Without a word, he opened the next requirent and sighed again.
"Now it wants to abandon all allegiances. No more factions. No more kingdoms. I'll be considered unaffiliated, but barred from any protected area of the ten kingdoms. In exchange, I'll be allowed to travel through all territory freely. This might be interesting."
Seeing Triple-Seven nod, Shade went ahead, and advanced to the next stage.
[You have been excluded from XP Bank.]
He ignored the system notification and stayed quiet as his energy level increased once more.
The mont he let go of his final allegiances, of his guild, of his faction, sothing changed in the world.
It was as if shadows across the entire planet reacted.
From eternal shadows between mountains to the deepest corners of dark caves, a network of darkness reacted to his advancent.
He could now sense and understand shadows from all over the world.
[You have reached SSS-tier affinity with the [Darkness] elent.]
[You have reached MAX-tier affinity with the [Shadow] elent.]
This ti, he didn't focus on the change inside of his body. He didn't even share this stage with his brother and simply opened his system interface to read the next advancent requirent.
'This is even worse than the previous stages…'
He glanced at Triple-Seven, who was scribbling notes in the distance and reached out with his elents.
Words ford from shadow, forming across the ground in front of Triple-Seven.
---
[Stage 7 Advancent – Still Heart]
Love. Fear. Anger. These are luxuries of the living.
Requirent: Abandon all emotional responses.
---
Triple-Seven's pen stopped moving. Surprised by the content of the ssage, he raised a hand to halt Shade, to stop him before he advanced. But when he saw a dark cloud was forming above their heads, he understood it was too late. The shadows moved again, rearranging their ssage:
---
Fall back. Leave the range of the rain.
---
Triple-Seven obeyed, retreating from the strange pressure in the air. Black droplets began to fall in the space where Shade stood. Watching from a distance, Triple-Seven felt sothing twist in his chest. His brother was standing beneath it. He didn't resist or react.
'Why does this hurt to watch…?' Triple-Seven thought, confused.
A few minutes later, a cold breath escaped Shade's lips. Every movent he made left a trace of shadow behind. He didn't speak. He hovered in silence, releasing waves of energy so refined and overwhelming they seed to distort the air itself. He no longer blinked. He didn't need to. He didn't need to breathe. He didn't need anything anymore. As Triple-Seven approached, concern appeared across his face. Sothing stirred in Shade's mind but the thought was silenced before it could form.
'What is happening to ?' he thought, conflicted, and feeling his emotions dulling, suppressed by sothing.
"Let's see what the next stage is about." Shade spoke ntally, sending the ssage to his brother.
Triple-Seven answered instantly, alarm in his voice. "You don't have to continue. We've seen enough—"
Shade ignored the warning and opened the next class advancent panel.
[Stage 8 Advancent – Unknowing]
Understanding what was at stake, he sent another ntal ssage.
"The next thing I have to abandon… are my mories. Everything not tied to shadow or battle will be sealed away. Locked in my soul. I won't be able to access them while I have this class active. In exchange, I'll gain shadow-based mories and skills. One of them being a ... Supre Skill."
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Triple-Seven's response ca like a slap. "What the hell?! That would make you a lost cause! How are you supposed to return if you don't even rember there's sothing to return to? That people are waiting for you?!"
Shade didn't reply imdiately.
"Triple-Seven, listen. We've always wondered just how far classes could go. You know how Sora gave up on classes after unlocking [Prestige]. Most of us only care about mythic or legendary classes for the skills. But what about the others? The players who aren't like us. The kingdoms that rely on classes?"
"We need to know what happens when soone sacrifices everything."
Triple-Seven didn't answer.
Shade continued, "I'm level 10. And I think I could already defeat a level 140 player with Oga 25–26 power. So imagine those with nothing to lose. How far can they go?"
Silence, again.
"If I forget all of you… it's okay. Just co find . Kill , if you have to. I'll probably rember everything after activating [Prestige]."
Triple-Seven finally let out a long sigh.
"…Fine. Count on us. We'll bring you back. I didn't think the system could be this ruthless… this cruel. It's too much."
