NOVEL WEB Chapter 137: Night Spirit Stage (2)
A sudden thought occurred to me.
'If you created the universes, can't you just make the universe not kick my mom out after 28 days?'
[No. I created the universe, but I do not control it. I can damage parts of it and create new parts, but I have no control over what it does or how it operates]
'Why?'
[Your mom created you. Does she have control over you?]
'No.'
[It's the same way between me and the universe]
'Oh. That makes sense.'
[I'm glad you understand now]
'Same.'
"Sorry, I was talking to my system. So Shadow Pulse now?" I said.
"Yes. Shadow Pulse," she said. "So imagine that the shadow laying on the ground is a blanket. Using an imaginary hand, you're going to pick the point directly below you and bring it up. Then you're going to take that point you picked up and slam it back down to the ground."
"This will create a ripple in the shadow that travels out to a certain distance. For you, it will probably start at 5 meters. As the ripple encounters objects or changes in the surface beyond being flat, you will be able to sense that and map out your surroundings in the shadow in a 360 degree radius."
"Ok, here I go," I said. I grabbed the center point of the shadow on the floor and did what she said.
I brought the center point up, then brought it down really fast to create a ripple in the imaginary darkness blanket. The ripple hit and was briefly interrupted by my mom, and I get a snap shot of the outline she made in the blanket before the ripple moved on.
"Ok. I did it. This seems useful, but wouldn't this only work for objects on the ground?" I said.
"You raise a good point. Now comes the next step, which fixes the problem you just mentioned. After you've learned how to do it with the blanket on the ground, you must now imagine that these imaginary blankets exist in a 360 degree sphere around you at every possible angle," she said.
"Then you grab the convergence point, the point where all the blankets meet in the middle, which is the center of your body. Then you create a small ripple in every blanket simultaneously. You will get feedback when they hit things. And now you know how to 3d map your surroundings in darkness and shadow."
"Ok," I said.
I focused and imagined what she described. Blankets of shadow going in every direction. Then I grabbed the center point and created a ripple in all of them. When they hit my mom, the candle, and the outer walls of the closet, I got the feedback which created a 3 dimensional image of my surroundings in my mind.
"Done," I said.
"Now create multiple ripples as fast as possible," she said.
I did that, and got a constantly updating map of my surroundings.
"Done," I said.
"Now practice doing that all the time, and you'll be able to map the contents of any shadow or darkness that you're in or near," she said.
[New Ability Acquired: Shadow Pulse]
[Shadow Pulse: The ability to create a constant 3d map of nearby shadows and areas of darkness]
[Completion time: 2 minutes]
"Ok, nice," I said.
"Next is Dark Vision. The ability to instantly visually adjust to any darkness as long as there is a small amount of light. Technically with Shadow Pulse you don't have to learn it to know what physical objects are around you, but Shadow Pulse can't detect images, only surfaces and objects," she said.
"So you do need Dark Vision to see things like symbols and pictures and what direction a person is looking. There are a lot of things that can only be determined through vision. To learn it, you simply have to pay close attention to the physical sensations in your eyes as they adjust to darkness."
"Then, once you have the sensations, you'll know how to control the mechanisms in your eyes that allow you to see in the dark, and then you can learn to force them to adjust faster and faster, until the adjustment is instantaneous."
"That and putting more condensed Vi into your eyes will make them more sensitive to light, but you should already know how to do that from the Vi Condensation Stage."
"Ok, I'll practice that," I said.
I did as she said and allowed my eyes to adjust to the darkness and the small amount of light from the candle. I learned what it felt like, and then I practiced forcing the physical reaction. After a few minutes, I could do it near instantly.
[New Ability Acquired: Dark Vision]
[Dark Vision: The ability to instantly adjust your eyes to darkness and low light situations]
[Completion time: 3 minutes]
"Ok, I got it," I said.
"Excellent. Last ability and step of the Night Spirit Stage. Night Whisper. The ability to speak through shadows over short distances. Your range will increase as you practice, but everyone starts at the bottom," she said.
"Ok, how do I do that?" I said.
"Imagine a string of shadow going from your mouth to the ear of whoever you're trying to talk to. As you talk, the vibrations on the string get transmitted along it to the person. And that's it," she said.
"Ok," I said.
I imagined a shadow string going from my mouth to Shikasa's ear. Then I whispered, "My mom is a weird sex pervert."
"Not as weird or perverted as my son," she whispered back.
"Fair," I whispered. Then I made the string go away and said, "So what now?"
"Next is the Blood Artillery Stage. One of my students called it the 'Crimson Artillery Stage', but I made up the techniques, so I get to call them what I want, and I usually prefer less obscure sounding names. Night Spirit is an exception because I thought it sounded really cool. And it does," she said.
"The problem, is we have nowhere to practice the techniques. I doubt the hotel would enjoy you shooting blood bullets through their walls," she said.
"Yeah, probably not," I replied. "Well, what do we do then?"
"We go talk to the sects that Harold said want to meet with you and get one of them to agree to let us use their grounds to practice," she said.
"Ah. I see. I was dreading that meeting," I said.
"Well you gotta face the music sometime and it might as well be now, when you have your literal goddess of a mother to back you up," she said.
"Fair point," I said.