To Be Successful, You Have To Believe Yourself When No One Else Will.
Batman
.....
"Now, Arias, and sever your new lord."
Something happened that I didn't mean to do, nor did I realize that it had happened, but it was good. In that moment, the word I spoke echoed and vibrated with power.
And followed my command!
"Waaaaah-! Moo oooh-! Moooo-!"
A deep scream rang forth from the beast, and a chilling wind followed.
'This is?'
My face lit up. It was finally happening. It was the same with every soldier who rose prematurely.
Aaaaaah- Mooooo- Hoooo-
As expected, when the scream ended, a hand rose from Asuteriosu's shadow.
The moment the hand was placed on the ground, a message appeared.
[You've succeeded in Shadow Extraction.]
"Let's go! Fucking yes, yes!"
I yelled in celebration.
"Alright!"
I clenched my fists because I had failed twice. The success was all the more sweeter. The good news did not stop there.
[The Monarch's voice pulled forth the fighting spirit of the fallen one.]
[You've succeeded in Shadow Strengthening!
The Shadow's level will start at 2.]
I have succeeded in strengthening even him. So my cringe words definitely did something.
Amazing! Even if it's just a level 1 boss, it's still great. Just look at this fucker's rank.
My eyes were wide open. As the message told me, the pitch-black minotaur that rose from the shadow was level 2.
He looked amazing at more than five meters tall, nearly brushing the roof with his huge horns when he was standing, with a bull's head and a human body. With jet black hide, pitch-black horns, boulder-like muscles, and wearing full plate pitch-black armor that's somewhat small for his size, making it seem like light armor.
He is an imposing and much more fearsome being whose image, his presence was capable of terrifying even the highest-rank hunters.
"Mhmm!"
I yelped lightly. The Minotaur form was exactly as I remembered. He looked amazing at more than five meters tall, nearly brushing the roof with his huge horns when he was standing, with a bull's head and a human body. With jet black hide, pitch-black horns, boulder-like muscles, it even maintained the classy armor that was destroyed but I repaired it.
The only difference was that instead of the blood-red color, it was pitch black all over. And wore full plate pitch-black armor that's somewhat small for his size, making it seem like light armor.
He is an imposing and much more fearsome being whose image, his presence was capable of terrifying even the highest-rank hunters.
It was the same boss that I had defeated earlier. You could almost say that Asuteriosu the Minotaur had come back to life.
Even when the upper half of his body was gone and armor was just placed on his bones, it still became shadow. The same was with his sword and axe.
However,
Compared to before, there was not a shred of hostility coming from the reborn Asuteriosu.
It stood at attention, waiting for an order.
"Ba dum ba dum."
Looking at Asuteriosu, my heart beat vigorously. A smile decorated my face.
??? (Lv. 2)
Veteran Elite Knight Grade.
Curiously, question marks appeared where his name should be.
'The grade is on a whole another level, too.'
As I looked around and saw most of the strong monsters had question marks on their names.
As if reading my mind, a notification appeared again.
Ding~
[You may assign a name to soldiers at or above the knight grade.
The given name will be maintained until the soldier is released.
Please choose the names for the soldiers.
It wouldn't be a problem if I called him by that name.
Please choose names for the soldiers.]
"Stop, let me think of some good and simple names."
So I started to rack my brain trying to think of some good names that would be suitable for them or match my naming sense.
As if asking me to hurry, the message was blinking rapidly. I first walked to the Lizardman hybrid and opened my mouth.
"From now on, you shall be known as 'Croc' because 'Killer Croc' sounds too edgy."
"Gold, you will be gold even though you are not gold anymore. I like the simple name."
Next, I looked at his two silver, now black, werewolves. "You both ar Alpha, and you are Beta."
"Dawn, as I soon will have a Dusk, so it is suitable to match Dusk and Dawn," I said while naming the light magician.
"Zero, as you did nothing when you were the older brother," I said while naming Greed's brother.
"Aella, just because it sounds fancy and it's a Greek name," I said, naming the snake woman.
"You are Zink, as you can dispel light," I said while naming the giant 4-eyed, 6-legged cat.
You, me, "Bumble Bee," I said, naming the huge bee.
"Swift, that's who you are with your speed and skills. You kill with the same swiftness," I said while naming the assassin.
"Denk," goblin champion.
"Kluh, as your strength defines you," I said, naming the former green, now black, giant. As I also like to have my own black Hulk.
"You were a good boy; you shall remain as Cerberus," I said while ruffling the fur of the huge dog, who was now on its belly and behaving like a dog as its tail wiggled at speed, creating winds.
