The Prince was in shock.
The Caretaker was here only a moment ago, how did he disappear like that?
'Whatever. It's not like he's going to tell me anyway' thought the Prince as he glanced down at the amulet that The Caretaker had given him. He was tempted to channel his mana into it... but decided against it.
The Caretaker said it was only for emergencies, and if he didn't trust The Caretaker's word now, then when would he? 'Plus, he'd probably give me one hell of a beating for wasting the amulet.' he thought.
It was finally time for him to rank up!
He had yet to test his new strength against any foe since he received the new 'Fanatic' title, so he was ready to jump at any opportunity to get stronger.
'Finally a chance to escape this mushroom hell...' he shuddered, the thought of the taste of mushrooms made him feel sick, since that was pretty much the only thing he had eaten for seven years.
'Ugh... Sautéed mushrooms, grilled mushrooms, raw mushrooms, mushroom soup, cream of mushroom.' he thought, his face turning pale green.
He shook his head.
'Alright! Time to rank up!'
"Hmm... Where to start?" he said aloud.
As the words escaped his mouth casually, the bushes nearby rustled quickly and an ominous shadow escaped.
The Prince began to sweat as the creature stepped closer into the more illuminated area.
'A mushroom?' he questioned, confused about how a sentient mushroom exists as he had never seen one in the seven years before now.
'Come to think of it... There were no creatures of any kind around The Caretaker's shack. What kind of a being is he?' he pondered.
He quickly regained his focus, taking out his bow and examining it. It was much lighter than he remembered it being, or perhaps that was his vastly increased strength talking...
The mushroom creature lumbered forward until it was fully in the Prince's view. It wasn't all that large, barely coming up to his knees. It soft-looking body was light blue, almost grey, and its cap was a dull black with gleaming red pointed spikes protruding from it.
It had small beady black eyes, and stumpy little limbs. It would be cute if the mangled mouth on the top of its head wasn't releasing a presumably deadly gas.
The Prince tossed his bow around, getting used to the weight as the small mushroom hobbled closer. The Prince quickly focused once again and easily pulled the string, one finger holding the body of the bow pointed straight towards the mushroom.
The Prince took a deep breath and began to circulate his mana, channeling the energy through his body, and producing a sparking arrow of lightning on the bow. The arrow was much stronger than it was when he face the bear on the surface so long ago, it was brighter, and the lightning arced towards the ground and to his body producing a wonderful array of lights.
The Prince opened his eyes...
"Sorry little buddy" he whispered, before loosing the crackling yellow arrow.
Like a beam of light it pierced the chest of the aggressive little mushroom, and continued on to create a dark cone of scorched earth behind the exit wound.
In its final moments, the mushroom looked towards the Prince...
Then it disintegrated.
[Gaseous Mushroomite defeated!]
[+2250 EXP]
[Title Awakened: Ruthless]
[Ruthless: Wow! You dealt enough damage to kill something ten times over!
Effect: None. Labels you as evil, strong, or just plain mean.]
"Oh no..." said the Prince, "That was definitely overkill wasn't it. Oh well... At least it got the job done."
He walked over to the pile of ashes left behind.
"Rest in peace, little guy."
The Prince then examined his status card.
[Rank: 7, 2493/3700]
"I thought I was hallucinating when I saw how much experience that little guy gave, but I guess not... He was above rank 10 at least. Maybe this is effect of LUC... To think it would be this drastic..."
[MP: 769/799]
"Guess I have gotten much stronger..."
The Prince then stood up and turned around to go deeper into the Blackcap Forest.
He walked deeper and deeper into the forest, killing every small mushroom creature he could, this time using less mana and honing his precision with each arrow instead of the overall strength. He was used to channeling a certain percent of his mana into the arrows, as that was the way his muscle memory had developed, so it took a little while for him to get used to channeling based on mana points.
"Ahh... Now that I've gotten the hang of it... It's so much easier to control how potent my attacks are. I wonder why they didn't teach it this way in the palace?" he wondered.
The simple answer was that he was being taught by someone with a smaller mana pool, his former mentor (whom he didn't like very much due to his annoyingly pretentious attitude), and was being taught as someone with a smaller mana pool.
Nobles who did not enlist themselves into the military or for the Holy Church would rarely, if ever, train themselves strenuously enough to enlarge any of their stats. Most strong nobles were born that way, and were gifted in either magic, intent, or both, and focused entirely on study over training.
Obviously, there were exceptions, such as his father... But he was so old now that... The Prince came to a sudden realization.
"My whole family thinks that I'm dead."
He sat down. He cupped his hands around his face.
"Oh no. Oh no no no..."
He slapped his face.
"How stupid can I be!?! I spent years down here! The whole of the Sword Kingdom thinks that I am dead..."
He stood up.
"Delan... That evil bastard! He kicked me down here! He's my father's most trusted advisor! Captain of the Royal Guard! Dammit!"
He punched the nearest stone and it exploded into fragments.
[-4 HP]
He didn't even feel the pain.
"I've been so distracted with training that I've forgotten why I was even training! I need to get out of here! The royal family line is at stake! Damn that Delan!!!" he roared.
