Shadow Slave Chapter 696 Extraordinary Rock

Sunny remained silent for a few monts, then sighed and followed Kai through the garden. He felt a little uneasy about eting Noctis…

'Surely, he won't be mad at for breaking his amulet… well, who cares, anyway? That slick bastard owes too much, already…'

Destroying the erald amulet had not been his plan. Suny just really, really wanted to find a more efficient thod of expressing himself, and the sorcerer's gift was the only thing in his possession that had a suitable enchantnt.

The problem was that the enchantnt was made with runes, and not a weave. So Sunny had no way to reproduce it.

…He could, however, try to turn the amulet into a mory.

Sunny had already achieved sothing similar back in the Red Colosseum by weaving a basic enchantnt of summoning into his slave collar. However, the process had never been completed, because the enchantnt was destroyed in the clash with the collar's own magic, lasting only long enough to allow him to escape the cage.

Now, however, Sunny had plenty of ti to make another attempt.

This ti, ard with his new knowledge, he had a far better chance of success. Of course, it was not guaranteed, so he started by experinting with a beautifully crafted wooden chair in his room.

Slowly and tediously, he created countless strings of the essence and weaved the three basic enchantnts into the piece of furniture… only to see them — and the soul shard he had used as an anchor — disintegrate into a rain of ethereal sparks.

After thinking for a while and replenishing his essence, Sunny repeated the process, but this ti with one additional step. He also weaved his True Na into the pattern, using it as the beacon for the enchantnt that was responsible for connecting the mory to the owner's soul.

And so, the chair… beca a mory, of sorts.

Now, there was a [???] in the list of mories he owned, with a description that stated "This chair was turned into a mory by Lost from Light... for reasons unknown". The chair could be summoned and dismissed at will, and even repaired itself while stored within his soul.

It could also be fed to Saint, increasing her shadow fragnt count by half a point — since the single soul shard Sunny had used to create the weave was of the Awakened rank.

Satisfied with that, Sunny waited for his cores to regenerate enough essence, and repeated the process once again, now with the erald amulet itself.

Sadly, the result… was not the sa.

He did manage to make the amulet into a mory. What was more, in the process, the Spell itself transford the enchantnt of the amulet from runic to a weave, showing just how ingenious Weaver's creation was.

However, the resulting pattern turned out to be unstable. Perhaps because of the alien nature of the amulet's magic, or perhaps because Sunny did not know its na, or how to na it using strings, it began to slowly unravel almost imdiately after the transformation. All Sunny could do was feverishly study the weave of the swiftly decaying mory before it completely fell apart.

Soom, the amulet destroyed itself.

But Sunny still managed to copy its enchantnt onto the Ordinary Rock, as well as adding a new anchor to the weave of the Rock, thus elevating it to the Second Tier. He also went ahead and copied the [Sonorous] enchantnt onto it, as well.

When he did, the na of the mory changed, and the Ordinary Rock… beca the Extraordinary Rock.

Overall, Sunny was very pleased with himself — not only because he managed to recreate another enchantnt and confirm his ability to turn soul shards into food for his Shadows, but also because he would finally be able to speak his mind… without speaking everything that was on his mind in the process.

Gods knew he needed that!

The only bad thing about the whole situation was that Noctis's gift was destroyed. But, with so luck, the sorcerer would not even notice…

'Whatever…'

They t Effie near the wooden door. By now, the little girl's bruises had healed, and she looked like a vigorous, healthy child again.

...She was also gnawing on a large bone with a wild look on her face, seemingly making even the Sailor Dolls a bit nervous.

Noticing the two of them, Effie smiled.

"There you are!"

Kai greeted her, and then asked:

"Where's Cassie?"

The little girl swung her bone, pointing at the flying ship that hovered above the Sanctuary.

"There. Noctis is, too. Let's go?"

With that, she swallowed the remains of the bone and raised her hands, as if asking for a hug.

Kai sighed, then picked her up and flew into the sky. Sunny grimaced, summoned the Heavenly Burden, and followed.

Soon, they landed on the deck of the ship and found Cassie there, already waiting for them. The sorcerer was so distance away, watering the sacred tree.

The sight of him with a watering pot in hand was so mundane that it almost looked comical.

The mbers of the cohort approached Noctis and then stopped, waiting respectfully for him to notice them.

…After a while, Sunny cleared his throat.

So ti later, he growled loudly.

Finally, the sorcerer flinched, then turned around and smiled.

"Oh! You are finally here."

Sunny nodded, then asked cautiously:

"We are. What did you want to talk about?"

Noctis scratched his chin, then sighed.

"Well… it's ti for the four of you to go and retrieve the Ruby Knife. It is not too far from here, being kept by a friend of mine. The whole trip should not take you more than a couple of days."

'...Sounds like another disaster.'

Sunny frowned, hesitated for a second, and then said:

"And what exactly do we need to do to get the knife from your… friend?"

Noctis blinked a couple of tis, a confused look on his face.

"Oh… nothing? Just go there and tell her to give you the knife. As long as at least one of you is pure… in heart and thought… she will."

'Can't be that easy… and what does being pure even an?'

Sunny wanted to ask a few questions, but then changed his mind. Speaking with Noctis more than absolutely necessary was… troubleso. It was also fruitless, since Noctis only ever revealed as much information as he wanted, and never more than that.

So, he simply said:

"And where does that friend of yours reside?"

The immortal Transcendent smiled, then conjured a map of the Kingdom of Hope from sowhere and pointed to a particular island.

"Here! See… it's really close…"

Sunny looked at where the sorcerer's manicured finger pointed… and paled.

He knew that island pretty well.

It was the island of the tranquil, clear lake that he had been advised to never approach… because the creature living in the lake was so terrifying that even Sky tide did not dare to venture there.

The creature was surely Corrupted, and as for its Rank, no one even had a guess.

Rattled, he glanced at Noctis with a dark expression and growled.

"Are you joking? There's a terrible, unsightly thing living in that lake!"

The sorcerer looked at him with reproach, and then said bitterly:

"Well… that unsightly thing is my friend. Sha on you, Sunless. Of all the creatures in the world, I thought that you would be the last to judge soone on their appearance… after all, you are a terrible and unsightly thing yourself… and yet, we are best friends…"