Sunny had not expected finding himself in a safe region. He was sure that his [Fated] would not allow him to be sent anywhere pleasant.
"I just hope it won't be a place with a large body of water, like the storm sea"
***
Sunny immediately found himself blind and drowning. Around him was dark water, that not even his gaze could penetrate.
'Curses! You just had to say it didn't you!?'
Using his shadow sense, Sunny reoriented himself. As soon as he could tell which direction was up, he immediately started rushing towards the surface. Breaking through the water, Sunny started drawing in deep, hoarse breaths.
'Just where the hell am I?'
looking around Sunny saw a completely black sea, sound of waves rushing entering his ears, above it was a —dark sky. The sky had no moon and no stars, it was empty like space …No even more empty.
He tried recalling any Dream Realm region that had characteristics like this one, but there were none, not even the ones written in secret books, ones that very few knew about, nothing like this was described.
'Just as I thought.'
Sunny had to find land, on water There was imminent danger.
'There.'
Looking around himself He found a small —Black mass.
Sunny started slowly swinging his hands, swimming towards the land. He wanted to conserve his energy, but the Nightmare Spell would not let him do that.
"Shit! Damnation! Damn you Spell!"
that's because he saw a massive dorsal fin, around 5 meters in size, getting closer to him. Not losing his cool, Sunny commanded his shadow to wrap itself around him and started swimming as fast as he could.
The euphoric feeling of being stronger twofold filled Sunny's muscles as the distance between him and the black mass started getting smaller.
Getting to land, Sunny stretched out his hand pulling himself on the platform. Rolling over the dark… something that felt like stone, he started breathing heavily. Relieved that he had made it before the fin got to him.
To be entirely honest the distance between the fin and Sunny was not that small, he had outran it quite easily, but he was not going to take any chances.
Looking down at himself he started analyzing his condition. He was naked and wet. Sunny could summon [Puppeteers Shroud] to cover himself, but that is not what he was going to use it for first.
Summoning his armor memory, he did not wear it, instead he used his Awakened Armor of the fifth tier as a towel. Drying himself Sunny dismissed the Armor, letting it dry in his soul sea. Being wet in the Dream Realm was dangerous, wearing wet clothes was Dangerous as well, he could afford to be Naked, it was not like there was anyone here to see his private parts, but he could not afford getting sick.
Suddenly he felt his footing shake, a gigantic jaw full of rows and rows of sharp teeth, almost as tall as himself, rose from the water.
"Shit!"
looking around Sunny realized he could not do anything to escape the shark like abomination. Truly his only chance of surviving was hoping that Fate would play its tricks again.
Sunny was rethinking his life choices until a gigantic black tentacle broke the water and wrapped itself around the massive shark like creature, bringing it into the water.
'Was the Abomination running from the tentacles? Makes sense, Someone like Me would not be a filling snack for something as massive as that'
Breathing a sigh of relief Sunny dove into his soul sea. Above him stood a transparent Sun —his Shadow Core, without any light sources around, his soul sea was completely dark. Below the Shadow Core was a dark still water, no matter how deep the water looked Sunny could not submerge himself inside, only being able to stand above it.
Calling one of the two shimmering stars orbiting his soul core, Sunny summoned his Armor memory. [Puppeteers Shroud] stopped orbiting the dark Orb and started moving towards Sunny. materializing in front of him Sunny checked up on his armor, He wanted to check if it was completely dry before Summoning it outside, examining closely he determined that the armor was safe to wear.
Exiting his soul sea, Sunny, summoned his armor. A leather armor weaved from gray silk and leather materialized from white sparks around him, fitting his figure perfectly. Looking at himself from his shadow, Sunny realized that his armor was not only durable and strong, but also kind of stylish.
'Hey Gloomy! Look at that it even comes with leather boots'
Now that Sunny could wear his armor, he decided to go to sleep. Doing nothing was not something he liked, but he was tired, and there was really nothing he could do as of now, his best bet was to wait and see what sort of changes would come with time.
'Maybe there is a daytime in this region.'
Laying on the hard rock-like surface of the black platform, Sunny, eventually slipped into oblivion.
***
Sunny, rushed to open his eyes. His invaluable helper had notified him of something, he did not want to become shark food in his sleep, so he did not waste any time getting up.
Over the horizon, where his shadow had pointed, Sunny saw, Smoke …from a fire. His shadow was right in waking him up for this, although there was a chance the fire was made by some sort of terrifying abomination, it was his only lead on where to go, and perhaps it was his [Fated] Attribute helping out?
