Shadow Slave

Sunny got comfortable on his criminally soft bed, picked up a few succulent grapes from the tray placed on an intricate table near it, threw one in his mouth… and finally summoned the runes.

'Let's see…'

The first thing he glanced at was the shadow fragments counter. He vaguely remembered receiving what felt like much more than six after slaying the black steed, who had been an Awakened Terror. So, Sunny was hopeful to see a pleasant number…

However, when he did see it, he almost choked on the grape juice to death.

'What… what the Spell?! What?!'

He even rubbed his eyes, thinking that he was seeing things, but no. The counter was the same.

Shadow Fragments: [2823/3000].

Sunny stared at it in disbelief.

'Six hundred… I received almost six hundred fragments for killing that damned horse?'

Absentmindedly, he threw another grape into his mouth, and proceed to almost bite off one of his fingers from the sheer disorientation of it all.

'How is this even possible?!'

He thought about it for a bit, stunned, and then tilted his head a little.

'Could it be…'

One of the advantages, but also inherent drawbacks of Sunny's Aspect was that it operated through shadow fragments instead of the usual soul ones. So, while Sunny didn't need to collect and absorb shards to grow stronger, he also could not use the shards of creatures that he had not personally slain for that purpose.

receive a portion of all the accumulated soul fragments after killing others of his own kind, and instead received just one or two, depending on their

perhaps, because the Spell — or rather, the world itself — did not consider him a human? He was a divine shadow, after all, and shadows recognized him as one of their own. So… would it

six cores, and with a thousand years of battles and bloodshed behind his

accumulated by the tenebrous courser throughout his long and grim

math certainly

Sunny's eyes ignited.

'That… that is it!'

stumbled on one of

Nightmare Creatures to create a new one would exert. As a Sleeper, or

and thus, the higher his chances of survival were going to become. However, that also meant that there would be

destroying true shadow creatures… perhaps, there was still a way for him to grow stronger rapidly even after becoming a

his progress was already staggering. First, the thousand fragments he had earned in the bloodsoaked arena of the Red Colosseum, and now these hundreds he gained by slaying the nightmare steed. Neither of these feats had been easy… in fact, both rewards had cost him an unimaginable amount of pain, torment, and damage both mental and physical… but the result almost made it seem as if it

…Almost.

core had seemed so distant and unreachable. But now, just a few months later, Sunny was already near the finish line. This fact was both exciting and incredible… even if its splendor was somewhat overshadowed by all the hideous scars he had received

No, it is still amazing. I

horrors he had been subjected to in the Nightmare, Sunny stared at the unbelievable

it almost by accident while seeking the runes describing

enchantments of the onyx armor… the counter of victories tied to the [Prince of the Underworld]

Now, it read:

Vanquished Foes: [3291/6000].

He blinked.

'Huh…'

Colosseum had not counted toward the requirements of the strange enchantment for a simple reason — he had not been wearing the Mantle

had the thousand vanquished

Sunny frowned.