Shadow Slave

As waves of summer heat assaulted the city, its concrete and alloy jungle had turned into a sweltering oven. The air filtration systems were running without pause to save the people from suffocating in the clouds of pollutants, and in poorer districts, water had to be rationed because of the draught.

…Luckily, none of that touched the peaceful terrace neighborhood.

Here, people leisurely enjoyed the warm weather in the cool shade of the tall trees when they had free time, had unlimited access to fresh water and delightfully cold drinks, and lived their lives seemingly without a care in the world.

Sunny was constantly surprised to find himself among these fortunate and prosperous people.

For the past month, his life was very busy, but without any distress. He had been steadily working toward his various goals, slowly making progress toward each. His shadow fragments were nearing full saturation, and so were Saint's.

He had returned to the Dreamscape and participated in countless duels in the professional arenas, where the fighters were much more capable and gave him the opportunity to witness — and comprehend — many different battle styles. As the result, Sunny was able to further develop Shadow Dance, making his mastery of it much more solid.

The [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment of the Mantle was now also very different from how it had been before. Even if he wasn't going to reach the mark — six thousand defeated opponents — any time soon… or even a third of it… he was still making consistent progress. The counter already showed [1579/6000].

The drawback, of course, was that with each day he went without losing a fight, Mongrel received more and more praise and attention. These days, each of his duels gathered an audience as large as that of the top Dreamscape broadcasters… especially because some sort of a yearly tournament seemed to be approaching.

Mongrel's fans, however, were doomed to be bitterly disappointed. Sunny had no plans of participating in a foolish imaginary competition. He didn't care about fame and recognition, and was too busy to even spare it a thought.

Apart from practicing Shadow Dance, he also continued training with Effie and Saint, slowly bringing his mastery of the spear close to that of his knowledge of the sword. He also had to run the Brilliant Emporium, which was quickly blossoming into an actual enterprise thanks to Aiko's management and hard work.

…And of course, he had been training Rain.

"Come on! Seriously?"

She was currently in his living room, staring at him with outrage.

Sunny tilted his head a little.

"Sure. What seems to be the problem?"

Rain opened her mouth, then shook her head.

the teacher, I really do. But! It has already been a month, and all you taught me were wilderness survival lessons. And one — only one! — strike, which I

Sunny grinned.

you how to decimate Nightmare Creatures and bring all your

then said

"...Yes?"

He shrugged.

teaching you. Who do you think survives in the Dream Realm? The best swordsmen? The strongest fighter? No. You need to be alive to fight a Nightmare Creature, and for that, you need to know how to find food, water,

He paused, then added:

you the basics in school, but not nearly enough. You want to

and then

balancing in her wheelchair with a bored expression on her face, waiting at the door for some

to Sunny, kid. He might look like a wet weasel, but this guy knows his stuff. The things he lived through are simply beyond

her a dark glance, and

"Thanks. I guess."

her defeat. A

"What's step two?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

that learning to navigate the environment without dying

looked at her for a few moments, then

You're not ready for step two yet, though. We'll get to it when

been nice and soft. But she would have to not only come to terms with violence, but also adopt it into the very core of

it long before his First Nightmare,

him with disappointment, then

to be strong like

blinked a couple of

"Uh… like who?"

Rain suddenly smiled.

She is so amazing! So strong, so beautiful. A true

a mortified expression