Shadow Author

While I was waiting for Miss Smith to finish up her business in the cave there were a couple of things I wanted to check up on.

The first thing I wanted to know was what happened to the Terror Birds and if any of them survived.

Yet before I did that I wanted to fully understand the meaning behind the power gifted to me from the curse.

Pulling back my sleeve I looked down at my watch and checked up on some of the notifications I got.

[An existential influence has been absorbed.]

[Puppeteer: Any living being below you in rank will instantly become your puppet when they come in contact with the curse. Any being at or above your rank who comes in contact with the curse will slowly be influenced over time. [Vision], [Swap (locked)], [...]]

[Vision: A subset of [Puppeteer] which allows the puppetmaster to see through the eyes of its puppets.]

[An unprecedented change has taken place!]

[+ 5000 SP]

Having the full definition there wasn't all that much more that I didn't already know but seeing an addition to the power I became surprised.

The only reason that I could think that it appeared was that the power was evolved!

When I first decided to buy a gift there were a couple of them that could be evolved. Although I didn't buy any of them it was still something interesting that I wanted to test out.

But now that I am seeing subparts of main power, they most likely stem from evolution.

Noticing that, I realized how much more powerful evolved skills could be.

'From now on I need to make sure I get more evolved stuff.'

Knowing everything I needed to know about the curse's power I activated the skill while making use of [Vision] so that I could locate the Terror Birds.

As my vision turned dark I smiled because that meant at least one bird survived otherwise nothing would have happened.

When light reflected in my eyes a second later I scanned the area to understand where they were and how many of them remained.

The first thing I noticed was that they were no longer flying. Looking around I saw that they were still high up which meant that they were resting in a tree.

Looking at every branch that covered the tree I saw hundreds of black dots.

When my eyes finally adapted to the bird's sight, everything became clear and I let out a sigh of relief.

Nearly all the Terror Birds had survived the attack and were currently taking shelter at the base of the mountain on a tree.

Commanding the bird to take flight I had it circle the area for a second.

All I wanted to do was get an understanding of their surroundings however when I did so I became surprised.

There wasn't just one tree full of birds, instead there were multiple.

A single tree could hold close to a thousand and from what I could see there were more than a dozen trees full of birds.

That meant the numbers were much higher than I expected.

It was hard to understand how many I had under my control when they were flying so high in the air and asleep on the ground. But now that I could get a round answer I became overwhelmed by the power that the curse has.

There was nearly no mental strain on my mind yet I had more than ten thousand souls bound to me.

Yet Paul's alone was practically equal to theirs.

This is what surprised me the most. The problem though was that I had no way of finding out the reason.

Pushing this idea to the back of my mind I noted that I should ask the curse the next time I visit Nightfall's domain.

Having the Terror Bird land back on the branch it originated from I canceled the power and my vision went dark.

I got all the information I needed to get therefore there was no reason to remain connected to them.

When my vision returned to me, Miss Smith still hadn't come out of the cave.

Figuring I would have a bit of wait I decided it would be best to commemorate the Nihil Witch. After all, I had just stolen her precious relic.

Leaning my head back against the wall of the cave entrance I thought back to what I wrote about Miss Smith's sister.

.

Miss Smith's parents were both mid-level rankers as her mother was B-rank while her father was C-rank.

Although her father was of a lower rank he had a high position in the military as he was a general whose wits gained him many achievements.

Her mother worked as an adventurer for a guild and made quite a name for herself.

The two of them were well known and had a large amount of influence over the human race however that wouldn't be enough as only a couple of years later they had their first child.

A beautiful baby daughter whose power was unprecedented as her Ability could grant her immense power.

Yet it came at a high cost.

That's how she got her nickname… the Nihil Witch… the Witch of Nothing.

From the moment she was born, she began showing signs that something was different about her. It didn't take long for her dad to use some of his connections in the military to find out what it was.

When they discovered what it was, her loving father realized his mistake far too late.

The government ended up taking the child away to raise her as a powerhouse.

After that day the father and mother were left heartbroken and betrayed as they lost their one and only daughter.

To make up for the hole in their hearts they had their second daughter sometime later.

Terrified that the government would also seize control of her, the family fled.

However, while the baby was growing up it didn't show any of the same symptoms that the first did.

This was both a blessing and a curse for the parents as they knew the government wouldn't care for her but their hearts also hurt as they knew she would never be anything like their first daughter.

As Miss Smith was raised she was always second in the shadow of her sister whom she never met.

This left many scars on her and when the government finally found where they were hiding Miss Smith willingly went with them.

Her parents were dismayed by this but she couldn't remain in such a toxic environment.

Later she would learn that her parents were too heartbroken over the decision and they ended up taking their lives.

However the help Miss Smith thought she would get never came as the government soon realized that the girl was nothing like her older sister.

Leaving the girl to fend for herself Miss Smith lived a turbulent life as she slowly made a name for herself before becoming a teacher at the renowned university Griffin.

Miss Smith lived her life never knowing anything about her sister other than she had monstrous talent

That was until one day a young boy who had no talent came up to her and offered her a deal whereby she could meet her sister if she did what he asked.