Paranoia!

He felt disoriented and a bit sick, but held back whatever wanted to come out of his mouth.

He tried to lift his body up so that he could gauge his surroundings but eventually failed. His muscles were sore all over, and even a small move could bring him a great amount of pain.

After finally calming down, he started to remember the events that led him to this situation.

The meeting with the old woman, the quest, the hut, the Shadow...

It was suspicious though, he was a weak prey in front of that behemoth of power, yet it didn"t attempt to kill him. But it was also worthy of consideration that the cat he rescued would have died, or so did the quest completion say.

He couldn"t think of anything else besides the fact that, it somehow, wanted him alive.

So he just laid there, waiting for it to come. He knew it would.

He could feel it watching him amidst the everlasting darkness around him, probably too busy having its fill of amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Come out." He tried.

The sound carried its words further away, only to end up in a feeble whisper lost in the middle of nowhere.

After a brief moment of silence, when Jered thought he"d still had to wait, a ma.s.sive wave of green energy lit up everything. Thankfully it was harmless, but it was an incredible display of power.

He lifted his head a little bit, trying to catch sight of its figure somewhere, but found no one.

"Are you looking for someone?" He heard a chuckle behind him.

Hearing its voice again was like a nightmare, but he was calmer, now that he knew his chance of survival were higher, if only a little.

He turned around, meeting its gaze yet again. The only difference was that he didn"t waver like before, he narrowed his eyes and kept staring at it, almost as a sign of defiance.

It seemed to have noticed it as he heard a prolonged "Mmhhh."

"Where are we?" Jered asked rather warily.

The Shadow looked at him for a moment before replying:

"This place is my own personal domain." It said.

Domain?

Jered was puzzled. That was a term he was unfamiliar with, so he was pretty much confused on what was its function. Though the name did hint something, probably related to a specific area or s.p.a.ce someone was in control of, he was pretty sure it wasn"t all of it.

"What is that?" He was curious.

"Unfortunately it"s still too early to let you know certain things." Was its answer.

Mmh...

He mused at what he"s been just told.

It seemed that the situation was more complex than he thought. Maybe it was unintentional, though he doubted that, but what he just detected was no good news, at least to him.

And his encounter with the Shadow further proved his speculation.

And no matter how absurd it is, everything that happened to him in the last 24 hours was just as much.

It might only be him overthinking, yet he knew better than to discard his intuition that easily.

But at that point, he was sure that there were more secrets hiding from the human eyes.

Hopefully, he"d get some information.

"So, who are you? Or better, what are you?" He asked, trying to get more details about it.

"My name is Opak, and I"ll refrain to tell you my status. And as you might have already known, I"m a Shadow." It stated.

He wanted to say something else but was interrupted by the Shadow, now named Opak, as it hovered closer to him. It scrutinized him, like a judge about to give its sentence.

It wasn"t a good feeling, not at all.

Jered tried his best not to show panic, but his flickering eyes betrayed him.

"I"m curious..." It started, eyes glowing brighter than usual. "Why are you holding yourself back?"

He winced, not knowing how to respond to this unexpected question. He didn"t know why but he felt something deep inside him stir, though he quelled it quickly.

"Are you perhaps... afraid of yourself? No, of what you"ll become?" Opak continued, explicitly amused by his reaction.

Jered averted his gaze, uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going on. But even avoiding this line of questioning won"t change the fact that it was true.

He had always wanted to do something special, as for what that was, he had no idea. With no ideals nor hobbies, and the endless waiting for something, were almost like a suffocating grip on his soul, slowly torturing him.

It was only after 2 years of his father"s death that he realized what he craved for, and that scared him.

It was unnerving.

So he held back, letting the pa.s.sage of time take care of dangerous thoughts, hoping that escaping from those emotions would"ve turned him back to normalcy again.

But they kept on resurfacing, mocking him every time he went to sleep, and grinning every time he was close to surrender.

It was killing him from the inside out knowing he was so different from the others.

But it was cool, he could pretend. He always did.

There was no need to let others know. He could get used to living with that false side of his.

And now? He got found out.

He lowered his head, his hair covering his eyes.

"Hahahahaha! There"s no need to worry, lad. Soon you"ll see that what you want isn"t so abnormal at all." Opak"s boisterous laugh disrupted the silence.

Jered just kept silent, wondering to himself what did it mean by saying those words. However, the more he thought the more he came to an understanding that it was probably referring to people with powers.

It was still a question mark and something to confirm, but by this point, there was almost no doubt.

Sigh.

For an instant he let himself get drown in his emotions.

How humiliating...

He thought he could do better, but in the end, he knew that he was never that psychologically fine.

"I can help you," Opak stated.

Jered lifted his head, looking at his interlocutor.

Help?

He wasn"t stupid, he knew that good things were never free, even more so when coming from a being like it.

But he really wanted to feel peace, to not constantly fight against his desires.

