Chapter 8: The Shadow and the Feast (Part 1)
Location: Dungeon: The Root-Cellar of Gluttony (Floor 2).
Time: 3:30 AM.
Condition: Mild Hunger (Curse Active).
The Shade of the Starving Steward did not walk; it drifted.
It hovered three inches above the gore-slicked floor, a cloak of tattered darkness billowing around a hollow form. Inside the hood, there was no face, only two pinpricks of green fire. In its skeletal hand, it swung a rusted iron lantern. The flame inside wasn't fire—it was a trapped soul, burning eternally.
[ Monster: The Shade of the Starving Steward ]
[ Level: 9 (Boss) ]
[ Passive: Physical Immunity (Low-Grade) ]
[ Skill: Soul Freeze, Gluttonous Touch. ]
Ren stood his ground. The corpses of the Pigmen lay behind him.
"Intruder..." the Shade rasped. The voice didn't come from a throat; it vibrated directly into Ren's skull, cold and invasive. "Are you... the main course?"
The Shade flicked its wrist.
A tendril of shadow lashed out from its cloak like a whip.
Ren moved. [Agility: 8].
He ducked, the shadow whip cracking the air where his head had been. It struck one of the hanging meat hooks. The iron hook didn't bend; it instantly frosted over, turning white and brittle, then shattered.
Cold damage, Ren analyzed. If that touches me, it freezes the blood in my veins.
Ren lunged forward. He couldn't win a ranged battle against a ghost. He needed to close the gap.
He activated [Viper's Strike].
He blurred forward, thrusting the Prisoner's Shiv straight at the Shade's chest.
Swish.
There was no impact.
Ren stumbled as his hand passed straight through the monster's torso. It felt like punching through freezing water.
[ System Alert ]
[ Physical Attack Nullified. Target is Ethereal. ]
"Foolish..." the Shade hissed.
It swung the lantern. The heavy iron struck Ren in the ribs.
CRACK.
Ren was sent flying. He skidded across the wet floor, slamming into a pile of bones.
"Gah!" Ren gasped, clutching his side. The lantern was physical. The ghost wasn't.
[ HP: 85 / 120 ]
[ Status: Bruised Ribs. ]
Ren gritted his teeth. The pain was sharp, but the cold was worse. Where the lantern had hit him, his skin was turning blue.
Think, Ren commanded himself. Physical attacks don't work on the body. But the lantern hit me. The lantern is solid.
The Shade drifted closer, raising its skeletal hand. The darkness around its fingers swirled.
"Your soul... smells... sweet."
Ren scrambled to his feet. He couldn't use the Shiv on the ghost. And he couldn't Life Steal because there was no blood to steal. The Gauntlets of the Starving Wolf were dead weight in this fight.
"Magic," Ren realized. "Ghosts are just clumps of unstable mana held together by a grudge."
He needed to disrupt the mana.
He raised his hand. [Mana Arrow].
A bolt of blue light shot forward.
The Shade didn't dodge. It raised the lantern. The green flame flared, creating a barrier.
BANG.
The Mana Arrow hit the green shield and dissipated harmlessly.
"My hunger... consumes... magic..." the Shade laughed, a dry, rattling sound.
Ren narrowed his eyes. Physical attacks pass through. Magic is absorbed by the lantern.
He was Level 6. The Boss was Level 9. In a fair fight, he was dead.
So he wouldn't fight fair.
Ren looked at the room. Meat hooks. Pig carcasses. Mist.
"Analytical Eye. Scan the Lantern."
[ Item: Soul-Keeper Lantern ]
[ Durability: 80/100 ]
[ Note: The anchor for the Shade's existence. Destroy the vessel to free the mana. ]
"The phylactery," Ren whispered. "Classic."
He needed to break the lantern. But the Shade used it to block magic, and the Shade's body was immune to steel.
