Chapter 9: Kidnapping!

Staring at the yellow slite, that inspected him with fear gleaming in them, Shane couldn't even suppress his sly smile as the [Mortal-(Trash)] leather-bag appeared in his hand, which he secured on his belt.

It was still raining and even more annoying to walk over sloppy mud than a few hours before but the young Shadow snake made a big mistake which helped Shane out a lot.

The Shadow-snake youngling averted its gaze from him and tried to snuggle down into the mud to avoid seeing him, thinking that Shane wouldn't notice him too.

This was definitely beneficial for him as the small snake couldn't see him, while Shane was still able to see the Shadow-snakes black scales below the soggy soil.

The mud above the Shadow snake was at most 5 centimeters thick and separated it from the surface.

Shane came closer while trying to prevent making any noises before he stood roughly above the spot where he thought his prey would be.

With his hands already opened, ready to grip the shadow-snake that couldn't sense him due to his concealment potion, Shane leaned forward, waiting for the perfect opportunity to hunt his prey.

5 minutes passed and the snake youngling's tension receded a little bit and Shane sensed his opportunity.

His hands shot towards the ground, piercing through the mud, which did not resist much, as he felt his left hand gripping a thin yet tough, moving body, while his right hand slipped past it.

The Shadow-snake was shocked and began to throw itself around, trying to tangle out of Shane´s firm grip, but its strength was at most equivalent to a low-2nd rank of the Mortal stage and not enough to break out of Shane´s 4th Mortal stage physique.

His right hand supported his left hand, gripping the snake´s head firmly, to avoid being bitten, and laid down the ten-centimeter long Shadow-snake into the small leather bag on his belt.

Its efforts were futile and after the Shadow-snake was inside the leather bag, Shane tightened the ropes around the cap and he could only faintly hear a weird sound emitted from the Snake, causing him to tense up.

'Ohh F**k' was the only thing he could think of, as the Shadow-snake youngling began to emit the weird sound and Shane took out his dagger from the spatial ring before he began to ascend the valley hurriedly.

Behind him, Shane could hear the hissing of multiple snakes and he frowned deeply.

'Why?!' he lamented and his leather bag was tossed around on his belt, making his ascension slightly more difficult.

In front of Shane appeared multiple Shadow-snakes and he began to curse out loud when the first few began to obstruct his path.

They shot towards him and Shane could only barely evade them due to the mud he was standing on.

With minuscule movements, Shane learned during the last few years of instructions he received from dozens of renowned martial artists and Cultivators, it wouldn't be a problem, as long as he was on firm ground, which was unfortunately not the case and it decreased his efficiency in evading the snakes by a large margin.

With that in mind, Shane severed multiple Shadow-snakes and ascended further, only to see multiple Shadow-phyton with their size of 80 centimeters up to 1.5 meters charging up from below.

Gritting his teeth, he shouted in his mind

'[System] purchase a [Mortal-(Trash)} prismarine-luminous crystal, the smallest available [Mortal-(Trash)] mana stone, and a mana Initiator'

[Carry out the purchase worth 1 Gold? Permission required]

"YES!" Shane shouted out loud when the Shadow-pythons were only five meters apart from him.

Suddenly, within his Spatial ring, which was almost completely crammed full with Nightshade flowers, a white crystal, a pebble-sized blue shining stone, and a small seven-centimeter-long grey machine with a single vacancy, appeared inside.

Taking the mana initiator and the pebble-sized mana stone out, Shane was only able to remain relatively calm thanks to the [Hunter´s Mind] supporting his mind.

Nevertheless, his hands couldn't help but tremble slightly and he took two tries until he could press the small pebble-sized mana stone inside the initiator´s vacancy.

Shane immediately activated the Initiator and one could faintly see a faint hue of mana releasing from it, which Shane couldn´t see it.

He relied on the system, that the device would work as a white crystal appeared in his hand, which he pressed down on the Initiator.

Holding everything together with his right hand, he raised up the arm and the prismarine-luminous crystal began to glow lightly before the intensity began to increase slowly.

The Shadow-python´s behind him was only two meters apart from him and he increased his speed even more, which was increasingly difficult, as his body wasn´t shaped to climb a muddy slope, where snakes had obviously an advantage.

'FASTER!!' Shane shouted in his mind and suddenly a pungent white glow lightened up the surrounding, causing him to slow down by a small degree, before he ascended the slope with closed eyes, following his other senses.

A dry smile appeared on his face as he heard the Shadow-snakes and -pythons crying out in pain, as they couldn't endure the obtrusive bright light radiating from the prismarine-luminous crystal.

Without looking back, Shane ascended the slope, and a quarter of an hour later, the bright glow subsided, when he almost reached the top of the valley.

The small mana stone he had used was already completely used up, as the prismarine-luminous crystal wasn't able to digest all the mana the Initiator released.

Nevertheless, Shane was happy that everything worked and the tension around him decreased by a marginal amount.

Not wasting any time, he opened his eyes once again and charged towards the top, hoping the Shadow-snakes and pythons had better things to do than following him while the Shadow-snake youngling in the leather bag, was already fully exhausted due to its utmost efforts to break out of the imprisonment.

At the top of the valley, Shane sighed in relief, which did not mean, that he stopped in his tracks as he searched his way out of the Soul-Onyx-Jungle.

30 minutes later, he stepped out of the Jungle, when his eyesight dimmed slightly.

'Oh' Shane thought as he noticed the potion effects dissipating and he could only faintly see his surroundings thanks to the moon lighting up the dark green grass, he stood on..

On a small pitch, he perceived the lights emitted by the shelter walls and he roughly remembered the way back to the BlackSoul shelter.

As such he didn't even think about purchasing another Nightsight potion and slowly strolled closer to the gates of the shelter.

The Guards were still the same as before and they eyed Shane weirdly, seeing the previously refined-looking youth with him being completely dirty, from head to toe, except the long black robe which was still spotless.

Alone from his robe, he should be someone rather rich but seeing his dirty face, the guards weren´t sure anymore as not many wealthy descendants would dirty themself.

Rather than that, they would hire someone else to do the dirty jobs, while they did something easier.

Shane smiled at the guards, who replied with an awkward smile, before following the standard procedures like showing them his name and race from the status.

With that, humans could prevent races like the 'Shifters' from infiltrating their shelter unnoticed.

[Shifters] were one of the many races, frustrating humans and dozen other races due to their ability to transform into all kinds of living beings.

It was said that they only need one drop of blood to transform into a completely different being for 48 hours and during this time they were apparently even able to use their strength and skills to a certain degree, which shocked Shane when he heard about their ability for the first time.

Humanity lost their first Basic shelter and Dimension Portal due to this race and they had to pay a huge price, thanks to their negligence.

One's status panel couldn't be changed and one could only purchase an alias that was directly connected to one's name.

Meanwhile showing your status to someone else had to be admitted by the host.

Shane gave the guards only permission to see his name and his race, nothing more and the guard let him through, after asking what was inside his leather bag.

'These guards are really careful' Shane thought, approving and he stated that it was a Shadow-snake youngling he wanted to test out his taming skill with a smile blossomed on his dirty face, confusing the guards even more.