CHAPTER 74

TWIN SHADOWS

Lino was currently staring at a rather peculiar - or, better said, spectacular sight. Thin blanket lay draped over smooth and pale skin, its folds ever-so-tempting, hiding a scene he had witnessed just a moment ago. After biding farewell to his new friend, Lino immediately went over to Su family’s compound and mansion. As he was a rather frequent visitor, guards mostly ignored him as he stormed toward a small room at the back-end side - Sylvia’s. Without even knocking, he barged in and hollered her, only to be frozen in place. Sylvia lay entangled in another’s arms, wholly bare from top of the head to soles of her feet, without even an inch of clothing covering her. He wouldn’t have found it that strange were it not for the fact that the arms wrapped around her rather sizable bosoms were... woman’s. As his eyes darted sideways, he spotted unknown woman, roughly in her early thirties; she had chestnut-colored hair and eyes and a body full of muscles atop of muscles. The time seemed to have frozen for a moment as the trio tried to process what had just transpired; Lino attempted to etch every single inch of the picture permanently into his brain, Sylvia tried to beg every god she knew of for this to be a dream, and the woman curiously checked Lino out, wondering whether it’d be appropriate to invite him in. As their thoughts circulated, a few seconds passed upon which Lino immortalized the moment, Sylvia realized this wasn’t a dream, and woman concluded it would be better she kept her thoughts to herself.

“AAAAH!!!!” Sylvia cried out as she quickly pulled the thin blanket over her body, scurrying backwards as far as she could go, her cheeks blushing crimson red.

“Awesome...” Lino mumbled, his eyes like eggs.

“G-get out!!! GET OUT!!!”

“...” suddenly, a dark thought emerged in Lino’s mind, akin to a devil whispering sweetness directly in his ears. His lips curled up in a strange, peculiarly evil grin. “You have two options,” he said. “You either continue and pretend I’m not here, or I write a song about this moment and sing it to the whole town.” Lino couldn’t really grasp what came over him and though he felt slightly bad about it, he was far more interested in the continuation of the show than his own moral values, which he already deemed rather shady to begin with.

“WHAT?!!” Sylvia’s embarrassment turned into pure anger; though she knew Lino was everything but a gentleman, she never expected him to be so utterly corrupted as to recommend something like that. The woman lying next to her - who didn’t even bother to cover up - softly exclaimed in surprise as she reevaluated Lino. “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?! I SAID GET OUT!!”

“Now, now,” the woman suddenly joined in the conversation, startling Sylvia who backed up away from her a bit. “Don’t be so harsh on the poor boy. He’s just curious.”

“Yes, yes, what she said.” Lino said, unable to peel away his gaze from woman’s naked body.

“Besides,” the woman crawled ever-so-closer to Sylvia, grasping her chin. “Don’t you think it would be more exciting with audience?” I don’t know who you are you insane peach, but I love you!! Lino had enough control not to say it out loud, though.

“...” Sylvia found herself gobsmacked; of all the things that could happen to her, Lino by some miracle did. She regretted the day she walked into that room and met him. And she also regretted the day she met Annabel and decided to explore her curiosities with her. Inside her mind was just an endless loop of regrets, repeating in an infinite cycle.

“Where were we, huh?” the woman mumbled as she slowly pulled the blanket back from Sylvia’s body, diving back into the bosoms. Lino never expected for his ‘threat’ to actually work; he merely spat out what was on his mind, and was ready to bolt away lest he got killed on the spot. Luckily, he thought, she was with a completely shameless woman. And so, Lino sat back and enjoyed what would turn out to be one of the few moments in his life he’ll remember into the tiniest detail till the end of his days.

