Shadow Slave

Sunny was sprawled in the mud, looking at the sky. He didn’t even have to catch his breath since the whole fight took less than ten seconds from start to finish. No one was dead, wounded or even bruised… well, with the exception of the scavenger. It was completely out of his expectations.

He glanced at the monster’s corpse to make sure that it was actually dead, then summoned the runes and took a look at the number of Shadow Fragments in his possession.

[Shadow Fragments: 16/1000].

It was actually true. The mighty awakened beast perished just like that. And, although Nephis did most of the work, he was the one to deal the killing blow.

‘Why can’t it always be so easy?’

Sunny got back on his feet and dismissed the Azure Blade. Then, he remembered the words Master Jet had once told him: “No one can survive in the Dream Realm alone.”

Back then, he noted her advice, but didn’t really believe it. After all, he had always strived to be self-sufficient, not allowing himself to depend on anyone. In Sunny’s mind, this was the true meaning of strength.

However, now he was beginning to suspect that this logic was flawed. Indeed, having someone to share your burdens meant the difference between heaven and hell here in the Dream Realm. If he was alone, fighting against a single scavenger might have been the end of him.

Similarly, even though Nephis was far more skilled than Sunny, it would have been extremely hard for her to defeat the armored monster alone, being that its weakest point was out of her reach.

But together, they had accomplished it with relative ease. The whole was greater than the sum of the parts. In other words, there was strength in numbers that surpassed individual power. In that sense, being able to depend on a group was not a sign of weakness, but, on the contrary, an important facet of personal strength.

Lone wolves would always be at a disadvantage. That was another lesson to learn.

‘It’s not like I had much of a choice.’

He walked over to Nephis and checked if she was okay. Apart from slight damage to her makeshift seaweed clothes, everything seemed to be alright. She glanced at Sunny.

“Memory?”

He shook his head.

Nephis sighed. It seemed that she was a bit impatient to get herself a suit of armor of her own. If Sunny was a gentleman, he would have suggested to loan her the Puppeteer’s Shroud for a while… but alas, he wasn’t. That armor was extremely valuable and had cost him a lot.

Plus, unlike Changing Star, the picture of Sunny wearing nothing but a seaweed loincloth would have been more disturbing than aesthetically pleasing. So, he said nothing.

Meanwhile, Nephis headed for the dead scavenger and said without turning her head:

“Bring Cassie.”

With a sigh, Sunny turned around and left the clearing.

Soon, he approached the place where the blind girl was waiting patiently for their return. Hearing his footsteps, she flinched and raised her head:

“S—Sunny?”

did she recognize me? Ah… must be

me. Everything is over. Come on,

wooden staff, Cassie stood

you

Sunny smiled.

course! We dispatched that critter in no time. Didn’t even get

with visible

Oh,

delicate girl walking behind him, he couldn’t help but think of his little sister. As a toddler, she

in the heart, Sunny gritted his teeth and tried to think about something else. It was

clearing, Nephis was done breaking apart the scavenger’s carapace. The shimmering soul shard was already in

caught the crystal and looked at her

are you giving it to

few seconds. Then she said as a matter of

“I don’t have pockets.”

“Oh.”

Sunny put the soul shard

she just absorb

question, but she seemed

the spoils

“Ah. Alright.”

to Cassie and said

“I was careful.”

Then, she smiled.

***

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

they managed to kill three more scavengers, each time with not much risk to anyone except for Nephis. The process was largely the same: after discovering the monster, he

To anyone else, maybe with the exception of Caster, dancing around a deadly awakened beast would have been a tall task, most likely

her performance was based solely on skill, with no Aspect

precise. Every move she made was calculated and perfectly timed. She seemed to innately understand the flow and logic of combat, which gave her the ability to roughly predict what actions the mindless beasts would perform

raw power, but by watching Nephis, he vividly understood just how vast the difference between them was. Even though his divine Aspect allowed Sunny to exert more strength and speed than Changing Star, in an actual fight, he would never stand a

four strikes. Even though Sunny was not taught any elaborate techniques, he was still a somewhat experienced fighter. He had good physical coordination, combat intuition, and — most importantly

fact that they were only able to ambush the scavengers so effectively due to his shadow scouting

was an almost equal cooperation. Still, watching Nephis fight was nothing short of

get too dejected, Sunny summoned