Throne of the Nameless.

Chapter 6. Busted.

He couldn't be stopped by anything, he felt free at the moment. He could feel the wind brushing against his face, whistling past him as he ran at incredible speeds, nearly impossible for someone of his age.

Because he had a mana core.

Formed very early by the help of the system. To be honest, it had been a glitch. The stupid system was supposed to allow his premature body to grow to a certain limit before pumping him with power.

Worst of all, the system hadn't told him how to manage his mana or control it. He had to learn that all on his own. He pushed those thoughts aside.

[TARGETS IN CLOSE PROXIMITY.]

[DON'T GET LOST.]

'Bastard.' Rhok cursed. He really wished his could rid himself of the system.

Rhok avoided lighted places more because they opposed his attribute but not in the sense that you might think. If anything bright places gave him more of an edge. The brighter the light, the deeper the strength of his shadows, but there were obvious limitations.

He didn't want to be spotted by bandits or knights who wandered about. Worst of all, he avoided Adventures the most.

After ten heartbeats later, Rhok arrived at a chasm that he had never been to before. The depth stretched endlessly into the shadows beneath him.

Rhok stood at the edge of the cliff and spread his shadow sense. It was a skill he had created on his own. Born out of his desire to observe and his stealth ability as an assassin.

He reached down and could feel the shadows beneath him. He could differ between shadows that belonged to living things and those that didn't. He wasn't sure why but the stark difference was a sense of oddity among the two.

As though one had its own will, and the other simply existed.

'Found it!'

His shadow sense stopped just at the entrance of the cave. His reach was barely a kilometer. Not enough for him in this magic world but he would manage it now.

He opened his eyes and looked down into the chasm once more. It was deep.

'Adventurers wouldn't be able to find a monster cave hidden here. Hell! No one would be able to find one this deep.'

He took a deep breath and jumped.

Rhok was scared of heights. He always had and always would be, but he had tried his best to confront it. The eerie sense of vertigo simply unnerved him.

Most times he had failed and other times he damned the consequences and jumped. This was one of those times, except that he melted into the shadows.

Becoming one with them. Ethereal and incorporeal.

He flowed down the chasm. He didn't need to block, weave or dodge. He simply flowed as water would on a smooth surface.

He stopped in front of the entrance, coming out from the shadows. Before him were two Ogres who guarded the entrance to the cave.

'Hey System!'

[YES?]

'You said it was a goblin cave, why the fuck am I seeing freaking Ogre's here!'

[OOHH.]

[IS THERE A DIFFERENCE?]

'Yes there is, you redundant AI.'

[EEHH. YOU'LL BE FINE.]

And with that, the system answered his calls no more.

'Shit!' He hated this system.

The last time it has made him battle a fifteen-foot serpent thinking it was a giant worm. He wasn't sure what the intentions of The Abyss Engine were when he had given him this system. But he hoped he had a chance to make him take it back.

Rhok bent low into the bushes and watched the Ogre's. They held clubs in their hands and watched out for something. Probably intruders.

The thing with Ogre's was that they were blind. But their perception of sound and smell was beyond compare.

Rhok looked at his small daggers on his hands. His skill shadow manifestation could only do so much.

He couldn't do as much as he wanted to. His mana core wasn't pure enough and didn't have as much density as it should have.

But he couldn't give up on the mission. The last time that he had, he deeply regretted it.

The pain he felt from Mana reflux was no joke. The daggers in his hands melted together forming a longer dagger. It glistened darkly against the dim light that penetrated into the chasm.

He had to remind himself that his body was still that of a ten-year-old. But he felt a certain thrill rile up within him. He smiled darkly.

They were just another target to kill.

He melted into the shadows once more and appeared beneath the shadow of one of the Ogre's.

Rhok used a good amount of his mana, pulling his mana into his little hands and driving the long dagger up into the crotch of the first Ogre with all the strength he had.

[NICE!]

Rhok ignored the system as the Ogre let out an inhumane roar. Loud enough to chase the birds that hung around the trees, enough to call out the other members of the monster cave.

It was exactly what he wanted.

He melted back into the shadows, just beneath the Ogre he had just killed. Black blood pooled around the dead body of the Ogre.

Rhok felt the ground shake as the second Ogre approached his slain comrade. The ogre bent low and sniffed at the dead body.

Rhok knew it would do exactly just this. Ogres had the habit of sniffing their dead comrades to know who or what killed them in hopes of haunting them down.

But you can't smell a shadow, Rhok thought and materialized a part of his body. His hand. Before the Ogre could react, Rhok drove his dagger into the neck of the second Ogre before melting away.

He smiled at himself. Two down, an entire cave's worth to go!

He decided not to move and stayed where he was. He would jump from each of their shadows to the next, killing them all.

He couldn't risk a one-on-one confrontation. He was in a ten-year-old body and that was begging to be killed.

This suited him better. Either his mana would run out or he would finish the monsters in the cave and get his rewards.

He was an assassin after all. Dealing Death was his forte.