Shadow Author



As my eyes reflected off the black abyss that made up the horse's eyes it almost seemed as if there was fear hidden deep within them.

But none of that mattered as the next second later the monster stepped on top of the third and final gator.

By this point, the horse had taken too much damage and simply could hold on. So when it stepped onto the teeth that sliced up the remains of its feet the horse was forced to come to its knees.

Laying there in the murky muddy water the horse seems utterly exhausted as it desperately tried to get back up to no avail.

Crushed under the weight of the huge horse I felt my connection with the last gator vanish as my mind became clear for the first time in a while.

Slowly advancing toward the monster a dark smile crept onto my face.

"You know it's a shame that I have to kill you, how I would have loved to turn you into one of my puppets and use your unique powers as my own, but unfortunately you are more valuable dead."

The horse had no way of understanding what I was saying but it could clearly pick up on my intentions as it knew its end was quickly approaching.

"I will give you credit though, you were by far the most tedious monster I've fought since coming here. It's just that your fate wasn't as grand as mine for you to come across someone like me who can peek into the future."

As Nightfall radiated in my hands I activated the first rune and placed the sword against the head of the monster.

Yet just as I was about to strike my thoughts turned chaotic and for a second I felt pity for the soon-to-die creature.

But before the mind hex could influence my brain completely Nightfall swept across the head of the creature cleanly decapitating it.

"You know it's much easier countering hexes when you don't have any pressure on your mind."

Looking down at the dead corpse I let out a slight sigh before crouching down and butchering the creature in search of its heart.

The task was quite difficult as I only had one hand available but after a while, I managed to cut it out.

Dragging out the huge heart that was eerily silent I stared at the bloody mess.

"Ugh."

The heart itself was huge, comparable to that of a bowling ball. Its surface was intricately textured with veins and arteries, where blood would have endlessly pumped out of.

Now it laid silent as its host was long dead but yet its might still remained.

Looking at the large organ I steadied both my mind and stomach as I crouched down and grabbed the heart with both of my hands.

"Bon appétit."

Opening my mouth I bit down on the heart and tore out a chunk of the muscle with my teeth.

Its meat was extremely tough and was nearly impossible to chew on due to being rubbery.

Forced to swallow what I had in my mouth, my body shuddered as the thick flesh slid down my throat.

Even though the organ tasted horrible and was not at all appealing I soon took another bit out of the heart.

It took a while but eventually, I managed to completely eat the organ without puking once, which was quite an accomplishment because of how disgusting it was.

Raising the back of my hand I wiped away some of the blood that was on my lips from the heart.

Once I finished the meal I felt my watch vibrate and at that moment I finally felt like all my efforts had paid off.

"Now let's check out the rewards."

Pulling up the screen on my smartwatch I scrolled past a few other notifications mentioning an increase in SP before landing on the latest one.

[You have successfully consumed the entirety of a kelpie's heart!]

[+10 magic, +1 affinity to the element of water]

[An irreversible alteration of the novel has taken effect.]

[+10000 SP]

Staring down at the notification I felt my own heart race as I had to double-check what I was seeing.

Now knowing that the monster I went up against was a kelpie I was extremely surprised by the rewards.

Although I only mentioned the creature in the novel and it didn't have anything to do with the main character, the reward was just too much.

Still unable to believe what I was seeing, I could only confirm it by summoning my status panel.

[Vitality: 3.8]

[Strength: 3.9]

[Speed: 3.5]

[Resistance: 2.9]

[Magic: 19.4]

[Aether: 2]

[Rank: 993]

[Credits: 117,500]

[Innate Abilities: Puppeteer]

[Abilities: 3rd Person POV]

[Gifts: Weapon Comprehension (Intermediate-10), Null, Flash Step]

[Skills: Mana Breath]

[CP: 16,985]

[Innate Abilities (1/?)]

[Abilities (1/1)]

[Gifts (3/3)]

[Skills (1/5)]

Looking at the entirety of my powers I couldn't help but become shocked at how unbalanced I was.

Technically I was still F-ranked as my resistance had yet to cross over the 3.0 mark which would put me at E-rank.

Yet when one looked at my magic stat they would see that I was at D-rank and on the higher side at that pushing towards C-rank.

The main reason magic was so high was because of Mana Breath which I was constantly using.

While I was at it I decided to look over all the other changes that affected my stats.

I noticed that the third and final Gift slot was filled which made me feel both good and bad.

It was good because ordinarily only lucky people get a single gift yet I had the power to get three.

Yet I was sad because if I wanted to get any more to fit a certain situation, I would have to get rid of one, that way I could replace it.

When doing that I would also lose a percentage of the total cost meaning I was going to need a lot of SP in the future.

However, looking at the total amount of SP I had at the moment I felt content. I would be more than able to buy anything I needed to keep me alive but I also knew how expensive those things could be so I wasn't going to go around acting like an immortal.