With the help of his sword, it took Arran three days to clear the entire city of treasure .
Treasure the weapon could find, at least . Because although Arran suspected the city hid even more riches, the sword could only Sense those concealed caches that held Essence Crystals .
But Arran did not worry about any treasure he overlooked . The coins, jewelry, and other trinkets might have been cherished by the city's original inhabitants, but to Arran, they meant little . What interested him were the Essence Crystals . And those, his sword found without fail .
The abundance of treasure did cause Arran some wonder, however . He'd originally believed that the city's builders had left voluntarily, taking all their belongings with them as they departed .
But if that was the case, they wouldn't have left their most precious treasures behind . And although Arran had no way to find out the truth, he suspected the miners' departure might not have been as peaceful as he had initially thought .
Either way, it didn't matter — whatever might have happened, it had long since faded into history .
And right now, Arran had other things to worry about .
When he had finished clearing the city of treasure, he hurried back to the spherical chamber that held the portal . He had been gone for several days — years, in the Shadow Realm — but when he returned, he found the portal completely unchanged .
It wasn't unexpected, but still, a scowl crossed his face when he saw the shadowy vortex at the center of the space .
If Karanos failed in his task, the duty of closing the portal would fall to Arran . And he still had no idea of how to accomplish that — if it was even possible .
Just the thought of it caused Arran to sigh in frustration .
Yet there was no point in complaining, so he sat down on the floor and began to study the three books Karanos had left behind .
The mage's notes on the Shadow Realm proved all but useless . Most of what he had written concerned the various cities he found while exploring the ruined world, and beyond that, there was little that Arran did not know already .
There were some surprises — apparently, Karanos had once defeated a titanic Remnant, only to discover that killing it sent out a burst of Essence so strong it attracted other Remnants from a hundred miles around — but none of them useful . What little the book said of the portal was nothing Arran could not see with his own eyes .
Disappointed, he put the book back in his void ring . Then, he moved on to Karanos's notes about Shadow magic .
After barely a minute of reading, his eyes had already gone wide with awe . While the mage's notes on the Shadow Realm had been all but useless, his notes on Shadow magic were priceless .
There were techniques, spells, and even insights on the nature of Shadow Essence itself . And while it would take Arran years of study to master them — perhaps even decades, when it came to the insights — he recognized that it would be time well-spent .
Yet although every word in the notes was a treasure, there was one thing that stood out in particular — a method to use Shadow Essence for physical spells .
This was what Karanos had used against Arran when he first reached the city, and until now, Arran had believed the attacks had either merged Shadow Essence with another type — Force, maybe — or made use of Karanos's shard of Living Shadow .
Now, however, he understood it had all been Shadow Essence . And a technique like that was exactly what he needed .
He had become a Master during his time in the Shadow Realm, but only in Shadow magic . And for all its uses, Shadow Essence had little offensive power .
But with this, he could turn Shadow into a weapon . The technique was fiendishly complex and would take years to learn, but if he could master it, he would have another invaluable tool at his disposal .
Still, he returned the book to his void ring after reading it . While he was eager to study the notes properly, they contained nothing that would help him close the portal .
At last, he picked up the third book — the history of Amydon .
Arran had no serious hope of finding anything related to the portal in the book, but it couldn't hurt to look . Perhaps the book contained some well-hidden secrets that might somehow help him .
Yet much as he expected, the book offered nothing but a detailed history of the centuries Karanos had ruled his beloved city . Arran had already heard most of the tales from Karanos himself, and although the stories were interesting ones, they were of no practical use .
Which meant he had no way to close the portal .
Arran's magical skills had grown, but not so much that he could succeed where Karanos had failed . To accomplish such a task, he would need to grow far stronger than he was right now .
And finding a way to close the portal might take him decades, or even centuries . That was time he did not have — not now, with the Ninth Valley and the Hunters on the brink of war .
There was no easy solution to the dilemma, but he had to make a choice . And after giving the matter some thought, he decided that he would remain in the caverns while he accomplished his last few tasks — studying Brightblade's wards, learning to handle his weapon, and testing his magic .
Perhaps the problem would have solved itself by then . And if not, the portal would have to wait .
The first task Arran set to work on was testing his magic . Years within the Shadow Realm had profoundly changed both his Sense and his Essence reserves, and now, it was time to see what he could do .
He began by trying the Shadowcloak spell . Of all the spells he had, this was perhaps the most useful . It complemented his sword skills perfectly, and he was confident that it would help not just against mages, but against Hunters as well .
It only took a few minutes of experimenting before a wide grin appeared on Arran's face .
His Essence reserves were now large enough that he could maintain the spell for days on end, and that alone was enough cause for celebration . But he had made another step forward as well, and one that was even more valuable .
With his sharpened Sense, he found it far easier to see the weaknesses in his Shadowcloak — places in the spell's pattern where the Shadow Essence wasn't perfectly self-contained and closed .
