Grey walked out of the Church, his mood slightly lifting. Ultimately, he decided against killing Chogh not because he didn’t want to, but because his main goal right now was to cause enough commotion that they would be forced to show him to his grandad.

Sure, they would probably twist and manipulate the story anyway, but Grey was someone who moved to the beat of his own drum. He did things that made him feel good even if it wasn’t what others would do.

Much the same way he refused to allow his ability to revive to make him a coward, he also didn’t care what picture of him they painted so long as he knew in his own heart that he had acted the way his grandfather would want him to.

That was the only opinion in the entire universe he cared about other than his own.

He rubbed at his chest, feeling the textured fabric.

The Crimson Dragon Nexis Suit felt good to the touch. There were probably thousands of small little shingles or scales that formed its body. At first look it was just black with red circuits that pulsed with life running through it. But when the sunlight hit it just right, it almost looked like he was decked out in dragon skin.

Well, across his chest anyway. He was still wearing his cargo pants and bomber jacket over it, though the Epic items felt a lot more... "meh" now. They didn’t do anything for him other than look good at this point.

His Shadow Forces, on the other hand...

—

Name: Shadow Forces

Rarity: Mythical

Class: Vector

Accepted Type: Linear; Branching

Rejected Type: Recursive; Resonant

Description: Dance of the madmen, howls of the free. These shoes are not to be worn by the weak and faint of heart, they will eat you alive. But should you be able to keep your mind clear and your chest light, the glowing lane at the end of the tunnel will lead you to curb stomping catharsis.

Abilities:

Shadow Retrace. Leave trails of shadow steps in your wake and return to them at the cost of 1 Stamina per Retraced Step or 100-meters traversed.

Lingering Haunt. Duplicate one’s shadow ahead of battle and send it out onto the battlefield. The location of this shadow will form a Shadow Node where the user can instantly teleport at any given time. This shadow will persist so long as it has not been destroyed and can be combined with one’s original shadow at any given time.

Shadow Meld. Fuse one’s body into the hidden plane that is the World of Shadows for both stealth and defense. For every second Shadow Meld is active, use 10 Stamina.

—

Both Shadow Retrace and Lingering Haunt had gotten good upgrades, but the latter had gotten a complete overhaul. It might as well have been a new skill.

Before, he had to first leave retraced steps in three locations, and then fuse them together mid-battle. One thing that the description hadn’t told him was that the location he formed a Shadow Node from before had to be somewhere between all three retraced shadow steps.

It was a useful ability, but it was restrictive. Especially since he could only have three Shadow Nodes at a time before. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

But now, his Shadow Nodes were not only mobile, he didn’t have to wait until a battle began to form them. He could just create them now, then split off little shadow clones whenever he got locked into battle.

Even in the bright daylight, it would be hard for someone to notice a shadow sneaking across the ground. Grey could easily lure them into a false sense of security when they thought they understood exactly how his Shadow Forces worked, only for him to suddenly spring a surprise on them.

The only trouble was that he could only form one of these Shadow Nodes ahead of time. Well, he could form more than one and store them in his shadow, but maintaining more than one was a drain on his stamina.

It was a slow drain, but a drain nonetheless.

So, for now, Grey stuck with just forming one and letting it fuse with his original shadow. The only change that made to his shadow was that it was a slight tick darker than everyone else’s. But he only noticed that because he was paying very close attention.

All things considered, he felt that it was a worthwhile upgrade before he even got to the addition of Shadow Meld.

Now that was an interesting skill.

"Let’s get out of this hell hole." Grey grumbled. This place was nothing but bad vibes. At this point, if the Dukedom came down and wiped them out, he didn’t even care.

BANG.

Grey shot out like a rocket, his speed far greater than it had ever been before. He moved like the wind, a harsh whistling filling his ears as he quickly closed the distance on the outpost.

This time, it didn’t even take him half an hour to make eye contact with it. A smile couldn’t help but pull a grin across his features. This felt good.

This world might have been annoying, but this feeling of growing stronger was nothing short of intoxicating.

Grey had always liked to work out, but back on Earth after a year or two, everything came so slowly. By then, it was either you hop on gear or get super anal about your micromanaging. Grey had never really had the patience for the latter, and he hadn’t yet grown into his "man" body so he didn’t mind it too much.

But this... this was way better than steroids could have ever been.

Grey pressed a palm against the Safe Room door and it clicked open, a surge coming from his Nexis Suit this time instead of his pinky. He couldn’t help but chuckle.

After all the bullshit, it seemed he finally got a Nexis Suit worth his time.

"Yo, Barkeep man."

Grey gave a familiar two-finger salute. However, rather than finding Barkeep Ji present, it was instead another figure entirely.

A woman.

A woman with spider legs for a lower half.