The next month passed without incident, October arriving swiftly.
Some may be asking: How exactly could Sunny survive a month without [Fated] throwing an Unholy Titan at him?
The answer to that... is completely unknown. In fact, it seemed that he got a little lucky for once. No bad guys to deal with, no Lord Ravagers, no forces of nature trying to crush him. Just a good old time with a lot of napping.
At least, that's what he wished was the case. Unfortunately, he was a true hustler, staying on that grind no matter the odds:
Sunny's Brilliant Emporium has been booming with business!
After the Second Nightmare, Sunny's progress in Weaving has advanced quite a bit — enough so that he can differentiate the enchantments of Memories. Through this, he could easily copy and paste enchantments from one Memory to another... though, he could barely edit enchantments, much less make anything from scratch. Still, this skill was extremely valuable...
Because Awakened need all kinds of Memories. On the market, some look for Memories that provide elemental resistance, while others are looking for those that provide an increase in strength. Some need weapons, others need armor.
And it was thanks to these vast range of desires that Sunny was able to make it big.
How many forgers could boast that they can create any type of Memory? Not many. How many could say that they can pick and choose enchantments? Almost none. And for the ones who are independent, and must rely on their own resources, how many could say that they have enough resources to keep their business afloat?
The business world is a harsh one. It doesn't take long for an independent forger — or any Awakened, really — to give in and join a faction or Legacy Clan. Resources were scarce.
But Sunny was one of the most successful Masters in the Universe. He won't lie and say that his little empire was completely self-built, but it was mostly of his own efforts. Day and night, he would summon extra arms made of shadow, accelerating the pace at which he could produce Memories. As time went on, the time it took generally got shorter and shorter... though, more complex enchantments still took time.
The way that the Brilliant Emporium worker was simple — due to the nature of Weaving, Sunny would go out and by a bunch of Memories. He would check the Spellweave of each of them, allowing him to record their enchantments in his mind, before feeding them to his Shadows. In fact, something happened to one of them... but that was for another time.
Then, he would go out looking for custom requests. Usually, Awakened in need of specific enchantments or a particular type of Memory would go out and release a request. Then, forgers and enchanters would try to accomplish this request, and whoever met the conditions the best would be able to sell their Memory. It was a difficult economy, since you could create a Memory but be unable to sell it.
And that was why the Brilliant Emporium was so successful.
Usually, the enchantments on a Memory created by humans were either randomized by the Nightmare Spell, or were decided by the creator's Aspect. Usually, they were geared to something specific, like increased sharpness or greater durability, and cannot accommodate a large variety. So, sellers usually ended up only taking commissions that matched their skillsets.
On the other hand, Sunny could do literally anything as long as he has seen an enchantment that already fulfills those conditions. If not, then he might still be able to edit existing enchantments until they worked.
Thankfully, it wasn't often that Awakened had requests that were too specific. Usually, they either wanted a stronger weapon or an armor Memory with specific resistances. It was pretty common for them to ask for a weapon that could hit incorporeal targets, and luckily, Sunny happened to have the Cruel Sight's Spellweave stuck in his head.
...But, there was a problem.
He was slowly going bankrupt.
He needed Soul Shards to create Memories. That was a given, considering how his unique brand of Sorcery worked. This could be easily solved if he was paid back in Soul Shards...
But it was always credits! Credits this, credits that... Sunny was already rich! There were very few times in which Sunny could find someone willing to pay more Soul Shards than what he used to make the Memory.
After all, Awakened still wanted to saturate their Soul Cores.
At this rate, the Brilliant Emporium will have to shut down after a few months, if only temporarily as he gets his funds back. But that was fine. After all, there were two reasons he accepted the Commissions that paid in credits... which were really one reason that happened to accomplish two things.
Sunny was trying to make a name for himself.
By drawing attention to himself as a miraculous enchanter, society would begin to assume that he was someone with a powerful Aspect focused on creating Memories. Few would be aware of the true nature of his Aspect — as in, those that actually knew him. So, it served as a cover for his true capabilities.
The second reason was also very simple. Sunny was very stubborn on staying independent, not wanting to be anyone's lackey. That wasn't to say he wasn't open to collaboration, though.
The online Memory Market had this little thing called Premium Investors. These were the bigshots. The Saints and those who could stand next to them politically. The title of a Premium Investor was personally handed out by the IPC, who owned the platform.
A Premium Investor gained the rights to look at the stats and all the nitty gritty details behind how the platform operates. They can see all the sales, who was buying what and how they were paying, the identities of whoever was on the site, and so on.
What did all this have to do with Sunny? Well, he was trying to get their attention, of course!
By taking on plenty of commissions, and winning them while facing against all his competitors, he was bound to attract plenty of Premium Investors. They would eventually offer him a contract through the site, which would allow Sunny to gain a supply of resources to continue his work.
In exchange, Sunny would have to charge much higher for his works, and would have to give a percentage of his income to whoever he was contracted with. This was fine with him, though.
At the moment, he was only able to make transactions regarding items of the Awakened and Ascended level. He couldn't reliably get into the sphere of Saints and start selling Transcendent Memories, since they only ever commissioned reliable vendors.
Of course, all of those reliable vendors had a Premium Investor behind them.
So, that was his goal. To get a Premium Investor interested in him, pass whatever test they had, and get his hands on a contract that benefited him without restricting his freedom. In fact, they usually came in groups whenever anyone particularly exceptional came around, so he would have his options.
At least, that was what he thought... until the middle of September came around, and a single Premium Investor got in contact with him. Their profile picture was that of a small white dove, and their username was:
SoundlessHeaven.