"Hahaha, damn that was intense, Merlin said walking towards sunny.
"Your crazy plan really worked, how did you know that it would come for me"
"I didn't, that's where plan B comes in"
"Plan B, what's that?"
"Run Sunny, we run, that's plan B" Merlin chuckled as he touched sunny's shoulder, immediately the spell resounded in his ear.
[You have received a Memory]
For the plan to work, Merlin had already transferred the black orb to sunny, and he used himself as both the decoy and fake attacker, while he left the position of fake decoy and main attacker to sunny.
For this purpose, Merlin had explain a few of his tricks to sunny.
Merlin and sunny both used their memories to dissect the edible parts of the scavenger, then Merlin proceeded to fish out the soul shard, he crushed it and immediately felt the energy flow to his core.
He summoned the runes which read.
Name: Merlin Hermes
True Name: Attendant Of Mysteries
Rank: Dreamer
Soul Core: Dormant
Soul Fragments: [896/1000]
He had gained 8 fragments from the core.
After they had finished cutting the meats, Merlin turned the orb into a sash, capable of holding the stored meat, though it was not large, it took a little weight of their hands, while sunny found a makeshift rucksack.
"Alright Sunny let's get the hell out of here, the noise it made must have attracted other monsters" Merlin said as he tied the sash over his waist and bolted for the statue.
"Hey wait for me!" Sunny shouted as he ran after him.
"Why are you so slow!"
"You weren't the one who was almost eaten you know!" Merlin and Sunny made their way towards the statue.
...
"Haa... Haa... Man, what a day" Merlin was on his back, chest heaving lightly, by his side sunny was in the same position.
"Why the hell did we even run that far" Sunny said as he sat up.
"I told you I could hear them following us"
"Still, we did good didn't we sunny" Merlin said as he reached for the sash.
A few minutes later and they were both sitted beside a fire, with the meat being cooked on top.
Merlin and Sunny had both been students of wilderness survival class, so whether it was getting rock salt or gathering resources, they could be considered experts without experience.
After it was cooked, they both had their fill, leaving the uncooked ones in Sunny's rucksack.
"Well sunny, now how do you suppose we get water" Merlin turned towards sunny who was lying on his back.
"Why are you asking me?" Merlin shrugged at his question and said.
"Because I provided the idea for the food, so it's only right for you to provide the water"
"So what do you want me to do, ask the gods?" Sunny raised his hands at the sky.
The next moment, a howling breeze blew across them, Merlin looked up and saw dark clouds fat approaching, blotting out the sun, following behind the dark clouds was the rising tide of the dark sea.
Merlin turned to sunny with a deadpan look on his face.
"Really Sunny..."
"Hey you wanted water not me" Sunny said as Merlin stared at the rapid approaching storm and then he summoned the black orb, transforming it into a bowl to contain some of the rain water.
The storm lasted all night, Merlin was freezing out and couldn't do anything but holding on to the platform because of the raging winds that threatened to throw them off the statue.
He and Sunny occasionally talked about their life experiences during the storm, it was mostly him doing the talking while sunny was busy screaming 'are you sure this is the right time for this'.
'Well what else could I do, stay quiet for hours?, I try that and God knows what my flaw might pull on me'.
...
After the storm had finally calmed, it was already a new day, Merlin looking up at the sun just curled himself on the cold surface and forced himself asleep.
Waking up and the sun had reached its peak, he estimated that he had slept for about three to five hours.
"Ugh, it feels like a Monday" Merlin streched walking towards sunny, he noticed that the man's shadow was missing and he could already guess the reason behind it.
"Well, find anything?" Merlin asked to which sunny replied.
"No, nothing apart from a bunch of scavengers, a dead abomination and a few seaweeds".
"It's about time we went to investigate the light, it could be other sleepers that know a way out of here" Sunny said as he turned towards Merlin who for a while had been staring into the cloak he had wrapped around himself for a few days.
Merlin was thinking of a way to solve his clothing problem, He knew the cloak didn't have an enchantment like the black orb, but he also remembered that the things like this in LOTM had a way to change their appearances.
'Oh please let this work, I can't keep moving around like an old lady from a retirement home'
Merlin focused his mind on the memory and immediately thought of a different form, feeling a light sensation in his mind, he turned his focus towards it, and that was the last thing he remembered.
About a few hour later, Merlin with a splitting headache opened his eyes to see Sunny staring right at his face with a look of surprise in his eyes.
"I'm sorry man, but I don't swing that way" Merlin ignored the pain and sat up looking sunny with a suspicious eye.
"What, I don't swing that way either, what the hell is wrong with you!"
Merlin ignored his banter and stood up adjusting his shirt.
'Wait shirt...'
Looking at himself, he was wearing a black hoodie inlaid with gold threads and markings, with a two pockets by the side, and a trousers with a similar look to that of the military in his previous world, and a ankle sized boot, the set-up all black with gold outlines.
'Haaa... Guess I didn't suffer for nothing, finally, something different to wear, well something to actually wear'
"By the way what happened to you, you just suddenly fainted bleeding from your eyes and nose which I helped you to clean thank you, then you started glowing and then your cloak turned to this" Merlin looked at himself then at sunny and answered.
