Into the Forgotten Shore

Nephis is the first to speak up after Wyatt's "story"."So, this forgotten shore is both undiscovered and unkown?""Not unknown, just not known by the government... oranyoneelse." Wyatt stammers out the last part as quickly as possible. This doesn't go unnoticed by Cassie."Isn't that the same thing?""Nooo no, the people that live there know about it."Wyatt gives the least convincing answer possible, leading to the shocking result of Cassie asking for more information."But, you don't live there?""I know."'(Is all this information true?)''[Yes.]''(Where did you get it from?)''Well, I gain nothing from lying here. Might as well come clean.''[Actually this whole world is based on-- arghh.]'When Wyatt tries to bring up the truth about the webnovel, he feels severe pain in his head that Nephis immediately notices."Is something wrong?" Nephis asks, forcing Wyatt to lie."Nonsense, I think someone just used their Aspect to poke me but I'm alright."Nephis doesn't seem to believe this but lets it go.Cassie speaks up agian."So where did you get your information from?""I would love to tell you that, I truly would, but my Flaw is that I can't reveal fate. Apparently my 'source' counts as fate, and I'm forced to stay quiet about it. But either way, believe me if you want, or don't, although it would be more helpful if you did."

After saying his bit, Wyatt walks away and enters Awakened Rock's classroom. As Rock has been expecting him, he is able to quickly get to teaching Wyatt, and by proxy Sunny. He starts out with some lessons about how to swing a sword, and then moves on to footwork to increase Wyatt's agility. Since Wyatt is a somewhat fast learner he is able to increase his skills slightly in the hour he had, impressing Rock. Once he is finished, he moves on back to Teacher Julius' room and switches control with Sunny. At night Sunny switches back control with Wyatt allowing him to practice the drills that Awakened Rock taught him, this time Wyatt is able to switch after around 30 seconds, perhaps due to being used to moving in Sunny's body. He spends 4 hours constantly swinging his sword or moving around, able to keep going due to the fact that a sleepers body is equivalent to a peak human and he needs no conditioning.'Maybe this powerful body is why Sunny was able to increase his skills so quickly in the webnovel.... no, he's just a monster, now I'm a monster too, hopefully I can improve myself fast enough to beat a carapace scavenger in a month.'With that thought in his mind, he redoubles his efforts.A month passes with Wyatt and Sunny both learning as fast as they can. Wyatt is able to recommend certain lessons to Sunny based on what he can remember about the forgotten shore. His recommendations included cooking crab meat, swimming, and and scouting. While Sunny was curious about why such specific things were necessary, he usually listened to Wyatt's suggestions. While in Awakened Rock's class, Wyatt was able to make huge improvements, from someone who never held a sword, to someone who was around the middle of the class. The students were mildly impressed that he was able to improve that much, but most didn't care, he was still only average at best. At night Wyatt learned that his body actually needed very little rest, usually only an hour or two every night, leaving plenty of time for practicing and even studying the notes Sunny made, to increase his own knowledge about survival. He decided to test his own strength after his training montage and manged to get a twelve, his improved form and usage of his body, managing to drastically increase his score.'Now with Mr. shadow.'When he uses Sunny's shadow combined with his own augmentation he gets a score of 22, which isn't bad but he is a bit sad that even when using his own augmentation he can't even double his score. Sunny decides to attempt it and gets a total score of 36, tripling his initial score of 12.'Damn, I really am a side character.' A disappointed Wyatt thinks.

When they arrived at the sleeping pods for their inevitable journey to the Dream Realm, both Awakened Rock and Teacher Julius went to Sunny's pod and gave him some last tips to survive. Sunny ended up as their favorite student due to his work ethic, so they couldn't bear seeing him die in the Dream Realm.  Once he is attached to the sleeping pod he feels the call of The Spell and drifts of to sleep.'It's Christmas in a few days. Yay, maybe we can celebrate with Cassie and Nephis once we meet up, if only I didn't miss Thanksgiving too.'And with that final thought, he loses consciousness.

