Noting the interesting detail of a connection between Shadow God and death, Sunny lowered his gaze.
However, the last string, the one he had been accustomed to paying the most attention to when it came to Saint, was missing. There was no indication of how many shadow fragments it would take to make the Serpent evolve.
Sunny frowned.
Come to think of it…
That strange Shadow was clearly connected to his soul. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that it was a monster — Sunny was a monster himself, after all. So, maybe, the Serpent would not evolve its Class like Saint had, by consuming the soul core of a suitable Nightmare Creature. Most likely, it would grow alongside Sunny himself.
But why was it of the Dormant Rank, while Sunny had already become an Awakened?
'Huh…'
Maybe… maybe its Rank was not tied to Sunny's soul, but to his comprehension of the Shadow Dance? Currently, he had mastered only the first of the seven steps of the battle art, and the Serpent belonged to the first of the seven Ranks. Would it evolve to a higher Rank if he mastered more steps?
Full of thoughts, Sunny sighed and turned his attention to the Shadow's Attributes.
[Shadow Guide] Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent guides shadow essence as it flows through your body."
[Soul Weapon] Attribute Description: "Soul Serpent can assume the form of a weapon."
'The form of a wea… wait, what?'
Sunny blinked a couple of times, then stared at his left wrist, where the head of the Soul Serpent was drawn under his skin. Its scales were so intricate that it almost seemed as if the creature was moving.
Now… it really was moving.
Following Sunny's mental command, the Soul Serpent slithered up to his hand, and then escaped from it, turning into a dark blade. As the coils moved across his body, the blade grew longer and longer, until a hilt wrapped in black leather rested comfortably in his grip.
The tattoo was gone.
Sunny found himself holding a lusterless greatsword. It was a menacing, formidable, foreboding odachi.
Including the hilt, the odachi was as long as he was tall. It was surprisingly light for its length, but heavy enough to inflict truly devastating wounds.
Almost invisible on the dark steel, an lifelike image of a coiling serpent was etched into its blade.
He weighed the greatsword in his hands for a while, then smiled darkly.
'...Truly, this is a weapon worthy of a shadow.'
It was still weak, though. If it was a Memory, it would have been only a Dormant one of the second tier. Sunny was going to have to put in some work to make the dark odachi really fearsome.
With a sigh, he commanded the Serpent to slither back onto his body, and then to disappear entirely. A few seconds later, his skin was clean and empty once again.
'What a bountiful harvest I had today.'
Sunny stared at the darkness for a few minutes, then sighed heavily.
It was time to do something that he had dreaded doing ever since returning to the real world.
He couldn't put it off any longer.