Nephis leaned against the cave wall, her eyes closed, sleeping peacefully. She seemed at ease, completely unaware of their surroundings. The torturous air, which had plagued them, showed no sign of bothering her. She must have been utterly exhausted, yet she'd still managed to fight.
Sunny found himself smiling softly as he took in her features—her face was strikingly beautiful.
'...Beautiful?'
The thought caught him off guard, and a sudden realization sent a chill through him.
"Wait... I look like a total creep right now. What the hell?"
He turned away quickly, grateful there were only two of them in the cave. Desperately trying to suppress his embarrassment, he focused on anything but Nephis.
As Sunny's gaze drifted into the darkness of the cave, a sense of boredom and loneliness settled over him. He found himself missing his cohort—even Effie's irritating and wildly inappropriate antics.
He sighed with melancholy as his thoughts drifted to a suspicion he had been harboring before he was—well, rudely interrupted.
He summoned his runes and, just as he suspected, there it was:
Name: Sunless
True Name: Lost from Light
Rank: Awakened
Class: Monster
Shadow Cores: [2/7]
Shadow Fragments: [344/2000]
He had merely awakened his shadow core before getting to this wretched place. He was at zero when they left the cave, and just as he suspected, killing the shadow wraiths resulted in him getting more shadow fragments than he usually got from Fallen Beasts. From any nightmare creature in fact.
'Was this limited to the Shadow Wraiths, or was this common for all types of Shadow Creatures?'
It seemed very plausible, but unfortunately for Sunny, he had no other way to confirm this theory.
Still, Sunny grinned in excitement as he looked down at Gloomy.
"By the time we find a way out of here, I might have unlocked all seven of my cores. Wouldn't that be a sight?"
But Gloomy just looked back at its master, unamused and unimpressed. Thankfully Happy seemed to agree for its master, and cheerfully pumped its fist in the air.
He chuckled, but even with all the new possibilities, this place was very dangerous.
Naturally, his shadow abilities made him the perfect spy and scout. He could normally escape any nightmare creature by using the shadows, and now with Shadow Step, he could escape Fallen creatures and even Corrupted ones if he was lucky.
But here, Shadow creatures were very common. They shared the same advantages he did—hell, they probably had hard counters to most tricks he could pull. He had yet to gauge and experiment with the full capabilities of Shadow step, but he would have to put that on hold.
The fact the shadows wraiths could also move through the shadows frightened him, who's to say he wouldn't accidentaly bump into one?
Sunny shivered at that possibility.
'Come on, it can't be that bad, right?'
Sunny shook his head, seemingly trying to shake the dread out of him.
Sunny's eyes aimlessly drifted to the set of runes where his aspect legacy was supposedly described, and what he saw made his eyes widen.
During his duel with Nephis, he had managed a breakthrough in Shadow Dance and had unlocked its first relic.
Looking at the shimmering runes, he grinned in excitement and pride:
Aspect Legacy: [Shadow Dance]
First Relic: [Claim]
Shadow Dance was something he had created himself out of nothing. It was entirely his, he had started by performing the same swings taught to him by Nephis thousands of times. He had almost died to gain the gift of clarity in battle, had voluntarily tortured himself with Saint hundreds of times.
Eventually, he had started to graft his own, unique battle style. It was all for this moment.
If it wasn't for this wretched place, he'd be reaping his rewards happily in his academy dorms or someplace better but no matter.
He whispered in barely contained excitement, "Claim."
He watched as the runes glowed and changed:
First Relic: Claimed.
After a moment, a faintly familiar voice whispered in his ear:
[You have received an Aspect Legacy Relic]
[You have received a Shadow: Soul Serpent]
Sunny's eyes widened and he frowned thoughtfully.
'A shadow...'
He was pleasantly surprised. He had been expecting a memory or maybe an echo, but a Shadow was certainly unexpected. Still, it was a welcome surprise.
In this vile place, another Shadow to fight with him would certainly prove useful.
