Aren turned only to be met with the jaws of this crazy monster, his eyes widened, fear rushing through his body, but at the last moment, he kicked the floor and pushed back one step, barely missing the mouth of the monster. But he couldn’t evade the claws; they dug down into his shoulder, deep and painful. The pain was immense, sharp, and unlike anything he had felt before.
"Arghhhhhhhh!" He screamed out in pain as he collapsed to the ground, blood gushing out from his shoulder and his mind already spinning.
The monster didn’t wait for him though, lunging forward at him instantly to finish the kill. Out of sheer want to not die, he reacted, swinging his sword with one hand as fast as he could, groaning in pain as he did, but the sword hit the fur and bounced back, not even penetrating at all. He had no strength whatsoever.
’It did nothing, I’m going to die.’ The thought instantly ran through his head. Fear gripped him, was the end of it all coming this fast? He couldn’t die. He promised June, he promised himself that he would at least stand and fight.
"Screw you!" He roared and placed his hand forward, "If I’m also going to die, I’m taking you down with me." He roared harder. He didn’t know how he was going to do what he said, but he didn’t care. With that resolve, he was ready to grab the monster by the fur and do whatever he could.
When suddenly, the same feeling he had gotten when that boy had tried to hit him returned. It surged through his body like a wave.
[Shadow Consume activated]
The system rang out as suddenly, shadows burst from his arm and spread out like a web, faster than the monster could react to. The shadows immediately engulfed the monster whole and then compressed, consuming the monster.
[You have gained 100 Soul Fragments]
[Level Up]
[+4 free stats]
[Shadow is the first Awakened to level up]
[Unique nickname is being selected based on ability]
[Reward: Unique Soul Weapon added to inventory]
[You have consumed a Black Dire Wolf]
[Black Dire Wolf now exists in your shadow]
[You have unlocked the skill, Shadow Summon]
[You have consumed parts of the memories of the Black Dire Wolf. You can see them when ready]
The messages came pouring in like a flood, shocking Aren as he saw them. But that wasn’t the only thing that had happened, as all around the God’s Trial, to everyone that was out there, messages came to their system screens.
[Shadow is the first Awakened to level up]
They never knew that these trials had an announcement system, but that was the least of their issues, as all of them were shocked to see that someone had already leveled up.
"Shadow? Who the hell is that? Is it actually someone’s name?"
"I don’t know, maybe it’s a nickname, but regardless, someone has actually leveled up, while we are here grinding these tiny furballs."
Tension was high in the air because the hierarchy had already started taking form. They were certain it was an S or A class that had done it, and if they kept going this fast, it wouldn’t be long anymore till the weak are separated from the strong.
While all this turmoil was happening around the trial grounds, Aren was seated cross-legged, his eyes pinned to the screen in front of him, looking at it with full concentration.
"Did the system give me a nickname? Shadow. But why? If I’m the only one that saw the message—wait, could it be it was sent to everyone? If it did, the nickname definitely makes sense. Having my real name out there would be a massive issue," he said, then scanned down the screen, reading the remaining content.
"I can’t believe that wolf alone allowed me to level up. What kind of level did it have to be to actually help me level up on its own?" He spoke to himself.
Unlike when it came to Awakened, the ranking of monsters inside the God’s Trial was much different. It was common information that was passed around outside the trials. Starting with the weakest level, the Basic monsters—they were the weak of the weak and what most Awakened spent their time killing in order to level up. And even amongst the Basic monsters, there existed the low tier, mid tier, and high tier.
After that came the Awakened Monsters, much more powerful with a different range of abilities and skills. Unlike the Basic tier, they also had three tiers, with the difference between each one being great. Then came the Evolved, when things start getting serious in the monster realm—beings that, much like Awakened, had also evolved and were capable of a lot of destruction.
That was where his knowledge ended though, as no one outside the trial spoke about any monsters beyond Evolved.
The funny thing about the trial was that the monsters were not even the greatest issue. That still remained the crown of the trials itself, known to bring unimaginable pain and destruction. It was something else.
Aren moved his eyes to the unique Soul Weapon he had gained as the system said. Sadly, he had no information about weapons in the trial; the last him didn’t research it, and even when he came to this world, he didn’t have enough time to learn everything.
’I’ll find out what they are when I get to Raven City,’ he thought to himself.
"Now, how do I get the weapon out?" He wondered, but with only a thought, it appeared on his palm. He thought it would be something special like a dagger or sword, but rather it was a ring, a black ring.
He stared at it, unsure of what to do now, but he decided to put it on. The moment his finger slid in, the ring instantly transformed into a shoulder-length black gauntlet with long wolf claws at his fingers.
It was an extremely badass look. He stared at it in shock, seeing the sleek metal, the engravings on it, and much more.
"This is crazy," he said, a grin forming on his face. All the excitement had made him forget the cut on his shoulder and the fact that he was still bleeding.