"Three silvers."
"Five bronzes."
"Two silvers."
"Six bronzes."
"Just scam me at this point!"
"I can find another inn if you don't like my damn offer!"
"Remove that blindfold and look me in the eyes, brat!"
"You dare?!"
In a simple inn, Dante was 'peacefully' discussing the price of one night with the humble and understanding innkeeper.
Well, if we ignored that both of them were holding knives.
"Listen, blind brat, one silver coin, and I won't allow for less than this!" The innkeeper crossed his arms angrily.
"Eight bronzes, and I won't shave your stupid beard!"
"Deal! You little bastard!"
With a mocking smile, Dante took his room's key and handed the innkeeper eight bronze coins.
"Wait, take this." The innkeeper suddenly gave Dante a piece of paper with many things written on it.
'A… menu?'
It contained the prices of some drinks and cheap food. Things like bread, soup, water, meat, alcoholic drinks, and a few other stuff.
"Wait, what is this 'One Jessica'?" Dante asked curiously as he caught a strange term.
Whatever that was, it was a little bit cheap, only 3 bronze coins, which was the same price of a loaf of bread.
"Oh, it's one night with Jessica." The innkeeper smirked as he pointed at the beautiful waitress, who winked seductively at Dante.
Dante's jaw dropped instantly: "Y-you mean s-s-sex?!"
'No, this can't be right… he can't put something that sensitive in a fucking menu!'
"Yes, I mean sex, obviously." The innkeeper shattered Dante's hopes as he continued: "What else would it be? Judging by your refined body, you should be mature enough for that. You're also quite handsome, she might give you a discount and a special... Treatment."
"You dirty old bastard!" Dante almost vomited at the innkeeper's boldness.
How could he talk casually about that?!
'What the hell is wrong with this world? First was killing, and now this crap?! What next? Slaves and public execution?!'
"Oh, are you a virgin, young man?" The waitress giggled: "I'll be gentle—"
"I'm not a virgi—nevermind, I'm leaving." Dante left the menu and headed to his room, ignoring the waitress and the innkeeper.
'This disgusting world is doomed!'
Once Dante opened the door of his room, he was left amazed by the sight.
The room was… poor at best. It only had a small bed, a window, a table and a chair. Nothing else.
It was too far from being good, but for the homeless boy Dante?
'A bed and a roof!'
Dante jumped to the bed instantly, sinking deeply in its fabric. The bed would have felt like a rock to normal people, but Dante was used to sleeping on harder surfaces.
Taking a small slice of meat from his dimensional storage, Dante infused his hand with black flames and cast a simple spell.
Shadow Spell — Shadow Blaze.
Instantly, a small black blaze hovered above his left hand. Using his right hand, which was covered in flames, Dante held the meat and cooked it.
By enhancing his right hand with shadow fire, it got a small resistance for heat, thus the blaze didn't burn it.
Seeing the meat getting cooked, Dante couldn't help but admire his aspect:
'Shadow Aspect is indeed useful, but it has a few limits.'
Although it could mimic a few things, it was still, in its essence, shadow. It could never replace the original.
Dante could clearly see this in how the shadow fire wasn't producing light—it was rather weaker in the light.
Additionally, if he used a normal Fire Aspect, he'd get even hotter fire. But he wouldn't complain just for that, it was still cool to have some fire.
Eating the meat, Dante wondered: 'If it can't produce light, then how will mimicking light be?'
Feeling bored, Dante started trying to mimic light, using his comprehension and will to make a spell.
He focused deeply and tried to move his spiritual energy and mana, but nothing changed.
'Tsk, it's really hard.'
After two whole hours, Dante finally made something happen.
With a flick of his fingers, pure shadows erupted like an expanding sphere until they touched every part of the entire bed.
'Shit!'
Being close to it, Dante couldn't run from its effect.
He was blinded, seeing nothing other than darkness. But a second later, his vision returned. Realization hit him instantly: 'Instead of giving me light, it's taking it away. The *light* blinded me!'
Feeling enlightened, Dante continued practicing the shadow light.
At the same time, Maxwell's jaw almost hit the ground from shock and disbelief.
"How… HOW?!!"
Light was one of the hardest aspects to mimic.
He needed months, MONTHS! Only to START understanding it.
Meanwhile Dante didn't just do it without education, but right now, as Maxwell's bird was watching, he kept improving rapidly!
"Monster… he is a monster!"
"Stop shouting, Max! I'm trying to enjoy my meal!" Skylar suddenly yelled, pouring a lot of blood on a well-cooked piece of meat.
