Shadow Slave

Sunny had woven many Memories in the past. However, today, he had an entirely new goal —weave something entirely new without relying on imitation.

In theory, he was ready for that challenge. His foundation was quite solid — firstly, he had meticulously studied countless weaves, so his mental library of string patterns was sufficiently vast. Secondly, he had spent numerous hours pouring over these patterns, trying to discern how they worked.

These efforts allowed him enough insight to change and modify the weaves he was familiar with however he saw fit… well, maybe not. Although Sunny could indeed achieve a lot, he was still somewhat limited in the scale and scope of such alterations.

For now.

Lastly, there was his new ability to fuse with the Memories in his possession, which allowed him to fathom the connection between the weaves and the enchantments they produced on a much deeper level.

It was that last gain that was supposed to give him the push he needed to break free from his past limitations.

Sunny looked around the material storage, then walked over to the section containing various leathers — which he had made himself from the hides of Nightmare Creatures over the years.

Choosing a roll that wasn't too valuable, he considered it for a moment. Of course, the low value of this leather was relative — Sunny could afford to disregard it, but it would be a real treasure for most Awakened, and more than a few Masters as well.

Nodding in satisfaction, Sunny picked up the roll of leather, then found a few more materials and left for the workshop. Once there, Sunny unrolled the leather, traced it roughly, and then swiftly cut it. The material was durable enough to resist enchanted weapons, but he effortlessly sliced through it using nothing but his nail.

After that, Sunny got to work.

Sitting down, he manifested four more hands. These shadow hands were responsible for weaving threads of essence, while his original pair was handling the leather.

Funnily enough, Sunny also summoned Weaver's Needle. Today, it had some mundane stitching to do…

Slowly, a leather backpack took shape in his hands. The backpack was on the smaller side, but crafted with utmost care — in fact, it could quite easily compete with the most luxurious leather bags sold by famous fashion designers in the waking world. That was how good his craftsmanship had become…

After paying a ridiculous amount of credits for what would eventually become the [Overpriced Saddle], Sunny had given a solemn vow to never be robbed blind like that again and learn how to handle leather himself. The name of that Memory was not a joke, but rather an expression of his deep, inconsolable anguish!

He continued to focus on his work. When Sunny needed additional tools, he manifested them from shadows. When he needed thread, he used the diamond thread from the Ebony Tower. Eventually, all that was left was to add the clasps to hold the flap of the backpack tightly closed when moving.

Finishing that, he gave the backpack an appreciative look.

«Damn… it's a shame I can't sell you right now.»

Aiko already had the combat equipment market

on the Valor side of Godgrave basically cornered, but no one said that they could not expand into fashion… people longed to look good even in the middle of an apocalyptic war, after all. Take Kai, for example, who chose his armor based on how pretty it was.

«That fool…»

Shaking his head regretfully, Sunny walked over to a massive chest and opened its lid, revealing a radiant pile of soul shards. Most of his fortune was safely stored in the Nameless Temple, but he had plenty of shards at hand here, as well.

Fishing out a few Ascended shards from the pile, Sunny returned to his workbench. He did not know yet how many anchors his weave would need, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

Then, he summoned the Endless Spring, put it down, and gave it a complicated look.

Sunny had always suspected that the beautiful glass bottle was, at its core, a spatial storage Memory akin to the Covetous Coffer. However, after exploring it recently, he realized that he could not have been further from the truth.

The Endless Spring was… unique, to say the least. In hindsight, it was a truly remarkable Memory, far beyond what other enchanted tools of its Rank and Class were supposed to be. But then again, Cassie — the person who had initially received it from the Spell — was quite an unusual Awakened herself.

Considering that her Aspect was of the almost unheard of Sacred Rank, the Nightmare from where the Endless Spring had come must have been a remarkable trial, as well.

In any case, the Endless Spring could not help Sunny with what he was trying to do at the moment.

The Marvelous Mimic, however, did.

So, Sunny augmented his Shadow instead of the beautiful glass bottle.

He wanted to create a spatial storage Memory for Rain, and for that, there was no better reference point than the Covetous Coffer, which the Marvelous Mimic had been born of.

Sunny closed his eyes and sighed, contemplating the next step… all the while continuing to weave threads of shadow essence with his additional hands, of course.

Space was an absolute law, so violating it was no easy task. He wasn't sure that there were Memories out there that could achieve that, but if there were, they must have been of the Divine Rank. He was far from being capable of creating something like that.

Luckily, there were plenty of ways to manipulate space without violating its laws.

The original Covetous Coffer had done just that, and the Marvelous Mimic inherited this ability. It contained an independent space within itself — a pocket dimension, basically — and at the same time served as a portal between the larger world and that space. More than that…

Sunny leaned back with a contemplative expression.

In some sense, the Covetous Coffer had also been a soulbound Memory. Not to the same degree as and in a different way than the Mantle of the Underworld, but its capacity to mimic various objects, as well as the volume of its inner space, had depended on the potency of its master's soul.

That was definitely something Sunny had to explore further. Even if he could not repeat what Nether had done with the Mantles, there were still ways for him to achieve the desired effect.

In any case, creating an independent dimension and then connecting it to the world through a Memory was still a difficult task. Sunny was confident that he could do it, if given enough time for research and experimentation… but Rain did not need something that sophisticated, and there was a much easier way.