Shadow Slaves
Chapter : The Desired Hope

There's trouble.

They planned to follow the path up to the mountain pass and then pass through it, going as far away from the slaughterhouse as possible before nightfall. But that road no longer exists.

At some point over the past few months, or maybe even just yesterday, there was a terrible avalanche of rocks, obliterating entire sections of the narrow road and making the rest impassable. Sunny stood on the cliff of the vast ravine, looking down without any special expression on his face.

“What do we do now?”

Scholar's voice was muffled by the collar of his fur robe. His follower, Shifty, angrily looked around. His gaze came to a halt at Sunny the suitable victim to vent his frustration.

“I'll tell you what we need to do! Get rid of dead load!”

He looked at Sunny's nice boots and turned to Hero:

“Listen, Your Grace. The boy is too weak. He's slowing us down! Plus, he's weird. Doesn't he give you goosebumps?”

The young soldier replied with a judgmental frown, but Shifty was not done yet.

“See! Look how he glared at me! I swear, ever since he joined the caravan, there's been nothing wrong. Perhaps the old man was right: the boy was cursed by the Shadow God!”

Sunny struggled not to roll her eyes. It's true that he was unlucky: however, the whole truth was contrary to what Shifty was trying to insinuate. It was not that he had drawn misfortune to the slave caravan; rather, since the caravan was destined to begin with, he ended up here.

Scholar: thudding:

“But I never said that..”.

“Terden! Shouldn't we get rid of it just in case?! After all he couldn't last much longer!”

Scholar looked at Sunny strangely. Perhaps Sunny became paranoid, but there seemed to be a slight chill in the older slave's eyes. Finally, Scholar shook his head.

“Don't be too hasty, man. The child may be useful later in the day.”

“Tapi”

The hero finally spoke, ending their quarrel.

“We will not leave anyone. As for how much longer he will be able to last – worry yourself.”

Shifty clenched his teeth, but then just waved his hand.

“Good. Then what should we do?”

The four of them looked down the broken path, then down the mountain slope, and finally up, where the steep cliff wall was split apart by the falling rocks. After a little silence, Scholar finally spoke:

“Actually, in the past, there used to be a path to the top of the mountain. The road is sometimes used by pilgrims. Later, the Empire widened part of the way and built a decent road on top of it now leading to a mountain pass, not a peak, of course.”

He looked up.

“The remains of the original road should still be above us. If we reach it, we should be able to find our way back to the undamaged part of the road.”

Everyone followed his gaze, shifting uncomfortably as it was likely to climb a dangerous slope. Except for the Hero, of course, who remains as calm as a saint.

Because of the rockfall, the slope is no longer a nearly vertical wall, but still, the slope is quite sharp.

Shifty was the first to speak:

“Bike it? Are you crazy?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

No one did it. After a little preparation, they began the climb. Shifty and Scholar stubbornly carry the weapon they took from the dead soldier's body, but Sunny, with a hint of regret, decides to abandon his newly discovered short sword. He knew that this climb would test the limits of their endurance.

The sword might not seem that heavy right now, but every additional gram of weight would definitely feel like a ton too fast. As the weakest member in the group, he had already struggled to keep up with it, so there were not many options. Shedding a few pounds of iron was the right thing to do.

Climbing the mountain path with the burden of provisions on his shoulders was already quite heavy, but climbing the mountain itself turned out to be pure torture. Just half an hour later, he felt his muscles were about to melt, with his lungs almost exploding.

Gritting her teeth, Sunny continued to move forward and up. He had to constantly remind himself to pay attention to his footing as well. On this unstable ice slope, a single misstep was enough to make a man fall to death.

‘Just think of something fun,’ thought.

But what kind of happy thoughts could he call?

Failing to find anything else, Sunny begins to imagine what kind of reward he will receive at the end of this experiment. The First Nightmare Award is the most important thing given to a Wakened by a Mantra.

Naturally, subsequent trials could give them more abilities and greatly increase their strength. But it is this first that determines what role an Awakened can play, how great their potential is, and what price they had to pay not to mention giving them the tools necessary to survive and grow in the Dream Realm .

The main benefit of the First Nightmare Award is simple, yet perhaps the most important: after completing their trials, Aspirants are given the ability to understand, and interact with, the Soul Core. The Soul Core was the foundation of one's rank and strength. The stronger your Core is, the greater your strength will grow.

The same was true for Nightmare Beings, with the deadly warning that, unlike humans, they could possess many lowly savage beast cores having only one core, not unlike humans, but a tyrant like the Mountain King had five cores. Coincidentally, the only way to improve your Soul Core was to consume Soul Shards taken from the corpses of the other Dream Realm inhabitants.

That was why Awaken went to great lengths to fight the powerful Nightmare Beings despite the risk of death.

The second benefit is less easy, but still vital. After completing the First Nightmare, Aspiran was elevated to the rank of Dreamer of the colloquial language known as Sleepers and gained access to the Dream Realm itself. They would enter it at the first winter solstice after passing the test and remain there until the exit was found, thus becoming fully Risen. The time between completing the First Nightmare and entering the Dream Realm is very important, as this is the last chance to train and prepare oneself that one will receive.

In Sunny's case, it was only about a month, which was very bad.

And then there is the final benefit, unique to any Aspirant that passes the trial.

This is the “magic power” that raised the Resurrection above the earthly humans. Ability Aspects are diverse, unique, and powerful. Some can be categorized into types such as combat, magic, and utility but some are beyond imagination. Armed with the power of their abilities, the Risen One has been able to save the world from the flood of Nightmare Beings.

But that power comes with a catch. With their first Ability, each Awakening also receives a Defect, sometimes called a counter. These defects range from relatively innocuous to disabling, or, in some cases, even fatal.

‘I want to know what kind of ability a temple slave will get,’ thought Sunny, not too optimistic about his prospects. ‘Specification of Disadvantages, on the other hand, seems almost unlimited. Let's hope my Aspect will develop at the end of this failure. Or, better yet, change in total.’

If Aspiran works very well, there is a possibility of Aspects that it provided through early evolution. Aspects, such as Soul Cores, had ranks based on potential strength and rarity. The lowest rank was called Dormant, followed by Awakened, Ascended, Transcendent, Supreme, Sacred and Divine although no one had ever seen the latter.

‘With the amount of nonsense I have gone through, that Spellif it has a conscienceit must give me at least the Aspects that Rise. Doesn't it? Or maybe even the Ride!’

Finally, there was a small possibility of receiving a True Name something like the honorary title given by the Mantra to his favorite Resurrection. The name itself has no benefit, but every famous Awakening seems to have it. It is considered as the highest sign of excellence. However, the number of people who managed to obtain True Names during their First Nightmare was so small that Sunny did not even bother to think about it.

‘Who needs an edge? Give me strength!’

He cursed, feeling that this wishful attempt only made him more depressed and angry.

“Maybe I'm allergic to dreams.”

Such an allergy would be particularly ironic, considering he was destined to spend half of the rest of his life in the Dream Realm if he lasted long enough to get there, that was all.

However, Sunny's mental adventures are not entirely in vain. Looking up from the slippery rocks under his feet, he realized that the sun was already much lower. Come to think of it, the air also felt much colder.

“At least it helped me pass the time,” thought Sunny.

The night is getting closer.