On an island floating above a bottomless abyss, a strange creature that looked like an amalgamation of a wolf and rhino walked. Its hide was rotting making look weak and frail.
Anyone who fell for this would be quickly torn apart, it was a Corrupted Monster after all!
It walked with unsteady steps, stopping every few meters to let out chittering clacks from its wide maw.
In the silence of the night, it was like a beacon calling for violence.
Its snout suddenly twitched as it fell onto all fours, its horn lowered and ready.
Its beady lifeless eyes searched for the source of the odious smell, but as it looked around, a blade fell from the side.
Its black lusterless surface screamed of danger as it whistled through the air.
Knowing it would not survive being struck by the blade, it spun with impossible speed for something of its size. The horn on its snout met the tenebrific sword.
However, instead of stopping, the sword slid through the keratin horn and sliced an ear of the vile creature.
It wailed in pain as its paw flew to attack the perpetrator, but only air met its strike.
In an instant it spun, its rudimentary intelligence told it the next attack would be from behind.
As its body turned, an arrow suddenly sunk into its skin, at first it was like a pin in its side. But as the creature's essence was stolen by the arrow, it became heavier and heavier until the creature could no longer ignore it.
Instead of spinning to intercept the next attack, its jaw ripped into its own hide, trying to remove the arrow. However, this would be its undoing.
As it violently tore into its own side, the black blade swung again, this time it separated a rear leg from the abomination.
A vile screech erupted into the night, but it was cut short as the blade sunk deep into the roof of the creature's mouth, piercing its brain.
Blood gushed from its fatal wound, bathing Sunny in its vile black life.
The loud screech stopped abruptly as its towering figure went limp.
Sunny jumped back a few meters to avoid its falling body, he did not want to be hugged by it.
As it hit the ground, the spell whispered into his ear.
[You have slain a Corrupted Monster: Akhlut Spawn.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
Sunny waited for it to announce a memory, but he knew he was not very lucky. He had not earned a single memory since his second nightmare ended.
Actually, he had gained less than twenty since he gained knowledge of the future. It irked him beyond belief, but he had to admit, with his knowledge he could just make anything he needed.
He could even forge a shadow bound memory if given enough time.
As he grumbled over his luck, Saint emerged from the shadows of the night. In her hand was a bow made from pure darkness, it was the [Dark Bow] Sunny had made during his second nightmare.
Memory: [Dark Bow]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Teir: III
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [Made by the treacherous Lost from Light in the depths of a never-ending nightmare.]
Memory Enchantments: [Unbending], [Piercing]
The first of its enchantment was an augmented copy of an enchantment on [Morgan's Warbow], but the second was a simple and deadly enchantment.
[Piercing] Description: [Any arrow fired from this bow pierces deep and shatters armor.]
It was a bow version of FMJ.
The arrow that had hit it was none other than [Burden Bringer], it was the most powerful of all his memory arrows, and for a simple reason.
Memory: [Burden Bringer]
Memory Rank: Ascended
Memory Teir: III
Memory Type: Weapon
Memory Description: [Made by the treacherous Lost from Light in the depths of a never-ending nightmare.]
Memory Enchantments: [Devouring], [Burdening]
[Devouring] Description: [This arrow devours the soul essence of its target.]
[Burdening] Description: [As this arrow drinks the essence of its target, it grows heavier and heavier.]
Not only did it restrain the movements of its mark, it absorbed its essence. This was not an unprecedented enchantment, but it was a very useful against enemies with a lot of essence.
In fact, the more essence the enemy has, the heavier it will get. It was the perfect example of a scaling enchantment.
Sunny was very happy with his handy work, he had been terrorized by a vile archer during his second nightmare, and this was the arrow he made to pin it down.
Actually, he got a memory from that archer, one he kept to this day.
Memory: [Perfect Quiver]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Teir: IV
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: [A once beautiful archer succumbed to the darkness, years later he used his beautiful skill and odious powers to slay beings from afar. That was until he ran into an even more harrowing archer, he met his end to the only love he ever had.]