Being able to Sense these weaknesses made addressing them a simple matter, and it took Arran less than a day to improve his Shadowcloak beyond recognition . The flaws he fixed would not matter against normal mages and their dull Senses, but against more unusual enemies, they could make all the difference .
Yet even as Arran rejoiced at his progress, he suddenly felt something from his sword . Disapproval . It seemed the sword was unimpressed with his efforts .
"So you think you can do better?"
The question had its intended effect . A moment later, an image came through the bond with his sword — an intricate pattern of Shadow Essence that only vaguely resembled a Shadowcloak .
Whatever consciousness the sword had, it held a knowledge of Shadow Essence far beyond anything Arran could even imagine . If the weapon decided to share that knowledge, he would gladly encourage it .
With the help of his blade, it took him less than a week to learn the altered spell . And the new Shadowcloak — if it could still be called that — was something he knew would astonish even Brightblade .
Somehow, it concealed not just Arran but also itself, weaving Shadow Essence in a perfectly closed pattern from which not even the slightest shred of Essence could escape .
Arran frowned in wonder when he realized that it somehow resembled Master Zhao's seal . While the actual patterns were completely different, each somehow achieved exactly the same thing — perfect concealment .
With a thought, he unsealed his Fire Realm, then sealed it again using Master Zhao's seal .
At once, a surge of astonishment came from the bond with his sword . Astonishment and excitement — as if the sword had seen something it greatly admired . Clearly, it was impressed with the seal .
Yet there was a trace of hunger, too . This was the first time the sword had witnessed Arran unseal his Fire Realm, and its interest in the new delicacy was obvious .
When Arran recognized the weapon's hunger, he quickly gathered as much Fire Essence as he could, then fed it to the sword . If this was a chance to gain his weapon's loyalty, he would not let it go to waste .
The sword welcomed the gift without objection . It devoured the Fire Essence greedily, taking only a moment to consume the unexpected feast .
But Arran wasn't done yet . Next, he opened his Wind Realm, and the sword grew even more excited when it realized it would taste yet another type of Essence .
And after that followed Arran's Force Realm, his Earth Realm, and his Stone Realm .
By now, the sword had reached a state of frenzy, waves of joyous excitement gushing through the bond it shared with Arran as it feasted on half a dozen types of Essence .
Yet then, Arran opened his Destruction Realm . And in an instant, the weapon's excitement vanished, an overwhelming sense of fear taking its place .
That the weapon would react this way wasn't a complete surprise, but Arran had not anticipated the intensity of its response . It was like an animal meeting its natural predator, and the reaction was one of instinctive panic .
This, he knew, was a problem .
Perhaps sealing his Destruction Realm might calm the weapon, but that was no solution . Arran could not have a weapon that would be sent into a panic whenever he opened his Destruction Realm .
Instead, he gathered a decent amount of Destruction Essence, then began to circulate it through his body . If he was to use the weapon, it would have to grow accustomed to his Destruction Realm .
And so, over the next few weeks, Arran continued to circulate Destruction Essence through his body as he tested his other spells .
To his relief, the weapon's fear gradually diminished, though he suspected it would still take longer for the sword to stop fearing his Destruction Realm completely . But the blind panic was gone, and that was a good start .
His techniques and spells, however, were another matter .
After the Shadowcloak, the first thing he tried was his Shadowsight . With both his Sense and access to Shadow Essence strengthened greatly, it had become predictably strong — but also completely useless . Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www . webnovel . com for visiting .
Within moments, Arran realized that he no longer had a use for Shadowsight . Anything it could do, his Sense could now do better . He could not help but feel slightly disappointed by this — he had hoped that somehow, his Shadowsight would have improved even more than his Sense .
Next, he tried using Shadowflame . Yet this, too, proved a disappointment . Arran's Fire Essence had already been the bottleneck for the spell's strength before he entered the Shadow Realm, and increasing his strength in Shadow magic further made no difference whatsoever .
His sharpened Sense allowed him to make some small improvements to the spell, but none of those made much of a difference . If he was to strengthen it, he would have to strengthen his Fire magic .
And the same held true for most of Arran's other spells, too . While his Sense helped him fix small errors he hadn't previously noticed, the leap he had made in Shadow magic clearly did not extend beyond Shadow .
He might have become a Master, but it was painfully obvious that the title did little to help his magical skills . For him to truly earn the name would require years of practice .
Still, it wasn't a complete disappointment . His improved Shadowcloak alone was enough to make his years in the Shadow Realm worth it, and once he mastered Karanos's methods, his Shadow magic would become even more useful .
Yet when Arran cast a glance at the portal, his spirits dampened at once . There still wasn't any visible change to it, and by now, centuries could have passed in the Shadow Realm .
There was nothing for it but to finish his last two tasks — practicing with his sword and studying Brightblade's wards . Once he finished those two things, he would leave . First to fulfill his tasks for the Shadowflame Society, and then to find a way to close the portal .
But perhaps Karanos might succeed yet — if he was still alive .
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