“How could it be a Dual Shadow?!”
“It's been so many years since a Dual Shadow last appeared in the Death Swamp!”
The lizardman shaman stared at the spot where Zoe had vanished, gritting his teeth.
Dual Shadows were already rare to begin with.
Since the Black Dragon King took over the Death Swamp, their numbers had only dwindled further.
This was mainly because the Black Dragon King had once captured several Dual Shadows, forcing them into his service.
However, those Dual Shadows had eventually died of various causes.
This had led the remaining handful of Dual Shadows in the Death Swamp to flee the area.
Dual Shadows possessed cloning and shape-shifting abilities, making them exceptionally skilled at camouflage.
Though the Black Dragon King ordered his vassals to hunt them down, they failed to capture many.
The few they did encounter resisted to the very end, fighting until they died.
“The tracking magic has been purged as well.”
The lizardman shaman picked up the fragment of flesh from the ground.
“Can we still track them?”
The Lizardman Spearman asked the lizardman shaman.
“We can't. The target purged the spores incredibly thoroughly.”
“But even with a Dual Shadow's help, that guy will never escape.”
“Surround the Death Swamp and search it inch by inch. Issue a bounty to all monsters in the Death Swamp.”
“Anyone who captures or kills that human will immediately gain their freedom, along with a B-grade skill.”
The lizardman shaman spoke with immediate resolve.
A B-grade skill was a rarity that even High-tier Monsters only mastered one or two of; it was a reward capable of attracting even High-tier Monsters.
“The entire Death Swamp will become their enemy.”
“A heavily injured, dying blacksmith and a mere Low-tier Dual Shadow.”
“They can't possibly escape.”
The lizardman shaman was absolutely certain.
A pond was only so big. No matter how high a fish could jump, where else could it go?
...
Within the pitch-black shadows of the swamp,
Zoe spat out an Acid: Heart-Piercing Bullet, delivering the final blow to the mud giant in front of him.
[Killed Mud Giant Lv17, Experience +360, Talent Modifier, Extra Experience +360]
[Experience full. Leveled up to Lv18]
[Intelligence +1, Free Stat Point +1]
Ethan leaned against a nearby tree trunk, his face deathly pale as blood steadily seeped from his scabbed wounds.
He had already reached his limit.
Even the powerful Constitution of a Lv40 class-holder could not withstand the continuous depletion of his life force.
Coupled with the harsh environment of the swamp—under normal circumstances, a powerful Constitution would allow him to ignore such severe conditions.
But right now, his weakened body and wounds were steadily deteriorating due to the surroundings.
“You must rest now,” Zoe said solemnly.
“There's no time, no time for us to rest. I must... I must find a way out.”
“I'm sorry for holding you back.”
Zoe extended shadows to support Ethan.
“The monsters throughout the entire Death Swamp are attacking us. Those lizard beasts must have put a bounty on me.”
After fleeing with Zoe for a day, Ethan seemed to have made up his mind. He looked at Zoe.
“I'm only a burden to you now. Leave me behind.”
“Take the Dragon Heart Spike and escape on your own.”
“If you really can't get away, have your clone drop the Dragon Heart Spike and escape by yourself.”
“I want you to live.”
Ethan reached behind his back, wanting Zoe to take the Dragon Heart Spike.
Zoe actually had an excellent solution: storing the Dragon Heart Spike in his Reincarnation Space.
Unless the Black Dragon King could somehow pursue him into the Reincarnation Space, there was absolutely nothing he could do.
Even so, that wouldn't stop Ethan and himself from being hunted down.
“You are worthy of my trust.”
“Please also take this eye to Evelyn. It is a relic left behind by her father.”
Ethan reached a hand toward his right eye.
The Golden Eye was incredibly precious. Even if he died, he did not want it falling into the hands of the Black Dragon King.
He had originally planned to destroy the Golden Eye at the very end of his life.
But now that he had met Zoe, he had found a far more suitable way to handle this precious relic.
“Hold on. Don't go deciding to die on your own.”
Zoe stopped Ethan from gouging out his eye.
He was indeed deeply covetous of the Golden Eye, but he also had his own principles.
When he reincarnated in the future, he could max out his eye stats to see if he could reincarnate as a human of the Golden Bloodline and awaken his own Golden Eye.
Someone else's Golden Eye was not what he wanted at all.
“It will be difficult, but at this point, we can only experiment with this ability.”
“Don't resist in a moment. Hand control of your body over to me.”
“It might have irreversible effects on your body, but this is our only option right now.”
Hearing Zoe's solemn tone, Ethan chuckled.
“These old bones of mine don't have much time left anyway. Go right ahead, don't worry about me.”
At Ethan's words, Zoe activated his skill.
Zoe condensed a Shadow Clone, which cost him a total of 500 mana.
Next, the Shadow Clone activated [Shadow Transformation] and [Devour], turning into a slime-like texture that swallowed Ethan's body.
Zoe did not Digest Ethan; instead, he further activated the skill [Dragon Body Fusion].
The pitch-black shadow seeped into Ethan's skin and flesh.
“Ah...”
The intense pain caused Ethan to let out a muffled groan of agony.
Zoe was fully focused, his three-part Parallel Mind coordinating to precisely guide the skill's flow.
In his previous life, after entering the Withered Fruit State at the very end, he had easily used various skills to perfectly fuse and bestow his power upon Vera, Evelyn, and Flora.
But in his normal state in this life, pulling off the same operation was exceedingly difficult.
“I... I'm fine. Keep going,” Ethan managed to squeeze out through the intense pain.
“Okay.”
Zoe began to activate [High-speed Regeneration], using the shadow to fill the wounds inside Ethan's body.
At the same time, the clone that had swallowed Ethan transformed under Zoe's control into a fully enclosing suit of pitch-black biological armor.
By this point, the pain inside Ethan's body was beginning to recede.
He was filled with disbelief as he felt the Shadow Clone armor that covered his entire body, ready to move on his behalf.
“Incredible... to think such a thing is actually possible...”
This was definitely not something an ordinary Dual Shadow could accomplish.
Just as there were geniuses and mediocrities among humans, Zoe, in Ethan's eyes, was a peerless genius among Dual Shadows.
“You should sleep and recover your strength first,” Zoe said.
“Though I've temporarily filled your wounds with shadows, these shadows can't completely replace your flesh and blood or permanently fuse with you.”
“In the end, you'll still need your own flesh to grow and replace these temporary shadow fillers.”
If Ethan were young enough for his cells to have vitality, and if Zoe had access to his previous life's Withered Fruit State, he might have been able to directly stimulate the cells inside Ethan's body into high-speed regeneration.
“I understand.”
In this critical situation, Ethan didn't stand on ceremony; restoring his energy as quickly and efficiently as possible was the top priority.
Already pushed to his absolute mental and physical limits, Ethan promptly fell into a deep sleep.
Zoe couldn't even tell if the man had passed out or simply fallen asleep.
“[Dragon Body Fusion] really is worthy of being a forbidden art of the dragon race. The ceiling of this skill is even higher than I imagined,” Zoe thought to himself as he looked at the pitch-black clone completely enveloping Ethan.
Among dragons, [Dragon Body Fusion] had always been a forbidden art for merging draconic bodies.
In Zoe's hands, however, it had been combined with his other skills to unlock a completely new purpose.
Rate on N.U.
