Draven declined claiming the Town for now he wanted to first bring the rest of the village with. But it was good that he found a destination for everyone to go to to start over. However, the new issue was that the town would be periodically attacked. From the looks of it, the Iron Town was nearly twice the size of Novice Village so Draven naturally would need to recruit more people to come with him as he did not have the time to constantly play town guard. Draven had many questions in his mind, but he wanted to act fast and bring everyone here as soon as possible so he would not lose the claim of this town. Draven started to backtrack towards the split in the mountain towards novice village. He scanned the area and noticed that most of the creatures in this area were either reptilian in nature or some form of rock or fire elemental. Levels ranged from 5 being the lowest and 15 being the highest. It will be a rough start for the villagers but if they stay in groups they should be fine and progress quickly. Draven picked a creature that looked familiar to a Komodo dragon and tried using the Shadow crystal.

With Draven's speed, this was child's play as he danced around the reptile for a few minutes as it tried its best to sink its fangs into Draven without avail. Once the process was complete the Reptile collapsed and died on the spot.

"One down nine to go!" Draven headed straight towards Novice village only stopping to absorb shadows whenever he came across an iron-rank creature he knew that the closer he got to the village the fewer of them were wandering around, so he stayed near the area of the mountain for around 40 minutes and easily absorbed another 8 shadows. System can I gain the last shadow and wait for any transformations until we reach town? Or does this have to occur on the spot?

"Well, shit!" Draven was worried about all the XP Orbs he had received once he gained his class he would more than likely hit level 15 and he didn't want to be around Iron Ranked creatures while he convulsed on the ground. The problem was there weren't any Iron Ranked creatures near Novice Village to do this more safely in fact in the forest areas only the boss of a group would be around that level. Reluctantly Draven found a level 10 Rock elemental near a small cave. Draven scanned the cave, but it seemed the Rock elemental was by itself so with no other option he jumped onto its shadow and began the absorption process. The Elemental thrashed about but due to its large size and weight Draven easily dodged its attacks. A few minutes later the deed was done as the Elemental crumbled to dust.

Initiating Magus of Shadow and War.

1%...10%...50%...80%...100%.

Installing Magus of Shadow and War.>

The Shadow Crystal was released from Draven's storage and entered his body. Draven Braced himself for whatever was going to happen next but instead of pain Draven only felt himself getting stronger. His shadow began to wildly shift and move as if it was coming to life. Dark shadowy smoke began to extrude out of every pore of Draven's body. He could feel his magic becoming more potent and his strength increasing. He was becoming stronger by the Second it was an intoxicating feeling.

Draven looked a bit confused. System why am I only Level 11 didn't I have a lot of stored Xp orbs?

This made sense to Draven in the Game when you were a certain level lower-level mobs stopped giving you XP so while getting XP orbs from a rank above you made a huge difference in that same regard one from a lower rank was practically worthless. Draven had plenty of Orbs to level up but decided to wait until he was at the Village now where it was much safer to rank up.

Draven took a step forward towards the exit of the cave and his foot began to sink into the ground. He quickly scanned the area with Mystic eyes, but nothing showed up. His foot just seemed to sink into the shadows cast on the floor. Draven pulled his foot back out of the Shadow and concentrated on stepping on the ground and sure enough he didn't sink back into the shadow.

"This is interesting," Draven thought to himself he wanted to experiment more with his new abilities but decided that going to the village had a higher priority. Draven dashed as fast as he could towards Novice Village and noticed a clear difference in his speed he was much faster now after gaining his class and he had to try his best not to leave a bunch of holes in the ground where he was pushing himself off from while running. He felt very confident that nothing in the novice area was going to be able to catch him so he opened up the menu while he was traveling to take a look at what new abilities he got from his class. After opening up his class skills the system showed:

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Passives:

All attributes increased by 20

Shadow Magic: The user comprehends Shadow magic at the level of a novice practitioner.

+15% Shadow magic Damage

Immune to Shadow Magic

+1% to all physical attacks and attributes for every 10 enemies personally engaged in.

Shadow Skills:

Shadow Step: While touching the shadow of another object or being the user can traverse to any point of said shadow.

Shadow Meld: Allows the user to meld his body into his own shadow and move at 80% reduced speed. When touching another shadow speed restrictions are removed. Unless touching another shadow, all other abilities and skills are inactive.

Shadow Drain: while touching another shadow User can siphon shadow energy from the target to either heal or temporarily empower the user's own shadow. (Healing one's Shadow will also Heal the User)

War Skills:

Demolishing strike: Takes twice as long to strike but deals twice as much damage to an enemy and 10x as much damage to a structure.

