Shadow Slave

Everything having to do with Sleepers was situated in the same building. Sunny followed the instructions sent to his communicator and quickly found the dormitories, which were situated on one of the lowest levels. To his surprise, he actually got a whole room to himself.

It had a bed with a soft mattress, a table, a dresser, and even a separate bathroom! The materials were new and aesthetically pleasing, the air crisp and sterile. It was warm inside, and the outer wall was equipped with a hidden screen that seamlessly imitated a wide window, opening to a picturesque vista of a snowy park.

There were even several sets of clothes with the Academy emblem provided to him for free.

'How extravagant,' Sunny thought, a little stunned.

Rationally, he understood that such an arrangement was not really luxurious. However, to him, who grew up wandering the outskirts, this room was like a palace. He scratched his head.

'Looks like… I've made it?'

Sunny glanced around, then winked at his shadow and smiled.

"I guess we're moving up in the world, huh?"

The shadow didn't respond, apparently not very impressed. Perhaps it didn't care about such things.

'Right, what would a stupid shadow know?'

Sunny changed into new clothes and studied himself in the mirror. Then, remembering something, he summoned the runes.

He finally had time to study the Puppeteer's Shroud.

Memory: [Puppeteer's Shroud].

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Type: Armor.

Memory Description: [A worm of doubt once found its way into a righteous king's heart. With time, the king was devoured from inside and became its puppet. A lifetime later, the Puppeteer Worm escaped from the king's dead body, leaving behind a cacoon of black silk. No one knows where it went; however, once people dared to approach the silent castle, they found the silk among the mountains of gnawed bones and fashioned it into an armor.]

a

that terrifying. Yeah. I'm not creeped out at

he were to assume that Mountain King was a mature Puppeteer Worm — and already a tyrant… then what the hell would it transform into

better not to

into a set of armor. It was made of dark-gray, soft fabric with several elements, such

and did not restrain his movements at all. It also made no sound when he moved. Perfect equipment for someone

him a great advantage in dealing with all dormant monsters. He also felt a sort of strange, faint calmness while

worm of doubt… does it have

was sure

less from the Memory

on top of a full set of clothes. Quite satisfied, Sunny dismissed

not bad,' he thought, recalling all the rewards he had received during and after the

only was it freely available to Sleepers, there wasn't even a limit to the amount each of them could eat! More than that, there

Sunny thought, steering clear

small mountain of food on his plate, he found an empty seat and, for a while, forgot about the world's existence. As juicy, textured, perfectly seasoned meat filled his mouth, Sunny's vision

think, he could have lived like that

you infect me

the food, decimating the whole plate in no time. Satiated and more than a little gorged, Sunny longingly looked back and thought about

he stood

office, sitting across from an administrative worker. The worker was

was offered psychological counseling again. Remembering

at ease. As such, most of them started with nice and polite preambles like "would you like to tell me"

mind telling me about the type of Aspect Ability you received, as in combat,

but had to be

I haven't had

alright. Are you able to directly deal damage with your

not? Earlier, I wasn't even able to harm

like that. In the end, Sunny shared just enough information to create an impression that his

he returned to his room,

thought that falling asleep for the first time after the Nightmare would be weird, but in fact, it was surprisingly easy. Lying on a soft mattress, with his skin against clean bedsheets and a fluffy