Max Talent Player - Chapter 196

Chapter 196

Welcome, offerings of the shadow.

The moment I heard those words, I came to a conclusion. A Shadow Sovereign would spawn here.

It was my first time using it for real.

I used the special skill I earned by going up to the pure flame Athenae, making a ‘Ring of Fire’, and upgrading my Person of Fire title to Pure Person of Fire.

Thinking there might be a chance a Shadow Sovereign might be here, I had memorized the locations of all the torches earlier.

A magic torch with a murky nature. Murky things could be purified, a fact I picked up on when we came in earlier.

‘There’s not much time.’

Vela and I couldn’t handle the Shadow Soldiers and Shadow Knights led by the Shadow Sovereign with just the two of us, especially not in a dark place like this with limited visibility.

I would fight fire with fire. It wasn’t a very difficult concept. Not long from now, it would become a fairly common thing to do. And the flame I possessed was the ‘Flame of Purification’.

Fwoosh!

The torches burned immediately brighter.

“What are you doing?”

“Turning off the lights.”

And then, darkness descended. I couldn’t see anything. Not with Eye of Perception, not with Observer’s Eye, nothing. Complete darkness. A world devoid of even a single ray of light.

“Vela. Turn around right where you are.”

“Eh?”

“We’re going back to where we were.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve gotten rid of the light. You remember where it is, yes?”

There was no time for a drawn-out explanation. The Great Explorer Jackson introduced the world to the Shadow Sovereign strategy.

–The ‘Shadow Sovereign’ is a very tricky monster to face. It is always accompanied by ‘shadow’-type monsters, and it coordinates their movements, giving them a big buff as well as heals and even defensive spells.

The Shadow Sovereign played an intermediary role that at least doubled the stats of Shadow Soldiers and Shadow Knights, virtually carrying out its role as a sovereign to a T.

–A wide level difference is necessary in order to face them in a dark place.

But we couldn’t level up right at this moment. From the glimpse I had earlier, the Shadow Sovereign’s level showed up as a red ‘?’ to me. That meant it was a higher level than me.

–If there isn’t a wide level difference, it’s best to get rid of all light in the vicinity. Because ironically, there can be no shadow without light.

If we could produce a light so bright that it cast absolutely no shadows, that would be a different story. If that were possible, it would surely deal a great blow to ‘shadow’-type monsters.

‘But in the current situation, that’s impossible.’

That left only one option—to extinguish all light here.

“We’re deep underground, and there’s no natural light here. And I’ve gotten rid of the artificial light.”

“Yeah. I get that much. I’ve turned around. What do I do now?”

“The Shadow Sovereign is only really strong when shadows can be formed. There’s no light, so there’s no shadow. So what do you think we have to do now?”

“No idea. Just tell me.”

I never actually hoped that Vela would understand. To Vela, what was important wasn’t the process, but the result. To him, the only thing that mattered was what he had to do next. But it was different for the Guardians who were watching all this. I had to throw in the narration they desired.

“We have to destroy the wall that trapped us in and let the light come in.”

That moment, my ears picked up cracking noises from the wall.

“Hear that? Break that wall down, quick.”

Faster than the ‘Shadow Sovereign’ expected, half a beat ahead of our foe, Vela let out a roar.

Ba-baaam!

And then came a crash so loud it sounded like an explosion. I had a truly random thought. If Vela and So Yoohyun’s fists collided, whose bones would shatter?

Having readied myself in advance, I immediately shoved down Vela’s head.

“Ack! What’re you—” Vela’s complaint died away. “Thanks. You saved me.”

Thanks to me pushing down his head, the ‘Shadow Spear’ thrown by a Shadow Knight missed its mark. The pitch-black Shadow Spear crashed into the wall of the parking lot passage and was absorbed, seeping into the wall like black oil before quivering like it was alive.

“Run.”

“Where to?”

“Up.”

Vela and I began to run. The simple Vela followed my instructions just as simply. He didn’t ask why, he just began to run full-tilt.

“How did you know?” he asked while running. “That an attack would be coming?”

“I got rid of all the light.”

“I know.”

He didn’t seem particularly interested in the fact I had used an ability similar to magic. It looked like he had just accepted it as a matter of fact.

“The Shadow Sovereign must have also concluded that in order to make shadow, it had to first make light. That would require it to destroy the wall.”

“Right.”

“That was my intent, too. The Shadow Sovereign read that intent.”

It knew what I was doing, but it had to move anyway. Because without any light, ‘shadows’ were powerless.

“So I knew it would put a Shadow Knight on standby there.”

“Ohh, so you read each other’s moves. Hah. Hah…!”

