Bro, I'm not an Undead!

At the moment when a darkness that seemed too dark to belong in this world appeared, Skullius was further reminded that this power he had taken from the Labyrinth of the Yoke wasn't ordinary in the slightest.

The conjecture about where the power had come from struck his mind again as he recalled from Elita's narration back then.

Apparently, Fulgardt claimed that this power of his came from a being who predated the Deities. A being who made presumably even made them and knew of their pasts.

Was this true?

Skullius wasn't that familiar with much about the Deities because of his restriction from interacting with everything Blessing oriented from the Binds of Fukal.

Yet, all this was but a thought as when the new [Evil Darkness] surged and covered him, Skullius felt and saw a huge difference between this and the darkness he had used before.

A deep set feeling of comfort overwhelmed him in the darkness as he felt free, as if his binds and limits were loosened, his being sinking into the depths of a predetermined pride!

No sound came through from the outside, which first shocked him but when he willed to hear what was happening outside, he felt the dull sounds lost in the silence reach his ear!

He could see what was outside the cloud of darkness he had conjured but with how dark it was, he was sure that this wasn't true for anyone looking from the outside.

As the [Evil Darkness] spread, Skullius saw that everywhere it went, inches around it there would be discoloured spaces, clear images turning into disfigured lines as if reality itself was being disturbed by the existence of the darkness!

'Woow.... this does seem like something I'll enjoy using,' Skullius thought as he stood up within the encasing of darkness.

He wanted to see if there were any notable boosts to the basic functions of the cloud of darkness.

What was different, functionally speaking?

Skullius focused intently and raised his leg to stomp on the ground with all his might!

BOOM!

A thunderous noise rocked the room as Skullius foot shot down and clashed with the cold floor! A low rumble was emitted, with bits of dust falling from above!

Within a fraction of a second, Skullius had felt the ripples of darkness around him rush to his leg before it met the floor, amplifying his strength!

Another loud reverberation rushed from where Skullius stomped after the initial shock, which was quite odd.

Skullius' eyes widened in surprise.

That wasn't right.

This room was definitely fortified with some weird stuff he didn't know as he was assumed to be a criminal. The Discount Human was sure that he wouldn't be able to make even a small impact with his 150 points of strength!

It was impossible!

Just how much of a boost was he granted by this darkness?!

On top of this, there was a second impact that came after the first when he stomped!

He cocked his hand back and threw it forward in a punch, his fist darting forward in a quick motion that barely registered in his own vision!

FSSH!

He merely saw a light flash ahead without leaving much of a trace after and then...

FSHHHSHHHH!

Another light darted from where he punched, blitzing through the darkness!

Skullius shuddered in excitement.

There really was double impact with every move he made in the darkness!

And top of this, the physical enhancement he noticed to his speed and strength...!

If he was to estimate how much he was augmented by the darkness, then it would be by roughly 80% at a conservative estimate!

This was a massive improvement from the 15% he had enjoyed initially!

And this was just the basics!

Skullius didn't even know how to test the other functions as well as the supposed true nature of [Evil Darkness] that had been partially awakened.

For now, he was very satisfied with this as he knew that there was probably more that he would discover when he went in-depth during the following days.

He had had a basic template for his power growth prior to the party up with Stylla.

First was to master the thing he wished to do with [Evil Darkness]. A specific skill he wanted to create.

Second, was to take back [Demion's Dance] from HammerDown and supplement the technique side of his growth because of what the skill imbedded in the sword could do.

The last item came to him just hours before when he was in the Association's building.

To defend himself, Skullius had combined [Mana Shield] and [Mana Force] into a quick but powerful attack which knocked that blabbermouth from the EdgeKings Guild who had attacked him on his ass.

Thoughts on building up on this had already started to travel in his mind when he saw the results, though then interrupted by what happened next.

He now planned to add other skills like [Great Rush], [Brawn] and [Quick Strike] to the mix.

Maybe, just like with [Skill Amalgamation], he could do that through repetition, combining these skills into something ridiculous!

It would be a lot of work as he would want to level up and possibly evolve some of the skills but still, it would definitely be worth it.

"Heh. Now, let me finally give this my time," Skullius said. He had neglected it for too long and just like he had thought about, it was time to invest in it.

"Basic Light Production!" Skullius called, a small burst of golden-white light beginning to gather in his hand. It was relatively weak and extraordinarily hard to manipulate.

