He continued on. He wanted the bat to see the devastation he could cause. Therefore he scoured every single room in the cave system. Several times the bat would appear, but his body spread against the wall, there was no chance to completely eradicate Andrew's shadow.

After the large battle before the common house, Andrew encountered three more. There seemed to be several different families or clans in the weaving tunnels. In fact, his body was almost abandoned. However, the old man Kakarov would always pull on his consciousness for quick status reports.

"Four hundred or so," growled Andrew. "The bat is still following me. Now let me check for the remenants before you harass me again! Don't send in those holy knights or whatever I want to kill him myself."

Without waiting for Kakarov's response, Andrew returned back to his shadow body and resumed his search. He discovered a rather repulsive, but effective, trick to increase his powers. Using a body of one of the slain vampires, Andrew filled the dried veins, coated the nerves, and used his own shadowy head as a base to create a semi-lifelike body.

It enabled him to attract more attention while at the same time masking his presence to a small degree. However, the greatest effect was causing turmoil in their ranks. Some would attack him ruthlessly, but others would attack those ones for assaulting one of their own. As it were, he was involved in such a battle.

This, of course, was due to the sole fact that his shadow was nearly starved of mana after the constant reformations. In fact, he couldn't even use any real effect without a throbbing headache putting him on his knees.

Fifty or so vampire charged towards him blindly. Andrew crumbled up his body in a cowering position and felt a tinge of pain before he retracted him from that body. He spread himself on the floor while the others began to attack wildly.

"Damn it all, intruder! Why! Why are you doing this!"

"You killed my chance at becoming a demon. You killed innocent demons, thus you all deserve to die!"

The roar sent the other vampires attacking him to push harder and harder towards his shadow. However, they did not realize something. By the time thirty fell, the last twenty were gravely wound by those who clambered atop him. The large bat hovered in the air above him and reverted into an old, wizened man.

"There will be no escape," seethed the man. "They may not have magic to harm you, but I do Esp-"

"Silence," roared Andrew. "Congeal... and let's start a little show."

Andrew laughed coldly when he realized the effect that congeal had on their already viscous veins. After hexing the man once more, he caused his body to ignite. Which, in turn, cause every vampire to feed the flames.

"Congeal!"

He guided the flames towards the frozen man and made it into a funnel of flames. The vampire screamed in pain and fury, but Andrew did not relent. His mana pool was nearly empty so he split off a very, very small portion of his shadow body to maintain his location while the rest faded.

He only had enough to maintain its location, but he lost his control over the fire and consciousness.

----

"Did I kill him?"

It was the next day when Andrew returned to the tunnel to check on its status. The knights and mages were waiting impatiently, but Kakarov's word held them back. Andrew simply wanted to find the book to memorize the basic spells before they could somehow impede his journey.

It took three hours to find a single straggler. However much he prodded, the maddened vampire chose to only attack him relentless whilst screaming. Andrew allowed the vampire to continue if nothing else to bring more. Yet, after three more hours of endless, inconsequential abuse, Andrew found his goal.

It was a grand library. Why it was in a cave, Andrew did not know. Nor did he care. Rather, he was quite happy to find it in the first place.

"Now, blood-magic, blood-magic," murmured Andrew to himself. "Where are you, you little scoundrel."

The mass of literature was intoxicating to him so Andrew called for old Kakarov.

"Hey, old man-"

"Don't call me that. I'm an honou-"

"Old man Kakarov, yada yada, I want to change the terms. The vamps should be good, but no promises on them all. The cave is too damned big. Nevertheless, five normal, maybe ancient, books of my choice!"

His brows furrowed, "what are their titles?"

"Adventures of a Wandering Pilgrim," seeing the man nod, Andrew grinned. ": the First Edition."

He paled, "no! That one is said to have legendary ranked wind-spells!"

"Fire too, I think" supplied Andrew laughingly. "But seriously, five normal-ish books. I'll lay down five and a few backup choices if they are too presumptuous. However, five of the ones I pick with the blood-magic scripture if I can ever find that damned thing."

