12 Chapter 12

4 Years Later

On the fields of Beast Glades weather was sunny. Birds were chirping, mana-beasts were running around, some adventurers were doing their missions such as gathering mana-cores of beasts.

But somewhere in the dark, somewhere deep below the surface. Terrible screams and blood splattering around could be heard.

Black silhouettes with blue glowing parts were clashing... no, completely annihilating other monsters.

Some monsters tried to run away but they ran into vail. Black silhouettes were completely surrounding them, giving no chance of escape.

Finally, the last monsters also met the same fate as the previous ones. When finally last monsters died, Black Silhouettes moved away from them while splitting to make a road for someone.

Soon person with blue glowing eyes from mana started walking towards the corpses of monsters. When he was standing in front of this bloody scene he said only one word.

"Arise"

As if hearing the voice of something supreme, shadows started coming out from those corpses. Shadows expanded and started forming something. Other silhouettes materialized with the same blue glowing from mana parts.

All of them started lowering their heads in front of the person who just summoned them. If those summonses could kneel undoubtedly, they would do that without their summoner's command.

"You all make 1 squad, leader one with most mana. Now in my shadow. " Person commanded and black silhouettes quickly jumped in person's shadow.

"We meanwhile continue searching for other capable soldiers. "

Yes, that person was Ashborn. Ashborn Leywin to be exact.

After leaving for his adventures, Ashborn started searching for capable shadow servants in the depths of Beast Glades.

Clearing unknown amounts of dungeons and killing countless mana-beasts Ashborn was able to create a whole army with 700 capable shadows and not some parasites who only eat his mana.

He also found one certain specimen of ants that could devour the abilities of something it eats. Finding such mana-beast here without a doubt is lucky for Ashborn. Under Ashborn's mana monster evolved and became even stronger.

"My Liege. We are ready to in another dungeon, only your command is required. " Ant appeared next to Ashborn.

"Beru, I wanted to send the latter to my brother. Let's wrap it up for today." Ashborn told his subordinate.

"As you wish, My Liege." Ant just nodded and other servants entered Ash's shadow.

Beru was the name of this strong ant. He is one of the strongest in the current Shadow Army and the most capable soldier.

And Ash found him with coincidence when he was searching for strong mana signatures. he felt large bloodlust coming from upper-level dungeons. He quickly arrived in this dungeon and saw some ant eating corpse of some adventurer.

The reason why did this Adventurer died? because the dungeon was given the wrong rank. This dungeon was only B-Class from what Ash learned in Adventurers Guild. (No Ash isn't an adventurer. He just sent a shadow servant there to get information.)

Ashborn just observed Ant for some time and when he saw that Ant's body started deforming and got a humanoid appearance he understood. Someone who found this dungeon and ranked it didn't know what Ant could do.

When Ant ate humans, he could get their mana-pool level, get their abilities and etc. Ashborn couldn't let such a beast leave and quickly killed him before he could even get stronger.

Having a bad sense of naming his servants, Ashborn used his extreme skill and stole name from his successor's soldier.

And when Ash summoned Ant. Beru's mana pool immediately expanded to reserves of S-Class mana beast. Through going many other dungeons and searching for other servants, slowly but without stops Beru was becoming stronger and stronger. even now Beru's limit is unknown.

After he summoned Beru, next were other ants that he found in the same dungeon. Overall they weren't that strong as Beru but they were useful. Besides, Beru with the only screams can increase their morale.

It's just a shame that Beru is still at commander level. This is why Ash needs to increase his mana pool to even bigger reserves.

Also research about creatures that can influence the same element that was used in Cup Of Reincarnation failed because Ash couldn't find other creatures who could influence that element.

But Ash didn't fail fully. Arthur was constantly training with his beast-will and Ash could feel changes in his body. Arthur's bond, Dragon Sylvie had this element in her body, so she would be able to influence it.

And thanks to Sylvie, Ashborn was sure that there are other creatures that can influence elements of the cup.

When Ashborn finally finished his "Journey", Noticed his changes.

For those 4 years, of course, Ashborn became taller, buffer, and more handsome. He never met anyone who could rate his appearance, but from judging the appearance of other people who he saw in this life he and Arthur are the most handsome people on the continent.

'When I will get home, I will get beating. ' Ashborn remembered her mother's attitude when it comes to the safety of her children.

'But I'll be just on time. Some kind of Auction is going to be here and the whole family will be there, even Twin-Horns. '

Ashborn of course knew everything that was going on with his family, through shadow servants that he left with them.

'But, I should get some presents for my family, right? After all, unlike for me, 4 years for them are really long time. ' Ash thought and decided what to do.

