After having achieved what he had resided here to do, he decided he would have a look at the gains he made during this past week as he once again thought the words ‘Status’.

Status

Name: Nicholas Gray

Class: None

Race: Shadow Demon

Titles: The Last of the Shadow Demons

Level: 5

Health: 200/200

Health Regeneration Rate: 0.20 per second

Mana: 200/200

Mana Regeneration Rate: 0.20 per second

Strength: 20

Constitution:20

Vitality: 20

Agility: 20

Dexterity:20

Perception: 19

Charisma: 5

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 20

Luck:4

Unassigned Stat Points: 25

Active Skills: Identify (Active) lvl 5 (53%), Shadow Manipulation (Active) lvl 7 (53%), Mana Manipulation (Active) lvl 3 (34%), Assassination (Active) lvl 12 (9%)

Passive Skills: Sword Mastery (Passive) lvl 3 (9%), Combat Knife (Dagger) Mastery (Passive) lvl 9 (13%), Shadow Footwork (Passive) lvl 15 (2%)

Affinities: Shadow element

His status was coming together pretty well, although perception was off by a bit, it was still what he had originally wanted. He also began to interpret more clearly the meanings behind what each stat point did and with that knowledge, he enhanced his training in response.

Strength was the factor that determined how heavy of a force he placed behind a blow and was improved under physical training of the body. Constitution was how much overall health he had and how strong his body was naturally, so the more he pushed his bodies limits, the more growth he’d go through. Vitality was the rate at which the regeneration of health took place, and so if he made his health deplete through being bombarded with attacks, the more that was regenerated, the more growth it would undergo.

Agility increased whenever he did is morning mile run, pushing his limits here increased the length of his steps and speed in between them and his overall reflexes. It also increased when dodging blows from monsters, specifically, the wolves residing near his cavern. Dexterity being the accuracy of pinpointing vital points like the heart and neck. Perception increased his sight, and was one of the hardest to increase due to not certainly knowing what to do. But after carefully experimenting in hopes of finding a way to develop it, it seemed it increased when he carefully analyzed opponents and the distance between him and the opponent. Which when increased, affects the amount of information collected from looking at the opponent, which works well with Identify, and perhaps provides a synergizing effect of some sorts, although he hasn’t looked that far into it.

Charisma and Luck Nicholas just gave up on, it was practically impossible for him to increase them. He didn’t even honestly know what they did to affect him, he would just forget about them for now.

Intelligence and Wisdom however, he managed to comprehend more easily than Charisma and Luck. Intelligence affected the amount of mana he could possess, power of spells, and the ability to learn. Whilst Wisdom affected the rate of regeneration and the control he had over spells. So, in order to increase his Wisdom, he continuously casted Shadow Manipulation, understanding the flow in order to better his control over the element.

After expending all his mana controlling and gaining a better insight around its use, he had a rather painful headache attacking the corners of his mind. Enough for a normal person to pass out unconscious, but by no means was Nicholas normal. Whilst increasing Wisdom during this time, he also decided to try and understand Shadow Manipulations limits.

This being that there was a certain size limit which he couldn’t surpass for condensing shadows, which was around 5 combat knives max as of now, which is a kilogram each and spanning a length of 43 centimetres each. He also figured out he needed to span his consciousness so he kept focus on them all, making sure that they did not dissipate back into the environment.

After understanding more properly what the stat points did individually and Shadow Manipulations limits, he decided to choose which stats to invest into with his accumulated stacks of unassigned stat points. Shortly after coming to the conclusion he would assign them into Dexterity, Agility, Strength, Perception, Wisdom, and a bit of Intelligence.

As they seemed more convenient and appropriate for the role of an Assassin or Scout, as he used to be back in Reach. He placed 20 stat points into Agility and the other 5 into dexterity. The feeling of the rush caught him off guard, as he felt his body change in some unprecedented way. He had decided upon this distribution due to his stats already reaching an average 20 across the board, hence going with a min max build which would make him excell in one area and be around average or below in others.

The agility also synergized well with his skill Shadow Footwork, that improved how he could dodge strikes and how he could blend himself more into the background, losing the enemies focus. Which was the effect that Shadow Footwork provided. The momentum produced from the agility as well would provide an effect that would penetrate through the enemies defenses in contrast to strength, although it would work more effectively if it were to be distributed to strength. He conjured up a Combat Knife from the shadows dwelling in the cave as his mana dropped from 200 to 55.

He begun to slash and thrust it in a series of strikes at the air in front of him as it parted for his blade. Flustered by the speed at which his hand moved, he smiled in satisfaction before placing the knife in a sheathe on the armor which was his body, spreading his consciousness towards it in order to keep it in a condensed state.

‘Looks like it’s time to leave, as Nicholas parted from the cave, his footsteps engraving themselves into the dirt below his feet as he walked through the forest unhindered. The forest vacant, as a tranquil and peaceful silence enveloped him and the forest in turn. He walked on, his black figure so clearly evident in the light of day as he looked around to take in the beautiful scenery of the forest supported by the sun's bright glow.

Unlike on Reach, he never got to take in the beautiful scenery around him. Most likely because there wasn’t anything beautiful to look at, but nonetheless, it was still admiringly astonishing at how appealing and fascinating this normal scenery seemed to him. To others, it were but a forest, to him, a haven for god’s will, well, if there were to be such a thing as a god in this despicable universe.

After being engulfed in the relaxing atmosphere, having his vision obscured by the scenery of the forest, he heard a blood curdling scream sound out from the his right side. Taken aback from his dazed state, he moved in quick strides towards the abhorrent sound of death. An all too familiar one must he say.

He stopped at the brink of a small open field, what lay there were a group of 13 wolves backs facing him as a group of people cowered in fear, some determination, as they stood their ground at the sight of such a mass of wolves, as a small group of 5 people cowered in fear. 4 of the wolves were indulging themselves in the bloody corpse of a boy around the age of 16 as his body was torn apart, guts and intestines spilled out from the bloody mess. His clothes a ragged heap as they absorbed the blood that flowed from the corpse through the holes that seeped blood in great supply.

His throat torn out as he lied adjacent to the ground, the corpse painted with the expression of horror and fear as it lay motionless. Nicholas turned from the corpse to the wolves, a small crescent splitting apart the bottom of his helmet as he began to immerse himself in killing intent. His cold calculative demeanor taking in the scene before him before stating only one, heart wrenching word.

‘Kill’