It was tempting...

"What"s the catch?" He asked.

"We need to make a contract."

"A contract?" He raised an eyebrow, evidently confused.

Opak nodded, leaning closer to him.

"With the contract, I"ll get a small piece of your soul, and you"ll receive a small fraction of my mine. It"s a mutual exchange that"d benefit both of us." It explained briefly.

Jered thought about it. If it wanted to trick him there were other ways...

So his soul was what it wanted from the start? Maybe it exploited his emotional weakness to get them in this situation, after all, there was no reason for it to help him.

But he could safely say that he wasn"t at a disadvantage there, it expressed its wish for a piece of his soul. But why make the contract? Couldn"t he take it forcefully?

If he couldn"t. Why then?

Was there something preventing it from just taking it out? Was his power limited?

He could refuse, obviously. But should he do so his advantage would go screw itself, and Opak would just kill him.

He was in a tight spot, on one hand, if he rejected his offer the consequence, most likely, would be the death. On the other, should he accept, he"d lose a piece of his soul.

Was there really no way? Was he doomed to be a puppet in the hands of others?

f.u.c.k...

"So?" It asked impatiently.

"I accept..." Jered answered with a self-deprecating smile.

It was so unbearable the feeling of being forced to do something he didn"t want.

He gritted his teeth, holding his anger.

f.u.c.k! If it wants my soul then it has to give me more!

He looked up at the fog-like being in front of him and said.

"I accept! But I want something else!" He demanded challengingly.

"Ohh... then what, pray tell, is that you want?" It asked, making the black fog swirl around him.

"It"s insufficient. I want more... I want power." He replied, his lip slightly quivering from the pressure.

"My my, you sure are a greedy one."

"And you sure are a b.a.s.t.a.r.d one." He shot back.

"Hahahaha, amazing willpower, kid. Fine, I agree with your request. However, your body won"t be able to sustain that much power, so I"ll give you something that won"t damage you." Opak said, lighting up everything again in a green hue.

The fog started to gently spin around them as the energy settled in the center of it, creating a vortex of green light.

It was really a spectacular sight.

"Now, I can"t do anything to your soul without your consent, therefore you"ll have to relax and allow me to enter your body so that I can start the removal. " It said.

Indeed, it couldn"t have done anything on its own. So this was the reason, huh?

Jered nodded and relaxed.

Opak"s body was already a gaseous state, so it didn"t pose any problem for it to get inside his body.

The fog swirled around him, covering his entire body before slowly disappearing.

And then...

[ Alert: A foreign presence is trying to modify your soul. Do you want to start the cleaning process? ]

[ AcceptDecline ]

He declined, though kinda surprised that the system could do such a thing.

After a few seconds, something deep inside him started to move, causing him a lot of pain, so much so that what he felt that morning was like a caress on his face.

"Aaaaaah!!!" He screamed, his veins bulging.

He fell on his knees, his hands moving erratically searching for something to grip.

His screams only kept getting stronger as sweat started pouring off of his body. He rolled on the ground, his arms flailing around without aim.

Wasn"t his body supposed to shut down after receiving so much pain?

d.a.m.n!

...

After what he felt like an eternity it finally stopped, making him fall on his back, panting hard and with bloodshot eyes.

"Can you hear me?" Opak said from inside him.

He gulped, trying to wet his dry throat.

"I... I can..." He managed to say in a hoa.r.s.e voice.

"I"m going to replace the part removed with mine, I"ll also add that extra that you desired. It won"t be painful, so rest for a while." It said, much to his delight.

"Cool...go... ahead."

A warm sensation suddenly started spreading through his body making him regain some energy.

The chunk of soul that was missing was now being replaced with Opak"s. It was a weird feeling, he really didn"t know how to describe it, but it was amazing.

He felt power filling his body, much more than he previously had.

And then it hit him...

[ Alert: A foreign presence has gifted you a fragment of its powers. ]

[ Alert: Your mana have been boosted by "20". ]

[ Alert: You have been granted the affinity "Fire" ]

[ Alert: You have been granted the affinity "Dark" ]

[ Alert: All of your attributes have gone up by "1" ]

[ Alert: You have been granted the skill "Low-level Fire Manipulation" ]

[ Alert: You have been granted the skill "Low-level Dark Manipulation" ]

[ Alert: You have been granted the t.i.tle "Shadows" Contractor" ]

[ Warning: Your mana have been forcefully unlocked without the "Magician" cla.s.s. You have 2 days to get said cla.s.s, otherwise, your body will be consumed by your mana. ]

[ Warning: All of your affinity slots have been filled. You can"t get other affinities. ]

The pain...

...so violent he was stunned.

Wasn"t that supposed to be painless!?

He felt his senses tangling as the pain made its way towards his brain, blacking him out.

The only thing he remembered was that cl.u.s.terf.u.c.k of notifications and Opak"s glowing green eyes looking at him.