Chapter 3 – Of Sweets and Swordplay
It had been a week since Sunny had met Amon, and by now, he'd gotten a good sense of his roommate's personality.
To put it simply, Amon was—at least in Sunny's mind—an arrogant, narcissistic bastard obsessed with self-praise. And when Sunny had first learned about Amon's attributes, calling him envious would be an understatement. But contrary to his expectations, Amon didn't mock or scold him.
Instead, what he said made Sunny want to strangle him.
"Don't feel ashamed of being jealous of me," Amon had said with a dazzling smile, striking a ridiculous pose. "If I weren't me, I'd be jealous of me too. To have a face that charms both men and women—it's a curse, really."
Sunny's eye twitched. And to make matters worse, the bastard only brought desserts for food.
No water. Just sugar.
When Sunny confronted him, Amon just shrugged and replied, "I don't need to eat or drink."
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Sunny now stood swinging a sword—one Amon had given him—practicing under the open sky near the base of the headless statue. Since Sunny didn't have a weapon memory, Amon had hunted a Carapace Scavenger and got a memory, obtaining a sword that he later passed to Sunny.
It was called the Azure Blade.
When Amon asked if he could actually use the weapon, Sunny had shamelessly replied, "No."
Amon gasped dramatically. "You said you went to the academy! Did you learn nothing there?"
"I'm from the outskirts," Sunny replied. "After my first Nightmare, an Ascended told me to take wilderness survival if I wanted to, you know… live."
Amon gave him an amused smile. "Is that so? Then, how about I teach you swordplay?"
Sunny was skeptical, but before he could voice it, Amon continued smoothly, "If you don't want to, that's your loss. You've seen me fight. Even if you only pick up a little, it'll be enough to kill the low-level ones."
"…Fine. When do we start?"
Amon gave him a thumbs-up. "Right now. Hit me with everything you've got—I'll only defend."
Sunny nodded. What followed was an intense, exhausting session—well, intense for Sunny. Amon, on the other hand, looked bored.
Afterwards, Amon gave his assessment.
"Sunny, your weakness is that you're weak, have no sense of coordination, and no basic knowledge."
Sunny groaned, "What did you expect from—"
"But," Amon cut in, "you do have strengths. Your strikes are calculated, not impulsive. You're good at misdirection. That's a start."
Sunny stared at him, still out of breath.
"Starting tomorrow," Amon continued, "you'll perform a thousand sword swings a day. With your Sleeper body, it won't break you. After a week or two, we'll head toward that light we saw a while back."
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Two more weeks passed.
Sunny could now swing a sword properly, more or less. After what little food Amon had brought ran out, Amon would glide down the giant statue to hunt. Sunny had learned that Amon could summon a pair of white wings. When Sunny asked about it, Amon's reply was, "It's just an attribute of mine". At that moment, what Sunny thought was, ' Just an attribute, people would kill for an Aspect like that, and for him it's just an attribute for him'.
Amon had simply said, "But with a Sleeper's body, it is very difficult to maintain flight, and controlling the wings is like learning to walk again".
It made Sunny's envy worse. Sometimes he wondered if Amon was the Spell's favorite bastard more.
During those two weeks, Amon taught him swordsmanship. Sunny, in turn, cooked their meals—because whenever Amon cooked, he added sugar to everything. At first, Sunny did not mind, coming from the outskirts, he learned to appreciate every food he got. But it had been three weeks of this madness, and Sunny couldn't take it anymore.
They only lit campfires during the day, too afraid of attracting Nightmares in the dark.
And during this whole time, one question kept creeping into Sunny's thoughts: why did he trust Amon so easily?
He knew better. He was from the outskirts, where people killed for bread.
Maybe it's his friendly nature, Sunny mused. Amon was infuriating, yes, but if not for him, I would've died by now.
He never did find the answer. Eventually, he gave up thinking about it.
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They descended from the headless statue.
Sunny climbed down carefully while Amon waited below. Once he reached the bottom, they set off in the direction of the strange light they had glimpsed weeks ago.
They'd been walking for over an hour, and the statue had vanished from sight. Sunny's shadow scouted ahead, ever watchful for danger.
Sunny was covered in mud. Amon, meanwhile, looked untouched. Somehow, he never got dirty. Not a single strand of his long platinum-blue hair was out of place. His clothes were spotless. His skin practically glowed.
He looked the same as he had the day they met.
Sunny, by contrast, looked like a homeless bum. Even though he'd been eating better these past four weeks, it wasn't enough to restore the weight he'd lost.
He scowled.
"Why aren't you getting dirty? We're literally walking through mud."
Amon sighed, then said in his usual self-satisfied tone, "Getting jealous again, Sunny? I told you—I'm loved by the Spell. Of course, it gave me an attribute that keeps me clean."
Sunny grumbled something under his breath.
Not long after, his shadow alerted him—an injured Carapace Scavenger lay ahead, blocking their path. One of its legs was missing, and half its body was submerged in mud.
From afar, they observed it in silence.
Then Amon said, "Go kill it, Sunny."
Sunny blinked. "What?"
"It's injured. This is your chance."
Sunny's heart sank. It's only been two weeks… and this bastard wants me to kill a Nightmare creature?
Amon looked at him, clutching his chest dramatically. "Don't call me a bastard, Sunny. You wound me."
Sunny rolled his eyes and summoned the Azure Blade.
He approached the injured creature cautiously, circling around to flank it from behind. He remembered watching Amon fight these monsters, and he knew where to strike.
With a deep breath, Sunny moved.
He struck the first joint cleanly, then another—near its pincers. The scavenger screeched, flailing, but lost its balance and sank deeper into the mud. Without hesitation, Sunny lunged forward and drove his blade into one of its eye sockets.
The creature spasmed, then went still.
A moment later, a voice echoed in his mind:
[You have slain an Awakened monster: Carapace Scavenger.]
[Your Shadow grows stronger]