Memory Enchantments: [Multiply]
Sunny still remembered how happy he was the first time he read the enchantment description.
[Multiply] Description: [Any arrows placed in the quiver will be continuously multiplied every few seconds.]
This was one of the most useful enchantments he had ever seen, mainly because it worked on memory arrows.
Unfortunately, after an hour, any arrow made by it would disappear. But an hour was plenty for any experienced archer, and Sunny was one of the best.
In the future he had been taught by Kai, and out of all of humanity there was only one other person who could contend with his skill, Silent Stalker.
But Sunny could not spend a lot of time dwelling on it, he quickly extricated the shards and continued to make his way towards a familiar island.
There were no important or profitable creatures on any island, so he just shadow stepped from one side to another.
Within just a few minutes, he was standing on the edge of an island. In the distance, lights from numerous lanterns lit a half-repaired ship.
Sunny would have been a little weirded out by them trying to repair it, there was no water anywhere of note here. But in his memories, he saw just what kind of ship it was.
He even named it!
With a smile on his face, he shadow stepped directly into their midst. He chose to appear next to a familiar face, a girl named Shim.
As he appeared from the shadows, the girl jumped to her feat, memory sword already in hand.
Sunny frowned.
'What's with that reaction?'
Only then did he realize he was dressed in the [Marble Shell's] mantle, not to mention all the blood on him.
'Oh.'
He dismissed the helmet of the shell, revealing his gorgeous face and long black hair.
"Hey Shim, long time no see."
Shim just stared at him a little dazed, then her memory dismissed as she half walked half ran towards him and enveloped him in a hug.
"Sunny! We thought you would die in there! When did you get back? How did you get back? Wait, how are you even here?"
Sunny winced at the questions.
"Today, Nightmare Seed, and a Saint I guess?"
He smiled as he removed himself from her.
'Why everyone not close to me so huggy, but Cassie did not even give me a hug!'
It was a true travesty.
"Is the cohort here?"
Shim nodded.
"Yea, they showed up earlier today."
Her eyes seemed to contemplate something.
"They knew you were back, didn't they?"
He smiled and nodded.
"They were there when I woke up."
Shim let out a girly 'hmph', but turned to lead the way.
In a few minutes they were inside a large tent, it was not extravagant, the only difference between it and the others was its size.
As he entered, Shim disappeared off to somewhere outside.
The sound of the tent flap drew everyone's attention, as they saw him, their expressions brightened.
But as they looked him over, they suddenly were not so lively.
Sunny chuckled.
"It is not mine, I killed a Corrupted Monster on the way. I need its shards for something."
Effie looked shocked.
"Doofus! You killed a Corrupted beast!?"
Sunny looked at her.
"No, I killed a Corrupted Monster."
She looked absolutely flabbergasted.
Kai who could tell lies knew he was telling the truth and just silently face palmed.
If Effie was of a keen mind, she would have remembered his flaw, but she was currently too busy gnawing on a bone like a dog with a treat.
Sunny suddenly realized.
'No wonder her true name is Raised by Wolves.'
He smiled and suppressed laughter.
"What, you have not killed a Corrupted creature before?"
Effie sighed and threw a finger back at Nephis.
"She has, but not everyone can compare to you weirdos!"
Kai nodded.
Cassie and Nephis had been strangely quiet the entire time, when he looked at them, he was stumped.
Nephis was looking at him with an entirely unlady like expression as Cassie sat there just drinking tea.
'Is she going to eat me!?'
As he thought this, Nephis licked her lips and cleared her throat. At the same time her face shifted to a practiced mask.
"Hey Sunny, glad you could make it."
Her voice was even and her face stern, but her eyes spoke of not great things.
The only time Sunny ever saw those eyes was before...
'Oh gods, she is going to destroy me!'
His fight or flight kicked in for a split second before he realized.
