Chapter 26 Third Void Walk [1] - Stage 1 Collapse

As Null walked away from the trio he was previously talking to, he returned his attention to the energy that was coursing through his veins and running rampant within his body. He felt as if cold water was streaming his insides, and while the experience felt as good as a cold breeze in the middle of a summer day, he could not help but feel slightly worried about the volume of energy within his body.

However, his worries were unfounded as almost half the energy had been digested in the 1 and a half minutes it took him to reach the others, and from what he could feel, nothing had happened yet except the gradual return of the pain coursing through his very being.

'Must be mana strain...' He thought to himself.

It made sense. He used an enormous amount of mana that he would have been capable of using if not for his second void walk, which gave him an immense boost in all his attributes, including his mana pool.

"What's my current progress?" Null asked while looking at his watch.

[64%]

Null simply nodded, yet he was internally shocked by how killing a single hobgoblin could bring him so much closer to becoming a first commandment.

Of course, he also knew that the path from here on out would be extremely difficult, not only because of the predictable increase in the difficulty of his Void Walks, but also due to how long it might take to reach the next commandments.

'Every commandment has its own power scaling. People choose to power scale using anything from metals to titles. Us humans can be so simple sometimes. Superficial even.

"Hey, Null! Over here!" Rosepetal waved, causing Null to look towards her with a tilt of the head in response to her annoying shouting.

"Watch this!" She waved him over, and when he finally got to her, his eyes were locked on her mobile phone that was showing the battle between him and Transcendent against the goblin chief.

"I have to say, you two do make a pretty good team. I've never seen him fight like that with anyone before. He is more of a loner when it comes to these things. I'm worried that it might kill him one day haha." Poisonlily chimed in.

However, instead of replying to Poisonlily, Null looked around for a moment before asking-

"Do any of you happen to have something that can cure mana strain?"

"Hmm... I think I have a mana replenishing bottle in my storage device. Why do you need it?" She tilted her head in curiosity.

"My insides feel like they are on fire." Null shrugged.

"Hahaha. Nice try. If you were actually going through mana strain, you would be crying and puking non-stop. It is incredibly painful, you know." She laughed.

"I would never do that. That would be incredibly humiliating." Null sighed.

"Well then, you're probably faking it then."

"How long does it take for the pain to subside?" Null asked without a change in his cold tone.

"Usually a few hours." She explained.

"I see. I'll just wait then." Null muttered and began to walk away, but Rosepetal quickly stopped him.

"Are you sure? It looks like you used a lot of mana..."

"No need. I'll just-" However before Null could refuse, a hand holding a glass bottle with blue liquid inside it extended towards him.

"She's correct, you know. You haven't even reached the first commandment. Don't be stubborn." Damien argued while flashing his signature smile.

Seeing Damien's gesture, Null knew what was coming but took the bottle anyway, turned around, and gulped it down after lifting his mask slightly.

Returning the glass bottle, Null tried to walk away, but he was quickly stopped again.

"Mr. Null. I have a propesition." Damien announced, catching the attention of almost everyone.

Halting his steps, Null turned around.

"Not interested."

Without skipping a beat, he turned around and walked away.

"Wait!" Damien shouted.

p1ease visi(t) n0ve1b(in).ne)t

'This clearing is starting to agitate me. Could have sworn there were more trees here.' Null rubbed his temple.

"We can give you anything. Money? Fame? All our families are rich and famous with varying degrees of political power. Our families can easily nurture you and your family!" Damien attempted to persuade.

"Apologies, but I am still not interested." Null waved, but instead of walking away like his previous attempts, he slowly sunk into his own shadow, leaving everyone completely stunned.

"Did he just sink into his own shadow to avoid a conversation..." Rosepetal asked with a complex expression on her face.

"Absolute genius." Monarch nodded approvingly while the rest looked at him with a disapproving expression.

The rest of the day went as expected. The reapers and Osmygold's team went out to get some drinks and stayed out for the rest of the night before returning at sunrise.

On the other hand, Lloyd was sitting in the middle of his room in the lotus position as he continued to meditate for longer than he could recall. The main reason for that was the fact that he had to absorb a lot of the hobgoblin's dormant energies into his cells equally.

While the body would have completed that task of distributing the energy if the amount was small, the same could not be said when the energy comes from a creature in the mid stages of the first commandment. This forced Lloyd to take things into his own hands and direct the energy to all his cells equally.

After several hours, Lloyd finally opened his eyes and looked at the mirror to see if there were any changes.

"What the hell? Did my abs become more defined? I mean, I'm not complaining, but damn. At this rate, I might qualify for a bodybuilding competition." Lloyd chuckled while posing in the mirror.

