501 Step Two

As waves of summer heat assaulted the city, its concrete and alloy jungle had turned into a sweltering oven. The air filtration systems were running without pause to save the people from suffocating in the clouds of pollutants, and in poorer districts, water had to be rationed because of the draught.

…Luckily, none of that touched the peaceful terrace neighborhood.

Here, people leisurely enjoyed the warm weather in the cool shade of the tall trees when they had free time, had unlimited access to fresh water and delightfully cold drinks, and lived their lives seemingly without a care in the world.

Sunny was constantly surprised to find himself among these fortunate and prosperous people.

For the past month, his life was very busy, but without any distress. He had been steadily working toward his various goals, slowly making progress toward each. His shadow fragments were nearing full saturation, and so were Saint's.

He had returned to the Dreamscape and participated in countless duels in the professional arenas, where the fighters were much more capable and gave him the opportunity to witness — and comprehend — many different battle styles. As the result, Sunny was able to further develop Shadow Dance, making his mastery of it much more solid.

The [Prince of the Underworld] enchantment of the Mantle was now also very different from how it had been before. Even if he wasn't going to reach the mark — six thousand defeated opponents — any time soon… or even a third of it… he was still making consistent progress. The counter already showed [1579/6000].

The drawback, of course, was that with each day he went without losing a fight, Mongrel received more and more praise and attention. These days, each of his duels gathered an audience as large as that of the top Dreamscape broadcasters… especially because some sort of a yearly tournament seemed to be approaching.

Mongrel's fans, however, were doomed to be bitterly disappointed. Sunny had no plans of participating in a foolish imaginary competition. He didn't care about fame and recognition, and was too busy to even spare it a thought.

Apart from practicing Shadow Dance, he also continued training with Effie and Saint, slowly bringing his mastery of the spear close to that of his knowledge of the sword. He also had to run the Brilliant Emporium, which was quickly blossoming into an actual enterprise thanks to Aiko's management and hard work.

…And of course, he had been training Rain.

"Come on! Seriously?"

She was currently in his living room, staring at him with outrage.

Sunny tilted his head a little.

"Sure. What seems to be the problem?"

Rain opened her mouth, then shook her head.

"Listen, Sunny, I understand that you are the teacher, I really do. But! It has already been a month, and all you taught me were wilderness survival lessons. And one — only one! — strike, which I had repeated thousands of times already. When I asked you to train me, I thought…"

Sunny grinned.

"You thought what? That I will teach you how to decimate Nightmare Creatures and bring all your enemies to their knees?"

She coughed in embarrassment, then said in a small voice:

"...Yes?"

He shrugged.

"But that is exactly what I am teaching you. Who do you think survives in the Dream Realm? The best swordsmen? The strongest fighter? No. You need to be alive to fight a Nightmare Creature, and for that, you need to know how to find food, water, how to read tracks and move through the environment without letting it kill you. And it will try to kill you, believe me."

He paused, then added:

"Yes, they taught you the basics in school, but not nearly enough. You want to live long enough to become strong? Then this is step one."

Rain let out a long sigh, and then looked at Effie for support.

The huntress was currently balancing in her wheelchair with a bored expression on her face, waiting at the door for some snacks she had ordered to arrive.

"...What? Listen to Sunny, kid. He might look like a wet weasel, but this guy knows his stuff. The things he lived through are simply beyond reason. Honestly, if he had any shame, he would be dead."

Sunny spared her a dark glance, and said:

"Thanks. I guess."

Rain frowned, accepting her defeat. A few moments later, she suddenly asked:

"What's step two?"

He raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"You said that learning to navigate the environment without dying is step one. What's step two?"

Sunny looked at her for a few moments, then said:

"It's about your mindset. You're not ready for step two yet, though. We'll get to it when the time is right."

…For someone like Rain, that step was going to be the hardest. She didn't really have an aptitude for violence, yet, because her life so far had been nice and soft. But she would have to not only come to terms with violence, but also adopt it into the very core of her being, make it one of the cornerstones of her self. That was the only way to survive the Spell.

Ironically, for Sunny, that step had been the easiest. In fact, he had made it long before his First Nightmare, long before the Spell even knew of his existence.

Rain stared at him with disappointment, then sighed.

"...I just want to be strong like her."

He blinked a couple of times.

"Uh… like who?"

Rain suddenly smiled.

"The Awakened who saved me. She is so amazing! So strong, so beautiful. A true warrior, not someone like you…"

Suddenly, a mortified expression replaced her wistful smile.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it like that… you are great, too, Sunny! I'm sure! Just, you know… not on her level."

Sunny stared at her for a bit, then said in a strange tone:

"...Sure. No offense taken. Not everyone is made to be a true warrior, that's right."

He wanted to say something else, but at that moment, his communicator suddenly rang, announcing an incoming call. Sunny frowned.

'Who might it be?'