Authors note: sorry guys, i can't seem to make the tables right, so instead i'll just include all of the information in the form of text.

chapter 6

"i'm sorry."

i woke up to the sound of Jordan's voice, and when i looked at him, he had a sad look on his face.

"what are you mumbling about?" i said while stretching my sore body. for some reason, jordan felt a little smaller. i started inspecting myself, and to my surprise it felt even more comfortable and natural after my evolution. the first time, i had had to do some exercises to get used to a bigger body and i longer reach, as well as my new strength. but this time, it felt like i had been in this body since forever.

"aren't you mad after hearing what Demius said?"

i inspected my fur, and the red streaks had become full blown patterns. swirls and pictures that seemed to move and dance as my muscles stretched to their fullest extent. i had gotten leaner, now it seemed that my entire body had become on long strip of muscle with fur on the outside, and i was longer, about two meters if i stood upright. "which part?"

he had a look like he was confessing to a priest. "i put your soul into the body of a cannibal! your body makes it so that you have to eat something as strong or stronger than you, and when there isn't anything stronger you'll die! i've doomed you to a short life full of blood and murder, how can you ever look at me, much less forgive me!"

i looked at my face in the pool of blood, but couldn't make out anything since it had dried. "i will do more than forgive you. i will do all within my power to make you a god that other can respect." i started licking my fur clean of the blood i had slept in.

he just looked shocked. "b-but, i doomed you to die within nine to ten years! how can you still be so loyal to me, who has done nothing but hurt you!"

i looked at him for the first time, and for some reason he looked more solid than all the other times i had seen him. "if you ever say that you have done nothing for me again, i will bite your foot off."

"b-bu-"

"stop." i put my paw over his mouth. "first off, you gave me a second chance. who am i to complain if its a little shorter than expected? second, what other choice did you have? a worm? a bird? no thank you, i'm not into the whole eating dirt concept."

"you said that your a third generation god, right? your the weakest of your kind, who gain their power from territory. i'm guessing that that cave was one of the few places that you owned, and it was fortunate for me that a creature like this was available. third, i don't want a long life. i want to experience as much of life as i can, but not having to grow old and die simply means that after i have enjoyed life to the fullest i don't have to watch myself grow old and decline." i sighed, and continued. "if you were to ask me to move a mountain, i would find a way, if i had to spend the rest of these ten years getting strong enough to do it. that is how grateful i am, and if you are rude enough to deny my gratitude, i will make you the next meal. got that?"

he looked shocked, but he nodded, and when i took my paw away from his mouth, he took a second to gather himself. "okay. if you are determined to be grateful to a weakling like me, then i guess i have no choice but to accept it."

he seemed to regain his usual cheerfulness, and started telling me about the various kingdoms and villages around this forest.

first off, to the south was the ocean, it began after a few miles from the forest. there were no cities, towns or villages from this forest to the ocean.

second, to the east was a large human kingdom, known as the kingdom of Sentin. from here to there there were many towns and villages, and lately there have been villages that have sprung up just a couple miles away from were the tree line began.

thirdly, to the north was something known as the dark peninsula, and was home to many monster and demi-human races, as well as a collage for aspiring necromancers and dark sorcerers.

fourth, to the east were the metal mountains, home to many dwarfs and goblins, and rumors stated that there was at least one clan of vampires. the cave that was my home on the mountain was actually a caved-in entrance to one of the many cave systems within the mountains.

after thinking for a while, i decided that the conquest of the humans would be the easiest, or at least i would have an idea of where to start. if i was to conquer one of the non-human countries i would undoubtedly step on someones toes, and probably start meaningless conflicts. when i proposed the plan to conquer the human kingdom, Jordan paled, and asked if i was maybe biting off a little more than i could chew. i replied that if given enough time i would chew through anything, no matter how big, and that there was no point to setting your sights on something as petty as world domination when there was universal conquest to be had. at this point, he fainted, and i had to explain to him that i was just using a figure of speech. though at one point i seriously considered it.

seeing that i had laid out my plans, he asked me if i knew how to access my status screen. i replied with, "status what?"

he once again face palmed, and told me to say 'status' and then i would get all the information that i needed. to know about myself.

"status"

Name Shadowpelt

Race Agrias: Bloody, Insane Varient

Age 7 Days

Alignment Shadow, Insanity, Darkness, Blood.

Titles Champion of Jordan, Insane Psychopath, The king of the Forest, Silent Death.

Abilities Shadow Image: Wraps the user in shadow, making them hard to see and leaves behind a shadow replica of the user.

Additional effects: Increases speed within darkness, Increases strength while wrapped in shadow, increases effectiveness of Shadow-based abilities while active. Can only be used for a certain amount of time before using this ability requires mana. Effectiveness increased by the title, ‘Silent Death’

Shadow Blades: coats the users claws in blades of shadow.

