“Speaking of which, how big can you actually get?”
Ogre darted through the forest. Nighttime was when his enhanced vision truly excelled.
“About... the size of two normal adult men,” the shadow demon answered patiently.
Its soul crystal could only control that much of a physical shell at most. Any larger would be impossible. Unless it wanted to reproduce, in which case it would store an excessive amount of vessel material, quietly waiting inside an immobile, cumbersome shell as fear energy gathered to condense another pure soul crystal.
“However, since my soul crystal is in your possession, Master, the amount of vessel material I can manipulate might be even less...” the shadow demon answered truthfully.
Restoring a shadow demon's vessel was both easy and difficult. As long as it wasn't completely destroyed, they always had a chance to rebuild it—all it took was dragging a living body whose soul residual had not fully dissipated into the shadow world, and the environment would repair their damaged form.
An assimilated shadow vessel could also serve as temporary armor. If the shadow demon hadn't been so set on taking over Ogre's body directly, it could have exchanged a few more blows with him.
Of course, a shadow demon's armor—its inhabited corpse—couldn't be too severely rotted, or it would lose its protective qualities.
Furthermore, a decaying corpse produced a pitifully small amount of shadow energy upon assimilation.
That was why the shadow demon insisted on an intact vessel; energy was always conserved.
“How long will it take for you to fully recover?” Ogre asked again, as this was quite important.
“To fully recover... it would take at least a human week. But to recover enough to fight, I only need three days. The rest of the body can slowly mend in the shadow realm.”
The shadow demon tried its best to demonstrate its value, terrified that it would be destroyed if it lost its worth.
“That's acceptable.”
Upon receiving Ogre's response, the shadow demon let out a breath of relief.
He's truly a devil in a nun's habit...
It had never imagined that one day it would use “devil” to describe a human.
“To serve Master is my greatest honor,” the shadow demon flattered without restraint.
Whether it lived or died depended entirely on Ogre now.
A shadow demon without a master or a symbiont found it very difficult to recover through the shadow realm. It could only rely on fear energy and the slow self-repair of its vessel.
That process would take a very long time.
In a sense, only with a master or a symbiont could a shadow demon truly demonstrate its potential.
It couldn't be helped—they weren't creatures of the real world to begin with.
To survive in the real world, they had to rely on a physical vessel.
Sigh... Things have come to this. What am I going to do in the future? To be honest, if it had any other way to fend for itself, it would never have pleaded for mercy from this harbinger of death.
“Can you accept an animal's body?”
Ogre wasn't actually asking if the shadow demon was willing, but whether it would prolong the recovery time.
“The effect will be a bit worse,” the shadow demon answered truthfully.
“Good enough.” Ogre picked up a few stones from the ground.
He tossed them lightly in his palm a couple of times.
After gauging their approximate weight, Ogre pinched a stone tightly between three fingers.
Twisting his waist, he whipped his arm forward!
Swish—!
“Caw—!” The stone sliced through the air, and a mana crow dropped instantly.
Ogre walked over and picked it up.
“Will this do?” Ogre remembered that crow-type monsters were far smarter than other birds or fish.
The smarter the creature, the better the effect should be, right? Besides, it was freshly killed.
If I'd known, I would have dragged one of those werewolf corpses along... Ogre sighed softly in his heart.
He was almost tempted to crush this shadow demon to death right now.
“It will! Thank you, Master!” The shadow demon transformed into a wisp of black mist and darted into the mana crow's body—bringing a glint of light back to the freshly killed crow's eyes.
Moments later, it flapped its wings and took flight.
Alright, it really can fly. That makes it somewhat useful after all, Ogre pondered internally.
“I recall that powerful shadow demons can move around in the sun. Can you?” Ogre asked suddenly.
The shadow demon: “...”
If I were that strong, I would've killed you already.
The shadow demon cursed silently in its mind. It then controlled the crow to land on Ogre's shoulder and spoke respectfully, “Master, I'm just a plain, low-level shadow demon. The kind you're talking about is comparable to a Lord-grade monster, which corresponds to a Senior Professional by human standards...”
Its words were subtle enough.
“I see. In that case, try to stay in this crow form as much as possible from now on.” Ogre naturally didn't expect much from the shadow demon; he had merely asked on a whim.
“By the way, let me try out that shared vision ability of yours.” Ogre issued the command.
This ability was what Ogre valued most about the shadow demon.
“Eep... Master, I haven't recovered yet.”
The shadow demon's vision sharing was essentially expanding the vision of its soul linked to its physical shell.
It didn't consume much energy.
However, in its current weakened state... it was still easy to accidentally kill itself doing that.
After all, the crow was merely a temporary “armor” it was inhabiting to stop further degradation, but actual recovery still required returning to the shadow world.
The remaining power it possessed had to be reserved for returning to the shadow world.
