Sorry to people who said that they want the MC to be an anti-hero. After a long consideration I felt that what fits his fun-loving personality more is being a morally gray person, not caring about opinions of either good or evil side.
Unless the public opinion pressure is overwhelming I am not going to change this decision and make him a hero, or a villain of any type.
The freedom of choice brought by being in-between allows him to pursue various different ways of entertainment, without being constricted to, for example, fighting bad guys.
I also don't want to tag this novel as a villain or anti-hero one, because I feel like he would need to be much more evil, or much kinder to be considered one of those.
Thanks for reading my rant (if you did of course) and if y'all have any thoughts about this, don't hesitate to comment.
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The feeling of boredom was so overwhelming, that it was basically physically engulfing the room.
The silver haired boy sat upside down on the throne made from shadows, which now finished changing. Even after the transformation was finished it still did not solidify completely, as the top of the backrest swayed with intimidating shadows.
Abaddon was trying to create snow angels on the shadowy floor, while his master was looking at him with his head hanging down.
Both the lord and the vassal felt that if the feeling of apathy got any thicker, it would condense into a humanoid form and hopefully let them break free from this agonizing experience.
The castle changed a lot during the last six hours, making it unrecognisable to somebody who saw it before.
The most glaring difference was the fact that it almost tripled in size and its building material changed from stone into solid shadow, lined with thin decorative golden lines.
The moat, previously almost dry, now was dozens of times wider and full of bubbling liquid darkness. Its dangers could be easily perceived even by most oblivious people, as the droplets that fell on the grass from time to time made a hissing sound, corroding surrounding vegetation and creating dark patches of dead soil.
Through the moat that was now as wide as a large river led a long bridge. A careful observer would notice that the bridge seemed alive. It widened and narrowed as if breathing, while from time to time folding as if stretching, making it impossible to pass through.
The inside also changed drastically. Everything except for some embellishments was now covered in shadows, and anybody without a certain level of night vision would not be able to see anything at all.
The surrounding forest also dimmed, and the night in this part of it seemed darker than usual. Most of the animals ran away from the castle's sphere of influence, but a few got affected in a much different way.
A little fawn came closer to the moat, slowly nearing the bubbling liquid. The little animal seemed to be slowly assimilated as dark patches of shadows spread along it's skin.
It drank a bit of the bubbling corrosive liquid, which made the transformation speed up.
It quickly doubled in size, it's tiny antlers quickly growing into sharp weapons. The dark fawn roared, running happily through a few trees that were unfortunate enough to be in his way.
---
"Finally!" a happy shout resounded through the dark throne room. Hearing it, Abaddon quickly got up from the floor, leaving behind a capsule-shaped hole.
As he left, the ground around the damage started wriggling, slowly filling the pit caused by the 'snow angels'.
The silver-haired boy that was pointlessly floating in the air just a few seconds ago grabbed the minion and sank through the floor.
The previously dirty dungeon, now changed into a huge pure black circular hall with arch-shaped holes all around.
While Abaddon was looking with interest at the changes that happened in the catacombs of the castle, the boy started looking at the changes in the system.
---
[New]
Leader: ??? (Owner)
Second-in-command: N/A
Deputies: N/A
High-level members: N/A
Members: N/A
Associates: N/A
-A position binding is permanent (unless granted a higher one), but with castle upgrade the number of places for a position can increase.
Current amount of places: Second-in-command (1 place) Deputies (3 places) High-level members (9 places) Members (27 places) Associates (81 places)
-The higher the rank, the bigger the strength bonus, with higher ones granting evolutions after a certain amount of time is spent at the headquarters (The higher the connection with the darkness power before binding a rank, the slower the evolution and the lower the chance of it happening).
-Once bound person betrays the owner or their higher-ups, their body will be moved into a prison placed underneath the castle awaiting future judgment.
-The owner will not achieve evolution thanks to the position, as the castle is born from his power and unable to help him attain substantial change.
---
As this new part was activated, he felt his strength increase, and felt an even stronger connection to the castle. Now it felt like a part of him, which he could freely change however he liked.
The boy smiled happily, instantly assigning Abaddon a rank of deputy. He thought about giving him a higher one, however something just felt weird about giving this chaotic minion servant a position of Second-in-command.
'I really need a slightly more humanoid friend to have fun with' he thought, as he looked at the red-eyed shadowy figure rolling around on the floor, once again bored by waiting.
Also getting slightly weary, he decided to speed up the setup.
Choosing one of the arches as a placement position of the gate, he confirmed the option on the system panel.
Darkness gathered, slowly materialising into a tall dark arch with multitude of carvings. in the middle above its entrance hung a triangle with a circle inside, divided In two by a line.
Swirling shadows filled the entrance, almost as if they were inviting the duo inside. As they came closer, the castle's owner seemed to see an exit in the middle of the pitch black whirlpool.
The boy slowly stepped through the threshold, with his servant following him closely.
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---
°°°Opening '"First travel" gift bundle'°°°
-Identity granting
Includes bloodline and recognition of the world (official identity). Doesn't grant any memories and discards negative family traits and oaths.
-Basic world knowledge
Knowledge about the basic political world situation.
---
As he came to the end of the dark tunnel made of churning shadows, he activated both things.
A letter appeared in his hand and he felt another force slowly start generating in his body.
