Setting off.

"You freeloader!" Sunny's voice pierced the air like a banshee's wail, causing Asher to pause mid-swing with his sword.

Asher furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?" he asked innocently, as if he hadn't just been caught red-handed.

"I'm paying Nephis all the soul shards I get just so she could teach me!" Sunny's face was flushed with righteous indignation.

Asher shrugged nonchalantly, resuming his sword strikes as if nothing could faze him. "And?"

Sunny practically erupted like a volcano. "You eavesdrop on Nephis' explanations and do the same training routine as me! So basically, Nephis is teaching you for free!"

A light bulb seemed to flicker on in Asher's mind. "Yeah?" he said, tilting his head in mock confusion, while Sunny's anger reached volcanic levels.

"You're not paying her, while I am!" Sunny practically spat the words out, his frustration palpable.

Asher couldn't help but burst into laughter at the sheer absurdity of it all, while Nephis's lips curled up slightly at the amusing spectacle unfolding before her.

"Sunny-boy, stop being so childish," Asher chided between chuckles. "Plus, Nephis is also my teacher."

Sunny's eyes widened in realization, and he muttered in a low voice, "I-I forgot."

Asher snickered, and even Cassie couldn't contain her giggles, joining in the mirthful atmosphere. Nephis's stoic facade cracked just a little, allowing a hint of amusement to shine through.

As Nephis wrapped up their training session, Asher couldn't help but feel a twinge of disappointment. After all, he was secretly hoping for a little extra "incentive" in the form of a well-placed hit from Nephis. But alas, it seemed even fate had a sense of humor.

Anyway, after training, the squad ate up the last of our crab meat and slept while taking turns to watch.

When the morning came and the dark sea retreated, they prepared to leave the giant statue. Nephis was the first one to climb down. Before that, she had a few words to say:

"Today will be different from before. There will be many more scavengers roaming in the labyrinth. We might not be able to create an ambush or avoid fighting several of them at once."

She looked at Sunny:

"If anything happens, your job is to bring Cassie away. We can retreat by using passages that are too narrow for the scavengers. If we get separated, proceed to the high point by yourselves. Don't wait for me. Do you understand?"

With a somber expression, he gave her a nod. Nephis returned it.

She then looked at Asher:

"Can you fight?" She asked as she assessed his injuries she still hadn't healed. Asher simply smiled as he replied, "I think I can, but don't be too confident with your student. I barely know the sword." Just then, a scavenger sparked into existence behind him as he continued, "I should be able to help though."

Sunny clicked his tongue while Nephis simply nodded.

"Good. Time is of the essence, so let's go," Nephis said as she began to climb down.

"Oh yeah, one more thing," Asher added with a thoughtful expression. "A few of the crabs that chased me two days ago are still down there, in the sand."

The squad's expressions turned grim, while Nephis stopped climbing down. Asher quickly added, "No monsters. I can sense 4 scavengers though. I think one of them is missing an arm."

"We can take care of that," Nephis said with confidence while Sunny reluctantly nodded. Cassie, however, looked as scared as always.

Nephis directed her gaze to Asher as she asked, "Asher, how exactly did you sense the scavengers?"

Asher's eyes widened as he realized he messed up. He began whistling while fidgeting with his index fingers. Sunny stayed silent. He knew Asher hid a few of his abilities when he explained it. He and Nephis too, did the same. He couldn't possibly say anything about keeping secrets.

Asher, meanwhile, was sweating buckets as Nephis stared at him intently. He finally took a deep breath and sighed it out, "It's my innate ability..."

Nephis and Sunny raised a brow as Asher frowned, "I can feel the weight of other creatures within 5 km around me."

Nephis and Sunny simply nodded. Sunny also had shadow sense, but he could feel the shadows of the carapaces as if they were underground even if they were above. He still wouldn't be able to sense them since the statue's shadow would overshadow the scavenger's shadow. Nephis, meanwhile, did not find anything strange about it.

