It has been a week since Caster was sent to the shore. Currently he was resting in a cave with a make-shift campfire. The cave was nothing impressive, it was filled with annoying flora and wasn't very big. It's opening led to a larger cave that was had two openings on opposite ends.
One opened towards the marshes outside of the dark city walls and the other opened in the labyrinth. It caused the larger cave to floor at night but the small opening Caster chose remained out of its reach, which was why he chose to rest their in the first place.
Caster had started near the city wall, but unlike the Caster in the novel, he failed to find the group to lead him to the dark castle, so Caster decided to explore the place near the labyrinth for a while before attempting to enter the city. It'd be better to go with a bit more essence in his soul core.
Worst case scenario he'd have to wait for Sunny and his harem to reach the place and enter with them.
"Can't let that happen, all my plans will turn to jeopardy in that case."
Currently, he was roasting some meat on the campfire. He was hungry. He had been hunting for so long. It was especially difficult because he tried not to use his aspect as much as possible.
Luckily his armor that he got in his first nightmare was incredible.
'Of course it is, it is from a damn awakened terror.'
Memory Name: [Vivienna's Armor]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: 6
Memory Type: Armor
Memory Description: [This is the armor of a knight that followed the path to defilement. Never lost its will, never lost its charm.]
Memory Enchantments: [Tenacious], [Diversified], [Burden]
[Diversified]
Enchantment Description: "Can change the form of the armor to an extent. Can focus its protection at parts by undoing it on other places."
[Burden]
Enchantment Description: "Can change the mass of the armor at will"
'Sigh... It's unfortunate that I can't use the last enchantment due to not having control over soul essence. However, the rest is good. It seems I can undo my protection for certain parts and resummon them to other parts. It's good to defend against things that might kill me in one strike.'
Caster looks around for a second just to be careful before continuing his thoughts.
'This is almost like i have 10 small armor memories. Luckily it doesn't seem to physically stack for the augumentation so the weight remains the same. Perhaps its a passive effect of the other enchantment? A really good boon nonetheless. Well, I went through a lot of shit for it, so I am deserve atleast this much.'
Soon, the meat he was roasting seemed to be done, at least edible. He started devouring it rapidly. It didn't taste good, but it was food. Soon after finishing he checked on his fragments.
Soul Fragments: [36/1000]
He would have had 8 more fragments, if he wasn't saving up on them. The reason for that was the other memory he had. The book of books. It's a ridiculously powerful memory, so much so that it is utterly ridiculous that he got it in his first nightmare. But unfortunately, he can't even utilize it without having soul essence to power it.
However 3 days ago, he found out, accidentally, that he can use soul cores to temporarily power the memory. And the memory is crazy good.
Memory Name: [Book of Books].
Memory Rank: Sacred.
Memory Tier: 7
Memory Type: Tool.
Memory Description: [Knowledge is Divine].
Memory Enchantments: [Pool of Knowledge], [Sink of Strength], [Bottomless Essence]
[Pool of Knowledge]
Enchantment Description: "In exchange for essence, you can ask for any information."
[Sink of Strength]
Enchantment Description: "You can store abilities in this"
Stored Abilities: [Lightning Strike], [Telepathy], [Pupeteering]
[Bottomless Essence]
Enchantment Description: "Can store soul cores and essence."
Stored Cores: Awakened x4
Stored Essence: —
'Before discovering the last enchantment, it used to be censored. Like it didn't want me to find it out. Heh. But i did anyways. Anyways, this memory is broken. I think there is no limit to how many abilities can be stored, but i don't know how to store them for now.'
"It seems that the pupeteering ability comes from the terror itself, I have no idea why it would store its ability in the memory, but it did. Its a really broken ability. However i don't think awakened soul cores are enough to power it for long. Perhaps awakened essence, but not awakened cores. They barely have anything. This also doesn't seem to give me the dream like space that the terror had, only the controlling ability. The telepathy might be the useless ability here since I probably won't have a use for it anytime soon. And lightning strike is probably the most useful one here. I can't believe i get an offence power that isn't even part of my aspect. I'll need to gather a lot of soul cores because this might be the thing that will save my lifespan."
Soon he got up and started practicing his sword, the beautiful Jian he had. The reason behind him praciticing was that he still wasn't as skilled as the original Caster. He had lost a lot of his memories during the soul infusion, which includes the muscle memory he had. He practiced till he was dead tired and fell asleep soon after.
In the morning, he woke up to the sound of the dark sea descending. He thought of hunting more but then decided against it.
"I need to reform my plans."
He say back down and started meditating to calm his mind. It was already calm due to his passive aspect ability, but he still needed to focus. He couldn't just instantly do that, he used to be an average school kid just a few days ago.
"Okay so let's recount the events-"
Caster suddenly puts his hands on his mouth as an action to stop. He just realised that Cassie might see visions regarding this. It would expose his secret.
'Hah, i should be more careful than that. That was a close one. Almost made the same mistake as Sunny.'
Calming down, Caster begins to form recount the events.
'So Sunny, Nephis and Cassie travell a couple hundred kilometers through the labyrinth encountering lots of dangers but eventually they reached the soul tree. I distinctly remember them taking seventy seven days to reach the outer settlements.'
Sighs.
'I've spent 9 days here. It will take me maybe like a week or two weeks to reach the outer settlements as I'm planning on acquiring more soul shards before trying to overtake the Bright Castle. Sorry Nephis, but I'm gonna do my own stuff. This time, you'll be my strongest lieutenant not the other way around.'
'Well, in return I'll get you and Sunny to get together faster I guess. Guess I will be the saviour you never asked for but needed. Kek.'
Soon his mind drifts off as he continues to replan everything. After about an hour so he was done. So he stands up, stretches a little and walks out of the cave.
"I need to start working right this instant."