Gwin woke up to being dragged along on hard stone. He felt a cold grip on his ankle taking him upwards through a tunnel. Snapping awake he shook his ankle from the icy clutch with surprising ease. He then saw Elena hunched over in front of him. Seeing that he was awake she plopped to the ground breathing heavily.
"You're finally up"
Her voice was faint and relieved.
Gwin moved his hands to reply.
{Are you alright?}
"Yeah, thanks"
'Did she just say thank you?'
Faint light trickled into the tunnel they were in, Gwin kept to the darkness though on account of being stark naked and not wanting to make a fool of himself in front of her even more than he already had. Elena began fishing for something from her waist. She was wearing only the underparts of her armor memory so the rest of it could heal in the depths of her soul. She was wearing a simple brown tunic and pants that were covered in her own dried blood. She then held out a blue shard that glowed faintly.
A soul shard.
Traces of blue blood could be seen on it.
'She must have dug that out of the Remnant Feeder while Gwin was still suffering from essence exhaustion. His excitement momentarily made him forget about how tired and hurt all over he was.
Soul shards were exceptionally rare in the real world. Only legacies who had access to the support from their clans could gain a substantial amount of them before the winter solstice.
Elena tossed it to him making sure not to look at him. Gwin caught the shard like it was the most precious thing he had ever received. He gazed at its beautiful colors until the novelty wore off where he then clutched it in his fist and crushed it. Or at least he tried to. His sleeper strength wasn't enough to crush them in his grip and he wasn't going to risk using his aspect. He found a rock nearby and smashed the soul shard to absorb its contents. With a sound like shattering glass the shard broke and Gwin felt power flow into him. It was slight but he definitely felt it, he had gotten a little stronger. He would need a mountain of these though if he wanted to fully saturate his core and get his counter to 1000/1000.
He summoned his runes.
Name: Gwin
True Name: —
Soul shards: 0002/1000
Spirit essence: 0002/10000
He dismissed them feeling satisfied before noticing Elena's outstretched hand, she was still facing away from him. He looked at it confused for a moment before her voice broke the silence.
"Your hand."
Gwin was not in the mood to ask questions and gave her his hand. It was small but quite calloused. He felt a spark pass from her hand to his and then up his arm to his heart where it entered his soul.
[You have received a memory: Apprentice's Rags]
'A memory!'
He hurriedly summoned it and a whirlwind of sparks surrounded him before forming into plain but medieval looking clothes. The reprieve from the cold stone was very welcome even if he looked like a peasant. The memory consisted of a ragged brown tunic and equally ragged pants with leather boots.
He dove into his soul sea and summoned the corresponding orb of light.
The runes read:
Memory: [Apprentice's Rags]
Memory rank: dormant
Memory class: I
Memory description: [Expectations fell heavy on his shoulder yet his hammer struck nonetheless filling the shoddy shack with the sound of clashing metal]
She had just given him a dormant memory of the first class, meaning it came from a dormant beast. Even legacy sleepers were not privileged to have a vast amount of memories. Most memories of higher ranks had enchantments that required their wielder to be able to control their essence, which a sleeper could not do, making them useless. Even then giving someone a dormant memory was not a small thing, well maybe it was for someone like her but who was he to know?
Elena finally turned to look at him.
"That wasn't free. I want it back once you find a replacement, that is if you live long enough to."
Gwin nodded, still grateful.
{Thank you}
She nodded curtly before turning to head further up. Gwin noticed she seemed stiff and couldn't help but notice his own wounds. The places he had been cut still ached despite being healed. He then remembered the shell that fell off of his finger the first time he used it.
'Closed but not healed..'
His memory was not all powerful but it was still incredibly useful. He summoned the [Kiss of Kesh] as he walked and checked the insides. He had used almost all of it to close their wounds. There was a small layer of cream on the bottom of the case. It was replenishing albeit very slowly. Gwin sighed with relief before dismissing it.
After moving in silence for a while Gwin finally saw the dull and cloudy sky again. It was nearing nightfall, the sky was getting darker on the horizon already. Elena had been moving them farther up the obelisk while Gwin was unconscious. Gwin's stomach rumbled loudly only to be answered by Elena's own stomach rumbling. In the awkward silence they looked down deep below them where nightmare creatures could be seen shifting erratically. He was able to make out the shapes of several other Remnant Feeders.
{Do you have any idea where we are?}
"No, I've never heard of a region of the dream world like this."
There went Gwin's final hope of this place being a Great Clan secret.
{Shit}
Gwin had made sure to learn how to sign every curse along with basic grammar while at the academy. It had just seemed necessary at the time.
Elena turned to look at him. Her gaze remained on him for a while. Gwin shifted uncomfortably under it.
"How did you kill that thing?"
Her curiosity had gotten the best of her.
{Aspect}
He answered smugly. It was truly a talent to be able to translate smugness with his hands. Gwin wasn't certain he should trust her but at the moment he didn't seem to have any other choice.
{What now?}
"Tch…You managed to close our wounds but the wounds are still there. We need to recover before heading to the ground."
It was just then that the sun had fallen over the horizon. Gwin heard a strange noise. It sounded like…rushing water? Come to think of it, hadn't he heard waves last night? And yet there was no water to be seen.
The horizon turned black and the black kept growing closer until they could make a colossal wave of black water. It rushed forward annihilating any nightmare creature that hadn't made it to cover in time. The cataclysmic wave rushed through the crimson labyrinth crushing everything mercilessly. It soon made contact with the obelisk sending a shaking boom throughout the stone nearly knocking them from their perch.
Black water flooded the tunnels and water shot from the exits with dire force. Gwin's own ears could hear faint crunching sounds mixed into the cacophony of water. Soon the entire world was covered in a black sea. Only a few landmarks had been able to stand above the sea albeit barely. Despite being almost 220 meters up the water was only a short drop downwards.
In a matter of moments the entire world flooded.
Gwin had clung to Elena out of reflex and was met with a nasty slap a moment later.
"That hurts you mongrel!"
She hissed.