Nightmare begins

Sunny dreamt of a mountain.

Jagged and lonesome, it dwarfed other peaks of the mountain chain, cutting the night sky with its sharp edges. A radiant moon bathed its slopes in the ghostly, pale light.

On one of the slopes, the remnants of an old road stubbornly clung to the rocks. Here and there, weathered paved stones could be seen through the snow. To the right side of the road, a sheer cliff face rose as an impregnable wall. To the left, a silent black sea of nothingness indicated an endless fall. Strong winds crashed into the mountain over and over again, screaming in powerless rage.

Suddenly, the moon fell over the horizon. The sun rose from the west, streaked across the sky and disappeared in the east. Snowflakes jumped from the ground and returned into the embrace of clouds. Sunny realized that he was seeing the flow of time in reverse.

In an instant, hundreds of years flew by. The snow retreated, baring the old road. Cold shivers ran down Sunny's back as he noticed human bones littering the ground. A moment later, the bones were gone, and in their place, a slave caravan appeared, moving backwards down the mountain in the clamor of chains.

Time slowed, stopped, and then resumed its usual pace.

[Aspirant! Welcome to the Nightmare Spell. Prepare for your First Trial…]

'You have to be kidding me...'

Clink Clink

A dull ache was radiating from Sunny's feet, his tunic was so thin that he might as well have been naked from the waist up.

The main source of his pain, however, was his wrists. He felt spikes of pain wherever the cold metal touched his skin that barely held together.

He also felt an almost phantom like pain that came from the right side of his head.

'That bastard...'

Sunny had been knocked unconscious and sent to his first nightmare.

'let's check the surroundings first,' He tried to main his cool.

There were dozens of people in chains that formed a line, slaves just like him, ahead of him there was a lumbering man with broad shoulder, behind him was a shifty looking guy who kept cursing under his breath in a language sunny was not familiar with.

'Yea... no, what the hell?'

Revel said that spell was fair, that it would let you make your own choices during the trial to solve the conflict and reward you appropriately.

Right now, he didn't even have freedom, like at all.

'What are even the choices I can make?' Sunny thought bitterly, 'walk or die?'

He chose to walk.

Usually, he would do as taught and see what he is working with.

But there was nothing to work with!

He was a powerless slave, shackled and half dead.

He suddenly remembered something important.

'My aspect!' 

A glimmer of hope began to illuminate the growing despair in his mind.

Surely the spell was fair after all.

He was told to think of words like 'status' 'myself or 'information' and then...

Shimmering runes appeared in front of him.

He glanced left and right and focused on the runes in front of him, he didn't know the ancient language they were written in but he somehow instinctively understood the meaning they were trying to convey.

He found the runes describing his aspect... and almost tumbled.

'Yea... no... Silent you fucking liar'

Name: Sunless.

True Name: —

Rank: Aspirant.

Soul Core: Dormant

Memories: —

Echoes: —

Attributes: [Fated], [Mark of Divinity], [Child of Shadows].

Aspect: [Temple Slave].

Aspect Description: [Slave is a useless wretch with no skills or abilities worth a mention. A temple slave is just the same, except much rarer.]

'It literally has useless in its name!'

Sunny was so outraged that he lost Rythm of the steps and stumbled, causing the chains to be pulled down by his weight, immediately the shift guy behind him screamed:

"Whore's Bastard! Watch your step!"

Sunny dismissed his runes, even though he knew nobody else could see them and recovered his balance. He was back on the Rythm in a moments notice.

He did almost stumble again but managed to right himself before he pulled on the chain again.

"Do that again and I'll kill you myself," the shifty guy behind him threatened.

Sunny ignored him, if he got scared every time he was threatened in the outskirts he wouldn't survive a day.

The broad-shouldered man in front of him chuckled without turning his head.

"Don't bother, the mountain will claim this one by morning"

He paused.

"It will claim me and you as well, just a bit later."

Sunny tuned out the rest of the conversation, but he did listen out for any information that might help him.

Give up?

Never.

Sure, this was way worse than what Silent put him through.

There wasn't even any Monster here!

He started paying attention when a third voice joined in, this one gentle and intelligent.

"This mountain pass is usually warmer this time of year, we just got unlucky this time of year, also i would advise you against harming that boy."

"Why is that?"

Sunny turned his head slightly, listening.

"Haven't you seen the markings on his skin? He is not like us, who fell into slavery due to debts, crimes or misfortune. He was born a slave. A temple slave, to be precise. Not long ago, the Imperials destroyed the last temple of the Shadow God. I suspect that this is how the boy ended up here."

Sunny focused on that last part of what the man said, he was a temple slave belonging to shadow god.

'Why would gods even need slaves?' He wondered.

He processed this information, remembering an attribute he saw, before he could pull up the runes again to check, he noticed a new voice talking to him.

"Bear with it a little more, child. We will stop for the night soon. For now, here, drink some water."

The young soldier in front of him couldn't have been much older than him, except there was a clear difference.

He was handsome.

Extremely so.

He looked as if he was one the main characters in the many webtoons he used to read.

It took a second for sunny to process what he just said, and what he was offering.

'Child!?'

It was bad enough with Beastmaster and Revel thinking he was 13 when they first met.

But he really was thirsty...

Just when sunny decided he was going to reach for the water a sharp noise cracked the air.

Snap

The young soldier in front of him grunted in surprise, and looked to this right.

Another soldier, this one older and angrier, stopped his horse a few steps back.

The whip that sliced the back of the soldier's glove open and made the skin turn slightly red. Without even glancing at the slaves, the older soldier pierced his younger colleague with a disdainful glare.

"What do you think you're doing?"

The young soldier's face darkened.

"I was just giving this boy some water."

"He'll receive water with the rest of them once we camp!"

"But..."

"Shut your mouth! These slaves are not your friends. Understood? They're not even people. Treat them like people and they'll begin imagining things."

The young soldier nodded, He glanced at sunny then looked away.

Sunny almost swore there was a hint of malice in those eyes.

Not at him.

But at the older soldier.

As they walked away, sunny made a silent vow to himself.

'I will definitely kill both of those bastards'

Not because of what they did.

But simply for the fact they were his slavers.

And sunny was one spiteful little wretch.