Seeing that no danger was nearby, Sunny, tried to go back to sleep, but he could not rest now. He was thinking about the fire, and who or what could have made it?
'Maybe it was Nephis.'
The fire was shortly extinguished, but Sunny still could not go back to sleep. Realizing that he was not going to get any more rest, he stood up and waited.
After waiting for a couple more hours, a rushing sound of water entered his ears. Looking down at the dark sea, Sunny realized that it was… retreating.
'What? What's happening?'
looking towards the horizon again, he realized that the dark sky was tinted with a small hint of orange… the sun was rising.
The sea kept draining as the sun rose higher and higher, exposing a massive labyrinth made from something resembling coral, the labyrinth was pure red in color, planting a small feeling of primordial fear in Sunny.
The dark sea retreated more and more as the sun rose, eventually the sea retreated fully, marking the time of dawn.
Sunny immediately realized. The sea retreated at day, and came back at night. During the day the crimson labyrinth would be revealed.
Wasting no time, he ordered his shadow to glide down the platform to explore. The labyrinth was littered with bones, hidden all over the ground. Wandering around, Sunny's shadow found the shark creature running away from that thing last night… or rather its corpse.
Around it dozen nightmare creatures, feasting.
The looked like an unholy union between a crab and a centaur. Clad in a hard carapace, they had four pairs of long scythe like legs, on the top was a strangely human like torso, and from it came two enormous pincers replacing their hands. Their heads were placed directly above the torso, without anything in between. They had two narrow eye slits and from their large and vicious maws came multiple slimy tentacles.
Sunny shuddered.
"Scary." He murmured to himself.
These creatures did not look like anything Sleepers were supposed to be fighting, and there was a large group of them here. Sunny was sure that he could fend off one of them if he had a decent weapon, but he would not stand a chance against this many. Luckily they were preoccupied with devouring the corpse and even though he did not have a weapon right now, that was going to change very soon.
Looking back at the platform, his eyes widened even more. The platform he was standing on was not a mountain or anything like that, rather it was a massive stone statue of a knight. In his hands he held a sword facing the earth. He was wearing an armor with what looked like seven shining stars on its breastplate. The platform he was standing on was the statues neck, its head was completely missing, cut off cleanly, it made Sunny wonder, if the statue was built without a head or if something really strong had cut it off.
Not letting his shadow linger around any longer, he commanded it to start charting the path towards the direction from last night. He himself started descending from the massive statue, memorizing the way from his shadow. Sunny had been practicing the first step of shadow dance, learning how to control himself and his shadow at the same time coming to him naturally.
Landing on the ground, Sunny picked up two pieces of bone, one large and one smaller but sharp. The crab looking monsters were still focused on their feast, so Sunny immediately strapped the bones on himself and started ascending back to the statues neck. Carefully maneuvering his body from groove to groove, he eventually got back on the black platform.
Dropping the two pieces of bone on the ground, Sunny picked up the sharp bone and started carving something from the larger one. In the meanwhile his shadow was moving around the terrifying labyrinth, scouting for the best path.
Ten minutes later, the big bone Sunny brought started resembling a spear more and more, he was carving with masterful precision occasionally stopping to carve the path his shadow had scouted on the stone. He was making a weapon and a map.
Sunny preferred fighting with swords, but a spear was going to be his best bet for now, he could not carve a good sword from bone, and even if he could he doubted that a sword made from bone would have been very useful. The crab like creatures were encased in hard iron-like armor, the armor covered most of their flesh, gaps were few and far between, a spear would give him more range and a smaller point of impact, making it easier for him to damage and kill them.
Sunny kept carving his spear, sharpening it to the best of his abilities, the finished product was a simple bone spear.
Sunny started using the spear, thrusting and stabbing, getting the feel of his new temporary weapon.
'Hmm… not bad'
Sunny strapped the bone spear on his back and continued mapping the labyrinth, he did not know how long day would last in here, he could not risk getting lost on the way.
At dusk the dark sea started filling the crimson labyrinth once more.
'Just as I thought.'
The dark sea would start retreating at dawn and come back at dusk, additionally the days here lasted about as long as they did in the waking world, he had already mapped a lot of the labyrinth, if he was careful he could make it to his destination before the dark sea surged again.
Deciding to wait for his shadow to come back until he went to sleep, Sunny started looking in the same direction where the smoke came from yesterday, but the fire was not lit again.
After the Gloomy shadow ascended the knight statue Sunny decided to shelf the thoughts about the fire, putting it on the back of his mind, he laid down deciding to rest.