Healing System

Chapter 224 Child of Shadows (4)

"Talk," he spoke while enveloping another goat monster with his shadows.

However, to no one's surprise, this one remained silent as well. With a clench of his fists, the shadows enveloped it too.

By now, there were four shadow creatures formed from him harvesting these monsters.

They were a bit stronger than his own summons solely because these ones had a previous physical form, whereas the ones he summoned were pure mana.

That's why, if he was lucky, the skills of the monsters he managed to absorb would be transferred into that specific shadow summon.

It was a really convenient skill for instilling fear.

Now, the remaining two goat monsters were shaking frantically, their faces showing horrified expressions despite the emotionlessness they had tried to portray earlier.

"Which of you two wants to live?" Kevin questioned with a wide grin. Soon, one of the goat monsters stepped up and fell to the ground before him.

"B-Black spire! That's where the Child of Shadows is! Please spare me!" the goat monster shouted frantically.

However, from this close proximity, Kevin was able to tell something.

The stench of blood—specifically, human blood.

'Of course, when is it not like this...' He let out a sigh before glancing down at the goat monster with a smile.

"You are free to go. Take your friend along the way, okay?"

Immediately, the goat monster's expression beamed as he began running swiftly, the second monster following closely behind.

However, before they could get too far, his shadows suddenly appeared out of the ground, circling them.

Soon, they began breathing fire, trapping the goat monsters as though they were in an oven, burning them to ash nearly instantly.

Kevin nodded in satisfaction before taking a deep breath.

'Much better.'

He not only got rid of the trash but also gained some information.

A win-win situation.

But now, finding that black spire the monster talked about might be a little difficult—after all, this world was massive, and from the looks of it, nothing was nearby.

That also meant he could use his earlier strategy of finding where to go by simply going in the wrong direction.

He tried left, right, and lastly, straight. Going straight appeared to be the correct way, as nothing irregular was happening.

After just a few minutes of travel, he could see something that could probably be taken for a spire; however, he was highly certain that was not it.

In the distance, there was a slim tower, several hundred meters tall.

At the same time, however, Kevin noticed several more towers to the sides, some much bigger than the last.

And finally, the main problem.

In each of the black towers, there was a single person stationed at the very top.

From what Kevin could see, their strength was certainly not great—much like his own.

But still, the fact that each of those people was alive and kicking, while at the same time nearly identical, was a huge issue.

He was unsure how much time he had to complete this trial, nor how long Elizabeth would be stuck in that strange cocoon of hers.

Alas, Kevin would still do whatever he could, so he headed straight for the first tower, entering it from the bottom.

Immediately, despite its slim size, the inside was quite spacious—likely the doing of some spatial magic.

Nonetheless, he made his way up the round staircase, passing by each individual floor in the tower.

A bedroom, a kitchen, a bathroom floor—there was everything.

Finally, at the very top, sat a lone man in his chair, reading a book, uninterested in Kevin, who had appeared before him.

"Are you the Child of Shadows?" Kevin asked, but was merely met with a short look before the man went back to reading.

Just as he thought he would try again, the man finally spoke.

"Wrong."

As his words fell, Kevin suddenly felt some kind of suction force that immediately pushed him back. Before he knew it, he was back outside, staring at the tall black tower before him.

A frown appeared on his face as he realized what had happened.

'So every single time I get the wrong person, I get teleported back to where I started. This is... going to take a while.' Kevin grumbled before spreading out his mana, trying to catch some kind of trace.

To his dismay, there was nothing—merely the same trace of mana over and over again, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Realizing there was no way around this hassle, he decided to go into the next tower, climbing back up again and meeting the same man from earlier.

"...Are you the Child of Shadows?" Kevin asked and was met with a small glance before once again being waved off.

"Wrong."

Trying another tower, and then another... and even more after that, he realized he was not going anywhere.

Each of these towers was the same—both structurally and in terms of whoever was at the very top.

It was the same man over and over again, yet he was still being denied access.

'Am I missing something?' he couldn't help but think in frustration.

How had he not managed to get even a step closer to what he was looking for? The origin or whatever—it was supposed to be here. The Child of Shadows was supposed to be here.

And yet, every single time, it was the same outcome.

'Fuck...' Kevin ruffled his own hair before creating a couch out of his own shadow and sitting down comfortably.

If nothing else was working, what other choice did he have other than to brainstorm his way out?

But now that he had a moment to breathe, despite all the chaos still going around, a thought emerged—one he had not considered before.

'Am I really going about this in the right way? I keep asking the man if he's the Child of Shadows...' He paused, a conflicted look on his face.

'But if he's not the Child of Shadows... then who is?'