[Wake up, Lost from Light.]
Sunny heard the voice of the spell and almost asked it to wait. He hadn't even gotten the chance to claim the rewards of his Aspect Legacy yet...
Unfortunately the spell did not seem to care—'annoying...'
He opened his eyes and found himself back in the room within the police station. The ceiling greeted his eyes first; like the last time, Sunny was glad to be back here in the real world. Not that it was really ever a home to him, but it had never thrown an Awakened Tyrant at his head.
But aside from that, Sunny's body felt incredible, as if he were completely rejuvenated, which he was. The cold from the Nightmare was gone, and the pain in his body was gone too, but there was also another subtle change to his body too...
'So then... this is the start of my life as an Awakened...'
Sunny looked down from the roof, expecting to see someone he knew well, though she did not know him all that well... Yet!
She sat there with icy blue eyes and raven black hair that didn't pass her shoulders. Her skin too was just as flawless. She was younger than the last memories Sunny had seen of her, but she was the same as the memory in which he had first met her.
Sunny stared at Jet for a few seconds. His eyes softened—'I don't even know her, but...'
Sunny knew her, but he also didn't, but seeing how she died was... well, it was something that Sunny wanted to prevent.
"What are you staring at?"
"Ah... I was staring at you." - He said it outwardly, but inside he was already churning—'Why did I say itso awkwardly?'
"Why?" - She asked; her face now had the same smile that he remembered before getting the spell slapped out of him, and worse still, her eyes still had the same dangerous gleam.
Sunny was trying to rein in his flaw. He saw himself altering his words in the memories, but clearly he would need a bit of practice.
"You're pretty," he said while turning his head away, completely red.
He prepared his face for a smack, but it never came.
"Well, that's a nice thing to say, but a word of advice: don't stare at anyone like that, especially girls."
"Yes, ma'am!" - He replied with an incomprehensible speed—'Oh, thank the dead gods, I don't want to be slapped.'
"Well, maybe they wouldn't mind it. You don't look all that bad yourself, and your looks will get better as you grow stronger."
Sunny's eyes narrowed—"Huh?"
"As your soul core develops, your body will rid itself of impurities. That's why it's almost impossible to find an Awakened with bad looks."
Sunny, of course, was not confused because of that—'What does she mean I don't look all that bad myself?'
Sunny was still tied down, so he was unable to see himself clearly, but he lowered his gaze and saw his hands, still bound. They were pale, but it was not an unhealthy pale; in fact, it looked similar to Jet.
"Well anyway, since you're awake—welcome back to the land of the living. Congratulations on surviving your first nightmare, Sleeper Sunless."
"Thank you, miss...?"
"I'm Ascended Jet. You can call me Master Jet, and I've been on watch duty for your Nightmare for the past three days."
"Master Jet? I have a question."
"Go on."
"Why would a master be put on watch duty? Isn't it… below your pay grade?"
Jet gave him a dark look.
"You're smarter than you seem. Recently, there were a lot of Gates opening in this sector. Most of the local Awakened are either wounded or occupied with the clean-up. Or dead. It's always like that close to the winter solstice."
She opened the final restraint and took a step back.
"Plus, there are not a lot of Awakened who, like me, directly work for the government. It's by far the least lucrative or glorious career one of us can choose. Would you abandon wealth and fame to work abysmal hours and risk your life, fuelled only by altruism and a sense of duty?"
Sunny swallowed internally—'Work with me, you stupid flaw!'
"No, I don't like the idea of being bound like that."
Sunny felt a nonexistent bead of sweat drop from his forehead.
Jet whistled softly—"Looks and Brains, try to behave at the academy, okay?"
Sunny gave a nervous laugh and jumped off the chair.
"Go take a shower and come back quick; you reek of nightmare."
And so, Jet sat back down on her chair, and Sunny left for the showers.
After a minute he was already standing under the warm showers soaking in the steam. After a while he was done and moved over to the towel rack and picked one up. He looked into the mirror, and his eyes narrowed.
'I'm going to have to worry about mirrors in a few years…'
Sunny was naturally thinking of the memory of the God of Nothing; well, for now, Mordret was just the Prince of Nothing. A prince that was currently tied up in the Night Temple
Sunny's mind turned in another direction for a moment, but he pushed the thought away. - 'I will deal with that when I have the free time.'
He looked into the mirror and gazed at his body. To say it was different was quite an understatement.
His hair was black as night, and his skin lost its unhealthy paleness, now swapped with a sort of ethereal pale—'It looks like Jet's almost...'
His eyes too had undergone a deep change. The black in it seemed to have deepened greatly as if they held an entire abyss, but when he moved closer to the mirror for a better look, the white light was being held within as if the darkness was protecting it.
'Well... people have said the eyes are the way to the soul'—it seemed as if the innate ability was reflecting in his eyes.
