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.

what 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

were comparatively easy to get. The Echoes, however, were exceedingly rare. Once an Echo grew too weak to accompany its master, replacing it

more powerful! As long as Sunny was

In the past, Sunny always envisioned himself as the main force on the battlefield, only relying on Memories and a stray Echo or two

classes were so unimaginably hard to come by. Although much more 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 Saints, who were capable of defeating the Nightmare Creature of these

battles against Fallen and Corrupted monsters, not to mention anything even more dreadful, were never easy. As such, there were not enough trophies brought back after killing creatures of their kind to make the idea of acquiring an Echo of a higher rank a

except

into unstoppable beasts of slaughter. Not bound by the laws of probability and diminishing chances, he could slowly build an army of powerful Shadows to fight his battles for him, and then watch

rich people drank,

least not to Sunny's knowledge. To be honest, he had no idea how Nightmare Creatures evolved

be able to make the Shadow

make his

the Shadow with excited sparks dancing in his eyes, Sunny

to accomplish

in his heart yet,

***