They were met with the sight of two scantily dressed girls when they reached the top.
Nephis had made something to cover herself up by weaving black seaweed together. And, Cassia was wearing a tunic, and some leather sandals.
The sight of two beauties was a bit too much Sunny and met with the attention of both of them, he was rather flustered.
'Well, what better way to start a conversation than to introduce yourself.'
"Changing Star Nephis, it is a pleasure it would seem."
Sunny tried his best to use all the flowery words that he could come up with with his abysmal vocabulary.
To be truthful, he believed he knew more words in Runes, than the language that he spoke.
'At least the flowery ones…'
"You… you are the boy who sat with me in the cafeteria. Aren't you?"
Obviously, it was Cassia who said that.
"Do you know him?"
Nephis glanced at the blind girl waiting for a reply from her.
"I recognise his voice. His name is Sunless. He was in second-to-last place in the rankings, right above me."
At that, Nephis looked at Sunny with a frown on her face.
"The pervert?"
Hearing that, Sunny took a reflexive step back.
And, similar to him, Percy took a step back as well. Only it was Sunless that he moved away from.
'Oh, come one!'
"Hey! I am not a pervert. …I might have said a few things to some girls that were not right, but it was all a misunderstanding."
Nephis studied his face for a while, and then said that he could stay.
Then she turned towards Percy.
"And, you?"
"Um, my name is Percy Jackson. I am with this one."
Percy said pointing at Sunny.
"I have not heard of any boy with that name in the Academy."
Nephis said tensely. Well, a bit more tensely than everything she said before now.
That question put Sunny in a tight spot. Just how was he supposed to tell them that this one did not even know what Dream World is?
"Please don't worry about this one. Ah, he had a slight accident when he came here. I think he hit his head pretty hard somewhere, and seems to have a hint of memory loss."
Percy looked wide-eyes at Sunny.
"I am not insane, nor did I hit my head anywhere."
'This bastard, can't he see that I am trying to help him?'
"…I just don't know a few things."
The latter part was said in a bit low voice, but was still audible enough.
"See! Same thing."
Sunny looked at the two girls with a smile on his face. Trying to look as less-weird as he could.
To this, Nephis only raised an eyebrow. She looked at the two boys, with her head tilted a bit sideways, as if trying to analyse them.
Cassia too was looking in their direction, mainly Percy. Although she could not see, she at least had some barely passable sense.
The silence was stretching for a bit too long. Therefore, tried to come up with a way to easy the growing tension.
"Do the Carapace Scavenger come all the way to the top during the night?"
"Only during the night. As soon as the sun rises, they all go to some place else. Them, and many other Nightmare Creatures."
To this, Sunny nodded rather attentively.
"Oh, I know the reason for that. There is a giant headless statue over there. Just a bit away from that, there is a corpse of a large nightmare creature there. The Scavengers go to feast on that corpse."
Sunny said and pointed at the general direction from which they had come.
"By the way, do you have some fresh water? We happened to have some meat on ourselves. How about we share?"
He raised the bag of seaweed that he had made and used to store the soul shard and meat.
Nephis looked at Sunny with a hint of surprise in her eyes.
"A nightmare creature? Did you kill it?"
"Yes, a Carapace Scavenger. Uh, he did it. The boy, he is really good with a blade."
Sunny said pointing his head towards Percy. And, looked at Nephis hopefully.
'Woman, just say what I want to hear at last…'
"Good. You both can stay here with us."
'Great.'
"We came here after seeing the fire that was lit here last night. We thought there would be more people here."
After they had arrived at the place where both the girls had made their make-shift cmap for the night, Percy was the one who broke the silence.
"We were the ones to start the camp-fire. Bu-But…"
Mid-sentence Cassia had gone sickly pale as if reminiscing of a horror worse than death.
"The fire attracted lots of nightmare creatures in the direction. One, the worst of them all. We didn't even see it, only a tentacle of that thing."
Sunny looked at the girls with a hint of pity. He could see clearly at night. And, that was the only reason he did not start a fire himself.
Yet, even without fire, he recalled the tentacle that had dragged another nightmare creature down to the depths of the dark sea. And, he even saw exactly what had become of the weaker one of the two.
"Well, seems like there will be no fire tonight. Let's get the food prepared right away."
The fire was lit, and Sunny brought out the meat that he had put in the rucksack.
Sunny knew the basics of how to prepare a meal out of meat of Nightmare creatures for himself. Yet, it was Nephis who took care of the task. And, Sunny was glad for that.
