Shadow Slave

Days flew by.

Sunny only had four weeks to prepare himself for the journey into the Dream Realm, so there wasn’t even a minute to spare. He was relentless, pushing his body and mind to the limits in an attempt to absorb as much knowledge and skills as possible in that short amount of time.

In the day, he studied with Teacher Julius, slowly learning how to survive and take care of himself in the absence of civilization. Their lessons ranged from comparatively simple, like various ways to produce fire, to much more obscure and esoteric, like celestial navigation.

What was so hard about celestial navigation?

Well, as it turned out, the Dream Realm was not consistent in terms of star geography. Different regions had different stars and constellations, as well as a different number of moons. While the sun seemed to be the same, its behavior was highly unpredictable.

Still, with sufficient knowledge, one could find ways to study the skies and subsequently navigate themselves.

Most of these lessons were, supposedly, already included in the various school curriculums and known to the majority of Sleepers. However, learning something from a textbook and learning the same thing from an actual Awakened were two completely different matters.

Teacher Julius had a habit of going much more in-depth when explaining his subject. Thanks to this time-consuming habit of his, Sunny not only learned about the “what”, but also often gained glimpses into the “why”. This nascent understanding of the underlying principles of the Dream Realm environments gave him the ability to face any situation with at least some measure of readiness.

Even the lessons in dead languages, which Sunny had initially judged to be useless, turned out to be much more interesting than he could ever imagine. This was, in large part, because it concerned the Spell itself — after all, the Spell communicated with humans in one of those dead languages.

The simplest example of this was Nephis and her True Name, “Changing Star”. While technically correct, this

different runes for “change”, each with its own connotation. Depending on what exact rune was used to relay the meaning of the name, it could also mean “Ruinous Star” or

connotation could mean

found the process of acquiring vast

access to. It was also this authority over knowledge that kept

study, and without the advantage of good

was now one of those privileged people. More than that, he was at the pinnacle of social hierarchy. Not only had he gained access to an

sudden transformation would have sent him into a whirlpool

insisted on holding practical lessons every other day. Even if some of them had to be done in virtual reality simulations, he insisted on using the full immersion stations with enhanced physical feedback. As

with his newly reforged body, Sunny had never been in better shape. Even

of the human condition. However, it was up to him to realize that potential with sweat,

though this wasn’t enough, Sunny secretly collected information about other

be sent on scouting missions without his direct control. It would sneak here and there, listening in on the conversations and observing different classes where Sleepers had

room, it would

the shadow, despite its outward snarkiness, turned out to be rather naive. It didn’t quite understand how the human world worked, and as such, often failed to distinguish between useful information and meaningless