Healing System

'Origin... Origin, just what kind of origin am I supposed to find here exactly?' Kevin thought, his head aching slightly.

If the origin here was something related to the Child of Shadows, he had nothing to go off of.

He was referred to by that title, so what exactly could he find out about it in such a timeline?

Nonetheless, he couldn't dawdle around. Therefore, he jumped to the next roof, then the next, arriving in the city's center.

The crystal spire was even more massive than he had expected—seeing it from a distance did not do it justice, after all.

But now, he was even more lost. Even though it was Avalon's center, there were very few people present, as though it had been abandoned.

Noticing that this must not be the case, he dropped down and walked up to a lone person who had been walking around with his hands in his pockets.

Kevin tried his best not to startle him; therefore, he called out, "Excuse me!"

His words fell on deaf ears as the man continued his walk. Suddenly, once he got a certain distance away, he vanished.

'What?' Kevin's brows furrowed as he turned back around, only to see the man from before walking in his direction again—same posture, clothing, and everything else.

Yet as he passed by him and headed out a certain distance, he disappeared again... and again.

It was a loop.

Kevin took notice of the other people not too far away, and while some looked like genuine people simply striding by, the rest were in some kind of loop.

'Odd...' He couldn't help but think as he took a few steps back and headed for the spire instead. Maybe whatever was inside could answer some of his questions.

The way it worked was that he would place his hand on the base of the spire, and a few locations should appear in his mind.

If that was anything to go by, there might be a certain location that had not been there the last time he checked.

That was why he jogged over to the spire and put both of his hands on it.

Immediately closing his eyes, he could feel a certain connection to multiple locations—25 in total.

Yet even as the connection existed, there was a single connection that felt deeper than the rest: Ventoria.

It seemed like a normal world at a glance; however, the connection he felt with it was more on the sense of mana.

His shadow affinity reacted to it—it seemed like it was literally calling out for him to enter.

And since he did not have any better ideas aside from endlessly roaming around Avalon, he went through with the idea, locking his focus onto Ventoria until, eventually, he felt a breeze, signifying the successful world transfer.

Kevin reopened his eyes and took his hands off the spire, which seemed much smaller than the one in Avalon, before taking a glance all around him.

He was expecting to see a city or some kind of life. Instead, what greeted his sight was a wasteland.

It seemed affected by both fire and some kind of plague, as there were cysts of green blood scattered all around.

'Disgusting...' Kevin couldn't help but exclaim at the sight, which was making even his stomach churn.

Without wasting any time, he gathered his shadows, forming a sort of foot leverage that could carry him across the entire wasteland.

In the meantime, he could try looking around more in-depth—or even take a glance at his own self.

He had noticed that his shadow summons were taking less and less mana with each passing second, and now that he took a good look at his insides, he could feel something odd.

Mana was gathering in four different places: his brain, heart, abdomen, and, lastly, spine.

Each flow was weaker than the rest, but if he were to utilize all four of them at once, he could output immense power.

Even then, utilizing a single one was efficient. With his mind, he could better control his summons.

With his heart, he could make them have special characteristics, whilst with his abdomen, make them much stronger than should be possible.

Lastly, the flow located in his spine seemed to enhance the others while simultaneously greatly improving his summon casting time and general spell efficiency—making it cost way less mana to use.

Obviously, he was no idiot—he knew what they were.

But the fact that he had managed to form a core out of seemingly nowhere, and better yet, an extra three, was completely unheard of.

Even the spine core, which he had read about in books, was made for those deemed special by the heavens—those with extreme talent in both mana and everything else.

He was not one of them, and yet...

'I got them all.' Kevin couldn't help but put on a small smile. This opened up endless possibilities, which he would definitely explore once this stupid trial was over.

Now that he was capable of utilizing mana freely, there was no point in holding back. Spreading it all across the land and multiplying its effects by stacking each core on one another, he was able to see hundreds of kilometers all around.

And yet, despite the great increase, he couldn't feel any life in such a massive radius.

But that did not mean he was completely unsuccessful, as roughly 30 kilometers away, he could feel some sort of town that had been made there.

It was abandoned from the looks of it; however, the stench of blood did not fail to reach his mana sense.

Commanding his shadow summons with his mind, they rapidly began sprinting in that direction—the speed at which they were moving was incredible.

With the core in his heart, he was able to make the summons have wind-propelling abilities, and with the core in his abdomen, make them kick off with incredible strength, spanning hundreds of meters in a single dash.

If things were any different, he would have formed the core located in his heart, simply because with it, he could imbue his summons with any lesser affinity—be it wind, fire, water, or earth.

'The versatility is endle-' His words halted as a presence suddenly appeared in his detection radius, but just as quickly, it disappeared.

However, he took notice of it, even memorized that presence in the split moment it appeared—and to say he was shocked was an understatement.

'Elizabeth?' Kevin called out in his mind before visualizing the presence in front of him.

The height was the same, and her features were practically identical—the only difference being that she did not have her sword.

This immediately made a frown appear on his face.

'That's not Elizabeth,' he concluded, scattering the visualized presence and steeling his heart.

Not once in his entire life had he seen her walk around without her sword—it was like showcasing her pride and joy.

And for this identical being to not have it was extremely suspicious.

Soon, he arrived in the town, and, utilizing his summons, was carried down and placed on the roof of some kind of fallen clock tower.

Overlooking the town below, he noticed splatters of blood scattered across the entire ground, pieces of flesh sticking to walls.

It was gruesome and inhumane.

Yet the one thing that stood out from where he stood was the letters drawn in blood, covering the walls and the entire center of this town.

Kevin's brows furrowed as he read the contents.

'Welcome, Child of Shadows...'