The trip to my dad's was as usual. Boring, not that I'm complaining, boring is an understatement. When life gives you as many things as it has given me in a few years, you start to appreciate the ordinary things a lot more. So I just sat in the back seat, listened to music on my headphones, and watched the scenery go by outside the window.
As soon as we arrived, my sister greeted me. The evening went smoothly. We ate, talked for a while, and I went to sleep.
The next morning I was awakened by a banging on the door. "Mephisto! Get up!" my sister called out to me.
"Five minutes..."
"You've been saying that for ten minutes."
"Then another five."
"Get in the car!" she shouted, which woke me up completely, I opened my eyes sharply. "Wait what?"
It turned out that Dad had planned a family trip. First breakfast, then a short hiking trail. Finally, a visit to a nearby lookout tower and surprisingly... That was pretty cool.
The weather was kind to us, the sun was shining, the wind was pleasant. A perfect day. In the evening we finally headed back home.
I was sitting in the back seat, thinking about new ways to harness energy. Maybe I could create a more stable spear or bow, that would be interesting. Just as I was lost in my own thoughts, something caught my attention. On the side of the road. About fifty meters ahead of us lay an animal.
No. It wasn't the corpse itself that caught my attention. It was the shadows. Dark strands resembling smoke slowly rose from her body. Just faintly, but I could see them. Just like when using Shadow Extraction that I had seen in the anime and webtoon.
My heart skipped a beat.
A fox. It was a fox, probably hit by a car.
[Suitable target detected.]
I swallowed. After two years. After two damn years. For the first time.
„Tati?"
„Hm?"
"Could you stop?"
"Why?"
"I need to go to the bathroom."
Dad sighed. "Couldn't you have said that five minutes ago?"
"No."
"Of course."
A few dozen seconds later, it stopped on the side of the road. I got out of the car.
I tried to act normal, calm, unobtrusive. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I slowly walked towards the place where the fox lay. As I got closer, the shadows became much more pronounced. As if they were calling me, luring me, waiting.
I stopped a few steps away from the body and hesitated. Do I really want to do this? After all... It wasn't just some system task. It wasn't just an ability, it was something else, something between life and death.
"The system."
[Yes, host.]
"Is that right?" For the first time in a long time, he didn't answer immediately.
[This is up to the host to decide.]
I looked at the dead fox, then at my own hands. And took a deep breath. "Arise." The shadow beneath the fox's body undulated, began to stretch upward. For a moment I felt resistance, very faint, and then...
A black shadow jumped out of its body. A familiar silhouette began to form before my eyes. Four legs, a bushy tail, pointed ears. The fox opened its eyes, they glowed with a red light. And then it lowered its head in front of me. I stood there for a few seconds.
Completely frozen. "That..." I gasped. "That really worked." The shadow fox remained crouched motionless.
"Return to my shadow." The fox disappeared immediately. Its body disintegrated into black smoke and sank into my shadow. As if it belonged there.
"Mephisto!" Dad's voice came from the car. "Didn't you fall asleep in there?"
"I'll be right back!" I replied, dusting off my pants and heading back.
As soon as I got into the car, I tried to look completely normal. And I think I succeeded. Neither my dad nor my sister noticed anything and we continued driving. In the meantime, I looked ahead. Because at that very moment a system notification appeared in front of me.
[Main quest completed]
[Create the first Shadow Soldier]
Success.
[Reward awarded]
[Skill: Artificial Soldier Creation]
A smile slowly appeared on my face.