1 month, 1 week since the split.
As a spike of an Awakened creature approached, Juno didn't dodge. What would be the point? It would just waste energy.
Currently, Sun Chaser was engaged in a surprisingly violent battle against a peculiar Nightmare Creature. The thing was a wall of a destroyed house. It wasn't just a creature embedded into the stone, but it was the stone itself. Juno had faced a lot of weird abominations since he had arrived in the world of Shadow Slave, and this one was towards the top of the list.
He had just been walking by when, without warning, a stone shard was shot at Juno. If the creature had eyes, it would have hit Juno square in the shoulder, but luckily, it was as bad a shot as a stormtrooper.
Anyway, after a couple more shots had come at him, he had finally realized his opponent was a wall and not a moving thing. Thus, Juno was not taking this fight seriously at all. His enemy couldn't run away!
As the new stone shard approached Juno, instead of dodging, he held up his right forearm and let the spike shatter against it. Technically, it wasn't his forearm that stopped the attack, but it was his armor.
The Red Tip, a beautiful armor he had gained from slaying the Red Liner Matriarch. It was a two-piece armor, with a grey body suit and a complicated medium armor on top. There were a couple of spikes on the shoulders, back, knees, and gauntlets, and it came with neck protection. A layered pattern of what looked like grey silk was woven on his chest, forming a tantalizing pattern of a web. It was definitely flashy but nonetheless comfortable and absolutely deadly.
It was an Awakened Memory of the fifth tier and so possessed quite a few great enchantments. When Juno had at first killed the patriarch spider, he was happy enough to have a secure place to live, but the armor was so good that if he had lost the camp, he would have been happy anyway.
The Runes read:
Memory: [Red Tip]
Memory Rank: Awakened.
Memory Tier: V.
Memory Type: Armor.
Description - [A mother had loved her children deeply, but when chaos descended onto her land, she was forced to eat her own children. A cautionary tale that a loving touch can sometimes turn to death when the need arises.]
When Juno had first read the description, he was actually a little disappointed. It sounded like there would be an enchantment on this armor that was active, so he wouldn't be able to use it. Luckily, in the same hunt, he had gathered well over forty Soul Shards and was actually able to finally feel his essence. Now, almost a month later, he was able to infuse enough essence to activate the critical ability.
Memory Enchantments: [Red Touch], [Red Haze], [Dominion of Blood]
[Red Touch] Enchantment Description: [Allows the wearer to devastate anything any part of the armor touches.]
[Red Haze] Enchantment Description: [Allows blood, flesh, and bone of the dead to disintegrate into a mist.]
[Dominion of Blood] Enchantment Description: [The blood and body of the wearer are important, and thus it is strengthened to match its standing.]
Two actives and one passive, an incredibly good haul if Juno had to say.
All the enchantments were actually incredibly simple, but all were useful. The passive one strengthened Juno's body and blood passively. This made his already powerful and tenacious physique, compared to any other Sleeper, much higher. By his trials, his body was boosted by at least forty percent. With raw strength, he could probably compare to Effie.
The Red Haze was deceptively good. Basically, it allowed Juno to erase the bodies of the dead. Not only was this great in cleaning up his base, but it didn't touch Soul Shards. In a time pinch, he could simply turn the body of an abomination to mist and easily take the shards. Additionally, Juno could erase the blood and guts on him to mostly remove his smell and make it so he wasn't followed. It was a great utility enchantment.
Finally, there was the crown jewel: Red Touch. It was a devastating enchantment, befitting its now dead user. When Juno had fought the matriarch, he was only able to dodge this attack using Dusky. Even then, his Echo had gotten critically injured, and Juno was barely able to unsummon him before he was destroyed.
If a mere Awakened Tyrant could almost obliterate an Awakened Devil in seconds, it meant the enchantment was just as deadly. Unluckily, the sheer amount of Soul Essence it took to use Red Touch limited it to three times a day. But even having one life-saving nuke in the back pocket was great. Three was even better.
The best part, however, was that all of these enchantments worked with just the body suit. His pajamas made him so strong!
'Ugh… I fear I don't want to fight this guy.'
Snapping out of his reverie, Juno realized that after a whole minute of looking, he still couldn't see where the Awakened had Soul Cores. This wall was probably some spawn or maybe even a Terror. The real body definitely wasn't here, and if he destroyed it, a possible swarm could descend on him.
