Shadow Slave

Days flew by.

Sunny only had four weeks to prepare himself for the journey into the Dream Realm, so there wasn't even a minute to spare. He was relentless, pushing his body and mind to the limits in an attempt to absorb as much knowledge and skills as possible in that short amount of time.

In the day, he studied with Teacher Julius, slowly learning how to survive and take care of himself in the absence of civilization. Their lessons ranged from comparatively simple, like various ways to produce fire, to much more obscure and esoteric, like celestial navigation.

What was so hard about celestial navigation?

Well, as it turned out, the Dream Realm was not consistent in terms of star geography. Different regions had different stars and constellations, as well as a different number of moons. While the sun seemed to be the same, its behavior was highly unpredictable.

Still, with sufficient knowledge, one could find ways to study the skies and subsequently navigate themselves.

Most of these lessons were, supposedly, already included in the various school curriculums and known to the majority of Sleepers. However, learning something from a textbook and learning the same thing from an actual Awakened were two completely different matters.

Teacher Julius had a habit of going much more in-depth when explaining his subject. Thanks to this time-consuming habit of his, Sunny not only learned about the "what", but also often gained glimpses into the "why". This nascent understanding of the underlying principles of the Dream Realm environments gave him the ability to face any situation with at least some measure of readiness.

Even the lessons in dead languages, which Sunny had initially judged to be useless, turned out to be much more interesting than he could ever imagine. This was, in large part, because it concerned the Spell itself — after all, the Spell communicated with humans in one of those dead languages.

language, he was able to understand its various remarks and descriptions better. The simplest example of this was Nephis and her True Name, "Changing Star". While technically correct, this translation failed to properly convey

of Change". More than that, there were different runes for "change", each with its own connotation. Depending on what exact rune was used to

could mean a world of difference in

studied before, found the process of acquiring vast amounts of

After all, knowledge was something that only the privileged had access to. It was also this authority over knowledge that

and without the advantage of good education, they had no way

that Sunny was now one of those privileged people. More than that, he was at the pinnacle of social hierarchy. Not only had he gained access to an unlimited

into a whirlpool of philosophical reflection if he

Julius also insisted on holding practical lessons every other day. Even if some of them had to be done in virtual reality simulations, he insisted on

reforged body, Sunny had never been in better shape. Even without combat training, he could feel his strength,

the First Nightmare had enhanced the innate potential of his body, bringing it to the peak of the human condition. However, it was

though this wasn't enough, Sunny secretly collected information about other

shadow was independent enough to be sent on scouting missions without his direct control. It would sneak here and there, listening in on

his room, it would come back and share

shadow, despite its outward snarkiness, turned out to be rather naive. It didn't

Sunny would receive nothing of value or