Weeenngggg…
At the very instant the condensed Shadow Energy from the Shadow Bear Valyr killed made contact with the young man, it swiftly headed towards the dark beam of energy that connected him to the Shadow Plane, melding with it as it attempted to expand the connection even further.
Fortunately, as the Shadow Bear's Shadow Energy was considerably stronger than the Shadow Energy from the Shadow Mammoths he had been absorbing so far, even the energy from one Shadow Bear was more than enough for the connection to surpass its bottleneck and expand to even greater widths.
Because of it, Valyr's perception of the Shadow Plane had changed greatly, allowing him to notice far more detail regarding the Shadow Plane, even though the only difference he had done was that he had killed a Shadow Bear.
Eventually, once the connection he had with the Shadow Plane had been refined with the Shadow Bear's Shadow Energy, the dark beam of energy that extended out of his forehead surprisingly contracted, causing Valyr's expression to change into that of panic.
However, swiftly realizing that the connection he had with the Shadow Plane had not disappeared even with the beam's disappearance, the young man pushed his [Shadow Eye] to greater heights, eventually noticing that the connection had now made its way to a small vacant spot near his heart.
Whoosh!
Then, as if it was a parasite, the connection attached itself to his heart, turning into a small black mass that now fed Shadow Energy to Valyr's heart, giving Valyr the feeling that he now had access to Shadow Energy at any moment he wanted to.
Wanting to confirm this, Valyr focused on the Shadow Energy from the small black mass that melded with his blood and circulated throughout his body, soon noticing that the small black mass always stored a small amount of Shadow Energy for him to be able to tap into at all times.
Though, just as he was about to check the changes to his body even further, a series of notifications resounded in his mind.
Ding!
[Your connection with the Shadow Plane has undergone sublimation, increasing a level in quality.]
…
…
[You have gained the 'Shadow Energy' stat.]
[You have gained the passive skill 'Shadow Energy Mark'.]
[You have completed part of the requirements for the quest: Returning to One's Roots.]
[Improve your Shadow Energy to the point the system recognizes its existence (1/1)]
Stopping his introspection for the meantime, Valyr deactivated the other features of [Shadow Eye] for a moment before shifting his gaze to the old man that had appeared before him, flashing a small grin. "Got it recognized."
"I could definitely sense the change." In response, Noel nodded, giving Valyr a slight smile soon after. "However, what you've done is only the first step. There are still a lot of things for you to do in the Shadow Plane before you are truly eligible to fight against a Shadow Serpent."
"With that, there are two objectives on the quest I've given you that you could choose to do at the moment."
"Improving the quality of my Shadow Energy or increasing the quantity of my Shadow Energy, right?" Asking this question, Valyr went ahead and asked another after the elder nodded at his first one. "Which would be faster among the two, Elder Noel?"
"Hmm…" Scratching the back of his head for a bit, Noel rubbed his chin in ponderation for a bit before eventually giving Valyr an answer. "To be honest, increasing the amount of Shadow Energy you have access to at once is generally harder than improving the quality. After all, you have to fight a ton of monsters to increase your quantity, while you would only have to sit down and condense the Shadow Energy that you have to improve its quality."
"So, I should focus on improving my quality first?" asked Valyr in response to Noel's explanation.
"Eh…" Hearing Valyr's question, Noel had a somewhat conflicted expression. "You could definitely go ahead and do that, but condense a single point of Shadow Energy to improve its quality compared to condensing many points of Shadow Energy to improve its quality is leagues apart in difficulty. Unless if you have an affinity towards Shadow Energy, I would recommend you go for quantity first before quality."
"So, quantity it is." Valyr nodded. "You could have told me to focus on quality first, you know?"
"I could, but you wouldn't have known which to prioritize first." Noel nodded in agreement.
"Well… I guess you may be correct." Though Valyr felt that he could come up with a counterargument in response to Noel's statement, the young man decided not to push it any further. "Since I'm going to focus on quality, which monster should I be hunting down, Elder Noel?"
"Since you're still far away from reaching a bottleneck from killing Shadow Bears, then kill those first. Only when you feel like your progress has stagnated will we move onto other monsters," said Noel in response, to which Valyr nodded.
"Any idea on what comes after Shadow Bears, Elder Noel?" Valyr glanced at the old man with a slightly curious expression.
"Shadow Lions and Shadow Tigers." In response, Noel looked back at the young man with a calm expression, as if he was already expecting such a question to be asked.
"I'm guessing they're far away from where the Shadow Bears are." Saying these words, Valyr took note of the old man's faint nod before deciding to make progress in his quest once more.
Taking a deep breath in preparation for what he was going to do, he glanced back at Noel and asked, "How many hours left do we have in this place before we have to head back?"
"Considering you took quite some time to know the ins and outs of your [Shadow Energy Mark], around 10 hours left, give or take." Hearing these words, Valyr sucked in a bit of cold air before letting out a low sigh.
Then, with a determined expression, two orbs of orange crimson flames manifested above his palms as he took a step forward, only to start dashing in the direction of the Shadow Bears not long after.
"I see."
"Then, I won't take long."
