he felt it shift.

The thrill that ran through him snapped his intense concentration, and the mana dissipated into the air around him. Resting his head against the wall, he smiled vibrantly at the blue window in front of his eyes.

Through talent and hard work, you have gained the forged sub-skill Shadow Manipulation (Lvl 1)

Shadow Manipulation (Lvl 1) - Through your understanding of shadows, your will, and your Mana Manipulation, you can control the element of shadows. Precision, duration, and range of control are determined by many factors, including your will stat, the skill level of both Mana Manipulation and Shadow Manipulation, the amount of shadows affected by the skill, the distance from the caster, and more.

He dismissed the window and settled back to let his mana regenerate. From his conversation with Caster a few nights before, he had learned that the rate of one's mana regeneration was much higher when their core wasn’t entirely exhausted.

A quick glance at his health showed him that he had already stopped losing health from bleeding and started to heal. A half-hour passed as he waited for his mana to regenerate to an acceptable level. During his wait, he closed his eyes and focused on listening. Every small sound would echo unrelentingly through the cell, but he still couldn’t hear a thing through the ventilation holes.

So there isn’t a posted guard, he decided, If there was, there would likely be light and at least the sound of breathing.

The fact that there wasn’t a guard posted increased his options by a good deal, but things still didn’t look great for him—the decision to escape as soon as he possibly could was an easy one to make.

After all, he knew they had something that could compel people to do things. Even if the effect was weak when applied to the whole tutorial, it would likely be incredibly strong against a single person. The thrall’s threat to make him into a thrall left him uneasy. Who knew what they could do with compulsions and a desire to create slaves?

Soon enough, his headache had disappeared, and his mana had recovered to about two-thirds. Good enough, he decided.

Keeping his eye closed, he once more reached out with his mana to a patch of shadows. He poured his understanding into the darkness with an ease that signified the skill’s help. The process of covering the shadows with a cocoon of mana was much quicker this time but still used a ridiculous amount of mana given the small amount of shadow he was trying to envelop.

What can I do with such a small amount of shadow? He idly wondered as the cocoon completed around the patch of shadow, Well, I guess it could be useful to hide in. Beyond that, I’ll just have to find out.

The rate that mana left his core stabilized, and he willed the patch of shadow to move toward him. Reaching out with a hand, he prodded at the shadow. While he could sense the shadow move to make space for the intrusion, it felt like nothing but air on his hand.

I can move the shadow, but that doesn’t seem to do anything, He frowned, the apparitions created hard spikes of shadow. How could I do that?

His first thought was to compress the shadow, but he discarded the thought. That doesn’t make sense. You can’t just compress something intangible into something tangible.

He eventually just tried to will the shadow to harden. The lack of results he got in return was disheartening, but he didn’t let it stop him.

Clenching his jaw, he went back to his compression idea. It seemed so intuitive that increasing the pressure on something would eventually solidify it. Maybe if I compress the mana and the shadow while at the same time willing it to harden?

With that idea in mind, he forced the cocoon to contract. The resistance he felt excited him, and he increased his concentration. The willpower required to force the shadow to compress increased exponentially, and eventually, every ounce of his being was focused on forcing the cocoon to contract and for the shadow to solidify.

Sweat poured down his forehead and dripped onto his closed eyelids. His clenched fist shook, and his teeth ground together. However, the contraction ceased all too soon. He could sense that the shadow was still not quite solid. Even as he continued to attempt to compress the shadow further, he began to lose hope of this idea working.

Is my will stat not high enough? He wondered but froze when whatever was repelling his compression seemed to snap. In a single instant, he sensed the loose orb of shadow shoot inward until it seemed to crystalize.

His eyes shot open, and he willed the sphere of pure shadow toward him. It landed silently on his hand, and he closed his fist around it. It was solid.

Through talent and hard work, you have gained the forged sub-skill Harden Shadow (Lvl 1)

Harden Shadow (Lvl 1) - Through your mana, you can enact your will upon the physical plane and create constructs of shadow. Mana expenditure and effort required is dependent on many factors, including your will stat, the skill level of both Harden Shadow and Shadow Manipulation, the amount of shadows affected by the skill, and more.

A smile broke out on his face as he rolled the small orb of shadow around on his open palm. The process had been incredibly difficult but did not consume very much mana. That was definitely a good thing. If Harden Shadow took as much mana and Shadow Manipulation, he would run out of mana before making even the smallest thing.

He smashed the shadow orb against the stone floor, and it failed to break. His grin growing, he willed the orb to reshape into a thin blade. The process was slow but not very difficult. Soon enough, a thin arrowhead of shadow was in his hand. Pressing it into the stone ground, he dragged it in a line.

The blade scratched the stone with a scraping sound. Well, he decided it could be worse. At least it didn’t break.

Reshaping the shadow back into a ball, he relinquished his control over the cocoon. It exploded outward in a way reminiscent of Caster’s Windblade and Mikrós’s fire spell. It blew his hair around wildly, but it didn’t do much else.

An idea came to him at that. Concentrating, he once more compressed a small patch of shadow into a tiny sliver of solid darkness. The process was much easier with the aid of the system-granted skill but was still extremely difficult.

Once he had created one sliver of shadow, he solidified half a dozen more. After that, he compressed a larger section of shadow into a ball. His exhaustion fuelled headache returned with a vengeance, but he forced himself to concentrate.