Vela started panting. It wasn’t unusual, considering we were running full speed uphill. But his constitution was worse than I thought—I was totally fine.

Some distance ahead of us, I started seeing the monsters we hadn’t hunted earlier.

Goblins.

Regular Trolls.

Troll Soldiers.

Orcs.

They were all not very strong.

“As long as you don’t think they’ll deal a fatal blow, just tank the hits and keep running.”

“Hah…! Hah…! ‘Kay.”

My primary goal was to run all the way to the exit of the underground parking lot, the entrance of the hidden field. In the end, we were able to reach the entrance. Vela bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for air.

“Hah. Hah. Hah. Hah.”

I activated Eye of Perception to pierce through the darkness veiling the underground space we had just run up. I couldn’t see clearly, but I could sense the gist of what was happening.

‘The shadow monsters are hunting the regular monsters.’

Jackson’s strategy was correct.

–The Shadow Sovereign is not the type of monster that fixates on killing humans. Each Shadow Sovereign requires a certain quota of ‘offerings’ to satisfy itself.

That was why it gladly welcomed us as ‘offerings of the shadow’ when we first met it.

‘The regular monsters have been taken as offerings instead of us.’

In due time, the satisfied Shadow Sovereign would be extinguished on its own. Even without us lifting a finger, it would fade away as if we had hunted it. If the clear condition for this place was the Shadow Sovereign’s death, we would be able to clear the hidden field very easily.

‘Though I doubt it’ll be that easy.’

I didn’t let myself relax. The Shadow Soldiers and Knights under the Shadow Sovereign’s control hadn’t come up this far—they were still busy hunting the ordinary monsters.

Suddenly, the hunt came to an end.

‘It’s quiet now.’

It seemed like all the monsters had been hunted. Vela and I started heading back down.

“We’re going back down?”

“We gotta negotiate with the Shadow Sovereign.”

“We can talk to it?”

“We’ll see.”

I knew one thing for certain—its actions were prescribed by several settings. As long as I could properly grasp what those settings were, I could face the Shadow Sovereign.

The shadows were voraciously devouring the monster corpses. They had no definite form. Almost like a demon with long fingers was opening its hand, the shadows wrapped around the monster corpses like fingers, chewing with gusto.

It was possible to converse with the Shadow Sovereign within ‘set bounds’.

“Are the offerings I prepared to your liking, Shadow Sovereign?”

A shadow around three meters tall appeared before me, its amorphous form swaying. It looked like writhing black smoke billowing up.

<The quantity of offerings is sufficient.>

Ptooey.

Something came flying out from the shadow.

‘An Orc bone.’

A chunk of Orc bone and innards were expelled.

Chersplat!

An organ I took to be an Orc’s heart fell at my feet. I was not shaken. The Shadow Sovereign had done as its settings prescribed and hunted all the offerings it needed. It shouldn’t be feeling any need to hunt further.

‘I don’t think the Shadow Knights or Soldiers will attack, either.’

The formless monsters went around picking this place clean, even chewing the organ at my feet.

“I’ve given you sufficient offerings, so shouldn’t you give me something?”

What would the Shadow Sovereign give me? It would soon disappear, dropping an item as it faded, but what would that item be? Would it be related to clearing this place?

Just then.

Ueeaaghh.

I heard vomiting.

It was the Shadow Sovereign. The 3-meter tall shadow spasmed before vomiting two items in front of me. Two items covered in a sticky, oil-like slime.

‘They’re both…’

They were both ‘Clear Crystals’. However, the crystals came in a completely new form I had never seen before.

‘Thankfully…’

As one would expect from the beginner period, we would be able to get a Clear Crystal with a simple “trade” like this. The only issue was that the Clear Crystals were a little strange.

‘There’s… a ring around the crystals?’

Each crystal was encircled by a ring. One had a black ring, and the other had a gray ring.

The item descriptions on both Clear Crystals could be read.

All of this was completely new to me. If this crystal was crushed, the voluntary growth of Players worldwide would be limited to 40.

‘In the past… Players not being able to raise their level past 40, was it because of this?’

My heart hammered in my chest. It felt like I was peeking into the chest containing the world’s secrets. It was still too early to draw a conclusion, but I had the feeling that the world I’d been living in was concealing far too many secrets.

Each crystal’s destruction came with different benefits. A great many thoughts ran through my head as I looked at these Clear Crystals, but there was really one thing I had to focus on now. Which of the two crystals was the right one to break, and would it be of any gain to me? That was the important thing. At least now, in this moment of time.

‘For now… let’s check both of their benefits.’

I decided to find out what a ‘Premium Growth Fruit’ and a ‘Clue Regarding the Sky of Freedom’ was.