I Told You, Didn't I?

The next day, Nephis showed no mercy to either of them as she forced them to try to fight her together without their weapon Memories. This led to the both of them getting beaten dozens of times, constantly forced on the defensive.

The duo is quick to learn that they can't beat Nephis as they are. Their brutish and uncoordinated movements prove to be little challenge to her due to how predictable they are.

Not only that but their combination and amplification is too slow to make proper use of in battle, not because of any limits imposed by the Spell, but due to their own lack of communication.

When amplifying passive effects like the soul protection of the Puppeteer's Shroud, it isn't hard for Wyatt to keep his amplification on the armor, but in a real fight, there isn't an opportunity to stay still and spend precious seconds switching between the armor and sword.

Nephis decides to fix this by forcing Sunny to yell to Wyatt out loud, exactly where he intends to augment with his shadows. When switching from fighting defensively to attacking Nephis, Sunny has learned to yell to Wyatt so that he knows that the body and sword need his amplification instead of the armor.

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By the end of the first day, the two are able to do this rather consistently and quickly, unfortunately Nephis needs sleep, and therefore isn't around to help the two train during the night. More importantly she can't even hope to hear the shenanigans the two start cooking up in the middle of the night.

'[Hey Sunny?]' Wyatt asks, bored due to not being able to weave at the moment.'(What?)''[How much longer until you can summon Scurvy the crab again?]''(Scurvy?)' '[I've decided to name it. I'll accept no objections. Now how long will it take?]'

This was truly the most important question. If the Shadow wasn't around to immediately accept the Memory Shard, then the Shard would just dissipate without any benefits.

'(I don't know, a few days perhaps.)''[How many fragments does it have already?]''(Almost ninety.)''[That's great]' He responded, unable to contain the excitement of gaining an even more powerful Shadow.

Wyatt then pauses for a moment.

'[Sunny I have to bring up something. I think Nephis is right. You really need to learn how to fight properly, even I can see just how amazing you are. You don't know how sad I'd be if you squandered it just to feed your crab.]''(You said it yourself though, It's about opportunity costs, there's plenty to be gained from practicing weaving, you're the one who showed me. Why would I switch from that just to practice fighting. Are the gains really enough?)''[Sunny, my dearest Sunny if it's about what you stand to gain that's all well and good. Do you mind if I ask you a question though?]'

Sunny sighs, knowing he won't be able to stop Wyatt from asking. He then becomes curious as to what Wyatt might bring up.

'(You haven't seemed to care much about asking me before now, so why not.)''[...Can you tell me what an Aspect Legacy is?]''(Did you... get one?!)''[No, I was just curious.]''(A terrible lie, I saw through it instantly. An Aspect Legacy is basically something unlocked by Awakened, usually Saints, that is unique to them, it can be passed down to their kids and is the foundation of most legacy clans.)''[So hypothetically speaking, what would you do if you ever got one.]''(I'd say it's pretty obvious. First I'd find myself a beautiful wife and start a legacy clan, then live a life of luxury.)'

Wyatt almost laughs at how blunt the answer is. 'Well he did consider having seven families when he learned that he could get seven Aspect Legacies.'

'[...Sounds about right. Anyway, You say Saints can get them, how many have been unlocked by a Sleeper?]''(None, as far as I know.)'

Wyatt's lips then twitch upward almost imperceptibly. Sunny however notices this.

'(What?)''[Tomorrow, I need you to get into a more serious duel with Nephis. When fighting, slip a shadow into hers and get it to copy her. Try to find the essence of her style. If you coincidentally have a dream that night about a woman dancing then pay close attention. Now if you don't mind, I'll need some peace and quiet to practice real weaving. Soon, I'll be making real Memories instead of monster chow.]'

Leaving Sunny to contemplate what he just said, Wyatt pulls out a Shard and spends the rest of the night attempting to increase his own weaving skills.

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The next morning, after limited success with Memory creation, Sunny is holding a sword and fighting against Nephis. This time, Sunny is keeping one of his shadows connected to Nephis to try to learn the fundamental aspect behind her sword style.

Curiously, when the gloomy shadow approached Nephis' feet, it seemed to hold Nephis' shadow in high regard, going so far as to bow respectfully towards it.

'Mr. shadow, you could at the very least show a fraction of that respect to us, couldn't you?'

