The shadow of a tree in a random part of the forest shivered slightly as three bodies were spilt out.
Kage got up onto his feet as he tried to wake up his students. They had all suffered tremendously from the attack of the unknown beings, some more than others. Jason's body didn't have enough blood to even function, because of that he couldn't do anything not even blink. He just layed on the ground. Alsvid was having a better time. He had ran entirely out of essence but as he was exposed to the air he slowly started to regain it. Kage was in the best shape among the three of them. He had injuries all over his body and had his shadow stolen by the floating cloak but he had the most essence out of all of them and in the forest he would be able to function properly. The catch was that without his shadow he wasn't able to store the shadows of any creature that dies near him neither can he summon any creature he already had stored. His power had taken a huge blow. If Kage wanted to recover he had two options. The first was to try and get his shadow back from the cloak but it was something he wasn't going to risk which left option two.
"Alsvid, since you are still in good condition and slowly recovering your essence I need you to protect Jason. I need to go do something, I'll be back soon." Kage said as he got up and started pushing through his injuries to move as fast as he could deeper into the forest.
Alsvid didn't reply because he was stunned. Not because Kage had trusted him with the life of another person but because Kage had referred to both of them by their real names. He hadn't heard his name from anyone's mouth since he left Adam's side and it was uttered by the person he least expected to mention it.
As soon as Kage was out of view, Alsvid entered a meditative pose not only to boost his essence recovery but also because he wanted to create a new skill. The thought of a new skill reminded him of the one he used against the beings. This prompted him to check his system.
[Congratulations Alsvid for your first apparition killed. (1/100)]
[As a reward for killing an apparition user you have gained all the essence they managed to gather.]
Alsvid was surprised to see the system message. He hadn't opened his system for so long even after killing the dragon rider. He already knew he gained the essence of the dragon rider because he felt his essence storage expand that day and the extra essence is what allowed him to do all the things he had been doing so far so the second message wasn't as surprising but he was still surprised that the system kept track of his kills.
[Name: Alsvid Murion (Monarch)]
[Age: 15]
[Apparition: Abyssal Domination]
[Current skills: Charged punch, Essence burst, Abyssal shield (unstable), Abyssal valley (Unstable)]
[Class: Sentinel]
[Trait: Berserk]
[Kills: 1/100]
"Oh yeah, I forgot to ask Kage what this class thing is. I'll ask when he returns. Have the kill records always been there am not sure." Alsvid said to himself as he closed his eyes.
Kage walked for a couple of minutes making sure the students could neither see no sense him. The conditions needed to be perfect. Then he got into a meditative pose and started running his essence through every part of his body. On the outside if one looked in his direction they wouldn't see Kage but rather a shadow meditating. After running his essence through his body for a while making sure every part of his body was covered, he got up with his eyes closed and started pushing the essence sculpture of himself out of his body. This created a spectacular scene of a three dimensional shadow slowly separating from a human being. After the shadow fully separated it started sinking into the ground and attached its feet to Kage's feet. Then the process completed itself with Kage's new shadow taking on the same posture as Kage creating the perfect shadow.
That was option two. Option two was for Kage to construct a new shadow for himself. The process itself wasn't difficult but if he is interrupted by anything at all during the process he could lose the shadow and possibly all his essence forcing him to wait until he regained it back. Another downside was that a new shadow didn't have any of the shadows Kage had captured which meant that He had to try capturing new shadows before he went back to continue the journey.
Shadow started walking deeper into the forest. The shadow underneath his feet was having trouble keeping up which caused awkward times where he would move before the shadow or the shadow would move before him. Eventually they were in sync but he could still feel the unpredictable nature of the shadow.
He soon ran into something nice. It was a dungeon. An open dungeon which could be used by anyone. It was an extraordinarily large tree with a large hole at its center. Kage walked into the hole of the tree finding an entire new world within.
It looked like a crystal cave. The floor, the walls and the ceiling were made of stone and had the natural texture of a cave. The ceiling was littered with green crystal gems that emitted light essence to keep the cave well lit. Kage walked through the cave for a while before getting his first encounter. Three large spiders that were half the size of a human being but almost three times wider than a human being. Due to the well lit nature of the cave and lack of obstacles other than the walls which were twelve feet apart to create a large corridor Kage couldn't control anything other than his shadow. This was going to be a difficult battle.