After all, a wall that could at least shoot in the general direction of a human wasn't ordinary. But… What if it was a Terror?
Juno could feel it, the bubbling pain in his very being. His greed was building, and it had a very compelling argument.
This was obviously only an Awakened Nightmare Creature. Even if it were a Terror, it would be nowhere near as strong or terrifying as the Soul Devourer, simply because it is not as special. It might be some sort of living house, or even a neighborhood, but it was not a corrupted tree of the Burned Forest.
'Still… It is a Terror. Ugh, what would I even get from it? An Echo like that is too complex, so the Spell giving me that is out of the question. What if it just gives a useless Memory like the four I have already earned? But, if it isn't a stupid–'
Suddenly, Juno heard footsteps.
If it were just one or two, he wouldn't have done anything; he would have met the Nightmare Creatures head-on instead of hiding. However, there weren't two, or three, or even four. There were a total of eight pairs of footsteps.
Immediately, Juno summoned the Snake's Mask and ran to the non-living wall. He had done parkour a little bit before, and now it would be critical for escape.
Within ten seconds, Juno had already scaled the three-story building and was not-so-comfortably lying near the edge, just barely able to see over it. He had put on the Mask and had dismissed the flashy red part of his armor. He had half a mind to summon Dusky and have him use his Darkness ability, but ultimately decided that would talk too long, and he would be noticed.
If these were regular Nightmare Creatures, Juno wouldn't have reacted so badly. That was the problem, however; these weren't regular Nightmare Creatures.
They were people. Hunters from the Bright Castle.
'Just my luck? Well, at least I won't have to fight a supposed Terror…'
If Juno were anybody else, he would have already run and been far away from his current position. Technically, if he were anybody else, he wouldn't be in this position, so that whole idea was null.
Juno was just curious to see how the experienced hunters would react to the peculiar wall.
Soon enough, the group turned, and Juno saw them in their full glory. Even if it was currently right after sunset, the group didn't dare to have too many torches out. Instead, they had one singular lantern right in the middle of them. Somehow, the light from the lantern seemed incredibly weak, as if the light of a lightbulb had been toned down to just a single LED. A visual forcefield of sorts surrounded the small light.
'My senses are being fooled. How… cool!'
It was an awesome Memory. Temporarily, Juno forgot to even look at the members of the hunting party, too preoccupied with the Memory. It was simply exquisite, such a powerful illusion that most likely even Awakened creatures would fall for. All they would see is an incredibly weak ember, but the hunters would see much more.
"How many shards do we have now?"
The woman in the front had spoken, in not too quiet a voice. She was of relatively average height, with bright orange hair and what seemed like armor made of a mix of leather and stone. Looking closely at her, the thing that piqued Juno's interest was her sword. It seemed to be incredibly hot, with there not only being heat waves around it but even steaming air. It was so potent that it seemed like it was able to burn through even Awakened creatures easily.
The man to the right of her answered, a tall blonde with no weapon or armor in sight. He only had a t-shirt, pants, and a pair of gloves on. Such a peculiar fit in the Forgotten Shore instantly gave his Flaw away. He either couldn't wield Memories or couldn't fight with them.
'Horrible. Just, horrid. It's a surprise he even managed to survive a couple of days, let alone becoming part of the nighttime hunting group… I have to give it to him, honestly.'
"We have seven shards already. You should know this damnit, you've killed three of the Nightmare Creatures we have faced. And, be quiet damnit!"
Instead of answering, the lady just coughed.
The group moved on without speaking anymore. With every step, they grew closer and closer to the living wall, and the excitement inside Juno grew, too. If they were proficient enough to hunt a total of seven shards in an hour or so, they were definitely a skilled group.
But it didn't matter much in the end. Once the group had crossed the invisible line, the wall opened fire.
Clearly, unlike Juno, none of these people had better senses. Even if they did, it probably wasn't to his extent, so none of them noticed the stone spike until it embedded itself in the shoulder of one of the hunters.
"Ergh."
The wounded hunter staggered, his body twisting from the violent impact. The spike had punched its way into the thinly protected side of the shoulder and carried itself out from his shoulder blade.
Once he landed on the ground, he made as little noise as he possibly could. Smart move, to draw as little attention as possible.
