Cale narrowed his eyes, and watched with interest.
Nothing happened at first.
Then the black flame disappeared upon being consumed by the shadow summon.
He waited for his stats to increase, or for a message from the system.
Nothing came.
He frowned.
"Huh."
He remained quiet for a moment, watching his shadow consume a few more flames.
Still, there was no change.
He rubbed his chin and thought through the process.
There had to be a reason why he couldn't gain stats.
"Is the Shadow Eater skill not working?" he muttered. "Or are these flames… empty?"
As he focused again, something changed in his eyes.
His pupils darkened, and black fire stirred faintly within them.
A system overlay appeared in his vision, hovering near the black flames on the street:
[+0 stats] [+0 stats] [+0 stats]
Cale blinked. Then he laughed softly.
"So that's it."
The Shadow Eater skill hadn't failed. It had succeeded.
But the Shadow Essence, as he decided to call the black flames, didn't contain anything worth absorbing.
The people who'd left it behind were too weak. Their shadows didn't carry any meaningful strength.
"I need stronger Shadow Essences," he said. "The ones that would have stats."
He crossed his arms and thought.
"If the stats contained in Shadow Essences are related to the person's strength, then I can get quite a lot of powerful Shadow Essences at Academy.
"The students there are strong.
"But the academy bullies are definitely going to try something tomorrow. And if I want to fight back, I need grow stronger tonight. I can't wait until tomorrow to consume the Shadow Essence."
Should he sneak into the academy at night to find Shadow Essences?
No, that would not work.
The Shadow Essences disappeared like normal flames after a set moment of time. There would be nothing left at the academy.
His eyes narrowed.
"There's one place where strong people gather in bulk, and where I can collect a lot of Shadow Essences tonight."
He used Shadow Assimilation skill and disappeared into the shadows again.
…
Cale's goal was to become a powerful Martial Artist and a Psychic.
Since he had a system, why should he be content with training in only one path?
That was why he decided to visit a place that would give him high stats, and train his Psychic skills at the same time.
The building sat halfway between his tiny apartment and the academy.
It was a modest dojo made from dark stone and reinforced glass, with a large wooden sign above the door: "Iron Root Martial Hall."
Inside, the lobby was clean and efficient.
A desk clerk in her early twenties looked up as he entered.
"Welcome," she said. "Are you here to observe or train?"
"Train," Cale replied. "One-day course."
She nodded. "That'll be $1000."
Cale winced internally. His savings had barely reached $2500. Paying this meant scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Still, he took out his card. "Here."
If he could become stronger, then money would come rolling in by itself.
The clerk accepted the card, then handed him a slip with a schedule and a uniform.
"You'll be joining the beginner's strength training class. Locker room is down the hall."
He nodded and changed quickly.
Inside the training hall, a dozen students were already working.
The room was spacious, with thick mats lining the floor and weights stacked neatly to the sides.
Instructors paced among the students, correcting posture or shouting encouragement.
Cale took a spot near the back and joined the exercises.
The session was tough.
It started with weighted limb bands.
Each student wore 20 kilograms on arms and legs.
Then, they did bodyweight resistance movements: push-ups, full-body burpees, single-leg squats.
Everything was focused on explosive strength.
But Cale wasn't here to train. Not really.
As he moved through the exercises, his eyes scanned the room.
With Shadow Gaze active, he could see Shadow Essences (burning fragments of flames) fire under the students' feet.
[0.1 Strength] [0.2 Strength] [0.6 Strength]
Even some of the instructors left behind thicker embers as they walked across the mat.
"So much Shadow Essence," he murmured.
And these weren't like the ones on the street.
A student whose body was already honed. An instructor with decades of experience. Even their leftover shadows carried weight.
Cale grinned.
This was exactly what he needed.
As they shifted to the next routine—weighted lunges across the mat—Cale summoned his shadow again.
It slithered out beneath his feet, invisible to the rest.
He kept moving, carefully coordinating the shadow's route as it crawled along the edges of the dojo floor.
One by one, the Shadow Essence disappeared.
This time, it worked.
As his shadow consumed the Shadow Essences, faint pulses stirred inside his body.
The system confirmed it.
[+0.1 Strength]
[+0.2 Strength]
[+0.2 Strength]
A small smile crept onto his face. It was working.
For the next hour, he continued the exercises, all while managing the shadow in the background.
By the end of it, he brought up the system panel.
[Shadow Summon]
Strength: 0 → 6
Endurance: 0
Dexterity: 0
He checked his own status next.
[Cale Virell]
Strength: 3 → 3 (+0.6)
The stats in brackets were what he had gained through the shadow's absorption.
His chest tightened with excitement.
All he needed to do was stay close to strong people and let the shadow do the work.
Since Shadow Essence regenerated over time, it was an infinite cycle of growth.
He kept at it for another hour.
[Shadow Summon]
Strength: 6 → 9
[Cale Virell]
Strength: 3 (+0.6) → 3 (+0.9)
Now that the Shadow Summon had a Strength stat, it was no longer just a utility.
He could send it to fight.
It could eliminate danger while he remained safe at a distance.
Or, he could use Shadow Assimilation to temporarily merge with it, gaining its stats for himself.
The stronger the shadow became, the more powerful he would be.
The two-hour session ended. People were packing up, stretching sore limbs, wiping sweat from their brows.
Cale remained seated on the mat for a moment, deep in thought.
"The trainers were giving +0.6 Strength on average, while the trainees gave only around +0.1 to +0.2… It confirms it. The stronger the person, the more powerful the Shadow Essence."
But there was something else.
"I only got Strength stats today. No Dexterity. No Endurance."
He looked back at the training they'd done.
Nearly every drill had been built around power—lifting, punching, striking.
There had been no endurance drills or flexibility routines. That explained it.
"So the stats they drop must depend on what they're focusing on during the training."
It also explained why the stats from trainers appeared less frequently. Because they were not doing much to train their strength.
They only did it occasionally to show the ropes to the trainees.
Cale stood and headed toward the reception counter. He still had around $1,500 on him.
It was enough for one more beginner session.
"Excuse me," he said to the woman at the counter, "what else beginner training sessions do you offer?"
The woman gave him a polite nod.
"We have three beginner classes: Strength, Endurance, and Dexterity. Each session costs $1,000.
"There are intermediate sessions too. Those focus teaching and perfecting martial arts. They are of ten thousand dollars per session."
He raised his brows slightly, and she continued.
"And lastly, there's the Expert Session. That one is sparring-focused and taught by a Rank 3 Martial Artist. It costs twenty thousand per session, and only Rank 1 Martial Artists and above can join."
Cale's eyes gleamed.
A Rank 3. He couldn't imagine how much Shadow Essence someone at that level would drop.
Unfortunately, his wallet didn't agree.
For now, he had to make a choice between the three beginner classes.
He already knew Strength wouldn't help him close the gap with Eren.
Not in time.
Eren was a Rank 1 Martial Artist with a punching force over 1,200 kilograms. Cale wouldn't be able to match that in the short term, no matter how hard he trained.
But Eren had weaknesses.
'His endurance and dexterity are trash,' Cale thought.
He'd noticed the same pattern across most of the martial artists in the academy.
Everyone focused on raw strength and blood vitality, ignoring the rest of their physique. It was a fast-track method. But it left holes in their foundation as Martial Artists.
If Cale wanted to win, he had to aim for those weaknesses.
Endurance or Dexterity.