The strain of screaming calmed him down. Calmly and sternly he laid plain his objectives.
"Phew... For all I know, Delan has taken the whole of the Sword Kingdom for himself. My first priority: get out of this hellhole. To do that, I need to rank up, and fast... but I can't get careless."
Speaking of careless... A cold sweat developed on the back of his neck realizing he had been screaming in the middle of the wilderness. He started quickly and quietly moving away from his former location.
'After getting out of here I need to learn the status of the Kingdom, and whether or not I can return. If I can return, meaning my father is still alive then I have two options: show myself and risk being branded as a pretender or a fraud and being executed, or sneak into the palace and show myself to my father personally.' he thought.
'In the event that my father has been killed and Delan now rules... I have three options: Kill the bastard personally, hire someone else after working as an adventurer (since I don't have any trades skills), or finally to form or join a resistance group. I never thought anyone would rebel against my father... but if there is one thing that this experience down here has taught me, it's that I know nothing of the world outside the castle walls.' he continued.
His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a distant noise, attracted to the sound of his screams previously.
It was distant.
But it was getting closer.
Fast.
...
The Prince listened to the silence of the forest, he heard the humid breeze from the surface rush though the stalks of the tall mushrooms around him. The smell of fungus was overwhelming, but he was used to it. You could taste mushrooms in the air.
He heard it.
A sound.
One that he wished he didn't hear, a sound that he wanted to hear the least of.
Clicking.
He sweat like he was boiling alive.
Click. Click-Click. Click.
He hid behind the largest stalk of a mushroom.
Click. Click-Click-Click. Click.
He covered his mouth and breathed as softly as possible.
The creature showed itself. It had arrived at the end of The Prince's trail. Its dark limbs moved slowly, crushing the small grass-like mushroom blanket beneath its claws with a waxy squeak. It breathed heavily, taking in all kinds of scents that lingered in the air around it.
If this creature was what he thought it was... A Shadow Walker, then he was in for a tough battle. They were supposedly ruthless rage-filled monstrosities, who would do anything to kill any opponent. It wasn't their strength or intelligence that The Caretaker warned him of, it was their strange ability to travel in between the elemental plane of shadows.
The creatures were assassins, and if one surprised you, you would be taken and killed within the plane of shadows, unable to escape.
The Prince slowly, without the slightest sound, peeked around the stalk of the mushroom to catch a glimpse of the Shadow Walker.
It was as if darkness itself manifested in the form of a ravenous beast. Black, dirty scar tissue covered the sockets where one would imagine its eyes would be. Diseased and disgusting teeth dripped with viscous black bile, sticking out in all directions from its mangled maw.
It was terrifying in any sense of the word, as if it was crafted opposing everything that was normal among animals. Its joints all bent in ways opposite of how one would expect, and the constant labored breathing made the Prince's blood run ice-cold.
Its back was turned.
If the Prince had any chance, it was now. There was no way he would be able to run.
He needed to kill this thing.
The Prince drew his bow, as far back as he could draw it, as the wooden bow almost screamed in resistance. He closed his eyes. He channeled mana into his bow once again. He channeled as much as the bow would hold.
He felt it begin to crack with the creation of an arrow worth 200 mana points. This was his limit. If this didn't kill it... he would definitely take some serious damage.
He opened his eyes.
It was gone.
The Shadow Walker had disappeared.
Without a sound it had faded into the shadows.
Suddenly, appearing in a puff of smoke, the creature showed its ugly mug yet again. This time it was wary. It smelt the ground closely trying to find the Prince's scent.
For a moment, the creature's head was still, it was in this moment that the Prince chose to loose his arrow.
In the place of the Prince's scent, all the creature smelled was ozone.
BOOOOOM
The deafening sound of thunder, the strong smell of ozone, and the overpowering electric force exploded with the beast at its epicenter.
Needless to say, the beast was stunned.
It was as if the heavens themselves struck down the Shadow Walker in a divine rage.
Despite this, the creature was alive.
At the bottom of a newly formed crater, lay a deaf, weak, and steaming beast.
It was barely alive, yet if given much time to recover, it would strike back in a fit of rage!
The Prince looked down at his hands, the power he felt was exhilarating. Sadly, the bow he held was a poor catalyst for his power, and all that was left of it was the smoking handle the Prince held.
He jumped down the crater, examining his destructive masterpiece.
"This attack... It's strong enough to receive a name..."
He pondered for a moment over the name he would give to his 200-mana-point arrow. He glanced at the crater he stood in, it was deep enough for him to be buried up to his shoulders.
"Starfall... A fine name for a fine technique."
Too bad for him though... The Shadow Walker held no interest in his naming sense, and couldn't hear him anyway, its raw and now hypersensitive blistered skin could feel the vibrations from his voice nearby though.
In a final attempt to kill the Prince, or rather just spite, it quickly reached for him, wrapping its weak body around him and just before dying caused them both to disappear from sight.
...
WITHIN THE PLANE OF SHADOWS
"Damn." said the Prince.