Nephis had long since realized he was stronger than anyone else in the cohort.
More importantly, she understood why he rarely fought seriously.
They didn’t need someone to solve every problem for them… they needed battles that would temper them into warriors capable of surviving the horrors that still awaited beyond the Hollow Mountains.
Draco had suffered the most during the fight.
Deep wounds covered his body, and Orren estimated it would take nearly a week for the Lost creature to recover completely.
As he dismissed Draco back into his soul, another thought crossed his mind.
‘The method to strengthen Losts is probably the same as Sunny’s Shadows…
feeding them Memories.’ It certainly seemed plausible.
Unfortunately, the Nightmare Spell had made his life unnecessarily difficult.
Unlike Sunny, Orren was rewarded with Memories only after accomplishing exceptional feats, making them far too rare to use for experimentation.
That left him with only two realistic options.
Either buy Memories after returning to the waking world…
Or wait until Sunny eventually learned how to forge them himself.
For now, however, it remained nothing more than speculation.
He didn’t even have a spare Memory to test the theory.
Lost: Venomhide Tyrant.
Lost Rank: Awakened.
Lost Class: Monster.
Lost Description: [Forced to abandon everything by its master, Destined Doom, it became a Lost being, the first of its kind.] ‘It seems Spell is still holding a grudge or else why would it make me seem like a bad guy.’ He thought when he read the description of his Lost creature.
Lost Attributes: [Sudden Lunge], [Corrosive Venom], [Hollow Existence].
Lost Fragments: [0/200].
The attribute [Granite Hide] had transformed into [Hollow Existence] upon becoming a Lost being.
Orren focused on the new Attribute and its description shimmered into existence.
[Hollow Existence] Attribute Description: [The Lost appears as an empty space that absorbs light, capable of storing things within its emptiness.
Those who touch it experience a brief loss of thought, causing their awareness and intentions to fade for a moment.] At first, Orren had assumed Draco had lost much of his durability after evolving.
The attribute [Granite Hide] had disappeared from its runes, so it seemed like the obvious conclusion.
However, after observing Draco in battle, he realized he had been mistaken.
Its resilience hadn’t diminished in the slightest.
If anything, it had become even harder to damage.
It seemed that [Granite Hide] hadn’t truly vanished but had instead evolved into [Hollow Existence], retaining the defensive qualities of its predecessor while gaining entirely new properties.
The most surprising of those new properties was its ability to act as a storage space.
Over the past several months, Orren had stored every soul shard he obtained inside Draco.
By now, the Lost creature carried nearly two thousand shards, mostly Awakened ones, with a smaller number of Ascended soul shards mixed among them.
Once everyone had recovered from the battle with the Spire Messenger, the cohort spent the next few days resting, tending to their injuries, and making final preparations.
Only after everyone had regained their strength did they set out once more, leaving the Hollow Mountains behind and continuing their journey toward the Dark City.
…… It took them three months to reach the Dark City.
During the journey, Sunny had invited Orren to join the cohort in hunting the Fallen Devil known as the Black Knight.
Orren, however, declined without much hesitation.
“You’ll succeed even without me.” Those were the only words he offered.
Unlike the others, he had never truly been a member of the cohort.
Back in the Ashen Barrow, he had already made that clear by abandoning the protagonist trio to pursue his own objective.
His priorities had always come before the group’s.
He knew trust wasn’t something that could be repaired overnight.
Even if Sunny, Nephis, and Cassie no longer viewed him as an enemy, that didn’t mean they truly relied on him.
Earning that kind of trust would take time.
And for now…
…it simply wasn’t necessary.
After arriving at the Dark City, Orren spent the first day exploring.
He flew across the sprawling city, taking in sights he had only ever imagined while reading about them.
The colossal white walls, towering high enough to hold back the Black Sea itself, were breathtaking.
Beyond them stretched the ancient city, with countless stone buildings surrounding the magnificent Bright Castle at its center.
Seeing it with his own eyes was an entirely different experience.
On the second day, Orren decided to enter the castle.
Rather than passing through the heavily guarded gates, he simply flew over the inner walls before landing on a secluded rooftop.