Additional effects: sharpness is doubled within shadow, length is affected by the actual length of the users claws, activating and upkeep of this ability drains stamina, but can be activated with mana, effectiveness increased by the title, ‘Silent Death’

Fear: stimulates the fear sensors within the targets brain via the users eyes, making those with a weak will flee in terror.

Additional effects: freezes those who don’t run away for half a second, Effectiveness increased by the titles ‘Silent Death’ ‘Insane Psychopath’

Shadow manipulation: allows the user to manipulate shadow. Drains mana.

Additional effects: can be used to activate all shadow based abilities, and strengthen them.

after reading through it, the first things i noticed was that i had a new ability and i had kept my title 'silent death' from my previous life, and even Jordan was confused by this.

anyway, i decided to check out my shadow manipulation. i walked over to the shadows under a tree, and willed them to gather in a ball in my paw. what happened next was completely unexpected. all of the shadows bent and fused into a condensed ball in my hand. when i tried throwing it, it sailed towards the tree, and when it hit, it coated the tree in a black substance that Jordan couldn't feel. i could now touch and pick up shadow, and this didn't drain what Jordan called 'mana' but using my mana made it so that i could shape and move the shadows. after awhile of playing around and getting used to moving and controlling shadows, suddenly the shadow i was controlling fell to the ground, and i noticed a tired ness that i had been ignoring. "must have run out of mana." i waited for a couple minutes and the tired ness had faded slightly, so i continued my experimentation until i ran out again.

when i was about to leave the clearing and head out to the cave for my meeting with Shielin, Jordan told me one more thing.

"As an adult Agrias, you will only have to eat every month or so, but you can eat every day if you want. your tastes will gradually narrow, and as time goes on weaker prey will be less and less satisfying. eating prey that is immensly stonger than myself will accelerate this process, and eating only the minimum of the weakest prey i can find will slow it. i will gain strength from eating strong prey, and from any prey i eat. the amount of strength i recieve will depend on how strong the prey was.

---

walking back to my cave, i thought of all the things i had learned, and when i had reached the bottom of the mountain my mana or whatever it was had fully recharge, so i now knew it took about an hour to regain all of my mana.

when i reached the cave, i smelled something pleasantly sharp, and when i arrived, i saw a spider that was a little smaller than me, with intricate patterns of blue crisscrossing its' back. when i saw who it was, i was surprised. "Shielin?"

"ssss, this one is Shielin. Shadowpelt is king of the forest now. master not crazy after all."

i chuckled a little. "oh, don't you worry. i'm still plenty crazy. now, how is the nest doing?"

"ssss, many spiders have started evolving,ssss, it seems cassandra was holding the spiders back because she was afraid that they would one day usurp her position. this one has also evolved. Shadowpelt has evolved."

"that is good. i will need them soon, and i hope they will be as strong as they can be. tell me, what do you think about conquering a kingdom?"

"..."

"what? cat got your tongue?"

"master was right when he said Shadowpelt was crazy."

"ha ha ha! i'm glad you think so too. but will you do it?"

"ssss, if master orders, this one will obey."

"why?"

"ssss." it seemed to be thinking.

"ssss, because master cares about the nest. you could have killed and eaten the while nest, but you didn't. you took the time to make sure that we would survive and be able to take care of ourselves."

"is that the only reason?"

"sssss, instinct."

"what do you mean, instinct?

"sssss, this one knows that master will become strong. this one wants to be strong with master."

i thought for a little bit, but decided that Shielin could be trusted, and moved on to the rest of my plan. "Shielin, i want you to do something. but first i must ask you a question. where do the wolves live?"

sssss, the wolves main camp is to the north east of the lake. this one knows because spiders sometimes bring back dead wolves, and sometimes spiders disappear.

"good, i want you to go there and ask for a wolf called Egain. tell him that Shadowpelt sent you, and that i would like to talk with him. if he agrees, tell him to go to come to this cave."

"ssss, this one will drag egain's dead body back to the cave for master."

"no! no! i want him to be alive."

"ssssss, this one will capture the wolf egain and drag him unconscious back to this cave for master.

i face palmed like Jordan. "look, i want you to talk to him. if he doesn't want to come, thats fine. just don't do anything hostile, okay? your very important."

"ss-ss-ssss, t-this one w-will go talk with egain. and not kidnap him."

"or kill him."

"or kill him."

seeing that it understood, i turned to see if i could inspect the back wall of my cave for any sign that it was a collapsed tunnel, when i smelled something familiar rushing up to my cave. when it came to the entrance, i was unsurprised that it was Talkir, the spiked beaver. when he saw that i was here, he looked confused by my slightly changed appearance, but wasted no time by saying, "do you intend to keep your word?"

"be it demons or gods, i will help you with your problem."

he looked shocked by my fast answer, but relaxed and told me his problem. "there is a large reptile in the river that is eating my brethren, we can't fight it on our own. will you fight it?"

i smiled my violent smile, and asked.

"How big?"

end of chapter 6