Child of the Shadows
Child of the Shadows
One of the strangest kinds of Evil Spirits.
Gwyn, as befit his status as an outstanding Bright Side Vampire, had some understanding of Evil Spirits.
Upon hearing Marvin's explanation, he reacted immediately!
"This theater has already nurtured a spirit?"
"Wouldn't that mean there is a Half-Legend Evil Spirit Envoy here?"
Gwyn's expression was solemn.
Marvin remained silent for a bit before remarking, "Think, where did these Evil Spirits come from?"
The Vampire forced a smile. "I thought they were spontaneously drawn to you by all the Evil Spirit Enmity on your body."
"Your Evil Spirit Enmity is way too high after all. Even I can notice it as a Vampire."
Marvin was slightly surprised.
He finally understood why Gwyn could recognize him even when he used Disguise. This guy could feel the Evil Spirit Enmity on his body!
His perception was really outstanding.
But now wasn't the time to chat about this. Although the Evil Spirit army had retreated, the real powerhouse had now descended.
...
In the darkness, a "huhuhu, huhuhu" sound could be heard.
It felt like someone was strenuously pumping a bellows.
There was no light, but it wasn't a problem for the two. Vampires had very powerful Darkvision, and Marvin had Darksight, so they could clearly see anything happening in the theater.
The curtains on the stage fluttered in all directions, but they moved very slowly, giving out an eerie feeling.
Gwyn frowned. "It's coming."
Marvin calmly lifted his two daggers as he assured, "I'll deal with it."
"You don't need to make a move. But I need you to quickly find the place where the spirit's core is located, or we will be trapped here forever."
"At such a time, do you still want to hide it? I'm actually quite curious of the relationship between you and Grand Duke William. How could his [Blood Mark Perception] appear on your body…"
Following Marvin's profound words, Gwyn's eyelids twitched and he knew that he had been seen through, so he stopped hesitating.
His skin suddenly reddened, as the faint line of a vein seemed to appear on his skin like a ripple.
'A total of nine Blood Marks!'
Marvin was secretly startled.
He could be considered close to Grand Duke William in the past and knew that the old fox came up with the [Blood Mark Perception] bloodline ability, but it could only be passed onto his direct descendants. At that time, Marvin's Affinity with the Bright Side was at [Worship] and the old fox William still explicitly told him that he couldn't teach it to him.
And Gwyn, that guy, not only had the Blood Mark Perception, but he even had a total of nine Blood Marks!
It must be known that Grand Duke William himself only had a total of sixteen Blood Marks.
With nine Blood Marks, Gwyn's Perception should be at least at 30, [Godly Perception]!
No wonder he could sense the Evil Spirit Enmity on Marvin's body and continuously see through his Disguise.
Most people simply couldn't reach that!
But if that was the case, Marvin would be even more at ease.
If he said he had 80% chance of dealing with the Theater Spirit originally, now that he knew the extent of Gwyn's Blood Mark Perception, he was 100% sure of dealing with it without any issue.
...
In front of Marvin, those curtains and continuous footsteps actually turned into strange figures!
The strange faces slowly appeared from the curtains and pounced toward the two!
These faces were sneering, or disdainful, or heartless, or sinister… they displayed most of the negative expressions of the secular world!
A gloomy voice echoed in their hearts, "Max… Hungry…"
Marvin sneered, unaffected by the voice!
His two daggers were raised as he leapt toward a face!
...
Theater Spirit, a kind of Evil Spirit made of collective consciousness. It was a lot harder to nurture than ordinary Evil Spirits.
Similar Evil Spirits included the Circus Evil Spirit, Phantom of the Opera, and so on.
If it was said that common Junior Evil Spirits were born from people's wickedness, then those like the Theater Spirit were formed from the negative feelings of the audience watching shows!
In the eyes of the Evil Spirit Envoys, ancient theaters were holy places.
Because people in the theater would wantonly release their emotions when watching the plays. And most of them would be negative.
Over the years, these negative emotions would accumulate in the theater.
When these emotions were nurtured by a Half-Legend Evil Spirit Envoy, they would be cultivated into a genuine Theater Spirit!
This kind of spirit's power lay in it being a part of the entire theater.
Most of the time, Theater Spirits remained dormant because even the Evil Spirit Envoys, who were filled with negative energy, couldn't satisfy their need for food.
Thus, once it awoke, the Theater Spirit would catch everything in the theater to fill himself, including other Evil Spirits!
This was the reason those Evil Spirits started retreating earlier.
But they unfortunately didn't know that in order to make sure to kill Marvin, the two Evil Spirit Envoys had already arranged an Evil Spirit Barrier. All the retreating Evil Spirits were blocked by the barrier, ultimately unable to escape this frightening theater!
...
"Shishishi!"
A Brain Eating Monster desperately tried to flee at the edge of the Evil Spirit Barrier.
But everything he did was futile.
A carpet under his foot suddenly curled up and turned into a bloody mouth, ruthlessly swallowing the Brain Eating Monster!