In the meantime, both boys quenched their thirst with the memory that Cassia had handed them.
Even before the sun start to set, they had eaten their fill, and were just sitting by the fire. Perfectly aware of the fact that, as soon as the sun sets, they would be extinguishing it.
And, soon after they were done with their food, the sky started to grow dark. The sun had set.
Then came loud sounds of water crashing against the ground, and everything else that dared to stand in its way. The heavy sound was no less than the roar of some fearsome beast.
About an hour after the onset of the dark sea, there was nothing but silence. No nightmare creature in sight, no disturbance in the sea, just absolutely nothing.
And that was to be expected. Just which nightmare creature would dare to stand against the might of whatever terrifying creatures that made their home in the depths of the dark sea?
In the absolute dark, Sunny was the only one of the group who could maintain a perfect eyesight. Or it was more like, he could see better in the dark, then I the day.
"How about we formally introduce ourselves? I am Cassie."
Sunny internally thanked the blind girl for breaking the silence. With time, the silence was growing on his nerves.
During other times, silence was his solace. Yet, now was not one of those times.
For once, Nephis was sitting facing him. Although she was not looking at him directly, Sunny failed to see the difference between the two.
And then, there was Percy. The boy kept looking at the sea.
So, when Cassia broke the silence, he was thankful for the courage that the young girl had shown.
Relieved, he smiled and answered:
"I'm Sunless. But you can call me Sunny."
'How nice to meet another sane person!'
"Since we are going to be travelling together from ow on, should we share the abilities and memories that we have at our disposal?"
In the darkness of night, he saw Nephis looking at him with a guarded expression.
"I'll start. I have certain affinity with shadows because of my Attribute. A slight affiliation with Divinity. And, one of my Attributes ensures that I keep ending up in unforeseen situations."
To Sunny telling others about his abilities and affinity, Casie only looked at him with an embarrassed expression.
"I can 'see' People's Attributes. I also receive 'visions' of past and future. That has happened a couple of times."
That was the reason why Cassie was looking at him like that. She already knew about his Attribute, and therefore there was no need for him to tell others that aloud. Yet, Sunny was not discouraged. Because although he was giving away information about him, in turn he would receive theirs.
"You are an Oracle."
More than himself, it was Percy who was surprised after hearing the Ability of the blind girl. He looked at her with a clear look of surprise on his face.
Sunny felt worried for Percy. He was looking at Cassie in a bit deranged sort of way. As if he wanted to ask her too many things at the same time, but knew better than to try.
The prospect had not gone unnoticed by others at all.
Acknowledging that Percy would not be saying anything more, Sunny continues with the conversation.
"You might already have an understanding of my Ability by now. My shadow can move independently and explore. And, we share sight and hearing. Perfect for scouting. Oh, and I can see in the dark."
…And just as he made that statement, he had to dwell in depths just to make the two girls believe that he was not, in fact, a pervert.
"I have three memories. An armor, a bell that is really loud, and a sword that Percy gave me."
And, with that Sunny had told them all that he found reasonable about himself. Now it was his turn to learn about them. He looked attentively at the others, waiting for whoever would be the first to speak.
It was Nephis.
"My attributes give me an affinity to fire and light, and a strong affiliation to divinity. I have two memories; a rope and a sword. The rope is sturdy and can change its length. And, the sword can protect the wielder against soul attacks. My ability… can be used to heal."
Nephis might have said it all in one turn, but Sunny was no fool. By the way Cassie looked at Nephis when she was saying this, he could clearly make out that she was not telling the whole truth.
But Sunny could make do with that for the time. At least he knew with relatively great certainty that she had not told him a lie.
It was Cassie's turn now.
"I have an affinity to revelations and fate. I have three memories. The bottle with fresh water, a wooden staff that can create wind, and this armor. Nephis gave it to me; it has a powerful protective charm."
And with this, only one was left.
Yet, when Percy did not speak, the tension did rise between them a little bit.
"I have no idea what this 'Attribute' and 'Memories' are. But I have a semblance of control over water. I can breathe underwater for some time. I have my sword."
That was all that he said.
'Guess, he is even less social than me?'
Hesitantly, Cassie moved towards Percy slowly, and asked:
"Can you sense the things in the dark sea?"
"Yes."
"How many nightmare creatures are there in the sea?"
Percy looked at the girl and opened his mouth to speak, yet no words came out of his mouth. He sighed.
"…It would be better if you ask this question during daytime. Or rather, not ask that question ever again. Besides, prepare yourself. A storm will be coming tonight."
The storm did come.