Becoming the Dark Lord

A few days had passed since Luke began that strange, solitary training. Before forging the core itself, he first had to forge the idea inside him, inside his soul. That was what Vaelor had told him. Mind, body, and soul all had to be prepared first. His soul would need to resonate with the second core.

Luke kept thinking back to electrical examples from school. It felt like grabbing two exposed wires, one in each hand, letting the current pass through you to reach the other side. That was how the second core would behave. Charlie, Angie, and even Layla used that time to hunt beasts on the far side of the abyss and level up. Luke barely saw them anymore. He spent most of his time on the opposite half of the chasm.

“The Sovereign Azazel said it’s possible because of your Wraith Form, since he has extensive knowledge of core fusion,” Vaelor explained. “Even so, there are additional risks you need to account for.”

Azazel had granted permission for the Demon Blacksmith to call him by name. Even trying to hide it, Luke noticed how pleased the specter-demon seemed.

“With every step forward, it feels like my chances of dying keep getting higher,” Luke muttered.

He stared at several beast cores he had collected during his hunts. Some he had cracked open just to look inside, trying to understand how they worked. Now his training revolved around sensing the mana contained within them. What he was attempting was no different from implanting another creature’s heart into his own body.

“Wraith Form isn’t a common skill,” Vaelor remarked.

“Another one of those system requirement things?” Luke asked.

Samael had hinted at something similar when talking about his Witch class.

“Correct, little demon. That’s why I was so surprised by the revelation. It’s far more common among demons, spectral creatures, obviously, and Shadow Beings.”

“Shadow Beings?”

“A race of creatures made of shadow. Beasts, monsters, anything you can imagine. Those without intelligence, the truly bestial ones, love becoming Wraiths. The rational ones prefer stealth, or using that power to instill fear,” Vaelor explained.

As he spoke, he hammered molten metal, forging core molds, like baking molds for a cake. Luke helped however he could. Vaelor told him what to grab, what to adjust, and Luke followed through. They were adapting the process since Luke wasn’t a blacksmith.

“The Primordial believes a mold will be useful to you.”

“So it’s like making ice.”

Azazel had explained that Luke would first create a liquid core, like a potion, and then shape it within the mold. It was a way around the fact that he lacked any blacksmithing skill. Alchemy and botany would carry part of the burden. When the molds were finished, Luke used a tool to lower them into a barrel of water to help them harden.

“Will I lose Wraith Form in the process?” he asked again.

“If you only lose the skill, consider yourself lucky. But yes, it’s almost certain. Since you aren’t a true specter, the skill will be consumed during the creation of the beast,” Vaelor replied.

That skill had carried him since the tutorial. It had saved his life more times than he could count, slipping through narrow spaces, escaping certain death, even blinding enemies. A small price to pay for the power it would give him.

***

Luke sprinted through the forest at the bottom of the abyss. Serpents slid between the trees, pursuing him, spilling out from the cavern network behind. He was searching for the Abyss King. He leapt, narrowly avoiding the strike of a massive serpent. Another lunged straight at him.

[Burst Throw activated]

Luke hurled a knife. The impact was so violent it blew the creature’s head apart. He was using the chase as training. There was no way to channel that skill through his kukris. It would destroy them. He kept running, grabbing the knives that floated around him and driving them into the massive serpents lurking in the forest.

Luke threw two knives toward the mouth of a cave.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The blades shot forward like rockets, vanishing into the tunnel.

[You have slain a…]

[You have slain a…]

[You have slain a…]

He kept throwing, kept killing. Serpents emerged only to be struck down immediately. Knife after knife, nonstop, one thunderous blast after another as the blades tore into whatever lurked inside the tunnels. When that wave ended, he turned his attention to the beasts drawn by the noise.

[You have slain a…]

[You have slain a…]

[You have slain a…]

[You have slain a…]

...

Luke focused on the two notifications hovering in his interface.

**Your class [Demonic Predator] has reached Level 72!**

**[You have reached Level 69! Half-Demon (Rank E)] (+2 bonus point to all attributes, +5 free point)**

“More attribute points. More power.”

He crouched down, collecting the beast cores scattered across the ground. I should start giving some of these to Franky. At this point, he should already be Rank E with how many cores I’ve picked up and tossed aside.

***

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Luke found a small lake and remained there for several hours, watching and waiting. Eventually, a monster appeared, something like a wolf fused with an elk. It drank from the water, soon joined by others of its kind.

Luke stayed hidden, observing. He activated [Wraith Form], moving as a specter. That form was slower, but he never lost sight of them. When one strayed far from the group, he drifted above the ground, intangible. The beast noticed him, but too late. Luke had already expanded into black smoke, wrapping around it. Mist poured outward. The creature snapped at the air, biting at nothing, reacting to the unseen threat.

Luke solidified within the fog and rushed forward, slashing into the beast’s side. He dodged the counterattack, slipped behind it, then vanished again, melting back into the mist. He repeated the process for a while, testing his control, until two more beasts arrived to help. Luke killed them quickly. The last one, the one that had drawn the others, he finished using [Curse].

**Your second class [Witch] has reached Level 40!**

[You have unlocked a Class Skill]

***

Luke trailed the serpents from a distance, learning by watching them. He moved through the treetops, throwing knives and activating [Witch’s Thread] to swing from branch to branch. They might have been beasts, but there was a rhythm to them, a ritual, a routine.

Every few days he saw it happen. The serpents carried chunks of meat in their mouths, pieces of corpses, sometimes smaller beasts, sometimes other dead serpents. He followed them through a cave system until, far inside, he found a mound of offerings. Each group of serpents split off into different tunnels. Not all of them reached the same place.

