Low Tide....

I look down from the huge statue; I can't even tell it's a statue from here, but the water is gone. I glance at Sunny, and he looks at me, understanding my unspoken message. I know he has his shadows, so he sends one down, and I just sit back and relax, looking at the pale sun.

Sunny is constructing and controlling his shadow; he sends it down below in the coral reef of the maze. His shadow looks at every corner and path it can take; it's confusing as all paths end up in dead ends or some cave with darkness. In them, there is nothing much but soft soil and sand and a huge amount of bones.

His shadow moves for the whole day; they just sit there, eat some food, and wait till they can see the water coming up again. It does not take longer than thirty minutes for the water to be filled up again. While Sunny is not looking, I have summoned a flock of eagles and other flying-type creatures I had killed in the Dark Souls system. They are all looking from the sky, mapping out the directions we can go in, but their range is a little limiting. Still, Sunny memorizes the paths he can take and should avoid, as there is a huge amount of Nightmare creatures in some places.

On the second night of their camping out, they look at a distance; a fire was lit, and I knew who this was, but Sunny looks suspicious of it. "Hey, there is a fire there on some distance coral. Do you think it's a sleeper or some other monster?" I look down at Sunny; he is asking me this, but we both know we have to check it out tomorrow after we go down, even though there was no need to go down; we can't be stuck here.

"Whatever it is, we will have to go down tomorrow anyway. We will check to see if it's another sleeper; we will help them, and together we will figure out what to do after that." I look into the distance, and I already feel bad as Nep and Cassia, the poor girls, will have to fend for themselves. We can't bring anything from Earth to here in the Dream realm unless you have a storage-type memory, or you are a master or saint, but they are not that easy to break.

And today it was raining, too annoying, but I have brought enough camping in wild tools that I won't run out of it, and Sunny was mind-blown when I ordered him to set up the camp. I can feel his gaze full of envy for my involuntary ability. Well, it is really great I can store many things here like a game, so I totally get him, as I don't think even saints have any such things as I have. So we slept peacefully on top of a circular stone while his shadow kept guard and one of the mini-bosses in the dark of night.

So the next day when the pale sun came up, we had to get down, so I pulled my dagger and hooked it to the rock, and it cut through it like butter, and I slid down all the way. Finally, I landed, and from my shadow, Sunny also came out, such a neat power. Well, now we look at a map Sunny and I have made together from the info we both had.

Our direction was in six kilometers from here, near the coral we saw last night that had a fire on top of it. So we started to move; Sunny's shadow was guiding us and looking ahead to see if there was any danger. We were moving at a rapid pace, but just as we were avoiding the monster, I see a movement beneath Sunny's feet.

From the moment, a pincer came at Sunny at an amazing speed; it almost put a hole through his chest if not for me pulling him back and using my dagger to parry the steel-like pincer. From the looks of it, it's an awakened nightmare creature, carapace scavenger. It was 3 meters tall with small eyes filled with rage and madness, but in front of me, it was just another bug. So I parried his attack from his other pincer, and I was now having a sword fight with a crab-like nightmare creature, which also had some human features. But I was getting bored of it, so from the back, I pulled out my great sword and made a rush toward it on all four of my limbs, holding a sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. He made another pincer attack at me, which I perfectly parried, and I jumped in the air and stabbed its head with my sword and slid at the back of the monster. It was almost cut in half, and it died, and I also got myself a memory.

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

[You have received a memory: Azure Blade.]

[Your divine core grows stronger.]

I looked at the messages, and I see that my core got stronger. I am figuring out that my core grows stronger when I save or fight for someone who can't protect themselves, or maybe I just need to fight to save someone, as Sunny right now would have died or at least would have gotten some injuries.

I looked at Sunny and called him over, "Hey, hold out your hand." Sunny looked at me questioningly but still gave me his hand. I transferred the blade I just got to him, as in the story, he got this blade. But also arming people on your side was just better. After the transfer was over, he smiled a little, but he was looking at me like I was some saint.

"Don't want my soldier unarmed now, do we? I already have a greatsword, so try not to come again in the Dream realm with no weapon, will ya?" I looked at Sunny, and he replied, "Well, it's not like the government is giving out weapons to people who don't have any. And thank you for that, and I will also try to help, as you know I am really strong too." I rolled my eyes; of course, he will be strong in the future, but right now, he is a harmless puppy as he has no combat training.

After that little facade, we left the soul shards, as we don't need them, and it will take time that we don't have much. So we now walked more carefully and on full alert, but still, there were bunches of weird stuff coming from under the soft soil, but they are not awakened as they died quickly. And after some scouting, Sunny suddenly stopped.

He looked a little flushed and told me he found the blond girl who was blind and Nephis. And finally, we found them. I can also see this dumbass was thinking some weird stuff; who knows what his weird brain is cooking up. But now we made a run for it to meet them fast.

And finally, we found them. They were tied by a golden rope; Nephis was dressed in seaweed, as she has given her clothes to the blind girl. Cassia was in a simple tunic, and they were both looking tired but ready. Well, looks like a sheep and his master from here. I can see Sunny was being awkward and thinking dumb stuff, so I walked in as I have trained with her for the last 4 weeks.

I went out of a little hiding place and waved at Nephis. She was alerted and pulled out her sword, but I looked at her, and she recognized me. "Hey Nep, fancy meeting you here. Not looking too good for a princess; what happened?" Nephis looked at me but also at Sunny. She was asking a silent question, so I lightly kicked Sunny in the front. "Hello, I am Sunless. Hope you won't kill me; I am with this guy here. You guys look like you know each other." Hearing Sunny's voice, Cassia also spoke up. "Is that you, Sunless, who sat with me? I know him; he is one rank above me." Nephis looked at Sunny with stinky eyes. "You mean the pervert." Sunny went forward with his defense. "I am not a pervert; I just said a few things to some girls. It was a misunderstanding, I swear." I think we have wasted enough time on this, so I finally talked, as we now just have 15 minutes of daytime.

"I think we can clear our misunderstandings later, as the sea will rise up again in 15 minutes. If you guys know any place high enough, let's go. Sunny was also in my class, and I could tell you right now he is a harmless puppy, but he is useful." I looked at Nephis again; she was covered in seaweed. It won't do; it will be better if she was naked at this point, so I pulled a pair of armor set or a dress for girls I got in the Dark Souls system. "Hmm, you are looking really bad in those seaweeds. Here, this is an armor set I got, which is no use to me. So change into it fast; we will turn around and let go get to a high place. We are on the clock." She looked grateful for the clothes, and me and Sunny, and his shadow looked in another direction. She changed into the armor piece, and we looked at her. Now she was really looking like a princess. "It looks good on you, so keep it and let's go." Nep nodded her head, and we are now running through, while Sunny's shadow scouts ahead. We reached another top hill, as Nep knew the directions pretty well.