As Ace was about to emerge from the prison, something happened and he was forced to stay, guards came running in panting and dripping of sweat while they looked outside with a terrified face.
They locked the door and all the people including Ace was stuck in the prison but still, they wouldn't say what's happening, they wouldn't tell a single soul, they only said the same words each time.
"Do not go outside, you will die." Reset Agent A
"Listen to him, no one can survive out there." Reset Agent B
Ace looked at them and he asked them.
"Where are we?"
"We are in New York." Reset Agent A
Ace tried to look outside as he was already out of his cell but the guards blocked him.
"It'll be better if you don't see the horrors outside." Reset Agent B
Ace accepted the fact that they wouldn't let him out, so he decided to force his way out, from under the door he could see the shadows and as he stepped one foot into the shadows he disappeared.
[Black Shadow sub-skill: Shadow Walk has been activated]
All of a sudden he was outside and the guards saw. They were amazed by the sight but they quickly realized that well... he was outside.
"HEY GET BACK IN! YOU'LL DIE!" Reset Agent A
Ace turned and looked at them as he walked off, the things that he saw in this place were something he would never imagine would ever happen in his lifetime.
"Wow, looks like I can come out now."
Ace wondered where the voice was coming from and as he looked around, there was no one to be seen.
"You know the creativity you have with your skills never cease to amaze me."
"Who are you and where are you?"
"I am the one known as the shadow monarch."
"You were the one the ape was calling me."
"Yes and even Tardis is with us."
"Tardis? The Ape?"
"He is merely a shadow now."
"Merely a shadow? What does that mean?"
As they were conversing, a man appeared in front of Ace, he saw himself with dead grey eyes, dark black hair, and the black coat with shadows emerging out.
It was an exact lookalike of Ace other than the coat.
As Ace looked at himself with his junky clothes and messy hair he was amazed at how good he could look.
"Stop admiring yourself and head towards the center of New York, in the center will be the next skill book. That's all I can tell you, you must find it before the others."
"Others? What others?"
"The damn apostles."
Ace looked at himself/the shadow monarch with a disapproving face.
"You know just because I've trained for the past 3 years and learned that mana control technique doesn't mean I'm going to be able to win."
"Well, I expected that much which is why I'll be there with you."
Ace was surprised and he tried to shake off the fact that he had to fight people with unimaginable strength.
The people in the prison were still hurrying for Ace to come back in when suddenly something jumped from behind him.
It was a dungeon monster which meant there was a dungeon break.
"This right here is an ant, and just from seeing one I can guarantee there is going to be a lot more."
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Spear]
A spear appeared from the shadows and it stabbed the ant right in the neck and blood was just flowing out of it. He rolled out of it as its clutches loosened, and from behind came many more ants.
Ace started to run as fast as he could but there was no shadow to be seen other than his.
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Pistol]
[Ice Shards has been activated]
A shadow pistol appeared behind Ace and it fired shards of ice out of it, this took double mana to cast but he wasn't worried.
He kept running while ants behind him kept getting hit by the ice shards.
"Damnit I need a place with shadows."
He kept running and eventually he made it to the rural area of New York, he broke a window and jumped into the house.
He sat down and he tried to rest for a little bit but inside the house was a dungeon.
"Why is there always a problem?"
Ace was having a hard time surviving in this fallen America and it had only been an hour.
"Go into the dungeon."
"What? Are you crazy? I barely have mana."
Ace fell to the floor as he fainted, it had been 3 years since he last fainted, and then suddenly it happened.
He walked into the dungeon and the monsters that sensed him had left.
"So this is a fire lizard dungeon."
Turned out the man was the Shadow Monarch.
The Shadow Monarch looked around and he was in a ravine, a very hot one at that, there was lava all over the place and there were no rooms like the dungeons Ace had seen so far, it was a got ravine and the Shadow Monarch/Ace was traveling on a piece of molten rock down a river of lava.
It was bright and there weren't many shadows anywhere and there wasn't any other place to go other than to stroll down the river with the molten rock.
He sat down and as he strolled down the lava river in the ravine, there were no fire lizards whatsoever.
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Ball has been activated]
A shadow had covered Ace's body and he just continued to stroll down the river while he rested.
Soon the end of the ravine was in sight and there was a massive drop near the end.
The Shadow Monarch got up and he stood still as he looked down and then hands came from the shadows and there were shards of ice melting in the ground but he stood there confidently and yawned.
The platform was almost there and still, he did nothing, finally, it started to fall and he was surprised, not sure what he was surprised about but he was most certainly surprised.
The hole was deep and for a whole minute he was falling, and as he was almost at the end it started to flip but he jumped off and there was a whole platform and less lava, the shadows were there.
He disappeared into the shadows.
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Walk has been activated]
[Black Shadow sub-skill Night Vision has been activated]
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Sense has been activated]
The light appeared in Ace's eyes and suddenly he grabbed something with his hand from behind, it was a massive red fire-lizard that could barely be held with one hand.
[Black Shadow sub-skill Shadow Pistol has been activated]
[Ice Shards has been activated]
Multiple shards of ice came out of the gun and it impaled the red fire-lizard multiple times till blood came gushing out.
[Fire-Lizard has been killed]
"I get the difficulty of this dungeon now. This is about B-rank."