And even though he turned into shadow, his fur was still soft, which was a new discovery.
Seeing me petting the big doggo, everyone appeared to be jealous.
Next stood Manticore. I couldn't think of a good name for him. After some more time, I decided to name him the first word that came into my mind.
"From now onward, you shall be Vazl."
Next stood my most powerful soldier who could only be rivalled by Gold, just because now Gold does not need to care about his HP as he could regenerate infinitely.
"Gorr, you shall be Gorr, after Gorr the God Butcher. Even though you have no connection with him, I do like the name."
[Would you like to pick "Croc, Gold, Alpha, Beta, Dawn, Zero, Aella, Zink, Bumble Bee, Denk, Swift, Kluh, Cerberus, Vazl, and Gorr"?]
'Yeah, these names don't sound bad'
"Even though there wasn't much thought put into these names, I still like them. It's not like I need to become the Leonardo da Vinci just to name them," just ask Rimuru. He could just throw any name, and I think my names are much better than the ones like Og Jinwoo and Rimuru. I don't want to compare myself, but I do think they are good.
If I were assigned a name, I would have to constantly call myself by that name.
That meant if I were assigned names like Jangan, Goldstein, Shadow, Asterion, or Armaros, they would be so long that instead of sounding cool, they would sound like a bunch of random words... something like that. I shuddered at how lame that sounded.
"...Too lame," I thought.
"Yes."
Croc (Lv. 7)
Knight Grade
Gold (Lv. 4)
Veteran Knight Grade
Alpha (Lv. 6)
Knight Grade
Beta (Lv. 6)
Knight Grade
Dawn (Lv. 6)
Knight Grade
Zero (Lv. 3)
Knight Grade
Aella (Lv. 4)
Elite Knight Grade
Zink (Lv. 3)
Knight Grade
Bumble Bee (Lv. 5)
Knight Grade
Denk (Lv. 5)
Knight Grade
Swift (Lv. 4)
Veteran Knight Grade
Kluh (Lv. 5)
Knight Grade
Cerberus (Lv. 5)
Knight Grade
Vazl (Lv. 3)
Knight Grade
Gorr (Lv. 2)
Veteran Elite Knight Grade
Even though their original names changed, seeing their names officially displayed in the information box gave me a sense of pride. It was as if the idea that the bosses were now my soldiers had solidified.
'My soldier...'
Now two of them are well-defined S-ranks, especially Gorr. He would reach my rank if I didn't have or didn't use magic. He could be a great contender on my level, but with magic, I can boost myself up to even go beyond the EX rank.
And my mana is much greater than before, and the boosts will last much longer.
Gold is the second S-rank who could easily surpass any S-ranker in Korea, as his DPS is that much greater.
Swift and Aella are both above A-rank, just a little below S-ranker.
And the gap is not too big. They can bridge the gap using their unique combat abilities and skills. Now they don't die from any attack, and they don't need stamina or breathing, which also removes the cooldown system and much more. They could take on S-rankers any day.
Even though they were only B+++ ranks themselves before their deaths.
Croc, Alpha, Beta, Dawn, Zero, Zink, Bumble Bee, Denk, Kluh, Cerberus, Vazl, and Igris are A-ranks with different levels.
Lastly, the Knights, Mages, Hobgoblins, Goblin Shamans, Spider Queen, Grimhand, Blue Poison-fanged Casaka, Giant Rats, Bloodthirsty Bats, Primate Long Arm Apes, Lynx Lions, Huge Apes, Huge Wolves, Dire Saber Tooth Tigers, and Poison-fanged Giant Sand Centipede are either Elite Rank or Veteran ranks, some even touching the boundaries of Knight ranks.
So they are all about B and below A-rank hunters, like the brother of Greed, Poison-fanged Giant Sand Centipede, and Dire Saber Tooth Tigers.
But again, as immortal undead, they could take on even higher rankers than their own ranks. The fact that they can regenerate forever without needing to sleep, eat, or get exhausted gives them unlimited stamina, enabling them to annihilate any opponent.
I am aware that monarchs are capable of killing them, killing the immortal shadows. However, I do not know how, as I am not even aware of the conditions to create some shadows, let alone how to kill them.
There are many mysteries that I need to figure out. But what I do have are some theories...
It's noted that certain powers are negated when around other monarchs (being cut off from the shadow monarch and then killed means they won't reign, I also can't switch with them, etc.).
You see an example of this with the Hunter Association president making a hole in the barrier so the ant could escape, and Jinwoo could notice it.
