Whoosh!
"Finally done with the Shadow Bears, kid?" Seeing that Valyr had finally taken a break after killing Shadow Bears for so long, Noel jumped down from the branch he was sitting on, appearing in front of the young man he had keeping an eye on.
"I guess so." Valyr nodded in response. "I just gained a notification from the system that killing Shadow Bears wouldn't net me any Shadow Energy, so…"
"I see." Listening to Valyr's words, Noel gave the young man a faint nod before proceeding to look at their surroundings, eventually focusing his gaze on a specific direction a few seconds later. "Since that's the case, I guess it's time for you to start killing Shadow Lions, then."
"Alright." Nodding in response to the old man's words, Valyr went ahead and followed behind Noel, with the two of them zooming through the vast water plains of the Shadow Plane at speeds incomprehensible to a normal person. With the Shadow Energy faintly boosting Valyr's stats, this speed was increased by a considerable margin, making the trip to the next area a bit shorter than it would normally be.
"Say, Elder Noel. I've been curious about something." Whilst the two of them were making their way to the area where the Shadow Lions were, Valyr glanced at the elder beside him and threw a question. "You put it as an objective on the quest you gave me to improve my Shadow Energy to the grade of 1st Cleansing."
"That, I did." Noel faintly nodded, his eyes still glued to what was in front of them.
"How hard is it to reach that grade?" Taking note of the old man's response, Valyr went ahead and asked the question he wanted to ask him in the first place, only to follow up with an additional question after that. "Also, how many grades are there in total?"
"Well…" Hearing the question thrown at him, Noel briefly scratched the back of his head as the gears in his mind turned. "The difficulty of reaching the grade of 1st Cleansing depends from person to person. But from what I've gathered while imparting to others the Shadow Serpentine Lancer subclass in the past, you could say that achieving it is a bit on the difficult side."
"After all, it's the third grade of quality you could attain on your [Shadow Energy Mark]," said Noel soon after.
Becoming silent for a bit as the two of them continued to run, Noel eventually opened his mouth once more, proceeding to go somewhat in-depth in his explanation regarding the grades of Shadow Energy quality to Valyr. "As far as I've attained, there are a total of seven grades to the Shadow Energy you could tap into."
"Would I be correct in saying that your current grade of Shadow Energy is Impure?"
Hearing that question, Valyr went silent for a couple of seconds before nodding in response. Nodding back at the young man, Noel then continued, "Impure would be the first and easiest grade of quality one could obtain through their [Shadow Energy Mark], considering that it's the default quality most people get when obtaining their mark for the first time."
"However, for those who are a bit more talented or have a considerably high affinity for Shadow Energy, the quality of their Shadow Energy could reach a grade of Pure. With how the Impure grade corresponds to the Common rarity, then Pure grade corresponds to the Uncommon rarity, bringing along with it a great number of benefits those with Impure grade Shadow Energy don't have."
"Of course, the higher the quality grade of your Shadow Energy, the more prominent these benefits get." At these words, Noel looked at the young man and flashed a slight grin. "After Pure comes the 1st Cleansing, which basically means that you're turning your already pure Shadow Energy and condensing it into a far purer form, with the 2nd Cleansing and 3rd Cleansing grade after that being more or less the same thing."
"However, after the 3rd Cleansing grade, rather than focusing on condensing your Shadow Energy to make it purer, you instead condense your Shadow Energy to transform it into a greater version of itself."
"This grade is called the 1st Metamorphosis." Saying these words, Noel's expression turned somewhat solemn, letting out a soft sigh soon after. "Out of all the people I've imparted the Shadow Serpentine Lancer subclass to thus far, only I have been able to reach this grade. In fact, I've even gone beyond it and achieved 2nd Metamorphosis."
"I presume that the grade after that would be 3rd Metamorphosis, considering the pattern that exists in the previous grades, but I can't be so sure." At these words, Noel took a look at Valyr. "In any case, I hope you could be the next person to achieve what I have achieved, especially since I've gone out of my way to accompany you to the Shadow Plane."
"I won't make any promises, but I'll definitely try my best, Elder Noel. After all, even I think it's a waste to only stop at becoming a Shadow Serpentine Lancer." Committing all of the information he had obtained from Elder Noel to memory, Valyr gave the old man a response that more or less satisfied the latter.
After that, the two of them redoubled their efforts in traversing the Shadow Plane, eventually arriving at the area for Shadow Lions a few minutes later.
…
"Here we are." Gradually reducing their speed to a grinding halt, Noel took a look at the area in front of them before shifting his gaze to the young man. "I don't have a lot to tell you about the Shadow Lions, except for the fact that they're creatures solidly at Rank 3."
"Oh, and also, they're pretty territorial. Either way, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to take them down without much of a problem." Taking Noel's words to heart, Valyr waved farewell to the old man before proceeding to head deeper into the area before them.
Surprisingly, not even a couple minutes later, Valyr had come into contact with one of the Shadow Lions he had to fight against, blurting out what he thought about the Shadow Lions in his mind as he identified the creature before him.
"That's… definitely a cat-sized lion."
Ding!
[Shadow Lion (Epic Elite)] (Level 45)
Class: Shadow Lion (Uncommon)
HP: 6,144/6,144
MP: 2,640/2,640
Stats: 256 VIT, 352 STR, 376 AGI, 298 DEX, 110 INT, 176 WIS, 184 PER, 90 LUK
Skills: [Charge], [Swipe], [Basic Shadow Energy Affinity], [Inferior Regeneration], [Berserk], [Basic Physical Damage Resistance],…
Remarks: Ever imagined a cat with a mane?
