Gathering the Cohort

After everyone leaves the class talking about their favorite class clown, Wyatt has decided to stay in the room to speak with Awakened Rock."Instructor, sir, could you please teach me how to fight."Wyatt is acting demure and timid, a far cry from how he was acting during class. The change in attitude is so jarring that Awakened Rock is caught off guard."Hmm, What brought this on?" Awakened Rock asks."I just don't want to be weak sir.""Why don't you want to be weak, is it to survive the Dream Realm?""Well, that, and also the fact that I just got beaten up by my only friend in this place.""Sleeper Nephis is your friend?""Yeah, we met in front of the academy gates and exchanged names. She's the first friend I made in a while."Awakened rock is surprised by this student's low bar for friendship, and tries to offer him advice."You know, I think you could make more friends if you were more humble."Wyatt tries to ignore his advice by giving a lie he knows Awakened Rock will believe."No. Then people will try to take advantage of me, it's happened a few times in the outskirts.""Ahh, I see, so what do you think you should do to make friends?""I think I should be strong enough to back up my words, then everyone will want to be my friend.""I can't say you're completely wrong. But what exactly is you Aspect Rank?""I'd prefer to keep it a secret sir.""Fair enough, can you at least tell me if it is a combat related Aspect.""I believe it's utility focused sir.""Very well, I'll let you visit here during my lunch hour, I'll give you some training and advice."This is exactly what Wyatt has been hoping for. He knows that with his complete lack of fighting skills that they would be unsafe if a monster in the forgotten shore attacked while   Wyatt was the one in control."Thank you so much sir!"Following their exchange Wyatt leaves the training room now unsure of what to do for the rest of the night.He spends a few hours wandering around looking for something to do, but is unable to find much to entertain himself with. Making matters worse, a teacher saw him and told him to go to sleep so he can study tommorow as well. He responds by saying that his ability is that he doesn't need sleep, convincing the teacher to leave him alone.At around one in the morning he finally finds something that can be entertaining.He finds a piano in the middle of a break room, just begging for someone to play on it.'I didn't take all those piano lessons for nothing.' Wyatt thinks.He decides to try playing the piano and realizes that he could play something cool and ominous, like a supervillains theme, allowing him to at least pretend that having superpowers is fun.'Might as well go all in on this shadow stuff.'And with that he decides to play the First Movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.'Hehe, now I'm the Eminence In Shadow.'For the next few minutes, he keeps playing until he realizes that he can still see even though it's already past midnight and all the lights are off.'Must be me using Sunny's shadow sight, or whatever it was called. Still, it's not as strong as the webnovel described? Maybe because I can't use the full extent of his abilities yet, I might need to get some soul shards for that, or maybe he needs to know how to use them first.'Wyatt decides to try using Sunny's powers."Hey, Mr shadow, can you hear me?"Sunny's shadow points to himself in the pitch black darkness. "Yeah you, let me try looking through your eyes."Wyatt tries to use Sunny's ability to sense the world through his shadow and he is able to detach his senses from Sunny's body and into the shadow. Although when he tries to see the world through Sunny's shadow he has trouble making out the most basic shapes as it is both dark and fuzzy.'Damn it, I really wanted to use that ability, but at least I don't need to spy around for information.'After his attempt, he gets up and walks back to the punching machine to test out Sunny's augmentation."Alright Mr shadow, get on me." Wyatt orders.With the shadow on his body augmenting his abilities, he punches and gets a score of ten this time.'Ok, an improvement but not nearly doubled. It seems i do need to find a way to better use Sunny's abilities.'This time Wyatt tries figuring out how to use his own abilities and uses his own form of augmentation by putting almost all of his focus on the shadow. After this he punches again and gets a score of 13. Doubling the effect of Sunny's shadow.'Alright, I can work with this.''[Sunny wake up.]''(I am awake. Mostly.)''[Did you actually fall asleep?]''(No, its more like I was relaxing. Where did you even learn to play a piano, I thought only rich people did that?)''[My family was rather well off, yes. Now, I need you to temporarily take back control.]'Sunny manages to do so in about a second, which was much faster than Wyatt.'[Ok, I need you to punch right there.]' Wyatt gestures to the punching machine.'(Alright.)' Sunny does so and gets a score of 9.'(Wow, you suck at punching don't you?)' Sunny teases Wyatt.'[Shut up and put your shadow on your body, then try again.]'Sunny is confused but points to his shadow and commands it to get on his body. After the shadow gets on his body, Sunny punches and recieves a score of 18."Amazing." Sunny says audibly.At this point Wyatt tries to augment Sunny's abilities again.'[Punch now.]'This time Sunny manages a score of 27 much to his shock.'[It seems I can double the strength of your shadow, which then triples your strength. Getting three times stronger does sounds nice doesn't it.]''(Hell yeah, we might be the strongest in the class!)''[We're still behind Nephis and Caster, so don't get too cocky.]' Wyatt warns.'(Do you think I'm the kind to get cocky.)''[Not my Sunny.]''(Thats right.)'Eventually after getting used to Sunny's body, Wyatt goes back to the dorm and waits for tommorow to arrive.

At lunch tommorow Wyatt walks up to Cassie's table and starts talking to her."Why hello, if it isn't my second favorite friend!" Wyatt says as exitedly as possible."Who are you?" A dejected Cassie says."Did you really forget me? I sat here yesterday, that makes us friends."After Wyatt says this, a small smile forms on Cassie's face."Sure, but do I really have to be the second favorite?" Cassie asks."Of course! My favorite friend already told me her name, so don't worry, you're not that far behind."This is enough to get a laugh out of the blind girl."Hehe, good to know. My name is Cassia.""My name is Sunny. Can my other friend to sit here too?""Sure."After this, Wyatt gets up to look for where Nephis is sitting. After looking for a few seconds, he sees her sitting with a whole table to herself, other people almost avoiding her.'[Kefufufufu, what lovely socially awkward prey. She's practically begging me to make her my friend.]''(Have you never talked to another person?)''[Let me have some fun, alright.]' Wyatt says playfully.After Wyatt's inner monologue, he walks up to Nephis."Hey Nephis, do you want to sit with me!" Wyatt says while smiling."No." Nephis immediately responds.'Ohoho, that trick might work on someone with a sense of shame, but you've met your match today.'"Yes you do." Wyatt says.This response catches Nephis off guard."Huh.""You need to spend time with your friends if you want to keep them.""I don't like you." Nephis comes out with a haymaker."All the more reason to sit with me. Come on my table is right there, I can introduce you to my other friend."At this point, most of the cafeteria is looking at the exchange between Changing Star and crazy kid. Nephis soon starts to feel the stares and after an akward few seconds, starts getting up and moving to Cassie's table."Hey Cass, I've brought my friend." Cassie face starts to turn slightly red as she recalls what she just heard."O-oh, thats great. Hello, it's nice to meet you, I'm Cassia.""I'm Nephis.""Alright, now that my two friends are here, who wants a story?" Wyatt asks resulting in nothing but cricket noises. Not letting that stop him, he continues."Ok, so beyond the infamous hollow mountains, lies a forgotten shore---" And Wyatt gives information about what he remembers from the story, bringing up certain places, such as the coral labyrinth and the dark city, and events like, Gunlaugs ascention to king of the Bright Castle, that have already happened so as not to trigger his flaw. But strangely, he keeps quite about a certain tree.'Sorry girls, but there's something I really want in that tree, and I can't let you stop me.'

End Chapter 6