It's why he cancels summons a bunch of dudes when facing the dragon monarch. His power killing them will cut them off so they don't reign. A bunch of shadows has died to the other monarch before (beast monarch, etc.). Also, why he can't use his kinesis on the other monarch as well as he can on regular enemies?
Second, it's because his breath literally erases existences, as if they never existed in the first place.
Or shadows are spiritual bodies or bodies of mana. They can be destroyed completely, never to regenerate, as long as their entire form is erased at once. This is generally believed to be impossible to do, but the monarchs themselves have similar levels of power and knowledge regarding SJW's powers as the Shadow Monarch.
This isn't the first time they bypassed his powers; the Frost monarch separated Go Gunhee into a private space, cut off from the world, completely blocking the Shadow Soldiers' attempts to warn SJW about what was happening to Gunhee.
It also prevented any teleportation like Shadow Exchange, and that was back when they first appeared. Then the three monarchs of Frost, Plague, and Beast did the same thing again, hiding their powers to ambush SJW, taking extra care to permanently destroy any Shadow Soldiers they found, and luring him into battle without realizing there were actually three opponents.
Shadow soldiers are immortal-like beings. But their existence can be permanently erased, as a monarch did in some chapters. Even Sung Jin Woo stated that if Shadow Soldiers got hit by the breath of the Dragon Monarch directly, they would be vaporized.
I have no doubts about their regeneration. They regenerate as much as Sung wants them to, using up his mana (they might also be shapes of the death mana of Jin Woo). But their existence can be quite questionable (let's debate about it).
These are a few theories that I have, and I believe that the most possible outcome could be that they can be destroyed (completely) to never regenerate as long as their entire form is erased at once.
But whatever it is, I had to find a way to make them complete immortals just like myself and any girl I came to love.
But to do that, I have to travel dimensions. No matter how great this world sounds, it's still at the lower end of power.
Where universes like DXD, Overlord, and ReZero could beat it, and then there are universes that have their own multiverse like Marvel, DC, Warhammer 40, Dragon Ball, Cthulhu Mythos, Dungeons and Dragons, Demonbane, Homestuck, SCP Universe, Ben-10, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Touhou Project, One Punch Man, Medaka Box, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Dark Horse, Type-Moon...
In this universe, there are powers that could destroy the multiverse with nothing but a thought, and walk around like it's nothing.
It's much scarier than my mind could even imagine. Even after all this, just the thought of being nothing but a grain of sand in the vast ocean called the universe gives me deep chills.
Humans created some of the deepest shit they could imagine, and my mind can't even compare the difference between us.
But this fear is also the one thing that gives me the power and courage to move forward, to reach out for the power that no mortal could even describe in relation.
Of course, this also does not mean I am on my way to getting annihilated by them. If I am going to do this, I will do it my way, slowly but surely, while enjoying everything that this multiverse has to offer. Women, Food, Power, Love, Kids, Rule, family, and again more Power, More Women, More Food, More Love, More Kids, More Rule, More family, and more and more power.
The advantages I have are far in between in number. They couldn't even look upon them, but this gives me the power to do this, to stand in a jungle that was filled with monsters, where they will blink and I'll be dead as a helpless bug.
After some thought, I shook my head to get rid of my current thoughts. It wasn't the time to ponder such thoughts, as thinking would get me nowhere.
Now the naming was out of the equation, and using my speed, I quickly collected everything here and put it back into my inventory.
As there were many experiments that needed to be done, but this wasn't the right place nor the right time.
I glanced at all of them. They were now surrounding me, and with a passive third eye, I could see 360 degrees without needing to tilt my head.
They all stood proudly, waiting for my orders.
Now I have added 55 very strong monsters to the group.
This now adds up to a total of 90 soldiers, and with their much better and much higher ranks, we could take down even mid-tier half dozens of S-rankers or even 3 top rankers.
I looked at the remaining soldiers and used 'Shadow Storage'.
At the activation of the skill... the Shadow Soldiers melted like ice into flat shadows. Then, their shadows flowed over to me and entered my own shadow.
It was exactly as described by the skill; my army was absorbed into my shadow. It all happened in the blink of an eye. The shadow army was nowhere to be seen.
'...Even after seeing it...'
I looked at my shadow with amazement. At that moment, the System rang.
Ding~
[You've tried out all the class-specific skills.
The class advancement is now complete.
The exit will now be created.
'Is it finally over...?']
...….
So I am uploading the chapter sooner because of images I have upload but you shouldn't forget to give power stone, after it gets refreshed.. 9:30, deal, yes deal - Remark.
Now, now, Stop being a horny cuck that reads harem (Which you are reading🤫💀☠️😜) and invest all of your stones in me!!! =)))