CHAPTER 4: ARISE

Night in the slave barracks. Forty men breathing in the dark. The stench of blood and black mana.

Jin sat against the wall. His pickaxe hands were bleeding. But his eyes were closed - because he was seeing through another's eyes.

His shadow ant had reached the crack in the northern wall.

Through the ant, he saw it. A chamber. No guards. In the center, floating above black crystals, was a heart of blue light. Pure Dungeon Core. Small, about the size of a fist, but pulsing with more mana than all the black crystals combined.

In this world, Dungeon Cores were how mages got their cores. Crush it, absorb it, become awakened. But slaves were forbidden to touch. The penalty was instant death.

The System pinged:

[DETECTED: LOWER DUNGEON CORE - UNCLAIMED]

[WARNING: CORE GUARDIAN PRESENT]

[SHADOW SENSE: Guardian is sleeping - Rank D]

D-Rank. Even his one ant could not beat D-Rank. On Earth, D-Rank was fodder. Here, with no skills, no mana, D-Rank was death.

But he had something this world didn't understand. Shadows don't need mana cores. Shadows only need a dead body.

He waited until midnight. The guards changed shift. Two minutes blind spot.

Jin stood. "I need to piss," he whispered to the sleeping slave next to him. No answer.

He slipped out. Bare feet silent on cold stone. Every step he had learned as the Monarch - silent, invisible. The mine tunnels were dark, but his Shadow Sense lit the path 5 meters ahead.

The crack was tight. He had to remove his slave shirt, squeeze through sharp rocks that cut his back. Blood, but no sound.

Then he was in the chamber.

The blue core illuminated everything. Beautiful. And beneath it, coiled around it, was the guardian. A black mana serpent, ten feet long, scales made of crystal, eyes closed.

His heart hammered. Not from fear. From memory. The last time he saw a dungeon core like this, he was with Cha Hae-In. She had held his hand and said "Come back alive."

He shook the memory away. She was in another world. Another life.

He knelt. His shadow ant crawled onto his hand.

"Listen," he whispered to the dead thing. "One chance."

He threw a small black crystal - from his pocket - to the far side of the chamber. Clack.

The serpent's eyes snapped open. Red. It uncoiled, hissing, moving toward the sound.

Now.

Jin lunged for the core. His hand - scarred, slave hand - wrapped around pure mana.

It burned. It was supposed to burn slaves without cores. The pain was white-hot, eating his flesh.

[WARNING: INCOMPATIBLE HOST]

[ATTEMPTING ABSORPTION...]

[ERROR... ERROR...]

[ALTERNATIVE PATH FOUND: SHADOW CORE]

The blue light didn't go into his chest. It went into his shadow. Into the ant.

The ant exploded with light. Grew. From tiny ant to human-sized knight, made of blue and black smoke, kneeling before him.

[SHADOW EVOLUTION: Worker Ant -> Shadow Knight - LV.1]

[NAME YOUR SHADOW?]

Jin looked at his first real soldier in this second world. The knight's face was featureless, but its posture was loyalty. Absolute loyalty.

"Igris," he whispered. "Your name is Igris."

The serpent screamed behind him, realizing the trick. It turned, mouth wide, D-Rank mana blasting.

Igris moved. Faster than C-Rank guards. Sword of shadow formed in hand. One slash.

The serpent's head fell. Black blood became shadow smoke, sucked into Igris's blade.

[LEVEL UP! LV.1 -> LV.3]

[SHADOWS: 1/10 -> 2/10 - Serpent added]

[SKILL UNLOCKED: Shadow Storage]

Jin fell to his knees, laughing silently. In his hand, the core was gone, but his palm now had a black mark - a tiny crown.

The Shadow Monarch had his first knight.

And the mine collapse in 6 days? Let it collapse. He would walk out through shadows.

"Arise," he said to the dead serpent. A second knight rose, smaller.

Two shadows. Six days. One King.

He slipped back to the barracks before the patrol returned. No one noticed Property #722 was gone. No one noticed his smile.

Tomorrow, the guards would learn why you never chain a King.