While Rodney and Emily were still thinking that they were safe and were eating leisurely, Meyren didn't let his guard down and was gripping his daggers tightlty. The presence of the shop meant that the dark manifestations were already spawning all over Fiern wich made him quite nervous. Even if it was not really convenient to have a monster with them if they wanted to enter human towns, he thought it was still better for them, and for his tired hands, if Emily summoned her servant.
"Emily, come here for a moment." Emily looked at him then stuffed all of the bread in her mouth hurriedly and nearly choked. Her eyes were teary wich made her even cuter 'Why didn't i inherit the good genes too!?' Emily who was unaware about what her bother was thinking smiled awkwardly and said "Yes brother?" he looked at her as if he was hesitating for a moment, wich he wasn't, and told her "Can you summon you servant of the darkness? It would be better if we had a person that could scout the path ahead of us." Emily looked confused and said "Scout the path? What's that?" Meyren wanted to cry in despair when he heard her say that 'Is this really the great necromancer? How the f*ck can she look so cute when she's so dumb.' he supressed his thoughts and said calmly "Don't matter... you can just rest and i'll take care of the rest, just summon your servant please." she seemed to be satisfied with what he said and was even more happy to know that she didn't need to do anything. Dark particles began to surround her and a black circle appeared in front of her. The dark particles began to condense above the circle and pulsate like a heart. Black thread began to surge from the shadow hearth until the shape of a winged lizard took form. Meyren used the active part of the Discerning eyes skill that made it possible for him to see information screens and saw the stats of the servant.
[Shadow Wyvern, Darkness Servant]
Strength: Mid T1
Skill 1: Shadow Claw
The wyvern can infuse dark mana in its claw wich increase their strength and sharpness greatly.
Skill 2: Shadow Drake
The shadow wyvern is a descendant of the shadow drake wich give it the ability to transform its body into shadows by using dark mana.
Meyren was satisfied with what he saw, he could have asked Emily about what the actual stats were but he wanted to see how strong his skill was, and he was definitely not disappointed. The servant obviously didn't have a trait, otherwise summoners would already be the most powerful beings in the world. It was big enough to carry one person on its back and would get bigger and maybe even evolve into a real shadow drake later wich made it a good mount, if anyone knew that Meyren was thinking of the shadow drakes as mere mounts they would want to slap him to death.
As for the dark mana thing it was related to the Energy stat. Energy was basically the capability to tap into certain sources of power like mana, qi, thermal energy... Even his blood essence could be used as an attack if he had enough energy attribute points and enough proficiency. And dark mana was one of those sources.
Emily seemed to like the wyvern and looked at it like the typical middle-aged woman that saw a cute baby.
Meyren had to promise to give her all the sweets that he got from plundering the thugs base (and would get from the base he would plunder in the future) before being able to make her give him control over the wyvern. The wyvern was quite obedient and still didn't seem to have enough intellect to take complicated orders or make its own moves. It made him want to raise it fast so that he could have a 'person' to talk to, a wyvern shouldn't be as dumb and unreliable as its owner right? He made it fly around their group and spotted seven dark manifestations wich he killed cleanly with the help of the servant of the darkness. He absorbed the bloodline of the monster while the wyvern absorbed their soul, it was quite an harmonious teamwork. Obviously this was still the first stage of the Change so the monsters didn't loot anything amazing, but Meyren was still happy when he saw the quartz tears in front of him. It made him quite nostalgic.
When Rodney saw the monsters wich were like demonized wolves ans snakes, he understood why Meyren looked so tense, he shivered when he recalled that he nearly refused the boy invitation. He thought that he really was fortunate to meet with such a strong group from the beggining, he didn't have a combat trait after all.
In the shop Rodney had picked a one-handed sword wich was quite fortunate for him because Meyren knew how to use it and teached him some tricks that could let him become something better than a living target. Since Meyren assassinated people while using stealth techniques, everyone thought of him as an assassin that only knew how to use daggers but that wasn't the case, he actually was a blade master that was quite proficient with every weapon that could be used with one hand and even learnt the basics of the spear and two-handed sword like commonly seen defensive stances and the correct way to slash at the foe. For him that had a trait that didn't boost his power, all his skills were important and he honed them diligently, this was also why he was confident that he could clear all of the monastery trial except the magic trial. This was the confidence of an apex blade master that was nigh-invincible among the people that had the same degree of power than him. After some training Rodney could at least be able to fight a low T1 monster with a sword in his hand wich made him seem a little more reliable. Meyren actually found out that the ability of this friend of his didn't only offer him the way to get the treasures but even gave him attribute points when he found a treasure himself wich made Meyren happy to have him by his side. In his past life the guy in front of him was at least on the top 100 human to not offend and it looked like it wasn't without reason. Those top were lists made by the organisations specialised in the spreading of intel, and they did it quite thoughtfully since the death seeking tendencies of the peoples were visibly aroused by the grand change.
