Shadow Knight

Max closed his eyes still and tried to fully fix his attention on the dark energies around him. He may not know why the system requests that he absorb the energies but one thing is for sure and that is his desire to get stronger. 

After some time, he opened his inner eyes and he could see the dark energies and how they were raging around his soul. It was like they wanted to tear his soul apart but something kept stopping them.

Max channelled his mind to the energies and began to draw them to himself, the dark energies felt his presence and suddenly they gathered around and began to form until they formed into the shadow of a man.

"Are you strong enough to withstand my powers?" 

Max heard a voice ask him through the shadow of the man. He kept silent for some time as he didn't know if he could be able to do it. At the same time, be wanted to do it because of the rewards attached to it by the system.

"Yes, I can!" Max replied and without waiting for the shadow to reply to him, he gathered his will and directed it to the shadow.

"How can a mere human control me? You are too ignorant for your age!" The shadow said and let out a loud chuckle that echoed around the place. The shadow waved his claws-like hand and created a large barrier. "Now, let's see how you will accomplish your impossible quest." The shadow scoffed and silently watched Max direct his will to him.

When max's will reached the barrier created by the shadow, it dissipated like it was never there. This made Max furious, 'what and how strong is that barrier that, it could crush my will?' Max thought to himself as he stared at the smirking face of the shadow. He clenched his fist tightly and decided to try again, this time with a stronger force.

"I shall crush your barrier with my will and you will become my servant!" Max said out loudly causing the shadow to growl back at him.

"We'll see about that!" The shadow replied with gritted teeth and added more power to his barrier making it times two of the first one.

Max closed his eyes and began to direct his will to the barrier. 'I must become powerful! No one will stop me not even you!' His mind wandered to the promise he made to Yama, he needed to get powerful enough so he can fulfil that promise. Those people who laughed at him and treated him like trash, he had promised to humiliate and as such, he needed to become strong.

The way he was treated by his parents from the first day he failed to awaken an ability, that would never leave his memory. Those memories were still fresh in his head, his parents were the ones that were supposed to stand by him and encourage him but what did they do? They totally jettisoned him and left him in the school to suffer till death. No one knew how much hatred he had for his parents, how much hatred had built up in his veins. If given a chance one day, he would disown them and change his surname because they were not fit to be called his family. 

All these thoughts crowded his head as his eyes were closed, the anger that had been building up in his veins burst out and filled his entire being. He directed his anger to the will and sent it towards the shadow who still had a smirk on his face.

"If you think you will succeed, know that you are only daydreami–"

The shadow hadn't finished talking when his barrier was ripped apart.

"I get whatever I want! Now, come here and be my servant!" Max said in an authoritative voice, his eyes now glowing. 

"No! I refuse! I can never be a slave to a common human like you!" The shadow yelled as he tried to fight his way out of the grip of Max's will. His efforts were made useless when he was dragged by the will, next he saw himself was on his knees before Max.

"From now onwards, you are mine. If you are obedient towards me, I will treat you nicely but if you choose to be stubborn, I will have no choice but to treat you like a dog." As Max spoke, a tiny ball of light came out of his forehead and flew to the shadow's forehead. "Call me your master!" He ordered but the shadow didn't say a word, he was clearly angry and irritated but that didn't concern Max at all. "Or I'll have no choice but to use the demon way?"

The shadow's eyes popped out upon hearing the 'demon way' this was the cruellest way of forming a contract with the demons and surely he would not want to experience the plans and torments. 

"Fine! I'll do it!" The shadow sighed and said. He had no choice, he didn't want to lose his sanity in the process. "Master! From now on, you will be my master and I will serve you and you alone," the shadow said with a look of frustration and hopelessness on his face.

After he finished talking, the tiny light on his forehead disappeared instantly.

 *Ding*

<<Servant Acquired>>

<<Name: Boone>>

<<Class: Shadow Knight>>

<<Skills: Shadow>>

<<Level: 100>>

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<<Quest: Absorb the dark energies around you>>

<<Status: Completed>>

<<New Skill unlocked>>

<<Shadow Manipulation>>

<<Descrpition: The user can manipulate shadows to some extent depending on his power level>>

<<Level 2 unlocked>>

Max beamed while staring at the screen before him, just like he wanted. He glanced at the shadow for some time and placed his hand on his jaw. Soon he'll be going back to school but he could not carry the shadow along with him because it would only attract unwanted attention. He still wanted to maintain his low profile until when he becomes the strongest in the entire school and beyond.

"Stand!" He ordered and the shadow knight stood up. "Can you make yourself invisible?"

"Yes Master, I can do that," The shadow knight replied.

"Good! You will only make yourself visible to me when we are alone, aside from that, you are to always remain invisible," Max said and the shadow knight nodded in understanding.

"Max! Finally! You are awake!" Zheren yelled as he walked up to Max with a broad smile. "It's... Who is that?" He asked the moment his eyes fell on the shadow knight.

"Calm down, I'll tell you," Max replied as he saw Zheren's shocked expression.

"Okay, I'm calm already," Zheren said and breathed out.

"Alright, this is Boone. A shadow knight and my servant," said Max with a sense of accomplishment written all over him.

"Shadow knight? But how?" Zheren could not hide the puzzled look on his face. For days, he had been worried sick about Max that he would come by now and then to check on him. Who would have thought that Max would wake up to already have a servant — a shadow knight at that!

"I'll explain later but we need to go back to school. Boone go for now!" 

Boone did as he was told, he bowed slightly and then disappeared, leaving only Max and Zheren.

"Okay, but first let's see Damon. He helped us a lot and he was the one who brought you here," Zheren said. Max upon hearing Damon remembered what Yama had told him. He was not going to fully trust Damon despite the numerous times he had helped until he finds the answer he needs to clear his doubts.

"Okay, let's go see him then!"