Sunny summoned the scavenger Echo, then ordered it to collect soul shards along with the serpent. After gathering the soul shards, Sunny sent his shadow to scout for more scavenger groups while rotating his soul essence using the serpent. The serpent was simply a cheat tool—it could rotate soul essence and transform into a terrifying beast or a weapon.
What Sunny wanted to achieve by killing scavengers was to gather as many shadow fragments, memories, and, if possible, more echoes. Secondly, he's trying to form the Monster Core quickly to gain a noticeable power increase and to have an empty core ready for the Saint. Soon, Sunny detected another group of scavengers—fourteen—gathered around a part of the shark's body that Sunny had previously slain. Sunny summoned the Challenger's Heart and Spark of Fire, then, enhanced by his shadow, fired the arrow into the middle of the scavengers. The black ray surged from the shadows and landed among the scavengers.
What followed was a massive explosion that engulfed all the scavengers. Flesh flew, and the spell's voice sang in his ears:
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[Your shadow grows stronger]
[You have received a Memory…]
Eleven scavengers died instantly in the explosion. Three scavengers were left gravely injured, but Sunny quickly finished them off with the help of the serpent and the scavenger Echo. The scavenger Echo proved to be a valuable assistant, as it could crash into any scavenger, causing it to stumble and giving Sunny a quick chance to finish it off.
"You're good like this, Echo… How about I give you a name? …Alright, let's see—you're ugly and look like a crab, so let's call you Crab." Sunny had never seen a real crab, only nightmare creatures that resembled them, but he had a rough idea of what they looked like.
As sunset approached, the number of scavengers killed by Sunny and his assistants had reached ninety-four. Sunny checked his runes, which read:
Name: Sunless
True Name: Herald of Death
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Dormant
Shadow Fragments: [257/1000]
Echoes: [Carapace Scavenger]
Shadows: [Soul Serpent]
Memories: [Silver Bell] [Puppeteer Shroud] [Heavy club] [Challenger's Heart] [Spark of Fire] [Leafquiver] [Coral Ring] [Maze Guide] [Sage's mantle][A collection of memories obtained from killing scavengers, I don't want to name them]
Traits: [Divine Ember] [Shadow master] [Fated] [Blessed by the Shadow God] [Death]
"That's a quarter of the way to the Monster Core… How I long for the cheerful shadow… right, Gloomy?" The gloomy shadow responded only by raising his hand and pointing at his head.
"Oh come on, I know I'm a little crazy—but not like that." Sunny reached the headless knight statue and began climbing the cliff, while behind him, the sun began to set and the dark sea rose quickly.
When Sunny reached the platform, he began drinking the water he had filtered since he arrived. "Ahh, now this is life—refreshing." After eating the meat he had cooked in the morning—it was cold, hard, and tasted bad—but Sunny had eaten the rotten guts of the Marvelous Mimic before, so he didn't complain. After recharging his energy, Sunny went to the shark's corpse and started working. He wanted materials to craft memories after acquiring blood weave, and there was nothing better than the bones and fangs of a Corrupted Devil. He also wanted to make a needle for weaving—and he needed a strong material. All of that was found in the shark before him.
After two hours of cutting, Sunny extracted a large pile of bones and fangs. He placed them on the platform and lay down on the cold ground. He ordered his shadow to keep watch and wake him if anything happened.
Sunny awoke to the sunlight and the sound of the receding dark sea. "Oh yes… tonight Nephis is supposed to light the fire. I've got time to hunt more poor scavengers. I pity you."
Sunny climbed down from the platform and sent his shadow to scout for scavenger groups. If he discovered small groups of three or four scavengers, he would send the serpent and Crab to deal with them. Sunny's hunting efficiency was out of this world—within an hour of descending, he had killed twelve scavengers without even summoning a weapon. Practically, the serpent and Crab did all the work. "Oh, a big catch," Sunny muttered as his shadow discovered a large group of scavengers—thirty in total—gathered around a giant corpse that resembled a serpent but had arms and sensors extending from every part of its body.
Sunny prepared by rotating a significant amount of soul essence, then summoned the Challenger's Heart and enhanced it with his shadow. He approached them, hidden in the shadows, and the scavengers did not notice him. Sunny fired the arrow, enhanced with his shadow and all the soul essence extracted by the serpent. The arrow fell upon the scavengers.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[You have slain…]
[Your shadow grows stronger]
[Your shadow grows stronger]
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Carapace Scavenger]
[You have received a Memory]
This caused an enormous explosion. More than half of the scavengers died, and the rest were severely injured. Sunny gave them no chance—he unleashed the serpent and Crab upon them and followed. The serpent, enhanced by his shadow, needed no help. It crushed the scavengers with ease and bit off their heads.
As for Sunny and Crab, they made a very effective team—the echo would crash into the scavengers, making them stagger or fall to the ground, creating an opening for Sunny to finish them off quickly. Sometimes Crab would even pin them with his pincers—or stab one in the chest and drag it away. Sunny was impressed with Crab's performance.
"Well done, Crab. If you keep this up, I'll turn you into a shadow!" Sunny cut off one scavenger's pincer, and then Crab came from behind and tore off its head with his pincer. Then they turned to another scavenger. Meanwhile, the serpent crushed chitin and turned the scavengers into broken dolls. The serpent was deadly even without enhancement—but with Sunny's shadow, it became a disaster for scavengers.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast: Carapace Scavenger]
The last scavenger fell to Sunny's sword. "Huff… huff… this is exhausting. Ah, I'm hungry now—I'm not fighting large groups again." For a Sleeper, killing more than thirty was a fantasy story for most people—but Sunny knew that once he formed Demon Core, killing a hundred would be easy.
Sunny stood up and went to the creature that looked like a serpent, then began skinning it with difficulty. He wanted to craft a bag capable of holding the number of soul shards he had.
After crafting a giant bag, Sunny hung it on Crab and climbed onto him, sitting down. "Alright, Crab, let's continue our hunt. You've proven yourself—I'll make you a shadow if I form Monster Core." The echo made a strange sound that Sunny took as a sign of happiness.
Sunny continued hunting. He targeted small and medium-sized scavenger groups, and there were plenty of them. Two hours before sunset, Crab was dragging a bag filled to the brim with soul shards. As for Sunny, he was staring at his runes with a strange emotion. At the bottom of his runes.:
Shadow Fragments: [432/1000]