Little By Little

Back in the Rhino, Saint remained in the cargo hold, standing near the engineering workstation while Quentin continued the slow process of mending her armor and stonelike flesh. If people did not know better, they would have thought that she was an actual statue.

Since the healer was busy with the Captain's Echo, the rest of the Irregulars found themselves robbed of his care. Although no one sustained serious wounds... except for Sunny... there were still a few scrapes that had to be tended to.

Unexpectedly, Beth volunteered to administer first aid. As it turned out, she had some medical knowledge. The members of the cohort did not care too much about who treated their wounds, really... well, except for Luster.

The fool seemed very excited, for some reason.

Sunny himself had long ago dismissed his battered armor and was sitting in the lounge area, looking at his black bodysuit with some regret. The uniform was truly the result of a magnificent design. Among other features, it was even able to repair itself... however, everything had its limits.

With how much abuse he had put it through, the bodysuit was definitely a goner. It was full of holes, looking like a set of rags. His body beneath hurt all over, too.

'Well. Figures...'

At least there was good news, as well.

The convoy was already moving forward. After reaching the valley, the mundane soldiers and the civilians had been shocked to see the scene of slaughter there... they were even more disturbed after witnessing the narrow ravine where Sunny, Saint, and Nightmare had fought the Voiceless.

In fact, even the members of the cohort seemed a bit pale.

Regardless, the battle had gone surprisingly well for the convoy. Not only had they survived without suffering any losses, but the Irregulars even managed to acquire two Echoes. The monstrous hounds were going to be of great help in their long journey.

Sunny's list of assets was slowly growing.

He had made use of the Echoes right there and then, commanding his soldiers to send them to recover soul shards from the corpses of the Fallen and Corrupted abominations of the Voiceless swarm. Fishing out the Black Tongues from the water was too much trouble, so he had just left them there.

Soon, the lake would freeze again, encasing the mangled corpses of the Nightmare Creatures in ice. That would probably be a macabre sight.

Sunny had kept the souls shards of the Corrupted to himself while sending the rest to the lone Sleeper... whatever his name was. Just like that, the lucky bastard got even closer to fully saturating his core, without ever lifting a finger.

At least he was getting stronger. Sunny needed all the strength he could get.

Still, he was a bit infuriated by how easily his subordinates were getting the good stuff. Was there no justice in the world?

...At least there were the Memories he had received.

Before Sunny could summon the runes, however, Beth approached him, carrying one of the unreasonably expensive medkits he had outfitted the Rhino with. He looked at her in confusion.

"What?"

The young woman frowned.

"What do you mean, what? I'm here to treat you. Come on, get out of that raggedy uniform. I don't have all day, you know."

Sunny stared at her for a bit.

"...No need."

Beth let out a heavy sight.

"Let's not do that whole bravado thing, okay? Even if you are a Master, you are still going to bleed to death if I don't administer the clotting agent, with all these wounds. I need to clean them, too... unless you desire to risk going into septic shock, of course. In that case, be my guest. Stay where you are."

Sunny remained silent for a few moments, then shook his head.

"I don't bleed."

The young woman blinked a couple of times.

"Huh?"

He waved his hand and pointed to his body. Indeed, although there were plenty of holes in the bodysuit, there was very little blood.

"Bleeding is too pedestrian. So, I do not bleed."

He ved his hand and pointed to his body. Indeed, although there were plenty of holes in the bodysuit, there was very little blood.

"Bleeding is too pedestrian. So, I do not bleed."

Beth stared at him, lost for words.

He shrugged.

"If that's all, go away. I'm busy."

She gritted her teeth and glowered at him.

"Oh, yeah? What are you so busy with?"

Sunny silently studied his bodysuit for a few moments and then answered in a somber tone.

"...Being miserable."

Beth flung her arms up, turned around, and walked away.

'Finally...'

Left alone, Sunny summoned the runes, looking up his shadow fragments first:

Shadow Fragments: [1601/4000].

His progress had slowed after being dispatched to L049, but now, its speed was picking up again. Still, he had a long way to go.

Next, Sunny checked on Saint and Nightmare.

Shadow Fragments: [146/200].

Nightmares required: [333/1000].

Once he fed the Memories received from the Black Tongues to the taciturn demon, she would finally cross the one hundred and fifty fragments mark.

'Three fourths there...'

If Saint became Transcendent, his power was bound to increase drastically. However, progress on that front was torturously slow. With how many soul shards he now had access to, Sunny could have tried to create a few Memories himself. But weaving Memories required a lot of time, and even more essence - and while the former was scarce, it was the latter that was truly precious.

Essence was the most valuable thing in Antarctica. There was never enough of it, and since Sunny did not know when the next battle would come, he could not allow himself to waste it on weaving ethereal strings.

Making Saint a Transcendent in the future was not going to help him if he died today, starved for essence and unable to fight well.

...On the other hand, his steed was collecting nightmares with a extraordinary speed. It was probably because the dark destrier was harvesting the seeds that he had planted into the souls of abominations during the last two months.

That was good, too... Sunny could not wait to learn what Nightmare's Terror Ability was like.

Lastly, he studied the runes describing the Mantle of the Underworld:

Vanquished Foes: [5732/6000].

'...So close.'

If things did not go well, he would probably fill the counter of the [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment before arriving to Erebus Field, or very soon after.

'Good... I mean, bad... I mean, good? I do hope that we won't have to fight battles like the last one often on the way to safety, but if we do... at least I'll get something from it.'

The problem was that the Mantle was currently damaged, and needed some time to restore itself. He could have summoned it and activated the [Living Stone] enchantment, but, once again... that would consume a lot of essence, and Sunny was already dangerously short on it after slaughtering two entire swarms of abominations.

'Let's see the main prize, then...'

He inhaled deeply, and then looked at the list of his Memories.

Among them, two new ones especially attracted his attention.

One was called [Bitter Cusp].

The other was called [Stifled Scream].