Capítulo 8: Approaching his sister
Aiko wasn't quite happy about Sunny turning so benevolent, but soon found out that she could just negotiate a higher price for an upgrade, and earn more ascended Soul Shards.
On the other hand Sunny soon started suffering from the load of work. His reserves of essence were mostly fine. The rates at which he restored his shadow essence could let him weave most of the time.
The problem lies in the fact he's doing multiple things at the same time.
The original Sunny was working at the Brilliant Emporium. There was a second Sunny that was looking after Rain, guaranteeing the safety of his sister. The third Sunny was hunting some Nightmare Creatures in Antarctica, and relearning his fighting skills. On top of that there was fourth Sunny that was spying on some craftsmen to learn how he was supposed to turn the hide of the Nightmare Creature into a proper material.
The amount of work was nothing short of insane. In fact, the way Sunny had to use his Transformation Ability fell under the definition of insanity. Being different persons at the same time, perceiving different realities at once, problems with responding to everything... He was like a walking madman, the Mad Prince, except not defiled one.
'Getting rid of the Sin of Solace didn't save me. Been there, done that. Always.'
And Sunny indeed has done that voluntarily. If he didn't know better, he would believe fate is involved in this irony.
He even wanted to force his own mind to think more parallelly. Another insanely hard task. Till now Sunny was depending on the Puppeteer's Shroud to ease the mental fatigue. It was still of help, but Sunny was eager to make soon a Memory that would soon overshadow it.
This time instead of acting slowly in preparation to create something overly ambitious he decided to rush things a bit. The limitations of his own mind greatly hindered his progress, and prevented from harnessing effectively the Transformation Abillity.
This short time he spent studying the art of leatherwork was in preparation to perform the whole process on his own. While it was a bit naive to expect it to succeed on the first try, Sunny persisted.
Slowly he gathered all tools he could consider useful for leatherwork, enchanted them using some durability, and sharpness enchantments he learned lately. His tanning knife was weaved with [Unbroken].
This way the tools could survive the process while the hide could give in to. Unfortunatelly not all tools could be procured that fast. Sunny had to be creative about the ways to go around that. The most problematic however was simply the durrability of used tools, especially if they were very large ones. Many things he had to do with his Shadow Manifestation to make for the lack of tough tools. With some experiments he was getting clearer about the goal he had.
Light leather armor resembling a brigandine could be made without consuming too many body parts of the Winter Beast while it could bear the strain of holding seven nexuses. Unfortunately Sunny lacked the means, and experience to make a proper tanning or rather it was the material that was too abnormal to process it the normal way.
Salt baths, bark solutions, oils... normally they could barely do anything to soften such a tough hide. He had to really ramble on it for some time. He even paid some craftsmen to share insights. At least he did the part about preserving the hide pretty fine. Sunny even shared pieces of the hide to artisans of his choice. That way they would start to work to make leather, and Sunny could mimic their techniques.
Learning a new craft was problematic, but it was also nowhere as hard as learning sorcery. The bloodline of Weaver was also very helpful. The Daemon of Fate had an incredible affinity to crafting items, and a drop of that talent was seemingly bestowed upon him. As result Sunny was learning at a mindblowing pace.
The thing he lacked the most was essence. Crafting so many Memories, and mantaining just two avatars required plenty of it, and the use of Shadow Manifestation. The avatar in Antarctica was for most of time on a killing spree, slaying minor creatures. By using his Soul Serpent he could replenish some essence, but it was never enough.
By the end of another week he had an elegant white brigandine. Sunny incorporated some fine silks, and fur inside for comfort, and adapted its form to not obstruct his movements. The armor didn't have any sleeves, shoulders, boots, helm, and all those different features, which could additionally restrict his movements in exchange for the protection.
He was even in humor to do something pretty useless, something he has never done before: Decoration.
Sunny never had the heart to personally do something actually pretty. Before Noctis lost his life he wasted his last moments to tell that black is a terrible color, that Sunny is better than that or should strive for the better. Whatever... It was the first time he could afford to take that advice to heart. With some effort he managed to dye some leather scraps purple, and cut them into flower shapes. The result was... nice. It looked extravagant, and noble. The opposite of the way he used to look. It was actually a part of his plans to reshape his own identity.
While Sunny is surely an incredibly handsome man, the way he lives always casted a shadow over his innate beauty. Being injured, having a layer of black skin for protection, not having time to take proper care of his hair, dirt, and blood... All this added to the image of a brute, which in heart he really was. However, he never wanted to be this kind of shopkeeper.
With that goal in mind he started weaving the vastest Memory he ever created. He spent seven Soul Shards, the ones he dug out from the massive body of the Winter Beast to make a Seventh Tier Memory.