"Form up!" The orange-haired woman said immediately, already turning toward the ruined façade. Her sword came up, the air around it warping with heat.
The other hunters reacted on instinct, tightening into a loose ring around the wounded man. Two moved in front, shields coming up. The tall blond with the gloves stepped sideways, putting himself between the group and the widest stretch of exposed masonry.
The wall obliged them with a second volley.
Unlike before, when only one or two spikes came at once, now five spikes are launched at the group.
The group didn't flinch. The woman in front only blocked with her sword, turning the rock into pebbles, and those pebbles soon became molten sludge. The blonde man simply caught the flying projectile, shattering the rock in his hand. The rest hid behind the two with shields.
Juno inwardly clapped for them.
The blonde didn't waste time once the wall became between volleys.
He took three quick steps forward and drove his knuckles into the wall itself.
No fancy stance, no glowing runes—just a straight, brutally efficient punch thrown by someone whose Flaw had forced him to respect fundamentals. The sound it made wasn't like striking stone. It was deeper, more final. The masonry around his fist buckled inward, cracks spiderwebbing out in a heartbeat.
The wall shrieked.
Juno never expected a wall to make a sound, so he didn't rein in his senses before it happened. The annoying noise rattled his head badly, forcing him to look away for a couple of moments to manage the pain.
By the time he looked back, the blonde was punching furiously. A slab the size of a wagon tore free and fell, dragging half the facade with it. Stone exploded outward in a dirty wave, forcing the hunters to throw up shields and duck their heads as chunks bounced across their armor.
Then… silence.
No more spikes. No more shrieking. Just a heap of fresh rubble where the Awakened wall had been.
The blond stepped back, flexing his fingers once.
"Done," he said simply.
The orange-haired lady clapped lightly for him, just as Juno was. Being able to do something like that to an Awakened abomination, as a mere Sleeper and with no Memories, was incredible. That strength honestly seemed to rival even his own, if only a little inferior.
"Every time! This is why Gemma made you a Pathfinder even though you're a little baby! Good one, little man!"
The blonde didn't dignify a response.
Instead, he just turned to his men and said, "Check his wounds. Fast. We're not going to stay here much longer."
The group relaxed a tiny bit.
One hunter hustled the injured man a few steps back from the rubble, one hand clamped over the bloody hole in his shoulder. The other hand was already pulsing faintly. Even though Dormant ability barely uses Essence, Juno had recently begun to feel the pulse of it. That was probably the "perceive the impossible" part of his Innate Ability evolving as he got stronger, but more testing would have to be done after he awakened.
"Good thing he's barely conscious," the healer muttered.
A thin, translucent film spread from his palm over the wound, skin puckering as the bleeding slowed. The flow of blood went from a steady sheet to a sluggish ooze in the space of a breath. The injured hunter's face relaxed by a fraction, the sharp edge of pain turning dull.
"Better?" the healer asked.
The other hunter just gave a noncommittal noise as a response.
Nodding faintly, the healer stood up and went back to the others. They exchanged some quick words and ultimately decided to move on in ten minutes. Since one of their members got seriously injured, they would head back to the Bright Castle directly instead of getting more shards.
The group split up after that, with the orange-haired woman and blonde-haired man sitting in one area, and the other hunters sitting in another. It seemed like these two were both Pathfinders and not all too familiar with this team of hunters. Luckily for Juno, the higher-ranking Pathfinders decided to sit directly under where Juno was.
They sat silently for a couple of minutes. The woman played with her sword, and the man just stared off into the distance. Then, however, the lady spoke.
"So… Changing Star, eh?
The man nodded.
"Yeah… Getting a True Name right after the First Nightmare. The only other person to have done that was her mother, right? What a family."
'If only he knew that at this shore, there are a total of three people with True Names.'
There was a pause in the conversation for a bit.
"Hey Raku, is it true you can see the worth of people?"
'What?! That's a broken ability!'
Raku nodded without saying anything. This immediately brightened the girl's mood. She was already chipper before, but now it was even more so.
"What does mine say? How about the lieutenants? Or Changing Star! Tell me!"
Raku sighed a little. This seemed like a recurring question, and he had gotten tired of it. He looked at the lady intensely before smiling slightly.
"Well, I see a number on top of people's heads that corresponds to their "wroth ". I mean, it's not really worth, but like talent, or future potential and strength."