He looked up to the runes describing his shadows:
Shadows: [Marble Saint], [Soul Serpent]
With excitement, Sunny summoned his new shadow, but nothing came.
He looked around curiously, but he only saw Nephis sleeping and cave walls.
A mix of confusion crept across his face as he summoned the runes.
Shadow: [Soul Serpent]
Shadow Rank: Dormant
Shadow Class: Monster
As he saw the runes, Sunny grew further perplexed. There were no runes describing how he could grow it.
Unlike Saint, who had a counter, this had nothing. The class was of monster he wondered if it classed up with its master but it was of the Dormant rank.
'Maybe its rank has more to do with my comprehension of Shadow Dance?'
Shaking his head, he further looked down to the attributes.
Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon]
Shadow Description: [When the end came, Shadow was the last of the gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him for creating death, but in the end, Death embraced all.]
That detail was certainly interesting, but Sunny was more curious about what his damn Shadow could do!
[Shadow Guide]: "Soul Serpent guides shadow essence as it flows through your body"
Sunny's eyes widened in shock, but then a crooked grin spread across his face.
This thing was really useful, especially in this wretched place.
Without essence and shadow augmentation, he could barely move.
To make matters worse, he had awakened barely a day or two ago, so his proficiency with essence manipulation and circulation was crude at best. While at the academy, he had eavesdropped on some uptight legacy brats discussing the prospect of wielding essence. He hadn't paid it much attention, preferring to focus on learning the basics of wilderness survival with Professor Julius.
But now, having become an Awakened, he knew he needed the best possible teacher to master it. With Soul Serpent, he had already solved that problem.
His eyes drifted down to the next ability of Soul Serpent.
[Soul Weapon]: "Soul Serpent can assume the form of a weapon"
"The form of a weapon?"
He tried to grasp an instinct hidden away deeply in his subconscious.
Following his mental command, he could sense something move in his body. Suddenly, a serpent slithered up his wrist as Sunny stepped back in shock.
The serpent escaped from his hand and eventually took the form of a fearsome odachi. The weapon was as tall as him, and Sunny swung it around with a dark smile.
'This weapon might not be very useful right now because it's just of the dormant rank, but it will be in the future as I rank and class up.'
He dismissed the blade, watching as the serpent slithered back into his body and vanished beneath his skin. Curious, Sunny tugged at the sleeve of the Puppeteer's Shroud, revealing an intricate tattoo of an onyx-black serpent winding along his arm. Peering down the neckline of the shroud, he spotted the same tattoo coiling around his torso.
Sunny frowned. The tattoo itself didn't bother him much—if anything, it was strikingly beautiful. What troubled him was how he would explain it to Nephis.
'Ah, this tattoo? Oh, it's just a relic from my aspect legacy, linked to the followers of the Shadow God. You know, the all-powerful deity that wields death. No big deal.'
The thought left him stumped, and he quickly shoved it out of his mind. It was far from his biggest concern right now.
Overall, though, Sunny was deeply satisfied with his harvest.
Still, he needed to be sure of something. He turned to check on Nephis, confirming she was still asleep, before dismissing the Puppeteer's Shroud.
He was right: the tattoo of the serpent indeed encompassed almost his entire upper body. While he had assumed so, it was still a bit of a shock. It was akin to the Shadow Slaves he had seen in his vision.
It felt wierd, being claimed by a mysterious god which he had no information on.
Hurriedly, he summoned the Puppeteer's Shroud back, hoping Nephis was still asleep. Turning to check, he saw that she was—but she seemed to be trembling.
Probably just her body reacting to overexertion, he reassured himself. At least, he hoped so...
He tilted his head down to his forearm, where the head of the onyx serpent lay coiled. Almost as if responding to his gaze, the serpent shifted, its head turning upward to meet its master's eyes.
Sunny smiled wryly. "You wouldn't mind helping your master learn the secrets of essence mastery, would you?"