Necromancer of The Shadows

"It's difficult because you are trying to climb the stairs the wrong way."

Evan was startled when a voice suddenly sounded from behind him, and he immediately turned around.

However, upon looking back, all he saw were the empty stairs; there was no one else in sight. He even extended his spiritual senses to scan the surroundings but found nothing.

"Who?" He shouted, his eyes scanning the area with a vigilant expression.

"You will know who I am once you reach the top. For now, you only need to understand that your method of climbing the bloodline inheritance steps is flawed," The same voice echoed, seeming to come from every direction, making it impossible for Evan to determine the speaker's location.

"Bloodline Inheritance Steps… and I need to reach the top…" Evan frowned at the words, feeling an odd sense of familiarity. For some reason, he felt he had heard this voice before.

'Wait a second... This... Isn't this voice similar to that of the black figure I saw in my dream when I was in the Tomb of the Ancient?" He thought, his eyes narrowing.

A rush of thoughts flooded his mind, but he quickly regained his composure.

'It is not the time to confront him. If I do something he doesn't like, he might control these thousands of steps and launch a powerful attack at me.'

Evan decided to hold back on questioning the voice's identity, realizing the risk involved. Although he was eager to confront the black figure and get all the answers, he knew this wasn't the right place.

If the black figure could somehow control the steps and unleash multiple soul fragments at once, he would be in grave danger.

"What do you mean I am climbing the steps the wrong way? Can you explain?" He asked after careful consideration.

"The bloodline inheritance steps are not only an opportunity to awaken your bloodline, but also a rare treasure for tempering your soul," The black figure's voice replied. "Others might struggle to ascend even the first thousand steps, but you… You have an innate advantage while you climb it. You are struggling because you are not using that advantage."

"Innate advantage?" Evan's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean by that?"

"That is something you must discover for yourself," The black figure said, and with that, its presence completely vanished.

Evan frowned when he noticed the presence of the black figure completely vanished and fell into deep thought, trying to decipher the words he just heard.

"These steps aren't only for awakening bloodlines but are also a rare treasure for tempering the soul…" He recalled the words that the black figure spoke and suddenly, his eyes lit up.

"Tempering the soul..." He slapped his forehead and shook his head.

"Damn, how could I forget such an important detail?" He cursed, quickly refocusing on the next step ahead.

"I have been trying to climb these steps by solely relying on my spiritual power, which has been incredibly taxing. The higher I go, the more intense the soul fragment attacks become."

Suddenly, the Primordial Monarch Core within Evan's body began to glow, and a small amount of Primordial Shadow Energy seeped from it, wrapping around his entire soul. Ɽ₳𝐍О𝖇˧

"One of the energies within the Primordial Shadow Energy is the conceptual energy of the soul. Although I don't yet have any understanding of the soul to separate this energy from the shadow energy and use it independently, I can still use it to shield my soul from the soul fragment attacks."

Normally, the protection provided by Primordial Shadow Energy against soul attacks launched by core evolvers was limited and wouldn't be as powerful, given Evan's lack of understanding about the conceptual energy of the soul.

However, the soul attacks from the Bloodline Inheritance Steps were different.

According to Evan's guess, each soul fragment attacking him as he absorbed a part of the bloodline was a remnant of the original bloodline's owner, somehow sealed within the steps after death.

These soul fragment attacks were indeed powerful, but they lacked substantial energy. If he could withstand the initial assault from the soul fragment, he could destroy it using his own high spiritual power.

The difficulty he had faced stemmed from his inability to withstand the initial, potent strike of the soul fragment each time he stepped onto a new level.

The first attack always stunned his soul, giving the soul fragment an advantage and forcing him to expend significant spiritual energy to recover and counter it. But with the Primordial Shadow Energy, he could shield his soul and withstand the initial impact more effectively.

Other climbers wouldn't be able to shield their souls with ordinary conceptual energies. However, the Primordial Shadow Energy, mixed with the conceptual energy of the soul, provided a level of protection sufficient to guard his soul.

"Not only that, but according to the black figure, this place is a treasure for tempering the soul. With this, I might finally be able to grasp part of the conceptual energy of the soul…" Evan muttered to himself and after confirming that his soul was fully cloaked in Primordial Shadow Energy, he took the next step forward.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The instant his foot touched the stair, a powerful soul fragment struck his soul. The Primordial Shadow Energy enveloping his soul was destroyed in the clash, but it had successfully weakened the soul fragment's attack to a manageable level, and the residual force was no longer strong enough to harm him.

Evan's eyes gleamed with excitement when he noticed this and he quickly used his overwhelming spiritual power to annihilate the soul fragment before it could launch another strike.

"Damn, this trick really worked. I feel like an idiot for not using it earlier and putting up with those painful attacks," He muttered, shaking his head before pressing onward.

One thousand five hundred steps!

One thousand eight hundred steps!

One thousand nine hundred ninety-nine steps!

Finally, after an hour of using the Primordial Shadow Energy, Evan stepped onto the two thousandth step.

A red beam of light shot out from the previous step and entered Evan's body.

(You have successfully absorbed a small portion of the blood of the Ygrai Race.)

---) Current Awakening Level of Your Doom Bringer Bloodline: 9.64%

"I thought the awakening level would increase by five percent every thousand steps, but it seems the increase depends on the power of the bloodline I absorb from each step. The stronger the bloodline, the higher the awakening level rises," Evan murmured thoughtfully, observing the step below as it began to glow with a milky-white light.

"At least, I can still restore my spiritual power and refine my soul with each thousandth step."

Evan waited a few moments until the milky-white light from the two thousandth step fully dissipated, and his spiritual power had returned to its peak.

"Let's continue…" Taking another step forward, Evan resumed his climb.

With the assistance of Primordial Shadow Energy and the soul refinement from each thousandth step, he managed to ascend over nine thousand steps in just ten hours, drawing ever closer to the ten thousandth step and initiating the first level of Blood Assimilation.

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