Shadow Slave

Sunny stared at the runes for a while, then slightly tilted his head.

'A Shadow…'

What an unexpected boon.

Usually, a Legacy Relic came in the form of a Memory, or very rarely an Echo. Perhaps there were some other types of Relics out there, but he had never heard of them.

That didn't mean much, though. By now, Sunny was reasonably certain that there were a lot of things that he, as well as the rest of mundane humans, had never heard about. Awakened kept a lot of secrets.

Nevertheless, receiving a Shadow pleasantly surprised him.

Looking up, he saw new runes appearing out of thin air:

Shadows: [Marble Saint], [Soul Serpent].

Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then furtively looked around. The small room was empty and quiet.

Feeling a little bit stupid, Sunny shook his head and summoned his new Shadow to take a good look at it.

A slight breeze moved his hair, and in the next second…

Nothing happened.

'Huh?'

Sunny frowned and looked around the room, then scratched the back of his head.

'What the hell? Where is the damn snake?'

He had hoped to see a giant serpent made out of shadows appear in front of him, with black scales as thick as plate armor and a mouth wide enough to swallow his enemies whole. Or an average-sized snake, at least!

But there was nothing.

He even checked to see if a new shadow joined his two invaluable helpers, but no. Both rested on the floor, one seemingly content, the other bored and in a perpetually bad mood.

'Weird…'

raised a hand to rub his eyes, but froze

"What is that?"

something dark on the skin of his wrist, peaking out slightly from beneath the

off the top of the training suit provided to him by the staff of the hospital complex. Left

'...Huh?!'

an intricate image of a black serpent was tattooed, so detailed that it almost seemed alive. The serpent coiled around his arms and his torso, its tail resting just above his right

I have… a

almost seemed to move under his skin, two curved fangs threatening to break its surface.

immediately. Both the nameless temple slave and his mother had a

the

why did his new

to his body and soul, trying to feel

did notice a

it had circulated naturally, now, it seemed to follow the coils of the serpent, moving faster and with more intent,

Serpent… does that thing enhance my shadow

Dance. After that, he jumped from one shadow to another a few times, expending even

control the essence better, but it also seemed

on the material and the spiritual plane. As such, it was connected both to his cores and

a very useful

and vital managing essence was for the Awakened — any tool that could enhance that aspect of their

a marvelous one, practically

the Serpent would only get more powerful in the

how was he supposed to feed Memories

Sunny thought for a bit, then finally concentrated on the

Shadow: [Soul Serpent].

Shadow Rank: Dormant.

Shadow Class: Monster.

[Shadow

last of the gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him for creating death, but in the end, death

interesting detail of a connection between

paying the most attention to when it came to Saint, was missing. There was no indication of how many shadow fragments it

Sunny frowned.

to think of

clearly connected to his soul. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that it was a monster — Sunny was a monster himself, after all. So, maybe, the

the Dormant Rank, while Sunny had already become an