Chapter 150: Shadows Of Past

Dante looked at the woman who had attacked him a moment ago indifferently.

She was now too weak to move, and her skin was as pale as a corpse. In addition to that, some shadows were coming out of every opening in her body, as though they were thorns growing inside her.

And they, in fact, were indeed growing inside her body.

They feasted on her vitality, using it to grow like a plant inside her.

’It’s just like that time.’

Dante couldn’t help but remember the shadow monsters that consumed his vitality in the ancient ruins. This spell used the same method they had used to consume the target’s vitality.

Dante got this spell from the World Ruins alongside some other spells and some understanding of the Shadow Aspect, which allowed him to reach 90% comprehension.

Apparently, the shadows were, in essence, no different from parasites.

Shadows, as a concept, had to rely on others.

They couldn’t win against light, so they had to keep hiding behind something or someone to stay safe from it.

They feast on the efforts of their “hosts” to survive, and that’s why the concept of consuming someone’s vitality is included in the Shadow Aspect as one of the hardest things to master.

Unfortunately, the best thing Dante could do was make a spell that could consume someone’s vitality or create a method for himself to consume that person’s vitality.

But that would be temporary. He could never consume someone’s vitality permanently.

To be more precise, he couldn’t do so currently. From what he read, he could do it at Rank 3 if he decided to choose that Path.

As for the second spell, Mana Cannonball, it was simply an improved version of mana bolt. It consumed more mana, but it was stronger and bigger.

’Oh, her Wheel of Luck has disappeared.’ Dante finally noticed that the woman was dead.

He looked at the people who were hesitating between running, attacking, or asking for forgiveness, noticing that one of them was crying.

Dante sighed for the third time before placing a platinum coin on the ground and leaving.

Thankfully, none of them followed him after that. Killing two of them and leaving a coin was enough to force them to regain their sanity.

Dante summoned his wolf, the demonic Pyrofang, and used it to return as fast as possible.

When it was time to visit the camp, Dante swapped with Fafnir and let him continue the journey while he had fun with Elizabeth.

And just like this, he returned to the treehouse quickly.

But what he saw wasn’t what he expected.

¢¢¢

“What in the…”

Dante rubbed his eyes and looked at the treehouse… well, what remained of it after Beatrice’s son burned everything on the surface.

The shadow barrier wasn’t there, and instead of it, there were some words inscribed with the blood of some beast.

Dante used Shadowstep and got close to it cautiously, using Shadow Detection to sense the surroundings.

However, he didn’t find anyone hiding or anything unusual. Still, he didn’t let his guard down.

When he read the words inscribed on the ground, he finally guessed who did it.

{We will return}

It used “we” not “I”, which meant that there were more than one person here.

’Are they Beatrice’s son and his wife?’

That was the only guess Dante could come up with. He didn’t know anyone else that hated him so much to leave such a message.

When he noticed that they didn’t attack him again after days of waiting, he had suspected that something wrong had happened to them.

They were both Rank 2, and they even had a spirit. They wouldn’t die in the White Abyss that easily unless their luck was so bad.

And now, they seemed to be alive.

But something was wrong.

Why would they leave this message behind? Why didn’t they just prepare a trap to catch him by surprise?

’Maybe there is a trap that I can’t see.’

Looking at the spot where the message was written, Dante used one of the spells that he got from the World Ruins.

Shadow Spell — Shadows Of Past!

All of a sudden, the shadows on that spot seemed to be returning back in time, as if the sun was returning rapidly.

But when Dante looked up, the sun was still in its place, its rays falling on places that were dark now.

After a few minutes, the spot was completely dark, as though it was night.

Looking up again, Dante saw that the sun never moved, but its light wasn’t affecting the shadows covering the spot.

The reason was simple, those shadows weren’t real!

They were an illusion created by Dante’s first mimicked time spell, Shadows Of Past!

It allowed Dante to see the shadows that existed in a specific spot in the past, but it drained his spiritual energy the more he observed back into the past.

However, even after a few minutes, Dante couldn’t see anything passing by this spot other than what seemed to be a wild boar.

Dante had to give up and stop the spell.

’It’s so old. More than 3 days ago.’

There was indeed something wrong.

Pseudo-shadow Technique — Blind Shadowstep!

Dante used Shadowstep only two times and immediately appeared in the formation room. In an instant, he reactivated the formation and checked every spot in the treehouse.

“Other than a punch on the wall, there are no signs of anything unusual.”

Did they not find Dante—because he was with Ruby—and were forced to leave? If that was true, then they likely had something to do which was more important than revenge.

“Argh… I hate my life.”

Dante didn’t know what to do.

There was a chance that they had discovered that Dante had become Rank 2 and returned to get help. That would be a problem for Dante.

’Should I just try to talk to them again? I don’t want to fight…’

Dante quietly returned to his bed and closed his eyes. To be honest, he didn’t want anything more right now than to live the rest of his life on a bed with infinite food and a bathroom.

’If anything happens… I’ll either open a portal to another world or swap with Fafnir.’

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