Chapter XVI: Desperate Trust

A.N: It came to my attention that the drop system I devised needed some revision. So, here's what we are going to work with.

1~15 ----> No drop (75%)

16 -----> Weapon Memory (5%)

17 ----> Armor Memory (5%)

18 ----> Tool Memory (5%)

19 ----> Charm Memory (5%)

20 ----> Echo (5%) [Double roll 20 required to get it.]

For those who didn't notice, I have removed the garment type drop since I just found out that no such thing existed in Shadow Slave.

Also, I will retcon the [Osseous Exoarmor] and make it a full body memory from now on without sacrificing any defensive capabilities due to recent changes.

Moreover, please don't be alarmed if the soul fragment number changes since I revised the formula I used for calculating it.

Thank you for your understanding.

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William observed with an emotionless expression as the sun went down the horizon, and with it, the black waters of the Dark Sea surged forward to reclaim back its lost territory.

The water level rose so high that it completely obscured the Coral Labyrinth and only stopped a few meters before reaching the edge of the cliff he and Cassie had made their camp for the night on.

His observation finished, the young man turned away from the cliff's edge and looked at the young girl sitting beside the campfire he managed to light up.

'Magic is very a convenient thing to have,' he thought as he redirected his attention to their dinner.

A couple of sticks with pieces of meat hanging from them were arranged around the campfire to be cooked. Thankfully, Jaina attended the Survival courses back at the academy and provided him with the gist of the information. Otherwise, he wouldn't have known whether the meat from the Carapace Scavengers was edible or not for human consumption.

For him, it was of no consequence since his physiology no longer required food for sustenance if push came to shove; however, his companion needed to eat or she would starve.

Thankfully, they had come across a few more groups of Carapace Scavengers while traveling and fighting proved easier with the help of his undead minions. Also, after each fight, the number of Corpse Scavengers under his control increased.

However, that also helped him realize something about his ability. He could theoretically raise an unlimited number of monsters as undead but the act of controlling them when their numbers bloated proved to be a challenge in and of itself.

He noticed it when the number of his minions exceeded five. The new additions seemed to not follow his orders immediately, or when they did, they fumbled some way or the other. It seemed that he didn't have the ability to command an undead army just yet.

Thus, before any deadly accidents could happen, William decided to reduce the number of his dead entourage from nine to five.

(6 additional Carapace scavengers were slain: D20 = 17, 7, 16, 5, 13, 11)

Also, he had gotten some memories from his hunting.

He summoned the memory runes in the order he got them. First, he received an awakened, tier I armor called the [Foot Soldier Armor] that he gave to Cassie, since even a tier I armor provided more protection than a normal robe.

He silently observed his companion, who seemed to be lost in her own thoughts as she gazed at the flickering flames of the campfire. Covering her body up to her neck was a brown leather armor that seemed to have seen many years of use but still looked functional.

Next, the image of a simple western sword crafted from azure metal appeared before his eyes.

(Image)

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[Azure Sword: In the cursed lands of the Forgotten Shore, only steel remembers.]

Memory Name: Azure Sword

Memory Rank: Awakened

Memory Tier: I

Memory Type: Weapon

Memory Enchantment: [Warforged]

[Warforged]

Enchantment Description: Forged for war, this weapon is slightly tougher and sharper.

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Summoning the memory, the sword manifested in his hands from thin air. The blue steel glimmered under the light from the fire. The whole sword was about a meter in length and looked to be in excellent condition.

William stood and tried a few swings with the sword. It proved to be much lighter than Frostmourn, which didn't mesh well with the fighting style he learned from Arthas.

It didn't bother him much because its sole purpose was to be used as a prop to hide the existence of the mourneblade from prying eyes.

'Still, better get a few pointers from the ex-prince on how to use a longsword,' the young man thought as he dismissed the memory, 'Speaking of sword training, I wonder if I can steal the Broken Sword style from Nephis by using my trait now that we are in the Dream Realm. She was so paranoid in the academy that she never trained with that style, or if she did, she did it in private. I wonder where Sunny and her are now.'

Shaking his head to disperse his random thoughts, the smell of cooked meat reached his nostrils, causing him to divert his attention to the well-cooked line of meat around the campfire.

Taking one of the sticks, he bit into the meat. Surprisingly, it didn't taste too horrible and seemed to be edible. Although, he questioned whether anyone would ever decide to eat this if they had any choice. Thankfully, he had the world most versatile utility tool with him: [Prestidigitation].

A dull blue glow flashed over all the meat.

Taking another bite, William didn't taste the previous slightly bitter taste of the monster meat but rather the sweat and succulent taste of a well-seasoned and well-cooked meat.

After confirming the edibility, he took another stick and offered it to his companion, "Cass, dinner's ready."

She didn't answer as if she didn't hear him.

"Cass?" he shook her shoulder, which was effective in bringing her back from whatever mind bog she was in.

"Huh?"

"Dinner's ready, Cass," he reiterated as he handed her the cooked crab meat, "eat it before it becomes cold."

The blond girl took a small bite from the meat, and her face lit up in surprise at the taste coming from it. She faced the direction at which William was sitting while eating his own dinner. She opened her mouth to ask questions, but the conversation of before replayed in her mind, causing her to promptly close it and focus back on eating her dinner

William was blissfully ignorant of Cassie's inner conflict.

