[Welcome to the Dream Realm Sunless!]
That was the last thing Sunny heard before darkness covered his vision and water filled his nose.
"Ahh… damn it, why do I always fall into water every time ?" Sunny thought before pushing his arms upward and summoning [Coral Ring], wrapping his shadow around it, which greatly increased its efficiency. Sunny broke the surface of the water, and what greeted him was a dark sky with no stars and the sound of waves crashing upon waves.
He quickly turned and headed toward the headless knight statue. From behind him came a loud noise—the shark-like malformed was fleeing in terror from something chasing it and was heading straight toward Sunny.
When Sunny reached the statue, he climbed it and summoned [Puppet Master's Shroud], which brought a little warmth to his body. He immediately summoned the serpent, [Challenger's Heart], and [Spark of Fire]. A longbow and arrow materialized.
Sunny waited for the shark, which was a hundred meters away, fleeing desperately from the terror of the depths.
He notched the glowing red arrow, enhanced it with his shadow, and infused a small amount of essence rotated with the help of the serpent. Sunny waited until the shark neared the statue.
A tentacle emerged behind the shark, trying to drag it down, but instead of grabbing the shark, the arrow collided with the tentacle, creating a shockwave in the surrounding water, causing it to boil upon contact.
The arrow hit the tentacle, triggering a massive explosion that engulfed it in fire and forced it to retreat into the dark depths.
The shark, meanwhile, slammed into the headless knight's statue, launching itself out of the water and crashing into the platform where Sunny stood.
"Hahaha! I did it… you stupid terror of the depths, watch me steal your prey!"
Sunny turned to the shark, whose body was barely holding together, with a thick chunk of meat keeping it from splitting in two.
"Oh, my friend… as you can see, I don't have a sharp weapon. Tell me, have you ever been skinned alive? Ah, never mind, I guess you've been through worse judging by your condition."
Sunny transformed the serpent into a blade and enhanced it with his shadow. Thanks to his innate ability, Sunny was as strong as an Awakened with a saturated core. Without wasting time, he approached the shark and began cutting its flesh with great difficulty. The serpent was only an above-average Awakened weapon, but the shark was a Corrupted Devil.
When the first rays of sunlight rose, the dark sea retreated , revealing the Crimson Maze.
The maze was massive, occupying a large portion of the Forgotten Shore.
Sunny didn't pay attention to it right away because his work was done. A voice rang in Sunny's mind:
[You have slain a Corrupted Devil: Triton, Son of the Depths]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]
Sunny waited a moment, but the Spell seemed stingy today.
"Ah, the Spell's being stingy today… doesn't matter, the shadow fragments I got were satisfying enough."
Sunny sent his shadow to scout the Crimson Maze, looking for scavengers.
He wasn't disappointed. There were many groups moving around searching for food. Since the shark had ended up above the knight statue, there was nothing for them to gather around.
Soon, Sunny identified a group of eight scavengers moving together.
He approached them but kept a distance—about a hundred meters between them.
He summoned [Challenger's Heart] first, then [Leaf Quiver]. He picked an arrow, enhanced it with his shadow, and fired at the joint of one of the scavengers head.
The creature didn't even comprehend what happened—the arrow pierced its skull and sank deep.
[You have slain an Awakened beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[You have received a Memory]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]
Sunny dismissed the summoned Memories and then called forth his new weapon—the Azure Blade, which had returned to him.
Then, he commanded the shadow-enhanced serpent to attack.
The serpent launched forward at terrifying speed, wrapped around one scavenger, crushing its shell and breaking its joints. It bit off half the scavenger's head.
The Spell echoed in Sunny's mind:
[You have slain an Awakened beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]
Sunny dashed toward another scavenger, empowered by his innate ability.
His blade clashed with the scavenger's claw, then he struck its joint, severing it.
The scavenger tried to attack with its other claw, but Sunny retreated, then charged again, cutting off the second claw.
Nearby, the serpent killed another scavenger.
Not falling behind, Sunny stabbed the scavenger in the head, the blade piercing deep, and the creature collapsed to the ground.
[You have slain an Awakened beast : Carapace Scavenger]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]
[You have slain…]
[You have slain…]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]
Sunny and the serpent quickly finished off the scavengers.
Sunny instructed the serpent to extract soul shards while he wove a bag from seaweed and algae to carry them.
The serpent was deadly against the scavengers, helping Sunny kill them swiftly. The fight didn't take more than ten minutes, leaving plenty of time to hunt other scavenger groups.
After collecting the soul shards, Sunny sent his shadow ahead as he rotated a small amount of soul essence with the serpent's help.
He wanted to try [Spark of Fire] again—it had left a deep impression when it struck the Terror of the Depths.
It was simply too powerful. Sunny assumed the arrow had only one or two enchantments at most, but was from a high Tier.
"I'd like to thank professor Julius again… oh? What's this?"
Sunny's gloomy shadow spotted, at some distance, a group of seventeen scavengers devouring a strange sea creature.
Many tentacles extended from it, thin but very long. Its body was a massive dark spherical lump of flesh.
"This will be a fun hunt, won't it?"
Sunny cloaked himself in shadows, rotating essence.
He was very close to the scavengers—only thirty meters away.
The red bow was in his hands, and the arrow glowed at its head before darkening as Sunny wrapped it in shadow.
He pulled the string and released.
What followed was a huge explosion that engulfed ten scavengers, turning them into flying pieces of chitin and claws raining down on the others.
The surviving scavengers turned toward the shadows where the black-burning beam had come from.
Those close to the blast had lost limbs, while the others had their carapaces scorched.
What greeted them was a four-meter-long serpent radiating powerful pressure and a human—seemingly weak but dangerously effective in his own way.
What came next was a massacre.
[You have slain an Awakened beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[You have slain…]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]
[You have received an Echo: Carapace Scavenger]