Jack went to Sword in the Forge like the other days but chose to skip his practices and returned home afterward. He couldn’t wait any longer to unlock another branch in the system.

Jack greeted Sophie, took a sip of tea, and went straight to his room. After locking the door and closing all the curtains, creating a rather gloomy afternoon atmosphere, Jack sat down on his bed and took out the orb from his bag. The Legacy Orb was seemingly homogeneous with the air of the room. The black light, dark as it was, was the most visible thing at that moment.

With his back straightened and his mind relaxed, Jack focused his eyes on the orb. Much like earlier, it felt like his consciousness was being pulled in, his senses overwhelmed, as if submerged under the ocean, the waves taking him closer and closer toward a mysterious storm. Then, he found himself being shot through the clouds, passing by invisible winds of magic and stopped just as suddenly as he was launched. He had been tossed into a dark space; under his feet was a small piece of land, floating in the middle of endlessness.

A gigantic figure appeared before Jack, his body blended with the veil of night; the sparkling stars created his transparent shape and form. As the figure extended his arms forward, Jack could see the outline of its body moving. A small violet dagger formed in the palm of his hand. With a flick of the wrist, a dark fire covered the weapon. The fire flickered on the blade as the man took a step back, bent his arm, and threw it.

Jack’s eyes followed the dagger. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief as the space around the blade was seemingly bent by the flashing, dashing fire. The color of the night and the light of the stars were twisted on the projectile's path. The destination of the weapon was a meteorite the size of Oxdale. The contact occurred right in front of Jack and the meteorite exploded as the dagger and the flame on it were shattered into small needle-like shards that flew directly at the new meteorite pieces. The whole process kept on repeating and finally, the sharpness of the needles and the fierceness of the fire chipped away the gigantic space rock until all that was left was a cloud of dust.

Jack gaped at the sight. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in his head and he was dragged out of the orb’s vision. He immediately gasped for air, realizing his body hadn’t been breathing the whole time.

“A Divine Legacy Orb,” Jack spoke in awe, feeling the immense power.

Jack’s eyes brightened up. He was breathing heavily, but not because he was still in need of air after almost suffocating. It was an extremely crucial moment for him as this could be the new doorway he desperately needed. If used correctly, he would be able to acquire new skills without having to wait for the system to restart.

Jack put his hand on his chest and patted it to calm himself down. Once again, he turned his eyes toward the orb.

The dark empty cosmic space reappeared before him. The figure was still there, floating around. As if he was letting Jack witness his final performance, he swung his arm up and another dagger appeared in his hand again. A second flick of the wrist, and the blade was floating before him. He repeated it until Jack could see ten floating daggers forming a line before him.

The figure of the night then raised his fist in front of himself and opened the palm of his hand, ordering the daggers coated in dark flame to fly forward. Jack didn’t have to follow the projectiles to know the result of this performance. He was sure that the move could potentially destroy a whole small nation, the likes of Omnivell. The destructive capacity of the skill only stopped because there was nothing left of the meteorite to disintegrate anymore.

Ignoring the explosion behind him, Jack’s eyes were still locked onto the figure.

I have witnessed Divine power. Now show me the way, Jack screamed inside.

The deep transparent eyes of the figure of a Divine turned toward him and Jack once again found himself drifting away with darkness surrounding him. When Jack regained his eyesight, he was in a deep forest. The dim moonlight shone through the layer of leaves above him and the only sound he could hear was his own breathing. There was nothing but silence as if the wind had been taken away and life exterminated.

Jack looked around, trying to figure out where this was, but found his feet locked in place as the grass underneath was growing long, crawling up and tightening him. He heard a whoosh and a shadow dashed before his eyes. A rustling sound came from the trees, and the shadow reappeared in a different bush. When Jack tried to get a clear vision of the dark figure, it was instantly surrounded by a cloud of black smoke.

As the smoke dispersed, the person was nowhere to be seen. Jack looked around in all directions, twisting his neck since his body was locked in place, making him groan a bit.

A shh came from in front of Jack, stopping him from almost snapping his neck trying to find the mysterious shadow and making him look toward a tree. Jack thought he had searched in that direction before since he didn’t have many directions to look at in the first place. From the dark half of the tree, the person slowly walked out, moving toward Jack. His body was slim, wearing black tights, face seemingly covered by a layer of mist. One second he was a few meters away from Jack and the next, they were face to face. With a quick move of raising an arm up, he released a hidden dagger.

The blade flew downward, plunging at Jack’s forehead.

Jack screamed in agony in the middle of the silent forest. But, it wasn’t because of the physical pain but rather the enormous amount of knowledge flowing into his head. The man before Jack spoke, his voice like thunder echoing in a cave.

“The night is for you to conquer, Jack Corvus. Align your mind and mine for power and might.”

Jack tried to let go of himself and the pain faded. In its place was a strange flow of energy running through his body. His eyes were closed, but he could feel his arms and legs performing something. Knowledge about the Nightblade faction gradually appeared in his mind and his body was passively simulating all of its skills.

He slowly grasped what it felt like to be a Nightblade through the vision he was having, the vision of embodying the shadow in the forest that he had just encountered. He only let his presence be known through the guidance of some distant will. He blended into the night, released black smoke to create a cover, and pushed the speed of his body using a specialized mana manipulation method as he moved from one tree to another. The dagger was dancing between his fingers and he saw himself stabbing his former self, an entangled and astonished Jack, not a frightened one.

The power of a Nightblade had its foundation in Darkness. The playground of Nightblade was where the light was dim. As such, their weakness was as obvious as their strength. A battlefield with the presence of the sun or any source of bright light could hinder the capability of any follower of this faction. However, the Nightblades were also famous for their cunning. The higher the rank, the more pre-measures other factions could have to deal with Nightblade, but at the same time, the Nightblade had evolved countermeasures of their own.

With all that information passed, the Legacy Orb gave him a conclusion. No creators hadn’t tried to make their own faction perfect. There was no strongest faction, just the strongest practitioner.

Jack wasn’t sure how long it had been since he entered the orb’s vision, but when he finally awakened, the room was pitch black. The curtains had blocked all the moonlight, itself feeble on a cloudy day. The lambs on the hallway were all shut as silence surrounded the mansion. Everybody must have been in their deep sleep by this time.

What a befitting atmosphere for tonight’s event, Jack exclaimed.

If Sophie were in the room with Jack right now, she would have fainted seeing her son’s creepy and vicious grin. The craving expression on Jack’s face would give the impression of a mad starving person. Though hungry he really was, there was only one thing in his eyes right now, exactly like the time when he finished the book The Art of Artificer.

In front of him, the system table appeared with the floating faction nodes. The one representing Nightblade had its progress changed.

Nightblade: 100%.

Initialization time: 65 days 23 hours 21 minutes 41 seconds.