Шинэ Заль Сурах

[Your shadow grows stronger.]

With a rather unpleasant noise, the monster's head fell down. Sunny indifferently bent his arm and wiped the Midnight Shard on the sleeve of his armor, watching as the massive body slowly topple over.

Standing on the other side of it, the Stone Saint simply flourished her sword in and stopped it abruptly mid-swing, sending every drop of blood flying to the ground. Then, she just stood there absolutely still, pretending to be a statue.

Sunny sighed.

'That's a cool trick. I should learn it.'

Honestly, cleaning his blade on the Puppeteer's Shroud was not very fair to the tier-five armor. He felt guilty.

"Watch my back."

With the taciturn Shadow observing the surroundings, he summoned the Prowling Thorn and used it to recover the soul shards from the carcass.

This was the fourth Nightmare Creature Sunny had killed this night. With the help of the Stone Saint, his hunts became much easier than before. Not even mentioning the fact that the Shadow was as powerful as most of his marks, the mere fact that he had a partner to draw the enemy's attention away changed a lot of things.

Sunny was somewhat capable of, but preferred to avoid engaging in direct battle with these abominations. His way of doing things was to strike from the shadows and, ideally, kill the enemy with a single strike. If everything went smoothly, the prey would never even see its killer.

Of course, such a hunting method required a lot of cunning, patience, and preparation. He had to observe the enemy for a long time to learn its behavior and weaknesses. The confrontation itself took just a few seconds, but only because days had been spent in advance to make that immediate resolution possible.

After hunting in that meticulous way for three months, Sunny felt strange simply overpowering the monsters with brute force. The combination of Stone Saint's indomitable defense and his swift blade was nothing short of miraculous.

It was almost like fighting side by side with Neph.

Almost…

With a sigh, Sunny threw the soul shards into his rucksack and stood up.

He was facing a problem that he had never expected to face. It was honestly rather bizarre.

He was running out of monsters to kill.

Awakened Nightmare Creatures weren't that abundant in the Dark City to begin with, let alone those whom he had already tracked, studied, and felt confident attacking. After tonight's massacre, pretty much every one of them was dead.

Sunny had cleaned the house.

But he was so much stronger now, so much more dangerous. With the help of the Stone Saint, maybe there was no need to be so cautious…

'No. This is how you get yourself killed.'

This was a dangerous mindset. Despite his recent growth, Sunny was still in no way the apex predator in the ruins. In fact, he was the opposite of that. Of all the creatures stalking these streets, he was the weakest.

'Pride is the gravest of all sins. Next thing you know, you'll be trying to hunt the Fallen Ones.'

Sunny would perhaps survive a confrontation with a Fallen Beast… maybe… but actually defeating one was a whole other conversation. And if he had the misfortune to stumble on something of a higher class, his chances of making it out alive would not be very high.

He could start investigating one of the Awakened creatures that he knew of. Or simply go home.

However, something was bothering Sunny. There was this feeling in his head that he had a seed of an idea, but then got distracted and failed to fully form it.

'What was I thinking about just now?'

Whether or not to hunt again tonight… how powerful he had become with the help of the Shadow… how it was not very practical to wipe the blood with the sleeve of the Puppeteer's Shroud…

'Oh, right!'

Back when he saw the Stone Saint shake off the blood of her sword, he had thought that this would be a cool trick to learn. And at that moment, he got a feeling that he was onto something.

'I should learn it… I should learn it…'

Suddenly, Sunny's eyes became bright.

If he could learn this trick from the Stone Saint… what else would he be able to learn from her? This Shadow of his had an Attribute called [Battle Master], which apparently meant that she was proficient in all forms of combat.

Was there a better teacher for someone like him?

The answer was, no. With his technique stagnating because of the lack of guidance, there was no one better than the masterful Stone Saint to learn from.

Suddenly excited, Sunny summoned the taciturn monster back into his shadow and headed home.

By the time he returned to his hidden lair, Effie was already awake. Sitting on the bed, she was lazily staring at the ceiling and whistling a cheerful tune. Her long legs were somewhat covered by the blanket, but still… that white chiton of hers was way too revealing! Sunny had to be very careful to look the other way.

It was very hard...

"Oh, you're back. Good hunt?"

Instead of answering, Sunny walked over to his chest, glanced at the huntress with suspicion, and opened it.

Then, he poured the contents of his rucksack inside. Seven soul shards fell on the pile, which was sadly visibly diminished because of his recent expenses.

It was still nothing to scoff at, though.

Effie whistled.

"Seven? How many heads is that?"

Sunny closed the chest and sat on it.

"Four. Three monsters and one beast."

Effie blinked, a bit stunned.

"Three monsters? How did you manage to kill three monsters in one night?"

He hesitated, then sighed.

Trying to hide the existence of the Stone Saint would be very bothersome, especially if he was going to venture on an expedition with Neph's cohort. Out there in the Labyrinth, chances were that none of them would be able to hold back to hide their aces.

That was if he was even going to agree to it, of course.

Anyway, there would be not much harm in revealing her now. Or rather, the benefits outweighed it.

"I'll show you. Just don't freak out."

Effie giggled.

"I'm pretty sure that nothing you're capable of showing can freak me out..."

Ignoring her teasing tone, Sunny glared at the huntress and summoned the Saint out of his Soul Sea.

Immediately, two crimson flames ignited in the depths of his shadow. A moment later, the menacing stone knight stepped from it on the floor of the hidden chamber and turned her head to Effie.

Effie recoiled.

"What… what the hell is that?!"