Battle Frenzy: for the next 5 Minutes User will have increased Attack speed based on missing health. The missing percentage of health will equal the increased percentage of attack speed. For example, at 20% health, the user will have an 80 % increase in attack speed. 1-hour Cooldown.

Draven began to grin like an idiot as he read his new class skills while running through the forest in the general direction of Novice Village. Draven decided to give Shadow Step a try as he was in the forest which meant the entire area was covered in one big shadow from all the trees. So, shouldn't he be able to shadow-step to the other side of the forest? Draven took a deep breath and allowed himself to sink into the shadow. As soon as he was enveloped in darkness his sense of self began to shift. Draven felt as if he were the entirety of the forest. He could see anywhere that the shadows touched. Being in such a huge Shadow began to drain Draven faster than he expected so he focused on the portion of the forest edged on novice village and simply stepped out and he was there. "I can get used to this," Draven thought to himself as he became even more pleased with his new class.

"Did you just come out of the ground!" Draven heard someone yell out that sounded very much like his father. Draven allowed himself to fall into the shadow again and reemerged behind James. "Yeah, it's my new skill from my class pretty nifty don't you think?" Draven said half laughing as he clapped his dad on the shoulder. Sweat started to trickle down James's spine, "That skill is really cool and scary after you went into the shadow I couldn't feel or see any movement, and then you were suddenly behind me." I was looking for you since no one has seen you since yesterday, but I guess I was worried for nothing." James said half relieved and half annoyed. "Well, I did almost die," Draven said as he continued to explain what happened the night before until now. "So, creatures like that exist as well." James finally answered after taking a moment to let it all sink in. "I'm glad you were able to survive that situation I don't think anyone else would have been able to think of that or been capable of doing something to achieve that effect to kill the creature," Im also interested in that town you found you said it's larger than novice village? James asked.

Nearly twice the size so we will need a lot of people to protect it, so I was thinking of going back on my word and allowing everyone to join that wasn't a scumbag seeing as we won't be traveling very far. James was deep in thought over the discovery of the Iron Town and hadn't paid attention to what Draven had said, Dad? Draven said confused. "Yea of course" James replied snapping out of his deep thoughts. "Let's get back to the village for now and discuss the rest. I can't concentrate out here." James said as he led the way back to town. Draven simply shrugged and followed suit. They had walked in silence for a few minutes until James had stopped before exiting the training grounds and into the village. "Draven what if as many people as possible are needed for whatever it is we are doing here? I mean why would Iron Town be larger than Novice Village? I get it, a town is larger than a village, but we are in a state of survival we will become fewer people instead of more over time.

Draven was taken aback he hadn't thought about any of that at all. It was simply logical that a town would be larger than a village so he didn't think into it at all. But his dad was right this had all been built for them, so the creators had something in mind when they built it. So, making the next rank settlements larger rather than smaller only meant that more people were required as you got stronger. People are going to die as we continue to struggle, and people won't get along and segregate themselves into numerous smaller groups. Draven was now equally deep in thought about this whole situation. James allowed him a moment to think about it as he could almost see literal wheels turning in Draven's head.

Finally, Draven spoke up "If Iron Town is twice the size of Novice Village, then that means it should be able to house twice the amount of people. Which means… Draven's eyes shot open wide as the realization kicked in. "There must be another Novice village near that Iron Town roughly the same distance away that we are supposed to meet up with to form one larger group! Draven exclaimed. James smiled as he had thought of that as well but was happy Draven was able to reach that conclusion himself. I agree James said seeing this was built by whoever brought us here means there has to be some kind of design to all of it I would say it is likely that there is another novice village nearby. So, we should raise everyone's level and bring them with us. They continued to walk through the barrier to enter the Village when Draven Suddenly smacked his face into the Barrier. "What the hell!? Draven Cursed as he examined the Barrier as he placed his hand on it the light blue turned into a solid red.

I can't enter since I'm level 11 Draven said in a whisper as he fell into deep thought again. Well, it's a good thing you found the next Tier Village otherwise we would have to sleep outside now. James said with a half chuckle. But Draven wasn't laughing as everything began to click inside his mind.

Hey Dad, what if there's more than one other novice village near that Iron Town? James's smile immediately turned sour. Then instead of forming a larger group with another town, we would have to fight to determine who is allowed to stay and the rest would have to survive outside in the wild if they could no longer go back to their novice village.