Someone knocked on the door of the room he was in.
Roy raised his head and looked towards it, wondering who it could be.
"I heard a loud noise coming from your room just now. Master, are you alright?" Amelia asked Roy worriedly from behind the door.
They were separated by a wall, and she couldn't see him.
If her eyes had landed on his disheveled figure and pale, almost sickly face, she would immediately decide to stay with him and tend to him till sunrise.
"Yeah, I was just practicing singing, but I guess I got too loud. Sorry for disturbing you." Roy told a white lie to Amelia.
"Okay, I believe you." She didn't believe him, but since he was unwilling to tell her the truth, she had no desire or authority to force it out of his mouth. "I am in the room opposite yours. Please don't hesitate to seek me out if you need me. I am at your command. Whatever you want me to do, I will gladly do it for you."
Sounds of footsteps were heard again. Amelia walked away. No one was standing behind that door now. He could finally focus on the matter at hand.
The system's notification sounded in Roy's mind.
『The ability to create a doppelganger from your shadow and bestow it with a part of your power and personality has been granted to you.』
『A shadow dimension has been created.』
『You can store your doppelganger in it.』
After breathing in and out to forget the pain he had just experienced and calm down, Roy opened his eyes as his long, white eyelashes fluttered like a peacock's feathers.
His eyes lowered as he looked at his shadow, sensing that his control over it had strengthened; more specifically, he had gained utmost control over it.
Previously, he could command it to do simple actions.
But now, he felt that he could create life out of it.
"Let's test it out."
Roy said as he played the main piece of Ninam's first song.
…
Outside the manor
The wind howled.
Gloomy clouds stepped out of the void and appeared in the sky, blocking out the sun.
The birds flew out of their nests and chirped as if scared.
Darkness descended on the warm lands, and the sound of fierce gales of winds scraping over leaves echoed throughout the tea-scented village.
The howls were heart-clutching, and the darkness was fear-inducing.
Thus, the farmers felt weirded out to the extreme.
"It is still daytime, yet it is already as dark as night everywhere in the village. So weird!" One of them said as he looked up, and his heart trembled as he saw the clouds swirling around like a vortex.
"Maybe God wants us to stop harvesting crops and rest. Haha!" Said the villager standing beside him as he placed his farming tool on the ground smilingly.
"What bullshit!" The first villager glared at the second villager like a stingy landlord, saying, "You better work till the sunset, or you won't be getting any dinner today."
"How are we going to work in this environment? I can't even see where I am placing my feet." The poor farmers complained.
"Wait, I will get them women and children to light up the lamps throughout the village." The fat villager, who owned several of these agricultural fields, said.
Lamps were lit.
Hundreds of orange lights arose in the dark.
Boom!
Immediately, it thundered, and the villagers' hearts shuddered. The simple act of lightning lamps seems to have angered the sky. They realized. But it was already too late.
All the lights flickered as fierce gales assaulted them, then they went out.
Darkness returned to the land.
The villager's efforts at illuminating the fields were doomed in seconds.
Pitter-patter!
The sky's anger was felt by the clouds.
As if terrified, they started crying.
Lightning flashed across the sky as big water droplets fell out of the clouds.
Each drop was the size of a palm, and when it landed on the villager's bodies, they felt a little pained, their skins turning red as if they had been slapped.
A stinging pain was felt by the farmers in the field and the villagers on the road.
It wasn't just one drop falling on their heads from a height, but hundreds of them.
One water droplet made them feel like they were slapped, then ten of them made them feel like getting slapped ten times in a row.
"Take shelter immediately!"
The villagers left whatever they were doing and ran into their homes, taking shelter from the terrible rain.
Sounds of thudding could be heard as they locked the doors behind them and stored their tools in a basket next to it.
Their houses were made of spiritual bamboo woods. It was an excellent material against rain and earthquake.
Although their houses trembled every now and then because of getting hit by the palm-sized water droplets, they didn't show any sign of breaking.
Not even a crack appeared on their walls as the rain assaulted them.
...
Completely unaware of the trouble he was bringing to the villagers by doing what he was doing, Roy sang the first song, his voice as garish as a devil.
The hymns he produced were ear-wrenching and heart-exploding.
He himself started to bleed.
Blood trickled out of the corners of his eyes and ears.
No doubt, he was pained and getting destroyed because of singing the first song, but he sang it to the very last letter of the word as if he was in a trance.
The song came to an inevitable end.
But it left its mark on the world.
His shadow split into two parts.
One was still attached to him, but it didn't look like a man's shadow, and the other crawled a few feet away from him before bouncing upwards.
Hovering in mid-air, it started to grow; more specifically, two hands and legs popped out of the blob of darkness.
Following that, it slowly shaped into a shadowy replica of Roy.
『Ding! Congratulation. You have created a level 1 doppelganger of yourself.』
『Roy's first shadow.』
HP: 10
Strength: 10
Stamina: 10
Agility: 10
"It's perfectly like me, save for the skin. It's inky black," Roy said as he examined it thoroughly, scrutinizing it from head to toe and examining its pulse. "It also lacks a shadow and has no reflection or heartbeat." He noted.
It was unresponsive to his commands and as unmoving and lifeless as a statue.
『Breathe life into it.』
Following the system's advice, Roy walked up to it and breathed into its forehead.
"Have you awakened, the first of my creation?"
Roy looked at it with expectations.
Its eyes snapped open as if the simple act of Roy blowing hard on its temple really breathed life into it.
Its eyes were nothing like his, Roy found out.
They had no white in them.
"Y-yes… I have." After nodding, it bowed to Roy, "Please give me a name."
Roy thought for a moment before naming it. "Shadowless!"
"Shadowless?" Roy's doppelganger raised its head, its eye-brightening in joy. It seemed to be happy to have received a name. "From today on, I shall be called Shadowless! I thank my creator for giving me this name."
『You have given a name to your doppelganger. It has become a named entity. You can now impart your strength, soul spells, knowledge, seven emotions, and six desire to Shadowless.』
『You will lose what you will give to Shadowless, but as long as it reenters the shadow dimensions, you will regain what you have given to it.』
"Interesting.… it's like avatar customization." Roy smiled and made up his mind to give it his sea of magic, subspace soul spell, arrogance, pride, anger, wrath, and killing intent.
"You will become the first and the greatest edge lord this world has ever seen!" Roy promised his shadow.
『You have imparted your sea of magic to Shadowless. It has become an absolute mythical level true mage.』
『You have imparted your magic knowledge to Shadowless. It has learned how to create mana threads, bullets, and bombs.』
『You have transferred a part of your soul to Shadowless. It has gained the soul spell, Subspace!』
『You have lost what you have given him.』
Roy inspected it again.
『Shadowless.』
HP: 10
Strength: 10
Stamina: 10
Agility: 10
MP: 4000 wisps.
Power level: Absolute Mythical level True Mage!
Abilities: Subspace, Mana bomb, Mana Bullet, Mana threads.
Roy nodded in admiration. "Damn, this is too op!"
He had gained a second life.
Even if his main body somehow died, as long as Shadowless was alive, he would be able to live on, not as Roy but as his first shadow, and he wouldn't need to start from scratch.
If his body gets destroyed, he would be reborn in Shadowless's body as a powerful True mage with a high-level subspace soul spell.
"Return to the shadow dimension," Roy commanded Shadowless.
"As you command."
Shadowless replied humbly as he jumped into his shadow, vanishing from Roy's sight.
His shadow regrew up to its original size.
Now there was nothing off about him, safe for his pale face.
The system's notification sounded in his mind again.
『Your first shadow has returned to you. You have regained what you have given to him!』