When the smaller serpents withdrew, Luke stayed still and observed. The offering lay at the edge of an underground lake. Then something rose from the water. A massive serpent.

I found the Abyss King.

Luke conjured a black knife. The serpent’s scales were dark gray, streaked with green patterns that shimmered faintly in the dim light. While it fed, distracted and unguarded, Luke simply watched. Then he threw.

He infused the blade with the power of [Burst Throw].

Mid-flight, he triggered another skill.

[Telekinetic Impulse activated]

The knife tore through the air like a rifle round. A thunderous crack echoed through the cavern as it struck the serpent on the side of the neck. The sound rolled across stone and water alike. The creature collapsed, its head lolling at an unnatural angle, a massive, blood-soaked crater blown through its flesh.

He did it.

The power of Burst Throw is insane.

[You have slain an Abyss Prince - Lvl 94]

“Prince?”

So this wasn’t the Abyss King. Still, its size was staggering.

Franky should have seen this thing.

The water rippled again. Luke tightened his grip on the knife as another shape emerged.

Another Abyss Prince.

The beast opened its jaws and roared, the sound vibrating through his bones. Guess it didn’t like its brother dying.

The colossal serpent hauled itself out of the lake, scales scraping stone as it slithered toward him. Luke threw another knife. The monster twisted aside, and the blade slammed into the ground behind it, blasting a crater into the stone. Too slow for a second one. He narrowly dodged a snapping strike. If Burst Throw had a weakness, it was the time it took to prepare each blade.

The serpent pressed the attack. Luke kept moving, hurling knives and triggering telekinetic impulses, carving wounds into the roaring beast. He sprinted, sidestepped another lunge, then activated a different skill.

[Crimson Fang activated]

The kukri’s blade flared red. Luke leapt, bringing the weapon down onto the serpent’s skull, gripping the kukri with both hands. The impact was brutal. The serpent convulsed, thrashing in agony, and Luke was thrown aside by the force of it. He rolled, came up on one knee, and watched as the creature writhed, its head split open and bleeding heavily.

He steadied himself, a throwing knife clenched in his hand. While the serpent was trapped in its own pain, Luke poured the power of [Burst Throw] into the blade and released it.

[You have slain an Abyss Prince - Lvl 94]

The serpent collapsed, lifeless. Whistling softly, Luke approached the massive corpses. He extracted their cores and chose their fangs as ingredients. Between the two monsters, only one had a biological part dense enough with mana to be truly useful. When he finished, he extended a hand toward the ground.

[Pentagram Circle II activated]

He stepped onto it.

[Teleportation Pentagram activated]

Luke vanished, reappearing outside the cave, and immediately headed back toward the temple.

***

Luke returned to Charlie and Angie’s camp. This time, both of them were there.

“How are things going in there, Master Luke?” Charlie asked the moment she saw him.

“They’re moving along. The Demon Blacksmith finally stopped drowning me in theory and started giving me actual hands-on work.”

They already knew part of what he was doing inside the temple. He had shared pieces of it. He spoke about the Demon Blacksmith, but never directly mentioned Azazel.

“Are you sure you don’t want us hunting cores for you?” Angie asked. “We’ve collected a few during our hunts.”

“I appreciate it, but I need to do this alone. The entire process, from gathering the ingredients to preparing everything. It has to be me.”

They understood immediately.

“Where’s Layla?”

“She’s sleeping,” Angie replied.

And judging by the silence, Franky was too. Luke opened his tent and found the hatchling curled up inside.

This little guy has his own bed and still insists on sleeping in mine.

***

Luke was training inside one of the temple chambers. He sat in a meditative posture while, nearby, the Demon Blacksmith worked at the forge, crafting swords purely for enjoyment.

Luke held a beast core in his hand, trying to trigger the fusion state. He was practicing with a spare core, experimenting. Vaelor’s advice echoed in his mind. Instead of letting his entire body turn spectral through the skill, he needed to make only his soul do it. Luke phased in and out of his wraith form, searching for the balance point.

After a while, he stood up, irritated with himself, and placed the core on the table. A laugh escaped the Demon Blacksmith.

“What are you laughing at, Nasgul?”

“You’re struggling with something a wraith child can do while playing,” Vaelor replied.

“I’ll figure something out,” Luke muttered.

The Demon Blacksmith returned his attention to the sword.

“How long do you think it’ll take before I reach the result we want?”

“Hm. Right now, you’re still learning how to crawl. You haven’t learned to walk yet. After that comes running, then mastery,” Vaelor said, reducing the process to a simple analogy. “That’s what you’re missing.”

That meant a lot of time.

“You won’t master this anytime soon, little demon. A few years, maybe,” Vaelor continued. “But we don’t have that kind of time. Before long, I’ll have to leave for good. When that happens, your chance to obtain a second core will be delayed for a very long time.”

Luke immediately grabbed the core and sat back down. “Then I’ll focus harder.”

“It won’t help. You’re not a wraith-demon by nature.”

“I’ll make it work.”

“If you say so.”

“If I succeed, will you tell me how the Spirit Tool really works?” Luke asked.

“I won’t underestimate you again,” Vaelor replied coolly. “But you didn’t include a time limit. Your ‘if I succeed’ could mean tomorrow or a million years from now. Word games won’t work on me.”

“Fine. Let me rephrase. If I succeed before you leave, will you give me more information about the Spirit Tool?”

Vaelor paused, considering. “You’re saying that in just a few days, you’ll somehow understand a method that’s one of the greatest secrets of my clan?”

“Yes.”

“Now you’ve caught my interest. The deal is accepted. There’s no way you can pull that off in such a short time.”