Chapter 162: Emergence (4)
"Huh? What did you say?" Frey tilted her head as she heard the mumbleing out from Shinto. "What''s this about Ethaniel and that slime, Erith?"
"Cough... It''s nothing," Shinto hurriedly shook his head as he stopped at his previous sentence. "I was just wondering about how the situation went on after I fell unconscious. Just curious and all."
Had he uttered out his woes without thought to Frey and Raina, it might have raised concerns regarding Ethaniel''s battle prowess in rtion to his ss. As the two didn''t know Shinto and Ethaniel''s sses, the two men decided to keep it secret for the being and as of right now, it wasn''t time yet to tell.
"I-In any case. Seeing as how the situation is already handled, I guess before Ethaniel arrived, we did dwindle down their health bit by bit for the clean-up crew," Shinto stated, moving the thought of the way Ethaniel sessfully battled against the three elementals to the back of his mind. Perhaps he was overthinking on the matter. "Anyway... Since the rest are still unconscious, I''ll go ahead and check out the loot and my current status."
"Right then. Since you''re going to be checking your status and loot-" Raina nodded her head as she soon abruptly spoke. "Ah, before that. Speaking of loot, what do we do about the items given by Sanke? The Cursemancer''s glove and book."
"The items? Ah. Ipletely forgot about that," letting out a slight cough, Shinto hurriedly took out the two items that had been kept in his inventory for the past hours. "With all that happened, this was the least of concerns..."
Maybe he wouldn''t have struggled as much if he had remembered that such items were in his inventory. Though even then, without the other mage in the party, Rainahe couldn''t distribute the items among themselves without a say of both sides.
"Aha... Right, there was a lot on our te, huh?" Raina chuckled. "But... In any case, there''s something specific I''d like to ask of you in regards to the items. Though, it''s fine if you want it more."
"Hmm? What item do you want?" Shinto questioned.
"The Cursemancer''s Glove," Raina firmly stated. "The item gives Wisdom which I currently want more of due to the spellbook that I have... So would it be possible if you take the skill book whilst I take the glove?"
"Oh?" Shinto raised his brow in curiosity as he considered Raina''s words. Thinking on the matter, he soon nodded his head. "Sure. I don''t mind. Though... Do you really want to give up a skill that easily over an item?"
In terms of skill and item, both types were at times in equal standing with one another. With horrible items, one''s stat will be on the lower-end side, thus a skill cannot be used to its best potential, and vice versa could be said as well.
But, although it was the general form of understanding, not all characters depend heavily on this consensus. Some skills were fixed by percentages, or at times some yers have their stats mainly surrounding their passives.
Though, no one could pass up on good equipment when given the chance to.
"Mhm. Yeah, I''m sure," Raina nodded her head. "Since I''ve got to go through this spellbook to enhance the mes of Etheral and get more out of it, it''s much efficient for me to have the glove."
"I see... Then it works out for the both of us," Shinto smiled. "I was actually keen on wanting the skill more than the glove since I have ack of skills avable when they''re all on cooldown..."
Despiteining about having bad equipment and being underprepared, Shinto''s top priority was mainly on skills. This was due to the fact that much of his support was already in a fixed percentage form, such as [ Mark of Umbra ], [ Divinity Brilliance ] and his passive that marks an enemy for increase damage by his allies.
The only variable was the damage dealt and his defences, but to him, since Ethaniel and Frey were the focus frontliners, all he needed to do was focus on his evasion in the case of attacks that targets him.
"Phew... Thanks, Shinto," Raina smiled at the man in front of her whilst taking the gloves from his hand. In the next moment, she wore the gloves as she scrunched over to the side of a wall and began reading the book to raise her stats and level.
"Jee... You two got mage items, what about me?" Frey pouted. "I haven''t gotten anything except those quest rewards... but even then! I don''t want to use those items!"
"Aha... I''m sure you''ll have your time soon," Shinto stated. "You at least have that aggro skill, right?"
"Yeah, but... If I were to attract monsters in this ce, won''t I like... Die without being able to put up a fight? I don''t wanna die!" Frey cried out. "Maybe if it was monsters around my level... That would be a good challenge! But, something way over my level that can kill me instantly? No!"
"Hmm... We''ll have some usages for the skill. We just need to keep your health continuously in the green and ready to go," Shinto uttered out.
"Huh? What''s that supposed to mean?!"
"Well... You''ll see when we enter into battle," Shinto stated whilst moving his eyes over to his status window. "In any case... I''ll check my status now before doing anything else."
