My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger

Fighting hideous-looking creatures was now a norm for them—but even they had to admit this was one of the uglier ones.

Many tentacles and heads… and a slimy body coated in some strange mucus…

Damon sighed.

“I really don’t want to break my house… so burn…”

Black flames erupted from his hand and covered the ceiling of the mansion. The worm groaned, space twisting subtly… as the flames disappeared into some unknown void.

Damon blinked, completely surprised. Ashborn was one of his stronger skills—hell, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it his strongest. Yet some worm, in the same rank, had sent the flames—both hot and cold—into some other space.

His surprise didn’t last long before a volley of arrows flew at it.

Sylvia’s white arrows—powered from her Ascendant weapon—rained down on the worm.

Her armor was called Crescent Seer. It came with a bow and dual blades—however, not as individual weapons. The bow was collapsible into two blades if needed.

Damon heard the worm shriek as it fired a ball of pulsing silk.

He couldn’t help but feel jealous about not having an Ascendant weapon with his armor—but that was fine.

He had a Alazard’s-cursed sword.

The mansion broke into a canopy of violence. The worm was spread all over the grand entrance, so the party split up, attacking different parts of it.

Damon held the sword in his hand.

His swordsmanship had grown drastically thanks to Mastery. He could absorb the skills of the enemies he killed—or fought.

He had also imitated the skills of the Mist Knights. Alazard.

He’d gotten the skills of the Valtheron knight who was damned by the Keeper.

Which meant—within his mind and body holding different sword skills—all he needed was the experience to perfect and grow them.

Right now, his swordsmanship was Lv2.

He stood unmoving, tentacles rapidly shooting toward him.

His eyes opened—he swung the sword with deadly finesse. Without moving a single step, he imitated the skills of the Mist Knight.

He created a small area within his sword’s reach. Any tentacle that crossed into the invisible circle in his mind was sliced to pieces.

He felt his body heating up—he sent mana into his sword, making it sharper.

The worm shrieked in pain. It was bombarded from every angle.

Evangeline unleashed a purging glow of golden light, illuminating the entire mansion.

Her eyes were focused on Damon.

She clicked her tongue, swinging her rapier at a tentacle.

“I swear, the next time he tells me he has no talent for the sword just to avoid sparring with me… I’ll kill him…”

Matia and Sylvia were doing their own part. They had one objective—and that was to find the cocoon hiding the worm’s heart and destroy it.

Sylvia was using her skill, while Matia was in charge of protecting her with her arsenal of ever-changing weapons.

Xander was a little farther off, with Leona acting as the vanguard of their offensive.

His spear smashed the heads of the metaverse worm with relative ease.

Gravity around him distorted, causing the ground to tremble.

“This thing kinda reminds me of something…”

Leona teleported with the enchantment of Stormwake, her body unleashing bolts of lightning.

“What…”

He pulverized a head with his armored fist.

“Damon…”

Leona really didn’t have a response for that. Was he insinuating Damon was like a worm, or was he trying to say he was resilient and always got back up?

She opened her mouth to ask—but his helm-covered face turned to respond before she even said a word.

“Both. I mean both.”

She teleported to the old chandeliers, cutting them down along with a few cocoons.

“I didn’t even say anything… yet.”

Xander grabbed the chandelier mid-air and smashed it into the face of the worm—or one of its faces.

“You didn’t need to.”

Damon turned into a shadow, diving between the tentacles about to overwhelm him with sheer numbers… he was improving, but not yet at the level of the mist knight—he only got a part of his skill…

He turned back into human form, the alien feeling of being a formless shadow disappeared…

“Well, that’s fine… I still want to try a few more things…”

He raised his fingers. Now that he was in the first class advancement, he could increase the output of his magic bullets… he had already learned how to make them more muted in noise…

Now he wanted more range and damage…

He unleashed a blast from his fingers…

“No… that won’t work. More is more… I have five fingers…”

He opened his palm, spread around his finger phalanges… small balls of shadow mana formed and shot at the tentacles, creating a slash of green blood and flesh…

He narrowed his eyes. “Now… faster.”

Slowly, rapid bang sounds began to fill the mansion until they fused into one loud hum… he felt his bones groan… his hand was red…

He stopped with a sigh.

“Almost there…”

“Shjjooosoodo…”

The worm didn’t like the pain being inflicted on its body. It pulled back its many heads and formed a single mass of folded heads and tentacles… the space which had been filled by its massive body was now clear, only dulled with silk and ruin…

Damon looked at the others… his eyes stopping on Sylvia…

“Did you find the cocoon it hides its heart in?”

She nodded, pointing at the center of the metaverse worm.

“Yes, it’s hidden right in all that mass of tentacles…”

Damon nodded… looking at Evangeline.

“Do you mind… giving us some light…”

She muttered bitterly. “I’m not a human light bulb…”

She closed her eyes, gathering her mana for one attack…

He glanced at Leona and Matia.

“Make it rain, Leona…”

She smiled coldly.

“Say less.”

Storm clouds filled the room… water began to pour as Leona’s mana was absorbed at an alarming rate…

The water was mostly harmless—the worm merely shrugged it off as Xander and Damon trapped it and prevented it from spreading…

Matia raised her hand, creating a spear-shaped weapon… she poured her mana into it… the air went frigid…

“Freeze… over…”

She launched her ice spear at the metaverse worm—right at the center of the writhing mass of heads and tentacles… the water made her magic spread easily, creating a moment of frost. The magic of the worm weakened for a moment as it slowed down.

Which was what Damon wanted… he didn’t need to freeze the whole thing—just where the heart was hidden…

He glanced at Evangeline… she opened her eyes—the room was illuminated by a false, fierce, destructive light that sought to purify everything…

“Shhhkskjsjsknnsksk…”

The worm hissed as the golden light washed over it… Damon slowly opened his eyes, free from the harsh light… it took him a moment to regain his sight fully…

When he looked at where the worm was, he only saw a mass of scorched tentacles…

Its center was gone—and so was part of the mansion wall, which had a gaping hole…

He glanced at Evangeline, who was on her knees taking deep breaths…

“Woman, you broke my house… we just moved in, dammit…”

Xander sighed, removing his helm.

“Does someone need to remind this lunatic this isn’t his house… if anything, I think the worm owns it…”