After bidding farewell to the boss in spectacular fashion, the two returned to the rest area on the 31st floor. In it, there were two stone huts, a campfire area, and a few other random items they had left out, knowing they'd be back soon. There was little point in packing and unpacking every time they challenged the Shadow Crawler, so they left things as they were, unconcerned that anyone might stumble upon them. After all, what A-Ranker had enough free time to come to the dungeon just to level up a few times?

Such an event required meticulous planning, including finding other A-Rankers willing to team up, all for a few levels that held little significance to them. The small amount of attributes weren't worth it to them as they could better spend that time improving their law technique or comprehending a new one.

Amber went off to start packing her belongings, as their dungeon trip was over. While she busied herself, Sol entered his stone hut, sitting cross legged on his sleeping bag.

‘It took quite a few rounds, but I finally got all of them maxed out,’ he thought as he opened his status page.

Name: Sol

Race: Human

Talents: [Siphoner], [Transformer]

Level: 120

Exp: 42,754,870/12,134,602,940

HP: 2400

MP: 2600

Str: 120 (+120)

Vit: 120 (+120)

Agi: 120 (+120)

Int: 120 (+120)

Wis: 120 (+140)

Talent Skills:

[Siphon] Lv 6, [Analysis] Lv 9, [Aggregate] Lv EX, [Reinterpret] Lv EX

Siphoned Talents:

[Create Magic Hands] Lv MAX, [Impact Bubble] Lv 4, [Spectral Claw] Lv MAX, [Gigantify] Lv MAX

Passive Skills:

[Muffled Movements] Lv EX, [Reflect] Lv 6, [Basic Psychic Mastery] Lv 8, [Advanced Weapon Mastery] Lv 3, [Wild Hunt] Lv 2, [Invincible Body] Lv 9, [Perfect Balance] Lv 7, [Death Absorption] Lv MAX, [True Sight (Variant)] Lv 6, [Superior Mana Control] Lv 7, [Fortified Soul] Lv 2, [Novice Craftsman] Lv 6, [Battle Dance] Lv 8, [Nether Body] Lv MAX, [Shadow Sense] Lv MAX, [Night Vision] Lv MAX, etc.

Active Skills:

[Phase Step] Lv 1, [Invisibility] Lv 9, [Terra Manipulation] Lv 9, [Burrow] Lv MAX, [Telepathy] Lv 3, [Unpassable Bulwark] Lv 8, [Advanced Elemental Magic (Variant)] Lv 3, [Overpower] Lv 7, [Weapon Empowerment (Variant)] Lv EX, [Piercing Lunge] Lv 8, [Mana Slash] Lv 6, [Polychromatism] Lv EX, [Mana Burst] Lv EX, [Repair] Lv 5, [Shadow Body] Lv 6, [Close Combat] Lv 5, [Vorpal Blade Rush] Lv 6, [Guided Bombardment] Lv 5, [Phoenix Dive] Lv 6, [Unarming Blow] Lv 5, [Phantasmal Rip and Tear] Lv MAX, [Death Sentence] Lv EX, [Shadow Manipulation] Lv EX, [Shadow Elementalization] Lv MAX, [Shadow Caller] Lv MAX, [Shadow Formation] Lv MAX, [Shadow Pinning] Lv MAX, etc.

From the Shadow Crawler, Sol had acquired a wide array of shadow skills, collecting and maxing out a total of four passives and ten actives, not including his previously obtained [Shadow Body], for a total of fifteen skills.

The reason he hadn't siphoned any of its talent skills was simple: when he tried, he experienced excruciating pain, much more than last time, as if he was about to explode. It was clear he couldn't handle any more and instantly aborted the process. Fortunately, he'd been learning to manually control the [Siphon], so he managed to stop it before it was too late.

He was a little disappointed he couldn’t acquire the talent skill [Shadow Fall], but he could live with it.

‘If I really wanted to, I could’ve erased another talent skill to make space, but it’s not worth it.’

When he considered the shadow skills he'd obtained, he felt confident he could replicate [Shadow Fall]'s effects he saw when the Shadow Crawler used it with not much hassle. Plus, he didn't want to lose any of his other talent skills, each one proving useful. [Create Magic Hands] was objectively essential, while [Spectral Claw] and [Gigantify] were irreplaceable as they filled special needs his normal skills couldn’t. The only one he could even consider forgetting was [Impact Bubble], as it was lower level, but its unique effects really intrigued him. With more time to refine it, he knew it could become a powerful skill.