Wyatt wakes up slightly dazed until he feels himself being dropped into water. He is shocked for a moment until he remembers that this is just the sea of the Forgotten Shore and he needs to get to the statue as quickly as possible. Sunny however, is flailing around, forcing Wyatt to get him back to his senses.'[YOU FOOL! Get to the surface then to the statue, QUICKLY! Use your shadow to increase your speed if that's what is takes!]'They soon manage to get to the surface at which point Wyatt realizes it's night time and he is having trouble seeing due to his night vision not being as developed as Sunny's. This proves to be a problem when Sunny looks around for the statue and Wyatt can only make out two shapes above the water, and he can't make out which is which.'[One is a statue, the other is a corrupted creature, so move to whatever isn't moving toward you!]'Sunny starts desperatly swimming to the statue as for the first time Wyatt begins to understand just how truly terrifying the Dream Realm is. While swimming, Wyatt tells Sunny to use his shadow to increase his speed, which Sunny does, after which, Wyatt amplifies the shadow and they arrive at the statue much earlier than in the webnovel. This gives them nearly a minute of silence to see the creature swim towards them. After some convincing from Wyatt, Sunny stays still on the statue and sees the epic sight of the corrupted creature getting picked up and pulled into the sea by tentacles.'What a strange feeling, is this fear, excitement, or curiosity.'Wyatt then remembers something important.'[Happy birthday you unlucky bastard. Consider that little show my present.]''Hehehe, gotta take credit quickly.'Sunny ignores this and asks."What the hell was that?!"'[Ohoho, you have some nerve being so noisy, especially after seeing a battle between a fallen creature and a corrupted monster.]''(A WHAT!?!)''[Do you remember me mentioning a tentacle creature?]''(Yes, but did it have to be so damn close. We're going to die, why are you so calm?)''[Don't flatter yourself, your bony and small. No self respecting monster would eat you, although you'd make for a great toothpick, not that that jellyfish down there needs one.]''(Can't you show some compassion?)''[What do you mean compassion, I'm stuck here with you, you should be showing me compassion... Anyway, onto business. The sea itself is a great titan, so... I wouldn't drink from that, don't set a fire either, unless you want to call the local population (cough) the creatures (cough) to dinner. Uhh, under the sea is that coral labyrinth I was telling you about, you can send your shadow to explore that for now, and I think that's all. [Fated]'s been working overtime eh.]'After a few second Sunny responds."Damnation."'Ohhhh! He said the thing!''[And summon your armor. It cold as hell... or whatever's the opposite of hell.]'Shortly after, Sunny summons the Puppeteer's Shroud, providing some warmth. They spend the rest of the night sensing a path through the labyrinth that is still underwater through the use of Sunny's shadow. Wyatt learns that not only can he look through Sunny's shadow, albeit poorly, he can double the range of shadow sense for both of them, providing a huge advantage in this maze.When looking through the water, Sunny can see the corpse of the corrupted monster from earlier and is disgusted by the value being lost in the ocean. Wyatt can see the shimmering light coming from the transcendent soul shards and is saddened.'I'm sorry my precious, but the egg will take you from me, so I must leave you, until another day my beauties.'While Wyatt is barely gripping onto sanity as a discount gollum, the night passes and makes way for the sun. '(Should we get going?)''[No. We stay here until our we get the signal.]''(What signal?)''[My flaw Sunny. Have you forgotten my flaw? I can't tell you.]''(No I haven't.)'The day passes with nothing happening and both Sunny and Wyatt beginning to starve and thirst, thoughout the day Wyatt begins to sing to stave off his boredom. Sunny wonders what songs he is singing, but then realizes that they are just some old songs from before the war of humanity.'[--ive, we love, we lie]''(Hey, do you take requests?)''[No, unless you know these songs too.]''(Do you know any recent songs?)''[My boy, have you see me use one of those communication thingies in all this time we've been together?]''(No.)''[That's because I don't know how to use that new fangle-dangle technology. So I for damn sure don't know any recent songs.]''(How can you not know how to use them, even I can use them, weren't you from a well off family?)''[Well, I could tell you about my past but then I wouldn't look as cool, so I won't.]''(Are you kidding?)''[.....look, the signal, over yonder.]'On a hill in the distance, a soft red glow can be seen agianst the darkening sky, which to Wyatt means that he now knows exactly where Nephis and Cassie are.'(A fire?)''[Yes, our friends were so nice to create a fire to let us know their location. I hope they can survive until tommorow, it would be a shame to lose our friends so soon after we met them.]''(Wait, do you mean Nephis and Cassie, how could you possibly know that they're here, you never talked to them about setting a fire either.)''[Would you be willing to believe that I calculated every possibility of what could happen when I met them, and found what is happening now, to be the most likely conclusion.]''(I would, because that seems more believable than you pulling this information out of your ass.)''[Anyway, that's where we need to go, so use your shadow to get a head start on exploring that direction.]'