To Wyatt's surprise, the shadow looked at them as though it could read his thoughts.

'Not my thoughts, right? Surely Sunny must be thinking the same thing.'

Beyond that, they spent hours constantly improving the teamwork between Wyatt and Sunny. The originally rough cooperation now gone and replaced by a smoother but still imperfect mixture of their Divine Aspect Abilities.

Near the end of the day, Sunny finds a problem with what he assumed to be Wyatt's plan to activate his Aspect Legacy.

'(You said I needed to dream, right?)''[Yeah wh- ohhh I see. Do you know if we even can sleep?]''(I know as much as you do.)''[Well we're gonna need to try at least. Ask Nephis if she can take over night watch tonight.]

Sunny then goes to ask Nephis if she can take over the duty of watching over them.

"Hey Neph, do you mind taking over watch duty tonight?""Are you not able to?""I haven't slept in months."

After that quick response, Nephis has little choice but to allow it. Even she understands that everyone needs at least a little rest.

"Alright, get some rest tonight.""Thank you."

Unfortunately, sleeping seemed to be a far more difficult endeavor than either of them expected.They were so used to never needed more than a few minutes of rest that even after an hour of laying down, on a bed of wet seaweed that barely helped make the cold rock more comfortable, they still couldn't get anywhere near the state they needed to be to fall asleep.

They started to work on their breathing, keeping it slow and steady, until they were relatively relaxed. They used this chance to immediately both unfocus on their surroundings and become unaware of anything around them.

At this point they were very near sleep, and a few seconds later, they dozed off.

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Wyatt was the first to wake up the next morning, only to realize he couldn't move.

Sunny hadn't woken up yet and was still dreaming about the girl doing the shadow dance. At least, that was what Wyatt assumed was going on, in truth, there was no way for him to know if it even worked, and if Sunny had managed to awaken his Aspect Legacy. He could only wait.

Nephis passed by Sunny lying on the ground and saw Wyatt sprawled on the ground, eyes open but unable to move a muscle. Which was far more embarrassing than getting beaten by Nephis back in the Academy.

It probably didn't help that Nephis told Cassie what happened, making a point to do it right in front of him, and letting him see Cassie giggle at his predicament.

'MY SELF RESPECT! PLEASE WAKE UP SOON SUNNY!!!'

It took Sunny two hours to wake up, which was a good thing, Wyatt wasn't sure how much longer he could take it. He was also quick to ask Sunny if he dreamt of anything, and to Wyatt's dismay, he didn't.

Although Sunny did use his shadow to copy Nephis' movements, he only did so at Wyatt's suggestion and completely failed to understand that there was a battle style hidden deep within his shadow.

The fundamental problem being that, although his shadow would allow him to copy other styles far sooner, he doesn't have the experience needed to comprehend and interact with other styles enough to form them into his own.

Such details that seemed to play a minor role in the story were all but forgotten by Wyatt, leading him to believe that a Legacy could be easily attained. He was thoroughly disabused of that notion when even after thinking for a few minutes, he couldn't remember any other prerequisites to activating Sunny's Legacy besides hard work and fighting stronger opponents.

'(I'm gonna keep training.)''[Okay, just tell me when Scurvy is done healing so I can get back to work.]' He spoke listlessly.

Wyatt's mood dropped greatly after his miscalculation in the efforts required to gain an Aspect Legacy. Not because of the failure itself but because he realized just how much he's forgotten about the novel.

His number one advantage was knowledge of the future, but that only lasts so long as he still remembers what happened, and even more importantly as long as his actions don't change it. Which is not to say that he can afford to sit around and coast through while changing little.

The Forgotten Shore is his best chance to grow immensely while leaving little risk to changes occurring in the future. It is a massive continent filled with upwards of millions of Awakened level creatures which are well within his ability to kill so long as he can keep improving Sunny's Shadows.

Even more importantly is the fact that it is completely cut off from Earth and the only way for information to get out is by someone leaving, meaning that there's almost no risk of anything changing that Wyatt can't control. He could even take the initiative and bring everyone out if he manages to become powerful enough, changing the future to fit his own needs.

But every opportunity has its price. The price for this opportunity is staying well clear of the Great Titan that is the Dark Sea, along with any Corrupted creatures. Even the Fallen creatures of the Dark City are more than enough to kill Wyatt at the moment. In fact, his recent scuffle with the Centurions prove that even Awakened creatures can cause him great danger. Meaning that the only way to carve his way back home is to become stronger; far, far stronger.