His body was still small, but it lacked the frailness that it held before he entered the nightmare. The muscles in his body were light but definitely more present—he looked almost like a dancer.
"I look good, huh?"
He glanced down and saw Gloomy 'looking' at him while nodding his head almost dazedly, but then it stopped when Sunny smiled—"What? I'm allowed to feel a bit of confidence, aren't I?"
The shadow stared back as if saying, "Don't get cocky, dipshit."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, I wanted to try something with you..."
Sunny looked at the shadow with narrowed eyes, and then he bit the tip of his finger, drawing blood.
"Shit, that hurts..." he whispered.
He tried to pull his memories forward, and when he got the one he wanted, he willed, and the shadow moved. The shadow glided over the ground and wrapped around him.
He ignored the sudden burst of strength that his body received and focused on his finger.
Sunny felt a chill where the blood had begun to seep out, and then he watched as the bite healed completely as if it were being stitched.
"That's going to be very useful... but I still need to test its limits."
Sunny really doubted that it would be that powerful, but any healing ability was naturally welcomed. After all, Shadow God was also the God of Peace and Solace, and what would be more peaceful than being healthy and at full health?
It was unfortunate that it was not as potent as "Nephis..."
Sunny sighed—'How am I going to deal with this...'
It truly was a dilemma; he knew her. He knew her better than she knew herself, honestly, and yet she knew nothing about him, and if he tried to get to know her, she would assume he was the assassin.
Despite his mind pool growing exponentially to survive the insertion of memories, it had started to hurt again—'I'll worry about that later too.'
Honestly, Sunny was running out of things to do later.
He put on the tracksuit and walked out and saw Jet sitting there with the same synthetic sludge.
Sunny did not complain, though; he sat down at her call and began to eat, and soon after, when he was almost done, she asked the same questions.
He told her the truth... well, of course he did.
He did not want or need counseling, nor did he want to talk about his nightmare. He still gave her a weird look when she said she was from the outskirts, and he still chose to go to the Academy.
Sunny, unlike the last time he saw the academy, was not surprised; rather, his mind had become like a still sea—'4 weeks to prepare and plan...'
There was not much Sunny needed to do, and yet there was simultaneously so much. He would need to try and build relationships with certain people, he would need to take account of his strengths, and he would need to eat and train as much as possible.
He was pulled out of his thoughts by Jet's voice.
"As a fellow outskirts rat, I'm going to give you some advice; it's up to you whether you choose to listen or not."
Sunny looked at her and nodded.
"First: once you're registered in the Academy, they'll offer you psychological counseling again. There will also be a valuable reward for sharing your experiences in the Nightmare and the details of your Appraisal. You'll be able to receive a soul shard, maybe even several of them."
"I can hunt and get my own shards, thank you very much."
The corner of her lip curled—"You know, Sunny, being distrusting of humans is a skill we have that is a great help to the awakened."
"Yeah... there was a bastard in my nightmare who pretended to be a hero and then tried to stab me in my sleep. Trust me, I'm not trusting people I know nothing about... ah, wait, that sounds weird."
She tilted her head, but after processing what he said and the tone he spoke in, she did not question further.
"Good. Second: there will be a lot of courses to choose from. All types of combat training, deep dives into Nightmare Creature categories and vulnerabilities, basics of various types of sorcery, artifact study, and so on."
"There's a wilderness survival class too, right?"
Her eyebrows raised—"Did you have a tutor in the outskirts?"
"No, why?"
"Well, most people would choose a fighting class of sorcery."
"Well, most people also got a good education on how to survive in the wild."
"You have the right idea. Take the survival class and focus on it the most. You don't have time to worry about a Nightmare Creature if you can't build a shelter."
Sunny nodded as the PTV came to a halt. He did not turn his head to look, though.
"What's the third piece of advice?"
They got out of the car, and Sunny walked to her side as they stood in front of the giant gates.
"Remember: no one can survive in the Dream Realm alone. That's not an opinion; that's a fact. Try to get along with your peers, even if they don't treat you well. It might save your life."
Then she suddenly smiled and patted him on the shoulder.
"You've done well to survive until now, and you've used your brain well. Keep doing that, and your survival is next to guaranteed, unless you end up in a dead zone, then well..."
Sunny glanced at her, and he couldn't express any emotion. - 'Am I supposed to laugh or cry at that?'
She turned and got into the PTV, but before she left, she spoke: "Try and survive as best you can. It'd be nice to have another outskirts rat to talk to."
Sunny smiled and waved bye at her before turning to the gate.
"Gods help me..." - He whispered.
But it was not because he was nervous about being here, no. It was because when he saw Nephis turn her gaze to the PTV and watch him and Jet's conversation, the worries about how to deal with everything seemed to return.
'At least now, since Jet called me an outskirts rat, the suspicion of me being the assassin will go down by like... 1%.'