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 mere replicas of the creatures that had left them behind. They were molded in their image and never changed, always remaining the same as the originals at the moment of their deaths.
Shadows, however, were different. After all, they were mercurial by nature, always changing their forms and shapes depending on the environment. And so, a Shadow was capable of change to some extent, too.
It was capable of growth.
His eyes widened.
By slaying Nightmare Creatures, he was able to absorb their shadow fragments and become stronger. Eventually, his Shadow Core was bound to evolve, turning from Dormant to Awakened… and beyond. The jump in power that came with this evolution was nothing short of unmatched.
Granted, he wasn't sure about the particular details of this process, not to mention that, as a human, he could only become 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 fragments 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 Memories 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 replacements, with no guarantee whatsoever that he would actually succeed.
This problem was not as dire when it came to Memories, 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 extremely 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 Memories and a stray Echo or two to support him.
That was because Echoes of higher ranks and classes were so unimaginably hard to come by. Although much more rare than Memories, 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 mention 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 mention 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 seemed 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 become 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 fragments?
If he could simply transfer some 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 seemed 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 met with the silent treatment. In all the excitement, he failed to remember that the shadow was physically unable to speak.
Scratching the back of his head, Sunny paced around the Soul Sea and tried to come up with a reasonable way to stuff some shadow fragments inside the taciturn stone monster.
"Well… the most obvious answer is to go and make her kill some Nightmare Creatures. However, will it work? When my loyal scavenger killed something, it was I who received the fragments, not him. Wait, him? Did Cassie infect me 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 extremely 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?