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Not that shards were cheap here. It's just that the deals Sunny was able to make were not as lucrative as the ones he had made in the Dark City. He was also not able to bring the soul shards back to the real world with him, which also affected the final price.

In the end, the collection of crystals he had gathered during his last trip through the Chained Island — including those retrieved from Fallen creatures — only landed him three Memories of questionable utility. He fed them to Saint, bringing her shadow fragment counter to [163/200].

'Not bad, I guess.'

After concluding his business in the park, Sunny went to the kitchens and traded the fruits he had found for a bunch of credits.

The fruits were a very rare commodity on the Chained Isles — they could not be made into anything even remotely useful or advantageous, but some bright mind in the Sanctuary had once come up with a method to make them into a very hard-hitting and tasty wine. Sunny himself had sworn off alcohol after his experiences on the Forgotten Shore, but he wasn't against making some money from it.

In the early days of the Sanctuary, the wine was all the rage among the local Awakened. Not too long after it had been established, most of the man-eating vines that grew the fruits had been hunted down to extinction on the island surrounding the Citadel. Now, only people who went further and risked their lives more had a chance to find several fruits, so the cost was rather substantial.

'That should… uh… buy me a new fridge, I think.'

Sunny had only a very vague idea of how much refrigerators cost, but suspected that this recent exchange would be enough to cover the expenses of shopping for a new one.

All in all, he was satisfied with the result of his recent expedition. He was progressing at a steady pace and slowly gathering everything he needed to make it even faster.

...Just in time, considering that Nephis was days away from becoming a devil.

With a slight frown, he exited the ring of menhirs and looked up.

The trades took him several hours to complete, so it was already night. The crescent moon was visible in the dark sky, and the winds grew cold and forceful. Up above, heavy clouds were gathering.

'I think it's going to rain.'

Suddenly in a sullen mood, Sunny sighed and thought about his plans.

Usually, he would be charting out a route for his next venture into the Isles, either going for a yet unexplored ruin or a habitat of the Nightmare Creatures he was preparing to challenge and kill. But these excursions took several days to complete, and he had a lot of business to take care of in the real world right now.

'Can I return already?'

He had only spent around four hours in the Dream Realm, but sometimes, that was enough — for him, at least. Sunny had no idea why his experience with the Gateways was different from most other people, but suspected that it was either because of his two cores or because of the fact that he had spent an entire year in this dead world even before becoming an Awakened.

Maybe the [Spark of Divinity] had something to do with it, too.

In any case, he tended to avoid returning to the real world too fast too often, in order to not attract unnecessary attention. Today, however, he was willing to forego extra caution… the things waiting for him back there were very important, or at least pressing.

With a shrug, Sunny headed toward the Altar Island. Walking on the stone path in complete darkness, he looked up at the veil of clouds hiding the moon and sighed.

'Not like I would really want to venture out in the rain, anyway.'

Approaching the white monolith of the altar, Sunny hesitated for a few moments, then put his hand on it.

Nothing happened.

'...Oh. I guess it's too early, after all.'

What a disappointment.

With nothing to do but kill time and wait for the opportunity to activate the Gateway, Sunny paced a little, stared at the depths of the clear pool, then paced some more.

Finally, he returned to the altar and grabbed the handle of the obsidian knife laying on its surface… purely out of boredom.

Sunny strained every muscle in his body and tried to lift the damned thing, but no matter how hard he pulled, the knife didn't move even by a millimeter.

'Move, damn you!'

However, there was no response.

Giving up, Sunny grimaced and let go of the knife.

'Well, that's a bust… again...'

As he did so, though, a heavy gold coin slid out from under his vambrace and fell on the polished surface of the altar with a melodic ring. It rolled a few times and then landed flat, the face of the beautiful person with the image of the crescent drawn on their forehead looking at him with a carefree smile.

'Oh, right… I have forgotten about that thing…'

Sunny moved his hand to pick up the coin, but at that moment, the veil of clouds split slightly, letting through a beam of pure, pale moonlight.

The light fell on the coin and made it gleam.

…A moment later, the surface of the coin suddenly shone with ethereal radiance. The features of the person etched on it became sharper, then disappeared into the light.

When the light dissipated, the coin was gone.

Sunny stared at the empty spot where it had been just a few seconds ago with a bewildered expression.

It was then when the Spell suddenly whispered into his ear:

[Your Shadow grows stronger.]