Two weeks later.
Sunny was sitting on top of a dead scavenger, calmly cleaning the azure blood off his face.
[Your shadow grows stronger.]
His sword was still stuck between the plates of chitin armor, trembling slightly as the beast's body convulsed before finally falling still.
Somewhere behind him, the sound of breaking carapaces announced that Nephis was already digging out soul shards from the corpses of the creatures they had slain.
Hearing that, he glanced to the other side of the battlefield.
Reinhard stood there, facing away; his dark armor and the cloak over it were stained with azure blood, as was the sword at his side.
For a moment, he silently looked at the bodies of the dead nightmare creatures around him, his face showing nothing of what he was feeling or thinking.
Creepy.
Sunny gulped inaudibly.
Just then, Reinhard broke out of his momentary trance; he approached one of the dead bodies and proceeded to take out the soul shard embedded in it.
Ever since their battle with the centurions, the mentality of the group had changed, and that change had occurred the most in Reinhard.
He had grown even more secluded; during the day he would force them to hunt down nightmare creatures even if they were nowhere near their shortest path to the next rest point. Growing stronger being the only way they could ensure their survival was something Nephis and Sunny had understood as well, so they accepted his behavior without much issue.
And due to the drastic increase in the number of scavengers they killed, all of them had gotten stronger, the biggest difference once again being in Reinhard.
Sunny still believed he would have trouble going against a Carapace scavenger in a straight fight, yet Reinhard now seemed powerful enough to defeat it in a wrestling match!
The difference in speed of their growth was simply too unfair.
He had now come to understand it as simply how things were.
But at least he could match Nephis in that regard.
***
Sunny jumped off the dead scavenger, internally counting the number of shards they had received from this encounter.
Should be 11.
While he was doing that, Cassie also came out from her hiding spot.
Even though Reinhard was still training her every day, he hadn't allowed her to join the battle even once; Sunny agreed with that decision.
He looked at Cassie, who was smiling in his direction.
"This is like our biggest haul so far."
He nodded.
"Yeah."
However, he and Nephis had once again failed to receive a memory. Once again, the same guy was the exception.
I am starting to see a pattern here.
Sunny thought sarcastically.
No matter how many nightmare creatures they killed, none of the two had received a memory; only Reinhard had received two, one being a storage pouch, which was quite useful, and the other being the dark cloak he was currently wearing.
Apparently, the cloak allowed one to feel warmer in cold environments and cooler in warm environments, and it must also have some combat uses, considering how he was wearing it during battle.
As for how he came to know of its two other functions? It was simple; Reinhard gave the cloak to Cassie a few times during the night.
Makes you wonder what the reason for the favoritism is.
Before Neph or Reinhard could accuse him of slacking off, Sunny sighed and got to the least pleasant task—harvesting the oil sacks from the centipede monsters' corpses. Each had two of them, connected to a special gland. The whole process was more disgusting than dangerous, since the corrosive effect was only achieved after the liquids from the two sacks were mixed.
They had not come up with a way to utilize the centipede oil yet, but Nephis insisted on collecting as much of it as possible. She was sure that it was going to be of use one day.
By the time he was done collecting the sacks, the other two were done with their tasks too. They divided the soul shards equally, and Reinhard absorbed his, while Neph's soul shards and the sacks were stored in the Pouch memory.
Sunny looked at the sky, trying to determine the time. The sun was right above them, high in the grey sky. There was still plenty of daytime left.
"What do you think? We're right in between the Flat Hill and the Bone Ridge. Should we return or try to reach the Ridge today?" He addressed the other two.
Reinhard stood silently, waiting for Nephis to speak.
Externally it might seem like he wanted Neph to make the decision, but Sunny knew better. He had probably decided on a course of action; he just wanted to see if Nephis would agree first. If not, then the debate would start.
Nephis thought for a bit, then said,
"Let's push to the Bone Ridge."
Sunny nodded.
"Okay."
***
Reinhard looked at his runes.
Soul Fragments: [207/1000].
Memories: [Pain Eater] [Bright Fury] [Golden Rope] [Ranger's Cloak] [Azure Blade] [Eight Handled Wheel of Sin] [Bottomless Pouch] [Traveler's Mantle]
Attributes: [Fated] [Battle Master] [Favored by Fate] [Nocturnal Vision] [Echo Perception] [Ever Wake]
One fifth of the way done. Not bad.
A moment later, his gaze moved down towards the attributes.
