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.

Guide], [Soul

[Soul Beast] wasn't there

concentrated on the new

Description: "Soul Serpent can assume the

a

'...What?'

and stared at the intricate tattoo of a black serpent that coiled around his torso and arms. Then, Sunny carefully raised one hand and gave the

slithering onto his palm and

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

touched the armored plates of the floor, and soon,

and soon reaching as high as Sunny was tall. A forked tongue flashed for a moment, and then the serpent looked him right in the

and hissed, revealing long, terrifying

Sunny gulped.

They seemed as

was no aggression or ill will in

Shadow Serpent was greeting its

away and studied the dark creature's body. Then, he sent the creepy shadow forward, and it swiftly wrapped itself around the serpent. Immediately, flowing patterns that were somehow even darker than the lusterless, obsidian scales revealed themselves, and the pressure that the shadow beast exerted instantly became much, much more

turned ghostly, enveloped in wisps of

for a

good

at the giant snake, and then patted

was the mighty beast's turn to blink… if it had any eyelids. Was Sunny imagining things, or did the obsidian serpent seem a bit startled by

he glanced back at the runes, and lowered his gaze. There was

very bottom,

[Serpentine

essence of those slain by the Shadow Serpent in its Soul Weapon or Soul Beast form is absorbed and

Sunny's smile widened.

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

glanced at the

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

onto his skin. A few seconds later, the Shadow had already turned back into a tattoo and coiled itself around his body. It was as though there had never been a terrifying creature in the

let's take a look at