After the ‘show’ was over, he immediately got up and left. He pondered for a moment how awkward his next interaction with Sylvia would be, but quickly realized he didn’t really care, moving on. He stormed back to the group’s little courtyard and entered the backside, immediately rubbing one out before sitting down in rather strange delirium. As though a wall was suddenly breached inside of him, inspiration struck like thunder and he leapt onto his feet, walking into the smithy. The image, idea and the whole process of crafting Lucky’s daggers were quickly drawn inside his mind, as though he was perfecting the idea for years to come. Should she ever learn that the weapons she would proudly wield for many years to come were a result of a boy’s curiosity, one can only imagine how she’d react.

Lino went all out for the item, taking out two different types of ores, his most precious [Stone Giant Ingot], a Level 70 material he treated like heirloom, several rare herbs, tendons of [Blood-Woven Ape] and even his own [Celestial Plate], which he quickly melted with Tri-Spirit Flame.

There was barely enough material for two daggers and he immediately began crafting, without even resting first; his first instinct was speed, acceleration and precision when it came to daggers. That meant they had to be light, sharp and needed to feel good in one’s hands. He melted ingot into two portions, melding them with the ores before throwing equal divide of ground herbs into the mix. While beginning to shape the blades of daggers, he also started drawing up three arrays he planned for both daggers: , and . The daggers began taking shape shortly after as his entire body got swarmed in sweat; it was far more difficult than need be because Tri-Spirit Flames simply couldn’t perform as well as they used to since materials slowly began gravely out-leveling it. He could only pray the Writ would be kind enough to offer him a Flame Spirit the next time rewards came about. Until then, he can only struggle and endure.

Though the process was tiring, Lino entered the strange trance, whereas time ceased to exist for him. His mind was entirely wrapped in crafting process, in the method, in the ending’s outcome, in small details he couldn’t miss, like patterns along the blade that would make it easier to inscribe arrays, the faint curvature that would it make it possible to both stab and slice with them, the teeth at the back-end for more options when it comes to fight, the smoothing of surface, the precise angle and meeting point of the blade, the blending into the guard and handle, the exact mix necessary for the item to come out as he’d imagined it. Everything seemed to flow at half the speed for him, no detail escaping his hawk-like vision. Bit by bit, the two daggers began taking shape, and rather than waiting for them to cool down, he decided to immediately inscribe two of the arrays. It was, to say the least, a tiring task; he was already running on Qi reserves, and due to smaller surface of the dagger’s blade compared to something like a sword, he had to inscribe with even greater precision. However tiring it got, though, he hardly felt it; inside him only burned desire to craft something beyond this world, something he could proudly call his own. Two...three...five... soon enough, eight hours had passed since he’d begun. He seemed to have thinned out slightly due to exhaustion, yet his eyes still burned with exquisite radiance. He was at the point of beginning to combine the blade, guard and handle, carefully melding them together to the point of perfection. Two daggers looked completely identical, not even an inch of their surface slightly different, as though one was a magical copy of another and not two different crafts. As he finally finished, he let out a breath he seemed to have been holding since the start. He was immediately overcome with exhaustion, but before slipping into the land of endless dreams and adventures, he grabbed at the daggers and decided to check out their stats.

[Twin Shadows - Legendary]

Level: 80

Damage: 4192-5539

+20 Agility

+60 Attack Speed

+80% Piercing

+40% Armor Break

+1 To ‘Assassin’ [Martial Arts]

Special Effect - Shadow Warp - wielder can teleport to targeted shadow within 50m range at the expense of 1/10th of max Qi

Special Effect - Afterworld - ignores upward of 80 Levels of difference when attempting stealthy assassination

Special Effect - Order of Dying - each successful assassination increases daggers’ damage by 0.5%, up to 200%

Special Effect - Dark Embrace - daggers will automatically seek vital points and pierce through armor/defense when injected with Qi

Note: A master-level craft by an up-and-coming blacksmith. It denotes the essence of assassinating and is a perfect weapon for those living in the deep recesses of darkness.

It was the very first Legendary-tier item Lino had crafted, which filled his heart with immeasurable pride. The feeling didn’t last long, though, as the moment he closed his eyes, he began snoring, exhausted down to his very core.