I'm locked in fr.
***
After Cassie thanked him again for teaching her, silence settled over the area.
Reinhard observed her for a while, and once he was satisfied that she had recovered enough of her stamina, he spoke.
"Recovered? Let's go again."
Cassie hesitated for a moment before nodding.
"Yes... okay."
They continued with their second session, followed by another short rest and a third.
By then, Reinhard decided that three sessions were enough for the day.
***
When Nephis and Sunless returned, Nephis was wearing an armor memory.
A little questioning from Cassie revealed that Sunless had received it from the Carapace Centurion and decided to give it to Nephis.
That meant his armor was probably higher in rank or tier than an Awakened armor of Tier 2.
Or maybe he had simply decided to give the better armor to the person who was actually going to fight on the front lines.
Reinhard didn't care enough to find out.
He could, if he wanted to. He had an attribute that allowed him to see the rank and tier of any memory simply by touching it, even if it belonged to someone else.
But there was no reason to bother.
Although the whole situation was a little unfair.
He had an attribute specifically to increase his chances of obtaining memories and echoes, yet Sunless was the one who had received both an echo and a memory from a nightmare creature they both had killed at the same time.
Life really is unfair.
Now, while the other three sat around the makeshift camp, Sunless lying on the ground, Nephis preparing dinner, and Cassie sitting nearby, Reinhard had returned to his soul essence control training a little farther away from them.
Behind his back, Sunless was finally putting his cunning plan into action.
He was going to start a conversation with Cassie and finally find out some of Reinhard's secrets!
Both he and Nephis knew that Reinhard was considerably closer to Cassie than either of them. He had decided to protect her by himself almost immediately after arriving in the Dream Realm, despite barely knowing her.
Not only that, Cassie was also carrying his strong-looking sword before and had regained a way to perceive her surroundings through his ability. Even if it wasn't actually vision, considering she still kept her eyes closed.
There was clearly something going on between the two.
And Sunny intended to use that to find some things out.
He shifted slightly on the ground and sat up, glancing in Cassie's direction and also attracting Nephis's attention.
"So, how was your training?"
Cassie turned towards him and, after a second of recalling what he was talking about, answered.
"It was tiring."
Her answer came with a small smile.
"I could barely feel my arms afterward."
"Really? You looked like you were doing pretty well, though."
"Well, I was trying not to embarrass myself."
"It was a lot better than what I could do, to be honest."
In a way, that was the truth. Before her first nightmare, Cassie had gone to a school that undoubtedly prepared its students at least somewhat for their first nightmare, and she had also mentioned that she was good at fencing.
So while Sunny was better at combat overall, especially when it came to fighting Nightmare Creatures, if they were put at the same physical level and made to fight a human opponent, Cassie could definitely fare better than him simply because her technique was more developed.
"That's because your basics still aren't clear." The unexpected voice of Nephis suddenly came from the side.
"Yeah..."
Sunny glanced at Nephis before replying, while Cassie 'looked' at both of them for a moment.
A small, melancholic smile formed on her face.
"Even then, you're leagues above me when it actually matters..."
Sunny stayed silent for a moment.
Just like I thought. She's probably feeling a bit useless, especially after us fighting the Centurions and being in such a bad state for a while.
He noted that state of hers down, intending to use it if necessary to get some information out of her.
Sunny knew he was being a manipulative bastard by doing this, but he wasn't particularly apathetic towards Cassie. In fact, there was something about her that reminded him of his own little sister, making it difficult for him to treat her the same way he would treat some random person he wanted information from.
Still, the number of abilities Reinhard possessed, the strange memory he carried, his unusually fast growth, and now this new method of providing useful abilities to others had naturally made Sunny curious.
If it wasn't too dangerous, he wanted to figure out how Reinhard could do all of this.
Perhaps there was also a little jealousy mixed into that curiosity.
"Well, that can change when you actually learn to fight."
Cassie smiled faintly.
"I know. It's just..."
She hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"I don't want to keep depending on everyone else."
Sunny's expression softened slightly.
"That's understandable."
He paused for a moment before adding:
"Besides, you already have a better foundation than me. You just need to get used to fighting with your new way of sensing things."
Cassie nodded.
"That's what Reinhard said too."
"Oh?"
"He said that I already knew how to use a sword, so there was no point in starting from the beginning. He just needs to teach me how to adapt."
Sunny glanced towards where Reinhard was before shifting his attention back towards Cassie.
"Your new ability probably makes that much easier, though."
"Yes, it does," Cassie replied.
It was a natural psychological technique. When trying to figure something out about another person, it was often useful to make small assumptions, even if they were wrong, so that the other person would naturally correct them. That way, the person asking the questions could learn more without directly asking for the information.
That was why Sunny had specifically referred to Cassie's new sense as a new ability. He wanted her to either correct him or confirm that Reinhard somehow had the ability to give others new abilities.
He still didn't know what the limitation was, though. Maybe it only worked for senses.
"How exactly does it work?" he finally asked.
***
The next chapter will probably come soon too.