Shadow Monarch: Heroines Could Hear My Thoughts?!

Chapter 23- Having My Own Dungeon Makes Me The Protagonist, Right? (Part 2)

Taking a deep breath, Rin analyzed the deer's movement pattern and waited patiently for the perfect time to attack.

The other thing was that he needed to learn how to activate shadow manipulation in the first place. He never tried it as he wasn't sure of what could happen. Keeping an eye on the deers in case they ran away, he asked the system.

'How do I use my skill?' He asked.

[You just think of the skill. Simple things, host.]

Rin ignored the sarcastic remark and tried to execute what the system told him. Closing his eyes for a moment, he thought of the skill.

Then, when he opened his eyes again, he focused on one of the deers. His goal was to try and freeze its shadow in place which also freezes the animal in place too.

Easily enough, he saw an instantaneous effect after he tried to use it. His shadow started twisting and turning before it shot toward one of the deers. Reaching it quickly, the shadow linked with the deer's shadow completely.

"Raaa!!" The deer screeched loudly as it felt its body lose its power to move and tried to wiggle its way out of whatever was binding it.

Rin felt the resistance coming from the deer, it was as if some kind of pressure was applied to his mind. He felt that he would lose control at any second so he quickly jumped out of his place of hiding and charged toward the deer.

"Raaa!!!" The latter felt the presence approaching it as a threat loomed over its mind. The resistance intensified.

When Rin was within reach, the deer finally broke from the binding and started running. However, Rin had already anticipated such an outcome. The moment his shadow broke from it, he felt a small pain in his head as if someone slapped him on the head a few times.

Ignoring it, he jumped on top of the door and got a hold of its fur. The animal started jumping around as it tried to get rid of Rin by all means. Rin's body was thrown left and right like some kind of ragdoll but he didn't let loose of the fur.

After much resistance, Rin was able to pull out the dagger from his sheath and plunged it into the deer's back.

"RAAAAAAAAA!!!" The loudest scream ever echoed in the whole area and made Rin close his ears from pain.

Blood splattered everywhere as the deer tried to run for its dear life. The boy could see life as it seeped out of the animal's eyes and coincidentally, the deer started losing strength and eventually fell down to the ground, wriggling ever-so-slightly.

Seeing the deer on the verge of death, Rin immediately approached it again and swiftly stabbed it in the neck, killing the deer. His eyes looked gentle as they gazed at the monster. The other deer has already run away as soon as its companion got attacked.

Even though he was ruthless with it, that didn't mean he didn't feel bad about it. He was a soft-hearted person by nature so doing this wasn't that pleasing.

He could still recall his first experience killing something, he struggled a lot and almost let it escape but ended up resolving himself and ending it. The world was ending and he knew that if he didn't kill, he would eventually die from hunger or even get killed by other creatures.

That made him learn to harden his heart and do what is needed without hesitation.

Sitting down, Rin traced the body of the deer. The soft feeling of its fur coupled with the warm sensation of blood was somehow calming for him.

"Rest in peace." He muttered under his breath.

[Host killed G-Rank Sky Deer.]

[Would you like to consume it?]

'Consume it?' Rin didn't get what that meant.

But, no answer came from the system at all. Finding no other choice, he decided to accept whatever the system offered him. The moment he approved of it, his shadow shot toward the deer.

This time, however, it didn't link with the deer's shadow but instead started engulfing the animal's body itself.

This scene reminded him of what happened at the church. Frowning slightly, he watched closely as the deer was quickly consumed by his own shadow.

In less than 30 seconds, the whole deer vanished inside his shadow before it returned to him as if nothing happened. But, the truth was far from that.

[Consumption successful!]

[Host gained 5 Action points.]

[Host gained 1x Sky Deer Meat.]

'I see. So consuming creatures I kill gives me action points and other things. Hmm, Sky Deer Meat? Is it even eatable?'

Shaking these thoughts away, he focused on his goal. He would think about food later when he needed to eat.

'Where did that deer go?'

Then, his journey continued, and for hours and hours, he went around and killed any deer he found.

Using the sole skill he had, he was able to hunt them down with ease. The animals didn't even try to resist at all and instead tried to run away at any opportunity.

Rin lost count of how many he hunted after the 10th one. It was somewhat not as bad as he thought it will be. G-Rank monsters were basically a bunch of scared animals that didn't even bother to fight back at all.

*Swish*

Pulling his dagger out of the deer, Rin wiped the sweat from his face. He really didn't know how long has it been since he came here but he was starting to get exhausted so he decided to sit down and rest.

"Sigh, I'm all tired. I can't even move an inch." He thought to himself as he rummaged through the huge bag on his back for a potion.

Finally, finding the bottle he was looking for, he popped it open and chugged down the content. Instantly, his sore body started rejuvenating and his tired muscles regained some strength.

"That's much better." He sighed as he looked around him.

The place was as bright as ever with no signs of that changing anytime soon. He discovered that the constant time inside this world is day with no night at all.

Thinking about it, he felt that it was quite weird to think that this seemingly endless place was merely a dungeon. That made his mind drift to think about the possibility of endless worlds inside one single giant world.

How many living creatures there are? How many things he never saw before were there? All these kinds of thoughts crossed his mind.

[You are such a weird person, host.]

'Comes from a sarcastic talking system.' He replied.

[I am indeed a foreign object, host. However, the thing is, I don't deny that while I can see that you don't approve of my comment, host.]

'I never said that I'm not weird. It's just, hearing others call me weird is not that good. I don't like being different. Because, if I was different, then the chances I will be isolated will increase.'

[Is that a bad thing?]

'Well, I always had such thoughts since I was young. Maybe I'm insecure about it.'

[I have no idea about that, host. Humans are just way out of my scope of understanding.]

Sighing, Rin shook his head and gazed at the clear sky above him. Now that he looked at it, the sky didn't look that… 'real'.

In fact, he could clearly notice many abnormal things about it that made it look fake to Rin. That thought alone changed his whole perspective of the place from a beautiful, heaven-like place to a fake illusion created by magic or something else.

'Damn, talk about ruining the experience.'

(A//N: Am I raising flags? Who knows? *Shrugs shoulders* Anyway, if you have any complaints do tell me.)

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Thanks for reading. Any support you give me is always appreciated no matter how small it was. Let's all keep it up :)