The sight startled Evan a little, forcing him to take a few steps back, but even as he did, his eyes stayed fixed on the sphere, which continued to twist and writhe until it began to expand and stretch.
And in what felt like only a few seconds, where the sphere had been, there was now a humanoid figure, similar to him in height and build.
But one thing set it apart.
The body looked like it was made of black smoke, laced with pulsing violet veins.
The face was barely distinguishable, as if it had been torn open along the cheeks, black teeth showing through the gaps. Two eyes burned with an unnatural violet, bright and cold, hovering in that incomplete face like flames in the dark. Parts of the body revealed glimpses of bone or scraps of skin between the shadows, visible only thanks to those violet outlines.
The clothes vaguely resembled his own, but were torn and worn, as if they had existed for centuries.
Despite being a reflection of him, the clone was clearly something else entirely.
'Well, that's one hell of a creepy sight,' he thought, but the thought was cut short, again, as a system screen appeared in front of him.
---
[Name: none]
[Rank: F]
[ESS: 0%]
[Title: Spawn]
[Bloodline: God of Death]
[Synchronization: 1%]
[Description]: A newborn creature of death, weak and fragile. It senses faint life forces and the lingering touch of death. Though powerless now, it carries the potential to evolve into a terrifying being of ultimate demise.
---
'A creature of death?' he thought, staring at yet another piece of information he didn't know what to make of.
He had lived in this world for ten years now, and had had his fair share of reading and hearing about how things worked beyond these walls.
He knew this world had its share of powerful creatures, beings unlike the typical animals back on Earth.
Many of them, especially the more powerful ones, were called magical beasts because they had also developed a mana core, which allowed them to grow strong just like humans, in a different but somewhat similar way.
That said, he was fairly certain he had never once heard of a creature quite like this. Death, as far as he knew, was the end of everything.
Sure, for him, it hadn't been that way, but that could be down to factors he wasn't aware of.
The system didn't seem to know anything about his reincarnation.
All it had told him was that his soul was compatible with it, and so the system had integrated itself with him.
He wasn't sure what exactly made his soul special, beyond the fact that he was a transmigrator, but right now, honestly, he didn't care much about any of that.
The only thing that mattered was getting stronger and getting out of his current situation.
Something he had been working toward for the past two years. And now that he had received his first clone and had finally awakened, he could start putting his plans into motion.
It was then that he noticed the name field was lit up, showing none. It clearly needed to be filled in.
'What should I call it?'
'Evan 2nd?'
'Evan Junior?'
'Black Evan?'
He thought about it for a moment, but nothing felt right. Then he glanced at the humanoid figure in front of him and, taking in its most obvious features, he made up his mind.
"Well, you look like some kind of living shadow, so why not Shadow?" he murmured, and as if it had heard him, the clone seemed to accept the name.
DING!
[Do you want to name your first Clone "Shadow"?]
[Yes / No]
Looking at the screen in front of him, Evan didn't think twice and pressed Yes. The clone's screen updated immediately, filling in the name field.
'Alright, let's see what this guy can actually do,' he thought, tapping on the skills section.
---
[Skills]:
> Stealth
> Death Sense
> Life Drain
---
Just from the names, Evan could already get an idea, but he decided to check anyway.
---
[Stealth]:
Rank: F
Description: Allows the user to blend into their surroundings, reducing their presence and making them harder to detect. Effective against beings of the same rank, though stronger individuals may still sense or see through it.
---
[Death Sense]:
Rank: F
Description: Heightens perception of the surrounding environment. Particularly effective against living beings, and even more so against those carrying an aura of death.
---
[Life Drain]:
Description: A natural ability of creatures of death that allows them to drain life force and devour fragments of a target's soul, using them to grow stronger. The stronger the user, the greater the effect. If the target is far stronger than the user, the ability has a high chance to fail.
---
Reading through those three abilities, Evan's eyes lit up as a flood of thoughts rushed through his mind.
The last one in particular caught his attention, he noticed it had no rank, which was probably because it was an innate ability of this species. Its effect depended on the creature's own strength.
A pretty interesting ability, especially since it seemed to be the very thing that allowed creatures of death to grow stronger.
That said, as interesting as the last skill was, there was another one that had grabbed his attention far more.
[Stealth]
Evan's eyes glowed faintly violet as he stared at the screen.
One of the main problems tied to his freedom was the slave mark, which made a good chunk of his actions pointless. But that didn't apply to the clone.
Despite being a part of him, it didn't carry the mark, meaning it was free. And with this skill set, it could move around far more freely than he ever could.
That might sound like a small thing, but when you considered the number of things his clone could do on his behalf, it really wasn't.
One of the things still keeping him bound to his current situation was his inability to use the system to its full potential, the restrictions stopped him from leaving the manor and hunting outside the city as freely as he wanted.
Everything depended on Percival's whims, which kept his growth limited. But that wasn't the case for the clone.
It too could gain essence by hunting creatures, and given its abilities, doing so at a steady and careful pace was entirely manageable.
In other words, what he needed to do was let the clone grow strong in his place. Only then would he be able to act against Percival, and deal with his slave mark.
His original plan had been to grow stronger slowly on his own, until he reached a level high enough to endure the effects of the mark.
But now that he had the clone, things had gotten considerably easier on that front.