With that, she began the descent. After Nephis reached a point twenty or so meters below them, she found purchase and waited. Using the golden rope, Sunny lowered Cassie down. Just like while climbing up, they took turns helping the blind girl. Luckily, climbing down the statue was much easier.

Asher got dangerously close to the edge as he looked down below.

"Hey Asher, what are you doing?" Sunny said as he helped Cassie get down. Asher looked at Sunny and smiled, "Nothing... I wanted to try something new. Worst-case scenario, I die."

Sunny frowned at the explanation, but before he could say anything, Asher simply jumped down.

Nephis's and Sunny's eyes widened as they hurriedly looked down. Their expressions turned to a grimace as they saw Asher waving at them while slowly descending downward by making himself light. Since the statue was covering the winds, he did not have to worry about flying 100 km away.

Sunny looked at Asher and scoffed, "Show off."

Nephis sighed, "I forgot about his aspect."

Asher simply chuckled as he made his way down by slowly increasing his weight. It wasn't particularly a risk, as he could fly by tearing a few muscles. He simply wanted to see the limit of how light he could make himself without reversing the gravity. He was pleasantly surprised to find out that the gravity in the dream realm was higher than it was on Earth, so he could reduce his weight by 60% when he included air resistance. He would still come crashing to the ground in a normal case, but he, however, simply pulled himself up a bit with gravity, effectively making his weight that of a paper.

You could call it pseudo-flying since he used the same principles, but the backlash is reduced by a ton, and it was akin to gliding.

He knew that this rule could only apply to him, and he was soul-bound too like an echo, as for some reason he couldn't manipulate the weight of others. 'It's probably because my aspect ability is only dormant. Plus even if he could, he wouldn't be able to make them pseudo-fly or even fly for that matter as the maximum he could do is decrease and increase their weight by 10%, as that's the intensity he could manipulate.

As expected, he was the first to get down. He looked around him and immediately put his hand on his nose. Since about 30 crabs followed him. After he escaped by flying up, the monster crabs undoubtedly massacred almost all of the crabs. The lucky few that escaped the wrath of the monsters were hiding below the ground.

Asher summoned his echo as he looked around him. The area was painted in azure blood with random legs and pincers lying all around. The crab corpses were already starting to decay, and the stench was unbearable to Asher.

He held his urge to vomit as he used the vesture's tentacles to collect all the soul shards from the corpses. He suddenly stopped his walk as the squad finally got down.

"Holy shit, it smells here," Sunny said while the rest of the squad nodded in agreement.

Sunny summoned his sword as he knew 4 scavengers were there. That's when Asher randomly slapped the ground with the tentacle, causing Sunny to immediately take a few steps back by instinct.

.

.

.

"FUCKING BASTARD! YOU SCARED ME!" he yelled while Cassie tripped back and fell on her butt, surprised by the sudden sound. Only Nephis seemed indifferent, albeit with a slight frown.

"Come on, I'm sorry! I had a good reason," Asher said with a dry chuckle.

Sunny wanted to retort but didn't have the time when two scavengers immediately arose from the ground, close to the area Asher hit.

Asher's echo immediately attacked an injured scavenger, which was missing a pincher. Asher augmented the crab with gravity to increase its weight. Since his echo was covered in chitin instead of skin. Asher could augment the crab to a certain degree without breaking the chitin. Once this is done, the crab can deal more powerful blows, and its speed will only decrease by a little as the crab's weight is increased proportionally, and it could support its weight.

(He can only do this to the crab since it's his echo. It's like Sunny's shadow augmentation with more risk and more power.)

Nephis and Sunny charged at the other scavenger with fierce expressions. Meanwhile, Asher found himself instinctively clinging to Cassie's shoulders, using her as a human shield while he nervously gulped down his anxiety with a shaky smile.

Cassie looked frightened as she asked in a worried tone, "Asher, are you hiding behind me? Did something happen?"