Ren sheathed the Shiv. He reached into his pouch and pulled out the remaining Moon-Shade Mushrooms.
He didn't eat them. He crushed them in his hand, squeezing the blue, hallucinogenic juice onto his palm.
"Hey!" Ren shouted.
The Shade paused.
"You're hungry?" Ren taunted. "Eat this."
Ren channeled his mana. Not into an arrow, but into [Shadow Veil].
Usually, Shadow Veil wrapped the user in darkness to hide them. But Ren grabbed the darkness and pushed it outward, mixing it with the mushroom juice and his own mana.
He cast a localized cloud of Mana-Infused Spores.
He threw the handful of mush at the Shade.
The Shade didn't block. It was a cloud. You can't block a cloud.
The spores passed through the green shield and drifted into the Shade's hood.
The Shade didn't have lungs, but it processed mana from the environment. The mushrooms disrupted mana flow.
"GRAAAH!"
The Shade recoiled, clutching its hood. The green fire in its eyes flickered violently.
[ Status Effect: Mana Poisoning. ]
[ Target Stunned for 2 Seconds. ]
"Two seconds," Ren counted.
He sprinted.
One second.
He leaped off a pig carcass, launching himself into the air.
Two seconds.
The Shade shook off the stun, raising the lantern to smash the flying boy.
Ren didn't dodge. He reinforced his left arm—the arm Caelum had bruised—with every scrap of mana he had left.
[ Mana Reinforcement: Maximum Output. ]
He took the lantern hit on his left forearm.
SNAP.
His ulna broke. The pain was blinding white.
But Ren had the lantern. He wrapped his broken arm around the lantern's handle, trapping it against his chest.
"Got you," Ren snarled through the pain.
With his right hand, he drew the Prisoner's Shiv.
He didn't stab the ghost. He stabbed the glass of the lantern trapped in his arms.
SMASH.
The black iron tip shattered the glass and pierced the green flame inside.
The sound was like a scream of a thousand dying birds.
The green flame exploded.
[ Critical Hit! ]
[ Anchor Destroyed. ]
The force of the explosion blew Ren backward. He landed in the water, splashing hard.
The Shade shrieked. Its cloak began to unravel. The green eyes went dark.
"No... the feast... is not... over..."
It dissolved into black smoke, sucked down into the floor drains.
Silence returned to the dungeon.
[ System Alert ]
[ Defeated The Shade of the Starving Steward (Level 9). ]
[ XP Gained: 600 ]
[ Level Up! ]
[ You are now Level 7. ]
Ren lay in the water. He stared at the ceiling.
His left arm was bent at a wrong angle. It was throbbing with a sickening heat.
"Vitality Potion," Ren rasped.
He summoned the half-potion he had saved. He downed it.
The bones in his arm ground together, knitting shut. It was agony, but seconds later, the arm was straight again. Sore, but functional.
He sat up, soaking wet.
"That was too close," Ren admitted. "If I didn't have the mushroom juice, I would be dead."
He looked at where the Shade had been.
Lying on the floor was a key. A heavy, brass key shaped like a fork.
Ren picked it up.
[ Item: Key to the Glutton's Pantry. ]
He walked to the iron door at the back of the room. He inserted the fork-key.
Clank. Grind.
The heavy door swung open.
Ren stepped inside.
It was a small room, lined with shelves of rotting food. But in the center, resting on a pedestal of gold coins, was the Dungeon Reward.
It wasn't a weapon. It wasn't armor.
It was a Book.
Ren walked over to it. The cover was made of dark purple skin, bound in gold.
[ Item: Grimoire of the Devouring Void ]
[ Rank: Unique (Growth Type) ]
[ Restriction: Null Affinity or Dark Affinity. ]
[ Description: A forbidden tome that teaches the user how to eat magic. ]
Ren's heart skipped a beat.
Eat magic.
He was a Null. He had the Gauntlets that ate life. Now he had a book that ate magic.
