Shadow Slave

If there was one thing Sunny missed about the Forgotten Shore, it was how scarce the resources out there were. As the result, the value of soul shards was way higher there than back in the real world. Well… the parts of the Dream Realm that were better connected to the real world, at least.

Not that shards were cheap here. It's just that the deals Sunny was able to make were not as lucrative as the ones he had made in the Dark City. He was also not able to bring the soul shards back to the real world with him, which also affected the final price.

In the end, the collection of crystals he had gathered during his last trip through the Chained Island — including those retrieved from Fallen creatures — only landed him three Memories of questionable utility. He fed them to Saint, bringing her shadow fragment counter to [163/200].

'Not bad, I guess.'

After concluding his business in the park, Sunny went to the kitchens and traded the fruits he had found for a bunch of credits.

The fruits were a very rare commodity on the Chained Isles — they could not be made into anything even remotely useful or advantageous, but some bright mind in the Sanctuary had once come up with a method to make them into a very hard-hitting and tasty wine. Sunny himself had sworn off alcohol after his experiences on the Forgotten Shore, but he wasn't against making some money from it.

In the early days of the Sanctuary, the wine was all the rage among the local Awakened. Not too long after it had been established, most of the man-eating vines that grew the fruits had been hunted down to extinction on the island surrounding the Citadel. Now, only people who went further and risked their lives more had a chance to find several fruits, so the cost was rather substantial.

'That should… uh… buy me a new fridge, I think.'

Sunny had only a very vague idea of how much refrigerators cost, but suspected that this recent exchange would be enough to cover the expenses of shopping for a new one.

All in all, he was satisfied with the result of his recent expedition. He was progressing at a steady pace and slowly gathering everything he needed to make it even faster.

...Just in time, considering that Nephis was days away from becoming a devil.

With a slight frown, he exited the ring of menhirs and looked up.

several hours to complete, so it was already night. The crescent moon was visible in the dark sky,

it's going to

mood, Sunny

venture into the Isles, either going for a yet unexplored ruin or a habitat of the Nightmare Creatures he was preparing to challenge and kill. But these excursions took several days to complete,

'Can I return already?'

with the Gateways was different from most other people, but suspected that it was either because of his two cores or because of the fact that he had spent an entire year in this

the [Spark of Divinity] had something to do

avoid returning to the real world too fast too often, in order to not attract unnecessary attention. Today, however, he was willing to forego extra caution… the things waiting for

Walking on the stone path in complete darkness,

want to venture out in the rain,

altar, Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then put

Nothing happened.

it's too early,

What a disappointment.

time and wait for the opportunity to activate the Gateway, Sunny paced a little, stared at the depths of the clear pool, then

altar and grabbed the handle of the

and tried to lift the damned thing, but no matter how hard he

'Move, damn you!'

there was