Asher chuckled a little bit as his expression became a bit pale. "Well, you see, in my usual encounters with scavengers, I'd find a cozy rock to hide behind and let my echo and tentacles handle the dirty work. But, uh, there's a distinct lack of convenient rocks in this particular situation," he confessed sheepishly.

Cassie's face twisted into a comical grimace. "Asher, are you... perhaps scared?" she asked with a wry chuckle, her own trepidation mixing with the absurdity of the situation.

"No, no... I have a slight headache. You know... haha... can't fight with a headache," Asher said, attempting to brush off his nerves with a forced laugh,

The air thickened with an awkward silence, punctuated only by the faint sounds of their surroundings.

.

.

.

"Yes, I am scared."

Unexpectedly, Cassie began to giggle, her laughter breaking the tension like a ray of sunshine through storm clouds. "I'm happy someone shares the same feeling as me," she managed to say between fits of giggles, finding solace in their shared vulnerability amidst the chaos.

Asher also began to comically chuckle as he thought, 'The hell is with this girl?'. Suddenly, Asher's chuckle dissolved into a gasp of terror as his instincts screamed at him to move. he narrowed his eyes as he shoved Cassie aside and leapt backwards in a blind panic.

A deafening crash reverberated through the air as a colossal pincer smashed into the ground where they had stood mere seconds ago, leaving behind a gaping crater as evidence of the peril they narrowly escaped. Asher's breath hitched in his throat, his heart pounding like a drumbeat of impending doom.

Pale-faced and trembling, he muttered, "I let my guard down for a minute and I almost got crushed." Casting a worried glance at Cassie, who was now covered in azure blood and minor bruises from her fall.

With a surge of adrenaline, a tentacle wrapped around her and gently guided her behind a nearby carapace corpse, where she could find refuge from the looming threat.

As Asher faced the harrowing scavenger before him, his heart sank at the sight of its unscathed form. A wave of unease washed over him as he observed the excess soul essence in the scavenger's core.

"It's going to evolve into a monster soon," Asher whispered grimly, his voice barely above a whisper as he assessed the situation with a steely resolve.

Gritting his teeth, he summoned the stone blade, knowing that he couldn't rely on Formless for protection due to the searing pain building up in his skull.

With every fibre of his being, he braced himself for the harrowing battle ahead.

[You have slain an awakened beast, carapace scavenger.]

Asher's grim face instantly broke into a grin, "Never mind, I just have to hold on until my echo comes back."

The scavenger did not give him time to rest, though. It swiftly went in to mutilate him with its claws. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Asher's sharpened senses kicked into overdrive, a side effect of Nephis' unconventional "training" and his relentless consumption of soul shards, making his reaction speed faster.

But not fast enough.

With a snarl of determination, he gritted his teeth as the scavenger's claw closed in on him, its razor-sharp edges gleaming menacingly in the dim light of the battlefield as his body slowly tried to dodge. In a split-second decision, Asher thrust his stone blade between himself and the deadly claw, bracing for impact with grim resolve.

The force of the blow sent shockwaves of pain coursing through his body, threatening to tear him apart as he crashed into a nearby carapace corpse with bone-jarring force. Groaning in agony, he tasted blood on his lips while he cursed, "Fuck, it pains."

Asher forced himself to take deep, steadying breaths, focusing his mind with total concentration breathing. Amidst the chaos of battle, he sensed a shift in gravity, realizing that his echo was now engaged in combat with another scavenger, beyond the reach of his gravitational augmentation.

"Shit, I might die here," he muttered under his breath, his heart pounding with a mixture of fear and adrenaline-fueled determination.

He knew that Nephis and Sunny were still going to take some time since the scavenger they engaged in a fight with was also not injured. This time he really had no help. Suddenly, Asher rolled to the side with lightning speed as a second pincer descended upon him, narrowly missing its mark. Wiping blood from his mouth with a shaky hand, he glared defiantly at the scavenger before him.

He growled, his voice dripping with exhaustion, "Give me some time to catch my breath, you bastard."