Shadow Slave

With an empty stomach and a head full of thoughts, Sunny returned to the center of the platform and sat down. After a while, he beckoned to his shadow and said:

"Wake me up if anything happens."

Then, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. His consciousness quickly slid into the sweet embrace of darkness, giving Sunny some well-needed rest.

In the middle of the night, however, a sudden impulse stirred him awake. Sunny jumped to his feet, his groggy mind full of tense apprehension. He was afraid that the owner of the giant tentacle had come back to finish the job.

Or maybe some other horror from the depths had sensed him and decided to snack on human meat.

However, the sea was quiet and calm. He didn't hear any abnormalities around the knight's statue.

"What is it?" Sunny whispered, addressing the shadow.

The shadow silently pointed him in a particular direction.

Turning his head, Sunny squinted. He quickly understood why it was a good idea to wake up. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to see…

Out there in the distance, a few kilometers away, a small orange light was shimmering in the darkness. Its reflections were rising and falling with the movement of waves.

It was too far away to make out any details, so Sunny just stared at it for a while. Pretty soon, the light disappeared.

"Other Sleepers? Natural phenomenon? Or some monster laying a trap?"

Memories of nightmarish deepwater creatures immediately came to his mind.

Shaking his head, Sunny lay back down and attempted to return to his slumber. However, this time sleep was escaping him. Pangs of hunger were still not unbearable, but slowly becoming more and more intense. The thirst, however, was worse.

he remained awake up until the

***

as the morning came, the pincer monsters crawled back from their hiding spots and rushed

to take a look in the direction where he had

the ground rose naturally and formed something akin to a hill. On top of that hill, an especially massive coral pillar rose to

the looks of it, its upper branches were just high enough to stay above water in the

head, but at the end of it, only two questions

all — would he be able to find the way through the labyrinth and cover that distance during the day? And more importantly, should he even attempt to do it? After

He did, however, send the shadow to investigate as far into the labyrinth as the range of Shadow Control allowed, hoping to chart

atop the headless statue as he probably could be in this strange place. The only problem was, he was going to die soon because of

ways taught to him by Teacher Julius, with materials that were present pretty much everywhere in the Dream Realm. He could also prepare traps and hunt a pincer monster

could easily see such a routine: hunting by day, returning to the statue at the

hope. If he was destined to spend the rest of his life in the small area surrounding the headless statue, devouring

would rather just jump down and

of the orange light. And if Sunny was really trying to

of the

the next morning. He

closed his eyes and

***

descended upon the dark sea. Sunny was stirred awake by the shadow in time to prepare himself for the crushing winds and the

as to not be blown over the edge of the platform, Sunny cupped his hands and waited

the churning sea. If anyone were to see Sunny now, they would have

a tall wave would crash into the headless knight's neck, threatening to wash him away. But Sunny held tight to

when the storm finally dissipated, all of his

no

the monsters came back to the carcass, with a few stragglers quickly following behind, he slid over the edge

about giving his student a crash course in all possible forms of traversal. Additionally, Sunny had already scouted the optimal way down and memorized the