First of all, he could kill some high-ranked mana-beast and sell their cores. Cores are valuable and when it has beast-will inside it could cost a small chest of gold.

'Wait... didn't those cores break after I summon beasts?' Now Ash has to once again find another dungeon with strong mana-beasts.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

"*Grrrrr*" Some kind of mutated wolf that was walking on his two legs was backing away from Ashborn.

That wolf kind of creature was 10 times bigger than Ashborn, Ash would like to make him his servant but what family member would he be if he won't get a present for his family?

"You look strong. But I need your core for other reasons. " Ash muttered and enforced his hand with mana. A colossal amount of mana started flowing around Ash's hand.

[Ruler's Authority]

Ash disappeared from his place and appeared on top of the wolf's head. He was able to move at such speed with just his physical abilities without the usage of mana. (Just under Ashborn's mana body can become stronger. Besides after clearing so many dungeons, he got even stronger)

Ash punched the wolf's head. Wolf's head just exploded after such an impact, and blood splattered everywhere.

"How dare that lowly creature make my liege dirty?!" Beru's shout could be heard in the whole dungeon and maybe even outside it. (Yes, That Beru could also communicate even with other people because he ate humans and devoured their knowledge about language.)

'Did Beru also get the character of the person he devoured?' Ash wondered while looking at the shadow next to him.

"Just gather cores, and bring it here. " Ashborn commanded his shadows, but not Ants because they eat too much.

His servants managed to gather around ten high-class mana-beast cores. Those cores can be sold for quite some gold coins and they even have beast will in them. Some noble people would kill each other just to get this core in their possession.

For Ashborn who only cares about preparing presents for his family, only gold matters for now. If they kill each other for it even better. Potential shadow servants.

"Hawky, come out." Ash's most reliable Shadow Servant came out from his shadow.

Ashborn just hopped on him.

"Go to Xyrus city. I don't want to use Shadow Exchange." Ash told his servant.

Since they were at the dungeon, deep down under mountains. Hawky had to run a whole lot of distance to come out on the surface.

When he finally got out he immediately flew high in the air.

For Ashborn, the favorite thing in such a flight was the feeling of a small breeze scratching against cheeks. That feeling made Ashborn love flying at a slow pace.

Xyrus City was near Beast Glades. Actually, it was on the border of Beast Glades and Kingdom Of Sapin, and reaching the city won't take long. Considering that they are flying and on the extremely fast creature.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

(Ashborn POV)

"I wasn't here for quite a long time." I said and looked at the streets of Xyrus City.

People were working, playing, and doing other normal daily activities.

My destination is Xyrus Adventurer's Guild. I don't exactly know where can I sell mana-cores because I never wondered about this. I'll ask someone there.

Walking through the streets, I observed people and what they were exactly doing.

I was interested in merchants. They could have something that I can buy as a present.

I highly doubt that I will be interested in any of those things that they sell. But I have to do this and choose something that My mother, father, sister, brother, Twin-Horns, Helsteas...

Maybe I should just gift them money?

No.

Oh, why I the Shadow Monarch can't decide such a thing? Antares you bastard I can hear you from here. I'll get you someday in the dream world.

Okay, before I could even see something that piqued my interest I already could see the building of Adventurer Guild.

But...

Something unexpected happened.

4 people entered my vision and of course, it had to be them.

My mother, Helsteas but Vincent wasn't here. And the brown-haired girl with brown eyes. When I saw her eyes, I could already understand who she was.

My sister Eleanor. I saw how he grow up through my shadows but seeing, in reality, is different.

'I need to hide to not fail surprise. ' I thought and quickly hide in the crowd.

I decided to observe them for now. I may learn what they like or what they want. then I won't have to think about it so much.

(Lilia Helstea's POV)

I'm shopping with Mommy and Lady Alice and Ellie. Ellie seemed a little bit disappointed that her brother didn't want to join us so I was holding her hand to comfort her.

"Hey, Ellie. Do you like your big brother that much?"

"En! But he's a meanie for not shopping with us. I wanted to dress him up more." she pouted.

"Do you like me better or your big brother?"

"Umm...I like both!" After some time of thinking, she just responded. (Somewhere in the crowd Ashborn was proud of his sister's response)

"Kukuku. Lilia, what are you asking Ellie?" My mom asked, pulling my other hand.

"Lilia, what do you think of Arthur?"

"Uuu he's a little scary. How is he so strong, Mommy? I thought kids like us couldn't be mages until we're all grown up?" It wasn't fair. I've always dreamt of becoming a mage and making Mommy and Papa happy.

