A couple of hours had passed since Valyr had obtained recognition from the Shadow Plane and gained the [Shadow Energy Mark] skill.
During those past couple of hours, he had been killing Shadow Bears left and right after being told by Noel to focus on improving the quantity of his Shadow Energy first before deciding to condense it and improve its quality.
While doing so, he took note of the many changes having the [Shadow Energy Mark] skill had while in combat and while not in combat, with the most prominent change being the fact that he felt that his stats were slightly higher than they were without Shadow Energy.
Wanting to ascertain this fact, Valyr tested his hypothesis by using a bit of his Shadow Energy in sending a lone Shadow Bear to the afterlife, faintly nodding after sensing that all of his stats had reduced by a point or two.
With that in mind, he now understood that utilizing Shadow Energy was a balancing act between consuming it to land devastatingly strong attacks and conserving it to maintain a constant increase in his stats.
'Fortunately, using any of the skills from [Shadow Serpent Combat Style] would gradually reduce my stats, hence I am forced to not use Shadow Energy whatsoever.' At that moment of understanding, Valyr muttered this thought to himself, only to let out a wry chuckle not long after. 'Or should it be unfortunately instead?'
After taking note of the change [Shadow Energy Mark] had brought to his combat style, he also took note of the fact that whenever he killed a creature from the Shadow Plane, a notification would pop up in response as his body absorbed the remnant Shadow Energy from the creature he killed.
Ding!
[Your Shadow Energy stat has improved by 0.03 points.]
On the very first Shadow Bear he had killed after obtaining the [Shadow Energy Mark], Valyr was quite surprised to obtain a notification from the system that his Shadow Energy stat had improved by 0.1 points, prompting him to think that it wouldn't take long for him to accumulate 10 points and improve his Shadow Energy's quality.
However, recalling the words Noel had mentioned to him earlier about not reaching a bottleneck from fighting Shadow Bears yet, it did not take long for Valyr to change his mindset, going through all of the Shadow Bears as quickly as possible to ensure that the rate of improvement of his Shadow Energy stat was consistent.
…
"[Crimson Blade Torrent]!"
"Graaaaaooo!!!" Watching as a swarm of blades made out of orange crimson flames headed towards its way, the Shadow Bear's instinct to charge towards Valyr no matter what swiftly disappeared, being replaced with the strong urge to flee as it tried its hardest to turn tail and run.
Unfortunately, just like the other Shadow Bears Valyr had slain during the past couple of hours, the Shadow Bear was unable to distance itself from the blades, with most of them landing grievous damage on its body as it was gradually debilitated with each consecutive blow.
By the end of it, what was left of the Shadow Bear was nothing more than a slightly disfigured corpse, to which Valyr stared at for a bit, only to let out a faint sigh soon after.
Whoosh!
A couple of seconds later, the condensed Shadow Energy the Shadow Bear had cultivated gradually extricated itself from the corpse before zipping through the air to enter Valyr's body not long after, making its way to the small black mass near Valyr's heart.
Ding!
[Your Shadow Energy has improved by 0.01 points.]
[Your Shadow Energy has reached a bottleneck. From now onwards, killing Shadow Bears and lesser entities shall not net you any increase in Shadow Energy.]
"I finally reached that bottleneck Noel was talking about." Deciding to use the time to take a quick break, Valyr sat down on a nearby boulder to catch his breath, commanding the system to bring up the description of [Shadow Energy Mark] sometime later.
Ding!
[Shadow Energy Mark] (Lv. MAX)
Rarity: ???
Shadow Energy: 3/3
Grade: Impure (Common)
Throughout the ages, a great number of beings have come into contact with Shadow Energy and have used its properties for their own uses, manipulating it as they see fit. However, only a select few have truly tapped into it, with only those who have traversed its origin, the Shadow Plane, being able to do so.
As someone who has traversed the Shadow Plane, your connection with Shadow Energy has gained the recognition of the system, as well as the Shadow Plane itself, with the latter giving you a proof of identity that your control of Shadow Energy has now reached the level of a native creature of the Shadow Plane.
This proof of identity is none other than the Shadow Energy Mark, a mark that takes on multiple forms depending on the being the Shadow Plane recognizes. It allows the one who has been recognized to improve the amount of Shadow Energy they control, as well as the quality of the Shadow Energy they control, eventually giving them the ability to traverse the Shadow Plane unimpeded.
This skill allows the user to tap into Shadow Energy at any time, not needing to form a connection with the Shadow Plane anymore whenever the user wishes to do so. This skill also allows the user to store a small amount of Shadow Energy within their bodies, which could be improved by absorbing the Shadow Energy of other creatures within the Shadow Plane.
This skill also allows the user to gain a boosting effect from the Shadow Energy within their bodies, with each point of Shadow Energy the user currently has inside their bodies boosting all of their physical and mental stats by 0.5% (Current boost: 1.5%).
"Killing the Shadow Bears gave me an increase of two points, huh." Closing the screen once he was done reading, Valyr thought about how the Shadow Mammoths had more or less allowed his Shadow Energy to reach one point, with the increase the Shadow Bears brought to his Shadow Energy being double that.
"Hmm… since Shadow Lions and Shadow Tigers are next, would they increase my Shadow Energy by three points, or would they increase it by four?"
"Hmm…" Pondering over it for a bit, Valyr scratched the back of his head, letting out a low sigh not long after as he stood up, feeling like he had taken a long enough break. "Well, whatever the answer may be…"
"There's only one way to find out."
