Chapter 206: Need For Strength
Sunny slumped on the ground, summoned the Endless Spring, and greedily drank some water. Since his injuries were light... well, at least compared to those received by the Abyss Watchers... it was some time before the healer got to them. But, eventually, it was his turn to receive treatment.
The healer — a young man named Shim — was pale and exhausted, his Soul Essence clearly almost entirely depleted. Still, he managed to repair the ligament Sunny had torn while dodging the vines to a large extent. It hurt like hell, though.
With a dark expression, he summoned the runes and glanced at the painfully familiar string of them:
Shadow Fragments: [1958/3000].
He was a little over a thousand Fragments away from evolving into a Devil. This transformation was not only going to allow him to reinforce his body and reserves of Shadow Essence even further, but also reward Sunny with a third shadow. Having another invaluable helper would increase his power tremendously, making him capable of stacking three augmentations on top of each other, or spreading them over between his body, his Memories, and Saint.
To accumulate so many in only a couple months... that was an achievement worth celebrating. Very few Awakened ever fully saturated their Cores, and those who did usually spent long years slowly collecting soul shards of the Nightmare Creatures they killed. Decades, even... and that was for only one Core. Sunny could be proud of himself.
And yet, he didn’t feel happy.
Looking lower, he concentrated on another, much shorter cluster of runes.
Master: Fading Fyrefly
As soon as he did, new runes ignited in the air.
Rank: Ascended.