Shadow Slave novel Chapter 549

549 /2415

Sunny waited for a few moments, and then hurriedly stood up while summoning the runes. This was it… the moment he had been waiting for! After so much time, all the sweat and blood, his effort had finally paid off. He had made another step toward becoming a true battle master.

All it took was…

Sunny thought for a second, then glanced at the runes describing the Mantle of the Underworld first. Under the description of the [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment, a runic counter glowed:

Vanquished Foes: [2332/6000].

All it took was killing twelve hundred enemies with his own two hands… and dying by a Master's hand once.

Around nine hundred of those kills had happened in the Dreamscape, one in the waking world, and the rest in the wild reaches of the Chained Isles. Sadly, creatures slain by Saint did not count toward the requirement of the strange enchantment, or the number would have been any higher.

Still, it was good progress.

Turning away, Sunny found the string of runes he wanted to see the most:

Shadows: [Marble Saint], [Soul Serpent].

He concentrated on the latter and read:

Shadow: [Soul Serpent].

Shadow Rank: Awakened.

A wide grin appeared on his face. Sunny closed his eyes and listened to his soul, then circulated shadow essence through the coils of the serpent. He could feel that it was flowing even faster than before. The rate of essence expenditure and regeneration was also improved.

'Perfect!'

He had expected the process of evolving to a new Rank to take a long time, like it had happened with Saint back on the Forgotten Shore, but Soul Serpent had awakened instantly after he had reached the second level of mastery over the Shadow Dance, maybe due to its unique nature as an Aspect Legacy Relic.

'What else changed, I wonder?'

Sunny opened his eyes and looked back to the runes. He had already noticed that there were new ones in the description of the Shadow.

Shadow Attributes: [Shadow Guide], [Soul Weapon], [Soul Beast].

The [Soul Beast] wasn't there before...

He concentrated on the new Attribute and read:

Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent can assume the form of a beast."

Sunny blinked a couple of times.

'...What?'

He looked down at his bare chest and stared at the intricate tattoo of a black serpent that coiled around his torso and arms. Then, Sunny carefully raised one hand and gave the Shadow a mental command.

Immediately, the tattoo moved, slithering onto his palm and moving down his fingers.

However, instead of the tip of a sharp blade, a triangular head of a massive snake appeared in the air instead.

Enveloped in streaming darkness, the serpent crawled forward, leaving Sunny's skin and manifesting itself into existence. Its jet-black scales rustled quietly as they touched the armored plates of the floor, and soon, petrified Sunny was looking at a giant snake, at least six meters in length, its body as wide as a large man's arm and strong enough to crush granite into dust.

The stygian creature coiled its long body and stretched into the air, its head slowly rising and soon reaching as high as Sunny was tall. A forked tongue flashed for a moment, and then the serpent looked him right in the eyes.

...Then, it opened its maw and hissed, revealing long, terrifying onyx fangs.

Sunny gulped.

The serpent's eyes were as black as its mighty body, and shone with dark radiance. They seemed as deep as the lightless expanse of an ocean of shadows, and were full of strange, alien intelligence.

Luckily, there was no aggression or ill will in them. Instead, there was simply… recognition.

The Shadow Serpent was greeting its master.