223 Natural Selection

The danger was gone, so Sunny allowed himself to tiredly kneel on the ground, his breathing heavy and laborious. The strenuous battle against the host of spiders had not lasted long, but he was utterly exhausted. The intensity of these perilous minutes was enough to bring anyone down to their knees.

'Too weak. I am still too weak.'

With a heavy sigh, he summoned the runes and glanced at the number of shadow fragments.

Shadow Fragments: [362/1000].

Not bad. Clearing the nest had given him twenty-two fragments — ten for the five iron spiders he had killed himself, and another twelve for those slain by the Shadow Saint.

With the taciturn monster serving as his murderous pet, the speed with which Sunny was able to accumulate power was twice as fast, at least. If things continued like this, the Stone Saint was going to return his investment of a hundred shadow fragments in no time.

'If I live long enough.'

With a grimace, Sunny dismissed the Midnight Shard and slowly got up. The sun was already rolling down toward the horizon, so they had to hurry with collecting soul shards from the corpses of the iron spiders.

There were a lot of corpses…

Cutting one of the beasts open with the Prowling Thorn, Sunny struggled with the idea that they had eviscerated this many Nightmare Creatures. Of course, he had expected this much. After all, Nephis and Sunny had been able to fight against two or three carapace scavengers back when it was only the two of them. Both of them were much weaker, less experienced, and barely equipped with Memories back then, too.

Now that they had spent seven whole months in the Dream Realm — many times more than most Sleepers ever had to — and tempered themselves against the perilous hellscape of the Forgotten Shore, both their skill and level of power had dramatically increased.

Add the fact that there were two other powerhouses fighting alongside them, as well as Nightingale and the menacing Stone Saint, and the outcome of the battle ceased to be that surprising.

And yet, observing the carnage that they had left if their wake still made Sunny doubt his eyes.

These were Awakened Nightmare Creatures, still.

The real reason why the cohort had won did not lie in the individual prowess of its members, but in their ability to cooperate and control the battlefield. The iron spiders were powerful and deadly, but at the end of the day, they were still mindless beasts. That's why they had allowed themselves to be surrounded and trapped.

Had they been commanded by a creature of a higher Class, one that was as cunning and smart as the humans it faced, things would have turned out very differently.

Sunny sighed.

Come to think of it, the Labyrinth was a curious place. It teemed with abominable creatures of all kinds, but almost all of them were of the mindless variety. The only two exceptions he knew about were the Carapace Demon and the Spider Matriarch, who had been either a devil or a tyrant.

Perhaps it was just the nature of this place. Nothing too big and strong could escape from the flood of black water that drowned the world every night. Only comparatively small monsters were able to run away or hide — both from the dark sea itself and from the hungry terrors that inhabited it.

These monsters were an almost insurmountable threat to those unfortunate young people who were sent to this forsaken hell by the Spell, but by the standards of the Forgotten Shore itself, they were nothing but insects.

A horde of parasites who fed on the crumbs left behind by the true masters of this place.

'What a depressing thought.'

This notion poured cold water on Sunny's pride over their achievement.

'Well. Whatever…'

Soon, they were done with the gruesome job of fishing out the soul shards out of the dead spiders. While Nephis was dividing the spoils among the members of the cohort, Sunny used the chance to dive into his Soul Sea and inspect the Memory he had received during the battle.

It turned out to be a cloak weaved from spider silk. Judging from the description, the cloak could provide him with a small amount of protection against physical attacks, simple by virtue of being very hard to piece.

Without thinking too much, Sunny fed the cloak to the Stone Saint. It was just a tier-one Memory, so no amount of protection it could provide would be of any help in this damned place. He would also rather kill himself than go into a battle while wearing a cloak. There were easier and less painful ways to die.

Plus, it was white. Didn't exactly go along with the dark grey fabric of the Puppeteer's Shard, not to mention being a hindrance to anything having to do with stealth.

The Stone Saint absorbed another shadow fragment, at least.

Receiving his share of the soul shards and entrusting them to Effie, who had more than enough space in her enchanted bag, Sunny glanced at Nephis.

Changing Star was looking at the sun, calculating something in her head. After a few moments, she sighed and said:

"We still have some time. Let's explore the nest before ascending the statue."

Sunny grinned.

As an amateur explorer, this was exactly what he wanted to hear.

***

The nest was formed by endless wires of the strange metal web and resembled a vast sphere. It was built around one of the legs of the stone colossus, effectively blocking the path to the bridge.

The entrance was situated high above the ground, and extremely wide. Looking at the diameter of that hole gave Sunny an understanding of just how big the Spider Matriarch had been.

He shivered. The second lord of the Castle had been a very powerful individual. Sunny didn't even want to imagine what the battle with the giant arachnid must have looked like.

Inside, it was dark and damp. Drops of black water were falling from above, creating an ominous melody.

Peering into the darkness, Sunny suddenly stumbled and froze for a moment.

This… he didn't expect.