"I don't have any real muscle, so I'm not sure why my body is making it look like I do... Wouldn't it just reduce my mobility while making me less flexible?" He asked himself, but after another glance, he narrowed his eyes and came to a conclusion.

"My muscles don't seem to have increased in size. They've just become more defined. In due time, I'm more likely to look like a statue of a greek god rather than a heavy professional bodybuilder."

Nodding, Lloyd quickly put on his mask, changed into suitable battle wear, and went to the gymnasium to train.

Of course, no one he knew was there due to them either puking their guts out or being completely blacked out, making the session both lonely and extremely productive. Of course, he didn't have Osmygold's expertise in training, but instead, he had a variety of strangers willing to spar against him, allowing him to create a variety of new combos, as well as creative ways to use his abilities.

After that, he would go hunting for goblins in the forest to increase his power before returning to the inn and meditating in order to comprehend his shadow affinity.

3 days passed in a flash, and before Lloyd knew it, he had been in the dungeon labyrinth for a little over 5 days.

[Ding]

[Unread message: 3 days ago]

"Hmm?" Lloyd frowned and thought of what it could be, but when he couldn't think of anything significant, he simply tapped onto the light purple inbox message and checked it out.

[Unread message: -

Changes have been made to your status screen]

"Oh? Show my my status screen then." Lloyd replied with a slightly excited tone of voice.

A low chime entered his ears as the screen in front of him disappeared before being replaced by another purple transparent screen.

Lloyd's eyes quickly scanned over the entire screen onto two words that made his mouth gape in surprise while his eyes arched upwards in excitement.

A smile could not help but crawl up the corner of his lips, and before he knew it, he was muttering the words-

"Holy f*cking sh*t."

***

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and while everything seemed normal on the surface, there was on a particular difference that some have noticed.

"Is Null some kind of training maniac?" Asked a girl no older than 17 years old. Her crimson hair gently danced in the winds as she sat atop a tall wall that had been erected around the town for what looked like decades.

"You guys know him the best, I would have expected you to know." A girl with black hair and emerald eyes sneered.

"We've known him for two days more than you guys. However, I have to say, his training has become a lot more intense in the last 2 days compared to the other 5." Osmygold stroked his beard before scanning the city with his hazel eyes.

"What a show-off. I bet he's doing all this to impress the girls." Peacexelr complained.

"I don't think he is that kind of person." A boy's voice chimed in, causing the red of them to widen their eyes before looking towards the source.

As their eyes darted toward the source, their shook for a moment before a collective sigh of relief left their agape mouths.

"Trans... You shouldn't scare us like that." Poisonlily complained while Trans simply laughed at her.

"Starforger, huh..." Osmygold sighed while eyeing the hoverboard Transcendent was standing on, allowing him to float above the wall without making any noise other than a low wooshing on the wind whenever he glided around.

"Have you checked on Null lately?" Rosepetal asked with a tilt of the head.

"Hmm? Why me?" Transcendent asked with an irritated smile.

"Well, you guys seemed like a dream team. I watched back the footage, and you guys worked really well together. I would have thought that you would have checked up on him, or he would have opened up to you?" Rosepetal shrugged.

"Well I haven't really talked to him at all so..."

"He's been training for about 20 hours a day before returning to his room on 4. That has to be unhealthy, right?" Poisonlily groaned while the rest simply nodded with different expressions on their faces.

"Wait... I actually haven't seen him leave his room today. Have you guys?" Rose asked before seeing everyone else shake their heads.

"Maybe he's getting some sleep?" Transcendent joked.

"No way. For more than 7 hours? Impossible!" Poisonlily gasped while the rest laughed without a care in the world.

***

[Choose your weapon]

A monotone voice entered Lloyd's ears before 10 weapons appeared before him.

Lloyd didn't bother looking at the rest of the weapons, as within an instant, his eyes locked upon a katana before his hand stretched towards it and wrapped around its hilt.

[You have chosen your weapon]

[Void Walk shall commence in 5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

The darkness of the void around loid began to warp and break before it wrapped around him and made him disappear from that plane.

In an instant, Lloyd found himself standing in a forest clearing, yet unlike last time, he could not feel the hundreds of presences around him...

Instead, he only felt one...

"Come on out wherever you are..." Lloyd muttered with a cold-blooded smile on his face. Unlike the lack of expressions when he put his mask on, Lloyd's expression was crazed...

It was the smile of a predator. A serial killer.

And the Alpha Shadow wolf recognized that.

However, it was too late for it to run since-

*DOOOM*

Lloyd's vibrant violet eyes darted toward the wolf before his smile extended to a widened grin.

"Let's play a little game, shall we?"