Those organisations were the saviors of mankid to a certain extent since they made known who shouldn't be messed with, letting those cliché death seeker character live another day in peace.
Meyren was pondering about his past life when he suddenly heard the emergency signal he teached the wyvern, he got up and made his way towards the sound as fast as he could.
The shadow wyvern was flying above a stone gate while making weird screeches, it was clearly afraid of it. But when Meyren saw the gate he nearly jumped in joy. He initially thought of it only as an impossible dream, but in front of him was actually the [Purple Vine Dungeon]! The advantages of having a dungeon for yourself were obvious, the power of guilds and organisations was deeply tied to the numbers of dungeons they controlled after all.
However Meyren was still disappointed. He couldn't protect the dungeon right now because he had to clear the monastery, in addition the dungeon in front of him was also a little tricky to clear with his actual power so he couldn't be sure to have the first clear of the boss. "I guess i'll be satisfied if i can have a D rank magic bloodline..." Meyren sighed, but when he thought about clearing all the mastery trials including the magic trial he became joyful again, "Shadow, guard this gate and wait for me." Meyren ordered the wyvern then returned to the camp to take Emily and Rodney with him in the dungeon.
Rodney didn't have a combat trait so he was a little afraid while Emily was calmly petting the wyvern as if it wasn't her that had to fight in the dungeon. Meyren smiled wryly and gave them some instructions while activating the gate.
Their formation was like the basic 5-man teams in his past life composed of one tank, one melee dealer/mage, one healer, two rogue, but in their case Meyren was the tank, the melee dealer and the rogue at the same time and they didn't have any healer... Rodney was just here to find treasures if they were some, wich made him feel a lot safer. When they entered the dungeon they heard the cold voice of Existence
The two first floor of this dungeon were very simple to clear if one had enough dexterity, you just had to make sure to dodge the vines and it was all good. In his past life the teams who farmed attribute orbs in the two first floor were mainly composed of a rogue that dodged the attacks and four mages that had to instakill the monsters. The melee fighters were as good as useless in this dungeon because of the fact that if they touched the vines with their weapons they would be shocked by the thunder. Emily was still a newbie so she didn't think of scouting the paths with soul vision or her skeleton wich made Meyren nearly cry in despair. People were dying right now because of the dark manifestations but his sister was calmly walking in their lair wich was an even more dangerous place... Meyren told her to summon her skeleton and attack with her cursed arrow from the rear, then instructed the wyvern to stay behind and protect Rodney and Emily.
Normally he would have used the same method that the peoples used in his past life to clear the first floor however he had a trait that gave him a low-grade devil body, so he didn't need to be afraid of thunder shocks that didn't have a power equivalent to high T1 or above. They were walking in a small corridor before arriving to a large hall where they found some weird lizards that had purple vine instead of limbs and were as big as a small car. Emily who was calm just a moment ago gripped her staff tightly and made a black arrow appear above of the gray staff. Rodney retreated a little and asked Meyren nervously "You are... sure you can do it?" But nobody answered him, Meyren was already running toward the lizards his eyes shining with killing intent. The lizards saw him and one of them lashed his vine-limb at him with great speed.
Main bloodline activation!
Meyren hair and eyes were dyed in a bright red, and his movements were becoming faster. He dodged the vine easily and jumped toward the throat of the lizard wich he stabbed with his two daggers, he then kicked the hilts of the daggers making them pierce the sturdy scales deeply and retreated backward. The lizard screamed while lashing at everything around it, even its own kin, with its vines before falling to the ground, transforming into a black mist shortly after.All of this happened in only ten seconds dumbfounding Rodney and Emily.
The monsters didn't normally disappear and give the loot immediatly when killed otherwise how could Meyren absorb their bloodline? Existence actually made this system because it created some monsters that had to fake their death to strike at their foe stealthily and to give the peoples the chance to retrieve some parts of the monster body. But the lizard that he killed disappeared after no more than three second instead of the usual fifty second wich made him angry because he didn't manage to absorb its bloodline. A cold glint flashed in his eyes and he unsheated the sword that he took from Rodney and pointed it at the lizards.
Emily made the black arrow disappear and looked at the remaining vine lizard with eyes that were filled with pity. Their team cleared the monsters in the first hall pretty fast and advanced confidently.