Shadow Slave

Some time later, Sunny found the time to dove into the Soul Sea and take a look at the new Memory he had gotten.

It was a heavy round shield forged from dull, lusterless, dark steel. Inside of it, visible only to him, a complex weave of ethereal strings shone with stark radiance.

Memory: [Dusk Shard].

Memory Rank: Ascended.

Memory Tier: II.

Memory Type: Weapon.

Memory Description: [Forged from a shard of a fallen star, this shield contains the weight of the heavens. Depending on the heart of its wielder, it can be light as a feather or heavy as regret.]

Memory Enchantments: [Indomitable].

Enchantment Description: [Following the will of its master, the Dusk Shard can change its weight.]

Sunny frowned.

This enchantment… at first glance, it seemed very unassuming. People usually thought about the weight of their weapons only when they considered how much endurance they would need to wield them. In that regard, the lighter the weapon was, the better — a light weapon could allow a person to fight longer without growing tired, which often meant the difference between victory and defeat.

However, things changed when it came to the Awakened, who often possessed inhuman strength and endurance. Light weapons had their role to play, but more often than not, what you really needed was force. And the more mass something had, the more force it could produce.

In the past, Sunny had only considered shields as a defensive tool. But after watching Effie and Stone Saint use them in battle, he realized that in the hands of a trained warrior, a shield could be as destructive and deadly as a sword. Sometimes much more so.

Just imagining Effie bashing someone with a shield that weighed a few hundred kilograms sent shivers running down his spine. Not to mention that the weight could be changed on the fly, making it light to maneuver faster, then turning it into an improvised siege ram at the right moment.

But even in terms of pure defense, a shield that could be turned into a literal wall was priceless. He could see a monster such as the Spire Messenger colliding with it… and simply bouncing off in the chorus of shattering bones.

...Maybe.

and the sword he used demanded two hands to be wielded properly. But where there was a will,

the Dusk Shard. The sparks of light appeared in a whirlwind around his arm. A few long seconds later, the silhouette of a

'How ni… oh crap!'

fell on top of the dull iron shield

'This... is so heavy!'

had ever expected. In fact, it was probably too heavy for him to even lift, let

glanced at Sunny, who

shield off the ground. However, no matter how hard he tried, he only managed to drag it by a

"Curses!"

too damn

a few seconds later, his face

can't be. No

was hard to

change the Dusk Shard's weight at

was supposed to allow Sunny to do that was there, but it required him to actively manipulate the soul essence — shadow essence, in his case

were all like that. And the higher a Memory rank, the more probable it was

had no way to control and manipulate

chances of him coming to possess not one, not two, but three whole Ascended Memories… only to find out that two of them were

it! Damn it all! But especially damn

grinding his teeth in outrage, Effie approached him and glanced down from her considerable height. Then, she leaned forward, took the Dusk Shard by the rim, and lifted it — along with Sunny — from the ground, seemingly without

then? The Memory you got

at her for a long time, his expression unreadable. Then,

couldn't help but notice that your shield Memory was destroyed in that last fight.

She rolled her eyes.

Sunny's Shady Emporium is open

blinked a couple of times,

How did

the heavy shield, squinted, and said