Shadow Slave

'Echo… it's an Echo…'

Sunny couldn't believe his eyes.

Echoes were an extremely rare type of reward that Awakened could receive after slaying Nightmare Creatures. Chances of getting one were very low. In the real world, an Echo could be sold for an unimaginable amount of money. That's because they were much more precious than Memories.

Without delaying it much further, he dove into his Sea of Soul. There, very few things had changed: a lonely black sun was still hanging above the calm, silent waters. It was orbited by spheres of light that represented his Memories. This time, there were three of them.

Just like before, Sunny couldn't get rid of the feeling that something was stealthily moving just beyond the periphery of his vision. However, this time, he didn't pay it any attention. He wanted to see his Echo.

It, too, was represented by a sphere of light. However, this sphere was much larger and hovered further away from the Shadow Core. With a thought, he commanded it to descent.

The sphere slowly floated down and touched the dark water. As Sunny came closer, walking on the surface of the sea, its radiance slowly faded away, revealing the monster contained within.

A hulking, menacing carapace scavenger was calmly standing in front of him. There was no madness in its eyes… or any feeling at all, for that matter. After all, it wasn't really alive. It was just an echo.

Shining runes appeared in the air around the scavenger.

Echo: [Carapace Scavenger].

Echo Type: Beast.

Echo Core: Awakened.

Echo Attributes: [Strong], [Armored].

Echo Description: [A cursed soldier of the fallen legion].

Before Sunny knew it, a wide grin appeared on his face. That scavenger was now his: it could be summoned and used to fight against his enemies, carry heavy cargo or perform other tasks. What's more, it was a whole rank above its master, which meant that it was much stronger, more resilient and fearsome than a Dreamer with a dormant core should normally possess.

With this Echo by their side, many things would become easier.

Following an impulse, Sunny raised a hand and brushed it against cold, black chitin. He just wanted to touch his new possession…

However, the moment his palm touched the scavenger, a strange thing happened. The Soul of Sea suddenly surged a little, and a new set of runes appeared:

[Transform Echo into a Shadow?]

Sunny flinched and snatched his hand back.

hell is

heard anything about transforming Echoes into something else, let alone "Shadows". Then again, he

my Aspect holds more

licked his lips and hesitated.

"Yes."

happened. A moment later, the

Shadow Fragments to perform a

[Shadow Fragments required: 24/100.]

He frowned, disappointed.

the fragments. They can either enhance my own core or do something weird to Echoes. How do I know which

that it would be wiser to

with

that, he left the Sea of

quite a bit, Nephis was looking at him with

Sunny grinned:

"I got an Echo."

Her pupils slightly widened.

the other hand,

You actually got an

"Yes."

group of monsters was now minutes away from catching up with them, Sunny didn't waste any time and summoned the

beast immediately appeared in front of him, seemingly sewn together from tiny sparks of light. Soon, its black chitin became fully corporeal. Following Sunny's

Echo with an unreadable expression. Then,

"Good."

at her with a

it with carrying Cassie.

girl's

Like…

chuckled and slapped the scavenger on its

clambering these things a lot

Cassie hesitated.

you think it's

climb on top of the Echo. Then, they used the golden rope to create makeshift reins for Cassie to hold

quickly retrieving soul shards from the dead scavengers, the Sleepers hastily left the passage,

***

dramatically increased. Sunny and Nephis were jogging in the front, hoping to recoup the time lost in the first half