Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the runes, perplexed.

Then, a sudden light of understanding appeared in his eyes. He finally realized what was the principal difference between an Echo and a Shadow.

It was really very simple.

The Echoes were mere replicas of the creatures that had left them behind. They were molded in their image and never changed, always remaining the same as the originals at the moment of their deaths.

Shadows, however, were different. After all, they were mercurial by nature, always changing their forms and shapes depending on the environment. And so, a Shadow was capable of change to some extent, too.

It was capable of growth.

His eyes widened.

By slaying Nightmare Creatures, he was able to absorb their shadow fragments and become stronger. Eventually, his Shadow Core was bound to evolve, turning from Dormant to Awakened… and beyond. The jump in power that came with this evolution was nothing short of unmatched.

Granted, he wasn't sure about the particular details of this process, not to mention that, as a human, he could only become an Awakened after returning from the Dream Realm into the real world, which was impossible to do in this godforsaken place. He also didn't know what would happen if he actually managed to accumulate the thousand shadow fragments that the runes demanded.

happened, if he were to continue walking forward on the path of the Awakened, he would eventually outgrow his Memories and Echoes, rendering them weak and useless against the enemies of the comparable rank. He would then be forced to

get. The Echoes, however,

growing with him, becoming more powerful just as he grew more powerful! As long as Sunny was willing to

endless. It was enough to completely change his plans for the future. In the past, Sunny always envisioned himself as the main force on the battlefield, only relying on Memories and a stray Echo or two to

rare than Memories, there were still many Dormant Echoes around, and a fair number of Awakened ones too. They were mainly shared among Masters and

trophies brought back after killing creatures of their kind to make the idea of acquiring an Echo of a higher

except

Echoes, and then cultivate them into unstoppable beasts of slaughter. Not bound by the laws of probability and diminishing chances, he could slowly build

what rich people

bound by the need to pass Nightmares to raise their rank… at least not to Sunny's knowledge. To be honest, he had no idea how Nightmare Creatures evolved their cores. Carapace Demon had seemed to

he would be able to make the Shadow Saint much more powerful than he himself had the chance

even powerful enough to make

with excited sparks dancing in his eyes, Sunny grinned from

to accomplish great things together,

in his heart yet, it would be smart to start worrying about it

***