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], [Soul Weapon],

[Soul Beast] wasn't there

concentrated on the new Attribute and

Description: "Soul Serpent can assume

blinked a

'...What?'

at the intricate tattoo of a black serpent that coiled around his torso and arms. Then, Sunny

tattoo moved, slithering onto his palm and moving down

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

serpent crawled forward, leaving 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 man's arm and strong

as high as Sunny was tall. A forked tongue flashed for a moment, and

and hissed, revealing long, terrifying

Sunny gulped.

shone with dark radiance. They seemed as deep as the lightless expanse of an ocean of shadows,

no aggression or ill will in them. Instead, there was

was

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,

enveloped in wisps of impenetrable, moving

for a

good buy

glanced at the giant snake, and then patted it on the

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

glanced back at the runes, and lowered his gaze. There was one last surprise left

bottom, several new runes

Abilities: [Serpentine Steel],

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

Sunny's smile widened.

Serpent to regenerate essence while it is not on my body. In

at the Shadow with gleaming

buddy! You'll have plenty of tasty souls to eat, don't

his skin. A few seconds later, the Shadow had already turned back into a tattoo and coiled itself

a look