"I am becoming a monster," Ren said softly.
He reached out and touched the book.
"Perfect."
[ Adding 'Grimoire of the Devouring Void' to the Archive... ]
[ ...Success. ]
[ New Skill Unlocked: Mana Drain (Active). ]
[ Description: Touch a target to drain their Mana directly into your own pool. ]
Ren closed his eyes. He felt the new knowledge settle in his mind. It was complex, predatory, and powerful.
He turned to leave. But as he did, his eye caught something else on the shelf.
A small, unassuming wooden box.
Ren scanned it.
[ Item: Pandora's Box (Replica) ]
[ Contents: Random Ingredient (Rare). ]
Ren opened it.
Inside was a single, black fruit. It looked like a heart, and it was beating.
[ Item: Heart of a Void Beast ]
[ Effect: Unknown. ]
Ren hesitated. Then he pocketed it. The Archive didn't know what it was, which meant it was either useless or god-tier.
"Time to go home," Ren said.
He checked the time. 4:30 AM.
He had to get back, clean up, and pretend he hadn't just killed a ghost and broken his arm.
He began the long climb up the stairs.
But as he emerged from the dungeon and into the Dark Forest, he stopped.
Someone was waiting for him.
Leaning against the dead tree, wrapped in a white cloak that shone in the moonlight, was a figure.
It wasn't Caelum. It wasn't Voss.
It was High Priestess Seraphina.
She was blindfolded, but her face was turned directly toward him.
"You smell of death, child," Seraphina said softly. "And ancient sins."
Ren froze. His mana was drained. His skills were on cooldown. And he was standing in front of a woman who hunted demons for a living.
"Lady Seraphina," Ren said, bowing his head.
"Drop the act," she said. She stepped forward, the dried leaves crunching under her sandals. "A Null does not walk out of a Dungeon smelling of ozone and Shade dust."
She stopped three feet from him.
"Show me your hand."
Ren hesitated.
"Show me," she commanded. Her voice contained power—Holy Word.
Ren couldn't resist. His body moved on its own. He raised his right hand. The hand wearing the Ring of the False Null.
Seraphina reached out. She didn't touch the ring. She touched his palm.
"Warm," she whispered. "Alive. And... terrified."
She smiled, a sad, enigmatic smile.
"Keep your secrets, Ren Arken. For now. But know this: The Church is coming. Voss is a fool with a toy staff. But the Paladins... they do not miss."
She let go of his hand.
"Why?" Ren asked. "Why didn't you expose me?"
Seraphina turned her back to him.
"Because," she whispered to the trees, "I was a Vane once, too."
Ren's world stopped.
She began to walk away, fading into the mist like a ghost herself.
"Survive, Cousin," she called back. "The storm is just beginning."
Ren stood alone in the dark forest.
A Vane. A relative. A High Priestess.
The web of lies was bigger than the estate. It was bigger than the kingdom.
Ren looked at his hand. He clenched it into a fist.
"I need to be stronger," he vowed. "Level 7 is not enough. I need Level 70."
He turned and ran back toward the castle. The sun was rising on a new day, and the game had just become infinitely more complicated.
End of Chapter 8 - Part 1
Summary of Events:
Boss Fight: Ren battles The Shade of the Starving Steward. Physical attacks fail.
Tactics: Ren uses Moon-Shade Spores (poison) to stun the ghost, then intentionally takes a hit to break his own arm and trap the Shade's Lantern.
Victory: Ren smashes the Lantern (the anchor), destroying the boss. He heals his broken arm with a potion.
Loot: Ren gains the Grimoire of the Devouring Void (Mana Drain skill) and a mysterious Heart of a Void Beast.
Cliffhanger: Ren is caught by High Priestess Seraphina outside the dungeon.
The Twist: Seraphina reveals she knows his secret because she was also a Vane (his mother's clan), making them distant relatives. She warns him of the Paladins.