Shadow Slave

Sunny waited for a few moments, and then hurriedly stood up while summoning the runes. This was it… the moment he had been waiting for! After so much time, all the sweat and blood, his effort had finally paid off. He had made another step toward becoming a true battle master.

All it took was…

Sunny thought for a second, then glanced at the runes describing the Mantle of the Underworld first. Under the description of the [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment, a runic counter glowed:

Vanquished Foes: [2332/6000].

All it took was killing twelve hundred enemies with his own two hands… and dying by a Master's hand once.

Around nine hundred of those kills had happened in the Dreamscape, one in the waking world, and the rest in the wild reaches of the Chained Isles. Sadly, creatures slain by Saint did not count toward the requirement of the strange enchantment, or the number would have been any higher.

Still, it was good progress.

Turning away, Sunny found the string of runes he wanted to see the most:

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

He concentrated on the latter and read:

Shadow: [Soul Serpent].

Shadow Rank: Awakened.

A wide grin appeared on his face. Sunny closed his eyes and listened to his soul, then circulated shadow essence through the coils of the serpent. He could feel that it was flowing even faster than before. The rate of essence expenditure and regeneration was also improved.

'Perfect!'

He had expected the process of evolving to a new Rank to take a long time, like it had happened with Saint back on the Forgotten Shore, but Soul Serpent had awakened instantly after he had reached the second level of mastery over the Shadow Dance, maybe due to its unique nature as an Aspect Legacy Relic.

'What else changed, I wonder?'

Sunny opened his eyes and looked back to the runes. He had already noticed that there were new ones in the description of the Shadow.

[Shadow Guide],

Beast]

concentrated on the new Attribute and

can assume the

a couple

'...What?'

his bare chest and stared at the intricate tattoo of a black serpent that coiled

the tattoo moved, slithering onto his palm

a sharp blade, a triangular head of a massive snake appeared in the air

Sunny's skin and manifesting itself into existence. Its jet-black scales rustled quietly as they touched the armored plates of the floor, and soon, petrified Sunny was looking at a giant snake, at least six meters in length, its body as wide as a large

as high as

maw and hissed,

Sunny gulped.

dark radiance. They seemed as deep as the lightless expanse of an ocean of shadows, and were full of strange, alien

there was no aggression or ill will in

Serpent was greeting its

Then, he sent the creepy shadow forward, and it swiftly wrapped itself around the serpent. Immediately, flowing

turned ghostly, enveloped in wisps of impenetrable, moving

for a moment, and then

good buy

patted

blink… if it had any eyelids. Was Sunny imagining things, or did the obsidian

runes, and lowered his

very bottom,

[Serpentine Steel], [Soul

portion of the soul essence of those slain by the Shadow Serpent in its Soul Weapon or Soul Beast

Sunny's smile widened.

fact that I can't use the Serpent to regenerate essence while it is not on my body. In fact, as long as it continues to

the

are going to do great things together, buddy! You'll have plenty

back into a tattoo and coiled itself around his body. It was as though there had never

let's take a look at