"I simply changed the cloak to something else, I don't really understand how I did it but it seriously took a lot out me"
"So sunny, my stamina is already almost done, so I'll rest for a while before we move out to look for those sleepers".
Half and hour later, Merlin climbed down the statue with sunny and they made their way through the labyrinth with sunny leading them through his shadow.
After a few curves and turns, sunny abruptly stopped. Merlin looked at him and saw that he had a slight pink blush and he could already guess what he saw as he also felt a stirring feeling in his body.
'sigh... so young and he's already seen some heavenly juggers'
"Hey Sunny, what's up do you see something?" Merlin touched Sunny, snapping him out of his reverie.
"It's people, Nephis and Cassie"
Merlin took a deep breath and replied.
"That's great, let's go say hi" Merlin walked forward when sunny grabbed him.
"What if she thinks we're some kind of nightmare creature and attacks us"
"I see...." Merlin summoned a sword, not a regular longsword but instead a black katana with a chain on the hilt. {Ichigo's bankai sword form.}
'I really should've shouted Tensa Zangetsu first'
"Now let's go say hi" Merlin walked forward with the sword, while Sunny followed behind with his own summoned sword.
...
Nephis and Cassie were trying to navigate the labyrinth, Nephis had been on the routine of trying to find a way out since she found the blind girl Cassie.
After a few hours of walking, she suddenly heard movements in the turn up ahead, Nephis was a little shocked because she hadn't sensed any movement from whatsoever was there.
'Troublesome..' She summoned her longsword and waited as she heard the creature moving forward.
A few seconds later and she immediately heard a voice.
"Hey, we don't mean any harm so please ease of on the tension" Nephis blinked, the voice sounded familiar but she still didn't let her guard down.
Accompanying the voice were two figures, the two boys that had been together all the time at the academy, both rumored to be from the outskirts, with one being a true name holder like herself, and the other who had an insane level of learning and comprehensive speed.
She knew the two boys as she had spent her evenings in the academy sparring with the first at his request, and she had watched him teach the second how to fight.
'If they're both here to assassinate me it'll be troublesome, but it's not impossible to finish them off, it's just that Merlin, I still don't know what strange technique he used back at the combat practice'
"Hey Nephis, Cassie, funny running into you here" The black haired boy spoke up.
"This voice, you're the one who sat with me at the academy, Sunny right?" Cassie spoke up.
"Yeah that's me, well we were headed towards the hill in the distance, what about you guys" Sunny asked.
"We were staying in the hill, we were just about to head back now" Cassie replied him.
"Well since we're all headed in the same direction it's best if start moving, I've already survived the dark sea twice and I don't want to try my luck a third time" Merlin clapped and gestured for them to lead the way.
"Besides we have enough meat for all of us here" Merlin pointed to the sack on Sunny's waist.
Nephis look at the pack of meat for a second and then asked them.
"How did you get the meat?"
Merlin stayed silent while Sunny spoke up.
"Well yesterday we killed a Carapace scavenger, so we got it meat from there"
Nephis reevaluated the two as she started walking back towards the hill, she had seen their skills and had seen the scavenger, coupled with the way they looked uninjured, it was worth a reevaluation.
...
The walk back to the hill was not difficult, the scavengers were busy at the Krusty Krabs so there was no obstruction except for the terrain issues that bothered the blind seer.
Merlin could lift her so they could continue the walk faster but he did not, whether it was because he didn't like her or because of his flaw, he didn't really care.
After arriving at the hill, Nephis used the rope to climb up, followed by Sunny, then Merlin and finally Cassie who was practically lifted.
Arriving at the top, Merlin looked around the site, there was a used bonfire pit, a few leaves, sticks and scattered mud blown by the previous storm.
"I'm guessing you've figured out that producing light is a very bad idea" Merlin casually said not turning around.
"Yes, the light from the fire attracted a lot of those scavengers, and also that thing..." Cassie shuddered at the memory.
"Thing... Oh you mean mean the squidward guy, tough luck, you should be happy to be alive" Merlin said as he picked up a few more dry wood and added it to the burnt ones and tried starting the fire.
'I could've just left it to the fire bender, why am I here struggling to start a fire'
After a few tries, Merlin started the fire and sat beside it waiting for the girls and sunny to come over with the meat.
After they had finished eating the meat, Merlin simply laid on his back staring at the now setting sun.
"Do the scavengers come all the way up here?" Sunny asked the girls.
"Yes but only at night, during the day they are strangely gone" Nephis answered him.
"Well that's because they are having a feast back at our previous location, a monst6 that died in the dark sea" Merlin answered with his eyes still on the sky.
"How long" Nephis asked vaguely making Sunny and Cassie stare in her direction.
"At most a day before the weak ones get shoved off and two before we have a whole labyrinth of crabs to deal with" Merlin answered.
"I see..."
The sun had set, and the dark sea returned, the darkness covered everywhere, but with his spirit vision active, Merlin had a clear view even in the dark.
Merlin sat up and addressed the group.
"So... Although we have all been acquainted before one way or another, we should still do a formal introduction, I'll go first"
"I'm Merlin" He said and turned to the group.
"I'm Cassie"
"Neph"
"I'm Sunny" they all said respectively.
Then Sunny spoke up.
"Well since we're going to be working together for a while, it would be best if we shared our attributes and memories so we have a general idea of our fighting power.
"I'll go first..."