Expanding his Aspect Ability, he confirmed that no one was nearby before slipping inside unnoticed.
The three-month journey from the Hollow Mountains had brought him close to another breakthrough.
Lost Fragments: [2911/3000] His growing strength had expanded the radius of his Aspect Ability to nearly six hundred meters, making sneaking through the castle surprisingly straightforward.
He wasn’t here to sightsee this time.
He was searching for the Memory Market.
Draco still needed Memories to grow stronger, and the Forgotten Shore’s greatest trading hub was the perfect place to begin.
It didn’t take long before his Aspect detected dozens of Memories gathered in a single location.
‘Found it.’ Following his instincts, Orren arrived before a sturdy wooden door.
Without attracting attention, he quietly stepped inside.
Rows upon rows of Memories were displayed throughout the spacious hall.
Sitting behind a counter was a young man, no older than twenty-five, calmly reading something.
‘That must be Stev.’ The moment the man looked up and noticed the dark-clad figure standing at the entrance, his entire body stiffened.
Orren’s pitch-black attire, coupled with the oppressive aura he had unconsciously developed after surviving nearly a year alone among Nightmare Creatures, was enough to make an ordinary Sleeper instinctively fear him.
Stev slowly rose from his chair, his expression full of caution.
“W-Who are you?” Realizing the poor man looked ready to bolt, Orren scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“Um…
hello.” “Oh, don’t worry I am just here to buy some memories.” He said and dropped the big rucksack he was carrying on the ground.
He obviously couldn’t bring Draco out here, so he had taken a couple hundred awakened shard in advance and put them in this makeshift rucksack.
The moment he opened the rucksack, Stev’s eyes almost popped out.
“This… this many soul shards.” He looked at Orren as if looking at a monster.
Ignoring Stev’s state, he said: “I want as many awakened memories of the first and second tier as possible.” He smiled behind the mask.
“I don’t think I can fulfill your request.” Stev said, as he calmed himself.
“You see let’s not stretch things here.
I give you a choice, give me the memories or die.
Sure, if I kill you, I won’t get the memories but are all the memories truly worth your life?” He asked as he pressured Stev.
….
A couple of minutes later, Orren walked out of the shop with thirty-nine Memories resting quietly in his soul sea.
Most were first-tier Awakened Memories, with a handful belonging to the second tier.
He had never intended to kill Stev.
Even if the shopkeeper had refused to sell him the Memories, Orren would have simply walked away.
The threat had been nothing more than a bluff.
Whatever hardships the Forgotten Shore had forced him to endure, they hadn’t changed one simple fact.
He could not bring himself to kill an innocent person.
Keeping his Aspect Ability active, Orren continued through the castle’s corridors.
His awareness stretched nearly six hundred meters in every direction, informing him of every movement within its range.
Suddenly, someone entered the edge of his perception.
The person’s posture immediately caught his attention.
‘A hunchback…’ Orren slowed to a stop.
Instead of leaving, he stood quietly in the middle of the corridor, waiting.
His thoughts drifted elsewhere.
‘Should I kill him now…
or not?’ Among Gunlaug’s four lieutenants, Gemma and Tessai could likely be persuaded to lay down their weapons if the Bright Lord fell.
Harus, however, was different.
He wasn’t merely loyal.
He was fanatically devoted.
Even after Gunlaug’s death, Harus would continue carrying out his master’s will without hesitation.
If left alive, he would only cost more people their lives.
By the time Orren reached his conclusion, Harus had already rounded the corner.
The two men stopped several meters apart, silently observing one another.
Neither spoke.
The corridor remained deathly quiet.
Finally, Orren broke the silence.
“If Changing Star defeats Gunlaug tomorrow…
would you consider joining her?” He already knew the answer.
Harus regarded the masked stranger for a long moment before raising an eyebrow.
“…No.” Orren let out a quiet sigh.
“Well…
I tried.” With a thought, his ivory-white sword materialized in his hand, while the charms hanging from his waist shimmered into existence one after another.
Then he took a step forward.
His decision had been made.
If Harus died here tonight…
…then fewer people would die tomorrow.
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