"So, what's my number? And the others I mentioned!"
"For reference, when I was in the academy, the legacies had anywhere from 1300 to 2000 as their score. In fact, the lowest number I have ever seen here was 1548. This would be regarded as a very talented and smart Legacy, or a genius non-Legacy.
Also, I once saw a Saint of Clan Song from afar, and her number was extremely high. She had 3192, one of the highest I've seen. Back then, I thought I would never see a number like that again, but I was completely wrong."
The girl nodded and eagerly gestured for Raku to continue. Honestly, Juno also wanted her to continue.
"Ivy, your number is 2894, one of the highest for Pathfinders, to be honest. Even if you had only been here for four years, you already climbed so high."
The lady named Ivy seemed to be shocked by this. Juno was also a little shocked, to be honest.
"For the lieutenants, well… It's way higher than the Saint I saw. Gemma has a score of 3383, and Seishan is close to that with 3319. Tessai has a score of 3276, and Kido has the lowest score with 3214. As you can see, all of them are absolute monsters. But still, it doesn't compare to Changing Star and her cohort."
'Those… They are incredibly high numbers. No wonder the Spell sent all these talents over here to die; such strength would destroy the plan Weaver made. How… despicable.'
"For more context, the lowest number I have ever seen was a six from a random beggar on the street. A six. Guess what number Changing Star and that black-haired child she came with have."
Ivy shuddered. She and Juno had a guess at the answer.
"Both of them had zeroes. Changing Star, Lady Nephis of the Immortal Flame clan, had a zero. Not only her, but Sunless of no clan, a child from the outskirts, also had a zero. Isn't that peculiar?"
'That makes so much sense.'
It was simple. Raku couldn't understand since he didn't know the future, but Juno did. Nephis and Sunny were both Divine Aspect holders, and they were both meant for divinity. Not just that, but they both carried divine lineages and had special things about themselves. Rakus' limit seemed to be in relation to Supremacy, not becoming a Sacred or Divine.
'Basically, they had such a high number that it crashed the system!'
Ivy seemed completely shocked. However, Raku didn't let her say anything.
"Actually, the seer with them was also peculiar. She had a score of exactly 4000, something I had never seen, obviously. Technically, she is the most talented of any human, but I suspect that those two zeroes are much more talented. Anyway, about Gun-"
A guttural scream resounded across the streets. It didn't come from a monster, but from the dying man on the outskirts of the resting people.
Black talons, darker than shadow and way more deadly, had pierced his chest. Somehow, without Juno or anyone else noticing, an abomination had crept into the camp.
Looking down on the creature, Juno blanched. It was a Nightmare Creature he had never seen: a shadow.
It was like one of those Demagorgons, but bigger and deadlier. It was made of what seemed like a mix of shadow and flesh, it had burning blue eyes, and it had a mantle of fur on its back. Its claws were as long as forearms, and most of all, it was not Awakened.
A Fallen Monster had just made itself known.
For a moment, no one moved. No one spoke, and nothing happened.
Then, the hunters and monsters exploded into action.
Ivy heated up her sword and charged at the monster. Raku also charged, no weapon, with only his hands against the Fallen. The other hunters summoned their bows and began to help their comrades.
Their attacks made no difference, except for Ivy's. Even hers, however, did barely anything.
Fighting a Fallen as a Sleeper was possible, but it required an armory of Ascended weaponry. None of the present people had that.
Raku was simply kicked away by the monster, sending him flying over a dozen feet into the wall. The arrows from the hunters were shrugged off like they were water droplets. Instead of attacking immediately, the Monster dodged Ivy's blade and only then swiped at her.
The abomination made sure to time its attack when Ivy was recovering her position, claws scything in from a blind angle. Ivy twisted with it, armor hissing as black talons scraped across stone and leather instead of splitting her open. Even so, the force of the blow staggered her, boots grinding against the cobbles.
"Back!" she snapped, voice rough. "Don't crowd it—hit when I cut!"
Fear sharpened the command instead of breaking it.
The two remaining archers obeyed. They split without needing to be told, one veering left, the other right, trying to find angles the Monster couldn't watch at once. Arrows blurred out, each one aimed at the same shallow gouge Ivy had managed to carve along its ribs.
They did nothing.
