Chapter 241 Halfway
As it turned out, the cohort had endured the fury of the heavens for almost an entire day. Before the storm had appeared, the night had still been far away, and now, it was already a new morning.
The colossus was steadily marching south, completely unshaken by his terrifying battle with the abyssal leviathan. Sunny was growing more and more certain that the ancient statue, while brought to a semblance of life by some unknown power, was not truly sentient.
The headless giant was more like an Echo than a living thing, but then even Echoes seemed to possess some remnants of a personality — at least his poor Scavenger had one. Quiet Dancer often behaved like a prudish and cantankerous young woman, too… no matter how strange it was to describe a flying rapier in that way.
Not to mention Shadows, who were much more alive than Sunny felt comfortable admitting.
Compared to all of them, the colossus seemed rather… lifeless.
Just what kind of a being was he?
Sprawled on the ground, Sunny glanced sideways and observed the Stone Saint, who was standing indifferently at the edge of the platform. He wondered what this living statue thought of her strange colossal sibling. Was she in awe of him or didn't care one way or another?
It was hard to tell. But then again, he was not in the mood to think too much right now.
Sunny was truly exhausted and hurting all over. Everyone was, really.
Despite the incredible achievement of surviving the onslaught of two entire tribes of Nightmare Creatures, the storm, and an encounter with an actual horror of the depths — or rather, because of it — the members of the cohort looked truly pathetic.
Each of them was either laying on the stone surface of the swaying platform or sitting with a lost look on their face. They were all wounded, tired, and wet.
Even Kai had lost his usual luster, and that alone screamed of how rough this recent hardship had been on them. Even when compared to the usual ruthless reality of the Forgotten Shore.
…Well, no matter. They had survived. More than that, if Sunny wasn't wrong, the stone giant had already brought them more than a thousand kilometers to the south. And by the evening, that number was going to double.
A quick way to travel across the Labyrinth, indeed. In two days, they were going to traverse ten times more ground than Sunny, Nephis and Cassie had managed in two months of their bloody journey to the Dark City. And they had only achieved that much thanks to the desperate decision to travel by boat.
Not bad, even if they had to endure a few hours of pure torture and a couple of near-death moments.
…Plus, the speed wasn't the only benefit that riding atop the ancient colossus had brought them.
With a subtly satisfied expression, Sunny listened to his body and smiled. Even without summoning the runes, he knew that he was once again at the same level as he had been before creating the Shadow Saint, and even above it.
But there was no harm in looking, right?
As the shimmering runes appeared in the air in front of him, Sunny found the familiar cluster… and blinked.
Shadow Fragments: [494/1000].
'This is… this is… what?'frёeωebɳovel.com
Although he knew that the battle against giant locusts and ghastly flowers brought him a bountiful harvest of fragments, he was still astonished to see just how many he had gained. In the short span of time after Cassie had warned them about the coming storm and before the wall of darkness appeared on the horizon, Sunny managed to reap more than one hundred of them.
One hundred and thirty-two, to be exact.
'Incredible!'
Most came from the Blood Flowers. In a direct confrontation, Sunny would have never been able to kill that many, but yesterday, all he had to do was cause their hosts to plummet to the ground and let gravity do the rest. Between those sent to their deaths by the Prowling Thorn and those he had cut down with the Midnight Shard, about two dozen abominations had died by his hand.
…And another one by his blood, but Sunny didn't want to even think about that experience, ever again.
Each of the ghastly flowers was an awakened monster, bringing him four fragments per kill. With the addition af a dozen or so locusts slain by the Stone Saint, Sunny ended up with this mind-boggling windfall.
Not only did he return to his peak form, but he was now stronger by just shy of a hundred shadow fragments.freёwebnovel.com
'All in a day's work…'
Still stunned, Sunny couldn't help but shake his head. If this continued, he was going to come close to fully saturating his Shadow Core by the end of this expedition.
…Which was one of the reasons he had joined it in the first place, but before today, his ambitious plans had been just a conjecture.
Now, they were becoming reality.
By accumulating a thousand fragments and saturating his core, Sunny was also going to learn yet another secret of his divine Aspect. What exactly was going to happen once the runes showed "Shadow Fragments: [1000/1000]"?
He was now almost halfway to finding out.
But even that wasn't all.
Looking at another cluster of runes, Sunny read:
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Puppeteer's Shroud], [Midnight Shard], [Ordinary Rock], [Prowling Thorn], [Endless Spring]...
And right after that, two new sets glimmered in the air:
...[Blood Blossom], [Dark Wing.]
'Two new Memories. Jackpot!'
The only thing that slightly ruined his exhilaration was the fact that, recently, Sunny was having trouble finding Memories that were actually useful to him. Of course, the Stone Saint had a ferocious appetite and could consume anything that he wasn't going to incorporate into his arsenal.
But simply feeding his spoils to the Shadow, while rewarding in its own way, was not as pleasant as acquiring a new powerful tool.
With a sense of cautious anticipation, Sunny concentrated on the new Memories.
'Well… let's take a look. Maybe it's something useful after all.'
Chapter 242 New Toys
Sunny decided to take a look at the Dark Wing first.
'Let's see what my Shadow brought me.'
He looked at the glimmering runes.
Memory: [Dark Wing].
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: I.
Memory Type: Garment.
Memory Description: [This cloak is as light as a dragonfly's wing… and as durable.]