He ripped apart the envelope, stopping in front of the exit to read the contents.
---
Dear daughter (or maybe son).
If you see this, then it means I, and probably your mother as well, have long passed away. When you were conceived we cast identification charms, which told us that there is a high chance the child will be a daughter. We decided to name you Black Widow, as we did not have much more time to think (and the family tradition called for it). Your surname is Black, which means you will be named Black Widow Black (your mother thought it would be funny, blame her).
Remember that we will always love you and stay away from the rest of our relatives (especially Bella, who is a crazy bitch).
Your loving father, Regulus Arcturus Black.
P.S. In case you are a boy (probably not), just change your name to Blake or something, anyway fuck the family and it's traditions.
---
As the newly named Blake Black-Utonium read the letter, his eyelid twitched slightly. The letter was quite interesting, however the certainty of his 'father' that he will be a girl felt like some kind of joke.
Sighing, he threw it behind him, and as it sank into his shadow he stepped out of the archway that appeared at the end of the tunnel.
The first thing he saw was a huge fortress, which seemed incredibly gloomy under the all-encompassing dark clouds. Behind them sea stretched towards both sides meaning it was either a headland or an island.
"What a beautiful place" the boy took in a deep breath, as he looked at the dreary landscape.
Abaddon nodded, happily playing with deep shadows that appeared from time to time on the ground among lighter shadows.
Not a single piece of surrounding land was illuminated by sun, which was caused by the fact that there was no sky, only clouds-black ones and ones slightly more towards dark gray than complete black.
"Azkaban..." Blake muttered to himself as he noticed dark cloaked figure floating towards him, recalling the knowledge granted by the system.
---
The dementor was going peacefully through his day, never expecting the shadow underneath him to suddenly stretch out and pin him to the ground.
A silver-haired boy together with a weird creature came towards him, clearly fascinated.
Poor little dementor tried absorbing the boy's happiness, however he quickly choked on darkness that flowed towards him.
The human-shaped creature put his hands on him while whispering "Don't worry, it will be over before you blink."
'We don't blink' the dementor moaned while struggling, which the other party clearly could not understand. Pure darkness flowed towards the dementors body, quickly covering it as it's consciousness slowly faded.
--------- Blake's Pov ---------
When I used the evolution opportunity on the dementor I did not expect it to be finished this quickly. Was it something about them being dark creatures that made it easier to adapt to my power, or is it just the fact that I upgraded its level multiple times?
I could study it in the future when I'm bored. Anyway it's not very important, I just wanted a new servant for this brand new world.
I looked at the creature's character panel, quickly deciding to name him Boo.
---
Name: Boo (Given by its master, who decided it would be funny if a ghost-looking creature was named this way)
Race: Dark Dementor (A race evolved from the species of Dementors created by a dark wizard Ekrizdis. They love absorbing positive emotions from intelligent beings, although they can survive without it. Now after evolution it has incredible affinity for darkness.)
Abilities :
-Darkness control (level 1)
An ability with high potential, allowing control of shadows and everything that meets the requirements of 'not fully in the light'. It's a mutation of innate ability obtained naturally by a certain race, somehow obtained through connection to a powerful being of that species. Thanks to that connection it also allows to shortly melt into the shadows controlled by said being.
-Immateriality (level X)
An ability evolved from combination of Dementor's near indestructibility and ability to fly. Now it not only strengthens the original traits, but also adds the ability to turn intangible, allowing to pass through the walls.
-Emotion area absorbtion (level 2)
An evolved ability, allowing the absorption of all emotions from large region. It can affect the area of (10^level m²), making everybody in this zone apathetic and lacking will to do anything.
-Dementor's kiss (level 7)
An ability which allows this species to extract the soul, keeping it as a long term emotion source.
Skills:
-Dementor language (level MAX)
A language that can't really communicate much, consisting mostly of moans and sending emotional signals.
-English (level 2)
This language unusable before because of physical restrictions, now after the evolution can finally be spoken and not only understood.
Description: A dark creature, which got incredibly lucky to be chosen for evolution. His character is incredibly serious, especially towards its master, towards whom he wants to devote everything in order to thank him for this new life. Thanks to evolution it managed to get rid of the original weakness towards Patronus charm, as now the darkness it represents will swallow all the light. The only flaw it has left now is its weakness for delicious emotions and strong souls.
---
I smiled as I looked at Boo, who now looked almost human underneath it's hood, although one almost four meters tall. Its skin got whiter, and short dark hair slowly started growing from the top of the head.
"Let's go" I said starting to float towards the fortress, while motioning for them to follow me.
"Yes master" responded both of my lackeys, although Boo sounded almost like he was about to drop down on his knees and start praying.
Two of us flew, while the third one ran quickly, trying to catch up.
It's finally time to have some fun!
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Ahoy, Mateys!
I really don't know what tags to give this book, so if you see any that would fit write it here.
Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter. I unfortunately once again did not manage to escape from slightly info dumping.
It's really hard to think of the name for the MC, when it has to both start with B (Powerpuff habit), and being named after a star (Black family tradition), so I thought of this twist.
(I kind of made it difficult for myself, since I wanted both name and surname to start with B...)
The pictures of castle will be in the additional chapter at the beginning, so you can choose and like which one you like the most.
Adieu, I wish you all smooth currents and fair winds.