Similar scenes appeared everywhere in the theater.
Evil Spirits became the Awakened Max's food supplements.
Only the stage remained untouched.
A shadow kept nimbly moving around Gwyn, withstanding attacks coming from all directions!
Marvin not only slashed with his two daggers, but also had a shotgun strapped on his back and two pistols strapped on his thighs.
Rosenthal Bracelets gave a bonus to Ranger skills, making Marvin's [Sleight of Hand] reach 68 points!
This meant that he got the hidden effect for 50 points, [On a Whim].
[On a Whim]: You can switch weapons on a whim. When the weapons are in their usual positions, the switching time is the fastest.
When Marvin learnt Sleight of Hand, it was in order to get this weapon-switching ability.
After all, even if he walked the Ranger path, the weapons he could use were varied.
Not only curved daggers, but also straight daggers, pistols, shotguns, and all kinds of other weapons could shine in his hands.
It was perfectly displayed here:
A huge curtain came, intending to devour both of them.
Marvin circumvented Gwyn, who was using Blood Mark Perception. While instantly putting his daggers at his waist, he half-squatted, aiming with the shotgun!
"Bang!"
A loud sound echoed. The floor under Marvin's feet shook slightly as a bright flame lit the darkness of the theater!
The rumbling flames smashed the curtain, but then, two bloody mouths pounced toward Gwyn from the back!
Marvin knew that Gwyn was going all-out to find the location of the Theater Spirit's core. If he was interrupted, his efforts would go to waste!
He immediately turned, his daggers in hands once more, the two [Azure Leaf]s slashing toward those two mouths!
Before he could take a breath, a dozen faces fused together, the aura of hate spreading over.
Marvin didn't stop to think and aimed his pistols at the enemy. "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Gunshots echoed in the theater, ending that wave of attacks.
It was precisely because of his various weapons that he dared to fight with the Theater Spirit.
This Evil Spirit's power lay in the fact that when you were at the center of the theater, you would face an attack from all directions.
But with his reaction speed, all his weapons, and the #4 Holy Water that restrained Evil Spirits, he had no issue holding his own against the Theater Spirit.
What happened next depended on whether Gwyn could smoothly find the location of the Theater Spirit's core!
...
While he was busy, Marvin glanced at his character window.
During that chaotic fight, he gained a huge amount of battle exp!
About five hundred Evil Spirits were killed by him in the theater, giving him almost a hundred thousand points of battle experience!
Although he used a lot of stamina, this kind of opportunity was rare!
Unfortunately, the Theater Spirit's awakening turned the remaining Evil Spirits into his food, or else they would have also become Marvin's exp.
As for the curtains he got rid of, because they were part of the Theater Spirit, they couldn't turn into Marvin's battle exp.
'Not worth! Not worth!'
Marvin inwardly shook his head, frowning as he looked at Gwyn. He could only pray that this guy would quickly find the core of the Spirit.
Otherwise he would have to use Plan B.
By this time, all the props that could have been used by the Theater Spirit to attack them at the center of the stage had more or less been destroyed by Marvin. He actually got a temporary break.
Taking advantage of that break, Marvin unhesitantly spent 99000 battle exp on his Night Walker class!
In an instant, he became a level 7 Night Walker and his total level reached 19!
He got 36 skill points, 157 HP, and 1 free attribute point for reaching level 19. Marvin hesitated for a moment and used the attribute point on Strength.
Thus, his Strength reached 18 points. With two more points, his Strength would reach the threshold for a special bonus.
Rangers originally had some need for Strength. And in Marvin's memories, he had some shortcuts to increase his Constitution further, but for Strength, besides tempering there was only one way to get an attribute point. Thus he ultimately chose Strength.
As for Perception (Wisdom), once he advanced to Legend, he would naturally have specialties to complement it. Marvin didn't care too much about it for now.
...
After Night Walker leveled up to Level 7, nothing unexpected happened, Marvin got a class specialty, [Child of the Shadows].
[Child of the Shadows]: 50% chance of being immune to all shadow-related spells. Qualified to enter the Shadow Plane.
Marvin was quite pleased when he saw that specialty.
Strictly speaking, this was a passive specialty. Although Marvin currently had no ability to enter the Shadow Plane, this specialty paved the way for future abilities that could let him do so. If he found a suitable Nature Leaf in the future, he wouldn't need to worry about not having a suitable specialty that allowed him to enter the Shadow Plane.
Apart from this, what gave Marvin an even more pleasant surprise was that after he killed five hundred Evil Spirits, his [Night Kill] reached level 3!
'Damn, this is worthy of being called the Night Devil class. Level 3 Night Kill is actually so fierce!'
Marvin took a glance at the properties, and despite being mentally prepared, he was startled by the shockingly fierce description.
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T/N: Sofa is in a place with a terrible keyboard, please thank Dee for helping out with the editing instead. I'll edit the next one, and sofa is going to do a quick check when he is back later.