"<Sigh>. It's been a long time since I even tried to manipulate [Just Light]. Thankfully, I have a loophole that I will be abusing for the next few days," Skullius said as he thought about what how he would be cheating after raising [Basic Evil Production] up a Tier with this supposed loophole.

This loophole was...

"Crude World Projection!"

Skullius felt himself rise, a sense of omnipotence gushing with his activation of this aspect of the Fruit of World Myths!

Shockingly, when he appeared in his dark form, it wasn't an undetailed floating humanoid with thick, rising swirls of darkness, but a well-shaped robust human body!

It was taller than his Discount Human body, but it did have smooth features and vague outlines of facial muscles and organs.

There were no longer any rising swirls of darkness and this figure was a few shades lighter.

"This feels different," Skullius said, his vision in the signature black, grey white.

Without wasting any more time, Skullius focused on the small flash of light he had conjured with [Basic Light Production], stretching his hand over as he started trying to give it a more robust form like he usually did with darkness.

The light started flickering, alternating between a bright shade and a dull one but its quantity remained the same.

The room lit up and darkened multiple times as Skullius found to his frustration, that this thing wasn't following his will!

'Why isn't it working? I thought that it would bend to me like [Evil Darkness]! I even got a higher affinity when I used [Crude World Projection] for the first time!' Skullius thought.

After a full two minutes of wrestling with the light, Skullius finally came to a realisation.

'Oh.. now that I think about it, I don't have a skill that allows me to manipulate [Just Light], like [Basic Evil Weaving]. But why?'

This detail strained the Discount Human's mind until he decided to return to his body.

When he settled, he found that he wasn't fatigued at all. Feeling as fresh as when he decided to dive out.

'Then I guess for now I should focus on [Just Light Production] until I figure out how to manipulate it properly,' Skullius decided.

With this plot for the future set, Skullius turned back to practicing with his [Basic Evil Production] so as to complete the Task ahead of him.

***

Next day.

The Discount Human couldn't tell the time since he was in the dark and gloomy space of the cell, however, he didn't complain.

He had gotten some food to replenish his needy flesh while he ground his skills.

He had a intriguing grind, watching the beautiful bursts of darkness that had explosively increased in quantity as he got close to raising [Basic Evil Production] to the next Tier.

Some hours ago, he had finally managed to evolve the skill and it became [Advanced Evil Production]!

The Discount Human had found the amount of darkness he could produce could now cover a radius of almost eight meters with only two fifths of his total mana!

This was a huge improvement and when he thought about utilising it the same way he did before, with restricting opponents while bolstering his physical capabilities, he could only grin.

He had also levelled up, reaching level 8, as only two Tasks remained on top of a Trial before he reached the Advancement Stage.

Now, the Discount Human was inserting his mana into a spatial storage that he had received a few minutes ago, peeking at the objects within.

Within it, was something that made Skullius grin even further.

"Heh heh! Not bad. Not bad at all," he said.

Four hundred and thirty-two Enriching gems sat within the ring, most of them being purple-red while forty of them were completely red!

Red!

The purple gems increased constitution by 0.1 while the purple-red ones increased it by 0.5. Skullius couldn't wait to see what value he would get from the red gems was.

Generally, when the value for constitution reached 100, an increase would then happen.

What were the limits for gems other than purple were. Where they the same?

"I can't wait to see how much I can grow with all this," Skullius said.

Before he did anything else, he heard a step of footsteps come from the side and he tensed up.

He looked up and a face he hadn't expected to see appeared, making him relax.

A particularly annoyed looking woman stood, staring down at him as he sat down.

It was Oliviana.

Her short stature with her large dark eyes made the entire ordeal look comical as she didn't have to look too low to gaze at the Discount Human.

"I can't believe I still have to tutor you even in this state," she said with a frown.

"I'm getting my money's worth," Skullius said with a sly smile, courtesy of Jac.

'Silrat sure works fast,' Skullius thought. He hadn't expected that matter to be dealt with so quickly and it even looked like Oliviana knew his situation.

How the heck was she convinced to still work with him?

"Yeah, well... it's just a job, I guess. Get off your ass and let's go. You will be having me for more than half the day each day," Oliviana said as she turned, her slender body covered in leather armour seemingly teasing Skullius. "I won't be going easy on you."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Skullius said as bits of darkness streamed from his auburn hair. The perfect candidate for him to test out some of his templates as well as evolve his skills had arrived...