Shadow Slave: Arcadius of the Forgotten

After collecting the shards, shattering them and absorbing the soul fragments, Cade moved on to collect some more meat. He would have to satiate himself when he got back to his branch of coral. Hell, after what he'd just done, he deserved a treat. 

On the way back to his resting place though, Cade happened to stumble upon one more Carapace Scavenger.

Why the hell are there so many? he thought bitterly, his face contorted in a grimace. Aren't these bastards supposed to be having a party, feasting on the corpse of that Corrupted abomination? 

It was indeed rather odd that there were so many Scavengers here. Cade had put quite some distance between himself and the Knight's statue. His coral branch was already a couple kilometers away from it and he had also chosen to venture in its opposite direction, just to be extra cautious.

For a moment, he'd even been worried that he wouldn't find any Scavengers out here, because they were all supposedly gathered at the foot of the statue, devouring the shark monster's corpse.

But his worries had been quickly abated, because this region of the labyrinth had no shortage of these monstrosities. It was like they had never left for the feast that their brethren were currently enjoying.

As to why that was, Cade had no idea whatsoever. Besides, it did nothing to change the fact that he had to kill as many of them as he could to get stronger.

Ah, screw it...

He was exhausted, but he was also invigorated because he had just absorbed five Awakened soul shards. So, after summoning his sword, he managed to deal with the lone Scavenger with relative ease and without using his Aspect.

He waited for a brief moment, hoping for a Memory. But when the Spell said nothing of the sort, he sighed. I'm pretty sure I got a Memory today, maybe even two. Guess I shouldn't be too optimistic.

After absorbing the Scavenger's singular soul shard, he continued on his way and finally reached the massive coral pillar where he had spent his first two nights in the Dream Realm. 

The climb to the top of the branch was more taxing than it should've been. He put down the seaweed bag with the monster meat on the uneven surface of the rough coral and sprawled down himself, facing the sky and utterly spent. 

Tonight, there's gonna be a storm, he thought, remembering the timeline from the novel.

Sunny had spent his first two days on top of the stump of the Knight's severed neck. During that time, on his third night, there had been a rainstorm. On the third day, he had finally decided to venture into the Crimson Labyrinth. And on that same day, he had met the people who would go on to become his lifelong companions, Nephis and Cassie. 

Cade found himself feeling slightly envious of Sunny. Not because he would be in the company of two beautiful girls, one of whom would be practically half-naked, but because Sunny would get to speak with Cassie.

When Cassie had told Cade that she'd gotten used to his company, he hadn't said it back but the feeling had been mutual. He had also come to enjoy the blind seer's company quite a bit.

Lucky bastard... 

Cade quickly discarded the unnecessary thoughts. After all, it was not like he could do anything about them. He had already made his decision on how to proceed and he would remain firm on it. 

So, instead, Cade chose to check out the spoils he had gotten as a result of the terrifying battle.

At least it was terrifying for them, he thought, slightly amused. From my perspective, it was a massacre. As soon as I activated my Ability, those bastards didn't stand a chance. 

Smiling faintly, he sat up and summoned his runes. Moving his eyes to look down, he focused on the string of runes showing his Memories: 

Memories: [Arcane Keystone], [Radiant Eye], [Voidfang], [Flameheart Forge], [Ebonveil Plate], [Crimson Guide], [Coral Relic]. 

Looking at the last two Memories, his grin widened.

Finally, he thought. Please, just let them be something useful. 

He focused on the Crimson Guide: 

Memory: [Crimson Guide] 

Memory Rank: Awakened. 

Memory Type: Tool. 

Memory Description: [If the light cannot return, we will bear it ourselves. If the way cannot be found, we will carve it from the abyss.] 

Cryptic as always, he thought, shaking his head lightly.

He summoned the Memory into existence. After a second or two, a jagged and irregular crimson shard appeared in Cade's hand, humming softly. 

A tool, huh? Cade mused, staring at the shard in his hand. Well, it's a bummer that I don't know what it actually does. I guess I can experiment with it tomorrow.

He was very exhausted right now, both physically and mentally. He was still reeling from the effects of his Flaw. In complete honesty, all he wanted to do currently was to simply close his eyes and fall asleep.

But he had decided to first check out what Memories he had gotten, anyway.

For now, I'll just let it be. He dismissed the crimson shard and looked back at the runes. 