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He had been waiting to combine the shadow skills until they were all maxed, with the exception of [Shadow Body], but with no easy way to find Shadow Amalgamations, he couldn't progress with that.

‘With these skills, I should be able to make something that rivals [Polychromatism].’

His focus shifted as he opened his sight to the tethers before him. The shadow related skills intertwined effortlessly as he made [Shadow Manipulation] the core of the new skill. There was no resistance, and Sol’s control over his own tethers had improved dramatically. What usually took half an hour now only took a minute as the new tether formed.

[Learned [???] Lv EX]

‘A new skill… does that mean...?’

[New entry detected.]

[Permission level 1 confirmed.]

[Name the new skill.]

Sol paused, considering names that would fit it appropriately. After some internal debate, he settled on one.

“Umbral Domain.”

[[Umbral Domain] Confirm name?]

“Yes.”

[[Umbral Domain] Lv EX: The true ruler of shadows. Can create and manipulate the shadows of any being within your vicinity. When in shadows or darkness, the user is empowered, increasing all attributes by 50%. Shadow beings and weapons created can be bestowed brief sentience and are empowered when in shadows and darkness by 100%. Once per full moon cycle, the power of the moon can be borrowed to bring about the Symphony of the Night.]

Even without reading the skill description, Sol knew exactly what he could do with it, but reading the status description made it feel more real. Needless to say, this new skill far surpassed the individual shadow skills used to make it.

‘Symphony of the Night… with this, I could destroy armies. As long as there’s no A-Ranker among them, at least. Maybe it could even work against a weaker A-Ranker, but is there really such a thing?’

The weakest A-Ranker Sol could think of was Victor from the knight selection tournament, but that was only because Victor had poor control over his law technique. If Victor had better control, Sol wouldn’t be so confident, especially given the fire based nature of Victor’s law technique was advantageous against shadows.

Sol shook his head, thinking it could at least serve as a distraction or to keep an A-Ranker occupied. Combining it with Full Spectrum might make it a real threat, but wasn't too certain about that. It would depend on what kind of opponent he was against.

As he stood to go pack, Sol remembered another skill he obtained from the Shadow Crawler that he didn't combine with the rest.

‘Oh, right, there’s that one, too.’

[True Sight (Variant)] transformed into [True Sight (Variant)!]

If he’d been drinking something, he would have spat it out upon seeing the ridiculous system message. He only combined [Night Vision] with [True Sight (Variant)], and the result was a comically redundant system notification.

‘At least it didn’t become [True Sight (Variant) (Variant)].’

Satisfied with his new skill and improved [True Sight (Variant], Sol packed up his sleeping bag and other scattered belongings into his spatial ring. After dismantling his stone hut, he saw Amber had already finished packing her things. He helped pick up a few items, and within minutes, they stood at the teleport sigil.

“Well… back to being a knight...”

It wasn’t that Sol disliked being a knight. He actually found it fulfilling, but he was disappointed that he wouldn’t have as much time to spend with Amber, and the prospect of missing out on her cooking didn’t help.

Amber simply said, “Soon.”

He knew what she meant. “Yeah, with this information, I think I can request a private audience with the Saintess. But before we leave, I need to go to the hidden dwarven city. If I don’t help them obtain the method for creating life clusters, it could completely ruin the fragile relationship we have with the orcs. I don’t want to start a war. And we should deal with the harbinger before leaving the city.”

The orcs had made it a condition that Sol be present to explore the dwarven city. If he suddenly vanished, it would be disastrous. Even if he warned Zaman before leaving, the orcs might not trust them and could assume the humans had done something to prevent him from attending. The fragile peace that was forming could break, leading back to the constant invasions—or worse, all out war.

There was also the matter of the harbinger, which had continued to pursue Sol despite paladins and even Diana’s involvement. From what Diana had told him, the harbinger’s law technique seemed related to movement or stealth, as it could temporarily evade detection and reappear miles away. Diana’s team had never even caught a glimpse of it, and based on autopsies, it killed its targets in a single strike. The only reason he was fine with leaving for the lost dwarven city was because he would be teleporting and the harbinger that was chasing him wouldn't be able to reach him before he returned.

“Okay,” Amber replied, not minding the delay. She never had a strict deadline for finding Sol’s father, even if it took years. She would only be concerned if Sol postponed things without a good reason.

Sol stepped onto the teleport sigil first to avoid being seen together and turned to wave at her as the light began to envelop him. “Stay safe.”