After finishing their dinner, Cassie shared the water her [Endless Spring] memory to wash it down and whatever meat was left was smoked to be preserved for later consumption in case they couldn't find food later on. Of course, he used more of his magic to speed up the process, and by the end, he had enough smoked meat to last them both for a couple of days.

Soon enough, they both went to sleep - or rather, Cassie went to sleep while William stayed up observing the starless skies while lying down.

He had commanded his five minions that climbed with them to the top of the cliff to stand guard for the night while he thought about his future plans.

They needed to reach the Dark City, that much was a given, but the way to get there is not the easiest of journeys. The first problem in sight is the denizens of the Labyrinth they needed to pass through. Although the novel didn't mention it containing any particularly strong monsters, William knew better than to trust it by now since there were many time skips in the journey where they may have encountered such monstrosities and just didn't mention it.

After all, a novel's a novel, but this is real life. There is not much room for mistakes when his life and memories are on the line.

His eyes wandered towards Cassie's sleeping form. She had opted to use the robe he had given her as a blanket to keep herself warm and still the poor girl was shivering. Thankfully, his somewhat undead physiology made it so the cold didn't bother him much.

Focusing back on his future plans, he noted that with Cassie being here with him rather than with Nephis, he had already changed the beginning of the Forgotten Shore arc. He wondered whether the Changing Star and Lost from Light were still going to meet or not.

'[Fated] will sort that shit out for them. I need to be more concerned about myself and Cassie. Also, I would need to make some form of shelter to protect since if I am not mistaken, tomorrow night there is going to be a storm here.'

With that, the young Lich King closed his eyes and went to sleep. Even if he was physically inexhaustible, his brain still required periodic rests to function optimally.

Darkness welcomed his consciousness for what seemed to be mere minutes before it was disturbed.

"William? Are you awake?" Cassie soft voice pushed any notion of sleep out of his mind and fully awoke him.

"I am now," he said with a grunt as he half-lifted his body from the rocky ground and used his hand to block the rays of sunlight assaulting his poor eyes.

"S-Sorry," Cassie was sitting while hugging her knees close to her chest near the remnants of last night's campfire.

"Nah, don't be," he said as he rose up from his sleeping place and began to do a bit of morning stretches to limber up for the day, "we better start moving while we still have daylight to burn."

"Wait," Cassie called out in a hurry, "about what you said yesterday I-"

However, William interrupted her before she could finish, "Cass, I told you to take your time and -"

"...Trust me!" she exclaimed, causing William to shut his mouth.

"What?"

"I want you to trust me," she said in a lower, almost desperate voice. Although, in his shock, the white-haired youth didn't pick up on it.

Cassie raised her face and stared at William's direction with her lightless, blue eyes that had the traces of tears on its sides as if she had been crying.

"Cass, were you-?" he didn't have the chance to ask his question before his companion began talking.

"You were the first one to comfort me at the academy. You spent the whole month befriending a useless blind girl while everyone was shunning me."

In the eyes of anyone from this world, she was a useless blind girl at first sight but for him who knew about what she COULD be, well, it was idiotic not to take advantage of his knowledge. This is why he was feeling like an asshole right now.

"You even accompanied me until I went to my sleeping pod and still encouraged me. Then, you saved me from drowning and protected me. I don't know how I am going to replay you for all of that, but the least I could do is be someone you can trust."

Cassie poured out her heart. If William was a psychologist, then he would've found this act very strange. 'What caused such a shift in such a small amount of time? Why did Cassie look at him with such desperation and.....pity?' he would wonder.

Alas, the young Lich King was just a high schooler whose life experiences left much to be asked for, so those questions were never asked.

"Cass-"

"Please...," she said as tears and snot flowed down her face. As anyone would know, nobody, not even Aphrodite herself, would cry beautifully - crying was an ugly business.

William scratched the back of his head awkwardly. She gave him her answer, but he didn't expect it to happen so quickly. What in the hell happened? However, the crying figure of the young girl made his heart ache, especially since she resembled someone dear to his heart.

So, he made a decision - a decision, he prayed, that he would not regret.

Cassie felt herself being embraced, and William's voice trickled to her ears, "I will place my trust in you if you can do the same, deal?"

More tears spilled from theblind oracle, "How....*hick*....How can you be....*Hick*....this...."

"It's okay, Cass. It's okay. Let it all out of your system."

They remained like this for about half an hour until Cassie's emotions stabilized.

Then, with a new connection between them, the two Sleepers began their second day on the Forgotten Shore.

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A thread separated from the weave of fate and conjoined with another thread seemlessly.

The serene darkness surrounding the weave became slightly more tumultuous than before as if it was...agitated.

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Nephis of the immortal flame clan was looking in the direction of the cliff where she had seen the light from last night. It could be a nightmare creature trap, a natural phenomenon, or it could be people.

Her mouth still tasted like the bitter monster meat she tried to cook yesterday. She had already dealt with a few of the Carapace Scavenger, and she almost got injured due to fighting them all on her own.

If she were to survive, she needed to find other people to travel with - she only hoped that they were not after her life.

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Still lounging on the headless statue of the knight, Sunless had his mind whirring in an effort to find a way to pass through the Coral Labyrinth without being killed by the Carapace Scavengers.

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A.N: I know the whole situation with Cassie is ubrupt but for those who don't know about foreshadowing (at least, I think what I did counted as that), it will be explained in the next chapter probably.

Sorry about the late upload, I was juggling several ideas in my head, so it kinda finished late.

Anyways, thank you for reading, and have a good day!