One arrow bounced off like the rest, but something interesting happened to the other one. It seemed like the arm that was going to be hit turned fully to shadow, becoming mist-like. The arrow just went right through, doing nothing.
Whilst the hunters and pathfinders were mortified by this scene, Juno just nodded quietly. It seemed like the thing was not a regular shadow creature. That worked great for him. After all, Darkness always swallows up shadow.
The half‑solid arm that had turned to mist flowed back together, claws reforming in an instant. Blue eyes flared with cold amusement. It surged forward, shadow stretching, weight somehow both there and not, closing the distance to the nearest archer in a heartbeat.
Raku moved before the man even realized he was dead.
He threw himself across the Fallen's path, gloved fist slamming into the limb that was about to take the archer's head. The impact made the Monster's arm jerk, claws carving a furrow in the air an inch above the hunter's skull instead of through it.
"Move!" Raku barked, voice cracking.
The archer stumbled back, wide‑eyed, while the Fallen's other leg whipped around.
This time, Raku half‑caught it.
He dropped his weight, forearms taking the brunt of the kick. It still picked him up and flung him like a rag doll. He smashed into a wall hard enough to make the cracked stone behind him groan, then slid down, blood trickling out of his mouth.
'What strength!'
Ivy's jaw clenched. Fear was still there, raw and ugly, but it found direction.
The Fallen tilted its head, as if thinking.
A monster is thinking, " What a funny thought.
It launched itself a moment later, a dark streak across the ground. It went for Ivy, one claw for her legs and the other for her head. It was planned to catch her no matter how she dodged.
What it didn't expect, however, was for her to jump. Crouching herself into a ball, Ivy managed to be small enough to just squeeze between the two limbs of the abomination. Learning from her enemy, she carved her blazing hot sword in a brutal line across the belly of the beast. It morphed itself a moment too late, and by the time the group was retreating away, the thing had a nasty, deep cut.
Juno missed nothing. Not the way a group of Sleepers fought, not the intelligence of the enemy, nor the Aspect of the Pathfinder.
'Interesting. It seems like it burns but doesn't cauterize. How does that work? Ah… I'm stupid. Wait, no, I'm not. It's way too hot for the idea that a moment of heat doesn't work!'
As Juno pondered this, the hunters below fell into a small drama.
"Fall back!" Ivy shouted, chest heaving. "Raku, get them out—"
"Pathfinder stays last," he cut in, shoving himself between the Monster and the retreating hunters. "You're faster. Drag them. Go."
"If you die too—"
"If I don't, this is just a massacre," he snapped. "I missed it. I'll pay for it."
She looked at him nervously for a moment, but then swore and moved. hauling the nearest man away, already grabbing for the next. The survivors retreated, stumbling but alive.
The Fallen watched them go, then turned fully toward Raku.
From the rooftop, Juno saw the shift in its stance, the way its claws flexed.
'What to do?' Juno mused. 'With a peculiar creature like this, I must get a Memory, right?'
His Flaw agreed.
Raku set his feet, hands up, every line of his body screaming that he wanted to run and was refusing.
"Come on," he muttered. "One more."
The Fallen surged, shadow blooming, dimming the weak lantern‑light as it reached for everything it could swallow. Claws spread, aiming to tear him apart.
Juno stepped off the edge just as Dusky finished materializing.
Night fell onto the battlefield like a blade.
The Darkness Mist from Dusky was all-consuming, swallowing their lantern, the shattered wall, and most importantly, the Fallen. To anyone outside the fog, it would have looked like a black void simply spawned in the middle of the street, darker than the night around it.
But Juno was doing great, though.
Not only could he see quite well in the darkness after acquiring his Echo, but his Echo also strengthened itself in this mist. A shadow, meanwhile, was greatly weakened. With all these factors combined, a Dormant Monster and Awakened Devil could realistically take on a Fallen Monster.
Piercing Mind flared.
One thread tracked the Fallen's knot of power inside the fog—where it had bunched around Ivy's cut, where the Essence still snarled under the damage. Another pegged Raku's position by the fluttering beat in his chest. The third stayed on footing and timing.
He didn't waste it.
Execution flashed once, a short, vicious line through the dark. The blade bit back into the same trench the pathfinder had opened, cutting way deeper than her blade did. Ascended level, and the enemy couldn't make itself incorporeal, was a deadly combo. Perhaps the only better part was the monster's stupidity in not running away after such an obvious assassination attempt began.
