Chapter 107 Growing Shadow
Sunny stared at the runes, perplexed.
Then, a sudden light of understanding appeared in his eyes. He finally realized what was the principal difference between an Echo and a Shadow.
It was really very simple.
The Echoes were re replicas of the creatures that had left them behind. They were molded in their image and never changed, always remaining the sa as the originals at the mont of their deaths.
Shadows, however, were different. After all, they were rcurial by nature, always changing their forms and shapes depending on the environnt. And so, a Shadow was capable of change to so extent, too.
It was capable of growth.
His eyes widened.
By slaying Nightmare Creatures, he was able to absorb their shadow fragnts and beco stronger. Eventually, his Shadow Core was bound to evolve, turning from Dormant to Awakened… and beyond. The jump in power that ca with this evolution was nothing short of unmatched.
Granted, he wasn't sure about the particular details of this process, not to ntion that, as a human, he could only beco an Awakened after returning from the Dream Realm into the real world, which was impossible to do in this godforsaken place. He also didn't know what would happen if he actually managed to accumulate the thousand shadow fragnts that the runes demanded.
But no matter what happened, if he were to continue walking forward on the path of the Awakened, he would eventually outgrow his mories and Echoes, rendering them weak and useless against the enemies of the comparable rank. He would then be forced to discard them and try to find suitable replacents, with no guarantee whatsoever that he would actually succeed.
This problem was not as dire when it ca to mories, which were comparatively easy to get. The Echoes, however, were exceedingly rare. Once an Echo grew too weak to accompany its master, replacing it was an extrely tall task.
But Shadows… Shadows were capable of growing with him, becoming more powerful just as he grew more powerful! As long as Sunny was willing to put in the work, his Shadow would never fall behind.
The possibilities that this simple quality opened up were truly endless. It was enough to completely change his plans for the future. In the past, Sunny always envisioned himself as the main force on the battlefield, only relying on mories and a stray Echo or two to support him.
That was because Echoes of higher ranks and classes were so unimaginably hard to co by. Although much more rare than mories, there were still many Dormant Echoes around, and a fair number of Awakened ones too. They were mainly shared among Masters and Saints, who were capable of defeating the Nightmare Creature of these ranks with comparative ease.
But battles against Fallen and Corrupted monsters, not to ntion anything even more dreadful, were never easy. As such, there were not enough trophies brought back after killing creatures of their kind to make the idea of acquiring an Echo of a higher rank a realistic possibility.
For everyone… except for Sunny.
He could slaughter weaker monsters, get lesser Echoes, and then cultivate them into unstoppable beasts of slaughter. Not bound by the laws of probability and diminishing chances, he could slowly build an army of powerful Shadows to fight his battles for him, and then watch them destroy his enemies from a safe distance while sipping on a cocktail.
Uh… that's what rich people drank, right?
Not to ntion that monsters were not bound by the need to pass Nightmares to raise their rank… at least not to Sunny's knowledge. To be honest, he had no idea how Nightmare Creatures evolved their cores. Carapace Demon had seed to do just fine just by eating the fruits of the Soul Tree and slowly absorbing large amounts of soul essence.
In any case, there was a possibility that he would be able to make the Shadow Saint much more powerful than he himself had the chance to beco on the Forgotten Shore.
Perhaps even powerful enough to make his life here truly tolerable.
Looking at the Shadow with excited sparks dancing in his eyes, Sunny grinned from ear to ear.
"You and I are going to accomplish great things together, buddy."
If his own shadow wasn't worried about its place in his heart yet, it would be smart to start worrying about it right about now.
***
The question that was consuming Sunny's thoughts now was this: how, exactly, was he supposed to feed the Shadow Saint with fragnts?
If he could simply transfer so of his own to her, he would do it without a second thought, even though that would diminish his personal strength even further. However, there seed to be no way to do so. No amount of looking at the runes, touching the silent stone creature or trying to talk to the Spell did the trick.
Sunny even asked for advice from his own shadow, but that guy was in no mood to talk. The scornful word "traitor!" was written all other his expressionless dark spot of a face.
At least that's what Sunny read from it after being t with the silent treatnt. In all the excitent, he failed to rember that the shadow was physically unable to speak.
Scratching the back of his head, Sunny paced around the Soul Sea and tried to co up with a reasonable way to stuff so shadow fragnts inside the taciturn stone monster.
"Well… the most obvious answer is to go and make her kill so Nightmare Creatures. However, will it work? When my loyal scavenger killed sothing, it was I who received the fragnts, not him. Wait, him? Did Cassie infect
with her childish desire to assign human qualities to everything? It, not him! It was I and not it. Right, that's better. Wait, what was I talking about?"
Glancing at the outside world, Sunny frowned. It was currently the day there… usually, he would be sound asleep by now. Going out during the day was dangerous. He would have to walk outside the shadows, allowing all kinds of Fallen horrors to lay eyes on him.
He only survived for so long in this hell by being extrely cautious, cowardly, and only hunting during the night. He paid a harsh price to learn these lessons, almost losing his life in the process.
But still, still… should he risk it?
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