As for the enchantment... He just repeated the trick he did while making the Frozen Trio. This time instead of recreating the enchantment thrice, he did that seven times. He decided to use [Blessing of Spirit] to the limit. The enchantment provided a huge boost to the mind's ability to endure, and recover from mental fatigue, which was crucial upon his current circumstances, even more than replenishing the essence. The same boost increased sevenfold will be gargantuan.
The use of two avatars currently took his all. For most of time he had to turn his attention to another avatar to not miss whatever they were doing there. Before he could develop the ability to manage multiple avatars he had to live through a lot of mental exhaustion, and the recovery time would limit his progress, whenever it was about learning to fight, mastering new crafts, or modifying Memories.
And soon there will be another task weighing on his head, Rain.
"Many steps at once."
...
Rain was still living in the NQSC, but for how long? From what Sunny managed to investigate it's around 4 months. Then her family will move to Ravenheart, and she will move with them. The implications of that are unnerving at least. That means that Rain will be living in the Dream Realm.
Normally if a clan wants to turn their children into Awakened, they contact a Saint, and convince him to take them to Dream Realm. Once in the Dream Realm, the Dream Realm somehow plants a Seed of Nightmare. Because of that the children are simply destined to face their First Nightmare.
But nothing's perfect, and the same can be said about the Seeds. With suitable means they can be destroyed, suppressed, or grown earlier. The Sovereigns revealed their existence, and with them the nature of the Domains. By living in them mundane humans can have their Seeds suppressed, and won't face the Nightmare unless they leave the Domain. In a sense that means that Rain will be safe, but in exchange she will be also grounded in Ravenheart.
Can he accept that kind of outcome? Heck no! He won't be watching how the position of his dear sister is getting harder, and more inescapable. He will make her strong enough so in the worst situation she will be able to escape, and thrive. The earlier he'll start the easier it will be.
That being said he was stalking her all the time without uttering any word. Ever since Rain mastered her mind, the essence of combat has become deeply ingrained into her sense of self. Her sword mastery reached a high level, and she never stopped training. Her physique was on the higher end of mundane humans.
Yet she lacked a proper enemy to improve. Sunny trained her well, and was going to train her even better. Now she was training sword stances that were typical for the defensive style she mastered.
"Hey."
Rain suddenly jumped in the direction opposite to which the voice was coming from.
"Who are you?"
Sunny knew she was to see him, and recognize him... as a guy who asked her for a cup of ramen. However he couldn't remain silent, because of his flaw. Fortunately the question left many possible answers.
"I'm no one, in a sense. My name has lost its meaning."
The voice sound sad. Rain looked at him curiously, judging his appearance.
"It's... you are the guy that asked me about ramen some weeks ago."
"Oh, someone's sharp."
His sister seemed to have quite good memory to recognize him so easily, which deserved some compliment.
"But what are you doing here? Weren't you going to travel somewhere?"
"I'm good at multitasking."
"I'm asking again... who are you?"
"I'm no one. Believe me. At least for you. It's not I don't want to tell you. It's more like a flaw. I can't become important to anyone. If I try I be instantly forgotten."
"Really? It's a strange flaw."
"Well, that's not accurate. I have an actual flaw. The thing we talk about is rather my condition. Flaws usually are not so harsh, and if they are it's always in exchange for a greater power. Well, there's a guy I used to teach for a short time. Due to his flaw no one can remember his name. By the way he's married to a Saint now so i guess it might be also a flaw."
Rain looked at him dumbfounded. What is this guy talking about? Does he know Athena?
The weeks that passed made Sunny realize he can't return to the people he used to know. He can forge some minor identities for himself, but he cannot make them recall the adventures they survived with him.
The problem is not exactly the fact they tend to forget. Their memories are buried somewhere deep in their minds, and when some of the memory is about to connect to these memories of his old identity; it is drawn back into unconsciousness. That's how it seemed to be when Sunny looked at it.
Rain was even more dumbfounded. However she was also used to this kind of insanity. Rather than discarding it she approached it with a hint of curiosity.
"You cannot reveal who you are. But what can be your business here? Is it about my dad?"
"I want to be your tutor. Also no. I happened to know you're really determined to be strong in this harsh world, and happened to know something that can make that true, and a desire to put it to good use. I won't even ask for money."
"Just like that?"
"Yep."
Things were even stranger, and more insane now. Rain facepalmed for how wrong it looked. Being told something like this by a stranger was a sign he would likely to kidnap her.
That also means, she has to accept. She couldn't refuse, because this was at least an Awakened. She didn't have any chance to defeat it or even facing. The Awakened could have backing. She was weak, and refusing here could potentially endanger her family.
However there was also something telling her that the man before her was sincere, and didn't have bad intention towards her.
"Before I gladly accept, and I will, I want to ask you something. For how long were you stalking me?"
Sunny blinked two times wondering, why she would ask such a question, but wanted to play it as openly as he could. So that's what he said.
"Oh, that... The answer for that is actually very straightforward. Since you recommended me noodles. It was a really good cup of noodles."
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