Shadow Slave

With an empty stomach and a head full of thoughts, Sunny returned to the center of the platform and sat down. After a while, he beckoned to his shadow and said:

"Wake me up if anything happens."

Then, he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. His consciousness quickly slid into the sweet embrace of darkness, giving Sunny some well-needed rest.

In the middle of the night, however, a sudden impulse stirred him awake. Sunny jumped to his feet, his groggy mind full of tense apprehension. He was afraid that the owner of the giant tentacle had come back to finish the job.

Or maybe some other horror from the depths had sensed him and decided to snack on human meat.

However, the sea was quiet and calm. He didn't hear any abnormalities around the knight's statue.

"What is it?" Sunny whispered, addressing the shadow.

The shadow silently pointed him in a particular direction.

Turning his head, Sunny squinted. He quickly understood why it was a good idea to wake up. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to see…

Out there in the distance, a few kilometers away, a small orange light was shimmering in the darkness. Its reflections were rising and falling with the movement of waves.

It was too far away to make out any details, so Sunny just stared at it for a while. Pretty soon, the light disappeared.

"Other Sleepers? Natural phenomenon? Or some monster laying a trap?"

Memories of nightmarish deepwater creatures immediately came to his mind.

Shaking his head, Sunny lay back down and attempted to return to his slumber. However, this time sleep was escaping him. Pangs of hunger were still not unbearable, but slowly becoming more and more intense. The thirst, however, was worse.

until the sun rose again, sending the dark sea in

***

soon as the morning came, the pincer monsters crawled back from their hiding spots and rushed to the giant carcass to continue their

to take a look in the direction where he had seen the mysterious

the headless statue, five or six kilometers away, the ground rose naturally and formed something akin to a hill. On top of that hill,

it, its upper branches were just

Sunny's head, but at the end of it, only

should he even attempt to do it? After all, there was no indication that the source of

back to study the monsters. He did, however, send the shadow to investigate as far into the labyrinth as the range of Shadow Control allowed, hoping to chart at least the

statue as he probably could be in this strange place. The only problem was, he was going to die soon because

number of ways taught to him by Teacher Julius, with materials that were present pretty much everywhere in the Dream Realm. He could also prepare traps and hunt a pincer monster to eat. With their massive size,

day, returning to the statue at the approach of the night. It was probably his safest

this way of doing things lacked one vital element: the potential for improvement. It was well suited for keeping Sunny alive, but had no way of giving him hope. If he was destined to spend the rest of his life in the small area surrounding the headless statue, devouring monsters and trembling at night in fear

would rather just jump down and end it right

source of the orange light. And if Sunny was really trying to attempt it, he had to do it before the pincer monsters were

of the labyrinth was

decided to leave the headless statue the next morning. He would spend the rest of today exploring

his eyes and concentrated his perception on

***

Sunny was stirred awake by the shadow in

about anything except for freshwater. Staying low so as to not be blown over the edge of the platform, Sunny cupped his hands and

to see Sunny now, they

a tall wave would crash into the headless knight's neck, threatening to wash him away. But Sunny held tight to the deep grooves in the stone surface of the platform, sticking to

storm finally dissipated, all

no time to

the monsters came back to the carcass, with a few stragglers quickly following behind, he

student a crash course in all possible