"Shadow Mammoths, huh…" Hearing the name of the creatures before them, an awkward smile appeared on Valyr's face as he activated [Greater Analysis] to see whether Noel was telling him a lie. However, the status screen that appeared in front of Valyr's face instead proved that the old man was indeed telling the truth.
Ding!
[Shadow Mammoth (Rare Elite)] (Level 30)
Class: Shadow Mammoth
HP: 2,970/2,970
MP: 1,350/1,350
Stats: 165 VIT, 140 STR, 110 AGI, 79 DEX, 75 INT, 138 WIS, 91 PER, 53 LUK
Skills: [Headbutt], [Basic Shadow Energy Affinity], [Inferior Regeneration],…
Remarks: They're pretty cute for their size.
Of course, as Valyr looked at the status screen before him, he would glance at the Shadow Mammoths themselves for a bit. Being in the same condition as the Shadow Rabbit Emperor from before, their appearances were a tad darker when compared to their real world counterparts. However, the opposite applied to their size, with them now being the same size as rabbits, even though their proportions were still that of large mammoths.
"I'll be there if you need me or if you want to ask me a question." Knowing that Valyr would take a while to accept the sight before him as reality, just like with the Shadow Rabbit Emperor, Noel decided to give the man some space as he gave him a heads-up that he would be idling at a nearby tree, sitting on one of its leaf branches.
Nodding in response, Valyr let Noel do his thing as he eventually took in a deep breath, watching the Shadow Mammoths move about the area for a bit before proceeding to take a few steps forward. Though, at the very moment he did so, all of the Shadow Mammoths looked in his direction as their eyes all gained a faint tinge of crimson.
"Ah, fuck." Noticing that the auras being released by the Shadow Mammoths had undergone an increase in power, Valyr could not help but let out a couple profanities as he took on a battle stance, conjuring a few balls made out of orange crimson flames before proceeding to throw it at the Shadow Mammoths.
"[Crimson Blaze Barrage]."
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
"Groooogghhh…!" At the very instant the fireballs made contact with the Shadow Mammoths, the latter let out a pained cry that would be normal for a mammoth to let out, though at a higher pitch due to their smaller size. Nevertheless, with how all of the Shadow Mammoths had become hellbent on killing him due to a certain thing, Valyr ignored their pained cries as he threw fireball after fireball towards them, eventually causing the ground to be littered with their slightly charred corpses.
Not long after, the charred corpses of the Shadow Mammoths released a few faint motes of dark gray light that all swiftly made their way towards Valyr, prompting the latter to activate the [Shadow Eye]'s ability that would allow him to see Shadow Energy.
Swoosh!
Unsurprisingly, the motes of dark gray light were all condensed Shadow Energy that the Shadow Mammoths had been cultivating throughout their lives, all of which headed towards Valyr's forehead as they directed themselves towards a specific part of his mind.
Whoosh!
Within seconds, Valyr felt his perception of the Shadow Plane change, feeling like he could now see his entire surroundings in slightly better detail than before. Aside from that, he felt that the connection he had to Shadow Energy had improved, causing him to take look at the beam that extended from his forehead, noticing that it had become somewhat thicker than before.
Staring at the beam for a bit longer, he also noticed how there now seemed to be less impurities within the beam, which was more apparent during the first time he had activated the ability to view his connection to Shadow Energy. All in all, he was quite satisfied with the rewards that he reaped from his first skirmish in the Shadow Plane…
Even though it was something he wasn't aiming to trigger in the first place.
'Who knew the curse would also be effective within this place?' Though Valyr had not felt the effects of the Mark of the Alltide for quite some time, it was still something that was stuck in the back of his mind, being a factor that he always considered whenever he would do something. Therefore, Valyr was quite surprised when he discovered that the curse still had an effect even in a place separate from the real world, something that he definitely wasn't expecting.
'Either way, thanks to this fight, I'm now more certain regarding a certain aspect of the curse,' thought Valyr to himself, thinking about how the Shadow Mammoths were long within the 100 meter radius of the curse's effect before the two decided to stop, but only decided to become aggressive when Valyr took a few steps forward. 'I'll still have to check whether that's indeed the case or not, but I think sound is the trigger for them to become hellbent on killing me.'
Taking some time to ponder over how his first fight in the Shadow Plane went, Valyr soon proceeded to slay some more Shadow Mammoths within the area, with the latter always having the initiative due to the effects of the Mark of the Alltide. Naturally, with the curse in effect, Valyr experimented with making various sounds to trigger the aggressiveness of the normally docile Shadow Mammoths, as well as experimented on the loudness of these sounds to see if there was a minimum threshold.
Eventually, he was able to deduce that any sound he made, whether it be his footsteps or his breathing, was the cause of the aggressiveness. Unfortunately, no matter how much he made sure that he made no noise, even going so far as to move like an assassin during one of his fights, the Shadow Mammoths still became aggressive, coming to the conclusion that there was no minimum threshold to the loudness at all.
"Groooogh!" Sending yet another Shadow Mammoth to the afterlife with a quick blast of orange crimson flames, the condensed Shadow Energy it had cultivated swiftly headed towards the young man's body, reinforcing the connection he had with Shadow Energy to a small degree.
Closing his eyes for a bit to acclimate to the slight improvement to his senses, Valyr eventually opened it once more, only to see Noel standing in front of him with a solemn expression.
"Is there anything wrong, Elder Noel?" asked Valyr, to which Noel responded with a slight frown.
"Not really…on second thought, there is one. I don't mind the fact that you're using magic to slay the Shadow Mammoths, but there's something that's been bothering me."
"And what's that?"
"Why haven't you been using your spear?"