They were alone in an inn room, while Selena and Elizabeth had another room nearby.
'Why did I have to be stuck with a lunatic stalker? Why didn't that female human allow me to stay with Eliza instead?' Skylar sighed helplessly.
Maxwell stared at Skylar in annoyance: "Why are you even here? Thank you for leading us here and all… but why are you even here?!"
Skylar looked at Maxwell with confusion: "Isn't that obvious? It's cheaper to rent a room with another man and pay together. Eliza accepted, so why are you complaining now?"
"Because I paid for everything!"
"Max, my friend, you don't have to focus on the small details."
Some time later, the last traces of the sunlight began to fade away.
In another inn.
Knock, knock, knock.
Dante stopped practicing when he heard soft knocking on his door.
'Who could it be now?'
Confused, he went to the door, ready to use his centipede at any moment.
To his surprise, he only faced two skinny children, a boy and a girl.
"Is something wrong?"
The children nodded as the girl spoke while looking at his cloak: "You are one of the foreign hunters, right?"
Dante frowned: "Yes?"
The boy's eyes lit up instantly: "Can we borrow a knife? Only one… please!"
Dante was confused by their request.
Why didn't they ask for food or water? Why a knife of all things?
The small girl continued: "We will hunt a beast! A very, very big one. It will be enough to feed us for a month!!"
'What the fuck?'
Dante was speechless. Their request was like a hit on his guts.
He looked for a moment into their brown eyes. They reminded him of himself—filled with hope despite the harsh situation.
'Argh, I hate everything in this world.'
"Fine." Dante sighed helplessly as he brought a dagger out of his storage.
Seeing the dagger appearing out of nowhere, the kids' eyes sparkled in awe.
They extended their hands in anticipation, while Dante kept moving the dagger closer to them.
But suddenly, their smiles faded as he stopped.
"Uncle?"
Dante looked at them with terror as he noticed their luck. The more he brought the dagger closer to them, the more the blood-red luck became more intense. Even their fortune decreased significantly.
He saw this blood-red luck for the first time when he used his demonic energy with the spell Jinx.
Then it kept increasing in intensity on Beatrice when he decided to kill her.
That exact same luck appeared on every beast he slaughtered, and it was more intense on the suffering people he met when he entered the village.
'This luck is related to death or it has a high possibility to cause it.'
Understanding the meaning of that color, Dante hesitated to give them the dagger.
The dagger suddenly disappeared, then he brought a bag out of his storage.
Under the children's confused gazes, Dante put a few pieces of frozen meat and some bottles of water in the bag before handing it to them.
"What about you take this bag and try to practice magic, instead? You need to be in your best condition to fight the beast."
"Oh, right!"
"Thank you, blind uncle. You are smart!"
"But remember, keep this a secret and don't let people see the bag." Dante reminded them, afraid that someone would try to take advantage of them.
"Yes, Uncle!"
With a smile, Dante handed them the bag.
'I have a lot of meat, anyway… it's not a big deal.'
With their luck now more stable, the kids left the inn happily, while trying to hide the bag, but they failed to notice that the girl's shadow was darker than before.
They ran to the edge of the village, but unfortunately, one of the beggars seemed to have sharp senses, as he smelled the meat.
He followed them silently until they reached an isolated alley. There, the kids opened the bag and started cooking the meat slowly with some magic.
Suddenly, the man enhanced his body with mana and picked up a rock as he stepped closer to the alley.
"Food…"
But as he pulled his hand back to throw the rock, a dark hand gripped his wrist. With visible killing intent, the man looked at his right.
"Who…!"
His eyes met a shadowy figure, black from head to toe, looking at him with hollow eyes.
"Mo-monster!"
The man's face paled as he ran away, not daring to even look back.
The shadow, Fafnir, shook his head helplessly. He took a quick glance at the alley, seeing the kids eating happily and drinking the cold water.
In the inn, Dante's eyes softened: 'Well, I won't have to cook it for them, at least.'
Satisfied, he secured the place for a few minutes before melting with shadows. Soon after, he returned to Dante.
Dante couldn't help but remember the homeless man, then his face twitched: 'Trying to steal from starving kids? Even at my lowest point, I didn't think of doing that.'
Well, technically, Dante was the starving kid, but he decided to ignore that fact.
Looking through the window, Dante watched the last threads of sun rays fading away, expecting the night to finally arrive.
But all of a sudden…
TING! TING! TING!
"THE MIST IS COMING!"
"THE MIST IS COMING!!"
"QUICKLY, FIND A PLACE TO HIDE!"
TING! TING! TING!