"I guess it's because he's a very gifted child. He and his brother. But Alice, do you really have no problems with everything he told you? I don't mean to butt in on your parenting but doesn't it just seem a little too weird? How did he get so powerful during this time? You've told me that he was pretty good at fighting even before the bandit attack."

"Of course I know he's hiding a lot of things. He probably doesn't know but it's pretty obvious when he's lying. He tends to focus his gaze on one point and his voice turns monotone when he lies. It's pretty cute how he thinks he's being sneaky actually. 'Sigh', Tabitha, I know he's keeping things from us and so does Rey, but we agreed on giving him some space until he's comfortable enough to tell us himself. I guess that's just what it means to be a parent. I know he doesn't mean any harm so all we can do is just support him until he's ready." Lady Alice shook her head.

"And same is with Ash. I heard from Reynolds that he is a genius when it comes to conjuring. Reaching Dark-Orange core at 4, that's something that you won't hear even in legends." I don't understand how they are already mages and so strong. I also want to...

"Ash, also is hiding many things that we don't know. He is always serious with a blank expression, it's impossible for us to read what he is thinking. He is nonchalant, mysterious, and hardworking when it comes to us. I always had the impression that whatever he is saying is always true. When he joked about killing anyone who has bad intentions for Ellie, I thought he was saying the truth. I for some reason really thought that he would do it." For some reason, chills ran down my spine.

"But, that sneaky Ash run away from Arthur and went somewhere to get training. Now he is sending us letters, but I'm still worried. " Lady Alice clenched fist and dark aura started emitting around her.

"His bond is with him, there is nothing to worry about. " My mother comforted her.

"He should be coming back this week, Art said that he sent a message to Ash." Alice brightened up.

(Ashborn's POV)

"What?" I heard my mother talking about me running away from Arthur.

I don't remember that I ran away from him. What did Arthur say to mother? Maybe she just understood it differently or just Arthur lied.

When I was observing my family, I saw some guy with a black cloak looking at them. I could clearly see his expression. Wearing a black cloak in such good weather? Seems unbelievable that he just wears it because he is cold. Judging from his mana he won't feel cold even in winter without any clothes.

the cloaked guy turned to some alleyway. I decided to follow him and jumped on the closest building without anyone noticing me.

I saw a cloaked guy talking with another cloaked guy. I have to say those two certainly are stronger than normal humans.

"Then I shall inform Lord Sebastian that the best opportunity will be at the auction." Auction? Knowing that they are doing this with such high privacy, I don't think it's something good.

"Stay still. " I commanded and both of them flinched.

"Tell me more about this auction." I said and jumped down from the building.

"Don't do anything stupid, this one is strong." I heard one whispering to another.

I started approaching them slowly, I saw one of them moving the hand towards his back.

"I said stay still haven't I? Beru cut his hand. " I commanded and Beru immediately formed from man's shadow and swung his long claw.

"You'll scream and I will make your death even more painful." I told them none of them dared to scream, the one whose hand was cut by Beru was in pain, his eyes were watery, and his face had an awful expression.

"You have two choices. The first one is to tell me everything you planned to do in the auction and I will give you painless death. The second one is not telling me anything but you won't live nor be dead." I told them.

They started trembling when I let my mana flow around me, showing them my superiority over them. They both fell on their knees and started gasping for air.

"Time is up." I said and they looked up at me with a frightened expression.

In one swift motion, Beru separated their heads from their bodies. Blood explosively leashed out and started covering the whole alleyway.

"You, will, either way, tell me what you were planning."

"Arise"

Two shadows started forming out from their bodies. Two shadows soon formed humanoid forms.

"Now tell me, What were you planning to do on the auction?" I asked. Both shadows kneeled again in front of me.

"My king, we were planning to get our hands on a certain mana-beast." One of them answered.

"Which one?"

"On Dragon, my king. " Now that's understandable, but they knew about Sylvie being a dragon.

"Why?" I was interested in why they were doing this? Who tasked them to do that?

"We were tasked to steal it before it became too strong."

"Who tasked you to do this?"

"Retainer, who is serving one of the Scythes."

"Who are the Scythes?"

"They are one of the strongest soldiers of Alarcya and people who work directly under Agrona Vritra. "

"You said Alarcya before, didn't you? Is it another continent?"

"Yes, My king. "

'As I thought, there is another continent and they are probably way more developed than Dicathen. They are already sending spies here with curses.' I already noticed that those 2 people had curses on them, so they couldn't leak anything related to Alarcya. Unfortunately for those Alarcyan people, I'm here.

"Hide in my shadow, but before that clean this mess. "

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-

After I finished my... job. I went to Adventurer's Guild.