Sunny spends until dawn locating the best path through the labyrinth with the extended range of his shadow. Meanwhile Wyatt is formulating a plan on how to kill the thieving birds egg in the soul tree. He remembers that the egg tried to steal the soul essence from Sunny but couldn't, due to him having shadow fragments instead.'Welp, better keep my soul shard count at 0. It'll be worth it eventually.'As his plan is slowly coming together he notices the sea starting to recede, and he tells Sunny to start traveling in that direction. They manage to make progress faster due to both their planning and the high range of shadow sense, and around late afternoon they have the encounter with the crippled carapace scavenger from the webnovel. Wyatt decides to watch as a cheerleader while giving his support through the use of his aspect ability.'[You got this, go for the knees! I believe in you.]'The battle starts and Sunny bolts up to the scavenger while keeping himself protected with his shadow. He manages to dodge a blow from the creatures arm and caves in one of the creatures remaining legs with an enhanced punch. After the creature loses balance and lands on its side, Wyatt instructs Sunny to smash in it's head from behind, saying that such an attack would kill it instantly. The creature soon dies from its grievous wounds and Sunny gets a pleasant surprise when he hears the spell reward him with a memory. Sunny checks it out and finds it to be called the [Azure Blade].'Huh, so the same monster will drop the same memories? Does that work with echoes too? Either way this guarantees me getting a drop of ichor from the thieving birds egg. Oh yeah, it's all coming together.''[Ok, time to meet up with our friends, make yourself presentable, and they might even let you mooch off - sorry - stay with them. No pressure of course, other than the fact that we might die if left alone. Actually, do you want to talk with them or should I?]''(I'll talk with them this time, remember, it's not your time yet according to the deal.)' Sunny says with an undertone of anger.'Hm, is he that much of a stickler for the deal? I always thought he'd be more loose. I guess I just need to gain his trust... or try at least.'As Sunny walks out of the maze he is greeted by two girls walking in a random direction, one staying attached to the other using a golden rope. The girl in front is scantily clad, wearing nothing but seaweed undergarments, while the blonde haired girl in the back is wearing a cloak.'Damn, they really are beautiful.'They watch the girls for 30 seconds until Wyatt reminds Sunny what he needs to do.'[Get a move on, you lazy bum.]''(I'm going.)'Sunny leaves his position behind a rock and yells at the duo from 30 meters away, just in case they attack him."HELLO"Nephis immediately turns around and readies herself for a fight until she realizes its Sunny. She gets closer to Sunny and speaks up."How?""I'm sorry but I don't understand." Sunny answers honestly."How... did you know that we would end up here?"'[Yeah Sunny, no matter how you look at it, it's pretty suspicious.]''(YOU GOT US INTO THIS SITUATION!)'Sunny manages to rein in his emotions."Well, I didn't, it was just a story remember? So how are you two doing here, I saw a fire get lit last night and thought that there was something here?"It's Cassie's turn to speak up, her face becoming gloomy."Actually that was us, and the fire attracted creatures from the sea.""I know this might be insensitive, but do you have any water. I haven't drank in days." While Nephis didn't mention it, Sunny did look slightly gaunt from dehydration."Oh, I actually have a memory that can give out unlimited water, you can drink from it if you want."'Ahh, my secondary target. Once I get the eye, I will come back for that.'"Thank you." Sunny takes a bunch of huge gulps from the memory and eventually hands it back to Cassie. He asks some questions about the memory which Cassie answers. Nephis notices him holding a soul shard and Sunny explains that he managed to take down a carapace scavenger, while it was wounded, to not make it sound too impressive for a sleeper in the middle of the ranks. This causes Nephis to put her guard up slightly as she realizes that there's even more to Sunny than she previously thought.'(Hey, do you want to absorb this thing? Can you absorb this thing?)' Sunny questions.'[I can, but I plan on killing something which requires me to be as weak as possible, so no, don't absorb that. Your free to collect your shadow fragments though.]''(How does that work?)''[What matters is that I'll be on a soul shard diet for a while so don't worry much about those for now.]''(Okay.)' Sunny says, unsatisfied with this answer."Do you two mind if I join. I can be quite helpful."Cassie looks to Nephis for her answer.After a minute of thinking she finally responds with an."Alright.""Thank you." Sunny is sure to give his respects."So, what is your Aspect and what are your attributes?" Cassie asks, possibly to make sure Sunny won't lie about his abilities.'[Remember, she can see your attributes.]'"Ah yes, my Aspect can be used to scout the surrounding area using my shadow." Sunny moves his shadow off his feet to make his point."My attributes give me an slight affiliation to Divinity, make me liked by shadows, and cause unlikely things to happen to me."When Sunny stops, Cassie has a weird look on her face as though waiting for him to continue. The longer this goes on the more nervous Sunny gets. Eventually Nephis is the one to break the silence as she asks Cassie if something is wrong."Yes, he told me 'his' attributes, but either he's trying to decieve us or he doesn't realize that there's another person inside of him."'Oh shit.'

End Chapter 7