'Lucky me. Hehe…'
The Nightmare Creature swung widely, only clipping a corner of Juno's armor. Even then, it didn't leave much of a mark.
In response, Juno just drove his left hand into the wound, all the way up to the forearm.
Red Tip's gauntlet punched into the Fallen's chest, shadow and wet resistance tearing around his arm. Inside was worse.
'Gotcha.'
Just like he had done before, he activated Red Touch.
Destructive power surged out from the gauntlet, flooding everything he was touching. Shadow, flesh, Essence‑veins—the lot of it began to rot at once. The Monster convulsed so violently it almost tore his arm off, claws gouging deep trenches in the stone as it flailed.
If it had been human, the force chewing through it would have been like taking a truck at thirty‑five miles an hour straight to the ribs.
He gave it three heartbeats.
Juno didn't know if he would be able to do anything if he poured Soul Essence for any longer. Out of his reserves, more than half had emptied out in that one attack.
'Perfect!'
Juno grinned widely as he backed away, looking at his dying enemy with great glee. He didn't mind the pain he experienced from the flailing, even if most other Sleepers would have had to disagree.
Finally, after a couple more seconds of dust, blood, and organs falling out from the tear in the abomination's chest, it sagged.
Execution finished.
A clean, upward cut from hip to what passed for shoulder carved through what remained of its core. The Monster's form split; the blue eyes flickered once, twice, and went out. Its body unraveled from the wound outward, shadow turning to greasy smoke, then to nothing at all.
The Spell spoke.
[You have slain a Fallen Monster, Shadow of Seven.]
[You have received a Memory: Emperor's Mantle.]
[Your desire sharpens.]
Juno exhaled slowly, feeling the burn in his core. This fight had, surprisingly, taken a lot out of him. Just from Red Touch, he used an equivalent of two out of three daily uses, and his other arm was aching from cutting a Fallen.
Even still, he couldn't be disappointed. A Memory like that was a game-changer. While he dismissed Dusky and had the darkness quickly disappear, he glanced at the Runes of his Memory.
Memory: [Emperor's Mantle]
Memory Rank: Ascended.
Memory Tier: II.
Memory Type: Garment.
Description - [The last member of the seven nameless heroes was a mere prince, a lowly one of common stock. With no claim to the throne and with no time to try, he only dreamed of becoming an emperor.]
Memory Enchantments: [Shadowy], [No Presence of Royalty], [Strong Shadow]
'...Ugh. I'm going to look at those later.'
Juno dismissed the Runes a moment later and summoned his now second Ascended Memory.
'Thinking about that, why is my luck so good with these things? Weird…'
As the sparks materialized into being, Juno became even more excited. His new mantle was stylish as hell!
Blackness rolled over his shoulders, chest, and everything. It was way darker and deeper than any normal shadow, more like the depths of an abyss. no trim, no metal, no color at all. The edges didn't flutter in the faint wind so much as blur, like smoke that had decided to pretend to be fabric.
The hood rose and fell over his head, dropping his face into a magical shadow that he didn't yet know about. Now, in the darkness, he could feel himself becoming even more faint. With all his Memories relating to presence, it was like the Spell was asking for him to become an assassin.
He turned to leave.
"Wait!"
Raku's voice cracked, but it carried. Juno paused and glanced back, more out of habit than necessity. The Pathfinder was half‑upright against the wall, one hand pressed to his ribs, eyes locked on the black silhouette.
"Who are you?" Raku asked, hoarse. "How did you manage to kill a Fallen? Are you… an Awakened?"
For a moment, Juno just stood there, letting the silence and the cloak do most of the work. He could almost feel the other man's gaze trying to find a face, a number, anything—and sliding off empty darkness.
Finally, he shrugged.
"Just a hunter who's good at his job," he said. "Worth a story for sure, but no one truly important."
He turned away before Raku could answer, the pure black mantle folding him back into the Dark City.
~~~~
Runes btw:
[Shadowy], [No Presence of Royalty], [Strong Shadow]
[Shadowy] - Shadows hide you
[No Presence of Royalty] - With enough shadows and essence, the wearer can turn invisible
[Strong Shadow] - This garment is already strong, but the loose fabric can be hardened instantly to becoming like metal