Sunny stared at the description, his eyes twitching.
'Cloak? Another damn cloak?! And what does the Spell mean, as durable as a bug's wing? Those aren't durable at all!'
Taking a deep breath, he calmed himself down and read at the runes again.
'Well… maybe it has an incredible enchantment.'
Memory Enchantments: [Glide].
Enchantment Description: [Allows one to levitate slightly above the ground and slowly move in any direction, or glide down softly from any height.]
Sunny frowned slightly, thinking about whether that Memory could be useful. Then, he dove into the Soul Sea and summoned the sphere of light containing the Dark Wing to take a look at its spellweave.
The descriptions provided by the Spell were not always very informative. It was better to study the thing himself.
At first glance, the ability to fly was nothing short of incredible. Amazing, even! Sunny had heard that there were Memories that gave their owners literal wings, but never expected to encounter one before becoming an Awakened, or even a Master. However, their usefulness differed from case to case.
There were questions of height, speed, and control. No Memory could have given someone the ability to fly as fast and as unrestrained as Kai could. But some came close…
However, as far as these Memories went, Dark Wing turned out to be of the lowest standard. It seemed that it only allowed a person to levitate or hover a couple of meters above ground and move with a very, very modest speed.
Sunny could achieve pretty much everything that such an ability provided with the help of the Prowling Thorn and its invisible string — and do it better, too. Of course, he couldn't fight while using the kunai to swing around on the string. In that regard, this new Memory was better.
However, after imagining himself fighting while using the Dark Wing to hover above ground or even worse glide in the sky, Sunny shuddered.
The beautiful transparent cloak indeed looked like a pair of dragonfly's wings. It was extremely thin a brittle. The slightest strike would rip it apart, causing the wielder to plummet down. So, unless Sunny wanted to die, using this Memory in a battle was out of the question.
In short, it had little utility value compared to the Prowling Thorn and couldn't be used for aerial fights.
Sunny glanced at the Stone Saint.
'Should I feed it to her?'
But after thinking about it for a couple more seconds, he shook his head.freewebnσvel.cѳm
No, despite all its flaws, the Dark Wing was still a real boon. The ability to glide alone was priceless. With it, he did not need to be afraid of falling down from deadly heights.
Like from the height of an ancient walking colossus, for example.
'...I'm keeping it.'
The thing would only give his Shadow one fragment, anyway.
Looking up, Sunny noticed a transparent cloak that looked like a pair of dragonfly wings suddenly appear on Cassie's shoulders. The sunlight refracted through it, making the wings glimmer slightly with all the colors of the rainbow.
With an expression of wonder on her face, the blind girl made the wings move. A moment later, they disappeared into a blur, and Cassie suddenly hovered a few centimeters above the ground. She giggled.
…So, the Quiet Dancer had earned her the same Memory his Shadow had earned him. This was good. While the weak levitation ability was mostly useless to Sunny, to the blind girl, it would be of tremendous help. The terrain of the Forgotten Shore was often uneven and treacherous, so being able to float above it was a true gift for someone who could not see.
Sunny smiled softly and looked away.
'It's nice that she still knows how to laugh.'
A moment later, his expression darkened. Closing his eyes, Sunny sighed heavily and turned his attention to the second Memory he had gotten.
'Don't think about it.'
Memory: [Blood Blossom.]
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: II.
Memory Type: Charm.
Sunny's heart skipped a bit. Charms were a rare type of Memories that took the form of a small accessory — most often an amulet or a talisman. Unlike weapons, armor and tools, they obviously had no practical value. However, charms made up for it by possessing unique and powerful enchantments.
Among the elite Awakened, these were the Memories everyone hunted for the most.
…And now he got one!
'Please be good, please be good…'
Memory Description: [No matter how much blood was spilled, her hunger only grew.]
Sunny blinked.
'...Creepy.'
Memory Enchantments: [Flower of Evil.]
Enchantment Description: [This beautiful charm imbues all Memories and Echoes of its wielder…]
As Sunny read the description, the runes suddenly changed right before his eyes. After a moment, a new one appeared between them:
[This beautiful charm imbues all Memories, Echoes, and Shadows of its wielder with an unquenching thirst for blood. They receive an overall enhancement when used against a bleeding foe, and grow more powerful the more their prey bleeds.]freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Not even paying attention to the way the Spell changed the runes on the fly, Sunny froze.
'Aura… it's an aura enchantment.'
Aura enchantments were an extremely rare thing. Unlike the usual enchantments, they affected not only the wielder, but everything that fit their target criteria in a certain radius.
…No need to mention how precious such things were. And Sunny didn't just get an aura charm, but also one that provided a comprehensive augmentation to the power of all — all! — his Memories, Echoes and Shadows, as long as his enemy bled.
And the more they bled, the stronger that augmentation would grow.
"Beautiful…"
Sunny was so stunned that he accidentally whispered that word out loud.
A moment later, he suddenly shuddered and quickly glanced around to make sure that Effie wasn't anywhere near him when he had said it.
To his relief, the huntress was on the opposite side of the platform, working on the map of the Forgotten Shore.
Sunny exhaled and furtively wiped the sweat off his forehead.
'Phew. That was close!"
Then, a wide grin slowly appeared on his face. With a satisfied sigh, he rested his head on the stone and thought:
'Sorry, Saint. Today, you shall remain hungry…'