Silence.

Nobody said a word after they witnessed Shade's demonstration but immediately after a few seconds, the crowd began to roar, cheers could be heard everywhere, it was as if they had just won a war, mugs of drinks were thrown into the air, filling the surroundings with the sweet stench of mead.

"Do it again!!"

"Hahaha, that was amazing!"

"By Odin!! What was that?!"

"Amazing!"

"Hey, Oleg d'ya see that?!!"

"That was intense!"

"Thor bless us! that was amazing!"

The crowd immediately surrounded Shade, they went mad over the demonstration, they completely forgot about the condescending looks they threw at Shade and Night. However, Shade just held out his hand calling for the Trident to return before he walked back to Night and knelt in front of him,

"This one is eternally grateful to My Lord for My Lord's generosity," Shade said while he lowered his head. Of course, the crowd had different reactions, some were curious as to who it was that Shade was bowing to, some wanted Night to show off his powers as well, some were surprised to see Shade kneel in such a manner.

'Man...he uses the words my lord way too much...' Night frowned internally,

"Get up Shade, jeez, I told you it's a gift from my side, besides I can't use the weapon even if I tried so it's better if you were to use it," Night replied as he massaged his eyebrows.

Night then walked towards another dummy, it was now his turn to practise, he didn't really plan to show off or prove himself since Shade had done more than that, Night was more interested in understanding how the skill system worked, he managed to learn rapid shot and swiss men's thrust through the constant repetitions of certain actions. Would he learn more skills by just repeating actions?

'Perhaps, I'll need to repeat specific actions? of course, I doubt the system just gives away skills for free, that would mean everyone would have access to an arsenal of skills, obviously its also possible that someone other than me tried this out already, actually, I'm 100% sure that thousands of others might've already tried to understand the system...some may have even figured out the secret behind it.' Night stood there, as he thought to himself, completely oblivious of the looks he was receiving, he wasn't aware that the other's were waiting for him, even if he was in the beginning, once he began to think, he rid his mind of anything unnecessary.

'Let's see...I guess I should start with Umbrakinesis, it works exactly the same as weapon aura does but it's stronger? and has an element allotted to it, while normal weapon aura doesn't really have any element and is considered neutral, its damage is constant and doesn't deal more damage to one element and lower damage to another but that isn't the case with Umbrakinesis, I'm not sure how the elements work in Genesis but it looks like Umbrakinesis has the dark element attached to it, naturally considering, it literally translates to 'controlling shadows and darkness', the dark element deals increased damage to the light element but at the same time the light element does increased damage to the dark element...I'm not sure about it dealing more damage to the other elements or lesser damage but it looks like its base damage is higher than weapon aura.

But how do I use this to my advantage? my control over the skill isn't at the level where I can attack from random sides, of course, while my domain is up it is possible...but what if I can use the shadows around me to attack?....that's absolutely broken but even if it somehow was possible, my control over the skill should be higher. Hmmm..but it's not as though my control is weak... it's more like the skill acts with me as a centre, so I can't stretch it far from my body or control shadows or darkness far from my body.

Is there a way for me to use it while it remained close to me...hmm something with range? a bow? but will the arrows travel? or do they use me as a centre as well? ahhh, there's only one way to find out, who cares if I fail, lets just try it out,'

The crowd grew impatient while Night just stood there with his fingers to his eyebrows, the only reason they even stayed for so long was because of how impressed they were by Shade's performance and also because Shade called Night his lord. Just as the crowd was about to scream, they could see shadows of some sort form around Night, slowly but surely the shadows took the shape of a bow, a bow that Shade recognized, it was Dawn's bow but why would His Lord take out the bow randomly? especially since they weren't near the targets, of course, even the dummies could be used to practise archery.

Night then created distance between himself and the dummy, he walked until he was sure that he couldn't control the shadows around the dummies, from such a distance if his arrows disappeared then it would mean that they didn't work with him as the centre. He was nervous, if it worked and his thoughts were proved right, then he would grow exponentially.

Once again, the crowd was silent, they had a complicated expression on their face, why was someone able to control shadows? dark element mages weren't exactly uncommon but even if they could somehow manipulate shadows or darkness, it wasn't like Night. Other than the very distant sound of hammering, the entire training area was quiet, they watched as Night was now at least more than 30 meters away from the dummy, he slowly pulled a line of darkness that acted as the bow's string and held it for a few seconds.

He was getting anxious, he hoped the anxiety may morph into eustress but he couldn't be overconfident. He held the string for roughly four seconds before he could feel a strange sense of depletion, even though Umbrakinesis didn't actually require mana.

*𝘡𝘐𝘗𝘗𝘗𝘗*

He released the arrow, both the crowd and Night were watching its trajectory, it was as if time slowed down for everyone, they could see the arrow slowly move towards the dummy but the second it got 5meters away from Night it disappeared. Complex expressions were visible on everyone's faces, including Night's, his idea failed and the arrows worked with him as a centre, the complex expressions soon turned into a frown as they realized Night tricked them but before they could look at Night, a loud piercing sound was heard.

*𝘒𝘙𝘊𝘊𝘒𝘒*

The training dummy that Night stood 30m away and shot at, had a hole the size of an arrow in its forehead and right behind it, the snow could be seen bubbling as a dark substance melted it away.