Queen of the Shadows

9. Change Isn't Always Good

"This is Erebus, a shadow of mines." Cale seemed to have no energy in his speech.

Cale, and Erebus, met up with Jinwoo at the car.

"I didn't expect a shadow to have a human form." Jinwoo seemed surprised.

"...what?"

"Huh? Did you think it was possible?" Jinwoo asked.

'Yeah! I did!' Cale felt his blood boil.

"Well, this is a first." Jinwoo inspected Erebus.

"What are you doing?" Erebus, hissed...?

Jinwoo backed away. "How did this happen?" He asked, curious. Of course some of his shadows also strongly resembled a human, but none of them actually looked like a human.

"I don't know." Cale shrugged. "Shouldn't we be going now?" Cale changed the topic.

Jinwoo nodded. He started the car.

They shortly arrived at the gate, in the beach. The area around it was vacant, for safety concerns, but it was still located near a neighborhood.

'I'm getting a bad feeling about this.' Cale thought as he stood in front of the dungeon.

"Is something wrong, my queen?" Erebus asked, standing next to Cale.

"Please stop calling me 'my queen'." Cale asked, more like ordered, him.

"..." Erebus looked away, trying to go around his words.

Cale felt his eyebrows twitch. "I told you to call me by my name."

"..."

Cale sighed. "I guess you don't want to listen." Cale shrugged.

Erebus flinched. "I'm sorry.. my- Cale..." He seemed shy, more over embarrassed.

Cale smirked. "It's alright." He turned to Jinwoo, who was waiting for them, "let's enter now."

Jinwoo nodded. 'Interesting.' He smiled behind Cale's back.

The three entered the C-rank gate.

Crunch crunch

There they were, on a small island surrounded by endless waters.

Cale squinted his eyes, holding his hand above them, damaged by the blinding light from the sun. 'It's just like the description the System gave me.'

[ :> ]

"A sea-type dungeon?" Jinwoo spoke out loud. Seemed like he didn't do his research.

Cale nodded.

Jinwoo sweated, "I didn't bring an extra pair of clothing..."

'I wasn't planning on getting wet anyways.' Cale thought. "We can stay above sea levels and hunt."

"Sure, we can do that, but how will we get to the boss room?" Jinwoo asked. 'I can send the shadows soldiers down there, but there's no know what will happen in there.'

"We can lure them in." Cale suggested.

"L.. lure them in...?" Jinwoo was a bit taken aback.

"Yeah. Like causing a commotion or something. I heard monsters are pretty sensitive."

'Cale seems to know a lot about this, makes sense, since he's commanded over the shadow army before.' Jinwoo's interest grew larger.

The two, or three and more, started hunting with their shadows.

Cale had originally planned to hunt with his ancient powers, the Sound of the Wind and the Sky-Eating Water, but this type of change wasn't so bad. He could just sit back tightly and relax, he had enough mana, from who knows where, to support the shadows anyways.

'It is questionable how I have mana.. and enough to support those shadows... maybe the System gave it to me...?' Cale wondered.

Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

Cale kept getting notifications.

[ Your shadows have slain Contaminated Fish (Rank F) / Enchanting Sirens (Rank E) / Twin Powered Electric Eel (Rank B) ]

[ You have gained 250 / 500 / 1000 EXP ]

His shadows seemed to be killing a lot. What was his level at anyways?

Cale checked his status window.

[Player Cale Henituse (Kim Rok Soo) LV. ???

Stats:
HP—50
DEF—100
MANA— (R E D A C T E D)
ATK—100

Abilities:
The Indestructible Shield (Lv. ??)
Vitality of the Heart (Lv. ???)
The Sound of the Wind (Lv. ?)
......Show All..... ]

'It doesn't even show my level either.' Cale felt a bit irritated.

[ The System shrieks, looking disappointed at themselves ]

Cale sighed. 'At least they know they need improvement, unlike a certain someone.'

"CALE!"

'Huh?' Cale flinched.

Two pairs of hands were reaching out for him.

'What's happening?' Cale looked around in a panic, scanning their surroundings. He turned backwards, 'a- a tsunami?!' His eyes widened in shock. 'Shit! This isn't the time to stand around! We'll be swept up in that thing!' Cale turned to Jinwoo, "Jinwoo, come here!"

'Does he have a plan?' Jinwoo wondered, but that wasn't the time for that. He ran towards Cale.

Sure, hunters get swept up in natural disasters too, but they could easily get away uninjured, however, there was something strange with this one... and Jinwoo could feel it...

'What about me?' Erebus wondered, still running towards him either way.

"Stay close to me." Cale told him.

Jinwoo smirked, 'sure.'

'Huh?'

A barrier formed around them.

'A shield? Is it Cale's doing?' Jinwoo stared at it. 'Why does it look like that...' He was a bit taken aback by the looks.

A silver shield, that looks like a holy ceremonial ornament.

Thud!

The tsunami had hit them. It went on for a while and Cale had to keep the shield up for that long, while it was getting hit continuously without rest.

'It finally stopped.' Cale let the shield down, feeling his arms become sluggish.

"Are you alright, Cale?" Jinwoo asked, supporting Cale's standing.

"Are you feeling tired?" Erebus asked. "We'll take care of everything from here on." He said boldly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Cale ignored Erebus. "But why was there a sudden tsunami?"

"..."

The two didn't seem to know the answer either.

"...Cale?"

"What is it?" Cale looked up at Jinwoo.

"Do you see this...?"

[ Dungeon information has changed! ]

[ Floating Oasis ➪ Drowning Storm
Rank: SS+
Location: Sinking island, Ocean
Enemies: Enchanting Sirens (Rank A), Abyssal Leviathan (Rank S+), Crying Kraken (Rank S+) ]