He shifted his gaze and focused on the runes describing the Coral Relic: 

Memory: [Coral Relic] 

Memory Rank: Awakened. 

Memory Type: Charm. 

Cade's eyes widened. Charm? he thought, bewildered. A charm? Aren't charms supposed to be like... super rare?

However, his surprise didn't last long. He calmed down easily enough. His initial shock was being replaced by a warm feeling of happiness. 

Well, I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. I've killed ten of those abominations so far and I only managed to get Memories out of two of them, he thought. So, one of those Memories turning out to be a charm is actually quite understandable... 

As far as he remembered, Sunny's first charm Memory had been Blood Blossom which he'd gotten after killing an Awakened Monster, Blood Flower. 

That had actually occurred pretty late in the Forgotten Shore arc. It was when the cohort had gone on the expedition to retrieve the Dawn Shard from the corpse of the First Lord of the Bright Castle.

I wonder if I should accompany them there this time around, Cade thought. I mean, they went into the Hollow Mountains, right? And Hollow Mountains are the entrance to the Underworld.  

The Underworld had been the domain of the Demon of Choice, Nether. It was also the realm of True Darkness. He would definitely find something worthwhile if he ever had a chance to descend into or at least, get close to the Underworld.

Guess I'll make that choice when I have to, he thought. If I don't kill myself before then, that is. 

Shrugging off the wandering thoughts, he focused on the description of the charm Memory: 

Memory Description: [This forgotten shore devours its own, leaving only steel to guide the lost. You can defy the steel... but can you defy yourself?] 

Cade contorted his face in a grimace. He had already expected not to learn much from the description, but it was still frustrating. Why do these have to be so cryptic? Just tell me what it can do and be done with it! 

Cursing the Spell, he summoned the Coral Relic into the material world.

Soon, a wrought metal bracelet wove itself onto his wrist. The bracelet seemed to be made of dark iron, its surface weathered and etched with runes that twisted and turned like the paths of the labyrinth. It felt both delicate and incredibly durable at the same time. 

However, Cade didn't feel any changes in himself or his surroundings when he summoned the charm Memory. It felt like an ordinary accessory.

Of course, that was just an illusion. It would definitely be able to do... well, something. However, what that something was, Cade didn't know. So, dismissing the bracelet, he decided that he would test it tomorrow as well. 

He was quite happy with the Memories he had gotten today. The tool would most likely be useful and if it wasn't, he hoped that the charm would make up for it. Moving his gaze down, he decided to take a look at his Darkness. 

Darkness Saturation: [42%] 

He nodded in understanding. So, if I was correct yesterday, he thought, I should be at forty-five percent currently. But considering that I enveloped that entire clearing in the Darkness, I think it's safe to assume that I lost three percent of the Darkness during that short ordeal. 

He found himself frowning. Not because he had lost some of his Darkness; he could always get it back, but because of how quickly it had happened.

Compared to his ordeal in the clearing today, he had spent a lot more time swimming through the Dark Sea on his first night, enveloped in True Darkness. And despite that, he had only lost five percent of it back then.   

I guess it depends on how much I exploit it, he thought. While swimming through the Dark Sea, he hadn't commanded the Darkness to do anything. It had just simply... clung to him.

However, in the clearing today, he had used it vigorously.

He had commanded it to wrap around the Scavengers; he had pushed it outward into the clearing to cover as much ground as he could. And as a result, he had lost it much quicker. 

Of course, there was another reason as well. This one was much simpler.

While using the Darkness as he had swum through the Dark Sea, it had been nighttime. There had been no light competing against the authority of his True Darkness. However, that had not been the case in the clearing today.

During daytime, his Darkness had to overcome the light coming from the artificial sun, and in doing so, some of it had been lost. After all, the most natural enemy of darkness was light. So, in the presence of light of any kind, Cade's Darkness would struggle more than it would in its absence. 

That was mostly expected and so, Cade didn't worry too much about it. 

The artificial sun of the Forgotten Shore was still shining, albeit not as brightly, and the sunset seemed to be drawing closer. Cade decided that he would go to sleep early today. After all, there was to be a storm during the night and he would most probably not be able to stay asleep through it. And he desperately needed some sleep.

So, he pulled his makeshift rucksack under his head to use as a pillow and dove into a slumber.