Vitality: 15→12
Dante's body tensed, his heart thumping rapidly.
'This isn't normal.'
Although he was exhausted from his training, he knew that Vitality had nothing to do with fatigue—it was supposed to always stay fixed!
In an instant, he turned around, but found nothing in the room other than the dead skeleton.
But if there was really nothing, then how did he lose three points of his vitality? He didn't eat or drink anything recently—neither did Fafnir—so that couldn't be because of poison either.
'I-I have to leave this place.'
Without hesitation, Dante slowly moved toward the corridor, but as his body reached the blue light…
Tsss!
"KRAAAK"
A sharp scream echoed throughout the room. Dante's eyes widened as a strange figure emerged from his shadow and crawled back into the dark room.
Without hesitation, Dante pointed his shaky index at the figure: 'What the hell is this!'
At the corner of the room, a humanoid, four-armed shadow rolled on the floor, black smoke leaking out of its body as if burned.
Bang!
Dante shot a normal mana bullet, stronger than the bullets he had shot before his training, but it only passed through the shadow monster without affecting it.
Dante's eyes widened: 'How?!'
As if interrupted by the bullet, the shadow stopped rolling and stood up, looking at Dante with 4 hollow eyes.
'Should I run…?'
Dante was stuck between running away into the corridor, facing the danger of countless potential traps recklessly, or fighting the most scary figure he had seen so far.
The next moment, his hand stopped shaking as he gritted his teeth: 'Fuck that! I won't give up on the first try!'
As the monster took a step forward, Dante shot a demonic bullet, but it passed through it as well.
'Last test.' Dante prepared himself to run as he shot a shadow bullet.
"...!"
All of a sudden, the shadow monster did something that brought back hope to Dante.
The monster dodged the bullet.
With more confidence, Dante shot three bullets, adding demonic energy to all of them.
The shadow figure rolled to the side, dodging two of the three bullets, but one of its arms was severed completely by the third bullet.
But just then, Dante frowned: 'Only three more bullets before running out of mana.'
He was training a few moments ago, so his mana was drained before this fight. Unfortunately, he knew that three bullets weren't enough to kill the shadow monster, especially when he noticed that it had four arms.
Dante turned his head and looked at the blue torch behind him, realising that the blue light had injured the monster.
'What if…'
He moved closer to it and waited. Surprisingly, the shadow monster didn't dare to touch the light.
'I can just sit and restore my mana!' Dantesmiled as he sat down to rest.
Just then, he felt a wave of exhaustion striking his body.
Confused, he brought out the black orb and read his Vitality.
Vitality: 12→11
Seeing another missing point, Dante's jaw fell: 'H-how?!'
He looked at the shadow monster. It was still standing silently, but it was taller than before. At this moment, he realized that it was responsible for his decreased stat.
But how? Earlier, it was hiding in Dante's shadow, so it was understandable. But how did it do it now?
Dante looked at his legs—where the monster was hiding earlier—and took off his boots.
His body tensed the moment he saw black marks covering his legs and moving up to his knees.
'Is that how it's draining my vitality?' Dante wondered, looking at his legs with hesitation.
'Should I… cut them off?'
As that thought crossed his mind, he immediately shook his head. He wasn't ready to do something like that when he needed his legs to survive. Cutting them off would be his latest solution.
He looked at the terrifying monster, realising that he had no other choice but to fight quickly, hoping that he'd win and the marks would disappear.
'Come on, Dante, it isn't as scary as it seems.'
Dante calmed himself down, put his boots back on, and stood up, holding the rusty sword firmly in his left hand.
'The blue torches might help me.'
He went to the blue torch, grabbing it to use it as a weapon against the shadow, but just then…
Flick!
The blue flames disappeared, leaving him in the darkness.
'Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!'
Dante immediately rushed to the next torch in the corridor, but as if waiting for this moment, the shadow suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his path.
Dante gritted his teeth to endure his fear before covering his sword and entire body in shadows, ensuring that all his attacks would damage it. The next moment, he used all his power to swing his sword diagonally from upper right to lower left.
Swish!
The sword only made a shallow cut in the monster's chest. Seizing the opportunity, the shadow monster gripped Dante's left arm and twisted it.
Crack!
The pain hit Dante instantly as the rusty sword fell on the ground. Ignoring the pain, he instantly used his only weapon-like spell.
Demonic Shadow Spell — Demonic Shadow Claw!
Three black claws burst out of his demonic arm. Dante's eyes turned red as he lunged at the shadow monster.
The monster's hollow eyes widened as Dante cut one of its arms and collapsed over it.
With its two remaining arms, it tried to attack Dante, piercing his stomach with its own claws, but they couldn't pierce any vital organs.
The next moment, three sharp claws pierced the monster's chest.
Both the monster and Dante screamed in unison. One screamed in pain, fear and disbelief, the other in pain, fear and rage.
The shadow monster looked at Dante's eyes, one slit silver and the other regular blue. Despite how frightened they seemed, they made a terrifying memory flash in the monster's mind.
Suddenly, its jaw broke into a wide, terrifying smile as it formed its last thought: 'The vessel…?'
A moment later, only one scream remained.
The shadow monster suddenly disappeared, turning into a shadow mark on the floor, leaving Dante to collapse in exhaustion.
Dante looked at his broken arm, then at the shadow mark in disbelief, feeling his strength returning.
'I… did it?'
That idea seemed unbelievable to him. Just a few hours ago, he was still struggling to run from a loan shark. But now, he fought two magical monsters… and won?
Dante laughed bitterly as he touched his broken arm and the bleeding wounds on his stomach.
As his body calmed, the delayed pain and mental exhaustion struck him all at once. Sadly, his magic wouldn't help against them.
His body shivered and his teeth trembled quietly. Dante hugged himself with his demonic arm, remembering the monster's hollow gaze and last smile.
He was scared. He was truly scared.
However… he won. He overcame his fear and killed the monster! He—a homeless boy who had just learned about the existence of magic—had killed two monsters under all the stress and fear!
If that wasn't the best definition of progress, then what would it be?
"Heh…hahaha…"
With his body bleeding, arm broken, and body shaking—Dante laughed and cried at the same time.