Shadow Slave

Eventually, Sunny climbed out of the bath, dressed himself, and moved to the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

After the intense gauntlet of the Gate battle, he was hungry like a wolf. Ravenous, really...

Cooking calmed him down a little, and the pleasant smell made his mood a bit better. Now that Sunny had some time to think, he saw the whole situation in a new light.

Yes, his hope for Mongrel to be forgotten was utterly shattered. But there was a bright side to this fiasco — now that he had completely failed to keep a low profile... there was no more reason to. Which meant that he could resume practicing Shadow Dance in the Dreamscape, and hopefully master its second step before winter came.

He just had to rethink how he viewed the persona of Mongrel.

Initially, Sunny had planned for it to be unseen and anonymous, merely a camouflage he would put on to accomplish certain things — things that were inconvenient or too dangerous to be tied to his own name.

...Well, that ship had sailed. He was pretty sure that from now on, anything having to do with Mongrel was going to be at the center of people's attention.

But that wasn't necessarily bad. There were ways to remain unseen even in the spotlight. In fact, sometimes it was easier — all magicians knew that the secret to pulling off a flawless trick was not to become invisible, but to direct the crowd's attention toward something eye-catching and away from the hand performing the switch.

Sunny was not a magician, but he did consider himself to be an experienced cheat. The principle was more or less the same.

So if he played his cards right, the more attention Mongrel received, the more freedom he would have to move unseen in the shadows, accomplishing his goals under everyone's noses with no one being the wiser.

"Maybe…"

Such a thing was hard to accomplish and hid more risk, but also promised a greater reward. So, not all was lost.

Plus, he had protected Rain. That was the only thing that really mattered. Everything else paled in comparison.

Sunny finished his decadently generous dinner and moved to the porch. Sitting in the shade, he relaxed, grimaced a little due to pain, and took a sip of tea.

He was suddenly in a great mood. And why wouldn't he be? It was finally time to take a look at his spoils. The battle might have been hard and had almost cost him his life, but he had not fought for nothing.

Summoning the runes, Sunny glanced at the familiar string of them and smiled.

Shadow Fragments: [1814/2000].

'Incredible…'

In just ten or so minutes, Sunny had gained more shadow fragments than he usually did in weeks.

From what Sunny remembered, he slaughtered almost a hundred Nightmare Creatures in front of the Gate. Granted, most of them were of the Dormant Rank and had not contributed any fragments to his growing cores, but still, it was a monumental accomplishment.

It made him think back to the first abomination he had ever slain, the Mountain King's Larva. How tense and terrifying that fight had been, how convinced he was that the perverse creature would kill him. Who would have thought that one day in a not-too-distant future, he would be able to slaughter a hundred Nightmare Creatures of similar and greater power without being torn to pieces?

had come

his gaze, he glanced at the runes describing his Memories and

was so

even counting the obsidian spear he had gotten and then swiftly lost to the tyrant,

for a bit and, coming to the conclusion that none were better than his current

Memories to Saint and looked

Shadow Fragments: [179/200].

'So close…'

before having to go into battle with the vine creature inhabiting the wreck of the ancient ship. If Saint grew even more powerful before then,

grimacing from time to time because of the pain

was a

in a PTV, made sure that she was fine… well, as fine as a young girl could be after experiencing

due for some well-deserved

***

flooding the city with pale white light, Sunny was resting in his living room, doing nothing in particular. He was lazily scrolling through the pages of a popular

really think about

strange sound. It took Sunny a couple of seconds to realize

was knocking

'What the hell…'

him at this late

to take a look and scratched the back of

other than Rain, wearing her cozy

she

next to each other. Walking over to the door, he lingered a second or two, made sure that none of his bruises were showing, and

"Uh… yeah? What's up?"

was,

I… the food

for

"Oh. Wait here…"

to the kitchen, retrieved the container from the dishwasher machine, and returned

mom that her cooking

didn't leave. Instead, she just stood there silently, looking at him with

Sunny frowned.

"Can I…"

moment,

know who you

hand, he would undoubtedly do a

'What?!'