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,

"What is that?"

the skin of his wrist, peaking

intuition, Sunny hastily stood up and took off the top of the training suit provided to him by the staff of the hospital complex. Left naked to the waist, he then

'...Huh?!'

intricate image of a black serpent was tattooed, so detailed that it almost seemed alive. The serpent coiled around his arms and his torso,

I have…

the darkness of the small room, the serpent almost seemed to move under his skin, two curved fangs

the serpent immediately. Both the nameless temple slave and his

was the

new Shadow turn

and soul, trying to feel if something had

did

essence through his body had changed. If previously it had circulated naturally, now, it seemed to follow the

does that thing enhance

several movements of Shadow Dance.

was he able to control the essence better, but it

was connected both to his cores and to his body, creating a strange bridge that allowed Sunny to use his shadow essence

is… a

words were an egregious understatement. Sunny had already understood how important and vital managing essence was for the Awakened — any

he got such a marvelous one, practically for

more powerful in the future, provided he kept it well-fed,

he supposed to feed

for a bit, then finally concentrated

Shadow: [Soul Serpent].

Shadow Rank: Dormant.

Shadow Class: Monster.

[Shadow Guide],

gods to be destroyed. Many have resented him

a connection between Shadow God and death,

accustomed to paying the most attention to when it came to Saint, was missing. There was

Sunny frowned.

think

Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that it was a monster — Sunny was a monster himself, after all. So, maybe, the Serpent would not evolve its Class like Saint had, by consuming the soul core of a suitable Nightmare Creature. Most likely, it would grow alongside

was it of the Dormant Rank, while Sunny had already become an