Shadow Slave

Chapter 9

There was a problem.

They were planning to follow the road up to the mountain pass and then over it, getting as far away from the scene of the massacre as they could before the night came. However, the road was no more.

At some point during the last months, or maybe even just yesterday, a terrible rockfall occurred, obliterating whole segments of the narrow roadway and making its other parts untraversable. Sunny stood on the precipice of a vast chasm, looking down with no particular expression on his face.

"What do we do now?"

Scholar's voice was muffled by the collar of his scavenged fur cloak. His follower, Shifty, angrily looked around. His gaze stopped at Sunny — a suitable victim to vent his frustration.

"I'll tell you what we need to do! Get rid of some dead weight!"

He eyed Sunny's fine boots and turned to Hero:

"Listen, your lordship. The boy is too weak. He is slowing us down! Plus, he's weird. Doesn't he give you the creeps?"

The young soldier answered with a judgemental frown, but Shifty wasn't done.

"Look! Look how he's glaring at me! I swear to gods, ever since he joined the caravan, nothing had gone right. Maybe the old man was right: the boy is cursed by the Shadow God!"

Sunny struggled to not roll his eyes. It was true that he was unlucky: however, the whole truth was opposite to what Shifty was trying to insinuate. It was not that he had attracted misfortune to the slave caravan; on the contrary, it was because the caravan was doomed to begin with that he had ended up here.

Scholar cleared his throat:

"But I've never said that…"

"Whatever! Shouldn't we get rid of him just in case?! He can't go on for much longer anyway!"

Scholar gave Sunny a strange look. Perhaps Sunny was getting paranoid, but there seemed to be a bit of calculating coldness in the older slave's eyes. Finally, Scholar shook his head.

The

"But…"

finally spoke, putting an end

much longer he'll be able to endure — just

but

what do

down the slope of the mountain, and finally up, where a

by pilgrims. Later, the Empire had widened parts of the path and built a proper road

He looked up.

above us. If we reach it, we should be able to find our way back to

climbing the treacherous slope. Except for Hero, of course, who remained as calm as

to the rockfall, the slope wasn't an almost vertical

first one to

that? Are you

Scholar helplessly shrugged.

have

began the ascent. Shifty and Scholar stubbornly carried the weapons they had picked up off the dead soldier's bodies, but Sunny, with

have seemed to be that heavy right now, but every extra gram of weight was bound to feel like a ton all too soon. As the weakest member of the group, he was already struggling to keep up, so there wasn't a lot

turned out to

and up. He had to constantly remind himself to watch his footing, too. On this unstable, icy slope one misstep was enough to send a man tumbling down to his

something pleasant,'

thoughts

reward he was going to receive at the end of this trial.

But it was this first one that determined what role an Awakened would be able to play, how great their

was simple, yet possibly the most important: after completing their trial, Aspirants were bestowed with the ability to perceive, and interact with, Soul Cores. Soul Cores were the basis of one's rank and power. The stronger your Core was, the greater your

lowly beast had just one, but a tyrant like Mountain King had five. Coincidentally, the only way to improve your Soul Core was to consume

went out of their way to battle

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