At one point, he nearly lost his concentration but was able to recover quickly enough to prevent the cocoon from completely unraveling. Still, the lapse set him back a good deal.

Finally, he completed the sphere and connected the slivers of shadow to its bottom. Positioning the sphere over the ground, he released his hold over the mana that kept it solid.

The spikes whistled through the air as they were forced from the epicenter of the small explosion at an extreme velocity. He sensed each one of them embed themselves about a centimeter into the solid stone of the floor.

With a grin, he allowed the mana in the spikes to dissipate as well. A soft cracking sound reached his ears as the expanding shadows forced the rock apart. He had to hold himself back from whooping in exhilaration. Not only had he created a possible way to get out of the cell, but he had also created a magical hand grenade.

He reached forward and ran his fingers over the minuscule craters that the spikes had created. Small, gravel-like rocks were spread around each crater.

He let his head fall back once more, and he thought about what his next move would be. The shadow grenade spell had taken a full minute to get ready, but that was something that practice, improved stats, and higher skill levels would fix. The mana expenditure, however, was something that definitely concerned him. He guessed that only four shadow grenade spells would bring him from full mana to the start of exhaustion.

While he waited for his mana to regenerate, he thought about what his new skills could do to help him. He might be able to create a small knife using almost all of his mana. Keeping it in a solid form would take effort, but not that much.

The shadow grenade spell, as he had started calling it, would be useful in getting through the thick stone of the cell’s door. It would also be useful in combat, but not beyond an opening move. The simple truth of its casting time forced him to discard the possibility of using it in the middle of a fight.

His basic shadow manipulation also had many uses. It could augment his natural stealth to help conceal him. That would be particularly useful now that he knew that using the thrall’s illusion ring would be counterproductive within the vicinity of their main base.

Beyond that, his innate sense of any shadow that he was connected to could be devastating. Because he only had to form a bridge between him and a shadow to sense it, it took barely any mana. He could use it to find anyone or anything hidden within nearby shadows.

A thought came to him, and he shuddered. How powerful would this ability be for wind mages with Mana Manipulation? He wondered, Once Caster learns it, he’ll be omniscient within the area that he is connected to.

He smiled at the thought. Well, then I’m definitely glad that the only wind mage that I told about the skill is my friend.

He settled back to let his mana regenerate, and his mind flowed through dozens of possibilities of what he could do with his newfound abilities.

Over the next few hours, his mouth grew parched, and his stomach rumbled with hunger. While he could go longer without sustenance, he still felt both hunger and thirst. He idly wondered if the thralls would feed him any time soon.

The doorway in front of him was indented in his best approximation of where the stone shaper had opened it. It was difficult to do in the darkness, but his shadow sense had helped significantly.

It was simple to modify his shadow grenade spell to launch a single larger projectile at incredible speed. He had fired the modified shadow grenade into the doorway at an angle over and over.

Through trial and error, he was soon cracking off chunks of rock that were about the same size that the stone shaper had created when it opened the doorway. If the stone shaper came back too soon, hopefully, it wouldn’t realize the difference.

He had learned that the spell was far from precise. On two attempts, he had spent half an hour making minuscule adjustments to the projectile and launcher. Unfortunately, they didn’t fly perfectly true like he had hoped. He eventually came to the conclusion that it was far more effective to use the original shadow grenade spell when aiming for a specific target just to give him more chances of hitting it.

The pile of rocks on the floor below the doorway was missing only a single stone. That stone was tucked in Octavius’s waistband. It was relatively long and jagged and just about the best weapon he had access to.

The pulsing pain in his leg had faded to a dull ache as time had passed. Most of his weight was on his good leg as he stood, but that didn’t stop the dull ache from distracting him slightly.

He tuned it out and focused on sensing the wall in front of him. The shadows covered every contour, and he quickly found what he was looking for. A small ledge of rock was about at head height, and he noted its position. The process of creating a modified shadow grenade was slow but familiar.

It took shape over the course of a minute and soon hovered in front of him. Maneuvering it close to the ledge to prevent missing, he angled it downward. With a steady exhale, he let the mana that held the launcher together dissipate.

Over his past few iterations of the spell, he had come to the conclusion that a funnel shape was best when firing a single projectile. Thus, as the funnel exploded with a soft woosh, the thin blade of shadow was sent whistling through the air. It impacted the stone with a sharp crash and embedded itself into the wall. There was barely a second’s delay before another whoosh was heard from the blade and a sharp crack echoed through the enclosed space.

The sound of the six-inch piece of rock clattering to the ground was loud but failed to register in Octavius’s mind. He was focused on the bright blue window that had appeared in front of him.

You have gained a level in the skill Harden Shadow.

Your Harden Shadow is now Lvl 2

A smile formed on his lips as he read. He would have to wait another few minutes for his mana to regenerate before he could test the difference. Still, he was sure that it would be noticeable if it was anything like the difference between the first and second levels of Mana Manipulation.

He stepped back to rest against the wall across from the doorway as his mana regenerated. His wait was interrupted by the distant sound of the footsteps of approaching thralls.

His heart began to race as he hoped that the stone shaper wouldn’t notice the difference between its work and his own. If it had a way to sense the stone like Octavius did, then he would have to fight.

Closing his eyes, he began to create the largest shadow grenade yet. The thralls were silent as they approached the cell, and Octavius raced to adhere more and more spikes to the ball of hardened mana. He eyed the growing light that shone through the three ventilation holes and steeled himself for the possibility of combat in the near future.