[Welcome to the Realm of Dreams, Sasha.]
Sasha woke up on a flat, hard, cold surface. Being naked and having her skin in direct contact with the stone and the icy wind didn't help calm her down.
She summoned a memory of a leather armor that clung to her beautiful figure like a second skin, covering her from the cold. She began to explore her surroundings in complete darkness, with barely any visibility.
"I really appreciate the armor from Jony, I could have died of hypothermia in these conditions."
After a while, she returned to the center of the rock and reviewed everything she knew.
"First; I am on a rock at least ten meters round.
Second; I am on top of a rock surrounded by a sea of black, impenetrable water.
Third; this place has no moon or stars, the sky is complete darkness."
"Nothing to work with. I'll wait for the day to see if anything changes. In the meantime, I should make sure no abominations climb up here from the water and try to eat me."
Thus, Sasha spent the entire night awake and vigilant over the strange black waters of this place.
After a few hours, Sasha could see a hint of sunlight on the horizon. But it wasn't the only new thing she noticed in all the darkness. The sea also began to behave strangely, making noises and slowly receding.
Watching in astonishment as the vast mass of water that reached the limits of her vision receded and revealed, after about 30 minutes, mountains and piles of crimson red coral. She thought the water was retreating from the sun, as if it feared its light, and perhaps it would return once the sun left the sky.
After this splendid clash between the sun and its light against the black tide of the sea, she explored her surroundings.
All around her, wherever she looked, an endless sea of crimson red coral stretched to the horizon, resembling a gigantic labyrinth with countless paths to follow. The coral didn't reach very high but was at least four meters above the ground, easily concealing large beasts. She then looked for other places like her rock on the horizon.
To the east, about two or three kilometers away, she could see a coral as tall as the rock she was standing on.
"I should go there, even if the chances are slim, I might find another sleeper. Nothing is impossible in the Dream Realm. Besides, if this place is an unexplored zone, as I suspect since it doesn't resemble any of the human-conquered places I researched at the academy, I need all the help I can get to find a way out of here."
Determined, she set out to explore the labyrinth's surroundings in search of food or things that could help her survive.
Although she wasn't rich or from a legacy clan, she had received lessons in school as a child, so she knew many survival skills and had learned even more after "that" incident.
After descending from the high rock, she ventured into the coral labyrinth, careful not to make noise or attract any creatures.
After walking for a while, memorizing the places she came from, she spotted a creature in a clearing among the corals. The beast was two and a half meters tall, resembling a cross between a crab, a human, and some ugly abomination.
Careful not to attract its attention, she walked back the way she came.
***
When she finally reached the top of her rocky base, she stared into the distance, memorizing possible paths toward the tall coral to the east. And as the sun was leaving the sky, she heard a loud rumble coming from the west. There, a great tide of black water was approaching her location.
It was the same sea that had hidden earlier from the sunlight, now returning to flood the entire area.
When night fell, she was already completely surrounded by black water and almost palpable darkness. The fact that there was no satellite or stars in the sky made the nights very dark, reducing her vision to the extreme, so she expected to spend the night meditating and rest a bit in the morning.
However, something happened in the middle of the night. A loud noise was heard at least a few hundred meters from her location. Something was cutting through the water, perhaps a creature with a fin out of the water swimming at full speed. No one knew what it really was.
But that wasn't the only sound. Sasha also listened intently to the sound of something hitting the water's surface with a brutal force that could easily shatter the mountain she was on. That something was fighting the creature cutting through the water. She couldn't see anything, but just hearing the fight between those two creatures made her tremble at the thought of their battle getting closer to her.
Only the aftermath of their battle reached the rock, which was battered by waves of water reaching two meters above the surface. Sasha was almost swept away by the waves a couple of times, but she desperately clung to the gaps in the rock to withstand the force of the waves.
After at least an hour of constant noise from both beings fighting, there was a final blow to something that wasn't water, more like the collision of flesh with flesh of gigantic sizes clashing. After that, it seemed the battle had ended, and after a while, the waves subsided, the sea calmed, and Sasha could collapse on the rock and fall asleep from exhaustion.
***
The next morning, Sasha woke up with sore muscles from the effort of enduring the waves from the previous night, so she lay down to rest her aching body. But she hadn't let her guard down since she woke up, ready to get up and fight at any moment if necessary.
After an hour of lying in the center, she got up and directed her attention to the west, from where the black tide had come.
"I really should stay away from that place. If that giant tide comes from there, I don't want to encounter whatever is attracting it every day."
So, she continued watching the labyrinth in search of new paths toward the coral, deciding that if nothing happened that day, she would head there tomorrow, looking for someone or something that could help her escape this place.
After a few more hours while watching the labyrinth, she heard something coming from the east of her rock, something was climbing.
Suddenly tense and ready to fight, she stood up and waited for whatever was climbing to reach the top so she could kill it.
After a tense minute waiting for that thing to climb, she saw a head poke over the rock. It wasn't a human head but a head with two holes in its face and a toothed mouth with two small pincers on the sides. The rest of its body soon followed. It had four pointed legs on its lower part, connected to a giant shell covered in chitin armor. On its front was a torso similar to a human's, with two limbs ending in pincers resembling scythes. These arms had some cartilage-like connections for better mobility of the pincers. Its torso also had many armor plate connections, seeming like a weaker spot than the rest.
That demon crab lunged at Sasha as soon as it climbed the rock. She activated her ability and immediately prepared to face this beast.
When the beast reached her and swung its pincers, Sasha moved to the side, dodging and landing a kick that connected with one of the arm-to-torso connections.
It felt like hitting a rock, but she managed to do considerable damage. It seemed the beast couldn't move its right pincer after the blow, so it attacked with its legs and then the missing pincer.
Sasha could dodge everything thanks to her enhanced reflexes and speed. Still, she had no time to counterattack since the beast was fast and tough, so she had to aim for its weaknesses in its arms and torso.
After dodging a strike with its right pincer, exposing the cartilage connecting its limb to the torso, Sasha didn't hesitate and landed another powerful kick to the cartilage, producing the sound of something breaking.
After successfully striking the joint and leaving the beast without arms to attack, she jumped back onto the beast's torso and retreated as far as she could without falling off the cliff.
When the crab advanced to crush her with two of its four pointed legs, she leaped and, with great force from the momentum of her jump, managed to pass the legs and land a blow on what seemed like the connection of the beast's entire armor on its torso.
Her hand also hurt, but she knew it wasn't broken. She managed to penetrate the weak chitin on its torso and strike the beast's interior, which fell with a loud thud after that blow.
[You have killed an awakened beast, scavenger with a shell]
[You have received a memory]