Night Ranger
chapter-96

Chapter 96: Shadow Doppelganger

It was the book of Nalu as expected!

Even though it wasn’t a surprise, Marvin was pretty pleased to get this item without any problems.

This parchment was the 6th page of the Book of Nalu.

Anyone could arouse their hidden potential by reading this page.

It seemed nice, but the Book of Nalu didn’t only bring benefits.

This was a book of prophecies that the God of Deception wrote using all his divine power before falling.

Because the positions of God of Fate and God of Fortune couldn’t be controlled, the ability to see the future was limited for many gods. And the God of Deception was said to be the god most deeply involved with the river of Fate.

It was said that reading the book of Nalu completely would make even gods go crazy!

This wasn’t an unfounded story. Among the gods born in the third era was [Berserk Lord] Angola, a very powerful fighter. He once secretly read the complete Book of Nalu!

Afterwards, his divinity collapsed and his Divine Kingdom was also ruined!

The scene was very frightening. The nearby gods witnessed that scene of heavenly destruction. The Berserk Lord’s divine power turned into meteors, crazily smashing toward all parts of the multiverse!

Every meteor was equivalent to a 6th circle spell!

Those few gods near the Berserk Lord’s Divine Kingdom also ate losses. They had no choice but to defend against those bits of divine power!

It was simply an unexpected disaster!

Just reading a book lead his painstakingly won eternal life and power to be completely destroyed.

From that point on, the Book of Nalu had become a taboo between gods.

Regardless if it was the 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation of naturally born ancient gods, or those new gods born in the third era, they all remained at a respectful distance from the Book of Nalu.

The Book of Nalu also suffered from the impact of the Berserk Lord’s divine power and split into pieces, turning into parchment pages and dispersing across Feinan.

Some even fell into the Underworld.

Time slowly passed and people seemed to have already forgotten about it.

But Marvin knew that there were still a lot of mysterious organizations working in the dark to collect the pages of the Book of Nalu.

The [Dark Cavalry Monastery] established by dark knight Cangore for example. This group of undying guys had always worked to try to gather the Book of Nalu.

It was said that only a sage could see through the real contents of the book. The great secret relating to Feinan’s prosperity and decline lay inside.

Those who could read and understand the Book of Nalu could obtain true power.

…

That book had a lot of tricky things that Marvin wasn’t aware of.

But he knew about the 6th page, a very useful item.

Everyone could read it and possibly stir their potential. However, if their will wasn’t resolute enough, they would be liable to arouse their evil side.

Marvin was proud of his resolute will. Coupled with that headless girl’s gift, he shouldn’t have any problem with a will test.

Thus, he decided to read the book first before handing it to Hathaway.

The fire had gradually warmed his body. He put on clothes and with a deep breath, spread open the parchment.

The image of a few words appeared in Marvin’s eyes.

He didn’t recognize these characters.

The God of Deception was a third generation god, like the Plague God, and they used the Ancient God language.

But the book of Nalu was written for people to read it. Even if the readers were unable to understand the characters, they could still receive all kinds of mysterious meaning.

But each person received the information differently.

In an instant, Marvin felt the image in front of him twisting like an earthworm.

An ice-cold feeling came from the scroll in his hand!

Low whispers echoed in his ears like an old devil’s murmur, luring him.

A large shadow appeared in front of him.

The shadow kept changing form, before finally turning into a picture. The people in the picture wore equipment of superior quality and they were orderly following someone.

There was cliff in front.

The strange scene stopped there!

Because Marvin, using his own will, had struggled his way out of this imaginary realm created by the 6th page of the Book of Nalu!

…

[You are reading the Book of Nalu (Page 6)]

[You entered the Deception Space…]

[Willpower check…]

[Willpower check successful]

[Your potential has been aroused. There seems to be a strange energy lying dormant in your bloodline.]

[You received an innate spell – Shadow Doppelganger]

Marvin blankly looked at the new spell in his spell list and was soon overjoyed!

‘This body actually had this kind of potential?’

He had originally mocked this body as being no good, though the latter half of his race had a “?”. He had thought it would be difficult to awaken that potential.

Ever since the Ancient Elven God pointed out he was a Numan descendant, he was aware that this “?” might be something worthwhile.

But not everyone with Numan blood could awaken their potential. Marvin actually knew a few methods to activate it, but all of them were extremely dangerous. He didn’t wish to try his luck like that.

But he hadn’t thought that the 6th page of the Book of Nalu would arouse his potential and unlock something related to his bloodline!

He received a very fierce innate spell – Shadow Doppelganger!

[Shadow Doppelganger]: Where the sun shines, there will inevitably be shadows hiding. Every day you can make use of a shadow to create a shadow doppelganger. Duration: 3 minutes.

The Shadow Doppelganger’s strength was about half of Marvin’s, but it had all of his skills aside from his bloodline abilities.

The emergence of this new ability made Marvin’s fighting strength soar!

A dual wielding ranger’s burst power was very fierce, and now add a shadow doppelganger to that!

Even if it was during the day, Marvin’s skill wouldn’t be too different from another advanced class!

And at night… even if not invincible, he still had a huge advantage!

Of course, this were just the obvious good news.

The most important part was that Marvin was now able to guess his own bloodline!

‘Shadow Doppelganger… Shadow Doppelganger…’

‘It’s actually this skill. In that case, if I’m not wrong, the bloodline by this body might be that special branch of the Numans…’

Sitting on the ground, Marvin carefully put away the Book of Nalu’s page while remembering some related information.

That special branch, even among the Numans, was considerably unusual. It would be very difficult to completely activate this rare bloodline.

Even Marvin with his rich experience didn’t know how he could do it. Numans were really too mysterious after all.

‘… Better to worry about it later. In any case, my current strength is already enough to deal with the Battle of the Holy Grail and the surrounding circumstances.’

‘There are at least 4 months before the Great Calamity. I still have time.’

His sight fell onto the other thing in the chest.

That was a human skin mask.

The Mask of the Deceiver.

This was a magic item in itself, but after soaking in the water for years, it appeared to have suffered some damage. It probably could only be used two or three times.

This human skin mask could change one’s appearance. After putting it on, you could turn into anyone you wanted.

Because it was infused with the God of Deception’s ancient divine power.

Also carefully putting the skin mask away, Marvin extinguished the fire and prepared to leave the cave.

But at that time, his perception was triggered and he heard quiet footsteps!

Someone nearby?

Marvin quivered and instantly grabbed two daggers. He silently approached the entrance of the cave!

Someone breathing heavily could be heard in a bush to the side of the cave.

‘Unskilled…’ Marvin sneered.

He suddenly jumped toward it, slashing out with his dagger, but a man came out of the tall bush.

“Ah!”

A deathly pale elven youth fell on the ground!

“It’s you?” Marvin was somewhat surprised.

This youth was actually one of the villagers he’d met earlier. He had asked about adventurers’ achievements. Marvin casually told him a few stories, thinking he would be satisfied.

But the youth became even more interested after listening to his stories.

“What are you doing here?” Marvin solemnly asked.

The elven youth looked at Marvin and suddenly asked, “Can I follow you?”

“I don’t want to be stuck in a village for a lifetime. I heard this world is very huge.”

“I want to go out and see it for myself.”