He was not using his aspect ability, so the two new attributes [Echo Perception] and [Ever Wake] were ones he had completely adapted too.
One was the detection attribute he had active almost all the time during the day, and the other was active quite a lot during nighttime, so it was no surprise that they would be completely adapted soon.
After dismissing his runes, Reinhard looked around.
They had traveled up the spine of the large dead sea creature.
Having been in a desperate need of a bath, Cassie and Nephis went first.
Now that I think about it, it would be pretty easy to peep on them with some kind of attribute.
His flaw wouldn't allow that, of course, nor was he going to, even otherwise.
Hearing a sigh, he glanced up.
Sunless was gazing towards nothing, probably checking his runes.
Reinhard continued to look at him with a tinge of curiosity before looking away.
In the past few days, he had figured out something interesting about him.
It was already quite intriguing how Sunless continued to get stronger at around the same rate as Nephis even though he wasn't absorbing soul shards.
Reinhard initially surmised he must have some other way of filling up his soul cores; the most likely answer was killing nightmare creatures.
Since Reinhard himself usually used an attribute that allowed him to gain Soul fragments even by only killing Nightmare Creatures, he knew that was a possibility.
But when they had encountered some new kinds of nightmare creatures in this part of the coral forest, like flesh-eating plants or weird centipedes, Reinhard had used an attribute to look at their cores; at that moment, he found out that Sunless's core was completely different from a normal person's.
It was pitch black. Although that was initially surprising, he did not pay much attention to it.
There were far more important things he had to worry about, like getting stronger.
Finding out a big calamity is heading his way in the near future, equivalent to death, or death itself did that to him.
Soon after, their turn to wash themselves came. Reinhard felt a gaze on him.
"Go first," he said.
"Ok." Sunless nodded back, taking the Bottle of Endless Water from the refreshed Cassie.
[New attribute acquired.]
[Attribute Name: Soul Essence Control]
Sending some soul essence into the wheel of sin, which was probably spinning inside his soul sea at the moment, Reinhard took away Cassie's sense temporarily.
If the sound of water hitting Sunless's body and later, his, reached Cassie's ears, she would be able to see a clear map of their naked bodies.
Although Reinhard's body was quite an eye candy for the opposite sex, he would much rather avoid showing it off like that.
Plus, he doubted that was the case for Sunless...
In his moments of thought he forgot to look at Cassie to see her reaction towards suddenly losing her sense, but she was smart enough to understand why he did that in the first place. Which was good since he didn't feel like explaining.
After some time, Sunless returned and passed the bottle memory to him.
Reinhard got up and moved away to his secluded spot.
First, he dismissed his cloak, followed by the armor. A cold breeze touched his skin, but he had no reaction to it.
He looked down.
His body was covered in azure blood and dirt, most of it concentrated around his legs. The blood of the Nightmare Creatures had dried in some places, while the dirt had mixed with it into an unpleasant layer.
Reinhard raised the bottle memory.
A stream of water flowed over his body, quickly washing everything away. Azure blood slid down his skin along with the dirt, disappearing into the ground below. The water ran over his legs, across his stomach and chest, before sliding down the defined lines of his muscles.
When he had first arrived in the Dream Realm, Reinhard's body had been around the level of a highly trained Legacy of the same rank without the influence of an Aspect, Attributes, or any enhancement on both of them.
Although it was extraordinary how fast he had reached that level, the level itself was not so.
Back then, his body had simply been well-toned and athletic. More similar to a long-distance runner who had also spent a considerable amount of time training for strength, speed, and explosiveness.
Now, however, things were different.
With the help of his adaptation, his attributes, mainly Titan's Corpus and Soul Essence Control, had enhanced his body in different ways.
The constant fighting, running, and swinging of his sword, combined with the food he had been eating in the Dream Realm, had gradually changed his physique.
He had gained considerably more muscle.
His legs had become thicker and more powerful, especially his quadriceps and calves. His waist remained naturally slim, while his broader shoulders and developed back gave him a noticeable V-taper.
A defined eight-pack was visible across his abdomen, with his chest and arms carrying enough muscle to make the strength hidden beneath his skin obvious.
It was not an overly muscular body. Rather, everything looked balanced.
If he had been considered handsome before mainly because of his face, now there was nothing left about his appearance that could be considered ordinary or even close to it.
***
Effie be droolin while reading ts lol.
Anyways, wanted to upload a lot more this time, but I got a very bad fever, so before I get back to the hospital and get another IV drip pierced up my hand. I'm just gonna upload this asap.