[ yer Profile ]
yer Name: Shinto
Level: 37
Rank: N/A
ss: Shadow Diviner (???-Unknown Rarity)
-ss Attribute-
...
-Titles-
...
-Stats-
HP: 1284/1284 | MP: 1136/1136 (+20)
Strength: 50 | Stamina: 82 (+4)
Intelligence: 136 (+21) | Agility: 88 (+8)
Shadow: 38 | Divinity: 26
Wisdom: 7
Stats Point: 51
...
Looking at his current stats and level, Shinto noted that he had levelled up by two from 35 after the battle with the elementals. "Hmm... Shadow stat at 38 and Divinity being far behind..."
The wide gap couldn''t be helped. Even in broad daylight where he was receiving his divinity passive bonus,pared to his shadow that had received an increase of two from speaking with the beings of shadow, Divinity received no such thing.
"Sigh... What was it when I said Divinity was much more interactivepared to Shadow?" Shinto questioned. "I feel that Shadow''s so much better all of a sudden..."
Silently uttering out his words, Shinto soon received a notification prompt.
[ Under the eyes of the beings of shadow, the race of the Shades has prepared themselves to finally return to the side of the Shadow Diviner. ]
[ A quest from the shadow side has been created! ]
...
[ Return - Shadows of the Shadow Realm ]
Type: ss Quest
With the beings of the shadow realm ready to take hand in aiding the Shadow Diviner, the Shadow Servants are ready to be summoned.
However, with the unfortunate circumstance of the Shadow Diviner with his sealed skills and weak state, he is unable to summon all at once under the prejudice of a ''Shadow Minion'' nor be able to call for them out for help.
Thus, you as the Shadow Diviner must strengthen yourself.
Quest Objective:
-Reach 50+ Shadow Stat
-Summon ''Cobra of the Empress''s Sting'', ''ck Bird''s Darkness'' and ''Shadow of the Fox'' once. (1/3)
Quest Clear Reward: Shadow Recreation will be levelled up to level two, a sealed skill will begin to surface itself.
Quest Failure: None.
...
"...a quest on the shadow side?" Shinto''s eyes widened in surprise upon being greeted by such a quest out of the blue. With all the recent interactions with the two sides, he did expect one to eventually appear, but for one to appear after falling unconscious and having Kon returning back into the shadow realmhe couldn''t have fathomed such a coincidence. "Hmm... Unlike the Divinity quest, this one''s asking me to raise my stat instead of doing something..."
From what he had received so far, it seemed that the early growth of his ss was much kinder on the Shadow side inparison to the Divinity side quests where they were mostly on the harder end for his level.
"The difference is quite prevalent... Though, It''s not only just that..." Shinto thought to himself. The contrast between Shadow and Divinity were quite interesting to him, especially with the irony that darkness was support whilst light wasbat had piqued his interest since the first day. "Hmm..."
Continuing to think on the topic at hand, his thoughts soon wandered elsewhere as another notification prompt appeared before him.
[ The skill ''Shadow Recreation'' is shaking! ]
[ The skill ''Shadow Recreation'' is shaking! ]
[ The skill ''Shadow Recreation'' is shaking... ]
"Hah... This same thing happened for when Kon was first summoned as well," Shinto thought to himself as in the next moment, he soon opened up his skill list and entered into the details of [ Shadow Recreation ].
...
[ The contents of the skill have been updated! ]
[ Shadow Recreation Lv 1 ] [ 50 Shadow Gauge ] [ Cooldown: 10 Minutes ]
A Shadow Minion is summoned by the Shadow Diviner from this list permanently (Unless stated otherwise):
*Kon
*''Cobra of the Empress''s Sting'' (Temp. Can only be summoned for 3 hours and then will be ced on a 24-hour cooldown)
*''ck Bird''s Darkness'' (Temp. Can only be summoned for 3 hours and then will be ced on a 24-hour cooldown)
*Those who are summoned from the list will be under the category of [Shadow Minion], otherwise they do not count unless in certain situations pertaining to the status of the diviner.
*You may currently only summon up to one Shadow Servant under the status of [ Shadow Minion ].
*A Shadow Minion can be unsummoned freely by the Shadow Diviner or of its own will when the diviner is not in range. (You will be notified if so.)
...
"So, there are two new shadow servants to be summoned," confirming the details of the newly updated description, Shinto soon began to scrutinize around the area. However, the moment he did soa loud shout protruded out in the area.