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

else, let alone "Shadows". Then again, he had never heard about

my Aspect holds more

his lips and hesitated. Then, he cautiously

"Yes."

nothing happened. A moment later, the runes

enough Shadow Fragments to perform a

[Shadow Fragments required: 24/100.]

He frowned, disappointed.

my own core or do something weird to Echoes. How do I know which use is more beneficial without knowing what a transformation

would be wiser to concentrate

experiment with

that, he left the

he had spaced out for quite a bit, Nephis was looking

Sunny grinned:

"I got an Echo."

Her pupils slightly widened.

other hand, was more

actually

"Yes."

now minutes away from catching up with

beast immediately appeared in front of him, seemingly sewn together from tiny sparks of light. Soon,

unreadable expression. Then, a corner

"Good."

at her with a

think we can task it with carrying Cassie. Outside of battle, it will help us the

blind girl's mouth

me? Like…

the scavenger

with no problem at all. Trust me! I've been clambering these things a lot for the past few days. It's

Cassie hesitated.

think it's

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

the dead scavengers, the Sleepers hastily left the passage,

***

hoping to recoup the time lost in the first half of the day and reach the high