'Wait, she does not even know she likes me yet. Hell, she doesn't know what love even is!'
He suddenly felt relieved.
He cleared his throat and spoke.
"Hey Neph, Cassie."
Cassie just nodded.
'Oh right, she probably still feels guilty for conspiring to leave me there. She does know it did not work and I chose to stay, right?'
However, that was exactly why she felt so guilty.
To her, she had betrayed him just for him to do his most to send Nephis back. It was like cheating and still losing.
It was a horrible feeling. Knowing you conspired against one of your best friends, just for him to prove his trust and care for you in turn.
It was heart wrenching.
Cassie shivered.
'I am so sorry Sunny, I will never leave you again, I am so Sorry.'
She was trying her hardest not to cry, if seeing him for the first time was difficult, then seeing a second time was torturous.
She wanted to just get up and hug him and tell him how sorry she was, but now was not the time.
Right now, they needed to learn a few things from him, and teach him a few things.
Little did she know, he already knew everything they could possibly tell him. He was here for three reasons, two questions and to teach them the essence refining technique.
Sunny summoned a chair from shadows and sat.
"Alright, I have a few things to do after this, and a certain time frame, so I would like to get started."
Cassie nodded as Nephis sat in her chair.
Kai and Effie just nodded.
"Alright, first, I have a few questions."
He quickly arranged his words and possible answers to questions.
'Actually, maybe I should check first.'
As his shadow sense spread outwards, he immeiditaly felt it.
'Oh.'
Clearing his throat, he asked in a curious not at all alarmed tone.
"Exactly how long have you been repairing the ship?"
They exchanged looks before Nephis spoke.
"About a month, we have only started on the actual repairs a few days ago. The rest was just cleaning it."
Sunny sighed.
'So that's why.'
"Well, I have something to do, I will be right back."
Before they could even ask what or where, he was gone.
"Where did he g-"
As Effie was asking her fellow cohort members, a loud crash echoed through the night.
"What the hell!"
They all shot up to their feet and ran outside.
Not too far away, just outside of the ship, a dust cloud was stirred as two figures entangled in combat.
They immediately summoned memories and dashed towards the fight.
As they neared, they saw a large humanoid creature, but where its head should be was a large chest. Gold coins spilled from a massive crack on one side.
As they drained onto the floor, a hideous face was revealed through the crack.
'A Fallen.'
Nephis immediately knew this was going to be a tough fight. However, just before she activated her aspect, it let out a wailing shriek and fell limp.
The second her flames lit the area, they saw a pitch black sword imbedded into its torso.
Standing in its lanky body, was Sunny.
He had a large scratch on one pauldron, but other than that, he was fine.
[You have slain Fallen Devil: Mordant Mimic.]
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
[You have received a memory.]
He quickly checked his runes.
'Yes.'
Memories: [Silver Bell], [Midnight Shard], [Ordinary Rock], [Endless Spring], [Prowling Thorn], [Weaver's Mask], [Broken Oath], [Storage Bag], [Dark Bow], [Perfect Quiver], [Soul Arrow], [Feind Maker], [Burden Bringer], [Covetous Coffer].
His hand pressed together in a silent prayer.
'Thank you spell, I forgive you for all the treacherous claims.'
He was half expecting nothing, his luck had been incredibly bad, and the Spell seemed to be half ass cucking him.
As Serpent dissolved into shadows, he summoned his new memory.
A chirpy little box appeared and clacked its lid a few times.
He pointed at all the coins on the floor, in an instant it hopped like it was saluting and began to gather the coins.
One by one, they disappeared into its toothy maw.
'What a goofy little guy.'
Sunny was feeling sentimental.
'Wait, I am too young for this. Or WAIT. Am I millions of years old? Seventeen? Twenty Seven?'
He silently facepalmed.
'I am gonna lose it at this rate.'
With a sigh, he turned towards the onlookers.
"Sorry for the noise, I was collecting antiques!"