Kakarov laughed and tapped his wrist. "They are sent. You'll have until they arrive to finalize your choices. If none such books can be... found, then we'll relent to the five. No legendary ranked magic!"

"Fine, bye," sighed Andrew.

Back in the library, Andrew spread his shadow to blanket an entire bookshelf to try to read the titles. He moved his own center of perception as he did to speed up the process.

"Now if I was a super rare book where would I be-"

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Andrew slapped his forehead and pulled out a few books that catch his eye before he turned to scour the outskirts of the grand library. His pile of tomes exceeded twenty-five, but each was incomparably valuable. He figured that with such a number he would be able to justify taking at least a few for himself.

However, his search for the blood magic tome was slow. In fact, it was only a hunch due to their inherent nature. It was not something that even those with the knowledge of could be found easily.

By the time six hours of fruitless search happened, Andrew sat down lethargically.

"No blood magic for now... but what are the best books?"

The table was growing too small so Andrew started to set them on a stone table in the center. It was quite a bit larger and allowed for him to view them easily.

"'Birth of the Lightning Phoenix', 'Fire Dragons: a Tale of Seven Brothers', 'Lost and Betrayed' - sounds annoying. Where are all these real spells! Just random backstory without anything important."

Andrew slammed his fist on the stone table and felt it seep down below. Normally it would not be an issue, but Andrew sent his sight in there. He started heaving and panting heavily. Without regard for his mana pool, Andrew shot a deadly rock bullet into the stone lid and heard the ancient stone collapse.

"Is anyone there?" Called out a voice from afar.

Andrew gripped the book tightly to his chest and covered it with shadows. It was difficult to carry physical objects for a long time, but he was determined to keep it.

Andrew peeked his head out sheepishly and noticed a brilliant light appeared in the distance. He bit his lip and used his stomach to completely hid the book as he walked towards the group.

His teeth would have been chattering and knees would have been weak - if he were in his original body. However, he looked at the group and caused his body to grow into a fearsome, demonic appearance. He even allowed himself to reach a typical adult height at the expense of his mobility.

"Hail," spoke Andrew clearly. "No holy light as it will cause this body undue pain."

His appearance was very much regal and intimidating.

The leader of the group nodded and spoke somewhat tensely, "the vampires..? Did you do that?"

Andrew nodded and kept his pace. "The library is up there, I trust the Chancellor will keep his end to the bargain."

They cleared a way for Andrew and nodded at the imposing figure as he slowly walked past. However, as they looked back the figure shrunk into that of a child. In fact, all but the bloated stomach remained as the shadow bolted out of their view.

"What... happened?" Spoke the leader who wore radiant armor. "Should we go after him?" Spoke the man rhetorically.

One of the mages shrugged, "he is just a projection of an individual's will. It is actually nearly impossible to use the spell to create anything that can interact with the physical realm. Naturally, it can conduct spells remotely, but it is difficult."

"Why was a child so fat then?"

"This generation," grunted a holy knight. "Lazy, pompous individuals."

Suddenly the leader's face paled and shouted after him. "Kakarov said he was gloating about gaining a legendary spell!"

Andrew, however, began using his knowledge of the complex tunnels to his advantage as he grinned from ear to ear. He had not left but rather chose to hide in the coral. He wanted to practice blood magic with the remanents of his mana so he chose the unfortunate cattle as a practice target.

"Zenith of life, dawn of death, few can escape thy embrace. Release your energy to those worthy of its power! Drain!"

Feeling a surge of mana inside his ethereal body Andrew squealed happily. He did it multiple times on a poor, already confused cow before he turned to a different spell.

"Cloaked in blood of friends and foes, giveth my domain over the sacrifice to be reborn anew! Regenerate!"

His shadow was covered in crimson blood as he continuously altered the spells they were best utilized in the midst of heavy battle when he could hide it.