That morning was spent with Sunny sparring with Nephis without his shadows, leaving Wyatt with nothing to do but think. This is nothing new to him as he's spent so long thinking at this point, but the longer he thinks, the more he confirms in his own heart that the only way forward is obtaining strength. Especially so as they'll be pressured on all sides; by monsters in the Labyrinth, Gunlaug in the Bright Castle, and the Sovereigns in the real world.

At midday, due to being so stressed out at the prospects of the future, Wyatt got some of the best news he possibly could have gotten. Sunny's Scavenger Shadow was finally restored.

Wyatt made sure that Scurvy would avoid Centurions from now on and led it out into the Labyrinth to collect Soul Shards.

This time, the shadow that Wyatt took command of was the second shadow Sunny had formed. A shadow that was happy to take risks on all things that could make it stronger. Basically acting the way Sunny acted in the tree when he filled his first Shadow core.But Wyatt didn't particularly care about the shadow's personality so long as it was competent at its role.

'Ok Mr. greedy, you'll be leading Scurvy into the labyrinth so it can kill Scavengers and bring me back the Shards. Stay clear of any Centurions or more powerful creatures, got it.'

The greedy shadow saluted Wyatt forcing him to come to a realization.

'Oh dear, they can read my thoughts. Just as well I suppose, now go forth, let's make this Shadow even more powerful.'

The excited shadow and the now regenerated Shadow went into the labyrinth one after another, and under Wyatt's command were able to quickly find a few scavengers, being careful to not attack large groups and instead attacking the more isolated scavengers, digging out the lone Soul Shard afterwards.

After killing a few, the Shadow was struggling to find a place to put them so it resorted to keeping them in its mouth. Wyatt wasn't able to know this was happening at the time but certainly saw it when the Shadow came back and spit out a large bunch of Soul Shards in front of him.

At night, Wyatt got back to his routine of weaving Memories for the crab, salivating at the prospect of it turning into an Ascended Beast. He weaved until he started feeling dizzy, at which point it was already early morning.

'[Sunny, just one more day, one more day and it'll gain one hundred shadow fragments. Aren't you excited?]''(Of course I am, I can't wait to have an Awakened Monster at my beck and call.)'

'Awakened Monster? Oh, he must think that filling the counter will give it another Shadow Core, just like it did for him. Well prepare to have your mind blown fool.'

A large smile forms on Wyatt's face as he imagines Sunny's reaction to it turning far stronger than he expected.

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That day was also spent at the same rock, although rather lavishly, due to how much meat they had with the Shadow out hunting.

Sunny was busy practicing his sword skills while Scurvy was out hunting and when it finally arrived in the evening with enough Soul Shards to fuel its evolution, Wyatt immediately took over and got to work.

It was well past midnight when the final Memory Shard was finished. Handing it to the Awakened Shadow, it once again held it and shattered it, allowing the sparks to fly into its body.

Looking at the Scavenger's soul, Wyatt saw a single dark ember hidden deep within getting immensely brighter. Followed by the Shadow becoming covered in black flames as it was when first converted from a simple Echo.Soon a gust of wind that was somehow both hot and cold assaulted him, waking both Nephis and Cassie as well.

After a few minutes it was over and Wyatt was simply standing in front of the newly Ascended Shadow, his quick breathing betraying just how excited he was.

Nephis, unable to see what just happened, decided to ask him.

"What happened, did something attack? Did your Echo deal with it?""No, no. Nothing of the sort, it simply Ascended."

And it did Ascend. Wyatt could tell due to the fact that the lone ember within it became far bigger.

This however came as a shock to Nephis who assumed she heard wrong. Echoes weren't capable of growth after all.

"Pardon?""It Ascended, simple as that. Tomorrow we should continue our journey to the Bright Castle."

Of course Wyatt wasn't as calm as he seemed to be. In the dark where no one could see him, he was grinning like a fool. And on the inside, he was loudly cheering for himself and fantasizing about his future, his previous worries being ground into dust by the sheer power he knows he can gain in this strange land.

'[I told you didn't I, that we'd be so powerful, we could even challenge Saints!]'

Sunny stays silent for a moment, before responding quietly:

'(Yes you did.)'

End Chapter 14