I walked through the big door of the building and entered the big hall, with a lot of people. some people near the entrance looked at me then quickly looked away. (Ashborn looks like 12 years old so they shrugged it off quickly. )

I looked around and found the receptionist's desk. I walked towards it.

"Hello, with what can I help you?" A woman who noticed me asked.

"I wanted to sell beast-core, but I don't know where to. "

"Oh, you can sell your beast-cores here, but with lower price than the average market price. Please shot me your guild-card."

"I don't have it. "I answered.

"Um, If I may ask... From where did you get beast-cores?" Woman asked.

"Does it matter? "

"N-not really. " Woman got frightened at my cold response

"Is there something that my presence is needed, Mary?" Some black-haired man with glasses approached us and asked the woman.

"Young man here wants to sell beast-cores. But he doesn't have a guild card. " Woman answered.

"I see, then I don't mind helping this young man. As a guild leader, I have a guild card. "Man took out his white colored with gold patterns card that showed his Rank. he was AA-Rank.

"Can you please show us beast-core that you are selling." The woman asked me.

"Yes, of course. " I already prepared a bag for those cores and placed them on the desk.

Man's eyes widened when he saw them but regained his composure.

"Young man. I have to ask, from where did you really get those cores? " Man with glasses asked me.

"It won't do you any good if will talk in public about this. " I said and he understood.

If I will say that I went deep down in the dungeon killed some high-ranking beasts and then came here to just sell them like nothing happened problems may occur. Royalty might put their hands on the incident.

And I'm only 8-years-old and I'm not noble, besides I went to Beast-Glades as a normal civilian.

"Follow me, young man. " Man lead me towards his office. His office looked more valuable than whole this building.

"You can sit. " He motioned me to sit and I did exactly that.

"Oh, I never introduced myself. I'm Kaspian Bladeheart, and I'm in charge of this branch." Kaspian introduced himself.

"Ashborn Leywin. " I introduced myself. mother always said that I shouldn't introduce myself to strangers, but he introduced himself first so nothing that's only normal.

"Now, you Ashborn. You have to explain how did you get those beast-cores?"

"I got them from mana-beast." I answered.

"You say that you, yourself get those cores from mana-beast?" Kaspian seems not to believe me.

"Yes. "

"But, you do know that entering the Beast-Glades without being in a guild is greatly prohibited." said Kaspian and I just nodded.

"That's right. But as long as nobody saw me that's okay. " I responded.

"But why did you reveal yourself then?"

"I would say I wanted some gold, but now I have a different goal... "

"What is it?" Kaspian asked curiously.

"Make me S-Class adventurer and I will make adventurer guild become an independent organization." Kaspian got surprised.

"I don't know if you can fulfill your promi-." Kaspian was interrupted by the sudden outburst of mana.

Kaspian looked at me with a terrified expression.

(Kaspian Bladeheart's POV)

That young boy in front of me. He is emitting an aura of something beyond my understanding. I feel like I'm sitting in front of death itself.

Mana is chaotically flowing in my office. I looked up at Ashborn Leywin's eyes that were glowing blue.

Some image popped into my mind, and I saw countless black monsters standing behind him. I couldn't do anything, I was frozen like a statue, I couldn't even breathe.

"I assure you, I can fulfill my promises. I will make Guild participate even in political events. You have to only give me the rank and follow instructions." He said if giving me choice to select, But I feared to say no.

(Ashborn's POV)

I noticed how Kaspian struggled so I retracted my mana. So once again I decided to ask.

"So? Do you accept my proposal? "

"*Cough* *Cough* After such display of strength, I can't let that chance escape can I?" he made a wise choice.

"I must congratulate you. Ashborn Leywin is now an S-Class adventurer of Adventurer's Guild." Kaspian congratulated me.

"Since it's decided, then I will leave my subordinate here." I said and called out Hawky who formed from a shadow near me. Kaspian was already so surprised that this was nothing shocking to him.

"This is Hawky, If you want to contact me just say his name and tell him what you want. He will inform me immediately." I said and Hawky jumped in Kaspian's shadow.

"That is the truly incredible ability..." I could hear Kaspian muttering.

"By the way. I don't want my identity to be revealed so don't write my name on my Guild Card." I told Kaspian who nodded.

"Then how could we address you? any alias you prefer?" Kaspian asked.

"Maybe...

Let's go with

Shadow Monarch. "

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Big Chapter boys.

Already starting to add changes in canon. so what do you think about it? should I make from guild some political force?

Btw, I forgot to mention this story is now also uploaded on Webnovel by me.