He practiced the two spells until they became second nature. Then he turned to the new spells. Using the blood that collected in his shadowy body, Andrew murmured a new chant. It was basic, but it was one of the ones that allow him to increase his powers to manipulate it directly.

"... Blood Bullet!"

"God damn it," sighed the leader. "Did you really make this kind of agreement?"

The knight stepped forward slightly and quickly waved his sword. Andrew looked at him curiously before he cried, "no! NO!"

However, the sword had already rendered the book useless. Anything in the slashes range was shattered to fine particles of ash and dust.

"You've had your end of the bargain now return to your body for a debriefing - no one will know about this, okay?"

Andrew fiercely glared at the man, but the next slash severed his attachment to the doppelganger.

--------

"Noooo!" Cried Andrew mournfully, "my... my... my... my... I had to walk so long!"

"I imagined you would have said you killed so many," laughed Kakarov with a grin.

Andrew tried to push through the tears, saying, "they mostly hated my shadow and killed themselves.... but... but... my book! No! Not fair, I hate you all! I'm totally going to hex every damn cow in this city!"

Kakarov shrugged then his head quirked violently. With an angry twitch he exhaled loudly trying to control his temper, "you... mean to say: you walked around... then they killed each other?"

"Yes," sniffled Andrew as his sight was turned to his ruined, stored belongings, "my book... my book! Even the dark magic is in tatters! They even killed the first demons I saw here too. Why... why!?"

Andrew was in genuine distress, but Kakarov was trying everything in his power to prevent himself from thrashing the eight-year-old boy.

Andrew curled himself in a ball in the bed he grew accustomed to and wallowed in misery. However, with a flick of his hand, the stone wall collapsed and Andrew was floating in mid-air.

"No word of this to anyone. You... Gods damn it all! Bah, we had a contract... just get out of my face!"

Andrew was immediately launched from a three-story building towards the middle of town. He screamed and forgot about either of the books that were destroyed in front of him. He concentrated solely on not dying.

When he noticed a large plaza was growing closer and closer, Andrew shouted, "look out! Run!"

There was not much he could do under such a circumstance so he used a spell he had not touched in a long while. Water formed around his body firstly, then soft ice, before rocks solidified it all. However, he was forced to rely on his doppelganger for sight.

"Move!" Shouted Andrew frantically as he swatted away a perplexed guard with a shadow tendril.

Half a second later, Andrew's body was completely buried in the ruins of a guard post.

"Damn it Kakarov! I will have revenge, you know, revenge! I want my books back! I swe-" Andrew stopped shouting when he felt a sword against his trembling throat.

"Please," seethed the guard, "enlighten me as to why you attacked me."

Andrew glared at the forming wall and shouted, "Kakarov! I am not - not - taking the blame for this! Tell them you bastard!"

A cold harumph echoed from the tower but there was nothing else.

The guard's eyes narrowed on him; however, Andrew's real body was secretly using his newly required blood magic to regenerate his body under a new rocky shell.

Andrew's doppelganger rose high in the air, "Kakarov! I remember touring around the barracks before you let me out. Kakarov has a shrine to the protagonist of, 'Wild Adventures wit-"

"What?! Shut up! Fine, don't kill him."

"Wild Adventures with Lus-"

A furious bark was heard from the tower, "fine! I accept responsibility. Shut your trap boy! Otherwise, I'll kill you myself!"

Andrew coldly turned his back on the tower and reemerged with his body. After the blood was marginally cleaned off, Andrew staggered out of the rocky shell.

"See?" Growled Andrew towards the confused guard. "That bastard threw me from that stupid tower! Me, an eight-year-old boy! From a tower! He should never, ever be a parent! Horrible, dreadful old, perverted geezer!"

The sword point was still near his neck so Andrew placed his hand on it and caused the blade to curl into a little bow before he trudged off angrily. The crowd looked at the little, bloodied body wander off in silence. How an eight-year-old boy survived the fall was astounding enough, but it was how he constantly cursed the head of a council that had no less power than the King made people uneasy.