Shadow Slave alternate paths: The sun of song

Sunny signed in to the academy without a hitch. He was thankfully able to skip the interview thanks to his benefits.

Sunny decided to choose two classes.

One was obviously Wilderness Survival; he wasn't going to ignore Master Jet's advice.

The other was Combat. He wanted to see what his sister meant with his shadow.

Who knows? Maybe it could teach him some divine technique that didn't make it useless.

His shadow glared at him, then gloomily looked the other way, as if renouncing him.

"Gloomy, huh?" Sunny thought. "Fits him."

Sunny could either head to the dormitory or join in on the lessons, as he had registered mid-day.

"Better to join at the start. It would attract too much attention if I joined mid-lesson," he determined.

He reached his dorm and began sorting his stuff out—a couple changes of clothes and the practice blade he preferred.

Turns out it's called an "Odachi."

Sunny gave the blade a thoughtful glance as he laid it gently across the desk. It was too long to be practical for close-quarters, but somehow, it felt right in his hands—like it belonged there.

He inspected his room.

It had a bed with a soft mattress, a table, a dresser, and even a separate bathroom. The materials were new and aesthetically pleasing, the air crisp and sterile. It was warm inside, and the outer wall was equipped with a hidden screen that seamlessly imitated a wide window, opening to a picturesque vista of a snowy park.

There were even several sets of clothes with the Academy emblem provided to him for free.

Sure, it wasn't as extravagant as his room in Raven Heart, but it certainly was better than anything he was used to back in the outskirts.

With nothing better to do, he decided to inspect his memories and explore his mysterious little shadow.

He summoned Puppeteer's Shroud; it wrapped around his skin as if it was another layer of skin.

Memory Rank: Awakened.

Memory Type: Armor.

Memory Description: [A worm of doubt...]

Memory Tier: V.

Memory Enchantments: [Enhanced Durability], [Doubtless], [Blessing of Spirit]

Sunny thought it was odd that the memory dropped by the Mountain King gave him protection from mind attacks, considering that the Mountain King looked like it had nothing to do with mind attacks.

Not that he was complaining.

He dismissed it.

The Silverbell was pretty straightforward—it produced sound.

That's it.

Yet it had saved him. Sometimes the simplest memories could be the most useful.

The last memory was [Burrowing Claw]

Memory Rank: Dormant

Memory Type: Weapon

Memory Description: [The Mountain King does not build his kingdom with stone. He builds it with corpses, and the children he plants inside them.]

Memory Tier: I

Memory Enchantments: [Flesh Burrower], [Life Leacher]

He didn't know which creeped him out more—the description of Puppeteer's Shroud or the description of Burrowing Claw.

He sincerely hoped he didn't meet the next stage of evolution of these damnable things.

It's obvious enough that the dagger has special properties when it comes to flesh.

Maybe it just simply cuts easier or cuts deeper when it's against flesh?

Regardless, Nightmare Creatures have a tendency to not be always made of flesh.

It would be useful for some cases, but it was only a Dormant weapon of the first tier. Chances are that Sunny might come across a better one easily.

He turned towards his shadow, arms crossed as he wondered about his mysterious companion.

He once again felt for the new sense and started getting used to it.

After a few simple exercises, he had more or less integrated this new sense into his body.

It had become as easy as walking or talking.

Now for his next step...

He took a deep breath and ordered his shadow to detach itself from his body.

And it did.

His shadow stood at one end of the room, and he stood at the other. He had no shadow beneath him.

"This makes zero sense."

Things rarely did for him nowadays.

He felt his vision split as two different perspectives swam through his mind—him and his shadow.

His head throbbed slightly, but Sunny grinned anyway.

"This… is insane."

He was looking at himself from across the room. Literally. Through the shadow's eyes.

Or whatever the equivalent was.

The same room, the same Odachi on the table, the same stupid grin on his own face.

But not from his own eyes.

He moved his arm.

The pale boy from his shadow's eyes did the same.

The number of combinations he could do with the [Child of Shadows] attribute were countless.

Spy? Why not?

Assassin? He was the man for the job.

"Let's see how far you go."

His shadow began exploring the academy, while he simply sat on the bed, seeing through eyes that were not his own.

It slid along the walls, behind the desks, beneath feet—darting and gliding like a serpent of living ink.

The corridor was mostly empty, save for a couple of students walking in the distance, chatting quietly. His shadow slipped past them without hesitation. No one turned. No one noticed.

Sunny directed it down a turn, passing by what looked to be a training room—open, wide, lined with practice dummies and racks of weapons. Students inside were drilling under the watchful gaze of a tall man.

He watched for a while. They were doing some basic exercises—nothing of interest was happening.

Only thing he noted was that, for some reason, there was this guy intently staring at a white-haired girl.

Sure, for some reason most people were.

But this one had a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"Alright class, since you all did the general test and sparring yesterday, today you will mainly focus on physical exercises," spoke the instructor.

Sunny decided to tune out the rest, but in the corner, he saw the punching machine.

Maybe he would be back later.

Recalling his shadow, he decided to head for the Wilderness Survival.

***

Walking into the large and tastefully decorated spacious classroom, he spotted an older man behind the wooden desk, seemingly a bit gloomy.

The man perked up. "Welcome, young man."

The man seemed to be full of energy as he talked. "I'm Awakened Julius, or Teacher Julius for you."

"I'm Sunless."

Sunny and Teacher Julius talked for a bit, then started the lesson.

The lesson itself was so dense that Sunny couldn't help but be confused every once in a while.

Luckily, Julius was patient with him.

Since he was the only student.

Eventually, Sunny raised his hand. "So, you're saying moss is edible?"

Julius gave a short laugh. "Only certain kinds, and only if you're desperate."

Sunny blinked. "…Noted."

"You may find this lesson boring but..."

Julius walked around the desk, leaning against it as he looked at Sunny. "Listen, most people think survival's boring. But funny thing is… students who take my course usually come back alive. It's not about who can hit harder out there—it's about who can come back alive."

Sunny nodded solemnly. He understood that better than most.

***

After finishing the long lecture with Professor Julius, which took almost the entire day, Sunny decided to stretch a bit.

It was pretty much nightfall after the lesson—the last hint of sun disappearing on the horizon.

He grabbed the wooden Odachi from the dorm and quietly snuck into the dojo, then began practicing some basic moves—mostly just slashes, though.

He was trying to keep his eyes on the shadow while at the same time attacking the practice dummy.

He did see a slight difference, but couldn't concentrate because he had to keep slashing.

When he asked the shadow to simply show him, it shrugged.

"Useless thing..."

Then he heard a feminine, rather flat voice behind him:

"Admirable determination, though it's sloppy."

Sunny whirled around to see the same girl he noticed during the dojo—the same one people were staring at.

"Ah, I wasn't concentrating," Sunny cursed. "For someone to be able to sneak up on me..."