Mainly, Ogre had zapped it far too fiercely earlier, nearly vaporizing its vessel.
“You still need to recover? Fine then.” Ogre had always been forgiving toward useful things.
Having a shadow demon crow handle scouting would save him a great deal of effort in his plans.
In certain aspects, the shadow demon could be quite important.
“From now on, your name is Night Crow.” Ogre casually gave the shadow demon a practical name.
“Thank you for bestowing a name upon me, Master! As expected of Master, even the name you chose is so—”
“Shut up.”
Ogre rubbed his temples, cutting off Night Crow's flattery. He hadn't been nagged like this in a long time, and it was getting rather irritating.
“Say less useless nonsense from now on.”
Night Crow (the shadow demon): “...”
...
“Would bugs work?” Ogre asked, looking toward an ant mound. If it could control insects, that would be interesting.
If I could do that, why would I even be a shadow demon... Night Crow felt utterly exhausted.
This master had way too many wild ideas...
“I can't control such minute bodies yet. Something the size of a crow is already the limit of what I can split off and manage.”
Night Crow's answer disappointed Ogre.
“What a shame...” Ogre spared the ant nest.
These ants were useless now; they couldn't even serve as a vessel for the shadow demon, let alone aid its recovery.
“Guess I'll keep hunting mana crows then.” Ogre had already killed seven or eight mana crows.
He had tied the crow corpses together with plant stalks, stringing them up while he gathered more—given Night Crow's current capacity, inhabiting one mana crow at a time was already its limit.
“I'll hunt a few more for you.”
Ogre hung the newly killed mana crow on a branch.
Mana crows were poisonous, so few monster species would eat them. Ogre wasn't worried that some blind monster would snatch them away.
The only problem now was that the remaining mana crows in this area were starting to grow scarce.
Mana crows were smart—at least compared to other monster species—and excelled at avoiding danger.
Ogre's consecutive kills had already sparked panic among the mana crows nearby.
It would be stranger if they didn't fly away.
They liked feeding on carrion, but that didn't mean they were willing to become carrion themselves.
...
“A pity...”
Ogre tallied up his kills and found that he had only gotten twenty-three mana crows in total.
“Goblins are much easier to hunt.”
The yield from this hunt was somewhat less than Ogre had anticipated, but it would suffice.
“Master is truly a sharp marksman!”
Night Crow realized that Ogre wasn't entirely against flattery—he just hated long-winded nonsense.
A quick compliment now and then...
...clearly brightened his budget master's mood.
“You certainly know how to talk.”
Ogre felt it was a waste for this guy to be a shadow demon—its ability to generate fear was thoroughly mediocre, but its arsenal of flatteries knew no end.
Listening to it enough actually did put him in a slightly better mood.
He was no longer as averse to it.
No wonder incompetent people manage to climb the ranks. Even I'm not immune to the power of flattery...
Ogre mused silently to himself.
“Master's mind is as clear as a mirror! If only everyone possessed Master's pure sincerity—”
“Alright, save it. Keep letting it go to your head, and I might decide you're not worthy of serving me.” Ogre took down the mana crows hanging from the branches one by one, threatening Night Crow in a half-joking tone.
“Er...” That indeed succeeded in hushing Night Crow for a moment. “Sob sob sob, I was only telling the truth...”
“I hope you save that sickening routine for other people,” Ogre said as he took down the last mana crow.
Night Crow: “...”
It suddenly wasn't so sure if this guy's mood had actually improved.
Human minds were truly impossible to decipher.
“Alright, take these bird corpses and head to the shadow realm. In three days, I want to see how useful you can be. Then I'll decide whether to help you fully recover.”
Ogre tossed the mana crow corpses into a pile, motioning for Night Crow to return.
“Understood, Master!” Night Crow flew off Ogre's shoulder, landed on the pile of bird corpses, and summoned the last of its strength.
Shadowy tentacles stretched out from beneath the tree shadows, instantly covering the freshly killed bird corpses.
A few breaths later, power from the shadow realm formed a sinking channel through the shadows.
Under Ogre's watchful gaze, Night Crow and the bird corpses sank completely into the endless darkness.
“If not for the shadow corruption and shadow beasts, this could almost serve as a spatial item...”
Ogre remembered that spatial items were originally created by the early Truth Sorcerers using the principles of mirror rifts.
By sending a spatial stone into a mirror rift or another dimension, and then utilizing magic array resonance, one could open a fragile void passage—a void pocket.
It could be opened whenever needed, which was extremely convenient.
However, that was already an obsolete method of crafting spatial items. Only a few low-quality spatial items were made that way now, as it was very cost-ineffective.
“I wonder if the Truth Sorcerers who first discovered this phenomenon were researching shadow demons.” Ogre walked to the riverside and washed his hands.
After stretching his back, 'she' left the forest.
“Time to head back and get some sleep.”
Rate on N.U.
