I woke up to a blue box I wasn’t expecting.

  WHAT? You’re telling me that leveling up only postpones the debuff it doesn’t actually cure it completely? I decided to try and summon Vaeda, it sucks not having access to a clock so you never know how much time has actually passed.

  “Summon Familiar”

  So I guess I slept for roughly FIFTEEN HOURS? Jesus, I must have been really dying for me to have slept so much. Well, I decided I wouldn’t keep exploring until I had Vaeda back with me. I don’t think straight without him. If I was any less lucky in that fight against the Alpha it could have killed me. I was lucky that the rib I broke only pushed against my lung and didn’t just outright puncture it and kill me.

  I got up and sat down at a table and decided I’d try to finally find a use for Manipulate Shadows. This is by far my weakest skill. So far it has seen no use in or outside of battle beyond minor parlor tricks. I felt like there was so much potential to this skill that I’m just not taking advantage of.

  My stomach growled at me angrily and I was once again reminded of how ravenous I was. I wasn’t at a point where dead bodies were looking appetizing but who knows how long till I get to that point.

  “Focus Greg,” I say as I smack my head.

  Back to the shadow skill, what can you do with it? What can you create? I guess I could try to make a spike of some sorts but then I remember shadows aren’t a physical thing so that pretty much shoots down all hope for an attacking skill as well as defensive skills like shields. So I’m back to square one again. Think Greg what’s so good about shadows. What are they used for? Then it hits me. I’m furious at myself for not thinking of it sooner but what about a sneaking skill. I could probably wrap myself in shadows and use it to hide from enemies and do sneak attacks. Now that I have some vague sort of idea I pull my chair over so that it is in one of the corners the torches light doesn’t reach.

  “Manipulate Shadows”

  I feel the mana leave my core and I direct it down my arms into my hands. I start to breathe deeply and grab hold of the shadows and pull on them with my hands. It works really well at first with me pooling the shadows in my lap. Then I grab hold of the edge of the shadow and it springs back resetting all my past progress. I restart all over until I’ve pulled in all the surrounding shadows. Then I began to place it all over my body. However, it wasn’t meant to be because the shadows just slid off of my clothes. Am I missing something?

  Then it hits me. What if I instead of trying to place it on me I wove the shadows into some sort of cloth. Time to try it out. A couple of unsuccessful tries later it finally works. I’ve managed to create a vaguely blurry cloak? It’s not pure black like I thought it would be. It more of a dark grey. I slide it on over my armor and clothing and then I hear the ding of the system letting me know that what I’ve done has been recognized by the system.

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  I tried to think of a cool sounding name for the skill but couldn’t come up with anything. So I just went with the obvious.

  “Cloak of Shadows”

  “Skill List”

  Time to check on Vaeda. I waited the eight minutes and the summoned him.

  “Summon Familiar”

  A black portal appears in the room and Vaeda comes flying out it. He crashes straight into me.

  “BOY, YOU’RE ALRIGHT! I knew I hadn’t wasted all that time on you” He yelled into my chest piece.

  “Haha, Vaeda I’m fine. A lot has happened since you died and I just wanna say I’m sorry for not keeping you safe. It won’t happen again my friend I promise you that.”

  “Don’t worry about it boy. It’s a familiars duty to die for their master.”

  “Is that what we are though Vaeda, just master and familiar? I thought we were friends” I said truthfully.

  “You’re right Greg, we are friends. Friends till the end. What's that word you’re a fan of again, homie or something?” he asks.

  “Yeah we are homies Vaeda”

  I explained to him all the things that had happened since he was gone. I told him about my breakdown, my fight with the alpha and how I had successfully turned him to our side. I also told him about my two new subskills and my newly created skill and how I had finally reached level fifteen. At some point, I think he stopped listening because he was just staring at a blue screen and just continuously nodding.

  “Hey, Vaeda you still there buddy?” I asked.

  “Yeah sorry but Greg have you checked out those class skills you can choose from. They’re all quite interesting. I’m also thinking about where you should put your stat points.”

  I brought up the class skill notification box.

  “Yes”

  Vaeda wasn’t kidding these skills were interesting. Create Golem Core would give me access to more minions. Bone Spear would be my first offensive skill, a true attacking spell which was so appealing to me. And then Upgrade Undead would just make my existing minions much better. The choice was killing me. I had to talk this over with Vaeda before I made a decision.

  “Vaeda do you know anything about golems by the way? We have golems in popular media but I want to know if what I’m picturing is correct.”

  “Golems are artificial beings but they’re not truly alive because they don’t have souls. They can only handle simple commands but they are powerful creatures that don’t feel pain. You can make a custom body for a golem they can possess or you can allow them to just use their surroundings to form their own body.” Vaeda replied.

  “Okay, that matches our description of them as well. I’m kind of leaning towards that if we’re being honest. But what do you think?” I asked.

  “Well, Bone Spear is a mighty tempting skill boy. The ability to do long-range damage to an area around you would be very beneficial, and quite frankly you could use a damaging skill. On the other hand, Upgrade Undead is an amazing skill of a higher tier than both of the others and would be better in the long run, but at the end of the day boy, it’s your choice that matters the most, I’m just here to help not make decisions for you”

  I had a good idea of what I was going to pick after talking it over with Vaeda.