But Shade, already half-consud by the path he'd chosen, couldn't even feel the sadness in his brother's voice. Without hesitation, he opened his interface and selected the eighth advancent. He stood, still and silent, as the system confird his choice.
[Non-shadow-related mories are being sealed.]
[Progress: 1%...]
It began slowly. A sea of shadows surrounded him. On its surface, his earliest mories floated like fragile lanterns.
The first to appear was a childhood mory. He was small, curled up in a school hallway, tears streaming down his cheeks. From inside the nearby office ca the shouts of a teacher, berating soone. Shade already knew who it was.
His brother.
When the door opened, he erged with a swollen face—not from punishnt, but from the fight he had picked to defend Shade from bullies. His clothes were torn, and his lip bleeding. But he had a grin on his lips.
"Stop crying, Soso."
That smile had carved itself deep into Shade's soul. Then—the image began to fade. Shadows crept in from the edges, sinking the scene into the pool.
"No!" he gasped, instinctively reaching down toward the mory, but failing.
A instant later, he forgot what he was trying to catch and looked around him. More mories surfaced, drawn toward the depth of dark sea that had ford from shadows.
Rachel's friendship, Lara's care, the laughs with Enzo… His parents. One by one, they sank into the depths.
Despite the lack of emotions, Shade felt a crushing sense of loss.
'I'm not ready.' He thought, regretting his choice.
Despite the lock on his emotions, Shade felt a rising panic. As mory after mory slipped away, he summoned everything he had to resist.
He called on his new powers, Shadows and Darkness, the very elents he had sacrificed so much to master but they didn't listen.
The shadows wrapped gently around him, soothing, friendly… yet powerless.
'They obey the class, not ... They don't want to rebel. Not even with my maxed affinity.'
And in that mont of helplessness, the truth hit him harder than the pain of losing his mories.
'This is what I deserve… For borrowing power I never worked hard for. '
Desperate, he looked for solutions, and eventually, he found one: Soul Power. Controlling his Soul Power, he tried saving everything that was left, but was hit with a realization. He couldn't.
'My Soul Level is too low.' He understood.
Clenching his teeth, he wrapped his Soul Power around a mory, forming a barrier between it and the shadows.
Feeling the pulling force, he resisted and watched powerless as all other mories sunk one by one. Still, he didn't let go of the mory he was protecting.
On the mory, a face appeared.
Eventually, he forgot why the mory he chose was important to him. Without context, the aning behind its significance disappeared.
After a few minutes, he found himself reading the notifications on his panel, but didn't react.
[mory Lock Complete.]
[Stage 8 Advancent Requirents Fulfilled.]
The [Shadows] surrounding him, sensing the loss, stirred gently. They moved closer, forming shapes around him. More shadows gathered. And from within the gathering shadows, sothing took shape… It was a familiar looking creature. However, he didn't rember having ever seeing sothing looking like it.
Shade looked down at the creature that appeared beside him and asked through telepathy, "Who are you?"
"I'm your companion and you are my master. You are no longer alone.'"
------------------------------
A short distance away, Triple-Seven watched his brother's transformation in silence.
'I freaked out when the ground got covered in shadows across a few hundred ters… but it doesn't seem hostile.'
Floating a little closer, he observed the aura surrounding Shade. The power radiating from him was denser, heavier. Powerful.
He resud scribbling in his notebook.
'Brother One Hundred-Sixteen advanced to the 8th stage at 11:23 a.m. He's sacrificed his mories. Said they were locked, not erased. That's important. We might be able to help him recover them with enough Soul Level—or through [mory Sculpt]. I don't know if he'll let us… but sealing isn't destruction. That's sothing.'
He glanced up, sensing another surge of power ripple out from Shade's core.
'Looks like he's finished.'
Sothing caught his eye. A dark shape condensing beside Shade.
He continued scribbling.
'A creature made of shadow appeared. Canine fra. Possibly a familiar? Looks like a dog—German Shepherd silhouette, but entirely black. More fluid than solid. Definitely alive and intelligent. It's looking at now.'
He raised his hand and started to sketch the beast's silhouette into his notebook.
Satisfied, he floated down to greet his brother—only to stop, as he caught sight of the dog's stance.
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